Nadine Sutherland Says Drug-Addiction Rumors Drove Her To Depression, Almost Destroyed Career

Action singer Nadine Sutherland has opened up about how drug-addiction rumors, sparked decades ago, when she was at the pinnacle of Dancehall music, plunged her into bouts of depression and almost destroyed her music career.

“It basically almost ruined me.  I thought it would have passed, but it took on a life of its own… that some people wanted to believe it.  Internationally it lost credibility.  I lost faith in myself.  I wasn’t suicidal, but I had suicidal thoughts because I couldn’t believe it could have taken on what it took on,” the 55-year-old said during an interview with veteran entertainment journalist Anthony Miller, on Friday’s edition of The Entertainment Report.

“Everybody know my story.  I am a county girl; strict father.  I know nothing of that life.  I was very, very naïve.  But I think there were a lot of things that contributed to it, and one was, a little bit of envy.  People wanted to see me ruined; wanted to see me in Half-Way Tree walking around naked, and probably they thought that would have happened,” Sutherland explained.

The Above Rocks, Saint Catherine native, when asked to give an example of why the rumors spread like a wildfire and took root, said it was hard to fathom.

“I don’t think right now it is there, but at that stage, when I say it never went away, people around me were like ‘it’s part of being in the music industry… It was fired up all across the world; like people heard it and it was almost as if they wanted to believe it,” she mused. 

“It was like the suss (gossip) was so sweet, because drugs was so much in the popular culture in Jamaica, so they find a likkle Jamaican person weh dem could affix it to.  Dem use to call mi di Jamaican Whitney Houston, and dem seh ‘all right a di same story’”, she surmised.

When asked by Miller, whether or not she had felt the need to “go public and deny those rumours”, the Baby Face singer said that her efforts to do so were futile.  However, she quickly pointed out that she had many allies who rose to her defence to repudiate the assertions.

“Did it several times bit to no avail.  But, there were people who were supportive.  There were people who defended; there were people who loved me through it.   There were people standing with me; there were people who were sympathetic and empathetic, and I want that also to go out there,” she said.

“There were people that were praying for me.  But it was so big, but those who were around me and could see what was happening to me, that I was basically taking it inside and I was loosing my footing.  And then it got so bad, my parents don’t even know – I don’t even want them to know that I started thinking that probably I should just go,” she added.

In coping with her tribulations, the I’m in Love singer said that she drew closer to God, and became more spiritual.

“After a while I just started trusting God more.  And it opened up a lot of stuff in me where I just started seeking God more than anything else and I think that’s how I survived it… I am just happy that I am standing here triumphant over that…,” she said.

Sutherland also admitted that sometimes the memories of the desolation the rumors caused come back, but for only fleeting moments, as she does not dwell on them.’

“I do sometimes (reflect) but I don’t allow it to be in my spirit.  When sometimes I am having a pity party which we all do, I think about it… but I don’t stay there.  I have health; I have strength; 45 years (in music).  People still want to see me on shows.  I am performing all over the place.  Right now is like, attached to my name is legendary,” she added, noting that she is due to be a guest of Estelle at an upcoming gig, and will appear on Welcome to Jamrock Cruise later this year.

In the meantime, Nadine is celebrating the release of her new single titled Triumphant, a track co-written and co-produced by herself and Diwali producer Steven “Lenky” Marsden and Sly Dunbar and which she says is a motivational song, produced to “make people move”.

In August last year, the singer, in lauding Rita Marley for the role she played in the development of her music career as a young girl, when she was “informally signed”, to Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong label, paid tribute to her on a single titled Queen.

Sutherland, who was aligned with Tuff Gong after the Tastee Talent Competition at age 11, had said the One Draw singer had taken her under her wing and even ensured that she benefitted from the same voice training as her own children, sending her to vocal development lessons with Ziggy and his siblings Cedella, Stephen and Sharon.

“She never, ever excluded me while I was growing up. And she looked out for me. Because she had young girls, too. So she understood being a mother, and being a young lady in the music industry. So I cannot forget her kindness towards me,” Sutherland added.   

Sutherland’s latest single is Triumphant, co-written and co-produced by herself and Steven “Lenky” Marsden and Lowell “Sly” Dunbar.