New York, June 22, (dpa/GNA) – Legendary music producer Clive Davis, who discovered stars such as Whitney Houston and Barry Manilow, has died.
Several US media outlets are citing his family and management as saying that Davis, died in New York at the age of 94. According to media reports, the music producer had previously been in hospital with respiratory problems. He died âpeacefully from age-related illness ⊠surrounded by his family and loved ones,â the music magazine Rolling Stone quoted his longtime agent as saying.
In a statement, quoted by Rolling Stone, Davis’ family wrote: “To the world, our father was the iconic music legend whose vision, instincts, and relentless pursuit of excellence shaped the soundtrack of countless lives.
To his family, Clive was Dad and Granddaddy, the steady presence at the center of our lives, the source of wisdom, strength, encouragement, and unconditional love.” As well as Houston and Manilow, Davis also nurtured stars and bands such as Janis Joplin, Santana, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Pink Floyd, Patti Smith, Alicia Keys and Aerosmith â thereby playing a decisive role in shaping the history of music over the past decades.
To mark his 90th birthday, the producer threw a huge party in New York with dozens of celebrity guests and a mini-documentary series. Otherwise, he had largely withdrawn from the public eye.
Davis was born in 1932 in the New York borough of Brooklyn into a Jewish family. His parents died in quick succession just as Davis started college. “I had the total sum of $4,000 facing three more years of college with a dream of going to law school,” the star producer once said in an interview. To secure scholarships, Davis had to maintain a high grade-point average. “The fear that if you don’t maintain a certain average you’ll lose your scholarship just creates the drive, the determination, the scared necessity.”
After graduating, he worked as a lawyer and eventually joined the music company Columbia, before founding several labels of his own.
The multiple Grammy winner has also been a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2000. In his private life, two marriages ended in divorce, from which Davis has four children. In his autobiography “The Soundtrack of My Life,” published in 2013, Davis came out as bisexual. He wrote that “only in middle age, after two failed marriages, would I look beyond gender for a relationship.”
Davis described Whitney Houston as a âvocal genius,â calling her one of the most significant discoveries of his career. He said he maintained a close professional relationship with her from the moment he first discovered her in 1983.
In 2022, the film “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” which Davis co-produced, was released. It portrays the life of Houston, who died in 2012.
He has also spoken about his close friendship with Aretha Franklin, who died in 2018 and whom he called the “Queen of Soul.” “Apart from our long professional relationship, Aretha was my friend,” he wrote on X after she died. “She was a national treasure to be cherished by every generation throughout the world.”
GNA