Classic Rock News

Guitarist Gary Rossington, the last surviving original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, recently underwent “emergency heart surgery,” according to a message posted late Friday on the band’s official Facebook page.

“Gary is home resting and recovering with his family,” the message reads. “He wants everyone to know he is doing good and expects a full recovery.”

The note continues, “After this past year, the country being shut down and everything we have all been thru, The [Rossingtons] encouraged the band to go perform in his absence. Music is a powerful healer! We all felt playing the shows and bringing the music to y’all was a better option than cancelling the performances.”

In the message, the band also asks fans to “say some prayers for the Rossington family and if you would like to leave [Gary] a (positive) message please do! He will look forward to reading them!”

Accompanying the Facebook post is a video clip from a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in Minnesota this past week featuring frontman Johnny Van Zant explaining to the audience that Rossington had to have “an emergency stent put in his heart.”

Van Zant also told the crowd, “Gary said, ‘Go up to Minnesota and kick some a** in my honor,’ and that’s what we’re here to do tonight.” In addition, he revealed that former Alice Cooper guitarist Damon Johnson was standing in for Rossington.

Rossington has experienced numerous heart issues over the years, and has revealed in past interviews that he’s had many stent operations.

Lynyrd Skynyrd launched their 2021 Big Wheels Keep On Turnin’ tour last month. The Southern rock legends’ next show is scheduled on August 9 in Canton, Ohio.

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Stone Temple Pilots have premiered a new video for “And So I Know,” a track off the band’s 1996 album Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop.

The clip includes never-before-seen footage of the Tiny Music recording sessions, which took place at a ranch house in Santa Ynez, California. Shots of a young Scott Weiland smiling in the studio are particularly emotional.

You can watch the “And So I Know” video streaming now on YouTube.

The video premiere coincides with today’s release of the 25th anniversary Tiny Music reissue. The expanded package features the original album audio remastered, as well as various demos, instrumentals, alternate recordings and live tracks.

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The Stray Cats‘ Brian Setzer has released a second advance track from his forthcoming solo studio album Gotta Have the Rumble, a revved-up surf-rock-influenced tune called “Smash Up On Highway One.”

The song is available now as a digital download and via streaming services, while a music video for the tune has premiered at Setzer’s official YouTube channel.

The clip offers up a montage of black-and-white video segments featuring such evocative images as a belly dancer, a burning cigarette, a burning $100 bill, a slithering snake, an animal’s skeleton, a hissing cat, a snarling dog, a solar eclipse, piano keys lit aflame, an iguana, a spider in its web, a tornado, a graveyard and a burning car out in a desert.

Setzer says he got the idea for “Smash Up On Highway One” after he and The Stray Cats played surf-rock legend Dick Dale‘s classic instrumental “Misirlou” with Dale himself.

“I thought, ‘Wow, I’d love to write something as cool as that riff.’ So I came up with something out of left field,” he explains. “I don’t know what you would call it — Middle Eastern or Eastern-European…I had that riff laying around. I guess you could say I’m always collecting cool guitar parts. [Frequent collaborator] Mike Himelstein sent me those lyrics and they just fit right in. I think it’s really cool.”

As previously reported, Gotta Have the Rumble will be released on August 27 on CD and digitally, while a vinyl version will arrive in the fall.

The new collection, which you can pre-order now, features 11 original tunes written or co-written by Setzer. Brian previously released the album’s first song, “Checkered Flag,” as an advance track.

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Former Yes frontman Jon Anderson recently announced plans for a brief U.S. summer tour that will feature accompaniment from the students of the Paul Green Rock Academy, and now the singer and the young musicians have teamed up virtually for a video performance of his old band’s 1971 song “Heart of the Sunrise.”

The clip, which you can watch at the Paul Green Rock Academy’s official YouTube channel, features Anderson and over 20 young musicians and singers all performing their parts of the epic, multiple-section prog-rock tune separately.

“Heart of the Sunrise,” which was co-written by Anderson with founding Yes bassist Chris Squire and drummer Bill Bruford, was the last track on the band’s classic 1971 album Fragile.

As previously reported, Anderson’s tour with the Paul Green Rock Academy currently features 11 dates, and is plotted out from a July 30 concert in Patchogue, New York, through an August 28 show in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

The concerts will feature Yes classics and deep cuts, songs from Anderson’s solo catalog, mash-ups and more, with lush arrangements including choral vocals, horns and other musical elements.

Anderson says of performing with the young musicians, “It’s a celebration of music, youth, and the fun of life, and the enjoyment of everything that makes the world go round, which is MUSIC!”

Check out the full list of shows at PaulGreenRock.com.

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David Crosby‘s latest solo album, For Free, was released today, and to celebrate the record’s arrival, the folk-rock legend took part in a new video interview this week with the Grammy Museum’s Scott Goldman that’s been posted on GrammyMuseum.org.

For Free includes a song called “Rodriguez for a Night,” which features lyrical contributions from Donald Fagen, lead singer of Crosby’s favorite band, Steely Dan.

In the interview, Crosby explained that the collaboration came about after Crosby made a couple of well-received guest appearances with Steely Dan at concerts that the group played in New York, during which they performed the Crosby, Stills & Nash classic “Wooden Ships.”

David said that shortly after those shows, Fagen emailed the lyrics for what became “Rodriguez for a Night,” for which Crosby’s son and frequent collaborator James Raymond wrote the music.

“I don’t know if I heard Donald do that with anybody else, but I’m honored that he did it with us,” David said.

Speaking of Raymond, Crosby praised his son for writing the best song on For Free, the album closer “I Won’t Stay for Long.”

“With this record, he’s matured as a writer…to the point where he’s as good as I am, if not better,” David gushed about James, who also produced For Free.

The album also features collaborations with Michael McDonald and Grammy-winning Americana artist Sarah Jarosz. McDonald co-wrote and sings on the record’s lead song, “River Rise,” while Jarosz lends her talents to the Joni Mitchell-penned title track.

Meanwhile, Crosby, who turns 80 in August, revealed during the interview that he unfortunately may not tour again, explaining that he has arthritis in both hands and fears that “in a year or two I won’t be able to play guitar.”

Here’s the full For Free track list:

“River Rise” (featuring Michael McDonald)
“I Think”
“The Other Side of Midnight”
“Rodriguez for a Night”
“Secret Dancer”
“Ships in the Night”
“For Free” (featuring Sarah Jarosz)
“Boxes”
“Shot at Me”
“I Won’t Stay for Long”

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What do you get when you combine a former military base, shoddy facilities, a bloated music industry, a clash of generations, unbearable heat and $4 water bottles, all set to the angry, nihilistic music that only the late ’90s could provide? Perhaps the most infamous music festival of the last 25 years.

Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage, which premieres today on HBO, tells the story of the ill-fated event, which ended in chaos and riots amid three days of boiling temperatures and overflowing toilets, as well as death and sexual assault.

In addition to exploring how it all went wrong, director Garret Price tells ABC Audio he wanted to use Woodstock ’99 as a “mirror” to the cultural and sociopolitical issues of America in 1999.

The doc mentions everything from the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky scandal to the rise of Napster and the Columbine shooting, and examines how the older generation that experienced the original 1969 Woodstock tried to push its values on the younger ’99 audience.

“If I could find a way to mix all these together and show that Woodstock ’99 was this big mixing bowl of the things that were going on culturally, with some poor planning, and people falling victim to the mythology of the original Woodstock, it creates this thing that devolves over three days,” Price explains.

All of this, of course, was soundtracked by the biggest rock bands at the time, including Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock. Each musical moment in the film, Price shares, was “methodically chosen.”

“There’s subtext…I wanted to use in the lyrics of these songs, and really allow me…to step back and look at these bigger picture ideas,” Price says.

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Last month, Journey released its first new song in a decade, “The Way We Used to Be,” and now the band’s longtime keyboardist, Jonathan Cain, has just issued a new faith-based solo tune called “Oh Lord Lead Us.”

Cain, a devout Christian who’s married to Florida evangelist Paula White-Cain, tells ABC Audio that he’s been leading services at his wife’s church while Journey has been inactive during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he came up with the song when he was looking for a positive New Year’s message to deliver to the congregation.

“I was reading in the Bible, there was something in…Chronicles that says, ‘Look to the Lord for strength, always seek his face,'” Cain explains. “And then I just said, ‘Yeah, Lord lead us’…And there it was.”

Cain, who’s released several faith-based solo albums in recent years, says “Oh Lord Lead Us” was one of the first spiritual-themed songs he’d been inspired to record since the start of the pandemic, noting, “[T]here was something about the song that everybody hooked onto. And it was really just being obedient to my heart and just…sort of thanking [God] for the gifts that he’s given me.”

The song features backing vocals from new Journey member Jason Derlatka, a singer/keyboardist who joined the band last year.

“He gave me his best on that one,” Jonathan notes.

Cain says the new track will be part of a five-song solo EP being released in October; a new album also is due later in 2021.

Meanwhile, Cain will be very busy with Journey soon. The band is preparing a studio album that likely will arrive next year, and also has several 2021 concerts scheduled, including a headlining set at Lollapalooza in Chicago on July 31.

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Yes has given fans the first taste of their forthcoming studio album, The Quest.  The prog-rock legends have released the lead track, “The Ice Bridge,” via digital formats, along with a companion lyric video.

The video is a mixed-media clip featuring footage of natural and animated landscapes interspersed with images of artist Roger Dean‘s otherworldly paintings.

“The Ice Bridge” is an epic tune co-written by lead singer Jon Davison and keyboardist Geoff Downes, with enigmatic lyrics focusing on the dangers of climate change. The song features three sections, titled “Eyes East,” “Race Against Time” and “Interaction,” accompanied by an orchestra.

“I’m extremely proud to be a part of this music and believe the video graphics are outstanding,” says Yes drummer Alan White. “A collaboration of many talents coming together to produce ‘The Ice Bridge.’ I hope our fans/audiences will appreciate the creativity put forward.”

Adds Downes, “Jon’s vocals are fantastic. He’s really come into his own as a YES vocalist. This time he’s started to get the writing side together and working with the other musicians has been developmental for him.”

The Quest, which was produced by longtime Yes guitarist Steve Howe, will be released on October 1 and can be pre-ordered now.  The 11-track collection is available as a two-CD set featuring eight songs on the main disc and three additional tunes on the second CD.  The album also will be issued in additional formats and configurations, including a limited-edition box set boasting two CDs, two vinyl LPs and a Blu-ray disc.

Here’s The Quest‘s full track list:

CD 1
“The Ice Bridge”
“Dare to Know”
“Minus the Man”
“Leave Well Alone”
“The Western Edge”
“Future Memories”
“Music to My Ears”
“A Living Island”

CD 2
“Sister Sleeping Soul”
“Mystery Tour”
“Damaged World”

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Tickets for the 36th annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, scheduled for October 30 in Cleveland at Rocket Mortgage Field House, will go on sale to the general public next Friday, July 30, at 10 a.m. ET at RocketMortgageFieldHouse.com.

Six artists will be inducted in the Performer category: Foo Fighters, Todd Rundgren, The Go-Go’s, Tina Turner, Carole King and JAY-Z.

In addition, three musicians will be inducted in conjunction with receiving the Musical Excellence Award: Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads; R&B artist and Beatles and Rolling Stones session keyboardist Billy Preston; and rapper LL Cool J. Also, electronic pioneers Kraftwerk, blues legend Charley Patton and soul musician and poet Gil Scott-Heron will be welcomed into the Rock Hall as Early Influence Award honorees, while music executive Clarence Avant will be inducted as a Ahmet Ertegun Award recipient.

The Rock Hall Induction Ceremony will air at a later on HBO, and also will be streamed on HBO Max.

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Jackson Browne‘s latest studio album, Downhill from Everywhere, was released today.

The lauded singer/songwriter chatted about the project during a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, including the meaning behind the name of the album and its title track.

Browne explained that the tune is about the pollution of the ocean.

“I realized that downhill has that sort of resonance about…’is it all downhill from here?’…but it actually specifically refers to the fact that the ocean is downhill from all of humanity,” he noted. “I mean, there’s a storm drain out in front of my studio, there’s a little stenciled sign on it saying, ‘This drain leads to the ocean.’ So be careful what you put in there.”

Browne also discussed the song “A Little Soon to Say,” which he revealed was inspired by playing a Vermont festival hosted by singer/songwriter Grace Potter, whom he greatly admires.

“It’s really about being at a gathering of people,” he said, “and this audience was so amazing to look out upon because there were young and old, and there were some weather-beaten faces and some young, positive, really open-hearted people.”

He added, “I had the lines before I left there that night. I told [Potter], ‘I got this song started’ as I said goodnight that night to her and her husband and her baby, and I said, ‘I came looking for Grace…I came for inspiration.'”

As previously reported, Downhill from Everywhere finds the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer addressing such themes as the plight of illegal immigrants, prejudice against same-sex relationships, racial justice and mortality.

Browne launches a joint U.S. tour with James Taylor on July 29 in Chicago, and he also has some headlining dates scheduled. Visit JacksonBrowne.com for his full itinerary.

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