Agencies/London


Winehouse and Bennett pose for a picture during the Body and Soul recording session at Abbey Road Studios in London on March 23, 2011
Amy Winehouse’s father has blamed her death on her efforts to quit drinking. In an interview aired yesterday, Mitch Winehouse said he believes his daughter died after suffering a seizure brought on by alcohol withdrawal.
“Everything Amy did, she did to excess,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “She drank to excess and did detox to excess.”
Almost two months after she was found in her north London home, the cause of Amy’s death has still not been identified.
While a toxicology report showed there were no illegal substances in the singer’s system, Mitch told CNN there were traces of Librium, a prescription drug used to fight anxiety and alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Some alcohol was also found in her bloodstream. This was part of a pattern Mitch said he had seen before.
Although he insists his daughter quit hard drugs in December 2008, alcohol was still a problem.
“The periods of abstinence were becoming longer, and the periods of drinking were becoming shorter,” he said. “It was heading in the right direction.”
Withdrawal caused seizures, Mitch said, and he believes one of these seizures killed her on July 23.
“There was nobody there to rescue her.”
CNN also spoke to Amy’s mother, Janis Winehouse, her stepmother, her aunt, and Reg Traviss, the singer’s boyfriend.
Two days before Amy died, Traviss said, they spent a quiet evening watching DVDs. They were planning a holiday in St Lucia in September.
“She was a really clever girl,” he said. “She knew what she was doing.”
Traviss said he wanted to talk to her more about her drinking problem but feared he would be seen as “nagging”. A full inquest into the singer’s death will begin next month.
Amy’s final recording before her death in July, a duet with veteran crooner Tony Bennett, will be released tomorrow on what would have been her 28th birthday.
The track and video of Body and Soul were recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London on March 23, and at least some of the proceeds will go to the Amy Winehouse Foundation.
“We had a beautiful time recording together in the studio and I knew that Amy was very happy with how she performed that day,” US singer Bennett, who recently celebrated his 85th birthday, said in a statement.