MusicNewsTidBits.com

In December 2002, ten of Ray Charles’s 12 children attended a lunch with their father, at which the star presented each of them with a check for $1 million.

“Just as Jesus created wine from water, we humans are capable on transmuting emotion into music…”

Carlos Santana

Richard Ashcroft is releasing his first solo album in four years. Personally I wish he would get back with The Verve, who I absolutely LOVE! Anyway his album is called “United Nations of Sound” and will come out on March 22 through Razor & Tie. He’ll be performing his new single “Are You Ready?” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with of course, The Roots as his support band.

I actually forgot about the Billboard Music Awards. The last time they were on was back in 2006. Well they are bringing it back and will air on ABC on Sunday May 22. We’ll see how it turns out.

Here’s The Cars new video for a single off their new album “Move Like This” called “Blue Tip”. The album should be out on May 10th. It’s totally classic Cars.

MusicRadar.com has posted 393 free soul and funk samples that are royalty-free so you can use them however you like. I don’t normally post directly from another site but I thought this was pretty cool. So download if you want some sick samples

393 Free Soul and Funk Samples

Since Michael Jacksons death in June 2009 and up to the end of 2010, he’s earned about $310 million. Not bad for a dead guy huh. Somehow the Jackson estate has spent $159 million since his death between his funeral, burial and buying the Jacksons home in north Los Angeles. WTF did that house cost? Sounds like some shady shit is STILL going on there.

Little is known about her new album but she has teamed up with Syrian singer Omar Souleyman and will have some elements of Iraqi and Syrian music. It will come out as a limited edition CD, digital download and 12-inch record.

You knew this would happen when Steven Tyler showed up on American Idol to be the judge. All the youngsters would want to hear what he’s all about and most likely began to like Aerosmith. But it was really their greatest hits that shot up. 1994′s compilation ‘Big Ones’ shot up 260%, 2004′s ‘Devil’s Got a New Disguise: The Very Best of Aerosmith’ shot up 146% and of course, and their big hit ‘Dream On’ had over 300% increase.

That’s just crazy.

David LaChapelle, the great photographer of our time, is suing Rhianna over her video for ‘S&M’. LaChapelle said that Rhianna’s video had appropriated eight of his images into the video and copied the “composition, total concept, feel, tone, mood, theme, colors, props, settings, decors, wardrobe and lighting” of his work.

No word on how much he is suing for which sounds like he will settle out of court most likely.

Ya’ll remember El Debarge? Big 80′s hits like ‘Rhythm of the Night and “All This Love”. Well he was on his way to a comeback and going out on tour with Kem and Ledisi but he’s put it on hold so he can check himself into rehab.

“I hate to disappoint my fans but it is necessary for me to take the time to work on me so that I may continue to share my music and my story with everyone. I thank everyone in advance for their prayers and well wishes and hope that you will respect my privacy during this time.”

AC/DC is putting out a new limited edition photo book called “AC/DC Black Ice World Tour 2008-2010″ which will have over 250 photos taken over the 2 years of the tour. The photos were taken by Matteo Abruzzo who was lucky enough to travel with them to get all these great photos.

On February 13th Mick Jagger will perform at the Grammy Awards as part of a tribute to Solomon Burke who died last year. This will be his first appearance on the Grammy stage and he’ll be performing with Raphael Saadiq (that’s interesting).

Ziggy Marley has created…..Marijuanaman. It’s going to be a comic written by Man of Action Studios Joe Casey with illustration by Jim Mahfood and will come in an oversized deluxe hardcover graphic novel.

Marley states “Marijuanaman represents the hope of the future… the hope that we will utilize all of the power that the universe has given us to save our planet.”

The 48 page full cover hardcover will hit stores at $24.99 this year on….wait for it….April 20th!!

Good ol’ Steve Vai is trying to set a world record for the largest online guitar lesson. On March 3rd at 1:30PM EST, Berkleemusic and Livestream will host the event in their studios in New York City where Steve Vai will give a FREE online session for about 30 minutes. He will show his techniques and focus on how guitarists can develop and gain insight into their own playing style. You can go to Berkleemusic.com to listen and ask questions.

On top of all this greatness, Berkleemusic will donate One Dollar for every person that joins the online lesson to the Steve Vai Online Scholarship Fund. Sweet!!