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New book of the late Lou Reed’s writings on tai chi coming in March

January 6, 2023 by WDNY Radio

A new book of writings by the late Lou Reed is due out later this year, but it won’t be giving insight into his music. Instead, it will focus on one of his other interests — tai chi.

Reed began practicing the Chinese meditative movements in the ’80s. The new book The Art of the Straight Line: My Tai Chi, being published by HarperOne, is described as “a comprehensive collection of Reed’s writings on Tai Chi.”

Edited by his wife, musician Laurie Anderson, along with Stephan Berwick, Bob Currie and Scott Richman, the book includes conversations Reed had with a variety of people, including Iggy Pop, the late music producer Hal Willner, artist Julian Schnabel and some tai chi practitioners.

The unpublished writings in the book cover such subjects as the “technique, practice and purpose of martial arts,” and has Reed sharing his thoughts and observations on meditation and life.

The Art of the Straight Line: My Tai Chi is due out March 14.

Ian Gillan pays tribute to wife Bron, who passed away in November

January 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

As previously reported, Ian Gillan’s wife, Bron, passed away in November at the age of 67, and now the Deep Purple rocker has shared a tribute to her on his personal website.

“My darling wife, Bron, died of heart failure on Saturday 19 November, 2022, in Exeter Hospital,” he writes. “It’s taken some weeks until I could find the words to dignify her publicly. Publicly, because our life together, (forty. wonderful, happy years), was mainly private.”

He adds, “But, I don’t think she’d mind if I said out loud that ‘I love you my sweet B, we are forever entwined. The wrench of bereavement is softened by your continued presence. Thank you for your love and guidance. See you later.’”

Gillan also shares that Bron was “was funny, beautiful, intelligent and strongly supportive to me and our daughter Grace, in our work,” adding, she “made a wonderful happy place for me and Grace, to come home to.”

As for the upcoming year, Gillan offers, “I’m getting my head together for the year of work ahead, for which I’m grateful (it helps) and excited. We are getting around a bit in this coming year, so I hope to see as many as possible of your smiling faces on the road, or in a bar somewhere.”

‘Glass Onion’ gives streaming bump to Beatles, David Bowie & Bee Gees classics

January 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Netflix’s latest Knives Out film, Glass Onion, is sparking some renewed interest in The Beatles classic of the same name. Billboard reports that the White Album track, which plays over the credits of the hit flick Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, has seen a streaming bump since the film debuted on the streamer December 23.

During the week of December 23 to 29, The Beatles’ “Glass Onion” was streamed 160,000 times, up from 60,000 the previous week, an increase of 167%.

And that’s not the only song to get some help from the movie. David Bowie’s “Star,” which plays during a Kate Hudson dance sequence, saw a 60% increase, while the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” which is also in the flick, saw a 37% streaming increase.

Robert Plant credits Phil Collins with helping him with his solo career

January 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Robert Plant admits it wasn’t easy to go on with his career after the end of Led Zeppelin, but credits his friends, including Phil Collins, with helping him move on.

“After [Led Zeppelin drummer] John [Bonham] passed away and there was no Led Zeppelin, there had to be a way to go,” Plant shares in a new interview with Vulture. “I floundered around a lot because until I was 32, I was in some kind of wild and absurd adventure.”

Plant says Led Zeppelin was “a lot to live up to.” As he struggled with his first solo album, 1982’s Pictures at Eleven, there were a lot of friends who gave him “support and strength,” including Collins, who appeared on five of the album’s tracks.

“Phil Collins especially was a driving force and had positive energy with the first record,” he says. “With Phil, it wasn’t so much advice as encouragement and consideration. He was taking no prisoners. He would only allow himself a short amount of time to come to the studio in Wales and make it work. Nobody was hiding behind the performance.”

Collins actually went on tour with Plant, telling the rocker he wanted to help because of his admiration for Bonham, who was his hero. Plant notes, “That was it. He said, ‘Anything I can do to help you to get back into fighting shape again, I’m here.’”

As this was all happening, Collins was dealing with his own successful solo career, with the 1981 single “In The Air Tonight.” Plant notes, “Yet he was still mixing and working with me while kicking off a particularly impressive and successful time. He’s a great spirit, a good man.”

Aubrey Plaza, Michael B. Jordan to be ‘SNL”s first guest hosts of 2023

January 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Saturday Night Live has just announced its first guest hosts and musical guests of the new year.

The White Lotus‘ Aubrey Plaza kicks things off on January 21, with Sam Smith as the musical guest.

Creed III star and director Michael B. Jordan will step into the ring of Studio 8H on January 28, with musical guest Lil’ Baby.

Out of the announced names, only Smith is an SNL veteran; the appearance will be the recording artist’s third on the sketch show.

Sam Smith to be first musical guest of 2023 on ‘Saturday Night Live’

January 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

NBC’s Saturday Night Live returns on January 21 with its first new show of 2023, and Sam Smith has the honor of being this year’s first musical guest.

Sam, whose new album Gloria comes out January 27, is returning to the show for the first time since 2017. During that appearance, they sang “Too Good at Goodbyes” and “Pray.” This will be Sam’s third appearance on the show overall; their first came in 2014, when they sang “Stay With Me” and “Lay Me Down.”

There’s no word on whether or not Kim Petras will join Sam if they decide to sing “Unholy.”

Aubrey Plaza, most recently seen in the second season of The White Lotus, will host.

Journey’s Neal Schon “won’t take orders” from anyone

January 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Neal Schon appears to be asserting his dominance when it comes to his band Journey. Despite his ongoing legal battles with bandmate Jonathan Cain, the guitarist insists in a recent tweet that he “won’t take orders” about the band from anyone.

“No one is going to dictate to me at this point what I can and cannot do in regards to JOURNEY,” Schon tweeted. “I haven’t been here and not here to take orders- never have and never will. It’s my band and I’ll own it as I should and make the right changes as needed.”

The post prompted one fan to ask him who was trying to “dictate” to him, with Schon responding, “Have a guess,” an indication he was talking about Cain. He also posted an image that read “narcissists act out with frustration, sulking, resentment and rage when things don’t go their way.”

As previously reported, Schon and Cain have been in the news a lot lately because of their legal battles. The most recent incident had Schon sending a cease-and-desist letter to Cain over a performance of “Don’t Stop Believin’” at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Tony Bennett shares sweet throwback photo of him and Lady Gaga playing pinball

January 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Tony Bennett is celebrating his friendship with Lady Gaga by looking back at some of the fun times they had together.

Taking to Twitter on Thursday, the legendary singer shared a photo of him and Gaga dressed to the nines while engrossed in a game of pinball. Bennett is the one trying to beat the game as Gaga stands to the side and watches him play.

“Playing a little pinball with Lady Gaga backstage in Vegas in 2019!” the crooner captioned the post.

While it is unknown when the photo was taken, Gaga famously invited Bennett to perform during the debut of her Las Vegas Jazz & Piano residency at Park MGM in 2019. The two duetted on Frank Sinatra‘s “The Lady Is a Tramp” and Irving Berlin‘s “Cheek to Cheek.”

The two have collaborated on two duets albums, Cheek to Cheek and Love for Sale. They performed a final time together in 2021 for the CBS special One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.

Bennett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, has since retired from performing.

Twenty One Pilots announce 10th anniversary ’Vessel’ streaming event

January 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Twenty One Pilots have announced a streaming event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the duo’s 2013 album, Vessel.

“We’re gonna show some behind-the-scenes videos, some old photos, play some songs,” frontman Tyler Joseph says of the virtual festivities. “We’re gonna celebrate 10 years of Vessel.”

During the stream, Twenty One Pilots will also be offering a reissued vinyl version of Vessel.

You can tune in to watch this Sunday, January 8, at 3 p.m. ET on YouTube.

Vessel was originally released January 8, 2013. Every song on the record has been certified either Gold or Platinum by the RIAA, a feat Twenty One Pilots also achieved with 2015’s Blurryface. Twenty One Pilots is the first group to have two completely RIAA-certified albums.

The most recent Twenty One Pilots album is 2021’s Scaled and Icy. In a New Year’s Eve post, Joseph shared that the Scaled and Icy era had concluded.

Gene Simmons has some thoughts about ‘Rolling Stone’s’ Greatest Singers list

January 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Rolling Stone’s list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time has caused a lot of controversy since its release this week, and Gene Simmons has something to say about it.

A TMZ reporter asked the KISS frontman how he felt about being left off the list, to which he replied, “Well, that’s OK,” joking, “I was thinking of buying Rolling Stone.”

“Well, it’s skewed. You have to consider who’s popular and who’s not,” Simmons elaborated. “But if you really think about it, how good somebody sings may be part and parcel of what they do. For instance, if Jimi Hendrix, who had a long, well, actually, a short career, but he was very famous, would he make it on American Idol? How about Bob Dylan … And I wrote songs with Bob Dylan; I know the guy. Would he make it on American Idol?”

He also added, “How well you sing is not the most important thing. It’s, do you have style? Do you have a fingerprint that says, ‘I know that voice immediately’?”

Simmons insists artists shouldn’t really care about the list. “If you’ve got success, that’s enough,” he says. “Accolades and all that, you get that when you do a concert or when fans come up. That’s the best thing. To be on a poll by a magazine by people in the backroom, I don’t know how much that means.”

And Simmons also shared his thoughts on Ozzy Osbourne making the list at #112: “That’s a crime.”

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