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It’s no surprise that the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation would express concern over controversial comments made by 50 Cent against homosexuals. What’s surprising is that the organization is praising the rapper for his honesty. “As a public figure, 50 Cent must realize that his words can have a huge impact,” GLAAD spokesperson C. Riley Snorton said in a statement. “We applaud his honesty in talking about the murder of his bisexual mother and appreciate his acknowledgement that he is not comfortable with gay people. We know that confronting homophobia can indeed be uncomfortable. But honesty is always the… Read more »

Federal regulators opened a new front in their crackdown on offensive broadcasts Thursday, saying that almost any use of the F-word on over-the-air radio and television would be considered indecent. The Federal Communications Commission overruled its staff and said an expletive uttered by rock singer Bono on NBC was both indecent and profane. It marked the first time that the FCC cited a four-letter word as profane; the commission previously equated profanity with language challenging God’s divinity. The FCC on Thursday also proposed maximum fines for the broadcast of the Howard Stern radio show and for a program on two… Read more »

Twenty years after he first appeared on the big screen in “Purple Rain,” Prince returns to movie theaters for one night only March 29. The Minnesota rock star plans to broadcast his concert in Los Angeles live via satellite to 32 Regal Cinema theaters around the country. Tickets are on sale at the theaters for $15 and online starting Tuesday at http://www.RegalCM.com. The Los Angeles concert is the first major show on Prince’s Musicology tour, on which he pledges to perform many of his old hits for the last time. He plans to hit at least 38 cities. Prince will… Read more »

After more than two years in hibernation, Slipknot are about to re-emerge with a new look and a new album, which is cryptically titled Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses. The band will don its third series of masks on this year’s Jägermeister Music Tour, which begins March 30 in Orlando, Florida.The new masks are more streamlined than those Slipknot wore on the 2002 tour for their second album, Iowa, but the look is basically the same. “It’s just an extension of what we wore last time, they just have more elaborate detail,” said drummer Joey Jordison. “You can still tell… Read more »

Justin Timberlake suffered a wardrobe malfunction. JC Chasez is suffering what could be called a titular malfunction. Timberlake’s fellow ‘N Syncer is in so-sorry mode after a leading advocate of the schizophrenic took offense to the title of Chasez’s just-released solo album. The one called Schizophrenic. For the record, the cover art-depicting a mussy-haired Chasez in a straight jacket-didn’t go over too big with Bill MacPhee, either. In a statement Monday, MacPhee, publisher of Schizophrenia Digest, and a diagnosed schizophrenic, called Chasez’s appropriation of the brain disorder a misappropriation, and criticized his record label, Jive. “Through the album title and… Read more »

Britney Spears is getting into that “Leaving Las Vegas” frame of mind. The singer is going to stage her suicide in her new video for “Everytime,” as a way to respond to rumors and reports that she’s teetering on the brink, seeking help, in therapy or otherwise disturbed. Call the clip Britney’s funhouse mirror – it’ll reflect her life, but distort it, too. Spears’ follow-up to “Toxic” – her first #1 single since 2000’s “Oops!… I Did it Again” – will be shot in Los Angeles but set in Sin City, home of her quickie marriage. Though “Everytime” is a… Read more »

The year 1954 was full of pop culture benchmarks. Elvis Presley recorded his first single, the Miss America pageant was televised for the first time, Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for “The Old Man and the Sea.” And in a small factory in Fullerton, California, an inventor named Leo Fender created his Stratocaster. If the general public overlooked that last milestone, musicians do not. In fact, for many it’s a pivotal event. “Who knows how many different designs they’ve used to imitate and top it and nobody’s come close,” says Nils Lofgren, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.… Read more »

The odds are stacked against Velvet Revolver. Their singer, Scott Weiland, is currently in drug rehab for the umpteenth time. Who knows if he’ll be a free man when it’s time to tour, and judging from his past history, it could be a struggle for him to stay clean when the band hits the road. As for his bandmates – ex-Guns N’ Roses members Slash (guitar), Duff McKagan (bass) and Matt Sorum (drums), and former Suicidal Tendencies guitarist Dave Kushner – they’re ready to rock, but there’s some question whether the rock community is ready to embrace them. Over a… Read more »

Prince is taking that little red Corvette out of the garage again. On the heels of his blistering Grammy “Purple Rain” performance, the ’80s funk legend has announced he will hit the road with the New Power Generation for his first major arena tour in six years in support of his new CD, Musicology. To help hype the tour, Prince says the upcoming gigs may be the last time fans get to see him jam out some of the best-known hits live. That presumably means that tunes like “Little Red Corvette,” “1999” “Purple Rain,” When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go… Read more »

The Lostprophets titled their second album Start Something for two reasons. One was to motivate people out of complacency. “We spent the last three years touring and meeting loads of people who were like, ‘I’d love to do this and that,’ but they never had the drive to get up off their asses and do it,” explained singer Ian Watkins. “Start something. Start anything.” The title’s other meaning reflects the band’s feeling that Start Something is their first musical step, despite releasing their debut album three years ago. They’re neither trying to ignore 2001’s The Fake Sound of Progress nor… Read more »