BIG BOI'S "SIR LUCIOUS" DUE OUT JULY 6

Congrats to Big Boi: after releasing singles for two years, his debut solo album Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty has not just a label (Def Jam) but a release date (July 6). The singles that I've heard ("Shine Blockas (featuring Gucci Mane)," "Royal Flush (featuring Andre 3000 and Raekwon)" and "Sumthin's Got To Give (featuring Mary J. Blige)") are all great. I wonder how long it will be until Andre 3000 puts out his solo debut... and until OutKast put out a new duo album.

WATCH: LEMMY + SLASH + GROHL "ACE OF SPADES"

This is from the Revolver Golden Gods awards ceremony that I wrote about a while back: Lemmy with Slash and Dave Grohl doing the Motorhead classic "Ace of Spades." Some things will never go out of style. By the way, the show will air on May 22 on VH1 Classic.

WILLIE NELSON: HORSES AREN'T FOOD

One of the many causes that Willie Nelson has put his efforts behind is one to prevent the U.S. from allowing horses to be slaughtered and sold to overseas meat vendors. The arguement in favor of selling horsemeat is, if the horses are starving, why not let people eat them instead of predators in the wild, and make some money?  Of course, that's the way it starts: once a demand is created, then horses will end up being kept in the same prison camps used for cows, chickens and pigs. What an awful thought. Well, I try not to get too political here, but that's the way I feel. Read more about this at The Tennessean.

REVIEW: AMERICAN IDIOT ON BROADWAY

I haven't seen very many Broadway shows since I caught The Who's Tommy nearly two decades ago. I remember thinking that the Broadway renditions of the songs were goofy. Worse, they even changed the storyline to have a more optimistic ending. I'm not a big showtunes guy, and I prefer rock and roll.  But I remember thinking that maybe Broadway isn't really the right venue for rock and roll.  And while Jersey Boys, about The Four Seasons, has done quite well and is supposedly quite good, most rock and roll-based stage productions have tanked.

Green Day's American Idiot is the first time that a Broadway production has been based on recent music: American Idiot came out in 2004. I was wondering how different this would be than Tommy, or the other revue-ish rock-based musicals. Pretty different, actually. You walk in, and they provide magic markers to write on the walls of the lobby.  You gotta love that. The band actually played on the stage, not from a pit. And it was rocking. Musically, the songs stuck pretty much to the original arrangements, the vocal arrangements were of course very different and very Broadway. (A good preview is the "21 Guns" single by Green Day with the cast). If you can't get past that, you wouldn't like it. The same goes for the plot - it didn't go too far, and the characters weren't super developed, but you can get stuck on that point.  Or, as Larry Flick would say, you can have a twinkie and go for the ride. I decided to go for the ride.  I had a great time. The American Idiot songs were fun, and there was even an awesome b-side ("Favorite Son") as well as two tracks from 21st Century Breakdown ("21 Guns" and "Know Your Enemy"). The story wasn't how I pictured it when I listened to the album (I thought of it as a future totalitarian government vs. punk rockers) but I didn't write the play.  I didn't get hung up on anything though, and I had a good time, which is probably the right way to approach something like this.

I took my young 13 year old cousin Kyle, and his review was much more succinct than mine. "Best. Play. Ever." I'm looking forward to taking him to see Green Day in concert this summer, which I think I will prefer. Still, I'll give props to the cast and crew of American Idiot, they brought rock and roll in a semi-legit way to the Broadway stage which is no easy feat.

RUSH TO PLAY "MOVING PICTURES" ON TOUR

Oh, HELL yeah.  Rush is going on tour this summer. This is a rarity for them: they aren't promoting a new album, but they will be performing Moving Pictures in its entirety.  As well as lots of other music, I'm sure - the album isn't even an hour long. I even hear that they may be trying out new songs from their next album: they haven't done that since the early '80s when they road tested songs from Grace Under Pressure. Get the tour dates at Rush's website. I. Can. Not. Wait.

LOVE THAT DIRTY WATER: AEROSMITH + J. GEILS BAND TO PLAY FENWAY

Tonight at Fenway Park during the Red Sox/Yankees game, Steven Tyler and Peter Wolf announced that their bands, Aerosmith and The J. Geils Band will be playing a concert at Fenway Park this summer on August 14. (It's fitting that it was during a Boston/NY game, as Tyler is from New York, and I think Peter Wolf is also). It's the first time these legendary Boston bands have done a show together.  This may call for a road trip to Boston!

TOMORROW NIGHT ON THE CATHOLIC CHANNEL: JIMMY CLIFF

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, once a month I go on SIRIUS XM's Catholic Channel's Busted Halo show on "Faith and Culture Thursday." Each time I discuss a different artist. Tomorrow, I'll be talking about reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, who was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Some may think that Cliff is an unusual subject for the channel. But then again, so was Black Sabbath.

At JFK Jr.'s funeral ten years ago, the Kennedy family asked Wyclef Jean to perform "Many Rivers To Cross." It was also covered by Annie Lennox at the American Idol special "Idol Gives Back" in 2008.  It's also been covered by Oleta Adams, Lenny Kravitz, Gov't Mule, Joe Cocker and UB40, among others.  And Haitian singer Emeline Michel sang it at MTV's Hope For Haiti Now telethon. It is a beautiful song that crosses the boundaries of age, religion and skin color.

My first exposure to Jimmy Cliff though was The Jerry Garcia Band's cover of "The Harder They Come, The Harder They Fall." Once I started getting into reggae music, I soon picked up the soundtrack to the film The Harder They Come, which starred Jimmy Cliff, and introduced western audiences to reggae quite a few years before Bob Marley appeared on the western pop culture radar. It is still my favorite reggae album (it doesn't just have Jimmy Cliff, it also features Toots & The Maytalls and Desmond Dekker, among others). It is a great rebel anthem, and has also been covered by Rancid, Cher, Keith Richards, Madness, Willie Nelson and Joe Strummer, among many others. It is about 180 degrees from the "Many Rivers."

Anyway, I hope you tune in tomorrow night at about 7:20 pm ET (ish) and check it out.