Odds & Ends: Meat Loaf, Rihanna, Katey Sagal, Billy Joel

Meat Loaf hasn’t said exactly who is ailing. An announcement on the rocker’s Facebook page says that April 14’s show in Nottingham, England, was called off “due to medical reasons afflicting several members of the band.” The post adds, “Meat and everyone in the band and crew send love and apologies and thanks you for understanding.”

The gig has been rescheduled for May 20 at The Capital FM Arena Nottingham. Fans are advised to hold onto their tickets for the new show. If you can’t attend, refunds are available at the point of sale.

Meat Loaf is in the middle of his “Last At Bat” farewell tour, featuring a performance of his 1977 album Bat Out Of Hell in its entirety, along with additional tunes. The next stop is April 17 in Manchester, England.

After calling off a few gigs last month because of the flu and laryngitis, Rihanna has postponed tonight’s show (April 15) at Houston’s Toyota Center.

She can’t make it “as a result of illness,” according to her website. A new date has not yet been announced. While we wait for rescheduled information, ticketholders are being told to keep their tickets.

Rihanna’s next show is scheduled April 16 in Dallas.    

With just days to go before the launch of the brief “Katey Sagal: An Evening of Music and the Cast of Sons Of Anarchy” tour, Mark Boone Jr. has been announced as taking the place of Ryan Hurst on all dates.  

Boone plays Bobby Munson on the FX television show and Hurst played the late Opie Winston.

Saturday’s announcement on the tour’s Facebook page says, “Ryan is filming his new show and unfortunately his schedule has changed. We’d like to welcome Boone to the tour and looking forward to seeing everyone next week!”

Sagal, who plays Gemma Teller Morrow on “SOA” and is married to the show’s creator Kurt Sutter, previously sang backup for acts including Bob Dylan and Etta James. The tour features Sagal performing with the Forest Rangers, the band featured almost every week on “SOA,” in addition to a moderated panel discussion with the actors. Theo Rossi, otherwise known as Juice Ortiz on “SOA,” will be part of the panel discussion.

And finally, the news has come out that Billy Joel’s daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, was stalked for several months online by a 40-year-old woman via Facebook.

The New York Post obtained the court records and reports Sheryl Finley sent the 27-year-old singer/songwriter more than 60 messages described as involving “pedophilia, sadistic-sexual behavior, violent physical assaults and murder.”

According to the Post’s “sources,” Billy Joel hired a Europe-based private-security firm based on a recommendation from Paul McCartney. The investigators alleged tracked down Finley in the woods of Austin, Minn. She was found naked.

Minnesota newspaper Austin Daily Herald has more on the story, reporting that Finley is accused of sending the Facebook messages under the alias “Rick Steenfield.” In January Finley pleaded not guilty to “felony stalking for electronic messages sent by false impersonation and gross misdemeanor stalking for repeated messages.”

A pretrial is set for May 3 in Mower County Court.