Clive Davis memoir: Music, bisexuality
It is almost easier to list the artists legendary music business executive Clive Davis hasnt worked with than the ones he has during his half century-long career. Suffice it to say that the founder of Arista and J Records and the current chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment has overseen releases by everyone from voice-of-his-generation Bob Dylan to Milli Vanilli who, as it turned out, werent even the voices of themselves.
Davis recalls his interactions with both acts in his new memoir, the Anthony De Curtis-cowritten The Soundtrack of My Life, which is published today by Simon & Schuster. The book also finds the exec reminiscing about Bruce Springsteen, Simon & Garfunkel, Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana, the Grateful Dead, Patti Smith, the Foo Fighters, and Jennifer Hudson, amongst many others. But the real, headline-grabbing portions are to be found in the chapters dealing with Whitney Houston, Kelly Clarkson, and Davis own sexuality.
Davis signed Houston when she was just 19, and he writes at length about both the record-breaking success Houston found with her first two albums (1985s Whitney Houston and 1987s Whitney) and his attempts to intervene after her life became derailed by drugs. The executive even reprints a 2001 letter he wrote to Houston, expressing his concern after what he describes as her skeletal appearance at one of Michael Jacksons thirtieth-anniversary concerts. You must think not only of yourself but you most think of those you love you, Davis pleaded in the missive. Our anguish, our fear, our pain is just too much to bear. You must get help for yourself and for your close extended family.
Davis subsequently describes the shock he felt upon hearing of Houstons death, a tragedy which occurred just a few days after he had met with the singer, who reassured him that she was swimming daily and getting into shape. Maybe I should have been more skeptical, writes Davis in The Soundtrack of My Life, but Ive alwa! ys been o! ptimistic, and I felt hopeful. It felt like old times.
American Idol season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson also enjoyed massive Davis-masterminded early success, particularly with her second album, 2004s Breakaway. That collection included the megahit Since U Been Gone, a track, Davis recalls, which Clarkson adamantly did not want featured on the CD. (Davis writes that when he insisted Since U Been Gone be included, Clarkson burst into hysterical sobbing.)
Worse was to come. The artist and the executive fell out badly over Clarksons desire to write more songs on her next collection, My December. In Soundtrack, Davis recalls that he didnt believe the Clarkson-copenned material contained a No. 1 hit and told the singers manager that he was out of his mind to believe otherwise. He also writes about a meeting with Clarkson in which he told her that My December was a pop album that still needs pop hits. While Clarkson prevailed in her creative vision, Davis was proven right in his commercial assessment of the material when My December failed to repeat the success of Breakaway.
Finally, Davis confirms longstanding rumors that he has had relationships with men. The twice-married executive says he first began to experiment sexually around three decades ago when he was approached by a male music fan at famed New York nightclub Studio 54. Was I nervous? writes Davis. Absolutely. Did the heavens open up? No. But it was satisfying. In Soundtrack, Davis reveals that he has been in a strong monogamous relationship with a man for the last seven years but makes it extremely clear that he regards himself as bisexual rather than gay. Do I feel I could have been similarly attracted to a woman? Davis writes. The answer is yes.
For an extended interview with Clive Davis in which he ruminates further about his megastar artists and his decision to come out as a bisexual check out the next issue of Entertainment Weekly.
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