MTV VMAs Select Host: Brit Comedian Russell Brand

First, the MTV Video Music Awards revealed their first performer, current RS cover boys the Jonas Brothers. Now, we know who will be hosting the festivities: British comedian/actor Russell Brand. A huge figure in his native England, Brand is best known (perhaps only known) to audiences in the States as the British rocker from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Besides being a comedian, Brand is also a renowned actor, columnist and radio host. Brand was also once the host of an MTV UK show called Dance Floor Chart, but was fired after showing up to work dressed as Osama bin Laden on September 12th, 2001. Almost seven years after getting the boot, MTV rehires him to host only their most important telecast of the entire year. This year's VMAs will take place September 7th live from Los Angeles' Paramount Studios.

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• 2007 VMAs Live Blog: From Britney's Blow-Out to Kid Rock's Punch
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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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