LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: In his brand-new memoir 'Tell It Like It Is: My Story', Aaron Neville discusses his protracted battle with heroin addiction, claiming that it started when he was just 16 years old.
The 82-year-old R&B and soul singer claims that he "heard people talking about it way back in the Calliope" neighbourhood of New Orleans, where he grew up, in his upcoming book, excerpts from which were published in People on Wednesday.
What led Aaron Neville to do drugs?
"I knew plenty of other people who were doing it," the 'Tell It Like It Is' singer writes. "They seemed to be having a good time with it. I wanted to do it too."
Neville claimed that his earnings as a musician allowed him to purchase the heroin. He said, "I was playing gigs and making money, so I had some cash to score," the 'Don't Know Much' singer said in the book.
Was Aaron Neville an 'inquisitive kid'?
As "an inquisitive kid," he described himself as "always looking for the next sensation, the next experience, the next adventure." Neville said, "For me, heroin was just one more thing like that," as reported by NewYorkPost.
When did Aaron Neville try drugs for the first time?
Neville claimed that the first time he used the drug, he was unwinding on a friend's porch, and he became addicted right away. He said, "The first time you do heroin your brain is hooked in and wants it, even if your body isn't craving it yet."
He added, "It's a kind of curiosity, and then it turns into a yearning that you shake off on the weekends, and then before you know it, you're in the game, running and looking for it everywhere."
The singer-songwriter in the book recalled a time when he was sharing drugs with others in New York City and was praying to God, "Dear Lord, please get me out of here."
When was Aaron Neville in rehab?
When Neville checked himself into a drug rehab facility in the 1980s, he claimed that he "was really tired of running" because his band, The Neville Brothers, which he formed with his brothers, had just signed a new recording deal.
He continued: "I was excited and afraid. I knew what mainlining did to me. I knew what withdrawal feels like."
Did Aaron Neville ever try to quit drugs?
Neville claimed that despite the terrible side effects of the drugs he had used, he was still anxious about quitting.
"Begging off the drugs entirely - that was a new venture," he said. "I was 40 years old, and I hadn't been clean since junior high school."
Though he admitted that he later struggled with prescription medication, he claimed that after rehab he stopped using heroin completely.
When is the memoir is set to be released?
'Tell It Like It Is: My Story' is slated to be released on September 5.
