In a quick Google search I bring up an article from last May in which the author discusses a recent admission into rehab for PSH to deal with a heroin addiction. Apparently he was suffering from addiction for several decades and had a 20 year sobriety track which had just been broken by a relapse sometime in 2012, according to this report.
I'm not a fan of celebrity news sites so I really am not "up" on the back stories of the rich and famous. Perhaps to some fans of his, this comes as less of a total shock and more of a Planet of the Apes Statue of Liberty on the beach scene..."he really did it, he finally did it!"
I'm reminded of course of the other celebs who apparently died from overdoses in recent times...Cory Monteith and Heath Ledger were also shocks to me anyway since they seemed so young, clean-cut and upwardly mobile. I mean, to hear a has-been or impatient and struggling wanna-be bit it by overdoing it isn't the most unheard of thing. Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Judy Garland and Elvis are examples of the former while Brad Renfro, River Phoenix and Anna Nicole-Smith come to mind as arguably examples of the latter. And then there's just the Party People who frankly one could pre-write their obit and just leave the date of death blank until the inevitable happens...Amy Winehouse, Chris Farley, John Belushi and Lindsay Lohan. What? Oh, Lindsay's still alive? Well, for now...
So sad. Money, fame and beauty for so many of these cases. Addiction is such a bitch.