Classic Rock 93.9

A new photo book is celebrating the legendary career of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. 

CSN&Y: Love the One You’re With features over 800 photographs, as well as writings from over 20 contributors, recounting the history of the band — David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young — and their cultural impact.

The book, with introduction by Nash and Stills, features photos from photographer Henry Diltz’s CSN&Y archive, marking the first time his photos have been presented in such a format and in this quantity.

Says Diltz, “I have known these guys my entire life as a photographer, way before they even formed a group and so I have photographed them all separately and together for the past almost 60 years.”

“Henry was a part of whatever was going on at any moment. And we certainly never thought this was history when he was shooting us,” Nash shares. “We thought, ‘There’s our friend Henry with his camera.’ And we trusted him.”

Numbered collectors copies of CSN&Y: Love the One You’re With are available now, all individually signed by Diltz, Nash and Stills. They are expected to ship later this month.

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The estate of Tom Petty and RR Auction have reached an agreement over a planned auction the estate argued contained items stolen from the late Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.

Back in May, the Petty estate threatened to take legal action over the auction, noting the items up for sale, including jackets, hats, vests and autographed memorabilia, were taken from a secure storage archive.

But in a joint statement obtained by ABC Audio, both sides now report that “all concerns regarding the recent offering of personal clothing and items of the rock star have been resolved without litigation.” 

“The Petty family is grateful that RR Auction facilitated the safe return of the items, which have been returned to the Petty family’s secure archives,” the statement explains, “and there is currently no belief RR Auction committed or knew of any wrongdoing regarding the disputed ownership of the items.” 

The statement concludes by sharing that as part of their “gratitude” to RR Auction, the Petty family “has agreed to a select few of the belongings to be offered for auction through RR Auction.” It notes, “The family supports the upcoming sale and verifies the authenticity of the items to be offered.”

Those select items are part of RR Auction’s Marvels of Music auction, and include Petty’s ornate space-themed vest, a plaid flat cap and brown suede chelsea boots, as well as a signed copy of Damn the Torpedoes and a signed portrait taken by Richard E. Aaron.

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David Lee Roth has found a unique way to get into the Christmas spirit. The former Van Halen frontman just dropped the new holiday tune “Talking Christmas Blues,” although he’s not really singing in it.

The track has Roth basically offering up a stream of consciousness on a bizarre holiday, set to an acoustic guitar and harmonica.  

“Late last night I had a crazy dream, Santa Claus dropped in on me,” he shares. “Santa cracked a jar, we all got trashed, elves got thrashed, places got smashed up. Events unfolded, tragedy happened, igloo got flattened.” 

In the song, he name drops Oprah Winfrey and at one point mentions needing to light a Menorah for Hanukkah. He also offers up a toast, sharing, “Like a Hallmark Hall of Fame card, Merry Christmas from David Lee.”

The song follows Roth’s solo take on Van Halen’s “Jump,” released earlier this month, and his original tune “Wash and Fold,” which dropped last month.

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Funeral services for Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan took place Friday, December 8, in Tipperary, Ireland, and featured performances of the late rocker’s music, as well as readings by such famous names as U2‘s Bono and Johnny Depp. 

According to RTE, the service at Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh featured a recording of Bono delivering an emotional reading, while Depp, who acted as best man at MacGowan’s 2018 wedding, was there in person to read the prayers of the faithful.

The service featured performances of MacGowan’s “A Rainy Night in Soho,” sung by Nick Cave, and the classic “Fairytale of New York,” performed by Glen Hansard and Lisa O’Neill.  

MacGowan’s wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, said in her eulogy that MacGowan was not a fan of funerals. “He didn’t like the idea of death. He didn’t want to talk about his own death. He didn’t believe he was going to die,” she said. “He always assured me he would live to be at least 80.”

MacGowan passed away on November 30 at age 65 from pneumonia, although he had also been battling viral encephalitis at the time of his death. Ahead of the funeral, his coffin, draped in an Irish flag, traveled through the streets of Dublin in a horse-drawn carriage.

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More fans are discovering Tom Petty’s “Love Is A Long Road” thanks to Grand Theft Auto.

The song, from Petty’s 1989 solo album, Full Moon Fever, is featured in the trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI. Billboard reports that since the trailer first leaked on social media Monday, December 4, on-demand streams for the song increased from between 4,000 and 5,000 daily to 78,000. After the trailer’s official release on Tuesday, December 5, it was up to 376,000 streams.

That’s not all, almost 1,000 digital copies of the song were sold, compared to negligible amounts prior to the trailer’s debut.

“Love is a Long Road” isn’t actually the first Petty song to be used for Grand Theft Auto. As Petty’s official Instagram page pointed out, “Runnin’ Down A Dream,” also from Full Moon Fever, was used in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Billy Joel is headed overseas next year, but he’s not launching a full tour. In fact, he’s only playing one show.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer just announced he’ll headline Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, on August 9, with special guest Chris Isaak. This is the first time Billy has played Cardiff, and he’s billing the concert as his “only European show of 2024.” 

Tickets go on sale Friday, December 15, at 10 a.m. 

Billy only played one show overseas in 2023 as well. In July, he headlined British Summertime Hyde Park in London.

In the meantime, Billy still has some U.S. dates to wrap up in 2023. He and Stevie Nicks are set to play Phoenix, Arizona’s Chase Field on Friday, December 8. He has two more solo shows on the books as well: December 19 at New York’s Madison Square Garden and December 31, aka New Years Eve, at Long Island, New York’s UBS Arena. A complete list of Billy dates can be found at billyjoel.com.

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Queen continues their look at the encore in this week’s episode of Queen the Greatest Live, this time looking back at a surprise they had in store for their audience during 1986’s Magic Tour.

While Queen classics “We Will Rock You” into “We Are The Champions” became the standard encore for the band during 1977’s News of the World tour, during the Magic Tour, they tried something different.

Instead of going right from one song into the other, the band decided to follow up “We Will Rock You” with another song, “Friends Will Be Friends.” This week’s clip shows their performance of the track at Wembley Stadium in July 1986.

The new encore was such a success, the band kept it as part of their shows through August, their final shows with frontman Freddie Mercury. 

Next week on Queen the Greatest Live: “We Will Rock You.”

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Dave Grohl continues to live up to his “nicest guy in rock” title, even when he’s on the other side of the planet.

In between dates on Foo Fighters‘ current tour of Australia, Grohl volunteered with a charity called The Big Umbrella to help cook food for people in need.

According to the Australian news site News.com.au, the event took place on Friday in Melbourne. You can check out photos of Grohl volunteering via The Big Umbrella’s Instagram Stories.

Grohl is known for being a big barbecue enthusiast; he’s volunteered his cooking skills for good causes on multiple occasions. In February, he cooked meals for a shelter in Los Angeles during the Southern California winter storm.

Foo Fighters wrap their Australia tour in December 12. They’ll launch a U.S. stadium tour in July.

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Bruce Springsteen has just added a Las Vegas date to his 2024 tour. He and the E Street Band will play T-Mobile Arena on Friday, March 22.

This will be the first time Springsteen has played a show in Las Vegas in over 20 years. The last time he hit Sin City was in August 2002, when he played the Thomas & Mack Center.

Tickets go on sale Thursday, December 14, at 10 a.m. PT.

In September, Springsteen was forced to push the remaining dates of his U.S. tour to 2024 to give him time to recover from peptic ulcer disease. The rescheduled dates are due to kick off March 19 in Phoenix, Arizona. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.net.

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System of a Down‘s Serj Tankian and Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi play together on a new song called “Deconstruction.”

The track was co-written by Tankian and Cesar Gueikian, CEO of Gibson. It also marks the debut of the guitar company’s Gibson Band, described as a “revolving collective of Gibson artists.”

Proceeds from “Deconstruction” will be donated to the Armenia Fund’s Artsakh Refugee Initiative, in support of Armenians affected by the country’s war with Azerbaijan. Both Tankian and Gueikian are of Armenian descent.

Additionally, Tankian will be auctioning off a painting that was used for the single cover of “Deconstruction,” while Gibson is offering a guitar customized with the artwork. Those sales will also benefit the Armenia Fund.

“It’s a dream come true to have collaborated with my good friend, Cesar Gueikian, and Tony Iommi, who I have collaborated with before,” Tankian says. “I am happy that we are using our platform to donate the music, my art, and Gibson’s incredibly unique guitar for such a great charity. Music with the right intentions can inspire and also create positive change.”

“It was great to hook up with Serj again and also to do a track with Cesar (I think that he’s trying to steal my job!!) ha-ha!!” Iommi adds. “The Armenian people are really lovely people, and it’s a great pleasure, a great cause, and I’m very happy to be involved in it.”

You can listen to “Deconstruction” now via digital outlets.

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