Who doesn’t make mistakes in their life cycle? It doesn’t matter if you are a celebrity or a random civilian.
Grab your seat to know the shocking events of Tony Bennett’s addiction. He shared his addiction history in a bunch of interviews, talk shows, promotions, and so on.
But how did it start? What were the circumstances for this?
Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born in 1926 and participated in the second world war. After returning from the field of battle, he started his singing career.
At that time he swiped to the name you know as “Tony Bennett”. Within a few years, he gave his first hit “Because of You” in 1951.
He didn’t stop there and kept adding hits including “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” in 1962, this song along with the album achieved gold record status as well Grammy Awards.
Additionally, Bennett released “The Good Life”, “I Wanna Be Around” in 1963, “If I Ruled The World” in 1965, and so on till the 70s.
Along with this, he received 20 Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award, and 2 Primetime Emmy Awards in his whole career.
Also, he had 4 children as his real-life achievements named Danny, Dae, Joanna, and Antonia.
Everything went perfectly till 1965 when the legend separated from pianist Ralph Sharon. Tony Bennett along with Lena Horne and Barbra Streisand started facing difficulties to perform contemporary.
He tried again and again but ended up recording a not-satisfying piece of music.
After some years of ups and downs, he tried something new that was launching his own record company named “improv”. He and pianist Bill Evans gave 2 hit albums from the company but by 1977 the company met an end because of lack of management.
After having such losses, breakdowns, flops, lack of contracts, and managers, he had only Las Vegas performances in 1979.
At the same time he faced financial lackings too as he had around $1.2 million and for this amount he couldn’t afford the taxes. He mentioned these heartbreaking moments in “The Good Life.”
There he pointed out his “darkest period” of life when he turned into an addict after the losses and ended up taking drugs, cocaine, marijuana, and pills. “I used to take pills,” he said in “All The Things You Are.”
Of his addiction, he was about to lose his marriage too. He mentioned “I felt as if I was going crazy. I turned more and more recklessly to drugs for relief.” The situation was at its worst when he was about to lose his life in his 50s.
But appreciation goes to his wife Sandra Grant for saving him at that point. One day, he overdosed on cocaine and went to take a bath.
But when he opened his eyes, he found himself in an overflowing tub and Grant on the spot. “She pounded on my chest and brought me back to life,” Bennett wrote in “The Good Life.”
After the horrible event, he decided to quit his addiction and tried to recover hard. And when his elder son Danny stood up by his side, things began to change. Danny paid his fathers’ dues as well and made a way for him toward New York.
He got back into the industry in 1986 with his “The Art of Excellence.” He continued with a bunch of his award-winning albums including “Perfectly Frank”, “Steppin’ Out”, “MTV Unplugged”, “Here’s To The Ladies”, “Playin’ with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues”, and so on.
It was not limited here, he also received several awards where Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award, the Lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, the Kennedy Center Honoree, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Humanitarian Award, National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award were added.
Even in his last days, he sat for the last time on his piano and sang his seven decades of fame song “Because of You”.
The singer who died on the 21st of July at the age of 96 after fighting for 7 years with Alzheimer’s disease will be always in our minds and his songs are on the playlist.
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