Classic Rock News

Bonnie Raitt and Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo are among the artists booked to perform on the upcoming 49th season of Austin City Limits.

Benatar and Giraldo are set to tape their ACL debut on September 24. Raitt is booked for October 15, with Nashville-based singer/songwriter Sunny War joining her as special guest.

This will be Raitt’s first ACL performance in over a decade. She made her ACL debut in 1984 and last appeared on the program in 2012, although she did perform on the 2014 40th anniversary special. She was also inducted into the ACL Hall of Fame in 2016. 

Other artists booked for season 49 include Foo Fighters, Alanis Morissette and Brittney Spencer.

Austin City Limits airs on PBS. Episodes will also be available to stream via PBS.org.

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Billy Idol is headed to the Super Bowl. While the rocker isn’t headlining the halftime show, he will be performing, with his show taking place ahead of the big game. 

Idol announced on social media that he’ll headline a special pregame concert for Club 67 and Touchdown Club guests at Allegiant Stadium.

To get to see Idol, fans will have to purchase special Super Bowl experience packages, which include tickets to the game, the pregame concert and more. They don’t come cheap, though, with packages starting at over $8,500 a person.

Super Bowl LVIII will go down February 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

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Lady Gaga is one of the many guest stars on The Rolling Stones‘ new album, Hackney Diamonds, but apparently her participation in the project was pretty much an accident.

Stones frontman Mick Jagger told The Associated Press at the band’s album launch event in London Wednesday that Gaga just happened to be recording in the studio next door to them and popped in to say hello. That led to her contributing to the song “Sweet Sounds of Heaven.”

“She walked in next to me and we started singing together,” Jagger said. “She sang it live and then we went in and tidied it up a bit.”

Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood told Sky News, “She was sitting on the floor in the studio and Mick said, ‘Don’t just sit there and hum! Get up, let’s record this!'” He added, “She’s lovely, very talented and lovely.”

As previously reported, in 2012 Gaga joined the Stones onstage for a performance of their classic “Gimme Shelter,” which is documented on the Stones’ 2023 concert album, Grrr Live!

The first single from Hackney Diamonds, “Angry,” is out now with a video starring Euphoria actress Sydney Sweeney. Hackney Diamonds is out October 20.

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Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood and The Police’s Stewart Copeland are among the artists coming together to help raise money for the victims of the Maui wildfires. Both artists are set to take part in #MauiStrong, a live stream event happening Friday, September 8, on YouTube. 

Mick is set to perform alongside Gretchen Rhodes “and friends,” while Copeland will lead a “Drums for Maui” segment, backed by some local musicians from the island. The live stream will be a mix of art, music and storytelling and will also feature LL Cool J, Sarah McLachlan, Ziggy Marley, Lukas Nelson, Nathaniel Rateliff and others .

Funds raised will benefit the Hawaii Community Foundation’s Maui Strong Fund as well as the Recording Academy charity MusicCares. A future soundtrack from the event will also benefit the two organizations.

#MauiStrong will premiere at 8 p.m. ET on Marley’s YouTube channel. Those interested in donating will be able to do so by clicking a button right on the watch page. 

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This fall marks 50 years since David Bowie released his covers compilation, Pin Ups. The anniversary is being celebrated with a vinyl reissue of the album.

Recorded in France and released October 19, 1973, Pin Ups featured Bowie covering tracks from such artists as The Yardbirds, The Kinks, Pink Floyd, The Who, Pretty Things, The Easybeats and more, all artists who influenced Bowie. The album went to #1 in the U.K. and featured an iconic cover image of Bowie with model Twiggy, a photo that was originally supposed to be used for the cover of Vogue.

The 50th anniversary vinyl will be released on October 20 as a limited edition half-speed mastered LP from restored masters of the original tapes. It is available for preorder now. 

Here is the track list for Pin Ups:

“Rosalyn”
“Here Comes The Night”
“I Wish You Would”
“See Emily Play”
“Everything’s Alright”
“I Can’t Explain”
“Friday On My Mind”
“Sorrow”
“Don’t Bring Me Down”
“Shapes Of Things”
“Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere”
“Where Have All The Good Times Gone”

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Joni Mitchell has just treated fans to a never-before-heard song, “Like Veils Said Lorraine,” which will appear on her upcoming box set, Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975).

The song, which was recorded in late 1971/early 1972 at A&M Studios in Hollywood, California, is one of several previously unreleased demos featured on the set, which will be released October 6.

In addition to the demos, Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975) will also feature performances and early and alternative versions of songs from three of her albums: 1972’s For The Roses, 1974’s Court And Spark and 1975’s The Hissing Of Summer Lawns.

It will be released in a variety of formats, including a five-CD/digital version and a shorter four-LP version, and is available for preorder now.

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Personal items belonging to the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury are currently up for auction at Sotheby’s, and the rocker’s bandmate Brian May doesn’t sound too happy about it.

May revealed his feelings about the auction in a sentimental post on Instagram, next to a picture of Freddie playing guitar.

“Inescapably thinking so much about Freddie in these strange days,” he wrote. “At the time this photo was taken I’m sure it didn’t seem very important to see Freddie’s fingers dancing on my own home-made guitar. Now it summons up waves of affection and great memories. He is so missed.”

May then noted he was about to headline a speaking engagement in front of a group of farmers, adding that at the same time, “Freddie’s most intimate personal effects, and writings that were part of what we shared for so many years, will go under the hammer, to be knocked down to the highest bidder and dispersed forever.”

He added, “I can’t look. To us, his closest friends and family, it’s too sad.”

Day one of the Sotheby’s Freddie Mercury: A World of his Own auction kicked off Wednesday, September 6, bringing in $15.4 million. A second live auction is happening Thursday, September 7, with a third scheduled for Friday, September 8. There are also three online auctions that run until September 13. More info can be found at Sothebys.com.

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Miley Cyrus has opened up on the time she spent with late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins prior to his death in 2022.

In the latest installment of her “Used to Be Young” TikTok series, the pop star shares that she and Hawkins lived in the same neighborhood during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

“We became really close,” Cyrus says. “I would go to his house, he taught me all the Chrissie Hynde songs on the drums. I would go over and play the Pretenders with him every night, he would have me dance around to ‘Brass in Pocket’ with that wireless headset while he would sing along.”

Cyrus also reveals that Hawkins was the first person she called after her plane made an emergency landing when it was hit by lightning on the way to a festival in Paraguay, which Foo Fighters were also supposed to headline.

“Next day or the day after, I woke up to the news that he had passed away,” Cyrus says.

Hawkins died March 25, 2022. On March 26, Cyrus performed a show in Brazil, during which she dedicated her song “Angels Like You” to Hawkins.

“I knew that he, of all people, would want me to still perform through the pain,” Cyrus says.

Cyrus would later perform at Foo Fighters’ Los Angeles tribute concert to Hawkins in September 2022, joining members of Def Leppard to perform their song “Photograph.” Following the show, Cyrus shared a voicemail Hawkins had left her saying that she should cover “Photograph.”

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Foo Fighters are headed back to Austin City Limits.

Dave Grohl and company will perform on the upcoming 49th season of the long-running music performance TV series. Their episode airs on November 18.

The Foos have performed on Austin City Limits twice before. Highlights from those shows were also compiled into an hourlong ACL special, which premiered in 2021 in celebration of the “Everlong” band’s 25th anniversary.

Foo Fighters had also booked an ACL taping for 2022, but it was scrapped due to the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Austin City Limits airs on PBS. Episodes will also be available to stream via PBS.org.

Foo Fighters are set to headline the 2023 Austin City Limits Music Festival, taking place October 6-8 and 13-15.

In other Foos news, the creators of the Foo Fighters pinball game have released a behind-the-scenes video on how the machine came together. You can watch that streaming on YouTube.

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Bob Dylan played his first shows in Japan 45 years ago, and now, those iconic concerts are being celebrated in a new box set. 

Bob Dylan – The Complete Budokan 1978, dropping Friday, November 17, will feature two full shows recorded at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan hall on February 28 and March 1, 1978, all remastered from the original analog tapes. It includes 36 previously unreleased performances, one of which, “The Man in Me,” has just been released, giving fans a preview of the set.

The Complete Budokan 1978 will be released digitally and as four-CD set. There will also be an eight-LP set, available in Japan only, and a two-LP set, Bob Dylan – Another Budokan 1978, with 16 selected tracks. 

The Japan shows were part of the Bob Dylan World Tour 1978, his first international tour since 1966. Dylan played 114 shows on that tour, hitting Asia, Oceania, North America and Europe.

Bob Dylan – The Complete Budokan 1978 is available for preorder now.

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