During a tour in Australia, Cocker was arrested for cannabis possession and reportedly confronted a large group of police officers.
Not long afterward, he was arrested again in Melbourne following a fight at his hotel and spent a night in jail.
Cocker later remembered the strange collection of people with whom he found himself sharing a cell.
“They put me in a cell with a bank robber, and an Aborigine who was alleged to have murdered someone,” he recalled.
The bank robber, he added, “seemed like a nice bloke.”
There was also an unexpected connection.
“He said he had all my albums.”
Even as Cocker’s life appeared to be falling apart, his music still reached people.
A Career That Refused to Disappear
Despite the chaos, Cocker continued to find moments of success.
During his years of cocaine use, “You Are So Beautiful” became another major hit, reaching No. 5 on the US Billboard chart.
But the problems continued.
In 1974, while performing in Los Angeles, Cocker vomited on stage and experienced what he later described as one of the worst moments a performer could imagine.
He blamed a combination of circumstances, including alcohol and cocaine.
“Somebody should have kept an eye on me,” he later said.
According to Cocker, a dealer had found him backstage and supplied him with cocaine. He had not performed live for several years.
He also drank an entire bottle of brandy before going on stage.
He managed to get through two songs.
Then he sat down on the stage, experiencing what he described as a complete mental block.
For an artist whose career had been built on the sheer physical and emotional power of his performances, it was a devastating moment.
Yet even then, Cocker was not finished.
His Biggest Hit Came Later
Perhaps the most remarkable part of Cocker’s story was that his greatest commercial success was still ahead of him.
“Up Where We Belong,” his duet with Jennifer Warnes, became a No. 1 hit in the United States.
The song, featured in the film “An Officer and a Gentleman,” became an enduring classic.
It also won a Grammy Award in 1983.
