Classic Rock News

The upcoming Linda Ronstadt biopic has found a director. Variety has confirmed a report in Showbiz 411 that Oscar-nominated director David O. Russell, best known for such films as Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and The Fighter, will direct the film, which will star Selena Gomez as the legendary singer. 

The movie, currently in preproduction, is being produced by Ronstadt’s manager, John Boylan, and James Keach, who produced a 2019 documentary about Ronstadt called The Sound of My Voice.

Gomez’s casting was revealed earlier this month; the Only Murders in the Building star initially teased the news by posting a photo of Ronstadt’s memoir Simple Dreams to her Instagram Story.

An 11-time Grammy winner, with 10 top 10 hits, Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and awarded the National Medal of the Arts and Humanities in 2014. She also received the Kennedy Center Honors award in 2019.

Ronstadt announced her retirement in 2011. In 2013, she revealed she had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which prevented her from singing. She later shared that her diagnosis had been changed to progressive supranuclear palsy.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Back in December, a three-day auction of items owned by the late ZZ Top legend Dusty Hill brought in over $3 million at Julien’s Auctions. Now, fans are getting another chance to get their hands on some of his personal memorabilia.

Julien’s just announced the online auction, The Collection Of Dusty Hill Of ZZ Top (Part II), is happening Wednesday, January 31, featuring vintage concert T-shirts, custom performance jackets, personalized sports jerseys, awards, backstage passes and more. 

The auction will also feature several Hill bass guitars, including the last of his two Bolin Gretsch style Bo Diddley fur bass guitars, covered in full white New Zealand sheepskin, which is estimated to sell for between $10,000 and $15,000, and a 2012 stage-used Fender Custom Shop Dusty Hill Signature Precision bass, estimated to sell for between $10,000 and $12,000.

Other items up for auction include: a group of 104 custom guitar picks, 26 of which were custom designed by Hill; Dusty’s cream American Hat Co. maxi-felt wool hat; a custom black velvet cropped jacket with a geometric silver sparkle design; and a vintage concert poster from 1973, promoting a show with Lynyrd Skynyrd. 

A complete list of items and more details on the auction can be found at juliensauctions.com.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Barbie song “I’m Jut Ken,” which features guitar by Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen, has won the Critics Choice Award for Best Original Song.

The Ryan Gosling-sung tune beat out two other Barbie tracks, Billie Eilish‘s “What Was I Made For?” and Dua Lipa‘s “Dance the Night,” as well as Lenny Kravitz‘s “Road to Freedom” from Rustin, “Peaches” from The Super Mario Bros. Movie and “This Wish” from Wish.

“I’m Just Ken” was also nominated for a Golden Globe and is up for a Grammy.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, January 15, 1977…

The Eagles landed their third #1 with their fifth studio album, Hotel California.

The album spent eight nonconsecutive weeks in the top spot and went on to become one of the bestselling albums of all time, selling over 32 million records and being certified 26-times Platinum by the RIAA.

Hotel California was the Eagles first album with guitarist Joe Walsh. Songs like the title track, “Life in the Fast Lane” and “New Kid in Town” went on to become iconic songs for the band.

A hit with critics, the title track of Hotel California won the Grammy for Record of the Year; the album was nominated for Album of the Year but lost to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Is Bruce Springsteen looking to make a movie? Well, Showbiz411’s Roger Friedman reports that it may be happening, with sources noting The Boss is looking into making a film about his 1982 album Nebraska.

Friedman says Springsteen has been working with Crazy Heart writer/director Scott Cooper on the project, which would focus on the making of the album. There’s no word on who may play Springsteen, but Friedman says Cooper “has someone in mind,” noting it’s “definitely not Timothee Chalamet,” since he’s playing Bob Dylan in the upcoming film A Complete Unknown.

So far, there’s no official word on the project.

Nebraska, released in September 30, 1982, featured 10 acoustic songs that Springsteen originally recorded as demos on a four-track recorder. Springsteen had planned to rerecord the songs with the E Street Band but instead opted to release it as a solo acoustic record.  

Nebraska peaked at #3 on the Billboard chart, with his biggest hit being “Atlantic City,” which reached #10.

Some of the songs on the demo that didn’t make it on Nebraska were later rerecorded with the band and wound up on Springsteen’s multi-Platinum #1 record, Born in the U.S.A.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Black Crowes just announced they’ll be releasing their first album of new music in 15 years, Happiness Bastards, on March 15. Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson called it quits on The Crowes in 2015 before reuniting in 2019. While you’d think their past relationship problems may have been an issue when they went to write music again, Rich says that wasn’t really the case.

“I wouldn’t say we had to repair our writing relationship, because that was never an issue,” Rich tells Rolling Stone magazine. “That was always the one natural thing, with very little volatility — when we would sit down to write, for whatever reason.”

Of course they still had work to do so they didn’t run into the problems they’ve had in the past.

“Everything else was just making the decision to be adults, and not fall back into those sort of old patterns,” Rich adds. “But us getting back together and being cool and just getting it to that place lifts everything up.”

It’s been almost 34 years since The Black Crowes released their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, but Rich says fans shouldn’t expect a drastically different sound on the new album.

“I write how I write, like it or hate it. I think Chris is the same way,” he says. “We have always followed our heart, followed our ears where we choose to. Sometimes to our commercial detriment.” 

And Rich assures fans they will like what they hear on the record, noting, “Chris sounds f****** better than ever, in my opinion.”

Happiness Bastards is available for preorder now.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In addition to his work with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chad Smith has played drums with a lot of other artists. In a new video for the YouTube channel Drumeo, Smith takes a walk down memory lane and plays along to some of his past collaborations.

Among the songs Smith spotlights are Eddie Vedder‘s “Invincible” and Ozzy Osbourne‘s “Patient Number 9.” He notes how he was inspired by U2 for “Invincible,” which appears on the Pearl Jam frontman’s 2022 solo album, Earthling, and that he was playing “Patient Number 9” for the first time since he recorded it for Ozzy’s 2022 solo effort of the same name.

Smith also played along to tracks including Iggy Pop‘s “Frenzy,” Dua Lipa‘s “Break My Heart” and Wu-Tang Clan‘s “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F’ Wit.”

Drumeo previously released a video of Smith drumming to Thirty Seconds to Mars‘ “The Kill” while listening to it for the first time. That has over 10 million views on YouTube.

Meanwhile, you can catch Smith play his main gig on Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2024 tour, which includes headlining U.S. dates and performances at festivals including Bonnaroo.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.) 

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Bruce Springsteen has released the latest edition to his Live Archives Series: his July 23, 2013, concert at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

The show was part of the European leg of his Wrecking Ball tour, with Springsteen archivist Erik Flannigan calling it “a rambunctious romp loaded with rarities.”

In addition to performances of classics like “Hungry Heart,” “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” and an acoustic “Thunder Road,” the show featured the one and only performance of “TV Movie,” from the Tracks box set, along with “Cynthia,” “Summertime Blues” and “Tougher Than The Rest.” There’s also a cover of The Animals‘ “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place,” featuring a guest appearance by The Animals’ Eric Burdon.

The show is currently streaming exclusively on nugs.net, and is also available on CD and hi-res downloads.

And Bruce fans will soon get to see him back onstage where he belongs. He and The E Street Band are set to kick off their 2024 tour on Tuesday, March 19, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Mötley Crüe is set to headline the North Dakota State Fair on Friday, July 19. 

The show is happening on the opening night of the fair, which runs through July 27, and is the band’s first announced show for 2024.

Mötley Crüe hasn’t played a concert since November, when they wrapped their tour with Def Leppard in Australia. They were supposed to headline a New Year’s Eve concert in Palm Springs, California, but had to cancel the show due to production issues.

The show announcement comes as the band has been teasing fans with something coming on January 17. While there’s speculation they could finally be releasing new music, the tease could also have something to do with January 17 being the anniversary of band’s creation.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Who infamously sang, “I hope I die before I get old” in their hit “My Generation,” which frontman Roger Daltrey seems to have some thoughts on now that he’s about to turn 80 in March.

Daltrey, who recently announced he was retiring as curator of the annual Teenage Cancer Trust charity shows, talked to the U.K. Times at a cancer ward, where he discussed the concept of getting older.

“Actually, being around these young people today I do ask myself, ‘What the f*** am I still doing here?’” he says. “I’m in the way. All us old farts, we really are just in the way of the young now, aren’t we?”

Daltrey blames his generation for the problems with the U.K.’s National Health Service, noting, “It’s partly because all these old farts like me are in the way, isn’t it? Let’s just die! Get me and my lot out the way.”

While some may fear dying, Daltrey seems to have come to terms with it.

“My dreams came true so, listen, I’m ready to go at any time,” he says. “My family are all great and all taken care of. You’ve got to be realistic.” He adds, “You can’t live your life forever. Like I said, people my age, we’re in the way. There are no guitar strings to be changed on this old instrument.” 

The Who is set to play two Teenage Cancer Trust shows on March 18 and 20 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and that just may be it for the band. 

Asked about The Who’s future, Daltrey replies, “I can’t answer that…We [he and Townshend] need to sit down and have a meeting, but at the moment I’m happy saying that part of my life is over.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.