Houston Says He Was Possessed

Representatives for R&B singer Houston denied the performer tried to take his life by jumping out of a London hotel window January 27th. The incident ended with the artist gouging out his own eye.

“I went to check on him before going to bed and I saw blood on the floor,” the singer’s bodyguard, Marco Powell, said in a statement. “Houston was lying on his bed with a towel over his face and I removed the towel to find his eye hanging out. He said he had to get the devil off his back and that’s the only way he could kill the devil.”

Houston, who was performing overseas, was briefly hospitalized following the incident.

His publicist said the singer had “found himself in the midst of a spiritual battle against the evil that runs rampant in the entertainment industry.”

Apparently Houston, whose full name is Houston Summers IV, was raised in a strict religious environment and was “constantly at odds with the temptations that come with success in the music business,” the statement said.

The grisly incident prompted Bushwick Bill of rap group The Geto Boys to speak out. In 1991, a severely intoxicated Bushwick forced his girlfriend to shoot him in the eye in an assisted suicide attempt. He miraculously survived.

“Fame will make you crazy,” Bushwick said. “I want Houston to know that he is in my prayers, and that I will ask God to give him peace of mind and peace of heart. I hope his eye heals as well as his mind and his emotions.”

Houston was recuperating February 4th at his Los Angeles home. The condition of his eye was not known at press time.

“I still love all my fans,” Houston said. “Please pray for me and know I’ll be back with some more hits.”