Garry Shider, the guitarist who was a key part of George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic music machine for many years, has died at age 56 of cancer.

The Washington Post lays out the basics of Garry Shider's career, and the Associated Press adds some additional details.

To give some idea of his influence, the Huffington Post offers five hip-hop classics that wouldn't exist without him.

A local benefit concert to help with Shider's medical expenses had been set up several weeks ago, planned for next Thursday. That event will still go on; watch for a full preview at AnnArbor.com on Sunday.

Here's a clip from the P-Funk glory days:

Other entertainment news online today:

MORE MUSIC

• The Songwriters Hall of Fame annual awards ceremony took place Thursday, with honorees including Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen.

• Speaking of Simon, the Simon & Garfunkel tour that was set to come to the Palace of Auburn Hills on July 17 has been postponed indefinitely.

• Eminem is in the news ahead of his new album's release on Monday. A couple items: His Slim Shady alter ego is taking a breather. And in a possibly surprising side note, he says he has no problem with gay marriage.

• The Monroe News has a preview of the Mayfly Music Festival, this weekend in Dundee.

• FrontStreet Records, an independent label with a lot of local ties, has released a new video by Rai Knight:

ART & EXHIBITS

• The second Banksy work found at Detroit's abandoned Packard plant has been moved, the Detroit Free Press reports.

• A new exhibit at The Henry Ford (still the worst. name. ever) features giant versions of popular indoor games, The Detroit News reports.

• The Toledo Blade writes about hidden gems in the "Out of Sight" exhibit at the Toledo Museum of Art.

• The annual Kids Town Fair returns to the Detroit Science Center on Sunday.

MOVIES

• Ben Stiller's "30 Minutes or Less," currently shooting in Grand Rapids, also may do some work in Kalamazoo.

• MTV.com has done one of its "cheat sheets" on "Jonah Hex," new in theaters today.

GAMES

• "Tiger Woods 11" is out, and this review finds it pretty average.

TELEVISION

• Too weird to be made up: Actor Jeremy London was kidnapped for five hours and forced to smoke drugs.

• A new HBO documentary explores the hazards of natural gas drilling.

• They can't be serious — can they? Apparently there's talk of a Kate Gosselin dating show.

Renee Tellez contributed to this roundup. Bob Needham is director of entertainment content for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at bobneedham@annarbor.com or 734-623-2541, and follow him on Twitter @bobneedham.