Classic Rock 93.9

We are less than a month away from Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band kicking off their North American tour, and the band has taken their first steps toward getting ready. According to posts by E Street Band members Steven Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren, rehearsals for the trek started Monday.

“so it begins,” Nils tweeted along with a photo of his instruments. “Off to play in greatest band in the land. let’s rock.” He tagged The Boss in the post.

Little Steven also confirmed the rehearsal news. A fan asked, “can you give us an update on how rehearsals are going?” He joked, “So far they have been flawless perfection!” He added, “(We begin on Monday).”

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band’s tour, their first since 2016, kicks off February 1 in Tampa, Florida, with U.S. dates running through April 14 in Newark, New Jersey.

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Who can forget the classic cover of The Beatles’ 1969 album, Abbey Road, featuring the infamous photo of the band walking across the street? Well, apparently Sir Paul McCartney recently tried to recreate it — and it almost turned into a disaster.

While talking about her Abbey Road documentary If These Walls Could Sing, director Mary McCartney, Paul’s daughter, shared that her favorite part of shooting the film was when her dad walked across the iconic crosswalk again. But she says he almost got run over doing it.

“The bit where the car nearly ran him over on the zebra crossing, that was so funny,” she tells The Mirror. “As we were leaving [the studio], I said, ‘I’ll film you [on the crossing],’ and he went over and this car totally didn’t stop for him!” 

If These Walls Could Sing is currently streaming on Disney+.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Bret Michaels is getting ready to share some new music. The Poison frontman is set to drop the new single “Back in the Day,” described as “a feel good, road trip anthem song that will help you beat the winter blues,” on January 18. 

The song will be accompanied by a music video, which is described as “a modern day MTV throwback video to the early days of the music TV network,” featuring never-before-seen images and photos. Bret will also host a Facebook Live event where fans can ask him questions.

The new music comes ahead of Bret’s upcoming Parti-Gras tour, featuring Jefferson Starship and Night Ranger, along with special appearances by ex-Journey singer Steve Augeri and Sugar Ray‘s Mark McGrath. It’s set to kick off July 13 in Clarkston, Michigan.

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Iggy Pop may have “Lust for Life,” but he never had lust for a Grammy.

Speaking with Classic Rock magazine, the Godfather of Punk shares that he initially had no interest in receiving the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, with which he was honored in 2020.

“The Grammys kept wanting to talk to me on the phone and I kept telling my manager, ‘I don’t want to talk to them. I hate those people. They want me to be an exhibit in their museum or something,'” Pop explains.

Eventually, however, Iggy softened his stance when he heard more about the meaning of the award.

“When I finally spoke to the lady from the Grammys a couple of months later she said, ‘We’re giving you the lifetime achievement. Without you there’s no Lil Nas X and there’s no Billie Eilish,'” Pop recalls. “According to her, ‘You’re a direct link to the artists that are at the top of our awards list this year.’ So that’s what one person had to say, and I’ll take that for what it’s worth.”

Pop was previously nominated for two Grammys, once in 1989 and again in 2017. He may add to his total next year with his new album, Every Loser, which just dropped last Friday.

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As previously reported, Gov’t Mule was forced to postpone their New Year’s concerts due to a medical emergency in the band. It turns out it was Warren Haynes who suffered that emergency and now he’s giving fans an update on his health. 

In a post on Instagram, Haynes shared that he is “doing OK,” but that he had been hospitalized for the past week “due to some pretty serious complications from COVID and influenza.” He is home now.

“I’m very sorry Gov’t Mule couldn’t do our New Year’s Eve run,” he writes. “Trust me when I say we were actually really excited for these shows and the band was raring to go.” He also assured fans they would be rescheduled. 

But in some more bad news, Haynes let fans know that he will not be able to attend Gov’t Mule’s annual Island Exodus in Jamaica, which kicks off January 15, because doctors say he needs more time to recuperate.

The four-day festival will go on, however, and it’s added Anders Osborne, Jackie Greene, John Scofield, Robert Randolph, Audley Freed, Rob Barraco, Robert Kearns and Jeff Sipe to the lineup, which already includes special guests Jimmy Vivino and Ron Holloway, as well as Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience, Duane Betts, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country and Little Days.

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Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard will downsize from stadiums for an upcoming one-off show in Hollywood, Florida.

The two bands will co-headline the comparatively intimate Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on March 12. Tickets go on sale this Friday, January 13, at 10 a.m. ET.

Last year, Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard joined forces for the U.S. Stadium Tour, which became both groups’ highest-grossing tour. The outing is going international in 2023 with dates in Mexico, South America and Europe, and will return to the U.S. in August.

You can also see Def Crüe playing two arena shows in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in February.

As previously reported, Mötley Crüe will be playing this year without guitarist Mick Mars, who announced at the end of 2022 that he was retiring from touring. Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 will be filling in.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Smashing Pumpkins will headline the 2023 BottleRock Napa Valley festival, taking place May 26-28 in the wine country of Napa, California.

The bill also includes The National, Phantogram, Sheryl Crow, Bastille, Lucius, War, Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Struts, KennyHoopla, Beach Weather and The Unlikely Candidates. Post Malone, Lizzo, Duran Duran and Lil Nas X will headline, as well.

Tickets go on sale this Tuesday, January 10, at noon PT.

For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit BottleRockNapaValley.com.

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David Bowie’s classic album Aladdin Sane turns 50 this year, and the milestone will be marked with two special vinyl releases.

On April 14, just one week before the actual anniversary, a special limited-edition 50th anniversary half-speed mastered LP of Aladdin Sane is coming out, along with a picture disc LP, which will be pressed from the same master. The new release was cut by John Webber at AIR Studios from the restored masters of the original master tapes, with no additional processing.

Aladdin Sane, Bowie’s sixth studio album, was released April 30, 1973, just ten months after The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. It featured such songs as “The Jean Genie” and “Drive-In Saturday Night,” and marked Bowie’s debut on the U.S. album charts, landing in the Top 20. It is probably best known for its classic album cover, featuring a photo by Brian Duffy of Bowie donning his iconic red and blue lightning bolt makeup.

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Billy Idol was honored Friday with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He received the 2,743rd star, and the first of the year, in the category of Recording. His star is located on Hollywood Boulevard in front of Amoeba Records.

Henry Rollins was on hand to honor Idol, noting he “has rock n roll in his veins and punk rock in his DNA,” and adding, “That is to say, he is the real thing, and maybe that’s why we’re here today. Because decade after decade, he has remained himself, and it takes a lot of guts and a lot of integrity.” 

“It really is crazy to find myself getting an award like this, or being honored in this way,” Idol shared during the ceremony. “I mean, 47 years of doing this after I started in Generation X, and 35 years after coming here, I just really could never have imagined anything like this.” 

Idol said that punk rockers in the ’70s didn’t have “much hope or anything,” so with no future they were “going to do what we love,” adding, “I did the music because I loved it. It wasn’t for any other reason, really.” 

“Anyway, I didn’t really think doing this would last very long. We thought maybe six months, maybe a year, maybe two years,” he said. “I could never have imagined something like this. It’s just incredible.”

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Looks like Journey is no longer dealing with at least one court case. While Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain are still at odds, former frontman Steve Perry has decided to drop a lawsuit he filed over the band’s trademarks.

Perry filed his suit back in September, asking a court to stop Schon and Cain’s company, Freedom JN LLC, from using Journey song trademarks on merchandise, clothing and more. He argued the three of them agreed that any business decisions on the matter required unanimous consent from all of them and he hadn’t given his. He argued Cain and Schon committed “fraud on the trademark office” by applying to register the song names without informing the office of the true status of the ownership of the songs.

But based on a tweet by Schon, that legal battle is behind them. He shared the document showing Perry withdrew his lawsuit on Friday, and when asked if that’s indeed what happened he replied, “yes he did. Now we can talk as we were.” 

Schon had previously blamed Cain for Perry filing the lawsuit, and in his tweet the guitarist noted, “So much for [Cain] trying to throw me under the bus as he claimed I was blatantly trying to rip off [Perry] while collecting the checks for the very diligent work my wife and I did to protect our Merch.”

Meanwhile, Schon and Cain are getting to hit the road for the band’s Freedom tour kicking off February 4 in Allentown, PA. When asked by a fan how they can share a stage together with all their fighting, he responded, “We’ve written great music. Gregg Rolie will be there also. Channel the great music. Honor it.”

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