Regis Philbin says he’ll have heart bypass surgery this week

New York – Regis Philbin, co-host of “Live With Regis and Kelly,” announced on Monday’s show that he will have heart bypass surgery this week.

“Well, listen, I gotta tell you something. … I had been feeling chest pains, you know, and, uh, shortness of breath and all those little symptoms that you hear about,” Philbin, 75, told his TV audience. After a number of tests, doctors recommended bypass surgery.

Philbin said he was hoping to have angioplasty because “you know, you get in – bang, bang, bang – they blow it open and you leave the next day.” But, he said, “there’s some plaque in some arteries and I’ve got to get it cleaned out.”

He’s not looking forward to the surgery.

“Darn it, I don’t want to do it,” Philbin said. “Nobody wants to do it, I guess. And I had a second opinion, I did all those things, and so they’re all in agreement that it should be the bypass. And so that’s what I’m gonna do.”

Kris Kristofferson to receive Johnny Cash Visionary Award

Nashville, Tenn. – Kris Kristofferson, who has written some of country music’s most enduring hits, will receive Country Music Television’s Johnny Cash Visionary Award, the cable network announced Monday.

Rosanne Cash, Cash’s daughter, will present the honor to the 70-year-old singer-songwriter during the April 16 awards show in Nashville. Previous recipients include Cash, Hank Williams Jr., Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire and the Dixie Chicks.

“John was my hero before he was my friend, and anything with his name on it is really an honor in my eyes,” Kristofferson said during a recent phone interview from Atlanta.

“I was thinking back to when I first met him, and if I ever thought that I’d be getting an award with his name on it, it would have carried me through a lot of hard times.”

In an e-mail, Rosanne Cash said of Kristofferson: “I love Kris fiercely, not just because he and my father are cut from the same spiritual cloth, and because he is the living artistic link to my dad, but because he is my ideal as a songwriter and a human being.”

Fiancee found singer Brad Delp dead at their home, police say

Concord, N.H. – Brad Delp’s fiancee found the rock singer dead at their Atkinson home after calling three times without getting through, police said Monday.

Delp, 55, lead singer for the band Boston, was found dead Friday. His death isn’t considered suspicious, but authorities said the state medical examiner’s office is investigating.

His fiancee, Pamela Sullivan, stayed out with friends Thursday night but called home Friday morning, Atkinson police Lt. William Baldwin said Monday.

“She had last heard from him the night before … because she stayed out after work with some colleagues,” Baldwin said. “She tried that morning three times to get a hold of him, and could not, so she went home and found (him).”

No autopsy is planned, but toxicology tests are being performed, said Kim Fallon, an investigator for the medical examiner’s office.