Classic Rock 93.9

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks have shared another track from the upcoming reissue of their only studio album as a duo, 1973’s Buckingham Nicks.

The artists have released the tune “Don’t Let Me Down Again,” which was the first single off the record when it was originally released. It is now available via digital outlets.

Buckingham Nicks is being released Sept. 19, digitally, on CD and on vinyl, with newly remastered sound. This will mark the first-ever reissue of the album, which has been unavailable for decades.

Lindsey and Stevie’s career didn’t initially take off after the release of Buckingham Nicks. The album wasn’t a commercial success, but shortly after the release Mick Fleetwood heard a track from the album, which led to him inviting Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham insisted his then-girlfriend Nicks come with him, and the pair officially joined the band on New Year’s Eve 1974.

Buckingham Nicks is available for preorder now.

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President Donald Trump announced this year’s Kennedy Center Honorees Wednesday, with KISS among the artists being recognized.

Trump made the announcement during a press conference. “I Will Survive” singer Gloria Gaynor, actor Sylvester Stallone, Phantom of the Opera star Michael Crawford and country legend George Strait also make up the 49th class of Kennedy Center Honorees.

“They’re great people and they deserve it. They work hard, and they’re still working hard,” Trump said of KISS, noting the band has “something very special” planned for the annual ceremony, which will be held on Dec. 7. “We’re gonna have a good time.”

Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss formed KISS in New York City in 1973. They released their self-titled debut album in 1974 and have gone on to become one of the biggest-selling bands of all time, selling over 100 million records worldwide. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. 

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Elton John, reality competition host? Well, sort of.

Elton, his husband David Furnish and their pal Charlotte Tilbury, of the makeup line of the same name, are teaming up to host an online competition called Style Icon. Here’s how it works: Go to StyleIcon.org to submit your photo and a short application spotlighting your personal style. Then, share your profile and encourage friends, family and fans to vote.

The public will then vote for their favorite Style Icon, which will involve supporting the Elton John AIDS Foundation in some way — it’s not clear how at the moment. The stylish winner will get tickets to Versace’s show at Milan Fashion Week 2026, $20,000 and an exclusive feature in Flaunt magazine.

“You’ve got flair, and the world needs to see it,” says Elton in an Instagram post announcing the competition.

“If you’re a bold trendsetter who inspires the world with your signature style, join us in our search for the next style icon,” David says.

“But it’s more than glitz and glam,” Elton continues. “This competition is about using your voice and your platform for good.” 

“Through your participation, you are supporting lifesaving work,” notes David.

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David Byrne reunited with his Talking Heads bandmates in 2023 to promote the rerelease of their 1984 concert film, Stop Making Sense, but anyone holding out hope for a reunion tour will be disappointed.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Byrne says doing press for the movie together resulted in him and his bandmates – Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth – feeling “more comfortable with one another” but it won’t lead to anything else.

“I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, yeah, let’s go out on tour again.’ Or, ‘Let’s make another record,'” he says. “Musically, I’ve gone to a very different place. And I also felt like there’s been a fair number of reunion records and tours. And some of them were probably pretty good. Not very many.”

“It’s pretty much impossible to recapture where you were at that time in your life,” he adds. “For an audience … that was formative music for them at a particular time. They might persuade themselves that they can relive that, but you can’t.”

But Byrne says he can “totally understand” why fans want a Talking Heads reunion tour.

“I’m a music fan like other people,” he says, noting there are bands that have broken up that he’s missed.
 

“But you realize you can’t turn the clock back,” he says. “When you hear music at a certain point in your life, it means a lot. But it doesn’t mean you can go back there and make it happen again.”

Byrne is set to release a new solo album, Who is the Sky?, on Sept. 5 and just released another song from the record, “The Avant Garde,” to digital outlets.

He’s also hitting the road on a new tour that kicks off Sept. 14 in Providence, Rhode Island. A complete list of dates can be found at DavidByrne.com.

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Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde has recruited some of her famous friends for a new solo album, Duets Special, dropping Oct. 17.

The album features Chrissie collaborating with artists like Blondie’s Debbie Harry, The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, Garbage’s Shirley Manson, The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, the late Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan, k.d. lang, Lucinda Williams, Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, Julian Lennon and more.

Hynde is offering up the first preview of the record with the digital release of the classic “Always on My Mind,” featuring Rufus Wainwright.

“I never thought about doing a Duets album before. I think the idea came about in 2023,” Chrissie shares. “I was talking to Jörn (Weisbrodt), Rufus Wainwright’s husband, on the phone. I think we were recommending novels to each other, and for some reason, I said ‘Hey, maybe Rufus and I should do something,’ and quickly scribbled out 10 songs off the top of my head.”

She adds, “So Jörn asked Rufus, who was up for it, and that’s how it started. A spontaneous and what I thought would be a fun thing.”

Duets Special, Hynde’s fourth solo album and the first since 2021’s Standing in the Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan, will be released digitally, and on black vinyl and CD. It is available for preorder now.

Here is the track list for the album:

“Me & Mrs Jones” (feat. k.d. lang)
“Can’t Help Falling In Love” (feat. Mark Lanegan)
“Sway (feat. Lucinda Williams)
“Dolphins” (feat. Dave Gahan)
“First of the Gang to Die” (feat. Cat Power)
“Always on My Mind” (feat. Rufus Wainwright)
“Every Little Bit Hurts” (feat. Carleen Anderson)
“I’m Not in Love” (feat. Brandon Flowers)
“It’s Only Love (feat. Julian Lennon)
“Try to Sleep” (feat. Debbie Harry)
“County Line” (feat. Alan Sparhawk)
“Love Letters” (feat. Shirley Manson)
“(You’re My) Soul And Inspiration” (feat. Dan Auerbach)

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Ahead of the upcoming expanded edition release of Van Halen’s 1995 album, Balance, former members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony are reflecting on the record in a new video posted on YouTube.

In the clip, Hagar calls Balance “one of the darkest records lyrically I’ve ever done in my life.” He adds, “And a lot of it was just coming off of what was going on within the band. … Everyone’s life was going through changes on this record.”

Despite the turmoil, Sammy says Balance was a “great record,” and they both give credit to producer Bruce Fairbairn and engineer Mike Fraser. 

“Without those two guys, this record probably wouldn’t have got made and the band could have broke up right there,” Sammy says.

He joked, “Instead it waited for the tour.”

Balance was the band’s last studio album with Hagar and the last to feature Anthony on an entire album.

Both Hagar and Anthony also discussed some of the “great music” on Balance, including songs like “The Seventh Seal” and “Can’t Stop Loving You.”

As for the track “Don’t Tell Me What Love Can Do,” Hagar says it was “one of the most painful vocals I’ve ever done in my life. It makes ‘Dreams’ sound easy. But great lyric.”

“These are great songs,” Sammy concludes. “Great record. Great, great, dark record.”

Balance (Expanded Edition), dropping Friday, will be released as a two-LP/two-CD/Blu-Ray set featuring a remastered edition of the original album, along with audio and video rarities. The set will also include eight live performances from the band’s 1995 show at London’s Wembley Stadium. The Blu-ray includes restored promo videos along with a previously unreleased live clip of “The Seventh Seal,” shot in Minneapolis in 1995.

Balance (Expanded Edition) is available for preorder now.

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Robert Plant reveals in a new interview with Mojo that Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi invited him to participate in their Back to the Beginning farewell show, but declined the offer. The concert, in Birmingham, England, turned out to be Ozzy Osbourne’s final performance before his death.

“I said, Tony, I’d love to come, but I can’t come. I just can’t,” the former Led Zeppelin frontman says. “I don’t know anything about what’s going on in that world now, at all. I don’t decry it, I’ve got nothing against it. It’s just I found these other places that are so rich.”

Plant will release a new album with his acoustic band Saving Grace on Sept. 26, and they’ll head out on a U.S tour on Oct. 30. While they’ve been known to play Led Zeppelin tunes like “The Rain Song” and “Four Sticks” at their shows, Plant prefers to stay away from the bigger hits.

“What were the hits? How can they be related to now, where do they fit? They fit as a sort of memoir,” he says. “When people say that I don’t like ‘Stairway To Heaven,’ I just don’t like the idea of it. These iconic things – they’re just what they are.”

He adds, “But you know, most people have missed some of the best Zeppelin stuff. ‘For Your Life,’ on Presence. ‘Achilles Last Stand!’ F***** hell. Just extraordinary that three people and a singer can do that.”

The last time the surviving members of Led Zeppelin performed together was in 2007 in London at the tribute concert for record exec Ahmet Urtrgen. While Plant says that performance “came through,” he doesn’t expect it will ever happen again.

As for why, he says, “I suppose, to do it for the sake of it was never what Zeppelin was about.”

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Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, the sequel to 1984’s mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, is hitting theaters Sept. 12, but some fans will get a chance to see it a couple days early thanks to a very special IMAX screening.

Dubbed the On, Off, and Around the Record Live Event, the screening will include an exclusive Q&A with director Rob Reiner, in character as documentary filmmaker Marty DiBergi. He’ll be joined by Spinal Tap band members David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls aka Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, respectively.

The event will be held Sept. 10 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and will stream live in theaters across the country.

Tickets are on sale now.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues will follow the band as they reunite after 15 years for a final concert. It will feature cameos from Paul McCartney, Elton John, Garth Books, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich and more.

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In what’s perhaps the clearest indication that Billy Joel will be spending most of his time in Florida in the future, his motorcycle shop in Oyster Bay, Long Island, is closing down.

Newsday reports that 20th Century Cycles, which opened in 2010 and housed the Piano Man’s collection of more than 75 vintage motorcycles, will not be renewing its lease when it expires at the end of September. Billy will be auctioning the bike collection later in 2025, his publicist tells Newsday, due to his “recent medical issue.”

The store remains open on Saturdays and Sundays in August, and is currently selling off its collection of motorcycle parts. All the actual bikes, which were always free for the public to view, have been removed from the location.

When he first opened 20th Century Cycles, Billy told Newsday that he wanted to create a “focus point” for people “aimlessly riding around on weekends.” In 2023, part of the street where the shop is located was renamed Billy Joel Way.

Billy also has his nearby Long Island mansion on the market for just under $30 million, but told fans at his concert on Dec. 31, 2023, that he’s keeping his other home in the upscale village of Sag Harbor, Long Island. He added, “I’m just gonna spend a little more time in Florida, like old Jewish guys from Long Island do.”

In other Billy Joel news, his daughter Della Rose Joel turns 10 on Tuesday. A note on Instagram reads, “We are so proud of your sweet nature, empathy for others and endless love. You see everything through caring eyes. We could not ask for anything more. We all love you beyond measure. How did we get to 10 years already?”

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Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry is set to kick off his summer tour with his band The Joe Perry Project, and he’s just announced a last-minute lineup change.

The tour was supposed to feature Stone Temple Pilots’ Eric Kretz on drums, but in a post on Instagram, Perry revealed that Kretz is no longer able to participate in the tour “due to a family emergency.”

The post noted, “Longtime JPP drummer Jason Sutter will join the band for the immediate future and Eric looks forward to rejoining the tour as soon as he is able.”

The Joe Perry Project tour begins Wednesday in Tampa and wraps Aug. 23 in Port Chester, New York. They are also opening two dates on The Who‘s The Song Is Over North American Farewell Tour, Aug. 26 in Boston and Sept. 17 in Los Angeles.

Joining Perry on the road will be his Aerosmith bandmate Brad Whitford; Buck Johnson, who’s been part of Aerosmith’s touring band since 2014; The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson; and Stone Temple Pilots’ Robert DeLeo.

A complete list of dates can be found at JoePerry.com.

Perry formed The Joe Perry Project back in 1979 after his departure from Aerosmith. They released three albums before Perry returned to Aerosmith in 1984. He last toured as The Joe Perry Project in 2023.

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