As much as I had loved rap music and funk in recent years, it seemed like Weezer's sound was evolving in quite the opposite direction, towards uber-white non-funkiness. In fact, any attempt by any white musicians to play anything remotely "black" or funky struck Matt and me, with our new ultra-refined sensibility, as "bad style." We cringed with embarrassment and disgust whenever we saw a white person trying to rap or be funky in earnest. White people shouldn't try to be funky was the underlying belief.

But I loved rap music. And so I recorded this cover of one of Ice Cube's songs. I really had no idea how to sing it. I couldn't take my rap voice seriously so I kind of gave it a Beastie Boys scream and hid behind a wall of distortion.

In addition to Arise and Ruin, several other bands had gear taken, including Dearblackdiary and Ghost of Calico.

The man, who called himself Ozzy Osbourne, pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot a convenience store clerk on Christmas Eve, according to police.

Smith called the The Daily Record's quote "an awful and disgusting lie," and through his rep said he is "incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such a ludicrous misinterpretation.

Billboard has the story: Radiohead will perform its new album, "In Rainbows," in its entirety during a pre-taped, hour-long set that will premiere New Year's Eve on TV and the Internet.

The Los Angeles Superior Court judgment Thursday didn't provide details about a custody arrangement for their 16-year-old son, Wolfgang. The bass player is with his father on a Van Halen reunion tour.

Former Van Halen front man Sammy Hagar pocketed $80 million in May when Gruppo Campari, maker of Campari and Skyy vodka, bought the rocker's Cabo Wabo tequila brand in May.

Radio shock job Howard Stern, who topped last year's list, ranks No. 3 this year thanks to the $82 million stock bonus he earned from his bosses at Sirius for boosting subscriptions for a second year in a row.

"I want to be on the record as saying that "Raz B" Thorton and Ricardo Thorton are lying regarding Chris Stokes. Chris is a father figure to myself, and many others in the industry. He's guided us, helped raised us and is nothing more than an inspiration and someone I respect to and look up to. I have spent countless hours, days, weeks and months with the man since the age of 5 and have never once seen him behave inappropriately. He's married to my aunt and I know this man very well. I stand behind him with no question whatsoever," said Omarion.

Simmons decided to jump onboard despite his reputation as a tongue-wagging, demonic-face-painted rocker and reality patriarch.

"I went to a restaurant and I saw the powerful, attractive and world-famous Donald Trump there," recounted Simmons. "And on the way out, we exchanged pleasantries and it was sort of, 'Hey, you want to do the show?' kind of thing. It was very fast and I went to myself, 'Well I got a lot of stuff, KISS is going back out on tour. I got to, you know, I got to tie my shoe and - wait a minute. That's an interesting idea.'"

"Middian may not be dead after all. As many of you know, Middian received a cease and desist demand in October from Midian of Milwaukee LLC. This demand required Middian to stop using our name completely, stop selling our album, and further demanded that all of our recorded CDs and albums be destroyed. Middian was served a cease and desist by a band that has never played outside of Wisconsin, hasn't put out a single record, or had a steady line-up in the last 7 years. They hadn't even updated their website since year 2000, as of a few weeks ago. We played Milwaukee in May, and no one there even mentioned a local band Midian of one 'd.' Nor did one of their 'fans' come to the show.

"Prior to this demand, we had never heard of them. Upon further research into the group, we discovered they had not used their name or trademark in years or even played outside of Wisconsin, ever. Our initial response was that our bands could peacefully co-exist. Especially since we learned that our usage combined with their non-usage entitled us to the name, rendering their trademark useless. But we felt it would be wasting everyone's time and money to send the issue to litigation. Besides, before the name Middian was chosen, a careful online search was done, proving that no other active unit had the same spelling.

Tomas Asklund (DISSECTION) and Frank Watkins (OBITUARY) should need no further introductions. The work on [the new GORGOROTH album] 'Quantos Possund ad Satanitatem Trahunt' will continue according to schedule, and rehearsals will begin in Stockholm in the summer of 2008.