Classic Rock News

In recent new episode of Marc Maron‘s WTF Podcast, Lindsey Buckingham says despite his firing from Fleetwood Mac in 2019, “pretty much everyone [in the band] would love to see me come back.”

Having said that, Buckingham admits that he’s not sure if returning to the group is “doable.”

Buckingham reveals that his conflicts with Fleetwood Mac began after he finished a tour with Christine McVie supporting their 2017 duo album when he asked if the band would delay its own planned trek so he could promote a solo album he was preparing.

“[I asked the band,] ‘I have this other album that I’m really proud of…and I’d love if you could give me an extra three months to just put it out and do some American dates before Fleetwood Mac goes out,'” Lindsey explains. “And there was certainly one person who did not want to bestow that on me.”

The “one person,” of course, was Stevie Nicks.

Buckingham adds, “To be fair, everyone was anxious to get on the road. But…we’ve all made time for each others things. You know, I’d been in the band for 43 years for God’s sake.”

Lindsey then notes that the touring issue “led to other things that kind of built up around that. And then it just got to the point where someone just didn’t want to work with me anymore, and other people were perhaps not feeling empowered enough to stand up for me when possibly they should have or could have.”

Buckingham said he feels his firing harmed the band’s legacy.”

Meanwhile, Lindsey reports that he’s still in touch with drummer Mick Fleetwood, noting, “we love each other and we reinforced each other’s sensibilities in the band.”

Buckingham’s new self-titled solo album will be released on September 17.

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The Beach Boys have debuted two more advance tracks from the band’s forthcoming box set, Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971, the release of which was recently pushed back from July 30 to August 27.

The tracks, an a cappella version of “Surf’s Up” and a newly created reimagined mix of “This Whole World,” are available now for download and via streaming services.

As previously reported, the Feel Flows collection, which you can pre-order now, features newly remastered versions of two of the band’s underappreciated albums — 1970’s Sunflower and 1971’s Surf’s Up — as well as 108 previously unreleased recordings from the sessions for those albums.

The harmony-laden “Surf’s Up” was the final song on The Beach Boys’ 1971 album of the same name, although the tune dates back to the band’s famously aborted late-1960s album, Shine.

“This Whole World” originally appeared on Sunflower, while the new mix features an alternate lead vocal by Carl Wilson, a lead vocal part from Brian Wilson on the bridge that wasn’t used on the original track, and an alternate ending previously only heard in an Eastern Airlines commercial that aired in 1971.

Feel Flows, which will be available as a five-CD set and digitally, features the aforementoned remastered versions of Sunflower and Surf’s Up, as well as rare live tracks, outtakes, alternate versions and mixes, radio promos, isolated backing tracks and a cappella renditions of songs, and more.

Abridged editions of the collection also will be released, including a two-CD package and a four-LP vinyl set available in standard black vinyl and limited-edition colored vinyl versions.

Check out the Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971 box set’s full track list, and more details, at uDiscoverMusic.com.

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After the sudden and unexpected death of ZZ Top‘s Dusty Hill last week, the group’s frontman, Billy Gibbons, revealed that the late bassist had recorded several tracks, including some vocals, that likely will appear on the band’s next album.

In a recent interview with Variety, Gibbons noted that the recordings were “gonna require some completion work,” while adding that Hill luckily laid down vocal tracks for two tunes.

“I handed Dusty a couple of lyric sheets and I said, ‘Hey, see if you can make heads or tails out of this,'” Billy recalled. “He said, ‘Can I sing it?’ I said, ‘Dusty, you could sing the calendar if you wanted to — people would love it.’ He goes, ‘Hey, that’s not a bad idea. If we ever get back to go to work, can we add the calendar into the show? I know all the words.'”

Gibbons also told Variety that he wasn’t sure about Hill’s cause of death, while noting that in recent years Dusty had broken a shoulder and a hip, and also had suffered from ulcers.  Dusty’s health issues prompted him to leave ZZ Top’s current tour after only a couple of shows, and the band tapped its longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis, to step in for him. Sadly, just a few days later, Hill passed away in his sleep at his home in Houston.

Gibbons said it was a coincidence that Francis had decided to stop shaving during the pandemic, so that when ZZ Top enlisted him to fill in for Hill, he’d already grown a long beard.

“I was looking over the front row and everybody was kind of giving each other the elbow, and they were pointing up and said, ‘Look, the ZZ Top circus still rolls on,'” Billy noted. “‘There’s another freak up there.'”

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Sammy Hagar has spoke previously about how he and Eddie Van Halen made peace with each other prior to Eddie’s death in October 2020.  But now, in a new interview, Hagar says his former Van Halen band mate told him that he wanted the two to “make some noise” together.

Speaking to The Washington Post a few days ago, Hagar said that when he reconnected with Eddie “four or five months before he died,” the late guitar legend “had elevated his whole thing.” 

Hagar explains, “He had come to peace with everything. He knew he was sick. And it was so great to contact the guy when he was in that state of mind…And man, I’m so glad that that happened at that time, because if it wouldn’t have, if we had never made peace and he would have passed the way he did, I would feel terrible.”

Hagar goes on to say that in that conversation, Eddie told him that he’d been fighting cancer for 15 years and that he had to get “this big thing on my neck and my throat…all straightened out.” Then, Hagar says Eddie told him, “Next year, you and I have gotta make some noise. We made some great music together, and I wanna do it again.’ I was just, like, ‘Yes.'”

Hagar adds, “Hearing those things really made me able to handle his death. ‘Cause it’s still tough as hell. I miss the guy.”

Hagar joined Van Halen in 1985, replacing original frontman David Lee Roth, and recorded four number-one albums with the group.  The band’s “Van Hagar” lineup — Hagar, Eddie, bassist Michael Anthony and drummer Alex Van Halen — last toured together in 2004.

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Bob Dylan will issue a special seven-inch vinyl single on August 20, featuring two previously unreleased versions of his 1983 song “Blind Willie McTell.”

Both versions of the song, which Dylan recorded during the sessions for his 1983 album, Infidels, feature Dire Straits‘ Mark Knopfler and ex-Rolling Stones member Mick Taylor on guitars, and legendary reggae session musicians Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare on drums and bass, respectively.

The single’s A-side will feature the first take of the track, which will be available exclusively on the single and can be pre-ordered at ThirdManStore.com. The B-side will feature the fifth take of the tune, which also will be included on the recently announced Dylan archival collection Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 16 (1980-1985) that’s due out September 17.

As previously reported, Springtime in New York is a five-CD, 57-track set that focuses on the sessions for three of the lauded singer/songwriter’s early-1980s albums — 1981’s Shot of Love, Infidels and 1985’s Empire Burlesque.

“Blind Willie McTell” was an outtake from Infidels. The only studio version of the song that’s been released so far is a take featuring just Dylan on piano and Knopfler on guitar that appeared on 1991’s The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 compilation.

Springtime in New York can be pre-ordered now. For full details about the release, visit BobDylan.com.

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Former Poco singer/guitarist Paul Cotton, who was one of the influential country-rock act’s main songwriters during his long tenure with the band, has died.

According to a post on his official Facebook page, Cotton “passed away unexpectedly, peacefully” at the age 78.

Cotton joined Poco in 1970, replacing founding member Jim Messina, in time to contribute to the band’s third studio album, 1971’s From the Inside.

After founding singer/guitarist Richie Furay left Poco in 1973, Cotton co-led the group with singer/pedal-steel player Rusty Young until 1987, when Paul exited the band. Among the many songs Cotton wrote for the Poco were “Indian Summer,” “Under the Gun” and “Heart of the Night,” the latter of which reached #20 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Cotton rejoined the band in 1991 and continued to play with them until 2010. He also released for solo studio albums, the most recent of which, 100% Paul Cotton, came out in 2014.

In 2015, Cotton was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame as a member of Poco and he reunited to perform with many of his former band mates at the ceremony.

Cotton’s Facebook page reports that a private and public celebration of his life and tribute concert will be held during the last week of January in Key West, Florida, where he and his wife resided for many years.

Paul’s death comes less than four months after the passing of Young, who died of a heart attack at age 75 in April.

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Foo Fighters had a new lead singer — temporarily — on Sunday for their set at Lollapalooza: Dave Grohl‘s 15-year-old daughter.

Violet Grohl joined her dad and his band mates to sing “Nausea,” by pioneering L.A. punk band X.  In April, Violet performed the song on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, backed by her dad, his ex-Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic, producer Greg Kurstin, and Mr. Bungle drummer Dave Lombardo.  They recorded the song for Grohl’s documentary, What Drives Us.

Sunday was also the seventh birthday of Grohl’s daughter, Ophelia, and after leading a “Happy Birthday” singalong for her, Grohl introduced Violet by saying, “If you stick around long enough, maybe your daughter will join your band, too.  So since my daughter Violet Grohl is now in the Foo Fighters, we thought, ‘Why don’t we come out and sing a song for Lollapalooza tonight?'”

Dave described Violet as “the most bad-a** person I know in my life,” and boasted that “she likes to listen to the punk rock music that I like to listen to.”  After claiming that he and X drummer DJ Bonebrake are related — which may actually be true — he then let Violet take the mic for “Nausea.”  She acquitted herself admirably in true rock-star style, and seemed totally unfazed by the massive crowd.

Foo Fighters’ tour continues August 3 in St. Louis, MO.

(Violet’s song with the band starts at 1:32:18 into the video.)

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The Smashing Pumpkins have been working on a new album, which has been described as a “sequel” to 1995’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and 2000’s Machina. Speaking with ABC Audio, guitarist Jeff Schroeder shares a bit more about the record, and its massive scope.

“This Pumpkins thing is such a big project,” Schroeder reveals. “It’s gonna be 33 songs.”

Working on the record, Schroeder says, has so far been the “deepest musical journey” he’s taken in his career.

“I mean, 33 songs is a lot,” he muses. “That’s a lot of tunes.”

The ambition of the forthcoming project is also influenced by the way the Pumpkins have come to approach making records.

“We are not a band that goes in the studio and jams it out and is gonna do an album in a few days,” Schroeder explains. “Like, these are painstakingly worked-over albums where every second of the record is thought about.”

As for progress on the album, Schroeder says he’s about “halfway done” with his parts. Production-wise, he likens the music to the most recent Pumpkins record, last November’s CYR.

“It’s more of a forward-leaning album in production, not very four guys, five guys in a room jamming-type of record,” Schroeder says. “It’s a very produced album, so far.”

He adds, “But…things could change.”

Meanwhile, Schroeder just released his debut solo song, “Haenim.”

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First announced in 2019, a new Led Zeppelin documentary — the first in 50 years to feature the band’s participation — has been completed, and now has a title: Becoming Led Zeppelin.

As Variety reports, the director, Bernard McMahon, had what’s described as “unprecedented” access to the band for the project.  “Becoming Led Zeppelin is a film that no one thought could be made,” Variety quotes MacMahon as saying. “The band’s meteoric rise to stardom was swift and virtually undocumented. Through an intense search across the globe and years of restoration of the visual and audio archive found, this story is finally able to be told.”

Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones all sat for new interviews for the doc, and archival interviews with late drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980, are also included.  Never-before-seen pictures and film, plus state-of-the-art audio transfers of Zeppelin’s music, round out the project.

McMahon also directed American Epic, a documentary series focusing on American roots music and its impact on the world.  According to Variety, when Becoming Led Zeppelin was first announced, Page said that he knew McMahon would be “qualified’ to tell their story based on his “remarkable achievement” with American Epic.

So far, the documentary does not have a release date.

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A new Beatles tribute album featuring an eclectic variety of well-known artists, including Heart‘s Ann Wilson, late Cream bassist Jack Bruce and Southern rockers Molly Hatchet, performing classic songs by the Fab Four will be released this Friday, August 6.

Legends Play The Beatles is a 12-track collection that’s available on CD and as a limited-edition LP pressed on either blue or yellow vinyl.

The album, which can be pre-ordered now, features Wilson’s rendition of “Across the Universe,” Bruce’s version “Eleanor Rigby” and Molly Hatchet performing “Back in the USSR.”

Other artists contributing tunes to the record include late Asia frontman John Wetton, ex-Deep Purple bassist/singer Glenn Hughes, folk legend Judy Collins, ’80s synth-pop artist Howard Jones and longtime Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse, the latter of whom teams up with Mr. Mister‘s Richard Page for a cover of “Here Comes the Sun.”

Here’s the full track list of Legends Play The Beatles:

“Here Comes the Sun” — Richard Page & Steve Morse
“Across the Universe” — Ann Wilson
“Penny Lane” — John Wetton
“Back in the USSR” — Molly Hatchet
“Norwegian Wood” — Andrew Gold
“The Long and Winding Road” — Air Supply
“Tomorrow Never Knows” — Electric Moon
“Rain” — Sugar Candy Mountain
“Eleanor Rigby” — Jack Bruce
“And I Love Her” — Howard Jones
“Yesterday” — Judy Collins
“Let It Be” — Glenn Hughes

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