Russell Brand shared a touching, raw tribute to Amy Winehouse
It has been six years since the world lost a musical icon in the form of Amy Winehouse.
The unique, poignant, and infinitely talented woman had her life cut short, and has been missed by the music community, and the public at large, ever since.
Russell Brand has penned a touching tribute to the late star on his website, and his words are both moving and refreshingly real.
'I’ve known Amy Winehouse for years,' he begins his anecdotal tribute.
When I first met her around Camden she was just some twit in a pink satin jacket shuffling round bars with mutual friends, most of whom were in cool indie bands or peripheral Camden figures Withnail-ing their way through life on impotent charisma.'
Wrote this about Amy Winehouse and addiction. Six years ago, unbelievably https://t.co/mVXnQ5z8K0
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) August 9, 2017
He begins his tribute by making reference to his own past of drug taking.
'I was myself at that time barely out of rehab and was thirstily seeking less complicated women so I barely reflected on the now glaringly obvious fact that Winehouse and I shared an affliction, the disease of addiction.'
'All addicts, regardless of the substance or their social status share a consistent and obvious symptom; they’re not quite present when you talk to them.'
'They communicate to you through a barely discernible but unignorable veil,' he wrote.
He spoke of his awe of Amy and her great and undeniable talent.
'The awe that envelops when witnessing a genius. From her oddly dainty presence that voice, a voice that seemed not to come from her but from somewhere beyond even Billie and Ella, from the font of all greatness.'
'A voice that was filled with such power and pain that it was at once entirely human yet laced with the divine.'
'My ears, my mouth, my heart and mind all instantly opened.'
'We have lost a beautiful and talented woman to this disease.'
Brand finished his tribute by addressing the way in which society, health services and the government deals with addiction.
'We need to review the way society treats addicts, not as criminals but as sick people in need of care,' he said, ending his call to action.
