As part of its 50th anniversary celebration in 2018, Led Zeppelin announced on June 22 that its 1976 double-LP live set The Song Remains the Same will be reissued this fall in a "super deluxe box set" that will house the film and soundtrack together in the same package for the first time and include many other treats. The release will also feature a 28-page book of photos, stills, and an essay written by director and former Rolling Stone journalist Cameron Crowe, a replica of a Japanese program from 1977, a high-quality print of the original album cover, and more. The Song Remains The Same was the soundtrack to the band's 1976 concert film, which was filmed at New York's Madison Square Garden in 1973. A new edition of the album will be released on Sept. 7 in multiple formats. It will be available on CD, a four-vinyl LP set, and Blu-Ray, and include live versions of classic Zeppelin tracks such as "Dazed And Confused," "Stairway To Heaven," "Celebration Day" and more. - New Musical Express, 6/22/18...... 
It was "Tuesday Knight Fever" for the Bee Gees' Barry Gibb on June 26 as the music legend received a knighthood from Prince Charles during investitures at Buckingham Palace. "If it was not for my brothers, I would not be here," said the new Sir Barry, adding he hopes his late brothers Robin and Maurice Gibb, who passed away in 2012 and 2003 respectively, are proud of him. "If I had spent my whole life writing songs on my own, it would have meant something else altogether. I hope and pray that they are aware of what has happened and that they are proud. I believe in that," he said. The 71-year-old singer/songwriter, who was honoured for his services to music and charity, added that the honor was "a bit surreal" and that "it is a high award that your culture can give you and that is something I am enormously proud of." During his time with the Bee Gees, Barry Gibb helped the band become one of the most successful acts in pop music history, with a slew of global hits including "Night Fever," "Stayin Alive," "How Deep Is Your Love," "Tragedy" and "Words." - AP, 6/26/18...... Cher snuck into the Oriental Theatre in Chicago over the fourth weekend in June to catch a preview of the Broadway-bound musical "The Cher Show," and the diva has shared some opinions about its progress. Cher told the Chicago Tribune that while she really enjoyed the show overall, there were parts of the show that could have been better. "It needs work," she said. "I'm not supposed to say that, but I don't care." Though the 72-year-old pop icon admitted the show was "much, much better than I thought it would be," she felt that some parts of the show dragged a little bit more than she would have liked. "Sometimes, my mind was wandering... I think those are the parts that are going to get better." Cher says she thinks the show could be improved by making it feel like more of a spectacle, saying that one specific idea for a concert-style ending to the show could really work for the best. "I am pushing them to do three dance songs in a concert-style way at the end, a bit like they do in [the hit ABBA-based musical] 'Mamma Mia,'" she said. "I think the audience would like that." But she said was nevertheless still impressed: "I am the most critical person who ever drew breath. If they can impress me, they're doing good." "The Cher Show" is set to open June 28 at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago, before making it's Broadway opening at the Neil Simon Theater on Dec. 3. - Billboard, 6/26/18...... 
In an interview with the UK paper The Telegraph on June 25, the Kinks frontman Ray Davies revealed the Kinks are getting back together to record a new album, and may even play some live shows. "I think it's kind of an appropriate time to do it," Davies said, adding he had been working in the studio with his brother Dave Davies and band mate Mick Avory, which has led to the pair making amends. "The trouble is, the two remaining members -- my brother Dave and Mick -- never got along very well," Davies explained in a recent interview with Britain's Channel 4. "But I've made that work in the studio and it's fired me up to make them play harder, and with fire." The Davies siblings haven't performed together since 1996, as the band split up in the '90s due to rising tensions between band members. A new Kinks LP would be the followup to 1994's To The Bone, and feature songs Ray wrote during the split. Ray says he was inspired to get the band back together after seeing the Rolling Stones' recent successful UK tour. While he praised the Stones' "well-organized" comeback, he quipped that "the Kinks will probably be playing the local bar." - New Musical Express/Billboard, 6/26/18...... Country star Chris Stapleton has just been added to the lineup of 33rd Annual Farm Aid Concert, which in 2018 will take place for the first time at the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford, Conn., on Sept. 22. Stapleton -- who won Grammy Awards in February for best country album (From a Room: Volume 1), best country solo performance ("Either Way") and best country song ("Broken Halos") -- will share the bill with Stapleton -- who won Grammy Awards in February for best country album (From a Room: Volume 1), best country solo performance ("Either Way") and best country song ("Broken Halos") -- will share the bill with Farm Aid's guiding foursome of Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews, who will perform an acoustic set with Tim Reynolds. Tickets for Farm Aid 2018 will go on sale June 29 at 10 a.m. ET through Live Nation. Farm Aid, through its annual concerts, has raised more than $53 million for grants to help family farmers and to advocate on their behalf. - Billboard, 6/25/18...... The Beach Boys have scored their first ever No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Albums Chart with their new foray into orchestral music, The Beach Boys With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The album, released on June 8, has moved 5,000 copies so far, and also topped the Classical Crossover Albums chart for the week ending June 14, according to Nielsen Music. While this is the first time at No. 1 on both charts for the Beach Boys, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a frequent visitor to the tallies, collecting four top 10s on both lists in the past year, thanks to collaborations with the Beach Boys, Aretha Franklin, Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley. In other chart news, Fleetwood Mac has surpassed 2 million copies sold in the U.S. with their The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac compilation. The album was originally released in 2002 when it peaked at No. 12, and is one of the act's 11 top 40-charting efforts on the Hot 200 tally. - Billboard, June 22, 2018...... 
'70s artists Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris are among the recording, television, film and theater stars set to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2019, it was announced on June 26. Other recipents set to be honored in 2019 include The Lettermen, Michael Buble, Faith Hill and P!nk, and actors Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway. The Hollywood Walk of Fame receives hundreds of submissions each year for a personal star on Hollywood Boulevard, however only a few of those submissions are granted their own star as it is estimated that the construction and ceremony production costs exceed $30,000. The dates for the 2019 star ceremonies have yet to be announced. - Billboard, 6/26/18...... The Monkees have announced they are canceling the remaining four dates of their 20-city "The Monkees Present: The Mike & Micky Show Tour" due to a health issue for Mike Nesmith, starting with a June 21 scheduled show at the Keswick Thater in Philadelphia. "Michael Nesmith had a minor health issue today in advance of his tour date in Philadelphia tonight," the band said in a statement issued on June 21. "He visited a local medical facility and, although the issue was not serious, was advised to rest for the next week, so unfortunately the remaining four dates on The Monkees Present: The Mike & Micky Show tour have been postponed until a later date... Nesmith has been dismissed from the hospital and is traveling back to his home in Carmel Valley. He is in good spirits and thanks all the fans for their support and understanding. He looks forward to getting back on the stage again soon." The shows, which feature the duo of Nesmith and Micky Dolenz performing a mixture of well-known and "deep tracks" from the Monkees' catalog, will be rescheduled for January. - Billboard, 6/21/18...... Jackson family patriarch Joe Jackson, the father of Michael Jackson and the other famous Jackson siblings, is reportedly "on his deathbed" in a Las Vegas hospital as he battles terminal cancer at the age of 89. The music manager's family claims that their father "does not have long" left to live, but he has banned them from visiting after his condition took a nosedive earlier in June. "He's very very frail, he doesn't have long. The family needs to be by his bedside -- that's our only intention in his final days," Jermaine Jackson told the UK paper The Daily Mail. Although Jackson has battled illness for a lengthy period, he reportedly gave verbal instructions in recent days to stop his family from accessing his medical records or visiting him. Despite the request, he was eventually visited at the hospital by wife Katherine Jackson, daughters Rebbie and Joh'Vonnie, and granddaughter Yashi Brown. In 2017, Jackson was hospitalized after a car he was riding in was involved in an accident on the Las Vegas Strip. He was also hospitalized in 2015 after suffering a stroke while visiting Brazil. - NME, 6/22/18...... 
In an interview with a Las Vegas TV station after his June 25 performance at Bally's Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, Wayne Newton shared his thoughts about the string of burglaries that have taken place over the past few months at his Vegas home. Newton said his daughter ran into the alleged suspects of the second home invasion. "[My daughter] said 'Daddy, there's somebody in your dressing room,'" he explained. "So, I ran in to confront them." Newton's property, which is also home to his wife Kathleen and their daughter, was first broken into on June 3. Less than two weeks later, the house was robbed again when Newton and his family were coming home late at night. The intruders managed to escape the scene before the police arrived, according to the "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" singer: "I'm as angry as one could imagine, I have no doubt they will be caught because we have pictures." Police have released images of two suspects they believe to have been involved with the second robbery, but have not confirmed whether or not anything was stolen in that incident. - Billboard, 6/26/18...... Legendary hard rock drummer Vinnie Paul, who co-founded the metal band Pantera and also played with Damageplan and Hellyeah, died on the morning of June 23. He was 54. "Vincent Paul Abbott aka Vinnie Paul has passed away," reads a statement on the Pantera Facebook page. "Paul is best known for his work as the drummer in the bands Pantera and Hellyeah. No further details are available at this time. The family requests you please respect their privacy during this time." Along with his brother, "Dimebag" Darrell Paul, Paul (born Vincent Paul Abbott) formed Pantera in 1981. The group found mainstream success with second lead singer Phil Anselmo. Throughout its career, Pantera earned four Grammy nominations and charted nine albums on the Billboard Hot 200, including its 1994 album Far Beyond Driven, which debuted at No. 1 on the chart. Following Pantera's demise, the Texas-raised Abbott brothers formed Damageplan in 2003. The band was performing on Dec. 8, 2004, when Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed onstage during a concert in Columbus, Oh. Since 2006, Paul was the drummer for Hellyeah, a heavy metal supergroup that also includes vocalist Chad Gray and guitarist Tom Maxwell. Paul's passing was memorialized on Twitter by such rock stars as Paul Stanley, Alice Cooper, Zakk Wylde and Bret Michaels. - Billboard, 6/22/18.
Paul Simon announced on June 20 that he'll be finishing his current "Homeward Bound -- The Farewell Tour" at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, N.Y., on Sept. 22, in the borough where he spent most of his childhood. Simon will also play two additional shows in the Big Apple in the days before, at Madison Square Garden on Sept. 20 and 21. Tickets for the MSG shows are on sale now, and presale for the Corona Park show starts on June 25. - Billboard, 6/20/18...... Robert Plant, Michael McDonald, Modest Mouse and Kacey Musgraves will be among the 40-plus headliners at the 9th annual LouFest in St. Louis, Missouri's Forest Park on Sept. 8-9. Last year's LouFest drew more than 60,000 concertgoers. - Billboard, 6/19/18...... 
Former Free and Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the formation of Free with a new live album and video, Free Spirit: Celebrating The Music of Free. The album was recorded at London's historic Royal Albert Hall, a venue Rodgers has played many times before. "It was wonderful and received so well," he says. "There's a lot of love for the music, and I was very touched by the response." Free Spirit also includes a rendition of Free's signature song, "All Right Now," which he says he didn't perform after leaving Free in 1972 "until about 1996, when I was touring with Jason Bonham, and we were supporting the tribute record we had done to Muddy Waters." "It was so refreshing to play, and it has wound up staying in the set," Rodgers says. "I am amazed at the song and its longevity." In addition to CD/DVD, streaming and Blu-ray on June 29, Free Spirit will be released on vinyl on July 6, a medium Rodgers says he still listens to quite a bit today. I still have a lot of my old records from back in the day... There's a warmth that you can still feel. I do think that the ear detects this on some level," he says. - Billboard, 6/21/18...... Stevie Nicks has collaborated with country singer LeAnn Rimes on a new rendition of Rimes' classic song "Borrowed."" I stopped in my tracks and sat down on the floor and started to cry," Nicks says of the time she heard Rimes sing the song on The Tonight Show in 2013. "I understood what she was singing about. I understood that the pain was real... and I understood that it had happened to me. When the song ended, I called my assistant to tell her that one day, I would sing this song with LeAnn. It was our destiny." The Nicks/Rimes duet is available along with a number of other alternate songs of Rimes' on her new EP, Re-Imagined. - Billboard/Rolling Stone, 6/21/18...... Development has begun on a new Michael Jackson musical based on the pop star's life, the Jackson estate and Columbia Live Stage announced on June 19. An offcial title has yet to be determined for the stage show, which will be directed by Tony Award winner Christopher Wheeldon. The Broadway premiere of the show, which will feature a soundtrack full of Jackson's hits, is set for 2020. Meanwhile, an elephant that once lived at Jackson's Neverland Ranch briefly escaped its enclosure at a Florida zoo on June 17. The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens posted on Facebook that Ali the bull elephant wandered through a gate that was accidentally left open and wound up in a courtyard behind the giraffe and elephant barn. The zoo said guests weren't endangered and they used food to entice the elephant back into the enclosure. - Billboard/AP, 6/19/18...... 
Promoting her new ABBA-inspired movie Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again! on CBS's The Late Late Show with James Corden on June 19, Cher joined host James Corden for a game of "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts," in which guests are asked difficult questions or eat things that most people would never want on their plate. Asked if she "could say one nice thing about Pres. Donald Trump," Cher hesitated for a few seconds, then said "No, I can't think of a single nice thing to say about him." Then, Cher nibbled on a piece of a cow's tongue to fulfill her obligation. Meanwhile, the soundtrack for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again has been given a release date of July 13, a week before the film hits theaters in the US. It features a duet of "Fernando" between Cher and Andy Garcia, as well as other stars including Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried and Pierce Brosnan singing such ABBA hits as "Waterloo" and "When I Kissed the Teacher." Cher will play a new character in the movie. - Billboard, 6/20/18...... In other ABBA-related news, the Swedish quartet has shared definitive proof that they are currently recording together after announcing in April that they'd recorded their first new material in 35 years. ABBA posted a pic on their #abbaofficial Twitter account showing Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad recording together with a caption "...in RMV Studio Stockholm, recording the two new songs! Release end of this year. ??" ABBA are set to reveal both songs -- "I Still Have Faith In You" and another new song - on a TV special in November, ahead of a "virtual" hologram ABBA tour in 2019. A spokesperson for the band has denied rumours of a Glastonbury set in 2019. - New Musical Express, 6/18/18...... The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced it will be teaming with NBC-based Wilshire Studios to develop a new documentary series that will explore the artistic and cultural significance of some of the world's greatest rock 'n' roll legends. The current plan will be to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame open its collection of archival materials and artifacts and invite an acclaimed director to explore the impact of their favorite rock artist on their work and the cultural landscape as a whole. "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is such an amazing brand to be able to partner with," said BJ Levin, Senior VP of Development at Wilshire Studios. "Their wealth of untapped research material and resources will allow this series to stand among some of the great music doc series." While the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's annual induction ceremony has been televised on HBO, Amazon will stream this year's induction to international audiences beginning on July 1. - The Hollywood Reporter, 6/18/18...... 
After announcing a new double A-side single on Instagram on June 19, Paul McCartney issued a press release on June 20 announcing that his new album, called Egypt Station, will be released on Sept. 7 on Capitol Records. Named after one of his paintings, Egypt Station will be Macca's 17th solo effort and comes as welcome news for fans who have been waiting for new music from the former Beatle for almost five years. "Egypt Station starts off at the station on the first song and then each song is like a different location," McCartney noted. "So it gave us some idea to base all the song around that. I think of it as a dream location that the music emanates from." The two new singles, "I Don't Know," and "Come On To Me," indicate that Egypt Station could contain head banging rock, as well as heartfelt ballads. Sir Paul debuted a live version of "Come On to Me" in mid-June at the Philharmonic Pub in Liverpool. Both singles, along with the rest of the 14-track album, were produced by Greg Kurstin and recorded in L.A, London, and Sussex. - Billboard, 6/20/18...... In other Beatles-related news, writer and cartoonist Carol Tyler has just released a new Beatles-themed book Fab 4 Mania. The book is a joyous voyage back to the years when the band conquered America, complete with Tyler's thoughts and drawings from 1965 of seeing them in concert. It also features an introduction from Hunter Davies, author of the 1968 Fab Four tome The Beatles: The Authorised Biography. - Billboard, 6/19/18...... A private jet once owned by Elvis Presley that has sat on a runway in New Mexico for nearly four decades is back on the auction block. The plane, adorned with gold-tone woodwork, red velvet seats and red shag carpet has returned the market after its current owner bought it in 2017 for $430,000. It was once owned by Elvis and his father, Vernon Presley, and has been privately owned for 36 years and sitting on a tarmac in Roswell, N.M. The auction house IronPlanet is accepting online bids for the plane until July 27. - Billboard, 6/18/18...... 
Elvis Costello announced on June 19 that he'll kick off a 20-date North American tour this fall on Nov. 2 in Bethlehem, Penn., in support of his new album with his backing band The Imposters. The tour, called "Look Now and Then... It's Elvis Costello & The Imposters," will also visit such major markets as Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Memphis, St. Louis, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, and wrap on Dec. 4 in Vancouver, B.C. While the new album's release date and official title have yet to be announced, details are "imminent," according to Concord Records. It will be Costello's first LP since 2010's National Ransom. - Billboard, 6/19/18...... Actor Peter Fonda apologized on June 20 for a late-night Twitter rant in which he suggested Pres. Donald Trump's 12-year-old son Barron Trump should be ripped from "his mother's arms and put in a cage with pedophiles" in reaction to Pres. Trump's new policy of separating migrant children from their parents on the U.S.-Mexico border. "I tweeted something highly inappropriate and vulgar about the president and his family in response to the devastating images I was seeing on television," Fonda said in the statement, released by both his manager and his publicist. "Like many Americans, I am very impassioned and distraught over the situation with children separated from their families at the border, but I went way too far. It was wrong and I should not have done it. I immediately regretted it and sincerely apologize to the family for what I said and any hurt my words have caused." In another tweet, the Easy Rider star suggested people opposed to the border policy should track down the addresses of federal agents and "surround their homes in protest," adding: "We should find out what schools their children go to and surround the schools in protest." Pres. Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that Fonda is "clearly a sick individual" who behaved "like a bully and a coward," and called on Sony Pictures Classics to stop the release of its film Boundaries, in which Fonda has a small role. The company condemned Fonda's tweets as "abhorrent" but said the film would be released as planned. - AP, 6/21/18...... In related news, Bruce Springsteen broke from his usual script during his "Springsteen on Broadway" show on June 19 to condemn the "inhumane" treatment of thousands of children who have been separated from their families by the strict immigration policies set up by the Trump administration. He used his show to particularly call out "senior people in government" who he believed blasphemed in suggesting that they had a duty to separate families. "For 146 shows, I have played pretty much the same set every night. Tonight demands something different," Springsteen said. He then played his 1995 protest song "The Ghost of Tom Joad," which over the last ten years has featured guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, transforming the acoustic song into an impassioned call to activism. The night before, Springsteen performed onstage during the Grand Re-Opening of Asbury Lanes in his hometown of Asbury Park, N.J., a 1960s bowling alley that his been refurbished into a music venue. The Boss jammed for about 30 minutes with Tangiers Blues Band on such blues-rock classics as "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu," "I Just Wanna Make Love to You," "Down the Road Apiece" and "Twist and Shout." "It's been a joy -- watching the rebirth of Asbury," Springsteen told the crowd. - Billboard/AP, 6/20/18...... 
Archaeologists from Binghamton University's Public Archaeology Facility have recently conducted a five-day dig at the site of the original 1969 Woodstock music festival on Max Yasgur's old farm about 80 miles (128 kilometers) north of New York City, where The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker and Jimi Hendrix wowed the crowds 49 years ago. "The overall point of this investigation is to kind of define the stage space," said project director Josh Anderson, kneeling beside a hole that showed evidence of a fence that kept 400,000 fans from the stage area. "We can use this as a reference point," Anderson added. "People can stand on that and look up at the hill and say, 'Oh, this is where the performers were. Jimi Hendrix stood here and played his guitar at 8:30 in the morning.'" "This is a significant historic site in American culture, one of the few peaceful events that gets commemorated from the 1960s," added Wade Lawrence, director of The Museum at Bethel Woods. He said the archeologists' work will help the museum plan interpretive walking routes in time for the concert's 50th anniversary next year. The excavation revealed some non-mind blowing artifacts: parts of old aluminum can pull tabs, bits of broken bottle glass, and possibly the spot where a chain-link fence on the side of the stage area met the wooden "Peace Fence" that ran in front of the stage. Now they can match concert photos to a specific spot in the field. That could help them estimate where the corners of the stage were 49 years ago. "There's just something about this place that -- and I'm not the only one -- that draws people here," 67-year-old Woodstock veteran Charles Maloney said as he stood by the plaque. "I mean, this area here could have 200 people. And you can still hear the silence." - AP, 6/21/18...... John McElrath, a cofounder and former member of the '60s rock group The Swingin' Medallions, died on June 17, after a battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 77. McElrath was the group's keyboardist and one of the vocalists, and though he was no longer performing with the band, his two sons had joined the group over the years. The Swingin' Medallions' "Double Shot of My Baby's Love," released in 1966, climbed briefly into Top 10 on the Billboard charts, and it remains popular today. A memorable part about the record is the background "party noise" that duplicated the sound of fraternity parties the band would play on weekends while its members were still in college. The band made 2,000 copies of the song and sold them at parties. A copy found its way into the hands of a disc jockey in Birmingham, Ala., and when a national label picked it up, the band was on the brink of a natinal breakthrough. Some radio stations wouldn't play the record because of the phrase "worst hangover that I ever had" so another version was made. The announcement of McElrath's death came as the current incarnation of the group was scheduled to perform in Sandy Springs, Ga., on June 17.
Steve Miller, currently in the midst of his second co-headlining summer tour with Peter Frampton, has announced he and Frampton will release a live album of jams that they perform together during the tour. Miller says that every show is being recorded and that the two are "putting a record together now" that will showcase their performances of songs from such blues icons asd Freddie King, Elmore James, K.C. Douglas, Otis Rush, and more. "Jamming together has turned out to be a real interesting thing," Miller says. "We're just having fun. It's an added bonus to the tour, just a really, really great musical combination... [The record] is pretty much everything we've jammed from last year up through this year. ... As we go on we'll add more tunes." Meanwhile, Miller says he's been going through his vaults for unreleased material to mark the 50th anniversary of his first two albums. "We're trying to gather all the outtakes and interesting bits that weren't released and songs that were recorded that were never released, and we found some really good stuff," he says. - Billboard, 6/15/18...... Neil Diamond was honored with the Johnny Mercer Award during the 49th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner at New York City's Marriott Marquis Hotel on June 14. Diamond, who was officially inducted into the Hall in 1984, closed the with a rousing, extended rendition of "Sweet Caroline," even though the 77-year-old has announced he has retired from touring due to being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Diamond barely spoke at the event, where Kool and the Gang, John Mellencamp, Alan Jackson and Jermaine Dupri were inducted into the SHOF class of 2018. - AP, 6/15/18...... Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman has released a new LP of what he describes as "cosmic-influenced" ringtones. Cosmic Ringtones & Sonic Realms - Your Universe Is Calling is a 29-track album conceived and produced by Holzman and recorded by his son Adam Holzman, a known keyboardist and synthesizer artist. While the LP is available for download on all streaming services, the CD release contains liner notes that detail the origin story for each of the tracks. The cosmos-inspired titles include everything from the straightforward "The Big Bang" and "String Theory" to the whimsical "Primordial Cosmic Soup" and "Pluto Sheds a Tear." In the 1960s, as Holzman was discovering and signing such bands as the Doors and Bread to his fledgling record label, he released the groundbreaking album series Authentic Sound Effects in the 1960s. - Billboard, 6/15/18...... Paul McCartney will reportedly be joining late night talk show host James Corden in a new episode of Corden's popular "Carpool Karaoke" series. Sir Paul's episode will see the pair go on a Beatles tour in Liverpool. The series has previously featured a wide range of artists including Christina Aguilera, Foo Fighters, Linkin Park and Pink. While in Liverpool, McCartney also performed a secret gig for fans at Liverpool's Philharmonic pub. - New Musical Express, 6/13/18...... 
Willie Nelson issued a statement on June 14 denouncing Pres. Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy that has resulted in the separation of hundreds of migrant children from their parents at the southern U.S. border. "What's going on at our southern border is outrageous," the Texas native wrote. "Christians everywhere should be up in arms. What happened to 'Bring us your tired and weak and we will make them strong?' This is still the promise land." The reference to "promise land" in the statement is a reference to the David Lynn Jones written song "Living in the Promiseland," which appeared on Nelson's 1986 The Promiseland album. Nelson is among a growing chorus of artists, activists, religious figures and politicians who are decrying the zero tolerance policy. - Billboard, 6/15/18...... Barry Manilow was forced to put the debut of his "Manilow Live -- The Hits Come Home" Las Vegus run on the third weekend in June on hold on June 14 after the 74-year old star was admitted to a local hospital and prescribed antibiotics. Manilow is scheduled to be released from the hospital in the next few days and is planning to resume his Vegas series on June 21. "Our new show is ready, we're all ready, and we were all looking forward to tonight," he tweeted shortly after his diagnosis. - Billboard, 6/15/18...... Speaking of Las Vegas, lawmen there are searching for two suspected burglars at Vegas icon Wayne Newton's home several miles southeast of the Las Vegas Strip after Newton and his wife Kathleen scared away the men as the arrived home after a June 14 Newton performance at Bally's hotel-casino. The Newtons told police the intruders fled when as they arrived at their their 20-acre home and believe that home surveillance video will help police identify the suspects. The also said they've bolstered security at the estate. The Newtons moved to their current house in 2013 following the bankruptcy sale of their nearby 40-acre estate, Casa de Shenandoah. The gilded property, which features gardens, pools, stables for Newton's Arabian horses, is now a tourist attraction and museum. - AP, 6/14/18...... The Def Leppard and Journey co-headlining summer tour hit New York's Madison Square Garden on June 13. After openers Journey performed their '80s anthems "Any Way You Want It," "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" and "Faithfully" with current frontman Arnel Pineda on vocals, Def Leppard came out swinging with "Rocket," following up with hits including "Let's Get Rocked" and "Armageddon It" during their 90-minute set. The band also covered the David Essex hit "Rock On," and ended the night with "Rock of Ages" and "Photograph." - Billboard, 6/14/18...... Paul Simon has scored his first entry on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Album Sales chart with a remixed version of his acclaimed 1986 LP Graceland. Graceland: The Remixes reinterprets all 11 of the original album's tracks, including "Al," by Groove Armada, as well as cuts by Paul Oakenfold, Sharam, Thievery Corporation and Joris Voorn. The original Graceland reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 200 in Apr. 1987, won the Grammy Award for album of the year and spun off three Hot 100 hits: "You Can Call Me Al" (No. 23), the title cut (No. 81) and "The Boy in the Bubble" (No. 86). - Billboard, 6/14/18....... 
The B-52s are in the midst of an extensive North American tour which was launched in May to celebrate their 40th anniversary. The "tacky little dance band from Athens, Ga.," as the band calls themselves, are playing arenas, amphitheaters and stadiums, joined by another LGBTQ pioneer, Boy George. The band formed in 1976, with singer Cindy Wilson's older brother, guitarist/principal songwriter Ricky Wilson (who died in 1985), and his best friend, drummer-guitarist Keith Strickland (who retired from touring with the band in 2012). Rounding out the lineup are Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson. Four of the band's five original members did, in fact, identify as LGBTQ: Ricky, Schneider and Strickland as gay men, and Pierson, who was involved with a man until the early 2000s, is now married to a woman. But Schneider says they didn't set out to explicitly write queer anthems, as later acts like Erasure would. "We just did our own thing," he says now. "I guess subconsciously we were trying to say something. But it was sort of stream of consciousness, it was so out there." - Billboard, 6/14/18...... Fleetwood Mac has been added to the lineup of the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival, set for Sept. 21 and 22 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. "It is an honor to be performing at the iHeartRadio Music Festival for our very first time," Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks said in a statement. "The beauty of an event like this is that it is a true representation of the power of radio. It's an opportunity for artists across all genres to share one stage and what we all love most -- music!" The band will be marking its first time playing together as a new band since Lindsey Buckingham's exit in April, and will be joining previously announced headliners including Lynyrd Skynyrd, Justin Timberlake, Carrie Underwood, Mariah Carey, Imagine Dragons, Panic! at the Disco and Kelly Clarkson at the two-day event. - Billboard, 6/12/18...... David Byrne announced on June 12 that he'll launch a lengthy 2018 UK and Ireland arena tour this fall with cities to include Leeds, Glasgow, Dublin, Birmingham, Cardiff, London, Brighton and Manchester. "We'll be doing some new songs, and many others that will, I assume, be familiar," the former Talking Heads frontman said on his current production. "I'm excited. This is the most ambitious show I've done since the shows that were filmed for Stop Making Sense, so fingers crossed." - New Musical Express, 6/12/18...... Barbra Streisand announced on June 11 that she's inked a new content deal with the streaming giant Netflix, bringing 6 of her classic TV shows and a special edition of her 1976 film 
The Allman Brothers Band released a four-disc set of rarities on June 15 entitled 
D.J. Fontana, who acheived rock 'n' roll immortality as Elvis Presley's first and longtime drummer, died in his sleep in Nashville, Tenn., after suffering complications from breaking his hip in 2016. He was 87. Mr. Fontana, a member of the Rock Hall of Fame, was the last surviving member of Elvis' original core of musicians. He met Presley and the others on the Louisiana Hayride, a popular and influential radio and TV country music program based in Shreveport. Staff drummer Fontana asked to join his group for a session broadcast in October 1954. A regional act at the time, the 19-year-old Presley had been recording and touring since the summer with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, the musicians Sun Records founder Sam Phillips brought in after Elvis turned up at the Memphis, Tennessee-based label's studio. Fontana was there for Presley's first wave of success, from such hit singles as "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock" to his increasingly frenzied live shows and hip-shaking appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and other TV programs. He played on many soundtracks -- and was occasionally seen on camera -- for Presley's '50s and '60s movies. He was on the "comeback" Christmas TV special of 1968 that featured Presley and fellow musicians jamming on a tiny stage before a studio audience, with Fontana keeping time on a guitar case. Widely cited for reviving Presley's career, that show was his first live performance in years and the last time Moore and Fontana worked with Elvis, who died in 1977. In 2000, Mr. Fontana played on Paul McCartney's cover of an early Presley hit, "That's All Right." - AP, 6/14/18...... Nick Knox, the former drummer of the band The Cramps, has died at the age of 60. Knox, born Nicholas Stephanoff, had played in the Electric Eels with Cramps frontman John D. Morton before becoming a member of the influential punk outfit. - New Musical Express, 6/16/18.
Paul Simon treated fans to a performance of his 1970 Simon & Garfunkel smash 
Speaking of 50th anniversaries, Led Zeppelin have posted on their offical Twitter account that they have reunited to work on a new book about the band to mark the 50th anniversary of their formation. John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are pictured with the official announcement, with Plant holding a draft copy of a new book they've been working on together. "
As the new Beach Boys-authorized release 
Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist/vocalist Danny Kirwan died in London on June 8 of as yet undisclosed causes. He was 68. Kirwan joined Fleetwood Mac in 1968 and contributed to several albums, including Then Play On, Blues Jam at Chess, Kiln House, 
Puerto-Rican singer-songwriter José Feliciano will be performing the U.S. national anthem for 20 new U.S. citizens at a naturalization ceremony at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington on June 14, Flag Day. The event will also commemorate the 50th anniversary of Feliciano's performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" during game five of the 1968 World Series at Detroit's Tiger Stadium, which ignited a controversy that reflected the tense atmosphere in the United States in the era of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement, after Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated earlier that year. Boos could be heard in the audience, and many television viewers called in to NBC to complain about Feliciano's "hippie" version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." During the naturalization ceremony on June 14, Feliciano will speak to immigrants from 17 countries gathered to officially become Americans, and then sing "The Star-Spangled Banner." Feliciano, who immigrated to the U.S. with his family from Puerto Rico at age 5, will also donate the Concerto Candelas guitar he played during the recording of his Top 5 breakout hit "Light My Fire" to the Smithsonian, along with other items from his personal archives. "I could be a sarcastic bastard and say it's too little too late," he says, referring to the initial reaction to his "Star-Spangled Banner." "But I'm grateful to the Smithsonian. This is a beautiful thing." Feliciano will also be among the headliners at a free concert in New York City's Central Park on Aug. 12. - Billboard, 6/6/18...... Olivia Newton-John and country singer Hunter Hayes are set to surprise two couples in the Disney series Fairy Tale Weddings, which returns on cable TV's Freeform channel on June 11 at 8:00 p.m. EDT. The new episodes follow 11 new couples with hidden-camera engagements, fairytale weddings and everything in between filmed at different Disney locations around the world. One couple, Christina and Jarrod, tie the knot at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, with Newton-John -- a cancer research crusader after being diagnosed with breast cancer herself -- performing at their ceremony. - Billboard, 6/4/18...... Attorneys for concert promoter AEG have filed a motion to dismiss Ozzy Osbourne's anti-trust lawsuit challenging the concert promoter's block-booking policy, which requires artists playing the O2 arena in London to also play Staples Center in Los Angeles. According to a recent filing from AEG, Osbourne doesn't have standing to sue the company over a proposed Staples Center commitment letter from earlier in 2018 because the rocker was not a party to the agreement, and the deal was between AEG and Live Nation. Osbourne's attorney Dan Wall counters that argument is "flat wrong." "The Staples Center Commitment letter binds the artist," Wall says. "They're trying to have it both ways and say the letter is signed on an artist's behalf, but (also say) the artist will be bound by it and can't do anything if they think it's unlawful." - Billboard, 6/4/18...... 
Cable TV's A&E channel will air a new David Cassidy documentary, David Cassidy: The Last Session, on June 11, and in the doc Cassidy is reportedly quoted as saying he was still drinking in the last years of his life and he did not have dementia, which was reported at the time. Cassidy, according to People magazine, called producers of the documentary after he fell ill last year and told them that he had liver disease. In the recorded conversation, the former teen idol said there was no sign of dementia and it was "complete alcohol poisoning," adding that he had lied by telling friends and family he had stopped drinking. "He wanted to be honest once and for all," says documentary producer John Marks. Cassidy died of organ failure in Nov. 2017 at age 67, and his late father, actor Jack Cassidy also had a well publicized battle with alcoholism. - AP, 6/6/2018...... Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, two co-founders of the seminal '60s country/rock band The Byrds, have announced they will embark on a 50th anniversary tour commemorating the release of their influential 1968 LP Sweetheart of the Rodeo on July 24 at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. The tour will also visit Saratoga, Calif. (7/29), Albany, NY (9/18) and Hopewell, Va. (9/20) before wrapping at the Akron Civic Center in Akron, Oh. on Oct. 3. "On March 9, 1968, Roger McGuinn and I along with many fantastic musicians began recording the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album at Columbia Studios in Nashville," Chris Hillman said in a statement. "It was truly a pivotal moment in our lives taking a turn toward the music we always felt a strong kinship with. We are honored that it has left a strong, long lasting impression on country and rock music." With new member Gram Parsons, the Byrds' 1968 album melded country and rock to bring about a new Nashville sound. As pioneers of the blended genre, Hillman and McGuinn will share stories of how the album came together while onstage. Roger McGuinn adds that he and Hillman "are looking forward to taking the fans through the back pages of the recording," and that the concert "will include songs that led up to that groundbreaking trip to Nashville and all the songs from that album." The duo will be joined on tour by country artist Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives. To warm up for the tour, McGuinn and Hillman played a short set at Stuart's Late Night Jam on June 6 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. - Billboard, 6/4/18...... 
Neil Diamond will be the recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award during the 2018 Songwriters Hall of Fame gala at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York on June 14. The award is named for the "Moon River" tunesmith who co-founded the SHOF in 1969 with with music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. Ahead of the ceremony, Diamond reflected on one of his biggest hits, 1969's "Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed So Good)." "That song was like a lucky gift. I needed it desperately in my career," Diamond says. "I was about to go hungry. I had a new baby. There were all kinds of things that were counting on this record, and I just had an hour to do it. It was the day before the session, and that beautiful girl came to me and I was a happy guy. You never know with a song; I never knew with 'Sweet Caroline' it would become such a beloved song." Also among the honorees at the gala will be Robert "Kool" Bell, Ronald Bell, George Brown & James "JT" Taylor, John Mellencamp and Bill Anderson. - Billboard, 6/5/18...... With June being Gay Pride Month, Carole King is one of the artists requested by Billboard to write a "love letter" to the LGBTQ community. The legendary singer/songwriter says that she is "old enough to remember friends growing up in the last century who thought being L or G or B or T or Q made them 'the other' not only to others but to themselves. Sadly, in this century, too many people (who may themselves be suffering) are turning to fear, hatred, and blame rather than to love." King continued: "After years of fighting for AIDS research and against arbitrary barriers defining "normal," you, and consequently all of us, have come a long way.... My hope for the future is that every being will live in harmony, peace, joy, love and light." - Billboard, 6/5/18...... Music producer/composer/arranger Giles Martin, the son of the late Beatles producer George Martin, has been tapped by the Aussie alternative rock outfit INXS to be their executive music producer. In that role, Martin will have creative reins on all audio aspects of INXS's plans, which include musicals and movies and the reissue of their studio albums, which will be repackaged, remixed and expanded for release through Universal Music Group (UMG) in partnership with Petrol Records. Martin first collaboarated with INXS in 1994, and has worked with the band across several of their releases, including a greatest hits compilation and a Dolby Atmos mix of their classic Kick album for its 30th anniversary reissue in 2017. Formed in Perth in 1977, INXS has racked up six U.K. Top 10 albums and five U.S. Top 20 albums, a BRIT Award (in 1991 for best international group) and, in 2001, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. - Billboard, 6/5/18...... 
Queen is curently occupying three of the top 20 spots on Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart for the week ending June 2, thanks to streaming and sales gains for the band's catalog after the May 18 arrival of the first trailer for its upcoming biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody. The film's namesake song has risen to No. 8 from No. 10 on the chart, drawing 4.7 million U.S. streams and sold 4,000 downloads in the tracking week. "Rhapsody" is followed by "Another One Bites the Dust" (No. 13; 3.3 million streams, 2,000 sold) and "We Will Rock You" (No. 17; 2.7 million streams, 3,000 sold), with all three songs appearing in the trailer. Additionally, the band's Greatest Hits LP, originally released in October 1981, has jumped to No. 2 from No. 4 on the Hard Rock Albums chart. Bohemian Rhapsody, starring Rami Malek as late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, is set to premiere Nov. 2 in the U.S. - Billboard, 6/1/18...... After two TV-movies based on Dolly Parton songs aired on NBC, streaming giant Netflix has picked up an eight-episode scripted Parton anthology with the same premise. The as yet untitled anthology will see each episode based on a song by the country music icon. Parton will serve as singer-songwriter, exec producer and will also appear in the series. "As a songwriter, I have always enjoyed telling stories through my music," Parton said in a statement. "I am thrilled to be bringing some of my favorite songs to life with Netflix. We hope our show will inspire and entertain families and folks of all generations, and I want to thank the good folks at Netflix and Warner Bros. TV for their incredible support." - The Hollywood Reporter, 6/4/18...... Prince fans will celebrate what would have been the music legend's 60th birthday with a three-day music festival beginning on June 7 in Henderson, Minn., where the iconic movie Purple Rain was filmed. The festival will include a bus tour of Purple Rain filming locations, a screening of the 1984 movie and live music. In honor of Prince's 60th birthday, 60 butterflies will be released at the event, and members of Prince's family will be present. Meanwhile, another copy of Prince's super rare "The Black Album" has surfaced. The album was supposed to be released in 1987 as The Funk Bible, Prince's 16th album. However, the singer had a "spiritual epiphany" and demanded all 500,000 copies be destroyed, as he said the content was "evil." Prince later gave permission for it to be released on CD and cassette -- but never vinyl. Five vinyl copies surfaced in the States in 2017, and now another has appeared in Canada, after a Canadian former employee of Columbia Records' pressing plant held onto one of the records. The owner has listed the record online on Discogs.com for $27,500, and a pristine edition of the album once sold for $42,298. In more Prince news, sources close to the investigation of his 2016 death from an accidental drug overdose have revealed that the pop star often "videotaped himself having sex with lots of his lovers and was quite kinky in his porn tastes." "The evidence is in his vaults and on the computers seized by police," says the source, who stressed that none of the material was illegal. The music legend's porn preferences were described as "wild" by another source, based on the search history and downloads on laptops taken from Prince's home. "Cops had enough respect for Prince that they didn't want to mar his legacy by revealing he was a secret sex-tape and porn addict!" the insider claimed.- AP/RadarOnline.com, 6/3/18...... 
James Taylor and Sheryl Crow's co-headlining summer tour hit a jam-packed Hollywood Bowl on May 31, with Taylor stepping onstage to a standing ovation -- one of several throughout the evening. Centering on well-known entries in his repertoire, including "Fire & Rain," "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)," "Handyman," "Sweet Baby James," Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" and "You've Got a Friend, Taylor also took the audience all the way back to 1968 with "Something in the Way She Moves" -- the song he auditioned for Paul McCartney and George Harrison before he signed with Apple Records. Earlier in the evening, Taylor joined Crow onstage for a rousing rendition of Crow's hit "Everyday Is a Winding Road," with Crow joining Taylor during his encore for duets of "Mockingbird" and "Close Your Eyes." Taylor and his band will next head to Sacramento (6/10), Portland, Ore. (6/12) and Seattle (6/13) before Bonnie Raitt rejoins the tour for seven shows beginning in St. Paul, Minnesota (6/22). - Billboard, 6/1/18...... Actor Bill Phipps, a prolific character actor who starred in several sci-fi movies of the 1950s and provided the voice of Prince Charming in the Disney classic Cinderella, died on May 31 at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica after a battle with lung cancer. He was 96. His other roles include a servant to Marlon Brando's Antony in Julius Caesar (1954), the French Impressionist painter Emile Bernard in Kirk Douglas' Lust for Life (1956) and the old man Quentin in Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993). Mr. Phipps left show business in the late 1960s to live in Maui but returned to portray Theodore Roosevelt in the 1976 ABC miniseries Eleanor and Franklin, winner of 11 Emmy Awards. He then reprised the role in a commercial for Maxwell House coffee. He also showed up on TV shows like The Twilight Zone (the 1960 episode "The Purple Testament"), Perry Mason, Rawhide, 77 Sunset Strip, Gunsmoke, F Troop, Batman, The Virginian and Mannix. - The Hollywood Reporter, 6/3/18.
Former The Monkees members Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz will kick off their "The Monkees Present The Mike & Micky Show Tour" in Arizona on June 1. Both Dolenz and Nesmith said the tour developed out of a mutual friendship and respect for each other that began early in the Monkees' career and has lasted through the years. "I've always been a fan of his and he's been a fan of mine," Dolenz says. "We always got along great creatively. (We have) similar tastes in music and style and stuff like that. I've had an enormous amount of respect for him as a musician, singer and songwriter." Nesmith says that he and Dolenz always "got on so well." "He could make me laugh hard and I could make him laugh hard. So we were playmates on that level," he said. "The Mike & Micky Show Tour" is also scheduled to hit California, Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, and includes two dates in Canada. Nesmith, meanwhile, has just released his new memoir, 
A career-spanning documentary focusing on former The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive member Randy Bachman had its world premiere at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto, Canada, in May and will air on Canada's CBC Documentary Channel later in 2018. Incorporating numerous present-day interviews with Bachman's family, management, and fellow musicians, the documentary touches on everything from Bachman's childhood to his various rock bands -- The Guess Who, BTO, Brave Belt, Bachman-Turner -- and solo work. Bachman says it's "pretty strange" seeing his life condensed into a 75-minute documentary. "It's like your dad doing a surprise and inviting out all your friends and showing all your old family home movies of going on vacation and the clothes you wore, and then have all your friends complaining about what a poor playmate you were or what a brat you were," he says. A number of musicians who cite Bachman as an influence, including Neil Young, Paul Shaffer, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Alex Lifeson and Peter Frampton, also contribute to the documentary. Bachman is also promoting his new album, 
Graham Nash is prepping a 2-disc compilation of his solo material and work with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young entitled 
Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page has persuaded authorities in the affluent Holland Park area of West London to postpone a decision on pop star Robbie Williams' plan for an underground gym and swimming pool. Page and the former Take That boy band member have been feuding for years over Williams' plans to extend his home, which Page says could damage his own 19th-century Gothic-revival mansion, Tower House, which features ornate tiling, plasterwork and stained glass. Page says Tower House could be damaged by vibrations from construction work. Page says he's careful to only play acoustic guitars in the home, which he bought in 1972 from actor Richard Harris, however Williams counters the construction work "will result in absolute minimal impact" to neighboring properties. At a meeting on May 30, the Kensington and Chelsea Council's planning committee decided not to grant Williams planning permission until it received further legal assurances. Page said he was "really pleased at the outcome" and the council's consideration for the house. "I'm only the custodian to pass it on to the next person in the same way I bought it from Richard Harris," he said. - AP, 5/30/18...... Australian guitar legend Phil Emmanuel died on May 24 in the Australian town of Parkes after a sudden asthma attack. He was 65. Revered for his versatility on the electric guitar, Emmanuel shared a stage with the greats of country, jazz and rock 'n' roll over 50-year-plus career, from Dolly Parton to Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette, Dire Straits, The Shadows, Midnight Oil, Jimmy Barnes, Carlos Santana and many more. The 2000 Sydney Olympic Games provided a career highlight for Emmanuel and his younger brother and regular bandmate Tommy Emmanuel as they performed at the Closing Ceremony, and the pair reunited again in late 2010 for a 50th anniversary tour. In 1991, Phil was inducted into Australia's Country Music Hall of Fame. - Billboard, 5/28/18...... Former US astronaut Alan Bean, who was the fourth man to walk on the Moon, has died in a Houston, Tex. hospital at the age of 86, his family has said. Mr. Bean also commanded the second Skylab crew in 1973 and went on in retirement to become an accomplished artist, producing paintings that were inspired by space. A former US Navy test pilot, Mr. Bean was selected by NASA as a trainee in 1963 and went into space twice, the first time in Nov. 1969 as the lunar module pilot on the Apollo 12 Moon-landing mission. He later described how complex and risky the mission had been: "It was more science fiction to us, I think, than it was to the average public." Mr. Bean retired from NASA in 1981 and carved a successful career as an artist. His paintings, inspired by space travel, featured lunar boot prints as well as small pieces of his mission patches which were stained by Moon dust. The three astronauts who preceded Alan Bean to the moon's surface were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11 in July 1969, and Charles Conrad who was also on the Apollo 12 mission. Of the four men, only Aldrin is still alive, now aged 88. Mr. Bean is survived by his wife Leslie, a sister and two children from a previous marriage. - BBC.com, 5/27/18.