Classic Rock News

Jethro Tull really is living in the past with a new reissue that expands their 1972 double compilation album, Living in the Past.

Still Living in the Past, a five-CD/Blu-ray box set, is due out July 11. It includes remixes, edits, demos, live tracks and four promotional films. If that’s too much Tull for you, there will also be a two-LP vinyl edition featuring stereo remixes of the album by Steven Wilson.

The package includes a fully remixed version of Tull’s 1970 release Live at Carnegie Hall, the Steven Wilson stereo remixes and all the tracks from the Life Is a Long Song EP. Songs include “Locomotive Breath,” “Teacher,” “Bourée,” “A Song for Jeffrey,” “Dharma for One” and the title track.

Tull’s Ian Anderson says in a statement, “After 53 years since its original issue, this collection with the Steven Wilson re-mixes and surround sound upgrades is a splendid addition to the Tull album series. It was conceived at the time primarily to update the Tull story for U.S. and European audiences who might not have had the benefit of the many songs which had already reached U.K. fans’ ears.”

He adds, “I am so happy to have this material made available again.”

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On This Day, May 22, 1976 …

Paul McCartney & Wings hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with “Silly Love Songs,” which spent five weeks on top of the chart.

The tune, from the 1976 album Wings at the Speed of Sound, was McCartney’s answer to critics who suggested he only wrote lightweight love songs.

“Silly Love Songs” was McCartney’s fifth #1 as a solo artist and his 27th #1 as a songwriter, which was a new record.

According to the Beatles Bible, although McCartney continues to tour to this day, he hasn’t played “Silly Love Songs” live since the Wings Over the World Tour in 1976.

Next up, McCartney is set delve into his musical history with Wings in the new book Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, coming Nov. 4.

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Metallica‘s M72 world tour will last for at least another year.

The metal legends have announced a 2026 European leg, kicking off in Athens in May. The outing will be a mix of One Night Only shows and Metallica’s No Repeat Weekend, which consists of two concerts in one city, each of which features a completely different set list.

Depending on the date, openers include the reformed Pantera, Gojira, Avatar and Knocked Loose.

For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit Metallica.com.

The M72 tour first began in 2023 in support of Metallica’s latest album, 72 Seasons. Its current North American leg continues Friday in Philadelphia.

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While some of his contemporaries are doing farewell tours, Rod Stewart is still going strong. He says he’s got three new albums in the works, and no plans to stop performing.

Speaking to AARP magazine, Rod, 80, says, “I’ve got so much more music to do. At the moment, I’m doing a covers album of all the songs I’ve ever wanted to cover … I’m supposed to do a country album … and we’re working on a Faces album, so that’s three projects that have got to be done.”  

Plus, Rod says, he’d still like to do a tour with “a big orchestra and play those glorious songs I did from the Great American Songbook.”  He adds, “I enjoy doing concerts more than I did back then. Maybe I’ve come full circle to appreciate how lucky I’ve been.”

As for how he maintains his stamina, Rod says he keeps himself “very fit.” He says Frank Sinatra once told him that the secret to being a great singer is to have powerful lungs. So, he says, “We do a lot of underwater training, where the trainer throws a brick into the pool and I have to dive in, push the brick to the end of the pool, and come up.”

Off the road, Rod enjoys his massive family, which includes eight children, five grandkids and “various boyfriends and husbands.” For his 80th birthday, 15 of them took a cruise on a huge yacht he rented. “One night, they all dressed up as Rod Stewart and didn’t tell me,” he says. 

And though they had a falling out a while back, Rod says he and Elton John are friends again. He tells AARP, “We FaceTime each other. It was his birthday a couple of days ago, so I sent him 48 pink roses.”

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Former Eagles guitarist Don Felder will release his fourth solo album, The Vault – Fifty Years of Music, on Friday, featuring a collection of newly recorded versions of songs he’s demoed over the past five decades.

Felder tells ABC Audio that when he decided to dip into his vault for a new album he had “no idea” what was in there.

“I hadn’t heard stuff since the ’70s or ’80s,” he explains. “It was really like a flashback cause I could remember where I was working on those songs.”

And apparently there was a lot of music, with Felder sharing, “I could probably do a box set.”

“It was just interesting to go take some of these ideas, whether they were brand-new ideas or ideas that had just been little sparks along the way, and turn it into a finished song,” he adds.

The album has tracks embracing the sounds of the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and current day, including one that was written for the late Glenn Frey, his former Eagles bandmate.

While Felder left the band in 2001 on not the best terms, he says, “The only regret I have is that Glenn and I never really got a chance to have a human conversation.”

“That’s why one of the songs on this album is called ‘Blue Skies,’ and it’s written and produced for Glenn wishing him blue skies forever,” he says. (

Felder will be testing out some of these new songs on the road when he joins Styx and REO Speedwagon‘s Kevin Cronin on their upcoming Brotherhood of Rock tour, which kicks off May 28 in Greenville, South Carolina. A complete list of dates can be found at DonFelder.com.

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Tom Petty referred to his 1994 release Wildflowers as his favorite album, and now a book documenting the making of the LP is on its way.

The limited-edition book is a collaboration between the Estate of Tom Petty and Genesis Publications. It will feature rare photography, handwritten lyrics and personal stories from Petty, the Heartbreakers and his musical collaborators.

Preorders for the book will open soon, and you can sign up at Genesis Publications’ website to be notified when it goes live.

Wildflowers was Petty’s second solo studio album and the first of three Petty projects produced by Rick Rubin. While only credited to Petty, the members of the Heartbreakers played on it, except for drummer Stan Lynch, who’d been fired prior to its release.

Wildflowers was critically acclaimed and was eventually RIAA-certified for sales of 3 million albums. It featured the singles “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” “You Wreck Me” and the title track.

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Dead & Company have revealed details about their previously announced performances in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park this August, including openers and ticket information.

Billy Strings will open the Aug. 1 performance, followed by Sturgill Simpson on Aug. 2 and Trey Anastasio Band on Aug. 3. 

You can sign up for a presale now at DeadAndCompany.com; those tickets go on sale May 28 at 10 a.m. PT.

Three-day tickets start at $635 and go on sale May 30 at 10 a.m. PT. Single-day tickets will cost $245 apiece; sale information for single tickets will be announced soon.

A limited quantity of $60 tickets will be available via lottery for California firefighters, starting June 4 at 10 a.m. PT. VIP tickets and travel packages are also available. 

As previously reported, the Dead & Company shows come in celebration of 60 years of Grateful Dead music. 

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Scott Devours, who is replacing Zak Starkey as the drummer of The Who, has shared his conflicting emotions over landing the job.

In an Instagram post and in the comments section, Devours, who’s part of Roger Daltrey‘s solo band, says, “I understand and accept the reality that there are many lifelong Who fans who are absolutely gutted by the news that Zak is no longer on the throne behind The Who.”

Noting that he’s “processing this loss with a heavy heart too,” Devours says, “It really is a strange contradiction of emotions to have the greatest moment of my professional career also be one framed with some sadness and shadowed by someone else’s loss.”

Starkey announced on Sunday that he’d been fired a second time by The Who just two weeks after he was reinstated. He also claimed they asked him to say that he quit, but he refused.

Devours writes, “I’m sure there are many fans who will not accept me or anyone on that throne except for Zak. I know that this will be the case for some and I acknowledge that. … The weight of this responsibility is enormous and I am feeling every ounce of it.”

He goes on to say that he plans to honor the “legacy” of past drummers, including Zak, Kenney Jones, Simon Phillips and “the great Keith Moon.”

He concludes by writing, “I know I need to earn this honor. Since this is the last time Pete and Roger will be touring the U.S., playing the greatest songs ever written, I will be giving them every second of my time, every beat of my heart, and every drop of my sweat and blood. This is my ultimate goal.”

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Paul McCartney is one of the most famous and successful musicians in history, but he admits he had a case of the nerves when he headed into the studio to record with Barbra Streisand for the diva’s upcoming all-star duets project.

As part of his ongoing “You gave me the answer” series on his website, Paul was asked what it was like working with Streisand. “Nerve-wracking. Nail-biting!” he replies. “I did the session with her in LA and I was pretty terrified.”

McCartney said he also felt pressure because they were recording on a soundstage that was literally named after Streisand. And any comfort he felt in the fact that they were recording one of his own songs quickly went away.

“I thought, ‘Well, this will be easy because it’s my song, it’s ‘My Valentine.’ What can go wrong?’” Paul says. “But what I’d forgotten was that they’d arranged it so that it had to go in Barbra’s key and then in my key. So, to get from Barbra’s key into mine was kind of difficult, and I had to launch in not knowing what key I was in. Mine was lower, hers was higher. It wasn’t easy at all!

But, McCartney says, “She was great. I didn’t realize how rounded she is, creatively. They were filming the session and as soon as we went in, she said, ‘Who put that camera there? That shouldn’t be there, bring it over here. And what about those lights?’ I thought, ‘Wow, you’re directing it!’ But then I suddenly remembered she’s directed three big movies. She’s a smart cookie.”

“My Valentine” is out now, and the album, The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two, arrives June 27. Others featured on the record include Bob Dylan, James Taylor and Sting.

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A new Judas Priest documentary has been announced.

The film is called The Ballad of Judas Priest and will be co-directed by Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello, marking his directorial debut. 

“While some may know Judas Priest for their huge hits that have shaped the heavy metal genre, there is so much more to their story,” Morello says alongside co-director Sam Dunn. 

“Tracing their incredible 50-year journey, this film will capture how Judas Priest both defined the sound and look of metal, but also made it a more inclusive place along the way,” the pair say. “We are grateful to the band for allowing us such intimate, unfiltered access to their lives and look forward to bringing this film to the metal masses around the world.”

Judas Priest adds, “We have lived and breathed metal for over five decades, and finally in this documentary we are summoning our congregation to officially witness our lives uncensored, in a never-before-seen way…the cassock comes off, revealing Priest in all its metal glory!”

A release date for The Ballad of Judas Priest has yet to be announced. 

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