Richard Pryor’s “demons”
"He fought his demons."
So said Rain Pryor in regards to her father, the late comedian Richard Pryor, in an interview with Bill Handel on a recent "The Bill Handel Show"(KFI 640am, Los Angeles), in a publicity interview for her new book, Jokes My Father Never Taught Me: Life, Love, and Loss with Richard Pryor. Unfortunately, both she and Handel (who is a long-time recovering addict) used the term "demons"repeatedly. The term, a euphemism for "drug addiction,"serves only to confuse the uninitiated by suggesting the idea that demons cause psychotropic drug addiction rather than addiction causes demons. Instead of educating, it misguides.
Richard Pryor was married six times. His daughter describes him as misogynistic, mercurial, unpredictable and violent. She describes life with ...
