To public perception, Amy Winehouse was an incredible talent with a tough personality. She didn’t hesitate to speak her mind, and she didn’t mince words. But to those who knew her, that tough outer shell was often a response to insecurity, doubt, and fear. Still, Winehouse didn’t let anyone see that, and her more inner struggles became public knowledge only after her death.
That prickly exterior as a coping mechanism paired with her blunt honesty sometimes got her into trouble, however. In a July 2015 feature in Mojo magazine, many people close to Amy Winehouse remembered her quick wit, intelligence, astounding musical talent, and, yes, her often smart-ass remarks about things she didn’t like.
One example dated back to the very beginning of Winehouse’s career. In 2003, she played “I Heard Love Is Blind” for a room of Island Records execs, nothing but her voice and guitar. She was 19 years old and had just been signed two months earlier, and her raw, natural talent blew everyone away.
“It was a genuine jaw-dropping moment,” Winehouse’s then-manager, Nick Shymansky, told Mojo in 2015. “You could see people at the label thinking, ‘What the f**k is this?’ We’d had quite a lot of rejections and finally we’d signed the deal. It was a really happy time for us.”
Amy Winehouse’s Blunt Honesty Made Her Relatable for Fans, But a Nightmare for Her Manager
Amy Winehouse easily charmed a room full of label executives, but they didn’t manage to charm her in return. Island Records released her debut album, Frank, in 2003. The sultry, jazzy album had a laid-back sophistication, but it lacked the pop sensationalism that would develop on Back to Black. When the album didn’t perform as well as Winehouse hoped, she didn’t hide her disappointment.
In 2004, Winehouse lashed out at the Island Records execs in an interview, calling them idiots for how they handled the album. However, as much as she was disappointed, she wasn’t cruel. Winehouse’s honesty may have gotten her into trouble on occasion, but she was only calling it how she saw it.
“But they’re nice idiots,” she added. “So you can’t be like, ‘You’re an idiot.’ They know that they’re idiots.”
Her manager, Nick Shymansky, saw this as the swift end to their first big break.
“It killed the buzz,” Shymansky said with a laugh. Though it was noted that he still had a touch of despair in his voice. “People were saying they’d never work with her again, who the f**k did she think she was? You couldn’t have hoped for a better vibe from a label for your artist and she just shot it out of the sky.”
Shymansky also recalled his first attempts to contact Amy Winehouse, then 16 years old, as a teenage talent scout. When he finally managed to get in touch with her, he remembered “She wasn’t very nice on the phone. She was kind of like, ‘Who the f**k are you? Why would I wanna meet up with you?’”
But Shymansky recalled this interaction warmly, admitting, “I think her initial reaction was fear.” Winehouse eventually sent Shymansky her demo tape in an envelope decorated with “probably five hundred childish stickers of hearts”. He listened to it while driving, and recalled having to stop the car.
“I had to pull over,” he said. “I remember just thinking, ‘Holy s**t,’ I knew I’d found something really special.”
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The post The Passing Insult Against Her Record Label That Set Amy Winehouse’s Career Down a Rocky Path: ‘It Killed the Buzz’ appeared first on VICE.
