Classic Rock 93.9

A long in the works Led Zeppelin documentary is finally set to hit theaters.

The film, Becoming Led Zeppelin will open exclusively in IMAX theaters on Feb. 7, with a one night only early access screening to take place Feb. 5 in 18 markets, including New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston.

Becoming Led Zeppelin is a film fans have been waiting for for a long time. In fact, it first premiered as a work-in-progress at the 2021 Venice Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics acquired the rights to the completed film in May. 

The movie, described as a “hybrid docu-concert film,” is the first officially sanctioned documentary about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group.

As for why it took so long to complete, it seems the filmmakers had a hard time finding early footage of the band, and had to search for material to use for the project.

“We spent five years flying back and forth across the Atlantic scouring attics and basements in pursuit of rare and unseen film footage, photographs and music recordings,” writer/producer Allison McGourty explains. “Then we transferred each piece of media with custom techniques, so that in IMAX, these 55-year-old clips and music would look and sound like they came out of the lab yesterday.”

Director Bernard MacMahon adds, “The cinematic power of IMAX paired with the film’s authentic sound creates an immersive and transportive viewing experience letting audiences feel like they are there, in the venues with the band.” 

Tickets for Becoming Led Zeppelin are on sale now.

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Peter Frampton, Patti Smith and Neil Young are among the artists who have donated one-of-a-kind memorabilia to the ASCAP Foundation’s fourth annual Holiday Auction. 

Frampton, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year, has donated a signed black Les Paul Gibson guitar, while Young has donated a framed and signed cover of his 2019 book To Feel the Music, and Smith has offered up a set of signed books and music.

Other items that are part of the auction include two tickets and a VIP experience to a Graham Nash concert in 2025, a G3 reunion album signed by Steve Vai, Eric Johnson and Joe Satriani, a signed copy of Bernie Taupin’s memoir Scattershot, and signed music and merchandise from Huey Lewis and the News.

The auction is open from now until Dec. 18 at charitybuzz.com. Proceeds will benefit ASCAP’s mission to support the next generation of songwriters and composers, with the money going to music education and talent development programs across the country.

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Yoko Ono never remarried after John Lennon was killed in December 1980, and in a new interview, the couple’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, said his mother “never has moved on from that relationship.”

Sean made the revelation as he was talking to BBC Radio 6 Music host Chris Hawkins about what he learned putting together the box set for his dad’s 1973 album, Mind Games, which was released earlier this year.

He noted that even though his parents separated after the making of the album — Lennon went on to have a relationship with May Pang, in what was called Lennon’s Lost Weekend — his mom and dad still loved each other.

“The truth is, even when they were apart they were always talking, so I don’t think they ever really broke up. All his stuff was still in the apartment with my mum, it’s not like they had a real separation,” he said. “And on top of it, all my dad was thinking about was her.” 

He added, “You look at the album cover [of Mind Games], it’s a collage of my mum literally the size of a mountain, and he’s this little tiny thing sort of fading into the background. And I think it’s clear what his view of my mum was in his life.”

Sean noted, “She was monumental, obviously. And the whole album is about her.”

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Nudedragons, an alias previously used by Soundgarden, are set to perform at an upcoming Seattle benefit concert.

The show, dubbed SMooCH, takes place Dec. 14 and raises money for the Seattle Children’s Hospital. The SMooCH website teases that “Nudedragons will be returning to the stage … for the first time in 14+ years” for a “brief encore performance,” which will feature guest vocals from Seattle musician Shaina Shepherd.

Soundgarden last performed as Nudedragons in 2010, which marked their first reunion show since breaking up in 1997.

Presumably, the lineup for the SMooCH performance will include surviving members Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd. Frontman Chris Cornell died in 2017.

Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan is also on the bill.

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Alex Van Halen opened up about coping with the death of his brother, Eddie Van Halen, in an interview with Anderson Cooper for his CNN podcast, All There Is With Anderson Cooper.

“I’m grieving all the time. I’m not running from it, because that doesn’t solve the problem,” Alex shared. “At times, it can be overwhelming, and the more I dwell on it, the more complicated it becomes.” 

Although Eddie had been battling cancer for years, Alex said, “None of us really thought he was going to die.”

“He’d always bounced back. He had the most incredible DNA that I’ve ever seen in anybody,” he said. “He could do more and more drugs than anybody, and still wake up the next day and perform.”

He noted, “I don’t think anybody really thought he was gonna die. So when he passed, it was really a shock.”

Alex says even Eddie didn’t think he was going to die.

“Being human, you think you’re gonna go on one more day, one more day. You keep going forward,” he said. “But then one day you don’t. So up to the very end, we were still making music and we talked about, what are we gonna do next year? But it was clear that he was going downhill.” 

Alex also talked about his final moments with Eddie in the hospital.

“All I know is that when he stopped breathing, I didn’t hear anything. I didn’t see anything. There were no bells. There were no angels,” he says, noting that because of the COVID-19 pandemic Eddie’s body was immediately taken away. “[It was] a very uneventful ending to an eventful life. But you know what? He fought it till the very end. I wanna think of Ed’s life in terms of that he never gave up.”

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It sounds like Bob Dylan is confident that the upcoming movie A Complete Unknown is going to be a good one. He took to social media platform X Wednesday to share his thoughts on the film, which is set to open Dec. 25.

“There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!),” he tweeted. “Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me.”

Dylan went on to recommend the book on which the movie is based, 2015’s Dylan Goes Electric, by Elijah Wald. 

“It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport,” he shared. “After you’ve seen the movie read the book.”

A Complete Unknown follows a 19-year-old Dylan as he arrives in New York from Minnesota and tracks his rise as a folk singer during the ’60s, ending with his electric rock ‘n’ roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

This isn’t the first time Dylan has shared his thoughts on the project. A Complete Unknown director James Mangold has said that Dylan had some input during the making of the film. In fact, in a recent Rolling Stone interview Ed Norton, who plays Pete Seeger in the movie, shared that Mangold revealed Dylan made him put what’s described as “one totally inaccurate moment” into the flick, although Mangold didn’t say what it was.

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Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose has settled the lawsuit filed in November 2023 by former Penthouse Pet of the Year Sheila Kennedy, who claimed that back in 1989 the rocker sexually assaulted her in his hotel room after they met at a New York nightclub.

“Mr. Rose has suffered greatly from this lawsuit, and I am pleased that he will now be able to move on with his life,” Rose’s attorney, E. Danya Perry, said in a statement provided to ABC Audio.

The rocker added in his own statement, “As I have from the beginning, I deny the allegations. There was no assault.”

Kennedy claimed in her suit that she “suffered severe emotional, physical, financial and psychological distress” from the encounter with Rose and had “issues with physical and emotional intimacy.”

Rose’s lawyers filed his response to the suit in March, arguing that Kennedy’s suit was an attempt to “rewrite history” and implying she filed it for financial gain. 

They argued that she had previously acknowledged in her 2016 memoir, No One’s Pet, that her encounter with Rose was consensual, adding that she only changed her story after New York passed the Adult Survivor’s Act, which allowed victims of sexual abuse to sue in cases that would have otherwise fallen outside the usual statute of limitations.

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Gene Simmons may no longer be touring with KISS but he hasn’t given up playing live.

The rocker has announced a set of spring dates with the Gene Simmons Band, including shows in Florida, New Jersey and Texas.

Simmons is set to play Tallahassee on April 28, followed by a previously announced show in Beaver Dam, Kentucky, on May 3. He’ll then play Red Bank, New Jersey, on May 5, followed by Dallas on May 22 and Houston on May 25.

A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at GeneSimmons.com. 

Following KISS’ final show at New York’s Madison Square Garden last December, Simmons has played several dates with the Gene Simmons Band. His first post-KISS show took place in April 2024 at the grand opening of the Rock & Brews Restaurant and Concert Bar within the ilani Casino Resort in Ridgefield, Washington. The band then went on to play shows in Brazil and Europe.

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If you just can’t wait until Christmas Day to see the Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown, there’s now a chance to catch it earlier … and bigger.

The film, starring Timothée Chalamet as the iconic singer, is set to play in IMAX theaters starting Dec. 18, a week earlier than its Dec. 25 official release day.

A Complete Unknown: IMAX Early Access will screen in select AMC, Regal, Cineplex and Cinemark theaters in 19 major cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Nashville, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. 

All screenings will be followed by a prerecorded Q&A with the cast, and attendees will get a commemorative mini poster and lanyard with their ticket. 

Tickets for the IMAX screenings are on sale now.

A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold, follows a 19-year-old Dylan as he arrives in New York from Minnesota and tracks his rise as a folk singer during the ’60s to the top of the charts, ending with his electric rock ‘n’ roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

The film also stars Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Elle Fanning as a character named Sylvie Russo, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash and Nick Offerman as Alan Lomax.

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On This Day, Dec. 4, 1988 …

Roy Orbison performed what would be his final concert at the Front Row Theater in Highland Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. 

The concert featured performances of such Orbison classics as “Crying,” “In Dreams,” “Only the Lonely,” “Oh, Pretty Woman” and more.

After the show, Orbison returned home to Hendersonville, Tennessee, where he died from a heart attack on Dec. 6. He was 52.

Orbison’s many accolades include being a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Musicians Hall of Fame. He won five Grammy Awards and was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

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