As a member of the seminal band the Sex Pistols, John Lydon (formerly known as Johnny Rotten referred to himself as the “Antichrist” and an “anarchist” and proclaimed that there's “no future.” Maybe that's because he hadn't yet discovered L.A. real estate. According to a recent story in the New York Post, the misanthropic punk pioneer has made a killing during the past few years, buying and selling properties like an expert Monopoly player. He boasted to the paper that he's more than made back the piles of cash he lost when the Pistols broke up in 1979, and he told one gossip columnist that if he'd known how much money he could make selling houses, he never would have endorsed burning them down. The thought of Lydon scheduling property showings and hobnobbing with celebrity columnists brings to mind another Sex Pistols line: “Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?”

Sure, he called his recent tour Puff Puff Pass and performs songs such as “Hennesey n Buddah,” “Vapors,” and “Too High,” but Snoop Dogg recently pleaded not guilty to charges of marijuana possession in Ohio. Snoop and his posse were pulled over for speeding on Interstate 90 west of Cleveland, and when the boys in blue entered the rapper's tour bus, they reportedly smelled the pungent odor of burnt weed. According to the police, a drug-sniffing dog was brought in to aid the search, and six bags of marijuana weighing about 200 grams were discovered in the cargo area of the bus. Snoop Dogg and two members of his entourage were charged with criminal possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. If convicted, Snoop could be fined as much as $250, which his recent movie royalties should just about cover. A guilty verdict could also land Snoop in the slammer for up to 30 days, which can only help his street cred.

During the past few months, mainstream artists from Paul McCartney to Destiny's Child to Fred Durst to Dr. Dre have been praised for providing comfort and cash to victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Although superstar acts have received the lion's share of the attention for doing that sort of charitable work, a good number of other bands and musicians have also pitched in. Members of Styx and Journey recently presented the New York Port Authority with a check for $500,000 raised from their Volunteers for America benefit concerts. Those shows featured performances by the two groups as well as REO Speedwagon, Bad Company, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kansas, Eddie Money, Peter Frampton, Jack Blades, Survivor, John Waite, Edgar Winter, and Grand Funk Railroad's Mark Farner. Heavy-metal bands also got into the act at the New York Steel Heavy Metal Benefit Concert in late November. That show featured Anthrax — the band, not the substance — as well as Twisted Sister, the Ace Frehley Band, Overkill, and former Skid Row vocalist Sebastian Bach.

Garbage drummer Butch Vig was recently diagnosed with hepatitis A, which he apparently contracted from eating tainted food. Fortunately for Vig, hepatitis A usually goes away in a matter of weeks or months, unlike the far nastier B and C strains of the disease. After Vig was diagnosed, doctors ordered him to rest, causing him to miss the band's European tour. After much deliberation, Garbage decided to tour without him, recruiting studio drummer Matt Chamberlain, who has worked with the band in the studio as well as with Tori Amos and Fiona Apple, to fill in for their ailing comrade. Garbage is expected to return to the United States with Vig in tow for a headline tour in late winter or early spring.

In the strange-but-true science department, the British music magazine NME reports that a group of Cambridge University researchers conducted a study to determine the effects of amphetamines in the club environment. The technicians at the school's Department of Pharmacology played music, ranging from Bach to Prodigy, at high volumes to a batch of rodents, injecting some with amphetamines and others with a placebo of saltwater. The mice injected with saltwater often fell asleep but were uninjured. When given speed, however, 7 out of 40 mice keeled over dead when listening to Prodigy, as opposed to 4 out of 40 that were exposed to Bach. It was further determined that mice suffered more brain damage when exposed to a combination of speed and pulsating music than they did when exposed to either the drug or the music alone. “If you saw how the mice behaved, you wouldn't want to take methamphetamine,” says researcher Dr. Jenny Morton. “I might go to raves, but I wouldn't take speed.”

Heavy-metal legends aren't supposed to bathe, let alone hurt themselves performing menial tasks. Then again, Ozzy Osbourne has always thrived on defying expectations. The self-proclaimed madman postponed ten dates of his Merry Mayhem tour with Rob Zombie and Mudvayne because he slipped in the shower and broke his leg. However, the exalted one wasn't so quick to fall. After the accident, he toured for a week before doctors ordered him to rest. Immortal or not, Ozzy's decision to remain on the road was a practical one. His latest album, Down to Earth, entered Billboard's Hot 200 at No. 4 but fell to No. 41 just four weeks after its release.