Mitch Winehouse went “numb” when he was told his daughter Amy had died.
The father of the Back to Blacksinger had just arrived in New York City on July 24 when he got a call from Amy’s minder to tell him she had passed away unexpectedly at her home in north London and he admits he will never forget that sad day.
“I was in New York when I found out,” Mitch said. “I was at my cousin’s, cuddling his newborn babies.
“He had just been asking me how Amy was. I said she was fine then my phone rang. It was Andrew, her security guard, in tears. He said something terrible had happened. Amy had died. I couldn’t understand him at first. I was like ice. I was cool as a cucumber. I told him to tell me again … I was in a terrible state of shock. I was just sitting there.”
After hearing of Amy’s death Mitch flew straight back home to the UK and he spent the entire flight in a state of total shock that his 27-year-old daughter was gone.
“I was just sitting there,” he said. “The flight home was horrendous. In my mind, I was saying, ‘Stop messing about, Amy’. She was a practical joker and I just hoped everyone had it wrong even though I knew it was right.
“It was horrible. I couldn’t cry. I wasn’t able to do anything. I was just numb.”
Mitch believes Amy who had struggled with alcohol and drug abuse before her death passed away from a seizure related to her alcohol detoxification.
While the part-time jazz singer who separated from Amy’s mother, Janis, when she was young still can’t watch videos of them together, he tries to remain positive, and is also still close to Reg Traviss, her boyfriend at the time of her death.
“I can’t watch any footage of her. I broke down when I saw some clips of us together on TV. But I want to remember everything about her. The good times and the bad times. I don’t want to forget anything,” he said.
The cause of Amy’s death has not yet been determined, although a toxicology report has ruled that drugs and alcohol did not contribute to her passing.
Mitch is launching the Amy Winehouse Foundation this week, a charity which will help young people suffering from addiction problems.
