Did music bosses fail in duty of care to Amy in run-up to her death?
GRAVE questions about the way music industry executives treated pop star Amy Winehouse in the weeks before her death have been raised in a damning new book.
Her childhood friend Tyler James today claims the singer was so ‘delirious and weak’ after a five-day drinking spree that she had to be carried on to a private jet so that she could perform in a final, disastrous tour of Europe. Barely a month later, she was found dead at her home in Camden, North London, aged just 27.
In his harrowing account of the star’s final weeks, James claims that Winehouse’s management heaped pressure on her to keep working as she battled her demons, raising questions over whether they failed in their duty of care towards the ailing star.
In his book, My Amy, which is being serialised in The Mail on Sunday, James alleges Winehouse drank so freely that she was unaware that she had arrived in the Serbian capital Belgrade for the first concert in a 12-date tour. He believes she was handed a glass of wine by Raye Cosbert, her booking agent, just before going on stage even though she was taking Librium, an anti-anxiety drug to curb seizures
‘She was delirious and weak... she had to be led on to the jet’
brought on by her alcohol abuse.
Shortly afterwards, the singer was jeered by the audience over her shambolic performance, the last before her death on July 23, 2011, from alcohol poisoning.
James further alleges that Winehouse, whose estate after her death was valued at £4.25 m, was told by her management team that she needed to fulfil her tour contract because she ‘needed the money’.
Recalling how he watched her being carried on to the aircraft on June 19, 2011, he writes: ‘The day of the show, the boys literally picked Amy up off the sofa, because they were told to, and put her in the car. She was barely conscious.
‘I sat next to her thinking, “This is so wrong”. We got to Luton Airport, where the private jets fly from, handed our passports out through the window at security and Amy stirred. “Where are we, T?” “The airport, Ame.” She said nothing, rolled her eyes, tutted and pulled the hoodie she’d been wearing for the last five days back over her head.
‘She was so delirious and weak, the boys had to help her on to the plane, arms around her, guiding her up the steps.’
Recalling the moments before her last gig, James writes: ‘I had to go to the toilet and when I came back Amy had downed a glass of wine. I know how it will have happened – she would have been convinced she needed one to perform and argued with Raye until she got it. If I had been there, I would’ve stepped in, as you cannot drink on Librium.
‘Raye held her by the hand and helped her up the steel steps behind the stage. I was standing in the wings like I always did. This time I was crying, dreading what might happen next.’ James does not suggest that Mr Cosbert was aware that Winehouse was taking the medication.
He says that the singer, who won acclaim for hits including Rehab and Back To Black before lurching into drink and drug addiction, was desperate not to go on the tour and wanted to work on another album instead. He asserts, however, that she was convinced that she needed the money.
He writes: ‘She definitely didn’t want to do it. “Why can’t they wait for me to write another album so I’ve actually got something to say? People must be so bored of Rehab – I know I am.”
‘The next day she started drinking, a full-blown relapse, and she drank for five days. Every day management came round, and every day they’d tell me I needed to get her to stop drinking.’
Mr Cosbert didn’t respond to a request for comment but a source close to Amy’s management firm, Metropolis Music, said shortly after her death: ‘Amy really wanted to do the shows. It wasn’t a gruelling tour… She’s a grown woman.’
He said a warm-up gig in London went well and described her addictions as ‘stepping forward and stepping back’.
news@mailonsunday.ie