Ten years after the death of Amy Winehouse, her closest friends and parents, Mitch and Janis Winehouse, as well as her step-dad Richard Collins and step-mum, Jane, spoke properly for the first time.
Many claim to have been best friends since Amy’s tragic July 2011 death. They often share stories of meeting her.
But Naomi Parry and Catriona Garry, Amy’s best friends, kept their distance, confessing that they wouldn’t talk to the public.
They were not impressed when Amy’s friends revealed their stories to the world shortly after her funeral.
Now, ten years on, they admit that people never got to see the real Amy as the narrative had been “hijacked”.
(Image: Getty Images)
Speaking to Vice, Naomi said: “Right after Amy died, we agreed that we wouldn’t talk publicly about her.
“But I just got so fed up with the narrative and the way that she’d been portrayed, I didn’t have any intention of talking personally, ever, but because her narrative had been completely hijacked I felt I kind of had to.”
Catriona added: “There was so much Amy noise, and most of it was pure b*****s or hot air from people who were trying to acquire some sort of status, or they were a signed artist – there was always something behind it.
(Image: Getty Images)
“It got to the point where our silence was contributing to that because we weren’t correcting anything.”
Naomi went on to tell the publication that the pair started getting “p****d off” with people trying to tell their story, so after taking part in the BBC documentary, Reclaiming Amy, they wanted to release their book, Beyond Black, to showcase the real Amy that not many people got to see.
(Image: FIG Fotos / Alamy Stock Photo)
Catriona revealed that Amy’s second studio album, Back to Black, was mostly written while the pair were living together in Camden and while many speculate that it’s about her ex-husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, this is not the case.
“They were written some time before he came on the scene,” Beyond Black is her revelation.
Catriona went on to admit that Amy would be “jolly p*****d off” about how things have turned out after claiming she feels as though she is betraying Amy by discussing their friendship.
Catriona also revealed to Catriona that Amy had founded her own record company before her tragic passing. This would have allowed Amy to mentor young artists such as Dionne Bromfield.
(Image: PA)
Both Naomi and Cat were keen to ensure that Amy’s early career surrounding her debut album Frank was recognised, for which she won an Ivor Novello award before being catapulted to international stardom.
Explaining why she chose to release Beyond Black, Naomi said: “There were lots of people that were really important to Amy who hadn’t really had a voice or hadn’t wanted to speak but really wanted to celebrate her.
“I thought it was important to get all of those people involved, hence why Cat is the main contributor and I got her on board, first of all, it was about gathering up all of those positive things that people have ever said about Amy.”
Amy Winehouse: Beyond Black is available to purchase now.
For more of the latest showbiz news from Central Recorder, make sure you sign up for one of our newsletters here.