Search Results for: dr dre

Willie Nelson will be the featured performer for the 8th Annual Country in the Rockies event at Club Med Crested Butte, Colorado January 29 through February 3, 2002. Nelson’s legend as a songwriter is matched only by his reputation for opening his heart to help raise funds where there is need. Proceeds from this annual event help fund research efforts at the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, a division of the T.J. Martell Foundation. A highlight of the fundraising and fun each year is the fabulous auction that takes place during the week. This year,… Read more »

David Bowie has left Virgin Records, his recording home since 1995, in favor of his own label. Bowie formed the ISO label more than a year ago, and he has decided to bring everything in-house now because of unhappiness with Virgin. Bowie writes on his website (davidbowie.com), “I’ve had one too many years of bumping heads with corporate structure. Many times I’ve not been in agreement with how things are done and, as a writer of some proliferation, frustrated at how slow and lumbering it all is. I’ve dreamed of embarking on my own set-up for such a long time… Read more »

Versatile soul icon Rufus Thomas, a pioneering radio DJ and a singer/songwriter famed for the R&B standard “Walking The Dog,” has died in Memphis at age 84, his family said Sunday. Over a 70-year career, which took off in a segregated minstrel show, Thomas was a key player in the rise of rock ‘n’ roll and soul. He recorded for the two greatest record labels to come out of Memphis, Sun and Stax, and performed into his 80s. Thomas died Saturday at St. Francis Hospital of apparent heart failure, his family said. He had been receiving treatment at the hospital… Read more »

Six months after returning to store shelves, Weezer are ready to make their follow-up. The band will soon enter a Hollywood studio to record its fourth album, according to an Interscope Records spokesperson. The LP’s scheduled April 30 release date may seem optimistic, but it’s not like the diligent group is starting from scratch. Just two weeks after the release of Weezer, the band’s second self-titled effort (known as the Green Album), frontman Rivers Cuomo and company hit a Washington, D.C., recording studio to lay down demos for 12 new songs, including the instrumental “Burnt Jamb,” “Keep Fishin’,” “Not in… Read more »

Veteran rocker David Bowie has quit the Virgin Records label, which released his last three albums, and set up an independent music company, he announced on his Web site. “I’ve had one too many years of bumping heads with corporate structure,” Bowie, 54, said in a fresh blow to the record label this year. “Many times I’ve not been in agreement with how things are done and as a writer of some proliferation, frustrated at how slow and lumbering it all is. I’ve dreamed of embarking on my own set-up for such a long time and now is the perfect… Read more »

Jim Caparro, the man who helped build the Island Def Jam Music Group into the third-biggest record label in the U.S. through aggressive consolidation and savvy A&R, has decided to resign as chairman of the Universal Music division after three years on the job. Caparro, whose duties will be taken up by his longtime colleague, IDJ president Lyor Cohen, said the timing was perfect for his departure, with the label group at its peak performance and a strong cadre of execs to take up the reins. “People in this position normally leave because they get fired,” Caparro told Daily Variety.… Read more »

Britney Spears was to appear in an anti-fur poster for PETA, but after word got out, first in Wednesday’s New York Post, that implied the pop princess would appear naked – like previous PETA spokesmodels Pamela Anderson, Melissa Etheridge and current poster girl, actress Dominique Swain (“Lolita”) – the fur really began to fly and Spears scratched all association with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “Contrary to what has been widely reported, Britney Spears was never going to appear in a PETA poster undressed,” her spokesperson said in a statement. The statement also claimed that Spears would… Read more »

Neil Young may be Canadian, but the veteran rock star was honored Tuesday for promoting freedom and justice in his adopted country. People for the American Way, a free-speech advocacy group formed 20 years ago to combat the so-called “religious right,” presented Young with its Spirit of Liberty lifetime achievement award during its annual fundraising dinner in Beverly Hills. Young, in turn, raised a few eyebrows among the liberal crowd by defending anti-terrorist measures that have angered civil rights groups. But he urged the audience to ensure the controversial measures were only temporary. “Never let America forget that these are… Read more »

The third time turned out to be not so charming for Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 8. For three consecutive weeks, the latest installment in the hits-laden compilation series couldn’t occupy the #1 slot three of its predecessors (volumes 7, 6 and 4) have enjoyed, thanks to Creed’s Weathered, which will remain reigning king of the mountain on next week’s Billboard 200 albums chart. The band’s third album continues to meet staggering sales, moving more than 458,000 copies last week, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday (December 12). Weathered’s three-week total stands at more than 1.7 million. Now… Read more »

Fortune Magazine named XM Satellite Radio its “Product of the Year,” calling XM “way, way, way above the rest” of 2001’s new technologies. The honor, in an article by Fortune senior editor Peter Lewis, appears in the magazine’s Dec. 24 edition, on newsstands nationwide Dec. 17. “Of all the new technologies of 2001, XM Satellite Radio is way, way, way above the rest. It’s the first major advance in radio since FM emerged in the 1960s, and the best thing to happen to mobile music since the dashboard CD player…” Fortune wrote. “If you spend a lot of time on… Read more »