Brothers Nick and Aaron Carter will guest star on three episodes of Sesame Street this season; Sheryl Crow has also signed on for one episode . . . Bob Dylan, Aimee Mann, Ben Harper, LL Cool J, Eve, Everclear, Ashanti, the B-52s, Def Leppard and Jack Johnson are among the artists scheduled to play Atlanta's Music Midtown festival April 2nd to 4th . . . Elton John and John Mayer are planning to duet at the former's annual Oscar-watching charity party March 23rd . . . D'Angelo has reached a civil settlement with a woman who was claiming he spit on her during an argument in November . . . Justin Timberlake will host CBS's broadcast of Celine Dion's opening night in Las Vegas . . .

Fleetwood Mac will be profiled on NBC's Dateline April 18th . . . After they wrap up an opening gig for Coldplay tonight, British buzz band the Music will open for the Vines on a month's worth of tour dates staring March 19th . . . Zwan are on board for England's Download Festival, as are Iron Maiden, Limp Bizkit, Audioslave and Marilyn Manson . . . A Vans Warped Tour DVD set for an April 1st release will feature performances by New Found Glory, the Used, Bad Religion and more . . . A DVD from North Carolina's annual root music celebration MerleFest, due June 17th, will feature live Doc Watson, Allison Krauss, Patty Loveless and others . . . Molly Hatchet will release the twenty-two-track double live album Locked and Loaded March 18th . . . Products from Dwight Yoakam's down-home frozen food line will be available at a $5 discount to fans who buy his four-disc Rhino retrospective, Reprise Please Baby.

Though Sum 41 was offered a slot on Metallica's Summer Sanitarium tour along with Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, the band has instead opted to play select dates on the Warped Tour this summer . . . The Chinese government has forbidden the Rolling Stones from playing "Brown Sugar," "Honky Tonk Woman," "Beast of Burden," and "Let's Spend the Night Together" at their upcoming dates in Beijing and Shanghai next month; the songs were also left off of the Chinese version of "40 Licks" . . . Tori Amos will play Oxygen Network's Custom Concert, a program where fans choose her set list, on March 16th . . .

The Eagles have added second dates to shows in Atlanta, Houston and Philadelphia for their Farewell I tour, set to launch May 9th in Richmond, Virginia . . . Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band has added stadium show dates in Philadelphia and Foxboro, Massachusetts . . . A DVD of Brian Wilson's concert appearances from the last four years will be released April 1st, featuring interviews and backstage footage . . . Judas Priest will release their double CD "Live in London" on April 8th . . . Shania Twain, Toby Keith and Faith Hill each received five nominations for Country Music Television's Flameworthy 2003 Video Music Awards . . . Teenage R&B singer Young Steph will release his debut record on Roc-a-Fella Records May 28th . . .

Bjork is working on her next studio set, tentatively titled "The Lake Album." The singer has lined up a fourteen-date European tour starting May 30th, which will be followed by a set of North American dates . . . Metallica will be honored at the third annual mtvICON event, which will be taped in Los Angeles on May 3rd and air three days later; guest performers have not yet been announced . . . Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon have signed on to star in "Walk the Line," a biopic about Johnny and June Carter Cash . . . Actor Crispin Glover has recorded a version of Michael Jackson's "Ben" for the film Willard . . .

Staind has bumped its next album, 14 Shades of Gray, from May 6th to May 20th . . . The White Stripes had to cancel their South by Southwest appearance in Austin after drummer Meg White broke her arm; the band still plans to launch a U.K. tour in April . . . The surviving members of the MC5 will reunite for their first performance in thirty years as part of the Sonic Revolution: A New Energy Rising concert in London Thursday night . . . A Chicago man was sentenced to a year in prison in Los Angeles this week for stalking Master P . . . Tim McGraw's current fifty-date U.S. tour will benefit local chapters of the American Red Cross . . .

Elvis Costello will serve as guest host on "The Late Show With David Letterman" on Wednesday night while the show's namesake recuperates from a case of shingles . . . Beyonce Knowles will headline an event to celebrate the Ford Motor Company's centennial on June 14th in Dearborn, Michigan; Toby Keith will also perform . . . Sheryl Crow will appear on Sesame Street on April 11th . . . Def Leppard, Blink-182, Puddle Of Mudd, Sum 41, Trapt, 311 and others will perform at the Rolling Rock Town Fair IV, on July 26th in Pittsburgh . . . The death toll from last month's Great White show rose to ninety-nine on March 6th, when a Florida native died of injuries sustained in the Rhode Island nightclub fire.

System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian has filed suit against a Michigan security company, claiming that one of its employees assaulted him backstage at an October concert . . . Senegalese star Youssou N'Dour cancelled an upcoming U.S. tour to protest possible military action against Iraq . . . Hot Hot Heat will launch a fifteen-date tour on March 31st in Atlanta . . . Alison Krauss had to postpone a taping of CMT's "Crossroads" with Aerosmith's Steven Tyler after her doctors recommended vocal rest for at least a week . . . Al Green and Aretha Franklin will co-headline the Shower of Stars benefit for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis on April 26th . . . Sixties British pop star Adam Faith died of a heart attack on March 7th; he was sixty-two.

(March 13, 2003)