Poison frontman Bret Michaels was recently added as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by Ray Sahranavard alleging
nearly $380,000 in damage caused to his $9 million Encino home during two months of taping the VH1 reality series
Rock Of Love 2. The suit was filed against show show producers, Mindless Entertainment Inc., alleging fraud, negligent
misrepresentation, breach of contract and negligence. The additional cause of action against Michaels claims intentional
destruction of property. Meanwhile, the finale of the series ended with Michaels choosing Ambre over Daisy.
A police spokesperson has told Entertainment Tonight that Richie Sambora is facing misdemeanor DUI and child endangerment
charges in relation to his arrest on Mar. 25th. A court date has been set for May 7th and the case is currently
being reviewed by the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
The Vibrators have announced that they've been forced to cancel the majority of their upcoming gigs due to their
drummer Knox injuring his right shoulder "quite badly." He will need an operation to repair it and hope
the recovery gets them on the road later this year. According to the band, "We hope you realize that we are
bummed out because of this but it's out of our hands."
According to BW&BK's Mitch Lafon, Def Leppard have had to cancel their recent performances after Joe Elliott
and Phil Collen came down with a virus causing them to lose their voices. Drummer Rick Allen is also recovering
after throwing out his back. Hopes are to be healthy enough to perform on Apr. 18th in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
but that date is also uncertain.
The 92nd annual Pulitzer Prizes were announced last week. Named for a special citation was Bob Dylan "for
his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic
power."
Madonna's Bay City, Michigan, hometown has offered her a key to the city. At present, she has not responded to
the offer.
Blue Rodeo picked up several honors at the 2008 Juno Awards last week for Group of the Year, Adult Alternative
Album of the Year (Small Miracles) and Video of the Year ("C'mon".) A reunited Triumph were also on stage
for their induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
The 2008 Billboard Latin Music Awards were given out last week. Juan Luis Guerra Y 440 won Hot Latin Songs Artist
Of The Year, Tropical Album Of The Year and Producer Of The Year (for La Llave De Mi Corazon.) Gloria Estefan won
Tropical Album Of The Year, Female (for 90 Millas) and Tropical Airplay Song Of The Year, Female (for "No
Llores".)
Jane's Addiction will reportedly reunite on-stage at the NME Awards on Apr. 23rd to accept NME Godlike Genius Award
for Extraordinary Services to Music. A performance may happen but hasn't been confirmed (neither has which bassist
will appear... Eric Avery or Chris Chaney.) Meanwhile, bassist/co-founder Eric Avery has released his solo debut,
Help Wanted, via Dangerbird Records.
George Strait's Troubadour debuted at the top of the Billboard Top 200 albums chart on sales of 166,000 copies.
R.E.M.'s Accelerate debuted at #2 selling 115,000 copies (their highest charting and sales week since 1996's New
Adventures In Hi-Fi.) Van Morrison's Keep It Simple debuted at #10 selling 37,000 copies (becoming his first top
10 album.) The Rolling Stones' Shine A Light soundtrack debuted at #11. Alan Jackson's Good Time fell 5 spots to
#20. George Michael's Twentyfive debuted at #23.
Throughout the Billboard album charts: George Strait's Troubadour holds the top spot on the Billboard 200, Billboard
Comprehensive Albums and Top Country Albums. R.E.M.'s Accelerate holds top spots on the Rock, Alternative, Digital
and Internet album charts. Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters sits atop the Top Contemporary Jazz chart.
CeCe Winans' Thy Kingdom Come holds the top spot on the Top Gospel Albums chart.
The Rolling Stones' Shine A Light soundtrack has debuted at #2 on the U.K. Albums chart. R.E.M.'s Accelerate fell
2 places to #3. James' Hey Ma debuted at #10. Michael Jackson's Thriller 25 dropped 4 spots to #13.
Madonna's "4 Minutes" featuring Justin Timberlake retains the #3 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles
chart. (The song is also #1 on the Billboard Hot Digital Songs, Hot Digital Tracks chart and #4 on the U.K. Singles
chart.) George Strait's "I Saw God Today" climbed 18 places to #35.
R.E.M.'s Accelerate has had a strong impact on the charts. The album has scored #1 spots on the album charts in
the U.K., Ireland, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, Denmark and the Czech Republic. It has taken the #2 spot in the
U.S., Italy, Germany, Austria and Holland. The first single, "Supernatural Superserious," has gone to
#1 on the AAA Radio chart.
Donna Summer's new studio album, Crayons, will be released on May 20th. The disc's first single, "I'm A Fire,"
has taken the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot Club Dance Chart.
Neil Diamond will release his new studio album, Home Before Dark, on May 6th. The first song surfacing from the
album is "Pretty Amazing Grace" which was recently posted on his MySpace page.
The Flying Lizards' 1980 self-titled album and 1981's Fourth Wall will be reissued for digital download this month
in expanded versions containing single versions, remixes and B-sides.
"Not A Single Day Goes By," a new single penned and recorded by Grammy Award winning R&B artist Jody
Watley, is due out this summer. It is currently being previewed at her MySpace page.
White Lion's new studio album, Return Of The Pride will be released on Apr. 30th at major retail outlets as well
as iTunes.
Go West have released "Let Love Come" as the first single from their forthcoming new studio album to
radio. A release date for the single and album are expected shortly.
U2 will join the acts releasing remastered, expanded deluxe editions of their albums in July by reissuing their
first three discs (1980's Boy, 1981's October and 1983's War.)
Want to be part of Rick Springfield's next album? Send photos "of any experience you've had with Rick, whether
it's a picture of you decked out in all of your Rick gear or with your Rick memorabilia, in the crowd holding him
up as he wanders through the audience, holding up a sign you created, a photo of you with Rick or anything that
shows how much you support Rick" to RickSpringfield.com from Apr. 9th to Apr. 30th and it may be chosen to
be in the booklet for the next album.
A double-disc Rick Astley 'best of' entitled The Ultimate Collection will be released in the U.K. on Apr. 28th.
The Saints Of The Underground (Warrant's Jani Lane, Alice Cooper band's Keri Kelli, Ratt's Bobby Blotzer and Ratt's
Robbie Crane) will release their self-titled debut album on Apr. 22nd. Meanwhile, Kelli has been busy working on
the new Alice Cooper album.
Elton John performed a benefit concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall on Apr. 9th raising $2.5 million for
Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign.
The next single to be released off of The Charlatans U.K.'s You Cross My Path will be "The Misbegotten"
due out May 5th. The CD and download package of the single will include the B-sides "Blank Heart, Blank Mind"
and "Set Me Free."
Set your clocks for 7 p.m. (PST) on Tuesday (Apr. 15th) for a Motley Crue announcement at TheRockVine.com. If you
visit there now, you will hear a sample of the group's new single, "Saints Of Los Angeles." AOL Music
is also currently featuring the full version of the track.
Morrissey has confirmed that he will release "All You Need Is Me" on May 19th as the second single from
his recently released Greatest Hits. A CD single and two 7" singles will be released featuring the B-sides:
"Children In Pieces," "My Dearest Love" and a live version of the David Bowie-penned "Drive-in
Saturday."
According to a post by the Commodores, they are working on a new CD in between tour dates. The group recently appeared
in the audience during an episode of American Idol but it is expected that in the future, the group will perform
on the American Idol stage. No date for this has been announced yet.
Eleanor Shanley has recorded a cover of the Waterboys' classic "Strange Boat" which features the group's
Mike Scott on guitar, keyboards and sound effects backing the singer. The song has been released in Ireland as
a single and can be purchased at iTunes.
Judas Priest plan to release their new 18-track studio album, Nostradamus, in Europe on June 13th in a standard
CD and deluxe version. A U.S. release date hasn't been announced yet.
Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis' live album, Two Men With The Blues, will be released on June 10th via Blue Note
Records. The performance was recorded during their January 2007 concert at Lincoln Center in New York City.
If you are anxiously awaiting the new Extreme album, you may sate some of your hunger with the soundtrack to Smart
People which has music by guitarist Nuno Bettencourt. The soundtrack has also now been made available at iTunes.
AC/DC have reportedly snagged producer Brendan O'Brien to work on their new studio album. Yes, we can now say they
are definitely are recording. The news broke when Supersuckers frontman Eddie Spaghetti posted to their Web site
that their album will be delayed because the studio engineer they are using (who works with O'Brien) has been called
away to work with the Australian band.
Bomb The Bass will release their new studio album, Future Chaos, in May via Electric Tones. The first single expected
from the album will be "Butterfingers." Future Chaos will be their first new studio effort since 1995's
Clear.
The 20th anniversary of the U.S. chart debut of Midnight Oil's Diesel And Dust will be celebrated with an expanded
edition of the album due out May 6th. The newly remastered version will feature the 'long-lost' 11th track "Gunbarrel
Highway," a bonus DVD of their 1987 Blackfella/Whitefella documentary and bonus clips of the disc's singles
("Dead Heart" and "Beds Are Burning.")
Megadeth's CD and DVD set, Gigantour 2, will be released via Image Entertainment on Apr. 22nd. The disc will include
over two hours of performances by the band as well as other metal acts that were on tour with them in 2006.
According to a post at PerezHilton.com, Prince will reportedly be paid $4.8 million for his headline performance
at Coachella.
Echo & The Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch has been working on a currently untitled autobiography slated for publication
next summer via Transworld.
Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics has a new project. His company Weapons of Mass Entertainment and Surfdog Records
will be releasing an album, Dave Stewart Songbook, Vol. 1, in August containing re-workings with a full orchestra
of his most popular works. He also expects to head on a North American tour as Dave Stewart And His 30-Piece Rock
Fabulous Orchestra later that month.
Eagle Records plans to release Johnny Hallyday Live At Montreux 1988 on CD on May 20th. A DVD version of the performance
will be available as an import on June 3rd.
Duff McKagan recently posted a message on his side project Loaded's Web site saying that Velvet Revolver have just
finished "laying down 12 new jams" at drummer Matt Sorum's studio. Meanwhile, according to AllYourTV.com,
a major music-oriented television channel has proposed an idea for a reality series (following the work going into
the release of Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy) to Axl Rose according to sources close to the project.
According to a post at his official MySpace page, Billy Idol has recorded 3 new songs ("John Wayne,"
"New Future Weapon" and "Fractured") for a re-release of his greatest hits which will now be
titled Idolize Yourself due out in July.
John Foxx will release his new 17-track live album, A New Kind Of Man, via Metamatic Records on Apr. 28th.
U.S. fans will see Bryan Adams' new studio album, 11, released exclusively via Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores on
May 13th.
Diamond Rexx's 1986 debut album, Land Of The Damned, will be reissued by Metal Mind Productions on May 5th in a
new digipak edition that includes 2 bonus tracks. The digitally remastered reissue will be limited to 2000 copies.
The same label will also release the new Black 'N Blue collection, Rarities, on May 5th.
Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor is still working in his Ibiza studio on his new solo album but he has also split
his time with memoir writing. His book, Wild Boy, My Life In Duran Duran, is due out on Aug. 18th.
Ted Nugent, in a guest column for the Waco Tribune-Herald, has said that he's been working with New Mexico's governor
Bill Richardson and his departments of tourism, game and fish, and economic development to create a very special
'Ted Nugent Spirit Of New Mexico' outdoors show. Meanwhile, he's been working on a film version of Toby Keith's
"Beer For My Horses" with the singer (he portrays the character Skunk Tarver) in what will "be the
perfect movie for the whole family" when it heads to theaters in the August or September.
According to Justin Sullivan of New Model Army, the group were forced to cancel their Minneapolis performance after
issues began piling up. The group were held up for nearly 6 hours by customs as they were trying to re-enter the
U.S. from Canada. Authorities confiscated the American-made CDs they had were going to sell at the show and decided
to prosecute the group for importing the discs. After getting on the road, they hit a snow storm 200 miles out
of Minneapolis. Half-way in, (going 30 miles per hour) they realized they wouldn't get to the show until 1 a.m.
Alan Jackson's wife Denise will release her new book, The Road Home: Footsteps Of Faith, Hope And Love, on May
13th.
A Thousand Miles Of Life is the title John Oates has chosen for his second solo album that he's been working on
in Nashville.
Social Distortion are planning to release an acoustic album in 2009 that will feature new renditions of older songs
and a few new tunes.
The new Rolling Stones documentary Shine A Light (directed by Martin Scorsese) which debuted at #15 on the box
office charts and last week fell to #17 having grossed nearly $3 million so far.
According to a post by the Levellers, they have finished recording Letters From The Underground and the tracks
are now in New York being mixed.
Emmylou Harris will release her new studio album, All I Intend To Be, via Nonesuch on June 10th. Harris will also
be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on Apr. 27th.
Honeymoon Suite have signed with Frontiers Records for the release of the currently-untitled new studio album due
out at the end of the year.
Rob Zombie is working on his new studio album according to a post on his official Web site. "Work on the new
album is moving along great. We have about 10 songs so far. No release date as of yet."
Charles De Goal has released their new studio album, Restructuration via Self Control. Four tracks from the album
are previewed on their MySpace page (myspace.com/charlesdegoal). A link to purchase the disc is on the page as
well.