Music News: Monday, April 6, 2015
LITTLE BIG TOWN HAVE A HIT WITH ``GIRL CRUSH''
Either people are rallying around Little Big Town's song ``Girl Crush'' or there was no controversy around it to begin with. Billboard reports the song has jumped from number 17 to number 3 on the Hot Country Songs chart. The song came under fire when media reports said listeners were calling radio stations in protest, mistakenly thinking ``Girl Crush'' was a lesbian song.
``Girl Crush'' is Little Big Town's biggest song since ``Pontoon.''
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LYNYRD SKYNYRD DRUMMER ROBERT BURNS JUNIOR DIES
Original Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Robert Burns Junior has died in a single-vehicle wreck. Police in Cartersville, Georgia, say Burns was not wearing a seat belt when his vehicle went off a road just before midnight Friday and hit a mailbox and a tree. Further details were not immediately available.
Burns was 64. He was with Lynyrd Skynyrd when they recorded ``Sweet Home Alabama,'' ``Gimme Three Steps'' and ``Free Bird.'' He left the group in 1974 but would play with them from time to time. Guitarist Gary Rossington writes on Facebook he remembers Burns as a guy who made them laugh all the time. He says just last week he went by Burns' old house, where the band used to practice in the carport when they first started. He calls Burns ``a great great drummer.''
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JONI MITCHELL IMPROVING
Canadian folk icon Joni Mitchell is still in hospital but getting better. Her website reports she remains under observation and continues to improve every day. The 71-year-old singer-songwriter was found unconscious in her home on Tuesday and taken to a Los Angeles hospital by ambulance. Last year, she told Billboard magazine she has a rare skin condition which prevents her from performing.
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WILCO REVERSE STANCE ON INDIANA AFTER LAW IS TWEAKED
Wilco will no longer boycott Indiana after the state changed its law that critics say would have allowed discrimination against gays and lesbians. Wilco had called off their May 7 show in Indianapolis after the passage of the law intended to protect religious freedom. Wilco say it will now play the May 7 show because Indiana lawmakers approved changes to prevent discrimination. Wilco say it's a good first step and they will donate some of the proceeds from the concert to groups ``fighting to build on the progress we hope this change makes in Indiana and beyond.''
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SPENCER SMITH EXITS PANIC AT THE DISCO
Panic At The Disco drummer Spencer Smith has left the band. Smith went public with his struggles with addiction in
2013 and took a break from the band. Now he writes on the Panic website he realizes he is not able to be there for Panic the way he wanted to be and the way they needed him to be. He says they could have kicked him out when his addictions took hold, but they encouraged him to get treatment. Smith says the thing he will miss most is the incredible moments between the band and the audience.
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JON BON JOVI WILL SPEAK AT RUTGERS
Jon Bon Jovi will give words of wisdom to the graduating class at Rutgers University. He will speak at the school's commencement on May 21. Bon Jovi will also be given an honorary doctor of letters degree.
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'THE VOICE'-LIVE ROUNDS
The live rounds begin on ``The Voice'' tonight. Tonight and tomorrow, this season's Top-20 will be performing for viewer votes. Wednesday, eight of the 20 will get the bad news and be sent home. Maroon 5 will perform on tonight's show.
The band, of course, is fronted by Voice coach Adam Levine.
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SNOOP DOGG PHOTO GETS STATE TROOPER REPRIMANDED
A Texas state trooper has gotten in trouble for posing for a photo with Snoop Dogg. Billy Spears worked security when Snoop appeared at the South By Southwest festival last month.
Snoop asked to take a photo with him and posted it on his Instagram account with the comment, ``Me n my deputy dogg.'' Spears' bosses saw it and cited Spears because Snoop has been convicted on drug offences. Spears' attorney says his client did not know about Snoop's drug convictions.
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VANILLA ICE ENTERS PLEA DEAL
Vanilla Ice will perform community service for Habitat For Humanity as part of a plea deal for his arrest over a break-in at an abandoned house next to one he was renovating. Vanilla Ice also agreed to pay a fine of more than one-thousand dollars as part of his plea to avoid charges of grand theft and burglary. He was accused of being involved in a theft of furniture, a pool heater, bicycles and other items from the home in Lantana, Florida, in February. Vanilla Ice tells the Palm Beach Post he's glad to put the incident behind him and working for Habitat For Humanity is ``like asking the Pope to pray.''
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ANDY SUMMERS RELEASES FILM ON THE POLICE
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.
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DAVID BOWIE PREPARES STAGE ADAPTATION OF ``THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH''
David Bowie is working on a stage production based on ``The Man Who Fell To Earth.'' The New York Theatre Workshop will put on ``Lazarus,'' written by Bowie and Enda Walsh, the playwright who wrote ``Once.'' It will feature new songs as well as previously recorded ones. Bowie will not appear in the show, which premieres later this year. Bowie starred in the 1976 film version of ``The Man Who Fell To Earth.''
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SARA BAREILLES' MUSICAL WILL PREMIERE THIS SUMMER
The musical based on the movie ``Waitress'' that Sara Bareilles (bah-REL'-ihs) has been writing will make its premiere in New York in August. Bareilles wrote the music for ``Waitress,'' while Jessie Nelson wrote the book.
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FILTER REMEMBER THE RECORDING OF ``TAKE A PICTURE''
Richard Patrick of Filter never really intended to keep one of his most famous lines ever. Patrick says he was just scatting when they recorded ``Take A Picture'' and he screamed, ``Hey, dad, what do you think about your son now?''
Patrick says he intended to change it but no one ever asked him to do it. The band later said it sounded good, so he left it. Patrick says it wasn't until he had been sober for six or seven years later that he realized he was crying for help by singing that.
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