Picture: Mitch & Amy Winehouse

Winehouse’s pop is backpedaling on a public statement claiming that his jazz-singing daughter has a potentially-fatal lung disease. Mitch Winehouse denies telling the British media that Grammy winner Amy Winehouse is in the early stages of emphysema.

“Amy really hasn’t got emphysema,” the taxi driver told BBC 1 Radio on Monday. “There’s traces of emphysema. Obviously, if she doesn’t quit smoking it’s gonna get worse – as with everybody else.”

“She’s smothered in nicotine patches. She’s responding brilliantly to treatment. She’s actually flourishing.”