Classic Rock News

David Byrne, and members of KISS and The Guess Who are among the contenders for the 2026 class of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The organization has announced the artists in the running for induction next year, with the Talking Heads frontman, KISS’ Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, and The Guess Who’s Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings all nominated in the performers category.

Other performers nominated this year include: The Go-Go’s Charlotte Caffey, Kathy Valentine and Jane M. Wiedlin; America’s Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell; Kenny Loggins; Taylor Swift; Pink; Sarah McLachlan; LL Cool J; The Carpenters’ Richard Carpenter; Harry Wayne Casey aka KC of KC and the Sunshine Band; and Boz Scaggs.

In the non-performing category, the nominees include folks who wrote or co-wrote hits like Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Donna Summers’ “Hot Stuff,” Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” Madonna’s “Like A Prayer,” Starship’s “We Built This City” and Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical.”

Nominees become eligible 20 years after their first commercial release of a song. Voting will run through Dec. 4, and the inductees will be celebrated at a gala event in New York City next year.

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Guns N’ Roses have released a statement regarding frontman Axl Rose‘s onstage behavior during a recent show in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Footage from the concert shows Rose kicking drummer Isaac Carpenter‘s kit and throwing his mic at the bass drum. He’s also seen briefly leaving the stage before returning and telling the crowd, “I’ll just try and wing this.”

GN’R says in their statement that Rose was frustrated by sound issues and was not directing any ire toward Carpenter.

“Axl’s in-ear monitor pack had only the percussion in his ears versus his entire mix,” the statement reads. “The issue was fixed by our tech team by the third song, and we had a great night.”

It concludes, “The situation had nothing to do with Isaac Carpenter’s playing, who is top notch and a great drummer.”

Carpenter was announced as the new Guns N’ Roses drummer in March following the departure of Frank Ferrer, who’d been with the band since 2006.

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Happy Foos-day!

Foo Fighters have not only released their previously teased new single called “Asking for a Friend,” they’ve also announced a 2026 North American stadium tour with support from Queens of the Stone Age.

The outing, dubbed the Take Cover tour, launches Aug. 4 in Toronto, and concludes Sept. 26 in Las Vegas. You can register for access to the presale now through Sunday at 11:59 PT. Those who’ve signed up for the Foo Fighters newsletter can grab tickets starting Oct. 28 at 10 a.m. local time, while a presale for those not signed up for the newsletter begin Oct. 29 at 10 a.m. local time.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Oct. 31 at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit FooFighters.com.

The tour will mark the first extended live Foos trek in the U.S. since 2024. Since then, they’ve gone through a tumultuous year between the Dave Grohl infidelity scandal and the firing of drummer Josh Freese. 

The Foos made their live return in September with a brief run of U.S. pop-up dates and a tour of Asia, which marked their first performances with new drummer Ilan Rubin, formerly of Nine Inch Nails.

As for “Asking for a Friend,” it marks the second new Foo Fighters single of 2025, following July’s “Today Song.”

“‘Asking for a Friend’ is a song for those who have waited patiently in the cold, relying on hope and faith for their horizon to appear,” Grohl says. “Searching for ‘proof’ when hanging by a wish until the sun shines again.”

He adds, “One of many songs to come…”

The most recent Foo Fighters album is 2023’s But Here We Are.

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On This Day, Oct. 23, 2020 …

Bruce Springsteen released his 12th studio album, Letter To You, his first new studio album with the E Street Band since 2014’s High Hopes.

The album debuted at #2 in the U.S. and topped the charts in the U.K., Italy, Ireland, Australia and several other countries.

The album’s title track was the first single from the record, followed by “Ghosts.” It also featured three tracks — “If I Was the Priest,” “Janey Needs a Shooter” and “Song for Orphans” — that were written prior to Springsteen’s 1973 debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.

The album’s release was accompanied by a making-of documentary, which streamed on Apple TV. It was directed by Springsteen’s longtime collaborator Thom Zimny.

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Jeremy Allen White had to learn to sing and play guitar to play Bruce Springsteen in the new biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, and of course by playing and meeting The Boss, he learned a lot about the man himself.

“I think what struck me most about Bruce is how sort of graceful and gentle he is. And his relationship to the world is still so, kind of, kind and pure,” White tells ABC News. The actor says he would “find it difficult to move with such grace” after so many decades as a beloved icon.

And now that filming is over, White says he misses getting to sing like Bruce.

“That was the way … I felt closest to Bruce, in Nashville at RCA recording his music,” he says. “There’s, like, such a preciousness to being in the studio, singing his words.”

A lot has been made of Springsteen and his manager, Jon Landau, being on the film’s set during shooting, and Jeremy Strong, who plays Landau, says it was something that really helped his performance.

“(Springsteen) is just someone who gives so much of himself every time,” Strong says. “So when you’re in the presence of someone who gives that much, the only thing that it actually does is it encourages you to give as much as you possibly can and really put everything on the line.”

And Springsteen being on set resulted in a very special moment for Strong. He says during downtime while filming scenes at the Power Station recording studio in New York, he was just sitting and listening to a Springsteen playlist when the rocker walked in.

“We just sat there talking for a while,” Strong says. “That’s a moment in time that I’ll take to my grave.” 

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere hits theaters Friday.

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U2 was honored with the Woody Guthrie Prize Tuesday at a ceremony in Tulsa, Oklahoma, hosted by the Woody Guthrie Center.

Bono and The Edge were on hand to accept the award, named after the late folk icon, which recognizes “a recipient who embodies the spirit of Woody Guthrie’s social consciousness and musical legacy.” The event was held at Cain’s Ballroom, a venue U2 headlined in 1981 on their Boy tour.

The pair took part in a conversation about art and activism, with Bono crediting Bob Dylan with introducing him to Guthrie. He noted that Dylan “really did bring us to the place where the song was an instrument to open up worlds.”

“Our favorite protest songs always had a sense of vision, something to aim for … you don’t talk about the darkness, you make the light brighter,” The Edge added. “I believe music can actually change the mood of the room and actually shift a culture.”

The rockers also treated the audience to a surprise performance of six songs: “Running to Stand Still,” which included a bit of Guthrie’s “Bound for Glory”; “Mothers of the Disappeared”; “Sunday Bloody Sunday”; “One”; “Pride (In The Name of Love),” which also featured a bit of Guthrie’s “Jesus Christ”; and “Yahweh.”

Bono also gave fans a preview of what’s on the way for U2, sharing lyrics to a song he’s working on about the killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, a consultant on the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land who was killed in July by an Israeli settler.

The lyrics include: “One father shot/ three children crying/ if there is no law/ is there no crime/ if there is no hope/ what’s there to rhyme/ history is written/ one life at a time/ ONE LIFE AT A TIME.”

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The KISS catalog saw a streaming boost following the Oct. 16 death of the band’s founding guitarist, Ace Frehley, at the age of 74.

Billboard reports that, compared to the three days prior to Ace’s death, the three days after his passing saw 4,500 digital songs sold, an increase of 1,664%. The catalog also saw a 187% increase in on-demand streams.

As for the song that got the biggest bump, that was actually Frehley’s 1978 solo recording of “New York Groove,” which was a #13 hit for the rocker. It sold over 700 copies, a 4,217% increase, and had 318,000 streams, a 530% increase.

And fans were apparently looking to listen to more of Frehley’s solo work in the three days following his death, as his solo catalog saw a 2,940% streaming boost and a 5,140% sales boost.

Frehley’s death came just weeks after he canceled the remainder of his 2025 tour dates “due to some ongoing medical issues.” In a statement, his KISS bandmates Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley said they were “devastated” by Ace’s death, while drummer Peter Criss said that his heart was “broken” by the news.

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Rush has announced second shows in the newly added cities to the band’s 2026 Fifty Something comeback tour.

The itinerary now includes extra dates for stops in Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, Denver, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The first shows in those cities were announced on Monday.

Registration is open now through Thursday at 11:59 p.m. ET for access to a Rush artist presale, which begins Oct. 27 at noon local time. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Oct. 31 at noon local time.

For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit Rush.com.

Rush’s initial tour announcement, made on Oct. 6, consisted of multiple shows in seven cities. The full tour kicks off June 7 in Los Angeles and wraps Dec. 17 in Vancouver.

The Fifty Something tour will be the first time Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have toured as Rush since the death of drummer Neil Peart in 2020. Playing drums on the tour will be Anika Nilles, who previously worked with the late Jeff Beck.

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Bon Jovi is going back on the road.

During a livestream for their album Forever (Legendary Edition), which drops Friday, the New Jersey rockers announced they’ll be returning to the road in 2026 on the Forever Tour, the band’s first trek since Jon Bon Jovi underwent vocal cord surgery in 2022.

The tour consists of seven shows: four nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden, July 7, 9, 12 and 14; Aug. 28 at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland; Aug. 30 at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland; and Sept. 4 at London’s Wembley Stadium.

“There is a lot of joy in this announcement – joy that we can share these nights together with our amazing fans and joy that the band can be together,” Jon Bon Jovi said in a statement. “I am lucky enough to be able to hold a light out to the audience each night and stand in their reflection for a tremendous collective experience – I get to stand in the WE of our concerts.”

“And I’ve spoken extensively on my gratitude but I will say it again, I’m deeply grateful that the fans and the brotherhood of this band have been patient and allowed me the time needed to get healthy and prepare for touring,” he added. “I’m ready and excited!”

Registration is now open for a presale for the New York shows, which begins Monday at 10 a.m. ET. Tickets go on sale to the general public Oct. 31 at 10 a.m. ET.

For the U.K. and Ireland shows, fans who preorder Forever (Legendary Edition) on the Bon Jovi website will gain access to a presale that begins Tuesday at 9 a.m. local time, with tickets going on sale to the general public on Oct. 31 at 9 a.m. local time.

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Joe Walsh’s ninth annual VetsAid concert is coming to his hometown of Wichita, Kansas, this year, and he’s giving fans who can’t make it to the event a chance to enjoy it at home.

It was just announced that the concert, taking place Nov. 15 at INTRUST Bank Arena, will be available to stream live at Veeps.com.

This year’s VetsAid will feature full sets from Eagles touring member Vince Gill; Ryan Bingham and The Texas Gentlemen; and a “super-set” from Walsh, joined by Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Nathaniel Rateliff and other special guests.

“It’s been a long-term goal of mine since we began VetsAid nearly ten years ago to bring it all home to my native Wichita to serve Kansan veterans and their families,” Walsh says in a statement posted to his website in August. “It’s where my parents were both born and are buried, where I was born and where I will always feel a deep connection and sense of heritage and responsibility. … Wichita is the place to be this November 15th!”

Proceeds from the concert will go directly to veterans services charities. This year’s grant recipients include Wichita Police and Fire Foundation; Rosie’s Snuggle Bunnies Pet Therapy, Horses & Heroes, Inc; and the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation, Hire Heroes USA.

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