Classic Rock 93.9

Not only is Scorpions drummer Mikkey Dee not dead, he’s also extremely ticked off.

A fake news article claiming that he’d died — from a website that had previously published a fake story claiming that Deep Purple‘s Ritchie Blackmore had died — has been circulating on Facebook. Dee took to Instagram to share a screenshot of the Facebook story with the word “FAKE!” written across it.

“NO! I AM NOT DEAD!,” he wrote. “I am very much alive and kicking, although angry as a MF!! How low can you go, you absolute pest of a human being!? This is so inappropriate and potentially harmful.”

“Spreading rumors that I have died is wrong on so many levels. Let’s keep reporting these bastards and let’s put some pressure on Facebook to deal with this problem,” he added. “P.S. I have marked the photos ‘Fake’ in red so not to spread the rumors further.”

According to Classic Rock magazine, another website that published the fake article also falsely claimed that Pink Floyd‘s David Gilmour and Yes/King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford had both died.

Scorpions are set to launch a new run of shows at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas starting Feb. 27, with Buckcherry supporting.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, Nov. 6, 1993 …

Meat Loaf scored his one and only #1 song with the track “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That),” from his multi-Platinum album Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, the sequel to his 1977 debut, Bat Out Of Hell.

The track, written by Jim Steinman, who penned Meat Loaf’s other classic tunes “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” and “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” featured singer Lorraine Crosby and had an album run time of over 12 minutes.

The song went to #1 in 28 countries and was certified Platinum in the United States. It also earned Meat Loaf a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo.

The song’s lyric “I’d do anything for love, but I won’t do that” left fans wondering what the “that” was, with Meat Loaf saying it was one of the most common questions he was asked. He later explained it was just a repetition of the things he said he’d never do earlier in the song.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Judas Priest will mark the 35th anniversary of their 1990 album Painkiller on their 2025 Shield of Pain tour.

In an Instagram post, the metal legends tease, “This rare unique set including beloved classics will be defending the metal faith in a truly memorable experience throughout Europe this summer.”

The RIAA Gold-certified Painkiller spawned singles in “A Touch of Evil” and the title track. It marked the final Priest album to feature frontman Rob Halford before his departure in 1992. He rejoined the band in 2003.

The Shield of Pain tour launches in June. So far only European dates have been announced.

Judas Priest’s latest album, Invincible Shield, was released in March.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

New documentary The Session Man about the late rock keyboardist Nicky Hopkins is out now on Prime Video, giving fans insight into the famed musician who played on records by The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones and more.

The film features interviews with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, as well as The Kinks’ Dave Davies, The Who’s Pete Townshend and Peter Frampton, who met Hopkins when he was hired to play guitar on Harry Nilsson‘s album Son of Schmilsson. 

“Nicky and I hit it off straight away,” Frampton tells ABC Audio. “I mean, he was a gentle soul, a gentle man, and very much so. And that shows in his emotional playing.”

Newly minted rock & Roll Hall of Famer Frampton thinks Hopkins deserves to be in the Rock Hall as well, especially when you consider his body of work. He played on The Beatles’ “Revolution,” as well as the Stones’ Exile on Main St. and Let It Bleed; The Who’s Who’s Next; The Kinks’ Face to Face; and John Lennon‘s Imagine. He played on 250 albums in all.

“[Do] you know the list of people he played with?” says Frampton. “It’s incredible who he didn’t play with!”

When it comes to the many classics Hopkins played on, Frampton says you can really get the feel for who he was as an artist by listening to his work on Joe Cocker’s top five hit, “You Are So Beautiful.”

“I mean, it’s just Joe and him playing piano,” Frampton says. “And it’s an incredible piece of piano playing. So he was definitely a genius. Didn’t realize it.”

He adds, “You know, I’m sure he knew he was good. But that was the beautiful thing about him. He was always so modest and that’s why I was a friend of his.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In October, Pink Floyd sold the rights to their recorded works to Sony Music for a reported $400 million. And guitarist David Gilmour says he’s glad to be done with it — so he doesn’t have to fight with his bandmates anymore.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Gilmour, 78, says, “I’m an old person. I’ve spent the last 40-odd years trying to fight the good fight against the forces of indolence and greed to do the best with our stuff that you can do. And I’ve given that fight up now.”

“I’ve got my advance — because, you know, it’s not fresh new money or anything like that. It’s an advance against what I would have earned over the next few years anyway,” he continues. “But the arguments and fighting and idiocies that have been going on for the last 40 years between these four disparate groups of people and their managers and whatever — it’s lovely to say goodbye to.”

Gilmour and Pink Floyd bassist/vocalist Roger Waters have famously been at odds for several years. The rest of the “four groups of people” Gilmour is referring to are presumably drummer Nick Mason and his camp, and late keyboard player Rick Wright, who died in 2008 but was involved in nearly all the group’s recordings.

The estate of founding member Syd Barrett, who was ejected from the group in 1968 and died in 2006, also benefited from the deal, though he wasn’t involved in the 40 years of “arguments and fighting.”

Gilmour, currently touring behind his album Luck and Strange, further tells the paper that he’s retained his publishing rights, so he doesn’t really care what Sony does with the band’s classic recordings: “If it comes on an advert, I’m not gonna give a s***.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Over the five decades that Saturday Night Live has been on the air, almost ever major rock or rock-adjacent act has appeared on the show. So in honor of the show’s milestone 50th season, Rolling Stone has ranked its 50 greatest musical performances.

Topping the list is David Bowie‘s 1979 performance of “The Man Who Sold the World,” during which he was carried to the mic by performance artists Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias. Why? Because he was encased in a plastic tuxedo that made it difficult for him to move.

Rolling Stone chose that performance over the other two Bowie did that night, which were just as weird: He sang “TVC15” while wearing a pencil skirt and performed “Boys Keep Swinging” while using special effects to place his head on a marionette.

Number two on Rolling Stones‘ list is The Replacements‘ 1986 performance of “Bastards of Young,” during which singer Paul Westerberg shouted, “Come on f*****!” at guitarist Bob Stinson. According to Rolling Stone, Lorne Michaels was furious and said they’d never perform on TV again, though they did return that night to sing “Kiss Me on the Bus.”

Number three is Elvis Costello‘s legendary 1977 appearance, where he stopped his agreed-upon song, “Less Than Zero,” and then kicked into the then-unreleased track “Radio Radio.”

Number 4 and 5 are Prince‘s 1981 performance of “Partyup” and Radiohead‘s 2000 take on “The National Anthem.”

Others that made the list: Neil Young‘s “Rockin’ in the Free World”; R.E.M.’s “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?”; Pearl Jam‘s “Alive”; George Harrison and Paul Simon‘s acoustic duet of “Homeward Bound”; Tom Petty‘s “Free Fallin'”; U2‘s “I Will Follow”; Talking Heads‘ “Take Me to the River”; The Rolling Stones‘ “Shattered”; and Smashing Pumpkins‘ “Cherub Rock.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Robert Plant is rich enough to take a private plane wherever he wants to go, but evidently he prefers to take the train — if you believe a new ad for Italy’s Trenitalia rail service.

Plant is currently touring Europe with his acoustic band Saving Grace, which features Suzy Dian. According to Classic Rock magazine, when they were in Italy they made the promotional film for Trenitalia’s new “Red Arrow” high-speed service, which reaches speeds up to 186 mph.

Called Welcome aboard, Robert Plant!, the film is set to Plant and Saving Grace’s cover of “Everybody’s Song” by the band Low. It shows Plant and Dian traveling between Naples and Venice — a 435-mile journey that takes five hours — in luxurious surroundings on the Red Arrow. It ends with them arriving and then performing live in concert.

The tagline is, “When a rock legend chooses Red Arrow to get to his concerts, the journey becomes music.”

Plant and Saving Grace are currently on the U.K. leg of their tour, which wraps up Nov. 24. They have more European dates scheduled for next year, starting in May.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Stevie Nicks, who recently admitted that she didn’t vote until she was 70, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Monday to perform her women’s rights anthem “The Lighthouse.”

The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer gave a dramatic performance of the song, singing against a backdrop of flashing lightning in the night sky: “Don’t let them take your power/ Don’t leave it alone in the final hours/ Don’t close your eyes and hope for the best/ The dark is out there, the light is going fast.”

Nicks, 76, also recently performed the song on Saturday Night Live.

When Nicks first released the song, she said in a statement that she started writing it soon after Roe v. Wade was overturned and has been working on it since September 2022.

Stevie’s only scheduled concert date is a March co-headlining stadium show with Billy Joel. She recently told Rolling Stone that she’s glad her most recent tour is over, because now she’ll have time to work on an album, draw, write poetry — and maybe even develop her own perfume.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, Nov. 5, 1971 …

Elton John released his fourth studio album, Madman Across The Water, featuring nine tracks composed and performed by Elton, with lyrics written by his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin.

The album featured two future Elton classics, “Tiny Dancer” and “Levon,” although neither were huge hits at the time they were released. In fact, while “Levon” peaked at #24, “Tiny Dancer” failed to make the top 40, only making it to #41.

Madman Across The Water charted at #8 on the Billboard 200 Album chart and has gone on to be certified double Platinum by the RIAA.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong is voicing his support for Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential campaign against former President Donald Trump.

On Monday night, ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day, Armstrong shared an Instagram video saying, “I think there’s probably a lot of things that people disagree with but the one thing that we all … do agree on is Trump has got to go and we need to turn the page.”

He continued, “To stop Trumpism once and for all is so important and important to our country so we can turn the page and have a future.”

Armstrong has long been vocal about his opposition to Trump. During the 2016 American Music Awards, he chanted “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” and during the 2023 New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, he changed the lyrics to “American Idiot” to “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda.”

As it turns out, Armstrong’s distaste for Trump goes back even further. Along with the voting message, he also shared a story about when he performed at an Elvis Costello tribute concert at a Trump-owned venue in Atlantic City, New Jersey, back in the mid-2000s, long before Trump became president.

“There were all these bottles of water on the stage, and had Donald Trump’s picture on every single one of the bottles, like everything in that hotel,” Armstrong recalled. “It was like this big sort of ode, or, you know, Trump and his sort of bulls*** businessman persona.”

“I put Hitler mustaches on every single one of ’em,” he smiles. “I’m just being me.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.