Graham Nash and Bruce Hornsby are the latest musicians added to The Music of Paul McCartney, the tribute concert taking place March 15 at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
The show is the latest in the series of annual charity concerts New York City entrepreneur Michael Dorf has been organizing since 2004. Each year focuses on the music of a single well-known artist, with previous tribute concerts focusing on artists like The Who, Van Morrison, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones.
Other artists on this year’s bill include Peter Asher, a member of the vocal duo Peter & Gordon and brother of McCartney’s former girlfriend Jane Asher, along with Lyle Lovett, Ingrid Michaelson, Glen Hansard, Allison Russell, soul singer Bettye Lavette and Lake Street Drive.
The concert will raise money for organizations that provide music education programs and opportunities for underserved youth. So far the concert series has raised over $1.5 million. Information on tickets can be found at musicof.org.
The Doors’ Robby Krieger and the late Ray Manzarek‘s estate are the latest artists to sell their music catalog, selling their interest in the legendary band’s catalog to Primary Wave Music. There’s no word on how much the deal was worth, but it includes The Doors’ recordings, trademarks, merchandise rights and income.
“After 58 years, and the most magical of times, I’ve decided to sell my share of The Doors to Primary Wave,” Krieger shares. “This will enable me to help the many charities I’ve been involved with, and some new ones too. I know Primary Wave cares about music, art, and about helping legacies go to even bigger levels.”
Manzarek’s widow, Dorothy,adds, “Ray and I spent a lot of time discussing the future of The Doors’ legacy, and how to handle things after he departed this plane. Our family has worked patiently to find the right partners to continue Ray’s lifelong efforts in protecting and promoting his art, and now we are happy to have finally come to an agreement with Primary Wave.”
Only the two members of The Doors have sold their interests to Primary Wave, though. The JimMorrison estate and drummer JohnDensmore still hold their interests in the band’s music and publishing.
James Taylor, Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo are among the stars headlining the seventh annual Love Rocks NYC benefit concert, scheduled for March 9 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
Other artists on the bill include Sheryl Crow, the John Mayer Trio, R&B legend Mavis Staples, alt-rocker St. Vincent, blues/rock singer/guitarist Gary Clark Jr., singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and Stephen Marley.
Stephen Colbert, Bravo’s Andy Cohen, Saturday Night Live legend Chevy Chase and comedian/actress Phoebe Robinson will also appear at the event.
The show is a benefit for God’s Love We Deliver, which delivers meals to New Yorkers who are unable to shop or cook for themselves. This year, the charity expects to deliver more than 3 million meals, which are provided free of charge.
Friday marked one year since rocker Meat Loaf passed away at age 74. His daughters, Amanda and Pearl Aday, are remembering their dad with the 35-minute film Meat Loaf: A Celebration of Life, which they made with filmmaker Jack Bennett.
“This is a celebration of Dad’s life and legacy, an acknowledgment of the man he was on and off the stage. Not just the performer but the boss, the mentor, the friend, the husband, the godfather, the grandpa ‘Papa Meat,’ and the father,” they write. “The dad who gave us love and generosity, who taught us and teased us. The dad who laughed and cried with us, who taught us how to catch a ball and ride a bicycle, who celebrated our victories and picked us up when we fell down.”
They added that the rocker “was a big kid himself,” noting he “taught us tenacity and the value of respect,” sharing, “Our Dad. The man we miss every day.”
“We are so grateful to share this retrospective with career highlights and private moments from our personal archives that haven’t been shared before,” they conclude. “We thank you for celebrating Dad, and we thank you for loving him with us.”
So far, Stevie Nicks has announced nine co-headlining stadium shows with Billy Joel for 2023, but now she’s added a bunch of solo dates to her touring calendar, as well.
The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer will do an additional 14 solo shows across the U.S., starting March 15 in Seattle. Right now, the dates are set to wrap up June 27 in Louisville, Kentucky.
That solo kickoff date will follow her first show with Billy March 10 in Inglewood, California. After Stevie’s solo dates are done, she has an additional five stadium shows with the Piano Man, scheduled through November. Of course, it’s always possible that she’ll extend the solo tour.
Tickets go on sale Friday, January 27, at 10 a.m. on livenation.com.
This will be Stevie’s first solo tour since her 24 Karat Gold trek, which wrapped up in 2017. From 2018 to 2019, she was touring with Fleetwood Mac. It was the band’s last tour prior to the 2022 death of Mac keyboardist, singer and songwriter Christine McVie.
David Crosby’s death last week reportedly came after a “long illness,” but it seems whatever illness he was dealing with didn’t stop him from making music. Friends tell Variety that not only was Crosby working on a new album, he was also planning a tour for this summer, and tickets were only days away from going on sale.
“David didn’t think he was gonna last for years, which he joked about all the time. But there was no sense that we weren’t gonna be able to do this show and these tours,” musician Steve Postell tells the mag. “We were talking tour buses, and what kind of venues, and the whole team was all back together again,” He adds, “There was not even a remote sense that we weren’t about ready to hit the world.”
Postell says he rehearsed with Crosby alone in Santa Barbara the week before he died, and Crosby was “giddy” about plans for the tour. Postell even talked to Crosby the day before his death to discuss a pair of planned shows in February in Santa Barbara. The next day, Postell texted with Crosby’s son, James Raymond, and found out Crosby had died.
As for the new album, singer Sarah Jorosz says she recorded background vocals for it, sharing, “He just wanted to create until the very end, and that was always my impression of him in our conversations.
She says Crosby’s death came as a “shock,” explaining, “I mean, every time we talked, he would call and I’d be like, ‘How are you doing?’ And he’d be like, ‘Well, I’m dying’ — but jokingly, with a laugh.”
Jorosz adds, “I wasn’t aware if there was a long illness. It was more just like the hard years of living, and being 81.”
A new Rush picture book is ready to hit shelves later this year. Portraits of Rush is being published by Rufus Publications and features photography from legendary music photographer Fin Costello.
Costello had total access to the band, with photos capturing the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers during the All The World’s A Stage Tour from 1976 to 1977, the Exit Stage Left tour in 1981 and the major tours in between. It features black-and-white photos of them as they traveled, rehearsed, played live and even recorded in the studio.
The 240-page book features an introduction by music journalist John Tucker, along with articles on the band from magazines during that period.
There are several editions of Portraits of Rush available, but quantities are limited, with only 666 numbered copies of the main edition available worldwide. There are also 50 leather and metal editions available, and 50 bundles featuring both versions.
The books are available for preorders now, and they’ll be shipped out sometime in May.
At her father’s iconic estate Graceland in Tennessee Sunday morning, friends and family members gathered for a memorial service to honor Lisa Marie Presley, who passed away at 54 on January 12.
Presley was laid to rest on Thursday next to her son, Benjamin Keough, in Graceland’s Meditation Garden.
Joel Weinshanker, film producer and managing partner of Elvis Presley Enterprises, opened the service by passing along Presley’s wishes for her own service: “Don’t make it sad.”
The former Mayor of Memphis, AC Wharton, explained, “Before Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan had Jack, before Goldie [Hawn] and Kurt [Russell] had Wyatt, before Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet had Zoe, before Jay Z and Beyonce had Blue Ivy, and long before Harry and Meghan had Archie, in this city, our own royal couple, Elvis and Priscilla had our own princess, Lisa Marie.”
He called her the “keeper of the flame,” and “this city’s precious jewel.”
Lisa Marie’s friend and former musical collaborator, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan took the stage, clad in a dark shirt and black suit to perform on an acoustic guitar, his song “To Sheila.”
Following the performance, Presley’s close friend Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, explained they called each other “Sissy,” calling it a “great honor” to celebrate this “extraordinary” woman. Ferguson added of Queen Elizabeth II, “My late mother-in-law used to say, ‘Nothing could take away these moments, because grief is the price we pay for love.'”
Alanis Morissette then took the stage in a long, black coat, and performed “Rest,” accompanied by a piano.
Priscilla Presley chose to let her granddaughter’s written words speak for her, reading a poem her granddaughter wrote, called “The Old Soul.” It touched on the heartbreak Presley endured when her son Benjamin took his own life in 2020. “…Survivor’s guilt some would say, but a broken heart was the doing of her death,” Priscilla said.
Axl Rose then addressed the assembled mourners next, commenting in part, “I feel like I’m supposed to be texting her like right now saying I’m here, telling her how wonderful everyone is. I never in a million years expected to be singing here, especially not in these circumstances.”
Rose went on to express how much Presley loved Baz Lurhmann‘s Elvis movie and Austin Butler‘s performance. “Lisa’s loved and missed by many, and will continue to be loved and missed by all those whose lives she touched,” Rose said, before performing the Guns N’ Roses song “November Rain” on piano.
The Blackwood Brothers Quartet then followed with “How Great Thou Art,” and Jason Clark and the Tennessee Mass Choir closed out the ceremony.
The battle over the Journey American Express card isn’t over. In new court documents filed in California, Jonathan Cain is accusing bandmate Neal Schon of charging over $1 million on the card, which is causing problems for the band.
“Schon’s use of the [shared] AMEX card for personal expenses created serious liquidity problems for the band as the AMEX balance had to be paid every month, and there were insufficient revenues to pay for other expenses as Schon saddled Journey with over $1 million of his personal expenses,” the court documents state.
And Cain specifically calls out just how Schon has been using that credit card, including spending over $100,000 on personal expenses in one billing cycle ending in January of last year, and $400,000 for the billing period ending March 16, which included $104,000 to a jewelry store and $31,000 to Bergdorf Goodman.
Plus, Cain argues that even when they put a $30,000 limit on Schon’s card, he still somehow spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses, like demanding a $5,000/night suite in Hawaii, when the maximum amount allocated was $1,500 a night. To add to that, he stayed a week longer than he should have.
As for Schon, his attorney tells BillboardCain’s claims are ridiculous and “as phony as a three dollar bill.”
As previously reported, last year Schon sued Cain over the company AmEx card, claiming Cain refused to allow him access to it. Cain countered the suit was just Schon’s way of covering up his “excessive spending and extravagant lifestyle.”
Regardless of all of this, Journey is set to kick off their 50th anniversary tour on February 5 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Anthrax is going to be without their drummer for a few shows. The band announced on Instagram that Charlie Benante is taking a break from their tour in order to have surgery.
“Our man who beats the beat – Charlie Benante – has stepped away from the tour for a few days to have a minor procedure done and will not be at the next few shows,” read a social media post from the band. “Never fear, the formidable Derek Roddy is filling in while Charlie is away – and no worries, Charlie will be back soon.”
They add, “In the meantime, the metal is still heavy and the show must go on. We’ll see you there!”
Anthrax’s next show is happening Friday in Vancouver, British Columbia, followed by a show Saturday in Penticton, British Columbia, and another Sunday in Calgary, Alberta.
