Whitney Houston remembered on Grammys red carpet

LOS ANGELES — One of the last people to share a stage with Whitney Houston was R&B singer Kelly Price, who stopped on the Grammy Awards show's red carpet Sunday night to reminisce.

While others have said the singer appeared disheveled when she showed up Thursday to rehearse for music mogul Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party, Price said that wasn't the case when she saw her later Thursday at a party in Hollywood where the two sang together.

"She stood on her feet for over three hours, she cheered on every singer that hit the stage," said Price, who sang a duet with Houston on "Yes, Jesus Loves Me."

When she wasn't singing, Price said, Houston was dancing, either by herself or with others, including her 18-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown.

"We had a wonderful time," Price said. "She celebrated me. She told me she was proud of me, she told me she loved me,"

The pair's friendship dates to 1998 when Houston heard Price on the radio and invited her to sing with her on "Heartbreak Hotel."

Tony Bennett, who kicked his own cocaine habit 30 years ago, made a pitch for the legalization of all drugs as he reflected on the death of Whitney Houston, whose drug problems have been well documented.

"In Amsterdam they legalized drugs and it calmed everybody down," Bennett said Sunday on the Grammy Awards red carpet.

"It stopped a lot of gangsters who sneak around and get people to take drugs. Everybody gets wounded that way. By legalizing it, you won't have that problem."

Later in the evening, Bennett accepted the award for best pop performance by a duo or group. He won for the duet he recorded with Amy Winehouse, who died last year of alcohol poisoning.

The 85-year-old crooner acknowledged his call for legalization is controversial. But he said he stands by it.

"It's called the elimination of ignorance," he said. "If you do something that makes things better, why not do it immediately, whatever it is."

One of the Grammy show's most poignant moments was one that TV viewers didn't see.

When Tony Bennett received the Grammy for best pop performance by a duo or group for his duet with Amy Winehouse, he invited the late singer's parents to join him on stage during the awards ceremony's pre-show segment.

"We shouldn't be here. Our darling daughter should be here," Winehouse's father, Mitch, said after he and the singer's mother, Janis, had embraced Bennett.