Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on August 15th, 2017

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.