Green Day and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts are among six acts that have been selected to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The 30th class of inductees also includes the late Stevie Ray Vaughn and his band Double Trouble, Bill Withers, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and the late Lou Reed, who is being inducted for his solo work. He  was inducted in 1996 as a member of the Velvet Underground.

The 1950s vocal group, The “5” Royales, will be recognized with the Early Influence Award.

In addition Ringo Starr will be presented with the Award for Musical Excellence.

Of course, Ringo was inducted in 1988 as a member of The Beatles. John, Paul and George are also in as solo artists.

“This means recognition to me,” Ringo tells Rolling Stone. “And it means, finally, the four of us are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame even though we were the biggest pop group in the land, though now it all looks funny in black and white.”

Artists are eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25 years after the release of their first album or single.

Green Day’s debut EP, 1,000 Hours, came out in 1989, which means the band is entering the hall in its first year of eligibility. “I had to go for a walk when I heard the news,” Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong tells Rolling Stone.

“We’re in incredible company and I’m still trying to make sense of this. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has always held something special for me because my heroes were in there. This is a great time for us to sort of reflect and look back with gratitude,” Armstrong said.

Joan Jett tells Rolling Stone the news is “surreal and very humbling.”  “It’s a culmination of all you’ve dreamed about doing as a musician. I’ve always been hopeful [that I’d get in] because I think it’s an incredible acknowledgment, says Jett, adding, “I’m very proud to be with all these great musicians. It’s going to take a few minutes to sink in before I see how I really feel about it.”

The induction ceremony is set for April 18 at Cleveland’s Public Hall.

Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio

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Lynyrd Skynyrd is among the artists who will perform on the jam-packed finale of the seventh season of NBC’s The Voice on Tuesday.

The Southern rock legends will take the stage to perform with Voice finalist Craig Wayne Boyd, an aspiring country artist who is on Blake Shelton’s team.

Other guest stars scheduled to appear on the show include Jennifer Hudson, Bruno Mars with Mark Ronson, Ed Sheeran and Hozier.

The Voice‘s two-hour finale airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET.

Meanwhile, Lynyrd Skynyrd has wrapped up its 2014 itinerary.  The band is slated to return to the road for a March 2015 Canadian tour that kicks off March 13 in Estevan, Saskatoon.

Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio

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LOS ANGELES (AP) – Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” is back on the charts.

Billboard reports it’s number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart this week, thanks to the Google Play store selling it for 99 cents.

It sold 38,000 copies.

It’s the album’s highest rank since October 15, 2011, when a deluxe version of the album was released.

“Dark Side of the Moon” stands as the album with the most weeks on the Billboard 200, with 889 weeks.

The next closest album is “Johnny’s Greatest Hits” by Johnny Mathis, with 490 weeks.

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Today, enjoy at least one song an hour from Eric Clapton on 96.9

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Rush is planning to make 2015 a special year for fans, as high-quality vinyl and high-resolution digital versions of the 14 albums the band issued on the Mercury label will be released, with at least one title arriving each month.

In addition, three of the albums — Fly by Night, A Farewell to Kings and Signals — also will be sold in the Blu-ray Pure Audio format.

Each vinyl reissue also comes with a download code allowing the buyer to access an MP4 version of the album.

The campaign will get under way on January 27, 2015, with the reissue of 1974’s Fly by Night.  After that, the releases are scheduled to arrive, in chronological order, as follows:

February — 1975’s Caress of Steel
March — 1976’s 2112 and the double-disc live album All the World’s a Stage
April — 1977’s A Farewell to Kings
May — 1978’s Hemispheres
June — 1980’s Permanent Waves
July — 1981’s Moving Pictures and the live album Exit…Stage Left
August — 1982’s Signals
September — 1984’s Grace Under Pressure
October — 1985’s Power Windows
November — 1987’s Hold Your Fire
December — the 1989 live album A Show of Hands

This past April, Rush made available updated vinyl and digital versions of its 1974 self-titled debut album in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of its release.

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Original Creedence Clearwater Revival band members Stu Cook and Doug Clifford are firing back at statements made by John Fogerty regarding their recent lawsuit against him regarding usage of the band’s name.

Cook and Clifford take objection to Fogerty’s assertion that the band was trying to stop him from performing CCR songs, a claim they said was false. The lawsuit, they maintain, is over the usage of the band’s name and the confusion it would cause fans coming to the shows.

“Because of recent inaccurate statements in the media regarding pending litigation, we want to set the record straight,” reads a statement from Cook and Clifford. “We have never objected to John Fogerty performing any song he ever wrote, or performing any song recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival.  That idea is ridiculous.  Even when he refused to play those songs, and publicly called for a boycott of CCR music, we encouraged him to perform them whenever and wherever he wanted.”

Cook and Clifford, who perform under the name Creedence Clearwater Revisited, and the widow of late CCR rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, initiated a suit in Nevada earlier this month claiming that John is in breach of contract with regard to a settlement the band members reached in 2001 and also charging him with trademark violations. The original band members pay Fogerty a fee to use “Creedence Clearwater” as part of the newer band name.

Fogerty shot back an angry retort, saying that “No lawyers, lawsuits, or angry ex-band members will stop me ever again from singing my songs. I am going to continue to tour and play all my songs every single night I am out on the road. Rockin’ all over the world!”

Cook and Clifford said John’s interpretation of the lawsuit was ludicrous.

“The facts are that Mr. Fogerty, while proclaiming joyful rebirth in the press, repeatedly has his lawyers threaten us with lawsuits and demand unreasonable concessions of our rights,” they wrote. “Last week, the threats and demands left us with little doubt that a lawsuit would be filed by him against us for the second time.  This unfortunate situation required us to take unpleasant preemptive legal action.”

Continuing, the bassist and drummer said the legal action “is about the need to defend ourselves and rights, Mr. Fogerty’s failure to perform contractual promises and unlicensed uses of the trademark ‘Creedence Clearwater Revival.’  The trademark is not owned by him, but by the Creedence Clearwater Revival Partnership.”

They concluded: “We have a business relationship with him and, under prevailing circumstances, chose not to be bullied.”

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The Eagles are flying higher than any other rock artist on the new Forbes list of the World’s Highest Paid Musicians of 2014.

The veteran band is perched at #3 on the tally with earnings of a whopping $100 million, thanks to last year’s History of the Eagles tour.

The list is based on earnings between June 2013 and June 2014, taking into account tour receipts, record sales, merchandise sales, endorsement deals and other income.

Finishing in fourth place behind the Eagles is Bon Jovi, which brought in $82 million, thanks to its huge Because We Can tour.

Another New Jersey rock act, Bruce Springsteen, lands at #5 after his latest tour earned him an estimated $4 million per night.

Also making it into the top 10 was Paul McCartney, who came in at #8 while raking in $3.5 million per show.  Sir Paul, who is 72, also is the oldest musician appearing in the top 10 of Forbes‘ tally.

Other veteran rockers on Forbes’ list include The Rolling Stones, at #19 with $47 million in earnings; Roger Waters at #20 with $46 million; and Elton John at #21 with $45 million.

Who’s #1 on the list?  Rapper and music mogul Dr. Dre, who earned $620 million — the biggest single-year payday of any musician in history, according to Forbes — when Apple purchased Beats by Dr. Dre, the company he helped found, for $3 billion.

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It looks like the historically contentious relationship between John Fogerty and his former Creedence Clearwater Revival band mates has led to a new lawsuit over usage of the group’s name.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, bassist Stu Cook, drummer Doug Clifford and the widow of late CCR rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty have initiated a suit in Nevada claiming that John is in breach of contract with regard to a settlement the band members reached in 2001 and also charging him with trademark violations.

The lawsuit alleges that John is in breach of contract because he made negative remarks in a January 2011 interview about Cook and Clifford’s current group, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, after he accepted a 2001 agreement that his ex-band mates could perform under the Revisited moniker while paying Fogerty a fee for using the name.

As for the trademark violations, the lawsuit claims that John’s own use of “Creedence Clearwater Revival” in promoting some of his recent tours is unauthorized and could cause confusion amongst fans about whether Cook and Clifford’s current band is involved.

Cook, Clifford and Tom Fogerty’s widow appear to be attempting to turn the tables on John, who launched a 1996 lawsuit against them after they began touring with the band Creedence Clearwater Revisited.  A California court initially issued an injunction against Cook and Clifford from using the moniker, but that ruling was overturned in 1997, which led to the aforementioned 2001 settlement.

Meanwhile, the new lawsuit also claims that John has been threatening to sue Cook and Clifford over alleged unpaid monies from performances dating back to December 2011, including shows that the two Creedence Clearwater Revisited members feel shouldn’t fall under the agreement.  The suit brought by Cook, Clifford and Tom Fogerty’s widow seeks unspecified damages and requests that the matter be decided by a jury trial.

In a statement issued Tuesday morning through his publicist, Fogerty acts unbothered by the suit, while also both confirming that there’s still no love lost between him and his former band mates, and reminding the world that he considers the Creedence catalog to be his. Fogerty writes:  “I was driving my daughter to school yesterday and I was surprised to learn I was being sued by my former band mates who call themselves Creedence Clearwater Revisited.”

The statement continues, “The people who come to my shows know they will hear me sing and play the songs I wrote and recorded over the past four decades of my career. Every night we play live, I’m thrilled to see all of those fans singing along to the songs that have touched them.  I am at a wonderful place in my life. I am playing the music that I love and wrote, with full joy and having my son Shane joining along side of me — it doesn’t get much better than that.”

Fogerty concludes, “No lawyers, lawsuits, or angry ex-band members will stop me ever again from singing my songs. I am going to continue to tour and play all my songs every single night I am out on the road. Rockin’ all over the world!”  The statement put the word “my” in italics for emphasis.

Creedence Clearwater Revival broke up in 1972, and Fogerty and his old band mates have been involved in various legal disputes and other conflicts over the years.  John reportedly was estranged from his brother, Tom, at the time of the elder Fogerty’s death in 1990.

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LONDON (AP) – Queen guitarist Brian May is throwing his support behind an initiative for a hundred-fold increase in the detection and monitoring of asteroids.

May has a Ph.D. in astrophysics.

May has joined a consortium of scientists calling for better monitoring of asteroids, especially those that may threaten humans, and for global adoption of Asteroid Day on June 30 to draw attention to potential asteroid hazards.

May says the more we learn about asteroids, the more we realize the human race has been living on borrowed time.

He says no one knows when the next big one will hit, and it takes just one.

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