I played rock star for a few years here in town, loading in equipment at 7 p.m. to go on around midnight. You know what you do in the interim? You drink, heavily, because you're in a bar and you're bored off your ass. I even ended up writing the Black Math Experiment song "Alcohol" about it.
Alcohol and rock stars go hand in hand. There are those that indulge and die from it, those who curb their excess and overcome it, and some like Lemmy who apparently is going to live forever on nothing but meat, cheese and a bottle of whiskey a day. Seriously, he drinks a bottle of whiskey a day and is healthier than the pretty much our entire writing staff. [Not all of us... not now -- ed.]
It's no surprise then that rock stars get the occasional cocktail gets named for after them. Today we spread some of the inebriated joy done in their names. Here are four recipes for musician-based drinks.
THE KING COHEN
If there is any artist that you should never listen to without a drink at hand then it's Leonard Cohen. The smoky voice, the playful words, the mixture of elation and despair, everything about him speaks of simultaneous sin and salvation.
James Rodewald over at Gourmet.com decided to tackle finding the perfect cocktail to honor the legend. He decided against something like I'm Your Manhattan (I would've gone with First We Make Manhattan, myself), and went with a variation on the King Cole Cocktail.
2 oz blended Scotch (such as The Famous Grouse) 1/2 teaspoon simple syrup 1 teaspoon Fernet Branca 1 Lump of Ice
Combine all ingredients, stir well, and decorate with slices of orange and pineapple.
THE DAVID BOWIE
Bowie has sworn off drinking, and if I remember reading The Berlin Trilogy right he lived mostly off of cocaine and milk for a while instead of hard liquor anyway. With that in mind, you'd think we'd be talking something involving cream liqeuer like Bailey's.
Instead, New Deal Distillery went with their Mud Puddle chocolate liqueur as a base for their cocktail. They describe it as '"totally after 'Space Oddity' but definitely before 'Ziggy Stardust.'"
2 1/2 oz New Deal Mud Puddle chocolate liquor 1/2 oz bourbon (choose a sweeter bourbon like Four Roses) orange wedge, for garnish
In an old-fashioned glass, pour first two ingredients. Add ice, stir to incorporate. Garnish with orange wedge and serve.
