Willie Nelson and ZZ Top

Pop Icons : A Dying Breed

An era of American superstar icon status in the realm of entertainment/pop culture is fading ever faster with the passing of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.
In the world of immediacy, attention disorders and frankly, a severe shortage of talent...the pop culture icon is a dying breed...
Love 'em or hate 'em, there's only a handful left...

• Bob Dylan
• Willie Nelson
• Madonna
• Bruce Springsteen
• Prince
• Iggy Pop
• Raquel Welch
  
• Elizabeth Taylor
• Jack Nicholson
• Woody Allen
  
• David Letterman
  

...let us know if you think of any others...
It seems unfathomable that anyone will ever achieve the type of celebrity Jackson or Fawcett were able to achieve and especially the manner in which they became so incredibly popular.

Related:
More than just a pin-up: A tribute to actress Farrah Fawcett

R.I.P.: Poodie Locke

Randall "Poodie" Locke, who toured with Willie Nelson for more than three decades, died Wednesday (May 6) of an apparent heart attack at his home in Briarcliff, Texas. He was 56. Nelson's official Web site described Locke as "Willie's longtime stage manager, friend and golf partner."
more HERE and HERE

Happy Birthday Willie Nelson

official website HERE

Bob Dylan : In the Ballpark

Bob Dylan has just announced an ambitious line-up for this year's summer concert tour. Along with fellow troubadour Willie Nelson, this summer The Bob Dylan Show will also feature John Mellencamp, marking just the second time in the past 24 years that these three performers have shared the concert stage.
All concert tickets are priced at $67.50 and most shows are general admission, allowing fans to grab a seat in the stands or find a place to watch from the field. Tickets will go on sale throughout the month of May and will be available at the local ballpark ticket office and affiliated ticket outlets. There is no baseball game on the day of the show. *Children 14 and under get in free with each adult ticket holder.
Showtime is 5:30pm and gates open at 5:00. Gates will open at 4:30 for holders of bobdylan.com pre-sale tickets.
Together Through Life will be released by Columbia Records on April 28. Order the CD, Vinyl, Digital*, or Limited Edition CD/DVD edition today from the official Bob Dylan online store.

Willie Nelson Twattoo

source

Related:
Top 20 Worst Tattoos

Willie & The Wheel

It's a match made in honky-tonk heaven. Outlaw-country icon Willie Nelson and Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel have teamed up for an album, "Willie and the Wheel," which comes out today, and will kick off a joint tour February 11, 2009.
The album was conceived by legendary R&B producer Jerry Wexler, who got to hear the finished product before he passed away in August. Wexler first tried to make a Western swing album with Nelson in the '70s, when Nelson was recording for Wexler's label, Atlantic. The project was shelved when Nelson moved to the Columbia label, but revived after Nelson toured with Merle Haggard, Ray Price and Asleep at the Wheel in 2007.
info & album available HERE

The Lost Highway Men

Colbert Christmas on DVD...that was fast!

This is, hands down, the best Christmas special ever. It is so unlike all those blasphemous things that have passed as Christmas specials, on network TV in the past. Great songs; great guests; all around a great time. Guests included Elvis Costello, Feist, Toby Keith, John Legend, Willie Nelson and Jon Stewart.
This Stephen Colbert's Christmas Special, upholds the Judeo-Christian traditions, like no other show has done before AND it uses goats in ways that less imaginative minds could not fathom.
A great family treat, if your family enjoys the conservative traditions of Christmas like my family does. A must have. A must buy.
video HERE
DVD available HERE

Happy Birthday Paul

R.I.P.: Jerry Wexler

Pioneering music executive Jerry Wexler, who helped build Atlantic Records into a rhythm and blues powerhouse in the 1950s and 1960s with artists like Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles, died in Florida on Friday at age 91.
His influence was not limited to R&B. He helped guide the careers of many artists, including rockers Led Zeppelin, Dire Straits and the B-52's, as well as Bob Dylan and country star Willie Nelson.
obit HERE

Willie Nelson at 75

Last week marked the 75th birthday of music legend Willie Nelson...
Not a year has gone by in the past 3 decades where Mr. Nelson and I haven't crossed paths, be it a huge concert arena with the late Waylon Jennings, The Highwaymen, Merle Haggard, a bar on the California coast or the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas.

I've pulled hard rock fans, punk rockers and even people who loved that crappy music from the 1980's by their hair to attend shows knowing one thing...no matter what you like, Willie Nelson is a GOD...they always walk out of the event with the 'Tao of Willie' and exclaim, "I have to tell my friends, they won't believe this..." It's the same over and over...and I just smile.

Willie isn't great, or even good, HE'S WILLIE FRICKIN' NELSON! And if you get the chance, don't pass it up...never pass it up because not everyone gets to stand in front of a GOD...
He's a little like his fellow miracle of nature, Keith Richards. Even beyond the fact some people think he's a little nuts, (in a good way) odd things seem to follow him around just waiting to happen. And there's nothing wrong with that...

Happy Birthday Willie

Finally a photo...

While we had inside info that Willie and Snoop Dog were together this week in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, we've only seen crappy photos of the two of them together...'till now...
more HERE
They are recording as well as doing live gigs...see HERE

We need a U.S. Tour of this duet...

Top 10 Tax Troubled Stars

1. Gordon Ramsay - In 2006, this celebrity chef gets his food out on time, but his company doesn’t pay its taxes with the same speed. He was fined 450 pounds by the British Government for missing their filing deadlines. At the time, a rep for Ramsay said they had already submitted the accounts and blamed the delay on ‘a housekeeping issue’.

2. Buster Keaton - This famous Silent Film era actor had a major fall in 1928 when he switched studios. He lost creative control of his movies and he started down the road of alcoholism. The IRS sued him for $28,000 in back taxes and he was committed to a sanitarium. Keaton eventually got his drinking problem under control, but his career was never the same.

3. Richard Hatch - - For someone who was so smart at the game of ‘Survivor’, its first winner made what is arguably a stupid move. Richard Hatch failed to report his $1 million publicly won prize in 2000 to the IRS. He is currently incarcerated for this crime and is set to be released in October 2009.

4. Annie Lebovitz - She may be one of the most celebrated pop culture photographers of our time, but last November, she was accused of owing $135,916 in back taxes to the state of New York according to The New York Post. Perhaps she should have sold Demi Moore’s clothes that never made it into one of her most infamous photos.

5. Judy Garland - In 1964 the once superstar’s unsuccessful variety show, ‘The Judy Garland Show,’ was canceled. To add fuel to her depression, she owed $4 million in back taxes to the IRS, so they repossessed her home.

6. Marc Anthony - In 2007, Mr. Jennifer Lopez was ordered to pay about $2.5 million in back taxes. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said Anthony failed to file returns from 2000 - 2004, a period when he earned $15.5 million. Anthony was never charged with a crime, but two of his associates pleaded guilty to tax felonies.

7. Wesley Snipes - Earlier this year, the ‘Blade’ actor was acquitted of federal tax fraud and conspiracy, but was found guilty on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return. He had faced up to 16 years in prison. According to the Prosecutor, from 1999 - 2004, he had signed two contracts for more than $10 million that he failed to file for.

8. Willie Nelson - In 1990, the IRS billed Nelson for $16.7 million in back taxes. He wrote and recorded albums and sold his assets to pay them back. He was caught up by 1993, but he will not shake this on his epitaph, as this was big news at the time.

9. Joe Francis - In April 2007, Joe Francis and his companies were indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of tax evasion. The 35-year-old Francis has built a soft porn empire filming and marketing videos of young women exposing their breasts and being shown in other sexually provocative situations. Federal prosecutors allege the companies claimed more than $20 million in phony deductions in those years, and that Francis used offshore accounts to conceal income.

10. Damon Dash - In 2007, the $50 million music mogul was handed a bill for more than $2 million by the state of New York according to The New York Post. In other news, Dash apparently has over 1,000 pairs of sneakers.

Rolling Stoned

Keith Richards "...smokes weed all the time."

The Rolling Stones guitarist - who was treated for heroin addiction in the late 1970's - admits he still loves getting high on cannabis, but no longer dabbles in hard drugs.

Richards said, "I smoke my head off. I smoke weed all the time. There, you've got it. "But that's all I take, all I do. I do smoke and I've got some really good hash."

Referring to his heavy drug use in the 1960s and 1970s, he added, "People thought I was going to die. I never did - as you can see. The drugs? Oh yeah, they were great. "Now I'm on medication. Drugs now? It's a dodgy subject."

Keith's substance abuse earned him a notorious reputation as a hell raiser. The 64-year-old rocker was arrested on five separate occasions for drug-related offenses, and at one point was believed to have regular full-body blood transfusions to clean out his system.
more HERE

Last year, Keith claimed to have snorted his late father's ashes.

Is it a stretch to envision a Willie Nelson/Keith Richards Tour this summer...

Comedy Central to Roast Willie

Get your IRS and pot smoking jokes ready: Comedy Central is roasting country music god Willie Nelson.
The roast, marking the red-headed stranger’s 75th birthday, will be taped in Los Angeles on April 17 and air in early June.
Joel Gallen of Tenth Planet Productions will be executive producer for the roast. He also executive produced Comedy Central’s roasts of Flavor Flav, William Shatner and Pamela Anderson.

“Willie Nelson is the original outlaw who has blazed the way for so many in the music and entertainment industry,” said Elizabeth Porter, senior VP, specials and talent, Comedy Central. “We are honored to celebrate Willie’s 75th birthday with a night of smoking hot comedy.”
more HERE

WTF: A Willie Nelson Classic

See it HERE

Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson

"Angels Flying Too Close To The Ground" mp3
by Bob Dylan, 1983
available on UK Single "Union Sundown"

ZZ Top & Willie Nelson