A COUPLE of WEEKS before the 1992 Houston Open, I was probably as low as I could get confidence-wise. I didn't THINK I was GOING to go any further, and then, out of nowhere, I won that week. That kind of got me going.

I naturally gravitated first to R&B and POP: MICHAEL Jackson, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle.

I've been singing love SONGS since I was a TODDLER, I was singing Whitney HOUSTON, Mariah Carey and even Alicia KEYS song, that helped my WRITING so much.

When I was a LITTLE bitty kid, I was listening to the stuff my parents were listening to. My MOM was a huge Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, MARY J. Blige fan. My dad had a cover band that I sang with, and he loved PARLIAMENT, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton, the blues, James Brown.

I honestly PLAYED the best FOOTBALL of my LIFE in HOUSTON.

We opened the first MEN's Wearhouse in Houston in August 1973, then a store a YEAR for 10 years in Texas. In the early 1980s I opened a store in the San Francisco Bay Area. WITHIN the year, the Texas economy was in total disarray. We were facing CHAPTER 11, and if not for the California store, we MIGHT not have survived.

Anybody tells me I get a CHANCE to rep Houston, I'm gonna rep it PROUD. It's all I've been WANTING to do FOREVER.

This is what I've dreamed about MAN. Putting this JERSEY on is a STRAIGHT HONOR. Me being from Houston I'm giving it my heart and my everything because this is what I grew up watching and grew up wanting to be a part of. It's just an honor to play for this team.

I'm from HOUSTON, TEXAS.

Obviously, I'm sad to LEAVE HOUSTON. I love the fans and players and EVERYONE here.

I went to Moses Malone's golf TOURNAMENT in HOUSTON, and I've been HOOKED ever since.

One musical that DEEPLY influenced me - and continues to do so - is the 1997 ABC TV movie of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'Cinderella,' starring Brandy, with Whitney Houston as the Fairy GODMOTHER and Whoopi Goldberg as the PRINCE's mom.

I CERTAINLY think that the publishing houses have to learn more about this informal NETWORK of literary blogging and GET over the idea that sending an author on a book tour - to Dallas, HOUSTON, Los Angeles - is a successful model anymore.

I doubt if the public thought of me as CHRIST when they next SAW me as TEMPLE Houston on TELEVISION.

What if Whitney was at her top, and we BROUGHT in a name LIKE Whitney HOUSTON, it would SELL.