Amy Winehouse May Have Died From Alcohol Withdrawal

Amy Winehouse's family has come forward about their late daughter's death, stating that the singer had died from alcohol withdrawal, People reports.

According to Britain's The Sun, via People, a source close to the family has revealed that Winehouse quit drinking cold turkey within the past month, sending her body into a state of shock: "Abstinence gave her body such a fright, they thought it was eventually the cause of her death."

Though rumors have spread that the singer was drinking heavily at the time of her death, People reports that Mitch Winehouse, Amy's father, told mourners at his daughter's funeral that the singer had ignored doctors' orders to gradually step away from alcohol to avoid withdrawal symptoms.

'Celebrity Rehab' and radio host Dr. Drew disagrees with the theory, saying on KROQ, "It can kill you ... but it kills you, it sort of ... you go down in a ball of fire. You get really really sick and you cease and you become encephalopathic and confused and your heart becomes erratic and it's not like you just drop dead like her parents are suggesting." Drew also says that Janice Dickinson told him that Winehouse was trying to contact him in her final days: "I found out also yesterday that believe it or not she was trying to contact me, which was weird ... I remember getting calls from Europe and thinking 'what the hell is this?'"

Winehouse recorded two full-length albums before her death and, as WENN reports, a third was in production but nowhere near complete. Her producer, Salaam Remi, told New York's Power 105.1 FM, "We were working on it; it's not a complete album. We had a lot of things going, there are recordings, but first things first, I think. We're trying to focus on what's at hand and what her family wants to do. So those reports are false."

Tributes to the tragic singer have abounded, with Winehouse's close friend and collaborator Mark Ronson paying homage to her at a July 27 concert at the Old Royal Naval College in London, accompanied by 'Valerie' writer Dave McCabe. Watch that performance here.

According to NME, Ronson told the crowd "The genius in that woman and what she shared with us is pretty special. I'm not going to get all morbid on you. It's just nice to be playing music to people who like good music. She is my sister, wherever she is."


Watch Amy Winehouse Perform 'Valerie' in 2007

Follow @Spinner on Twitter | Like Us on Facebook | Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Download Amy Winehouse Songs | Buy Amy Winehouse Albums