Natalie Cole…The RECOVERY STORY

 “I think  that I am a walking testimony you can have scars,” “You can go through turbulent times and still have victory in your life.” -Natalie Cole

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.

Drug Abuse and Recovery

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.