August 3, 2011
^Iortkmh (Obstruer
Arts
z
V
ENTTH
ENTERTAINMENT
World Watched as Winehouse
Lost Battle to Addiction
Page 15
da R ylhall
JOHN OATES
For Ticket information:
r.friemhofthectiiWren.orq/portbnd
DO WHAT YOU WANT
BE WHAT YOU ARE TOUR 2011
Presented by:
Natalie Cole faults music industry for not acting
(AP) — Most entertainers pre­
"I just don't get it. What more can unstructured lifestyle without get­
pare for a concert tour with rehears­ we do other than everybody needs ting help.
als. For Amy Winehouse, it was to grow up? Hollywood needs to
"It keeps them busy. ... I don't
rehab.
grow up and stop glorifying this think it's good to have idle time,"
Just before her disastrous Euro­ kind of behavior and thinking it's said Prentiss, a former addict him­
pean tour last month, the infamously cute," she said.
self. "But in saying that, Amy was
addicted singer entered a rehabilita­
Cole said Winehouse shouldn't not ready to go back to w ork.... She
tion center on doctor's orders, os­ have been trying to perform, given clearly was not ready for the stage,
tensibly to ensure that she would be her condition. Winehouse had been or for life in general."
ready to perform. She left a week
tiled a
Prentiss said Winehouse's prob­
later, with her publicist announcing
lem may have been that the
she was "raring to go."
underlying causes leading
She c le arly w asn't. At the
her to take drugs were not
concert's kickoff June 18 in Belgrade,
dealt with. But he added that
Serbia, Winehouse struggled to re­
he didn't think the music in­
member the words to her songs,
dustry "should try and man­
stumbled around the stage and even
age Amy's personal life."
tried to get one of her background
Cole disagreed. She said
singers to warble for her.
the industry has a responsi­
Her tour was soon canceled. A
bility to step in and push an
little over a month later, she was
artist out of the spotlight
dead.
until they get their personal
There’s a long history, to be sure,
act together.
of performers who wither away due
"Somebody in that circle
to a d d ic tio n w hile the w orld
needs to be there to go, 'Uh
watches, but W inehouse’s death
uh, you're going to have to
July 23 at age 27 has rekindled ques­
sit down and get some
tions about the role the music in­
help,'" she said. She said
dustry should play in helping stars
she has seen past examples
kick self-destructive habits.
of a record label halting pro­
W hy, for e x am p le , was
duction of new albums until
Winehouse still being booked for Amy Winehouse
an artist gets clean.
concerts even though she was bat­
"There's too many yes
tling a devastating addiction? Could
people around these artists. They're
the entertainment community have
very easily influenced, they're very
done more to save one of its most
vulnerable," she said.
gifted young artists?
Describing her own battle against
Natalie Cole thinks so.
addiction. Cole said she was at her
A former heroin addict herself.
worst when she was still perform­
Cole was critical of the industry
ing. She said people in her camp
after Winehouse won five Grammys
"would be sitting back there with
in 2008, including record and song
their fingers crossed, praying that I
of the year for "Rehab," the song
would get through a show.
where Winehouse rebuffed help for
"I even had a few people who no
addiction.
longer wanted to work with me, be­
W inehouse perform ed trium ­
cause they just didn’t want to see me
phantly during the Grammy telecast
self-destruct," she said.
that year — but did so via satellite
Cole said she wished Winehouse
from London, in part because she
would have skipped the Grammys
couldn't get a visa to come to the
and other events and concentrated
United States, and also because she
on getting clean. After years of
was in rehab at the time.
abuse, Cole said, it took three mem­
Her treatment facility gave her a Natalie Cole
bers of her own business team to
brief reprieve so she could perform host of problems since her Grammy take her aside and threaten to quit
for a worldwide audience and re­ triumph, had not released another working with her until she got help.
ceive her accolades.
album and was performing only
She remains grateful for that ulti­
Cole said the entire episode sent sporadically.
matum.
a bad message. "Her life was at
Pax Prentiss, founder of the
"They cared. And that's all we
stake. I mean, she was trying to get Malibu, Calif.-based Passages treat­ have to do. We have to care," she
off heroin, which is probably one of ment center, said it's often in an said. "Somebody needed to care
the most difficult drugs to recover addicted performer's best interest about that girl, and I don't know if
from," Cole said.
to be working, rather than living an she had that."
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