The first drugs I ever took, I was still at art school, with the group - we all took it together - was Benzedrine from the inside of an inhaler.
One day in 1968, John Lennon, high out of his mind on LSD, called an emergency meeting of The Beatles. He seemed so worked up about it that the band was sure it was a crisis. They rushed over as soon as they could and, first thing the next morning, gathered together in Apple Records boardroom.
“I’ve got something very important to tell you,” John Lennon announced, standing before his bandmates in the boardroom. “I am Jesus Christ. I have come back again. This is my thing.”The band was barely even surprised. The only response came from Ringo, who just sighed and said, “Right. Meeting adjourned, let’s go have some lunch.”
Lennon went with them, but he didn’t give up on his vision. While they were out eating, a fan came over and gushed over them, amazed that he was meeting John Lennon in person.
“Actually,” Lennon corrected him, “I’m Jesus Christ.”
“I still liked your last record,” the fan said.
He might’ve been high, but Lennon was more productive than ever. He had to be, he believed. He told one friend, “They’re going to kill me, you know. But I’ve got at least four years to go, so I’ve got to do stuff.”
In Hamburg the waiters always had Preludin - and various other pills, but I remember Preludin because it was such a big trip - and they were all taking these pills to keep themselves awake, to work these incredible hours in this all-night place. And so the waiters, when they'd see the musicians falling over with tiredness or with drink, they'd give you the pill. You'd take the pill, you'd be talking, you'd sober up, you could work almost endlessly - until the pill wore off, then you'd have to have another.
When John was tripping I felt as if I was living with a stranger. He would be distant, so spaced-out that he couldn't talk to me coherently. I hated that, and I hated the fact that LSD was pulling him away from me. I wouldn't take it with him so he found others who would. Within weeks of his first trip, John was taking LSD daily and I became more and more worried. I couldn't reach him when he was tripping, but when the effects wore off he would be normal until he took it again. (Cynthia Lennon)
I've never met anybody who's had a flashback. I've never had a flashback in my life and I took millions of trips in the Sixties, and I've never met anybody who had any problem. I've had bad trips and other people have had bad trips, but I've had a bad trip in real life. I've had a bad trip on a joint. I can get paranoid just sitting in a restaurant. I don't have to take anything.
Acid is only real life in Cinemascope. Whatever experience you had is what you would have had anyway. I'm not promoting, all you committees out there, and I don't use it because it's chemical, but all the garbage about what it did to people is garbage.
