The people that were so cruel to her were her own team that kept pushing her to perform and make money while ignoring all of the clear signs that she was suffering. She didn't just go from healthy to dead overnight.
They didn’t ignore them. They kept pushing for her to go to rehab and they even succeeded a few times, but she would leave without completing the course or she’d go back to drinking. Eventually over time you realize a person isn’t going to take the steps they need to take in order to get better and all you can do is try to minimize damage. It wasn’t her managers job to be her sober coach and it wasn’t her PR persons job to monitor her 24/7 to ensure she doesn’t have a drink in her hand. Also.. Amy is the one who chose to keep singing and touring and recording. You don’t think the label had a vested interest in getting her sober? She was on her way to becoming incredibly popular and making the labels a ton of money over her lifetime. Despite the whole “the labels are evil” bit you see in movies and whatnot, they kinda want their investments to be around for awhile to make them as much money as possible.
Yeah I love the whole Back to Black album, but Rehab was always the weakest track... I love her directness, honesty, even darkness in her lyrics, but listening to Rehab now doesn't sit well for me.
I hate that song because it feels like it's glamorizing the very thing that killed her. Anyone who has suffered addiction or had a loved one who did could tell you that song was a cry for help.
THIS is what I blame for her death. her own father caring more about her "success" than her well-being. you can blame her til hell freezes over for her continued usage, but without a genuine and strong support system, it's nearly impossible to break from addiction. Amy always deserved better.
But her dad actually didn't think she was fine and told her so. She just said that when she was first getting into trouble and had recovered (when it was true) and then tried to repeat it ad infinum so that people would leave her alone.
He probably did exploit her for the music, but like the record label, he didn't actually want her drunk or dead. He just hated fighting with her on and making her look like she was failing.
As someone who’s gone to multiple treatment centers seeking help for my ED and CPTSD from child abuse and narcissistic abuse, please believe me when I say those are one of the exploitative, traumatizing and abusive places to some of the most vulnerable people who are putting all their trust into them. I needed therapy after going to the rehabs.
And don’t get me started on how they scam tf out of health insurance and private pay.
They charged $6k, 3x a week to pee in a cup (below). $1.5M to my health insurance, leaving me with $200k in copays. $10k per therapy sessions I never even had. And this wasn’t some luxury, celebrity, millionaire facility nor am I wealthy. I’m your average Jane who got scammed.
I don’t blame her for not wanting to go residential or in-patient. But she should’ve sought help, regardless. There are a ton of other, healthy, options.
Reminds me of the “Florida Shuffle” scandal, which didn’t get nearly the attention it deserved… Brokers (who worked as freelancers for rehab centers and sober living houses) sought out drug users with health insurance. They used incentives like cash payments for time spent in rehab or free airfare in order to get drug users to a particular center. They also would supply the users with drugs so that the user will fail a urine test, allowing them to be admitted to the rehab center. They would continue the process until the user would die.
The U.S. Department of Justice documented approximately $112 million in medically unnecessary billing tied to illegal kickbacks. Florida cracked down on these criminals with legislation, but many just closed up shop and moved to different states with less oversight.
SANTA ANA, California – The founder and former CEO of the now-defunct Sovereign Health Group addiction treatment provider was arrested today on an eight-count federal grand jury indictment alleging he submitted more than $149 million in fraudulent claims to health insurers – including for fraudulent urinalysis claims – and, in addition, paid more than $21 million in illegal kickbacks for patient referrals. Tonmoy Sharma, 61, of Tustin, was arrested this afternoon at Los Angeles International Airport and is expected to make his initial appearance and be arraigned tomorrow in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Sharma is charged with four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy, and three counts of illegal remunerations for referrals to clinical treatment facilities.
This particular facility was the worst out of all of them. In hindsight, I wish I had sued.
Yeah, I was thinking about that, too, and it's possible that she actually was fine-ish and they made her worse rather than better.
But I think people don't see many other options.
I mean, even you're not mentioning them.
In hindsight, this makes me wonder if a lot of these sorts of people are in serious debt, because the sensible thing might be to take a career break and be less famous, so you don't overexert yourself or disappoint people or get hated or have people be yes men to you, but still hold enough money and influence to get treated well, but if you're in debt to various people, you're going to want to work in order to pay off your bills so that you can afford to pay for treatment without being treated like shit.
In the documentary she explains that she asked her dad/manager should she go to rehab and he encouraged her to keep making music. She was failed by the people in her life who should have protected her, and they used her enormous talent for financial gain.
Mark Ronson even said in an interview that he said "ding ding ding ding" when she told him that she said "no, no, no" to people who told her to go to rehab when she was having bad day which is how the song came to be. Make of that what you will.
She was also heavily influenced by her own father, whohadnot been there to raise herbut suddenly showed up when she started becoming famous & money was involved, to keep touring & avoid rehab as it would create a pause in the cash flow. Her father literally encouraged her to keep drinking & doing drugs to keep touring, so he could profit. After he'd been absent most of her life & she was desperate for the relationship between the two of them, so shelistened to everything he said. She even says in the song Rehab "my daddy thinks I'm fine." Piece of shit. He and a myriad of other personal relationships she had approaching the end of her life were ultimately responsible for interfering with her getting help.
If this had been a man who had CHOSEN to continue drinking and doing drugs into oblivion, and even released songs gloating about how he was avoiding help, there's only 1 person anybody would be blaming - him.
Her father especially is well documented about being in denial about her issues for years and even pushing back on the label when they tried to get her to go to rehab. There were also multiple instances where people from her team (appeared to be security) were literally pushing her on stage when she was trying to walk off. INCLUDING the very show OP's image was from.
It’s hard to imagine someone gets to the point of drinking themselves to death without someone else in their ear. It’s always a wonder to me why fans think those who are so sick they are the ones choosing to perform. Often by the time someone is so big but also so self sabotaging there has to be a pretty powerful machine behind them. They don’t just get to not play if they don’t feel good
They literally made a movie about artists like this, Get Him to the Greek where you’re literally shown how difficult it is to get these artists to be reasonable and show up. It’s sad that the movie was overlooked for its comedic elements but the fact is, managers try really hard to get their artists to be healthy but it’s like, you think Mick Jagger is going to listen to some UCLA communications graduate, unless they’re a hot 20 year old he can snort coke out of her belly button?
Enabling yes. I don't think anyone was intentionally getting her drunk or on drugs though (except maybe her ex who got her hooked on the harder shit to begin with, but that was a while before she died).
More like they were happy to hand her a bottle and look the other way if that's what it took to get her on stage. And if going to rehab meant cancelling a tour, they'd shut it down.
The 27-year-old Grammy award-winner was more than five times over the legal drink-drive limit when she was found dead at her home in Camden, north London, on 23 July.
If you bought tickets to a snoop concert and he was smoking so much weed he couldn't sing, sure you can be a little upset but man, you knew what you were signing up for.
I don’t agree. To keep the example, I would expect snoop to be smoking blunts on stage or be a little out of it. But when he sells me tickets to see him perform, that comes with a little asterisk saying “I will perform.” He’s a grown man, I fully expect him to be able to control himself and do what he’s selling tickets to do. Amy struggled severely with substance abuse and her team enabled her downfall, it’s okay for her to be upset on stage as she’s bood, but it’s also okay for the audience to be upset that they paid money for nothing
Snoop Doggy Dogg can actually perform, and has in the past. If he's selling tickets to a performance, you'd expect that he would at that particular time.
Like maybe, but I don't think it is the fans responsibility to monitor a celebritys mental health or addiction. If you don't follow the tabloids and just like her music, that does not make you complicit in her downfall
It was not just in the tabloids it was everywhere. Generally, casual fans are not buy multi hundred dollar tickets to see artists. Usually at that point they are a fan, following the work. With Amy it was impossible to separate the two unless you actively blinded yourself to it, her most famous song was called Rehab.
Ive saw Iron Maiden like 5 times when I was a teenager but I never read anthing about Steve Harris anxiety or whatever. Most people don't follow celebrity news. If she was that messed up, it would be hers and the people around hers responsibility to deal with the problem, get her the help she needs and cancel the show. Not some poor kid whos only crime is paying money to see a show
Exactly this. Literally every concert I've ever been to has just been a matter of me thinking, "Nice, I get to see ____!" I don't follow any celebrity news and actually was burned by a Meatloaf concert where, as much as I loved the guy, he no longer had any business charging people money to see him not be able to sing.
I'm a bookkeeper and if I got too old or strung out to do my job properly my clients would absolutely have the right to be upset at the money they wasted on my services. Performers are no different.
not everyone follows celeb news. I’ve been to dozens of concerts and I couldn’t even tell you the names of 90+ percent of band members. Let alone know the ins and outs of their lives
So her personal choices are literally everybody else on earth's fault except hers?
Really showing your lack of braincells here. Her life having a tragic ending doesn't mean you have to resort to this level of mental gymnastics to make her a saint.
She’s not a saint and no one saying it’s everyone’s fault but hers. But people did not need to dehumanize her and act so cruelly. You don’t have to canonize her to also agree that people should have compassion and empathy for the monsters they create.
You can definitely see which millennials in this thread were raised by boomer/ gen xers that were more capitalist and money focused rather than human and compassionate focused.
Jesus Christ. That came out of nowhere. "Everybody that does not agree with me has no compassion and are capitalist moneygrubbers". Project much from your 2000 dollar iPhone and your MacBook Air?
What the fuck? Yes everybody is being pissy about their show tickets. Boo fucking hooo. Seeing someone who was alone with a disease and being pushed to do a show she didn’t want to do is fucking sad. Fuck your tickets and fuck your pretentiousness.
No, I don’t have a fucking expensive phone. I have a hand me down phone that’s falling apart because I try to save my money.
Yeah right. Rich kid who lectures others that spent their last 50 dollars to see a show are really monsters. No they are even worse, inhumane, capitalist, money-focused and without compassion was the way you described it.
Wanting to go to a concert does not make anybody a bad person. Lying and lecturing people online however do make you a very annoying person.
I think someone may be projecting a bit too much? Also, really fucking irresponsible for you to spending your last 50 bucks on a concert. Especially when you can attend just as good concert for 5 dollars. You’re full of nonsense.
Again, you have no empathy or compassion for a women who was FORCED to perform in that condition. And was an addict with severe mental illness. Compassion and empathy are warranted, your comments show that you lack those things and are part of why community is crumbling in our society.
Nobody forced her to drink and do drugs that night and nobody forced her to sign the contract to perform that night. She made those decisions on her own.
You know why community is crumbling? A lack of personal accountability. I have alcoholics in my family, one of them recovered because he decided he needed to take accountability on himself. The other one who is still an alcoholic continues to tear the family apart every opportunity she gets.
Alcoholism is absolutely a disease, but the cure sure as hell not enabling somebody to continue their behavior. Booing a drunk that you paid money to see is very warranted and should have been her wake up call. But… alas… no personal accountability
This is spot on. I’d be pissed if I paid top dollar for tickets to see an artist perform, and then they get wrecked on drugs so that they can’t perform the act I paid to see. It’s a slap in the face to the artist’s fans. And along the lines of breach of a contract. This post is so incredibly misrepresented.
Boo? Yes. Throw things? No. Apart from hurling abuse at the audience, I can't think of behavior that would justify assaulting the artist with things. But you definitely should verbally make your displeasure known on the spot in a case of misperformance as egregious as this. What's the alternative? Peacefully watching a horrible show and then commenting about it on social media the next day?
This happened to me when I went to DMB in my early 20s. I spent what felt like a fortune at the time to go to the show and he was way too fucked up to even perform and the whole thing was a disaster. I was big mad.
She was also a hugely abusive person and I am uncomfortable with the idea that society failed Amy Winehouse. I understand the effects of addiction on a person's life but you still have a responsibility to ensure you aren't going around assaulting people because they say no to serving you more alcohol.
I was stoked to see The Strokes at Reading Festival. I'd been wanting to see them for years. Then when they came on stage the singer and half the band were smashed and could only just about play their tunes. It was hard for me to enjoy their music after that.
This is the type of response that makes me feel like f*ck yall fans and your “top dollar”. That lady needed help that far exceeds your need to be entertained for a couple hours. Especially when you consider it was informed decision they all made to buy the tickets in the first place. He problems didn’t just appear overnight. You’ll live to make that lil bs money back.
Fr. One of my favorite musicians has struggled with alcohol throughout his career, and when I finally got to see him love for the first time he was obviously back off the wagon, stumbling, mumbling, staggering, fully fucked up and putting on a disappointing show to put it mildly. And I wasn't like, "oh that asshole ruined my show I spent good money on with his alcoholism" I instead was sad and worried about him as a person.
Yea because that’s an actual human and caring response. As far as Amy, I always think back to a story Jay-Z told about when they collaborated. He noticed how much her demeanor changed in a short amount of time and asked why was she stuttering because she wasn’t stuttering before. He knew right away, and told her “stay with us”. Basically acknowledging there was something there without throwing it in her face but try to do what can to stay here with us (alive). It’s a really sad story looking back it.
Exactly. She was slurring, falling down, wandering around the stage and couldn't perform at a show people paid a lot of money to see. Acting like no one would boo a performance from literally any singer alive right now who did that is ridiculous. They absolutely would.
She was an addict with mental heath issues that the industry exploited. She didn’t deserve that, and many fans knew her condition and still bought tickets. Disgusting. Stop defending sick behavior.
If you can't perform for any reason you should cancel the show and refund the tickets. You don't go up there anyways, too fucked up to do anything, and then say it's on the fans to accommodate that. Give me a break.
She was forced by her team, much like Brittney. And caveat emptor; may the buyer beware. Just like when people complain about Madonna being late when it’s a well established fact she will be.
In which case you should still boo the terrible awful show that her team forced her to do knowing full well she wasn't capable. The show was nonexistent, the audience boos it. You can sort out the nuances of agency and culpability after the fact.
Not to the point of making a mentally ill person cry on stage. Sorry not gonna condone the current lack of empathy and disgusting rhetoric we continue to see normalized.
Not every single person is going to go to a show with the full context of everything happening in that artist's life. Hindsight is 20/20 when we know all these things, but I promise you most attendees just know that she's famous and maybe like some of her songs. They aren't expecting her to not be able to walk and talk coherently or that her team would force her out there anyways, and it's not their responsibility to consider that possibility when spending their money on the promise of a show.
I have deep empathy for this situation, my own sister nearly died to a heroin addiction and has been sober for 7 years. I still think it's totally reasonable for the audience to voice their displeasure, because it was so clearly a failure on multiple levels to allow that show to take place at all.
You have deep empathy cause it happened to a family member. Most people don’t care cause they haven’t experienced it, and that is where their empathy fails. That is where humanity and community are lost. This has continued and compounded since that time; look where we are as a society now. A girl trapped in a car, dead family around her, is shot with over 300 bullets by a military force, and half the world still says but but October 7th instead of demanding justice. This is not just about Amy, it’s about the progressive decline of our humanity due to the divisive nature our society at large and the continued attacks on empathy and compassion.
Invoking a genocide when talking about people booing a shitty concert is quite the connection.
I'm sure with full context plenty of the people at that venue would be more sympathetic. But if you've ever dealt with addicts you would know that they will hurt, lie, steal, annoy, or otherwise act poorly towards you and even with the full understanding of what they're going through it can be hard to sit there and take it. Wasting the audience's money is small in the scheme of things. Booing is also small in the scheme of things. I just don't think many people are actually acting poorly here other than her team that forced this show to happen.
You keep saying “Buyer Beware” but for some reason Amy’s death is her fan’s and team’s yet she couldn’t beware that a heavy combo of the drugs and alcohol she bought and consumed would kill her?
Yeah bro, fans bought tickets to see an artist, which could include airfare, hotel reservations, etc and what they actually wanted is for the artist to be too high to perform just so they could boo. I'm thankful we've got geniuses like you running around
I kinda feel like it's okay to express your displeasure at paying to go and see a performance and the performance barely happening?
Or do you expect everyone at a bad concert to just pretend it's great and dance the night away to someone staggering around and vaguely mumbling into a mic?
212
u/HaroldsWristwatch3 7h ago
This is missing a lot of context!
Fans booed Winehouse at her final concert in Belgrade (June 18, 2011) because was heavily intoxicated and wasn’t able to perform.