After announcing earlier in February he'll release a new live album and concert film from 1990, Way Down in the Rust Bucket, on Feb. 26, Neil Young has revealed on his Neil Young Archives site that a long-lost 1982 album called Johnny's Island will be "coming to you soon." Describing it as a "complete album" featuring unreleased tracks like "Big Pearl," "Island in the Sun" and "Love Hotel," along with "others you may have heard before," Young posted on Jan. 31 that the set is "being prepared for release," though a specific release date was not provided. Johnny's Island was recorded shortly after his innovative 1982 album, Trans, and was recorded at Commercial Recorders in Honolulu, Hawaii. A representative for Young told Billboard that "due to demand from fans, we do have a very aggressive release schedule from Neil this year." In the summer of 2020, Young released another "lost" album, Homegrown, which he described as "the unheard bridge between Harvest and Comes a Time." - Billboard, 1/31/21...... 
In a new interview with Classic Rock magazine, Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood says he can't remember two years of his life, after previously battling a heavy cocaine habit. Fleetwood shared that there was a period after his band made their iconic 1977 album Rumours when he didn't work for two years and has no recollection of his life during the period. "There's no doubt we were well equipped with the marching powder. That's a well-worn fairytale that gets more like a war story, that gets more and more aggrandised. I'm not minimalising the fact that we were definitely partaking in that lifestyle. But these weren't a bunch of people crawling across the floor with green froth coming out of their mouths, we were working, you know?," he explained, adding that Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks has also addressed the band's drug problem, "so I'm not divulging anything that she hasn't spoken about." "It got out of hand way after the making of 'Rumours'. I remember not working for two years. I can't even remember what I did," he said. Mick went on to confirm that he was the "party animal" in the band, but described Nicks as "a close second." Nicks has admitted to spending "millions" on cocaine and the band would often indulge in cocaine binges before they went onstage. - New Musical Express, 2/5/21...... A female white dove named Divinity that once belonged to Prince has passed away at the age of 28. According to a post on Prince's OfficialPaisleyPark Instagram account, Divinity died peacefully on Feb. 2 after a decline in health due to her advancing years. "She was one of the enduring links to Prince for thousands of fans. She will be missed," said Alan Seiffert, the executive director of Prince's estate. The funk-rocker famously recorded "When Doves Cry" in 1984 and went on to adopt Divinity and a male counterpart named Majesty in the 1990s, with the pair residing in the atrium of Prince's Paisley Park mansion. Majesty, who passed away in 2017, previously made a cameo in the 1992 video for Prince's "Seven," and was seen sitting in the hands of Prince's then-wife, Mayte Garcia. Both Majesty and Divinity subsequently received credits for providing "ambient singing" on the 2002 song "Arboretum." In the wake of Divinity's death, legacy preservationist Mitch Maguire has said that visitors to Paisley Park will be greeted by "a new generation of doves that will continue to grace Prince's home." - NME, 2/5/21...... Chic's Nile Rodgers recently told the Crisis What Crisis podcast that he has been unable to bury his late mom due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Beverly Goodman, 82, passed away on Dec. 27 after a battle with Alzheimer's disease, but the coronavirus chaos has meant Nile has been unable to give her a proper farewell. He says the situation has been extremely difficult for him and his loved ones, but he realizes many other families are also dealing with the same circumstances. "It's horrible, breaking our hearts," Rodgers explained. "When you go there and you see something that's so graphic like that, it really reminds you of images of people thrown into mass graves." Niles had shared his heartache at losing his mother with his Instagram followers just after Christmas, confessing her loss had left him feeling "numb." - Music-News.com, 2/2/21...... 
Alice Cooper allowed fans to stream his new single "Social Debris" for free on YouTube on Feb. 4 to mark his 73rd birthday the same day. "Social Debris" will be included on Cooper's upcoming album, Detroit Stories, which the Coop says celebrates the "golden era of Detroit rock" and his hometown. "The single "Social Debris" is a gift to Detroit, to my fans and to myself," Cooper said in a press release. "The track was written by the original Alice Cooper band. We never thought that we would ever fit in; the Alice Cooper band didn't fit in with anybody, because we were doing things that no other band did. We didn't fit in with the folk scene, we didn't fit in with the metal scene, we really didn't fit in with anything that was going on at that time. We just always felt like we were outsiders... in our own little world. So 'Social Debris' was just the original band writing a song about us, essentially. And it came out sounding like it belonged into 1971. That's just the original band -- you can't change that, it's great." Detroit Stories will drop via earMUSIC on Feb. 26 and also features a cover of the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Rol"' and as well as a new Cooper composition, "Our Love Will Change The World," among others. Cooper recently described the latter as "one of the oddest songs I've ever done." - NME, 2/4/21...... Queen drummer Roger Taylor says he still has a statue of his late bandmate Freddie Mercury in the garden of his Puttenham, Surrey estate after it was removed from outside the Dominion Theatre at Tottenham Court Road in London, where the Queen musical "We Will Rock You" was held, in 2014. "I have a statue of Freddie in the garden, which I love, it's great, it's very big," Taylor told the UK paper The Daily Star. "I also thought it would be very funny to have the statue there and I think Freddie would have found it hilarious. He would have found it really funny," Taylor said of Mercury, who died at age 45 in 1991 due to complications of AIDS. Taylor, who lives at Puttenham Priory with his wife Sarina Potgeiter, recently gave fans a tour around his pad, as he promoted Queen + Adam Lambert's Live Around the World concert DVD and CD. In the Instagram clip, Roger said: "Hi everybody, it's Roger here, I'm deep in the heart of Covid, God help us all, eh? "Now look, our DVD is gonna be downloadable at the end of the month... Like Adam said, put on some glitter, make some cocktails and have some fun." - Music-News.com, 2/3/21...... In a new interview with the BBC's Will Gompertz, Elton John said he has met with UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden over the ongoing visa-free travel controversy in Europe. Elton said he had "very positive" talks with Mr. Dowden about EU travel for UK musicians, but said visa-free touring is not currently "on the cards." "It's much more difficult for young artists to get this together because of all the red tape. Every country has these different rules, there's so much procedure to go through," Elton explained. "People like myself are not really affected by it, we have a foundation of people who can look after it, it still has to be done but it's much easier. [But] we find ourselves in the situation because of Brexit, this has arisen. How do we fix this? How can we fix this? I want the situation to be resolved, so that young people don't have the difficulties of trying to tour in Europe, because it will affect their careers, it will stunt their growth and their creativity," he added. Secretary Dowden later tweeted to say he had "a very positive call" with John and husband David Furnish, and that there was "lots of work going on in Govt on this." Elton was among a host of musicians who all signed an open letter in January which criticised the UK Government's Brexit deal, which has shunned the chance for touring musicians to enjoy visa-free travel in Europe. Meanwhile, John has praised a new BBC Channel 4 drama titled It's a Sin for providing "an incredibly moving account" of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. The drama, which stars Years & Years singer Olly Alexander, follows the lives of four friends living together as the HIV/AIDS crisis begins to emerge in the UK. "Watching it, so many sad and devastating memories came flooding back. Many people were callous, ignorant and cruel. Thank God we have come so far since then," John posted on Instagram. - NME, 2/3/21...... 
A new version of Dolly Parton's classic single "9 to 5" will air in a commercial for Squarespace.com during Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 7). "A lot of people through the years have wanted to change the lyrics to fit certain things they're doing," Parton told the AP of the reworking. "I really thought that was a wonderful thing, especially for Squarespace. They're so into people, new entrepreneurs working after hours to start their own businesses. '5 to 9' seemed to be a perfect thing when they pitched it," she said. Parton also said she had been asked "several times" to perform at the Super Bowl, but had "always kind of chickened out." In another recent interview, the country/pop icon revealed that she had turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice after it was offered by former president Donald Trump's administration, but she couldn't accept it either time. "I couldn't accept it because my husband was ill, and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn't travel because of the COVID," Dolly explained. Parton said during the same interview that she is putting off getting her Covid-19 vaccine shot until "some more people get theirs." The 75-year-old singer, who donated $1 million (£730,000) to vaccine development at Vanderbilt University in her native Tennessee, is eligible to receive the vaccine but feels there are more at-risk people than her. "I'm not going to get mine until some more people get theirs. I don't want it to look like I'm jumping the line just because I donated money. I'm very funny about that. I'm going to get mine though, but I'm going to wait." Meanwhile, Parton was recently announced as one of the guest hosts of the Apple Watch's new Time To Walk series. The feature is being billed by Apple as "an inspiring new audio walking experience" which has been "created to encourage users to walk more often and reap the benefits from one of the healthiest activities." - NME, 2/2/21...... Nancy Sinatra has told the UK paper The Independent that Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks once "gave me the cold shoulder" when the two crossed paths during an event held at the White House during Bill Clinton's presidency. "I met Sheryl Crow and Stevie Nicks, and they gave me a cold shoulder. That was painful for me. It's like they didn't want to be friends," said Sinatra, who is the eldest child of Frank Sinatra. "I don't think they knew what to make of me and my so-called career," she added. "They shunned me a little bit, which I found hurtful. And I didn't quite understand why they did." Sinatra went on to claim that the pair of artists didn't want to speak to her following their introduction. "I tried to make an effort to shake hands, 'So nice to meet you' kind of thing, but they weren't interested," she recalled, adding that Nicks and Crow could have not seen her as an "authentic" musician. "I don't want to put words in their mouths. But yeah, I think there was definitely some of that. I felt like an interloper," she said. Sinatra released a new greatest hits compilation, Start Walkin' 1965-1976, on Feb. 5. - NME, 2/1/21...... In a new interview with radio station The Horn 104.9, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford recalled seeing the 1984 heavy metal mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap with his bandmate Glenn Tipton for the first time. "I love satire. Glenn loves satire. The thing about satire, you can only make satire from great things that have happened in the real world. To us, that was just what Spinal Tap was all about. We could see ourselves in that movie time and time again, whether it was in hotels or losing the way to the stage or things going wrong on stage with the props and the accessories. It was like watching ourselves from the outside looking in," Halford said of the film, which was recognized in 2002 by the Library of Congress as a culturally, historically or aesthetically significant film. Halford added to The Horn: "We roared through the whole thing. It was kind of a miscommunication, I think, that this is about a real band called Spinal Tap and this is a documentary about their life. So some of the people that were in the movie theatre that afternoon that Glenn and I went to see the movie, they were very upset. They made their feelings known as they stormed out of the movie theatre." - NME, 2/1/21...... 
Warner Bros. Pictures has announced that director Baz Lurhmann's forthcoming Elvis Presley biopic will be delayed from its originally scheduled Nov. 2021 release until June 3, 2022. Sources report that Warner's decision to delay the film, which was originally set to be one of its large slate of films to debut in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously, spawns from the film still being in production in Australia with another five weeks of material left to shoot, making it highly unlikely to have made its November release on time without a rushed post-production. Austin Butler (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Dead Don't Die) will star in the lead role as Elvis alongside Oscar winner Tom Hanks, who is playing Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker, and Olivia DeJonge (The Visit), will play Presley's only wife Priscilla Presley. The film recently saw the additions of newcomer Alton Mason as Little Richard and Gary Clark Jr. as Big Boy Crudup. - ComingSoon.net, 1/30/21...... Legendary crooner Tony Bennett has revealed that he has been privately battling Alzheimer's disease in a new article published in AARP Magazine. "Life is a gift -- even with Alzheimer's. Thank you to Susan and my family for their support, and AARP The Magazine for telling my story," Bennet wrote on Twitter. The 94-year-old, who has won 19 Grammy Awards in a career spanning more than 75 years, was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2016. Despite battling the condition, AARP reports that the singer has continued work on the follow-up to 2014's Cheek to Cheek, his collaborative album of jazz standards recorded with Lady Gaga. Bennett is best known for hits such as "Rags To Riches" and "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." A release date for the album is yet to be confirmed. - NME, 2/1/21...... Former Three's Company star Suzanne Somers is packing up hundreds of thousands worth of old clothes to give to charity after listing the home she's lived in since 1977 for $8.5 million. Somers' Palm Springs, Calif., compound with five villas was just put up for sale, but, "We've been giving stuff to [local charity thrift shop] Revivals for the past two months," her producer husband Alan Hamel told The New York Post's "Page Six" column. Sales at the local shop will go to benefit the Desert AIDS Project. "Never in my life did I ever think I'd let go of this house, and this property... We've had Thanksgivings here for 43 years. But, all of a sudden it's just a good idea," Somers said of her 7,279-square-foot home which sits on over 28 acres. Somers -- whose wellness books include the recent A New Way to Age -- has been recovering after a spill down the stairs at her home in 2020, but says "the good news about my having to be on my back [is that] two more books popped into my head. They're both vibrating as best sellers, I don't know which to do next." - PageSix.com, 1/31/21...... 
Hal Holbrook, an award-winning actor acclaimed for his one-man portrayal of American literary legend Mark Twain and whose film work included portraying the mysterious "Deep Throat" in All the President's Men, died on Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills. Mr. Holbrook's death was confirmed late on Feb. 1 by his assistant, Joyce Cohen. Born on Feb. 17, 1925, in Cleveland, Oh., Mr. Holbrook served in the Army in Newfoundland during World War Two and then attended Denison University in the mid-1950s where he first portrayed Twain, who died in 1910 at age 75. Mr. Holbrook enrolled in an honors program about the writer at the university, which lead him to create a one-man show entitled "Mark Twain Tonight," with his first big exposure coming when he took the act to the popular The Ed Sullivan Show. He went on to star in the show well into his 90s for 63 years, before announcing his retirement in Sept. 2017. "Mark Twain is something precious to me. It's my side arm through life," Mr. Holbrook told NPR in 2007. Tall, with an air of dignified reserve, Mr. Holbrook also gave distinguished portrayals of Abraham Lincoln, winning an Emmy for lead actor in a limited series in 1976 for specials based on Carl Sandburg's biography of the president. He also won Emmys for a television special playing Captain Lloyd Bucher in 1973's Pueblo and as lead actor in a dramatic series in 1970 for the series The Bold Ones: The Senator. Other significant roles were as "the major" in the original Broadway production of Arthur Miller's "Incident at Vichy," as Martin Sheen's partner in That Certain Summer, the first TV-movie to give a sympathetic portrayal of homosexuality, and as "Deep Throat," the key source in the Watergate scandal that brought down Richard Nixon's presidency, in the 1976 movie All the President's Men. His other films included The Group (1966), Wild in the Streets (1968), Magnum Force (1973), The Star Chamber and Wall Street (1987), The Firm (1993), That Evening Sun (2009) with his third wife Dixie Carter, and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012). Mr. Holbrook also had a recurring role with Carter, a star of the sitcom Designing Women, who died in Apr. 2010 at age 70. He also had multi-episode roles in other popular TV shows, including ER, The West Wing, Bones and Gray's Anatomy. In 2008, at age 82, Mr. Holbrook became the oldest male performer ever nominated for an Academy Award for his supporting role in Into the Wild. He is survived by his children, Victoria, David and Eve. - Reuters, 2/2/21.
A legal dispute between the ill-fated Woodstock 50 music festival and its financial backer Dentsu has been settled out of court, according to court documents. Woodstock 50, an anniversary event celebrating half a century of the iconic New York festival, was cancelled in July 2019 after months of controversy and changing plans. The festival had been beleaguered by problems in the six months leading up to its planned Aug. 2019 date, mainly related to finding a new location for the event. After it seemingly finally found a home in the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland, organizers which included Michael Lang, one of the organizers of the original legendary 1969 event, then announced that the three-day festival would no longer be taking place. After a host of artists including Santana, The Black Keys, Jay-Z and Miley Cyrus pulled out of performing at the show, Lang announced he was releasing the performers from their contracts. Now Variety is reporting a court filing from Woodstock 50 against Japanese advertising firm and the festival's financial backer Dentsu last summer has been settled as of Dec. 15, 2020 with the Supreme Court of New York State. "The parties have settled this matter on confidential terms," the document reads, adding that "the Complaint is dismissed with prejudice, and without fees or costs to any party." The suit reportedly sought tens of millions of dollars from Dentsu, alleging that the company "sabotaged" plans for the 50th anniversary festival. A separate report by Billboard says that Dentsu "has agreed to pay an undisclosed settlement sum covering damages but not unrealized profits." - NME, 1/30/21...... 
Peter Frampton and his Peter Frampton Band have shared a new cover of Radiohead's "Reckoner" on YouTube, which appears on Frampton's forthcoming covers album Frampton Forgets the Words. The LP, due out on Apr. 23, sees Frampton and his band covering songs by the likes of David Bowie, George Harrison, Stevie Wonder, Roxy Music, and others. The English-born rock legend recorded the album in his Studio Phenix in his adapted home of Nashville, and says it's "a collection of ten of my favorite pieces of music." "My guitar is also a voice and I have always enjoyed playing my favorite vocal lines that we all know and love," Frampton said in a press release. "These tracks are my great band and me paying tribute to the original creators of this wonderful music. So much fun to do and I really hope you enjoy it too." - New Musical Express, 1/30/21...... A rare demo of Black Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell" recorded during a rehearsal session in 1979 with new Sabbath frontman Ronnie James Dio has surfaced online to commemorate the fourth anniversary of late Sabbath bassist Geoff Nicholls' death. The demo, which can be heard on YouTube, was posted by Nicholls' estate with the description "I recently found this SONY C-90 tape cassette amongst the thousands in Geoff Nicholls' archive. On the inlay card is written 'ON & ON HEAVEN & HELL ORIGINAL VERSION GEOFF PLAYING BASS'.... Nowhere does it say that this is Black Sabbath on the cassette. On And On Heaven And Hell may have been the original working title." The page noted that, on the chance that it isn't Black Sabbath playing on the tape, then it was "a good cover version." - NME, 1/29/21...... Paul McCartney has photobombed a TikTok user who failed to clock her close encounter with the rock icon until she returned home. In late January TikTok user Mae Archie (@maebe.later) shared a Queen-soundtracked clip in which she looked back at images she had snapped on her phone during a past visit to New York City. The image in question, taken at E 42nd Street, is then revealed on-screen in the closing split second. McCartney is seen crossing the street in the opposite direction to Archie, who is turning back to the camera. "So I just left the MET [The Metropolitan Museum of Art] to see the Play It Loud exhibit and was legit looking at the Beatles set and everything [because] I love music," Archie explained. "I wanted to take a cute photo and so I took it on the crosswalk but I was facing my mom so I never actually saw Paul until I turned around." However, Macca's true identity failed to register during the brief crossing of paths. At the time of writing, the TikTok upload has registered over 28,000 likes. Meanwhile, UK fans won't have the opportunity to see the former Beatles member headline the legendary Glastonbury festival after it was announced on Jan. 21 that Glastonbury has been cancelled for a second year running because of the Covid-19 pandemic. "With great regret, we must announce that this year's Glastonbury Festival will not take place, and that this will be another enforced fallow year for us," founder Michael Eavis and his daughter Emily said in a statement on Twitter. - NME, 1/29/21...... In other Beatles related news, a new streaming music TV channel called the Coda Collection is set to launch in February backed by the likes of John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono and Janie Hendrix, who heads Experience Hendrix, the estate of Jimi Hendrix. The venture also has the backing of Sony Music Entertainment, with Coda Collection set to screen a number of new documentaries, music film premieres and rare concert footage by a host of much-loved artists including Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. "The Coda Collection tells the stories of the most iconic moments in music with fresh perspectives, unique editorial and exclusive video content," a statement about the channel says. The Coda Collection will launch in the US on Feb. 18 via Amazon Prime Video, with a global roll-out planned for later on 2021. It will cost $4.99 per month, with a free seven-day trial for Prime members. More info can be found at codacollection.co, and a trailer has been uploaded to YouTube. - NME, 1/28/21...... 
Iconic country/pop singer-songwriter-actor Kris Kristofferson has announced his retirement after more than five decades in the entertainment industry. Though the 84-year-old officially retired in 2020, the public was unaware of his decision until it was mentioned in a press release on Jan. 27, issued to announce a change of management of Kristofferson's estate from his longtime manager Tamara Soviano to Morris Higham Management. It was also stated that Kristofferson's son, John, has stepped in to oversee his father's business dealings, including his record label, KK Records. "Kris is ageing; Kris is 84. It didn't feel like such big news to us," Saviano told Variety. "That's why there was no announcement: It was just sort of a slow changing of the guard thing." Kristofferson had remained active, touring solo and with members of Merle Haggard's band The Strangers, until February of 2020. Kristofferson gave his last full concert in Jan. 2020 as part of the fifth annual Outlaw Country Cruise, which can be viewed on YouTube. - NME, 1/30/21...... The surviving members of The Doors have shared an excerpt from their forthcoming graphic novel Morrison Hotel via Rolling Stone magazine. Published by Z2 Comics, the biographical adaptation is a collaboration between writer Leah Moore, daughter of comic book legend Alan Moore, and surviving band members guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore.The graphic novel, part of a celebration of the band's fifth album's 50th anniversary, will be officially released on Mar. 16 and is available to pre-order at the Doors' website. - NME, 1/28/21...... Tom Jones has shared a cover of Malvina Reynolds' "No Hole In My Head" ahead of the release of his new album of covers entitled Surrounded By Time. "No Hole In My Head" is the second single from the album, and has been reimagined by Jones as an upbeat pop-rock piece. Also including covers by the likes of Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan, it will be the Welsh crooner's first album since 2015's Long Lost Suitcase, and is due out Apr. 23 through EMI. - NME, 1/28/21...... Phil Collins' ex-wife Orianne Cevey has announced she'll be auctioning off several of her former husband's gold records, some with an asking price of as little as $100. Cevey hopes to raise millions of dollars from the sale which includes gold discs featuring Collins drumming on Robert Plant's 1982 album Pictures at Eleven and two gold records from Plant's 1983 recording The Principle of Moments. Each of the albums has an estimated value of $100 to $1,000. The auction at Kodner, based in Florida, is scheduled to be held on Feb. 3. A representative said that Cevey was organizing her belongings as she prepares to move to a smaller property, and she is finding the process "cathartic." The auction states that 10% of the proceeds from some items, including the Collins memorabilia, will be donated to the Never Give Up Foundation for help for children and adults with spinal cord injuries as a result of accidents or medical problems. The former couple have undergone a bitter public split since she married her boyfriend Thomas Bates, 31, last August after saying she was going away "on business." Cevey initially refused to move out of the couple's Miami mansion before relenting under threat of legal action and Collins, 69, has now sold the estate. - DailyMailUK.co.uk, 1/27/21...... Hilton Valentine, the guitarist and a founding member of the '60 British Invasion group The Animals, passed away on Jan. 29 of as yet undisclosed causes, according to The Animals record label Abkco Records. Valentine, who was recruited by his fellow Animals members Eric Burdon, Chas Chandler and Alan Price, was responsible for the riff on one of the band's most well-known songs, "The House Of The Rising Sun." The song reached Number 1 in the UK, US and Canada in 1964. Other hits included "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," "It's My Life" and "We Gotta Get Out of This Place." Valentine left The Animals in 1966 and continued to work as both a solo artist and as part of a number of other groups. Abkco paid an emotive tribute to the "pioneering" musician. "Our deepest sympathies go out to Hilton Valentine's family and friends on his passing this morning, at the age of 77," they wrote. "A founding member and original guitarist of The Animals, Valentine was a pioneering guitar player influencing the sound of rock and roll for decades to come. We at Abkco have been privileged to serve as stewards of The Animals catalog and his passing is felt in a truly profound way by the entire Abkco family." - NME, 1/30/21...... 
Oscar and Emmy-winning veteran actress Cloris Leachman, perhaps best known as the delightfully neurotic Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and her own subsequent sitcom Phyllis, died of natural causes on Jan. 26 in Encinitas, Calif. She was 94. Ms. Leachman also won a supporting actress Oscar in the early part of the decade for a far different character, an embittered small-town housewife in Peter Bogdanovich's elegiac The Last Picture Show; she would later reprise the role in the film's less successful sequel Texasville. Both films were based on the writings of Larry McMurtry. Overnight success for the actress, however, came only after two decades of hard work in theater, television and some films. Ms. Leachman, born on Apr. 30, 1930 in Des Moines, Ia., was in her 40s when stardom finally hit. She won a total of eight primetime Emmys, both for drama and comedy, and one daytime Emmy. Ms. Leachman's TV credits also included Malcolm in the Middle, Touched by and Angel, Diagnosis Murder, Joan of Arcadia, Two and a Half Men, The Office, Phineas and Ferb, Hawthorne and Blue Mountain State. In 2010-14, she was a series regular on Fox's Raising Hope, drawing her 19th Emmy nomination. In 2003, she played the grandmother on the bigscreen in the romantic comedy Alex and Emma and in the darker comedy Bad Santa. Other movie credits include Lovers and Other Strangers, The People Next Door, and WUSA. She was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2011, and her memoir, Cloris: My Autobiography, was published in 2009. She penned the bestseller with George Englund, whom she divorced in 1979. Survivors include sons Adam, George Jr. and Morgan, an actor; and a daughter, Dinah. - Variety.com, 1/27/21...... It has just been reported that Sheridan Peterson, a chief suspect as the hijacker who parachuted from a plane in 1971 in the legendary DB Cooper hijacking case, died in California on Jan. 8 at age 94. Peterson was thought to possibly be the "Dan Cooper" who hijacked Northwest Orient Flight 305 on Thanksgiving eve 1971. Cooper handed a flight attendant a note saying that he had a bomb and then demanded $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes. When the flight landed in Seattle, the hijacker exchanged the flight's 36 passengers for the money and parachutes and ordered the flight crew to take off and head for Mexico City. Somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nevada, Cooper jumped from the rear door of the aircraft with a parachute and the ransom money. The pilots landed the plane safely, but the identity of the hijacker and what happened next remains a mystery to this day. Peterson was considered a chief suspect due to his experience as a smokejumper -- a firefighter that parachutes into remote areas to tackle wildfires -- and love of skydiving. He served as a marine during the Second World War and later worked as a technical editor at Seattle-based Boeing. Peterson is by no means the only person identified as DB Cooper. An HBO documentary released in 2020 called The Mystery of DB Cooper profiled several contenders. - Independent.co.uk, 1/30/21...... 
Acclaimed African-American actress Cicely Tyson, who specialized in portraying strong Black women caught up in life's struggles during a 60-year career that earned her three Emmys and a Tony Award, died on Jan. 28, her manager announced in a statement. She was 96. No cause of death was given. Ms. Tyson had recently completed a memoir, Just As I Am, which had been just released in January. Ms. Tyson's most-lauded performances came in historical works such as the 1972 movie Sounder in which she played a Louisiana sharecropper's wife. That film earned Ms. Tyson her only Academy Award nomination, but she received an honorary Oscar in Nov. 2018. She also won two Emmys for the same TV movie, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman -- one for best actress in a miniseries or movie and one for actress of the year. The 1974 movie covered a woman's life from slavery to the 1960s. Ms. Tyson picked up another Emmy 20 years later for Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Her nine other Emmy nominations included playing Binta, the mother of the slave Kunta Kinte in the groundbreaking 1977 miniseries Roots, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife, Coretta, in King, and the inspirational educator in The Marva Collins Story. Born in Dec. 1924 in New York and growing up in Harlem, Ms. Tyson was a secretary and model before taking acting jobs in the 1950s. In the early 1960s, she became one of the first Black actors to appear regularly on U.S. television, playing George C. Scott's secretary on the series East Side, West Side. Tributes to the actress poured in on social media by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Rihanna, LeVar Burton, Dan Rather and actress Viola Davis, who said "You made me feel loved and seen and valued in a world where there is still a cloak of invisibility for us dark chocolate girls." - Reuters, 1/29/21.
A recently discovered letter written by John Lennon's aunt Mimi Smith reveals the former Beatles member was "bubbling over" with excitement about returning to the UK in a phone call the night before he was shot dead in Manhattan on Dec. 8, 1980. A month later his aunt Mimi replied in a letter to Daily Express journalist Judith Simons, who had written a letter of condolence following the death of Mimi's famous nephew. "Dear Judith, Thank you for your letter, kind thoughts," Smith wrote. "I'm trying to accept this terrible thing which has happened, but finding it very hard. He had such faith himself, I'm trying to do the same. He phoned the night before, witty, funny, bubbling over with excitement, coming over very soon. Couldn't wait to see me. So I'm glad of that. If I'm in London, I'll get in touch with you. Kind thoughts to you too. Mimi." The letter from Judith Simons' estate was recently discovered by Tracks Ltd, which provides valuations of music memorabilia. According to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, it provides "solid confirmation that, but for his murder, Lennon would have returned to Britain during 1981 for the first time in 10 years." - New Musical Express, 1/26/21...... Appearing on Apple Music's radio show hosted by Zane Lowe on Jan. 25, Elvis Costello said he wanted to be remembered for his iconic 1977 Saturday Night Live performance in which he made an abrupt decision to switch up his setlist. "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but there's no reason to do this song here," Costello announced during his performance, which can be viewed on 
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Beach Boys co-founder Al Jardine says a TV special to mark the 60th anniversary of the iconic American band could soon be in the works. Although Jardine says a full commemorative tour to mark the 60th anniversary of the formation of the band in 2021 isn't likely, the band is considering "10 or 20 areas of the world... Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and have a renaissance, and present some of this great material again." Asked about a TV special, Jardine responded: "We'd like to explore that possibility." "It's always good to be able to look forward to something positive now, especially coming out of this horrendous year, to bring some beautiful, fresh, positive music to the world again," he said. Jardine says the band have taken on advisors to help them explore all options in terms of their career. However Jardine's former bandmate Brian Wilson is seemingly unaware of any 60th anniversary projects. "There is nothing on the table at this point," Jean Sievers, Wilson's manager, stated, adding: "No one has spoken to us about it or reached out." - Music-News.com, 1/24/21...... The Kinks have announced a livestream event called "The Moneygoround" to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their recently reissued 1970 album Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One. Expanding on the anniversary celebrations, frontman Ray Davies has collaborated with dramatist Paul Sirett on a new 45-minute play, based on the themes and lyrics of the record itself, featuring poet/actor Ben Norris in the central role. "'The Moneygoround' is a one-man show documenting a character facing the challenging circumstances of making an album under extreme pressure," Davies said in a statement. "This play, similar to a psychodrama, follows the ups and downs of the character as he plays out events in his life. He confronts the dark forces surrounding him after falling into an emotional and financial 'hole' eventually he is saved by a song after confiding in his friend, Lola." The special is set to be broadcast as part of a one-off livestream show on Jan. 29 at 8:00 pm GMT/3:00 pm EST on the Kinks' YouTube channel. A trailer for "The Moneygoround" has also been shared on 
Genesis have announced a series of rescheduled tour dates along with a new video from their rehearsals, which has been shared on 
Emmy-winning veteran talk show host Larry King died on the morning of Jan. 23 after having been hospitalized with Covid-19 since late December. He was 87. "With profound sadness, Ora Media announces the death of our co-founder, host and friend Larry King, who passed away this morning at age 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles," Mr. King's official Twitter account read. "For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry's many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster." Called "the master of the mic" by Time magazine, Mr. King was a mainstay on the CNN cable news channel, with his genial style, trademark suspenders and black eyeglasses. Larry King Live, which ran for 25 years until 2010, featured interviews with newsmakers and celebrities, as well as calls and emails from viewers. Mr. King's show was mostly based out of CNN's studios in Los Angeles, but at times he traveled with the show to CNN outposts in New York, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. With ratings beginning to suffer, Mr. King left the program in 2010 but continued to host specials for CNN. Mr. King also made cameos in numerous films, including Ghostbusters (1984), Dave (1993), Primary Colors (1998), Enemy of the State (1998), America's Sweethearts (2001), Shrek 2 (2004) and Shrek the Third (2007). His TV appearances included Murphy Brown, Spin City, The Practice, Everybody Loves Raymond, Ugly Betty, The Closer, Big Love, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, The Simpsons and 30 Rock. Mr. King also wrote a newspaper column in USA Today for 20 years, and when it ended, he took to Twitter, amassing 2.8 million followers with his folksy observations. Born Lawrence Harvey Zeigler, Mr. King grew up in Brooklyn. He started his career as a media personality in Miami Beach, first as a disc jockey, then as host of interview shows and as a color commentator for sportscasts. In addition to his Lifetime Achievement Emmy, Mr. King also nabbed two Peabody Awards and 10 CableACE awards. He is survived by his eighth wife, singer and actress Shawn Southwick-King, and children Cannon, Chance and Larry Jr. - Variety.com, 1/24/21...... Baseball Hall of Famer and one-time home run king Hank Aaron passed away on the morning of Jan. 22. He was 86. A cause of death has not been reported, but the Atlanta Braves confirmed that he died in his sleep. Born Henry Louis Aaron in Mobile, Ala. in 1934, Mr. Aaron played in sandlots and started his pro career in the Negro Leagues' Indianapolis Clowns in 1951. He made his way through the minor leagues until age 20, then made his Major League debut and started his 23-year-career with the then-Milwaukee Braves. He recorded his first of 755 home runs on Apr. 23, 1954, in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals. His first season saw him finish fourth in the rookie of the year voting as he hit .280 with 13 home runs and 69 RBIs. It was just the start of what became one of the most legendary careers in baseball history. Without ever reaching the 50-home run mark in any season, Mr. Aaron surpassed Babe Ruth with his 715th home run as a member of the Atlanta Braves in 1974. Mr. Aaron would play a few more seasons before calling it a career on Oct. 3, 1976. He immediately transitioned into a role with the Braves as director of player development, a position he held until 1989. He then became a senior vice president for the Braves, a title he held for decade. "We are absolutely devastated by the passing of our beloved Hank," Atlanta Braves chairman Terry McGuirk said in a statement. "He was a beacon for our organization first as a player, then with player development, and always with our community efforts. His incredible talent and resolve helped him achieve the highest accomplishments, yet he never lost his humble nature." - CBS46.com, 1/22/21.
Bob Dylan is being sued by the wife of his late former songwriting collaborator Jacque Levy after Levy's estate claim that they had not been sufficiently compensated for his songwriting credits, particularly for Dylan's 1976 No. 1 album 
In related news, Stevie Wonder has called on the Biden administration to launch a commission on racial inequality. The Motown legend shone a light on Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 18, which Wonder helped champion during its passage, and reminiscesd about meeting Dr. King when he was 14 years old, hailing him a "true hero and inspiration." But in the four-minute video which has been shared on his 
Meanwhile, '70s disco stars The Village People have issued a statement after the outgoing president played their late '70s smash 
The estate of late enigmatic English singer-songwriter Nick Drake has signed a new, global publishing deal with the U.K.-based Blue Raincoat Music Publishing, a joint venture between Blue Raincoat Music and Reservoir Media. Under the agreement announced on Jan. 18, Blue Raincoat Music Publishing will represent Drake's entire back catalogue of songs in conjunction with Reservoir, including the three albums he released on Island Records before his untimely death in 1974 at age 26: Five Leaves Left (1969), 
Former Pink Floyd principal Roger Waters has shared a new studio version of the Pink Floyd track "The Gunner's Dream" on 
Legendary music producer Phil Spector, whose eccentric and revolutionary "Wall of Sound" production technique transformed rock music and who was later convicted of murdering aspiring actress Lana Clarkson inside his Los Angeles mansion, died on Jan. 16 at the California state prison where he was serving a 19-year to life sentence for murder. He was 81. Spector reportedly contracted Covid-19 in December, had been hospitalized but returned to prison in mid-January. On Jan. 16 he was readmitted to the hospital, where he died from complications of Covid. Born in Phillip Harvey Spector in The Bronx on Christmas Day 1940, Spector was taken by his widowed mother to Los Angeles at age 12. Learning the piano and guitar while in high school, Spector was influenced by the emergent R&B songwriting of writer/producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and began hanging out during their L.A. studio sessions. Spector started his own career in 1958 when he formed a singing trio with Annette Bard and Marshall Lieb called The Teddy Bears, and the group enjoyed massive international success with his song "To Know Him Is To Love Him," the title coming from an inscription on his father's tombstone who had died in 1950. When The Teddy Bears failed to consolidate on their initial success, Spector turned to production first on the West Coast (under Duane Eddy's producer Lester Sills), then returning to New York to become an understudy of Leiber and Stoller at Atlantic Records. During this period Spector co-wrote the Ben E. King hit "Spanish Harlem" and played the guitar break on The Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk." His first self-produced New York hit was Ray Peterson's "Corinna, Corinna" in 1960, and other Spector-produced hits included Curtis Lee's "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" and Gene Pitney's "Every Breath I Take." Around this time he became known as a bizarre figure on Manhatten boulevards with his long flowing hair, black cloak and wraparound dark glasses, however New York apparently became too overpowering for him and he returned to L.A. to form his own label Philles Records with Lester Sill. His first signing was The Crystals, who he found in New York and intended to groom as his own version of the city's then topselling girl group, The Shirelles ("Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?"). The Crystals' first hit was a song Spector had co-written, "There's No Other (Like My Baby)," an international hit in Oct. 1961 and gave the first hints of his "Wall of Sound" production techniques he later employed. Assuming full ownership of Phillies Records in 1962, Spector recorded The Crystals' second smash single, the stunningly innovative teen anthem "He's a Rebel," using studio support from the likes of Leon Russell and Sonny Bono. Also present was Jack Nitzsche, who became the regular Phillies arranger and later became a member of Neil Young's Crazy Horse. Spector then signed another New York girl group, The Ronettes who included two sisters, one of them being Veronica "Ronnie" Bennett whom Spector later married. The Ronettes' first hit was the Spector/Ellie Greenwich/Jeff Barry composition "Be My Baby," and later hits included "Baby I Love You" and "The Best Part of Breakin' Up." 
Meanwhile The Crystals continued to burn up the charts with such pop classics as "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me," and other successful acts signed and prodced by Spector included Bob B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans and Darlene Love, helping "The Tycoon of Teen" as he became known to become a millionaire by age 21. In 1963, Spector signed The Righteous Brothers and produced what many have hailed as the ultimate pop record, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," the zenith of his "Wall of Sound" technique that became an international hit in January 1965. The following year Spector pulled off a comparable production classic for Ike and Tina Turner, "River Deep, Mountain High," however this time the American public failed to accord him the attention his new masterpiece deserved after white radio stations declared the record too black, and black stations declared it too white. From that point Spector became ever more the eccentric, returning to L.A. to take up residence in his closely-guarded Hollywood home, drinking heavily and sometimes threatening the artists in his studio with a gun. He made a cameo in the 1969 counterculture movie classic 
Spector claimed that Clarkson's death was an "accidental suicide" and that she had "kissed the gun." However, his driver claimed Spector had told him: "I think I've killed someone." Spector's first trial in 2007 ended in a mistrial, but a subsequent retrial in 2009 found him guilty of murder in the second degree. He was given a sentence of 19 years to life in prison, from which he would have been up for parole in 2024. During the prosecution, several women gave testimony that Spector had pointed a gun at them when they had spurned his advances, illustrating his history of domestic abuse. Sharing a photo of herself with her former husband in the studio on 
On Jan. 12 Neil Young shared a statement on his 
BMG Music announced on Jan. 14 that it has acquired Fleetwood Mac co-founder and drummer Mick Fleetwood's interest in the band's recordings. The deal gives the company Fleetwood's royalty interest in over 300 recordings, including Fleetwood Mac hits including "Dreams," "The Chain," "Go Your Own Way" and "Landslide." It excludes the band's recorded work from their first two albums. The deal is particularly lucrative following the recent viral success of "Dreams" on TikTok, where the song racked up 2.8 billion views and led to a streaming and sales bonanza for the 40+-year-old hit and its attendant album Rumours. In the wake of the viral TikTok clip, "Dreams" racked up 182 million streams and sold 126,000 downloads, while Rumours moved over 86,000 albums in the U.S. in 2020 and was propelled back into the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart. In the process, the band garnered a legion of new, younger fans. In a statement Fleetwood said the deal was "a wonderfully inspiring marriage between two creative partners that understand all aspects of the business." BMG already owns the rights to the theatrical, record and mediabook release of the 2020 all-star concert event "Mick Fleetwood & Friends," which celebrated Fleetwood Mac founding guitarist Peter Green and the band's early years. In December, Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks struck a wide-ranging partnership with Primary Wave that included a joint venture deal and the sale of a majority stake in her publishing copyrights. Earlier in 2021, Lindsey Buckingham sold 100% of his writer's and publisher's share of his 161-song catalog to Hipgnosis. - Billboard, 1/14/21...... Many fans in the Kiss Army know singer/guitarist Paul Stanley is a huge soul and Motown fan; now the musician has shared the first taste of his debut album 
He's "on the road again," this time to receive his first dose of coronavirus vaccine. Willie Nelson was given a jab of the Moderna variety vaccine at a drive-through clinic in Cedar Park, Tex. on Jan. 13, according to his his wife Annie. "We're lucky," Annie says. "We made sure that [he] wasn't cutting anybody -- in fact, the healthcare workers were kind of angry that we had waited so long because he is 87 years old and has COPD." A series of photos posted to Family Hospital Systems' official 
King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp and his wife Toyah Willcox delivered a cover of Metallica's classic "Enter Sandman" during a recent lockdown performance, and posted the performance on 
As The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Golden Girls star Betty White prepares to turn 99 years old on Jan. 17, the actress has revealed her birthday plans involve another one of her iconic shows, The Pet Set. "What am I doing for my birthday? Running a mile each morning has been curtailed by COVID, so I am working on getting The Pet Set re-released," she revealed, referencing the 1970s pet-themed series she hosted. "And feeding the two ducks who come to visit me every day," Betty also shared, adding "The Pet Set is one of my favorite shows. I'm thrilled it's going to be seen again after all these years." The Pet Set focused on White's life long love for animals and included many memorable celebrity guests of the day including legends Mary Tyler Moore, Doris Day, Burt Reynolds and more. While there were plenty of dogs and cats, more exotic animals like tigers, elephants, lions, gorillas, cougars, zebras and bears also would appear in-studio. The Pet Set is being released on streaming platforms and 
Sylvain Sylvain, the founding guitarist and songwriter with the 1970s punk band New York Dolls, died on Jan. 13 following a battle with cancer. He was 69. The New York Dolls formed in 1971, years before the punk movement and glam-rock set charts alight on both sides of the Atlantic. Born Sylvain Mizrahi in Cairo, Egypt, Sylvain and his family moved to France then settled in New York. It was in the Big Apple where the guitarist would join forces with David Johansen, Johnny Thunders, Jerry Nolan and Arthur Kane to form the New York Dolls, and set the standard for punk rock swagger and style. The band flirted with mass-scale commercial success, but such albums as