New Strictly star Paul Merson has said that when he was an addict he tried to score more drugs – on the dancefloor.
The former Arsenal and England ace went to a posh club when he was in desperate need of a hit after a massive binge. Merse, 56, revealed: “One summer evening when the family were away, I’d taken so much coke that I’d actually run out, having been punting and boozing all day.
“I was wired, though, couldn’t come down and was desperate for more. When I wasn’t off my face I knew that I had a major problem. I couldn’t get enough of it.
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“I exposed myself to all sorts of danger to get it, hanging out with drug buddies I barely knew and dealers, running up debts with them, and laying myself open to being ripped off, beaten up or blackmailed. That night, when I couldn’t get any from the regular contacts, I headed down to the Middlesex and Herts Country Club.”
The Soccer Saturday pundit is set to don sequins on Strictly – a world away from his dancefloor moves when he was a junkie in 1994. He continued: “I bullshitted a bouncer who recognised me, telling him I had to give my mate his house keys and promised to be back in a second.
“He let me in and off I went, looking like a fish up a tree among the blokes in Versace shirts and girls in their Saturday night best. I shuffled straight to the dancefloor and started approaching people, asking ‘Got any gear?’ I was too far gone, red eyes, runny nose, brain haywire, to go up to only those people who looked like they might have some.
“I asked anyone and everyone, couples, groups of girls dancing round their handbags. I could actually hear people saying, ‘That’s Paul Merson after gear. Fucking hell.’ It’s only when you come out the other side that you realise how crazy it was. It couldn’t happen now.
“If there had been camera phones back then it would have been nailed on impossible. I would have been caught in 10 minutes I was on it for ten months. Eventually I scored a couple of grams, went home and stuck them up my nose, oblivious to what dozens of people must have thought of me.”
Paul lifted the lid on his past problems with gambling, booze and drugs in his book Hooked to help others on the road to recovery. Elsewhere he admitted he used to sink pints to build up his confidence as a teen – which then saw him dance.
He added: “A couple of drinks brought me out of myself. It completely changed me. “By the time I was a first-team regular and we would go on tour one of my party pieces was to run across nightclubs and slide across the dancefloor on my knees, knocking everybody out of the way.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
