It's funny. We can talk about how this she could have gone on to greatness if she was clean. But the Amy Winehouse catalog we know today is directly related to her substance abuse. I doubt a clean, sober Amy releases "Rehab", her biggest song that broke her and made her a star.

Maybe it's because I'm a butterfly effect/snowball theory kind of person, but she would not have been nearly the same artist without the issues.

It's not like Robert Johnson, Mojo, Jimi, Janis, Brian Jones and Kurt are the only musicians to die at the age of 27. You don't have to be an all time great to die at that age. It's just a weird trend among musicians.

27 Club - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

27 Club - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shes been added.. but wow.. I cant believe this 27 thing.. scary as hell

2006 was a pretty death free year. :rolleyes:

Amy would never have been the same musician without her issues like how Pink Floyd would not have been great if Waters and Gilmour didn't begin to fall out etc a lot of great music is borne out of unpleasant lives and experiences.

From personal experience, I'd say yes. I think there is an element of self control.
I have an elder sister who has, what you might call, an addictive personality.
A recovering alcoholic and an addiction to drugs has seen her hit rock bottom on several occasions. Only last year she was given a 5 to 1 against chance of survival following her latest episode.
How is she now?
She's doing very well. For now.

If Winehouse was anything like my sister, then the influencing factors as to why they start in the first place could be down to depression.
It's no coincidence that my sisters state of mind governed how well she coped with her addictions at any given time.
Without some self control, both of them would have been dead years ago.

Pink Floyd were great without, with, and without Waters. Irrelevant comparison.

As for Amy, eh. Her music never appealed to me. Sad that she died but as others have said, entirely expected.

Someone earlier made mention of drugs being "by definition" something that changes your priorities. I'd like to quote Zappa here. "A drug is not evil, a drug is a chemical compound. The problem starts when people treat that chemical compound as an excuse to act like an *******."

I personally agree with Zappa. I've seen both sides of the coin here too. I've never once found that I can't control myself while drunk or on a substance, certainly not to a degree that has me make decisions entirely against my personality. I've also never found that a substance, even if its been the best time in the world, has been something good enough for me to actively seek out a repeat of the experience. That may just be my personality. I've been told a lot that I have good self control and strong will.

On the flipside, I've had friends with drink and drug problems, one friend in particular has had both. He has a very addictive personality and becomes very into things. And yet despite this he has now twice developed an excessive, damaging mental reliance on substances or alcohol, and yet both times he has been perfectly capable of going cold turkey on them. The alcohol experience was the more serious. He asked me to make sure I told him if he was going off the rails. I said that I was telling him (And I meant it. he was drinking to excess almost every time I spoke to him in the months beforehand). He didn't drink for six months. cold turkey, no planning.

I don't think there's a catchall, some people have terrible self control, but those people in my experience are usually crazy sober, they just stop trying to hide it when they're drunk. people who have substance problems but who are fine when sober, in my experience have always been capable of stopping themselves, usually without a great deal of help. I'm most certainly not saying situations don't exist where a persons self control is compromised by a drug, by all accounts cocaines effects include a voracious appetite for more cocaine, as a primary effect, but by and large I've found that most drugs people tend to take are not so insidious as to remove your abilities to make rational decisions, at least, certainly not until the point of being blasted out of your mind, and even then, the effect is not a total loss of control, its a weakening of it.

Its sad but everyone knew it was going to happen.
She could sing though.

I'm extremely sad to hear of this, and I'm more sad to see what many of the members of this site are writing about the poor woman.

You don't get what it's like to try to stop, know you should stop, and still not be able to stop.

Amazing talent, tragic story. I'm leaving this thread now, and that it is all. R.I.P. Amy.

I am more surprised by the plethora of celebrities claiming to be 'deeply shocked' by her passing as if it was completely unexpected and she lived a clean life.

A waste of talent for sure and even in today's world of endless psychiatrists and big money record labels it just goes to show that the money men weren't truly looking after their artist and giving the support that she needed.

Expect a posthumous release from the record company that they will gleefully promote with 100 times the gusto they gave to her in personal life.

I hate to bring it up but it still saddens and actually angers me that someone who made just 2 albums (no matter how well they were liked) will receive pages and pages of threads and newspaper columns whilst an artist like John Martyn who himself was no stranger to addictions got barely a few columns worth of notice despite having a career of over 30 years.

That's the nature of show business though I guess.