While Billy Joel went ahead with his December 20 show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, he’s not taking any chances in 2022.
The Piano Man has announced that his show scheduled for January in the legendary venue — part of his ongoing residency there — has been postponed. The January 14 show, which itself had been rescheduled from a May 2, 2020 date, has now been pushed to August 24, 2022.
“Nothing is more important to me than the safety and well-being of my band, crew, and the fans; so due to unfortunate COVID-related circumstances, we made the decision to reschedule the January 14th concert at MSG,” Billy said in a statement.
Tickets for the January show will be valid for the new show and won’t need to be exchanged. Fans who can’t make the rescheduled show can request a refund in the next 30 days. More details are available at BillyJoel.com.
Billy currently has numerous shows scheduled for 2022, including January 28 in Hollywood, FL, February 12 at Madison Square Garden, and February 26 in Las Vegas.
The 2022 edition of Grateful Dead spinoff group Dead & Company‘s Playing in the Sand concert-and-vacation extravaganza gets underway this Friday in Riviera Cancun, Mexico, but one of the band’s core members won’t be taking part in this year’s event.
Founding Grateful Dead and Dead & Company drummer Bill Kreutzmann has announced that he’ll be missing the event because of health issues.
“Playing in the Sand has become my favorite tour stop in recent years and there’s so much about it that’s just so great,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer says in a Facebook message. “And thus, it is with a heavy and still recovering heart that I have to relay a note that I received from my doctor this morning, ordering me to sit this one out.”
He continues, “As many of you know, I had some health issues this past fall. After a lifetime of playing special beats, it’s almost no wonder that my heart came up with its own idea of rhythm. All jokes aside, my doctor has ordered me to take it easy (and stay safe) through the end of January so that I can continue to drum and play for you for many tours to come.”
Kreutzmann, 75, adds, “I wish my brothers in the band the best these next two weeks and I look forward to meeting back up with them — and with you — before you know it.”
The 2022 Playing in the Sand is scheduled for January 7-10 and January 13-16, with multiple performances taking place at the Moon Palace Cancún resort. A variety of COVID-19 protocols are being enforced to help ensure the safety and health of attendees, and organizers also are honoring refund requests.
Dead & Company haven’t yet confirmed any other 2022 performances.
Music-industry veteran and Lollapalooza co-founder Ted Gardner has died.
The news was first announced by Anton Newcombe of the band The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who Gardner had managed. According toBillboard, Gardner was 74.
“I’m sad to report Ted Gardner, our manager passed away today surrounded by his loving family,” Newcombe tweeted on December 28. “We will miss a great manager, mentor & friend. Our condolences to all his family & friends.”
Gardner was the manager of Jane’s Addiction when he and Perry Farrell co-founded Lollapalooza in 1991. He also managed bands including Tool and The Verve.
I’m sad to report Ted Gardner, Our manager
passed away today surrounded by his loving family. we will miss a great manager, mentor & friend
Our condolences to all his family & friends. pic.twitter.com/T9XzL4yyVa
CBS 2021 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
For a second year in a row, the Grammy Awards will not take place on January 31 as originally planned because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABC News confirms the Recording Academy has delayed this year’s ceremony, which was to be hosted again by Trevor Noah.
“After careful consideration and analysis with city and state officials, health and safety experts, the artist community and our many partners, the Recording Academy and CBS have postponed the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards Show,” the organization announced in a statement on Wednesday.
The Recording Academy continued, “The health and safety of those in our music community, the live audience, and the hundreds of people who work tirelessly to produce our show remains our top priority. Given the uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant, holding the show on January 31 simply contains too many risks.”
At this time, the organization has not announced when the Grammys will be rescheduled, but promised the new date “will be announced soon.”
Currently, federal data reports that more than 100,000 people are hospitalized in the U.S. for COVID-19. Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from the weekend shows that the U.S. is now averaging nearly half a million new cases a day — averaging out to nearly six Americans testing positive every second.
Valerie Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen in 2001; SGranitz/WireImage
In a new memoir being published this month, Valerie Bertinelli opens up about her relationship with her late ex-husband Eddie Van Halen and shares what happened during his final moments.
People has shared an exclusive excerpt from the book, titled Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today, in which Bertinelli reveals that she and son Wolfgang — her and the Van Halen guitarist’s only child — had been visiting the cancer-stricken rock legend daily in the hospital until his death on October 6, 2020.
“‘I love you’ are the last words Ed says to Wolfie and me,” the actress writes in the book, “and they are the last words we say to him before he stops breathing.” Bertinelli notes that’s Eddie’s second wife, Janie Liszewski, and his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, also were there.
Valerie and Eddie were married in 1981 and separated in 2001, eventually divorcing in 2007 — his drug and alcohol issues being a major factor — but Bertinelli writes that she and Van Halen grew closer again as he became seriously ill.
“I hated the drugs and the alcohol but I never hated him,” she explains. “I saw his pain.” She also admits, “I loved Ed more than I know how to explain. I loved his soul.”
Bertinelli reveals that around Thanksgiving 2019, Eddie privately gave her a gold pendant he’d bought while in Germany for cancer treatments.
“I hope you don’t think it’s weird…that I bought my ex-wife this gift and didn’t get my wife anything,” Valerie says Eddie told her with tears in his eyes. “I just love you.”
She notes, “He want[ed] me to know he messed up [during our marriage].”
Hulu has released a second trailer for the upcoming Pam & Tommy limited series about Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee‘s infamous sex tape.
While the first teaser focused mostly on the two men who stole and then sold the tape, played by Seth Rogen and Nick Offerman, the new clip gives us more of a preview of Lily James and Sebastian Stan‘s respective performances as the Baywatch superstar and the Mötley Crüe drummer.
“You don’t seem to understand what a big deal this is,” James’ Anderson tells Stan’s Lee, who replies, “I’m on that tape just the same as you.” When Anderson says that the tape is “worse” for her, Lee shoots back, “How is this worse for you?”
Pam & Tommy is set to premiere February 2 with three episodes. Subsequent episodes will air weekly.
David Byrne is one of the many music artists who have contributed to a new tribute album called Ocean Child: Songs of Yoko Ono that’s been compiled by Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and will be released on February 18 — Yoko Ono‘s 89th birthday.
The former Talking Heads frontman teamed up with veteran indie-rock group Yo La Tengo to record a version cover of Ono’s 1970 song “Who Has Seen the Wind?” for the project. The track is available now via digital formats, and an animated companion lyric video has premiered at Death Cab for Cutie’s official YouTube channel.
The 14-track collection also features newly recorded renditions of songs from throughout Ono’s career by such other artists as Death Cab, The Flaming Lips, Magnetic Fields singer Stephin Merritt and more.
Gibbard says in a statement, “It is my sincere hope that a new crop of Yoko Ono fans fall in love with her songwriting due in some small part to this album we have put together.”
To accompany the album, Gibbard will be co-hosting a podcast diving deeper into Ono’s music that will feature some of the Ocean Child guest artists. The podcast will premiere on February 18, as well.
In a trailer for the podcast, Byrne says, “Yoko, in her own words, is perceived as a witch, and she’s underappreciated…so that gives us an opportunity to work with her material in a way that would be harder to do with someone who was kind of more universally appreciated.”
He adds, “She has a very open and curious approach, which is something that is really inspirational.”
A portion of proceeds from Ocean Child will be donated to the charity organization WhyHunger.
Here’s the full Ocean Child track list:
“Toyboat” — Sharon Van Etten
“Who Has Seen the Wind?” — David Byrne and Yo La Tengo
“Dogtown” — Sudan Archives
“Waiting for the Sunrise” — Death Cab for Cutie
“Yellow Girl (Stand for Life)” — Thao
“Born in a Prison” — US Girls
“Growing Pain” — Jay Som
“Listen, the Snow Is Falling” — Stephin Merritt
“No No No” — Deerhoof
“Don’t Be Scared” — We Are KING
“Mrs. Lennon” — The Flaming Lips
“No One Sees Me Like You Do” — Japanese Breakfast
“There Is No Goodbye Between Us” — Yo La Tengo
“Run Run Run” — Amber Coffman
If the promise of watching Peter Jackson‘s acclaimed three-part documentary The Beatles: Get Back wasn’t enough to make you sign up for Disney+, it’s now coming to home video — and to a theater near you.
The complete docuseries will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 8, but to whet your appetite, the “rooftop concert” portion of the series, which runs 60 minutes, will debut at select IMAX theaters as part of a special screening on January 30. The screenings will feature a Q&A with Jackson via satellite, as well as exclusive mini-posters for attendees.
“I’m thrilled that the rooftop concert from The Beatles: Get Back is going to be experienced in IMAX, on that huge screen,” says Jackson in a statement. “It’s The Beatles‘ last concert, and it’s the absolute perfect way to see and hear it.”
The concert, which took place on the rooftop of The Beatles’ Apple Corps headquarters on London’s Savile Row on January 30, 1969, was the last time all four member of the band performed together live. The performance was seen in its entirety for the first time in The Beatles: Get Back.
Tickets for the IMAX Event Screening and Filmmaker Q&A are currently on sale at tickets.imax.com. A regular global theatrical showing of The Beatles: Get Back — The Rooftop Concert will then run from February 11 to February 13.
The longtime Van Halen frontman’s statement, which EW.com received via his manager, reads, “Sometimes you win…Sometimes you lose…We got rained out…Covid cancelled…Future shows? When the benefit concerts for Colorado, Farm Aid, and hospital workers ‘everywhere’ come up; Call me.”
Accompanying the note was a photo of a road case that features multiple images the singer wearing a red top hat and holding a microphone, along with the message, “To be continued…”
As previously reported, Roth had announced in an October 2021 interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he planned to retire after his Vegas shows. David scheduled nine concerts at the House of Blues, on New Year’s Eve and January 1, 5, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 and 22, all of which were canceled in recent days.
Jim Spellman/WireImage for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rush pinball machine has arrived.
Last month, the company Stern Pinball teased that a game dedicated to the Canadian prog legends was in the works. Now, Stern has officially revealed the details of the machine.
Not only will the game feature 16 Rush songs, such as “Tom Sawyer,” “Limelight,” “2112” and “Fly By Night,” but it also includes custom-recorded dialog by surviving band members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson.
In a behind-the-scenes video, you can watch Lee and Lifeson recording their parts alongside pinball enthusiast and fellow Canadian rocker Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies.
“I particularly love it when a pinball machine taunts you,” Robertson tells Lifeson while coaching his voiceover performance.
The Rush pinball machine will be seen in action for the first time during a virtual event at the 2022 Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, taking place January 5-8.
