Robert Plant And Alison Krauss Win Grammy Album Of The Year

Raising Sand, from Led Zeppelin vet and bluegrass superstar, wins five Grammys on Sunday night.
By James Montgomery with MTV News staff


Alison Krauss and Robert Plant accept the award for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

"I'm bewildered," Robert Plant said onstage as he accepted the Grammy Album of the Year award with Alison Krauss on Sunday night. "In the old days we would have called this selling out, but it's a good way to spend a Sunday."

He was probably one of the few who were surprised, because Raising Sand, which won five trophies at Sunday night's show, is in many ways the perfect Grammy album. It features two respected veterans, a critically lauded producer, some sandpaper-and-velvet vocals and a baker's dozen of time-tested standards.

You're probably familiar with Robert Plant from his Led Zeppelin days, and you might be aware of producer T-Bone Burnett's work on the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack (it won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2002). And if you don't know who Alison Krauss is, she possesses a haunting set of pipes and is one of the meanest fiddle players in the world. Oh, and she's won 21 Grammys, more than any other female artist and the seventh-most in history.

Really, she's the key to Sand's success, and not just because of her voice (or her fiddle playing). She and Plant first met in 2004, at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tribute to legendary bluesman Leadbelly, and the former Zeppelin man was amazed by her knowledge of American Roots music — so much so that they began kicking around the idea of recording an album together. Three years later, Sand was released.

And while Plant possesses the more famous voice, the album's finest moments radiate from Krauss. Whether she's getting bluesy on Little Milton's "Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson" or entwining with Plant's husky voice on songs like "Please Read the Letter" and Roly Salley's winsome "Killing the Blues," she more than carries her end of the bargain.

And perhaps that's also due to producer Burnett, who handpicked the 13 songs the duo cover on Sand. His arrangements are sparse — giving the two voices ample room to breathe — yet dense, warm and crackling at the same time. It's a testament to his work that he's often given just as much billing as Plant and Krauss on the project ... and it's certainly justified.

To date, Sand has sold more than 1 million copies, heaped tons of acclaim and actually earned a Grammy last year — "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)" took home the award for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.

One expert was surprised not by the album's success, but by the fact that it's actually quite a good album.

"At first, the album seemed like a vanity project. ... Two names, clearly a one-off record, didn't have to be any good, you know?" New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica said. "Led Zeppelin fans would buy it because of Robert Plant, Alison Krauss would get a check. But it actually turned out to be a really thoughtful, really good record. So when you combine all that with the fact that the Grammys love to lionize one of their own, I could really see it taking home some awards."

Related Videos Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1604582/plantkrauss-win-album-year-grammy.jhtml

Kelly Clarkson Kelly Hu Kelly Monaco Kelly Ripa Kelly Rowland Kerry Suseck

Chris Cornell Filling In For Robert Plant On Led Zeppelin Tour? That's News To Him

'I have not been approached to fill in for Robert Plant on the Zeppelin tour, but that isn't to say I won't be,' singer says.
By Chris Harris


Chris Cornell
Photo: MTV News

Former Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell has spoken out for the first time about rumors that he's been asked to fill in for Robert Plant on a proposed Led Zeppelin reunion tour. The trek would feature original guitarist Jimmy Page, original bassist John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham taking over on drums for his late father, John Bonham.

Cornell has been mentioned — along with Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar, White Stripes mastermind Jack White and Alter Bridge's Myles Kennedy — as a potential Plant fill-in. Plant has already said that he wouldn't take part in the tour.

"I have not been approached so far to fill in for Robert Plant on the upcoming Zeppelin tour, but that isn't to say I won't be," Cornell told MTV News. "I've heard that from about 200 people now, and it might be one of those situations where it's just an online rumor or it might be true. But if you see anyone from Led Zeppelin around, let me know. I think I should actually fill in for Jimmy Page on the Robert Plant/ Alison Krauss tour."

Cornell's denial comes just a day after Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford confirmed reports that frontman Steven Tyler recently met with Zeppelin for an impromptu jam session. "They did it for fun," Whitford said during an appearance on the syndicated show "Todd N Tyler Radio Empire." "I actually think Jimmy wanted Steven to come over and play a little bit because I think he was trying to light a fire under Robert."

Rumors of a Zeppelin reunion tour have abounded since the iconic band played a single reunion set last year at London's O2 Arena. Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider added fuel to the fire last month when he revealed that the group was thinking of touring, with or without Plant.

According to Snider, the rest of the band told Plant, " 'We're all rehearsed, we're ready to go. Here's a gazillion dollars on the table. If you don't do it, we're going out with this kid [Myles Kennedy].' "

"And he can sing the sh-- out of Zeppelin," Snider added. "They're going to hope that Robert, at the last minute, will go, 'OK,' and step in."

In a recent interview, Jones told BBC Radio Devon that a new singer was being sought to take over for Plant. "We are trying out a couple of singers," he said. "We want to do it. It's sounding great, and we want to get on and get out there."

But Jones insists that he, Page and Bonham aren't interested in finding a Plant clone. "It's got to be right," he said. "There's no point in just finding another Robert. You could get that out of a tribute band, but we don't want to be our own tribute band. There would be a record and a tour, but everyone has to be onboard."

Of course, even if Zeppelin were to approach him, Cornell might be too busy to take over vocals for the band. His upcoming Timbaland-produced solo LP, Scream, will be released within the next few months. Cornell told MTV News last month that some of his fans might consider Scream something of a departure, but he doesn't see it that way.

"It makes me happy that there's this perception that I have a group of fans that I'm now sort of throwing a curve at and what their reaction will be," he said. "But I've been in this situation so many times already. When I put out [1999's] Euphoria Morning, my main goal was to create an album that sounded like nothing I'd done in Soundgarden, and I did that. I also had that with Temple of the Dog, where I showed up with songs that weren't necessarily riff-based. And then, of course, the pairing of me and members of Rage Against the Machine had everyone sort of speculating about what that would sound like.

"It feels like I've done this so many times that when it's presented to me as being a departure, I feel that's a misconception," he added. "I feel like that's my theme at this point."

Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1598367/chris-cornell-debunks-led-zeppelin-rumors.jhtml

Luján Fernández Magdalena Wróbe Katharine Towne Katherine Heigl Katie Cassidy Katie Holmes

U2, Bon Jovi Cake Up On Forbes Highest-Paid Musicians List

Gaga comes in at #4 with $168 mil for the year, while Bieber is the youngest artist on the list.
By Rob Markman


U2's Bono
Photo: Harry Herd/ Getty Images

Forbes released their 2011 World's Highest-Paid Musicians List on Wednesday, and apparently it still pays to be a veteran rocker — and it pays handsomely. U2 topped the list, raking in more than $195 million after their two-year 360 Tour grossed around $700 million, leapfrogging the Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang Tour as the richest run of all time.

Bon Jovi can't be too upset at snagging the list's runner-up spot. The group caked up $125 million in the last year. In a recent interview with Forbes, Jon Bon Jovi recalled the band's early, more humble and less lucrative days jamming in a New Jersey basement with vintage posters on the wall illuminated by candles. "I'm thinking maybe this is an issue, maybe I just don't like them," he said. "Until I realized that all the oxygen was sucked out of the room by the candles ... So I blew out the candles, cranked up the amplifiers and said, 'We're going to be a rock band. If you believe in what I'm telling you, we can be the Rolling Stones."

You'd think that Bon Jovi gave a similar speech to Lady Gaga with all the bank that she acquired this year. Coming behind Elton John ($204 million), who landed at #3, Gaga earned $168 million in the past year and would've made more had she been more frugal with the costs of her stage show — then again she's been known to spare little expense when it comes to pleasing her fans.

Paul McCartney, 68, was the oldest artist to make the list, clocking $66 mil, while 17-year-old Justin Bieber was the youngest to make the list with $53 million. Jay-Z and Beyoncé were the only couple to make the list. In fact, for the first time since being married, Hov earned more than his wife, taking home $37 million, while B earned $35 mil. All of the calculated earnings are based off pretax income earned from May 2010 to May 2011, before agents and managers take their cuts, according to Forbes.com.

Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1665955/u2-bon-jovi-fordes-highest-paid.jhtml

Lacey Chabert Laetitia Casta Lake Bell Larissa Meek Laura Harring Laura Prepon

'Super 8' Burning Questions: J.J. Abrams Has Answers!

We take our lingering questions straight to the director.
By Eric Ditzian


J.J. Abrams
Photo: MTV News

After months of mystery, "Super 8" finally arrived in theaters over the weekend. The secretive marketing campaigns seemed to have paid off, with positive reviews and experts predicting lasting box-office success.

With all that film-going satisfaction in mind, the way J.J. Abrams crafted his nostalgic thriller left plenty of lingering questions to be answered. So when the esteemed master of mystery stopped by our MTV News headquarters on Tuesday, we asked him our most burning "Super 8" questions. (Spoilers ahead!)

Hanging Humans
MTV News: When we go into the creature's cave, we see the humans hanging upside down. Are they hanging upside down because he's saving them to nosh on later?

J.J. Abrams: I love anything involving aliens and noshing. First of all, a man's got to eat, let's be honest. Part of it is that he's a hungry guy and he's been through a lot, and part of it is that there's a second connection that he can make with people, so he's sort of used them as sort of a library of information of what he needs to know about the human technology to use it.

Zombie Movies
MTV News: The zombie movie that the kids made — why a zombie movie? Why not monsters? Vampires? Why zombies?

Abrams: There are a series of films that George Romero did — "Night of the Living Dead," "Dawn of the Dead" — and I thought that that would be something that could be a big influence on the kid who makes the movies, and so he's sort of trying to create a movie the way that George Romero, his sort of hero in the movie, did with his zombie films.

MTV News: Is there a director's cut, maybe something we might see on the DVD of their zombie film?

Abrams: There's definitely a movie that's three times as long, but it's probably four times as bad.

Kiss
MTV News: Why no kiss between Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney?

Abrams: You know, I don't know who wanted to see the kiss between Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney, but to me ... these were kids who, their affection for each other didn't necessarily need to be played out with a kiss. But I think that hopefully you get the sense that their feelings for each other are profound.

Cameo
MTV News: We hear Bruce Greenwood did the motion capture from the creature.

Abrams: Bruce Greenwood came in and he did some motion capture, body capture and also facial capture for the performance of the creature. A lot of it we ended up using and a lot of it we ended up having to animate and change because, frankly, when we saw the creature move, sometimes it felt like we had to change it up to make it work better.

The PG-13 F-Bomb
MTV News: It was a great use of the PG-13 f---. Was there always going to be the one F-bomb you threw? Did you go through different iterations?

Abrams: It made me laugh, the idea that this guy who was such a sort of dink at the beginning and the fact that you know he was trying to sell these kids pot, he's trying to hook up with his sister and he's just an utter loser working at the camera store. The idea that this guy kind of gets roped into this adventure and sort of starts to really care about these kids. It makes you sort of like the guy, and so his showing up and seeing these kids are still alive and being happy about it and then seeing that this bus has been overturned after this attack of the creature. That reaction that he had just felt like the reaction he would have. And I was hoping that we'd get past the rating and not have to lose it, and luckily we did.

Check out everything we've got on "Super 8."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Related Videos

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1665833/super-8-j-j-abrams.jhtml

Lauren Bush Lauren Conrad Lauren German LeAnn Rimes Leeann Tweeden Leelee Sobieski

Usher To Donate Gadhafi Money To Charity

'I will be donating all of my personal proceeds...to various human rights organizations,' singer says of concert linked to Libyan dictator.
By Shawn Adler


Usher (file)
Photo: Getty Images

R&B superstar Usher announced Friday (March 4) that he was donating to various charities proceeds from appearing at a private event at St. Barts linked to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, according to a statement made to the Associated Press.

The Grammy award winner's renouncement comes after similar announcements from singers Mariah Carey, Nelly Furtado, and Beyoncé, all of whom were revealed to have performed at private concerts linked to the Middle Eastern leader, who has faced open revolt and major political uprisings since February.

"I am sincerely troubled to learn about the circumstances surrounding the Nikki Beach St. Bart's event that took place on New Year's Eve 2009," Usher said of the concert, at which he appeared alongside Beyoncé but did not perform. "I will be donating all of my personal proceeds from that event to various human rights organizations."

Usher has already begun the process, having made a donation to Amnesty International, the AP reports. The exact size of the donation is not known.

The New Year's Eve gig was reportedly for Moammar's fourth son Muastassim, who an unnamed music industry source told MTV News has a history of throwing lavish parties "jammed" with supermodels.

Beyoncé, who sang at the event, donated all proceeds from her performance to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, established in the wake of the Haitian earthquake.

"All monies paid to Beyoncé for her performance at a private party at Nikki Beach St. Barts on New Year's Eve 2009, including the commissions paid to her booking agency, were donated to the earthquake relief efforts for Haiti over a year ago," the "Halo" singer's publicist said in a statement to The Huffington Post. "Once it became known that the third-party promoter was linked to the Qaddafi family, the decision was made to put that payment to a good cause."

Singer Nelly Furtado tweeted February 28 that she plans to make similar amends.

"In 2007, I received 1million$ from the Gadhafi clan to perform a 45 min. show for guests at a hotel in Italy," she tweeted. "I am going to donate the $."

The leader of Libya since a successful military coup in 1969, Gadhafi has reportedly lost control of much of his country as a result of widespread uprisings. The United Nations voted unanimously to refer the dictator to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1659301/usher-donate-gadhafi-money-charity.jhtml

Katy Perry Keira Knightley Kelly Brook Kelly Carlson Kelly Clarkson Kelly Hu