How crystal meth addiction drove me to pull out my teeth – DJ Fat Tony

British music star DJ Fat Tony has revealed how his addiction to crystal meth left him so mentally and physically unwell that he pulled out his own teeth.

The 60-year-old DJ, who has spoken openly about his years of drug and alcohol abuse, made the disturbing disclosure during an appearance on Olivia Attwood’s Olivia’s House podcast. Tony, who has now been sober for 20 years, admitted that he continued to believe he was in control even when his addiction had severely damaged his health.

“Even when I was a complete crystal meth junkie with no teeth, I still thought I was in control,” he said. “I thought, ‘I could stop this if I wanted to.’ It’s a false sense of being. I couldn’t survive without that stuff.”

Tony explained that he had convinced himself drugs were necessary for him to function and perform as a successful DJ. According to him, he believed he needed substances to cope with the demands of his work, even as the addiction gradually destroyed his life and drove away the people around him.

Attwood, 35, asked Tony about previous accounts that he had pulled out his own teeth, describing the incident as almost impossible for someone without experience of severe addiction to comprehend. The DJ said years of drug and alcohol abuse had left him extremely anxious, with his fingers constantly in his mouth as he repeatedly bit his nails.

Tony claimed he had barely drunk water for 28 years, leaving him severely dehydrated and contributing to his receding gums. He said the substances he consumed became progressively more dangerous and that smoking drugs caused infections in his mouth and gums.

As the condition of his gums worsened, Tony began digging at them with his fingers. When his fingers were no longer enough, he said he picked up pieces of wood and other objects to continue digging.

“So you’d sit and dig at them, and the finger wasn’t doing it, so I’d pick up a bit of stick and start digging,” he recalled.

Tony said his face was frequently numb from the drugs and he became desperate to remove the teeth from his mouth. His mental state had deteriorated so badly that he believed his behaviour was normal.

“At the time, my face was always numb and I just wanted them out of my mouth,” he said. “I was so mentally unwell that I thought it was normal. I would sit rocking backwards and forwards to stabilise myself.”

When Attwood asked how the people around him reacted as he began losing his teeth, Tony said most of them had already disappeared from his life. He described addiction as a rapid fall in which friends and associates abandon the person before they reach the lowest point.

“People had gone,” he said. “The faster we go down, the quicker those people hit the wall and are out, and you’re left at the bottom with the carcasses, the sewage, the rats and all of the bottom feeders.”

Tony rose to prominence during the late 1980s as a major figure in London’s club and fashion scenes. He performed at celebrated venues and international nightlife destinations before becoming one of the most sought-after DJs for celebrity parties.