And so the drugs continued. But that never happened. According to Crawford, Houston became more and more isolated, and her drug use increased, following her marriage to Bobby Brown in Crawford writes movingly that Houston was also worn down — by the demands of supporting an extended family, an exhausting tour schedule, the constant speculation about her sexuality and a drug addiction that was spiraling out of control. When Crawford learned Houston was going on the road when she was clearly in the throes of addiction, her concern grew.
When talent scouts began to circle the teenage Whitney, Cissy told them it was too soon. By 18, however, after graduating from an all-girls Catholic high school, Whitney was ready. Whitney was already a successful model, signed to the Click agency and, later, Wilhelmina in New York, and she had appeared on the cover of Seventeen and in several ad campaigns. He tried with Aretha, but she was too defined as the Queen of Soul.
He tried with Dionne, but she was in a niche already by the time she came to Arista. Finally, along came Whitney, who was beautiful, talented, a little rough around the edges, but that could be fixed. Clive made it clear in meetings: this Houston project better be huge.
He picked every song on her albums. The result was Whitney Houston, released in , when Whitney was It sold 25 million copies. Her second album, Whitney, released in , was equally successful. Robyn Crawford, an all-state basketball star two years older than Whitney, had been her best friend since Whitney was 16, when they both had summer jobs at a community center in East Orange.
All you need is a bunch of straight, macho radio jocks finding out that Whitney wants Robyn on the trip. Murphy would say they were just friends. In spite of a reported year-long affair with the married Jermaine Jackson in the early s, Whitney remained without a mate, at least publicly.
As a child of the projects, Bobby Brown had been shot at and stabbed in the shoulder. When he was 11, he saw a friend stabbed to death. He became a father at 17 and eventually would have three more children out of wedlock. The night they met, Whitney, whose image had become a little too sticky-sweet for some, was booed and called an Oreo when she was announced as a nominee. She was human, and that hurt. Bobby Brown, on the other hand, was already bad and on his way to becoming notorious: beating up a man at Walt Disney World, overdosing on heroin, doing time in prison and rehab centers, and eventually venting his rage on the pop diva, who was five years older than he and who, he would insist, made him look like an innocent.
Brown was just what some say Whitney felt she needed for her image. Though a renowned abuser of drugs and booze, Bobby, his friends say, had a nice streak. She believed in herself! She was pounds of raw talent; all she had to do was unleash the thunder from her chest. But here was this skinny woman with that kind of power. The voice was infectious, intoxicating.
Natalie Cole, he adds, was in awe of the Jersey girl with the voice that breathed fire. We talk about her addiction, but when you look at Whitney Houston, you have to realize how much work she did, how much love she put out into the universe. She would give prayers of gratitude in the recording studio. Soon, though, the voice was tempered by pain and heartache.
In , before guests at her New Jersey mansion, she married Bobby Brown. We knew Bobby and the type of guy he was—a street guy. But Whitney was smart enough to handle somebody like Bobby. Having conquered music, Whitney wanted a movie career.
She was pregnant when she made The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner, who was riding the success of his Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves, and she had a miscarriage on the set. Some thought the rough cut of the film was a miss, because there was not enough of Whitney singing. The Bodyguard turned out not only to be a box-office hit but also to have the best-selling soundtrack of all time.
She was focused, and she was at the top of her vocal game. In she canceled five concerts. In she was caught with marijuana in the Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, airport. By the late 90s, however, her voice would begin to betray her, and she would have to lower the keys in live performances.
She started lacing her joints with cocaine, as she later told Oprah Winfrey. The pop diva was reverting to the New Jersey street kid. Everyone wants a piece of the action of the increasingly stressed and distant diva. When their golden goose is abducted by Bobby, the Royal Family resorts to manipulation, fistfights, and threats of violence to protect their interests and remain on the gravy train. She told Kevin I was like a snake in the grass because I was writing bad things about her.
In , Whitney showed up two hours late to a White House state dinner, where she was to perform for Nelson Mandela. Rumors of drug abuse begin to surface in the years to come. In a interview, two years after their divorce, Houston goes in-depth about the couple's volatile relationship on "The Oprah Winfrey Show. Houston's troubles with the law begin at the turn of the new millennium after security in Hawaii's Keahole-Kona Airport finds marijuana in her handbag in January.
She is hit with a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge, but it's dropped months later. She said walls and doors were spray-painted with "big glaring eyes and strange faces. Whitney's face had been cut out from a framed family picture. Cissy, who had previously taken part in intervention for her daughter in after she was dropped from the Oscars, got a court order and Houston was taken to a hospital for a week followed by rehab in Antigua for a month.
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