I know there was another thread generally on the subject. Lets start fresh. It looks like her career is in the toilet and even if she cleaned up her act today, it might be too late. Her last concert was a dissapointment to fans with her showing up an hour late and singing less than an hour. Her voice then was said to be thin and cracked.
Addiction is a terrible thing and not easy to kick. I'm not saying she is a terrible person, it's that she has tossed away things more valuable than gold just to get high. It should be a lesson for us all. Not only her voice and career but her life is slipping away. Despite numerous rehab sessions, she goes right back to the rocks. Is it a personal decision or has she lost the ability to decide?
http://www.wgal.com/entertainment/16683462/detail.html (http://www.wgal.com/entertainment/16683462/detail.html)
LONDON -- Amy Winehouse's father says his daughter has lung damage from smoking crack cocaine and cigarettes.
Mitch Winehouse told the Sunday Mirror newspaper that Amy has early stage emphysema and has been warned that she will have to wear an oxygen mask unless she stops smoking drugs.
Mitch Winehouse said the Grammy-winning "Rehab" singer also had an irregular heartbeat, in an interview published Sunday.
Sad it is, like addiction always is. Maybe the best thing for her is to take some years off. People have come back from farther down than she is, like David Crosby and my friend Johnny Guitar, who was a full on junkie for 18 years.
I don't put a lot of stock in the "oxygen mask" statement. Sure, if she continues to abuse herself serious health problems will result, but statements like that are picked up by the tabloids and get repeated till they become gospel.
Some people destroy their careers when they find out what the price is for fame and mega success. Some just hasten their demise, either through suicide or substance abuse. But apparently it must not all that its cracked up to be(pun unintended), or why all the casulties?
I hope she gets it together, she is a huge talent. She actually has created quite bit of music in a short time, so she must have been functioning for that. 2 great albums by your early 20s is a rare feat in this day and age.
All in all it just makes me sad. You should see the abuse she gets on news site bulletin boards. People just seem to hate her.
To answer the original question: I think if she makes it through the next couple of years, we will not have heard the last of her. She is too good to just go away.
I think what people hate is the senselessness of it all. She goes to rehab under pressure, gets it cleaned out of her system, gets set down and talked to, explained the dangers and so on. What does she do soon as she is out and able? Runs back to the rock pipe, that's what. It's not like she struggles with it for a while and then gives in to the terrible pressure of being rich and famous and drowns her sorrows in some crack. No, she goes right back to it.
People would die to have 1/10 of what she has and she tosses it away like it was nothing. Her fans aren't going to get any more gems out of her now, it looks like. So they are unhappy. I think that is what some people hate.
She may see herself as a tragic figure and be determined to follow the script.
I can understand sadness disapointment and even anger from her fans. But most of the rock throwers have no connection to her music. She is just a convenient target.
Recovery takes a long time, a few days in rehab is not gonna get it. How far must she go to hit bottom? In her situation she can coast along still thinking its afforadble. Our capacity for denial is huge. That goes for rich, poor, famous and infamous.
She might be following a script, people do that. Some people are afraid of success, and when it comes their way they blow it up. I have spent many years working with people like that: talented people with issues, many with that very one. Hmmm, does that say something about me?
I am trying to change that about myself, time is slipping away. And I am finding people with talent on much better trajectories or at least more aware. It's been a concious decision, I decided to trade down in talent to trade up in direction. But actually I found I don't have to give anything up as far as the music I get to make.
So much time wasted. To paraphrase Robby Robertson I think "We get wise too slow and old too fast"
"To paraphrase Robby Robertson I think "We get wise too slow and old too fast""
Good one. As for Amy, she is making her bed and must lie in it. Might be a death bed.
Quote from: "JRL"So much time wasted. To paraphrase Robby Robertson I think "We get wise too slow and old too fast"
Time is never wasted if you get to where you are going in the end.
Wait till you get a little older, Syd. You might have a different point of view about time and how much is left and what it's worth. Although, I do agree that it's hard to say sometimes what is worthwhile and what isn't.
And where are we trying to go? If I was Amy, I'd be asking myself that. What are her goals, what does she want to do? Is her health of much importance?
QuoteIf I was Amy, I'd be asking myself that. What are her goals, what does she want to do? Is her health of much importance?
Until she gets sober for a little while these are almost meaningless questions... at least that is how many junkies feel.
As I remember addiction, the only thing that really mattered was making it through the day without feeling like total hell. Long term goals at that time were nonexistent.
Indeed Kemp. It's a f*****g nightmare. You don't get that far gone over night and you don't come back from it over night.
I looked in vain to see where I suggested it would happen overnight. kemp, I have to disagree with your assertion here.
"Until she gets sober for a little while these are almost meaningless questions... at least that is how many junkies feel."
Yes, getting sober is important, if that isn't done then nothing good will happen. Whatever the "rehab" did, it certainly dried her out at least for a little while. "sober" implies the immediate effects of the drug. Perhaps you are referring to something more long term but the drug's effects themselves wear off fairly quickly.
I say long term considerations and life goals are vitally important. Most junkies, drunks and so on care nothing about those things. I'll agree with you on that. And this is part of the problem. If you don't give a damn about what will happen to you 5 years down the road, then you don't care much about anything. If your only goal is to make it through the day, the rest of your life just happens.
I'm an advocate of living in the moment and enjoying the here and now. Does that contradict what I just said? No. The now is where everything happens, it's the only really important part of your life. Living in the past or spending all your time thinking of the future are self defeating strategies. However, one of the main things that set us apart from animals is the ability to do just that.
If you don't care where you will be in 5, 10 or 20 years, then sacrificing your future for a feeling of pleasure right now sounds like a good deal. Selling your birthright for a pottage, as the story said. Don't live in the past or future but learn from the past and use it to plan your future. Otherwise, you may not have one.
Actually it was me that said "overnight" and it was not in response to anything you said. I think when people in recovery say "sober" they mean more than detoxing, which is what you are talking about.My point is that she goes away for a week then comes right back into the same situation that she is obviously not dealing well with. That is not a recipe for success. One thing I know about addiction is that it doesn't respond to reason or common sense. And in this day and age we all know about the dangers of substance use. A person that is on the road to full on addiction has agendas other than doing the smart thing. Addiction is a disease of your body, soul and mind, it goes way deep into who you are.
I read today that Amy's dad backed off on his emphesyma pronouncements. Maybe it would be better if he stopped dealing with his daughter through the press, it doesn't seem very supportive to me.If she's gonna get well she will do so in private.
You have some points, JRL. I'm just saying that you have to have some sort of long term outlook in order to care about what you are doing today.
I think in the early stages of recovery "one day at a time" is more useful. But maybe looking at the long term could motivate someone to start down the road to a better life. You really need a reason, your own reason. It's to hard to do it if it's for someone else or powered by a "should".
One day at a time is an excellent strategy. You can do anything for one day. Thinking about staying sober forever can cause people to give up so just focus on today.
Everyone has a 'vision' or mental image of what the future will look like for them. This is true even for folks who never think about the future or not much. If the best thing someone can imagine happening in the future is getting high again, what do you suppose they will end up doing?
We focus on getting through this day but in the back of our mind, we really want to accomplish something long term. It may be to stay sober, hold down a job and become a reliable member of society and or parent. This is a positive image of the future. Those who have a negative future vision are 10 times as likely to go back to harmful ways than those with a positive outlook.
I saw in the paper today that after being treated at the hospital for emphysema and whatever else, Amy lit up a cig as she left the building. She sounds like one of the addicts whose image of the future holds either getting high or not being able to. Until that changes, she will always be an addict. Fans may have to settle for her records.
Quote from: "Stonehenge"Wait till you get a little older, Syd. You might have a different point of view about time and how much is left and what it's worth. Although, I do agree that it's hard to say sometimes what is worthwhile and what isn't.
While that may be true, whose to say whats worth my time other than me?
Quote from: "Stonehenge"I saw in the paper today that after being treated at the hospital for emphysema and whatever else, Amy lit up a cig as she left the building. She sounds like one of the addicts whose image of the future holds either getting high or not being able to. Until that changes, she will always be an addict. Fans may have to settle for her records.
It is true dear friend, the age old saying 'once an addict, always an addict'. Sure we can choose to never use again but that has nothing to do with being addicted or not.
"While that may be true, whose to say whats worth my time other than me?"
No one is trying to tell you what your time is worth. My point was that when you are young you have a different perspective on things than you do a little later down the road.
And yes, she will always be an addict but hopefully will be recovering some day.
I think Amy likes the attention she is getting for doing dumb things. It may be part of the tragic script she is following. She knew there would be photogs waiting for her to leave the hospital and that they would be snapping pics. No matter how much she wanted a cig, she could have waited a couple minutes more to get into the car and leave. Her doing it right there was, IMO, a way of telling people "Yes, I'm as dumb as they say" It was her way of sticking a thumb in the eye of the world which thinks she should act right.
It goes along with the tradition of rebels such as James Dean, Marlon Brando and Janis Joplin. She is the modern rebel without a cause.
If singing and having a career were important to her, she would do different things than she is. If being healthy and living well were important, she would listen more to her doctors and at least try to quit the junk. Who knows what is important to her? Perhaps only getting high means anything right now. As JRL said, until she hits her own rock bottom, no one can tell her a thing.
I have learned in my struggles that addiction sometimes stems from the desire to not be controled, so you might be right. Maybe not so much for the attention but as a way of saying "I am free to do whatever I want"
I see that a lot in rock stars. Neil Young or Bob Dylan come to mind. It's a refusal to be controled by other peoples ideas of what they should be or do. It's an understandable but dangerous thing. A great artist is someone that has neccasarily gone their own way into uncharted territory, only to find out that they become property of a public that has a limited abilty to understand. We all have our crosses to bear and sometimes(often) we find not so good ways of coping.
It seems Amy is spitting on fans and even punching them at her latest appearance. She should have given a refund for her last concert and now this. She seems to be determined to be the bad girl of pop. She is following in Britney's footsteps. The only thing she hasn't done (yet) that Britney did was flash her cootchie in public. Stay tuned.
The Winehouse Punch
Compiled by STEVEN McELROY
Published: June 30, 2008
Amy Winehouse performed for a crowd of about 80,000 on Saturday at the Glastonbury Music Festival in England, and there was just one small problem: She appeared to punch a fan during the show, the BBC reported. Video of the incident, which is widely available on the Web, does not indicate a clear cause of the altercation, though witnesses said a fan tried to grab her. By Sunday the police had received no complaints of assault and said there would be no further investigation.
yeah, but she was cool in Madrid. Wearing idiotic shoes, she got rid of em and put on some flats and cruised her way into song.
That's okay - shows comfort level on stage.
I've been youtubing her. Her voice doesn't sound 100 percent but she's working it.
I heard about her show in Madrid. I think the girl might be stronger than people think. BTW, I never heard about her spitting on fans, and I think smacking a fan that tries to paw you is acceptable. She is not their property. If I was in her shoes I would be very afraid of some psycho fan trying to harm me. Do the names John Lennon and Dimebag ring a bell??