Odds & Ends: Bret Michaels, Luke Bryan, GWAR, ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ Tito Torbellino

Bret Michaels takes tonight off … Luke Bryan suffers a nasty tumble … GWAR to open its own bar … The “Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular” won’t be coming to your town … “Banda” singer Tito Torbellino was murdered last night in Mexico.

Photo: Owen Sweeney / OwenSweeneyPhoto.com
M3 Rock Festival, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Md.

Appearing at the Palace Theater in Manchester, N.H., Thursday night, Bret Michaels left the stage after performing only three songs.  The singer returned to finish the show but had to walk off again as he became extremely ill.

Word from Michaels’ camp is that the Poison frontman, a diabetic, was taken to a hospital where doctors determined he was suffering from insulin shock and low blood sugar along with dehydration, exhaustion, fever and the noro flu virus.

So it probably doesn’t come as any surprise that Michaels has bowed out of tonight’s show at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he was on the bill with The Charlie Daniels Band and The Marshall Tucker Band.

Michaels is also scheduled to appear with CDB and Marshall Tucker Saturday night at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y.  While Michaels hasn’t yet nixed his involvement with the gig, a message on his website states that “type 1 diabetes complicates health issues such as the nora flu virus and must be monitored and taken very seriously.”

Luke Bryan also ran into a bit of trouble during a Thursday night gig.  The country star was performing Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Can’t Hold Us” at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, N.C., when he slipped and fell off of the stage.

But it takes more than a cut on his leg to stop Bryan.  The singer climbed back up onto the stage and finished the show.  Remarking that it was the second time he had fallen off a stage in the Tar Heel State, Bryan said, “What is it about North Carolina that makes me bust my ass?” according to gossip hound TMZ.

Of course, there is at least one video of the incident.  What’s worth noting is the number of people that quickly pulled out their cell phones to snap photos of the fallen artist.

GWAR is opening its own bar, appropriately called the GWARbar.

The place to consume potent potables the GWAR way will be located in Richmond, Va., and will be a joint project of the band and Travis Croxton, the city’s 2013 restaurateur of the year.

GWAR says the new bar/eatery will be “the first time in the history of humans eating stuff that they shall do so by ordering off a menu designed by a chef not of this earth.”  In other words, GWAR guitarist BalSac, otherwise known as “Jaws Of Death” will be designing the menu.

“My mother taught me the endless secrets of intergalactic cooking,” BalSac said in a statement. “And then I ate her.”

GWAR is also crowd-funding the restoration of the building to house the new establishment.  Click here for more info.  Who knows?  You just might get your name on a barstool.

A performer of northern Mexican “banda” music was murdered while in a restaurant in Ciudad Obregon in the border state of Sonora, Mexico, last night.

State police say two gunmen entered the restaurant and shot Tito Torbellino at close range.  The singer died while being taken to a hospital.

The 33-year-old U.S.-born singer, whose real name was Tovar Rascon, was more associated with music focusing on unrequited love than the “narcocorridos” about drug gangs and traffickers.

Last year the body of South Texas singer Jesus “Chuy” Quintanilla was discovered with a bullet hole in the head near Mission, Texas.  Quintanilla’s song catalog included ballads about Mexican drug cartels.

You can forget about seeing Incubus’ Brandon Boyd portraying Judas Iscariot and Sex Pistol Johnny “Rotten” Lydon offering up his best acting chops as King Herod.  The “Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular Tour” has been canceled.

Announced with great fanfare last month, the production was to feature Michelle Williams as Mary Magdalene and NSYNC’s JC Chasez as Pontius Pilate.  British actor/singer Ben Forster was to appear in the title role.

Photo: Paul Heartfield

No reason was given for the cancelation of the tour scheduled to open in New Orleans June 9.  Ticketholders who purchased online or via phone will be immediately refunded.  Folks who bought tickets the old fashioned way at brick-and-mortar establishments must obtain refunds at points of purchase.