As the host of her own talk show in the '80s and a close friend of Clive Davis, Nikki Haskell got to know Whitney Houston when the singer was just beginning her career. While reeling from last weekend's shocking events, Haskell was gracious enough to speak with Spinner about the singer's early years, her struggles with addiction, why Bobby Brown was her "downfall" and the fact that someone supposed to be with Houston at all times, including in the bathroom, to prevent a tragedy like this.

How did you first meet Whitney?

I was just going over the funeral arrangement story with Clive. He is going to speak at the funeral and it's in the afternoon on Saturday. I was with [Whitney] a lot because of my friendship with Clive. I know nothing about her as a child, outside of the fact that I met her when she first started singing.

I met her originally through Dionne [Warwick, Houston's cousin]. She wasn't even Whitney Houston then, she was just a little girl. My friendship with her was really only because of my friendship with Clive. We saw her at music events -- every year she was at Clive's [Grammy] event and of course we always sat in close proximity and talked. I didn't speak to her on a daily basis. She was not one of my closest friends. She was just a woman that I knew, who I respected. Her singing ability was amazing. My time that I spent with her was all related to her career. It wasn't like we were two girls socializing.

Artist: Nada Surf
Video: 'When I Was Young'
Highlight: "The video for 'When I Was Young' was filmed and directed by Phil Harder in our hometown, New York City," lead singer/guitarist Matthew Caws tells Spinner. "Because 'When I Was Young' is about my childhood I thought a video about a kid growing up in New York would be great. The only suggestions that went out to Phil were a kid growing up in New York and 'The Royal Tenenbaums.' But he really got it right and more, suggesting and nailing things about childhood that I would not have been able to express. Otto is extraordinary in it. That he instills fun, makes it all the more poignant."

Punch Brothers frontman Chris Thile has the demeanor of a world-class pitcher. While upon the mound of his Brooklyn, N.Y., progressive bluegrass outfit, he clutches his mandolin, fingers across the frets like the stitching of a baseball, waiting to release the heat.

Thile's current position wasn't won overnight. The mandolin virtuoso has spent thousands of hours practicing perfection, much like his idol, pitcher Greg Maddux. And you can hear it, too. Thile's entire youth has been documented on tape, from a childhood nabbing trophies at bluegrass competitions to his days in the Grammy Award-winning Nickel Creek. Venture into any record store, and you can see the California native's game tapes filed amongst rows of alphabetized bluegrass recordings.

Punch Brothers' latest album, 'Who's Feeling Young Now?' is the band's most ambitious and explosive acoustic record yet. From the exactitude of opening track 'Movement and Location' to the haunting cover of Radiohead's 'Kid A,' the album throws 9 innings of power from start to finish.

Taking time out from Punch Brothers' current tour, Thile shares with Spinner his secret to balance and explains why being 30 makes little difference to life's biggest curveballs.

How has age affected your songwriting from the time you were in Nickel Creek to Punch Brothers?

For me, having come of age on record, it comes down to that classic cliché: The more you know, the more you don't know. And I definitely thought I knew everything when Nickel Creek's first record came out. I was 17 when we recorded it and 18 when it was released. That music ... especially from the first two Nickel Creek records -- it just sounds unbearably smug to me. The know-it-all kid in class ... it's hard for me to listen to it.

Usually when a beloved band goes on 'hiatus' it belies conflict between members. But when the Constantines split in 2010 it surprised many -- they had just celebrated 10 years together with a successful tour and were gaining recognition and respect outside their native Canada, not to mention there wasn't a whiff of hostility.

So why did the Ontario blue collar rockers decide to call time out? Frontman and newly minted solo artist Bry Webb hints that the demands of touring pushed him to hit the pause button.

"As much as I absolutely loved the Constantines and playing in that band, I got to be really unhealthy for me, just the way I was singing and stuff," Webb tells Spinner. "I was sick like 80 percent of the time we were on the road, which is just crazy, so I burned out."

Details are emerging about Whitney Houston's upcoming funeral on Saturday, Feb. 18, in Newark, N.J. The invitation-only event will include guests like Aretha Franklin, Clive Davis and Rev. Jesse Jackson, but rumors are circulating that the singer's own ex-husband Bobby Brown is not wanted at the ceremony by members of Houston's family.

Whitney's famous godmother Aretha will send her goddaughter off with a tribute performance at the funeral, which will stream live over the internet. Allegedly, music executive and Whitney's career-long mentor Clive Davis personally asked the soul legend to sing at the event, which is set to take place at Newark's New Hope Baptist Church -- the place where Whitney first found her voice. An ET Online source says that when Franklin was asked to participate, she responded with some variation of, "How could I say no?"

Whitney Houston's early hits in the mid to late '80s were mostly ballads, such as 'Saving All My Love For You,' 'The Greatest Love of All' and 'Didn't We Almost Have It All,' but the singer also brought an infectious energy to more uptempo material. Two of those memorable upbeat songs -- 'How Will I Know' (1985) and 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)' (1987) -- both went No. 1 on the Billboard charts and were written by the songwriting duo of George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam.

"I must say that we were fortunate to have Whitney sing our songs," Rubicam tells Spinner after Houston's death last Saturday. "She just nailed them both with her incredible voice, taking them to heights that I'm certain only she could have done."

Merrill and Rubicam -- who are also the musical act Boy Meets Girl, known for their song 'Waiting for a Star to Fall' -- were originally commissioned by their publishing company to write a song for Janet Jackson.

You can almost smell it now. Dave Matthews Band have just announced dates for their 2012 tour. Expect fabulous light shows, hours of acoustified funky jams and numerous musical guests, all beginning this summer May 18 in Woodlands, Texas.

Most tickets for the band's North American tour are available for presale tomorrow Feb. 16 at 10AM ET. Remaining tickets will be available at local venue box offices and online starting March 9. DMB will be hitting the road with an assortment of supporting bands including Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and the Head and the Heart.

Mariachi El Bronx, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Blind Pilot, Lettuce, Fitz and the Tantrums, Gary Clark Jr., Delta Spirit, Brandi Carlisle, SOJA, Tower of Power, Avett Brothers and Allen Stone are also lined up to play several dates with the world famous jam band. Check out Dave Matthews Band's full list of tour dates after the jump and head over to the group's website for more information.