Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan: ‘My screaming soul floated above me when I died for two minutes’

Singer opens up about his infamous LA overdose in 1996

Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan claims that his “screaming soul” looked down on his lifeless body after he famously died for two minutes following an overdose in 1996.

The 50-year-old singer, whose band release their new album ‘Delta Machine’ today (March 25), said it felt like someone had turned off a light when he flatlined in an LA hospital. He told German newspaper BILD: “The first thing I realised in the hospital was that I exited my body. I was floating underneath the ceiling and could observe exactly what was happening underneath me: Paramedics were running around my body and tried to save me. I screamed that I wasn’t actually lying down there but above them.

“I believe it was my soul screaming which had already left my body and became a witness of what happened to my body. At that point I was clinically dead, my heart wasn’t beating. These seconds seemed like hours to me. And suddenly, there was a complete, frightening darkness around me. As if someone had turned off the light.”

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When he finally came around, the star woke up in handcuffs for being in possession of drugs. “When I woke up, I was tied to the bed with handcuffs. Policemen were standing in front of me and read my rights to me. I was arrested because of possession of cocaine and heroin.”

Gahan added: “The court let me do a therapy. For about a year, I lived in a detoxification clinic with other drug addicts and alcoholics. I regularly had to do a urine test. If they had found a prohibited substance only once, I would have had to go to jail in Los Angeles for two years. I was really afraid of this. For the first time in my life, it became clear to me that I am not immortal.”

The electro-veterans recently revealed that they they turned down the opportunity to win a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Brits this year after learning that ITV had no intention of airing footage of them accepting the award.

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