The Untold Struggles of Amy Winehouse: Icon's Battle with Addiction | The Price of Fame | Amplified

[Applause] [Music] [Music] I'll be watching till I Dro dead so uh you know it'll be [Music] good Amy win housee is one of the most iconic artists of the 21st century herself style and honesty set her apart from the rest as truly one of her kind Amy's music was so different because nobody had done it like Amy win housee before the lyrics they tore at your heartstrings they had depth you could tell that she'd experienced them i' always put a punch line in the song Always I said know I just try and be different with my lyrics definitely thanks to her Monumental album back to black in 2006 she went on to be one of the most award-winning Superstars and the face of British music I just want to make an album where I'm doing everything and I want to be able to say that is mine you know what I mean and I made this and it's mine but the constant Fame and attention came at a [Applause] price with the non-stop year in year out war between her and the media Amy win housee found herself caught up in life-threatening addictions Class A substance abuse self harm and toxic relationships inevitably ending in her tragic demise that stunned the world police were called by the London Ambulance Service to house in Camden Square Northwest 1 shortly before 1605 hours today one reports of a woman found deceased and I can who confirmed that the deceased is Amy win housee well the thing about Amy wiin housee was there was nothing mediocre about her and she had bucket loads of salt witness the rise and fall of Britain's most iconic star and the leadup to her devastating death [Music] I to kiss you but I would not dare born on the 14th of September 1983 Amy win housee grew up in Camden town in London raised by her parents Mitch and Janice win housee Amy was raised listening to the Soulful sounds of Frank Sinatra and 1950s Jazz it was this upbringing that helped shape her into the performer she is known for today up are a dream [Music] I don't think our house was any different than anybody else's house there was I mean when I was a a small child everybody was singing and dancing literally dancing at home they used to ballroom dance because there was no television so what did people do to amuse themselves they sang They danced they got up you know they'd stand me on the table in my grandmother's house and they'd say ladies and gentlemen Mitchell wine housee and I come out and I do a bow and that's how people entertain themselves I mean it was different when Amy was growing up obviously when she was a little kid but we used to play the same games and the house was full of music and the extended family that I had when I was a little boy it was the same in when Amy was a child there was my mom there was her her my my stepfather her her husband uh Amy's grandfather I mean everyone was there my grandparents were still alive when Amy was a little girl you know so it was the house was always full of people and they did the same thing ladies and gentlemen Amy winous and she get up and a little bow and then sing a little song but that's how it started for her Amy was a natural performer at just the age of 14 she had already learned the guitar and was writing her own music throughout the rest of her teenage years she developed a love for hip-hop specifically salt and pepper this genre would further influence her sound going forward I was very influenced by Daz and Hip Hop from early you know from maybe I mean seriously I mean that I would knew that it would be the thing thing the direction I would follow in my life maybe when I was 13 is when I knew that I would have to follow that music cuz there was nothing else that spoke to me and today you know I'm reminded every day how important music is to me you know people say it's just music or Lisa from steps it's just a laugh it's just music and you're like no nothing else speaks to me the way music does that's why I'm doing what I'm doing you know it didn't take long for Amy to get recognized by record labels at just the age of 20 Amy released her first album titled Frank an incredibly raw sounding album that put us straight into the public eye as a real musical Talent it is debut album Frank was astonishing you listened to it and you thought hold on it really hit you between the eyes hold on this voice is astonishing um Amy wasn't happy with it and that would really go on to Flav for the rest of her career she was a perfectionist and she didn't think her record company had done her justice everyone else thinks it was wonderful but you look forward to Back to Black and you see perhaps it lack the depth of feeling and experience but as a debut album it was incredible when I first heard Frank when I first heard Frank I thought ah it's because it's a Frank and Honest album and then when I heard it a couple times I got it it's it's a play on words as well because there's a lot of Frank Sinatra in there uh she doesn't sound like Sinatra at any particular time but she has a certain melodic approach and appreciation that he did both Sinatra and Amy wi housee were Caucasian of course but they had a deep love of Blues and and and African-American Jazz and it comes through in their music it's a really versatile album and I I pushed myself with every aspect of it you know the music stands up by itself so that you can have it on quietly and still just get the chords and kind of feel the cords and the Beats stand up so much that when you blast the music you it it sounds it sounds ridiculous and you know myself vocally I try to do something interesting with everything in the with in the songs this is a first album this is quite a statement from somebody this was a an award-winning album that was album of the year in all these pop magazines and Jazz magazines it sold incredibly well and no one had heard of this young lady just a few months before and it was incredible to see just in a few short months she was a household name and it's important I think to look back on Frank and remember in those wonderful early days of her career she looked healthy she sounded wonderfully On Target on key Focus I'm not just talking about her voice being on key I'm talking about her whole approach had focus and measure and Direction and it was really great with Frank she's honest she's pure it's it's as clean as we're going to hear any Amy win housee even though she's got the suggested lyrics and can swear and so on and so forth but it's Amy we housee I wouldn't write anything unless it was directly personal to me just cuz I I wouldn't be able to tell the story right or really fill out the song with uh with words because I wouldn't have done it so you know all of it is um stuff that I've been through and you know and even though some of it is um personal in a sad way you no I would never let it just be that it's very um funny like I I'll put humor in I'll always put a punchline in the song Always and um I don't know I just try and be different with my lyrics [Music] [Music] definitely Amy win House's music is very autobiographical doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure that one out that first single she's looking metaphorically uh in the lyrics for a strong male figure in her life in this case a romantic male figure but in real life she was looking for a strong male figure the whole [Music] time but instead you're longer frozen turkey why you always and it's ironic that in one of these early videos you have her searching for a strong male figure who isn't there you have her having trouble with her romantic fellow her boyfriend and that was much of the story of her life and it's crazy to think here it is foretold in this very early video by this young lady I'm not saying she's Clairvoyant or anything but it is tragic to look back at that video knowing what we know about Amy wi housee now and think oh my God in 3 minutes this is the story of this young lady's life during the process of promoting Frank and attending award ceremonies Amy was loving the endless praise and attention from her new fans and the Press but stated it wasn't going to change her as a person I first met Amy in 2003 at the Brit Awards it was the year before Frank was released to be honest nobody really knew who she was I was wearing a dress with lots of Tassels on she came running up to me and said mate mate love the dress love the dress I looked at her and I kind of recognized her she was this chubby faed young energetic fool of Life having so much fun you could see that she was visibly thinking I'm at the Brits this is amazing as we all were it hasn't changed you know um I mean people never used to come up to me in the street and say oh my God you R me Wine House people never used to say that and they do now but I won't say that's a change I mean that that's an obvious change but I'm not changing I'm not going yes it is me yes it is Amy wi housee I'm going hello you like my album that's really nice go and buy one for your mom as well thank you bye you know my idea of success is to just have an album in front of you that's 100% the vision in your head on CD you know as I think a lot of people are uh caught up in maybe wanting to win Awards or wanting to write songs for people people as opposed to what they like or you know caught up in wanting people to see them all the time on the street whereas I don't even wear makeup when I'm not even working you know I I have different I think I have a different set of goals to to the record company anyway definitely you going to mug me I might going to mug you is that gorgeous or what e and I believe I can run a decent American thank you very much download V now whilst Amy was rising up the ranks in the music music industry taking in all of the new popularity she met a music video production assistant at a bar this would be the start of one of the industry's most stormy relationships anyone had ever seen that production assistant would be none other than Blake Fielder civil Amy win housee and Blake Fielder civil it has to be the most destructive relationship in shas's history they were complete and utter soulmates she adored her he adored her and they almost couldn't live without each other but they also both really destroyed each other there's no doubt that Blake Fielder civil was the love of Amy's life um I think when it was great it was wonderful I think she'd never experienced happiness like that also fair to say that she was the one who had the highflying career he was a runner um for music videos she loved him she loved the way he looked she loved the hats he wore she thought that he was the male version of her she thought he was Perfection What Amy saw in Blake was perhaps somebody who could actually understand her and some men are incredibly good at at latching on to women with problems to displace Focus or having to focus on problems they themselves have and they come across as the the the night in shining armor the man on a white Ste and the woman falls for it you know and she'll think oh my God this man understands me he loves me you know he really understands what he's what I'm going through he's going through something similar to me he can connect with me and I can connect with him in a way that I just can't with anyone else and of course she she was known to carve I love Blake in glass on her stomach Blake field as civil was infamously the one who introduced Amy to hard drugs he admitted that in an East London hotel room he was smoking a1b batch of heroin when he let Amy have a try I've said it before and and and I'll say it again um he was responsible for introducing Amy to hard drugs everybody knows this Amy's told me this the whole world knows it the only people that think it was the other way around was Blake's parents um let's be honest about it we all know what the true situation is Amy's friends and family have blamed Blake for introducing her to hard drugs but every addict is introduced by someone and ultimately Amy continued to take drugs she seemed to have a very addictive personality and it seemed that they could and they both said as much they couldn't be with each other they couldn't be without each other they almost loved too much Blake's own mother georget field a civil even partly blames him for Amy's decline because of course he was a big fact and getting her hooked on drugs however can you actually blame someone for another person's addiction probably not but what Blake did was make drugs hardcore drugs you know crack cocaine an everyday part of his relationship with Amy and that became everyday life for her very quickly she had a very addictive personality an addicted personality or a person who is addicted is someone whose behavior is outside of conscious control that it feels like an involuntary urge just to do something and you'll notice that addictions get transmitted from one substance or one Behavior to another so for example people can become addicted to alcohol they'll move from alcohol to heroin or they might then clean up when it comes to alcohol and heroin they'll be addicted to porn or then they'll be addicted to shopping or then they might be addicted to gambling that that what it is it's it's an O the overactivity in the reward centers of the brain so the brain is craving more and more of the feeling that the drugs and the addiction gave them but if they stop one addiction they need to move on to another so it has a very sound physiological as well as as well as a psychological basis which is why addicts will transfer their addiction from one substance to another quite easily or one Behavior pattern to another quite easily and after a while of course like anything else we are creatures of habit and those habits can be hardwired in the same way as a species we're hardwired for pleasure so we're hardwired to to want to activate the reward centers in our brain but all that happens with say the opioids like heroin all that happens we overstimulate the reward centers and then we need more and more and more of that stimulation as the brain produces less and less dopamine we need more and more drugs to give ourselves what we with a feeling that we that we've [Music] lost after a few years focusing on her relationship with Blake Amy took to the studio to work on her second album alongside this Amy started looking at changing her image to something that was much more classical but also helped her Stand Out compared to everyone else in the industry there's no question of the ronet in particular but many of the girl groups influenced Amy wi House's music and look just picking up the tabloids and looking at pictures of her I was at how much she resembled Ronnie Spectre and a lot of the women back in those days had that haircut The Beehive haircut which is also known as the B52 hence the name of the the group I think when you adapt that kind of a haircut that was at the time and really now so wildly out of fashion that you're making a statement and you're making a reference there's no question a cultural reference is being made and when you listen to her music you can hear it but the the strength of it isn't that she just did it it's why she did it it's because she's looking for something and she's not going to stop looking till she finds it and it takes the strength of a certain kind of an artist to go I'll go with something that's not the most fashionable thing right now 1960s girl groups from the brill building in New York City and uh I'll adapt that to my own personal style it wasn't something that was currently in fashion yet the point of Amy wiess is she's such a strong artist she made it a fashion and I think that's the whole point of her look and her sound with that kind of chiffons charels rett's thing that's the whole point she made it her own she didn't just take from them and imitate them she made it her own in May 2006 wine House's demo tracks such as you know I'm no good and Rehab appeared on Mark Ronson's New York East Village radio show Ronson would later go on to co-produce Amy's upcoming album he really liked Amy the moment they met he thought here's a girl girl who's not going to take any nonsense she knows what she wants and he loved her he said because when she didn't think he was being great when when his results weren't fantastic she told them and it worked for them that Honesty brought them together and created absolute Dynamite electricity he polished her songs for Back to Black perfected them and even the harshest critics have said they drew on so many influences while still being completely original and that's impossible to do uh they did it in october6 Amy win housee releases her most successful album ever and one of the biggest selling albums of the 21st century Back to Black Back to Black is a modern Masterpiece absolutely no doubt about it it will go down as one of the albums of our time absolutely but of course the inspiration behind this album was Blake Feld f a civil and the passion that she put into that album was about her passion for Blake and of course much of it was about their first breakup which was very traumatic to her she hated the fact that for a period he had another girlfriend and you could just tell by the emotions in those songs how much Amy passionately cared for him I don't know where she got the crazy idea to do it but I suspect it goes back to something we mentioned earlier that in her family they played a lot of these records and she appreciated the girl groups of the early 1960s and thought I could do something like this I think it does kind of go back to her family and it also goes back to a certain Inner Strength that she had to want to change Styles and do something like that and credit to her back to black does even better than the first album and it really is going down as one of those alltime Classic Albums what made Amy W's music so amazing wasn't just the fact yeah she she mixed Jazz with soul with R&B but she put so much Soul into her music she wrote her songs herself and when she wrote her song it was like putting her blood and guts on the table and that's what made her so special that these this is not like some kind of you know manufactured pop this is somebody who writes from the heart who sings from the heart who performs for the heart she every song she writes is like dragged out of her soul it's like cut a leg off or something like that it's very very hard for her and very emotional um but that's what makes her music so great win House's tempestuous relationship with Blake was the Catalyst for much of her destructive behavior during one breakup win housee admitted to drowning her sorrows in alcohol but she used the Heartbreak as impetus in writing music her drug and alcohol intake increasingly affected her life performances as she turned up to several club or TV performances too drunk to complete her set her management company suggested she entered rehab but rather than take their advice she dumped the management company and turned the experience into the catchiest song of her [Music] career could you tell me how long did it take you to write rehive and what was the inspiration for the show I write rehive in about 20 minutes um and uh it was just I I wrote it about something that something that had happened to me it was just it wrote itself it's just a novelty song in it but it's true it's something that happened to me and I guess it pretty much wrote itself rehab is sadly and understandably one of Amy win House's signature songs now it's one of the songs she's most remembered for I might be in a party of one but I can hardly stand to hear it and I can hardly stand to watch the video the irony of this young lady singing about I don't want to go to rehab when at the end of the day we now know that if there's anyone that ever should have gone to rehab it's Amy wine house it's easy to have perfect vision with hindsight but there's a theory I've got that goes roughly like this everybody under 30 thinks they're badass everybody under 30 wants to be badass we all leave that as we grow into adults and matour everybody under 30 thinks they're indestructible Invincible now we've all had friends that have died in a horrible way maybe cancer too soon or maybe the tragedy of a drug overdose or alcoholism that's it's in so many families too many families and yet it can't happen to me and when I look at rehab I think I see a young lady singing a catchy pop tune about the perfectly most incredibly wrong subject she could ever sing about coming from where she stands and I just can't look at rehab and and Amy wi housee in that video I can't I can't listen to it anymore as much as I like her as an artist and enjoy her music I can't stand it anymore it's it's the irony and the tragedy it's just they're just piled on top of each other and it it makes me want to weep so I shut it off as her Fame grew so did speculation in the Press about her lifestyle her relationship with Blake was under constant turmoil and because of it she continued to drink and take drugs the pressure of constantly being in the public eye also caused Amy to distance herself from her friends and loved ones most notably Mark Ronson along the way Mark Ronson really tried to help Amy win house it wasn't just that they worked together he viewed her as a personal friend they got on very well actually everyone fans critics were really excited when Mark Ronson announced he was getting into the studio to record the lead song for Quantum of Solus the Bond film she'd be perfect at it the big booming Shirley basses voice but done in Amy win housee style um but when she turned up the drink the drugs affected her performance she couldn't perform he was heartbroken if there was a way of piecing it together he would have he took to Twitter to talk about it just explain didn't say anything nasty Amy took real offense at this and gave him a concise nasty Tweet back saying look you produced one album mine that I wrote how dare you piggyback on my fame you're not going to make your career out of me brav she said he was devastated because it was like he was being cut off from one of the best people he'd worked with but a great friend he had to think though well the girl's ill and I don't think that it actually affected the way he thought of her in the end because when Amy died he said I've lost my little sister if you look at the way that Amy dealt with Mark Ronson I mean that's typical really um of of any addict because you know there's the famous song you know you always heard the ones you love you know and and with an addict they they always hurt they hurt themselves far more than they hurt anybody else but they always hurt the ones they love because you know most addicts are covered with guilt or shame or they feel they judge themselves very harshly but then they resent others for judging them they withdraw from social contact they feel sometimes incredibly hostile towards people who are simply trying to help them and and that's just part of what it is to be to be an addict there is no doubt that Amy and Mark Ronson had had a great connection and sometimes when you're dealing with any statement made by an addict you first of all got to separate the drug from the person because behind all the drugs there is a person you've got to understand who's speaking is it the drug speaking or is it the person speaking and I believe that Maron is not only obviously great for for for for for Amy win housee and they had a a very close Bond I also believe that when she attacked Mar Ronson I mean deep down she loved him and she felt very connected to him and that's the drug speaking on the deluxe version I think it is of of Back to Black she she does an additional version of Love is a losing game and and again she sings that with so much heart and so much soul and then when the song's finished she turns around at the end there's her pause you to hear her say is that all right and you can see in that both her Brilliance and her insecurity she's just done something totally incredible totally magical she done a rendition of this song that could move a a stone statue to tears she she's really delivered this then she says all right because she needed the approval of others she she was incredibly and when she was performing on stage she was sometimes looking for reassurance from the band sometimes people who are brilliant sometimes don't realize quite how brilliant they are and and Amy was Amy was one of those and and and perhaps it was her Brilliance in some ways and coping with that Brilliance and the effect of that Brilliance a drove to addiction love is [Music] a is that all [Applause] [Music] right it's just some musicians I'm the kind of person that I like pressure I work best on the pressure and there's a bunch of people like that but it must be a bit nerve-wracking like oh I want the Mercury I have to be consistent but you can't think about that I'm sure in 2007 Amy and Blake set out to Miami to have a relaxing romantic getaway from the endless media attention it was here when the two got secretly married once again shocking journalists Amy's friends and her family there is no doubt that the relationship between Amy wein housee and and Blake was a codependent relationship and and what that means in in Practical terms was that each one of them needed the other one to to continue their dependency on a very destructive Behavior pattern that's essentially what it means rather than the two of them connecting to build a better life together or to start a family or to envisage a future together what they're doing is they're taking the harsher edges and the more addictive edges of each other's personality and they're fixing on those and each one of them needs the other to sustain the destructive Behavior pattern they say the best songs are born of kind of um destructive relationships now happily married woman what can we expect from songwriting wise uh Happy songs yeah yeah happy songs Care Bear theme change and your dad said he was he didn't walk you down the a you're going to have another D here in I definitely will definitely do something proper def angry with you was he okay no he's fine he's fine what's he going to do after returning from their Miami trip Amy went back to performing on stage and attending regular award shows looking fresh-faced and revitalized there some people you've picked out that you want to go and chat to later uh I'd love to go meet Quincy Jones I'll go and find Mick Jones I was really ched to see him here he's I love mck Jones he's a Legend um yes so yeah I'm sure there's those people I don't even know are here but unfortunately it was around this time where her relationship with the Press became increasingly heated with news stories about her releasing almost every day Amy's change in personality was really starting to show during her interviews Amy's relationship with the Press really changed from a cheerful girl who was very open and loving because she had nothing to hide this was all new to her this was an amazing experience it's what she always wanted I work really hard and I've been recognized for that with the nomination that's such a an amazing thing you know that's like I feel real proud of myself for that and and and lucky she became more closed when she had more to hide when her management said to her do not talk to press she was out of it so she could could have told any journalist a fantastic story and increasingly she would have more and more people around her when she was out and about um trying to stop her from from giving people what they wanted you know you're standing on this young lady's foot you notice that she's not young and I wasn't Amy so many songs come out bad times in life you hear him rude you were so many songs come out with bad times in life the creative process is often motivated but the bad times now you're a happily married woman you worried how that could impact on your career no not really people generally you know are are are are appreciative of her and they love her and she she she likes to be with people um but you know what can it be for a young woman who really can't leave her house without the fear of being hounded it's very very difficult it's very very difficult and I can't imagine what it's like for her she's almost a prisoner in her own home well I would say she is a prisoner in in her in her in in her own home for want of a better phrase although she can go out she's not restricted in any way if she wants to go out she can go out but it's difficult and she would think twice about going out now without bodyguards and you know what's that all about you know it's it's not you know with all the with all the success you know there isn't a peace of mind and there isn't any kind of relaxation and I'm not talking about Amy but you can understand why people in that position you know do turn to Alternative means of relaxation unfortunately that following year whilst in Bergen Norway Amy Blake and a friend were all arrested at their hotel for marijuana possession they were found with seven GS and were fine $715 soon after this event Blake was sentenced to 27 months in jail for his part in an assault on a bar owner and a subsequent and attempt to cover up the crime with a bribe he's he's made a good effort in prison it's been hard for him he's made an effort and and he's been mainly successful but I don't think he's clean now and when he comes out he needs and will go straight into rehab he has promised me that he's going to make that right and I'm going to give him a chance to make it right but you know we're going to give him the benefit of the doubt the first thing he's got to do is he's got to get himself clean because if he goes back into the relationship with Amy um not clean it's it's going to be a complete recipe for disaster he knows what he's got to do um he loves Amy dearly she loves him dearly and you know as a family we want to do what's best for Amy I think that they can have a happy ending going into 2008 saw Amy at the lowest point in her whole career in January a video surface of Amy smoking crack I think one of Amy's alltime career lows was when a newspaper in the UK actually filmed and then broadcast video of Amy taking crack cocaine and everyone knew just how bad things had got ironically as well Blake who was meant to be the love of her life and who was in many ways sold his story many times on Amy he was so desperate for money he'd make a couple of thousand pounds here and there for spilling the most intimate details of her life now in most normal relationships that would be the end of it but Amy always ran back to Blake no matter what he does weeks later she checks into rehab but even though her drug addiction is finally being treated another troubling problem becomes clear the photos we would get in of Amy on a weekly basis during the real depths of her drug addiction relationship with Blake were just traumatic and I think nothing was more traumatic than the photo of Amy's ballet pump shoes covered in blood most people believe that that was because she had actually been injecting heroin between her toes it was Grim it was awful and here was this icon of our times reduced to that Amy had also been self-harming a number of cuts appeared prominent on both of her arms addressing the tender subject Amy stated that self harm to her started as a morbid curiosity but became a way for her to deal with her stress her self-destructive Tendencies only Amplified when she became intoxicated self harm is a complex phenomenon it's estimated that one in 15 teenage girls sometimes more as he self harm to some degree or other now if if you imagine sometimes when we get something wrong we sometimes beat ourselves up with some say oh God if only I'd done better if only I'd done this if only I'd done that well self harming begins from position very often of low self-esteem of some trauma some pain and rather than than trying to deal with the trauma or manage the pain because maybe the support network isn't there because the emotional maturity isn't there because the emotional tools aren't there people go into a cycle of self harm because by self harming they're both doing they're doing two things really on the one hand they're exerting some control over the problem because at least if they're self harming it's something they are doing to themselves so gives them control over a problem that they feel they have no control over and the other aspect of self harm of course is it does numb the pain that actually drove them to to to start self Haring in the in the first place so for example some people whove been sexually abused will self harm or some people who' have gone through some trauma of children they'll begin to self harm it's just another strategy to ease the pain and that too could become a compulsive Behavior pattern just like any other addiction when Amy was self harming and and that happened when she was in her relationship with Blake and at times they even appeared to do it together together that was one of for me one of the most unsavory Parts o of her decline because you just knew something was really really wrong to be doing that I mean she was just married she was with the guy she had all the success she wanted in the world so why was she self harming it just it made no sense in the end the record company just gave up on Amy in a lot of ways they didn't want to put any pressure on her to release the Third album or to record a third album because they knew how emotionally vulnerable and fragile she was so actually because I think they felt the stakes were so high back to black was such a brilliant record they weren't going to release something until they knew it was spot on it was also clear that Amy was becoming worryingly skinny and frail she was suffering from a tragic eating disorder bulimia this combined with her dangerous binge drinking habits and drug use meant that Amy's body body was being pushed to its absolute limits late 2008 Amy made public she had an early stage of empa it's quite shocking that Amy was diagnosed with empa in her mid-20s really young and her friend said that she could drink Vodka all day that combined with medication or drugs and it could just have been a lethal cocktail um for a 27 year old girl she looks great when she was able to doll herself up um put on the makeup but you could tell sometimes she was very thin I think the real tragedy is that there were glimmers of hope that sometimes she did look okay she was trying to write songs she was able to perform now and then and that's the real tragedy that that we thought she might just get there but what's interesting and what's little understood really and Amy wios made a point about this she said alcohol was worse than heroin she said said alcohol is a real Poison she said and if you look at the effect both on on themselves and on others alcohol is by far an away the most one of the most dangerous and and and socially destructive drugs it just happens to be legal it's an accident of of history or whatever it just happens to be legal so just because a Drug's legal doesn't mean you know it it's safe and doesn't mean it can't ravage you as much as the most supposedly the most blacklisted of illegal drugs I met Mitch twice and interviewed him extensively both times the first was the first time he'd actually publicly been interviewed and it was when Amy was really quite ill and I said to him it must be heartbreaking for you to know that people have almost penned her aiter because they're waiting and he said you know Martel it's something I've done myself mentally I've penned her aiter many times what's tragic is that that came to pass class when I interviewed Mitch the second time and he was more buoyant he was talking about Amy's boob job he was talking about her inspiration part of it came from him he used to sing Frank's natural songs to her and his concern was still there obviously his daughter was troubled still addicted but he seemed more hopeful than he had been six seven years ago how's Amy doing at the moment she's doing pretty good she's uh you know I think she's made a very good recovery and uh clearly there's a long way to go in a lot of Senses but um she's doing fine now you see her on a daily basis people pick up the papers and they see what they see tell us about the girl you know the girl you see and the person behind the Tabloid headline well I mean she's she's my daughter obviously and um as my daughter I love her very much and she's a great she's a member of our family and we're a very strong family unit and um you know but clearly she's in a vulnerable condition at the moment and um she she she needs to perhaps be more aware of the consequences of her actions right now by mid2 2008 the world was moved by the tragic downfall of Amy and her ongoing battle against addiction and substance abuse she once again went back into rehab and this time looked to be trying to change her ways under the help of family and friends she recognized that she had a problem perhaps 6 months ago she felt that uh whatever she was involved involved with the drug addiction she could handle it and she could stop it whenever she chose I mean clearly that you know she was deluded that isn't the case she can't do that and she needs help and we are guided as I've said many times before we are Guided by most fantastic team of Physicians my first reaction would be to pick her up put her somewhere safe lock her away until she gets better she has freedom of choice to do whatever she whatever she chooses um but but but clearly the the the the impetus is moving forward and she's in a much better position um than she was 6 months ago unfortunately because of Amy's rehab visits the Press were mounting pressure on the star daily articles criticize the star and the lack of respons ability of her family well I can't imagine that even the tabloids are willing not to recover um of course there isn't a story there if she does recover I mean clearly it's not much of a story if she gets better and um you know I've tried several times to impart some good news to the tabloids uh and you know sometimes I haven't really been interested um but you know clearly the way things are at the moment Amy's vulnerable she's a Target you know and people understand they know how the Tablo work and you know it's not it's not as if they have put a bounty on her head and said if you uh get into an altercation with Amy it could be worth5 or £10,000 but it's kind of a an unspoken um implicit agreement between the tabloids and and and the population that is if you can rough up a star or better still if you can get thumped by a star you know you're on a you're you're on a winner you're on a winner and that's basically the problem in January 2009 Amy win housee escapes the spotlight in a two-month Getaway on the small Caribbean island of St Lucia when she returns to the UK she's looking happier and healthier than ever there was hope that her life was finally turning around but despite getting helped for her drug addiction she continued drinking heavily to make things worse after numerous fights and arrests her relationship with Blake ends in a fiery divorce I'm wa for to mon the point about addiction and the point about addict is that we can't separate normal people from addict normal people fall in love normal people have all the rush of dopamine all the pleasure chemicals in the BL being released when they fall in love that's and that's there for good evolutionary reasons that's why we reproduce that's why we build families it's why we get married it's why we find our soulmates but sometimes sometimes those that process kind of gets overwhelming for people and in the case of Blake and Amy their addiction to drugs was a mirror of their addiction to each other and there's only one way in which their personal relationship to drugs and their personal relationship with each other could end and that was in destruction it had to end that way because they were fueling each other's dependency not only on drugs but also on each other on top of all that in late 2009 going into 2010 Amy struggled with several legal disputes arrests and intoxicated misdemeanors her drinking had only gotten worse and as a result her career was beginning to suffer family and friends once again reached out for help with big stars like Tony Bennett wishing her a speedy recovery I I wish her the best I hope that she straightens out with that and it would help so many of her fans just so that she was able to do it do you think the people around her need to be stepping up really and taking a little bit more control and helping her it's really up to her you know she she's going to be have be the one that just say wait a minute because uh one thing about drugs it finally gets to you you don't get to it it gets to you May 2011 Amy win housee announces to the world that she will return to rehab to battle her crippling alcohol addiction just 6 days later Amy checks herself out of the rehab facility declaring that she has finished an assessment and is raring to go on her European tour the tour was to be Amy's comeback to rebuild her reputation but it would prove to do just the opposite whilst in Belgrade Serbia Amy's comeback tour turns into a nightmare Amy struggles to stand up slurs her words and doesn't even get through a single song she's too drunk to perform the angered crowd Boo the 27-year-old off the stage and the comeback tour is cancelled Amy win housee would never perform on stage again this show was a complete and utter shambles it was the worst yet and believe me there had been some pretty bad Amy wi house performances however she was booed off stage she threw the mic microphone into the crowd she didn't remember her words and of course in this modern day of YouTube it all ended up on the Internet within a few hours and at that point there was huge pressure on her management because so many questions have been asked why was she on tour in the first place so as a result of that criticism they actually canel the rest of her European tour and she came home and they said they were going to focus on her health now again is there an argument to say actually maybe she was safer when she was on the road and Performing because at least she had her Support Network around her at least she was doing something but the fact of the matter is when I saw her on stage during that shambolic performance in Belgrade I just thought this is not right this is not a woman who should be on stage she should not be performing something has to be done here as Amy returns to her home in Camden the media focuses on her tours failure endlessly criticizing her addiction and lack of self-control once again after reflecting on her poor performance during the the tour Amy seems to be preparing to change her life for the better she makes a number of phone calls to her friends and fellow musicians promising a better and brighter future she discusses plans hopes and her goals she had a purpose again but unfortunately Amy's life was soon to be over as a dad what would your greatest wish be for Amy's future well I F to be well for to have a loving relationship with whoever she chooses to have that loving relationship with could be Blake um to carry on her fantastic relationship with with the family that we have and to to do whatever it is that makes her happy you know she's she wants to have a family maybe that will be her druger choice family children she'd love to have children but of course again not not as far as a is concerned but generally you know people who are are addicted to drugs it's unwise for uh people to have children because their children could be born as addicts she understands all of these things and all of these things are helping her to begin to make the right choices and as a dad I'll ask you another question what would be your biggest fear well my biggest fear is that she would [Music] die on the 23rd of July 2011 Amy WI house was found dead by her bodyguard Andrew Morris the cause of death was proclaimed to be due to alcohol poisoning police were called by the London Ambulance Service to house in Camden Square Northwest 1 shortly before 1605 hours today on arrival officers found the body of a 27-year old female who's pronounced dead at the scene nextkin have been informed and I can confirm that the deceased is Amy win housee I picked up the phone and Andrew Andrew was um crying and he said um you you got to come home I said is she dead he said yeah am's dead immediately in my mind it was it was like my mind that [Music] empted there's no doubt Amy was still in love with Blake at the end of her life she really couldn't accept that he was with another girl that he had a child what's really heartbreaking is that Amy win housee said I love singing but I was put on this Earth to be a wife and to be a mother and she was a wife too Blake but she never got to be the mother that she so craved to be and she had to watch the love of her life have this child with somebody else indeed Blake's partner came forward to say that he's absolutely devastated um about her death and that she kind of knows that she's always going to be second best to Amy she saw them together Amy and Blake and said that they were soulmates which is quite hard for a woman to accept that you're never going to match up to the love of your partner's life the cycle from being a a a a young woman with such extraordinary raw talent to being dead at the age of 27 was a tragic cycle and it's one we've seen many times before I mean that's something called the club 27 this is of all the great rock and roll artists who who've died and it began with Robert Thompson in 1938 when he died at 27 and look at the names Jimmy Hendrick Janice Joplin Jim Morrison Kirk Cain these are all people Brian Jones of the stones these are all people who died at 27 and sometimes people get on a certain trajectory and come hell or high water you can't stop them and they can't stop [Music] themselves Amy's funeral was on the 26th of July the ceremony was attended by all of her family as well as some of her industry friends such as Mark Ronson and Kelly Osborne it was a loving final goodbye to the young sadly troubled star not long after Amy's funeral the media went into looking for who was to blame for Amy's death and turn their attention to her ex-husband Blake Fielder civil Blake got a bad press and sometimes it was deserved what is wrong is to blame anybody for somebody else's death Amy was an addict every addict is introduced by someone and ultimately they have to take responsibility Georgette who's Blake's mother said that they were soul mates Amy and Blake but they were both as bad as each other they both dragged each other down and it's well known that when two addicts get together and they're in a relationship if one tries to get clean the other will often bring them back it's like if two people smoke one of them smoking the other will give in and say oh I'll have one they were both as bad as each other and they loved each other so much that it destroyed Amy I don't think I don't think Blake will ever get over this I think Blake loved Amy every bit as much as Amy loved him and it is unfair to paint him as a callous character who killed her people do say that and it's very unfair because here's a man who asked not to get a penny in divorce and who says that he loved her so much but couldn't be with her couldn't be without her they were both exactly the [Music] same I mean Amy had been given a lot of help for a lot for a long time so she was seeing a doctor up until she died she was ironically an outpatient at of the prior the big rehab facility in the UK at the time of her death so there is an argument that she was being looked after at the same time I believe there will always be questions about whether enough had been done I mean why wasn't she sectioned for example that's a question that I think will potentially haunt some of the people close to her did she need more people around her 24 hours a day she had one bodyguard but maybe she needed more care caregivers in the house checking on her once an hour I mean look it's one of these things where it's very easy in hindsight you don't want to blame anyone but I do think some questions about whether she was being looked after in the right way obviously valid because for whatever reason it didn't work she died so there have to be some [Music] questions loud as a losing game five story fire you came as a losing game why I I never [Music] played a mess we made and now the [Music] final the terms Legend and genius when it comes to singer songwriters are way too overused Amy deserves them she absolutely does there's only one album that was amazing but my God what an album it was it will be played forever um an Amy win housee it's not just the songs there was only one Amy wine house there was only one girl with the Daft hair and that she had her look she had her sound and she was [Music] loved I think she will fundamentally in the end be remembered for her voice which was so unique but I also think she should be remembered as a songwriter incredible lyrics incredible Melodies and also she was groundbreaking because remember at the time when Amy burst onto the scene it was all about Britney Spears and those sorts of artists and she paved the way for the likes of Adele and I don't don't believe we would have Adele who's now the biggest recording star in the world if we hadn't had Amy win housee before her the one thing that has to be said though that somewhere with a woman like Amy wiers who had such enormous Talent such huge talent and lived so much on the edge and F so valiantly against her addiction people kind of identify with that kind of struggle people think you you know what they but for the grace of God go I and somewhere they just want to give her tribute well you might not have made it but you did your best and that's what matters and Amy W as once said I don't ever want to be mediocre she says and she talks about people in the chart she says they have no soul well the thing about Amy wi ass was there was nothing mediocre about her and she had bucket loads of Soul that's why I should be remembered and that's why people really want to pay tribute to her you know we had it in a very short time we had some amazing times together we got to make some great music and then very grateful cuz she kind of is the reason that I have a career really you know you know every every maybe 10 15 years you get a great one that comes along and that was her they don't come along very often she was very unique and she started a whole new style Adele and all these girls couldn't be here if it wasn't for Amy she started something she made it about the voice again and that was amazing you know not about looking pretty and all that stuff it was about pure talent you know during her life Amy set up the Amy wine housee Foundation which worked to prevent the effects of drug and alcohol misuse on young people soon after her death her her father Mitch mother Janice and stepmother Jane all work to help keep the foundation going and attending events in Amy's honor also dad it must be difficult but do you have an overriding favorite memory of Amy well you know there are so many it's difficult to know where to begin a I mean we would uh I was just talking before about uh I think two months after B to Black came out she was number one all over the world she was a dell and Lady garar rolled into one and she said to me dad let's go for a walk in SoHo and we started at the top of wardor Street and we're walking down she just a sec Dad she went into the Caribbean restaurant went downstairs and she was talking to her friend down there and the cook her name's auntie and she knew all about her and all about her family and then we came out and then we went into ryman's the stationer she all the girls in there then we went you know everywhere she stopped she knew everybody and was genuinely knew everything about them and I remember looking at and thinking you know what there are not a lot of young women in your position that will bother with this kind of stuff yeah my mom was exactly the same and that was I was that made me so proud of her she was just a normal normal girl with obviously an extraordinary Talent after she went we we didn't know how we were going to carry on but the foundation has given us a purpose it's um really important and um it it helps it's really helped all family to come to terms with her [Music] loss Amy's Legacy will forever be remembered despite making the headlines everywhere for her troubled relationships and her dependency on alcohol and drugs it was her music that helped her stand out and relate to audience is all over the world although she tragically died at just the age of 27 her music will forever live on and continue to inspire upand cominging artists and it's safe to say everyone will always remember the name Amy win housee can be draining when you have written a song about something very very serious to you it can be draining but also it gives you energy you can get energy from writing a song about something personal because um you are kind of shaking it off and once you put it in a song that's it it's done for me or once I have put situations in song I'm cable about them and I can I think yeah that's good I'm cool now you know and it it does go both ways [Music] yeah [Music]

Channel: Amplified - Classic Rock & Music History

Views: 173,159

Keywords: Amplified - Classic Rock & Music History, Amy Winehouse story, dark truths of fame, documentary film, downfall of fame, hardships revealed, iconic figure, industry challenges, life-threatening issues, mental health battles, music legend, music sensation, poignant journey, raw talent, retro vibe, rise and fall story, struggles with fame, substance abuse, troubled genius, troubled past, voice of a generation

Id: nkzq3fXxeo4

Length: 62min 31sec (3751 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 10 2024