Classic Rock News

Tom Leadon, co-founder of Tom Petty’s early ’70s band Mudcrutch, passed away March 22 at the age of 71, Variety reports.

The news of Leadon’s death prompted Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell, who was also a member of Mudcrutch, to pay tribute to his bandmate on social media.

“Tom Leadon was my deepest guitar soul brother,” Campbell shared. “We spent countless hours playing acoustic guitars and teaching each other things. A kinder soul never walked the earth. I will always miss his spirit and generosity. Sleep peacefully my old friend.” 

Heartbreaker Benmont Tench, who also played in Mudcrutch, paid tribute as well, writing, “Tom Leadon. I am out of words. But i will never be out of love.”

Petty and Leadon formed Mudcrutch in Gainesville, Florida, in 1970. Leadon left the group in 1972 and moved to Los Angeles, where he played with Linda Ronstadt and was in the country rock band Silver. In 2007 Petty and Leadon reunited and a reformed Mudcrutch, with Campbell and Tench, released a self-titled album in 2008. They also went on tour to support it. They released a live EP, Extended Play Live, featuring songs recorded on the tour.

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March 28 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin’s iconic album Houses of the Holy, the band’s fifth studio album and the first to not feature an eponymous title.

Houses of the Holy featured such Zeppelin classics as “The Song Remains the Same,” “The Rain Song” and “Dancing Days.” Interestingly, the record’s title track didn’t make the album and later appeared on 1975’s Physical Graffiti.

“The sound of it is so much more interesting than any other Zeppelin album because they had more time to play around with it,” Jason Hanley, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s VP of education and visitor engagement, tells ABC Audio about Houses of the Holy. “It was their moment to push those boundaries a little bit.”

Hanley notes that Zeppelin “always sort of diverted people’s expectations in a way.”

“If (1971’s) Led Zeppelin IV became the blueprint of what Zeppelin could sound like, Houses of the Holy is a different record and it takes it in a new direction,” Hanley says. “They just kept upping the ante each time.”

Houses of the Holy went on to be a huge success for Led Zeppelin and was certified Diamond by the RIAA for over 10 million albums sold. In addition, it has made several lists as one of the greatest albums of all time.

“This album was their moment to experiment, and have fun and do something different. And because of that it’s become one of the great iconic records of rock ‘n’ roll,” Hanley says.  

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Robert Trujillo is singing on a Metallica record for the first time.

Speaking with the band’s online So What! publication, the bassist reveals that his vocals are featured on the song “You Must Burn!”, a track off the upcoming ‘Tallica album 72 Seasons.

“When I joined Metallica, I’d never sung in my whole life, so the fact that I can now support a backup vocal is pretty cool,” Trujillo shares. “For the first time in my life, I get to sing on a Metallica record and support James [Hetfield]. I’m very proud of that.”

Trujillo joined Metallica in 2003 in place of Jason Newsted. His recruitment is memorably featured in the 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster.

72 Seasons is due out April 14. It’s the third album Metallica’s recorded with Trujillo — or fourth if you count the 2011 Lou Reed collaboration Lulu — following 2008’s Death Magnetic and 2016’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct.

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Sammy Hagar & The Circle are coming to Las Vegas. The band is set to play the Pearl at the Palms Hotel on July 15, with The Circle made up of former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer Jason Bonham. 

Hagar tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal that fans who come to the show should expect to hear his numerous hits, as well as some classic Van Halen songs. 

“Michael and I will feature what we call, ‘The Other Half,’ with a lot more Van Halen, even a few early songs,” Hagar explains. “We debuted this band in Cabo at my birthday bash, years ago, and it makes all the sense in the world that there is no one out there supporting the Van Halen catalog, which has some of the greatest rock songs ever written.” 

Tickets for the show go on sale Friday, March 31, at 10 a.m. local time.

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Def Leppard is back with the fourth installment in their tour diary, sharing behind-the-scenes footage of their shows in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Hollywood, Florida.

“This is the last South American show, Buenos Aires, Argentina,” frontman Joe Elliott says in the clip. “It’s been a blast. Absolute blast.” 

Before the Buenos Aires concert, guitarist Vivian Campbell predicts it will be the “best audience yet.”

“Not that the previous audiences have been anything but spectacular, but Buenos Aires, I have a strong suspicion,” Campbell says. “It doesn’t change how we play. We always try our best, regardless. We always give at least 11%, sometimes 12.”

And it’s good they like Buenos Aires, because they got stuck there. After taking off in their joint Def Leppard/Mötley Crüe jet, they had to return because of mechanical problems. They wound up stuck in the airport lounge for about seven hours before they finally left the airport. 

The clip also features footage from off and on the stage during their show in Hollywood, Florida, including Rick Savage warming up backstage, and a drum duet between Rick Allen and Mötley’s Tommy Lee.

“It was a really good way to finish off a month away from home doing this whole South American kinda expedition as it were,” Elliott says of the show. “Absolutely very exciting, especially at this stage in our career to be able to do something like this is absolutely astonishing.”

Next up the tour hits the U.K., with the first show May 22 in Sheffield, England. A complete list of dates can be found at defleppard.com.

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David Lee Roth made his return to performing last week, taking the stage at a private corporate event in Las Vegas.

According to Consequence, the former Van Halen frontman joined the all-star cover band Royal Machines at a party for Home Depot at the Michelob Ultra Arena at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, where he performed the Van Halen classic “Panama.”

Royal Machines is made up of musicians Billy Morrison, Mark McGrath, Donovan Leitch Jr., Chris Chaney and Josh Freese, and they were joined by Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens. The event also featured special appearances by Idol, Run DMC’s Darryl McDaniels and Linda Perry.

It’s been a while since we saw Roth onstage. In 2022 he was supposed to headline a residency in Las Vegas, which were to be his last shows before retiring from performing. He wound up canceling them.

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Sunday night’s American Idol featured a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, and we’re not talking about judge Lionel Richie.

In case you missed it, contestant Kaya Stewart came out to audition with an original song and got some help from her father, Eurythmics star Dave Stewart, on guitar. The pair performed “This Tattoo,” a song Kaya wrote with her dad.

“This is much more difficult than being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Dave joked.

And it turns out Kaya didn’t necessarily need her dad’s star power, because her voice earned her a ticket to Hollywood.

American Idol airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on ABC.

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Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth is sharing her feelings about the band’s former frontman, David Byrne.

“I recently described David Byrne as Trumpian, which didn’t go down well with everybody,” Weymouth shares with the U.K. Sunday Times. “What I meant was that, from my experience, everything with David is transactional – he will use you until he has no more use for you.”

She says when she and husband Chris Frantz were in the band with Byrne “he always seemed very insecure about himself,” noting he would “try to blame other people if things went wrong.” She explains, “Chris and I loved him dearly and we did our best to overlook these disastrous character flaws, but it seemed obvious that Talking Heads wasn’t going to last.”

And if Byrne is as happy as he’s said he is in interviews, Weymouth wonders why he refuses to refer to his former bandmates by their names and instead refers to them as “people he used to play with.”

“I’ve been around the block a few times and I’ve realized that people act like animals,” she offers. “Some are doves: beautiful and peaceful, like Chris. Unfortunately, some are sly foxes.”

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Night Ranger was forced to postpone three shows after bassist/vocalist Jack Blades was hospitalized, as previously reported. Now the band is giving fans an update on his health, and it’s all good news.

“He is now out of the hospital and feeling great,” the band shares on Instagram. “Last week he was admitted due to heart irregularities, followed by a successful procedure. We are so happy everything went well. Jack can’t wait to get back out on the road and neither can we!”

The band notes that they are aiming to continue their tour as scheduled, and went on to thank fans for the support and also the “doctors, nurses & staff at Garden Grove & Orange County Global Medical Centers.”

Night Ranger’s next show is scheduled for April 14 in Chandler, Arizona. A complete list of dates can be found at nightranger.com.

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Roger Waters is in the midst of rerecording Pink Floyd‘s classic album The Dark Side of the Moon, as previously reported, and while some fans may be upset about it, he’s getting the support of his former bandmate Nick Mason.

According to NME, at a playback of the classic album at London’s Dolby Atmos Immersive Studio last week, Mason shared his thoughts on Waters’ project and seems totally OK with it.

“I heard the rumor that Roger was working on his own version of it,” he said, referring to the album, which turned 50 earlier this month. “There was this suggestion that this was going to be a spoiler and Roger was going to go head-to-head with the original version and so on.” 

Mason added, “He actually sent me a copy of what he was working on and I write [sic] to him and said, ‘Annoyingly, it’s absolutely brilliant!’ It was and is. It’s not anything that would be a spoiler for the original at all, it’s an interesting add-on to the thing.”

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