Classic Rock 93.9

Another day, another Gibson signature Kirk Hammett guitar.

After launching the 1959 Les Paul Standard — based on his beloved “Greeny” guitar — last week, the Metallica shredder is now putting out a recreation of his 1979 Gibson Flying V.

Only 200 of the Flying Vs were made, each of which will set you back $14,999 — a relative bargain compared to the $19,999 Les Paul.

For more info, visit Gibson.com.

If you have thoughts on Hammett’s Flying V, or anything Metallica-related, there’s a chance at least one band member knows about them. In an interview with Metal Hammer, Lars Ulrich shares that he does indeed read online comments.

“If you decide to go down into the comment sections, at least for me, you have to prepare yourself for not taking any of it overly personally,” Ulrich says. “You have to kind of remove yourself from it. But I’d like to challenge anybody in a band to say they don’t look at comments.”

(Video contains uncensored profanity.) 

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If you’re upset at having to pay 50 bucks for a Taylor Swift tour t-shirt, this’ll make you feel better: Some of Elton John‘s tour merchandise is going for more than $2,000 a pop.

For the current U.K. leg of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, Elton has teamed up with the upscale department store chain Selfridges for a special collection of merchandise. The items include regular stuff like t-shirts, mugs and socks, but those fans with deeper pockets can purchase a $300 candle shaped like a platform boot, a $400 Elton teddy bear, a $2300 suitcase, a $2500 polka-dot jacket, a $2200 clutch purse and a $2100 silk bathrobe.

Other Elton-branded items include boxer shorts, rugs, ceramic vases and plates, eyewear, and a yellow Snoopy figurine wearing Elton-style glasses that’ll set you back $425.

You can order all these items online from Selfridges if you’re not in the U.K. for the tour.  Elton’s currently in the middle of a string of shows at London’s O2 Arena which runs through April 17.

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Patti Smith does not want your hair. That’s the message she’s shared with fans after someone claiming to be her rep reached out to fans asking for them to send her a piece of their hair. 

“This is the stupidest thing ever,” she shares in a video posted to Instagram. “If somebody calls you, emails you, or any of the other ways people communicate supposedly on my behalf asking for something, like perhaps your hair so that they can make me … say, [a] wig, it’s obviously [not me].” 

She also assures fans “if I want something, I’ll ask for it myself,” insisting she doesn’t wear wigs.

“I don’t have anything against [wigs], I just don’t wear them,” she adds. 

In the caption to her post she wishes her fans a happy spring, writing, “take care of yourselves and find ways to be happy and productive. As for me, my hair is ancient but fine.”

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Melissa Etheridge’s daughter Bailey and Sammy Hagar’s son Andrew are among the celebrity offspring featured in the upcoming Paramount+ docuseries Family Legacy. 

The show, originally announced last December as an MTV project, features the children of famous musicians “reliving some of entertainment’s most iconic moments and giving viewers an intimate look at their favorite artists.” 

A new trailer for the series is out now, in which Bailey is heard describing herself as “the OG lesbian baby.”  Bailey’s mom is Etheridge’s ex Julie Cypher, and her biological father is the late Rock & Roll Hall of Famer David Crosby, who was the former couple’s sperm donor.

Family Legacy premieres April 25 and also features the children of the late Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington, Brandy, Boyz II Men and more.

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Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa are set to appear on Lucinda Williams‘ new album, Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart, which drops June 30.

The pair are featured on the just-released single “New York Comeback,” along with a second song, “Rock n Roll Heart.” The album also features tributes to Tom Petty with the song “Stolen Moments,” and the Replacements’ co-founder Bob Stinson on the song “Hum’s Liquor.”

Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart is Lucinda’s first new album since having a stroke in November. In addition to Springsteen and Scialfa, it features guest appearances by Jesse Malin, the Replacements’ Tommy Stinson, Angel Olsen, Margo Price and more. 

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Bon Jovi fans are used to seeing David Bryan behind the keyboards, but usually it’s in front of thousands of screaming fans. Well, some lucky folks in New York got to experience him tickling the ivories in a very different setting. 

The New York Post reports that Bryan gave a spontaneous performance Friday at the Manhattan hot spot Silver Lining inside the Moxy Lower East Side hotel, treating the crowd to his take on the classic “Great Balls of Fire.”

A source described the performance as an “unforgettable evening,” noting the 61-year-old keyboardist “left the crowd cheering.”

As for when we’ll see Bryan back onstage with Bon Jovi, that’s anybody’s guess. So far the band has no tour dates planned for this year.

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Talking Heads are the latest artists to pay tribute to Sire Records founder Seymour Stein, who passed away Sunday at the age of 80.

“Talking Heads are deeply saddened to learn that Seymour Stein has died. He was our champion. He fought bravely for us and he remained loyal to us until the end,” read a post on the band’s official Instagram page. “Some people can spot a diamond in the rough and Seymour was one of them.”

“Seymour’s life was one of great success and also great tragedy, but through it all he remained crazy about music,” they add. “He was a mensch that we and the music business will never forget.”

Talking Heads’ Chris Frantz also wrote a tribute to Stein for Variety, in which he recalled the story of the first time Stein heard their band, and how he waited a year and a half for them to be ready to record their first record. 

“Seymour was a good match for us,” he shares. “He understood us and accepted our eccentricities. He liked that we were smart and knew about art. Not very many record company guys understood or even cared about Talking Heads at that time, but Seymour believed in us from the beginning and his support never wavered.”

He adds, “He was our champion from the beginning to the end and for that, Seymour, we thank you.”

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Joe Walsh and Willie Nelson have been added to Stephen Stills’ upcoming autism benefit, Autism Speaks Light Up The Blues 6. The event, hosted by Stills and his wife, Kristen, takes place April 22 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

Sharon Van Etten also joins the lineup, which already includes Stills with his sons Chris and Oliver; Neil Young in his first concert appearance since September 2019; and Lukas Nelson + Promise of the Real. Comedian Jeff Garlin is on board as host, and Amanda Kloots and Camryn Manheim will be appearing as presenters. 

Proceeds from the Light Up The Blues 6 benefit will support Autism Speaks, which is “dedicated to promoting solutions, across the spectrum and throughout the life span, for the needs of individuals with autism and their families.”

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Metallica‘s All Within My Hands charity foundation has announced donations to several organizations providing disaster relief to a number of U.S. states.

A total of $150,000 will be split between Team Rubicon and Direct Relief in support of those affected by the tornadoes that hit Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia in March, and the Community Foundation for Monterey County to help recovery efforts from the winter storms and floods in Monterey County, California.

For more info, visit AllWithinMyHands.org.

In other Metallica news, the metal legends have shared unboxing videos for their upcoming album, 72 Seasons. The clip for the CD version reveals the length of each 72 Seasons song, only two of which are under the five-minute mark.

72 Seasons will be released April 14.

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The BBC has debuted what is believed to be the earliest known full recording of a live Beatles concert, recorded 60 years ago by a 15-year-old named John Bloomfield.

The audio, which debuted on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, is from a concert at Stowe boarding school in Buckinghamshire, England. The band was playing the school’s theater for the birthday of a student named David Moore, who had reached out to the band’s manager, Brian Epstein. Epstein agreed to the concert, charging Moore $125 for the booking, which Moore paid for by selling tickets to his fellow students.

The now 70-year-old Bloomfield recorded the concert on a reel-to-reel tape; the show featured the band performing songs off their first album, Please Please Me, along with some covers. Bloomfield played it for Front Row, which was doing a special on the concert’s anniversary.

“The opportunity that this tape presents, which is completely out of the blue, is fantastic because we hear them just on the cusp of the breakthrough into complete world fame,” Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, one of only two people who’ve heard the full tape, shares. “I think it’s an incredibly important recording, and I hope something good and constructive and creative eventually happens to it.”

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