15 Insane Examples Of Rock N' Roll Excess

7. Rick James - He's A Superfreak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYHxGBH6o4M Rick James was a fixture in the music charts in the late 1970s to early 1980s with his inimitable brand of post disco funk. He had smoked marijuana since he was a teen and by the 1990s, he was heavily into cocaine. James actually admitted to spending $7000 a week on drugs for five straight years. In 1993 a bizarre and disturbing incident occurred. James and his soon to be wife Tanya kidnapped a woman called Francis Alley and kept her hostage for up to six days (depending on different reports). They allegedly tied her up, burnt her with their crack pipes and forced her into sex acts. James was found guilty of this horrific act but because he beat a rap for torture (which would have meant a massive jail sentence) he served a two year sentence in Folsom Prison. In August 2004, James was found dead by a caretaker in his LA home. He was riddled with diabetes, a stroke, a pacemaker. Officially dead from pulmonary and cardiac arrests, an autopsy showed that James' system was laden with street drugs - cocaine and methamphetamine, and pharmaceuticals - Xanax, diazepam, bupropion, citalopram, hydrocodone and digoxin, albeit in levels that were not toxic. They may not have killed him, but his years of outrageous excess could not have helped him.