Bryan Adams has spoken about how he “tried to help” Amy Winehouse in a new interview.
The Canadian rocker recently spoke to The Sunday Times about his relationships with Winehouse and Princess Diana. Regarding the former, Adams addressed rumours which circulated in 2007, that in a bid to help Winehouse get sober, he flew her to his villa in Mustique, a Caribbean island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
“I invited her to spend the holidays with my family,” he clarified. The piece also detailed that Adams had encouraged the ‘Rehab’ powerhouse to eat vegan food, and served her carrot and beetroot juice, which she did not receive favourably.
When asked about whether he thought his endeavour would be successful, he commented that he “tried to help her but, you know, it’s got to come from within”.
Elaborating further, he said: “I really don’t know what happened with Amy and it is so sad because she was so, so talented and I so admired her individuality massively. But did I make a difference? I don’t know.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Adams spoke about how his 1985 song ‘Diana’ sparked an actual friendship with the late royal. The song, which is about her marriage to Prince Charles – and contains the lyrics “Diana whatcha doin’ with a guy like him / Diana I’d die for you, please let me in” – garnered a positive reaction from the princess, who called it “very funny”.
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Calling their friendship “strange and surreal”, he commented: “I really, really liked Diana, she was an amazing woman and a super-great inspiration.”
The ‘Summer of ‘69’ singer, who also moonlights as a photographer, befriended Winehouse after a photo shoot. Winehouse tragically passed away in July 2011 at the age of 27, being found dead in her flat in Camden. A coroner’s inquiry found that she had died by alcohol poisoning, her blood containing five times the drink drive limit of alcohol at her death.
On the 10th anniversary of her death in 2021, various artists spoke about her impact and legacy to NME. In the piece, Dave McCabe, frontman of The Zutons, whose song ‘Valerie’ was covered by Winehouse to critical and commercial success, spoke fondly of her.
Recalling the moment he heard Winehouse’s cover playing in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, he said: “I didn’t wanna burst out crying in the middle of the pub or nothing, so I had to go away to the toilet; I was like, ‘Fucking hell that was emotional’, but in a nice way. It doesn’t feel like it’s our song any more; it feels like it’s its own world.”