He is stoned in this interview. He quit drinking on September 21, 1976, but as is often the case for people with addiction problems, he just took up an alternative vice. This interview was before he gave up inhaling large amounts of weed. He did get a grip on that, too, about the time he made ROLLOVER, according to an interview he had with Roger Ebert after he had finished that film. He told Ebert that during that film he would be straight during the week and would smoke dope all weekend, so that on Monday's he would be hungover and paranoia-angry. He also said that one of the factors in giving up such excess was "a private deal I made with God.' That private deal was in the prayers he offered to God as he was returning from Sweden flying to daughter Tracy's bedside after her motorcycle accident. He prayed there would be no brain damage and no paralysis. And there wasn't. He later told an interviewer, "When I walked into the room, she was in a coma and hadn't moved. Just as I walked in, the doctor said 'Look, her leg moved!' I told God, 'okay, I'm your boy'."