Amy Winehouse's Legacy
Mitch Winehouse may have lost his daughter Amy to addiction, but as he tells The Fix, he's doing his best to prevent similar tragedies in other families.
Mitch and Amy Winehouse
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On July 23, 2011, the music world—and beyond—was dealt a
crushing blow when Amy Winehouse died from alcohol poisoning after binge
drinking. But while fans were mourning, Amy’s father Mitch immediately
sprang into action by starting the Amy Winehouse Foundation,
an organization designed to prevent the effects of drug and alcohol
misuse on young people in the UK. The foundation has crossed over into
the US and now offers music scholarships for disadvantaged youth; it
will also hold the first annual Amy Winehouse Foundation Inspiration Awards and Gala on March 21 in NYC, where Tony Bennett will serve as the honoree and Jennifer Hudson and Nas will perform.
Mitch has also released the memoir Amy, My Daughter and is carrying on her musical legacy with his own album, "Rush of Love"—with the proceeds from both ventures going directly to the foundation. In an exclusive interview with The Fix,
Mitch speaks about the accomplishments of the foundation, parenting a
child who’s addicted and the importance of early intervention.
How did the Amy Winehouse Foundation first come about?
I
was in a hotel room in New York when I first got the news that Amy
passed away and one of the first things that entered my head was
“Foundation, foundation, foundation.” But I had no experience with this
and when we started to create it, we realized you can’t just start one
up. It was a steep learning curve and continues to be.
We
launched in the UK in September 2011, but we’re really just starting
here in the US. In the UK, we’re helping a number of grantees and have
joined up with a homeless charity called New Horizon that feeds hot
meals to 60 young people a day. We’re also working on creating drug and
alcohol education projects and, starting in April, we’ll go into 45
schools and speak with the kids.
Nobody chooses to be an addict. Amy didn’t choose to be an addict.
What is the foundation hoping to accomplish?
Our
mission is to help disadvantaged young people so we’re looking to do
that in all forms. In the US, we’ll have a slightly different aim and
focus more on providing music scholarships. We just donated $25,000 to
the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Amy was half-American and her mom
was born in Brooklyn, so it made sense for one of our first US grants to
be given out here.
But in the UK, there is no drug education in
schools whatsoever. And what about the kids who suffer from self-esteem
issues? What do they do when they’re being pressured to drink or do
drugs by their peers? What if they’re being bullied or bullying
themselves? It’s an issue that goes beyond drugs and alcohol and there
are enough people working in recovery in Britain who could be of
assistance with this. The service that we’re providing is completely
unique to the UK.
Did Amy have issues with drugs as a child or did those develop in adulthood?
To
be honest, that all happened so long ago that I don’t want to look back
on it. She dealt with her drug problems successfully and was clean for
the last three years of her life. What she was suffering from was
alcohol addiction. And she really was just one step away from winning
that battle, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Having a child who’s an addict can’t be easy.
It’s
the most difficult thing that you can imagine. If you talk to three
clinical psychologists, they’ll give you three different answers about
the best approach. Some say hard love, others say soft love, another
says tough love. And when people are in the midst of an addiction, they
find it difficult to relate to their families and often separate
themselves completely. Luckily, Amy didn’t do that with us. You just
have to let them know you love them and care about them.
It’s such
a difficult situation for families both in the UK and the US, though,
because, unless you have the resources to send your child to private
treatment, it’s a three-year waiting list. And we did have the means to
send Amy to all these different places, but so many people don’t.
In
your memoir, you talked about needing a holiday from her. A lot of
parents of addicts often feel guilty admitting that it can be
exhausting.
It’s
exhaustion, it’s boring and it’s repetitious. I really wanted that to
come across in the book. One day she’s clean and hasn’t done any drugs,
the next day she’s using again. It would get better and then we’d be
back to square one. It was important for me to try and convey that
feeling of helplessness and boredom.
Did you reach out to any support groups?
There
are a few voluntary organizations in the UK with a family focus, so I
did attend those. And what I found is that most parents are in the same
boat. They think they’re on their own and genuinely don’t know what to
do because if you can’t afford treatment, you pretty much are left on
your own to figure it out.
What message do you hope to convey with the foundation and your work in addressing addiction?
Nobody
chooses to be an addict. Amy didn’t choose to be an addict. 100 percent
of people suffering from addiction didn’t imagine it would end up this
way. It’s an illness and should be treated as such. If someone has
appendicitis in the US and they don’t have private insurance, they’ll
still get an operation and the hospital will pick up the bill. The same
principle should apply with treating addiction.
I
also want to stress the importance of early intervention in school
education programs, as well as reintegration into society once addiction
has happened. Instead of being a burden on society, addicts should be
allowed to earn their own money and rejoin the community. It’s not
rocket science.
McCarton Ackerman is a freelance writer currently residing in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in Time Out New York, The Huffington Post, abcnews.com and usopen.org, among others. He has also written about Carré Otis and Celebrity Rehab, among many other topics, for The Fix.
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