Classic Rock 93.9

The music of the Grateful Dead will be celebrated at a new festival in Mexico early next year.

The Dead Ahead Festival will feature four nights of music in Riviera Cancun, featuring Bobby Weir, Mickey Hart, Jeff Chimenti, Oteil Burbridge, Don Was and Jay Lane, along with special appearances by Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Margo Price, Sturgill Simpson and more.

The event promises two nights of curated collaborations celebrating the Grateful Dead songbook. There will also be two other nights of music, one headlined by Weir with the Wolf Brothers, featuring the Wolfpack, and another featuring Oteil & Friends, with Lettuce celebrating the Jerry Garcia Band. There will also be a ”late night rhythmic experience” with Hart’s Noche de Ondas.

The Dead Ahead Festival is set to go down January 12-15, with all-inclusive packages going on sale Friday, September 15, at 1 p.m. ET. More information can be found at deadaheadfestival.com.

This isn’t the first time members of The Dead have held a festival south of the border. From 2018 to 2020 Dead & Company headlined their own Playing in the Sand festival in Riviera Maya.

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Van Halen is sharing another preview of their upcoming box set, The Collection II, which revisits the band’s Sammy Hagar era.

In case you missed it, Van Halen recently released a remastered version of “It’s About Time,” a tune the band recorded in 2004 when they temporarily reunited with Hagar, who had left the group in 1996. Two other songs from that time, “Up For Breakfast” and “Learning To See,” also appear on the set.

The Collection II, dropping October 6, will feature newly remastered versions of the band’s four #1 albums with Hagar: 1986’s 5150, 1988’s OU812, 1991’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and 1995’s Balance, as well as a fifth album, Studio Rarities 1989-2004, featuring eight nonalbum Hagar-era tracks.

The Collection II is the follow-up to Van Halen’s first box set, The Collection, which was released in 2015 and featured the band’s six studio albums with David Lee Roth. It is available for preorder now.

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Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder is auctioning off tickets to his upcoming solo benefit concerts, taking place October 23 and 24 at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall.

Should you win the contest, you’ll get two tickets for seats in the first 10 rows of the shows, round trip travel and a three-night hotel stay. You’ll also be allowed access to each night’s exclusive post-show reception.

Donations to the raffle will support the EB Research Partnership, which Vedder and his wife, Jill, founded in support of those with epidermolysis bullosa, a rare genetic disorder that causes painful skin blisters. The shows will also raise money for the EB Research Partnership.

The raffle is open now until October 12 via the platform Fandiem. For more info, visit Fandiem.com/eddievedder.

Vedder is also playing a solo show at his upcoming Southern California Ohana Festival, taking place September 29 to October 1. Pearl Jam, meanwhile, is currently on a U.S. tour, though their latest scheduled show, originally set for September 10 in Indianapolis, was postponed due to illness.

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Aerosmith is currently on their Peace Out final tour, and they’re throwing some surprises into their set for fans.

According to setlist.fm, at the band’s Friday, September 9, show at UBS Arena in Belmont Park, New York, they performed the Joe Perry sung tune “Bright Light Fright” for the first time since 1994. The song appeared on Aerosmith’s fifth studio album, 1977’s Draw The Line.

The show also included the tour debut of “Walking The Dog,” the Rufus Thomas cover that appeared on the band’s 1973 self-titled album.

If that wasn’t enough, the concert ended with the crowd joining the band to sing “Happy Birthday” to Perry, who turned 73 on September 10. They also brought out a cake for the celebration. 

Next up, Aerosmith brings their Peace Out tour to Toronto, Canada, on Tuesday, September 12. A complete list of dates can be found at aerosmith.com.

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Bob Dylan has added some new dates to the new North American leg of his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour.

The new dates bring Dylan to the East Coast, with multiple nights in Boston, Port Chester and Brooklyn, New York, and Newark, New Jersey, as well as shows in Providence, Rhode Island, Philadelphia and more. 

The tour is set to kick off October 1 and 2 in Kansas City, Missouri, with the new additions starting November 2 in Springfield, Massachusetts, and dates confirmed through November 20 and 21 in Newark.

Tickets for the new shows go on sale Friday, September 15. A complete list of concert dates can be found at bobdylan.com.

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Paul Simon opened up about his hearing loss during an appearance at the Toronto Film Festival to promote his new Alex Gibney-directed documentary, In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon.

“I haven’t accepted it entirely, but I’m beginning to,” he told the audience at the Princess of Wales Theatre, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Simon says he still plays the guitar every day, sharing it’s not only an outlet to “express myself creatively,” but “It’s where I go for solace. If I’m feeling … ‘whatever.’”

“So it’s a very crucial thing to me,” he added. “You know, something happens to you when you have some sort of disability that changes your awareness or changes how you interact with life.”

Due to the hearing loss, Simon wasn’t able to tour behind his most recent album, Seven Psalms, noting that when he’s on the road, “I have the opportunity to really investigate the piece. And then it evolves to another standard and goes further.”

He is exploring new ways to get back out on the road. 

“Although a week from now I’m going to try and work with two guitarists who will play the parts that I played on the record, and see if I can sing the piece,” Simon shared. “I’m not sure how I can integrate my voice with the guitars.”

So far, there’s no word on when In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon will hit theaters.

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On This Day, September 11, 1953…

Tommy Roland Shaw, guitarist and co-lead vocalist for the band Styx, was born in Montgomery, Alabama. 

Shaw joined Styx in 1975 and made his first appearance on their 1976 album, Crystal Ball. He co—wrote and sang such well-known Styx songs as “Renegade,” “Blue Collar Man” and “Too Much Time On My Hands.”

In the 1990s, Shaw, Ted Nugent, Night Ranger’s Jack Blades and drummer Michael Cartellone formed the band Damn Yankees and had a huge hit with the song “High Enough,” which Shaw co-wrote. He and Blades also got together and formed the duo Shaw Blades, which released their debut album, Hallucination, in 1995. 

Shaw still tours with Styx to this day. They have dates booked through November 11 and will then resume touring in early January 2024.

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AC/DC has announced a lineup change ahead of their set at the upcoming Power Trip festival.

In a Facebook post, the “Highway to Hell” legends revealed that drummer Matt Laug will be joining them for the performance in place of Phil Rudd. The post also includes an audio clip from a recent rehearsal for the festival.

“PWR UP for Power Trip!” AC/DC writes in the caption. “Listen to the rehearsal of the boys powering up with Cliff Williams, who’s coming out of retirement for the festival and Matt Laug on drums.”

The last time AC/DC played live was in 2016, and they were without both Rudd and vocalist Brian Johnson. Rudd had parted ways with AC/DC in 2015 due to legal troubles, while Johnson was off the road due to severe hearing issues, paving the way for Guns N’ Roses‘ Axl Rose to fill in on lead vocals. Co-founding guitarist Malcolm Young died in 2017, and bassist Williams announced his retirement in 2018.

Johnson, Rudd and Williams then returned to AC/DC alongside Angus Young for the 2020 album Power Up, which marked the reunion of the classic Back in Black lineup, minus the late Malcolm.

Laug, meanwhile, is known for playing drums on Alanis Morissette‘s hit album Jagged Little Pill.

Power Trip will be held October 6-8 in Indio, California, the same site as Coachella. The bill also includes Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Tool and Judas Priest, who took the place of Ozzy Osbourne after he pulled out due to health issues.

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Jimmy Buffett’s wife, Jane Slagsvol, shared a touching tribute to her late husband, who passed away September 1 at the age of 76. 

“As Jimmy said a few months ago, ‘growing old is not for sissies.’ These last few years have been unimaginably challenging for Jimmy and me, and we’re definitely not sissies,” she wrote on his website. “One thing we both knew and experienced, through every difficult moment, was the feeling of being buoyed up by all the people in our lives,” she continued, noting they felt “surrounded by love.”

Jane thanked Jimmy’s fans, who she described as a “big, boisterous family.” “The smile that Jimmy beamed at you from the stage was sparked by your spirit, she wrote. “He was so grateful to the community you built around him.”

Jane also thanked all the people who cared for Jimmy during his battle with Merkel cell skin cancer as well as their friends and all those who worked for the rocker.

“Jimmy was love. Every cell in his body was filled with joy. He smiled all the time, even when he was deeply ill,” she wrote. “And his sense of humor never wavered. Jimmy was always the optimist, always twinkling, always making us laugh.”

After quoting his new song “Bubbles Up,” she concluded, “Jimmy knew he was loved. Right until the end, he looked for the light. Thank you for giving joy to him and to me.”

Meanwhile, fans are showing their love for Jimmy by rediscovering his music. Billboard reports that Songs You Know by Heart: Jimmy Buffett’s Greatest Hit(s) is back on the Billboard 200 at #4, a new high for the record. It’s also the first time the album’s made not only the Top 10, but the Top 40.

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Bernie Taupin‘s memoir, Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton and Me, an inside look at his life and career as the co-writer of Elton John‘s biggest hits, is out September 12. It features plenty of rock ‘n’ roll behavior and celebrity encounters, with everyone from John Lennon and Freddie Mercury to Princess Margaret, but what’s really amazing is that Elton didn’t know some of the details Bernie reveals in the book.

“He genuinely loved the book. I was so flattered by his compliments on it,” Bernie tells ABC Audio. “But the first thing he said to me when he called me after he finished the book, he went, ‘I can’t believe all of this. I mean, I didn’t know you did this. I didn’t know you did that.'”

“That’s a fan fantasy that we’ve lived in [each other’s] hip pockets for the last 55 years, ’cause it’s not true,” Bernie adds.

While the book isn’t in chronological order — hence the title Scattershot — it does cover all the major moments in Bernie and Elton’s career. It just does it from Bernie’s point of view.

“There are things in our collective lives that are bigger than life itself … they’re huge bullet points in our careers. You have to address them,” he says.

As for a new Elton album, Bernie says it’s being discussed.

“I’m sure somewhere in the not too distant future we’re going to be getting in the studio and doing something,” says Bernie. “We just have to figure out what we want to do.”

What he does know is that Elton really isn’t going to tour anymore.

“Believe me,” Bernie says. “He’s never going to be singing ‘Crocodile Rock’ … again.”

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