Dave Grohl has rolled with a lot of music's biggest stars, from Metallica to his current bandmates in Them Crooked Vultures, Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme. But he found himself in maybe the oddest company of his musical life recently. "I wound up hanging out with Barry Manilow, Kenny G and Johnny Mathis," Grohl tells Spinner. "I was like the sore thumb on the Mount Rushmore of soft jazz."

How did this unholy quartet of titans come to be? "I have a family friend who was getting a star on the Walk of Fame, Dave Koz, so I went out to show Dave some love," he says. The best part is Grohl got some approval from at least one of the acts. "I f---ing had Barry Manilow tell me he was a fan about two weeks ago. That was a 'what the f---?' moment," he adds.

Last month, Rufus Wainwright, who recently released the CD/DVD 'Live in Milwaukee,' took part in Gavin Friday's 50th birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall. It was quite the extravagant affair and Wainwright found himself on stage at times with Scarlett Johansson (with whom he dueted), Courtney Love, U2 and more. Wainwright confesses to Spinner that being around that level of fame can mess you up a bit. "One does get a little bit jacked up on the fame quotient," he says. " I found myself saying, 'Oh, I'm going to wipe the stage clean,' or 'Nobody's gonna notice me' or 'Why don't I sell more records?' You get in this weird, ornery mood."

But once the music started, that all faded away. "Then you get there and you start singing with the people and you start hanging with them as just human beings and all that s--- evaporates in a split second and the music really saves the day and pacifies the ego," he says.

While 'Doolittle' was the Pixies commercial breakthrough upon its 1989 release, it still feels like an album well before its time. Of course the same could be said for the Pixies in general. But after praise from bands like Nirvana and Radiohead and a memorable 2004 reunion tour, the Pixies have found their place in the 21st century. Now 'Doolitle' is getting a second chance as well.

To celebrate the album's 20-year anniversary, the Boston band doing an all things 'Doolittle' tour, bringing both the record in full and its B-sides to the stage. On Wednesday night, the tour finally came to the US before a sold-out audience, which included Jack Black among others, at the Hollywood Palladium.

Los Angeles is a deservedly proud musical town, having brought the world the likes of the Doors, the Beach Boys, Guns N' Roses, Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, X, NWA and so many more. On Tuesday night, the new crop of L.A. music took the stage at Gibson Amphitheater for 'L.A. 101,' a celebration of the town's current scene. Fittingly, Silver Lake's Silversun Pickups, the biggest band to emerge from L.A. in recent years, were the night's headliner's after sets from Dengue Fever, Matt and Kim and the Dandy Warhols.

For SSPU, the night was special on several accounts, even if playing on the same stage where two years ago they were third-billed behind Snow Patrol was by frontman Brian Aubert's account a little "F---ed up." Besides being "proud Angelenos" and having the chance to show that off, this marked the first proper SSPU hometown show since the band's 'Swoon' debuted in the Top 10 months ago (they've done festivals and benefits in town, but not their own gig). After a smoking 'Royal We' brought a distortion-laden frenzy of opening songs that had gone one into the other to a halt, they finally stopped for a minute

In the mid-'70s, Barry Manilow wrote the songs that made the whole world swoon. With tunes like 'Looks Like We Made It,' 'Weekend in New England,' 'Could It Be Magic' and 'Ready to Take a Chance Again,' Manilow was a maestro of the make-out session.

Now, three decades after his crooning heyday, Manilow is returning to romance at the suggestion of music industry titan Clive Davis. "I'm making [a record] he asked me to do called 'The Greatest Love Songs of All Time,'" Manilow tells Spinner. "It's the make-out album of all time."

For years, Stephen Stills wasn't feeling like himself. "I was really out of sorts and I didn't know why I was in such a funk," he tells Spinner. "I let myself get so fat." In 2008, he found out why. "I didn't realize for the previous five years I had been dragging a cancer around in there," he says. "When that stuff starts getting in there, it sort of f---s with your whole system, your mentality, your whole neurological system."

In June of 2008, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer had successful surgery for prostate cancer and a now he says the experience has given him a new appreciation for life and music. "Yes, there's an 'oh s---' factor to it that'll wake you up," he says of the harrowing experience. "But mainly I was just revitalized."

After churning out hits for nearly 15 years, the Foo Fighters' 'Greatest Hits' compilation was inevitable. "We knew this album was going to come out for a long time -- they've been asking us for a while. It stills feels premature, but we waited until now," frontman Dave Grohl tells Spinner from the band's San Fernando Valley 606 studio.

Grohl says the band considered a different title, courtesy of music mogul Clive Davis. "The first time Clive Davis heard 'In Your Honor,' he called up and said, 'It's an embarrassment of riches.' And so that's what we considered calling the greatest hits," Grohl recalls. And? "F--- that. I want a greatest hits, like the Outfield's greatest hits or the Hooters' greatest hits. I don't want to think it's another Hooters record -- I want to think it's their f---ing hits."