James Taylor addressed drug offenders as “my fellow addicts” in the Pinellas courtroom in Clearwater, Florida today. The five-time Grammy winner told the large crowd of rehab graduates that they have a friend as he spoke of his own heroin addiction and subsequent 30-year abstinence.

The program was started 10 year ago and has seen 3,000 people graduate rather than serve jail time. Taylor praised the drug court and Circuit Court Judge Dee Anna Farnell who manages the program. Taylor has had such hits as “You’ve Got a Friend,” “Fire and Rain” and “Something in the Way She Moves.”

One of Taylor’s methods to maintain sobriety is intense physical workouts. The first drug court graduate in the procession was one of Taylor’s backup singers Valerie Carter.

While James Taylor has come clean about his substance abuse problems with heroin it seems that legendary folk singer Bob Dylan has been outted as at one time having kicked a $25 per day heroin habit in the 1960’s. Whether you’ve gone public or not many heroin heroes help others in overcoming addiction and maintaining sobriety and you don’t have to be famous to be a heroin hero to someone.