Classic Rock 93.9

On This Day, Aug. 7, 1987 …

Lindsey Buckingham quit Fleetwood Mac, one day after a contentious group meeting at Christine McVie’s house led to a physical altercation between him and Stevie Nicks.

With a tour starting in a month, the band replaced Lindsey with Billy Burnette and Rick Vito and hit the road for the Shake the Cage Tour.

Buckingham would eventually return to Fleetwood Mac when they reunited in 1993 to perform “Don’t Stop” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. They then reunited in 1997 for a live concert, which was recorded for the live album The Dance and followed by an arena tour.

Buckingham remained with Fleetwood Mac until 2018, when he was fired over a disagreement about touring. He was again replaced by two guitarists, Crowded House’s Neil Finn and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell.

The current future of Fleetwood Mac is uncertain. In fact, Nicks recently shared in an interview that she didn’t think the band could go on following the 2023 death of McVie.

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Rod Stewart‘s 13-year residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace is coming to an end Aug. 7 with his 200th show in the venue. He tells ABC Audio one of the reasons why he’s choosing to end his successful run at the venue now.

“Possibly ’cause it’s a nice rounded number, 200 shows,” he says.

But this last show might not be the end of his time in Sin City forever. As he tells ABC Audio, “I mean, I can’t imagine not going back there again.”

One of the reasons that Rod spent 13 years at the Colosseum is because he just really loves the venue. “Caesars are the best,” he says. “I mean, they really looked after me. Best place to play.”

While the Vegas run is over, Rod still has a number of other North American shows booked for August and into September, including a Sept. 13 stadium show co-headlining with Billy Joel in Cleveland, Ohio. The two have never shared a bill before, so how did that come about?

“I don’t know,” Rod says. “I know he lives in Palm Beach now, where I live sometimes. I don’t know, I’ve got no idea. But I’m actually looking forward to it — I’m honored, in fact.” 

In a recent interview, Rod, who turns 80 in January, said he has no plans to retire and feels that he could “do probably another 15 [years] easy.”

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U2 frontman Bono may be a huge rock star, but that doesn’t mean he’s always living the rock star life, as revealed by his daughter actress Eve Hewson. 

In a new interview with Net-a-Porter magazine, Hewson talks about how she and her siblings all moved home to Dublin during the COVID-19 pandemic. While they would stay up till early hours of the morning, her now 64-year-old dad didn’t join in on the fun.

“We have a studio at the end of [my parents’] garden, where [we’d] usually end up, in the middle of the night, writing stupid songs,” she shares. “I actually got kicked out of the family band for being too enthusiastic.” 

But when asked whether her dad took part in these studio sessions, Eve noted, “No! He was asleep by 10 p.m. every night.” 

While Eve went into acting instead of music, she did share that when she was young she considered going into music like her dad, noting, “I thought I was going to be Charli XCX.” 

As for any suggestion she’s a nepo baby and got her success only because of her famous father, Hewson doesn’t let it bother her. She says, “The only thing you can do is crack a joke and move on.”

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Def Leppard’s Summer Stadium tour was recently in Cleveland, and while in the city the band decided to pay a visit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The rockers, who were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019, shared video of their visit, where they got to check out items in the Rock Hall’s vault. 

“It’s amazing so far. We just went into a place where you’re not allowed to film, and it was unbelievable,” frontman Joe Elliott says, noting he got to see Levon Helm’s 102-year-old mandolin from when he was in The Band, sharing, “I was shaking looking at it.”

He also saw late Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark’s guitars and the lyrics for their 1993 track “Two Steps Behind,” joking, “I always wondered where they ended up.”

“I’m just blown away by everything, to be honest,” Rick Savage says of the visit. “You forget, even though it’s part of your life and part of your history, it’s easy to just like kinda dismiss it. But then when you see all this stuff that paved the way for so many of us, and in a small way to be associated with it, is pretty humbling actually.” 

Def Leppard also checked out their own exhibit, which features a suit Elliott says he wore just one time for the cover of Rolling Stone to promote 1992’s Adrenalize. 

Drummer Rick Allen notes of their exhibit, “I think we need to add to it, but it was great to just see a little bit of what was there and remember what we were doing at the time.” 

Def Leppard’s Summer Stadium with Journey hits Citi Field in New York on Wednesday. A complete list of dates can be found at defleppard.com.

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Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx is the latest rocker to pay tribute to Aerosmith following the announcement that they’ve retired from touring due to Steven Tyler’s vocal problems.

In a post on Facebook, Sixx writes that he bought his first Aerosmith record in 1973 when he was 15, noting, “I would carry that album with me everywhere, including to friends’ houses, confessing to them that this was the future of rock ‘n’ roll.”

He adds, “As the years rolled on, my opinion never changed. Lyrically, musically, rhythmically, and especially with those monster songs, Aerosmith was unparalleled.” 

“Their entire catalog is outstanding, but those first five albums were the holy grail for a young, future Nikki Sixx,” he writes, before going on to praise Aerosmith members Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford.

Sixx, who’s been sober for 23 years, then revealed how important Tyler has been to him. 

“Steven Tyler to me, has always been the ultimate singer, lyricist, and showman, but personally, he’s a man who helped me at the beginning of my sobriety,” he writes. “I’ve been lucky to become a peer, a friend, and always a fan of this great American rock ‘n’ roll band.” 

Sixx concludes his post, “Thank you, Aerosmith, for everything.”

Aerosmith announced on Aug. 2 they were canceling their Peace Out tour, which was due to relaunch in September. The tour initially kicked off in September 2023, but was postponed after a handful of shows when Tyler fractured his larynx.

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Earlier this year, Forbes reported that Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” was “officially the biggest song of all time.” But the band’s guitarist and songwriter Neal Schon is still pretty shocked it has gotten as big as it has.

“When I first heard the finished song I knew it was special, but it took years to get to the place where it’s a worldwide anthem,” Schon tells The Guardian. “Everybody has their own theory about why ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ exploded in the new millennium.”

One of those theories has to do with its use in several movies and TV shows.

“First, there was the movie Monster, with Charlize Theron. Then came The Sopranos – I remember my phone blowing up and all my friends saying: ‘Man, did you see the final scene?’” he says.

But it was the song’s use in the pilot episode of Glee that brought the tune to a whole new audience, although Schon says he was initially a bit concerned about the song being on the program.

“I was terrified by that because I thought it was a teenybopper show, not so cool for us,” he says. “Little did I know that it would open up a younger generation to our music.” 

He adds, “I’m a rocker and a blues guy, and we always joke that if I think something is too schmaltzy, it’s usually gonna be big!”

Fans can hear “Don’t Stop Believin'” and other hit songs this summer on Journey’s Summer Stadium tour with Def Leppard. The tour hits Citi Field in New York on Wednesday. A complete list of tour dates can be found at journeymusic.com. 

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It’s official – the Bob Dylan biopic is coming out on Christmas Day.

Searchlight Pictures just announced that the James Mangold-directed film A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet, will be released nationwide on Dec. 25.

Described as “the electric true story behind the rise of one of the most iconic singer-songwriters in history,” A Complete Unknown follows a 19-year-old Dylan as he arrives in the West Village from Minnesota in the early ’60s, where he meets artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Joan Baez.

It is expected to follow him through his famed 1965 performance at the Newport Folk Festival, when he shocks the crowd by plugging in an electric guitar. 

In addition to Chalamet, who does his own singing in the film, A Complete Unknown stars Edward Norton as Seeger, Monica Barbaro as Baez, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash and Nick Offerman as Alan Lomax.

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Bon Jovi, Lenny Kravitz and U2 are among the artists vying for an MTV VMA this year.

All three are nominated in the Best Rock category: Bon Jovi for “Legendary,” Kravitz for “Human” and U2 for “Atomic City.”

Their competition in the category includes Green Day’s “Dilemma,” Coldplay’s “feelslikeimfallinginlove” and Kings of Leon’s “Mustang.”

Taylor Swift leads all nominees this year with 10, followed by Post Malone with nine. 

The MTV Video Music Awards will air Sept. 10 at 8 p.m. ET live from the UBS Arena in New York. Fan voting is open now and runs through Aug. 30.

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On This Day, Aug. 6, 1965…

The Beatles released their fifth studio album Help!, which was the soundtrack to their film of the same name.

The album produced three #1 singles, including the title track, “Yesterday,” and “Ticket to Ride.”

Help! was a critical success, and hit #1 on the Billboard Album chart, spending nine weeks in the top spot. It was also nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys, marking The Beatles’ first Grammy nomination in that category.

Help! was the second film to star The Beatles. It had the band trying to protect drummer Ringo Starr, who’s the target of a sinister cult and mad scientists trying to obtain a sacrificial ring he received as a gift from a fan.

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Green Day may have joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe during their show at New York City’s Citi Field on Monday.

While Billie Joe Armstrong was delivering a show-closing rendition of “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” drummer Tré Cool and bassist Mike Dirnt dressed up as Deadpool and Wolverine, respectively, and surprised their bandmate onstage.

In footage posted to Green Day’s Facebook, you can see Armstrong try to contain his laughter as he tries to finish the song while the costumed Cool and Dirnt dance behind him. 

“You were Marvelous New York!” the post’s punny caption reads.

Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds, responded in an Instagram Story, declaring, “I’ll never recover from this.”

As previously reported, “Good Riddance” is included on the soundtrack to the new Deadpool & Wolverine movie. Cool made a reference to the film during the concert by exclaiming, “Baby knife!”

Following Deadpool & Wolverine‘s premiere, Billboard reported that streams of “Good Riddance” increased by 88%.

Green Day is currently on tour supporting their new Saviors album while also celebrating the 30th and 20th anniversaries of their albums Dookie and American Idiot, respectively.

Disney is the parent company of Marvel and ABC News.

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