Lenny Kravitz album to address black America

NEW YORK | Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:06pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Singer and musician Lenny Kravitz will release his first album in three years under the title "Black and White America," and he promised on Wednesday it will be his most musically and lyrically "diverse" yet.

The album will be the 46 year-old songwriter's ninth in his career but the first under a new label, Atlantic and Roadrunner Records. It will be released in the middle of 2011 as Kravitz embarks on a world tour in June.

Kravitz told Billboard.com the album's title was derived from his experiences growing up "in between a so-called black and white world," up to changes in the United States today including Barack Obama elected as the first black president.

"My life has always been about contrasts, and it reflects on not only my life and what I've gone through with my parents and what I saw growing up, but also where we are now as far as this country," he said.

Kravitz is the son of black actress Roxie Roker and white television producer Sy Kravitz.

The 12-track up tempo album is expected to contain elements of Kravitz's signature sound that mixes rock, funk and soul influenced by the 1960s and 1970s, including tracks called "Stand, "You're Gonna Run Again," "Push" and "Super Love" -- described as combining 1970s funk with a modern sound, according to a statement.

The album will also include "Dream," a piano ballad and a funk-driven title track.

"Musically and lyrically, I feel it is the most diverse album of my career," Kravitz, who has won several Grammy awards for best male rock vocal performance, said in the statement.

He last toured in 2009 across 18 countries with his last album, "It Is Time For A Love Revolution". It contained the hit ballad "I'll Be Waiting" that landed in the top 10 in several European markets.

Kravitz also has acted in recent years, including a supporting role as a nurse in the 2009 film "Precious."

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Lady Gaga heading for hit, with Madonna's blessing

LOS ANGELES | Tue Feb 15, 2011 2:28pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lady Gaga's new Madonna-influenced single "Born This Way" is expected to storm the U.S. charts this week after record-setting radio play and more than 450,000 downloads, music industry sources say.

And the dance single also has the blessing of Madonna, Lady Gaga said.

"Born This Way" -- which fans and music critics have likened to the 1989 Madonna hit "Express Yourself" -- had sold more than 450,000 downloads in the first three days since its release on Friday, Billboard said quoting industry sources.

It also had a record-setting 4,602 radio plays in the United States, according to Nielsen. That should see the single debut at No.1 when the Billboard Hot 100 charts are released on Wednesday, Billboard said.

Lady Gaga addressed Madonna's influence in an appearance on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on Monday.

"There is really no one that is a more adoring and loving Madonna fan than me. I am the hugest fan personally and professionally," the 24-year-old singer told Leno.

"Well, the good news is that I got an e-mail from her people, and her sending me their love and complete support on behalf of the single, and if the queen says it shall be, then it shall be," she said.

Lady Gaga, who won three Grammys on Sunday after a headline-grabbing entrance encased in a giant egg, will make her concert debut on cable channel HBO in May.

HBO said on Tuesday that it would tape the singer's Feb 21 and 22 concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York for a May 7 broadcast.

"Born This Way" is the first single from a new Lady Gaga album scheduled for release on May 23.

The singer and performance artist told Leno on Monday that the opaque egg in which she arrived at the Grammys was in fact a "vessel" and said she had been inside it for three days before her performance on Sunday.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, editing by Christine Kearney)

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Rocker Slash to sell car, guitars in auction

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES | Tue Feb 15, 2011 2:49pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Who wants to dress in Slash's clothes, play his guitars and drive his pristine Corvette Stingray?

The former Guns N' Roses guitarist has teamed up with a Beverly Hills auction house to sell a wide range of personal property to fans and collectors next month.

Buyers with a passion for skulls and dinosaurs will be in luck, along with those whose living rooms would sparkle with exotic Southeast Asian furniture.

A sizable share of the proceeds from the March 26 sale will go to charity, according to Julien's Auctions, which specializes in selling entertainment memorabilia.

Auctioneer Darren Julien said he expected most of the items to end up overseas, particularly in Japan and other Asian markets where Guns N' Roses are still revered.

One of the perils of being a successful rock star for more than 20 years is that money buys a lot of clutter.

"I have a bad habit of collecting stuff that I don't necessarily use," Slash told Reuters, calling from a tour bus en route to a show in Oklahoma.

But a recent house move provided the 45-year-old rocker and his wife, Perla, with the perfect excuse to open their storage closets to fans and to boost the coffers of a local charity for abused and homeless adolescents.

"MONSTER OF A CAR"

The crown jewel is a 1966 Corvette Stingray, estimated to sell for at least $90,000 to $100,000, and described by Slash as "a monster of a car."

It was the toughest item to let go of, because it was the first good car he ever bought just as Guns N' Roses were becoming big stars in the late 1980s, and it is largely in original condition. Fluffy dice are included.

But the car has been sitting in storage while Slash drives new Aston Martins and his wife ferries their two young sons in an SUV. "I know that somebody would love to have that car because muscle cars are very, very popular," he said.

He estimates he has about 100 guitars, and will sell 14 of them at the auction. Among them is a Guild acoustic on which he recorded the band's early ballad "Patience." Also on the block are various custom and one-of-a-kind Telecaster, Stratocaster, Sanchez, Epiphone and B.C. Rich models.

Jackets, T-shirts and jewelry -- with skull motifs in abundance -- are going on sale, and two of Slash's trademark top hats.

And then there are the model dinosaurs, which would thrill any 6-year-old boy and evidently did the same to an adult rock star.

"My house was completely immersed in prehistoric animal lore," when he started dating his wife, Slash said. But she married him anyway.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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Cassavetes to direct film about drug dealer Rick Ross

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK | Tue Feb 15, 2011 8:36am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nick Cassavetes, who co-wrote the drug film "Blow" and directed romantic drama "The Notebook," has signed on to direct a new biopic about notorious drug dealer Rick Ross, the director and Ross have confirmed.

Cassavetes and Ross -- also known as "Freeway" Rick Ross -- said the film would explore Ross's masterminding of the crack cocaine trade from his base in Los Angeles during the early 1980s and his claims of being supplied by Nicaraguan Contras.

"My brother was a mercenary. He worked in Central America training the Contras, so in a way the story is personal to me," Cassavetes told Reuters in an email. "The fact that our government may have been complicit in destroying an entire community of people makes the story personal for everyone."

The film will explore the height of Ross' career when he says he often moved 100 kilograms of cocaine every day from his headquarters in the South Central section of Los Angeles and distributed it across the Unites States.

He claims to have been supplied by rebels (Contras) fighting the government of Nicaragua, and the film is expected to touch on the Iran-Contra affair of the late 1980s, when some officials in the administration of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan were convicted of secretly facilitating arms sales to Iran and funneling money to Nicaraguan Contras.

Cassavetes, the son of indie film pioneer John Cassavetes, signed on to write the untitled film in June last year, but only just agreed to direct it several weeks ago.

Cassavetes said that while he did not like comparing past films, "if I had to compare this movie to another that's been made in terms of a feeling, a point of view, maybe 'Traffic'," referring to the 2000 drama that explored the illegal drug trade from a number of different perspectives.

The writer/director has finished a script and hopes to begin shooting this year, but a start date depends on gaining full financing from independent investors, Ross said.

Ross said the film would not touch on his childhood but would focus mostly on his adult life. He spent 20 years in prison, but the film is not expected to center on his time behind bars. Rather, it will cover his career selling drugs.

"We become addicted to the power, the money, the manipulation, the whole lifestyle, the whole drug culture," Ross said about dealers, "And you are going to get to see this in the movie, how a guy goes from being a novice to being a drug expert."

The former drug trafficker, from whom the rapper Rick Ross derived his stage name, said he has talked directly Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg about acting in or producing the movie, but no actor has been signed to star in the film.

Ross said he now travels the country speaking to ex-offenders and rehabilitation programs.

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Rocker Slash to sell car, guitars in auction

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES | Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:55am EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Who wants to dress in Slash's clothes, play his guitars and drive his pristine Corvette Stingray?

The former Guns N' Roses guitarist has teamed up with a Beverly Hills auction house to sell a wide range of personal property to fans and collectors next month.

Buyers with a passion for skulls and dinosaurs will be in luck, along with those whose living rooms would sparkle with exotic Southeast Asian furniture.

A sizable share of the proceeds from the March 26 sale will go to charity, according to Julien's Auctions, which specializes in selling entertainment memorabilia.

Auctioneer Darren Julien said he expected most of the items to end up overseas, particularly in Japan and other Asian markets where Guns N' Roses are still revered.

One of the perils of being a successful rock star for more than 20 years is that money buys a lot of clutter.

"I have a bad habit of collecting stuff that I don't necessarily use," Slash told Reuters, calling from a tour bus en route to a show in Oklahoma.

But a recent house move provided the 45-year-old rocker and his wife, Perla, with the perfect excuse to open their storage closets to fans and to boost the coffers of a local charity for abused and homeless adolescents.

"MONSTER OF A CAR"

The crown jewel is a 1966 Corvette Stingray, estimated to sell for at least $90,000 to $100,000, and described by Slash as "a monster of a car."

It was the toughest item to let go of, because it was the first good car he ever bought just as Guns N' Roses were becoming big stars in the late 1980s, and it is largely in original condition. Fluffy dice are included.

But the car has been sitting in storage while Slash drives new Aston Martins and his wife ferries their two young sons in an SUV. "I know that somebody would love to have that car because muscle cars are very, very popular," he said.

He estimates he has about 100 guitars, and will sell 14 of them at the auction. Among them is a Guild acoustic on which he recorded the band's early ballad "Patience." Also on the block are various custom and one-of-a-kind Telecaster, Stratocaster, Sanchez, Epiphone and B.C. Rich models.

Jackets, T-shirts and jewelry -- with skull motifs in abundance -- are going on sale, and two of Slash's trademark top hats.

And then there are the model dinosaurs, which would thrill any 6-year-old boy and evidently did the same to an adult rock star.

"My house was completely immersed in prehistoric animal lore," when he started dating his wife, Slash said. But she married him anyway.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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