Digest: Lil Wayne's Album Delayed; Lady Gaga to Premiere 'Judas' on 'American Idol'

Lil Wayne's New Album Delayed
The release date for Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV has been pushed back to June 21st. Weezy has publicly announced that the album, which was originally scheduled for May 16th, is finished. [Vulture]

Lady Gaga to Premiere 'Judas' Video on 'American Idol'
Lady Gaga is set to debut the music video for her latest single "Judas" on American Idol during the first week of May. The singer is also scheduled to perform the song on this Wednesday's episode of the Ellen DeGeneres Show. [Idolator]

Pearl Jam Receive Environmental Honor
Rock the Earth, a Colorado-based environmental organization, has given Pearl Jam a 2011 Planet Defender award for the band's carbon neutral touring policy and efforts to protect the oceans. [Grunge Report]

Kings of Leon Announce Summer Tour
Kings of Leon are set to kick off a summer tour with support act Band of Horses on July 25th at The Wharf in Orange Beach, Alabama. The band will wrap up its run of 28 amphitheater and arena gigs at the Key Arena in Seattle on September 12th. [Press release]

Nicki Minaj Teases New Album
Nicki Minja told KIIS FM DJ JoJo that she plans on releasing her second album within the next year. "You'll get the announcement for the next album in – and I'm saying the announcement – that you'll get the announcement in September," she said. [Rap-Up]

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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