Classic Rock 93.9

Julian Lennon is taking a stab at hosting. Variety reports the musician, son of The Beatles‘ John Lennon, will host a new docuseries, Inspired, that looks at how an artist’s creative process is influenced by their surroundings.

Each episode will have Lennon meeting with artists, helping viewers experience a location from their point of view.

“What’s so special about this series is getting to know an artist and the culture of a place through a specific lens — this unique relationship an artist has with a certain place that gets their creative juices going,” he says. “It’s a new entry point into both artist and place, which is one of the brilliant strokes of this series.”

So far there’s no word on when or where Inspired will air.

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KISS will finally say goodbye to the road this December when they wrap their End of the Road tour in New York City. While some fans may want them to go on forever, Gene Simmons believes it’s important for them to go out while they are still on the top of their game. 

“Well, look, at a certain point Mother Nature takes over no matter what your plans are. And at a certain time, you’ve gotta have the dignity and pride but also the love and admiration of your fans to know when it’s time to call it quits,” Simmons shares in an interview with Australia’s The Sunday Project. “We’ve all seen boxers that stay in the ring too long, and we’ve all seen bands that stay on the stage too long.”

Simmons says that while he’s “still looking pretty damn good,” he realizes “the physical nature of what we do is gonna limit how long we do it, so we’re gonna quit while the quitting’s good, while we’re on top.”

Simmons also expressed how grateful he is to KISS fans, noting that “without them, I’d be asking the next person in line if they’d like some fries with that. Don’t kid yourself.”

KISS kicks off the U.K./European leg of the End of the Road tour on Monday, June 5, in Birmingham, England. They wrap the tour for good December 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. A complete list of dates can be found at kissonline.com.

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There’s no doubt Guns N’ Roses have a lot of great songs, and choosing which one’s the best isn’t an easy task, but Classic Rock magazine has taken a shot at doing so.

For its latest cover, the mag set out to name the band’s 50 Greatest Songs of All Time, with the results based on fan votes and industry polling, along with opinions from the writers and editors of the mag.

So, which song came out on top? Earning the honor is the band’s breakthrough hit, “Welcome to the Jungle,” from their debut album, Appetite for Destruction. 

Coming in just behind “Jungle” is Appetite’s other hit “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” the band’s only number one single, followed by “Estranged” at #3, “November Rain” at #4 and “Rocket Queen” at #5.

Rounding out the top 10 are: “Paradise City” at #6, “Civil War” at #7, “You Could Be Mine” at #8, “Patience” at #9 and “It’s So Easy” at #10.

Luckily for GNR fans, they’ll have plenty of chances to see them perform these songs this year. The band kicks off a European tour on Friday, June 9. It hits North America August 5 in Moncton, Canada, with the first U.S. date happening August 11 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. A complete list of tour dates can be found at gunnroses.com.

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In 2008, E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt launched TeachRock, a free educational initiative for K-12 classrooms, and now he’s recruited some big-name musicians to join his mission.

Billboard reports that TeachRock has a new Artist Council, made up of such stars as Peter Gabriel, Sheryl Crow, The Go-Go’s Gina Schock, Norah Jones and DJ Khaled, along with Erykah Badu, Common, Skip Marley, Run DMC’s Darryl McDaniels, Margo Price and more.

“The Artist Council is an important step toward our long-term goal — keeping the arts a vital part of public education by creating and distributing an innovative, transformative, and effective methodology for new and future generations, ultimately leading to drastically improved high school graduation rates,” Van Zandt shares. “Our dream is that one day every artist will take the opportunity to visit a classroom, whether locally or on tour, anywhere in the world, and participate in a lesson plan using our curriculum.”

As part of the Artist Council, the musicians will work to spread the word of the nonprofit’s mission. They will also take part in lesson plans, and will promote the curriculum directly to teachers and students.

TeachRock already has several famous faces in their corner. Its Founders Board includes Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Jackson Browne and Martin Scorsese.

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The virtual Jerry Garcia Archive Museum, which will provide a digital library of historical information about the late Grateful Dead star, is set to open June 7, and the occasion will be celebrated in the metaverse.

Fans interested in checking out the museum can create their own avatar via Neverworld Metaverse, which will allow them to be able to take a tour of the online museum. There they can check out recorded interviews and rare photos, along with Jerry’s fine art. The opening celebration will also feature a free concert by Rainbow Full of Sound, jazz artist Tony Saunders and sound poet Jair-Rohm Parker Wells.

Guests will also receive unique gifts designed by Jerry’s youngest daughter, Keelin Garcia, his wife, Manasha Garcia, and digital artist Nexus Storm, all via airdrop. There will also be a special live presentation by Jerry Garcia archivist Peter Agelasto.

Access to the museum and the concert is free, but fans will need to create their avatars ahead of the event. More info can be found at neverworldgrid.com.

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Neil Young fans have a lot to look forward to in July.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has announced the fifth installment in his Official Release Series, this time comprised of four remastered albums: 1989’s Freedom, which includes the Young classic “Rockin’ In The Free World”; 1990’s Ragged Glory; and two albums from 1991: the live record Weld and the companion Arc, described as “a 35-minute outburst of feedback, improvisation, guitar solos and vocal fragments.” 

Official Release Series Volume 5, dropping July 14, will be released as a numbered vinyl box set, the first time these albums have been remastered for vinyl, and Arc‘s first time on vinyl ever. The set will include the four albums on nine vinyl LPs. There will also be a numbered CD set, featuring six CDs.

Both sets will be available at the Greedy Hand Store at the Neil Young Archives, as well as music retailers and most digital services. It is available for preorder now.

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Foo Fighters have announced a tour of Australia and New Zealand.

The outing launches in November and stretches into January 2024. Tickets go on sale next Thursday, June 15. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit FooFighters.com.

The Foos will be headed Down Under in support of their new album, But Here We Are, which dropped last Friday, June 2. The record is the first from Dave Grohl and company since the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins in March 2022. During a streaming concert in May, Foo Fighters introduced Josh Freese, who’s played with bands including Nine Inch Nails, Guns N’ Roses, A Perfect Circle and The Offspring, as their new drummer.

Foo Fighters are playing a mix of U.S. headlining and festival dates this summer, including Bonnaroo and Outside Lands.

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On This Day, June 5, 1983…

During a stop on their War tour, U2 headlined Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and recorded the performance for what became their first video release, Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky. The concert was nearly canceled due to inclement weather, but the band went on and played in the rain.

The video featured a classic performance of “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” which Rolling Stone called one of the “50 Moments that Changed the History of Rock and Roll.”  

The concert film went on to become a best-seller, and was crucial in cementing U2’s reputation as a stellar live act and helped make them stars.  The band later released a live album, Under a Blood Red Sky, which featured eight tracks performed live during the War tour, with two songs from the same concert.

A remastered version of Live at Red Rocks was released on DVD in 2008, featuring previously unreleased tracks.

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In the 31 years since Elton John established his AIDS Foundation, he’s raised millions of dollars for the cause, but their work is far from over. As part of a new initiative called The Rocket Fund, he’s now calling on people to “let their inner Elton out.”

Appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday, Elton announced that he wants fans to take to social media and dress like him to show their support for The Rocket Fund — and he’s asked famous pals like Neil Patrick Harris and JoJo Siwa to join in. 

The fund aims to “turbo charge” the foundation’s fundraising efforts and take in $125 million for the fight against AIDS, with an eye toward ending the disease by 2030.

Elton also talked about the impending end of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which wraps up next month in Sweden. “It’s gonna be emotional but I’m not thinking about it,” he told GMA‘s Lara Spencer. “I’m just concentrating on doing the next best show I can.”

Noting that his two sons are going to attend the final show in Sweden, Elton added, “It’s gonna be a tremendous occasion … who knows what it’s gonna feel like?”

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June 4 marked the latest full moon, which means Peter Gabriel fans got a brand new song. The latest release is the tune “Road to Joy,” the sixth single he’s shared from his new album, i/o, which is due out sometime this year.

Gabriel says the song “connects” to another project he’s working on about “the brain and how we perceive things.”

“It deals with near-death experience and locked-in syndrome situations where people are unable to communicate or to move. It’s an amazingly frustrating condition,” he explains. “There have been some great books and films about this subject, but at this point in our story the people looking after our hero manage to find a way to wake him up. So, it’s a lyric about coming back into your senses, back to life, back into the world.”

As he’s done with previous i/o singles, Gabriel plans to release several mixes of the tune. The first is the Mark ‘Spike’ Stent (Bright-Side Mix), which will be followed later this month by mixes from Tchad Blake (Dark-Side Mix) and Hans-Martin Buff’s Atmos mix (In-Side Mix).

So far Gabriel hasn’t announced a release date for i/o. In the meantime, fans can catch him live on i/o The Tour, playing Amsterdam on Monday, June 5. The tour comes to North America on September 8 in Quebec City, Canada. A complete list of dates can be found at petergabriel.com.

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