Classic Rock 93.9

While artists like Billy Joel, Michael Jackson and Tina Turner have had Broadway musicals written around their songs, it doesn’t sound like you’ll ever see one featuring the Bon Jovi catalog.

“I’ve been asked to do that 100 times,” Jon Bon Jovi tells Variety about the possibility of doing a jukebox musical. “Everybody wanted to write the story of Tommy and Gina [from ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’], but I’m going to guess that ABBA did it and Jersey Boys did it, and they did it really well many, many years ago. So I have turned down that opportunity time and again.”

It seems Jon feels like the band’s story has already been told on the stage. 

“I do recall all those years ago when I saw Jersey Boys, and I went, ‘Oh, that’s our story.’ That’s every band’s story. So our story isn’t that unique,” he explains. “And then I thought, OK, if you take the characters of Tommy and Gina and build two and a half hours around the catalog and their life, then it’s Mamma Mia. So that’s not unique.”

Instead, Jon is working hard to get his voice back after having vocal surgery two years ago. And when he does, he hopes to get his band back onstage for a tour.

“I know that none of us can achieve perfection, but I have to achieve excellence in order for me to do it on that level again, or I won’t,” he says. “I don’t want to pretend to be something I was … I don’t try to be that boy from 29 years ago, but I want to be the very best version of the 2024 version of me.”

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The four members of R.E.M. – Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Bill Berry and Peter Buck – sit down with CBS Mornings Thursday for what will be their first interview together in almost 30 years.

The band is set to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame that night, and in a preview of the interview they discuss how it feels to be recognized for their songwriting.

“We lived or died on the strength of our songs, so this is a huge honor,” Mills shares, with Buck adding, “It is the hardest thing that we do and it’s the thing that we worked on the most from the very beginning.”

“Because we had to,” Berry chimes in. “I mean early on just to put food on the table we had to write songs as fast as we could.” 

When asked if they ever look at their body of work as a whole, Mills noted that they aren’t quite that self-indulgent, to which Stipe interrupted with, “OK I am.”

“And then I wind up on YouTube and I watch some live performance, I’m like, ‘Wow I can’t believe we did that,’” he says. “Like we did, we did things and we did it really well from time to time.”

The Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Gala takes place Thursday in New York City. This year’s other inductees include Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker, Timbaland, Hillary Lindsey and Dean Pitchford.

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Metallica is coming to Fortnite in a big way.

The metal legends have announced a collaboration with the popular online video game, including a virtual concert dubbed Metallica: Fuel. Fire. Fury. taking place at various times on June 22 and June 23.

Additionally, Fortnite will feature a number of Metallica-themed gameplay modes starting Thursday, including the Battle Stage, described as a competitive rhythm music game. The ‘Tallica members are also being turned into virtual Legos as part of the Lego Fortnite mode.

For more info, visit Fortnite.com.

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On This Day, June 12, 1982 …

Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt and Gary U.S. Bonds performed for a million protesters at the Rally for Nuclear Disarmament on the Great Lawn in New York’s Central Park. 

The rally was timed to coincide with a United Nations Special Session on Disarmament.

The gathering was the largest anti-nuclear weapons demonstration in U.S. history. 

In 2018, a two-CD set featuring highlights from the rally was released, including performances of Springsteen’s “Promised Land,” Browne’s “Running On Empty,” Ronstadt’s “Blue Bayou” and Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend.”

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Blondie is bringing two of their albums back to digital services.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band announced on Instagram that Ghosts of Download and Panic of Girls will both be returning to all digital streaming platforms on Friday.

Panic of Girls, Blondie’s ninth studio album, was released in 2011 and was the band’s first album of new material in almost eight years.

Ghosts of Download was the band’s 10th studio album and was released in 2014 as part of a double album put out in honor of Blondie’s 40th anniversary. The other LP, Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux, was made up of reworked versions of their classic singles. 

The news of the albums’ digital return comes as Blondie co-founder Chris Stein just released his new autobiography, Under A Rock: A Memoir, which features a foreword by the band’s frontwoman, Debbie Harry. Stein and Harry will sit down for a conversation promoting the book in New York on June 27.

Blondie is currently on tour overseas and will play the Mallorca Live Festival in Mallorca, Spain, on Thursday. A complete list of shows can be found at blondie.net.

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AC/DC’s 50th anniversary is being celebrated with a new luxury watch collection.

Swiss luxury watchmaker Franck Muller has just unveiled the AC/DC 50th Anniversary limited-edition collection, which, according to the description, was created to “honor the band’s global acclaim and enduring legacy.” 

The collection includes 50 watches in polished stainless steel and another 50 in brushed black titanium. All feature AC/DC’s 1974 logo with the words “50 Years” underneath, with red numbers that are a homage to the first AC/DC lightning bolt.

There are also guitar strings at the center inspired by Angus Young’s Gibson, with a buckle that features the AC/DC lightning bolt. The watches come with an outer box that looks like a concert flight case, with the AC/DC logo on it. 

But these watches don’t come cheap, with both versions costing over $10,000. They are available online, and at Franck Muller Boutiques or authorized retailers worldwide.

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Bon Jovi is in a battle for #1 in the U.K.

The band’s new album, FOREVER, is currently the front-runner to top the U.K. Official Album chart, which would make it the New Jersey rockers’ sixth U.K. #1. 

But while Bon Jovi is currently leading the race, they’re facing some stiff competition from Charli XCX’s new album, BRAT, which as of Tuesday is only 1,300 chart units behind FOREVER.

If Bon Jovi’s album indeed nabs the top spot, it will be their first U.K. #1 since 2000’s Crush. They first landed on the top of the chart with 1988’s New Jersey, which was followed by 1992’s Keep The Faith, the 1994 greatest hits album Cross Road and 1995’s These Days.

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Back in 2015, glam rocker Gary Glitter, best known for his song “Rock & Roll Part 2,” was convicted of sexually assaulting three young girls between the years of 1975 and 1980, and now he’s been ordered to compensate one of his victims.  

A judge in the U.K. has ordered Glitter to pay more than $600,000 to the anonymous victim, who was only 12 years old when the abuse took place backstage at one of Glitter’s Birmingham concerts in 1997.

Glitter, born Paul Gadd, was sentenced to 16 years in prison following his 2015 conviction on counts of attempted rape, indecent assault and sexual intercourse with a girl under 13. After being released on probation in February 2023, he was sent back to jail one month later for violating his probation.

The compensation ordered by the judge covers general, aggravated and special damages, as well as damages for loss of earnings and compensation for future therapy.

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As they get ready to launch their Renegades & Juke Box Heroes co-headlining tour, Foreigner and Styx have announced that a very special compilation album will be available during stops on the trek. 

The album, also called Renegades & Juke Box Heroes, will feature live recordings of 13 classic hits, including Foreigner’s “Feels Like The First Time,” “Cold As Ice” and “I Want To Know What Love Is,” and Styx’s “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights),” “Come Sail Away” and “Renegade.”

A limited number of copies will be available on the tour on picture disc and silver vinyl. Only 1,000 picture disc copies will be sold, along with 5,000 individually numbered silver disc copies.

The album is also available for streaming, and the picture disc will then be available for purchase on both bands’ websites starting July 12, with the silver edition available on Amazon the same day.

The Renegades & Juke Box Heroes tour, featuring special guest John Waite, kicks off Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A complete list of dates can be found at foreigneronline.com and styxworld.com.

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Judas Priest has added a second North American leg to their tour supporting their new album, Invincible Shield.

The newly announced dates will run from Sept. 13 in Montreal to Oct. 26 in Irving, Texas. Presales begin Wednesday; tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. local time.

For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit JudasPriestInvincibleShield.com.

Invincible Shield, the 19th Priest album and the first in six years, dropped in March. The first U.S. leg of the tour ran through April and May.

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