Classic Rock 93.9

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett has announced plans to bring his Genesis Revisited: Seconds Out + More Tour to North America next spring.

The 35-date outing will begin with four shows in Canada, kicking off with a March 26-27 stand in Oakville, Ontario, then moving on to Quebec City on March 29 and Montreal on March 30 before heading to the U.S. for the remainder of the trek.

The stateside portion of the tour gets underway on April 2 in Boston and works its way across the country, wrapping up with a May 19 concert in Seattle.

The Genesis Revisited: Seconds Out + More Tour features Hackett and his solo band performing his former group’s 1977 live album Seconds Out in its entirety, as well as additional songs from Genesis’ back catalog and selections from his latest studio album, 2021’s Surrender of Silence.

Some of the U.S. shows are make-up dates from Hackett’s postponed 2020 and 2021 tours, and those concerts also will include a full performance of Genesis’ 1973 studio album Selling England by the Pound.

Seconds Out was a double album that was released in October 1977 and was mostly recorded during shows that Genesis played in Paris in June of that year. Seconds Out was the last new album that Genesis released featuring Hackett.

“I’m thrilled to bring Seconds Out back to life, featuring Genesis material at its most exciting and virtuosic,” says Steve. “This time with all numbers played in full plus additional surprises!”

Hackett wraps up his 2021 itinerary tonight with a show in Paris. For his full tour schedule and to purchase tickets, visit HackettSongs.com.

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This past week, British hard-rock legends Deep Purple released their first album of cover tunes, a 12-track collection titled Turning to Crime.

Founding drummer Ian Paice tells ABC Audio that impetus behind the project was the COVID-19 pandemic, which kept the band from touring and from working together on new music in a studio.

“So what do you do? You just can’t sit on your a** all day long, all month long, all year long,” Paice notes. “And if you can’t get together with your pals to write new music, then play some old music…and choose pieces which were important to you for different reasons.”

Paice says the band members settled on the tunes democratically, and recorded the album remotely.

“I was worried at first that it would sound like five guys in different parts of the world, but it doesn’t,” Ian admits. “It sounds like five guys in a room having fun. And once I realized it was gonna have that collective feel, I was really happy with just getting the project as good as we could get it.”

Turning to Crime features Deep Purple putting its own spin on such songs as the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac gem “Oh Well,” Bob Dylan‘s “Watching the River Flow,” Little Feat‘s “Dixie Chicken,” Cream‘s “White Room” and more.

Paice says “Dixie Chicken” was one of the songs he picked, noting, “I love the band, but also, [I’m a] great fan of [drummer] Richie Hayward…[He’s], just a feel-groove merchant.”

Ian also was quite happy with Deep Purple’s version of “Oh Well.”

“I think [guitarist] Steve [Morse] did a wonderful job,” he says. “He married…the Peter Green bit with a bit of Jeff Beck-ism at the end.”

Here’s the album’s full track list:

“7 and 7 Is”
“Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu”
“Oh Well”
“Jenny Take a Ride!”
“Watching the River Flow”
“Let the Good Times Roll”
“Dixie Chicken”
“Shapes of Things”
“The Battle of New Orleans”
“Lucifer”
“White Room”
“Caught in the Act” (Medley: “Going Down”/”Green Onions”/”Hot ‘Lanta”/”Dazed and Confused”/”Gimme Some Lovin'”)

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Marvel is moving from Iron Man to Iron Maiden.

The iconic comic book brand has announced a collaboration with the metal legends, featuring apparel and accessories that will bring together characters including Wolverine, Thanos, Venom and Deadpool with Maiden’s album artwork and Eddie mascot.

“Eddie has long stood shoulder to shoulder with the greatest super heroes and we’re also pretty proud of the Worlds we created for his many incarnations — from battlefields to Egyptian tombs to frozen icescapes or futuristic cities,” says Maiden manager Rod Smallwood. “Juxtaposing some of the most recognizable characters in pop art and comic book culture into planet Maiden has been an ambition of ours for years and working with Marvel and their unparalleled character-based IP is the perfect fit in this day and age.”

Smallwood adds, “To see such iconic characters alongside Eddie is something our fans have discussed for years and we think that the twist of placing Venom, Thanos, Thor or Deadpool in our Maiden worlds will excite fans of both cultures.”

You can check out the collection now via Iron Maiden’s web store.

Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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Here’s a bit of news that will almost certainly make the members of Mötley Crüe feelgood: the Los Angeles metallers have sold their entire recorded catalog to the global music company BMG.

The sale includes all of the Crüe’s nine studio albums, as well as various live records and compilations.

“It feels amazing to be collaborating with our new partners at BMG,” the band members say in a collective statement. “Their extensive track record of success in rock made them the perfect home to continue preserving and growing our musical legacy, ensuring we always stay at The Top.”

The exact financial terms of the agreement were not officially announced, only that it’s the “largest single catalog acquisition” in BMG’s 13-year history. According to Variety, the deal is worth around $150 million, though the trade also notes that “other sources cited a significantly lower number.”

Mötley Crüe is set to launch the band’s long-awaited reunion tour in June 2022. The trek was originally scheduled for 2020 but has been postponed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Chicago and Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson have unveiled plans for a 2022 U.S. co-headlining tour that will take place during the late spring and summer.

The 25-date trek will kick off on June 7 in Phoenix and is mapped out through a July 26 concert in the Detroit suburb of Clarkston, Michigan.

As has been the case for the last several years, Wilson’s band will include two other Beach Boys alums, Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin.

Tickets for the tour dates will go on sale to the general public this Friday, December 3, at 10 a.m. local time at ChicagoTheBand.com and BrianWilson.com. Pre-sale tickets will be available to Citi card starting Wednesday, December 1, at 10 a.m. local time; visit CitiEntertainment.com for information.

Prior to the trek with Wilson, Chicago has a variety of other tour dates and concerts lined up this year and in 2022, including a new six-show Las Vegas residency at The Venetian Theatre this February.

Wilson recently released a new album titled At My Piano that features solo piano renditions of various Beach Boys classics.

In addition, the new documentary Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road was recently made available for purchase via digital video at Apple and Amazon Prime, and the film’s soundtrack also is out now. The album includes “Right Where I Belong,” a new collaboration song Brian recorded with My Morning Jacket‘s Jim James.

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On Tuesday morning, Foo Fighters announced a North American headlining tour for the spring and summer of 2022. Now, one of the dates has already been canceled.

In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Dave Grohl and company share that they will no longer be performing at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on August 3 due to the venue’s “refusal to agree to the band’s COVID safety measures.”

“We apologize for any inconvenience and are working on finding a suitable replacement,” the statement reads. “One that will prioritize the health and safety of everyone working and attending the show.”

Previous Foo Fighters concerts have required attendees to show proof of vaccination or a negative test.

As for the rest of the tour, that’s scheduled to run from May 14 in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, to a two-night stand in Los Angeles taking place August 18 and 20. Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 3, at 10 a.m. local time.

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Jon Bon Jovi, KISS bassist/singer Gene Simmons, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, and Green Day are among the music stars taking part in a charity initiative celebrating Giving Tuesday.

The campaign, launched by Bandsintown in partnership and the charitable fundraising platform Fandiem, will offer special items and experiences from the participating artists to raise money for nonprofit organizations of their choosing. The more you donate, the more entries you’ll receive for the raffle.

Bon Jovi, Simmons and Grohl all have donated autographed, custom-designed electric guitars that will benefit Jamsz Konnections, a company that helps plan charitable events.

Pearl Jam and Green Day also have offered signed guitars, while all five Pearl Jam members have autographed a Fender Player Stratocaster that will raise money for the band’s Vitalogy Foundation, which supports environmental, homelessness and indigenous causes.

Green Day has donated a Fender Squier Strat that the band has autographed, and that also features the signatures of their fellow Hella Mega tour mates Fall Out Boy and Weezer. The sale of that instrument will benefit Reverb, a company that works to reduce the environmental footprint of touring artists, festivals and live music venues.

Other artists participating in the initiative include Matchbox Twenty‘s Rob Thomas, Evanescence‘s Amy Lee, Imagine Dragons, Jack Johnson, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, My Morning Jacket, Willie Nelson, and Taylor Swift.

For more info, visit Fandiem.com/GivingTuesday.

Giving Tuesday takes place today, November 30. It was conceived as a contrast to the commercialism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

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In the last couple of years, biopics of Elton John and Queen‘s Freddie Mercury — Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody, respectively — were hugely successful at the box office, and Rod Stewart isn’t about to let a similar opportunity pass him by: He claims that he’s actively working on a movie of his life.

During an interview with the music newsletter The New Cue, Stewart is asked if a biopic is happening, to which he replies. “Yeah, yeah! I want that to happen!!” When asked for details, Rod says, “We’re working on it, that’s all I can tell you.”

So who would play Stewart in this alleged film? He tells The New Cue, “Oh God, I’ve haven’t thought of that. I know my 18-year-old son wants to play me at 18. Maybe I could get my other son playing me when I was 10.”

In addition to planning a biopic, Rod is also promoting his new album The Tears of Hercules, which is his fourth album of original songs in eight years.  Sir Rod says this late-career creative roll he’s been on is a result of a few different things.

“I didn’t enjoy writing songs back in the day because it was taking up such a huge part of my life, with all the drinking and a-drugging and a-shagging and a-drinking,” he explains. “But now that’s all gone out the window, I’m concentrated on writing songs and enjoying it a great deal.”

“Also, I’ve realized the capability for writing personal songs and telling the truth,” he adds, pointing out that he’s got plenty of material. As the father of eight puts it, “I’ve lived a life. Over and over and over again.”

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Foo Fighters have announced a North American headlining tour for 2022.

The outing is set to kick off May 14 in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, and will wrap up with a two-night stand in Los Angeles taking place August 18 and 20.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 3, at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit FooFighters.com.

The Foos will be touring in continued support of their new album, Medicine at Midnight, which was released this past February. They’ll close out 2021 with a run of West Coast dates in December, hitting Las Vegas and Sacramento and Fresno, California.

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Graham Nash‘s new book, A Life in Focus: The Photography of Graham Nash, gets its official release today.

The 79-year-old folk-rock legend helped curate the book, which celebrates his lifelong passion for photography and offers a collection of captivating images that he shot spanning from his childhood to the present.

A Life in Focus includes candid photos of family members, friends and musical associates, self-portraits and artistically shot images captured in various natural settings. Nash also wrote commentary to accompany the pics.

Explaining his approach to photography, Graham tells ABC Audio, “I never want to take pictures of, you know, kittens with balls of wool. I don’t want to take images that match my couch…I want to capture something that will disappear in the blink of an eye unless you have the courage to press that trigger.”

Among the photos of Nash’s famous collaborators and musical contemporaries appearing in the book are images of his ex-girlfriend Joni Mitchell; his former band mates David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Neil Young; and other legends like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, George Harrison and Cass Elliot.

Graham says some of his favorite pics in the book feature Mitchell, including “one of Joan looking through [a] magnifying glass…[and another taken] through [a] chair hole…when [she was] listening to music.”

Other standout photos for Graham include one of Crosby shot in Sag Harbor, New York, while Crosby, Stills & Nash were rehearsing for their debut album, and several of Young, among them “one of [Neil] driving away from us…in his car.”

Reflecting on the new book, Nash says, “I want it to be a fun read…I want people to go, ‘Wow, all right!’ I want people to smile. I want to bring some joy into life.”

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