Classic Rock News

The music of the Allman Brothers Band‘s Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts will once again be celebrated at the ninth annual Allman Betts Family Revival, a 20-date tour launching in November.

The trek will be hosted by Gregg’s son Devon Allman and Dickey’s son Duane Betts and feature a performance from The Allman Betts Band. The lineup will also include special guests Robert Randolph, Amanda Shires, Eric Johnson, Cody Dickinson and Luther Dickinson, Dweezil Zappa and G. Love in select cities.

The tour is described as a celebration “infused with the spirit of brotherhood and musical camaraderie that defines the Allman Brothers legacy.” It kicks off Nov. 29 in St. Louis, Missouri, and features stops in New York, Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles and more before wrapping Dec. 21 in San Francisco.

Complete lineups and ticket information can be found at AllmanBettsFamilyRevival.com.

Previous Allman Betts Family Revival tours have included such artists as Slash, Jason Isbell, Cheap Trick‘s Robin Zander, Marcus King and more.

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Roger Daltrey is setting the record straight about the events that led to The Who’s firing of drummer Zak Starkey.

Problems arose with Starkey during The Who’s Teenage Cancer Trust shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall in March, with Daltrey appearing to call out Starkey’s playing during “The Song is Over.” In an interview with The Telegraph, Starkey suggested that Daltrey was actually the one who “got it wrong,” and Daltrey was not happy about that.

In a new interview with the U.K. publication The Times, Roger called Starkey’s comments “kind of a character assassination,” adding that it was “incredibly upsetting.”

Daltrey says he wasn’t “having a go” at Starkey onstage at Royal Albert Hall, but was simply telling the guy controlling his monitors that he was hearing too much sub-bass. He added that the audience had “a complete misunderstanding” of what was happening.

Starkey was fired by The Who in April, but then rehired by the band, only to be let go again in May.

As for why they decided to go with another drummer, Daltrey says, “We wanted to branch out and that’s all I want to say about it. But [Starkey’s reaction] was crippling to me.”

Daltrey and Pete Townshend are getting ready to kick off what they say is their final U.S. tour. While Daltrey says his voice is “still as good as ever,” he does have some concerns, noting, “I can’t tell you if it will still be there in October.”

He adds, “There’s a big part of me that’s going, I just hope I make it through.”

The Who’s The Song Is Over North American Tour begins Aug. 16 in Sunrise, Florida. A complete list of dates can be found at TheWho.com.

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Rod Stewart paid tribute to Ozzy Osbourne during a recent concert, and he got a little help from AI to do so.

NME reports that during his Aug. 1 concert in Alpharetta, Georgia, near Atlanta, Stewart projected images of Ozzy on screen during his performance of “Forever Young,” but the Black Sabbath frontman wasn’t alone in them.

Fan shot footage shows that the tribute included AI-generated images of Ozzy posing for selfies with several other dead celebrities, including Prince, Tina Turner, Freddie Mercury, Kurt Cobain, George Michael, Michael Jackson and more. They are all set against a backdrop of clouds, suggesting they are all up in heaven together.

Ozzy Osbourne died July 22 at the age of 76.

After his death was announced, Rod paid tribute to Ozzy on social media, writing, “Bye, bye Ozzy. Sleep well, my friend. I’ll see you up there — later rather than sooner.”

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On This Day, Aug. 4, 1964 …

The Kinks released their third single, “You Really Got Me,” in the U.K., where it became their first #1 hit and stayed on top for two weeks.

The tune was released in America that September and became a breakthrough hit for the band, peaking at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Guitarist Dave Davies created the distorted guitar sound in the tune by slicing up the speaker on his amp with a razor blade. The highly influential track has been described as proto-punk and early heavy metal.

The track hit the charts once again in 1978 after Van Halen covered it for their self-titled debut album and released it as their debut single. The Van Halen version peaked at #36 on the Hot 100.

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As Bruce Springsteen‘s breakthrough album Born to Run turns 50 in August, author and journalist Peter Ames Carlin takes a deep dive into the record in his new book, Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run, out Tuesday.

While Born to Run was a critical and commercial success for Springsteen, prior to the record he was coming off two commercial failures — Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle — and was close to being dropped by his label.

“That was like an existential threat to him because he was so about his work and his career and he was still discovering his voice and his identity,” Carlin tells ABC Audio. He notes that Born to Run turned out to be the album where Springsteen “figured out who he was and what Bruce Springsteen, the performer, was supposed to be.”

Carlin, who also wrote the 2012 biography Bruce, says for Born to Run, Springsteen focused on “simplifying his songs” and “making the lyrics direct and conversational.”

Carlin notes that while making the record Springsteen also had to get to a place “where he could acknowledge and work with his own desire to be successful.”

“I think he was a little leery of that up to that point,” he says.

Carlin got a chance to talk to Springsteen for the book and says The Boss didn’t have a hard time looking back at that period in his career.

“He loves to look back into the past, especially when it’s something that was that transformative of an experience for him,” the author says. “And I think it was also really interesting for him to look back at 50 years later and to remember what it was like to be young and hungry and with so much to prove.” 

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Jerry Garcia would have turned 83 on Friday, and in recognition, his native San Francisco gave the late Grateful Dead founder a big honor.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that on Friday, San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie led a dedication ceremony as a stretch of Harrington Street, where Garcia spent part of childhood, was renamed Jerry Garcia Street in his honor. The ceremony took place just a few steps away from the home where Garcia lived with his grandparents.

“Jerry gave San Francisco and its people lasting memories and music,” Lurie told the crowd, according to the paper. “He created something out of nothing. Jerry had the spirit of a rock star, an innovator and a futurist.”

Garcia’s daughter Trixie was also present, and she said, “Jerry was a magical person. He was humble, he was generous, he was talented. It’s truly an honor, on behalf of Jerry Garcia’s family, to witness this historic street naming.”

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park also hosted three days of Dead & Company concerts on Aug. 1, 2 and 3 celebrating the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary. During those shows, the band was joined at various points by Phil Lesh’s son Grahame Lesh, as well as Billy Strings and Sturgill Simpson.

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John Lennon took himself out of the spotlight for five years in the 1970s to raise his son Sean Lennon, but during that time he was “insanely jealous” of his former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney‘s musical success. That’s according to longtime Lennon friend and confidant Elliot Mintz.

While appearing on Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan‘s podcast, The Magnificent Others, Mintz said that Lennon would speak “so lovingly” of Paul. But Mintz claimed Lennon was “insanely jealous” of all the “mega hits” that Paul was scoring with his band Wings. 

“He was jealous of the amount of attention and accolades, and the fact that Paul was filling stadiums,” Mintz claims. But when Mintz would argue that Lennon wasn’t even making albums or doing concerts, he says Lennon would tell him, “You’re missing the point. They’re embracing his genius, but have you heard ‘Silly Love Songs’?”

Mintz says he would respond, “Look, let’s be fair. He’s done things other than ‘Silly Love Songs.’ But that would go nowhere.”

He recalls that for Christmas in 1978, Paul and wife Linda McCartney came by John and Yoko Ono‘s New York City apartment and everybody got along fine. According to Mintz, Paul asked John if he was making any music, and John said no. When John asked Paul the same question, he responded, “I’m always making music. I make music every day of my life. I can’t stop making music.”

Mintz says at the time he thought to himself, “What would have happened if John [took] the bait and said, ‘I got a couple of guitars in the other room. What if I bring them out just for the hell of it?’ And the two of them could’ve sat in the living room and changed the face of contemporary music.”

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Back in 2011, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Jake Holmes, who wrote the song “Dazed and Confused” in 1967, settled a copyright infringement lawsuit that would lead to Zeppelin’s rendition of the song being credited as “written Jimmy Page, inspired by Jake Holmes.”  However, due to events including the release of the film Becoming Led Zeppelin, Holmes sued Page again earlier this year — and that case has now been settled too.

After Holmes wrote the song, Page’s previous band The Yardbirds recorded it, and then Page reworked it for Led Zeppelin in 1969. Holmes’ new complaint, obtained by ABC News, asserted that in the past three years, Page released numerous Yardbirds recordings that featured them performing “Dazed and Confused,” and those recordings falsely attributed authorship of the song to Page. As per the original settlement, though, the version that The Yardbirds recorded had always been credited to Holmes.

Plus, there were two performances of “Dazed and Confused” in the Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary, one by The Yardbirds. Once again, Holmes contended, that rendition was incorrectly credited to Page, not him.

On Friday, Holmes filed a notification that “a settlement has been reached that resolves the entire case.” The details of the settlement were not stipulated.

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A new Las Vegas residency isn’t the only thing that Def Leppard has planned for 2026.

The band tells USA Today that they’re working on a new album for release next year. It’ll be their first new studio album since 2022’s Diamond Star Halos. And like that record, they’re working on the new album remotely, rather than all the members together in a studio. 

“We’re blessed that technology has allowed us to do this,” singer Joe Elliott tells USA Today. “We get together metaphorically rather than physically and do Zoom meetings all the time. This way five people can work on the same song at the same time and it adds excitement to the flavors of what you’re doing. Laptops have become Abbey Road.”

Elliott added that there’s “plenty of stuff” completed for the new album, and that they just need to figure out which songs will make the final cut and in what order.

Meanwhile, the band is currently on tour. When they wrap up their dates in October, they’ll start preparing for Def Leppard: Live at Caesars Palace The Las Vegas Residency. The 12-show run is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2026, to Feb. 28, 2026, at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. 

Elliott, who’s spent 48 years with Def Leppard, tells USA Today, “Health allowing, we’ll keep going until we feel we can’t anymore.”

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Ouch! Steve Nicks has been sidelined by an injury and is postponing her August and September concerts.

A note on her Instagram says that Stevie requires “recovery time” from “a recent injury resulting in a fractured shoulder.” The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer notes that her October dates will be unaffected and her schedule will resume Oct. 1 in Portland, Oregon.

“Stevie looks forward to seeing everyone soon and apologizes to the fans for this inconvenience,” the note concludes. Ticketholders are advised to hold onto their tickets for the rescheduled shows; you can get more info at the point of purchase.

Stevie’s rescheduled dates, all of which are listed on her Instagram, start Oct. 28 in Detroit and run through Dec. 10 in Hollywood, Florida. Visit StevieNicksOfficial.com for more info.

Many of these concerts by Stevie were announced in June to fill in the gaps in her schedule after the cancellation of her joint stadium dates with Billy Joel. The two were scheduled to play four shows together in New Jersey, California and Michigan, but following Billy’s brain disorder diagnosis, those concerts were scrapped.

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