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Today (December 8th) marks the 42nd anniversary of John Lennon's death. As is the custom every year, fans are expected to stand vigil for Lennon across the street from the Dakota building in Central Park's Strawberry Fields. The triangular patch of land was designated by the city of New York in 1984 to celebrate the former Beatle's life and work.

In the fall of 1980, the 40-year-old Lennon had re-entered public life after a self-imposed five-year hiatus to spend time with his young son Sean, travel, and recharge his creative batteries. On November 17th, 1980, Lennon and wife Yoko Ono had released their "comeback" album Double Fantasy, which included such future Lennon standards as "Woman," "Beautiful Boy," "Watching The Wheels," and the album's lead track and single "(Just Like) Starting Over."

On the night of December 8th, 1980 -- with "(Just Like) Starting Over" sitting at Number Six on the singles charts -- Lennon and Yoko returned home to their apartment building, the Dakota on Manhattan's Central Park West. They had spent the evening at the Record Plant East recording studio mixing a tune of Yoko's called "Walking On Thin Ice." Mark David Chapman, who had been stalking Lennon for several days and had received an autograph from Lennon earlier that evening, lay in wait for his return. Chapman, who was living in Honolulu at the time, had made an unsuccessful trip to New York the previous October with the intent of killing Lennon, but couldn't find him.

Lennon and Yoko returned from the studio at around 10:50 p.m., with their limousine dropping them off in front of the building on 72nd Street, rather than pulling into the building's courtyard as usual. As the couple walked in, they passed Chapman who called out "Mr. Lennon?" and fired five shots from a .38 caliber handgun, with four bullets entering Lennon's neck and back. Officers were quick on the scene, arresting Chapman and rushing Lennon in a squad car to nearby Roosevelt Hospital, where doctors worked on reviving the musician, who died from the severity of his wounds.

Dr. Stephan Lynn, the director of Roosevelt Hospital's emergency room, recalled Lennon's injures to The New York Post, saying that, "We made an incision in the left chest and separated the ribs and found a very large amount of blood. We looked for an injury to the heart or to the blood vessels. But what we discovered was that all of the major blood vessels leaving the heart were simply destroyed. There was no way that we could repair them."

The news of Lennon's death was broken by a reporter for New York's WABC-TV, who by coincidence was in the same emergency room after a motorcycle accident. The news was first reported by Howard Cosell during the Monday Night Football telecast.

Yoko returned home and called "the three people John would have wanted to know" -- his aunt Mimi Smith, who raised him; his 17-year-old son Julian, from his first marriage; and Paul McCartney. Within hours of the news, thousands of fans had flocked to the Dakota to stand vigil for Lennon.

Radio executive Andy Denemark recalled getting the news of Lennon being shot: "On the night of the 8th of December, I was at home, I was in bed, I wasn't interested in the Monday Night Football game that night, and my phone rang -- it feels like it was 11 o'clock, 11:30 at night, something like that. And it was a friend of mine who was a huge Beatle fan, and I could hear her shaking over the phone, that the news story had just broke that John Lennon had been shot. And it felt so surreal when she uttered those words to me that I kind of calmed her down and said, 'Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fine,' and 'don't sweat it,' and 'I'm sure it's just a crazy rumor.' It just didn't feel real at all."

Denemark recalls how limited fans' options were in getting accurate news about Lennon's condition: "Radio was the only immediate medium. I did what I think everybody else did at that time, was you turn to the radio. Because any news source -- CBS, NBC, all the big networks at the time -- and don't forget, 1980 was pre-MTV, pre-the expansion of a lot of cable, so you would turn to the radio because that's where you would get news about rock bands."

Julian Lennon and Ringo Starr made immediate plans to head to New York, with George Harrison issuing a statement saying, "After all we went through, I had and still have great love and respect for him. I am shocked and stunned. To rob life is the ultimate robbery." McCartney also issued a statement, saying, "I can't take it at the moment. John was a great man who'll be remembered for his great contributions to art, music and peace. He is going to be missed by the whole world."

Paul McCartney -- like George Harrison -- decided to go in to the recording studio the day after Lennon's murder as a way to get his mid off the tragedy. It was while leaving George Martin's AIR Studios in London that an obviously distraught and devastated McCartney gave his first public comments regarding the previous night's murder of his longtime partner: (McCartney): "It's terrible news." (Reporter): "When did you find out about it?" (McCartney): "I got a phone call this morning." (Reporter): "From who?" (McCartney): "Uh, from a friend of mine." (Reporter): "Are you planning to go abroad for the funeral?" (McCartney): "I don't know yet." (Reporter): "Do you know. . . have you discussed the death with any of the other Beatles?" (McCartney): "No." (Reporter): "Do you plan to?" (McCartney): "Probably, yeah." (Reporter): "What were you recording today?" (McCartney): "I was just listening to some stuff. I just didn't want to sit at home." (Reporter): "Why?" (McCartney): "Well, ‘cause I didn't feel like it." (Reporter): "What time did you hear the news?" (McCartney): "This morning some time." (Reporter): "Very early?" (McCartney): "Yeah. . . It's a drag , isn't it -- okay, cheers."

In 1997 Paul McCartney spoke with the late David Frost and recalled the events of the morning he found out Lennon had been shot dead: "No, I remember it very well, yeah. I got a call from my office that morning and they gave me the news and I was just, sort of, totally stunned and just went blank and went pale. And Linda had actually taken the kids to school, so when she got back, she was quite happy: ‘Hey, how ya doin'?' -- just saw me and she said, ‘God, what's happened?!' Y'know, ‘What's going on?' So, I had to tell her and we just had a terrible day, really -- like I think most people did. Y'know, it was on the radio everywhere. It was a terrible day. I was kind of in shock and somebody stuck a microphone in they car door and sort of said, ‘What do you think?' And all I could blurt out was, ‘It's a drag.' Of course, when that got translated to print, it looked horrible: ‘He said, ‘It's a drag.' It looked very, sort of, wrong. I was just stunned. It was a terrible day. Those kind of things are horrible, ‘cause it alerts everyone to their own fragility and your own lack of security. It's not just stars, as you see, if you look at the news, it's everyone. Y'know, there's always that kind of thing happening: (Adapts newscaster's voice) '. . . and today, in McDonalds, so and so, somebody ran in with a gun and sprayed everyone.' It's our world, I'm afraid." (1:06 OC: . . . world I'm afraid)

George Harrison, who later on his life would also be attacked at the hands of a madman, felt it was unfathomable that his childhood friend and self-admitted hero would meet his fate in such and ugly and violent manner: "It was, I mean, obviously, such a shock because assassination is something which up until that time hadn't really gotten down to that level. I mean, it was always present in leaders, like that, and I wouldn't think that somebody who was a pop star was important enough to kill. Y'know, it's a terrible thing; I don't think anybody is important enough to kill, y'know, really. But I can see why, y'know, there's assassinations with political leaders and stuff, just extremist. And obviously, if it could happen to him, it could happen to anybody, y'know, who gets up on a stage, or walks out of a car."

Legendary bassist Stanley Clarke was recording with McCartney in the West Indies in the weeks following Lennon's murder and told us that McCartney was unable to escape the madness which followed his former partner's killing: "Y'know, we went to some island somewhere, I think it was. . . the Tug Of War record, that was right after or during the John Lennon (murder) -- 'cause I remember those interviews, when they interviewed Paul McCartney, I think we were recording at that time. Yeah, 'cause I remember we were on this island and then the secret service came in and they wanted us to wear some (bullet-proof) vest, 'cause some people were saying -- y'know, there was pranks, they were saying 'We're gonna bomb the island,' this is 'Kill a Beatle week,' and all that kind of mess, y'know? And he was cool. It's like, there's a price when you're really famous, y'know? Like that kind of fame."

Out now is author Keith Elliot Greenberg's book, December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died. Greenberg, who is renowned crime writer and producer for America's Most Wanted, recalls just how different the security around the events of Lennon's murder were from how things are handled today: "Yoko Ono goes down to Roosevelt Hospital, and she leaves the hospital and Paul LaRosa -- who worked for The Daily News at the time -- points out; the police didn't even know how to handle a situation like that this -- not because they were incompetent, they just never encountered it before. So fans are coming up right to her, where they can touch her. When Ringo Starr arrives at the Dakota, people are pulling his hair! They're pushing him and jostling him. Now, there would be a barricade around the block."

There was no funeral for Lennon, who was cremated almost immediately in Hartsdale, New York in Westchester County. Instead, tens of thousands of mourners gathered in New York's Central Park the following Sunday (December 14th) to observe ten minutes of silence at 2 p.m. The event was broadcast globally, with many radio stations ceasing all airplay during the memorial.

THE AFTERMATH

By December 8th, 1980 -- the day Lennon was murdered -- the album's first single, "(Just Like) Starting Over," had reached Number Six on the singles chart and Double Fantasy had just cracked the album charts. Less than three weeks following the tragedy, on December 27th, 1980, "(Just Like) Starting Over" topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of five weeks, while Double Fantasy went on to hold the Number One position for eight weeks.

After Lennon's death, two other singles were released from Double Fantasy -- "Woman," which went to Number Two, and "Watching The Wheels," which peaked at Number Ten.

Double Fantasy went on to receive the 1981 Grammy Award for Album Of The Year. The ceremony marked five-year-old Sean Lennon's first public appearance, when he accompanied his mother to the podium to collect the award.

In 1984, Yoko released Milk And Honey, which included the additional songs she and Lennon had recorded during the 1980 sessions. The album peaked at Number 11 on the charts, with the single "Nobody Told Me" hitting Number Five and becoming Lennon's final Top Ten solo hit.

Both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr contributed to George Harrison's 1981 Lennon tribute "All Those Years Ago," which hit Number Two in the spring of 1981.

McCartney's solo tribute to Lennon, called "Here Today," appeared on his 1982 album Tug Of War, and has been a part of McCartney's live set since 2002.

In early 1981, Chapman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and is currently serving a 25-years-to-life sentence in New York's Wende Correctional Facility. Chapman, a devout born-again Christian who is allowed conjugal visits, has refused all offers of psychotherapy since the murder. He has been turned down for parole 11 times.

Yoko has kept Lennon's legacy alive by consistently issuing previously unreleased recordings and videos along with reproductions of his artwork as lithographs, mugs, tee-shirts, baby clothes, and other items -- to the chagrin of some Lennon fans.

Over three decades after Lennon's death, he now has had far more posthumous releases than he had solo albums by 1980.

In 1995, with Yoko's blessing, McCartney, Harrison and Starr teamed up to complete two of Lennon's unreleased demos -- "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" -- for The Beatles Anthology project.

FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND FANS REMEMBER JOHN LENNON

We asked Yoko how she was able to carry on after watching her husband die so tragically in front of her eyes: "Well, it was very hard for me, really. I don't know how I managed in those days, y'know? I think that one of the reasons I survived was because I kept telling myself that I have to survive for Sean."

Yoko feels that Lennon's status as a public artist pushed conventional boundaries and ultimately had its consequences: "He was meant to do it, I don't know. . . I think he was an inspired artist -- he could not control himself about it, he just dished out all the things he was inspired to dish out, but also he was aware that it was very, very dangerous. I knew that he knew that he was playing a dangerous game. 'Gimme some truth' is what he was thinking, y'know? And so he was pushing that, to the point that it might have been dangerous -- and yes it was, I mean, y'know. . . I think that probably he was too daring for his own good."

Yoko says that she thinks Lennon would've embraced most of the artistic and cultural changes that came into place after his death: "Internet, website -- all that would have driven him crazy, but also he would have said, 'I told you so. It was gonna be a global village, and this is it!' Y'know, that kind of thing. But also, I think he might have gone to rap music -- y'know, the first white rapper kind of thing -- because he was a real, y'know, real rocker -- and a funky one at that."

In 1982 Julian Lennon explained that the first seeds of a mature relationship had been planted during his final trip to see John in the spring of 1979: "Late-‘70s is when I saw him the most. It sort of started from a five-year gap to a three-year gap and then the last time I saw him, he sort of said to me, ‘Well, now's the time you can come anytime you want, rather than me saying, ‘Well, I'm busy now,' or ‘I'll see you, y'know, in a few months time' -- it was up to me then."

Julian says that the fact that he never truly became close with his father still weighs heavily on his mind: "We saw each other on and off. . . I saw him, probably, maybe 10 times before he was killed, y'know? And I think it would have been nice to find some resolve between us eventually, but unfortunately that was never going to be, y'know? So, there will always be that unresolved point in my life, whether I like it or not. Yes, there is forgiveness, but there is still bitterness, and still anger there as well. But, it's not something I think about on a day-to-day basis."

Shortly before her own death in 2015, Lennon's first wife Cynthia Lennon recalled being thrilled when she heard he was coming out of retirement in 1980 to begin making music again: "He was writing. He started to write again which was fantastic, y'know, Double Fantasy. I thought 'Thank God, he's coming back into the real world.'"

George Harrison was able to take a more spiritual view of Lennon's murder than most: "I know John was, um, y'know, he knew who he was -- a soul that happened to be in this body for this period of time, and. . . It's just the method by which you die; y'know, I think its nicer if you can consciously leave your body at death, as opposed to some lunatic shooting you on the street, or having a plane crash -- something like that. I think it's unfortunate the way he went out, but it doesn't really matter -- he's okay, and life flows on within you and without you."

Paul McCartney says he looks back on his partnership with Lennon with great affection: "We had a great collaboration. I mean, I don't think there's any doubt about that. Certainly from my point of view, John was like a great person to work with. He must've thought I was a great person to work with 'cause we stuck together for all that time. We'd grown up together."

Double Fantasy producer Jack Douglas told us that 1981 was to see Lennon complete his Milk And Honey album, head to L.A. to record songs for Ringo Starr's upcoming album, then hit the road with the Double Fantasy band: "It was totally planned. I saw the. . . I saw the drawings of what the stage looked like. He designed it himself. It had these big crab arms that he designed that had cameras on them; the stage looked like a spaceship (with) two crab arms on it with their arms opened up. It was very revolutionary and there were video cameras on them and there was a big screen and the cameras rolled out, 'could go over the audience. It was going to happen, probably in the spring. Second album in the can and the Ringo album."

Upon re-entering the music business during the summer of 1980, Lennon gave exclusive in-depth interviews to only five media outlets -- Playboy, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and BBC and RKO Radio. Longtime friend and photographer Bob Gruen told us that the 1980 interviews luckily showed Lennon when all the pieces to his life finally seemed to fit: "He really seemed to have a lot on his mind at that point. Anybody who reads those interviews will learn something. They're the clearest. . . Y'know, it's the clearest time in his life, I think. He really seemed to understand what he'd been searching for and how to get it."

James Taylor, who was originally signed to the Beatles' Apple Records, maintained a relationship with Lennon up to the time of his death. In the days before the murder, he had encountered Lennon's killer in the 72nd Street subway station below the Dakota. Taylor feels that Lennon's murder was, sadly, inevitable: "I was in the building uptown from the Dakota in New York City -- a building called the Langham -- the night that John was shot. I heard the shots. I couldn't believe it. I have always thought that there was something almost inevitable about it. I often have the feeling that -- I'm not sure exactly where this comes from -- that too much exposure, or too much celebrity, too much of a sort of public profile, is toxic and dangerous. In John Lennon's case, he was so well known, so universally known and loved, that I almost felt that it was statistically inevitable that someone was gonna. . . he was so accessible, y'know?"

U2's Bono says that Lennon's artistic integrity was the blueprint for all that came after him: "Well, he wrote the book for us. Y'know, you're talking about Rubber Soul, other albums -- we've had, y'know, the 'White Album' in the back of our head. He's the one who was ready to take the pratfalls -- to make an idiot out of himself to make a point -- if that's what it took to make a point -- to take the jeers and the sneers to sing his life. I think the courage to be uncool, in music and in art, is everything."

Heart's Nancy Wilson, along with older sister Ann, saw the Beatles at their third-to last public concert on August 25th, 1966 at Washington's Seattle Coliseum. She told us that in addition to his music, it was Lennon's passion for social issues that helped shape an entire generation's outlook on freedom and justice: "He was really screwed up in so many ways and so dark, but he really believed that he could help change things and change the big political system and change the money grubbing, all-mighty dollar aspects of politics, and he could put love first, and he could help lead his generation -- our generation -- and the next ones to a better place. And so he did. And so he and Paul McCartney and the Beatles did, and they rubbed off on us all so much."

The Ronettes' late-leader, Ronnie Spector, who was married to Lennon's record producer Phil Spector, said that the world will never get over the loss of Lennon's talent: "He was the nicest guy. And then when I found out he was dead; I couldn't get out of bed for three days. I was stunned. Because he was heavy. Now here's a guy. . . Talking about writing -- there will never be another John Lennon."

David Leaf, one of the directors of the critically acclaimed documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon, says that more than anything else, the film shows the former Beatle's absolute bravery in trying to stop the war in Vietnam: "What John Lennon did was fearless. He was willing to put it all on the line in the campaign for peace starting in '69, and he did not consider or care what the consequences were. He was willing to make a fool of himself and he was willing to be mocked if it would save lives. He and Yoko should have won the Nobel Peace Prize."

Fred Seaman, who was Lennon's assistant from early 1979 until his death, recalls that Double Fantasy was originally conceived as solo Lennon project: "In 1980, he started thinking about recording. And then the question was, what kind of record would this be? And originally John was going to do a solo record -- that was his idea. And he thought about it for a long time. He didn't think of it in terms of a 'comeback,' but in terms of an update on what he had been doing. And he had been writing songs throughout the '70s."

Finally out as an eBook is rock writer Ken Sharp's groundbreaking and definitive 2010 book, Starting Over: The Making Of John Lennon & Yoko Ono's 'Double Fantasy.' The book, which interviews nearly every person involved in the creation of John Lennon's final music, sheds new and important light on every facet of the album's writing, recording, and promotion. Ken Sharp underscored the importance of the studio comeback for Lennon -- and ultimately his legacy: "For John, the Double Fantasy sessions were a return to what really drove him for his whole life -- (it) was music-making. It was a creative renaissance and a creative rebirth for him when he went back into the studio. A new decade had arrived. John was writing very commercial songs, he was working with some amazing New York session players. Also, he did a session with two of the members of Cheap Trick, so, it was really a creative rebirth for him with the Double Fantasy sessions."

The recently departed Dennis Ferrante, Lennon's main engineer during his New York years, was working a session for the Four Tops that night when he first heard that Lennon had been shot. He immediately called Lennon's ex-girlfriend May Pang for confirmation: "So I went inside and I said, 'I don't believe it.' So I called May, and I got her on the phone, and I said 'Hello,' and she started screaming. And I said 'It's true?' And she was hysterical. I said 'Oh my God.' And I just dropped the phone, I turned around, I took my bag, and I walked out (of the session). I left everything on the machine, I left the lights on, the mic's up, I just walked out. I didn't even say goodbye. I was totally destroyed."

Ferrante, who worked closely with Lennon throughout the '70s on such classic albums as Imagine, Some Time In New York City, Mind Games, Walls And Bridges, and Rock 'N' Roll says that Lennon's death absolutely leveled him: "I cried all night. And I just couldn't get over it, it was like they shot my father, or my mother, or my brother. And I was so distraught, I didn't go back to work for almost a week. I stayed home. And it's funny because nobody called. 'Cause they knew that I had worked with him." (OC: . . . worked with him)

Ferrante told us that he resented the fact that he and many other of Lennon's close friends were denied the opportunity to pay their last respects to him: "Yoko stole John from everybody because she had him cremated that night, or the next morning. And nobody got to pay our last respects to him -- we never got to see him. She just cut everybody off from that. And I thought that was heartless on her part -- and I still think it was heartless. Because, y'know, it's not that it was just her husband, he had a lot of friends that wanted to be there to at least pay respects, and she stopped it from everybody -- she stopped everybody from doing that. Her claim was that she didn't want to put everybody through it, and I don't believe it."

Stephen Bard, co-host of the groundbreaking adult-geared Beatles podcast, 'Fabcast,' summed up why John Lennon's murder went beyond the bounds of rock n' roll or celebrity and truly altered the course of humanity: "It was a tragic world event because it encompassed everything that is bad. Everything that is bad, and wrong, and evil in the world with the murder of this man. Beatles was everywhere. The onslaught of magazines and fanzines that sprung up in the wake of Lennon's death was macabre in nature. They painted the Lennon-Ono romance to glorified heights; they deified him -- and with good reason. It's a little unfair and maybe a little unrealistic, but this was a truly great man. This was a world man. This was a man of the world. This was an international observer-messenger and giver of goodness.

Years after John Lennon's death Paul McCartney revealed that the emotions still remain very close to the surface when thinking and speaking about his partner and closest friend since he was 15-years-old: "It wells up, y'know, when I'm at home on the weekends, suddenly and I start thinking about him, or talking to the kids about him -- and I can't handle it and it all goes, y'know? But most of the time, I can just about handle it. You sort of have to to get through the day."

In celebration of John Lennon's 80th birthday on October 9th, 2020 his sons, Julian and Sean Lennon, appeared on the BBC Radio special Lennon At 80, and apart from discussing their dad's music, they spoke candidly about their own relationship: "(Julian): Listen, more than anything, I'm just glad that we're here. That you and I love each other and are able to connect and talk so openly about any of this stuff. (Sean): Yeah, me too. (Julian): Um, um, this is, y'know -- you are my family. (Sean): I know. The only brother I've got. (Julian): Don't get me cryin' over here (laughter). Next. . . Next subject, please! (Sean): I know. I honestly. . . I, I do worry about crying because sometime when I talk about songs that dad wrote. . . (Julian): Yeah. (Sean): They're just so emotional. They're hard for me to even think about -- let alone listen to, some of them. Especially, y'know, the later stuff, just 'cause I have so many memories of them making Double Fantasy and some of that stuff just breaks my heart, because it just. . . it's like a time machine. It takes me right back to those moments. . . (Julian): Yeah. (Sean): . . . which were pretty tough."

Bush has just rolled out 20 winter 2023 headlining dates, in support of its latest album, The Art Of Survival. Special guests Jerry Cantrell, Candlebox, and Silverson Pickups will alternate as the tour's opening acts. The trek kicks off on January 28th at Reno, Nevada's Grand Theatre at The Grand Sierra Resort and winds down on February 26th at The Parent in St Louis, Missouri.

Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale told us that he continues to challenge himself when it comes to making music: "To me it's just the challenge of making a record and being in music and, like all of us, desiring to be current and relevant to ourselves. Y'know, you have to challenge yourself. Y'know, if you're 21, you write a different thing than if you're 31 and so forth."

JUST ANNOUNCED: Bush tour dates (subject to change):

January 28 - Reno, NV - Grand Theatre at The Grand Sierra Resort (with Jerry Cantrell)
January 29 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Palladium (with Jerry Cantrell)
January 31 - Anaheim, CA - City National Grove of Anaheim
February 1 - Phoenix, AZ- The Van Buren
February 3 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex
February 4 - Denver, CO - Fillmore Auditorium
February 6 - Minneapolis, MN - Fillmore Minneapolis
February 7 - Kansas City, MO - The Midland Theatre
February 9 - Toronto, ON - HISTORY
February 10 - Cleveland, OH - MGM Northfield Park
February 11 - Waterloo, NY -the Vine - del Lago Casino Resort
February 14 - Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway (with Candlebox)
February 15 - Washington, D.C. - The Anthem (with Candlebox)
February 17 - Atlantic City, NJ - Ocean Casino Resort (with Candlebox)
February 18 - New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom (with Candlebox)
February 20 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
February 22 - Louisville, KY - The Louisville Palace
February 24 - Battle Creek, MI - FireKeepers Casino
February 25 - Chicago, IL - Salt Shed (with Silverson Pickups)
February 26 - St Louis, MO - The Pageant

Machine Gun Kelly's ex-girlfriend Sommer Ray reportedly crashed a party this week that he was playing at and sat across the dance floor from his fiancée, Megan Fox.

According to Page Six, the couple seemingly didn't interact with Ray, who spent the evening dancing with friends.

The two dated in 2020 before his relationship with Fox was public. In March of last year, the social media star claimed that her relationship with the Texas native overlapped with his romance with Megan Fox.

TL;DR:

Machine Gun Kelly's ex-girlfriend Sommer Ray reportedly crashed a party this week that he was playing at.

She sat across the dance floor from his fiancée, Megan Fox

Spencer Elden, the man who covered Nirvana's Nevermind album has filed an appeal to the album cover lawsuit. Back in September, the suit-- which was bought on by Elden, who was seeking damages over the cover art, was dismissed by a U.S. District Court Judge for the third and final time.

According to Loudwire, in his original suit, Elden -- who was just four months when the photo was used for the Nirvana album cover, cited that the "unlawful conduct" used to create the photo had caused him "permanent harm," calling the usage of the photo child pornography.

Spin reported that in the new court docs, Elden's lawyers have claiming that the judge presiding ruled in error concerning the statute of limitations on the case because the harm suffered to Elden from the photo is ongoing. They also cited Masha's Law which allows child pornography victims to seek monetary damages into adulthood.

BTS' management company has issued a statement asking fans to "please refrain" from visiting the site where Jin will serve his mandatory military service later this month.

BigHit uploaded the a to WeVerse on Monday (December 5th) that read, "In order to prevent any issues that might occur from crowding, we ask fans to please refrain from visiting the site. Instead, we ask you to keep your heartwarming words of support and farewell in your hearts."

Last month, it was reported that Jin was looking to cancel the postponement of his mandatory military services.

Red Hot Chili Peppers' video for the title track to the band's 1999 Californication album has surpassed the one billion mark on YouTube. The track, which has been certified five-times platinum, hit Number One on Billboard's Alternative Airplay and Mainstream Rock charts, and peaked at Number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100 when it was released as the album's fourth single back in June 2000.

Loudwire reported: "The original video, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, placed the band's members inside a fictional video game that found each musician on his own California-based adventure. The video itself became so beloved that earlier this year video game developer Miguel Camps Orteza actually created a video game based off the music video in which the player can play as one of the four band members through multiple levels."

Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith told us that "Californication" was the perfect combination of Anthony Kiedis and John Frusciante's talents: "Anthony actually had the melody and lyrics before we had the music, and it's usually the opposite. Usually we come up with the music and he comes up with the melody and lyrics to it. So, he had this thing and the words and everything. We had some music to it but it just was kind of boring and long. And about two weeks before we were supposed to go into the studio, John just took the words home and he came back the next day with this really simple guitar line, completely different than how we were playing it before. He had the guitar line and I think he had the chorus part. It was a completely different song."

Ed Sheeran sold more concert tickets in 2022 than any other act.

According to Billboard's Boxscore, 3,047,696 fans attended the Mathematics tour in 2022, making him No. 1 on the Top Ticket Sales chart.

However, he is only third on the Top Tours charts, which is ranked by gross revenue. Both Bad Bunny and Elton John took in more cash than the "Bad Habits" singer.

Lizzo has been crowned the Queen of TikTok for 2022.

Variety reports that the singer, who has 26 million followers on the app, was the No. 1 music artist on TikTok this year, based on top of views. Additionally, "About Damn Time" was the app's No. 4 top-trending song.

Additionally, the TikTok video in which Lizzo demonstrates the dance for the hit song came in at seventh place on the trending-videos ranking, according to the company.

Ye has reportedly been hit with a $116k invoice from Milo Yiannopoulos for his work as a part of his presidential campaign team. According to TMZ, sources say that the December 1st invoice led to Milo's firing as there was never a financial agreement made between them and since Ye hadn't officially announced that he was running for president, everyone who's worked with him has done so on a volunteer basis.

Meanwhile, according to NBC News, Yiannopoulos claimed that he arranged the pre-Thanksgiving dinner meeting with former President Donald Trump and Ye and Nick Fuentes at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort complex to "make Trump's life miserable."

In other news, Ye and 24-year-old model Juliana Nalú have split. When a social media follower asked the model how she could associate with someone who is "fond of Nazism," Nalú responded, "I'm single. Thanks for caring." Sources told Page Six that Ye and Nalú started dating to "drown out the headlines about anti-Semitism with other content," adding that "the new girlfriend" was an attempt "to try and make people forget."

Although the Dead & Company might be calling it quits after next summer -- Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir shows no signs of slowing down. Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros. will launch a 24-date winter tour that kicks off on February 2nd at North Charleston, South Carolina's North Charleston Performing Arts Center and winds down on March 11th and 12th in Nashville, Tennessee at the legendary Ryman Auditorium.

Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros. features famed producer Don Was on bass, drummer Jay Lane, and Dead & Company keyboardist Jeff Chimenti.

Out now is Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros.' Live in Colorado: Vol 2. The set follows the band's first volume released last February.

Bob Weir explained to us how the musical shape and form of the Wolf Bros. finally came to him: "It became clear to me what the group could be. We could be a trio -- 'have a lot of room to play guitar -- but we could also add people, we could plug people in. The whole idea is that it should be flexible. We can just kick the whole idea around. The core of the group is the trio and then we have the other two guys for addition. And all these guys, y'know, (laughs) they can solo endlessly. Y'know, we, we can take anything for a little walk in the woods."

JUST ANNOUNCED: Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros. tour dates (subject to change):

February 2 - North Charleston, SC - North Charleston Performing Arts Center
February 3 - Jacksonville, FL - Florida Theatre
February 4 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Broward Center
February 7, 9, 10, 11 - Port Chester, NY - The Capitol Theatre
February 17, 18, 19 - Atlanta, GA - Atlanta Symphony Hall
February 21 - Memphis, TN - Orpheum Theatre
February 22 - Asheville, NC - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
February 24 - Chattanooga, TN - Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Auditorium
February 25 - Louisville, KY - The Louisville Palace
February 26 - Madison, WI - The Sylvee
March 1 - St. Paul, MN - Palace Theatre
March 2 - Ames, IA - Stephens Auditorium
March 4 - Omaha, NE - Orpheum Theater
March 5 - Kansas City, MO - The Midland Theatre
March 7, 8 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater
March 9 - Dallas, TX- Majestic Theatre
March 11, 12 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium

Goo Goo Dolls have just rolled out a 32-date summer tour with O.A.R. serving as their opening act. The band will be on the road in support of its latest album, Chaos In Bloom. The summer run kicks off on June 24th at Tampa, Florida's Coachman Park and eventually winds down on September 7th at Highland, California's Yaamava' Theater.

Frontman John Rzeznik said in a statement, "I'm so proud to finally be able to announce our summer tour with a great band and our friends O.A.R. It's going to be an amazing night of great music for everyone so be there!!!"

Rolling Stone reported, "With the new tour, Goo Goo Dolls will partner with Joe Torre Safe At Home, a nonprofit that provides healing and education services for children who've survived domestic violence and child abuse."

John Rzeznik told us that one of the highlights of any show is the chance to connect with the band's original fans: "Everybody that came up with us came just as slow. So, it was no big shock. The people that were with us in the beginning, a lot of times, if they still show up, I mean we'll still talk to them and that just because they've realized that we haven't changed that much, maybe a little more sober. That's about it."

JUST ANNOUNCED: Goo Goo Dolls tour dates (subject to change):

July 24 - Tampa, FL - Coachman Park
July 26 - Boca Raton, FL - Mizner Park Amphitheater
July 27 - Saint Augustine, FL - The Saint Augustine Amphitheatre
July 29 - Albertville, AL - Sand Mountain Park & Amphitheater
July 30 - Atlanta, GA - Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park
August 1 - Simpsonville, SC - CCNB Amphitheatre at Heritage Park
August 2 - Greensboro, NC - White Oak Amphitheatre
August 4 - Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion
August 5 - Wantagh, NY - Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater
August 6 - Bethel, NY - Bethel Woods Center for the Arts – The Pavilion
August 8 - Saratoga Springs, NY - SPAC
August 9 - Bethlehem, PA - Musikfest
August 11 - Atlantic City, NJ - The Borgata
August 12 - Holmdel, NJ - PNC Bank Arts Center
August 13 - Bridgeport, CT - Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater
August 15 - Boston, MA - Leader Bank Pavilion
August 16 - Syracuse, NY - St. Joseph's Health Amphitheater
August 18 - Cincinnati, OH - PNC Pavilion
August 19 - Sterling Heights, MI - Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill
August 20 - Cleveland, OH - Blossom Music Center
August 22 - Chicago, IL - Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
August 23 - Indianapolis, IN - TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park
August 25 - Franklin, TN - FirstBank Amphitheater
August 26 - Maryland Heights, MO - Saint Louis Music Park
August 27 - Kansas City, MO - Starlight Theatre
August 30 - Denver, CO - Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre
August 31 - Sandy, UT - Sandy Amphitheater
September 2, 3 - Seattle, WA - TBD
September 4 - Bend, OR - Hayden Homes Amphitheater
September 6 - Irvine, CA - FivePoint Amphitheatre
September 7 - Highland, CA - Yaamava' Theater (Goo Goo Dolls only)

It was 51 years ago today (December 7th, 1971) that Paul McCartney released his first album with Wings, titled Wild Life. The album, which was McCartney's third post-Beatles solo set, topped out at Number 10 on the Billboard 200.

At that point, Wings consisted of Paul and wife Linda McCartney -- who also sang and handled keyboard duties, Ram drummer Denny Seiwell, and old friend and Moody Blues-co-founder Denny Laine, who played guitar and occasional bass. The album marked the first solo McCartney set to be recorded at the "Fab Four's" London home base, Abbey Road Studios.

Denny Laine was the sole member of Wings to span the band's decade-long run. He recalled the early-summer 1971 phone call from McCartney asking him to help form the group: "Y'know, he was looking for people he could get on with and people who would go on in the future with new ideas. So he just called up and said, 'Paul here, do you fancy getting a band together?'"

In mid-December 1971, only days after Wild Life was released, Paul McCartney was in Manhattan promoting the disc, when he and Linda popped over to John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Greenwich Village apartment for what has been called over the years a sort of "truce summit" in which the former Beatles tried to discuss their business problems and agree to stop bad-mouthing each other in the press.

McCartney biographer Christopher Sanford told us that Lennon, who at the time was riding high on his critically acclaimed Imagine album, pulled no punches when he told McCartney what he thought of his new work: "John was not a great fan of Wild Life, I think he saw it as another step down that 'easy listening' road that he thought Paul was having veered towards -- and many others agreed with that. Y'know, that's one of the things, he was never shy of an opinion, of course -- that he told Paul at that meeting. But those were tense times, of course, and there's no pretending otherwise. The obvious analogy is a divorce where you're right in the middle of the ugliness, and the lawyers are kind of exacerbating the problem. And things get said and done that maybe years later, you wouldn't have wanted to say or do."

One of the highlights on Wild Life is "Bip Bop" -- a tune that would actually fit in quite nicely with the lo-fi alternative music scene these days. A while back, Paul McCartney admitted that although he signed off on everything he's ever released, there are still a few tracks that never fail to get under his skin: "Yeah, there's one or two tracks I'm not very keen on. I was talking to a producer called Trevor Horn, and I was talking to him, I was saying ‘I hate the track called, ‘Bip Bop'' -- it's on Wild Life. It's like, that's basically the entire lyrics. And he said, ‘Oh, I love it. It's my favorite track.' So, what can you do? I'm not keen on that one."

Not too long ago, Paul McCartney talked to Guitar World magazine, and recalled the recording of Wild Life, remembering, "We'd heard that (Bob) Dylan had done an album in a week, and I think coming off the back of taking a long time over records, it seemed like an interesting idea to do a record quickly. Y'know, I like the record. It wasn't perhaps as good as some of the others. But for me, a record can be associated with a favorite memory, which kind of validates it. And I have this great memory of driving up (L.A.'s) Sunset Strip and (moving up alongside) some real hippie guy -- typical Woodstock type. He pulled (Wild Life) out of his driving cab and held it up and said, 'Hey man, great record.' And to me, that was it."

FAST FORWARD

Last February 4th, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Wings' debut album, Paul McCartney issued a new half-speed mastering vinyl edition of Wild Life. The new version of the album was cut using a high resolution transfer of the original 1971 master tapes.

That day fans were able to log in to Spotify or Apple Music for McCartney's official Wild Life listening party, where people from around the globe shared memories and their personal stories about the classic album.

The tracklisting to 'Wild Life' is:

Side One: "Mumbo," "Bip Bop," "Love Is Strange," and "Wild Life."

Side Two: "Some People Never Know," "I Am Your Singer," "Bip Bop (Link)," "Tomorrow," "Dear Friend," and "Mumbo (Link)."

James Hetfield makes no bones about channeling his inner demons for Metallica's new music. Blabbermouth transcribed Hetfield talking in a new promo video about the band's new album, 72 Seasons -- which drops on April 14th -- where he shed light on the album's sometimes extremely dark inspiration.

Hetfield revealed, "There's been a lot of darkness in my life and in our career and things that have happened with us, but always having a sense of hope, always having the light that is in that darkness. . . Without darkness, there is no light, and being able to focus a little more on the light in life instead of how it used to be and how horrible it is."

He went on to say, "There's a lot of good things going on in life -- focusing on that instead, and it helps to balance out my life. And there's no one meaning to it -- everyone has some sense of hope or light in their life, and, obviously, music is mine."

A while back James Hetfield told us that upon entering alcohol rehabilitation, he learned that anger can be a good thing. "You can handle anger and use anger in a positive sense. I felt I can take anger and be assertive with it. It also helps me protect, like, if something's going wrong you can protect your family. I mean there's a lot of good uses for anger that I never saw before. This is all new to me, and if it's completely 101 for most people, that's fine, but for me this is pretty profound."

The man accused of shooting Lady Gaga's dog walker last year was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

According to TMZ, James Howard Jackson was sentenced Monday (December 5th) after accepting a plea deal from the Los Angeles County District attorney's office.

Prosecutors claim he shot Ryan Fisher in an attempt to steal Gaga's two French bulldogs last year.

Red Hot Chili Peppers have rolled out their 2023 global tour dates in support of the two new albums -- Unlimited Love and Return Of The Dream Canteen. The North American run kicks off in Vancouver at BC Place on March 29th with the final date on this side of the Atlantic set for May 25th at Houston's Minute Maid Park. The band will be on the road on Europe throughout June and July.

Supporting the Chili Peppers at assorted gigs will be such heavyweights as Iggy Pop, the Strokes, the Roots, St. Vincent, Thundercat, the Mars Volta, and City and Colour.

No matter how exotic the locale, bassist Flea told us not long ago that the band approaches each show the same way: "Y'know, with gigs, it's always the same for me -- some are fun, some aren't fun, but that doesn't really matter. Actually, serving the mighty tradition of performing for people is just something that I and we as a band care about deeply. So, no matter what the scene is, we're just in to go out there and tap in the source and reach into the most hardcore depths of who we are, to get what we can."

Singer Anthony Kiedis told us not long ago that the Chili Peppers have found a way to avoid burning out when touring for a long time: "We've got it fairly dialed in. You have to hope for the best, but we tour for a couple of weeks, we take a break for 10 days, we tour for a couple of weeks, take a break for eight days. . . I think we're in a better mental state to avoid burning out."

JUST ANNOUNCED: Red Hot Chili Peppers tour dates (subject to change):

March 29 - Vancouver, BC - BC Place *~
April 1 - Las Vegas, NV - Allegiant Stadium #~
April 6 - Fargo, ND - Fargodome ^~
April 8 - Minneapolis, MN US Bank Stadium ^~
April 14 - Syracuse, NY - JMA Wireless Dome ^~
May 12 - San Diego, CA - Snap Dragon Stadium >+
May 14 - Phoenix, AZ - State Farm Stadium ^+
May 17 - San Antonio, TX - Alamodome ^+
May 19 - Gulf Shores, AL - Hangout Music Festival =
May 25 - Houston, TX - Minute Maid Park ^+
June 18 - Landgraaf, The Netherlands - Pinkpop =
June 21 - Warsaw, Poland - PGE Narodowy <
June 24 - Odense, Denmark - Tinderbox =
June 26 - Mannheim, Germany - Maimarktgelände <
June 30 - Leuven, Belgium - Rock Wercther =
July 2 - Milan, Italy - I-Days =
July 6 - Lisbon, Portugal - NOS Live =
July 8 - Madrid, Spain - Mad Cool =
July 11 - Lyon, France - Groupama Stadium <~
July 14 - Vienna, Austria - Ernst-Happel Stadion <~
July 17 - Carhaix, France - Les Vieilles Charrues =
July 21 - London, England - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium %~
July 23 - Glasgow, Scotland - Hampden Park %~

^ The Strokes
< Iggy Pop
% The Roots
# St. Vincent
> The Mars Volta
* City and Colour
+ Thundercat
~ King Princess
= Festival Date

Adele gushed about Lizzo while on stage during one of her Las Vegas residency concerts.

The "Easy on Me" singer told the audience she invited the Yitty founder to a karaoke party the first time they met and added, "She's such an amazing person. She is so thoughtful, she sends flowers to you, she remembers things about you. She's amazing, so I'd like to give her all of my love."

The "About Damn Time" singer retweeted a clip of Adele's speech Sunday (December 4th) and wrote, "ADELE I LOVE UUUUU RIGHT BACK & I WANTED TO GO TO THAT KARAOKE PARTY SO BAD WE GOTTA DO IT BIG IN VEGAS BABY"

Coldplay is in the studio working on new music.

The band Tweeted Monday (December 5th), "Hello Everybody. I hope you're all doing really well. Here are some things I Love at the moment," before announcing, "We are in the studio."

According to the list, the band is currently into music from RM, Erykah Badu, Bakya, The 1975, Inhaler, Kyoka, and Stormyz.

Elton John has revealed his final UK appearance will be at this year's Glastonbury festival. The Guardian reported he'll close out the main stage on June 25th marking his second-only career appearance at a UK festival.

Elton said in a statement, "I couldn't be more excited to be headlining the Pyramid stage. As the end of my 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road' tour comes into view, there is no more fitting way to say goodbye to my British fans. They have been beyond brilliant, and have supported me through all the highs and lows of my career. I can't wait to embrace the spirit of the greatest festival in the world."

Elton explained to us what this final tour symbolizes: "It's the last time that I will be touring and traveling the world, because my priorities have changed in my life. 10 years ago, if you had said I'm going to stop touring, I'd have said, 'No, no -- I'm a working musician I always play' -- but, we had children and it changed our lives. And in 2015, David and I sat down with a school schedule and I said, 'I don't wanna miss too much of this.'"

The ongoing "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour, which began in 2018, is set to run through July 2023 with Elton performing his final European dates.

Elton John next performs on January 8th, 2023 in New South Wales, Australia.

Paramore is planning a special album release show in Nashville to celebrate their latest offering, This Is Why. According to the band's Instagram, the trio will perform at the historic Grand Ole Opry on February 6th, 2023 with support from Louis Prince.

Bruce Springsteen has just issued the new official bootleg Nashville: August 21st, 2008 -- the sixth live set from the E Street Band's 2007/2008 tour behind his chart-topping Magic album.

The new concert follows previous releases from Boston, Massachusetts; Tampa, Florida; St. Louis, Missouri; Indianapolis; Indiana; Greensboro, North Carolina and features a 29-song set packed with classics and rarities.

Among the highlights included on Nashville: August 21st, 2008 are covers of Elvis Presley's "Good Rockin' Tonight," Johnny Cash's "I Walk The Line," Bo Diddley's "Mona," the Bobby Fuller Four's "I Fought The Law" -- along with his own deep cuts, "I'm Goin' Down," "Held Up Without A Gun," "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," and "Loose Ends."

The tracklisting to Nashville: August 21st, 2008 is: "Out In The Street," "Radio Nowhere," "No Surrender," "Lonesome Day," "Spirit In The Night," "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Growin' Up," "I'm Goin' Down," "Held Up Without A Gun," "Loose Ends," "Youngstown," "Murder Incorporated," "Mona," "She's The One," The Promised Land," "Mary's Place," "I Walk The Line,' "I'm On Fire," "The Rising," "Last To Die," "Long Walk Home," "Badlands," "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," "Thunder Road," "Born To Run," "I Fought The Law," "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)," "American Land," and "Dancing In The Dark."

During the 2007 tour, Bruce Springsteen's wife, and E Street Band member, Patti Scialfa told us the band was in a very good place on the road: "It feels very joyous. It's just a very joyous tour. Even though the songs are complicated, it's celebratory. Bruce's sets always take you through a lot of different questions. And he's not there to answer them, but it's nice to start that conversation with your audience. And then to have some kind of wrapped up resolution which just leaves you with some belief and a very positive feeling."

TAYLOR SWIFT GUITAR TO BE AUCTIONED FOR CHARITY: Raven's Drum Foundation is auctioning off a Taylor Swift-signed guitar. The group's 12 Drummers Drumming auction runs through December 12th and is raising money for veterans and first responders who are dealing with PTSD, Trauma and suicidal ideation.

BLACKPINK IS TIME'S 'ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR': BLACKPINK has been named Time's "Entertainer of the Year." This year the all-girl K-pop group performed at the VMAs, kicked off a 27-city world tour, and dropped their sophomore album. As for what's next, Jennie told the outlet, "My No. 1 rule is not to look ahead, and enjoy every day, because it gets too overwhelming once we start planning a year ahead, two years ahead,"

It was 57 years ago today (December 6th, 1965) that the Beatles released their groundbreaking sixth album, Rubber Soul in America. Also released in conjunction to the album was the band's first official "double A-sided" single, "We Can Work It Out" backed with "Day Tripper. Rubber Soul featured a staring of instant classics, including "Michelle" -- which scored the band the 1967 Grammy for Song Of The Year despite it never being released by the band as a single -- "In My Life," "Drive My Car," "Nowhere Man," "Girl," "I'm Looking Through You," and "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"-- for which George Harrison is often credited for introducing world music into rock by contributing the song's signature sitar part.

In the U.S. "Drive My Car," "Nowhere Man," the John Lennon-Paul McCartney-Ringo Starr-written "What Goes On," and "If I Needed Someone" were left off Rubber Soul and replaced with the Help! holdovers "I've Just Seen A Face" and "It's Only Love." Rubber Soul marks the first time an outtake from a prior album was included on a new project, with "Wait" originally recorded during the previous spring's Help! sessions but left unissued.

Much the same way Paul McCartney credits the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds as being the inspiration for Sgt. Pepper, Brian Wilson credits Rubber Soul for inspiring Pet Sounds. Rubber Soul was the final album to feature Norman Smith as the Beatles' engineer. He was promoted at EMI Records to producer status and went on to work with Pink Floyd. Save for a few instances, Geoff Emerick went on to be the group's primary engineer until their split.

The album is unique for several reasons; Paul McCartney played slide guitar on "Drive My Car," Ringo Starr made his keyboard debut playing the organ on "I'm Looking Through You," and the album was the first to feature McCartney playing his solid-bodied Rickenbacker 4001 bass, rather than his signature Hofner "violin" bass.

On January 8th, 1966 Rubber Soul hit Number One on the Billboard 200 albums chart, holding down the top spot for six weeks. That same day, "We Can Work It Out" knocked Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound Of Silence" out from Number One for the first of three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. "Day Tripper" peaked at Number Five -- marking the group's 26th Top 40 hit in only two years.

Paul McCartney recalled how the band came to title the album Rubber Soul: "The title Rubber Soul was, kind of 'Hey man, it's got soul -- 'lotta soul, 'lotta soul, that music' -- it was a spoof on that, y'know, seemed nice and amusing, very us -- y'know, very whacky."

Most notably on Rubber Soul was George Harrison's use of the indian stringed instrument, the sitar, on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)." The use of the instrument, which went on to inspire an Eastern music renaissance in pop, coincided with Harrison's new-found spiritual quest.

Harrison's first wife, Pattie Boyd, told us that his infatuation with Hinduism, spiritual topics, and Indian music was his attempt to seek out the "bigger picture": "He had a bit of difficulty understanding why he -- this little boy from Liverpool -- had been selected to be so famous. And he didn't understand the fame and he thought that maybe Eastern philosophy could give him some sort of idea or clue as to why he had been chosen."

Shortly before his 2016 death, George Martin touched upon how as the Beatles gradually lost interest in live performance, their creative life in the studio grew by leaps and bounds: "Oh yeah, they were becoming quite original. The thing is, though, they were eternally curious. They wanted to find new ways of doing what they were doing -- new harmonies, new endings of songs, and that kind of thing. They would always want to look beyond the horizon."

During the filming of Let It Be on January 14th, 1969, John Lennon spoke about only becoming conscious of what his songs are about after the fact: "The songs, I mean, you're vaguely aware if you sing something it's gonna go 'round all over the world, but you can't get into that while you're writing a song. It's a job writing a song, and you're doing it, and you're involved in it, and then sometimes you don't realize what you've written 'til after you've recorded it, or even a year later, y'know? I hear old records of ours and see things on different levels."

Very early on during the Beatles' touring days, George Harrison was dubbed the "Quiet Beatle." Although Harrison was known to be just as hysterical, raucous, and vocal about issues as the rest of the group, he explained back in 1965, the demeanor took hold when dealing with the often vapid press covering the Beatles: "Well, I think I'm more quiet than the others because I got fed up before the others of all these questions, like, 'What color teeth have you got?' (Laughter) And all, just stupid questions you have no interest in any longer. And I think everybody -- well all fans, I think they all know what color eyes we've got and what we drink for breakfast and all that. And they don't want to know that anymore. So, I just shut up until someone asks me something worth answering."

During the Beatles' final tour in 1966 they only included three Rubber Soul-era songs in their setlist -- "Nowhere Man," "If I Needed Someone," and "Day Tripper."

Over the years, the songs of Rubber Soul have lived on through the solo Beatles concerts, with George Harrison performing "If I Needed Someone" during his 1991 tour of Japan; Ringo Starr frequently includes "What Goes On" in his All Starr Band shows; and Paul McCartney has tackled "Drive My Car," "You Won't See Me," "Michelle," "I've Just Seen A Face," "I'm Looking Through You," "The Word," "We Can Work It Out," and "Day Tripper" in his various world tours.

Sadly, legendary Beatles photographer Robert Freeman died on November 7th, 2019 at age 82. Freeman, who served as the band's unofficial photographer between 1963 and 1966, shot five of the band's album covers -- 1963's With The Beatles -- for which he was paid 75 British pounds, three times the usual fee, 1964's A Hard Day's Night and Beatles For Sale, and 1965's Help! and Rubber Soul.

In 1995's The Beatles Anthology Paul McCartney recalled how Robert Freeman came up with the groundbreaking cover for Rubber Soul: "He had a little carousel of slides and he had a little piece of cardboard stuck up on a little chair that was album cover size, and he was projecting the photographs onto it. 'Cause you could imagine exactly how it'd look then, as an album cover. We'd just chosen the photo, we said, 'That one looks good,' we all liked ourselves in one particular shot. And he was just winding up when the card it was on just fell backwards a little bit, and it elongated the photo and it stretched. And we went, 'Oh! Can we have that?! Can you do it like that?!' He said, 'Well yeah, I can print it like that. . .' We said, 'Yeah, that's it -- Rubber Soul -- heh-hey!"

It was 53 years ago today (December 6th, 1969) that the Rolling Stones held their ill-fated free concert at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California. The bill, which also included Santana, the Jefferson Airplane, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, is mainly remembered for the violence instigated by the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, whom the Stones had hired as security -- and the murder of concert-goer Meredith Hunter by Hells Angel Alan Passaro. Passaro was later acquitted of the stabbing after claiming he acted in self-defense.

The Stones' Madison Square Garden shows and the Altamont event were filmed by filmmakers Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, and assisted by George Lucas, among others. The film was released in 1970 as Gimme Shelter.

At the New York City press conference on November 26th, 1969, Mick Jagger said he thought that the free Northern California concert would follow in the footsteps of the Woodstock festival, in terms of how people would get along: (Mick Jagger): We are doing a free concert in San Francisco. . . (Reporter): When? (Mick Jagger): December 6th -- and the location is not Golden Gate Park, unfortunately, but it someplace adjacent to it which is a bit larger. . . It's creating a sort of a microcosmic society, y'know, which, it sets an example to the rest of America as to how one can behave in large gatherings."

Keith Richards, who had opted to spend the previous night at the raceway concert grounds, hanging out and partying with fans, revealed the moment he knew things were going to go south with the event: "When I got a bad vibe about it was when I saw the condition of the Angels. Now, I can tell these guys are on acid and ripple wine. And they're already (wasted) in the early afternoon. They're startin' to get antsy. These guys were out there just lookin' for trouble."

Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen (pronounced: YOR-ma COW-co-nen) said that his only thought was to keep playing after he saw lead singer Marty Balin get punched in the face by one of the Hell's Angels: "I remember thinking that -- of course, if you look at the footage, Jack (Casady) and Spencer (Dryden) and I pretty much keep on playing -- I remember thinking at the time, 'I'm just gonna keep playing and see what happens.'"

Shortly before his death in 2018, Marty Balin looked back at Altamont and described to us the fight scene between him and the Hell's Angles that took place while the band performed "The Other Side Of This Life": "I was singin,' I open my eyes, and they're beating this guy in front of me in (front of) the stage with these pool cues. About 10 of 'em around this guy and the whole crowd, en masse, just kind of stepped back. And that pissed me off and I just leap off the stage and I start pushing these Hell's Angels back: 'You're ruining my set,' y'know, and they. . . (imitates drunken Hell's Angel) 'Hey Marty, whaddaya doing man, you should be up there singing, and y'know. . . ' -- I said, 'Nobody's listening to me, get away from me,' y'know? And so, they quit and I got back onstage and I started to sing again, the same opening, y'know? And behind me, they're fighting this guy again. And so, I said, well, nobody's paying any attention to what I'm doing at all, y'know, so I went back and their leader -- the guy with the wolf's head, y'know, he was there. So, him and I started punchin' it out, y'know. And then bam -- I blacked out. They knocked me out, y'know? And I woke up, I had all these boot tattoos all over my body, y'know? I left, went home. I told everybody, I says, 'Forget it. I'm outta here.'"

The Rolling Stones had dealt with the Hells Angels before, when the London chapter showed up in force the previous July during the Stones' legendary free concert at Hyde Park. The late-Charlie Watts recalled the subtle difference between them and the bikers that turned up at Altamont: "Except that these were actual, proper Hells Angels (laughs). It was a bit like asking the Nazi party to sort out the front of the auditorium."

The show's low standing stage eventually became overcrowded with fans and Angels alike. The Stones' tour manager Sam Cutler pleaded with the people to give the musicians room to play: "There are a number of people on and around this stage who should not be here. Consequently. . . consequently the musicians on this stage are playing with something like 200 people breathing down their necks. Now can I please ask that everyone leaves the stage, and as I say we'll go back to playing music and nothing else."

Both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards sought to get the crowd in line so that the Stones could play their set: "(Mick Jagger): People, who's fighting and what for?! Why are we fighting?! Why are we fighting?! We don't want to fight! Come on! Who wants to fight? (crowd noise) Every other scene has been cool. . . (Keith Richards): Look, cat. . . That guy there, if he doesn't stop it man! Listen man, either those cats cool it, or we don't play! (crowd noise). (Hell's Angel): Hey, if y'don't cool it, y'ain't gonna hear no music! Now y'all wanna go home or what?! (Crowd noise) (Announcer): We need doctors down here now please. Can we have a doctor now to the front? (Crowd noise)

Although the Grateful Dead were scheduled to play, they refused to take the stage in the middle of what was obviously a very ugly situation unfolding. Drummer Bill Kreutzmann says that the scene at Altamont was as tragic in real life as it appears in the Gimme Shelter footage: "Yeah, it was horrible. It was a war. It felt really uncomfortable. It was a dark day. It was so dark that that night, we were playing that weekend for Bill Graham at the Carousel, and I refused to play that night, I was feeling so bad about what had happened that day. I didn't feel like going and celebrating it musically."

In 1972, during a chat with Dick Cavett while back in the States on tour with the Stones, Bill Wyman was asked about Altamont: "I'd sooner forget about it. It was just a very unfortunate thing. It was the last show of a tour. Y'know, we weren't going to do it. It was just a free concert that was set up a few days before and I mean . . . There was 300,000 people there. It was only 30 people fighting. Almost all the audience never even saw it. Didn't even know it was going on, y'know?"

In May 1970, while on tour with the Grateful Dead in Europe, Jerry Garcia took time out to compare and contrast the previous year's era-defining concerts: "With Woodstock and Altamont, the same situations were prevailing. It was free -- essentially -- and it was also completely without control of any sort. Y'know, there were no police. There's no way you can realistically control that size, really. You can't expect to. The way I saw it, both of those situations were being, like, two sides of the same coin. It's like two ways that that kind of expression can go; y'know, a huge number of people and no rules. And one of the ways, obviously it can go is a terrible bummer -- like Altamont, and one of the other ways is into an immensely joyful scene -- like Woodstock."

Although only a handful of songs from the concert were shown in Gimme Shelter -- giving the appearance that the show was cut short due to the unruly crowd and violence -- the band actually performed a full 15-song set -- including the world premiere of "Brown Sugar."

The Stones' full setlist at the Altamont concert was: "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Carol," "Sympathy For The Devil," "The Sun Is Shining," "Stray Cat Blues," "Love In Vain," "Under My Thumb," "Brown Sugar," "Midnight Rambler," "Live With Me," "Gimme Shelter," "Little Queenie," "Satisfaction," "Honky Tonk Women," and "Street Fighting Man."

Out now is Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert 40th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set. The set features three CD's and one DVD, with the first disc including the full 1970 Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out album, and the second disc including five additional cuts left off the original set. The third disc features performances from Ike & Tina Turner and B.B. King who served as the Stones' opening acts on November 27th and 28th, 1969 at New York's Madison Square Garden.

In August 2015, Keith Richards recalled the Altamont Speedway concert, during an appearance on Britain's Absolute Radio. Richards remembered the band being extremely on edge as the crowds started to surge, due to the continuous scuffles between the fans and the bikers: "I don't know if it was scary, it was just like, 'Wow you have got to do something about this before it turns into a full scale riot. We handled it the best way we could. Basically I just stopped playing and it happened to work. . . As events turned out security wasn't what it should be."

Although Meredeth Hunter was killed only yards away from the band, the show went on -- mainly, as the Stones have said over the years -- because more violence would've occurred had they quit. Richards explained: "We didn't know the cat was dead or anything, but we saw what was going on. . . It was a matter of 'quick do something, and distract people from the Hells Angels.'"

In 2016, renown rock writer Joel Selvin published the definitive account of the 1969 concert, titled, Altamont: The Rolling Stones, The Hells Angels, And The Inside Story Of Rock's Darkest Day.

2018 saw the publication of author Saul Austerlitz's Just A Shot Away: Peace, Love, And Tragedy With The Rolling Stones At Altamont.

Axl Rose took to social media on Friday (December 2nd) to announced that he's done throwing his mic into the audience after a woman was reportedly seriously injured.

Billboard reported that during Guns N' Roses' November 29th concert in Adelaide, Australia at the Adelaide Oval, a concertgoer named Rebecca Howe suffered two blackened eyes and a "busted nose."

Axl Rose tweeted a message to fans, which reads in full:

It's come to my attention that a fan may have been hurt at our show in Adelaide, Australia, possibly being hit by the microphone at the end of the show when I traditionally toss the mic to the fans. If true, obviously we don't want anyone getting hurt or to somehow in any way hurt anyone at our shows anywhere.

Having tossed the mic at the end of r shows for over 30 years we always felt it was a known part of the very end of r performance that fans wanted and were aware of to have an opportunity to catch the mic.

Regardless in the interest of public safety from now we'll refrain from tossing the mic or anything to the fans during or at r performances.

Unfortunately there are those that for their own reasons chose to frame their reporting regarding this subject in a more negative n' irresponsible out of nowhere light which couldn't be farther from reality. We hope the public and of course fans get that sometimes happens.

A BIG THANKS to everyone for understanding.

IN OTHER GNR NEWS

Guns N' Roses have taken legal action against an online weapon store named Texas Guns and Roses. The band filed suit on December 1st in Los Angeles Federal Court citing the website is attempting to "con" fans into thinking the band is associated with the business and is suing for an undisclosed sum.

CNS reported, "The lawsuit alleges that Texas company Jersey Village Florist operates the online store texasgunsandroses.com -- selling firearms, ammunition, scopes and body armor through the mail -- 'without GNR's approval, license or consent.' The plaintiffs allege that Jersey Village Florist 'selected and adopted defendant's marks for the purpose of confusing consumers into believing that it was connected or associated with, or licensed by, GNR.'"

The legal brief, which cites the band's partners as Axl Rose, Saul "Slash" Hudson, and Michael "Duff" McKagan, goes on to explain: "This is particularly damaging to GNR given the nature of defendant's business. GNR, quite reasonably, does not want to be associated with defendant, a firearms and weapons retailer. Furthermore, defendant espouses political views related to the regulation and control of firearms and weapons on the website that may be polarizing to many U.S. consumers." (CNS)