Beyoncé Knowles will do her hometown proud when she returns to Houston to sing the national anthem at Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1. Janet Jackson has already been announced as part of the game's halftime show. ...

Russell Simmons is calling on the big guns to help kick off his first Hip-Hop Summit of 2004, to be held in Houston. P. Diddy; Master P and Lil' Romeo; Beyoncé and her father, Mathew Knowles; Erykah Badu; Run and DMC; and the king of H-Town, Scarface, will all be participating at the January 31 event at Texas Southern University. ... Kanye West, Memphis Bleek, M.O.P., Freeway and the Young Gunz will play in a celebrity basketball game as part of the 2004 Freedom Classic national, a weekend celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday in Richmond, Virginia. Co-sponsored by Roc-A-Fella Records, the January 17 and 18 events will also include a Roc-A-Wear fashion show, entertainment industry seminars and a voter-registration drive. ...

The autopsy report for Bobby Hatfield, the Righteous Brothers singer who died hours before a November 5 concert, was released Tuesday and names heart failure triggered by acute cocaine intoxication as the cause of death. Groupmate Bill Medley said Tuesday he knew "absolutely nothing" about Hatfield's drug use. "I would have said something to him," he told The Orange County Register. ... Seal, 311, Wyclef Jean and Eve are just some of the artists reliving their youth by covering songs from the 1980s for the soundtrack to "50 First Dates," the new Adam Sandler/ Drew Barrymore comedy set to hit theaters February 13. Seal's version of Echo and the Bunnymen's "Lips Like Sugar," the Black Eyed Peas' cover of Spandau Ballet's "True," 311's take on the Cure's "Love Song," and Wyclef and Eve's performance of the Outfield's "Your Love" are among the highlights of the soundtrack, due February 3. ...

A Canadian man is suing a former Nirvana guitar tech for fraud after learning that the left-handed Fender Stratocaster he received with the promise it belonged to Kurt Cobain was, in fact, never touched by the late rock star. Phil Gross of North Vancouver traded his S.G. Gibson electric for the instrument and hoped to market the guitar at several auction houses, but a British collectibles agency discovered the guitar was a fake. Gross filed his claim in B.C. Supreme Court. ... Nearly seven years after breaking up, Chicago's Urge Overkill are reforming for a brief series of shows beginning January 15 in San Diego. The band, best known for their cover of Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon," for the 1994 film "Pulp Fiction," are scheduled to play the Troubadour in Hollywood  the following day, with shows in Hoboken, New Jersey, and New York slated for February 5 and 6. UO released five albums since 1989, and lead singer Nash Kato dropped a solo album, Debutante, in 2000. ...

Liz Phair continues to support last year's self-titled album with a five-week North American tour beginning February 26 in West Hollywood, California. Opening acts have yet to be chosen for Phair's latest trek, which winds down April 4 in Washington, D.C. ... Since the market's not clamoring for a Gene Simmons doll with wrinkles and a receding hairline, McFarlane Toys will issue a Simmons "Destroyer" action figure in April. The doll will be modeled after the cartoon rendering of Simmons on the cover of Kiss' 1976 album, Destroyer. ...

(Hed) p.e.'s guitarists Sonny Mayo and Wes Greer and drummer Ben "BC" Vaught have left the band, which recently lost its label. But the band hasn't lost its, errr, head. "Hed is very much alive," singer Jahred wrote on the band's Web site. "Myself, Deejay Product and [bassist] Mark [Young] have hooked up with some other fools." No word yet on who those fools are. ... Ben Nightingale, the guitarist for Australia's Sleepy Jackson, has left the band. A spokesperson for the group's U.S. label, Astralwerks, said it was always understood that Nightingale would leave the band due to family obligations and called the split amicable. ...

A couple of Motor City music acts are joining forces to set the year off. Slum Village and up-and-coming singer Dwele are gearing up to embark on a two-week tour starting Wednesday night in New York and ending January 20 in Orlando, Florida. ... Prince's classic flick "Purple Rain" will be released on DVD this summer and will include a special making-of documentary. Both of the Purple One's subsequent films, "Under the Cherry Moon" and "Graffiti Bridge," will also be released at the same time. ... It doesn't get more precious than a book of poetry, featuring contributions by bands such as A Static Lullaby, Finch,, Something Corporate, Taking Back Sunday and the Rx Bandits, being released on Valentine's Day. "Revolution on Canvas" will be sold exclusively at Hot Topic stores and on tour by the participating bands, before hitting book and music stores nationwide. ...

01.05.04

A thousand pairs of Pharrell Williams-designed Nike shoes sold out of select stores in New York and Los Angeles over the weekend. The limited-edition kicks are part of a series of Nike commissions from artists in different creative media. The Neptune reworked the classic black Nike "Dunk Hi" shoes, fitting them with black leather and a N.E.R.D. brain logo on the side. At New York's Niketown, people began lining up on Friday at 7 a.m. to purchase the sneakers, 26 hours before they went on sale. All proceeds from Pharrell's shoe go to Goodwill's Good Books program, which provides free books to kids. Graffiti artist ESPO and actress Halle Berry also designed shoes that went on sale over the weekend. ...

Kinks singer Ray Davies was shot in the right thigh Sunday in New Orleans while chasing two men who allegedly stole his female companion's purse at gunpoint. Davies was admitted to the Medical Center of Louisiana, but his injuries were not considered serious, according to wire-service reports. One arrest has been made. ... Ten days after allegedly assaulting a Phoenix post-office security guard, who then shot him, former Meat Puppets bassist Cris Kirkwood remains in custody. Federal judge Virginia Mathis denied him bail, ruling that the 43-year-old rocker, who's been charged with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon at a federal facility and faces 10 years in prison, is a flight risk and a danger to others. The post-office incident stemmed from an argument Kirkwood had with a woman over a parking spot. ...

Courtney Love takes on her public image in the surrealistic video for her new single, "Mono." According to the treatment for the clip, which is being helmed by director Chris Milk (Chemical Brothers' "Golden Path"), Love appears as a Sleeping Beauty-like character awakened by fairies and flashbulbs, only to then be immediately on the run, chased by a mob of zombie-like paparazzi, pepper-spraying rent-a-cops, police officers and bodyguards. Not that some of this isn't without cause — Love wreaks havoc in her wake, demolishing a Christmas-tree lot, a phone booth, a Wal-Mart store and suburban homes in the pursuit. During the chase, Love is aided by a half dozen heavily armed pre-teen beauty queens, which helps blur the line between victims and villains. ... Ozzy Osbourne claims he died twice after an ATV accident last month broke eight of his ribs, his collarbone and a neck vertebra, and twice caused him to stop breathing. The 55-year-old rocker credits his new lease on life to his bodyguard Sam Ruston, who returned him from the brink of death with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The crash occurred December 8 at Ozzy's estate in Buckinghamshire, England, when the four-wheeled vehicle he was riding flipped over on him. He spent the next eight days in a coma. ...

The world's largest music conglomerate, the Universal Music Group, and the entrepreneurs behind the Vivid Video porn empire are attempting to launch their own music-minded cable network, according to the Los Angeles Times. Called 1 AM, an abbreviation for "First Amendment," the channel promises to air uncut videos and uncensored content. The Endeavor talent agency and Eminem's Shady Records reportedly also have a small stake in the venture, which may begin broadcasting in July. ... Industrial metal pioneers Ministry have entered a Texas studio to record their next album, Houses of the Molé. The title of the album, scheduled to drop in spring, is a play on the name of Led Zeppelin's 1973 LP, Houses of the Holy. ...

Taking Back Sunday, a mainstage act on this summer's Warped Tour, are in a Long Island, New York, studio working on their follow-up to 2002's Tell All Your Friends. The emocore quintet's second album will be the first to feature new bassist Matt Rubano and guitarist Fred Mascherino. The latter is scheduled to make a guest appearance with his former band Breaking Pangaea on Friday at Philadelphia's First Unitarian Church. ... Wu-Tang Clan affiliate Killah Priest should be busy behind his pulpit in the new year. Besides working on his fifth solo LP, which he hopes to begin recording next month, the rapper plans to work on full-length albums with his groups Black Market, which features Tragedy Khadafi, and the Four Horsemen, with Kurupt, Ras Kass and Canibus. On Friday, he plans to join the Wu-Tang's RZA at a show in Chicago. ...

Rick Van Santen, one of the cofounders of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and an influential Southern California concert promoter, died December 28 of flu-related complications. As co-president of Goldenvoice, Van Santen was best known for bringing punk shows to respectable venues. He was 41. ... RAM Squad rapper John "Tommy Hill" Wilson, who was arrested on December 23 on cocaine charges, was denied a lower bail by a Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge on Wednesday. Prosecutors showed that Wilson had maintained several different aliases and addresses and the judge agreed Wilson posed a flight risk. Bail was kept at $145,000. ...

• Beyoncé
• Janet Jackson
• Scarface
• Urge Overkill
• Liz Phair

The former members of Chicago's irony-heavy riff-rock act Urge Overkill are resurfacing with separate projects.

• Urge Overkill

April 18 [16:00 EST] -- The super suave Urge Overkill will debut its new line-up at a benefit for the T. J. Martell Foundation on its Chicago home turf on May 6.

Urge frontman Nash Kato and drummer Blackie O will take the stage at Chicago's Park West to introduce new guitarist Nils St. Cyr, who (as we reported last month) recently replaced Eddie "King" Roeser. Of course, the more noble intention of the evening is to devote all proceeds from the show to the T. J. Martell Foundation which benefits leukemia, cancer, and AIDS research.

To make the gig, UO will have to tear itself away from its studio hideaway, the Bank, in Chicago where it is currently working on its next album, the first under the band's new deal with Sony 550. The group is still in the very early stages of the album, and a spokesperson for Sony said that no release date has been set yet.

• Urge Overkill

March 3 [18:00 EST] -- To say the guys in Urge Overkill wanted a change is a bit of an understatement. UO has recently convened in Chicago with new guitarist Nils St. Cyr for pre-production work on its first album for its new label, Sony 550.

A Sony spokesman told MTV News that St. Cyr has replaced Eddie "King" Roesser, and the new line-up has retreated to its home turf of Chicago to write material for its next album, which is expected to hit stores in this fall.

The Sony representative noted that Urge's last release, 1995's "Exit The Dragon," was the last under its contract with Geffen, and a deal with Sony has been in the works for months.

• Urge Overkill