Classic Rock News

On This Day, Feb. 4, 1977…

Fleetwood Mac released their 11th studio album Rumours, which became a huge commercial success for the band.

The album topped Billboard 200 Albums chart and would go on to spend 31 nonconsecutive weeks at #1, thanks to four top-10 hits: “Dreams,” their only #1 song; “Go Your Own Way”; “Don’t Stop”; and “You Make Loving Fun.”

Rumours won Album of the Year at the Grammys in 1978 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003. It was also selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2017.

The album has sold over 40 million copies worldwide and has been certified 21-times Platinum by the RIAA.

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Dave Grohl has been added to the lineup of Saturday Night Live‘s upcoming 50th anniversary music special, SNL50: The Homecoming Concert.

ABC Audio has confirmed the Foo Fighters frontman’s involvement in the show after he was included in a promo circulating online.

Grohl, of course, is no stranger to SNL, having long been a member of the Five-Timers Club with the Foos. He also played the show twice with Nirvana, as well as with the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures and played drums with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

SNL50: The Homecoming Concert will stream live on Peacock on Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. ET. The lineup also includes Eddie Vedder, Jack White, Mumford & Sons, Arcade Fire, Coldplay‘s Chris Martin, David Byrne and Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, among others.

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Grateful Dead was honored for their philanthropy on Friday by the Recording Academy, which named them MusiCares Person of the Year. Now the band’s offshoot, Dead & Company, is giving back to the organization.

The band just launched a new auction in which the lucky winner will nab a Dead & Company Sphere Experience package for four in Las Vegas.

The package includes tickets to any Friday and Saturday show of their Dead Forever Sphere residency, including either front row 200 section seats or general admission tickets, plus two hotel suites for three nights at The Venetian, which is connected to the Sphere. The winner will also get priority entry to the show and commemorative gifts. 

The auction runs until Feb. 11 on Charity Buzz, with the package estimated to sell for $15,000.

Proceeds from the package will benefit MusiCares’ The Person of the Year Charity Relief Auction. The organization raises essential funds that help music professionals recover from crises.

Dead & Company launched their Dead Forever residency in May, wrapping the first run in August. Their 2025 run kicks off March 20 and runs through May 17. A complete list of dates can be found at deadandcompany.com.

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The Beatles picked up another Grammy Award Sunday night, with their final song “Now And Then” winning best rock performance. Neither Paul McCartney nor Ringo Starr were on hand to accept the award in person, but now Ringo has reacted to their latest honor.

“Wow, another Grammy. Well, done everybody,” he shared on Instagram, next to a photo of him giving the peace sign. “I send you peace and love. That’s right the beat goes on. thanks, peace and love Ringo.”

So far McCartney has not commented on the win.

The win was The Beatles’ eighth Grammy Award and their first in 28 years. Their last wins came in 1997 when they won best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals; best music video, short form for “Free As A Bird”; and best music video, long form for The Beatles Anthology.

They were also honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

While The Beatles did win best rock performance, they lost in the major category, record of the year. That honor went to Kendrick Lamar for “Not Like Us.”

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Bob Dylan is going to be busy on the road this year. The rocker just announced a slew of new Rough and Rowdy Ways tour dates for the spring.

Dylan previously announced only four shows, but has now has added several dates to the trek, including stops in Little Rock, Arkansas; Omaha, Nebraska; Peoria, Illinois; Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Toledo, Ohio.

The tour is set to kick off March 25 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with dates now confirmed through April 22 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Tickets for the new shows go on sale Friday. A complete list of dates can be found at bobdylan.com.

Following the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour dates, Dylan will join Willie Nelson on the Outlaw Music Festival, which kicks off May 13 in Phoenix. That tour is set to run through Sept. 9 in East Troy, Wisconsin.

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Monica Barbaro earned an Oscar nomination for playing Joan Baez in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, and it sounds like Baez herself thinks the actress is deserving of all the praise she’s gotten.

“I loved what she did in the film,” Baez tells the Marin Independent Journal. “If I didn’t think she was good at it, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it in general. But she looked enough like me and she had my gestures down. You could tell who it was.”

She adds, “She worked so hard. Kudos to her for taking the role on.”

As for the movie itself, Baez shared, “I thought the music was fantastic. I may be blocking my feelings, but it’s an amusing movie. It was fun.”

Baez did note one issue she had with a make-out scene between her and Dylan, played by Timothée Chalamet.

“It was pleasantly brief,” she said, noting that her college-age granddaughter didn’t really care for it. “She said, ‘I don’t want to see my grandmother making out in a film.’”

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Rock memorabilia from Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks and more sold for big bucks at Julien’s Auctions’ annual MusiCares Charity Relief Auction on Sunday.

Over 60 items were donated to the auction. McCartney’s signed copy of his 2021 book, The Lyrics: 1965 to Present, personalized to the winner, brought in the most money — $63,500, which was more than 15 times over the initial estimate. The lot included an Abbey Road Studios experience hosted by Beatles producer Giles Martin.

Meanwhile, the top hat Nicks wore for a 2024 Saturday Night Live promo went for $58,500, which was 60 times more than initially predicted.

Other big-ticket items included a 2024 Fender American Vintage II 1951 electric guitar, donated and signed by Bruce Springsteen, which sold for $52,000; an acoustic guitar from the Jimmy Buffett tribute concert, signed by McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow and more, which sold for $39,000; a D’Angelico Deluxe Bobby Weir 3 guitar, with amp and pedalboard, donated by Grateful Dead’s Bobby Weir, which sold for $34,925; and a Coldplay set list handwritten by Chris Martin, which sold for $11,430.

The auction brought in over $700,000 to MusiCares, which raises essential funds that help music professionals recover from crises.

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Musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and “The Big Bopper” J. P. Richardson died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

The trio was touring together as part of the Winter Dance Party tour. In order to not have to travel on a cold tour bus, Holly chartered a plane to the next venue. Richards got his spot on the plane because he had the flu, and Valens got the last spot on the plane in a coin toss with one of Holly’s band members Tommy Allsup.

The pilot, who also died in the flight, lost control of the plane due to poor wintery conditions.

The trio’s death became known as “The Day the Music Died,” after singer Don McLean referred to it as that in his classic 1971 song “American Pie.”

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After fracturing his vocal cords during Aerosmith’s 2023 Peace Out tour, frontman Steven Tyler was back on the stage Sunday night performing at his sixth annual Jam for Janie Grammy Awards Viewing Party in Los Angeles, backed by a variety of A-list musicians.

According to Consequence, while it was announced that Tyler would be reuniting with his Aerosmith bandmates Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton, only Hamilton was part of Tyler’s backing band for the night. Tyler was also joined onstage by Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt, former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum, Mick Fleetwood and The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson.

Fan-shot footage shared on social media and YouTube shows Tyler performing the Extreme tune “More Than Words” with Bettencourt on guitar and Fleetwood on drums, and singing “Dream On” with country singer Lainey Wilson.

The night also included performances of Aerosmith classics “Toys in the Attic,” “Sweet Emotion” and “Walk This Way,” as well as a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker.”

The performance was Tyler’s first time singing publicly since Aerosmith’s Sept. 9, 2023, concert at UBS Arena in Long Island, New York, the show where he injured his vocal cords. After postponing the tour, in August the band canceled it and announced their retirement from the road, citing Tyler’s continuing vocal problems.

Money raised during the Grammy Viewing Party will go to Janie’s Fund, Tyler’s charity that helps girls who have been abused or neglected, as well as the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation and Widows, Orphans and Disabled Firefighter’s Fund. 

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Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this year with a star-studded lineup that includes Willie & Family and Bob Dylan.

This year’s festival kicks off May 13 in Phoenix and wraps Sept. 9 in East Troy, Wisconsin. Just like the 2024 festival, Willie and Dylan are confirmed for the entire run, with the rest of the lineup changing depending on the city.

Other artists confirmed for the festival this year include Sheryl Crow, Billy Strings, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, The Avett Brothers, Wilco, Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers and Lucinda Williams.

A Citi card presale for tickets kicks off Tuesday at 10 a.m., with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m.

A complete list of dates and lineups can be found at outlawmusicfestival.com.

Nelson launched the Outlaw Music Festival in 2016; previous lineups featured such artists as Neil Young, Van Morrison, John Mellencamp, ZZ Top, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and Chris Stapleton.

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