Smokey Robinson: 'I Was Hooked on Cocaine and Weed'

William "Smokey" Robinson: "I never drank. I hated the taste of alcohol. I still do. So weed was my choice of drugs. I would smoke some weed."

Motown legend Smokey Robinson had a drug problem in the 1980s. 

"I got to the point I weighed 120 pounds," he tells Vlad TV. "I was in dire straights. It was ridiculous."

Robinson, who's 82 and was born in Detroit, perfomed with Steve Wonder at the Grammys on Feb. 5. 

"Weed or marijuana has always been my drug of choice," he explains. "I don't drink. I never drank. I hated the taste of alcohol. I still do. So weed was my choice of drugs. I would smoke some weed."

But after some personal turmoil, including a divorce and the deaths of his father and Marvin Gaye, Robinson started adding cocaine to his joints. "I was a junkie," he reveals. "I was hooked on cocaine and weed."

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He adds: "I hated me for even letting me get to that point. Why am I doing this to me? Why am I getting off into all this ridiculous drugs? A lot of stuff that was going on was getting to me psychologically." 

By 1986, he was able to kick the habit. "God healed me from that," says the devout soul singer. "I didn't kick it. It was prayed off of me."

Smokey Robinson: "Weed or marijuana has always been my drug of choice."

A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Robinson has won just one Grammy award and received six nominations. He headed the Miracles, who had hits with "Shop Around," "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," "Mickey's Monkee," "The Tracks of My Tears," "I Second That Emotion" and "Tears of a Clown" in the '60s and '70s. He also co-wrote many of the classic Motown songs, including "My Girl."

 

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Steve Bloom

Steve Bloom

Publisher of CelebStoner.com, former editor of High Times and Freedom Leaf and co-author of Pot Culture and Reefer Movie Madness.