The rockers just announced the cancellation of their December 31 concert at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, California, citing production issues.
“It is with deep regret we must inform you the Crüe Year’s Eve show in Palm Springs is being canceled,” they revealed on social media. “The very short time frame to produce the event resulted in issues beyond our control.”
They add, “We look forward to seeing you all in 2024!”
The concert was supposed to close an eventful year for Mötley Crüe, which included touring the world with new guitarist John 5 in place of Mick Mars, who retired from touring in 2022. They’ve also been involved in legal proceedings with Mars over a financial dispute.
It looks like we may soon be getting some new music from Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour.
Polly Samson, Gilmour’s wife and occasional lyricist, has shared several photos on Instagram of Gilmour in the studio, suggesting he’s working on some new songs.
One photo shows him in front of a sound board with the caption, “Today’s desk was, I’m told, made before I was.” There is also a photo of Gilmour on his guitar, and pics of musicians Adam Betts on drums and Tom Herbert on bass.
So far there’s no word on when a new Gilmour album will be released. When it happens it will be the rocker’s first new album since 2015’s Rattle That Lock.
Robbie Robertson and Lenny Kravitz both have a shot at an Oscar nomination.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just revealed the shortlist for songs and scores eligible for a nomination for the 96th Academy Awards, with Robertson, who passed away in August, making the Best Original Score shortlist for his work on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
Kravitz has a shot at a Best Original Song nod for his Rustin track “Road to Freedom,” although there’s tough competition in the category. Among the 15 songs eligible, three Barbie tunes made the cut: Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?”; “I’m Just Ken,” which features Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen on guitar; and Dua Lipa‘s “Dance the Night.”
The final nominees for the 2024 Academy Awards will be announced on January 23. The ceremony airs March 10 on ABC.
Renowned music producer Eddie Kramer is teasing fans with the possibility of new music from the late Jimi Hendrix.
During an appearance on The Vinyl Guidepodcast, Kramer, who is part of the Experience Hendrix team with Janie Hendrix and John McDermott, says it’s possible that AI could be used to turn archival Hendrix audio into new music, similar to what was done with The Beatles’ latest single “Now and Then.”
“It’s really very advanced digital manipulation, and now the technology has become so evolved,” Kramer shared, noting that he really doesn’t like to describe the technology as AI. “I’m sure if we found another tape [that has] Jimi’s voice buried, I know I could use something similar, which I’ve done before, but now it’s going to be on a much higher level.”
As for whether there’s music that exists that could be used to produce new songs, Kramer says, “Yes, there are tapes that I would love to get my hands on,” although he notes the process to get that to happen “could be quite lengthy.”
Kramer helped produce the recent live Hendrix release, Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live at the Hollywood August 18, 1967, and says he looks forward to discovering more old Hendrix material.
“This whole concept of restoration, it feels sometimes as if I’m part archaeologist with the little brushes brushing away the dirt from the stones and the bones and then revealing something spectacular,” Kramer says. “I love it.”
Dave Grohl guests on the latest episode of the Song Exploderpodcast, in which musicians go deep into explaining how a particular song of theirs came together.
For his appearance, Grohl talks with host Hrishikesh Hirway about the Foo Fighters song “The Teacher,” a 10-minute track that appears on the band’s new album, But Here We Are. Grohl shares that the track is about his late mother, Virginia Hanlon Grohl, who he confirms passed away in 2022, just months after the death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
“Last year, I went through a period of really deep mourning, because I lost two very important people in my life,” Grohl says.
Grohl explains that, as he cared for his mother up until her passing, he would write new music on the guitar each day.
“I felt like if I didn’t have that release, I would explode,” Grohl says. “I would spend the day at the hospital and then come back to my house, and try to translate it musically, with no clear intention of what I was trying to achieve. I was just finding these chords and progressions that mirrored the way that I felt.”
Eventually, those chord progressions would form the foundation of what became “The Teacher.”
“She was the most important person in my entire life,” Grohl says of his mom. “So I thought, ‘This has to be the most important music I’ve ever made.’ And that’s when ‘The Teacher’ started to take shape.”
The episode also includes various voice memos and demo recordings of “The Teacher.” You can listen now via SongExploder.net or via the podcast platform of your choice.
Superstar Elton John and longtime partner David Furnish were officially married at their estate in Windsor, England.
Their celebration came nine months after same-sex marriage became legal in the U.K., and nine years to the day that they entered into a civil partnership.
Their 2005 ceremony took place at Windsor Guildhall, the same month the Civil Partnership Act became official in the U.K.
The pair, who have been together since 1993, are parents to two sons, Zachary, born December, 2010, and Elijah, born January, 2013.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich is mourning the death of his father, Torben Ulrich.
The younger Ulrich shared the news of his dad’s passing in an Instagram post on Wednesday, December 20.
“95 years of adventures, unique experiences, curiosity, pushing boundaries, challenging the status quo, tennis, music, art, writing….and quite a bit of Danish contrarian attitude,” the post reads. “Thank you endlessly! I love you dad.”
Born in 1928, Torben was a professional tennis player in his native Denmark. As a kid, Lars was set to follow in his father’s tennis-playing footsteps, but ended up pursuing music instead.
Torben was also a musician himself, and appeared in a number of films. He memorably had a cameo in the 2004 Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster.
December 21 is the first day of winter, and the Grateful Dead is helping welcome the season by treating fans to a winter solstice playlist.
The band announced the new playlist on Instagram, which is made up of “over 16 hours of the best and longest versions of essential Dead tracks – roughly the same amount of darkness we’ll see during the Winter Solstice!”
The playlist includes performances from the ’70s and ’80s, including live versions of such songs as “Playing in the Band,” “Shakedown Street,” “Scarlet Begonias,” “Fire on the Mountain,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Casey Jones,” “Truckin’” and “Not Fade Away.”
There are also various jams and solos, including a Watkins Glen soundcheck jam from 1973, a Phil Lesh solo from Rochester, New York, in 1977 and a “Mind Left Body Jam” from Oklahoma City in 1973.
The Grateful Dead winter solstice playlist is available now to stream on Spotify, Apple Music and more.
Metallica‘s song “You Must Burn!,” a track off their new 72 Seasons album, marks the first time bassist Robert Trujillo has sung on a record with the metal legends. In an interview with Metal Hammer, Trujillo shares how he approached his debut “official semi-solo vocal moment.”
“I was just trying to channel Ozzy [Osbourne],” Trujillo says. “You may or may not hear that!”
As for whether we’ll hear more of Trujillo singing on future Metallica songs, Trujillo says he’s “always there for what the band need[s].”
“I was expecting to just do gang vocal-type things [on ‘You Must Burn!’], adding a bit of texture and presence to the recording, but I didn’t realize I’d get a semi-solo moment!” Trujillo says. “I always do my best whatever I’m asked to do though man, and these are the moments you can cherish.”
72 Seasons, the first Metallica album in seven years, dropped in April. It also includes the singles “Lux Æterna,” “Too Far Gone?” and the title track.
Metallica supported 72 Seasons throughout 2023 on their M72 world tour, which will pick back up again in May 2024.
The Police guitarist Andy Summers reveals in a new interview that he once sold his Les Paul guitar to Eric Clapton after Clapton begged him for it.
The revelation came during an interview with YouTuber Rick Baeto, as Summers was discussing how he was friends with guitar players like Clapton, Jeff Beck and Albert Lee in the ’60s.
Summers says he walked into a club with his Sunburst Les Paul and Clapton was simply in awe of it. Summers let Clapton know he got it at the London guitar shop Rose Morris and that they had another one, so Clapton went out and purchased it.
“So, time moves on. Eric’s Les Paul gets stolen, and he knows I’ve got the other one. He starts calling me relentlessly,” Summers shares, noting that by then he had moved on to playing a ’58 White Telecaster.
Summers says the Les Paul was in a case under his bed, and even though he wasn’t playing it, he was still reluctant to sell it.
“I kept resisting it. But finally, he called me so many times that I actually agreed to sell it,” he says. “I didn’t feel great about it, but he just really wanted it. So, we agreed on a price.”
And Clapton wound up getting it for a bargain.
“I charged him 200 pounds for it,” he says. “It’s worth about 2 million now. Who knew?”
