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Fox’s “American Idol” returned as the nation’s most popular TV series, but with 4 million fewer viewers than the 2007 season premiere. Tuesday’s debut was seen by 33.4 million viewers, down 11 percent from the 37.4 million who watched the first show, according to preliminary ratings by Nielsen Media Research. That still ranks as the most-watched show of the TV season, excluding sports. The previous high was the 25.4 million who saw the season premiere of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” on CBS in the fall. More people were watching Fox in those two hours than the combined audience for ABC,… Read more »

There’s quite a bit more rock than rap on Kid Rock’s first studio album in four years, tentatively titled “Rock’n’Roll Jesus,” which will arrive October 9. Recorded at his Michigan home, the Atlantic Records set cuts a broad stylistic swath, from metallic headbangers like first single “So Hot” and “Sugar” (the set’s only rap track) to such rootsy, gospel-hued fare as “Amen” and “When You Love Someone.” The Motown-influenced “Roll On” rolls alongside the power ballad “Miss Understood” and the Crescent City-flavored “New Orleans” (co-written with pal David Allen Coe), while “All Summer Long” entertainingly mashes up elements of Warren… Read more »

Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady who championed conservation and worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, died Wednesday, a family spokeswoman said. She was 94. Johnson, who suffered a stroke in 2002 that affected her ability to speak, returned home late last month after a week at Seton Medical Center, where she’d been admitted for a low-grade fever. She died at her Austin home of natural causes about 5:18 p.m. EDT. Elizabeth Christian, the spokeswoman, said she was surrounded by family and friends. Even after the stroke, Johnson still managed to make occasional… Read more »

Bon Jovi topped the U.S. album charts for the first time since 1988 on Wednesday, while rock duo the White Stripes scored a personal best with a No. 2 debut for their latest release. Bon Jovi’s “Lost Highway” sold 292,000 copies in the week ended June 24, the rock troupe’s biggest one-week sum since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. The Island/Mercury Nashville set is Bon Jovi’s third No. 1 album, joining 1988’s “New Jersey” and 1987’s “Slippery When Wet.” Sales were fueled in part by the group’s new country fanbase, wrangled in with the Grammy-winning 2006 hit… Read more »

Kim Mathers blasted ex-husband Eminem during a radio interview Friday, saying she has come to despise the man she twice married and divorced. Mathers described Eminem, 34, as unfaithful and uncaring – and went as far as to disparage the Grammy winner’s sexual prowess. “I vomit in my mouth whenever I’m around him,” she said during the interview on WKQI-FM in Detroit. Eminem’s publicist, Dennis Dennehy, said he had no immediate response to the comments. Mathers, 31, said she saw the interview as her chance to turn the tables on the rap megastar, who has used his tormented relationship with… Read more »

When Fall Out Boy released their third full-length album, From Under the Cork Tree, no one realized just how well the LP would do. It ended up being one of the surprise breakout hits of 2005 and sold more than 2.5 million copies in the U.S. alone – making for much less surprising first-week sales totals for the band’s follow-up effort, Infinity on High. With close to 260,000 copies flying off record store shelves last week, FOB’s Infinity on High has earned the Chicago rockers a career first: a #1 debut on Billboard ‘s albums chart – a debut one… Read more »

With Sting’s simple “Ladies and gentlemen, we are the Police,” one of the most iconic bands of the last 30 years ended a long absence from live performing to launch the 49th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night. Blasting off with the unmistakable, reggae-fied “Roxanne” riff from guitarist Andy Summers and the hard jazz drumming of Stewart Copeland, the Police lived up to their top billing on the show, providing a spirited kickoff to one of the most anticipated reunions in a year full of get-backs. With a buff-if-balding Sting in fine form and voice, the trio’s homage to a… Read more »

Warner Music Group has signed a deal to allow its entire catalog to be played over the fast-growing social networking music service Last.fm, the innovative site that links music fans to new and old hits. With more than 15 million active users per month, Last.fm has earned glowing praise for its system which recommends songs by tracking a listener’s music-playing habits and automatically linking them to fans with similar tastes. The deal with Warner, the world’s fourth-largest music company, is the first with one of the major labels and the network’s co-founder Martin Stiksel said they were in talks with… Read more »

Melisma/Atlantic recording artist Rob Thomas has announced plans for his first-ever solo concert tour. The special 11-city, cross-country itinerary heralds the April 19th release of Thomas’ debut solo album, “…SOMETHING TO BE.” The tour kicks off on Friday, April 15th at The Fillmore in San Francisco and wraps up on April 30th at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. The shows will mark Thomas’ first club tour since matchbox twenty’s first national trek eight years ago. “Lonely No More,” the first single from “…SOMETHING TO BE,” has proved to be an immediate smash at pop radio across the country. The… Read more »