In the news

Aerosmith frontman gets honorary degree

Years ago, Steven Tyler and his bandmates would drive by the Berklee College of Music after playing a midnight set at a local bar for beer.

On Saturday, the music school awarded the longtime Boston-area resident and Aerosmith frontman with an honorary doctorate in music.

"A career in music is a road that's constantly under construction," he told the 695 graduates. "Mine was paved with passion, ambition and a series of extremely lucky mistakes."

Jazz vocalist and Grammy winner Dianne Reeves was also awarded an honorary music doctorate degree from Berklee.

JUNE CARTER CASH: Singer June Carter Cash, the wife and Grammy-winning duet partner of Johnny Cash, was hospitalized in critical condition Saturday as a result of complications from heart surgery, their manager said.

Cash, 73, had the surgery Wednesday in Nashville to replace a valve, said Lou Robin.

BERNADETTE PETERS: Bernadette Peters skipped the Saturday matinee of the Broadway revival of Gypsy, having only returned to the musical Friday night after missing five performances earlier in the week due to illness.

Although "she's still recovering from a respiratory infection," Peters was to perform Saturday night, said Adrian Bryan-Brown, a spokesman for the show.

ROGER MOORE: Roger Moore, the suave star of seven James Bond movies, was released from a New York hospital Friday after being fitted for a pacemaker, according to a spokeswoman.

Moore, 75, collapsed during a Wednesday performance of the Broadway comedy The Play What I Wrote, but finished after a break.

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