I never watched a single episode of Being Bobby Brown. Because you see, I have been like the mother who lights candles for their lost son or daughter kneeling in a Catholic church, I have just been sitting back praying (literally) praying for Whitney’s safe return home. I first met her during my first summer industry job at a rehearsal studio called In Touch Productions. Bobby Brown was getting ready for his Humpin Around tour and everyday he would come and rehearse along with TLC and many others. People speculated about how intense his issues were but I actually had inside information on him. You see, my partner at the time was a drug counselor at a treatment facility and let’s just say, that it did leak out once or twice that he was being treated for “crack cocaine addiction”. He would come to rehearsals back then and not even be able to remember the words to My Purgative. So one day it was decided by someone high up in the ranks that Whitney needed to come to town and straighten his partying behind out so that he would be able to go on tour. (In those days she still lived in Jersey).
I couldn’t sleep the night before she arrived. Anyone who knew me knew that Whitney Houston was and is MY FAVORITE SINGER OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn’t believe I was going to get a chance to meet her. It was Christmas eve, well not really, but it felt like it and I didn’t sleep one wink, I got to work early and waited. First, she had landed… whew! Then her town car was in route, and the next thing I knew, walking through the door almost 8 months pregnant was Ms. Houston. She greeted Bobby’s sister Lele with a hug and Lele asked her how she was doing, YOU KNOW…making reference to the baby, and the first words I ever heard MY IDOL say in person were “GIRL I’M READY TO DROP THIS SHIT”. I gasped and I guess in a way I have been “waiting to exhale” ever sense.
It would be almost 10 years before I would see her again. The video shoot was WHATCHULOOKINGAT. I believe my title on that job was Asst. Production Coor. It could have been garbage lady for all I cared. I personally was responsible for her “green room”. I ordered the furniture from “Rent A Center” yes Whitney had “Rent A Center” furniture (smile). I was an emotional wreck that day, seeing her in the condition she was in made me go to my car and cry 2 times throughout the shoot. She was skin and bones. The stories I had heard were all true and I was not looking at her with contempt but at the people around her…these were the people I just couldn’t believe!
At one point Whitney was outside and saw Bobby pull up again in his SUV. It was pouring down rain and I was holding the umbrella over Ms. Houston (I told ya’ll I would have been garbage lady)(smile). Before I could blink, she did the unthinkable and ran out from under the umbrella towards Bobby. Well of course I darted after her trying to minimize the damage to her hair, and once she got to his vehicle something interesting happened. You see, we were recording live sound at that moment and Whitney had a mic on her body when she ran off. Bobby rolls down the window and I am there holding the umbrella and Whitney asks “What you got for me?” several times. From a distance one of her STYLISTS blurts out “NeNe remember you still got that mic on you!”
There it was…AS PLAIN AS COULD BE… the reason why people can’t get the help they need sometimes is becuase other people need to eat! I believe that people protected her all those years so that they would still have jobs. If I recall correctly, the hair, makeup and wardrobe fees for that ONE music video were almost $80,000. WOW! THE SECRET HERE IS: NEVER INSULATE YOURSELF FROM YOURSELF, BECAUSE SOMETIMES WE CAN BUILD A FORTRESS WITH OUR BIGGEST ENEMIES ON THE INSIDE.
But that was only the first part of THE SECRET… THE SECOND GLORIOUS PART IS… THAT AT ANY GIVEN TIME ON ANY GIVEN DAY, NO MATTER HOW EXTREME OUR NEGATIVE CIRCUMSTANCES ARE… WE CAN ALL CHANGE FOR THE BETTER…WHITNEY I’M FINALLY BEGINNING TO EXHALE!!!
