Toni Braxton reflects on Whitney Houston 1 year after death: ‘She was my big sister in show business’
theGRIO REPORT - During an interview with theGrio, six time Grammy Award winner Toni Braxton talked about the role Whitney Houston played in helping to shape her career and the advice she gave her on dating....
Today marks the one-year anniversary of Whitney Houston’s passing.
The “I Will Always Love You” singer died February 11, on the eve of the 2012 Grammy Awards.
During an interview with theGrio, six-time Grammy Award winning singer Toni Braxton talked about the role Houston played in helping to shape her career.
“I love Whitney, she was my big sister in the business,” Braxton said. “She taught me and educated me a lot about the business.”
“She told me how my dating life would be, with me being a female celebrity. She said, ‘guys don’t really like us at first. Because they think we’re too strong, they say we’re too controlling. But it’s not that… they’re just uncomfortable.’”
After more than two decades in music, Braxton revealed to theGrio that she has decided to retire from recording music in order to focus on her acting career.
She also admitted that she sees parallels in her debut starring role as a choir mistress in Lifetime’s Twist of Faith and Houston’s acclaimed role in The Preacher’s Wife.
Braxton said the best advice that Houston ever gave her was to follow her heart and do what she truly wants to do with her career.
“Do what you want to do,” Whitney said. “You have to be your own artist. You’ve established yourself as Toni Braxton, don’t change.”
Follow Chris Witherspoon on Twitter at @WitherspoonC
