On Amy Winehouse

In all honesty, I never really listened to the music of Amy Winehouse. Back in the day when two addicts played out their problems across the front pages of the nation’s newspapers, I tended to be more in the Pete Doherty camp. This doesn’t mean, of course, that I can’t see the tragedy in her death. Another talented musician dies at 27. Another talented musician to join what Kurt Cobain’s mother once referred to as the “stupid club”.

Now, the response to Winehouse’s death has shown that many would concur that there was something deeply stupid about Winehouse – just as there is about any addict. And while I would agree that there is something terribly and tragically predictable about Winehouse dying young, I do think that a lot of people miss the crucial point about addiction. Yeah, people can choose to get over that addiction. However, such a view runs the risk of making that choice – and its implications – sound very easy. In fact, overcoming an addiction to drink or drugs (and Winehouse apparently had addictions to both) is a massive and incredibly difficult thing to do. Making the choice to fight an addiction is only the start of the process – and that process is something that lasts for the rest of that addict’s life. Furthermore, for anyone who has ever (over-)indulged in drink or drugs, there’s probably the faint feeling of “there but for the grace of God…”

Of course, this won’t stop the small-minded tutting to themselves and muttering that they saw this coming and that Winehouse, as a drunken junkie, got what she deserved. That such thoughts are grossly inappropriate in the wake of an untimely death won’t matter to them. But for those of us who don’t sit in gilded towers of social conservatism, looking down in disdain at the people below, we can see Amy Winehouse’s death for what it is – a tragedy for her fans and, in particular, for her family. And we can also see how messy both life and death can be, at the same time as noting just how easy it is for some to lose control of their lives.