On July 23, 2011, exactly 10 years ago, the music world lost one of its greatest voices and songwriters. Singer Amy Winehouse was found dead in her apartment at the age of 27, due to intoxication caused by a high level of alcohol in her bloodstream.
Much has been said about Winehouse's struggle with alcoholism and drug abuse, but her meteoric rise to fame and the media frenzy played essential roles in the decline of the singer's mental health. In 2016, vocalist James Hetfield revealed in an interview Metallica song " Moth Into Flame " was inspired by a documentary he watched about the life of the jazz and R&B singer.
“Watching the film was extremely depressing – [seeing] how she went from a cheerful, vibrant person to someone who was just trying to escape the reality she was in,” Hetfield stated. “I was very shaken by the part of the film where she seemed to have lost herself in her own mind and she was just leaving her apartment in England and the press was camped outside, taking pictures of her [and saying], 'Hey, Amy, how are you?'. Talking to her as if they knew her.”
“They just don’t notice – nobody said, ‘You look too thin, you don’t look healthy.’ There’s a total disconnect from reality there,” he added. “The fame aspect and how it can really suck for some people. It certainly was in our [Metallica’s] career. When you grow up with that, how do you deal with fame? How does it affect you? At what point do you realize that maybe it’s not as healthy as you think it is for yourself?”
"Moth Into Flame" is a track from the 2016 album Hardwired… To Self-Destruct . The following year, another pop icon, Lady Gaga GRAMMYs stage with Metallica for an explosive performance of the song.
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