Happy Birthday Steve Ferrone - Happy Birthday Steve! - Many remember Steve Ferrone as the drummer who came into prominence with The Average White Band playing on such classic albums as Cut The Cake, Soul Searching, Person to Person, Benny & Us, Warmer Communication, Fell No Fret, Shine, Volume 8, and Cupid's In Fashion but he had already been a very successful drummer in Europe for many years.

He was born in Brighton in Sussex County, England and was partly inspired to play music by the records being produced by Motown. It wasn't long before Steve was very active in the music scene in Italy and France in addition to his studies at one of Europe's most prestigious music schools, The Nice Conservatory. It wasn't until 1974 that Steve joined AWB due to the untimely death of Robbie McIntosh and recorded Cut The Cake which was released in 1975. Until then, Steve was playing in such bands as Bloodstone and Brian Augers Oblivion Express. After many successful releases AWB, Steve left the group to pursue more recording work and has since proved himself to be a first call studio musician.

The 80's proved to be a great decade for Steve as he appeared on many great recordings such as Paul Simon's Hearts And Bones, Chaka Khan's What Cha' Gonna Do For Me, Duran Duran's Notorious, and releases by George Benson and Jaco Pastorius. Soon after, he begun touring with Eric Clapton and would hold the drum chair until 1992.

The very successful release of Eric Clapton's Unplugged and 24 Nights would be only a few of the major releases Steve would find himself on in the 90's. Steve found time to record with Jeff Goulb (Out of the Blue) and Bernie Worrell (Funk of Ages) before joining Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for the Wildflowers recording and subsequent tours and albums after.

Mouthing Off - Just received this email from the compiler of Mouthing Off.

Tom Petty is featured in several chapters of a new book called MOUTHING OFF - A Book of Rock & Roll Quotes. With funny and truthful observations from hundreds of rock figures, this book was written with the music fan in mind.

Here's an excerpt: "I'm really wary of anyone who discusses their writing with me or tells me they wrote about this or that. That should be apparent when I hear the song, rather than them trying to help me out." - Tom Petty

Compiled by Rolling Stone/Billboard contributor John D. Luerssen and published by Brooklyn-based record label/publishing house The Telegraph Company, MOUTHING OFF hits book and record stores in June. Those who can't wait can purchased early online at major book e-tailers. (Note: it's cheapest on Amazon)

Rhino Releases - I originally mentioned this possibility last June, but Rhino Records is scheduled to re-release "Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers" and "You're Gonna Get It" on May 7th. Rhino had originally planned to release them last August, but that never happened. I believe this is the 2nd time these albums have been re-released. Originally released on MCA, then re-realeased on Gone Gator Records, now Rhino. I have a friend with WEA distribution trying to find out if there will be any special packaging, extra tracks, etc.