Classic Rock News

War is set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their hit album Why Can’t We Be Friends? with a new deluxe release.

Why Can’t We Be Friends? (50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition) will feature a remastered version of the 1975 album, along with two additional discs. One will feature bonus tracks, jam sessions and unedited mixes, while the third disc will feature a recording about the making of the album.

As a preview of the release, the band has shared a previously unreleased unedited mix of their hit “Low Rider,” which is now available via digital outlets.

Why Can’t We Be Friends? (50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition) will be released digitally and as a three-CD set on June 6. It is available for preorder now. A three-LP vinyl set was already released exclusively for Record Store Day on April 12.

Released in June 1975, Why Can’t We Be Friends? was a huge hit for War, thanks to two singles: the title track and “Low Rider,” which were both top-10 hits for the band. The album peaked at #8 on the Billboard chart.

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Heart has announced a new set of summer tour dates.

The latest additions to the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers’ schedule kick off Aug. 8 in Quincy, Washington, with stops in San Diego, San Francisco, Kansas City, Des Moines and more, before wrapping Aug. 30 in Bethel, New York. Todd Rundgren is set to join them as special guest on select dates.

A presale for tickets starts Monday at 10 a.m. local time, with tickets going on sale to the general public on Thursday, April 24, at 10 a.m. local time.

Heart is set to wrap their Royal Flush tour at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Wednesday. They will then kick off a new tour, An Evening With Heart, on May 31 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. That tour will have the band performing two sets each night.

A complete list of dates can be found at heart-music.com.

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Aerosmith’s hit song “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” is featured in a new ad campaign for the 2025 NBA Playoffs.

The clip features footage of NBA players like Jayson Tatum, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Donovan Mitchell and Karl-Anthony Towns as everyday people in homes, bars, businesses and more get transported into the arena to watch the game. The clip also includes cameos from Rob Lowe, Shaboozey, Sheila E. and more, ending with the tagline “Don’t Miss A Thing.”

The 2025 NBA Playoffs kick off Sunday on ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV.

“I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” was the theme to the hit action flick Armageddon, which starred Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler’s daughter Liv Tyler. Written by Diane Warren, the song was Aerosmith’s first #1 single, spending four weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

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On This Day, April 16, 1996 …

The four original members of KISS – Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley – held a press conference aboard the USS Intrepid in New York City to announce they were getting back together for a reunion tour.

The trek would be the band’s first with Criss and Frehley since 1979’s Dynasty tour.

When tickets went on sale a few days later they sold out in just 47 minutes.

KISS’ Alive/Worldwide tour kicked off June 28 in Detroit and wrapped July 5, 1997. It consisted of 192 shows and brought in $43.6 million.

Following the release of another album, Psycho Circus in 1998, the reunited band went on a farewell tour that launched in March 2000, although it wouldn’t be KISS’ last.

While Criss and Frehley eventually left the group again, Simmons and Stanley continued to tour with KISS. The pair wrapped what they said would be the final KISS tour in New York City in December 2023, although they recently announced they would be performing an “unmasked” show in Las Vegas in November.

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Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder, Metallica and Depeche Mode are among the musical acts premiering new documentaries at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, taking place June 4-15 in New York City.

Vedder’s film, Matter of Time, follows his work to support research into finding a cure for the genetic disease epidermolysis bullosa. His EB Research Partnership organization, which he cofounded alongside his wife, Jill, hosts a benefit concert to raise money for the cause.

The screening of Matter of Time, which will mark the doc’s world premiere, will be followed by an acoustic performance by Vedder.

Metallica Saved My Life is dedicated to the the metal legends’ passionate fanbase, while Depeche Mode: M was filmed during the “Enjoy the Silence” outfit’s 2023 concerts in Mexico City. Their respective Tribeca screenings, which also mark their world premieres, will be followed by conversations with Metallica and Depeche Mode. 

Other music films premiering at Tribeca include the Billy Idol doc Billy Idol Should Be Dead, which will be followed by a performance by the “Rebel Yell” rocker, and the Counting Crows doc Have You Seen Me Lately?

For more info, visit TribecaFilm.com.

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Pink Floyd has shared another preview of the newly restored version of their 1972 concert film, Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, which is set to hit theaters and IMAX on April 24.

In addition to the band’s October 1971 performance at the ancient Roman amphitheater in Italy, which was the first live concert ever to take place at the site, the film features behind-the-scenes footage of them in the studio recording their classic 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon.

They just shared a clip from that footage, which shows Roger Waters playing around with some synthesizers, and both Roger and David Gilmour discussing the equipment they use.

“I mean it’s all extensions of what’s coming out of our heads,” Gimour says in the clip. “I mean you’ve got to remember you’ve got to have it inside your head to get it out at all anyway. The equipment isn’t actually thinking of what to do any of the time. It couldn’t control itself.”

Tickets for Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII are on sale now.

In addition to the theatrical release, Pink Floyd will release the live album Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII on May 2, marking the first full-length live record of the concert. It will be released on CD, LP, Blu-Ray, DVD, digital audio and Dolby Atmos.

It is available for preorder now.

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Carlos Santana is set to launch his Oneness tour on Wednesday, which will mark his first show since November 2024. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer was supposed to headline some Las Vegas residency dates back in January, but was forced to postpone the shows after falling and breaking his finger.

The 77-year-old Santana tells ABC Audio that the accident “was scary” because he couldn’t feel one of his fingers.

“It was like it was something that’s dead, you know? There was no feeling in this finger, and it was affecting the rest of my hand,” he says. “So for about five minutes I had that poison doubt. ‘What if this is the end of my career and I can’t play anymore?’”

But the guitar great quickly got over that feeling, noting, “I heard my spirit say, ‘Shut up, shut up. That’s not what God wants. That’s not what’s gonna happen.’”

Carlos says the break from performing “is the longest pit stop I ever had,” but now he’s got a “full tank” and is ready to go.

“We came in replenished with inspiration and feeling, the emotions, passion, light,” he shares. 

As for what songs fans can expect to hear this time around, Santana says that he likes to “change it up enough so that it’s new for us and it’s new for the audience.”

“I want every note, every song to be like your first French kiss because when you’re having a French kiss with a beautiful woman, you have to be totally present,” he says. “You know, you can’t fake a French kiss, and so to me music is like that.”

Santana’s Oneness tour kicks off Wednesday in Highland, California. A complete list of dates can be found at Santana.com.

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Turns out the lyrics to Bryan Adams‘ 1985 hit “Summer of ’69” aren’t exactly autobiographical.

In the lyrics he reminisces about his first guitar, singing about getting his “first real six-string” at the “five and dime.” Well, during an appearance on the I Never Thought It Would Happen podcast, hosted by Squeeze’s Chris Difford, Adams reveals his uncle actually got him his first guitar when he was 12. 

“[I] told him that I wanted to buy an electric guitar, and he took me down to the music shop in Reading and I still have that electric guitar,” he said. “It’s an Italian thing. … It’s an imitation Stratocaster.”

And while Adams has that guitar today, that wasn’t always the case. He says he actually gave it to a neighbor when his family moved from Israel, but it eventually made its way back to him.

He explained that sometime in the ’90s he got a “random email” from someone saying they had the guitar, asking if he wanted it back. But after replying he never heard from them again.

Then 10 years later a man came up to him at a club in Berlin claiming to have it. Turns out he was a friend of the original emailer, who had died in a plane crash. That guy left the guitar to his friend, telling him he wanted to get it back to Adams.

“It’s the stupidest story, but I mean, it’s what happened. And so I got it back,” Adams said. “I tried playing it a few times, but I think it’s been modified in the neck. … I haven’t bothered to set it up again, it’s just there. Just a piece of history.”

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ZZ Top has added some new dates to their summer Elevation tour.

The trek is set to kick off in the U.S. on June 10 in Moorhead, Minnesota, and the band has now added 21 additional shows in such cities as Salinas, Kansas; Lincoln, Nebraska; Eugene, Oregon; Costa Mesa, California; Midland, Texas; and New York City. The tour is now set to wrap on Oct. 10 in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Special guests on the tour include Night Ranger, Payton Smith and Black Stone Cherry.

A presale for tickets launches Wednesday, with tickets going on sale to the general pubic on Friday.

Next up, ZZ Top brings their Elevation tour to Australia and New Zealand. The tour Down Under begins April 26 in Bendigo, Australia. A complete list of tour dates can be found at ZZTop.com.

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Seventies hitmakers 10CC have announced dates for a new summer tour of the U.S.

The band, best known for such hits as “I’m Not in Love” and “The Things We Do For Love,” will launch a new leg of The Ultimate Ultimate Greatest Hits Tour Aug. 27 in Napa, California. The tour will consist of 17 shows, with stops in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, Chicago, Columbus, Cleveland and more. It wraps Sept. 14 in Alexandria, Virginia.

10CC brought The Ultimate Ultimate Greatest Hits Tour to the U.S. last summer. The band currently consists of original member Graham Gouldman with Rick Fenn and Paul Burgess, who joined the group in 1976, plus Keith Hayman and Andy Park.

“After not having toured the US for more than three decades, last year’s tour was a remarkable experience,” says Gouldman. “We’re used to our regular audiences across Europe, Australia and New Zealand, but the reaction of the American audiences took us completely by surprise – it was incredible. We are really looking forward to our return and playing new venues this year.”

A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at 10cc.world.

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