Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on March 10th, 2014

The celebrity gossip site TMZ.com is reporting a sex tape made by the late "King of Late Night" Johnny Carson in the 1970s is being shopped around to private collectors. The tape's owner had approached the estate of Carson, who died in 2005, back in September offering up the footage for a price. The estate declined and threatened to sue if the footage was ever sold. The recording reportedly begins with Carson masturbating naked by a pool. And, apparently, the then-Tonight Show host was quite well-endowed. He is then in the recording by a woman with a bouffant hairdo. This first clip runs for about five minutes, then it cuts to a 20-minute sex scene in Carson's bedroom with a woman who is believed to be one of his four wives, but it is not clear which one. Carson divorced his second wife Joanne Copeland in 1972 and married his third Joanna Holland in the same year. - QMI Agency

Neil Young is reportedly preparing to reveal his long-awaited Pono digital music service and portable music player during a keynote speech at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Tex. on March 11. Pono, according to a press release, will consist of a digital music service (Pono Music) and 128GB portable device (PonoPlayer, which will sell for $399) capable of storing 1-2,000 high resolution songs. The PonoPlayer is described as a "purpose-built, portable, high-resolution digital-music player designed and engineered in a "no-compromise" fashion to allow consumers to experience studio master-quality digital music at the highest audio fidelity possible, bringing the true emotion and detail of the music, the way the artist recorded it, to life." In his book 2012 book Waging Heavy Peace, Young explained how Pono will help to "save the sound of music" and claims that he had emailed then Apple CEO Steve Jobs about Pono before Jobs' death last October. - Billboard

Paul McCartney called in to L.A. radio station KCSN on March 6 to personally thank its program director, Sky Daniels, for airplay of his latest album, New. "Paul's call was so thoughtful, I found myself fighting back tears," Daniels says. "He told us of how his friends all loved the station, and [that] they told him that KCSN was playing a number of songs from New and he simply wanted to say thanks." In the call-turned-extensive interview, McCartney discussed the emotional wave that the recent 50th anniversary of the Beatles' U.S. arrival had created in him; his appreciation for the multiple Grammy Awards that he recently won; and, how happy he is to have developed a "real band" with his longtime touring group of Brian Ray, Rusty Anderson, Wix Wickens and Abe Laboriel, Jr. KCSN is a listener-supported public radio station and a service of California State University. McCartney was in Los Angeles shooting a video for his next single from New, "Early Days." He also disclosed that he was excited to begin work on a new project: creating the music for a forthcoming animated film. - Billboard

Cable TV's HBO channel will air a new Bruce Springsteen documentary, Bruce Springsteen's High Hopes, on Apr. 4 at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT. Filmmaker Thom Zimny's project will chronicle the making of Springsteen's 18th studio album High Hopes, which debuted at No. 1 in 20 countries in January. There will be footage of studio sessions, rehearsals, the E Street Band on tour and interviews with Springsteen and Tom Morello, with whom Springsteen collaborated on the album. Zimny also directed the Springsteen-centric documentary The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town. Springsteen and the E Street Band return to the U.S. in April and May following an international trek that includes stops in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The E Street Band will be honored at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for musical excellence at the April 10 ceremony. - The Hollywood Reporter

Queen and its latest frontman Adam Lambert have announced a 19-date North American summer tour starting June 19 in Chicago. Queen and Lambert will also hit towns across Canada and the United States at arenas in Toronto, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Detroit and New York, before wrapping up July 20 in Washington, DC. The tour is presented by Live Nation. Queen and Lambert first performed together in May 2009 on an episode of American Idol (Lambert was runner-up on the show's eight season). They also rocked the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards along with several dates in Russia, Ukraine, Poland and London. Queen guitarist Brian May has hinted this could be the last time North America will see Queen live on this scale, saying "Let's rock those beautiful arenas JUST ONE MORE TIME!" in a press release announcing the tour. - Billboard

David Cassidy's laywer says a New York drunken-driving charge against his 1970s teen heartthrob client has been reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor and returned to a town court for resolution. Cassidy, 63, was pulled over in the town of Schodack and charged with driving while intoxicated in August, when he was in upstate New York for a horse racing meet in Saratoga Springs. The attorney, Lucas Mihuta, says Cassidy is currently completing an alcohol rehabilitation program after a January DWI arrest in Los Angeles. His New York charge was a felony because the Partridge Family singer has a 2011 driving-under-the-influence conviction in his home state of Florida. - AP

New Orleans legend Dr. John will be getting an all-star tribute in his hometown on May 3 with a lineup featuring Gregg Allman, Lucinda Williams, Widespread Panic, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Ryan Bingham, and Jimmie Vaughan, among others. "The Musical Mojo of Dr. John: A Celebration of Mac & His Music" takes place May 3 at the Saenger Theatre, located in the city's French Quarter. Other notable artists include Allen Toussaint, who produced John's seminal In the Right Place album, and soul legend Mavis Staples. Dr. John, whose real name is Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr., will take the stage with several of the special guests throughout the event, which is being filmed and recorded for future release. - Billboard

Ozzy Osbourne's seven-acre mansion in Buckinghamshire, UK reportedly suffered £300,000 of damage in the recent floods affecting parts of the UK, meaning that they will not be able to stay at the property for nine months. "It's been completely flooded," Osbourne said in an interview with The Mirror. "The rain has battered down the walls and seeped through everything. There is water everywhere. We've been told its going to cost £300,000 to repair but we can't even go about getting it fixed because it's going to take nine months to dry out. The place is ruined. If it's not one thing, it's the other." The Osbournes have already endured fire and burglary at the same property, and in 2003 he broke a vertebrae in his neck riding a quad bike in the grounds. - New Musical Express

David Bowie has revealed he will release two limited edition picture discs on Record Store Day on Apr. 19. A 7" picture disc of "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" will be available in the UK, while North American fans will be able to purchase the single "1984" on 7" picture disc. First released as a single in 1974, "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2014 with the new release set to come backed with "Farewell Speech," the live Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture Version, recorded at the final Ziggy Stardust concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in July 1973. Meanwhile, Bowie has also reportedly offered to write new music with Claudia Lennear, a former backing singer and star of Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet From Stardom. Lennear revealed that Bowie, with whom she was romantically linked in the 1970s, called her "out of the blue" to offer his services and that she intends to take him up on the proposal. - New Musical Express

Former Deep Purple vocalist Glenn Hughes has formed a new power trio "supergroup" featuring drummer Jason Bonham and 23-year-old newcomer guitarist-vocalist Andrew Watt. Dubbed California Breed, the group will release its self-titled debut album in the UK on May 19 via Frontiers Records. The album will be released in regular CD and CD/DVD Deluxe Edition formats. - Noble PR

John Travolta issued an apology on March 4 for mangling the pronunciation of Broadway actor Idina Menzel's name during the 86th Academy Awards show in Los Angeles on March 2. "I've been beating myself up all day. Then I thought... what would Idina Menzel say?," the Saturday Night Fever star said in a statement. "She'd say, 'Let it go, let it go!' Idina is incredibly talented and I am so happy Frozen took home two Oscars Sunday night!," he added. Travolta took the stage and introduced the star of "Rent" and "Wicked," but he seemed to say "Adele Dazeem" instead. Menzel seemed unperturbed by the flub as she sang out "Let It Go," from the animated film Frozen. An estimated 43 million people were watching, and social media has been mocking him relentlessly ever since, especially since he attended rehearsals. A Twitter account with the handle (at)adeladazeem went up immediately after the mistake and has almost 20,000 followers. On Facebook, a "Travolta-fier Name Generator," which butchers any name typed in, became immensely popular. - AP

Elton John hosted his annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party in West Hollywood, Calif., on March 2. Steven Tyler, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Heidi Klum, Quincy Jones, Whoopi Goldberg and Kim Kardashian were among the celebs taking part in Sir Elton's 22nd annual event, which raises funds for those afflicted with HIV and AIDS. "If Pharrell Williams doesn't win best song, then I'm (expletive) going home early," John bellowed to the crowd after Williams performed his nominated song "Happy." Williams didn't win, but thankfully for the crowd, the award was handed out late in the ceremony, making John's threat moot. Steven Tyler told a few bawdy jokes as he helped to auction off five nights in his Hawaiian getaway, which raised $100,000. Elton also got in on the auction act himself, taking crowd requests and playing a few of his hits on a piano that was auctioned off for $220,000. The evening raised $5.1 million for the foundation, according to organizers. - Billboard

Classic rock veterans the Doobie Brothers are collaborating with Zac Brown, Toby Keith, Chris Young and Love and Theft and more country acts for a new country tribute album. The Doobies' Tom Johnston, Patrick Simmons and John McFee gave a surprise performance of the new project for country radio programmers, media and industry VIPs in late February in Nashville onboard the General Jackson showboat. At the end of a four-song set that featured "Long Train Runnin,'" "China Grove," "Black Water" and "Listen to the Music," Sony Music Nashville chairman/CEO Gary Overton announced the album would be released later this year. In the past few years, the Doobie Brothers have developed increasingly strong ties to Nashville, and have even performed on the Grand Ole Opry. - Billboard

Filmmakers have shelved production on a movie about the life of Gregg Allman a week after a freight train collided into the production team and its equipment, killing 27-year-old crew member Sarah Jones and injuring seven others. Savannah (Ga.) Film Office director William Hammargren said on Feb. 27 film producers had called to tell him they were "shutting down production." The film office is a city government agency that works closely with filmmakers shooting in the Savannah area. Filming of the movie Midnight Rider, starring William Hurt as the Allman Brothers Band singer, was just getting started when crew members were struck Feb. 20. Investigators say the crew was on the tracks without the railroad's permission. - Billboard