Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
Levon Helm will be honored at this year’s Grammy Awards. The Recording Academy announced Wednesday that Elton John and Mumford & Sons will be joined on stage by T Bone Burnett, Mavis Staples, Zac Brown and Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes in a performance of the “The Weight” at Sunday’s awards ceremony in Los Angeles. “Can you think of a song that fits [more]?” said Ken Ehrlich, producer of the Grammy Awards. “Philosophically it fits the moment.” The drummer and singer for The Band, Helm was born May 26, 1940, near the Phillips County town of Elaine and grew up on his father’s cotton farm in Turkey Scratch near Marvell. He died of complications from cancer last year at age 71. The Band’s 1968 debut, Music From Big Pink, and its follow-up,
The Band, remain landmark albums of the era, and songs such as “The Weight” and “Cripple Creek” have become rock standards. Ehrlich said the lineup of performers is a representation of Helm’s diverse sound. They’ll sing “The Weight” when the show has its in memoriam tribute, which honors musicians who died last year. The 55th annual Grammy Awards will air live on CBS.
m Bruce Willis said he’s against new gun-control laws that could infringe on Second Amendment rights. The Die Hard star also dismissed any link between Hollywood shootouts and real-life gun violence. “I think that you can’t start to pick apart anything out of the Bill of Rights without thinking that it’s all going to become undone,” Willis said in a recent interview while promoting his latest film, A
Good Day To Die Hard. “If you take one out or change one law, then why wouldn’t they take all your rights away from you?” The 57-year-old actor said he believes “the real topic is diminished” when observers link Hollywood entertainment with high-profile mass shootings like those last year in Connecticut and Colorado. “No one commits a crime because they saw a film. There’s nothing to support that,” Willis said. He added that he doesn’t see how additional legislation could prevent future mass shootings. “It’s a difficult thing and I really feel bad for those families,” he said. “I’m a father. And it’s just a tragedy. But I don’t know how you legislate insanity. I don’t know what you do about it. I don’t even know how you begin to stop that.”