Clive Davis comes out as bisexual

Clive Davis (Photo by Christopher Peterson via Wikimedia Commons)

Legendary music producer Clive Davis acknowledges his bisexuality in his memoir that hit bookstores on Tuesday.

“I was only turning to bisexuality after my second marriage failed, so that it was not an issue through my life,” he told Katie Couric during a segment about his book on her talk show. “Neither of my marriages were affected. I was totally attracted to women. When the marriage failed in the mid-80s, I opened myself up to the possibility that I could have a relationship with a man as well as with the two that I had with a woman.”

Rolling Stone reported Davis, 80, wrote in “The Soundtrack of My Life” that he had his first sexual encounter with another man during “the era of Studio 54.” He said he was in a “monogamous relationship” with a male doctor from 1990 to 2004.

Davis, who told Couric he is currently in a relationship with another man, said he “immediately” revealed his bisexuality to his four children and close friends.

“I felt it was private,” he said. “I did immediately reveal it to the people who count. I just didn’t hold a sign up.”

Davis acknowledged attitudes against bisexuality also contributed to his decision to not publicly come out.

“There was an attitude towards bisexuality, pervasive, that you were either gay, you’re straight or you’re lying,” he said. “It’s not true. So I knew that when I decided to write my autobiography that this was something that I was certainly going to be forthcoming about and I wrote about it.”

Davis, who has worked with hundreds of artists including Janis Joplin, Alicia Keys and the late-Whitney Houston, told Couric he hopes his decision to come out will help change attitudes about those who are bisexual.

I’m still attracted to women,” he said. “You don’t have to be only one thing or another. For me, it’s the person. I’m in a monogamous relationship. I respect monogamy, and I hope that this is understood.”

Davis also recalled the last conversation he had with Houston two days before her Feb. 2012 death.

“She was full of life looking forward,” he told Couric.

Houston had been scheduled to attend Davis’ annual pre-Grammy party that took place at the same Los Angeles hotel at which she passed away hours before.

“It was stunning,” Davis told Couric when asked how he reacted to Houston’s death. “It was devastating, and obviously compounded by the fact we had this enormous party she was there for. I knew it had to go on. I knew that she would want the music to go on.”

He further acknowledged Houston’s decades-long struggle with addiction.

“Ultimately there’s no question she faced a legal killer in drugs,” Davis said. “I don’t know if she ever took it as seriously as she should have. The power of drugs gets everybody. And that’s what happened to Whitney Houston, tragically.”