Classic Rock 93.9

Yes, your suspicious are correct: Iggy Pop is, indeed, very cool.

Don’t take our word for it, just ask Andrew Watt, who produced the Godfather of Punk’s new album, Every Loser.

“He’s so cool and laid back,” Watt tells ABC Audio of Iggy.

In working with the “Lust for Life” rocker, Watt would send music ideas to Pop, who would then return with feedback.

“It was just, like, ‘OK, I’m just gonna make music and I’ll send you stuff, and the stuff you like that inspires songs, great!'” Watt explains. “‘And if you don’t like it, tell me if you don’t like it and point me in a direction. But I’m just gonna kinda go.'”

All in all, producing Every Loser was a “quite painless” process.

“If [Pop] felt he needed something to go longer or shorter, he’d tell us,” Watt says. “He wrote the toplines 100 percent himself.”

Every Loser is out now. It includes contributions from Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns N’ Roses‘ Duff McKagan, Blink-182‘s Travis Barker, Dave Navarro and Eric Avery of Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam‘s Stone Gossard, ex-RHCP guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

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A new book of writings by the late Lou Reed is due out later this year, but it won’t be giving insight into his music. Instead, it will focus on one of his other interests — tai chi.

Reed began practicing the Chinese meditative movements in the ’80s. The new book The Art of the Straight Line: My Tai Chi, being published by HarperOne, is described as “a comprehensive collection of Reed’s writings on Tai Chi.”

Edited by his wife, musician Laurie Anderson, along with Stephan Berwick, Bob Currie and Scott Richman, the book includes conversations Reed had with a variety of people, including Iggy Pop, the late music producer Hal Willner, artist Julian Schnabel and some tai chi practitioners.

The unpublished writings in the book cover such subjects as the “technique, practice and purpose of martial arts,” and has Reed sharing his thoughts and observations on meditation and life. 

The Art of the Straight Line: My Tai Chi is due out March 14.

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As previously reported, Ian Gillan’s wife, Bron, passed away in November at the age of 67, and now the Deep Purple rocker has shared a tribute to her on his personal website.

“My darling wife, Bron, died of heart failure on Saturday 19 November, 2022, in Exeter Hospital,” he writes. “It’s taken some weeks until I could find the words to dignify her publicly. Publicly, because our life together, (forty. wonderful, happy years), was mainly private.” 

He adds, “But, I don’t think she’d mind if I said out loud that ‘I love you my sweet B, we are forever entwined. The wrench of bereavement is softened by your continued presence. Thank you for your love and guidance. See you later.’” 

Gillan also shares that Bron was “was funny, beautiful, intelligent and strongly supportive to me and our daughter Grace, in our work,” adding, she “made a wonderful happy place for me and Grace, to come home to.”

As for the upcoming year, Gillan offers, “I’m getting my head together for the year of work ahead, for which I’m grateful (it helps) and excited. We are getting around a bit in this coming year, so I hope to see as many as possible of your smiling faces on the road, or in a bar somewhere.”

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Netflix’s latest Knives Out film, Glass Onion, is sparking some renewed interest in The Beatles classic of the same name. Billboard reports that the White Album track, which plays over the credits of the hit flick Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, has seen a streaming bump since the film debuted on the streamer December 23. 

During the week of December 23 to 29, The Beatles’ “Glass Onion” was streamed 160,000 times, up from 60,000 the previous week, an increase of 167%. 

And that’s not the only song to get some help from the movie. David Bowie’s “Star,” which plays during a Kate Hudson dance sequence, saw a 60% increase, while the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” which is also in the flick, saw a 37% streaming increase.

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Robert Plant admits it wasn’t easy to go on with his career after the end of Led Zeppelin, but credits his friends, including Phil Collins, with helping him move on. 

“After [Led Zeppelin drummer] John [Bonham] passed away and there was no Led Zeppelin, there had to be a way to go,” Plant shares in a new interview with Vulture. “I floundered around a lot because until I was 32, I was in some kind of wild and absurd adventure.” 

Plant says Led Zeppelin was “a lot to live up to.” As he struggled with his first solo album, 1982’s Pictures at Eleven, there were a lot of friends who gave him “support and strength,” including Collins, who appeared on five of the album’s tracks. 

“Phil Collins especially was a driving force and had positive energy with the first record,” he says. “With Phil, it wasn’t so much advice as encouragement and consideration. He was taking no prisoners. He would only allow himself a short amount of time to come to the studio in Wales and make it work. Nobody was hiding behind the performance.”

Collins actually went on tour with Plant, telling the rocker he wanted to help because of his admiration for Bonham, who was his hero. Plant notes, “That was it. He said, ‘Anything I can do to help you to get back into fighting shape again, I’m here.’”

As this was all happening, Collins was dealing with his own successful solo career, with the 1981 single “In The Air Tonight.” Plant notes, “Yet he was still mixing and working with me while kicking off a particularly impressive and successful time. He’s a great spirit, a good man.”

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Neal Schon appears to be asserting his dominance when it comes to his band Journey. Despite his ongoing legal battles with bandmate Jonathan Cain, the guitarist insists in a recent tweet that he “won’t take orders” about the band from anyone.

“No one is going to dictate to me at this point what I can and cannot do in regards to JOURNEY,” Schon tweeted. “I haven’t been here and not here to take orders- never have and never will. It’s my band and I’ll own it as I should and make the right changes as needed.”

The post prompted one fan to ask him who was trying to “dictate” to him, with Schon responding, “Have a guess,” an indication he was talking about Cain. He also posted an image that read “narcissists act out with frustration, sulking, resentment and rage when things don’t go their way.”

As previously reported, Schon and Cain have been in the news a lot lately because of their legal battles. The most recent incident had Schon sending a cease-and-desist letter to Cain over a performance of “Don’t Stop Believin’” at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

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Rolling Stone’s list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time has caused a lot of controversy since its release this week, and Gene Simmons has something to say about it.

A TMZ reporter asked the KISS frontman how he felt about being left off the list, to which he replied, “Well, that’s OK,” joking, “I was thinking of buying Rolling Stone.”

“Well, it’s skewed. You have to consider who’s popular and who’s not,” Simmons elaborated. “But if you really think about it, how good somebody sings may be part and parcel of what they do. For instance, if Jimi Hendrix, who had a long, well, actually, a short career, but he was very famous, would he make it on American Idol? How about Bob Dylan … And I wrote songs with Bob Dylan; I know the guy. Would he make it on American Idol?”

He also added, “How well you sing is not the most important thing. It’s, do you have style? Do you have a fingerprint that says, ‘I know that voice immediately’?”

Simmons insists artists shouldn’t really care about the list. “If you’ve got success, that’s enough,” he says. “Accolades and all that, you get that when you do a concert or when fans come up. That’s the best thing. To be on a poll by a magazine by people in the backroom, I don’t know how much that means.” 

And Simmons also shared his thoughts on Ozzy Osbourne making the list at #112: “That’s a crime.”

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The Eagles aren’t ready to stop their Hotel California tour. The band just announced six new 2023 dates for the trek, beginning March 25 in Jacksonville, Florida, and running through April 7 in Newark, New Jersey.

The Hotel California tour, which the Eagles launched in 2019, has the band playing their classic 1976 album in its entirety, backed by an orchestra and choir. In addition to the album, the band also treats fans to a set of greatest hits. 

Tickets for the new shows go on sale January 13 at 10 a.m. local time. Check out a complete list of 2023 Hotel California dates here.

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Iron Maiden is set to receive quite a unique honor. The heavy metal icons will be the subject of a new collection of stamps to be released by the Royal Mail.

The collection will feature 12 stamps: eight with pictures from their world tours, ranging from 1980 to 2018 and featuring the current members of the group, and four with their mascot, Eddie.

Founding bassist Steve Harris says the stamps “look superb,” noting, “I think they really capture the essence and energy of Maiden. We’re all very proud that Royal Mail has chosen to honor the band’s legacy like this and we know our fans will feel the same way.”

Iron Maiden is the fifth group to be honored with a stamp collection from the Royal Mail, joining The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen and The Rolling Stones.

Fans can preorder the Iron Maiden stamps starting Thursday. They will be available starting January 12.

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Blondie’s Debbie Harry has lent her vocals to a star-studded new single, to be featured in the upcoming movie 80 for Brady. The tune “Gonna Be You,” dropping January 20, was written by legendary songwriter Diane Warren and also features Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan, The Go-Go‘s Belinda Carlisle and Dolly Parton.

80 for Brady is based on the true story of four best friends who traveled to the Super Bowl in 2017 to see then-New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady play. And the stars of the film are just as impressive as the lineup for the song: Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Sally Field and Rita Moreno. Brady also appears in the film, which arrives in theaters February 3. 

“I wanted to write a song that celebrated these women’s deep friendship,” Diane says in a statement. “Since 80 was in the title I got a crazy idea, why not get some of the most iconic singers from the 80s, who are still amazing and always will be, to all sing it?!!!!” 

She adds, “I’m honored to have Dolly Parton, Belinda Carlisle, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan and Debbie Harry on this song!! ‘Gonna Be You’ is that song you want to sing along to with all your good friends!!!”

The song is available for preorder/presave now.

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