MAUI, Hawaii (AP) – Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood says once he realized his house was still standing after the wildfires in Maui, he thought about what he could do. He tells Sky News he was in Los Angeles when the fires hit. He chartered a plane to bring back supplies for those who lost their homes. Fleetwood’s restaurant, Fleetwood’s on Front Street, was destroyed along with most of the town of Lahaina. His thoughts go to rebuilding, but he’s worried about developers destroying the character of Lahaina.
CHICAGO (AP) – It might not be a surprise that the musician who wrote the song “We’re All Gonna Die” thinks about death a lot. Joy Oladokun (oh-LAH’-doh-koon) says she’s always had a “loving relationship” with the idea of getting old. She says the song is her way of saying that time feels borrowed and “the best we can do is the best we can do.” Of course, that’s with a catchy melody, or what Oladokun calls an “ambivalent stoner rock anthem.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Irish boy band Westlife has sold 55 million records, but they never really took off in North America. They’re going to tour here for the first time. It’s a four-date tour in March that will hit Toronto, Boston, New York and Chicago. Westlife also will make their U.S. TV debut when they perform on “Good Morning America” next Monday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Clarence Avant, (AY-vant) who helped launch or guide the careers of Quincy Jones, Bill Withers and many others and came to be known as the “Black Godfather” of music and beyond, has died. He was 92. Avant, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles. Avant broke in as a manager in the 1950s, with such clients as singers Sarah Vaughan and Little Willie John and composer Lalo Schifrin, who wrote the theme to “Mission: Impossible.” In the 1970s he was an early patron of Black-owned radio stations and, in the 1990s, headed Motown after founder Berry Gordy Jr. sold the company.
