Mark Ronson Regrets Not Being More “Confrontational” with Amy Winehouse During Addiction Battle
The “Uptown Funk” producer recalls his rocky relationship with the late Amy Winehouse in a candid new interview.
This past weekend marked the 10th-anniversary of the passing of Amy Winehouse. And while the commemorations have been mostly heart-warming, remembering the late modern soul star has been heavy for some of her closest friends and collaborators.
Such was the case for Mark Ronson, who recently reflected on the joy and pride of helping Winehouse create her breakout 2006 album, Back to Black, as well as the volatility of their relationship throughout that time. In a new interview with The Guardian, the “Uptown Funk” producer recalls how an uncommon creative connection with Winehouse brought the singer’s sophomore album to life in just a week. “That connection happened like that,” Ronson fondly told the UK publication. “It was an instant familiarity. I just loved being in her company, her presence. She was just so funny,” the producer added. But that period brought new and old demons back for Winehouse, who was being stalked by paparazzi while very publically battling addiction. Ronson recalls just how hard it was to watch a friend suffer from substance abuse and how, in retrospect, he wished he’d down more to head it all off.
“I don’t know if I fully loved the way that I behaved around her,” Ronson said, echoing a similar sentiment expressed by yasiin bey in the 2015 documentary film, Amy. “When she was going through addiction, I wish I’d been a little bit more upfront or confrontational about it,” Ronson admits in the interview.
Winehouse and the producer weren’t always on the best of terms. In fact, just a year before she passed, Winehouse claimed the producer had taken “too much credit” for her success when he discussed the making of Back to Black in a 2010 interview with Jools Holland. But that tension didn’t last long, according to Ronson. “We definitely squashed that. Of course, that record is all her – the soul of it.”
Read Mark Ronson’s full interview with The Guardian here.