Real Music People

Check out these promotional shots of Rihanna and Kanye West for this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. World famous photographer David LaChapelle did the elaborate photo shoots of not only Rihanna and Kanye but also Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters and Chris Brown.

All of the above mentioned artists are featured as performers for this year’s VMAs along with Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen. And FYI, Justin Timberlake will be hosting a Fantasy Suite party with good pal and partner Timbaland.

The 2007 MTV Video Music Awards will air on September 9. And if the photos are any measure of the hotness of the show, then prepare to take on the heat!

Hip-hop star Snoop Dogg has been branded a nightmare neighbor by the residents whose road he deserted seven years ago. The rapper sold his lavish Claremont, California home earlier this week - despite moving out in 2000 after it featured on an episode of MTV’s Cribs. I wonder what it is about some celebs that just don’t recognize and care for their neighbors. Neighbors make up a neighborhood that in turn makes up the community and so on until you have a country. Take care of your neighbor and sometimes they take care of you…! But these idiot singers never may be care for their parents so how could we expect them to ever care for their neighbors. Most of the neighbors might know that he used to live beside them but he would never have known anyone in the neighborhood and would never have tried to make friends. Now that he lives some place else where, the neighborhood in that place would be having a sound sleep too.

Eric Clapton was forced to rush his wedding to Pattie Boyd after his manager leaked the story to win a bet with the drunken rocker. Boyd feared her romance with Clapton was over following a fling with another woman in Los Angeles, and was shocked when the guitar great hit her with a surprise proposal. So you see this where the information is leaked and celebs have to run for cover or accept/deny the news. Eric is one of the legends of the music world and anything that’s related to his personal life is hot news for the fans. Eric himself made the bet that the news of his wedding could not be leaked and Roger didn’t waste anytime leaking the news and thus winning the bet of $20,000 and that’s great money to win from a singer and enough money for a leak, Roger certainly must have charged another $20,000 to newspaper/ magazine he gave the news to. 20,000 + 20,000 = $40,000 wow I would not wait a single second if I had something to tell.

It’s not uncommon to see some stars partnering up with some other outlets especially these days when record sales are at a low due to internet downloading and piracy. John Mayer, despite being the intellectual cutie pie that he is, is not above all of that.

The singer has added a new side gig to complement his crooning as a tatted-up model for The Gap. LA motorists, keep your eyes on the road. His larger than life ad was posted over The Gap at Hollywood and Highland in Los Angeles.

For those not in the know, the ‘SRV’ skin art is a reference to his guitar god, the late Stevie Ray Vaughan.

They’re in their 50s now, and they’ve traded their long heavy-metal locks for close-cropped cuts, but the original members of Van Halen are back in business and promise that they’re better than ever.

“Usually, when a band comes back like us, it’s rockers with walkers,” frontman David Lee Roth told reporters at the Four Seasons Hotel here on Monday. “This is anything but.”

Van Halen held a press conference to announce a 25-date concert tour beginning Sept. 27 in Charlotte, N.C. The re-formed group features three original members Roth, guitarist Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen along with Eddie Van Halen’s son, Wolfgang, on bass.

“This is not a reunion,” said Roth, 51. “This is a whole new band.”

“It is totally blowing our minds and I think it will yours, too,” said Eddie Van Halen, 52. “It’s better than it’s ever been.”

With its flamboyant frontman, “Diamond Dave,” Van Halen was one of the most popular rock bands of the 1980s. But the group split up in 1985 and the original lineup hasn’t performed together since.

“I’m shocked any of us are still vertical,” Roth quipped.

He and Eddie Van Halen insisted that the band’s reunion isn’t just a one-tour deal. After performing throughout North America, Van Halen plans to hit Asia and Australia.

“Then we make an album,” Roth said, adding that the group has “lots of dreams, lots of ambitions.”

“We really have re-formed this team like a brother team that it never was before,” he said.

Wolfgang Van Halen, 16, brings “a young energy and a spirit” to the band, Roth said, adding that the teenage rocker chose the tour’s song list, which features “close to 25 of your greatest hits.”

“You know every single song, you know every guitar lick, every woo, every kick, every jump, every drum lick,” he said. “We can’t afford to shirk that duty.”

The band has been rehearsing since October and plans to exceed fans’ expectations, Roth said.

Really like her - because she does her own thing AND has a beautiful voice - and hope so much she gets herself together (right expression?) - cause it would be a shame she throws her life away. The night that she overdosed, Amy said she smoked heroin, snorted cocaine, took ecstasy pills, took Ketamine pills, and drank tons of vodka and whiskey. Puke! Just saying vodka and whiskey aloud makes me gets that tingling feeling in my lip like I might vomit. How does this chick do it? How disgusting. Let’s hope she gets some help. I really am puzzled at one thing, they booze so much, they ecstasy pills and heroin and if there’s something else then I do not know the word for the obscure thing but how do they manage to keep their voices intact and still manage to sing that well, by now they should have lost their voices completely. That’s a miracle to me.

Producers putting together the biopic on late rapper Notorious B.I.G. are seeking an unknown actor to fill the role. A series of open auditions will be held in currently undisclosed locations. Filming is scheduled to begin this fall. Biggie’s mother and two managers will be selecting the right man for the part. His mother insists she will know the right actor when she sees him. Biggie who’s real name was Christopher Wallace, had been shot to death in March 1997 outside of a party in L.A. It’s always a good idea to find an unknown actor when trying to portray one who had previously been well known. To fill in the role with an actor that everyone knows will just take away from the story being told. Millions of rap fans have been waiting for this biopic and I’m sure the producers are doing all they can to make it the best possible.

British pop star Lily Allen has disappointed fans by canceling a series of upcoming gigs across Europe after falling victim to illness. The Smile singer was due to play four dates later this month, but has been forced to pull out of any performances while she recovers from sinusitis - a condition she believes has been caused by excessive world travel. Posting on her MySpace blog - accompanied by a photo of her holding a doctor’s note - she writes, “I’ve literally been around the whole world in two weeks from London to Japan around Australia and then to LA and Vegas then back to LA for a 17 hour video shoot. That docs prescription is a fake, she is suffering from a thing called ‘exhaustion’ something that is literally similar to what Amy Winehouse is suffering from and all these girls from Paris to Lindsay to Amy to Lilly all have the same drugs problems and none will tell us so. They just don’t have the energy to carry themselves for a week and anything above a week of hard work makes them awfully tired. All of them are a bunch of drug addicts.

Rapper Common has shot straight to the top of the U.S. albums chart with his new disc Finding Forever, holding off competition from rockers Korn’s Untitled. I cannot understand the logic that the youngsters in America follow, the rap music can easily be labeled as pure crap but instead of being at the bottom of the rung it is ruling the roost. What has happened to the lovers of rock and soulful music that warmed the hearts not many years ago. Now the lyrics have the n-word and the f-word in the song in every other line and then you see all these boys and girls swinging and dancing to these horrible songs. They dance as if they have pains in their hip joints and are using this dance form as a therapy just to get relief. Hopefully they don’t get used to the rap songs to much or in the church as well they will be praying in rap songs.

The British pop star Amy Winehouse was rushed to hospital today. This has started speculation about her health. She was taken to a hospital in London and was reported to be suffering from “severe exhaustion”. This isn’t her first run in with exhaustion issues. Just last month she had to cancel a series of concerts after she was ordered by doctors to get some rest. Other information on Winehouse leads me to believe that this is more than a case of exhaustion. It sounds more like it may be a chronic hangover. Winehouse recently spoke about her partying lifestyle and needing to calm it down. She was also witnessed at a concert in July, hitting herself in the head repeatedly with a microphone. That is incredibly messed up. If that’s not a clue you need to fix your lifestyle then what is? She has already been released from hospital and sent home with orders to rest.

Veteran rocker Keith Richards has revealed that if not for a head injury that occurred last April he would certainly not have quit cocaine. Get all these rockers and pop singer and top on the list Rappers must be taken into custody and hit hard on their heads and immediately be given a medical prescription with a warning – drug consumption could be fatal. The 63 year old ‘Rolling Stones’ star has a serious head injury after falling down from a palm tree, now what was he doing so high up on the tree, most probably watching his neighbors wife have a nice shower, couldn’t get self control over his imagination and feel head over heels. Ever since the accident he as been on the drug that he is not allowed to mix with cocaine. Now dude help your self, u want more drugs – don’t climb the palm tree again, you want more women – climb a palm without having cocaine.

When you’re a hot music commodity, whether alive or dead, people will find some way to extort you. But in the case of the late godfather of soul James Brown, that’s not what happened.

The singer was named the real father of two more children last Friday.

James has publicly acknowledged six kids but new DNA testing revealed that LaRhonda Petitt and another unidentified individual are also his. LaRhonda, 45, was interviewed by the Augusta Chronicle, revealed how James dated her mother but then left after he found out about the pregnancy. Ouch.

A lot have claimed to be the soul man’s kid but only two of the dozen or so have been positively identified.

British pop star  is feeling depressed after suffering a broken rib in a recent boxing match - because the injury means he is unable to play soccer for the next three months. Ha Ha I’d rather be devastated than gutted. Can’t play soccer for three month’s poor baby by the look of him in the picture above he look’s happy as a pig in X@@##!. What the hell is the problem with this guy, why can’t anyone throw him into a mental asylum? He sees God at times and then has all sorts of problems that if revealed could just destroy his image. The sight him is a depression to me and if you ever ask him the truth then he could candidly admit that he himself has a depression upon seeing in the mirror. For me, talking or writing about this chap is pure waste of time. So I better stop right here right now.

Shock rocker Marilyn Manson is being sued by a bandmate for using their earnings to buy Nazi paraphernalia, African masks made of human skin, the full skeleton of a 4-year-old Chinese girl – and ex Dita Von Teese’s $150,000 engagement ring. Rock stars have which interests that range from the really stupid to the absolutely bizarre things. And that is why most art galleries and auctions have these thing on display, cos they simply know that if they have something ridiculous at an even more ridiculous price then they are also are assured of a ridiculous buyer. Yet we just do not stop adoring them for a reason that is simply alien to me. Well in the come days we should have more on this piece of news which can really lead to the break of this band, hopefully nothing bad comes out of this story but with such allegations it seems inevitable.

These girls are so doll like things that take them out for a stroll in the park outside their protective areas and they will catch infections. She just couldn’t have made the whole tour without falling ill at some point of time. They liked to nested in their surroundings and are so prone to fall sick at the first instance of being out of the hibernation. She says that unfortunately she couldn’t recover in time and can’t wait till then next time to have chance to perform in New Zealand. But the benefit of doubt can be passed onto her as she is rumored to be pregnant with husband Jordan Bratman’s baby and still on tour which I think is commendable under the circumstances. Never mind babes, there’s always a second chance and we sincerely hope that you keep in good health coz health is wealth. But who am I telling all this to, these stars care a damn about health issue, there are all addicts in some or the other way.

Some of the latest news coming out of the Gwen Stefani camp is that she may have to cancel a Malaysian show date. Her Sweet Escape tour is scheduled to pass through Malaysia but have to cancel. A Muslim group has branded the pop star as indecent and obscene and they believe that she offends Islamic beliefs. The video clips used to promote the event were deemed too racy. I find it shocking that nobody does their homework anymore. Travelling to those countries involves a level of research. They have so many different ways and beliefs and if you aren’t aware of them, you run the risk of insulting people. Remember when Cameron Diaz did it with her bag? Hollywood has gotten so cocky that they seem to think they are accepted as they are everywhere, but the reality is they are only accepted in Hollywood itself. A concert cancellation is being let off easy. Some countries may have stoned her.

More than 70 Eminem songs are available for download on iTunes. Rap star Eminem is suing computer firm Apple for allegedly selling his music in its iTunes store without permission.
A lawsuit claiming infringement of copyright has been filed on behalf of the singer by his music publishing company Eight Mile Style.

Apple pays Eminem’s record label for each download - but Eight Mile Style argues it has not approved the deal.

“This is a significant issue in the music industry,” said Norman Ankers, a lawyer for the company.

“This occurs with many artists and many record labels.”

A spokesperson for Apple had no comment on the legal case, which was filed in the US District Court in Detroit.

Eight Mile Style said between 70 and 80 songs were affected by the dispute, including tracks from the Grammy award-winning The Eminem Show.

The company holds the copyright, or partial copyright, in all of the tracks.

It is seeking more than $75,000 (£36,900) for copyright infringement, unfair competition and a violation of the Michigan consumer protection act.

It also asks for damages of up to $150,000 (£73,800) per infringement - or each time a song is downloaded.

Apple charges $0.99 (£0.49) for most song downloads in the US. Recording companies get about $0.70 (£0.34) and pass on $0.09 (£0.04) of that fee to publishers.

But many publishers would prefer to receive their share of the money directly from retailers.

“Generally, artists want their music sold,” said Joel Martin, a spokesperson for Eight Mile Style. “We want it downloaded. We request that any provider that’s offering downloads license it through the publisher.”

“Apple is not accounting to us. They are accounting to Universal (Music),” he said.

Martin added that Apple had repeatedly asked Eight Mile Style for permission to use its songs, but the requests had been turned down.

Eminem has locked horns with Apple before. In 2004 he sued the company for copyright infringement, alleging that it had used his song Lose Yourself in a TV commercial without permission.

The case was settled out of court.

Progressive metal band Queensryche has begun working on the follow-up to last year’s “Operation: Mindcrime II” in Seattle.

Frontman Geoff Tate tells Billboard.com he hopes the as-yet-untitled set will arrive next summer or fall.

“We’re just into the first couple months of writing for it, and it’s a theme record. It’s based on modern American life, sort of a social commentary,” Tate says. “Musically it’s very adventurous for us. It’s something we haven’t done before. It’s going to take a lot of people by surprise, and at the same time I think they’re going to be very intrigued by the concept of it.”

The band, which hits the road in September with Heaven And Hell and Alice Cooper, will release “Sign of the Times,” its second greatest-hits collection on EMI, prior to the tour. Among hits like “Walk in the Shadows” and “Silent Lucidity,” the two-disc set contains rarities like songs from Myth, the band Tate sang in before joining Queensryche, that later became demos for early QR tunes like “No Sanctuary.”

“Sign of the Times” also includes a recent interview with Tate and former Queensryche guitarist Chris DeGarmo. In it Tate says he and DeGarmo hang out often and write together, but the musical work they’ve done is on a “casual” basis.

Meanwhile, Queensryche is enjoying the success of its double-CD/DVD package “Mindcrime at the Moore.” The live set captures the band playing both “Mindcrime” albums in their entirety on tour last year. Released July 3, the title debuted at a career-best No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Music DVD chart.

John Mayer took the time to post a blog that was made to greet his sound engineer Chad. In the entry, John shows some of his humor as he wrote what could be assumed to be a song for Chad and ratted out some trivia about the guy.

The lyrics were quite interesting as John writes:

“Happy Birthday, Chad.
You are my sound engineer (hence the sound board birthday cake)
and together we share a house.
You keep me warm on those cold nights
by making sure the thermostat is functioning properly.
And if it’s not, then we lovingly embrace
the fact that it will be cold
and pile on extra blankets
in our respective beds
that are located next to one another
at our local Serta mattress dealer.
I long to feel your caring touch
on the production of the next CD
And look forward to showering again with you soon.
Your sister looks lovely with that pregnant glow, and I hope the gift will go to good use.”

Mom Sheryl Crow waits offstage as hired nanny Marva keeps her 3-month old adopted son Wyatt at bay. He’s quieted with a pacifier at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago on Saturday. Sheryl also put on some noise-canceling headphones on baby Wyatt to keep the kid from going deaf as she performed on stage with Eric Clapton.

But it seems to me that the noise should be the least of her worries. Does anyone else think that baby Wyatt looks tortured? And why does nanny Marva look like she doesn’t give a damn? Mommy needs to figure something out and fast.

Kiss lead singer and guitarist Paul Stanley had to bow out of a Southern California concert because of heart problems before the show, according to his Web site.

Band-mates Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer played the Friday night gig at Soboba Casino, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles, as Stanley was taken to the hospital.

“During sound check yesterday, 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 a normal pattern,” Stanley said in the Saturday Web site posting.

“Not knowing if this episode was life threatening made it even more exhausting,” the statement continued.

Phone and e-mail messages for Kiss manager Doc McGhee seeking comment about Stanley’s condition were not immediately returned Saturday night.

It was Kiss’ first ever appearance as a trio, according to the band’s Web site.

As famous for their makeup, stage mayhem and wagging tongues as their music, Kiss recorded the 1970s hits “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “Detroit Rock City.”

The 55-year-old Stanley, born Stanley Eisen, released a solo album, “Live to Win,” in 2006.

Rapper Fabolous performed his new single “Make Me Better” with r&b singer Ne-Yo

Brian May, the lead guitarist from rock band Queen, is close to earning his doctorate in astrophysics — more than 35 years after quitting his studies to become a rock star.

May arrived on the island of La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands several days ago to conduct astronomical observations in support of his thesis, according to a statement by the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands.

His thesis, “Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud,” is the last component of his PhD studies, and May expected to complete his work on Wednesday.

“Maybe you’d like to see the Telescope we are working in,” May, 60, wrote on his Web site on Wednesday.

“Galileo … Galileo … how full of coincidences life is,” he added, referring to the lyrics in Queen’s hit song “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

After submitting his thesis at Imperial College, London, he will have to wait until university assessors approve his work to be granted his PhD next year.

May was studying astrophysics at Imperial College when he formed Queen with singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor in 1970. He dropped his doctorate research into interstellar dust as the band met with increasing success.

After Mercury’s AIDS-related death in 1991, May recorded several solo albums and set up the Brian May Band.

But his interest in astronomy continued, and he co-wrote “Bang! The Complete History of the Universe” with Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, which was published last year.

Earlier this month, the writer of such Queen hits as “We Will Rock You” and “Fat Bottomed Girls” was granted an honorary doctorate from Exeter University in Devon, England.

Pearl Jam will play a private show for fan club members in Chicago on August 2, three days before its headlining stint at the city’s Lollapalooza festival, the rock group said on Tuesday.

Tickets for the show at the Vic Theatre will go on sale on Thursday, priced at $150 per pair (plus applicable fees). The Vic’s capacity is about 1,400 people, according to the venue’s web site.

Lollapalooza is Pearl Jam’s only U.S. appearance planned for 2007. Apart from a three-week European tour last month, the group has been laying low this year. The Seattle quintet spent much of 2006 on the road in support of a new self-titled album, its first studio release in almost four years.

Joni Mitchell is following the lead of Paul McCartney in joining with the coffee giant Starbucks to release her comeback album.

Hear Music, a record label formed in partnership with Starbucks Corp. and the Concord Music Group, said Wednesday that Mitchell is its second signing. “Shine,” her first album of new compositions since 1998, will be released on Sept. 25.

McCartney’s album “Memory Almost Full” came out last month and was played relentlessly at Starbucks franchises, where listeners could purchase it with their coffee. The disc has sold 447,000 copies, 45 percent of them in Starbucks stores, the company said.

The new venture has attracted interest from veteran artists both because the music business is collapsing around them, and their fans are much more likely to be spending time in Starbucks these days than in music stores.

Mitchell worked with Hear Music two years ago as it released a disc of favorite Mitchell songs selected by various artists. She had essentially retired from making music and said this project was one of the things that rekindled her interest, said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment.

Mitchell wrote nine of the 10 songs on “Shine,” the exception being an adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling poem “If.”

She described it as “as serious a work as I’ve ever done” with some dark lyrics.

Earlier this year, Mitchell was co-director of “The Fiddle and the Drum,” a ballet based on her music that debuted in Canada. She’s also planning an exhibit of her paintings in New York this fall.

Most of these buyers are not fans but merely investors who want to lay there hands of a piece of Beatle history and cash it 20-30 years later. John Lennon’s trademark ‘granny’ spectacles, which the late Beatle wore during the band’s tour to Japan in 1966, have attracted a bidding of $1.5m at an online auction so far. I could see better without any glasses on what the buyer do with a $1.5m spectacles would. Everyone is bidding to get their hands on the gold-rimmed glass less spectacles that he had gifted to the Fab Four’s Japanese translator Junishi Yore. Yore had removed the dark lenses from the frame by pushing them out with his own thumbs when Lennon was murdered in 1980. He did so because he wanted Lennon to be able to see in death. Whatever the memories and facts associated with this spectacle $1.5m is really exorbitant and let us see that when the final bids are opened will this be the figure for the glasses.

Paul McCartney has offered 20 million Pounds to his estranged wife Heather Mills in divorce settlement, but the latter is adamantly demanding more than twice the offered money at 50 million Pounds. Earlier, it was believed that the couple settled their matter in the range of somewhere between 25 to 30 million out of McCartney’s fortune of estimated 825 million Pounds. But the lady got greedier and yesterday I heard a final figure of some 70 million pounds, it could be plain rumors or it could be true as well. The whole matter could well end up for a trail and this could be a lot murkier than Paul ever thought of. She wants the money and shall not leave him in peace until she has what she wants. The couple’s case is scheduled for a five day hearing next February and by that time she will be dragging about the whole issue and keep harassing the former Beatle all the more longer. If she had a chance then she would have robbed Paul of his money in a whisker.

R&B singer Usher is attempting to shut down one of his most popular fan sites UsherForever.com, according to reports. The Burn hitmaker is currently in discussions with lawyers to prepare a legal attempt to close down the fan site, run by Erika Jackson. Usher recently sent an open letter to fans via America’s People magazine, declaring, “Some media and bloggers have been totally intrusive, they have misconstrued aspects of my personal life and, because of this, my ‘true’ fans are not sure about what is fact and what is fiction. Blog sites are run so as to air views of fans and shutting the site down means that Usher has no respect and love for his fans and don’t care a damn for their opinion. I personally would read the story and his views before I would make any of my comments. Hope he retracts his wish and lets the site continue. This will in any case not do any good to him, coz there are other sites where fans could air their views and it’s not going change their opinion.

Bobby Brown has spoken of his fear that he maybe killed by al-Qaeda on his upcoming tour of Australia.

The faded R&B star is due to play the first in a series of shows Down Under on Thursday, with a gig in Melbourne.

However, he admits to being concerned that Osama bin Laden wants him dead, following claims the infamous terrorist is obsessed with Brown’s former wife Whitney Houston.

Sudanese writer Kola Boof recently claimed that he was amongst the main targets on bin Laden’s hit-list, prompting Brown to ramp up security for the new dates.

“Come on, if anybody is threatened by al-Qaeda they’d take it seriously,” Brown told an Australian radio show.

“I figure if bin Laden wants me, and everybody is looking for him, it probably won’t happen. But if he wants to try and find me for something so stupid, he can do what he wants.

“I have to leave it in the hands of my higher power,” insisted Bobby, who is now divorced from Houston.

Ashanti’s video “Switch” is the first video which portrays couple Ashanti and Nelly together. Ashanti has made this album “Switch” all on her own without any help from anybody. As previously her albums were produced by Irv Gotti. Ashanti is really happy handling this album by herself. Ashanti says “With this album, I’m taking the lead with everything. I’m steering my own ship. I’m doing everything on my own. I have a label that I’m developing under Universal as well. It’s just a big year for me — I feel really, really excited about the album. Now just because the two are close and have release their first music video together it doesn’t mean that the two are a couple. Means like if anyone was in another person’s company they would make a couple. Well all need a support staff that can help guide us in the murky waters of the music industry and Nelly is just being nice enough to act for her as her support staff, as might not be able to afford one yet. Yeah, all you are absolutely right she needs a support staff.