SRV had cleaned up and dried out from a very dangerous and life-threatening cocaine/whiskey addiction a couple years before he died in 1990. He spent time in detox/rehab after a doctor told him he didn't have much time left, if he continued snorting a gram of coke and drinking a bottle of whiskey a day. Before he became famous, SRV would occasionally perform at what used to be The Decade, Atwood St. in Oakland, very early '80's.