Houston, We Have A Problem

                 Stand down Kevin Costner, your services are no longer needed. On February 11th 2012 Whitney Houston was found dead in her hotel room. The cause of her death will not be finalized until the toxicology report comes back, which typically takes 4-6 weeks. It has been reported that through a combination of sleeping pills and alcohol, Houston feel asleep while in the bathtub and drowned. Whitney Houston had documented problems with drugs and alcohol for many years. She was attempting a comeback that fell a bit short. Should we be surprised? Probably not.

                 Whitney Houston was one of the most talented singers of our generation. Her voice was powerful and pure. Her rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at Super Bowl XXV was simply moving. Our country had just entered the Gulf War in the Middle East (Desert Storm) and she brought us together by belting out our National Anthem in the most amazing of ways. She then captured our hearts alongside Kevin Costner in the blockbuster hit The Bodyguard. The theme song "I Will Always Love You" topped the charts for weeks and earned her Grammy awards for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal. That same year she made a small slip up by marrying former New Edition member Bobby Brown. That marriage was anything but ideal, but gave them a daughter Bobbi Kristina. She kept her Hollywood career going with Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher's Wife, alongside Denzel Washington. She won another Grammy award in 1998 for Best Female R&B Vocal. Scatter a few domestic disputes with her "husband of the year" in there and her 1990's were quite a decade.

                She would struggle a bit in the 21st Century starting with cut lip and bruised cheek from self proclaimed "king of R&B" Bobby Brown. Her first visit to rehab came in 2004. She promptly returned in 2005 under court order. Her role in the reality show Being Bobby Brown should go unmentioned, but you deserved better than that. So there it is, she stared in the show that I'm sure you've never seen. Whitney filed for legal separation in 2006 and divorced Mr. Brown in 2007. Nice move, unfortunately it would be too little too late. Her problems with drugs and alcohol were already overwhelming and even after cutting ties with that loser husband of hers, the demons inside were gaining strength.

                Houston released an album in 2009 titled "I Look to You" which was fairly disappointing by her standards. It eventually went Platinum selling over a millions copies. That same year she announced to Oprah that she was drug free. Only to return to rehab in 2011. The last few months for Whitney were anything but glamorous. Pictures of the once beautiful singer looking like she should be begging for change on the side of a crowded intersection were popping up like her favorite painkillers. There were stories all over TMZ about her being wasted at clubs and just plain acting a fool. The drugs and alcohol had taken over and even extended to her daughter with a photo of the young Bobbi Kristina banging rails (snorting cocaine) at a party. All she needed was a couple tattoos and uglier face and she could have passed for Amy Winehouse.

                It all came to an end on February 11th, 2012 in a Beverly Hills Hilton. Without confirmation we can only speculate that it was an overdose of sleeping pills and booze that put her to sleep in the bathtub. But should we really be surprised? Anyone who knows anything about Pop stars should have seen this coming. Failed rehab after failed rehab will ultimately lead to an overdose in a hotel room. It really is a shame that we had to lose her this way, but she turned down this path years ago. Was it the money problems she was having after her 2009 album didn't do so well? I mean don't get me wrong, it went Platinum. But for Whitney Houston that just wasn't enough. Was it the fact that she kind of fell off as a star? Could it have been the divorce?

               Who really knows what the cause was. The sad part is nobody did anything to stop the downward spiral she was tumbling into. We lost one of the greatest voices in recent history to drugs and alcohol. And it seems a lot of the greats go out that way. The question we should ask is why? Why do they have to turn to substance abuse when they are famous? Why doesn't the rehab stick? Why can't people like any of the Kardashians or the entire cast of The Jersey Shore overdose in a hotel somewhere? It has to be the good ones? That's bullshit! I only hope someone tells Lindsay Lohan where she's headed. On second thought, don't tell her anything and I'll write up a much shorter and less eventful post when she eventually bites the dust in a motel 6.

              In closing I would like to say that Whitney Houston really was an amazing woman in the 1990's. It's a sad day for everyone that cares about music. I'd also like to point out that there hasn't been any cases of stars overdosing on marijuana. All they do is make hit movies. So I will honor the once great singer the only way I know how. I will head into DC and while I'm getting a Hand-job for a Ham Sandwich from a Houston look-a-like, I'll be singing "I Will Always Love You." R.I.P. Whitney Houston.