Classic Rock News

Bruce Springsteen fans are anxiously awaiting the release of Tracks II: The Lost Albums on June 27, and E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg says they won’t be disappointed.

“I’ve heard everything and I think the fans are going to love it,” Weinberg tells the U.K. outlet The Times. “There is one album [Inyo] Bruce played me where he utilized a mariachi band of musicians, Hispanic musicians. It was just incredible, incredible music.”

Tracks II contains seven unreleased Springsteen albums, recorded between 1983 and 2018. That means one album that’s not part of the set is the long-rumored full band recording of Bruce’s 1982 solo acoustic album, Nebraska, nicknamed Electric Nebraska by fans. But Weinberg hopes the public will one day get to hear it.

He says those recordings were “kick-**, great versions” of the album’s songs, noting, “There’s been this myth that they weren’t well played but we played the hell out of them.”

He adds, “I know the songs were recorded, the tracks are there, so I hope one day Electric Nebraska does make the light of day.”

For now, fans are going to have to settle for a film about the making of Nebraska. Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White as The Boss, is due out later this year.

Tracks II: The Lost Albums is available for preorder now.

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The Who may be known for their live shows, but it turns out Pete Townshend may not exactly be enjoying his time on the stage.

In a new interview with Spain’s RockFM, Townshend shares that he doesn’t necessarily love performing.

“Most musicians are not like me. Most musicians do two things that I don’t really do or don’t enjoy doing. One is they love performing,” he says. “I don’t love performing. I don’t like being on a stage. I don’t mind being on a stage. I don’t hate it, but it doesn’t fill my soul in the way that you see some performers, just their soul is filled through being on the stage. That’s not me.”

The other thing he doesn’t love to do is collaborate with other artists, sharing, “For me, collaboration is something that I find very difficult.”

“If I was in a studio, like with a really, really great musician, or with a group of really great musicians, I think I would find it very hard. I often do find it very hard,” he says. “I find it difficult to collaborate. I find it very difficult looking in the eyes of another musician. I find myself looking to my own energy to express myself. So, I’m very different to most musicians in that respect,” although he notes that he does “admire the process of collaboration.”

While he may not love performing, Townshend will be doing just that in July. The Who have two shows coming up, both in Italy: July 20 in Padua and July 21 in Milan.

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KISS co-founder Peter Criss is releasing a new solo album, which will be his first in almost 20 years.

Criss revealed the news in an announcement video posted by the KISS FAQ podcast, sharing, “I have my new rock ‘n’ roll album to KISS Army guys coming out in the fall, and I really hope you like it, man.” 

The podcast’s host, Julian Gill, went on to describe the record as a “hard rock kick-a** album,” noting that he got to listen to it and that it’s “absolutely amazing to hear this new music.”

“It was vibrant and powerful,” he adds. “I think KISS fans are gonna love this album.”

According to Gill, the album features guest appearances by John 5, bassists Billy Sheehan and Matthew Montgomery aka Piggy D, the legendary Paul Shaffer and more.

“I had an absolute blast doing this album, and everyone was so much fun to work with — they were just amazing,” Criss told Rolling Stone in a separate interview. 

So far there’s no word on a title or exact release date for Criss’ album. It will be the drummer’s first solo album since 2007’s One For All.

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ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard is taking a longer break from the band.

It was announced in March that Beard had “temporarily stepped away” from the band’s tour “to attend a health issue requiring his focus in the near term.” Now that break includes the group’s tour of Australia and New Zealand, which kicks off Saturday.

A post on the Live Nation Asia site shares that Beard is skipping the shows due to recommendations by “medical personnel.’”

“Beard’s continued physical therapy has shown to be very effective in dealing with the issue that caused him to leave the recent US leg of the tour,” reads the statement. “While cheered by the positive news, band and management believe that his total recovery must be priority #1.”

Finally, it notes, “Beard’s attending physicians have suggested more physical therapy over a longer period would potentially achieve better and longer lasting results, and this will now be his focus.”

In Beard’s place, the band’s longtime tech member, drummer John Douglas, will join ZZ Top’s Billy F Gibbons and Elwood Francis for the tour. Douglas has been covering for Beard on U.S. dates this year and previously filled in for him back in 2002 during a ZZ Top tour of France.

ZZ Top’s Elevation Tour of Australia and New Zealand, with George Thorogood & The Destroyers, begins Saturday in Bendigo, Australia. They return to the U.S. for new shows starting June 10 in Moorhead, Minnesota. A complete list of dates can be found at ZZTop.com.

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On This Day, April 25, 1987…

Three weeks after its release, U2’s The Joshua Tree hit #1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart.

The album, the band’s fifth studio release, was U2’s first U.S. chart-topper, and it remained at number one for nine weeks.

The record included future U2 classics “With or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” which remain U2’s only #1 singles in the U.S., as well as “Where the Streets Have No Name.”

The Irish rockers went on to have seven more #1 albums: 1988’s Rattle and Hum, 1991’s Achtung Baby, 1993’s Zooropa, 1997’s Pop, 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, 2009’s No Line on the Horizon and 2017’s Songs of Experience.

U2 celebrated the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree with tours in 2017 and 2019, during which they played the album in its entirety. The tour hit North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

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Sammy Hagar has released the new single, “Encore, Thank You, Good Night,” which is described as “a celebration and expression of appreciation” of his time in Van Halen.

Sammy has said that the song was inspired by a dream he had about late Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen.

“This song is my final bow to that part of my life,” Sammy shares. “It’s not meant to be anything more than a thank-you — with love, with respect, and with one hell of a guitar solo.”

In the lyrics, Sammy thanks Eddie for coming into his dream, noting, “thank you for the visit, what took so long,” and also thanks him for the music, the “good times,” and the “fortune and the fame,” noting, “since you’ve been gone, things don’t feel the same.”

“Encore, Thank You, Good Night” is available now via digital outlets. Sammy is set to debut the video for the song on Sunday when he headlines the Stagecoach Festival’s Palomino Stage. It will also debut on YouTube.

Sammy co-wrote “Encore, Thank You, Good Night” with Joe Satriani, and it features Satriani on guitar, Van Halen’s Michael Anthony on bass and Kenny Aronoff on drums. These are the same guys Sammy will be playing Van Halen tunes with at his Las Vegas residency, The Best of All Worlds Tour Stays in Vegas – The Residency, which kicks off Wednesday at Dolby Live at Park MGM.

A complete list of dates can be found at RedRocker.com.

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The Rolling Stones have recorded a song for a tribute album to the late King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier, which is being released in celebration of what would have been the singer and accordion player’s 100th birthday.

A Tribute to the King of Zydeco, dropping June 27, is a 14-track album featuring a host of A-list musicians covering tunes from Chenier’s catalog. Other artists on the record include Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Taj Mahal, John Hiatt and Jimmie Vaughan.

The Stones cover the tune “Zydeco Sont Pas Salés,” and are joined by accordion player Steve Riley. The tune marks the first new music from the band since they released 2023’s Hackney Diamonds.

Chenier helped pioneer zydeco, a music genre created in Louisiana that blends blues, R&B and Afro-Cuban rhythms with music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles. He won a Grammy Award in 1983 for his album I’m Here and in 2014 he was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Chenier passed away in 1987 at the age of 62.

Proceeds from the album benefit the all-new Clifton Chenier Memorial Scholarship at the University of Louisiana Lafayette. The album is available for preorder now.

In other Rolling Stones news … the rockers have teamed with the Aston Martin Aramco for a new co-branded merch collection. The line features hoodies, t-shirts and hats all with The Stones’ tongue logo and the Aston Martin wings. The line is described as “fusing the speed and precision of Formula One with the rebellious spirit of rock and roll.”

The collection launched Thursday at The Stones’ RS No.9 Carnaby Street store in London, and is now available online at rsno9.com.

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The late David Bowie‘s wife Iman is celebrating their love on what would have been their 33rd wedding anniversary.

The supermodel shared two heartfelt posts on Instagram marking the occasion, the first reading, “When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure,” featuring the captions “#BowieForever” and “#ImanDaily.”

The second post included a black and white picture of them together, with a caption that included the date, April 24, and a poem, “I am going to love you until the end/ I will love you until I reach the end/ I will love you until I die/ I will see you in the sky/ Tonight,” along with the hashtags “#EternalLove” and, once again, “#BowieForever.”

Bowie and Iman wed in a private ceremony in Lausanne, Switzerland, on April 24, 1992. They welcomed their first and only child together, daughter Alexandria Zahra Jones, in 2000. The 24-year-old, who goes by the name Lexi, released a new album, Xandri, earlier this year.

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Sammy Hagar is getting ready to release the new single “Encore, Thank You, Good Night” on Friday, and he tells the Los Angeles Times the track is simply “a thank-you to Eddie Van Halen.”

“I miss the guy so much. Thank God we connected towards the end, otherwise I’d be heartbroken. I am anyway,” Sammy shares.

Sammy says that when they did reconnect, Eddie sounded optimistic about future plans.

“Eddie said to me, ‘Don’t tell anyone about us talking because I don’t want to be answering questions about rumors of a reunion.’ But he said, ‘Next year, we’re gonna get together — we’re gonna make some noise. Let me beat this s***, and let’s do it,'” Sammy says, noting Eddie even kept his plans from his brother, Alex Van Halen.

“He goes, ‘Please don’t talk to anyone — not even Al.’ I’ve never said that to anyone, and I bet you Al is gonna have a f****** fit,” Sammy says. “But Eddie said, ‘Don’t even talk to Al about this.’ I said, ‘Ed, I don’t talk to Al.’

Sammy adds he misses having “hope” that one day he and Eddie would play together again, and misses the “creativity and the energy” he had with him.

“He brought something out of me that just ain’t the same without him,” he says. “At my age, you sit there and wonder: If Eddie was alive, could I reach that again? Now that dream is gone.”

Next up, Hagar will headline the Stagecoach Festival’s Palomino Stage on Sunday and then kick off his Las Vegas residency, The Best of All Worlds Tour Stays in Vegas – The Residency, on April 30 at Dolby Live at Park MGM. A complete list of dates can be found at RedRocker.com.

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Kirk Hammett is down to rock the Sphere.

The Metallica guitarist tells The Hollywood Reporter that he’d be interested in the metal legends headlining the high-tech Las Vegas venue.

“Oh, heck, yeah!” Hammett says. “That’s a great example of how venues are changing. That’s using modern technology to the fullest, to really up the levels of production and entertainment, connected to AI and making it a crazy experience.”

The Sphere, which opened in 2023, boasts a state-of-the-art 160,000-square-foot wraparound LED screen. So far, Sphere performers have included U2, Phish, Eagles and Dead & Company.

In 2024, bassist Robert Trujillo was asked in an interview about the possibility of Metallica playing the Sphere, to which he responded, “You’d have to ask [drummer] Lars [Ulrich] that question!”

You can catch Metallica in non-Sphere venues on their current North American tour, which continues Thursday in Toronto.

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