Classic Rock 93.9

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.

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You may not be able to play guitar like Bruce Springsteen, but now you can get closer to playing like Jeremy Allen White playing Bruce Springsteen.

Gibson has announced a collection of acoustic guitars in connection with new movie Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, in which White portrays The Boss as he records his 1982 album, Nebraska.

The line includes guitars featured in and inspired by the movie, including models of the Gibson SJ-200. Springsteen used a late-1950s Gibson SJ-200 on Nebraska, and gifted one to White for the filming of Deliver Me From Nowhere.

For more info on the guitar collection, visit Gibson.com.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is in theaters now.

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After 26 years of eligibility, Bad Company is getting into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, and the band’s drummer Simon Kirke tells ABC Audio it’s about time.

“It feels like the end of a long journey,” he says. “I don’t want to sound uppity, but I think it’s long overdue.” He adds, “We have influenced a lot of bands, who in turn will influence other bands, but we’ve been around a long time and I think it’s justifiable.”

Kirke says the recognition is “the cap on a very long and very successful career,” and he’s happy and honored by it. He notes that if it didn’t happen, “I would have left this earth thinking s***, why didn’t we get inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for God’s sake?!”

While Bad Company’s career has been filled with hits, for Kirke there are two tunes that stand out as the most quintessential Bad Company songs: “Bad Company” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love.”

“It’s kind of a no-brainer for me but ‘Bad Company,'” he says. “Because the others are a tip of the hat to the songs.” 

As for what he’ll say on induction night, Kirke says he plans to mention his late bandmates Mick Ralphs and Boz Burrell, but worries he won’t have enough time to get in all they want to say.

He notes, “The last thing I want is for that shepherd’s crook to come around the neck and start drawing me off.” 

The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held Saturday in Los Angeles and will stream live on Disney+ starting at 8 p.m. ET. ABC will also air a highlights special on Jan. 1, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET.

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Rock ‘n’ roll founding father Chubby Checker is set to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Saturday night in LA, but he has said he won’t be attending the ceremony. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t like hang out with fellow Hall of Famers, though.

Checker, 84, attended ZZ Top‘s show at Santa Barbara Bowl on Tuesday, and the band’s Billy F Gibbons stopped the show to give him a shout-out. After the show, Checker hung out with Gibbons, a longtime fan of “The Twist” singer, the rest of the band and their crew, and bonded over their shared Southern roots.

Checker previously said he was going to skip the ceremony, which will be streamed live, because he’d rather be seen performing in front of a live audience. The Hall of Fame agreed to this, so at a July concert in Des Plaines, Illinois, he was given his trophy and a camera crew recorded his acceptance speech. You can tune in Saturday to see if or how this all plays out starting 8 p.m. ET on Disney+.

In 2013, when Billboard tabulated the most popular singles in the history of the Hot 100 chart, Checker’s “The Twist” topped the list.

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Elton John was recently reunited with an important artifact from his illustrious career.

Elton posted on Instagram a photo of himself and Alex Rodriguez, who owns the LA record store Record Safari and curates vinyl for Coachella. In the photo, Alex is handing Elton an orange vinyl album in a plastic sleeve marked Trident.

“Every so often, there are acts of kindness that remind you there are still a lot of good people in this world,” Elton captioned the post. “Alex Rodriguez … recently came across the original acetates from the first recordings of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. They’re still in their Trident Studios sleeves, in beautiful condition – a real piece of history.”

Elton was referring to his 1973 classic album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which was mixed at Trident Studios in London. An “original acetate” is the first physical version of an album that’s made before it’s produced for mass consumption, so that the artist and the producers can check the sound quality. They’re extremely rare and collectible.

Elton continued in his post, “Instead of selling them or keeping them for himself, Alex reached out and offered to return them to me personally. While they’d be valuable to anyone, to me these recordings are truly priceless, and I am incredibly grateful for his kindness, generosity, and his love of music.”

“Thank you, Alex. This is a gesture I’ll never forget.”

Alex responded in the comments, “My gut feeling told me you would want this back, mostly because I know you are a fellow record collector/aficionado! Thank you for the kind words, definitely one of the coolest memories to hold on to!”

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Devo‘s Mark Mothersbaugh is featured on an upcoming new Yo Gabba Gabba! holiday album.

A Very Awesome Yo Gabba Gabba! Christmas consists of songs from the children’s series’ past holiday specials, including “Make It Yourself” by Mothersbaugh, which he performed during a 2011 episode.

The track list also includes the song “Every Snowflake Is Different (Just Like You)” by My Chemical Romance, who Devo opened for during a show in Chicago in August.

A Very Awesome Yo Gabba Gabba! Christmas will be released Nov. 14.

Yo Gabba Gabba! originally ran from 2007 to 2015. The series was revived as Yo Gabba GabbaLand! in 2024 and has featured guests including Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea.

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KISS‘ Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley revisit the video for the band’s classic song “Rock and Roll All Nite” in a new installment of the Vevo Footnotes series.

The updated clip, now streaming on YouTube, features annotations from Simmons and Stanley reflecting on the writing and recording of “Rock and Roll All Nite.”

“It was very much a collaborative effort, with Paul writing the chorus and me writing the verses that were pulled from a song I had previously written called ‘Drive Me Wild,’ which was actually a song about a car,” Simmons says. “We also brought in some of our friends and road crew and other musicians to clap and sing on the record.”

“It’s kind of a quintessential KISS song in our discography,” Stanley adds. “This song is such a big piece of our story. And it connects with people on all different levels across generations and generations of fans.”

Another annotation reads, “In response to the question of who had better face paint, Paul and Gene gave the same answer: ‘Me!'”

“Rock and Roll All Nite” originally appeared on KISS’ 1975 album, Dressed to Kill. A deluxe 50th anniversary Dressed to Kill reissue was released in October.

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Paul McCartney has shared a new visualizer for “Band on the Run,” the hit title track off the 1973 Wings album.

The clip features a collage of different photos and videos from the Band on the Run era. It is now streaming on YouTube.

On Tuesday, McCartney released his new book, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, which looks back at the history of his post-Beatles band.

According to NME, in the book Wings drummer Denny Seiwell shares a story of how Paul and Linda McCartney took revenge on a journalist who gave the group a negative review.

As NME reports, Seiwell relates how the journalist told Wings he wanted to do an article about how they traveled with their families. In reality, he wrote a hit piece on them, including a negative review of a concert he never actually attended. In retaliation, Seiwell says, Paul and Linda took some poop from their daughter Stella McCartney, who was a baby at the time, wrapped it up and mailed it to the journalist.

“You heard that from me. I don’t care if they want it to be known or not. I thought it was the perfect response to a crude British pressman,” Seiwell adds.

In addition to watching Paul McCartney videos and reading Paul McCartney books, you can see him live in concert on his ongoing Got Back tour, which continues Thursday in Nashville.

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Robert Plant‘s appearance on The Late Show Tuesday turned into a surprise J.R.R. Tolkien nerd-fest.

In speaking with host Stephen Colbert, the Led Zeppelin icon was asked about living in the same area where the author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit once resided.

“Tolkien was a master,” Plant began before asking Colbert if he’d heard the writer’s audio recordings. Colbert, whose love for all things Middle-earth is so well known that it got him a cameo in one of the Hobbit movies, then proceeded to recite Tolkien’s writings word for word.

“That’s magnificent,” an impressed Plant, who would reference The Lord of the Rings in Led Zeppelin lyrics, responded as he shook Colbert’s hands. 

After exchanging a few more Tolkien tidbits, Plant then asked Colbert, “Fancy a drink afterwards?”

“I’ve got a spear in the car,” Plant quipped, to which Colbert responded, “I’ve got a shield up there.”

In addition to geeking out over Tolkien, Plant released a new album, Saving Grace, in September.

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After taking it to the streets, The Doobie Brothers are now taking it to NPR’s Tiny Desk.

The Doobies crammed into the performance series’ famously intimate setup to play a set of classics, including “Takin’ It to the Streets,” “Black Water” and “Listen to the Music.”

They also played the song “Angels & Mercy” off their new album, Walk This Road.

“It’s not like this at gigs,” founding member Tom Johnston remarked of the Tiny Desk audience. “We just played up in New York at Jones Beach last night and y’all are outdoing them. It’s pretty cool.”

You can watch the Doobies’ Tiny Desk performance on YouTube.

Walk This Road was released in June. It marks the first original Doobies record to feature Michael McDonald in over 40 years.

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