XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX TUE DEC 03, 2002 11:31:08 ET XXXXX
WHITNEY EXPLAINS
IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH DIANE SAWYER, WHITNEY HOUSTON SPEAKS FRANKLY ABOUT RUMORS OF DRUG USE, HER MARRIAGE WITH BOBBY BROWN, HER RELATIONSHIP WITH HER FATHER AND THE 2000 ACADEMY AWARDS CONTROVERSY...
In a much-anticipated exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer, Whitney Houston finally addresses head-on the widespread rumors about drug use, her marriage to Bobby Brown, her strained relationship with her father and her now-infamous cancelled performance at the 2002 Academy Awards, among other topics.
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The interview, which was recently conducted at Houston's Atlanta home, will air on a special edition of �Primetime," WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET), on ABC.
The Whitney interview runs the entire hour, network sources tell DRUDGE.
Portions will also hit Wednesday runs of GOOD MORNING AMERICA.
Now excerpts from the interview can be revealed:
On her drug use:
DIANE SAWYER: ... Is it alcohol? Is it marijuana? Is it cocaine? Is it pills?
WHITNEY HOUSTON: It has been at times.
SAWYER: All?
HOUSTON: At times. Uh-hm.
SAWYER: And the... if you had name the devil ... for you ... the biggest devil among them ...
HOUSTON: That would be me. It's my deciding ... it's my heart. It's what I want ... and I don't want. Nobody makes me do anything I don't want to do. It's my decision. So the bigger devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy. And that's how I have to deal with it.
On her current health:
HOUSTON: I'm not sick, Diane. I am not sick. Let's get that straight. I am not sick. Okay? I've always been a thin girl. I am not going to be fat, ever. Let's get that straight. Whitney is not going to be fat, ever. Okay?
On her past lifestyle:
HOUSTON: My business is sex, drugs, rock and roll. You know? (Laughs) My friends, we have a good time. But as you get older and you get wiser�you stop a lot of the kid stuff�I had no time to grow up, I had no time to party. I didn�t even�date in my �20s�It was rough. It was rough. I think I kind of reverted back as I got older and said, 'Well, I�m just gonna party,' �It was kind of a rebel in me�
HOUSTON: Well, I partied a lot. Trust me. I partied my tail off�you get to a point where
you know it is ... the party�s over�
On additional rumors about drug use:
SAWYER: This says 730 thousand dollar drug habit. This is a headline.
HOUSTON: Come on! Seven thirty? I wish. No. I wish who ever was making that money off of me would share it with me. No way. No way. I want to see the receipts. From the drug dealer that I bought 730 thousand dollars worth of drugs from. I want to see receipts. Yeah, right.
On whether she considers herself an addict:
SAWYER: Do you think of yourself as an addict�
HOUSTON: Hey, I'm addicted to a few things�
SAWYER: Like?...
HOUSTON: ... making love�I don't like to think of myself addicted. I like to think... I had a bad habit ... which can be broken�
On the pressures she has faced:
HOUSTON: It wasn't always about ... the drugs. It was ... mother, father ... brother, sister ... family ... daughter ... trying to balance it all ... career ... music ... new this ... new that ... new this. Making decisions. A lot of it had to do with that ... emotional. I would stay in my room for days ... for days at a time just trying to get it together ... to know what my next phase was going to be�
On when she turned the corner:
HOUSTON: When they said... I had died, I did. I changed my mind. I changed my mind. Yeah. Because I didn't want to look like the rest of them. I didn't want to be like them�
SAWYER: Do you think you came close?
HOUSTON: I think it was as close as anybody� can get. A lot of folks have come closer. But that's as close as I want to be. That's as close as I think it gets�and I don�t mean any harm to anybody� it frightened me. I don�t want to ever be in the realm of, where I am caught in a mold, and I can�t get out. Never. That�s over. I�m beyond it�
On changing her ways:
SAWYER: �Can you control it now? In a different way?
HOUSTON: I'm not as excited anymore, about it�It was new. I partied, and, it's done�
SAWYER: �But now do you say, not at all? Or do you say, I can ...
HOUSTON: Well I'm not going to tell you that�I am not self destructive. I'm not a person who wants to die. I'm a person who has life, and wants to live. And always have�
HOUSTON: I pray every day, Diane. I'm not the strongest every day, but I'm not the weakest, either. And I won't break. And I won't break.
SAWYER: � But you seem so confident of it now, because usually people treat it with kind of fear and respect and say, "I don't know. I'm gonna go ... day by day"�
HOUSTON: listen..... it's not easy. It's not easy. But I'm not gonna tell you I'm somebody's junkie. No, I'm not. I've had my time ...
On leaving the bad days behind her:
HOUSTON: �I've talked to people who have been through rehab... a lot of people that come through it ... come through it with God. They tell you in a rehab that 90 percent of you are going to return. That's not nice �So what I did ... is I looked in my soul to see what was missing. And it was the spirit man that was missing. That they were trying to suck dry out of me. My spiritual being. And once I refueled that ... I put gasoline in that ... I'm good to go�If I hold on to that� I can be strong enough to fight the battle.
On her thinness:
SAWYER: Anorexia�
HOUSTON: No way.
SAWYER: They've written it.
HOUSTON: No way.
SAWYER: Bulimia.
HOUSTON: No way.
SAWYER: That it's because of drugs.
HOUSTON: No�Now, I�ll grant you, I partied� But there have been times when�I was going through a lot of emotional stress. And my eating habits were awful�
Bobby Brown on drug use:
BOBBY BROWN: Me and drugs. We're not friends. We're not friends at all�I used to smoke a lot of marijuana ... a lot�
SAWYER: But marijuana's still in your life.
BOBBY BROWN: ... I'm a very high-strung person... I'm bipolar. It seems to help me ... from going up and down... I'm diagnosed bipolar. And it helps me to keep... a level in my life, you know?
SAWYER: But isn't there Lithium?�
BOBBY BROWN: I can't take Lithium �
HOUSTON: �.He was catatonic, you know... his spirit was dead�took his whole spirit away �
BOBBY BROWN: And, you know, I couldn't work, I couldn't do nothing ... so...every now and then ... I smoke a joint ... Every now and then. You know. It's not an every day thing... it keeps me calm. Keeps my spirits well...
Brown on alcohol:
SAWYER: I'm looking back ... 1995 ... you said "The bottle's out of my life."
BOBBY BROWN: �It wasn't.
HOUSTON:That takes the place of that. And it's hard. Because we're rock 'n' rollers, man. You know�
BOBBY BROWN:�That's the life we live here.
Houston on her controversial Michael Jackson special appearance:
SAWYER: The Michael Jackson VH1 appearance�.
HOUSTON: Didn't I fit right in?...That was the craziest thing I'd ever experienced in my life.
SAWYER: But tell me about you that night�you had been partying? Is that part of it?
HOUSTON:Um, well Diane, I can't say it was like an every day kind of thing, yeah. I hung out with some friends and I partied, but, that week, the week before I came to Michael Jackson, Aaliyah had died�
On her non-appearance at the Oscars:
HOUSTON: �I was fired (Laughs) from the gig. I didn't mind. I really didn't want to do it anyway... I was past that ... I'm past that and it's over now.
SAWYER: Why were you fired?
HOUSTON: Because I was ... not getting along with the guy that was directing (Laughs) the whole thing [Burt Bachrach], who've I've known since I was a kid�
SAWYER: �I think you said laryngitis, at the time. I don't think that's what you said.
HOUSTON: ...I had gotten the bronchitis...And I asked him just for a day, just to get it together. And that's a long story.
SAWYER: Yeah, but Faith Hill had to come in at the last minute?
HOUSTON: Yeah. Because I wouldn't go. I didn't want to go�I had my reservations about that whole thing� I was kind of pissed off. I had an attitude about it. And rightfully so. You know? I should not have been on the show and ... and they fired me and ... that was it. And I went home.
On cancelled appearances:
HOUSTON: Like I said ... look at my record ... see the concerts I've done ... and see how many I've cancelled in the 17 years of career ... and add it up�
On the effects of stress:
HOUSTON: They talked about me from the time I stepped out there, man. I had to overcome a lot of adversity. Never mind the drugs, or whatever, you know, and all this stuff. They talked about me from the time I stepped onto the scene�I want them to have the best of me. And if I'm not the best of me, I don't want to step out there and do it. I won't. So know that it's because of that. Not because I don't love you. But because I don't have the best to give�people have to understand� the vocal chords are only muscles. When they get tired, and they say I am tired they don�t work�
On her marriage to Brown:
HOUSTON: ... you just never picture Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston together. Who did?... And they didn�t give us six minutes to last. We�ve gone 10 years�Love is where you find it. It's where you find it. And I found it in him. And he found it in me.
Brown on the turbulence of their relationship:
SAWYER: But why is it so turbulent?
BROWN: I think marriage is turbulent. You know, we're just in the public eye. You know? A lot of people, you know, that are married go through worse problems than us.
On her new CD:
SAWYER: If every album is a snapshot of a moment in time, what is this one of?
HOUSTON:I think it is the Whitney that has endured 17, 18 years of music industry. Whitney that has endured slander and criticisms and all kinds of things. But this is a older, maturer, wise woman.
SAWYER: How much does it matter to you if it succeeds or not? Can you insulate yourself from that? Can you really say I don�t care, it�s what I want to do ...
HOUSTON:Yes� I�m not looking for hit records anymore.
SAWYER: You�re really not? Really?
HOUSTON:I mean�don�t get me wrong, I want hit records. And it�s cool to have them. But what I�m looking for mostly are songs that inspire people�I love music, Diane. I love to sing�I don't want the pressures of trying to have a number one song anymore...
On parting ways with Clive Davis:
HOUSTON: Emotionally, I went through a lot of changes. A lot.
A lot. I cried...All of a sudden just say one day he's not there. He's gone. That hurt. A lot.
On the lawsuit her father has filed against her:
SAWYER: Your father's filing suit against you. A hundred million dollars.
HOUSTON: (Laughs)
BROWN: (Whistles)
SAWYER: Do you feel betrayed?
HOUSTON:... it hurts.
SAWYER:Have you talked to him? What has he said to you?
HOUSTON: My father is ... 81 ... very sick. His health is failing. Somebody... who my father's associated with... has put fear in his heart... as if he's not my father ... I'm not his daughter. And all I can tell you, Diane, is that it hurts right now. And I've been dealing with it ... and we'll work it out ... 'cause no matter what ... he's my dad. And I'm his daughter. And I love him ... and I know he loves me. They'll never get a $100 million out of me ... I know that!...
SAWYER: Do you still love him?
HOUSTON: Absolutely. He gave me life. Before all of this ... there were years I can't forget. The bad part about it is that it's about money. And that really sucks. That ... that hurts more than anything�
On Britney spears:
SAWYER: You like Britney?
HOUSTON: I love Britney.
SAWYER :Yeah?
HOUSTON: Yeah, I think she�s sharp.
SAWYER: Who else do you love, out there?...
HOUSTON: Well ... let�s put it this way. Although I�m in popular music, I really don�t listen to it. I listen to gospel. I�m a gospel girl.
On whether she has any apologies to make:
SAWYER: And looking back... do you apologize...
HOUSTON: Yeah, there are things I apologize for. But the things I apologize for, like ... concert dates. There was things I apologized for, because the people really mattered to me. They mattered to me. And I know they came out to see me. And I apologize for that. I'll make it up to you. But that's the only people in the world, the public, the fans, are the people that I apologize to. Because if I don't have my best to give, then I can't give it to them�
On leaving the past behind her:
SAWYER: And how sure are you that those bad days you talked about are behind you?...
HOUSTON: I know that I'm ... I'm on the right path ... because I'm back home ... where I started in here. I can't tell you it's all going to be perfect, Diane�I�m a very prayerful person, even in the midst of the trouble, of the battle, I had to pray�I don�t care what anybody else says or did or what they claimed I was, I know I�m a child of God. And I know he loves me. Jesus loves me. This I know.
