Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on March 7th, 2023

Former The Commodores member and '80s solo superstar Lionel Richie announced on Mar. 6 he'll launch a 20-date co-headlining tour with Earth, Wind & Fire on Aug. 4 in St. Paul, Minn. "Well my friends, the time has come to announce a tour. Not just any tour, but the tour I've been trying to do for years ... and now it's going to actually happen," the four-time Grammy winner posted on Instagram. "Lionel Richie, Earth, Wind & Fire together on the same stage, and I'm inviting you to the party. So join us! This is the place you need to be," the post continued. Richie's Sing a Song All Night Long tour will also make stops in Chicago (8/5), Toronto (8/8), Boston (8/11), Philadelphia (8/15), Atlanta (8/22), Houston (9/2), Seattle (9/11) and more before wrapping on Sept. 15 at Los Angeles' Kia Forum. - Billboard, 3/6/23...... Yusuf/Cat Stevens has been confirmed to play the coveted Legends Slot at the UK's Glastonbury 2023 festival on June 25, the BBC reports. The Legends Slot, often reserved for older and heritage acts, traditionally takes place at around 4:00 pm on the iconic Pyramid Stage. This will mark Yusuf's debut appearance at the festival held at Worthy Farm. Other acts set to join Elton John -- who'll be headlining the Pyramid Stage as part of his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour and will be playing his final UK concert ever -- include Arctic Monkeys, Guns N' Roses, Lana Del Rey, Lizzo and The War On Drugs. Previous Legends Slot appearances include Diana Ross in 2022, Barry Gibb, Jeff Lynne's ELO, Lionel Richie and Dolly Parton. - NME, 3/3/23...... In a new interview shared on YouTube, KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley says a reunion of the quartet's original line-up would be more like "PISS." In addition to Stanley, KISS's original 1973 line-up included singer/bassist Gene Simmons, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss. Frehley and Criss went on to leave the band in the 1980s, although both have performed with the band since. KISS's current incarnation incudes Stanley, Simmons, guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer. In the new interview on Howard Stern's SiriusXM show, Stanley was asked why the band had not performed at their Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 2014 -- and if it was because Thayer and Singer were not included in the inductions. "The hypocrisy is that we're not a band they like," Stanley told Stern. "They purposely kept us out for 15 years. And other bands that they embrace, they induct people's moms and songwriters and all these people. And with us, it truly was unfair. Because we had too much pride in this lineup, which is KISS, and has been KISS for 20 years. It's not newcomers. ... This is the band that has carried the flag and taken it, really, to another level. This is the band I always dreamed it would be." Stanley went on to say that the RRHOF had been "demanding, quite honestly" and wanted KISS to perform with Frehley and Criss. "At this point, that would be demeaning to the band, and also would give some people confusion. 'Cause if you saw people onstage who looked like KISS but sounded like that, maybe we should be called PISS," Stanley said. KISS has announced they'll play their final shows ever on Dec. 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden, after playing the UK in June for six dates. Although the band might be quitting touring, Simmons said in a 2022 interview that he expects the band to continue "in ways even I haven't thought of," leading to speculation the band may continue on similar to ABBA with their "virtual reality" tour. - New Musical Express, 3/4/23...... Speaking of ABBA, the Swedish quartet's "ABBA Voyage" avatar concert is set to go on a world tour sometime in 2024. In a corporate earnings call earlier in March, Universal Music Group chairman Sir Lucian Grainge said that "Plans are now in development to take "ABBA Voyage" around the world," however no specific dates for the tour have been announced so far. "ABBA Voyage" concert is currently being presented at the purpose-built ABBA Arena at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, until Jan. 2024. ABBA launched the 90-minute show featuring their pre-recorded classics mixed with the band's new numbers such as "Don't Shut Me Down" in May 2022, and the band last played live just over 41 years ago. - Music-News.com, 3/3/23...... It has been confirmed that Billy Joel's nine year long residency at New York's Madison Square Garden crossed the milestone $200 million mark with the Piano Man's Feb. 14 Valentine's Day concert. Joel began the residency in 2014, with the intention of playing one show every month as long as demand dictates. But the demand for tickets is bigger than ever, and the Feb. 14 show marked the 87th concert of the residency, pushing the entire run's earnings past the $200 million milestone. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, "Billy Joel at The Garden" has grossed $201.5 million and sold 1.6 million tickets. That dates back to Jan. 27, 2014, running monthly, without break, through Feb. 2020 before pausing for obvious reasons. The residency resumed in Nov. 2021. Joel's plan has been to play until these shows stop selling out, and sell out they have. The two 2023 shows of Joel's residency are the highest grossing dates of the run so far. Concerts are scheduled, once a month, through August, with more likely to follow. Meanwhile, Joel can be caught in other venues across the US throughout 2023, joined by Stevie Nicks. Joel has earned an estimated $1.05 billion in ticket sales and sold 14.2 million tickets across his entire career. - Billboard, 3/2/23...... In a new interview with Goldmine magazine, Uriah Heep guitarist Mick Box revealed fans of the Heep are keen to launch a petition to get the band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Box, the only original member of the British hard rockers left in the current line-up, said: "People have been making rumbles about it, and I think our fans are trying to get a petition together for it to get the right numbers to warrant being there. But I think over the years, and maybe we deserve a place, but they have a selection committee that chooses what bands go in and what bands don't. And there's nothing we can do about that really." He continued, "All I know is that we've been going for over 52 years now, have 25 albums, sold over 40 million albums, and have toured in 62 countries, so there is some merit for us to be there. Whether or not we get chosen is neither here nor there. And if it doesn't happen, as usual, life goes on." When asked how he'd like to be remembered, Box said for "inspiring" people and being a "good guitarist." "I don't know, as that's a tough one. As a good guitarist and a good human being would be enough. I treat others how I want to be treated myself, and I'm very grounded in what I do. I'm one of these people who can go onstage and produce an ego to perform, but then I can leave it onstage and come back and be Joe Schmo again.... the most rewarding thing [is] inspiring people to bring music into their lives, because to be honest, music is life and life is music." - Music-News.com, 3/3/23...... Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters has shared a preview of "Us and Them" from his re-working of the iconic prog rock band's classic 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon and says in it's YouTube description that it's not intended as a "replacement" for the "irreplaceable" original. Waters says he simply intended to tip the hat to a song that he and his former bandmates, Nick Mason, Dave Gilmour and the late Rick Wright, have "every right to be proud of." "It's not a replacement for the original which, obviously, is irreplaceable," Waters wrote in the description of the YouTube clip. "But it is a way for the seventy nine year old man to look back across the intervening fifty years into the eyes of the twenty nine year old and say, to quote a poem of mine about my Father, 'We did our best, we kept his trust, our Dad would have been proud of us.' And also it is a way for me to honor a recording that Nick and Rick and Dave and I have every right to be very proud of," he added. Waters also confirmed he's "now in the process of finishing the final mix" for his Dark Side redux. Upon revealing he had been working on the project for months without the knowledge of Gilmour and Mason, Waters dismissed his former bandmates' contributions to the record insisting it was always his "project, let's get rid of all this 'we' crap." Speaking to the Daily Telegraph newspaper in February, he said: "I wrote 'The Dark Side of the Moon'. Let's get rid of all this 'we' crap! Of course we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed - but it's my project and I wrote it. So... blah!" Waters wrote the album's lyrics and is credited with composing three of the 10 tracks, along with co-writing the music for another two. Asked why he has remade the record, he said: "Because not enough people recognised what it's about, what it was I was saying then." - Music-News.com, 3/3/23...... Chaka Khan has apologized for blasting singers such as Mariah Carey and Adele in a recent interview. Khan, real name Yvette Stevens, took to Instagram on Mar. 5 to apologize for her remarks to Andrew Goldman for his The Originals podcast earlier in March, when she was asked about being ranked number 29 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time" earlier in 2023, and gave her controversial opinions on those ranked higher. During the interview, when Goldman noted that Carey was ranked at number five, she jokingly alleged that Carey "may have bribed someone at the magazine," and as for Adele landing at number 2 ahead of Mary J. Blige at 25, she commented, "OK, I quit." Khan told Goldman: "Recently, I was asked about a list of the 'greatest singers of all time' and instead of questioning the need for such a list, I was pitted against other artists and I took the bait," she began. "As artists, we are unfairly put into 'boxes', 'categories' or on 'lists.' Being an artist or musician is not a competition. It's a gift, for which I am truly grateful. It was not my intention to cause pain or upset anyone. To anyone that felt this way, I sincerely apologize." She continued, "Thank you for all the love everyone has shown me, unconditionally. I have always been about empowering others and I started a foundation for that very purpose. I will be announcing soon. Empowering all artists is most important because we truly are the architects of change... and change begins within the heart. I love you all and God bless." - Music-News.com, 3/6/23...... Revered American jazz composer/saxophonist Wayne Shorter passed away in Los Angeles on Mar. 2 of as yet undisclosed causes. He was 89. "Visionary composer, saxophonist, visual artist, devout Buddhist, devoted husband, father and grandfather Wayne Shorter has embarked on a new journey as part of his extraordinary life -- departing the earth as we know it in search of an abundance of new challenges and creative possibilities," read a statement from a spokesperson for Mr. Shorter. "Always inquisitive and constantly exploring -- ever the fearless and passionate innovator -- Shorter was 89 years young and had just won his 13th Grammy Award in February." Born on Aug. 25, 1933 in Newark, N.J., Mr. Shorter studied music at New York University in the mid-1950s, developing a style influenced by such jazz pioneers as John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. After brief runs with the Horace Silver Quintet and the Maynard Ferguson big band, Mr. Shorter's career began in earnest in 1959 when he joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, a four-year tenure that found him graduating to musical director for the group while blossoming into a multi-faceted composer and master of the driving, hard bop sound. He then moved on to a fruitful six-year run with jazz icon Miles Davis, first in his Quintet, where Mr. Shorter was able to stretch his musical wings and add layers to his already formidable talents, including on Davis' landmark 1969 jazz fusion albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew. A master on the tenor saxophone, by the time Mr. Shorter left the Davis orbit he had moved on to playing soprano sax in the 1970s and 80s in the fusion supergroup Weather Report. Mr. Shorter also collaborated with folk icon Joni Mitchell on 10 albums, Brazilian composer/singer Milton Nascimento, fellow former Davis bandmember Carlos Santana (on 1980's The Swing of Delight) and, in perhaps his most high-profile non-jazz collab, he played the extended solo on the title track to Steely Dan's 1977 Aja album. Mr. Shorter continued to record and perform into the 2000s, forming his Footprints acoustic quartet in 2000. He released four live albums with pianist Dinail Perez, including the 2006 Grammy-winning album Beyond the Sound Barrier. He also toured with the supergroup Mega Nova in 2016, which featured Santana and Herbie Hancock. Over his 70-year career, Mr. Shorter's works were performed by a long list of orchestras and performers; he also received commissions from the National, St. Louis and Nashville symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the La Jolla Music Society. He released his final album, Emanon, in 2018. - Billboard, 3/2/23...... Notable L.A. session musician David Lindley, a talented multi-instrumentalist known for his work and collaborations with the likes of Jackson Browne, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart and others, died on Mar. 3. He was 78. Born in San Marino, Calif., on Mar. 21, 1944, Lindley grew up surrounded by music and began playing banjo and fiddle as a child. By his early twenties, he had developed an interest in electric music and formed the psychedelic folk-rock band Kaleidoscope, which released its debut album, Side Trips, in 1967. That same year, he worked as a session musician on Leonard Cohen's first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen. After splitting with Kaleidoscope in 1970 following the release of four albums, Lindley joined Jackson Browne's band, establishing himself on albums like 1973's For Everyman, 1974's Late for the Sky and 1977's Running on Empty. During his time with Browne, Lindley also joined studio sessions with other notable artists during the mid-'70s, including Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon, Crosby & Nash and Ry Cooder. In the early 1980s, Lindley put his session work on hold and formed the group El Rayo-X, which went on to release two albums. Later that decade, he appeared on Dylan's Under the Red Sky, Iggy Pop's Brick by Brick and John Prine's The Missing Years. During the '90s, he collaborated on albums releases with avant-garde guitarist Henry Kaiser and Jordanian oud player Hani Naser. He reunited with Browne for a tour of Spain in 2006. Lindley released his last solo album, Big Twang, in 2007. That same year, he and Kaiser scored Werner Herzog's documentary Encounters at the End of the World. "The loss of David Lindley is a huge one," musician Jason Isbell wrote on Twitter. "Without his influence my music would sound completely different. I was genuinely obsessed with his playing from the first time I heard it. The man was a giant." Other tributes to Lindley on Twitter include Peter Frampton, Joe Bonamassa, and Vernon Reid, who tweeted "That final cadenza on that one live version of Jackson Browne's Running On Empty is the greatest recorded live song ending EVER." - Billboard, 3/4/23...... Esteemed bassist and session musician Michael Rhodes, who worked with such famous artists as Willie Nelson, Mark Knopfler, Alan Jackson, Stevie Nicks, Brian Wilson, Dolly Parton, Bob Seger, Johnny Cash, John Fogerty and Elton John, among many others, died on Mar. 4 of as yet undisclosed causes. He was 69. Born in Monroe, La., in 1953, Rhodes lived in Austin and Memphis before winding up in Nashville in 1977, where he joined local rock band Nerve and Tree Publishing's house demo band. He went on to have a prolific career in session work, playing on award-winning songs including Shawn Colvin's "Sunny Came Home" (1996) and Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance" (2000), and even had the honor of playing on both LeAnn Rimes' and Trisha Yearwood's 1997 versions of Diane Warren's "How Do I Live." In recent years, he played often in Joe Bonamassa's band. "Rest in Peace my friend," Bonamassa tweeted. "I can't even get my head around this right now." He is survived by wife Lindsay Fairbanks Rhodes, son Jason Rhodes and daughter Melody Wind Rhodes, and two stepchildren. - Billboard, 3/4/23.

Joni Mitchell performed at a star-studded Gershwin Prize gala held in her honor in Washington, D.C. on Mar. 1. Mitchell, 79, was presented with the U.S. Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song as several of her friends and peers, including Graham Nash, James Taylor, Annie Lennox, Cyndi Lauper, Diana Krall and Brandi Carlile, were in the audience. "So many people I care about are here tonight. New friends, old friends. It's kind of thrilling," Mitchell said as she accepted the prestigious honor. At the end of the evening, Joni also stunned the audience with a rendition of George Gershwin's "Summertime," which he originally composed in 1934 for the opera "Porgy and Bess." Mitchell has made few public appearances since suffering a brain aneurysm rupture in Mar. 2015. Previous recipients of the prize include Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Carole King, Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks and Lionel Richie. The event was taped and will air on PBS on Mar. 31. - Music-News.com, 3/2/23...... Appearing on Howard Stern's SiriusXM radio show on Mar. 1, KISS announced they'll play their final shows ever on Dec. 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden. "Dec. 1 and 2 is Madison Square Garden. Those are the last two shows of the band. We're finishing up where we started," KISS's Paul Stanley told Stern. Ahead of the gigs at the legendary New York venue, KISS will play 17 other shows across the U.S. and Canada as part of its End of the Road World Tour, including stops in Los Angeles, Seattle, Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Baltimore. "Look, some people have kind of snickered and said, 'Oh this End of the Road tour's gone on for years,'" Stanley continued. "Yeah, we lost two and a half years to Covid. We would've been done already! So, yes, this is the end." Prompted by Stern, Gene Simmons said he's almost certain he'll be emotional once the band reaches its final performances. "I kid around a lot about, 'Men don't do that,'" he added. "I'm sure I'm gonna cry like a 9-year-old girl whose foot's being stepped on. KISS was born on 23rd Street. It's only taken us 50 years to go play the final shows 10 blocks away on 33rd Street, which is Madison Square Garden." In February, Stanley starred in Workday.com's Super Bowl commercial along with fellow rockers Joan Jett, Billy Idol, Ozzy Osbourne and Gary Clark Jr. KISS's Howard Stern Show interview can be viewed on YouTube. - Billboard, 3/1/23...... After a series of dueling lawsuits and cease-and-desist letters between Journey's Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain, the future of the band seems tenuous. Journey's personality conflicts have spread to its business far more than most other feuding bands, including Van Halen and The Kinks, and sources say Schon and his wife Michaele have run off business and road managers, accountants and longtime band members. In February, Journey's longtime bank, City National, cut ties with the band, according to sources, hampering the group's ability to easily pay its day-to-day touring expenses. Even Journey's official webpage abruptly stopped operating for several weeks in early February before it recently reappeared. At the Jan. 27 opening show of Journey's 2023 arena tour, which runs through April, Cain and Schon stood at least 20 yards apart at all times, on opposite sides of the stage at the Choctaw Grand Theatre in Durant, Okla. The 3,000 fans singing along to hit after hit clearly energized the band, especially frontman Arnel Pineda, who sprinted and twirled around the stage. But Cain and Schon barely looked at each other. At the end of 2022 Schon sued Cain, his final remaining bandmate from the band's heady "Don't Stop Believin'" years, over the band's American Express account. That case is pending in California Superior Court, and representatives for both sides would not comment. By early December, Def Leppard manager Mike Kobayashi confirmed Journey had hired him to take over management from Schon and Cain. But by early February, sources say, Kobayashi was no longer manager. By February, Journey may have also lost its bank, and with it the ability to easily pay employees and cover expenses on the road. As manager, though, Schon understands an important thing about Journey: If the band puts out a new album every now and then -- like last year's Freedom, which didn't do nearly as well as its classic '80s material -- the arena dates will keep rolling in. "Let's be honest: There's no new Journey fans," says Brock Jones, a veteran Nashville and Philadelphia promoter and consultant. "It's about playing the right markets, playing the right rooms, pricing the right tickets and making sure the package is correct." - Billboard, 3/2/23...... On Mar. 1 The Who announced a one-off orchestral gig at Royal Family's Sandringham Estate. The two surviving co-founders -- Roger Daltrey, 79, and Pete Townshend, 77 -- and their band will play in the grounds of the royal residence for the final date of their "The Who with Orchestra" 2023 UK tour on Aug. 28. Opening for the "Pinball Wizard" hitmakers will be former Verve frontman Richard Aschroft and UK rockers The Lightning Seeds. Fans can expect to hear songs from The Who's iconic albums Tommy and Quadrophenia, alongside fan-favorites from the '60s and songs from their latest studio album, 2019's WHO. "Very pleased and excited for The Who to be one of the first artists to perform at the Country Home of the British Royal family on The Sandringham Estate," Townshend said in a statement. "Opening up the Estate to large-scale concerts is a fantastic way of keeping us uplifted and enjoying congregation at what I'm sure will be a fabulous summer celebration. We can't wait!" Fans must pre-register for tickets via https://arep.co/p/thewho or www.heritagelive.net. The band's 2023 UK tour will kick off on July 6 in Hull. - Music-News.com, 3/1/23...... After Country singer Colin Stough performed Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1973 track "Simple Man" on the Feb. 19 season premiere of ABC's American Idol, the song has returned to Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs tally for the week of Mar. 4 at No. 23. In the Feb. 17-23 tracking week, "Simple Man" earned 3.6 million official U.S. streams, a 4% boost, and sold 1,000 downloads, up 189%, according to Luminate. The latter count also allows the song to hit Billboard's Rock Digital Song Sales survey at No. 11. Since Stough's version was uploaded, the audition has been watched more than 1 million times globally on YouTube, and the rising singer got a golden ticket to advance in the competition. "Simple Man" was originally released in 1973 on Skynyrd's debut album, Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd. Although not promoted as a single, the tune has become one of the band's most enduring compositions, with more than 100 weeks spent on Billboard's Rock Streaming Songs chart and 25 tallied on Rock Digital Song Sales. It has drawn 1.8 billion in cumulative radio audience and 875.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams and sold 2.2 million downloads through Feb. 23 (dating to the inception of Luminate data in 1991). - Billboard, 3/2/23...... Van Morrison announced on Feb. 28 that he'll play a special one-off show at London's legendary Royal Albert Hall on June 28. The Celtic crooner will perform tracks from Moving On Skiffle, his 44th studio album inspired by his childhood love of the folk music genre, which was popularized by Lonnie Donegan in the 1960s. Meanwhile, Morrison recently revealed to Britain's MOJO magazine that he has had to research "alternative outlets" to release his albums. Morrison, 77, admits he's going to need to stop himself from writing more tunes because he has so much piled up it makes his "head spin," but he's hoping to find another way of releasing the material instead of the traditional route of a record label because they can only put so many records out each year. "Well the big companies can only do one or two big records a year," Morrison told fellow musician and activist Billy Bragg. "This one has taken five months to get it out from its delivery. So there's no way they can cope with two a year even. But I've always been prolific. Even now I'm working on stuff I recorded in the '70s, '80s and '90s, compiling stuff I did that they just couldn't get out. So I was recording maybe 40 songs but only 10 ended up on the album. So my plan is now to find an alternative outlet to get all that stuff out." - Music-News.com, 2/28/23...... Officials in Frankfurt, Germany have canceled a planned concert by Roger Waters after the city council called the former Pink Floyd singer/bassist "one of the world's most well-known antisemites." Waters was scheduled to perform at the city's Festhalle on May 28, on the spot of what was a Jewish detention camp during WWII, where 3,000 Jewish men were held on Kristallnacht ("Night of the Broken Glass") in Nov. 1938 before being sent to their deaths. "The background to the cancellation is the persistent anti-Israel behavior of the former Pink Floyd frontman, who is considered one of the most widely spread antisemites in the world," the council said in a statement. "He repeatedly called for a cultural boycott of Israel and drew comparisons to the apartheid regime in South Africa and put pressure on artists to cancel events in Israel." Reps for Waters have yet to respond to the city's move, however his "This Is Not a Drill" tour is still slated to play a number of other gigs in Germany, including Hamburg (May 7), Cologne (May 9), Berlin (May 17) and Munich (May 21). While Waters does not appear to have issued an official statement on the cancellation, he did retweet messages of support from an author and editor at the Palestine Chronicle who denied that the singer is an antisemite and an editor at the Delhi, India-based Marxist publishing house Leftword Books, who defended Waters' stance on Israel. "Love you my brother," Waters tweeted at Vijay Prashad, adding, "shoulder to shoulder. F--k em'!" In Sept. 2022, Waters canceled planned shows in Krakow, Poland amid outrage over his stance on Russia's unprovoked, yearlong war in Ukraine, which he has said was the fault of Ukraine and NATO. - Billboard, 2/28/23...... Speaking to the UK's Daily Star paper, Queen guitarist Brian May revealed that Queen has been in talks about making a sequel to the hit 2018 Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. May says there have been discussions about making a second film which continues the Queen story, and the "We Are The Champions" rocker would love to work with the cast again. "We've been talking about it. I felt proud of it and the people who played us were just phenomenal. It's so tempting to do the sequel -- it would be worth it just to work with those boys again," May said. He added that while Bohemian Rhapsody climaxed with the band's iconic performance at the "Live Aid" festival, "an awful lot happened between the end of the film to the end of the glory days of Queen." Starring Rami Malek as the band's flamboyant frontman Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody told the story of Freddie's early life through to the creation of Queen and their meteoric rise to success, and the strained relationships within the band. It was a critical and box office success and Malek's performance earned him a Best Actor Oscar with the movie also winning a slew of awards. - Music-News.com, 2/28/23...... Oscar-winning songwriter Paul Williams will receive the Icon Award at the 2023 Guild of Music Supervisors Awards, set for Mar. 5 at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. "We are thrilled to honor Paul Williams and Pilar McCurry at our 13th Annual Awards," Madonna Wade-Reed, vice president of the Guild of Music Supervisors, said in a statement. "Both have contributed immensely to the entertainment industry through their songs and supervision." Williams said, "There is a strange, beautiful alchemy that occurs when the perfect song placement transforms both the scene and the song. I have been graced with many opportunities to write music for picture in my career, and it feels like magic every single time. Thank you to the Guild of Music Supervisors for this incredible recognition." Williams won an Oscar in 1977 for best original song for co-writing "Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star Is Born)" with Barbra Streisand, also winning three Grammy Awards and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmys. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001 and received that organization's top honor, the Johnny Mercer Award, in 2022. Williams is also president and chairman of the board of ASCAP. Previous recipients of the Icon Award include Diane Warren, Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach, Kenny Loggins and Marc Shaiman. - Billboard, 2/28/23...... Fewer than 1 in 5 people live to age 90, according to the Social Security actuarial table, and as Willie Nelson proceeds one day at a time toward a two-day celebration of the milestone Apr. 29-30 at L.A.'s historic Hollywood Bowl, he is doing so with an impressive level of activity. On Feb. 5, Nelson became the only country artist to win two Grammy Awards, which arrived just a few months after Me and Paul -- a book about his late drummer, Paul English, co-written with David Ritz -- and shortly after he received a nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A BIC commercial with Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart aired during the Super Bowl, and on Mar. 3 Nelson released I Don't Know a Thing About Love, a 10-song collection of material penned by late songwriter Harlan Howard. He's also working on a bluegrass recordings of songs from his own catalog; it will likely be released later in 2023. The Hollywood Bowl weekend, dubbed "Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90," has an all-star lineup of well-wishers: Chris Stapleton, Beck, Leon Bridges, Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, Rosanne Cash, Neil Young, Tom Jones and The Chicks, to name a few. And Nelson has his usual array of standard concerts on the calendar before that event. "It's something that people half his age would have a hard time keeping up with," says CAA senior music agent Brian Greenbaum, who has booked Nelson's shows since 2010. But Willie continues to do what he's always done: focus on the project in front of him. The 90th birthday concerts will get here soon enough, and so will the Rock Hall's May induction announcement. "I don't think that's something that Willie himself is going to lose sleep over either way," Columbia/Legacy vp of marketing Zach Hochkeppel says. - Billboard, 2/27/23...... On Feb. 27 The Doobie Brothers announced 35 new U.S. dates for their ongoing 50th anniversary tour. The shows, which will run from June through October of 2023, extend the outing that has brought guitarists Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, John McFee and singer Michael McDonald back together for the first time in 25 years. "We are thrilled to be back on the road in 2023 playing some cities we haven't gotten to yet on this tour," Doobie's co-founder Johnston in a statement. After a June 9 launch in Sparks, Nev., the band will also visit markets including Kansas City (6/14), Des Moines (6/18), Louisville (7/1), Biloxi (8/28) and Charleston (9/7). After wrapping the U.S. dates in Atlantic City on Oct. 8, the group is slated to head overseas for shows in Australia, Japan and Singapore. - Billboard, 2/27/23...... A U.K. George Harrison fan named Andy Chistlehurst has dug through the archives to find a 1965 interview by Harrison with Record Mirror, where the guitarist discussed some of his influences at the time, and created a playlist from Harrison's jukebox from that time. Chistlehurst has now compiled the recommendations from the interview, including Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Little Richard, Otis Redding and more, into a Spotify playlist. Harrison would have turned 80 years old on Feb. 25. - NME, 2/27/23...... Speaking to the U.K.'s MOJO magazine, Rolling Stones guitarist says he doesn't think late guitar hero Jeff Beck would have coped being in the Stones after he was invited to join the band. "He wouldn't have kept up with the timetable! Eric Clapton once said to me, 'I could have joined that band.' I said, 'Yeah, but you gotta live with them, Eric!'" remarked Wood. Wood also said that Beck wasn't keen on the spotlight, nor the "simple blues and rock 'n' roll" sound of the Stones. "Anything to do with the spotlight, he'd be like, 'You can take care of this,' and he would be gone. And Jeff was not satisfied with the simple blues and rock'n'roll approach -- much as he loved Buddy Guy. When he hooked up with Jan Hammer, the experimental jazz stuff, that was where I got off, although we'd already gone our different ways." Beck died suddenly on Jan. 10 at the age of 78, after contracting bacterial meningitis. Wood shared a tribute to Beck upon the news of his death, tweeting in part: "Musically, we were breaking all the rules, it was fantastic, groundbreaking rock 'n' roll! Listen to the incredible track 'Plynth' in his honour. Jeff, I will always love you. God bless." - NME, 2/26/23...... Neil Young performed live for the first time in over four years on Feb. 25 at a march and rally in his native Canada in support of the United For Old Growth campaign, which is looking to stop the Canadian government from allowing logging companies from destroying old-growth forests. "I'm only here for those trees up there," Young told the audience. "It's a precious, sacred thing, these old trees. They show us the power of nature when we are being threatened. They show us the past. They show us our future. That's something that I hope our Canadian government and business section will recognise. These trees have lasted so long. They deserve Canada's respect." He then performed his No. 1 1972 hit "Heart Of Gold" from Harvest and "Comes A Time" from the 1978 album of the same name. Fan-shot footage of the performances has been shared on Twitter. Young's last previous public performance was in Sept. 2019, when the veteran artist headlined a benefit concert in Lake Hughes, Calif. alongside Norah Jones and Father John Misty. Since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic in early 2020, Young said he wouldn't tour until the virus was "beat" and called on promoters to cancel "super-spreader" gigs. In 2022, Young confirmed he would not be performing at Farm Aid 2022 because "I don't think it is safe in the pandemic." In February, Young announced he would be headlining the sixth edition of the Light Up the Blues charity show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Apr. 22, alongside his CSNY bandmate Stephen Stills. A week later, Young is set to perform as part of Willie Nelson's star-studded 90th birthday celebrations. - NME, 2/26/23...... Ozzy Osbourne has "clarified" his recent remarks in February announcing his retirement from live performing on his Ozzy's Boneyard SiriusXM show, hosted by Billy Morrison. "If I can ever get back to where I can tour again, fine," Osbourne said. "But right now, if you said to me, 'Can you go on the road in a month?' I couldn't say yes. I mean, if I could tour I'd tour. But right now I can't book tours because right now, I don't think I could pull them off." Osbourne added that although "my singing voice is fine... after three operations, stem cell treatments, endless physical therapy sessions, and most recently groundbreaking Cybernics (HAL) Treatment, my body is still physically weak.... Believe me when I say that the thought of disappointing my fans really F----S ME UP, more than you will ever know. Never would I have imagined that my touring days would have ended this way." Ozzy's "No More Tours 2" UK and European shows were pushed back a number of times due to the musician's poor health and the Covid pandemic, before being rescheduled for 2023. He was due to perform shows in Nottingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester, Dublin, London and Birmingham across May and June before announcing his retirement. Ozzy's full interview can be streamed on YouTube. - NME, 2/28/23...... Elton John and Mariah Carey were among the family, friends and celebrities paying tribute to Olivia Newton-John during an Australian state memorial in Melbourne on Feb. 26. During the ceremony, Sir Elton said during a video link that Olivia's "bravery and optimism" would stay with him forever. He added: "She was such a wonderful force of nature, she was funny, kind, warm and talented and every time we got together we laughed and laughed and laughed. Throughout her career I have watched her grow and grow and grow to be the artist she became." Mariah Carey noted how Newton-John "really affected my life." "As a little girl, I loved her so much. Grease was probably the first movie I ever saw. I looked up to her so much and when I got to meet her, she was just as nice as she was a star," Carey said. During the memorial, Delta Goodrem, the Sydney pop singer who portrayed Newton-John in the 2018 TV mini-series Hopelessly Devoted to You, performed a medley of Olivia's biggest hits. Speaking beforehand, she said that "being able to honor and celebrate Olivia is incredibly special." The ceremony also saw Australian actor Hugh Jackman pay tribute to Newton-John alongside her husband John Easterling and daughter Chloe Lattanzi. Newton-John died in Aug. 2022 having battled breast cancer since 1992. She was 73. - NME, 2/26/23...... New Wave legends Devo have announced a one-off date in the UK on Aug. 19 as part of their world "farewell tour" of 2023. "In celebration of their 50th year and as part of their Farewell Tour, pioneering synth-pop legends @DEVO will be playing the Eventim Apollo in London this August - their one and only UK show!," London's Eventim Apollo venue tweeted on Feb. 28. Devo will also be among the acts at ya Festival 2023, the Norwegian festival which is set to return again from Aug. 8 to 12, 2023, taking place in Tyenparken, Oslo. - New Musical Express, 2/28/23...... Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent, whose career hit its peak well into his 70s with an award-winning performance as the heartbroken husband married to a Alzheimer's victim played by Julie Christie in Away From Her, died on Feb. 25 at age 92, his friend actor Mark Critch confirmed. The Newfoundland native, a household name in Canada for decades after his many appearances on stage and screen, became known internationally after his Genie Award-winning turn as Grant in Sarah Polley's acclaimed directorial debut. His dignified portrayal so impressed Daniel Day-Lewis, who went on to win the best actor Oscar in 2008 for There Will Be Blood, that he sent an email to Polley praising Mr. Pinsent's performance as one of the most "astonishing" he'd ever seen. Born in Grand Falls, N.L., in 1930, Mr. Pinsent was the youngest of six children born to Stephen Pinsent, a papermill worker and cobbler, and his wife, Flossie. In the early 1960s he became a stalwart on some Canadian children's shows, including CBC's The Forest Rangers. He went on to appear in dozens of Canada's best-known television shows, including The Red Green Show, Due South, Wind at My Back and Paul Gross's H20: The Last Prime Minister. Mr. Pinsent also had memorable roles in Who Has Seen The Wind and The Shipping News, a major Hollywood production starring Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett. Mr. Pinsent played newspaperman Billy Pretty in the 2001 film, and also cheerfully provided lessons in perfecting the Newfoundland accent to the rest of the cast. In 2013 he starred in Don McKellar's acclaimed Newfoundland-set comedy The Grand Seduction, which earned him a Canadian Screen Award for best supporting actor. Mr. Pinsent's lifelong passion for creating never faded -- in 2018 he released a short film he wrote and self-funded called Martin's Hagge, about a middle-aged writer burdened by a personified version of anxiety and depression. - Canoe.com, 2/25/23...... Since its debut in 1971, an anti-pollution ad showing a man in Native American attire shed a single tear at the sight of smokestacks and litter taking over a once unblemished landscape has become an indelible piece of TV pop culture. It's been referenced over the decades since on shows like The Simpsons and South Park and in internet memes. But now a Native American advocacy group that was given the rights to the long-parodied public service announcement is retiring it, saying it has always been inappropriate. The so-called "Crying Indian" with his buckskins and long braids made the late actor Iron Eyes Cody a recognizable face in households nationwide. But to many Native Americans, the public service announcement has been a painful reminder of the enduring stereotypes they face. The nonprofit that originally commissioned the advertisement, Keep America Beautiful, had long been considering how to retire the ad and announced on Feb. 25 that it's doing so by transferring ownership of the rights to the National Congress of American Indians. "Keep America Beautiful wanted to be careful and deliberate about how we transitioned this iconic advertisement/public service announcement to appropriate owners," Noah Ullman, a spokesperson for the nonprofit, says. "We spoke to several Indigenous peoples' organizations and were pleased to identify the National Congress of American Indians as a potential caretaker." NCAI says it plans to end the use of the ad and watch for any unauthorized use. When it premiered in the 1970s, the ad was a sensation. It led to Cody filming three follow-up PSAs. He spent more than 25 years making public appearances and visits to schools on behalf of the anti-litter campaign. From there, Cody, who was Italian American but claimed to have Cherokee heritage through his father, was typecast as a stock Native American character, appearing in over 80 films. Most of the time, his character was simply "Indian," "Indian Chief" or "Indian Joe." His movie credits from the 1950s-1980s included Sitting Bull, The Great Sioux Massacre, Nevada Smith, A Man Called Horse and Ernest Goes to Camp. On television, he appeared in Bonanza, Gunsmoke and Rawhide among others. He also was a technical adviser on Native American matters on film sets. Dr. Jennifer J. Folsom, a journalism and media communication professor at Colorado State University and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, applauded Keep America Beautiful's decision as an "appropriate move." "It will mean a trusted group can help control the narrative the ad has promoted for over 50 years," she said. - AP, 2/25/23.