- [Interviewer] Keith, you're out here
in Hollywood homeless.
Tell me about it.
- Well, let's see, there's not too much to tell honestly.
I could probably get off the streets if I tried
a little bit harder, applied myself.
It's not really that dangerous like everyone says
as long as you stick by yourself and don't hang
out with other homeless people, you're usually pretty okay.
My problem is I'm addicted to heroine
so that's basically why I can't get off the street.
I ended up losing my job in the housing industry when the
market went down and I was addicted to painkillers
and when the painkillers got too expensive, I switched
to heroine, and everything went downhill from there.
I lost the apartment, the girl, the dog and ended
out in the street, which I basically gave everything
up for heroine, you know, so if anyone like ever asks
what it's like to shoot heroine, it's probably
the only thing that'll get a man to give up
money, job, family, pussy, you know.
- [Interviewer] Takes your life away.
- Yeah, it does.
I mean, basically, there's two sides to it.
It sucks because it does take your life away
but at the same time, it's taking your life away
because of the nature of it like being scheduled
a narcotic and like, you know, you can't get it.
Your only options are to go and like get on methadone.
- [Interviewer] Are you on methadone maintenance?
- No, I'm not gonna.
Methadone maintenance is actually a lot,
I mean it's legal, but it's a lot more evil
than heroine because heroine, if you kick it,
it's like an eight-day kick.
If you kick methadone, it's about a month
and a half of like pure hell throwing up,
shitting yourself, so I choose.
- [Interviewer] Have you tried to kick?
- Yeah, I've tried a couple of times.
- [Interviewer] Just not ready yet.
- Well, yeah, I mean, A, I still like it too much
and I still have, I'm still able to get it every day.
So I still like it too much.
That's part of the reason why I won't kick
and second of all, you know, you try to kick on the street
and once you get to a point in the sickness
where you're like two, three days into it,
you know that it's basically only a phone call away
to like feel right again, you know.
- [Interviewer] I couldn't.
I have 16 years sober.
I was out here 16 years ago, and I couldn't,
oh my gosh, there was no way.
If I got dope sick in a park, I'd be vulnerable,
you know what I mean?
There's no way that I was gonna get sober out here.
Plus, it sucks.
- Right.
- [Interviewer] What's your future like?
What are you, I mean, you're a smart guy, you know?
- I just realized that basically there's no,
wait for the siren to go past.
- [Interviewer] Well, thank you.
(laughs)
- I mean I basically realized there's no future
until I actually get sober, so basically like
the way I look at it is just like my life is
kind of just on pause right now.
It's like I'm 35 and I know when I wanna quit.
I mean I can get everything back easily, you know.
It's just I actually have to quit and do it,
but I'm just not ready to do it yet,
so I'm not gonna like kid myself and say,
"Oh, yeah, you know I'm out here lookin' for a job
or I'm trying to" do this or that because I'm not.
You know, I actually do not mind sleeping on the street.
I don't mind at all.
Like, I have a spot down here that I stay at by Fairfax
and it's quiet, nobody bothers me.
I get great fuckin' sleep every night, 10 hours a night.
You know what I mean?
Like, I go to sleep around 10:00 at night and I wake up
around 8:00 in the morning, you know.
- [Interviewer] Well, you're also doped up, too.
- Well, exactly, exactly, you know what I mean, yeah.
Yeah, you know, it's like I do my shot.
- [Interviewer] In fact, I know I haven't had a good
night's sleep since I got sober.
- That's part of the reason why I'm not ready to quit yet.
You know what I mean, it's like, 'cause I know
what it's gonna be like.
It's gonna be pure hell, you know.
- [Interviewer] But you could do it, dude.
- Yeah, I know.
I know I can do it.
I know that right now, there's no way I could do it
because I don't wanna do it yet.
- [Interviewer] Right, right.
It's your choice.
- Exactly, so you know.
I don't know, man, I guess like the way I look at it is
is I put it in perspective.
It's like I'm not one of these homeless people
that thinks everybody owes them somethin'
or I'm like bitchin' about it because you know,
I still eat better and live better than probably
95% of the world's population, so it's like,
you know, to me it's not rock bottom yet.
So, you know, when I do feel like it's rock bottom
or I just can't go any further or I start
to lose my mind, then maybe I'll end 'em.
- [Interviewer] Well, your socks are rock bottom, dude.
- Yeah, no, they're the socks are horrible man.
- [Interviewer] Yeah, you're ripe for some new socks, so.
If you had three wishes, what would they be?
- Ah, see, I'd probably wish that I could take some
type of pill that would make me never remember
what opiates feel like and then, let's see,
second wish would probably be to have my dog back
and the third wish would probably be to have my cat back.
Yeah, that's what I'd wish for.
- [Interviewer] Well, thank you very much for talking to me.
- Oh, no problem, man, thank you.
Take it easy.