Classic Rock 93.9

Poison frontman Bret Michaels, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a child, is voicing his support for the Affordable Insulin Now Act, legislation that would put a $35 cap on insulin prices for people with private healthcare plans and Medicare Part D plans.

The Affordable Insulin Now Act was passed by the House of Representatives on March 31, and the legislation is in front of the Senate.

Michaels is encouraging his fans and friends to urge government officials to vote in favor of the act.

“All diabetics deserve a fighting chance to afford insulin,” says Michaels in a statement. “With rising costs for insulin in America skyrocketing, it puts treatments out of reach for many. And, it forces them to make a difficult decision when finances become tighter to decide if they can either ration medication doses or go without it. No one with diabetes should ever go without the opportunity for treatment.”

The 59-year-old rocker has long been involved in raising awareness about the challenges faced by people with diabetes, and the issue is a main focus of his Life Rocks charitable foundation.

“Putting the needs of diabetic children and adults has always been at the forefront of the Life Rocks Foundation,” Bret notes, “and I offer my full support for this bill which will bring costs down for those in need.”

Michaels currently is touring the U.S. on his Nothing but a Good Vibe trek, and in June he and Poison will hit the road on The Stadium Tour, the massive stateside outing that also will feature Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts.

While on tour, Bret meets with other diabetics at every stop to share their experiences, lend support and advocate for helping those with the chronic condition.

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Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Van Halen‘s fifth studio album, Diver Down.

Diver Down became the group’s highest-charting album up to that time, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200. It’s gone on to sell more than 4 million copies in the U.S.

The 12-track collection features five cover tunes, including versions of Roy Orbison‘s chart-topping 1964 smash “(Oh) Pretty Woman,” Martha and the Vandellas‘ 1964 hit “Dancing in the Street,” The Kinks‘ 1965 gem “Where Have All the Good Times Gone,” and Roy Rogers and Dale Evans‘ country classic “Happy Trails.”

Van Halen’s rendition of “(Oh) Pretty Woman,” which was first released as a standalone single three months before Diver Down came out, became the band’s second top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching #12. “Dance the Night Away” had ascended to #15 on the chart in 1979.

The band’s cover of “Dancing in the Street” also was a Hot 100 hit, peaking at #38.

Perhaps the most interesting song on Diver Down was the band’s rendition of “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now),” an old-timey pop-jazz tune dating back to the 1920s. Van Halen’s recording features none other than Jan Van Halen, Eddie and Alex Van Halen‘s father, playing clarinet throughout the entire track.

Jan had been a professional musician when he was younger, and he passed on his passion for music to his two sons. Sadly, Jan retired from music after losing a finger in an accident in 1972. It was frontman David Lee Roth who suggested that the band cover “Big Bad Bill,” and that they ask Jan to play on the tune. It marked the first time that Jan had played the clarinet since his accident.

Here’s Diver Down‘s full track list:

“Where Have All the Good Times Gone”
“Hang ‘Em High”
“Cathedral” (instrumental)
“Secrets”
“Intruder” (instrumental)
“(Oh) Pretty Woman”
“Dancing in the Street”
“Little Guitars (Intro)” (instrumental)
“Little Guitars”
“Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)”
“The Full Bug”
“Happy Trails”

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Queen guitarist Brian May has launched a new YouTube series to promote the reissue of his second solo album, 1998’s Another World, which will be released in multiple formats and configurations on April 22.

The first episode of the new series, which premiered Wednesday, features May sharing his recollections of the Another World cover photo, which features Brian positioned next to a twisted juniper tree located on El Hierro in the Canary Islands.

In the episode, titled “Another World: Back to the Tree,” May explains how he first saw a black-and-white photo of the historic tree — which is located in the town of El Sabinar — in a newspaper and was fascinated by it.

Brian notes that he was going though a hard time emotionally back then, and remembers that something about the tree inspired him to visit it.

“This tree [was] living in very adverse circumstances. It’s trying to grow in a place where there’s constantly a driving wind off the oceans, saltwater wind, and it’s still managing to survive,” he says in the video. “How has it survived? By adapting. I thought, I want to visit that tree. So, I found it in a travel magazine…On an impulse…I thought, ‘OK, we have to go there.'”

Brian then shares the story of the photo shoot, explaining how he tried to position his body to resemble the tree. For the YouTube series, May returned to El Hierro in March to see the tree today.

New episodes of the Another World YouTube series will debut weekly through mid-May.

As previously reported, the Another World reissue can be pre-ordered now and will be available on CD, cassette, vinyl and digital formats, and as a deluxe box set, two-CD set and limited-edition vinyl picture disc.

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Fans of ’80s pop rock have a treat in store this summer, as Men at Work, Rick Springfield and John Waite will be hitting the road together for an 18-city U.S. tour.

The cross-country trek gets underway August 5 in St. Augustine, Florida, and is mapped out through a September 3 concert in Las Vegas.

The tour will celebrate the 40th anniversaries of Men at Work’s chart-topping debut album Business as Usual and Springfield’s RIAA-Platinum-certified Working Class Dog.

To check out a full list of shows and to purchase tickets, visit ColinHay.com/MenatWork.

The trek with Springfield and Waite as just part of what’s shaping up to be an extremely busy year for Men at Work frontman Colin Hay. He’s currently playing a series of U.S. headlining shows in support of his recently released solo album, Now and the Evermore, that’s scheduled through a May 12 performance in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Then, starting June 2 in Boston, Colin heads out on tour as a member of Ringo Starr‘s All Starr Band. That trek’s first leg currently is plotted out through a June 26 performance in Clearwater, Florida, while a just-announced second leg is scheduled from a September 23 concert in Bridgeport, Connecticut, through an October 19-20 stand in Mexico City.

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If the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album has you itching to shred yourself, Fender is here to help.

The famed guitar company has announced the addition of Chili Peppers songs to its Fender Play guitar instruction app, which allows users of all levels to play along to hits from some of the biggest names in rock.

Among the RHCP tunes now available in Fender Play include “Suck My Kiss,” “Under the Bridge,” “Californication,” “Scar Tissue” and “Can’t Stop,” as well as “Black Summer,” the lead single off the aforementioned new album, Unlimited Love.

For more info, visit Fender.com/play.

Judging by its first week of sales, a whole lot of people have been jamming along to Unlimited Love. The record debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with the best sales week for any rock album since Paul McCartney‘s 2020 solo effort, McCartney III.

“Black Summer,” meanwhile, is the number-one song on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, and number two on Mainstream Rock Airplay.

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The Rolling Stones will release a restored and remastered concert film and album titled Licked Live in NYC on June 10 that captures a January 2003 show the British rock legends played at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden.

The release will be available in several formats and configurations, including as a DVD/two-CD set, an SD (standard-definition) Blu-ray/two-CD set, and as a standalone two-CD package and a three-LP vinyl set.

The Madison Square Garden performance took place during the band’s 40th anniversary Licks World Tour, and featured The Stones playing a deep set that included classics from throughout their decades-long career. Sheryl Crow joined the band for a rendition of “Honky Tonk Women.”

The film of the concert originally premiered in 2003 as an HBO special, and also was featured on the multiple-disc Four Flicks DVD set that was issued that same year.

The Licked Live in NYC DVD and Blu-ray include four previously unreleased songs from the Madison Square Garden show, as well as three bonus performances from a concert that the band played in Amsterdam during the Licks trek, and footage from the group’s tour rehearsals in Toronto.

The CDs and LPs also feature the four unreleased tunes from the MSG concert.

Meanwhile, the SD Blu-ray also features a 51-minute documentary titled Tip of the Tongue that offers a look at the conception and preparation of the Licks tour, which saw The Rolling Stones playing at three different-sized venues at each metropolitan area they visited.

Licked Live in NYC can be pre-ordered now.

Here’s the release’s track list:

Intro
“Street Fighting Man”
“Start Me Up”*
“If You Can’t Rock Me”
“Don’t Stop”
“Monkey Man”
“Angie”
“Let It Bleed”
“Midnight Rambler”
“Tumbling Dice”*
“Thru and Thru”
“Happy”
“Gimme Shelter”*
“You Got Me Rocking”
“Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
“Honky Tonk Women” — with Sheryl Crow
“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
“It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It)”
“When the Whip Comes Down”
“Brown Sugar”
“Sympathy for the Devil”*
“Jumpin’ Jack Flash”

Bonus Content
Live in Amsterdam (DVD and SD Blu-ray only)
“Star Star”
“I Just Want to Make Love to You”
“Street Fighting Man”

Rehearsals (DVD and SD Blu-ray only)
“Well Well”
“Extreme Western Grip”

SD Blu-ray only
—Tip of the Tongue documentary
—Tip of the Tongue – Boston backstage

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Ringo Starr‘s All Starr Band has unveiled dates for a second North American tour leg this year.

The newly announced series of shows, which includes 19 dates, begins on September 23 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and runs through an October 19-20 engagement in Mexico City. After the kickoff show, the outing will stop in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and then work its way across Canada, with concerts in Michigan and Minnesota along the way.

Once on the West Coast, the trek will proceed to visit venues in Washington, Oregon, and California, wrapping up the U.S. portion on October 16 at Los Angeles’ famed Greek Theatre.

As previously reported, the first leg of the All Starr Band’s upcoming tour begins with a May 27-28 stand in Rama, Canada, and runs through a June 26 show in Clearwater, Florida. The 2022 trek is made up mostly of dates that were postponed from 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is so great to finally announce all these shows we had planned for 2020, and I am really looking forward to playing them!” Ringo says. “How great to start at Casino Rama [in Rama, Canada], where we’ve begun 5 All Starr tours, and then to go back to [New York City’s] Beacon [Theatre], and to the Greek, which was the last show we played in 2019 on our 30th Anniversary tour. I can’t wait to see all our fans and until then I’m sending everyone peace and love and see you soon!”

The All Starr Band’s current lineup features Edgar Winter, Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, Men at Work‘s Colin Hay and former Average White Band guitarist/bassist Hamish Stuart, as well as sax player/percussionist Warren Ham and drummer Gregg Bissonette.

Visit RingoStarr.com for a full list of dates.

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In conjunction with this year’s Record Store Day, Creedence Clearwater Revival will issue a limited-edition seven-vinyl single featuring a previously unreleased performance from a 1970 concert the band played at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall.

The disc, which will feature renditions of the CCR classics “Travelin’ Band” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” will be available at participating retailers on the second Record Store Day drop date of 2022 — June 18.

The version of “Travelin’ Band,” which appears on Side A of the single, is an unreleased performance of the song that Creedence played at the Royal Albert Hall on April 14, 1970. The rendition of “Who’ll Stop the Rain” was recorded on January 31, 1970, at the Oakland Coliseum in California, and previously appeared on the CCR live album The Concert, which was released in 1980.

Only 9,000 copies of the vinyl single will be pressed. The packaging replicates the sleeve of the double-sided single Creedence Clearwater Revival released in January 1970 featuring the studio versions of “Travelin’ Band” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain.” The enduring tunes peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and both tracks also were included on CCR’s chart-topping 1970 studio album, Cosmo’s Factory.

In 2020, CCR drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford told ABC Audio that plans were in the works to release the entire 1970 Royal Albert Hall concert as a live album, so it’s possible that an official update about that release may be announced soon.

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A new photo book celebrating the history of The Beatles‘ Apple Records label is available for pre-order now.

The book, titled Inside No 3: A History on the Products and Memorabilia from Apple Records 1968-73, features images of albums and singles released on the label, as well as promo photos of the artists who recorded for Apple, and pics of posters, t-shirts, stationary, correspondence and much more.

In addition to many Beatles-related photos, Inside No 3 features pics of albums, singles and/or promotional materials from George Harrison, Plastic Ono Band, Yoko Ono, Badfinger, James Taylor, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar, Mary Hopkin, Ronnie Spector, Delaney & Bonnie, Phil Spector and many others.

The book was written by Nigel Pearce and focuses on the collection of Apple Records memorabilia he has amassed over the years.

The title Inside No 3 refers to the address of Apple Records headquarters, located at No 3 Savile Row in London. Four different versions of the book will be available, including a special collector’s edition limited to only 100 copies that features a signed and numbered hardback copy packaged with replica memorabilia.

The other versions are signed and unsigned hardback copies, and an unsigned softcover edition.

“When you open this beautiful book, you will enter a world that millions of people never knew existed. It’s a world of colour, innovation, revolution, coupled with a completely fresh and different mode of marketing from Apple Records, the label owned by The Beatles,” Pearce writes. “No 3 Savile Row is where it all happened in a way beyond belief operation that still inspires artists from all walks and ages of music and life.”

You can pre-order the book now at InsideandOutsideNo3.com and GonzoMultimedia.co.uk.

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Bobby Whitlock is best known as a member of Eric Clapton‘s 1970s band Derek and the Dominos, but in recent years, the singer, keyboardist and songwriter also has become a prolific painter.

On April 1, Whitlock’s first-ever art exhibition opened at the Crockett County Museum in Bobby’s current hometown of Ozona, Texas, and the 74-year-old musician will be at the museum this Wednesday, April 13, for a special meet-and-greet event that runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. CT.

The exhibit features almost 200 of his paintings displayed throughout the museum’s three floors, and Whitlock tells ABC Audio that he feels like he’s making art history with such an auspicious debut exhibition.

“No other artist has ever had this happen, where their first exhibition [features] nearly 200 works of art, and in a museum on top of that,” he enthuses. “Generally, an artist gets maybe a showing at a gallery [with] couple of pieces, that’s it.”

Whitlock says the exhibit came about when he was approached by one of the museum’s curators at the local post office.

She said, ‘I’ve been on your [websites] and I love your art, and would you like to do an exhibition?'” he recalls. “And I said, ‘Yeah, that’d be great,’ you know, ’cause I didn’t know what I was gonna do with all of my paintings.”

Bobby says he happily surprised when he was informed that so much of his artwork would be displayed, and that the exhibit was to run for six months.

As for how he felt getting to view his paintings hung on the walls of a museum, Whitlock notes, “[I]t took my breath away…It was pretty astounding to see something like that.”

To find out more about Whitlock’s paintings, visit BobbyWhitlockArt.com.

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