Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music's queen until her majestic voice was ravaged by drug use and her regal image was ruined by erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, died Saturday. She was 48.

Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen said Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. in her room on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton. A Los Angeles County coroner's official said the body remained in the building late Saturday. 'There were no obvious signs of any criminal intent,' Rosen said.

Houston's publicist, Kristen Foster, said the cause of death was unknown.

Rosen said police received a 911 call from hotel security about Houston at 3:43 p.m. Saturday. Paramedics who were already at the hotel because of a Grammy party were not able to resuscitate her, he said.

Houston's death came on the eve of music's biggest night - the Grammy Awards. It's a showcase where she once reigned, and where she will be remembered Sunday in a tribute by Jennifer Hudson, organizers said.

Her longtime mentor Clive Davis went ahead with his annual concert at the same hotel where her body was found. He dedicated the evening to her and asked for a moment of silence as a photo of the singer, hands wide open, looking to the sky, appeared on the screen.

Houston was supposed to appear at the gala, and Davis had told The Associated Press that she would perhaps perform: 'It's her favorite night of the year ... (so) who knows by the end of the evening,' he said.

Houston had been at rehearsals for the show Thursday, coaching singers Brandy and Monica, according to a person who was at the event but was not authorized to speak publicly about it. The person said Houston looked disheveled, was sweating profusely and liquor and cigarettes could be smelled on her breath.

Two days ago, she performed at a pre-Grammy party with singer Kelly Price. Singer Kenny Lattimore hosted the event, and said Houston sang the gospel classic 'Jesus Loves Me' with Price, her voice registering softly, not with the same power it had at its height.

Lattimore said Houston was gregarious and was in a good mood, surrounded by friends and family, including daughter Bobbi Kristina.

'She just seemed like she was having a great night that night,' said Lattimore, who said he was in shock over her death.

Aretha Franklin, her godmother, also said she was stunned. 'I just can't talk about it now,' Franklin said in a short statement. 'It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen.'

The Rev. Al Sharpton said he would call for a national prayer Sunday morning during a service at Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles. 'The morning of the Grammys, the world should pause and pray for the memory of a gifted songbird,' Sharpton said in a statement.

In a statement, Recording Academy President and CEO Neil Portnow said Houston 'was one of the world's greatest pop singers of all time who leaves behind a robust musical soundtrack spanning the past three decades.'

At her peak, Houston was the golden girl of the music industry. From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful and peerless vocals rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like 'The Bodyguard' and 'Waiting to Exhale.'

She had the perfect voice and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.

She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.

Plus, Talks 'Buried Treasures' In 'L.A. Woman' Reissue & Documentary.
As the Doors begin The Year of the Doors with a 40th anniversary release of 'L.A. Woman' and an accompanying documentary, keyboardist Ray Manzarek says he hopes to spend more time 'Breakin' a Sweat' in the future.

'Breakin' a Sweat' is the surviving group members' collaboration with Skrillex for the upcoming Re:Generation Music Project film, which debuts in theaters Feb. 16. Manzarek says the session 'kicked me in the ass' and tells Billboard.com that it also inspired a few ideas for more Doors involvement in the electronic music realm.

'We might do some stuff in that direction,' Manzarek says. 'What I'd like to do and what might happen is to do some electronic treatments of the songs, of the multi-tracks we have, Robby (Krieger) and I working with different people. That would be a lot of fun. That's the new realm of music, electronics. Electronics can go anywhere, so that's what I'm looking forward to in the future.'

Manzarek says the Doors were asked to play 'Breakin' a Sweat' with Skrillex on this year's Grammy Awards telecast, but the plan was nixed by drummer John Densmore, who plays on the track but remains in 'virtual total incommunicado' with his estranged bandmates. But the keyboardist is confident that the late Doors frontman Jim Morrison would approve of adapting the Doors' music in that manner. 'He'd love it. He was no purist,' Manzarek says. 'His words were his mileau. He might be, 'Don't f*** with my words,' but he'd be open for all kind of improvisations. He loved that stuff.'

While they wait to see what that future brings, Manzarek and the Doors camp will bring out the new version of 'L.A. Woman' and the home video version of 'Mr. Mojo Risin': The Story of L.A. Woman' on Jan. 24, with the film premiering Friday [Jan. 20] at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The album includes a second disc featuring studio chatter and alternate versions of seven songs, plus a pair of new tracks -- 'She Smells So Nice' and 'Rock Me,' recorded together as a medley -- discovered by co-producer Bruce Botnick, who helmed the anniversary package.

'That's buried treasure, found treasure,' Manzarek says. 'Nobody remembered doing the song. Bruce found it in the outtakes; he listened to everything and said, 'Hey, there's a whole new song here' We said, 'What?' We went down to hear it and it was like, 'S***!' Nobody remembered recording it. It was a total surprise for the Doors, for Bruce Botnick and hopefully for the fans, too.'

Manzarek describes making the 'L.A. Woman' projects as 'very nostalgic' -- and emotional. 'It brings a tear to your eye to hear our brother, man, to hear that last session, to hear Jim in a sort of whiskey growl...And seeing him is like, '...there's my brother, man. He ain't gonna be on the planet no more.' It's very moving.'

Manzarek is mum on what else The Year of the Doors will hold, though he does acknowledge there's 'a bunch of stuff cooked up.' But he doesn't expect any of the group's other albums will be treated in quite the same archival way as 'L.A. Woman.'

'I don't think there's enough outtakes, unfortunately,' he explains. 'We never had a lot of outtakes, really. We went into the studio and did three or four takes and knocked it out and knew what we were going to do. And any outtakes are invariably lesser takes and don't hold anything interesting unless you want to hear Ray Manzarek flub a solo. If that's what you're looking for, we have that, but I can guarantee you don't want to listen to that.'

After 17 years spent lurking on the fringes of rock superstardom, Foo Fighters now find themselves, in many ways, leading the charge for a resurgent modern rock scene. 2011 was reaffirming year for the Foos on many fronts, driven by the success of the band's critically-lauded seventh studio album , 'Wasting Light' -- and the blowout global tour and six Grammy noms , including Album of the Year, that followed.

As he reflects on what he calls 'the best year of his life,' the Foos' Dave Grohl weighs in with Billboard on the health of rock'n'roll, what's wrong with the music business, and why these 'five dorks' might just actually represent something bigger than just a simple band.

'Walk,' Foo Fighters
Congrats on a hell of a year.

Grohl: It's been a good one, 2011 was very good to me. I was at a New Year's Eve party and someone asked me how was my year, and I said I honestly think 2011 was the best year of my entire life, and I actually meant it.

You and the Foos were in the thick of it all year, so what's your take on the health of rock?

There's always gonna be rock'n'roll bands, there's always gonna be kids that love rock'n'roll records, and there will always be rock'n'roll. I travel all over the world and play music, and it's easy to think rock'n'roll has gone away when you're in a country like America. We just got back from a trip Down Under, we did a tour of Australia and New Zealand where we were pulling 40,000-50,000 people a night, selling out stadiums. To me, that means rock'n'roll is alive and well. The thing that will never go away is that connection you make with a band or a song where you're moved by the fact that it's real people making music. You make that human connection with a song like 'Let It Be' or 'Long and Winding Road' or a song like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'Roxanne,' any of those songs. They sound like people making music.

In America, rock'n'roll isn't in the forefront of the mainstream as it is the rest of the world. England is another country where rock bands are hugely successful: You hear them on the radio, they have hits and play stadiums, and it's almost like it's bigger than it's ever been. But for whatever reason, here in America there's not as much focus on rock'n'roll bands. I don't know what it is, but it's one of the few countries in the world where rock'n'roll is not huge.

Is this discussion something you've had with the band and your team?

No. One of the reasons why we're still a band and we still make albums and we're still successful is we don't pay attention to any of that. We have our own studio, our own label, and we do everything on our own terms. To us the most important thing is we're satisfied within the band, and once we finish making a record we give it to the rest of the world. But we've always lived within this beautiful bubble that is the Foo Fighters. You can't pop it, you can't change what we do, because we try to keep it entirely real and pure. We've seen lots of trends come and go -- nu metal, skinny ties -- and we just kept our heads down and done our thing for so long that none of that really matters, and ultimately what happens is we end up making albums people connect to because they're real records.

But no, it's never been an issue. For years, usually about once a year, you have a rock band that comes out and says, 'We're gonna save rock'n'roll,' and then you'll read an article asking, 'Is Rock Dead?' It's never gone away in my world. Ask the guys in AC/DC whether they think rock'n'roll is dead.

Because you have things like 'American Idol' and you've got radio stations that play music made entirely by computers, it's easy to forget there are bands with actual people playing actual instruments that rock. For the fans, I don't think it's gone away at all. I don't know too many people that give up listening to rock'n'roll. It's seems to be fucking alive and well.

When you come out of your 'bubble' and deliver these massive hits, does it surprise you that radio gets behind it and people respond the way they do?

You have to understand, we're a really simple band. We think we suck and we try really hard to make good records and we practice. We don't feel like the biggest, best band in the world. We just feel like the same five dorks that were touring in a van 17 years ago, that hasn't changed. But there was a time about 10 years ago when we would get asked to come play an awards show or a radio festival or something like that and we'd show up and be the only rock band. Here we're on a bill with pop artists like Pussycat Dolls or some new rapper and then we get up and beat the shit out of our instruments. And I started wondering, 'Why are we even here?' I wondered if they just needed a 'rock band' -- 'Who's a rock band? Call the Foo Fighters.' Then I started thinking maybe we actually represent something to people, maybe when they hear the name 'Foo Fighters' they just think rock'n'roll, and I thought, 'Wow, that's cool.' Then over the years playing shows I'd look out at the audience and see kids with Nirvana shirts and their parents with Foo Fighters shirts -- which seems upside down -- and I'd see moustaches and kids at their first rock concert. Our audience became so diverse I thought, 'Man, they just want to see a rock show.' Go see Bruce Springsteen. Go see Tom Petty, AC/DC, Roger Waters, any of these people. Go see Pearl Jam or Soundgarden. I went to see Soungarden four or five months ago; I didn't stand in the VIP section, I ran down and got crushed in front of the stage and danced around sweaty with a bunch of people I didn't know for an hour and 45 minutes.

Grohl, Rock Preacher: The VMAs Acceptance Speech

I don't think there's anything wrong with rock at all. It's overlooked. And right now, the current musical climate is not unlike it was back in 1991, right before Nirvana [Grohl's former band] got popular. The late '80s was full of over-produced pop that kids had nothing to grab hold of -- they had no way of connecting to this hair metal band singing about fucking strippers in a limousine on Sunset Boulevard. Who can relate to that? Then you had a bunch of formulaic pop songstress bullshit, and music was boring. And then a bunch of bands with dirty kids got on MTV and rock'n'roll became huge again. And I feel like that's about to happen. Something's got to give. It can't be song contests on television for the rest of our lives. It can't be the same playlists on every radio station for the rest of our lives. It can't be music made entirely by computers with people talking over it the rest of our lives. It can't go that way, it just won't.

I feel like as a musician and a part of this rock'n'roll scene, I have a responsibility to make shit real, to not think about all of that other bullshit, not think about making music for money or promoting music for fashion, the contests. My responsibility is to make shit that's real. Once you start doing the right thing, it will get better.

Someone asked me recently, 'What do you think the problem with the music industry is?' I said, take the Adele record, for example. It's an amazing record and everybody's so shocked that it's such a phenomenon. I'm not. You know why that record's huge? Because it's fucking good and it's real. When you have an artist singing about something real and she's incredibly talented, it deserves all the rewards it gets, it's a great record. Now imagine if all records were that good. Do you think only one of them would sell? Fuck no! All of them would. If all records were that good the music business would be on fire, but they're not. A lot of people are promoting records that are just throw-it-against-the-wall-see-if-it-sticks meaningless bullshit. Everybody has the responsibility to do the right thing and promote artists that mean something.

Plans for Band's First Album in 33 Years Have Not Been Derailed.

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with the early stages of lymphoma but a new album for the legendary metal band is still on track, it was announced Monday.

Iommi, 63, is currently working with his doctors to determine the best course and 'remains upbeat and determined to make a full and successful recovery,' a statement said.

In November, the group -- Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward -- announced album and tour plans . While the statement does not indicate whether live dates will be affected, the band continues to write and record their first album in over three decades. Rick Rubin will produce the group's comeback album, which is expected to be released in fall 2012 through Vertigo/Universal.

The metal pioneers are scheduled to headline Download Festival, which will take place between June 8-10 in Donington Park, England.

Since the original lineup came together in 1968, the English metal pioneers have scored album sales of 15 million, according to the RIAA. Between 1970 and 2007, Black Sabbath have had 22 entries on the Billboard 200, and their biggest-selling effort -- 1970's 'Paranoid,' which featured classic rock tracks like 'Iron Man' and 'War Pigs' -- has sold 1.6 million in the SoundScan era.

The lineup of Osbourne, Iommi, Butler and Ward released its last album, 'Never Say Die,' in 1978; the disc has sold 133,000 copies in the SoundScan era. Osbourne split with Black Sabbath in 1979 and went on to a hugely successful solo career, with hits like 'Crazy Train,' 'Mr. Crowley' and 'Shot in the Dark.' He rejoined the band in 1997 and toured on-and-off with them through 2006, but the only new material produced was two songs tacked onto a 1998 live album.

Iommi, who wrote extensively about the band in his recent book 'Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven & Hell With Black Sabbath,' told Billboard.com that he regrouped with Osbourne, bassist Butler and drummer Ward at Osbourne's California home in early 2011 to play some music 'for a bit of fun, and to see if we could all play. It was good, but it was just purely, 'Let's have a go and see what happens.''