NUTTY BOYS

His chart-topping band Madness had called it a day and dad-oftwo Suggs believed it was time to step away from the excess and craziness of the 1980s music scene.

Thanks to hits such as It Must Be Love, House of Fun, and Baggy Trousers, he was one of the most popular and recognisable singers in Britain.

But he soon felt lost as he spent time out of the spotlight. And – almost in an echo of the dad he never knew – he was to develop a serious drug habit.

Now he reveals he had to seek professional help after his recreational use of ecstasy, which floods the brain with feel-good hormone serotonin, spiralled out of control and left him paranoid.

His concerns were especially strong given his photographer dad William’s battle with heroin. William died in 1975 when Graham “Suggs” Mcpherson was only 14. Now 57, the star says: “The band had just split up. I had two young kids and I just wanted to get back to reality. ‘F*** being a pop star for a bit’, I thought.

“Because of what happened to my dad I’d always said to myself

I’d never take heroin but then ecstasy came along and everyone was doing it, and it just seemed like a bit of fun.

“But then suddenly you realise that actually you’ve become all the things you didn’t want to become.

“I was thinking, ‘God knows what else I can do to make a living’, so there was definitely a period where I was a bit lost and I started to get paranoid about taking too much ecstasy.”

Suggs, who has two daughters Viva and Scarlett, with wife of 36 years Bette, adds: “I started seeing this therapist. The first thing he said to me was, ‘stop taking ecstasy’.

“He said, ‘you can make your own nightmares come true’, because I was getting freaked out and paranoid which was to do with the fact I didn’t know what I was going to do next.

“I started pushing away the people I loved because I was testing them all the time. I saw this guy a few times and he said, ‘You are just a bit scared’, and he was right. I had left the comfort zone of the band and I was on my own again