Kelly Price tells Access Hollywood there were no signs of trouble on Thursday evening when Whitney Houston joined her on stage, in what would be the superstar's final performance.
"I know people would automatically go to the speculations because of problems in the past, but that was not who I was with Thursday night," the R&B star told Access Hollywood's Shaun Robinson on the Grammys red carpet. "I was with someone who was looking forward to a movie coming out, looking forward to celebrating her daughter as a young adult woman and being with her -- we talked about our children."
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Whitney took the stage at Tru Hollywood on Thursday night at the "Kelly Price & Friends Unplugged: For The Love of R&B Grammy" party and while Kelly knew her friend was coming to the event, when she joined her on stage, it was a surprise.
"It was impromptu. I wasn't expecting for her to sing," Kelly told Shaun. "I knew she was coming. She was there to support me. She came up while I was talking to the audience and literally just acknowledging her for supporting me down through the years and encouraging me privately. She came to the steps and walked up the steps I gave her a big hug and she told me, 'Give me the mic.'"
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Kelly said Whitney was having a good time at the event and was by her side throughout the night.
"I sat on the foot of the stage on the steps. She was standing two or three paces next to me the entire night. She was drinking champagne," Kelly said. "We were having a good time. There was none of that going on."
The R&B star and Grammy nominee said Whitney wasn't acting odd, and didn't seem depressed.
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"No, no, everybody keeps asking me that," Kelly said. "Whitney was the Whitney that I knew. Whitney was celebrating, she was happy, she was cheering me on, she was dancing, she was smiling, she was singing. There was nothing out of the ordinary."
Kelly said Whitney even comforted El Debarge (who underwent a rehab stint in 2011) when he showed up at the party.
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"Actually, El Debarge showed up at the party, showed up on the carpet, it's the first time I've seen him since I don't know when. She took him, embraced him, hugged him," Kelly recounted. "He cried on her shoulder at my party... She for lack of a better phrase, she mothered him, she loved on him, she encouraged him that night. She sat in the corner and talked with him.
"She prayed with him that night," Kelly added.
The singer also defended paparazzi photos which surfaced showing Whitney looking disheveled as she left the club that evening.
"I think people took pictures of her coming out of the club and tried to say that she was looking whatever -- we had been dancing for about three hours," Kelly said. "We all looked that way and it was really unfair to say those things, honestly, because if you had taken a picture of me or anybody else that was with us that night, we all would have looked just like that."
Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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