Music legend Elton John confirms he will quit touring after global farewell

 Picture: AFP/Timothy A. ClarySource:AFP

 

The 70-year-old will retire from the road after one last world tour.

AFTER much speculation, music legend Elton John announced overnight a final tour, saying he intends to stop travelling to spend more time with his family.

The 70-year-old British entertainer, revealing his plans at a gala New York event, said he planned to “go out with a bang” with a global tour that will open in September and last through 2021.

At a special event in New York, Elton John performed two songs before announcing he intends to retire from touring.

“It will be the last time that I’m touring and travelling the world, because my priorities have changed,” John told several hundred journalists and guests after a mini-concert and virtual reality presentation about his career.

Saying he has had an “amazing life and amazing career,” he added: “My priorities now are my children and my husband and my family.”

John, who in the 1980s became one of the first openly gay major celebrities, has two children with his husband, Canadian filmmaker and former advertising executive David Furnish.

John said he had no health concerns and would stay active, hoping to record more albums and write further musicals.

“I will be creative, hopefully, until the day I die,” he said.

John, who closes his latest extravagant Las Vegas residency in May, said he was also open to concerts after the tour but that they would likely only be in his native Britain.

John was left in intensive care earlier in 2017 after being struck down with a “potentially deadly” bacterial infection while touring South America, but despite the major health scare, the star was in Australia in September 2017 for his Once in a Lifetime national tour taking in stadiums, regional cities and wineries.

In March last year, John revealed he would make a decision about his touring future.

News Corp Australia Network
The music icon admitted at the time that he was keen to spend more time with his children with long-term partner David Furnish, Zachary and Elijah.

 Picture: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for EJAFSource:Getty Images

The chart-topping star said: “There will be a decision made in the next six months, probably. I will want to stop touring — not playing, but touring. Seventy isn’t 60, it’s not 50. I want to spend time with my boys.”

Gregg Allman, Southern Rock Pioneer, Dies at 69

 

Chris Morris Music Reporter / photo's by Ray Tharaldson 

Gregg Allman, whose hard-jamming, bluesy sextet the Allman Brothers Band was the pioneering unit in the Southern rock explosion of the ‘70s, died Saturday due to complications from liver cancer, his longtime manager, Michael Lehman, confirmed to Variety. He was 69.


As recently as April 24, reports surfaced claiming Allman was in hospice, although Lehman denied those reports, which Allman then substantiated in a Facebook post. However, he had suffered a number of ailments in recent years — including an irregular heartbeat, a respiratory infection, a hernia and a liver transplant — and cancelled many scheduled tour dates in recent months for health reasons. Lehman said that Allman’s liver cancer recurred around five years ago, but the singer chose to keep the news private.


Allman completed a solo album, “Southern Blood,” that is set for release late this year. Lehman said they received some final mixes for the album on Friday, and Allman listened to them the night before his death. He added that Allman passed away with his family nearby, and was “at peace.”

For his work with the Allman Brothers, the legendary band he cofounded with his late brother Duane, and as a solo artist, Allman is one of the leading lights of Southern Rock. While the group’s greatest work was done before and shortly after Duane’s death in 1971, they stayed together, off and on, over 45 years and remain a singular influence on Southern rock and jam-band musicians. They were a top-drawing touring outfit until October 2014, when the group finally closed the book on their career with a series of dates at their longtime favorite venue, New York’s Beacon Theatre.


Allman’s solo career always played second to that of the band, but he enjoyed solo success with 1973’s “Laid Back” and 1987’s “I’m No Angel,” both of which were certified gold. In 2011 he released an unexpectedly strong album entitled “Low Country Blues” that was produced by T Bone Burnett (Alison Krauss/Robert Plant, Los Lobos, Elvis Costello, “O Brother Where Art Thou?”), who, along with instrumentalists like pianist Dr. John and guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, brought Allman back to his gutsy roots with stellar results.


With his older sibling, guitarist Duane Allman, the singer-keyboardist-guitarist-songwriter led one of the most popular concert attractions of the rock ballroom era; the group’s 1971 set “At Fillmore East,” recorded at Bill Graham’s New York hall, was a commercial breakthrough that showed off the band’s prodigious songcraft and instrumental strengths.


After Duane Allman’s death in a motorcycle accident weeks after the live album’s release, his 
younger brother led the band through four more stormy decades of playing and recording. The Allman Brothers Band’s latter-day history proved tumultuous, with other fatalities, disbandings, regroupings and very public battles with drugs and alcohol on the part of its surviving namesake.

Though Gregg Allman’s highly publicized addictions, his tabloid-ready marriage to pop vocalist Cher, and his equally public disputes with co-founding guitarist Dickey Betts came under harsh and sometimes mocking scrutiny over the years, Allman prevailed as the linchpin of an act that maintained popularity over four decades and opened the commercial door for such other Southern acts as Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band.

As a member of the Allman Brothers Band, Allman was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.


He was born Gregory LeNoir Allman on Dec. 8, 1947, in Nashville; brother Duane was born 13 months earlier in the same hospital. In 1949, his father was shot to death by a man he offered a ride to in a bar. As their mother was studying accounting to support the family, the brothers were sent to a Tennessee military school at an early age.


The Allmans became attracted to music after seeing a 1960 concert by R&B singer Jackie Wilson in Daytona Beach, FL, where the family had moved the year before. Using money from a paper route (augmented by his mother), Gregg bought a guitar, and taught Duane his first chords. Both played guitar in the bands they founded after returning to the military academy in their teens.


Their pro bands the Escorts and the Allman Joys, which favored R&B, blues and rock covers, found work on the Florida club circuit in the mid-‘60s; Gregg began playing keyboards in the latter unit. The Allman Joys were playing without success in St. Louis when Bill McEuen, manager of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, met them and offered to set them up in Los Angeles.


Renamed Hour Glass, the L.A.-based group cut two unsuccessful pop-oriented albums for Liberty Records in 1967-68. Duane chafed at the direction being forced on the combo and fled for Alabama, where he became a prominent session guitarist at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL. Gregg remained in L.A. to fulfill obligations to Liberty, but was summoned to Jacksonville, FL, in 1969 by his brother, who envisioned a new blues-based band with two guitarist and two drummers, featuring members of another local combo, the 31st of February.

Calling themselves the Allman Brothers Band, the new unit – the Allmans, guitarist Betts, bassist Berry Oakley and drummers Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson – was signed by Otis Redding’s former manager Phil Walden for management and as an act on his Macon, GA-based label Capricorn Records. The group moved to Macon, which became its base for the duration.


Neither of the ABB’s first two albums was an enormous success: Its self-titled bow peaked at No. 188 in 1969, while sophomore set “Idlewild South” topped out at No. 38 in 1970. But they established Gregg Allman as a vocal, instrumental and songwriting power: His compositions included such future staples of the band’s live set as “Not My Cross to Bear,” “Dreams,” “Whipping Post” and “Midnight Rider.”

Though problems with hard drug abuse were already surfacing in the band, the Allmans became a huge concert attraction in the South; the enthusiastic sponsorship of promoter Graham led to high-profile gigs at New York’s Filllmore East (where the band attained a rabid following) and San Francisco’s Fillmore.

The Allmans made their commercial mark with “At Fillmore East”: The expansive, Tom Dowd-produced two-record set, recorded during two nights at the venue, shot to No.13 ultimately sold more than 1 million copies and became one of the defining concert recordings of its day. 

However, Duane Allman’s tragic death at 24 on a Macon street on Oct. 29, 1971, cast a shadow over its success.


The band completed a follow-up two-LP set, “Eat a Peach,” as a quintet, with live numbers featuring Duane filling out the contents. The 1972 package rose to No. 4 nationally and went platinum, but disaster again struck: In a mishap eerily similar to Duane Allman’s fatal crash, hard-drinking bassist Oakley died after driving his bike into the side of a truck that November.

 Shaken by the deaths of his brother and Oakley and increasingly incapacitated by heroin, cocaine and alcohol, Gregg Allman ceded much of the band’s songwriting and front man duties to Betts; as he noted in “My Cross to Bear,” his 2012 memoir, “Up until then, we’d never really had a front man; Dickey took it upon himself to create that role.”

 The ABB released its only No. 1 album, “Brothers and Sisters,” in 1973; the record was powered to the top by the Betts-penned No. 2 single “Ramblin’ Man,” the group’s only top-10 45.


Allman retreated from the group to cut his solo debut “Laid Back” in 1973; rising to No. 13, it would be his most popular work away from the band for nearly 40 years, and it spawned his only top-20 solo single, a down-tempo remake of “Midnight Rider.”


On the heels of the lugubrious but popular “Win, Lose or Draw” (No. 5, 1975), the group set out on its biggest, and costliest, tour to date. The ABB flew to its dates on a lavishly appointed private jet previously used by the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin; in his book, Allman recalls, “The first time we walked onto the plane, ‘Welcome Allman Brothers’ was spelled out in cocaine on the bar.”


The ABB returned from the 41-date tour with a mere $100,000 in hand, owing to over-the-top spending. This financial catastrophe was compounded by the indictment of the group’s security man (and Allman’s drug bag man) Scooter Herring on cocaine distribution charges; Allman testified against Herring before a grand jury and at his trial, which netted a 75-year prison sentence.


Addicted to heroin and embroiled in inter-band conflict with Betts, Allman began spending more time in Los Angeles with Cher, whom he had wed in June 1975. The incongruous couple was followed avidly by gossip columnists. In the wake of an unsuccessful 1977 solo album, “Playin’ Up a Storm” (No. 42), Allman and Cher released their only duo album, “Two the Hard Way”; embarrassingly credited to “Allman and Woman,” the set failed to chart, and its accompanying tour witnessed scuffles between hostile camps of fans in the audiences. Allman and Cher divorced in 1978.

Membership in the ABB rotated repeatedly for the remainder of the group’s career, which saw ever-diminishing contributions from writer Allman. He authored just one song for the group’s final Capricorn album, “Enlightened Rogues” (No. 27, 1979); the financially unstable imprint crashed within a year of its release. Allman was also a minor contributor to a pair of slick, poorly received albums for Arista Records in 1980-81.


During the band’s protracted hiatus of the ‘80s, Allman issued a pair of solo sets; the more popular of the two, 1987’s “I’m No Angel” (No. 30, 1987), spawned the titular radio hit.


Encouraged by airplay on the burgeoning “classic rock” radio format, the ABB reconvened for a 1989 tour. In 1990, the group recorded “Seven Turns” (No. 53) with “Fillmore East” producer Tom Dowd; the group also began multi-night residencies at New York’s Beacon Theatre, which became an annual tradition. They issued four commercially unrewarding albums – two studio sets and two concert releases – between 1991 and 1995.


Following a drunken appearance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York in January 1995, onetime junkie Allman, after 11 stints in rehab, finally stopped drinking on his own, under the 24-hour watch of two nurses.


Following the exit of longtime guitarist Warren Haynes and bassist Allen Woody and the recruitment of Butch Trucks’ young nephew Derek Trucks on guitar, the ABB cut the live “Peakin’ at the Beacon” in 2000. Tension within the band had reached the breaking point, and, following a severely worded fax to Betts from the other members and subsequent legal arbitration, the Allman Brothers Band’s other founding guitarist made his exit.


The front line of Allman, Haynes and Derek Trucks and the group’s founding drummers were heard on the Allman Brothers Band’s studio collection “Hittin’ the Note” (No. 37, 2003) and the live “One Way Out” (No. 190, 2004). After 45 years in business, the band was formally dissolved after an October 2014 show at the Beacon.


Allman’s old habits caught up with him in the ‘00s. Diagnosed with hepatitis C – a disease common to intravenous drug users – in 2007, he learned that he was suffering from liver cancer in 2008. He underwent successful liver transplant surgery at the Mayo Clinic in 2010.


Before his surgery, Allman entered the studio to record his first solo album in 13 years. “Low Country Blues,” a striking and powerful recital of old blues songs, augmented by one Allman-Haynes original and produced by T Bone Burnett (Alison Krauss/Robert Plant, Los Lobos, Elvis Costello, “O Brother Where Art Thou?”), garnered the best reviews of his career, collected a Grammy Award nomination and became his highest-charting solo release, reaching No. 5 in early 2011.


However, health problems and catastrophe continued to dog him. He cut short a 2011 European tour because of respiratory issues, which ultimately mandated lung surgery. He faced a drug relapse spurred by painkillers, and did a stint in rehab. In 2014, a film based on his 2012 memoir, “Midnight Rider,” ceased production after a camera assistant on director Randall Miller’s feature was killed by a freight train on the first day of shooting.


Allman’s last concert took place on October 29, 2016 in Atlanta, a headlining set at his own Laid Back Festival.


Married and divorced six times, Allman is survived by three sons and two daughters, all by different mothers. Four of the children are professional musicians.

Allman will be buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia, next to Duane and former Allmans bassist Berry Oakley (who died a year after Duane), Lehman said. Their mother’s ashes, currently in Gregg’s home, will be buried there as well. 

The Eagles sue Hotel California

Members of the band The Eagles (L - R) Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit attend the premiere of the film "History of the Eagles Part One" during Sundance London, at the O2 Arena in London.

Reuters

By Jonathan Stempel

REUTERS - The Eagles have filed a lawsuit accusing the owners of a Mexico hotel of using the name "Hotel California," arguably the band's most famous song, without permission.

In a complaint filed late Monday, the Eagles said owners of the 11-room Todos Santos hotel in Baja California Sur "actively encourage" guests to believe the hotel is associated with the band, in order to sell t-shirts and other merchandise, and make guests feel welcome.

This allegedly included piping "Hotel California" and other Eagles songs through the hotel sound system, and selling t-shirts in that refer to the hotel as "legendary," resulting in apparent confusion among many guests who posted online reviews.

The Eagles also noted that the defendant Hotel California Baja LLC has applied with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to register the Hotel California name.

"Defendants lead U.S. consumers to believe that the Todos Santos Hotel is associated with the Eagles and, among other things, served as the inspiration for the lyrics in 'Hotel California,' which is false," the complaint said.

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court seeks a variety of damages and a halt to any infringement.

Neither the hotel nor the lawyer who filed its trademark application immediately responded on Tuesday to requests for comment.

The Todos Santos hotel was named Hotel California when it opened in 1950, but went through a series of name changes before a Canadian couple, John and Debbie Stewart, bought it in 2001, and according to the Eagles began using the original name in marketing. Its website is ((http://hotelcaliforniabaja.com/)).

"Hotel California" is the title track from the 1976 Eagles album of the same name, and won the 1977 Grammy award for record of the year.

It is known for its long guitar outro featuring Don Felder and Joe Walsh, and complex lyrics sung by Don Henley.

In an interview with CBS News last year, Henley said the song is about "a journey from innocence to experience. It's not really about California; it's about America."

The case is Eagles Ltd v Hotel California Baja LLC et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 17-03276.

A decade into Record Store Day, a new world of vinyl

(AFP Photo/FREDERIC J. BROWN) 

by Shaun TANDON

Ma Nerriza dela Cerna of Erika Records displays a full color "Beauty and the Beast" record at the company's office in Buena Park, California on April 12, 2017, where the record manufacturing business has been pressing vinyl for over 30 years (AFP Photo/FREDERIC J. BROWN)

New York (AFP) - Ten years ago, most vinyl records sold for a few dollars -- dusty old albums with dog-eared covers that had been thrown out as useless relics of an earlier age.

However, faced with twin onslaughts from digital music and big-box stores, independent record stores in the United States banded together in 2007 to create an annual day of special sales -- and much to their surprise, vinyl has been king.

Metallica played the first Record Store Day at a branch of Rasputin Music in the San Francisco area. While the metal legends' presence ensured a crowd, all 10,000 vinyl reissues at the store sold out that day.

"That made me realize we were onto something. We tapped into something that nobody could have imagined," Record Store Day co-founder Michael Kurtz said.

Kurtz quickly expanded Record Store Day to continental Europe and Britain, where the first British edition was championed by Billy Bragg, the folk rocker known for his left-wing activism.

The 10th annual event takes place Saturday at thousands of stores around the world -- due to the deliberately loose structure, Kurtz does not have an exact figure -- with some 350 special vinyl pressings in the US market released on the day.

Since the first Record Store Day, vinyl has soared to levels not seen since the 1980s. It has been a rare source of growth in the long-beleaguered music industry alongside -- although at a much smaller scale than -- streaming.

Vinyl revenue will top $1 billion this year while sales of CDs and digital downloads tumble, the analytical firm Deloitte estimates.

In Britain, where vinyl's rebirth has been particularly pronounced, records generated more revenue than advertising-backed tiers of streaming platforms last year.

- Owning a format -

Vinyl enthusiasts such as Elton John, who has done promotions for Record Store Day, insist the medium offers a superior listening experience. But there are also broader cultural forces at play.

"It was a perfect storm," said Kurtz, 59, sipping coffee near his home in Harlem as he wore a T-shirt of punk icon Iggy Pop -- among the musicians with special Record Store Day releases.

"For the older music fan, people in my age group, it was a romantic thing that you can go back and buy all your favorite records again and buy special versions of those albums," he said.

"On the younger side of things, it enabled a whole new generation to own it. I think it was a response to digital in a way."

In a sun-kissed industrial plaza in Orange County, California, Erika Records never stopped making vinyl. But production has ramped up eight times in the past decade. The plant now produces 20,000 records a day.

"The vinyl resurgence has been very good to us," project manager Ma Nerriza dela Cerna said next to the plant, where records by artists from Lady Gaga to Bob Marley are manufactured from start to finish.

Part of vinyl's draw is the unique touches it provides for fans. Erika Records, the sole US plant to make color and picture records, works with artists to create original designs -- although it drew the line when one band proposed infusing its members' blood into the vinyl.

- Will boom last? -

"A lot of people say that the vinyl industry will eventually slow down," dela Cerna said. "I personally don't think that only because I feel like we're introducing vinyl to a new audience every day."

Record Store Day and Erika Records both have their roots in working with independent labels, although major conglomerates have since joined the event.

Unlike some indie purists, Kurtz rejoices in major labels' participation as a signal of vinyl's success. But he also worries that the same trends that battered independent stores a decade ago are coming back, with some labels bypassing them to sell directly to consumers.

Vinyl's growth has also been inconsistent. A major format for indie and classic rock and jazz, it has had much less impact in hip-hop, where top artists often find it more lucrative to sign streaming deals.

While vinyl makes up an ever-greater part of the market, the rate of growth in the United States slowed to four percent in 2016.

Kurtz isn't worried. Record store owners are enjoying themselves, he said, and the expansion was expected to plateau.

"Music has always had a core 10-15 percent of the population that buys the full vision of the artist, whether it's on CD or vinyl. And right now it's pretty close to that."

Chuck Berry, Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Dies at 90

 
In this Oct. 17, 1986 file photo, Chuck Berry performs during a concert celebration for his 60th birthday at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, Mo. James A. Finley / AP

by Kalhan Rosenblatt

Revolutionary blues singer Chuck Berry, often referred to as the "poet laureate" and "father" of rock 'n' roll, died Saturday, police in Missouri said. He was 90.


Officers responded to Berry's home outside St. Louis on Saturday afternoon and found him unconscious, the St. Charles County police said on Facebook. First responders were unsuccessful in reviving him and pronounced him dead at 1:26 p.m. local time. 

One of the first inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Berry wove together beguiling narratives, fusing rhythm and blues with country and western — transfixing the nation. 

Ted Nugent's amazing tribute to the legendary Chuck Berry.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton called Berry "one of the 20th Century's most influential musicians."

Known for chart-toppers such as "Johnny B Goode," "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," Berry's career rocketed in the 1950s after signing a record deal with Chess Records at the behest of musician Muddy Waters, according to Rolling Stone.

In this Oct. 17, 1986 file photo, Chuck Berry performs during a concert celebration for his 60th birthday at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, Mo. James A. Finley / AP

His first hit, "Maybellene," spent nine weeks in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard R&B chart and also rose to No. 5 on the pop charts. Berry reshaped the 1950s with a unique sound that appealed to both sides of a racially divided country.


"I made records for people who would buy them. No color, no ethnic, no political — I don't want that, never did," Berry told the New York Times in 2003.


The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame said in a statement Saturday that Berry "created the rock sound."


"Chuck Berry is rock and roll. The undisputed original poet laureate, he influenced every rock and roll artist after him and every guitarist that ever plugged in," hall of fame President and CEO Greg Harris said in a statement.


"Today, we celebrate his poetry, his artistry and his massive contributions to 20th century culture," Harris said. It's fitting that he was the first person inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Rock and roll as we know it would not exist without him. Hail Hail, Rock and Roll. Hail Hail, Chuck Berry."

Many of the biggest names in rock 'n' roll have cited Berry as an inspiration thanks to his earworm tunes.


John Lennon once said: "If you had tried to try and give rock 'n' roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck 'Berry.'"


The Twitter account run by Lennon's estate was among those paying tribute to the legendary musician Saturday. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr also expressed his condolences: "R I P. And peace and love Chuck Berry Mr. rock 'n' roll music."


Leonard Cohen believed, "all of us are footnotes to the words of Chuck Berry," while Bob Dylan dubbed him the "Shakespeare of rock 'n' roll," Peter Guralnick recalled in Rolling Stone in October 2016.


Berry's signature duck walk was adopted by the likes of admiring bands such as The Who and AC/DC.


Despite mesmerizing the country with his infectious hooks and rhythm, he was temporarily pulled from the spotlight in 1959 when he was arrested for violating the Mann Act by driving an underage girl across state lines from Texas to his native Missouri, according to Biography.com. He spent two years in federal prison.

 

Chuck Berry performs at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill on Dec. 31, 2011 in New York City. Bobby Bank / WireImage

As a teenager, Berry — born Charles Anderson Edward Berry to Martha and Henry Berry in St. Louis — was convicted of an armed robbery and spent 1944 to 1947 in reform school.


After his release, Berry worked an assembly line and studied cosmetology, before finding his place in American history with a guitar in his hands and a captain's hat on his head.


Later in life, Berry would serve another prison stint after running into trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, Rolling Stone reported.


But he would always return to the stage, even as he aged, playing shows into his mid-80s.


On his 90th birthday, Berry announced he was releasing his first LP in 38 years, slated to hit stores this year. He dedicated the album to his wife of 68 years, Themetta "Toddy" Berry, whom he is survived by.

Graceland Celebrates Elvis’ Birthday

Graceland

If you’re looking for the most rockin’ Elvis events in the world, check out this jam-packed Elvis calendar. People all over the world still celebrate the life and times of Elvis and we’d love for you to join us! From annual celebrations at Graceland such as Elvis Week to the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest of Japan, you’re sure to find something fun near you. Browse this Elvis calendar for the world’s favorite Elvis-related festivals and events January 5-8, 2017, for the Elvis Birthday Celebration!

The 2017 Elvis Birthday Celebration features a "Viva Las Vegas" Sing-A-Long, Fan Club Presidents' Event, Official Graceland Insiders Reception and Graceland Tour, Club Elvis, The Auction at Graceland and, of course, the Elvis Birthday Proclamation Ceremony. Special guests for the Fan Club Presidents' Event and Graceland Insiders Reception are Gavin and Robin Koon, Elvis' "Follow That Dream" co-stars.

MEMPHIS, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Graceland® celebrated Elvis’™ birthday as construction continues on schedule for the new, state-of-the-art “Elvis Presley’s Memphis” entertainment complex across the street from the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s™ Memphis mansion. Graceland guests, fans from around the world, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell officially celebrated with a proclamation of “Elvis Presley Day” on the front lawn of Graceland and by cutting the largest birthday cake in Graceland history. Other birthday events included concerts and panel discussions, with special guests including “Follow That Dream” movie co-stars Robin and Gavin Koon and award-winning filmmaker Andrew Solt, who made a number of acclaimed films and television specials about Elvis Presley. For the first time ever, birthday celebration events were hosted at Graceland’s new AAA Four Diamond-rated resort hotel, The Guest House at Graceland™. The birthday celebrations kick off the 40^th anniversary of Elvis’ passing.

A highlight of the celebration was The Auction at Graceland held in The Guest House Theater on January 7. Elvis fans and pop culture enthusiasts gathered to bid on memorabilia from Elvis’ personal life, all consigned by third-party collectors and expertly authenticated by Graceland Authenticated.

Highlights included a Gold and Diamond Lion Head Ring Elvis owned and gave to Charlie Hodge, one of the Memphis Mafia. It was estimated to sell for $10,000 - $15,000 and went for $37,500.00.

Elvis’ Colt “Police Positive Special” .32 Caliber Pistol which he gave to bodyguard Richard Grob
sold for $10,625.00 on an estimate of $4,000 - $6,000. Over 160 items were sold in the auction.

All of the prices realized include a 25% buyer's premium. For a complete list of all items and final sale prices visit auction.graceland.com/catalog.aspx.

It was also announced today that Priscilla Presley will be attending the Grand Opening Celebration of “Elvis Presley’s Memphis,” an entertainment and exhibit complex over 200,000-square-feet in size across the street from Graceland Mansion, opening on March 2, 2017. The largest entertainment complex of its kind, and exponentially bigger than Graceland’s current visitor center, “Elvis Presley’s Memphis” will enable music fans, pop culture enthusiasts and Memphis visitors to follow the path that Elvis took, surround themselves with the things that he loved, and experience the sights and sounds of the city that inspired him. Guests will fully immerse themselves in his life and career like never before -- his roots, his influences and his artistry. The new complex is phase II of the greatest expansion in Graceland’s history, totaling nearly $140 million of investment in the Whitehaven community of Memphis.

The acclaimed Graceland Mansion tour will continue to present the personal and family side of Elvis’ life, and will soon include a full restoration of Elvis’ racquetball court, so that it once again looks exactly as it did when Elvis was last in the Racquetball Building. “Elvis Presley’s Memphis” will tell the rest of the story, exploring the beginning of the incredible music and pop culture explosion that all started here in Memphis, with the greatest entertainer of all time.

The March 2-5 Grand Opening Celebration will feature live concerts and events celebrating Elvis’ life and career and honoring Memphis’ rich musical legacy across a variety of genres. The opening weekend will include the unveiling of “Presley Motors,” the new Elvis Presley Automobile Museum, “Elvis: The Entertainer” career museum, the Graceland Soundstage for live music performances and movie screenings, Elvis “Discovery” spaces showcasing aspects of Elvis’ life and career, and two themed restaurants named for Elvis’ parents: Vernon’s Smokehouse and Gladys’ Diner. New retail stores will offer a broad variety of Elvis merchandise.

For more information on the Grand Opening Celebration March 2-5, 2017, visit Graceland.com. For information on The Guest House at Graceland hotel packages for the Grand Opening weekend that include tickets to tour Graceland Mansion and Elvis Presley’s Memphis, visit

GuestHouseGraceland.com or call 901-332-3322 (toll-free at 800-238-2000).

The next Elvis Auction at Graceland will take place during the opening weekend of Elvis Presley’s Memphis on March 4. To have an artifact considered for inclusion in future Graceland Auctions, please email consignments@graceland.com. For more information about how to submit items for authentication by Graceland Authenticated, visit http://www.gracelandauthenticated.com.

Tickets go on sale on November 30 for Graceland Insiders and December 1 for the general public.

George Michael Dead at 53

Former Wham! singer and massively successful soul and pop solo vocalist dies "peacefully at home"

By Keith Harris 
George Michael, the soulful British heartthrob who became a star in the Eighties as half of Wham! before earning critical acclaim as a solo artist, died Sunday at his home in Goring in Oxfordshire, England. The cause of death was heart failure, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Michael was 53.

“Thames Valley Police were called to a property in Goring-on-Thames shortly before 2 p.m. Christmas Day," police said in a statement. "Sadly, a 53-year-old man was confirmed deceased at the scene. At this stage the death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious."

"It is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother and friend George passed away peacefully at home over the Christmas period," his rep said in a statement. "The family would ask that their privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time. There will be no further comment at this stage."

Michael sold more than 100 million albums throughout his career. Wham! introduced the young American fans who'd loved Duran Duran to a pop sound more indebted to traditional R&B. Michael's subsequent solo career won over many of the same critics and listeners who'd previously dismissed him as a mere teenybop idol. But the singer's career would eventually be derailed for half a decade by legal battles with his label, as he also became known for incidents of actual and alleged public sexuality, and, for the past decade, a series of drug busts.

"I am in deep shock," Elton John wrote on Instagram. "I have lost a beloved friend - the kindest, most generous soul and a brilliant artist. My heart goes out to his family and all of his fans."
"I just saw the sad news about George Michael as I was heading for bed," Queen guitarist Brian May, 
who worked with the singer on 1992's Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, wrote on his site. "I don’t have the words. This year has cruelly taken so many fine people way too young. And George? That gentle boy? All that beautiful talent? Can't begin to compute this. RIP George. Sing with Freddie. And the Angels."

Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in London on June 25th, 1963, the son of a Greek Cypriot restauranteur and an English dancer. He formed Wham! in 1981 with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley, and the following year the duo's first single, "Young Guns (Go for It!)," released when Michael was just 19, was a smash U.K. hit, reaching Number Three there. Their debut album, Fantastic, served up three more Top Ten hits at home: "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" "Bad Boys" and "Club Tropicana."

"Heartbroken at the loss of my beloved friend Yog," Ridgeley wrote on Twitter. "Me, his loved ones, his friends, the world of music, the world at large. 4ever loved."

International stardom soon followed. The first single from 1984's Make It Big was the energetically swinging "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," which went to Number One on both sides of the Atlantic. The torchy, saxophone-hooked ballad "Careless Whisper" and the desperate and danceable "Everything She Wants" also topped the charts. The group's follow-up, Music From the Edge of Heaven, wasn't the same commercial powerhouse, peaking at Number Ten in the U.S. But by then, Michael already had his eyes on solo success.

The singer’s 1987 solo debut, Faith, offered up a more mature and daring George Michael. "I Want Your Sex" sought to challenge taboos similar to Prince and Madonna, "Father Figure" offered a new depth of soul and the title track was a Bo Diddley-inspired rocker. Faith went to Number One in both the U.S. and UK, selling more than 25 million copies worldwide and winning a Grammy for Album of the Year. (Michael also won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for 1987's "I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me)" with Aretha Franklin.)

Michael distanced himself even further from Wham! with 1990's Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, a Number Two U.S. album thanks to the somber ballad "Praying for Time" and the searching, funky career retrospective "Freedom '90." The latter video found Michael eschewing the traditional appearance of a singer in a video, opting instead to use supermodels, including Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell, lip-syncing the song's lyrics.

Michael was disappointed with sales of Prejudice and sued Sony, claiming his label hadn't done enough to promote him. When the label refused to release his follow-up, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 2, Michael spent much of the decade out of action musically. He wouldn't release another album until 1996's Older. The album was a respectable success commercially, though failed to reclaim Michael to the superstar level he attained in the Eighties.

George Michael circa 1983. Mike Maloney/REX/Shutterstock

In 1998, Michael was arrested by a male undercover police officer for "engaging in a lewd act" in the men's room of a public park in Beverly Hills as part of a sting operation. Michael pleaded no contest, receiving a small fine and a sentence of community service. He would subsequently satirize the incident in his video for the song "Outside," which featured men in police uniforms kissing. In response, the arresting officer, Marcelo Rodriguez, filed a $10 million emotional distress suit against Michael that was eventually tossed out of court.

Following the incident, Michael cleared up the questions about his sexual orientation that had been buzzing since his days in Wham! He came out as gay, and went public about his relationship with Kenny Goss, which had begun in 1996. In 2006, U.K. tabloid stories alleged that Michael cruised for anonymous sex. 

Michael responded by noting it was not an issue with his partner and he felt no shame. "I've got no issue with cruising; it is something I have talked abut many times," he told Channel 4 (via Daily Mail). "You can't be [ashamed] about the situation if the person isn't shamed, and I am certainly not that. I should be able to be what I am to young, gay people, which is a man who has succeeded in the industry for 25 years." Michael and Goss would remain together for more than a decade.

Michael’s 1999 album, Songs From the Last Century, only made it to 157 on the Billboard 200. He bounced back in 2004 when Patience debuted at Number One on the UK albums chart and peaked at Number 12, but it would be his last studio album.

In 2006, Michael was arrested for drug possession in London, the first of a string of drug-related run-ins with the law for the singer culminating in a 2010 sentence of eight weeks in prison. (Michael served four weeks.) In 2011, Michael cancelled a concert for a viral infection that turned out to be severe pneumonia.

His most recent release was the 2014 live album, Symphonica, for which Michael collaborated with a symphony. It went gold in the U.K. The BBC reports that Michael was reportedly working on a new album with producer and songwriter Naughty Boy earlier this month. As the New York Times notes, the singer had been planning an expanded reissue of Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 alongside a documentary on his career titled Freedom.

Michael remained confident and defiant throughout his career. "I don’t want any children; I don’t want responsibility," he told Time Out in 2007. "I am gay, I smoke weed and I do exactly what I want in my life because of my talent."

Additional reporting by Kory Grow.
Wham! - "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"
Wham! - "Careless Whisper"
George Michael - "I Want Your Sex"
George Michael - "Faith"

Holly Dunn, 59, Country Singer-Songwriter, Dies

 photo by Ray Tharaldson all rights reserved 2010

By SAM ROBERTS

Holly Dunn, a country singer who wrote the hit “Daddy’s Hands” as a Father’s Day gift for her preacher father and whose song “Maybe I Mean Yes” provoked a national conversation about date rape, died on Monday in Albuquerque. She was 59.

The cause was ovarian cancer, said her nephew, Daniel Dunn, the mayor of Temple, Tex.

Ms. Dunn’s wistful “Daddy’s Hands” won two Grammy nominations (best female country vocal performance and best country song) in 1987, and her “Are You Ever Gonna Love Me” and “You Really Had Me Going” (both written with her brother Chris Waters Dunn and Tom Shapiro) reached No. 1 on the country charts, in 1989 and 1990.