Music fans are about to gain some new insight into the late Fleetwood Mac star Christine McVie, whopassed away November 30, 2022, at the age of 79.
A new book, Perfect: An Intimate Biography of Christine McVie, is due out June 20, written by Lesley-Ann Jones, who was a friend of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.
According to the description, the book “offers a true insider’s view, and deep psychological insight into Christine as a both a woman and a musician,” sharing that it’s “the first, the only, the ultimate picture of a rock legend and a national treasure.”
It promises to delve into McVie’s career with Fleetwood Mac, noting she was the “strong, constant figure whom they dubbed ‘the mother’ of the band.” It will also explore her personal life, including affairs, divorce, addiction and more.
There were a lot of great concerts in 2023, and USA Today has chosen their favorites, with U2 topping the list thanks to their Las Vegas residency, U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere.
“It’s not a concert. It’s an experience,” they write about the shows, which kicked off September 29 at the new high-tech theater, noting, “the perfect band merged with the perfect venue to create an unquestionable marvel.”
They loved the U2 residency so much that it actually beat out the Taylor Swift Eras tour for the top spot, with the paper calling the residency “worth the hype.”
Also making USA Today’s top concerts of 2023 list is Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks, who landed at eight for their co-headlining trek. The paper notes, “the sardonic New Yorker and the mystical muse of ethereal pop proved an endearing double shot.”
Timothée Chalamet has been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan as he gets ready to play the iconic musician in the film A Complete Unknown, but he’s not just limiting himself to your typical Dylan hits.
In an interview with MTV, Chalamet says that Dylan is probably the artist he listened to most in 2023 and got some help with his playlist from the rocker’s manager Jeff Rosen.
“This might earn the ire and wrath of a lot of Bob fans, rightfully,” Chalamet says. “He sent me like a 12-hour playlist of unreleased Bob stuff from like 1959 to ’64.”
Chalamet says some of the music can actually be found online, but there are others songs that don’t seem to be available.
“I feel like I’m holding onto gold or something,” he says, adding, “some of it I’d love to sneak in the movie.”
A Complete Unknown, to be directed by James Mangold, has been in the works for four years, but in all that time, Chalamet hasn’t met or sung for Dylan and he’s not necessarily sure he wants that to change.
“I would love to meet him now but my feeling for the last four years was God forbid I met him and he was like ‘No,’” he says. “All this hard work will go down the drain.”
Spencer Elden, who was photographed as a baby for the cover of Nirvana‘s Nevermind, has successfully appealed his lawsuit against the band after it was dismissed.
As previously reported, Elden first sued the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” outfit in 2021, alleging that the Nevermind cover constituted child pornography. The famed artwork for the 1991 album features a photo of a four-month-old Elden swimming underwater naked while reaching for a dollar bill.
Surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic were named as defendants, as was Courtney Love as the executor of the late Kurt Cobain‘s estate. Defendants also include various record labels, as well as the Nevermind cover photographer.
In filing to dismiss the suit, lawyers for Nirvana argued that Elden’s claims were “not serious” and “absurd,” and that Elden has “spent three decades profiting from his celebrity as the self-anointed ‘Nirvana Baby.'”
The suit was eventually dismissed in 2022 by the United States District Court for the Central District of California, citing the expired statute of limitations. Elden then appealed once more, and his argument was heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in October 2023.
An opinion filed on Thursday, December 21, reads, “the district court erred in granting Defendants’ motion to dismiss on statute of limitations grounds,” and thus reverses and remands the decision.
“We hold that, because each republication of child pornography may constitute a new personal injury, Elden’s complaint alleging republication of the album cover within the ten years preceding his action is not barred by the statute of limitations,” the opinion continues.
The opinion only addresses the argument over the statute of limitations, and notes, “The question whether the Nevermind album cover meets the definition of child pornography is not at issue in this appeal.”
It’s taken “The Longest Time,” but Billy Joel is now on TikTok — and he’s using the social media platform to tease … something.
Billy’s first post shows him onstage at Madison Square Garden, talking to the audience at what presumably is an early point at one of his shows. “I have good news and bad news,” the Piano Man begins.
“The bad news first: We don’t have anything new to play for you. The good news is, you don’t have to sit through something you have no idea what it is,” he said, as the audience cheered.
“Although,” he added. “We got a little somethin’ we’re working on you might hear sometime.”
Considering Billy has released exactly two new pop songs since 1993, any kind of new music from the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer would be a huge deal.
Meanwhile, Billy will ring in 2024 with a New Year’s Eve concert at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, the home of the New York Islanders. Next year, he’ll wind down his Madison Square Garden residency and do a few concerts with his pal Sting.
The rockers just announced the cancellation of their December 31 concert at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, California, citing production issues.
“It is with deep regret we must inform you the Crüe Year’s Eve show in Palm Springs is being canceled,” they revealed on social media. “The very short time frame to produce the event resulted in issues beyond our control.”
They add, “We look forward to seeing you all in 2024!”
The concert was supposed to close an eventful year for Mötley Crüe, which included touring the world with new guitarist John 5 in place of Mick Mars, who retired from touring in 2022. They’ve also been involved in legal proceedings with Mars over a financial dispute.
It looks like we may soon be getting some new music from Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour.
Polly Samson, Gilmour’s wife and occasional lyricist, has shared several photos on Instagram of Gilmour in the studio, suggesting he’s working on some new songs.
One photo shows him in front of a sound board with the caption, “Today’s desk was, I’m told, made before I was.” There is also a photo of Gilmour on his guitar, and pics of musicians Adam Betts on drums and Tom Herbert on bass.
So far there’s no word on when a new Gilmour album will be released. When it happens it will be the rocker’s first new album since 2015’s Rattle That Lock.
Robbie Robertson and Lenny Kravitz both have a shot at an Oscar nomination.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just revealed the shortlist for songs and scores eligible for a nomination for the 96th Academy Awards, with Robertson, who passed away in August, making the Best Original Score shortlist for his work on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
Kravitz has a shot at a Best Original Song nod for his Rustin track “Road to Freedom,” although there’s tough competition in the category. Among the 15 songs eligible, three Barbie tunes made the cut: Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?”; “I’m Just Ken,” which features Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen on guitar; and Dua Lipa‘s “Dance the Night.”
The final nominees for the 2024 Academy Awards will be announced on January 23. The ceremony airs March 10 on ABC.
Renowned music producer Eddie Kramer is teasing fans with the possibility of new music from the late Jimi Hendrix.
During an appearance on The Vinyl Guidepodcast, Kramer, who is part of the Experience Hendrix team with Janie Hendrix and John McDermott, says it’s possible that AI could be used to turn archival Hendrix audio into new music, similar to what was done with The Beatles’ latest single “Now and Then.”
“It’s really very advanced digital manipulation, and now the technology has become so evolved,” Kramer shared, noting that he really doesn’t like to describe the technology as AI. “I’m sure if we found another tape [that has] Jimi’s voice buried, I know I could use something similar, which I’ve done before, but now it’s going to be on a much higher level.”
As for whether there’s music that exists that could be used to produce new songs, Kramer says, “Yes, there are tapes that I would love to get my hands on,” although he notes the process to get that to happen “could be quite lengthy.”
Kramer helped produce the recent live Hendrix release, Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live at the Hollywood August 18, 1967, and says he looks forward to discovering more old Hendrix material.
“This whole concept of restoration, it feels sometimes as if I’m part archaeologist with the little brushes brushing away the dirt from the stones and the bones and then revealing something spectacular,” Kramer says. “I love it.”
Dave Grohl guests on the latest episode of the Song Exploderpodcast, in which musicians go deep into explaining how a particular song of theirs came together.
For his appearance, Grohl talks with host Hrishikesh Hirway about the Foo Fighters song “The Teacher,” a 10-minute track that appears on the band’s new album, But Here We Are. Grohl shares that the track is about his late mother, Virginia Hanlon Grohl, who he confirms passed away in 2022, just months after the death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
“Last year, I went through a period of really deep mourning, because I lost two very important people in my life,” Grohl says.
Grohl explains that, as he cared for his mother up until her passing, he would write new music on the guitar each day.
“I felt like if I didn’t have that release, I would explode,” Grohl says. “I would spend the day at the hospital and then come back to my house, and try to translate it musically, with no clear intention of what I was trying to achieve. I was just finding these chords and progressions that mirrored the way that I felt.”
Eventually, those chord progressions would form the foundation of what became “The Teacher.”
“She was the most important person in my entire life,” Grohl says of his mom. “So I thought, ‘This has to be the most important music I’ve ever made.’ And that’s when ‘The Teacher’ started to take shape.”
The episode also includes various voice memos and demo recordings of “The Teacher.” You can listen now via SongExploder.net or via the podcast platform of your choice.
