Dr. Drew: 'Mike Starr was a very sick guy'

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TV psychiatrist and addiction expert Dr. Drew Pinsky is speaking publicly about the death of Mike Starr, the Alice in Chains bassist who was found dead in a Salt Lake City home on March 8.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Hollywood Reporter, to tout the debut of Pinsky's new talk show on HLN (weeknights at 7 and 10 p.m. Mountain time, starting tonight), Pinsky talked about Starr, who was a patient on the third season of VH1's "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew" and its spinoff show "Sober House."

Here's what Pinsky had to say about Starr:

Mike Starr was a very sick guy. He was doing well, then he left and went to Utah against our recommendations. I spoke to him maybe a week before he died and he started talking about his back pain. I said, "Mike, whatever you do, don't see doctors." And he did, they gave him pills and that was that. It's very sad. But that's how all of my patients die today, by my peers giving them meds and not understand what this thing is: addiction.