Classic Rock 93.9

If there was one thing you could count on in rock music over the past 25 years, it was the consistent, near-constant presence of Foo Fighters. In 2022, however, the Dave Grohl-led band was dealt a devastating loss when drummer Taylor Hawkins unexpectedly died in March.

At the beginning of 2022, the Foos’ year was set to be just as full as any other. The band planned out tour dates in continued support of their 2021 album, Medicine at Midnight, and prepped the release of their first movie, a horror comedy called Studio 666. Grohl even recorded a whole album as the film’s fictional metal band, Dream Widow.

On March 25, Foo Fighters were scheduled to headline a festival in Colombia. That night, the band announced “the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins.” He was 50 years old.

Tributes to Hawkins poured out from every corner of the music world. Foo Fighters canceled all of their upcoming tour dates, as well as their performance at the Grammys, which was scheduled for the following weekend. The ceremony instead played a video montage honoring Hawkins.

After months of silence from the Foo Fighters camp, the band announced in June that they’d be holding two tribute concerts to Hawkins in September. Shortly thereafter, Grohl performed publicly for the first time as a surprise guest during Paul McCartney‘s Glastonbury headlining set.

The tribute concerts, which were held in London and Los Angeles, boasted lineups that were basically the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame come to life. The artists who performed included McCartney, Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich, AC/DC‘s Brian Johnson, Joan Jett, and Queen‘s Brian May and Roger Taylor, as well as Miley Cyrus, Pink and Alanis Morissette, plus members of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Def Leppard, Blink-182 and Black Sabbath. Both shows ended with Foo Fighters performing with guest drummers.

Even with all those big names and legends, the most moving performance of the concert belonged to Hawkins’ son, Shane, who played drums with Foo Fighters on the classic “My Hero.”

Despite his death, Hawkins’ playing was heard throughout 2022. He was posthumously featured on multiple releases, including Ozzy Osbourne‘s new solo album, Patient Number 9.

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Def Leppard has shared a special holiday message to fans, posting a video to social media with each member sharing holiday wishes to their followers. 

“Wanted to say one thing before the year comes to an end,” Joe Elliott shares. “Thank you for your support throughout the year, waiting for us through COVID. We had a fantastic tour this summer.” He adds, “Thank you for your support over the last 45 years. So to everybody, happy holidays and we’ll see you in 2023.”

Vivian Campbell added, “Thank you all for supporting the band in 2022, coming to the shows. We had an absolutely wonderful summer. So happy holidays, however you celebrate it. Have a great time.” 

And the band is promising more to come next year, with Rick Savage noting, “As we approach the end of 2022 just want to say thank you to everybody that came out who saw us on the last tour, there’s many more to come.” 

Rick Allen passed along a similar sentiment, sharing that “there’s loads more” shows to come, “so we’re looking forward to seeing people out there.”

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The Beatles have lost one of their United Kingdom chart records. Up until now the legendary rockers held the record for the most U.K. Christmas number ones on the Official Singles chart with four, but that has now been surpassed by British duo LadBaby. 

LadBaby, the husband and wife parody act of Mark and Roxanne Hoyle, earned their fifth Christmas number one this week with “Food Aid,” a reimagining of the 1985 Band Aid Christmas classic, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” The Band Aid tune was also a Christmas number one.

In hearing the news of their new number one, LadBaby offered up “a massive apology to The Beatles, and to all The Beatles’ fans.”

LadBaby previously landed Christmas number ones with 2018’s “We Built This City,” 2019’s “I Love Sausage Rolls,” 2020’s “Don’t Stop Me Eatin’” and 2021’s “Sausage Rolls For Everyone,” a collaboration with Ed Sheeran and Elton John. Proceeds from their latest number one will go to two food banks, The Trussell Trust and the Band Aid Trust.

The Beatles had their four Christmas number ones with 1963’s “I Want Hold Your Hand,” 1964’s “I Feel Fine,” 1965’s “Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out” and 1967’s “Hello, Goodbye.”

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 Jon Bon Jovi and his son Jesse Bongiovi will face off against each other live on Instagram the day after Christmas to determine which one of them is this year’s “Pink Pong” champion.

Yes, it’s just regular ping-pong, but it’s dubbed “Pink Pong” after the duo’s acclaimed Hampton Water brand of rosé wine. On social media, Hampton Water posted a video of Jesse presenting his father with a wrapped gift that contains the “championship cup,” on which the winner’s initials have been engraved for 2020 and 2021. It appears as though Jon has beaten his son for the last two years.

“Here ya go b*****s! Defending champ!” Jon brags, showing off the trophy.

When Jesse announces that the 2022 match will take place on December 26, Jon whispers, “You don’t scare me.” But Jesse writes in the comments, “It’s so on! Old man’s going down!”

You can watch the father-son rematch Monday, December 26, at 12 p.m. ET on Instagram Live on Hampton Water’s Instagram page.

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Pearl Jam is giving fans a little gift for the holidays. The band announced that their 2016 Live in Philadelphia Ten show will be available to stream for free for all Prime Video subscribers.

The concert is available through January 1 on Prime’s The Coda Collection video channel. 

The show, which took place April 29, 2016, at the Wells Fargo Center, saw Pearl Jam kick off the concert by playing their debut album, Ten, in its entirety. Its 32-song set also featured covers of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb,” The Dead Boys’ “Sonic Reducer” and The Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” as well as the Neil Young track “Throw Your Hatred Down” and the Lost Dogs track “Bee Girl.”

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It’s been less than a month since Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie passed away, and her bandmate Mick Fleetwood is opening up about how he’s doing since her passing. 

While appearing at the John Douglas exhibit at the Animazing Gallery at the Palazzo in Las Vegas, Fleetwood told The Music Universe, “I’m doing OK. Coming to Vegas … has been a really healthy distraction from a tragedy for us in Fleetwood Mac.”

Fleetwood praised McVie’s artistry, noting she “would have a lot to say” about Douglas’ work, which has been featured on drums, guitars, album covers and more. “She was a great craftswoman,” he said of McVie. “She was a great painter, in actual fact. [She] did a couple album covers back in the day.” 

“We miss her desperately,” he said.

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Metallica has shared a new live video for “Lux Æterna,” the lead single off the band’s upcoming album, 72 Seasons.

The clip was recorded during the metal legends’ Helping Hands benefit show last week and marks the first time they’ve played “Lux Æterna” in concert. You can watch the performance streaming now on YouTube.

The Helping Hands show, which supports Metallica’s All Within My Hands charity foundation, also featured a surprise appearance by St. Vincent during “Nothing Else Matters.”

Meanwhile, the studio version of “Lux Æterna” is currently #1 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, having reached the top of the ranking in just two weeks — the quickest ascent by any single since 2014.

72 Seasons, the follow-up to 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, drops April 14. Metallica will support the album on a giant world tour in 2023 and 2024.

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Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and producer Greg Kurstin are in the midst of their annual Hanukkah Sessions, performing songs by Jewish artists. One of those artists was Janis Ian, who was thoroughly impressed by the performance. 

The clip had Grohl on drums, Kurstin on keyboards and Dave’s daughter Violet Grohl singing Ian’s classic “At Seventeen.” Ian, who recently revealed she can no longer sing due to scarring on her vocal cords, loved hearing it. 

“This morning I woke up and thought ‘How strange. I’ll never be able to sing “At Seventeen” again.’ And I don’t mind admitting that it was really depressing,” she shared on Facebook. “But what better antidote could there be than to hear my work, 47 years after I wrote it, beautifully and sincerely sung by Violet Grohl?”

She added, “What a perfectly happy day this turned out to be. Thank you, Violet. Thank you, Dave. Thank you.”

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Ozzy Osbourne‘s worked with a ton of legendary rockers over his long career — just look at the guests on his new Patient Number 9 solo album — but there’s one that’s continued to elude even the Prince of Darkness.

In an interview with Yahoo, Ozzy shares his dream to one day work with Paul McCartney.

“That will never happen,” Ozzy says of collaborating with the Beatles icon. “I asked him one time, and he had some excuse.”

Should an Ozzy/Macca joint track ever occur, though, the metal legend declares, “Then I could go, ‘OK, I’ve achieved all my dreams.'”

The artists who contribute to Patient Number 9 include Ozzy’s Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi, Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith, Guns N’ Roses‘ Duff McKagan, Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde, Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo and late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Ozzy also reached out to Jimmy Page to guest on the record, but told Metal Hammer that he never heard back from the Led Zeppelin guitarist.

Elsewhere in the Yahoo interview, Ozzy opens up about wanting to return to the road. A variety of health issues — not to mention a worldwide pandemic — have kept him from touring since 2018.

“I just wanna get back on that stage,” Ozzy says. “I’ve gotta get back on that stage. It’s driving me nuts, not being able to.”

“I can’t relax,” he adds. “I’ve always gotta be doing something … I mean, I could say let’s call it a day, but I can’t stop.”

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For night five of The Hanukkah Sessions, Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin jammed with Beck in honor of the “Loser” artist’s Jewish roots.

Beck joined the Foo Fighters frontman and the producer for a particularly rocking version of his song “E-Pro” alongside some enthusiastic backing vocals. You can watch the performance streaming now on YouTube.

For The Hanukkah Sessions, which is now in its third year, Grohl and Kurstin release a cover of a song by a Jewish artist for each of the holiday’s eight nights. This year’s edition was recorded live at the Los Angeles club Largo earlier this month and so far has included versions of Blood, Sweat & Tears‘ “Spinning Wheel” featuring director Judd Apatow, Pink‘s “Get they Party Started,” 10cc‘s “The Things We Do for Love” with Inara George and Janis Ian‘s “At Seventeen” sung by Grohl’s daughter Violet.

The last two Hanukkah Sessions spawned covers of artists including KISS, Beastie Boys, Bob Dylan, Drake, Lisa Loeb, Ramones, Amy Winehouse and Billy Joel.

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