Vancouver was cold and damp, but chief Lemonhead Evan Dando was cheerful, even though the first thing he had to do was defend himself.
The reason: He's dissed in the latest ish of Rolling Stone, which has a piece on Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder who, before he became famous, reportedly approached Dando after a Lemonheads gig at a San Diego club to show him the poster he had made for the show. Dando, according to the mag, simply dropped the flier on the ground and walked away."I've played about 1,700 live shows, and strangers show you stuff twice a day when you're on tour," Dando said. "What most people do is wait till the person's not around and then throw the tape or the poster in the trash. I admit it may have been a mistake to do that in front of Eddie."
The Lemonheads are touring in support of the recent album "Car Button Cloth" (Tag/Atlantic). Along with Dando, the band now includes John Strohm (guitar), Bill Gibson (bass) and Patrick Murphy (drums).
Dando, 29, almost became a rock 'n' roll casualty. In 1993, he disbanded the original incarnation of the 'heads in order to kick drugs and booze. It took the better part of three years.
"Things were so out of control, I wasn't even sure I would ever make another record," he said. "I didn't pick up a guitar until two summers ago, when I got the itch again."
- TOPS HONOR: The Four Tops won't be "Standing in the Shadows of Love" when the Rhythm & Blues Foundation presents its 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award to the Motown mainstays next year.
The honor will be handed out at the foundation's eighth annual Pioneer Awards ceremony on Feb. 27 during Grammy week in New York.
Pioneer honors totaling $230,000 will also go to William Bell, Gary U.S. Bonds, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Gene Chandler, Little Milton, Gloria Lynne, Phil Upchurch, Van "Piano Man" Walls, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Ruby and the Romantics, and the Spinners.