Classic Rock 93.9

After performing their 1977 album, The Grand Illusion, in its entirety during their 2025 Las Vegas residency, Styx is set to return to Sin City for a new set of shows focused on their 1978 album, Pieces of Eight.

Styx has announced five new residency dates — Jan. 23, 24, 28, 30 and 31 — at The Venetian Theatre inside The Venetian Resort Las Vegas. Each show will have the band playing Pieces of Eight in its entirety, along with other classic hits.

A Citi presale kicks off Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT, with other presales running through the week. Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. PT.

Released in September 1978, Pieces of Eight was Styx’s eighth studio album. It was a top-10 hit for the band, peaking at #6 on the Billboard Albums chart, and went on to be certified triple Platinum by the RIAA. It featured the top-20 hit singles “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)” and “Renegade.” 

Styx released their 18th studio album, Circling From Above, in July. They are set to play Englewood, New Jersey, on Thursday. A complete list of dates can be found at StyxWorld.com.

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On This Day, Sept. 22, 1985 …

Forty years ago, Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp headlined the first-ever Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois.

The trio organized the all-star event to raise money to help family farmers in the United States. They were inspired by comments Bob Dylan made during the Live Aid concerts, in which he said he hoped some of the money could go to help struggling farmers.

Dylan also performed at the first Farm Aid, as did Billy Joel, Tom Petty, B.B. King, Loretta Lynn, Roy Orbison and others.

The first concert raised over $9 million.

Since then, Farm Aid has held concerts almost every year and has raised nearly $80 million to help American farmers.

The 40th anniversary edition took place Saturday in Minneapolis, with Nelson, Young and Mellencamp once again headlining, along with Dylan, Margo Price and Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds. 

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Carlos Santana has announced the 2026 dates for his Las Vegas residency.

The rocker has confirmed 16 new shows for his ongoing An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live residency, happening in January, February and May at the House of Blues inside Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

The new dates kick off Jan 21 and wrap May 24.

Citi and fan club presales kick off Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT, with tickets for all new shows going on sale to the general public starting Friday at 10 a.m. PT.

The announcement of the 2026 dates comes as Santana is set to return to the venue for a new round of shows this month. His next residency date is happening Wednesday.

A complete list of dates can be found at Santana.com.

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Paul McCartney is giving fans a chance to win a front row trip to see him in concert, and it comes with a chance to meet The Beatles legend.

The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has just launched a new Fandiem sweepstakes, with the lucky winner receiving a trip for two to see McCartney’s Got Back tour at the United Center in Chicago on Nov. 24.

The package includes front row tickets to the concert, a chance to meet McCartney backstage and take a photo, and access to soundcheck. It also includes roundtrip airfare and three-nights hotel accommodations, a merch package and a gift card for ground transportation and food in Chicago.

To enter, fans can make a donation to Meat Free Mondays, an organization, founded by Paul and his daughters, Mary McCartney and Stella McCartney, that helps fight climate change and creates awareness of the environmental impact of animal agriculture. The sweepstakes is open until Nov. 11.

McCartney is set to return to the stage with a warm-up show on Sept. 26 at the Santa Barbara Bowl in Santa Barbara, California, before kicking off the North American leg of his Got Back tour on Sept. 29 in Palm Desert, California. The tour wraps Nov. 25 in Chicago.

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Sonny Curtis, a member of Buddy Holly‘s Crickets who also wrote The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song and other hits, has died, according to a Facebook post by his daughter. He was 88.

“I’m heartbroken to tell you that my dad Sonny passed away yesterday after a sudden illness,” she wrote Saturday. “I’m so grateful that I was with him at the end, along with my mom. It was peaceful and he didn’t suffer.”

“He was 88 and he lived a more exceptional life than anyone I’d ever met,” she continued. “He made a mark on this world, and he made a mark on the hearts of all who knew him. It’s a sad day, but what a life. May we look at his life with joy rather than sadness. He would have wanted that.”

Born in Meadow, Texas, Curtis met Buddy Holly at age 15 and formed a band with him. He eventually left to work with other musicians, but rejoined Holly and his band, now dubbed the Crickets, in 1958. After Holly died in 1959, Curtis became the band’s frontman and toured and recorded with them on and off until 2016.

In 2012, the Crickets, including Curtis, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by a special committee convened to correct the fact that the band hadn’t been inducted along with Holly in 1986.

Curtis was also a hitmaking songwriter; in 1970, he wrote “Love Is All Around,” the theme for The Mary Tyler Moore Show. His other compositions included the Everly Brothers‘ 1961 hit “Walk Right Back;” “I Fought the Law,” a hit for the Bobby Fuller Four that was later recorded by The Clash and dozens of others; Leo Sayer‘s 1980 hit “More Than I Can Say” and Keith Whitley‘s 1989 country hit “I’m No Stranger to the Rain.”

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Twisted Sister recently announced that they will be reuniting for their 50th anniversary, and now the first show on their 2026 schedule has been revealed.

The band — Dee Snider, Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda — has confirmed that they will be playing the 10th anniversary edition of Barcelona Rock Fest, happening July 3-5 at Parc de Can Zam in Barcelona, Spain.

“The 50th anniversary of @twistedsisterofficial and their concert at @bcnrockfest, a decade after their last show at Can Zam, will be an exclusive and unforgettable milestone in the history of the festival,” reads a post on the band’s Instagram page. “@deesnider and company will return with all their greatest hits to turn the festival upside down!”

Info on tickets can be found at barcelonarockfest.com.

So far this is the only date Twisted Sister has confirmed for their tour, which will be the first Twisted Sister tour since 2016. The band played Barcelona Rock Fest that year as well.

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Yusuf/Cat Stevens is supposed to be going on a U.S. book tour in October in support of his memoir Cat On The Road To Findout, but there’s a chance that the tour may not go on as planned.

A post on the musician’s Instagram reveals that the tour, Cat on the Road to Findout: An Evening Of Tales, Tunes, and Other Mysteries, is “in serious jeopardy due to significant delays in U.S. immigration processing.”

“Despite our team’s exhaustive efforts, the required performance visas for Yusuf and his band have not yet been issued,” the post continues.

Stevens says, “We’ve prepared something truly special for my American audience, but this is out of our hands.”

The post “strongly” advises fans to not do any traveling for the tour until there is confirmation that it will still happen.

“We are working urgently with authorities and will share news the moment we have it,” the post reads. “Your understanding and patience are appreciated as we fight to keep the ‘Peace Train’ on its tracks.”

Cat on the Road to Findout: An Evening Of Tales, Tunes, and Other Mysteries is supposed to kick off Oct. 2 in Philadelphia and wrap with two nights, Oct. 21 and 22, in Los Angeles.

Stevens’ book, Cat On The Road To Findout, is due out Oct. 7.

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Looks like we may be getting a new album from The Rolling Stones.

Andrew Watt, who produced The Stones’ last album, Hackney Diamonds, confirmed to Rolling Stone that he’s once again working with the band.

 ”I’ve said it before, but it’s like working for Batman,” Watt, who’s also produced albums for Pearl Jam, Ozzy Osbourne and Elton John, tells the mag. “When the tongue is up in the air, you just go.”

He adds, “I can say we did some recording together, but that’s all I can say.”

Released in October 2023, Hackney Diamonds was The Stones’ first album of new material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. The album topped the chart in the U.K. and Australia, and peaked at #3 in the U.S.

Hackney Diamonds went on to win the Grammy for best rock album.

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REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin is set to reunite with his bandmates for a special event in September.

In September 2024, REO Speedwagon announced they were going to cease touring as of January 2025. Following that announcement there seemed to be some bad blood between Cronin and his former bandmate, bassist Bruce Hall, and Cronin has since been touring as the Kevin Cronin Band. Well, now it appears that any issues between the bandmates have been put aside.

Hall shared on Facebook that REO Speedwagon, which formed in Illinois, will be the grand marshals at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s homecoming parade on Sept. 26. In addition, the school’s band, the Marching Illini, will be performing selections of REO’s music during the halftime show on Sept. 27, with the rockers playing along.

Although Hall’s initial post didn’t indicate whether Cronin would be taking part in the festivities, Cronin has now confirmed that he will be there.

“I am honored to have been approached by representatives of the University of Illinois, and invited to appear on the field for the Homecoming Game halftime show on September 27,” Cronin wrote on social media, noting it’s “been too many years to count” since he and his REO Speedwagon bandmates, Hall, Neal Doughty and Alan Gratzer, have all been together.

“As a songwriter, there are few greater honors than to hear other artists and musicians perform my songs,” he adds. “I know I will be looking on in awe as the four hundred-plus Marching Illini pay tribute to the music of REO Speedwagon with an all-REO halftime presentation.”

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Def Leppard is revisiting their 2023 hometown show in Sheffield, England, with a new live release.

Diamond Star Heroes Live From Sheffield, dropping Nov. 21, is a recording of their concert at Sheffield’s Bramall Lane during their world tour with Mötley Crüe.

The show, 47 years after the birth of the band, had them playing in front of 40,000 fans, treating the hometown crowd to such hits as “Photograph,” “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” “Animal,” “Foolin’” and more. They also performed the Diamond Star Halos track “This Guitar,” which was dedicated to their late guitarist Steve Clark, who died in 1991.

Diamond Star Heroes Live From Sheffield will be released in a variety of formats, including two-CD + Blu-ray, two-CD and two-LP. The vinyl is pressed on red, white and black splatter to honor the home kit colors of Sheffield United FC, the football team that plays at the same venue.

The release will also come out on 4K UHD (Ultra High Definition), which, in addition to the Bramall Lane show, will include Def Leppard’s 2023 Sheffield club show, One Night Only Live at The Leadmill. That show took place just days before the stadium gig.

All formats are available for preorder now.

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