Steven Tyler And Brian Wilson To Receive Honorary Degrees

04/20/2003 7:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
LAUNCH Radio Networks

(4/20/03, 7 a.m. ET) -- You'll have to address Aerosmith's lead singer as "Doctor" Steven Tyler soon. Tyler will be given an honorary Doctor Of Music degree from Boston's Berklee College of Music on May 10. Tyler will address the graduates and guests at the school's commencement exercises, which will be held at the Reggie Lewis Track And Athletic Center in Boston. Jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves will also being honored at the ceremony.

Additionally, Beach Boys founding member and songwriter Brian Wilson will receive an honorary degree at the June commencement of Northeastern University's Class of 2003, at Boston's FleetCenter.

In related Wilson news, the promoter of Wilson's 2002 Australian tour will stand trial in Melbourne in August for stealing almost $12 million from a bank where he worked part time as a $12,000-a-year teller. Benjamin Beath, 24, used part of the money he socked away in different bank accounts to pay Wilson's $150,000 performance fee. He also tried to buy a rainforest to save endangered Australian birds.

Beath diverted the money through a glitch in the computer system. He told the police, "My intention was to do good and purposeful things and to inspire people. I was a 23-year-old thinking he could change the world overnight with the financial opportunity to do it."

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