Kiss vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley experienced a sudden heart ailment prior to Kiss' performance on July 27th
in San Jacinto, California. According to a post on their official Web site, "During sound check, my heart
spontaneously jumped to 190 plus beats per minute where it stayed for over an hour necessitating paramedics to
start an IV and give me a shot to momentarily stop my heart and get it into normal pattern." Stanley was advised
by paramedics and a cardiologist that performing would put him at risk. According to the American Heart Association,
a normal "at rest" heart beat is between 60 and 80 beats per minute. Stanley's current condition is unknown
and the band went on to perform for the first time in their 34-year career as a trio.
An artist liason for vocalist Alexander O'Neal has announced that he will be scheduling hip surgery later this
year or early next year. Otherwise his health is not a cause for concern as he plans to continue with all his scheduled
work commitments.
Blues vocalist Etta James, 69, is reportedly in stable condition at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after suffering
from complications following abdominal surgery in mid-June. She hopes to be well enough to join B.B. King and Al
Green on tour at the end of August. Chaka Khan is filling in for James on the tour which began on July 24th.
Ozzy Osbourne, 59, underwent unexpected surgery at Denver's Rose Medical Center for a bloodclot in his leg on July
28th. Osbourne reportedly was experiencing pain earlier in the day prior to his performance at Ozzfest's FreeFest.
There is no word on how this may affect his upcoming dates in Kansas City and Dallas.
According to The Boston Globe, the estate of former Boston vocalist Bradley Delp is in dispute. His former wife
Micki Delp and fiancee at the time of his death Pamela Sullivan are fighting a claim on his estate by Delp's former
girlfriend Patricia Komor. The Delp house in Atkinson, New Hampshire was left to Komor. Micki Delp told the paper,
"My understanding always has been that the kids would get everything. And if and when Pam moved out, the house
would be sold, and the proceeds split."
Charges against Jerome Barra who allegedly shot the Kinks frontman Ray Davies in New Orleans in 2004 have been
dropped due to Davies' failure to appear in court for a second time. Davies expressed his disappointment as he
claims that he was only notified by the prosecution team a few days before the trial was due to begin, leaving
him no time to get to New Orleans. Davies missed a scheduled court appearance in 2005 for the same trial.
Guitarist Jimmy Page was in Scotland recently as a prosecution witness brought in to provide evidence against Robert
Langley, a businessman accused of attempting to sell more than 2,400 pirated CDs and DVDs (many were of his former
band Led Zeppelin.)
Vocalist Roger Daltrey of The Who is among the artists who have spoken out against the U.K. government's decision
not to extend music copyright laws beyond the 50-year limit. Meaning that if you recorded a song while 18, you
will stop receiving royalties when you turn 68. Daltrey said thousands of artists had "no pensions and rely
on royalties."
Former undercover police officer Ronnie Howard claims in his new book, Looking For Trouble, about his 23 years
on the force that plans were in motion at one time to frame UB40 in a fake drug bust. "They needed a high
profile bust and I was disgusted because all they were interested in was fitting people up."
Bon Jovi's Lost Highway holds the #10 spot on the Billboard 200 album chart with sales of 42,000 copies.
Bryan Adams has been working on his follow-up to 2004's Room Service with plans to release it this fall. Currently,
he doesn't have a label deal in the U.S. but negotiations with labels are happening.
Rhino will be releasing a 70-track four-disc set entitled Heavy Metal Box on Oct. 2nd featuring music arranged
chronologically from 1968 to 1991. The packaging is made to resemble a Marshall guitar amp and Ronnie James Dio
and Lita Ford are interviewed in the liner notes.
Agnostic Front have finished their work recording their 9th album, Warriors, which is due to be released later
this fall.
Have you been thinking that new Dell commercial's music sounds a lot like Devo? Well, it is. The song, "Watch
Us Work It," is their newly recorded single which will be made available soon on iTunes. A full-length video
for the song is in the works but for those that have missed the commercial, you can see it here: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=822250&fr=
A new 50-track 3-CD compilation, Galaxy Dance Anthems, will be released in stores and as a digital download on
Aug. 20th. The collection includes songs by Everything But The Girl, Fatboy Slim, Underworld, Sarah McLachlan/Delerium,
Jason Nevins Vs. Run DMC, S Express, The Shamen, Technotronic and many others.
MRV and Sebastian Bach's Get Off My Bach Productions are signing a joint venture to launch an as-yet-to-be-named
label owned by the singer. MRV is part of and distributed by Caroline/EMI Music Group. Plans are for a tentative
October 2007 release of Bach's new album, Angel Down.
E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren has recorded a new single, "Whatever Happened To Muscatel?," on
which he collaborated with best-selling author Clive Cussler. The song will be available as a download at his www.nilslofgren.com
Web site. Lofgren also appears on Patti Scialfa's new album, Play It As It Lays, due out Sept. 4th.
VH1 bachelor and Public Enemy member Flavor Flav was recently roasted by comics, Bridgitte Nielson and rappers
Ice T and Snoop Dogg for a Comedy Central special due to air on Aug. 12th.
Sir Bob Geldof collided with a biker while pulling out of a parking space in London on July 25th. Geldof was driving
with his daughters (Pixie and Tiger Lily Hutchence) and although he was "very shaken", no one in his
car was injured. The biker only suffered bruises after the accident as it is believed the bike took a majority
of the impact.
Queensryche are a few months into writing new material for their follow-up to Operation: Mindcrime II which they
believe will be a thematic album based on modern American life possibly due out next summer or fall. The group
head out on the road in September with Heaven And Hell and Alice Cooper to promote their new hits collection, Sign
Of The Times.
Various publishing houses have been waging a serious bidding war over the memoirs of Rolling Stone guitarist Keith
Richards. Reported offers on the table have hit as high as $7.3 million.
Dwight Yoakam has recorded a tribute album to the late Buck Owens entitled Dwight Sings Buck due out on Oct. 23rd.
The 15-track collection includes covers of all 11 of Owens top 5 country hits.
Frankie Banali & Friends will release 24/7/365: The Tribute To Led Zeppelin on Sept. 18th via RSM Records.
The former Quiet Riot member is joined by vocalists Glenn Hughes, Bobby Kimball, Don Dokken, Jeff Scott Soto, Alex
Ligertwood, Kevin DuBrow, Robin McCauley, Paul Shortino, Chas West and Mark Boals. For more information visit www.frankie-banali.com
New Order bassist Peter Hook hasn't taken the words of bandmates Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris contradicting
him about the group's status well. The bassist posted a lengthy statement at his MySpace account closing with "See
you in court! Love Hookyx."
Former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor has signed a deal with Orion to publish his autobiography due out next
year.
The Guns N' Roses 20th anniversary party for Appetite For Destruction was able to get 3 former bandmates (Izzy
Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler) on stage together in a mini-reunion performing "Mr. Brownstone"
and "Paradise City." Slash was reportedly in attendance but had to leave before the performance and Axl
didn't attend. During the performances, Tracii Guns (if you wondered where the Guns in GN'R came from) performed
a set with his 'classic line-up' of LA Guns.
John Mellencamp and Stephen King's "play with music", The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, received
some workshop performances recently in New York which gives the appearance it may have led to securing some seed
money for a production.
Great White's Jack Russell has been contemplating when to perform the song "Desert Moon" live again.
The band were performing that song when the Station nightclub fire interrupted the show on Feb. 20th, 2003. 100
people died and about 200 were injured in the fire. They haven't performed the song since and Russell knows that
he isn't ready to perform it quite yet. "You can't blame a song for the fire. If (the fire happened during)
'Once Bitten, Twice Shy'... then what? It wasn't the song's fault."
According to Heaven 17's official Web site, Glenn Gregory and Keith Lowndes will follow up their Honeyroot album,
Sound Echo Location, with The Sun Will Come on Aug. 6th in the U.K.
Joni Mitchell has signed a deal with Starbucks Entertainment's Hear Music label for the release of her new album,
Shine, due out Sept. 25th. Mitchell had threatened to stop recording after her 2002 album Travelogue was released
but changed her mind after working with Starbucks on a 2005 Artists Choice compilation.
Supertramp vocalist Roger Hodgson will have his first-ever live DVD released, Take The Long Way Home, via Eagle
Vision on Sept. 17th.
It seems that Perry Farrell's Satellite Party is rupturing. Following the departure of guitarist Nuno Bettencourt,
drummer Kevin Figg has announce his departure for unexplained reasons.
Social Distortion have been sifting through song demos going back as far as 1994 for material for their next studio
album. The band released their latest studio effort, Sex, Love, and Rock'N'Roll, in 2004 and recently unleashed
Greatest Hits.
It seems that Madness are in talks to follow Prince's lead by releasing their new studio effort via one of the
U.K.'s weekend newspapers. The Mail on Sunday estimated they sold 600,000 more copies with Prince's Planet Earth.
According to a post at www.depeche-mode.com, Dave Gahan doesn't plan to tour with his new Hourglass album but will
head back to the studio with the band with plans to release a new Depeche Mode album early next year. Martin Gore
has quite a few songs already written and Gahan plans to bring in some songs from his Hourglass sessions with Christian
Eigner.
Tori Amos will kick off her tour in support of her latest album, American Doll Posse, on Oct. 9th. She is also
planning to release a series of live bootlegs culled from the tour dates (like the 6 live double-disc sets she
released from her Beekeeper tour in 2005.)
An error in filling out paperwork will keep Nine Inch Nails from their performances in Russia. According to a post
on their Web site, they are not being allowed in the country as the wrong concert dates were filled in on their
paperwork for their visas. No make-up date has been scheduled.
Righteous Brother principal Bill Medley will release, Damn Near Righteous, his first solo album in a decade due
out Sept. 25th. The disc features guest appearances by Brian Wilson and Phil Everly on a rendition of Wilson's
"In My Room."
Paul Young's 1985 album, The Secret Of Association, is getting repackaged and expanded into a double-CD set on
Aug. 6th in the U.K. which will include B-sides, 12" mixes and live tracks.
Melissa Etheridge will release her new studio album, The Awakening, on Sept. 25th featuring the new single, "Message
To Myself," heading to radio this week.
According to a new interview with Mike Reno posted on the Loverboy MySpace page, their new studio album will now
be titled Just Gettin Started when released in late August.
Thrash metal act Overkill will release their new studio album, Immortalis, via Bodog Music on Oct. 9th.
Rick Springfield will be celebrating his birthday with the airing of a performance of his new song, "Who Killed
Rock & Roll," on General Hospital on Aug. 23rd.
Patti Smith has been working on songs and is looking to release an album of new material as a follow-up to her
covers album, Twelve, which came out in April.
The new Kurt Cobain documentary by AJ Schnack, Kurt Cobain: About A Son, is scheduled to appear in select cities
(New York, Los Angeles and Seattle) in early October.
Lionel Richie, 58, recently told the Australian Daily Telegraph that his claim to fame is being Nicole Richie's
dad. "I'll be in an airport and I'll hear a bloodcurdling scream. I'm thinking, "The kids recognize me,
thank you very much. And they rush over to me, and ask, "Are you Nicole Richie's dad?" and I say, "Yep.
OK, I'll take that."" The singer doesn't mind as he thinks it gets him younger fans.
Eagle Vision plans to release box set entitled Rory Gallagher - Live At Rockpalast: 5 Concerts 1976-1990 on Aug.
7th. The 3-DVD set contains nine hours of footage. Gallagher died in 1995 at the age of 47 from complications following
liver surgery.