Aerosmith Wanting To Finish Album

After spending most of 2008 dealing with health issues, the members of Aerosmith hope to return to the studio next year to finish their first album of original material since 2001.

"We're sitting on a bunch of music we've already recorded for a new album," guitarist Brad Whitford told Billboard.com. "We haven't gone back into the studio to put the final touches on it and get it done, and still don't know when we're gonna do that. Hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later."

The album will be Aerosmith's first of all-original material since 2001's "Just Push Play." The 2004 release, "Honkin' on Bobo," was comprised primarily of blues covers.

Most of Aerosmith's headlines this year were away from the recording studio and concert stage. Guitarist Joe Perry had knee reconstruction surgery in March.

Frontman Steven Tyler, meanwhile, spent time in a California rehabilitation clinic during the spring to recover from his own leg injuries in a drug-controlled environment; he did re-emerge on July 18 to sing "Walk This Way" with Billy Joel and his band at New York's Shea Stadium.

In 2006, bass player Tom Hamilton underwent radiation treatment for throat cancer.

"You'd think it was a football team or something," Whitford said with a laugh. But he added that health issues should not raise concerns about Aerosmith's mortality.

"You have more than average concerns about it, I guess," Whitford said, "but you can't do anything about it. Like a lot of other things in life, you don't get to call the shots on these things, do you? We're just ... getting older."

Lil' Wayne Update

Lil Wayne's assistant says he occasionally saw a handgun and people smoking marijuana on the award-winning rapper's tour bus.

But Terry Bourgeois also testified Monday he never saw Lil Wayne with a gun and didn't know whether one was on the bus in July 2007 when the 26-year-old rapper was arrested in Manhattan on gun charges.

A police officer testified last month she boarded Lil Wayne's bus after a concert because she smelled marijuana. She said that while on the bus she saw him try to hide a gun.

Defense lawyer Stacey Richman wants the charges dismissed. She says police falsely claimed they smelled marijuana so they could illegally board the bus.

The rapper (real name: Dwayne Carter) has pleaded not guilty and is free on $70,000 bail.

Barker Released From Hospital

Earlier this morning, Travis Barker told fans he was "healing up quickly" and would be out of the hospital "b4 you know it."

He wasn't kidding.

On Friday, exactly four weeks after surviving a private plane crash, the former Blink-182 drummer was released from Sherman Oaks' Grossman Burn Center, the Los Angeles-area facility where he has been receiving treatment since Sept. 29.

The 32-year-old rocker will continue his recovery at home and has requested privacy while he continues to recover from the second- and third-degree burns he sustained in the Sept. 19 Learjet crash.

Prior to his California return, Barker was treated at Georgia's Joseph M. Still Burn Center for 10 days. He relocated to his SoCal home base on a specially equipped bus staffed by medical personnel.

Like his friend and fellow surviving passenger Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein, Barker is expected to make a full recovery.

For his part, AM is slowly but surely resuming his precrash life, having triumphantly returned to the spinning scene this week by joining Jay-Z onstage for a Hollywood concert.

An investigation into the crash, which killed the other four onboard, is ongoing.

Eminem Will Return With 'Relapse'

Emimem's return to hip-hop is now official. After months of rumors, the Oscar-winning MC announced the title of his sixth album, "Relapse," Thursday night (October 15) during an on-air radio launch party for his book "The Way I Am." Eminem also introduced a new track, "I'm Having a Relapse."

"There's a lot of album titles floating around that are fake albums titles," Eminem told Shade 45 hosts DJ Kayslay and Angela Yee on Sirius Satellite Radio.

No release date has been confirmed, but the album is rumored to hit shelves before year's end.
Eminem's last release, 2005's "Curtain Call: The Hits," has sold 2.9 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. His last studio album was the previous year's "Encore," with sales of 5.1 million copies.

Representatives for Eminem's label, Interscope, were unavailable for comment.

U.S. Pop Charts

Despite a 69 percent drop-off in sales, rapper T.I. claimed a second week at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart Wednesday with "Paper Trail."

The set sold 177,000 copies in the States during the week ended October 12, according to Nielsen SoundScan, after debuting the previous week with 568,000.

Metallica's "Death Magnetic" climbed back from No. 5 to No. 2 despite a 24 percent sales slide to 66,000 copies. Marking a career high for charting and sales, Rise Against's "Appeal to Reason" debuted at No. 3 with 65,000. The punk rock band's last set, 2006's "The Sufferer and the Witness," bowed at No. 10 with 48,000.

Oscar-winning "American Idol" reject Jennifer Hudson's self-titled debut fell from the second rung to No. 4, on a 71 percent sales decrease to 63,000. Veteran British rock act Oasis scored its first top 10 set since 1997, as "Dig Out Your Soul" debuted at No. 5, moving 53,000 copies. The band's last studio set, 2005's "Don't Believe the Truth," began at No. 12 but with a larger opening sales week of 65,000. Oasis last reached the top tier when 1997's "Be Here Now" debuted and peaked at No. 2 with 152,000.

Bob Dylan notched his 17th top 10 album -- and 50th charting set overall -- on the Billboard 200 as the triple-disc collection "The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 -- Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased, 1989-2006" debuted at No. 6 with 50,000. It's the best chart position for any album in Dylan's "Bootleg" series.

Staying put at No. 7 for a third week straight, Kid Rock's "Rock N Roll Jesus" sold 48,000 (a 15 percent drop) in its 53rd week on the chart. Ne-Yo's "Year of the Gentleman" continued its decline, falling from No. 6 to No. 8 with 47,000 (a 33 percent slide).

Selling 44,000 copies, Tim McGraw's "Greatest Hits 3" debuted at No. 9. The success came despite McGraw's having denounced the project in a press release Tuesday. James Taylor's "Covers" closed out the top 10 on the album chart, slipping from No. 4 to No. 10 on a 54 percent sales hit to 44,000.

With 40,000, Sarah McLachlan's hits collection "Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan," bowed at No. 11.

Other debuts during the week included Senses Fail's "Life Is Not a Waiting Room" (No. 18, 24,000), Marco Antonia Solis' "No Molestar" (No. 19, 23,000), the Pretenders' "Break Up the Concrete" (No. 32, 16,000) and Tesla's "Forever More" (No. 33, 16,000).

At 6.41 million units, sales were down 14.5 percent from the previous week's sum and down 23.1 percent from the year-earlier period.

Madonna And Guy Ritchie Announce Their Divorce

Madonna and filmmaker Guy Ritchie will end their marriage after nearly eight years, the couple said in a joint statement Wednesday.

The couple asked the media to "maintain respect for their family at this difficult time," said the statement, e-mailed to The Associated Press by Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's publicist.

A financial settlement has not been agreed by the wealthy couple, who must also decide child custody issues.

In London, Ritchie's mother, Lady Amber Leighton, told reporters that the family wouldn't be making any statement.

Madonna and Ritchie, director of "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels," married in December 2000 at a Scottish castle. The couple have two children: Rocco, 8, and David Banda, 3, who was adopted from Malawi in 2006. Madonna also has a 12-year-old daughter, Lourdes, from her relationship with personal trainer Carlos Leon.

The couple are reportedly worth some $525 million, the bulk of that belonging to Madonna. Ritchie has an estimated $35 million fortune. They own homes in London, Los Angeles and New York, and a 1,200-acre retreat in Wiltshire, England.

Madonna is to perform concerts Wednesday and Thursday in Boston as her "Sticky and Sweet" tour continues. Ritchie's latest movie, "RocknRolla," recently opened to mixed reviews.

Lawyers said the couple would likely try to come to an agreement before heading to court.

"The judgment of the court would be to try and assess what they came in with and divide what they built up fairly equally," said David Allison, a lawyer with Family Law in Partnership, a London firm.

Ritchie's career has faltered during the marriage, while Madonna's songs, videos and concerts remain popular worldwide.

The needs of the couple's children will also be factored by the court, as they were in Britain's latest high-profile celebrity divorce, the battle between former Beatle Paul McCartney and model Heather Mills. In that case, McCartney and Mills fought over money and custody of their young daughter.

Mills received 24.3 million pounds in the divorce after four years of marriage.

"The needs of children figure quite highly, and that was one of the reasons Heather Mills got a gigantic amount of money, despite the fact that the bulk of Sir Paul's money was made before the marriage," Allison said.

The Sun newspaper splashed the split across its front page Wednesday under the headline: "We're Divorcing." It was the second time this year that the superstar couple's marriage has come under the media microscope. Over the summer, Madonna was linked — unfairly, she said — to the breakup of New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez and his ex-wife Cynthia.

Madonna was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.

Janet Jackson Cancels More Dates

The doctor has again ordered Janet Jackson to postpone a return to her "Rock Witchu" tour.

Jackson was scheduled to resume her tour Monday night at the Turning Stone Resort in New York after canceling a show over the weekend in Connecticut. A message posted on the resort and casino's Web site stated the show had been canceled at the advice of Jackson's doctor.

She has since postponed several shows, including Thursday night's show at Madison Square Garden in New York. Promoters say the dates will be rescheduled.

No one is saying what is ailing Jackson, who was rushed to a hospital in Montreal before a concert in late September.

Jackson is on her first North American tour in seven years.