Classic Rock News

KISS has announced more details about the second edition of their KISS fan convention, KISS Kruise: Land-locked in Vegas. They’ve also revealed details of the planned tribute to their late bandmate Ace Frehley, who died in October 2025 at 74.

The tribute is set to feature the current members of KISS — Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer — joined by special guests artists. Performers will be supported by the Ace Frehley Band, and the plan is for each of the current members to personally select and perform a song to honor Ace’s legacy. The tribute promises to feature music covering all eras of Ace’s career.

The weekend will also feature two unmasked KISS performances — one acoustic, one electric — as well as performances by Night Ranger, Bruce Kulick, Slaughter, Faster Pussycat, Keel, Enuff Z’Nuff and more.

There will also be band meet-and-greets, artists panels, Q&As and activities. Simmons will give fans a look at rare pieces of his personal memorabilia collection during Gene Simmons’ Private KISS Collection Show & Tell; Stanley will host a KISS Cook Off, where participants will be challenged to recreate one of his signature dishes.

“Another year of the KISS Kruise experience and the best one yet is on the way,” Stanley says. “Everything we’ve learned at sea and on land over the past years is going into making this the ultimate weekend with us. No ship?!? No problem!”

KISS Kruise: Land-locked in Vegas will be held Nov. 13-15 at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas. A complete schedule rundown can be found at kisskruisevegas.com.

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Grateful Dead is looking back at the summer of 1985 with a new 20-CD box set.

Summer Magic 1985, dropping Sept. 18, celebrates the band’s 20th anniversary tour. It features seven previously unreleased full concerts, including their three 20th anniversary shows at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California, June 14-16.

There are also recordings of concerts at Hershey Park Stadium in Hershey Park, Pennsylvania; Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga, New York; and Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. The set also includes a 96-page book with essays, photos and original artwork.

“The seven shows this box presents … offer a snapshot of the artistic process that was the Grateful Dead, making a powerful statement of the band’s project as they marked their 20th anniversary,” Nicholas G. Meriwether, executive director of the Grateful Dead Studies Association, writes in the set’s liner notes. “(T)his box not only lets us revisit what these shows sounded like at a peak of the band’s PA prowess, it lets us finally hear what these shows meant, the alchemy of time and memory finally revealing the gold of those concerts.”

And The Dead is giving fans a little taste of what to expect with the release of a performance of “Sugar Magnolia” from the Merriweather Post Pavilion show. It is now available via digital outlets.

Summer Magic 1985 is limited to just 10,000 numbered copies and is available for preorder now on Dead.net.

In addition to the box set, the Merriweather Post Pavilion show, which took place June 30, 1985, will be released as a standalone three-CD or four-CD set. It is also available for preorder now.

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Phil Collins is revisiting his debut solo album, Face Value, with a new expanded reissue.

Face Value (Full Value), dropping Sept. 18, is a four-LP set that features a remastered version of the original album. It also comes with three LPs of bonus material, made up of rare and unreleased live recordings, demos and outtakes. It also includes a brand-new interview with Collins in the liner notes.

Face Value will also be released on Blu-ray, featuring upgraded audio, including 2026 Atmos, 5.1 and stereo mixes by producer Steven Wilson, as well as the 2016 remaster of the album.

And fans are getting a preview of that bonus material with the release of a previously unreleased performance of “You Know What I Mean,” which is now available via digital outlets. The performance was recorded in 1982, live at Perkins Palace in Pasadena, California.

Face Value (Full Value) is available for preorder now.

Face Value was recorded while Collins’ band Genesis was on a break. It was released in February 1981 and became an instant hit for the rocker, topping the chart in the U.K. and peaking at #3 in the U.S.

The album’s leadoff single, “In the Air Tonight,” peaked at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It went on to be one of Collins’ signature songs, thanks in part to its iconic drum track. Another song, “I Missed Again,” also peaked at #19.

The new release comes as Collins is set to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in November. He was previously inducted as a member of Genesis in 2010.

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On This Day, July 15, 2009…

Paul McCartney performed a surprise show on the Ed Sullivan Theater marquee in New York.

McCartney was at the theater to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman. His appearance took place 45 years after The Beatles made their debut at the same theater on The Ed Sullivan Show.

McCartney treated the crowd gathered on the streets of New York to seven songs, including “Get Back,” “Sing The Changes,” “Coming Up,” “Band On The Run,” “Let Me Roll It,” “Helter Skelter” and “Back In The U.S.S.R.”

McCartney returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater in May for the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

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Early recordings made by David Bowie, made before he became the artist the world would come to know, are set to be released in September.

The Shel Talmy Recordings is made up of tracks Bowie recorded with ‘60s producer Shel Talmy while he was still going by the name Davie Jones.

Talmy, best known for working with The Who and The Kinks, signed the then-Davie Jones and his band at the time, the Manish Boys, in December 1964. By the time they began recording, however, Bowie had formed a new band, Davie Jones & The Lower Third. Most of the recordings featured on the album were made with the latter band or are solo demos.

The Shel Talmy Recordings includes 21 tracks. The CD and digital versions feature 10 previously unreleased recordings, while the vinyl features six. Guests on the album include a pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page and future Rock & Roll Hall of Fame pianist Nicky Hopkins.

As a preview of the album, one of those previously unreleased tracks, “I Want Your Love” is out now via digital outlets.

Musician and music historian Alec Palao writes in the liner notes that the collection is “a primary chapter if not the very earliest installment in David’s musical journey.”

“The sounds here should not be judged by the standards of his later career, but by the standards of what was happening in Britain at that precise point in time,” he adds. “In which case, they speak as loudly of the excitement of London and its music scene in that pivotal year of 1965 as they do for the launch of its brightest future star.”

The Shel Talmy Recordings will be released Sept. 18. It is available for preorder now.

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Lenny Kravitz is sharing the secrets to his sculpted body in the latest edition of Men’s Health magazine.

The mag talks to both Lenny and his trainer, where they discuss what it takes to get the 62-year-old rocker those six-pack abs.

According to Lenny, he doesn’t need technology to help him track his fitness. Instead he relies on his 28-inch pants to tell him how he’s doing.

“I can gauge everything by how I’m in my pants,” he tells the mag. “Like, if my pants are a little tight, I know I’m getting outta shape.”

Speaking of pants, back in 2024 Lenny went viral after posting a video of himself working out in leather pants. But he says there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for why he does so.

“I perform onstage in leather, denim, whatever, so those are the pants I wear to train,” he says. “It also means I can fit in a workout anytime, anywhere.”

As for his overall physique, Lenny notes, “I’m not looking to be big or bulky. I want a very narrow silhouette, more like Spider-Man meets Bruce Lee, you know what I mean?”

He adds, “Bruce Lee looked good in clothes. He’s bad—a thin, cool guy who obviously had muscle tone and who moved and flowed really gracefully.”

So, does Lenny have any issues with his own body?

“Not right now, and I don’t mean that to sound like I’m into myself, but I’ve put in the work and I feel really good,” he says. “But I gotta fill out my legs a little bit.”

Lenny is currently on a European tour, which hits Gdańsk, Poland, on Thursday. A complete list of tour dates can be found at LennyKravitz.com.

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Phil Collins has addressed the supposed feud between him and Oasis, as both artists are due to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November.

In a new interview with Mojo, Collins shared his thoughts as he discussed the possibility of running into the Gallagher brothers at the event.

“The inductees have all been invited to a lunch before the ceremony,” he said. “Which will be interesting, as I’m sure to bump into Oasis.”

According to Mojo, the feud dates back to 1994, around the time Oasis released their debut album, Definitely Maybe. At the time, Noel Gallagher reportedly called Collins “the antichrist of music”; he went on to say other things about him over the course of his career.

In the Mojo interview, Collins claimed one of his daughters, actress Lily Collins, confronted Liam Gallagher about the comments backstage at Live Earth in 2007.

“She went up to him and said, ‘Why do you hate my dad?’” Collins told the mag. “And apparently Liam said, ‘I don’t hate anybody, love.’”

Seems Noel once revealed in an interview that his issues with Collins stemmed from Collins scaring him at a Genesis concert in the ’80s when Noel was “completely out of it.”

“Now I’ve thought this through, and although Noel didn’t specify what song it was, I reckon it was ‘Mama,’ where I go ‘Ha-ha-ha… Oww,’ with the light under my face,” Collins says of what could have scared Noel. “So I think ‘Mama’ is why Noel called me the antichrist.”

He added, “But I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt here, and assuming he doesn’t really think I’m the antichrist.”

Collins and Oasis will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Nov. 14 in Los Angeles. The ceremony will air on ABC and stream on Disney+ in December. 

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The HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes is one of the nominees for the 2026 Humanitas Prizes.

Established in 1974, The Humanitas Prizes honor “professional film and television writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way.”

Part two of the two-part doc is nominated in the documentary (docuseries, single episode) category. Its competition includes Katrina: Come Hell and High Water, Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! and Rise of the 49ers.

Also earning a nomination this year is Song Sung Blue, the Hugh Jackman/Kate Hudson film about a Neil Diamond tribute band, in the drama feature category.

Winners will be announced at The Humanitas Prizes Award Show & Toast on Sept. 9 in Hollywood.

Billy Joel: And So It Goes, directed by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival in June 2025, before debuting on HBO in July of that year.

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Billy Idol is revisiting one of his classic hits.

Idol and his longtime collaborator Steve Stevens have recorded a new take on “White Wedding,” recorded at Apple Music Studios in Los Angeles.

“We were really just making the song for that moment,” Idol says in a clip posted to Instagram, “but we did have in the back of our minds, we could create songs that somehow could last into the future, well that would be added bonus and look what happened, it did.”

Originally released in 1982, “White Wedding” appeared on Idol’s self-titled debut album. While it peaked at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100, the song went on to be one of Idol’s signature tunes.

Idol is set to kick off a new leg of his It’s A Nice Day To…Tour Again! tour on Aug. 7 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The tour name is a reference to the chorus of “White Wedding.”

Idol and Stevens are both set to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year. The 2026 induction ceremony will take place Nov. 14 in Los Angeles. It will air on ABC and stream on Disney+ in December.

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The Zombies are expressing their gratitude at being one of the artists invited to join the Recording Academy.

“It’s an honor to be part of a community of music creators and professionals who are helping support, uplift, and advocate for the people who make and shape music,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers wrote in an Instagram post. “We are grateful for the opportunity to use our voices, contribute to the Grammy Awards process, and be part of conversations that help move our industry forward.”

“Music is shaped by so many voices, genres, backgrounds, and perspectives, and we are proud to add ours to the mix,” the post added.

Becoming a Recording Academy member will grant inductees “access to mentorship, professional development and networking opportunities designed to support their creative and professional journeys,” according to a press release. Those who become voting members of the Recording Academy will be eligible to vote for the Grammys.

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