The singer blamed a bad reaction to fame for losing herself in booze and drugs – and took heroin even though she was allergic to it.
Matthews – who’s now preparing to release her second solo LP - concedes she was near to death before Bob and Stevens – now Yusaf Islam - rang her up in quick succession and snapped her out of her desperate situation.
She says, “I couldn't walk, couldn't breathe. I was allergic to heroin. My body would react against it. It fills your lungs up. You suffocate yourself. So what do you do? You make a conscious decision to live. It would have been the end if I hadn't made that decision.
"I had a telephone call from Bob Dylan and from Yusuf Islam in a two-week period and it gave me the confidence to follow what my heart was telling me, which was just to get out. I don't know why they rang, it happened out of the blue.
"I'd like to keep the conversations private but it was a strange time because I'd almost given up hope on everything and started to lose the plot a bit, and that's a pretty sorry place to be. Then these spiritual guides called and it helped me gather strength to change things and start again."
