In a new interview, Elton John has revealed that he is likely to take to the stage even after completing his marathon "Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour" in Stockholm, Sweden on July 8. "Touring is exhausting for me now, and it takes me away from my family and my children [but] there may be the odd show," the 76-year-old music legend said. John explained that he was ready for "a little bit of freedom" after spending so much time away from his husband David Furnish and their sons Zachary, 12, and Elijah, 10. He'll occasionally play gigs such as the Emmy promotion evening in Los Angeles to promote the Disney+ show Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium. His farewell tour began back in 2018 and is already the most lucrative in music history, earning 678 million with two months of performances still remaining. It is estimated that it will earn an astonishing $1 billion by the 330th and final gig. Meanwhile, it was recently revealed by his husband that Elton wants to celebrate his retirement with a holiday to the Antarctic. "There are places I'd like to travel and take the boys," Elton's husband Furnish said in a chat with Your Money Map. "I have a real fascination and love of India... and our sons both want to go to the Antarctic, and Elton wants to go as well. I have no idea how to get there. Or what you do when you get there. But it's something that we can all do together, which is great." - Music-News.com, 5/1/23...... 
Aerosmith announced on May 1 that they'll launch a 40-date farewell "Peace Out" tour on Sept. 2 in Philadelphia. Aerosmith -- frontman Steven Tyler, guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer -- are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their 1973 eponymous debut album with a jaunt that includes a stop in the band's hometown of Boston on New Year's Eve and wrap on Jan. 26, 2024 in Montreal. Perry tells the AP "I think it's about time" for Aerosmith to say goodbye now, especially with every founding band member over the age of 70. Tyler, 75, is the oldest in the group. "It's kind of a chance to celebrate the 50 years we've been out here," Perry said. "You never know how much longer everybody's going to be healthy to do this. It's been a while since we've actually done a real tour. We did that run in Vegas, which was great. It was fun, but (we're) kind of anxious to get back on the road," he adds. During the tour Aerosmith will be digging into their lengthy catalog of the group's rock classics including "Crazy," "Janie's Got a Gun" and "Livin' on the Edge." Formed in 1970, Aerosmith has collected four Grammys and broke boundaries intersecting rock and hip-hop with their epic collaboration with Run-DMC for "Walk This Way." Their resume includes a 2001 Super Bowl halftime performance, and even a theme park attraction named in their honor in 1999 at Disney World in Florida and later in Paris with the launch of the "Rock n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith" ride. Before the 40-date tour wraps, Perry said other cities domestically and internationally could be added. "It's the final farewell tour, but I have a feeling it will go on for a while," he said. "But I don't know how many times we'll be coming back to the same cities. It could very possibly be the last time." - AP, 5/1/23...... KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley has been criticized by some of his fellow musicians including Steve Albini and The Offspring's Kevin 'Noodles' Wasserman for a statement in which he labelled children's gender reassignment surgery "a sad and dangerous fad." Posting on Twitter on May 1, Stanley shared a seemingly unprompted statement titled "my thoughts on what I'm seeing" in which he said "normalizing" gender reassignment surgery in children has made it "a sad and dangerous fad," claiming a "big difference" between "teaching acceptance" and advocating for such surgeries. "There is a BIG difference between teaching acceptance and normalizing and even encouraging participation in a lifestyle that confuses young children into questioning their sexual identification as though some sort of game and then parents in some cases allow it," Stanley said. "There ARE individuals who as adults may decide reassignment is their needed choice but turning this into a game or parents normalizing it as some sort of natural alternative or believing that because a little boy likes to play dress up in his sister's clothes or a girl in her brother's, we should lead them steps further down a path that's far from the innocence of what they are doing," he added. Albini then responded "I remember when punk rock came along and made you irrelevant the first time," while Wasserman tweeted Stanley's attitude was "a very disappointing take, especially from someone who wore high-heels, makeup, & teased up hair his whole career.... As a young kid your band helped teach me that I could be whatever I wanted to be. I guess it was just gimmickry after all." In 2022, Stanley joined many in the music and entertainment world by speaking out against rapper Kanye West after he shared a string of antisemitic and racially insensitive comments. - New Musical Express, 5/1/23...... As he released his seductive new album Gasms on Apr. 28, Smokey Robinson has revealed to the UK paper The Guardian that he once had a year-long affair with his fellow Motown legend Diana Ross. Asked if there was anything to the rumours that he and Ross are the real parents of Michael Jackson, Robinson said: "They say I'm the baby daddy? Oh my God! I never heard that one, man! That's pretty good. That's funny! That's funny!" But while he denied that rumour, he did say that he and Ross had an affair for a whole year, all while Robinson was still married to his ex-wife, Claudette Rogers. "I was married at the time. We were working together and it just happened," he explained. "But it was beautiful. She's a beautiful lady, and I love her right till today. She's one of my closest people. She was young and trying to get her career together. I was trying to help her. I brought her to Motown, in fact. I wasn't going after her and she wasn't going after me. It just happened." Smokey said that Ross soon cut off the romance: "After we'd been seeing each other for a while, Diana said to me she couldn't do that because she knew Claudette, and she knew I still loved my wife. And I did. I loved my wife very much." Robinson, speaking to Billboard in another interview, said that Gasms was a laborious journey that took between five and six years to make. "'Orgasm' is the first word I think people think about. That's probably the most important one," he quips. "I thought it would cause controversy, and people would say, 'What is he talking about?' and it did. People say, 'What is it about?' I say, 'I want you to listen, and you tell me what it's about. It's about whatever you want it to be about. I left it like that." - Billboard, 4/28/23...... 
Speaking of Michael Jackson, the late pop superstar's "They Don't Care About Us" music video has hit a major milestone by surpassing one billion views on YouTube. The defiant protest anthem was originally released in 1996 as a single off the King of Pop's ninth studio album, HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I from the year prior. Filmed on location in Brazil, the accompanying visual was one of two directed by Spike Lee for the song, and features Jackson marching through the streets with a massive drum line of Brazilian kids and teenagers. The making of the video was rife with controversy, as the Brazilian government attempted to ban Jackson from filming in both Rio de Janeiro and the Historic Center of the city of Salvador, known as the Pelourinho. While "They Don't Care About Us" only peaked at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100, it sparked renewed interest decades later when it was used during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2014, 2015 and 2020. It follows Michael's "Billie Jean" video into the elite one billion YouTube views club. - Billboard, 4/26/23...... Bonnie Raitt announced on Twitter on Apr. 28 that she's canceling a handful of upcoming tour dates for an undisclosed "medical situation." "Bonnie has a medical situation that requires surgery to address. The doctors say that in order for her to heal properly, they recommend she not perform for a couple of weeks," the post reads. An update continued: "Unfortunately, this overlaps our five tour dates in May, and we are very sorry to have to cancel our performance at @brandicarlile 's Mothership Weekend on May 14th and postpone our shows in Athens, Louisville, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh. Please see below for more information about the rescheduled appearances. We deeply apologize for this delay and inconvenience. It's always upsetting to have to disappoint her fans, band, crew and our promoters, but sometimes unforeseen things just happen." The statement addressed her health, noting that "thankfully, Bonnie's in great hands," and thanked fans for their well wishes. "We very much appreciate your respecting her request for privacy at this healing time," it read. - Billboard, 4/29/23...... At the 44th Annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 27, 2002, Patti LaBelle, Pink, Mya, Lil' Kim and Christina Aguilera performed a memorable rendition of LaBelle's 1974 hit "Lady Marmalade." In a recent appearance on Sherri Shepherd's syndicated daytime TV talk show, Patti revealed she had absolutely no idea what she was saying when she sang those sweet French nothings "Gitchie, gitchie, ya-ya, da-da (hey, hey, hey)/ Gitchie, gitchie, ya-ya, here (here)" half a century ago. "I said, 'We [LaBelle and her bandmates Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx] have to record this because it's a hit,' and it was," she recalled telling late producer Allen Toussaint as the group headed to New Orleans to record with the legendary singer/writer/producer. "I had no clue it meant 'will you sleep with me tonight.' I didn't know no French. I knew it was a hit... Yeah, that's what that song was all about. And it was a hit," she added about not knowing at the time that the refrain had such a saucy translation. In addition to it being a smash for Labelle, the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 again in 2001 when Pink, Mya, Christina Aguilera and Lil Kim re-recorded it for the soundtrack to director Baz Luhrmann's movie musical Moulin Rouge! - Billboard, 4/28/23...... In a chat with Jim Axelrod on CBS Sunday Morning on Apr. 30, Bruce Springsteen revealed that if he had to pick his "most definitive work" it would be one of his sparest, most personal LPs, 1982's Nebraska. Intended to be his and backing band The E Street Band's next rock album, Nebraska instead evolved into an unadorned, unleashing a series of stark story songs about serial killers ("Nebraska"), conflicted cops ("Highway Patrolman") and dead-enders spiraling their way into life sentences ("Johnny 99"). "If I had to pick out one album and say, 'This is going to represent you 50 years from now' I'd pick Nebraska," he said. "I think in your 20s, a lot of things work for you. But in your 30s, your 30s is where you be -- where you start to become an adult. And suddenly I looked around and said, 'Where is everything? Where is my home? Where is my partner? Where are the sons and daughters that I thought I might have someday?,'" he adds about the period 41 years ago when he recorded the album by himself in a farmhouse in Colts Neck, N.J. at at time when he'd achieved his rock and roll fantasy but was still in search of meaning in his life. Springsteen returned to the Colts Neck farmhouse where he worked on the album with Alexrod to take a look at the room where he recorded it, which the current owners have left as it was. "Things are going so well here, you know, that you just assumed, like, 'Oh yeah, well the rest of your life is going to fall into place.' No, that's not how it works," Springsteen says in a preview of the piece, adding, "You cannot succeed your way outta that pain." Springsteen and the E Street Band are in the midst of a world tour, and played the first of two gigs in Barcelona, Spain on Apr. 28. - Billboard, 4/28/23...... Carlos Santana and Gloria Gaynor will be among the artists who are the subjects of new documentaries set to premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Festival on June 7-18 in New York. Santana is scheduled to perform after his documentary, Carlos, premieres. It will also feature new documentaries about Alicia Keys, Gogol Bordello, Milli Vanilli, Biz Markie, the Indigo Girls and Tierra Whack. - Billboard, 4/27/23...... 
Speaking of documentaries, the trailer for Love To Love You, an upcoming documentary film about Donna Summer's reign as the "Queen of Disco," has been shared on YouTube. Love To Love You is described as a "deeply personal portrait" of the late star and her rise to fame with hits including as "I Feel Love," "Love To Love You Baby," "MacArthur Park," "Bad Girls" and "Hot Stuff." It will be released on HBO and HBO Max on May 20. The film, directed by Roger Ross Williams and Summer's daughter Brooklyn Sudano, goes behind-the-screens with Summer on and off stage, with previously unseen photographs and video footage, much of which was shot by Summer herself. In the trailer, those close to Summer remember an intensely private person who struggled with the attention fame brought. Often, they would first learn details about the artist's life through newspaper articles. The doc is packed with Summer's songs including the early hits that she made with legendary music producer Giorgio Moroder. Summer's music gained prominence again recently when Beyoncé sampled "I Feel Love" on her album Summer Renaissance. - NME, 4/29/23...... Dolly Parton is teaming up with Amazon.com for the two-day Pet Day Extravaganza sale event launching on May 2. Parton and her "god-dog", Billy the Kid, will join Amazon Live both days to share their Pet Day favorites with audiences. "We're gonna celebrate the pets that we all love," Parton says. Amazon Prime members will be able to shop "two wonderful days" of sales, which includes 20% off Parton's pet products line, Doggy Parton. "We've gotten such wonderful responses [from] people," Parton said of the pet line, consisting of clothes, hats, scarves, toys, leashes, collars and harnesses. Parton plans to expand the pet line to feature clothes for larger dogs and eventually items for cats. Amazon's 48-hour sale, which coincides with National Pet Month, will feature deals on treats, toys and supplies, along with home, electronics and personal care products to pamper your beloved pets. Pet Day is open to all Amazon shoppers, but Prime members get fast and free shipping on pet supply orders over $25 (visit Amazon's Pet Day page to shop early deals). Meanwhile, Dolly says although she was able to attract such A-list stars as Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty and Steven Tyler to contribute to her upcoming rock album Rock Star, there is one rock music icon she couldn't quite wrangle to be part of the project: Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. "I never got him!" Parton recently told ET Online, quickly adding, "But I love Mick Jagger no matter what. I'll still be runnin' after him all through the years, because I've always had a crush on [him]." Rock Star is set to be released this November. - Billboard, 4/28/23...... In other Country music news, Willie Nelson's 90th birthday concert at L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl took place on the last weekend in April, with such stars as Woody Harrelson, Chelsea Handler, Ethan Hawke, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Owen Wilson and Gabriel Iglesias among the big-name presenters who helped Nelson celebrate his milestone. The presenters joined a diverse artist lineup for the two-day event that included George Strait, Snoop Dogg, Miranda Lambert, Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews, Tom Jones, The Chicks, Chris Stapleton and more who saluted the "On the Road Again" singer, who also performed. - Billboard, 4/27/23...... In Oct. 1976, The Damned were the first punk band to release a single ("New Rose") in and tour the U.S. Now the iconic punk band has released Darkadelic, its 12th studio album and first in five years. Frontman Dave Vanian says Darkadelic is "perhaps a box of deluxe chocolates full of delicious and surprisingly delightful flavors, a journey to the id, self-expression or discovery.... A dark tale of intrigue heavily laced with noir, romantic Gothic melodrama, a first kiss, a dangerous drug, dark love.... Truly it will represent a myriad of things to the individual and is, as it should be, defining but also undefined." After a European tour earlier in 2023, the Damned come across the pond for a half-dozen U.S. west coast dates starting May 20 in San Francisco before playing New Zealand and Australia during June and the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, England, in early August. - Billboard, 4/27/23...... 
Apparently not wanting to make any rash decisions, Leo Sayer has finally tied the knot with his longtime partner, Donatella Piccinetti. After nearly 40 years of dating, the 74-year-old "When I Need You" singer married Piccinetti on Apr. 15 in their garden in Australia's Southern Highlands. - People, 5/8/23...... Billy Joel performed his 1974 track "Los Angelenos" live for the first time in over four decades during a show at New York's Madison Square Garden on Apr. 25. The Piano Man brought the track out of its unofficial retirement, playing it live for the first times since 1981. "We never do this song, we haven't done this since the '80s, I think. Let's give it a shot," Joel said after speaking about living in Los Angeles. Fan-shot footage of the performance has been shared on YouTube. During the show, Joel also played hits like "My Life," "Summer, Highland Falls," "The Entertainer," "New York State of Mind," "We Didn't Start The Fire," "Uptown Girl," "You May Be Right," and a cover of The Rolling Stones "Start Me Up." - NME, 4/27/23...... Neil Young and Stephen Stills reunited for the first time in four years on Apr. 23 in Los Angeles for a tribute to their late Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmate David Crosby.Y oung came on to perform with Stills at the latter's "Light Up The Blues" charity event that he puts on every year in aid of Autism Speaks. Young performed solo renditions of "From Hank To Hendrix" and "Comes A Time" before he was joined by house band Promise Of The Real for "Heart Of Gold." Stills then joined in for the CSNY number "Helpless" and remained for a series of Buffalo Springfield tunes, including "For What It's Worth," "Bluebird" and "Mr. Soul" with help from Joe Walsh. They then finished with "Long May You Run" from the pair's joint 1976 album of the same name. Earlier in the night, Stills paid tribute to Crosby, who died in January aged 81, with a performance of CSNY's "Wooden Ships" that featured his son Chris and Crosby's son James Raymond. The event fell short of bringing together all of CSNY's members, as Graham Nash couldn't make it due to a scheduling conflict. He did, however, appear in a pre-taped video to introduce a 2013 performance of "Guinnevere" by Crosby/Nash, and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. "Enjoy the music, and please rejoice," Nash said. "I'm going to miss him every day of my life." Videos of the performances can be viewed on YouTube. - NME, 4/24/23...... John Travolta has paid tribute to Harry Belafonte on social media after Belafonte's death on Apr. 25 of congestive heart failure at age 96. "I had the great pleasure of working with Harry Belafonte in 1995. He was the definition of grace, poise, and generosity of spirit," Travolta wrote on his Instagram Story on Apr. 26. "We will miss you Harry." Travolta and Belafonte co-starred in the 1995 film White Man's Burden, of which John shared a screencap alongside his social media tribute. Also paying tribute to Belafonte was Barbra Streisand: "Harry was fighting the good fight from the beginning. He was so articulate, brilliant and beautiful," she wrote in her own Instagram tribute, featuring images of the pair together. "He was a wonderful friend and lived a prolific life. May his memory be a blessing." - Music-News.com, 5/26/23...... R Reach Music has acquired master and publishing rights to Judas Priest's first two records, Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings of Destiny from Gull Entertainments. As part of their new purchase, Reach will work alongside the British metal legends to release a 50th anniversary edition of Rocka Rolla in 2024 as well as other special projects. In 2021, Reach acquired a 50% copyright interest and the administration rights to Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton's song catalog, beginning with songs released in 1977. - Billboard, 4/27/23...... 
Former The Four Seasons frontman and solo star Frankie Valli returned to his boyhood home at Newark, N.J.'s Stephen Crane Village public housing project on Apr. 27 to have a street named in his honor. "I remember growing up as a kid, and how tough things were," Valli, 88, said in front of dozens from the old neighborhood who grew up nearby. "A lot of the enthusiasm that came to me came out of the fact that I had people here who loved and supported me... This is something that I'll remember for the rest of my life," the visibly moved "Grease" singer added. His comments came after the street sign showng Frankie Valli Way was unveiled at the corner of Stephen Crane Plaza and Franklin Avenue. Valli, born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, grew up initially in Newark's old First Ward, then the North Ward at a time when the neighborhoods were Italian-American working-class enclaves. For those who came back to see Valli honored on the streets where they were all raised together, it means a lot that he didn't forget where he came from. "The guys from The Four Seasons were heroes to us. What Bruce Springsteen is for Freehold, Frankie Valli is for us," said Dominick Maglio, who grew up blocks away from Valli in Belleville, N.J., explaining why he made the trip from Central Jersey. "We appreciate what he's done for the community. I've never been this close to him, and I've got goose bumps," he added. Valli's signature falsetto voice powered a series of The Four Seasons hits in the 1960s and 70s, including "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," "Rag Doll," and "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)," "Working My Way Back to You," and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." His work was later immortalized in the musical "Jersey Boys," which was later adapted into a feature film directed by Clint Eastwood. Actor Dominic Scaglione Jr., a Belleville native who played Valli for years on Broadway, was also on hand to pay his respects on Valli's street-naming day. "This is a long-overdue thing," Scaglione Jr. said. "When you have a boyhood star that makes good out of this area, it makes people feel good. For me, he lived his life, and it gave me a life. For others, they see a rags-to-riches story, and it gives them a little bit of hope when they get up in the morning." - TAPinto.net, 4/28/23...... Former First Lady Michelle Obama and Steven Spielberg's actress wife Kate Capshaw took the stage at the Bruce Springsteen concert in Barcelona, Spain on Apr. 28 to sing along with Bruce and his E Street Band on a rendition of "Glory Days." The previous evening the Obamas, Spielberg and Springsteen dined at the Amar restaurant in the Palace Hotel, and posed for a photo with the restaurant staff. Springsteen was one of Pres. Obama's biggest supporters in the latter's 2008 campaign, and performed "The Rising" at his inaugural. Springsteen received both the Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom during the Obama administration. - Rolling Stone, 4/28/23...... Jerry Springer, an iconic if controversial TV personality best known for hosting the syndicated talk show The Jerry Springer Show for 27 years, died on Apr. 27 after a brief illness at his home in the Chicago area. He was 79 and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier in 2023. Springer was involved in politics before he became a TV sensation. He lost a bid for Congress in 1970, but then was elected to Cincinnati's City Council in 1971. He went on to serve one term as mayor of Cincinnati in 1977. The Jerry Springer Show, which debuted in 1991, originally focused on political issues, but later exploded in popularity after making the switch to lurid topics that included adultery, nudity, racism and other shocking scandals. Springer presented himself as the voice of reason who would frequently try to sooth guests tempers and diffuse tense situations. The series was known for violence and profanity, and would often erupt into "chair throwing" scenarios by the two opposing sides. The daytime show was a huge hit despite getting slammed by critics, who called it the worst TV show of all time, however Springer embraced the title. The British-born TV host last appeared on the reality talent series The Masked Singer in 2018. He is survived by his daughter Katie Springer and his sister Evelyn. - TMZ.com, 4/27/23...... 
Tim Bachman, a former member of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, died on Apr. 28 as a result of complications with cancer "throughout his brain," according to his son Paxton Bachman. He was 71. "My Dad passed this afternoon. Thank You Everyone for the kind words," Paxton posted on his Facebook page on Apr. 28. "Grateful I got to spend some time with him at the end. Grab yer loved ones and hug em close, ya never know how long you have," he added. BTO leader Randy Bachman, 79, also announced the news on Twitter, calling the loss "another sad departure," and adding: "The pounding beat behind BTO, my little brother Robbie has joined Mum, Dad and brother Gary on the other side. Maybe Jeff Beck needs a drummer! He was an integral cog in our rock 'n' roll machine and we rocked the world together." Tim, Randy and Robbie Bachman, who died in January aged 69, formed BTO in 1973 in Winnipeg after Randy left the Canadian band The Guess Who. Tim played with BTO from 1973 until 1974, when he was replaced by Blair Thornton, now 72, but came back to the band for a 1984 reunion tour and stayed until the late 1980s. He featured on two of the group's albums, 1973's Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Bachman-Turner Overdrive II for which he wrote the songs "Down and Out Man, Blown" and "I Don't Have to Hide." The band's third album included "Roll on Down the Highway," a hit single co-written by Robbie Bachman and Fred Turner that was originally produced for a car commercial. After 1979, BTO briefly split before regrouping in 1983, but without Robbie, who sued the new band for trademark infringement for its continued use of the name, resulting in a royalties pay out. obbie briefly rejoined the band for a 1988 reunion and in 2014, Bachman-Turner Overdrive were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. - Bang Showbiz, 4/30/23.
The Grateful Dead "unrolled" their first post on TikTok on Apr. 20, which also happens to a universally beloved smoker holiday. The GD celebrated the occasion with a compilation video of archival footage set to a live, remastered take of "St. Stephen" recorded at the legendary Fillmore West in San Francisco in 1969. The band launched their @gratefuldead TikTok account in conjunction withe Rhino Entertainment and, according to a press release, they promise that it will "serve as an outlet to celebrate the decades of music, generations of community, and endless array of creativity that has woven the band and its fans into every new era of the world's counterculture and consciousness." The first 30-second clip pulls together archival concert footage, candid scenes from Shakedown Street, handmade fan artwork and snippets of Deadheads spinning and showing off their customized vans. They also promise "much more exclusive content" in the offing on a near-daily basis in the future a month after the debut of the band's music on TikTok in March, which allowed users to used the group's recordings in their videos for the first time. - Billboard, 4/21/23...... 
"Oh my God!" Eddie Van Halen's iconic red, white and black-striped Kramer guitar from Van Halen's 1984 "Hot For Teacher" video has been sold to an unnamed bidder during a Sotheby's auction on Apr. 25 for $3,932,000. "The legendary 'Hot for Teacher' stage used and filmed guitar, custom made by Paul Unkert of Kramer Guitars for Eddie Van Halen, included important innovations customized for Eddie's evolving guitar technique," the Sotheby's listing read in describing the instrument they dubbed "one of the most iconic guitars of the MTV era." As a bonus, the winning bidder also took home the white straitjacket and white gloves worn by EVH in the video. Bidding for the Kramer was initially estimated to land between $2-$3 million. Van Halen died at 65 in Oct. 2020 after a long battle with cancer. Meanwhile, former VH bassist Michael Anthony revealed on SiriusXM's Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk show that there is a "ton of stuff" the band could release from Eddie's 5150 music archives. Anthony said there is a trove of tracks that the guitar god left behind and his son Wolfgang Van Halen and brother Alex Van Halen have the mammoth task of going through it. As well as the Right Here, Right Now live album from 1992, the band are also working on some re-issues from the Sammy Hagar years. Hagar was VH's frontman from 1985 to 1996, before returning in 2003 until 2005. Anthony, who was in the group from 1974 to 2006 and replaced by Wolfgang, said: "We're starting a bunch of the re-issue stuff with the Sammy years, with all his albums, and the first one that will come out will be the Right Here, Right Now live album that we did in 1992. We're digging back into stuff. There's a lot more stuff at Ed's 5150 studio; Wolfie or Alex will start going through stuff there and see what there is. There's a ton of stuff." Hagar previously claimed he's no longer on talking terms with Alex when asked about the possibility of a reunion tour or show in tribute to the rock legend. He says Alex has a problem with him that he believes he's gonna "take to his grave." - Billboard/Music-News.com, 4/21/23...... After an administrative court in Frankfurt ruled in his favor, Roger Waters has won a legal battle to play a forthcoming concert in the German city after it was initially cancelled over claims of antisemitism. The Pink Floyd co-founder had been scheduled to play the pubicly owned Festhalle on May 28, but Frankfurt City Council called off the performance over the musician's controversial views on Israel. They later described him as "one of the world's most widely-known antisemites." Despite the cancellation, Waters recently suggested that he was "coming anyway" in an Instagram post alongside a photo of the grave of Sophie Scholl, a German student and anti-Nazi activist who was beheaded via guillotine in 1943 for distributing anti-war leaflets around the University of Munich. His post also suggested that he had filed an injunction against the council due to their "unjustifiable" effort "to silence me" but has not had a response. On Apr. 24, Frankfurt's administrative court gave him the go ahead for the show in the name of "artistic freedom," while acknowledging that aspects of his show were "tasteless" and obviously lent on symbolism inspired by the Nazi regime. The city has the right to appeal the decision, although there is no indication as yet they plan to do so. Meanwhile, Waters has announced a release date for his new The Lockdown Sessions album of songs recorded at his home in England during the Covid-19 lockdown. Due on June 2, The Lockdown Sessions features the 1978 The Wall track "Comfortably Numb" as the final track on the record. "Our 'Us and Them Tour' lasted three years... At every gig we did an encore after the main show closed with 'Comfortably Numb'... the encore was always 'Mother' ... I can't remember why I decided to start doing other songs?," the 79-year-old musician said. He continued: "Anyway, at some point after the end of the tour... I started thinking, 'It could make an interesting album, all those encores ... 'The Encores'. 'Yeah, has a nice ring to it!' Then... I'm in England doing the Ginger Baker tribute gig one Tuesday night at the Hammersmith Odeon with Eric Clapton and... the following Saturday marching from The Australian Embassy to Parliament Square to make a speech in support of Julian Assange, when bloody me, Covid ...Schlummmm! For me it was Friday March 13th, 2020. Lockdown! So much for the 'Encores' project. Unless... We've tacked 'Comfortably Numb' on the end of the collection, as an appropriate exclamation point in closing this circle of love." Waters will kick off a 12-date tour of the UK on May 31. - New Musical Express/Music-News.com, 4/25/23...... Mariah Carey, Tony Bennett and Jennifer Hudson were among the artists sending happy birthday wishes to Barbra Streisand on her 81st birthday on Apr. 24. 'Living like Babs cause it's evergreen," Mariah Carey tweeted, referencing the lyrical shout-out about Streisand in her 2019 deep cut "Giving Me Life" before adding, "I love you Ms. Streisand!!!!! Happy anniversary @BarbraStreisand." Tony Bennett, who memorably duetted with the Broadway legend on their joint cover of "Smile," started his birthday tribute tweet with a quote by Babs herself. 'Life's too short. Start with dessert!' @BarbraStreisand," the crooner wrote alongside a smiling photo of the pair. "Wishing the fabulous Barbra Streisand a Happy Birthday! May your day overflow with joy, love, and an abundance of sweet treats!" Jennifer Hudson also used social media to honor Streisand on her big day with a tweet, calling her "one of the greatest to ever do it ! As a singer, songwriter, actress, director, producer, author and so much more, Barbra Streisand has paved the way for women everywhere. We celebrate you, @BarbraStreisand!!!" Coincidentally, on the same day Barbra turned 81, Adele and James Corden paid tribute to the Funny Girl star by belting out her rendition of "Don't Rain on My Parade" in the very last segment of Carpool Karaoke before Corden exits The Late Late Show after eight years as host in late April. - Billboard, 4/23/23...... Meanwhile, Congress' karaoke night just got a lot more interesting. Such famous classic rock standards as Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'," and John Lennon's "Imagine" have recently been included in the 2022 list of the Library of Congress' National Registry. The three beloved songs, along with 22 others, were selected by the Library of Congress based on their "cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation's recorded sound heritage." The Library of Congress has worked with the National Recording Preservation Board since 2002 to archive iconic recordings for future generations. Other selections include Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You," Wu-Tang Clan's "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)," and songs by Ricky Martin, A Tribe Called Quest and Daddy Yankee. - Jack FM/People, 4/15/23...... 
'70s No. 1 hitmaker Roberta Flack and current pop sensation Usher will receive honorary doctorates from the prestigious Berklee College of Music on May 13 during this year's commencement ceremony, it was announced on Apr. 20. The 2023 honorees, which also include multi-instrumentalist Sona Jorbarteh, will have the chance to address the 2023 class of graduates at the ceremony, and each will be further celebrated with a reception and concert on the eve of commencement, featuring more than 200 student vocalists, musicians, dancers, arrangers and producers from the graduating class performing a musical tribute to their work. The three join an impressive and diverse list of musicians who've received honorary degrees from Berklee in years past, including Duke Ellington, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, Celine Dion, B.B. King, Joni Mitchell, Chaka Khan, Willie Nelson, Ringo Starr, Gloria Estefan and John Legend. Flack, a four-time Grammy winner, has topped the hit parade three times: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" in 1972, "Killing Me Softly With His Song" in 1973 and "Feel Like Makin' Love" in 1974. She was also the first artist to win back-to-back Grammys for Record of the Year, for "Face" and "Killing Me Softly." In all the years since, only U2 and Billie Eilish have equaled that achievement. In addition, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys' Recording Academy in 2020. - Billboard, 4/20/23...... The new Little Richard documentary Little Richard: I Am Everything began streaming on Prime Video, Apple TV and several other platforms on Apr. 21 after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The story of the late rock and roll legend, who died on May 9, 2020 of bone cancer is told through archival footage of his performances and interviews, as well as by those who knew and worked with him. The film follows the musician from his childhood in Macon, Ga., through the many ups and downs of a long and storied career, and adeptly reveals the layers that influenced the person who became the performer no one could ignore. It is also the story of rock and roll's birth, queer culture, and being a Black gay man in America. A companion album, Little Richard: I Am Everything - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will be released on Varese Sarabande Records digitally on June 16, with CD & LP releases to follow. - Billboard, 4/20/23...... In a new interview with the UK music mag Uncut, Graham Nash says his late bandmate David Crosby's death hit him "like an earthquake." Although he said he had been expecting Crosby to pass for the past decade, due to the sheer number of health issues he battled over the years, Nash, 81, said he "went into shock" when he found out that "Croz" died on Jan. 18, aged 81, following a long illness. "I mean, he had so much wrong with him. Holy Toledo, he had five or six stents in his veins. Obviously, he didn't take very good care of himself. But his death was still like an earthquake. The initial shock was just terrifying," Nash explained. Luckily, he says he and Neil Young, 77, had made amends with their Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmate before he died. Graham said: "Fortunately, yes. We did. We were emailing and he called me and left a voicemail about how he feels that he needs to apologise for shooting his mouth off, particularly about Neil and I. We set up an appointment to FaceTime. Unfortunately, he never called. Then, a couple of days later, he was dead." Nash is releasing his first solo album in seven years, Now, on May 19, which he describes as his "most personal" collection of his career. He's currently touring behind the new album on his "Sixty Years of Songs and Stories" US tour to mark the 60th anniversary of his first single with The Hollies. - Music-News.com, 4/23/23...... On Apr. 21 the '70s English pop and ska band Madness announced a new UK arena tour taking place this winter, where they will be joined by special guests The Lightning Seeds. Launching in Aberdeen on Nov. 30, the "C'est La Vie" tour hit arenas across the UK, before closing with a performance in Birmingham on Dec. 16. It will feature appearances in cities including Glasgow (1/12), Nottingham (5/12), Liverpool (7/12) and Manchester (9/12), as well as a penultimate slot at London's O2 arena on Dec. 15. Frontman Graham "Suggs" McPherson and co announced that they were working on a new release on twitter back in November. Sharing footage taken in a recording studio, the twitter caption read: "Please allow us to introduce ourselves... We're back in the studio recording the new album... This one sounds about finished?!?" The "Our House" hitmakers will also be playing more UK shows in 2023 before kicking off their arena dates. Announced in Nov. 2022, the band will play in cities including Halifax and Middlesborough this summer. - NME, 4/21/23...... 
English singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran took the stand in Manhattan Federal Court on Apr. 25 in a high-profile copyright trial about whether his smash single "Thinking Out Loud" copied Marvin Gaye's classic 1973 song "Let's Get It On." Ben Crump, a lawyer representing the family of Ed Townsend, the co-writer for "Let's Get It On," said in his opening statement that Sheeran played his ballad and Gaye's song back-to-back in a medley during a concert, and called the moment a "smoking gun." Sheeran is accused of copying "Let's Get It On" by the heirs of Townsend. Townsend's daughter Kathryn Townsend Griffin, sister Helen McDonald and the estate of his former wife, Cherrigale Townsend, are the listed plaintiffs on the "Thinking Out Loud" case. Gaye died in 1984 and Townsend died in 2003. During Sheeran's testimony, the musician said the idea of creating the medley was "probably mine." He said if he had, indeed, copied "Let's Get It On," then he "would've been an idiot to stand on stage in front of 20,000 people." Sheeran's legal team declined to cross examine the musician on Rice's questions, and said they want to ask him their own questions as they present their case at a later time. Earlier in the court proceedings, Crump attempted to portray Sheeran as someone who recognized the "magic" of Gaye's soul song and then used it to catapult his career. "Thinking Out Loud" would go on to win the 2016 Grammy award for Song of the Year. "if you remember nothing else about this trial, about this case, it is about giving credit where credit is due," Crump told the jury, which was selected the previous day. Sheeran's legal team argued that the sounds used in both songs are common in pop music. "No one owns basic musical building blocks," Ilene Farkas, Sheeran's lawyer, told the jury in opening remarks. In 2022, Sheeran faced a previous legal battle over his music and won. Taylor Swift and Led Zeppelin have also been subject to claims of lifting their hit songs from other artists in recent years. - CNN, 4/25/23...... Barry Humphries, the Australian actor and creator of the comedic personality Dame Edna Everage, died on Apr. 22 in a Sydney hospital due to complications following hip surgery in March. He was 89. Mr. Humphries, who was born in Melbourne in 1934, rose to fame in the 1950s after originating the drag-character housewife Edna Everage. Sporting lilac hair and funky glasses, the act served as a form of social satire. The creation hit the London stage in the 1970s and gained a fanbase that landed the entertainer appearances in the worlds of theater, film, and TV for the next few decades. Before becoming a notable personality, Mr. Humphries was a fixture on the West End stage, appearing in shows such as "Oliver." The star expanded his act to the U.S. in 2000 with the Broadway production "Dame Edna, The Royal Tour," for which he was presented with a special Tony award. His other honors included being made Officer of the Order of Australia (OA) in 1982 and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), which Queen Elizabeth presented to him for his contribution to the arts in 2007. Mr. Humphries also appeared in a number of films, including Bedazzled (1967), Spice World (1997), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), and Finding Nemo (2003). Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was one of many public figures to pay tribute to the star. For 89 years, Barry Humphries entertained us through a galaxy of personas, from Dame Edna to Sandy Stone," he tweeted, referring to the melancholic and rambling latter character, another of Mr. Humphries' most enduring. "But the brightest star in that galaxy was always Barry. A great wit, satirist, writer, and an absolute one of kind, he was both gifted and a gift." Married four times, he is survived by his wife Lizzie Spender, four children and 10 grandchildren. - Entertainment Weekly, 4/22/23...... Ginnie Newhart, wife of comedy legend Bob Newhart and who inspired the classic ending of Newhart's Newhart series, died on Apr. 23 in Los Angeles after a long illness. She was 82. Ginnie Newhart, who met her husband on a blind date arranged by comedian-actor Buddy Hackett, is credited with providing the idea for the 1990 Newhart finale that included a clever callback to her husband's The Bob Newhart Show. The later show, which featured Newhart as a Vermont innkeeper, ended with him waking up in Chicago next to his on-screen wife from The Bob Newhart Show, revealing the second series to be dream. Ginnie once said she suggested the idea to her husband at a Christmas party that was also attended by Suzanne Pleshette, his on-screen wife in The Bob Newhart Show. That series ran for six seasons from 1972 to 1978 and helped cement Bob Newhart's status as a legend of TV comedies. Born Virginia Lillian Quinn, Ginnie was the daughter of character actor Bill Quinn, who appeared in The Birds, Twilight Zone: The Movie and had more than 230 other film and television credits. The Newharts were close friends with comedian Don Rickles and his wife Barbara, frequently traveling together. In interviews, the Newharts said laughter was the secret of the longevity of their marriage. She is survived by Bob, 93, their four children, and 10 grandchildren. - AP, 4/24/23...... 
Harry Belafonte, a towering figure in entertainment and civil rights who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, died on Apr. 25 of congestive heart failure at his New York home, according to his publicist Ken Sunshine. He was 96. With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, the Harlem-born and Jamaican-raised Mr. Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit "Banana Boat Song (Day-O)," and its call of "Day-O! Daaaaay-O." But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson's decree that artists are "gatekeepers of truth." Mr. Belafonte stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with his time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the Civil Rights Movement. Mr. Belafonte not only participated in protest marches and benefit concerts, but helped organize and raise support for them. He worked closely with his friend and generational peer the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., often intervening on his behalf with both politicians and fellow entertainers and helping him financially. He risked his life and livelihood and set high standards for younger Black celebrities, scolding Jay-Z and Beyoncé for failing to meet their "social responsibilities," and mentoring Usher, Common, Danny Glover and many others. In Spike Lee's 2018 film "BlacKkKlansman," he was fittingly cast as an elder statesman schooling young activists about the country's past. A master at blending pop, jazz and traditional West Indian rhythms, Mr. Belafonte released more than 30 albums during his career and received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy from the Recording Academy in 2000. One of his three albums that charted in the top three in 1956, Calypso, which featured "Day-O" and another hit, "Jamaica Farewell," topped the hit parade for an incredible 31 weeks and is credited as the first LP to sell 1 million copies. In the late 1950s, Mr. Belafonte also made news as a rare non-white sex symbol and matinee idol. In the Darryl F. Zanuck-produced Island in the Sun (1957), his politician character is romantically pursued by a rich white woman (Joan Fontaine), a storyline that created much controversy (and big box office) at the time. And in two films released in 1959, he played a bank robber opposite a racist partner (Robert Ryan) in Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow and survived a nuclear disaster -- and then battled Jose Ferrer over Swedish actress Inger Stevens -- in The World, the Flesh and the Devil. Both movies were financed by his own company, HarBel Productions. Following an acclaimed Carnegie Hall two-night stand in Apr. 1959, Mr. Belafonte became the first African-American performer to win an Emmy (in 1960) for his Revlon Revue TV special, Tonight With Belafonte. He published a memoir, My Song, in 2011. Mr. Belafonte was married three times -- to nurse Marguerite Byrd, dancer Julie Robinson and photographer Pamela Frank, who survives him and was by his side at his death, as do his daughters Shari, Gina (both actresses) and Adrienne and son David (a producer). - AP/The Hollywood Reporter, 4/25/23.
A young English ABBA fan named Josie Felix became the one millionth visitor to see ABBA's Voyage live show at the purpose-built ABBA Arena in London on Apr. 17. Felix had been selected from scores of competition entries for writing her own song about how her dad would play ABBA as he drove her to school when she was a child. ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus says Voyage is "amazing... it has surpassed any dream I could have ever had." "We've somehow reached new generations by some miracle. I don't know how, but there you are. [The 2008 musical movie] Mamma Mia, I suppose played a role in that. There are new generations coming along." Voyage sees CGI reincarnations (or "ABBA-tars") based on the movements and performance of the living Swedish pop legends. These are then painstakingly presented to appear to be playing live with the appearance of the band in their '70s prime, backed by a full live band present in the room. Ulvaeus continued: "We don't know exactly what it is that we've done, which makes it hard to replicate. I don't know it's just for another band to do the same thing and expect the same kind of emotional effect that this has had. Not automatically -- it's not that easy." That's why Bjorn says a Voyage presentation at the UK's legendary Glastonbury Festival isn't likely. "I don't think that's possible, yet," he says. "It might be in the future. As it is, it's too complicated because the lighting, the sound, the visuals, everything is integrated and it's so complicated." Voyage currently has dates listed at the ABBA Arena until Jan. 2024. - New Musical Express, 4/18/23...... As he recently toured Australia and New Zealand, Jackson Browne became ill and was forced to cancel shows in Melbourne and Sydney. In the third week of April Browne's tour producer Frontier Touring announced his dates at Melbourne's Margaret Court Arena and Sydney's Aware Super Theatre would be postponed "due to illness," however Browne has since recovered and continued his tour Down Under the next week in Auckland and Wellington, the New Zealand capital. "I'm sorry to have to tell you that I'm still very sick, and have to postpone my concert at the Aware Super Theatre in Sydney," he explained in an 
Judy Collins was among the honorees at the 2023 She Rocks Awards on Apr. 13 at The Ranch in Anaheim, Calif. The event, now in its 11th year, is sponsored by The Women's International Music Network (the WiMN) and honors the accomplishments of a diverse group of women representing all facets of the music industry. Accepting her Legend Award, Collins quoted favorite Mae West lines ("Too much of a good thing can be wonderful," "Restraint is fine if it doesn't go too far"). She capped her speech by leading the audience in an a capella rendition of her 1971 hit "Amazing Grace." The folk/pop singer has a 59-year span of Grammy nominations. She was nominated for best folk recording in 1964 for her third studio album, Judy Collins #3, and was nominated again in 2022 for Best Folk Album for Spellbound, her 55th album. She won a 1968 Grammy for her hit rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now." The night culminated with a performance from guitarist Gretchen Menn, She Rocks Inspire Award recipient, who led her band in an original song followed by a rendition of Led Zeppelin's 1972 classic "Rock and Roll." - Billboard, 4/17/23...... Roger Waters is apparently vowing to play Frankfurt, Germany's publicly owned Festhalle on May 28, despite the planned performance there being cancelled over claims of anti-Semitism. In March, Frankfurt's City Council called off the performance over the musician's views on Israel, later describing him as "one of the world's most widely-known anti-Semites." According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the cancellation notice cited Waters' boycott of Israel -- also known as the BDS campaign -- as well as his talks with Hamas-affiliated media, comparisons of Israel to apartheid South Africa, and what many see as anti-Semitic imagery at his concerts. Now, however, Waters has suggested he's "coming anyway" despite the cancellation. He posted an update to 
On Apr. 17 Eric Clapton announced the star-studded lineup for the 2023 edition of his Crossroads Guitar Festival. This year's event will take place over two nights (Sept. 23-24) at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, where Clapton will again gather some of the best guitar players in the world for headlining sets and impromptu collabs. Though not everyone on the roster will repeat over the weekend, Clapton will perform both nights, joined by Gary Clark Jr., Sheryl Crow, Santana, Jakob Dylan, Albert Lee, Los Lobos, Stephen Stills, Taj Mahal, ZZ Top, the John Mayer Trio, Robert Randolph, H.E.R., Marcus King and many more. Tickets for the fest go on sale on April 21 via Ticketmaster. There are no two-day passes, only single-day tickets. In addition to some multi-million-dollar historical guitars on display at the arena's Legends Collection area, there will also be an unveiling of the 25th anniversary Crossroads Guitar Collection, a rare series of limited-edition guitars based on some of Clapton's vintage gear. A significant portion of profits from the sale of the guitars will go to aid Clapton's Crossroads Centre at Antigua treatment and education facility. - Billboard, 4/17/23...... The Coco Palms Resort in Hawaii, famous for being featured in the 1961 Elvis Presley movie Blue Hawaii, will soon be demolished and rebuilt into a new 350-room hotel, according to a local Honolulu paper. The Coco Palms on the island of Kauai is best known in movie lore as the location where Presley and Joan Blackman's characters married in Blue Hawaii, and it's also the site of other key scenes in the movie, including the last where Presley sings the "Hawaiian Wedding Song" and holds Blackman's hand while they board a raft to cross a lagoon. In its heyday, it was famed for being frequented by other Hollywood stars like Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and Bing Crosby. The 46-acre grounds were also once home to Kauai's last queen, Deborah Kapule, who died in 1853. Several attempts to restore the property have failed over the years, and developers say the $250 million project will take three years to complete. - Billboard, 4/15/23...... Influential jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal died on Apr. 16 at his home in Ashley Falls, Mass., due to prostate cancer. He was 92. A beloved piano player and composer, Mr. Jamal's unique sound influenced fellow jazz greats Miles Davis and McCoy Tyner, as well as a generation of crate-digging hip-hop lyricists and producers who sampled his music, including J Dilla (who snagged Jamal's 1974 tune "Swahililand" for De La Soul's "Stakes Is High"), Nas ("The World is Yours") and DJ Premiere (for Gang Starr's "Soliloquy of Chaos") among many others. After scoring a hit with 1958 album Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing: But Not for Me, the jazz great opened the short-lived Chicago club the Alhambra. Mr. Jamal continued to perform and record well into his 80s, releasing his final album, the mostly solo piano collection Ballades, in 2019. - Billboard, 4/17/23...... 
British musician Cliff Fish, best known as the bass guitarist in 1970s rock band Paper Lace which scored a U.S. No. 1 hit in July 1974 with 
KISS were forced to pause a show in Manaus, Brazil on Apr. 12 when bassist/singer Gene Simmons fell ill. Simmons, 73, had to take a seat on the stage and the band temporarily halted the while crew members looked after him. The show was only paused for around five minutes before he returned to the stage again and continued performing for the remainder of the set. "We're gonna have to stop," frontman Paul Stanley said to the crowd when he noticed Simmons was seated. "You know how much we love Gene, and he's obviously sick. And we're gonna have to stop to take care of him, 'cause we love him, right?" Stanley then asked the crowd to chant "Gene" as the bassist was being tended to by the crew. While seated, Simmons plated some of the bass parts to KISS' 2010 track, "Say Yeah" before returning to the front of the stage. Fan-captured footage from the moment can be viewed on 
Paul Simon has announced he'll follow up his 2018 rarities collection In the Blue Light with a continuous seven-song musical suite entitled 
Rocker and conservative firebrand Ted Nugent has weighed in on the recent uproar on the right over Bud Light beer teaming p with a trans social influencer named Dylan Mulvaney. Appearing on a recent episode of the right-wing channel Newsmax's program Eric Bolling the Balance, Nugent said: "The beauty of my life is that I've never spent one red cent on alcohol. But I made sure that my entire crew and my family will never allow any Anheuser-Busch products anywhere near my world." After referencing a similar Pride-related campaign coming from Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey as well, Nugent called out these campaigns for being "disrespectful" to the brands' "core consumer demographic," appearing to refer to conservatives. "How can they possibly have a meeting around the table and come to the conclusion that they're going to piss in the face of the people who pay their salaries?" he said. "This is the epitome of cultural deprivation in an ongoing tsunami of cultural deprivation." Nugent is just one in a series of artists to share their displeasure with Anheuser-Busch's recent work with Mulvaney. Country singer Travis Tritt declared that he would no longer include any of the company's products on his tour rider, while Kid Rock declared "f--k Anheuser-Busch" in a recent social media video after shooting three cases of Bud Light with an assault rifle. Nugent applauded Kid Rock in his interview, saying, "I think I might've trained Kid Rock appropriately, because nothing says 'I love you' like a fully automatic MP5 and nine-millimeter blasting about 600 rounds per minute." The partnership in question came when Mulvaney posted a video to her social media accounts promoting a March Madness-themed campaign for Bud Light, wherein she received a commemorative can of the drink with her face emblazoned on the side. Anheuser-Busch stood by its campaign in a recent statement to Billboard, saying it was one of "hundreds" meant to help the brand "authentically connect with audiences across various demographics." The spokesperson also added that Bud Light cans with Mulvaney's face were not for sale, since the piece was "a gift to celebrate a personal milestone." A spokesperson for Jack Daniel's also offered a statement to Billboard, standing by their values of "individuality and living life boldly on your own terms," and adding that their products are made "with everyone in mind, including the LGBTQ+ community." The backlash has also reportedly sparked concern from beer distributors that the controversy could hurt beer sales. Squabbles have broken out at bars and distributors are canceling events featuring the iconic Budweiser Clydesdale horses. The 26-year-old Mulvaney is also a pitchwoman for the Kate Spade fashion brand, which has also been criticized by conservatives. The influencer is reported to have earned more than $1 million promoting products such as Ulta Beauty, Haus Labs, Crest, InstaCart, and CeraVe. - Billboard, 4/11/2023...... 
A rep for Gordon Lightfoot announced on Apr. 11 that the iconic Canadian singer/songwriter has been forced to cancel his U.S. and Canadian concert schedule for 2023 "due to health issues." Lightfoot, 84, had numerous U.S. shows scheduled in April, June and September, and one Canadian show -- Oct. 14 at Kitchener's Centre in The Square -- on the books but "is unable to confirm rescheduled dates at this time." The statement continued: "We thank you for respecting his privacy as he continues to focus on his recovery." The "Sundown" hitmaker has been a rigorous health nut (aside from smoking) with daily workouts since recovering from a Sept. 2002 stomach aneurysm in his hometown of Orillia, Ont., while preparing for the second show of a two-night stand there. He was airlifted to Hamilton's McMaster Medical Centre and underwent emergency vascular surgery, followed by a six-week coma, a tracheotomy, and four more operations. Lightfoot had follow-up surgery in 2003 and in Sept. 2006 had a minor stroke that temporarily left him without the use of the middle and ring fingers on his right hand but by 2007 he had full use again. Speaking with The Sun newspaper in Dec. 2022, Lightfoot spoke about the recent death of fellow Canadian singer/songwriter Ian Tyson of "Four Strong Winds" fame and how instrumental Tyson had been to his career after covering "Early Mornin' Rain." "He was the first person to record a Gordon Lightfoot song," said Lightfoot. "The next thing I knew I was getting launched into the music business. I've always been eternally grateful to (then folk duo) Ian & Sylvia for getting me started in this business." Lightfoot has also long covered Tyson's song "Red Velvet" in his own concerts. "That was about a guy trying to find his way back to his girl," said Lightfoot. "Four Strong Winds, that's the same as Red Velvet. They're love songs." - Canoe.com, 4/11/23....... Piano-playing political satirist Mark Russell, who starred in PBS comedy specials and playfully gibed every President since Eisenhower, died of prostate cancer on Mar. 30 in Washington, D.C. He was 90. - People, 4/17/23.
In a new interview with USA Today, The Who's Roger Daltrey said his band may never tour the U.S. again. While the veteran English rockers have been taking their closing curtain calls since their "final" show in 1982, Daltrey says a hop across the pond might be out of the question. "Nothing at the moment. I don't know if we'll ever come back to tour America. There is only one tour we could do, an orchestrated Quadrophenia to round out the catalog. But that's one tall order to sing that piece of music, as I'll be 80 next year. I never say never, but at the moment it's very doubtful." Daltrey went on to say that the chaos of the post-pandemic touring economy is a huge reason. "Touring has become very difficult since Covid," he said. "We cannot get insured and most of the big bands doing arena shows, by the time they do their first show and rehearsals and get the staging and crew together, all the buses and hotels, you're upwards $600,000 to a million in the hole," he said of the lingering impact of the Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns on touring. "To earn that back, if you're doing a 12-show run, you don't start to earn it back until the seventh or eighth show," Daltrey explained. "That's just how the business works. The trouble now is if you get Covid after the first show, you've (lost) that money." While U.S. fans may never see The Who live again, the band has just released the live collection 
Director James Mangold says that actor Timothée Chalamet will sing in his own voice in the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic, instead of dubbing Dylan's voice in. "Of course!," Mangold told Collider.com when asked if Chalamet would use his own voice. Mangold said he thinks the project, based on Elijah Wald's book Dylan Goes Electric and a script from Jay Cocks, will begin filming in "August of this year." "It's such an amazing time in American culture," said Mangold, who also directed Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which is set to premiere in American theaters in June. "The story of a young, 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with like two dollars in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years -- first being embraced into the family of folk music in New York and then, of course, kind of outrunning them at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief. It's such an interesting true story and about such an interesting moment in the American scene," Mangold said. He added that Dylan mentors and cohorts Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Joan Baez "all have a role to play in this movie," though the actors cast for these roles in the film, which has the working title A Complete Unknown and is expected to begin shooting in August, have not yet been announced. Mangold's interview can be viewed on 
After the family of late Crosby, Stills & Nash member David Crosby only shared Crosby died following a "long illness" when the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer died on Jan. 19 at age 81, his former bandmate Graham Nash has revealed Crosby had contracked Covid-19 for a second time prior to his death. "He was rehearsing for a show to do in Los Angeles with a full band," Nash said during the latest Kyle Meredith With... podcast. "After three days of rehearsals, he felt a little sick. And he'd already had Covid, and he had Covid again. And so he went home and decided that he would take a nap, and he never woke up. But he died in his bed, and that is fantastic." Nash added that his musical collaborator of several decades was luck to live as long as he did. "I mean, the fact that he made it to 81 was astonishing. But [his death] was a shock. It was kind of like an earthquake, you know? You get the initial shock and then you figure out that you survived. But these aftershocks kept coming up, and they're diminishing in size as I go along." In an interview with AARP magazine earlier in 2023, Nash said that he and Crosby -- who were famously estranged for years before the pioneering folk-rocker's passing -- were in the midst of making peace just before Crosby died, and following Crosby's death, Nash shared a statement about his "friend" Crosby on Instagram, saying "what has always mattered... more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together, the sound we discovered with one another, and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years." - Billboard, 4/8/23...... After it was announced that the earliest known full recording of the Beatles performing live in the United Kingdom had been discovered was announced on Apr. 4, there are plans to restore the old tape, which contains a full length gig performance in Buckinghamshire on Apr. 4, 1963 and includes spoken word segments from the band as they interacted with the audience. "Talks are under way to get [the tape] cleaned up and for a permanent home in a national cultural institution," British journalist Samira Ahmed told the UK paper The Observer. "John [Bloomfield] feels strongly that it should not end up, as so many Beatles relics have, in the vault of a private individual." Bloomfield, who is now 75 years old, was only 15 at the time. He revealed the existence of the tape to journalist Samira Ahmed visited Stowe when they visited to make a special programme for BBC Radio 4's Front Row to mark the gig's 60th anniversary. Ahmed and Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn are the only people to have heard the full recording after Bloomfield agreed to play it for the first time since it was made six decades ago. "The opportunity that this tape presents, which is completely out of the blue, is fantastic because we hear [The Beatles] just on the cusp of the breakthrough into complete world fame," Lewisohn told the BBC. "And at that point, all audience recordings become blanketed in screams. "So here is an opportunity to hear them in the UK, in an environment where they could be heard and where the tape actually does capture them properly, at a time when they can have banter with the audience as well." He went on to say that the tape contained "an incredibly important recording", adding: "I hope something good and constructive and creative eventually happens to it." Lewisohn added he was unaware the tape even existed, "and I think I had to pick myself up off the floor." - NME, 4/9/23...... The recently released Pink Floyd live album of their seminal 1973 LP The Dark Side of the Moon has debuted at No. 8 on Billboard's Top Album Sales chart for the week ending Apr. 8. Released on Mar. 23, 
Scottish guitarist Ian Bairnson, who performed with such acts as Pilot, The Alan Parsons Project and Kate Bush, died on Apr. 7 after a "long battle with dementia," his wife, Leila Bairnson, announced through social media. He was 69. "Ian was the sweetest, kindest, loving husband I could ever have wished for and I take comfort that he is resting now up there in his very own piece of 'Blue Blue Sky,'" Leila wrote in an Instagram post on Apr. 8. "Although Ian has left us, his musical legacy stays with us and will continue to delight and brighten our lives, as it did his, forever," she added. Bairnson, who was born in Shetland, was a session musician before joining Scottish band Pilot in 1973. He went on to become guitarist for the Alan Parsons Project, beginning with the group's 1975 debut album, 
Trailblazing and culture-bending cartoonist Al Jaffee, who illustrated such famed MAD magazine features as "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" and the "fold-in," the drawing that ran on the back inside cover of every MAD issue and could be revealed by folding the page vertically and inward, died on Apr. 10 in a Manhattan hospital of multisystem organ failure. He had just celebrated his 102nd birthday on Mar. 13. MAD launched in 1952 at the height of anti-communist fervor and Mr. Jaffee arrived as a contributor three years later. When he retired in 2020 at age 99, he was the magazine's longest-tenured contributor, though he always worked freelance and never was on staff. "No one knew that Mad was going to go on for 50 or 60 years. I figured, 'All right, I'll do the best I can with Mad for as long as it lasts,'" Mr. Jaffee said in a 2010 interview. "When you live from freelance check to freelance check, your mind is always on, 'What's the next piece I'm going to write, or draw, that'll pay this month's rent?'" Born Abraham Jaffee in 1921 in Atlanta, Mr. Jaffee began pursuing comics after graduating high school in 1940, and at age 20 he made his first sale to future industry titan Will Eisner, who bought his parody of Superman called Inferior Man. He went on to work for soon-to-be Marvel legend Stan Lee at Timely Comics, a forerunner of Marvel Comics. Mr. Jaffee was also known for the anti-war cartoons Hawks & Doves, which he drew during the Vietnam War. His work loomed large, with comedy stars such as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert among his devotees. Mr. Jaffee was married to Joyce Revenson from 1977 until her death in 2020. He is survived by his children, Richard and Deborah, from his first marriage to Ruth Ahlquist. - The Hollywood Reporter, 4/10/23.
An attorney representing Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has issued 24 affirmative defenses in a denial that Tyler committed sexual assault against a minor female dating back to the 1970s. In December, a woman named Julia Misley -- who was known as Julia Holcomb at the time -- filed a lawsuit accusing Tyler of sexual assault and battery against her when she was a minor. Misley claimed that they were both involved in a sexual relationship for about three years and that Tylor convinced her mother to grant him guardianship over her when she was 16. The lawsuit also referenced Tyler's memoirs, in which he recalled that he "almost took a teen bride" and described how her parents "signed a paper over for me to have custody, so I wouldn't get arrested if I took her out of state." It further alleged that Tyler "coerced and persuaded" Misley into believing the relationship was a "romantic love affair," and detailed claims that he demanded she get an abortion in 1975, when she claims she was pregnant with his child. Now, following the accusations, the musician -- represented by attorney Shawn Holley -- has issued several defenses against the allegations and denied them all. The defenses state that all claims are "barred" as the claimant gave "consent," and added that Tyler should be granted immunity as he was "caretaker and/or guardian" at the time. It also stated that Misley "has not suffered any injury or damage as a result of any action by Defendant," and that the conduct -- presumably referring to his memoirs -- is protected under the first amendment. Furthermore Tyler states that the statute of limitations has expired on the allegations. However, the suit was filed during California's Child Victims Act: a 2019 legislation that allowed victims of childhood sexual assault to come forward regardless of the statute of limitations. Following Tyler's response, Misley's attorney Jeff Anderson issued a statement that accused the musician of "gaslighting" Misely: "He's heaping more pain on Misley and gaslighting her by falsely claiming that she 'consented' and that the pain he inflicted was "justified and in good faith," he said. "Never have we encountered a legal defense as obnoxious and potentially dangerous as the one that Tyler and his lawyers launched this week: Their claim that legal guardianship is consent and permission for sexual abuse." Tyler has yet to issue a comment in response to Anderson's statement. - NME, 4/6/23...... In March, KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley appeared on Howard Stern's SiriusXM show and explained why the band didn't perform when they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2014. Stanley said that, among other reasons, the Rock Hall "demanded" that KISS take the stage with its original members -- himself, bassist Gene Simmons, lead guitarist Ace Frehley, and drummer Peter Criss. Explaining why he wouldn't want to perform with Frehley and Criss, Stanley said: "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." From there, Frehley went on SiriusXM's Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk show and threatened to spill some secret KISS "dirt" if Stanley didn't "apologize for the remark within one week." Frehley said the "dirt" would come in the form of a 120-page manuscript, which contains "career-ending" details about both Stanley and Simmons. "When it comes to negativity, and we've all done things that we regret over the years -- it's there," he said. "My attorney has it in a safety deposit box [...and] is instructed to release it. So they can't intimidate me." Apr. 5 marked exactly one week since Frehley demanded the apology and, in a new interview with Trunk Nation, Frehley confirmed to host Eddie Trunk that Stanley did call -- not to apologize, but to say "f---- you" instead. "I was blindsided by the phone call," Frehley said. "I figured he was calling me maybe to apologize or at least explain why he said that. But instead of an apology, I got a five-second phone call which said, 'F--- you, Ace. I'm not gonna apologize,' and hung up. He wasn't even man enough to let me give a rebuttal and explain why I'm so upset or anything like that." After explaining various ways that he could confirm that it was indeed Stanley who called him, Frehley ultimately said he decided not to release the "120-page manuscript" after all as he wouldn't want to "sink to their level." "I came to the realization that I don't even have to bring up anything that I have hidden away in my attorney's safe deposit box," Frehley said. "I can just talk about things that they've said about me in black and white." Meanwhile, KISS's current incarnation, which includes guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, will resume their "End of the Road" farewell tour later in 2023, playing their final shows ever on Dec. 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden. - New Musical Express, 4/6/23...... Bob Dylan will be among the headliners of the 2023 Montreux Jazz Festival, which is set to take place this summer on the shoreline of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Dylan will be returning to Montreux for the first time in a decade to present his 2020 album 
In Dec. 1980, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury donned a pair of "daring" leather hotpants during Queen's encore at a concert in Birmingham, England in a bid to "shock" the crowd. Now this famous article of clothing will go on the auction block at Omega Auctions in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, on Apr. 25. Jacky Gunn, the head of the Queen Fan Club, said of the risqué garment in Queen's official biography Queen: As it Began that the hotpants "didn't leave much to the imagination, but no one complained." Dan Hampson of Omega Auctions noted that the hotpants "typify [Mercury's] daring look." Mercury was known for his fondness of leather clothing and would often perform topless with a pair of leather trousers. Meanwhile, Queen's iconic 1975 track "Bohemian Rhapsody" has been voted "Your Ultimate Queen Song" following a listener vote to discover the UK's favorite song by the legendary art-rock group. Beginning on Feb. 20, listeners were asked to vote for up to three of their favorite songs from Queen's Top 75 UK chart singles, including collaborations with the band following Mercury's death. Voting closed on Mar. 8, with the results compiled for a special show on Apr. 1. "Bohemian Rhapsody" led the tally, followed by "Don't Stop Me Now" (1979), "Somebody To Love" (1976), "We Are The Champions/We Will Rock You" (1977), and "Radio Ga Ga" (1984). During the special show, Queen guitarist Brian May thanked listeners "for voting for this song... I guess we're very thrilled not only because you voted for that particular track, but because you voted at all and it means that we're still in your hearts and your minds and we're very grateful, and I'm hoping that we'll be out there doing our thing for you before too long." The full Top 40 countdown hosted by Steve Wright is available on BBC Sounds from March 31, and highlights of the Top 40 will be broadcast on Radio 2 on Apr. 10 at 4:00 pm GMT. Queen's current incarnation, with Adam Lambert handling lead vocal duties, will kick off a U.S. tour on Oct. 5 in Baltimore, also visiting Detroit, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Nashville, St. Paul, Minn., Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco before wrapping with two shows in Los Angeles on Nov. 12 and 13. - Music-News.com, 4/3/23...... The earliest known full recording of the Beatles playing a live show in the UK, at Stowe boarding school in Buckinghamshire on Apr. 4, 1963, has been discovered almost exactly 60 years after it was made. According to the BBC, the our-long quarter-inch tape recording was created by 15-year-old student John Bloomfield, who is now 75 and he revealed the tape's existence when journalist Samira Ahmed visited Stowe to make a special programme for Radio 4's Front Row to mark the gig's 60th anniversary. "It was a unique Beatles gig, performed in front of an almost entirely male audience," Ahmed wrote of the discovery. "And crucially, despite loud cheers and some screaming, the tape is not drowned out by the audience reaction." The setlist was made up of songs from the Beatles' debut album Please Please Me, which had been released on Mar. 22, 1963, as well as some of the legendary group's R&B cover versions. A live rendition of "I Saw Her Standing There" kicked off the performance before the Fabs transitioned into their take on Chuck Berry's 1956 single "Too Much Monkey Business." They're also heard taking requests from students, and joking amongst themselves in between tracks. Part of the historic recording was played on the Apr. 3 edition of the BBC's Front Row program, and it can be streamed at the 
David Bowie's former manager Tony Defries has said that the late chameleonic rock star planned to bring back his Ziggy Stardust alter ego for a comeback tour before his 2019 death at age 69. Speaking about his reasons for killing off Ziggy at the time, Bowie told New Musical Express: "That's it. Period. I don't want to do any more gigs and the American dates have been cancelled. From now on I'll be concentrating on various activities that have very little to do with rock and pop." Now, Defries has said the reason he retired his persona was because of its success. "Basically, I think success wasn't the ideal situation for David," Defries recently told MOJO magazine. "When [1973 album] 
In a new interview with the UK's The Sunday Mirror paper, Donny Osmond -- who found fame with his family group The Osmonds and had his first solo hit at 14 -- revealed that he'd love to work with current teen heartthrob Justin Bieber. "I'd love to do something with Justin because of the similarities between our two careers. But that all depends on whether the planets align," the 65-year-old Osmond told the paper. Donny has previously warned about the perils of the showbiz industry for youngsters, once telling the Daily Mirror: "It all depends on the parents. I started at five and I think I handled it well. But I had a great family. It's a treacherous world if you just throw your child out there and let him go about his own business without any restrictions. It messes with a kid's head." - Music-News.com, 4/2/23...... During a recent appearance on TalkTV's Piers Morgan Uncensored, Ozzy Osbourne's wife/manager Sharon Osbourne told host Piers Morgan that Ozzy is feeling "much better" as he prepares to return to the stage at Power Trip Festival this October. "He's good, he's doing so much better," Sharon said when asked about her husband's current state. "I think I told you about it the other night, but now it's been announced; we can talk about it. He's doing a show [on] October 6th in America. It's at the Coachella site. It's gonna be a great show: Guns N' Roses, Metallica, AC/DC, Ozzy..." After Morgan said that "the rocker is still rocking," Sharon responded: "He never stopped. He's back." Despite announcing his retirement, Ozzy explained in March that he could potentially hit the road again if he was given the OK by a doctor. "It would take another six months to get it together, you know?" he added. "The only thing I've got that keeps me going is making records. But I can't do that forever. I gotta get out there." - NME, 3/31/23...... Multi-instrumentalist Ray Shulman, best known for his work in the seminal '70s prog-rock band Gentle Giant, has died at the age of 73. Shulman's passing was confirmed on Apr. 1 by his brother and Gentle Giant bandmate Derek Shulman, who wrote in a statement on Facebook: "I am deeply saddened to announce that my younger brother and my best friend Ray Shulman passed away on March 30th at his home in London." According to Derek, his brother "bravely battled a long illness" and died with family at his side. "At least I know he is now at peace," he wrote, praising Ray as "such a kind and caring soul" who "really was a genius in so many ways." "[Ray] will be deeply missed by the music community as a whole," Derek added. "More importantly, I will miss him as my brother and truly my best friend. He leaves behind his wife Barbara Tanner [and] his older brother Philip. To all who knew Ray or know of him, 'Think of him with kindness.'" The Shulmans formed Gentle Giant in the late '60s as an ambitiously complex prog-rock project, with their modus operandi (as per the liner notes of their 1971 album, Acquiring The Taste) being to "expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of becoming very unpopular". Their self-titled debut album arrived in 1970, with 10 more following over the next decade (their last being 1980's Civilian). The band was particularly successful in the mid-1970s, charting at No. 78 with their sixth album, 1974's The Power And The Glory, and at No. 48 with Free Hand the following year. After Gentle Giant broke up in 1980, Ray kept active as a producer, linking up with such acts as The Sugarcubes, The Sundays, The Trash Can Sinatras and The Defects. He later went on to release two EPs of trance music, working under the moniker Head-Doctor, and scored original music for video games like Azrael's Tear and Privateer 2: The Darkening. - NME, 4/3/23..... 
Veteran music exec Seymour Stein, the co-founder of Sire Records who signed such music legends as Madonna and The Ramones, died on the morning of Apr. 2 in Los Angeles from cancer, his filmmaker daughter Mandy Stein confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 80. Mr. Stein began his career at just age 16 with a tenure at Billboard magazine that lasted until 1961, and then he took his first label job with King Records in Cincinnati before moving back to New York with a stint at Red Bird Records, owned and run by George Goldner and the songwriting/production team of Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber. Mr. Stein co-founded Sire Records with music producer Richard Gottehrer in 1967 as an independent record label, but joined forces with Warner nine years later, in 1976. Mr. Stein once recalled the first artist he signed was "Steven Tallarico, who later became Steve Tyler from Aerosmith... He was in a group called Chain Reaction" at the time. The legendary roster at Sire included Madonna, The Ramones, The Smiths, Talking Heads, The Pretenders, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Ice-T and many, many more. In 2005, Mr. Stein was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in the lifetime-achievement category. In 2016, he was given the Richmond Hitmaker Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony, and in 2018, he received the Recording Academys prestigious Trustees Award. In 2018 Mr. Stein penned his autobiography Siren Song,, which was published by St. Martins Press. Tributes are flowing in for the late music industry great. "Legendary record man. Signed me to Sire Records in 1984 and bought me my Red 355 from 48th Street to seal the deal," writes Johnny Marr, guitarist with the Smiths. "Worked with The Drifters, Rolling Stones & Shangri-Las. Discovered Talking Heads, Ramones & Madonna. Well done Seymour & thank you my friend." - Billboard, 4/2/23.