WEBVTT - laDGL04_Adele_CLFMix01b_052826 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:16.360 Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The Story about 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:21.880 Adele is a story about fear, fear of performing on stage, 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:26.159 fear of losing your voice, fear of dying young like 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:30.880 two of your idols. It's also a story about con 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:35.800 artists and concealed weapons, about Michael Corleone and Tony Montana 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:39.360 and Dog Day Afternoons, and about how the criminal world 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:43.360 has repeatedly tried to cash in on the universal appeal 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:49.240 of Adele. And this is because Adele makes great music, 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:52.000 Unlike that clip I played for you at the top 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.160 of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a 0:00:55.200 --> 0:01:00.480 preset loop from my melotron called the Guns of Tottenham MK. One. 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:03.760 I played you that loop because I can't afford the 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:07.800 rights to grenade by Bruno Mars. And why would I 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:11.920 play you that specific slice of unrequited love cheese? 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:12.920 Could I afford it? 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:17.000 Because that was the number one song in America on 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.920 January twenty fourth, twenty eleven, And that was the day 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:25.360 that Adele released her sophomore album twenty one, a record 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.920 so impactful that it made her a new musical favorite 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:33.000 of millions around the world, not least of all the 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:39.280 felons and con artists who appropriated her fame on this 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:46.600 episode Felons, con artists, Corleone's Dead, Idols, Fear and Adele. 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:48.680 I'm Jake Brennan. 0:01:49.280 --> 0:02:26.520 In this this Disgrace, I have Sydney Lumette's classic nineteen 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.960 seventy five film Dog Day Afternoon opens on a hot 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:34.400 summer day in New York City. Construction workers talk shit 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.000 while the sweat soaks through the backs of their t shirts. 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:43.399 Neighborhood kids splash in a public pool. Fruit vendors, derelicts, 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:48.120 and day traders all crowd the sidewalks, while stray dogs 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:50.000 root through the garbage. 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:50.600 In the street. 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:54.880 But then a car pulls up against the curb outside 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:59.160 the first Brooklyn Savings Bank, and inside the car are 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:04.680 three men. The driver gets out, he paces nervously on 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:09.280 the pavement nearby. The bank's one security guard takes down 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.000 the American flag hanging outside the bank's door. 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:13.880 It's closing time. 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.440 The driver doubles back to the car. He leans into 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:20.680 the passenger window, speaking to the man sitting there. And 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:24.760 the man is Sonny played by al Pacino. And though 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.920 we can't hear what the two are talking about, we 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:33.639 can see the very clear emotion which takes over Paccino's eyes, fear. 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:39.720 Pacino's character is dreading what he's about to do, but 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.120 there's no turning back now. There are things he needs 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:45.640 in this life, and he has no other way of 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.760 getting them, or so he thinks. He's desperate, and he 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:53.320 has to move fast before that security guard locks the 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:57.680 front door behind him. So he exits the car along 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:01.320 with his accomplice sal played by John Because, and they 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.600 walk inside the bank and Pacino carries a long white 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.840 box with a bow, and no one knows that inside 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:12.600 that box is a rifle. He anxiously looks around and 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:18.359 these employees, these tellers, the security guard, the manager, they're 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:22.120 all innocent. Pacino's character means them no. 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.720 Harm, and that's when the fear takes over. 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:31.080 Watching this scene play out on our television in the 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.839 comfort of her own home, Adele Lorie blue Atkins, otherwise 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.320 known simply as Adele, felt her pulse quicken. 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:40.040 It didn't matter that. 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.640 She'd seen this film, one of her favorites, more times 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.400 than she could remember. Her response was always the same, 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:51.039 because Dog Day Afternoon or al Pacino's performance in particular, 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.640 tapped into a universal fear that on some level is 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.719 always present within all of us, no matter the scenario. 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:01.680 It's the most primal of human and emotions. In fact, 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.000 do not be afraid is the most common phrase found 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.039 in the Bible, in one form or another. And though 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.200 we've been told not to be afraid for centuries, we 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:17.960 still are you Me Pacino and Dog Day Afternoon and Adele. 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.760 In twenty eleven, Adele became a once in a generation 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.920 phenomenon with the release of her sophomore album twenty one. 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.279 It entered the Billboard Album Chart at number one, where 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.719 it stayed for twenty four weeks, breaking the record set 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:36.600 by Princess Purple Rain some twenty seven years prior. Now. 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.719 While the album was at number one, three of its singles, 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:42.560 Rolling in the Deep, Set, Fire to the Rain, and 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:47.200 Someone Like You simultaneously topped the hot one hundred, the 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.080 first time that had happened since the Saturday Night Fever 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:54.520 soundtrack way back in nineteen seventy seven. The album twenty 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:58.160 one has since become the longest charting album by any 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:02.040 female artist, break the record held by Carol King's nineteen 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:07.120 seventy one album Tapestry. To date, Adele's twenty one has 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:12.120 shipped seventeen million copies, by far the most of any 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:15.679 album released this century, and at the time of twenty 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:20.320 one's initial release, you could not escape Adele. Her songs 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.160 were the most requested songs at karaoke bars, they were 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:26.720 the most played at funerals if you got scared to 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.360 get onto a plane. One survey showed that Adele's songs 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:33.880 were voted the best to calm your nerves and if 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:37.600 you couldn't sleep. Another survey showed that those same songs 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:42.680 could cure insomnia. In Leeds, England, a seven year old 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:47.279 girl miraculously woke from a week long coma when Rolling 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:51.000 in the Deep came on the radio. Adele's voice is 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:55.480 there in life and in death, deep down in her subconscious, 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:58.560 which makes sense because Beyonce once told. 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:00.960 Her, when I listened to you, I feel like I'm 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:02.080 listening to God. 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:07.400 Adele has one hell of a voice, like three dusty 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:12.000 Springfields all at once, a voice which Amanda Petrosich, writing 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:16.239 in The New Yorker, once called perfectly imperfect and able 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:21.200 to betray its host frailty and by extension, her humanity. 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.960 But Adele's universal appeal is more than the sound of 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.840 her voice, she is also incredibly relatable, and I'm not 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.560 just talking about In her songs of heartbreak, defiance and empowerment, 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.600 Adele has downright rejected the trappings of celebrity. 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:38.800 As she put it in her own words. 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:40.880 I don't want to be some skinny mini with my 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.400 tits out. And she said this with a speaking voice 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:48.080 that is the exact opposite of her perfectly imperfect singing voice. 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:53.280 Her thick Cockney accent comically emphasizes some of her favorite words, 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:57.400 like fucking kunt, many of which she repeated over and 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:01.200 over again in between songs while performing in a Glastonbury 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:06.480 after being sternly warned by festival organizers to not do so. 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:10.440 But this is who she is. Adele speaks like a. 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:14.760 Character in a Guy Ritchie film, and Ritchie's characters, like 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:19.880 Adele's beloved Alpacino in Dog Day Afternoon, are singular characters 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:23.720 in their own right, and they all share one common bond. 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:24.320 With the rest of us. 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:32.040 Fear two thousand and seven, London, nineteen year old Adele 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.480 clenched her fist into a ball and drew her arm 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:36.960 back and clocked her boyfriend in the face with a 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:41.400 stiff right hook, everyone knocking back pints inside the pub. 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.960 They were stunned, not least of which was the boyfriend, 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.680 who is now reeling in pain and confusion. Adele, on 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:52.280 the other hand, was not confused, nor was she concerned 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:54.800 with keeping up appearances among a room full of buzz 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.520 twenty somethings. She was seething over a relationship which I 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.280 quickly deteriorated in to a living hell. She was catching 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:06.079 unwanted attention from the pub's bouncers, and now she was 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:10.800 running her feet slammed rhythmically on the sidewalk of Tottenham 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.920 Court Road. She was sure the bouncers were hot on 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:16.800 her trail. Any minute, they'd catch up to her and 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:20.080 hold her till the cops came. She assaulted a man 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:22.760 in front of a crowd, not that the guy wasn't 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:25.359 an asshole and didn't have it coming, because. 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:26.400 He was, and he did. 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:30.040 But there was no reality in which Adele didn't punch him. 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.600 She'd grown up tough, raised by a single mother, first 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:37.720 in Tautenham, a London neighborhood with a high rate of poverty, 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.480 gang violence and crime, and then in Brixton, the place 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.240 the clash once told you about and when they kick 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.760 at your front door, how you gonna come? Adele was 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.240 going to come with a fist to the face, and 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:54.760 somewhren't so lucky like Avril Johnson, sister of reggae star 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.520 Tippa Irie, who was murdered inside her Brixton home in 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:01.560 front of her children same year that Adele and her 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:05.520 mother moved to town. The gangs of Adele's childhood would 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.079 give her the idea for the song title rolling in 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.559 the Deep. To roll deep, to roll with the crew, 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.280 with people who have your back and your time of 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:19.760 need was a necessity of London's criminal underworld. Tonight, however, 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:24.120 Adele had no crew, just yourself, haul and ass down 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:27.280 on London Street in the dark, and she soon realized 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:29.840 that no one was chasing her after all, the no 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.079 bouncers from the pub, no soon to be ex boyfriend. 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.880 She was the one doing the chasing, although she was 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:42.240 chasing nothing, just the ground beneath her feet. The events 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:46.280 of that night became the inspiration for Chasing Pavements, Adele's 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:50.200 second single from her debut album nineteen, name for the 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.880 age she was when she made it. The song was 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:58.360 an unexpected success, leading to numerous Grammy nominations and her 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:03.200 performance on Saturday Night Line. Only years earlier, Adele had 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.640 been a student at London's Britz School, the same performing 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.199 arts high school attended by one of her many inspirations, 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:14.520 Amy Winehouse. From there it was a blur. Her songs 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:18.000 went up on MySpace, multiple record labels emailed. A record 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.920 deal with Excel Records soon followed, and suddenly Adele was 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:24.559 doing what she dreamed about doing since she was a kid. 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.760 But it didn't come easy from the jump. Adele was afraid. 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:33.920 For one, she had terrible stage frame. Projectile vomiting prior 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.760 to a show was not uncommon in Amsterdam. She once 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.000 tried to escape out of a fire exit just so 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:43.000 she could avoid facing the crowd she was to perform 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:46.680 in front of. And as she became more famous, however. 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:48.880 The fear evolved. 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.800 In twenty eleven, the year of twenty one, the year 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:55.040 she released what would become the biggest album of the 0:11:55.040 --> 0:12:00.000 twenty first century, she was afraid of something much more profound, 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.920 worried that the more famous she got, the more out 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:07.800 of touch she would become, and thus her life experiences 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:11.400 would no longer be the life experiences of her audience. 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.880 She feared she would no longer be relatable, and that 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:20.280 wasn't all. Two things happened that year in quick succession. 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:23.640 The first led to the fear that she would never 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.720 be able to sing again, but the second that had 0:12:27.720 --> 0:13:01.280 her fearing for her own life. Albat made it look easy, 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.199 sitting there in his brown college boy jacket, getting comfortable 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:09.480 in the black leather chair, beginning to understand the true 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:13.600 nature of his character, Michael Corleone. He wasn't a loud 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.439 mouth or a hothead like his brother's Sonny played by 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:19.720 Jimmy Kahn, and he wasn't as transparent as the Corleone's 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.920 family attorney Tom Hagen played by Robert Duval. But as 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:28.120 Cohn and Duval paced the dimly lit room, mahogany tables, 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.960 hardwood floors, and arguing about what to do with this 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.880 dirty cop McCluskey, protector of the narcotics man who had 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:40.520 put their pops in the hospital, Paccino was slowly methodically turning. 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:45.520 He was the dark horse, the silent type, the one 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:49.360 you never saw coming. Al Pacino, as Michael Corleone was 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:52.720 getting ready to push past his own fears such as 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.600 what would happen to him if he joined the family business, 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.240 how would change him? And what would he have to do? 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.880 And there was only one way to find out, only 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:07.720 one way through. Fear was not an option. Fear was 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.520 the mind killer. From a couch across the room facing 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:16.360 the television set, Adele leaned in the pivotal scene from 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:19.320 one of her favorite films, The Godfather, played out on 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:23.960 the screen. But Sheino was so good, so tough. He 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:26.320 was our guy, and the way he was able to 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:30.600 subtly show how his character conquered his fears was truly inspiring. 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.080 These crime films that Adele loved, the crime films that 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:39.640 were universally loved. They served more than one purpose. They 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.520 were a source of comfort when Adele wanted to curl 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:46.640 up and shout out the world and escape into great storytelling. 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:50.320 And that's something we can all relate to. But there 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:54.160 was something else as well these movies, especially when it 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:59.360 came to scenes like this. These films, these performances, could 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.640 give you the strength and the tools to overpower fear 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:07.600 before the world, with its teeth and its insatiable appetite, 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:15.760 overpowered you. July twenty third, twenty eleven, Andrew Marris, Amy 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:19.240 Winehouse's bodyguard, checked in on his employer at around ten 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:22.560 in the morning. He found her laying on her bed, 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:26.440 unconscious at her home in Camden, North London. She'd been 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:29.960 up late the night before drinking, and it wasn't unusual 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:33.040 for Amy to be passed out till midday, so Mars 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.840 let her sleep it off. Five hours later. 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.160 However, at three in the afternoon, he. 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.480 Decided to check in on her again, and there she 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:46.040 was still on the bed, still unconscious, still in the 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:50.920 same exact position as before. This now struck Mars as odd. 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:55.120 He ran to her side. She wasn't breathing, she had 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:58.440 no pulse. Mars picked up the phone and called for 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:03.760 an ambulance. Shortly thereafter, Amy Winehouse would be declared dead. 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:08.880 She was twenty seven years old. It would be months 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:12.080 before an official inquest would find that Amy Winehouse died 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:17.520 from misadventure caused by high alcohol consumption. But misadventure wasn't 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:18.360 the only. 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:19.920 Thing that killed Amy Winehouse. 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.440 Adele, for one, was well aware. 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:24.160 Of this fact. 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:29.520 News of Amy's death hit Adele particularly hard. She was sad, 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.080 and she was pissed, and she was as she. 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:36.200 Put it, offended. Amy had gone to the brit school, 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:36.960 just like Adele. 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:39.640 She was the reason Adele began to play guitar in 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.600 the first place, the reason why Adele found the courage 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:46.600 to write and sing her own songs, and now, ironically, 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.880 Amy was gone in the exact same year that Adele 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.240 was breaking records and dominating the charts with her album 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:58.160 twenty one. The reason that Adele was offended by Amy's 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.240 death was because the public had done their part to 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:06.200 do her in Amy's drinking, her drug use, her erratic behavior. 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.960 It all played out in slow motion in the pages 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.040 of the press and in posts on social media, like 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:15.000 a car wreck that everyone pumped the brakes to watch 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.360 as they passed by. If the public hadn't been given 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.480 such intimate, always on access to every single choice, Amy 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.960 Winehouse made every mistake. If there wasn't this collective need 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.359 to watch a celebrity struggle and to comment on it, 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.240 to share it, to retweet it, well, it begged the 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:38.159 question would Amy still be alive? It was impossible for 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:42.080 Adele not to imagine that she was next, That fame 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.040 and fate were nothing but a pattern in search of 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:51.520 the next tragic figure to fit their mold. Paris, the 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.680 massive world tour for twenty one had just begune when 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:59.080 Adele felt something in her throat pop. She ended the 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.560 show that night more than a little concerned. She'd been 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.840 singing for nearly a decade since she was fourteen years 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:10.359 old and had never experienced anything like this before. She 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.000 hopped the plane to London, where the next day her 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:16.280 doctor told her it was a cute laryngitis and she 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.840 needed rest. Two weeks later she resumed the tour, which 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:23.760 eventually made its way to the United States. And then 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:28.360 it happened again, only this time it wasn't laryngitis. This 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.639 time a blood vessel on her vocal cord burst. She 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.680 gave it another couple of weeks and let the hemorrhage heal, 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:37.320 and then went back at it. 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:39.720 But it kept happening. 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:45.439 Her voice, that incredible voice, it kept giving out. The 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.720 media and the internet took notice and sharpened their knives. 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.560 She was a smoker, She was a drinker. She was 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.040 a loud talker and even a loud cackler. We've seen 0:18:56.080 --> 0:19:00.840 this one before. It's Amy two point zero, another wildly 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:05.480 talented British singer running her god given instrument ragged. Adele 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:09.120 wasn't listening to what was being said about her online. Instead, 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:11.760 she was listening to the advice of other singers who 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:16.520 had gone through similar problems, veterans like Roger Daltrey, Stephen Tyler, 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:20.200 and Elton John, even younger singers like John Mayer, all 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:23.360 of whom had undergone cutting edge throat surgery to salvage 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:27.760 their voices and keep their jobs and so. On November three, 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:32.320 twenty eleven, coincidentally, the same week the twenty one returned 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:34.520 to the number one spot on the Billboard album chart, 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:39.400 Adele canceled all performances and went under the knife at 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.680 mass General Hospital in Boston. 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:43.679 Actually it was a. 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.320 Laser, not a knife, which the world renowned throat surgeon 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.040 Steven's I tells used to remove a polyop that had 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:53.680 been plaguing Adele's vocal cord and then for months after, 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:59.400 Adele's future was uncertain. For five weeks she was unable 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:02.879 to talk, five long weeks in which she wondered what 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.040 her voice would sound like when it returned, what if 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:08.240 she would never be able to sing like she used to, 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.480 or if she couldn't sing at all, but every inkling 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:16.399 of self doubt melted away. Months later, on February twelve, 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:20.280 twenty twelve, when Adele made her long away to return 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:24.480 to performing at the fifty fourth Annual Grammy Awards ceremony. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:25.119 In Los Angeles. 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.359 Not only did she take home seven awards that night, 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.680 including Album of the Year, but she performed Rolling in 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.520 the Deep, and she killed it. Her post surgery voice 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:39.760 was not only strong, it had actually gained some upper range. 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:43.399 It was like the Adele everyone already knew, only better. 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:48.959 But despite her rousing performance in all her trophies, Adele 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:53.560 was upstaged that night by tragedy. The price of fame, 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:57.280 which Amy Weinhouse had so sorely paid the previous year, 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:03.360 was now hanging over the Staples Center like a ghost. 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:09.639 The Beverly Hilton Hotel Sweet four thirty four, the portraits 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:12.960 of Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando hanging on the walls, 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:17.919 surveyed the room in silence. Trays of uneaten food, opened 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:22.240 bottles of champagne, the remaining contents now warm and flat. 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:27.600 In the bathroom, prescription bottles of Xanax and muscle relaxes 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:32.000 on the counter next to them a spoon for cocaine, 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:36.560 and there in the bathtub, submerged under six inches of water, 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:43.000 the body a forty eight year old Whitney Houston. Whitney 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:45.840 never made it to the Grammys that night. She didn't 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:47.639 even make it to the pre party thrown by her 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:51.560 mentor arist the Records founder Clive Davis, the day before 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:55.240 the Grammys. It was on that day that a combination 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:59.679 of cocaine, prescription drugs, and heart disease contributed to Whitney 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:04.000 Houston and sudden death. The Grammy Awards became a more 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:07.760 solemn affair. The bright victories were tinted with a touch 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:12.960 of darkness, and Adele's incredible performance took on greater meaning. 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:16.720 Rolling in the Deep wasn't just a kiss off to 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:19.959 an ex. It was a kiss off to the mold, 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:23.439 the press, the public. They weren't going to run her 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:24.840 into the ground like they did. 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:26.520 Whitney or Amy. 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:29.919 Soon, Adele would give birth to her son, who she 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:33.000 had with her boyfriend at the time, an investment banker 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:37.000 turned charity CEO named Simon Kanecki, and she had a 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:44.720 family to protect, so she shifted into paccino mode. Imagine 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:48.640 if you will, Adele sitting in that black leather chair 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:52.919 in that dimly lit room with its mahogany tables and 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:57.879 hardwood floors, And just like al Pacino, just like Michael Corleone, 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:03.800 Adele pushed through the fear. She locked down her private life. 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:07.359 She locked herself in her house so that the paparazzi 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:11.240 couldn't reach her, and she became her own unreliable narrator. 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:14.439 She did this by feeding little lies to those in 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:18.359 her inner circle on purpose, in order to see who 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:22.280 was talking to the press. It's a gangster move, and 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.760 the gangster knows that if she tells one person a 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:28.800 lie and that lie ends up in the papers, then 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:33.160 that gangster knows exactly who betrayed her, And so then 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:38.119 Adele would unceremoniously cut them loose from her life. It 0:23:38.200 --> 0:23:40.760 wasn't easy watching someone you thought you trusted to go 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:43.480 off behind your back like that, but it made it 0:23:43.520 --> 0:23:46.080 a lot easier to let them go, knowing that by 0:23:46.119 --> 0:23:49.600 doing so, you added one more additional layer of protection, 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:56.760 more protection than Amy Winehouse or Whitney Houston had. But 0:23:56.840 --> 0:24:00.520 the more those layers of protection were applied, harder it 0:24:00.760 --> 0:24:04.840 was to be in the outside world the less relatable 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:09.000 Adele feared she would become, and that was the fear 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:13.040 that was it. That fear remained after all these years 0:24:13.320 --> 0:24:18.399 as one of Adele's greatest fears, that she would become unrelatable. 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:23.000 The grandiose houses, the multiple awards, the money, the fame. 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:26.200 Adele was a long way from the mean streets of Taughtenham, 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:29.879 and she knew it. The challenge now was to remain 0:24:29.960 --> 0:24:35.240 relatable with those streets, with any street anywhere in the world. 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:38.800 And after four years of working on new music, after 0:24:38.880 --> 0:24:43.080 much anticipation from her fans after the smashing success of 0:24:43.119 --> 0:24:47.439 twenty one, Adele returned at last with a song that 0:24:47.600 --> 0:24:53.320 was so authentic and so relatable that it was downright criminal. 0:24:58.480 --> 0:25:00.720 We'll be right back, We're. 0:25:00.880 --> 0:25:09.919 We're, We're okay. 0:25:09.920 --> 0:25:13.520 This next line, it's just begging me to do a 0:25:13.760 --> 0:25:18.560 cheap Tony Montana from Scarface impersonation. But I'm not gonna 0:25:18.600 --> 0:25:23.520 do that. Okay. Just picture picture Al Pacino as Tony Montana, 0:25:24.080 --> 0:25:26.240 and he's sitting there and he gives you the line 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:27.320 you want to fuck with me? 0:25:28.000 --> 0:25:29.360 Okay, you cockroaches? 0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:35.440 And now picture Tony Montana high on cocaine and sweating 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:40.160 through his black soup with trembling hands. He's hastily assembling 0:25:40.200 --> 0:25:44.520 his grenade launcher inside his office suite, his bugged out eyes. 0:25:44.720 --> 0:25:48.959 They're alternating between the weapons intricate design and a series 0:25:48.960 --> 0:25:52.719 of closed circuit television sets, and they play out a 0:25:52.800 --> 0:25:58.560 disturbing scene these TVs. It's armed men. They've invaded Tony's 0:25:58.560 --> 0:26:01.480 mansion and they're coming up up the blood red staircase 0:26:01.840 --> 0:26:04.040 where they're now waiting on the other side of the door. 0:26:04.920 --> 0:26:08.520 And that door, that door is the only thing separating 0:26:08.560 --> 0:26:12.800 Tony Montana between life and here and death out there. 0:26:13.560 --> 0:26:17.560 And so he says, you want to play games, okay. 0:26:18.320 --> 0:26:21.680 Tony's now facing the door in a battle stance with 0:26:21.840 --> 0:26:26.360 his knees bent and the fear it's inverted. 0:26:27.400 --> 0:26:28.800 He was fear. 0:26:28.920 --> 0:26:33.119 Now Tony Montana. He's holding the grenade launcher in his 0:26:33.359 --> 0:26:38.239 very capable hands, slung down low at hip level, and 0:26:38.280 --> 0:26:41.520 he's ready to fire off at anyone who dares step 0:26:41.560 --> 0:26:45.800 inside his private residence. And with a roar, he shouts, 0:26:46.640 --> 0:26:50.919 you guys know the line, say hello to my little friend. 0:26:55.200 --> 0:26:58.920 Watching this all unfold on the television, adele Letlosa laugh 0:26:58.960 --> 0:27:02.199 as explosively as one of Tony Montana's grenades as she 0:27:02.320 --> 0:27:05.359