Classic Rock News

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band are ready to bring their tour back to the States, and guitarist Nils Lofgren is certainly happy about it.

Lofgren tells ABC Audio he’s thrilled to be back in the U.S. after their recent tour of Europe and the U.K., especially because he’ll be able to stop back home a bit more. 

“How lucky and blessed we all are is not lost on any of us,” Lofgren says about working with such a great band and great boss. “Once you walk out there, that’s just a joy and a dream and a gift for all of us.” 

He adds, “I really feel like this band is as good or better than we’ve ever been. And of course, you know, mainly it’s Bruce doing the heavy lifting, but he’s in it, man, he’s down in it and he’s giving it.”

Lofgren says being in The E Street Band is good for his “musical soul,” and while other artists who write their own music like he does may not enjoy being in the background, he insists, “I love it.”

“Past earning a living and a salary, there’s some emotional hit you get if you’re still in love with performing after half a century,” he says. 

The second leg of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band’s North American tour kicks off with a two-night stand at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, August 9 and 11. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.com.

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John Gosling, who played keyboards on 10 albums by The Kinks, has died, the band announced on social media on August 4. He was 75.

The band posted a video of Gosling dressed in goggles with a pair of wings on his back running back and forth in a backyard, set to their song “Supersonic Rocket Ship.” In the caption, they wrote, “We are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of John Gosling. We are sending our condolences to John’s wife and family.” Separately, head Kink Ray Davies wrote, “Condolences to his wife Theresa and family. Rest in Peace dearest John.”

Ray’s brother and bandmate Dave Davies added, “I’m dismayed [and] deeply upset by John Gosling’s passing. He has been a friend and important contributor to the Kinks music during his time with us. Deepest sympathies to his wife and family. I will hold deep affection and love for him in my heart always. Great musician and a great man.”

Kinks drummer Mick Avory wrote, “Today we lost a dear friend and colleague, he was a great musician and had a fantastic sense of humour … which made him popular member of the band, he leaves us with some happy memories. God Bless him.”

Joining The Kinks in 1970, Gosling’s debut with them was “Lola,” restablishing the band as a commercial force in the U.S. for the first time since the mid-70’s.  Gosling went on to play on 10 Kinks albums, including Muswell Hillbillies, Everybody’s in Show-Biz, Sleepwalker and Misfits. 

Gosling left The Kinks in 1978 and later founded the band Kast Off Kinks, which featured former Kinks members. He retired in 2008.

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Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe played together 40 years ago, but on their current co-headlining tour, which resumes August 5 in Syracuse, New York, they say things aren’t quite as debauched as they were back then.

Whereas there were plenty of drugs around back in the day, Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott tells People magazine that nowadays, the only thing that Crüe drummer Tommy Lee gets high on is pranks. 

Elliott says if you fall asleep around Lee or touring Crüe guitarist John 5, they’ll put “plant pots” on your head and “take pictures” of you while you’re asleep. “So God help you—just don’t shut your eyes,” he says. Guitarist Phil Collen cracks, “At least Tommy’s smuggling plants now instead of cocaine. Bonsai trees, that’s his latest obsession.”

Childish hijinks aside, Collen says, “It’s been really nice being semi-grown up and actually appreciating all that we do.” However, guitarist Viv Campbell notes, “You never really grow up in this industry. You can’t.”

Elliott agrees, saying, “I think the wonderment of what you do is part of what keeps your mind young. The childhood dreams, when they go, it starts to fall off.”

But Elliott says the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees now have the maturity to look back and marvel at the fact that they’re still together, despite all they’ve gone through.

“History tells you, with a car crash, death, cancer, whatever the hell we’ve survived, we’ve always had this underpinned strength of, it’s the music that kept us all together,” says Elliott. “We’ll survive anything that gets thrown at us.”

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Sinead O’Connor‘s death in July at age 56 has caused fans to revisit her catalog, or to check it out for the first time.

Billboard reports that in the days after her death on July 26, streams of O’Connor’s songs increased by nearly 2,900%, while downloads of her songs increased by more than 5,000%. Meanwhile, sales of her albums were up more than 1,300%.

As a result of all that activity, O’Connor’s biggest hit, the 1990 #1 single “Nothing Compares 2 U,” has topped Billboard‘s Rock Digital Song Sales and Alternative Digital Song Sales charts. It’s also entered the top 10 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.

Two of O’Connor’s well-known songs, “Mandinka” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” also reached #16 and #17, respectively, on the Alternative Digital Song Sales chart; the songs are #24 and #25 on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart.

Two days after her death, O’Connor’s producer told Rolling Stone that her new album, No Veteran Dies Alone, was one track away from completion. As for when, or if, it’ll be released, he said, “This is up to her family and estate, and I will gladly do as I’m told.”

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Megadeth and Marty Friedman have reunited for another performance.

The guitarist, who played with Dave Mustaine and company from 1990 to 2000, rejoined the thrash metallers during their set at Germany’s Wacken Open Air festival on Friday, August 4. According to Setlist.fm, Friedman jammed with Megadeth on the songs “Symphony of Destruction,” “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due,” “Tornado of Souls” and “Trust.”

Prior to the set, Mustaine shared a throwback photo of him and Friedman alongside the caption, “We have a special surprise for you. You’re not going to want to miss it!”

Friedman played alongside Megadeth for the first time in 23 years in February during a show in Japan, where he’s long lived.

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Guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, best known for his work with Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers, has announced a West Coast tour.

Baxter, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 as a member of the Doobies, will perform August 6 through August 23 in various California cities, including Oakland, West Hollywood and Mill Valley. You can find details on JeffSkunkBaxter.com.

The tour is in support of Baxter’s first solo album, 2022’s Speed of Heat, which features contributions by his old Steely Dan/Doobie Brothers pal Michael McDonald, plus country star Clint Black and blues guitarist Jonny Lang.

In addition to his own songs, Baxter’s set lists include some of the songs he played on while with Steely Dan and the Doobies, including “Do It Again,” “Rikki Don’t Lose that Number” and “China Grove.”

In addition to recording and touring, Baxter has one of the most interesting side jobs in rock ‘n’ roll: He’s built a successful consulting career, advising the government and the Defense Department on missile defense and counterterrorism.

In an interview in Stars and Stripes, Baxter, who has top-secret clearances, said he also teaches jazz improvisation to intelligence analysts, which apparently helps with their problem-solving abilities.

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Tired of biopics about legendary rock stars? Well, soon you’ll have a chance to watch a biopic about the man behind some of rock’s most legendary recordings.

Variety reports that an authorized biopic about legendary producer Tom Wilson, called Like a Rolling Stone, is in the works from Pfonetic, a movie and TV production company. The title comes from the fact that Wilson produced Bob Dylan‘s iconic single of the same name.

Wilson also produced early Dylan albums like Bringing It All Back Home, Another Side of Bob Dylan and The Times They Are a-Changin’. In 1969, Dylan credited Wilson with helping him move from a folk to a rock sound.

In addition to Dylan, Wilson produced Simon & Garfunkel‘s hit “The Sound of Silence”; its success inspired the duo, who’d broken up by that point, to reunite. His other credits include two albums by The Velvet Underground — including the seminal release The Velvet Underground & Nico — plus LPs by The Animals, Frank Zappa and more.

Pfonetic also plans to make a documentary about the late Roger Nichols, a former nuclear scientist and inventor who became Steely Dan‘s recording engineer, winning six Grammys for his work with the notoriously perfectionist group.

Nichols’ name has been in the news lately: His daughters recently discovered a tape among their late father’s things, which turned out to be a legendary “lost” Steely Dan tune called “The Second Arrangement.” The daughters plan to sell the tape at auction to help finance the documentary.

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Brian Setzer has released a new single from his upcoming solo album The Devil Always Collects, which is due out September 15.

The song is called “Black Leather Jacket,” and in a video discussing how he wrote it, he explains that it’s about a journey taken by the ultimate rock ‘n roll accessory.

“It followed the guy through his whole life. He wore a black leather jacket when he met his girl and then got into a crash,” says the Stray Cats frontman. “Til the very end he had a black leather jacket. I like the idea of it. Black leather jackets are very personal things. They’re something you keep. You don’t get rid of those.”

Speaking about his own lineup of leather jackets, Setzer adds, “I still have one from England from the ’80s.” He laughs, “Surprisingly it’s a little small. It must have shrunk! But I still take it out for a ride.”

As previously reported, Brian will kick off his first tour in four years, the Rockabilly Riot tour, on September 27 in Red Bank, New Jersey. A complete list of dates can be found at briansetzer.com.  He says the set list might features a few covers, including the Ray Charles classic “George On My Mind.”

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On Wednesday, August 2, surviving Motörhead members Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee brought the ashes of late frontman Lemmy Kilmister to Germany’s Wacken Open Air festival to be enshrined on the grounds.

“Lemmy loved playing Wacken; there was a long relationship as we played for the first time in 1997 and returned many, many times,” Dee said. “It is quite natural that he is returning now and has another place forever.”

“It’s great that Lemmy will be at Wacken forever among such good friends,” Campbell added. “And I’m glad there’s another home where people can raise a toast to him.”

You can watch a video recap of the ceremony streaming now on YouTube.

Dee and Campbell also stuck around to join headliner Doro‘s set for renditions of Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” and “Love Me Forever.”

Meanwhile, the Motörhead camp has taken issue with some articles on the Wacken ceremony reporting that Lemmy’s ashes were “scattered in the mud.”

A post to the Motörhead Instagram reads, “While amusing to us, we have to formally declare, in Lemmy’s language, that this is, indeed, a load of bollocks!”

Some of Lemmy’s ashes were previously enshrined in a giant statue built at France’s Hellfest.

Lemmy died in 2015 at age 70. While Motörhead effectively ended upon Lemmy’s passing, a number of archival pieces have been released over the past few years, the most recent being Live at Montreux Jazz Festival ’07, which dropped in June.

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Former Yes guitarist and vocalist Trevor Rabin has released “Big Mistakes,” the first single and video from his upcoming album Rio, due out October 6.

In a statement, he says the song is “essentially about surviving my late teens/twenties, hence the lyric: ‘We played in the fire/we danced in the rain/Up all night/we made big mistakes’.” He adds, “I should have called the song ‘I Can’t Believe I’m Alive.’”

Rio is Rabin’s first album in 34 years on which he sings; his last album with vocals was 1989’s Can’t Look Away. He released that in the middle of his run with Yes, which produced the albums 90125, Big Generator, Union and Talk. His most recent solo album prior to Rio was 2012’s all-instrumental release, Jacaranda.

Describing the sound of Rio, which is named after his granddaughter, Rabin says, “I wanted to get into many different areas. Of course there are ‘prog things’, but overall there are a lot of styles going on.”

The album is now available for preorder now and will be available in a number of formats, including a limited-edition CD/Blu-ray and two-LP vinyl sets, a digital album and a standard CD. The limited editions feature three bonus tracks.

Here’s the track listing for the album:

“Big Mistakes”
“Push”
“Oklahoma”
“Paradise”
“Thandi”
“Goodbye”
“Tumbleweed”
“These Tears”
“Egoli”
“Toxic”

Bonus tracks:
“Spek & Polly”
“Fragile” (Demo)
“Georgia”

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