Amy Winehouse's best friend recalls how close singer was to recovery ahead of her death

Tyler James, best friend of Amy Winehouse since the age of 12, and her roommate at the time of her death, has opened up this week, claiming the world still has no clue as to just how close the musician was to recovery.

Winehouse, who died on July 23, 2011 of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27, had been battling drug and alcohol addiction for much of her career. Two days prior, James had left their shared home, hoping it would curtail her drinking. When he arrived back home, he found an ambulance parked outside, and discovered she had been found dead in her bedroom.

In an interview with U.K.'s This Morning on Wednesday, James explained, “Whenever she relapsed, I’d leave because I was worried she would think I was supporting that. So I’d leave, and within two or three days, she would say, ‘Tyler, come home,’ and I would come back."

The last time he would ever leave, he recalled, “I had a massive argument with her because there were letters from the doctor saying if she drank any more, she’d die."

At the time, Winehouse had been clean of heroin and crack for three years. James said, speaking to The Times also, on Friday, "But she never gets credit for that."

In hopes of setting the record straight on Winehouse's efforts at getting clean, James has written a book about his life and hers, titled My Amy: The Life We Shared.

“I want people to please, please recognize how hard she had worked to come off drugs and just how close she was to [giving up drink] for good, how close she was to being healthy,” he said. Winehouse's brother, Alex Winehouse, has also posited that another factor in her death was the bulimia she had struggled with since her teens.

Speaking to This Morning, James, also a musician (and a pretty good one, by the way) who battled his own alcoholism (he's now been sober for 13 years), added that he was “the only friend [Winehouse] had left by then,” and that he has yet to recover from her death.

“Amy was my soulmate,” he said. “We were two halves of the same person. I never envisaged life without her. She was my best friend.”

After her death, her family set up the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which helps prevent drug addiction in youth.

A winner of six Grammy Awards (although she only released two incredible albums in her short-lived career – 2006's Back to Black and 2003's Frank), Winehouse is still remembered as an iconic voice of a generation. 

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