Noel Gallagher was forced to cut close friends out of his life after giving up drugs to prevent him from relapsing.
The former Oasis rocker threw himself into the rock 'n roll lifestyle after the group first shot to fame in the mid-1990s, and famously blew through an estimated $1.5 million (£1 million) on drugs.
He quit in 1998, and has avoided cocaine since - but Gallagher admits he had to completely walk away from certain drug-using friends to ensure he stayed clean.
He tells the Yorkshire Evening Post, "The giving up of gear itself was just, 'Do you want to be a junkie any more? No, I don't, let's stop taking drugs'.
"What was more difficult was leaving a circle of friends. The next part of the war is you can't be surrounded by people who do (drugs) any more - initially, at least."
But he is adamant he would have had a harder time walking away from his wild ways if he was addicted to heroin or alcohol - insisting cocaine is "easy" to quit.
He adds, "It was easy, but then I was not doing smack and I was not (an) alcoholic. They are the tricky ones. With anything else a bit of willpower will do it. Alcoholism and heroin are so powerful. You're never fully freed from that. I've got friends who are still in (counselling) meetings who have been off heroin for 20 years."