Classic Rock 93.9

While reading the nominees for the Emmys Variety Special (Live) on Monday night, January 15, presenter Amy Poehler said of nominee Elton John, “EGOT to be excited about this.” That’s because a win would give the rock legend that much-coveted awards milestone — and whaddya know: It did.

Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium, the live Disney+ special documenting Elton’s final North American concert, won the Emmy, making Elton an EGOT.  He now has one Emmy, two Oscars, a Tony Award and six Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Grammy.

Or perhaps we should say he has a “KNEEGOT”?  At the podium, executive producer Ben Winston said that Elton wasn’t able to make it to the ceremony because he had to have a knee operation — he’s fine, though.  Winston gave a special shout-out to Elton’s husband David Furnish, crediting him for having the “creative vision” for the live special, and praised Elton as “all of our heroes.”

Elton is the 19th person ever to achieve a competitive EGOT. Others who’ve done it include John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Viola Davis, Rita Moreno and Whoopi Goldberg.  Six additional people have won an EGOT with noncompetitive or honorary awards.

In a statement, Elton said, “I am incredibly humbled to be joining the unbelievably talented group of EGOT winners tonight. The journey to this moment has been filled with passion, dedication, and the unwavering support of my fans all around the world.”

He added, “Tonight is a testament to the power of the arts and the joy that it brings to all our lives. Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout my career, I am incredibly grateful.”

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Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong is the latest guest on comedian Marc Maron‘s popular WTF podcast.

According to the episode’s description, the pair discusses “melodies, power pop, R.E.M., the Bay, [Armstrong’s] bandmates, and how he’s still learning songs on YouTube.”

“Sometimes ya just gotta say WTF?!” Green Day adds. “And that’s exactly what Billie’s doing with Marc Maron, go listen to the podcast.”

Green Day is set to release a new album, Saviors, on Friday, January 19. They’ll launch a U.S. tour with support from The Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid and The Linda Lindas in July.

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Bruce Springsteen has marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day by sharing an emotional performance on social media.

The rocker posted video of him performing the gospel song “We Shall Overcome,” a tune commonly associated with the Civil Rights Movement. According to the Asbury Park Press, the performance took place at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2006. 

“There’s the beautiful quote by Dr. King that says the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice…,” Springsteen wrote next to the video. “I’ve lived long enough to see that in action and to put some faith in it… I’ve also lived long enough to know that arc doesn’t bend on its own. It needs all of us leaning on it, nudging it in the right direction day after day.”

Springsteen and The E Street Band are gearing up to return to the road later this year. They’ll kick off their 2024 tour on March 19 in Phoenix, Arizona. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.net.

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Lenny Kravitz recently commented that he feels “blessed” by his daughter Zoë Kravitz’s engagement to actor Channing Tatum. And while there’s no word on when they plan to actually tie the knot, Kravitz says when the day comes, he doesn’t expect he’ll spend much time writing a father of the bride speech.

“It just comes at the moment. I don’t rehearse those things,” he told Entertainment Tonight at the 2024 Critics Choice Awards, adding it will just be a speech “from the heart.”

Zoë, 35, who has starred in such films as The Batman and The Divergent series, is Lenny’s daughter with ex-wife Lisa Bonet. She and Tatum, 43, reportedly got engaged back in October after more than two years of dating. They met on the set of the 2021 film P**** Island.

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Robert Plant has announced a new U.K. tour with his acoustic band, Saving Grace, featuring Suzi Dian. 

The 16-date trek, with special guest Taylor McCall, kicks off March 13 at the Bristol Beacon in Bristol and wraps July 24 at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking. A complete list of dates can be found at robertplant.com. 

Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday, July 19, at 10 a.m.

Plant and Saving Grace are also booked to play London’s Royal Albert Hall for the upcoming Teenage Cancer Trust charity concerts. They are part of the Ovation, a Celebration of 24 Years of Gigs for TCT show on March 24, which also features The Who’s Roger Daltrey, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Stereophonics’ Kelly Jones and Paul Weller.

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The upcoming Linda Ronstadt biopic has found a director. Variety has confirmed a report in Showbiz 411 that Oscar-nominated director David O. Russell, best known for such films as Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and The Fighter, will direct the film, which will star Selena Gomez as the legendary singer. 

The movie, currently in preproduction, is being produced by Ronstadt’s manager, John Boylan, and James Keach, who produced a 2019 documentary about Ronstadt called The Sound of My Voice.

Gomez’s casting was revealed earlier this month; the Only Murders in the Building star initially teased the news by posting a photo of Ronstadt’s memoir Simple Dreams to her Instagram Story.

An 11-time Grammy winner, with 10 top 10 hits, Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and awarded the National Medal of the Arts and Humanities in 2014. She also received the Kennedy Center Honors award in 2019.

Ronstadt announced her retirement in 2011. In 2013, she revealed she had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which prevented her from singing. She later shared that her diagnosis had been changed to progressive supranuclear palsy.

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Back in December, a three-day auction of items owned by the late ZZ Top legend Dusty Hill brought in over $3 million at Julien’s Auctions. Now, fans are getting another chance to get their hands on some of his personal memorabilia.

Julien’s just announced the online auction, The Collection Of Dusty Hill Of ZZ Top (Part II), is happening Wednesday, January 31, featuring vintage concert T-shirts, custom performance jackets, personalized sports jerseys, awards, backstage passes and more. 

The auction will also feature several Hill bass guitars, including the last of his two Bolin Gretsch style Bo Diddley fur bass guitars, covered in full white New Zealand sheepskin, which is estimated to sell for between $10,000 and $15,000, and a 2012 stage-used Fender Custom Shop Dusty Hill Signature Precision bass, estimated to sell for between $10,000 and $12,000.

Other items up for auction include: a group of 104 custom guitar picks, 26 of which were custom designed by Hill; Dusty’s cream American Hat Co. maxi-felt wool hat; a custom black velvet cropped jacket with a geometric silver sparkle design; and a vintage concert poster from 1973, promoting a show with Lynyrd Skynyrd. 

A complete list of items and more details on the auction can be found at juliensauctions.com.

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The Barbie song “I’m Jut Ken,” which features guitar by Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen, has won the Critics Choice Award for Best Original Song.

The Ryan Gosling-sung tune beat out two other Barbie tracks, Billie Eilish‘s “What Was I Made For?” and Dua Lipa‘s “Dance the Night,” as well as Lenny Kravitz‘s “Road to Freedom” from Rustin, “Peaches” from The Super Mario Bros. Movie and “This Wish” from Wish.

“I’m Just Ken” was also nominated for a Golden Globe and is up for a Grammy.

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On This Day, January 15, 1977…

The Eagles landed their third #1 with their fifth studio album, Hotel California.

The album spent eight nonconsecutive weeks in the top spot and went on to become one of the bestselling albums of all time, selling over 32 million records and being certified 26-times Platinum by the RIAA.

Hotel California was the Eagles first album with guitarist Joe Walsh. Songs like the title track, “Life in the Fast Lane” and “New Kid in Town” went on to become iconic songs for the band.

A hit with critics, the title track of Hotel California won the Grammy for Record of the Year; the album was nominated for Album of the Year but lost to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.

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Is Bruce Springsteen looking to make a movie? Well, Showbiz411’s Roger Friedman reports that it may be happening, with sources noting The Boss is looking into making a film about his 1982 album Nebraska.

Friedman says Springsteen has been working with Crazy Heart writer/director Scott Cooper on the project, which would focus on the making of the album. There’s no word on who may play Springsteen, but Friedman says Cooper “has someone in mind,” noting it’s “definitely not Timothee Chalamet,” since he’s playing Bob Dylan in the upcoming film A Complete Unknown.

So far, there’s no official word on the project.

Nebraska, released in September 30, 1982, featured 10 acoustic songs that Springsteen originally recorded as demos on a four-track recorder. Springsteen had planned to rerecord the songs with the E Street Band but instead opted to release it as a solo acoustic record.  

Nebraska peaked at #3 on the Billboard chart, with his biggest hit being “Atlantic City,” which reached #10.

Some of the songs on the demo that didn’t make it on Nebraska were later rerecorded with the band and wound up on Springsteen’s multi-Platinum #1 record, Born in the U.S.A.

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