AMERICAN IDIOT: THE MOVIE?

I just got my tickets to see Green Day's American Idiot on Broadway just a few hours ago. And now I've read that Tom Hanks is considering adapting the story for the silver screen.  Well, I guess it worked for ABBA's Mamma Mia. Well, Mr. Hanks will probably do the story justice.  He definitely "gets" rock and roll. I never saw That Thing You Do, which he produced, but it was based on The Dave Clark 5, and his speech about them when they got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year sold me on his rock and roll credentials. He was also one of the producers of this summer's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame anniversary concert, and he was part of the Monty Python performance at George Harrison's tribute concert earlier this decade.

NEIL YOUNG - LONG DAY, GREAT PERFORMANCES

It seemed like such an odd day: it was Conan O'Brien's last day as the rightful host of NBC's The Tonight Show, and while that was a bummer, the Hope for Haiti telethon put on by MTV put everything in perspective. Tom Hanks appeared at both events, as did Neil Young.

Although the telethon aired (live) before Conan, Conan taped his show before the telethon, so both Tom and Neil probably had to jet across town.  It all worked out.

Neil performed at the telethon with his fellow Farm Aid chairperson Dave Matthews.  They did a pretty stark acoustic duo version of Hank Williams' "Alone and Foresaken." On Conan, he performed one of his classics, "Long May You Run" (the title track of the lone Stills-Young Band album, released in 1976). If you saw the show, it ended with Will Ferrell dressed as the late Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant, leading Max Weinberg and the band through "Freebird." The performance was cooler looking than sounding, because Will's voice got annoying. But when he wasn't singing, he was making out with some chick, or playing (what else?) the cowbell. But a funny point was that he was wearing the same Neil Young Tonight's The Night t-shirt that Ronnie used to wear. The band were joined by supporters Ben Harper, Billy Gibbons and Beck. And Conan actually played a pretty face-melting guitar solo himself.

Back to Neil.  What I didn't know (until I checked the great fansite Thrasher's Wheat) was that yesterday, Neil's long time film making collaborator L.A. Johnson passed away. L.A., who worked on the Woodstock film, worked with Neil as a director or producer on many of his films, including Journey Through The Past, Human Highway, Rust Never Sleeps, Weld, Year Of The Horse, Silver and Gold, and also worked on Neil's albums including Greendale and Living With War.  He also worked on the video content on the Archives box set, and was working with Neil on the Linc-Volt documentary.

ROCK HALL PRESENTERS ANNOUNCED

It's always fun to try and figure out who will be presenting at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's induction ceremony. Often, they try to keep it a secret up until the event, but this year they've announced it.

Billy Joel will be doing the honors for John Mellencamp. I would have thought that they would have gotten one of his Farm Aid homeboys - Neil Young, Willie Nelson or Dave Matthews. Or Bruce Springsteen. But Billy is a good choice, and in fact, I think Mellencamp was asked to do the speech for Billy Joel a few years, but when Ray Charles agreed to do it, John bowed out (as Ray Charles is an obvious huge influence on Billy Joel). Billy and Mellencamp are both artists of the people: regular-seeming guys, with lots of talent and tons of unforgettable songs, who never seemed to get their due respect from critics.

Justin Timberlake will induct Madonna. He's working on her album, and is an ambitious pop artist like Madonna. I was thinking they'd try to get one of her influences, but Justin is a good pick for that. He and his bandmates did a decent speech for Michael Jackson a few years ago. But now Justin has proved he at least has staying power.

Lou Reed will be making the speech for Leonard Cohen. Makes sense to me. Ditto for John Forgerty and The Ventures. Ben Harper will be doing the honors for Little Walter, which I think is great - just that the Hall is acknowledging Ben as an important enough artist for the event. I was thinking it would be Clapton, but I'm glad to see Ben getting some shine. He belongs in the Hall one day.

Tom Hanks will be bringing some star power, as he'll be inducting The Dave Clark 5. Apparently, this makes sense because of a role he played in the film That Thing You Do. That's cool - although I don't see how it isn't Little Steven, who has campaigned on the band's behalf for years. Maybe Bruce has a gig that night though.