Dad 'apoplectic' Amy is hanging with Pete

LONDON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Amy Winehouse's father is furious because she has been hanging out with fellow troubled British recording artist Pete Doherty.

Winehouse and Doherty have separately been making headlines all year for their struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, as well as their various legal and relationship woes.

Since Winehouse's husband was incarcerated last month, the two self-destructive singers seem to be spending more together, People.com reported.

"I do worry about people like Pete Doherty. He's a scumbag," Winehouse's father Mitch Winehouse told Grazia magazine. "I flipped when I saw him sitting with Amy backstage at her Brixton gig. That night I went crazy. My wife thought I was going to have a heart attack. I was apoplectic."

Mitch Winehouse said he believed "the real problem" is his daughter is depressed because her husband is in jail.

Admitting she is "not very well," he also said he couldn't force her to go to rehab.

"My first instinct is to get hold of her, pick her up and take her back to my house and lock her away," he said. "But I've spoken to the finest drug counselors in the world and they've said that is exactly the wrong thing to do."