SNL's Darrell Hammond recounts lost days

NEW YORK, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Comedian Darrell Hammond confesses in a new book he was heavily into drugs and alcohol during his days in New York with NBC's "Saturday Night Live."

Hammond said he routinely drank at the office and degenerated to the point he was hauled out of the NBC building by police in 1998 and placed in a straight jacket at New York Hospital.

"My wife came but I didn't recognize her," he writes in "God, If You're Not Up There."

Hammond failed to clean up his act after his hospitalization. In fact, he said, he began chasing his alcohol with "obscene amounts of cocaine" that frequently included trips to Harlem to score crack.

Hammond told the New York Post he held no ill feelings toward his friends at "SNL." The newspaper said copies of the book were delivered to the show last week and Hammond was still awaiting reaction.