LAUREN GILBERT: These are the only three people left.
This is Mr. Alex Dale, Mrs. Juliette Ashby,
-and Mrs. Amy Rhythm House. -Oh, my booby!
In other words, Mrs. Amy Winehouse.
- Um, everyone else is gone. This was my... -Do you want a lick of the lollipop?
- Come on, have a lick. -GILBERT: No, I don't...
- No, no... -Have a lick. Come here and lick it.
- Come here and lick it. -GILBERT: I'm trying to talk.
No one wants to lick your slobbering lollipop.
- Lauren, just lick it. -Here's me.
It's my 14th birthday evening and party.
(SINGING) Happy birthday to you
BOTH: Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, dear Lauren
Happy birthday
To you
-(lvlllvllcs CYMBAL) -(JAZZ PLAYING)
AMY: I was singing with a little jazz unit, The National Youth Jazz Orchestra.
Must have been about 16.
And I just loved jazz.
Dinah Washington,
Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett.
I learnt to sing from listening to stuff like Monk,
and a lot of soloists as well, rather than just listening to singing.
I learnt from everything, really.
(JAZZ MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING)
So singing has always been important to me,
but I never thought, "I'll end up singing. I'll be a singer."
I just thought I'm lucky that it's something I can always do if I want to.
I'm so lucky like that.
But I didn't think it would be a career choice.
(INAUDIBLE)
NICK SHYMANSKYI What's the date?
- Today? -24th.
- Is it? Yeah. -Yeah.
- SHYMANSKYI The what? -24th.
SHYMANSKYI Of What?
January.
- And, um, what day is it? -Saturday.
And, um, what year is it?
Lunch time.
SHYMANSKY: I was a 19-year-old office junior
for a promotions company owned by Simon Fuller.
I just started to try and kind of blaggat myself as a talent scout.
I was definitely out of my depth.
ANN: My friend Tyler, he's a singer,
he was with Nicky Shymansky, and Tyler said,
"My friend Amy sings jazz and she's great."
And Nick, he said to me, "Do you want some studio time?"
And I said, "For what?"
He's like, "Well, if you write songs and make a record,
"get a record deal."
I was like, "Would you get out of here."
-(GUITAR STRUMMING) -Hello.
- I look ugly, Nicky. -(LAUGHING)
Yeah, look at you. You look lovely.
I don't. My chin's massive.
-(LAUGHS) -WOMAN: What about your chin?
That's there forever.
(SINGING) There is no greater thrill
Than what you bring to me
No sweeter song
Than what you sing
Sing to me
MAN: Is that you recording?
Yeah. Hello.
I'm just here smoking a fag.
I'd just like to... Oh, I look so grim.
I look like a floating head, you know, I've got no hair.
(LAUGHING) I'm just on a black screen.
There's my hand. What's going on?
SHYMANSKY: We'd recorded quite a few demo recordings,
and I started to talk about whether she'd ever consider writing.
She said she's not sure about writing songs, but she's written a lot of poems.
(SINGING) And he's my life
SHYMANSKY: She knew full well she'd been writing songs,
but they were very personal songs.
(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)
AMY: I wouldn't write anything unless it was directly personal to me,
just 'cause I wouldn't be able to tell the story right,
because I wouldn't have done it.
Even though some of it is personal in a sad way,
I'd never let it just be that.
I'll always put a punch line in the song.
Just try and be different with my lyrics.
(JAZZ MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING)
GUY MOOT". Someone gave me a CD, two songs,
and they weren't necessarily what you call hit songs,
but they conveyed an emotion that just touched me.
When you have that as an artist, you usually have a story to tell behind it.
But it's a big leap of faith.
I think my boss even questioned the deal because we were really committing to giving
an unsigned artist close to a quarter of a million pounds.
(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)
(AMY SPEAKING)
ASHBY: We both knew that we wanted to live with each other.
We both knew we wanted to move out.
She had her family issues,
and I had lots of things going on with my family,
and we looked after each other.
It was amazing.
We were young kids, and we were best friends
in a flat, on our own.
GILBERT: She loved it.
Juliette would sing, Amy would sing,
and we just used to see each other all the time.
We used to go to so many gigs with Amy,
and when she first started doing her music, we were all so excited and proud of it.
SHYMANSKY: Where are we, Amy?
We're in Brighton.
SHYMANSKY: Yeah, but what are we in now?
Um, we're in, uh... Whatsit Square.
Regency Square.
In a black cab. In a white cab, beautiful cab.
- SHYMANSKY: Lauren's with us. -(YELPS)
(LAUGHING)
Do you know what my favorite thing about Nick here is?
His legs.
(CHUCKUNG)
SHYMANSKYI AW.
You know what my other favorite thing is?
SHYMANSKYI What?
(WHISPERING) Not your hair.
SHYMANSKY: She could make you feel so important.
And then, all of a sudden, very unimportant.
And then make you feel so important again.
That was what she did.
She liked to get people into a comfortable position
and then shock them.
If I got my hair right, then what would that mean?
That would mean you were ready to marry me.
(AMY SPEAKING)
SHYMANSKY: Her first relationship was with an older guy called Chris.
She really got the hots for him, madly in love with him.
She wrote a few songs about having the hots for him.
And then, eventually, she lost interest.
She always used to talk about it, and she started writing about that.
(AMY SPEAKING)
(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)
(SINGING)
ANN: I think when I was growing up,
the music that was in the pop charts, or the...
You know, the music that was...
That people were releasing at the time,
I just thought, "This isn't music.
"This is watered-down, or this is, you know, just crap."
"Someone else has written it for you, and you have to sing it."
It's very much the case with some music today.
So, I really started writing music just as a... To challenge myself, you know,
to see what I could write, or, you know,
just because there was nothing else there that I could listen to at the time.
And having listened to jazz and, you know, great songwriters
like James Taylor and Carole King, you know, it was very...
I felt like I had nothing new that was coming out at the time
that really represented me or the way I felt,
so, you know, I just started writing, really, my own stuff, and from personal experience.
- This is, um, I Heard Love ls Blind. -(LAUGHTER)
Let me just clip my hair out of the way 'cause, um, it's distracting right now.
NICK GATFIELD: I remember thinking when she walked in,
she was this complete force of nature.
And I thought, "Wow, there's something about you,"
and I remember thinking, "Please be good."
I was in Miami with a guy called Salaam, and, um...
I'm really proud of it.
GATFIELDI She was 18,
and she was a very classic North London Jewish girl,
a lot of attitude, quite shy,
but something emanated from her. She had a charisma.
(SINGING)
GATHELD: When you looked at her lyrical capability and her melodic capability,
she was a very old soul in a very young body.
And we did the deal very, very quickly.
(APPLAUSE)
SHYMANSKY: Amy's album came out yesterday, and how many has it sold so far?
A pretty staggering 800 actually.
SHYMANSKYI That is at least...
I mean, I've emptied my bank account buying 600 of them.
SHYMANSKY: At least half my friends have bought the album.
-(LAUGHING) -I'd better call the other half up today.
Snug in her rug, she's going to give a look.
- Amy? -(CELL PHONE RINGING)
Explain what your little hub is all about.
BARTER: Oh, you're coming... Are you coming by?
AMY: Sleeping!
SHYMANSKY: (LAUGHS) Just give us a smile, and then we can turn the camera off.
Come on, just give us a quick one, a one-second flash.
(SHYMANSKY LAUGHING)
(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)
GARRY MULHOLLAND: How big do you think you're going to be?
ANN: I don't, at all.
Because, you know, my music is not on that scale,
the music is not on that scale.
Sometimes I wish it was,
but I don't think I'm going to be at all famous.
I don't think I could handle it.
I'd probably go mad, do you know what I mean?
I would go mad.
SHYMANSKY: Where are we going?
We're going to Birmingham.
SHYMANSKY: Why are we going to Birmingham?
We're going to Birmingham to sing songs.
- SHYMANSKY: Yeah? -And make merry.
AMY: Oh! That was sick! That was sick!
Nicky, that was beautiful.
What are your thoughts on how beautiful that was?
(AMY SPEAKING)
My turn. My turn.
SHYMANSKY: All right, let me get a really good shot.
Oh, what a shot.
AMY: Oh!
SHYMANSKY: She don't even care.
Watch it. Watch, it goes in.
Got no light in here.
Don't get my spots in.
SHYMANSKY: What spots?
- Lovely. -(BOTH LAUGH)
You know I'm zooming in there.
You're zooming in on all my spots?
You fucking cunt.
- Do I look okay? -Yeah, very good.
It's lovely.
Do you promise?
I promise.
What song do you think I should do first tonight?
Right, I think we should start off with, um...
I love your little cap, it's so cute.
Um, I think you should start off with a song called...
(SNIFFING)
Oh, on camera. Okay.
Okay. Go, sister.
- Go get down. -Shut up.
(SINGING)
(SCATTING)
In my bed
DJ: Could you please introduce yourself?
Yes. Hello, I'm Amy Winehouse, I'm 20. I'm a jazz singer.
DJ: I've heard your record, and it sounds very, uh, mature.
Is it all live, also, not only the singing, but also the instruments?
AMY: Yeah. All the instrumentation is completely live.
I wouldn't have any fake horns on my record.
I think they put fake strings on Take The Box,
but I wasn't a part of that.
I would never ever have put strings on my record, ever.
And this guy doing the mix of this song, he just didn't even think about it.
DJ: Mmm-hmm.
Okay, um, just a couple of questions, um...
(AMY SPEAKING)
- DJ". Upset? -Yeah.
(AMY SPEAKING)
DJ". Oh, okay.
Okay, okay. Okay. Um...
SHYMANSKY: There wasn't a girl that had been gobby in the media for a long time,
and she could be very cutting,
especially if she got bored or felt misunderstood.
FEMALE INTERVIEWER: I don't know. It seems to me, though,
that every woman who writes about,
you know, kind of puts it down on a record,
doesn't do them any harm. I mean, look at Dido,
I mean, she used that album to clean out her emotional closet.
- Did she? -I don't know.
Yeah, it's all about the breakup of her relationship
and, you know, and kind of surviving.
- Mmm. -And, uh, not going...
I mean, like, the whole thing about not going down with the ship,
-you know? -Yeah.
Dido's Dido, but, you know, I mean, uh...
(SIGHS)
I think she's one of the most exciting and brilliantly talented vocalists to emerge
in this country in many, many years.
It is Amy Winehouse.
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
Fantastic.
You're managed by the company that look after S Club 7,
used to look after the Spice Girls, Simon Fuller.
Uh, have they tried to mold you in any way?
Have people asked you to do things
to change the way you look or speak or behave?
Um, yeah, one of them tried to mold me into a big triangle shape,
and I went, "No!"
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -Nah, you know, I've got my own style.
I've got my own style, and I write my own songs, and,
you know, if someone has so much of something already,
-there's very little you can add. -Yeah.
You know what I like about you as well is?
The way you sound so common.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -Thanks.
Yeah, because... Because I'm common, and, you know, it's like,
you know, it's so refreshing to hear someone
who isn't speaking like they've taken elocution lessons.
- Yeah. -Yeah.
They gave me elocution lessons, but they kind of... (SWOOSHES)
- They didn't stick? -Off my back, yeah.
(YOUNG AMY CRYING)
JANIS WINEHOUSE: I realized early on,
when Amy made her mind up, she made her mind up,
and I found it difficult to stand up to her.
She would say, "Oh, Mum, you're so soft with me,
"I can get away with murder.
"You should be tougher, Mum."
Well, I just accepted it.
I wasn't strong enough to say to her, "Stop."
(AMY SPEAKING)
MITCH ELL: I met another woman when Amy was about 18 months old.
We worked together, we were having an affair,
but another eight or nine years were to pass before I left home.
I was a coward.
But I felt that Amy was over it pretty quick.
(AMY SPEAKING)
JAMES: When Amy was a teenager, 13 or 14, she was being taken to the doctors
and, you know, she was on anti-depressants.
(AMY SPEAKING)
(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)
(SINGING)
BESTE: Amy used to always say to me that,
that was her dream, really, to do those sorts of shows.
To play in jazz clubs to small audiences.
She had one of the most pure relationships to music.
Such an emotional relationship to music.
It's like she needed music, as if it was a person,
and that she would die for it.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
Let me read this.
Oh, God.
Uh, and the winner,
and the song is Stronger Than Me,
-by Amy Winehouse and Salaam Remi. -(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
Let's give it up.
ANN: This is me, innit? Right here.
Wow. I don't believe this.
Um, thank you, Salaam.
Uh, there's no picture of him,
but Salaam is the most inspirational producer
I've ever worked with.
And, um, he has that unique skill of not just having the most appropriate beat,
but also, um, drawing the artistry out,
and I guess that's the story of this song.
And I wanna thank, um...
REMI: What I allowed her to do was to really just put her wit into her songs.
When I heard her sing in front of me, I could tell she was really like a jazz singer.
She had the stylings of a 65-year-old jazz singer
who knew the ropes up and down.
It was like, "Okay, if this is what you are when you're 18,
"then what are you going to be when you're 25?"
-(MUSIC PLAYING) -(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
Uh, we're now joined by Mos Def in the backstage area.
Thanks for coming and taking time and chatting to us.
I heard they was doing something, so I came down.
(BOTH LAUGHING)
YASllN BEY: I became aware of Amy in 2004.
I was out in England.
I'm a big jazz fan, and I really liked what she was doing.
I thought it was unique, I thought it was edgy
and sincere.
And that's the thing I like most about Amy
is that she didn't have any airs.
She was real.
(SINGING)
I had a chance to meet her while I was here, and we hit it off.
We became fast friends.
She was just a charming, sweet lady.
I had a bit of a crush on her, to be honest.
She was raw, she was fast with a blue joke,
could drink anybody under the table,
wasn't afraid to roll a smoke.
Had a big, giant laugh,
and was just a sweetheart, you know.
(JAZZ MUSIC CONTINUES)
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
You don't seem that bothered about everything,
do you know what I mean?
You have some artists that step in here and go,
"Right. I want that number one spot."
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. -"I want my album to go number one.
"I want to chase that with a second album."
- Well, yeah. -What's up with you?
I'm determined on the next thing.
I'm not interested in...
Success to me is not success to the record company
-or whoever. -What is success to you?
Success to me is having the freedom
-to work with whoever I want to work with. -Yeah.
To always be able to just fuck everything off
and go to the studio when I have to go to the studio.
- Or... -But you can't do that,
'cause you have other responsibilities now.
You're becoming an artist in the public eye.
So, all of a sudden, you're gonna be...
Look, I'm not saying you're gonna be hounded by the press,
but you're gonna have certain responsibilities
that are gonna come onto your doorstep that you may not particularly want.
Okay, that's cool, but I think the more people see of me,
the more they'll realize that all I'm good for is making tunes,
so leave me alone, and I'll do it.
I will put... I will do the music,
I just need time to do the music, you know what I mean?
(AMY SPEAKING)
ASHBY: When she went to Camden, it was very exciting,
'cause it was her first property that she'd bought,
and we were all really happy.
She loved Camden. She loved it up there.
But when she went to Camden, things started changing.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
PHIL MEYNELLI We were the indie kids.
Gazelles, The Rakes, Babyshambles,
everyone was a Camden band. Like, it was cool again.
PETER DOHERTY: In them days, it was very much like,
basically, if you were in a signed band,
you were a cunt.
Because the best-looking and the best-dressed and the coolest people
were the ones who were born to lose, really.
ANN: The Libertines, yeah. I slept for them.
I came to The Libertines a year later than everyone else.
But I'm not being funny.
They make people proud to be British.
That was London for a real spell, you know.
MEYNELL: Iran a club called Trash with my friend Erol.
Did the door there.
Blake would give out fliers for Trash.
We wouldn't have met each other.
A lot of people here wouldn't have all known each other
had it not been for Trash.
- That's fair enough. -Yeah.
It's the first place I learnt how to pull a bird.
MEYNELL: He just loved girls, you know?
He loved partying and he loved shagging.
Always in and out of bed.
BLAKE FIELDER: We met in a pub, in a good mixer in Camden.
I was at the bar, and then she came in.
We just sort of started playing pool, and we went to another pub.
And then we went back to Amy's house.
She was seeing somebody else, and I was seeing somebody else,
but I don't think of it as infidelity.
I just thought she was a young girl, and she was a bit naughty.
And I was the same.
(AMY SPEAKING)
FEMALE INTERVIEWER: Hi, Amy, you all right?
- How you doing? You okay? -Hi.
Look, what's going on with you at the moment?
'Cause, obviously, Frank was last year,
um, and we haven't really heard much from you since then.
So, when are we gonna hear from you next?
What's the next single?
Uh, I can't think of the next single.
I'm just trying to write the next album in a minute.
Uh...
You having that kind of writer's block thing?
Yeah, man, yeah, man.
It's hard to write, it's hard to write
because, uh, you can write a million things a day,
but it's hard to write anything you're proud of.
So, I'm just trying, you know, I'm just trying.
LUCIAN GRAINGE: I asked to see her.
She was late, and she came in with Nicky.
She was a character.
She always called me Uncle Lucie, and I really liked her.
And I had enough of a relationship with her,
so there's no flattery. It was like, blunt.
And I said, "Enough. I need another album.
"Now go and write one.
"This is horseshit. Frank was then, this is now.
"They're all gonna forget you."
She didn't like it.
- AMY: Nick Shymansky. -Yes.
Sit up a bit.
- Yes. -How are you today, darling?
I'm very good, actually. Thanks.
What about you?
Really good.
SHYMANSKY: In between all this, she decided
that she wanted me to leave 19 with Simon Fuller
to go and manage her.
She didn't like being connected with Pop Idol
and the Spice Girls.
But I thought it'd be incredibly disloyal at this point to walk away.
And Blake was very quickly becoming a bigger and bigger character in all this.
She was with him the whole time, and didn't want to go places without him.
FIELDER: We spent the summer together.
She used to say we were like twins.
And that was our relationship.
I used to like to sabotage myself, and I think Amy liked to sabotage herself.
Maybe that was our nature.
I used to ask her why was she promiscuous and why she was more like a man with sex.
It's indicative of somebody that's had a traumatic event,
maybe sexually, themselves.
Sort of made sense to me, from the way she was.
She'd just say, "it's nothing.
"I weren't abused when I was a kid, nothing like that."
And she said her dad leaving her mum was what caused this.
And then not really seeing her dad.
I understood.
I cut my wrists when I was nine years old.
I don't know if I wanted to necessarily die,
I just wanted my mum to leave my stepdad.
Me and Amy were quite similar.
AMY: I fell in love with someone who I would have died for.
We were in love and we were together.
And that's like a real drug, isn't it?
(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)
(KNOCK ON DOOR)
GILBERT: Oh, let's see who's gonna be behind the green door?
(IN ITALIAN ACCENT) Master of the house is not in right now.
She is gone somewhere for a meal
to be somewhere with someone.
She having dinner,
so I having a cheeky cigarette while she gone.
Don't tell her. Shh!
GILBERT: Cheeky, cheeky. Hey! Mi scusi.
Tell me about this place.
All right, while she's away, I give you a tour of the house.
Okay, ready? Okay.
First of all, I lead you into the main room.
This is usually reserved for entertaining guests,
but you come in my place, darling,
because no one is here today.
Okay, I lead you out to the grand patio.
Please, please follow.
Don't mind me and my big noggin.
GILBERT: What you do?
Okay, darling, this is the grand patio.
This is Cecil.
Cecil live here.
GILBERT: Cecil!
Then we have the bedroom.
It's very nice. There are some cupboards.
- Ooh! -See up here,
this is where I sleep when the master come home.
The toilet!
Sometimes, when I'm alone, I have a shower
in all my clothes.
I find this is the only true way to relax.
Also here, this is the hook I hang from
when I'm in trouble.
It's not very often, I'm a good boy.
I'm a good boy.
Okay, well, this is it.
Welcome to my humble abode.
(LATIN MUSIC PLAYING)
-(MOUTHING LYRICS) -GILBERT: Amy.
We are sitting in a little bar, drinking cocktails.
There's my cocktail.
There's Amy's yellow cocktail.
Think it's got Rohypnol in it.
GILBERT: Oh.
All of a sudden she went to me,
"Lauren, listen to this message. This is a message from Blake."
FIELDER: I just said to her that I didn't want to leave my girlfriend,
and we'd probably be better as friends.
GILBERT: She was obsessing over these text messages.
He wanted nothing to do with her, and she was obsessing over it.
All she wanted was for him to want to see her.
SHYMANSKY: It got messy.
He went back to his girlfriend. Then she got her own back.
She slept with his friend.
(AMY SPEAKING)
GILBERT: The person that lived opposite in the little court had Juliette's number.
And had called Juliette up to say, "Amy's fallen over,
"and she's hurt her head."
So, we've gone round there.
It looked like people had been squatting in her house.
It stank, it was dirty.
And she was lying on the bed,
and she had this golf ball coming out of her head.
So we worked till, like, 3:00 in the morning, and we cleaned the whole house up.
And I called her dad, and we called Nick.
(AMY SPEAKING)
(MALE INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
(AMY SPEAKING)
SHYMANSKY: We all met there,
and it was like, "This is getting out of control.
"We need to get her some help."
I tried speaking to the parents, and they really want to kind of take it on.
And so I Technically, I sort of kidnapped her.
I picked her up
and I thought, "I'm driving you to the middle of nowhere,
"and we're gonna sit there until you acknowledge what's going on."
And drove her to Black Park in Iver.
And it started off with her sort of laughing,
"You're such an idiot."
And then it turned into, "Don't be a prick." And she kicked my car.
And then she just broke down, eventually,
opened up about everything.
Said she thinks she's got a problem,
she was lost and out of her depth.
Horrible.
She agreed to go to rehab.
I took her to see the rehab guy.
She was like, "I don't want to talk about it, I'll go if my dad thinks I should go."
We'd spoken to Mitch.
We'd set it all up,
and she turned into a seven-year-old child.
Sat on her father's lap and put her arm round him.
MITCHELL: I said to the managers,
"She doesn't need to go to rehab, she's fine."
AMY: My dad did actually go, "You're all right, don't need to go."
So I said, "All right, Dad, I'll go and meet him,
"And then we'll back out." Which I did.
MITCHELL: She didn't need to go to rehab.
SHYMANSKY: I think that was the moment we lost a very key opportunity.
I'm not saying it would have worked.
Very often, you have to go two or three times,
but she wasn't a star, she wasn't swarmed by paparazzi.
We could have just fucked Back To Black off,
and Back To Black might have never happened,
but she'd have had a chance to have been dealt with by professionals
before the world wanted a piece of her.
(PHONE RINGING)
(AMY SPEAKING OVER PHONE)
-(GUITAR STRUMMING) -(AMY VOCALIZING)
REMI: The label were considering letting her go.
She ends up coming back to Miami.
Guy Moot calls me up, like, "Hey, you sure you want to do this?"
And I was like, "Listen, even if you dropped her,
"I will pay her to come to my house and sing
"'cause this shit fucking moves me."
(MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING)
REMI: And she totally didn't drink the whole time while she was here.
And she sat out in my back garden for about four days.
She'd just take her little notebook and just keep writing.
(AMY HUMMING)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
AMY: It took me a while to get my head round a lot of things.
The actual turning point, when I was all right with it,
was when I started writing the album.
I write songs because I'm fucked up in the head,
and I need to put it on paper, and then write a song to it,
and to feel better about it.
Have something good out of something bad.
(MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING)
SHYMANSKY: The ideas were there,
four or five songs were there.
You can feel some creativity starting to happen.
But I was still very worried about her health.
She's really vulnerable and not in a good place.
And then she said,
"So, listen, are you leaving 19 to manage me?"
And I said, "You know what?
"Unless you let me help you sort yourself out,
"I'm not doing this shit for you.
"I can't watch you do yourself in like this."
GATHELD: I remember she came to see me
to talk about wanting to change management.
I said, "Look, that's entirely your decision.
"We will support you whatever you want to do."
And then she said she wanted to be managed by Raye Cosbert.
All I thought is,
"Why on Earth are you going to be managed by your promoter?"
I remember at the time thinking,
"We're now going to deal with a promoter
"whose main interest will be to get her out on the road."
And we knew she was very vulnerable on the road.
COSBERT: When I first met Amy, I was her concert promoter.
We got talking,
and she said that her contract was up with 19,
and she wanted to explore other possibilities.
She said, "Would you like to do it?"
And I was like, "Well, yeah, let's talk about it."
We got on quite well, you know,
I'd be the guy to turn up after the gig
and say, "Well done," with a glass of bubbly,
and I thought, "Well, sometimes someone just wants to change"
"because they feel it's right for them to change."
It's like switching bank accounts.
(INAUDIBLE)
SHYMANSKY: I was way too close to Amy.
I shouldn't have ever been that close, it should have been business.
But when you're 19, and you meet a 16-year-old,
and you go through that, you don't understand that.
We'd spent all these years together
and, all of a sudden, out of nowhere,
I wasn't there.
MARK RONSONI All right.
Let's get this tape. No, we'll keep that.
AMY: When I started writing the first song about Blake,
the other songs just wrote themselves.
I really was on a roll.
Because I had these feelings, I had these words fluttering around in me.
You write a song, you have to remember how you felt,
you have to remember what the weather was like,
you have to remember what his neck smelled like,
you have to remember all of it.
(SOUL MUSIC PLAYING)
RONSON: She would tell me stories about Blake
and this tempestuous, extreme relationship.
That first day she wrote Back to Black,
all the lyrics and the melody in two or three hours.
(SINGING)
(SOUL MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING)
(SINGING CONTINUES) Black
Black
Oh, it's a bit upsetting at the end, isn't it?
(MIMICS END OF SONG)
RONSON: Yes, Amy.
Yeah.
(WHISTLING)
RONSON: It was just one of those serendipitous things,
like I just caught her at that magic moment, you know?
And she was just ready to get it going,
and that's why I couldn't understand what everyone else
was saying about this procrastinating, troubled artist.
DARCUS BEESE: I went out to New York to kind of hear what they were doing.
And the day I was flying out,
I got a call from management saying that Amy's nan had fallen ill.
And she wanted to get straight back to her nan.
(AMY SPEAKING)
JANE". Cynthia used to look after Amy.
She was like the mother that I didn't have.
My own mother was not really motherly to me.
So, Amy and Cynthia were very, very close.
MITCHELL: My mum died May 5th, 2006.
She had lung cancer.
ASHBY: Cynthia was a very strong person in her life and used to tell her how it is.
So, it was horrible for her.
That killed her inside.
Wait, hang on, I'm not playing to track now.
Not playing to track now.
I'm not playing to track now.
I spoke to them, they said it's just unnecessary.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
BEESE: We were making the back end of the record, and we were at Metropolis studios,
and Amy had bits of vocal to finish.
Have I got a new drink? Did they bring another drink?
It's quite fun, really.
I've never been filmed like this. I've never done it before.
BEESE: And she was having a couple of whiskey and Cokes.
We had broke for lunch.
Amy had ordered this massive plate of food, and she had big dessert as well.
She finished the whole thing off, and she disappeared for a while.
And 45 minutes later, came back a bit kind of dazed.
And the studio manager pulled me out of the session
and said, "Look, I need you to come and see something."
She took me to the women's toilets, and Amy had thrown everything up
and literally redecorated the toilet.
She'd obviously been wiping her face,
and all the mascara had been rubbed off on the towels.
And that's when I kind of realized that something serious was wrong.
I had a toffee fudge, but I ate it.
JANE: When she was probably 15,
she one day said,
"I've got this really great diet, Mum.
"I eat what I want, and then I just bring it all up."
I know I'm a pig.
I know I'm a pig. I just can't help it.
JANIS: I obviously did not think that deeply of it.
My feeling was it would pass.
And then she told Mitchell about it.
He also sort of pushed it aside,
not taking it seriously.
That basically is bulimia.
And it doesn't pass.
AMY: Hello. Hello, you all right?
HOST: Welcome to the show.
Now, you've been away for a little while. What have you been up to?
AMY: I've done an album. It's called Back to Black.
HOST: Mmm-hmm. How would you describe it?
It's a lot more, uh...
I don't want to say more raw,
but it's not got all the clever, like, jazz chords.
It's not really like that now.
Been listening to a lot of girl groups, a lot of garage bands.
That's kind of what it's like. It's a lot more guitar...
I mean, I'm a guitarist, I've been listening to a lot more guitar bands.
I mean, in Camden, you can't really get away from it, so...
- HOST: You can't. -...it's rubbed off on me.
Would you go as far as to say it's a bit more accessible
than your debut?
I'd say it was more accessible.
It's not necessarily more poppy, but, you know, jazz is quite an exclusive...
- Not... Uh, it's quite an elitist music. -HOST: Mmm.
You know, and my...
This album is a lot less like that.
(SINGING)
(CAMERAS CLICKING)
FEMALE REPORTER: SO, let's talk about
-your music then. - AMY: Yeah.
And Rehab has gone down so well.
Are you kind of surprised by the reaction to it?
AMY: Uh, lam, actually. I never thought it'd be...
I never even thought it'd be a single, really.
The record company was just like, "We want it to be a single."
And I was like, "Okay, I love all of it."
You know what I mean? I'm really proud of it.
FEMALE REPORTER". Now the Q Awards, which you were at yesterday,
did you have a good time?
AMY: I had too good a time, to be honest.
If that's possible.
Alcohol is bad, kids.
WOMAN: Oh, yeah, we picked that...
MAN: Can you tie that any tighter? What are you doing?
You have to go and sing, you know.
WOMAN: How can you breathe when you're singing with that?
Breathe, sing, what?
(ALL LAUGHING)
BESTE: There was already this atmosphere of celebrity
all tied into Rehab.
Rehab was the pivotal song.
It was the song that gets her into a particular place,
her becoming a commercial star.
(CAMERA CLICKS)
JO WHILEY: The winner of the Best British Female this year...
Way more rock and roll than Liam Gallagher,
it's the one, the only,
Amy Winehouse!
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
(MALE INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
(AMY SPEAKING)
(LOUD CHEERING)
(CAMERAS CLICKING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
WOMAN: Leave her alone.
- PAPARAZZll 11 Amy? -PAPARAZZll 21 Amy?
MAN 3: Okay, let's just go.
Let's go.
PAPARAZZI 1 I Amy!
MAN: Let's go, man.
(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)
(AMY SINGING)
FIELDERI Mmm.
Kate, this is Blake, my fiancé.
- KATE: Hello. -Hello.
(couemwe)
RADIO PROMO: Turn the volume up.
We're kicking off the 107 days of summer
On 107.5, WBLS.
(SOUL MUSIC PLAYING ON RADIO)
I love, not like, Amy Winehouse,
because her voice is the most original voice I've heard in the last,
I don't know, 10 years.
My daughter, I turned on to it.
- Everybody, I turned on to it. -And I turned all my friends on to it.
Her CD is entitled Back To Black.
Please welcome Amy Winehouse.
(SINGING) I just
Oh, I just need a friend
See, I'm not gonna spend 10 weeks
Have everyone think I'm on the mend
It's not just my pride
It's just till these tears have dried
They tried to make me go to rehab
BEY: Amy called me, then I saw her in New York.
She wasn't puffed up about herself at all.
She was almost embarrassed by the fact that she was doing so well.
She expressed a lot of concern and fear about
where things were going to go, and how she was going to handle it.
She was just like, "What am I supposed to do in this space?"
(SMGMG) I won't go, go, go
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
Amy Winehouse, nice job! Thank you very, very much.
(PEOPLE SHOUTING)
MONTE LIPMAN: Everybody just wanted to spend time with Amy.
In our business, there's nothing
that can prepare you for that level of success.
There's no textbook.
You can warn an artist, you can try and prepare them for it,
but, at the end of the day, until you go through it,
it's unlike anything you've ever encountered.
(PEOPLE CHEERING)
PHOTOGRAPHER: By yourself, by yourself, by yourself.
FIELDER: How do you think the shoot's going, baby?
Really well, baby.
- Yeah, you enjoying yourself? -Yeah.
What's it like to be shot by Terry Richardson?
What's he like at shooting?
It's a lifelong dream come true.
What do you think about the broken glass?
- Um, I wrote "I love Blake" on my tummy. -Did you?
- Yeah. -Did you outline it?
- No, I wrote "I love Blake" on my tummy. -I can't see any scars.
Oh!
It's just chicken scratch.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
So, what's been the highlight of the day?
Um...
It'll be in about five minutes.
- When... -We go in the toilet and are fucking.
RICHARDSON: Blake, sit here.
FIELDER: Yes, Terry, sir.
Amy, sit there.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
Amy, all right, that's good, that's lovely.
STEVE KANDELL: You've been famous in the UK for a little while longer.
Does it seem like it's different how you are treated here?
In a way, too, compared to...
The way that people write about you, it's almost like a 23-year-old
has never wanted to go out and have fun before.
It's kind of hypocritical, in a way, too?
ANN: Uh, I won't lie. I really won't lie.
(FIELDER SPEAKING)
KANDELLI Yeah.
(FIELDER SPEAKING)
KANDELL: Um, you guys have known each other a long time, right?
You've known each other... You grew up together?
(FIELDER SPEAKING)
KANDELL: Almost?
(FIELDER SPEAKING)
(AMY SPEAKING)
KANDELL: Mmm-hmm. You were fighting to get her back?
(FIELDER SPEAKING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(MAN SPEAKING)
MAN: (LAUGHS) What happened?
(BOTH LAUGHING)
MAN: Always plays up to it.
FIELDER: The day we got married, we went out on a boat round Miami,
smoked a cigar, and it was like a real achievement.
An amazing thing that me and her had actually done.
We'd actually gone and got married.
And we did it exactly how we wanted to.
MAN: You lazy people.
(MAN LAUGHING)
Wave.
MEYNELL: Her whole thing was she wanted to feel how he felt.
And she was like, "I just want to feel what he's feeling."
"I want to be on the same level, otherwise he's there and I'm here."
That's what she wanted, that was the goal.
Hello.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
Welcome back to 45th At Night.
Please give a warm, warm round of applause for Amy Winehouse.
(SINGING)
(SINGING CONTINUES) Yeah, I cheated myself
Like I knew I would
(VOCALIZING)
I told you I was trouble
Yeah, you know that I'm no good
Thank you very much.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
Oh, have they? Bollocks. Have they? Fuck.
I thought that as well.
FIELDER: Amy, can you talk in the kitchen, please?
AMY: I don't know.
I don't know.
All right...
(AMY CONTINUES IN DISTINCTLY)
FIELDER: After we came back from America married,
that was the first time Amy tried crack cocaine and heroin.
I'd used both of them and enjoyed it,
and it completely eradicates any sort of negative feelings.
And then Amy tried it with me,
and it just got a grip of both of us really quickly from then.
FIELDER: Amy. AMY: Yes, love.
FIELDER: Come in here.
AMY: Coming. FIELDER: Oh, change the record,
just come on.
AMY: Pass me a little, love.
(INAUDIBLE)
(CROWD CHEERING)
(SOUL MUSIC PLAYING)
(SINGING)
(CAMERAS CLICKING)
MAN: Come on, Amy.
WOMAN: You all right for your performance then?
- AMY: Yeah. -Yeah?
MALE INTERVIEWER: Do you ever have time to stand back and think,
"it's all right. I did this?"
Yeah, um...
Uh, I don't know. Yeah, I suppose so.
I suppose if my husband's happy, I'm happy.
Um... Yeah, yeah, I've done well, I've done really well.
But, um, I just want to be able to go and do the next album, an album again.
And keep doing it. Just keep doing music, really, rather than...
I love doing gigs, though. I love doing gigs,
I just want to go and do another album now so... Yeah.
ASHBY: I got a phone call in the middle of the night, and Blake said to me,
"Something's happened.
"She doesn't know who I am, and she keeps saying your name.
"Can you come round?"
So, obviously, I got up and I got in the car and I started driving.
SHYMANSKY: I got a phone call from Blake
freaking out, off his nut, saying she's overdosed.
And I said, "Right, go to the closest hospital now,
"and I'll be there."
ASHBY". She was petrified.
He was petrified.
She looked like a child.
She'd scared herself, basically.
SHYMANSKY: And the doctor pulled us into a room and said,
"With the amount of cocaine, heroin,
"alcohol, and crack cocaine in her blood system,
"we're amazed she's not in a coma."
"You've got away with it this time,
"but she's a petite, young girl, her body can't keep up with this."
ASHBY: She was asleep, and it was very calm.
Nicky was one side of the bed, I was the other side of the bed,
and we said, "What are we going to do now?
"How do we deal with this?"
And then it all just started up, the whole circus started up again.
And that's when Raye and Mitch decided to do an intervention.
(CAMERAS CLICKING)
SHYMANSKY: Within hours, there were Sun, Mirror, News of the World journalists,
booked up in every room.
Every single conversation that happened was in The Sun and The Mirror.
Fuck knows if they were hacking the phones or whatever.
And there's pictures of all of us there, sat outside.
ASHBY: Amy was awake by then, and she was eating,
but she wasn't well and she wasn't right.
The doctor that they got in looked me dead in the eye and he said to me,
"if she has another seizure, she will die."
And then I was told that she was going to America to perform.
I thought, "No, she's not."
GILBERT: We had Mitchell in a hotel room with us, begging him,
"Please do something."
"What am I gonna do? She's gotta go on tour."
"Take her passport away from her. Do something so she can't go on tour.
"She needs help." "Can't do that, she's got a tour booked."
ASHBY: So I went into her room and I stole her passport,
and then I got told, "What have you done that for?
"She gotta go to America. Why have you done that?"
SHYMANSKY: The doctor's just been round to check her blood and check everything.
Blake's managed to get to Hook,
get into her bedroom,
and the next checkup,
the doctor's found out she's got heroin in her blood again.
GILBERT: When I found outwith the girls that she was taking heroin,
and we went to this hotel room that she was staying in,
and Amy just sat there and didn't really say anything.
Her manager then said something like,
"Girls, there are lots of professionals,
"lawyers and doctors, all sorts of people that function on this stuff."
COSBERT: In helping promote the album and get the shows on the road,
I'd kind of done what I'm supposed to do,
and I felt that it's now the family's responsibility.
I'm here, but there is only so much I can do about this.
FEMALE REPORTER: Amy Winehouse has pulled out of a string of concerts
in the US and Canada next month because of health issues.
The 23-year-old...
Now she's one of Britain's brightest talents,
but the singer Amy Winehouse has canceled yet more gigs.
This time in Norway,
after she was admitted to hospital in London yesterday.
Her record company say it was just down to severe exhaustion.
But with her reputation for hard drinking, drugs, and...
CHIP SOMERS: The Amy link came about through Russell Brand,
who was trying to get Amy to come into rehab.
And then also Mitch had got involved.
And I first met Amy when she came with Blake to be assessed for treatment.
It was very much being led by Blake, although I did think
she was probably more willing to go to rehab than he was.
She was a very vulnerable woman,
and I felt very clearly that it was a common case of one person
having a situation that was very beneficial to their using,
not wanting the other person to get better for fear of losing the gravy train.
They were insistent on doing rehab together,
which of course, we would've considered to be disastrous.
I would personally find it almost unethical
to take the couple into treatment at the same time.
But her management and Mitch
managed to find somewhere where they could go together.
(HELICOPTER HOVERING)
FIELDER: I was recording shit. It won't stop.
Heya. Say hello.
- Hello. -Amy, got anything to say?
FIELDER: Only if you sing your favorite hit, Rehab.
(SINGING) They tried to make me go
I said, "No"
Where are we right now? Amy?
Alex, could you say where are we?
FIELDER: Known to some as...
(ALL SPEAKING)
(ALL LAUGHING)
So can we have the new updated version of Rehab, please, Amy?
First time?
Amy, I want the new version of Rehab. Please, baby.
It's for our personal, private movie.
COSBERT: They came back from Osea Island and had a suite at the hotel,
and they binged.
It was ugly.
They weren't happy souls when they were high.
FIELDER: I kicked off. I broke a bottle, and I cut my arm.
And then she grabbed the bottle off me, and she nicked her arm.
And she said, "I'll do anything you do."
REPORTER: Come on. Amy? Nothing?
COSBERT: She said,
"Love is in some ways killing me, Ra ye-Ra ye. "
She felt torn between those two things.
The guy that she really loved,
but having to keep up with the consumption of substances
that they both were trying to do at the same time.
It was just a horrible pendulum of swinging one way to the other,
one extreme to the other all the time.
(SOUL MUSIC PLAYING)
(AMY SINGING)
Thank you.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
Ladies and gentlemen, Amy Winehouse.
And I've worked with a lot of people.
I'm telling you, she has one of the best voices of anybody of all time.
Amy Winehouse.
More trouble for Amy Winehouse.
The singer's Camden home was raided by police last night,
who used a battering ram to smash down her front door.
MALE REPORTER: This was the moment
police arrested and handcuffed Blake Fielder-Civil,
on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
A spokesman for The Star saying she was in no way connected with the arrests.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)
MAN: Can you shut the door?
COSBERT: When he went to jail, she spiraled downward very quickly.
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Amy.
MAN: Get out of the way.
(HORN HONKING)
(MAN SHOUTING)
(DOOR CLOSES)
MALE PRESENTER'. For Album Of the Year,
Amy Winehouse for Back To Black.
(PEOPLE CHEERING)
For Best Female Pop Vocal Performance...
Amy Winehouse for Rehab.
(PEOPLE CHEERING)
Can somebody wake her up this afternoon around 6:00 and tell her...
(PEOPLE LAUGHING)
...drunk ass.
MALE PRESENTER: For Best New Artist, the nominees are... Amy Winehouse.
MITCHELL: We did everything within our power to help Amy,
but you can't force treatment on somebody.
And I felt that that's Amy's responsibility to get herself well.
Okay, make some room, please.
MAN: This way. This way.
I can't see the steps.
GRANGE: By then she was incredibly famous, very wealthy,
and she had a complete infrastructure around her,
where everybody was doing everything for her.
And that's not real life.
We had the Grammys coming up.
I said, "You need to be clean.
"If you're not clean, you're not doing anything."
So I had a contract drawn up,
and it said,
"You, Amy Winehouse, have agreed to go to a facility now.
"You're never gonna make another record again.
"You're never going to perform ever again unless you get clean."
And God bless her. She did.
(PHOTOGRAPHERS SHOUTING)
ANNOUNCER: Live, it's music's biggest night of the year,
as the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
presents the annual Grammy Awards.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
This is going live tonight, thanks to the Grammys in the States, okay?
Now, uh, the lady behind me is up for six awards.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
She's already won two.
(CELEBRATORY DRUMMING)
There you are.
FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome two Grammy favorites,
Natalie Cole and Tony Bennett.
COLE". Good evening.
Grammy history has never sounded or looked any better than this man right here.
That's right.
(SCATTERED LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
Dad, Dad, Tony Bennett.
(SIGHS)
These are this year's nominees for Record of the Year.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
Irreplaceable, Beyoncé.
The Pretender, Foo Fighters.
Umbrella, Rihanna, featuring Jay-Z.
What Goes Around Comes Around, Justin Timberlake.
His album's called What Goes Around Comes Around'?
And Rehab, Amy Winehouse.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
And the Grammy goes to Amy Winehouse.
(ALL CHEERING)
Uh...
Thank you to everyone at Island Records.
Everyone at E Ml Music Publishing.
To Ra ye-Ra ye.
To Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi.
To my mum and dad.
For my Blake. My Blake incarcerated.
And for London. This is for London.
COSBERT: It was a beautiful evening.
When you get those awards like that, it just made all the work seem worthwhile.
JAMES: Amy's completely clean and looking amazing.
It's just overwhelming.
ASH BY: I was just hysterically crying.
I was so overwhelmed. I was so proud of her.
And I was just flashing our whole life, our childhood,
and then she saw me crying...
Juliette, come up.
(INDISTINCT)
ASHBY". She grabbed me, pulled me up on the stage,
and took me off the stage.
And I was like having a bit of a panic attack.
I said, "I can't believe this is happening.
"This is amazing. I'm so proud of you."
And I'm looking at her trying to get some form of reaction,
she went, "Jules, this is so boring without drugs."
And I felt really, really, really sad for her.
REPORTER: Amy?
Amy, how do you feel after winning the Grammy?
Did you enjoy it? Oops. Sorry.
BEY: I was staying at the K-West Hotel.
Very late in the night, she knocks on the door.
And I'm alone.
She comes in, and she just sits on the couch.
I remember feeling, like, really happy for her,
and also concerned
'cause she really didn't know how to be that thing
that she had been pushed to become from her own success.
Then she pulled out this aluminum foil.
She said, "Does this bother you?"
And I said, "Amy, I love you.
"I don't mind that you get high,
"but I mind that you get high."
She did what she did.
And I was like,
"This is someone who is trying to disappear."
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
(AMY SPEAKING)
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
(AMY SPEAKING)
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
(AMY SPEAKING)
Clear off right now, mate.
Gents, get away from the door, please.
No, mate. Fuck off, please. Sorry, mate.
ANDREW MORRIS: I was called out to do security for her.
The security that she had,
it just could not handle the whole paparazzi situation.
I could see that she was a humble person,
but she was just caught up in a bad situation.
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
ASHBY". She was not well at all. Physically, mentally, not well.
All she ever wanted was people to tell her, "Pack it in. Stop it."
And me and Lauren would not tolerate any of it.
(GLASS SHATTERING)
GILBERT: It was Nick that said,
"The only thing you girls can do
"is show her that you don't wanna be a part of it,
"and when she needs help, you are there for her. Tough love."
And I just said to her,
"if you want me to help you, I'll help you.
"I love you.
"But I don't like who you've become,
"and I don't wanna be around you."
SOMERS: Where a lot of money and a lot of expectation is at stake,
people's ideas become a bit skewed.
They want to try and get it sorted out
in a way that doesn't upset this financial trajectory that's going on.
MITCHELL: From the 6th of September,
we're not gonna be doing any more work for the foreseeable future.
Amy is going to be concentrating on writing her new album.
There's five gigs, which contractually we are obliged to do.
There's a couple this weekend.
(SINGING)
BESTE: It was all over the media that Amy was getting $1 million for some shows.
Huge money.
But, by that point, it was much more likely
to not be a good show than to be a good show.
She just wanted to get better.
She knew that things were wrong,
and she was just very exhausted and tired of the whole situation.
(SINGING CONTINUES) And if my daddy thinks I'm fine
He's tried to make me go to rehab
I won't go, g0, 9°
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
SHYMANSKY: She couldn't escape her life in this horrible goldfish bowl.
She began to unravel in public, and the media treatment pushed her
further and further over the edge.
Did you see Amy Winehouse in the paper this week?
My God!
She looks like a campaign poster for neglected horses.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
PHOTOGRAPHERS; Amy!
Easy, lad.
SHYMANSKY: It was like a feeding frenzy.
Suddenly, it was cool to crack jokes about a bulimic's appearance,
or her drug addictions.
According to contactmusic.com,
Amy Winehouse's next album will feature songs about cooking.
About cooking? That's what they say.
- Cooking crystal meth, black tar heroin... -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
(PHOTOGRAPHERS CLAMORING)
PHOTOGRAPHER: She's out HOW.
Let's go. Let's go fight. Who wants to go first?
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Amy, cheer up.
MAN: Go. We gotta go.
SHYMANSKY: She couldn't escape it.
No one would leave her alone. It was just disgusting.
The mainstream media was just all over her.
Amy Winehouse, erm, she's like, uh, a mad person.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
MORRIS: St. Lucia was our place.
We were supposed to be there for a week.
We'd end up there for six months.
WOOD: She decided that St. Lucia was a place that she really liked,
and she invited me to go.
You know, as soon as she went to St. Lucia, there was no more crack cocaine.
That was done. And that's when the heroin stopped.
But give her a free bar, of course she's gonna drink.
It was kind of obvious that she was just sublimating alcohol for drugs.
You know, I haven't seen Amy for six weeks, we've got a lot to talk about.
A lot of exciting things happening.
We're talking about the forthcoming album, some other business matters...
So, I think it's gonna be an exciting time.
Uh-uh. Naughty.
Amy! Amy!
REMI: She was like, "Why is he bringing another camera crew to St. Lucia?
"Dad, you want money? I'll give you the money.
"Why you doing your life story, which is really my life story?"
She just felt like, "You know, my dad is doing a lot of stuff
"for the money or limelight."
- MITCHELL: Do you want to go with her? -Yeah.
You follow down, if you want.
(MAN SPEAKING)
MITCHELL: I'll ask her.
Amy?
- How do you do it? -Just push and hold the button.
We're really sorry for bothering you.
- MITCHELL: Oh, okay. -Is that all right?
Okay.
(CAMERA CLICKS)
- Is that okay? Pleasure. -WOMAN: Thank you.
Thank you.
I've gotta say, why have you got to make a comment like that?
Why is it... Why?
Why have you gotta do that?
A mug of? They asked to take a picture of you.
No. Richard... I don't want you to do this.
(AMY SPEAKING)
MITCHELL: No, that's got nothing to do with it.
- Dad, I don't mind. -I'm talking to you about those two people
who wanted a lousy photograph, but you gotta make them feel bad about it.
(AMY SPEAKING)
SHOMARI DILON: She just wanted her dad,
and he didn't just come by hisself.
He came with cameras and audio guys.
But she worshipped the ground he walked on.
FIELDER: I was in jail with 500 fellows reading the paper,
and there's a picture of my wife on a beach with a fellow.
It's not easy to go through things like that.
To put it bluntly, I just didn't have a very high opinion of myself
after the treatment I've had for the past two years with my wife.
I kind of just had the wind knocked out of my sails.
So I just thought, "Fuck this. You know, I'm a big man.
"I'm an handsome fucking guy. I ain't on heroin.
"I'm going to the gym a lot. I dress well.
"So what the fuck am I doing wasting my time with her?"
(PHONE DIALING)
(AMY SPEAKING)
And then the chorus will come in.
And on the last verse
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)
(MORRIS SPEAKING)
(PHONE RINGING)
(AMY SPEAKING)
BENNETT: My son came up with the idea of getting the most contemporary artists.
And I kept saying to myself,
"Who sings the right way, the real jazz singing?"
And when I heard Amy Winehouse,
I immediately said, "This one's got it."
Everybody just said,
"Oh, I don't know how you're gonna handle her."
Where do you wanna be?
- I'll be here and you be here. -Okay.
This is weird.
I have never done anything like this. I've never done anything like this.
In which way?
- To sing with one of my idols... -Oh, no.
...and have it filmed.
- But it's good. -it'll be wonderful.
It's good 'cause then I can make my dad jealous after, when I show him.
-(LAUGHING) -When he sees it.
(SINGING) I can't believe it
It's hard to conceive it
That you would turn away romance
Oh
Are you pretending?
It looks like the ending
Unless I could have
One more chance to prove, dear
My love...
Sorry. Sorry. That was me. I was terrible. I was terrible.
- No, no, no. -I don't wanna waste your time.
It's getting better each time. Don't... Really...
I just don't wanna waste your time. That's all.
QBENNETT CLEARS THROAT)
We'll keep doing it till we got one.
It's all right, Amy. Okay?
You are not in any hurry, are you?
- No, of course, I'm not. -I'm not either.
So, we have time.
Just got to get it right. I've got to get it right.
I'm not getting it right.
No, you are. You are.
It's getting better each time, and you sound wonderful.
- Just a minute. I'm gonna get some water. -MAN: Okay.
BENNETT: The most famous artists I've ever met
are the most nervous before they hit that stage.
No matter how much you feel it,
you want to feel it even more,
so that it becomes an honest recording.
And that's what Amy had. She had that gift.
She was a natural, true jazz singer.
And a jazz artist doesn't like 50,000 people in front of them.
(SINGING) My life a wreck
You're making
You know I'm yours just for the taking
I'd gladly surrender
Myself to you
Body and soul
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you.
- I think we got it. -Yeah.
Okay.
You know, I'm like you, you know. Each time it's different.
Yeah. No, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's never the same thing twice, right?
- Yeah. -Yeah.
Well, no, I'm like you.
- Not you're like me. I'm like you. -(LAUGHING)
- I get it from... -Well.
...my idols like you.
That's the right way to do it.
(INDISTINCT)
REMI: She skyped me. She was happy.
The Tony Bennett thing, I mean, she was a fan.
It was about her saying, "I'm not a singer, I'm a jazz singer."
Then she said, "Let's do this jazz project with Questlove."
QUESTLOVE". She's such a jazz snob.
She would always be on her computer sending me MP3s.
"Listen to this. Listen to this. Listen to this."
I thought I had my doctorate in jazz, but, no, I'm like...
She taught me a lot.
She was like, "All right, we're gonna start a super group.
"You, me, Mos, and Raphael Saadiq."
I was like, "Okay."
And she'd, like, assign homework,
"All right, study this record. Study this record. Study this record."
CRISTINA ROMETE: Amy had a good period.
She could go for four weeks at a time with no alcohol.
And she very much felt
that she was the best that she has ever been.
But she went to the Priory in May to be checked,
and there were some very serious things that were being spotted.
It was the cumulative effect of drinking and bulimia.
She could feel perfectly fine and have heart irregularities.
Her heart can stop if she started drinking again.
I said, "Look, is this what you want?
"Do you want to die?"
And she said, "No, I don't want to die."
COSBERT: All the signs were positive.
And I thought, "Right, okay, we got a little chink of light."
The Tony Bennett thing was a good catalyst,
and it showed that she still had it.
We had the offers to do these shows,
and I said to her, "You don't have to do them.
"There's no pressure. We've got no record to promote."
But she wanted to do it.
REMI: She skyped me. She wanted to do all these other projects
with Questlove and Mos Def.
She was like, "I don't need this."
She just didn't wanna go.
BESTE: The material felt so tired,
and didn't feel relevant to her anymore.
But because she was such a huge star,
and there was all of these different pressures,
she had to keep performing Back to Black.
She didn't wanna do that.
JAMES: As soon as she knew that tour was looming,
she got wasted.
Wasted so that she wouldn't be able to go.
Amy was passed out asleep on a sofa.
She gets put in the back of a car, asleep,
and she wakes up at the airport and gets put on a private jet.
(CAMERA CLICKING)
(MORRIS SPEAKING)
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
ALL: (CHANTING) Amy! Amy! Amy!
(MUSIC PLAYING)
Belgrade!
Introducing Amy Winehouse!
(CROWD CHEERING)
Whoo!
(ALL BOOING)
DALE DAVIS: I wasn't sure what was going on.
She just wouldn't sing,
and it was the first time ever that had happened.
(MAN SPEAKING SERBIAN)
(BOOING INCREASES)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(WOMAN SHOUTING IN SERBIAN)
(BOOING CONTINUES)
BESTE: It felt like the end.
It was someone who just really didn't care anymore.
To the extent where she was willing to sabotage
not just her career, but her friendships, and her musical relationships.
But it's amazing to me. Why do they keep putting her on the stage?
Because surely her managers know she has a problem.
This was supposed to be a major comeback, guys, and she totally blew it.
Go!
(REMI SPEAKING)
SHYMANSKY: The 24th of July was my wedding day,
and Amy was due to be at the wedding, and we'd spoken,
and I felt like she was really excited about my wedding, actually.
And she said she hadn't been drinking, and she can't wait to see the family,
and Salaam and some people
that had been on the journey were going to be there.
(PHONE RINGING)
ASHBY: She rang me up, and I looked at the phone and I thought,
"Oh, my God! What's happened now?"
Because that's the first thing that goes in my head,
and she just went, "Jules,"
and it was my Amy, completely normal.
And all she kept saying was, and she'd never done this before,
she just kept saying, "Sorry."
it was like complete clarity over the whole situation
of the nightmare of the past
however many years that we'd just gone through.
"Jules, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
(VOICE BREAKING) "I 'm so sorry, I 'm so sorry."
You know, like, when you're a kid and you panic
that you've done something wrong,
and you want to just fix it there and then?
That's how it was.
I just wanted to go and grab her, bring her back to me,
wrap her in my house, not let her out.
And she called me the next day,
and it was just so weird hearing her talk normally,
because for so long we'd just been pining for her to...
Like, I missed my best friend, Lauren missed her best friend.
We just wanted to have a normal conversation.
She just kept going, "Can I see you?
"Will Lauren speak to me? Can we start again?"
I was like, "Of course we can. We're always here.
"You know we are. We've been waiting for you to talk to us."
And she said, "Well, I'm going to call you tomorrow,"
and I was like, "Okay. I love you."
"I love you, too."
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)
MORRIS: She just looked like she was sleeping.
She was on top of the bed, just sleeping.
But she was gone.
(MORRIS CONTINUES)
-(CAMERAS CLICKING) -(PEOPLE GASPING)
WOMAN: Rest in peace, Amy!
ROMETE: Amy's blood-alcohol level
was four to five times higher than drink-driving limits.
Maybe a combination of her eating disorders
and the alcohol, it just made her heart stop.
BENNETT". She was one of the truest jazz singers I ever heard.
To me, she should be treated like Ella Fitzgerald, like Billie Holiday.
She had the complete gift.
If she had lived, I would've said,
"Slow down. You're too important.
"Life teaches you really how to live it,
"if you could live long enough."
(CAMERAS CLICKING)
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)
(INAUDIBLE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)