Heroin addiction sadly blighted both James' personal and professional life, but in 1967 Chess took her to the Fame studios. The resultant Tell Mama was a triumph, and pitted James' abrasive voice with the exemplary Muscle Shoals house band. Its highlights included the proclamatory title track, a pounding cover version of Otis Redding's 'Security' (both of which reached the R&B Top 20) and the despairing 'I'd Rather Go Blind', which was later a UK Top 20 hit for Chicken Shack. The 1973 album Etta James earned her a US Grammy nomination, despite her continued drug problems, which she did not overcome until the mid-80s. A 1977 album, Etta Is Betta Than Evah, completed her Chess contract, and she moved to Warner Brothers Records. Her debut for the label, Deep In The Night, proved to be a critical favourite. A renewed public profile followed James' appearance at the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. The live Late Show albums, released in 1986, featured Shuggie Otis and Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson, and were followed by Seven Year Itch, James' first album for Island Records, in 1989. This, and the subsequent release, Stickin' To My Guns, found her back on form, aided and abetted once more by the Muscle Shoals team.
James was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1993, prior to her signing a new recording contract with Private Records. Following the use of her version of Muddy Waters' 'I Just Want To Make Love To You' in a television advertisement, she unexpectedly found herself near the top of the UK charts in 1996, giving this emotional and 'foxy' singer some valuable exposure. All her cover versions, from 'Need Your Love So Bad' to 'The Night Time Is The Right Time', are indelibly stamped by her ability to 'feel' the essence of a lyric and melody, allowing her to take over and shape a song. Her extraordinary voice was showcased to great effect on a slew of releases for the Private label in the late 90s and early 00s, including Love's Been Rough On Me, Matriarch Of The Blues and Blue Gardenia. The latter, a smooth album demonstrating James' love of jazz ballads, rewarded the singer by rising to the top of the Billboard jazz chart in 2001. The dynamic Burnin' Down The House was recorded at the House Of Blues in West Hollywood, California, with both singer and band in fine form. Let's Roll found James assuming production duties on a mainstream-leaning collection of material. In contrast, 2004's Blues To The Bone featured James delivering a dozen gutsy readings of blues classics. James is really on a role at the present time, testament to a truly remarkable singer.
James was hospitalized in January 2010 to treat an infection caused by MRSA, a bacterium that is resistant to most antibiotic treatments. During her hospitalization, her son Donto revealed that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2008.
She was diagnosed with leukemia in early 2011. The illness became terminal and she died on January 20, 2012, just five days before her 74th birthday, at Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside, California. Her death came three days after that of Johnny Otis, the man who had discovered her in the 1950s. Additionally, just 36 days after her death, her sideman Red Holloway also died.