When there’s mayhem, you can blame the Backstreet Boys. At least for the remainder of their 100-hour tour.
At least 10 fans were injured after the Boys landed in Tokyo’s Narita airport Monday when a group swarmed their bus. Now Reuters says that about 45,000 fans rushed to see the band give a 10-minute show on the roof of a hotel in Rio de Janeiro. Fans literally threw themselves in front of the band’s bus on the way to the airport.
“It was crazy. You would have thought the president was here or Michael Jackson, not the Backstreet Boys,” said group member Howie Dorough after watching the fans spill on to the roads.
The Backstreet Boys are on a whirlwind, 100-hour tour around the world to promote their new album, “Black and Blue,” which hits stores today. The band is being touted as the top-selling boy band after sales surpassed 55 million.
EM IS THE BEST: Rapper Eminem has been crowned artist of the year by Spin magazine, Reuters reports. He also took home the single of the year honor for “The Real Slim Shady.”
Eminem shook up the music scene this year with the release of his second record “The Marshall Mathers LP.” The album was adored by fans and critics but others disapproved for its glorification of homophobia, misogyny and murder. The January issue of Spin magazine hits newsstands Dec. 5.
CHURCH IN COURT: Teenage soprano superstar Charlotte Church spent some time away from the concert stage to be in a London court. The 14-year-old was there to answer questions stemming from a $7 million lawsuit filed against her by her former manager, Jonathan Shalit.
Shalit says that he was fired unexpectedly by Church’s mother, Maria, for no real cause. Shalit doesn’t want back in. All he wants is a slice of the 10 million-pound fortune he says he helped build while he managed Church.
A lawyer for Church is expected to provide evidence that shows Shalit broke his contract by being verbally abusive to Church.
OZZFEST LAWSUIT: English rocker Ozzy Osbourne is joining forces with his OZZfest 2000 tour mates, only this time it’s not to perform onstage but to fight a battle in court.
Osbourne, together with Pantera, Godsmack, Static-X, Methods of Mayhem, Soulfly, Kittie, Disturbed and Slaves on Dope, has filed a $20 million lawsuit against digital music company MCY.com. Osbourne says that he only sold the music company the rights to broadcast his summer OZZfest 2000 show over the Internet.
However, the company later made pay-per-view deals with DirecTV and pay-TV network iN Demand. The concert, one of rock’s most successful road shows, has already been broadcast several times on TV.
CHRIS LEDOUX RECOVERING: Country singer and former rodeo cowboy Chris LeDoux is resting at his Kaycee, Wyo., home after undergoing liver transplant surgery. He left the Nebraska Health System’s Lied Transplant Center on Monday to spend the holidays with his family, The Associated Press reports.
LeDoux was suffering from sclerosing cholangitis, a disease that blocks the liver’s bile ducts, leading to cirrhosis. The cause of the disease is unknown.
