Glenn O’Brien on the death of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol

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text by GLENN O’BRIEN
portrait by JEANNETTE MONTGOMERY BARRON

Jean-Michel Basquiat & Andy Warhol, 1985

 

During the late ’70s, early ’80s, heroin was a plague in New York. It was all over downtown. I couldn’t go out for a cup of coffee without someone trying to sell me drugs. If you walked down to Rivington Street, it looked like the opening of Star Wars. You’d see 100 people standing in line waiting to cop. Unimaginable today, but that’s how it was. Everybody was exposed to it.

When Jean-Michel first hit it big and started selling a lot of paintings, it was a difficult transition. He was thrilled to be making what he called “the big money,” but life became difficult for him in that none of his friends had any. This was like 1982. Suddenly he was rich, and it made him paranoid. “Do they…