AMY WINEHOUSE
Ten years after her death, the singer’s father MITCH shares his treasured photos as he tells us how her legacy lives on
It has been ten years since the music industry lost one of the greatest talents of a generation: Amy Winehouse.
As well as being a six- time Grammy winner with hit songs including Back to Black and Valerie, her struggles with addiction to drink and drugs were the focus of press stories before she joined legendary singers such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin in the illfated “27 Club” when she died of accidental alcohol poisoning at that age in 2011. But there were two sides to the star, who was as complicated as she was talented.
“It’s time people knew about the real Amy,” her father Mitch tells
hello!, marking a decade since her death and ahead of the release of two BBC2 documentaries that reveal a positive but little-known side to the star.
“She deserves to be remembered differently to how people think of her,” he adds. “She was a complex character who was so much more than her addictions.”
His voice full of emotion in our exclusive interview, the 70-year-old taxi driver turned singer shares with us his favourite photo of him performing with his daughter and tells hello! with pride about the deep compassion and gestures of kindness he witnessed in Amy’s remarkable but short life.
One of them took place in 2009, when she was recuperating from drug addiction on St Lucia.
“She loved it there and immersed herself in island life,” says Mitch. “When I was due to visit, she asked me to bring lots of cash.
“She took me to the beach and this local guy was lying under a tree. ‘What’s the matter?’ I asked. ‘I’m just waiting here to die,’ he replied. He was suffering from
‘ It’s time people knew the real Amy. She was a complex character who was so much more
than her addictions’
an agonising medical condition, a hernia, and couldn’t afford treatment. ‘We’re taking him to hospital, Dad,’ Amy insisted, ‘and I’m going to pay for him.’ After his op, she visited him every day.
“During that same visit, we paid a man who’d usually rent his horses to tourists on the beach. Amy had arranged for the local kids to ride them for an entire month instead.
“She was a wonderfully charitable person,” Mitch continues. “When she heard through a friend that a woman was homeless and sleeping on the street in London, Amy said: ‘Send her round to me.’ She stayed with her for six months.
“Considering she was like Madonna and Lady Gaga rolled into one, she was a lovely girl and never lost that human touch. At the height of her career, she took me for a walk down Wardour Street in London’s Soho and knew everyone, from the cook in a Caribbean restaurant she loved to the girls who worked at Ryman’s. She was a genuine person who was interested in other people.
“My mum was exactly the same,” he adds. “[ Amy] was also very strong- minded and determined to do what she wanted. Even when she was ill, Amy was in charge.
“She was extremely clever, which came from her mother Janis, who would coach her in logarithms at the age of ten.
“She was a bit of a joker, too,” he says, smiling. “She phoned me up pretending to be a policewoman and, on another occasion, an executive from the American Embassy, making me run around looking for paperwork.
“Most of all, she was loving. Every Father’s Day, she’d make me a card saying: ‘I love you, Daddy.’”
Amy’s mother Janis will reveal a deeper insight into her beloved daughter – who died on 23 July 2011 at her home in North London – in the documentary Reclaiming Amy. Meanwhile, in A Life in Ten Pictures, she and Mitch will select their favourite photos of Amy and tell the stories behind them.
A VITAL LEGACY
This year is also the tenth anniversary of the charity created in the singer’s name, the Amy Winehouse Foundation.
Set up by her family on what would have been her 28th birthday, it has helped thousands of people coping with addictions and provides a pathway into work for those in recovery. Through its Schools Project, addicts in recovery have addressed half a million pupils about drug and alcohol misuse, while
‘Whenever her nephew Cosmo hears her music, he says proudly: “That’s my Aunty Amy”’
Amy’s Place, a recovery house, gives shelter to vulnerable young women.
Mitch i s also auctioning off Amy’s memorabilia to raise funds for the foundation in Los Angeles this November.
Music, of course, plays a part in the charity’s work. As well as funding music therapy at Haven House children’s hospice, the foundation also funds two music projects, including one for disabled children in St Lucia, Amy’s favourite island retreat.
“Amy loved children,” Mitch says. “She wanted to be a mum and if she were here today, she’d have her six-year-old nephew Cosmo [her brother Alex’s son] with her all the time.
“Whenever he hears her music, he says proudly: ‘That’s my Aunty Amy,’ and he talked at school about how she’s inspired him.
KEEPING HER SPIRIT ALIVE
“I feel her energy all the time,” he adds. “Sometimes it’s unnerving. A year after Amy passed away, I was asleep when I sensed something in the room at 5am. Suddenly I felt a rush of electricity go through me.
“The next day, a clairvoyant told me: ‘Amy came to you at 5am and sat on the bed.’
“It’s happened frequently since. Some people might think I’m deluded, but I know it’s Amy.”
Mitch believes it was Amy’s dynamic spirit that spurred on the family to set up the foundation in her name.
“When Amy died we had this burst of adrenaline,” he says. “There’s no way in the world we could have achieved this without her. Amy is still here, urging us on.
“She’s the one who inspired us to set up the foundation and it has saved lives. Although it doesn’t bring Amy back, helping other people helps us come to terms with what happened to her.
“Amy would be pleased with what we’ve achieved. This is her legacy.”
‘There’s no way we could have achieved this without her. Amy is still here, urging us on’