Pete Doherty has revealed Shane MacGowan stole his crack pipe and told him his drugs were rubbish.
The recovering heroin addict, 44, told the tale while recounting his first meeting with the late Pogues wildman, who died on Thursday (30.11.23) aged 65 after months of battling illness.
Pete said on BBC Sounds about being introduced to Shane by his supermodel ex-girlfriend Kate Moss, 49: “When I met him he charged in and took my crack pipe off me, smashed it up, charged out and then came back and helped me put it back together with Sellotape.
“He smoked all my drugs and told me (what bad) quality they were after having smoked them all. That was the first time I’d ever met him so I thought that was pretty cool!”
Pete stressed not all their encounters involved drugs, adding: “Most of the time he’d be (at Kate’s) house and he’d say, ‘Go on, get the guitar out and show us what you’ve got,’ and we’d just play guitar and sing songs.”
Pete also said about his shock hard-living Shane had died: “I just loved the bloke to be honest. I knew he was ill but I kind of thought he was bulletproof... I don’t want to sound all gushing but I’m just going to say how I really feel.
“I loved him, he was solid, he had a manic laugh and he knew a hell of a lot about history – the American Revolution, the history of Cuba... when he’d get up on stage and play with us, he was just always up for it. Always up for the banter.
“Up in the dressing room we’d get the guitar out and for me that’s the strongest connections I’ve made – with people like that, through music.
“I loved and respected him. For a long time I was sitting at his feet in awe and over time I got his respect.
“During difficult times in my life I could speak to him. When I was in jail he knew some people and he helped me out with a few spots and I felt close to him.”
Pete also gushed Shane was one of the “top three or four lyricists of the past 40 years”, adding: “He had a gift for melody beautiful, melancholy, but action-packed tales of buccaneers, and sodomy in the backstreets of Soho, and falling off your stool in the last chance saloon, and then running down the road and kicking your heels as the sun sets. Getting up and doing it all over again the next day.
“Kind of an old romantic, told tales, told stories in songs, strong characters, he painted a lot of pictures and fairytales.”
Pete also said Shane’s Pogues classic ‘Fairytale of New York’ was “one of the best songs ever written”, adding: “It'’ something he can be proud of – you never get tired of hearing it.”
