Brand regrets not helping Winehouse

DHAKA: Russell Brand wishes he had helped Amy Winehouse come off drugs.

The comedian, who has been sober for over 10 years after battling heroin addiction, has revealed he still feels guilty about not helping the late soul singer get clean when he first realised she was struggling with addiction.

Russell told The Sun newspaper, ‘I got clean at the age of 27, the age Amy was when she died’, reports TDS.

‘Amy’s death was a paradoxical unsurprising shock. I felt like I could have done something to help – to give her the chance I had.’

‘When she died, it was this feeling of, ‘Agh, I knew that was going to happen.’ And I had this flickering sense that I should have done something about that.’

‘I feel a bit guilty that there was nothing I did.’

The 37-year-old funnyman recalled seeing the troubled star, who was found dead in her London home last July, on the party scene and being disturbed by her behaviour, prompting him to ask others to help her.

Russell explained, ‘I loved Amy on the basis that I thought she was really, really brilliant.’

‘I recognised that this person has got it, she has got this thing. She is not happy, she is on edge.’

‘She drank this glass of champagne and threw it over her shoulder once.’

‘I said, ‘What are you doing that for?’ She said. ‘I was doing it to impress you.’ I said, ‘Well... don’t’, then she started flicking lit cigarettes around the room.’

‘That’s when I got the sense of the ticking clock and spoke to other people, Hey, we need to do something.’

BDST: 1821 HRS, AUG 12, 2012

Edited by Robab Rosan, Cultural Affairs Editor