The Eagles have just added four more dates to their "An Evening with the Eagles" fall tour, with a shows set for Oct. 17 at the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina; followed by an Oct. 20 concert at Philips Arena in Atlanta; Oct. 24 at KFC Yum! Center in Louisville; and Oct. 27 at the new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit -- late co-founder Glenn Frey's home town. The lineup will again feature Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit joined by Frey's son Deacon Frey and Vince Gill -- the same lineup who recently played the well-received Classic West and Classic East stadium concerts during July. Prior to the next Eagles dates guitarist Joe Walsh is playing a three-show solo run in Las Vegas during September and will host his first all-star VetsAid benefit concert on Sept. 20 in Fairfax, Va. Bassist Timothy Schmit, meanwhile, has solo shows booked during November and December to promote his latest album, Leap Of Faith. - Billboard, 8/14/17...... 
The new U.K. Elvis Presley compilation 50 Greatest Hits is on track to hit No. 1 on the U.K.'s Official Albums Chart Update, which could help the late singer extend his lead as the solo artist with the most U.K. No. 1 albums. Presley moved past Madonna in 2016 to claim the record when The Wonder Of You became his 13th U.K. No. 1 album. Only the Beatles have more No. 1 albums in the U.K., with 15. The annual Elvis celebration in Memphis, Tenn., is set for Aug. 16, with 2017 being the 40th anniversary of his untimely death there at age 42. Meanwhile, a new Kardashian family tell-all by author Jerry Oppenheimer claims that late patriarch Robert Kardashian was allegedly embroiled in a passionate relationship with Elvis' ex-wife Priscilla Presley, and that Elvis would "listen in" on their alleged love-making. In The Kardashians: An American Drama, Oppenheimer claims that Robert fell for Priscilla after being initially snubbed by his future wife, Kris Jenner. Priscilla had just gotten divorced from Elvis after their six years marriage when they embarked on their fling, and Priscilla would get incoherent phone calls from Elvis when she and Kardashian were making love. "She would put the receiver on the pillow and let him listen," Oppenheimer writes. However Priscilla ended the relationship, explaining: "I'm not going to marry anyone until Elvis dies." - Billboard/RadarOnline.com, 8/15/17...... The Pantone Color Institute, which specializes in certifying, categorizing and forecasting color trends, has announced they've partnered with the estate of Prince to create a new custom shade of purple, the late rock star's favorite color, to pay tribute to him. Pantone has dubbed a specific purple hue "Love Symbol #2" in honour of Prince, who passed away in 2016. The shade is inspired by the artist's custom-made Yamaha Purple piano which was made to accompany The Purple One on tour before he died. In the future, the new custom color will be used in all Prince-related material that's published or put out by his estate. - Stereogum.com, 8/15/17...... Pop songstress Dionne Warwick is set to be honored with the Marian Anderson Award, named for a pioneering opera singer, during a ceremony on Nov. 14. The award is handed out in Philadelphia to "critically acclaimed artists who have impacted society in a positive way." Anderson was the first black singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. Warwick, who has scored 18 consecutive top 100 singles and 20 best-selling albums, has supported many philanthropic campaigns, including those battling AIDS and world hunger. She's also a champion of music education. Previous winners include singer Patti LaBelle, music producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and jazz great Wynton Marsalis. - AP, 8/11/17...... 
Archival footage of David Bowie, who appeared in director David Lynch's original Twin Peaks series, is being included in the Showtime Twin Peaks sequel, Twin Peaks: The Return. Bowie played FBI agent Phillip Jeffries in the original series, one of the select few FBI agents involved with the "Blue Rose" task force who mysteriously disappeared and reappeared in the late 1980s. A number of scenes in the new show indicate that the agent is alive and well, and working on a plot centering around "Evil Coop" and the infamous green ring. In an episode that aired on Aug. 14, Lynch integrated the footage of Bowie from the early episode "Fire Walk With Me," rather than recasting the role or integrating new material. Lynch also tweeted that he was dedicating the episode to the late rock star. - Billboard, 8/14/17...... In an interview with Rolling Stone, Ringo Starr has revealed how his new collaboration with his former bandmate Paul McCartney on a track from Starr's upcoming album Give More Love came about. "Well, I just called him up and said, 'I got this song called "Show Me the Way," and I want you to play on it," Starr says. "Because he is a really good friend of mine, he said he'd come to L.A. for it. It's about [my wife] Barbara [Bach]. She shows me the way. I wanted it to be very personal." "He's an incredible musician," the 77-year old rock star continued. "He's incredible at singing too and as a writer, but for me, as a bass player, he is the finest and the most melodic." Starr and McCartney also collaborated for a performance at the 2014 Grammy Awards, in commemoration of the Beatles' first appearance on television 50 years earlier. "So we are still pals, but we don't live in each other's pocket," Starr said. Give More Love will drop on Sept. 19. - Billboard, 8/10/17...... Chic principal Niles Rodgers was hospitalized on Aug. 13 over a mystery aliment which forced him to miss a concert at Toronto's Air Canada Centre on that evening. Rodgers and Chic are currently on the road with Earth, Wind & Fire for a tour dubbed "2054: The Tour," and when the tour hit Toronto the disco legend was grounded with illness and taken to hospital where, he says, doctors "are taking great care" of him. Rodgers, 64, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011 and documented his battle via his blog. In 2014, he was given the all-clear on cancer and he related his ordeal to the audience during Chic's set at the U.K.'s Glastonbury Festival in June: "My doctors told me I was suffering from extremely aggressive cancer and that I needed to go home and get my affairs in order... And I feel like the luckiest man in the world tonight because six years after that doctor told me to go home and get my affairs in order, today, six years later, I am cancer-free!" On Aug. 14, Rodgers tweeted: "Thank you all so much. I love @EarthWindFire @CHICorg all the #fans and my doctors who are taking great care of me. See you all very soon." Rodgers, who in April accepted the Award for Musical Excellence at the 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, also tweeted that this is the first gig he's missed due to illness. Meanwhile, Rodgers recently revealed that he scrapped a song he had written about Prince for the forthcoming Chic album as "it felt wrong" to include it following the artist's death in 2016. - Billboard, 8/14/17...... 
In related news, Country legend Willie Nelson was forced to cut a concert short on Aug. 13 after he experienced breathing problems. Nelson's concert at Salt Lake City's USANA Amphitheatre was abbreviated after the singer experienced respiratory problems and checked into a local hospital. A few hours after the incident, the octogenarian music legend, who has battled with a string of health complaints in recent months and years, took to his official website to reassure worried fans: "This is Willie I am sorry to have to cut the SLC show short tonight The altitude got to me I am feeling better now & headed for lower ground - Willie Nelson." Nelson's latest album, God's Problem Child, was released in May and bowed at the top of Billboard's Top Country Albums, his third No. 1 LP on the survey. Nelson has been the target of various online death hoaxes over the years, and he addressed them in a track on that album titled "Still Not Dead." - Billboard, 8/14/17...... Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has once again criticized Radiohead for their decision to hold the closing show of their "A Moon Shaped Pool" world tour in Tel Aviv, Israel. Waters recently appeared on RT to reaffirm his belief that the band's performance in the country served as a message of support for the Israeli government's policies. "[Radiohead frontman] Thom Yorke is wrong about not endorsing the policies of the Israeli government by playing there," Waters said. "When they cross the picket line, they are making a public statement that they do endorse the policies of the government, whatever they say, because that is what will be reported in Israel and that is what gets reported around the world," he added. Thom Yorke previously responded to criticism from Rogers and other by posting a statement on Twitter: "Playing in a country isn't the same as endorsing its government... We don't endorse [Benjamin] Netanyahu any more than [Donald] Trump, but we still play in America." Rogers counters that "Radiohead are being so soundly criticized by anybody with progressive ideas about human rights, because they have taken that step." - Billboard, 8/11/17...... Late country/pop crossover star was reportedly laid to rest during a private ceremony in his hometown of Delight, Ark., on Aug. 9, only a day after his death at age 81. Campbell's family thanked fans for an "outpouring of love" and confirmed on Facebook that the singer was buried during a private service in Delight. "The Campbell family would like to thank everyone for their enormous outpouring of love and support... Glen was laid to rest on Wednesday in a private ceremony in his hometown of Delight, AR. A private memorial will follow," the statement read. Campbell died after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile, U.S. sales of Campbell's music grew 5,429 percent in the two days following his death, while streams of his songs increased by 1,430 percent, according to initial data reports to Nielsen Music. On Aug. 8 and 9, Campbell's albums sold 11,000 copies (up 2,300 percent from less than 1,000 on Aug. 6 and 7). His digital songs sold 46,000 downloads (up 7,846 percent from about 1,000 in the two previous days). Combined, his albums (both physical and digital) and digital songs sold 57,000 copies (up 5,429 percent from 1,000 in the two previous days). Campbell's top 10 selling songs and on-demand streamed songs include "Wichita Lineman," "Rhinestone Cowboy," "Gentle On My Mind," "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Southern Nights," "Galveston," "I'm Not Gonna Miss You," "Adiós," "Country Boy" and "Try a Little Kindness." On the midweek U.K. albums chart, Campbell's final studio album Adiós, soared to No. 3. - New Musical Express/Billboard, 8/11/17...... 
Former Doobie Brothers member and '80s solo star Michael McDonald is preparing to release Wide Open, his first solo album in a decade. McDonald says he has been busy enough that he hasn't felt that passage of time. "Time seems to fly, especially as you get to be my age now. But it has been a while," he says. McDonald actually started working on demos for Wide Open about eight years ago, letting it take its time until he felt like he had the material with which to make an album. Wide Open will be the follow-up to his 2008 covers set Soul Speak, and his first of original material since Blue Obsession in 2000. Wide Open, which he describes as "pretty eclectic," was recorded primarily at McDonald's own studio in Nashville with drummer Shannon Forrest and features guest appearances by Warren Haynes, Robben Ford, Branford Marsalis and Marcus Miller. McDonald says he will be touring to support Wide Open into the fall, including an appearance on PBS' Soundstage. - Billboard, 8/10/17...... In 1973, masked men abducted the 16-year-old grandson of J. Paul Getty -- then the richest man in the world -- off the streets of Rome. But director Ridley Scott says his upcoming film All the Money in the World will focus less on the crime than on the behind-the-scenes drama. The oil tycoon, played by Kevin Spacey, prioritizes his fortune, while the boy's mother (Michelle Williams) pairs with an ex-CIA agent (Mark Wahlberg) to save her child. "I knew about the kidnapping, but this story was very, very provocative," Scott says of David Scarpa's script. All the Money in the World hits U.S. cinemas on Dec. 8. - Entertainment Weekly, 8/14/17.
Carlos Santana and his band paid tribute to late country music icon Glen Campbell during a concert on Aug. 9 in suburban Detroit by performing a stylized version of his Grammy-winning 1967 single "By The Time I Get To Phoenix." "That was for a brother that went home. That was for Glen Campbell," Santana told the audience at the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre in Sterling Heights, then joking it was "'By The Time I Get To Tijuana'"... I think it was Phoenix. Anyway, that's a tribute to Glen Campbell." Campbell, who passed away on Aug. 8 at the age of 81 after several years battling Alzheimer's disease, has also been remembered by Beach Boys members Mike Love and Brian Wilson. Campbell toured with the Beach Boys as a replacement for Wilson briefly in 1964, and Love said in a Facebook post that he's "never met a more talented person in all the years we have been in the music business and never had a better time on tour than the time spent with Glen... His sense of humor was incredible and we never laughed so much as when he was with us." Wilson tweeted on Aug. 8 that "I'm very broken up to hear about my friend Glen Campbell. An incredible musician and an even better person. I'm at a loss. Love & Mercy." Country music superstar Brad Paisley said in an interview that he thought Campbell "brought a lot of people to country music because he was just so palatable... That shouldn't be mistaken for saccharine in any way because it was not anything but brilliant." Songwriter Jimmy Webb, Campbell's longtime friend and collaborator, said: "Let the world note that a great American influence on pop music, the American Beatle, the secret link between so many artists and records that we can only marvel, has passed and cannot be replaced.... You have to look hard for a bad song on a Glen Campbell album. He was giving people their money's worth before it became fashionable." - Billboard, 8/9/17...... 
Deep Purple has just embarked on what they've dubbed The Long Goodbye Tour, which will see the hard rock icons playing at least 65 dates around Europe, North America and South America. The tour will be Deep Purple's final tour of big treks around the world, very much like their classic rock counterparts Black Sabbath and Judas Priest have done. Guitarist Steve Morse, who effectively took over founding member Ritchie Blackmore's slot in 1994, says the band is currently working on what could be its final album and "my guitar playing is more sensitive to the music, the song." Morse adds the upcoming album will "have an awesome producer, Bob Ezrin, who we didn't have before. It was just the band and Roger [Glover, bassist]." - Billboard, 8/8/17...... Bruce Springsteen announced on Aug. 9 that he's prepping for an epic eight-week run of Broadway performances at the 1,000-capacity Walter Kerr Theatre this fall that will mix singing, storytelling and readings from his 2016 memoir, Born to Run. "I chose Broadway for this project because it has the beautiful old theaters which seemed like the right setting for what I have in mind," Springsteen said in a statement announcing the run of shows slated to kick off on Oct. 12. "In fact, with one or two exceptions, the 960 seats of the Walter Kerr Theater is probably the smallest venue I've played in the last 40 years." The rock icon will perform five nights a week -- Tuesday through Saturday -- with the series currently scheduled to run through Nov. 26 after previews, which begin on Oct. 3. "My show is just me, the guitar, the piano and the words and music," Springsteen explained. "Some of the show is spoken, some of it is sung. It loosely follows the arc of my life and my work. All of it together is in pursuit of my constant goal to provide an entertaining evening and to communicate something of value." - Billboard, 8/9/17...... Patti Smith will be among the headliners at a concert to fight climate change set for Nov. 5 at New York's Carnegie Hall. The concert, also featuring Cat Power and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe among others, comes two months after Pres. Donald Trump vowed to pull the U.S. out of the landmark global initiative to combat climate change. All proceeds from the event will benefit 350.org, Pathway to Paris and the UNDP. - Stereogum.com, 8/9/17...... A new mugshot of Phil Spector taken in June by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows the 76-year-old music producer smiling broadly and wearing hearing aids on both ears. Previous mugs of Spector, who was convicted in 2009 of killing actress Lana Clarkson and is serving a sentence of 19 years to life, have shown him bald on top but with long, stringy hair in the back. Spector is now completely bald, a far cry from the bizarre huge wigs he wore at his two trials. - AP, 8/8/17...... In a newly surfaced letter written by John Lennon on Nov. 15, 1976 to his former wife Cynthia Lennon, the former Beatle disputes that Yoko Ono was responsible for ending his first marriage. "As you and I well know, our marriage was over long before the advent of L.S.D. or Yoko Ono | and that's reality!," Lennon wrote, then recalled the time she asked him to remarry her and have another child ("I politely told you no") while he was temporarily separated from Ono. He then said that he didn't blame her for trying to cut herself away from the Beatles, but suggested she "should try to avoid talking to and posing for magazines and newspapers!" The letter, and another one written by Lennon as an open letter to magazine editors in response to the British tabloid News of the World publishing advance excerpts of Cynthia's book A Twist of Lennon, are being auctioned online by RR Auctions. Also being sold separately by the auction house in the auction is a book signed by Lennon called Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall by British comic Spike Milligan, which was originally gifted to his friend, Harry Nilsson. - Billboard, 8/8/17...... 
As Bonnie Raitt nears the end of her summer road trip with James Taylor, the veteran singer and blues guitarist says it's one of the more satisfying adventures in her long and highly collaborative career. "We're having such a great time," Raitt told Billboard. "The two bands love each other, and James and I have known each other since I was 20 and he was not much older and I opened for him at Harvard University. And of course we've worked together on a lot of different environmental shows. I don't get to see him that much -- at the Grammys, and occasionally we'll run into each other at benefits. This is the first time we've toured together. We've been talking about doing this for a long time, and it just worked out in my schedule." Raitt and Taylor wrap up their trek on Aug. 11 at Boston's iconic Fenway Park, where both have musical roots. "There's a lot of love and appreciation" of each other, according to Raitt, who joins Taylor for a rendition of "Close Your Eyes" to close each night. "We did Fenway together in 2015, and it was so special. It never gets old. It's been really warm, and the audiences have been incredible. To hear that many people hushed quiet on the ballads is really an extraordinary thing for me. I could keep doing this for a very long time." Raitt, a longtime supporter of environmentalism, nuclear anti-proliferation and other liberal causes, also weighed in U.S. Pres. Donald Trump: "Things have gotten more absurd and more difficult and more scary and depressing than I ever even expected. Every day is a challenge. We just have to try to stay in the positive solutions and to try be active and promote what I can to make a change happen... I have to figure out what times of the day I'm strong enough to take it but not look away too much, either." - Billboard, 8/7/17...... In related news, founding Journey guitarist Neal Schon is feuding with his bandmates over the controversial 45th American president, recently tweeting up a storm about his anger over a White House visit and meeting with Pres. Trump last week by Journey members, singer Arnel Pineda, keyboardist Jonathan Cain and bassist Ross Valory. "I will remain strong and consistent with the belief we've always shared and agreed upon -- Journey should never be used and exploited by anyone, especially band members for politics or any one religion," Schon posted on Aug. 3. "I've been here since 1972 and this has always been our belief. This was with intent to exploit the brand and use the name. Journey was not there -- 3 individual members were Cain Valory and Pineda whom I found ... Tours are done all the time but it could have been privately," he added. In a tweet on Aug. 7, Schon denied that he's leaving the group over growing tensions, although he hinted that those tensions have been running high for "close to 2 years." Keyboardist Cain is married to Trump's spiritual advisor, Pastor Paula White, one of the religious leaders who participated in Trump's January inauguration. Schon did hint that he might be forming a new version of Journey, and denied that the rift is about Trump or politics, telling one skeptical fan that the group had been invited to the White House several times, including during the Obama administration. - Billboard, 8/7/17...... 
A long-rumored 3D version of Michael Jackson's famous short for his 1983 hit "Thriller" is set to make its world premiere at the 74th annual Venice Film Festival in Italy, which runs from Aug. 30 through Sept. 9. In making the announcement on Aug. 7, the Jackson estate also said the accompanying The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller documentary -- originally available on VHS between 1983-1990 and not available for purchase in any format since then -- will be screened at the festival. With its nearly 14-minute running time and feature film aesthetics, Thriller redefined the traditional video when it opened at the Avco Theatre in Los Angeles in 1983 for a sold-out three-week run. The short film was directed by John Landis (Animal House, Trading Places), who also co-wrote the script with Jackson after Michael was inspired by Landis' 1981 film An American Werewolf in London. This will mark the first time the Thriller short is ever screened in a cinema, something Landis says he and Jackson always intended. "But we didn't just restore Thriller," Landis added. "We enhanced it -- like in that scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and the others are being buffed and polished inside Emerald City." Thriller remains the only music video to be inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. - Billboard, 8/7/17...... In a recent interview with DJ John Perry of Chicago's 95 WIIL Rock, Ozzy Osbourne responded to claims that rock is dead with a simple denial -- "I'm still alive." "I'm still alive," he said, "[But] I never thought in my lifetime I'd see the demise of records. I never use the computer. It's totally changed. A lot of people steal music now, so a lot of people can't afford to do it anymore." When asked about his ongoing career, Ozzy confirmed that he has no plans to retire soon. "I think I'll do this till the day I die," he continues. "It's not a job; it's a passion. It's great. It pays well." Ozzy and Black Sabbath played their final show in February of this year, at the NEC Arena in their hometown of Birmingham, UK. - New Musical Express, 8/7/17...... In an interview with the London Daily Mail on Aug. 6, Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood revealed he refused to undergo chemotherapy after a recent cancer scare because he did not want to lose his hair. Wood said that the possibility of chemotherapy had been discussed but that he decided against it. "It's more I wasn't going to lose my hair," he said. "This hair wasn't going anywhere. I said, 'No way.' And I just kept the faith it would be all right." Wood, who underwent a five hour operation to have a growth in part of his lung removed earlier in 2017, added that he'd been surprised that he hadn't fallen ill sooner after his life of hedonism. "I had this thought at the back of my mind after I gave up smoking a year ago: 'How can I have got through 50 years of chain-smoking -- and all the rest of my bad habits -- without something going on in there?'" the guitarist said. Wood also told the mag that he's kicked cigarettes by using the "heavy duty" nicotine inhibitor Champix and he's fine now, and will be going for regular check-ups. Meanwhile, the Stones will kick off their upcoming 13-date No Filter Tour of Europe on Sept. 9 in Hamburg, Germany, wrapping on Oct. 22 in Paris. - New Musical Express, 8/7/17.
He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1950s, where he began to write songs and record demos, and he became a sought-after session guitarist, playing for Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, The Beach Boys (he played guitar on the Pet Sounds album and toured with the band for several months following the breakdown of Brian Wilson), Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and The Monkees, to name a few. He became part of Phil Spector's The Wrecking Crew, the famed session band that played on many of the world's biggest hits at L.A.'s Gold Star Studios, creating the producer's legendary "Wall of Sound." In 1962, Campbell was signed to Capitol Records after releasing the single "Turn Around, Look at Me" on Crest Records a year earlier. His career had only minor success until he partnered with producer Al De Lory and songwriters Jimmy Webb and John Hartford. Campbell's distinctive fingerpicking style and indelible guitar riffs were the perfect foundation that allowed his warm, personable vocals to shine, and the title track to his Burning Bridges album became a No. 18 hit on the Country chart. His cover of Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind" became a top 40 hit on both the Country and Pop charts that year. His biggest accomplishments came when he partnered with Jimmy Webb in the late 60s -- interpreting and singing his songs with a striking intimacy that made them his own. On certain songs, the magic is undeniable: "'Wichita Lineman' and 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix'... it's almost as though the song was waiting for the singer and the singer was waiting for the song," Webb once said. On 
Campbell hosted his Goodtime Hour from 1969-1972, and in 1969 he starred as young Texas Ranger La Boeuf in True Grit after being handpicked by John Wayne to star opposite him in his lone Oscar-winning role. He also sang the Oscar-nominated title track. A year later, he starred as the title character in the film comedy Norwood, playing opposite NFL quarterback Joe Namath as Vietnam veterans returning home to Texas. Campbell played himself in Clint Eastwood's 1980 romp Any Which Way You Can, and also did guest stints on such TV series as The F.B.I. and, three decades later, Players -- which also was about FBI agents and was his last acting credit. In 1975, Campbell's rendition of Larry Weiss' 
His youngest children Cal, Shannon and Ashley joined him as his backup band on his last series of concerts, dubbed The Goodbye Tour, which launched in Los Angeles in late 2011. Earlier that same year, Campbell announced he was struggling with Alzheimer's disease and was moved to a private care facility for Alzheimers and dementia patients near Nashville in April 2014, where he passed away with his family at his side. His personal struggle with the disease was chronicled in the documentary I'll Be Me, directed by his friend James Keach, which premiered at the 2014 Nashville Film Festival and followed the singer on his farewell tour in the U.S., Australia and Europe as he dealt with his illness. Campbell released the "farewell" albums Ghost on the Canvas in 2012 and See You There in 2013, the latter featuring stripped-down versions of such hits as "Rhinestone Cowboy." Earlier in 2017, he released his final album, 
On one drug-fueled night in August 1976, Neil Young recorded a solo acoustic album called Hitchhiker in a single session at Malibu's Indigo Ranch Studios. Although Hitchhiker's title track appeared in a drastically different form on Young's 2010 album Le Noise and most of the other 10 tracks eventually saw the light of day in some form, the original Hitchhiker album was never released because Young was unsatisfied with his performances -- until now. Reprise Records announced on Aug. 4 that 
Sony Pictures and other principals behind the current critical and commercial hit movie Baby Driver are being sued by Roland Feld, the son of late T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan, for failing to clear the use of the T. Rex song "Debora" in the movie. In Feld's complaint, he charges that Sony, along with Media Rights Capital, Bambino Films, and others, "failed to obtain -- or even seek -- the permission of the composition's U.S. copyright holder Rolan Feld," and that in the six weeks since Feld brought the infringement to Sony's attention, "Defendants have done little more than point fingers at one another -- and they have neither apologized nor offered to pay Feld a reasonable license fee." Feld is seeking "disgorgement of profits and punitive damages," and demanding" an order that Sony be permanently enjoined from engaging in improper exploitation." In 2014, Feld brought another lawsuit to reclaim the song rights of his father, who died in a 1977 car accident when Feld was still an infant. Feld won that lawsuit, which gave him the rights to 144 works by Marc Bolan. - The Hollywood Reporter, 8/3/17...... In July, Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters revealed to BBC Radio 1 that the new Foo Fighters album which is due in September will feature "the biggest pop star in the world," and after later carifying to Rolling Stone magazine that it "isn't Adele or Taylor Swift, Grohl told ET Canada on Aug. 2 that the star is indeed his old pal -- Paul McCartney. "[Paul] hadn't even heard of the song," Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins added. "He comes in and Dave picked up an acoustic and showed him real quick. He sat on his special drum set that his tech set up for him. I sat there with a drumstick conducting. He did two takes." The new Foo Fighters album, 
Donald Fagen of Steely Dan says that his longtime music partner Walter Becker is "recovering from a procedure and hopefully he'll be fine very soon," but did not elaborate on Becker's surgery or prognosis. Becker missed both of Steely Dan's performances during the recent Classic West and Classic East concerts in Los Angeles and New York, and Fagen admitted the shows, which also featured such classic rock acts as the Eagles and the Doobie Brothers, were a bit odd, and not only because of the absence of his musical partner. "They were fun," Fagen says. "I think it's been a long time since we opened for another band, and that was stranger than I thought it would be because I realized that a lot of the audience, probably a majority fo the audience, was there to see the Eagles, and although we have certain things in common I don't think it's a perfect fit. I'm used to the audience being mainly interested in Steely Dan, so that was a little different. But they were good." Fagen and his new band the Nightflyers -- named after his 1982 solo album The Nightfly -- will kicked off a summer tour with two nights on Aug. 3 and 4 in Port Chester, N.Y., wrapping up the 26-date run Sept. 23-24 at the Yokohama Blue Note Jazz Fest in Japan. Fagen says he's particularly looking forward to giving an airing to songs from his four solo albums, which have taken a back seat since Steely Dan reactivated and began touring extensively in 1993. Fagen added he's also begun writing material with his Nightflyers guitarist Connor Kennedy, which may surface as part of his fifth solo album. "I'd love to go into the studio with these guys," he said. "I've got some new material. We haven't had a chance to work up too many things but on the road I'm hoping to show the guys some of the new stuff I've been writing, and it'll be fun developing that with a band 'cause generally speaking in recent years the way I work is usually alone and doing arrangements by myself, or with Walter. It'll be fun actually having a band to try this stuff out on. I don't think I've done that since the early '70s, probably." - Billboard, 8/2/17...... Founding Queen member Freddie Mercury is among the 100,000 AIDS victims who are memorialized in a 54-ton AIDS memorial quilt, an enormous community art project launched in 1987 to stitch together the story of people who have died from AIDS, to educate the public about the epidemic and to raise funds for prevention, and research efforts to find a cure. The quilt spans more than 30 football fields, making it impossible to move as one unit, so The NAMES AIDS Project unstitches individual sections in order to put parts of the quilt on display at museums, government buildings, churches and schools across the United States. The quilt features other singers and musicians aside from Mercury, who notably has 29 fan-submitted panels dedicated to him. Disco legend Sylvester, rapper Eazy-E from N.W.A., and guitarist Ricky Wilson from the B-52's are also represented on the quilt. Because of the NAMES organization's efforts, the quilt has been nominated for Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, declared an American Treasure by Congress in 2005 and inspired books, songs and even a musical called "Quilt, A Musical Celebration." - Billboard, 8/2/17...... 
Actor Tom Wopat, best known as portraying Luke Duke on the 1979-1985 CBS show 
Prog-rock legends Yes will kick off its Yestival tour during the first week of August with openers Todd Rundgren and Carl Palmer's ELP Legacy. After doing a few years of full-album shows, Yes guitarist Steve Howe says this time out Yes will be mining the group's first nine albums -- 1969's Yes through 1978's Tormato, with at least one song from each. "We're stopping on the first album, but also we're doing two songs from one of the albums, and one of them's going to be a surprise sort of acoustic song that just Jon [Anderson] and I will perform," Howe says. "We're bringing the focus to the songs rather than the albums, and I think we've got a good balance here with things that we're bringing forth that have never been played," he added. Howe says he's also excited about having his son, Dylan -- who's worked with him on many of his solo albums -- be part of Yes this summer. "Part of his education over the last 10 years has been to learn every Yes piece, and he knows virtually every one... because to him it was as good as learning Count Basie or Art Blakey -- partly because he's grown up with it, it's in his blood," Howe says. Howe added that Yes is starting to consider making some new music, which would be the followup to its last LP, 2014's Heaven & Earth. Before then, he will release 
Bruce Springsteen has signed a worldwide administration deal with Universal Music Publishing Group, bringing his catalog under a single global roof for the first time in his career. Previously, Springsteen's catalog was split between Downtown Music Publishing in the United States and Sony/ATV in the United Kingdom, among others. The new deal covers all of the Boss' future work as well as his back catalog, including albums like Born To Run, Born In the U.S.A. and The River, as well as the songs he's written that were famously covered by others such as Rage Against the Machine ("The Ghost of Tom Joad"), Mary J. Blige ("American Skin (41 Shots)") and David Bowie ("It's Hard To Be a Saint In the City"), among others. "During a career spanning more than 40 years, Bruce Springsteen has amassed one of the most iconic catalogs of songs in the history of music," said UMPG chairman/CEO Jody Gerson in a statement announcing the news. "We are thrilled to put the entire global resources of our company into expanding the popularity of his music and creating exciting new fan experiences," he added. Springsteen's catalog, recorded over a 40-plus-year period for Columbia Records beginning with his 1973 debut Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., still sells well, and it helped land the rock icon at No. 3 on Billboard's annual Money Makers list for 2017. - Billboard, 7/31/17...... In other Springsteen-related news, the New Jersey-based minor league baseball team Lakewood BlueClaws paid homage to the rocker who grew up in Freehold, about 30 minutes from their stadium, on July 29 with "Bruce Springsteen Appreciation Night." Festivities included a pre-game concert by the E-Street Shuffle, a Springsteen tribute band, and the first "Born to Run Beer Mile" race, in which participating fans got a beer for each lap they completed around the field's warning track. The first runner to finish three laps and three beers was declared the winner. The BlueClaws played the game in jerseys bearing the "BruceClaws" name and planned to auction off the game-worn shirts after the game, with all the money raised going to its charities fund. "I've only met a handful of people who don't like him, and that's usually because they don't like his strong political views," said one attendee. "But I always tell them you can appreciate his musical talent without agreeing with his opinions." - AP, 7/30/17...... The Liverpool Echo newspaper is reporting that during a visit to to students at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in late July, Paul McCartney told the students, "Sometimes the situation in the world is so crazy, that you've got to address it," and that the former Beatle has written a song pertaining to US Pres. Donald Trump. A rep for McCartney had no comment. Sir Paul is also a co-founder of the institute, also called LIPA, and was a student there when it was known as Liverpool Institute High School For Boys. The high school closed in 1985 and reopened as LIPA after an extensive renovation. McCartney is the school's Lead Patron. Earlier in July, McCartney told Australian newspaper reporter Cameron Adams that he's "not a fan at all" of the current American president. "He's unleashed a kind of violent prejudice that is sometimes latent among people," Macca said. "He's unleashed the ugly side of America. People feel like they have got a free pass to be, if not violent, at least antagonistic towards people of a different color or a different race. I think we all thought we'd got past that a long time ago." During the 2016 campaign, McCartney openly expressed his support for Democratic contender Hillary Clinton and the two posed for a picture together before a Paul concert in Cleveland. - Billboard, 7/30/17...... 
The Eagles headlined Day 1 of the The Classic East Festival on July 29 in New York City, after appearing at the concert's West Coast incarnation two week earlier. The concert kicked off with the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan and then the Eagles -- the latter making their second appearance with Deacon Frey, who replaced his father, late Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey. The Eagles provided a couple of well-selected deep cuts -- the sweeping Hotel California closer "The Last Resort" and funky The Long Run talkbox exercise "Those Shoes" -- but their set mainly consisted of some of their biggest hits, including "Take It Easy" to "One of These Nights." Unlike at Classic West, when Don Henley & Co. seemed to hint that the two Classic concerts could represent the Eagles' last flight, there were fewer moments of finality at Classic East -- mostly just gratitude to the fans. On Day 2 of the Classic East Festival on July 30, Fleetwood Mac climaxed the event by playing 8 of the 11 songs off their classic 1977 album Rumours that came to define their strengths as a band (and their personal weaknesses as bandmates). Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham also played a solo version of his 1987 top 5 hit "Big Love," that included his own lightning-speed acoustic finger-picking. Also performing that night were Earth, Wind & Fire and Journey. - Billboard, 7/31/17...... Sam Shepard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Oscar-nominated actor and celebrated author whose plays chronicled the explosive fault lines of family and masculinity in the American West, died on July 27 at his home in Kentucky from complications related to Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He was 73. The taciturn Shepard, who grew up on a California ranch, was a man of few words who nevertheless produced 44 plays and numerous books, memoirs and short stories. He was one of the most influential playwrights of his generation: a plain-spoken poet of the modern frontier, both lyrical and rugged.S hepard's movie career began in the late '70s. While making the 1982 Frances Farmer biopic Frances, he met Jessica Lange and the two remained together for nearly 30 years. They had two children, Hannah Jane and Samuel Walker. They separated in 2009. Lange once said of Shepard: "No man I've ever met compares to Sam in terms of maleness." Shepard worked occasionally in movies, but took acting gigs more frequently as he grew older. Besides his plays, Shepard wrote short stories and a full-length work of fiction, The One Inside, which came out earlier in 2017. Shepard also joined Bob Dylan on the 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour of 1975, and co-wrote the song "Brownsville Girl" with him. Shepard and Patti Smith were one-time lovers but lifetime friends. "We're just the same," Smith once said. "When Sam and I are together, it's like no particular time." Smith published a beautifully poetic remembrance of her late friend titled "My Buddy" in The New Yorker on Aug. 1. - AP, 8/1/17...... Nasally comedienne Patti Deutsch, known for her appearances on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and game shows like Match Game and Tattletales, died on July 26 after a long battle with cancer. She was 73. Deutsch came to fame as a member of the 1960s-'70s improvisational comedy group Ace Trucking Company, which also featured Fred Willard, Bill "You Can Call Me Ray" Saluga, Michael Mislove and George Memmoli. She and the troupe appeared dozens of times on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, on other talk shows, and on ABC's This Is Tom Jones, and they recorded an album of improvised sketches for RCA. The Pittsburgh-born Deutsch joined NBC's Laugh-In for its sixth and final season (1972-73) and had a regular role on the short-lived NBC comedy Grandpa Goes to Washington, starring Jack Albertson. Her other credits include Mr. Mom (1983) and the TV shows She's the Sheriff and Don't Trust the B-- in Apartment 23, and she was also a prolific voiceover artist and appeared in dozens of TV commercials, including Charmin and Folgers. - The Hollywood Reporter, 7/28/17...... Famed French actress Jeanne Moreau reportedly died in her home on July 31 at the age of 89. Moreau was considered one of the greatest actresses of her time, and is perhaps best known for her role in Francois Truffaut's new wave film Jules et Jim. Ms. Moreau's personal life included a brief marriage to The Exorcist director William Friedkin, and a relationship with designer Pierre Cardin, who she called her "true love." Ms. Moreau eventually starred in over 100 films, and also recorded albums, as she had a beautiful singing voice. - Jezebel.com, 7/31/17...... Martin "Marty" Sklar, a pioneering Walt Disney Co. imagineer who played an instrumental role in the design of Disney theme parks, died on July 27 at the age of 83. During his 54 years at Disney, Mr. Sklar led the creative development of the Burbank company's parks, attractions and resorts around the world, including its ventures in TV, the cruise business, housing development and the redesign of Times Square in New York. - The Los Angeles Times, 7/28/17.
An original Andy Warhol artwork owned by Alice Cooper has been rediscovered after it was rolled up in a tube and placed in a storage locker for over 40 years. The piece is a red silkscreen from Warhol's "Little Electric Chair" series, and it was rediscovered after being placed into storage alongside artefacts from Cooper's 1970 stage show -- including a mock electric chair. Cooper's former girlfriend, Cindy Lang, orginally purchased the artwork for Cooper as a gift, but it soon entered the singer's touring collection and he, by his own admission, forgot about it in a "swirl of drugs and drinking." But it was Cooper's manager, Shep Gordon, who eventually rediscovered the painting after he had dinner with an art dealer who told him of the huge sums that Warhol works regularly attract at auction. "Alice's mother remembered it going into storage. So we went and found it rolled up in a tube," said Gordon, who took the painting to Richard Polsky, a Warhol expert who is assured of its authenticity and dated the artwork back to 1964 or 1965. Cooper says he is planning to hang the painting in his home when he finishes touring at the end of the year. "You should have seen Alice's face when Richard Polsky's estimate came in. His jaw dropped and he looked at me", Gordon added. "'Are you serious? I own that!'" Although another Little Electric Chair work by the artist sold in 2015 for $11.6 million, Alice's is unlikely to sell for that sum because it is unsigned and experts at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts stopped authenticating works in 2011. Cooper says he has not decided whether he plans to eventually sell the painting. - New Musical Express, 7/25/17...... On July 26 a New York federal judge ruled that the Beatles are the legitimate owners of footage of their famous August 1965 concert at New York's Shea Stadium, rejecting the contention that the company of the late promoter of the concert, Sid Bernstein, was the owner. A movie of the Aug. 15, 1965 concert was broadcast on ABC in 1967, then footage from the concert was used in the mid-1990s documentary series called The Beatles Anthology. Most recently, Ron Howard used footage for his own film, Eight Days a Week -- The Touring Years. Around the time that Apple Corps -- the company established by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr -- announced the release of Howard's film, those controlling Bernstein's company after the promoter's death in 2013 submitted an application to register ownership of the copyrights in the "master tapes" of the 1965 concert. However, the registration conflicted with a 1988 one from Subafilms, an entity associated with Brian Epstein and the Beatles. Rejection by the U.S. Copyright Office didn't stop the Sid Bernstein company from then suing Apple Corps and Subafilms in 2016 upon the theatrical debut of Eight Days a Week. The plaintiff asserted ownership and claimed that the ABC movie, The Beatles Anthology, and Howard's film were infringing derivative works. On the motion to dismiss, the defendants pointed to the acknowledgment that once the concert began, Bernstein just "observed" and had no control or input into the filming of the concert. "By zeroing in on Bernstein's contributions to the filming of the concert rather than his efforts as a producer and promoter of the event, it is obvious that he is not an 'author' of any fixed works," the judge ruled. Sid Bernstein died in 2013 at the age of 95. - The Hollywood Reporter, 7/27/17...... In other Beatles-related news, Ringo Starr has teamed with Paul McCartney and members of the Eagles and Toto for a track on his upcoming album, 
A hologram image of legendary heavy metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio will be going on a world tour with live musicians from the Dio tribute band Dio Disciples. The European leg of the Dio Returns Tour is set to kick off in Helsinki on Nov. 30, and it'll arrive in the U.S. by the spring of 2018. The tour is also expected to make an appearance at select festivals in 2018. Dio's widow, Wendy Dio, and his estate worked on the project with the hologram company Eyellusion. The tour will use audio from some of Dio's live performances, and the hologram will supposedly take you back to the singer's Sacred Heart and Dream Evil tours. "In 1986, for the Sacred Heart Tour, Ronnie and I created the Crystal Ball with Ronnie filmed and speaking in a suspended crystal ball effect, done with back projection, which was the closest we could get to a hologram," Wendy told Rolling Stone magazine. "[The tour] gives the fans that saw Ronnie perform an opportunity to see him again and new fans that never got to see him a chance to see him for the first time. We hope everyone will enjoy the show that we have all worked so hard to put together," she added. - Stereogum.com, 7/26/17...... Rock poetess Patti Smith joined U2 as the Irish rockers stopped in Paris on their Joshua Tree Tour for an motional performance of the album's closing track, "Mothers of the Disappeared." U2's Joshua Tree Tour will return to North America in September. - Billboard, 7/26/17...... Rounder Records announced on July 26 that Gregg Allman's final studio album, 
The classic lineup of the '70s pop/rock band The Flamin' Groovies has reunited for a new album called 
Singer/songwriter Michael Johnson, best known for the hit