plus: Steven Tyler's anthem. L.A. Times on payola. Billy Preston [ tickets ] hospitalized. Merv's billions. The record for the longest continuous broadcast. MP3.com workshop. Missy Elliott webcast.

RollingStone.com quotes Eric Clapton [ tickets ] as saying that his current tour will be his last.

Bruce Springsteen [ tickets ], in a surprise appearance on Sunday (5/27), joined Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and Graham Parker onstage at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J., according to published reports. The Stone Pony, where Springsteen played in his early days, was celebrating its 27th anniversary.

Aerosmith [ tickets ] frontman Steven Tyler caught some flak for his rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at last weekend's Indianapolis 500, the Associated Press reported. Tyler sang " ... and the home of the Indianapolis 500" instead of " ... and the home of the brave," and as it was Memorial Day weekend, some people reportedly were upset.

From the front page of Tuesday's (5/29) Los Angeles Times:

For 40 years, federal law has prohibited broadcasters from accepting money or anything of value in exchange for playing songs on the radio without disclosing the practice to listeners.

But internal documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times indicate that several independent promoters keep detailed logs--called "banks"--listing the date a station airs a song followed by a dollar amount collected from the artist's label. The stations that add the most songs over the course of a year build the biggest banks and consequently earn the largest fees.

Keyboardist, singer and songwriter Billy Preston, 54 has been hospitalized in the Nashville area since May 23 after he was diagnosed with chronic end stage kidney disease, his spokesperson said. Preston, who is said to be in stable condition, had been touring with Eric Clapton's band.

According to the New York Times, Merv Griffin "bids fair to be the only billionaire recording artist this side of Abbey Road ..."

Glenn Jones, a DJ on free-form radio station WFMU near New York City, broke the world record for longest continuous radio broadcast on Monday (5/28) by broadcasting for 73 hours and 34 minutes, according to the Associated Press. He kept going, however, and ended up broadcasting for 100 hours and 40 seconds, according to WFMU's website.

MP3.com has announced a workshop titled "Finding and Licensing Music the Easy Way,'' and is inviting "music supervisors from the entertainment industry" to attend free of charge. MP3.com says that the workshop will focus on "on innovative methods of finding and licensing music." The workshop will be held at the company's San Diego headquarters on June 7.

We mention this because MP3.com has been the target of several copyright-infringement lawsuits filed by record labels, and this may be some sort of underdog strategy.

AOL.com is hosting a members-only, live webcast of Missy Elliott's May 31 performance at London's Brixton Academy.