Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute

Elvis Costello performs with Maya Rudolph of Princess during the rehearsals for 'The Music of Prince' tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop genius' best work could withstand just about any kind of treatment and stand up tall. The latest of Carnegie Hall's annual music-education benefits for underprivileged youth – this one, a sellout, raised over $100,000 – featured a few heavy hitters but also a lot of curveballs, befitting an artist who has played hard to get as often as he has played the accessible hit-maker.

At least some of those curves had to have come from Questlove, the Roots' drummer and musical director for the show. The Roots provided unwavering support for most of the acts, accompanied on guitar by Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution, the band that backed Prince on Purple Rain. In many cases the performers took chances on well-known songs. Or not-so-well-known, as was the case with Costello, who near the end sang an unreleased Prince song called "Moonbeam Levels" (known to many bootleg collectors as "A Better Place to Die"). Which of these two ultra-music-geeks onstage decided on that one – Costello, the man who once wrote a listener's guide to a 24-hour cycle, or Questlove, with his complete collection of Soul Train episodes? Either way, the song scored big, as did much of the night.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince (written by Questlove)

There were low spots – sometimes a tribute show is just a tribute show, especially when it involves Citizen Cope, who did a desultory busker's version of "Pop Life" with Alice Smith. Bhi Bhiman's "When Doves Cry" was similarly monochromatic – gutsy, if boring. It was a nice idea to have a kids' choir do "Raspberry Beret," accompanying Booker T. Jones on organ, but it was too scattered to catch heat. Devotchka's "Mountains" (a minor hit from 1986's Parade, and Prince at his psychedelic-poppiest) had a faultless arrangement – the violin, tuba and trumpet were apt touches – but Nick Urata's strained vocals were a distraction.

Most of the time, though, the show cooked. The Waterboys' Mike Scott and Steve Wickham opened with "Purple Rain," which seemed strange given that song's showstopper status, but Scott sang it straight and true, and violinist Wickham took the iconic solo, a rousing switch-up that prompted the first of the evening's many standing ovations.

Melvoin was hardly the only old Prince hand onstage at Carnegie. Eric Leeds, the saxophonist from Prince's Sign 'o' the Times and Lovesexy bands, soloed on "Ten" (by Madhouse, his old Prince-sponsored jazz-funk unit), and sat in for much of the rest. St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin of the Family, a mid-Eighties Prince act, joined for "High Fashion/Mutiny," off 1985's The Family – another cult favorite that the knowledgeable crowd ate up. Susannah (Wendy's twin sister, who dated Prince for many years) strutted around the stage in a white pantsuit, looking like she was having the time of her life.

Some of the song-artist pairings were obvious: Of course the Blind Boys of Alabama were going to do "The Cross," from Sign 'o' the Times. (And of course Fred Armisen was going to sit in on drums for that one – he used to play indie rock, and "The Cross" is Prince's most Velvet Underground-like song.) Of course D'Angelo would close the show with the celebratory  "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (also from Sign), because he's a great showman and it's a great show song.

And of course Talib Kweli, a politically minded rapper, would do "Annie Christian" (from 1981's Controversy), because it's near-spoken-word about social issues. He got good mileage from extending the bit about "She killed John Lennon" by throwing in other, more recent senseless gun-violence victims ("She shot Gabrielle Giffords"), building to a shout: "Everybody say gun control!"

But much of the music took risks. Bettye Lavette did "Kiss" as a sly, skeletal blues. Sandra Bernhard made "Little Red Corvette" into a semi-monologue, throwing off the crowd's attempts to sing along by following her own rhythms: in true Bernhard style, you didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not, but all of it worked, and it brought down the house. (She dedicated it to many Prince women: Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, and of course Wendy, who took a small bow, and Lisa Coleman.) Kat Edmondson, a cabaret-jazz singer from Austin, rendered "The Beautiful Ones" as a very slow piano ballad, and nailed it – the last verse was pin-drop quiet, and wrenching.

R&B crooner Bilal, though, went the furthest out, on what may still be the furthest-out song Prince has written: "Sister," a 93-second ode to brotherly-sisterly love from 1980's Dirty Mind. Bilal ran through the song through an iPod playlist's worth of styles, from dramatic art-rock to slow blues and then, finally, back to the frenetic original new wave arrangement. It was a tour de force that many in the audience were talking about after the lights went up.

There was a lot of comedy on stage at Carnegie, but it wasn't simple relief. Chris Rock did the spoken outro from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" as a comic monologue, embellishing it: "Would you laugh and laugh?" – that's from the original song. "Like you heard some shit from Chris Rock?" – that wasn't. And when PrinceSS – Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince tribute act – came out for "Darling Nikki," dressed a la the man himself (the heavily pregnant Rudolph in trench coat and kerchief, Gretchen looking like Jill Jones in the "1999" video), they even climaxed it with the backward vocals that end side one of Purple Rain. When they finished, Wendy whispered something to them. "Good job" would have been appropriate – for them, and for most of the night.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute

Elvis Costello performs with Maya Rudolph of Princess during the rehearsals for 'The Music of Prince' tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop genius' best work could withstand just about any kind of treatment and stand up tall. The latest of Carnegie Hall's annual music-education benefits for underprivileged youth – this one, a sellout, raised over $100,000 – featured a few heavy hitters but also a lot of curveballs, befitting an artist who has played hard to get as often as he has played the accessible hit-maker.

At least some of those curves had to have come from Questlove, the Roots' drummer and musical director for the show. The Roots provided unwavering support for most of the acts, accompanied on guitar by Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution, the band that backed Prince on Purple Rain. In many cases the performers took chances on well-known songs. Or not-so-well-known, as was the case with Costello, who near the end sang an unreleased Prince song called "Moonbeam Levels" (known to many bootleg collectors as "A Better Place to Die"). Which of these two ultra-music-geeks onstage decided on that one – Costello, the man who once wrote a listener's guide to a 24-hour cycle, or Questlove, with his complete collection of Soul Train episodes? Either way, the song scored big, as did much of the night.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince (written by Questlove)

There were low spots – sometimes a tribute show is just a tribute show, especially when it involves Citizen Cope, who did a desultory busker's version of "Pop Life" with Alice Smith. Bhi Bhiman's "When Doves Cry" was similarly monochromatic – gutsy, if boring. It was a nice idea to have a kids' choir do "Raspberry Beret," accompanying Booker T. Jones on organ, but it was too scattered to catch heat. Devotchka's "Mountains" (a minor hit from 1986's Parade, and Prince at his psychedelic-poppiest) had a faultless arrangement – the violin, tuba and trumpet were apt touches – but Nick Urata's strained vocals were a distraction.

Most of the time, though, the show cooked. The Waterboys' Mike Scott and Steve Wickham opened with "Purple Rain," which seemed strange given that song's showstopper status, but Scott sang it straight and true, and violinist Wickham took the iconic solo, a rousing switch-up that prompted the first of the evening's many standing ovations.

Melvoin was hardly the only old Prince hand onstage at Carnegie. Eric Leeds, the saxophonist from Prince's Sign 'o' the Times and Lovesexy bands, soloed on "Ten" (by Madhouse, his old Prince-sponsored jazz-funk unit), and sat in for much of the rest. St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin of the Family, a mid-Eighties Prince act, joined for "High Fashion/Mutiny," off 1985's The Family – another cult favorite that the knowledgeable crowd ate up. Susannah (Wendy's twin sister, who dated Prince for many years) strutted around the stage in a white pantsuit, looking like she was having the time of her life.

Some of the song-artist pairings were obvious: Of course the Blind Boys of Alabama were going to do "The Cross," from Sign 'o' the Times. (And of course Fred Armisen was going to sit in on drums for that one – he used to play indie rock, and "The Cross" is Prince's most Velvet Underground-like song.) Of course D'Angelo would close the show with the celebratory  "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (also from Sign), because he's a great showman and it's a great show song.

And of course Talib Kweli, a politically minded rapper, would do "Annie Christian" (from 1981's Controversy), because it's near-spoken-word about social issues. He got good mileage from extending the bit about "She killed John Lennon" by throwing in other, more recent senseless gun-violence victims ("She shot Gabrielle Giffords"), building to a shout: "Everybody say gun control!"

But much of the music took risks. Bettye Lavette did "Kiss" as a sly, skeletal blues. Sandra Bernhard made "Little Red Corvette" into a semi-monologue, throwing off the crowd's attempts to sing along by following her own rhythms: in true Bernhard style, you didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not, but all of it worked, and it brought down the house. (She dedicated it to many Prince women: Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, and of course Wendy, who took a small bow, and Lisa Coleman.) Kat Edmondson, a cabaret-jazz singer from Austin, rendered "The Beautiful Ones" as a very slow piano ballad, and nailed it – the last verse was pin-drop quiet, and wrenching.

R&B crooner Bilal, though, went the furthest out, on what may still be the furthest-out song Prince has written: "Sister," a 93-second ode to brotherly-sisterly love from 1980's Dirty Mind. Bilal ran through the song through an iPod playlist's worth of styles, from dramatic art-rock to slow blues and then, finally, back to the frenetic original new wave arrangement. It was a tour de force that many in the audience were talking about after the lights went up.

There was a lot of comedy on stage at Carnegie, but it wasn't simple relief. Chris Rock did the spoken outro from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" as a comic monologue, embellishing it: "Would you laugh and laugh?" – that's from the original song. "Like you heard some shit from Chris Rock?" – that wasn't. And when PrinceSS – Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince tribute act – came out for "Darling Nikki," dressed a la the man himself (the heavily pregnant Rudolph in trench coat and kerchief, Gretchen looking like Jill Jones in the "1999" video), they even climaxed it with the backward vocals that end side one of Purple Rain. When they finished, Wendy whispered something to them. "Good job" would have been appropriate – for them, and for most of the night.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Electronics Review Center

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Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute

Elvis Costello performs with Maya Rudolph of Princess during the rehearsals for 'The Music of Prince' tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop genius' best work could withstand just about any kind of treatment and stand up tall. The latest of Carnegie Hall's annual music-education benefits for underprivileged youth – this one, a sellout, raised over $100,000 – featured a few heavy hitters but also a lot of curveballs, befitting an artist who has played hard to get as often as he has played the accessible hit-maker.

At least some of those curves had to have come from Questlove, the Roots' drummer and musical director for the show. The Roots provided unwavering support for most of the acts, accompanied on guitar by Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution, the band that backed Prince on Purple Rain. In many cases the performers took chances on well-known songs. Or not-so-well-known, as was the case with Costello, who near the end sang an unreleased Prince song called "Moonbeam Levels" (known to many bootleg collectors as "A Better Place to Die"). Which of these two ultra-music-geeks onstage decided on that one – Costello, the man who once wrote a listener's guide to a 24-hour cycle, or Questlove, with his complete collection of Soul Train episodes? Either way, the song scored big, as did much of the night.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince (written by Questlove)

There were low spots – sometimes a tribute show is just a tribute show, especially when it involves Citizen Cope, who did a desultory busker's version of "Pop Life" with Alice Smith. Bhi Bhiman's "When Doves Cry" was similarly monochromatic – gutsy, if boring. It was a nice idea to have a kids' choir do "Raspberry Beret," accompanying Booker T. Jones on organ, but it was too scattered to catch heat. Devotchka's "Mountains" (a minor hit from 1986's Parade, and Prince at his psychedelic-poppiest) had a faultless arrangement – the violin, tuba and trumpet were apt touches – but Nick Urata's strained vocals were a distraction.

Most of the time, though, the show cooked. The Waterboys' Mike Scott and Steve Wickham opened with "Purple Rain," which seemed strange given that song's showstopper status, but Scott sang it straight and true, and violinist Wickham took the iconic solo, a rousing switch-up that prompted the first of the evening's many standing ovations.

Melvoin was hardly the only old Prince hand onstage at Carnegie. Eric Leeds, the saxophonist from Prince's Sign 'o' the Times and Lovesexy bands, soloed on "Ten" (by Madhouse, his old Prince-sponsored jazz-funk unit), and sat in for much of the rest. St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin of the Family, a mid-Eighties Prince act, joined for "High Fashion/Mutiny," off 1985's The Family – another cult favorite that the knowledgeable crowd ate up. Susannah (Wendy's twin sister, who dated Prince for many years) strutted around the stage in a white pantsuit, looking like she was having the time of her life.

Some of the song-artist pairings were obvious: Of course the Blind Boys of Alabama were going to do "The Cross," from Sign 'o' the Times. (And of course Fred Armisen was going to sit in on drums for that one – he used to play indie rock, and "The Cross" is Prince's most Velvet Underground-like song.) Of course D'Angelo would close the show with the celebratory  "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (also from Sign), because he's a great showman and it's a great show song.

And of course Talib Kweli, a politically minded rapper, would do "Annie Christian" (from 1981's Controversy), because it's near-spoken-word about social issues. He got good mileage from extending the bit about "She killed John Lennon" by throwing in other, more recent senseless gun-violence victims ("She shot Gabrielle Giffords"), building to a shout: "Everybody say gun control!"

But much of the music took risks. Bettye Lavette did "Kiss" as a sly, skeletal blues. Sandra Bernhard made "Little Red Corvette" into a semi-monologue, throwing off the crowd's attempts to sing along by following her own rhythms: in true Bernhard style, you didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not, but all of it worked, and it brought down the house. (She dedicated it to many Prince women: Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, and of course Wendy, who took a small bow, and Lisa Coleman.) Kat Edmondson, a cabaret-jazz singer from Austin, rendered "The Beautiful Ones" as a very slow piano ballad, and nailed it – the last verse was pin-drop quiet, and wrenching.

R&B crooner Bilal, though, went the furthest out, on what may still be the furthest-out song Prince has written: "Sister," a 93-second ode to brotherly-sisterly love from 1980's Dirty Mind. Bilal ran through the song through an iPod playlist's worth of styles, from dramatic art-rock to slow blues and then, finally, back to the frenetic original new wave arrangement. It was a tour de force that many in the audience were talking about after the lights went up.

There was a lot of comedy on stage at Carnegie, but it wasn't simple relief. Chris Rock did the spoken outro from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" as a comic monologue, embellishing it: "Would you laugh and laugh?" – that's from the original song. "Like you heard some shit from Chris Rock?" – that wasn't. And when PrinceSS – Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince tribute act – came out for "Darling Nikki," dressed a la the man himself (the heavily pregnant Rudolph in trench coat and kerchief, Gretchen looking like Jill Jones in the "1999" video), they even climaxed it with the backward vocals that end side one of Purple Rain. When they finished, Wendy whispered something to them. "Good job" would have been appropriate – for them, and for most of the night.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute

Elvis Costello performs with Maya Rudolph of Princess during the rehearsals for 'The Music of Prince' tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop genius' best work could withstand just about any kind of treatment and stand up tall. The latest of Carnegie Hall's annual music-education benefits for underprivileged youth – this one, a sellout, raised over $100,000 – featured a few heavy hitters but also a lot of curveballs, befitting an artist who has played hard to get as often as he has played the accessible hit-maker.

At least some of those curves had to have come from Questlove, the Roots' drummer and musical director for the show. The Roots provided unwavering support for most of the acts, accompanied on guitar by Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution, the band that backed Prince on Purple Rain. In many cases the performers took chances on well-known songs. Or not-so-well-known, as was the case with Costello, who near the end sang an unreleased Prince song called "Moonbeam Levels" (known to many bootleg collectors as "A Better Place to Die"). Which of these two ultra-music-geeks onstage decided on that one – Costello, the man who once wrote a listener's guide to a 24-hour cycle, or Questlove, with his complete collection of Soul Train episodes? Either way, the song scored big, as did much of the night.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince (written by Questlove)

There were low spots – sometimes a tribute show is just a tribute show, especially when it involves Citizen Cope, who did a desultory busker's version of "Pop Life" with Alice Smith. Bhi Bhiman's "When Doves Cry" was similarly monochromatic – gutsy, if boring. It was a nice idea to have a kids' choir do "Raspberry Beret," accompanying Booker T. Jones on organ, but it was too scattered to catch heat. Devotchka's "Mountains" (a minor hit from 1986's Parade, and Prince at his psychedelic-poppiest) had a faultless arrangement – the violin, tuba and trumpet were apt touches – but Nick Urata's strained vocals were a distraction.

Most of the time, though, the show cooked. The Waterboys' Mike Scott and Steve Wickham opened with "Purple Rain," which seemed strange given that song's showstopper status, but Scott sang it straight and true, and violinist Wickham took the iconic solo, a rousing switch-up that prompted the first of the evening's many standing ovations.

Melvoin was hardly the only old Prince hand onstage at Carnegie. Eric Leeds, the saxophonist from Prince's Sign 'o' the Times and Lovesexy bands, soloed on "Ten" (by Madhouse, his old Prince-sponsored jazz-funk unit), and sat in for much of the rest. St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin of the Family, a mid-Eighties Prince act, joined for "High Fashion/Mutiny," off 1985's The Family – another cult favorite that the knowledgeable crowd ate up. Susannah (Wendy's twin sister, who dated Prince for many years) strutted around the stage in a white pantsuit, looking like she was having the time of her life.

Some of the song-artist pairings were obvious: Of course the Blind Boys of Alabama were going to do "The Cross," from Sign 'o' the Times. (And of course Fred Armisen was going to sit in on drums for that one – he used to play indie rock, and "The Cross" is Prince's most Velvet Underground-like song.) Of course D'Angelo would close the show with the celebratory  "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (also from Sign), because he's a great showman and it's a great show song.

And of course Talib Kweli, a politically minded rapper, would do "Annie Christian" (from 1981's Controversy), because it's near-spoken-word about social issues. He got good mileage from extending the bit about "She killed John Lennon" by throwing in other, more recent senseless gun-violence victims ("She shot Gabrielle Giffords"), building to a shout: "Everybody say gun control!"

But much of the music took risks. Bettye Lavette did "Kiss" as a sly, skeletal blues. Sandra Bernhard made "Little Red Corvette" into a semi-monologue, throwing off the crowd's attempts to sing along by following her own rhythms: in true Bernhard style, you didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not, but all of it worked, and it brought down the house. (She dedicated it to many Prince women: Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, and of course Wendy, who took a small bow, and Lisa Coleman.) Kat Edmondson, a cabaret-jazz singer from Austin, rendered "The Beautiful Ones" as a very slow piano ballad, and nailed it – the last verse was pin-drop quiet, and wrenching.

R&B crooner Bilal, though, went the furthest out, on what may still be the furthest-out song Prince has written: "Sister," a 93-second ode to brotherly-sisterly love from 1980's Dirty Mind. Bilal ran through the song through an iPod playlist's worth of styles, from dramatic art-rock to slow blues and then, finally, back to the frenetic original new wave arrangement. It was a tour de force that many in the audience were talking about after the lights went up.

There was a lot of comedy on stage at Carnegie, but it wasn't simple relief. Chris Rock did the spoken outro from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" as a comic monologue, embellishing it: "Would you laugh and laugh?" – that's from the original song. "Like you heard some shit from Chris Rock?" – that wasn't. And when PrinceSS – Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince tribute act – came out for "Darling Nikki," dressed a la the man himself (the heavily pregnant Rudolph in trench coat and kerchief, Gretchen looking like Jill Jones in the "1999" video), they even climaxed it with the backward vocals that end side one of Purple Rain. When they finished, Wendy whispered something to them. "Good job" would have been appropriate – for them, and for most of the night.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Nashville Legend Cowboy Jack Clement Saluted in Star-Studded Tribute

Nikki Lane and Dan Auerbach perform during the Tribute to Cowboy Jack Clement at War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.

"Jack Clement isn't in the Country Music Hall of Fame? What . . . the . . . fuck!" T Bone Burnett exclaimed to rousing applause near the end of an all-star tribute to Cowboy Jack Clement at Nashville's War Memorial Auditorium last night.

Both onstage and in pre-recorded video interludes, A-listers including John Prine, John Hiatt, John C. Reilly, Kris Kristofferson, Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, Vince Gill, Bono and the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach joined Burnett in honoring Clement, a music legend who carved out his legacy from behind the scenes.

Those horns on "Ring of Fire" – they were his idea. His influence on six decades of popular American music is incalculable, and yet, it's true – he's in neither the Rock and Roll nor the Country Music Hall of Fame. (Yesterday, Governor Bill Haslam did, however, declare Clement an "ambassador of goodwill for the state of Tennessee.") But as American music historian Peter Guralnick said in his opening address last night, "the measure of the man is the audience." And for most of the show, a benefit for Music Health Alliance, Clement himself watched from the crowd as a cross-generational cast of contemporaries and influencees covered classics he either penned or produced.

Video: Inside Johnny Cash's Collaborations

A rightful rockabilly Renaissance man, as Sam Phillips' house producer and engineer at Sun Studios during its heyday, and later as an RCA Nashville staff producer during Music Row's golden era, Clement was an undeniable architect of both classic country and rock & roll. His credits behind the mixing board include Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis' debut albums, U2's Rattle and Hum and almost every conceivable country, roots and rockabilly name in between. "Without Jack, the whole thing would come unraveled," Emmylou Harris, who dueted with Rodney Crowell on a beaming rendition of the Waylon Jennings weeper "Dreaming My Dreams With You," told Rolling Stone after the event.

"I owe everything that ever happened good to me to Jack," Kris Kristofferson said, recounting Clement as the first friend he made in Nashville and crediting the man for inspiring his decision to leave the military. Kristofferson, genuine twinkle-in-eye and all,  delighted the crowd with a ragged rendition of Cash's "Big River."

For those in the ballroom closest to Clement, stirring performances (like Crowell and Harris's) of somber songs struck a chord. "I love you!" Harris shouted at Clement from the stage. "I love you, too!" a booming voice replied from the darkness. At 81 years old, Clement is getting by with a little help from his friends. A June 2011 house fire at his Nashville home/studio, Cowboy Arms Hotel & Spa, consumed irreplaceable master tapes and mementos documenting his legacy, and now he is battling liver cancer.

Giving Crowell and Harris a run for their money, Dan Auerbach and Nashville neo-country chanteuse Nikki Lane – whose next record the Black Keys frontman just finished producing – were all smiles as they played the parts of Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton on an uncannily faithful duet of the lost-lovers' AM radio serenade "Just Someone I Used to Know." Auerbach told Rolling Stone he jumped at the suggestion of Clement's longtime studio engineer, David R. "Fergie" Ferguson, that he sing "Someone." "That song is amazing," he said. "I'd love to sing [it]."

Musically, the show was mostly executed in classic Opry style – with the singers, backed by ace axe-slinger Kenny Vaughn and a crack house band, darting on and off stage for minutes-long, drive-by performances. Auerbach and Lane, still grinning ear-to-ear, looked almost stunned, as if the moment went by too quickly for them to take in, before bidding the crowd adieu and disappearing from the stage in the blink of an eye.

"It was mind-blowing," said an elated Auerbach when asked how it felt to share the bill with legends like Kristofferson and Clement. "That show was so amazing. It definitely exceeded every expectation I had."

Auerbach and Lane weren't the only relative whippersnappers to steal an ovation or two. Americana darling Amos Lee sauntered onto the stage with the confidence of a young Brando and, with a resplendent rendition of Jim Reeves' "I Know One," brought the house down like he owned the place. And despite a false start and a drummer's soupy pocket, rail-thin Wallflower Jakob Dylan held his own, crooning Waylon's "Waymore's Blues" in a dark, breathy rasp.

Looking spry in spite of his mom jeans, dad jacket and professorial specs, de facto Duke of Nashville Vince Gill sang Charley Pride's "Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger" at the top of his range, in a rendition he described as "what it would've sounded like had a woman cut it." He totally nailed it with the ease of a sleeper slapping a snooze bar.

With the exception of Clement's closing set, Pride himself was the one guest of the night to have the distinction of singing more than one song. He killed on "Just Between You and Me" and "Kiss an Angel Good Morning."

For veteran Opry alum like Pride and Gill, this format was no first rodeo – a point Del McCoury made with his sparkling rhinestones and silver pompadour, and Dickey Lee made with his bell-clear croon when singing "She Thinks I Still Care," his 1962 hit for George Jones. Perhaps the pin-drop standout of the night, if not the most emotional, was John Prine – himself a weathered troubadour – clad head-to-toe in black, lending his vulnerable rasp and delicate fingerpicking to a mournful, solo-acoustic take on Clement's "Ballad of a Teenage Queen." That moment was, however, rivaled in splendor by Mary Gauthier and Matt Urmy (the tribute's fresh-faced organizer) leading a small gospel choir on an uplifting sing-along on "We Must Believe in Magic."

But ballads and maladies be damned, for most of the night the mood was anything but dire. Clement's quirky songwriting canon boasts rock and country staples like "Let's All Help a Cowboy Sing the Blues" and "Diry Old Egg Suckin' Dog," on which Marshall Chapman and Sam Bush, respectively, playfully led the crowd in call-and-response sing-along.

"What a night!" Clement said as an aid helped him to an onstage stool. "Don't want me to fall off the stool," he joked. But what the night's honoree lacked in moves, he made up in voice and mirth, turning in a five-song set that went from otherworldly, with the piano-ballad "When I Dream," to outright festive on the country-polka-Afro-fusion samba "Brazil."

The tribute also featured speakers such as Deadwood actor Earl Brown, who read a comical passage from Clement's unpublished autobiography, Clement's daughter, poet-author Alison Clement, and Nashville co-creator Callie Khouri. Perhaps most impressive was Nashville star Connie Britton, who read a congratulatory letter from Michelle Obama to Clement: "Throughout your remarkable career, you've helped inspire some of our nation's most treasured musicians, and I know your legacy will live on in Nashville and beyond," the First Lady's statement read in part.

In between performances and speeches, pre-recorded video statements from famed Clement friends and fans such as Bill Clinton, Taylor Swift and Marty Stuart rolled. More hilarious than other clips of Clement chumming it up with Cash and Townes Van Zandt, or an animated William Shakespeare culled from the oddball 2007 documentary Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan, was the congratulatory, albeit very abstruse clip U2's Bono sent in. The singer held up a laptop, talked about the digital age and quoted Clement in an unbelievable Southern accent: "'It's not about math, boy. It's about magic. Do you believe in magic?' he said to me. 'Yes,' I answered, 'I believe in magic.' But tonight! I want to say to you, Jack – if you've ever doubted it – the magic believes in you!"

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Nashville Legend Cowboy Jack Clement Saluted in Star-Studded Tribute

Nikki Lane and Dan Auerbach perform during the Tribute to Cowboy Jack Clement at War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.

"Jack Clement isn't in the Country Music Hall of Fame? What . . . the . . . fuck!" T Bone Burnett exclaimed to rousing applause near the end of an all-star tribute to Cowboy Jack Clement at Nashville's War Memorial Auditorium last night.

Both onstage and in pre-recorded video interludes, A-listers including John Prine, John Hiatt, John C. Reilly, Kris Kristofferson, Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, Vince Gill, Bono and the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach joined Burnett in honoring Clement, a music legend who carved out his legacy from behind the scenes.

Those horns on "Ring of Fire" – they were his idea. His influence on six decades of popular American music is incalculable, and yet, it's true – he's in neither the Rock and Roll nor the Country Music Hall of Fame. (Yesterday, Governor Bill Haslam did, however, declare Clement an "ambassador of goodwill for the state of Tennessee.") But as American music historian Peter Guralnick said in his opening address last night, "the measure of the man is the audience." And for most of the show, a benefit for Music Health Alliance, Clement himself watched from the crowd as a cross-generational cast of contemporaries and influencees covered classics he either penned or produced.

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A rightful rockabilly Renaissance man, as Sam Phillips' house producer and engineer at Sun Studios during its heyday, and later as an RCA Nashville staff producer during Music Row's golden era, Clement was an undeniable architect of both classic country and rock & roll. His credits behind the mixing board include Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis' debut albums, U2's Rattle and Hum and almost every conceivable country, roots and rockabilly name in between. "Without Jack, the whole thing would come unraveled," Emmylou Harris, who dueted with Rodney Crowell on a beaming rendition of the Waylon Jennings weeper "Dreaming My Dreams With You," told Rolling Stone after the event.

"I owe everything that ever happened good to me to Jack," Kris Kristofferson said, recounting Clement as the first friend he made in Nashville and crediting the man for inspiring his decision to leave the military. Kristofferson, genuine twinkle-in-eye and all,  delighted the crowd with a ragged rendition of Cash's "Big River."

For those in the ballroom closest to Clement, stirring performances (like Crowell and Harris's) of somber songs struck a chord. "I love you!" Harris shouted at Clement from the stage. "I love you, too!" a booming voice replied from the darkness. At 81 years old, Clement is getting by with a little help from his friends. A June 2011 house fire at his Nashville home/studio, Cowboy Arms Hotel & Spa, consumed irreplaceable master tapes and mementos documenting his legacy, and now he is battling liver cancer.

Giving Crowell and Harris a run for their money, Dan Auerbach and Nashville neo-country chanteuse Nikki Lane – whose next record the Black Keys frontman just finished producing – were all smiles as they played the parts of Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton on an uncannily faithful duet of the lost-lovers' AM radio serenade "Just Someone I Used to Know." Auerbach told Rolling Stone he jumped at the suggestion of Clement's longtime studio engineer, David R. "Fergie" Ferguson, that he sing "Someone." "That song is amazing," he said. "I'd love to sing [it]."

Musically, the show was mostly executed in classic Opry style – with the singers, backed by ace axe-slinger Kenny Vaughn and a crack house band, darting on and off stage for minutes-long, drive-by performances. Auerbach and Lane, still grinning ear-to-ear, looked almost stunned, as if the moment went by too quickly for them to take in, before bidding the crowd adieu and disappearing from the stage in the blink of an eye.

"It was mind-blowing," said an elated Auerbach when asked how it felt to share the bill with legends like Kristofferson and Clement. "That show was so amazing. It definitely exceeded every expectation I had."

Auerbach and Lane weren't the only relative whippersnappers to steal an ovation or two. Americana darling Amos Lee sauntered onto the stage with the confidence of a young Brando and, with a resplendent rendition of Jim Reeves' "I Know One," brought the house down like he owned the place. And despite a false start and a drummer's soupy pocket, rail-thin Wallflower Jakob Dylan held his own, crooning Waylon's "Waymore's Blues" in a dark, breathy rasp.

Looking spry in spite of his mom jeans, dad jacket and professorial specs, de facto Duke of Nashville Vince Gill sang Charley Pride's "Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger" at the top of his range, in a rendition he described as "what it would've sounded like had a woman cut it." He totally nailed it with the ease of a sleeper slapping a snooze bar.

With the exception of Clement's closing set, Pride himself was the one guest of the night to have the distinction of singing more than one song. He killed on "Just Between You and Me" and "Kiss an Angel Good Morning."

For veteran Opry alum like Pride and Gill, this format was no first rodeo – a point Del McCoury made with his sparkling rhinestones and silver pompadour, and Dickey Lee made with his bell-clear croon when singing "She Thinks I Still Care," his 1962 hit for George Jones. Perhaps the pin-drop standout of the night, if not the most emotional, was John Prine – himself a weathered troubadour – clad head-to-toe in black, lending his vulnerable rasp and delicate fingerpicking to a mournful, solo-acoustic take on Clement's "Ballad of a Teenage Queen." That moment was, however, rivaled in splendor by Mary Gauthier and Matt Urmy (the tribute's fresh-faced organizer) leading a small gospel choir on an uplifting sing-along on "We Must Believe in Magic."

But ballads and maladies be damned, for most of the night the mood was anything but dire. Clement's quirky songwriting canon boasts rock and country staples like "Let's All Help a Cowboy Sing the Blues" and "Diry Old Egg Suckin' Dog," on which Marshall Chapman and Sam Bush, respectively, playfully led the crowd in call-and-response sing-along.

"What a night!" Clement said as an aid helped him to an onstage stool. "Don't want me to fall off the stool," he joked. But what the night's honoree lacked in moves, he made up in voice and mirth, turning in a five-song set that went from otherworldly, with the piano-ballad "When I Dream," to outright festive on the country-polka-Afro-fusion samba "Brazil."

The tribute also featured speakers such as Deadwood actor Earl Brown, who read a comical passage from Clement's unpublished autobiography, Clement's daughter, poet-author Alison Clement, and Nashville co-creator Callie Khouri. Perhaps most impressive was Nashville star Connie Britton, who read a congratulatory letter from Michelle Obama to Clement: "Throughout your remarkable career, you've helped inspire some of our nation's most treasured musicians, and I know your legacy will live on in Nashville and beyond," the First Lady's statement read in part.

In between performances and speeches, pre-recorded video statements from famed Clement friends and fans such as Bill Clinton, Taylor Swift and Marty Stuart rolled. More hilarious than other clips of Clement chumming it up with Cash and Townes Van Zandt, or an animated William Shakespeare culled from the oddball 2007 documentary Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan, was the congratulatory, albeit very abstruse clip U2's Bono sent in. The singer held up a laptop, talked about the digital age and quoted Clement in an unbelievable Southern accent: "'It's not about math, boy. It's about magic. Do you believe in magic?' he said to me. 'Yes,' I answered, 'I believe in magic.' But tonight! I want to say to you, Jack – if you've ever doubted it – the magic believes in you!"

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The Roots, Talib Kweli Added to Prince Tribute Concert at Carnegie Hall

BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images

The Roots, Talib Kweli, the Blind Boys of Alabama and more will pay tribute to the songs of Prince at a March 7th benefit show at Carnegie Hall in New York. The concert marks the ninth year that Michael Dorf, owner of City Winery, has pulled the benefit together to raise money for arts education programs. This year, they include the Church Street School of Music, Young Audiences New York, Music Unites, the Pinwheel Project, American Symphony Orchestra's Music Notes, Little Kids Rock and the Center for Arts Education.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince

Past benefit concerts byDorf have honored the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Who, R.E.M. and more, but Prince is notorious for his tight control over his music. Booker T., Living Colour, DeVotchKa and Madeleine Peyroux are also set to perform, and the Roots will run point as the house band for the night. Tickets are available online.

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Oscars to Feature James Bond Tribute

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Though the Oscars have typically overlooked MI6's finest agent, this year's Academy Awards ceremony will feature a James Bond tribute, Deadline reports. Last year's Skyfall has become the first Bond film to gross more than $1 billion worldwide, and the film marked 50 years of James Bond movies, starting with 1962's Dr. No.

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The Academy's history of ignoring Bond dates back nearly as far. Through 23 films (24 including Sean Connery's comeback in 1983's "unofficial" Never Say Never Again), the series has only won two awards: 1964's Goldfinger and 1965's Thunderball both picked up wins for Best Effects. Still, Skyfall's Oscar stock may have gotten a serious boost from its recent Producers Guild of America nomination for Best Picture.

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The Roots, Talib Kweli Added to Prince Tribute Concert at Carnegie Hall

BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images

The Roots, Talib Kweli, the Blind Boys of Alabama and more will pay tribute to the songs of Prince at a March 7th benefit show at Carnegie Hall in New York. The concert marks the ninth year that Michael Dorf, owner of City Winery, has pulled the benefit together to raise money for arts education programs. This year, they include the Church Street School of Music, Young Audiences New York, Music Unites, the Pinwheel Project, American Symphony Orchestra's Music Notes, Little Kids Rock and the Center for Arts Education.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince

Past benefit concerts byDorf have honored the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Who, R.E.M. and more, but Prince is notorious for his tight control over his music. Booker T., Living Colour, DeVotchKa and Madeleine Peyroux are also set to perform, and the Roots will run point as the house band for the night. Tickets are available online.

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Bob Mould Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Film of Tribute Concert

Bob Mould Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Film of Tribute Concert'See a Little Light' was recorded by filmmaker Justin Mitchell $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); By

Last November, an all-star roster of musicians, including Dave Grohl, Ryan Adams and Britt Daniel, gathered together to pay tribute to the former frontman of Hüsker Dü and Sugar in "See a Little Light: A Celebration of the Music and Legacy of Bob Mould." Justin Mitchell, a filmmaker whose previous work has documented artists including Death Cab for Cutie, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and Sigur Rós, recorded footage of the concert at L.A.'s Walt Disney Concert Hall, along with the show's rehearsals and other preparations. 

Earlier this week, Bob Mould launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $95,000 to complete a documentary film of the concert. The funds raised will help pay for editing, production, union costs, location fees, bandwidth, packaging, shipping and more.

"There is a significant amount of Bob's own out-of-pocket money already spent on this project and upcoming costs to make a film of this caliber a reality are high," a statement on the project's Kickstarter page says. "Due to the special nature of the event, location and performers, we want to ensure that the legacy of this night lives on for as long as possible and is shared with as many Bob fans as possible."

Rewards for contributors to the campaign include a limited-edition 7" single and unreleased recordings from Mould's February 2012 Copper Blue concert. The top prize (for a pledge of $1,500 or more) is a blue Fender stratocaster with a photo of Mould signing the instrument. 

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Bob Mould Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Film of Tribute Concert

Bob Mould Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Film of Tribute Concert'See a Little Light' was recorded by filmmaker Justin Mitchell $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); By

Last November, an all-star roster of musicians, including Dave Grohl, Ryan Adams and Britt Daniel, gathered together to pay tribute to the former frontman of Hüsker Dü and Sugar in "See a Little Light: A Celebration of the Music and Legacy of Bob Mould." Justin Mitchell, a filmmaker whose previous work has documented artists including Death Cab for Cutie, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and Sigur Rós, recorded footage of the concert at L.A.'s Walt Disney Concert Hall, along with the show's rehearsals and other preparations. 

Earlier this week, Bob Mould launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $95,000 to complete a documentary film of the concert. The funds raised will help pay for editing, production, union costs, location fees, bandwidth, packaging, shipping and more.

"There is a significant amount of Bob's own out-of-pocket money already spent on this project and upcoming costs to make a film of this caliber a reality are high," a statement on the project's Kickstarter page says. "Due to the special nature of the event, location and performers, we want to ensure that the legacy of this night lives on for as long as possible and is shared with as many Bob fans as possible."

Rewards for contributors to the campaign include a limited-edition 7" single and unreleased recordings from Mould's February 2012 Copper Blue concert. The top prize (for a pledge of $1,500 or more) is a blue Fender stratocaster with a photo of Mould signing the instrument. 

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Henry Rollins, Pete Yorn, Priscilla Presley Pay Tribute to Johnny Ramone in L.A.

Johnny Ramone was remembered Sunday by a crowd of friends and punk rock contemporaries that X guitarist Billy Zoom called "a class reunion" at the annual tribute to the Ramones guitarist at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Hundreds of fans lined up for autographs from the likes of Henry Rollins, Sex Pistol Steve Jones and Rock 'n' High School actress P.J. Soles.

"For a cemetery it's very pleasant. Johnny would have loved this," said Tommy Ramone (né Erdelyi), the last surviving original member of the band. Every year, he attends tributes to both Johnny and Joey Ramone.

"We were innovative," he told Rolling Stone. "What we did was very unique and very original. Also, there was nothing like these guys. They were so different and so unusual. It was one of a kind."

Nearby was a large statue of the Ramones guitarist and leader, frozen in mid-riff and surrounded by a red velvet rope, standing among tombstones of ancient Hollywood stars and bandmate Dee Dee Ramone. Jones joked that he planned to build his own pyramid at the cemetery.

It was the ninth event in Johnny's honor since the unveiling of the statue in 2005, just months after his death. Among the guests were Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, actress Rose McGowan, artist Shepard Fairey, model Dita Von Teese, Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom, Rock 'n' Roll High School co-writer Richard Whitley and Priscilla Presley (who was there to introduce a screening of Elvis Presley's favorite film, King Creole, which closed the night). It is organized annually by the guitarist's widow, Linda Ramone.

"Linda is cool. She is such a character," said singer-songwriter Pete Yorn, who first met the guitarist and his wife after recording "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" for the 2003 tribute album We're a Happy Family, which was executive produced by Johnny Ramone. "She reminds me of Johnny so much. She's like a bridge to him in a weird way. Her persona's very similar. She has a strong Queens accent. I feel like his spirit is surrounding her all the time."

Waiting in line for autographs, fans young and old carried copies of Johnny's posthumously published autobiography, Commando, along with vintage albums and guitars. Soles, whose career enjoyed a run of popular and cult movies, including Stripes with Bill Murray and the horror classics Halloween and Carrie – still hears from fans about her role as No. 1 Ramones fan Riff Randell in Rock 'n' Roll High School. It wasn't a hit at the time.

"It took a long time, and it's the same kind of thing with the Ramones' career – and it's lasted and lasted," she said. "If the Ramones were not in that movie, I don't think Rock 'n' Roll High School would have lasted. It was a perfect blending. It's brought a lot of joy to a lot of people."           

Mingling with his family in the VIP section was Cornell, who first met Johnny Ramone while on tour in Australia. The guitarist had heard Soundgarden's cover of the Ramones' "I Can't Give You Anything," a version "that he actually liked, which apparently was rare," Cornell told Rolling Stone. "We were friends ever since."

The two bands also toured together as part of Lollapalooza in 1996. Their friendship was especially meaningful for Cornell, who first discovered the Ramones when he was 16, years before the band was recognized as an essential influence on the generations that came after.

"Some things are ahead of their time. The greats are always eventually understood to be that," Cornell said. "I went from AC/DC to them. Before that it was prog-rock. It was AC/DC that led me to understand what good music was, and then it was the Ramones. It changed my life."

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Henry Rollins, Pete Yorn, Priscilla Presley Pay Tribute to Johnny Ramone in L.A.

Johnny Ramone was remembered Sunday by a crowd of friends and punk rock contemporaries that X guitarist Billy Zoom called "a class reunion" at the annual tribute to the Ramones guitarist at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Hundreds of fans lined up for autographs from the likes of Henry Rollins, Sex Pistol Steve Jones and Rock 'n' High School actress P.J. Soles.

"For a cemetery it's very pleasant. Johnny would have loved this," said Tommy Ramone (né Erdelyi), the last surviving original member of the band. Every year, he attends tributes to both Johnny and Joey Ramone.

"We were innovative," he told Rolling Stone. "What we did was very unique and very original. Also, there was nothing like these guys. They were so different and so unusual. It was one of a kind."

Nearby was a large statue of the Ramones guitarist and leader, frozen in mid-riff and surrounded by a red velvet rope, standing among tombstones of ancient Hollywood stars and bandmate Dee Dee Ramone. Jones joked that he planned to build his own pyramid at the cemetery.

It was the ninth event in Johnny's honor since the unveiling of the statue in 2005, just months after his death. Among the guests were Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, actress Rose McGowan, artist Shepard Fairey, model Dita Von Teese, Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom, Rock 'n' Roll High School co-writer Richard Whitley and Priscilla Presley (who was there to introduce a screening of Elvis Presley's favorite film, King Creole, which closed the night). It is organized annually by the guitarist's widow, Linda Ramone.

"Linda is cool. She is such a character," said singer-songwriter Pete Yorn, who first met the guitarist and his wife after recording "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" for the 2003 tribute album We're a Happy Family, which was executive produced by Johnny Ramone. "She reminds me of Johnny so much. She's like a bridge to him in a weird way. Her persona's very similar. She has a strong Queens accent. I feel like his spirit is surrounding her all the time."

Waiting in line for autographs, fans young and old carried copies of Johnny's posthumously published autobiography, Commando, along with vintage albums and guitars. Soles, whose career enjoyed a run of popular and cult movies, including Stripes with Bill Murray and the horror classics Halloween and Carrie – still hears from fans about her role as No. 1 Ramones fan Riff Randell in Rock 'n' Roll High School. It wasn't a hit at the time.

"It took a long time, and it's the same kind of thing with the Ramones' career – and it's lasted and lasted," she said. "If the Ramones were not in that movie, I don't think Rock 'n' Roll High School would have lasted. It was a perfect blending. It's brought a lot of joy to a lot of people."           

Mingling with his family in the VIP section was Cornell, who first met Johnny Ramone while on tour in Australia. The guitarist had heard Soundgarden's cover of the Ramones' "I Can't Give You Anything," a version "that he actually liked, which apparently was rare," Cornell told Rolling Stone. "We were friends ever since."

The two bands also toured together as part of Lollapalooza in 1996. Their friendship was especially meaningful for Cornell, who first discovered the Ramones when he was 16, years before the band was recognized as an essential influence on the generations that came after.

"Some things are ahead of their time. The greats are always eventually understood to be that," Cornell said. "I went from AC/DC to them. Before that it was prog-rock. It was AC/DC that led me to understand what good music was, and then it was the Ramones. It changed my life."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Curtis Mayfield Tribute Will Feature the Roots, Sinead O'Connor, TV on the Radio

After the freak accident that paralyzed him in 1990, the great Curtis Mayfield recorded his last album, 1997's New World Order, with heroic effort: by singing one line at a time while lying on his back.

"You think of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel," TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe tell Rolling Stone of the endeavor. "That person is an evolved human being."

Adebimpe will take part the all-star "Here But I'm Gone: A 70th Birthday Tribute to Curtis Mayfield" on Friday alongside the Roots, Aloe Blacc, Sinead O'Connor, Mavis Staples and Mayfield's former band the Impressions at New York's Lincoln Center. The evening marks what would have been the soul king's 70th birthday this June, though Mayfield died in 1999. The event will cover Mayfield's prolific catalog: best known for the classic Super Fly soundtrack (though he wasn't thrilled about working on a "blaxploitation" project), he was an equal master of social awareness ("People Get Ready," "Choice of Colors") and one-on-one sensitivity ("The Makings of You," "Gypsy Woman").

Curtis Mayfield "was an inspiration to me," says TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone, who with his bandmate Adebimpe will perform Mayfield's "Kung Fu" and back O'Connor on her version of "Jesus." He continues, "It's a complicated world, and I don't always want to write about shit that bums me out, but when I do, I don't want to sacrifice musicality." It was Mayfield's gift, he says, to write beautiful songs about hard truths that sometimes aren't pretty.

At Lincoln Center, Aloe Blacc will sing "The Makings of You" and "Back to the World," a message song about the disillusionment of Vietnam-era soldiers coming back to a cold reception in America. "I feel like he was a voice of inspiration to people who didn't feel valued in society with songs like ‘Move On Up,' and he also gave a voice to romance," says the singer.

The house band for the show will be directed by Binky Griptite, who leads Sharon Jones' backing band, the Dap-Kings. After starting out as a funk band, the Dap-Kings became collectively obsessed with Mayfield's lushly orchestrated brand of soul music, which he developed for his first group, the Impressions.

"We'd listen to the Impressions 24 hours a day, the entire catalog," says Griptite, who plays in Mayfield's unorthodox, open F-sharp tuning, which Mayfield taught himself as a boy by tuning to the black keys of a piano. "Those records are just solid tens across the board – incredible songwriting, incredible vocal and band performances. The arrangements are incredible, the recordings are incredible. There's no weakness."

Griptite recently began recording with the surviving Impressions – including longtime members Sam Gooden and Fred Cash, both in their seventies. At a show he arranged for them at the now-defunct Brooklyn club Southpaw, he met a producer for the proposed Lincoln Center tribute, who mentioned that they had a few "missing pieces." "The Impressions and myself turned out to be the missing pieces," he says.

Proceeds from "Here But I'm Gone" will benefit the Curtis Mayfield Foundation, which plans to establish scholarships in the singer's name for Tri-Cities High School, an arts-oriented institution in Atlanta, where the Chicago native and his family made their home in the last years of his life. It is a fitting organization to be connected to the late singer, as his widow, Altheida, tells Rolling Stone. "Curtis never really had that opportunity," she says. "He was literally on his own, kicked out of school in seventh grade and on the road about 11. He always tried to reach back into the inner cities. He went way out of his way to give help."

Mrs. Mayfield says she often meets contemporary artists who tell her how much they admire her husband's music. Kanye West, who has used several of Mayfield's songs as samples, stopped her on the street. She met Andre 3000 in an airport, "and he almost literally got on his knees."

As she reflects, "Curtis was a very humble person. I kind of gathered the impact he was making on the world, but I don't think it ever really hit him that he was touching hearts."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Curtis Mayfield Tribute Will Feature the Roots, Sinead O'Connor, TV on the Radio

After the freak accident that paralyzed him in 1990, the great Curtis Mayfield recorded his last album, 1997's New World Order, with heroic effort: by singing one line at a time while lying on his back.

"You think of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel," TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe tell Rolling Stone of the endeavor. "That person is an evolved human being."

Adebimpe will take part the all-star "Here But I'm Gone: A 70th Birthday Tribute to Curtis Mayfield" on Friday alongside the Roots, Aloe Blacc, Sinead O'Connor, Mavis Staples and Mayfield's former band the Impressions at New York's Lincoln Center. The evening marks what would have been the soul king's 70th birthday this June, though Mayfield died in 1999. The event will cover Mayfield's prolific catalog: best known for the classic Super Fly soundtrack (though he wasn't thrilled about working on a "blaxploitation" project), he was an equal master of social awareness ("People Get Ready," "Choice of Colors") and one-on-one sensitivity ("The Makings of You," "Gypsy Woman").

Curtis Mayfield "was an inspiration to me," says TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone, who with his bandmate Adebimpe will perform Mayfield's "Kung Fu" and back O'Connor on her version of "Jesus." He continues, "It's a complicated world, and I don't always want to write about shit that bums me out, but when I do, I don't want to sacrifice musicality." It was Mayfield's gift, he says, to write beautiful songs about hard truths that sometimes aren't pretty.

At Lincoln Center, Aloe Blacc will sing "The Makings of You" and "Back to the World," a message song about the disillusionment of Vietnam-era soldiers coming back to a cold reception in America. "I feel like he was a voice of inspiration to people who didn't feel valued in society with songs like ‘Move On Up,' and he also gave a voice to romance," says the singer.

The house band for the show will be directed by Binky Griptite, who leads Sharon Jones' backing band, the Dap-Kings. After starting out as a funk band, the Dap-Kings became collectively obsessed with Mayfield's lushly orchestrated brand of soul music, which he developed for his first group, the Impressions.

"We'd listen to the Impressions 24 hours a day, the entire catalog," says Griptite, who plays in Mayfield's unorthodox, open F-sharp tuning, which Mayfield taught himself as a boy by tuning to the black keys of a piano. "Those records are just solid tens across the board – incredible songwriting, incredible vocal and band performances. The arrangements are incredible, the recordings are incredible. There's no weakness."

Griptite recently began recording with the surviving Impressions – including longtime members Sam Gooden and Fred Cash, both in their seventies. At a show he arranged for them at the now-defunct Brooklyn club Southpaw, he met a producer for the proposed Lincoln Center tribute, who mentioned that they had a few "missing pieces." "The Impressions and myself turned out to be the missing pieces," he says.

Proceeds from "Here But I'm Gone" will benefit the Curtis Mayfield Foundation, which plans to establish scholarships in the singer's name for Tri-Cities High School, an arts-oriented institution in Atlanta, where the Chicago native and his family made their home in the last years of his life. It is a fitting organization to be connected to the late singer, as his widow, Altheida, tells Rolling Stone. "Curtis never really had that opportunity," she says. "He was literally on his own, kicked out of school in seventh grade and on the road about 11. He always tried to reach back into the inner cities. He went way out of his way to give help."

Mrs. Mayfield says she often meets contemporary artists who tell her how much they admire her husband's music. Kanye West, who has used several of Mayfield's songs as samples, stopped her on the street. She met Andre 3000 in an airport, "and he almost literally got on his knees."

As she reflects, "Curtis was a very humble person. I kind of gathered the impact he was making on the world, but I don't think it ever really hit him that he was touching hearts."

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Joe Jackson Pays Tribute To Duke Ellington

Joe Jackson performs at the North Sea Jazz Festival held at the Ahoy in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

He may be best known for such pop hits as "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" and "Steppin' Out," but Joe Jackson holds a deep admiration for legendary big band leader/songwriter/pianist Duke Ellington. And on his upcoming release, The Duke (due out June 26th via Razor & Tie), Jackson reworks an album's worth of Ellington classics.

"I think it probably snuck up on me, after many years of being an Ellington fan," Jackson tells Rolling Stone. "Going back to my teenage years, really. For the last few years, I've found myself playing with different arrangements of Ellington tunes – either in my head or in my band. And we've done a couple of Ellington covers with my trio I've been working with the last few years. But I wanted to take it a lot further than that. Really explore a lot of different approaches to this music, which I think is so strong and so classic that it could take it. I was also inspired by Ellington's own philosophy, which he thought the same way about his music – he constantly rearranged and reinvented his own compositions. Sometimes in quite radical ways."

And one radical way that Jackson reworked the tunes was by eliminating an instrument that was a major element in many Ellington compositions. "No horns. That was a rule I made fairly early on, because the last thing I wanted to do was do something that just sounded like watered down Ellington. There's just no point. Quite a few jazz people have done Ellington tribute records, and some of them are very good, but they tend to sound like second-hand Ellington." Filling in for the horn parts are a wide variety of instruments, Jackson says, "everything from accordion to harmonica to Stylophone to a string quartet."

Produced by Jackson and recorded and mixed by Elliot Scheiner, The Duke features both instrumentals ("Isfahan," "Rockin’ in Rhythm") and tunes with vocals ("Mood Indigo," a medley of "I'm Beginning to See the Light" and "Take the A Train"). Featuring a wide variety of guest musicians (Steve Vai and ?uestlove, among others), one of the more intriguing tracks is an album-closing rendition of "It Don't Mean A Thing (If You Ain't Got That Swing)" as a duet between Jackson and punk rock godfather Iggy Pop.

"We met once when we were both staying in the same hotel on tour, and we had a couple of beers," Jackson says. "I found him to be a very interesting and quite charming guy. And a very smart guy – more open-minded than I think people realize. I heard his voice in my mind singing that song. And I thought, 'I wonder if he'd like to do it?' And he did!"

Jackson is already plotting a tour in support of The Duke. "We're going to be touring in September and I'm putting the band together now," he says. But just don't compare the album to his earlier swing-themed album, 1981's Jumpin' Jive.

"I don't think it's anything like Jumpin' Jive. It's totally different," he says. "I think it's more like Night and Day or other things I've done, like Heaven & Hell."

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Joe Jackson Pays Tribute To Duke Ellington

Joe Jackson performs at the North Sea Jazz Festival held at the Ahoy in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

He may be best known for such pop hits as "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" and "Steppin' Out," but Joe Jackson holds a deep admiration for legendary big band leader/songwriter/pianist Duke Ellington. And on his upcoming release, The Duke (due out June 26th via Razor & Tie), Jackson reworks an album's worth of Ellington classics.

"I think it probably snuck up on me, after many years of being an Ellington fan," Jackson tells Rolling Stone. "Going back to my teenage years, really. For the last few years, I've found myself playing with different arrangements of Ellington tunes – either in my head or in my band. And we've done a couple of Ellington covers with my trio I've been working with the last few years. But I wanted to take it a lot further than that. Really explore a lot of different approaches to this music, which I think is so strong and so classic that it could take it. I was also inspired by Ellington's own philosophy, which he thought the same way about his music – he constantly rearranged and reinvented his own compositions. Sometimes in quite radical ways."

And one radical way that Jackson reworked the tunes was by eliminating an instrument that was a major element in many Ellington compositions. "No horns. That was a rule I made fairly early on, because the last thing I wanted to do was do something that just sounded like watered down Ellington. There's just no point. Quite a few jazz people have done Ellington tribute records, and some of them are very good, but they tend to sound like second-hand Ellington." Filling in for the horn parts are a wide variety of instruments, Jackson says, "everything from accordion to harmonica to Stylophone to a string quartet."

Produced by Jackson and recorded and mixed by Elliot Scheiner, The Duke features both instrumentals ("Isfahan," "Rockin’ in Rhythm") and tunes with vocals ("Mood Indigo," a medley of "I'm Beginning to See the Light" and "Take the A Train"). Featuring a wide variety of guest musicians (Steve Vai and ?uestlove, among others), one of the more intriguing tracks is an album-closing rendition of "It Don't Mean A Thing (If You Ain't Got That Swing)" as a duet between Jackson and punk rock godfather Iggy Pop.

"We met once when we were both staying in the same hotel on tour, and we had a couple of beers," Jackson says. "I found him to be a very interesting and quite charming guy. And a very smart guy – more open-minded than I think people realize. I heard his voice in my mind singing that song. And I thought, 'I wonder if he'd like to do it?' And he did!"

Jackson is already plotting a tour in support of The Duke. "We're going to be touring in September and I'm putting the band together now," he says. But just don't compare the album to his earlier swing-themed album, 1981's Jumpin' Jive.

"I don't think it's anything like Jumpin' Jive. It's totally different," he says. "I think it's more like Night and Day or other things I've done, like Heaven & Hell."

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Johnny Cash 80th Birthday Tribute Planned

Lucinda Williams and Kenny ChesneyTim Mosenfelder/Getty Images and Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Tickets go on sale tomorrow for an 80th birthday celebration of the life and music of the late Johnny Cash, to be held April 20th at the Austin City Limits Live venue in Austin, Texas. Kenney Chesney, Lucinda Williams, Kris Kristofferson and Ray LaMontagne will top the bill called "We Walk the Line," with appearances by Jamey Johnson, Chris Cornell, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Shooter Jennings and more. 

Cash, who died in 2003 at age 71, would have turned 80 on Sunday. Members of his family, including daughter Rosanne Cash, gathered over the weekend at his boyhood home in Dyess, Arkansas for the groundbreaking of a museum honoring the country music legend.  

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Johnny Cash 80th Birthday Tribute Planned

Lucinda Williams and Kenny ChesneyTim Mosenfelder/Getty Images and Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Tickets go on sale tomorrow for an 80th birthday celebration of the life and music of the late Johnny Cash, to be held April 20th at the Austin City Limits Live venue in Austin, Texas. Kenney Chesney, Lucinda Williams, Kris Kristofferson and Ray LaMontagne will top the bill called "We Walk the Line," with appearances by Jamey Johnson, Chris Cornell, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Shooter Jennings and more. 

Cash, who died in 2003 at age 71, would have turned 80 on Sunday. Members of his family, including daughter Rosanne Cash, gathered over the weekend at his boyhood home in Dyess, Arkansas for the groundbreaking of a museum honoring the country music legend.  

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'X Factor' Will Pay Tribute to Whitney Houston

Simon Cowell at the Los Angeles taping of 'The X Factor.'

Simon Cowell revealed yesterday that he intends to replace former X Factor host Steve Jones with a pair of co-hosts when the show returns later this year. "What we learned is that because you have so much information to deliver, it's almost impossible for one person," says Cowell. "It's [a] more fun way to do it with two people. It's a different chemistry. I've always wanted a boy and a girl and that will definitely happen."

Cowell also told journalists that he has some plans to pay tribute to Whitney Houston on the show. "I've got a feeling we're going to see a Whitney tribute on The Voice and Idol before us," he said, noting that he intends to do something a bit different. "We're going to continue to pay tribute to Whitney. Her songs literally are timeless. Whether we find anyone as good as her, that's a whole different ball game."

L.A. Reid, the only remaining judge on the show aside from Cowell, addressed reports that Houston had been approached to join the panel in season two. "We loved Whitney and we would certainly have considered her, but it never came to that," said Reid. "There was interest, but we really didn't get that far."

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