There are only a few people at MTV who have ever interviewed Madonna. And all the people who have interviewed Madonna all have a certain prestigious history with the network: Kurt Loder, John Norris, a high-level producer here and there.

So you could imagine my surprise when, in the middle of my VMA backstage broadcast for V-Cast Sunday night at the MTV Video Music Awards, a dude in the press department ran up to me and said, "Dude. Madonna. Now."

Whaaat?

The interview went really well. Hell, I'd even say amazingly well. I know this because Madonna's longtime press guru didn't tackle me after our chat veered into zany territory. Watching the tape back, I have to say Madonna seemed to enjoy herself. She was an amazing sport when I asked her a million questions about Lady Gaga. She shared her legendary lightning-fast wit with me. And my producer made her cackle at one point. Score!

But I think I might have creeped her out when I admitted I was obsessed with her 12-year-old daughter, Lourdes. In fact, I know I did. Because Madonna told me.

In my defense, I'm not obsessed with Lourdes in any seedy way. I just find her newly-emerging public persona to be really exciting. She has a funky fashion sense and she just made an appearance in her mom's new video. It seems like Lourdes is dipping her toe into the fame pool. I meant to ask Madonna a legitimate question about Lourdes but instead what came out was, "Are you creeped out that I'm obsessed with your daughter?"

Sorry, Madonna! I promise next time I get to interview you I'll be more prepared and ask you all about your upcoming greatest hits album. But admit it: You had fun with me, right?

Welcome to the Michael Jackson memorial service live blog. Don't forget you can watch the full event on a live stream here and you can follow on Twitter here. We're expecting a memorable afternoon featuring Mariah Carey, Usher, John Mayer, Stevie Wonder and a host of other guests and surprises in celebration of Jackson's life and career.

All times are Eastern.

11:32 - The family is currently unloading at the private ceremony at Forest Lawn Cemetery, while fans are filing into the Staples Center. Several outlets are reporting that Jackson's body will be transported via helicopter from the cemetery to the public memorial.

11:47 - Though the crowds continue to grow outside the Staples Center, everything appears to be running smoothly and orderly.

12:01 - Sway is live outside the Staples Center. The crowd looks big but controlled. Jackson has surpassed President Obama in Facebook fans — over 7 million! The other amazing number: Over a billion people worldwide will probably watch this memorial today.
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Panic at the Disco announced that they will be splitting in half, with chief songwriter Ryan Ross taking bass player Jon Walker and heading out "on a new musical excursion." Frontman Brandon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith will continue on as Panic at the Disco, and the pair will still play their scheduled dates on the Blink-182 reunion tour (with two replacement members, of course).

Ross and Walker haven't named their new group, nor have they given any indication what it would sound like. But Urie and Smith will reportedly finish up the already-in-progress third album. But what will all this new music sound like? For those answers, we take a look at John Norris' conversation with the band just prior to the release of their last album. Since Pretty. Odd. had such a strong Beatles influence, Norris asked the group to name their favorite Fab Four songs, and the individual results could be very telling.

Urie and Smith both selected more psychedelic entries in the Beatles catalog (not unlike "Nine in the Afternoon"), while Walker and Ross went with more conventional tunes. Both "Octopus Garden" and "I Am the Walrus" are pop-minded tracks with big choruses — the same types of songs that make up the band's debut A Fever You Can't Sweat Out (like "Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off"). So it seems like the band called Panic at the Disco will continue along the lines laid out on Pretty. Odd. and the Ross/Walker combination might be a little more straightforward.

For Panic fans, we want to know: Will you follow both new bands or are you loyal to a particular member?

Fans and reporters are already flocking to Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, California, the place Michael Jackson called home. The throngs are preparing for Friday's public viewing before the private family funeral on Sunday.

The sprawling grounds of Neverland are behind a massive gate and housed amusement park rides, tennis courts, several guest homes and a zoo (which MTV News' John Norris never got to see during his visit in 1993). Even though Jackson hasn't lived there in years, the site has become a makeshift shrine to the singer's memory.

(Click here for more photos of Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch!)

Back in 1993, MTV hosted a contest called My Weekend at Michael's Neverland Valley Contest. As a part of the contest, MTV News' John Norris was sent out to Neverland to cover the revealing of the grand-prize winner. Here is his account of what it was like on the grounds of Neverland and working with Michael Jackson.

"MTV had a contest where they asked fans to submit completed videos for the song 'Who Is It.' I don't remember whether MTV put the fan-made video into rotation — I have a feeling they didn't. The three finalists got to come spend a weekend at Neverland, and Michael would pick the winner there. At the tail end of that weekend, we came in. I was VJing at the time, so I was there more as a VJ, but we also had a news crew and a promo crew. The deal was that Michael was going to join me and the three finalists on the grounds of Neverland to reveal his choice for the winner. We were there to shoot several segments, first with the finalists and then with Michael.

"Neverland is huge. It's a ways to get to — you have to go up this long winding road through the mountains. It's probably a 15-minute drive up from the main road. And there's no mistaking when you get there, because there's a beautiful ornate gate. We didn't even see the entire spread, but passing through I saw a fort with a bunch of tree houses — you really get the sense you're entering the grounds of an amusement park. The house is an old Tudor style house with some guest houses, where the finalists stayed over. So they set us up on the perimeter of Michael's amusement park. There are probably half a dozen rides. There was one of those big spider-looking things, there was a huge slide and definitely a Ferris wheel. When you're on the grounds of Neverland, you really get the feeling that he thought of himself as a child. I mean, the damn place is called Neverland.

"So anyway, we got set up and did a few segments with the finalists and we were waiting for Michael. Finally he shows up, and he arrives on a little train that ran around the edge of Neverland. And he shows up with a couple of little kids. And I'm talking little — they could not have been older than 6 or 7. A boy and girl, and I don't remember if he introduced them or not.
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On Wednesday night, I attended "Stand Up and Be Counted," a fundraiser for the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village
(ASYV) in Rwanda.

ASYV is a residential community, as well as high school, in Rwanda. It houses youth who lost their parents during the horrific 1994 Rwandan racial strife, when over 1 million ethnic Tutsis were killed by Hutus. In college, I actually wrote a chapter of my honors thesis in part on the Rwandan genocide, and knowing the details of the tragedy, I was excited to be a part of an event held by such an organization.

I arrived with John Norris as my date; we walked the carpet together (I'm not sure we were fooling anyone, even though I called him my "boyfriend" twice — oh well!), and went inside to a completely packed room at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. I brushed shoulders with Whitney Port, Spencer Grammer (Kelsey's daughter) and actress Susan Egan. I think Natalie Portman may have been there too (she's on the board of the organization) but I didn't see her.

After a few speakers and an excellent short film about the residents of ASYV, artist Michael Israel put on a rock-art-interactive performance, which was actually excellent. Read more...

LONDON — Tim Kash and I are here on a visit to the set of Big Pak's new video, and I decided to take in some of the local music scene. Unfortunately — according to many of our MTV U.K. counterparts — there wasn't much to see this week, but luck struck!

A look at a gig calendar at a local pub revealed a surprise: Baltimore experimental rockers Ponytail were playing just down the street at the small-but-legendary 100 Club, the self-proclaimed "oldest live-music venue in London," where the Rolling Stones and even the Sex Pistols played in their early days.

The crowd loved the band (which rolled out a great new song) and was as energetic as any we've seen at Ponytail gigs in the States. Openers Future Islands were also excellent; both bands are currently on separate tours throughout Europe but will be back Stateside soon.

If you haven't heard Ponytail, check out John Norris' article on the band.

Resident "American Idol" expert Jim Cantiello brings you a minute-by-minute recap of every episode right here! Keep checking for updates throughout the show, and don't miss out on his previous live blogs and other "Idol" news.

It's Tuesday night so that can only mean one thing: time to live-blog "American Idol!"

Tonight's auditions are going to take place in Jacksonville, Florida, which means I will probably be accused of being "an elitist journalist" by a reader again. Apologies in advance, MTV.COM user "George." It's not my fault I live in New York City. (Or, uh, I guess it is?)

Before we get to the bad singers and cliche-laden Ryan Seacrest voice-overs, I want to give a shout-out to two MTV.COM commenters from last week's "Idol" live-blog recap who made me happy.

The first shout-out goes to "Andrea," who topped my "my uncles made a cult movie" dare by writing, "My cat's cousin's aunt's ex-lover once dug through a trash can outside a 7/11 with Maru in Louisville. Beat that, MTV." Andrea, you totally win.

And the second shout-out goes to "reneeden" who, in response to Kara DioGuardi acknowledging contestant Joanna Pacitti's professional past, wrote, "Kara underwent a manual reboot after that system malfunction, I'm sure. Idol likes to keep major label skeletons (especially gems like Joanna's '06 debut) in the very back of their closet, buried underneath all the old Corey Clark CDs and Sanjaya's faux-hawk. The girl's pretty and has a good voice, but if Geffen Records and a feature in an MTV special (Anybody remember that? MTV's First Year - talk about WOW. She even got to work with Linda Perry!) can't make it happen, then I doubt Idol will do much more than cram her down our thoats until we want to spit her out with the not-quite-chewed remains of Kristy Lee Cook's 'career'."

Reneeden, you are so right! Not only was Joanna on that "First Year" special, but she was also featured on a "True Life" episode. So, does that mean we're related somehow? I am SO pulling those tapes out of the library tomorrow.

Enough of this tomfoolery. On with the blog!

7:47 pm - This is our last week of auditions, thankfully. I don't know how many more of these episodes I can take. You've seen one bad singer and/or mentally unstable social outcast...you've apparently seen Courtney Love perform live. Zing!

7:53 pm - I was hoping to take a new pic of myself (and the cats!) for the site tonight, but I came home to my Tivo not working and my digital camera battery was dead. I'm 99% sure that my wife is magnetic because every electronic item she's touched today is on the fritz. Stay away from the laptop, honey! This is a loaner from MTV!

7:55 pm - Five more minutes...

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A few weeks back, we wrote a post about Seattle's Fleet Foxes and how they ended up on many, many, many best-of lists at the end of the year, and wouldn't you know it — they've been tapped to perform on this weekend's "Saturday Night Live."

So to give you a preview of what's to come on "SNL" (and see if you should stay up late), check out the stripped-down performance of "White Winter Hymnal" the band did especially for us.
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As you no doubt know, it's end-of-year list— and critically — music lists have reflected one thing about 2008 - everyone was listening to the same few records.

One of the bands getting a ton of love across the board is Seattle's Fleet Foxes. Their song "White Winter Hymnal" was thought to be one of the indie songs of the year — and when the band stopped in for an interview with John Norris — we got them to play a stripped down version of the new classic.
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