Glad I took the time to read that - drugs can be a slippery slope and without honesty within yourself, you can go down some seriously dark pathways.
And I agree with you - I have only done smallish gigs, but one of the best experiences I have ever had was gigging at a funk club on NYE in perth several years ago, only to about 300-400 people, but we were competing with a 18 piece funk band, playing our dodgy rock/prog funk - (
www.myspace.com/fleshofthelotusband ) I mostly wrote within the band.
The feeling after playing that set to such a positive response was a high that no drug has topped, and what keeps me pushing on musically.