Classic Rock News

Sting, Deep Purple and Lenny Kravitz are among the artists booked to play the 2024 Montreux Jazz Festival, happening in Montreux, Switzerland, from July 5 – 20.

Deep Purple will headline the stage by the lake on July 8 with Alice Cooper. The booking seems quite fitting considering the band’s iconic tune “Smoke on the Water” was actually inspired by the 1971 fire that burned down the Montreux Casino; the title’s a reference to smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva.

Sting, meanwhile, will headline the same stage on July 17, with Kravitz headlining the night prior on July 16.

Other artists booked for the stage by the lake include Duran Duran on July 20 and The Smashing Pumpkins on July 7, with Dionne Warwick playing the Montreux Casino on July 9. A complete lineup can be found at montruexjazzfestival.com.

Tickets for the festival go on sale to the general public on Friday, April 19.

The Montreux Jazz Festival is the subject of a new documentary, They All Came Out To Montreux, which will have its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival on June 5-16 in New York City. The doc features appearances by artists like Sting, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Prince, Aretha Franklin and more.

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Fans of Joni Mitchell are getting the chance to hear her music like they’ve never heard it before.

Rhino is set to release a remastered version of Mitchell’s 2022 The Asylum Albums (1972-1975) box set as part of their Quadio series. The four albums in the set — 1972’s For the Roses, 1974’s Court and Spark, 1974’s Miles of Aisles and 1975’s The Hissing Of Summer Lawns — have been given Quadrophonic, Hi-Res Stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes.

The set includes cover art of a painting by Mitchell as well as an essay by singer Neil Young, who shares, “Joni’s music is so deep and transporting. She comes right from the source.” He adds that all four albums are “classics in my book.”

The Asylum Albums (1972-1975) [Quadio] is available now as a four Blu-ray disc set.

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On This Day, April 18, 1992… 

Def Leppard hit #1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart with their fifth studio album, Adrenalize.

The album was the first one Def Leppard recorded following the death of guitarist Steve Clark; they recorded it as a four-piece. It was also their first album since 1980’s On Through the Night that was produced by someone other than Robert “Mutt” Lange, who at the time was busy working with Bryan Adams.

Adrenalize spent five weeks on top of the chart, thanks to songs like “Let’s Get Rocked,” which hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album went on to be certified triple Platinum by the RIAA.

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Ringo Starr is extending his time on the road.

The rocker and his All Starr Band — Steve Lukather, Edgar Winter, Colin Hay, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart and Gregg Bissonette — will launch their fall tour starting September 12 in Omaha, Nebraska, with dates confirmed through September 25 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.  

So far, Ringo has announced nine new shows, although more are expected to be revealed at a later date. 

The news comes as Ringo is getting ready to release his new EP, Crooked Boy, on limited edition marble vinyl for Record Store Day, April 20. That will be followed by a digital release on April 26, with the black vinyl and CD versions dropping May 31.

Ringo and his All Starr Band are also getting ready to launch a spring tour starting May 22 at The Venetian in Las Vegas. A complete list of dates can be found at RingoStarr.com.

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Peter Frampton is opening up his Nashville home to fans with a feature in the latest edition of Architectural Digest.

The mag includes photos of Frampton’s living room, kitchen, bedroom and music room, all bathed in beige and brown, as well as his studio, designed in a vibrant shade of blue. 

Frampton moved to downtown Nashville in 2011, but says the party city got to be too noisy for him, so he decided to move. And while he was first going to get a condo, he opted for a house outside the city to suit Bigsby, his service dog who helps him with the autoimmune disorder inclusion body myositis.

“I had decided to move, but in the interim I got Bigsby and I realized that living in an apartment wasn’t going to be the best thing,” he shares, noting that a visit to his friend and interior designer Robin Rains, who had a house in a quieter area, convinced him to get a home.

“Robin has land and Bigsby was just beside himself. I saw him running free and thought, Oh my god, I’ve got to move,” Frampton shares. “I needed a backyard.”  

And Frampton has more time to be back home now that he recently completed a run of dates on his North American Never Ever Say Never tour. He’s now awaiting word on whether he’ll be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year, with results to be announced Sunday, April 21, on American Idol.

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It looks like a lot of Billy Joel fans tuned in to see the CBS special dedicated to the 100th performance of his residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Variety reports that 5.7 million people caught Billy Joel: The 100th — Live at Madison Square Garden when it aired Sunday, April 14, despite it starting late due to coverage of the Masters Tournament. 

That number includes not only folks who watched the special on CBS, but those who caught the livestream that aired on Paramount+.

Just how big are those numbers? Well, the Joel concert is now the fourth-most-watched special of the year, behind three award shows: the Oscars, Grammys and Golden Globes.

And even more fans will be able to check it out. Following fan uproar over the show being cut short in the middle of Joel’s performance of “Piano Man,” CBS is rebroadcasting the special on Friday, April 19, at 9 p.m. ET.

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We’ve already seen the first official photo of Timothée Chalamet playing Bob Dylan for the upcoming James Mangold-directed film A Complete Unknown, but now we finally get to see him in action as the rock ‘n’ roll legend.

Video shared on social media shows Timothée, as Dylan, and Monica Barbaro, as Joan Baez, filming a scene for the movie in New Jersey. The clip shows the pair singing a song in front of an audience, with Timothée, in jeans and a brown suede jacket, playing guitar and harmonica.

A Complete Unknown, which has been in the works for more than four years, is set in New York in the early ’60s, when 17-year-old Dylan comes to the Big Apple and meets artists like Baez, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.

The cast also includes Edward Norton as Seeger, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash and Nick Offerman as Alan Lomax.

So far a release date for the film has not been announced.

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The 2024 Tribeca Festival just announced its lineup, which will include a whole host of music documentaries, including one about E Street Band guitarist Stevie Van Zandt and another about the home of the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple, directed by Bill Teck, will have its world premiere at the festival on June 8. It follows Van Zandt’s career as a musician, activist and actor. Responding to the announcement, the rocker shared on social media, “I hope it has a happy ending!”

Also getting its world premiere at the festival will be They All Came Out To Montreux, which looks into how the Swiss town of Montreux became home to one of the world’s biggest jazz festivals. It features appearances by artists like Sting, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Prince, Aretha Franklin and more.

Plus, the festival will feature documentaries about songwriter Linda Perry, the late R&B singer Luther Vandross, Ani DiFranco, Liza Minelli and more.

The 2024 Tribeca Festival will take place June 5-16 in New York City. Festival passes are currently on sale, with single tickets available starting April 30. More information can be found at TribecaFilm.com.

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New Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese reflects on the moment he was asked to join the band in a new interview with YouTuber Rick Beato.

Freese took up the role after longtime Foos drummer Taylor Hawkins died in March 2022.

“It continues to be bittersweet,” Freese says of playing with Dave Grohl and company. “Part of me wants to say, like, ‘I wish I wasn’t there at all. I wish there wasn’t a reason for me to be the drummer in the Foo Fighters.'”

Freese shares that he had long known Hawkins but didn’t become good friends with him until about five or six years ago. He was among the guest drummers who took part in the two Hawkins tribute concerts, but he had no thoughts about playing with the Foos beyond that.

“On my children’s lives, I had zero plans of being called to be the drummer,” Freese says.

Even when he got that call from Grohl in December 2022, Freese didn’t think it would be for that reason.

“[My wife was], like, ‘I know why he’s calling you!'” Freese remembers. “I was, like, ‘Easy!’ I’m not thinking that, I swear to God that’s not why I thought [Grohl called].”

When Freese called Grohl back, he told him, “We had the drummer talk, and we want you to be the guy.”

“It felt like someone kinda socked me in the stomach,” Freese shares. “I didn’t go, ‘Wow! Yippee, this is so cool!’ I didn’t get excited like that, it was almost like I had the wind knocked out of me. I was, like, ‘Oh my God. Here we go.'”

Foo Fighters will play a run of one-off headlining dates and festivals in May, followed by a full U.S. stadium tour kicking off in July.

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Pearl Jam has shared one more song off their upcoming album, Dark Matter.

The latest track is called “Wreckage” and is available now via digital outlets. You can watch its accompanying visualizer streaming now on YouTube.

“Wreckage” is the third Dark Matter cut to be released, following “Running” and the title track. The album will arrive in full on Friday, April 19.

Pearl Jam will launch a U.S. tour in May.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.) 

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