In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water album, Art Garfunkel shed some light onto the duo's career heights and sometimes tenuous partnership.

Garfunkel was asked if as Paul Simon's work became full of more profound imagery, he ever asked Simon to explain what the songs literally meant. Garfunkel explained, "No, our friendship doesn't work that way. My sense of an artist at work does not allow for such feedback. I give him his province. If he's the writer, he's allowed to be inscrutable without me challenging him and saying, 'I can't sing it if I don't know what I'm singing about!' Never mind that stuff. He's a first-rate writer. I give him the right to be difficult or easy or whatever."

He went on to explain the pure joy of record making -- a concept which has seemingly lost it's luster with the younger digital-age musicians: "I was so wildly in love with the making of those things. If you think they were fun to buy and collect, you should've made one. The day you finish it and then you listen in the control room at the console to your hard work over the many months . . . you have fussed over every detail of every minute of all of the songs, and you go, 'Okay, there it is,' and you love it, and then they send you the jacket, and you color approve it. . . the liner notes are done, and you say, 'Send me a box of 25 copies, so I'll get 'em before the retailer gets it,' and you open the box, and there's your hard work. It's such a fabulous American invention, the record album."

We caught up with Garfunkel and asked him why in all of the years, he never did a covers album featuring Simon's solo songs -- which would undoubtedly be a smash: "Just because Garfunkel did Simon? What if I out-did Paul's version -- wouldn't that hurt the friendship? Y'know, real life is more important than hits. Mind you, he gets the writer's royalty and the publishing."

Simon & Garfunkel tour dates (subject to change):
April 24 - New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at Fairgrounds Racecourse
April 29 - Vancouver, BC - GM Place
May 1 - Edmonton, AB - Rexall Place
May 2 - Calgary, AB - Saddledome
May 4 - Saskatoon, SK - Credit Union Centre
May 5 - Winnipeg, MB - MTS Centre
May 7 - Fargo, ND - Fargodome
May 8 - Saint Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center
May 9 - Madison, WI - Kohl Center Arena
May 10 - Detroit, MI - TBA
May 12 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre
May 14 - Ottawa, ON - Scotiabank Place
May 15 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre

Kiss is partnering with E1 Entertainment in Canada to produce and all new comedic TV series, according to The Canadian Press. Both Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley will serve as executive producers on the project. Stanley said in a press statement, "Coupling E1's successes and ingenuity with the global force of Kiss guarantees an express pass into the homes of our youngest Kiss Army members with a show of superior quality."

Stanley admits that he's never surprised by how deep Kiss' fan devotion continues to run worldwide: "It really for me, resoundingly once again, I guess validates for me why this band exists. It's not a tepid recreation of the past, it's really an ageless beast that dominates at will. It's timeless."

There's been no title, plot line, or premiere date announced for the new Kiss TV show.

Kiss kicks off its next series of dates on May 1st in Sheffield, England.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and producer Don Was talked about the upcoming expanded reissue of the Rolling Stones' 1972 watershed release, Exile On Main Street. The reissue will feature four outtakes from the original sessions -- including one called "Following The River" which Jagger recently wrote lyrics to and recorded the song's first set of vocals. Jagger explained the process, telling Rolling Stone, "I just started from nothing on that. The core tape of it was the piano and the drums, bass, and guitar. There was no top line or lyric. I started from scratch -- I mean, that's what I do, and I've done it many times before. And it's daunting in the beginning, but after a while you get into it."

Richards was asked if he felt that the legendary basement studio at Nellcote, his chateau on the French Riviera where much of the album was recorded, played a crucial part in Exile's earthy sound: "Oh, definitely. That was a pretty unique way of recording. We did a lot of work on the stuff when we took it to L.A., 'cause we did a lot of overdubs and stuff on it there, but there was something about the rhythm section sound down there -- maybe it's the concrete, or maybe it's the dirt, but it has a certain sound to it that you couldn't replicate if you tried."

When pressed about the band heading into the studio in the near future, Richards joked: "Hey, you're asking me? You better ask Mick that one (laughs). But my feeling is that, generally, people get itchy at a certain time. I'm sort of waiting for a phone call, you know?"

Although some fans might scoff at the fact that Jagger and Richards added overdubs to the newly discovered tracks -- when producer Don Was was asked to confirm a rumor that former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor took part in the new sessions, he said: "I'm not saying it's not true. I'm simply not going to deny."

Peter Wolf who's opened for the Stones several times with the J. Geils Band, says that their importance in rock is pretty much unparalleled: "They're a continuum of a great tradition, and they help define rock-and-roll. They help re-energize rock-and-roll. When you look at, listen to bands today, their effect is still so profound. And to me, they've become as important to rock-and-roll as, one would say, Duke Ellington or Count Basie is to jazz. They're just great contributors to the art form, and the aspect that they're able to gather together and do it, it's something that is of value."

Coming on March 29th is The Very Best Of Free & Bad Company Featuring Paul Rodgers. The 15-track British import will also be released as a 26-track expanded iTunes version featuring solo tracks along with those by the Firm -- Rodgers' 1980's band with Jimmy Page, and the Law -- his 1990's short-lived team up with the Faces and Who drummer Kenney Jones. The full 26-track online version marks the first time Rodgers' entire career has been chronicled on one collection.

The full iTunes tracklist for The Very Best Of Free & Bad Company Featuring Paul Rodgers is: Bad Company: "Can't Get Enough," "Rock Steady," "Feel Like Makin' Love," "Rock N' Roll Fantasy," "Run With The Pack," "Seagull," "Shooting Star" Free: "My Brother Jake," "Be My Friend," "The Hunter," "Little Bit Of Love," "Fire And Water," and "All Right Now," "Satisfaction Guaranteed" (The Firm); "Muddy Water Blues (acoustic)" (Paul Rodgers); "Soul Of Love" (Paul Rodgers); "Radioactive (12" Mix) (The Firm); "Live In Peace (Live) (The Firm); "The Hunter" (Live from BBC) (Paul Rodgers), "Saving Grace" (Paul Rodgers); "Midnight Moonlight Lady" (Live at Wembley 1985) (The Firm); "Over You" (Paul Rodgers); "Laying Down The Law" and "Missing You Bad Girl" (The Law).

Rodgers told us that during his stints in all four bands -- and on his own -- the one musical inspiration has always been the blues: "You used to look around and think, 'God, is there no other way?', you know? And then I heard these blues guys singing about jumping on the first train smoking, and heading out of town, you know, and my friends can have my room. And I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if you could just do that?' And that drew me to playing and singing blues. And it's actually what I did, and I'm still doing."

Paul Rodgers tour dates (subject to change):
June 5 - Temecula, CA - Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Fest Lake Skinner
June 17 - Lemoore, CA - Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino
June 18 Santa Ynez, CA - Chumash Casino
June 25, 26 - Walker, MN - Northern Lights Casino
July 4 - Pennsauken, NJ - Cooper River Park

Ringo Starr revealed that for his latest album, Y Not, he actually recorded the songs from the ground up by creating the tracks alone on synthesizer. Ringo mainly recorded the new collection at his home in L.A. taking a more active production role than in recent years.

We asked him what prompted the welcomed twist on record making:"Y'know the creative brief was that I was sitting at home with nothing better to do in L.A., and I had Pro-Tools and I had a few synthesizers in one of the bedrooms we sort of transffered into a studio -- 'cause you can do 'em anywhere now. I just started putting stuff down. Playing the synthesizer to get rhythm pattern and notes, of course, and I would play drums to whatever I did. And that would give it the color through the verses and the choruses. It would just sort of split it up into -- 'this could be a song.' But I had no words, I had no melody."

Y Not -- which is Ringo's highest-charting album since 1976 -- features Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Benmont Tench, Billy Squier, Joss Stone, Van Dyke Parks, Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, Richard Marx, Dave Stewart, and Ben Harper.

Ringo Starr and his All Star Band tour dates (subject to change):
June 24, 25 - Niagara Falls, ON - Fallsview Casino
June 26 - Bethel, NY - Bethel Woods Center
June 27 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
June 30 - Westbury, NY - Westbury Theatre
July 2 - Easton, PA - State Theatre
July 3 - Atlantic City, NY - Caesar's Circus Maximus
July 5 - New Brunswick, NJ - State Theatre
July 6 - Lancaster, PA - American Music Theatre
July 7 - New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall -- Ringo's 70th Birthday
July 8 - Lancaster, PA - American Theatre
July 10 - Atlanta, GA - Chastain Park
July 11 - Durham NC - Durham Performing Arts Center
July 13 - Clearwater, Fl - Ruth Eckerd Hall
July 15 - Hollywood, Fl - Hard Rock Arena
July 17 - Saint Augustine, FL - St Augustine Amphitheatre
July 20 - Cleveland, OH - City Lights Pavilion
July 21 - Canandaigua NY - Sands PAC
July 23 - Windsor, ON - Caesars
July 24 - Hammond, IN - Horseshoe Casino
July 28 - Calgary, AB - Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
July 31 - Woodinville, WA - Chateau St Michelle
August 5 - Rancho Mirage, CA - The Show At Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa
August 6 - San Diego, CA - Humphrey's Concerts By The Bay
August 7 - Los Angeles, Greek Theatre