Patti Smith saddened by Amy Winehouse's passing

Patti Smith was devastated by Amy Winehouse's death last year (11) because she was a big fan of the Brit and was looking forward to hearing her musical evolution.

The Because the Night hitmaker put her feelings into a poem following Winehouse's passing, and she later turned her musings into a song, This Is The Girl, which features on her new album.

Smith reveals she was particularly shocked by the star's death as she felt "maternal" towards her because her own children are around the same age as the Back to Black hitmaker when she died.

Smith tells Britain's The Sun, "I'm heartbroken as a fan and as a human being. What she did was magnificent and I looked forward to how she would evolve. It would have been wonderful to go through life hearing what Amy did next.

"I actually look at Amy in a maternal way. Amy's the same age as my kids. They're 29 and 24 now and she was 27. I'm really concerned about how things were managed around her."

The punk icon is proud of her song tribute, adding: "Quite accidentally, we'd written something that I think she might have liked."