The first part of Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Whitney Houston aired Monday, and it was epic. I watched the interview on the edge of my seat, no joke. You know what’s weird? I had almost forgotten a time when Whitney Houston wasn’t a joke. Remember when she was an icon? When that voice just came pouring out of her, and she seemed so heavenly? Well, that woman is back… sort of. There are some elements of that old, Classic Whitney, but there’s also a lot of New Whitney. New Whitney is older, wiser, more honest, funnier, and still pretty crazy.

Like most people, I was a little surprised at just how honest Whitney was for the interview. Some parts were leaked last week – including Whitney’s revelation that there were times where she didn’t get out of bed for months. When that part came, Whitney did admit it to Oprah. Oprah asked what Whitney did in bed, and Whitney listed: drugs, read the Bible, talked on the phone, and watched T.V. When she puts it like that, it sounds like a pretty sweet life. Did anyone else crack up when Whitney really started to describe her drug usage? It was like she came alive! She leaned forward and her face lit up as she said, “You put [it in] your marijuana, you lace it, you roll it up and you smoke it!” People Magazine and The Huffington Post have more from the interview:

Whitney Houston took drugs, including cocaine and marijuana, with ex-husband Bobby Brown, who was emotionally abusive during their marriage and at one point spit on her, the singer said during an interview that aired Monday on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

“I had so much money and so much access to what I wanted,” Houston told Winfrey. “I didn’t think about the singing part anymore. I was looking for my young womanhood.”

After a long absence from music, Houston is staging a career comeback with a new album “I Look to You” released last month and a two-part appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Houston is one of the best-selling artists of all time, but her career stalled as she grappled with drug problems and a troubled marriage to Brown.

The couple married in 1992 and were divorced in 2007. During their marriage, Brown was arrested on drug and alcohol charges, and Houston twice entered drug rehabilitation programs. She has custody of their teenage daughter.

“I think somewhere inside, something happens to a man when a woman has that much control or has that much fame,” Whitney said. Asked if Brown was jealous of her, Houston, 46, told Winfrey, “he’s not going to like this, but yes.”

Houston told Winfrey that Brown wasn’t physically abusive but “he slapped me once but he got hit on the head three times by me.”

A phone message left Monday with Brown’s attorney in Atlanta seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Houston said she was attracted to Brown because he took control of their relationship and had “a sweet, gentle tenderness.”

“At home, he was very much the father, he was very much the man,” Houston said. “He was very much in control. I liked that. When he said something, I listened. I was very interested in having someone have that kind of control over me. It was refreshing.”

She described an episode after a birthday party for Brown that left her “horrified. He spit on me, in my face. He actually spit on me. And my daughter was coming down the stairs and she saw it. That was pretty intense. I didn’t grow up with that and I didn’t understand why that occurred – [why] he had such a hate for me because I loved him so much.” Houston also said Brown would smash and break things at their home.

The 46-year-old singer described her drug use, saying it became “heavy” after her 1992 movie “The Bodyguard.” She said she would take marijuana combined with rock cocaine.

“You put your marijuana, you lace it, you roll it up and you smoke it,” Houston explained to Winfrey.

During a 2002 ABC interview with Diane Sawyer, Houston admitted dabbling in drugs but denied using crack, then uttered the now-famous phrase: “Crack is wack.”

“He was my drug,” Houston told Winfrey of Brown. “I didn’t do anything without him. I wasn’t getting high by myself. It was me and him together. We were partners.”

Houston said she stuck with Brown because she took her marriage vows seriously.

“Holy matrimony was a very serious thing for me. I was going to keep my vow. I never cheated,” she says. “The only thing I did was the drugs. . . . He was too promiscuous, dragging dirt into my home. It disturbed me.”

Her drugs of choice were marijuana and rock cocaine. “I was trying to hide the pain,” she says.

Along the way, Houston says, she gave up on her career. “I had totally forgotten about that life,” she says. “I had so much money by that point. I wasn’t thinking about any of that.”

She said she told her daughter about her drug use and took her with her to an Atlanta drug rehab for mothers and children.

“I didn’t lie to her,” Houston said.

Her mother also tried to intervene, the singer said, and at one point came to Houston’s home with police.

The singer prayed for help, asking God to give her strength, she said.

“I was so weak to him,” Houston said. “I was so weak to the love.”

[From the Huffington Post and People]

Overall, I think the interview was a great way for Whitney to showcase her recovery and her comeback. But one thing did bother me – I wish Whitney had taken more responsibility for her actions. She seemed happy enough to answer Oprah’s questions about some of the horrible things Bobby did and their screwed up life together, but Whitney’s timeline for when she began to “get real” about her failing marriage is a little sketchy. She described going off the rails with her drug usage as everything after 1991-2 (after The Bodyguard). So that was 17 years where her life descended into the chaos of drug abuse, and the slow rotting of her marriage to an abusive alcoholic and addict. I realize some people struggle with their addictions for decades, but don’t call it “getting real” when you’re still sprinkling rock cocaine in your joint. The other side of that criticism is that I really did believe Whitney when she talked about how important and sacred her marriage was to her, and it made me understand why she didn’t (or couldn’t) get out. Sort of.

Meanwhile, Bobby Brown spoke to The Insider (story via People) about Whitney’s interview and their marriage: “ I think we corrupted each other… I don’t think she hurt me or I hurt her. I just think we had a 14 year marriage that had its ups and downs and not many people understood it… [I used] an awful lot [of cocaine] – a powerful drug… I think I was bored… I had just gotten married and things weren’t right. Unfortunately, I turned to alcohol and drugs.” Bobby also says the first time they met, at the Soul Train Awards, is “one of the things I try to forget.” Meanwhile, I’m just shocked Bobby’s not in jail. Why is he out in the world?

Here’s a segment on CNN’s Showbiz Tonight discussing the show: