Saturday Fluffernutter: The American Idol Edition; Ritchie Hayward (1946 – 2010)
All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities
So you’re a dad. You’re daughter is mid-to-late 20’s. She is dating, and has become pregnant by a rich celebrity 26 years her senior, who has four kids by three other women, 
and recently left his wife and two of those young children due to irreconcilable differences (i.e. she aged). What are the chances your reaction is:
It’s great news and we’re very pleased for them both.
On the other hand, perhaps the next statement explains the previous words of Alan Walsh, father of Kelsey Grammer’s 29 year old squeeze Kayte Walsh:
I don’t know how long they have been together and I have not met him yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
American Idol is looking for judges. First up is Jennifer Lopez. Lopez, who is talentless as a singer and actor, has been bumped from consideration because of her excessive demands.
How excessive can your demands have to be? I want a dressing room, nanny, masseuse, water, flowers &tc. All would be no sweat. What else could a person making millions a year ask from her employers?
Ohhh, perhaps she wanted to sing. Yea, good call American Idol.
Review in Brief: Eat, Pray, Love – I haven’t even seen it, but the preview made me nauseous on three separate occasions.
Since Jenifer Lopez is out of the running for American Idol judge, a plan B is needed. How about… Shania Twain.
Canadian born Twain has several advantages over the aforementioned Lopez: She can sing; she’s smoking’ hot; she lives in a castle in Switzerland, so her tastes and demands can’t be too over the top. I say, sign her up.
It’s not enough to make me watch, but it’s enough to make me put a picture of Twain up once a month or so during Idol season.
American Idol singer Fantasia Barrino had a week to forget. First, she was named as the other woman in a divorce proceeding in North Carolina. The wife of Antwuan Cook alleges the singer had an affair with her husband, which is denied.
The next day, Barrino was hospitalized for a “medication overdose.” She was admitted to a North Carolina hospital and her condition is not considered life threatening.
Paula Cook, on the other hand, is said to be life threatening, if she dare goes near her man again.
Ritchie Hayward (1946 – 2010):
Ritchie Hayward was the long time drummer for Little Feat, one of the most under-rated bands of the rock era. He was there in the beginning in 1969, and stayed with the band until founder Lowell George’s death in 1979.
In 1987, Little Feat reformed, and their 1988 album Let it Roll is probably the best album of the 1980’s (seriously, if you don’t know it but feel sure you’ve missed something: give Let it Roll a listen). Hayward continued with Little Feat until his cancer diagnosis last August.
Other than Little Feat, Hayward has played with Jimmy Buffet’s Corral Reefer Band, was the drummer of record on Robert Plant’s Shaken and Stirred album, had spots with Bob Seger, Eric Clapton, The Doobie Brothers, Peter Frampton, Arlo Guthrie, Robert Palmer, Tom Waitts, Warren Zevon and some guy named Dylan, just to name the people you’ve heard of.
To watch Hayward drum was to watch a man having a seizure in 4/4 time. His arms and legs splayed about in much the way you would imagine a monkey would look if he tried to drum, except with Hayward, it made sense. He was never repetitious, and in fact, a drummer friend once commented when listening to them, “there’s no pattern there to try and follow.”
In short, Ritchie Hayward was an exceptional drummer, and if the general population of music fans was unaware of the fact, music insiders knew it all too well.
Ritchie Hayward died this week from complications of liver cancer. If there’s a rock and roll heaven – I want Ritchie Hayward in my band.
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