Back in 2020, TheRolling Stones teamed up with Brazilian DJ Alok for a remix of “Living in a Ghost Town,” and Alok said it wasn’t easy getting Mick Jagger to OK the tune.
Alok tells Rolling Stone Jagger had him redo that track 10 times before he was happy with it. Alok even has a recording of a call with the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, in which he expressed his frustration.
“I answered the call, and I told him, ‘Listen, now I understand why you did this song “I Can Get No Satisfaction” because you’re never satisfied,’” Alok says. “This is my last try with the tenth version.”
This wasn’t the first time Alok worked with Jagger. In 2017 he remixed Jagger’s solo tune “Gotta Get A Grip,” which apparently took six tries to get right.
Are we about to get some new music from Joan Jett? Well, that’s the speculation after the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer teased fans on Instagram with a photo of her in the studio.
She captioned the shot, “Back in the studio. Big announcement coming…”
If the speculation is true, it will be the first new album from Joan Jett and the Blackhearts since 2022’s Changeup, an acoustic record that featured new versions of classic hits like “Bad Reputation” and “Crimson and Clover.” Their last album of all new material was the 2014 record Unvarnished.
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts will be busy on the road this summer. They have shows in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Richardson, Texas, on May 19 and 20, respectively, and then on June 6 they kick off a tour with Bryan Adams in Baltimore, Maryland. A complete list of dates can be found at joanjett.com.
Deep Purple’s Glenn Hughes has lined up a new set of U.S. dates. The rocker will perform the band’s classic tracks while out on the road with guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen.
The tour is billed as Hughes playing Deep Purple’s greatest hits as part of a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the band’s classic 1974 album, Burn, which reached number nine on the Billboard 200 Album chart.
The tour is set to kick off August 17 in Falls Church, Virginia, wrapping September 23 in Clearwater, Florida. A complete list of dates can be found at glennhughes.com.
Dead & Company kicks off their final tour next week, and if you haven’t been able to snag tickets, there’s no need to worry. You can still enjoy the shows from the comfort of your own home.
The band just announced they’re offering livestreams of all 29 concerts on the tour. Fans can purchase individual or multiple-night passes, in 4K and HD. There’s also an Unlimited Devotion livestream pass that gives fans access to all 29 concerts.
Those who purchase passes can watch each show live or on demand and can watch it as many times as they want for 48 hours.
Dead & Company kicks off their final tour with a two-night stand, May 19 and 20, at The Forum in Los Angeles. A complete list of dates can be found at deadandcompany.com.
There’s no doubt the demand for tickets to U2’s Las Vegas residency was huge. In fact, it was so great, the Irish rockers have just extended their stay yet again, adding eight more shows.
U2: UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere at The Venetian is set to kick off September 29 and will now consist of 25 shows. The new additions all take place in December – the 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 13, 15 and 16.
As for how to get tickets, members of U2’s fan club have first crack at requesting tickets. The rest will go on sale using Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan, with “a limited number” of those previously waitlisted having first access to the dates. They’ll find out if they’ve come off the waitlist on Wednesday, May 17. Then, a limited number of tickets will be sold through a general sale beginning Friday, May 19, at noon ET.
And speaking of the U2 residency, Billboard reports that construction on The Sphere has gone up $125 million, which means Madison Square Garden’s cost to build the new state-of-the-art venue has increased to $2.3 billion. That number is over $1 billion more than the original estimate to build the venue.
Eric Clapton is celebrating his friend, the late Jeff Beck, with the release of a new cover of the 1961 classic “Moon River,” along with an animated video in which they are both featured.
Longtime Clapton collaborator Simon Climie says he and Clapton recorded a version of the song in January 2022, noting it “was more of a ballad – and naturally the guitar and vocals were brilliant.” He adds, “When we were happy with the track, Eric asked me to send it over to Jeff. Jeff loved it. And soon after that in the spring of 2022, Jeff added his unmistakable guitar part. It knocked us off our feet.”
The tune is now out across all digital platforms. A double A-side 7-inch vinyl, which also features the new song “How Could We Know” featuring Judith Hill, Climie and Daniel Santiago, will be released July 14. It is available for preorder now.
The collaboration comes ahead of Clapton’s upcoming Jeff Beck tribute concerts, taking place May 22 and 23 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The shows, dubbed A Tribute to Jeff Beck by Eric Clapton & Friends, will feature special guests Ronnie Wood, Joe Perry, Rod Stewart, ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons and more.
The Rolling Stones released the double album Exile on Main St. on their own label Rolling Stone Records. The album went to number one in the U.S. and spent four weeks on the top of the charts.
Recorded mostly in a villa in the South of France, where the band had moved to escape paying U.K. taxes, the album featured such classics as “Happy,” featuring Keith Richards on vocals, “Tumbling Dice,” “Rocks Off,” “Rip This Joint,” “All Down the Line” and more.
Considered a classic album by the band, Exile on Main St. ranked at seven on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in both 2003 and 2012. In 2012 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
A remastered version of the record was released in 2010, featuring a bonus disc with 10 new tracks. It debuted at number one on the U.K. chart and number two in the U.S.
In celebrating the 51st anniversary of the album, guitarist Keith Richardsshared on Instagram, “If I see a copy of Exile hanging about, I nick it and play it,” adding, “I still love that record very much. I would say there is the best of the Stones in there – up till now.”
Queen is back with the latest installment in their weekly YouTube series Queen The Greatest Live, and this week they’re delving into what goes into creating a great set list for a show.
“Set lists are a very interesting case. You have all these songs and everything and what is the optimum way to put them across?” guitarist Brian May shares. “Do you just go in there and randomly work your way through where you can and that’s how everybody starts. But wouldn’t it be nice if you can take the audience on a journey and optimize the mood that happens?”
May adds that for Queen, their philosophy has always been to “come on big, give them what they’ve been waiting for.”
“They’re full of adrenaline. They want to rock hard, hard, hard,” he says. “So the first two or three songs hit them hard in different ways, different tempos, different kind of atmospheres, but all hard rock.”
After going hard out of the gate, Roger Taylor says it gives them the freedom to “meander all over the place with different styles of stuff,” including their infamous acoustic sets on a B-stage, before coming back and building up to a huge end with songs like “The Show Must Go On,” “Radio Gaga,” “We Will Rock You,” and “We Are the Champions.“
Notes Taylor, “I think we like to send our audiences home feeling they’ve had a real experience.”
The Police made their fans very happy when they reunited for a huge tour in 2007 and 2008. The tour wound up being the third highest-grossing tour at the time, which certainly makes reuniting an appealing idea for bands.
So, would Sting recommend other bands do it? “Once,” he tells the British publication Music Week with a laugh. “You should do it once and the timing should be right. When The Police reunited it had been long enough and it was the right time to do it. “
Sting takes full credit for the decision to reunite with his bandmates Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, but don’t expect it to ever happen again. “Doing it again would just be gratuitous and that won’t happen,” he says. “But we did it, and everyone was happy that mum and dad got back together again and had one last fling.”
While Sting says he and his bandmates “still love each other and respect each other,” he notes, “I’m happy not to be in a band.” He says they “didn’t even try” to make new music during the time of the reunion, noting “it was, what’s the word, nostalgia, with recreating that thing for a short time.”
At 71 some may wonder how much longer Sting plans to perform, but it doesn’t sound like he’s ready to slow down. He notes, “I’m not wearing a corset or anything. As long as I can get into my rock star pants, I’ll be fine.”
Next up for Sting, he’ll be honored as a Fellow of the Ivors Academy at the Ivor Awards on May 18 in London. He’ll then kick off a European tour in Bilbao, Spain, on June 1. A complete list of dates can be found at Sting.com.
Mötley Crüe will relaunch their stadium tour with Def Leppard later this month, and it sounds like they are loving having guitarist John 5 on the trek with them.
The former Rob Zombie guitarist replaced original Crüeguitarist Mick Mars, who is suing the band over his departure. According to frontman Vince Neil, the transition wasn’t all that hard.
“We have the honeymoon situation right now,” Vince told AXS TV during an interview promoting his new talent competition Banded. “We really love John. He was ready to play the set before we even hired him.”
He adds, “He knows all the Mötley Crüe songs. He knew everything down to the letter. So we didn’t have to do a lot of rehearsing for the stadium tour, because he was right there.”
Last month Mars sued Mötley Crüe, alleging his share of the band’s profits were decreased following his retirement from touring last October. He also accused the band of playing to prerecorded tapes during their Stadium tour. Mötley Crüe has denied the accusations.
Banded premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on AXS TV. Mötley Crüe’s European tour with Def Leppard kicks off May 22 in Sheffield, England. A complete list of dates can be found at motley.com.
