Kevin Costner Honors Clive Davis, Whitney Houston in Transferring Speech at Pre-Grammys Gala: ‘You Had been a Miracle in Her Life’

Kevin Costner honored music government Clive Davis at Davis’ annual pre-Grammys gala on the Beverly Hilton on Saturday night, thanking Davis for offering steerage to Whitney Houston since their collaboration on 1992’s “The Bodyguard” and shepherding the movie’s hit music “I Will At all times Love You.”

Costner’s speech for Davis touched on the music exec’s lengthy, storied profession and the pair’s private relationship. The tribute carried specific weight within the room, as Houston died on the night time of Davis’ pre-Grammys gala in 2012.

“Neither considered one of us ultimately may shield your beloved Whitney, however your fingerprints on her life are clear my good friend,” Costner mentioned. “You have been a miracle in her life. Thanks for being her bodyguard, Clive.”

Later within the night, Jennifer Hudson additionally paid respects to Houston, giving a stirring efficiency of the singer’s “Biggest Love of All.”

Learn Costner’s full speech beneath.

The primary time I used to be ever on this room, I used to be in a rented tuxedo and watched Gregory Peck obtain a lifetime achievement award. I used to be in awe. Honesty, I bear in mind strolling the pink carpet that night time, and noticed the blinding lights of cameras going off. They have been all targeted on him — Atticus Finch — I’d by no means seen something prefer it. I don’t suppose a single particular person took my image as I handed the identical spot.

I’ve been right here many occasions since and I don’t suppose I ever felt that means once more — till tonight, searching at everybody, understanding we’ve all had our journeys. And one way or the other,I discover myself standing right here on the occasion of events, unsure and uncertain, if I’m worthy of introducing Clive and honoring him.

These phases we aspire to, this room, the place a lot and so many have been have fun could be one of many loneliest locations on the planet. And typically, the one means we will discover ourselves stepping out on them, is that if somebody apart from ourselves believes, imbues us with magical pondering that we belong: some larger religion in ourselves that we will’t muster alone. That’s Clive.

No person desires to place your life in reverse once you’ve been a profitable as Clive. All  the world sees is that this. However one way or the other, this man who has meant a lot to so many on this room, needed to discover away to maneuver ahead…. When he discovered himself alone too early in his younger life, he needed to discover a solution to exchange the loss, the harm. He wanted to discover a solution to get well from that blow. Nobody was betting on Clive Davis besides Clive. And one way or the other by way of all of it he stumbled right into a dream that turned his yellow brick highway. You ought to be celebrated Clive, as a person who performed honest within the lives and careers he promised to construct…. You by no means pretended that you simply have been them. It’s that understanding, that conduct, that care and a focus to particulars, that allowed the artists round you to flourish. That superior promise to guard, that  manifests itself on this military of music seated right here tonight.  

It’s vital that he hears the love coming his means. It’s not so  vital he finds the following single tonight. No demo’s in your pocket please. There’s no single right here, Clive. There’s no hook for the second. Let this simply be about you for a pair extra minutes.

It could be a shock, however I don’t know Clive in addition to most of you on this room. On the floor, we didn’t have a lot in widespread in any respect. We definitely  shared a number of issues with out figuring out it. We each cherished music. I can’t dance very effectively and he can’t dance in any respect. And we have been each struck by Whitney the primary time we noticed her. Our  journey in direction of one another began the day Lawrence Kasdan gave me the script of ‘The Bodyguard’ and the day Clive signed Whitney Houston. Whitney can be our widespread floor. And from that second, the weather have been in play that may sooner or later come collectively like a pressure of nature so highly effective, that the complete world, for one time frame it appeared, was targeted on this little nation music.

How do any three folks discover one another on this world on this enterprise? It actually doesn’t matter who we’re or the place we start. It’s solely concerning the intersection, how we come collectively, and what we make of that fateful union. Whitney had change into probably the most celebrated singer of her technology. However she was additionally an untrained actress and it was unclear if this was one thing that she ought to aspire to, and even one thing that was good for her profession.

All three of us would take an enormous leap of religion — perhaps the most important, the toughest, was for Clive. I wanted to imagine that I may make the film that I used to be imagining. Whitney noticed it as an opportunity to reinvent herself. However for Clive, it was a profession transfer that had a recipe for catastrophe written throughout it. I wanted Clive. I wanted his belief and his blessing. And I wanted  the one factor that he wasn’t use to giving up — management. All of the issues he’s identified for, all of the issues he’s achieved for thus many on this room, all of the issues that make him nice –that may not be the bottom he was standing. 

We have been set as much as be mortal enemies if you consider it. This might solely go a method and if it didn’t go proper I might have by no means been invited. For Clive, ‘The Bodyguard’ will at all times be concerning the singer. It will be about Whitney. And that was alright with me. My mom had her personal view of it, however I requested her to remain out of it. However on this occasion, Clive was proper. If Whitney didn’t work, the film doesn’t.

That readability, that single mindedness, is what I like about Clive. It’s a language I perceive when it’s considerate and good. It’s what all of us needed out right here on this unforgiving city: somebody who may see us as we’re, somebody who was keen to place us first. I felt that from Clive when he threw his soul right into a music he was uncertain of at first. His perception in me and what he heard overruled any pettiness a traditional government may need had. A lesser man would have dismissed or picked one other single. However not Clive. He refused to let his ego stand in the best way of his artists alternative and single-handedly drove that music that helped carry the film to success.

‘I Will At all times Love You’ was primary on the planet earlier than the film even got here out. And because of the musical steerage of David Foster and the voice that got here out of that little physique that night time within the studio, we now have a efficiency of a lifetime. We’re all chasing desires right here, not often crossing paths. However typically we do, by way of destiny or future.

After we met Clive, it altered our lives for the higher and, in some instances, without end. Clive’s not only a man of his time, however, perhaps extra importantly, a person who modified the occasions he lived in. He did it by listening. He did by believing in himself and by no means believing he was you. He believed within the particular presents his artists blessed with.

The one factor higher than being considered one of his artists is perhaps being his good friend. We’re an odd couple for positive, however we share an innate belief in one another. We stored our unstated promise to one another when a lot was at stake.

And now I say one thing I’ve by no means mentioned to you earlier than. Perhaps this isn’t the room, however I don’t need to miss the second and it’s  from the guts.

Neither considered one of us ultimately may shield your beloved Whitney, however your fingerprints on her life are clear my good friend. You have been a miracle in her life. Thanks for being her bodyguard, Clive. And for each particular person on this room you’ve got stood behind and stood for. Everybody on this enterprise has a mother, however not everybody will get a Clive. It is advisable to come out right here. That is your stage.