Folk singer and guitarist Richie Havens, who opened the 1969 Woodstock music festival with a legendary and lengthy set that helped make him famous, died Monday at age 72. 

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Richie Havens in concert in 1973.

His family says Havens died of a heart attack, and that a public memorial will be announced later. A statement on his official website posted before Havens' death says that the singer never fully recovered from kidney surgery he underwent several years ago.

His career spans decades, but he may be most famous for his role as the first performer at Woodstock. He launched the three-day festival with more than two hours of music, even running out of songs and thus improvising the song "Freedom" based on the old spiritual "Motherless Child."

Steve Davidowitz, who co-wrote Havens' 1999 autobiography, "They Can't Hide Us Anymore," tells TODAY that the book title was what Havens said while looking out at the enormous Woodstock crowd.

"The promoters of the event actually appealed to Richie to perform for 20 minutes or so, because no one wanted to be first," Davidowitz told TODAY. "Instead of 20 minutes, the crowd kept him on stage for more than two hours with their cheers and demands for more."

Many Woodstock fans noticed that Havens didn't have his top row of teeth while performing at the festival. After the event, and with the encouragement of Johnny Carson, who had the singer on "The Tonight Show" more than a dozen times, the singer bought dental implants.

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Richie Havens in 2009.

After Woodstock, Havens started his own record label, Stormy Forest. He also worked as an actor, appearing in the London stage version of The Who's "Tommy" and in the 1977 Richard Pryor movie "Greased Lightning," about the first black stock-car driver to win an upper-tier NASCAR race. 

"Richie Havens was gifted with one of the most recognizable voices in popular music," Havens' agent said in a statement. "His fiery, poignant, soulful singing style has remained unique and ageless since his historic appearance at Woodstock in 1969. For four decades, Havens used his music to convey passionate messages of brotherhood and personal freedom."

Havens was always grateful for his fans. "From Woodstock to The Isle of Wight to Glastonbury to the Fillmore Auditorium to Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall, Richie played the most legendary music festivals that ever were, and most of the world’s greatest concert venues," the statement went on to say. "But even when performing in a Greenwich Village coffeehouse or a small club or regional theater, he was eternally grateful that people in any number turned up each time to hear him sing. More than anything, he feels incredibly blessed to have met so many of you along the way."

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Actor Lou Gossett Jr. was Havens’ co-writer on one of his most popular songs, “Handsome Johnny,” which was released in 1967 and was also part of Havens' Woodstock set. In 2001, the song was covered by reggae musician Peter Tosh, and in 2002, by The Flaming Lips.

Havens also had a 1971 hit with his cover of The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun."

"Working with Richie to write his book -- a very good book, one with no curse words, no sexual exploits, but a book that shared how he self-taught himself virtually everything ... was the single most enjoyable professional experience of my life," Davidowitz told TODAY. "Besides that, he was a great friend,  an amazing,  fantastic performer, a truly warmhearted, giving human being. "

After hearing of his death, fans began to share memories of Havens on The Roots Agency's Facebook page.

"His legacy will live on forever," wrote Reese Karlan.

Wrote Robert Rothstein: "Richie Havens was a great ambassador of peace and humanity. His voice was unique."

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Former Divinyls singer Chrissy Amplett was last month named as one of Australia's top 10 singers of all time. The 1991 hit "I Touch Myself" climbed the charts in both Britain and the United States.

CANBERRA, Australia -- Chrissy Amphlett, who fronted the Australian group the Divinyls best known for the worldwide hit "I Touch Myself", has died in New York at the age of 53 after battling breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Her husband and former Divinyls drummer Charley Drayton said Amphlett died in her sleep, surrounded by close friends and family.

"Chrissy's light burns so very brightly," Drayton said in a statement posted on the Australian Recording Industry Association's website.

"Hers was a life of passion and creativity; she always lived it to the fullest. With her force of character and vocal strength she paved the way for strong, sexy, outspoken women."

Amphlett, who founded the Divinyls in 1980 in Sydney, was best known for her performances as a pouting, brash singer in her signature school uniform with fishnet stockings.

The Divinyls recorded five studio albums between 1982 and 1996 when they split up. The 1991 hit "I Touch Myself" climbed the charts in both Britain and the United States.

Last month Amphlett was named as one of Australia's top 10 singers of all time.

"Chrissy expressed hope that her worldwide hit "I Touch Myself" would be utilized to remind all women to perform annual breast examinations," Drayton said.

Amphlett also acted on stage and in film, and starred alongside Oscar winner Russell Crowe in the Australian production of the musical "Blood Brothers" in 1988, playing the mother of Crowe's character.

In 2007, Amphlett said she had multiple sclerosis and in 2010 announced she was also fighting breast cancer.

"Unfortunately the last 18 months have been a real challenge for me, having breast cancer and MS and all the new places that will take you," she wrote on Facebook in March 2012.

"My illnesses have really exhausted this little body of mine that I have thrown from one end of a stage to another and performed thousands of shows."

Crowe led the tributes to Amphlett on Twitter.

"Dear Chrissie, the last time I saw you was in the Botanic Gardens, loving life and reciting verse. That's how I'll remember you, your boy, R," wrote Crowe.

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 22, 2013 5:56 AM EDT

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A musical manuscript of "California Girls" is one of the Beach Boys items to be auctioned.

A massive collection of Beach Boys memorabilia is up for auction, with goodies including what seems to be the band's first royalty check for $990, handwritten scores for hits like "Good Vibrations," personal photos and letters and dozens of signed contracts. The collection was discovered at a Florida storage facility and was sold unopened to a buyer after a long run of missed storage payments, the The Associated Press reports. The buyer found quite the surprise upon opening the boxes.

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The items are being sold as one unit and are expected to bring in several million dollars. "We thought it would be a crime to break it up," said Ted Owen of the Fame Bureau, the London-based firm leading the auction. Owen touts the collection as unique because of the handwritten scores that showcase Brian Wilson's arranging and songwriting talents.

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"What's striking is just how creative and detailed it is," Owen said. "You get the notes, then you move into the music sheets, he does the horn construction, the violin construction, you see the song development. This is right from the beginning --  well thought-out melodies, well thought-out harmonies. It's an inside view of the construction of songs, and his genius, really."

The items appear to have been placed in the storage unit for safekeeping in the mid-Seventies by a relative of a band member. The Beach Boys attempted to secure legal ownership of the memorabilia, but Owen said the archives were ruled a fair find and the rights are all clear for sale. The band is not too thrilled about the situation.

"I can confirm that the band is aware of the auction," Beach Boys representative Jay Jones said. "The band will not be available for interviews in regards to this matter." The auction ends May 15th. 

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Storm Thorgerson stands next to his album cover artwork for Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" at a 2008 art exhibit.

"His ending was peaceful and he was surrounded by family and friends," Thorgerson's family said in a statement. "He had been ill for some time with cancer though he had made a remarkable recovery from his stroke in 2003."

Pink Floyd members remembered him on the band's official website. Drummer Nick Mason described Thorgerson as a "scourge of management, record companies and album sleeve printers; champion of bands, music, great ideas and high, sometimes infuriatingly high, standards."

Mason also described Thorgerson as a "tireless worker right up to the end," saying, "Two days before he passed away, and by then completely exhausted, he was still demanding approval for art work and haranguing his loyal assistants."

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He went on to praise the designer as a "dear friend to all of us, our children, our wives (and the exes). Endlessly intellectual and questioning. Breathtakingly late for appointments and meetings, but once there invaluable for his ideas, humour, and friendship."

Pink Floyd lead singer David Gilmour wrote on the band's site that he first met Thorgerson when the two were young teenagers.

"We would gather at Sheep's Green, a spot by the river in Cambridge, and Storm would always be there holding forth, making the most noise, bursting with ideas and enthusiasm," Gilmour wrote. "Nothing has ever really changed. He has been a constant force in my life, both at work and in private, a shoulder to cry on and a great friend. The artworks that he created for Pink Floyd from 1968 to the present day have been an inseparable part of our work. I will miss him."

His work with Pink Floyd, especially the prism reflecting a rainbow that graces the "Dark Side of the Moon" album cover, was Thorgerson's most famous. But he also created album covers for bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC and Muse.

In 2011, Thorgerson told Rolling Stone that the idea of the prism related to Pink Floyd's traveling light show.

"They hadn’t really celebrated their light show," he told the magazine. "That was one thing. The other thing was the triangle. I think the triangle, which is a symbol of thought and ambition, was very much a subject of Roger (Waters)'s lyrics. 

Thorgerson is survived by his mother, Vanji, his son Bill, his wife Barbie Antonis and her two children Adam and Georgia.

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Neil Diamond is pleased that his 43-year-old song "Sweet Caroline" has been used as a way for the country to rally around Bostonians in the wake of the Marathon bombings. 

Sports teams including the New York Yankees, Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Dodgers have picked up on the longstanding Boston tradition of playing the song at Red Sox games, and have been playing it themselves in a show of support. And Diamond, the song's original singer and songwriter, has been taking notice on his Twitter feed. 

"There is a lot of comfort that music can offer," he told the Associated Press. "In this particular situation, I’d much rather it not have happened than for ‘Sweet Caroline’ to become part of it. But it’s obviously offering comfort to people and I feel good about that."

The song was written in 1969 with 11-year-old Caroline Kennedy in mind. "I wrote it in a hotel in Memphis, Tenn.," Diamond said. "And I think there's a little bit of God in that song. I always have felt that. There's no accounting for what can happen to a song. But this one had something special to it.”

Diamond isn't alone; other musicians have found a different way to help assist Bostonians. Specifically, Boston group Dropkick Murphys have raised nearly $100,000 in a matter of hours for the marathon bombing victims, according to their Twitter feed.

The funds have come from the sale of a T-shirt on the band's website which reads "For Boston" on the front against the city's skyline, and on the back features the city's seal and a note: "Thank you, to all who purchased this shirt. All proceeds go to the victims and families of the Boston Marathon bombings. Love, Dropkick Murphys."

The T-shirt is still on sale, and costs $25-$27 depending on size.

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Rihanna.

Get well soon, Rihanna! The 25-year-old singer has had to cancel her "Diamonds World Tour" show in Houston, Texas on Monday, April 15 due to illness.

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Live Nation released a statement on Monday (via The Associated Press ) saying Rihanna is unable to perform "as a result of illness." Fans have been told to hang onto their tickets to use at a rescheduled show.

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Last month, the "Diamonds" singer was forced to cancel two dates after contracting laryngitis. She issued a heartfelt apology to her fans on Twitter, saying, "This is the hardest thing for me to deal with! I feel like we've been waiting on this day forever, and I'm hurt that I let you down. I hate disappointing people that never ever let me down!! I'm so embarrassed about this! Thank you for your prayers and well wishes!"

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Rihanna has yet to tweet a personal announcement to her fans after canceling her April 15 show. She is next scheduled to perform in Dallas, Texas on April 16.

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Evie Branan woke from a coma saying she wanted to see a Bob Seger concert. And so she did.

Evie Branan, 79, woke from a five-year coma in 2011 and had one thought: She wanted to go to a Bob Seger concert. Thursday night in Michigan, she got her wish.

"I loved it," Branan told Mlive.com of the concert at the Palace at Auburn Hills. "It was fantastic."

Branan, who'd seen five Seger concerts before her coma, suffered a massive stroke in 2007 and was in a care center for years, unable to speak.

After she hit her head in 2011, she awoke, and Branan told NBC News, "The first thing I said was, 'I want to go to a Bob Seger concert."

Administrators at Willowbrook Manor, the care center where Branan had been staying, teamed up with Seger's employees to make the concert happen. Branan didn't just get to attend, she met Seger, his band, and family, and was even greeted by complete strangers at the concert who'd heard her story, Mlive reports.

Branan's taste in music may seem young for her age -- though Seger himself is 67 -- but she complains that not everyone in Willowbrook Manor is quite so with it.

"They're too old here," she told NBC of the Willowbrook men. "They've got one foot on a banana peel and one on the grave."

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Johnny Rotten was acting pretty, well, rotten. The former lead singer of the Sex Pistols (real name John Lydon) got into hot water after telling a female host on the Australian talk show "The Project" on Channel Ten to "shut up when a man is talking" when she cut in with a question about the death of Margaret Thatcher.

Oh yeah, he went there.

(Note: Brief language, bleeped out, in video.)

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"Hey, hey missus, shut up, whoever you are, shut up, shut up, shut up," Rotten told anchor Carrie Bickmore. "Now listen, when a man is talking do not interrupt."

Bickmore tried her best to play it off and continue with the interview, but the rocker didn't let it slide, telling her, "Stop it. You sound like one of them dreadful loud birds I don't like."

She then proceeded to call him offensive, and Johnny responded with, "So are you when you do that. You have to learn what manners and respect is."

After the interview was over, Bickmore said the celeb was "d--- rude" and fellow reporter Andrew Rochford added, "He was a flat-out sexist, misogynist pig."

The singer's comments quickly spread and attracted backlash in Australia, but he argued his defense by saying, "It's quite clear to me I'm not a sexist and I'm not a misogynist," and added that if someone interrupts "you are going to have to say something at some point, whether it be male or female."

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Rapper Jay-Z is using his art to respond to criticism about his and wife Beyonce's recent trip to Cuba on their fifth anniversary. The tune released Thursday, "Open Letter," includes lines such as "I done turned Havana to Atlanta" and "I'm in Cuba, I love Cubans. This Communist talk is so confusing when it's from China, the very mic that I'm using."

The song also includes lines that imply the White House had a hand in giving him and his wife the clearance to travel to Havana. For example: "Boy from the hood, but got White House clearance" and "Obama said, 'Chill, you gonna get me impeached.' "

During Thursday's White House briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney denied the song's suggestion that there was any White House involvement in Jay-Z and Beyonce's trip.

"I guess nothing rhymes with Treasury, because Treasury offers and gives licenses for travel, as you know, and the White House has nothing to do with it," he said in response to a reporter's question. "The White House, from the president on down, had nothing to do with anybody's personal -- anybody's travel to Cuba. ... The president did not communicate with Jay-Z over this trip."

"Open Letter" is available online at LifeAndTimes.com. (Warning: The song is not for those with ears sensitive to curse words.)

On Tuesday, the Department of the Treasury confirmed that the superstar couple's trip to Cuba was sanctioned. "It is our understanding that the travelers in question traveled to Cuba pursuant to an educational exchange trip," the Treasury's assistant secretary for legislative affairs wrote.

While in Havana, the famous pair dined at La Guarida, walked through colonial Old Havana and took photos with schoolchildren. 

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Kanye West is being accused of copyright infringement.

Did Kanye West mine another artist's work for "Gold Digger" and forget to tell anybody?

That's what the children of late Thunder & Lightning musician David Pryor claim in a multimillion-dollar copyright infringement lawsuit filed this week against West, in which they allege that he wrongfully sampled their dad's "get down" chants from the 1974 tune "Bumpin' Bus Stop." 

"Gold Digger," which most prominently borrowed from Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman," was a single off of West's 2005 album Late Registration--and Pryor's kids admit that the timing of their complaint seems a bit off. 

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"The complaint makes clear that 'Gold Digger' was released in 2005 while David Pryor was in a convalescent hospital suffering from a host of severe mental and physical disabilities, including senile dementia, cerebrovascular disease, prostate cancer, epilepsy, and diabetes," attorney Courtney M. Coates said in a statement obtained by E! News. 

"He died in May 2006 from cerebrovascular disease without having any knowledge that his voice was being exploited by other artists for commercial profit. After David Pryor died, [daughter Trena and son Lorenzo] discovered Pryor's song in late 2010, but they could not secure rights to the song until Pryor's estate was probated and a final determination of heirs was made in 2011. In 2012, the family obtained all of the necessary information required to file this substantial lawsuit against Kanye and others." 

View the lawsuit 

Coates states that the family is aware of 50 instances of Pryor's vocals being sampled in recordings and they are "putting all record companies on notice that they will be sued if they continue to steal and exploit David Pryor's vocal performance in 'Bumpin' Bus Stop' without the family's permission." 

The lawsuit, filed in L.A. Superior Court, asked for "millions of dollars" in damages from West, Roc-A-Fella Records, UMG's Island Def Jam and other corporate defendants, as well as an injunction preventing further unauthorized use of David Pryor's work. 

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Listen to the two tracks: 

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PBS

Justin Timberlake performs at the White House on April 9.

Justin Timberlake left his suit and tie on for a performance at the White House on Tuesday, but he wasn't singing his new hit single.

The pop star offered up a fine cover of Otis Redding's ("Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay" as part of a tribute to Memphis soul music for the White House's continuing "In Performance" series.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama clearly enjoyed the rendition from the front row as they bobbed their heads and sang along with Timberlake.

"These songs get us on the dance floor," the president said. "They get stuck in our heads. We go back over them again and again. And they've played an important part in our history."

Singers Ben Harper, Mavis Staples, Sam Moore and Queen Latifah were among others who performed. The first lady also led a workshop for students to highlight the importance of Memphis music.

PBS will air a concert special from the event on April 16.

Shawn Thew / EPA

Justin Timberlake, right, fist bumps soul legend Sam Moore along with another legend, Mavis Staples, at the White House on Tuesday.

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What's former '80s teen movie star Molly Ringwald been up to lately? Sure, there's her recurring stint on "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," and she even popped up to co-host the fourth hour of TODAY in March. But her latest gig returns her to an art form she first visited at age six -- music.

As the daughter of a jazz pianist, Ringwald was immersed in music from an early age, and her "I Wanna Be Loved By You" album recorded with her dad and his Fulton Street Jazz Band when she was still in grade school was apparently just the start. Now, she's got a set of new songs, compiled on "Except Sometimes" -- and they include one surprising cover: "The Breakfast Club" song, "Don't You (Forget About Me)," which was a No. 1 hit for Simple Minds.

For those who aren't aware, Ringwald was one of the stars of 1985's "Breakfast Club." 

She told New York's Vulture column that she recorded the album a few years ago but didn't move forward with it, because it was right after "Breakfast Club" director John Hughes died. "And he was in my mind a lot. And, I don't know, I felt like I wanted to sing a tribute to him," she said. "I feel l've evolved. And I think the song represents that in a way. It's the same song but imagined in a different way."

Ringwald's version is much slower, jazzier (no surprise) and has pretty much zero 1980s musical connections, so it might not be the nostalgia trip some listeners are expecting. 

Still, says Ringwald, the song "really has fond memories for me," she added. "I can’t really say that I ever really listened to the lyrics that much. I just remember the sound of it and liking it and associating it with the movie and the experience. So it was really interesting to actually sing the lyrics. A lot of people that have heard it say the same thing: They never knew what the lyrics were until they heard my version of it."

Check out a snippet of Ringwald's version in the video above. And for those who can't get enough, she's on tour with select dates around the U.S. in April and May.

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