The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced on Thursday that six additional groups would be inducted into the 2012 class, which had already been announced. The Blue Caps, the Comets, the Crickets, the Famous Flames, the Midnighters, and the Miracles will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 14, 2012, along with Guns N' Roses, the Beastie Boys, Donovan, Laura Nyro, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Small Faces/The Faces, Cosimo Matassa, Don Kirshner, Freddie King, Tom Dowd, and Gyln Johns.

The six additional groups were added to the 2012 inductees as a result of a special Rock Hall committee that identified situations in which groups should be recognized along with their lead singers, who were already inducted. In these groups' cases, that would be Gene Vincent of the Blue Caps (inducted 1998), Bill Haley of the Comets (inducted in 1987), Buddy Holly of the Crickets (inducted in 1986), James Brown of the Famous Flames (inducted in 1986), Hank Ballard of the Midnighters (inducted in 1990), and Smokey Robinson of the Miracles (inducted in 1987).

Joel Peresman, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said:

On the heels of her Super Bowl halftime performance on Sunday, Madonna announced the details of an extensive, upcoming world tour featuring more than 90 dates. One of those stops will be in Cleveland, on November 10 at the Quicken Loans Arena.

The last time Madonna performed in Cleveland was more than 20 years ago in 1987 on August 4 and 5 at the Richfield Coliseum for her "Who's That Girl" tour. This alone should help tickets sell rather quickly.

Madonna's tour will kick off on May 29 in Tel Aviv, Israel, but the North American leg won't start until August 28 in Philadelphia. The tour will support her new album, "MDNA", which will be released on March 26 by Live Nation Entertainment/Interscope Records.

Tickets for the Cleveland show will go on sale on March 5 and will be available from both Live Nation and Ticketmaster. A presale for fan club members and VIP packages will begin on February 28 at 10am.

Legendary blues, R&B and jazz singer Etta James died Friday in Riverside, California, at the age of 73. James suffered from leukemia, hepatits C and dementia.

Born Jamesetta Hawkins in 1938 in Los Angeles, James is perhaps best known for her 1961 hit "At Last". She continued to record throughout the decades, and is a member of the Rock & Roll, Blues, Rockabilly and Grammy halls of fame. She has also been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.

On Tuesday, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened up its new library and archives to the public. The opening of the building on Cuyahoga Community College's campus in Cleveland, which is not far from the Rock Hall itself, aims to give both scholars and fans access to stories behind the music.

The library's collection includes more than 3,500 books, 1,400 audio recordings, and 270 videos. The collection has been cataloged over the past few years, and is housed in the new $12 million, four-story building. CCC funded the building, which the library and archives share with the college's Center for Creative Arts. The Rock Hall financed construction and furnishing in the interior of its section of the building.

Andy Leach, director of the library and archives, says that thousands more books, recordings and videos will be added to the collection as new donations and previously stored items are cataloged.

Tuesday's opening was a rather low-key affair designed to give the public a chance to check out the library before a larger-scale grand opening on April 9.

Despite a highly successful and profitable music career, 50 Cent believes that he is headed for an early grave. The hip hop star posted a series of tweets in which he said that he was convinced that death was coming soon for him.

50 Cent said:

Kelly Clarkson made one of the fatal mistakes known to alienate and piss of her fans - she got involved in politics. Earlier today, the singer took to her Facebook wall to profess her love of Ron Paul, one of the Republican presidential candidates. She vowed to vote for him if he wins the GOP nomination, but lamented, "Too bad he probably won't."

Ron Paul is no fan of gays and a lot of other people who aren't white, rich, and male. Why Kelly couldn't see that endorsing him would anger her fans is unbeknownst to me.

Her fans reacted quickly to her endorsement, launching a torrential downpour of scorn on her. She responded to the criticism by saying:

"I am really sorry if I have offended anyone. Obviously that was not my intent. I do not support racism. I support gay rights, straight rights, women's rights, men's rights, white/black/purple/orange rights. I like Ron Paul because he believes in less government and letting the people (all of us) make the decisions and mold our country. That is all. Out of all of the Republican nominees, he's my favorite."

While many a musician is often asked about the tunes that have influenced their songwriting, it is not a question Paul McCartney ordinarily gets to answer – until now. Paul is about to offer a glimpse into “the songs which inspired the songs” with the upcoming release of a brand new album of those standards he grew up listening to in his childhood—plus two brand new McCartney compositions: the album, which is currently untitled, will be released on Hear Music/Concord Records on February 7th 2012.

With the help of Grammy Award-winning producer Tommy LiPuma and Diana Krall and her band—as well as guest appearances from Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder, McCartney’s new album is a deeply personal journey through classic American compositions that, in some cases, a young Paul first heard his father perform on piano at home. As authentic and daring a musical statement as he could make, this is the album Paul has been thinking about making for more than 20 years - and probably the last thing his fans are expecting. “In the end it was ‘Look, if I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it,” he says.

We all knew that at some point talks would start about making a movie about Amy Winehouse and her train wreck of a life, but who would have ever anticipated Lady Gaga being thrown into the mix? As strange as it sounds, Lady Gaga has expressed interest in playing Amy in a film biopic.

Amy's father, Mitch Winehouse, is reportedly all for Gaga playing the role of his daughter, but says she'll need to start working on her accent now if she wants to pull it off:

"I have heard that Lady Gaga is keen to play Amy in a film," he said. "I don't know what her English accent is like but it's not just an English accent she would have to perfect – it's an English-Cockney-Jewish accent so she better start practising now. But she would be great."

I can't see this ever really happening...but stranger things have been known to happen.

To put this concert review into some perspective, I will give you a little background about myself. I think I have been blessed with seeing some of the best tours that rock n roll has ever seen.

When Axl Rose takes the stage at the Covelli Center in Youngstown, Ohio, this evening, he'll have even more reason to smile -- he and his band, Guns N Roses have been elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. Along with GNR, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys, Donovan, Laura Nyro, The Small Faces, Freddie King, Cosimo Matassa, Tom Dowd, Glyn Johns, and producer Don Kirschner were all elected into the 2012 class.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony may be extra special this year, not only because it is returning to its home in Cleveland, but also due to the likelihood that the original GNR lineup could take the stage again for their first performance together in decades. The original lineup hasn't played together since 1990, and the Rock Hall induction ceremony has served to bring bands that have split up back together before, if only for one last performance together.

Tickets for the induction ceremony to be held on April 14, 2012, in Cleveland will go on sale to the public beginning December 17. No one can say for sure whether or not Axl and Slash will let go of their grudges and take the stage together, but there's a good chance it will happen.