Patty Schemel Was Introduced to Bacardi and The Clash in the Same Moment

Drummers have different styles. Patty Schemel’s drumming has always been tight and precise but she plays hard and heavy, big thick beats that powered songs like “Miss World” and “Violet”. Her substance use was also hard and heavy, keeping pace with or exceeding the consumption of her peers in the Seattle music scene of the 90’s and of her band’s leader and frontwoman, Courtney Love. It started with alcohol and worked up to heroin and crack. In our interview with Patty, she details her career ascent and her substance descent and she sheds light on substance dependency. Even though her band was headlining festivals, even though she had lost her close friend, Kurt Cobain, to drugs and suicide, even though her band’s bassist, Kristen Pfaff, died of an overdose, she just kept using. And she kept using after being fired from the band and having 22 attempts at sobriety. But the 23rd time was the charm. Patty is sober, the author of the memoir Hit So Hard and subject of a documentary of the same name, and telling her story.

Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.

Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.

Help is available right away.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.

International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

The Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/

John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.

Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.

John is on Twitter @johnmoe.