Classic Rock 93.9

In addition to being an EGOT winner, Elton John has won two Golden Globe awards in his storied career. That’s why he’s been tapped as a presenter at this year’s Golden Globe Awards ceremony, airing Sunday, Jan. 5, on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

It’s not clear which category Elton will present, but Best Original Song is a safe bet, considering that’s the category he’s won in the past. Other presenters include Dwayne Johnson, Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara, Sharon Stone, Viola Davis, Demi Moore, Aubrey Plaza, Glenn Close and Jeff Goldblum.

Another presenter who’s listed is Elton’s good pal Brandi Carlile, so perhaps they’ll present together. Elton and Brandi co-wrote “Never Too Late,” from Elton’s Disney+ documentary of the same name. While it’s been nominated for other awards, and is short-listed for the Oscar’s Best Original Song category, it did not receive a Golden Globe nomination. 

Here are the songs that were nominated this year; the award goes to the songwriters:

“Beautiful That Way,” co-written by Miley Cyrus for The Last Showgirl
“Kiss the Sky,” co-written by Maren Morris for The Wild Robot
“Forbidden Road,” co-written by U.K. pop superstar Robbie Williams for his biopic Better Man
“Compress / Repress,” co-written by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails
“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez, sung in the film by Zoë Saldaña
“Mi Camino” from Emilia Pérez, sung in the film by Selena Gomez

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If you’ve seen Billy Joel in concert, you know he often drops Led Zeppelin‘s song “Rock and Roll” into the set. But on New Year’s Eve, he got to play another classic Zep song with the son of the band’s drummer.

Billy’s opening act on Dec. 31 at UBS Arena in Long Island, New York, was Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening, a band led by drummer Jason Bonham, son of late Led Zeppelin drummer John “Bonzo” Bonham, who died in 1980. Jason also came out to join Billy for a cover of Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” during Billy’s set.

According to Billboard, Billy told the crowd, “You all know this song. It’s not a piano song.” Jason played drums and while Billy did play piano, but he didn’t sing — his guitarist Mike DelGuidice did.

Billy also covered some other rock classics during the set, including Derek & The Dominos‘ “Layla” — which he played to run out the clock to midnight — plus a brief version of The Rolling Stones‘ “Start Me Up,” which is almost always in the set list.

Plus, Billy performed a couple of deep cuts, including “A Room of Our Own,” from 1982’s The Nylon Curtain, and “Souvenir,” from 1974’s Streetlife Serenade. He also performed “Souvenir” on New Year’s Eve 2024, when he rang in the year at the same venue, since the lyrics are so appropriate: “Every year’s a souvenir/ that slowly fades away.”

Billy’s next scheduled show is Jan. 17 in Hollywood, Florida.

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On This Day, Jan. 2, 1969 …

The Beatles began rehearsals for what would wind up being their final studio album together, Let It Be.

Rehearsals took place at Twickenham Film Studios and were marred by tension within the band, which was captured on film as cameras were recording the sessions for a documentary.

Let It Be was released in May 1970 along with the documentary of the same name, which featured The Beatles’ unannounced rooftop concert, their last public performance together. The album, which featured such classic Beatles songs as the title track, “Get Back” and “Across the Universe,” went to #1 in the U.S., the U.K. and several other countries.

The footage from the Let It Be documentary was later used by director Peter Jackson for the Emmy Award-winning docuseries The Beatles: Get Back, which was released in 2021.

The original documentary was restored from the original 16mm negative by Jackson’s Park Road Post Production and debuted on Disney+ in 2024.

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Neil Young won’t be playing the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival this year.

The rocker announced on his Neil Young Archives website that he and his band the Chrome Hearts were supposed to play the 2025 fest, but have now pulled out due to the BBC’s corporate sponsorship of the event.

“The Chrome Hearts and I were looking forward to playing Glastonbury, one of my all time favorite outdoor gigs,” Young shared. “We were told that BBC was now a partner in Glastonbury and wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in.”

“It seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being,” he added. “We will not be playing Glastonbury on this tour because it is a corporate turn-off, and not for me like it used to be.” 

But it sounds like fans in the U.K. may still get to see Young at some point this year. He ended his note with, “Hope to see you at one of the other venues on the tour.”

Glastonbury Festival is set to take place June 25 to June 29. The full lineup has not been announced, although Rod Stewart is confirmed to play the Legends slot.

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Last year was a very eventful one for Peter Frampton, most notably because he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and it sounds like he’s not about to slow down anytime soon.

In fact, the legendary rocker is working on new music and has a documentary about his life in the works.

Frampton tells ABC Audio that they’ve already shot footage for the doc at several important locations from his life, including his old house in South London, as well as Abbey Road Studios, where he recorded All Things Must Pass with The Beatles‘ George Harrison. They also went back to the school where he met David Bowie, where his dad was the head of the art department.

“It was cathartic, to say the least,” Frampton says of revisiting his old haunts, sharing that filming on the project is “going really well” and there’s so much material “it might even be a two parter.”

As for what he hopes fans will take away from the project, Frampton says, “I would like them to know me for who I really am. That’s the bottom line.”

So far there’s no word on when the Frampton doc may be released, but he says he hopes it will be completed in the new year.

When it comes to new music, Frampton reveals that he’s been working on an album “for years,” but notes, “I’m still not quite ready.”

“I have a very high quality control threshold,” he says. “So I’m my own worst enemy, but I’m working at it.” 

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Freddie Mercury‘s birthday will once again be celebrated with a big bash this fall.

The Queen frontman would have turned 79 on Sept. 5, and the band just announced that the Official Freddie Mercury Birthday Party 2025 will take place Sept. 6 at the Casino Barriere in Montreux, about two hours outside of Zurich, Switzerland. 

“Mamma Mia, let me go! We will be celebrating ‘A Night At The Opera’ and 50 Years of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’” the band shared on Instagram, referring to their fourth studio album and the classic Queen track that appeared on it. “The dress code for party guests will be WHITE, to reflect the outfits the band wore at the time and the ‘A Night At The Opera album’ cover.”

More information on the party, along with ticket info, will be announced at a later date.

Proceeds from the event will go to The Mercury Phoenix Trust, which raises funds for the fight against HIV/AIDs. It was founded by Queen band members Roger Taylor and Brian May and their manager Jim Beach in memory of Freddie, who died from the disease in 1991.

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Dave Grohl‘s reputation as the “nicest guy in rock” took a big hit in 2024 when he revealed he’d cheated on his wife and had a baby with someone else.

Leading up to that bombshell reveal, Grohl and Foo Fighters were having a normally busy year touring the world in support of their latest album, 2023’s But Here We Are. That all changed in September, when Grohl posted on Instagram that he’d “recently become the father of a new baby daughter, born outside of my marriage.”

Grohl married his wife, Jordyn Blum, in 2003, and they share three daughters.

“I plan to be a loving and supportive parent to her,” Grohl wrote. “I love my wife and my children, and I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their forgiveness.”

Foo Fighters later canceled their one remaining show that was scheduled to take place after the announcement. 

Perhaps less surprising but no less dramatic was the public demise of Jane’s Addiction. Similar to the Foos, Jane’s looked to have an active 2024 with the return of their classic lineup — frontman Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery — for their first shows together in 14 years. The reunion also spawned the foursome’s first new single in 34 years, “Imminent Redemption.”

Also like the Foos, Jane’s plans came to a screeching halt in September when a show in Boston ended abruptly due to Farrell throwing a punch at Navarro onstage.

The following Monday, Jane’s announced that they were taking “some time away as a group,” while Navarro, Perkins and Avery issued a statement saying that Farrell displayed a “continuing pattern of behavior” and was dealing with “mental health difficulties.” Farrell also apologized for his “inexcusable behavior.”

Days later, a new Jane’s song, ironically titled “True Love,” was released, though the band remained on hiatus.

Between Grohl cheating and Jane’s fighting, 2024 was a rough year for vets of the ’90s alternative rock scene. The era also lost a seminal figure in Steve Albini, who died in May. Known for working on Nirvana‘s In Utero, Albini also engineered — a term he preferred to “produced” — albums by Pixies, PJ Harvey, Bush and The Breeders.

Still, 2024 wasn’t all bad for ’90s rockers. Pearl Jam returned with a new album, Dark Matter, and staged a successful tour where nobody punched each other onstage.

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When Alex Van Halen released his memoir, Brothers, in October, the book failed to include anything about the Sammy Hagar years of Van Halen, with Alex only writing, “[W]e had a lot of other singers over the years.”

In fact, in an interview with Rolling Stone he insisted that when it comes to Van Halen, “the heart and the soul and the creativity and the magic was Dave, Ed, Mike and me,” referring to the band’s original members, him and brother Eddie Van Halen, frontman David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony.

Well, Sammy appears to be clapping back at Alex’s disregard for his contribution to the band.

The rocker made his feelings known in the comments section of an Instagram post featuring a picture of him and Eddie, which he captioned “walking to the stage in the good old days. #1990s #vanhalen I needed to see this photo today to close out this year.”

The post spawned a few comments from fans, with one sharing, “No disrespect to Alex but it’s ok to like VH with Sammy, even if he doesn’t anymore,” while another countered with, “Most purists believe VH ended with DLR.”

The latter post prompted Hagar to argue why that’s not true, writing, “It could have my friend, but instead we went on to sell over 50 million records for (sic) No. 1 album(s)  sold out every building and stadium in the world for a whole decade. That never happened again.”

He added, “Alex is not doing his brother’s musical legacy justice by not acknowledging all the No. 1 albums and some great music Eddie and I wrote together – not Alex – but Eddie and I wrote together. To not acknowledge 10 years of music is blasphemy to his brother’s musicianship, songwriting & legacy.”

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It looks like we may be getting a new album from The Doobie Brothers in 2025.

In a year-end note posted to Facebook, founding member Patrick Simmons reveals that they’re almost finished with a new record, Walk This Road, sharing it’s a “goal we’ve set for 2025.”

“This train keeps rollin’ down the track and we’re almost ready to release our new album Walk This Road sometime after the first of the year,” reads the post. “We have 10 new songs sung by Tom, Michael, and Pat,” referring to his fellow members Tom Johnston and Michael McDonald.

“The three of us wrote songs and collaborated together. We had a lot of fun recording it and we feel very proud of the results,” the note adds. “We’ll probably debut a song soon after the first of the year and the full album will follow sometime in the Spring/Summer.”

Walk This Road will be the first new release from The Doobie Brothers since 2021’s Liberté, and the first full album of original material with McDonald since 1980’s One Step Closer.

“Once again we want to wish you and your families Happy Holidays and a Peaceful New Year. May 2025 bring you all health and happiness in abundance,” the post concludes. “We look forward to seeing you in your town next year.”

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On This Day, Dec. 31, 1984 …

Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in a car crash in Sheffield, England.

After trying to pass a driver who had been taunting him on the road, Allen lost control of his vehicle, hitting a wall. His arm wound up getting caught in the seat belt and was severed.

While doctors initially tried to reattach the arm, it later had to be amputated due to infection.

Allen’s career as a drummer looked in doubt, but he eventually learned to play again on a specially designed electronic drum kit.

Allen and Def Leppard returned to the stage for his first concert following the accident on Aug. 16, 1986, at the Monsters of Rock Festival in Castle Donington, England.

He continues to perform with Def Leppard, with the band’s next show scheduled for Jan. 11 at the Harvest Nights Festival in Immokalee, Florida.

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