Natalie Cole describes overcoming father's legend

Natalie Cole writes in "Angel on My Shoulder" that her drug addiction was spurred in part by the death of her father, Nat King Cole, and living in his talented shadow

In this story: 'The come-on girl' Dueting with dad RELATED SITES

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Grammy Award-winning singer Natalie Cole, daughter of singing legend Nat "King" Cole, says in a new book her father's death and living in his shadow drove her to heroin and theft in her 20s, according to an excerpt published by People magazine.

In "Angel on My Shoulder," released this month by Warner Books, Cole, 50, writes about the loss of her father when she was a teen-ager, her descent into drugs at college, the emergence of her own talent -- she won her first Grammy in 1975 -- and how she almost threw away her career with another bout of drug abuse.

"People often ask me why I got into drugs. I think they were just waiting to happen, a culmination of not having resolved things," Cole wrote in the excerpt released Thursday to appear in the November 6 issue of People magazine. "My father's death was the beginning -- it wasn't till years later that I was able to understand that I was still grieving and that as 'the daughter of' I was still walking in his shadow.

"I was adrift, without a dad and without a good, solid relationship with my mom."

In the autobiography, written with Digby Diehl, Cole describes leaving the University of Massachusetts and moving to New York, where she met a pimp who hired her as "the come-on girl" to attract men to prostitutes.

"Once I'd made contact and Ronnie had concluded the financial transaction, the real business would happen under the bridge -- without me. I froze my ass off out there in Harlem, USA, in the winter of 1973."

Twice-divorced Cole says she is now happy with her personal life, "dating like crazy" and living in Beverly Hills. She has a 23-year-old son, Robbie, who is studying music.

Nat "King" Cole died in February 1965 of lung cancer at the age of 46. His daughter Natalie revived his music in the 1980s and 1990s, singing hit songs such as "Unforgettable" with her father's recorded voice in the background.

In 1991, she recorded a unique "duet" with him and the album won six Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year.

"My desire for some kind of closure with my father may be what was behind my attempt to do my father's music," Cole writes in her book. "I had spent the first part of my career rebelling against it."

Cole, a devout Christian, credits God -- the title's angel on her shoulder -- for her triumph over adversity.

"Where am I now in my life? I still may not be what I ought to be, but thank the Lord, I'm not what I used to be," Cole writes. "I am still a work in progress -- we all are. I guess what I am trying to pass on to you, dear reader, is this: Don't give up. ... God ain't through with you yet."

(Warner Books is a subsidiary of Time Warner, which also owns CNN Interactive.)

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