Hello, Mr Davis! Busy day at the office?
Very busy. I had my dear friend and colleague Carlos Santana with me all morning, which is always a pleasure. We’re having a celebration luncheon for his Latin album, Corazón, going double-platinum and reaching No 1 in Latin countries.

How involved are you with your artists these days?
Intimately involved. Carlos I signed first in 1969 and so I go back to the years of Oye Como Va and Black Magic Woman. Maybe 25 years after I founded Arista we reunited for [the 1999 album] Supernatural – I found six of the songs and the other six were from Carlos. So we’ve been creative partners since then.

You have an unusual amount of control over artists, don’t you?
I wouldn’t use the word “control”. If the artist writes, you wait until the album is delivered. Any rock artist who has gotten me into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1), or someone like Alicia Keys, the large majority of them write their own material and the collaboration is about making sure their music has integrity and gets out to the public. But where an artist does not write – an Aretha Franklin, a Whitney Houston or a Dionne Warwick – they ask me to produce their album, to be the one going to all the writers and publishers, sifting through all the material for them. So there you’re collaborating in a more personalised manner. I don’t know why you’re using the word “control”…

Artists can be pretty headstrong people, so I was wondering how it works?
Well, I’m privileged that my relationship with artists goes over many years. It works great! I’ve had enormous success with finding material. In the case of Barry Manilow, he wrote This One’s for You and Copacabana, but as his creative partner I found Mandy or I Write the Songs and so, having done that, when I founded Arista in 1975 I established relationships with writers and publishers and so began this odyssey. It’s very gratifying, close to the creative level, finding a Heartbreaker or That’s What Friends Are For for Dionne. It’s pure creativity, going through hundreds of songs and meeting with the artist as you distil them. It works beautifully: I’m still working with Carlos, I’m still working with Aretha.

What is the common ground between Barry Manilow and the Grateful Dead?
You know what the commonality is? They’re both headliners. You put tickets on sale over the years for the Grateful Dead and they’d sell out Madison Square Garden, and I know Barry Manilow is still selling out arenas – he just played the Hollywood Bowl.

Have you ever met anyone who owns Barry Manilow and Grateful Dead records?
My children do (2).

Because they bought them, or you brought them home?
If you go to a movie based on a Eugene O’Neill play and then you go to a Jerry Lewis movie, you don’t have to rationalise it – you can appreciate it without drawing the common ground. You can go to a comedy, a drama, a musical without trying to rationalise why you like all three. No label doesn’t have, in this day and age, urban artists, pop artists and rock artists. Granted, some tastes are very singular and they’ll only buy rock – they’ll have Dylan, they’ll have Springsteen, they’ll have U2. But that doesn’t mean you have to specialise and be a boutique label. You have to deal with creativity in the broadest spectrum. At Arista we had the Kinks, Patti Smith, the Grateful Dead … I didn’t wonder how they fit on the same label with Barry Manilow or Dionne Warwick. It’s different types of music.

The Whitney CD and DVD (3) – putting that together must have been emotionally draining?
It was emotionally draining. And it was bittersweet. The DVD begins when she’s 19 years old, two weeks after I signed her and brought her on a national television programme called The Merv Griffin Show. Actually, I played some of her songs at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles last Sunday night, and to see one number after another on a video screen get a standing ovation as though she was there was very gratifying, and very rare. The more you understand the magnitude of her talent, one that causes your jaw to drop, the greater the loss.

By the time you got to her final appearance, on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2009 (4), was that too painful to watch?
I wouldn’t use the words “too painful to watch”. You constantly marvel at the magnitude of her talent. And of course you’re aware of her premature passing. So there’s a joy in the uniqueness of the talent and in seeing it in retrospect. The Radio City Music Hall performance of I Wanna Dance With Somebody where she prowls around and she brings some heat and sexuality to that stage – you see her versatility. By the time you get to the [1994] American Music Awards performance, which doesn’t just include her classic signature hits, it includes a medley which combines I Loves You Porgy from Porgy and Bess with And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going – it’s a bravura performance that I would submit is probably the best awards-show performance I’ve ever seen.

Between Aretha and Amy Winehouse, where does Whitney fit in the soul pantheon, in terms of technique, emotion, power and historical import?
Adele has done one album and she’s wonderful. And it’s really exciting because Aretha has just covered Rolling in the Deep (5) – Aretha sings Adele is, I think, a major, major moment. We’ve just had 4m hits on Vevo and YouTube. I think Adele is a wonderful talent and I know that she has a long career in front of her. But if you’re doing an all-time list, I would put Whitney right up there with Aretha and Barbara Streisand. This DVD documents not just Whitney’s legacy, but it firmly certifies that she was the greatest singer of her generation.

You attempted an intervention towards the end of her life, didn’t you? Was that the first time you’d done that with one of your artists?
I’d say it was the only time that I did, yes. I don’t know if you have a copy of my book (6), but there’s a letter that I wrote to her…

“Dearest Whitney: When I saw you last night at the Michael Jackson concert, I gasped. When I got home I cried. My dear, dear Whitney. The time has come.” That one?
Yes. That background is a prelude to the performance at the [2004] World Music Awards. She came on, and the DVD captures my introducing her and the audience never knowing she was going to appear – it’s a very special, emotional moment.

Did Janis Joplin really offer you sex?
Ha, that’s true! Janis – who never wanted to do anything formulaic, typical or predictable – was starting out in her career and it was a very important moment for her. I think it was a little too formal and maybe corporate just to sign a document to say we’d be working together, so she asked to sleep with me to make it more personal. I took it as a big compliment, although I turned it down.

Did Springsteen get cross when you suggested he needed to move around more on stage?
It doesn’t go like that. There are certain things an experienced person can suggest. Part of it is manner, what it’s made to sound like. But if an artist knows you have respect for their talent – which I have to feel to my core, to sign them – they know that you’re in their corner. That doesn’t mean you have to be “mum” on everything; it doesn’t mean you can’t raise your voice. I wanted to show Springsteen he wasn’t just another Bob Dylan, which was the kiss of death at that time. It’s not threatening in any way. The motivation is to be helpful. I have total respect for the self-contained rock artist. Whether you’re dealing with Jerry Garcia or Lou Reed or Patti Smith or a Whitney or an Aretha, they know what they want with their career.

Did Bruce or Barry ever call you in the middle of the night for advice?
No. It’s never been that kind of relationship. There’s trust and mutuality of respect. But there’s very little input with a Springsteen – he took it so much further than making use of the stage. The guy became the greatest live performer in history.

Did he thank you for your advice?
Bruce has always been wonderfully gracious. As soon as I go into an arena at one of his shows, the manager, Jon Landau, comes to get me and I have a private meeting with him – he doesn’t see anyone else before a performance, whether it’s Shea Stadium or Madison Square Garden.

Is Simon Cowell like you, only with karaoke nobodies instead of iconic stars?
Simon used to work with me – he was at Arista UK A&R. He has very good ears. Yes, he specialises in certain artists who don’t write their material so we’re not dealing with a Bob Dylan or a Bruce Springsteen. They might not bring Grammys, but they sure do sell records. His track record of discovering talent that appeals to a great number of people is very evident.

So you don’t see what he does as degrading the art form?
No.

Do you have any regrets, such as passing on Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell (7)?
When you say “regret”, if someone asks candidly, “Who did you pass on?” The two artists who have always come to mind – one was Meat Loaf, the other was John Mellencamp.

Still, it’s been a good career.
Listen, I had no idea that I was ever getting into music. I did not prepare for a music career, and here I’ve found, out of pure luck, that I did have, not only a talent and an ear, but a passion for music. And I have it to this day. Every month I get together with Alicia Keys and we listen to music together, or right now I’m with Carlos and he came into my office right before this conversation because he’d heard that Aretha had covered Adele – it was so much fun playing him her version of Rolling in the Deep and he just kept saying “wow”, hearing a great song reinvented by an all-time talent.

You came out very publicly last year (8). Was that difficult to do?
The subject of bisexuality is misunderstood, so I just tried to state it as a matter of fact. I don’t feel it’s a matter of pride, it’s a matter of people learning more about life and not having stereotypical, rigid ideas. I certainly knew the subject was misunderstood, that whether you were straight or gay, if you found somebody who was truly bisexual that you’d stereotype them. If it helps reduce the misunderstanding and the stereotypical attitudes about it, then great. But I don’t view it as an achievement. It is what it is.

Do you have to be tough to stay on top for so long?
You’re raising the word “tough” – I feel blessed. It’s tough doing these phone calls where you’re not looking at each other! I feel blessed that I found not just a profession, but a 24/7 way of life that I purely love. That curiosity to be current, to listen to the Hozier album, to be early in recognition of a Lorde and spending time with her and Miguel, the pleasure of seeing new talent erupt … I love it.

Footnotes

(1) The five-time Grammy winner was inducted as a non-performer in 2000.
(2) He has four children and six grandchildren.
(3) Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances, produced by Davis, is released on November 10.
(4) Where she sang I Didn’t Know My Own Strength.
(5) Another Davis production, Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics, has just been released in the States.
(6) The Soundtrack of My Life was published in 2013.
(7) He said: ”The songs were coming over as very theatrical, and Meat Loaf, despite a powerful voice, just didn’t look like a star.”
(8) Davis, who had been married and divorced twice, came out as bisexual in his autobiography.