DETROIT — After nearly a year of meticulous restoration, one of Motown’s historic pianos will soon make its way back to Detroit — but not before spending some time with two musical giants.

Paul McCartney, who funded the repair work, will join Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr. for a performance on the 135-year-old Steinway during a Sept. 18 benefit show in New York.

Additional Photos

An 1877 Steinway grand piano is seen in a Motown recording studio in Detroit. Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, below, will soon perform on one that he paid to have restored. Photos by The Associated Press

Paul Michael Glaser

The $10,000-ticket event at Steinway Hall could raise more than $1 million for the nonprofit Motown Historical Museum, where the grand piano will be reintroduced for display in November.

McCartney became enamored of the dilapidated piano during a tour of the museum’s Studio A in July 2011, offering to fund restoration for an undisclosed amount. The piano was shipped in October to New York, where specialists with Steinway & Sons carefully replaced keys, strings and other internal parts.

The piano’s original 9-foot-long body was left intact.

Robin Terry, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees, said the piano will be used for performances and education programs at the museum.

Terry also clarified the history of the piano, which was described in a news release last fall as the instrument used on recordings by acts such as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.

That account was disputed by Detroit music historian Leo Early.

Terry said Thursday the museum has since learned that, in fact, the piano was used for songwriting and rehearsals at Detroit’s Golden World studio, which Motown purchased in 1967, and was not used in recording sessions.

Publicity about the restoration “brought forth a lot of great stories from our alumni and others — piano technicians, people who had worked on that piano — and that helped us weave the story together,” Terry said.

“Our interest is having accurate, factual historical information, and this really caused that to happen.”

‘Starsky’ says the pot was medicinal

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — The actor who played David Starsky in the 1970s police drama “Starsky & Hutch” is fighting a drug charge in Kentucky for what he says is medical marijuana from California.

An attorney reportedly entered a not guilty plea Thursday on behalf of 69-year-old Paul Michael Glaser of Venice, Calif.

Local police charged Glaser with possession of marijuana and a pipe on May 10, hours after he read some of his young adult novel, “Chrystallia and the Source of Light,” to a middle school audience.

According to a police citation, Glaser said he had medical marijuana prescribed to him in California.

He was arrested after an anonymous call to police that a man was smoking marijuana in a hotel.

Third ‘Hobbit’ film due out in July 2014

BURBANK, Calif. — “Hobbit” fans need only wait seven months between the second and third installments of Peter Jackson’s highly anticipated trilogy.

Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures announced Friday the final film in the series will be called “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” and released worldwide on July 18, 2014. The title was taken from the second installment, which will now be called “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.”

Here’s how it all breaks down:

• “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,’ Dec. 14, 2012.

• “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” Dec. 13, 2013.

• “The Hobbit: There and Back Again,” July 18, 2014.

Usher kicks off London festival

LONDON — Usher’s had a turbulent few months, but now he’s back where he belongs: on stage.

On Saturday, the R&B singer kicked off the monthlong iTunes Festival in London.

Over the summer, Usher coped with the death of his stepson and a custody battle over his two sons, which he won.

His fans were supportive on Twitter, he said. But they were desperate for him to perform again. He joked, “Man, it’s like ‘shut up and entertain, we don’t care about your personal stuff.’ “

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