THE ROOTS

4/29

On its tenth album, the Phila¬delphia crew explores dark territory. “Criminal,” which in¬cludes verses from Saigon and Philly newcomer Truck North, takes on police brutality; “Sing-ing Man” is about Middle East terrorism and the Virginia Tech shooting. Drummer and bandleader Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson says the album, which also features Mos Def, Common and Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, was inspired by watching lots of CNN on the road. “It’s not a party in 2008,” he says.

NEIL DIAMOND

HOME BEFORE DARK 5/6

Three years after Rick Rubin helped Neil Diamond remove

Me.” Justin Timberlake co-wrote and co-produced several tracks, includ-ing the Timbaland-produced single “4 Minutes.” “She was like, ‘I don’t want any ballads, I just want peo¬ple to move,’ ” Williams adds. “It’s like a sex and workout album.”

EVIL URGES

the Vegas polish on 12 Songs, the duo are back with another collection of personal acoustic songs. “This one is more rhyth¬mic,” Diamond says. “I view Rick as an enabler. He allows the musicians and me to just go off and do whatever we want, and then he becomes an editor.” Backed by an all-star group – includ¬ing Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench-Di¬amond, 67, dedicates some of the songs to his thirtysomething girlfriend. “I’m the pro-love candidate,” Dia¬mond says. “The songs reflect it.”

GAVIN DEGRAW

GAVIN DEGRAW 5/6

“Sonically it’s more rock than mv first album,” says pop heartthrob Gavin DeGraw, who’s back with a heavier, guitar-driven disc (made with Daughtry pro¬ducer Howard Benson). In the five years since his debut, De-Graw opened a bar in New York – and nightlife is a big inspira¬tion for the singer. “You get a lot

When Tom Petty reached out to the former members of Mud-crutch, his pre-Heartbreakers band, about a reunion, they thought he was joking. Support Tickets “But once they really believed me, they got gung-ho,” Petty says. Keyboard¬ist Benmont Tench and guitarist Mike Campbell went on to join the Heartbreakers, but drum¬mer Randall Marsh and guitar¬ist Tom Leadon hadn’t played with Petty since Mudcrutch split up in 1975. The disc’s four¬teen new songs (every group member sings at least one) were cut in just two weeks at Petty’s Malibu home studio. “It has an edgy country-rock feel,” Petty says. “I had to calm myself down at night, I was having so much fun.”

STEVE WINWOOD

NINE LIVES 4/29

In Steve Winwood’s old band Traffic, he wrote the music, he says, “as an excuse for us to jam.” A[ine Lives, his debut for Columbia Records, was writ-ten in the same spirit, with the songs born out of jams with his longtime touring band and fleshed out at Winwood’s stu¬dio in Gloucester, England. email address

“Why?” But I see it and ask, “Screech, again? Joanie /”"J j from Happy Days? Sommore from The Queens of Com.’ ^^■^ edy?” Even awesomer than the season with Willie Aames. Wait — who is this furry-headed angel that appears before me? Willie Aames! This is the best Celebrity Fit Club ever! It’s amaz­ing that nothing can kill this show, and that after five seasons of mayhem, it keeps scaling new heights of Z-list agony. It looks like America can’t get enough of watching yesterday’s beloved TV stars don sweatsuits of redemption-scented Lycra and go to boot camp to regain the eye of the tiger. We, the viewers, play Paulie to their Rocky, watching ringside as they endure ridiculously point­less torments – obstacle courses, muddy stick-fights, listening to Toccara Jones scream “Kiss my ass!” at the judges – while follow­ing some dumb diet nobody really gives a vegan crap about. VHi knows who’s watching, and how deeply we care about fitness, judg­ing from all the ads for Oreo Posted September 17

VHI knows we care about fitness, judging from that Oreo ad.

Cakesters and Taco Bell.

The key to appreciating Celebrity Fit Club? You have to understand, what seems like total humiliation to you or me is, for these people, the least humiliating part of their day. It’s showbiz for them, the place where they feel safe as the cameras roll. Nobody’s asking them who they are or what they’re doing on camera; nobody asks them to step aside. That’s why they gladly drop in the mud and do twenty push-ups for Harvey, the drill sergeant from some army or another. (What army would hire this guy? He wouldn’t even be scary in the Kiss army.) That’s why this is the show where reality-show lifers like Da Brat or Toccara can find a home. For the Fit-Clubbers, this hellhole is their refuge from the minute-by-minute humiliations of normal life. Fission

I was stoked to see Sommore (“I love that my ass is big!”), one of the funniest people alive. I assumed she would be the hot crazy one, but I was wrong – she’s definitely the hot one, but the crazy one turns out to be Toccara, the annoying model from a previous season. Toccara believes (correctly) she is in prime shape already, but that means there’s nothing for her to do except cry and try to strangle the psychotherapist and slap that toothily smug diet doc­tor, which is a lot more fun than watching her exercise.

We get A.J. Benza, the E! Network lug who used to say, “Fame-ain’t it a bitch,” now giving Toccara stern head-shakes and mut­tering, “She’s dead to me now!” We get Tina Yothers, Erin Moran and Willie Aames, who had excellent desert sex with Phoebe Cates in Paradise, the finest film of the Eighties. But Harvey is still the most entertaining presence – he’s like Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now, if he came back from Vietnam and started giving workout wisdom to Gunnar Nelson and Isaac from The Love Boat. Most grown men, after yelling “Don’t ever threaten me, bitch” at Screech, would change their names and go into hiding. So I respect Harvey for hanging in there. Keeping a straight face when the doc­tor pleads, “Have some class, Toccara!” – that has to be the most painful challenge on the show.

3. “I really like Acne jeans, but the name? The Swedish people -what’s wrong with them?” 4. “I wear pointy-toe shoes. These are Clout of London. I don’t know if I can ever wear normal shoes again.” FOO “I’m inspired by old movies and artists like Gustav Klimt.” PinSeeker 1500 Tournament Edition Golf Laser

5. “I’ve been dyeing my hair since we started out. I think it’s graphi­cally so great to have Sune’s black hair and my white hair.”

“This vintage dress reminds me of Chicago in the Twenties – it has a gangster feel to it.” 7. “My shoes are Bruuns Bazaar. They have a sturdy heel, so they’re good for being onstage.”

IN BRIEF

■   Richie Sambora was ar­rested for driving under the influence on March 25th in Laguna Beach, California. The Bon Jovi guitarist – who en­tered rehab twice last year -was released shortly after.

■   Paul McCartney and Heath­er Mills finalized the terms of their divorce on March 17th

in London. McCartney was ordered to pay Mills a settle­ment of $48.6 million. Garasi lyrics

■  On March 27th, T.I. pleaded guilty to weapons charges stemming from his arrest for gun possession last October. As part of the plea bargain, the rapper could get up to

a year in prison and 1,500 hours of community service.

■   Snoop Dogg will guest-star on One Life to Live on May 8th and 9th. The rapper – who says he’s been “a fan of [the show] since I was a baby” -will also perform songs from his latest album, Ego Trippin’.

■   The Allman Brothers Band canceled their an­nual fifteen-show run at New York’s Beacon Theatre. The band is taking a hiatus while Gregg Allman recovers from treatment for hepatitis C. The dates, which were set for May, will be rescheduled.