RuPaul did not hold back while talking about his past drug use!
On the latest episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, the 63-year-old mastermind behind RuPaul’s Drag Race shared how he was a drug user for “30 years” of his life. And your jaws will drop at this detail: he began using at the age of 10! RuPaul recalled:
“I started using when I was 10 years old. I started smoking weed when I was 10 years old. It was a different time… It was a different thing. It’s not like people think of it today.”
10 YEARS OLD! Wow! And just three years later, when he was 13 years old, he started to experiment with hard drugs.
Related: RuPaul Reveals Epic Madonna Feud In New Memoir!
Although RuPaul doesn’t remember how the substance affected him at the time — after all it’s been a LONG time — he did note he “wasn’t afraid of drugs.” In fact, he continued to use for decades afterward. Through his struggles with substance abuse, the television personality insisted he “never shot up” but said he “dropped acid every weekend” in his 20s:
“Every weekend. Four hits of acid every weekend. It was the proof I had that this world is an illusion. That everything you think you know about solid objects or what people are is a lie. I had that suspicion before I dropped acid, so when I dropped acid, it was like, ‘Yes, this is it exactly!’ The people who freak out… those are the people that it never occurred to them that this is an illusion … It lifts the veil of the illusion, the fantasy that we collectively agree to in our lives.”
Well, that’s… Huh. And that isn’t the only positive impression RuPaul had about his drug use. Looking back, he felt that “the first 20” years of his drug use “were a blast” and “a great time.” However, “those last 10,” according to the singer, “were pure hell.”
Despite the rough last decade, he surprisingly doesn’t regret his 30 years of drug use! He told host Alex Cooper he thanks “God for the drugs and alcohol, because it saved my life.” Why? He explained it gave him some time to become “strong enough” to deal with his past trauma before eventually finding a program that worked:
“It gave me a layaway plan, a deferment plan until I was strong enough to deal with what was going on. Thankfully, I found a 12-step program that really, really, really helped me so much that I am in love with. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that… The success I have today, I wouldn’t have that if it weren’t for this 12-step program… because it gives you all the processing tools to deal with all of the trauma of what life is.”
Wow!
As we said, RuPaul got super real about his past drug use! Reactions to the interview, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments below.
If you or someone you know is experiencing substance abuse, help is available. Consider checking out the resources SAMHSA provides at https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline or check out StartYourRecovery.org.
[Image via ABC News/YouTube]