Metallica does time making prison music

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. -- Hard time calls for hard rock -- at least that's the view of Metallica, who performed a free hourlong concert at San Quentin State Prison.

The heavy metal band, which is based just up the road in Marin County, agreed to perform Thursday for about 800 inmates after spending 18 hours at the prison Wednesday filming the video for the title track to its new album, "St. Anger."

A spokesman for Metallica's record company, Elektra Records, said prisoners and guards appeared as extras in the video, which was shot inside a cell block and in the outside yard during a lunch break.

"It was a humbling day for everyone," Joel Amsterdam said. "The song talks about the good and bad ways to release anger, and what that can do to you if you don't do it correctly. So it's sort of the perfect song to play for the inmates."

Other musicians who've played at San Quentin include Bonnie Raitt and Carlos Santana.

Test pilot Yeager got airsick on first flight

PLANO, Texas -- Chuck Yeager, who in 1947 became the first man to break the sound barrier and went on to set multiple new speed records, said at a celebration of his 80th birthday that his flying career hardly got off to an auspicious start.

He joined the Air Force in September 1941, but with aspirations of repairing planes, not flying them, Yeager told about 350 people who gathered in a far north Dallas hotel Thursday night to "celebrate a legend."

"I was trained to be a mechanic, which was easy," he said. In the spring of 1942, Yeager was a crew chief on a twin-engine bombardier training airplane and the engineering officer asked him if he wanted to go along as he took the craft up to check it out.

The ride -- his first in an airplane -- was rough and turbulent, "and pretty soon I got sick, and threw up," he said.

He was accepted into flight training shortly thereafter, and went on to become the most famous test pilot of all time.

Yeager's favorite music group, the Oak Ridge Boys, sang several songs Thursday evening from their patriotic new disc, "Colors." His 80th birthday was Feb. 13, but he put off the celebration for a couple of months until the country band could attend.

Costner offers defense of anti-war actors

SUNSET, S.C. -- Kevin Costner says no one -- including the Baseball Hall of Fame -- should single out "Bull Durham" co-stars Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon for their anti-war views.

Robbins and Sarandon had been scheduled to appear last weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y., to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the popular baseball movie.

Instead, Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey sent a letter telling them he'd called off the festivities because they'd criticized the war in Iraq. He later apologized for not calling them before canceling the event.

Costner, who also starred in the film, said Robbins and Sarandon shouldn't be viewed as targets by those supporting the war.

"He's a good man and she's a really good woman; she's a thoughtful woman," the 48-year-old actor said Thursday. "We don't need to be separating them from us. We need Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon."

Costner said he doesn't agree with all that Robbins and Sarandon say, but they have a right to their opinion like everyone in the United States.

--From wire reports