Classic Rock 93.9

A film about the late AC/DC frontman Bon Scott is in the works, and now, we know who’ll be playing the iconic rocker. 

Actor Lee Tiger Halley, who appeared in the Australian Netflix series Boy Swallows World, has been cast to play a young Scott in the film The Kid From Harvest Road, which producers warn is not a straight-up biopic.

Halo Films’ description of the movie calls it a “fictionalized narrative set in the 1960s” capturing “the essence” of Scott’s early life in Fremantle, Western Australia. 

“By drawing inspiration from the stories and atmosphere of the time period, rather than attempting a biopic, the film can offer a more imaginative exploration of Scott’s character and experiences,” the description continues, noting the film will allow for “a deeper dive into the influences and events that shaped him as a person and ultimately as the iconic frontman of AC/DC.”

Fans may have a bit of a wait before they get to see the film, as production is expected to begin early next year.

Scott was AC/DC’s frontman from 1974 to his death in 1980, appearing on the band’s first seven albums. He was replaced by Brian Johnson, who remains their frontman to this day. 

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Pink Floyd fans in the Detroit area will be able to experience their music in a whole new way next month.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will be holding a special event, The Music of Pink Floyd, at Orchestra Hall. It’s being held on April 20 aka 4/20, which just happens to be a holiday celebrated by weed smokers across the U.S., which seems a bit appropriate for Pink Floyd fans.

The event will have the orchestra, backed by the rock band Windborne, performing Floyd tunes like “Money,” “Learning to Fly” and “Comfortably Numb,” along with selections from their classic 1979 album The Wall.

Tickets for the special show are on sale now.

Next up for Pink Floyd fans, on April 16 the band will release The Dark Side of the Moon Collector’s Edition, featuring the 2023 remastered version of the iconic album on crystal clear vinyl. It’s part of their continuing celebration of the album’s 50th anniversary. It is available for preorder now.

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Judas Priest just released Invincible Shield, their first new album since 2018’s Firepower, and bassist Ian Hill says they worked hard to change things up on the new record.

“It’s a step forward from Firepower. In fact, it’s two steps forward,” Hill, the only continuous member of Priest currently in the band, tells ABC Audio. “It’s something we do in each album. We try and make it different from the last one and take a step, hopefully in the right direction.” 

Of course, Hill says the album still sounds like Judas Priest, noting, “There’s a lot of hints there from older material, but it’s done in a very, very modern way,” which he says helps them stay “credible” and “relevant” to both their older and younger fans.

And while there are certainly typical metal tracks on the album, like “Panic Attack,” there are also more melodic songs like “Crown of Horns,” with Hill saying variety is “a hallmark of heavy metal.”

“It’s important, variety,” he says. “It’s important for us as Judas Priest to put that versatility down on the record as much as we can.”

And with the band getting ready to hit the road in support of the album, Hill says the band is excited to get to play these new tunes live.

“We love it,” he says of the album. “You know, we, we can’t wait to get out and start playing some of the songs.”

Judas Priest’s new tour kicks off March 11 in Glasgow, Scotland. They will hit the U.S. starting April 18 in Wallingford, Connecticut. A complete list of dates can be found at judaspriest.com.

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Chicago has hit a new career milestone.

The band headlined the 50th show of their Las Vegas residency at The Venetian Theatre inside The Venetian Resort Las Vegas on Tuesday, March 6, earning them the honor of being the longest-running residency artist in the venue’s history.

Chicago has been playing The Venetian for the past seven years and has sold more than 80,000 tickets. The new milestone was marked with a plaque that was presented to them onstage, along with a custom cake by Cake Boss‘s Buddy Valastro‘s Carlo’s Bake Shop. 

Chicago is getting ready to wrap their Vegas residency for 2024. They’ll play shows on March 8 and 9. They then hit the road starting May 15 in La Vista, Nebraska, and have dates booked with Earth, Wind & Fire starting July 19 in Maryland Heights, Missouri. A complete list of dates can be found at chicagotheband.com.

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Wolfgang Van Halen has teamed up with the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation music education charity to announce a new campaign called Adopt a School.

The initiative aims to connect donors with schools across the U.S. in need of musical instruments, supplies and education programs. To launch the program, Wolf and the Van Halen family are donating $1,000 to 100 schools.

Wolf’s father, the late Eddie Van Halen, was a longtime supporter of Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation and left a donation to the organization in his will. The younger Van Halen continued the partnership and donated the proceeds from his debut Mammoth WVH single, “Distance,” to the foundation.

For more info, visit MHOpus.org.

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Peter Gabriel is set to appear in a new documentary, Resynator, which is set to premiere at SXSW.
 

The film has director Alison Tavel trying to learn about her late father, Don Tavel, through the synthesizer prototype he created, the Resynator.

Tavel tells Variety that she reached out to several musicians, including Jon Anderson and Fred Armisen, to talk about the synthesizer, telling Variety, “I’m so grateful that so many musicians were interested and down to experiment. Everyone’s experiences were unique and helped me gain insight into the Resynator’s capabilities.”

But she felt it was particularly important to get Gabriel in the flick.

“After discovering a decades-old letter from his team ordering three Resynators for his synth distribution company, I knew I had to try to make contact, and it worked,” she says. “He remembered the Resynator from the ’80s and was gracious enough to meet with me about it all.”

A trailer for the film shows Gabriel telling Alison that he remembers playing the instrument. It also features Armisen, Gotye, Foo Fighters keyboardist Rami Jaffee and others.

Resynator is set to premiere at South by Southwest on March 10.

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The Black Crowes will be celebrating the release of their new album, Happiness Bastards, with an intimate live performance. 

The band will headline a special show for Amazon Music’s City Sessions on release day, Friday, March 15, playing tunes from the new album as well as some classic hits. 

The show will take place at the 650-capacity Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York, and fans will be able to enjoy the concert from home via Amazon Music’s twitch channel, starting at 9 p.m. ET. Tickets to the show are on sale now. 

Happiness Bastards is The Black Crowes’ first album of new music in 15 years. It is available for preorder now.

The band will also be heading out on the Happiness Bastards tour this spring, hitting 35 cities starting April 2 at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. A complete list of dates can be found at theblackcrowes.com.

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Bon Jovi has shared another look at their upcoming four-part Hulu documentary, Thank You, Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story.

The new trailer for the series features interview footage with Jon Bon Jovi, former guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist Dave Bryan and drummer Tico Torres, as well as fellow New Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen, who shares, “Jon’s choruses demand to be sung by 20,000 people in an arena.” 

Toward the beginning of the trailer, Richie jokes, “I’m excited, are we telling the truth, are we gonna lie, what are we gonna do?” Later clips reveal the band will get real about Richie’s 2013 departure. 

“It was real fun and I thought everybody else was enjoying it too,” Jon says, to which Richie replies, “wrong.” He later adds, “I don’t regret leaving, I regret how I did it.” 

The clip is sprinkled with archival footage from the band’s early days, performance clips from over the years and more. It also shows Jon dealing with his recent vocal issues and worries about the future of the band.

“With every decade comes another life’s lesson. It’s all or nothing,” Jon shares at the end of the trailer. “That’s why the legacy matters.”

Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, directed by Gotham Chopra, debuts Friday, April 26, on Hulu. It will have its premiere at South by Southwest on March 14.

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A lawyer for Don Henley claims the Eagles rocker has been “victimized” by the dismissal of the case against three men accused of stealing his handwritten notes, including the lyrics to well-known Eagles songs.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office requested the dismissal after Henley delayed handing over some 6,000 pages of material, using attorney-client privilege as his excuse. This made it impossible for the defense to cross-examine him about the documents, and the judge accused the rocker and his legal team of trying “to obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging to their position that the lyric sheets were stolen.” 

But Henley’s newly hired attorney Dan Petrocelli tells Entertainment Weekly that Henley did nothing wrong.

“The attorney-client privilege is a foundational guardrail in our justice system, and rarely, if ever, should you have to forsake it to prosecute or defend a case,” Petrocelli tells the mag. “As the victim in this case, Mr. Henley has once again been victimized by this unjust outcome.”

He adds, “He will pursue all his rights in the civil courts.” 

Glen Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinki were charged with trying to sell manuscripts of Henley’s lyrics, which they knew to be stolen. They were allegedly taken in the late 1970s by an author who’d been hired to write an Eagles biography. In 2005, he sold the manuscripts to Horowitz, a rare books dealer, who then sold them to Inciardi and Kosinski.

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Little Feat is set to release their first new album in 12 years, Sam’s Place, on May 17. The record is the group’s first blues album, and the first to feature percussionist Sam Clayton on lead vocals.

The nine-track album is made up of a mixture of blues covers and one new song, “Milk Man,” which Sam wrote. The album also features a guest appearance by Bonnie Raitt on a cover of Muddy Waters’ “Long Distance Call.”

“I’m very happy because I was never expecting anything like that,” Clayton says of singing on the album. “I mean, I have wanted to, but I just wasn’t expecting it to come to fruition. It was a long wait, but it’s satisfying.”

To give fans a little preview of the record, Little Feat has just released the track “You’ll Be Mine,” a cover of a Willie Dixon-penned tune made famous by Howlin’ Wolf.  

You can listen to “You’ll be Mine” now via digital outlets and on YouTube. 

Sam’s Place is available for preorder now.

Little Feat is set to hit the road on their Can’t Be Satisfied tour starting May 31 in Berkley, California. A complete list of dates can be found at littlefeat.net.

Here is the track list for Sam’s Place:

“Milk Man”
“You’ll Be Mine”
“Long Distance Call”
“Don’t Go No Further”
“I Can’t Be Satisfied”
“Last Night”
“Why People Like That”
“Mellow Down Easy”
“Got My Mojo Working (Live)”

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