Artie said that there was a time when Howard wasn’t going to give him the 3 weeks off to shoot Beer League and he was mad at him. He said that he resented Howard at that time but it was the only time in that 7 years that he’s been there that he felt that way. He said he was on heroin at the time too so that didn’t help. Artie said that they had one foot out the door from K-Rock at the time and he figured that he could just get out. He said he’s writing about that for his upcoming book.

Artie said that the heroin thing was a problem back then and he couldn’t picture doing the radio show and the movie shoot both in the same day. He said that he only thought that because he wondered how he was going to do the heroin.

Artie said that he wasn’t being honest with Howard or anyone back then. He said that he was on the heroin and he had to make sure that he could keep his supply coming in. He said that he could only do one task at a time and he just didn’t think he could do the movie and the radio show at the same time. He said he didn’t figure everything out until he got on the Subutex and off the heroin. He said that working on the show is a great thing in his life.

Artie said that he had a contact for the heroin in Delaware. He said that he would get off the show on Monday and start his withdrawals. He’d drive to Wilmington, Delaware and wait for the guy to show up with his stuff. He said that he was right on the verge of breaking down and the guy would show up just in time. He said that the guy would blow him off once in a while and he’d have to go get some Vikoden and take 30-35 a day just to fight off the withdrawals.

Gary asked how often Artie had to go back after that one visit on Monday. Artie said that it depended on how much the guy could give him that day. He said that it would usually last 3 days. He said that the trip was like 4.5 hours round trip. He said that he would just stay high the whole night and then go to work.

Artie said there were days when he would just sleep through a whole day and into the next morning. He said he’d wake up in hell sometimes. He said that he was taking all kinds of stuff like 15 Percocet at one time and they had no effect on him except to stop him from going through the withdrawals.

Artie said that he was on the road out in Dallas doing a gig at one point and he thought about shooting it up that one time because of all of this stuff he had to do down there. He said that he wanted to just do a skin pop thing but he decided not to do it. He said he was ‘’smart enough not to do it.”

Artie said that Howard was basically interrupting his drug use when he told him he couldn’t take off the three weeks to do his movie. He said that he’s never had a negative feeling toward Howard other than that one time for like 3 days. He said that he wasn’t himself at that time on the show because of that.

Gary said he’d love to listen to that show and hear what he was like at that time. Artie said that they should play the Monday before the 4 days he missed back in 2005. He said that he had all kinds of good things going on back then and then all of this stuff happened.

Artie said that a week before all of that happened, Mitch Hedberg was in. He said he heard some stories from Dave Attell about Hedberg’s drug use. He said that Dave told him about the stuff he was doing and how he’d show up with blood on his arm from just shooting up and stuff like that.

Artie said that this was just 2 weeks before Hedberg died too. He said that he knew what was wrong with Mitch and he figured that he probably knew about what was up with him too. He said that it was really sad when he died too. Artie said that really depressed him and he started using even more after he heard that. He figured that was his destiny too so he just didn’t care.

Artie said he reached out to this doctor who got him the Subutex and he lucked out with all of that. The guy was a big fan of the show and he knew what was going on with him. Artie said he got the Subutex stuff and he was fine 20 minutes later and back on the show that Monday. Artie said that if that hadn’t happened, they were going to pull the plug on the movie. Artie said that he promised that he’d be in but he didn’t know if he was actually going to make it. Artie said it was like an angel had come to him when that doctor called.

Gary asked how Artie hooked up with this guy in Delaware to get his drugs. Artie said that it was a connection he had who referred him to the guy. Artie said that all screwed things up with Dana because she thought that he was seeing someone else. She had no idea that he was on drugs.

Artie said that he lost Dana but kept his career. He said that he knew that he was going to lose something important in his life and he didn’t know it was going to be Dana. He said that he lost someone who loved him and he loved.

Jon asked Artie if this book writing thing is therapeutic for him. Artie said that this whole show is therapeutic to him and he feels better after talking about that stuff there. He had never told the Delaware story on the air before.

Artie talked about some of the stuff that he was going through at the time he was getting off the heroin. He was working on Beer League just a short time after he started with the Subutex. Artie said that he thinks that he was on the heroin for about 4 months.

Artie talked about how he got started in his comedy career after getting out of the job at the docks. He said that they wanted to kill him when he said he wanted to get into comedy. He said he was making pretty good money back there too. He said that if he had stayed there he probably would have drank himself to death because h would have been so disappointed in himself for not trying something else.

Ralph called in and asked Artie what happened with his black eye. Artie said that he was being honest about that. He fell in his room and against a dresser. He said that he could have made up a sexier story than what actually happened if he wanted to lie about it. Artie said he thought he was late, got up, hit his shin on the bed, hit some dirty clothes and fell directly into the corner of his dresser. Ralph wanted him to reenact it for Howard TV. Artie said no to that so Gary said that maybe they’ll animate it. Artie said that just shows how fat he is because he wasn’t able to stop himself from falling.

Ralph said that Artie was driving a cab for a while and he would actually pull up to comedy clubs and do his act while someone watched his cab. Artie said that he was working from like 5pm to midnight and he’d tell his boss what he was going to do with the comedy gigs. He said that he’d have someone watch the car while he ran in and then he’d go back out and get in the cab and go pick someone up from Newark airport. He said he did that quite a bit. Jon had to go to break after that.