What do you do when your world famous frontman isn't down for that long-awaited reunion tour? If you're Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler, two-thirds of the legendary trio the Jam, you soldier forward without him.

In the absence of Paul Weller -- who has continued to have a successful career since the Jam's 1982 demise -- the rhythm section behind U.K. chart topping hits like 'Going Underground,' 'Start!,' 'A Town Called Malice' and 'Beat Surrender' has established a touring quartet known as From the Jam. Rounding out the revival, Foxton and Buckler have tapped Russell Hastings and Dave Moore, two members of a Jam tribute band.

Hastings and Moore took the name of their cover band -- the Gift -- from the Jam's 1982 studio album of the same name. According to the Gift's Myspace page, Hastings "shocked audiences nationwide this year with his authentic and passionate interpretation in performance of the Jam's back catalog."

From the Jam hits select cities in late September on a two-week run. For those who'd prefer to see the man who originally wrote these songs, Weller will be supporting his latest album, '22 Dreams,' with a tour of his own in early September.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers may tap French dance music duo Justice -- Xavier De Rosnay and Gaspard Auge -- to produce its next studio album, according to newspaper The Sun.

Justice manager Pedro "Busy P" Winter," who also runs the duo's label Ed Banger, was quoted as saying that Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis is a big Justice fan who reportedly uses the electronic outfit's music to warm up before RHCP gigs.

For that reason, the rumor could hold merit, although with the Red Hot Chili Peppers currently on a break after their extensive tour in support of 2006's 'Stadium Arcadium', there has been no confirmation from the band's camp. In May, Kiedis told 'Rolling Stone' that the group is "disbanded for the moment".

The RZA, Bobby Steels, the Abbot, Prince Rakeem are all names that the Staten Island bred Wu-Tang beat maker Robert Diggs might present himself as. Most recently coming at you as Bobby Digital, on the heals of his newly-released 'Digi Snacks' album, Digi spat a fresh verse off the cuff to remind everyone that Wu-Tang is still for the children.


16 Bars on the Boombox

Additional details of a May interview between Scott Weiland and Los Angeles Times reporter Chris Lee has revealed that the troubled Stone Temple Pilots frontman has a fondness for launching "huge green" loogies at the wall and verbally assaulting members of the media.

During the exchange, which was held in advance of the singer's jail sentence for a November 2007 drunk driving charge (for which he ultimately only served six hours in a Van Nuys lockup), Scott took a cue from Lou "what are you, a f---ing asshole?" Reed. Here's how it went down:

Lee: "How disruptive has it been on band unity to have you going to serve jail time just before reuniting onstage for the first time in five years?"

Weiland: [Spits huge green loogie on the wall that drips down just behind bassist Robert DeLeo and his brother, guitarist Dean DeLeo, who, it must be noted, plays it off like nothing had happened.]

Lee: "Where's your head at right now just before going to jail?"

Weiland: "All these questions are ..., man. Who do you interview? To what level?"

Prince's lawyers are suing a Norwegian Record label in response to the release of an 81-track, 5 CD tribute disc called 'Shockadelica: A 50th Anniversary Tribute to the Artist Known as Prince.' It seems that the Purple One is miffed that Christer Falck -- an enormous Prince fan and the head of Oslo-based C+C Records -- decided to pay homage to his prolific catalog.

Prince is reportedly demanding that all copies of the box set -- which has a limited run of just 5000 -- be destroyed, according to 's daily newspaper Dagbladet. This despite the fact that the project has earned rave reviews and debuted in the country's album survey at No. 8, a first for a tribute set.

It would appear that Falck's first mistake was sending Prince his own copy. Instead of being flattered, the eccentric 50 year old responded with legalese. For the time being, the genre-breaking compilation -- which spans the jazz, metal, pop, rock and hip-hop genres -- can still be sampled through C+C's website.

Prince's reaction to Shockadelica comes as little surprise. After all his decision to "reclaim the Internet," by serving legal notice to YouTube, eBay and Pirate Bay to remove bootleg merchandise and unauthorized content in 2007 sets precedent. And after he performed Radiohead's 'Creep' at Coachella earlier this spring, he subsequently had it blocked. Thom Yorke, one of the tune's copyright owners, balked, saying 'Tell him to unblock it. It's our song.'

After nine tracks from Guns N' Roses' long-awaited and allegedly forthcoming 'Chinese Democracy' album leaked onto the Internet last week, the FBI paid a visit to the blogger responsible, Kevin Skwerl, on Monday to investigate a complaint reportedly made by Axl Rose.

Skwerl – a former Universal Music employee turned Web designer – posted the material on his Antiquiet blog last week but promptly erased the tracks when Rose's attorneys asked nicely.

Skwerl, whose blog crashed from the volume of Web traffic it received, told Rolling Stone that he got the music from an "anonymous online source." He also explained he was initially told to take the files down by "a really cool guy from the GN'R camp that was a middleman between someone who was very angry and me. He was trying to reach out and see if I'd go without a fight, which is more or less what I did."

The blogger thought the ordeal was over until two young FBI officers he described as "Mulder and Scully types" showed up at his day job and questioned him for 15 minutes. "It was kind of an ambush," Skwerl said. "When I came back from lunch, they were waiting in the lobby for me. It's a little creepy they know where I work."

As for any potential legal trouble, Skwerl isn't too worried because he only streamed the tracks. "It's a legal gray area since it wasn't for download, it wasn't a finished product. We aren't sure who owns the recordings. I feel like I might survive this."

It looks as if Queens of the Stone Age mouthpiece Josh Homme has done some soul searching since word got out about his verbal assault against a fan in a week ago. And while Homme's repeated utterance of the term "faggot" on a widely seen video stunned music fans globally, he insists his tirade was not homophobic.

Check out Homme's open letter, released late last week:

"Member of the Peanut Gallery:

Some journalists & citizens on the internet are wondering: Q? Am I a homophobe because I included a slang for gay in with other 'acceptable' curse words during a verbal lashing I gave a young concertgoer, after being hit by his shoe, during a show the other day? A= Nope. My gay family and friends, as well as myself, KNOW I am not a homophobe. For years now I've known gay is not a choice; one's skin color doesn't determine one's intelligence level; and red hair doesn't mean you're someone's stepchild. You see, it's not the words, it's their intent. I never said, nor suggested, that being gay is wrong, but apparently, based on your outrage to my flu-infused rant, you do! By that logic, I also told that young whipper snapper I'd have anal sex with him. How can I possibly reconcile these opposing viewpoints? I called him a p---- too. Does it mean I hate our one worlds' collective vagina? I never have been nor intend to be politically correct. That's your cross to bear.

Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme evidently went mental last Friday at Oslo's Norwegian Wood festival, reacting to a shoe throwing incident with a homophobic rant that he just might struggle to recover from. During a cover of Queen's song '3's and 7's,' Homme was struck and subsequently tore into the young attendee, calling him a "twelve year old c--t", before really letting the kid have it.

Homme clearly overreacted and repeatedly used the term "faggot" while the fan was escorted out. The attendee, who threw up devil horns with his hand and smiled during his forced removal, also received the kind of distasteful threat (suggesting that he and the kid have forcible sex while his friends look on) that you'll have to hear to believe. How ironic that the whole outburst took place during a Queen cover.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club drummer Nick Jago reports he has been relieved of his kit duties. According to a post on the BRMC website this week, Jago announced matter-of-factly that he has been replaced by Leah Shapiro, touring drummer from the Raveonettes.

"I just had dinner with Rob [Been] and Pete [Hayes] and, well, I'm not in the band anymore," Jago writes. "They are going into rehearsals tomorrow with Leah, she just finished touring with the Raveonettes and is super nice and cool. They presented it to me like they need a break, I took it as I am fired again and to be honest with you I respect their decision. I don't make it easy for them, I hope to be able to play with them again in the future as a reunion as there is really no bad feeling other than we all wanna be happy and right now we are not. Maybe playing drums for BRMC all the time is not my calling and there is something else I'm supposed to do. We will see. I'm sorry to all the fans and know that the drums are in good hands with Leah."

Hayes and Been confirmed the switchout, but insist Jago isn't fired. "It's true, Nick won't be joining us for the upcoming European tour, but it's not true that he is fired. We just feel Nick needs time to sort out exactly what he wants right now. His heart and all his energy and attention is on his own solo project and he needs to see that through."

When pressed, many musicians will admit that what they really want to do is act, and many actors will admit that what they really want to do is direct. But what Wu-Tang Clan mastermind, established solo artist, actor, soundtrack composer and author RZA really wants to do is become a one-man U.S. government think tank. "They'd have to pay me millions of dollars for it 'cause I got a millionaire life, know what I mean? Maybe that's the reason it don't happen," he says, laughing. But he seems to be pretty serious about the concept. "All these f---ing ideas I got in the scientific world, they just not being heard because I'm a musician. That's kind of weird. I was talking to my wife about this recently. I was like, 'Yo, don't you think [the government] should just hire me and put me in a research lab for ten years so I can just research something?'"

Until that day when he puts on his government-issued lab coat, RZA has got a new release from his alter ego Bobby Digital set for release this month. 'Digi Snacks' is the third concept album dealing with the exploits of his character, this time augmented by the contributions of members of System of a Down, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante and rapper David Banner. RZA has found inspiration in some of cinema's greatest for his Bobby Digital persona. "When I made the first Bobby Digital album, I was inspired by Robert De Niro. I was high, of course," he admits. "I have many voices in my head, many styles of rhyming. I said, 'I'm gonna become a character when I do my styles.' For me, it's all part of expressing artistic creativity, whether I'm doing it musically, acting on the silver screen or whether I'm sitting there playing chess."

While promoting his Sirius Satellite Radio Show, 'New York Shuffle,' rocker Lou Reed lost his marbles. During an interview with New York magazine, Reed responded to writer Andrew Goldstein's question about the pending merger of Sirius and rival XM with a verbal can of whoop-ass.

Here's how it went:

Goldstein: "Sirius' impending merger with XM is anticipated to boost earnings. Do you own any stock in the company?"

Reed: "What are you, a f---ing a--hole? I'm here telling you the truth about music and you want to know if I have stock in the f---ing radio? You f---ing piece of s---. What did I do to deserve that?"

Maybe Reed should call the show, 'New York Scuffle'?

For a while on Saturday Night, it seemed as if the Stone Temple Pilots' performance at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ wasn't going to happen. But when the band finally took the stage at 10:30 -- more than an hour late -- fans had to continue wondering what the hell is up with Scott Weiland?

Headlining K-ROCK's 'Return of the Rock' gig alongside Filter and Ashes Divide, disapproving boos let the troubled singer know they didn't appreciate the holdup while Weiland was on lockdown in his trailer. "Sometimes you make crazy choices," the ousted Velvet Revolver frontman said once he hit the stage, adding, "I apologize for..."

"Apology accepted, brother," STP's Robert DeLeo interjected, as the show carried forth with the same incoherent stage banter and lyrical misfires have been the norm for the singer during the reunion tour's past two weeks. Although the band had a similar delayed start during its Mohegan Sun Casino show last week in Connecticut, the group was just ten minutes late when it rocked Boston's Tweeter Center Sunday night.

Kurt Cobain's ashes have been stolen, according to a revelation his widow Courtney Love made to the supermarket tabloid 'News Oo the World'.

"They were all I had left of my husband," Courtney said of the ashes that were taken from her home. "I can't believe anyone would take Kurt's ashes from me. I find it disgusting and right now I'm suicidal. If I don't get them back I don' know what I'll do."

According to the story, Cobain's ashes were stolen from Love's L.A. home, where she kept them in a pink teddy bear shaped bag. Although most of the Nirvana frontman's remains were scattered in the Wishkah River in his home state of Washington and near a New York Buddhist temple, Love held onto some of his ashes.

"I used to take them everywhere with me just so I could feel Kurt was still with me," the Hole singer says. "Now it feels like I have lost him all over again."

In response to reports last week that he had checked himself into a Pasadena, California drug rehabilitation clinic, Steven Tyler has disclosed why he entered the facility. The 60-year-old Aerosmith singer says he entered Los Encinitas Hospital's treatment facility earlier this month after a series of surgeries and post-operative physical therapy to correct long-time foot injuries resulting from his athletic stage performance.

"The doctors told me the pain in my feet could be corrected but it would require a few surgeries over time," Tyler says. "The 'foot repair' pain was intense, greater than I'd anticipated. The months of rehabilitative care and the painful strain of physical therapy were traumatic. I really needed a safe environment to recuperate where I could shut off my phone and get back on my feet."

Although Tyler made no reference to substance abuse allegations he ensures fans, "Make no mistake, Aerosmith has no plans to stop rocking. There's a new album to record, then another tour."

Rod Stewart's giving the Foo Fighters a run for their money, following the recent tour rider revelations of Dave Grohl and Co. Rod the Mod, now 63, has requests for oxygen kits and footballs (that's soccer balls to us Yanks) from his concert promoters.

According to a report in the Daily Mirror, Steward needs "two first-aid type Oxygen kits" placed backstage at every gig. He also needs "48 white, Fifa 'size five' non-logo footballs." He boots the latter into the audience each night.

Not surprisingly, Stewart also commands a hotel presidential suite, three limos and British newspapers. Stewart and his crew also warrant £8,000-worth of food each day, including donuts for the helpers at breakfast time.