PowerBlogs: Rumour Mills

Taylor Swift and the late Michael Jackson were the big winners at the American Music Awards last night. She was in London preparing for a stadium show and did her bubbly acceptance speeches by live video. The five trophies that will be shipped to her are for Artist of the Year, Favorite Female Artist in Pop/Rock, Country and Adult Contemporary, and for Fearless, named Favorite Country Album. Michael was awarded statues for Favorite Male Artist in the Pop/Rock and Soul/R-&-B categories — which brought the King of Pop to an all-time record of 23 total A-M-A awards — were accepted by his brother Jermaine, who wore a sparkly glove and thanked Allah.

The awards, many of them presented outside the telecast, took a distinct back seat to the performances, a cavalcade of pop stars doing their energetic best to equal or top the dancing and theatricality of their videos on live television. Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert, Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna and Black Eyed Peas and all went way over the top, with flaming pianos, flaming homosexuality, a boxing ring, torture rack and choreographed robots, but it was Mary J. Blige, demure in a short dress, and finally Whitney Houston — standing nearly still in a white gown, earning a standing ovation for “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” — who showed the artistry and emotion of serious performers.

Jay-Z and Alicia Keys also got a good response for “Empire State of Mind,” which he did in full-on Sinatra mode, wearing a white jacket and black bowtie, hand casually jammed in his pants pocket. Green Day, who won Favorite Alternative Rock Artist, played the subdued, mostly acoustic “21 Guns,” which left Daughtry to bring the rock, with “Life After You.”

Otherwise, the emphasis was on skin, dancers and eye makeup. (Oh, and every T-V show A-B-C has — in between A-list presenters like Alex Rodriguez, Joe Perry, Samuel L. Jackson and Nicole Kidman, there were cast members from everything on the network’s prime-time schedule.) J-Lo stagerd a boxing match with men in trunks; Shakira had a line of women practicing pelvic thrusts — even Carrie Underwood rocked skimpy hot pants and a gang of Vegas dancers to go along with “Cowboy Casanova.” And, of course, it was Lady Gaga who pulled out all the stops, smashing a glass plate with a mic stand and demolishing a bunch of stunt bottles against a fiery keyboard. And Adam Lambert ended it all with a hyperventilating melodramatic performance of “For Your Entertainment” that Liberace might have found excessive

SHOCKERS

A male dancer grinding his face in Adam Lambert’s crotch

The flesh-colored body suit (with crotch panel) Lady Gaga wore

Jennifer Lopez falling during “Louboutins”

Rihanna’s peekaboo white bandage catsuit

Breakthrough award going to Gloriana, a country quartet who came onstage and admitted a lot of people have never heard of them.

PERFORMANCES

Janet Jackson: medley of “Control,” “What Have You Done for Me Lately,” “Miss You Much,” “If,” “Make Me,” “Together Again”

Daughtry: “Life After You”

Shakira: “Give It Up to Me”

Keith Urban: “Kiss a Girl”

Kelly Clarkson: “Already Gone”

Jay-Z and Alicia Keys: “Empire State of Mind”

Black Eyed Peas: “Meet Me Halfway” and “Boom Boom Pow”

Rihanna: “The Wait Is Over” / “Hard”

Carrie Underwood: “Cowboy Casanova”

Lady Gaga: “Bad Romance” / “Speechless”

Mary J. Blige: “I Am”

Jennifer Lopez: “Louboutins”

Whitney Houston: “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength”

Alicia Keys: “Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart”

Eminem and 50 Cent: “Crack a Bottle” / “Forever”

Timbaland with Nelly Furtado and SoShy: “Morning After Dark”

Green Day: “21 Guns”

Adam Lambert: “For Your Entertainment”

WINNERS

OVERALL

International Artist of the Year: Whitney Houston

Artist of the Year: Taylor Swift

Breakthrough Artist: Gloriana

POP/ROCK

Favorite Male Artist: Michael Jackson

Favorite Female Artist: Taylor Swift

Favorite Band, Duo or Group: Black Eyed Peas

Favorite Album: Michael Jackson - Number-Ones

COUNTRY

Favorite Male Artist: Keith Urban

Favorite Female Artist: Taylor Swift

Favorite Band, Duo or Group: Rascal Flatts

Favorite Album: Taylor Swift - Fearless

RAP/HIP-HOP

Favorite Male Artist: Jay-Z

Favorite Album: Jay-Z - The Blueprint Three

SOUL/R-&-B

Favorite Male Artist: Michael Jackson

Favorite Female Artist: Beyonce

Favorite Band, Duo or Group: Black Eyed Peas

Favorite Album: Michael Jackson - Number-Ones

ALTERNATIVE ROCK

Favorite Artist: Green Day

ADULT CONTEMPORARY

Favorite Artist: Taylor Swift

CONTEMPORARY INSPIRATIONAL

Favorite Artist: Mary Mary

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Green Day are coming full circle with their own music.

They’ve recorded a new version of “21 Guns” with the cast of the musical “American Idiot,” which is based on Green Day’s 2004 album.

They will release it as a digital download soon and they’re filming a video with the cast as well.

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Chickenfoot are putting out a concert movie for one day.

They’ve filmed one of their lives shows and it will be released to theatres on December 1st — and only on December 1st.

For a list of theatres running the film, check out sonyclubdates-dot-com/chickenfoot.

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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band wrapped up their Working on a Dream tour last night in Buffalo, New York, and now The Boss will be working on two new releases. His manager, Jon Landau, tells Rolling Stone that 2010 will see the release of the Darkness on the Edge of Town anniversary box set and a Working on a Dream tour D-V-D.

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Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry may not have written a song with Steven Tyler in 10 years, but that’s not stopping him from putting pen to paper. He tells us, “I have a notebook in almost every room [and] I always have a tape recorder with me.” Perry and The Joe Perry Project are on tour in support of his fifth album, Have Guitar, Will Travel, and they’ll be traveling to the House of Blues in Anaheim, California tonight.

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Rush drummer Neil Peart will record a special rendition of “The Hockey Theme,” which will be used during N-H-L broadcasts on Canadian networks T-S-N and R-D-S throughout the remainder of the N-H-L season. Peart says, “Having started out as a Canadian kid who skated on his ankles, and never made a hockey team, it is particularly sweet to be invited to be a part of this national institution — if not on skates, then on drums, performing Canada’s ’second national anthem.’ At last I’ve made the Big Leagues!” Peart has also commissioned D-W Drums to create a special hockey-themed drum kit specifically for use on the song.

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Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington has signed onto PETA 2’s “Ink, Not Mink” anti-fur campaign. He appears bare-chested in a print ad, showing off his tattoos. He says, “I’m a big believer in animal rights. What’s really important is for people to understand the cruelty behind the fur industry.”

PETA 2 is the youth-focused division of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

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Mastodon wrapped up their tour with Dethlock, Converge and High on Fire this past Saturday in San Jose, California and are looking forward to two months off before heading to Australia in January and Europe in February. Drummer Brann Dailor says he plans to “eat turkey, get as fat as possible” and hang out at home in Atlanta, then visit his family in Rochester, New York during the Christmas holiday. He adds that he’s looking forward to “some quality time on the Gold Coast” of Australia in January.

Mastodon will issue a “Royal Edition” of their album Crack the Skye on December 15th. In addition to the original, it includes special packaging and artwork, an instrumental version of the disc, a new lithograph and an instant download of two songs performed live.

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John Fogerty credits his eight-year-old daughter with keeping him young. He tells Parade magazine that he doesn’t “think about age too much, because I’m just in my child’s universe. To me, the best writing in the world is SpongeBob Square Pants.”

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Former Guns n’ Roses guitarist Slash recently re-recorded Guns’ “Paradise City” for his Slash and Friends album, due out next spring. Joining him on the song, which was leaked last week, are rappers Cypress Hill and Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas. On his Twitter page, Slash writes, “Until now, not too many people have heard Fergie sing rock and roll, but she sings it better (than) most dudes I know. She’s a screamer at heart.” Also joining him on the album are Ozzy Osbourne, Meat Loaf, Dave Grohl, Flea, Chris Cornell, Duff McKagan, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper and many others.

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Chicago-based Janus have been drawing a lot of attention with “Eyesore,” the first tune off their debut album, Red Right Return. But frontman David Scotney doesn’t want people to think of the quartet as a singles band. Scotney tells us, “We [spent] a lot of time on each song, so that each song went down its own path to really be as strong as we could make it. I think that philosophy is probably the one thing that ties the whole thing together as an album.”

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Elton John will not re-schedule the U-K Red Piano shows he canceled last month after being hospitalized with the flu and E-coli. However, he is re-scheduling some of the dates on the fall leg of the Face to Face tour with Billy Joel, which they scrapped because of Elton’s condition and “private medical business” that Joel is taking care of.

The following cities have been rescheduled:

Portland, Oregon: February 10th
Salt Lake City: February 19th
Denver: February 22nd
Oklahoma City: February 25th
Kansas City: February 27th
Elton and Billy are also expected to make up the two shows they canceled this summer. They’re slated to be in Buffalo, New York on December 4th and Albany, New York on December 7th.

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Five Finger Death Punch, Zakk Wylde and Biohazard are among the acts who’ve contributed songs to a “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott tribute album compiled by Britain’s Kerrang magazine. The disc will be issued next month to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the guitarist’s murder on an Ohio club stage. It will consist of covers of songs by Pantera and Damageplan.

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In Stores This Week…

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: The Live Anthology (Warner Bros.)
This four C-D box set contains 48 tracks from 1978 to 2007, mixing the band’s hits with covers of The Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil,” Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well,” Booker T. and the M-Gs “Green Onions” and James Brown’s “Good, Good Lovin’.”

The Black Crowes: Cabin Fever (DVD) (Megaforce/Red)
This D-V-D documents the Crowes recording their latest album live at Levon Helm’s Barn Studios.

Genesis: The Movie Box (5-DVD box set) (Rhino)
This box set contains concert footage captured on the Mama Tour in 1984; Three Sides Live — the concert film shot in the U-S and released in tandem with the live album of the same name; Genesis Live at Wembley Stadium, shot in July 1987; and Genesis: The Way We Walk - Live in Concert, filmed in 1992.

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Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes joined Deep Purple on stage the other night in Amsterdam for a jam on “Black Night.”

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There’s no official word, but rumor has it that Ronnie James Dio was hospitalized last week for a heart condition.

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KISS are expected to announce their 2010 European tour today. They perform in Anaheim, California tomorrow night.

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The Bamboozle Festival, which takes place annually in New Jersey and California, is expected to stage a Midwestern edition in 2010. The rumored date is May 15th in Chicago.