NEW YORK - The devil made him do it, representatives for R&B singer Houston said in a statement explaining how his eye was seriously gouged.
Houston's publicist issued a statement Thursday night denying reports that he tried to take his life by jumping from a London hotel window last week. The statement said Houston had "found himself in the midst of a spiritual battle against the evil that runs rampant in the entertainment industry."
Houston, whose 2004 single "I Like That" was used in a McDonald's commercial, was found in his London hotel room with a serious eye injury. He was briefly hospitalized.
"I went to check on him before going to bed and I saw blood on the floor," Houston's bodyguard, Marco Powell, said in the 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 of his back and that's the only way he could kill the devil."
Houston, whose full name is Houston Summers IV, is a Los Angeles native. He was raised strictly Christian and was "constantly at odds with the temptations that come with success in the music business," the statement said.
The incident prompted a statement from Bushwick Bill of the rap group The Geto Boys. In 1991, a severely intoxicated Bushwick forced his girlfriend to assist him in a suicide attempt. She shot him in the eye, but he miraculously survived.
"Fame will make you crazy," Bushwick's statement 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, and I hope his eye heals as well as his mind and his emotions."
Houston was recuperating Friday at his Los Angeles home. The condition of his eye was not known.
"I still love all my fans. Please pray for me and know I'll be back with some more hits," Houston said.
What I do is kick them in the pants with a diamond buckled shoe!
~~Aileen Mehle~~
