ZZ Top in 2015; Randy Holmes/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images
Following the unexpected death of bassist Dusty Hill earlier last week, ZZ Top returned to the stage on Friday in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Billboardreports that the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers honored their late band mate before getting into the thick of their performance.
Frontman Billy Gibbons introduced Elwood Francis — who has served as the band’s guitar tech for the past two decades — as Hill’s temporary replacement. Francis had previously filled in for the late bassist prior to his death.
“We’re gonna have a good time in here tonight,” promised Gibbons. “Got a new guy up here, as you know. Dusty gave me the directive. My friend, your pal, Elwood Francis is gonna hold it down behind me.”
Mid-performance, Gibbons addressed the crowd again on behalf of Hill, shouting at the revelers, “How about that Elwood? Tearing up that bottom there for Dusty.”
Gibbons previously confirmed that Hill wanted the band to continue without him, according to tweets shared by rock radio personality Eddie Trunk.
“As Dusty said upon his departure, ‘Let the show go on!’ and…with respect, we’ll do well to get beyond this and honor his wishes,” a reported text from Gibbons said.
The 71-year-old singer/guitarist added, “Dusty emphatically grabbed my arm and said, ‘Give Elwood the bottom end and take it to the Top.’ He meant it, amigo. He really did.”
Last Wednesday, ZZ Top announced that Hill “passed away in his sleep at home in Houston” at age 72. No cause of death has yet been publicly revealed.
That’s what anyone with cable TV who happened to be up at midnight on August 1, 1981 — 40 years ago this Sunday — heard, as MTV: Music Television signed on the air for the very first time. At the time, it wasn’t even available in most major markets, including MTV’s home base, New York City. And that first day was a little rocky.
“The plan was that Mark Goodman would begin the welcome,” recalls original VJ Alan Hunter of MTV’s first moments. “After you had the Buggles and Pat Benatar videos, Mark comes on and says, ‘Hey, welcome to this thing called MTV and here are my pals'” And it would roll down to JJ [Jackson] and Martha [Quinn] and Nina [Blackwood]. And I was the last guy to say, ‘and I’m Alan Hunter.'”
But because the guy loading the videotapes screwed up, Hunter ended up being the first VJ we ever saw, saying, “…And I’m Alan Hunter.”
“No one really noticed, it was late at night,” Hunter laughs. “There was so many technical glitches that first day…MTV was duct-taped together to start, to be honest.”
But MTV soon took hold across the country — especially in the Midwest, where Hunter and his fellow VJs would find hundreds of people waiting to greet them at in-store appearances.
“They would ask for an autograph and say, ‘I watch this 24/7 in the dorm at college,’ or, ‘in the basement of our friend’s house down the street who has cable’…kids [were] going crazy for it,” Hunter recalls. “And they were beginning to ask for the music that they were seeing on MTV.”
Flooded with requests for songs by MTV faves like U2 and Duran Duran, radio eventually responded and previously unknown bands became superstars. But hey, don’t expect any gratitude from Duran Duran, whose stylish videos were a highlight of MTV’s early years.
“We tend to look at it the other way around,” Duran Duran’s Simon LeBon tells ABC Audio. “We think, ‘How much does MTV have to thank us for the popularity that they had in the 1980s?'”
Keyboardist Nick Rhodes snarks, “Yes, at least with Duran Duran, we didn’t have to resort to game shows in the end. We stuck with the music!”
Indeed, MTV stopped being the place for music videos literally decades ago.
“When I look at MTV’s daily schedule, all I see is Ridiculousness,” laughs Hunter, referring to the viral video clip show. “I think they’re struggling to try to find where they’re going.”
But whatever MTV is today, its impact is still being felt. Rob Tannenbaum, co-author of the oral history I Want My MTV, explains, “It changed record labels because now a certain type of band was more profitable. It changed the TV industry and the movie industry because they all wanted to emulate the fast cutting [and] bright colors. It changed fashion design. It changed advertising. It had a wholesale effect…all over popular culture.”
And the quintessential MTV Video? Tannenbaum says it’s Van Halen‘s “Hot for Teacher.”
“It has all the things that are supposed to make a video good. It’s got a guitar solo. It’s a band with long hair, chicks in bikinis,” he says, adding, “If you were trying to illustrate to an alien from another planet what MTV was about, you would show them ‘Hot for Teacher.'”
Here were the first 10 videos played on MTV:
“Video Killed the Radio Star” — The Buggles
“You Better Run” — Pat Benatar
“She Won’t Dance with Me” — Rod Stewart
“You Better You Bet” — The Who
“Little Suzi’s on the Up” — Ph.D.
“We Don’t Talk Anymore” — Cliff Richard
“Brass in Pocket” — The Pretenders
“Time Heals” — Todd Rundgren
“Take It on the Run” — REO Speedwagon (interrupted after 12 seconds due to technical difficulties)
“Rockin’ the Paradise” — Styx
On Thursday night at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom, Journey played their first concert since late 2019, and the first since longtime bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith were fired early last year.
The performance was part of a series of Lollapalooza “aftershow” events that select artists also performing at the Chicago festival this weekend are playing at various venues in the Windy City. The Aragon show was a warmup for Journey’s Lollaplooza headlining set Saturday.
In addition to guitarist Neal Schon, keyboardist Jonathan Cain and singer Arnel Pineda, Journey’s lineup includes drummers Narada Michael Walden and Deen Castronovo, keyboardist/backing vocalist Jason Derlatka and bassist Randy Jackson, although Marco Mendoza is filling in for Jackson at the Chicago shows while Randy recovers from back surgery.
According RollingStone.com, the Aragon Ballroom show was an extra-long, two-set extravaganza that included classic hits like “Open Arms,” “Faithfully” and “Separate Ways,” along with deep cuts like “Suzanne,” “Just the Same Way” and “Feeling That Way.” You can check out fan-recorded video of the band performing the 1978 gem “Wheel in the Sky” on YouTube.
Walden, Jackson and Derlatka joined the band last year, while it was announced earlier this week that Castronovo, who previously played who Journey from 1998 to 2015, was once again a member of the group.
Meanwhile, Schon tells ABC Audio that he’s excited that popular rapper-singer Post Malone will be headlining Lollaplooza alongside Journey on Saturday.
“I think he’s a very good guitar player…and I heard he’s a fan of mine as well,” says Neal. “And he plays many different styles.”
Schon adds, “Maybe he’ll get done before we do, ’cause I think we’re playing a longer show, and I’d like to invite him to our show to come…and sit in.”
Alice in Chains guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell has released a new song called “Atone.”
The track, which premiered via RollingStone.com along with an official music video, is the first single off Cantrell’s upcoming solo album Brighten. The album, which can be pre-ordered now, is due out October 29.
According to Rolling Stone, Brighten will feature guest spots from artists including Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and Greg Puciato of Dillinger Escape Plan. It was co-produced by film composer and former Marilyn Manson band member Tyler Bates.
You’ll also find a cover of the 1971 Elton John song “Goodbye,” which was personally approved by the Rocket Man himself.
“Out of respect to Elton, I wouldn’t include it unless he said it was OK,” Cantrell says. “He’d played piano on [the 2009 Alice in Chains song] ‘Black Gives Way to Blue,’ which I wrote for Layne [Staley], so I reached out to Elton, he listened to it, and told me, ‘You should absolutely use it.'”
Brighten is Cantrell’s first solo album since 2002. Here’s the track list:
“Atone”
“Brighten”
“Prism of Doubt”
“Black Hearts and Evil Done”
“Siren Song”
“Had to Know”
“Nobody Breaks You”
“Dismembered”
“Goodbye”
Some day soon, you may be able to tour Kurt Cobain‘s childhood home in Aberdeen, Washington — that is, if the home’s current owners has anything to say about it.
Lee Bacon and his wife Danielle bought the house, where the late Nirvana frontman lived from 1968 to 1984, in 2018 from the Cobain family. Since then, Rolling Stone reports, they’ve been working to restore it to the way it looked in the ’70s and ’80s. It even has the Cobain family’s blessing: They’ve donated Kurt’s toddler bedroom set, as well as the mattress from his bedroom and their old dining room table and china hutch.
So far, the home has been officially approved for inclusion of Washington state’s Heritage Register of buildings that are culturally important. While it’s not properly zoned to become an actual museum, Bacon says he wants to open it up in the coming months for private tours, and is trying to work out the logistics now.
Rolling Stone adds that Bacon has also bought another building in downtown Aberdeen, where he plans to open an 8,000-square-foot “Tribute Lounge and Gallery Cafe” dedicated to Kurt. He envisions it as a space that will “tell the story of the house” and Kurt’s childhood years via artifacts, memorabilia, photos and more. Admission to that will be free, he says, and so will admission to the house, if he’s allowed to open it for tours.
Bacon also plans to install a plaque on the front of the house, telling Rolling Stone, “We have to write it for someone in the future, 20 years from now, who wants to learn about Kurt. We want it to be for someone who doesn’t know who he was or the contributions he made.”
Earlier this year, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts launched a partnership with the nugs.net live-music platform making available previously unreleased concert recordings and video performances spanning the band’s 40-plus-year career.
Three new archival concerts recently were made available in both audio and video formats: a 2013 performance at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, California; a 2015 show at the Toyota Center in Houston; and a 2016 event at the Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York.
These three shows join previously released concerts from 1983 in Houston; 2015 in Columbus, Ohio; and 2018 in Clisson, France.
The audio versions of the shows are available for download in MP3 and two high-res formats.
Meanwhile, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts begin their 2021 tour itinerary with a show this Sunday, August 1, in San Francisco at the Stern Grove Festival. Check out the band’s full schedule at JoanJett.com.
L-R: Dusty Hill, Dave Grohl, Billy Gibbons; Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
When Foo Fighters performed in Cincinnati on Wednesday night, they took some time to pay tribute to ZZ Top bass player Dusty Hill, whose death at age 72 was announced a few hours before the band took the stage.
Drummer Taylor Hawkinswore a t-shirt reading “Dusty RIP” and, as a video that’s now been posted online shows, Hawkins also sang ZZ Top’s “Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers” during the band introduction part of the concert, after guitarist Chris Shiflett began playing the tune. Shiflett then kicked into the ZZ Top classic “La Grange,” although frontman Dave Grohl unsuccessfully struggled to remember the words.
“That’s all you’re gonna get,” he joked. “But that was for Dusty, everybody. Let’s give it up.”
Hill died in his sleep on Wednesday; a cause of death hasn’t been announced. ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons has since said that the band plans to continue on.
A new track that Paul McCartney recorded in collaboration with famed DJ/producer Mark Ronson and synth-pop veteran Gary Numan has been released as part of the soundtrack album for a new Ronson-hosted Apple+ series that premiered today.
Watch the Sound with Mark Ronson is a six-part series that follows Ronson as he “uncovers the untold stories behind music creation and the lengths producers and creators are willing to go to find the perfect sound.” To do that, he interviews artists including McCartney, Numan, Foo Fighters‘ Dave Grohl, Beastie Boys members Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and “Mike D” Diamond, and more.
Each episode ends with Ronson debuting a new piece of original music created with the guest artist using various groundbreaking techniques and technology.
McCartney and Numan are featured in an episode focusing on the synthesizer, and the tune they created with Ronson is called “I Know Time (Is Calling).”
The six-track soundtrack is available now as a digital download and via streaming services.
Here’s the full track list of Watch the Sound (Original Soundtrack):
Autotune: “Show Me” — Mark Ronson
Sampling: “Why Would I Stop” — DJ Premier featuring Wale
Reverb: “One Life” — Mark Ronson featuring Diana Gordon & Jónsi
Synth: “I Know Time (Is Calling)” — Mark Ronson featuring Paul McCartney & Gary Numan
Drum Machine: “You’ll Go Crazy” — Mark Ronson featuring King Princess
Distortion: “Do You Do You Know” — Mark Ronson featuring Santigold & Kathleen Hanna
Today, you can hear Metallica as you’ve never heard them before — twice — on the soundtrack of the new Disney movie, Jungle Cruise.
The band worked with noted composer James Newton Howard to reimagine “Nothing Else Matters” for the film. Two different instrumental versions of the song appear on the soundtrack: one is a mostly sedate, acoustic guitar-and-strings version that runs for about a minute-and-a-half, and the other is a much more rocking version featuring strings plus the Metallica thunder.
In a statement, the band says, “It was an honor to work with renowned, legendary composer James Newton Howard as we reimagined the song by performing his arrangement and creating a rendition we like to think is fit for an excursion through the Amazon.”
They add, “Not only are we big fans of Disney, but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with Howard, an eight-time Oscar nominee who has been recognized for films such as The Fugitive, Michael Clayton, and The Village.”
Set around World War I,Jungle Cruise, which is now in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access, stars Emily Blunt as an adventurer who hires an Amazon riverboat captain, played by Dwayne Johnson, to take her and her brother in search of a magical plant that can cure all illnesses.
Of course, if you want to hear even more versions of “Nothing Else Matters,” there are 12 different ones on the upcoming The Metallica Blacklist album, performed by everyone from Miley Cyrus and Phoebe Bridgers to My Morning Jacket and country star Chris Stapleton.
A previously unreleased alternate version of George Harrison‘s classic song “Isn’t It a Pity” that will appear on the upcoming deluxe reissue of the late Beatles legend’s landmark 1970 solo album, All Things Must Pass, is now available as an advance digital track.
Two versions of “Isn’t It a Pity” are featured on the original album, while the expanded reissue offers three additional renditions — a demo recording and two alternate takes.
The newly released “Take 27” version features a slower and simpler arrangement than the best-known version of of “Isn’t It a Pity,” which was issued as a double-sided single with “My Sweet Lord.”
An animated music video for “Isn’t It a Pity (Take 27)” has debuted at Harrison’s YouTube channel in conjunction with the track’s release. The melancholy clip brings surreal and evocative painted images to life, including a windmill, grandfather clocks, hot air balloons, and a man rowing a boat followed by an old sailing ship, all inside of a bottle.
As previously reported, the expanded 50th anniversary edition of All Things Must Pass will be released August 6 in multiple formats and configurations, including a Super Deluxe eight-LP or five-CD/Blu-ray-audio set.
The Super Deluxe reissue features a new mix of the original 23-track album, as well as 30 demos and various outtakes, alternate takes and studio jams. Forty-two of the tracks are previously unreleased.
The collection comes with a 60-page scrapbook curated by Harrison’s widow, Olivia, that features rare images and memorabilia, handwritten lyrics, diary entries and more. A replica of the original album poster also is included.
Released in November 1970, All Things Must Pass spent seven weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200.
