The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, born Michael Philip Jagger, was born in Dartford, Kent, England.
Now considered one of the world’s best rock ‘n’ roll frontmen, Jagger was studying at the London School of Economics when a chance meeting with childhood friend Keith Richards at a train station changed the course of his future: the two formed a musical partnership that eventually became The Rolling Stones.
In their 60-year career, The Stones have become one of the bestselling artists of all time. They’ve had nine Billboard #1 albums and eight #1 singles, selling over 200 million records. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.
Jagger’s personal life has also kept him in the headlines over the years, although he’s technically only been married once — to Bianca Jagger, from 1971 to 1978. He’s had several high-profile relationships, including a four-year relationship with Marianne Faithfull and an unofficial marriage to model Jerry Hall.
He has eight children with five different women. His youngest, son Deveraux, with current girlfriend Melanie Hamrick, is 8.
A treasure trove of previously unreleased music from the Jimi Hendrix Experience will be released in September as part of a new box set dedicated to Hendrix’s legendary New York studio, Electric Lady.
Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision, dropping Sept. 13 as a five-LP or three-CD set, will include 39 tracks, 38 of which have never been released before. They were all recorded by Jimi, bassist Billy Cox and drummer Mitch Mitchel at Electric Lady between June and August 1970. Hendrix died only weeks later on Sept. 18, 1970.
Included in the set is a Blu-ray with 20 new 5.1 surround sound mixes of the compilation album First Rays of The New Rising Sun, along with three bonus tracks and the upcoming Hendrix documentary Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision, which features never-before-seen footage and photos from the studio.
And fans are getting their first preview of the new set with “Angel (Take 7),” the original recorded performance of the tune, which appeared on the 1971 posthumous release The Cry of Love.
To coincide with the premiere of the documentary Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision on Aug. 8, New York City is set to temporarily rename a portion of West 8 Street, where Electric Lady is located, Jimi Hendrix Way. The doc will then premiere at Quad Cinema on Aug. 9, followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, John McDermott, co-producer Janie Hendrix and producer/engineer Eddie Kramer.
The bell has been tolling for Metallica‘s Ride the Lighting for four decades.
The metal legends’ sophomore album was released July 27, 1984 — 40 years ago Saturday. Following their 1983 debut, Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning saw the young ‘Tallica — then featuring bassist Cliff Burton alongside frontman James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist Kirk Hammett — building and expanding upon their thrash metal roots.
Ride the Lightning spawned Metallica classics including “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Creeping Death” and “Fade to Black,” along with the instrumental “The Call of Ktulu.” It’s been certified six-times Platinum by the RIAA.
Metallica followed Ride the Lightning with their 1986 opus Master of Puppets, which would turn out to be Burton’s final record. Burton died in a bus crash just months after Master of Puppets was released.
Ahead of the Ride the Lighting anniversary, Metallica launched an exhibit dedicated to Burton as part of their virtual Black Box museum.
The Rolling Stones recently wrapped their Hackney Diamonds tour, and they are giving fans a unique way to memorialize their experience at the concert.
The band is now selling limited-edition Hackney Diamonds 2024 tour crystal tickets, each individually numbered, with only 1,000 available worldwide.
“Forget paper – this isn’t your ordinary ticket stub,” reads a description of the unique memento. “Inspired by the tour’s name, the design shimmers with a unique diamond-like bevel, incorporating the tour date and name into this one-of-a-kind ticket. It’s a collector’s dream.”
But the ticket isn’t cheap. It sells for $358, although it comes in a keepsake box, a certificate of authenticity and a display stand.
They are available to order now and will ship Oct. 4.
The Rolling Stones kicked off their Hackney Diamonds tour of North America on April 28 in Houston, and wrapped it with a hits-filled show in Ridgedale, Missouri, on Sunday. So far they haven’t announced any other dates for the tour.
After 104 monthly shows over 10 years — and 1.9 million tickets sold — Billy Joel finally brought his residency at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden to a close on July 25 … with help from special guests Jimmy Fallon and Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose.
When Billy noted early in the evening that it was the final show of the residency, fans booed — and Billy responded, “We don’t want to leave either, but it’s time.” He called the 10-year residency “the most amazing gig that we’ve ever done, ever.”
He then proceeded to reel off a list of his impressive other gigs: The first rock act to play at Yankee Stadium, the final act to perform at Shea Stadium, playing in front of the Colosseum in Rome, playing in Berlin as the Wall came down, performing in Cuba and being one of the first Western rock acts to perform in the Soviet Union.
But, Billy said, “THIS is the best!” He then added, “We’ll come back.”
Billy’s pal Jimmy Fallon was on hand to announce that a banner was being raised to the rafters of the Garden commemorating the fact that overall, the Piano Man has played 150 concerts at the legendary venue — the most lifetime performances by any artist. “No one else has done this!” Jimmy yelled. “We are part of history!”
A bit later, Axl Rose joined Billy to perform Paul McCartney‘s James Bond theme “Live and Let Die,” which GN’R had covered on their 1991 album Use Your Illusion I. Rose also performed AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” which was fitting, considering that he filled in as AC/DC’s lead singer in 2016. Rose returned to join Billy and the band for the final number, “You May Be Right.”
Billy was also joined onstage by his two youngest daughters: Della, who’ll be 9 in August, and Remy, 6. While Remy sat on the piano and waved at the crowd, Della sang along with every word of her dad’s hit “My Life,” acting out the lyrics when appropriate. At the end, she commandeered the mic to yell, “Thank you, Madison Square Garden!”
After a visibly moved Billy regained his composure, he joked, “I guess it’s HER life now!”
As for the rest of the set list, Billy stuck to hits like “Only the Good Die Young,” “You May Be Right” and “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” and fan favorites like “Vienna,” “Zanzibar” and “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.” The only unexpected number was “This Is the Time,” a romantic ballad from his 1986 album The Bridge which he played by special request of his wife, Alexis.
“Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)” “Pressure” “The Entertainer” “Zanzibar” “Vienna” “My Life” “Start Me Up” (snippet) “An Innocent Man” “Downeaster ‘Alexa'” “Don’t Ask Me Why” “New York State of Mind” “Allentown” “This Is the Time” “Live and Let Die” (With Axl Rose) “Highway to Hell” (With Axl Rose) “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” “Only the Good Die Young” “The River of Dreams”–> Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” (vocals: Crystal Taliefero) –> “The River of Dreams” “Nessun Dorma” (vocals: Mike Guidice) “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” “Piano Man” Encore: “We Didn’t Start the Fire” “Uptown Girl” “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” “Big Shot” “You May Be Right” (With Axl Rose, snippet of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock & Roll”)
Former Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward appears up for a reunion show.
In a Facebook post, Ward writes that he’s “checking in regarding all the updates on a possible Sabbath show in England.”
“I’m in for playing some of everyone’s old favorites,” Ward shares. “Loved playing them then, I’d love to play them one last time.”
He adds, “I’m not going to talk about my health publicly except to say, everyday I’m pretty good for 76 years old, I’m active musically every day, and I have a very busy and gratifying life.”
Ward, Sabbath’s original drummer, parted ways with the band acrimoniously shortly after they’d announced their reunion in 2011. He didn’t take part in Sabbath’s final album, 2013’s 13, or their farewell tour, which concluded in 2017.
In recent years, Ozzy Osbourne has spoken out about Ward’s absence from Sabbath’s farewell, telling Stereogum in 2022 that he regrets that the drummer didn’t play on 13. Then in a May episode of his Madhouse Chronicles show, Ozzy said that the story of Sabbath feels “unfinished” and that he’d want to do “one more gig” with Ward behind the kit.
Ozzy, meanwhile, had been sidelined from the live stage due to various health issues — he hasn’t played a full live set since 2018 — but he did reunite with Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi for a two-song performance at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He also just appeared in a new commercial alongside Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler for the Aston Villa F.C. soccer team.
While Van Halen had plenty of success with both David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar as their frontmen, they couldn’t produce the same magic when Extreme’s Gary Cherone took over the gig. And bassist Michael Anthony is opening up about why it didn’t work out.
“It was an interesting time, because the band was really going through a lot personally,” Anthony told Ultimate Guitar. “And as far as musically, I personally didn’t think that Gary was a really good fit for Van Halen. I mean, I really love him in Extreme, but I just didn’t really see the fit.”
Van Halen released one album, 1998’s Van Halen III, with Cherone, and also went on tour with him, which Anthony describes as a good experience because Cherone “was open to doing any of the Van Halen stuff.”
“In fact, he suggested doing the Roth era stuff, the Hagar era stuff,” he says. “And he wanted to play it all, which was really great because we ended up on that tour playing a lot of the older Van Halen stuff that we hadn’t played for years when Sammy was in the band.”
Anthony says there’s some Cherone material in the vault that’s never been released, but it doesn’t sound like he’s expecting any of it to ever come out.
“But as far as the other music goes, that’s shelved and that’s up to Wolfgang (Van Halen),” he says. “I don’t think any of that will really see the light of day because it was something that was a work in progress and never completed.”
Anthony is currently out on tour with Sammy Hagar on his The Best of All Worlds Tour. The trek hits Mansfield, Massachusetts, on Friday. A complete list of all dates can be found at redrocker.com.
Sting is replacing Neil Young at yet another festival.
It’s already been announced that the former Police frontman would be filling in for Young at Kentucky’s Bourbon & Beyond music festival on Sept. 19, and now he’s set to do the same at the Eddie Vedder-curated Ohana Festival on Sept. 28. Sting will be taking the stage with guitarist and longtime collaborator Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas.
Young canceled his entire tour with backing band Crazy Horse in June due to health reasons, although he was recently announced as one of the performers at Farm Aid, happening Sept. 21 in Saratoga Springs, New York.
The Ohana Festival, taking place Sept. 27 to Sept. 29 in Dana Point, California, also features two headlining sets by Pearl Jam, on Sept. 27 and Sept. 29, as well as sets by Alanis Morissette, Garbage, Crowded House, The Breeders and more.
In other Sting news, he’s set to premiere a new song as he helps French high-wire artist Philippe Petit celebrate the 50th anniversary of his high-wire walk between the two towers of the World Trade Center.
As previously reported, Sting will be performing at Petit’s anniversary celebration, taking place Aug. 7 and Aug. 8 at Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. It turns out the performance will include the debut of a song written about Petit, along with two other tracks.
Petit’s illegal walk between the two buildings in lower Manhattan happened on Aug. 7, 1974; during the celebration he plans to get back on the high wire for an artistic recreation of his original walk.
Hermann Hesse’s classic novel Siddhartha is being reimagined as an illustrated novel and album, authored and composed by Pete Townshend’s wife, Rachel Fuller, with The Who rocker providing additional songs for the album.
The project is titled The Seeker, which also happens to be the name of a Who song. The book has been narrated by the late Christopher Plummer and will feature Pete, plus special guests Elton John, Emeli Sandé, South African singer Nakhane, British actor LaytonWilliams, Indian singer Sunidhi Chauhan and the RoyalPhilharmonic Orchestra and choir.
“The creation and realization of The Seeker in musical and book form has been part of my own spiritual journey,” Fuller shares. “I feel truly blessed to be a part of it and hope that the story resonates with listeners and readers in today’s world, where we need the energy of love, peace, and hope more than ever. Music and art has been and forever will be universal.”
Fans will get their first taste of the project with a podcast series featuring conversations with special guests, including Townshend. The illustrated novel, with artwork by Emelia Wharfe, and the album are set to drop Nov. 7. The project will also be performed at a special concert at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London on Nov. 6, featuring members of the cast along with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and choir.
Tickets for the concert will go on sale in September.
U2 is revisiting their ’90s ZOO TV tour with a new EP coming out in August.
ZOO TV – Live In Dublin 1993, dropping Aug. 30, features performances from the band’s two-night hometown stand at RDS Arena in August 1993. This marks the first official release of songs from those shows, with the EP consisting of five performances, including “Mysterious Ways,” “Zoo Station” and “Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around the World.”
Launched in February 1992, U2’s ZOO TV tour was in support of their 1991 album Achtung Baby, although the band also recorded and released the album Zooropa during that time. The tour consisted of five legs and 157 shows, with the band playing to 5.3 million fans before wrapping in December 1993. One of the Dublin shows was also broadcast to more than 700 million fans via a live global radio broadcast.
ZOO TV – Live In Dublin 1993 will be released on CD, 12-inch vinyl and digitally, including Spatial Audio/Atmos remixes. It is available for preorder now.
Here is the track list for ZOO TV – Live In Dublin 1993:
“Zoo Station” “Mysterious Ways” “Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World” “Stay (Faraway, So Close!)” “Love Is Blindness”
