Classic Rock News

Rock fans saw a familiar face on this week’s episode of Fox’s The Masked Singer. Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider was revealed to be The Doll, donning a costume that included a purple sparkly dress and heels.  

“Let me tell you, Gene Simmons, Iggy Pop, no one can work pumps like I did,” Snider said after his unmasking, “and by the way ladies, it’s like riding a bike. I wore them in the ’70s and it all came back to me once I put it on.” 

He ended his appearance by treating the audience to an impromptu performance of the Twisted Sister classic “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Snider revealed he was pretty surprised to get the boot from the show, especially since he says Vegas had him as an odds on favorite to be in the top three. 

“Quite honestly I was shocked when they said my name,” he says. “I don’t know who the other performers are, but I heard them rehearsing and I wasn’t too impressed. And the audience response to me was huge. So I was like, what?!” 

He adds, “I thought I was gonna go all the way. You should have heard my [version of] ‘The Final Countdown.’ We were already rehearsing the next show. I crushed ‘The Final Countdown,’ but I never got to sing it.”

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Rod Stewart and wife Penny Lancaster have donated a white and gold teapot to raise money for a very good cause.

The pair shared on Instagram that they’ve signed their “favourite teapot” and donated it to Smile Train UK’s celebri-TEA auction, with money raised helping “children born with cleft around the world,” according to Smile Train.

As of Wednesday, the highest bid was over $850. The auction ends Sunday.

The auction is part of the organization’s #BigSmileTeaParty fundraiser, which asks folks to help raise money by either donating the cost of a cup of tea or hosting a tea party with family and friends. Rod notes the money “will change a child’s life forever.”

The tea pot auction is live now, but unfortunately items cannot be sent to the U.S. In addition to the teapot from Rod and Penny, there are teapots from the likes of Dame Helen Mirren, Dame Joanna Lumley and more.

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The members of Crazy Horse — Ralph Molina, Billy Talbot and Nils Lofgren — recently released the new album All Roads Lead Home. It features each band member contributing three original songs, which they recorded separately during the pandemic. But just because they weren’t physically together doesn’t mean they weren’t working together on the final product.

“It was kind of a long-distance collaboration, but a collaboration nonetheless,” Lofgren tells ABC Audio. “We listened to a lot of songs. I’d give them advice … and vice versa.”

He noted they “stayed in it with each other, but we worked in our own home environment and kind of carried it to an ending where we all picked our favorite three and came up with this great compilation.”

In addition to the three songs from each band member, Neil Young contributes the live bonus track “Song of the Seasons,” which originally appeared on the album Barn, also featuring Crazy Horse. Young also played a big role in the trio’s decision to change up their plans to make All Roads Lead Home a double album.

“Ralphie asked Neil to give us a bonus track and Neil said, ‘Yeah, I can do that. But instead of a double album, why don’t you pick your best songs, take my bonus track and do a great 10-song vinyl, just keep it lean and mean,’” Lofgren explains. “And that’s what we wound up doing.”

Considering the album came out during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lofgren thinks the title, which Talbot came up with, is beautiful. He adds of the record, “This was another labor of love, and music that allowed us to do something to actually share.” 

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Mott the Hoople and David Bowie are forever linked thanks to the 1972 classic “All The Young Dudes,” which Bowie wrote for the band. But it turns out the relationship between the artists didn’t last beyond the collaboration. 

“David was a different kettle of fish,” Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter tells Classic Rock magazine. “David was great all the time I knew him, but he wasn’t a guy I would have hung out with.” 

Hunter says it was “nothing personal,” and they “got on fine in the studio” and even hung out a few times. “But I don’t make mates easy. I never did,” he says. “And when I do make a mate, it’s for life. He was a friend like lots of people you meet along the way.” 

Bowie, who was a fan of the band, reportedly offered them a song after hearing they considered breaking up after their 1971 album Brain Capers didn’t perform well. Hunter is still a little surprised by the tune they got.

“It’s a great song,” he says. “God knows why he gave it to us. I’ve said that many times, but really, if I’d’ve had that song I wouldn’t have given it to anybody.”

Hunter describes Bowie as determined and ambitious, which he wasn’t, noting, “I just wanted to play rock ’n’ roll because it excited me.”

“But generous to a tee, lovely with the band,” he says of Bowie. “I mean, he gave us ‘Dudes.’ I’ve got nothing but praise for David.”

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The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, opening April 13, is a documentary about John Lennon’s relationship with his personal assistant May Pang. It began in 1973 when Lennon and Yoko Ono were on a break, with Ono encouraging Pang to become her husband’s girlfriend, although Pang wasn’t on board at first.

“I refused,” Pang tells People. “I respected their marriage. I said, ‘That’s not what I want to do.’ I was very happy as a worker.”

When they finally got together, Pang says she cried after their first sexual encounter because she didn’t know “where it was going to lead.” She says Lennon told her, “‘I don’t know where this is going to lead, but let’s just do the jump.'”

They eventually moved in together, and their relationship lasted 18 months. “He was just an interesting person. He really loved everything, and wanted to explore,” Pang says of The Beatles member. “He loved to get up, have his coffee in the morning. He loved blueberry pancakes, he loved swimming. He was just an awesome person who wanted to discover things.”

Lennon and Ono reconciled in 1975, although Pang says she and Lennon continued to see each other until his death in 1980.

“He’d secretly come over to see me. He would say, ‘You know, I still love you,'” she offers. “He said things to me that were really very intimate and you could sense there was something still. It was gnawing at him. It was not a finished situation.”

All in all, Pang seems grateful for the relationship. “The beginning was still raw. Now, I see it as a gift. Our relationship was a gift and it was meant to be,” she says. “I was happy I could give him something that he felt good about, that he never felt before.”

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Like the rest of us, the members of Metallica are getting older. With one of their fellow “Big 4” thrash bands — Slayer — already retired, when will it be time for the “Enter Sandman” outfit to hang it up?

“Obviously, there is a point where it’s maybe not going to function anymore at some level, where we can’t play ‘Battery’ or ‘Master of Puppets’ or songs like that,” Lars Ulrich tells Revolver.

Before you say anything snarky, Ulrich’s aware that some might feel Metallica’s already reached that point — “I appreciate that,” he laughs — but in his eyes “it hasn’t happened yet, knock on wood.”

“Hopefully it won’t happen for a while,” Ulrich, 59, says. “I mean, [Paul] McCartney‘s out there past his 80th birthday. The [Rolling] Stones are still out there. [Bruce] Springsteen just started his tour.”

“I would say if we stay healthy, hopefully we’ve got another decade,” he adds, telling the interviewer, “The second I’m done with you, I’m getting on the Peloton.”

Metallica will release their new album, 72 Seasons, on April 14, and has world tour dates currently scheduled into fall 2024.

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Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer has shared his thoughts on the band’s new albums, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen.

During an interview with Brazil’s 5 Notas, Klinghoffer says, “It’s tough, only because I honestly think we were doing cooler music.”

“I would love for it to have been finished,” he adds.

Klinghoffer joined RHCP in 2009, and played on 2011’s I’m With You and 2016’s The Getaway albums. He parted ways with the group when longtime on-again, off-again guitarist John Frusciante rejoined in late 2019. Presumably the material Klinghoffer is referring to was in the works prior to Frusciante’s return.

“I never want to sound negative about anyone doing music,” Klinghoffer says. “But … I was shocked when I heard [RHCP’s] new record.”

On a personal level, though, Klinghoffer says he “still [has] an enormous love” for Frusciante.

“He’s one of my musicians, one of my favorite writers,” Klinghoffer says.

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Jethro Tull’s new album, RökFlöte, is set to drop later this month, and they are sharing yet another new track with fans.

The band just released the new song “Hammer On Hammer,” which was inspired by the Norse god Thor. The accompanying video features images of Thor battling his mortal enemy, the sea serpent Jormungand, along with images of current wars and future destruction.

This is the third track Jethro Tull has released from the album, following “Ginnungagap” and “The Navigator.”

RökFlöte, the follow-up to 2022’s The Zealot Gene, is set to drop April 21. The album is being released in a variety of formats, including two limited deluxe editions featuring bonus material, an in-depth interview with Ian Anderson and more. All formats are now available for preorder.

And RökFlöte will be celebrated on April 17 with a special premiere in Dolby Atmos immersive audio. The event will take place at Dolby Studios in London, and Anderson will be in attendance, along with Bruce Soord, who mixed the spatial audio version of the album.

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Stevie Nicks’ tour continues to be affected by illness. After postponing several shows due to COVID-19 within the band, the singer has now canceled some of those dates and postponed another. 

Citing “ongoing illness within the band,” Stevie has canceled three shows: her Oklahoma City concert, which was originally postponed to April 11; her New Orleans concert, which had been postponed to April 15; and her April 5 concert in Birmingham, Alabama.

Meanwhile, Stevie’s concert with Billy Joel at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, that was supposed to take place Saturday, April 8, has now been postponed, although fans will have to hold on to their tickets for quite a while. The new show is now going to happen March 9, 2024. 

Fans will get refunds for all the canceled shows. Tickets for the Texas show will be honored on the new date.

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Gov’t Mule is ready to share some new music this summer. The band just announced they’ll drop their 12th studio album, Peace…Like A River, on June 16.

“Peace…Like A River is very ambitious from a musical arrangement standpoint in the way that a lot of the songs take twists and turns that is not common in today’s pop music world,” guitarist Warren Haynes shares. “At the same time, it’s very much a song record and covers a lot of ground, stylistically speaking. Song for song maybe my favorite one.” 

The band has shared the first single from the record, “Dreaming Out Loud,” featuring Ivan Neville and Ruthie Foster. It incorporates inspirational quotes from leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert and John Kennedy, and the late civil rights leader U.S. Rep. John Lewis.

In addition to Neville and Foster, the 12-track record features guest appearances by ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons, actor Billy Bob Thornton and Celisse.

Peace…Like A River is available for preorder now. A special deluxe edition, coming out only on CD, will feature a special EP, Time Of The Signs, with four new, unreleased tracks and an alternate version of the album track “The River Only Flows One Way,” featuring Haynes on lead vocals.

Here’s the track list for Peace…Like A River:

“Same As It Ever Was”
“Shake Our Way Out” (ft. Billy F. Gibbons)
“Made My Peace”
“Peace I Need”
“Your Only Friend”
“Dreaming Out Loud” (ft. Ivan Neville and Ruthie Foster)
“Head Full Of Thunder”
“The River Only Flows One Way” (ft. Billy Bob Thornton)
“After The Storm”
“Just Across The River” (ft. Celisse)
“Long Time Coming”
“Gone Too Long”

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