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Quick Hits | Five News Stories From Around the Interwebs

News and notes from Keith Richards, Snoop Dogg, Iggy Pop & others.

Photo by Kronos

Today’s headlines: Keef dries out, Snoop goes west, Iggy sees the doc and more.


Photo by SolarScott

1 Keith Richards has reportedly quit drinking. “It’s been about a year now,” the Rolling Stones guitarist told Rolling Stone. “I pulled the plug on it. I got fed up with it.” Although he apparently still enjoys “a glass of wine occasionally, and a beer … It was time to quit.” He’s not alone; apparently bandmate Ron Wood (left) has also been sober for about eight years. If this isn’t proof that rock ’n’ roll is officially dead, what is? Oh, and if you own any stock in Jack Daniel’s, Jim Beam, Wild Turkey or any other bourbon, it’s probably high time to sell. Just a thought.


Photo By The Come Up Show from Canada

2 Snoop Dogg will celebrate the 25th anniversary of his landmark Doggystyle album at four upcoming Western Canada dates in Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver this February. Which reminds me of something after he toured Canada years ago: A woman who worked for him (or his company, anyway) phoned up from L.A. weeks after his concert, asking to be sent multiple copies of our review. I explained that the paper didn’t have that many copies laying around any more, but they were certainly welcome to print out the online version. She said OK and hung up — then phoned again days later to ask the very same thing. I politely reminded her that she had already phoned me and repeated my answer. She said OK and hung up — and then phoned again days later to ask the very same thing. It literally went on for weeks. She never apologized, or even gave any indication that remembered having spoken to me multiple times. Hope he has better publicists now — or at least keeps them off the chronic.


Photo by Man Alive!

3 Iggy Pop will be executive producer on a new TV documentary series about punk, featuring interviews with artists like John Lydon of The Sex Pistols, surviving Ramones drummer Marky Ramone, MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, Jello Biafra of The Dead Kennedys and Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. Supposedly it will also feature appearances by the likes of Dave Grohl, Duff McKagan and others. It’s a four-part series that’s supposed to air in March in the U.S.; hopefully somebody with some sense up here will pick it up. I know I’ll have the PVR warmed up if they do (and the torrent client ready to go if they don’t). The only thing that could make this even better would be Iggy doing all the interviews himself.


U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Casey J. Hopkins /Released)

4 Is it just me or is Miley Cyrus suddenly back in the news every day for no real reason? Over the past few days, I have seen one story that said she’s going to be part of the next season of Black Mirror on Netflix. Well, why not? I mean, she is an actress and all. And another breathless missive about how she started smoking weed again, thanks to her mother. Which I’m sure her mom was thrilled to read. But my favourite story was the one about how her guitar collection — worth a reported $10,000 — was recently stolen from a storage locker. $10,000? How many guitars did she own? Two? And wouldn’t any guitar that Miley Cyrus owns already be worth $10,000 simply because it belonged to her? Whatever. Let me know when the GoFundMe campaign launches.


Photo by Heinrich Klaffs

5 Drummer Lee Kerslake, a former Uriah Heep member who also played on Ozzy Osbourne’s first two solo albums, says his doctor has given him “about eight months to live.” In an interview with The Metal Voice, Kerslake said “it’s prostate cancer but it’s moved to rest of my body I have now have bone cancer which is nasty one, so the doctor gave me about eight months to live. But I’ve been fighting all the way.” Wonder how Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne feel about getting Mike Bordin to replace all his parts on those albums back in 2002 because of a dispute over royalties.

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