The Story Behind Gregory Issacs’ Struggle With Addiction, And His Night Nurse’s Devotion
Gregory Isaacs, the son of Enid Murray and Lester Isaacs, remains an enigmatic figure, over a decade after his death. Known for donning his trademark fedora atop his head, the Cool Ruler wore other hats the public knew little of — recovering drug addict and tormented insomniac superstar.
“I don’t know if he ever came close to OD’ing…but I have had some frightening experiences. With the drug came mood swings…came insecurities….came withdrawals…and paranoia. At times I would be really really sorry for him,” June Isaacs, the late Reggae superstar’s wife, told DancehallMag.
As defiant as he was debonair, Isaacs openly admitted to drug addiction to the press in the 1980s, at a time when such a revelation could be detrimental to one’s career.
In a 1988 interview with Gleaner journalist Christopher Serju, Gregory lamented the long slide into addiction that destroyed friendships, compromised his Rastafarian ideals, complicated his love life, damaged his family bonds, and eventually even almost destroyed his musical gift.
“It’s the greatest college I’ve been to – the Cocaine High School – but also the most expensive school fees that I have ever paid … . I learnt a lot from it, both good and bad. I wouldn’t encourage anybody to try it,” Isaacs said.
“I used to fight against it (cocaine) too, but them times I couldn’t afford it. I used to say them people a fool fi touch them things,” he continued during the interview.
Once the hits started flowing, Isaacs, born in the grimy neighborhood of Fletchers Land, downtown Kingston, found himself in the fast lane, hobnobbing with rich and famous characters. Soon, drug use consumed his every waking moment. He told journalist Serju that his first foray into drug abuse was “very nice but dangerous.”
June recalled how the Cool Ruler battled his demons — without success — as she witnessed the carnage of a crack cocaine addiction firsthand. At times, the White Lady was his wife, and she felt like a spurned mistress.
“He had a lot of new friends…a new lifestyle and I noticed that a lot of money was disappearing. I was managing the African Museum, his record store (established with his friend Errol Dunkley) and some mornings I would notice that large sums of money was being taken and it was by him,” Mrs. Isaacs recalled.
The cocaine addiction made for a hellish lifestyle replete with manic episodes, crippling insomnia, and drug-fuelled confrontations.
“When confronted he would get mad. The mood swings were many and on many occasions I had to just leave. But with 10 kids at home I still had to run back to them and he wouldn’t sleep at all,” she said.
June tried to put her foot down and force him out of a life of addiction with a combination of ‘tough love’ and gentle coaxing.
“Once when he went on tour, I split the house in two and tell him to stay on one side…he wasn’t having it…no one slept that night. I was serious…couldn’t bear no more…I stood my grounds,” she recalled.
Night Nurse
Mrs. Isaacs shared that as time passed, the situation would improve because of the love they shared, and she would go on tours with her husband overseas. However, as the addiction held sway, June was his ‘Night Nurse’.
Many music lovers believe that the song Night Nurse was about drugs, but Isaacs, himself, admitted that it instead pays homage to the constancy of a man’s woman, who responds — like Mary Seacole in the Crimean War — as his angel, popping up in the time of his greatest need, his darkest hour and in the cold reaches of the night to become his ‘night nurse.’
“When you feel sick, you belly a hurt or you have a headache inna the night, the first person you draw (call) for is you woman,” Isaacs famously explained.
“Whether she make a cup a tea or whatever she haffi do, she a really the first nurse deal with you. If you have a bredda (brother) who is a doctor and him even have a helicopter and you take sick inna the night, by the time you fi call and him come, you dead.”
Mrs. Isaacs suffered tremendously for her ‘Florence Nightingale’ act as the singer’s crack cocaine addiction was no ordinary opponent.
“I went to jail on numerous occasions just owning the stuff so he could travel..he was the breadwinner after all…I don’t think he loved the drugs more than me. The drug was overpowering to the extent he just had no control,” she said.
She said that the Cool Ruler loved the Sly and Robbie and Simply Red cover version of his famous hit song, which reached No. 13 on the UK Singles chart in 1997.
“Gregory loved Simply Red’s version of Night Nurse. He felt honored when he heard it,” she said.
Night Nurse, the title track from Issacs’ 1982 album of the same name, was recently certified Silver in the UK, after it sold over 200,000 units in the country. The 8-track Night Nurse album itself was certified Silver in September 2021 after it surpassed 60,000 units in the UK.
“I am elated. Anything to do with the enhancement of the legacy of Gregory Anthony Isaacs OD is something I am in favour of,” she said of the milestones.
The love that Gregory and June Isaacs shared remained until the end, even though romantically, they had parted ways.
“We didn’t talk for a while but the love we had for each other was always there. He made sure I was alright at all times…wasn’t in need. I would go to my regular gas station and they would say ‘Gregory seh fe full up u tank ‘ and I could go on with more stories..no one could say anything about me ..or he would be mad. My love for him is everlasting . We were friends to the end. It was meant to be. In the end, I was sorry for him,” she said.
By 2007, he had reportedly lost his teeth due to crack cocaine addiction. In later years, the Cool Ruler’s voice — known for its quavering, wounded timbre — lost much of its sweetness because of the addiction. With treatment, Isaacs appeared to fight his way back triumphantly, and with orthodontically repaired teeth, showed the world that the ruler had returned, with the appropriately titled Brand New Me, a marvelous abuse-free set released in 2008.
Still, there was a cruel twist in the tale to Gregory Isaacs’ story and he was later diagnosed with lung cancer, which spread and ultimately took his life. He died at his home in London on October 25, 2010, at the age of 59.
Isaacs suffered from crippling insomnia that robbed him of much-needed rest. The lung cancer spread and the insomnia got worse, but being the stoic man that he was, Isaacs never informed his closest companion, his Night Nurse, that the cancer’s tentacles had spread all over his body.
“He had cancer but he didn’t tell me. He was suffering ..in a lot of pain,” Mrs. Isaacs told DancehallMag.
“He would call every night for long talks until I hear him snoring. He visited me before he left for London where he transitioned telling me that he was going to London to do surgery and he would be ok. He never mentioned cancer… but based on his conversation he knew he was not coming back.”
That was the last time June would ever see her beloved Gregory.
“A week later he called to say he wasn’t going to do surgery again and he was ok. But that was when the Doctor told him it wasn’t necessary as the cancer had spread . That was the last time I spoke to him,” she said.
Gregory’s Other “Wife” Linda
During his lifetime, Gregory Isaacs sparked rumors that he had ‘two wives’, as he was quite the lothario, the clinically cool Casanova who wooed women on several continents. June was aware of the rumors.
“Linda was a British white woman who did his bookings in Europe
They had a relationship. There was no BIGAMY. There was no wedding..No marriage. He was NEVER married twice. Rumors dem spreading,” June joked.
As a woman, such rumors are hard to digest, but June knew better.
“It wasn’t even frightening when I heard because I know Gregory is smarter than that…we weren’t divorced,” she said.
Since Gregory’s death, June Isaacs has quietly taken up the mantle of preserving and securing the artist’s tremendous musical legacy.
“I will continue to promote his legacy, continue to support the charities he supported and add some more if possible and continue the show and events in his name.”