Amy Winehouse, Hovefestivalen 2007. Foto: Kim Erlandsen, NRK P3, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nrk-p3/2325404812/
Amy Winehouse may have died of a seizure brought on by excessive detoxing, her father Mitch Winehouse revealed in an interview with CNN.
“She drank to excess and did detox to excess”, he said. No illegal drugs were found in the singer’s body at the time of her death, but Mitch Winehouse told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that a large amount of “powerful anti-anxiety drug” Librium – prescribed to help her with the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal – was discovered by the toxicology report. NME reported that Librium has recently been linked to the deaths of Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger. Mitch, who had seen one of her fits first hand, said of the drug: “it increases the chance of seizures.” He continued: “I think she had a seizure and this was the time when there was no one there to rescue her.”
- Out of the woods. Both Mitch and Amy’s boyfriend, Reg Traviss, are adamant that hard drugs had not figured in Amy’s life since 2008. Her death seems particularly capricious to her father, also interviewed by The Daily Mirror, as he said her periods of abstinence had been getting longer, and, during the last six months, she had seemed particularly happy. “Four years ago it would have been fair enough. But I thought we were out of the woods,” said Mitch Winehouse.
- Into the future. A foundation will be set up in Amy’s name to help young people fight addiction. “We’re not going to say she was a saint and forget the drug stuff,” said Mitch Winehouse, but besides offering a warning to youngsters there was “a lot in Amy’s life to admire”. In a compellingly frank speech, he admitted that the foundation’s guaranteed exposure gives it great power: “our strength lies in our lobbying position. And that’s all going to be in her name”. The fund will start taking donations from Wednesday, which would have marked the singer’s 28th birthday.
