In the news

McCartney talks about drug use in interview

LONDON - Paul McCartney says he got no thrill from heroin, but found cocaine more to his liking for a time.

"I tried heroin just the once," McCartney said in interview published Wednesday in the Daily Mirror newspaper about his drug use in decades past.

"Even then, I didn't realize I'd taken it. I was just handed something, smoked it, then found out what it was."

The full interview is published this week in Uncut magazine.

Despite enjoying cocaine for a time, he said he eventually turned against the drug. And he confirmed that drugs influenced some of the group's songs.

"A song like Got to Get You Into My Life, that's directly about pot, although everyone missed it at the time," McCartney said. ""Day Tripper, that's one about acid (LSD). Lucy in the Sky, that's pretty obvious."

John Lennon, who wrote Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, had denied the song was about drugs and said it was inspired by a drawing by his son, Julian.

Diana DeGarmo came in second place on American Idol, but she already has plans to release a single.

DeGarmo's first song is scheduled to come out June 22 through RCA Records, according to the company's Web site.

The bubbly 16-year-old from Snellville, Ga., was the runner-up last week on the Fox singing competition. Idol winner Fantasia Barrino topped her by just 1.3-million votes out of more than 65-million votes cast.

Barrino, a 19-year-old from High Point, N.C., is working on her first single, which is due out June 15. She and DeGarmo both performed the song, titled I Believe, during last week's finale.

Cheap Trick is still scheduled to perform at 6:30 tonight in the West Plaza of the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa before Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals.

However, lead singer Robin Zander will not be performing the national anthem inside, as originally announced. Zander, 51, who owns a home in Safety Harbor, in fact never intended to perform The Star-Spangled Banner.

"It was a miscommunication," said Holly Brown, director of event marketing at the Times Forum. (The Weekend section, which is printed in advance, still lists Zander as the anthem singer.)

Brooke Bollea, daughter of professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, will sing the American and Canadian national anthems, with a nod to both the Tampa Bay Lightning and Calgary Flames.

Bollea, 16, and a resident of Belleair, performed the songs at the opening game of the finals.

Entertainment headlines