Billy Idol, The Cars’ Elliot Easton to play Above Ground benefit concert

September 30, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

Billy Idol and The Cars guitarist Elliot Easton are among the artists set to perform at the Above Ground benefit concert on Oct. 26 at The Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, California.

Other artists confirmed for this year’s show include Idol guitarist Steve Stevens, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor, Moby, Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, and former Foo Fighters and current Nine Inch Nails drummer Josh Freese, with a special guest appearance by rappers Cypress Hill. More artists are expected to be announced.

This year’s show was originally supposed to take place in January but was postponed due to the California wildfires. The concert will feature the artists performing songs off the self-titled debut albums from the New York Dolls and The Cars.

The yearly concert is put on by Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro and guitarist Billy Morrison‘s Above Ground organization, which they founded in 2018. The concert raises money for MusiCares in support of mental health awareness and suicide prevention.

Tickets for the concert are on sale now.

Def Leppard to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

September 30, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

The members of Def Leppard are the latest rock stars to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The band will receive their star in the category of Recording at a ceremony on Oct. 9 in front of the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles.

Rocker Jon Bon Jovi and Universal Music President and CEO Bruce Resnikoff will be hand to speak at the ceremony, which will stream on the Hollywood Walk of Fame’s website.

Def Leppard will be honored with the 2,825th star on the Walk of Fame.

After a busy 2025, Def Leppard has one more show on their touring schedule. They’ll play Gary, Indiana, on Oct. 11. In 2026, they are booked to play a residency at The Colosseum in Las Vegas starting in February, and will follow that with a tour of Europe and the U.K. starting in June.

A complete list of tour dates can be found at defleppard.com.

Styx adds new Florida shows to 2026 schedule

September 30, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

Styx has announced some new tour dates for 2026.

The band is set to play six shows in Florida, with dates kicking off Feb. 22 in Pompano Beach. They’ll also play Orlando, Estero and Clearwater, before wrapping their Sunshine State stint on Feb. 28 in St. Augustine.

Tickets for all shows are on sale now.

The Florida dates will follow the band’s already announced 2026 residency at The Venetian Theatre inside The Venetian Resort Las Vegas. The five-show stint, where they’ll be playing their 1978 album, Pieces of Eight, in its entirety, begins Jan 23.

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

And speaking of Florida … Styx’s three-day Florida festival, Rockin’ In Paradise with Styx + Friends, is set to launch Oct. 9 in Miramar Beach. The “friends” in the lineup include Cheap Trick, Loverboy, 38 Special, Collective Soul, John Waite and Edwin McCain.

James Taylor to make his Grand Ole Opry debut

September 30, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer James Taylor is set to make his Grand Ole Opry debut on Nov. 11 in Nashville.

“The Opry has been built over the last 100 years in large part by songwriters and storytellers,” Opry executive producer Dan Rogers says. “To have one of the very best ever with us to celebrate 100 years is amazing to so many of us.”

While Taylor may not be a country star, he has collaborated with several of them over the years, including Chris Stapleton, and Opry members Vince Gill and Alison Krauss. His collaboration with Krauss on the song “How’s the World Treating You?” earned Taylor a Grammy for best country collaboration of the year.

The “Sweet Baby James” singer’s appearance is part of the Opry’s ongoing 100th anniversary celebration. He will be joined by Gill and Opry member Emmylou Harris.

More info can be found at opry.com.

On This Day, Sept. 30, 1982: Bruce Springsteen releases ‘Nebraska’

September 30, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

On This Day, Sept. 30, 1982 …

Bruce Springsteen released the solo album Nebraska.

The album featured 10 acoustic songs Springsteen originally recorded as demos on a four-track recorder. He’d planned to rerecord them with the E Street Band but instead released them as a solo acoustic record.

The album was a critical darling and peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200 chart, with the album’s biggest hit being “Atlantic City,” which reached #10.

Some of the songs on the demo that didn’t make it on Nebraska were later rerecorded with the band and wound up on Springsteen’s multi-Platinum #1 record, Born in the U.S.A.

The film Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, an adaptation of Warren Zanes‘ 2023 book about the making of the album, is set to open Oct. 24 starring The Bear star Jeremy Allen White as The Boss.

Springsteen is also releasing an expanded box set dedicated to the album. Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition drops Oct. 17.

Paul McCartney kicks off 2025 North American leg of Got Back tour

September 30, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

Paul McCartney officially kicked off his 2025 North American Got Back tour at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California, Monday night. He treated the crowd to a set filled with Beatles and Wings classics, as well as his solo material.

According to setlist.fm, Sir Paul kicked off his 35-song set with The Beatles’ “Help,” only the second time he’s played the tune since 1990.

Other Beatles songs in the set include classics like “Got to Get You Into My Life,” “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Blackbird,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “Get Back,” “Let It Be,” “Hey Jude,” “Love Me Do” and “Helter Skelter,” as well as the band’s latest hit, “Now and Then.” He also played The Quarrymen tune “In Spite of All the Danger.”

Among the solo tracks performed were “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “My Valentine” and “Coming Up,” while Wings was represented with such songs as “Live and Let Die,” “Band on the Run” and “Jet.”

Next up, McCartney brings his tour to Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on Saturday. A complete list of tour dates can be found at PaulMcCartney.com.

Watch trailer for BBC’s Ozzy Osbourne documentary, ‘Coming Home’

September 30, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

The BBC has shared a new trailer for its Ozzy Osbourne documentary, Coming Home.

The clip features footage of Ozzy’s home life with his wife, Sharon Osbourne, as they prepare to move back to England after years living in Los Angeles.

“What are you most looking forward to?” Sharon asks Ozzy, to which he responds, “Doing absolutely nothing.”

Coming Home was originally conceived in 2022 as a series called Home to Roost before being reworked into a standalone documentary. The BBC first scheduled the Coming Home premiere for Aug. 18, a month after Ozzy’s death on July 22, but it was postponed at the last minute, citing the “family’s wishes.”

Coming Home is now set to air on Thursday.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

Jeremy Allen White on finding a ‘tether’ to Bruce Springsteen

September 30, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

Jeremy Allen White stars as Bruce Springsteen in the new film Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, and The Bear star says he felt an early connection to the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.

On the red carpet for the New York Film Festival premiere of the movie, White told People that in talking to Springsteen about why they were making a film about this period of his life, The Boss was “so honest” and revealed something about what he was going through at the time that White could relate to.

“He talked to me about a panic attack he’d had, and he described it to me as in this moment he felt like he was like a voyeur in his own life,” White said. “He was an observer. He felt so outside of himself, and he told me that story, and that’s a feeling I’m familiar with.”

He added, “I think I’m always trying to find some presence in my own life, and I worked very hard at it every day. And when he told me that story and made me familiar with that feeling, I knew there was a tether that I could explore there.”

In other Deliver Me From Nowhere news … A new behind-the-scenes video of the making of the film has just been released. It includes footage of White as Springsteen shooting scenes in a studio, recording the Nebraska track “Atlantic City” and more. It also shows Springsteen on set.

Asked what he hopes moviegoers will take away from the film, White shares, “I hope people come away with the same thing people come away from his music, which is hope.”

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere opens in theaters and IMAX on Oct. 24. Tickets are on sale now.

Vancouver man returns unreleased Beatles demo to Paul McCartney

September 29, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

There’s no doubt Beatles memorabilia is worth a lot of money these days, but one man in Vancouver got something no money can buy when he discovered an unreleased demo recorded in 1962 by the Fab Four.

Rob Frith discovered the reel-to-reel tape The Beatles made for Decca records in March, and the Vancouver Sun reports that after news of the discovery hit the press he received a call from McCartney’s lawyer. That led to a Sept. 18 meeting between Frith and McCartney, where Frith returned the tape to the rock star.

“We hung out with him for like, 40 minutes,” said Frith, owner of the Vancouver collectors store Neptoon Records. “He’s an absolute sweetheart of a guy. If you’re a Beatles fan and you thought he was a really cool person, he was even nicer than you could imagine, just such a down-to-earth, nice, sweet guy.”

The meeting took place in Los Angeles, where McCartney was rehearsing for his upcoming Got Back tour. McCartney wound up inviting Frith and his family to check out rehearsal, where they also had lunch.

Frith says McCartney kept telling him how “wonderful” it was he just gave him the tape, but Firth says getting to meet McCartney was worth more to him than anything he could have made off the tape.

“I told Paul, ‘You changed my life as far as music. Basically, that’s why I have a record store, because of the influence from you guys,'” he told the paper.

McCartney kicks off his Got Back tour on Monday in Palm Desert, California. On Friday, he played a warm-up show in Santa Barbara, where, according to setlist.fm, he opened the show with The Beatles track “Help!” It marked his first performance of the tune since 1990.

E Street Band’s Stevie Van Zandt praises ‘stunning’ ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’

September 29, 2025 by Classic Rock 93.9

While the Bruce Springsteen movie Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere doesn’t hit theaters until Oct. 24, it is already receiving high praise from one of The Boss’ bandmates.

E Street Band guitarist Stevie Van Zandt attended the New York Film Festival premiere of the movie on Sunday and shared his thoughts on the film on X. He calls it a “stunning, meditative, masterful work of art.”

“No one is expecting this. In the modern world of AI, Green Screens, Comic Books, and Video Games, this work stands alone,” he adds. “If filmmaking still matters at the Academy, this should win everything.”

He ends the post, “Let’s hope this brings back the era when greatness WAS commercial.”

And Van Zandt’s wife, Maureen Van Zandt, agrees with her hubby’s assessment.

“This is a beautiful, profoundly moving film with a spectacular cast,” she writes on X. “Brought to tears both times we’ve seen it. Bravo to Bruce and all involved.”

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere opens in theaters and IMAX on Oct. 24. Tickets are on sale now.

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