Classic Rock News

Rush is set to revisit their 10th studio album, 1984’s Grace Under Pressure.

The band will release Grace Under Pressure: Super Deluxe Edition on March 13 in five different formats, including a limited-edition four-CD + Blu-ray set with a 52-page hardcover book.

The set features a newly remastered version of the original album and a new stereo mix taken from the original analog recordings. It also includes a two-CD recording of the band’s complete Sept. 21, 1984, concert at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens. Portions of that show previously appeared on the band’s 1986 Grace Under Pressure Tour home video and CD; the new version, titled Grace Under Pressure Tour: Live in Toronto 1984, adds 37 minutes of previously unreleased footage.

The Blu-ray includes the Toronto concert on video with upgraded audio, along with new mixes of the album, including a Dolby Atmos mix. It also features remastered videos for songs like “Distant Early Warning,” “Afterimage,” “The Enemy Within” and “The Body Electric.”

Additional highlights include new liner notes from Rush’s Geddy Lee, reimagined cover art and bonus collectibles, like a replica tour book, concert ticket, backstage pass, a poster from the show and more.

Grace Under Pressure: Super Deluxe Edition will also be available digitally and as a five-LP + Blu-ray set. The original eight-track album will be released digitally on Dolby Atmos, and a remastered Grace Under Pressure Tour: Live in Toronto 1984 video will be released to digital outlets.

All formats are available for preorder now.

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Rob Hirst, founding member and drummer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil, has died at age 70.

“After fighting heroically for almost three years, Rob is now free of pain – ‘a glimmer of tiny light in the wilderness,'” Midnight Oil writes in an Instagram post published Tuesday. “He died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones.”

Hirst had revealed in 2025 that he’d been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer following the conclusion of Midnight Oil’s farewell tour in 2022.

“We are shattered and grieving the loss of our brother Rob,” the Oils add in a separate post. “For now there are no words but there will always be songs.”

Hirst cofounded Midnight Oil in 1976. The band became beloved in their native Australia and broke out worldwide with their 1987 album, Diesel and Dust, which spawned the singles “Beds Are Burning” and “The Dead Heart.”

The Oils were also known for singles including “Blue Sky Mine,” “Forgotten Years,” “King of the Mountain” and “Truganini.” 

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Billy Idol‘s longtime guitarist and collaborator Steve Stevens has worked with him since the early ’80s and has a good idea as to why Idol’s popularity has lasted as long as it has.

“I think it’s always been cool to like Billy Idol, and our records were never something you could pigeonhole,” he says in a new interview with Guitar World.

“I came from the rock side with guitar heroes like Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, a little prog, some new wave and New York punk,” he says. “Then you have Billy with the punk-rock/Elvis thing, and our early producer Keith Forsey came from working with [Italian composer] Giorgio Moroder on dance records like Donna Summer. So, because we’ve always had this gumbo of different styles, we were never pigeonholed when it came to writing music.”

Stevens notes that while Idol’s biggest hits, like “Rebel Yell,” “White Wedding” and “Eyes Without a Face,” came in the ’80s, “Billy’s roots go back to 1977 London.”

“I think that’s served us really well. He’s got a timeless image and people appreciate that,” Stevens adds. “He’s a real-deal rock ’n’ roll star. Honestly, we sound better now than we did back then.”

Idol released his last album, Dream Into It, in 2025. A documentary on his life, Billy Idol Should Be Dead, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, was recently acquired by Evan Saxon Productions and is expected to have a theatrical release in early 2026.

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Phil Collins has sat down for an interview that will be part of a new podcast for the BBC.

BBC Eras: Phil Collins, hosted by Zoe Ball, is a five-part podcast on the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. It features new interviews with such stars as Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, Sir Bob Geldof and more, along with interviews from the BBC Archive.

The first four episodes are out now, with the fifth and final installment debuting Jan. 26. The final episode features a brand-new interview with the Genesis frontman, which, according to a post on Instagram, has him “reflecting on his iconic career through its era-defining chapters covering the past 6 decades.”

“Phil Collins’ music is woven into all our lives, those songs are time machines, full of heart, drama and joy,” says Ball. “I’ve been lucky enough to chat with Phil a few times over the years, but to dive into his extraordinary story for  Eras and sit down with him again for such a special, intimate conversation about music, family and everything in between is an absolute dream.”

She adds, “I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.”

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A planned Poison tour celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary isn’t happening, reportedly because frontman Bret Michaels was asking for too much money.

Talk of the tour began over the summer after guitarist C.C. DeVille wrote on social media, “Poison tour 2026. Are you ready?” But now drummer Rikki Rockett tells the New York Post’s Page Six it’s not happening because Michaels demanded to be paid six times what Rockett, DeVille and bassist Bobby Dall were getting.

“We had a great offer, I thought. But we left the table,” Rockett says. “It didn’t work.”

“Really what it came to was C.C., Bobby and I were all in, and I thought Bret was, but he wanted the lion’s share of the money, to the point where it makes it not possible to even do it,” says Rockett. “It’s like $6 to every one of our dollars. You just can’t work that way.”

“I don’t do this just for the money. I do have a love for this, absolutely,” he adds. “But at the same time, you don’t want to go out and work really hard just to make somebody else a bunch of money.”

Rockett hasn’t ruled out a tour in the future, joking that it would be “a perfect Poison folly to do a 41st anniversary tour.” He notes that while replacing Michaels is “not out of the question,” it is “the last resort.”

“I don’t want to do that. I’m not quarreling with Bret[.] … We just didn’t come to agreement,” he says. “I don’t like it, and I’ll say that, but it’s not like, ‘Let’s put up our dukes.’ I don’t think there’s a better frontman for Poison.”

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The Black Crowes have debuted the music video for “Profane Prophecy,” one of two singles from their upcoming album, A Pound of Feathers.

In the video, according to its description, the band has “conjured seven devils (representing each deadly sin) to wreak havoc on this little fairytale world of stark morality and harsh retribution.”

“‘Profane Prophecy’ is about the devil you know, the devil you never knew, the devil inside of me and devil inside of you,” The Crowes’ Chris Robinson says. “The mischief and madness in the beautiful expression that is rock n roll … and you can dance to it.”

A Pound of Feathers, dropping March 13, is The Black Crowes’ 10th studio album and their first since 2024’s Happiness Bastards. In addition to “Profane Prophecy,” they previewed the album for fans by releasing the track “Pharmacy Chronicles.”

A Pound of Feathers is available for preorder now.

The Black Crowes have already announced several dates for 2026. They’ll kick off a tour in Australia on April 2 in Melbourne, followed by two nights in Japan on April 14 and 15. The band also has dates booked across the U.K. and Europe in June and July, and will open four shows on Guns N’ Roses‘ North American tour, starting Aug. 22 in Las Vegas.

A complete list of dates can be found at TheBlackCrowes.com.

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On This Day, Jan. 19, 1993…

The classic Fleetwood Mac lineup of Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie and John McVie reunited for the first time in six years to perform at President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration gala.

The band performed their classic Rumours track “Don’t Stop,” which had been used as Clinton’s campaign song.

Other performers at the gala included Elton John, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin.

The classic Fleetwood Mac lineup reunited again in 1997 for a live, filmed concert called The Dance. It spawned a live album of the same name, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts and was supported by an arena tour.

The lineup continued to work together until 2018, when Lindsey Buckingham was fired from the group. The band went on to tour without him, adding Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and Crowded House’s Neil Finn to the lineup.

Following Christine McVie’s death in November 2022, Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks have said that they can’t see the band touring again without her.

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Roger Waters has responded to criticism of his comments regarding the late Ozzy Osbourne.

As previously reported, the Pink Floyd founder commented on the Black Sabbath frontman’s death in an interview with The Independent Ink, saying, “[Ozzy] was all over the TV for hundreds of years with his idiocy and nonsense.”

“I don’t care about Black Sabbath, I never did,” Waters said. “I have no interest in biting the heads off chickens or whatever they do.”

Waters’ comments were roundly excoriated by the Osbourne family. Son Jack Osbourne called him “pathetic and out of touch,” while Sharon Osbourne deemed him “insignificant.” Meanwhile, the Ozzy Osbourne web store sold a limited-edition t-shirt featuring the phrase “another p**** in the wall,” a reference to Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.”

Waters later defended his comments in an interview with Piers Morgan, saying, “Do I have to like every rock group there ever was in the world?”

When asked whether he’d like to apologize to the Osbourne family, Waters first said, “Yeah, of course I will,” before adding, “Not that I have any time for Sharon Osbourne,” noting their disagreement over Israel.

“If [Jack] wants to have a chat, I’ll have a chat with him,” Waters said. “I’m sorry you lost your dad, Jack.”

Waters did, however, learn that Ozzy had bitten the head off a bat, not a chicken.

“I don’t like people who bite the heads off bats,” Waters said. “I think it’s disgusting.”

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Bruce Springsteen made a surprise appearance Saturday at the Light of Day Winterfest concert in Red Bank, New Jersey. There, he dedicated his song “The Promised Land” to Renee Good, the Minneapolis woman killed by an ICE agent in Minnesota.

In fan-shot video of Springsteen’s performance, Bruce tells the audience that the “ideals and the values” of the U.S. are “being tested as it has never been in modern times” and that they have “never been as endangered as they are right now.”

“If you believe in democracy, in liberty, if you believe that truth still matters, and that it’s worth speaking out, and it’s worth fighting for, if you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it, if you stand against heavily armed masked federal troops invading an American city, and using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens, if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this President,” he told the crowd. “And as the Mayor of that city has said, ICE should get the f*** out of Minneapolis.”

Before breaking into the song, he added, “So this one is for you, and the memory of the mother of three and American citizen Renee Good.”

Springsteen was Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers‘ special guest at the Light of Day Winterfest show. According to setlist.fm, The Boss also performed “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “Atlantic City,” “Light of Day,” “Thunder Road” and more.

The concert was one of several Light of Day shows that took place over the weekend. The shows helped raise money toward the fight against Parkinson’s disease and other related neurodegenerative diseases. 

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Green Day will be performing at an opening ceremony ahead of Super Bowl 60.

The “American Idiot” rockers will take the stage Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, at 6 p.m. ET, ahead of the game’s kickoff at 6:30 p.m. ET. With their performance, Green Day will be “ushering generations of Super Bowl MVPs onto the field with a dynamic performance of their most iconic rock anthems,” according to a press release.

Levi’s Stadium is the home of the San Francisco 49ers, and Green Day is famously from the Bay Area.

“We are super hyped to open Super Bowl 60 right in our backyard!” says frontman Billie Joe Armstrong. “We are honored to welcome the MVPs who’ve shaped the game and open the night for fans all over the world. Let’s have fun! Let’s get loud!”

Super Bowl 60 and its opening ceremony will air on NBC and stream on Peacock.

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