All language subtitles for Dark.Side.Of.The.90s.S01E02_English

‐[ Smooches ]
‐Leonardo.

‐Many people said
at The Viper Room,

that the crowd was more famous
than the bands,

and that was absolutely true.

‐The Viper Room ‐‐
a West Hollywood nightspot

frequented by celebrities.

‐There was a lot of velvet
rope...going on at that club.

‐Hey, looking nice.
‐Thanks, brother.

‐Johnny Depp could be telling
the person at the door,

"Let that person in.
Don't that other person in."

‐Everyone was sneezing fame
all over each other.

‐Christina Aguilera.

‐David Arquette,
Charlize Theron,

Christina Applegate.

‐I met Jennifer Aniston there.

‐If you could just get inside,

you could let your hair down.

‐Hidden away from fans
and paparazzi,

the shadowy corners
and back rooms of The Viper Room

are also a new safe place
to indulge

in an old and dangerous vice.

‐Suddenly, heroin started
flowing into L. A.

‐It felt like we were living
through, like, an epidemic,

when you have friend
after friend die.

‐An investigation is underway
into the sudden death

of one of Hollywood's
brightest young stars.

‐I opened the door to
Sunset Strip, and I looked down,

and I saw who it was,
and I was, like, shocked.

♪♪

[ Dial‐up connection
screeching ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ Horns honking ]

[ Siren wailing ]

‐As time goes on, people get
remembered for, like, one thing.

50 years from now,
The Viper Room ‐‐

it's the place
where River Phoenix died.

‐23‐year‐old River Phoenix
collapsed outside

a Los Angeles nightclub
early this morning.

‐Witnesses say he appeared
high on drugs.

‐Fans have been gathering
outside the nightclub

where the 23‐year‐old actor
collapsed and died

on early Sunday.

‐I think the '90s Viper Room,
without a doubt,

it's intertwined fully
with the death of River Phoenix.

That's, I think, what most
people would know about it.

‐The Viper Room might have been
a lot more underground

for a lot longer
if River hadn't passed away.

That was a big thing
that made it infamous,

maybe, instead of famous.

‐When it's all said and done,

I hope The Viper Room
is remembered

for something other than
River Phoenix,

because it was so much more
to a lot of people.

‐One reason that The Viper Room
is so important to people

has to do with the street
it's located on.

‐The Sunset Strip is an area
of Sunset Boulevard,

which is one of the truly
longest streets in Los Angeles.

Um, it goes from East L. A.
to the ocean.

My name is Pleasant Gehman.

I'm a writer and performer,

and, um, I spent four decades
of my life

[laughs] hanging around
on the Sunset Strip.

I'm a Hollywood icon.

Kiss the hem of my dress.

Since the late '30s
and early '40s,

the Sunset Strip
was always populated

by a lot of nightclubs.

Some of them are legendary
in rock 'n' roll circles.

‐In the early '90s,
you had The Whiskey a Go Go,

the Roxy, and those were, like,
prestige places,

and then Gazzarri's, which was
catering to a heavy‐metal crowd.

‐There's Guns 'N Roses!
They're the band of the '90s.

‐Did you like the new material?
‐I loved it.

‐Guns 'N Roses were
the biggest band in the world,

and they came out of
the Sunset Strip.

[ Cheering ]

[ Laughs ]

My name is Randall Slavin,
and I am a photographer,

and, uh, I've been
taking pictures

for as long as I can remember

and compiled some of
my favorites in a book called

"We All Want Something
Beautiful."

[ Cheering ]

Everything was heavy metal.

A lot of Harleys
and hairspray and fishnets.

‐But that begins to change.

A new sound can be heard
on the Sunset Strip,

and it'll set the stage
for The Viper Room.

‐Coming out of the '80s,

which was one of the most
debauched times ever,

and even into the early '90s,

there was a lot of
musical things going on.

[ Audience cheering ]

‐When Jane's Addiction came in
in the early '90s,

that was the new wave.

They were cool, and they were
different and younger

and felt like a whole different
kind of energy.

And that's when things changed.

‐But it was a moment where,
you know, it's sort of like,

"Yes, this is
the non‐hair‐metal alternative

that we've been looking for."

‐In the early '90s,

the grunge movement invades
the Sunset Strip

on its way
to changing rock 'n' roll.

But it's changing Hollywood,
too,

as many young actors
fall under its spell.

‐There was a lot of people
that had been involved

in one facet of show business,
as in movies or television,

who were now exploring
rock 'n' roll.

Like, I remember Juliette Lewis
had a band for a long time.

Jared Leto was always
playing in bands.

‐Other actors who dabble
in music

are Keanu Reeves with Dogstar,

River Phoenix
as front man for Aleka's Attic,

and Johnny Depp
with his band, "P."

‐With both River Phoenix
and Johnny Depp,

they originally started off,
like,

thinking they were
going to do music.

‐How are you doing tonight,
Johnny?

‐And then they discovered,

"Oh, I'm really good
at this other thing."

‐Johnny Depp wasn't the biggest
movie star in the world.

He wasn't Jack Sparrow,
but he was on

a long‐running TV show,
"21 Jump Street."

But in Hollywood in that time,
being cool was just as important

as being a big movie star,
and he was very cool.

‐Johnny?
‐Yeah.

‐At the height of grunge
in 1993,

Johnny Depp buys The Central,
a dirty little live music club

in the heart
of the Sunset Strip.

‐The Central is a dive.

It was just a place to play.

‐By the time that Johnny Depp
bought The Central

and changed the name
to The Viper Room,

I think there was a couple
of different camps going on

because The Central had been
a really popular club.

And so the people that played it
thought it was gonna turn into,

like, what would now be known
as an A‐list venue ‐‐

you know, snobbish
and not rock 'n' roll enough.

‐The Central was also the spot
where singer/songwriter

Chuck E. Weiss played.

You may not know him,
but Johnny Depp was a big fan.

‐When they're getting ready
to sell The Central,

and that was gonna be
the end of Chuck E.'s gig,

and I think for half the reason
Johnny bought the place

was to keep a club open
so Chuck E. could play.

‐When Johnny came in
and took it over,

it became this special sort of,
like, cool underground

kind of like
almost like a speakeasy,

you know, which he obviously
was very into.

[ Audience cheering ]

And the biggest,
most gigantic rock stars

were coming to perform
at this little, tiny club

of only 200 people.

I mean, you couldn't fit any
more than 200 people in this ‐‐

in this nightclub,
and that is packed.

‐And, like, for opening night,
you know, sort of like

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,
owed me a favor,

so they'll, like,
play the opening gig.

And because
it's this small room,

it becomes this, like,
little celebrity clubhouse.

Literally, they didn't have
to let in anyone

that they didn't want to.

‐There was this sudden
new renaissance

of young Hollywood people

that just wanted to go out
and have fun.

And in some places,
they couldn't.

‐Leonardo, tell us about Johnny.

‐What do you want me
to tell you?

‐We just want you to tell us how
much fun it was

working with Johnny.

‐It was great.
‐Come on!

‐Johnny Depp could be in his
office looking at the camera,

telling the person at the door,

"Let that person in.
Don't let that other person in."

‐It's good to see you.
Hey, looking nice.

‐Thanks, brother.
‐The reason The Viper Room

became a haven for famous people

is because of
how protected they felt.

There was definitely a sense
of, like,

if you could just get inside,
you could let your hair down.

‐There were just fame
spraying ‐‐

like, everyone was sneezing
fame all over each other.

It was just a lot of
famous people,

and they were all cool,

and it was like we were all
in this room together

and we just got to
hang out and talk.

‐Inside The Viper Room was ‐‐

was very insular
and very protected,

and famous people
were no different

than everyone else inside,

because you weren't
the only famous person in there.

‐That was the only game in town
for young Hollywood.

They were hanging out there
trying to elude fame

while, at the same time,
their very appearance there

was what caused so many people
to flock to The Viper Room.

It was like
its own little "secret" ‐‐

in giant, five‐story‐high,
lime‐green, neon air quotes ‐‐

hideaway for famous people.

‐♪ And it's one more day
up in the canyons ♪

♪ And it's one more night
in Hollywood ♪

‐The same month The Viper Room
opens its doors,

a little band
called Counting Crows

finally hits it big,

and their lead singer,
Adam Duritz,

is immediately welcomed
into The Viper's inner sanctum.

‐Boy, I could talk for hours,
but sitting there

staring at a camera makes me ‐‐
makes my skin crawl.

Mostly I lived at
The Viper Room,

night in and night out,

and a lot of
really interesting people

that I got to just talk to.

It wasn't walking up
for autographs.

It was ‐‐ it was talking.

And that was kind of what
The Viper always was to me,

was this place to go be.

I met Jennifer Aniston there

'cause a bunch of my friends
lied to me

and told me
she had a crush on me.

And those same friends
lied to her

and told her
I had a crush on her.

I honestly had no idea
who she was.

I'd been on the road
during all of "Friends."

I had never seen it,
I don't think.

She was really nice,
really funny, really pretty.

Those were pretty good
requirements for me,

and also, she liked me.

Yeah, it didn't last very long,
so probably because of that,

but she's a very nice girl,
you know?

‐The secret sauce
of The Viper Room

was you had the coolest actor
in Hollywood

who is dating the coolest girl
in the world, who is Kate Moss.

And he wants a place
to hang out,

and they don't need
to make money.

‐With Viper,
Johnny Depp creates a bubble

for his cool A‐lister friends
where they can feel sheltered.

But it's just a matter of time
before that bubble bursts.

‐Get the...out of the way!
I can't see!

[ Horn honking ]

[ Bell tolling ]

‐We have reports from Paris
that Diana, Princess of Wales,

has been killed
in a car accident

and that her partner,
Dodi Fayed,

has also been killed.

They were apparently
being pursued

by paparazzi on two motorcycles.

‐Killed by the royal family
or hit by...

‐The paparazzi spends the '90s
hunting down Hollywood royalty

before killing an actual member
of the royal family in 1997.

‐How you doing, Sean?

‐Shouldn't you guys be out
killing a princess somewhere?

‐Yeah, we did that already.

‐But Diana's death was
the unhappy ending to a story

that begins much earlier
in the decade.

‐That was the very,
very beginning

of the tabloids being revamped
from, like,

stuff like soap operas
into young Hollywood.

I mean, that sort of started
around that time, you know,

and it was because
there was such a new guard

coming up in Hollywood,

and they were people
that were going out.

They weren't sheltered.

‐You can turn that off, man,
come on.

‐All right.

‐The studios weren't
controlling people

the way they had
in that golden age of Hollywood.

‐And that's when it all of
a sudden became a big business,

selling pictures of people

coming in and out of
a nightclub.

‐It hadn't been like that since
maybe, like, the Beatles landed,

you know,
for the first time in America.

There wasn't, like, legions
of screaming fans

and a bunch of paparazzi again
until the early '90s.

[ Horn honking ]

‐There were a ton
of paparazzi then,

everywhere you went,

especially in a town like L. A.

That was seriously unpleasant.

‐You guys need to back up.
I can't see the cars.

‐Okay, back up, guys.
He can't see the cars.

‐Get the...out of the way!
I can't see!

There are cars there,
mother...

Get out of the way there!
‐They're stopped.

‐While the flashbulbs and prying
eyes of the paparazzi

ravage most of Hollywood
in the mid‐'90s,

Johnny Depp's Viper Room
remains mostly immune.

‐The paparazzi at The Viper Room
was always just one or two guys,

this guy Woody and Brian.

‐It was like a clubhouse,

but the club was open
to everybody, you know,

and, uh, even the paparazzi
seemed to appreciate it

for what it was.

And it was pretty casual
that way.

Definitely makes
a huge difference that it was

pre‐social media
'cause people were willing to

let themselves go in ways
that it's not smart to now.

‐Not just pre‐social media,

but pre‐everyone having
a digital camera

right inside their cellphones.

‐Johnny Depp was making
a valiant attempt

to protect the young and famous
or the up‐and‐comers

or that already A‐listers
of rock stars and movie stars

and TV stars.

‐...that, man.
‐It's a video camera.

‐[ Laughs ] Don't...

Let him get his...
home movie.

[ Indistinct talking ]

‐He was wanting to create
a safe haven for them.

‐As the Sunset Strip continues
to be full of rock clubs,

The Viper Room is much more

than just another place
to hear live music.

‐I mean, I think every club
has bands,

but, like, the thing that made
The Viper Room special

were the other things
they did that were just...fun.

♪♪

You know,
they would do theme nights

that must have cost a fortune

and were only up for one night.

‐They would have, like,
a "Dating Game" night.

David Arquette
from the Arquette acting family

would be the bachelor.

‐I remember once they covered

the entire inside
of the place with tinfoil.

‐They would do these shows.

Like, everyone would dress up,

and it'd be, like, an old‐school
burlesque night.

You know, act like you were
in a different time

for a little while.

‐I remember they did
an "Alice in Wonderland" night.

That was incredible,

the whole place done up in
an "Alice in Wonderland" theme.

And I remember going up
and all of a sudden

you get to the top,
and it's Timothy Leary

is on stage reading
from "Alice in Wonderland"...

‐"Why, sometimes I believe
as many as six

impossible things
before breakfast."

‐...surrounded by a bunch
of giant toadstools

in this, like,
glow‐in‐the‐dark club,

and he's reading from
"Alice in Wonderland."

And you're like,
"How did this happen?

How is this happening?"

And, like,
this is the coolest thing ever.

‐Outside The Viper Room,
celebrities are on their own.

But inside, it's a safe space
to explore their creativity.

‐I remember, like, some of the
real burlesque club nights, too,

like, when Christina Applegate
had this group of friends,

and they had a really cool
burlesque show,

and they were called
The Pussycat Dolls.

‐Christina Applegate was on

"Married...with Children"
at the time,

and she had a housemate named
Robin who was a choreographer.

‐I'm Robin Antin.

I'm the founder
of The Pussycat Dolls,

which started at The Viper Room
in 1994.

I was creating this little show
in Christina's garage

at, like, midnight
with a couple of my friends.

Christina will come down and go,
like, "What you...?"

You know, like,
"This is so cool."

And I'm like,
"You should be in it,"

'cause Christina was a dancer,

and a lot of people
didn't know that about her,

that she had this talent
as a real, trained dancer.

‐Of course, where else were
they gonna do it

but at The Viper Room?

That was their hang.

‐So we went and we auditioned
for Johnny at the club.

We got on stage, put on
our corsets and our, you know,

our whole garb,
everything that I had made.

[ Audience cheering ]

And it was perfect
because right on the chorus

was when we did the strip ‐‐

♪ You blow a fuse ♪

♪ Zing, boom,
strip another corset ♪

♪ Zing, boom,
down to another corset ♪

♪ Dun‐dun‐dun ♪

Yeah, then we'd take a glove off

and take a glove off.

And I remember he was just,
like, looking at us, going,

"These girls are crazy
and wild and outrageous,

and this is so cool," you know?

And we're just throwing
all the clothes off

into the audience.

[ Audience cheering ]

‐It was layers and bustiers
under bustiers

and shorter shorts
under frilly shorts.

‐It was like a ‐‐ like,
literally a strip tease,

so we didn't really
strip down to nothing.

And I remember Johnny saying,

"This is exactly
why I opened The Viper Room."

[ Applause ]

He said, "I would love for this
to be a show

at The Viper Room
like once a week, maybe?

I mean, do you guys ‐‐
can you do it?"

And so the next thing we knew,
you know,

we were on stage
at The Viper Room

for like eight years.

‐They were lip synching
to old songs,

and the place went bananas.

The place went crazy.

‐Everybody would hear about it,
from the cast of "Friends"

to, you know, Marilyn Manson

to, you know, Jimmy Iovine
was there and Ron Fair,

and Dr. Dre was coming around,
Hugh Hefner ‐‐

I mean, [laughs] the most ‐‐
it was just wild,

like, the people that would
show up to the show,

that would be in the audience.

‐That grew, and then I think
Carmen Electra

was the first sort of
regular famous member.

‐We felt like we were
celebrating

being women up there.

I mean, that ‐‐
that was the beginning

of female empowerment
as I knew it.

‐I'm loving it.

‐And that's when all of
these label heads

were coming down to check it out
and see what's going on.

‐And The Pussycat Dolls
outgrew The Viper Room

and then started performing
at other clubs and other places,

and then they got a record deal
and then became

a multi‐platinum
international pop group.

Crazy.

‐While The Pussycat Dolls

are killing it
on The Viper Room stage,

an even deadlier act
shows up in town.

‐A dangerous drug has dropped
like a bomb

on the streets of the suburbs.
It's heroin.

‐It started off a little slowly,

but then it just hit
like a sledgehammer.

‐Everyone had been doing coke,
you know?

I mean, that was huge
in the '70s,

and L. A. was kind of
the coke capital.

‐But by 1993, a drug that has
fallen out of favor

is back in vogue

and will help define the decade.

‐Suddenly, heroin started
flowing into L. A.

‐Heroin has made
a major comeback,

particularly within
the music world,

where it is the chic drug of
choice for some rock musicians.

‐Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love,
Kelley Deal of The Breeders,

Steve Adler of Guns 'N Roses
have all abused heroin.

‐In L. A., as in other places,
heroin was ascendant.

‐It's everywhere.
You can get it easier than pot.

‐It's hard to really explain how
rampant heroin was in Hollywood.

It was like Hollywood turned
into a zombie town suddenly,

so many people ‐‐
it was so easy to get,

and it was so ubiquitous.

It was really scary.

[ Siren wailing ]

‐As emergency rooms are flooded
with victims of bad heroin,

many are arriving violent
and disoriented.

‐It felt like we were living
through an epidemic that,

you know, sort of when you have
friend after friend die.

‐You could always kind of tell
if someone was doing heroin

if the door to the dressing room
was locked.

That could be The Viper Room.

That could be any club
that you'd go to,

because normally there
wouldn't be a lock on the door

if someone was just doing blow.

‐It was a drug
that was very easy ‐‐

if you had a ‐‐
took a wrong step,

you didn't just, like, have
a bad hangover the next day.

Like, you would be dead.

♪♪

‐For some new stars of Hollywood
and rock 'n' roll,

heroin becomes a perfect escape

from the pressures
of their newfound fame.

For others,
it's a way to cope with demons

that have been there all along.

‐Radio stations nationwide
offer tribute to Kurt Cobain

as young fans mourn
the rock singer's

apparent suicide in Seattle.

‐Many people over 30 probably
never heard of Kurt Cobain.

But for younger fans,
his music captured the spirit

of the difficult transition
from youth to maturity.

‐It was obvious this man is dead

from a shotgun wound
to the head.

Now, there was a suicide note
left inside.

‐I'm sitting there waiting to be
interviewed for "Rolling Stone,"

and I got a call from a guy
who used to be our A&R guy

who signed us,
who signed Nirvana.

Me and Kurt were like
his little brothers.

And ‐‐ and Kurt died.

‐That's enough said.
‐Anyway...

‐What are you from?
‐CBS.

‐It was weeks after
Kurt killed himself.

‐See you, Courtney.
God love you, babe.

‐I remember being
at The Viper Room.

It was after hours,
and it was only a few of us

sitting downstairs,

and myself, Courtney,
and my friend Michael Stipe.

She was a mess.

She was a mess talking about it.

And she was trying to rewrite
what had happened

and trying to,
"We should have done this,

and we could have done that,
and if we'd only done this."

And I remember Michael
just being, like,

trying to console
this sobbing widow.

It was a really...

heavy, heavy night.

And I think it's a testament
to the atmosphere

that she felt safe there

and protected by The Viper Room.

‐I mean, it really shook me up
'cause I didn't think

we were all that different, um,
in a lot of ways.

‐Adam's first album
with Counting Crows

becomes a seven‐times
platinum hit

and the fastest selling record
since Nirvana's "Nevermind."

But Adam and Kurt have an even
more profound connection.

‐You know, I wasn't talking
about it publicly then,

but I had pretty severe
mental illness and I knew that.

So, you know, the things
that had concerned me

before that morning

concerned me a lot more
after that morning.

‐Adam was having a really hard
time being famous.

And when your little, cool band

becomes the cover
of "Rolling Stone,"

people are gonna
rebel against it

'cause it's not theirs anymore.

It's everyone's.

‐Everywhere I went,
it was an issue.

Sometimes just like,
"We love you,"

sometimes, "We hate you,"

but an issue everywhere.

I felt very exposed.

Anonymity ‐‐ you don't realize
what a shield it is

until it's gone.

[ Crowd cheering ]

[ Telephone ringing ]

One night, I got a phone call

from Johnny from the office
at The Viper.

"It's Kate Moss's
21st birthday tonight.

The Viper's closed
and we're having a party.

You need to get down here now."

And went to The Viper Room,

and I never really
went home again.

[ Indistinct talking ]

Pretty soon I just started
bartending every night

because I made insane tips for
the people that worked there.

I didn't keep them,
but I would go there every night

and just work bartending.

I was trying to, you know, deal,
you know ‐‐ get a little space.

‐And I think The Viper Room
was a real refuge,

a real place they could go in
and feel safe.

And also, Adam ain't
the most famous dude

running around The Viper Room.

And that's a big weight
off your shoulders.

And everyone loved Adam,
and Adam's a lovable guy.

And he's not a dick,
so they liked having him around.

And it was cool to have the guy
who's on the cover

of "Rolling Stone," you know,
serving you Amstel Lights

And it added to the coolness
of The Viper Room.

‐I wasn't comfortable anywhere.

The whole world had turned
uncomfortable for me.

The Viper Room gave me a home

at a time
when I really needed one,

another way of saying it gave me
a second shot at life, you know?

‐For some stars,
The Viper's legacy

will always be the safety
they felt inside its walls,

but its infamy comes from
what happens

just outside
on Sunset Boulevard.

‐To happen right in front
of The Viper Room

was like, "Oh, my God.

This is just never gonna,
you know, be forgotten."

‐At Pittsville High School,
it is wildly unpopular ‐‐

a new dress code passed by
the school committee

last night five to one.

It prohibits the wearing of what
the committee describes as

anything depicting illegal acts,
provocative dress,

profanity, gangs,
drugs, or violence.

‐It's wrong.
‐Why?

‐'Cause we should be allowed
to wear whatever we want.

‐The '90s are a time of
transition when youth culture

is reimagining the world
with a tenacity not seen

since the counterculture
movement in the '60s.

‐The people who were young
in the '90s

felt culturally disaffected
and, you know, sort of like,

"What is going on
with the system

that we don't feel like
we fit into?"

A lot of people were trying
to tear down the archetypes

that existed before.

This is what a blockbuster
Hollywood movie is.

This is what, like,
a mega‐successful,

like, rock band is.

It's all kind of up for grabs,
and people are figuring it out.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

River, in many ways, was the
grungy version of a movie star.

He has this attitude
and appearance,

and sometimes it explicitly
crosses over the ‐‐ you know,

sort of, like, he hangs out
with the Red Hot Chili Peppers,

becomes great friends with Flea.

‐I like to say that River was

a musician
with a damn good day job.

And it's his day job
that made him rich and famous,

but his music
was always his heart.

My name is Sasa Hasid Ra.

I'll do a little dance for you.

[ Laughs ]

My relationship with River
was primarily as a friend

and as a little brother,

but also developed into
a musical relationship

where we produced
amazing music together

and wrote some really
beautiful songs.

‐I'll probably be, um,
in the Bay Area,

um, playing local
underground clubs.

‐I think River was
pretty laid back

in the way
that he dealt with Hollywood.

He didn't ‐‐ it's not like
he was always eager

to try to get
the most blockbuster movie

and to try to get
all of these contracts.

He was almost more interested in

the artistic expression of film
and acting.

‐How old were you, then,
when you started?

‐10.

‐Is that so?
‐Mm‐hmm.

Television, commercials,

and then later you, uh,

get cast in a film
if you're lucky.

‐Mm‐hmm.
You're a natural.

‐Uh, I'm not saying anything.

‐Mm. I'm saying it.
‐Okay, thank you very much.

‐Yeah, I thought you did
a wonderful performance

in that movie.
‐Thank you very much.

‐River Phoenix gets
his big break

in the coming‐of‐age classic
"Stand By Me,"

and although he goes on
to accept roles in studio films

with Robert Redford
and Harrison Ford,

he feels more at home
on indie art productions

like "My Own Private Idaho"...

‐They could drop a big old bomb
on this city,

and know what we would do?

‐Take shelter?

‐...where he acts alongside
other young voices

like Keanu Reeves
and his friend Flea.

‐And, actually, one of
the Chili Peppers songs,

"Give It Away" ‐‐

♪ Give it away, give it away,
give it away now ♪ ‐‐

there's an interesting verse
in that

that is like dedicated to River
that most people don't know.

But that first verse ‐‐

♪ There's a River
that's always a giver ♪

♪ Keep you warm,
won't ever let you shiver ♪

Yeah, that's, like, about River,
'cause he was so, so generous.

He was such a generous
kind of ‐‐

he was always a giver.

‐A lot of it was sort of, like,
caretaker for the Earth.

And so you have this,
uh, sense of, like,

River Phoenix
cares about the dolphins,

and he cares about animals
and his dogs,

and he believes in
the rainforest.

And he's, like, in many ways
could serve as a movie fan's

introduction
to larger social issues.

‐Like a handful of other
young stars at the time,

Rivers starts using heroin
as a way to cope

with the pressures
of his success.

‐I don't do television.

I don't want to sit there
and be a puppet.

And you become more of, like,
a speaking piece for their show

than you're on film,
and so then you have

shows all the time
showing clips of the film,

speaking about the film,
but you don't have,

"And then we talked to the actor
River [gibberish] Robert Penis."

And, you know, I sit down, like,
"Yeah," and then like,

"Yeah, I had a fun time doing
this project.

Yeah."

It's just stupid, man.
It's just a waste of time.

‐Why?
‐It bores me.

And it scares the shit
out of me, too, to be frank.

‐To be in front of a camera?
‐Oh, it's so frightening.

♪♪

‐I had seen River Phoenix
a few months earlier.

I didn't know it was
River Phoenix at first.

He was sprawled in the middle
of the back little corner,

and I was like,
"Who is that really cute

and really...up boy?"

And someone said,
"That's River Phoenix."

And I was like,
"That's River Phoenix?"

‐Can you get me one, Scott?
‐Yeah, I will.

‐A glass of wine would be good.

‐He's got addiction problems,
and at a certain point

he's going to have to
deal with this.

‐Thank you. Thank you.
That's all.

‐He would clean out and dry out
when he was making a movie,

for example, his last movie,
you know, was "Dark Blood,"

and it was filmed in the desert,

and he sort of showed up
straight

and going for, like, long hikes.

And when he got away from L. A.,
he was able to, like, you know,

not have people, like,
feeding him cocaine.

And, you know, it's like,
"Here's what you need."

‐That's why I don't hang out and
talk to those Hollywood people,

because they're there to ‐‐
to hurt me.

They're there to hurt my ‐‐
my views.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

‐And he actually said
to the director, George Sluizer,

when, like, uh,
filming this shifted

from the desert to L. A.,
he said,

"I'm going back
to the bad, bad town.

Like, this is where
temptation is for me."

[ Jet engine roaring ]

‐River gets to town,
and he pretty much

immediately falls off the wagon.
He's out of it.

Like, there was sort of,
like, uh, meetings

he's supposed to take
with directors where he's,

you know, like, slurring
his words and, you know,

calls up his agent, and they can
tell, like, he's in ‐‐

within 24 hours
he's in bad shape.

Samantha Mathis,
his girlfriend, is there.

Two of his siblings
are there, as well ‐‐

Joaquin Phoenix
and his sister Rain.

His siblings ‐‐ they want to go
out to The Viper Room.

It's the hot club in town.
They're curious

He's gonna stay in and just sort
of, like, have a quiet night,

um, so he's in good shape
for tomorrow's shooting.

"You guys go have a good time
at The Viper Room."

His girlfriend's gonna take
his siblings there,

and as they're, like,
heading out the room

and, like, going to
the elevator, like,

he changes his mind.

Like, "Okay," like, "let's go,"

and runs after them
into the night.

‐I got a call from
"Spin" magazine,

whom I was writing for
in those days.

Um, "Will you go and cover
this band at The Viper Room?"

And went there, and the line
was just insane.

Everybody wanted
to get in that night

because there was
a special band playing.

It was kind of a super group,
and it was called "P,"

the initial "P."

‐"P" was Johnny Depp's band

that included Gibby Haynes
from the Butthole Surfers.

Also sitting in that night
was Rivers' friend Flea.

[ Indistinct talking ]

‐I went into the club,
and it was already packed.

I went to the dressing room,
which was what I always did,

but the door
was pretty much locked.

People that knew me inside the
dressing room at The Viper Room

on that night
weren't letting me in.

I knew what was going on
in there.

‐It's a crowded, dark room,

and there's a lot of conflicting
versions of, uh, what happened.

♪♪

It's possible that most of them
are true and different people

saw different things happen
and it all added up.

The version that I heard
from a friend of his

was somebody walked up
to the table

and then gave him this cup
and says,

"Drink this.
You'll feel great."

And River does and downs it

and almost immediately
starts to feel

like there's something
in the drink

that's starting to send his body
into convulsions.

‐I watched a few songs of "P."

It was humid, it was sweaty,
and it was super smoky.

I was like,
"I can't stand this anymore."

So I opened the door
to Sunset Strip,

and I almost tripped
over paramedics

resuscitating someone.

I mean, I'm literally
almost tripped.

It was happening
right in front of the door.

[ Siren wailing,
police radio chatter ]

Then I looked down,
as one would naturally do,

and I saw who it was,
and I was like, shocked.

[ Police radio chatter ]

[ Sirens wailing,
horns honking ]

‐There was this heartbreaking
tape of his brother watching,

you know, sort of, like,
losing his mind

because his brother is dying
in front of him.

[ Sirens wailing ]

He's, like, on the sidewalk

right in front of
The Viper Room.

He's having seizures.

Um, his sister is lying
on top of his body

trying to, like, sort of,
like, settle down

and, like, stop him
from hurting himself

as he flails around.

‐[ Sobbing ]

‐This tape gets played over
and over in the aftermath.

And this is, like, the moment
when America,

like, met Joaquin Phoenix,
when, you know, sort of like,

you know, at the lowest point
of his life.

His brother, who he, like, loved
and worshipped and looked up to

is dying in front of him.

‐Seeing the first responders
with defibrillators

and with an oxygen mask on
and with, like, girls,

like, screaming and crying
on the sidewalk,

I have tears
in my eyes right now.

That was a traumatic thing.

I didn't talk about that
for a long time.

[ Siren wailing, horn honking ]

It's not nice to witness
someone dying like that.

‐The band that was playing, uh,
finishes their set,

and they hear, "Oh, a friend of
Flea's is having,

like, a bad time,"
and so they come out,

and Flea see what's happening

and, like, rides in
the ambulance to the hospital.

And they take him
to Cedars‐Sinai,

and they work
for about half an hour

before they clear
that he's dead.

But, you know, he died there,
like, on the sidewalk

outside The Viper Room.

‐An investigation is underway
into the sudden death

of one of Hollywood's
brightest young stars.

23‐year‐old River Phoenix
collapsed

outside a Los Angeles nightclub
early this morning.

‐The actor's brother says
he might have taken drugs

before he died.

‐Toxicology results came back.

Uh, the findings were that
he was found to have

cocaine and heroin.

It metabolizes as morphine
in the body,

and, uh, they were
very high levels.

♪♪

‐It was very difficult
when River passed.

Joaquin and I, you know,

we didn't ever talk about
the specifics of that night.

You know, it was too painful,
I think.

But, um, we cried a lot.

We cried a lot together,
you know, an ocean of tears.

And, um, he was
such a beautiful boy.

And he definitely left,
you know, way too young,

you know,
too young to die for sure.

[ Indistinct talking ]

♪

‐By the late '90s,
a new breed of celebrity

invades the Sunset Strip.

And for those who found safety
behind The Viper Room's walls,

everything is about to change.

‐Reality TV kind of came around
and changed a lot

of what fame was in America.

‐Watch out, watch out,
watch out, watch out!

‐The goal is that one day
every home in America

will have a special cable box.

We will hook up our computer,
our telephone,

our video camera, and our TV
to that one box.

[ Dial‐up connection
screeching ]

‐In the late '90s, the Internet
matures from chat rooms

and pay‐per‐view porn
into a powerful media tool

that's altering our very concept
of what it means to be famous.

And nowhere is that
transformation more evident

than on L. A.'s Sunset Strip.

‐Every generation felt that
their generation was better

than the generation
that came after them.

And that just happens
every generation.

But there is a definite line
in the sand

with a pre‐Internet
and a post‐Internet,

and that's the big demarcation.

I don't remember any actors
in the '90s

referring to themselves
as a brand.

‐I don't like L. A.
as much anymore.

It's not what it was then.

It really turned into a town
where there were a lot of people

who got famous for being famous.

And a lot of the sons
and daughters

of really rich people,
you know, and famous people ‐‐

that started to be, like,
a real thing in L. A.

‐When we got the...
‐The '90s were the last era

where it was really uncool
to like being famous.

I think that era is long gone.

‐Right here, right here,
right here.

‐Fame used to be
the unfortunate byproduct

of being really good
at something,

whereas I think now
with a lot of people coming up,

fame is the end goal.

‐With this new breed of
celebrity taking over the Strip,

Johnny Depp finally sells off
The Viper Room in 2004.

Although the name stays
the same, the vibe does not.

And soon the Hollywood royalty
stop showing up.

‐I haven't been to
The Viper Room lately,

meaning in the past few years.

I constantly say that I am not
in rock 'n' roll anymore,

and people roll
their eyes at me.

[ Laughs ]

‐I can't really say when my sort
of Viper days drew to a close,

because by the time you realize,

"Oh, I haven't been there
in a while, huh"...

I guess ‐‐ I guess it's over.

The Viper Room
wasn't The Viper Room anymore.

Those ‐‐ those golden hours
don't last forever.

It's only an hour.

You know, commerce
catches up to everything,

and now the Viper Room
is going to be bulldozed,

and a hotel is gonna be
erected in that space,

and then it'll be gone forever.

‐Yeah, I mean, we all have to
grow up with that.

You go to the places that you
grew up going to see shows,

and they're ‐‐
they're not there anymore.

‐I have lifelong friends
because of The Viper Room

that I met at The Viper Room

and grew to love
at The Viper Room.

So you just have to be
appreciative of what you had

and the time you had,

because you can't get that back.

‐The Viper Room gave me a home
at a time when I needed one,

and it gave me a place
to be an artist again,

Um, I will treasure Johnny Depp

for the rest of my life
because of that.

It changed my life,

and, uh, it was
the making of me in some ways,

the remaking of me, uh,
put it that way.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

[ Cheers and applause continue ]