Author Patrick O’Neil is not only one of AfterPartyChat’s most talented authors; he’s also a former roadie, author of the forthcoming memoir Gun Needle Spoon and alum of what he calls “several bad bands.” And boy did this guy love heroin: he shot it for 10 years, only taking a respite to shoot speed because he thought it would cut down on his heroin cravings (and it did!) That love for heroin took him to some extreme places—most notably bank robbing, a topic he’s written about here, and which eventually got him busted and sent to jail. Though jail was a reunion of sorts with his former junkie pals, he managed to get strung out there as well. After a behavior modification program left him sober but without any support system, O’Neil eventually turned up at the Salvation Army rehab in San Francisco and, despite these low-bottom circumstances, has stayed sober nearly 14 years. In this episode, he and I talk about his struggles with bulimia, getting kicked off of Lollapalooza and just how badly executed his last bank robbery was, among many other topics.
Subscribe to the podcast on Itunes or listen to it on Soundcloud or Stitcher. Find Patrick O’Neil on Twitter, Facebook and his own site. Photo courtesy of Sasha Stone.
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