The fateful connection between Peter Green and Brian Wilson

[LeoL]

Reading the memoirs ("I Am") of the recently deceased Brian Wilson (founder of The Beach Boys) reveals striking parallels with his kindred spirit, Peter Green. The common thread in their fates is LSD.

Brian Wilson is certain that he lost his sanity as a result of experimenting with LSD. He curses the day he first took the drug. From that moment on, he was accompanied by voices in his head that tormented him for the rest of his long life. The voices appeared to haunt him even after the very first trip. Unfortunately, Wilson continued using LSD, and with each experience, the voices grew stronger, eventually driving him into psychosis and psychiatric hospitalization.

Wilson recounts how the voices in his head intensified, especially before performances, and they never had anything good to say to him. Crippled by this internal auditory terror, he withdrew from performing at the peak of his fame for nearly a decade. The Beach Boys continued without their founder, Brian Wilson.

Though the voices caused by LSD never left Wilson in peace, he learned to live with them. The psychiatric treatments did not destroy his musical abilities, and he continued working in music in various ways until the end of his life—though he never again reached the heights of his youthful masterpieces, such as Pet Sounds.

Peter Green’s collapse was deeper. In Britain, harsh old-school methods were still used to treat schizophrenia. These robbed him of his ability to play and even his voice. For about ten years after his breakdown, his fingers retained some muscle memory, allowing him to mimic—almost like a copy—the playing of his younger, healthier self. But gradually, even that ability faded, and he became a "gnome" sitting in the corner of the stage while his friends tried their best to recreate his youthful virtuosity by playing his old songs—inevitably failing. The result was a pale shadow of the original brilliance—"The Feel" never returned.

Here is Peter Green's life, repeating the fates of Brian Wilson, in a nutshell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1cVHg2C2sA