Post: Bill Gates Remembers Taking LSD as a Teen — and How It Didn’t Wear Off by the Time He Went to the Dentist

Lakeside School Bill Gates in high school In his debut memoir Source Code — which will be published on Tuesday, Feb. 4 — Bill Gates shared candid stories about his first experiences with alcohol and drugs, including LSD

"It’s all Paul’s fault," Gates, 69, joked with PEOPLE in an interview, referring to his late friend, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen

"Everything I did, I’m blaming it on him and Jimi Hendrix," he added

Years before Bill Gates became a billionaire tech tycoon and then philanthropist, he was just a teenage boy in Seattle — and like many teens, part of growing up meant experimenting with alcohol and even some drugs.

In his debut memoir, Source Code — which will be published on Tuesday, Feb. 4 — the Microsoft co-founder, 69, shares a number of candid stories about his early years.

For instance. during the summer of 1972, while Gates was still in high school, he spent a lot of time at Lakeside School with his good friend Paul Allen , who had already graduated and was home from college for the summer. (Years later, the pair would go on to start Microsoft.)

Although much of their time was spent working on a computer program that Lakeside could use for the upcoming academic year — “the school gave us master keys to the building, allowing us free rein all summer on the empty campus,” Gates writes — during their intermittent breaks, Allen gave his younger friend an education on “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.”

“He was far more well-versed than I was in all three, which is to say that I hadn’t tried the first two and knew almost nothing about the third,” Gates writes.

Related: Why Bill Gates Is Telling All About Life Before His Billions, from Trying LSD to Being Put in Therapy by His Parents (Exclusive) Lakeside School Bill Gates’ school directory photo for the 1972-1973 school year As for his practical education, first came alcohol.“It started with scotch. Really cheap scotch that Paul brought to the computer room,” Gates writes. “He got me drunk for the first time, […]

Bill Gates Remembers Taking LSD as a Teen — and How It Didn’t Wear Off by the Time He Went to the Dentist