Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on June 5th, 2021

Eddie Van Halen's son Wolfgang Van Halen is blaming the coronavirus pandemic for possibly preventing his late dad from receiving more treatment abroad due to international travel restrictions in place when Eddie died on Oct. 6, 2020, following a battle with cancer. Eddie's cause of death was determined to be a cerebrovascular accident, or a stroke. He also had several underlying causes, including pneumonia, the bone marrow disorder myelodysplastic syndrome and lung cancer. Wolfgang, in an interview with the Washington Post, now reasons that his father might still be here had the pandemic not stopped international travel, which resulted in Eddie not being able to get further radiation treatment. "In the summer of 2020... if I were to open for Van Halen, he would come out and play a solo for a song," Wolfgang said. "That would have been the end-all dream.... I will forever loathe Covid and how it was handled because they stole that moment from me." Wolfgang is gearing up to open for Guns 'N Roses on the US leg of their summer 2021 tour, and his debut album, Mammoth WVH, drops on June 11. It features the previously unreleased tracks "Don't Back Down," "Think It Over," "Feel," and "Distance." In February, Wolfgang dedicated a TV performance of the latter song to his late father, with whom he played with in Van Halen. Home videos of Wolfgang as a baby with his dad played behind his new band Mammoth WVH as they performed on the late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, including footage of the pair at the beach and Wolfgang playing the drums. - New Musical Express, 6/3/21...... In other Van Halen-related news, co-founding vocalist David Lee Roth has released a new song titled "Giddy-Up." The track was originally issued to accompany his interactive graphic novel The Roth Project, which debuted online in Nov. 2020 and can be experienced in full at TheRothProject.com. The Roth Project incorporates illustrated visuals with music and narration, all made by Roth. The story blends classic Western with sci-fi themes, imagining a future where artificial intelligence has gained the capability to imitate human behaviour. The 17-chapter comic features original music performed by Roth, written with guitarist John 5 of Rob Zombie's band. "Giddy-Up," which has been shared on YouTube, is the second single to be officially released from its soundtrack, the first being "Somewhere Over the Rainbow Bar and Grill." The artwork for that single arrived with a dedication to Roth's former bandmate Eddie Van Halen, who died in Oct. 2020. - NME, 6/1/21...... Barbra Streisand is preparing the release of Release Me 2, the follow-up to her 2021 collection Release Me which featured rare and previously unreleased tracks recorded between 1967's Simply Streisand and 2011's What Matters Most. Streisand announced the new LP on her Twitter page alongside the album cover artwork of her face: "Release Me 2 - Coming August 6 - A new collection containing previously unreleased tracks from Barbra's vault." A track-listing for the set of previously unreleased songs is yet to be shared, however the album will reportedly feature "duets with Willie Nelson and Kermit the Frog.... with songs by Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Barry Gibb, Paul Williams, Randy Newman and Carole King," among others. Streisand's last studio album was 2018's Walls, which she said was inspired by ex-Pres. Donald Trump and the political climate at the time. "These times gave me energy," she said in an interview then. "I felt so passionate about it. And music gave me that creative way to express my feelings." - Music-News.com, 6/3/21...... Webster's Dictionary defines "pansexual" as "a person who is not limited or inhibited in sexual choice with regard to gender or activity," and The Who's Pete Townshend has revealed that he thinks he used to be one. In an interview with The Daily Star's "Wired" column the guitarist/singer said at one point in his life he would have been involved sexually with anybody, regardless of their biological sex, gender or gender identity. "With 'I'm A Boy' [a 1966 The Who single] it's the idea of masculinity and the way that men are seen to be at a time when I often forget, to be homosexual, to be pansexual, as I think I probably was, but not anymore. But I think I was ready to fall into bed with anybody that would have me," Townsend said. He continued: "I think I forget that homosexuality was still illegal, so these adventures had to be couched in vignettes of humour and irony." In February 2021, Townsend told the UK's Uncut mag that he's been working on new music and "wants to make another" record after Covid 19 restrictions ease if it makes financial sense. "If the moment comes, I'll go in and start," he said. The Who's last album was 2019's WHO, their first record in 13 years. - NME, 6/1/21...... KISS vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley is praising a "really good" and "interesting" script for the forthcoming KISS biopic Shout It Out Loud helmed by Pirates of the Caribbean 5 director Joachim Rnning. In an interview with the UK's Download Festival host Kylie Olsson on June 1 ahead of KISS's headline slot at this year's festival, Stanley said: "Look, you get once chance to do it, and I would rather not do it than do it half assed or poorly. Our director is the real deal. He did Maleficent 2, and he's not some hack; he knows how to make movies. It should be great. Casting hasn't begun yet. But that will be interesting too." When Stanley was asked which actor he would like to play him in the forthcoming film in the interview, which has been shared on YouTube, he answered: "For casting to be accurate in terms of age, we are looking at actors in their early 20s. Honestly, I don't know a whole lot of actors in their early 20s. When people get asked these kinds of questions, they'll say, 'Oh, Brad Pitt,' or this one or that one. Well, those guys are in their 50s or 60s, so you're talking about another generation of actors. And I'm the first to say I'm not up on a lot of them." He continued: "But as the casting process goes on, I'll certainly be there and watching. It'll be interesting to see how someone else -- be it the casting people or the director -- how they view who I am and who they see doing that. I think I'll learn a lot about their perception of me by who they cast." Shout It Out Loud is a co-production of Atmosphere Entertainment and Universal Music Group, and Netflix is reportedly close to securing a deal for it. - NME, 6/2/21...... Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters has shared the liner notes for the band's remaster of its 1977 Animals album, claiming his ex bandmate David Gilmour wanted them removed because of credit disputes. Waters is alleging that Gilmour wanted the true extent of his songwriting and artistic contributions buried because, as Rogers put it, Gilmour intended to "claim more credit...than is his due." In a Twitter post on May 31, Waters pointed fans to his official website RogerWaters.com for more details on how he claims Gilmour "does not dispute the veracity" of the liner notes, which place Waters at the center of the project's conception, songwriting and cover art design, but that Gilmour "wants that history to remain secret." "What precipitated this note is that there are new James Guthrie Stereo and 5.1 mixes of the Pink Floyd album 'Animals', 1977. These mixes have languished unreleased because of a dispute over some sleeve notes that Mark Blake has written for this new release," Waters noted in his message. He continued: "This is a small part of an ongoing campaign by the Gilmour/Samson [Polly, Gilmour's wife] camp to claim more credit for Dave on the work he did in Pink Floyd, 1967-1985, than is his due. Yes he was, and is, a jolly good guitarist and singer. But, he has for the last 35 years told a lot of whopping porky pies about who did what in Pink Floyd when I was still in charge. There's a lot of 'we did this' and 'we did that', and 'I did this' and 'I did that.'" Waters went on to post Blake's liner notes, which will not feature on the long-delayed remastered release of the iconic prog-rock band's 10th album. Elsewhere in the post Waters said that he's been working on his memoirs during the coronavirus pandemic, and in his forthcoming book he will reveal more instances where it's alleged that Gilmour claimed too much credit. - NME, 6/1/21......Queen drummer Roger Taylor has announced he'll launch a 14-date solo UK tour this fall, launching on Oct. 2 at the O2 Academy in Newcastle. The "I'm In Love With My Car" singer, who will release his sixth studio album Outsider the day before, will be performing cuts from that LP alongside Queen classics and also visit Manchester, York, Cardiff, Liverpool, Norwich, Bath, Bournemouth, Plymouth, Nottingham, Bexhill, Guilford and Coventry before wrapping on Oct. 22 at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire in London. Ticket information can be found on the Shop.EMI.com site. News of Taylor's solo tour follows Queen + Adam Lambert summer 2021 tour being rescheduled for 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The tour will be Taylor's first live performances outside Queen in more than two decades. - NME, 6/1/21...... Famed American criminal defense attorney F. Lee Bailey died on June 3 under hospice care in Atlanta, Ga., after a period of ill health, one week before his 88th birthday. Mr. Bailey's name first came to nationwide attention for his involvement in the second murder trial of Sam Sheppard, an Army surgeon accused of murdering his wife. He later served as the attorney in a number of other high-profile cases, such as Albert DeSalvo, a suspect in the "Boston Strangler" murders, heiress Patty Hearst's trial for bank robberies committed during her involvement with the Symbionese Liberation Army, and US Army Capt. Ernest Medina for the My Lai Massacre. Mr. Bailey was also a member of the so-called "dream team" in the trial of former football player O. J. Simpson, who was accused of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. For most of his career he was licensed in Florida and in Massachusetts, where he was disbarred in 2001 and 2003 respectively, for misconduct while defending marijuana dealer Claude Louis DuBoc. Following his disbarment, he moved to Maine, where he ran a consulting firm. He later sat for the bar exam in the state of Maine, though in 2013 he was denied a law license by the Maine Board of Bar Examiners, a decision upheld by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in 2014. Mr. Bailey also once participated in a mock trial about the Paul McCartney "Paul Is Dead" rumor that was aired locally in New York City on Nov. 30, 1969, and was never re-aired. He was also the host of the short-lived TV series Good Company on ABC in 1967 and the syndicated Lie Detector show in 1983. Mr. Bailey was married four times and had two sons from his first marriage and another son from his second marriage. - Wikipedia.com

Grammy-winning pop singer B.J. Thomas, known for such million-selling hits as "Hooked on a Feeling" and the No. 1 "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head", died on May 29 at his home in Arlington, Tex., due to complications from stage four lung cancer. He was 78. Thomas's official Twitter page confirmed the news later in the day with the brief post: "It is with profound sadness we confirm the passing of BJ Thomas." Born in Hugo, Okla. on Aug. 7, 1942, Thomas grew up in Houston, Tex. where he absorbed a wide range of influences, from Hank Williams' traditional country to the soul of Jackie Wilson and Little Richard. From humble origins of singing in church, Thomas first found success with a cover of William's "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" in 1966, which became his first million-selling single. Over his career, Thomas won five Grammys, sold 70 million albums worldwide and has eight No. 1 hits and 26 Top 10 singles. Among his hits were "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song", "I Just Can't Help Believing," "Don't Worry Baby," and "Hooked on a Feeling." Thomas' hit single "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, won the best original song award at the Academy Awards as part of the classic Paul Newman and Robert Redford film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Sales soared to over 2 million copies and the tune has continued to find its place in such beloved movies as Forrest Gump and Spider-Man 2. Shortly after his chart-topping single, Thomas fell into substance abuse. He cited meeting his wife Gloria as a turning point, at which point he became a born-again Christian, quit drugs and turned to gospel music as a way of expressing his faith. His 1976 album, Home Where I Belong, earned a Grammy and a Dove Award. Beyond his beloved hits, Thomas also sang the theme song for the sitcom Growing Pains, "As Long As We've Got Each Other," and voiced several commercials for companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. He also appeared in the film Jory and Jake's Corner, and penned his autobiography, also titled Home Where I Belong. Thomas is survived by Gloria, who he was married to for 53 years; their three daughters, Paige Thomas, Nora Cloud and Erin Moore and four grandchildren, Nadia Cloud, Keira Cloud, Ruby Moore and Billy Joe Moore. "I'm so blessed to have had the opportunity to record and perform beautiful songs in pop, country, and gospel music, and to share those wonderful songs and memories around the world with millions of you," Thomas said in a statement when he was first diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in March and was admitted to a Texas health care facility for treatment. A private funeral will be held soon, and the family says in-memoriam donations can be made to Mission Arlington, Tarrant Area Food Bank and the SPCA of Texas. - Variety/New Musical Express, 5/29/21.