Classic Rock 93.9

Bryan Adams, Steve Winwood and The Doobie Brothers are among the contenders for the 2025 class of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. 

The organization just announced the artists in the running for induction next year, with Adams, Winwood and Doobie Brothers members Tom Johnston, Patrick Simmons and Michael McDonald getting nominated in the performing songwriters category.

Others nominated in that category include The Beach Boys’ Mike Love, Boy George, David Gates of Bread, George Clinton, Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette, Janet Jackson, Eminem, Tommy James and Dr. Dre, Easy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella of Public Enemy.

In the non-performing category, the nominees include the folks who wrote or co-wrote hits like Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Pat Benatar‘s “Love Is A Battlefield,” The Foundations‘ “Build Me Up Buttercup,” The Four Tops‘ “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got),” The Commodores‘ “Nightshift” and Whitney Houston‘s “How Will I Know.”

Some of the people nominated this year have been in the running for the Hall of Fame in the past, including Adams, Winwood, The Doobie Brothers and Clinton. 

Nominees become eligible 20 years after their first “significant commercial release of a song.” Voting will run through Dec. 22, and the inductees will be celebrated at a gala event in New York City next year.

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For a guy who’s 73, Sting looks pretty good. But he says if he ever stops looking good, he’ll stop performing onstage.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Sting says his fitness regimen includes yoga, swimming, working out and walking, but admits that 55% of the reason he does it is vanity — the other 45% is discipline.

“I don’t look at pictures of myself. But you need enough professional vanity to go onstage in the first place,” he says. “I wouldn’t want to go on if I was overweight or wearing spandex. If that happens to me, I’m not going onstage. So the vanity is somewhat essential, and it’s not particularly harmful.”

“I’m not spending hours of the day looking in the mirror or getting made up … or wearing a wig or a corset,” he adds.

While Sting isn’t getting any younger, his music is finding new, younger audiences, because so many artists continue to sample it. Last year, Pink and Marshmello reworked his song “Fields of Gold” into the song “Dreaming,” for example.

“[W]hen somebody wants to interpolate or whatever it’s called, I never object because I always learn something about the song that I hadn’t known or anticipated. And I get paid, so why not?” he says. “It keeps them current.”

Sting also denies that the allegations against disgraced hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs have somehow “tainted” the way he thinks of his most famous song, “Every Breath You Take.” Combs famously sampled that song in his #1 hit “I’ll Be Missing You.”

“I mean, I don’t know what went on [with Diddy],” he says. “But it doesn’t taint the song at all for me. It’s still my song.”

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A piano used to record “Layla,” by Eric Clapton‘s band Derek and the Dominos, is one of the many items going up for auction as part of a collection from the legendary Hit Factory recording studio in New York.

Items that will be available come from the personal archives of Danielle Germano, daughter of the recording studio’s founder, Ed Germano.

The 1960s Baldwin studio piano up for auction was purchased by the Hit Factory from Miami’s Criteria Studios in the 1990s. It was used not only on “Layla,” but also during the recording of the Allman Brothers Band album Eat a Peach and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Street Survivors. It was also played by several big-name artists, including Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles.

Also being auctioned off is an original file from Germano’s belongings described as the “final session” of John Lennon’s 1980 album, Double Fantasy, the final album he recorded before his death. There are also hundreds of record awards, from such artists as Lennon, Clapton, The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen. 

The auction is being handled by Eaton & Brennan and will run online from Nov. 13 to Dec. 4.

More info can be found at eatonbrennanauctions.com.

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Jerry Garcia has been gone for almost 30 years, but thanks to AI, Grateful Dead fans can now enjoy the experience of the late rocker reading to them. 

According to Billboard, Garcia’s estate has teamed with AI company ElevenLabs for an AI-generated version of Garcia’s voice, which will read audiobooks, poetry, articles and more through the Iconic Listening Experience on the ElevenReader app.

A company spokesperson tells Billboard they worked “in close collaboration with the Jerry Garcia estate to ensure that the reproduction of Garcia’s voice was as authentic and true to his legacy as possible.”

In addition to use on the app, the Jerry Garcia Foundation has plans to use the AI-generated voice in future projects. 

“My father was a pioneering artist, who embraced innovative audio and visual technologies,” Jerry’s daughter Keelin Garcia, who’s the co-founder and VP of the Jerry Garcia Foundation, shares. “Now, as technological landscapes continue to expand, ElevenLabs AI Audio technology will offer fans the first opportunity to hear and stream a replica of my father’s voice reading their favorite books and other written content.”

Garcia is one of several celebrities whose voice has been recreated by ElevenLabs using AI. Others include Judy Garland, James Dean and Sir Laurence Olivier.

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U2 is celebrating the 20th anniversary of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb with the Nov. 29 release of the shadow album How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb. And while that may be exciting, U2 fans are anxiously awaiting word on a new album — and in a new interview with Rolling Stone, guitarist The Edge gave them a little update.

Edge says he created a lot of tracks and song ideas during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now they have to narrow things down.

“So we’re starting to go through some of those, and we’ve got an awful lot of material to wade through to see what it is,” he said. “And I guess we’re at that great honeymoon period of a lot of experimentation, and looking at all kinds of possible themes musically.” 

While in the past Bono has said the next album would be a rock record, Edge clarifies, “I think the guitar will be a big part of the next record, but I don’t think it’s going to be a heavy rock album. I think it’s going to be a very different kind of use of the guitar, not a straight-up rock thing.” 

He added, “We’ve always tried to find ways to use the guitar that has never been heard before, and it seems that that’s an important part of what gets us excited.”

Edge also shared a health update about drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who had to sit out their Las Vegas residency after having surgery, revealing they’ve already done one session with him and “we’re having a great time.”

“So yeah, obviously we don’t want to be over-doing it, but yes, it’s going great and he’s in great form,” he said. “It’s lovely to spend time with him in the studio in a creative environment.” 

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Monday, Nov. 11 — 11/11 — is apparently Singles Day because it’s 1-1-1-1, and some special singles have just been released to mark the occasion.

Capitol Records has dropped two special vinyl releases from The Beatles: the group’s most-recent single, “Now and Then,” with the 1962 single version of “Love Me Do” in black, clear and light blue vinyl, and a Revolver special-edition box set featuring four LPs and a 7-inch bonus EP.

There’s also Ringo Starr‘s 45 RPM Singles Collection, featuring three 7-inch singles, which was previously available for Record Store Day.

There are also four Singles Day releases from ABBA, as well as classic holiday tunes from Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. They are all available at shop.capitolmusic.com.

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Timothée Chalamet is opening up about his experience playing Bob Dylan in the upcoming movie A Complete Unknown.

In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Chalamet calls playing Dylan “the most unique challenge I’ve taken on,” but notes he gained his confidence by performing all the movie’s music live.

“Maybe it was the least responsible thing on the actor’s part because the music exists and the performances exist,” he said. And while Chalamet did prerecord songs, in the end he opted to sing live during filming because he felt the recorded tunes were “too clean,” noting, “There’s not a single prerecord in the movie.”

While fans may be hoping to learn a lot more about Dylan watching the film, Chalamet warns that they aren’t really seeing a true biopic on the legendary singer.

“This is not definitive, this is interpretive, this is not fact, this is not how it happened,” he says. “This is a fable.”

As for how he approached playing Dylan, Chalamet explains why he didn’t want to directly mimic the singer. 

“Somebody once said to me, ‘You can’t make a movie about a painter because it’s not interesting to watch paint dry,’” he said. “Bob has that element because he’s not one of these forward-facing musicians.”

And while he did have a vocal and dialect coach, Chalamet says he found that it wasn’t “my style” or Dylan’s either.

“Bob did not have a vocal coach. He had two bottles of red wine and four packs of cigarettes,” he said. “There’s no way to impersonate that.”

A Complete Unknown opens Dec. 25.

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While Pete Townshend recently shared in an interview with The Standard that The Who will “definitely do something next year,” it looks like his bandmate Roger Daltrey has made other plans in the meantime.

Daltrey just announced dates for the Alive and Kicking…And Having Fun tour of the U.K., which promises “Who hits, rarities, solo hits and stories.” 

The tour consists of nine intimate shows, kicking off April 20 in Brighton, England, and hitting such cities as London, Glasgow and Edinburgh before wrapping May 4 in Manchester.

Daltrey will be joined on the tour with a nine-piece band that includes Who collaborator, and Pete’s younger brother, Simon Townshend on guitar and vocals.

“I can’t wait to get back on the road in the UK with these shows,” Roger shares. “It’s a joy to be on stage performing – up close and personal for the audience, chatting with them and playing familiar songs in an unfamiliar way.” 

Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday. A complete list of dates can be found at thewho.com.

Daltrey toured the U.S. back in June, where he treated the audience to a mix of The Who classics, covers and more. The last time The Who toured the U.S. was in 2022.

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On This Day, Nov. 11, 1972 …

Berry Oakley, bassist and founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, was killed in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia. He was only 24.

Oakley’s death occurred just three blocks from where fellow Allman Brothers Band member Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident one year prior, on Oct. 29, 1971. Duane also died at the age of 24.

Oakley played in guitarist Dickey Betts‘ band Blues Messengers prior to the 1969 forming of the Allman Brothers Band with guitarists Duane and Dickey, singer and keyboardist Gregg Allman, and drummers Butch Trucks and Jaimoe Johanson.

Considered by some to be one of the best bass players of all time, Oakley was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 with the Allman Brothers Band.

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Paul Simon and singing partner Art Garfunkel have been estranged for years, but it sounds like their relationship may be on the mend.

In a new interview with the U.K. paper The Sunday Times, Garfunkel opened up about an emotional lunch they had together recently, which was one of the first times they’d been together in awhile.

“I looked at Paul and said, ‘What happened? Why haven’t we seen each other?’” Garfunkel shared. “Paul mentioned an old interview where I said some stuff. I cried when he told me how much I had hurt him.”

He added, “Looking back, I guess I wanted to shake up the nice guy image of Simon & Garfunkel. Y’know what? I was a fool!”

And in even happier news for Simon & Garfunkel fans, the two 83-year-old musicians are planning for more meetups in the future, although that doesn’t necessarily mean a reunion is in the works.

“Will Paul bring his guitar? Who knows,” Garfunkel said. “For me, it was about wanting to make amends before it’s too late. It felt like we were back in a wonderful place. As I think about it now, tears are rolling down my cheeks. I can still feel his hug.”

Simon & Garfunkel, known for such classic tunes as “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Homeward Bound” and “The Sound of Silence,” originally broke up in 1970, but reunited several times over the years. The last time they performed together was in 2010 at the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement tribute to The Graduate director Mike Nichols, where they performed their classic track from the film, “Mrs. Robinson.”

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