'You need help now': Clive Davis' heartbreaking letter to Whitney Houston after he saw her wasting away revealed in new documentary

  • Clive Davis wrote letter to Whitney Houston urging her to get help in 2001 
  • He penned the note after watching a skeletal Whitney perform at a Michael Jackson tribute concert
  • David, 84, reads from that letter in the new documentary Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives
  • The legendary music executive discovered and signed Whitney when she was just a teenager
  • Whitney passed away in 2012, just hours before she was set to attend David's annual pre-Grammy party
  • Her cause of death was later revealed to be the effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use 

By Chris Spargo For Dailymail.com

Published: 14:38 EST, 17 October 2016 | Updated: 20:39 EST, 17 October 2016

Clive Davis penned an emotional letter to Whitney Houston begging the singer to get help a decade before she died.

In the soon to be released film Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives, the legendary music executive reads the message he wrote to Whitney after seeing her perform at a 2001 Michael Jackson tribute concert looking emaciated and gaunt.

'Dearest Whitney, When I saw you Friday night at the Michael Jackson concert I gasped. When I got home, I cried,' writes Davis in the letter, which first appeared in his memoir The Soundtrack of My Life.

'My dear, dear Whitney, the time has come.'

David then tells the singer, who he discovered and signed when she was just a teenager, she needs to get help.

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It's not right: Clive Davis wrote a letter to Whitney Houston urging her to get help in 2001 after she looked skeletal at a concert (above)

But it's OK: David, 84, reads from that letter in the new documentary Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives (David and Whitney above in 2011)

Clive writes later in the letter: 'I join your mother in pleading with you to face up to the truth now, right now, and there is no more time or postponement. 

'You need help and it must begin now. I will stand by you with love and caring to see you through it to newfound peace and happiness in every way as a woman, as a mother, as a role model to inspire the rest of the world.'

He then signs off, writing: 'Love, Clive.' 

Speaking about the documentary with The Hollywood Reporter, Davis said: 'I'm thrilled with the footage I've seen so far.

'They've done an incredible job. I think it's honest; it's revealing and some of these things have never been seen before. The footage I've seen has knocked me out.'

Davis, 84, was just one of many people who grew alarmed after seeing Whitney perform that evening alongside Usher and Mya.

Whitney looked in such poor health that night that rumors began to circulate that she had died when she cancelled an appearance the following evening.

Her publicist at the time, Nacy Seltzer, released a statement saying: 'I've just spoken to Whitney. She is perfectly fine and does not understand why, with everything going on in the world right now, they have to find new rumors to dig up. She is home in New Jersey with her family.'

She also blamed the singer's skeletal appearance on 'stress due to family matters.'

CLIVE DAVIS' HEARTBREAKING LETTER TO WHITNEY

Dearest Whitney: 

When I saw you Friday night at the Michael Jackson concert I gasped. When I got home, I cried. My dear, dear Whitney, the time has come. 

Of course I know you don’t want to hear this. Of course I know that you’re saying that Clive is being foolishly dramatic. 

Of course I know that your power of denial is in overdrive dismissing everything I and everyone else is saying to you.

But I know somewhere down deep there is the real you that knows that you are being confronted this time by everyone who loves you, who cares for you and who wants you well. 

You are now being begged by these same people who know that this problem is bigger than you can deal with alone.

I join your mother in pleading with you to face up to the truth now, right now, and there is no more time or postponement. You must think not only of yourself but you must think of those who love you. 

Our anguish, our fear, our pain is just too much to bear. You must get help for yourself and for your close extended family.

Whitney, our lives intertwined almost twenty years ago. You learned to trust me even when you had doubt, and professionally you soared with your God given talent and genius to all time heights. 

Now, I reach out personally and I ask you to trust me. I ask you to trust me in blind faith. 

You need help and it must begin now. I will stand by you with love and caring to see you through it to new found peace and happiness in every way as a woman, as a mother, as a role model to inspire the rest of the world. 

Love, 

Clive.

When you believe: The legendary music executive discovered and signed Whitney when she was just a teenager  (above in 1984 one year after she was signed)

That shocking appearance also came just months after Houston signed one of the most lucrative record contracts in history, receiving $100million for six albums, plus royalties.

Whitney's health did seem to improve in the years after that 2001 performance, but she passed away in 2012 - hours before she was set to attend Davis' annual pre-Grammy party.

She was discovered unconscious in the tub at her suite inside the Beverly Hilton Hotel by Nick Gordon, and pronounced dead 20 minutes after paramedics arrived on the scene.

Her cause of death at the time was unknown, but the Los Angeles Coroner's Office later concluded she had passed away from the effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use.

Whitney was 48-years-old at the time. 

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