Classic Rock News

Eddie Van Halen’s long-lost 1993 Ernie Ball Music Signature “Canada Day” guitar sold for $104,000 as part of day two of Julien’s Auctions’ Played, Worn & Torn II auction in Nashville.

The guitar, unseen for 31 years, was played by Eddie at a July 1, 1993, Canada Day concert at Molson Park in Barrie, Ontario. It features the red Canada maple leaf, with signatures of all the band members. Proceeds from the sale will go to City of Hope.

Other items sold during day two of the auction include Gov’t Mule frontman Warren Haynes’ signed “Soulshine” Gibson Les Paul standard ’60s electric guitar, for $29,250, which was 20 times its initial estimate; late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s handwritten concert set list, signed by bandmate Dave Grohl, for $26,000, which was 13 times over its initial estimate; and a 1981 “New York” tank worn by Queen’s Freddie Mercury, for $22,750. 

Also at the auction, Prince’s Sadowsky Telecaster style guitar sold for $381,000. One of only six that were made, Prince used it during his 1986 Parade tour.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Aerosmith will no longer be part of a popular attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Disney World in Orlando.

It was announced on the Disney Park blog that Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith is being taken over by The Muppets, marking the first time The Muppets will be the focus of a Disney ride.

The change in the ride comes as Disney replaces Muppet Vision 3D with Monsters Inc. land.

“To make way for the monsters, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and more of their friends will be moving right along to Sunset Boulevard!” read the announcement. “But there’s more to the story: The Muppets will be taking over Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, teaming up with some of music’s biggest stars for a rockin’ music festival!”

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith is an indoor ride that launched at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (then named Disney-MGM Studios) in July 1999. The ride features video of the band members, including Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, as well as music from the band, including songs like “Walk This Way,” “Love in an Elevator” and “Sweet Emotion.”

Exactly when The Muppets will take over for Aerosmith has not been announced.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

A piano once owned by Stevie Nicks is on the auction block.

Gotta Have Rock and Roll is handling the sale of the Hamilton grand piano, which was used to write such Fleetwood Mac tunes as “Sara” and “Songbird.”

Described as “debatably the most important piano ever offered for public auction,” the piano was one of two  Stevie had in her home in the ’70s. In 1979 it went on tour with the band and was played onstage by Christine McVie until around 1982 or 1983; Christine also wrote “Songbird” on it. 

The piano was eventually returned to Stevie’s home. Musician Robbie Patton, a friend of Stevie’s who worked with her during that time, was eventually gifted the piano by Stevie as payment for a song they wrote together.

He went on to use it in the studio with several other big-name musicians, including Elton John and Queen, with Patton noting both Elton and Freddie Mercury actually played it.

“The people who have touched this piano are crazy!” he says.

Bidding on the piano is open until Dec. 16, and it is expected to sell for between $100,000 and $200,000. The piano also comes with letters of authenticity by Nicks and McVie.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett is set to release the new live album Live Magic At Trading Boundaries on Jan. 17.

The album is a compilation of various recordings taken from years of shows at the intimate venue in Sussex, England, with Hackett performing stripped down versions of classic tracks, including solo material, and Genesis tunes like “Blood On The Rooftops” and “Horizons.”

“It’s always a joy for me to play at Trading Boundaries, a magical intimate place full of beautiful lights and exotic imagery, illuminating the darkest time of year over Christmas and New Year,” Hackett shares. “It’s the perfect location for my acoustic set.”

Coinciding with the announcement, Hackett has shared the first track from the record, a performance of “Ace of Wands,” a tune from his 1975 debut solo album, Voyage of The Acolyte. 

Hackett has been playing Trading Boundaries yearly since 2016, and has shows coming up on Jan. 18 and Jan. 19. A complete list of tour dates can be found at hackettsongs.com.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Sean Ono Lennon says the only reason he decided to learn to play music was to get closer to his late father, The Beatles‘ John Lennon, who was killed in 1980 when Sean was only 5. 

“I never played music because I was good at it,” he tells People in a new interview. “I lost my father and I didn’t know how to fill that void. Learning how to play his songs on guitar was a way to process the loss with an activity that made me feel connected to him.”

He adds, “When you’ve lost a parent, things like that motivate you — because you’re trying to find them. Making music always made me feel like I was getting to know him better.”

Sean continues to learn more about his dad by managing John’s legacy, being involved in things like the recent Mind Games box set and more. And the more he works on these projects, the more connected he feels to his dad, especially since many of the archival tapes include John interacting with his fellow musicians.

“You’re constructing somebody out of fragments,” he explains. “I grew up mostly knowing my dad through pictures and recordings, because he wasn’t around. So whenever I hear my dad saying anything that I haven’t heard before, even just a little moment, it means so much to me.”

He adds, “It’s like gold. It’s precious because it’s like getting more time with him.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, Nov. 22, 1950 …

E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts. Born Steven Lento, he took the name Van Zandt after his mother remarried. The family then moved to New Jersey, where his musical career began.

While performing with his bands on the Jersey Shore he met Bruce Springsteen, which would lead to a musical partnership that continues to this day.

Prior to joining the E Street band, Van Zandt, who’s gone by the nicknames Little Steven and Miami Steve, co-founded Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. He also produced Southside Johnny’s first three records.

Although he’d worked with Springsteen for years, Van Zandt officially joined the E Street Band on guitar in 1975 and remained with the group until 1984, when he left to pursue a solo career. He rejoined the band in 1995, has been with them ever since and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the group in 2014. 

A solo artist and songwriter in his own right, Van Zandt wrote the all-star anti-apartheid song “Sun City.” He also penned the track “I Am A Patriot,” which has been covered by Jackson Brown, Pearl Jam and more. 

In 1999 Van Zandt launched an acting career, starring as Silvio Dante in HBO’s The Sopranos, and then in 2011 starred in Lilyhammer, Netflix’s first original series.

Van Zandt was recently the subject of an HBO documentary, Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple, which just earned a Grammy nomination.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

U2 has released another previously unheard track.

The latest is “Luckiest Man in the World,” which appears on the How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb shadow album, How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb, which is now available on digital outlets.

The shadow album contains 10 previously unreleased tracks from the band’s archive, with the songs all coming from the original recording sessions for How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, the Irish rockers’ 11th studio album. They previously released three of those tracks: “Happiness,” “Country Mile” and “Picture of You (X+Y).”

Physical copies of How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb will be released Nov. 29 as an exclusive for Record Store Day Black Friday.

Also out Nov. 22 is a special 20th anniversary remastered edition of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, as well as a package with the remaster and the shadow album together, dubbed How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Re-Assemble Edition), plus various box sets on vinyl and CD.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Pearl Jam‘s Vitalogy has been waiting and watching the clock for three decades now.

The third studio effort from Eddie Vedder and company was first released on Nov. 22, 1994, 30 years ago Friday. Following in the footsteps of their 1991 breakout debut, Ten, and its 1993 follow-up, Vs., Vitalogy further cemented Pearl Jam’s status as among the biggest bands in rock, even as the grunge phenomenon was fading.

Like Vs., Vitalogy reached #1 on the Billboard 200, though it didn’t debut in the top spot. It actually began at #55 thanks to an initial vinyl-only release, before arriving on CD and cassette two weeks later, which vaulted it to #1.

At the time, Vitalogy set the record for most vinyl copies sold in a single week since tracking data started in 1991. Pearl Jam held onto that record for 20 years and was finally beat by Jack White‘s Lazaretto in 2014.

Vitalogy produced rock radio hits in “Spin the Black Circle,” “Not for You” and “Immortality.” It also spawned two of Pearl Jam’s most enduring songs, “Better Man” and “Corduroy,” though, amazingly, neither track was released as an official single. 

Today, Vitalogy is certified five-times Platinum by the RIAA.

While by all accounts Vitalogy was a smash success — it also received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year — the era was not without its difficulties. Drummer Dave Abbruzzese, who played on Vs., was fired toward the end of recording and replaced by original Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons. Additionally, the subsequent tour was hampered by Pearl Jam’s continued boycott of Ticketmaster, which lasted until 1998.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Friday marks the 50th anniversary of Genesis’ sixth studio album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, the last Genesis record to feature frontman Peter Gabriel.

The album was a concept record conceived by Gabriel, with a bit of a bizarre story centered around a Puerto Rican youth named Rael who goes on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.

But recording the album was not without problems. Guitarist Steve Hackett tells ABC Audio there was some concern within the band about whether Gabriel would finish the record, as he was dealing with some personal pressures surrounding the birth of his first child.

“I think that it was probably the most difficult album that Genesis ever got to make because we weren’t sure if Peter Gabriel was going to be in the band or not,” he says.

The album went on to be a top 10 hit in the U.K. and peaked at #41 in the U.S.

Genesis supported the record with an extensive tour, playing the album in its entirety. The tour featured lots of theatricality, with Gabriel donning multiple costumes, but it seems he had some even bigger ideas for the production.

“It’s an album that was as much about the visuals as it was … the grooves,” Hackett says. “So the last time we were talking about doing that in its entirety with Pete, Pete was already talking about avatars even then, several years ahead of ABBA.”

During the tour, Gabriel let the band know that he’d be leaving at the end of it. They would go on to have even more success with drummer Phil Collins as frontman.

Genesis will celebrate the album’s anniversary with The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition), dropping March 28.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Believe it or not, Bob Dylan is now responding to comments on social platform X.

On Tuesday, Dylan shared a post about seeing Nick Cave perform the song “Joy” in Paris, which prompted a dancer to share her disappointing encounter with the rock legend.

“My Joy was taken away after rehearsing as one of the Backup dancers for your set on the Grammys in NYC 1991,” Cheryl Henry wrote, detailing how she walked by Dylan, who made a comment about her red hair.

“By the time I reached the exit door at Radio City I had been told not to return,” she added, sharing that the dancers had been told not to make eye contact with the him. “I guess I snuck a peek as I passed you !”

Well, apparently Dylan took issue with her comment.

“Saw your reply. Just want you to know I’ve never told anybody not to make eye contact with me,” he replied. “That is just ridiculous. And the next time you see me please look straight into my eyes.”

And Cheryl seemed to be happy with the response, replying, “I knew it wasn’t coming from you ! I look forward to it ! XXXX OOOO.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.