...on the other hand, some legendary performers delivered memorable, albeit sloppy performances probably in part due to the influence of the chemical cocktails they were ingesting, not in spite of them. Until the drugs eventually took their toll, these artists tended to lose their edge when they stopped living on it....

If the audience is expecting surgical precision in the execution of evenly spaced eighth and sixteenth notes, then altered states of consciousness are not going to be beneficial. However, in certain venues some listeners are interested more in coming away from a performance changed by the raw intensity brought on by the breakdown of inhibitions that drugs can sometimes induce, and care less about a few wrong notes or slurred words; even less, musically speaking, about the performers' personal addictions or the private hells they may be experiencing.