Singer/songwriter JACKSON BROWNE has urged young hitmakers not to turn to hard drugs to seek inspiration for songs - because cocaine and heroin only serve to addle your mind and wreck your talents.

The Running On Empty singer has confessed he dabbled with heroin and cocaine and regrets he didn’t heed the advice of others who warned him against the drugs - but he never got hooked on either.

He tells Details magazine, “I count myself lucky that I didn’t grow to like heroin. It’s not something that really worked for me. On the other hand, there were other drugs that did. I began thinking that cocaine was really useful, and I started drinking when I started performing.

“At this point I don’t take any drugs, and I don’t think they help - with the exception of some psychedelic drugs. But I don’t advocate anybody taking any drugs. The people I took drugs with, many of them are dead now. And a lot of my friends had to get sober or die.

“I’ve lost people to drugs - it didn’t keep me from taking drugs, either. There were occasions when I could’ve died. I played around with all the drugs.”

And Browne fears he may have enabled late pal Warren Zevon’s drug habit - by failing to dissuade him from getting hooked.

He adds, “In many ways you could say I enabled Warren. Warren Zevon created an incredible body of work because he was sober, not because he was out of his mind and berserk.”