A campaign by fans of Steely Dan to rename a street in Forest Hills, N.Y. after band co-founder Walter Becker came to fruition on Oct. 28 when the corner of 112th St and 72nd Drive was co-named "Walter Becker Way." Becker, who passed away on Sept. 3, 2017 after a battle with esophageal cancer, grew up in the same neighborhood was honored with speeches from New York City Council Member Karen Koslowitz, who initiated the project, and Howard A. Rodman, Becker's longtime friend and collaborator. - Billboard, 10/29/18...... 
Charlie Daniels released his latest LP, Beau Weevils -- Songs in the Key of E. Plus, on Oct. 26, just two days before the legendary Southern rocker turned 82 years old. "It's not a dressed up record. It's not got a lot of electronics or overdubbing. It's pretty much straight ahead. It's just four people playing music," the Country Music Hall of Famer says about the album featuring contributions from drummer James Stroud, guitarist Billy Crain and bassist Charlie Hayward. "I like this album a lot. When I get through with an album, I just usually don't listen to it a lot. I go on to something else. I keep pulling this one out. It's a fun album and puts me in a good mood, so I listen to it quite a bit," he added. Meanwhile on Nov. 6 Daniels will release a new book, Let's All Make the Day Count: The Everyday Wisdom of Charlie Daniels, along with a companion 10-song CD also titled Let's All Make the Day Count with a rendition of the classic hymn "How Great Thou Art" along with other CDB rock classics. "This is not just something I'm writing. I've lived it," Daniels says of the book. "I want people to realize how valuable their lives are. Each day is a total blessing from God and to waste a day is a day gone. You can never ever get it back. Every day is a gift, so make the day count." - Billboard, 10/26/18...... Ringo Starr and Michael Jackson were among the honorees at an event in Beverly Hills on Oct. 25 called "The Paley Honors in Hollywood: A Gala Tribute to Music on Television." The event, which featured packaged salutes to musical performances and themes over nearly 70 years on television, took place at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. Ringo fondly recalled the Beatles' historic 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. "The Ed Sullivan Show. Yeah, we did that," Starr said, garnering a laugh from the audience. "We came to America, and you don't know where things are going in life. I was in a factory and I left there to play drums. I had a three-month gig, and after that, I was on my own, and then I was introduced to the other three lads. I'm here because we are celebrating the four of us... I well up a little bit because two of us aren't here." Starr, 77, also said people express surprise that he is still touring and making music. "'What? You're still doing it?' They say that all the time," he said. "What do you mean I'm still doing it? That's what I do. I'm not an electrician, but it is nice and I still love it." The evening also included salutes to other memorable musical moments from television, including music on TV series, awards shows, variety shows, talk shows, reality shows and musicals. The evening's other honoree was Michael Jackson, who was saluted by Motown founder Berry Gordy in a touching and often funny speech. Gordy noted Jackson's thrilling performance on Motown's 25th anniversary special in 1983, when the pop star made history with his "moonwalk." "That was the night his career went into orbit and never came down," Gordy recalled, before introducing a clip package that highlighted those performances and so much more, including Jackson's 1993 Super Bowl halftime performance and his groundbreaking videos. The funds raised from the Paley Honors will benefit the Paley Center's programming dedicated to music on television and the expansion of the Music Collection in the Paley Archive, the nation's largest publicly accessible archive of television and radio programming. - Billboard, 10/26/18...... In other Beatles-related news, Yoko Ono will be among the headliners at the UK's Manchester International Festival 2019 next July. The event will kick off with Ono's "Bells for Peace," which will see 8000 members of the public forming a bell orchestra in Manchester's Cathedral Gardens. "The beauty of this piece will break the sky and more," Ono said of the fortnight long event, which runs from July 4-21. "More than ever, we must come together to heal each other, and the world. Peace is power!" - New Musical Express, 10/29/18...... 
David Bowie's widow Inman has opened up about the pain of losing her husband in Jan. 2016 in a new interview with Net-A-Porter.com. "People take pictures of me in the street, and say [touching my arm]: 'I am so sorry for your loss.' I'm like, don't touch me. You just took pictures of me, how can you be sorry?," the supermodel said. "I get the fans' grief, but it's not the same. They have lost someone they look up to; we have lost a husband and a father. And sometimes, I don't want people to know how sad I am. People say to me, 'Oh, you're so strong.' I'm not strong -- I am just trying to keep it together," she added. When asked about the prospect of another relationship Iman, who was married to Bowie from 1992 until his death, said: "I will never remarry. I mentioned my husband the other day with someone, and they said to me: 'You mean your late husband?' I said, no, he is always going to be my husband. I do feel very lonely. But do I want a relationship? I can't say never, but no, not now." She added that her daughter with Bowie, Lexi Bowie, is keen to move to Los Angeles where Bowie's son Duncan Jones lives. "But one of her biggest fears is leaving me," Iman said. "I tell her: you are not responsible for me. It's the other way around." - NME, 10/28/18...... Stevie Wonder is among the contributors to a new Christmas album by veteran crooner John Legend. The yuletide LP, titeld A Legendary Christmas, also features an assist by one of Wonder's fellow Grammy-winners, Esperanza Spalding. Legend and Wonder collaborate on the album's opening track, "What Christmas Means to Me." - Billboard, 10/26/18...... Phil Collins' North American "Not Dead Yet Tour," which he launched on Oct. 5, has been a substantial success, coming in at No. 3 on Billboard Boxscore's top concert tally. The tour sold 96,311 tickets and grossed $14.4 million from seven shows according to the Hot Tours recap for the week ending Oct. 27. Collins brought the tour's name to life, selling out all seven shows. The leg's highest attendance tally came in Toronto, where he moved 14,686 tickets at the Scotiabank Arena and grossed $1.99 million. Meanwhile, Billy Joel's show in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Oct. 13 was good for a No. 7 place on the roundup. The Piano Man sold 33,422 tickets and grossed $3,698,043 with that show. - Billboard, 10/26/18...... Roberta Flack has just released Running, her first new album in eight years. "The music remains my lifeline," the 81-year-old Flack says. "And the lyrics for "Running" speak to where I am now, working to keep going through music," she added. The moving title track, written by Michael A. Levine, is the closing credits song for the documentary 3100: Run and Become, which focuses on aspirants participating in the annual Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, the longest footrace in the world. The documentary premiered in New York City on Oct. 26, and will open in Los Angeles on Nov. 9 before going wide and digital. Flack was a longtime devotee of the late Guru Sri Chinmoy, an Indian spiritual leader who organized the 3100 Mile Race. "I used to meditate with Guru Chinmoy in the late '80s and '90s, read his writings and run with him," Flack said. - Billboard, 10/26/18...... 
Jackson Browne is among the contributors to a new free music compilation that hopes to help the Democrats flip the U.S. House of Representatives to blue in the Nov. 6 midterms. The 33-track Songs for Swing Left is available for free download and aims to raise funds and awareness for the Swing Left Campaign, which is encouraging voters in districts where 84 key seats are being contested to get involved. Browne's contribution is the song "Far From the Arms of Hunger," and each artist intros their contribution with a reminder to fans to get and vote in the midterms on Nov. 6. You can download any of the tracks for free by providing your email address, at which point you'll be connected with other volunteers in your area who are working to win a race in a swing district. - Billboard, 10/25/18...... The final trailer for the new Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody was released on Oct. 25. It opens with actor Rami Malek as Mercury slowly putting on sunglasses in front of a mirror as doubts from others echo in his mind. The scene fades into a montage of vibrant outfits, crowded shows, dancing fans and music business meetings as the rock band's 1981 "Under Pressure" collaboration with David Bowie plays in the background. Bohemian Rhapsody premiered in the UK on Oct. 24 and hits US theaters on Nov. 2. - Billboard, 10/25/18...... A "hologram tour" showcasing late rock/pop legend Roy Orbison is currently underway and will hit Toronto's Sony Centre on Nov. 4. Orbison's son, Alex Orbison, understands there are skeptics when it comes to his dad's hologram tour, which comes 30 years after the "Oh, Pretty Woman" singer died from a heart attack at age 52 and has been criticized for being gimmicky or disrespectful. "Of course, people are going to have a feeling that they don't like the concept of this," said Alex, 43, whose company 'Roy's Boys' with brothers Roy, Jr. and Wesley are working with BASE Hologram, who also developed a Maria Callas tour this year. "The reason why it is (happening) now is just because finally the holograms have made a huge jump with the technology so they look much more real and the shows can be done on a tour basis," Alex says. "There's a risk, obviously, that it wouldn't work. But there's a benefit too from the amount of attention of doing something first," he adds. Alex says he's also working on a Roy Orbison big budget Hollywood biopic "that's been 100% of my focus for the last month or so." "We're so close to getting our team finally assembled," he says. "I can't say (who would play my dad) but we do want a slightly younger Roy Orbison, someone who's in their '30s or young '40s that can play the teen-to-20 Orbison." - Canoe.com, 10/28/18...... Neil Young and Rush are among the native Canadian artists honored with 2018 Polaris Music Prizes. Young was the winner in the 1960-1975 period category for his 1969 album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, while Rush took the prize in the 1976-1985 category for its 1976 LP 2112. The awards were created to honor albums that might have been nominated for, or possibly won, the esteemed Polaris Music Prize if it had existed before 2006. For the Heritage Prize, four short lists, which also include the time periods 1986-1995 and 1996-2005, were curated by a jury of music historians and music media. The international voting public and a small pool of the music media each vote on four albums for each of the time periods. The public can vote once per day. - Billboard, 10/24/18...... 
Meanwhile, Neil Young's sometime bandmate David Crosby released his latest studio project, Here If You Listen, on Oct. 30. Crosby recorded the LP with same foursome of musicians he used on his critically acclaimed 2016 album Lighthouse, which he created in collaboration with Snarky Puppy mastermind Michael League and vocalists Michelle Willis and Becca Stevens. "The chemistry was explosive," Crosby says of his work with the group. "I have never seen such a creative flow, ever, anywhere. We wrote a whole record and recorded it in eight days! It was crazy! Absolutely crazy!" Crosby says Here If You Listen is very much an album of the moment, filled with songs that address the current sociological and political landscape. Songs, like "Other Half Rule," which Crosby describes as a plea to "politely ask the women of the United States of America to save our butts," after centuries of patriarchal rule. It also contains a re-imagination of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock," which Crosby first tackled while in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young back in 1970. "I came up with that different set of changes for 'Woodstock,'" he said. "At some point, I showed it to Becca, and she can play it better than I can, so she started playing it and we said, 'Oh f--- it, let's try it.' And we started singing it live. Four parts. And what happened was kind of magical. When we started doing it, the first time we hit that chorus, where it goes to reveal actual four different notes for a part, the audience started applauding right in the middle of the song." - Billboard, 10/25/18...... On Oct. 29 KISS announced details of the UK leg of their final ever world tour. The American glam-rock icons will visit Birmingham on July 9, London on July 11, Manchester on July 12, Newcastle on July 14, and Glasgow on July 16. "All that we have built and all that we have conquered over the past four decades could never have happened without the millions of people worldwide who've filled clubs, arenas and stadiums over those years," said KISS in a statement announcing their "End of the Road" tour. "This will be the ultimate celebration for those who've seen us and a last chance for those who haven't." - New Musical Express, 10/29/18...... Ozzy Osbourne shared a video on Twitter on Oct. 25 reassuring fans that he's made full recovery from an infection in his thumb that forced him to cancel several tour dates. The Prince of Darkness was hospitalised earlier in October after contracted a staph infection in his right thumb, and forced him to undergo multiple surgeries and postpone the last four shows of the autumn North American leg of his "No More Tours 2" trek. "I just want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your concern," Ozzy says in the clip. "My thumb is fully recovered now. I am looking forward to seeing you all this New Year's Eve at The Forum with Ozzfest." - NME, 10/26/18...... 
The unlikely duo of famed Star Trek actor William Shatner and punk rock legend Iggy Pop have shared their cover of the Christmas classic "Silent Night," which will appear on Shatner's upcoming Christmas album. Shatner Claus - The Christmas Album will be the actor's first-ever yuletide record and will feature him singing festive classics with the help of some special guests, including Henry Rollins, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Yes' Rick Wakeman, among others. The record will be released on Oct.26, via Cleopatra Records. Previously, Shatner has released a David Bowie covers album, Seeking Major Tom, and a prog-rock concept album, titled Ponder The Mystery, for the label. - NME, 10/24/18...... Country/blues singer and songwriter Tony Joe White, who penned such hits as "Polk Salad Annie" and "A Rainy Night in Georgia" that were covered by the likes of Elvis Presley, Hank Williams Jr., Tina Turner, Ray Charles and Waylon Jennings, died on Oct. 24 of as yet undisclosed causes in Nashville, Tenn. He was 75. White, originally from Louisiana, had a hit in 1969 with "Polk Salad Annie" and his music spanned many genres from country, rock, blues and R&B. His record label, Yep Roc, released his last album, Bad Mouthin', in September. - AP, 10/25/18...... Longtime Motown guitarist Melvin Ragin, known as "Wah Wah Watson" for his guitar and wah wah pedal sounds in sessions for Motown artists, died on Oct. 24. He was 67. Ragin joined the Motown house band, the Funk Brothers, in 1968, and was only 20 years old when he was called into Motown for a session with The Temptations, producer Norman Whitfield, which eventually led to his work on "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." Ragin played on endless iconic musical pieces throughout his career, including Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" and" I Want You," Quincy Jones' "Body Heat," Smokey Robinson's "Love Breeze" and Michael Jackson's 1979 LP Off the Wall. More recently, he played on records for artists like Maxwell, Alicia Keys and Janet Jackson. - Billboard, 10/25/18.
James Taylor was on hand at Game 1 of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Boston's Fenway Park on Oct. 23 to kick off the fall classic with a rendition of the National Anthem. Guitar in hand, the 70-year-old Boston native performed an acoustic version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the center of the field, as the players and military officials stood nearby. - Billboard, 10/23/18...... Elton John's "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour rolled into New York City's Madison Square Garden for a second night on Oct. 19, which gave longtime fans a reminder why the inimitable entertainer will be missed when his 300+ date, three-year swansong tour finally comes to a close. John included deep album cuts like "Take Me to the Pilot" and "Burn Down the Mission" that you're unlikely to hear on classic rock radio, and mid-show, he busted out the monumentally epic "Love Lies Bleeding/Funeral For a Friend." That 11-minute Goodbye Yellow Brick Road opener, one of his finest compositions, was quite possibly the most fun moment of the show, with horror movie fog rolling across the stage as his piano spinned and the band indulged in some extended riffing. Elton played his oft performed classics "Your Song," "Daniel" and "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" with fragile intensity, and though he has said he's "beyond tired" playing "Crocodile Rock," he nevertheless obliged the crowd, although he did introduce it by specifically saying, "This is for the fans." John will return to MSG for two dates in November, and again in 2019. - Billboard, 10/20/18...... 
As the new Freddie Mercury and Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody premiered in the UK on Oct. 24, London's Carnaby Street was transformed into a tribute as lyrics from the title song were lit up in the historical Soho spot. The cast of the new movie which follows the British rock quartet's first 15 years, including Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) as frontman Mercury, gathered with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor to ignite a special set of neon lights retelling the lyrics of the iconic song. The lights will be up until Jan. 4, and on Nov. 8 a Carnaby Christmas Shopping "party" will take place. Meanwhile, actor Lucy Boynton, who plays Mercury's long-time friend and former fiancé Mary Austin, has responded to claims that the biopic "straightwashes" Mercury. Boynton described them "frustrating," especially as they were sparked by "a 60-second teaser which is supposed to tease basically nothing." "It's when people want to have something to criticise that is kind of jarring, especially because it does and the one thing that we re so proud of with this film is that I don't feel it ever steps over the line into any kind of exposé or intrusiveness," she added. The critics have also weighed in on the film, with most reviews praising the work of lead actor Rami Malek. However, feelings on the film itself appear to be mixed, with the pic currently sitting at 54% on Rotten Tomatoes. Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "The finished product is energetic, if not always smooth, its affection for Mercury and Queen indisputable even when the drama is undernourished," while The Guardian's Steve Rose gave the biopic two stars, saying, "Rami Malek's excellent performance aside, it feels less a pioneering musical odyssey than a really good covers band." Bohemian Rhapsody. USA Today's Brian Truitt similarly gave the film two stars, noting, "There's a sequence in which the screen is peppered with all the harsh words that critics had back in the day for 'Bohemian Rhapsody' the song, ending with 'perfectly adequate.' That's the kindest thing one can say about the new Queen biopic and also the most damning." The original soundtrack for the film has also arrived, and is now available for streaming and purchase. The career-spanning 22-song album features new versions of Queen classics and five tracks from a previously unreleased performance at Live Aid. Bohemian Rhapsody, in which Brian May and Roger Taylor worked on as creative consultants and directed by Dexter Fletcher, will hit US theaters on Nov. 2. - New Musical Express/The Hollywood Reporter, 10/23/18...... Ozzy Osbourne has revealed that his recent hand surgery, which forced him to cancel four concerts on his "No More Tours 2" tour, was part of his treatment plan for a potentially deadly staph infection. "I didn't feel sick, so I was cracking jokes," Ozzy told Rolling Stone of his visit to the emergency room, which came after his thumb had suddenly swollen to the "size of a f---in' lightbulb" following a show in Salt Lake City. At the hospital, doctors told him he actually had three separate staph infections in his thumb, one of which spread to his middle finger. Osbourne said the doctor suggested that he could have gotten a staph infection from simply shaking someone's hand -- something the rocker says he does probably 200 times a day on tour -- and "cut all this stuff out," Osbourne said. "Even with the numbing stuff, it was agony. It wasn't pus, but it was the stage after pus, when it gets in the blood and goes in your body and f---ing kills you. It may sound f---ed up what I'm saying to you, but he was really concerned about checking my blood." Osbourne, who spent almost a week in the hospital, was treated with antibiotics and found solace in eating ice cream as he recovered. He was then discharged and told to soak his hand in a special soap twice a day, for 10 days. Meanwhile, Ozzy has announced that his annual OZZFEST metal festival will return this year for a New Year's Eve celebration set to take place in Los Angeles on Dec. 31 at The Forum. The lineup includes OZZFEST alumni Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Johnathan Davis of Korn, Body Count featuring Ice-T, and Osbourne closing out the event with a countdown to the New Year. The OZZFEST news comes just two weeks after Osbourne rescheduled four previously-canceled tour dates after undergoing surgery for his hand injury. Osbourne has since rescheduled the October concert dates he had to call off. - Billboard, 10/22/18...... 
On Oct. 24 Eric Clapton announced details of a three-night residency at London's iconic Royal Albert Hall in May of 2019. Marking his only UK shows of 2019, Slowhand will play the venue on May 13, 15 and 16, accompanied by his band members Chris Stainton, Nathan East, Doyle Bramhall and Sonny Emory. On Oct. 12, Clapton released his new 14-track yuletide album Merry Xmas, with the track "Jingle Bells" dedicated to DJ Avicii, who was found dead from an apparent suicide in April. "I had in my head that these holiday songs could be done with a slight blues tinge, and I started to figure out how to play the blues lines in between the vocals," he said in a recent interview. "I got it down and one of the most identifiable songs on the album, the one that became the foundational style, is 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.'" - NME, 10/23/18...... Canadian rapper Drake has just beaten a record held by the Beatles since 1964, thanks to his guest contribution on Bad Bunny's new track "MIA." Drake now has had 12 songs to have reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2018, the most that one artist has ever had in a single year. The record was set by the Fab Four in 1964, when "I Feel Fine" and "She's A Woman" entered the charts on Dec. 26, taking the band's total that year to 11. 1964 also saw the Beatles release classics such as "Can't Buy Me Love" and "A Hard Days Night," but their record of over half a century now belongs to Drake. - New Musical Express, 10/23/18...... In other Beatles-related news, Universal Pictures has just announced it is negotiating to option the rights to the epic John Lennon and Yoko Ono love story with producers Michael De Luca and Immersive Pictures. Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Valee is attached to direct and edit the spec script written by Oscar nominee Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour). Yoko Ono will produce the project alongside De Luca, Josh Bratman and McCarten. Meanwhile, the new deluxe reissue of John Lennon's Imagine album has reached No. 5 on Billboard's Top Catalog Albums chart following its release on Oct. 5 in a variety of formats, some with oodles of bonus material. - The Hollywood Reporter/Billboard, 10/24/18...... Elsewhere on the Fab Four front, Paul McCartney announced on Oct. 19 that two new archive editions for the Wings albums Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway will hit stores on Dec. 7. The four-disc Wild Life deluxe set will include 3 CDs and one DVD with the remastered album on one CD and additional 25 bonus audio tracks across two discs with rough album mixes, original single edits, B-sides, home recordings and previously unreleased tracks. The set will also have a DVD with unreleased acoustic home videos, rehearsals and behind-the-scenes footage. The six-disc Red Rose Speedway deluxe set will have 3 CDs, 2 DVDs and a Blu-ray, and include a copy of the remastered album on one CD and two discs of 35 bonus audio tracks that reconstructs for the first time the originally planned double album version that was never made. In addition, the two discs will include singles, B-sides, alternate mixes and other unreleased tracks. A never-before-seen film, The Bruce McMouse Show, fully restored and remixed in stereo and 5.1 surround sound, will be included on both DVD and Blu-ray. Another DVD will have more rare and previously unseen footage including the vintage James Paul McCartney television special, plus interviews and music videos. A third deluxe set combining both albums and adding an exclusive "Wings Over Europe" set will also be available. - Billboard, 10/19/18...... 
Jeff Lynne's ELO announced on Oct. 22 that they will be launching a North American tour in 2018, the first time the band has done an extensive tour of the US since 1981. The 20-date tour begins on the West coast in Anaheim, Calif. on June 20 and includes stops in Nashville, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and New York before wrapping in Pittsburg, Pa. on Aug. 1. Meanwhile, Jeff Lynne has reflected on his time with the late '80s "supergroup" The Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, which marks the 30th anniversary of its debut set Vol. 1 in October. "Because we had the studio, we just planned for ten days, to write ten songs for the album," Lynne recalled. "Which is what we did: getting together around lunchtime, strumming five acoustic guitars. We'd all share chords, ideas for the chord changes, just to get the backing track, and then we'd lay those down. Sometimes we'd double-track those five acoustics, so it'd become ten acoustics. It was rather extravagant, but the rest of it was very, very simple. We would then have dinner and write the words at the same time we're having dinner. We'd be sitting there at the table, throwing out lines. Bob got a lot of the lines, just because he's such a great writer of lyrics. And it was just fascinating, really -- the whole thing was done at dinner time. We'd then go back in the studio and sing them. We'd sort out which parts would suit everybody, and then me and George produced it. It was a marvelous time." Lynne added that he still includes one Wilburys tune in the setlist on his current tour. "I still do one song onstage on the new tour: 'Handle With Care,' just to remind you of the Wilburys and show them a little bit of the Wilburys footage on the screen in the back," he says. "The crowds always love that. They love to hear that one." - Billboard, 10/22/18...... Family and friends of the late Tom Petty and members of the Tom Petty Nation! fan club gathered in the rocker's hometown of Gainesville, Fla. on Oct. 20 to celebrate the star's birthday with his music and the dedication of the former Northeast Park as "Tom Petty Park." "My brother and I grew up in this park. We played as kids. My cousin reminded me the other day of my remark that it was a sanctuary, and it really was," said brother Bruce Petty. "It was a place for us to escape and be kids and have fun. The fact that we are doing this today and the part that we played in it makes it so much more special." Petty died Oct. 2, 2017. He was born Oct. 20, 1950 in Gainesville and lived in the small city until he left for Los Angeles to make it big in the music business. Meanwhile, Sirius XM Radio has announced it will be airing the final three new episoded of Petty's Buried Treasure program this fall. The late rocker's weekly Sirius show began in Dec. 2004 and includes Petty's own selections from his record collection, laced with anecdotes and a bit of history. Part one of the pre-recorded series will air on the rocker's birthday, Oct. 20. Parts two and three will premiere Nov. 19 and Dec. 17, respectively. The episodes feature music from Al Green, Neil Young, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and more. - AP/Billboard, 10/18/18...... Neil Young announced on Oct. 19 he'll release a new 23-track live acoustic album entitled Songs For Judy this fall. Comprised of recordings from Young's Nov. 1976 solo acoustic tour, the album also features the previously unreleased track, "No One Seems to Know." Young has regularly played the song live but has never included it on a physical release. The version on Songs For Judy was recorded in Boulder, Col. on Nov. 7, 1976. Songs For Judy will drop on Nov. 30 in the US and Dec. 14 in the UK, with pre-orders coming with an instant download of "Campainger" from a Nov. 22, 1976, gig in Boston. - New Musical Express, 10/19/18...... 
After Ted Nugent delivered another furious rant about his omission from the 2018 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees, decrying it as "sacrilege" that he is yet to be inducted, his nemesis David Crosby, a two-time RRHOF inductee for his tenure with the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, responded with a tweet about the controversial musicain. "He's not good enough and he never will be," Crosby tweeted. "A hack player and no singer at all .could not write a decent song if his life depended on it," he added. In an interview with MyGlobalMind, Nugent gave a ferocious rant about his omission for the eighteenth year in a row since he became eligible. "Is it or is it not vulgar, dishonest, and obscene that Grand Master Flash [sic], Patti Smith, and ABBA are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame but Ted "F---ing" Nugent isn't? Is that the most outrageous and disgusting lie you have ever seen?," Nugent said. Known for his outspoken right-wing views, in 2017 Nugent argued that "political correctness" and his membership of the NRA were to blame for his omission. In 2011, he described his exclusion as an "embarrassing denial of historical and current truth and evidence." - New Musical Express, 10/22/18...... Cher and her son Chaz Bono have reacted strongly to Pres. Donald Trump's recent announcement that it would eliminate transgender recognition by requiring individuals to be defined as male or female based on their genitalia at birth. According to a government memo obtained by The New York Times on Oct. 21, the Department of Health and Human Services is aiming to establish a uniform definition of gender, determined "on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable," the report says. "Sex means a person's status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth. The sex listed on a person's birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person's sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence." The announcement caused an uproar on social media, with Cher and Chaz Bono among the many including musicians, actors and reality TV stars who reacted to the proposed move which would affect an estimated 1.4 million Americans. "Fk These Ppl.Will MY SON Be Sent To INTERNMENT CAMP 2 Live with LATINO Children,& Be Kept In Cages in Places where (you) Cant See Them. THIS IS 'HIS CODE' 4...MAKE THEM DISAPPEAR," tweeted Cher, whose son, Chaz Bono, is transgender. He tweeted, "I can't begin to express the rage I feel toward an administration that is trying to redefine me out of existence. Just another gift for his small minded base, terrified of the diversity that has always made America exceptional! #Vote." - Billboard, 10/21/18...... Country legend Loretta Lynn is back at home resting after she was hospitalized on Oct. 20 following an unspecified but "serious" health setback. "I am very sad to report this morning that the Queen of Country Music, Ms. Loretta Lynn has had some setbacks in her recovery and is back in the hospital with some serious issues," according to a post by one Michael Lynn, who claims to be her relative. "She needs our prayers right now, and the one thing I do know for sure is that she is a fighter and will not go down easy. PLEASE pray today for her." Lynn later posted a Facebook update, saying "After a brief hospital visit, I'm feeling better now and enjoying a weekend of resting up at home." Her daughter Peggy also posted that "mom did have a really horrible stomach flu this last week. She is home and doing nicely recovering." She claims the source of the original report of her mother's illness is a "fake news story going around from some guy posing to be a family member or posing to be close to family." Lynn, 86, has had several medical issues of late. In May 2017, she suffered a stroke, and earlier this year she broke her hip. - Billboard, 10/20/18...... 
The O'Jays released a new single, "Above the Law," on Oct. 19. Just in time for the Nov. 6 midterm elections, the politically charged "Above the Law" -- co-written by the O'Jays and fellow soul legend Betty Wright along with Angelo Morris -- is the lead single from The Last Word, the O'Jays' first studio album in almost 20 years. "What's transpired since the presidential election and the injustice that's going on now directed where this song and album are coming from," says the O'Jays' Eddie Levert of "Above the Law." "Some things just need to be said. So either we're going to get a lot of airplay or people aren't going to play it at all. If nothing else, it will hopefully open some eyes or get us blackballed out of this business [laughs heartily] because there are powerful people who own the radio and media needed for this song to be heard." "People know in their heart of hearts what's happening; they're not blind to what's going on," adds the group's Walter Williams. "The bad apples trying to control everything won't spoil the whole bunch. People are going to step up. And this song really spells it out." When queried on their favorite O'Jays message song, Levert said "Mine is 'Back Stabbers' because the haters are always there," while Levert said his is "Love Train" "because it says all the things that need to be said, inviting everyone to come on board. There's no prejudice in any sense. And it's the biggest song we've done to date. We're still getting royalty checks [laughs]." - Billboard, 10/19/18...... Dominick "Randy" Safuto, cofounder and lead singer of the doo-wop group Randy and the Rainbows, has died. Randy and the Rainbows are best known for their Top 10 1963 single "Denise." Formed in Maspeth, N.Y. in 1962, the group featured two pairs of siblings, along with a fifth member. The Safuto brothers had previously sung in the group The Dialtones. They recorded with the producers of The Tokens, releasing the single "Denise" in 1963. The name "Randy and the Rainbows" was chosen by the owners of Laurie Records after the group recorded "Denise." The group had previously been called "Junior & the Counts" and "The Encores." "Denise" spent 17 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 10, while reaching No. 18 on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles chart. The song was written by Neil Levenson, and was inspired by his childhood friend, Denise Lefrak. In the late 1970s, the song became a European hit for Blondie, with the title changed to "Denis." Randy & The Rainbows' follow-up single, "Why Do Kids Grow Up," barely scraped into the pop charts at No. 97, and the group never charted again. - 10/17/18.
Bob Dylan's classic 1975 LP 
The Who frontman Roger Daltrey has revealed to the UK's Daily Mirror paper that he was made aware that he was the father of three children he never knew about after his 50th birthday. Daltrey, 74, says the children were born in the period between his divorce from first wife Jackie and marriage to his second wife Heather. "They all came into my life after my 50th birthday," Daltrey said. "It was great -- it's all worked out. They stay in touch and they're close, so that's great. I've tried to do my best about a situation that couldn't change because it happened a long time ago," he added. Daltrey is also the father of five other children: 55-year-old Simon Daltrey from his first wife Jackie; 50-year-old Mathias Daltrey born to Swedish model Elisabeth Aronsson; and Rosie, 46, Willow, 43, and Jamie, 37, with his second wife, Heather Taylor. - New Musical Express, 10/15/18...... Ozzy Osbourne has announced that he is rescheduling four U.S. dates on his "No More Tours 2" tour after canceling the final gigs on his North American leg due to an infection that required surgery on his right hand. Those four dates, which were originally slated for early October, have now been moved to July 2019. The dates include a July 20 concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas; a July 23 show at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, Calif.; a July 27 concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif.; and a July 29 show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Osbourne underwent hand surgery on Oct. 6 at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and though he was expected to return to the stage the same week, his doctors later said that the injury might require further surgery to treat multiple infections in his right hand. - Billboard, 10/18/18...... '70s soul singer Chaka Khan has been named grand marshall of the 2019 Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena, Calif., for the 130th Rose Parade on New Year's Day. The "Tell Me Something Good" singer will ride through the city and participate in the celebration before the 105th Rose Bowl game, which will be a college football playoff semifinal. Khan, who sells hwer own line of gourmet chocolates called Chakalates, said she was honored to be chosen as the parade's grand marshall. - AP 10/17/18...... A 29-year-old British man has been arrested on suspicion of vandalizing a statue of David Bowie in Buckinghamshire, England, in the town of Aylesbury, where Bowie debuted his iconic persona Ziggy Stardust in 1972. The incident marks the second time the life-size bronze statue, titled "Earthly Messenger," has been vandalized since it was first dedicadted in March 2018. It features several of Bowie's personas (with Ziggy Stardust in the center) and speakers that play his music every hour, and was funded through local grants and a crowdfunding campaign organized by music promoter David Stopps, who issued a statement saying that the artwork will be "restored to its former glory as soon as possible. - Billboard, 10/17/18...... 
Bruce Springsteen's inspirational 2002 track "The Rising" is being used in a powerful new get-out-the-vote video for the Serve America PAC. The video, entitled "Women Rising," features a number of female candidates, including veterans of the U.S. armed forces, who are running for office for the first time. The video, published just a few days ago, has already gained attention from celebrities like Amy Schumer, Chelsea Handler, Katie Couric, Bette Midler, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Debra Messing, and the Boss himself gave permission for his "The Rising" song to be used in the background of the clip ahead of the crucial Nov. 6 election. - Billboard, 10/15/18...... Paul McCartney participated in a very candid interview with iHeartRadio's Inside the Studio program on Oct. 16 in which he about his long musical journey with the Beatles and secrets of his emblematic career. Sir Paul insisted that despite being one of the most recognizeable rock stars in the world, he lives a normal life and enjoys just walking down streets. "I walk down streets. They're for walking down," he said. "I like to get out and about and people say, 'Oh no, you've got to have acres of security behind you and stuff,' but I like to just get out, just so as you feel like yourself, instead of like a rock star. So I like to just get out like I always did when I was a kid. It keeps me sane. I've got quite a lot of freedom, actually, and I value it," he added. On the subject of the Beatles, Paul commented: "The story sticks that John was the dark one, I was the light one, George was the mystic one, you know. To some degree that's true, but we each had aspects of all those kind of forces, and Ringo too." - Billboard, 10/16/18...... In other Beatles-related news, an acoustic demo recording of the band's 1968 song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" has been officially released for the first time. The demo, recorded on July 25, 1968 by its author George Harrison, features George issuing instructions and singing lines that were cut from the track's final version, including: "I look from the wings at the play you are staging / As I'm sitting here doing nothing but aging." It will be included on the upcoming 
Paul Stanley of Kiss said on Oct. 15 that Kiss's upcoming farewell tour (its second) could including former members performing with the current members onstage for one last time. Speaking to an AP reporter in Atlantic City where he was promoting his artwork, Stanley said the band's "End of the Road" 2019 world tour could include former members. Although Stanley did not single out anyone by name, the living ex-members of Kiss include Ace Frehley, Vinnie Vincent, Bruce Kulick and drummer Peter Criss. Since the tour was announced in September, Kiss fans have been clamoring for a farewell that includes former members. "I wouldn't discount any possibilities," said Stanley. "I learned long ago to never say never. Would I negate the possibility of former members making appearances? Absolutely not. I don't know in what capacity." Stanley then praised the current lineup of Kiss, which includes himself, bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons, drummer Eric Singer and guitarist Tommy Thayer, as "the crux and the core of the band on tour." As for Stanley's art, he says he started painting several years ago while in the midst of a divorce. "Anyone who's been through a divorce probably spent a lot of time either banging their head on the wall or crying a lot," he said. "It's a very tumultuous time. My best friend said to me, 'You should paint.' I never painted. But my life is pretty much built on the premise of 'why not?' instead of 'why?' I had no idea how or what I was going to do. And I started painting." Stanley's pieces include self-portraits, paintings of fellow Kiss band members, as well as Jimi Hendrix, Marilyn Monroe, and more abstract art. He has sold over $10 million worth of art through the Wentworth Gallery in the past five years. - AP, 10/15/18...... In other Kiss news, Gene Simmons revealed in a recent interview with OK! magazine that he hates performing the classic Kiss disco-influenced song "I Was Made For Lovin' You" live, despite its popularity. Simmons said that when bandmate Paul Stanley first introduced him to the track, which featured on the band's 1979 album Dynasty, he was very taken by Stanley's opening lyrics, but then became very disappointed when his part in performing the song was revealed to him. "You're killing me. I'm going to sing like my grandmother?," he says he told Stanley when informed he would be singing the catchy chorus melody. "I hate playing that song today," Simmons added. "Stadiums full of people jumping up and down like biblical locusts. They go nuts jumping up and down and I'm going, 'Do, do, do, do, do, do, kill me now.'" - New Musical Express, 10/18/18...... 
Billy Joel announced on Oct. 15 that he will perform a concert at London's iconic Wembley Stadium on June 22, 2019. The show will mark the Piano Man's first performance in the U.K. in over three years, and is the only U.K. date he has scheduled for next year. Tickets for the concert go on sale to the general public on Oct. 19, 9:00 am GMT, and will be available through the Wembley Stadium official website. - Billboard, 10/15/18...... A reboot of the 1976-1985 sitcom Alice is reportedly in the works, with Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno, Tully) and Liz Astrof (2 Broke Girls, The King of Queens) writing and executive-producing the new sitcom. The original Alice, which starred Linda Lavin in the title role, told the story of a widow who moves cross country with her teenage son, and starts her life over as a waitress in a roadside diner in Phoenix. It won a total eight Golden Globes, including Best Television Series and Best Actress for Lavin, and was nominated for three Emmys during its run. Cody and Astrof's reboot will change Alice's backstory from widow to divorcé. - CominSoon.net/Deadline.com, 10/18/18...... The Canadian rock band Glass Tiger will be performing at the Boston Music Room in Tufnell Park in North London on Oct. 19. The band's London show will be followed by the Rockingham Festival at Nottingham Trent University on Oct. 21. To celebrate their 30th Anniversary, earlier in 2019 Glass Tiger, best known for its 1986 hit "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)," released a new album entitled 31 which includes two new songs and re-imagined recordings of all their hit singles. - Noble PR, 10/18/18.
Former Fleetwood Mac singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham filed a lawsuit on Oct. 9 in Los Angeles County Superior Court seeking damages against his former bandmates for lost wages from the band's current tour and more. Buckingham alleges Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie and John McVie conspired to kick him out of the band without just cause, and estimates his earnings from the current Fleetwood Mac tour would have been upwards of $14 million. While the common belief is Buckingham was ousted from the band because he refused to tour with them this year and instead wanted to focus on his solo career, in his suit the musician claims that is untrue. While Buckingham, 69, admits to asking his bandmates to tour later in the year so he might release and promote his own album first, he says he conceded to their timeline when they refused to budge. He also claims he was willing to accommodate Nicks' demand the band perform no more than three shows a week. And even though he was looking to fill the rest of his schedule with solo performances on an accompanying side tour, he states the Fleetwood Mac tour would have been his priority. Buckingham says he was booted unceremoniously and without warning just days after Fleetwood Mac's performance at the 2018 MusiCares ceremony in January. In a new interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Buckingham said he was informed he was being fired from the band during a phone call with Fleetwood Mac manager Irving Azoff, who told him "Stevie never wants to be on a stage with you again." Buckingham claims Nicks took issue with him during the MusiCares performance, saying that he "smirked" during her speech and had an "outburst" during their introduction music. In the lawsuit, Buckingham states that, "After 43 years of camaraderie and friendship, not a single member of Fleetwood Mac has returned any of Buckingham's phone calls to provide him with an explanation for his purported expulsion from Fleetwood Mac." Ironically, the band did postpone the tour to accommodate Buckingham's replacements, guitarist Mike Campbell and vocalist Neil Finn. On Oct. 12, a rep for Fleetwood Mac issued a statement saying the band "strongly disputes the allegations presented in Mr. Buckingham's complaint and looks forward to their day in court" and that they've retained attorney Dan Petrocelli to handle the case. - Billboard, 10/11/18...... Elton John paid homage to late Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin during his concert in Franklin's hometown of Detroit at the Little Caesars Arena on Oct. 12 by telling the audience during his introduction of his 1970 single "Border Song" that his song publisher told him one day in the early '70s that someone had covered the song. "We asked who. They said Aretha Franklin," John recalled. "Can you imagine two young writers, white boys from England...We were gobsmacked. In fact, we nearly pissed our pants in sheer delight at the fact the woman we loved so much then and grew to love even more afterward would actually record one of our songs." Franklin recorded "Border Song" for her Young, Gifted and Black album in 1972, billing it as "Border Song (Holy Moses)." Franklin's version climbed to No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, 55 points higher than John's original recording. John also told the crowd that he and Franklin eventually became friends who happened to share the same birthday (March 25). "I loved her so much," he said. "I used to call her on her birthday sometimes and wish her a happy birthday, to say thank you -- not just for being Aretha, but for every piece of music she made that inspired me." John, who is currently in the midst of his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour, also dedicated the latest episode of his "Rocket Hour" Apple Music Beats 1 show to Detroit, playing music by Franklin, Bob Seger and other famous Detroit musicians and interviewing Detroit's own Eminem. Meanwhile, the auction house Bonhams has announced it is putting the handwritten lyrics of Elton's songwriting partner Bernie Taupin for John's 1971 breakthrough hit "Your Song" up for auction on Nov. 19 in Manhattan. Taupin once recalled that he was waiting for John on a London rooftop when he wrote the now-famous line: "I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss." After getting the verses, it took John just 10 minutes to come up with the melody. Its 1970 release helped launch John and Taupin into stardom. Bonham's estimates the lyrics, which are currently owned by Taupin's ex-wife Maxine Taupin could sell for a sum "in the six-figure range." - Billboard/AP, 10/13/18...... 
Roberta Flack was honored by the Jazz Foundation of America on Oct. 13 with its lifetime acheivement award during the organization's annual loft party at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Flack sang her first public performance in at least a year, after suffering a stroke more than two years ago and suffering a collapse that led to a brief hospitalization for the 81-year-old singer earlier in 2018. Participants included Flack's longtime friend, Valerie Simpson, along with Macy Gray. "I'm very excited that they want to give me an award, and I'm excited about the cause of the award, and the whole thing. I'm hyped about it," Flack said before the event. Flack also lauded the Jazz Foundation, which provides assistance of all types to musicians who have suffered setbacks, whether they're medical, financial or both. "It seems like we get a lot of musicians who don't need help, who do it themselves or do it on their own, and that's not true, that's not true, they need a lot of help," she said. "I'm happy to help." - AP, 10/12/18...... Britain's Official Charts Company announced on Oct. 13 that the Beatles' 1967 psychedelic masterpice Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the most popular British album in history. The OCC based their conclusion on physical sales, downloads and streams in the U.K. Sgt. Pepper's edged out Adele's monster hit album 21, which came in second, and the 1995 Oasis album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? Meanwhile in other Beatles-related news, Yoko Ono released a minimalist cover of her late husband John Lennon's "Imagine" on Oct. 9 to mark what would have been John's 78th birthday. The stripped-back "Imagine" is taken from Ono's forthcoming album 
The estate of Prince has asked Pres. Donald Trump to cease and desist from using the late rock star's signature tune "Purple Rain" at Trump campaign rallies. A statement retweeted on behalf of the estate by Prince's half-brother Omarr Baker on Oct. 12 said, "The Prince Estate has never given permission to President Trump or the White House to use Prince's songs and have requested that they cease all use immediately." "Purple Rain" has frequently been on Trump's playlist at recent rallies, including one earlier in October in South Haven, Miss. Neither an attorney for the estate nor a White House spokeswoman immediately responded to messages from the AP. Meanwhile, Beach Boys singer Mike Love was among the musicians present on Oct. 11 at the White House when Pres. Trump hosted a signing event for the 2018 Music Modernization Act. The law is a historic piece of legislation that is the culmination of years of advocacy on Capitol Hill that represents the biggest overhaul of copyright legislation in a generation. It changes some of the considerations used in setting music publishing rates, and also compels digital and satellite radio to pay a royalty on pre-1972 master recordings to labels and artists and it codifies the procedure by which SoundExchange can pay producers and engineers royalties for the records it works on. - AP/Billboard, 10/12/18...... Ozzy Osbourne announced on Oct. 11 that he is canceling the final four shows of his North American "No More Tours 2" tour. Ozzy's farewell tour was supposed to close out with three shows in California and one in Las Vegas, when the former Black Sabbath front man had to undergo hand surgery on Oct. 6. The three California shows, in Mountain View on Oct. 6, Chula Vista on Oct. 9, and the Hollywood Bowl in L.A. on Oct. 11, were recently rescheduled due to the surgery, but now all four shows will move to 2019. "I'm so fu--ing bummed about cancelling these shows," Osbourne said in a press release. "The tour had been going great and we were really looking forward to these last few gigs. We're hoping everyone will be patient and we'll look forward to seeing them at the shows next year." Osbourne underwent hand surgery on Oct. 6 at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and was expected to return to the stage the same week. His doctors are now saying he may require another surgery to treat multiple infections in his right hand. The next leg of his No More Tours 2 tour is set to kick off on Jan. 19 in Dublin, Ireland, and run through March 16 when he'll conclude in Auckland, New Zealand. - Billboard, 10/11/18...... Former The Police frontman Sting and his latest collaborator Shaggy have releaesed a music video for "Gotta Get Back My Baby," from the duo's joint album 
Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters caused a stir during his Oct. 9 concert in Sao Paulo, Brazil after calling the leading candidate in October's presidential election a "neo-fascist." A big screen behind the stage at Waters' concert showed the words "Resist neo-fascism." And then it displayed a list of names -- including that of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro. The crowd of more than 40,000 fans at the Allianz Parque stadium was split, with some cheering Water's position, while others booed. Waters also displayed "Not Him" on the big screen, the slogan of a movement against the right-wing former army officer. Waters' action drew more than 2,800 comments n the singer's Facebook channel debating the criticism of Bolsonaro. "Roger Waters, just sing your song. Don't put your finger where you don't know," said one post. "When you go to another country don't talk about politics, you don't know anything about Brazil or what happens in the country." Bolsonaro won the first-round of Brazil's presidential elections with 46 percent. His adversary in the Oct. 28 runoff is left-leaning Fernando Haddad, who finished second in the opening round with 29 percent. Waters will be performing in Brazil until Oct. 30 during his 2018 "Us + Them" tour. - AP, 10/10/18...... Late soul/pop/country legend Ray Charles was given a rare salute by the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 8 as a diverse cast of singers including Darius Rucker, Ronnie Milsap, Charlie Wilson, Boyz II Men and LeAnn Rimes honored the music genius during a taping that will be the subject of a new PBS television special airing in Feb. 2019. "The Opry meant everything to him. He loved everybody at the Opry," Ray Charles Foundation president Valerie Ervin said. "He loved country music, so to have it here, it just seals it for me. I felt what he felt back in 1962 when he really wanted to be a part of the country world and there was no better place to do it than the Opry." Charles' landmark 2-LP set, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, is credited for changing country music in the 1960's. Recorded in New York with lush strings and backing choir, Charles doesn't just reinvent several classic country songs, he left his unique mark on them, fusing soul and jazz, country lyrics and orchestral pop. Fifty years later, the album still holds up as one of the greatest of the genre. The record spent 14 weeks on the top of the Billboard albums chart. "I Can't Stop Loving You" spent five weeks at No. 1 on the pop charts and 16 weeks at No. 1 on the R&B charts and won the 1962 Grammy Award for best rhythm and blues recording. The tribute, 14 years after his death, raises questions about why Charles has been left out of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Most of the performers on the special believe he deserves a spot among the country legends for exposing the genre to a much broader world. "I would never tell the Country Music Hall of Fame who to put in, but I think all the artists, if they let Ray in, they would understand and believe that Ray should be there," Darius Rucker said. - AP, 10/10/18...... 
Legendary '70s disco producer Giorgio Moroder announced on Oct. 10 that he is embarking on his first-ever live tour in Europe in 2019, beginning on Apr. 1 at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham, UK. "I'm excited to be finally doing this," Moroder told the UK paper The Guardian. "It is something I have always wanted to do. Fans kept reaching out to me, asking if I would ever do a real tour. Back in the day, it was unthinkable for producers to ever leave their studios -- that territory was reserved for the singers. Today, DJs and music producers have become the superstars of popular dance music, so the time feels right," he added. The 15-city tour, which also Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy before wrapping in Amsterdam on May 21, will feature the artist performing on the piano, vocoder and synths alongside a full live band and vocalists. A pioneer in the pop world, Moroder began DJing and producing in the '60s and made it big with his top-charting collaboration with Chicory Tip, "Son of My Father." Later in 1977, the Italian producer would change the pop game by adding a touch of disco to it with Donna Summer's legendary "I Feel Love," becoming one of the first and most renowned producers in what would later turn into dance music. - Billboard, 10/10/18...... Blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonomassa will be participating in a "Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea: Mediterranean" sea cruise entertainment event that will set sail from Barcelona, Spain on Aug. 21, 2019 and include stops in Monte Carlo, Monaco and Valetta, and Malta. The Mediterranean voyage will feature non-stop music across multiple stages as guests immerse themselves in five days of music-filled events and one-of-a-kind collaborative sets from many additional artists, including Peter Frampton,J oanne Shaw Taylor, Larkin Poe, Eric Bibb, Bernie Marsden, Curtis Harding and Philip Sayce. In addition to a plethora of live performances, guests will enjoy a variety of music-centric activities, including one activity each with both Bonamassa and Frampton, plus autograph sessions with select Blues stars and opportunities to jam with fellow cruisers. Interested Fans can pre-register now at bluesaliveatseaeurope.com. - Noble PR, 10/12/18.
On Oct. 9 the 
In other Eagles-related news, guitarist Joe Walsh and his wife Marjorie were honored on Oct. 8 by the nonprofit group "Facing Addiction with NCADD" for the couple's support of the recovery movement and their efforts to raise awareness about drug and alcohol abuse. Walsh, sober for 25 years, and Marjorie told the audience of their own stories of alcohol and drug dependence, with Joe reminiscing about his rocky childhood in the 1950s struggling against what are now recognized as attention-deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Asperger's syndrome. "There was no awareness of what that was. ... You were just difficult. I was difficult," the 69-year-old rocker said. "I was different that way from the other kids, and because of that I was terrified. I was truly terrified because I felt stupid and alone and that nobody understood. ... In my late teenage years I tried to play guitar in front of some people and I couldn't do it. I was so scared. I could not do it. I hyperventilated. I started shaking. I started crying." Walsh said he chose to drop the traditional anonymity of AA members to help others, and because "most of the world knew I was a mess anyway." Walsh and his wife, who is the sister of Ringo Starr's wife Barbara Bach Starkey, helped launch Facing Addiction on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 2015. Ringo and Barbara were also in attendance at the event, which featured entertainment from Walsh, Eagles member Vince Gill, and former Doobie Brothers member Michael McDonald. The Walshes were presented with the Adele C. Smithers Humanitarian Award, named for a longtime advocate of the cause and a former board member of the NCADD. - AP, 10/9/18...... After the new Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody recently premiered in London and San Francisco, the first reactions to the long awaited film have been shared online. There appears to be a lot of love for Rami Malek's turn as iconic Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, even if the film itself isn't entirely spectacular. "Bohemian Rhapsody is a straight-on biopic with plenty of Queen music and a strong performance by Rami Malek", tweeted IndieWire's critic Anne Thompson. "It will get mixed reviews. It might play with audiences," she added. New York Times reviewer Kyle Buchanan posted that "Bohemian Rhapsody is a glorified Wikipedia entry but Rami Malek plays Freddie Mercury (and wears his wonderful costumes) with incredible gusto," with critic Wolf Mantz gushing, "HOLY HELL!! #BohemianRhapsody is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!! A rousing emotional cinematic champion that will rock you!" Meanwhile, a teaser video was released in late September that showed the extensive training undertaken by Malek as he prepared to become Mercury. The film will be officially released on Oct. 24. - New Musical Express, 10/8/18...... After announcing on Oct. 6 that he was canceling a concert that night at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., due to surgery for an infection in his hand, Ozzy Osbourne released a presser on Oct. 8 saying he will be postponing two additional shows as he recovers. Osbourne has also rescheduled his Oct. 9 show at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre in Chula Vista and his Oct. 11 concert the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Those shows will now occur Oct. 15 at the Hollywood Bowl and Oct. 18 at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. The Mountain View show was previously rescheduled for Oct. 16, but will now be held on Oct. 20 at Shoreline Amphitheatre. Tickets for the rescheduled concerts will be honored at the new dates. Refunds are also available at the point of purchase. Ozzy's North American "No More Tours 2" tour will resume in Las Vegas on Oct. 13 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. - Billboard, 10/8/18...... 
Paul McCartney treated fans a the 17th annual Austin City Limits Festival to a historic headlining set on Oct. 5. Sir Paul performed only two tracks from his latest chart-topping album 
Bette Midler has issued an apology after tweeting the title of the controversial John Lennon/Yoko Ono song "Women Are the (N-Word) of the World" in response to the recent controversial nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. "The too brief investigation of allegations against Kavanaugh infuriated me," Midler posted on Oct. 5. "Angrily I tweeted w/o thinking my choice of words would be enraging to black women who doubly suffer, both by being women and by being black. I am an ally and stand with you; always have. And I apologize." The quote received an influx of criticism that claimed Midler was undermining the historical struggles of black women and systematic oppression. In a since deleted tweet, following the quote, Midler wrote that women are "Raped, beaten, enslaved, married off, worked like dumb animals; denied education and inheritance; enduring the pain and danger of childbirth and life IN SILENCE for THOUSANDS of years They are the most disrespected creatures on earth." - Billboard, 10/5/18...... Rod Stewart has scored his ninth U.K. solo No. 1 album with his latest LP 
On Oct. 8 the BBC announced details of a new David Bowie documentary, The First Five Years. The film follows the 2013 Bowie doc Five Years, which told the story of Bowie's creative peak between "Ziggy Stardust" and the end of his "Berlin period," and The Last Five Years, which gave insight into his final work on The Next Day and Blackstar. The new film will relive the period before the iconic star shot to fame and features exclusive interviews with Bowie's first cousin and lifelong-friend Kristina Amadeus, former girlfriend and muse Hermione Farthingale, producer Tony Visconti, and Woody Woodmansey, the last remaining Spider from Mars, among others. The documentary will air on BBC Two in 2019, while the BBC have confirmed that they'll also be televising Bowie's full Glastonbury 2000 performance for the first time later in October in conjunction with a release of a 
The producers of a new musical based on the life of legendary soul singer Tina Turner announced on Oct. 3 that "Tina: The Tina Turner Musical" will be heading to Broadway in the fall of 2019. "Tina," which premiered in London in April, has continued to play to sold-out houses. "Tina," presented with the cooperation of Turner herself, follows the singer as she rises from humble beginnings and triumphs over adversity to become one of the world's most successful singers. "Bringing this musical to life on stage and working with this team has meant so much to me, I feel that it is in many ways a culmination of my career," she said in a statement. "London audiences have been and continue to be extraordinary. Now, the bright lights of Broadway are calling, and I'm very excited to share this beautiful show with New York audiences next year," she added. Turner is currently played by Tony-nominated actress Adrienne Warren. Casting, performance dates, and the venue for the Broadway "Tina" will be announced at a later date. - Billboard, 10/3/18...... In related news, a play by Conor McPherson based on and including songs by Bob Dylan which opened in London in the fall of 2017 is now playing at The Public Theater in New York. "Girl from North Country" is described as a mysterious and dark story, populated by characters that could have walked out of Dylan songs, and set in the 1930s in Duluth, Minn., where the rock bard himself was born. The play is about the father of a baby carried by Marianne, a young African-American woman who was abandoned by her own parents and adopted by Nick and Elizabeth Laine, who own the boarding house where the play is set. The first two songs the audience hears are two lesser known Dylan tunes called "Sign on the Window" and "Went to See the Gypsy" from his album New Morning, so the play is hardly a "jukebox musical" in the vein of "Mamma Mia!" - Billboard, 10/2/18...... Meanwhile, a musical based on the director Cameron Crowe's '70s retro film 
Musicians around the world took time to pay homage to iconic rocker Tom Petty on Oct. 2, the one-year anniversary of his death. John Fogerty, The Lumineers and Eddie Vedder are just a sample of artists who posted one-of-a-kind renditions of Petty songs, exclusive covers, and heartwarming posts on the internet as they remember the rocker's music, legacy and impact on the rock world. "Tom Petty was truly as good as it gets. The pain we feel from his loss is indescribable, but lucky for us the music will love on forever!," John Fogerty posted on his Twitter account, while The Lumineers released a stripped-down version of Petty's "Walls." During his annual Ohana Fest in California on Sept. 28, Eddie Vedder took the time to pay tribute to Petty by covering both the iconic 1989 "Won't Back Down" and "Wildflowers" alongside the Heartbreaker's own Scott Thurston. A new Petty box set curated by Petty's daughter Adria and wife Dana, 
After bowing out of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band in 2017, Todd Rundgren has announced he'll play three all-star David Bowie tribute shows, joining former Bowie guitarist Adrian Belew, Fishbone's Angelo Moore, Paul Dempsey and others on Oct. 3 in Los Angeles and Oct. 7-8 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Rundgren say the latter locale is part of the reason he signed on to sing "Life On Mars," "Changes" and more during the week. I like doing these kinds of events where I get to play with other musicians, some of whom I do not know, and that's part of the fun of it -- and the fact we're going to Iceland, which I've never been to before and would like to see," Rundgren says. "It's kind of a no-brainer in some ways." Rundgren says he saw Bowie and his Spiders From Mars' first show at New York's Radio City Music Hall and struck up a friendship with Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson after he took up residence in Rundgren's hometown of Woodstock, N.Y. "David and I were never pals hanging out and talking or anything like that," Rundgren recalls, "but I would run into him on occasion at Max's Kansas City and things like that." Keyboardist Roger Powell from Rundgren's '70s band Utopia also played with Bowie later in the decade with Belew, "so you can see there's all kinds of little threads that sort of tie it together." Rundgren says his leaving Starr's band is "kind of a relief." "This one stayed together for a long time, but after six or so years of doing it and play substantially the same set every night I was ready to move on and I think it was probably good for the band as well to get some other players in there so they could work on some other material," he says. Rundgren did, however, reunite Utopia for a spring tour earlier in 2018, which although he says was satisfying is unlikely to happen again. Rundgren is also currently playing his own shows and has contributed to new music by the likes of Neil Finn, Steve Vai, Rivers Cuomo and Iggy Pop. He also hopes to publish his memoir, The Individualist, which he's been working on since the '90s but "just kept getting distracted." "I don't get into elaborate descriptions of evenings of debauchery or anything like that... But it is revealing about things that have happened to me and causalities and results of all that." - Billboard, 10/1/18...... Speaking of David Bowie, a new live Bowie release of his legendary headline set at the 2000 Glastonbury festival is set to be released this fall for the very first time. 
Cher has recently been named a recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center honor, and although she says the news was certainly welcome, she says she really wanted to receive it during the presidency of Barack Obama instead of Donald Trump. A regular at anti-Trump rallies and marches, Cher ranks among the most outspoken celebrities against the current U.S. president, and her participation in the upcoming ceremony might make for an awkward gathering. The White House has said no decisions had been made on whether Pres. Trump would participate in this year's Kennedy Center Honors program. The Kennedy Center prize is given to those in the performing arts for lifetime contributions to American culture, and this year's other recipients include composer and pianist Philip Glass, country music entertainer Reba McEntire, and jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. Meanwhile, the man recently arrested at Cher's Malibu, Calif., home in late September has just been slammed with a series of drug and weapons charges. Donovan Ruiz has been hit with counts including possession of narcotics for sale, possession of a controlled substance, possession of methamphetamines, and possession of a baton, according to court documents. All seven of the charges against him are felonies. Cher was not at home when cops raided the property and arrested Ruiz, who is Cher's assistant's son, on a tip that allegedly linked him to the death of a drug dealer. - PageSix.com/WENN/Canoe.com, 10/1/18...... In a new interview with the UK's Evening Standard, Bjrn Ulvaeus of ABBA suggested the famous foursome could release a new album following recent recording sessions. Ulvaeus said the band's time in the studio this year could lead to "a new album, possibly." "Or four songs or something like that -- that's possible," he continued, before repeating his insistence the band would not tour. "But for us to perform on stage that's just not going to happen. That's a definite." While a full-length ABBA record has not been officially confirmed at present, a new ABBA song titled "I Still Have Faith In You"' will reportedly premiere on the BBC in December. - New Musical Express, 10/2/18...... Willie Nelson unveiled a new political song called "Vote 'Em Out" on Sept. 29 while performing at an Austin rally for Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke. Nelson, 85, has been openly supporting O'Rourke's bid to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in the upcoming midterms, drawing ire from some of his "red state" Texas Trump-supporting fans. Together, Nelson and O'Rourke, who delivered a typically styled speech with electrifying progressive populism, drew tens of thousands of supporters, which Democratic Coalition co-founder Scott Dworkin said was more "than any Trump rally I've seen this year." - SplinterNews.com, 9/30/18...... In an interview with the long-running CBS newsmagazine 60 MInutes on Sept. 30, Paul McCartney revealed he sometimes relearns his widely-recognized tracks as he often forgets his chart-topping hits. "When I'm doing shows I listen to a lotta music, Beatles music, Wings music, to see what ones we're gonna do. And to learn them," the 76-year-old music legend said. Surprised by his remarks, the interviewer asked Sir Paul whether he often forgets his tracks, to which he responded: "There's too many. Too many words. Too many notes. They're very hard. I mean, you know, it's not like they're all three chords." McCartney is promoting his new No. 1 album, 
In other Beatles-related news, the band's chief recording engineer, Geoff Emerick, died from a massive heart attack on Oct. 2. He was 72. Remembered as an innovator behind the desk, Emerick was just 15 when he began working at Abbey Road Studios. He was assistant engineer on such songs as "Love Me Do," "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "She Loves You," and "A Hard Day's Night." Just prior to turning 19, he became the Beatles' main engineer and helmed Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road, as well as much of Magical Mystery Tour and The Beatles ("The White Album"), which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its release this year with an