Alcohol is the strangest of drugs..

[Alakhai]

hmm a good question...

I'm always sober when I'm writing or playing music, but sometimes when I get stuck I find a solution only after some glasses of vodka (or scotch whisky...but its stronger taste prevents me from drinking a lot) and usually the day after I only have to fix some detail. Of course I can't do anything when completely drunk, but being "a little drunkish" sometimes helps.
In everyday life I like beer, and Radler (lemonade+beer, a german recipe) but I can drink it without problems.
I'm not a smoker, only when I get angry at work and I need to calm down I have a cigarette.
caffeine is good it keeps me alive and awake when I have long days (stuff like daytime work, 200km of driving, setting up the stage, soundcheck, live gig, pack my gear, 200km more of driving...and next morning, work again!) but I have to say Italian coffee is so good I can drink it for sheer pleasure!

nothing else for me, no heavy drugs or whatever. I follow the philosophy explained by His Keyboardish Majesty Jens Johansson

drugs — mind-damaging substances. Oh yes, those constant companions, mainly of the touring musician. I'm including alcohol here, conceptually they're all he same, because they interfere in a negative and often expensive way with your brain, the very organ you're supposed to think with. This of course makes some of the problems in here worse, such as the economy and stress, and also causes additional problems, such as with personal relationships inside and outside of the band, with your health, etc. (Many musos that complain about the hardships of life on the road are also the same ones staying up late drinking and partying like idiots every night, but ironically, last I saw there was nobody forcing alcohol down their gullets with a gun pointed to their head.) Anyway, as I've stated elsewhere here, in my experience, if you really have to take any, the only drugs worth the expense when you weigh in price, health and possible loss of cognitive ability are:

• beer, and
• coffee.

Sticking to these two will make you happier in the long run and as they're legal in most countries you can carry them across borders without any problems. You can also obtain them cheaply in the open market everywhere, in case you run out. What a deal!

[Doc Jones]

ahh, alcohol. Many a strange rambling I have posted on this forum after having consumed one too many pints.