Guitarist MICK TAYLOR rejoined the ROLLING STONES onstage in Los Angeles on Monday night (20May13) as the rockers returned to the Staples Center for their final California show "for a while".   READ MORE...

  Guitarist MICK TAYLOR rejoined the ROLLING STONES onstage in Los Angeles on Monday night (20May13) as the rockers returned to the Staples Center for their final California show "for a while".
  The group kicked off its 50 & Counting tour at the venue earlier this month (May13) and have been up and down the state ever since.
  Before heading off to Canada for the next leg of their North American tour, Mick Jagger and his bandmates hit the home of The Los Angeles Lakers and teased fans by suggesting it would be their last California hurrah.
  The frontman told devotees the show would be the band's "last gig in California" before adding, "for a while anyway", suggesting the Stones might not be planning to hang up their tour gear just yet.
  Taylor, who performed with the group on their five-show 50th anniversary dates last year (12), returned to the stage with his old bandmates to perform a string of hits, including Can't You Hear Me Knocking. (KL/WN/MJ) HIDE STORY

R&B and rock legend GARY U.S. BONDS still can't believe he was among the first to receive one of Norfolk, Virginia's top honours a decade ago - because locals once chased him out of a posh suburb because he was black.   READ MORE...

  R&B and rock legend GARY U.S. BONDS still can't believe he was among the first to receive one of Norfolk, Virginia's top honours a decade ago - because locals once chased him out of a posh suburb because he was black.
  The Florida-born star, real name Gary Levone Anderson, grew up in Norfolk and recently returned to be inducted into the city's Legends of Music Walk of Fame - but the singer admits it was a bittersweet honour because he still remembers the hostility directed at him when he attempted to move up the social scale there by buying a home in the suburbs.
  He recalls, "It was 1963 and they locked me up for hitting an imaginary dog. I had just bought a house in Green Hill Farms, which was a white neighbourhood. My real estate agent, who actually looked white, bought the house for me because they weren't supposed to sell to blacks. I moved in with my family and the neighbourhood didn't like that. So they created this story.
  "I'm on my way to the studio one day and, as I turned the corner, a lady kept screaming out in the street, 'Oh, you hit my dog, you hit my dog!' I didn't see a dog and I got out to see and her husband got me at the gate with a shotgun and forced me into the house.
  "I was standing in the house with my hands above my head. She called the police and I went to the officer, 'Let me tell you the story,' and he said, 'You should shut up now n**ga! You got nothing to say'. Then he handcuffed me.
  "The next day I went to jail. They gave me six months but I think I only did, like, six days because the lawyer was very good friends with the judge and he talked him into it saying, 'This was wrong'. That's when I realised, 'I don't want to live here any longer!'"
  And he tells BlogTalkRadio.com that his 2002 Norfolk Legends of Music Walk of Fame brought back some bad memories: "I got a little flak there. (When I was inducted I said), 'You guys are giving me a trophy. The last time I was here the only thing you wanted to give me was time!'"
  The honours keep coming for Norfolk's favourite son: "It's amazing how things go around. They want to name a street after me." (KL/WN&RXM/MT) HIDE STORY

The members of DEEP PURPLE had to promise to wear hats for an important debut performance in Malaysia at the beginning of the 1980s, because officials in Kuala Lumpur feared the band's long hair would upset concertgoers.   READ MORE...

  The members of DEEP PURPLE had to promise to wear hats for an important debut performance in Malaysia at the beginning of the 1980s, because officials in Kuala Lumpur feared the band's long hair would upset concertgoers.
  Frontman Ian Gillan tells WENN he and his bandmates went through a year of contractual issues with government bigwigs before the concert could even be scheduled, because the officials feared the band would corrupt the country's youth.
  Gillan tells WENN, "They were scared of the English disease, as it was called. They were checking all the lyrics and all the ramifications.
  "It was a key gig for us because we were doing a whole series of Eastern dates and this and two others were key dates, without which the rest of the tour wouldn't have happened.
  "I will never forget one clause in the contract... The wording went exactly like this: 'The boys in the band shall not allow their hair to fall upon their shoulders'. We agreed that we'd tie it up or wear hats or conceal it.
  "We did actually let the hair come down because the Minister of Culture came to the press conference and he said, 'You're not at all what I expected - you can speak!' He said, 'If the hats fall off after three or four songs, it'll be OK', so I called over a camera crew and said, 'Would you mind saying that again because it's in the contract. I want witnesses.'
  "Rock music was a big threat back then, so you got rejected from a lot of places. It was mostly the drugs and the loud-mouthed singers that people were afraid of." (KL/WN/MJ) HIDE STORY

Pop star DEBBIE GIBSON is heading to TV as a judge on new U.S. reality show SING YOUR FACE OFF.   READ MORE...

  Pop star DEBBIE GIBSON is heading to TV as a judge on new U.S. reality show SING YOUR FACE OFF.
  Network bosses at ABC recently snapped up the American rights to hit Spanish talent series Your Face Sounds Familiar, where celebrities take on the identity of a legendary singer each week, and now Foolish Beat hitmaker Gibson is set to rate their performances alongside Scary Movie 3 funnyman Darrell Hammond.
  Among those slated to compete on the programme are soap star Lisa Rinna, former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, comedian Jon Lovitz and teenage Disney Channel singer/actress China Anne McClain.
  An air date for the show, to be hosted by actor John Barrowman, has not yet been set. (MC/EW/KL) HIDE STORY

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  "After we kissed and hugged, he paid for my dinner - as he should." MADONNA confirms she and Sir Elton John have ended their infamous war of words after meeting up over dinner at a restaurant in Nice, France. (KL/WNVEX/MT) HIDE STORY

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  "I'm a celebrity superfan; I host my own radio show about Howard Stern... Howard is great for me as a mother because he talks a lot about his mother... and it makes me very aware of how not to be and the things to curb inside of me, all of the anxiety and problems that I am worried about for them. He knows toomuch about his mother and her struggles." Singer NATALIE MAINES gets parental tips from shock jock Howard Stern. (KL/wnvch/MJ) HIDE STORY