Winehouse Died From Detox-Related Seizure: Father

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SPIN.com
September 12, 2011
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Amy Winehouse's father says he thinks a seizure connected to alcohol detoxification caused the singer's unexpected death in London on July 23. "Everything Amy did, she did to excess," Mitch Winehouse said Friday in a taping of a new Anderson Cooper talk show, according to the Associated Press. "She drank to excess and did detox to excess."

The "Rehab" singer had been suffering seizures and losing consciousness during an effort to fight her alcoholism without medical assistance, her father said on Anderson's syndicated show, which is set to premiere Monday. The elder Winehouse is quoted as saying "the periods of abstinence were becoming longer, and the periods of drinking were becoming shorter. It was heading in the right direction."

Toxicology reports showed there was alcohol in the singer's system at the time of her death but did not conclusively indicate whether this was a contributing factor. No illegal drugs were present in her system, Winehouse's family said in an August 23 statement announcing the test results.

Mitch Winehouse said he learned about his daughter's death by phone, the AP reports. He was in New York, and when he heard the emotion in a security guard's voice on the other end of the call, he says he immediately asked, "Is she dead?"

The singer's father wiped away tears as Cooper's show played old video footage of her, according to the AP. "When she wasn't drinking," Mitch Winehouse reportedly said, "she was absolutely on top of the world."

Separately, British singer and songwriter Joss Stone has told the Wall Street Journal she has imagined putting together a supergroup to honor Amy Winehouse. Though she hasn't taken any steps toward doing so, she says the U.K. singers she has in mind include Adele, KT Tunstall, Corinne Bailey Rae, and 15-year-old artist Birdy.

"It would be great to put out a song, or even a five-track release," Stone told the WSJ, which points out she has an album on the way this month from SuperHeavy, her supergroup with Mick Jagger, A.R. Rahman, Damian Marley, and Dave Stewart.