Classic Rock News

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band brought their tour to Las Vegas on Friday, March 22, and got a little inspiration from their location.

According to setlist.fm, The Boss kicked off the show, his first concert in Vegas in over 20 years, with the Human Touch track “Roll of the Dice,” fitting for the gambling mecca. It is the first time Bruce has played the song on this tour and the first live performance of the track since 2017.

But that’s not all: Later in the show, Bruce broke out the Elvis Presley classic “Viva Las Vegas,” another tour debut, which also marks the first time he’s played the song since 2022.

The set list also included the Darkness on the Edge of Town classic “Racing in the Street” and The River’s “Hungry Heart,” the first time either have been played on this tour.  

All of these great treats were witnessed by at least one celebrity Bruce fan. Video posted to social media shows Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav meeting Bruce backstage. When he’s introduced, he bows down to The Boss, hugs him and is heard saying, “This is such an honor man.” He adds, “Thank you for all of the years of good music and leadership.” In another clip, he can be seen rocking out in the audience to the Springsteen hit “Dancing in the Dark.”

Bruce and the E Street Band next hit San Diego on Monday, March 25. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.net.

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On This Day, March 25, 1947…

Reginald Kenneth Dwight was born in Pinner, Middlesex, England. In 1967, he began using the name Elton John (he legally changed it to Elton Hercules John in 1972) and would go on to become one of the most beloved and successful recording artists in the world.

Elton’s long and successful partnership with songwriter Bernie Taupin, which started in 1967, has produced more than fifty top 40 hits, including nine #1 singles in both the U.S. and U.K. He’s also had seven Billboard #1 albums in the U.S., his first being 1972’s Honky Château.

Known for being a dynamic live performer, Elton wrapped his touring career in July, playing the final date of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in Sweden. The tour, which launched in 2018, grossed over $939.1 million and is the second highest grossing tour of all time. 

Elton has won numerous awards throughout his career, including five Grammys, two Academy Awards and a Tony Award. In 2024, he won his first Emmy Award, making him one of only 19 entertainers to win the EGOT.

He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004. In March, he and Taupin received the Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

Elton is also well known for his philanthropic work, having raised over $375 million for the fight against HIV/AIDs through his Elton John AIDS Foundation, which he started in 1992.

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An electronic dance music festival may seem like the least likely place you’d be able to catch a performance by Jon Bon Jovi, but Billboard reports that he unexpectedly popped up onstage in Miami on March 24 during the Ultra Music Festival 2024.

He wasn’t crashing the stage, either: He was joining as legendary DJ Armin van Buuren debuted a remix of the Bon Jovi classic “Keep the Faith.” According to Billboard, van Buuren introduced the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer by saying, “I remember being a little kid and buying this guy’s album.”

Jon then came onstage in jeans, sneakers and a white T-shirt and sang along with the track. You can watch the moment on Instagram.

Billboard quotes van Burren as saying in a statement, “It’s an incredible honor to remix this track and to share the stage with Jon Bon Jovi, as I’ve been a massive fan for years.”

“Keep the Faith” was a top 20 hit for Bon Jovi in 1992. The band’s new album, Forever, is due June 9.

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The newly reimagined version of The Who’s Tommy is set to open on Broadway Thursday, and director Des McAnuff, who also directed the original production, says the idea to bring it back was sparked by another Tommy project.

McAnuff tells ABC Audio he and The Who’s Pete Townshend were working on a movie version of the musical when the idea of bringing it back to the stage came up.

“I think we came to the realization that the world has perhaps caught up to Tommy Walker,” he explains, noting, “The piece seemed to take on a whole new kind of pertinence.” He adds, “It’s not so much that the piece changed radically, it’s that the world around us had changed.”

Based on The Who’s 1969 album and 1975 film, the original production of Tommy opened on Broadway on April 22, 1993. It won five Tony Awards, including Best Direction for McAnuff and Best Original Score for Townshend.

McAnuff says that even though it’s been 30 years since the original production, the story of Tommy is particularly relatable in our current climate, specifically in the second act, “when Tommy becomes this imam, guru, political leader, a rock star and has a kind of an epiphany about that.” He notes that it’s something “one would hope more leaders would do.” 

As for Townshend’s involvement, McAnuff says the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is “wildly enthusiastic about the piece,” sharing that after decades of working together he sort of knows what Pete likes.

But, McAnuff says, “I would not consider doing anything without his blessing.” 

Tommy The Musical opens March 28 at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre. Tickets are available now.

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Last year, the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame opened a special exhibit dedicated to Billy Joel. Now, the Hall will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a June tribute concert celebrating the Piano Man’s music.

The June 7 show will take place at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at LIU Post in Brookville, Long Island, New York. On the bill will be Billy’s daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, as well as Debbie Gibson, The Rascals‘ Felix Cavaliere, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run-DMC, legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb and Mike DelGuidice, who is Billy’s guitarist and also leads his own tribute band, Big Shot.

Webb, McDaniels and Gibson are all in the Hall of Fame, as are two other acts on the bill: Zebra and two former members of Blue Öyster Cult.

Advanced presale tickets will be available starting March 25 at limusichalloffame.org. Tickets go on sale to the general public starting March 27.

It’s entirely possible that Billy himself might attend, considering he has to be in the area on June 8 for a show in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

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Over the years, Black Sabbath‘s lead singers have included metal icons Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio. But a new box set aims to turn the spotlight on an era when the band was fronted by a third man: Tony Martin.

The box set, Anno Domini 1989-1995, arrives May 31. The set, available on four CDs or LPs, documents the albums that Martin made with Sabbath, starting with 1989’s Headless Cross, which also featured founding guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Cozy Powell and keyboardist Geoff Nicholls.

That album was followed by 1990’s Tyr, which added bassist Neil Murray. That lineup was put on hold in 1992 while Ronnie James Dio temporarily reunited with the band, but in 1994, Martin was back for the album Cross Purposes, as was founding Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler. Bobby Rondinelli of Rainbow played drums on that release.

Martin also sang on 1995’s Forbidden, which saw the return of Powell and Murray. It was the group’s last for nearly 20 years — in 2013, Iommi and Butler reunited with Ozzy to record the band’s final studio album, 13.

Some of these four albums are making their vinyl debuts in the LP version of the box set. The CD version includes three bonus tracks: a B-side called “Cloak & Dagger” and two Japan-only releases, “What’s the Use” and “Loser Gets It All.” A booklet, poster and replica tour program round out the set.

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Country star Dierks Bentley has released a cover of Tom Petty‘s “American Girl” for an upcoming tribute album, and in the video for the song, he’s playing one of Petty’s guitars.

Shot at Nashville’s Clementine Hall, the video features Bentley and his band performing Petty’s 1977 classic, with Bentley playing the late rocker’s signature Rickenbacker guitar, which was flown in specially from Tom’s archives in California.

“Holding an instrument that carries so much musical history and significance was surreal, you could almost feel the stories resonate from it as I played it,” says Bentley in a statement. “Tom Petty’s lyrics and delivery were a huge part of what made his music so impactful.” 

“American Girl” is the lead track from the all-star tribute album Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty. The project’s release date and track list will be revealed in the coming weeks.

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Bruce Springsteen has just relaunched his tour with the E Street Band after a six-month break to deal with a diagnosis of peptic ulcer disease. But now, The Boss has revealed that during the worst stages of his condition, he wasn’t able to sing at all.

Calling into Sirius XM’s E Street Radio on March 21, Bruce said, “You sing with your diaphragm. You know, my diaphragm was hurting so badly that when I went to make the effort to sing, it was killing me, so I literally couldn’t sing at all, you know? And that lasted for two three months. Along with just a myriad of other painful problems.”

“It took a while for the doctors to say, ‘Oh, no, you’re gonna be okay,'” he added and then chuckled, “At first, nobody was quite saying that, which made me nervous, y’know?”

Now that Bruce is back in good shape, he said he and the band consider their return to the stage to be a “whole new tour.”

“There’ll be a much wider song selection going on,” he said. “Some of the second half of the set is built so solid so a lot of it’ll stay. The opening …. I’m not sure what’s going to happen up top, but it’ll shift around. I’m waiting to see myself where the show is going to take me.”

“But … for us, it’s a new tour, a new day, and we’re approaching everything like that,” he continued. “We’re looking forward to having a lot of fun.“

Bruce and the band will next take the stage Friday, March 22, in Las Vegas, followed by a March 25 show in San Diego. Right now, dates are scheduled through November.

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To make it to the Oscars, Slash needed to pull a Taylor Swift.

Just like the pop superstar hopped on a last-minute jet from Tokyo to see boyfriend Travis Kelce win the Super Bowl, the Guns N’ Roses shredder fit in a flight to Los Angeles in between tour dates in Asia to take part in Ryan Gosling‘s instantly iconic performance of the Barbie song “I’m Just Ken” during Hollywood’s biggest night.

“I flew to LA from Korea, got to the Kodak Theater, got rushed into this crazy mayhem situation which is the Oscars, and we did a quick run through with Ryan Gosling singing and all these guys dancing around, and then went backstage,” Slash tells Classic Rock magazine. “I sat in the audience with all the other actors for the ceremony, then got up and played the song, got in a car, went back to the airport and flew to the Philippines.”

Slash played on the studio version of “I’m Just Ken,” as did Wolfgang Van Halen, who also took part in the Oscars performance. While the two guitarists definitely brought the riffs, Slash maintains that Gosling was the number’s real star.

“Ryan was really cool, I had no idea what to expect,” Slash says. “We hung out backstage, and he sung the s*** out of the song — I’ve got to give him kudos, he made that whole production happen.”

Meanwhile, Slash is preparing to release a new blues covers album, Orgy of the Damned, on May 17, and launch a U.S. tour in July. Guests on the record include AC/DC‘s Brian Johnson, Iggy Pop, Demi Lovato, Gary Clark Jr. and ZZ Top‘s Billy F Gibbons.

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March marks the 50th anniversary of Aerosmith‘s album Get Your Wings, and in honor of the milestone, the band is releasing a whole slew of new stuff.

First, there’s a limited-edition vinyl, due out May 17. To match the year of release, there will only be 1,974 copies, each pressed on gold sparkle vinyl with an embossed gold foil jacket. In addition to the album, the package includes an Aerosmith logo sticker and a replica of a vintage ad. You can preorder the vinyl now.

In addition, there’s a whole line of new merchandise and clothing, also available on May 17. You can check out all the pieces on Aerosmith’s online store: they range from bomber jackets, tees and tanks to banners, wallets and blankets. There’s also a line of Get Your Wings-branded sterling silver jewelry, including rings, pendants and earrings.

Get Your Wings, which is RIAA certified triple Platinum, was Aerosmith’s first collaboration with producer Jack Douglas, who helped the band develop what’s now considered their classic sound. It includes “Same Old Song and Dance,” “Lord of the Thighs” and the band’s cover of blues classic “Train Kept A-Rollin.'”

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