New Rare Stevie Stuff On My YouTube

[David]

Originally Posted by wheart

I so agree with you! She's seems a little unsure of herself in at first but exhibits the most incredible charm and genuine humbleness. She doesn't seem to be suffering any effects yet from the Klonopin here. She seems completely different in this interview compared to her zoned out filmed performance at the Cow Palace at the end of the tour. Does anyone know when exactly Stevie started taking Klonopin, if it was before, during or after the Tango tour?

I think she started the tranquilizer before the tour -- doesn't it make sense that if her friends & management were worried about her relapsing with cocaine, they'd push her into the psychiatrist's office before a big tour? But it doesn't seem the tranquilizer really zombified her at that relatively early point. She was certainly much more sedate on the 1987 tour than on previous tours, but that may have simply been not being a cokehead at that point. I also remember Stevie saying in a print interview that she had developed asthma trouble (or something chronic), & therefore had started taking prednisone or some sort of corticosteroid on the tour, which seemed to puff her up a bit & put more weight on her. Look at photos from October, & she looks good; & then look at photos from December & she looks older & heavier. Apparently, too, the Mac's late winter tour 1988 was postponed until the spring owing to Stevie's lingering illness.

It's a lot more enjoyable to watch some bootleg videos of October shows than to watch the Cow Palace commercial video from December.

A similar thing happened on both the 1989 solo tour & then again on the huge 1990 Mac tour: Stevie started trimmer & more vibrant in the early months, but owing to illness & possibly steroids to treat the illness, she grew a lot more lethargic.