(Ellen)

Guitarist Richie Sambora has been AWOL from Bon Jovi since April 3, when he left the band's tour surrounded by mystery. A lone tweet attempted to explain his absence. "Thank you everyone for your concern. I'm well, but had to stay in LA to take care of a personal matter. Love you all and see you very soon."

Since then, Richie has checked in with two other tweets, one on April 15, wishing "healing" after "that severe act of cowardness in Boston." In another on April 18, he wrote, "Hey everybody…Just want you all to know I'm all good…Thanks for all the positive vibes…" But other than that, there's been little talk about the reasons for Richie's departure and if -- and when -- he'll return to the fold.

By Jon Wiederhorn

(Ben A. Pruchnie, Getty Images; Jim Spellman, WireImage)The father of the late English singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse is unimpressed by Beyoncé and Andre 3000’s cover of her song "Back to Black," which will appear on the soundtrack to "The Great Gatsby."

In an interview with the UK’s Daily Mail, Mitch Winehouse was critical of Beyoncé’s delivery. "I don’t think she brings anything to it," he said.

Winehouse, a London taxi driver, said he was never asked for permission for Beyoncé and OutKast member Andre 3000 to cover "Back to Black," but was paid "a lot of money" for the recording rights. "They have got to pay for the privilege, which is what they are doing," he said.

(Michael Tran, FilmMagic)

If you ever wanted to walk on by -- or even step on -- the Backstreet Boys, you're in luck. The iconic '90s boy band got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Monday morning in front of hundreds of screaming fans. The star, the Walk of Fame's 2,495th, is located on the 7000 block of Hollywood Boulevard, near the Live Nation building.

Hollywood insiders know that these honors don't come out of the blue -- they're usually tied into some sort of milestone, upcoming album, tour or film. Sure enough our boys from the backstreets celebrated their 20th anniversary on Saturday with a special fan celebration in Hollywood where they previewed some songs from a new album, due later this year, as well as a trailer for a documentary about the band, that's due in 2014. Next month, the group will launch its latest world tour in China.

photo: New York Daily News ArchiveRichie Havens, the renowned New York folk singer who will forever go down in history as the man who opened the Woodstock festival, died of a heart attack Monday at his home in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was 72.

Back on August 15, 1969, Havens was originally slated as the fifth act on the opening day of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, which took place on Max Yasgur's farm outside Woodstock, New York. But Havens was enlisted to be the emergency festival-opener when the first scheduled band on the day's bill, Sweetwater, got stuck in traffic. Havens, along with two other musicians who were already on the festival grounds, helicoptered their way to the Woodstock stage with two conga drums and two guitars, kicked off the show, and performed a legendary three-hour set while other artists were still en route. After Havens ran out of encores, he improvised a song based on the old spiritual "Motherless Child," which became "Freedom." And the rest was history.