In an Instagram post on Friday, February 9, the grunge rockers shared a video compiling various fan inquiries about new music on social media. In the caption, PJ posts an emoji with word “soon” and an arrow.
Pearl Jam’s most recent album is 2020’s Gigaton. In 2022, they revealed they’d started working on a follow-up with producer Andrew Watt, who previously collaborated with Eddie Vedder on his 2022 solo effort, Earthling.
According to Spin, Pearl Jam previewed the upcoming record during a Los Angeles listening party in January.
“I think this is our best work,” Vedder reportedly said.
Meanwhile, Pearl Jam is also set to return to the road in 2024. So far, the only U.S. date scheduled is a headlining set at the BottleRock Napa Valley festival in May.
Queen is wrapping up the second season of their weekly YouTube series, Queen the Greatest Live, with a montage of footage from the band’s legendary career.
Queen launched the series back in 2021, and for this season’s 50th episode, the 100th overall, they are sharing a five-minute video highlighting 100 memorable images and moments, set to their track “One Vision.”
The video features lots of performance footage of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon, including clips from the Rainbow Theatre in 1974 and 1985’s Live Aid at Wembley Stadium. There’s also a helicopter view of Knebworth Park in 1986, which wasMercury’s last live show, as well as lesser known moments, like the band enjoying tea on their first trip to Japan in 1975 and Freddie on the shoulders of Superman.
The montage also includes some post-Freddie highlights featuring Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert, and ends with footage of Freddie wearing his infamous red crown and cloak.
But this isn’t where things end for Queen. It sounds like fans have a lot to look forward to in the year to come, as the band has promised “big plans afoot for 2024 and beyond.”
Queen is currently on a tour of Japan. They play Sapporo on Saturday, February 10. A complete list of dates can be found at queenonline.com.
Deep Purple is set to release a new animated video for their classic tune “Smoke on the Water” on March 1, and they’re sharing a preview of what to expect.
In a sneak peek of the clip, co-directors Dan Gibling and Luke McDonnell share their inspiration for the video, describing the tune as “one of the most iconic rock songs of all time.”
“Beyond the scope for people that like rock music, people know this song,” Gibling says. “So the story is contained within the lyrics, is about them making the record, and the time is running out. So all these lyrics start conjuring up ideas of a race and a chase to make this record.”
As for the decision to animate the video, McDonnell notes, “The beauty of animation, it completely opens up your world, you know, you’re not limited by anything.” He adds, “There’s a really interesting integration between our fictional world and honoring the real story that actually happened.”
“Smoke on the Water” was inspired by the events that surrounded the recording of Deep Purple’s 1972 album, MachineHead. In 1971 the band planned to record at Montreux Casino, but the venue caught fire during a concert by Frank Zappa. The title is a reference to smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva.
Deep Purple recently released a 2024 remix of “Smoke on the Water” as part of a preview of their super deluxe edition of Machine Head, which is due out March 29. It is available for preorder now.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Jon Bon Jovi is getting real about some of the vocal issues he’s been dealing with over the past few years.
The rocker, who was criticized for the sound of his voice during Bon Jovi‘s 2022 tour, appeared at the Pollstar Live conference in Los Angeles on February 7. Fan-shot footage posted to YouTube shows him opening up about the work he’s had done to fix the issues.
“It’ll become public knowledge now, but I’ve had major reconstructive surgery in my vocal cords, and I never had anything like this, ever,” he says. “So it’s been a difficult road, but I found a doctor in Philadelphia who did something called a medialization, because one of my cords was literally atrophied.”
Suggesting that some artists have vocal problems due to the rock star lifestyle, Jon insists that wasn’t the case with him, noting, “The only thing that’s ever been up my nose has been my finger. So it was very difficult this last decade to have to contend with something that was out of my control.”
Jon says over the past two years he’s been working in rehab to get his voice back to what it once was, sharing, “But I’m getting very close.” He notes his recent performance at his MusiCares celebration was his first live performance in two years.
“So now I just want to get back to 2 1/2 hours a night, four nights a week, before I’m gonna go out there on the road for real,” he adds. “But I’m confident in my doctor.”
Jon and the band’s past few years will be covered in the upcoming docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, debuting April 26 on Hulu. It will have its premiere at South by Southwest on March 14.
Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin released his latest album, Rio,back in October, and now, he’s giving fans some more music.
The rocker is out with a deluxe edition of the album featuring three new songs: “Spek & Polly,” “Georgia” and the just released demo version of song called “Fragile.”
“I’m particularly pleased with the space, in terms of production, and happy with the simplicity of the lyric,” Rabin says of “Fragile.” “Life is harsh, fickle and Fragile. My intention regarding the guitar solo was for it to drip onto the ‘page’ so to speak.”
Rio is Rabin’s first solo album of vocal material in 34 years, his last being 1989’s Can’t Look Away. The deluxe edition is available as a limited edition CD+Blu-ray set and as a red two-LP + Blu-ray set. Both are available to order now.
Bob Dylan has added more dates to the spring 2024 leg of his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer announced five new shows, starting April 1 in New Orleans. The tour will then hit Lafayette, Louisiana, and Dallas, Texas, before wrapping April 5 and 6 in Austin, Texas.
Dylan’s spring tour kicks off March 1 with a two-night stand in Ft. Lauderdale, one of five Florida cities on this leg of the trek. It will also hit Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Tickets for the new shows go on sale Friday, February 9, at 10 a.m. local time. A complete list of dates can be found at bobdylan.com.
Dylan launched his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour in November 2021. The trek supports his album of the same name, which he released in June 2020.
Elton John has announced the talent for his annual Academy Awards viewing party, which raises money for his Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Entertaining the crowd will be the R&B/Soul trio Gabriels, whose frontman, former American Idol season 10 contestant Jacob Lusk, joined Elton onstage when he performed at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival in 2023.
As previously reported, the co-hosts for the 32nd annual party are Neil Patrick Harris and his husband, David Burtka, as well as Tiffany Haddish. In a statement, Elton said, “As a father and an AIDS advocate for over three decades, I want to see my sons grow up in a world where AIDS, and the stigma and inequality that drives it, are history.”
He added, “Everyone deserves to live a healthy life, free from violence and discrimination. I’m so grateful to my big-hearted friends Neil Patrick Harris, David Burtka and Tiffany Haddish, and one of my favorite fresh acts, Gabriels, for stepping up to help us raise funds at this year’s Oscar Party to further my Foundation’s mission.”
The Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, air March 10 on ABC.
As previously reported, ahead of the Oscars, Elton’s massive collection of belongings from his Atlanta apartment are being auctioned off by Christie’s. In a preview of the auction that aired on ABC’s Good Morning America February 8, David Furnish, Elton’s husband and manager, said of Elton, “He always liked to go out to do shows to earn money to collect more things that he loved and that inspired him.”
“It was a place he felt safe and comfortable and really, really inspired,” David added. “So it was a very magical chapter in our lives, so it is very emotional.”
Visit Christies.com for all the auction information.
Do you have the time to listen to Billie Joe Armstrong break down Green Day‘s “Basket Case”?
Armstrong guests on the latest episode of the Song Exploder podcast, in which musicians explain how a particular song of theirs came together. For his appearance, Armstrong speaks about “Basket Case,” the hit single off Green Day’s massive 1994 album, Dookie.
During the episode, Armstrong revisits the earliest demo of “Basket Case,” which can be heard on the 30th anniversary reissue of Dookie. That recording had completely different lyrics from the released version of “Basket Case,” as Armstrong originally envisioned it as a “grand song about a love story.”
He soon ditched those lyrics because, as he puts it, “I was on crystal meth.”
“I thought I was writing the greatest song ever,” Armstrong shares. “With drugs, they wear off, and then I felt like I’d written the worst song ever. I thought that the lyrics were just embarrassingly bad.”
Armstrong abandoned the song but decided to revisit it when Green Day began recording Dookie. He then reworked the lyrics to be about his experience with panic attacks.
“I just got the courage to get into it again trying to write the lyrics, and it was the best decision I’ve ever made probably as a songwriter,” Armstrong says.
Green Day released a new album, Saviors, in January. They’ll launch a U.S. tour in support of Saviors in July, during which they’ll also be playing Dookie and their American Idiot albumin full.
Imagine arranging for dozens of the world’s biggest singers to be in one room at the same time without the use of email or cellphones? That’s what happens in the Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, which chronicles the creation of the all-star 1985 charity single “We Are the World.” And apparently, it’s compelling enough to make people want to go and revisit the song.
Billboardreports streams of the song increased by 342% in the three days following the January 29 premiere of the documentary, while digital song sales went from basically nothing to 2,300.
“We Are the World” featured Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, Cyndi Lauper, Hall & Oates, Huey Lewis, Kenny Loggins, Journey‘s Steve Perry, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, The Pointer Sisters, Dionne Warwick, Bette Midler, Willie Nelson and dozens more.
Recorded to raise money for African famine relief, it hit #1, became the fastest-selling pop single in history and won four Grammys. It raised some $80 million — $240 million in today’s money — for the cause and for humanitarian aid in the U.S.
U2 and Jon Bon Jovi were among the artists honored at the 35th annual Pollstar Awards, which took place Wednesday, February 7, in Los Angeles.
Jon was honored with the Milestone Award, in recognition of his band Bon Jovi’s 40th anniversary. He was also a keynote speaker at a Pollstar Live conference panel named How To See A Million Faces and Rock Them All, where he discussed his career, touring schedule, the current state of the band and more.
U2 was honored with Residency of the Year for their Las Vegas show, U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, with the state-of-the art Sphere winning New Concert Venue of the Year (Over 5,000 Capacity).
Other Pollstar winners included Metallica, whose M72 World Tour was named Rock Tour of the Year, and EddieVedder’s Ohana Festival, which was named Music Festival of The Year (Global; under 30K attendance).
A complete list of winners can be found at pollstar.live.
