Most fans know that John Mellencamp is a talented painter, but it seems like his son is following in his footsteps.
On Friday, the rocker revealed that the painting on the cover of his new album Strictly a One-Eyed Jack— which shows him wearing an eyepatch — was done by his 26-year-old son, Speck Mellencamp.
Also on Friday, Mellencamp released another new song from the album, “Chasing Rainbows,” along with a lyric video. It’s the second song we’ve heard from the project, following the September release of a duet with Bruce Springsteen titled “Wasted Days.”
John also debuted a new acoustic tune from the album titled “I Always Lie to Strangers” during his performance at the 2021 Farm Aid concert in September.
Strictly a One-Eyed Jack will be released January 21.
An Eddie Van Halen Funko Pop! is set to be released next year.
The late Van Halen icon is the latest rocker to be turned into one of the toy company’s ever-popular big-headed vinyl figures as part of its Pop! Rocks line. The Eddie Funko finds him jumping in the air while jamming on a mini recreation of his signature Frankenstrat guitar.
You can pre-order your own now ahead of its expected January release.
Other artists who’ve gotten the Funko Pop! treatment include Machine Gun Kelly, Metallica, Pearl Jam, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Green Day and Ozzy Osbourne.
It’s the perfect holiday gift for the ZZ Top fan in your life: Billy F Gibbons’ boots.
The Texas guitar legend has teamed up with the Austin, Texas-based Alvies boot company for a signature “BFG” cowboy boot, described as combining “a classic style with a rock ‘n’ roll attitude.” The design of the cowhide boots, which cost $450, was inspired by “Billy’s personal infatuation with cars, guitars and making music.”
The boots come in three different ZZ Top-related colors — Sharp-Dressed, El Hombre and 33 Coupe — and the pull strap of each pair comes with a pocket containing several custom BFG guitar picks.
There are only 3,000 pairs of the limited-edition boots available and a percentage of each sale goes to the National Independent Venue Foundation, which offers financial support to music venues around the country that have been impacted by COVID-19.
If you can’t afford the boots, t-shirts and 10-packs of guitar picks are also available on the Alvies website.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse‘s latest studio album, Barn, got its release today.
As previously reported, the album was recorded this past June in a restored 19th century barn Young owns in the Colorado Rockies. The album is the second Neil has made with Crazy Horse since multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren rejoined the band in 2018.
Lofgren, who first played with Crazy Horse during the early 1970s, tells ABC Audio that he hadn’t expected to record a full album when Neil invited the band to Colorado for the sessions.
“[I]n the middle of the pandemic, it was a beautiful surprise,” Nils says, “’cause originally Neil said, ‘Look, I got four songs. Why don’t we at least get together for a week or so and play and be mates, and maybe we can do that two or three times in different locations and get an album.’ So this was extraordinary, ’cause once we got there, he kept writing.”
Lofgren says after “about a week,” Young had penned nine songs.
As Nils recalls, “[T]hen Neil said, ‘Look, I think we’re almost done with an album…so let me write a song tonight…Tomorrow we’re gonna record the 10th song. We’re gonna have an album.'”
Playing with Young on and off for over 50 years, Lofgren says he’s gotten accustomed to how fast Neil records.
“As usual…a lot of the takes were while we were learning the song,” he notes. “And usually, when he gets a great vocal that captures the lyric, that’s it.“
Barn is available on CD, vinyl, cassette and digital formats, and as a deluxe box set featuring a CD, a vinyl LP, and a Blu-ray disc that includes a film capturing the making of the album directed by Neil’s wife, actress Daryl Hannah.
Bryan Adams has just released a new track from his forthcoming studio album, So Happy It Hurts, and the tune really, um, kicks a**!
The catchy, melodic-rock song is titled “Kick A**,” and it begins with a spoken-word interlude delivered in the form of a Biblical-style sermon by legendary Monty Python member John Cleese about the creation of rock ‘n’ roll music.
The track, which Adams co-wrote with famed producer “Mutt” Lange, is available now as a digital download and via steaming services, and you can check out a companion lyric video at Bryan’s official YouTube channel.
“Kick A**” is the third advance track released from So Happy It Hurts, following the title track and “On the Road.” The album is due out March 11 and can be pre-ordered now.
“On the Road” also was co-written by Adams and Lange and was penned specifically to promote the 2022 edition of the Pirelli Calendar, for which Bryan shot the photos.
As previously reported, the calendar is titled On the Road, and it was photographed in Los Angeles, the Italian isle of Capri and Canada last summer. Among the artists who Bryan shot for the calendar: Cher, Iggy Pop, Jennifer Hudson, rapper Saweetie, pop stars Normani and Rita Ora, alt-pop artist Grimes and alt-rocker St. Vincent.
The Smashing Pumpkins, Bush, Jane’s Addiction, Megadeth and Alice in Chains‘ Jerry Cantrell are among the new additions to the 2022 Welcome to Rockville lineup.
They join the previously announced headliners: Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, KISS and Korn.
Other artists now on the bill include Black Label Society, Ministry, Shinedown, Mammoth WVH, Sevendust, Fuel, Rise Against, Five Finger Death Punch, Halestorm, Papa Roach, The Pretty Reckless, Breaking Benjamin, Seether, The Struts, Down, Skillet and more.
Welcome to Rockville 2022 takes place May 19-22 in Daytona Beach, Florida. For the full lineup and ticket info, visit WelcometoRockville.com.
John Mellencamp has unveiled the cover art for his forthcoming album, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack, and has announced that a new song from the record called “Chasing Rainbows” will be released this Friday, December 10.
The cover, which was posted on Mellencamp’s Facebook and Instagram pages along with the message “COMING SOON,” is a painting that appears to be a self portrait of the singer/songwriter in which he’s depicted wearing an eyepatch over his right eye and holding up his left hand near his face.
A separate post on John’s socialmediasites includes an instrumental snippet of “Chasing Rainbows,” along with a note revealing that the song will be “out Friday.”
In September, Mellencamp released a duet with Bruce Springsteen titled “Wasted Days” which was announced as the first single from Strictly a One-Eyed Jack, which is due out in 2022. John also debuted a new acoustic tune from the album titled “I Always Lie to Strangers” during his performance at the 2021 Farm Aid concert in September.
Acclaimed bassist Robbie Shakespeare, who with drummer Sly Dunbar made up the legendary Jamaican rhythm section and production duo Sly and Robbie, died Wednesday at the age of 68, Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner reports.
According to the newspaper, Shakespeare had been suffering from kidney-related health issues and died in Florida, where he’d lived for the last few years.
Sly and Robbie first worked together in the Jamaican session group The Revolutionaries, and soon began collaborating as a musical duo and a production team. Their work is credited with revolutionizing the sound of reggae.
The reggae stars they worked with include Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Black Uhuru and Bunny Wailer. They also collaborated with a wide-ranging list of rock and pop artists, including Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Madonna, Jackson Browne, Joe Cocker, No Doubt, Grace Jones, Sinead O’Connor and Simply Red.
Olivia “Babsy” Grange, Jamaica’s minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, paid tribute to Shakespeare in her Twitter feed, writing, “Robbie and Sly Dunbar…have been among Jamaica’s greatest musicians. This fantastic team took bass playing and drumming to the highest level as they made music for themselves as a group and for many other artistes locally and internationally. Robbie’s loss will be severely felt by the industry at home and abroad. He will be sorely missed.”
In Rolling Stone‘s 2020 list of the “50 Greatest Bassists of All Time,” Robbie ranked #17. The magazine wrote of his and Dunbar’s musical contributions, “No other musical entity in the post-[Bob] Marley era has been so omnipresent in shaping the sound of Jamaica and bringing it to the world.”
Metallica has announced announced livestreams for the band’s upcoming 40th anniversary concerts, taking place December 17 and 19 in San Francisco.
You’ll be able to watch both shows for free via Amazon Music, the Amazon Music Twitch channel and Amazon Prime Video, even if you don’t have an on-demand Prime membership. Following their live premiere, the concerts will be available for later viewings via the Coda Collection, a music-themed channel on Amazon Prime Video.
The livestreams also mark the first entry in a newly announced partnership between Metallica and the Coda Collection, which is set to include a “full slate of concert films, documentaries, and additional content” premiering in 2022.
Billy Idol is one of the music stars that will help Fox ring in the New Year.
Idol is among several artists who will featured in pre-recorded performances on Fox’s New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2022, which airs live Friday, December 31, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
Ken Jeong and Joel McHale will be hosting the special live from Times Square, while Ozzy Osbourne‘s daughter, Kelly, will also be on hand as a special correspondent.
Other performers set to perform on the show, albeit in pre-recorded footage, include Maroon 5, Pink, Imagine Dragons and more. Country star Trace Adkins will appear live to ring in 2022.
Once the New Year gets underway, Idol will join Journey as the opening act for the first portion of the veteran rockers’ Freedom Tour 2022 of North America, from February 2 through April 5.
This past September, Billy released an EP titled The Roadside, his first collection of new music since his 2014 studio album, Kings & Queens of the Underground.
