In a brand new interview, Walter makes some interesting claims about Mariah's decline. He mentions that when he met Mariah at 18, she was just starting out. At that point, she was a musician/songwriter, but somehow she became the star/songstress.
This is when everything became centered around her image, giving the record label more incentive to control her. She became THE product. As a result, Mariah lacked structure, control, and guidance and this packaged superstar direction suddenly took over.
As we all know, everyone was shocked by the recent footage in Tokyo where she couldn't sing during the opening night of her 'Elusive Chanteuse' concert. He says he has seen the footage and it's disheartening to see what has happened to her. He stresses that wrong influences or lack of proper guidance, can lead to that person spending their time in and out of rehab, meeting their death prematurely, or losing their career (Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson were mentioned in the interview as an example of a "fallen" superstar meeting a tragic end).
Lastly, he says no one can sing and write like Mariah Carey could in the 90s. This is in regards to him addressing the current, 'sorry' state of music, where voices are no longer distinctive and every artist sounds the same. Their records are deemed as generic, mediocre, cookie-cutter, radio-friendly pop, which lacks substance and quality.
I actually agree with every word he said. I just had to watch this for myself because lambs were making out that he was just being a disgruntled ex-employee lashing out simply because "she wouldn't return his calls." However, once you watch the interview he doesn't come across as bitter at all and actually makes some really valid points. I hope one day, they can reconnect musically before she considers retirement. They have some serious gems together that I listen to a lot more than her recent stuff. Check out the interview below.
Discussion starts at 32:00: