KRISTI and BILL SLACK of Pikeville, Tenn., loved their new home. There was so much space. They had a guest room. But they had ants. Or, at least, one ANT. And he was living next door actually... I need at least one day of good, escapist news in 2021 and it appears this might be it. Welcome to the first and possibly last edition of MerryMusicREDEF. Stories of not so old, weird America... So anyway, Kristi and Bill Slack went a solid year without knowing that Stuart and Lorraine Goddard, their eccentric friends next door with the British accents who loved to shop at WALMART, were better known to the rest of the world as ADAM ANT and, um, his wife Lorraine Goddard. Why would anyone in Pikeville know this? Bill's dad, who helped Stuart/Adam restore a 1952 Harley Davidson motorcycle, certainly didn't know. It was Kristi's sister Suzi, who grew up with an Adam Ant poster on her wall, who figured it out one day at a family barbecue. This episode of the local podcast STORYVILLE stands and delivers the story of how the Goddard/Ants left a storage locker's worth of albums, demo tapes, notebooks, letters, dishware and that motorcycle in the care of the Slacks when they divorced and moved away in the early 2000s, and how the Slacks eventually decided it was time to declutter and set out to find Adam Ant so they could give it all back. It's a weird and wonderful story, lovingly told by local radio host JEFF STYLES along with Kristi Slack and Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter BARRY COURTER... A woman named DANI recently walked into a Las Vegas pawn shop with a rhinestone-studded Nudie suit that she believed ZZ TOP's BILLY GIBBONS once owned and that she thought she could sell for $25,000. The pawn shop is the one from the TV show PAWN STARS, and when the guys there want to authenticate such an item, guess which notable LAS VEGAS resident with a fondness for not-so-cheap (I'm guessing) sunglasses they get to do the authenticating. The verification, valuation and transaction plays out here, and, let's just say, MERCK MERCURIADIS would be impressed... In other news, in rough order from most to least merry, our old friend MATT PINFIELD signs on at Los Angeles rock station KLOS this Sunday with the launch of a weekly show spotlighting new rock. The show will be, just sayin', 120 minutes long... SIMON RATTLE is reverse-Brexiting, announcing he'll step down in two years as director of the LONDON SYMPHONY—which never got that new concert hall he wanted—and return to Germany to take over the BAVARIAN RADIO SYMPHONY. It's a bit too soon for that trend piece about musicians and other artists fleeing post-Brexit Britain. But give it time... Powerhouse music lawyer JOEL KATZ, who has come under much scrutiny over the past year for his association with the RECORDING ACADEMY, has left GREENBERG TRAURIG by what's officially being called "mutual understanding" and will start his own firm. You can try to read between the lines of VARIETY's sources if you're wondering if his clients will follow him... Bad news for a vital jazz room in LA. But since this is supposed to be an upbeat day, we'll end with good news for a Detroit jazz landmark.