Electronic pioneers and Basildon natives Depeche Mode are one of the most influential outfits of all time. Their work has had a great effect on a giant range of genres ranging from pop to industrial, showing just how dextrous their sound is. Whether it be, ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’, ‘Personal Jesus’ or ‘Enjoy the Silence’, there are many stellar moments within their expansive back catalogue with a timeless essence and a universal appeal.
While we could spend all day analyzing Depeche Mode’s excellent music, there is another important aspect of their incredible career: excess. They were one of the most hard-partying bands of the 1980s and 1990s, and it’s no surprise that they came close to death on numerous occasions. Although each band member pushed their bodies to the limit at different times, frontman Dave Gahan was unquestionably the most extreme.
recovering heroin addict and prominent speaker on recovery, Gahan’s story has many lessons to teach. Notably, he has had multiple brushes with death, which earned him the nickname ‘The Cat’ from paramedics living his nine lives to their most extreme in Los Angeles. In 1993 he survived both a drug-induced heart attack whilst performing and a suicide attempt, but this was just the beginning.
However, the most infamous occasion came on May 28th, 1996. Gahan overdosed on a speedball, a mix of cocaine and heroin, at the Sunset Marquis Hotel in Los Angeles, which resulted in his heart stopping for a full two minutes until paramedics eventually managed to revive him. When he awoke, he asked one of the paramedics if he’d overdosed yet again, to which they responded frankly, “No, David, you died”, as he later told the Chicago Tribune. The paramedic clarified to him, “You flatlined for a couple of minutes. You were actually dead.”
This was to be a turning point in Gahan’s life. The gravity of his situation dawned most heavily after the incident, when a friend told him that it took three attempts to revive him. Up until that point, Gahan had been clean for a number of weeks, as he’d been in New York working with the band. However, when he returned to Los Angeles, he was pulled back in. “I went out and shot a speedball one time. The dealer left, and I went green. Luckily, there was someone to call 911”, he later recalled in the Los Angeles Times.
