Classic Rock 93.9

David Lee Roth has offered a very pointed response to insulting comments that Gene Simmons made about him in a recent interview with Rolling Stone regarding why the founding Van Halen frontman wasn’t serving as KISS‘ opening act on the 2021 U.S. leg of the band’s farewell tour.

On his Instagram account on Friday, Roth posted a photo — 18 times — featuring the caption “Roth to Simmons” that shows a young boy wearing sunglasses while giving the middle finger and sticking out his tongue. He also posted the same photo once on his official website and his Facebook and Twitter pages.

As previously reported, Simmons confirmed to Rolling Stone that Roth — who opened the initial 2020 dates on KISS’ End of the Road tour before the trek was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic — was no longer the band’s support act for the newly launched tour leg. While he didn’t give a specific reason, Gene drew some negative comparisons between Dave’s career and that of the late Elvis Presley.

After describing Roth during his heyday as “the ultimate frontman,” Simmons went on tell the magazine, “I don’t know what happened to him…something. And you get modern-day Dave. I prefer to remember Elvis Presley in his prime. Sneering lips, back in Memphis, you know, doing all that. I don’t want to think of bloated naked Elvis on the bathroom floor.”

The current opening act for KISS in 2021 is rock-portrait painter David Garibaldi.

In other KISS news, the band postponed its show scheduled this past Sunday for the Xfinity Center in Hartford, Connecticut, because of Hurricane Henri. The concert will be rescheduled soon. Fans with tickets are being asked to hold on to them.

pic.twitter.com/F8uDzr3RKm

— David Lee Roth (@DavidLeeRoth) August 20, 2021

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Don Everly, half of the influential and pioneering early rock ‘n’ roll duo The Everly Brothers, died Saturday at his home in Nashville, the Los Angeles Times reports. He was 84.

A spokesman for the Everly family confirmed Don’s passing to the newspaper, but did not disclose a cause of death.

A statement from the Everlys reads in part, “Don lived by what he felt in his heart. Don expressed his appreciation for the ability to live his dreams…with his soulmate and wife, Adela, and sharing the music that made him an Everly Brother.”

Together with his brother Phil, two years his junior, Don scored a string of major hits in the late ’50s and early ’60s, including such classics as “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” “Cathy’s Clown” and “Bird Dog.”  The brothers’ tight harmonies and melodic tunes influenced many other famous artists, including The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beach Boys and The Hollies.

While many of The Everly Brothers’ biggest singles were written by the husband-and-wife team of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, Don also wrote a number of the duo’s hits, including “Cathy’s Clown,” “(Till) I Kissed You” and “So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad).”

The Everlys had their last top-40 single in 1967 with “Bowling Green.” Then in 1973, Don had an acrimonious split with Phil and the brothers reportedly didn’t speak to each other for a decade. They reunited in 1983 and had a minor hit the following year with the Paul McCartney-penned tune “On the Wings of a Nightingale.”

The Everly Brothers were part of the inaugural class of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees in 1986, and were the first non-solo act welcomed into the Hall. In addition, Don and Phil were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.

In 2003, the brothers toured as the special guests of Simon & Garfunkel. They played their last show together in 2005 in Ipswich, U.K. Phil died at age 74 in January 2014 of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In addition to Adela, Don is survived by his mother, Margaret; his son, Edan; daughters Venetia, Stacy and Erin; and many grandchildren. His daughter Erin was married to Axl Rose from 1990 to 1991.

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Elvis Costello has debuted a fun trailer for Spanish Model, the upcoming album featuring various Latin-music artists performing Spanish-language versions of the songs from his second studio effort, 1978’s This Year’s Model.

As previously reported, Spanish Model, which will be released on September 10, features all of the songs from This Year’s Model plus select other tunes from that record’s sessions, with newly recorded vocals by various Latin artists accompanied by the original music by Costello and his band The Attractions.

The video features Costello giving some background about This Year’s Model, which was his first album with The Attractions — keyboardist Steve Nieve, drummer Pete Thomas and bassist Bruce Thomas. It also includes commentary from many of the artists who contributed to Spanish Model.

In addition, the promo features a hilarious section where Elvis speak-sings a brief synopsis of the new album’s concept to the melody of “Pump It Up.”

Among the artists who put their Spanish-language spin on the This Year’s Model tunes are Juanes, Luis Fonsi, Sebastián Yatra and Vega.

Costello collaborated on the project with Latin Grammy Producer of the Year winner Sebastian Krys, who remixed the This Year’s Model tracks from the original master recordings.

Meanwhile, the first episode of a documentary series focusing on Spanish Model will premiere September 9. It will feature interviews with nearly all of the artists who contributed to the album, as well as with Costello, The Attractions’ members and This Year’s Model producer Nick Lowe.

“I love the humor and heart that [director] Jose [Tillan] has caught in this film,” Costello says. “It’s been great to hear all these voices and see the faces of our new friends. The whole gang’s here.”

You can pre-order Spanish Model now.

Here’s the track list:

“No Action” — Nina Diaz
“(Yo No Quiero Ir a) Chelsea” (“[I Don’t Want to Go to] Chelsea”) — Raquel Sofía y Fuego
“Yo Te Vi” (“The Beat”) — Draco Rosa
“Pump It Up” — Juanes
“Detonantes” (“Little Triggers”) — La Marisoul
“Tu Eres Para Mi” (“You Belong to Me”) — Luis Fonsi
“Hand in Hand” — Francisca Valenzuela y Luis Humberto Navejas
“La Chica de Hoy” (“This Year’s Girl”) — Cami
“Mentira” (“Lip Service”) — Pablo López
“Viviendo en el Paraiso” (“Living in Paradise”) — Jesse & Joy
“Lipstick Vogue” — Morat
“La Turba” (“Night Rally”) — Jorge Drexler
“Llorar” (“Big Tears”) — Sebastián Yatra
“Radio Radio” — Fito Páez
“Crawling to the U.S.A.” — Gian Marco y Nicole Zignago
“Se Esta Perdiendo la Inocencia” (“Running Out of Angels”) — Vega

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Just a reminder that star-studded We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert takes place Saturday in New York City at Central Park’s Great Lawn, and will air live starting at 5 p.m. ET on CNN and some of its affiliated networks.

This show’s impressive lineup includes Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Journey, Carlos Santana, Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, Rob Thomas and many others.

About 60,000 people are expected to attend the concert, and proof of vaccination for those ages 12 or over is required to gain entry. Most of the tickets to the event were made available for free, although a limited number of VIP passes were sold.

As previously announced, the “We Love NYC” concert is meant to celebrate the “rebirth” of the Big Apple amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

This week, Santana and Thomas confirmed that they’ll be performing together at the show. On Wednesday, the two artists released a new collaborative track called “Move,” which arrives 22 years after Santana and Thomas’ massively successful 1999 single, “Smooth.”

Other music artists and entertainers on the “We Love NYC” bill include The Killers, LL COOL J, Barry Manilow, Earth, Wind & Fire, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Andrea Bocelli, Cynthia Erivo, Jimmy Fallon, Jennifer Hudson, Wyclef Jean, and Kane Brown.

Pre-event coverage will begin at 4 p.m. ET. The concert was produced by New York City, music mogul Clive Davis, and Live Nation.

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Neil Young has unveiled plans to launch a new series of archival live albums dubbed The Neil Young Official Bootleg Series, and will kick things off with Carnegie Hall 1970, which will be released on October 1.

The album was recorded on December 4, 1970, at the first concert that Young ever played at the historic New York City venue. The Neil Young Official Bootleg Series — Carnegie Hall 1970 can be pre-ordered now at the Greedy Hand Store at NeilYoungArchives.com, and will be available as a two-LP vinyl set, a two-CD collection and as a high-res digital download.

Carnegie Hall 1970 show was the first of two solo acoustic concerts that Neil played at the New York City venue that evening, and featured a 23-song set that, in addition to many selections from his solo career, included renditions of tunes from his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

The concert included performances of three songs that Neil had not yet officially recorded or released: “Bad Fog of Loneliness,” “Old Man,” and “See the Sky About to Rain.” Other tunes he played at the show included “Down by the River,” “Cinnamon Girl,” “Helpless,” “Southern Man,” “Sugar Mountain,” “After the Gold Rush,” “Cowgirl in the Sand,” and “Ohio.”

You can check out Young’s Carnegie Hall 1970 rendition of “Cowgirl in the Sand” now at his official YouTube channel, accompanied by a series of photos from the concert.

Neil’s planning to release five more installments of his new Bootleg Series in 2022.

Here’s the full track list of Carnegie Hall 1970:

“Down by the River”
“Cinnamon Girl”
“I Am a Child”
“Expecting to Fly”
“The Loner”
“Wonderin'”
“Helpless”
“Southern Man”
“Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing”
“Sugar Mountain”
“On the Way Home”
“Tell Me Why”
“Only Love Can Break Your Heart”
“Old Man”
“After the Gold Rush”
“Flying on the Ground Is Wrong”
“Cowgirl in the Sand”
“Don’t Let It Bring You Down”
“Birds”
“Bad Fog of Loneliness”
“Ohio”
“See the Sky About to Rain”
“Dance Dance Dance”

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Eddie Vedder is rocking around the clock with his cover of the 1992 R.E.M. classic “Drive.”

The Pearl Jam frontman put his spin on the Automatic for the People opener for the soundtrack to the new film, Flag Day. While Vedder’s version stays true to the slow burning original musically, his baritone vocals give the track a different kind of vibe. You can check out the song new at Vedder’s official YouTube channel.

Along with the “Drive” cover, the Flag Day soundtrack includes a number of original Vedder tunes recorded with Irish musician and Once star Glen Hansard, as well as new music from Cat Power. Additionally, the album features the musical debut of Vedder’s daughter, Olivia, who performs songs titled “My Father’s Daughter” and “There’s a Girl.”

Fittingly, Flag Day stars another father-daughter pair: Sean and Dylan Penn. Both the film and its soundtrack are out today.

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Boz Scaggs is featured on a brand-new song by doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll great Dion DiMucci, a grooving blues-rock tune called “I’ve Got to Get to You.”

The track is available now as a digital download and via streaming services, and will be featured on Dion’s next studio album, which is due out in the fall. Scaggs contributes some guest vocals to the song, which also includes the talents of the father and son guitar duo Joe and Mike Menza.

You also can check out a video for “I’ve Got to Get to You” at Dion’s official YouTube channel. The clip mixes scenes of people using all sorts of modes of transportation with footage of Dion and his backing band playing the tune and, separately, of the Menzas jamming out on the song.

Explaining why he wanted to collaborate with Scaggs, Dion notes that Boz “is one of my wife Susan‘s favorite singers, and I’m right there with her.

He continues, “I’ve wanted for decades to record a song with this guy. There’s no mistaking his voice for anyone else’s — and here it is, as pure and clear as ever, on ‘I’ve Got to Get to You.'”

Dion also reveals that he was “inspired to write this song after a conversation with Roy Orbison more than fifty years ago,” adding, “Now that Boz has sung on it, it’s finally done. It doesn’t get any better than this.”

Meanwhile, Scaggs says of Dion, “[He’s] one of my favorite singers,” adding about the collaboration, “Our voices are a natural blend.”

Dion’s most recent album, 2020’s Blues with Friends, included appearances by Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons, Van Morrison, Jeff Beck, E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt, The Stray Cats‘ Brian Setzer and more.

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On Wednesday, Carlos Santana released his new collaborative single with Matchbox Twenty‘s Rob Thomas, “Move,” which will appear on Santana‘s upcoming studio album, Blessings and Miracles.

“Move” arrives 22 years after Santana and Thomas teamed up for the massively successful hit “Smooth,” and at a New York City press event Wednesday, Rob explained via Zoom that the reason it took so long for Carlos and him to reunite for a follow-up tune was that it “had to happen naturally,” like “Smooth” did.

Thomas revealed that “Move” came about while he was working on material with the New York-based rock group American Authors, who also contributed to the track.

“[A]t the tail end of that session, [they sent] me a track and [said]…’See if you can do something with this,'” Rob recalled. “And…it just hit me immediately. The chorus came out, I sent it to Carlos immediately…Carlos is like, ‘Oh, this is beautiful. I want to do this. This sounds great.'”

Carlos, who attended the press gathering in person, shared that “Move” “has the two components that I love, being in a physical body — spirituality and sensuality.”

He added, “I feel very grateful and very confident that…Rob and I [get to] reach the four corners of the world again and make a lot of families happy.”

Santana and Thomas also will reach lots of people when they hit the stage together Saturday in New York City’s Central Park at the star-studded We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert.

Musing about the show and its theme, celebrating New York’s revival in the COVID pandemic’s wake, Carlos said, “I feel that New Yorkers need…a spiritual boost. Like a dog shakes water…we have to ward off and shake off fear and darkness and…anger.”

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The Eagles are set to launch their “Hotel California” 2021 Tour this Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and in celebration of the trek, the band’s Live at The Forum ’76 concert album will be released on vinyl for the first time on November 12.

The album, which features 10 performances recorded at the famed Los Angles-area venue in the fall of 1976, previously was only available on CD and digitally as part of the 40th anniversary reissue of the Hotel California album that was released in 2017.

The two-LP set, which you can pre-order now, is pressed on 180-gram vinyl and features three sides of music, plus an etching on the collection’s fourth and final side.

Live at The Forum ’76 was recorded during a three-night stand that the Eagles played at the venue in October of 1976. The shows, which took place two months before Hotel California‘s release, featured some of the earliest live performances of songs from the album, including the classic title track and “New Kid in Town.”

Besides those two tunes, Live at The Forum features renditions of earlier Eagles classics like “Take It Easy,” “Take It to the Limit,” “Witchy Woman,” “One of These Nights” and “Already Gone,” plus a version of guitarist  Joe Walsh‘s James Gang gem “Funk #49.”

As previously reported, the Eagles’ Hotel California 2021 Tour will feature the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers performing the Hotel California album in full, accompanied by an orchestra and a choir, followed by a set of the band’s greatest hits. The U.S. trek is mapped out through a November 5-6 stand in Seattle.

Visit Eagles.com to check out their full tour schedule.

Here’s the Live at The Forum ’76 two-LP set’s track list:

LP One

Side A
“Take It Easy”
“Take It to the Limit”
“New Kid in Town”

Side B
“James Dean”
“Good Day in Hell”
“Witchy Woman”
“Funk #49”

LP Two

Side A
“One of These Nights”
“Hotel California”
“Already Gone”

Side B
Etching

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Foo Fighters are set to receive the inaugural U.S. Global Icon Award at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards.

The prize will recognize Dave Grohl and company for their “unparalleled career and continued impact and influence [that] has maintained a unique level of global success in music and beyond.”

The Global Icon Award has previously been given out by the MTV Europe Music Awards. Past winners include Green Day, Ozzy Osbourne, U2, Queen, Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston.

Along with the honor, the Foos will perform at this year’s VMAs, marking their first set at the ceremony since 2007. They’re also nominated in three categories: Best Rock, Best Choreography and Best Cinematography, all for the “Shame Shame” video.

The 2021 MTV VMAs will air September 12.

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