Rolling Stone published an exclusive excerpt from "The Whitney I Knew," the book Benjamin (BeBe) Winans is writing about his friendship with the late Whitney Houston, according to the Detroit Free Press.
A Detroit native and gospel singer, Winans knew Houston for over 20 years and spoke at her funeral in February. He formed a tight-knit bond with the singer ever since the two met backstage at a concert in the Eighties, according to Rolling Stone.
"It was the best therapy to deal with the pain and loss," Winans said of writing "The Whitney I Knew", the Grammy-winning gospel singer's inside account of the deep friendship he shared with Houston. The book offers readers a glimpse of a free-spirited Houston beyond fame's glare.
"She wanted to be crazy," Winans told Rolling Stone. "She loved going to movies and talking in them. She would just comment on everything. Loved to laugh, loved to be just silly, like a kid." Houston was also generous, said Winans: she gave him $50,000 towards the down payment on his first house and regularly assisted fans in financial distress.
"It was a joy for her to help people," he explained.
"In this excerpt from the chapter "Whitney's Weight of Fame," Winans explores his close friend's aversion to public notoriety, the pressures of celebrity and how Houston was often falsely portrayed by the media," reported Rolling Stone. "To illustrate the scrutiny Houston was under, Winans recalls an ill-fated first encounter between the singer and an up-and-coming singer at the time, Mariah Carey. "
In the excerpt, Winans wrote, "True fame, on the other hand, is birthed. It begins with a gift. In Whitney's case, it was the gift of a voice and the infusion of a soul that loved deeply all the time. And when those two components mix, you have something uncommon. That's the Whitney I knew."
"She lived in the tension of wanting to love those she was close to - to be gregarious and spontaneous because that's who she was - and dealing with the tremendous pressure and demands of her fame. It was a fame birthed from her incredible gift, a gift everyone wanted - the kind of gift that gave us that "Star-Spangled" moment."
Winans goes on to write that Houston always had a weight on her shoulder because she was so famous. When she went out in public she always had someone come up to her.
He wrote, "But with that giftedness came great promise and great responsibility, the weight of which can be too much for even the most pure in heart.
Grammy Award-winning Whitney Houston died tragically in a Beverly Hills hotel bathtub last February at age 48. She was found submerged in water just hours before she was scheduled to appear at Clive Davis' annual Pre-Grammy gala.
Houston's mother, Cissy Houston, recently signed a deal with HarperCollins for a memoir that will reveal her daughter's "unabridged and unbelievable story" to the world. There is currently no book titlt and the book is scheduled to come out February 2013.
For the whole excerpt from "The Whitney I Knew," go to the Rolling Stones website. The book is set to release July 31, 2012.