Federal prosecutors have identified Ronald "Tenad" Washington as the armed accomplice of a second
unidentified gunman who shot and killed rap pioneer Jam Master Jay [a.k.a. Jason Mizell] of Run-D.M.C. in 2002.
Washington was convicted in a string of armed robberies that occurred just after Mizell was killed. A spokesperson
for the Mizell family has welcomed the news that authorities had for the first time publicly identified a suspect.
C.A. Reid Funeral Home in Augusta, Georgia, claims they are owed more than $70,000 by the trust handling James
Brown estate for the elaborate funeral and taking care of Brown's body for 3 months until it was laid to rest in
March. Some of the funeral costs have been paid by the trustees but the costs for the funeral were reportedly run
up by the children to over $150,000 according to longtime Brown adviser and trustee Buddy Dallas. Dallas has also
called claims by Brown's children that the trustees have been trying to sell off the singer's assets against court
order are "bogus and baseless."
Barry Gibb issued a statement addressing the loss of Johnny Cash's home to fire the week before. "Linda and
I have decided to build our own home on the higher ground surrounding the Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash home,
and the original foundations shall be kept intact and preserved for the people of Hendersonville and the people
of Nashville. This land is sacred land to all of us here and must be protected forever." The home sat on a
4.6 acre lot on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
Russell Simmons and Dr. Benjamin Chavis, on behalf of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, have issued a recommendation
that the recording and broadcast industries voluntarily censor the "misogynistic" words "bitch"
and "ho" as well as the 'racially offensive' word "n*gger" from future recordings. In a statement
by the HHSAN, "We recommend the formation of a music industry Coalition on Broadcast Standards, consisting
of leading executives from music, radio and television industries." Many in the media turned to the music
industry to take action in the wake of Don Imus being fired over racially insensitive comments about the Rutgers
women's basketball team.
Guitarist Ted Nugent's vacant Concord, Michigan, home was broken into recently with two all-terrain vehicles and
two crossbows among the stolen items. Two teenagers were arrested and arraigned on charges of breaking and entering.
Saxophonist Ornette Coleman, 77, won the Pulitzer Prize for music on Apr. 16th for his 2006 album, Sound Grammar,
which has become the first jazz work to bestowed with the honor. Coleman was awarded a Grammy lifetime achievement
award in February.
Dolly Parton, Don Williams and the late Waylon Jennings and Harlan Howard have been named by the Academy of Country
Music as this year's recipients of their Pioneer Awards. The ceremony will be held on June 20th.
Rosanne Cash presented the Johnny Cash Visionary Award to Kris Kristofferson at the 2007 CMT Music Awards on Monday
night. Willie Nelson and Don Was were among many other performers that took part in a video tribute to the singer/songwriter.
Paul Simon has been chosen to receive the inaugural Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Curators
of the Gershwin prize aim to recognize "the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world's culture."
The honor will be presented on May 23rd and will be taped for broadcast on PBS on June 27th.
Pantera and Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott will be inducted posthumously into Hollywood's Rockwalk
on May 17th.
Tiffany will release her new single, "Feels Like Love," on May 1st. The music video for the track has
just wrapped filming. Some footage behind-the-scenes of the video shoot were caught by The Insider and aired on
Apr. 18th. The single comes from her upcoming album, Just Me, due out June 5th.
North Carolina's Snatches Of Pink will release their new studio album, Love Is Dead, via 8th House Records on Apr.
24th.
Velvet Revolver have pushed back their original May 29th release date for their sophomore effort, Libertad, to
July 3rd. The first single from the album will be "She Builds Quick Machines."
John Mellencamp will perform a concert inside the Walter Reed Arm Medical Center for the wounded men and women
of the U.S. armed forces. The concert will be simulcast live on HDNet on Friday, Apr. 27th at 8 PM ET.
Earth Wind & Fire will perform on American Idol on Wednesday. Extra! will show a sneak peek interview before
the show.
Former Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder will release his 5th album, subHuman, under the name Recoil on July 2nd
via Mute Records. The album will also be released as a limited edition gatefold vinyl and a special collector's
DVD/CD package.
Lindsey Buckingham will be appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday (Apr. 25th.) He has also added some
summer tour dates in support of last year's Under The Skin album.
Stryper will see a collection of original demo recordings, from when they were known as Roxx Regime, released on
CD on July 10th via Fifty Three Five Records.
According to the U.K. tabloid News Of The World, Kylie Minogue will return to the small screen portraying an evil
cyberwoman in an upcoming episode of the BBC series Dr. Who.
Patti Smith's new 12-track studio album, 12, heads to stores this week and contains covers of songs by Tears For
Fears, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Paul Simon and many others.
Siouxsie & The Banshees will see their 2004 performance at London's Royal Festival Hall released under the
title Dreamshow for the first time on domestic DVD this month.
The Levellers will see 5 of their albums (1992's Levelling The Land, 1994's Levellers, 1995's Zeitgeist, 1997's
Mouth To Mouth and 2000's Hello Pig) re-mastered and reissued on June 4th via Rhino/Warner Music.
Meat Loaf will appear on Dancing With The Stars on May 1st and History Rocks on the History Channel on May 29th
and 30th. He's also expected to release a concert DVD in October that was filmed earlier this year. "Cry Over
Me," will be the second single from Meat Loaf's platinum-selling Bat Out Of Hell III.
French act Complot Bronswick will release a double-disc compilation, Tome 1: 1982-1986, via Infrastition this month.
Ron Keel will see a double-disc career retrospective entitled, The Ultimate Ron Keel Collection, released soon.
The collection contains many unreleased tracks and home demos going back to 1980.
George Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Kris Kristofferson, Liza Minelli, Bob Dylan and Marty Robbins have contributed
tracks to the Lucky You soundtrack due out this week.
Tesla have been working on a 25-track new studio double-disc album of covers, Real To Reel, scheduled for release
on June 5th.
UB40 Live At The Montreux Jazz Festival 2002 will be released on May 29th on CD and May 15th on DVD. The CD will
include 16 tracks while the DVD lists 22 songs.
Guitarist Danny B. Harvey has a new compilation of guitar instrumentals, Honeydipper Stomp, available on iTunes.
Bob Dylan has signed on for a second season of his XM Satellite Radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour, which concluded
its first season on Wednesday. Season 2 premieres in September. Until then, XM plans to air the complete first
season starting May 26th on their Village channel.
The Ratt reunion has been announced via the group's MySpace page. The current group line-up is: Stephen Pearcy,
John Corabi, Warren DeMartini, Bobby Blotzer and Robbie Crane.
Will To Power have been working on their new studio album, Will To Power IV, and have posted rough mixes of two
songs ("Gonna Rain Again" and "Still Fading Away") on their MySpace page. According to the
group, "Gonna Rain Again," is likely to be the first single. Both songs are remakes ("Gonna Rain
Again" is one of their previous hit, "They Say It's Gonna Rain.")
David Hasselhoff had to end his run in The Producers in Las Vegas due to a prior television commitment. That commitment
is to being a panel judge on the next season of America's Got Talent. Ozzy Osbourne's wife Sharon has replaced
Brandy as a judge this year.
A biopic about punk girl group The Runaways (which included members Lita Ford, Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, Jackie
Fox and Sandy West) titled Neon Angels is in the works. Producers have secured music rights for use in the film.
U.K. act Specimen have reunited earlier this year and have recorded a new studio album, Electric Ballroom, to be
released on Metropolis Records on June 19th. Original members Jonny Slut and Olli Wisdom collaborate on some tracks
with the new band line-up.
Steve Barton & The Oblivion Click will release their new album, Flicker Of Time, on June 12th via the Sleepless
label (distributed through Redeye Distribution.) Barton is a member of the San Francisco alt-rock act Translator.
Translator is expected to announce new recordings, rarities and reissues soon.
Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson have contributed exclusive interviews to the forthcoming book, Heart: In The Studio,
by Jake Brown. The book, due out next summer, focuses on the writing and production in the studio behind 25 years
of hits by the band. It includes more interviews with lead guitarist Howard Leese and producers.
New Model Army have reportedly finished their new studio album, High, which will be released in late this summer
supported by a full tour.
It seems that U2's writing the song "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" for the Batman Forever soundtrack
(sure the Edge did pen the theme for the latest animated Batman series) wasn't enough for the band. The Edge and
Bono are now reportedly working on new music and lyrics for a new Broadway musical based on Spider-Man. Auditions
are taking place with a reading scheduled for this summer. Meanwhile, the guitar the Edge has used on every U2
tour since 1985 was purchased for $240,000 by an anonymous buyer in a charity auction for Music Rising.
Foetus will see their 1988 album Thaw and rarities collection, Sink, reissued as digipaks releases on May 28th.
The restoration of the discs was supervised by J.G. Thirlwell. The band also expect to release a new album (tentatively-titled
Vein) later this year.
"Big Wheel" will be the first single released from Tori Amos' new studio album, American Doll Posse.
The album is due out on May 1st.
Testament held writing rehearsals recently to test out some new material that may or may not wind up on their next
studio album. Absent from rehearsals was Alex Skolnick who was back east performing with the Alex Skolnick Trio.
Nine Inch Nails new studio album, Year Zero, debuted on the U.K album chart at #6. Industry experts expect the
album to debut at #2 in the U.S. Their latest single, "Survivalism," dropped from #2 to #6 on the Billboard
Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Joe Lynn Turner has made his new studio album, Second Hand Life, available for purchase via his official Web site
(www.JoeLynnTurner.com).
Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman has been busy working on a new project... metal detecting. His Bill Wyman
Signature Detector (a lightweight and adjustable version which comes with a free informational DVD) is now for
sale at www.BillWymanDetector.co.uk.
Heaven 17 release their new 10-track maxi-single, "I'm Gonna Make You Fall In Love With Me," on Tuesday.
White Lion have been working in the studio on their next album. They have also signed a management agreement with
Jeff Keller Management LLC. Plans are in the works for U.S. summer tour dates.
Deine Lakaien will celebrate their 20th anniversary and their recent 20 Years Of Electronic Avantgarde tour with
3 different live releases (a double-CD, a double-DVD and a double-CD with 3-disc DVD set.)
Despite the fact that founding Faster Pussycat member Brent Muscat and former vocalist Taime Downe are touring
with different versions of Faster Pussycat, Muscat recently issued an open letter to former members Downe and guitarist
Greg Steele. Essentially, Muscat would like to do a full blown reunion to mark their 20th anniversary. Original
members Eric Stacy and Brett Bradshaw have signed on for the tour.
HellYeah's self-titled Epic debut album sold 45,000 copies earning it a strong #9 opening on the Billboard 200
album chart. The lead single, "You Wouldn't Know," is climbing the Active Rock chart.
The BBC and Bob Geldof are working on The Dictionary of Man Web site and an 8-part television series named The
Human Planet. The series will try to film the 900 separate groups of people that anthropologists believe exist.
Washington, D.C.'s godfather of go-go Chuck Brown has recorded his first new album of original material since 1995.
We're About The Business is due out on Apr. 24th via Raw Venture.
Hanoi Rocks have plans to release their new single, "Fashion," in Europe on May 16th and Japan on June
21st. The band are still hard at work on their new studio album due out in September.
Keyboardist Bill Guffey died earlier this month from complications from a liver transplant he had late last year.
Guffey was an original member of Kansas City rock act Shooting Star and appeared on their first two albums.