Forget the other 12, the step that apparently works best for Amy Winehouse is the one where she dominates a major awards show.
Janis Winehouse, the mother of the newly minted five-time Grammy Award winner, took to the airwaves just two days after her daughter's triumphant performance, appearing on the British morning show GMTV to tell the world that her daughter is back on the straight and narrow.
"She's on the road and that's what it's about," Janis said, speaking in a brief taped interview from inside her London home airing Tuesday. "She's on the road to recovery.
"I think she had a back-against-the-wall situation. If you don't get cleaned up, A, you can't get the visa, B, you can't tour...you know, everything in place. It's like, you know, wake up, Amy!"
Janis said that, while rehab is working wonders for the 24-year-old, it was her big showing, and show of support, at the Grammys, that really put Winehouse over the edge in terms of cleaning up her act.
"It was a case of, Amy couldn't get to L.A., and my feeling was, L.A. came to Amy," she said. Winehouse's visa to travel to the States was initially rejected by the U.S. Embassy last week. Although officials reversed themselves and approved the visa on Friday, Winehouse and her handlers opted instead to perform at the show via satellite link-up from London.
The decision, her mother said, was for the best.
"I think it would have been too much for her because all of the traveling and flying there. I mean, seeing what the Grammys were like, I thought if Amy were there, she'd be a little girl lost in it.
"Amy is...there's no sort of double standards. What you see is how she is. She's a very, very genuine and sincere girl."
Not to mention a talented one, if mom—not to mention the Recording Academy—does say so herself.
"I knew she was good. We all knew she was good. But it's a case of, in that world, in that media world, you can be good for maybe five minutes, a month, two, a year, whatever. But Amy just gets better."
Among her haul Sunday were Grammys for Best New Artist, Record and Song of the Year for "Rehab" and Pop Vocal Album honors for Back to Black.
All this, Janis said, despite the constant media glare on her daughter and what seemed for a time like her daily public and destructive travails. Even those problems, the elder Winehouse told the chat show, can't be pinned entirely on Amy.
"The thing about the media is if they can get anything tacky about a star, they go for it."
Last month, the Sun tabloid went for it in a big way, publishing still photos in its print edition and snippets of a full video online showing Winehouse smoking what appeared to be a crack pipe and admitting to having taken Valium in footage that was filmed at the singer's London home.
A few days later, the singer checked into rehab—yes, yes, yes.
"She was sort of with it but not with it," Janis said. "I was helpless because there was nothing I could do. Amy had to do it for Amy and that's the way it is...She's got a solid family and we're all there for her.
"Where I know about addiction, addiction is something that once it's got hold of the person, it's like, whoa, you know—very hard to get off."
Though the "I'm No Good" songbird is no longer in the live-in rehab facility at London's Capio Nightingale Hospital, a member of the singer's PR firm, the Outside Organization, confirmed that Winehouse is currently receiving outpatient treatment.
"She will see a therapist and she will still be getting help," Janis Winehouse confirmed to GMTV. "She still wants the help. It's Amy coming back. She's definitely on the road back."
It's unclear just yet whether that road will include a pit stop at next week's Brit Awards, the U.K.'s answer to the Grammys. Back to Black collaborator and über-producer Mark Ronson is nominated for Best British Single for his redo of the Zutons tune "Valerie," which features none other than Winehouse on vocals.
The singer has long been rumored to be taking the stage at the London-set awards show, taking place Feb. 20, though neither the event's organizers nor Winehouse's camp have commented on the reports.