Classic Rock News

In October, Pink Floyd sold the rights to their recorded works to Sony Music for a reported $400 million. And guitarist David Gilmour says he’s glad to be done with it — so he doesn’t have to fight with his bandmates anymore.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Gilmour, 78, says, “I’m an old person. I’ve spent the last 40-odd years trying to fight the good fight against the forces of indolence and greed to do the best with our stuff that you can do. And I’ve given that fight up now.”

“I’ve got my advance — because, you know, it’s not fresh new money or anything like that. It’s an advance against what I would have earned over the next few years anyway,” he continues. “But the arguments and fighting and idiocies that have been going on for the last 40 years between these four disparate groups of people and their managers and whatever — it’s lovely to say goodbye to.”

Gilmour and Pink Floyd bassist/vocalist Roger Waters have famously been at odds for several years. The rest of the “four groups of people” Gilmour is referring to are presumably drummer Nick Mason and his camp, and late keyboard player Rick Wright, who died in 2008 but was involved in nearly all the group’s recordings.

The estate of founding member Syd Barrett, who was ejected from the group in 1968 and died in 2006, also benefited from the deal, though he wasn’t involved in the 40 years of “arguments and fighting.”

Gilmour, currently touring behind his album Luck and Strange, further tells the paper that he’s retained his publishing rights, so he doesn’t really care what Sony does with the band’s classic recordings: “If it comes on an advert, I’m not gonna give a s***.”

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Over the five decades that Saturday Night Live has been on the air, almost ever major rock or rock-adjacent act has appeared on the show. So in honor of the show’s milestone 50th season, Rolling Stone has ranked its 50 greatest musical performances.

Topping the list is David Bowie‘s 1979 performance of “The Man Who Sold the World,” during which he was carried to the mic by performance artists Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias. Why? Because he was encased in a plastic tuxedo that made it difficult for him to move.

Rolling Stone chose that performance over the other two Bowie did that night, which were just as weird: He sang “TVC15” while wearing a pencil skirt and performed “Boys Keep Swinging” while using special effects to place his head on a marionette.

Number two on Rolling Stones‘ list is The Replacements‘ 1986 performance of “Bastards of Young,” during which singer Paul Westerberg shouted, “Come on f*****!” at guitarist Bob Stinson. According to Rolling Stone, Lorne Michaels was furious and said they’d never perform on TV again, though they did return that night to sing “Kiss Me on the Bus.”

Number three is Elvis Costello‘s legendary 1977 appearance, where he stopped his agreed-upon song, “Less Than Zero,” and then kicked into the then-unreleased track “Radio Radio.”

Number 4 and 5 are Prince‘s 1981 performance of “Partyup” and Radiohead‘s 2000 take on “The National Anthem.”

Others that made the list: Neil Young‘s “Rockin’ in the Free World”; R.E.M.’s “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?”; Pearl Jam‘s “Alive”; George Harrison and Paul Simon‘s acoustic duet of “Homeward Bound”; Tom Petty‘s “Free Fallin'”; U2‘s “I Will Follow”; Talking Heads‘ “Take Me to the River”; The Rolling Stones‘ “Shattered”; and Smashing Pumpkins‘ “Cherub Rock.”

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Robert Plant is rich enough to take a private plane wherever he wants to go, but evidently he prefers to take the train — if you believe a new ad for Italy’s Trenitalia rail service.

Plant is currently touring Europe with his acoustic band Saving Grace, which features Suzy Dian. According to Classic Rock magazine, when they were in Italy they made the promotional film for Trenitalia’s new “Red Arrow” high-speed service, which reaches speeds up to 186 mph.

Called Welcome aboard, Robert Plant!, the film is set to Plant and Saving Grace’s cover of “Everybody’s Song” by the band Low. It shows Plant and Dian traveling between Naples and Venice — a 435-mile journey that takes five hours — in luxurious surroundings on the Red Arrow. It ends with them arriving and then performing live in concert.

The tagline is, “When a rock legend chooses Red Arrow to get to his concerts, the journey becomes music.”

Plant and Saving Grace are currently on the U.K. leg of their tour, which wraps up Nov. 24. They have more European dates scheduled for next year, starting in May.

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Stevie Nicks, who recently admitted that she didn’t vote until she was 70, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Monday to perform her women’s rights anthem “The Lighthouse.”

The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer gave a dramatic performance of the song, singing against a backdrop of flashing lightning in the night sky: “Don’t let them take your power/ Don’t leave it alone in the final hours/ Don’t close your eyes and hope for the best/ The dark is out there, the light is going fast.”

Nicks, 76, also recently performed the song on Saturday Night Live.

When Nicks first released the song, she said in a statement that she started writing it soon after Roe v. Wade was overturned and has been working on it since September 2022.

Stevie’s only scheduled concert date is a March co-headlining stadium show with Billy Joel. She recently told Rolling Stone that she’s glad her most recent tour is over, because now she’ll have time to work on an album, draw, write poetry — and maybe even develop her own perfume.

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On This Day, Nov. 5, 1971 …

Elton John released his fourth studio album, Madman Across The Water, featuring nine tracks composed and performed by Elton, with lyrics written by his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin.

The album featured two future Elton classics, “Tiny Dancer” and “Levon,” although neither were huge hits at the time they were released. In fact, while “Levon” peaked at #24, “Tiny Dancer” failed to make the top 40, only making it to #41.

Madman Across The Water charted at #8 on the Billboard 200 Album chart and has gone on to be certified double Platinum by the RIAA.

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Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong is voicing his support for Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential campaign against former President Donald Trump.

On Monday night, ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day, Armstrong shared an Instagram video saying, “I think there’s probably a lot of things that people disagree with but the one thing that we all … do agree on is Trump has got to go and we need to turn the page.”

He continued, “To stop Trumpism once and for all is so important and important to our country so we can turn the page and have a future.”

Armstrong has long been vocal about his opposition to Trump. During the 2016 American Music Awards, he chanted “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” and during the 2023 New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, he changed the lyrics to “American Idiot” to “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda.”

As it turns out, Armstrong’s distaste for Trump goes back even further. Along with the voting message, he also shared a story about when he performed at an Elvis Costello tribute concert at a Trump-owned venue in Atlantic City, New Jersey, back in the mid-2000s, long before Trump became president.

“There were all these bottles of water on the stage, and had Donald Trump’s picture on every single one of the bottles, like everything in that hotel,” Armstrong recalled. “It was like this big sort of ode, or, you know, Trump and his sort of bulls*** businessman persona.”

“I put Hitler mustaches on every single one of ’em,” he smiles. “I’m just being me.”

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Bruce Springsteen seemingly wants to remind everyone who’s Boss — even on the set of his own biopic.

According to People, Springsteen dropped by the New Jersey set of Deliver Me From Nowhere on Nov. 4 and was photographed embracing Jeremy Allen White, who’s playing him in the film. The movie chronicles the creation of Bruce’s 1982 album, Nebraska, and is adapted from the Warren Zanes book of the same name.

In the photos, White is dressed all in black, including a black leather jacket similar to the one Springsteen wore during that time. Bruce, meanwhile, is rocking flannel and denim. The Boss recently told The Telegraph that he knew White could do the job after seeing him in the Emmy-winning role that the actor is most famous for.

“I only had to see him on The Bear, and I knew he was the right guy, because he had that interior life, but he also had a little swagger,” Bruce said.

In addition to White, Deliver Me From Nowhere stars Jeremy Strong as Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau.

Bruce’s drop-in came in the middle of his tour of Canada with the E Street Band; he’s set to play Toronto on Nov. 6.

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Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of Bryan Adams’ fourth studio album, Reckless, which was a huge commercial success for the Canadian rocker.

The album’s release coincided with Adams’ 25th birthday and it hit #1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart — to this day it’s Adams’ only #1 record in the U.S.

But even before the release and the chart success, Adams knew Reckless was a good one. 

“I knew going into this record that I had something special,” he tells ABC Audio. “I knew that when we recorded the first couple of tracks for the record that we were on to something really good.”

He added, “We didn’t know really what we’d created, we just [knew] we liked it. And that was the test, you know?” 

The album spawned six singles, including the #1 hit “Heaven”; “Summer of ’69,” which went to #5; the Tina Turner duet “It’s Only Love”; “Somebody”; and “One Night Love Affair.” But for Adams, it was the album’s first single, “Run To You,” which went to #6, that was the standout.

“The magical songs that came out of it obviously are the ones that were some of the biggest hits, and one of them, of course, was ‘Run to You,’” he says. “For me, ‘Run to You’ was the jewel of the album, because … it just set the tone for everything.” 

Reckless went on to sell 12 million copies worldwide and is Adams’ second-highest-selling record in the U.S. behind 1991’s Waking Up The Neighbors. The album went on to be certified five-times Platinum in the U.S.

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Bob Dylan superfans have been getting a kick out of the fact that their idol has seemingly been posting random replies and musings on social platform X. It’s something that the rock icon has been doing on and off since late September — and even his son can’t explain it.

Dylan’s postings have ranged from an acknowledgment of Bob Newhart‘s death nearly a month after it happened to a restaurant recommendation in New Orleans to a story about running into hockey players in Prague. Each posting is just off-kilter enough to convince fans that the great man himself has written it.

But in an interview with the Boston Globe, Dylan’s son Jakob Dylan, frontman of The Wallflowers, says he’s just as confused as everyone else about why his dad has suddenly taken to social media.

“Yeah, like most people, I can’t tell you what’s going on with those,” Jakob tells the paper in response to a comment about how his father tweets more than he does. “I’ve seen those.”

He laughs, “I can’t tell you what that’s about. I’m not sure. But you’re right: Whatever it is, it’s more than I do.”

Asked if he’d ever do a tour or a concert with Bob, Jakob tells the paper, “I’m available. He knows how to find me.”

Bob Dylan is currently on tour in Europe; his next show is in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Nov. 5. On Nov. 12, Nov. 13 and Nov. 14 he’ll perform at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The biopic A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet as a young Dylan, opens on Christmas Day.

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Paul McCartney took to Instagram Monday to share a tribute to legendary music industry figure Quincy Jones, who passed away Sunday at age 91. In his decadeslong career, Jones produced many multi-Platinum, Grammy-winning albums, including Michael Jackson‘s Thriller — which of course featured the McCartney/Michael duet “The Girl Is Mine.”

“Dear Quincy Jones has passed and left those of us who knew him feeling sad,” wrote McCartney, alongside a carousel of photos of himself hanging with Jones over the years. “He was supremely talented, and I felt privileged to have known him for many years. He was friends with George Martin, the Beatles’ producer and, between the two of them, produced some very fine music.”

“Quincy or ‘Quince’ or ‘Q’, as he was known, always had a twinkle in his eye and had a very positive, loving spirit which infected everyone who knew him,” Paul continued. “My main recollections of him were always the private moments that we shared, and I will never stop thanking [my wife] Nancy for always arranging to visit him when we were in Los Angeles. These visits were fun and inspiring.”

“His long career stretches back to the early days when he was a trumpet player, then a band leader, then a producer of many great records. But it is as a friend I would like to remember him,” McCartney wrote.

He concluded, “We always had fun in his presence and his legend will continue through the years, but it is those private moments we were lucky enough to have with the great man that I will always remember fondly.” 

Elton John also paid tribute to Jones, sharing a photo of them together and writing, “He played with the best and he produced the best. What a guy. Loved him.”

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