June 2: The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts is 70 years-old today.

Did you know?

In Canada's Macleans magazine, Charlie Watts told interviewer Brian Johnson that he has had a compulsive habit for decades of actually sketching every new hotel room he occupies – and its furnishings – immediately upon entering it. He stated he keeps every sketch.
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Watts is noted for his personal wardrobe: the British newspaper The Telegraph has named him one of the World's Best Dressed Men. In 2006 Vanity Fair elected Watts into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame, joining his style icon, Fred Astaire.

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Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts was born in London, and raised in Islington and Kingsbury. As a schoolboy, he displayed a talent for art, cricket and football.

Watts' parents gave him his first drum kit in 1955; he was interested in jazz, and would practice drumming along with jazz records. After leaving school, Watts worked as a graphic designer for an advertising company, and also played drums occasionally with local bands in coffee shops and clubs.

In 1961 he met Alexis Korner, who invited him to join his band, Blues Incorporated. Watts played regularly with Blues Incorporated as well as working at the advertising firm of Charles, Hobson and Grey.

In mid-1962 that Watts first met Brian Jones, Ian "Stu" Stewart, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards, who also frequented the London rhythm and blues clubs, but it wasn't until January 1963 that Watts finally agreed to join the Rolling Stones. In his autobiography, Life, Keith Richards wrote that up until then Charlie Watts was “too expensive.”

Watts has been involved in many activities outside his life as a member of the Rolling Stones. In 1964, he published a cartoon tribute to Charlie Parker entitled Ode to a High Flying Bird.

Although he has made his name in rock, his personal tastes focus on jazz; in the late 70s, he joined Ian Stewart in the back-to-the-roots boogie-woogie band Rocket 88, which featured many of the UK's top jazz, rock and R&B musicians.

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In the 1980s, he toured worldwide with a big band that included Evan Parker, Courtney Pine and Jack Bruce, who was also a member of Rocket 88. In 1991, he organised a jazz quintet as another tribute to Charlie Parker.

In 1993 Warm And Tender, by the Charlie Watts Quintet was released, which included vocalist Bernard Fowler. The group then released Long Ago And Far Away in 1996. Both records included a collection of Great American Songbook standards.

Charlie with Jimi Hendrix

After a successful collaboration with Jim Keltner on The Rolling Stones' Bridges to Babylon, Watts and Keltner released a techno/instrumental album simply titled, Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner Project, Featuring their favorite jazz drummers. Watts At Scott's was recorded with his group, "The Charlie Watts Tentet,” at the famous jazz club in London, Ronnie Scott's.

In April 2009 he started to perform concerts with the ABC&D of Boogie Woogie together with pianists Axel Zwingenberger and Ben Waters plus his childhood friend Dave Green on bass.




Besides his musical creativity, Watts contributed graphic art to early records such as the Between the Buttons record sleeve.

Before the Stones’ 1975 tour announcement press conference in New York City. The band surprised everyone by driving and playing "Brown Sugar" on the back of a flatbed truck in the middle of Manhattan traffic. At the time, Watts said this was a common way for New Orleans jazz bands to promote upcoming dates.

With Mick Jagger, he designed the elaborate stages for tours, first contributing to the lotus-shaped design of that 1975 Tour of the Americas, as well as the 1989–1990 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour, the 1997 Bridges to Babylon Tour, the 2002-2003 Licks Tour, and the 2005-2007 A Bigger Bang Tour.

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There are many instances where Jagger and Richards have lauded Watts as the key member of The Rolling Stones. Richards went so far as to say in a 2005 Guitar Player magazine interview that the Rolling Stones would not be, or could not continue as, the Rolling Stones without Watts.

An example of Watts's importance was demonstrated in 1993, after Bill Wyman had left the band. After auditioning several bassists, Jagger and Richards asked Watts to choose the new bass player. Watts selected the respected session musician Darryl Jones, who had previously been a sideman for both Miles Davis and Sting.

In 1989, the Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the July 2006 issue of Modern Drummer, Watts was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame along with Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Steve Gadd, Buddy Rich, and other highly esteemed drummers.


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June 1: Country music singer-songwriter Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn is 58 years-old today.

Ronnie Gene Dunn was born in Coleman, Texas, and attended 13 schools in his first 12 years of school. He finished his education at Abilene Christian University in 1975 as a psychology major. While he was in college, he served as a music and youth minister at Avoca Baptist Church in Avoca, Texas.

When Ronnie began playing bass guitar and singing with bands in clubs in the Abilene, Texas, area, the university gave him the choice of either quitting the band or the university. He chose to leave the university and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for a chance at the country music scene. He lived there for many years while listening and learning from local honky tonks such as Tulsa City Limits - which is prominently featured in the music video for Brooks & Dunn's hit "Boot Scootin' Boogie."

Ronnie began his musical career as a solo artist. He charted two minor singles with Churchill/MCA Records in 1983 he released "It's Written All Over Your Face" in 1983 and "She Put the Sad in All His Songs" in 1984.
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n 1990, he and Kix Brooks formed Brooks & Dunn. They released their first album, Brand New Man, with their first four singles in 1991, and was certified 6x platinum by the RIAA. Since then, Brooks & Dunn have released 12 studio albums, two Greatest Hits albums, and a Christmas album. The three Greatest Hits albums feature seven songs that never appeared. on earlier albums.

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Brooks & Dunn have sold over 30 million records, had 26 #1 singles, and are one of the most consistently successful acts on the concert circuit. In 2009, they announced that they would disband in 2010.

In late 2010, Dunn announced that he was working on a solo album. The album's first single, "Bleed Red," was released to country radio on January 30, 2011, and debuted at number 30 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the week ending February 19, 2011. On March 21, 2011 it was announced that Ronnie's self titled album Ronnie Dunn would release on June 7, 2011.

Ronnie Dunn has won more than twenty Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) awards, including Country Music Songwriter of the Year in 1996 and 2001.

He has received more than 27 ACM awards for Top Vocal Duo since 1991, (except for 2000 when the honor went to Montgomery Gentry and 2009 when the honor went to Sugarland,) including three Entertainer of the Year awards and vocal event of the year in 2005, for their hit "Building Bridges" with Vince Gill and Sheryl Crow's background vocals, along with his Single of the Year for his gospel song "Believe."

He is a member of both the Oklahoma and Arkansas Music Halls Of Fame.

Brooks and Dunn have won more Country Music Association awards and Academy of Country Music awards than any act in the history of country music.

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June 1: Actor, comedian and singer, Andy Griffith is 85 years-old today.

He'll always be "Opie's Dad," but there's been a great deal more to Andy Griffith's entertainment career than Mayberry...

Andy Samuel Griffith who was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina (often mentioned on The Andy Griffith Show) in 1926. In addition to comedic and dramatic acting, he is director, producer, Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer, and writer.

His first big break came when he stared in the films A Face in the Crowd and No Time for Sargeants. He's made many other movies, but he is perhaps best known for his television shows, the 1960-68 situation comedy, The Andy Griffith Show between 1960-68, and in the 1986-95 legal drama, Matlock. Griffith was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 9, 2005.

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Griffith developed his interest in music from his mother. His father instilled a sense of humor from old family stories. He was a shy student, but once he found a way to make his peers laugh, he began to come into his own.

As a student at Mount Airy High School, Griffith cultivated an interest in the arts, and he participated in the school's drama program. A growing love of music, particularly swing, would change his life. Ed Mickey, a minister at Grace Moravian Church, who led the brass band and taught Andy to sing and play the trombone. Mickey nurtured Griffith's talent throughout high school until graduation in 1944.
Griffith was offered a role in The Lost Colony, a play still performed today on historic Roanoke Island.

He began college studying to be a preacher, but he changed his major to music and became a part of the school's Carolina Play Makers. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and graduated with a bachelor of music degree in 1949.

At UNC he was president of the UNC Men's Glee Club and a member of the Alpha Rho Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, America's oldest fraternity for men in music.

Griffith in A Face in the Crowd with Patricia Neal

Griffith sang as part of some of his acting roles, most notably in A Face In The Crowd and in many episodes of both The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock. In addition to his recordings of comic monologues in the 1950s, he made an album of upbeat country and gospel tunes during the run of The Andy Griffith Show, which included a version of the show's theme sung by Griffith under the title "The Fishin' Hole."

In recent years, he has recorded successful albums of classic Christian hymns for Sparrow Records. His most successful was the 1996 release I Love to Tell the Story: 25 Timeless Hymns, which was certified platinum by the RIAA.

In 2008, Griffith appeared in country singer Brad Paisley's music video "Waitin' on a Woman."

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Beginning in 1960, Griffith starred as Sheriff Andy Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show. The show took place in the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina, where Taylor, a widower, was the sheriff and town sage. From 1960 to 1965, the show co-starred character actor and comedian—and Griffith's longtime friend—Don Knotts in the role of Deputy Barney Fife, Taylor's best friend and partner. The show also starred child actor Ron Howard who played Taylor's only child, Opie Taylor.

The show was an immediate hit. Although Griffith never received a writing credit for the show, he worked on the development of every script. While Knotts was frequently lauded and won multiple Emmy Awards for his comedic performances - (as did Frances Bavier for her role as Aunt bea in 1967 -  Griffith was never nominated for an Emmy Award during the show's run.

After leaving his still-popular show in 1968, and starting his own production company (Andy Griffith Enterprises) in 1972, Griffith starred in less-successful television series such as The Headmaster, The New Andy Griffith Show, Adams of Eagle Lake, Salvage 1, and The Yeagers.

After spending time in rehabilitation for leg paralysis from Guillain–Barré syndrome in 1986, Griffith returned to television as the title character, Ben Matlock, in the legal drama Matlock on NBC and ABC. Matlock was a country lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, who was known for his Southern drawl and for always winning his cases.

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Griffith's friendship with Ron Howard began in 1960, when they guest-starred in the episode of Danny Thomas' show, Make Room For Daddy. That led to the creation of The Andy Griffith Show that same year. For eight seasons they shared a unique father-son relationship on the set. They guest-starred together in its spin-off series, Mayberry R.F.D., in an episode where Griffith's character married his long-time girlfriend.

Griffith made a surprise appearance as the ghost of Andy Taylor when Howard hosted Saturday Night Live in 1982.

Andy Griffith still lives in North Carolina.

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June 1: singer and songwriter Brandi Carlile 30 years-old today.

Carlile began learning to play the guitar and write songs at fifteen. At sixteen, she began to perform as a backup singer for an Elvis impersonator.

Before signing to a major record label, performed in local Seattle establishments like The Crocodile, Tractor Tavern, and Paragon with Tim and Phil Hanseroth. Carlile sold her self-released recordings while she busked.  Carlile began to attract the attention of the music industry after Dave Matthews heard her band perform at the 2003 Sasquatch! Music Festival.

Columbia Records signed Carlile in late 2004 after hearing her recordings. Her 2005 major label debut, Brandi Carlile included some of those songs as well as newly recorded tracks. After the release of Brandi Carlile, she went on tour with the Hanseroth brothers for almost two years, where they worked on songs that became part of her second Columbia album The Story.

In 2005, she was featured on Rolling Stone's "10 Artists to Watch in 2005" list. By the end of 2006, Carlile had toured as both a warm-up act and as a headliner.

The Story, was released in April 2007. It was produced by T Bone Burnett and includes a collaboration with the Indigo Girls on "Cannonball." The album was recorded in an 11-day long session and tried to capture the sound of her live performances. (The crack in Carlile's vocals during the title track, "The Story," came out by accident and stayed on the record.)
Carlile describes the vocals as "technically wrong but emotionally right." She would also contribute vocals to "Last Tears" from Indigo Girls' Despite Our Differences.

ABC's Grey's Anatomy featured three of her songs: "Tragedy," "What Can I Say," and "Throw it All Away." In April 2007, Grey's Anatomy debuted a version of the video for the single "The Story" interspersed with footage from the show. On 3 May 2007, a special two-hour episode of the show featured Carlile's song "Turpentine" during footage of the Grey's Anatomy spin-off, Private Practice.

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"The Story" has also been featured in a General Motors commercial aired during the Beijing Olympic Games, as well as in a Super Bock commercial.

In November 2007, Carlile visited England for her first UK gig at the Borderline in London. In February 2008, Carlile performed as special guest to Newton Faulkner on five of his UK tour dates. During March and April 2008 Carlile toured through Australia with Maroon 5 and OneRepublic. In April 2008 she played four dates in the UK and was a guest performer on the BBC2 show, Later... with Jools Holland.

Her third studio album Give Up the Ghost was released on October 6, 2009. The album debuted at #26 on theBillboard 200. The album was produced by Grammy Award winner Rick Rubin and contains a collaboration with Elton John titled "Caroline."

English singer Adele covered The Story's hidden track "Hiding My Heart" on a bonus edition of her 2011 album 21.

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In January 2010, Carlile's Looking Out Foundation partnered with the Seattle Police Department, the Indigo Girls and two local Seattle self-defense studios to fund and support the Fight the Fear Campaign. The campaign was inspired by the assault on a local Seattle woman and her partner in their South Park home and will provide free self-defense lessons to women in at-risk communities throughout 2010.

Also in 2010, Carlile contributed the track "The Heartache Can Wait" to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation: More Hope For The Holidays album.  Proceeds from this album go to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

In a November 14, 2002 interview with The Western Front, the official newspaper of Western Washington University, Carlile identified herself as a lesbian.

In an October 17, 2009 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Carlile said; "I hope that somewhere in Small Town, USA, a 15-year-old kid looks to me as a role model the way I looked at the Indigo Girls and Elton John as role models...and I hope they also recognize that the reason why I don't have to have a lot of formality around it, the reason why I don't have to wear it on my sleeve and make a spectacle of it, is because there were people before me who paved the way so I wouldn't have to."


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June 1: Alanis Morissette is 37 years-old today.

Alanis Nadine Morissette was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She has won 16 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards, was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and has been considered for an Academy Award nomination.

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When she was a teenager, Morissette recorded two dance-pop albums for MCA Records Canada. In 1991 they released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album. When it was released, she was credited simply as Alanis. The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot,” reached the top twenty on the RPM singles chart.

Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top forty. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada. The album garnered three 1992 Juno Awards nominations; Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording - both for "Too Hot" – and Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year which she won.

In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a simpler, ballad-driven record. As with Alanis, Now Is the Time was released only in Canada and produced three top forty singles—"An Emotion Away,” the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" and "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time.” It only sold about half as many copies as her first album. Morissette was left without a major label contract and was little known outside of Canada.

After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto to help her develop as a song writer and performer. After she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he let her use his studio. The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records - the only recording company that expressed interest in her.

Maverick released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. When a DJ from KROQ, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know,” the album's first single, The song's scathing, explicit lyrics generated immediate attention. A music video of the song went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.

After the success of "You Oughta Know,” the album's other hit singles helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand In My Pocket" followed, but the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic,” became Morissette's biggest hit.

"You Learn" and "Head over Feet,” the fifth and sixth singles, respectively, kept Jagged Little Pill in the top twenty on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year.

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According to the RIAA, Jagged Little Pill is the best-selling international debut album by a female artist, with more than 16 million copies sold in the U.S.; 33 million worldwide. It became the third biggest selling album by a female artist, and the biggest selling debut album old internationally.

Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 1996 Grammy Awards, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.

Morissette recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never officially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. Since then, she has released three more albums, Under Rug Swept in 2002,
So-Called Chaos in 2004, and Flavors of Entanglement in 2008.

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In 1986, Morissette had her first acting gig; twenty episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. Since then she has appeared on numerous TV shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sex and the City and Weeds. In 1999, she appeared as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack.

It has been announced on Morissette's website that she will be starring in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth.

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June 1: Ronnie Wood, guitarist with The Rolling Stones is 64 years-old today.

Ronald David "Ronnie" Wood - AKA "Woody" - was born in Hillingdon, London, into a family of English "water gypsies"; river/canal barge operators, sometimes also called "bargees."

Wood began his career as a professional musician in 1964 as a guitarist with The Birds (NOT to be confused with the Byrds), an R&B band based in Yiewsley, West London. A popular live act, The Birds released several singles in the mid-60s; Wood wrote or co-wrote nearly half the songs the group recorded.

He then joined the mod group The Creation, but only remained with the group for a short time, and appeared on a small number of singles. Wood joined The Jeff Beck Group in 1968 as a bass player.

Along with vocalist Rod Stewart, Wood did several tours with Beck, and recorded two albums: Truth in 1968 and Beck-Ola in 1969. In between Jeff Beck Group projects Wood also worked with The Creation.

In 1969, after Steve Marriott left the Small Faces, Wood began playing guitar with the remaining members of that group.They, plus Rod Stewart and ex-Bird Kim Gardner, teamed up with Wood's brother Art Wood in a formation called Quiet Melon, making a handful of recordings in May 1969.

After the Jeff Beck Group's fifth US tour in July, Wood and Stewart joined the former Small Faces full-time, and the band's name was changed to Faces.




In the early 1970s, Faces released four studio albums and were among the top-grossing live acts of the period. Besides his guitar work, Wood contributed harmonica, vocals and bass to the band's recordings, and co-wrote many of their songs, including "Stay With Me" and "Ooh La La."

He also played on  Stewart's first few solo albums, and is co-writer of the Rod Stewart songs "Gasoline Alley" and "Every Picture Tells a Story," as well as several songs on Never a Dull Moment.

In 1972, Wood and Faces bassist Ronnie Lane composed the soundtrack to the film Mahoney's Last Stand. The soundtrack was released as an LP in 1976.  Wood also performed with Pete Townshend, Grech, Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Eric Clapton at Clapton's Rainbow Concert in 1973.

In December 1973, Wood collaborated with Mick Jagger on the song "It's Only Rock'n Roll (But I Like It)." Then, Jagger and Keith Richards contributed to Wood's first solo album, I've Got My Own Album to Do, released in 1974.

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Following Mick Taylor's departure from the Rolling Stones in December 1974, Wood participated in the band's March 1975 recording sessions for their forthcoming album Black and Blue. Although still a member of the Faces, he toured North America with the Rolling Stones in 1975; the Faces announced their break-up in December of that year, and Wood was officially declared a member of the Rolling Stones in February 1976.

With the Rolling Stones, Wood plays the slide guitar, lap steel and pedal steel guitar. In addition, he exchanges roles on the guitar with Richards, often blurring the boundaries between rhythm and lead, even within a particular song.

He also occasionally plays bass guitar, as seen during 1975 concert performances of "Fingerprint File," when Mick Jagger played rhythm guitar and bassist Bill Wyman moved to synthesizer. The Rolling Stones single "Emotional Rescue" also features Wood on bass.

He has been  credited as a co-writer for a dozen songs, including "Dance," "Black Limousine," "One Hit (to the Body)" and "Had It With You."

In 1975, Wood released his second solo album, Now Look; his third, Gimme Some Neck, came out in 1979. To promote it, Wood formed and toured with The New Barbarians, playing 20 concerts in Canada and the US in April/May and the Knebworth Festival in the UK in August.

Throughout the 1980s, Wood painted, played with The Rolling Stones, and continued his solo career, releasing the album 1234 in 1981and collaborated with a number of other artists, including Prince, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley, Ringo Starr and Aretha Franklin.

In 1990 Wood was made a fully-fledged partner in the Rolling Stones' financial organization. During the '90s the Rolling Stones released two studio albums and three concert albums, as well as touring in 1990, 1994–95 and 1997–99.

In addition, Wood released his seventh solo album, Slide On This, in 1992; he toured to promote this album in North America and Japan. His appearance in 1993 with Rod Stewart on MTV Unplugged resulted in a hit album entitled Unplugged...and Seated; the concert album that Wood released in 1993 from his own tour was called Slide On Live: Plugged In and Standing.

Wood also contributed to Bo Diddley's 1996 album A Man Amongst Men, playing slide guitar. Since 2000 Wood has continued to combine solo work with his Rolling Stones schedule. Following the 2001 release of his album Not For Beginners, Wood toured England and Ireland in 2001 and 2002 with his own group, The Ronnie Wood Band.


Wood is a renowned artist. When he was a child his drawings were featured on the BBC television programme Sketch Club. He went on to train at the Ealing Art College, as both his brothers had.

Wood's paintings, drawings and prints frequently feature icons of popular culture and have been exhibited all over the world.

Wood has three books to his credit: a short collection of autobiographical anecdotes entitled The Works, illustrated with Wood's artwork, co-authored by Bill German and published in 1988; a limited-edition art book entitled Wood on Canvas: Every Picture Tells a Story, published in 1998; and his 2007 autobiography Ronnie, written in collaboration with his son-in-law Jack MacDonald and Jeffrey Robinson.

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