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A grand jury has indicted a Johnson City man on charges that he tried to blackmail a gospel singer by threatening to reveal the performer is gay. Walbert Keith Farmer, 39, was arrested by FBI agents earlier this month and indicted last week on federal extortion charges. Farmer is accused of demanding nearly $15,000 from Kirk Talley, a Dove Award-winning and Grammy-nominated singer who lives in Kodak, in exchange for not telling Talley’s recording company about his sexual conduct. Farmer met Talley in an Internet chat room, Farmer’s attorney Scott Pratt said. Talley told the FBI the Internet was the… Read more »

The great digital music giveaway is about to begin. In the new year, some of the world’s biggest brands will promote their products and services by doling out millions of free downloads through alliances with digital music services. “You’re going to see lots of free music given out via third-party companies,” buymusic.com founder Scott Blum says. “It’s not going to be Apple and iTunes driving the business. It’s going to be companies like Pepsi and other third parties that are promoting digital music on bottle caps and on labels.” Indeed, Apple Computer has inked a deal with Pepsi to give… Read more »

Radio is awesome, isn’t it? It’s free, it’s on whenever you want it, and you can choose from among eight or 10 stations. About the only people who could possibly complain about it, in fact, are people who have to listen to it. They’ll tell you that the music you hear on the radio is mostly the same cloying pop junk, played over and over. That 20 minutes of every hour is ads, played over and over. And that as you drive, the signal comes and goes with the territory. Two years ago, two companies – XM and Sirius –… Read more »

Child molestation charges against Michael Jackson are being driven by “money and revenge,” said defense attorney Mark Geragos, who vowed to derail the alleged victim’s credibility and fight what he called a prosecutor’s vendetta. For District Attorney Thomas Sneddon, whose similar 1993 case against the pop singer evaporated when the accuser reportedly accepted millions in settlement money, the charges filed Thursday represent a second chance to convict the fading pop star before the prosecutor begins his planned retirement. Unlike the 1993 case, Sneddon says, this time he has a cooperative witness who isn’t interested in a piece of Jackson’s fortune.… Read more »

There’s one drawback to Blink-182’s decision to release “I Miss You” as their next single. “This is the thing, the song’s really hard to play,” singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge said backstage at KROQ-FM’s annual Almost Acoustic Christmas on Sunday. “We’ve never played it before. We might play it in the future, or we might have it on a ghetto blaster onstage and we might do an interpretive dance. It’s one of those things, but it’s gonna be good, though, no matter what it is.” It’s not like the band doesn’t have a good excuse for not having the ballad of sorts… Read more »

After 19 original albums, decades of hit singles, and a career marked by truly classic records, Joe Cocker, one of rock’s most intense and passionate performers, has chosen 20 of his favorites for his most expansive career retrospective to date. JOE COCKER: ULTIMATE COLLECTION (A&M/Hip-O Records), released January 13, 2004, offers most of his biggest hits and more from 1968 to 2000, spanning his years on A&M, MCA, Island, Capitol, Sony and Eagle Records. In addition, the package’s booklet spotlights an essay by J.P. Bean, author of the September 2003-published JOE COCKER: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY, along with song annotations and… Read more »

Once again the Swiss are remaining neutral. Swiss authorities have decided not to press charges against the rock ‘n’ roll oddity in the wake of a criminal investigation following complaints from a religious group offended by Manson’s February 2001 concert in Zurich. The city’s examining magistrate, Marcel Scherrer, declared on Monday that his office had found no evidence to suggest that Manson (real name: Brian Warner) incited violence or breached Swiss law that protects the sanctity of religion. In deciding not to file charges, the district prosecutor essentially rejected a grievance filed by Christians for Truth, a Swiss-based fundamentalist group… Read more »

Ozzy Osbourne has been many things throughout his multi-platinum career: lead singer of Black Sabbath, successful solo star and a veteran touring artist. But as Ozzy marks the 35th anniversary of his career, there is no doubt that his starring part in MTV reality series “The Osbournes” ushered in a most unlikely role for him: that of mainstream pop-culture icon. Much has already been said about Ozzy and his family in the saturation media coverage that followed the success of “The Osbournes,” which documents the lives of Ozzy; his wife/manager, Sharon; and two of their children, Kelly and Jack (the… Read more »

The members of Great White were spared Tuesday (December 9) when the band’s tour manager and the club owners were indicted for the fire that took 100 lives in Rhode Island earlier this year. Tour manager Dan Biechele and the owners of The Station, Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, were each charged with 200 counts of manslaughter for the February 20 blaze in West Warwick that also injured 200 other people. All three men pled innocent at the hearing and were released after posting bail. Their next hearing is February 9. Biechele and the Derderians were each charged with 100 counts… Read more »

Britney Spears has canceled her scheduled concert on NBC’s Today show. The singer nixed the performance because the NBC aired a less-than-flattering feature about her, titled “Britney Unzipped,” on Dateline Sunday, that the singer was reportedly none too pleased about. Recently, Pink pulled out of a NBC’s Today show concert scheduled for Friday (November 14) after being told the concert would be canceled if she appeared onLive! With Regis And Kelly. Pink did appear on Regis on Tuesday, and as a bonus, she met one of her idols, Madonna, for the first time. Pink will now perform on ABC’sGood Morning… Read more »