Here are a few things we STILL couldn't get to last week ...
For example ... and this is IMPORTANT …
Because inquiring minds want to know!
Did Ozzy Osbourne REALLY bite off the heads of bats and doves?
Well, yeah … he really did!
He and his wife Sharon explained it this way:
From Best Classic Bands:
Okay, it’s time to set the record straight on Ozzy Osbourne biting the heads off small winged creatures. He has officially chomped down on three of them: two doves (on purpose … sort of), and one bat (on purpose … in another sort of sort of). Let’s start with the first victims – doves.
The year was 1981. Osbourne’s solo career following his departure from Black Sabbath was beginning to thrive. The classic rocker and his wife/manager Sharon decided to pull a fun stunt at a CBS Records executive meeting in Los Angeles. Ozzy carried two doves into the room under his coat. The plan was that we would release them into the air at an appropriately celebratory moment.
But then, as Ozzy latter told a journalist, “It was this ‘board’ meeting, and I started getting bored.” So, to liven the atmosphere, he pulled out one of the doves and bit its head off. And then did so with the other. The record executives were not amused.
On January 20th of the following year (1982), Osbourne was playing a concert in Des Moines, IA. A teenage fan had brought a dead bat with him to the show and threw it onto the stage.
The singer saw the bat carcass onstage and thought it was a rubber toy bat. He picked it up and bit off the head.
The consistency of the bat immediately indicated to Osbourne that he’d misjudged. “It was crunchy,” Ozzy later told a reporter.
In his memoir, I Am Ozzy, he went into further detail. “Immediately, something felt wrong. Very wrong. For a start, my mouth was instantly full of this warm, gloopy liquid, with the worst aftertaste you could ever imagine. I could feel it staining my teeth and running down my chin.”
After the show, Osbourne immediately saw a doctor and began a painful round of injections for rabies. He wasn’t likely to bite anything unknown again.
So there you have it! (What’s YOUR favorite snack?!?!) kk
Boy, Ozzy has been EVERYWHERE since his passing. I don’t remember ever seeing this much saturation on radio and television. (I had no idea he had made this many videos … but they’ve been playing virtually non-stop.)
Have you seen (or do you remember) this Ozzy Osbourne commercial???
In other news ...
This week’s rock star cancellation comes from Tom Jones, who cancelled a gig in Germany just hours before he was due to take the stage.
Apparently, Sir Tom is suffering from a respiratory infection … and he announced on social media that he would not be able to perform in the city of Bremen on Tuesday, July 22nd, due to illness, apologizing for having to reschedule this stop on his Defy Exploration tour.
From Tom’s Facebook post: “Hello to all the fans in Bremen. Unfortunately, I must postpone my show this evening, as I’ve contracted an upper respiratory infection that needs treatment and rest.
“I know this is really disappointing and will cause inconvenience to you all, and I’m very sorry about that.
“But the show will now go ahead on Monday, July 28th, so I look forward to seeing you then. All tickets will remain valid for the rescheduled date.
“Until then, thank you for your understanding. Love, Tom.”
After the rescheduled German date, Jones next heads to Spain before returning to the UK to end the tour back home in Wales. (kk)
From what lately seems to be The Daily Death Report, we say goodbye to Hulk Hogan, Ozzy Osbourne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Chuck Mangione, Tommy McLain and Michael Ochs from the past week ... man, what a week! (kk)
R.I.P. Hulk Hogan -
It was WWE night at Spago with Mr. T, Hulk Hogan and his then wife Linda. Hulk asked me if there was anybody else there that night? I told him yes ... Sugar Ray Leonard!
Jim Roup
Also leaving us ...
Michael Ochs, music journalist, author, record label publicist and the preeminent music photo archivist of all time, died on July 23, 2025, at his home in Venice Beach, Calif. He was 82 and cause of death from Parkinson’s disease, with which Ochs had been diagnosed five years ago. He was also suffering from COPD, kidney and related heart issues.
The younger brother of 60s singer-songwriter Phil Ochs, Michael created a business of collecting images of musicians that evolved into licensed photos to countless outlets, including books, print periodicals and online publications, television programs and film companies.
In 1972, Ochs covered the Southern California concerts on the Rolling Stones’ 1972 tour of the United States for the UK music weekly Melody Maker. In 1974, he read my interview with Brian Auger in The Los Angeles Free Press, and suggested I contact the editor of Melody Maker, Ray Coleman. Michael supplied the Watts line, aka Wide Area Telephone Service, introduced in 1961 by the Bell System, for flat-rate long-distance service, and I subsequently wrote for the periodical the next six years.
Ochs and Grelun Landon, head of Public Affairs at RCA Records, were advocates of my nascent music journalism, as I started to swim and survive in the sea of Hollywood, infested by envy sharks and jealous schmucks.
I interviewed Michael in 1980 for a profile of singer/songwriter Larry Williams for MOJO magazine that I worked on with Mick Farren. The Beatles covered Williams tunes, including “Slow Down,” “Bad Boy” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzy, and the Rolling Stones cut his “She Said Yeah.” John Lennon sang Larry’s "Bony Moronie."
Michael Ochs, was one of the fortunate few who actually saw Larry Williams live in his mid-to late-'50s glory, when he was riding high with chart hits like 'Short Fat Fannie,' 'Bony Moronie' and 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy'.
"It was the Veterans Memorial Hall in Columbus, Ohio ... a traveling Alan Freed show, 1958. On the show was Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon, Danny and The Juniors, Dickie Do and The Don'ts, The Chantals, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Larry Williams. At the time, I thought Larry Williams was a minor talent. I thought 'Bony Moronie' and 'Short Fat Fannie' were derivative. Even as a kid. I wasn't expecting anything from Larry.
"He stole the show from everyone. He was a dynamo. At the end of his short set – everybody was allowed to do two songs – he was like a madman. He grabbed the guitar from the guitarist, started playing that. He started playing the piano backwards, his back to the piano. Then he grabs the sax from the saxophone player, jumps on top of the piano and starts wailing on sax. He was fucking unbelievable. I was destroyed. I had no idea the guy would be that good. I mean, I went there to see Chuck Berry ..."
In 1972, Shelter Records co-owner Denny Cordell hired Michael Ochs to promote The Harder They Come and the film’s delicious soundtrack album.
Ochs mailed a Mango/Capitol pressing of the LP, a press kit, and a real mango, all in a burlap bag that arrived at my Zura Hall dormitory at San Diego State University. A well-needed gift! I had written a couple of record reviews for The Hollywood Press.
I made efforts to review this album for the school’s The Daily Aztec but was quickly rejected. The reggae sounds on this LP were captivating, and I really needed to see this movie.
In November, 1972, Ochs and I attended the Hollywood premiere of The Harder They Come at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, where it screened as part of Filmex, the Los Angeles International Film Exposition. The place was packed and the audience loved it.
Shortly thereafter, I learned that visionary producer and director Roger Corman had secured domestic distribution via his company, New World Pictures.
The musical climate of the US was altered by the local premiere run of The Harder They Come at the Nuart Theater in West Los Angeles on December 26-31, 1972.
“I saw it at Filmex and loved the soundtrack album. I fell in love with reggae,” Michael Ochs remembered in a July, 2021 phone call.
“Denny and Leon Russell were partners in Shelter Records, and Leon spent a lot of money on a remote recording truck. I was at the Wailers’ taping in October at Capitol Studios, which was fun. It was like a big rehearsal leading to a real performance.
“The rock press loved the movie and the soundtrack. It was too unique for AM and FM radio. Black radio programmers were not receptive at all. At the time, there was a dearth of originality. When this happens, the media tend to go to roots music, like blues. Reggae was the light at the end of the tunnel. It was important to promote it. At that time, I wasn’t sure if Toots [Hibbert] and the Maytals or Bob Marley would be the leader of the movement.
“Denny then hired me for the Shelter label. He agreed to a salary, an office, and a secretary. J.J. Cale and Phoebe [Snow] were two of the artists I worked with. Denny agreed to fly me down to Kingston if I could get a story in Rolling Stone, so I called my friend Michael Thomas, and he sold it to Stone. So, RS paid for Michael to come from London to do the story.
“Chris Blackwell loaned us one of his houses for us to stay in — me, Michael, and photographer Arthur Gorson. Robert Christgau didn’t stay there but came at the same time to do a five-part story for Newsday, a Long Island paper. Michael and Arthur went into Trench Town to interview Marley, but they were the only two allowed in. For the rest of the time, we were down there, different reggae artists including Toots were sent to the house to talk to Michael for the story.”
-- Harvey Kubernik
I love this recap from Noise 11 regarding the anticipated news teased by Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood last week …
“After last week’s Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks speculation of something brewing, the news just got very boring. There is no Fleetwood Mac reunion, there isn’t a Buckingham-Nicks second album. Based on billboards in Los Angeles today, it’s all about the reissue of the 1973 Buckingham-Nicks album.
Last week Stevie Nicks posted “and if you go forward …” and Lindsey Buckingham posted “I’ll meet you there.” Those “cryptic posts” are actually the words to the song “Frozen Love” from the the 1973 Buckingham-Nicks album. (It is the only song on that album that they wrote together.
The “Buckingham-Nicks” album has only ever been released on LP, cassette and 8-Track Cartridge. This new September 18th release will be the first time the album has been released on CD globally (although there was a Japanese CD pressing) and for streaming.
They announced it this way, with this billboard on Sunset Blvd. …
Actually, I guess it IS kind of a big deal ...
More here:
In just over 15 years of
reporting at The Second Disc, it's a sentence we never thought we'd
write: Buckingham Nicks is getting its first-ever reissue.
Mike Duquette
https://theseconddisc.com/2025/07/23/buckingham-nicks-reissue-hell-freezes-over/
Happy 82nd Birthday, Mick Jagger, July 26th (That's Today!!!)
Photo by Henry Diltz, Courtesy of Gary Strobl at the Diltz Studio
In 1998, I did an interview with Keith Richards. He and I discussed touring and the live repertoire of Rolling Stones songs that he wrote with Mick Jagger.
“Once you are on the stage, it’s just some floor boards in spite of it. And you’re not really aware of everything you are seeing. In a way, maybe when you write songs without even knowing it, you’re kinda saying, ‘Can I do this live?’ And so, in a way you add that in.
“You don’t know if it’s gonna work, but I guess what you keep in the back of your mind is ‘We’re making a record here. What happens if they all like it and we gotta play it live?’ So, in a way, that may be in the back of the mind … it sets up the song to be playable on stage.”
"Performing to me is something you’re born within some ways," offered Mick Jagger in 2008 at a Santa Monica, California press and media viewing of the Martin Scorsese-directed 2006 "Shine A Light" concert film of the Rolling Stones performances at the Beacon Theatre.
“You can learn some of it - and you have to - but ultimately, I think that performing urge is within you and the best shows are from people who just naturally take to it. I don’t know where the energy comes from … it’s just there."
Mick Jagger also has a new Mick Jagger Harmonica Edition Two, which offers an exclusive and meticulously designed harmonica that faithfully replicates the exact specifications used by Mick throughout his career. Each harmonica is handcrafted in Japan with thorough attention to detail. It’s an authentic Lee Oskar harmonica collaboration Major Diatonic Key of C Silk screen printed metal cover plates Custom Mick Jagger protective box.
Last month the Rolling Stones honored zydeco legend Clifton Chenier’s 100th birthday with a spirited new cover of his signature song, “Zydeco Sont Pas Sal.” out now on digital platforms and as a limited edition 7-inch vinyl via Smithsonian Folkways, Arhoolie Records, and Valcour Records. Produced by acclaimed Louisiana musician CC Adcock, The Stones' release of “Zydeco Sont Pas Sal” also features Chenier’s original recording of the song, captured during his 1965 sessions with Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz.
In February, 2025, The Criterion Collection made available a movie that starred Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, James Fox and Michele Breton, "Performance" in 4KUHD and Blu-Ray This 1970 British crime drama, initially theatrically released in 1970, was written by Donald Cammell, and directed by Cammell and Nicolas Roeg.
Arranger and composer Jack Nitzsche produced the original electronic musical score and soundtrack. Musicians and vocalists Randy Newman, Russ Titelman, Merry Clayton, Ry Cooder, Buffy Sainte-Marie, the Last Poets, and Bernard Krause are heard on it.
“Performance” was produced by Sanford Lieberson in 1968, but not seen in theaters until 1970, owing to movie studio Warner Bros. and their reluctancy as a distributor due to the explicit violence and sexual content on screen.
Harvey Kubernik
From Tom Cuddy ...
AN INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN WILSON'S LONGTIME MANAGER:
And this, too ...
The new Spinal Tap movie looks like a hoot ...
AND HEY, FOLKS, IT’S NOT TOO LATE …
A COUPLE OF COOL THINGS YOU CAN STILL DO THIS WEEKEND …
In just a few hours (depending on what time you’re reading this) it’s the WLS Unwound Radio Party Reunion.
Hosted by Scott Childers, relive WLS memories with Chuck Buell, Tommy Edwards, Catherine Johns, Jim Kerr and Chuck Knapp.
It plays tonight from 10 pm – Midnight Central Time on The Big 89 …
And you can tune in and listen here: wlsam.com
And then tomorrow, of course, is the Chubby Checker / Brian Hyland concert at The Des Plaines Theatre. That kicks off at 3 pm. Good seats are still available … and now, as a VERY special added bonus, you can see Chubby Checker be inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame LIVE on The Des Plaines Theatre Stage! Order your tickets here: https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/96854604/chubby-checker-with-brian-hyland-des-plaines-des-plaines-theatre?_gl=1*12xe5ag*_gcl_au*NzUxNjM1NDY4LjE3NTMyMDcyOTQ.*_ga*Mjc4NzUwOTI4LjE3NTMyMDcyOTQ.*_ga_DRT2S2GQYP*czE3NTMzNjQ0NjkkbzUkZzEkdDE3NTMzNjQ0OTAkajM5JGwwJGgw
Because a number of you have been asking ...
The reason for the "early induction" is that Chubby has a conflicting engagement the night of the real induction ceremony (November 8th) and, as such, wasn't going to be able to make it to the real deal.
Ron Onesti came up with the idea of filming his induction at The Des Plaines Theatre and then editing it into the live broadcast as sort of a "remote" ceremony ... and The Rock Hall agreed ...
So fans attending tomorrow afternoon's show will now be part of rock and roll history! Chubby Checker puts on a GREAT show ... Brian Hyland is still in excellent voice... this should be a great time! (kk)
My band opened for Chubby back in 1973. I would've loved to have us open for him again all these years later. Oh well ...
Dean Milano
Yeah ... this time around they had to get Brian Hyland to do it! (lol) Still, I think it'll be a GREAT double bill. (kk)
And how’s THIS for our Saturday Evening Post closer …
An “exclusive,” VERY rare Norman Rockwell print from Chuck Buell!!! (who's in town for the WLS Reunion thingy!!!) kk
