A Letter To Amy Winehouse

I believe it was last year that VH1 was showing this special called “The 27s: The Greatest Myths of Rock & Roll.” It came on after “The Soup,” and I was feeling incredibly lazy, so I decided to watch it. Luckily I did, because the incite I got was ridiculous…

The 27 Club aka Forever 27 aka Club 27, is a group of 34 Rock & Rollers at their peak who all died at the young age of 27 years old. And in this club, you have the greats that some, most, or a small amount of us grew up listening to: Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin…

The special, to say the least, creeped me out just a little bit. Not too much, but to the point where I was spooked and intrigued to find out more about the “club.” They went into deep analysis, from dates to color palettes to social behaviors and mental backgrounds… Of course, many of these artists had involvements in drugs and alcohol, but most, if not all, had issues.

Serious serious issues. Issues that should have been dealt with but that couldn’t be, and issues that they used as their art. As either a plea for help, or their way of saying, “This will be all that’s left of me. This is all I need to get across. After this… I think I’m done.”

Matter of fact, it was Neil Young that said: “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.”

At the end of the special, they spoke about those who they felt would be well on their way to this club, due to the rate in which they were going. You, Amy Winehouse, were the first on their list. Sure, it all added up, but in the same year, many sources said you were getting better. That you were doing pretty good, laying low, keeping your life out of the newspapers. Slowly but surely, you would get back on track, if you were on track to begin with…

Well, Amy…

I checked the 27 Club Wiki page. Guess what? You’ve already been added to the list. Hook, line and sinker…

Dammit, all of the cues were in your lyrics. All of it. The tone of your voice, the messages of your songs, the names of your albums… But, regardless. Help was never on the way, was it? You were spiraling way too deep into the depths of your mind that to be pulled out of that chaos would be an act of death. Could that have been the reason?

After you checked out of rehab just as quick as you had checked IN, you went on tour in Europe, and got severely booed off stage, due to forgetting your lyrics as you performed your most famous songs, and for coming on stage intoxicated and completely disheveled. The tour was cancelled due to the incident, and everyone felt it can come back on once you got some more help, which you didn’t get. Could this have been the reason?

What was it? Was it because your life was spiraling out of your control COMPLETELY, or was it because you were finally fading out because of your life, and out of fear that you would be forgotten instead of remembered, that you would rather have burned?

It’s all over now, Amy. Sleep well. I hope you finally find that peace you were looking for that you couldn’t find here.