How Damon Dash Learned About Aaliyah’s Death
Damon Dash makes it no secret how much he loved and adored Aaliyah. Though their romantic relationship was brief due to her untimely death, he says the singer had a lasting impact. The pain from her death remains with him and in a new interview, he reveals how he learned of her tragic passing.
Damon Dash says the couple had plans to marry
Aaliyah and Dash met through a mutual friend in 2000. The two were fast friends and soon became romantically involved. Dash says he planned to make Aaliyah his wife.
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“Yeah, the plan was, because we were both so busy – so while she was shooting the movie in Australia, I was shooting Paid In Full, so I couldn’t fly to Australia to see her, she was gone for four months,” Dash explains in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight. So, they hatched a plan to devote more time to their relationship and see if marriage is something they could vision.
“When she came back, she had to go to LA to shoot a video while I had to do whatever I was doing, I had companies to run,” he continued. “So, we would have such a good time when we saw each other – it just always felt fresh. So our thing was let’s see if we can tolerate being around each other with no distractions for six months. If we still have this same feeling, then we’ll get married.”
The mogul was midway through a haircut when he got the heartbreaking news about Aaliyah’s death
The six-month trial period never began for the couple. Aaliyah was in the middle of shooting music videos and doing a press tour for her third full-length studio album. Dash says they were so eager to see one another that while she filmed a music video in Miami, he went to visit her.
Upon the completion of her videos and press tour, their uninterrupted love fest was to continue. Unfortunately, Dash received the ill-fated phone call he never imagined.
Related: Damon Dash Exposes Producers He Says Tried to Exploit His Relationship With Aaliyah
“I was getting my haircut and I was waiting for her,” he says. “She was trying to get back really quickly because we were trying to see each other. So she was like, ‘I’m going to get on the first thing smoking.’ And that day I waited in the house and I was getting a haircut and when they told me that there was a crash, it was her mom that told me. They said they didn’t find all the bodies yet. So they didn’t know if she was still alive. But for me, I was like, ‘It’s a wrap.’”
He had them finish his haircut, took all of Aaliyah’s clothes out of his house, and went to visit Aaliyah’s mother.
What Damon Dash says he learned from his relationship with Aaliyah
Dash says despite the heartache of losing the love of his life, he learned a valuable lesson that sticks with him currently.
“Our intention at first wasn’t even to fall in love, we were just really good friends,” he says. “But what I learned from that, number one is I didn’t know what being in love was. I didn’t even understand what that feeling is and I was able to achieve that with her so now I know what it feels like. So I was able to identify it when it happened again.”
Dash says the feeling of love transitioned into all aspects of his life.
“After she passed, it changed my whole life, because I would only do what I love,” he continues. “I would only be around people I love. That became the only currency I cared about was how I felt.”
