Amy Winehouse performing on stage at Lollapalooza. A new movie and album reissue are sparking renewed interest in the late singer.preps backstage at Sony Hall in midtown Manhattan, it’s hard not to notice his six-foot height, horn-rimmed glasses — and the name “Amy” in large black letters on the side of his head. It’s not a tattoo, just black liquid eyeliner easy to wash off, but it suits the occasion.
“It’s pretty clear she was reading some of these in the bathtub, or lighting candles in her apartment and these were under them,” says Type Punch Matrix co-owner Brian Cassidy. “The condition helps tell the story and speaks to the life.” One book sports a lipstick kiss. “I can’t prove it’s Amy’s,” Cassidy says, “but I’m pretty sure.”At the same time, the musical-industrial complex around Winehouse has expanded.
As her former bass player Dale Davis says, “You get these people who come along once a generation and just change everything up completely. So it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that interest is still there. It’s a short career, like Cobain, but the impact is massive, isn’t it?”, director Asif Kapadia’s 2015 documentary. The film made $23 million worldwide, an exceptional number for a doc of any sort, and won the Oscar for best documentary.
Davis, who admits he had concerns about the idea, says he experienced an unsettling moment during one of the group’s early shows in 2016, when an Italian singer was performing as Winehouse. “My bass guitar wouldn’t stay in tune for the whole night,” he says. “At that point, I thought Amy was trying to tell me something.