NASHVILLE (AP) – Fan voting is now open for two of the big trophies for the Academy of Country Music Awards. Fans can decide whether Jason Aldean, Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert or Florida Georgia Line should win entertainer of the year. They can also decide whether Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett or Cole Swindell should win new artist of the year. Voting is open at VoteACM.com and will close during the broadcast on April 19.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Garth Brooks was happy to open a space in an Indianapolis children’s hospital where kids can forget about their illnesses for a while. Brooks dedicated a new child play zone at Riley Hospital for Children, which was funded through his Teammates For Kids foundation. The space includes billiards, foosball, video games, an arts and crafts area and a recording studio. Brooks got teary-eyed when he pointed out the space is a “miracle” for kids. He called it “a place in a hospital where no doctor and no needles are allowed. It’s a place where a kid gets to be a kid.”
A previously unreleased concert film documenting a July 1989 performanceby The Grateful Dead at Alpine Valley in East Toy, Wisconsin, will be shown in theaters across the U.S. on May 4.
The one-night-only screening will serve as the fifth annual installment of the band’s “Meet-Up at the Movies” series.
The movie, which runs two hours and 50 minutes, captures the band a few months before the release of its final studio album, Built to Last.
The film was recorded using the venue’s analog master multi-camera video system. The group’s set at the show featured the then-new tune “Foolish Heart,” as well as such memorable Dead songs as “Sugaree,” “Box of Rain,” “Terrapin Station” and “Morning Dew.”
The band’s lineup at the time featured Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart and keyboardist Brent Mydland.
The screenings will take place at 7 p.m. local time at more than 350 cinemas in the U.S. VisitFathomEvents.com to purchase tickets and check out a list of the locations where this year’s “Meet-Up at the Movies” event will take place.
He didn’t graduate from college himself, but Jon Bon Jovi will be receiving an honorary degree next month from one of the top schools in his home state of New Jersey: Rutgers University.
The singer will be receiving a Doctor of Letters degree from Rutgers, and he’ll also be a keynote speaker at the commencement ceremony at the Camden branch of the school on May 21.
Bon Jovi is being recognized not only for his accomplishments in the music industry, but also for his extensive charity work.
In 2006, he established the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, which funds and creates programs to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness.
He also has opened two “community restaurants” in New Jersey, where people can either pay a minimum donation for their meal or volunteer at the eateries to cover their bills.
Jon is currently working on new Bon Jovi music, though there’s no word on when that might be released.
Ace Frehley’s most recent solo album, Space Invader, was released only about six months ago, but the ex-KISS guitarist already has started work a new record.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer tells Billboard that he’s recording a covers project that will feature songs by bands that inspired his own music.
“The album’s going to be about my influences,” explains Frehley.
“I’m probably going to do a Rolling Stones song, a Who song, possibly a Led Zeppelin song, maybe a Beatles song. Stuff from bands that I grew up on and greatly influenced me.”
The 63-year-old rocker also says he’s recording new renditions of some vintage KISS material, as well as a track by his solo group Frehley’s Comet.
Ace has asked some famous fellow rockers to contribute their talents to the record, including Slash, Lita Ford and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, although it’s not clear if they’ve accepted the invitation.
Frehley also tells Billboard that he’s considering calling on his former KISS band mate Gene Simmons “to play bass on a track and sing with me.”
With regard to the KISS tunes he’s thinking about remaking for the album, Ace reports that he’s “probably going to redo both ‘Cold Gin’ and ‘Parasite,'” which are songs that he wrote but that Simmons originally sang.
As for the project’s status, Frehley tells Billboard he plans to record six to eight more songs, then choose the 12 tracks he likes the best.
Frehley will be heading Down Under soon for a tour in support of Space Invader that kicks off April 24 in Wellington, New Zealand, and runs through a May 7 show in Mount Lawley, Australia. He also has a European trek lined up in June.
Richie Sambora could be a wanted man if recent allegations are true.
The New York Daily News reports that the ex-Bon Jovi guitarist has been accused of threatening to kill his on-again, off-again girlfriend and one-time business partner, Nikki Lund, although a rep for the rocker tells the paper the accusations are “a cluster of fabricated lies.”
Los Angeles police told the Daily News that they’re investigating a report alleging that last month Sambora told Lund during an argument over the phone that he was going to “dig a hole in the desert and bury” her.
An officer from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office told the newspaper, “I am confirming we are investigating such an incident,” adding that a report was filed on Wednesday by a 33-year-old woman. Lund is 33.
The officer added that the woman “stated that Mr. Sambora made some threats against her…Deputies tried to contact Mr. Sambora, but he was not at his residence.”
Sambora and Lund, a fashion designer, had dated for about 10 years after the guitarist split with his wife Heather Locklear. Last year, the two launched the Nikki Rich clothing line and had been planning to open a boutique, but Richie pulled out of the business this past February.
The incident allegedly took place a day after Lund introduced the clothing line’s latest looks at an L.A. Fashion Week event on March 18.
A rep for Sambora, meanwhile, told TMZ that the guitarist didn’t threaten Lund, and claimed that it was the fashion designer who was verbally aggressive, maintaining that she was angry that Richie hadn’t attended the fashion show and that he’d pulled his money out of the business.
The rep also told TMZ that Sambora stayed calm during the phone call and offered to pay Nikki Rich employees three months’ severance, but that Lund just got more angry.
Another potential factor in the story, according to the New York Daily News, is Sambora’s relationship with his current musical collaborator, Australian rock guitarist Orianthi, whom Richie began dating last year. The paper says Orianthi was unhappy that Sambora was involved in a business with his former girlfriend.
NEW YORK (AP) – Billy Ray Cyrus was walking his dog during a tour stop when he was inspired to write a TV show. Cyrus says he was on the Gulf Coast and saw a church in the distance, and he was thinking about how Elvis Presley performed around there at the start of his career. Cyrus started writing down ideas and he came up with the character Vernon Brown, a one-hit wonder country singer who became an Elvis impersonator and later pretends to be a minister at a country church. The comedy, “Still the King,” will premiere on CMT early next year.
NEW YORK (AP) – Police guitarist Andy Summers needs to set the record straight: they were not a reggae band.
Summers says he hates it when people call them “white reggae.”
Another thing he wants to set straight: he loves Sting but he’s not holding anything back about their relationship in the new documentary, “Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police.”
The film gives the history of The Police from Summers’ point of view.
Summers says Sting and he have a great love because they experienced something incredible together.
He says the film is more like dishing the dirt on a beloved brother rather than bashing him.
Over the years, musicals based on the hits of Carole King, Billy Joel, The Four Seasons and Motown have made their way to Broadway.
Could the Eagles songbook be the next to hit the Great White Way? Maybe.
The New York Daily News reports that at a recent event in New York City, the Eagles’ Glenn Frey said that he’d been spending a lot of time in the Big Apple lately.
He then seemed to hint at an Eagles musical in the future, saying, “I’m going to see a lot of shows, so you never know.” He also named the Carole King musical, Beautiful, as one of his favorites.
When asked if an Eagles musical would include all the fights the notoriously combative band has had over the years, Frey laughed and said, “Conversations. Give and take.”
However, Frey may be jumping the gun a bit. When asked if an Eagles musical is actually in the works, a rep for the band told ABC Radio that there is “nothing to discuss at this time.”
Meanwhile, the Eagles are hitting the road for another round of tour dates, starting May 19 in Austin, Texas. They have shows mapped out through the spring and summer, wrapping up July 29 in Bossier City, Louisiana.
A mind-bending interactive video has been created to accompany “Brandy & Coke,” the previously unreleased early mix of the Led Zeppelin song “Trampled Under Foot” included in the deluxe reissues of Physical Graffiti.
The video, which you can check out now at LedZeppelin.com, allows viewers to look inside the rooms of the building featured on Physical Graffiti‘s famous cover.
Clicking on select windows of the building launches videos inspired by images from the cover art.
Some of the rooms incorporate archival concert footage of Led Zeppelin performing “Trampled Under Foot” at London’s Earl’s Court, while others boast unique animation or live-action shots of various supposed residents of the building.
For example, one room shows a group of children watching a large, old-school TV set airing the Led Zeppelin performance; another shows an animated zeppelin floating in a medieval-looking stone room, as rats scurry across the floor; and another room shows a young boy in a toy-filled bedroom lip-synching along with the song into a microphone.
Sixteen separate videos are featured in the interactive program.
The Physical Graffiti reissues hit stores on February 24, the 40th anniversary of the original album’s release. The release is the sixth that Led Zeppelin has put out as part of its ongoing reissue campaign.
NASHVILLE (AP) – Brooks and Dunn will reunite for the Academy of Country Music Awards. It’s their first televised performance in five years. Other performers added to the lineup are Alan Jackson, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town and Rascal Flatts. Nick Jonas will do a duet with Dan and Shay, and Christina Aguilera will perform with surprise guests. Previously announced performers include Jason Aldean, Dierks (DURKS) Bentley, Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, Reba, Blake Shelton, George Strait, Keith Urban, Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett and Cole Swindell (swin-DEL’). The ACM Awards are April 19.
NASHVILLE (AP) – Fan voting is now open for two of the big trophies for the Academy of Country Music Awards. Fans can decide whether Jason Aldean, Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert or Florida Georgia Line should win entertainer of the year. They can also decide whether Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett or Cole Swindell should win new artist of the year. Voting is open at VoteACM.com and will close during the broadcast on April 19.
