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Rock News: Music's high and low notes

By JOHN SWENSON, United Press International
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LISA MARIE TELLS ALL

Lisa Marie Presley, riding high on her debut album and about to launch her first tour, is featured in a no-holds-barred Playboy interview. The 35-year-old daughter of rock icon Elvis Presley admits in the interview she likes rough sex "the way they do it in porn movies," and speculates, "I think I'd be much better as a lesbian."

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Presley explained her bizarre 20-month marriage to Michael Jackson by saying: "He is not sexually seductive, but there is something riveting about him. He doesn't let people see who he is... I got caught up and thought I was in love with the man."

As for her 107-day marriage to Nicolas Cage, Presley said she ended up hating him after he threw temper tantrums, but that they've patched things up and remain friends. The real man in Presley's life remains her father, who doted on her and took her on road trips.

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"Anything my father did for me or gave me was done out of love," she said. "I'm sure I had moments when I was a snot. But my mom was there to smack me back to the other side."


LIVE LED

A treasure trove of Led Zeppelin live material is being released Tuesday on Atlantic Records. "Led Zeppelin DVD," a two-disc set, and "How the West Was Won," a three-CD set, cover rare and unreleased material from one of the most popular live acts in rock history. There is no overlap between the two releases.

"We were never really part of the pop scene," said guitarist and group leader Jimmy Page. "It was never what Led Zeppelin was supposed to be about. Our thing was playing live. In that sense, Zeppelin was very much an underground band. The fact that it became as successful as it did was something that was almost out of our control. We actually shunned commercialism, which is why so little official footage of the band has ever been seen before."


J LO ON HER BEAUS

Jennifer Lopez talked openly about her failed marriages and tabloid-documented relationship with Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs in the new Vibe magazine.

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"After my first divorce I wasn't trying to be exclusive with anybody, but Puff came at me hard," Lopez said. "He said he looked at me and fell in love and made me love him, too. We started a very tumultuous affair."

Before too long, though, things went wrong. "I was in this relationship with Puff where I was totally crying, crazy and going nuts; it really took my life in a total tailspin," she said. "I had to think, do I want to be home with kids in 10 years wondering where somebody is at 3 in the morning?"

Lopez married Cris Judd on the rebound from Combs in what turned out to be a doomed relationship.

"This wasn't an easy thing to walk away from, but we didn't have what it takes to make a marriage work," she said.

Lopez told Vibe that she's finally found her ideal mate in fiance Ben Affleck.


ALLIGATOR CHOMPS HANDY AWARDS

Alligator Records artists dominated last week's W.C. Handy Blues Awards. Singing sensation Shemekia Copeland won three Awards at the 24th renewal of the event, held this year at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis. Copeland, the daughter of the late Texas blues giant Johnny Copeland, won more awards than any other nominee. Her win for Blues Album Of The Year for 2002's Dr. John-produced "Talking To Strangers" marks the second time Copeland has won the category. She won the same award for her 2001 album, "Wicked." She also won Contemporary Female Artist Of The Year and Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year for "Talking To Strangers." Copeland, 24, already has won seven awards.

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"Queen Of The Blues" Koko Taylor, who took Alligator labelmate Copeland under her wing when the youngster was starting out, won Traditional Blues Artist Of The Year. This is her 23rd W.C. Handy Blues Award. She has received more awards than any other artist -- male or female -- in Handy history.

"Godfather of Austin Blues," W.C. Clark, from Austin, Texas, won Blues Song Of The Year for "Let It Rain" off of his album, "From Austin with Soul." This is Clark's first W.C. Handy Blues Award. Roomful of Blues took the award for Blues Instrumentalist -- Horns. This is the band's third award.


DIY SPOTLIGHT

The DIY Convention: Do It Yourself in Film, Music & Books has set the third edition of a series spotlighting top works from its DIY Film Festival and DIY Music Festival for Thursday, June 5. That night the new Club DIY will present an evening of live music, a film screening, and a panel discussion at the Derby nightclub in Hollywood. The Club DIY topic will be "Music Publishing -- Your Questions Will Be Answered!" The panel discussion will be moderated by DIY Convention chairman Bruce Haring and will feature Jon Rosner, vice president of Bicycle Music Publishing; Kyle Staggs, director of legal affairs for Bug Music Publishing; Bobby Borg, former drummer of Warrant and now author of "The Musician's Handbook," published by Billboard Books in May; and Justin Golberg, chief executive of Label Services Network and a former senior director of talent acquisition at Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

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Club DIY is held on the first Thursday of each month at the Derby and will announce a schedule of dates in other cities shortly.

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