Classic Rock News

Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx, drummer Matt Sorum and Styx are among the artists donating items to a new auction benefiting Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen’s Raven Drum Foundation. 

The 12 Drummers Drumming auction helps raise money for Raven Drum Foundation’s mission to help veterans, first responders and others dealing with trauma. Now in its third year, the auction is open for bidding through November 11 at 12 p.m. PT.  

Items available this year include a signed bass by Sixx; a drumhead signed by Lee and Allen; a Sorum package that includes three pairs of signature drumsticks, one set each from his time with Guns N’ Roses, The Cult and Velvet Revolver; and a Rick Allen handprint on a canvas.

There is also a custom Dave Matthews guitar with hand-drawn artwork, part of a partnership with Musicians on Call to bring music to VA hospitals throughout the country.

Previous auctions have raised over $120,000.

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KISS is playing one less show on their End of the Road tour.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers were supposed to headline Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai on Friday, October 13, but according to a message on the venue’s website, the show has been canceled. 

“KISS has today confirmed that they have cancelled their show due to unforeseen circumstances and will be releasing more information imminently,” read the post. “We share the KISS Army and regional rock fans’ disappointment and wish the band members all the best.” 

Fans with tickets will receive immediate refunds. 

The show was supposed to be the band’s final concert in Dubai. Up next, they will kick off the final leg of their tour on October 19 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The tour ends with two shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden, December 1 and 2. A complete list of dates can be found at kissonline.com.

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Elton John and husband David Furnish are trying to help artists get paid.

According to Sky News, the pair is part of a new group of investors in Audoo, a music technology company trying to improve the way artists are compensated when their music is played in public venues. The company’s Audio Meter monitoring device is able to recognize when songs are played in public spaces like cafes, hair salons, gyms and more.

“Working as a musician can be seen as all glitz and glamour but for the vast majority of artists, especially new and emerging acts, this isn’t the case. It’s often brutally unfair and this sadly extends into being paid correctly,” Elton shares. “Right now, artists are not being paid accurately for their plays because the data simply doesn’t exist.”

He adds, “That’s why we’ve invested in Audoo and their world-class technology, to help create a more transparent system for everyone, and ultimately to keep the music alive.”

Elton and David are part of a new injection of funds to the company, said to be around $5 million. They aren’t the only famous names to put their money behind Audoo: ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus and Paul McCartney’s investment company, MPL Ventures, have also backed Audoo. The company has raised $22 million since it first launched in 2018.

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There was a Heart reunion onstage in Santa Rosa, California, on Tuesday, October 10.

Ann Wilson was headlining a show with her Tripsitter band at Luther Burbank Center For The Arts when she invited her sister Nancy Wilson out for the encore. Fan-shot footage posted to YouTube shows the Heart sisters rocking out to their classic tune “Barracuda.”

Nancy had actually teased her appearance earlier in the evening, sharing a picture of one of her picks on top of a setlist and tagging both the venue and her sister. 

The last time Heart toured together was in 2019. This year marks the band’s 50th anniversary. In a 2022 Grammy.com interview, Nancy suggested they were going to be doing something to mark the milestone, but so far nothing’s been announced.

Ann Wilson & Tripsitter have tour dates booked through December 11. Their next show is happening Wednesday, October 11, at the State Theatre in Red Bluff, California. A complete list of dates can be found at annwilson.com.

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As much fun as Metallica had playing the Power Trip festival, frontman James Hetfield might’ve had an even better time watching fellow headliner Judas Priest take the stage.

You may have seen viral footage of Hetfield shredding air guitar during Priest’s performance of “Living After Midnight,” or Metallica’s Instagram post of him and guitarist Kirk Hammett rocking out while standing between the crowd barricade and the stage.

In the latest episode of the weekly Metallica Report podcast, Hetfield reflects on his Power Trip experience.

“I just kind of realized that we’re down in the very front looking up, you got Rob Halford riding out on a motorcycle, and there’s fans behind us looking at us,” Hetfield shares. “They’re watching us enjoy that. How cool?”

“We’re fans, at the end of the day,” he adds. “We wanted to be in the mix and see it.”

Power Trip also featured Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, Tool and AC/DC, who played their first live show in seven years at the festival.

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Van Morrison will be celebrating his upcoming album, Accentuate the Positive, with two hometown shows.

He just announced a pair of album release concerts taking place November 4 and 5 at the Limelight in Belfast, Ireland, and urged concertgoers to “bring your dancing shoes.” 

Tickets for both shows go on sale Friday, October 13, at 10 a.m. local time.

Accentuate the Positive, Morrison’s 45th studio album, has him covering some of his personal rock ‘n’ roll favorites, like the already released singles “Shakin’ All Over,” originally recorded by Johnny Kidd, and “Problems,” made famous by The Everly Brothers in 1958.

Accentuate the Positive, dropping November 3, is available for preorder now.

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On This Day, October 11, 1997…

Elton John landed at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Candle in the Wind ’97,” a tribute to his close friend, the late Princess Diana.  

Elton first performed the song, a reworking of his 1974 single, at Diana’s funeral that September. He then recorded the track, with proceeds going to the Diana, Princess of Wales Fund. The song was released as a double A-side single with “Something About the Way You Look Tonight,” from Elton’s album The Big Picture.

The track spent 14 weeks at #1 in the U.S, and topped the charts in 20 different countries, including the U.K., Japan, Australia and more. It went on to become the first single to earn Diamond certification by the RIAA for sales of 10 million copies. 

“Candle in the Wind ’97” is also the second highest-selling physical single of all time, behind Bing Crosby‘s 1942 classic “White Christmas,” according to the Guinness Book of World Records, and has sold more than 33 million copies worldwide.

The track also earned Elton a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

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ZZ Top guitarist Billy F Gibbons is throwing himself a birthday party this December. 

The rocker announced a trio of Birthday Jam concerts taking place December 19, 20 and 21 at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. All shows, billed as “3 Nights of Rock and Blues,” will feature the LA AllStars Band and promises unnamed special guests.

The December 19 and 21 shows are already sold out, but tickets for the 20th are still available.

Gibbons’ actual birthday is December 16; he’ll be turning 74.

In the meantime, Gibbons is currently on tour with ZZ Top. They’ll hit Calgary, Canada, on Wednesday, October 11. A complete list of dates can be found at zztop.com.

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May Pang, the woman who had an 18-month relationship with The Beatles‘ John Lennon in the ’70s, is telling her story in the new documentary The Lost Weekend: A Love Story. But she says it took a while for her to be ready to share it on the big screen.

She tells ABC Audio that while she previously released a book about their romance, putting it on the big screen is much different.

“We’re in an age right now that people rather see something than read it,” she says. “And I think it makes a bigger impact on my story.”

May was working as Lennon and Yoko Ono’s personal assistant when the couple decided to separate in 1973; Yoko told Pang she wanted her to date her husband. The movie covers their happy time together in Los Angeles and New York; it also touches on how Pang helped Lennon rebuild his fractured relationship with his son Julian, as well as his musical friends.

When their relationship ended, it was often referred to as The Lost Weekend, but Pang hopes the movie shows folks that what they had was real.

“There was a lot of good that came out of that for both him and, you know, myself,” she says.

And Pang says she has few regrets about their time together, which she claims didn’t actually end when John finally returned to Yoko.

“I knew that he wasn’t completely 100% happy because he was one of those type of people, once you are over, it’s over,” she says. “But it wasn’t when it came to me.”  

The Lost Weekend: A Love Story comes to VOD and Blu-ray on Friday, October 13.

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Music fans are getting their first look at a new documentary centered around the relationship between The Rolling Stones and founding member Brian Jones, who was fired from the band in 1969 due to alcohol and drug problems. He died less than a month later.

A new trailer has just been released for The Stones and Brian Jones, directed by Kurt & Courtney director Nick Broomfield. The movie will hit theaters on November 7, before being released digitally on November 17.

The trailer features archival footage, some of which has never been seen before. According to the description, the film “explores the creative musical genius of Jones” and “uncovers how the founder of what became the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world was left behind in the shadows of history.”

One thing you won’t see in the film is a new interview from Mick Jagger or Keith Richards. Broomfield tells Rolling Stone mag he didn’t approach them because “they’re extremely controlling.”

“One of the reasons there are no films about this period is because no one’s ever been able to make one. So, we just made this film and showed it to people afterward,” he says. “(Former Stones bassist) Bill Wyman came onboard, which was great because he was the guy who was the diarist and note-keeper of the Stones. He has all these diaries in his study — every day he kept a notebook of what happened.”

He says Wyman was amazed after watching the documentary, noting, “I think when you can surprise the Stones’ own archivist, you’re doing OK.”

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