Sammy Hagar & Michael Anthony look back at Van Halen’s ‘dark’ record ‘Balance’

August 13, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

Ahead of the upcoming expanded edition release of Van Halen’s 1995 album, Balance, former members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony are reflecting on the record in a new video posted on YouTube.

In the clip, Hagar calls Balance “one of the darkest records lyrically I’ve ever done in my life.” He adds, “And a lot of it was just coming off of what was going on within the band. … Everyone’s life was going through changes on this record.”

Despite the turmoil, Sammy says Balance was a “great record,” and they both give credit to producer Bruce Fairbairn and engineer Mike Fraser.

“Without those two guys, this record probably wouldn’t have got made and the band could have broke up right there,” Sammy says.

He joked, “Instead it waited for the tour.”

Balance was the band’s last studio album with Hagar and the last to feature Anthony on an entire album.

Both Hagar and Anthony also discussed some of the “great music” on Balance, including songs like “The Seventh Seal” and “Can’t Stop Loving You.”

As for the track “Don’t Tell Me What Love Can Do,” Hagar says it was “one of the most painful vocals I’ve ever done in my life. It makes ‘Dreams’ sound easy. But great lyric.”

“These are great songs,” Sammy concludes. “Great record. Great, great, dark record.”

Balance (Expanded Edition), dropping Friday, will be released as a two-LP/two-CD/Blu-Ray set featuring a remastered edition of the original album, along with audio and video rarities. The set will also include eight live performances from the band’s 1995 show at London’s Wembley Stadium. The Blu-ray includes restored promo videos along with a previously unreleased live clip of “The Seventh Seal,” shot in Minneapolis in 1995.

Balance (Expanded Edition) is available for preorder now.

Robert Plant on turning down Black Sabbath’s farewell, why there won’t be another Led Zeppelin reunion

August 12, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

Robert Plant reveals in a new interview with Mojo that Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi invited him to participate in their Back to the Beginning farewell show, but declined the offer. The concert, in Birmingham, England, turned out to be Ozzy Osbourne’s final performance before his death.

“I said, Tony, I’d love to come, but I can’t come. I just can’t,” the former Led Zeppelin frontman says. “I don’t know anything about what’s going on in that world now, at all. I don’t decry it, I’ve got nothing against it. It’s just I found these other places that are so rich.”

Plant will release a new album with his acoustic band Saving Grace on Sept. 26, and they’ll head out on a U.S tour on Oct. 30. While they’ve been known to play Led Zeppelin tunes like “The Rain Song” and “Four Sticks” at their shows, Plant prefers to stay away from the bigger hits.

“What were the hits? How can they be related to now, where do they fit? They fit as a sort of memoir,” he says. “When people say that I don’t like ‘Stairway To Heaven,’ I just don’t like the idea of it. These iconic things – they’re just what they are.”

He adds, “But you know, most people have missed some of the best Zeppelin stuff. ‘For Your Life,’ on Presence. ‘Achilles Last Stand!’ F***** hell. Just extraordinary that three people and a singer can do that.”

The last time the surviving members of Led Zeppelin performed together was in 2007 in London at the tribute concert for record exec Ahmet Urtrgen. While Plant says that performance “came through,” he doesn’t expect it will ever happen again.

As for why, he says, “I suppose, to do it for the sake of it was never what Zeppelin was about.”

Special IMAX screening of ‘Spinal Tap’ sequel will feature Q&A with band and director

August 12, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, the sequel to 1984’s mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, is hitting theaters Sept. 12, but some fans will get a chance to see it a couple days early thanks to a very special IMAX screening.

Dubbed the On, Off, and Around the Record Live Event, the screening will include an exclusive Q&A with director Rob Reiner, in character as documentary filmmaker Marty DiBergi. He’ll be joined by Spinal Tap band members David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls aka Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, respectively.

The event will be held Sept. 10 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and will stream live in theaters across the country.

Tickets are on sale now.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues will follow the band as they reunite after 15 years for a final concert. It will feature cameos from Paul McCartney, Elton John, Garth Books, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich and more.

Billy Joel’s motorcycle shop is movin’ out of Long Island

August 12, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

In what’s perhaps the clearest indication that Billy Joel will be spending most of his time in Florida in the future, his motorcycle shop in Oyster Bay, Long Island, is closing down.

Newsday reports that 20th Century Cycles, which opened in 2010 and housed the Piano Man’s collection of more than 75 vintage motorcycles, will not be renewing its lease when it expires at the end of September. Billy will be auctioning the bike collection later in 2025, his publicist tells Newsday, due to his “recent medical issue.”

The store remains open on Saturdays and Sundays in August, and is currently selling off its collection of motorcycle parts. All the actual bikes, which were always free for the public to view, have been removed from the location.

When he first opened 20th Century Cycles, Billy told Newsday that he wanted to create a “focus point” for people “aimlessly riding around on weekends.” In 2023, part of the street where the shop is located was renamed Billy Joel Way.

Billy also has his nearby Long Island mansion on the market for just under $30 million, but told fans at his concert on Dec. 31, 2023, that he’s keeping his other home in the upscale village of Sag Harbor, Long Island. He added, “I’m just gonna spend a little more time in Florida, like old Jewish guys from Long Island do.”

In other Billy Joel news, his daughter Della Rose Joel turns 10 on Tuesday. A note on Instagram reads, “We are so proud of your sweet nature, empathy for others and endless love. You see everything through caring eyes. We could not ask for anything more. We all love you beyond measure. How did we get to 10 years already?”

The Joe Perry Project announces lineup change for upcoming tour

August 12, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry is set to kick off his summer tour with his band The Joe Perry Project, and he’s just announced a last-minute lineup change.

The tour was supposed to feature Stone Temple Pilots’ Eric Kretz on drums, but in a post on Instagram, Perry revealed that Kretz is no longer able to participate in the tour “due to a family emergency.”

The post noted, “Longtime JPP drummer Jason Sutter will join the band for the immediate future and Eric looks forward to rejoining the tour as soon as he is able.”

The Joe Perry Project tour begins Wednesday in Tampa and wraps Aug. 23 in Port Chester, New York. They are also opening two dates on The Who‘s The Song Is Over North American Farewell Tour, Aug. 26 in Boston and Sept. 17 in Los Angeles.

Joining Perry on the road will be his Aerosmith bandmate Brad Whitford; Buck Johnson, who’s been part of Aerosmith’s touring band since 2014; The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson; and Stone Temple Pilots’ Robert DeLeo.

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

Perry formed The Joe Perry Project back in 1979 after his departure from Aerosmith. They released three albums before Perry returned to Aerosmith in 1984. He last toured as The Joe Perry Project in 2023.

John Fogerty ‘really proud’ of Bruce Springsteen for calling out Donald Trump

August 12, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

John Fogerty is sticking up for Bruce Springsteen.

During an appearance on Rolling Stone’s Music Now podcast, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer expressed his support for Bruce calling out President Donald Trump during his concerts in Europe.

“I’m really proud of Bruce for just sticking up for his values [and] not being afraid to voice them,” Fogerty says.

Trump responded to Springsteen’s comments on Truth Social, calling him “Highly Overrated.”

Fogerty says that even though he thinks Trump is “very similar” to President Richard Nixon, Nixon would have known better than to call out Springsteen for what he said.

“President Nixon would’ve realized not to give the other side publicity by acknowledging and talking about it,” he tells the podcast. “Cause you just make it more famous when you do that.”

Fogerty is set to release his new album, Legacy: the Creedence Clearwater Revival years, on Aug. 22, featuring rerecorded versions of his CCR classics. While Fogerty had a rocky relationship with his bandmates following their acrimonious split in 1972, he still recognizes that what they had was something special.

“Those are the four people that made those records,” he says on the podcast, talking about his bandmates Tom Fogerty, Stu Cook and Doug Clifford. “And that didn’t particularly happen again in history. So obviously those four human beings are unique human beings.”

He adds, “I still give a lot of credit to the way something like ‘Proud Mary’ feels or ‘Born on the Bayou.’ And there is mystery in that — there’s a mysterious aura or ingredient that I’m not gonna sit here and say was in my pocket.”

Patti Smith reveals cover for upcoming memoir ‘Bread of Angels’

August 12, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

Patti Smith has unveiled the cover of her next memoir, Bread of Angels.

The “People Have the Power” singer revealed the cover on Instagram, writing that it features a “graceful photograph” taken by artist Robert Mapplethorpe in 1979.

She adds that the photo was taken “in the same room where he shot the Horses cover,” referring to her 1975 debut album.

“This cover is a beautiful way to continue our lifelong collaboration,” she adds.

“Robert Mapplethorpe took this photograph at a deeply transitional moment. It was between the end of my public life as a performer and the beginning of my time in Detroit with my one true love, Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith,” she tells Vanity Fair. “Robert had taken an image with doves for the cover of the (1979) album Wave. Afterwards, I asked him to take another that would reflect the sentiment of the song ‘Dancing Barefoot,’ a love song for Fred and a farewell to the people. This is the photograph he took.”

Smith is set to release Bread of Angels on Nov. 4. It is available for preorder now.

Bread of Angels comes 15 years after the release of Smith’s first memoir, Just Kids, which documented her time in Manhattan in the ’70s and her relationship Mapplethorpe. It won the National Book Award in 2010.

According to the description, Bread of Angels is “the most intimate” of Smith’s memoirs, following the musician through her childhood in Philadelphia and South Jersey, her teenage years “when the first glimmers of art and romance take hold,” her marriage to Fred “Sonic” Smith and their family life, and more.

Eddie Van Halen’s Kramer Electric guitar going up for auction

August 12, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

One of Eddie Van Halen’s iconic guitars is going up for auction in September.

The rocker’s Kramer Electric, 1982, which is based on his original “Frankenstein” guitar and features Van Halen’s well-known black-and-white stripe abstract design, will be up for auction as part of Sotheby’s Grails Week.

The guitar, which Eddie played on tour in 1982 and 1983, features Eddie’s signature with a note to his guitar tech Rudy Leiren that reads, “Rude – Its Been a Great Ten Years – Lets Do Another Ten. Eddie Van Halen.” The back of the headstock reads, “#1 Edward Van Halen Model.”

Leiren sold the guitar to Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars, who used it during several recordings, including their 1989 album Dr Feelgood. It comes with a case and note from Mars that reads, “hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Also it’s a great piece of history.”

Grails Week, described as a “celebration of popular culture,” is taking place at Sotheby’s New York Sept. 22-Oct. 28. The sale of Van Halen’s guitar will open on Sept. 24 at 12 p.m. ET; it is estimated to sell for between $2 million and $3 million.

Led Zeppelin shares remastered ‘Houses of the Holy’ from ‘Physical Graffiti’ 50th anniversary release

August 12, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

Led Zeppelin has shared a remastered version of their track “Houses of the Holy,” which will be part of the upcoming 50th anniversary celebration of their classic album Physical Graffiti.

“Houses of the Holy” is one of several remastered Physical Graffiti tracks Led Zeppelin has recently posted on their official YouTube page. They previously shared “In My Time of Dying,” “The Rover” and “Custard Pie.”

Led Zeppelin announced in July they will mark the album’s anniversary with the release of a new live EP, titled Live EP. It will feature performances of four songs: “In My Time of Dying” and “Trampled Underfoot,” both recorded live at London’s Earls Court in 1975; and “Sick Again” and “Kashmir,” both recorded at the Knebworth Festival in England in 1979.

The remastered songs are part of an updated release of 2015’s three-LP Physical Graffiti Deluxe Edition, which includes the remastered version of the album, a bonus album featuring rough mixes and early versions of songs, and a new replica Physical Graffiti poster.

Both releases are due out Sept. 12 and are available for preorder now.

Physical Graffiti, released on Feb. 24, 1975, was Led Zeppelin’s first album to be released under their Swan Song Records label. The record, produced by Jimmy Page, spent six weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. It was the first album to go Platinum from preorders alone and has since been certified 17-times Platinum in the U.S.

Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham tease fans with something coming Wednesday

August 11, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham are getting their fans excited for some more news.

The pair shared a tease on Instagram featuring a radio playing the song “Don’t Let Me Down Again,” with the caption “Wednesday.”

“Don’t Let Me Down Again” was the first single from the Fleetwood Mac stars’ only studio album as a duo, 1973’s Buckingham Nicks. The album is being released Sept. 19, digitally and on CD, with newly remastered sound. This will mark the first-ever reissue of the album, which has been unavailable for decades.

Before officially announcing the reissue, Buckingham and Nicks teased the project with complimentary posts on social media, with each sharing a lyric to “Frozen Love,” another song from the album.

While Buckingham Nicks wasn’t a commercial success, shortly after the release Mick Fleetwood heard a track from the album and was so impressed he invited Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham insisted his then-girlfriend Nicks come with him, and the pair officially joined the band on New Year’s Eve 1974.

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