As promised here is part two of our rewind featuring the top stories for the first third of 2002. The third and final part will be posted in a few days. –aG  
 

May 

Our first news article of May was a report on a new Fox TV series where wanna be pop stars would battle it out to become a “pop star”. The series of course was American Idol and it was indeed a hit. 
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We had a bit of fun with this next one. A tabloid caught Britney Spears smoking a cigarette and snapped some photos of it. The funny part is the fact that Spears has  been preaching to her fans for years about the evils of smoking, drinking and premarital sex. While there have been reports of Britney drinking we have yet to see any photos of her caught in the act of premarital sex!  

That same “silly news” report brought us a nice little tid bit about Slipknot. It appeared that some Slipknot fans, also known as “maggots,” began harassing a British association of lady knitters known as The Knitting & Crochet Guild because the knitting group calls their quarterly newsletter “Slip knot,” a common term in sewing. The maggots unleashed their fury on the knitting group’s message board.   
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On May 9th we reported that MTV had pulled the plug on MTVx, the 24 hour hard rock video cable station and replaced it with yet more hip hop and named the station MTV Jams. And here we thought MTV2 was Viacom’s premier Hip-hop vehicle. 
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Courtney Love made headlines again in May when she said that she had over 100 unreleased songs from her late husband, Kurt Cobain.  
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I pissed off some Motley Crue fans with a stupid parody I posted in a news report that their producer, Tom Werman, was suing them for unpaid royalties. (you’ll find more “adventures of Motley Crue” throughout the site) 
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Towards the end of the month we learned that Fred Durst’s plan to “comb the globe in search of the illist guitar player known to man,” ended up with one guitar player in mind… Wes Borland. After a very public breakup, Durst asked fans to email Borland and beg him to return to the group.  Borland wasn’t interested but found the move by Durst amusing. 
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June 

In June we witnessed another step in the mass media evolution of Ozzy Osbourne when the “Prince of Darkness” hobnobbed with the Queen of England. Strange days indeed. 
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On June 6th we learned of Gene Simmons latest money making venture… KISS Kondoms.  
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Ozzfest suffered a lot of setbacks in 2002. In June the European leg of the tour was scrapped because Zakke Wylde was suffering from "mental and physical exhaustion".
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On June 5th we lost another pioneer of Punk rock, Dee Dee Ramone. 
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Ozzy made headlines again when it was learned that some Osbourne dolls would be censored. 
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A few days later Bill Cosby went on the attack and denounced the Osbournes. 
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We also got word in June that the Axl Rose Project, a.k.a. Guns N Roses was going to hit the road.  
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That was followed a few days later with rumors that the long awaited new album from Axl may be in stores by September..  Like that happened!
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The month ended on another sad note when The Who’s John Entwistle passed away on the eve of the Who’s US tour. 
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July 

The Who weren’t going to let a little thing like the death of their longtime friend and bandmate stand in the way of them making money. The band decided to hit the road as planned. Some people were stunned that the group would resume the tour less than a week after John died. 
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We also learned in early July that the Cornell/Rage project was back on! 
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The Masters of Bling Bling – that was the calling for Metallica when they teamed up with Ja Rule – 
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July also saw the formation of the new Doors with Ian Astbury as lead vocalist
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We had more Limp Bizkit fun when Wes Borland publicly threatened to kick Fred Durst ass if any of his riffs ended up on the new LB album.
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Bite the hand that feeds you. That was the plan for the R.I.A.A. when it learned that they were going to begin going after fans directly in their battle against MP3’s. 
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On July 11th we reported that Guns N Roses, the real members not Axl and his solo project, were putting together a new band without their bigheaded lead vocalist. 
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Controversy was the order of the day in July as it was learned that former Blizzard of Ozz members were not too happy with Ozzy and his wife and even claimed that Ozzy didn’t write the songs for any of his solo albums. 
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Korn’s guitarist pissed off the world when he made a comment during an interview that he felt Hitler went to heaven. 
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He quickly changed his tune after the controversy erupted. 
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A rapper in trouble with the law? You don’t say. It happened again in July when Mystical was arrested on charges of rape and extortion.  The worst part of the story is that the rapper supposedly video taped the alleged rape! 
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July was a busy month for music. The end of the month brought confirmation of what we have suspected for some time. That is the fact that KISS wasn’t going to retire. 
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We ended the month with word about the Ozz-less fest.  Yup Ozzy  left the tour to be with Sharon while she underwent cancer treatment. The family was also sued over the idea for their show. 
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August

One huge Metallica fan forked over $23 K to hang out with his heroes. 
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Silly news – Smelled like Sealion and Britney Spears pissed off Mexico because she was afraid of lightning. Also Sammy Hagar stated the obvious when he called David Lee Roth an ass. 
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On August 14th we learned that Drowning Pool frontman Dave “Stage” Williams was found dead on the band’s tourbus while they were on the Ozzfest. 
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Not to be outdone by Metallica, Aerosmith announced a way for fans to “buy” backstage access at their concerts.
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Cornel and Rage? Forget about it, former RATM frontman went into the studio with Trent Reznor . 
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Fan appreciation?  Not really as both Nickleback and Vince Neil turned on audiences during August concerts 
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In the really stupid file. An Animal rights extremist from PETA asked Judas Priest to rename their classic song “Hell Bent for Leather” to “Hell Bent for Pleather”. Needless to say, the band didn’t go for the idea and I went out for a prime rib dinner.  
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Members of At The Drive In reemerged in the band Sparta.
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August ended on a fun note when we broke the story about Adema’s guitarist getting punched out by a member of Down during the Ozzfest. 
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That report sparked a lot of controversy and several other sites picked up the story and gave it their own spin.. 
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Michael Jackson made headlines when he accepted a non-existent award at the MTV Music Awards. Poor Wacko Jacko 
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Finally the guitarist for Unwritten Law was blown up by one of his neighbors. 
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On that note I am signing off in this installment of the 2002 the year in review. Stay tuned-- part three is coming in a few days.