Classic Rock 93.9

Gene Simmons recently made headlines for sharing his opinion about hip-hop artists being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and caught some flack over using the word “ghetto.” He’s now defending himself against the backlash.

In the original interview with the Legends N Leaders podcast, the KISS rocker, who was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2015, said of hip-hop, “It’s not my music. I don’t come from the ghetto. It doesn’t speak my language.”

“And as I said in print many times, hip-hop does not belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, nor does opera, symphony orchestras,” he added. “How come the New York Philharmonic doesn’t get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Because it’s called the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”

After folks online dubbed Simmons’ use of the word ghetto racist, he defended himself, telling People, “I stand by my words.” 

“Let’s cut to the chase. The word ‘ghetto,’ it originated with Jews,” he continued. “It was borrowed by African Americans in particular and respectfully, not in a bad way.”

As for the suggestion that it’s a racist term, Simmons argued, “Ghetto is a Jewish term[.] … How could you be, when rock is Black music? It’s just a different Black music than hip-hop, which is also Black music.”

He added, “Rock ‘n’ roll owes everything to Black music, statement of fact, period. All the major forms of American music owe their roots to Black music.”

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Former Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese reflects on his departure from Foo Fighters in an interview with Modern Drummer.

Freese, who joined the Foos in 2023 following the 2022 death of Taylor Hawkins, revealed in May 2025 that he’d been let go from the group, noting, “No reason was given.”

“I have a couple small theories, but I can’t really go into them right now,” Freese tells Modern Drummer, according to Consequence. “I did really enjoy the two years I spent with those guys however, and they were good to me… until they weren’t.

Freese adds that he loved playing in a band fronted by a renowned drummer in Dave Grohl.

“It really was cool being in a band where the leader is a phenomenal drummer that you respect,” Freese says.

“I enjoyed being around those guys, they were generous and good to me… and that’s what makes the whole thing even more of a mystery,” he continues. “I think I’m a pretty good read on people, and I did not see that coming. One day it was nothing but laughs, we’re on stage and Dave’s looking at me every night like, ‘You’re killing it dude!!!’ And then it was just… over.”

After parting ways with Freese, the Foos recruited Ilan Rubin of Nine Inch Nails to be their new drummer. In a twist, Freese, who previously played with NIN between 2005 and 2008, rejoined NIN.

Freese has also been been playing shows with bands including A Perfect Circle and Weezer. All of which is to say that he’s definitely landed on his feet post-Foos.

“I feel like I’m back where I belong,” he says. “Trust me… no one should feel sorry for me.”

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Authorities in Seattle have confirmed that the case on the death of Kurt Cobain, which was ruled a suicide in 1994, remains closed.

“In the death examination for Kurt Cobain, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office worked with the local law enforcement agency, conducted a full autopsy, and followed all of its procedures in coming to the determination of the manner of death as a suicide,” the public health public information officer for Washington State’s King County says in a statement to ABC Audio. “We’re not able to provide specific details about what informed our conclusion, as the autopsy records are private under state law and can only be released by the next of kin.”

The statement comes after the U.K. tabloid The Daily Mail published a story on an independent, unofficial investigation claiming that the late Nirvana frontman was killed in a homicide. 

“Our office is always open to revisiting its conclusions if new evidence comes to light, but we’ve seen nothing to date that would warrant re-opening of this case and our previous determination of death,” the statement reads.

A statement from the Seattle Police Department adds, “Kurt Cobain died by suicide in 1994. This case is closed.”

If you are in crisis or know someone in crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or by visiting 988lifeline.org. You can also contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. 

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New York City is set to honor the legacy of rocker Jimi Hendrix. It was just announced that the city plans to co-name West 8th Street in Greenwich Village Jimi Hendrix Way.

The street is where Hendrix’s legendary Electric Lady Studios is located. Opened in August 1970, Electric Lady was the first commercial studio owned by an artist. Hendrix died just three weeks after its opening.

The naming is set to take place Feb. 24 at 11 a.m., and was the result of a campaign led by Experience Hendrix LLC President and CEO Janie Hendrix, NYC District 2 council member Harvey Epstein, and guitarist and writer Jeff Slate.

The naming ceremony will coincide with the launch of a new education partnership with E Street Band guitarist Stevie Van Zandt’s TeachRock, which uses music and pop culture to expand learning in schools. The partnership will result in the addition of a Hendrix curriculum for middle and high school students.

“Jimi Hendrix didn’t just play guitar—he reimagined what art could be,” says Van Zandt. “I want TeachRock to transport students into that same sense of possibility and discovery I felt the first time I saw Jimi perform. His story, lyrics, and sound remind young people that creativity has no limits.”

Janie Hendrix, Van Zandt and Epstein will attend the street naming ceremony, along with group of local TeachRock teachers and students. It will take place on the corner of 8th Street and 6th Avenue.

This isn’t the first time the street has been named after Hendrix. In 2024, the same street in Greenwich Village was temporarily renamed after the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer in connection with the release of the documentary Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision.

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The cast for Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles films just got bigger.

Sony has announced the latest additions to The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event, including The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power actress Morfydd [MOR-vith] Clark as John Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia Lennon, and Bohemian Rhapsody’s Lucy Boynton as Paul McCartney’s former girlfriend Jane Asher.

Also joining the cast is actor Farhan Akhtar, star of the Hindi-language film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, as musician Ravi Shankar, and Industry’s Harry Lawtey as the band’s original bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe.

The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event, opening in April 2028, will consist of four films, each told from the perspective of one of band members. It stars Paul Mescal as McCartney, Harris Dickinson as Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.

The cast also includes Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, Mia McKenna-Bruce as Ringo’s wife Maureen Starkey, Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono and Aimee Lou Wood as Harrison’s wife Pattie Boyd.

The Sony films will mark the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and The Beatles have granted a studio the rights to the life stories of band members and their legendary catalog of music.

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Foo Fighters have updated their website as they continue to tease new music.

If you head to FooFighters.com, you’ll be greeted with an image of a wall decorated with various Foo Fighters posters, some of which will play music if you click them.

In one clip, you can hear Dave Grohl sing, “Lately I don’t hear a sound,” while in another he sings, “Turn the cameras off.”

The Foos also posted the wall image to their Instagram alongside the caption, “Consider this an evaluation.”

The website update marks the third new music teaser from the Foos over the past week. Previous posts were captioned “This is just a test” and “Of a broken broadcast system.”

Foo Fighters released two new singles in 2025, “Today’s Song” and “Asking for a Friend.” The band’s most recent album is 2023’s But Here We Are.

In between, the Foos parted ways with drummer Josh Freese — who joined in 2023 following the 2022 death of Taylor Hawkins — and recruited Ilan Rubin, formerly of Nine Inch Nails.

Foo Fighters will launch a U.S. stadium tour in August.

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On This Day, Feb. 12, 2007 …

One day after reuniting for a performance at the 49th annual Grammy Awards, The Police held a press conference at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, where they confirmed rumors they would be reuniting for a world tour.

The band performed at the press conference, which was also billed as a rehearsal. They played such classic tunes as “Message in a Bottle,” “Roxanne,” “Can’t Stand Losing You” and more.

The tour would be The Police’s first tour together in over 20 years, and it marked the band’s 30th anniversary.

The reunion tour kicked off in Vancouver in May and featured four North American legs, as well as shows in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America.

It wrapped in August 2008 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

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Eddie Vedder has given an update on the status of Pearl Jam following the departure of drummer Matt Cameron in 2025.

Vedder tells Rolling Stone that he came across an article describing the “Even Flow” rocks as being “between eras at the moment,” which he thought “was actually pretty concise.”

As for any further details, Vedder says, “If I were to say anything, I think we’d wanna have a band discussion about what we’d wanna say or who would be the messenger or whatever.”

Still, Vedder assures that the Pearl Jam train continues to roll on.

“We’re in the lab, we’re woodshedding, excited,” Vedder says. “It’s cool to think of change. As much as we’d like to have done it the way we did it forever — and we’ll still be able to do that thing — I think we’re all just excited for the future.”

Cameron, who’d drummed in Pearl Jam for 27 years, announced he was leaving the band in July. He finished his final tour with Vedder and company in May in support of their latest album, 2024’s Dark Matter.

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These days it’s not uncommon for classic rock bands to be out on tour despite having no original members still in the band. In fact, this summer Foreigner and Lynyrd Skynyrd are co-headlining the Double Trouble Double Vision tour, despite neither band containing any original members.

New York Magazine explores the idea of these tours in the new article “When Is a Band Not the Same Band Anymore?” in which Foreigner co-founder Al Greenwood argues in favor of such bands continuing.

Greenwood notes that despite a lack of original members in the current touring iteration of Foreigner, the band’s co-founder Mick Jones is still heavily involved in selecting new members for a tour.

“They’re very respectful of the band’s sound,” he says of the new players. “They ask a lot of questions: ‘How did we do this? How did you play that? What sounds did you get?’ They want to get it right.”

He notes, “We call it the Foreigner family.”

Greenwood, like original frontman Lou Gramm, turns up for occasional shows and says that there’s a good reason to “pass the baton” to new musicians: “We’re in our mid-70s or early 80s, so it’s hard for us to go out anymore.”

“I hope it goes on forever,” he says of the Foreigner name. “Let’s face it: The music really stood the test of time.”

And Greenwood is so behind the idea that he says he’d even want to see Mick Jagger and Keith Richards replaced rather than The Rolling Stones being gone for good.

“They have to go on forever,” Greenwood says. “If they could find people who can fill those shoes, that would be incredible because the music is brilliant. I wouldn’t like to not be able to see that music being played.”

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Guns N’ Roses are headed down under.

The “Paradise City” rockers are set to headline the bp Adelaide Grand Final Concert Nov. 29 in Adelaide, Australia.

Tickets for the concert go on sale Feb. 16 at 9 a.m. local time.

The bp Adelaide Grand Final is Australia’s largest domestic ticketed motorsport event and runs Nov. 26-29.

The after-race concert is so far the only show Guns N’ Roses are scheduled to play in Australia in 2026. They do have a busy year ahead of them, though, with a Latin American tour kicking off March 28 in Monterrey, Mexico, followed by a European tour that begins June 3 in Gliwice, Poland.

They will then launch a U.S. tour on July 23 in Raleigh, North Carolina, which runs through Sept. 19 in Atlanta. 

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

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