Amy Winehouse drank herself to death

I confess I've never heard any of Amy Winehouse's records -- even though I have been in rehab. I knew about the dissolute part of her persona from reading too many gossipy stories in the British press about her. She was no doubt a mess, so how surprised could one be reading about the coroner's verdict in her death:

Amy Winehouse died from too much alcohol: "Soul diva Amy Winehouse died with empty vodka bottles in her room and lethal amounts of alcohol in her blood - more than five times the drink driving limit.

British coroner Suzanne Greenaway gave a verdict of "death by misadventure", saying the singer died of accidental alcohol poisoning when she resumed drinking after weeks of abstinence.

"The unintended consequence of such potentially fatal levels (of alcohol) was her sudden and unexpected death," Greenaway said on Wednesday."

It's been fairly commonplace to make note that she passed at the age of 27, like many other musical legends of our times -- the 27 Club, it's called.

While that's a good point, her passing is most like that of Hank Williams, who drank himself to death in the back of a car on the way to a gig on New Year's Eve in 1953.

That would've been a hell of a duet.