How Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan Survived a Near-Fatal Overdose in 1996

28 May 2025, 16:25 | Updated: 30 May 2025, 17:30

In May 1996, the frontman's addiction was out of control... and it nearly cost him his life. Here's the true, terrifying story.

Just after 1am on 28th May 1996, Dave Gahan, Essex-born frontman of synth rock pioneers Depeche Mode, technically died.

The musician was a drug addict, and after a brief period of staying clean, he'd lapsed back into his old ways. In a hotel room at the Sunset Marquis Hotel in West Hollywood, the singer had taken a "speedball" - a combination of heroin and cocaine. It was too much for his system and he overdosed.

"All I saw and all I felt at first was complete darkness," the musician told Q magazine in June 2003. "I've never been in a space that was blacker."

Gahan was later told that he'd been clinically dead for two minutes before paramedics revived him.

"The next thing I remember was seeing myself on the floor, on the steps outside my hotel bathroom, and there was a lot of activity going on around me. I tried to shout out 'I'm up here!' from wherever it was I was floating but nobody could hear me. In some ways it was very liberating. Then I came to and a cop was handcuffing me."

Thankfully, someone was in the room with the star and had called 911. Gahan was taken to Cedars Sinai Medical Centre for treatment and then arrested. He was charged with possession of controlled substances after a "sizable amount" of heroin and cocaine was found in his room and released on $10,000 bail.

How had the 34-year-old pop hero from Epping, singer of such classic tunes as Just Can't Get Enough, Everything Counts and Personal Jesus, found himself in such a desperate situation?

The 1980s had seen Depeche Mode morph from sprightly synth pop teen favourites into gloomy alternative rockers. At the end of 1981, original songwriter Vince Clarke had left the band over fears that the group had become too popular and his place was taken by bandmate Martin Gore.

Gore's lyrics took on a darker aspect, covering subjects that ranged from religion and sex to suicide and existential angst. By the time of 1990's Violator, Depeche Mode had become one of the biggest British bands in the world, with the album going three times Platinum in the US.

The follow-up, Songs Of Faith & Devotion, arrived in March 1993 and took on a rockier, more guitar-laden sound, primarily as a response to grunge. This carried over into the accompanying Devotional Tour, which is where the problems really began.

Still riled about the press and public's perception of the group as a synth pop band, Gahan decided to change all that. "I actually consciously thought, 'There's no f**king rock stars out there any more," he told the NME in January 1997. "There's nobody willing to go the whole way to do this. It's one thing singing the songs, but does anybody really mean it?' So I created a monster."

The new, long-haired, bearded, tattooed Dave Gahan had one other "rock star" accessory: a heroin addiction. He later explained that he'd tried the drug in the early 1980s "when I was living in a squat in King's Cross. But I didn't like it". After relocating to Los Angeles a decade later, he tried it again.

The Devotional Tour quickly became a nightmare not just for the singer, but for all involved. Martin Gore began experiencing seizures and panic attacks brought on by too much alcohol, and at a show in New Orleans on 8th October 1993, Gahan suffered a suspected heart attack after his addiction reached a new level. The tour continued two days later.

Depeche Mode's problems continued into the following year as the band booked more dates, embarking on what was now called the Exotic Tour. "The intensity of the partying had reached a new level," keyboard player Andrew Fletcher recalled to NME in January 1997. "It had just been getting steadily worse and worse until, on that tour in particular, it was just one huge party every night."

Eventually, it all got too much for Fletch and he quit the tour before the North American leg began on 12th May 1994. For two months, Depeche were joined by support act Primal Scream, who were notorious for their hedonistic lifestyle. This pairing led to one of the wildest tours of all time, with both bands trying to outdo each other in the partying stakes.

However, Gahan later told the NME: "Bobby [Gillespie] balanced it really well, he knew where to stop. I didn't realise that nobody actually did play the game that hard. And the Scream proved that."

At the final show of the tour in Indianapolis on 8th July, Gahan attempted a stage dive into the crowd during the last song A Question Of Time. "I landed on the crash barriers and cracked two ribs," he explained. "It took me twenty-four hours to feel anything as I was so drunk. Next day I was in incredible pain."

Depeche Mode - A Question of Time (Live in Indianapolis 1994)

This was enough for musician Alan Wilder, who'd been with Depeche Mode since 1982. In June 1995, he announced he was leaving the band. Things took a darker turn on 17th August. With his addiction worsening and his marriage to second wife Teresa Conroy disintegrating, Gahan was taken to hospital after slashing his wrists.

This wasn't, he later claimed, a suicide attempt, but the spiral of drug taking and overdoses intensified over the next few months. In fact, the West Hollywood paramedics were so used to attending medical emergencies involving Gahan, they'd nicknamed him "The Cat", because he seemed to have nine lives.

Despite this, Depeche Mode reconvened at Electric Lady studios in New York in November 1995 and worked for six weeks on new material. Gahan's addiction was now so out of control, he only contributed one vocal - and that was cobbled together from multiple takes. Things were about to get worse.

Gahan was now shooting up heroin and cocaine - the aforementioned "speedball" - and then attempting to quit for short periods. The flipping between using and trying to stay clean would finally catch up with him. On Tuesday 28th May 1996, while staying at the Sunset Marquis in Hollywood, Gahan overdosed.

This is the point that Dave Gahan technically died for two minutes - that is, until the paramedics revived him.

"They gave me the full Pulp Fiction treatment and got a beat on the way to the hospital," he told the NME in 1997. "The first thing I remember hearing was a paramedic in the background saying, 'I think we lost him...'"

"All I remember about it was it was really black... I remember feeling that it was wrong. This was something really not supposed to be happening. I was thinking I could control this, I could pick the date when Dave was gonna die. That's how f**d up my ego is. So I woke up and I was handcuffed to a cop and he was reading me my rights."

Gahan spent two nights in jail and was then given parole. Despite this harrowing incident, the singer still didn't change his ways. Luckily, the LA police made up his mind for him.

"I was facing charges of possession," he told the Independent in 2003. "It was a case of: clean up or go to jail."

"The first few years was really difficult," he revealed. "I kept thinking, 'Maybe just one more time. Just a drink, perhaps.' Now it's not part of my life and I'm proud of that. I love feeling fit and healthy."

"I know that if I get high again, I won't survive it," he added. "It's as simple as that."

Thankfully, both Gahan and Depeche Mode recovered. The album that the band were working on was finally released in April 1997 as Ultra, which debuted at Number 1 on the album charts and produced the singles Barrel Of A Gun, Home and It's No Good.

The group have since released six more studio albums, the last being Memento Mori, which was issued a year after the death of founding member Andrew Fletcher in May 2022.