Amy Winehouse doesn't undertand artists who sit around and listen to their own music.

They tried to make British singer Amy Winehouse go to rehab and she said, "No, no, no."

Honest.

The 23-year-old favourite tabloid target from North London, whose soul-jazz-R&B sound on her second record, 2006's Back To Black, harkens back to the glory days of Motown, explains it was her former management that tried and failed to get her to sober up.

Instead, she fired them and wrote about the experience on the Back To Black breakout tune, Rehab, which opens with the lyrics: "They tried to make me go to rehab , I said, 'No, no, no."

"It's like a novelty song, isn't it?" said Winehouse on the phone. "I think they just had to pull me out of one too many scrapes and they just thought, 'F--k it. We'd rather just pack you off somewhere.' "

For the record, Winehouse never did go.

BRITISH TABLOIDS

Among the British tabloids' nicknames for the singer are Amy "Wino," but she doesn't let such taunts bother her.

"It's cool, I take it in stride," she said.

As for whether it's a nicer experience talking to journalists abroad, she said: "Yeah, I'm not really fussed. It's just a way to pass the day really. I'm just a musician. I just plays shows."

Still, one Canadian weekly referred to Winehouse as "Britain's new queen of soul," on it's most recent cover.

Her response?

"It's cool. It's nice. It's very flattering," Winehouse said.

Change, however, was involved in her mainstream popularity rise -- she'll perform Rehab at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards on June 3 -- but she says it wasn't calculated.

There was a style makeover from Winehouse's jazz-inflected 2003 debut disc, Frank -- which was nominated for Britain's coveted Mercury prize and saw her win an Ivor Novello Award for her debut single Stronger than Me -- to the Motown soul of Back To Black.

DIFFERENT MUSIC

"I just make music that I like, I suppose, 'cause I don't know what people would like to hear, I don't really care," said Winehouse. "So I was just listening to different music, just a lot of '60s style doo-wop girl groups, I think that's why it came out different. "

Still, she has said in the press that it's now hard for her to listen to Frank and her current set list is mainly Back To Black material.

"I don't understand people sitting around listening to their own music," said Winehouse. "It's like, I'd rather bang my head against the wall. Not 'cause it's s--t.' I don't have lots of old stuff in the set 'cause it just doesn't fit. It's two different styles."

Whatever the reason, the style switch certainly paid off.

In February, Winehouse won the Brit award for best British female artist.

She's also become something of a style icon with her unusual combination of beehive hairdo, thick black eyeliner and numerous tattoos.

Winehouse got her first tattoo at age 15 and now has about a dozen of them.

"I just wanted a Betty Boop on my bum," she said with a laugh about getting her first one.