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Charismatic, talented, yet haunted by personal demons, Amy Winehouse's sharp career rise into musical stardom and spiraling personal decline into almost inevitable destruction bring a handful of contrasting metaphors to mind: a brilliant meteor, a runaway train, a lost child.

When she truly broke into the mainstream with 2006's "Back to Black," I couldn't help but look at her and recall my father's stories about 60s pop icon Janis Joplin, who he grew up with in Port Arthur, Texas. Like Winehouse, Joplin was a social misfit and drug addict - one who would not fit into the lives of most mainstreamers except on an album cover or ticket stub.

But like Winehouse, Joplin's music elevated her from the depths of the "outsiders" to an elite level - from weird to eccentric, from reckless to free-spirited. Joplin's appearance at Woodstock cemented her into pop culture history, but her tragic death of a drug overdose - alone in a Los Angeles hotel room - punched her ticket to the club reserved for legends.

Although she was born 13 years after Joplin's death in Camden, London, England - the other side of the world from Joplin's Texas hometown - Amy Winehouse's public and private lives seem to run almost parallel to that of Joplin. Her first major label album, "Frank," was a chart-buster and received critical acclaim, especially in the UK. Her follow up, 2006's "Back to Black," was nominated for six Grammy awards (including four of the biggest): Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Record of the year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Pop Vocal Album.

But Winehouse's signature style is far from the realm of the cookie-cutter pop music that dominates Top 40 stations. Winehouse's sultry, jazzy music and gutter-bound, honest lyrics mirror those of other legends - Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain - whose stars burned far more brightly than their contemporaries.

Unfortunately, their stars also burned out abruptly and early. Winehouse's personal demons have dominated tabloid covers in the U.S. and U.K. Hungry for another Britney Spears or Lindsey Lohan - a star whose tragic and shocking fall is sure to sell millions of copies - paparazzi have sold photos of Winehouse staggering in the street, smoking from drug paraphernalia, and standing outside her husband's courthouse appearance.

But her fans see things differently. Like her music, Amy Winehouse's look - tattooed, beehived, dressed like she's been wearing the clothes for a week - are reflective of her personality. A rebel since she was just a kid (she was kicked out of a prestigious theater school by age 14), Winehouse is doing what she was born to do.

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