I had all my Boomerocity stuff for the week done and ready to post.
I was feeling pretty darn good when my daughter called out in startled surprise, “Oh no!”
I jumped out of my office chair,
expecting that she needed my help with some minor catastrophe as I hollered back, “What’s wrong?”
That’s when she uttered the
words that probably most of the world expected to hear at some point or another. “Amy is dead.”
We have no friends by the name of
Amy but I somehow knew that my daughter meant Amy Winehouse. When my suspicions were confirmed, I sat back
down in stunned silence. I did so, not as a fan because, honestly, I never to listen to her music. Why?
I hate to admit it but I assumed that, based on how she looked, I wouldn’t like her music.
No, I sat in stunned silence as a
father of a beautiful, talented 27 year old girl – the same age as Amy. I immediately put myself
in the shoes of her mother and father, Janis and Mitch Winehouse, and wondered how they must be feeling. Unlike
a lot of parents of talented kids, Mr. and Mrs. Winehouse certainly have given every indication that they have always had
nothing but the health of their daughter closest to their hearts. How their hearts must be ripped to pieces,
wondering if they could have done something more to still have their daughter alive.
After hearing the news of Amy’s passing, I noodle around the web,
looking up information and videos of this talent I just assumed I knew all about without ever listening to her.
I came across the video of her disastrous “performance” (I prefer to look at it as a cry – no, scream
– for help) at a festival in Belgrade, Serbia, just last month. Couldn’t “her people” have waited
just a few weeks or even months to crank up the Winehouse moneymaking machine until she was certifiably healthy?
I don’t know. Maybe they tried to do exactly that. After all, how do you save someone from
themselves? I don’t know what demons Amy was fighting. I wish I did and I wish I knew just the right things to say and
do to help people like her. I suppose that this is just the dad in me but I’d like to think that
it’s a wish shared globally by humankind.
The historical landscape of music is littered with the bodies of those talented artists who died far too young.
Within that list of people are those identified as being in the “27 Club” or “The Forever 27 Club”.
The Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones was the first “big” artist who entered the club in 1969 with his
“death by misadventure”. Jones was followed 14 months later by Jimi Hendrix with Janis Joplin following just 20
days later. Nine months later, Jim Morrison also sailed the mythical Celtic crystal ship to the other side.
Other artists before Jones and after Morrison joined the club.
Sadly, Miss Winehouse is the latest member and she really shouldn’t
have been. I pray to God that she is experiencing the piece she longed for.
If you or someone you know are in
the grips of substance abuse, do something NOW to help break that cycle of addiction. Life is too precious to lose too young.
