Miscellaneous Music News

[LG.]

well Whitney is certainly acting more like a responsible parent than Britney did right after she filed for divorce. I think with Bobby's criminal record Whitney had a good case for custody and he knew it, as he didn't even make an appearance in court for this hearing. His lawyer says he'll appeal, but who knows if Bobby even wants the responsibility of custody. I hope for Bobbi Kristina that they get their acts together and give her a decent rest of her childhood.

[Google]

 

[ArchieComic Fan]

Bobby can't even pay child support for his other two kids so the only reason I can think of that he'd want to sue for custody of Bobbi Kristina is so that he can get child support from Whitney so that he can pay for his other two. I really hope Whitney is trying to clean up her act. I was a huge fan and would love for her to recover emotionally, physically, and financially from her mess of a marriage.

[Unklescott]

House revered by stars and fans now just ashes - Nashville, Tennessee - Wednesday, 04/11/07 - Tennessean.com

"Camelot."

That's what June Carter liked to call the Hendersonville home she shared with her husband, Johnny Cash.


"She thought of it as her and dad's private kingdom," wrote the couple's son, John Carter Cash, in his Anchored In Love: The Life and Legacy of June Carter Cash, a book slated for June release.

The Cashes' Camelot is in ruins, the victim of a Tuesday afternoon fire that destroyed the more than 13,000-square-foot property. Its new owner, Barry Gibb of Bee Gees fame, bought the house for $2.5 million in early 2006, and he and wife Linda were renovating it for use as a summer home.

Built in the late 1960s, the home had 18 rooms, including a signature round living room and a bedroom that overlooked Old Hickory Lake. It was important for reasons that had nothing to do with size, architecture and design. Like the Cashes' Virginia home — the one that used to belong to June's mother, legendary guitarist Maybelle Carter — this was a house of music.

Cash wrote here, of course. He placed acoustic guitars in most rooms, so that he could pluck out chords and melodies as inspiration struck. In the 1970s, he and June often opened the house for guitar pulls that included luminaries such as Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and Mickey Newbury. They'd also often invite up-and-coming writers that Cash respected and encouraged, including Vince Matthews and Larry Gatlin.

When the house wasn't open to visitors, it was seemingly impenetrable. As an aspiring songwriter, a down-and-out Kristofferson wanted to hand a tape of his music to the by-then-legendary Cash, but he figured he wouldn't be able to get past guards. He landed a helicopter in the yard, and Cash ended up recording "Sunday Morning Coming Down" and other Kristofferson songs.

House was a sanctuary

June Carter Cash also worked on her music at the house, and she played a private concert on the grounds to celebrate the release of her Press On album in 1999.

For the most part, Johnny and June did not record at the home, though beginning in the late 1990s they recorded many tracks at Cash's small cabin studio located across the street and down a winding, unpaved road.

Johnny Cash recorded some vocal tracks in the house, after June died in 2003. He was grief-stricken, and in such poor health that it was difficult for him to make it to the cabin studio. Sessions were arranged in his round bedroom.

"It was a sanctuary and a fortress for him," singer Marty Stuart said of the house. Stuart lives next door to the Cash estate in Hendersonville, and he was married to Johnny Cash's daughter, Cindy, in the 1980s. "So many prominent things and prominent people in American history took place in that house," Stuart said, name-checking Dylan and evangelist Billy Graham as two of the most notable.

When Cash first bought the house, he used it as a place of healing. His body ravaged by drug abuse, he retreated to that round bedroom to rid his system of toxic substances. He and June were not yet married, but she and her parents were a near-constant presence.

"June and her mother and father formed a circle of faith around me caring for me and insulating me from the outside world, particularly the people, some of them close friends, who'd been doing drugs with me," Cash wrote in Cash: The Autobiography.

Home reflected June

After Johnny and June married in 1968, June — a shopper and a collector of art and furniture — lavishly furnished the interior. The result could be seen in the video for Cash's 2002 release "Hurt," some of which was filmed in the house.

"I found photos of the lake house from late 1967, before dad and mom married," wrote John Carter Cash, who was born in 1970. "They showed wide open rooms with very little furniture, and only a few scattered mementos. I have a few of those items still. … These things remind me of how my father changed to bring my mother into his life."

After June's death, Johnny Cash sought to remove many of the items his wife had collected because the reminders saddened and depressed him.

After Cash's death in September 2003, it was left to relatives to sift through the belongings. Many of their paintings, clothes and musical instruments were sold at a Sotheby's auction in 2004. The family hung onto the home until 2006, when it was sold to the Gibbs. John Carter Cash kept the cabin studio, where he regularly records (including a tribute album to June Carter Cash that will be released in June).

Album detailed the loss

Johnny Cash's daughter, singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, wrote about the painful process of parting with the home on her 2006 Black Cadillac album.

"There's nothing left to take," she sang in "House on the Lake." "There's nothing left to take/ But love and years are not for sale/ In our old house on the lake."

Barbara Orbison, a neighbor of the Cashes for many years and the widow of Roy Orbison, spent many days at the house on the lake.

"Every inch of the house was something June bought or put there," she said. "If you thought about Johnny and June, you thought about that house. That was their house. I guess it will forever be their house."

The house was a landmark on Old Hickory Lake. I grew up in Nashville and spent several summers on the lake with my brother and his boat. The house had a natural waterfall inside running down a wall in one of the rooms. I believe his parents lived across the street. Back in the day many country music stars made their home on the lake. My buddy had a home there not far from Barbara Mandrel's former home. Here's the "House of Cash" back in the day.



Not much left.

[JamiLee]

wow Unk

that is so sad.

[BoBoFan]

AllHipHop.com : Daily Hip-Hop News

Eve Crashes In LA; Arrested For Suspicion Of DUI
By Mike Winslow
Date: 4/26/2007 10:27 am

Rapper Eve was arrested this morning (Apr. 26) in Hollywood, CA, after she crashed her gold Maserati on Hollywood Boulevard.

According to reports Eve was driving through Hollywood around 2:45 am when she struck the center divider.

Eve, born Eve Jeffers, was riding with two passengers at the time of the accident.

She was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence and taken to the Los Angeles County Jail. She was released from custody shortly after posting bail.

Eve, who starred in her own sitcom titled Eve on UPN, recently released the single "Tambourine," taken from her upcoming album Here I Am, which hits stores Aug. 7.

She is currently featured on the cover of Giant Magazine.

[BoBoFan]

toledoblade.com -- One-hit wonder Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett, voice of ‘Monster Mash,’ dies

Article published Thursday, April 26, 2007
One-hit wonder Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett, voice of ‘Monster Mash,’ dies

ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — He does the “Monster Mash” no more.

Bobby “Boris” Pickett, whose dead-on Boris Karloff impression propelled the Halloween anthem to the top of the charts in 1962, making him one of pop music’s most enduring one-hit wonders, has died of leukemia. He was 69.

Pickett, dubbed “The Guy Lombardo of Halloween,” died Wednesday night at the West Los Angeles Veterans Hospital, said his longtime manager, Stuart Hersh. His daughter, Nancy, and his sister, Lynda, were at Pickett’s bedside.

“Monster Mash” hit the Billboard chart three times: when it debuted in 1962, reaching No. 1 the week before Halloween; again in August 1970, and for a third time in May 1973. The resurrections were appropriate for a song where Pickett gravely intoned the forever-stuck-in-your-head chorus: “He did the monster mash. ... It was a graveyard smash.”

The novelty hit’s fans included Bob Dylan, who played the single on his XM Satellite Radio program last October. “Our next artist is considered a one-hit wonder, but his one hit comes back year after year,” Dylan noted.

The hit single ensured Pickett’s place in the pantheon of pop music obscurities, said syndicated radio host Dr. Demento, whose long-running program celebrates offbeat tunes.

“It’s certainly the biggest Halloween song of all time,” said Demento. The DJ, who interviewed Pickett last year, said he maintained a sense of humor about his singular success: “As he loved to say at oldies shows, ‘And now I’m going to do a medley of my hit.'"

Pickett’s impression of Karloff (who despite his name was an Englishman, born William Henry Pratt) was forged in Somerville, Mass., where the boy watched horror films in a theater managed by his father.

Pickett used the impersonation in a nightclub act and when performing with his band the Cordials. A bandmate convinced Pickett they needed to do a song to showcase the Karloff voice, and “Monster Mash” was born — “written in about a half-hour,” said Dr. Demento.

The recording, done in a couple of hours, featured a then-unknown piano player named Leon Russell and a backing band christened The Crypt-Kickers. It was rejected by four major labels before Gary Paxton, lead singer on the Hollywood Argyles’ novelty hit “Alley Oop,” released “Monster Mash” on his own label.

The instant smash became a sort-of Christmas carol for the pumpkin and ghoul set. In a 1996 interview with People magazine, Pickett said he never grew tired of it: “When I hear it, I hear a cash register ringing.”

While Pickett never re-created its success, his “Monster’s Holiday,” a Christmas follow-up, reached No. 30 in December 1962. And “Graduation Day” hit No. 80 in June 1963.

He continued performing through his final gig in November. He remained in demand for Halloween performances, including a memorable 1973 show where his bus broke down outside Frankenstein, Mo.

Beside his daughter and sister, Pickett is survived by two grandchildren.

[BoBoFan]

Platters singer Zola Taylor dies at 69

Platters singer Zola Taylor dies at 69
By ANDREW GLAZER
Last updated May 1, 2007 1:18 p.m. PT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

LOS ANGELES -- Zola Taylor, who broke gender barriers in the 1950s as a member of The Platters, harmonizing with her male colleagues on hits like "The Great Pretender," has died, her nephew said Tuesday. She was 69.

Taylor, who later gained attention of a different sort as one of three women who claimed to be pop idol Frankie Lymon's widow, died Monday, said her nephew Alfie Robinson. She had been bedridden following several strokes and died at Parkview Community Hospital in Riverside County from complications of pneumonia, he said.

Founding Platters member Herb Reed said he spotted Taylor, the sister of Cornell Gunter of the Coasters, rehearsing with a girl group in 1955 and knew immediately she had the charisma and vocal chops the R&B group needed.

The all-male group had just signed with Mercury after its single "Only You" topped the charts and its manager thought they needed a female voice to soften their sound.

"She was a very pretty young lady and what a great, great smile," Reed told The Associated Press. "And she had this baby voice that everyone liked."

"The Great Pretender" raced to the No. 1 spot on both R & B and pop music charts in the U.S. and Europe, according to "The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul" by Irwin Stambler.

"It was a great surprise to everyone," Reed said. "We were the first Afro-American group to have a girl singer. That was the talk of the nation. All of the sudden, other groups started looking for girls."

But the Platters' success began to fizzle after 1959, when four members were arrested in Cincinnati. Reed said he had been out of touch with Taylor since the early 1960s.

Taylor was back in the spotlight in the 1980s when she and two other women all claimed to be Lymon's widow and fought over his royalties. Lymon, a juvenile pop sensation in the 1950s with such hits as "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?," had died of a drug overdose in 1968 at age 25.

The courts eventually sided with one of the other women. The drama was a focal point in the 1998 Lymon biopic "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." Halle Berry played Taylor.

Robinson, Taylor's closest known living relative, said his aunt continued touring with other lesser-known acts until 1996 and wed two other times. Her last husband died in 1982, he said. She had no children.

[rt1ky]

Courtney Love plans to sell most of the items which once belonged to her husband, former Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain.

Comparing her house to a "mausoleum," the 42-year-old rock singer says she plans to hold a charity auction. Love and Cobain wed in 1992 and later that year had a daughter, Frances Bean.

Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994. Speaking to AOL Music, Love says "My daughter doesn't need to inherit a giant...bag full of flannel...shirts." She says Frances will get one of Cobain's sweaters, a guitar, and the lyrics to Nirvana's biggest hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

AOL publicist Kurt Patat gave no date for the auction.

I remember when he died and Courtney spoke over the loud speaker at their home.

Link

[Broadway]

A little self-indulgent news here..... Kid Rock lives not too far away from me, and news stories like this are pretty frequent. He's truly a really cool guy.

Kid Rock Helps Teen Golfers Replace Stolen Clubs
Two days after six sets of golf clubs belonging to a Michigan high school girls' team were stolen from the coach's car, Kid Rock offered to swing to the rescue.

"I was just stunned," coach Claire Neff told the Associated Press after receiving a call from the rocker on Wednesday.

When the call came, Neff asked to whom she was speaking. "Kid Rock," was the reply, reports the Detroit Free Press, which first broke the story of the robbery. "My girls are going to go ballistic," Neff said.

Having read the article about the theft, Rock (real name: Robert Ritchie), 36, a native of Romeo, Mich., told the coach he would provide new custom golf clubs to replace those belonging to Neff and the five players from Milan High School in Ypsilanti, Mich.

Rock spoke to pro golfer John Daly, who, in turn, suggested that he contact manufacturer TaylorMade Golf, which has agreed to send the clubs by the end of the week. Neff also said that Rock advised giving all the credit to TaylorMade and Daly.

Besides the gift from Rock, Neff said that about 40 other people have called her offering donations.

[Unklescott]

The Columbus Dispatch : Busta Rhymes arrested today on DUI charge

Busta Rhymes arrested today on DUI charge
Thursday, May 3, 2007 7:30 AM

NEW YORK (AP) -- Busta Rhymes was arrested on a drunken driving charge early today, police said, marking the latest in a series of recent legal troubles for the rapper.

Officers stopped Rhymes at about 12:40 a.m. because the sport utility vehicle he was driving had overly tinted windows, Sgt. Mike Wysokowski said. He said officers then smelled alcohol on the rapper's breath.

Rhymes, 34, was taken into custody on a charge of driving while impaired, Wysokowski said. An arraignment was expected later Thursday.

A lawyer for Rhymes, Scott Leemon, declined to comment saying he would address the charges in court.

A telephone message left early Thursday at the New York office of Rhymes' manager, Violator Management, was not immediately returned.

Rhymes, whose real name is Trevor Smith, has had several law enforcement run-ins since last year. He is tentatively scheduled to go to trial Tuesday on two assault charges.