Straight Life - Art Pepper [256]
August 29, 1972
Dear Art:
I am most pleased that you have received the instruments I sent you and that they got there without any damage, and I am very happy that you like the instruments....
Art, believe me when I tell you that I am extremely happy that you have decided to accept the Veteran's Hospital offer of getting you on their methadone program. The most important thing for either you or me to consider at this point in your life, is for you to gain complete health and freedom from this disease. Regardless of what either your future plans or my future plans might hold for you, it is absolutely necessary for you to regain your health and well being.
Even though there may be a few additional months involved, this period of time would also give you the opportunity to do lots of practicing, perhaps develop some new ideas musically speaking, and really explore the instruments on which you will be playing ....
I needed the methadone program. A friend, Tom, had been bringing me codeine tablets at the bakery; I was using them every day; I was getting hooked; I didn't realize how strong they were. Another friend was chippying with heroin, so, before I realized what was happening, I was getting a heroin habit again. My old friend, Ann Christos and her husband, John were living in Hollywood; they were on the methadone program. I ran into them, and they sold me some of their methadone; I'd drink one hundred, two hundred milligrams of methadone several times a week, and I was drinking a six-pack a night of malt liquor.
They were getting suspicious at the bakery. I quit. I wanted to move in with Laurie, but she wouldn't let me unless I straightened out. She wanted me to get on the methadone program. I went down to the Veterans Hospital but didn't say anything about my liver. I passed. I got on the program, and to my amazement, the methadone got me loaded, and I had no desire to use heroin. I had found a cure for heroin addiction.
Methadone is a drug that's given to you every day, in a liquid, by mouth, and once you have the methadone in you, you can fix and you don't feel the heroin, unless you fix such a huge amount that you're almost ready to die-I did try it several times. The program itself is just wonderful. I saw friends of mine that had been armed robbers and burglars, hustling and stealing to support their habits. They got on the methadone program and started leading regular lives, working. And those were people I never would have dreamed could be straight and hold down a regular day job. For me, it was a panacea. I couldn't believe that they were actually giving me a drug that got me loaded and killed my desire to shoot heroin. I moved in with Laurie. A few months earlier, we had started taping this book.
Everything was fine. I went to work for Lew Malin, playing casuals, and going out to colleges all over the country for Buffet, doing clinics. The clinics started really rolling in, and I liked them. The kids looked up to me. They called me "sir" and "Mr. Pepper." The highschool and college bands, instead of playing all rock and roll, were getting into jazz, learning about swing and bebop. I collected big band arrangements from writers I knew-Don Piestrup, Don Menza, and from the Kenton organization, and I built up a library. When I'd get called for a clinic, Laurie would send three or four arrangements to the college, so the kids could learn their parts, and then, when I got there, I'd rehearse them, polish them up, and we'd give a concert. I'd play the solo part. I'd talk to them and tell them how they were doing as section players, as soloists, and I told them how I'd learned to play jazz, learned chords. It was very gratifying. I gave them a long talk, each time. It was beneficial to them, and even more so to me, because it made me feel that my life was worthwhile.
The kids were usually awestruck, especially after I showed them what I could do. If they hadn't really heard of me, before I even started talking, I'd take out my horn and play and beat them down with my playing. Once I had shown off, techniquewise