Music
Whitney Houston and her mentor Clive Davis maintained a close relationship until her death in 2012. Davis was one of the last people to talk with Houston before her passing.
Published on December 16, 2022
3 min readWhitney Houston’s relationship with her longtime mentor Clive Davis has been well-documented by both Houston and Davis. Fans know that Davis signed Houston when she was barely out of her teens and took two years to mold her into the consummate performer she became. He was with Houston for her full career. In a recent interview, he opened up about their last talk before her sudden 2012 death.
Clive Davis says Whitney Houston was in good spirits during their last meeting
The weekend of Houston’s death, she was in LA to attend the 2012 Grammy Awards and festivities. One of the events she was scheduled to attend was her mentor Davis’ annual Pre-Grammy party. Davis and Houston spent time together throughout the week.
While speaking with Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet of Houston’s first-authorized biopic, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Davis recalled their final meeting. And he says he remembers things vividly.
“My last encounter with Whitney was, like, 48 hours before her death,” he revealed. “She was in great shape, I gotta tell you. She showed me how all the nicotine from her smoking had been removed. Rescheduled a recording for August that was in February. She had just come from her movie [Sparkle] that she had been in. And I was playing her songs that Jennifer Hudson had just recorded. We spent the whole afternoon, as we always did together, at my hotel. So, it was shocking, shocking when 48 hours had passed.”
He says he knew she was a star when they first encountered
Davis’ last encounter with Houston is just as clear as his first. Houston began singing at her local church under her mother Cissy’s tutelage. Cissy was a gospel legend and background vocalist who performed for icons like Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin. Upon learning that her daughter wanted to pursue singing as a profession, she guided her steps each way.
In her teens, Houston began singing alongside her mother at local showcases. Davis attended one of them. In an interview with CNN, the music executive spoke of the first time he witnessed Houston’s gift, saying:
I knew immediately [that she was special]. I was seeing her at a club called Sweetwaters. Her mother was the star of the show. She was a background singer doing two shows in the middle of her mother’s act. And she stepped to the microphone. Her choice of material – and she sang two songs – one was “Home” from the Broadway show The Wiz. And the other was “The Greatest Love of All,” it was a song I had commissioned for the wife of Muhammad Ali. I had the original record with George Benson. [I] absolutely [remember]. Of course, you do. It’s a lifetime memory. I was amazed that she found more meaning in that song than I believe than Michael Masser and Linda Creed when they wrote it. This was a unique vocalist who was breathing fire and soul, and heart into a song I was so familiar with. I had commissioned it years ago. And I knew that her gift was unique without question.
Whitney Houston only signed with Arista Records because of her love for Clive Davis
Houston and Davis had such a connection from the start that Houston ignored several record deal offers in favor of signing with Davis and Arista. In fact, she put a specific clause in her contract that ensured Clive would remain with her along the way.
“Whitney would only sign with us if she was given a key man clause that stated she would only work with me: if I were to leave the company for any reason, she could leave as well,” he writes. “At that time, Arista was part of RCA Records. We had never given that clause to any artist (and never would again), but in view of my passion, the RCA board approved it…and our lifetime musical adventure began,” Davis explains in a forward of Houston’s 35th anniversary of her debut album.
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