Music journalist Sylvia Patterson has revealed that Pete Doherty smoked crack during a 2006 interview in his Hackney bedroom. The Babyshambles frontman sat on his bed, pulled out a crack pipe, and proceeded to smoke while Patterson sat opposite on a duvet with a bold purple cover.
Patterson, 61, who has spent 40 years interviewing music stars, said: "I'd never actually seen anybody smoke crack before…certainly not in an interview situation. I didn’t know where to look. There was a used needle in the bathroom, and the whole place was in darkness."
Doherty's Rehab Diary and Relapse
Doherty, now 47, was sacked from The Libertines in June 2004 by co-frontman Carl Barât due to his escalating heroin and crack addiction. During the interview, he showed Patterson his rehab diary from his time at Arizona's Meadows rehab clinic in 2005.
Patterson said: "He showed me what he'd been writing when he was there, lyrics, poetry. After he got out, he went straight back to London and got straight back on the gear. After that, his diary entries were just swirls of his own blood, tapering out to absolutely nothing."
A Career of Maverick Encounters
Patterson, who lives in Hornsey, north London, with her partner Simon Goddard, has worked for Smash Hits, NME, Glamour, and Q, interviewing everyone from Sinead O'Connor to Snoop Dogg. Her new book, I'm Not With The Man, shares insights into rockstar behaviour.
She describes the 80s, 90s, and Noughties as full of "movers, shakers, eccentrics and one-of-a-kinds." Of Doherty, she added: "He's a great talent, but misunderstood. He has always, put it this way, done his own thing on his own terms, at great risk to himself. He's very personable, very disarming. He's really open and he understands the nature of addiction."
Doherty's Transformation in 2024
When Patterson met Doherty again in 2024, he was a changed man. She said: "The pandemic did him a massive favour, because the drug supplies were cut off. He arrived in the foyer of a hotel with his baby daughter in his arms and his beautiful big dog Gladys was at his feet. He was about three stone heavier than before, but that's a good thing."
Britpop Memories and Liam Gallagher
Patterson, who grew up in Perth, Scotland, began her career at Smash Hits in the early 80s. Her first big interview was Diana Ross: "I was beside myself. I couldn't keep a straight face. This legend from the 60s, sat right in front of me. She was incredibly gracious."
Britpop was a particularly memorable era, and Liam Gallagher was a favourite. She said: "He walked into a room and everyone would look at him. He was strikingly beautiful, and oozed cool, although he still called his mum Peggy every day to keep him grounded." She recalled an interview with Oasis where Noel said: "Oasis is a celebration of the euphoria of life." When she asked Liam about it, he replied: "Oh, you can tell he reads books," but added: "To me, Oasis is all about freedom."
During a 2010 interview for Q magazine with Beady Eye, Liam dared Patterson to neck a large glass of red wine. She said: "I caved and agreed. He did the same. And five collective down-in-ones later, I walked straight into a glass wall, which Liam found hilarious."
Sinead O'Connor: A Unique Individual
Patterson met Sinead O'Connor in 2009 in a Dublin hotel. She described her as "a unique individual" and recalled: "Her no-longer shaven head was crowned with a dark, unwashed, shoulder-length bob. Then she opened her mouth to sing. I've never heard anything as striking, powerful and bewitching as that."
O'Connor, who died in 2023 aged 56, tried to enlist Patterson's help in exposing paedophiles, alleging she had evidence of a ring operating at the heart of power. Patterson said: "She was convinced she had evidence. She cared about the bigger picture. She didn't care if she threw it all away. She wouldn't have even cared if she had been arrested, and in fact, I think she’d have liked that - it would have made more of a point."
Marianne Faithfull: Extreme Aristocrat
Marianne Faithfull, who died in 2025 aged 78, was another standout. Patterson said: "She was an aristocrat who gave it all up and was at the centre of the '60s counterculture. She rejected everything that everyone really craves now - acclaim, success, fame, beauty - and deliberately went to live in a bomb site in Soho to become a heroin junkie, at major risk to herself. It’s one of the most extreme stories you'll ever hear. Keith Richards is an extreme character, but what she did was a lot more extreme than anything he ever did."
When they met in Belgravia in 2013, Faithfull sipped green tea and smoked Marlboro Lights. She spoke openly about her romance with Mick Jagger from 1966 to 1970, saying: "I hated being famous with Mick. A lot of people can’t take fame and I’m one of them."
The Disappearance of Mavericks
By 2010, Patterson noticed a shift in the music scene. She said: "The stars I interviewed, Nicky Wire from the Manic Street Preachers, Noel Fielding and his pal Serge from Kasabian, without really prompting it, started talking about the flatlining of culture, and how all the intriguing and really eccentric, oddball, maverick, outsider personalities were disappearing from view all of a sudden. And they really were."
She added: "Without casting any aspersions on Ed Sheeran and Adele, it had become more like that world at that point. They were the new massive stars. And, you just know actually, Adele would be the first one to say, ‘where have all the weirdos gone?’"
With the resurgent interest in the 90s, Patterson is hopeful that something crazier will return. She said: "Oasis are back, and arguably bigger than ever. Lady Gaga is a true punk rock spirit. People are clamouring for something real, and raw. So maybe the mavericks will come back too."
I'm Not with the Man: A Writer's Life with the Music Mavericks by Sylvia Patterson is published by Fleet, out now in Hardback and eBook. HB RRP £25.
