Classic Rock News

Judas Priest’s new album, Invincible Shield, comes out March 8, but they’re giving fans a chance to listen to it early.

The heavy metal rockers will debut the record on March 7 at global listening parties being held in metal bars in 30 cities around the world. Many of the parties will include Priest-themed cocktails, as well as special giveaways.

Judas Priest is also taking over Daytona Beach with a pop-up shop that will open during Daytona Beach Bike Week.

The shop will be located at Atlantic Sounds on International Speedway Boulevard and be open on Saturday, March 9, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. The event’s over 500,000 attendees will also get a chance to listen to the album as it is broadcast out of a custom Judas Priest military combat truck, described as “an invincible shield on wheels.”

In other Judas Priest news, the band has just shared the video for “The Serpent and the King,” the fourth single Priest has released from Invincible Shield, following “Panic Attack,” “Trial By Fire” and “Crown Of Horns.”

Invincible Shield is available for preorder now.

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While some songwriters may find themselves struggling to write tunes or finish a song, it seems that’s never really been a problem for Paul McCartney. 

In a new Q&A on his website, McCartney reveals that writer’s block is something he’s never really had to deal with.

“I don’t really get it. I’m quite lucky with that – touch wood!” he shares. “I hardly ever sit down and go, ‘I’m going to write’. It’s nearly always when I’ve got some time and there’s nothing else I particularly want or need to do.” 

He adds, “I can just sit down and noodle around with something because it’s come from my own desire and not somebody else’s, or of a requirement. It often comes reasonably easy.”

McCartney says he’s blessed that he’s never really felt stuck on a tune, sharing, “I sometimes tell the story of John (Lennon) and I having written just short of three hundred songs, and every time we sat down to write we came up with a song. Which is incredible!”

Writing comes so easily to McCartney that he says he sometimes has to stop what he’s doing to take note of a song idea that his come to him.

“I’ve got endless bits of paper stuffed in places, which one of these days I swear I’m going to get to!” he says. “But most things these days are written on my phone.”

He adds that luckily he’s his own boss and only gets concerned about writing if he’s on a deadline, noting,  “I can decide what I want to do and when I want to do it, and that helps with the writing.”

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Stevie Nicks is heading overseas this summer to headline BST Hyde Park in London. The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is set to perform on Friday, July 12, and will be joined by yet-to-be-announced special guests. 

“Anything that draws me back to London – and therefore to England – fills my heart with joy,” Stevie shares. “And to be able to visit and make music … is always a dream come true.”

Tickets for Stevie’s show go on sale to the general public on Wednesday, March 6, at 10 a.m. local time.

More info can be found at bst-hydepark.com.

But before Stevie heads across the pond she has plenty of shows to headline here in the U.S. Next up she’ll play Omaha, Nebraska, on March 3 and has dates confirmed through June 21 in Chicago. She’s also set to headline AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, with Billy Joel on March 9. A complete list of dates can be found at stevienicksofficial.com.

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Publisher Harper Collins recently revealed that Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen will be releasing a new book, Brothers, on October 22, and now a little more information about the book has been shared. 

A description of the book has been posted to the Van Halen Store, detailing what fans should expect from the autobiography.

“In this intimate and open account—nothing like any rock-and-roll memoir you’ve ever read—Alex Van Halen shares his personal story of family, friendship, music, and brotherly love in a remarkable tribute to his beloved brother and bandmate,” reads the description, noting it’s “Alex Van Halen’s love letter to his younger brother, Edward (Maybe ‘Ed,’ but never ‘Eddie’), written while still mourning his untimely death.”

The book, which will include previously unseen photos from Alex’s private collection, delves into the brothers’ childhood and also includes “tales of musical politics, infighting, and plenty of bad-boy behavior.” 

“But mostly, his is a story of brotherhood, music, and enduring love,” the description says. “There has never been an accurate account of them or the band, and Alex wants to set the record straight on Edward’s life and death.” 

Eddie Van Halen passed away October 6, 2020, at 65. Alex has mostly stayed out of the public eye and hasn’t played music publicly since Eddie’s death.

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On This Day, February 29, 1968 …

The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band won Album of the Year at the 10th annual Grammy Awards. The record was the first-ever rock album to win in the coveted category.

Sgt. Pepper’s also won Grammys for Best Contemporary Album and Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical, while the album’s iconic cover took home the award for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts.

Over the course of their career, The Beatles won seven Grammy Awards and received 23 nominations.

Released in May 1967, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band spent 15 weeks at #1 in the U.S. and 27 weeks on top in the U.K. It featured such classic Beatles tunes as the title track, “With a Little Help From My Friends,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “When I’m Sixty Four.”

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Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson wants to make one thing clear about his new solo album, The Mandrake Project: it’s not about “bloody vikings.”

You’d be forgiven for thinking that it might be, given that the record’s opening track and lead single is called “Afterglow of Ragnarok.” If you’re a fan of the Thor movies or God of War video games, you know that “Ragnarok” refers to a world-ending event in Norse mythology.

“When I wrote the song, I was like, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?'” Dickinson tells ABC Audio.

Instead of following in the footsteps of Led Zeppelin‘s “Immigrant Song,” Dickinson was more interested in the themes behind Ragnarok, which sets the scene for the rest of The Mandrake Project.

“Ragnarok’s not about the end of the world,” Dickinson says. “Ragnarok’s about renewal. The world has to end in order for it to be renewed.”

The Mandrake Project does have a non-viking-related narrative concerning a scientist named Dr. Necropolis, which is further explored in an accompanying comic book series. The actual music, meanwhile, bounces from the expected big metal riffs to more surprising sounds, influenced by everything from Westerns to The Beatles.

Overall, Dickinson wants The Mandrake Project to reflect the unlimited nature of a solo project, exploring themes and sounds he couldn’t necessarily do with Maiden.

“There’s some emotional things on the record,” he says. “You couldn’t do a track like [closing song] ‘Sonata,’ for example, with Maiden. You couldn’t do a track like ‘Resurrection Men’ with Maiden with Dick Dale surf guitars, bongos and stoner Hawkwind riffs and stuff like that.”

The Mandrake Project drops Friday, March 1.

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The new two-part Paul Simon documentary In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon is set to premiere in March on MGM+, and music fans are now getting their first taste of what to expect.

The first trailer for the series has just been released, featuring archival footage of Simon over the years, including clips of him onstage and in the studio, as well as footage of him with his singing partner Art Garfunkel. There is also more recent footage of Simon in the studio recording his 2023 studio album Seven Psalms. 

“I’ve never wanted to be anything other than a singer and a songwriter,” Simon says in the clip. He later adds, “What I’ve learned is when you find a thing that produces a feeling of peace or joy, try and hold on to it. It’s like bliss. That’s music for me.”

In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, directed by Oscar winner Alex Gibney, airs March 17 and March 24 at 9 p.m. on MGM+.

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Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe and Judas Priest are among the hard rockers confirmed for 2024 Aftershock festival.

Maiden is set to headline the four-day event, held October 10-13 in Sacramento, California, marking their only U.S. festival set of 2024. Mötley Crüe is also set to headline, with Slipknot and a reunited Slayer rounding out the headlining slots. 

Aftershock will feature over 130 bands, the festival’s biggest lineup yet, with Priest performing the same night as Maiden. Other artists on the bill include Pantera, Five Finger Death Punch, Evanescence, Breaking Benjamin, Seether, Tom Morello, Marky Ramone, Halestrom and more. 

For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit AftershockFestival.com.

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John Fogerty says he’s “bewildered” by the recent announcement that his appearance at Queensland’s Country Fest in March had been canceled.

“I still remain able and ready and willing to do this show,” he tells Billboard. “I take the commitment of playing for the fans very seriously. Throughout my career, practically my whole life, there’s hardly ever been a cancelation.”  

Country Fest is scheduled to happen March 30-31. Organizers blamed “unforeseen circumstances” for Fogerty’s cancellation, but he insists he doesn’t know why it happened.

“I was happy to be coming down to Australia to play. It sounded like a really fun event,” he says.

After the cancellation was announced, Fogerty took to social media to address the issue, insisting he was “blindsided” by the news. Country Fest later posted a clarification regarding the situation, explaining they had been in negotiations with Fogerty’s team for months but they “did not reach a final outcome” and talks stopped as of Friday, February 23.

“The matter is now subject to court proceedings in the Supreme Court of Queensland,” the statement continued, adding the case will be heard in March and they “do not intend to comment further.” 

Fogerty also addressed his Australian fans in a separate social media post, performing “Bad Moon Rising” for them. He captioned the clip, “To all my loving fans in Australia… I hope to be back there soon!”

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E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt stopped by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on Tuesday, where he played teacher using his TeachRock learning curriculum, which uses music history to teach students important lessons.

According to the Asbury Park Press, Van Zandt sat in on teacher Allison Hoffman’s class, where she taught her students about segregation using The Beatles’ refusal to play to the segregated South in the 1960s as an example.

Students were also taught about Van Zandt’s 1985 protest song “Sun City,” which featured such artists as Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne and Bob Dylan, and helped draw attention to apartheid in South Africa.

“It’s a lazy way to have your identity to be based on hatred or hate, you know?” the rocker told the class. “It’s a lazy way of going through life and we have a lot of examples of that going on right now.”

As for the students, Van Zandt told the paper, “They’re just smarter than us and faster than us. … It just confirmed for us the reason we started this curriculum was because we need to create a new methodology of teaching for this generation. We got to do it. The old methods are not going to work for these kids.” 

Van Zandt will soon be a little too busy to play teacher, as he and the E Street Band are due to join Springsteen on the latest leg of his tour, which kicks off March 19 in Phoenix, Arizona. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.net.

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