Music and Drugs: Who Will Stop the Trip? : Pop music: The industry takes a look at its role in curbing the addiction problem before more artists die, but some executives say that enforcement would be difficult.

Should major record companies refuse to work with musicians who resist efforts to break them of drug addiction?

That question has taken on an urgency in the music industry in the wake of the heroin overdose death in New Orleans on Oct. 21 of Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon.

Although Hoon’s death hasn’t reverberated culturally the way that Kurt Cobain’s heroin-related suicide did in 1994, a growing number of business people in the rock world see it as the last straw and are demanding drastic measures.

The harshest criticism is coming from Aerosmith manager Tim Collins, who has been a visible force in attempts to raise consciousness about addiction. He believes that the only way to prevent future deaths and self-destruction from addiction is for the major labels and managers to institute a unified “tough love” policy, which would involve pulling the plug on recording projects or concert tours--no matter the expense--when an artist is in need of help. And ultimately, he believes, the major labels must agree to drop addicted artists who refuse treatment.

“That’s what it’s going to take,” Collins said. “It will take the big six [record companies] saying, ‘You’re not going to record for us,’ like in the National Football League, where they have a drug policy.”

The outspoken manager presented that proposal last week at an emotional closed-door meeting of nearly 400 record company executives, artists, managers, agents and promoters. The three-hour meeting was organized by National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences president Michael Greene, addiction interventionist Bob Timmins and Collins.

Among those addressing the Dec. 6 gathering at NARAS headquarters in Santa Monica were Hoon manager Chris Jones, Guns N’ Roses manager Doug Goldstein and that group’s Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, plus Aerosmith’s Steve Tyler and Joe Perry.

“We cannot stand idly by,” Greene said in an interview shortly after the meeting. “When Bob Timmins asked at the meeting how many people know somebody right now that needs intervention, every person raised their hand. From that point forward the word was ‘responsibility.’ ”

But can individual responsibility be a matter of industrywide policy?

The topic has been an ongoing matter of debate in the music industry for years, intensifying after Cobain’s suicide and again this year after the drug-related arrest of Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland and the deaths of Hoon and Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia, who died of a heart attack in a rehab clinic after decades of struggles with addiction.

“It’s the artists’ responsibility to be smart and not do drugs,” says a record company executive who did not attend the meeting and rejects the arguments made there. “But human beings are human beings, and there are no answers.”

Blind Melon manager Jones, who reportedly gave an emotional talk about Hoon’s struggle, agrees with that to some extent.

“At the end of the day, only the person with the addiction is going to be able to make the change,” he said this week.

But he still believes the music business must take formal steps.

“The reason I wanted to speak was to deliver a message that there’s hope,” he said. “For every failed attempt at getting someone sober, there are many more that it worked for.”

But what steps? A sports league-type set of rules governing substance abuse is probably out of the question in music. Professional sports leagues and players’ unions are able to work out such programs through their collective bargaining, something that doesn’t exist in the music world.

And music lawyers say that standardized contract language that sets industrywide regulations regarding drugs or effectively banning addicted musicians would be vulnerable to restraint-of-trade and antitrust suits.

Without such imposed guidelines, Timmins said, the campaign against addiction is in the hands of the individuals who run the music industry.

“You can’t tell an executive to care,” he said. “But through an educational program, you can get them to a place where they care.”

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To that end, Greene said, a subcommittee was formed to recommend a standard set of procedures that can be used to deal with drug problems.

“Everybody can be on the same page in dealing with a group in the studio or on tour that has a serious problem,” the NARAS official said. “That’s never happened before. If the manager is reluctant to stand up to an artist alone, there has to be a support circle around them. They have to be able to surround them with people who will say, ‘No, you’re not going to do this. We have to put the train back on the track before you make this record or go on tour.’ ”

Some elements of a support system already exist. Timmins has made a name for himself as the music business’ leading drug intervention specialist, and the NARAS-sponsored Musicians Assistance Program offers counseling and clinic referrals.

Greene noted that an increased awareness has started to take hold, citing one major record company’s recently stopping the recording of an album by a new band in order to put a member into rehab. And many in the industry say that delaying tours for similar reasons is already a common practice.

“I’ve seen plenty of times when someone said we’ve got to cancel a tour, that we can do it later,” said Peter Grosslight, head of the William Morris Agency’s music division, who was unable to attend the symposium because of a prior commitment. “And, candidly, I haven’t seen the reverse happen where someone is intentionally kept on the road when they need or want help.”

But too many are unable--or unwilling--to tell when someone has a serious drug problem, other industry leaders counter.

“The reason the problem is so acute in this industry is what I call the Elvis Presley syndrome,” said Barry Fey, a Denver-based concert promoter who spoke at the meeting.

“You’ve got people around stars thinking, ‘I get paid because of this guy. I get laid because of this guy. I’m not going to be the one to tell him what to do.’ And if some A&R; guy says, ‘No, I’m not going to record you until you get help,’ there are 10 A&R; guys down the street who would be glad to work with him.”