Pete Doherty: Man Out of Time

Photo by Hedi Slimane

It is at this moment that his manager comes into the room and bids, with an urgent nod of the head, that the singer follow him outside now. When Doherty returns moments later, hands thrust deep inside his trouser pockets, his face is ashen. "Bad news. Fucking hell. Someone's got a picture of me injecting heroin," he announces. "It's going to run tomorrow."

"Probably an old photograph," says Whitnall, a little halfheartedly.

The next day, The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling tabloid newspaper, prints a picture -- and on its website, cell phone video -- of the singer shooting up. The footage clearly shows Doherty wearing his wristband from the MTV Europe Awards, confirming it was, in fact, taken just three days earlier.

In the weeks that follow, during which time attempts to schedule another meeting with the man become ridiculously complicated, many people I talk to refer to something called "Pete fatigue." This is a national condition, by all accounts.

"Pete could well be an expert in sabotage," says Nigel Coxon, Babyshambles' British A&R rep, who helped mediate the new album's awkward genesis. He explains that ruinous stories have often broken the same week that the band has released singles and that, due to "Pete fatigue," radio stations are resistant to give them any airplay, something Doherty desperately needs. Despite having more column inches written about him than any other British male rock star today, he isn't selling a huge amount of records. In contrast, the Kooks, an English indie outfit also in thrall to the Libertines legacy, shifted nearly two million copies of their debut album, Inside In, Inside Out, in the U.K. last year. "It's very distracting," Coxon laments.

According to Dr. Mike McPhillips, an addiction specialist and medical director of the Causeway Retreat, a rehabilitation center in Essex, England, Doherty's faltering progress is not quite as bad as it looks, but rather entirely typical.

"There is nothing unusual in lapsing and relapsing -- sometimes for years," says McPhillips, who has not treated Doherty. "It's simply part of the process. Anyone who just stops [using] the minute they go into a clinic is an exceptional case. One can only feel compassion for someone in the public eye with these problems, and [Doherty] has essentially become cannon fodder."

"With Pete, it's always going to be a bumpy ride," says Coxon. "But then he really is head and shoulders above everyone else, a special talent. Is he worth the effort? I'd say yes, yes he is."