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Two days before her death on Feb. 11, 2012, Whitney Houston showed up to rehearsals for mentor Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammy gala, a glitzy night of music and mingling that she was planning to attend. The star-studded bash — which, held the night before the awards, is always one of the hottest tickets of Grammy weekend — was taking place at Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton hotel, where the singer was also staying.
Houston’s longtime musical director Rickey Minor was putting the band through its paces for the event, and he noticed immediately that something was different about the woman who was like his “little sister.”
“She pops into rehearsal, and we hadn’t even started, and it’s 10:30 in the morning,” Minor told The Post. “Like, she doesn’t get up till the crack of 3, you know? She’s not a morning person. She loves her sleep, and she’s a night owl, so I never get to see her at 10:30. And she was kind of wet, like dripping. And I said, ‘Where are you coming from?’ She says, ‘I’ve been swimming. I’m getting my lungs back. I’m getting back in shape.’ ”
Houston claimed to be cleaning up her act, after years of drug abuse and smoking had taken their toll on her once-pristine pipes. But she was clearly lying to Minor — and perhaps to herself.
Indeed, the comeback that Houston was hoping to have after wrapping her upcoming movie “Sparkle” — a remake of the 1976 musical drama — didn’t happen. She died, at age 48, in the drug-filled bathroom of her hotel room just a few hours before the Davis party was due to begin. The cause of death was accidental drowning in the bathtub, but long-term cocaine use and heart disease were contributing factors.
The shocking passing of the pop diva who once possessed the greatest voice of all rocked that Grammy weekend, turning it into a collective mourning by the music world that had assembled to celebrate its biggest night of the year. Still, amid the surreal sadness, the Grammys carried on the day after Houston’s death.
“Your almost natural instinct right at the beginning was to throw the [originally planned] show out and make the show a tribute to Whitney Houston,” longtime Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich told The Post. “But that wouldn’t have been the right thing to do. So it was trying to find the blend between honoring her memory and then doing a Grammy show right.”
Gerrick Kennedy, author of the new book “Didn’t We Almost Have It All: In Defense of Whitney Houston,” agreed that, “Nothing would have made the circumstances less horrible. Nothing would have made the moment feel less awful,” he said. “So it just was kind of like, what do you do?”
Clearly still using
Kennedy recalled seeing Houston at the Beverly Hilton two days before her death. The star was in lively spirits when she crashed an E! News interview that Brandy and Monica were doing at the Davis party rehearsals. “In the moment, it was just like, you know, she’s having a good time,” he said. “She was there to see her little babies. But obviously, we now know that clearly she was not [sober].”
Later that night, Houston gave an impromptu performance of “Jesus Loves Me” at Kelly Price’s For the Love of R&B pre-Grammy event held at Tru Hollywood nightclub. It would turn out to be the last time she ever sang in public.
The next day, photos surfaced with Houston looking disheveled while leaving Tru. Minor got a call from Houston that day, but she didn’t leave a message and didn’t answer when he called her back. “I never talked to her again,” said Minor, who had formed a close bond with the singer since first working with her in 1982.
Minor got news of Houston’s death from the head of security at the Beverly Hilton. “He said, ‘Come with me.’ And we went to the service elevator, and we went up to the floor. And he said, ‘You know, she’s unconscious. She’s unresponsive.’ And then they cleared the floor, and I was the only one allowed to be on the floor. My head was spinning. Of course, I couldn’t tell anybody. It was an out-of-body experience to me … like some weird freak dream.”
