27 Also by Howard Sounes: Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life Bukowski in Pictures Fred & Rose Heist Seventies The Wicked Game 27 A History of the 27 Club through the Lives of Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse HOWARD SOUNES DA CAPO PRESS A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information, address Da Capo Press, 44 Farnsworth Street, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02210. Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the Library of Congress. First Da Capo Press edition 2013 Reprinted by arrangement with Hodder & Stroughton Ltd. ISBN 978-0-306-82169-1 (e-book) Published by Da Capo Press A Member of the Perseus Books Group www.dacapopress.com Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810- 4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail ‘Now he’s gone and joined that stupid club. I told him not to …’ Kurt Cobain’s mother CONTENTS Part One: LIFE Prologue: Exit, Gate 27 One: The Young Dionysians Two: Daddy’s Girl Three: The Mad Ones Four: Success Five: Kurt and Courtney, Amy and Blake Six: Excess Seven: Distress Part Two: DEATH Eight: In Which Brian is Entirely Surrounded by Water Nine: Nodding Out Ten: The Crack-up Eleven: The Secret House of Death Twelve: One Little Drink, Then Another Thirteen: The Glass is Run Epilogue: The Dance of Death Appendix: 27 Long-list Acknowledgements Source Notes Bibliography Index Picture Acknowledgements Part One Life Midway this way of life we’re bound upon, I woke to find myself in a dark wood, Where the right road was wholly lost and gone. Dante Prologue EXIT, GATE 27 You departed from that busy gate, the so-called stupid one. Eric Erlandson, Letters to Kurt 1 It was just after six p.m. on a summer’s evening when Amy Winehouse’s doctor visited the star at home in London. It was a routine house call, routine in as much as Amy’s life had become so troubled in recent years, so precarious, that her doctor visited her at home almost as often as the postman delivered the mail. Dr Cristina Romete saw at once that Amy had been drinking. She was tipsy and she smelt of booze. The doctor asked when Amy had started again, after two weeks of sobriety. Amy replied, shame-faced, that she didn’t know. But her live- in bodyguard, Andrew Morris, said that she had begun on Wednesday. It was now Friday, 22 July 2011. Doctor and patient proceeded to have a frank conversation, talking together in Amy’s light and airy home in Camden Square. Dr Romete asked Amy why she had started drinking again. Amy’s explanation was that she was ‘bored’. The doctor asked Amy whether she planned to stop drinking. Amy said she didn’t know. Dr Romete reminded Amy of how serious this was. Only two months ago she had warned Amy in writing, the letter copied to her father and her manager, that her habit of binge-drinking was putting her in ‘immediate danger of death’. Amy assured her that she did not want to die. There were things she still wanted to do with her life. She didn’t give the impression of being suicidal, though her behaviour was evidently reckless and self-destructive. The doctor tried to persuade Amy to consider therapy, to deal with her