Warner Bros. Pictures announced on Aug. 19 that it has acquired the release rights to the Bruce Springsteen documentary Western Stars. The studio will release Western Stars, which is also the musician's directoral debut, in U.S. theaters this fall, following its world premiere at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. The documentary, which was co-directed by Thom Zimny, features archival footage and personal narration, as well as the New Jersey rocker performing all 13 songs on Western Stars, his first studio album in five years and on which he is backed by a band and a full orchestra in his historic nearly 100-year-old barn. The first official trailer for the film was released on Aug. 19. The Western Stars doc is slated for an October 2019 release, though an exact date has yet to be announced. It comes on the heels of another Springsteen-centric Warner Bros. film, Blinded by the Light, which hit theaters Aug. 16. - The Hollywood Reporter, 8/19/19...... 
After Tony-nominated producer Matthew Weaver, who made his mark on Broadway with the "Rock of Ages" musical, acquired the stage rights to adapt Soul Train into a musical back in 2014, the production is eyeing an official 2021 debut in celebration of the iconic '70s TV dance show's 50th anniversary. The "Soul Train" musical will tell the personal story of late host Don Cornelius through more than 20 classic dance songs from the era as he crafts the famed show. Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson of The Roots, who is a four-time Grammy winner and author of Soul Train: The Music, Dance, and Style of a Generation, has signed on as an executive producer. Cornelius' son Tony Cornelius, CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker and Live Nation Urban president Shawn Gee will also executive produce the musical. Since its debut in 1971, Soul Train featured performances by R&B, pop, soul and hip-hop artists, in addition to occasional funk, jazz, disco and gospel performers, introducing new dance moves and styles on a weekly basis. The final episode was broadcast in 2006. In 2016, BET Networks acquired the Soul Train brand and is home to the annual Soul Train Awards, which honor the best in urban music and entertainment. BET also airs the period drama American Soul, based on the rise of Soul Train. The scripted original has been picked up for a second season by the network. - The Hollywood Reporter, 8/20/19...... The U.S. Department of Justice has sided with Led Zeppelin in a long-running copyright feud surrounding their iconic hit "Stairway To Heaven." The DOJ filed an amicus brief on Aug. 15 which supports the classic rock icons' claim that they didn't steal the "guitar line and melody" from an instrumental track called "Taurus" originally penned by late Spirit guitarist Randy California and which appeared on Spirit's 1968 debut album. The case was reopened when a San Francisco court subsequently ruled that an earlier trial should have heard the two songs, instead of having a jury making their ruling based on the musical score or sheet music which showed chords and scale. In its brief, the DOJ says that the initial trial judge was correct when he ruled that only the song's sheet music was subject to copyright protection, as the song itself was written before a 1972 law which protected sound recordings. They added that the contentious sections of the song are only worthy of protection if they sound identical. Earlier in August, Led Zeppelin's position was supported by such acts as Korn, Tool, Judas Priest, Linkin Park when they signed a brief in support of Led Zep. The case is scheduled to be re-heard in late September in San Francisco. - New Musical Express, 8/17/19...... 
David Bowie's son Duncan Jones has posted to Twitter the first photo of actor Johnny Flynn transformed into David Bowie for the upcoming Bowie biopic Stardust. In the first photo from production, Flynn is seen evoking a young Bowie as he sits in a diner while smoking a cigarette. As well as sporting shoulder-length blonde locks, Flynn wears a purple turtleneck jumper and black fedora. Stardust, announced earlier in 2019, sees Flynn portray Bowie as he heads to America in 1971 with struggling publicist Ron Oberman (Marc Maron), "only to be met with a world not yet ready for him." The trip reportedly inspired the creation of his famous Ziggy Stardust persona. Although Stardust is due in 2021, Jones and the rest of Bowie's family have distanced themselves entirely from the production. "Pretty certain nobody has been granted music rights for ANY biopic I would know," Jones previously posted on Twitter. "I'm not saying this movie is not happening. I honestly wouldn't know. I'm saying that as it stands, this movie won't have any of dad's music in it, & I can't imagine that changing. If you want to see a biopic without his music or the family's blessing, that's up to the audience," he added. An official release date for Stardust has not yet been announced. - New Musical Express, 8/20/19...... Paul Simon is supporting the efforts of environmentalists trying to reinvigorate a forest on the Hawaiian island of Maui by planting a tree during a ceremony on Aug. 16. According to a local paper, Simon visited Auwahi Forest Restoration Project with volunteers who are trying to revive plant life in the area and helped plant a lama tree, participating in chants with the group after a helicopter tour that he called "awe-inspiring" and "life-changing." Simon inserted the plant and a scroll into a hole before refilling the soil and speaking with group members. "To even sit with you guys and be in the same community is such a privilege," said Simon, a part-time resident of Maui. Simon also performed two environmental benefit concerts at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center earlier in the week that drew more than 8,000 attendees. He announced he plans to donate the proceeds to the Auwahi project and the Hawaii environmental group Kuaaina Ulu Auamo. - AP, 8/19/19...... Carlos Santana is among eight music acts just named to the inaugural Ambassadors Council for the House of Blues Music Forward Foundation, a nonprofit arm of the live entertainment/restaurant chain. The MFF offers free vocational training in the music industry to young people living in diverse and underserved communities. Each of the Ambassadors, which also includes Khalid, Benny Blanco, Martina McBride and the rock band Umphrey's McGee, will contribute to the cause by mentoring aspiring artists, speaking at educational workshops, donating funds from ticket sales and providing exclusive memorabilia for auction, among other things. - Billboard, 8/20/19...... 
Fans of Elvis Presley made their annual pilgrimage to the late King of Rock & Roll's grave at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tenn., during the third week of August to participate in a vigil commemorating his death 42 years ago. The vigil was the cornerstone of Elvis Week, as silent mourners filed slowly past his resting place and the graves of his parents and grandmother in the Meditation Garden a Graceland. The vigil started on the evening of Aug. 15 and runs throughout the night into Aug. 16. Presley died on Aug. 16, 1977, and his Graceland attraction draws about 500,000 visitors annually. On Aug. 9, RCA/Legacy released Live 1969, an 11-disc set featuring 11 full shows from his sold-out run at Las Vegas's International Hotel that year. - AP, 8/16/19...... In other Elvis news, the streaming platform Netflix has added Presley to its roster of animated series. On Aug. 16, it announced it has ordered an adult animated show called Agent King, which imagines Elvis trading his white jumpsuit for a jet pack as he's inducted into a secret government spy program to help battle dark forces that threaten the country he loves -- all while holding down his day job as the most famous rock 'n' roll star on the planet. Agent King comes from Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures TV and Authentic Brands Group. Presley's ex-wife Priscilla Presley and John Eddie will serve as co-creators and executive producers, and Archer veteran Mike Arnold will write and produce. "From the time Elvis was a young boy he always dreamed of being the superhero fighting crime and saving the world!" said Priscilla Presley, who was married to Elvis from 1967-73. "Agent King lets him do just that. My co-creator John Eddie and I are so excited to be working with Netflix and Sony Animation on this amazing project and getting the chance to show the world an Elvis they haven't seen before." - Billboard, 8/16/19...... Neil Young announced on his Archives website on Aug. 17 that "Rainbow of Colors," the first single from his upcoming album with Crazy Horse, will be released later in August. "Rainbow of Colors" will be featured on Colorado, Young's first new record with Crazy Horse since 2012's Psychedelic Pill. In the post, Young revealed that Colorado will arrive in October and feature "10 new songs ranging from around 3 minutes to over 13 minutes." Besides CD and digital versions of the record, there will also be a double vinyl release comprising three sides of music and a 7" exclusive single not on the album. Earlier in August, Young announced he was postponing all tour plans for the rest of the year to focus on a whopping 15 film projects including a documentary on the making of Colorado. - New Musical Express, 8/19/19...... Original Woodstock veteran Arlo Guthrie delivered a rendition of the iconic Bob Dylan anthem "The Times They Are a-Changin'" at the original site of the 1969 Woodstock festival on Aug. 15 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. Guthrie played an evening set atop the famous hill near the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, but said he also wanted to play at least one song near where the 1969 stage was located. Picking up a guitar, he sang the Dylan classic for a group of reporters gathered on the grass under the wilting afternoon sun. The Bethel Woods Center hosted a series of Woodstock events from Aug. 15 through Aug. 18, with concerts also by festival veterans like Carlos Santana and John Fogerty. "[Woodstock] was a great time," Guthrie told reporters, his long white hair flowing from a straw hat. "For me, the Woodstock festival was a celebratory end of an era. It was not the beginning of anything. It was the end of something, and it was an end of a very turbulent time that was also very wonderful." - AP, 8/16/19...... 
Elton John is defending Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle over their use of private jets, confirming on Aug. 20 that he personally shelled out for a private flight so the Duke and Duchess of Sussex could "maintain a high level of much-needed protection." Elton defended the pair against what he called "relentless and untrue assassinations on their character," after the couple faced intense criticism in the British tabloids for reportedly travelling on four private jets in 11 days, despite being outspoken advocates on environmental issues. Posting on Twitter, John said he ensured the flight was carbon neutral by making an "appropriate contribution" to a carbon footprint fund. "I am deeply distressed by today's distorted and malicious account in the press surrounding the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's private stay at my home in Nice last week," he wrote. "Prince Harry's mother, Diana Princess Of Wales was one of my dearest friends. I feel a profound sense of obligation to protect Harry and his family from the unnecessary press intrusion that contributed to Diana's untimely death," he added. Prince Harry has been vocal about the effects of environmental damage, writing on Instagram in July: "Only now are we starting to notice and understand the damage that we've been causing. With nearly 7.7 billion people inhabiting this Earth, every choice, every footprint, every action makes a difference." - New Musical Express, 8/20/19...... Motown legend Smokey Robinson participated in a "Soul Music Riff-Off" with Late Late Show host James Corden on the Aug. 14 episode of the CBS late night talk show. The segment opened with Corden sitting alone at his desk. He told the audience that he had recently watched Showtime's upcoming documentary Hitsville: The Making of Motown, which he praised. Corden then shared his controversial opinion that new soul music is better than the original stuff. "I'm talking Usher, Bruno Mars, Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill," Corden said. "I feel like new soul has a better sound." Smokey Robinson then walked onstage to challenge Corden's view. "I heard you've been telling people that modern soul music is better than classic soul music," said Robinson. "Classic soul music is my thing, man." Robinson soon challenged Corden to a classic soul vs. modern soul riff-off, with Corden performing Bruno Mars' "Finesse." Following the host's number, Robinson sang The Temptations' "Get Ready." The riff-off concluded with the two singing "My Girl" with the audience joining the singer, host and an a capella group. - The Hollywood Reporter, 8/15/19...... The Grateful Dead spinoff band Dead and Company have added a new string of fall tour dates on the East Coast, which will bring the legendary jam band to New York and Virginia in late October and November. The trek will kick off on Halloween (Oct. 31) with the first of two nights at Madison Square Garden in New York, followed by a Nov. 1 Madison Square Garden gig and then two nights at Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Va., on Nov. 8 and 9. Dead and Company is made up of Grateful Dead veterans guitarist/singer Bob Weir, drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, along with guitarist Oteil Burbridge, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and singer/guitarist John Mayer. - Billboard, 8/15/19...... 
Def Leppard debuted its new 12-show residency at Planet Hollywood's Zappos Theater in Las Vegas on Aug. 14. Frontman Joe Elliott, who was performing his first gig since turning 60, said that "legacy artists and great music doesn't have an age on it anymore, it's like fine wine, it doesn't matter." "And these songs are now appealing to young kids," he added, noting that he consistently gets commentary on his Planet Rock radio show from teenage fans who have discovered Def Leppard by raiding their parents' record collections. Indeed, the Aug. 14 show was attended by a multi-gen audience, which ranged from teens to seniors, who rocked through the band's almost two-hour long set. It was filled with big moments, including two songs that the band has never played before in concert: "Let Me Be the One" from 2002's X album and "We Belong" from 2015's Def Leppard; as well as "Have You Ever Been," which they hadn't played in 25 years. "We dug deep into our catalog and we're going back [as recent as] the latest album," Elliott says. "And songs from High 'n' Dry that we don't play on a regular basis, songs from Pyromania that we haven't played in decades, and a couple of songs we've never played at all," he added. In addition to Elliott, Def Leppard's current lineup includes one-handed drummer Rick Allen and guitarists Phil Collen, Rick Savage and Vivian Campbell. - Billboard, 8/15/19...... Judas Priest's Glenn Tipton has thanked fans and his bandmates for helping to raise $150,000 for his Parkinson's disease foundation. Fans have purchased special T-shirts to support the cause, which Tipton launched in 2018 after announcing he had been battling the condition for a decade. "I'd like to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who bought The Glenn Tipton Parkinson's Foundation charity t-shirts throughout the various tour legs," Tipton wrote on Twitter. "I'd also like to thank [Judas Priest members] Rob, Ian, Richie, Scott and Andy -- the donations are building up nicely and that wouldn't have been possible without all the hard work from the guys in the band and the crew who went onstage every night and helped raise money for a great cause." Tipton says all proceeds from the foundation will benefit a pioneering new treatment called MR-guided focused ultrasound thalamotomy, which helps Parkinson's sufferers control their tremors. - WENN/Canoe.com, 8/16/19...... During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Aug. 16, Happy Days star Henry Winkler recalled how he once saved a suicidal teenager with a phone call. Winkler says he was shooting an episode of Happy Days when an Illinois state trooper asked him to help talk an aspiring actor down from a high-rise ledge he was planning to jump from. "The phone rings and they say, 'Henry, it's a call for you,'" Winkler recalled. "I walked over to the phone and the man said 'I'm sorry to bother you. I have a 17-year-old kid on the ledge. And he is threatening to jump off and he will only talk to you.' I don't know where I got the nerve to take the phone and start talking to this kid. I said, 'OK, what is your name. OK, John, how old are you? You're 17, you're on the ledge, why do you want to jump?' 'I wanna be an actor.'" Thinking quickly, Winkler asked the desperate teen to will him his record collection, prompting the 17 year old to step off the ledge. "(I said), 'If you get off the ledge, let's talk about acting I was 27 when I got the Fonz, John. I think you've got 10 good years to keep trying. How 'bout that? Will you do that? OK. Can I get back to rehearsing? Thank you.'" Winkler said he knows the teen survived -- because he never got his record collection. - WENN/Canoe.com, 8/16/19...... 
In tribute to the one year anniversary of the death of Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin on Aug. 16, 2018, the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation has created The Aretha Franklin Fund for Neuroendocrine Cancer Research, with the blessing of the family. "We wanted to create this fund so that those who wanted to honor Aretha's memory have a way to support the research," foundation CEO Gellerman said. Franklin, who was 76 years old, had pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer, which starts in the pancreas but is far different and much slower developing than the more common, aggressive type of pancreatic cancer known as adenocarcinoma. Franklin's kind is exceedingly rare: Neuroendocrine cancers comprise about 7% of cancers originating in the pancreas, according to the NTRF. Two of her doctors said the singing legend handled the diagnosis and treatment with grace -- and the grit to keep performing for years with a rare type of cancer. "As a person, she was extremely kind, she was respectful, she was funny -- she treated people like me and my team members as her friends," said Dr. Manisha Shah of Ohio State University. "There is no phone call that would end without her asking about us. Most of the time she would ask about us first. ... It's because who she was: She was really down-to-earth." Dr. Philip Agop Philip, a professor at Karmanos and Wayne State University, recalled how Aretha wanted to continue her life as normally -- and positively -- as possible. "She was full speed -- she wasn't even complaining," said Philip, who first saw Franklin in early 2011 and was her doctor of record at the time of her death. "That was different than what I expected... She never showed signs that she was close to thinking that she may give up... until the end, close to the end." - AP, 8/15/19...... Richard Gillis, a singer, songwriter and composer who worked for director Sam Peckinpah on the Western The Ballad of Cable Hogue, died on July 31 in Thousand Oaks, Calif., as a result of complications from a fall at his home in Toluca Lake. He was 80. For The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), which featured an original score by Jerry Goldsmith, Mr. Gillis wrote music and/or lyrics for such songs as "Butterfly Mornings," "Tomorrow Is the Song I Sing" and "Wait for Me, Sunrise," performed by actors Stella Stevens and Jason Robards (both lip-synced in the Arizona-set, turn-of-the-century movie) and Mr. Gillis himself. Mr. Gillis also composed music, sang or acted in other films including Schlock (1973), directed by John Landis; A Boy and His Dog (1975); The Bees (1978); Demonoid (1980); and Pretty Woman (1990) and Frankie and Johnny (1991), both helmed by Garry Marshall. He also worked as an art director, set designer, prop master, etc. - The Hollywood Reporter, 8/15/19.
Actor/producer/director and counterculture icon Peter Fonda, best known for his role in the seminal 1969 road movie Easy Rider, died on Aug. 16 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 79, and his official cause of death was listed as respiratory failure due to lung cancer. Born on Feb. 23, 1939, in New York City, Fonda was the son of acting legend Henry Fonda and the younger brother of Jane Fonda. He was drawn to acting while still a boy, and was only 10 years old when his mother died of suicide in a mental hospital. He scored his first success playing the lead in a school production of "Harvey" as a student at the University of Omaha and made his Broadway debut in 1961 in "Blood Sweat and Stanley Poole." At first he played nondescript "squares" in such films as Tammy and the Doctor and The Victors (both 1963) and Lilith and The Young Lovers (both 1964). In 1966, he began cultivating a motorbike-riding "hippie" rebel image in The Wild Angels, followed the next year by the psychedelic The Trip, which was directed by Roger Corman and written by Jack Nicholson. This culminated in the phenomenally successful Easy Rider, in which he also produced and co-wrote with Dennis Hopper and author Terry Southern, in 1969. The movie, directed by Hopper, shook up the Hollywood establishment, reaped more than $41 million at the box office with a budget of less than $400,000, and earned Fonda and his co-writers a best screenplay Oscar nomination. In his 1998 autobiography, Don't Tell Dad: A Memoir, Fonda said that he got the idea for Easy Rider while staring at a poster for The Wild Angels: "It would be about the Duke and Jeffrey Hunter looking for Natalie Wood. I would be the Duke and (Dennis) Hopper would be my Ward Bond; America would be our Natalie Wood." In 1971, Fonda directed his first film, The Hired Hand, a lyrical western in which he also starred. But the astonishing career that some predicted for Fonda in the wake of Easy Rider never came to pass, and he developed a reputation for being "difficult and drug-addled" on-set. Later films include The Last Movie also in 1971, which was directed by his Easy Rider co-star Dennis Hopper, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974), Race With the Devil (1975), the Westworld sequel Futureworld (1976), Outlaw Blues (1977), and 1979's Wanda Nevada which he also directed and co-starred Henry Fonda and a young Brooke Shields. 
In 1994, his career was rejuvenated when he was cast in John Carpenter's $50 million Escape From L.A. and given the third screen credit (before Cliff Robertson as the president). Total redemption came in 1997 when he played the lead in Victor Nunez's critically acclaimed indie Ulee's Gold, playing a Florida beekeeper who must tangle with some criminals to protect his family. Fonda received an Oscar nomination for best actor, and a classy profile in the New York Times. But the Oscar eluded him (it went to Jack Nicholson for a much showier performance in As Good as It Gets). More recently, Fonda played Mephistopheles in the Nicolas Cage vehicle Ghost Rider and a biker once again in the John Travolta-Tim Allen comedy Wild Hogs. He also had a supporting role as a bounty hunter in the 2007 remake 3:10 to Yuma, and reunited with Cage in the 2015 Louisiana political drama The Runner, in which Fonda played the younger actor's father. Fonda's family confirmed his passing in a statement that stated the actor passed away peacefully surrounded by his family. "While we mourn the loss of this sweet and gracious man, we also wish for all to celebrate his indomitable spirit and love of life. In honor of Peter, please raise a glass to freedom," the Fonda family said. Jane Fonda also released a separate statement, calling Peter "my sweet-hearted baby brother" and "the talker of the family." "I have had beautiful alone time with him these last days. He went out laughing," she wrote. In addition to his actress daughter Bridget Fonda and her husband, film composer Danny Elfman, survivors include Fonda's third wife Margaret (Parky) DeVogelaere, whom he married in 2011; and son Justin, a cameraman, from his marriage to first wife Susan Brewer (as is Bridget). - Variety/CBS.com, 8/16/19.
A three-minute "Facebook Live" video of Ted Nugent signing a long line of red "Re-Elect That Motherf----r" hats has topped Billboard's monthly Top Facebook Live Videos chart for November. Nugent had the hats produced to show his enthusiastic support of Pres. Donald Trump and to sell them to fans. Along the way, he apologized for the delay in getting the hats, which resemble Pres. Trump's famous "Make America Great Again" hats, out to those who had ordered them. Nugent's video was the only upload from any musician to top 1 million views in its first seven days, racking up 1.2 million views, and was the week's most shared by a musician (17,000). Billboard's Top Facebook Live Videos chart tracks the widest-reaching and most-reacted-to videos posted by musicians on Facebook Live. - Billboard, 12/17/19...... Tom Petty's widow Dana Petty and his daughters Adria Petty and Annakim Violette reached a settlement agreement on Dec. 13 in their legal battle over the estate of the late rock star, who died of an accidental drug overdose on Oct. 2, 2017, at age 66. The legal feud first erupted in April 2019, when the two parties filed dueling court petitions accusing the other of attempting to control Petty's assets. In May, a $5 million lawsuit was filed against Dana and several co-defendants by Petty Unlimited, an LLC established in Petty's will, that accused her of "self-dealing, theft, and gross mismanagement" of her late husband's estate and an attempt to "deprive" Adria and Annakim of their share of his assets. Dana then filed a petition two weeks later asking the court to fund and execute an operating agreement for Tom Petty Legacy, a separate LLC she established on her own, while alleging "foul behavior" on Adria's part with regard to estate matters. She also accused the two daughters of interfering in and delaying several posthumous Petty releases, including the 2018 box set An American Treasure, the 2019 greatest hits collection The Best of Everything and a 25th anniversary reissue of Petty's 1994 acclaimed solo album Wildflowers that has yet to materialize. The new legal documents, filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, do not disclose details of the settlement. - Billboard, 12/13/19...... French musician/composer Alexandre Desplat, who scored the new movie version of Louisa May Alcott's famous 1868 novel Little Women, says that David Bowie provided inspiration for his music for the new film. Desplat says Little Women director Greta Gerwig had requested music resembling "Mozart meeting Bowie" for the film's score. "I always try to ask, 'What do you expect from me as the composer? Do you want me to do something grand? Melancholic? Lush? Huge? Small?'," Desplat said of his initial discussions with the director. "She said with enthusiasm, 'I'd like the music to be a mix of Mozart meeting Bowie'. It doesn't mean anything, but it does mean something if you let the energy come into your system and you get something of that, and this opening is about that." The film has already received an early nod for the 2020 Oscars in the Music (Original Score) category. Desplat has previously bagged two Academy Awards for his work on The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Shape of Water. - Billboard, 12/18/19...... 
KISS announced on Dec. 17 that former Van Halen lead singer and solo star David Lee Roth will be their special guest on the final legs of their self-proclaimed continuing End of the Road farewell tour. "David Lee Roth will bring his exciting stage show featuring a twin guitar big rock sound and a set list of classic hits and future energy," the band said in a statement. The tour is slated to officially wind-down with a July 17, 2021 show at an as-yet-unannounced venue in the group's native New York. KISS is currently in Japan where they played the Osaka Dome on Dec. 17, while Diamond Dave is gearing up to launch a Las Vegas residency on Jan. 8 at the House of Blues Las Vegas. Roth recently posted an announcement of his Vegas residency on 
Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain says his main focus in 2020 will be making some new Journey music, the band's first since 2011's Eclipse. Cain says it will probably be in the form of an EP rather than a full album just to "break the ice" after the long gap. "I have quite a bit of ideas lyrically," Cain says. "We have the beginning of a really good song and we've even got a title for the next record. For me it works best with just [guitarist] Neal [Schon] and I in a room and we come together rather than trying to dictate what it is." Cain adds that he and Schon have "mended our friendship and moved on" since their relationship was fractured after some vitriolic social media posts by Schon during the summer of 2017 when Schon became upset that Cain, Journey singer Arnel Pineda and bassist Ross Valory attended a meeting at the White House with Pres. Trump. "Neither one of us liked the way all that went, and neither did the fans. It was just a lot of misunderstanding and things that were taken wrong," Cain says. "I think we both learned a lot, and it shows that our relationship is better than that and we shouldn't come against each other." Cain, who began a solo Christian music career with 2016's What God Wants to Hear and followed it up in 2018 and 2019 with two additional Christian albums, says he's among those who welcome rapper Kayne West to the ranks of Christian music. "For me it looked like a move of God, and I'm thrilled he's doing it," Cain said. Meanwhile, Journey will play the next edition of its Vegas residency in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace starting Dec. 27, including a New Year's Eve show. Its summer tour with Pretenders kicks off May 15 in Ridgefield, Wash., with arena and amphitheater dates into September. - Billboard, 12/17/19...... Roy Loney, the founding lead singer of the influential '70s San Francisco power pop band the Flamin' Groovies, died of "severe organ failure" at CPMC Davies Campus in San Francisco on Dec. 13, after a brief hospitalization. He was 73. Loney was a charismatic frontman whose high-energy stage moves and growly, blues-inflected vocals were part of the psychedelic, hippie vibe of the Bay Area rock scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Unlike the prevailing flower power sound of the time, the Groovies were full-steam-ahead '50s-inspired rockers, injecting blues, rockabilly and R&B swing into a power pop froth on songs such as "Love Have Mercy," "The First One's Free" and "Bam Balam" -- all written or co-written by Loney -- on their full-length 1969 Epic Records debut. They jumped to Kama Sutra Records for their second effort, 1970's even more raw Flamingo, which solidified their gritty sound. In 1971, the band released Teenage Head, a masterpiece of loose, concise bluesy garage rock. But by the next year Loney quit the group as a precursor to a long solo career with a number of different bands; the Flaming Groovies, however, would record 
Legislators in Tennessee are considering replacing a controversial bust of former Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest that has resided in the state Capitol building since 1978 with one of the state's most celebrated musicians, Dolly Parton. According to The Tennessean newspaper, Parton is being considered for the honor because of her revered status as a country music legend and as an ambassador of goodwill around the world, in contrast to the former KKK Grand Wizard. "If we want to preserve history, then let's tell it the right way. Right now there are eight alcoves [in the Capitol]. Seven are filled with white men," said Tennessee House of Representatives member Jeremy Faison. Faison has also suggested building a monument to honour the slaves who built the Capitol Building, while the bust of Forrest should be placed in a museum to educate people about the Fort Pillow massacre of 1864 -- where soldiers under his command massacred African-American troops. Meanwhile, Parton's new Netflix series arrived in late November, and she released her latest album, Heartstrings, on Nov. 22. - The Tennessean/NME 12/16/19...... Joe Smith, a legendary record executive who signed the Grateful Dead and helmed three labels, including as president and CEO of Capitol-EMI Music, died on Dec. 2 at the age of 91. Mr. Smith, who received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2015, worked closely with a number of artists, including Bonnie Raitt, whom he signed while president at Warner Bros. Records in the '70s and then brought to Capitol and was part of her comeback in the late '80s, including her multiple Grammy winner, 1989's Nick of Time. Among the other artists with whom he worked are Jackson Browne, Frank Sinatra, Garth Brooks, Eagles, Rod Stewart, The Cars and Bob Seger. In 2012, the Library of Congress acquired more than 200 hours of interviews conducted by Mr. Smith for his 1985 book, Off the Record: An Oral History of Pop Music, a collection of interviews with more than 200 artists, producers and executives, including Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Tom Jones, B.B. King and Barbra Streisand. "Joe believed in supporting artists for the long haul, allowing us to stretch and grow," Bonnie Raitt said in memoriam to Mr. Smith. - Billboard, 12/2/19...... Emmy Award-winning composer, conductor and electronic music pioneer Gershon Kingsley, who wrote the 1969 top 10 hit "Popcorn" and played a pivotal role in popularizing the Moog synthesizer sound, died Dec. 10 in New York. He was 97. Although "Popcorn" was written by Mr. Kingsley, it was a remake by Hot Butter that reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972, and No. 1 in at least six other countries. In 2005, Crazy Frog released its version, with the song again going to No. 1 in a number of countries. In 2018, Mr. Kingsley released a yellow vinyl 12" of his trademark song for Record Store Day. Mr. Kingsley also wrote theme music for the American game show The Joker's Wild and several German television shows. In the 1980s, Mr. Kingsley released a number of New Age albums, and one of his latest theatrical works, "Raoul," about Raoul Wallenberg, premiered in New York in 2004 and went on to full production in Bremen, Germany, in 2008. - Billboard, 12/14/19.
On Dec. 13, Pink Floyd released 
To the delight of Talking Heads fans, the New Wave icons opened what appears to be an official Instagram account on Dec. 9, sparking rumors of a potential long-awaited reunion. Although the account has yet to share a single post or be authenticated by Instagram's coveted blue check mark, the band's new handle, @talkingheadsofficial, has already garnered more than 10,000 followers in just two days, including former TH keyboard player Jerry Harrison. While frontman David Byrne has been famously reticent in the past about getting the band back together, interestingly 2020 will mark the 40th anniversary of the Heads' critically-acclaimed fourth album, Remain in the Light, which Harrison already announced he'll be celebrating by playing a series of special shows with Adrian Belew and the funk band Turkuaz. - Billboard, 12/11/19...... The Eagles announced on Dec. 10 that they'll be playing their seminal 1976 album Hotel California in its entirety next summer at London's Wembley Stadium. The pair of shows, which will also include a set of the country-rock legends' greatest hits, are set for Aug. 29 and 30 as part of the band's "Hotel California" tour in the U.K. Tickets for the Wembley shows go on sale to the general public on Dec. 14 at 9 a.m. and can be purchased by visiting the Eagles' official website. - Billboard, 12/10/19...... An urban legend that Jimi Hendrix was to blame for the arrival of wild parakeets in Britain has been finally debunked in a new study published in the Journal of Zoology. It was previously claimed that Hendrix released the first pair of parakeets, called Adam and Eve, as a symbol of peace while stoned in London's Carnaby Street in 1968. But the study confirms that the birds were sighted in Britain as far back as 1855, when one parakeet was spotted in Norfolk. Experts now believe that the parakeet population may have risen after the birds escaped from damaged bird houses during Britain's Great Storm of 1987. They also claim that many parakeets kept as pets were released during an outbreak of "parrot fever" in 1929, 1930 and 1952, with the public urged by newspapers to keep away from the "dangerous birds." A rival urban legend claimed that late '80s pop singer George Michael was to blame, after burglars broke into his Hampstead home in the 1990s and raided his secret aviary, but he failed to report the crime since he was wary of the police. Another popular theory claimed that the birds escaped from the set of the classic 1951 film The African Queen starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. - NME, 12/12/19...... The family of the late Marvin Gaye are asking the original judge in the now infamous "Blurred Lines" vs. "Got To Give It Up" lawsuit to revisit his decision to deny an award of $3.5 million in attorney fees after Pharrel Williams and Robin Thicke were ordered to pay half of "Got To Give It Up"'s royalties to Gaye's family as well as a one-off payment of $5.3 million in damages in 2015. Gaye's famiy claim that Williams committed perjery in court when defending himself in lausuit after he told GQ magazine in November that he "reverse engineers the feeling he gets from listening certain music, adding that he "did that in "Blurred Lines' and got myself in trouble." The Gaye family, represented by litigator Richard Busch, believes Williams' November 2019 comment constitutes a fraud on the court and evidence of perjury, and wants US District Court Judge John Kronstad to deny the attorney fees. The Gaye family's motion stops short, however, of requesting new criminal prosecution. - NME, 12/10/19...... 
Linda Ronstadt, who was honored with a prestigious Kennedy Center Honor at the 42nd annual Kennedy Center Honors gala in Washington, D.C., had some strong words for Sec. of State Mike Pompeo at a dinner the evening before the ceremony after Pompeo introduced her to the audience, congratulating her and joking aloud "when he would be loved," a reference to Ronstadt's hit "When Will I Be Loved." In response, the 73-year-old singer told Pompeo, "Maybe when you stop enabling Donald Trump." The awkward exchange was tweeted about by Sam Greisman, the son of Oscar-winning actress and fellow 2019 Kennedy Center Honors recipient Sally Field. "Linda Ronstadt got up to get laurels, looked the f---er right in the eye and said 'maybe when you stop enabling Donald Trump.' Icon," he wrote. Other honorees included Earth, Wind and Fire; conductor Michael Tilson Thomas; and the long-running children's TV show Sesame Street. The event, hosted by LL Cool J, was taped and will be broadcast on CBS on Dec. 15. Pres. Trump an first lady Melania Trump declined to appear at the event for the third year in a row. - Billboard, 12/8/19...... The U.S. Library of Congress announced on Dec. 12 that Prince's 1984 film Purple Rain is among the 25 films added to its annual National Film Registry in 2019. The grossed more than $68 million at the box office in the US in its first release and earned over $80 million worldwide. It went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song Score, the last movie to receive that particular award. Other "culturally and historically significant" films that are set to be archived in 2019 include Martin Scorsese's classic concert film for The Band, The Last Waltz, and Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It. - NME, 12/12/19...... Queen + Adam Lambert have added five new dates to their forthcoming UK "Rhapsody" tour. The band had already announced five nights at London's O2 Arena in June 2020 along with two dates at the Manchester Arena (6/11, 12). Now they've added five more nights at the O2 to run throughout the month. The "Rhapsody" shows were inspired by the Oscar winning 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and will feature ambitious staging, lighting and visuals. The film is now the highest-grossing music biopic of all time and the biggest-selling film of 2019 in the UK. - NME, 12/11/19...... An AC/DC reunion with former lead singer Brian Johnson has apparently been confirmed by their fellow hard rock acts Twisted Sister and Behemoth, with the latter band's member Nerghal telling Loudwire: "I know there's a new AC/DC album in the making with [late AC/DC rhythm guitarist] Malcolm Young. It's coming. It's going to be an outtake from Rock or Bust. What do I expect? I expect nothing more and nothing less, just give me f---ing rhythm and Angus and Malcolm's guitar. Don't give me anything extra. [Brian Johnson] is back in the band." Dee Snider of Twisted Sister also seemingly backed the reports on Twitter, claiming that the band will reunite with drummer Phil Rudd, who was ousted from the group following his conviction in 2018 for drug possession and making threats to kill a former employee. - NME, 12/10/19.
It was "Tuesday Knight Fever" for the Bee Gees' Barry Gibb on June 26 as the music legend received a knighthood from Prince Charles during investitures at Buckingham Palace. "If it was not for my brothers, I would not be here," said the new Sir Barry, adding he hopes his late brothers Robin and Maurice Gibb, who passed away in 2012 and 2003 respectively, are proud of him. "If I had spent my whole life writing songs on my own, it would have meant something else altogether. I hope and pray that they are aware of what has happened and that they are proud. I believe in that," he said. The 71-year-old singer/songwriter, who was honoured for his services to music and charity, added that the honor was "a bit surreal" and that "it is a high award that your culture can give you and that is something I am enormously proud of." During his time with the Bee Gees, Barry Gibb helped the band become one of the most successful acts in pop music history, with a slew of global hits including "Night Fever," "Stayin Alive," "How Deep Is Your Love," "Tragedy" and "Words." - AP, 6/26/18...... Cher snuck into the Oriental Theatre in Chicago over the fourth weekend in June to catch a preview of the Broadway-bound musical "The Cher Show," and the diva has shared some opinions about its progress. Cher told the Chicago Tribune that while she really enjoyed the show overall, there were parts of the show that could have been better. "It needs work," she said. "I'm not supposed to say that, but I don't care." Though the 72-year-old pop icon admitted the show was "much, much better than I thought it would be," she felt that some parts of the show dragged a little bit more than she would have liked. "Sometimes, my mind was wandering... I think those are the parts that are going to get better." Cher says she thinks the show could be improved by making it feel like more of a spectacle, saying that one specific idea for a concert-style ending to the show could really work for the best. "I am pushing them to do three dance songs in a concert-style way at the end, a bit like they do in [the hit ABBA-based musical] 'Mamma Mia,'" she said. "I think the audience would like that." But she said was nevertheless still impressed: "I am the most critical person who ever drew breath. If they can impress me, they're doing good." "The Cher Show" is set to open June 28 at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago, before making it's Broadway opening at the Neil Simon Theater on Dec. 3. - Billboard, 6/26/18...... 
In an interview with the UK paper The Telegraph on June 25, the Kinks frontman Ray Davies revealed the Kinks are getting back together to record a new album, and may even play some live shows. "I think it's kind of an appropriate time to do it," Davies said, adding he had been working in the studio with his brother Dave Davies and band mate Mick Avory, which has led to the pair making amends. "The trouble is, the two remaining members -- my brother Dave and Mick -- never got along very well," Davies explained in a recent interview with Britain's Channel 4. "But I've made that work in the studio and it's fired me up to make them play harder, and with fire." The Davies siblings haven't performed together since 1996, as the band split up in the '90s due to rising tensions between band members. A new Kinks LP would be the followup to 1994's To The Bone, and feature songs Ray wrote during the split. Ray says he was inspired to get the band back together after seeing the Rolling Stones' recent successful UK tour. While he praised the Stones' "well-organized" comeback, he quipped that "the Kinks will probably be playing the local bar." - New Musical Express/Billboard, 6/26/18...... Country star Chris Stapleton has just been added to the lineup of 33rd Annual Farm Aid Concert, which in 2018 will take place for the first time at the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford, Conn., on Sept. 22. Stapleton -- who won Grammy Awards in February for best country album (From a Room: Volume 1), best country solo performance ("Either Way") and best country song ("Broken Halos") -- will share the bill with Stapleton -- who won Grammy Awards in February for best country album (From a Room: Volume 1), best country solo performance ("Either Way") and best country song ("Broken Halos") -- will share the bill with Farm Aid's guiding foursome of Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews, who will perform an acoustic set with Tim Reynolds. Tickets for Farm Aid 2018 will go on sale June 29 at 10 a.m. ET through Live Nation. Farm Aid, through its annual concerts, has raised more than $53 million for grants to help family farmers and to advocate on their behalf. - Billboard, 6/25/18...... The Beach Boys have scored their first ever No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Albums Chart with their new foray into orchestral music, 
'70s artists Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris are among the recording, television, film and theater stars set to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2019, it was announced on June 26. Other recipents set to be honored in 2019 include The Lettermen, Michael Buble, Faith Hill and P!nk, and actors Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway. The Hollywood Walk of Fame receives hundreds of submissions each year for a personal star on Hollywood Boulevard, however only a few of those submissions are granted their own star as it is estimated that the construction and ceremony production costs exceed $30,000. The dates for the 2019 star ceremonies have yet to be announced. - Billboard, 6/26/18...... The Monkees have announced they are canceling the remaining four dates of their 20-city "The Monkees Present: The Mike & Micky Show Tour" due to a health issue for Mike Nesmith, starting with a June 21 scheduled show at the Keswick Thater in Philadelphia. "Michael Nesmith had a minor health issue today in advance of his tour date in Philadelphia tonight," the band said in a statement issued on June 21. "He visited a local medical facility and, although the issue was not serious, was advised to rest for the next week, so unfortunately the remaining four dates on The Monkees Present: The Mike & Micky Show tour have been postponed until a later date... Nesmith has been dismissed from the hospital and is traveling back to his home in Carmel Valley. He is in good spirits and thanks all the fans for their support and understanding. He looks forward to getting back on the stage again soon." The shows, which feature the duo of Nesmith and Micky Dolenz performing a mixture of well-known and "deep tracks" from the Monkees' catalog, will be rescheduled for January. - Billboard, 6/21/18...... Jackson family patriarch Joe Jackson, the father of Michael Jackson and the other famous Jackson siblings, is reportedly "on his deathbed" in a Las Vegas hospital as he battles terminal cancer at the age of 89. The music manager's family claims that their father "does not have long" left to live, but he has banned them from visiting after his condition took a nosedive earlier in June. "He's very very frail, he doesn't have long. The family needs to be by his bedside -- that's our only intention in his final days," Jermaine Jackson told the UK paper The Daily Mail. Although Jackson has battled illness for a lengthy period, he reportedly gave verbal instructions in recent days to stop his family from accessing his medical records or visiting him. Despite the request, he was eventually visited at the hospital by wife Katherine Jackson, daughters Rebbie and Joh'Vonnie, and granddaughter Yashi Brown. In 2017, Jackson was hospitalized after a car he was riding in was involved in an accident on the Las Vegas Strip. He was also hospitalized in 2015 after suffering a stroke while visiting Brazil. - NME, 6/22/18...... 
In an interview with a Las Vegas TV station after his June 25 performance at Bally's Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, Wayne Newton shared his thoughts about the string of burglaries that have taken place over the past few months at his Vegas home. Newton said his daughter ran into the alleged suspects of the second home invasion. "[My daughter] said 'Daddy, there's somebody in your dressing room,'" he explained. "So, I ran in to confront them." Newton's property, which is also home to his wife Kathleen and their daughter, was first broken into on June 3. Less than two weeks later, the house was robbed again when Newton and his family were coming home late at night. The intruders managed to escape the scene before the police arrived, according to the "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" singer: "I'm as angry as one could imagine, I have no doubt they will be caught because we have pictures." Police have released images of two suspects they believe to have been involved with the second robbery, but have not confirmed whether or not anything was stolen in that incident. - Billboard, 6/26/18...... Legendary hard rock drummer Vinnie Paul, who co-founded the metal band Pantera and also played with Damageplan and Hellyeah, died on the morning of June 23. He was 54. "Vincent Paul Abbott aka Vinnie Paul has passed away," reads a statement on the Pantera Facebook page. "Paul is best known for his work as the drummer in the bands Pantera and Hellyeah. No further details are available at this time. The family requests you please respect their privacy during this time." Along with his brother, "Dimebag" Darrell Paul, Paul (born Vincent Paul Abbott) formed Pantera in 1981. The group found mainstream success with second lead singer Phil Anselmo. Throughout its career, Pantera earned four Grammy nominations and charted nine albums on the Billboard Hot 200, including its 1994 album Far Beyond Driven, which debuted at No. 1 on the chart. Following Pantera's demise, the Texas-raised Abbott brothers formed Damageplan in 2003. The band was performing on Dec. 8, 2004, when Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed onstage during a concert in Columbus, Oh. Since 2006, Paul was the drummer for Hellyeah, a heavy metal supergroup that also includes vocalist Chad Gray and guitarist Tom Maxwell. Paul's passing was memorialized on Twitter by such rock stars as Paul Stanley, Alice Cooper, Zakk Wylde and Bret Michaels. - Billboard, 6/22/18.
Former Free and Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the formation of Free with a new live album and video, 
Promoting her new ABBA-inspired movie Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again! on CBS's The Late Late Show with James Corden on June 19, Cher joined host James Corden for a game of "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts," in which guests are asked difficult questions or eat things that most people would never want on their plate. Asked if she "could say one nice thing about Pres. Donald Trump," Cher hesitated for a few seconds, then said "No, I can't think of a single nice thing to say about him." Then, Cher nibbled on a piece of a cow's tongue to fulfill her obligation. Meanwhile, the soundtrack for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again has been given a release date of July 13, a week before the film hits theaters in the US. It features a duet of "Fernando" between Cher and Andy Garcia, as well as other stars including Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried and Pierce Brosnan singing such ABBA hits as "Waterloo" and "When I Kissed the Teacher." Cher will play a new character in the movie. - Billboard, 6/20/18...... In other ABBA-related news, the Swedish quartet has shared definitive proof that they are currently recording together after announcing in April that they'd recorded their first new material in 35 years. ABBA posted a pic on their #abbaofficial Twitter account showing Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad recording together with a caption "...in RMV Studio Stockholm, recording the two new songs! Release end of this year. ??" ABBA are set to reveal both songs -- "I Still Have Faith In You" and another new song - on a TV special in November, ahead of a "virtual" hologram ABBA tour in 2019. A spokesperson for the band has denied rumours of a Glastonbury set in 2019. - New Musical Express, 6/18/18...... The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced it will be teaming with NBC-based Wilshire Studios to develop a new documentary series that will explore the artistic and cultural significance of some of the world's greatest rock 'n' roll legends. The current plan will be to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame open its collection of archival materials and artifacts and invite an acclaimed director to explore the impact of their favorite rock artist on their work and the cultural landscape as a whole. "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is such an amazing brand to be able to partner with," said BJ Levin, Senior VP of Development at Wilshire Studios. "Their wealth of untapped research material and resources will allow this series to stand among some of the great music doc series." While the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's annual induction ceremony has been televised on HBO, Amazon will stream this year's induction to international audiences beginning on July 1. - The Hollywood Reporter, 6/18/18...... 
After announcing a new double A-side single on Instagram on June 19, Paul McCartney issued a press release on June 20 announcing that his new album, called 
Elvis Costello announced on June 19 that he'll kick off a 20-date North American tour this fall on Nov. 2 in Bethlehem, Penn., in support of his new album with his backing band The Imposters. The tour, called "Look Now and Then... It's Elvis Costello & The Imposters," will also visit such major markets as Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Memphis, St. Louis, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, and wrap on Dec. 4 in Vancouver, B.C. While the new album's release date and official title have yet to be announced, details are "imminent," according to Concord Records. It will be Costello's first LP since 2010's National Ransom. - Billboard, 6/19/18...... Actor Peter Fonda apologized on June 20 for a late-night Twitter rant in which he suggested Pres. Donald Trump's 12-year-old son Barron Trump should be ripped from "his mother's arms and put in a cage with pedophiles" in reaction to Pres. Trump's new policy of separating migrant children from their parents on the U.S.-Mexico border. "I tweeted something highly inappropriate and vulgar about the president and his family in response to the devastating images I was seeing on television," Fonda said in the statement, released by both his manager and his publicist. "Like many Americans, I am very impassioned and distraught over the situation with children separated from their families at the border, but I went way too far. It was wrong and I should not have done it. I immediately regretted it and sincerely apologize to the family for what I said and any hurt my words have caused." In another tweet, the 
Archaeologists from Binghamton University's Public Archaeology Facility have recently conducted a five-day dig at the site of the original 1969 Woodstock music festival on Max Yasgur's old farm about 80 miles (128 kilometers) north of New York City, where The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker and Jimi Hendrix wowed the crowds 49 years ago. "The overall point of this investigation is to kind of define the stage space," said project director Josh Anderson, kneeling beside a hole that showed evidence of a fence that kept 400,000 fans from the stage area. "We can use this as a reference point," Anderson added. "People can stand on that and look up at the hill and say, 'Oh, this is where the performers were. Jimi Hendrix stood here and played his guitar at 8:30 in the morning.'" "This is a significant historic site in American culture, one of the few peaceful events that gets commemorated from the 1960s," added Wade Lawrence, director of The Museum at Bethel Woods. He said the archeologists' work will help the museum plan interpretive walking routes in time for the concert's 50th anniversary next year. The excavation revealed some non-mind blowing artifacts: parts of old aluminum can pull tabs, bits of broken bottle glass, and possibly the spot where a chain-link fence on the side of the stage area met the wooden "Peace Fence" that ran in front of the stage. Now they can match concert photos to a specific spot in the field. That could help them estimate where the corners of the stage were 49 years ago. "There's just something about this place that -- and I'm not the only one -- that draws people here," 67-year-old Woodstock veteran Charles Maloney said as he stood by the plaque. "I mean, this area here could have 200 people. And you can still hear the silence." - AP, 6/21/18...... John McElrath, a cofounder and former member of the '60s rock group The Swingin' Medallions, died on June 17, after a battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 77. McElrath was the group's keyboardist and one of the vocalists, and though he was no longer performing with the band, his two sons had joined the group over the years. The Swingin' Medallions' "Double Shot of My Baby's Love," released in 1966, climbed briefly into Top 10 on the Billboard charts, and it remains popular today. A memorable part about the record is the background "party noise" that duplicated the sound of fraternity parties the band would play on weekends while its members were still in college. The band made 2,000 copies of the song and sold them at parties. A copy found its way into the hands of a disc jockey in Birmingham, Ala., and when a national label picked it up, the band was on the brink of a natinal breakthrough. Some radio stations wouldn't play the record because of the phrase "worst hangover that I ever had" so another version was made. The announcement of McElrath's death came as the current incarnation of the group was scheduled to perform in Sandy Springs, Ga., on June 17.
In 1992, Eric Clapton participated in MTV's Unplugged series of live telecasts, and his resulting album from that show became the best-selling entry in the entire Unplugged series, with 7.7. million copies sold. Now Clapton is being sued for crediting one of the songs from that performance, "Alberta," to the wrong blues singer. "Alberta" is Clapton's version of a famous 12-bar blues called "Corrine, Corrina," which dates back to the late 1920s and has long been credited to the artist Armenter "Bo Carter" Chatmon. A complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Nashville charges that Clapton credits the song to a more recognizeable blues legend Lead Belly and not to Chatmon. The complicating factor seems to have been that Lead Belly wrote a completely different song called "Alberta," and that for unknown reasons, Clapton attributed his version of "Corrine, Corrina" (in which he sings "Alberta, Alberta" instead of the original lyric) to Lead Belly. As a result of this case of mistaken song identity, Chatmon's estate says it has received no royalties related to Clapton's performance of it, and that the beneficiary of that misidentification has been Folkways Music, the publisher of Lead Belly's "Alberta." The lawsuit also states that Clapton correctly identified the song on his 2011 album Marsalis & Clapton Play the Blues, and that he and his co-defendants are fully aware that the Unplugged versions have been mislabeled all these years, with publishing royalties going to the wrong place. Chatmon's estate is seeking $5 million in damages, and the defendants have not responded to the lawsuit. - Billboard, 10/28/16...... Bob Dylan has scored his 68th entry in the Billboard Hot 200 album chart with his 2014 compilation The Essential Bob Dylan, which has once again appeared on the chart -- at No. 76 -- after news of Dylan's selection as the Nobel Prize winner in literature on Oct. 13. The LP is Dylan's second charting album in 2016, with his latest studio album, Fallen Angels, peaking at No. 7 in June. In the week ending Oct. 20, Dylan's total album sales grew 104 percent (to 19,000), while his on-demand audio and video streams jumped 53 percent (to 6.7 million). - Billboard, 10/28/16...... Neil Young has announced he'll release a new studio album, Peace Trail, on Dec. 2 via his longtime label Reprise Records. Young wrote and recorded the new album shortly after the release of his offbeat Earth live album, which was released in June. The 10-track Peace Trail was recorded at Rick Rubin's Shangri-La studios and, according to the label, is primarily acoustic. The album features veteran session men Jim Keltner on drums and Paul Bushnell on bass, with Young co-producing alongside John Hanlon. The album, which will be available on CD, cassette and download, is available for pre-order now through Young's website and his online music store PONOMusic. A vinyl edition will be released in January. - Billboard, 10/26/16...... 
ABBA, along with Spice Girls music mogul Simon Fuller, announced on Oct. 26 that a new ABBA "live digital experience" will launch in 2018. "The aim is to create an original entertainment experience which will enable a new generation of fans to see, hear, and feel ABBA in a way previously unimagined," according to a press release. Although more details about exactly what the project will mean were not announced, it has been speculated that ABBA will appear as holograms, and Simon Fuller has reportedly been "quietly investing in virtual reality technologies and developing hyper-realistic digital humans in the field of entertainment." ABBA's Benny Andersson confirmed that he and his legendary Euro-pop band are participating in the creative development of the "digital experience," saying in the presser that ABBA is "inspired by the limitless possibilities of what the future holds and are loving being a part of creating something new and dramatic here... A time machine that captures the essence of who we were. And are." Although ABBA member Bjrn Ulvaeus said in 2015 that ABBA would never reform, earlier in 2016 all four members reunited for a special 50th anniversary performance, singing "The Way Old Friends Do" at a private party in a Stockholm hotel, and the band previously held brief reunions in 1986 and 1999. The four members also reunited for the opening of an ABBA-themed restaurant in Stockholm for the first time in eight years, however they did not perform. - New Musical Express, 10/26/16...... Paul McCartney debuted a new song called "In the Blink of an Eye" across iTunes' international stores on Oct. 28, in advance pre-order listing of the soundtrack for the forthcoming animated film Ethel & Ernest. From the song's 60-second preview, its sound is reminiscent of McCartney's "(I Want To) Come Home," which he wrote for the 2009 Robert De Niro film Everybody's Fine. The album's advance track listings features a number of songs by Carl Davis, who collaborated with McCartney on "Liverpool Oratorio." The Ethel & Ernest film is adapted from a graphic novel by Raymond Briggs (The Snowman) about the lives of two Londoners and starring Jim Broadbent and Brenda Blethlyn. - Billboard, 10/28/16...... In other Beatles-related news, Yoko Ono has honored a reference to her in an old The Simpsons episode. A new piece created by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson for an exhibition curated by Ono at the Reykjavik Art Museum has the exact title and content of "a single plum, floating in perfume, served in a man's hat," which was depicted in season five of The Simpsons when a Japanese conceptual artist who is clearly modelled on Ono pops into Mo's bar for a drink. Titled "YOKO ONO: ONE MORE STORY," the exhibition runs until Feb. 5. Meanwhile, three classic albums by Ono and featuring her late husband John Lennon are due to be reissued on Nov. 11. - New Musical Express, 10/26/16...... Bette Midler is keeping busy of late by appearing as Blake Shelton's mentor on NBC's The Voice; reissuing her platinum-certified debut album, 
Stevie Nicks will deluxe editions of her first two albums, 1981's 
Activist and politician Tom Hayden, known for his radical antiwar protests and as a former husband of actress Jane Fonda, died on Oct. 23 at UCLA Medical Center in California after suffering stroke more than a year ago and battling complications from the illness. He was 76. Hayden, who started out as a journalist, was known for his radical activism in the 1960s and 70s, leading a major anti-Vietnam War Movement, and even traveling to Hanoi in Vietnam as part of the movement. He famously took part in protests outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, for which he was indicted on federal charges of conspiracy and incitement to riot as part of the "Chicago Seven." Hayden was convicted two years later, but the charge was overturned. The conservative nemesis then began a political career, and was elected to the California State Assembly in 1982. He then won a seat in the California Senate ten years later, a position he held for eight years. He also ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in 1997, but lost. Hayden, who penned and edited 19 books throughout his career, married Jane Fonda in 1973, just three days after she divorced her first husband. Fonda joined him on missions to Vietnam, and they had a son, Troy O'Donovan Garity, in July 1973. They also adopted teenager Mary Luana Williams in 1982, and the marriage ended in 1990. "He gave me context and strategy and a loving environment that helped me deepen my activism," Fonda told CNN's Larry King in 2005. Hayden married his second wife Barbara and they adopted a son in 2000. "A political giant and dear friend has passed," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti tweeted. "Tom Hayden fought harder for what he believed than just about anyone I have known." - Hollywoodlife.com, 10/24/16...... The city council in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen has voted unanimously to rezone the Paisley Park home and studio of late superstar Prince, meaning the complex can stay open as a museum for public tours on an ongoing basis. Paisley Park has taken tours on a temporary basis while concerns about traffic and pedestrian safety were reviewed. Following the vote, museum management have announced tickets are on sale for tour dates through December 2016, with visits resuming Oct. 28. Tours for 2017 are expected to go on sale by mid-November, according to a statement on the Paisley Park website. The museum on the estate is now being managed by Graceland Holdings, which runs Elvis Presley's Graceland attraction in Memphis, Tenn. The museum says it expects to draw 600,000 people each year. - Billboard, 10/24/16...... 
Pop singer Bobby Vee, who enjoyed huge popularity and success in the 1960s with such hits as "Take Good Care of My Baby" (No. 1, 1961), died on Oct. 24 after a battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 73. Vee, a native of Fargo, North Dakota, launched his career in the late '50s after he famously filled in for his hero, Buddy Holly, after Holly died in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959 along with fellow musicians Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. After the news was announced, the organizers of the touring concert Holly was playing in tapped Vee and his new band The Shadows to fill in for the next show in Moorehead, Minn., and their subsequent performance launched Vee's career at the tender age of 15. Vee was also notable for giving Bob Dylan his first professional start in the music industry, by tapping him to play piano for a handful of dates with his band. Dylan paid tribute to Vee during a 2013 concert in St. Paul's, Minnesota, where he praised him as "the most beautiful person I've ever been on the stage with." Vee scored a total of 38 Billboard Top 100 hits and seven gold records in the US, and "Take Good of My Baby" went to No. 3 in the U.K. His other hits include "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes," "Come Back When You Grow Up," "Rubber Ball" and "Punish Her." Vee also performed on the same bill as the Rolling Stones during their first ever U.S. tour dates. The Beatles also cited Vee as an early influence, covering "Take Good of My Baby" during their January 1962 Decca demo sessions and inviting Vee on their U.K. television show, Ready Steady Go. Vee was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's in January 2011, and performed in public for the last time in June of that year. He moved to a memory care facility the month after his longtime wife Karen's death in 2015. - New Musical Express, 10/24/16.
Neil Young held his annual Bridge School Benefit Concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., on Oct. 22, with such acts as Metallica, Roger Waters and Jim James of My Morning Jacket also participating. Young and Metallica jammed on a cover of "Mr. Soul," a 1967 tune by Young's former band, Buffalo Springfield. Young also performed a cover of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" alongside Waters and James. Earlier in October, Young was joined onstage by Paul McCartney during his headline set on the second night of Desert Trip festival in Indio, Calif. Both McCartney and Young headlined the Oct. 8 show after Dylan and the Rolling Stones opened proceedings on Oct. 7. - New Musical Express, 10/23/16...... The scrutiny of Bob Dylan's reaction -- or lack thereof -- to recently being named winner of the 2016 Nobel prize in literature continues as his website has posted, then removed, "winner of the Nobel prize in literature." That single clause had been the only public recognition the musician offered the Nobel academy, which had unsuccessfully tried to contact him through his associates before announcing the award on Oct. 18. Since celebrity websites are usually run with limited input from their subjects, it's entirely possible Dylan never knew either that his site had made reference to the prize, or subsequently removed it. However it is less likely that Dylan's manager, Jeff Rosen, would be unaware. Some Dylan fans have suggested that the singer should refuse the Nobel prize because its Swedish founder, Alfred Nobel, was an armaments manufacturer, however an equally likely explanation is that Dylan, in typical form, is intentionally antagonizing the media and his fans. Asked at a press conference in 1965 whether he considered himself primarily a singer or a poet, he replied, "Oh, I think of myself more as a song and dance man, y'know." On Oct. 22, Nobel academy member Per Wastberg told a Swedish paper he thought Dylan's silence on the award "impolite and arrogant." "We have agreed not to lift a finger. The ball lies entirely on his half," Wastberg said. "You can speculate as much as you want but we don't." Even if Dylan decides not to accept the title of Nobel laureate, the Nobel academy do not acknowledge rejections and continue to list winners of its awards. Dylan has been invited to Stockholm to collect his prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf on Dec.10, but according to the Nobel Academy he has yet to confirm his attendance at the event. Other figures who have snubbed the Nobel academy in the past include Albert Einstein and Jean-Paul Sartre. - Jezebel.com/AP/NME, 10/21/16...... In other Bob Dylan news, the rock icon has become the oldest artist to chart on the youth-driven "Social 50" listing, which ranks the 50 most popular artists on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, SoundCloud, Wikipedia, Instagram, Tumblr and Vine. The 75-year-old rocker is also one of only a handful of soloists to reach the Social 50 chart over the age of 50 while still alive. Previous to Dylan, the over-50 Social 50 crowd included David Bowie (in 2013 -- three years before he died), Susan Boyle, Madonna, Juan Luis Guerra and "Weird Al" Yankovic. Artists appearing on the chart in 2016 after their deaths include Glenn Frey, Prince, Merle Haggard and Natalie Cole. - Billboard, 10/20/16...... 
In a new interview with the London Times, The Who guitarist Pete Townshend admitted live performing no longer appeals to him. "I'm such a boring f--ker... It means nothing to me," said Townshend, who performed with the Who at the recent Desert Trip Festival in California. "I would be a liar if I said, 'It was really fun, man. It was great!' It wasn't great. It was a gig. I did it and I got paid. The fact is, I don't really like performing. But I'm good at it. I'm lucky to be good at something. I could have worked in an abattoir," he added. - New Musical Express, 10/23/16...... Speaking of the Who, former Genesis drummer Phil Collins recently said during a webchat sponsored by the UK paper The Guardian that he would have left Genesis to become the Who's drummer after Keith Moon passed away if he had been asked. "Absolutely would have joined the Who. I would have left Genesis to join the Who," Collins said. "But they've got a great drummer now in Zak Starkey, he's fantastic. Someone with the balls that Keith Moon had." Collins, who announced a comeback tour on Oct. 17, has also said that he'll "never play (drums) the way I used to" and that he suffered a mysterious affliction on the Genesis reunion tour. "One night something happened. It just went. I tried everything -- bigger drumsticks and so on, but it just never came back," he said. - NME, 10/19/16...... During a live interview on BBC Radio 2, Bruce Springsteen revealed that he once wrote a song for the Harry Potter films, but for reasons that are unclear to him, it was never used. Springsteen said the song was titled "I'll Stand By You" and was a "pretty good song" he penned for his eldest son. "It was a big ballad that was very uncharacteristic of something I'd sing myself," the New Jersey rocker noted. "But it was something that I thought would have fit lovely; at some point I'd like to get it into a children's movie of some sort because it was a pretty lovely song." - Billboard, 10/20/16...... Former Commodores founding member and '80s solo superstar Lionel Richie launched a collection of home accessories on Oct. 20 in Los Angeles before an intimate group of friends and fans. "You're witnessing a duck out of water," Richie declared in the middle of Geary's Beverly Hills, which will sell the collection alongside brands Rosenthal and Kelly Wearstler. "You do your research, you find one idea and then two ideas and you realize -- yes, you might be onto something. So if we do this correctly, hopefully in the next 40 years ... I, too, can be Ralph," Richie quipped. Items include dinnerware sets, black onyx highball glasses, a crystal vase, and an "Endless Love" scented candle. - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/21/16...... Attorneys representing the Beatles' Apple Corps filed a motion on Oct. 19 to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the company assigned to represent the intellectual property of 1965 Beatles Shea Stadium concert promoter Sid Bernstein after footage from the concert was included in the recent Ron Howard-directed film Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years. Bernstein's lawyers claim that Bernstein proposed the idea for the concert to Beatles' manager Brian Epstein, that the contract provided that Epstein's company had the right to film and record the performances, but that Bernstein "planned, managed and paid for virtually every aspect of the production." Apple Corps contends that its predecessor, Nems Enterprises (controlled at the time by Epstein), had the "sole and exclusive right" to film the concert, and that Bernstein just "observed the filming and recording," and that the lawsuit is "frivolous." - The Hollywood Reporter, 10/20/16...... In other Beatles-related news, Paul McCartney is backing a campaign to protect the dwindling number of grassroots music venues throughout the U.K. "I've been lucky enough to play in venues of all different shapes and sizes, from tiny clubs to massive stadiums all over the world," McCartney said in a statement on Oct. 19. "Without the grassroots clubs, pubs and music venues my career could have been very different," said the rock legend, who has pledged his support to the Music Venue Trust's #FIGHTBACK campaign. On Oct. 18, around 500 delegates attended the third annual Venues Day conference at London's Roundhouse venue, which saw executives from across the industry address some of the threats to Britain's once-thriving live scene. In London the problem is particularly acute, with such venues as the Marquee, Astoria, 12 Bar Club and Madame Jojos having closed since 2007. The 100 Club, which played host to early gigs by the Rolling Stones and Sex Pistols and saw McCartney play an intimate lunchtime gig in 2010, was only saved from extinction after signing a sponsorship deal with Converse in 2011. - Billboard, 10/19/16...... Carlos Santana says he's supportive of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his controversial choice to kneel during the National Anthem to protest police killings of black people. "I love it. I think he stepped up. I salute my brother because it takes a lot of balls to go against people who will say, 'Oh, you're not patriotic' and all that," Santana says. "So for [Kaepernick] to put one knee down and other people are copying him, I think it's wonderful," the Bay Area resident added. - Billboard, 10/20/16...... 
Appearing on the U.K. TV show Loose Women on Oct. 20, Donny Osmond reminisced about his heady days as a teen heartthrob and revealed that "fans used to hide in my dressing room." "There have been times, yeah, there have been times when people have snuck into the dressing room and snuck into the shower," the 58-year-old Osmond said. "This one girl was banging on the door like crazy, I finally let her out but, I'm kidding! I'm kidding!," he joked the singer who has just had his Las Vegas show with sister Marie Osmond renewed for a ninth year. Donny went on to brush the incident off as "innocent" and noted how devoted he is to his wife Debbie, who the Mormon married in 1978, in the Salt Lake Temple at the tender age of 20." I am dedicated to my wife completely and always will be, but this is the loyalty of the fans who still follow me," he said. - WENN.com, 10/21/16...... The Rolling Stones were forced to cancel a concert scheduled for Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena on Oct. 19 after frontman Mick Jagger came down with a bad case of laryngitis. "I'm so sorry about the cancellation of Wednesday's show in Las Vegas, I've got bad laryngitis," Jagger posted on Twitter on Oct. 19. "I do apologise to everyone who bought tickets," he added. According to a statement issued by the band, their frontman has been advised by doctors to rest his voice. "We hope to have information about the possibility of rescheduling this date very soon," note reps for the band. The Stones recently headlined both weekends of Desert Trip at The Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif., earlier in October. Toward the end of their set on the second weekend, Jagger's voice noticeably cracked as he spoke between songs, which prompted a quip from the singer about the throat-wrackingly "dry and windy climate." - Billboard, 10/19/16...... In related news, Queen guitarist Brian May has cancelled a solo tour set for this December with his frequent touring partner Kerry Ellis due to a "persistent illness." "We're very sad today to announce the indefinite postponement of our 'candlelight' concert dates this coming December," May wrote on his website on Oct. 20. "This is a decision I've agonized over, but in the end it has become inevitable. I managed to complete the recent Queen and Adam Lambert dates in Asia but I have been increasingly battling with a persistent illness which is destroying my energy and my will." May added he hopes this step will "give all our team a chance to re-plan their time in December... Sincere apologies to all." - New Musical Express, 10/21/16...... On Oct. 18, New York's highest court heard oral arguments in a case pitting the owner of The Turtles' 1967 hit song "Happy Together" against Sirius XM Radio. The issue was whether the copyright holders of recordings made before 1972 have a common law right to make radio stations and others pay for their use. The suit was filed by Flo & Eddie Inc., a company controlled by two founding members of the band -- Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan -- that owns the rights to the recordings and claim they're entitled to royalties. Sirius argues it's not required to pay royalties for recordings made before the federal Copyright Act was changed in 1972 to establish limited protections for recordings. The case was referred to the Court of Appeals from a federal appeals court. - AP, 10/18/16...... Several Prince reissues and unreleased Prince material have been announced for the coming months, which include a greatest hits album, 
Veteran record executive Phil Chess, co-founder of the legendary Chicago-based rhythm and blues label Chess Records which many credit with inventing rock 'n' roll, died on Oct. 19 at his home in Tuscon, Ariz. He was 95. Mr. Chess and his brother Leonard, both Polish immigrants, founded Chess Records in 1950 in Chicago and at first focused on blues and R&B, cutting songs by artists including Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon and Memphis Slim. A year after forming, Chess Records released what many consider to be the first rock single, "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston/Ike Turner and his Delta Cats. In 1955, the Chess brothers began a long a fruitful relationship with rock pioneer Chuck Berry, who recorded such classics as "Maybellene," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Johnny B. Goode" for the Chess offshoot, Checker Records. Chess or Checker was also home to guitar icon Bo Diddley, who cut his biggest singles with the label. The Chess brothers sold the label to General Recorded Tape (GRT) in 1969, for $6.5 million. Leonard died later that year, and Phil retired in 1972. - Billboard, 10/19/16...... Robert Bateman, the songwriter behind such Motown hits as "Please Mr. Postman" and "Playboy," died on Oct. 16 in Sherman Oaks, Calif., of a massive heart attack. He was 80. The deep-voiced Mr. Bateman, an Illinois native, had been among the first personnel enlisted at Berry Gordy Jr.'s fledgling Motown Records in 1959, initially working as a backing singer and engineer. He acquired Motown's first set of recording gear -- a tape machine discarded by Detroit radio station WJLB. His own group, the Satintones, recorded several singles for the label. With "Please Mr. Postman" -- which he cowrote and coproduced for The Marvelettes in 1961 -- Mr. Bateman helped give Motown its first No. 1 hit on the U.S. pop charts. The song was famously revived two years later by the Beatles for the group's second album. Mr. Bateman left Motown Records in 1963 but remained in the music industry, moving to New York to work at Capitol Records and produce material with artists such as Wilson Pickett. He was also present at the Woodstock festival in 1969, according to his nephew Tony Stovall. Mr. Bateman's last public appearance in Detroit came Aug. 21 in Dearborn, where he was inducted into the R&B Hall of Fame. - 10/16/16...... Robert "Big Sonny" Edwards of the R&B band The Intruders, best known for the chart-topping R&B single "Cowboys to Girls," died of a sudden heart attack at a Philadelphia hospital on Oct. 15. He was 74. The news of Edwards' death was announced on Oct. 18 by Philadelphia International Records co-founders Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. As one of the first acts signed to Gamble & Huff's fledgling Gamble label, The Intruders scored a string of R&B hits from the mid-'60s through the early '70s -- and simultaneously set the stage for the writing/production duo's pioneering Philly soul sound and the establishment of the legendary Philadelphia International label. The Philly-based Intruders' additional top 10 hits include "(Love Is Like a) Baseball Game," "When We Get Married," "I'll Always Love My Mama" and "I Wanna Know Your Name." - Billboard, 10/18/16.
