Pop Quiz: Moby

Pop Quiz: Moby

Aidin Vaziri | After providing the soundtrack for numerous car commercials for the past decade, Moby gets back to his ecstatic dance-music roots with his stellar new album, "Last Night," which attempts to capture the thrills of an entire night out in just an hour. If nothing else, the disc should permanently detonate the image of the man born Richard Melville Hall as a clean-living, intellectual, dogmatic vegan and devout Christian. Well, for the most part, anyway. He called from his apartment on New York's Lower East Side to fill us in on his latest after-hours adventures.


Moby
Q: There was recently a story going around that you were doing so many drugs that you had to go through therapy.
A: Those were two unrelated things. I had a long clean-and-sober period. I went about nine years without drinking and doing drugs, and in the mid- to late '90s, when I sort of got back off the wagon, I kind of got back off the wagon with a vengeance. I found myself really drinking way too much and taking too many drugs and staying out too late and doing all sorts of bad things. That was also around the time I started going to therapy. I guess maybe they're related, but until you mentioned it I never saw the two things as related.
Q: So what's the lesson here? Everything in moderation?
A: Unfortunately, I don't think I've ever learned that lesson. I understand on an abstract level how that could be the case. I would never advocate excess, but I would say, in my case, there's a lot to be said for excess. Again, for better or worse, a lot of my literary and musical heroes have been people who also pursued things to excess.
Q: Haven't most of them died?
A: Yeah. We all die eventually. Continue reading.