‘Maybe I should be on Ritalin’: My extraordinary afternoon with Amy Winehouse

It was November 2006, two weeks after Amy Winehouse’s second album Back to Black had debuted at number three in the UK charts, and about five minutes after our waiter had delivered to us the requested bottle of red wine. Nothing if not a consistent lightweight, I had initially ordered a cappuccino – it was 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and between meals – but Amy had requested two glasses. It felt rude not to join in. “Cheers,” she toasted, the drink staining our lips purple. The location was a Pizza Express in north-east London, and Amy, then 23, was still easing gingerly into necessary promotion mode for a record that was rapidly garnering attention as perhaps the defining release of its generation. Back to Black sounded incredible, at once anachronistic for the era and utterly timeless. Its impeccable lead single “Rehab” married a hypnotically confessional lyric to a Mark Ronson-produced rhythm section drenched in Motown swank, while the album’s title track was even better, the kind of song to stop you in your tracks, awed by its claustrophobic blue mood. Little wonder, then, the world was rapidly becoming obsessed with her. But the transition into superstardom was never going to be easy. It rarely is. I asked how she was dealing with the attention, and whether she was coming to enjoy her burgeoning fame. Although her presence went completely unremarked upon in this restaurant, she was nevertheless instantly recognisable: the beehive hair, the lavish make-up, the sailors’ tattoos. Amy Winehouse’s second album Back to Black had debuted at number three in the UK charts“I’m hardly famous yet,” she scoffed. “I walk down the street, and people say to me, ‘Oi! Russell Brand!’” Nevertheless, she was happy, and it was delightful to witness. Rehab had, of course, detailed a particularly bad time in her life just a few months previously. “Look, I’m a north London Jewish girl, and I like a drink, but I was never an alcoholic,” she insisted. “I’d split up with my boyfriend [Blake Fielder-Civil], and I was sad. When I went to rehab, they asked me if I was in denial, and I said, ‘No, I’m in love.’ Then I said, ‘Nice to meet you, goodbye.’ And I left.” At home, however, she was struggling with anorexia and bulimia. “After Blake, I ate a lot of cookies and pizza. I smoked weed. I put on a stone and a half, and I wanted to get rid of it. Bulimia’s disgusting, but I was miserable because I’d loved him so much.” But that afternoon, she was in a new (if temporary) relationship. Her radiance was a novelty; she seemed healthy. “I’m much better now,” she said, standing to appraise herself in a mirror at the far end of the restaurant, over by the toilets. “Look, I’ve got my tits back!” Does it need pointing out here that none of this was typical fare when interviewing a pop star? But then Amy Winehouse was never anything so humdrum as typical. Just as Back to Black was rapidly establishing her as the greatest singer of the modern era, so the woman behind it was every bit as dramatically compelling. You wanted to be in her orbit, to look and listen. With Amy, there was no filter. She drew you into her confidences not because there happened to be wine on the table, but because she was so open and trusting. Amy Winehouse performing in 2006 (Photo: Matt Kent/WireImage) It was this trusting nature, however, that had people worried for her. “Look, a lot of my mates are druggies, it’s true, but then I live in Camden, so what do you expect?” she said. “If I see anyone in a bad way, I’ll say to them, ‘Come on, let’s go KFC,’ or else I’ll take them home and cook for them. I’m a very selfless person, very generous. I like to help. It’s in my nature.” She paused here to laugh. “Maybe I should be on Ritalin?” We didn’t know it yet, but life was only going to grow more complicated for Amy in the five short years she had left. Fame would explode all around her, and keep exploding. She may have remained the selfless and generous person she’d always been, but those around her changed. Everybody wanted something, the demands ceaseless. She worked when she should have rested, and was kept on the touring treadmill when she should have stepped off, and away. Amy would ultimately become a tragic cautionary tale, but she was also an icon for the ages. Name a modern-day singer who doesn’t take from her in some way. We listened to her, as we learned from her. “Too many people in this life are too meek,” she said to me at one point. “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” Amy Winehouse was never meek. On its 20th anniversary, Back to Black sounds every bit as full of life as she was herself, her voice unique, her character boundless. We were lucky to have her.