Classic Rock News

Lenny Kravitz’s daughter, actress Zoë Kravitz, is opening up about what it was like growing up with a famous rock star father.

In a new interview with Esquire, Zoë discusses the differences of living with her dad versus her mom, Lisa Bonet, when she was young, noting that Bonet was a much stricter parent.

“It was this whirlwind of a completely different universe,” she says of visiting her dad after her parents broke up, which was during the height of his fame. “And then I would go home to this really quiet, really simple life [with Bonet].”

By 11, Zoë had opted out of Bonet’s stricter household and moved in with her dad in Miami, which gave her lots of freedom — but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

“It wasn’t that my dad didn’t care, he just cared about different things,” she said. “Just like it happens in the movies, it’s like, ‘Oh, you think this is perfect? You think this is great? Guess what comes with this.’”

Zoë also says that when she was young she would often see her dad being taken advantage of by people around him, noting he had a hard time saying no.

“I can smell it out pretty quickly,” she says of her suspicions that people may take advantage of her dad. “I had to when I was a kid, because he didn’t. He’s really trusting, and it’s sweet, but I can tell exactly what someone wants.”

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Covers of songs by Neil Young, Keith Richards and Warren Zevon are among the tunes featured on the upcoming new album from legendary artist Willie Nelson.

Last Leaf on the Tree, Nelson’s 76th solo studio album and his 153rd album overall, will feature 13 tracks, including three songs written by Willie and/or his son Micah Nelson, who also served as producer on the project.

Willie tackles such tunes as Young’s “Broken Arrow” and “Are You Ready For The Country,” Richards’ “Robbed Blind” and Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart.” The album also covers Beck’s “Lost Cause,” The Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize??” and two Tom Waits tracks, “House Where Nobody Lives” and “Last Leaf,” the latter of which is out now via digital outlets.

The album also features a new rendition of Willie’s 1967 track “The Ghost,” as well as “Color of Sound,” a new song written by Willie and Micah, and Willie’s take on Micah’s 2017 song “Wheels.” 

Last Leaf on the Tree will be released in a variety of formats, including digitally, on CD and on amber swirl double vinyl. All are available for preorder now.

Here is the track list for Last Leaf on the Tree:
“Last Leaf” (written by Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan)
“If It Wasn’t Broken” (written by Sydney Lyndella Ward)
“Lost Cause” (written by Beck David Hansen)
“Come Ye” (written by Nina Simone)
“Keep Me In Your Heart” (written by Warren Zevon & Jorge Calderon)
“Robbed Blind” (written by Keith Richards)
“House Where Nobody Lives” (written by Tom Waits)
“Are You Ready For The Country?” (written by Neil Young)
“Do You Realize??” (written by Wayne Coyne/Steven Drozd/Michael Ivins/David Fridmann)
“Wheels” (written by Micah Nelson)
“Broken Arrow” (written by Neil Young)
“Color Of Sound” (written by Willie Nelson & Micah Nelson)
“The Ghost” (written by Willie Nelson)

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A guitar once owned by The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards can be yours for the right price. The axe, a Gibson L6S circa 1975, is currently up for auction at Gotta Have Rock and Roll.

According to the description, the guitar was “personally owned and played” by The Stones legend and was given to the band’s 1970s-era tour manager Patrick Stansfield, who then sold it in the early 2000s.

The guitar was originally given to Richards by Gibson in an effort to get him to endorse the product, and an identical guitar was used in promotional videos for “Hot Stuff” and “Fool To Cry.”

Bidding on the guitar is open until Aug. 23. It is estimated to sell for between $50,000 and $100,000. More info can be found at gottahaverockandroll.com.

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On This Day, Aug. 15, 1965 …

The Beatles performed in front of over 55,000 fans at New York’s Shea Stadium, which at the time was not only the largest concert for the band, but the largest concert audience ever.

The Fab Four treated fans to such songs as “Twist and Shout,” “Ticket to Ride,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Help!”  

A documentary about the concert, The Beatles at Shea Stadium, was released in March 1966, featuring footage from the concert and the events that led up to it, including the mass hysteria of fans during the height of Beatlemania.

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After spending the summer in Europe, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band return to the U.S. Thursday, kicking off a new leg of their tour in Pittsburgh, where they’ll play two nights.

When Springsteen first launched the tour in 2023, the shows featured mostly the same set list, and had him reflecting on aging and loss. While the themes of the shows have remained, during his recent European trek The Boss changed things up a bit, adding several tour debuts and even taking requests from the audience again.

But regardless of what they play, E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt tells ABC Audio getting on the stage never gets old for him and his bandmates.

“In the end, we still have a really good time doing this and our audiences are amazingly loyal,” he shares. “For it to be lasting this long and to be that strong, you can’t take that for granted, man.”

He adds, “You know, we are the luckiest people in the luckiest generation ever. And we just continue to be grateful.” 

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will wrap the U.S. leg of the tour with a hometown show at the Sea. Hear. Now festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on Sept. 15. They then head to Canada, with 2024 dates wrapping Nov. 22 in Vancouver. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.net.

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Def Leppard is giving fans some behind-the-scenes insight into their current tour with a new video tour diary, with the newest episode featuring footage from stops in Nashville, Philadelphia and Hershey, Pennsylvania. 

In the clip, frontman Joe Elliott reflects on the anniversary of the U.K. release of the Hysteria track “Animal,” which he says is the “song that broke the band in the U.K.” He later discusses their plans to perform the Pyromania track “Billy’s Got A Gun” in Hershey, the first time they’ve played it on this tour.

In addition to performance clips from each show, there’s footage of some of the guests who stopped by their Nashville concert, including Alison Krauss and Mötley Crüe‘s Vince Neil. Plus fans get to see Elliott and guitarist Phil Collen conferring on how to sing a tune while in the bathroom, Collen and Vivian Campbell rehearsing on the band’s plane, the band partaking in some wellness therapy, Rick Savage running up the Rocky steps in Philly and more. 

Def Leppard and Journey’s Summer Stadium tour hits Houston on Wednesday. A complete list of dates can be found at defleppard.com.

(Video includes uncensored profanity.)

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Rod Stewart has been making videos for his songs since the ’70s, and was a fixture on MTV through the ’80s and ’90s. But his first video to hit 1 billion views isn’t for any of those hit singles.

The one that rang the billion-view bell for Rod is a 2004 live performance of “I Don’t Want to Talk About It,” which was a big hit for him in the U.K. in 1977. He cut a new version in 1989, which was a big hit in the U.S.  The 2004 video is taken from Rod’s concert video One Night Only! Live At Royal Albert Hall — it’s sung as a duet with Scottish singer Amy Belle.

This is good news for Rod, who’s had a spate of bad news lately: He had to postpone two concerts and missed the landmark 200th show of his Las Vegas residency due to illness.

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A new documentary exploring the time John Lennon and Yoko Ono became daytime talk show hosts is set to hit theaters this fall.

Deadline reports that Daytime Revolution, directed by Erik Nelson, will debut in theaters across the country on Oct. 9, which would have been Lennon’s 84th birthday. It focuses on the week in February 1972 when Lennon and Ono produced and co-hosted the popular daytime talk show The Mike Douglas Show.

According to the description, the film “takes us back in time, as we observe John and Yoko interacting with a transfixed studio audience in revealing Q and A sessions where John Lennon was astonishingly candid about his life after the Beatles.”

Guests during their hosting gig were picked by the pair and included activist Jerry Rubin, Black Panther Bobby Seale and Ralph Nader. There were also musical performances, with Lennon performing a duet with guest Chuck Berry and also performing his classic tune “Imagine.”

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Alice in Chains has announced a vinyl reissue of their 2009 album, Black Gives Way to Blue, in honor of its 15th anniversary.

The release will be available on Sept. 27 in three different color variants. You can preorder your copy now.

Black Gives Way to Blue marked Alice in Chains’ first new album in 14 years and was their first with vocalist William DuVall, who joined the band following the 2002 death of frontman Layne Staley. It spawned the Grammy-nominated single “Check My Brain.”

Alice in Chains has since released two more albums with DuVall, 2013’s The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here and 2018’s Rainier Fog.

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New documentaries about Elton John and The Beatles are part of the New York Film Festival’s Spotlight section, which showcases the most notable fall releases.

Elton John: Never Too Late, co-directed by R.J. Cutler and Elton’s husband, David Furnish, follows Elton during his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, with the description noting it “offers keen insight into a life and career marked by soaring highs and crushing lows, and contemplates a legacy defined equally by advocacy and artistry.” Elton, Furnish and Cutler are expected to attend the premiere.

Also premiering at the festival is TWST / Things We Said Today, from Romanian director Andrei Ujica, about The Beatles’ 1965 trip to New York to headline Shea Stadium, and Pavements, a “rule-flouting sorta-documentary” about Stephen Malkmus and the band Pavement.

Elton’s doc is getting its U.S. premiere at the festival; it’s already set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, which runs from Sept. 5 to Sept. 15. Meanwhile, TWST / Things We Said Today and Pavements are getting their North American premieres, with both set to debut at the Venice Film Festival, which runs from Aug. 28 to Sept. 7.

The New York Film Festival takes place Sept 27. to Oct. 14.

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