Damon Albarn drugs abuse: Blur frontman claims he found heroin ‘initially very agreeable’

Damon Albarn showcased his entire album Everyday Robots (Getty Images)

Damon Albarn has claimed that he found using heroin “initially very agreeable” and described his history of drug abuse as “part of me growing up”.

Just weeks after the Blur frontman controversially said that he felt the Class A substance made him “incredibly productive” during his early musical career, Albarn broached the tricky subject again with Time Out magazine, this time admitting that he did not “totally see” his drug use as “a mistake”.

“I wanted to say it,” he said. “I wanted to explain something that was really profound for me and had a massive effect on my life 15 years ago. It was a long time ago.

“I'm not touchy. I'm just aware there's an ambiguity and that my explanation can get lost in the sensational amplification of things.

“So, I'm left with two options: I either become really guarded and aloof, and return to this reputation I've had over the years of being a difficult b*****d, or I just don't talk at all. It's really frustrating... you must understand that?”

“But I don't totally see it as a mistake,” he continued. “That's the point. It was part of me growing up. Look, I didn't go out and look for it.

“I turned up at my house and there it was, made on the table. What should I have done? Leave my life and reject it or stay in my own house with my girlfriend and somehow assimilate it into my life?

“Once I'd tried it, I found it initially very agreeable, and very creative.”

Albarn – who has been sober for some years – also discusses his past addiction on his debut solo record Everyday Robots, out on 28 April 2014.

But as positive as he appears to be about the drug’s creative uses in this week's issue, Albarn has been extremely vocal about the dangers of addiction in the past.

“It's a cruel, cruel thing,” he said. “[Heroin] does turn you into a very isolated person and ultimately anything that you are truly dependent on is not good.”

Now, the docile domesticity he describes seems a world away from what life was like for Albarn at the height of his fame in the 90s.

“I'm not taken very seriously, in a good way,” he said. “I walk around in my pants, which my daughter finds highly embarrassing. I'm just a normal, down-to-earth dad.

“I do this really annoying thing when I'm watching telly where I'll sit there trying to pull out a hair from my beard. She finds that very annoying. I don't blow my nose when it's running. I eat with my mouth open. I've got as many bad habits as anyone else.

“I also do loads of funny voices and characters that all the kids in my family have grown up with. It's a side of me that's never been very public.

“The older ones would be mortified if I transformed into a character now.”