People will call it calculated and opportunistic, Bobby Brown releasing a single about Whitney Houston three months after his ex-wife’s death.
But then you consider the lyrics and depth of “Don’t Let Me Die,” which Bobby performed on Wednesday’s episode of “Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” and this is Bobby at his realest and rawest, the New Edition bad-boy humbled.
Brown stood onstage Wednesday, bathed in blue light, singing about the woman he loved, the woman he lost.
“I didn’t realize that every breath I took was from you,” he sang. “You were my air.”
Bobby and Whitney were married from 1992 until 2007. The couple had one daughter, Bobbi Kristina, who’s now 19.
The marriage was marred by erratic behavior and drug abuse.
The two split up. Things unraveled. Bobby drifted away from his ex-wife and daughter.
Eventually, the drug abuse claimed the “Queen of Pop.” Following Whitney’s death in February, some of her relatives didn’t want Brown at her funeral.
Bobby was invited, but left over a seating snafu.
Maybe music was the proper venue for Brown’s goodbye, anyway. The lyrics for “Don’t Let Me Die” address his missteps and stumbles.
“I guess I (messed) up pretty bad/I didn’t know who you were/I didn’t know what we had … Now I’m stuck living in the past/Trying to get the pieces back/But I guess now you’re gone,” he sang Wednesday.
The single is one of the songs from his album “The Masterpiece,” set for release on June 5. This is Brown’s first solo effort in 14 years, since 1997’s “Forever.”
Back then, Bobby Brown was full of brashness and braggadocio, a star with excessive means and few concerns.
Much has changed in that time – lots of loss, lots of sadness.
Brown’s star power has faded, sure. He’s still prone to drawing the wrong type of attention, shown by his March arrested on DUI charges.
But Brown’s also capable of musical depth, with yesterday’s prerogatives making way for grown-up emotions, the humbled bad-boy singing about heartbreak, dancing in the blue spotlight, mourning in the best way he knows.