Classic Rock News

Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet have been divorced since 1993, but he says he will always have love for his ex-wife, who’s the mother of his daughter, actress Zoë Kravitz.

“She is part of my life that will never leave my heart and my soul and my spirt,” he tells People. “I am what I am because of our experience, because of everything that I was, everything that she was and everything that came together.” 

He adds, “We are both still parts of each other and the love is still beautiful, it’s just a different dynamic.”

Lenny notes that while their relationship isn’t the same as it was when they were married, “the love remains and the love has to find a new way to funnel itself into a new life.” He continues, “So we did that … We consciously wanted to do that. It took time, believe me, but we wanted to have that.”

Speaking of love, when it comes to Zoë and her fiancé, Channing Tatum, Lenny is all on board for their relationship.

“It feels right,” Lenny tells the mag. “I like [Channing] very much.” 

He adds that the pair “have something that’s naturally special,” but “they also do the work. They are dedicated. That’s what it’s all about. It’s beautiful to watch.”

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Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler has made a pretty penny cleaning out his guitar closet. 

The BBC reports that a recent auction of over 120 of the rocker’s guitars and amps brought in over $10 million, with a quarter of that money set to go to charity. 

Knopfler’s 1959 Vintage Gibson Les Paul Standard was sold for the highest bid, at over $880,000, which wound up being a world auction record for that model of guitar. Another big seller was the guitar Knopfler played at Wembley Stadium for Nelson Mandela‘s 70th birthday tribute, which sold for over $640,000, well above the initial estimate of around $10,000. 

“I am so pleased that these much-loved instruments will find new players and new songs as well as raising money for charities that mean a lot to me,” Knopfler said. “It has been heart-warming to witness how much these guitars mean to so many people and I am also pleased that they will continue to give joy to many through the songs recorded over the years with me.”

He adds, “To you fellow players, enthusiasts and collectors, I wish you all good things.”

Charities benefiting from the auction include the Red Cross, the wildlife conservation organization Tusk and the children’s charity Brave Hearts of the North East.

The auction comes as Knopfler is getting to release his 10th studio album, One Deep River, on April 12. It will be his first new album since 2018’s Down The Road Wherever.

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The Band’s classic tune “The Weight” is featured in Budweiser’s Clydesdale ad, set to run during Super Bowl 58, which airs February 11 on CBS.

The clip, called “Old School Delivery,” is set around a snowstorm that closes all the major highways, with a stuck trucker using the Clydesdales to help him deliver his kegs of Bud to their destination: a bar running low on the brew. It ends with the tagline “delivering since 1876.”

“The Weight” is one of the most well-known songs by The Band, which consisted of Robbie Robertson, who wrote the tune, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel.

Although it only hit #63 on the Billboard charts, “The Weight” went on to be ranked #41 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame also named it one of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

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Pearl Jam previewed their much-anticipated upcoming album during a private listening event in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Spin reports.

The grunge rockers have long been working on a follow-up to their 2020 effort, Gigaton, with producer Andrew Watt, who also worked on frontman Eddie Vedder‘s 2022 solo record, Earthling. Both Vedder and Watt attended the listening party, as did PJ members Mike McCready and Jeff Ament.

“No hyperbole — I think this is our best work,” Vedder said, according to Spin.

Ament added, “I couldn’t be prouder of us as a band.”

The title and the release date for the album have yet to be announced.

Pearl Jam is set to play their first show of 2024 at the BottleRock Napa Valley festival in May.

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Dead & Company have now released all the details of their upcoming residency at Sphere in Las Vegas.  The band will do 18 shows over six consecutive weeks, starting May 16.

The shows, which run through June 22, feature the group playing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday each weekend. According to a press release, the shows will feature “never-before-seen visual storytelling” from the band, and each weekend’s three performances will have a different setlist.

Fans can now register for the presale, which starts February 5 at 10 a.m. PT.  The general on-sale starts Friday, February 9, at 10 a.m. PT via Ticketmaster.com. Tickets start at $145, inclusive of taxes and fees.

VIP and hotel packages are available at deadforever.vibee.com starting February 2 at 10 a.m. All VIP package holders will receive priority entry to something called the Dead & Company Fan Portal, which will be located at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas.

Here are the Dead & Company – Dead Forever – Live at Sphere dates:

Thursday, May 16; Friday, May 17; Saturday, May 18
Friday, May 24; Saturday, May 25; Sunday, May 26
Thursday, May 30; Friday, May 31; Saturday, June 1
Thursday, June 6; Friday, June 7; Saturday, June 8
Thursday, June 13; Friday, June 14; Saturday, June 15
Thursday, June 20; Friday, June 21; Saturday, June 22

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Billy Joel is back.

The Piano Man’s first pop single since 2007’s “All My Life” is now available on all streaming services and there’s a lyric video on YouTube.  The ballad, featuring some classic Billy Joel piano flourishes, finds him singing about regretting his behavior in a relationship and promising he’s ready to mend his ways.

“It’s been a long winter of indifference/And maybe you love me, maybe you don’t/Maybe you’ll learn to, maybe you won’t/You’ve had enough, but I won’t give up/On you,” he sings.

“I’m late, but I’m here right now/And I’m tryin’ to find the magic/That we lost somehow,” he continues. “Maybe I was blind/But I see you now/As we’re laying in the darkness/Did I wait too long/To turn the lights back on?”

The song was written by Billy, Freddy Wexler, Arthur Bacon and Wayne Hector.

Billy will take the stage at this Sunday night’s Grammy Awards, airing live on CBS and Paramount+ at 8 p.m. ET.

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It’s been over 30 years since Lenny Kravitz burst on to the scene with his debut album, Let Love Rule, but if he listened to what music execs were telling him, fans may never have heard it.

“I was told my music wasn’t Black enough or wasn’t white enough,” Kravitz tells People, noting that record execs insisted he needed to choose a specific style if he wanted to be successful.

“I was told that I need to make the music that Black people commercially are making that’s on the radio, so you’ll have success,” he says. “And I just could never get with any of that. I was going to make the music that I made.” 

Lenny, who’ll release the new album Blue Electric Light on May 24, says his music has been influenced by all types of artists, like Duke Ellington, The Jackson 5, Led Zeppelin and more.

“The inspiration was everything that I’d learned from a child to then musically. Blues, gospel, jazz, reggae, pop, R&B, rock and roll, everything,” he says, noting that even Zeppelin was inspired by Black artists like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. He says of the band’s music, “When I heard it, this vortex opened up.”

And while Kravitz recently talked about never being recognized at Black award shows, he is now set to receive a very special honor from the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective. He’ll be honored with the Global Impact Award, which “recognizes Black music creators whose dedication to the art form has greatly influenced the industry.”

Kravitz will receive the honor on Thursday, February 1, at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles

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ZZ Top star Billy F. Gibbons is turning his love of a good cigar into a new business venture. 

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has teamed with BandKandy to launch his first-ever cigar brand. He’s starting out with two new products: Virtu, an ultra premium cigar line developed in the Dominican Republic by Debonaire, and Twin Turbo, a two-pack rough-cut style cigar brand.

“I always enjoy seeing what a cigar brings to a party, even better when I’ve had my hands in the craftsmanship of my very own brands,” Gibbons shares. “Light up, enjoy, and have mercy, my friends.”

Virtu by Billy Gibbons will be available as a limited edition 5,000 piece collection, coming in a numbered high-end humidor that holds five hand-rolled cigars and a custom-designed Zippo lighter. Twin Turbo comes with two cigars in a foil pouch and will be available in three different aromatic profiles. 

Gibbons is a well known cigar fan who enjoys smoking one on stage and lighting one up just before a guitar solo. He is set to make a special appearance to promote his new cigar brand at the Global Tobacco booth at the Total Product Expo in Las Vegas on Thursday, February 1. 

As for Gibbons’ music, ZZ Top is set to kick off a new tour in Key West, Florida, on March 2. A complete list of dates can be found at zztop.com.

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Pink Floyd is releasing yet another version of The Dark Side of the Moon.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers just announced a 50th anniversary The Dark Side of the Moon Collector’s Edition, featuring the 2023 remastered version of the iconic album on crystal clear vinyl.

The two-LP, 180 gram set will feature UV artwork printing on the non-groove side of the LP, the first time they’ve used the UV printing process on vinyl. The artwork is of the iconic prism spectrum from the album’s cover, which can be seen through the playable side. 

The Dark Side of the Moon Collector’s Edition will be released April 16. It is available for preorder now.

Pink Floyd released The Dark Side of the Moon on March 1, 1973. It has gone on to be the band’s most commercially successful album, having been certified 15-times Platinum. In 2012, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.

In 2023, in honor of the album’s 50th anniversary, Pink Floyd released a remastered version of the album along with an extensive box set that featured, among other things, a classic concert, The Dark Side of the Moon — Live at Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974.

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Dead & Company have confirmed the rumors — they will be playing Las Vegas’ Sphere. 

The band announced the news on Instagram in a video, which reads, “In 2023, Dead & Company played their final tour. But there are other ways to make sure the music never stops. And it’s gonna be a ball.”

The video then cuts to the Sphere lit up with tie-dye images and the Dead’s skull logo, with a live version of “Not Fade Away” playing in the background. The word “forever” then flashes on the screen.

Back in December, the New York Post broke the news that Dead & Company — Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti — were in talks to play the Sphere, the state-of-the-art venue that currently houses U2’s residency, U2: UV Acthung Baby Live at Sphere. 

Dead & Company have yet to announce details regarding dates or ticket information for the shows, but Rolling Stone reports they’re planning for at least 15 shows.

The concerts will be the first Dead & Company shows since July, when the band wrapped what they announced would be their final tour with a three-night stand at San Francisco’s Oracle Park.

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