It seems safe to say that Ozzy Osbourne‘s New Year’s resolution for 2024 is to play live again.
As we close the book on the year that saw the Prince of Darkness announce his retirement from touring, Ozzy is once again reiterating his goal to play one-off shows in the future.
“I’m gonna do some more gigs before I’m finished,” Ozzy said on the latest episode of The Osbournes podcast, which was posted on Tuesday, December 26.
Ozzy made his comments while calling out hoax YouTube videos that claim he died.
“I’m not dead, I’m not going any-f******-where,” he said.
Ozzy hasn’t played a full live show since New Year’s Eve 2018. Since then, he’s been hampered by a variety of health issues, and has undergone multiple surgeries after suffering a fall in his home in 2019.
In February 2023, Ozzy announced he was retiring from touring, sharing, “Never would I have imagined that my touring days would have ended this way.” And while it appeared as though he was set to return to the stage for the inaugural Power Trip festival in October, he pulled out of the lineup months before the event due to his health.
After Foo Fighters went through “the most difficult and tragic year that our band has even known” in 2022, Dave Grohl and company made a big return in 2023.
The seemingly unstoppable Foo Fighters machine came to a screeching halt in March 2022 with the unexpected death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. The Foos honored their fallen bandmate with two massive tribute concerts in September 2022, though the future of the band remained uncertain until New Year’s Eve, when they announced they intended to continue.
Soon into 2023, show announcements began. In April, Foo Fighters announced a new album, But Here We Are, alongside the premiere of lead single “Rescued,” which certainly seemed to be inspired by Hawkins.
Meanwhile, rumors flew about who’d been recruited to play drums in place of Hawkins. During a May streaming concert, the Foos finally revealed the identity of their newest member: Josh Freese, a prolific session drummer who’d played with bands including Nine Inch Nails, Guns N’ Roses and The Offspring. He was also among the many guest drummers who joined Foo Fighters during the Hawkins tribute concerts.
Foo Fighters played their first official show back just a few days later, during which an emotional Grohl took a moment to remember Hawkins before performing the song “Cold Day in the Sun.”
But Here We Are dropped in June, and also included the songs “Under You” and “The Glass,” which Grohl wrote about his late mother. The Foos continued to tour, headlining festivals including Bonnaroo and Boston Calling, and playing a surprise set at Glastonbury.
Foo Fighters’ 2023 also included a performance on Saturday Night Live, during which they were joined by H.E.R. for a rendition of “The Glass.”
As for 2024, Foo Fighters will launch a U.S. stadium tour in July. They’ll also compete in multiple categories at the 2024 Grammys, including Best Rock Album for But Here We Are.
The Metallica drummer and metal icon was born December 26, 1963, in Denmark. He’d originally set out to be a professional tennis player like his father, but decided to pursue music instead after moving to California.
As the story goes, once in California, Ulrich placed an ad in a newspaper looking to start a band, which then caught the attention of a young James Hetfield. The pair officially met in 1981, and formed Metallica.
With Metallica, Ulrich would help pioneer the burgeoning thrash subgenre of metal with albums such as Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets. The group would then bring metal to the mainstream with their giant 1991 self-titled effort, aka The Black Album, which is certified Diamond by the RIAA and spawned singles including “Enter Sandman” and “Nothing Else Matters.”
A decade later, Ulrich would be in the headlines more for his vocal opposition to Napster than for Metallica’s music. The software platform allowed fans to share files of songs with each other for free — then a novel concept — which, during a 2000 Senate hearing, Ulrich testified amounted to copyright infringement.
Dysfunction in the Metallica camp followed into the new millennium, which was famously documented in the 2004 film Some Kind of Monster. Eventually, the group restabilized, and has released three more albums: 2008’s Death Magnetic, 2016’s Hardwired … to Self Destruct and 2023’s 72 Seasons. In between, Ulrich and Metallica were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.
Today, Metallica remains the biggest band in metal, with Ulrich in particular becoming an ambassador for the genre. The group spent the last year headlining stadiums on their M72 world tour, which will resume in 2024.
George Harrison landed at #1 with the “My Sweet Lord,” which went on to spend four weeks in the top spot.
The chart-topper, produced by Harrison and Phil Spector, made Harrison the first former member of TheBeatles to score a solo #1 in the U.S. The track, which was released as a double A-side single with “Isn’t It a Pity,” also went to #1 in several other countries, including the U.K. and Australia.
“My Sweet Lord” was featured on Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass, which was his first solo album post Beatles breakup. He later released an updated version of the tune, “My Sweet Lord (2000),” for the 30th anniversary reissue of the album.
After more than 60 years making music, The Rolling Stones proved in 2023 that they won’t be slowing down anytime soon by releasing their first album of new music in 18 years: Hackney Diamonds.
– The tease of new music started right as the new year began, when guitarist Keith Richards told fans in a January 11 social media message, “There’s some new music on its way and hopefully we’ll get to see you.”
– In August, a mysterious ad was placed in the British paper Hackney Gazette for something called Hackney Diamonds. Fans were quick to speculate it was a tease about a new Rolling Stones album because in the ad the “I” in Diamonds was dotted with the Stones’ signature lips logo. The ad also quoted several Stones song titles, including “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Gimme Shelter” and “Shattered.”
– Fans’ suspicions were finally proven true when The Stones’ social media accounts began directing folks to the new Hackney Diamonds website, teasing “a new era.”
– The official confirmation finally came on September 6, when Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood held a special media launch event in London, hosted by Jimmy Fallon. Theyannounced their 26th studio album, Hackney Diamonds, would be arriving on October 20. They also debuted the album’s first single, “Angry,” with a video featuring Euphoria actress Sydney Sweeney.
– The Stones recruited some very special guests to join them on the record, including their late drummer Charlie Watts on two songs, “Mess It Up” and “Live By The Sword.” The latter also featured their former bassist Bill Wyman. Paul McCartney also played bass on one song, with Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder and Elton John contributing to tracks, as well.
– The night before the album’s release, The Stones took the stage at the intimate venue Racket in New York City for a surprise album release concert, which featured a special appearance by Lady Gaga for their first performance of their collaboration, “Sweet Sounds of Heaven.”
– Hackney Diamonds debuted at #1 in over 18 countries, including the U.K., although it had to settle for #3 in the U.S. The U.S. chart debut meant the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers became the first act to have albums land in the top 10 in every decade from the 1960s to the 2020s.
– About a month after the release, fans got something else they’ve been dying for — a tour. The eagerly anticipated Hackney Diamonds tour, sponsored by AARP, is set to kick off in April. A complete list of dates can be found at therollingstones.com.
A painting made by all four members of The Beatles is going up for auction at Christie’s.
The untitled piece of art, which has become known as Images of a Woman, was completed in 1966 by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison as they were holed up at Tokyo’s Hilton Hotel during their five-night stand at Nippon Budokan that June and July.
The band was stuck in the hotel for security reasons, and Christie’s notes that after a visitor brought them some top-quality art materials, the Fab Four sat around a table, and a rectangular sheet of paper was placed in the middle. Each Beatle then painted one corner, working their way towards the middle.
According to photographer Robert Whitaker, who was part of The Beatles’ entourage at the time, it took two nights for them to complete the painting.
“They’d stop [painting], go and do a concert, then it was ‘Let’s go back to the picture,’” he said. “I never saw them calmer or more contented than at this time.”
The auction for the painting, which Christie’s calls “the only known substantial piece of art made by the four Beatles in their years together,” is set to happen on February 1, with the auction house estimating it will go for between $400,000 and $600,000.
As the year winds down, a lot of publications will be looking back at the best of the year, but Variety has decided to go in the opposite direction, sharing its picks for the worst songs of 2023.
One artist making the list this year is Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Roger Waters. He earns a prominent spot for his solo remake of Pink Floyd’s classic The Dark Side of the Moon, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.
While the publication notes that it isn’t totally against The Dark Side of the MoonRedux, calling it “interesting,” it does single out Waters’ new take on “Money,” which lands at #5 on the list.
Variety points to Waters’ decision to rid “one of the most-loved songs in the 1970s rock canon” of David Gilmour‘s solos, and replace them with what it calls “a four-minute poem about … boxing.”
Billy Joel also made the list — sort of — thanks to Fall Out Boy’s update of Joel’s 1989 #1 hit “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” which Variety ranks as the third-worst song of 2023.
The mag calls the band out for updating the Joel song that’s “universally considered most annoying — not only in his catalog, but maybe of the 20th century,” and adds that Fall Out Boy made the events mentioned in the song “as jarring as possible,” as opposed to putting them in chronological order, as the original does.
The end is never really the end when it comes to KISS. When the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers said goodbye to the road earlier this month, they introduced fans to their next chapter: KISS avatars. Well, now we finally know when that next chapter will officially begin.
On December 22, KISS shared a post on Instagram that teases, “2027 … A show is coming,” along with the caption, ”50 years is a long time, and what the future holds is in the making.”
KISS wrapped up their End of the Road tour at New York’s Madison Square Garden on December 2, and closed the show with the surprise reveal of their avatars for Demon, the Starchild, Catman, and Spaceman. All come courtesy of San Francisco-based Industrial Light & Magic.
“The future is so exciting,” Gene Simmons said in a behind-the-scenes video on the making of the avatars, with Paul Stanley adding, “We can live on eternally.”
The Rolling Stones are at #1 again. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s latest release, Hackney Diamonds, is the U.K.’s 2023 Official Christmas #1 album.
“It’s a wonderful way to round off 2023,” the band shares. “Thank you to everyone for listening to HackneyDiamonds. Have a very happy Christmas and New Year!”
Hackney Diamonds, the band’s first album of new material in 18 years, originally debuted at #1 on the U.K. chart back in October. The return to the top spot follows the recent release of Hackney Diamonds (Live Edition), which includes the seven songs the band performed at their surprise New York City record release concert in October.
An animated short film inspired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s classic holiday tune, “Happy Christmas (War Is Over),” is officially in the running for an Oscar nomination.
The 11-minute film, executive-produced by Yoko and the couple’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, follows a game of chess, with a heroic carrier pigeon helping the game continue across enemy lines. It ends with the classic tune playing over the closing credits.
The final nominees for the 2024 Academy Awards will be announced on January 23. The ceremony airs March 10 on ABC.
