R&B star Chris Brown has blamed his drug use for his bad behaviour in recent years, insisting he became hooked on a potentially-fatal cough syrup concoction.
The Kiss Kiss hitmaker has found himself in trouble with the law on numerous occasions of late, and he served time behind bars earlier this year after getting kicked out of a court-ordered rehabilitation facility, where he was receiving anger management treatments following a fight outside a Washington, DC hotel, while he was still on probation for his 2009 assault on then-girlfriend Rihanna.
Brown admits his use of the "hood cocktail", a codeine-based cough syrup mixed with soda, and anxiety medication Xanax left him out of control and struggling to keep on top of his professional commitments.
In a candid interview with New York's Hot 97 radio show, he recalls, "I was off the syrup, the Xanax... that's the hood cocktail. I was falling asleep on video sets, I was cussing people out randomly. I was doing crazy stuff. I would wake up and be like, 'Aye, man, what time we shooting this video?' And they would be like, 'Dude, we shot it yesterday.' I'd be like, 'Damn!"'
Brown claims it took a little time for him to realise he needed to quit drinking the syrup: "(I realised), 'This ain't for me (sic).' As time progressed I was like, let me chill out. I don't want to be a zombie when I meet people. Or say the wrong thing, or end up punching somebody or doing something crazy... like I did... because I was under the influence of some bull."
