Seventeen years after the devastating loss of her husband, singer Corinne Bailey Rae has spoken candidly about how his death fundamentally reshaped both her personal life and musical career.
A Life Divided: Before and After Tragedy
The Put Your Records On hitmaker, now 46, gave a rare interview to Billboard where she reflected on the 2008 death of Jason Rae, who died from an accidental overdose aged just 31.
Corinne was only 22 when she married Jason in 2001 after they met in a jazz club. His death came from an accidental combination of methadone and alcohol, with coroners noting he was a 'naive user' of the heroin substitute medication.
'I felt like my life was divided between the before and after of that,' Corinne stated, describing how the tragedy created a clear separation in her adult life. 'As well as changing my life, it also changed my career in a really big way.'
Musical Evolution Through Grief
The Grammy-winning artist explained how her 2006 self-titled debut album represents 'one side' of her life, while her second album The Sea, released in 2010 just two years after Jason's death, emerged from entirely different circumstances.
'When I look back at [debut LP Corinne Bailey Rae], it's on the other side of... not a wall, but a divide between my two adult lives,' she revealed. 'That moment [Jason's death] felt like the end of what that first album term was.'
Her debut album had achieved remarkable success, debuting at number one on the UK Albums Chart and eventually being certified triple platinum. However, following Jason's death, Corinne acknowledged she wasn't emotionally prepared to capitalize on this early success.
Finding Love and Moving Forward
Corinne eventually found love again with longtime friend, producer and jazz musician Steve Brown. The couple, who share two children, married in 2013.
She described marriage as looking at the journey ahead and asking someone: 'Do you want to do this with me?' calling it both 'an exciting and heavy thing.'
The circumstances surrounding Jason's death were particularly tragic. He was found dead at his friend James Sheasby's house after taking methadone prescribed to James, who had struggled with heroin addiction.
At the inquest, a heartbreaking statement from Corinne read: 'My husband is my first and only true love. He is the most beautiful and complex person I have ever known. He is utterly irreplaceable.'
She explained that Jason had periods of struggling with drinking and would only seek out drugs like cocaine and ecstasy when intoxicated, noting 'he has not, to my knowledge, ever tried methadone' sober.
