Whitney Houston with Oprah Winfrey on "The Oprah Winfrey Show"
Photo: Harpo

Whitney Houston remained candid in the second part of her interview with Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday (September 15), speaking out about her drug addictions, her divorce from Bobby Brown, her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, and why she felt the desire once again to get back into the music industry.

Houston, who also performed during her appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," said that she needed to figure out what her next move would be after she left her husband. "I had to get to the point where I had to make the choice and that one day came and I left," she said, revealing that she told Bobby she was going out for sugar and "I never came back and I went to L.A. I made some moves and then I took [daughter Bobbi Kristina] with me to California."

She also revealed that she had been separated from Brown for some time before anyone knew that the two were divorcing. "I had left, but nobody really knew. [My daughter] saw enough — the spitting in the face was enough," she said. "I wasn't going to be in an unholy matrimony. I wanted it to stop at that point — the drugs and everything — and I wanted [the evil] out and I was praying hard and my mother stepped in and she said, 'Let it go.' You can't play [my mom] Cissy, and she said , 'I'm not giving you up.' "

Bobbi Kristina supported the decision to divorce and for her mother to get her life back on track. "I went to California — I got me a little home there in Laguna. I got with a counselor, my friend who just helps people," she recalled, adding that eventually her daughter found out about Brown's exploits online.

"She was like, 'Mom, this is dad?' And I was like, 'Yeah, OK [it is].' And she saw him [with the other women] and just crazy things. She said, 'No, divorce him. Just let him go.' She said, 'You don't deserve that and neither do I.' "

Houston shared that she quit using drugs, but that every day is a struggle. "I mean, don't think I don't have desires for it," she said. "There are times when it takes a minute to cleanse, get off me — I have to pray it away. I have a drink every now and then ... don't get me wrong — that was not an issue for me. Oprah, one day at a time. Right now, no [I don't want drugs]. If ever I get low, I get weak, I know where I can go. I know where I can run to. And I know that God loves me. He loves me. I love the spirit of God so much. I'm not trading that for nothing."

She also knew she'd never trade in her career. Even at her lowest, she always knew that she had it in her to keep going and make music again. "You know what for some reason, Oprah, I never got to that point — something always had a fight in me," she said. "I always had a fight in me."

• Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston on "The Oprah Winfrey Show"
Photo: Harpo Productions

The second portion of Whitney Houston's sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey aired on Tuesday (September 15) and, in addition to opening up more about her marriage to Bobby Brown and her issues with substance abuse, she also spoke candidly about how she reacted to the news of Michael Jackson's death.

"Devastating," Houston told Winfrey. "I have so many good memories of spending time with him. I've known his family for so many years that I thought, 'It can't be true.' "

Houston said that she was aware of his troubles over the years and even heard about his painkiller addiction at one point. "I knew he was on painkillers at one time ... I didn't know how far and how deep it was," she recalled.

She said that performing with him at his 30th-anniversary special in 2001 opened her eyes — she saw him as a "mirror" because he reflected her own problems with addictions. "I just remember doing the anniversary special and I remember looking at Michael and I remember looking at myself and I was getting scared looking at him," she said. "I was looking at myself. I don't want it to be like this. Mike and I were very close."

That concert was the last time that Houston remembers seeing him, but she does note that the pair stayed in touch over the years via the phone. "I think it was that time [that I saw him last], but I spoke to him during the trial a lot. He would speak to me on the phone, but he didn't want me to see him," she said. "[It] saddens me."

• Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston in her Oprah Winfrey Show Interview
Photo: Harpo Productions

Whitney Houston was back on top last week thanks to her comeback album, I Look To You. But for the past decade-plus, the singer told Oprah Winfrey on Monday, her life has been a roller coaster of drugs, jealousy, emotional abuse and a chaotic, "crazy love" with ex-husband Bobby Brown.

"He was my drug," Houston, 46, said on the season premiere of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." "I didn't do anything without him. I wasn't getting high by myself. It was me and him together, and we were partners, and that's what my high was — him. He and I being together, and whatever we did, we did it together. No matter what, we did it together."

That included descending into a frightening abyss of drugs, constant fighting and bizarre behavior that included Brown spray-painting "evil eyes" on the walls, carpets and closet doors of their home.

"Evil eyes that were looking at every point in the room," Houston said, adding that at one point Brown also cut the heads off pictures of her. "I'm looking at it and going, 'Lord, what's really going on here?' Because I was getting scared, because I felt something was going to blow, something was going to give."

The first part of the two-part interview didn't descend into the typical teary Oprah confessional, but Houston, who has sold more than 140 million albums worldwide, was unabashed in detailing the depths of misery into which she fell after achieving the pinnacle of worldwide fame in the early 1990s.

In fact, she said, that fame was part of what destroyed her marriage to Brown. When her career took off with her big-screen success in the 1992 movie "The Bodyguard" and its unstoppable hit single, "I Will Always Love You," Houston said she tried to downplay her fame in deference to Brown, 40, whom she married in 1992 after three years of dating. The couple divorced in 2007.

"Something happens to a man when a woman has that much fame," Houston said. "I tried to play down all the time. I used to say, 'I'm Mrs. Brown, don't call me Houston.' "

Between the deference to Brown and the drug use, Houston admitted that she eventually stopped caring about her music career. "I had totally forgotten about that life," she said. "I had so much money by that point. I wasn't thinking about any of that."

Aside from the drug use — Houston said her drugs of choice were marijuana and crack cocaine, while Brown allegedly preferred alcohol and marijuana laced with cocaine — the singer said their marital problems also got physical.

"He slapped me once, but he got hit on the head three times by me," Houston told Winfrey, saying that she had hit Brown so hard that he fell down bleeding as their daughter, Bobbi Kristina, now 16, walked into the room. During another argument at their Atlanta home during a party she threw for her husband, she said Brown spat in her face in front of Bobbi, which left her "very hurt, very angry."

Houston said the drug use got so bad at one point that her mother, Cissy Houston, showed up at the couple's Atlanta home with a court injunction and asked police to help force Whitney into rehab.

"She said, 'I'm not losing you to the world. I'm not losing you to Satan. I want my daughter back,' " Houston said of her mother's plea. "She said, 'Either you do it my way, or we'll go on TV and [say] you're gonna retire.' "

Her mother warned Brown not to interfere with that intervention, Houston told Winfrey. "She said, 'If you move, Bobby, they're gonna take you down,' " Houston said. " 'Don't you make one move.' And he stood there like he was scared."

Though she was candid in much of the interview, when Winfrey confronted Houston about an article that suggested fans felt "disgust" at how cavalierly the singer had treated her voice, which Oprah called a "national treasure," Houston said simply, "Wow."

Houston said she's trying to re-start her career now because, as she put it, "I needed my joy back." The long climb back has already hit a few bumps, including a much-discussed performance on "Good Morning America" earlier this month, in which Houston appeared out of breath with a voice in poor condition, which she blamed on all the talking she did while taping the "Oprah" appearance the previous day.

Part two of the interview will air on Tuesday.

• Whitney Houston
• Bobby Brown

Whitney Houston
Photo: MTV News

Three years ago, after many personal problems — including battles with substance abuse and a broken marriage — that were aired in public, Whitney Houston got a call from legendary record producer Clive Davis, a longtime friend and business partner.

Davis had a simple message for the Grammy-winning, multiplatinum diva, as he told MTV News in an interview. "I said, 'Whitney, it's time to get back to work.' "

On Wednesday (September 9), Houston's album, I Look to You, debuted in the top spot on the Billboard 200. "It was so special to find out today that Whitney's album enters the charts at #1, not only here but in almost every country that it's been released outside of the United States," Davis said. "It's #1 in Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain. It was really thrilling because you don't know how much she was missed and this is a resounding 'Yes.' "

But her comeback has not been without its bumps. Last week, during a performance on "Good Morning America," Houston struggled through a four-song set as her voice wavered. At one point she was forced to point her microphone into the crowd for assistance with the vocals. Like Houston before him, Davis blamed the performance on an earlier, three-hour interview with Oprah Winfrey, as well as separate shoots for two music videos that each didn't wrap until 6 a.m.

"She electrified the audience even though her upper register was not traditional as far as Whitney Houston is concerned," Davis said. "Plain and simple, she was a trooper."

Davis continued, "Two days later, with some rest, when she did 'I Didn't Know My Own Strength' on the 'Oprah' show in Chicago — which I was there and saw — I understand Oprah's Twitter from this weekend."

"In search of ceiling repairmen," Oprah wrote. "Cause Whitney just blew the roof off of Harpo [studio]. Grown men and women weeping in the aisles."

Despite that success, Davis said fans should not expect a comeback tour anytime soon. "Next year I'm sure you'll see her in performance [in different cities]," he said. "She does love to perform. But whether she loves to tour or not, and that grind, I can't testify to that."

• Whitney Houston Performs On "Good Morning America"

• Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston's <i>I Look To You</i>
Photo: Sony BMG

After seven years off the charts, Whitney Houston has proven she's still got it. The R&B diva will debut at #1 on next week's Billboard 200 albums chart with her comeback album, I Look to You. The LP notched 305,000 in sales last week (and 6,000 copies were sold before its official release), a strong showing that handily outperformed 2002's Just Whitney, which managed just 205,000 in its first week for a #9 debut.

There is plenty of company in the top 10 this week for Houston, according to numbers provided by Nielsen SoundScan, with five other debuts. Trey Songz comes in at a solid #3 with Ready (131,000). The Juggalos came out for makeup rappers Insane Clown Posse, whose Bang! Pow! Boom! is #4 (50,000). Hard-rockers Chevelle have a respectable debut at #6 with Sci-Fi Crimes (46,000), rapper Pitbull pulls into #8 with Rebelution (41,000), and emo rockers the Used hit #10 with Artwork (35,000).

Other than that, the rest of the top 10 is mostly unchanged: Miley Cyrus climbs up a notch to #2 with her Wal-Mart exclusive EP Time of Our Lives (153,000); Colbie Caillat drops four spots to #5 with her second album, Breakthrough (47,000); Kings of Leon bump down three spots to #7 with the still-strong Only by the Night (45,000) and Taylor Swift's equally indomitable Fearless holds at #9 (35,000).

Just outside the top 10, the Black Eyed Peas' The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies) falls to #11 (34,000) as it passes the platinum mark three months after its release. Classic rockers the Black Crowes land at #12 with their double live/studio disc Before the Frost ... Until the Freeze (32,000), and Young Chris debuts at #19 with Man I Want to Be (26,000).

It was a brief sojourn in the top 10 for English alt-popster Imogen Heap, whose Ellipse shed nearly 70 percent of its first-week business to drop 24 spots to #29 (15,000). The Josh Homme-produced third effort from the Arctic Monkeys, Humbug, got the cold shoulder, as it dropped more than 60 percent from its debut, swooning 35 spots to #50 in week two (10,000). And rapper Beanie Sigel's Broad Street Bully didn't have much punch, debuting at #77 (6,000).

Next week's charts should be on fire, with the chart debut of the Beatles reissues, Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3, and new ones from Boys Like Girls, Raekwon and Phish.

• Whitney Houston Previews I Look To You

• Whitney Houston Performs On "Good Morning America"

• Whitney Houston
• Trey Songz
• Chevelle
• The Used
• Pitbull

Whitney Houston performs on "Good Morning America"
Photo: Michael Loccisano/ FilmMagic

Whitney Houston returned to the stage Wednesday (September 2) with a fiery, fierce and (given that she's Whitney Houston) somewhat flaky performance from New York's Central Park as part of the "Good Morning America" Summer Concert Series.

Houston — who taped her performance Tuesday — thrilled the crowd of more than 4,000 with a four-song set that included a pair of tunes from her just-released I Look to You album (the Alicia Keys co-penned "Million Dollar Bill" and the emotional title track) and two classics, 1998's "My Love Is Your Love" and her version of Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman," which Houston turned into a massive hit in 1992.

Houston strode onstage to "Bill," shouting "I love you!" to her fans during the song's opening lines, but midway through the track, her voice began to waver, and she spent the remainder of the song thrusting the microphone into the crowd, urging her fans to help her sing the chorus.

Her struggles continued on "My Love Is Your Love," as she barely made it through the song's second verse before sounding winded (she would later blame her vocal troubles on an appearance on "Oprah" that she had taped earlier in the week). At the end of the track, Houston invited daughter Bobbi Kristina onstage, and the 16-year-old (sorta) obliged, grabbing a microphone from a stagehand — whom Houston identified as "my nephew" — and instructing fans to clap their hands.

In keeping with the familial vibe, Houston dedicated "I Look to You" to her mother, soul and gospel singer Cissy Houston, who was in the audience. She concluded the set with a breathless (in more ways than one) version of "I'm Every Woman," on which she invited "Good Morning America" hosts Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts onstage to sing backup.

Houston also gave an emotional onstage interview during the performance, telling Sawyer and Roberts that she survived her dark period thanks to her faith and her family. And she made it very clear that this isn't a comeback. After all, she never really went away.

"I'm overwhelmed [by] the love, the support, your prayers, [they] mean so much to me," she said, as her fans cheered. "I love you all for coming and saying hello to me and telling me you love me like I love you back. I never left. I never left. Yeah."

• Whitney Houston

Usher performs at the Michael Jackson public memorial in Los Angeles on July 7, 2009
Photo: Mario Anzuoni/ Getty Images

Two different, star-studded tributes to Michael Jackson have begun to take shape. The first, according to TMZ, is an all-star remake of the late pop singer's "Will You Be There" that will reportedly feature vocals from Usher, Wyclef Jean, Jermaine Jackson, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie and Dionne Warwick. (John Mayer was also said to be participating, but his spokesperson told MTV News that TMZ's report was false.)

That effort is reportedly being led by Shawn King, wife of TV talker Larry King, who will also lend her vocals to the song. King told TMZ she's not yet sure if Jennifer Hudson — who performed the song at last month's memorial service for Jackson — will participate in the tribute because she has just given birth to her first child. Proceeds from the song, the release date of which has not yet been announced, will be split 50/50 between the Larry King Cardiac Foundation and an unspecified charity close to Jackson.

In the meantime, the New York Post reported that Shawn King, Whitney Houston, Madonna and President Barack Obama will not be participating in Jermaine Jackson's global tribute to his brother, who died on June 25 at the age of 50 after suffering cardiac arrest. The show is being planned for September 26 on a crown-shaped stage at the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria, according to The Associated Press. The lineup for the three-hour show will reportedly be revealed in two weeks, but early reports are that it will feature around 10 major entertainers who will perform 15 to 20 of Jackson's hits. Jermaine Jackson said the site was chosen because his brother "loved castles."

• Michael Jackson: The Memorial

• Michael Jackson: A Life In Photos
• Michael Jackson's Public Memorial At Staples Center

• Michael Jackson
• Usher
• Wyclef Jean
• Whitney Houston
• Dionne Warwick

Whitney Houston
Photo: MTV News

Whitney Houson wasn't too sure about working with rapper/singer/producer Akon for her new album, I Look to You, when her label president, Clive Davis, suggested him as a suitable collaborator.

"When Clive told me I would be working with Akon, I thought, 'Hmm, interesting, um, all right,' " she told MTV News of her initial reaction to the producer of her song "Like I Never Left."

Houston realized she wanted to recapture what she had done with Wyclef Jean in 1999. "I wanted the record like 'My Love Is Your Love' with an island feel," she explained. "I wanted an island record because 'My Love Is Your Love' is so huge ... it has its own fashion with Wyclef. ... I wanted that feeling, but I didn't know who [could do that]. And Clive came and said, 'Akon is the guy that we're going to work with.' And I was like, 'OK, Akon. OK, I can deal with that.' "

But when Houston and Akon first met in the studio, her fears weren't exactly completely squelched after she heard how he came up with his moniker. "I was asking him, 'Did your mother name you Akon?' " Houston recalled. "And he said, 'No, it means a convict.' And I thought, 'Oh, God. OK, all right, I can handle that.' He's a gentleman. He did his work very well. We did it very quickly, very diligently, and I'm very proud of that record. It's a great record."

By contrast, Houston had no reservations about working with Alicia Keys. She knew as soon as she saw Keys perform that she wanted to get in the studio with the Grammy winner.

"When she performed at one of [Clive's] parties the year before last, I kind of looked at her, and it was when she had [the 'No One'] record out, and it was the only record that came on the radio that inspired me," Houston said. "It made me feel good and happy, and I thought, 'God, she's on the label with Daddy [Clive Davis] here.'

"I thought, 'I got to get to know her. I got to have a camaraderie with some of the people that were on the label where I came back home to,' " she continued.

Keys, of course, said yes. "I walked over to her, and off the cuff said, 'Hey, do you think you could produce me?' She said, 'Yeah, I think I can,' " Houston recounted. "Then I performed a year after, and she came up with the song 'Million Dollar Bill,' and I said, 'Wow, incredible.' "

• MTV News RAW: Whitney Houston

• Whitney Houston
• Akon
• Alicia Keys

Whitney Houston at her "I Look to You" album listening party
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ Getty Images

On Whitney Houston's new album, I Look to You, fans can expect to hear Houston singing all about the ups and downs of her life over the past few years. The album, which hits stores in September, will reflect the events and emotions that she has gone through since her last release in 2002.

"That makes it real," she told MTV News of singing about personal struggles. "The changes that we go through, the transitions that we go through, the tests that we go through, being a mother, becoming a single mother — it all had its ups and its downs, but for the most part, I kept my faith and I kept my head up and I took my time."

She said during that time away from the spotlight, she "had the blessing of watching my daughter [Bobbi Kristina] grow from the time of 12. When a young woman is at the age of 12 or 13, you know, it's the detrimental years ... and I had the opportunity to watch her grow and be there for her."

So when the opportunity came for Houston to get back to work, she still wanted a little free time. "Clive [Davis] called me, and I said, 'Just give me a minute. Let me get her straightened out. Let me get her on the right track and let her know what I'm about to do, 'cause she's going with me everywhere I go. She's going to be right here by my side.' "

Her daughter ended up fully supporting her mom's decision to get back to work. "When I told her I was going to embark on a new album, she was so supportive and very much my friend," Houston recalled. "And she said, 'You got it, mom. You can do it.'

"All the triumphs and the ups and downs and stuff, it's all incorporated on the album, and hopefully not only does it inspire me, but inspires a whole lot of other people," Houston added.

• MTV News RAW: Whitney Houston

• Whitney Houston

Photo: MTV News

• Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston Performs On "Good Morning America"

• Whitney Houston

2009 Grammy Awards Show

• Whitney Houston
• Justin Timberlake
• Jennifer Hudson
• U2
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2002 European Music Awards Photos

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