Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is stirring political passion in the music world unlike any candidate in recent history. According to RollingStone.com, the list of artists who've come out in support of the Illinois Senator ranges from veteran rockers like Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, to alternative rockers Green Day and Fall Out Boy, to rap stars Jay-Z, Common and Lil Wayne, to neo-soul crooner John Legend.

Especially impressive was the endorsement from Dylan, who rarely makes direct political statements. Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz says, "What Dylan said was mind-blowing. It's like, I don't really need to talk about Obama anymore if Bob Dylan's talking about him."

Conor Oberst, leader of indie rock outfit Bright Eyes, notices a significant difference between this election and 2004, when he joined the likes of Springsteen, John Fogerty, Dave Matthews, David Crosby, the Dixie Chicks and others on the Vote for Change tour promoting the candidacy of John Kerry against incumbent George W. Bush. Oberst says, "Then we were campaigning and voting against something. Now we are campaigning and voting for something, which is a completely different dynamic." Crosby adds, "I worked for Kerry but with large reservations because I thought he was kind of a wooden Indian. You look at Barack, and you can't help feeling hopeful."

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, who's designed his own Obama T-shirts and worn them onstage, comments, "We are a country of ideas that have been squandered. With Obama, we have the possibility to have someone who represents what we are in the 21st century. My generation blew it, and for the first time in my life, I can vote for someone younger than me."

Rape charges against Poison drummer Rikki Rockett have been dropped. According to TMZ.com, Rockett, whose real name is Richard Ream, says an imposter named John Minskoff is going around and claiming to be him, among other musicians.

The charges stem from an alleged incident that took place September 23, 2007 at the Silver Star Casino in Neshoba County, Mississippi. Rockett was originally accused of forcing himself on an unidentified woman in a hotel room. She filed a police report days later. Now Rockett says a district attorney has called him saying they knew that they had the wrong person.

Rockett added, "What we believe is that there is an imposter that's using my name." Rockett says this imposter has been using other "rock star" names, including David Lee Roth and Brett Michaels, to commit crimes. Rockett said, "I guess he was claiming to be me. I'm not even sure about that. Somehow my name got in the mix." Rockett said that Minskoff got hit with a kidnapping charge after luring a girl in by saying she could model for Whitesnake.

Neil Young has started playing the Beatles classic "A Day in the Life" as the final encore song of his summer European tour. It's a timely move, considering Paul McCartney just performed the track for the first time since the original studio recording 41 years ago, at a charity show in the Ukraine. There's footage of Young's recent show from Dublin, Ireland on YouTube.

"A Day in the Life" appeared on the Beatles 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Young's next show is on Friday (July 4th) in Werchter, Belgium.

REO Speedwagon will headline the Ridin' The Storm Out - Floods of 2008 Relief Concert on July 16th, to benefit Iowa flood victims. Along with special guest Little River Band and additional guests to be announced, they will perform at Prairie Meadows racetrack in Polk County, Iowa, and donate 100 percent of the proceeds to the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation.

Concertgoers must be 21 and over for admittance. Tickets are priced at $20 and go on sale tomorrow (July 2nd) at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster, which will waive the usual convenience and handling fees for this event.

Recent floods in the Midwest have devastated Iowa and surrounding areas, forcing thousands from their homes and rendering vast counties as disaster areas.

In other REO Speedwagon news, the band's recent performance in Chicago will air as part of PBS' Soundstage series, airing Wednesday (July 3rd) at 10 p.m. ET. Titled REO Speedwagon: Live in the Heartland (2008), it features such chart-toppers as "Keep On Loving You" and "Can't Fight This Feeling" as well as the more recent "Find Your Own Way Home."

REO Speedwagon will take part in ESPN's Battle of the Bands, which requires them to create their own version of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame."

REO Speedwagon tour dates (subject to change):
July 1 - Muskegon, MI - Heritage Landing
July 3 - St. Paul, MN - Harriet Island Park
July 4 - Naperville, IL - Naperville Ribfest
July 5 - Elizabethtown, KY - Freeman Lake Park
July 9 - Lansing, MI - Common Ground Festival Adado River Park
July 10 - Interlochen, MI - Interlochen Center (Kresge Auditorium)
July 11 - Beloit, WI - Beloit Riverfest
July 12 - Merrillville, IN - Star Plaza Theatre
July 17 - Effingham, IL - The Rosebud Theatre
July 18 - Fond du Lac, WI - Fond du Lac County Fair
July 19 - Riverside, IA - Riverside Casino and Golf Resort
July 31 - West Allis, WI - Wisconsin State Fair
August 1 - Wausau, WI - Wisconsin Valley Fair (Grandstand)
August 2 - Sterling Heights, MI - Sterlingfest Dodge Park
August 7 - Trumbull, CT - Indian Ledge Park
August 8 - Cumberland, MD - Firefighters Sportsmens Bash
August 9 - Asheville, NC - Biltmore Estate
August 11 - Waldorf, MD - Regency Furniture Stadium
August 14 - Pittsburgh, PA - PNC Park at North Shore
August 15 - Lockport, NY - Moslon Canal Concert Series
August 16 - Columbus, OH - The LC Pavillion
August 17 - Greenville, OH - Darke County Fair
October 2 - Valley Center, CA - Harrahs Rincon Open Sky Theater
October 3 - Reno, NV - The Silver Legacy
October 4 - Wendover, NV - Peppermill Concert Hall
October 18 - San Juan, Puerto Rico - Roberto Clemente Coliseum

Paul McCartney may not be the most athletic person, but the former Beatle enjoys watching sports and helping people in need. He recently signed on to support the British Paralympic team, and is featured in a new TV ad campaign highlighting the best disabled athletes. The cause aims to raise $4 million, which would go towards sending some disabled athletes to Beijing to attend the Olympics. McCartney told the Guardian he got involved with the British Paralympic team after meeting a disabled equestrian rider named Sophie Christiansen. McCartney said because he loves the Olympics he wanted to help out somehow, so that's why the Paralympics seemed like a good fit.

He said, "Most of us know the Paralympics exist, but I thought it was probably a good idea to raise awareness of it. Also to raise some money, because they are pretty underfunded and, of course, with someone like Sophie it takes quite a lot to get her and her horse and her support team to Beijing."

As for McCartney himself, he was never much of an athlete despite growing up in the sport-loving city of Liverpool, England. He admitted, "I was terrible, pretty hopeless, really. I used to enjoy football in the street, but by the time it got a bit more formalized, I wasn't very good at it. That puts you off, there are always guys mightily bigger or better than you are. And that's how it was with the Beatles; none of us was very sports-minded. I like watching the football on the telly, I go to the occasional match, but I'm not a massive fan."

McCartney said it's kind of strange that neither he nor any of the other Beatles were very passionate about England's most popular sport, soccer. He said, "Yeah, you would think we would be rabid fans, but we weren't. I think we had been those kind of guys who didn't really like sport at school. In cricket I was always happy when they stuck me in the outfield, the ball hardly ever reached me and I could just sit around dawdling about. It's not my idea of fun. And we were on tour the whole time and we never became mad sports fans."

He also said that another popular English pastime -- going out to pubs after work -- kind of passed the Beatles by because of their early success. He said, "We just didn't do that. They were a couple of things that we probably would have got into if we had stayed in Liverpool. We were sports wimps and proud of it."

And as for becoming famous at such an early age, McCartney says he does think about what it would be like to lead a more normal life, adding, "But of course the grass is always greener. So I crave that, but then I remind myself that I was really fed up that no one noticed me back then. And girls wouldn't go out with me. So I remind myself of that and I think: 'You are all right where you are, be happy.'"

When asked how English soccer player Albert Stubbins ended up as one of the people on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, McCartney said he thinks it was John Lennon's choice. McCartney said, "The idea originally was for all of us to name our heroes because we were going to become this fictitious group, Sgt. Pepper's, so we wanted to give ourselves some background... You give your character a story, and everyone came up with their favorites, who their character loved. Of course, being the Beatles this was only taken half seriously and I think John eventually came up with Albert Stubbins." Looking back, McCartney thinks they chose Stubbins more for the humor angle than anything else, adding, "It's just a funny name, isn't it?"

Bon Jovi will perform a free concert in New York City's Central Park on July 12th. Officials confirmed the performance on Monday (June 30th), billing it as a prelude to the July 15th All-Star baseball game, which will take place at Yankee Stadium.

Bon Jovi's current tour will end with concerts at Madison Square Garden on July 14th and 15th.

This is the last year MLB play will take place at the current Yankee Stadium before a new facility is unveiled next season.

Guitarist Richie Sambora said at the beginning of the band's tour that the staging was something people would remember: "We've got a bunch of HD screens that just morph into different things and it's gonna be one of those things I think that'll be a spectacle and people have never seen it. From what we know after 25 years of experience of these stages and stuff like that, it looks like kind of a 'holy cow' moment, you know what I mean, people are gonna walk away going 'wow, this is really cool.'"

Outspoken guitar legend Ted Nugent reacted to Thursday's (June 26th) Supreme Court 5-4 ruling that individual Americans have the right to own guns for personal use by stating in a release, "...not only does a lunatic fringe of anti-freedom Americans dismiss our founding fathers' clear declaration of independence and succinct enumeration of our God-given individual rights, but some Americans have the arrogance and audacity to question whether the right to self-defense is indeed one of these individual rights." He then goes on to claim that four out of the nine "so-called Supreme justices" are among those "soulless" people.

As a fifth-term member of the Board of Directors of the NRA and an avid hunter and gun collector, Nugent has strong feelings about the right to keep, bear and own guns and was clearly outraged that the decision handed down was not unanimous. He further said that keeping a gun "means the gun is mine and you can't have it. This does not mean I will register it with a government agency. The goverment works for 'we the people,' not the other way around, regardless of what Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Hitler, MaoTse Tung, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein or Barack Hussein Obama or four supreme justices may try to tell you."

He also stated that his definition of "bearing arms" means, "I've got it right here, on me, either in my grasp or damn near. This does not mean locked away in a safe, trigger-locked or stored at the local sporting club."

Nugent signed off by saying, "Now is the time to fortify America, and we better inform the Supreme Court just who truly is the 'Supreme' Court of America -- We the people. Individual people with individual, God given rights. The real America. Live free or die."

Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson are reportedly a few of the artists who could appear on a new charity album. According to London's The Sun, their work will be part of a new Warchild covers project, which finds musicians covering contemporary songs, including one from Beck. The upcoming set comes on the heels of the 1995 charity set, Help Album, which featured Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller and Sinead O'Connor.

Paul McCartney's younger brother, photographer Mike McCartney, now has an exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, featuring black-and-white photos of the origins of the British Invasion. Called Liverpool Live, the exhibit features pictures from the Beatles' native Liverpool from the 1960s. Mike said, "It's the story behind the story of that magical era." Over the years, Mike has photographed Jerry Lee Lewis, Jeff Beck and the Hollies. The display runs through September.

Ringo Starr has put his own artwork up for sale to benefit the Lotus foundation, which offers financial help to families in need. According to RollingStone.com, Starr has autographed each piece, which is on display at the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida. Ringo and his All-Starr band will perform at the Hard Rock on July 3rd, and anyone who buys more than $2,950 worth of artwork will get a free ticket to the show and a meet-and-greet with Starr.

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler admitted to the Associated Press on Friday (June 27th) that he checked into a California rehab facility last month to fight off a dependency on pain and sleep medication. Tyler initially stated that he had gone into the facility to speed his recovery from foot surgery. But as he explained on Friday, "To have your feet done, to have your leg done, you have to be on narcotics. You have to be on sleep aids at night...I was off and running and I didn't like the me that was me." Tyler added, "This was a month ago, so I just put the brakes on and checked into detox and just pulled the plug on all of it."

Tyler first said in late May that he had checked into the rehab center to find a "safe environment" in which to recuperate from several foot surgeries and physical therapy. The procedures were meant to correct longstanding injuries resulting from his more than three decades of performing onstage.

The 60-year-old Tyler was a poster child for drug and alcohol abuse in the '70s, but got clean and sober more than 20 years ago as Aerosmith experienced a career renaissance.

Tyler made his latest remarks during a press conference at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City on Friday, where the band offered a sneak preview of the new video game Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.

According to Billboard.com, all five members of the group were on hand to answer questions, while fans got a chance to try the game out ahead of its release this week.

The game allows players to progress through the band's entire career, which spans nearly 40 years, playing a number of Aerosmith classics as well as songs by associated artists like Run DMC and Joan Jett.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is available on all three major game platforms, Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 and 3.

The game is the fourth in the phenomenally successful Guitar Hero series, but the first to be based around a specific act. Following the arrival of Guitar Hero: World Tour this fall, a new edition centered around Metallica is rumored to be on tap for early next year.

A wide range of musicians came out for Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday concert in London over the weekend. Will Smith hosted the event for Mandela, whose 90th birthday is actually next month. Nearly 50,000 fans packed the show, which featured performances by Amy Winehouse, Queen, Simple Minds, Leona Lewis, Annie Lennox and Razorlight.

According to the Associated Press, Winehouse performed at the event despite her recent hospitalization. Organizers were worried she wouldn't make it after she was a no-show at rehearsal a couple of days earlier. The 24-year-old singer sang "Rehab," as well as a rendition of the Special AKA's song "Free Nelson Mandela" with Jerry Dammers and the Soweto Gospel Choir. She dedicated the song to her jailed husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, changing the words of one verse to add in "Free Blakey my fella."

Lewis personally wished Mandela a happy birthday, adding, "When I was younger, I remember my aunty and grandmother used to tell me stories about this incredible, wonderful, great man, Nelson Mandela."

Queen, featuring Paul Rodgers, Brian May and Roger Taylor, wrapped the night with five songs, including "We Are The Champions."

Several celebrities appeared on video to wish Mandela a happy birthday, including Gordon Ramsay, Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Crow, Morgan Freeman, and Susan Sarandon. A celebratory message from Victoria Beckham was met with boos from the crowd.

The event helped raise money to support Mandela's HIV/AIDS charity "46664," named after his prison number.

Twenty years ago, stars showed their support for Mandela with a massive concert in London for Mandela's 70th birthday, when he was still behind bars for his stand against apartheid. This past weekend, Mandela told the crowd, "Twenty years ago, London hosted a historic concert which called for our freedom. Your voices carried across the water and inspired us in our prison cells far away. As we celebrate, let us remind ourselves that our work is far from complete. Where there is poverty and sickness, including AIDS, where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done."

Squeeze has added several more dates to their upcoming North American tour, which kicks off on August 21st in Washington, D.C. and wraps up on September 16th in Seattle, Washington.

The band's current lineup features original members Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, who wrote all of Squeeze's best-known hits.

Squeeze's updated North American tour dates (subject to change):
August 21 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
August 22 - Glenside, PA - Keswick Theatre
August 24 - Farmingville, NY - Brookhaven Amphitheatre
August 25 - Torrington, CT - Warner Theatre
August 26 - Foxborough, MA - Showcase Live!
August 28 - Toronto, ONT - Kool Haus
August 29 - Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre
August 30 - Cleveland, OH - Time Warner Cable Amphitheatre at Tower City
August 31 - Highland Park, IL - Ravinia Festival At Ravinia Park
September 2 - Saint Louis, MO - The Pageant
September 3 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
September 5 - Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa
September 6 - Dallas, TX - House Of Blue
September 9 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre
September 10 - Los Angeles, CA - Orpheum Theatre
September 12 - San Francisco, CA - Grand Ballroom At Regency Center
September 13 - Saratoga, CA - The Mountain Winery
September 15 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom
September 16 - Seattle, WA - Showbox At The Market

Glenn Tilbrook says that the years of being estranged from songwriting partner Chris Difford has only made him enjoy and respect their partnership more: "Not working together has enabled us to appreciate each other for what we are. And not having the responsibility of going up each other's noses all the time has enabled us to get back our relationship, which was lost, really, when we started making records. I would rather have the relationship with Chris, and friendship, rather than the professional relationship -- that's more important to me. And we get on better now than we have done at, you know, any point since 1976, which is great."

During their 1980s heyday, the British rock press dubbed Difford and Tilbrook the "new Lennon and McCartney." Difford provided the lyrics for the Squeeze songs, with Tilbrook writing the music.

The California Supreme Court has turned down legendary producer Phil Spector's petition for the court to look into disqualifying Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler from presiding over his murder trial again. The Associated Press reported that the notice on the Supreme Court Web site said: "Petition for review denied."

Fidler presided over Spector's first trial for the 2003 shooting death of Lana Clarkson, which ended last September with a deadlocked jury. Earlier this year Fidler rejected claims by Spector's defense team that he was biased against Spector and signed a declaration "that he was not biased or prejudiced against any party in the case."

In the defense team's claim to have Fidler removed from the retrial they stated, "Fidler's rulings toward the end of the first trial were designed to ensure Spector's conviction, in part to counter media reports that a celebrity could not be convicted in a Los Angeles court."

As it stands now, Judge Fidler will preside over Spector's retrial which is scheduled to begin on September 29th, with a pretrial hearing set for July 29th.

Elton John will serenade former South African president Nelson Mandela on Wednesday (July 2nd) by singing him "Happy Birthday" at his 90th birthday party, according to telegraph.co.uk. The party will also serve as an exclusive charity dinner and will take place in London's Hyde Park to raise money and awareness for AIDS care and research.

Bruce Springsteen's 2005 live cover of Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream" will be included on the first of 12 limited-edition vinyl EPs released starting July 28th. Rolling Stone reported that the EP's are being issued in celebration of bandleader Alan Vega's 60th birthday with a limited run of only 4,000. The EP's, which are being released monthly, will also be released digitally.

Springsteen closed all of his 2005 Devils And Dust concert dates with a 10-minute pump organ rendition of the band's 1980 song. There's been no word as to which Springsteen show the EP's version will be taken from.

Britain's The Telegraph reported that Bob Dylan has completed the followup to his 2007 album Modern Times and that his management and record company executives are in discussions on "what to do with it."

The still-untitled set marks the first time since 1990 that Dylan has recorded an original album within two years of its predecessor.

Bob Dylan kicks off his U.S. tour on August 10th in Pittsburgh, at the New American Music Union, South Side Works.

John Fogerty has announced that he'll perform on August 5th in Sturgis, South Dakota at Rock'n The Rally at Glencoe Camp Resort.

Motley Crue recently revealed that they are trying to extricate themselves from a deal with MTV Films, a division of Paramount Pictures, to make a movie out of the band's best-selling 2001 memoir, The Dirt. Although bassist Nikki Sixx said in an interview with Reuters that MTV has become "bogged down," Sixx told us that he's not bitter about the situation: "I'm not mad at MTV, I don't think the band's mad at MTV, we just need a partner, you know. And after 2005 and 2006 and how successful that was, and we have a brand new album out, it's just a bit ridiculous to not have partners that are pushing -- that movie should be on the street today."

A deal was first announced for the film version in 2006 but has since gone nowhere. Sixx told Reuters that MTV was "a channel that used to be hip and has now actually become unhip...They are not the right partner."

Neither MTV Films nor Paramount Pictures had any comment on the matter.

According to Hits Daily Double, Motley Crue's new album, Saints of Los Angeles, is likely to debut in the Top Four on the Billboard album chart, with first-week sales expected in the range of 90,000 copies.

The disc was issued this past Tuesday (June 24th) and is the first all-new collection from the Crue since 2000's New Tattoo.

The band's summer tour, Crue Fest, which also features Buckcherry, Papa Roach and others, kicks off on July 1st in West Palm Beach, Florida.

A possible Van Halen concert in Charlottetown, capital of tiny Canadian province Prince Edward Island, has been scrapped due to rising costs that would be subsidized by the provincial government, according to CBCNews.ca. Tourism Minister Valerie Docherty said that the initial government investment in the event rapidly climbed from $1.6 million to $4 million, at which point negotiations were cut off. Docherty explained, "They started off around $1.6 million, and so that was a doable figure for us. Unfortunately, for some reason, and possibly because of what the Eagles are getting paid for through New Brunswick, I don't know if that's what jacked it up, but we didn't believe Van Halen was at the same level."

Docherty and other residents agreed that spending $4 million on a Van Halen concert was not "the best use of taxpayers' money."

The show as planned would have taken place over the Labor Day holiday.

Van Halen completed its reunion tour with singer David Lee Roth earlier this month, with the trek's final box office haul reported as more than $93 million.

AC/DC's first album in eight years is apparently slated to arrive in October, according to a post at the web site of the band's label, Sony BMG Music. The news is part of a contest announcement that reads in part, "AC/DC are coming back with their new album this October and we're giving one lucky fan the chance to win a prized copy of this seminal record plus a copy of every album in their back catalogue..." No further information, such as an exact release date or title, is given.

The yet-to-be-titled disc will be the first from AC/DC since 2000's Stiff Upper Lip and is expected to be followed by a world tour.

Sony BMG recently revealed that the disc will be sold exclusively through Wal-Mart stores, which has caused controversy with critics and fans.

Paul McCartney is planning to perform his first-ever concert in Israel in September, according to ynetnews.com.

Details are yet to be finalized for the concert, which will be held on September 18th or 25th in Tel Aviv at either Hayarkon Park or the Ramat Gan Stadium. According to the report, the show is being considered as part of McCartney's upcoming tour, which suggests that other overseas dates may be penciled in around that time.

McCartney reportedly has extensive demands for the Israeli show, including "heightened security, a special sound system, a huge stage and two vegetarian kitchens at the venue."

In January Israel lifted its 43-year ban on the Beatles performing in the country. Israel had instated the ban in 1965 fearing that the group would corrupt Israeli youth. Earlier this year, Israel invited McCartney, Ringo Starr, along with John Lennon and George Harrison's relatives, to come to the country in May to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary.

In McCartney's recent concerts in Liverpool and Kiev, Ukraine, he's dipped into his catalogue to perform live premieres of the Beatles' "A Day In The Life," Wings' "Mrs. Vanderbilt," and the unreleased song "In Liverpool."

McCartney says that including rarely and never-before performed songs in his setlist keeps him on his toes: "I just like doing it, and whenever I go out on tour it's exciting to stick a few things in that I haven't done before, just 'cause then it's sort of like there's a bit of a nervous edge to it, which is quite cool -- except on the first night when you think 'Why did I do this? Why didn't I stay safe?'"

Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose is writing his autobiography, according to his close friend and former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach. The latter told RollingStone.com that the project came up in conversation one day, explaining, "I was saying to Axl one day, 'I'm going to write a book.' He was like, 'Cool. How many pages you got?' I go, 'I've got six pages.' He starts laughing and goes, 'Yeah, I started my book a while back. I'm up to 12,000 words at this point.'" Bach added, 'He's very prolific. He's just not motivated by fame at all. He's had enough of it."

Bach also said that he's heard "at least four albums' worth" of finished Guns n' Roses songs, presumably all recorded during the last 13 years that Rose has been working on the band's long-delayed Chinese Democracy album.

In other news, Bach says that Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash has contacted him about working on a secret "mind-blowing" new project, but insisted it was not an offer to replace Scott Weiland in Velvet Revolver.

Bach said that joining Velvet Revolver, which features three former members of Guns N' Roses, would be "awkward" because of his friendship with Rose.

The project Bach mentioned could be Slash's first solo album, which he told us about a while back: "I really want to do a solo record and play with a lot of different people that I've worked with before, maybe some people I haven't worked with, and just do something really, really sort of interesting. 'Cause I've played on so many other people's records, you know, and I want to write material for, like, different individuals to sing on and whatnot."