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Doherty, 45, also said he would tell his younger self to “get some sleep”, saying that when he was lacking sleep “stupid” and “criminal” things would happen. The singer was speaking about getting clean from his drug addiction and his rise to fame on Kirsty Young’s Young Again podcast on BBC Radio 4. Doherty said: “In my mind, I can imagine myself looking at myself saying this, ‘just get some sleep, just get some sleep from time to time, just get your head down’.
“Get some sleep, because that was always where things would go seriously wrong, two or three days up and then stupid things, like criminal things, where you don’t really don’t know what you’re doing. “I had a slight problem of hallucinations when I was a child, I had a head injury, and I got taken hospital with this head injury. “I was hallucinating this ball of string was kept coming after me, and it would keep coming back, and another one where all these numbers would come into my face like I could taste it.
“They thought it might be epilepsy, but it’s not, and after a few days without sleep, I get that same thing, the digits, and just keep pushing it and pushing it further and further. “So that’s one thing, sleep. “Maybe I’d actually just get myself, tie myself up, put him in a boot, take him out to a forest and give him some tough love.
“Actually, in fact, I wouldn’t even offer any advice, I’d just say, this is for your own good.” Young then suggested that he tell himself to “stay away from that scene, stay away from those people”, but he replied that he was “as bad as everyone else”. Doherty added: “It’s just, ‘be kind to yourself every now and again, get some sleep for god’s sake’, because all the serious things that went wrong, like, we’ll end up in jail or end up missing concerts (when that happened).
“I missed the concert at the Astoria because I was so freaked out, I won’t even tell you where my head was at, it was so weird, people wouldn’t believe me. “I ended up sitting in a taxi outside the venue, not going in, while people who paid to see the concert, who are now being told to go home, they tore the place apart, and there was loads of people battered because they attacked security. “All this going on, (and) I’m just in the back of the taxi, in quite a peaceful state, but I was really hallucinating, you know, on ketamine and crack, and so things like that could have, (but) do we want to tamper with history.
“I’ve always been really confused about this question about advice to my younger self.” He went on to say that thinking about the question “upset” him, and said that the period of his life was “wasn’t all dark” – adding “it was a lot of laughter”. Before explaining what he would really tell his younger self, Doherty said he would also let himself know the results of future FA Cup finals and Grand Nationals for “some wise investments”.
Doherty rose to fame as co-frontman of The Libertines with Carl Barat, releasing four studio albums with the band, he also fronted Babyshambles and has released three solo albums, along with an album with French singer-songwriter Frederic Lo called The Fantasy Life Of Poetry And Crime. The Libertines were known for the fractious friendship between Doherty and Barat, and their raucous live performances, the band has scored two UK top 10 singles and two UK number one albums. The full interview with Doherty can be heard on Young Again With Kirsty Young on BBC Radio 4 at 9am on Tuesday, and will also be made available on BBC Sounds.
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