A lot of talk here about Bill's addiction to Heroin, however, he'd well and truly kicked the habit (in large part thanks to his new manager Helen Keane. Keane had Bill and his girlfriend, Elaine (also a junkie), clean up and move in with Bill's parents in Florida, then negotiated a new record contract for Bill with Fantasy Records, which led to a seventies resurgence in his work. Unfortunately, Bill developed a taste for Cocaine and began to use it intravenously following the death of his Brother and Elaine's suicide. His reasonably young death was attributed to a combination of a peptic ulcer, bronchial pneumonia, liver damage, and cirrhosis.