Etta James Dies at 73 [VIDEO]

As Rayman says, “You pay your dues if you sing the blues” and  Etta James has endured a career that's spanned six decades; all while battling drug addiction and bad relationships.

Etta was born in Los Angeles, California; her mother was just 14 years old at the time, and she never knew her father.

At the age of 12, and with little adult supervision, she formed a singing group called the Creolettes with a pair of friends. They attracted the attention of bandleader Johnny Otis, and when he heard their song "Roll with Me Henry" -- a racy answer song to Hand Ballard's infamous "Work with Me Annie" -- he arranged for them to sign with Modern Records, and cut the tune "Roll with Me Henry," renamed "The Wallflower," became a hit in 1955.

In 1960, Leonard Chess signed her to a new record deal. While she was enjoying a career resurgence, her personal life was not faring as well; she began experimenting with drugs as a teenager, and by the time she was 21 she was a heroin addict, and as the '60s wore on she found it increasingly difficult to balance her habit with her career.

In the early '70s, Etta had fallen off the charts again, her addiction was raging, and she turned to petty crime to support her habit. She entered rehab on a court order, cleaned up, and through most of the '70s, a sober she got by touring small clubs and playing occasional blues festivals.

In 1978, longtime fans the Rolling Stones paid homage to Etta by inviting her to open some shows for her on tour. She fell back into drug addiction again after becoming involved with a man with a habit, and she went back to playing club dates and later kicked again thanks to a stay at the Betty Ford Center in 1988.In 1994, a year after she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she recorded "Songs of Billie Holiday", a tribute to the great vocalist she had long cited as a key influence; the album earned Etta her first Grammy Award. In 2003, she published an autobiography, Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story, and in 2008 she was played onscreen by modern R&B divaBeyonce in Cadillac Records, a film based on the history of Chess Records.

In 2010, James was hospitalized with MRSA-related infections, and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, She was diagnosed with terminal leukemia later that year, and died Jan. 20th 2012.

[via AllMusic]