The historic Hayvenhurst home of Michael Jackson in Los Angeles was transformed into a haunted house on Oct. 25 by Jackson's sons Prince and Bigi Jackson for their third annual event to benefit Prince Jackson's Heal Los Angeles foundation. With "Thriller" on loop, and mile-long spooky mazes in the themes of clowns, the Jackson siblings' party was also attended by their cousins and extended family members. "Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, it's almost one of the only ones I actually celebrate," said Prince, who was dressed as Clark Griswold from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (his girlfriend's idea). "It's fun to dress up and scare people -- my family's always been pranksters and we always play tricks on each other." Heal LA was founded by Prince as a continuation of the King of Pop's Heal the World organization, and recently got its nonprofit status. It works to improve the conditions of those in Los Angeles, focusing on child hunger, homelessness and abuse. Meanwhile, Micheal Jackson accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck are hoping to get another shot at a financial windfall from the Jackson estate by citing a newly signed California law meant to support victims of childhood sexual assault. The pair has filed paperwork with the appellate court where they continue to fight the estate, citing Assembly Bill 218 that California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law on Oct. 13. Robson and Safechuck are asking the court for an "opportunity to submit supplemental briefing as to the new law and its effect on this action," which could drastically change the case. The law, which takes effect on Jan.1, 2020, is designed to extend the time for victims for childhood sexual assault. According to the law, the new period to sue direct perpetrators of such crimes is either the victim's 40th birthday or within five years after the victim discovers the psychological injury from the sexual assault. Robson is 37 years old, and Safechuck is 41. The case is due back in court in November for a hearing on the case. - Billboard/TheBlast.com, 10/28/19...... 
In other Halloween-related news, Ozzy Osbourne says he's hoping to scare up the weirdest, wildest Halloween costume contest ever by challenging fans on Oct. 24 to dress up as their favorite version of Ozzy and send in a pic for a chance to win a signed bone like the one that appears on the cover of his upcoming box set, See You on the Other Side, which drops on Nov. 29. Ozzy's official site already features dozens of amazing entries, which Ozzy will accept through Nov. 1. See You on the Other Side collects all 10 of Ozzy's solo albums and the "Mr. Crowley" and "Just Say Ozzy" EPs, as well as the Tribute double live album, Live & Loud, Live at Budokan and the Flippin' the B-Side rarities collection. Ozzy has shared a trailer for his contest on YouTube. Meanwhile, Ozzy's wife Sharon Osbourne revealed in a new interview on SiriusXM radio that Ozzy has "just finished a new album" that he intends to release in January. Sharon also added that Ozzy was thrilled about "Take What You Want," the song he collaborated on with Post Malone and Travis Scott. The track appears on Malone's recent album, Hollywood's Bleeding. In January 2019, while recovering from pneumonia, Ozzy suffered a fall at home. He underwent neck surgery for his injuries, the aftermath of which he described as "agony beyond anything I ever experienced before in my life." Ozzy's recent health struggles have led him to postpone several dates of his "No More Tours II" farewell tour, and Sharon says after he finishes his rescheduled dates for a North American tour that kicks off in May 2020, he "won't do any more touring" but a Las Vegas residency is not out of the question. - Billboard/New Musical Express, 10/25/19...... New Jersey rock legend Southside Johnny and '80s power pop/rock hitmakers The Smithereens were inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame on Oct. 27. "Without Southside Johnny, there never would have been a Jon Bon Jovi," said Jon Bon Jovi, who inducted him. "I always wanted to be an Asbury Juke," Bon Jovi added, calling the band's leader "a friend, a mentor, a bad influence and sometimes a cranky S.O.B." Bon Jovi and Southside also performed a rendition of "I Don't Wanna Go Home" at the ceremony held at Asbury Park, N.J.'s Convention Hall, backed by the band Kings Of Suburbia. - AP, 10/27/19...... In other N.J.-related news, Bruce Springsteen's new movie Western Stars earned a disappointing $560,000 from 537 theaters in its weekend premiere in the fourth weekend in October. Combined with grosses from preview sneaks hosted by Fathom Events on Oct. 19 and Oct. 23, the documentary has earned $1 million to date, according to Warner Bros. Western Stars showcases Springsteen performing all 13 songs on his first studio album in five years. It also includes archival footage, personal narration and guest appearances. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/27/19...... Meanwhile, Springsteen's E Street Band member Nils Lofgren, who appears in Western Stars, says he's "glad Bruce is publicly saying he finally wrote some songs for us." "There's nothing booked, but I'm hoping that at some point we start looking at recording. That's up to Bruce, of course. But I certainly feel with the planet falling apart it would be high time and useful for the entire world to have a Bruce record and tour," Lofgren adds. As also a member of the band Crazy Horse, Lofgren also has a significant part in Neil Young's new movie Mountaintop, which chronicles the making of Young's just released album Colorado. "We all showed up with just a rudimentary understanding of the (chord) changes, not any grand specific ideas, and as soon as we started playing with each other it led from that," Lofgren recalls. The process is captured in Mountaintop, which screened for one night only in theaters on Oct. 22 and will likely surface again -- on the Neil Young Archives site if nowhere else. - Billboard, 10/25/19...... 
Grammy-winning record producer Peter Asher, a former member of the '60s British Invasion pop duo Peter & Gordon who has produced for artists such as James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, has just released a new Beatles-related book titled The Beatles From A to Zed: An Alphabetical Mystery Tour. "I had this idea of trying an alphabetical system, taking a leaf out of Sesame Street's book," Asher says. "And so I did it letter-by-letter. Not just song titles but people, instruments and all kinds of different stuff using a particular letter." One of Asher's personal anecdotes that is also included is that James Taylor's song "Something In The Way She Moves," from his self-titled debut album on the Beatles' Apple label that Asher produced, inspired George Harrison's "Something." "James had written that song and George used that same line of lyrics, which James said was a compliment," says Asher, who also hosts a weekly SiriusXM Beatles Channel radio show. Also, "James pointed out that in (his) song he used the lyrics 'I feel fine'." Asked to describe the Beatles as he knew them, Asher says, "Paul was the charmer and is an amazing musician. John could be argumentative and cantankerous. But he could also be spectacularly brilliant." Asher will be on tour with his "A Musical Memoir of the '60s and Beyond" solo performances including Dec. 15 at Bimbo's 365 in San Francisco. - Billboard, 10/28/19...... In other Beatles-related news, Ringo Starr participated in a charity book signing at the famed Sunset Marquis' Morrison Hotel Gallery in West Hollywood on Oct. 24, meeting with 30 fans who have purchased limited-edition prints from his new photography book, Another Day in the Life. The book's release closely coincides with the Nov. 1 release of What's My Name, Starr's 20th studio album via UMe. The radiantly upbeat album, recorded at Roccabella West, Starr's home studio in Los Angeles, features such friends and frequent Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band collaborators as Joe Walsh, Edgar Winter, Dave Stewart, Colin Hay, Richard Page, Steve Lukather and Benmont Tench, as well as his fellow remaining Beatle, Paul McCartney. The emotional centerpiece of the album is "Grow Old With Me," a tune John Lennon wrote for his and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy LP but didn't record (Lennon's demo of the song appeared posthumously on 1984's Milk and Honey). "It moved me," Ringo says. "I did my best and it's very me, but you know, he wrote those words and he'd written songs for me before, so I thought, 'No, I'm gonna do it'." - Billboard, 10/24/19...... On Oct. 25 Diana Ross announced a new set of UK tour dates on Twitter as part of her "Top Of The World" 2020 tour. Tickets for the dates go on sale Nov. 1 at 9:00 a.m. GMT. Ross was recently confirmed as the performer in the hallowed Sunday "Legend Slot" at next year's Glastonbury on June 28, and after that set she'll go on to play at least six more live shows in the U.K. The jaunt is set to wrap up on July 8 with a gig at London's The O2. "I am in total appreciation of all. I'm feeling Great, life is so good. My love, my light is steady and constant. I focus on joy. I love looking at the energy all around me," she posted to her fans. - New Musical Express, 10/25/19...... In a new interview with BBC Radio 2, Brian May of Queen says his band won't be playing the Glastonbury festival in 2020 after clashing with Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis over Britain's controversial badger cull, which May has long opposed. Eavis previously called May a "danger to farming" and criticised the guitarist's opposition to the controversial cull -- arguing that the process is a fight against the impact that bovine TB can cause when cattle become infected. "We won't [play Glastonbury] and there are a lot of reasons for that," May told the BBC2. "One of them is that Michael Eavis has frequently insulted me, and I don't particularly enjoy that. What bothers me more is that he's in favour of the badger cull, which I regard as a tragedy and an unnecessary crime against wildlife. There's a little bit of a schism there, I wouldn't do Glastonbury. Unless things changed radically," May added. - New Musical Express, 10/25/19...... A new tribute album to late blues/jazz legend Mose Allison, If You're Going to the City: A Tribute to Mose Allison, will feature contributions from Jackson Browne and Taj Mahal. The 15-song set also features Allison covers by the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Chrissie Hynde, Iggy Pop, Ben Harper, Richard Thompson, the Pixies' Frank Black and more. It was put together by Allison's daughter Amy Allison, who duets with Elvis Costello on her father's "Monsters of the Id," and musician/producer Don Heffington. "He strikes a chord across all genres," Amy says of her late dad. "You can have a musician you wouldn't ever imagine would be influenced or an admirer of my dad, but they are. I think musicians just really respect him, all different musicians seem to relate in some way, which is so great." A clip of Jackson Browne's contribution, "If You Live," and Taj Mahal's contribution, "Your Mind Is On Vacation," can be viewed on YouTube. - Billboard, 10/28/19...... 
John Fogerty has shared a rippin' live version of the title track of his 1985 album Centerfield on Soundcloud.com, which appears on his upcoming live album and film 50 Year Trip: Live at Red Rocks. "I'm really happy about the life that song has had," Fogerty says. "Back when I wrote it I liked it, but I probably thought I was really tempting the Fates to try and mix rock n' roll and baseball. I knew there had been other baseball songs over the years, and they really didn't become hits -- except maybe 'Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)' by The Treniers. But I just said, 'By golly, I'll just do it anyway,' and it worked out." Though he played "left out" as a youth, Fogerty, a San Francisco Bay Area native, has been a baseball fan from a young age, indoctrinated to root for the New York Yankees by his father and later becoming a San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's fan. "My dad would talk about this fabled (Yankees) team back east when Babe Ruth played -- and I was so young I thought he was still playing," Fogerty recalls. "It was just this mystical, magical thing I kind of adopted, and then I eventually got my own teams to root for." Fogerty says he's ready to make some new music -- his first since 2013's Wrote a Song For Everyone and his first of all-new songs since 2007's Revival. "I'm very much working on new songs and trying to find the right musicians who really do what I'm trying to do," he explains. "It's a process. I'm getting very antsy about not having done it this year, although apparently I've had some distractions here to keep me busy. I don't quite have the urgency I had in 1969; I've got a family and a beautiful wife and those things sort of have the priorities. But I sure want to get this rolling, I really do." - Billboard, 10/25/19...... Motörhead released a box set of vinyl reissues, 1979, via Sanctuary Records on Oct. 25, which contains half-speed remasters of the band's classic '79 albums Overkill and Bomber, alongside two newly unearthed live shows from that year and an LP of outtakes from both titles. The package features seven LPs in total, as well as a 7-inch "No Class" single, a Bomber tour program, Overkill sheet music, and a 40-page book of insightful liner notes. - Billboard, 10/25/19...... A posthumous memoir from Prince,, The Beautiful Ones, was released on Oct. 29 and contains no bombshells, though word is Prince very much wanted to provide some, and a mere 28 memoir pages written in Prince's elegant script and quirky style. Though the project was thrown into chaos when Prince died on Apr. 21, 2016, of an accidental drug overdose, his estate ultimately decided to press on, allowing co-writer Dan Piepenbring and his publishing team free access to the pieces of his life left behind at his beloved Paisley Park, including the contents of his vault. Piepenbring says their last conversation was just four days before Prince died, and focused on Prince's parents and their conflicting influences in his life. Many of the photos in the book are familiar to hardcore Prince fans and it includes a heavy dose of previously published interviews with Prince. - AP, 10/26/19...... 
Carlos Santana announced on Oct. 28 the itinerary for his upcoming spring 2020 European leg of his "Miraculous 2020" world tour. Santana will kick off the jaunt on Mar. 14 at the Unipol Arena in Bologna, Italy, playing several cities including Budapest (3/19), Vienna (3/20), Cologne (3/23), Glasgow (3/26), London (3/27), Amsterdam (3/31) and Stockholm (4/3) before wrapping in Helsinki on Apr. 5. The Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is marking the 20th anniversary of his Supernatural album and the 50th anniversary of his classic 1970 sophomore release, Abraxas. The tour will also feature what Santana calls "the new hymns and songs of tomorrow" from his band -- which includes his wife and drummer Cindy Blackman Santana -- from his 2019 Rick Rubin-produced album Africa Speaks. - Billboard, 10/28/19...... Elton John was forced to postpone an Oct. 26 concert in Indianapolis, Ind., due to illness. "It is with the heaviest heart that I'm forced to deliver the news that I am extremely unwell and therefore unable to perform at Bankers Life Fieldhouse tonight," John wrote in an announcement on social media a few hours before the concert was set to begin. "I absolutely hate to let my fans down, but I owe it to you to put on the best show possible and unfortunately that's simply not possible. The date will be rearranged for March 2020, and I promise I will deliver the show you deserve. Thank you so much for your support and understanding," Elton added. The Indianapolis show, part of John's "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour, has now been rescheduled for Mar. 26, 2020. - Billboard, 10/26/19...... In a new interview with Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper published on Oct. 27, Pete Townshed of The Who revealed his 2003 bust for using his credit card to access a child porn website "sort of saved my life." Townshend, who later accepted an official caution and was placed on Brtain's sex offenders registry for five years, has always maintained his innocence, claiming he was merely researching the issue of online child porn. "Just for the record, my arrest was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. It probably saved my life," he told the publication. Explaining further, Townshend said that he'd been putting off having a test for bowel cancer, which he eventually booked in after police raided his home. "While I was waiting for the police to go through my computers I decided to have that long-postponed colonoscopy," the 74-year-old guitarist explained. "The doctor showed me the polyp. He said 'this would have killed you in six months.' So it sort of saved my life." - WENN/Canoe.com, 10/28/19...... Former Police frontman Sting's Rainforest Fund has announced a benefit concert with performances by Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, James Taylor and more this December. The organization founded by Sting and his wife and actress Trudie Styler will host their 30th anniversary benefit concert at Beacon Theatre in New York with actor Robert Downey Jr. serving as host. The event, called We'll Be Together, will also welcome Bob Geldof, Shaggy, Ricky Martin and Eurythmics to celebrate artists and songs from the '80s and '90s -- when the Rainforest Fund says music and activism united to change the world and MTV brought it to life with sound and vision. "We'll Be Together is a nod to the past benefits such as Band Aid, Live Aid and Farm Aid that united music and global issues to ignite a revolution of social change and awareness," said Styler in a release. "With the Amazon blighted by fire this summer, and a real and growing awareness of climate change, there has never been a more important or more opportune moment to fight to protect our forests. All life on earth depends on their survival." Tickets for the show will be available for purchase by the general public beginning at 9:00 am on Nov. 1. - Billboard, 10/24/19...... Paul Barrere, guitarist and singer for the rock group Little Feat, died on Oct. 26 in a Los Angeles hospital due to side effects from an ongoing treatment for liver disease. He was 71. Little Feat's lead guitarist, singer and main songwriter, Lowell George, died in 1979. But Barrere was a foundational part of Little Feat's funky, blues-inflected Southern rock. He wrote or co-wrote some of the band's most beloved songs including "Skin It Back," "Time Loves a Hero" and "Old Folks Boogie." After initially auditioning as a bassist, Barrere joined the band three years after its founding in 1969. The band would carve out a distinct, danceable American sound of their own that melded blues, rockabilly, country, gospel and funk. Little Feat is currently on a 50th anniversary tour that Barrere sat out due to his health. It was set to wrap up on Oct. 27 in Wilks-Barre, Pennsylvania. Bonnie Raitt, with whom Barrere also played, remembered the guitarist, calling him "a cornerstone of one of the greatest bands of all time." "We will hold him in our hearts and celebrate his life and music always," she said. - AP, 10/27/19...... 
Veteran movie producer and former Paramount Pictures chief Robert Evans, who produced such classic '70s and '80s films as Chinatown and Urban Cowboy, passed away on the evening of Oct. 26. He was 89. Even though Hollywood history is filled with colorful characters, few can match the tale of Mr. Evans, whose life would seem far-fetched if it were fiction. With his matinee-idol looks but little acting talent, Mr. Evans was given starring roles in a few movies and then, with no studio experience, was handed the production reins at Paramount in the 1960s. When he left the exec ranks, his first film as a producer was the classic Chinatown, and he followed with other hits, like Marathon Man and Urban Cowboy. Eventually, his distinctive look and speaking style turned him into a cult figure, and he had the distinction of being the only film executive who starred in his own animated TV series. Amid the successes, his wife, actress Ali MacGraw, left him for Steve McQueen, her costar in the 1972 caper movie The Getaway, a love triangle that got huge media attention. (MacGraw was the third of Mr. Evans' seven wives.) In 1980, Mr. Evans was arrested for cocaine possession and a few years later, was involved in an even bigger scandal: the murder of would-be Hollywood player Roy Radin during the production of The Cotton Club. Due to his association with Radin, Mr. Evans became a material witness in the execution-style slaying, though no proof of Mr. Evans' knowledge of or connection to the murder was ever established. Drug dependency and the studios' changing corporate culture plagued Mr. Evans' later career. When he eventually resurfaced at Paramount in the '90s, his production track record was mostly undistinguished (The Saint, Sliver). But by then his larger-than-life persona was already the stuff of Hollywood legend. Evans parodied himself in the film Burn, Hollywood, Burn (1998), and Dustin Hoffman, a longtime friend, borrowed liberally from Mr. Evans in creating the character of an outrageous producer in the 1997 satire Wag the Dog, earning an Oscar nomination in the process. In 1998 Mr. Evans suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on one side and unable to speak, but he eventually made a full recovery after much therapy. He made a triumphant return in some sense with the 2002 documentary adaptation of The Kid Stays in the Picture, in which Mr. Evans idiosyncratically discussed his life. Mr. Evans, who was married and divorced seven times, is survived by his son, Josh, an actor and director, and a grandson. - Reuters/Variety.com, 10/28/19.
This summer, Queen in partnership with YouTube Music and the band's label Hollywood Records launched a "You Are The Champions" project in which 10,000 Queen fans from more than 120 countries submitted their renditions of three Queen classics -- "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Don't Stop Me Now" and "A Kind Of Magic." Now the band has selected three of the best fan-made videos for "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Don't Stop Me Now" and "A Kind Of Magic" to become the official Queen videos for those respective songs. "It's one of the most rewarding things that can happen to an artist of any kind: to see that our work has inspired folk all around the world to create their own performances and visual art is a thrill," Queen guitarist Brian May says. "And the diversity of their vision is astonishing. Big thanks to everyone who participated." The "You Are The Champions" campaign was created to celebrate Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" becoming the the first pre-1990s video to reach one billion YouTube views. - Billboard, 10/24/19...... Although Elton John had been rumoured to be among the headliners for the U.K.'s 50th anniversary Glastonbury festival next year, the Rocketman took himself out of the running on Oct. 23 by announcing he will be performing shows in the U.S. that conflict with the festival's June 26-28 dates. John announced he will be performing shows in Dallas on June 26 and 27. Other acts rumoured to be performing at Glastonbury 2020 include Sir Paul McCartney, Fleetwood Mac, Taylor Swift, The 1975, Foals and Green Day, however the only confirmed act so far is Diana Ross, who will performing in the coveted Sunday legends slot. Sir Elton continues to promote his recently released memoir, Me, and is in the midst of a long U.K. run of his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour that began in September and will run through December. - New Musical Express, 10/23/19...... 
Paul McCartney shared a new music video on Oct. 23 for his 1993 animal rights advocacy tune "Looking For Changes" as part of the music legend and avid animal rights activist's collaboration with animal ethics organization PETA. The animated clip shows scenarios in which lab workers get tricked by the animals they are about to experiment on, as a cartoon McCartney and his furry friends head over to Capitol Hill to demand government "changes in the way we treat our fellow creatures." Sir Paul's video comes after U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard asked National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins for a plan to reduce the use of animals in experiments during a hearing in September. According to PETA, studies show that 90% of basic research used with animals doesn't lead to treatments for humans. The Environmental Protection Agency then announced its plan to end all tests on mammals. - Billboard, 10/23/19...... Moviegoers in Bruce Springsteen's hometown of Asbury Park, N.J., attending Springsteen's new movie Western Stars at the AMC Lowes Freehold Cinema on Oct. 19 were delightfully surprised when the Boss himself showed up at the theater to introduce two preview screenings of the film. Springsteen told audiences that since his band knew it wasn't going to tour, he had to try to figure out a way to bring the music to his audience and decided to release the Western Stars movie, which was shot in a barn in front of a small audience at Springsteen's property in Colts Neck. The film officially hits U.S. theaters on Oct. 26. - AP, 10/22/29...... Seventies reggae legend Bob Marley's song "Turn Your Lights Down Low" was covered by two contestants on the NBC talent show The Voice on Oct. 21. During part three of the battles, contestant Kiara Brown went head-to-head with fellow contestant Royce Lovett with a cover of the song, originally recorded by Marley and his band the Wailers for the classic album Exodus. The judges, which include John Legend, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani decided to give Lovett the win, who Stefani said "has so much character, personality and dynamics." A clip of Lovett's peformance can be viewed on YouTube. - Billboard, 10/22/19...... Producers of the Who's Broadway adaptation of their classic 1969 album Tommy announced on Oct. 21 that New York audiences will get another chance to witness that sensory experience when the musical "Tommy" returns to the Great White Way for dates that are to be announced soon. The new production will again directed by Des McAnuff, who was instrumental in developing the material for the stage when it premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in Southern California in summer 1992 and became an instant hit. The production transferred to Broadway the following spring and went on to win five Tony Awards, including best original score for Pete Townshend and best direction of a musical for McAnuff, as well as scenic design, lighting and choreography (it lost out on best musical to "Kiss of the Spider Woman.") Featuring such songs as "Pinball Wizard," "Acid Queen," "Listening to You" and "I'm Free," the show tells the story of a British Army captain's young son, Tommy Walker, traumatized into apparent deafness and blindness and subjected to neglect, abuse and drugs before finding fame as a pinball champion and eventual spiritual leader. McAnuff and Townshend recently reunited at an Oct. 14 one-night-only benefit concert performance of the musical at La Jolla Playhouse, marking the album's 50th anniversary. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/21/19...... Cable network HBO filed paperwork in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court on Oct. 20 to appeal a decision to allow the Michael Jackson estate to enforce a non-disparagement clause in a 1992 contract that provided HBO with rights to air a televised concert following the release of Jackson's album Dangerous. The pay cabler wants another shot at convincing a court that the Jackson estate can't go to arbitration over its Emmy-winning sex abuse documentary Leaving Neverland. HBO has argued that the legal claims are premised on an old agreement that has been fully performed by the parties and thus terminated. It further contends that the Jackson estate is attempting to trample on its First Amendment rights by using a quarter-century-old, nearly forgotten contract as "a perpetual platform to police HBO's speech." An attorney for the Jackson estate described HBO's appeal as "bogus (and) nothing more than HBO's latest desperate attempt to cover up the truth about its shoddy journalism." - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/21/19...... 
An estate auction of late Steely Dan guitarist Walter Becker took place at Julien's Auctions' Beverly Hills location on Oct. 18 and 19 and fetched $3.3 million, overall, surpassing initial estimates of $1-$2 million on opening day. The auction featured 600 guitars and 400 amps that belonged to the acclaimed musician, renowned for his quiet perfectionism in the studio with longtime musical partner Donald Fagen. "It's phenomenal," said Darren Julien, owner of Julien's Auctions. "Who else had this many guitars and this many amps? Who else had a collection like this? It's unbelievable. And he didn't just buy them because they looked great. He literally played all of them and that's what made this collection unique." The auction was attended by Becker's widow, Delia, who said her husband was "obsessed with sound" and guitars were stored "everywhere." In addition to storage spaces in New York and Hawaii, their New York apartment was filled with guitars and Delia said "amps were lined up at the foot of the bed, under every table, the dining room table was all amps and then all the floor space." One of Becker's favorite guitars to play at concerts, a green sparkly Strat-style guitar purchased from New York based guitar maker Chihoe Hahn in 2011, sold for a whopping $68,750 to a buyer bidding over the phone. At a private VIP reception held a couple of days before the auction, guests included Becker's daughter, Sayan, Men at Work frontman Colin Hay and Village Studios owner Jeff Greenberg, where some of Steely Dan's best known hits "Peg" and "Hey Nineteen" were recorded. "I'd rather have Walter here and not see all this stuff for sale," said Greenberg. "But it's pretty trippy, right? These are spectacular guitars. He was magical. Their records are still magical. It's some of the greatest music ever made." Becker died of esophageal cancer at age 67 in 2017. - Billboard, 10/21/19...... Appearing recently on the U.K. TV programme The Jonathan Ross Show, punk rock icon Iggy Pop was asked about his younger days in the Stooges and how he once stuck his tongue into an electric socket. "Well it was an electric train transformer," said Pop correcting Ross before adding: "I tried spider webs too. I tried to smoke them. You know you've got to start somewhere." As for the experience itself, he described it as "harsh." When host Jonathan Ross asked Pop if he was surprised that he's still alive, he said: "No its brinksmanship. My psychiatrist told me in the '70s 'you have amazing brinkmanship, you go to a certain place and you know when to pull back'. I always have and I'm a very conservative guy in my daily life. I go to bed early." Pop released his latest album, Free in September, and will make a one-off appearance as part of The EFG London Jazz Festival. Pop will perform his new record in its entirety at The Barbican Centre on Nov. 21, and it will be his only UK date of the year. - New Musical Express, 10/21/19...... A previously unreleased track from Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, "Wanted Man," has been shared on YouTube for the first time ahead of the release of the 15th installment of Dylan's Bootleg Sessions series. Travelin' Thru, 1967 - 1969: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 15 hits stores on Nov. 1 and will feature 47 unheard and sought after Dylan recordings. Dylan wrote "Wanted Man," which appears on disc 3 of the 3-disc set, for Cash and it later became a hit for the late country star. - NME, 10/21/19...... It was announced on Oct. 20 that 10km of an Australian motorway on the actual "Highway To Hell" will close in March 2020 to host a rolling AC/DC tribute concert in memory of the 40th anniversary of the death of AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott. On March 1, the Canning Highway, the motorway Scott would travel down regularly in his youth, will close between Canning Bridge and Fremantle to play host to the world's longest festival stage, featuring 8 bands playing AC/DC covers, including Amyl and the Sniffers, Shonen Knife and more. The stretch of motorway that will close is known as the real "Highway To Hell," named after a series of fatal crashes along the stretch and immortalised in the band's iconic 1979 album of the same name. Part of the 2020 Perth Festival, the event will reportedly mimic AC/DC's video for "It's A Long Way To The Top," which saw them playing on the back of a truck as it rode through Melbourne. The closing date of the event will coincide with the exact 40th anniversary of Scott's ashes arriving at Fremantle Cemetery. "It was like, 'We just have to do this', despite the ridiculous size of it," says event director Iain Grandage. Meanwhile, former AC/DC singer Brian Johnson said earlier in 2019 that he will "absolutely" tour again with AC/DC, after he was forced to quit the band in 2016 after suffering hearing loss. Johnson and Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh have also confirmed they've been in the studio together and new music could be coming from them. - NME, 10/20/19...... 
Carly Simon is getting mixed reviews for Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie, her just released book about her relationship with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. One reviewer notes that in the memoir, Simon does not quite seem to grasp that Jackie O was not a very good friend: "In one section, she describes needing to take a Valium in a restaurant bathroom after waiting hours for her 'friend,' terrified that Jackie ditched her for something better. When Jackie finally arrived she claimed to have been 'stuck in an elevator,' a story Simon, even after all these years still seems to buy." Another reviewer has pointed out that Simon's relationship with Onassis does not sound at all like friendship, a revelation that the book's editors were perhaps too kind to point out: "When Jackie asks Simon to find a band to play daughter Caroline Kennedy's wedding, the musician is not only flattered, but grateful. She books the band and even sings with them. It never occurs to her how canny Jackie was to snag a Grammy- and Oscar-winning artist for free." - Jezebel.com, 10/20/19...... Meanwhile, Patti Smith was interviewed by the U.K. paper The Guardian as part of a promotional tour to promoter her new book, Year of the Monkey. Asked to name a book she was unable to finish, Smith replied by naming The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain. "It gave me such anxiety that I threw up. I never finished it -- and still can't bear to," the author and musician said. Elsewhere, Smith revealed that Little Women was the book that changed her life and that the book she wish she had written was The Adventures of Pinocchio by Italian writer Carlo Collodi. "[It's] the perfect book for any age," she said of Collodi's book that later became the basis for the 1940 Disney movie Pinocchio. "It addresses creation, the war between good and evil, redemption, and transfiguration in one beloved tale. I have loved it since age seven and have long wished to write something similar." - NME, 10/19/19...... TV producer and executive Al Burton, who developed and or produced such famous '70s sitcoms as One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman for Norman Lear died on Oct. 22 at his home in San Mateo, Calif. He was 91. Mr. Burton was also a force in baby boomer entertainment and marketing who forged a career that spanned the first six decades of television and included concerts, beauty pageants and other live events. Mr. Burton was also the producer of Charles in Charge, Win Ben Stein's Money (for which he won a Daytime Emmy award) and Turn Ben Stein On for Comedy Central. Mr. Burton's gift for spotting talent helped ignite the careers of Ben Stein, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael J. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jimmy Kimmel, Ricky Schroder, Pamela Anderson, George Clooney, Valerie Bertinelli and MacKenzie Phillips, among others. In the '60s, Mr. Burton began live, outdoor, summer pop music broadcasts from Pacific Ocean Park in 1960, including the first live TV performance of the Beach Boys. He launched his first Teen-Age Fair in 1962, and it drew attendance of 256,000. He also booked the Rolling Stones for their first U.S. appearance as well as other acts like the Doors, Ricky Nelson, Lesley Gore and The Four Seasons. He retired to the Bay Area in 2006 and is survived by his wife, Sally, and their daughter, Jennifer. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/23/19...... 
Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker and Marlon Wayans have joined Jennifer Hudson in MGM's upcoming Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect. Whitaker will play Franklin's father, a Baptist minister and popular preacher who was unfaithful to his wife, while Wayans will play Ted White, Franklin's first husband, whom she married when she was 19 and who was abusive. Hudson is portraying Franklin. Directed by Tony winner Liesl Tommy, the biopic follows the Queen of Soul's rise to fame in the 1960s and 1970s and chronicles her abusive marriage. The film will feature several of Aretha's best known songs, including "Respect," "I Say a Little Prayer," "Think," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "Spanish Harlem," "Amazing Grace" and "Chain of Fools." - Billboard, 10/18/19...... Nick Tosches, a literary music writer who looked older than his years and cloaked himself in a noir-ish persona, died on Oct. 20 t the age of 69. Tosches made a career of questioning the origins of inspiration, often tracing it back to ancient times, and finding the precise language with which to express it. Tosches was known by music fans for his essays and reviews, and especially his two classic biographies. His book on Jerry Lee Lewis, 1982's Hellfire, was once described by Rolling Stone magazine as "quite simply the best rock and roll biography ever written." A decade later, his biography of Dean Martin explored the life of the boozy pop singer and actor with reportorial detail and literary language, and it was once rumored to be a Martin Scorsese film, with Tom Hanks attached to star. - Billboard, 10/23/19...... Ed Cherney, a Grammy and Emmy-winning recording engineer who worked on such seminal works as Bonnie Raitt's Nick of Time, Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven," The Rolling Stones' Bridges to Babylon, and Willie Nelson's "My Way" among hundreds more, died on Oct. 22 from cancer. He was 69. Other artists he worked with included Bob Dylan, Bette Midler, Elton John, Sting, Etta James, Bob Seger and Jackson Browne, among others. "Eddie was a real sonic genius," says producer Don Was, who worked with Cherney on the Raitt and Rolling Stones' albums, among others. "He knew how to add some ear-pleasing sparkle and sheen while keeping the music feeling intimate and natural... A terrific person and a great friend. He is utterly irreplaceable." - Billboard, 10/22/19.
On Oct. 15, the Cleveland-based 
Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa were in attendance at the New York premiere of his new Western Stars movie, in which he performs songs from the album backed by a band and full orchestra at his family's Stone Hill Farm in Colts Neck, N.J. "I was surprised, because I hadn't seen it in so long," Scialfa said on the blue carpet before the premiere. "I hadn't even remembered that we did all those silly things. So, it's actually very, very sweet. It's really a lovely surprise," she added. Between each song Springsteen shares commentary and draws connections to his own life, and his voice accompanies archive footage and home movies of his family. Several amusing scenes from their honeymoon touched Scialfa, who missed the September world premiere of the film at the Toronto International Film Festival. Springsteen says he has no plans for a Western Stars tour, instead he's heading back into the studio to work on a new E-Street Band record. He laughed at the notion of incorporating recent social and political upheavals in the lyrics of the band's new music, instead saying he's "leaning toward the personal." "Most of what I've written so far ruminates a little bit about some of the things from my past," he said. Also attending the NYC premiere were Steven Van Zandt, Ralph Lauren, Clive Davis, Jon Stewart, Edward Burns, Harvey Keitel and music mogul Jimmy Iovine. A 
In a new interview with PlanetRock.com, Queen drummer Roger Taylor has hit back at critics of the group's 2018 Oscar-winning biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. "The trouble with us is, we're too f---ing popular, and a lot of the media just hate that," Taylor said. He added that although there were a handful of "decent" reviews, "there were many that were kinda sneering and superficial." "I thought, 'You just don't get it, do you?'," the drummer said. "You weren't moved, and whatever, but fuck you actually. F--- you all the way to the bank, actually... I think people know a lot more than film critics, and the word of mouth via social media is so much more powerful than review from a guy who probably watches 40 movies a week, and has probably lost the essence of the joy of a movie," he added. Meanwhile, Queen has blocked Pres. Donald Trump from using their music once again, after Trump featured Queen's 1977 iconic rock anthem "We Will Rock You" in a new campaign video. "Don't expect this video -- which uses Queen's "We Will Rock You" in its entirety -- to remain up for long," wrote Buzzfeed's Adam B.Vary on Oct. 10. "A rep for Queen told me tonight that the band 'has already entered into a process to call for non use of Queen song copyrights by the Trump campaign. This is ongoing'," Vary added. It's believed that the clip was eventually taken down on Oct. 13. While Trump is yet to delete the tweet, an official notice now states: "This media has been disabled in response to a report by copyright owner." Queen previously locked horns with Trump in 2016, when the then Republican presidential nominee walked onstage at the Republican National Convention to "We Are the Champions." The band said they did not want their "music associated with any mainstream or political debate in any country" and said they didn't want the 1977 song "to be used as an endorsement of Mr. Trump and the political views of the Republican Party." Prince and Nickelback have also made similar moves against Trump from using their music at campaign rally and in campaign ads in recent weeks. - New Musical Express, 10/17/19...... In related news, Lynyrd Skynyrd is pushing back over the use of their classic 1973 signature sone "Free Bird" in a violent video aired during a recent gathering of Donald Trump supporters during a conference at the president's Trump National Doral Miami golf club in Florida. A spokesperson for the band has confirmed that the group had not authorized the use of "Freebird" in the nearly four-minute video that appears to use doctored footage from the 2014 video game "Kingsman: The Secret Service" in order to depict Trump murdering reporters and anchors from CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Buzzfeed, PBS, Politico and many other media organzations using a handgun and a knife inside the so-called "Church of Fake News." "The use of Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Freebird' in the video as depicted was unauthorized," the band said in statement. The mock rampage also shows Trump attacking, striking and killing such political rivals as former Pres. Barack Obama, former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, late Sen. John McCain, Sen. Bernie Sanders and a member of Black Lives Matter. The video ends with a smiling Trump putting the head of a CNN reporter on a stake. - Billboard, 10/16/19...... Country star Kacey Musgraves, who has been covering Gloria Gaynor's 
Pop songstress Dionne Warwick has teamed up with such acts as Aloe Blacc, Andra Day, Johnny Mathis, Michael McDonald, The Oak Ridge Boys and John Rich for a new Christmas album, 
Beloved TV sitcom star Bill Macy, best known as Maude Findlay's (Bea Arthur) husband Walter Findlay on the 1972-1978 Norman Lear-produced CBS series 
Speaking of Michael Jackson, among the revelations in Elton John's upcoming biography 
Eddie Van Halen is reportedly suffering from throat cancer which he believes he contracted after years of sucking on his metal guitar pick. Van Halen, 64, was diagnosed with cancer nearly 20 years ago and has been travelling between the United States and Germany for treatment, according to TMZ.com. He had a third of his tongue removed in 2000 and had reportedly been declared cancer free in 2002 but has now been to Germany to get radiation treatment over the last five years. Although the veteran rocker is a former "heavy smoker," he is said to blame holding the metal pick in his mouth while performing on stage for his diagnosis. A source told TMZ "for the most part it's worked to keep the disease in check" and he is "doing okay." In 2015, he told Billboard that "I used metal picks -- they're brass and copper which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got the tongue cancer. Plus, I basically live in a recording studio that's filled with electromagnetic energy. So that's one theory. I mean, I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot of everything. But at the same time, my lungs are totally clear. This is just my own theory, but the doctors say it's possible." Van Halen's namesake band last performed in October 2015 at at L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl and there were rumors the band's classic lineup were set to perform for the first time since 1984. "Him and (brother) Alex [Van Halen] are sitting there laying back and they're waiting to see what happens next. I think they're on a hiatus," his friend Steve Lukather of Toto said in a podcast in Septmber. In 2012, Eddie underwent emergency surgery for a "severe bout of Diverticulitis" -- small pouches formed in the wall of the intestine that can cause a great deal of pain when inflamed or infected. As a result of his operation, the group postponed the Japan leg of their tour. - TheDailyMail.uk, 10/13/19...... Neil Young has just shared a trailer for his new documentary Mountaintop on 
Diana Ross has been confirmed for the "Legends Slot" during the 2020 Glastonbury Festival in the U.K., set for Michael Eavis' Worthy Farm next June. "I am delighted to say that one of the all-time greats, the wonderful Diana Ross, is coming to Glastonbury to play the Sunday legend slot on the Pyramid next year," Glastonbury co-organizer Emily Eavis tweeted on Oct. 10. "This is a dream come true," Ross responded the same day. "To all the fans across the world, this is my tribute to you. I'm coming to Glastonbury, with love," she added. Previous performers in the coveted "Legends Slot" include Dolly Parton, Jeff Lynne's E.L.O. and Lionel Richie. Other names linked to the 2020 festival include Elton John, Foals and Paul McCartney -- who recently claimed that Glastonbury was looking like a "distinct possibility." However two other acts that were rumoured to be considering a Glastonbury performance, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin, have been ruled out of playing the festival in 2020 by organizers. - Billboard, 10/10/19...... In a new interview with BBC 6 Music, Ringo Starr has confirmed the Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road was not meant to be the group's final album. Until recently, it was thought that the band went into recording the Abbey Road knowing it would be their last until a tape, uncovered by Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn, revealed that the band were discussing a follow up album. "We did do Abbey Road and we was like, 'Okay that's pretty good -- but none of us said, 'OK, that's the last time we'll ever play together'. Nobody said that. I never felt that," Starr said. "We'd made this record, and then we would go off and do whatever we wanted to do. And then Paul [McCartney] would call us and say, 'Hey, you want to go in the studio lads?' and we'd do another one. So it was not the end -- because in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make. So I never felt it was in stone," he added. "It's a revelation," Lewisohn told The Guardian about the tape. "The books have always told us that they knew Abbey Road was their last album and they wanted to go out on an artistic high," Lewisohn said. "But no -- they're discussing the next album. And you think that John [Lennon] is the one who wanted to break them up but, when you hear this, he isn't. Doesn't that rewrite pretty much everything we thought we knew?," he added. - NME, 10/11/19...... In other Beatles news, a recently unearthed interview has revealed that John Lennon's least favorite Beatles song was Rubber Soul's "Run For Your Life." "I never liked Run For Your Life, because it was a song I just knocked off," Lennon told Rolling Stone in a 1970 interview. "It was inspired from -- this is a very vague connection -- from (Elvis Presley's) Baby Let's Play House," Lennon said. "There was a line on it, I used to like specific lines from songs, so I wrote it around that ("I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man") but I didn't think it was that important." - NME, 10/11/19...... The estate of Prince has blasted Pres. Donald Trump for playing Prince's hit "Purple Rain" during a rally in Minneapolis on Oct. 10 without consent, and even after promises it wouldn't ever happen. The president tried working the North Star State crowd with some hometown hits, and Prince's 1984 classic could clearly be heard playing from speakers during the early phases of the event. Soon after, the official Prince account on Twitter responded. "President Trump played Prince's 'Purple Rain' tonight at a campaign event in Minneapolis despite confirming a year ago that the campaign would not use Prince's music," the tweet reads. "The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince's songs." The tweet also carried a photo of a letter confirming that, nearly one year ago to the day, the Trump campaign would "not use Prince's music in connection with its activities going forward" after previously using Prince songs during its rallies. During the rally, the president also got in jabs at such musicians as Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé and Jay-Z. "I didn't need Beyonc and Jay-Z. I didn't need little Bruce Springsteen," Trump said of his 2016 election triumph. He went on to claim Springsteen would "do about two songs, then leave, and everyone leaves with him. And (Hillary Clinton is) still speaking in front of the same lousy crowd. Craziest thing I've ever seen." Springsteen, who is neither little in stature or in size (he's listed at 177cm tall), probably laughed off the insult. In an interview published in Esquire magazine in 2018, the veteran rocker said, ""[Trump] has no interest in uniting the country, really, and actually has an interest in doing the opposite and dividing us, which he does on an almost daily basis. So that's simply a crime against humanity, as far as I'm concerned. It's an awful, awful message to send out into the world if you're in that job and in that position. It's just an ugly, awful message." - Billboard, 10/11/19...... 
Fans of Jethro Tull will be in for a treat this fall as the classic English prog-rockers will be doing a little "living in the past." Tull frontman Ian Anderson says first up will be a four-CD, two-audio DVD expansion of Tull's 12th studio album Stormwatch. 
Folk-rock legend Judy Collins will release a 10-song set of seasonal songs, 
Ginger Baker, drummer and co-founder of 1960s blues-rock supergroup Cream, died on Oct. 6, his family confirms. He was 80. Baker's death follows a 2016 fall in his home and subsequent open heart surgery after being diagnosed with a heart condition, and the news follows recent posts on his social media channels that he was hospitalized in "critically ill" condition. Baker was one-third of the 1960s power trio with guitarist Eric Clapton and bassist Jack Bruce that mixed blues with sunshine-pop, hitting the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart with "Sunshine of Your Love" (No. 5) and "White Room" (No. 6) in 1968. The band split in 1968 and reunited in 2005 for a residency at the Royal Albert Hall, captured that year on the live album Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005. Despite existing for only two years, Cream sold over 35 million records over their lifespan. After Cream disbanded, Baker and Clapton started another blues-rock supergroup, Blind Faith, with bassist Ric Grech and Traffic guitarist Steve Winwood, in 1968. Blind Faith burned out even quicker than Cream, releasing a 1969 self-titled album and undergoing one tour before going their separate ways. In 1972, Baker released two solo albums, Ginger Baker at His Best and Stratavarious, in which he dabbled in jazz fusion and Afrobeat. 
Late in life, Baker often appeared in the press as a lovable, irascible grouch, living in South Africa with his Zimbabwean wife, Kudzai, while treating his emphysema and degenerative spine condition. During Cream's brief reunion in 2005, he sang his oddball interlude "Pressed Rat and Warthog" (from 1968's Wheels of Fire) with ill-fitting socks falling down his legs and fought bitterly with Jack Bruce onstage. "It's a knife-edge thing for me and Ginger," Bruce was quoted as saying in Rolling Stone. "Nowadays, we're happily co-existing in different continents, although I was thinking of asking him to move. He's still a bit too close." Baker also contributed to Public Image Ltd.'s 1986 album Album and in 2009 published an autobiography, Hellraiser: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Drummer. He stayed behind the kit until heart issues forced him to retire from performing in 2016. Even as his health seriously declined, Baker opted to spit in the face of death. "[It] is the final great adventure!. When I die, put me in a lead coffin and throw me out to sea!," he once said. Baker's son, Kofi Baker, released a statement following his father's death on Oct. 6. "The other day I had a beautiful visit with my dad... we talked about memories and music and he's happy that I'm keeping his legacy alive." Kofi, who is a drummer in his own band, admitted in the past that the pair endured a rocky relationship, but added "our relationship was mended and he was in a peaceful place. Thank you all for the kind messages and thoughts. I love my dad and will miss him always." - Billboard, 10/6/19.
The UK's Daily Mail paper has obtained excerpts from Elton John's upcoming autobiography which include the Rocketman revealing that he was "24 hours from death" when he contracted an infection following surgery for prostate cancer in 2017. In the memoir, entitled 
Warner Bros.' new The Joker movie, already having stirred up a fair amount of controversy for its nihilistic R-rated storyline in the wake of a mass shooting in a Colorado theater during premiere week of a previous Batman franchise movie, has come under more fire for using a track by convicted pedophile and '70s glam rock artist Gary Glitter on its soundtrack. The critical and commercial hit uses Glitter's 1972 hit "Rock and Roll Part 2" in a lengthy and pivotal scene, in which star Joaquin Phoenix dances down a long flight of stairs and transforms into the iconic character. Much of the anger on social media has centered on the fact that Glitter could be receiving royalties from Warner Bros. for using his song. "Gary Glitter gets royalties for Joker. They're literally paying a paedophile to use his music in a movie about the consequences of child abuse. I'm off the fence -- this movie is immoral bullshit," tweeted one critic, while another said the track choice was the "most morally questionable" aspect of the film. Glitter, 75, whose real is name Paul Gadd, enjoyed huge success in the 1970s and 1980s as a star of Britain's glam rock scene, but fell dramatically from grace in the late 1990s after being arrested for downloading child pornography. In 2015, he was found guilty of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one count of having sex with a girl under the age of 13, and sentenced to 16 years in prison. However, one Twitter user pointed out that Joker wasn't the first film to use a Glitter track, "Rock n Roll" having been played on 2004's Meet the Fockers. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/7/19...... As a new biopic on screen legend Judy Garland hit U.S. theaters in late September, Barbra Streisand took to Twitter on Oct. 5 to pay tribute to the late star by posting YouTube clips of the pair singing 
Peter Frampton performed the finale of his 2019 farewell tour at The Forum in Los Angeles on Oct. 5. The 69-year-old Frampton announced in February that he's suffering from Inclusion-Body Myositis (IBM), a muscle disorder that causes inflammation, weakness and atrophy, and that he's retiring from live performing after his farewell tour. Billed as "Peter Frampton's Finale -- The Farewell Tour," the show saw Frampton making reference to his disease after night's final number, saying the "love and support of his fans would help him heal," but the show wasn't a bummer. Rather, it felt like a celebration with the singer/guitarist taking a joyful look back at his career, with several thousand people on hand to partake in the party. Dressed in jacket, T-shirt and jeans, Frampton looked lean and fit and it didn't appear that the disease has affected his ability to perform, as he was fine in voice and his guitar virtuosity remained intact for the two-hour set that opened with "Something's Happening" followed by such Frampton Comes Alive! tracks as "Lines on My Face," "Show Me the Way," "(I'll Give You) Money," "Baby, I Love Your Way" and "Do You Feel Like We Do." The show also included a mostly instrumental cover of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" hit hard, following Frampton's intro that noted he once performed the song live with the late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell on vocals. Encores included "Four Day Creep," "I Don't Need No Doctor" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." - Billboard, 10/6/19...... In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Ric Ocasek's widow Paulina Porizkova remembers her last moments with the late Cars frontman. Porizkova, who found Ocasek in his home after his death, said that his recent surgery was not at all the cause behind his death. "I don't know how much I want to say about the surgery, but it was successful. He was recuperating really well," she says. "So his passing was a f---ing shock." She also spoke of bringing cookies home for the singer on the night before his death. "He said, OK, thanks, hon. I had some terrible cookies because I was in the mood for cookies, but I'll have your gooey cookies tomorrow. I think I'm going to bed early since I m feeling a little sore.' And that was the last time I saw him alive." Ocasek died on Sept. 15 aged 75. Porizkova also stated that she was baffled by the New York medical examiner's autopsy on Ocasek, which stated that Ocasek died of atherosclerosis. - New Musical Express, 10/6/19...... Sting has announced he'll release a new live album dubbed My Songs: Live recorded during his "My Songs World Tour" earlier in 2019. "This is my life in songs," Sting writes in the live album's insightful song-by-song liner notes. "Some of them reconstructed, some of them refitted, some of them reframed, and all of them with a contemporary focus." Sting's 2019 My Songs studio album featured updated sonics, dynamics and arrangements based on the way his songs have evolved for him over the years. Meanwhile, Sting will be performing his musical "The Last Ship" in five cities in 2020 starting Jan. 14 at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre followed by runs in San Francisco, Washington D.C., St. Paul, Minn. and Detroit. - Billboard, 10/4/19...... Sony Music and the Michael Jackson estate announced on Oct. 4 that Jackson's This Is It album is getting a limited-edition 10th anniversary box set reissue. Only 1,000 numbered copies will be made of the set that is available for pre-order at the Jackson online store and will be released on Dec. 11. Each will include four LPs on translucent-blue vinyl, a 3-D Blu-Ray disc of the film, a 60-page coffee table book with two dozen previously unpublished pictures and an authentic lenticular concert ticket for the July 24, 2009, concert at O2 Arena in London that was never held because Jackson died 18 days before his comeback series of shows were scheduled to begin. Jackson's This Is It soundtrack came from the movie that captured his final concert rehearsals before his 2009 death. The film was released in theaters that October and had the highest global box office gross of any concert documentary. - AP, 10/4/19...... 
As part of a promotion by AirBnB, KISS and eight KISS fans will set sail on separate boats off the coast of southern Australia on Nov. 18 to perform for great white sharks, with the fans separated from them by a small submarine. While KISS stays above board on one vessel, the fans will be lowered beneath the surface of the water from a second boat into the viewing sub in an area known for shark activity. Using underwater speakers, KISS will begin playing, and the sound will be audible to the submerged fans and the sharks. "I was a little taken aback by it, but they explained that sharks are attracted to low frequencies and so they're attracted to rock 'n' roll," KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley told The Associated Press. "Since we're going to be in Australia, it gives a whole new meaning to doing a concert down under." The event will take place in the Indian Ocean off Port Lincoln, South Australia. KISS will be in full makeup and costumes for the performance, which will be at least four songs. "I'm not sure how much of us the sharks can take," Stanley said. "I'm hoping they know 'Rock And Roll All Nite.'" Proceeds will go to charity, according to AirBnB. Reservations can be made starting at 6 p.m. EDT on airbnb.com/KISS on Oct. 14. - AP, 10/3/19...... In advance of the Oct. 11 release of Freddie Mercury's 
Pioneering African-American actress and singer Diahann Carroll, who made television history with her turns on Julia and Dynasty, died at her home in Los Angeles on Oct. 4 after a long bout with cancer. She was 84. Ms. Carroll was known as a Las Vegas and nightclub performer and for her performances on Broadway and in the Hollywood musicals "Carmen Jones" and "Porgy & Bess" when she was approached by an NBC executive to star as Julia Baker, a widowed nurse raising a young son, on the comedy Julia. Although Ms. Carroll initially didn't want to do the part because she "didn't think the show was going to work, "she eventually became the first African-American female to star in a non-stereotypical role in her own primetime network series. Julia, which premiered in September 1968, finished No. 7 in the ratings in the first of its three seasons, and Ms. Carroll received an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe for her work. After hosting a CBS summer replacement variety show in 1976, she retired from show business and moved to Oakland. Landing the role of Dominique, the half-sister of John Forsythe's Blake Carrington in Dynasty, in 1984 put her back on the map in Hollywood. More recently, Ms. Carroll had recurring roles on NBC's A Different World, ABC's Grey's Anatomy, and USA's White Collar. She also appeared in such films as Eve's Bayou (1997) and on stage as Norman Desmond in a musical version of Sunset Blvd. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2011. She was married four times, to Monte Kay, Freddie Glusman, Robert DeLeon and singer Vic Damone, from 1987 until their 1996 divorce. In addition to her daughter, producer-journalist Suzanne Kay, survivors include her grandchildren, August and Sydney. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/4/19...... Comedian Rip Taylor, known for his extremely flamboyant and enthusiastic personality as well as his penchant for showering people with confetti, died on Oct. 6 of as yet undisclosed causes. He was 84. Born in Washington, D.C. in 1935, Taylor briefly worked as a congressional page. During the Korean War, he joined up with the special services and worked to entertain troops, where he came up with a comedy routine that made him famous, and by the '60s he had become a regular player in the Catskills. Taylor's comedy then became a recurring feature on the The Ed Sullivan Show, though Sullivan himself only referred to Taylor as "The Crying Comedian" when he couldn't remember his name. His frequent TV appearances made Taylor an in-demand comedian, landing him high-profile gigs in Las Vegas in the '70s opening for performers like Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, Judy Garland, and The Kingston Trio. The '70s also saw him transition to the world of television, regularly appearing on Hollywood Squares, The Gong Show, and as a guest host on The Match Game. He played a genit on Sigmund And The Sea Monsters, popped up on The Brady Bunch Hour, and hosted a weird pageant parody series called The $1.98 Beauty Show. Taylor also did voice work in projects like Scooby Goes Hollywood, The Emperor's New School and Tom And Jerry: The Movie. He appeared in movies like Wayne's World 2, Chatterbox and Indecent Proposal (making a rare appearance without his usual toupee). Taylor also somehow became a fixture of the Jackass movies and made a post-credits cameo in Johnny Knoxville's Dukes Of Hazzard. Taylor is survived by his longtime partner, Robert Fortney. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/6/19.