Healthy Creativity

A common myth in the rock world is that drugs, alcohol and other forms of dangerous living all inspire creativity. The examples being mostly from the classic rock era: Beatles, Dylan, the Doors, Bowie (he forgot recording entire albums - and they were great!). Some may have some element of truth to them but many times are pure myth. For example, the members of Pink Floyd (except Syd of course) all deny any drug influence on their work. Recently, I've come across references to the counter effect: healthy living being a boon to creativity: Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips apparently got much healthier just as they were getting into their boom-box and parking lot experiments that resulted in their string of critically acclaimed albums including the multiple CD experiment shown above. Jeff Tweedy of Wilco cleaned up and got into running before A Ghost is Born (my favourite of theirs). And just look at the run of creative, experimental, productive work of Trent Reznor since he cleaned up - and then he won an Oscar!