Am I the only one who recalls the infamous lawsuit* against Stephen Tyler’s friend-in-rehab, the late Rick James, wherein Mr. James’ record label took him to court over poor album sales, alleging that James’ rampant drug use had led him to produce albums of inferior quality? And the defense’s successful counter-argument, which offered up albums by the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, among others, as evidence that artists could indeed be out of their goddamn minds on all manner of potent high-quality drugs and still produce hit records? If I remember right, James’ side eventually prevailed with the Axis, Bold as Love defense.

I was thinking about this ruling the other day while listening to Amy Winehouse. It made me wonder if a label has ever made the opposite argument—that excessive sobriety resulted in an inferior product. Because I honestly wonder what Ms. Winehouse will sing about if and when she ever sobers up. Looking at that picture of Tyler in the previous post and thinking about Aerosmith’s post-rehab musical output sends a cold chill up my spine.

*If anybody has the details on that court case (or can offer conclusive evidence that I dreamed the whole thing) I’d be interested in hearing it.