Classic Rock News

Nikki Sixx may be busy on tour with Mötley Crüe, but it sounds like the rocker’s finding some time to pursue one of his other creative interests: writing.

“Started on my 5th book. If things go smoothly we should be able to release it next year,” Sixx shared on Facebook, adding, “If it connects it will be my 5th time on the New York Times best seller list….”

Those bestsellers Sixx is referring to include the 2001 Crüe memoir, The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Band, as well as 2007’s The Heroin Diaries, 2011’s This Is Gonna Hurt and 2021’s The First 21.

“It’s an honor to write books. I’ll keep you in the loop……,” he adds, before noting, “Thank you for always supporting my addiction to words.”

The book is one of many projects Sixx is working on. In the caption, he also mentioned another book, “an animated show that includes music” and “new Motley,” referring to the rumored new music that’s on the way. He shares, “Creative times ahead- SOBRIETY ROCKS.”

In the meantime, Mötley Crüe is currently on their stadium tour with Def Leppard. They play Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, August 8. A complete list of dates can be found at motley.com.

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Steely Dan has announced the latest album in their vinyl reissue program, which will likely excite fans. 

The band’s classic Aja will be reissued on vinyl September 29, the first time the album has been released on vinyl in more than 40 years. The reissue is remastered from an analog tape copy of the album and will be released on 180-gram black vinyl, along with a premium 45 RPM version on Ultra High-Quality vinyl.

Released in September 1977, Aja was Steely Dan’s sixth studio album. The record peaked at #3 on the album charts, becoming the band’s highest-charting album. It featured such hit singles as “Peg,” “Deacon Blues” and “Josie” and was nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys. It was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003 and added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2010.

This is the fourth Steely Dan record to get a vinyl reissue. The reissue program, which Donald Fagen has overseen, started with their 1972 debut, Can’t Buy A Thrill, reissued in November 2022. It was then followed by 1973’s Countdown to Ecstasy, which dropped in May, and 1974’s Pretzel Logic, which dropped that July.

The program plans to reissue three more albums — 1975’s Katy Lied, 1976’s The Royal Scam and 1980’s Gaucho —over the next year.

Aja is available for preorder now.

Next up, Steely Dan is set to open for the Eagles on their Long Goodbye Tour. It kicks off September 7 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. A complete list of dates can be found at steelydan.com.

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Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica are among the nominees for the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards.

All three will compete in the Best Rock category: Foos for “The Teacher,” RHCP for “Tippa My Tongue” and Metallica for “Lux Æterna.” Other nominees in the category include Linkin Park’s “Lost,” Måneskin‘s “The Loneliest” and Muse‘s “You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween.”

In addition to multiple past VMA wins, Foo Fighters was honored with the Global Icon Award in 2021, while RHCP has also earned multiple VMA honors, including the Global Icon Award in 2022 and the Video Vanguard Award in 2000. Metallica has won two previous VMAs.

The 2023 MTV VMAs take place September 12 at the Prudential Center in New Jersey. For the full list of nominees and to vote for your favorites, visit Vote.MTV.com.

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Sinéad O’Connor was laid to rest in Ireland Tuesday, August 8, in a private ceremony attended by fellow musicians like Bob Geldof and U2’s Bono and The Edge, as well as Irish president Michael D. Higgins, The Independent reports.

Fans lined the streets of Bray, County Wicklow, to pay their respects to the singer outside her former home, Montebello, which she lived in for 15 years. Fans also left notes, flowers and candles outside the home in tribute to the singer.

Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri, an Islamic scholar and chief imam at the Islamic Centre of Ireland, led the private ceremony, calling the singer “a voice that moved a generation of young people” and adding she “could reduce listeners to tears by her otherworldly resonance.”

Following the service, the hearse with O’Connor’s flower-covered casket drove through the streets as fans threw more flowers and applauded as it passed. It was led by a Volkswagen van, covered in both a pride and Rastafarian flag, that played Sinead’s music.

“The outpouring of grief and appreciation of the life and work of Sinéad O’Connor demonstrates the profound impact which she had on the Irish people,” Higgins said of the singer. “The unique contribution of Sinead involved the experience of a great vulnerability combined with a superb, exceptional level of creativity that she chose to deliver through her voice, her music and her songs.”

O’Connor passed away in July at the age of 56. So far, no cause of death has been revealed.

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On This Day, August 8, 1987…

U2 found themselves atop the Billboard Hot 100 for the second time with “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” the second single off their first #1 album, The Joshua Tree. The track spent two weeks in the #1 position.

The Irish rockers had previously topped the chart with the album’s first single, “With Or Without You,” which spent three weeks at #1.

“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” went on to become one of the band’s most iconic tracks, and was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1988: Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It has also landed on several best-of lists, including Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

In other U2 facts…August 8 also happens to be U2 guitarist The Edge’s birthday. He turns 62 this year.

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The official Beatles fan magazine, The Beatles Book Monthly, is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its debut by making a selection of prints from the magazine’s vast library available for purchase for the first time.

The Beatles Book Monthly was launched in August 1963 by publisher Sean O’Mahony and gave fans the latest news on the band. The first edition featured bios on Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, along with manager Brian Epstein and producer George Martin. Subsequent issues chronicled the band’s rise to superstardom and gave fans the inside scoop on their favorite group.

In total there were 77 issues of the mag, which sold about 330,000 copies each month. The final edition was published December 1, 1969, although that magazine was later revived in May 1976 and again in October 1982. Thanks to photographer Leslie Bryce getting unprecedented access to the band, the mag featured loads of photos; over 6,000 of them went on to become part of The Beatles Book Photo Library.

Fans can now get their hands on prints of some of those photos from the library, including a “Hard Day’s Night” photo of Lennon, a shot of McCartney onstage during the band’s last British tour, a smiling shot of Ringo and a shot of Harrison during the Rubber Soul recording sessions.

The prints are available for purchase at bbplstore.com and range in price from $78 to $143, depending on the size.

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Van Halen’s post David Lee Roth years could have looked a lot different, according to Deep Purple’s Glenn Hughes. In an interview with The Classic Rock Podcast, Hughes revealed that Eddie Van Halen told him he had considered asking him to join the band to replace the departing Roth.

“Well, you know, Eddie was newly sober at that time,” he told the podcast regarding the discussion. “This would have been … I don’t know, 22 years ago.”

He continued, “We spoke about it. … Would it have worked? I’m not sure. Unless I was completely sober, and I’ve been sober now for almost 24 years. Yeah, it would have been interesting, wouldn’t it? You never know.”

Instead, Van Halen replaced Roth with Sammy Hagar and went on to release four albums that went to number one in the U.S.: 1986’s 5150, 1988’s OU812, 1991’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and 1995’s Balance.

As for Hughes, he’s due to kick off a new tour with guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Deep Purple’s classic 1974 album, Burn. It kicks off August 17 in Falls Church, Virginia. A complete list of dates can be found at glennhughes.com.

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Album covers are often just as memorable as the music featured in the release, and there’s no doubt some covers are truly iconic. Billboard is chiming in with their thoughts on the subject, releasing their picks for the 100 greatest album covers of all time.

Topping the list is The Velvet Underground and Nico’s 1967 release, The Velvet Underground & Nico. The original version of the record featured Andy Warhol’s banana print with instructions to “peel slowly and see,” referring to a peel-off sticker that revealed a flesh-colored banana underneath. Later versions did not include the sticker, making the originals collector’s items.

Coming in at two is The Beatles’ 1969 classic, Abbey Road, featuring the Fab Four walking across the iconic cross walk; Patti Smith’s Horses, featuring photographer Robert Mapplethorpe’s infamous photo of the singer, is number three. 

Other albums making list include Led Zeppelin’s 1969 self-titled release at five; Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic, The Dark Side of the Moon, at six; Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 debut, She’s So Unusual, at seven; Elvis Presley’s 1956 self-titled release at nine; and The Beatles’ 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, at 11.

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Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde is still rocking out at age 71, and while some artists may dread getting older, she seems to be embracing it.

“I don’t mind getting older. I do mind getting uglier,” she shares in a new feature in The Guardian. “Come on, there’s only one thing we know of that is definitely going to happen to us. That’s all the information we have in this life.”

She adds, “You know, a lot of my friends didn’t get old,” referring to people like her late Pretenders bandmate James Honeyman-Scott, who died in 1982 at 25 years old.

Hynde believes “there are so many great things about getting older,” noting, “For example, I don’t think there’s very many things that I know now that I didn’t know when I was 16 – but there’s a big difference between knowing something and realizing it. Realizing something takes 50 years.”

Hynde, who turns 72 on September 7, says, “I’m more relaxed now, if you can believe it,” sharing, “This is the real mellow version of me. Ageing is like being a pothead again. Though that’s not to say there are not things that wind me up daily.”

And age isn’t slowing Chrissie down. Pretenders are set to release the new album, Relentless, on September 15. They are slated to open for Guns N’ Roses on their North American tour, which kicks off August 11, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and they’ll be headlining a short club tour, which starts August 16, at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. A complete list of all Pretenders dates can be found at thepretenders.com.

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Paul Stanley is a Swiftie. The KISS rocker took to social media to praise Taylor Swift after taking his wife and daughters to see her Eras Tour at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. 

“Took Erin, Sarah and Emily to see @taylorswift Last Night!” he writes next to a picture of him in an Eras Tour T-shirt. “6 shows at SoFi Stadium for a total of A HALF MILLION PEOPLE and I know why… PHENOMENAL SHOW BY A PHENOMENAL ARTIST.”

He added, “Thanks to her staff for rolling out the red carpet for us.”

Swift wraps her SoFi Stadium stand on Wednesday, August 9. Meanwhile, KISS is currently on a break from their End of the Road tour. Their next show is happening September 1 in Crandon, Wisconsin, with their final shows taking place December 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York. A complete list of dates can be found at kissonline.com.

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