My Daily Joe

Justin Melo caught up with rising country star Tesa James from Sulphur, Louisiana for this exclusive interview. Tesa James is currently preparing for some upcoming spot dates as the opening act for Taylor Swift. James just released her limited edition “The Assassination of Tesa James EP” that was produced entirely by the legendary Ted Perlman and Peggi Blu.

Be on the lookout for the upcoming interview with Tesa James by Joe Klein that will be online everywhere soon.

The Tesa James Interview

By: Justin Melo

MyDj: In terms of the music, the debut single is “Beautiful” so go ahead and tell our readers about that song.

Tesa James: The single came about like this… I have a baby sister who is not married yet. She was somewhat broken about it at the time, so it was a song to encourage her. I wrote that song for her future wedding. I got it out of the way to get ready for her [wedding]. I sat down at the keyboard and just began to play around. The song just came out and I put it away because none of this was taking place at the time. I sang it to my sister and she liked it a lot. She told me that one day when she does get married, she wanted to use it. That is how “Beautiful” came about and we are getting ready to release it in July. I am really excited about it. Read more »

Everybody’s favorite journalist Joe Klein had the privileged of speaking with Zara Phillips, an acclaimed singer, songwriter, author and spokesperson.

In this exclusive interview, Zara opens up about her life, including her story of adoption and the trials she faced growing up. She also talks about working with DMC of Run DMC (one of the most important groups in music history) and the award-winning producer Ted Perlman, along with her upcoming book Mother Me and her current speaking tour.

Tell us about your life growing up in Britain…

I grew up in north London, in a suburban middle class neighborhood called Totteridge. It was set on the outskirts of London and had almost a country feel to it. There were lots of fields to walk through and horses. It was also very old and I loved the history. Some of the houses and buildings dated back to the 16^th and 17^th century. I would spend hours on the Church grounds looking at all the graves and smoking cigarettes behind them!

There was a beautiful country pub that I spent most of my teenage years in with my friends. Often we would sit outside in the freezing cold begging the older boys to buy us a drink, as we were too young.

It was easy, though, to get into the city from where we lived. I would walk to the tube station and in 30 minutes I would be in the heart of London wandering around Oxford Street, or spending lots of time in Camden Market and Portobello road.

CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE INTERVIEW ON YAHOO/ASSOCIATED CONTENT

Elton John and writer Lee Hall are reportedly teaming up for a new stage show based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm. “I’m deep into it, writing songs for pigs and other four-legged friends,” Hall told The Daily Mail about penning songs based on Orwell’s satire about the Stalinism era. “It’s taken about two years. We almost gave up, but there was always that one last license to go after.” Hall added that he and John have yet to acquire the necessary rights to stage a musical based on Orwell’s book and that the show is at least two years away from the production stages.

Keep up with rock’s latest news in Random Notes.

John and Hall have worked together in the past — the two last collaborated on the musical Billy Elliot — and Hall says the two have got their creative process down to a science. “I know that Elton likes to have the lyrics done and have them in front of him so I’ll work on a batch before I give him anything to look at,” Hall said.

Orwell’s novella may seem like an odd choice for a musical, but Elton isn’t the first musician to try and turn the works of Orwell into a rock opera: David Bowie once hoped to turn Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four into a musical, but the Orwell estate rejected his proposal. Instead, Bowie used many of the songs he penned for the musical to lay the groundwork for Diamond Dogs, which included a song called “1984.”

We’ve been excited for this upcoming indie film directed by Vlad Yudin called “Last Day of Summer”. This film stars DJ Qualls, Nikki Reed and William Sadler. Today, the movie trailer premiered on MTV. See the trailer here.

A while back, we featured a video with behind-the-scenes footage of the film with songstress Sabrina for her song “No Rose Petals & Bubblebaths”. Click here for that story.

Last Day of Summer is slated to be released in late 2010.

NEW YORK — Piers Morgan will stay at Sharon and Howie’s table — and he looks poised to get his own desk on CNN as well.

Morgan, the British journalist best known in the U.S. as a judge on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” just struck a new three-year deal to stay on the program, where he serves alongside Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel. In the meantime, the deal will free him to negotiate to replace Larry King in CNN’s coveted 9 p.m. Eastern berth, according to sources familiar with the situation. Last month, King announced he would retire after 25 years on “Larry King Live.”

Morgan has been rumored for weeks as a possible replacement for King, but his NBC deal had been a major sticking point. Under the terms of the new contract, Morgan’s duties for “America’s Got Talent” will take precedence over any responsibilities he will have at CNN. The show has been a staple of NBC’s Read more »

Just a quick note on the passage of the financial reform bill, about which I have a piece coming out in the print version of Rolling Stone soon.

An analysis by a group called Maplight.org uncovered an interesting fact about the vote. The 38 Senators who opposed the bill in the cloture vote this afternoon received an average of $103,266 in campaign contributions from commercial banks. The 60 Senators who were yea votes took an average of $76,759. Read more »