Natalie Cole…The RECOVERY STORY
Natalie Maria Cole born February 6, 1950. She was the daughter of the unforgettable American singer, songwriter and performer the late Nat King Cole. On December 31, 2015 death called her home to glory.
Natalie Cole made her recording debut in 1975 with “Inseparable.” The music industry welcomed her with two Grammy awards in 1976 — one for best new artist and one for best female R&B vocal performance for her buoyant hit “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love).” Yet, her greatest success came with her 1991 album, “Unforgettable … With Love,” which paid tribute to her father with reworked versions of some of his best-known songs, including “That Sunday That Summer,” ”Too Young” and “Mona Lisa.”
It has been said that Natalie Cole was the voice of yesterdays great singers.
In 2000, Cole released an autobiography, Angel on My Shoulder, which described her battle with drugs during much of her life, including heroin and crack cocaine. Cole said she began recreational drug use while attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“When you are on drugs, you’re not thinking of anything else, what may happen tomorrow or later. Cole accredit that young people today can access more powerful drugs now than when she was using citing “ecstasy” as an example. In 2008 she had been diagnosed with hepatitis C, a liver disease spread through contact with infected blood, she blamed her past intravenous drug use.
At the 2009 Grammy Awards, Cole criticized the Recording Academy for giving five Grammys to drug user Amy Winehouse in 2008. Cole explained “I’m an ex-drug addict and I don’t take that kind of stuff lightly,” Hepatitis C stayed in my body for 25 years and it could still happen to this young woman or other addicts who are fooling around with drugs, especially needles.
It was her battled drug problems and hepatitis that forced her to undergo a kidney transplant in May 2009. Natalie Cole was given a second chance for life, however the day she received the transplant her older sister, Carol “Cookie” Cole, died. Their brother, Nat Kelly Cole, died in 1995.
Advocate and Educator for those with Hepatitis C
On October 19, 2011, the Award winning singer Natalie Cole discusses her battle against Hepatitis C at the National Press Club Speakers luncheon https://www.press.org/news-multimedia/galleries/npc-luncheon-natalie-cole
As the author of the book Memoirs Of An Addict: Fact or Fiction, it is time to educate and advocate for change to the younger generation. If we as a society focus on the underlining issues of addiction, and mental health disorders then maybe we will have a chance to give HOPE that recovery is possible if you learn what the affects and effects of addiction has on the body, mind and spirit. Everyone has a story.