Melbourne rapper 360 explains how prescription drugs almost killed him
AS fans waited for Melbourne rapper 360 to come on stage and perform, they had no idea he was actually convulsing on the floor. For the first time, he tells all.
WHEN Melbourne rapper 360 cancelled concert dates out of the blue last year, fans suspected something was wrong. They were spot on.
At a venue in Byron Bay hours before he was scheduled to take the stage, “Sixty” as he is known, born Matt Colwell, was passed out on the floor, convulsing as his body rejected the toxic mix of pills he’d taken “just to feel something”.
The rapper’s management told disappointed fans with tickets to show it was a “sudden illness”, which was understating things significantly.
“The day of the Byron Bay show I had a full packet of painkillers and then I can’t really remember anything,” the rapper told news.com.au.
“I was found on the floor. I took 120 pills in one go. Another hour I would’ve tapped out.”
On Saturday night, one year after cancelling the tour of regional towns, 360 laid bare his deadly drug addiction for all to see. In a brutally honest rap, entitled I’m Sorry and set to The xx’s Intro, he declared “I should be dead”.
In an interview with news.com.au, 360 explained how he spiralled out of control and how the drugs he purchased over the counter started as a remedy for back pain but soon became a dependence he couldn’t kick.
“I’ve always had problems with my back,” the artist behind Boys Like You and Throw It Away said.
“I think at the same time I played it up. I probably never needed the strong shit I was given. I had a go-carting accident when I was quite young, too. That really messed me up and I was in intensive care getting morphine.
“To be honest I was hiding it from everyone. Everyone knew I was drinking and partying. No one knew what I was doing with the painkillers. I had such a high tolerance.”
The suitcase 360 packed for the tour was split down the middle, he said. One half T-shirts, pants and shoes, the other half painkillers.
“What I was doing was three packets a day and sometimes I’d have another packet,” he said.
“It was three a day for the whole tour. I was using other stuff as well but, because I was flying, I didn’t want to take the other drugs through the airport.”
He said his addiction included a cocktail of drugs: “Mainly 80mg OxyContin, Xanax, Valium and Hypnodorm but also dabbling in heroin when I ran out of OxyContin.”
He said opiates were his “poison”.
“That is the thing I couldn’t stop using and had to always have. I wasn’t going to take smack on tour with me.”
Nurofen Plus, he said, was the only way to prevent himself going into withdrawals from opiates and to get the pills he went “chemist shopping”. That meant he knew which chemists he’d visited recently and therefore avoided repeat visits. The whole time he kept it a secret, but the secret was out when he was found on the floor on January 12 last year, shaking uncontrollably.
Despite efforts to kick the habit — he would often go cold turkey and tell friends and family he had the flu — his dependence was as strong as ever. A stint in rehab helped him break the cycle of drug abuse but not before doctors put him on suicide watch.
“They wouldn’t believe me. Because I had 120 pills they thought I was trying to kill myself. I was very calm but also getting agitated. They just didn’t believe me. ‘Why’d you try to kill yourself?’ they kept asking me. It started pissing me off. It’s a bit of a nightmare being in that situation.”
He knows now he had to go through that to come out the other side.
“Right before the tour I was trying to get off it. I was trying to wean myself off it without anyone knowing. When I was in hospital it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I said ‘I’m f***ing done’. I’m ready to stop.”
The video he posted on Facebook on Saturday night, which had been viewed more than 6.5 million times by Monday morning, was a celebration of one year sober.
In the video, 360 explains how he “already died twice”.
“I should be dead / Maybe I’ve got nine lives / Seven left / Cos I’ve already died twice,” the rap begins. “I’m about to get deep but I really hope you feel it though / See talking about it hurts, it’s when I was an addict but I was at my worst.
“No one knew I didn’t tell one person / Couldn’t bring myself to do it ‘cos I felt like a burden.
“Gimme any drug, I was chewing em up / If I have nine lives then I’m using them up / No one knew my addiction it was stupid as f*** / Ninety pills daily of Nurofen Plus.
“I know that’s extreme and I should be dead right / But I was so f***ed up my tolerance was that high.
“That’s the thing with a codeine addiction / It’s over the counter so you don’t need prescriptions.
“That’s three packets in a day / I didn’t get high but I would have them anyway / Because if I didn’t take em then I’d be hitting withdrawals / And guess what? All of this was mid-tour.”
OxyContin, or oxycodone, is prescribed by doctors to manage acute, chronic and cancer-related pain. The effects of the drug are similar to morphine and are so strong it’s earned the nickname “hillbilly heroin”.
Melbourne-based doctor Matthew Frei said use of the drug for managing pain had skyrocketed in recent years.
“Our horse has bolted,” he told news.com.au. “It’s no longer a question of whether it’s a problem. It’s well entrenched now ... We know that people are dying from this.”
Australian health authorities, including the AMA, have previously acknowledged Australians are becoming hooked on prescription painkillers, dubbing overprescription of drugs like oxycodone a “national emergency”.
360’s confession is resonating with many who say they either know somebody going through codeine addiction or have themselves fought to get off the drug.
“I feel your pain bro hard!!” wrote Nathan Rae. “I’ve been clean for 4 months now after 16 years on the s***.”
“Everyday I feel the devil raging inside of me, and still after 6.5 years sober I’m not 100% content, but I keep pushing forwards because I know I have more to offer in this world,” Jarrod Martin said. “You have a friend in me 360.”
Other viewers said they broke down in tears as they watched the video, while Kirsty Styles, who was meant to be at one of the cancelled shows, wrote: “I am so proud of you because when you came back to the tour it was amazing! Good on you!”
360 said he was blown away by the response to his video. He said he never expected such an outpouring of support and understanding.
“I’m just kind of in shock at how many people are going through something similar. I’ve had a lot of people, friends that I wouldn’t never expected, have reached out. I’m glad that it’s helping them realise they’re not alone.”
In June 2014, 360 told News Corp he had “almost had to hit rock bottom” before he stopped partying so hard. “There were a lot of demons in my head,” he said.
On the other side of addiction, he has a simple message for people going through what he went through.
“I would say to them: Tell someone that you’re close to. Family or friends so other people know. Get in to a detox program. The f***ed up thing with the detox program is there’s a waiting list but if you make that first call and get your name in the system that’s the right first step. The most important thing is be honest.”
The rapper, who hopes to release a new album later this year, says he hopes to help young people stay away from drugs.
“I would love to go around and do talks at schools or something whilst I’m doing my next tour. I want to get involved with educating young kids before they choose to go that path.”
If you or somebody you know needs help, phone lifeline on 13 11 14.
Twitter: @ro_smith
Email: rohan.smith1@news.com.au
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