Mitch Winehouse

Mitch Winehouse, a onetime London cab driver, obtained a recording contract upon reaching age 59 by leveraging the enormous acclaim surrounding his daughter Amy’s award-winning album Back to Black. Raised in the city’s East End, he first acquired a taste for swing while watching his mother and aunt dance to Rat Pack standards inside the family hair salon. His performing goals nevertheless remained limited to karaoke appearances until Amy attained mainstream success with her second album and became a frequent tabloid presence on account of volatile relationships together with problems involving drugs and alcohol. He assumed the position of her unofficial spokesman, repeatedly defending her conduct on news programs and entertainment broadcasts, which drew accusations that he courted the spotlight too eagerly. After working as a proof-reader for the Jewish Chronicle, a double-glazing salesman, and a London cabbie, he emerged as a public figure in his own right, securing a phone-in slot on BBC London, hosting a chat show on the online channel Liv, and, at Amy’s urging, making a record of his own. Family friend Tony Hiller of Brotherhood of Man produced the album Rush of Love, which mixed lesser-known big-band classics with original material and appeared on Janey Records in 2010.