Carlos Santana has teamed up with Mexican musician Carín León for a new song called “Velas.”
“This song is about something that both God and humans love; it’s called romance,” Santana says. “Romance is a bridge between humans and God. We all pray for something, to God or the universe.”
“What I hope people will feel when they hear this song is that they want to give each other a hug,” he adds. “There’s so much negativity in the world right now that we need a hug of light.”
You can watch the “Velas” video, which features both Santana and León, on YouTube.
Santana will resume his Las Vegas residence on Saturday. The 2025 leg concludes Nov. 16; a 2026 leg kicks off in January.
KISS has announced a reissue of their famed 1975 Alive! live album in honor of its 50th anniversary.
The super-deluxe edition boasts eight vinyl LPs featuring the original record remastered, rehearsal tracks, and bonus live recordings from 1975 shows in Davenport, Iowa; Wildwood, New Jersey; and Cleveland.
The package also includes various memorabilia, such as tour poster and programs, photos and ticket stubs.
Preorders are currently open exclusively to members of the KISS Army fan club. For more info, visit KISS’ web store.
After developing a cult following with their first three records, Alive! helped KISS truly break into the mainstream. The album turned “Rock and Roll All Nite” into KISS’ signature hit, and also introduced songs including “Strutter” and “Black Diamond” to wider audiences.
Bruce Springsteen topped the Billboard 200 chart with Tunnel of Love, his eighth studio album.
The album was inspired by changes in Springsteen’s personal life, as his marriage to actress Julianne Phillips was in trouble. Phillips would file for divorce in August 1988.
Springsteen recorded most of the album by himself, although some members of the E Street Band appeared on songs. It is not considered to be a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band release.
Singles released from the album include “Brilliant Disguise,” which peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the title track, which went to #9.
Tunnel of Love would go on to be certified triple Platinum by the RIAA.
Soundgarden at the World Music Theater in Tinley Park, Illinois, August 2, 1992. (Paul Natkin/Getty Images)
Soundgarden will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during Saturday’s ceremony in Los Angeles, streaming live on Disney+.
Formed in 1984 in Seattle, Soundgarden helped pioneer the grunge sound that dominated the rock scene in the early ’90s.
The original Soundgarden lineup consisted of vocalist and drummer Chris Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. When Cornell switched to guitar, drummer Matt Cameron joined. Yamamoto left in 1989 and was replaced by Ben Shepherd, who completed the classic Soundgarden lineup.
After building a following with their first two albums, Soundgarden began to reach wider audiences with their 1991 record, Badmotorfinger. As grunge exploded, Soundgarden made their true mainstream breakthrough with 1994’s Superunknown, which spawned the singles “Spoonman,” “Fell on Black Days” and their signature song, “Black Hole Sun.”
Soundgarden released one more album, Down on the Upside, in 1996, before breaking up in 1997. They reunited in 2010 and released a comeback record, King Animal, in 2012.
“I’ve looked up to Soundgarden my entire musical career,” The Pretty Reckless frontwoman Taylor Momsen, who will take part in the induction ceremony, told ABC Audio in 2021.
Momsen recorded with Thayil and Cameron on a song off the last Pretty Reckless album, and the experience of performing with her heroes felt “surreal.”
“Even though we’re friends it still blows my mind,” she laughed.
Sadly, Soundgarden’s induction moment will be missing Cornell, who died in 2017. Momsen was among the performers at the 2019 Cornell tribute concert.
“I finally got to a place where I could listen to Soundgarden and have it bring me joy again, ’cause there was a time period where it was too much … it was too emotional,” Momsen said. “And that was a very refreshing day.”
Cyndi Lauper will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Chappell Roan on Saturday. In that moment, she’ll be thinking of all the female artists who’ve proceeded her, and those who’ll follow her.
Cyndi shouted out her heroes, including Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner and Joni Mitchell, on Instagram when her induction was announced in April and added, “Women have made so many important contributions to music and to rock n roll and a win for one of us is a win for all of us.”
“For a long, long time, we weren’t included, or very few of us were included,” Cyndi told ABC Audio of that post. “So, of course, I stand on the shoulders of the women that came before us.”
As the accolades piled up throughout her career — including two Grammys, an Emmy and a Tony — Cyndi’s kept this mind.
“Every award I got, I said the same thing. I said, ‘Thank you for all of the people that came before me, the women whose shoulders I stand on and the women that will come after me,'” she recalled. “Because you’re just a chain in a line of history — or ‘herstory.’ I like that word.”
Pat Benatar, a fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and friend of Cyndi’s, couldn’t agree more.
Until recently, Benatar told ABC Audio, “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it wasn’t really balanced about how many women were going in. It was mostly men. It took us 22 years to get in ourselves.”
“So it’s great to see her finally get in too because she deserves to be there,” added Benatar. “She’s such a great artist. … She has so many facets to what she does.”
“It’s just the more the merrier!” Benatar said. “Every time another woman gets in there, I’m really happy.”
The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will stream live on Disney+ Saturday at 8 p.m. ET. ABC will air a highlights special on Jan. 1, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET.
The U2 frontman’s rendition of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in his Stories of Surrender documentary is up for the song – onscreen performance (film) prize, while the Talking Heads singer’s collaboration with Paramore‘s Hayley Williams for the film The Twits, “Open the Door,” is nominated in the song – animated film category.
Additionally, Stories of Surrender, the Billy Idol documentary Billy Idol Should Be Dead and the Jeff Buckley documentary It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley are nominated for music documentary – special program, and the Bruce Springsteen biopic, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, is up for music themed film or musical.
John Cale performs on stage at the Loaded Festival 2023 on June 08, 2023 in Oslo, Norway. (Per Ole Hagen/Redferns)
The Velvet Underground‘s John Cale is collaborating on a new song with pop star Charli XCX.
The track is called “House” and was recorded for Charli’s soundtrack to the upcoming film adaptation of the classic Emily Brontë novel Wuthering Heights.
In a lengthy Instagram Story message, Charli explains how she got involved in the project and how a quote from Cale — “elegant and brutal” — inspired the album’s sound.
She writes that the phrase stuck with her, and she reached out to Cale to get his opinions on the songs and see if he wanted to collaborate.
“I sent him some songs and we started talking specifically about House,” Charli writes. “We spoke about the idea of a poem. He recorded something and sent it to me. Something that only John could do. And it was… well it made me cry.”
She continues, “I feel so lucky to have been able to work with John on this song. I’ve been so excited to share it with you all, sitting quietly in anticipation.”
“House” will premiere on Nov. 10.
Wuthering Heights, directed by Emerald Fennell and starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, hits theaters Feb. 13, 2026.
Def Leppard Honored With Star On Hollywood Walk Of Fame on October 09, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Def Leppard has shared a recap video looking back at receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The “Pour Some Sugar on Me” rockers were honored with the distinction during a ceremony in October. The recap, which is now streaming on YouTube, features footage of the band members greeting fans and speaking on what getting a star means to them.
It also includes a clip of an honorary speech delivered by Jon Bon Jovi.
Having made the trip to Hollywood, Def Leppard is now preparing to hit Sin City for their 2026 Las Vegas residency, launching in February.
Portrait of Gilson Lavis, 1997. (Richard Ecclestone/Redferns)
Gilson Lavis, former drummer for the band Squeeze, has died. He was 74.
Former Squeeze keyboardist Jools Holland confirmed the news Thursday in a Facebook post, writing, “I’m very sad to report that Gilson Lavis my dear friend and long-standing drummer passed away at his home in Lincolnshire last night.”
Lavis drummed in Squeeze from 1976 to 1982 and again from 1985 to 1992. His tenure with the band included playing on the 1981 album East Side Story, which spawned the signature Squeeze song, “Tempted.”
Lavis later reunited with Holland to play drums in his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra. Holland had just announced on Oct. 24 that Lavis had retired.
“On behalf of my Orchestra, Squeeze, the many musicians who have worked with and befriended Gilson over the years and all the people he has supported through the AA fellowship, I send our love and sympathy to Nikki and Gilson, his dear wife and son,” Holland writes.
Even if he’s seen and subsequently rocked a million faces, Jon Bon Jovi still seeks the advice of other musicians.
The “Livin’ on a Prayer” rocker tells the U.K.’s Planet Rock radio that he consulted Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich about coming up with a set list for Bon Jovi‘s 2026 tour, which includes nine shows at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
Jon shares that he was curious about Metallica’s No Repeat Weekend shows, where the metal legends would play two completely different set lists over two nights.
“I talked to Lars, I said, ‘So let me get this straight, if you’re only doing ‘Master of Puppets’ on one night and ‘One’ on one night, is the audience mad that they’re not there?'” Jon says. “He goes, ‘Nope, we have enough songs that it works.’ He goes, ‘And your catalog … .’ And I went, ‘I am digging that concept.'”
While Jon isn’t planning on going the full Metallica route and creating completely unique sets for each show, he notes, “I have enough songs and enough hits, I could do two separate entire shows and have hits on both sides.”
“I’m having a lot of fun putting together shows that are multiple night kind of shows,” he says.
Bon Jovi’s Forever Tour launches in July. It marks the band’s first full live run since Jon underwent vocal cord surgery in 2022.
