Classic Rock 93.9

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett is set to release a live recording from his U.K. tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of the legendary Genesis concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

The Lamb Stands Up Live at the Royal Albert Hall was recorded in October 2024 at the famed London venue, and features select tracks from the 1974 Genesis album, as well as other Genesis tunes and Hackett solo material.

“I was so happy to revisit the Lamb on tour. The Royal Albert Hall evening was particularly memorable,” says Hackett. “It is my favorite London venue and the atmosphere there that night was absolutely electric… I was really pleased that everyone in the band and the performing guests pulled it off with flying colors!”

As a preview, Hackett has released a performance of the classic album’s title track.

The Lamb Stands Up Live at the Royal Albert Hall will be released July 11 as a special edition 2-CD+Blu-ray set, as well as on vinyl as a deluxe 4-LP set. Both are available for preorder now.

Hackett is set to revisit The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway once again this fall when he brings his Genesis Greats, Lamb Highlights and Solo tour to North America. The trek kicks off Oct. 4 in Ithaca, New York, and wraps Nov. 22 in Portland, Oregon. A complete list of dates can be found at hackettsongs.com.

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It was a meeting of two Rock & Roll Hall of Famers in Nashville Thursday night, when legendary guitarist Peter Frampton joined Pearl Jam for their show at Bridgestone Arena.

Fan shot footage posted to YouTube shows Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder introducing the night’s “special guest,” noting, “We grew up, this gentleman was someone we looked up to. Before the Ramones, some of our first guitar heroes, Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend, he was right up there.”

He later added that Frampton “was one of the reasons why you loved live records and later we decided to release bootlegs because of his influence,” noting, “He’s such an incredible human being on top of it.”

Vedder also shared that Frampton had “become a good friend to the group,” and even recorded with guitarist Mike McCready and drummer Matt Cameron.

Frampton then came out to join the band for their classic Ten track “Black,” with Eddie telling the crowd, “Something most people do not know, this song was named after the color of his famous Les Paul guitar.”

The performance included dueling guitar solos between McCready and Frampton, who were both seated for the song, and Vedder even threw in a tag of Frampton’s classic track “Do You Feel Like We Do” at the end.

Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter tour hits Raleigh, North Carolina, for two nights, May 11 and 13, before wrapping in Pittsburgh May 16 and 18.

Frampton’s set to kick off the second leg of his Let’s Do It Again tour on June 13 in Woodinville, Washington. A complete list of dates can be found at Frampton.com.

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Alice in Chains canceled their show Thursday at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, due to drummer Sean Kinney‘s health.

Just hours before the concert was set to begin, Alice announced in an Instagram Story, “After our soundcheck this evening at the Mohegan Sun Arena, Sean experienced a non-life-threatening medical emergency.”

“We unfortunately have to cancel tonight’s show,” the post continues. “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Refunds are available at the point of purchase.”

Alice in Chains’ tour is currently scheduled to resume Saturday in Camden, New Jersey. Following their run of shows in May, they’re set to perform at the Black Sabbath reunion/farewell tour in July.

Kinney, 58, is Alice in Chains’ original drummer, and has played on all of their albums.

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NXS is celebrating the 40th anniversary of their fifth studio album, Listen Like Thieves, with a new deluxe box set that is out now, featuring plenty of bonus material.

Founding member and keyboardist Andrew Farriss tells ABC Audio that Listen Like Thieves “was a breakthrough album for us,” both commercially and artistically. He credits the album’s producer Chris Thomas with helping them reach that success.

“We’d had success before in other countries, including the United States,” he shares, “but meeting Chris Thomas was a whole other thing.” He adds that Chris was “really tough on us,” but he was also “good for us.”

“If we thought it was good enough, he’d say, ‘Yeah, that’s all right. You can do better than that,'” Andrew says. He notes they soon realized Chris was “going to play hardball with us to get the best out of us.”

And it was thanks to Chris that INXS wound up with their first major hit in the U.S. and other countries.

“Chris said, look, you’ve made a really good album, but you need just that one more song … that thing that you need, you know, that killer hit,” Andrew says. “And that became ‘What You Need,'” which was a top-five hit for INXS. 

Andrew co-wrote several songs on Listen Like Thieves with INXS’ late frontman Michael Hutchence and says Michael was a unique songwriter because “he never played an instrument, his instrument was his voice.”

Andrew describes Hutchence as an “articulate lyric writer” and says he often deferred to whatever Hutchence felt was best.

“That was my attitude because he wrote the lyric and because he believed in the lyric, it helped him deliver it to the audience,”” Andrew says. “I think that is a really important part of our songwriting relationship.”

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The lineup for the big Black Sabbath reunion/farewell concert is stacked with big names from metal and hard rock, including Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool and Slayer. One name that is conspicuously absent, though, is Rob Halford.

As the Judas Priest frontman tells Metal Hammer, he’s unable to perform at the concert due to a scheduling conflict, having already booked a show with Scorpions on the same day in Germany.

“It all got announced and was a big deal – Scorpions and Priest – and suddenly I get this phone call [from Sharon Osbourne],” Halford shares. “[She said,] ‘Robbie, I know you’ve got this gig with Scorpions, but could you consider coming over to do a thing with Ozzy and the guys, he’d love to see you.'”

While Sharon offered to fly Halford from Germany to the Sabbath show in Birmingham, England, Halford felt that the risk of something going wrong was too great.

“Even with a private plane, there’s a word called ‘technical,’ where something could go wrong, or the weather that time of year could cause problems,” Halford says. “I was absolutely gutted.”

Still, Halford is excited for Ozzy and his metal pals who are playing the show, and that it will celebrate the legacy of Birmingham, where both Priest and Sabbath were founded.

“All my mates are going to be there though, great bands and artists,” Halford says. “It’s a wonderful and epic moment for Sabbath and heavy metal – it re-emphasizes that Birmingham is where metal came from.”

The Sabbath concert takes place July 5 and will mark the final performance by original members Ozzy, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward. It’s also set to be Ozzy’s final performance of his career.

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Former Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten thinks The Rolling Stones should call it quits after all these years.

Lydon announced his own retirement after his wife Nora’s death in 2023 after a battle with Alzheimer’s, but changed his mind and now has dates planned with his band Public Image Ltd. During an appearance on Good Morning Britain, Lydon joked about his change of heart, noting, “That’s dementia for you, I forgot that bit.”

But then he explained his decision to perform again, which is when he took a dig at The Stones.

“As I indicated before, if I just sat back and retired, that’s not me. I’m not that kind of person,” the 69-year-old said. “By all means, The Rolling Stones should retire. I’m not short of a song idea or two, so there’s a difference.”

He then acknowledged, “I’ve offended music lovers.”

Lydon seems to be suggesting The Stones don’t have any good music left in them, although the band did release a new album, Hackney Diamonds, in 2023. The album went on to win a Grammy for best rock album.

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The Who just announced dates for their farewell tour of North America, but it sounds like the band isn’t too sure folks in the U.K. will get a similar goodbye.

During a press conference announcing the tour, both Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey expressed doubt they’ll bring the tour to the U.K., with Daltrey joking, “Let’s see if we survive this one.”

He then explained that it’s much easier to tour the U.S. than the U.K.

“For some reason or another, the U.K. has decided to make it as difficult as possible to go from A to B. In America, you seem to want to make it as easy as possible. But we are in the land of ‘no,'” Daltrey said. “I don’t want to say that there won’t be, but equally, I’m not confident in saying there will be.”

Townshend agreed with Daltrey’s assessment.

“I really enjoyed the last tour that we did, but it was a strange one. We played a lot of open-air gigs. We’d had an insurance problem, which meant that we couldn’t play some of the more classic places that one plays under a U.K. tour,” he said. “But the door is open to us. We could do a week at the O2, we could do a week, a couple of weeks maybe at the [Royal] Albert Hall, there are kinda things we could do.”

But he and Daltrey noted that they can’t do consecutive shows, which could make things more difficult.

The Song Is Over North American Farewell Tour will kick off Aug. 16 in Sunrise, Florida, and wrap Sept. 28 in Las Vegas. Tickets go on sale to the general public May 16 at 10 a.m. local time.

A full list of dates can be found at TheWho.com.

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Billy Idol’s latest album has landed on the Billboard charts.

The rocker’s Dream Into It, his first full-length album since 2014’s Kings & Queens of the Underground, debuted at #7 on the Billboard Top Album Sales chart. That marks his first album to ever land in the top 10 on that chart. 

According to the mag, 6,500 copies of Dream Into It were sold in the week ending May 1, consisting of about 2,500 vinyl records, 3,500 CDs and 500 digital downloads. All those vinyl copies were enough to land the album at #19 on the Billboard Vinyl Sales chart.

Prior to Dream Into It, Idol’s highest-ranking album on the Top Sales Chart was the 2021 EP The Roadside, which peaked at #12.

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Sammy Hagar was joined by a special guest for the latest show of his The Best of All Worlds residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas.

Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, who is headlining his own Vegas residency at the Sphere with Dead & Company, joined Hagar Wednesday night for a performance of the Montrose track “Bad Motor Scooter.” According to setlist.fm, it was the first time Hagar’s played the song during his Best of All World shows.

Hagar posted photos with Weir on Instagram, calling Wednesday’s concert “my favorite show so far.”

“@bobweir joined us for the #1973 first song I ever wrote in my life #badmotorscooter from #montrose,” he added. “we took a long walk in the woods to say the least and found our way. #backhome.”

Hagar returns to Dolby Live for another show on Friday, with the residency wrapping May 17. A complete list of dates can be found at RedRocker.com.

Dead & Company’s Dead Forever residency returns to the Sphere on Friday, with the residency also wrapping on May 17. The full schedule can be found at DeadandCompany.com.

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A new musical featuring the music of Foreigner is set to open next year in Long Island, New York.

Feels Like The First Time – The Foreigner Musical is a collaboration between the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band, Tilles Center for the Performing Arts and Long Island University’s Post Theatre Company, featuring 14 of the band’s iconic hits.

Rent star Adam Pascal, who is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at Long Island University, is on board to direct the musical, which will have workshops and staged readings this fall, before having its world premiere at LIU’s Little Theatre in April 2026.

“When I wrote ‘Feels Like The First Time,’ I had no idea how far that song would take Foreigner,” founder Mick Jones shares. “It is a personal thrill for me to know that the amazing Adam Pascal has elected to use it as the title of our new musical.”

He adds, “I am very confident that he and the whole team will create something very special, and I look forward to seeing the completed work in 2026, the 50th anniversary year of the founding of Foreigner.”

“As a Long Island native, it’s an honor to direct this new Foreigner musical and to serve as LIU’s first Artist-in-Residence,” Pascal adds. “I grew up on these hits and am excited to collaborate on bringing this production to life.”

Foreigner is confirmed to appear at an exclusive benefit concert, Foreigner: The Hits Unplugged, which will raise money for the production. Original lead singer Lou Gramm will host the concert, taking place Sept. 5 at Tilles Center. More info can be found at tillescenter.org/ForeignerBenefit.

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