Amy Winehouse, revered nightingale behind 2007’s acclaimed set Back to Black, has been diagnosed with deadly lung disease emphysema and an irregular heartbeat, both of which are likely caused by her excessive smoking of crack cocaine and cigarettes, her father, Mitch Winehouse, told England’s Sunday Mirror [via MTV].
The news arrives hot on the heels of repeat offender Winehouse’s collapse last week, which led to her immediate hospitalization, as well as extensive tests to uncover what was ailing the Grammy Award-winning singer.
“Doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs, it won’t just ruin her voice, it will kill her,” Mitch Winehouse told the Mirror. “She’s got emphysema — it’s in its early stages, but had it gone on for another month, they painted a very vivid picture of her sitting there like an old person with a mask on her face, struggling to breathe.”
“With smoking the crack cocaine and the cigarettes, her lungs are all gunked up. There are nodules around the chest and dark marks. She’s got 70 percent lung capacity,” Mitch Winehouse continued.
But despite the life threatening illness, which is a degenerative disease that damages air sacs to the lungs, Winehouse should be able to perform at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday celebration Friday (June 27) and the Glastonbury festival Saturday (June 28).
“She abstains and regulates her drug use when she has to do a show,” Mitch Winehouse claimed, before offering his daughter’s drug dealers a warning and stating there’s one person in particular Amy won’t be seeing as she attempts to recover from drug addiction: “I don’t want her hanging out with her mates like Pete Doherty either. What hope does she have if people are taking drugs around her?”
