5 Things To Know About Amy Winehouse From Her Father's Memoir

Amy, My Daughter, the memoir by Mitch Winehouse about his pop star daughter, who died of a alcohol poisoning in 2011, arrives in bookstores this week.

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Winehouse wrote the book about to “set the record straight” about Amy, portrayed as kind and funny— and reckless—in the book.

The memoir traces the arc of her whole life, but focuses most intently on the fame—and craziness—that followed her 2006 hit Back to Black.

Here’s five key things to know about the book.

1. He takes his anger out an ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil for Amy’s problems.

In the book, he calls Fielder-Civil, “the biggest low-life scumbag that God ever put breath into” for introducing her to drugs.” Winehouse concedes that he didn’t literally kill her but he places the majority of blame for Amy’s problem on Fielder-Civil.

2. Producer Mark Ronson came up with the idea for  the hit song Rehab.

In early 2006, Amy traveled to New York to meet with producer Mark Ronson about working on an album. The first meeting was awkward but over a few days the two warmed to each other. During a walk around Greenwich Village, Amy said, “"You know they tried to make me go to rehab, and I told them, no, no, no." On hearing the line, Ronson replied, "That's quite gimmicky. It sounds hooky. You should go back to the studio and we should turn that into a song."

3. Her family tried to help but she resisted their efforts.

Mitch, Amy’s mother Janis and her brother Alex all tried to get her help for her drug problem to no avail. Promoting the book, Mitch Winehouse said, "What you want to do is lock them up for months to help them recover, but that's kidnapping. They can only quit drugs when they're ready. In the end, we did as much as we could do for Amy."

4. All the profits for the book go to the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

After her death, Mitch Winehouse started the foundation, which raises money for children’s hospices and music therapy classes for troubled teens (over a $1 million to date).  He’s donating all the profits from the book to the foundation.

He understands people are suspicious of his motives. "There’s a big sticker on the book saying 'all author's proceeds to the Amy Winehouse Foundation,'" but "people are still saying I'm lining my own pockets or whatever, which is obviously not true,” he told The Guardian newspaper.

5. He imagines a bright future for her if she had lived.

At the time of her death, Mitch Winehouse asserts Amy was beginning to gain control of her drug problem and had a blossoming new relationship with film director Reg Traviss.  In an interview on ABC’s Nightline, he said, "There would obviously have been more music, and she would have married Reg, and there would have been children, just like any other normal couple. But it wasn't to be."