Glyn Johns, a producer and sound engineer who's worked with everyone from the Who to the Clash to the Eagles, is about to release a memoir titled Sound Man. Among the stories he recounts is an episode from 1969 when Bob Dylan asked Johns if the Beatles and the Rolling Stones might be interested in making album with him. Johns excitedly approached the two bands; he remembers that George Harrison and Keith Richards loved the idea, but that Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger vetoed the project. "was completely bowled over," writes Johns. "Can you imagine the three greatest influences on popular music in the previous decade making an album together?" (Rolling Stone)

When U2's free-and-it's-yours-whether-you-like-it-or-not iTunes album release was criticized, Bono was initially defensive, then later apologized. Now he's retracting his apology, saying the release was "one of the proudest things for us ever." He went on to say that "we got a lot of people who were uninterested in U2 to be mad with U2. And I would call that an improvement in the relationship." Bono's most recent remarks about the album release came during a Thursday tech conference in Dublin, at which he also defended Spotify and other streaming services, saying that the real enemy is record company obfuscation and greed. (Billboard)

Taylor Swift remains unrepentant about pulling her catalog from Spotify, and a top executive at her record label told Nikki Sixx (yes, the Mötley Crüe bassist, who has a radio show called Sixx Sense with Nikki Sixx) that they pulled Swift's music from Spotify because they were concerned about "embarrassing" fans who had paid for the album. "We never wanted to embarrass a fan," said Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta. "If this fan went and purchased the record, CD, iTunes, wherever, and then their friends go, 'Why did you pay for it? It's free on Spotify.' We're being completely disrespectful to that superfan who wants to invest." (Billboard)

Miranda Lambert was the big winner at the 2014 Country Music Awards, held Wednesday night in Nashville. Lambert won three awards, though she lost the Entertainer of the Year award to Luke Bryan. (Rolling Stone)

On Saturday night the MTV European Music Awards were held in Glasgow—and the big winners were One Direction, who won Best Pop, Best Live, and Biggest Fans. Ariana Grande, 5 Seconds of Summer, and Katy Perry also won multiple "MTV EMAs." (BBC)

Last week the Flaming Lips and Miley Cyrus performed "A Day in the Life," from the Flaming Lips' guest-studded Sgt. Pepper cover album With a Little Help from My Fwends, on Conan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV6XLTM5PdU

This weekend Garth Brooks opened a record-setting 11-show residency at Target Center. (City Pages) Watch for Jill Riley's review of tonight's show, with photos by Bridget Bennett.

Thursday night, Stevie Wonder performed at Madison Square Garden to open a tour on which he's playing his entire classic 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life from beginning to end. The New York Times called the show a "triumph: not a simple nostalgia trip but a return visit to songs and ideas that still matter." The tour won't come to Minnesota; the closest it will come is Chicago, on Nov. 14.

Oral arguments began Thursday in a lawsuit filed by several African-American former contestants on The Voice, alleging that they've suffered from racial discrimination and that the show isn't a fair contest. An attorney for the plaintiffs alleged that the show's producers conducted background checks on his clients and subsequently leaked damaging information about them to influence the competition's results. (Billboard)

Daniel Lanois remixed Tinariwen's "Adounia Ti Chidjret" while riding around in the back seat of a '72 Fleetwood Brougham. (Noisey)

Listen to the Morning Show’s music news roundup on the Current every weekday at 9:00 a.m. to hear our hosts discuss the latest music news.