Classic Rock News

David Bowie fans are getting another preview of the upcoming box set Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, due out June 14.

The second release from the set is an alternative version of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars track “Lady Stardust,” which was recorded at Trident Studios in London on November 12, 1971. It features Bowie on vocals, Mick Ronson on piano, Trevor Bolder on bass and Woody Woodmansey on drums. 

“This was a shock when I first heard it,” shares Ken Scott, the song’s original producer. “I pulled up the faders, and suddenly, what the hell? I had no recollection of it being like that originally, but I guess it was just a guide vocal. But it sounds great, is really interesting and brings a totally different feeling to the song.”

You can listen to “Lady Stardust (Alternative Version – Take 1)” now via digital outlets.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, a five-CD/Blu-ray audio box set, features 29 unreleased tracks that show Bowie’s journey from February 1971 to the release of 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Those tracks include early songwriting demos, rehearsals from Bowie’s home, BBC sessions, live performances, outtakes and alternative versions.

The Blu-ray will include the 2012 remaster of the original Ziggy Stardust album plus additional mixes from 2003. There will also be an alternate version of the album, Waiting in the Sky (Before the Starman Came to Earth), featuring recordings made at Trident Studios in December 1971. 

Rock ‘n’ Roll Star! is available for preorder now.

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The Rolling Stones had some surprises in store for fans during their set at Jazz Fest in New Orleans on Thursday, May 2. 

The rockers brought out two guests during the set, one of which helped them perform a song that, according to setlist.fm, they hadn’t performed live in over 25 years. 

The first guest was Zydeco musician Dwayne Dopsie, who the Stones called “King of the Accordion” on Instagram. He joined them for “Let It Bleed,” marking the song’s tour debut.

They were then joined by Irma Thomas for “Time is On My Side,” which The Stones pointed out is “a song she knows very well as she’d recorded it before the Rolling Stones in 1964!” The performance of “Time is On My Side” marked the first time the band has played it in concert since 1998.

As for the rest of the set, it included such Stones classics as “Start Me Up,” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Honky Tonk Woman,” “Gimme Shelter” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” along with Hackney Diamonds tracks “Angry” and “Sweet Sounds of Heaven.”

It seems the one song with Irma wasn’t enough for Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. He shared on social media that he caught her midnight show at Preservation Hall in New Orleans and “then jumped up to play ‘Time Is On My Side’ with her and her amazing band!”

Jazz Fest was the second night of The Rolling Stones ’24 Hackney Diamonds tour. The trek hits Glendale, Arizona, on Tuesday, May 7. A complete list of dates can be found at rollingstones.com.

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On This Day, May 3, 1976…

Paul McCartney launched his first tour of the U.S. in ten years, this time with his band Wings. His previous U.S. tour was in 1966 with The Beatles.

The North American leg of the Wings Over America World tour kicked off in Forth Worth, Texas, and wrapped with a three-night stand at the Forum in Inglewood, California, from June 21-23.

The tour had McCartney & Wings performing such songs as “Jet,” “Band on the Run,” “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Live and Let Die,” and “Silly Love Songs,” along with Beatles classics like “Yesterday,” “Lady Madonna,” “The Long and Winding Road” and “Blackbird.”

Wings Over America, a triple live album recorded during the tour, was released in December 1976.

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Model/actress/artist Anita Pallenberg is mostly known for her association with The Rolling Stones, but a new documentary, Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg, seeks to remind the world she was more than just the former girlfriend of Brian Jones and Keith Richards.

Pallenberg’s influence on the band was huge. The film’s co-director Alexis Bloom tells ABC Audio Pallenberg was a “great connector” for the group, introducing them to art, artists, books and more. 

“I mean, they literally wore her clothes,” co-director Svetlana Zill adds. “She brought this sort of cultural influence into the mix that they had not really previously been aware of before.”

The two directors got involved in the project after Marlon Richards, Pallenberg’s son with Keith, brought them his mother’s unpublished memoir, as well as hours of old film footage. He and his sister Angela appear in the film, which the directors acknowledge wasn’t easy for either of them.

“I think it would be hard for anyone to go back and talk about their childhood,” Zill says. “But they were very open and willing to, which was incredible, the kind of trust that they had to let us go there.” 

Keith, who Pallenberg was with from 1967 to 1979, is also interviewed for the film, and Bloom says she initially wondered if the rocker would be comfortable enough to open up his relationship with Anita. She noting she was “surprised how tenderly he spoke” about her.

“It was very moving because it was palpable the way that he spoke about her,” Zill adds. “I don’t think it was easy for him to go back and talk about her.” 

Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg opens in theaters and is available on demand on May 3.

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Neil Young fans in Texas were left disappointed when the rocker was forced to postpone two shows in the state due to severe weather.

Young and his band Crazy Horse were supposed to bring their Love Earth tour to Austin on May 1 and Dallas on May 2, but both shows have been pushed to the fall due to threats of lightning.

“Too dangerous to put our audience in that situation,” read a post on the Neil Young Archives site. “We are rolling on, with these shows coming back in September on our way to Farm Aid.” 

“Would have loved to play Texas – Austin and Dallas, but too unsafe at the moment,” the post continued. “Sitting in the parking lots, lightning flashing in the sky. Movin’ On.”

The Austin show has been rescheduled to September 13, with Dallas happening on September 14. 

Next up, Young and Crazy Horse are set to play Jazz Fest in New Orleans on Saturday, May 4. A complete list of dates can be found at neilyoungarchives.com.

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Mike McCready approves of Duff McKagan‘s cover of the Mad Season song “River of Deceit.”

In a Facebook post, the Pearl Jam guitarist writes, “The amazing Duff McKagan covered ‘River of Deceit’ by Mad Season and it’s beautiful.”

“Thanks Duff!” he adds.

McCready was a member of Mad Season alongside late Alice in Chains front man Layne Staley. The group, which also featured Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin and late bassist John Baker Saunders, released just one album, 1995’s Above, which featured “River of Deceit.”

As previously reported, McKagan’s “River of Deceit” cover is included on his upcoming live solo album, Tenderness: Live in Los Angeles, due out May 31.

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Jon Bon Jovi has given fans some hope that a new Bon Jovi tour may be happening in the near future.

The rocker previously revealed that he is still recovering from surgery for atrophied vocal cords and that he wouldn’t tour again unless his voice was back 100%. In a new interview with Planet Rock, he seems to suggest he’s close to getting there.

Jon’s surgery and recovery are detailed in the recently released Hulu docuseries Thank You, Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story, but Jon says what fans see in the series covers things that happened up to two years ago.

“It’s been a slog,” he says of the recovery. “Nothing that I would ever wish on my worst enemy.” But, he says, “The recovery is proceeding, it’s progressing, it’s getting there, and it’s sort of out of your control at this point.” He notes, “The good news is we’re coming through it.”

And when the idea of a possible tour with the band was mentioned, Jon seemed more than hopeful.

“Oh, I’m not worried about it. It’s gonna happen. Not tonight but very soon,” he says. “For me to be in this clear a voice at 9 a.m. in the morning after eight hours of talking yesterday, it’s there. It’s just a matter of time now.”

As fans wait for a tour, at least they’ll get to enjoy some new music. Bon Jovi will release the new album, Forever, on June 7.

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Billy Idol is opening up to People about his path to sobriety, revealing that he’s currently “California sober.” 

The rocker says he decided “not be a drug addict anymore” after he was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in 1990, but his sobriety didn’t happen overnight. 

“It took a long time, but gradually I did achieve some sort of discipline where I’m not really the same kind of guy I was in the ’80s,” he says. “I’m not the same drug addicted person.”

“I mean, AA would say, ‘You’re always a drug addict.’ And that may be true, but I don’t do anything that much anymore. I got over it somehow,” he adds, noting, “I was really lucky that I could get over it because a lot of people can’t.” 

Idol says his “California sober” lifestyle means he’ll have the occasional glass of wine, sharing, “I don’t have to do nothing.” 

“I just tell myself I can do what I want, but then I don’t do it,” he says. “If I tell myself I can’t do anything, I want to do it. So I tell myself, ‘You can do anything you like.’ But I don’t actually do it.”

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A new book about The Doors will take a deep dive into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band as they celebrate their 60th anniversary. 

Night Divides the Day, the first official anthology on The Doors, is being described as the “most definitive book yet” on the band. It features new interviews with surviving members Robby Krieger and John Densmore, and archival contributions from the late Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek.

Hours of archival interviews were used as sources for the book, which also features rare photos, song lyrics, poster artwork and more. It also includes contributions from artists like Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic, Guns N’ Roses’ Slash, Chic’s Nile Rodgers, Nancy Sinatra and Van Morrison.

Only 2,000 copies of the book will be available — in two different editions. The Collector edition is limited to 1,650 copies, all signed by Densmore and Krieger. It comes with a 24-page replica program of The Doors’ 1968 tour and a booklet featuring reproductions of the previously unseen mastertape boxes of six of The Doors’ albums. There’s also a 7-inch vinyl picture disc featuring rare demos of “Hello I Love You” and “Moonlight Drive.” 

The Deluxe edition, limited to 350 copies, is also signed by Densmore and Krieger, and features much of the same content as the Collector, with the addition of five previously unpublished photo prints of The Doors at the Whisky a Go Go in 1966, taken by photographer George Rodriguez.

Night Divides the Day is available for preorder now, with the book expected to ship in January 2025.

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Steve Perry is singing Journey again — just not with Journey.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer announced on Instagram that he has rerecorded the Raised on Radio track “It Could Have Been You” with The Effect, the band made up of Trevor Lukather — son of Toto‘s Steve Lukather — Phil Collins‘ son Nic Collins, Steve Maggiora and Emmett Sans. 

“I’ve known Trevor Lukather since he was 9 years old and he is a very gifted musician. One day we were talking about his new band, The Effect… He surprisingly mentioned ‘It Could Have Been You’ is one of his favorite tracks from that record, I told him I felt the same,” Perry shared. “I then said, why don’t you record it? He asked if I would sing on it if they did, I said… ‘Of course my most precious!'”

“I must say, singing on their powerful track brought out a vocal experience in me from years ago !” he adds, noting that he always considered the song a “diamond in the rough.” 

The reimagined version of “It Could Have Been You” will be released May 7 on all streaming services.

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