The last time Sharon Jones saw Amy Winehouse, she hugged her and felt nothing but bones.
It was two years ago, at the Jazz Café in London, and Winehouse had come to Jones’ show with her goddaughter.
“I hugged her and then let go because I thought I was going to break something. So I took her and sat her down and said, ‘What are you doing to yourself with these drugs?’ I looked in her eyes and she dropped her head and said, ‘I just like doing this,’” Jones said Saturday from Los Angeles.
For the uninitiated, Jones, an Augusta native who currently lives a mile across the Georgia border in North Augusta, S.C., is a longtime soul-funk singer who broke through in the early 2000s with her band, the Dap-Kings.
The Dap-Kings, who frequently worked as session musicians, were recruited by producer Mark Ronson to play on Winehouse’s breakthrough album, “Back to Black.” Released in 2006, the album spawned the song that would forever be associated with the troubled Winehouse, “Rehab.”
The Dap-Kings played on “Rehab,” its follow-up single, “You Know I’m No Good,” and four of the other songs on the retro-soul 11-track album. The group also backed Winehouse on her first U.S. tour.
Jones said it never bothered her to share the band with Winehouse, even though Winehouse’s sound wasn’t anything different than what Jones had been doing for decades.
“She didn’t steal my band and she didn’t start a movement. I would always laugh and say, the guys can run around with Amy ‘cause I’m running around with Denzel [Washington].”
Jones appeared as a juke joint singer in Washington’s 2007 movie, “The Great Debaters.”
But while Jones, who is performing at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday with Stevie Wonder, Rickey Minor and Janelle Monae, wasn’t shocked to hear the news of Winehouse’s death, she still cried over the loss on Saturday.
“She was a very sad young woman. She said she wanted to be married and have babies. I think that’s why she would hide behind her drinking before she started with the drugs. My prayers have been out for her and they’re going to stay out for her,” Jones said. “And the Dap-Kings, those guys stood with her. She had such great talent. We have nothing but love for her.”
About the Author
