Whitney Houston Reveals Drug, Marriage Troubles on "Oprah"

Whitney Houston gave her infamous "crack is wack" interview to Diane Sawyer in 2002, she owned up to a mild drug problem. Over the past two days on Oprah, the singer revealed the true extent of her troubles: that she was addicted to marijuana laced with rock cocaine and emotionally battered by husband Bobby Brown until she gathered the strength to leave him in 2006 following rehab stints and an intervention by her mother, Cissy. Clips from the two-part interview are available on Oprah's Website.

The second part of Houston's Oprah appearance featured an emotional performance of I Look to You's "I Didn't Know My Own Strength" that left Winfrey in tears. (The song came off stronger than Houston's lackluster tunes on Good Morning America, which were filmed the day after she taped the Oprah interview.) Houston told Winfrey she originally dropped out of the spotlight because she "wanted to be normal — I had no normal 20s, I had no normal 30s." But her 14-year marriage to Brown spiraled out of control and nearly claimed her career. Here's a rundown of Houston's five most shocking admissions:
• Houston says Brown couldn't live with her success: "I think something inside happens to a man when a woman has that much control." In answer to the question, "Was he jealous?" Houston took a long pause and responded, "He's not going to like this, but yes."
• Houston's concerns over Brown's self-esteem led her to OK filming on Being Bobby Brown, the reality show calamity that spawned a few of The Soup's best-ever clips. Did Houston realize what she was getting into with the show? "I did not," she said. "I was crazy in love."
• Houston's drug of choice: weed mixed with coke. "You were freebasing cocaine?" Oprah asked. "Basically, and weed," Houston replied, denying she ever smoked a pipe. She then explained to Oprah how she used to prepare it: "You put it in your marijuana, Oprah, you lace it, you roll it up, and you smoke it in your weed — it's like heroin and cocaine speedballing, but you level it off, with marijuana."
• The worst thing Brown ever did to Houston was spit in her face following a birthday celebration she had planned in his honor. Their daughter Bobbi Kristina saw the incident, and was horrified. Though sometimes she and Brown would "laugh our tails off," at one point, Brown painted evil eyes on their bedroom walls: "It was really strange."
• Michael Jackson's death affected Houston profoundly, and when she performed beside him at the Jackson's 30th anniversary special in 2001 she was "scared" looking at him. Was he a mirror for her? "In some ways, yes," Houston said.

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• Whitney Houston Returns: Diva Debuts I Look to You in New York

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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