Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on Oct. 23rd, 2015

Singer/guitarist Cory Wells, one of the founding members of the mega-selling late 1960s/early 1970s band Three Dog Night, passed away on Oct. 20 in his Buffalo area home along the Lake Erie shore, the band confirmed in a press release. He was 74. "It is with deep sadness and disbelief that I must report the passing of Cory Wells, my beloved band mate for over 45 years," said Three Dog Night member Danny Hutton. "Cory was an incredible singer -- a great performer, he could sing anything. Cory was like a brother in so many ways. We had been together since 1965 and I am in shock at this sudden loss," Hutton added. Wells was one of the three leaders of the band, also including Chuck Negron, who topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart three times with such seminal classics as "Joy to the World" (which has appeared in countless movie and TV shows), "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)" and "Black and White." The band, which was known for their interpretations of other songwriters' material, earned a total of 20 Top 40 hits, and put 11 albums in the Top 20 of the Hot 200 album chart, with their best-selling album, 1971's Golden Biscuits hits compilation, peaking at No. 5. After decades with Three Dog Night, Wells stopped performing in September after developing severe back pain. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., on Feb. 5, 1942, Wells started his career in several Buffalo bands as a teen, including The Vibratos, later called The Enemies, before forming Three Dog Night in 1968. An avid fisherman, he maintained a home along the Lake Erie shore in greater Buffalo. He is survived by Mary, his wife of 50 years, his daughters Coryann and Dawn Marie, and five grandchildren. - Billboard, 10/21/15.

The intermission music played during the Grateful Dead's Fare Thee Well shows this summer, which was composed and recorded during a two-day jam session by the surviving Dead members, is getting an official release. The project came together when GD drummer Bill Kreutzmann's son Justin asked Neal Casal (The Chris Robinson Project, Hard Working Americans) to compose and record more than five hours of original music to be played along with the visuals he was preparing for the Fare Thee Well intermissions. Casal then helped create and curate five hours of original music. Titled Interludes for the Dead, the release will highlight the five hours of music and drop digitally on Nov. 27 via the psychedelic project, Circles Around the Sun. The music will also be available in a two-CD set as well as a limited-edition two-LP 180-gram vinyl. Also, all three CDs featuring the entire Circles Around the Sun recordings will be released in the 12-CD/seven-DVD sets available Nov. 20 on Dead.net. - Billboard, 10/20/15...... During his latest monthly residency at New York City's Madison Square Garden on Oct. 21, Billy Joel introduced surprise guest Steve Miller to the crowd to jam with him on a rendition of Miller's 1974 No. 1 hit "The Joker." Miller, 72, played guitar on "The Joker," and later another special guest, John Mayer, was brought onstage to assist on Joel's ballad, "This Is the Time." Joel and Mayer then performed the Eric Clapton/Cream arrangement of the Robert Johnson blues classic, "Crossroads." Joel also celebrated the recent New York Mets entry into the World Series after their sweep over the Chicago Cubs in the MLB playoffs by playing a spirited version of the "Meet the Mets" theme song on piano. - Billboard, 10/22/15...... A performance by Gladys Knight taped at the legendary Apollo Theater earlier in 2015 will air on Oct. 24 at 10:00 p.m. EDT on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) as part of the network's Legends: OWN at the Apollo series. Knight performed inventive arrangements of such Motown classics as "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" and one of her own Motown singles, "I Don't Want To Do Wrong," along with such classics from her Buddah Records days as "Neither One Of Us." Knight also brought out friends Stevie Wonder and Dionne Warwick for a version of "That's What Friends Are For," a Burt Bacharach tune that all three singers originally appeared on -- with Elton John -- in 1985. - Billboard, 10/19/15...... The two-bedroom cottage in Long Branch, N.J., where Bruce Springsteen composed his breakthrough 1975 album Born to Run is currently up for sale, listed at $299,000. The house on West End Court is currently owned by three Springsteen fans, who purchased it in 2009 with the idea of turning the home into a tribute to the New Jersey rock legend. However, those plans were derailed. The owners say the house does occasionally draw visitors, and they say the try to accomodate the fans. Springsteen has said that he wrote every song on the Born to Run album -- including the title track and other classic songs such as "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland" -- while living in the home from 1974 to 1975. - AP, 10/18/15...... Welsh crooner Tom Jones is responding to criticism he received after stating that he was "paranoid" of homosexuals when he first started in the music industry. Speaking to the U.K. publication The Big Issue about his early days in show business, Jones was quoted as saying: "I was ready for most aspects of the music industry but when I met the producer Joe Meek, that threw me off a bit. Because he was a homosexual. I thought, wait a minute, is the London scene, the people who run British show business -- are there a lot of homosexuals involved here? Because if so, I'm going back to Cardiff." The words drew criticism from Andrew White, Director of LGBT rights group Stonewall Cymru, who told London's Daily Mail paper: "It's not unusual to meet gay people in show business so we'd have thought that Sir Tom would have learnt how to talk about us by now. Instead he's still painfully tripping over his words." Now, Jones has taken to Twitter to suggest that his comments were taken out of context, saying that his remarks were about "attitudes in the 50s & 60s." "Context! The story is about knowledge/attitudes in the 50s & 60s. it's called History!," he tweeted on Oct. 23. Jones released his latest album, the covers LP Long Lost Suitcase, on Oct. 9. - New Musical Express, 10/23/15....... Black Sabbath will be the among the headliners for the U.K.'s 2016 Download Festival, which is set for June 11 and 12. Sabbath, fronted by Ozzy Osbourne, will headline the June 11 show as part of the band's final "The End" tour in 2016. According to a press release, it will be "their biggest and most mesmerising production to date." Sabbath, also featuring original members Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, will kick off their "The End" trek in the U.S. in Jan. 2016, in Nebraska. Following the U.S. dates, the band will commence a string of dates in Australia and New Zealand in April before heading to Europe in June. - NME, 10/20/15...... Current Queen vocalist and former American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert appeared on the U.K. talk show Chatty Man with host Alan Carr on Oct. 17 and recreated the classic music video of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" with Carr. Lambert recently revealed that he'd like to perform with Queen at this year's Glastonbury festival after rumours circulated that they might be a frontrunner for the 2016 headlining slot, but Queen guitarist Brian May suggested that Lambert's commitments might have been the reason the band didn't play the festival. "Look these things get put on the table, it would be interesting to do Glastonbury if we were an operational unit at the time," May said. "You see this year Adam's off doing his solo work at the moment so it wouldn't have worked. You only look at things that are possible logistically at the time," he added. - NME, 10/20/15...... Producer Eddie Kramer, who worked with Jimi Hendrix on Hendrix's final 1968 album Electric Ladyland, said in a recent interview with the BBC that Hendrix "would have pioneered rap" if he was alive today. "This whole idea of street music would have definitely influenced him," Kramer said. "Jimi was aware of everything that was going on, he was a musical sponge. The next step? Who knows... He may have even gotten into rap. I think about this all the time. Not only would he have been a great record producer, but he would have had his own record company, a film company, a musical production company. He would have been an enormous force -- pretty much like Jay-Z is today. He would have been king of the heap," Kramer added. Kramer was speaking ahead of the release of a forthcoming Hendrix documentary titled Electric Church. - NME, 10/19/15...... Michael Jackson's son Prince Jackson has finally acknowledged rumours suggesting the late King of Pop is not his biological father, but still insists that Michael is the only father he's ever known. After a Twitter troll posted "everyone knows you are a Rowe-Klein NOT A Jackson!! Yall (sic) should stop trying to put on a FAKE front and get real," Prince, 18, responded with a tweet of his own: "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb" I was raised by my dad with my brother and sister." Prince and his siblings are currently being raised by their cousin, TJ Jackson (the son of Tito Jackson), and their grandmother Katherine Jackson. Prince, whose mother is Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe, was born in 1997, and his sister Paris Jackson was born a year later. Critics have long speculated over the paternity of the kids, and their 13-year-old sibling Prince Michael Jackson II, who was born to a mystery surrogate, but Michael maintained he had fathered all three of his offspring -- even though they shared no similar facial features. - WENN.com, 10/22/15...... '70s funnyman Steve Martin has collaborated with his fellow Grammy-winning musician Edie Brickell on a new Broadway musical that will launch on the Great White Way in March 2016. Martin and Brickell collaborated on the music, with Brickell penning the lyrics and Martin writing the story. It was inspired by the pair's collaboration on the album Love Has Come for You. Set in the South in the 1920s and 1940s, the show is about a woman who befriends a soldier just home from World War II. The show had its premiere in San Diego in 2014 and this winter has a run at the Kennedy Center. - AP, 10/21/15...... The final trailer for the latest movie in the Star Wars saga, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was unveiled during halftime on ESPN's Monday Night Football on Oct. 19, causing several online ticket sites, including Fandango and Movie Tickets, to crash. The J.J. Abrams-directed film hits U.S. theaters on Dec. 18, and its cast includes original 1977 Star Wars players Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, along with Oscar Isaac, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Lupita Nyong'o and Adam Driver. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/19/15...... Actor/comedian Marty Ingalls, best known for his co-starring role in the 1960s sitcom I'm Dickens, He's Fenster, died on Oct. 21 in Tarzana, Calif., as a result of complications from a stroke. He was 79. Ingels began his career with TV appearances in the 1960s before landing a co-starring role opposite John Astin on ABC's I'm Dickens, He's Fenster. He also appeared in two episodes of CBS' The Dick Van Dyke Show as Sol Pomeroy and on an episode of ABC's Bewitched. His big screen credits include The Busy Body with Sid Caesar in 1967, A Guide for the Married Man with Walter Matthau, and The Picasso Summer with Albert Finney in 1969. Ingalls later became known for lending his unique rasp to voiceover work in hundreds of cartoons and commercials. He also launched Ingels, Inc., an agency which booked film stars, including John Wayne and Cary Grant, in TV ad campaigns. Ingalls met Oscar-winning actress and former The Partridge Family star Shirley Jones at a party at actor Michael Landon's home, and the couple married in 1977. In 1990 they published an autobiography entitled Shirley & Marty: An Unlikely Love Story. "He often drove me crazy, but there's not a day I won't miss him and love him to my core," Jones said in a statement. He is survived by stepsons Shaun, Patrick and Ryan Cassidy; a niece and 12 grandchildren. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/21/15.

The Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh posted a message through the Facebook page of the Terrapin Crossroads restaurant in San Rafael, Calif., that he owns on Oct. 17 announcing that he has been diagnosed with bladder cancer. The bassist says he is currently undergoing treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., to eventually remove tumors and expects to make a full recovery. "Thanks to my local doctor Cliff Sewell, and the incredible team at the Mayo Clinic, all is well and I can return to normal activities in two weeks from my surgery," Lesh wrote. As a result of his treatment, the musician said that his Phil Lesh & Friends shows at the restaurant scheduled for Oct. 24-25 have beed canceled. Lesh also battled prostate cancer in 2006. - Billboard, 10/17/15...... In a new interview with a New Zealand radio station, Kiss bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons said he thinks modern music's lack of infrastructure is killing the potential for more great bands like his own and the Beatles to come along. After recounting the major artists from 1958 to 1988 -- including Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2 and Metallica -- Simmons said: "From 1988 until today -- give me the new Beatles and the new Stones. Give me just one. You can't. Rock is dead. And the reason for that? Downloading and filesharing. When you stop charging for things, it becomes worthless. And there's gonna have to be a business model that's gonna have to change. 'Cause there are great bands out there, but there's no support system." - New Musical Express, 10/17/15...... Rod Stewart ended his two-decade songwriting drought with 2013's Time. Now he's on a roll with Another Country, another collection of tunes that he penned himself. "I was born in London, so I'm a cockney Scotsman," he says. "There's a huge Gaelic feel throughout the album, lots of violins and mandolins." On the upcoming single "Love Is," he tries to work out the truth about romance after three divorces. "This is me passing along, to anyone who will listen, a few nuggets of wisdom acquired from my dippings into life's chocolate box down the years," he says. "Believe me, though, I still don't understand the chemistry of love and why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't." Another Country drops Oct. 23 from Capitol Records. - Rolling Stone, 9/10/15...... In an interview with TheDailyBeast.com website on the occasion of what would have been John Lennon's 75th birthday on Oct. 9, Yoko Ono said that both her and her husband saw bisexuality as a natural thing: "John and I had a big talk about it, saying, basically, all of us must be bisexual. And we were sort of in a situation of thinking that we're not [bisexual] because of society. So we are hiding the other side of ourselves, which is less acceptable. But I don't have a strong sexual desire towards another woman." Responding to John's statement one time that his relationship with Beatles manager Brian Epstein was "almost a love affair... [but] never consummated," Ono said: "The story I was told was a very explicit story, and from that I think they didn't have [sex]." Ono added that she was "sure Epstein made a move, yeah [but] John just didn't want to do it, I think... I think he had a desire to [sleep with men], but I think he was too inhibited." - Billboard, 10/13/15...... In other Beatles-related news, Paul McCartney's latest reissues of two of his 1980's albums, Tug of War and Pipes of Peace, have reentered the Billboard Hot 200 album chart at No. 56 and No. 70, respectively. Pipes of Peace features a new mix of the 1983 single "Say Say Say," a collaboration with Michael Jackson, with reviously unheard vocals from McCartney and Jackson, where they switch lead vocals on the track. The remix was released to radio on Oct. 2 and accompanied by a new video, directed by Ryan Heffington. So far, nine McCartney and Wings albums have been reissued in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection series, and all nine of them have reached the Top 10 of Billboard's Catalog Albums chart. - Billboard, 10/16/15...... Brian Wilson participated in a DVD release party for the new Wilson biopic Love and Mercy with the movie's stars, including Paul Dano and Elizabeth Banks, at Herb Alpert's Vibrato Grill Jazz club in Los Angeles on Oct. 13. The party started with a screening of the film and ended with a rousing, joyful 35-minute set by Wilson and his 10-piece band, which includes fellow Beach Boys member Al Jardine. Wilson was reportedly in fine spirits throughout the performance, often introducing the tunes: "Here comes a really good song from Pet Sounds," he said before playing "Wouldn't It Be Nice" or telling the audience when to stop clapping during "Good Vibrations" (not to mention gently chastising the band for starting the song too fast). Wilson's 12-song BB hits-heavy set also included a duet with Dano on "You Still Believe in Me." - Billboard, 10/13/15...... A new exhibit dedicated to Graham Nash, "Touching the Flame," opened to the public on Oct. 17 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Oh., and after viewing it Nash says he thinks it "looks f---ing spectacular." The one thing that I was wanting to do more than anything is make sure people understood Graham Nash is more than just Graham Nash that musician; that I'm a photographer and a painter and a sculptor and la la la la la, all that shit. I'm happy to show it to people, to share what was going on in my life," the CSN/CSNY/Hollies member said. The exhibit combines artifacts over his entire career, including photographs, handwritten lyrics, clothing and instruments, with other memorabilia he owns, including handwritten Bob Dylan lyrics, guitars previously owned by Duane Allman and Phil Everly, and the belt and jeans that he wore at Woodstock in 1969. - Billboard, 10/16/15...... In 1970, after British actor David Hemmings (Blow Up) was rumored to be the preferred lead for a new Stanley Kubrick-directed movie called A Clockwork Orange, Mick Jagger lobbied hard for the role of head "droog" Alex, which was eventually given to Malcolm McDowell. Jagger organized a petition signed by every member of the Beatles, Marianna Faithful, and actress/model Anita Pallenberg who had relationships with Stones members Brian Jones and Keith Richards) and others. In Jagger's vision of A Clockwork Orange, he would play Alex, the Stones would be his droogs and the Beatles would provide the soundtrack. That petition -- an unusual piece of obscure history -- is now up for auction via Paddle8.com, which expects the tattered petition to fetch between $18,000-$25,000. In the end, A Clockwork Orange was scored by one of music's first major transgender figures -- Wendy Carlos -- and Jagger would star in two mostly forgotten 1970 films -- Ned Kelly and Performance. - Billboard, 10/16/15...... ELO has released a second single, "When the Night Comes," from its upcoming album Alone in the Universe. In September, the Jeff Lynne-led band began streaming the LP's first single, "When I Was a Boy," for fans. Fans who preorder Alone in the Universe, which is due Nov. 13, will receive "When I Was A Boy" instantly. - NME, 10/15/15...... Elton John has written an op-ed about his tireless fight to help AIDS victims for Billboard magazine's first ever philanthropy issue. "Through the years, I've done my best to use the incredible platform that I've been blessed with to make a difference, particularly in the fight against AIDS," Sir Elton wrote in the magazine, adding "That's why my foundation continues to work with communities and organizations made up of individuals who share our passion for fighting the stigma that drives this disease. We're committed to securing the basic human rights of those living with or at risk of contracting HIV." John, 68, founded his AIDS foundation in 1992. Since then, the EJAF has raised $349 million for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention and has become one of the largest HIV/AIDS grant-makers in the world. - Billboard, 10/15/15...... U.K. hard rockers Def Leppard will release their first eponymous LP, Def Leppard, on Oct. 30, and guitarist Phil Collen promises the new album, the group's 11th studio effort, is "the best Def Leppard album since Hysteria," which was released in 1987 and went 12 times platinum. "It's the freest, most liberating thing we've ever done," Collen says. "It's the first time we've ever done an album where there weren't any constraints. We didn't have a record company or an executive at a label going, 'OK, we need this, we need that' or 'OK, the concept of the album is gonna be blah, blah, blah... So we pretty much did that and just followed the muse." On Jan. 27, Collen, frontman Joe Elliott, and the rest of the band will kick off a 13-date US tour behind the new 14-track set in Greensboro, N.C., also visiting cities such as Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (1/29), Orlando (1/30), San Antonio, Tex. (2/2), Little Rock, Ark. (2/9), Atlantic City, N.J. (2/14) and Brooklyn, N.Y. (2/16) before wrapping in Allentown, Penn., on Feb. 17. - Billboard, 10/16/15...... Neil Young played two seldom-visited tracks from his back catalog -- "Vampire Blues" and "LA" -- for the first time in 40 years during a concert at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Oct. 14. "Vampire Blues" was originally featured on Young's 1974 On The Beach, with "LA" first featured on his 1973 live album, Time Fades Away. Young also played "Vampire Blues" for the first time since 1974 during a show in Eugene, Ore., a week earlier. Young is currently on tour with Promise Of The Real as his backing band across the United States and delved deep into his extensive discography during The Forum gig. - NME, 10/16/15...... Joni Mitchell's good friend and fellow folk-rock legend, Judy Collins says Mitchell is "making good progress" after being diagnosed with a brain aneurysm in March of this year and was found unconscious in her L.A. residence. "NEWS ON JONI --I have just heard from a close mutual friend that Joni is walking, talking, painting some, doing much...," Collins posted about Mitchell on her Facebook page on Oct. 14. Updates on Mitchell's health have been occasional, but hopeful for a full recovery. In 1968, Collins charted the Mitchell-penned "Both Sides Now" to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and won her lone Grammy for Best Folk Performance for the cover. - Billboard, 10/15/15...... Warner Bros. has signed a development deal with TV/radio host Tavis Smiley to turn his upcoming book about Michael Jackson's final days, Before You Judge Me: The Triumph and Tragedy of Michael Jackson's Last Days, into a television series. Smiley's book is due out in June 2016 via Little, Brown and Company, and Warner is also planning to develop a television series around Smiley's other recent book, My Journey with Maya, as a part of the same deal. In other Michael Jackson-related news, actress Jane Fonda revealed that she "once swam naked with Michael Jackson" during the time she was filming the 1981 movie On Golden Pond. "Michael Jackson came and stayed for 10 days on the set," Fonda told an audience at the Loyola Marymount University School of Film & TV on Oct. 15 as part of The Hollywood Reporter's Hollywood Masters series. "We lived together. I went skinny dipping with him. Also, by the way, with Greta Garbo. Fonda added that Michael "wanted to be a movie star -- he had just finished doing The Wiz -- and he had a tape recorder with him, and every day I would bring him to the set, and in between scenes she (her On Golden Pond co-star Katharine Hepburn) would sit down in a chair and pull over a chair for him and tell him stories." - Billboard/WENN.com, 10/15/15...... Bruce Springsteen announced on Oct. 15 that he'll release a long awaited box set of his 1980 double-LP The River on Dec. 4 via Columbia Records. Described as a "comprehensive look at the River era" in a Columbia press release, The Ties That Bind: The River Collection boasts 52 tracks over four CDs which includes unreleased tracks and four hours of never-before-seen video spread out over three DVDs. Included will be the original double album; The River: Single Album which is a CD of 1979/80 studio outtakes; a two-DVD film of never-released concert footage from the band's 1980 show in Tempe, Ariz.; rare tour rehearsal footage of what was then new songs; a brand new documentary The Ties That Bind about The River; and a coffee table book of 200 rare or previously unseen photos and memorabilia with a new essay by Springsteen biographer Mikal Gilmore. - Billboard, 10/16/15...... Jamaican author Marlon James became the first Jamaican winner of the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction on Oct. 13 for A Brief History of Seven Killings, his vivid, violent and expletive-laden novel based on the 1976 attempted assassination of Jamacian reggae legend Bob Marley. James was awarded the £50,000 ($77,000) prize during a black-tie dinner at London's medieval Guildhall, and said he hoped his victory would bring "more attention to what's coming out of Jamaica and the Caribbean, because I think there are some brand-new voices coming out who are exploring contemporary society, who are exploring what's beyond politics, what's beyond colonialism." The book charts political violence in Jamaica and the spread of crack cocaine in the U.S., and hinges on a 1976 attempt on Marley's life -- who is identified in the book only as "The Singer." In other Bob Marley news, a former CIA prisoner who was allegedly tortured by the spy agency in a harsh interrogation program that included being forced to listen to the Irish boy band Westlife at ear-splitting levels says he now listens to Marley to help cope with life after being released from prison. Suleiman Abdullah Salim, a Tanzanian fisherman, is one of three former CIA prisoners on whose behalf the ACLU has sued two architects of the spy agency's harsh interrogation program. Interrogators played the music on repeat for Salim "at ear-splitting volume," according to the ACLU. - AP/Billboard, 10/13/15...... Willie Nelson's camp posted a message on his Facebook page on Oct. 14 saying the octogenarian country legend has been forced to cancel a show and reschedule two others due to an unspecified illness. "Unfortunately Willie has been feeling under the weather so a couple dates have been rescheduled and one cancelled. Sorry for the inconvenience," the statement reads. The affected dates include an Oct. 15 show in Florence, S.C. (rescheduled to 4/6/16), an Oct. 16 concert in Roanoake, Va. (reschedled to 10/19) and an Oct. 17 performance in Reading, Pa. (cancelled). - Billboard, 10/15/15...... During a reading to promote her new book M Train at Illinois' Dominican University on Oct. 15, Patti Smith was moved to tears when one fan returned several items that were stolen from her tour van 40 years ago. Smith was approached by a fan named Noreen Bender who handed her a bag containing personal items she believed were stolen from the van, including "a top, a Keith Richards T-shirt, a remembrance cloth and other accessories" she had kept in a Bob Dylan merchandise bag for over 40 years. Bender explained that a male friend of her Chicago roommate had given her the items. They are thought to be the same items Smith lost when her rented tour truck was stolen outside a Gold Coast hotel following her gig at the Chicago, Illinois' Aragon in June 1979. Surprised and reduced to tears to get the items back, Smith explained to the audience that the top was the same one she wore on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in July 1978 and the cloth had belonged to her brother and road manager Todd Smith, who died in 1994. The van contained musical equipment worth over $40,000 including amplifiers and guitars and was never found. - New Musical Express, 10/15/15...... Founding Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington suffered a heart attack during the second week of October according to a Facebook post on Oct. 13. To give Rossington time to recover, the band has announced it is canceling upcoming shows set for Terre Haute, Ind., and Pleasant, Mich. Rossington is he only original Lynyrd Skynyrd member to remain in the band since its inception in 1964. - Billboard, 10/13/15...... Tommy Chong of the '70s doper duo Cheech & Chong has revealed that he will be undergoing surgery to remove a tumour in his rectum in the hope it will end his painful battle with cancer. Chong checked into the hospital in Los Angeles on Oct. 15 shortly after appearing on the syndicated celebrity TV show Access Hollywood Live, where he revealed he's desperate to overcome his longtime health issues. Chong won his battle with prostate cancer in 2012, insisting pot suppositories were a miracle cure, but earlier this year the comedian was diagnosed with rectal cancer -- and he believes the hemp oil he used to beat his first cancer is the cause of his latest crisis. "When you go into your orifice you've got to clinically know what you're doing with it," Chong said. "I put suppositories up there and I don't know how they did the oil and so on, and so now I found a laboratory where they test and they make sure that the oil that they give you to inject and everything else is pharmaceutically correct, it's pure," he added. Chong says he also believes his stint on TV show Dancing With the Stars is responsible for his latest diagnosis, adding, "I was under a lot of stress and then I wasn't smoking or doing any pot, and the pot keeps you from getting disease. I got it (cancer) during that.... They're going to remove the tumor surgically... It's going to be fine." - WENN.com, 10/15/15...... Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted on Oct. 14 that he will agree to stop using the Aerosmith song "Dream On" during his campaign events after band frontman Steven Tyler sent him a cease-and-desist letter on Oct. 10, and added that he "has a better one to take its place." "Even though I have the legal right to use Steven Tyler's song, he asked me not to. Have better one to take its place!," Trump posted, and followed up on Twitter with "Steven Tyler got more publicity on his song request than he's gotten in ten years. Good for him!" There is no word yet on which "better song" Trump has chosen to replace "Dream On." - Billboard, 10/14/15...... Journey drummer Deen Castronovo pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges on Oct. 12 and was sentenced to four years probation by a judge in Salem, Ore. Castronovo, who was arrested on June 14 and charged with knowingly causing physical injury to a woman, will be required to undergo counseling for domestic violence offenders and drug abuse. The Marion County District Attorney's Office says he faces more than five years in prison if he violates the terms of his probation. After the first arrest, Castronovo again two weeks later and ordered to jail when prosecutors said he texted the woman 122 times and called her 35 times despite a no-contact order. He has been with Journey since 1998, when he replaced Steve Smith. - AP, 10/13/15...... Pop crooner Engelbert Humperdinck responded to recent comments by Tom Jones in which Jones referred to him as a "a c***" during an interview with a UK paper. Humperdinck said that he was taken aback by the comment and said he was particularly shocked by the language used from Jones considering he is a Sir. "To be honest I feel sorry for Tom always being in a bad mood. Life is too short to hold anger inside. I wish him luck," Humperdinck told Noise11.com. Humperdinck and Jones reportedly had a falling out after Humperdinck left record label MAM in the 1970s. MAM was owned by Jones and Gordon Mills, who managed both artists. - New Musical Express, 10/14/15.

Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on March 21st, 2015

What are being described as the master tapes of the Beatles' 1962 live performances in Hamburg, Germany, will be offered for auction by London's Ted Owen & Co. auction house with a starting bid of about $300,000. The tape, made in Hamburg's "red light district" Star Club not long before the Beatles shot to international fame, included nearly five hours of live performances of 33 songs, and were recorded by the Star Club's stage manager, Adrian Barber, who had been asked to document the band's live show by another Liverpool musician, Ted "King Size" Taylor. Much of the material on the tapes was released in 1977 as a two-LP set titled The Beatles: Live at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany -- 1962, which the Beatles tried unsuccessfully to block. Those recordings have since been widely bootlegged. "These tapes are of considerable historical and cultural value, but they are not a Holy Grail for serious students of the Beatles," Beatles scholar and Beatles music/film reissue producer Martin Lewis said. "They hold some interest because they give us a tantalizing aural snapshot of the primitive visceral power of their live performances in those early Beatles days. But the technical limitations of the tapes means that we hear more of their youthful swagger than the proficiency and creativity that would later enchant the world," he added. The tapes, which are currently owned by onetime Andy Warhol and Muhammad Ali business manager Larry Grossberg, reportedly were once offered to Beatles manager Brian Epstein at a price of £100,000, prompting Epstein to make a counteroffer of £20 based on the inferior sound quality. The auction includes the master tapes for the 26-song album as well as stereo mixes created from the original monaural recording and the 7-inch reel safety master from the original unedited tape that Barber made. - The L.A. Times, 3/19/15...... Meanwhile, "Strawberry Fields Forever" has just been named as the greatest Beatles song ever in a new poll of some of music's biggest names, including Beatles producer George Martin, Pete Townshend, Brian Wilson, Dave Grohl and Nile Rodgers. Coming in behind the 1967 chart-topping hit in the poll conducted by Britain's New Musical Express were "A Day in the Life," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "Here Comes the Sun," and "Blackbird." - NME, 3/18/15...... In other Beatles news, it was announced on Mar. 18 that Paul McCartney will present Ringo Starr with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's one-off Award For Musical Excellence during the 2015 induction ceremony on Apr. 18 at Cleveland's public hall, making Ringo the final member of the group to be honored as a solo artists. Other presenters include Stevie Wonder, who will do the honors for '70s hitmaker Bill Withers, and Pattie Smith, who will induct the late Lou Reed. - Billboard, 3/18/15...... Barry Manilow is donating a piano to the Uniondale school district on Long Island in New York as part of the singer's Manilow Music Project. Manilow says he started the project to help public schools with depleted music programs, and is urging others to also donate musical instruments for schoolchildren to play. The 71-year-old crooner performed at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale on March 20, and announced he'd be giving free tickets to anyone who donates a new or gently used musical instrument. "Music is a vital part of a child's education," Manilow said. - AP, 3/21/15...... Organizers of a proposed Jimi Hendrix park in Seattle, Wash., announced on Mar. 20 that they've picked a developer to build a 2.5 acre Jimi Hendrix Park in the city's Central District, adjacent to the Northwest African American Museum. Construction, which is being handled by ERRG, Inc., is expected to begin in April, with phase one projected to open this fall. The non-profit groups Jimi Hendrix Park Foundation and the Friends of Jimi Hendrix Park have raised more than $1.4 million for the project since 2012. "It is our hope that for generations, [the park] will exist as more than an attraction or point of interest, but a place of homage to one of Seattle's own," said Janie Hendrix, the legendary guitarist's sister and director of the Jimi Hendrix Park Foundation. "The landscaping, the artistic design, and the ambience all mimic the vibe of the persona of Jimi, whom this park honors." Phase one of the park -- dubbed "Little Wing" -- will include an entrance at 25th and Massachusetts, a pathway with a timeline of the Seattle native's life and career, rain infiltration gardens and a central plaza for performances, among other features. Phase two, which is still in the fundraising stages, will add the park's centerpiece, a so-called "shadow wave wall" depicting silhouette images of Hendrix. Hendrix died in London on Sept. 18, 1970, at age 27. - Billboard, 3/20/15...... A planned Janis Joplin biopic starring Hollywood A-lister Amy Adams has been halted, at least temporarily, by a new lawsuit that claims writer-producer Ron Terry and an investor breached an exclusive option agreement by owned by producers for the script about the hard-living rock and roll queen. LKL Productions and Swiss production company Silver Reel claim they paid $117,000 for the exclusive rights in August 2014 to the script Get It While You Can, which Terry wrote with his wife Teresa Kounin-Terry. Silver Reel and LKL's option is set to expire at the end of March, and they have equested the judge extend the option agreement until the lawsuit's resolution, and want an injunction preventing the defendants from shopping the screenplay to any third party. - The Hollywood Reporter, 3/18/15...... With its release held up for seven years because of rights issues, Danny Tedesco's illuminating documentary The Wrecking Crew about the unsung L.A. session musicians who provided the backbeat for some of the greatest songs from the '50s through the '80s can now be seen in selected theaters in the US. The wait was worth it. Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer, Carol Kaye, and the director's dad, Tommy Tedisco, are finally allowed to step out of the shadows and take a belated bow. - Entertainment Weekly, 3/20/15...... Neil Young made a surprise appearance at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival in Austin, Tex., on Mar. 19, attending a Q&A session following a special screening of his 1982 film Human Highway. "It has a life of it's own. It refuses to die - we tried to kill it a couple of times," said Young of the surreal movie, which was shown in a newly re-cut and re-mastered format. "It was never satisfying to look at, because I knew there was more than what we were seeing... I always wanted to make it what it could be." Human Highway is set at a roadside diner near a nuclear power plant and stars the singer-songwriter, who also wrote and directed the film under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey. It also features the band Devo as power plant workers and also sees the band jamming with Young on a version of his track "Hey Hey My My (Out Of The Blue)." "They're geniuses -- they had something that was totally unique," said Young of the Ohio-based Nw Wave band. "When I met them I freaked out." He added that the new version of the movie, which includes previously unseen footage, will be touring film festivals throughout the year, before getting a DVD release. - New Musical Express, 3/20/15...... Meanwhile, late Small Faces and Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan was remembered at the Austin Music Awards on Mar. 18 with an hour-long tribute by an all-star group of musicians, including Steven Van Zandt, Patty Griffin and Alejandro Escovedo. McLagan, an Austin transplant who died on Dec. 3 at the age of 69, had also been named best keyboardist in a poll conducted by the Austin Chronicle. The award was accepted by his son Lee McLagan, who'd flown over from England and received a standing ovation from the crowd. "He loved this place with all his heart. I hope he gave you a good time, 'cause you gave him a home," McLagan said. - Billboard, 3/19/15...... Fleetwood Mac has rescheduled their tour of Australasia for later in 2015 after previous dates in late 2013 were called off when bassist John McVie diagnosed with cancer (he sought treatment and returned to the stage in late December of that year). The classic Fleetwood Mac lineup of McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie will play 10 shows in Australia and New Zealand in the fall, beginning with shows on Oct. 22 and 24 in Sydney. The band will also visit Perth, Melbourne, Geelong, Brisbane, Hunter Valley, and Dunedin before wrapping on Nov. 21 in Auckland. Fleetwood Mac was last Down Under for the 2009 Unleashed Tour, and they've not toured as a five-piece since 1998. - Billboard, 3/20/15...... Former Chic principal Nile Rodgers has weighed in on the recent controversial verdict concerning the Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke song "Blurred Lines," which has been ruled as copying Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give it Up." "Compositionally, purely compositionally, I don't think they should have lost that case," said Rodgers, who has worked alongside Williams in Daft Punk's smash hit "Get Lucky." "'Got to Give it Up' is clearly a blues structure, ('Blurred Lines') isn't at all....they don't really sound alike." On Mar. 18, Gaye's children wrote an open letter in hopes to "set the record straight on a few misconceptions" surrounding their winning case against Thicke and Williams. The siblings said that they were "forced into court" by a lawsuit brought by Thicke and Williams' attorneys, and that the lawsuit could have easily been avoided had the pair acknowledged their infringement and approached the family in advance and come to a deal on the song -- something they "would have welcomed." - AP/Billboard, 3/19/15...... Auctioneers Julien's have announced an auction of Elvis Presley items at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York on May 16 will include the King of Rock & Roll's TCB (Taking Care of Business) bus was owned by Elvis' backup band, The TCB Band, and purchased with money provided by Elvis. The bus, which features the TCB initials and lighting bolt logo throughout, has been fully restored. It features bunks for nine, old-fashioned tube TVs and classic '70s decor. And Elvis drove it himself sometimes. The estimated selling price is $100,000-$200,000. Also up for sale is Presley's 1971 two-seat Stutz Blackhawk car, which featured the best audio system of the day and was delivered to Elvis at his Beverly Hills home on Sept. 9 1971. The pre-sale estimate is $400,000-$600,000, along with Elvis' army winter dress uniform ($20,000-$40,000), Las Vegas "penguin suit" ($60,000-$80,000), marriage certificate to Priscilla Presley, black Gibson J-200 he played in Vegas, and the contract he signed to play the Louisiana Hayride early in his career. - The Hollywood Reporter, 3/17/15...... The Crawford, Colorado home of late British-born rocker Joe Cocker is back on the market again, after being taken off the market after the the singer's death. The nearly 16,000-square-foot Tudor-style mansion was on the market fully furnished for $7.9 million last year, before Cocker's death, but has now been relisted again, fully furnished, for $7 million. It has eight bedrooms and nine bathrooms and sits on 243 acres. The home is about a two-hour drive from the resort areas of Aspen and Telluride. - AP, 3/16/15...... Johnny Cash's acclaimed Rick Rubin-produced American Recordings I-VI will be released as a special vinyl box set on March 23. Recorded in the final decade of Cash's life with guidance from Rubin, the American Recordings led to a resurgence for the late-country singer. Four of the six albums were released during his life. The final two were issued posthumously. Pressed onto 180-gram audiophile vinyl, the records were cut from original masters under supervision from Rubin. - NME, 3/18/15...... Robin Trower has just released a video for the title track of his new album, Something's About to Change, which hit stores on March 9 via Manhaton/V12 Records. Released on Trower's 70th birthday, Something's About to Change marks Trower's first album since 2013's critically acclaimed Roots And Branches, and dovetails his 17-date UK tour with special guest Joanne Shaw Taylor starting March 26. Trower's tour kicks off in Lincoln, and also visits cities including Birmingham, Salford, Gateshead, Glasgow, York, Sheffield, London, Exeter and Salibury before wrapping at the Milton Keynes Stables on April 17. - Noble PR, 3/17/15...... Cabaret star Liza Minnelli has reportedly checked into a rehab center for substance abuse in Malibu, Calif. "Liza Minnelli has valiantly battled substance abuse over the years and whenever she has needed to seek treatment she has done so. She is currently making excellent progress at an undisclosed facility," a rep for the singer said. Minnelli's mother, Judy Garland, died in 1969 from an overdose of barbiturates. This past winter, Minnelli teamed up with jazz legend Wynton Marsalis for a new song called "Until the End" that was featured in the documentary film Garnet's Gold. - Billboard, 3/18/15...... With contemporary bands like War on Drugs refracting Dire Straits' honeyed 1980s guitar sound, it's surprising that frontman Mark Knopfler hasn't rebooted his old band lately. Instead, he's been unpacking his influences on modest, multifaceted rock LPs like his latest, Tracker. Opening on a vamp recalling Dave Brubeck's "Take Five," then veering into Celtic folk, "Laughs and Jokes and Drinks and Smokes" sets the tone for this burnished set about days past. Other highlights of his eighth solo effort include "Basil," a nod to his youth in Northumbria, and "Skydiver," which echoes Seventies Grateful Dead. The Mar. 31 Verve release includes a bonus DVD containing exclusive video and interviews, numbered art print, and six photographic prints. - Rolling Stone, 3/26/15...... Andy Fraser, the former bassist for the Classic Rock band Free, died on Mar. 16 at his home in California. He was 62. The cause of Fraser's death has yet to be announced, however he had been battling both cancer and AIDS. Fraser was a member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers before co-founding Free with Paul Rodgers in 1968 when he was just 15. He co-wrote the band's 1970 hit "All Right Now" but left the group in 1972 to form Sharks with guitarist Chris Spedding. He then formed the Andy Fraser Band before moving to California and going on to write for artists such as Robert Palmer, Joe Cocker and Rod Stewart. - NME, 3/17/15...... Songwriter/keyboardist Michael Brown, a former member of the '60s group The Left Banke, died of heart failure on Mar. 19 at his home in Englewood, N.J. He was 65. Born Michael Lookofsky, Brown grew up in Brooklyn and co-wrote "Walk Away Renee," which rose to No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and composed "Pretty Ballerina," which rose to No. 15. - AP, 3/20/15...... 'Ib Melchior, a screenwriter and director who took two classics of literature and set them in the future for the 1960s sci-fi films Robinson Crusoe on Mars and The Time Travelers, has died at age 97. Mr. Melchior, who claimed he was the one who came up with the ideas for TV's Lost in Space and Star Trek, died on Mar. 14 of natural causes at his home in West Hollywood, according to his son, Leif. - The Hollywood Reporter, 3/19/15.

Paul McCartney has made chart history once again, this time for having two simultaneous Top 15 hits for the first time since 1982 as his latest collaboration with rapper Kayne West, "All Day," has cracked the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 15, along with a previous McCartney, West and Rihanna collaboration, "FourFiveSeconds," which sits at No. 5. McCartney previously earned the honor multiple times with the Beatles, or as a soloist and with the Fab Four, last on May 22, 1982. That week, his own "Ebony and Ivory," with Stevie Wonder, topped the chart, and the group's "The Beatles' Movie Medley" remained at its No. 12 peak. - Billboard, 3/13/15...... In other Macca news, Paul's ex-wife Heather Mills went to town on her former husband on an Irish TV show called The Late Show on Mar. 14, suggesting that Paul is finding it hard to stay "relevant" in the modern music industry, stating that he only collaborated with Rihanna and Kanye West "so people remember him." Mills, a former ski racer and environmental activist, who was married to the former Beatle between 2002 and 2008, seemed to become agitated with host Ryan Tubridy mentioned McCartney's name. Mills added: "If I go down the street all I get is kids coming up to me - half of them don't even know who he is.... he is just someone I fell in love with, who to me was a normal guy that happened to write a few cool songs in the '60s -- and a few in the '70s. It was just someone I fell in love with... You fall in love, get married, you sometimes then go, 'Oh my god, this was completely wrong', and you wake up and you move on." - New Musical Express, 3/16/15...... Elsewhere on the Fab Four front, Ringo Starr has been forced to postpone two All Starr Band concerts set for Mar. 12 and 13 in San Francisco due to an unspecified illness, according to a tweet from the venue. The city's The Masonic posted that the Mar. 13 concert has been rescheduled for Oct. 1, 2015. Ringo's new solo album, Postcards From Paradise, is due Mar. 31. His current All Starr Band features Gregg Rolie, Todd Rundgren and other notable artists. - Billboard, 3/13/15...... Eric Clapton announced on Mar. 12 that he'll celebrate his milestone 70th birthday on Mar. 30 with two shows at New York's Madison Square Garden on May 1 and 2. The concerts will also commemorate another anniversary: the 46th anniversary of his first peformance at the venue with Cream, which christened the "new" MSG in 1968. Clapton ahs since appeared at the arena more than 45 times -- more than any other place in the U.S. General public tickets go on sale Mar. 20, and the opening act will be Andy Fairweather Low and the Low Riders. - Billboard, 3/12/15...... The Eagles announced on Mar. 13 that they'll take their History of the Eagles Tour on the road again in 2015 beginning with a May 19 performance at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Tex. The iconic country-rock band will play relatively smaller markets on the 24-date tour, including Bakersfield, Calif., Sioux Falls, S.D., Eugene, Ore., and Dayton, Ohio, before wrapping in Bossier City, La., on July 29. The previous leg of their HOTE tour raked in more than $145 million in 2013-14, playing for 1.1 million fans. - Billboard, 3/13/15...... Robert Plant has announced a series of live North American dates, some of which will see the alternative band the Pixies providing support. Plant will tour North America during May and June, with Frank Black & Co. opening for the musician in Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto, Rochester Hills and Raleigh. Singer-songwriter JD McPherson will open on the remaining dates. Full dates can be found at Plant's official website. - New Musical Express, 3/16/15...... Ann Wilson of Heart says her band is planning on multi-tasking during its upcoming tour by not only preparing, but also recording significant portions of its next album while on the road. "We're touring and recording at the same time," Wilsonsays. "We're actually recording off the stage in sound checks and the shows, so if we're doing a song you're not familiar with at a show this year, you can be sure we're recording it to be worked on later. We're going to take the tracks and mess with them towards making a new record. You can get the spark of the live performance in the basic track, which is something which is really hard to do in the studio." Wilson added Heart currently has four new songs ready to play, which are "sounding very multi-dimensional, just real different from stuff we've done before." Heart will kick of its latest tour on Mar. 18 in Mankato, Minn., and hopes to finish recording the album -- the follow-up to 2012's Fanatic -- during the fall, with an early 2016 release. - Billboard, 3/12/15...... Elton John is among the voices calling for a boycott of fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana after the pair expressed skepticism about the use of in vitro fertilization and surrogate mothers to create families in a recent interview with an Italian magazine. "How dare you refer to my beautiful children as "synthetic," Sir Elton posted on his official site on Mar. 14. He added: "And shame on you for wagging your judgemental little fingers at IVF -- a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfil their dream of having children. Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again." The designers, under growing social media pressure, issued a statement on Mar. 14 saying their comments supporting traditional families with a mother and a father "weren't intended to judge the choices made by others." The designers, who are gay and formerly were a couple, have put the traditional family at the center of their last two collections, sending a pregnant model and models with their own children down the runway to celebrate motherhood. - AP, 3/16/15...... Stevie Wonder will serve as an executive producer on Freedom Run, a proposed NBC show about the Underground Railroad. The mini-series will be based on Betty DeRamus' book Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories From the Underground Railroad. The show is indicative of the networks' desire to satisfy the audience's thirst for more diverse programming after the success of such diverse hits as Empire, How to Get Away With Murder and Fresh Off the Boat. Wonder is also writing a musical version of Freedom Run to be staged on Broadway. - Entertainment Weekly, 3/13/15...... Comedian/actor Eddie Murphy is in talks to portray Richard Pryor's dad in an upcoming Pryor biopic that Lee Daniels is directing for The Weinstein Co. Mike Epps will star as the controversial '70s comedian who pushed the boundaries of race and mined his own gritty experiences, becoming one of the most influential acts of all time. Murphy will play the father, LeRoy Pryor, and Kate Hudson will play Pryor's fourth wife, Jennifer Lee Pryor, who was married to Pryor in 1981-82, and then became his seventh wife after the couple remarried in 2001. - The Hollywood Reporter, 3/13/15...... In one of the most unlikely career moves in recent times, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has recently relocated to Nashville and begun collaborating with local songwriters for a new album of country music, after first announcing his intention to record a country LP last October. Tyler is expected to sign with Big Machine Label Group very soon, and has reportedly already begun work on the album. On the Mar. 11 episode of American Idol, Tyler joined country stars Tim McGraw, Reba McEntire and The Band Perry in a taped segment, all of whom are signed to BMLG imprints, in praising Big Machine executive Scott Borchetta. Taylor Swift is the label's biggest act. A release date for Tyler's album could come as early as November, though a 2016 release is more likely. No producer has been confirmed for the project. - Billboard, 3/13/15...... Mike Porcaro, a longtime bassist for the Grammy-winning band Toto, died on Mar. 15 after a long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease), according to a Facebook post by his brother, Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro. He was 59. "My brother Mike Porcaro is now now at peace. I will miss him more than I could ever put into words. My deepest love to the family. God Bless," Toto guitarist/singer Steve Lukather tweeted on Mar. 15. Porcaro, the son of the jazz percussionist Joe Porcaro, joined the Grammy-winning rockers Toto in 1982 and was with the band for their most successful album, Toto IV, which featured the hit singles "Africa" and "Rosanna." He appeared on many more Toto albums before retiring from the band in 2007 due to complications from ALS. Toto is set to tour Europe this spring in support of their new album, Toto XIV. - Billboard, 3/15/15...... Lew Soloff, a jazz trumpeter who reached a broader audience with the jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat and Tears, especially with a memorable solo on the original version of the 1969 hit "Spinning Wheel," died of a heart attack on Mar. 8 in Brooklyn. He was 71. Soloff was a session musician for such artists as Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra and Lou Reed; he was the lead trumpeter of both the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra; and tackled Bach as a member of the quintet Manhattan Brass. Soloff toured the world with Blood, Sweat and Tears, and in 1970 the band played before 14,500 fans at Madison Square Garden; their opening act was a sextet led by Miles Davis But he left the band in 1973, seeking new musical challenges, and released eight albums as a leader and performed or recorded with Gil Evans, Paul Simon, Dizzy Gillespie and many others....... Three Dog Night keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon died of etastatic melanoma in Gaithersberg, Md., on Mar. 11. He was 67. Greenspoon's organ and electric piano on hits such as "Easy to be Hard" and "Joy to the World" defined the band on par with its three lead vocalists, Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron and Cory Wells. "We are very saddened at the passing of our dear friend and longtime band mate, Jimmy Greenspoon. Jimmy died peacefully at home today surrounded by his family. Please keep him and his loved ones in your prayers and your hearts," Three Dog Night posted on its official website. Greenspoon, an L.A. native whose mother had been in silent films, recorded with his surf group the New Dimensions while in junior high and high school. After attending the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, he became a fixture at Sunset Strip clubs, playing with a host of bands. For a brief time he lived in Denver, where he was a member of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Throughout his career, Greenspoon performed and recorded with such acts as America, The Beach Boys, Beck, Bogert & Appice, Nils Lofgren, Lowell George, Donovan, Eric Clapton, and many others. Greenspoon published his autobiography in 1991, titled One Is The Loneliest Number - On The Road And Behind The Scenes With Legendary Rock Band Three Dog Night. Since Greenspoon announced his cancer diagnosis five months ago, he used a crowd-funding page at GoFundMe.com to help pay medical bills. He is survived by his wife, Susie. - Billboard, 3/12/15...... Soft Machine and Gong co-founder Daevid Allen, a psychedelic rock legend, passed away on Mar. 12 after a battle with cancer. He was 77. The Australia-born Allen co-founded the immensely influential British psych-jazz band Soft Machine in 1966, which produced the self-titled underground classic The Soft Machine in 1968. He also co-founded the British-French experimental band Gong in 1968. - Billboard, 3/13/15...... Comic Gene Patton, better known as "Gene Gene the Dancing Machine" from his many appearances on the wacky daytime NBC series The Gong Show, died on Mar. 13 in Pasadena, Calif., after a battle with diabetes. He was 82. At a random moment during the 1976-78 game show, host Chuck Barris Barris would introduce Mr. Patton, and the curtain would part, bringing the shuffling stagehand with the painter's cap onstage to the sounds of "Jumpin' at the Woodside," a jazz tune made popular by Count Basie. His dance sent everyone on the set -- Barris, the judges, the cameramen, the audience -- into an uncontrollable boogie. A native of Berkeley, Calif., Mr. Patton also appeared as Gene in The Gong Show Movie (1980) and as himself in the film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, George Clooney and Charlie Kaufman's surreal 2002 adaptation that starred Sam Rockwell as Barris. By then, Mr. Patton had lost both his legs to diabetes. - The Hollywood Reporter, 3/13/15.

Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on February 4th, 2026

Cher has gone viral online after seemingly confusing Luther Vandross with Kendrick Lamar at the 2026 Grammy Awards at L.A.'s Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 1. After being presented with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy by host Trevor Noah, Cher was asked to stick around to announce the Record of the Year category, and handed her an envelope, to which the 79-year-old "Believe" singer confessed that she was told the winner would be "on the prompter." Cher then opened the envelope and read out "Luther" and then said "Vandross" -- seemingly referring to R&B icon Luther Vandross, who died at the age of 54 in 2005. "Oh, the Grammy goes to Luther Vandross... Oh...no... Kendrick Lamar!" she said. Yet, Cher -- who has revealed he struggled with dyslexia as a child -- quickly realized her error and announced the correct winners -- Kendrick Lamar and SZA for their 2024 song "Luther," a track that contains a sample of Vandross and Cheryl Lynn's 1982 track "If This World Were Mine." On Feb. 2, Grammy Awards executive producer Ben Winston spoke with Rolling Stone's Music Now podcast, and shared Cher wasn't upset by the snafu. "I do think that is like, some of the things that you want from great music awards shows," Winston said. "I think if that happened at the Oscars, it'd be like, '[gasps] Oh my goodness! It was a disaster! "But on our show, I loved it. If I could go back in time, I'd want that to happen again. 'Cause she's happy with it. She had a great time! So I just thought it was a really lovely moment. And you want a bit of anarchy, and you don't know what's going to happen. Everything is so rehearsed these days." - Music-News.com/Billboard, 2/3/26...... In other Grammy-related news, Sharon Osbourne is calling the 2026 show's tribute to her late husband Ozzy Osbourne "a moment carved into musical history." "Last night was bigger than a performance," Sharon posted on Instagram on Feb. 2. "It was a moment carved into musical history. Reminding everyone that rock isn't nostalgia -- it's alive, evolving, and still the heartbeat of music." Her praise was for a performance during the In Memoriam section of the Grammys in which Post Malone and Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash led a group that also included Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, GNR bassist Duff McKagan and producer Andrew Watt , who was behind the boards for Osbourne's final two studio albums, 2020's Ordinary Man and 2022's Patient Number 9. The band thundered through the 1970 Black Sabbath anti-war song "War Pigs," and Sharon re-posted a shot from the performance that included footage of her getting emotional alongside the couple's adult children Jack and Kelly Osbourne. Sharon was also honored for her monumental impact on the music industry at Billboard's Power 100 event over the Grammys weekend, receiving the Visionary Award. Meanwhile, Sharon has revealed that she is "seriously thinking" about running for mayor of Birmingham, the UK home city of Ozzy, in a brief interview with Billboard while on the red carpet for this year's Grammys. Sharon was told by host Leila Cobo that she was getting praise for how well she spoke at one of the Grammy-related events ahead of the Feb. 1 ceremony. In response, Sharon thanked the host for her compliment and suggested that the skill may come in handy soon as she is "seriously thinking about running for mayor of Birmingham." Due to the quick pace of the interview, there was little time for Sharon to expand on why she wanted to run, or how far along she was into looking at the process. Sharon has previously said that she was thinking of getting involved in politics in Birmingham after learning that someone with a terrorism conviction was allegedly seeking a seat on Birmingham's City Council. "This has nothing to do with racism. I think I'm gonna move to Birmingham and put my name down for the ballot to be on the council. I'm serious," she said. - Billboard/New Musical Express, 2/3/26...... David Byrne has added fresh UK and Ireland shows to his "Who Is The Sky?" world tour. The former Talking Heads frontman will now be heading to Dublin (June 7), (July 18), Edinburgh (July 21), and Cardiff (July 26) alongside his already announced headline slot at Latitude Festival in Suffolk on July 24. Byrne toured Australia and New Zealand in January and is set for his first UK and European leg in 2026 across February and March, before heading to North America in the spring -- including slots at both Coachella Festival weekends. His European shows include a mix of headline gigs and festival slots, with the musician set to appear at the likes of Open'er Festival in Poland (July 1) and Bilbao BBK Live in Spain. Byrne is touring behind his his first solo album in over six years, also titled Who Is The Sky?. - NME, 2/3/26...... In other UK touring news, Elvis Costello & The Imposters with Charlie Sexton have added more UK and European dates to their "Radio Soul!: The Early Songs of Elvis Costello" tour in June and July. Due to demand, eight dates have been added to bring the total to 13, including a new show at London's O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire on June 20 and others in cities including Brighton, Stockholm, Hamburg and Oslo. Costello first announced a five-date tour in December, taking in Birmingham, London, Portsmouth, Newcastle and the TW Classic festival in Werchter, Belgium. He's joined by his band The Imposters, as well as guitarist Sexton, best known for his time in Bob Dylan's band. Sexton joined Costello for the 2021 "Hello Again" tour and has continued to hit the road with him in the time since. Two of The Imposters, keyboardist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas, were members of his band The Attractions, which formed in 1977. As the tour's name suggests, the shows will see Costello concentrate on playing material from his earlier discography, including the 1977 debut album My Aim Is True and the 1986 record Blood & Chocolate, as well as other surprises. - NME, 2/3/26...... The years long legal feud between Linda Cummings Ramone, the widow of Johnny Ramone and the late Joey Ramone's brother Mickey Leigh (real name Mitchel Hyman) over the Ramones' legacy has finally reached a resolution. According to a Feb. 2 court filing from music manager Dave Frey, a former board member of Ramones Productions Inc. (RPI), a settlement in an estate dispute has been reached with Hyman, who was previously the other 50% owner of RPI, transferring his share to Linda Ramone per a binding term sheet agreement dated Nov. 18, 2025. Linda Ramone now owns 100% of the shares of RPI and has free rein to fully control RPI. Joey Ramone (born Jeffrey Hyman) and Johnny Ramone (John Cummings), who were not actual brothers, both died in the early 2000s. A 2005 shareholder agreement split the Ramones' legacy exactly 50-50 between each family, an arrangement that spurred years of bitter infighting between Cummings-Ramone and Leigh. - Billboard, 2/3/26...... As The Guess Who frontman Burton Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman recently returned to the stage for the first time in decades, the other half of the band, Guess Who founding drummer Garry Peterson and founding bassist James Kale, has launched a new lawsuit. In a new complaint against performing rights management firm BMI, Peterson and Kale claim they suffered millions of dollars in losses when lead singer/songwriter Cummings terminated his entire performing rights agreement with BMI. Cummings owns the publishing rights to the band's biggest hits, including "American Woman," "These Eyes," and "No Time." He reportedly took the step of yanking The Guess Who's songs from the BMI licensing catalogue covering concert venues because he wanted to stop Peterson and Kale staging what he called "fake bullshit shows" using a different singer and guitarist. In the lawsuit, Peterson and Kale claim they had spent months planning a US tour when they were told by BMI that Cummings had terminated his affiliation agreement "effective immediately." Peterson and Kale cancelled their shows as a result. Peterson and Kale now contend that BMI misinterpreted the termination's effective date. They argue the agreement almost certainly remained in effect during a notice period that had not yet expired, meaning their concerts did not need to be cancelled. "It's not just Garry Peterson and Jim Kale who suffered," said the plaintiffs' lawyer, in an interview with Rolling Stone. "In some cases, the venues had no time to find substitute acts and went dark. Some promoters lost a lot of money promoting the shows. What happened doesn't make sense. With most contracts, particularly commercial contracts, you have to give notice." Cummings and Bachman launched their "Takin' It Back" GW reunion tour with a show in Ontario on Jan. 31. - Music-News.com, 2/3/26....... Deep Purple have announced a special live show in the UK for 2026. The band will play a hometown gig at the famed Royal Albert Hall venue in London on Nov. 25, which will see them reconnect with one of the most significant venues in their storied history. In 1969, Deep Purple became the first rock band to premiere a full classical composition with an orchestra at the historic venue -- a landmark moment in British music. The "Smoke On The Water" group's forthcoming return to the Royal Albert Hall is billed as a "one night only" event, following a concert at London's Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith the previous evening, Nov. 24. Per a press release, the new date will be "a full-throttle Deep Purple rock show, showcasing a band that remains creatively unstoppable, musically fearless, and utterly commanding on stage." "In the grandeur of the Royal Albert Hall, the band will once again prove why they remain one of rock's most compelling live forces, making this event an essential moment for fans old and new alike," it adds. Before heading to the capital, Deep Purple are set to take to the stage at Newcastle's Utilita Arena (Nov. 18), Glasgow's OVO Hydro (Nov. 19), Birmingham's BP Pulse Arena (Nov. 21) and Manchester's AO Arena (Nov. 22). Deep Purple will also tour across Europe in the coming year, and play shows in Japan, Indonesia and Mexico. The band released their latest studio album, =11, in the summer of 2024. That year, they played a gig at London's O2 as part of their UK and European tour. Their most recent live performance took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in Nov. 2025. Deep Purple are currently fronted by singer Ian Gillan, alongside bassist Roger Glover, drummer Ian Paice, keyboardist Don Airey and guitarist Simon McBride. =1 marked the band's first album with McBride, who joined the line-up after longtime member Steve Morse left due to personal circumstances. Late last year, Gillan revealed that he was losing his eyesight and said retirement was "not far off." - NME, 2/3/26...... In a new interview with the UK paper Daily Mail, Queen's Brian May has said his band is ruling out a tour in the US anytime soon as America has become a "dangerous place." Queen last hit the road in North America in 2023, as part of their ambitious "Rhapsody Tour" with Adam Lambert. However, May now says that "America is a dangerous place at the moment, so you have to take that into account." Reflecting on how the US had changed since Queen first visited in their early days, May continued: "It's very sad because I feel like Queen grew up in America and we love it, but it's not what it was. Everyone is thinking twice about going there at the moment." The guitarist's comments come amid a troubling period in the US under the administration of Pres. Donald Trump. Many artists and figures from the entertainment world have spoken out recently, as protests continue against the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE agents, in particular, have triggered outrage across the States. ICE has described its highly controversial actions in Minnesota as "the largest mass deportation operation in American history." Celebrities who have condemned ICE and Pres. Trump include Neil Young, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Green Day, Moby, Duran Duran, Dave Matthews, Stranger Things star Joe Keery and Spider-Man actor Yuri Lowenthal. - NME, 1/30/26...... In related news, Bruce Springsteen's anti-ICE song "Streets of Minneapolis" has made a No. 1 sales debut on Billboard Digital Song Sales chart dated Feb. 7. The song, which can be streamed on YouTube, was the highest-selling song in the US in the week ending Jan. 29, even with it being available for just two days of the tracking period. "Streets of Minneapolis," released on Jan. 28, sold 16,000 downloads, according to Luminate. It marks Springsteen's first No. 1 on the all-format Digital Song Sales survey, which began in 2004 following the proliferation of paid downloads on the internet. In fact, it's his first track to reach the ranking's top 20, exceeding the No. 22 peak of Mark Knopfler's Guitar Heroes' "Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)," for which he joined its all-star cast, in 2024. Springsteen wrote and recorded the anti-ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement) song following the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January amid Operation Metro Surge, during which undocumented immigrants have been targeted and apprehended by ICE. Springsteen first performed the song live in Minneapolis Jan. 30 during the Tom Morello-helmed Defend Minnesota benefit concert (the performance can be viewed on X/Twitter). Thanks to its sales plus streams and early radio airplay, "Streets of Minneapolis" also bows at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. In addition to its sales, the song drew 678,000 official U.S. streams and 175,000 in airplay audience in that two-day span. Meanwhile across the pond, The Boss is currently on course to break into the UK Top 20 for the first time in nearly three decades with his stoic new protest song. According to the Official Chart: First Look, which provides an early glimpse of chart activity based on preliminary sales and streaming reports, Springsteen's latest offering is currently sitting at No. 16. If the track maintains its momentum through the Feb. 6 final tally, it will mark a historic milestone for the legendary musician. Springsteen has not graced the UK Top 20 since 1997, when "Secret Garden" captured the nation's attention. - Billboard/NME, 2/2/26...... In more Billboard chart action, Barry Manilow has extended his history on the Adult Contemporary chart dated Feb. 7, with his latest single, the poignant "Once Before I Go," entering the chart at No. 30, up 23% to 94,000 in audience via plays on 25 stations Jan. 23-29, according to Luminate. The song extends the legendary crooner's AC chart history to more than half a century -- 51 years and three months -- since he first appeared on the list dated Nov. 7, 1974, with his breakout ballad "Mandy". The classic ballad also marked his first ranking on any Billboard chart. Manilow boasts 28 AC top 10s, among 53 total entries. Until recently, he last reached the chart with his cover of Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You," which hit No. 14 in Dec. 2023. Acclaimed songwriters Peter Allen and Dean Pitchford co-penned "Once Before I Go," which Allen (who died in 1992) recorded in 1983 -- and sent to No. 26 on AC that October. Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Demonte Posey co-produced Manilow's version. Manilow, 82, has shows scheduled between Feb. 27 and April 29, having recently announced six new dates. "Once Before I Go" can be streamed on YouTube. - Billboard, 1/30/26...... The first trailer for the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, dropped on Feb. 2 for the new movie that tracks the late King of Pop's growth from child singer to international superstar. "You're confident. You're strong. You're beautiful. You're the greatest of all time," we hear star Jaafar Jackson -- MJ's real-life nephew -- say in a confident pump-up speech to himself at the top of the two-minute preview. Director Antoine Fuqua (Stans, Bullet Train) then zooms out from the period just before Jackson's solo career went meteoric to footage of MJ at his moon-walking, stadium sell-out peak, with the singer's kin effortlessly pulling off the tricky dance moves and Jackson's signature vocal yelps. Fuqua then rewinds all the way back to the beginning, with imperious family patriarch Joe Jackson (Colman Domingo), explaining how things are, and are going to be, to his musically talented family around their Gary, In., dining room table. "Let me tell you somethin'," Joe Jackson says as MJ's 1979 "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" solo hit bubbles up and we see the singer and his brothers in the Jackson Five refining their soon-to-be-chart-topping act. "In this life, you're either a winner or a loser. Y'all want to work in a steel mill like me for the rest of your days?" The $155 million film, two years in the making and originally slated for an Oct. 2025 release, is due out in the US on Apr. 24. The trailer can be watched on YouTube. - Billboard, 2/2/26...... In other rock biopic news, Meryl Streep will play Joni Mitchell in a forthcoming biopic directed by Oscar-winner Cameron Crowe, according to an announcement made by record exec Clive Davis. Streep, a multi-time Oscar winner, has been rumoured to be in contention for the role in the film, which has been in development for some time. However, Rolling Stone has reported that Davis confirmed the casting at his pre-Grammy awards party on Jan. 31 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. Further details about the film have been scarce, although there have been reports that Anya Taylor-Joy had been cast as a younger version of the singer. Crowe, who directed iconic music drama Almost Famous, shared in 2023 that the project was in motion and hoped to be released by the end of 2025, which did not come to pass. About the movie, he told Ultimate Classic Rock: "It's Joni's life, not through anybody else's prism. It's through her prism. It's the characters who impacted her life that you know and a lot that you don't know. And the music is so cinematic." As for the singer herself, Mitchell famously shut down a proposed biopic of her life starring Taylor Swift in 2014, saying she "squelched" the project and that she "didn't know her music." - NME, 2/3/26...... On Jan. 29 Beatles fans got the first look at the Fab Four's look in director Sam Mendes' upcoming four-part Beatles biopic series when The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts -- an arts school co-founded in 1996 by Paul McCartney and British entrepreneur Mark Featherstone-Witty -- rolled out postcards featuring photos of the actors playing each member of the group as part of a promotional stunt in conjunction with Sony Pictures UK. As part of a "postcard hunt" the Institute informed students on Friday (Jan. 30) that it had hidden 20 more of the cards that morning with 20 more to be tucked around by lunchtime, asking them to tag the school and movie studio if they find them. "Another huge thanks to Sony for providing these exclusive, hand-numbered postcards. It's been such an honour to bring the Beatles back home," read the caption to an Instagram post from the school featuring the images. "Paul, George and John all studied in the buildings that now make up LIPA, while Sir Paul remains our Lead Patron." In the previews, Paul Mescal is seen as a mop-topped McCartney, dressed in a classic early look in a suit and bowl haircut. Joseph Quinn's George Harrison is a late-period take, with the Stranger Things actor sporting long hair and a bushy beard, while Harris Dickinson's mid-period John Lennon sports his iconic round glasses, shaggy, shoulder-length hair and a jeans jacket. Meanwhile, Barry Keoghan's Ringo Starr sports a busy mustache, grown-out shag and a polka dot shit accented by a paisley tie. The Beatles -- A Four-Film Cinematic Event, is slated to hit theaters on Apr. 7, 2028, with each Beatle getting their own solo film that will tell the story of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band from their perspective. The first images can be viewed on Sony Pictures' X/Twitter page. - Billboard, 1/30/26...... The home security company Ring is aiming to reunite lost dogs with families in a new ad for the upcoming Super Bowl game on Feb. 7 soundtracked by a No. 1 '70s hit ballad, Harry Nilsson's "Without You". "I can't live, if living is without you" is a sentiment Nilsson sang about in the early '70s that many heartbroken pet owners have experienced after a beloved animal dies or goes missing, but Ring is hoping to shorten the length of that pain in the latter scenario. In the emotional commercial that dropped on YouTube on Feb. 2, Ring acknowledges the special bond between pets -- in this case, dogs -- and their families, and how its free "Search Party" feature can help bring lost furry friends home. "Pets are family, but every year, 10 million go missing, and the way we look for them hasn't changed in years -- until now," Ring founder Jamie Siminoff says in the emotional spot. "With Search Party from Ring, one post to the Ring app starts outdoor cameras in the area, looking for a match." In addition to clips of a little girl excitedly greeting her new puppy Milo, to her heartbreak as she puts up missing fliers alongside her dad, to her joy as her beloved pup returns home, the commercial is soundtracked by one of the most recognizable heartbreak ballads of the 1970s: Nilsson's aforementioned cover of Badfinger's "Without You," featuring the heartrending chorus, "Can't live if living is without you/ I can't live, I can't give anymore." Nilsson's version of "Without You" -- which has also been covered by Air Supply, Mariah Carey and others -- peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in Feb. 1972, and retained the top spot for four weeks. In a blog post, Ring also said that the Search Party feature would be available to non-Ring owners through its Neighbors app to help bring lost animals home as quickly as possible. To further its goal, Ring has also announced that it's committing $1 million to equip shelters around the US with Ring cameras to not only reunite families and their missing pets, but also cut down on the time lost pets spend in shelters. - Billboard, 2/2/26...... The upcoming UK Record Store Day 2026 will include the release of an early Fleetwood Mac collection among several other special releases to benefit the RSD's charity partner War Child. Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green-era 1971 compilation The Original Fleetwood Mac will be among the series of titles that will be available to buy at participating shops on the day, with other titles including music from The Cure and Primal Scream. One of every copy sold of the records below will be donated to the charity, which works to protect, educate and support the mental health of children affected by war -- and it comes at a time of conflicts in Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria and beyond. Other RSD 2026 releases announced so far include two David Bowie releases - a Hallo Spaceboy remixes EP and a half-speed LP of excerpts from 1.OUTSIDE. - NME, 2/2/26...... William "Billy Bass" Nelson, the founding bassist for the George Clinton-led funk acid rock collective Parliament-Funkadelic, died on Jan. 31 of undisclosed causes. He was 75. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Nelson, born William Nelson Jr. on Jan. 28, 1951 in Plainfield, N.J., got his break in music when, as a teenager, he became friendly with Clinton, who was then working in a Jersey barber shop he co-owned, the Silk Palace. While he started out sweeping the floors and dancing for customers according to his official bio on Clinton's site, Nelson parlayed that friendship into a spot in Clinton's doo-wop group, the Parliaments, who charted a handful of singles in the late 1960s, including their breakthrough 1967, the snappy soul jam "(I Wanna) Testify," which rose to No. 3 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 20 on the Hot 100 pop chart. While his steady, thumping bass was a mainstay on Funkadelic's first three albums -- a style that would later serve as one of the foundational bedrocks of rapper/producer Dr. Dre's "G-funk" sound -- Nelson also provided backing vocals and managed to slip into the lead singer spot for at least one track on all three of Funkadelic's first releases. You can hear his vocals on the joyous 8-minute funk burner "Good Old Music" on the band's debut, as well as "Friday Night, August 14th" and the chaotic "I Wanna Know If it's Good For You?" on Free Your Mind. In 1994, Nelson rejoined P-Funk (which were then known as the P-Funk All-Stars, though Clinton was the only remaining original member) and he was among 16 of the group's members inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in 1997. - Billboard, 2/3/26...... Chuck Negron, a founding member and lead vocalist of Three Dog Night, died at his home in Studio City, Calif., on Feb. 2. He was 83. Mr. Negron died surrounded by family, according to a statement shared with Billboard. No immediate cause of death was announced, though the singer had been living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for decades and had recently battled heart failure. Born Charles Negron II on June 8, 1942, Mr. Negron grew up in the Bronx, where he sang in doo-wop groups before earning a basketball scholarship that brought him to Los Angeles. In 1967, he joined Danny Hutton and the late Cory Wells to form Three Dog Night, a vocal trio built around harmony-driven arrangements and carefully selected songs from outside writers -- a strategy that helped make the group one of the most commercially successful acts of the late 1960s and early '70s. Negron's unmistakable lead vocals powered many of the band's biggest hits, including "Joy to the World," "Mama Told Me Not To Come," "One," "Easy to Be Hard," "Old Fashioned Love Song" and "The Show Must Go On." Between 1969 and 1975, the trio scored three No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the era's most dominant radio acts. As the band's success escalated rapidly, Mr. Negron struggled with addiction, a battle that contributed to internal fractures and the group's eventual breakup at the height of its popularity. His addiction led to severe personal and financial hardship, including a period of homelessness in Los Angeles. After multiple rehabilitation attempts, he became sober in 1991. He later documented his experiences in the 1999 memoir Three Dog Nightmare, an unflinching account of fame, addiction and recovery. In the years that followed, Mr. Negron released seven solo albums between 1995 and 2017 and became an outspoken advocate for addiction recovery, frequently sharing his story to support others facing similar struggles. Despite long-term health challenges, Mr. Negron continued touring for many years, developing methods to preserve his voice while managing COPD. He remained proud of his vocal ability until his final performances, stepping away from touring during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the risks posed by his condition. Mr. Negron is survived by his wife, Ami Albea Negron; his children Shaunti Negron Levick, Berry Oakley, Charles Negron III, Charlotte Negron and Annabelle Negron; nine grandchildren; and several extended family members. He was predeceased by his parents and his twin sister, Nancy Negron Dean. In 2025, Mr. Negron and fellow Three Dog Night founder Danny Hutton reunited after decades of estrangement to reconcile. - Billboard, 2/3/26...... Actor Demond Wilson, best known for portraying Lamont Sanford on the hit 1972-1977 NBC sitcom Sanford and Son, died on Jan. 29 in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 79. Wilson's son, Demond Wilson Jr., told TMZ.com his father died at home from complications with cancer, but did not disclose what type of cancer his dad had. "I loved him. He was a great man," Demond Jr. told the outlet. Born Grady Demond Wilson on Oct. 13, 1946 in Valdosta, Ga., Wilson grew up in New York City, making his Broadway debut as a child, before joining the US Army and serving in Vietnam, where he was wounded. Upon his return to the states, Wilson appeared in some Broadway and off-Broadway shows before moving to Hollywood. Following his appearance in a 1971 episode of CBS's All in the Family, Wilson won the titular role of Lamont Sanford in Sanford and Son, opposite Redd Foxx's patriarch Fred G. Sanford. The beloved sitcom, adapted by Norman Lear from the British series Steptoe and Son, ran for six seasons on NBC from 1972 to '77. The actor then went on to star as Raymond Ellis in the short-lived 1978 CBS sitcom Baby I'm Back!, playing a compulsive gambler trying to win back his family. He also played Oscar Madison in ABC's The New Odd Couple (1982-'83). His TV credits also include episodes of Mission: Impossible, The Love Boat and Girlfriends, and he appeared in films like Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), The Organization (1971), Full Moon High (1981) and Hammerlock (2000). Wilson, who was also a Christian evangelist and ordained minister, married model Cicely Johnston in 1974, and they shared six children and multiple grandchildren. - Variety, 1/31/26...... Prolific actress Catherine O'Hara, known for her roles in Home Alone, Schitt's Creek and Best in Show, died on Jan. 30 following a brief illness. She was 71. Over a career that spanned more than 50 years, O'Hara left an indelible impression on audiences with her searing wit, subtle eccentricity and fearless pursuit of a good laugh. Born on Mar. 4, 1954, in Toronto, O'Hara's career in Hollywood began with the Canadian sketch comedy series Second City Television. That show earned the beloved actress her first PrimeTime Emmy Award, an accolade that she'd again win in 2020 for her performance in Schitt's Creek. O'Hara's first credited Hollywood movie is 1980's Nothing Personal, she then went on to star in 1980's Double Negative and 1983's Rock & Rule before playing the memorable role of Gail in Martin Scorsese's After Hours, which was released in 1985. Her stardom continued to rise after playing Delia Deetz in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice, released in 1988. Just two years later, she starred as Kevin McCallister's mom, Kate McCallister, in Home Alone. She reprised this role again in the sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Following that, O'Hara voiced Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas and appeared in movies such as 1994's Wyatt Earp, 1996's Waiting for Huffman, 1997's Pippi Longstocking, 2000's Best in Show, and 2004's Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, among many other titles. Her career had a major renaissance in her 60s when she starred as Moira Rose in the popular Schitt's Creek sitcom alongside Eugene Levy, Dan Levy and Annie Murphy. She recently played Patty Leigh in the first season of Seth Rogen's Hollywood sendup The Studio, and Gail Lynden in Season 2 of HBO's zombie apocalypse drama The Last of Us, both of which earned her 2025 Emmy nominations. Additionally, O'Hara reprised her Delia Deetz character in the Beetlejuice sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and voiced a character in the award-winning The Wild Robot movie released in 2024. "Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more," her Home Alone costar Macaulay Culkin poignantly posted after her death. "I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you. But I had so much more to say." - ComingSoon.net, 1/31/26.

Paul McCartney's forthcoming Wings documentary Man On The Run is set to be screened in cinemas worldwide for one night only on Feb. 17, ahead of its official release on Feb. 27 on Prime Video via Amazon MGM Studios. In addition to the film, each theatrical screening will include a bonus conversation between McCartney and director Morgan Neville. Tickets can be purchased at www.manontherun.film. According to a press release, the documentary captures Sir Paul's "transformative decade in the wake of The Beatles' break-up and the rise of his new band Wings. "Through stunning archival footage, Linda McCartney's exceptional photographs, interviews with Paul, Linda, Mary and Stella McCartney, a number of Wings band members, Sean Ono Lennon, Mick Jagger, Chrissie Hynde, and more, the film examines this time through a uniquely vulnerable lens." Earlier in January, an official trailer for the film was shared which showed McCartney detailing his feelings following his split from The Beatles in 1970, remarking: "I fell very depressed, but I was very lucky, because I had Linda." The trailer also shows the journey of Wings from their rocky start with debut album Wild Life to their acclaimed third album, Band On The Run. Intimate behind-the-scenes footage of Wings touring, along with other rare, unreleased footage and music, will be featured in the documentary. - NME, 1/28/26...... As Minneapolis and other locations in America are struggling with the controversial arrest and deportation tactics of the US immigration agency ICE under Pres. Donald Trump's administration, Neil Young has declared he is done with the "fascist Trump regime" -- and all the companies he claims are financially backing it. On Jan. 29, the Canadian-American singer-songwriter took to his Neil Young Archives site to post a fiery essay in which he lambasted several companies for their financial support of the president and his administration, namely Verizon, T-Mobile and Apple. "One idea I have to keep [my flip phone] is just to change services and drop Verizon service like a cold fish. It's the money I give Verizon for my service that's doing the damage! Not my old phone I bought years ago," he began his post, lamenting at his phone company's Trump ties. "What can I do? I'm checking with our office to see if I can get a T-Mobile flip phone. T-Mobile is not a supporter of the Trump fascist regime. But wait. T-Mobile donated to Trump's ballroom, which has gone from $200 million to $400 million, suddenly. Where is that money going? There is no accounting. So T-Mobile is apparently out." Young's most recent post follows comments he made earlier in January when he penned a letter reiterating his distaste for ICE and Trump, and in Oct. 2025 he announced he would be pulling his music from Amazon, citing Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos' Trump ties. Meanwhile, on Jan. 27 Young updated his site with a post announcing that he will be gifting his entire music catalog to the people of Greenland for free. Pres. Trump said at a White House meeting earlier in January that he "may put a tariff on countries if they don't go along with Greenland", which is a self-governing territory controlled by Denmark. "I'm honoured to give a free year's access to neilyoungarchives.com to all of our friends in Greenland," Young began. "I hope my music and music films will ease some of the unwarranted stress and threats you are experiencing from our unpopular and hopefully temporary government. It is my sincere wish for you to be able to enjoy all of my music in your beautiful Greenland home, in its highest quality. This is an offer of Peace and Love." Greenland citizens can sign up to a free subscription for Young's music archive at neilyoungarchives.com/Greenland. - Billboard, 1/29/26...... In related news, Bruce Springsteen has dropped a searing anti-ICE protest song called "Streets of Minneapolis," a callback to the Boss's Oscar and Grammy-winning 1994 soundtrack anthem "Streets of Philadelphia" from director Jonathan Demme's 1993 AIDS drama Philadelphia. In the tradition of one of his icons, folk legend Woody Guthrie, the song's lyrics plainly and powerfully tell the story of the pitched battles being fought on the streets of the city as citizens stand up and push back on the sometimes violent immigration raids being carried out by the Trump administration. Specifically, he pays tribute to the violent actions by border and ICE agents that so far this month have resulted in the killings of two American citizens: 37-year-old mother of three Renee Good and 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti. Springsteen dedicated the song to the people of Minneapolis, as well as "our innocent immigrant neighbors," and to the memories of Good and Pretti. "Against smoke and rubber bullets/ By the dawn's early light/ Citizens stood for justice/ Their voices ringing through the night," he sings over chiming guitars and a steady drum beat. "And there were bloody footprints/ Where mercy should have stood/ And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets/ Alex Pretti and Renee Good." The song is also a callback to one of the Boss' most intense protest anthems, 2001's "American Skin (41 Shots)," his passionate response to the 1999 NYPD killing of unarmed Amadou Diallo. The song ends with Springsteen lamenting the trampling of rights by officers eager to question or deport anyone with Black or brown skin, while amplifying the frequently shouted cries of "ICE out now" heard at protests around the nation over the past few months. "Streets of Minneapolis" can be streamed on YouTube, along with a powerful lyric video released by the musician the following day featuring footage of the ongoing protests against the agency's immigration enforcement operations in the city. Meanwhile, the movie Philadelpia is among the annual roster of 25 recent additions to the National Film Registry. Also making the list was the 1983 box-office hit The Big Chill, which had a soundtrack brimming with Motown classics, and the 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew, about the West Coast studio musicians who played on countless hit records in the 1960s. The Library of Congress announced its latest additions to the National Film Registry on Jan. 29. The films were selected because of their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance. The latest 25 selections bring the number of titles in the registry to 925. - Billboard, 1/28/26...... Deceased Seventies artists Ozzy Osbourne and Roberta Flack are among the musicians set to be honored at the 2026 Grammy Awards. In honor of late heavy metal pioneer and Black Sabbath frontman Osbourne, Post Malone will join forces with Guns N' Roses members Slash and Duff McKagan, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith for a performance. They will also be joined on stage by renowned producer Andrew WattThey will also be joined on stage by renowned producer Andrew Watt, who worked with the Prince Of Darkness on his last two solo albums: 2020's Ordinary Man and 2022's Patient Number 9. Osbourne died in his family home in Buckinghamshire following a heart attack last July, aged 76. Lauryn Hill will take to the stage to honor R&B/jazz star Flack, who died in Feb. 2025 after battling ALS for the past few years. The Recording Academy announced that there will be special tribute performances held for the late artists, which also include neo-soul icon D'Angelo, during the ceremony. Lifetime Achievement awards will be presented to Carlos Santana and Elton John's lyricist Bernie Taupin will also be honored with the Trustees Award. The 68th annual Grammys are set for Feb. 1 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and will be broadcast live on CBS at 8 p.m. ET and run until 11:30 p.m. ET. Those without cable subscriptions can watch through services like YouTubeTV and FuboTV. - New Musical Express, 1/29/26...... In other Ozzy Osbourne-related news, Ozzy's widow Sharon Osbourne revealed in a recent interview that she is considering bringing OzzFest back, and it could return as soon as 2027. Speaking to Billboard, Sharon said that she had been "talking to [concert promoter] Live Nation" about having the live music event return. "It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people," she said. "We really started metal festivals in this country. It was [replicated but] never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent. It was like summer camp for kids," she added. Sharon went on to say that while nothing had been set in stone yet, the festival could be launching as soon as 2027. However, the event would now be centering on multiple different music genres, rather than just rock and metal. Ozzy and Sharon began the hard rock and metal festival 30 years ago, with its inaugural edition taking place in Oct. 1996 and spanning two days. The following year it expanded into a full-blown tour rather than a one-time event, and then continued annually almost every year up until 2018 (although it reverted to a single-day event from 2008). - NME, 1/29/26...... Leo Sayer has announced plans for what will be his final full UK tour, confirming a major 23-date run for autumn 2026. The "When I Need You" singer, who turns 78 this year, says he's not retiring from live work altogether but is ready to scale back the heavy touring schedule that has defined his five-decade career. "I love performing for my fans and look forward to doing so for many more years, but this will be the last time I play so many dates across the country," Sayer said in a statment, adding that while he still feels "fit as ever," he doesn't expect to take on another nationwide run of the UK of this magnitude as he approaches 80. The ambitious itinerary, which kicks off on Oct. 7 in Bexhill-on-Sea, will see Sayer return to theatres and concert halls across England, Scotland and Wales, including stops at Birmingham Town Hall (Oct. 11) and the London Palladium (Oct. 27) before wrapping at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall on Nov. 6. Sayer, known for such hits as "Thunder In My Heart," "Moonlighting," "One Man Band," "More Than I Can Say," "Have You Ever Been in Love," "The Show Must Go On", and the transatlantic No.1's "When I Need You" and "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing," is promising a high-energy, hit-packed show for what will be his last major UK tour. - Music-News.com, 1/28/26...... Ronnie Wood has been confirmed to be among the supporting acts at Eric Clapton's upcoming Sandringham UK this summer. The Rolling Stones guitarist and former Faces and Jeff Beck Group member will be playing a rare solo show at the huge outdoor event, and also joining Clapton on the bill is Andy Fairweather Low, who rose to prominence as the lead singer in Amen Corner in the '60s -- a group best known for hit songs including "Bend Me Shape Me," "Hello Suzy," and "(If Paradise Is) Half as Nice." The upcoming gig follows on the heels of Slowhand heading out on a headline tour of the US in 2025 behind his latest album Meanwhile. His 22nd studio album, the set featured appearances from the late Jeff Beck along with Van Morrison, Bradley Walker, Judith Hill, Daniel Santiago and Simon Climie. - NME, 1/29/26...... Legendary Jamaican musician Lowell "Sly" Dunbar, one-half of the prolific reggae songwriting/producing duo Sly & Robbie, reportedly died at his home in Kingston, Jamaica on Jan. 26. He was 73. Working with longtime partner bassist Robbie Shakespeare (who died in 2021), Dunbar was one half of the dynamic duo that provided the thrumming backbeat to reggae classics from the likes of Black Uhuru, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear, Bunny Wailer, Gregory Isaacs and countless others. Born Lowell Fillmore Dunbar on May 10, 1952 in Kingston, Jamaica, Dunbar got his start playing in a group called the Yardbrooms at age 15, before moving on to the group Skin Flesh and Bones and his first recording session with Lee "Scratch" Perry and the Upsetters' on the 1969 single "Night Doctor." That same year he also played on Dave and Ansel Collins' Double Barrel album, with the title track hitting the top of the U.K. singles chart. His life and career would change forever when he met Shakespeare in 1972, with the pair who shared similar musical sensibilities ranging from homegrown Jamaican riddims to Motown and soul music developing a close relationship with Tosh, with whom they recorded five albums. Sly and Robbie appeared on late great Tosh's beloved 1977 LP Equal Rights, as well as 1978's Bush Doctor and 1983's Mama Africa, which became Tosh's highest-charting album in the U.S. when it hit No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart. The hard-working pair -- who are believed to have appeared on more than 200,000 tracks, including remixes and songs that sampled their work -- also had a long and fruitful working relationship with rock icon Dennis Brown, performing on more than a dozen albums by the "Money In My Pocket" singer and serving time in the Revolutionaries, the house band at Jamaica's legendary Channel One studio. Known as the Riddim Twins, the duo developed a number of signature grooves over their four-plus decade career, including the "rockers" rhythm, which helped them inject some energy into the popular 1970s and 80s "one drop" reggae rhythm. Working with Shakespeare, Dunbar carved a wide path through music, performing on a trio of Bob Dylan albums in the 1980s, as well as playing on albums by Joan Armatrading, Jackson Browne, The Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker, Grace Jones, Yoko Ono, Sinead O'Connor and Carly Simon, among many others. "As one half of Sly & Robbie, Sly helped shape the sound of reggae and Jamaican music for generations," read a statement from his family posted on TMZ.com. "His extraordinary talent, innovation, and lasting contributions will never be forgotten. Sly's music, spirit, and legacy touched people around the world, and we are deeply grateful for the love and support during this difficult time." - Billboard, 1/26/26.