RIP Whitney Houston

It is always a shock when someone like this dies - even when their troubles and history of substance abuse have been well publicised.

We seem to think that being talented, rich, and famous makes people immune to the damage that drug and alcohol abuse can cause. Well i do anyway.

T and i were just talking about this in the car on our way to the shops earlier today. He has been reading Keith Richards' biography and had just finished reading the Anthony Kiedis' book - Scar Tissue. T was laughing and saying it doesn't matter who you are - it is always the same path. Even Keith Richards ended up dealing with low life dealers and buying a 800 dollar bag of rock salt off someone! Anthony Kiedis landed himself broke and suffering withdrawals in some $10 hotel room in LA.

It doesn't matter who you are, or how much money you have - the story always ends the same way.


Whitney Houston dies at 48

She had the perfect voice and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.

She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was.

But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanour and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy,'' Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.

It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.

She seemed to be born into greatness. She was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin.

So sad. As a teenager i was a huge fan of hers and will remember her like this;