Aerosmith subject of MTV tribute

Olympian news services

Originally published Wednesday, April 3, 2002

NEW YORK -- Kid Rock, Pink, Train, Shakira and Nas are among the performers who will walk this way to an MTV tribute to Aerosmith.

At "mtvICON: Aerosmith," the artists will perform some of the Boston-based rock band's hits from the past three decades. Sum 41, Ja Rule and Nelly will re-create the video for "Walk This Way," which teamed Aerosmith with Run-DMC in 1986.

The show also will feature testimonials from Mila Kunis of "That '70s Show" and Alicia Silverstone, who have appeared in Aerosmith videos, as well as Janet Jackson, who was the subject of the first "mtvICON" special a year ago.

For the finale, Aerosmith will take the stage.

The show will be taped on April 14 in Los Angeles and is scheduled to air on April 17 from 9 to 10:30 p.m. EST.

DENVER -- Nearly five years after his death, John Denver was inducted into the Colorado Performing Arts Hall of Fame.

The singer was named to the hall late Monday, joining Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Glenn Miller, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne and others.

"I think John would have been very happy. He always wanted his music to live on," said Annie Denver, his first wife and the inspiration for several of his most popular ballads.

She also was pleased with "Almost Heaven: Songs and Stories of John Denver," a musical that tells his life story. It opened last week at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and a performance preceded Monday's ceremony.

Annie Denver said the singer never got over the rejection of his music by many critics. "I think it hurt because he grew up as an outsider," she said.

Ron Deutschendorf, John Denver's brother, "came expecting to be disappointed (by the musical) and I was pleasantly surprised."

"People never understood John," he said. Some Vietnam War opponents thought Denver was ambiguous about the conflict. "John was anti-Vietnam War. He just wasn't anti-American. When people confronted him about the war, he would say, 'I have a brother over there. Don't tell me about it,' " said Deutschendorf, a Vietnam veteran.

Denver died in October 1997 at age 53, when his experimental plane crashed off the California coast. He's best-known for such songs as "Sunshine on My Shoulders," "Country Roads" and "Rocky Mountain High."

NEW YORK -- Who says youth rules on prime-time television?

Bob Barker, age 78, begs to differ. After a 30th anniversary special for "The Price Is Right" did unexpectedly well in the ratings this winter, CBS ordered six more prime-time shows.

Each of the specials will feature contestants and an audience made up primarily of U.S. armed forces members. The first spotlights the Navy, Barker said Monday. No air date has been set.

The veteran game-show host is basking in his own newfound youth appeal. Every year around spring break, "The Price Is Right" studio audience is flooded with college students.

"It boggles my mind," he said. "I am so grateful."

With the game on the air since 1972, the students don't know a world without "The Price Is Right." He suspects the familiarity is comforting to young people thrust into a new setting.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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