Tours

Vocal problems have forced Jordin Sparks to temporarily withdraw from Alicia Keys' tour and cancel all performances for the rest of the month, a representative for the "American Idol" champ said Monday. "All of her April activities have been postponed or canceled so she can take care of her voice properly," 19/Jive Records spokeswoman Wendy Washington said. The 18-year-old singer, whose hits include "Tattoo" and "No Air," was scheduled to be the opening act on Keys' tour, which kicked off over the weekend in Hampton, Va. Washington said that in addition to missing the tour's first month, Sparks was forced to cancel a planned performance at the Earth Day Network & Green Apple Festival concert in Washington, D.C. Washington said Sparks is expected to rejoin Keys' tour in May.

The BURLY, young marketer in the crisp white shirt rose to speak, and 20 seated passengers leaned forward to catch his every word. Grinning broadly, Alex Godoy described the house just outside the tinted window. "Every price is negotiable," he reminded his audience. Then he uttered the magic phrase: "OK, everybody, off the bus!"

I just jogged past a bald guy carrying a tray of Starbucks coffee on Rodeo Drive. I slow down. Wasn't that Ben Kingsley? Nah. Gandhi wouldn't be schlepping coffee around on the street. A few blocks away, I slow to a trot again, at the corner of Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard, when I spot a gorgeous blond woman with big hair and a low neckline. Isn't she on "Desperate Housewives"? No, probably not. I'm on a group jog of L.A.'

For months, as the entertainment world revolved around them, as desperate fans speed-dialed voting lines, as celebrity-driven tabloids and websites fought in mortal combat for every scrap of information about them, as television, music and Broadway rebuilt their firmaments in their wake, the contestants of "American Idol" toiled in the show's protective cocoon-like bubble. "We were in a white room for three months," said Irish songstress Carly Smithson. But now, at last, their duties on the show over, America's Top 10 gladiators of competitive singing are leaving the bubble and taking their songs directly to the millions of "Idol" fans as they prepare for the 49-city "American Idols Live!"

Bon Jovi's refrain for 2008 could well be "have a nice payday," as the veteran New Jersey rock band topped Billboard's tally of the year's most lucrative concert tours worldwide. The group attracted nearly 2.2 million fans and grossed $210.6 million, according to Billboard's Boxscore, outpacing their fellow Jerseyites Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's "Magic" tour, which raked in $204.5 million during the period of Nov. 14, 2007 through Nov. 11, 2008 covered by the magazine's survey.

An early front-runner for the 2007 Odd Couple Pairing of the Year award has emerged with word that filmmaker David Lynch and '60s folk-rock hero Donovan will team for three free appearances this month. They'll make stops Jan. 12 at Lincoln Center in New York, Jan. 14 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and conclude their brief tour Jan. 21 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

There's "Something So Strong" about New Zealand rock band Crowded House after all: The group that disbanded a decade ago is re-forming for a new album and tour that will begin at this year's Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Although most of the headlines regarding the latest Coachella talent lineup announced Monday focused on the one-night-only reunion of rock-rap group Rage Against the Machine, fans have been buzzing worldwide about the resurrection of Crowded House.

Give credit (or blame?) to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: David Lee Roth is back with Van Halen and planning to tour. The mercurial Roth, who officially left Van Halen on April Fool's Day in 1985, will reunite with his old band for a tour that kicks off in North Carolina in early May and includes June stops in L.A., Orange and San Diego counties, according to sources in the concert industry. Joining Roth will be guitar hero Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen.

WHEN Zubin Mehta first conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1961, he says, he and the orchestra discovered they were both 25 years old. "At a reception after the concert, the orchestra's president said in his speech, 'I hope we will turn 50 together,' " recalls Mehta. "Fifty turned to 60, and now the orchestra and I are 70 together." Named the Israel Philharmonic's music advisor in 1969, the Bombay-born, Yiddish-speaking conductor became music director for life in 1981.

During the dusty Texas summers of his youth, Don Henley worked in his father's auto parts store and learned the vagaries of fan belts, batteries, spark plugs, tailpipes and mufflers. His father taught the future rock star plenty, and, when the family business started to collapse, one of the lessons was to recognize who was to blame. "My father was a small-business man after he got out of World War II," Henley said. "He despised chains, the big guys, who eventually helped put him out of business."