Russell Brand on Amy Winehouse: ‘I feel like I could have helped her’

When Amy Winehouse tragically passed away last year, Russell Brand wrote an incredibly touching tribute to his friend.

It would seem that the comedian is still coming to terms with Amy’s death and feels guilty that he wasn’t able to help her.

“'I got clean at the age of 27, the age Amy was when she died,” Russ says in a new interview withThe Sun. “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.”

As a reformed drug addict, Russ explained that he feels guilty that he didn’t do anything to help Amy,

“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. 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.

Ticking clock

“She drank this glass of champagne and threw it over her shoulder once,” he continues. “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.’”

Of course, Russell sadly never got the chance to help Amy.