Classic Rock News

Having the support of Paul McCartney seems to go a long way. At least that was the case for PETA’s latest campaign to get Peet’s Coffee to stop charging extra for plant-based milk options.

McCartney, a longtime vegetarian, recently wrote a letter to Peet’s Coffee President and CEO Eric Lauterbach to try to get him to change the company’s policy of charging 80 cents extra for vegan milks. At the same time,  PETA launched a campaign urging the change, which included billboards with McCartney’s image.

It seems the pressure worked: Peet’s gave in just days after the campaign launched and will no longer add the upcharge to drinks.

“I am really happy to hear this!” McCartney said upon hearing the news.

“With a little help from our friend Sir Paul McCartney, PETA notched a swift win for animals, the planet, and kind consumers, who shouldn’t be punished for making the ethical and healthy choice to ditch dairy,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is celebrating Peet’s quick decision to get on board with the new industry standard and is urging the few remaining holdouts, including Caribou Coffee and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, to follow suit.”

Peet’s now joins several other coffee chains, including Starbucks, Dunkin’ and Dutch Bros, that no longer charge customers for dairy-free milk options.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Jesse Colin Young, the voice heard on the Youngbloods‘ iconic hit “Get Together,” died Sunday at his home in Aiken, South Carolina. He was 83.

“Get Together,” written by future Quicksilver Messenger Service member Dino Valenti, was recorded by the Youngbloods after Young saw a folk singer perform it in a New York City club. It appeared on the band’s 1967 debut album, but only became a hit in 1969 after it was featured in a PSA by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. 

The song, which peaked at #5, became an anthem for the Woodstock generation. Its chorus — “Come on people now/ smile on your brother/ everybody get together/ try to love one another right now” — has become part of pop culture, appearing in multiple movies and TV shows. Nirvana even sarcastically quoted those lyrics in their Nevermind track “Territorial Pissings.”

Young wrote many of the Youngbloods’ other songs, including “Darkness, Darkness,” covered by Robert Plant in a Grammy-nominated 2002 version, as well as by Eric Burdon, Richie Havens, Ann Wilson and Mott the Hoople.

The Youngbloods disbanded in 1972, but briefly reunited for a tour in 1984 and then disbanded again. Meanwhile, Jesse Colin Young resumed a solo career he’d initially started in 1964, releasing more than a dozen albums over the years. His most recent release was 2019’s Dreamers. He also founded his own record label, hosted a podcast and was involved in both social and environmental activism.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Beach Boys’ Al Jardine is planning to head out on the road this year backed by his former bandmate Brian Wilson’s longtime backing band, Rolling Stone reports.

“I’ve been gathering up the troops, Brian’s excellent band,” Jardine tells the mag. “We’re all just dying to get back to work, and I thought I’d take the reins.”

Wilson’s band will be billed as the Pet Sounds Band, after The Beach Boys’ 1960 studio album. The exact lineup of artists has yet to be announced.

“There’s a lot of material to draw from that people haven’t heard before. And we’re going to have some fun,” Jardine says of the planned set list, which will include Beach Boys classics along with deep cuts. Jardine says the tour will also include archival Beach Boys footage.

Dates for the tour have yet to be announced, but the shows are expected to run from June to August.

Wilson headed out on his last tour in 2022. In 2024 it was revealed that he has dementia; in May of that year he was put under a conservatorship following the death of his wife, Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, who up until then had been dealing with his affairs.

Jardine performed at the California wildfires benefit concert Lets Get L.Aid in Los Angeles Sunday. According to setlist.fm, he performed Beach Boys tunes “California Girls,” “Help Me Rhonda” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

James Taylor’s music could soon be at the center of a new stage musical.

A new musical is in early development that will be based around the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s catalog. It will be titled Fire & Rain, after his 1970 classic, which was a top-five hit for Taylor.

Tony Award-winning playwright Tracy Letts, best known for his play August: Osage Country, is handling the story. Director David Cromer, who’s currently directing George Clooney on Broadway in Good Night, and Good Luck, is helming the project.

Specific details on the musical, including the story and what songs will be used, have not been released.

Taylor’s catalog includes such classic songs as “You’ve Got A Friend,” written by Carole King, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You),” “Carolina In My Mind,” “Shower the People” and “Sweet Baby James.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

When Dua Lipa sang that she can take you for a ride in her hit “Levitating,” perhaps she was referring to a ride on the “Highway to Hell.”

The pop star put her spin on the AC/DC staple during her show in Melbourne on Monday. The cover paid tribute to the classic rockers’ home country of Australia.

The original “Highway to Hell” is the title track off AC/DC’s 1979 album, which was their last to feature late frontman Bon Scott.

Dua is currently touring Australia in support of her 2024 album, Radical Optimism, which was recorded with another notable Australia musician: Tame Impala‘s Kevin Parker.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant is heading out on another tour with his acoustic band, Saving Grace, featuring Suzi Dian.

Dubbed the Spring Fever tour, the trek consists of 20 dates in Europe. It kicks off May 1 in Brussels, Belgium, and hits cities in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Italy, France and more, before wrapping July 30 in Barcelona, Spain.

Plant formed Saving Grace in 2019; they went on their first tour in 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic. Their set lists are filled with covers, including some Led Zeppelin tunes.

A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at RobertPlant.com.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Def Leppard is hitting the road on a new tour this summer.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers will headline select amphitheaters across the country, joined by special guests The Struts, Poison‘s Bret Michaels and Extreme on select dates.

The new tour kicks off June 23 in Rogers, Arkansas. It hits cities in Alabama, Maine, New York and New Mexico before wrapping Aug. 31 in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Various presales begin Tuesday, with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday.

Def Leppard’s next show is May 15 in Puerto Rico. They’ll also play several festivals this summer, including a trio in Canada: Rockin’ Thunder in Edmonton, Country Thunder Craven 2025 in Saskatchewan and Ottawa Bluesfest in Ottawa. 

A complete list of tour dates can be found at DefLeppard.com.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Neil Young is making some changes to how he sells tickets to his concerts. In a post on his Neil Young Archives site, the rocker shares that “very soon” he’ll stop selling Platinum tickets to his shows, which are often much more expensive than a regularly priced ticket.

Explaining why he sold them in the first place, Young writes, “My management and agent have always tried to cover my back on the road, getting me the best deals they could. They have tried to protect me and my fans from the scalpers who buy the best tickets and resell them at huge increases for their own profits. Ticketmaster’s High priced Platinum tickets were introduced to the areas where scalpers were buying the most tickets for resale. The money went to me. That did not feel right.”

Young noted that by getting rid of the Platinum tickets, there’s a good chance more scalpers will get their hands on tickets and then resell them at higher prices. But he shares, “I have decided to let the people work this out. Buy aggressively when the tickets come out or the tickets will cost a lot more in a secondary market.”

Young’s move to stop selling Platinum tickets appears to be inspired by The Cure’s Robert Smith, who kept ticket prices for their 2023 North American tour to under $70. Along with the post about the Platinum tickets, Young shared an interview in which Smith discussed the current state of ticketing, claiming it was “driven by greed.”

Neil is set to kick off his love earth tour with The Chrome Hearts on June 18 in Rättvik, Sweden. It hits the U.S. Aug. 8 in Charlotte, North Carolina. A complete list of dates can be found at NeilYoungArchives.com.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Journey was forced to stop their show at Rodeo Houston at NRG Stadium on Friday after an electrical fire broke out when they were barely five songs into their set.

Fan-shot footage posted to YouTube shows frontman Arnel Pineda being abruptly cut off during the band’s classic “Don’t Stop Believin’” due to a power outage. Fans in the audience continued to sing along to the tune, but the band was eventually pulled off the stage and didn’t complete the show.

Journey’s drummer, Dean Castronovo, later took to Instagram to reveal that the power outage was caused by a fire that got a little too close for him.

“Hey, Houston! An act of God tonight! Fire broke out underneath the stage—right under my drum riser!” he wrote. “I was literally on fire for 4 ½ songs, all the power cables melted, and the show was a BUST! That doesn’t mean we won’t be back soon, because we love you all—and WE WILL RETURN! #dontstopbelievin God bless you all!”

According to setlist.fm, the band had treated the audience to performances of “Only the Young,” “Be Good To Yourself,” a guitar solo and “Stone in Love” before the fire ended the show.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Toto’s Steve Lukather is clearing up speculation about his involvement in a possible new Van Halen album that Alex Van Halen was rumored to be working on.

The speculation began after the Dutch outlet De Telegraaph claimed that Alex had asked Lukather to finish some unreleased Van Halen material. The outlet quoting Alex as saying, “Ed and Steve Lukather were very good friends and they often worked together. There is no one who can do this process with me as well as he can.”

But Lukather has taken to social media to clear up any confusion, posting a new comment to an Instagram post he shared on Eddie’s birthday Jan. 26.

“For the record: Ever since Alex Van Halen dropped some we were gonna work together I think there is a huge misunderstanding,” he wrote. “I will NOT EVER play a guitar note on a VH song ever!”

“Al asked me to help him go thru a ton of unfinished recordings of Al and Ed writing and recording that never saw the light of day. As of now thats all I got,” he added. “The fact that ANYONE would think for even a second that I would play anything on this is ridiculous. I have too much love and respect for that and … I play nothing like Ed.. more as a co-producer or something.”

Finally he shared, “I am honored Al would ask me though.”

As of now, the only unfinished music Alex has released since Eddie’s death in 2020 is a song called “Unfinished,” which was released as part of the audiobook of his memoir, Brothers. 

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.