Wolfmother Star Slams Industry Drug Plans

A coalition of record label chiefs, led by Marc Marot, former head of Island Records, want to place a legal clause in artists' contracts denying them wages if they are unable to perform due to substance abuse or self harm.

Musicians could also face suspension from their record label if they are deemed to have broken the agreement.

Marot claims the clause will only be implemented to protect vulnerable musicians.

He says, "Everyone has their own right to live how they want to live. There is sometimes a vested interest in people misbehaving and it’s not that I or my colleagues want to take the 'rock 'n' roll' out of rock 'n' roll.

"We don’t, but what we want to do is provide a safety net for those people that are too damaged to be able to recognise within themselves how to get out of it."

Stockdale has now waded into the debate over the controversial issue, insisting the new rule could stifle creativity because musicians are notoriously dysfunctional.

He says, "You wouldn’t have Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix) and Dazed and Confused (Led Zeppelin). Keith Richards wouldn’t have written all the riffs and stuff. They want a soundtrack to evoke emotions, to feel something and then they want the artist to be 9 to 5 cookie cutter, turn up on time, do this, do that and be morally virtuous. That’s too much to ask of a human.

"Everyone has their own right to live how they want to live. As for selling units and doing business with a person like that, that’s the choice the label has to take when they enter into that agreement."