good-bye, chaka chan, jennifer holiday. the hit making producer that made whitney a star speaks out for the first time since her death. only in america. from an 11-year-old girl singing her idol's songs in the mirror and in front of millions in a farewell. is the piers morgan tonight. good evening. my exclusive with whitney houston's close friend, chaka ch can khan in a moment. the autopsy is being completed and houston's body arrives in new jersey tonight where her funeral is tentatively set for friday. no word on the cause of death. the results of the toxicology test should be available in six to eight weeks. police say there's no indication at the moment of any foul play. >> as of right now, it's not a criminal investigation. we have concluded our portion of the investigation at the hotel. we have a team of investigators that are specifically assigned to this case. as of right now in this state -- >> reporting on the story on saturday night, the world reeled in shock from the death of whitney houston, let me ask you, don, straight away, what do we really know about the circumstances of whitney's death? there's lots of rumors flying around as i'm sure you're aware. what do we think we know? >> there are a lot of rumors flying around. i want to address something you said at the top about the funeral services for whitney houston. tentatively set for friday, piers. at the prudential center in newark, new jersey, much like the staples center where michael jackson's funeral was held, seats about the same, expecting a big crowd. they will tentatively have it there according to the newark "star-ledger" on friday. there's so many rumors floating around about prescription medication found in her room, where she was found in the bathroom if she was submerged under water. according to the coroner i spoke with today and spoke with him after he did a scrum with reporters. he said, don, there were prescription bottles found in her room. it wasn't out of the ordinary and not something you find in an overdose situation not so say she didn't overdose or misuse the medication that was there. at this point, they don't know that. they did find prescription medication but not out of the ordinary. they don't know as of yet if it was death by drowning because when the coroner got there and emergency workers got there she had been removed from the tub and staff who had seen her an hour ago in this room. they're waiting for the toxicology report, as he calls them, tox, to come in six to eight weeks. they want to wait. listen, press, reporters, hold your horses, don't assume anything, let's let the investigation play out. >> don, the other big question everyone is talking about today is how is whitney's daughter, bobbi kristina, because reports of two visits to hospitals yesterday suffering from some kind of stress breakdown. do you have any update how she is? >> reporter: she's fine, according to family members and reports. but it was on the first night, really, was the first time she went to the hospital, piers. here's what they say happened. you and i reported some of this saturday night. bobbi kristina was in the lobby staying with her mom at the beverly hilton hotel. when she found out about it, having a great time with the pre-grammy celebration, she hears the news of her mother. she goes back up to the room to try to see her mother, they won't let her in, becomes hysterical, an 18-year-old girl has to be taken to the hospital. they release her. yesterday, same scenario, overcome by grief because of her mom's death, hysterical, took her to the hospital and released her. her dad, on tour with his former group, new edition, down south in mississippi and tennessee, he came back to los angeles and the word is he is bringing her back east to be with her family. one more thing i want to tell you about, those photographs, the club you have been talking about and we've been reporting on. i left there no more than about an hour and half ago and spoke to one of the managers. he said, listen, whitny was having a great time. nothing seemed out of the ordinary. she was there for her friend, kelly price. you see her sweaty there with what looks like blood on her foot, they believe it was wine. there was 400 people filled to cap pass. it they say that's a snapshot, they didn't think anything was out of the ordinary. we have to wait for the investigation to play out, toxicology reports to figure out exactly what's going on. piers. >> we do. don lemon. thank you. joined now by the weekend correspondent from "access hollywood," she did the last interview with whitney houston. at the time, you had no idea what would be happening. how do you feel about the fact you did the last interview with whitney houston? >> i am still in shock. i went to my hometown of detroit and interviewed whitney houston on the set of the movie "sparkle" she was filming in detroit. we had the only one-on-one interview with her. with everyone else, she was paired with somebody else from the movie to deflect questions about her personal life. she felt comfortable enough with me to do the interview solo with me and we talked about a half hour about her career and family life and where she is in her life right now. i have to tell you, we have heard so many stories about whitney coming back. she didn't really look as though she was coming back at those points. this time, when i interviewed her, it was only in november, three months ago i interviewed her, she look fantastic. >> let's take -- >> absolutely fantastic. >> i want to see what she looked lik like. >> i've got 30 years under my belt now. >> you do? >> 30 years this year. 30 years in the music industry. there'll be ups and downs and all around, you know what i'm saying? your belief and your faith and determination, the encourages, people who encourage you to do and be the best you can. >> she certainly looks okay and certainly seems quite self-aware in what she was saying there. but that's not the whitney i guess we've been seeing over the last couple of days. you can see that she was a different kind of woman. >> certainly. that is what is so astounding because everyone on the set of "sparkle" said she was a mentor to them. jordan sparks plays her daughter in the film said she goes to whitney all the time for advice, somebody everyone on the set looked up to. there was nothing about her that day that was any signal in some 13 weeks she would be dead. if anyone had told me that, i would not believe it. when you looked at her on that day and where we are today, the only thing you can say is what the heck happened? because this was a totally different person? she look like she was going to be at the top of her game once again. >> let me bring in chaka chan. you were very close to whitney. called her your baby sister. >> my little sister. >> you were supposed to be performing at the grammy's last night and felt it wouldn't be appropriate. tell me about that. >> it was actually -- yeah. i don't know how it got out there. they were announcing it. i said, i am? tammy, my manager, we called and talked to ken, said what's going on? >> the producer? >> right. >> kim said, well, you know, we've been kicking it around back and forth and sort of decided we will go with one singer and keep it -- keep the thing tight. i personally was not really willing to go and sing, "i'm every woman." that's ridiculous. i felt it was ridiculous, very inappropriate. >> why did you feel that? >> well, it's as though -- as much as i am spiritual and do celebrate death to some extent, i look at it more as like a graduation out of the flesh into spirit and freeing one up, i'm taking this one kind of -- kind of hard. i know what an intelligent bright funny witty love iing sw person and a great, great force musical musically, one of the greatest voices of all time. >> that is indisputable. let me ask you, is the what concerns me about what has happened here, is that so many of her close friends talk this way about her. yet, for the last two days of her life, she seemed to be on this huge party. >> yeah. >> surrounded by people, let's not use the word "enabler," i don't know enough about it. people allowing her to drink champagne in clubs. is the an addict, well-known well documented addict. >> that's right. >> as one of her close friends, how do you feel about what was being allowed to happen to her? >> i have strong feelings about that. i, too, was an addict. i know -- if i were on a set of a movie, even now, having recovered for seven years, we'd have made -- i was coming to a city like l.a., we'd have made specific plans that i come in, day, night before, day of performan performance, especially if you're still -- if you're not -- you have gone into proper treatment and gotten really handled, gotten your situation handled, that was the first big mistake for her to come an entire week before her performance at the party. i'd have never done that. >> i was shocked it was happening. i see these pictures apparently falling out of clubs and covered with blood and wine. the fact she was drinking in public in these clubs in hollywood seemed to me a potential recipe for disaster. >> it was, absolutely was. i stand by that. i stand on that. i stand on whoever flew her out to perform at that party, should have provided someone to be there, to somehow look -- just keep the riff raft out of the situation, keep some of the dangerous people away. >> was she very vulnerable do you think? >> yes. >> even to the end, to that kind of situation? >> i am. i'm very vulnerable as a -- you know, i'm not -- i will never do cocaine again, i know that. but we are a highly sensitive people, entertainers. >> let's take a short break. i want to continue this after the break. this is fascinating to get your perspective. thank you very much indeed. a very sad thing for you to have the last interview with whitney. appreciate it. we'll be right back after this break. ♪ [ male announcer ] why do we grow quaker oats? because there are mountains to climb. ♪ dreams to be realized. ♪ new worlds to be explored and hearts to be won. quaker oats. energy to get you going, fiber to help fill you up and help keep your heart healthy. super people eat super grains. i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. 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>> it's all of the above and a whole lott more. it boils down to you. you know, i was introduced to certain people and to certain opportunities to use recreational drugs. it boils down to whether i want to do it or not. she was a strong-willed, strong-minded girl. and i can't say that it's anybody's fault but -- >> would she have gone down that route, do you think, without bobby brown in her life? >> well, if not him, somebody else. if she wants to get high -- if you want to get high, you will get high. >> do you think she had that tendency anyway? >> i think that we all as artist, because we're highly sensitive people -- and this machine around us, this so-called music industry, is such a demon ic thing, it's sacrifices people's lives and their essences at the drop of a dime. >> how did you feel when you heard sony, i think back in the uk, had jacked the prices up of whitney's album within an hour or so of her dying. >> i had a manager who said to me, actually said to me, you know, you're worth more money dead than alive. okay, so, i am just by the grace of god stand i here because i could have easily, easily, because of a lot of pressure from the label i was with at the time, i went through a really really rough time, where i didn't want to go outside, didn't want to be seen, didn't want to be around, i really didn't. >> let me ask you a specific question. i'm assuming every singer, particularly a female diva kind of singer has a kind of peak moment in their career, in terms of the tone of their voice and their ability to hit those big notes. one of the few people who told me he knew whitney well was "the bodyguard" was that kind of her, she could hits the incredible notes. when that ability began to go, mixed in with the lifestyle choices she was making, it became an unbearable pressure on her to try and emulate that. someone said to me -- david foster, i think is coming on the show tomorrow night is quoted as saying that movie, the singing that went on in that movie, not only ruined it for everybody else to try and compete with her, it ruined it for whitney because she could never again live up to that. have you been through that process? >> yes. >> what is it like? >> let me tell you, i had polyps on my throat from like smoking, drink i drinking and things like that. this is back in the '80s. when i didn't know what my diagnosis was, i thought i was losing my votes. i couldn't hit any high notes, had trouble with low notes at mid-range, very suffocating. and i started actually considering what else could i do for a living. i was devastated! i was devastated because i thought i didn't have my voice anymore. i went to some specialist, said it was a polyp we need to remove and once the polyp was removed, i got my full range back. i think with whitney, it probably would be a similar scenario, see a specialist about it and probably had a few polyps on there. right now, we have the technology, you can maintain. you can maintain, and you can hit the same notes you hit 20 years ago. >> but from her performances that i saw, clearly, i think affected by the drug abuse and so on, she couldn't hit them anymore. >> no. >> what do you think that did to her? >> it killed her. it killed her. it would have -- i know. the last gig i did with h her -- last time i saw her was at my gig with prince here in l.a. on may 5th, and when i was singing, i saw her in the audience, i was so happy to see her, i could see -- she just wanted to sing. all we want to do is sing. >> that must have been agony for her that she couldn't? >> it was. it was agony. it was a killer. i told her, come on up, come on, let's do something. i just said, forget about the song, forget about the words, do what you want, you know. and we had a great time. after that, we had a great time after the show in my dressing room. we talked for over an hour and laughed and talked about life, and i was so happy. and when her mother -- when cissy told me, when i saw cissy a couple months ago at a gig she had gotten this part in a movie and in canada recording, i said, wow, cissy, this is it, this is it. it will be great for her. this is like life wrath she needed for her soul, for her well-being, for feeling good and feeling whole, you know. >> were you, if you're honest, surprised when you heard the news, shocked, yes, saddened, yes, were you surprised or has this been the kind of news many of her friends have long feared mehsudly be brought upon them -- feared may suddenly be brought upon them? >> i have to be honest, in my life just as not as well publicized as with her life, there are a lot of parallels, i'm sure my family thought like her family thought and i thought, oh, my god, i mean, i've cried for her a lot over the years, so many times. i' i've -- in a way, i've mourned her because i felt that she was-something was going to happen because she was so close to the wire. >> would she listen to people? >> yes. she'd give her -- haren digs of how she felt. >> what was her defense really of her actions? >> she had no defense. really no defense. she does what -- she's a-i'm a gaw, a grown woman. she was, a grown woman. the choices and decisions she made for her life, i think had she been spared, would have made her a greater human being. >> have you talked to the family? >> yes. i've been in touch. i'm a good friend with whitney's mom, cissy. >> how is she? >> she's -- she's coping, she's coping. she's, you know, she's also, you know, for, i'm sure, many times, had fear for her daughter's life. i know my mother did and my little girl did. my son. so i know what this world that we're living in, this business, particularly, can do to one. >> you were, i think, going to go to the clive davis party. >> yes. >> it was a surreal event where whitney's body was still in the hotel and a party where half the room were in tears and the other half partying. what did you feel about that? >> i thought that was complete insanity. and know iin ining whitney, i d believe she would have said, the show must go on. she was the kind of woman, stop everything, uh-huh. i'm not going to be there. you know. i don't know what could motivate a person to have a party in a build i building where the person whose life he had influenced so enormo enormously and whose life had been affected by hers, they were li like -- i don't understand how that party went on. >> i had clive davis friday night with jennifer hudson and he must have gone through agony when he heard this news knowing it was two to three hours of this event and he took the decision to turn it into a tribute to her. he was wrestling with the right thing to do. >> that would have been right if it really was a true tribute. a true tribute, you know, might have been a more honest tribute, in my -- my opinion would have been maybe call everybody together, let's say a prayer and let's eat dinner and go home. >> what is your -- >> i couldn't get dressed. i was supposed to go to the party. i just got off a plane from miami at 5:30. as soon as i hit the tarmac, i found out, i heard. i couldn't put on makeup, i couldn't get dressed, i couldn't do anything, i was paralyzed. i couldn't do anything. >> what is your abiding memory of whitney houston? >> they're all really good ones. and funny ones. there was one time, me and her and bobby were all together in a hotel, it was actually in florida as well. we were up there getting high together. talking crazy and having a really really good laughing and a really really good time. now, it sounds all suspect and crazy, but it wasn't. we were just three people talking and bobby said, chaka, you ought to let me manage you. and i guff fawed at that and laughing at mlaugh ing at him. bobbi kristina, she's a lovely little girl. >> are you worried about her? >> i'm concerned. >> i know cissy. i told her, i have a lot