Do you think those iconic musicians have a higher tolerance for the harder life, and does it fuel them?

Question

So recently I went and bought Amy Winehouse's latest album.
For a while I was against doing this due to being sick of seeing her in the UK tabloids constantly throughout the week from her excessive drug and alcohol abuse and bloody fights with her husband.
However!... after watching her perform a live set on tv in London somewhere, as well as the interviews before and after, I came to realise that she wasn't in fact all that bad.
I rushed out a few days later and bought her album. I can't stop listening to it! :P
She has an incredible voice and presence on the CD that doesn't sound like someone who has been chewed up by drugs and heavy drinking.
Thinking of such awesome musicians then such as Ozzy Osbourne and Keith Richards, do those rare musical prodigys have a higher tolerance for this kind of life?
What would they be like without it all?

The brightest flame burns shortest after all.

Answer 1

Here's the real deal on artists, ranging from musicians to painters to writers:

Their bodies are the same as everyone else's and as such they do not have a higher tolerance than the average person. If they did have a higher tolerance then a great many of them wouldn't end up in re-hab or be self-destructive. While some may think they are somehow superhuman their physical bodies respond to outside stimuli (drugs or drink) just like everyone else.

Why drugs too often become a serious problem with musicians are for many reasons:

1. The lifestyle and the fact that such a lifestyle makes it easy for them to score drugs.

2. The long, grueling tours, studio sessions, weird hours and unnatural sleep habits compel many musicians to seek out 'picker uppers' to give them (Supposed) added boosts of energy and to 'dull' the effects of such a grueling lifestyle.

3. Once a performer has reached a certain level of recognition and success the pressure to maintain that level of success and popularity can seem overwhelming to them.

4. Many young people who reach sudden fame think, for whatever reasons, that their youth somehow makes them invincible and that they can 'handle' whatever they put into their bodies.

Answer 2

You are right my favorite performer is Kurt Cobain and his pain fueled his music.