People talk 11/7/02

Elton to young artists: 'save your money'

LONDON -- The music business views young artists as nothing more than moneymakers and forces them to put image over music, Elton John said Wednesday.

"We started off as songwriters and there were no videos in those days -- you had to work live to get a record contract," John said on Independent Television's GMTV morning show.

"It was all about the song. Nowadays it's so much more about the packaging and the visual aspect of it, the videos," he said. "And the songwriting aspect has gone out of the window a bit."

The 55-year-old offered advice to successful young musicians: "Save your money, make sure you're getting your money, put it in the bank, because you are just a commodity to these people."

Blake to be deposed in wrongful death lawsuit

LOS ANGELES -- Actor Robert Blake, who is accused of killing his wife, will give a jailhouse deposition next week in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by her children.

Blake will be deposed by attorney Eric Dubin at the downtown Men's Central Jail, where he's been held since his April arrest.

The 69-year-old former star of television's "Baretta" is charged with murder, soliciting murder and conspiracy. Prosecutors contend he shot and killed Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, outside a San Fernando Valley restaurant on May 4, 2001.

Doctor in FBI case had treated Merle Haggard

LOS ANGELES -- Country music legend Merle Haggard believes he may have been one of the patients who received unnecessary procedures at a Redding hospital, which FBI agents raided last week.

Federal authorities are investigating whether Dr. Chae Moon, director of cardiology at Redding Medical Center, and Dr. Fidel Realyvasquez Jr., chairman of the center's cardiac surgery program, ordered costly surgeries for healthy patients and then billed Medicare. Neither physician has been charged.

Haggard said he had a pair of heart stents put in by Moon and was suspicious of the operation at the time.

"I suspected when it was done to me that I didn't need" an operation, Haggard said. "The whole thing has made me mad."

-- From wire reports

Haggard, whose hits include "I'm Gonna Break Every Heart I Can," said he underwent angioplasty in 1995 in Nashville, Tenn., to open his clogged arteries. Afterward, doctors gave him a clean bill of health, so he was surprised when he went to Redding Medical Center two years later and Moon told him his heart was failing.

Haggard said he had emergency surgery the same day he consulted with Moon but always felt something was amiss.

"It just didn't hit me right," he said.

The musician said he talked again with Moon, who told him he should be placed on blood-thinning medication, and said he'd be a candidate for open-heart surgery in five years. Haggard declined to take the medication.

NEW YORK (AP) -- "8 Mile" went the distance, topping the album chart during its first week in stores.

The soundtrack to Eminem's movie of the same name, which opens Friday, sold more than 702,000 copies, according to industry figures released Wednesday.

"8 Mile" features songs from the Detroit rapper, as well as Jay-Z, Macy Gray and Nas.

In second place was Christina Aguilera's latest release, "Stripped," which sold about 330,000 copies.

"Nirvana," a greatest-hits collection from the Seattle grunge band, debuted at No. 3, selling about 234,000 copies. It includes "You Know You're Right," a previously unreleased song that Kurt Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, and the surviving band members fought over in court.

And "Now or Never," the debut solo album from Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, sold just 68,000 copies in its first week to debut at No. 17.

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ATLANTA (AP) -- James Brown's daughters said they agonized about suing their father over songs for which they claim they deserve royalties.

"We knew the consequences of bringing all this out -- all the publicity this would get," Yamma Brown Lumar told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for Wednesday's editions, in her first public statement about the lawsuit.

"We love our father. ... It's been extremely difficult. This is family. This is our father. It's taken a lot of soul-searching and digging deep."

Lumar, 29, and Deanna Brown Thomas, 33, filed the lawsuit in September in federal court in Atlanta, contending they co-own the copyrights to 23 songs, including the 1976 hit, "Get Up Offa That Thing."

The lawsuit against Brown and his record labels, Warner Chappell Music and Dynatone, seeks more than $1 million and alleges breach of contract, negligence and racketeering.

The musician and his record labels, in court papers filed Monday, denied the allegations and asked for dismissal of the complaint. They noted that a similar lawsuit that Brown's daughters filed in Michigan was dismissed in the spring.

Brown, in a sworn affidavit also filed this week, said, "I can assure the court that when the merits of the case are examined, there is no basis for any of the claims since my daughters Deanna and Yamma made no contribution to any of the songs at issue."

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INVERNESS, Fla. (AP) -- A court hearing to help resolve a dispute over the body of baseball great Ted Williams has been postponed for a second time.

The hearing had been scheduled Wednesday in Citrus County Circuit Court. No new date has been set.

Attorneys for both sides didn't return repeated phone calls Tuesday.

Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell, Williams' eldest daughter, believes her father wanted to be cremated and have his ashes scattered off the Florida coast, as he requested in his will.

His youngest children, John Henry and Claudia Williams, say they and their father signed a handwritten pact in November 2000 agreeing their bodies would be frozen.

Wednesday's hearing was to determine whether to dismiss Ferrell's motion to have the court determine which would take precedence: the will or the handwritten pact.

The hearing initially had been scheduled for Oct. 3, but was pushed back a month because of scheduling conflicts.

Williams' body was moved to a Scottsdale, Ariz., cryogenics lab shortly after his death on July 5 at 83.

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Bruce Springsteen's concert in Austin on Wednesday has been postponed because E Street Band saxophone player Clarence Clemons needed surgery for a detached retina.

Clemons, 60, underwent surgery after Monday night's show in Houston, a spokesman for Springsteen said Tuesday.

"The surgery was successful," said Harris Cohen of Shore Fire Media in New York City, adding he wasn't aware of Clemons having previous eye trouble.

Cohen declined to release further details.

He didn't know a date for the rescheduled concert, but the Austin American-Statesman reported it had been set for March 2.

The status of other performances on the tour, including the next scheduled stop Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, wasn't yet known.

The band began the second leg of its U.S. tour in Dallas on Sunday.

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On the Net:

Bruce Springsteen Web site: http://www.brucespringsteen.net

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Teamsters pledged to shut down two Rolling Stones concerts this weekend at Pacific Bell Park if promoter Clear Channel Communications doesn't agree to use union workers.

"We've been having trouble with Clear Channel for years," said William Cromartie, president of Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 85. "They want to bring in kids to work for $6 or $7 an hour and give them a T-shirt."

About 50 Teamsters picketed outside Pac Bell Park Monday as tractor-trailers began arriving to deliver equipment for the Friday and Saturday shows. At least three trucks turned around without making deliveries after Teamsters talked to the drivers.

The Teamsters say they should be unloading those trucks.

Instead, Bill Graham Presents, San Francisco's largest concert promoter and a subsidiary of Clear Channel, will use its own nonunion workers.

"This is specifically a local dispute between Bill Graham Presents and the local Teamsters," said Howard Schacter, a spokesman for Clear Channel's entertainment division.

Bill Graham Presents said it's never had a relationship with the Teamsters.

"We have the expertise developed to do those jobs," said spokeswoman Sherry Wasserman. "They are using this high-profile show to strong-arm us."

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On the Net:

The Rolling Stones Web site: http://www.rollingstones.com/

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OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) -- A traveling display of artwork by reclusive naturalist and artist Walter Anderson will go on exhibit next year at the Smithsonian Institution.

The exhibit, in commemoration of Anderson's 100th birthday, will be on display Sept. 30-Dec. 9 at the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building.

It includes about 120 works that trace recurrent images in Anderson's art through three periods of his life, said Clayton Bass, executive director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art.

Bass said the artwork is accompanied by Anderson's writings, including poetry, notes and observations written on scraps of paper.

The exhibit has been in the works for two years, Bass said.

"By sending Walter Anderson to Washington, I think we'll also be sharing the heart and soul of Mississippi, opening a new reason for people to visit here," said Steve Richer, director of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Anderson died in 1965.

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On the Net:

Walter Anderson Museum of Art Web site: http://www.walterandersonmuseum.org/

Smithsonian Web site: http://www.si.edu/