Damon Albarn defends past heroin use

Damon Albarn, photographed by David Bailey for Time Out. Photograph: David Bailey/Kaper/PA

Damon Albarn has described his past heroin use as "part of me growing up".

The Blur and Gorillaz star said he did not "totally see it as a mistake" to take the drug as he found it "initially very agreeable and very creative".

He mentions his use of heroin on his first official solo album, Everyday Robots, which will be released next week.

"I wanted to say it," he told Time Out magazine.

"I wanted to explain something that was really profound for me and had a massive effect on my life 15 years ago. It was a long time ago.

"I'm not touchy. I'm just aware there's an ambiguity and that my explanation can get lost in the sensational amplification of things.

"So, I'm left with two options: I either become really guarded and aloof, and return to this reputation I've had over the years of being a difficult bastard, or I just don't talk at all. It's really frustrating … you must understand that?"

The 46-year-old denied that taking heroin was a mistake.

He said: "But I don't totally see it as a mistake. That's the point. It was part of me growing up. Look, I didn't go out and look for it.

"I turned up at my house and there it was, made on the table. What should I have done? Leave my life and reject it or stay in my own house with my girlfriend [Elastica singer and former partner Justine Frischmann] and somehow assimilate it into my life?

"Once I'd tried it, I found it initially very agreeable, and very creative."

Albarn said his life at home now was "very different" to his professional career.

He explained: "I'm not taken very seriously, in a good way. I walk around in my pants, which my daughter finds highly embarrassing. I'm just a normal, down-to-earth dad.

"I do this really annoying thing when I'm watching telly where I'll sit there trying to pull out a hair from my beard. She finds that very annoying.

"I don't blow my nose when it's running. I eat with my mouth open. I've got as many bad habits as anyone else.

"I also do loads of funny voices and characters that all the kids in my family have grown up with. It's a side of me that's never been very public. The older ones would be mortified if I transformed into a character now."