I gather you’ve tried pretty much every drug, including mescaline, which you ate on an Indian reservation.

Well, I was in a hut with about 10 young Indian boys. I took this stuff and got real sick, but after a while that passed, and I looked down and I had bird’s claws, bird’s feet and fur instead of feathers. I thought, Well, golly, this is interesting. I flew around the hut, and then I flew through the wall and flew around the reservation and came back. It was a heavy-duty spiritual thing. I wouldn’t particularly want to do it again, but it was a wonderful experience.

Hold on, so you actually think you turned into a bird?

I’m sure it was an out-of-body experience, but at the time I did. And I enjoyed flying too.

The problem with psychedelic drugs is that you feel as if you’ve unlocked the mysteries of the universe, but after the trip is done you can’t remember what you learned.

Oh, God, no. I remembered almost everything afterward. It comes into play in your permanent psyche. For me, they gave me great compassion and a love of everything.

You will be reprising your role as J. R. Ewing when TNT shows its reboot of “Dallas” next year. You now admit that you drank quite a bit during the show’s first run. Is it fair to assume that you were buzzed in pretty much every scene I saw you in?

Yeah.