Out now is Last Four Years: A Rock Noir Romance, the memoirs of Keith Moon's fiancee, Annette Walter-Lax, who chronicles her time with the Who's madman drummer. In a new interview with Goldmine, Walter-Lax revealed that Keith Moon's primary motive for moving to California in 1974 was to break into the film industry, recalling, “He was into acting, This was part of him wanting to go to Los Angeles from the beginning and wanting to pursue an acting career. And he was trying hard to get involved with that, get involved with people, producers, directors and so forth, and of course staying sober. So, it didn't work out very well for him because he showed up drunk to auditions with some — Sam Peckinpah, for instance. Well, that was unfortunate that he had that problem. But his passion was to become an actor.”
Walter-Lax — like so many who found their lives intertwined with Moon — only now can properly understand the kind of mental illnesses he was battling: “I think he had a borderline issue, and that includes bipolar, yes it does and I think he also had multiple personality disorder. . . God knows what was going on inside of him. Some people can handle being a star, most people can do that, he couldn't do that, and whether he wasn't mature enough or whether it was his issues, it's probably a combination of it all.”
She recalled Moon's state of mind when he was summoned back to the UK to work on his final album with the Who — 1978's Who Are You: “He took masses of cocaine and was drinking, of course. And I was worried. At the same time, I felt sa for the Who, as well. He was in a very bad form. Keith was bloated and tired.”
Alice Cooper was Moon's close friend and neighbor during his Malibu years in the '70s, and admitted that Moon's non-stop partying and the mania surrounding his life was exhausting: “Keith Moon was hard day-to-day. He would wear me out. He was always on. He came over and stayed at our house for a week. Y'know, just came over, stayed at the house for a week. And, I mean, there was never a time when I would come in and he'd be sleeping! He was always on: 'Let's go here, let's go there, let's go do this, let's go do that, let's go do this. . . ' And to the point where I would go, 'I can't stay with you. Y'know, I can party with you at night, okay? But during the day. . .' He was like that all day, too! (laughs).”
