Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on August 18th, 2025

In an interview with Britain's The Independent, Gladys Knight says she is "healthy and happy" after her son accused her current husband of elder abuse. Knight's son Shanga Hankerson, 49, recently alleged that the soul legend's husband William McDowell, who is 33 years her junior, was mentally and financially abusing her with a "detrimental" touring schedule. In response, Knight says that her "health and performances have been misrepresented." "I want my fans and those concerned to rest assured I am doing very well for someone who has been on stage for three quarters of a century, hard to believe, right?" she added. "I'm healthy and happy and visiting friends and family these last few months. I'm excited to get back on the road with my sisters and on stage with The Queens Tour. See you soon." The "Midnight Train To Georgia" singer, 81, is heading on tour in September, and in an interview with TheShadeRoom.com, Hankerson said: "I don't want my mom out on a tour bus wondering where she's at," and said he has now filed a complaint with North Carolina's Department of Human Services. He added that Knight has had memory struggles in recent years, but Knight's publicist told People magazine that she is "greatly saddened by Shanga's unfounded allegations," adding that he "has had no substantial contact with her." "She has not been on tour since June 1 and can't wait to begin touring again in September," the statement added. "At this time our lawyers have no choice but to explore any and all legal remedies due to Shanga's defamatory comments." Gladys Knight is a seven-time Grammy winner, both solo and with her backing band The Pips. In 2024 she was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a year earlier was awarded with the Kennedy Center Honors. - New Musical Express, 8/16/25...... Speaking of the Kennedy Center Honors, US Pres. Donald Trump announced on Aug. 13 that '70s stars KISS, Gloria Gaynor and Sylvester Stallone will be among five new honorees during a gala later in 2025, with the show airing on CBS in December. First presented in 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors originally focused on fine arts -- heavy on classical and opera -- over the decades, but has broadened to also include more popular forms of music. In 1987, B.B. King became the first blues artist to be inducted. Other performers who were the first in their genres to be honored include Aretha Franklin for R&B in 1994, Pete Seeger for folk in 1994, and Bob Dylan for rock in 1997. In a statement, KISS co-founder Gene Simmons said that his band is "the embodiment of the American dream" and that "we are deeply honored to receive the Kennedy Center Honor." Bandmate Paul Stanley added that "the prestige of the Kennedy Center Honors cannot be overstated and I accept this on behalf of the long legacy of KISS and all of the band members who helped create our iconic band." Although Gene Simmons, who was fired by Donald Trump during the first season of The Celebrity Apprentice in 2008 -- initially praised Donald Trump before he first won the White House by calling him the "truest political animal I've ever seen onstage" and "good for the political system," by 2020 he had a different view. "I knew him before he entered politics," he told Spin magazine in 2022. "Look what that gentleman did to this country and the polarization -- got all the cockroaches to rise to the top. Once upon a time, you were embarrassed to be publicly racist and out there with conspiracy theories. Now it's all out in the open because he allowed it." Similarly, Paul Stanley tweeted in Jan. 2021 that Trump's refusal to accept the results of the previous year's election loss was "ABHORRENT. A true danger to our democracy. The issue isn't that it WON'T work. It's Mob Boss behavior and politicians putting party over audits, investigations, court rulings & COUNTRY in an effort to overrule the will of American voters." In his first term, Trump never once attended the annual Kennedy Center Honors gala, making him the first president to never attend the event during his term. Trump took over the Kennedy Center in February, firing trustees who had been appointed by Pres. Joe Biden and replaced them with his own picks. He also revealed that he will host this year's show, which will also honor Broadway star Michael Crawford and country singer George Strait. - Billboard, 8/13/25...... In light of reports that Facebook's parent company Meta has allegedly enabled AI chatbots to engage with minors in "romantic" and "sensual" ways, Neil Young has declared he's leaving the platform for good. "At Neil Young's request, we are no longer using Facebook for any Neil Young related activities," reads Young's last-ever Facebook post. "Meta's use of chatbots with children is unconscionable. Mr. Young does not want a further connection with FACEBOOK," the statement added. It did not mention whether the musician would also be leaving Instagram, which is also owned by Meta. The announcement comes on the same day Reuters released a report exposing questionable findings in an internal Meta Platforms document compiling the company's AI and chatbot policies. Included in those policies were permissions for chatbots to "engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual." Reuters also reported Meta's chatbots were free to generate false medical information as well as help users build arguments for overtly racist statements such as Black people are "dumber than white people." When pressed for comment, a spokesperson for Meta said that the document has undergone revisions to remove the policies allowing for inappropriate dialogue with kids. Young's statement is far from the first time he's spoken out about his beliefs, nor is it the first time he's called out major tech companies. He has previously voiced concerns over the direction of the United States under Pres. Donald Trump and called on Tesla and other auto makers to build clean-energy vehicles that "won't kill our kids." - Billboard, 8/15/25...... In a new interview with the UK's Mojo music mag, Robert Plant jokes that he will become an "Elvis impersonator" if he finds himself in an uncertain period of his career. "Well, at the end of my first formative period, I was in what you'd loosely call the biggest band in the world," he said of his tenure in Led Zeppelin. "The fervor that surrounded that, it was an unearthly condition and because of its terrible finales, I got suddenly launched into that post-Zeppelin thing where I went, I'm never gonna play any Zeppelin stuff again." Plant continued: "But I was on my own, and Atlantic, [president] Ahmet (Ertegun) and people like that, were saying: 'Why don't you put the band back together?' I said, 'Look, I've made a record called Shaken 'n' Stirred. Nobody likes it, but I like it. F*** it. Nobody liked Zeppelin, but we liked it. F*** it. And if it ever gets to another point where it's not like that in my quantifying of it, then I'm lost. I'll just be an Elvis impersonator. I'm really good at doing Elvis!" Plant also revealed that he turned down the chance to attend Black Sabbath's Back to the Beginning concert at Birmingham's Villa Park in July as he has "found other places," despite being invited by Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi. "I don't know anything about what's going on in that world now, at all," Plant said he told Iommi. "I don't decry it, I've got nothing against it. It's just I found these other places that are so rich." Plant and his new band Saving Grace are set to play play dates across New York, Vancouver, Chicago, Los Angeles and more later beginning in late October, with four intimate shows in London set for September. - Music-News.com, 8/16/25...... John Lennon and Yoko Ono's NYC era and political activism is set to be explored in a new release called Power To The People. On Aug. 30, 1972, John, Yoko, and the Plastic Ono Band with Elephant's Memory headlined two historic "One to One" concerts at Madison Square Garden, NYC. The benefit shows played to a combined audience of 40,000 people and helped raise over $1.5 million to support children with disabilities. They were his only full-length concerts after leaving the Beatles and the last shows John and Yoko performed together. Produced by the couple's son Sean Ono Lennon and his Grammy-winning team, Power to the People, along with a massive 12-disc "Super Deluxe Edition" box set compiling 123 songs including 90 never-before-heard and previously unreleased tracks, is set for release on Oct. 10 (one day after what would have been John's 85th birthday) via Capitol/UMe. To celebrate the announcement of Power To The People, a previously unreleased, newly mixed performance of John's Beatles track "Come Together" has been shared from the "One To One" evening show on Spotify.com. - NME, 8/14/25...... In an interview with Rolling Stone, David Byrne has insisted that Talking Heads won't be touring again, saying that they cannot recapture the magic of their younger days and also don't wish to become a "legacy act." Fans' hopes of a reunion were raised when the band teased a huge announcement back in June, which ended up being the first ever music video for their iconic hit "Psycho Killer," starring rising actor Saoirse Ronan, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their first live performance at New York City club CBGB. Talking Heads haven't performed together since 1984 and until they came together in 2023, they hadn't had a full reunion in 20 years. Meanwhile, Byrne is gearing up to release his first new solo album in seven years, Who Is The Sky, which is due for release on Sept. 5 via Matador Records. The album is said to "build upon the optimistic themes" presented in Byrne's successful American Utopia album, tour and Broadway show in 2018. - NME, 8/13/25...... In related news, Aerosmith's Joe Perry has put a dampener on hopes of a new Aerosmith tour, saying that frontman Steven Tyler both "can't" and "doesn't want to." The band's final live show was held as part of their "Peace Out"' tour, which began in 2023, but only saw the band play three shows. While touring has been confirmed as off the cards for the band now, they have managed to play the odd show in the time since. In February, Tyler returned to the live stage for a charity event that saw him sing a number of Aerosmith classics, including "Walk This Way," "Dream On" and "Sweet Emotion." That was followed by a similar event in April that saw Tyler and Perry reunite on stage for the first time in two years. Tyler then appeared at the Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath farewell show, which was held in Birmingham, UK on July 5 as part of a star-studded line-up of heavy metal and rock stars. Perry did say however that an odd Aerosmith gig could still be in the cards: "I would bet that there's an Aerosmith show left," he told Boston radio station WBUR. "There's been talk about doing a documentary; that might be part of it. I've been spending a lot of time with Steven and he just doesn't want to tour, and he can't tour. It's tough. I'm not sure I would want to go out and book another 40-city tour. It's a long way to the top and staying there takes it out of you, especially an Aerosmith tour." - NME, 8/13/25...... A spokesperson for Billy Joel has announced he'll be closing down his beloved motorcycle shop 20th Century Cycles in September following the musician's brain disorder diagnosis. Earlier in 2025, Joel revealed that he had been diagnosed with the brain disorder normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), and later had to cancel all of his upcoming tour dates in the US and UK. The shop first opened in 2010, with avid motorcyclist Joel wanting a place to maintain, repair, restore and customize his own bikes. The shop also serves as a museum of his own collection, which the public can visit for free. The shop is still open for now, and is in the process of moving out its bikes -- but is selling parts to the public, as listed by their Instagram page. Joel recently gave an update on his health and said that the disorder "sounds a lot worse than what I'm feeling", sharing that he currently feels "fine" but his "balance sucks," likening it to "being on a boat." "It's not fixed, it's still being worked on," he added of the condition. When asked what causes the disorder, Joel shared: "Nobody knows. They don't know. I thought it must be from drinking. I don't anymore, but I used to like a fish." - NME, 8/15/25...... Handwritten lyrics by late Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green are headed to auction in September and are expected to sell for thousands of pounds. The document is a composition sheet made by Green, and also includes instrumentation notes for Fleetwood Mac's single "Man Of The World," which was written in 1969. The lyrics are made in a blue ballpoint pen and contain corrections written by the guitarist in black ink. They show that the guitarist and songwriter amended three lines of lyrics in the song, and ticked off the finalized lines of lyrics that he was happy with. "Man Of The World," which can be streamed on YouTube, was the band's only single to be shared from their original label Immediate Records, and also appeared on an early greatest hits album in 1971. After Green left the band in 1970, it was not played live until nearly 50 years later -- when the band broke out a rendition on their 2019 tour in Australia. Green died the following year. Auctioned by EwbankAuctions.co.uk later in August, the document is expected to fetch between £12,000 and £15,000. - NME, 8/13/25...... In other auction news, Eddie Van Halen iconic "Frankenstrat" guitar is headed to a Sotheby's auction. The late musician's custom-built 1982 Kramer electric guitar is set to be auctioned by Sotheby's New York during the house's inaugural "Grails Week" from Oct. 21, and is expected to fetch between $2-$3 million. Its design was based on his original "Frankenstrat" axe, with the black and white-striped guitar making its first live outing during Van Halen's "Hide Your Sheep Tour" which kicked off in 1982. As detailed by the auction house, Van Halen had visited Kramer's New Jersey factory to customize the instrument, with photos said to show him wielding an electric drill while working on it. Later, the guitar was featured in one of the brand's most famous print ads, where Eddie can be seen clutching it with pride, with text telling readers: "It's very simply the best guitar you can buy today." The ax made another iconic on-screen appearance in Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" video, with the guitar from that shoot sold for $3,932,000 to an unnamed bidder in 2023. Eddie later gave it away as a gift to close friend and longtime guitar technician Robin "Rudy" Leiren, writing a message for him on the instrument that read: "Rude - Its Been a Great Ten Years - Lets Do Another Ten. Eddie Van Halen." Leiren, in turn, sold it to Mötley Crüe's Mick Mars, who used it throughout the recording of 1984's Dr. Feelgood album. The instrument also comes with a letter of authenticity signed by Mars, who wrote: "Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Also it's a great piece of history." Eddie Van Halen passed away in 2020 at the age of 65 following a battle with cancer, and VH disbanded in 2020 following his passing. - NME, 8/13/25...... A federal appeals court has upheld legal fines against two lawyers who filed -- and then dropped -- a lawsuit accusing Bob Dylan of sexually abusing a child in the 1960s. Filed in 2021, the sensational case featured salacious allegations about Dylan, but music historians quickly said it wasn't even chronologically plausible. The unnamed accuser abruptly dismissed the case after the star's lawyers accused her of destroying key evidence. In the recent decision, a federal appeals court upheld monetary penalties against the woman's lawyers, whom Dylan's attorneys have accused of making "heinous and false allegations." Dylan's lawyers argued that they only found out the accuser had failed to turn over crucial emails after sending subpoenas -- an argument that the appeals court called "particularly telling" in the new ruling. The penalties against the lawyers are relatively modest: $5000 against one and $3000 against the other. Dylan's lawyers called them "essentially symbolic" and a "fraction" of the money he had spent defeating the case. The accuser, identified in court documents only as "JC," filed her case in Aug. 2021, claiming the music legend had abused her multiple times at Manhattan's Chelsea Hotel in April and May 1965. The lawsuit said he provided her with drugs and alcohol and "exploited" his status as part of a plan to "sexually molest her." Dylan vehemently denied the allegations, and rock historians quickly cast doubt on them, saying the folk star was on tour in California and overseas during the months in question. Less than a year after the case was filed, it was dropped without a settlement. Elsewhere, Dylan recently performed his politically charged track "Masters Of War" for the first time in almost a decade. Dylan opened his set with the anti-war anthem on Aug. 8) at the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center in Darien Center, N.Y. Fan-shot footage of the performance has been shared on YouTube. He also opened his next two shows in Hershey (Aug. 9) and Syracuse (Aug. 10) with the same song. Dylan is currently performing on Willie Nelson's "Outlaw Music Festival Tour," which kicked off in May and is set to run until September. - Music-News.com, 8/15/25...... As Elvis Presley fans prepare to make the annual pilgrimage to Memphis in August to honor what would have been the King of Rock & Roll's 90th birthday in January, his ex-wife Priscilla Presley is being accused of exploiting their late daughter Lisa Marie Presley's health crisis to gain control of the Elvis Presley Estate. In a $50 million lawsuit, Priscilla is being sued by her former business partners Brigitte Kruse and Kevin Fialko, who are laying out some serious allegations -- claiming "Priscilla pulled the plug within hours of Lisa being admitted" to the hospital in Jan. 2023 after suffering cardiac arrest. The suit says Priscilla calculated that Lisa Marie's death would end her daughter's efforts to remove Priscilla as the sole trustee of Lisa Marie's irrevocable life insurance trust, alleging Priscilla wanted to control the trust, and ultimately, Graceland. Furthermore, they are claiming Lisa Marie was noticeably ill and complained to Priscilla about her health when they attended the 2023 Golden Globes together -- but, "Priscilla ignored the warning signs despite being only a short drive from the world-renowned Cedars-Sinai Medical Center." Instead, the suit says, Priscilla "clasped to the spotlight, going out to the Chateau Marmont for drinks with Lisa Marie, and then sent Lisa on a long drive to her Calabasas home." A little over 24 hours later, Lisa Marie suffered what would be fatal cardiac arrest. In the docs obtained by TMZ.com, Kruse and Fialko allege the next week -- prior to Lisa Marie's funeral -- Priscilla exclaimed, "I'm the queen. I'm in charge of Graceland." Priscilla's attorney Marty Singer has responded that the allegations are "fabricated, malicious lies." In the wake of Lisa Marie's death, a trust battle broke out with Priscilla challenging an amendment to Lisa Marie's trust, which eliminated both Priscilla and Lisa's former business manager, Barry Siegel, as trustees and left Lisa Marie's daughter actress Riley Keogh as the sole trustee. Keogh paid Priscilla millions to back off that legal challenge, and now she is in charge of Lisa Marie's estate, and a substantial owner of the Presley's Graceland Estate. - TMZ.com, 8/13/25...... Veteran Hollywood stuntman Ronnie Rondell Jr., best known for being set on fire for the cover of Pink Floyd's 1975 Wish You Were Here album, passed away on Aug. 12 at a senior living facility in Osage Beach, Mo., his family announced. He was 88. Throughout his decades-long career, Mr. Rondell appeared in numerous iconic films, including How the West Was Won (1962), Lethal Weapon (1987) and The Matrix Reloaded (2003). To music fans, however, he is most famously remembered as the man engulfed in flames on the cover of Wish You Were Here. The striking image was shot on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif., and features a half-burning Rondell Jr. shaking hands with fellow stuntman Danny Rogers, both dressed in business suits. "I'd been doing a lot of fire work in those days, and I had the special suits and all this stuff for fully enveloped fire," Mr. Rondell recalled in the documentary Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here. "It was pretty easy to do, not too life-threatening, and paid well." The iconic photo, created by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell of the English art design group Hipgnosis, took around 15 attempts to shoot due to wind and other factors -- and even resulted in Mr. Rondell having part of his eyebrow and mustache burned off. "We repeated the process 14 times, took the shot, and then on the 15th a gust of wind blew up and wrapped the fire around his face and burnt him," Powell told The Guardian in 2020. "He threw himself to the ground and his whole team piled on blankets to put him out." He added, "I knew I had got a special picture. It took a long time to persuade Ronnie to stand exactly as I wanted but in the end he was very brave and it was a perfect composition." Mr. Rondell's extensive list of film and TV credits also includes Shenandoah, Grand Prix, Diamonds Are Forever, Blazing Saddles, Thelma & Louise, The Rookies, S.W.A.T., Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, Dynasty, Vegas, Hart to Hart and T.J. Hooker. He retired in 2000 but returned to perform in a chase scene for The Matrix Reloaded (2003), where his son R.A. Rondell was the supervising stunt coordinator. - Billboard, 8/17/25...... British actor Terence Stamp, best known for roles in the Superman films and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, died on the morning of Aug. 17 at age 87. Born July 22, 1938 in Stepney, London, Mr. Stamp attended Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art before he began performing onstage in plays like "The Long the Short and the Tall," "Alfie!," "Dracula" and "The Lady from the Sea." Mr. Stamp made his onscreen debut in the titular role of Peter Ustinov's 1962 historical drama Billy Budd, earning him a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year -- Actor and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In addition to playing General Zod in Superman: The Movie (1978) and Superman II (1980), Mr. Stamp has starred in such films as Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Wall Street (1987), Young Guns (1988), Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace (1999), Valkyrie (2008) and Last Night in Soho (2021). "He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come," Mr. Stamp's family told Reuters. "We ask for privacy at this sad time." His Priscilla co-star Guy Pearce also paid tribute to the actor on social media. "Fairwell dear Tel. You were a true inspiration, both in & out of heels. We'll always have Kings Canyon, Kings road & F'ing ABBA. Wishing you well on your way 'Ralph'! xxxx," he wrote on X. - Deadline.com, 8/17/25.

According to a court filing in Nashville on Aug. 11, Daryl Hall and John Oates have resolved their dispute over a Hall & Oates business partnership through arbitration, reaching a private ending after details of their feud went public in court documents filed in a 2023 lawsuit by Hall against Oates. In the status report, attorneys for Hall noted the case received a final judgment in arbitration and they filed a proposed order for Nashville Chancellor Russell Perkins to dismiss the case. In mid-July, Judge Perkins ordered Hall's attorneys to offer an update in the case, which had last seen a public filing in Dec. 2023. In 2023 filings in the case, Hall accused Oates of blindsiding and betraying him, saying their relationship and his trust in Oates have deteriorated. Oates replied that he was "deeply hurt" that Hall was making "inflammatory, outlandish, and inaccurate statements" about him. The judge had paused the sale of Oates' stake in Whole Oats Enterprises LLP to the investment management firm Primary Wave. Whole Oats includes valuable Hall & Oates materials such as trademarks, personal name and likeness rights, record royalty income and website and social media assets, a court declaration says. The dispute went public in Nov. 2023, when Hall filed the lawsuit asking the judge to stop the sale by Oates so private arbitration could begin. Details were not revealed about the arbitration outcome between the duo who made music together for more than a half-century, including hits in the 1970s and '80s such as "Maneater," "Rich Girl" "Kiss on My List" and "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)." In 2024, Oates told the AP that he's had "no communication" with Hall and declined to discuss the legal proceedings, but he did not see a Hall & Oates reunion in his future. "I personally don't see it happening. It's not in my plans at all. You can ask Daryl Hall what he thinks. But for me personally, no," he said. - AP, 8/11/25...... Alice Cooper says he "absolutely" wants to voice a character on the long-running animated series The Simpsons. In a new interview with Grammys.com Cooper, who has already made a cameo on the rival show Family Guy, as well as starring alongside Mike Myers in Wayne's World, guesting on Amy Poehler's animated series Duncanville, and an appearing on The Muppett Show back in 1978, said he would be up for a slot on creator Matt Groening's Fox sitcom. "Oh yeah, absolutely. When The Simpsons came out, they were totally unique. It was really, really funny. I really admired what they were doing. I showed up on Family Guy. They used my music a lot. I thought Family Guy was probably more pointed, but I couldn't say [it was] more clever. They were both really very clever." Cooper, 77, then reflected on his now-iconic cameo on The Muppet Show. "My favorite thing in the world was being on The Muppet Show," he said. "I loved the show -- it was a very funny show, very clever. I asked them, 'Who's done the show recently?' They said, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price, and I went, 'I'm in!' If those guys can do The Muppets.... I haven't earned the pedigree that those guys have, so I will definitely do it." Speaking of the aftermath, he added: "That ended up being the reference point to an entire generation, me doing The Muppet Show. It's amazing, to this day people go, 'I discovered you on The Muppet Show, and after that I went and got all your albums.'" - New Musical Express, 8/11/25...... In the forthcoming Freddie Mercury biography Love, Freddie: Freddie Mercury's Secret Life and Love a woman who claims she is Mercury's "secret daughter" has spoken out for the first time, amid scepticism from Mercury's best friend. The book, due out in September and co-written by the daughter and Lesley-Ann Jones, includes claims that Freddie fathered a child in 1976 after having an affair with the wife of a close friend. The daughter, who is only referred to as "B" and is now 48 years old, says she has based the book on 17 handwritten diaries that Mercury gave her shortly before his death in 1991. However when the details of the book were announced in May, several of Mercury's closest friends said they were sceptical about B's claims. Mary Austin, who was Mercury's former girlfriend and close friend and was living with him at the time of B's alleged birth, said: "Freddie had a glorious openness and I cannot imagine he would have wanted to, or been able to, keep such a joyful event a secret, either from me or other people closest to him." Austin added she is "simply not the guardian of such a secret" and that "I've never known of any child, or of any diaries. If Freddie had indeed had a child without me knowing anything about it, that would be astonishing to me." Queen guitarist Brian May has said he wanted to remain "neutral" on the subject, but his wife Anita Dobson described B's claims as "fake news." B responded by telling London's Daily Mail that she was "devastated" by Austin's comments. "She has not yet read the book, yet she apparently makes this statement. I don't understand why," she said. B adds she had a "very close and loving" relationship with her father, who she says treated her "like a treasured possession." "I didn't want to share my dad with the whole world. After his death, I had to learn to live with the attacks against him, the misrepresentations of him, and with the feeling that my dad now belonged to everyone." Co-author Jones has suggested that they have DNA evidence for the claims. "Please rest assured that the requisite verification was obtained, legal teams have been involved, but that such measures are private and not shared publicy." Mercury died in 1991 aged 45 of bronchial pneumonia caused by Aids. - NME, 8/10/25...... A press release has announced that Bob Dylan is back in the studio. Dylan, currently performing on Willie Nelson's summer "Outlaw Music Festival Tour" from May-September, reportedly spent two days at a studio in New York with "members of his band" on Aug. 5 and 6 before his performance at Buffalo's Darien Lake Ampitheater on Aug. 8. "We want every artist and guest to feel relaxed and at home," said David Bourgeois, CEO of White Lake Studios in Albany. "We've had the privilege of working with many remarkable talents over the years, but this visit was truly special. I'm incredibly proud of our team." It hasn't been revealed what he was recording. The 10th leg of his "Rough and Rowdy Ways" tour ran across North America in March and April this year and saw him dipping into his back catalog, including the first performance of "The Times They Are A-Changin" in 15 years. He recently announced a UK and Ireland leg of the tour, which sprung from his 2020 studio album of the same name and has been running since Nov. 2021. Meanwhile, a book of Dylan's drawings, Point Blank (Quick Studies), is set to drop on Nov. 18. - NME, 8/9/25...... Ozzy Osbourne's widow Sharon Osbourne is pushing back against what she calls the "ridiculous" claim that the farewell Black Sabbath concert in Birmingham, UK on July 5 raised $190 million for charity. In the days after the star-studded "Back To The Beginning" show which took place less than three weeks before Ozzy's death on July 22, its musical director Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine announced on Instagram that it had raised "more than $190 million," which would be split equally between Cure Parkinson's, Birmingham Children's Hospital and Acorn Children's Hospice. Now in a new interview with Pollstar.com, which was conducted a few days before Ozzy's death, Sharon Osbourne has distanced herself from the reported numbers. "I'm really happy that we are talking, because one of the things that's frightening me is all this false press about [how] we've made $140 million and all of this, and I'm like, 'God, I wish we could have, for one gig,'" she said. "It's just ridiculous, the different stories. I went on the internet the next morning and it was like, $140 million, $160 million. And I'm like, 'Where does this stuff come from?' And people like Billboard have printed it," she told Pollstar. "It takes a really long time [to calculate], because we've had all of the bands that we had come in and their expenses, and it'll take a good six weeks to get the final number. Because we're selling merch for another two weeks from the gig. So, we've got another two weeks of sales yet to add to it. It'll be another four weeks and it'll be done," she added. - NME, 8/8/25...... Elijah Blue Allman, the son of Cher and the late Gregg Allman, has been ordered to pay his estranged wife, Marieangela King, temporary spousal support. A judge made the decision after Allman missed a court hearing following an alleged drug overdose. According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, the hearing was held as part of King's divorce petition filed against Allman. The court order noted that Allman failed to respond to the petition, which demanded monthly support. The judge said the hearing could proceed without Allman present. King was in court with her lawyer for the Aug. 11 hearing, in which the judge heard testimony from King's side before issuing his ruling. He then ordered Allman to pay his estranged wife $6500 per month in spousal support. King had filed documents in June that revealed she desperately needed support from Allman, claiming she was unemployed and had not worked since 2009. In court documents, King said she was unsure of Allman's income or assets. She said she needed to hire a forensic accountant to determine his sources of income and net worth. In June, the troubled Allman was released after being hospitalized following a reported overdose in Joshua Tree, Calif. The situation came several months after Cher dropped her attempt to place him under a conservatorship. - Music-News.com, 8/12/25...... Director George Lucas' Lucasfilm studios has officially announced the classic original Star Wars film, now known as Star Wars: A New Hope, will get a theatrical rerelease in special limited screenings of the epic space opera. The 1977 movie served as the first installment to Lucas' long-running sci-fi franchise, and comes after Disney \recently re-released Revenge of the Sith in theaters last April for a special week-long screening. Star Wars: A New Hope will be heading back to theaters on Apr. 30, 2027, in celebration of its 50th anniversary. - ComingSoon.net, 8/1/25...... Keyboardist, singer-songwriter and Derek and the Dominos co-founder Bobby Whitlock passed away on Aug. 10 at his home in Texas following a brief battle with cancer. He was 77. Born on March 18, 1948, in Memphis, Tenn., Whitlock made history as the first white artist signed to Stax Records when he was still a teenager in the mid-1960s. During his time with the legendary label, he performed alongside soul greats including Booker T. & the MG's and Sam & Dave. In 1968, he joined Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, a group whose collaborators included future Derek and the Dominos members Eric Clapton, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon. During this period, he also contributed to Clapton's 1970 self-titled debut album and played organ and piano on George Harrison's landmark 1970 release, All Things Must Pass. Later that same year, Clapton, Whitlock, Radle and Gordon formed Derek and the Dominos. Whitlock co-wrote half the tracks on the band's first and only studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, including "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Tell the Truth." Derek and the Dominos embarked on a U.S. tour in support of the album, with Elton John serving as their opening act. Elton later wrote in his autobiography that he "watched Whitlock like a hawk... He was from Memphis, learned his craft hanging around Stax Studios and played with that soulful, deep Southern gospel feel." Amid escalating drug use and growing personal tensions within the group, Derek and the Dominos split in 1971 while in the midst of recording their sophomore album. Whitlock went on to release a string of solo albums in the 1970s, beginning with his self-titled debut, which featured contributions from all the members of Derek and the Dominos, as well as Harrison. He followed it later that same year with Raw Velvet. As an in-demand session musician, Whitlock also appeared on the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St., Dr. John's The Sun, Moon & Herbs, and Stephen Stills & Manassas' Down the Road. Whitlock released additional solo music throughout the 1970s and returned in the 1990s, often collaborating with his musical partner and future wife, CoCo Carmel, whom he married in Dec. 2005. "How do you express in but a few words the grandness of one man who came from abject poverty in the south to heights unimagined in such a short time?" CoCo told TMZ.com. "My love Bobby looked at life as an adventure taking me by the hand leading me through a world of wonderment from music to poetry and painting. I feel his hands that were so intensely expressive and warm on my face and the small of my back whenever I close my eyes, he is there." Whitlock is survived by CoCo, and his children Ashley Faye Brown, Beau Elijah Whitlock, and Tim Whitlock Kelly. - Billboard, 8/10/25.