It's six months away and organizers have already locked in Metallica to headline Big Day Out 2004, the annual tour of Australia and New Zealand. No other artists are confirmed for the trek, which begins January 16 in Auckland. ...

Juvenile and Run-DMC's Reverend Run are two of the hip-hop stars scheduled to come out August 1-3 for Russell Simmons' next Hip-Hop Summit. The event, set for Birmingham, Alabama, will once again try to encourage major players within the genre to use the power of hip-hop as a catalyst for social change. ... Bono is among several celebrities who gave a recipe to Bill Clinton's cookbook, "The Clinton Presidential Center Cookbook: A Collection of Recipes for Family and Friends." Don Henley and Muhammad Ali also contributed. ...

Hatebreed will headline this year's second annual Rise of Brutality Tour, scheduled to begin in mid-September, with support coming from New York hardcore heroes Madball, death metal stalwarts Hate Eternal, Southern California hardcore band Terror and Cephalic Carnage. The 'Breed, who feature "Headbangers Ball" host Jamey Jasta on vocals, will support Slayer later in the year on the Jägermeister Tour. ... Former Failure/ A Perfect Circle guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, currently touring the country on Lollapalooza with Queens of the Stone Age, joined self-confessed Failure fanatics Cave In onstage at a recent Lolla stop in Columbus, Ohio, for a cover of Failure's "Magnified." "[Failure are] the band we've not-so-secretly ripped off for years and years," reads a post on Cave In's Web site. ...

Goth metal band Type O Negative will launch their summer tour July 25 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Dates run through August 23 in Anaheim, California. The group will be touring to support its new record, Life Is Killing Me, which came out June 17. ... Twiztid will launch a North American tour August 15 in Louisville, Kentucky, in support of their just-released The Green Book. The outing, featuring openers Society 1 and Marz, wraps September 28 in Indianapolis. ...

Brandon Cruz, the former child star of "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" who's been touring as the singer of the Dead Kennedys, has left the group to spend more time with his family and work on other material. Jeff Penalty, a former member of Vaz Hoil & Stupid Ferrets, has replaced him. ... Drummer Mario Calire has left the Wallflowers and joined Ozomatli. Calire will join the Latin rock band for its next album, due early next year. ... Singer Mike McColgan, who quit the Dropkick Murphys to become a Boston firefighter, has formed a new group, the Street Dogs. The band's debut, Savin Hill, is due September 23. ...

07.18.2003

For the second time in a week, Scott Weiland's case has been continued. Because he was still in rehab, the Stone Temple Pilots/ Velvet Revolver singer postponed his court date on July 11 until Friday (July 18). Now Weiland won't be due in a Burbank, California, court to address drug charges until July 25, according to a court clerk. Meanwhile, Velvet Revolver are meeting with producer Bob Ezrin to have him produce their moody and grooving track "Slither," which they previewed at their live debut in Los Angeles last month. The band plans to hit the studio with Ezrin on July 28. ...

While Ashanti is currently finalizing the theme and shoot schedule of her next video, she knows Hype Williams is going to be at the helm. According to her label, the famed director will be calling the shots on the set of "Rain on Me" very soon. ... Mya will play a minor role in the upcoming film "Shall We Dance," which stars Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere. Mya previously played opposite Gere in the Academy Award-winning 2002 film "Chicago." "Shall We Dance" is slated for release in 2004. ...

Lollapalooza organizers have canceled the July 26 concert at Vernon Downs racetrack in Vernon, New York. "Due to the costs of production versus the estimated ticket sales of 15,000, it did not make fiscal sense to play this date," read a press statement. The Vernon Downs Racetrack can hold up to 30,000. It was the second date of the festival organizers were forced to cancel -- the original July 3 tour launch date in Ionia, Michigan, was nixed because of staging and production issues. ...

Always looking to expand his Bad Boy empire, P. Diddy now wants to own a piece of time itself. The rap mogul is currently in talks to become a minority owner of the high-end Ice-Tek Watch Company, which manufactures timepieces favored by such celebrities as 50 Cent, Justin Timberlake, Kate Hudson and even Oprah. ... A judge ruled Thursday in New York that Funkmaster Flex was liable for slander against fellow Big Apple DJ Steph Lova. Lova and Flex settled out of court months ago for Lova's claims that he choked her. ...