Bez made his name in the Happy Mondays and Black Grape, thanks to his seemingly boundless energy and trademark dancing with his maracas.
The star is the latest to join Celebrity Masterchef, and he’s certainly come a long way from his boozed up days and wild antics.
He’s talked openly over the years about his hijinks and mishaps while under the influence, and he certainly made the most of being in a band.
Back in 2018, he was asked how he manages a work life balance: “It’s really easy to do. At weekends I go out to work and on weekdays do what I want to.”
(Image: PA)
They asked if he still does drugs and he cheekily replied: “Only at the weekends.”
Bez – real name Mark Berry – actually only found himself in the band because he and Shaun Ryder were high on drugs during a TV appearance.
The band were being filmed at Manchester’s famous Hacienda club.
He told NME: “I’d scored a lot of black microdots, so me and Shaun were tripping our heads off.
(Image: SplashNews.com)
Bez continued: “Shaun turned round and said, ‘I can’t go on, Bez! You’re gonna have to come on with me.’
“So I ended up on stage tripping my nut off, shaking this maraca.”
The Celebrity Gogglebox favourite also confessed he doesn’t remember a lot of the 1990s.
Bez told the Daily Mail: “Our sessions did tend to run on a bit.
(Image: Press Association)
“But after three nights and into the fourth day, I think you can become a bit dysfunctional and, if you’ve got a good mate, they’ll usually send you off home to bed.”
He wrote a book in 2000, called Freaky Dancin’.
In 1986 there was a gig where he fell off the stage halfway through and cut his forehead open.
Instead of getting a plaster or some stitches, he grabbed some of the lead guitarist’s liquid LSD and dripped it into the cut.
(Image: Getty Images)
He then went back out onstage with the maracas, but confesses he can’t remember any of it.
Winning Celebrity Big Brother in 2005 didn’t sort him out either. To celebrate winning, he went on a 10-hour bender instead.
Back in 2017, while talking to The Guardian he said: “I’ve not actually stopped taking drugs, but only if they’re organic will they get into my system now.”
The star blames his sweet-tooth for his addictive personality.
(Image: Getty Images)
He talked about his sugary habits: “What I’ve found is if I stop it completely – I get headaches. So I get my sugar hits. And people say the gateway to drugs is cannabis and all that, well I actually think it’s sugar.
“When I was a kid I would do anything for sweets.
“I definitely think sugar is probably the gateway for everybody as a young kid into addictive behaviour. I have to eat a whole packet if I open a packet of sweets or a packet of biscuits – I even eat full cakes.
(Image: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
More than 200 Celebrity Gogglebox viewers complained to Ofcom due to Bez and Shaun Ryder’s ongoing drug jokes.
Shaun admitted during one episode that “my chat up line used to be, ‘do you want a line'”, as Bez laughed, and viewers weren’t impressed.
They also made repeated drug references to “ounces and eighths”.
Hopefully Bez won’t give Celebrity Masterchef viewers anything to complain about if he keeps his jokes PG.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
