The Beatles’ final song, “Now and Then,” has made it on to Variety’s list of the best songs of 2023.
The track, which was released in November, lands at #32. Variety acknowledged that the tune was bound to be controversial, due to Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr using an old tape of John Lennon’s voice, but they still see the good in it.
“The idea of Paul McCartney creating with his old frenemy in his headphones is touching enough,” they write. “But moral, ethical or nostalgic issues aside, the song is just lovely … which is all the justification anyone needs in this world.”
Also making the list is Paul Simon at #44 with “The Lord,” from his album Seven Psalms; Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach‘s “You Can Have Her” from the Songs of Bacharach & Costello box set at #50; and PeterGabriel’s i/o track “And Still” at #52.
Elton John may no longer have a farewell tour to occupy his time, but he’s got plenty of other projects to keep him busy.
In his special year-end message to members of his Rocket Club fan community, Elton reveals that the new album he mentioned during the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be out in 2024.
Elton and his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin collaborated on the new LP, which will be his first new solo studio album since 2016’s Wonderful Crazy Night. In 2021 he released the collaborative album The Lockdown Sessions, which featured him singing with everyone from Stevie Nicks to Stevie Wonder to Lil Nas X.
Elton also says that a documentary will be coming in 2024. While he didn’t give any additional information, this might be the film that was first announced in 2022 as a Disney+ project called Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: The Final Elton John Performances And the Years That Made His Legend.
In addition, Elton mentioned that he’ll host his annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Oscar viewing party on March 10 and that he plans to relaunch his stage musical version of The Devil Wears Prada. It debuted in Chicago in 2022 to poor reviews and was presumably sent back to the drawing board.
Concluding his message, Elton gave a special shout-out to his fans, saying, “The greatest thing about this year has been you guys, who’ve supported me, come to the shows, bought the records, and keep flying the Elton John name very, very highly.”
“I can’t thank you enough … i will be in touch next year!”
Heart’s Nancy Wilson wants fans to know that she and her sister and bandmate Ann Wilson are in a good place.
There has certainly been drama between the sisters, though — in 2016 Ann’s husband was arrested for assaulting Nancy’s teenage son. But Nancy scoffs at any suggestion that she and Ann are at odds.
“The first question a lot of people have always asked either of us, me or Ann, has been ‘Do you guys fight?’ Like sibling rivalry. They’re hoping that we say yes,” she tells The Seattle Times. “At one point, we even thought about staging a fight just to satisfy the, what is now like, the haters on social media — like everybody has to take sides all the time.”
She adds, “But in my case, having Ann as my sister and having done music with her since I was born basically, it’s a good thing.”
Nancy does say being in a band with family can be “emotionally challenging,” but, she adds, “That’s where you kinda have to think bigger and you have to be a bigger human around it all and learn how to be really forgiving and take the high road.”
Heart is set to headline a homecoming show at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on New Year’s Eve, and it sounds like we may soon be getting new music from the band as well.
“Yeah. We’ve done a couple things in the can and I’ve also worked along with Sue Ennis, who did a lot of Heart songwriting with me and Ann in the past,” she says. “I’ve got a bunch of new stuff with Sue that I’ve been working on.”
Two drawings by Dave Grohl raised over $14,000 for charity.
As previously reported, the pieces are called “How to Make a DIY Beer Bong” and “How to Sneak Hash into a Concert,” both of which illustrate exactly what its title promises. Grohl created the drawings backstage before Foo Fighters‘ headlining set at New Jersey’s Sea.Hear.Now festival in September and was inspired by the event’s “prohibited items” signs.
Proceeds from the auction will be donated to various local charities. “Beer Bong” brought in $7,301, while the winning bidder for “How to Sneak Hash” paid $6,851.
In between making drawings for charity, Grohl had a busy 2023 releasing and touring behind a new Foo Fighters album, But Here We Are. The band’s 2024 schedule includes a U.S. stadium tour, which launches in July.
Are you a fan of the Grateful Dead who’d love to learn more about your favorite band? Well, Stanford University is here to help with that.
The college is offering a course on the Rock & Roll Famers. Psychedelia and Groove: The Music and Culture of the Grateful Dead, taught by musician, author and radio producer David Gans, is a six-week online course that begins January 22.
According to Stanford’s website, the course “invites students to delve into the phenomenon that is the Grateful Dead through a captivating exploration of the band’s history, music, and cultural impact.” It promises to delve into the band’s evolution, formation in San Francisco, approach to touring, music catalog and “cultural impact on society.”
It will also feature guest speaker Steve Silberman, co-author of Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads and regular contributor to the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast.
The description notes, “By the end of the course, students will have a well-rounded appreciation for the roots, struggles, and milestones that shaped the Grateful Dead’s trajectory, an understanding of its profound impact on music and culture, and insight into a legacy that still resonates deeply today.”
Aerosmith‘s Joe Perry has given fans an update regarding the rescheduling plans for their final tour, the Peace Out tour.
Aerosmith kicked off the tour on September 2 in Philadelphia, but after playing only a handful of dates, the tour was postponed when frontman Steven Tyler fractured his larynx.
The tour was supposed to include a hometown show on New Year’s Eve at Boston’s TD Garden; in an interview with the Boston Globe, Perry says they’re “bummed” they have to miss it, then shared a tidbit about their future plans.
“But with any luck we will be back out late summer and fall of 24,” he said. “And there’s always next New Year’s Eve! Stay tuned for that.”
Perry also promised fans they’ll be getting some new releases from the band’s archives in 2024, noting, “We have a ton of unreleased material coming out over the next year and a half with remixes and alternate takes.”
Perry also commented on the band’s recent milestone: their song “Dream On” passing 1 billion streams on Spotify.
“That knocked us back on our heels, I’ll tell ya. I talked to Steven who was freaking out about writing that riff four years before he even joined the band,” he says. “And all I could think about was taking my first guitar — a Sears $12 acoustic — out of the box when I was 11 or so.”
He adds, “And now over a billion fans hear my guitar at the beginning of the song. Who would have thought that?”
Metallica has shared official live video from their performance at the 2023 Soundstorm Festival, which marked the metal legends’ first-ever show in Saudi Arabia.
The clip captures a performance of the Black Album single “The Unforgiven.” You can watch it streaming now on YouTube.
The Saudi Arabia concert, which took place December 14, capped an eventful year for Metallica, which included the release of a new album, 72 Seasons, and the launch of the world M72 tour. In the latest episode of The Metallica Report podcast, frontman James Hetfield shares his goals for 2024.
“I’m really just continuing to try and improve myself, get better, have a better attitude about life, about other people’s lives, and just try to bring as much joy to people as possible,” Hetfield says.
The Hemsworths are not only a family of actors, but also a family of Green Day fans.
Thor star Chris has shared a video on Instagram capturing him and his brothers Liam and Luke covering the punk trio’s classic tune “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” over the holidays. Well, “cover” may be a loose term, as the video shows Chris whacking at the drums off-beat while Liam plays an acoustic guitar and sings with Luke.
“Christmas album just dropped, thanks for the inspiration @greenday,” the post’s caption reads.
You may recall that Chris previously covered Nine Inch Nails‘ “Hurt” — he performed the song in the style of Johnny Cash‘s version while on The Tonight Show in 2019.
Green Day, meanwhile, is gearing up to release a new album, Saviors, on January 19. Before that, they’ll say goodbye — or, perhaps, good riddance — to 2023 with a performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, airing December 31 on ABC.
The Beatles landed another #1 album with their self-titled ninth studio release, more commonly referred to as The White Album, due to its plain white jacket cover with just the band’s name embossed on it. It spent nine weeks on top of the chart.
The album featured 30 songs, including such future Beatles classics as “Helter Skelter,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and “Blackbird.”
Tensions were high during the recording of the album, especially since John Lennon began bringing his new girlfriend, Yoko Ono, into the studio. Things got so bad that Ringo Starr reportedly left the group for two weeks.
The White Album also topped the charts in the U.K., Australia, Canada, Sweden and more. It has since been certified 24-times Platinum by the RIAA, making it The Beatles’ most certified album.
Cher and son Elijah in 2001; Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Cher is taking legal steps to help her son Elijah Blue Allman, 47, who struggles with substance abuse: She’s filed for a conservatorship of him.
In legal documents obtained by ABC News, Cher states that she wants to be the sole conservator of Elijah’s estate because he is “substantially unable to manage his financial resources.” According to the documents, Elijah, the son of Cher’s late ex-husband Gregg Allman, is due to receive money from a trust before the end of 2023. However, because he’s currently suffering from “severe mental health and substance abuse issues,” Cher believes that “any money [he] receives will be “immediately spent on drugs … putting [his] life at risk.”
What’s more, the documents claim that Elijah’s wife, from whom he is allegedly estranged, shouldn’t be the conservator because she is “not supportive of Elijah’s recovery” and “actively works to keep Elijah from getting clean and sober or receiving mental health treatment that he desperately needs.”
The documents state that Cher has “worked tirelessly” to get Elijah “the help he needs,” and that two of his siblings have nominated her to act as conservator. It’s not clear which siblings she’s referring to, but the document lists three of Gregg Allman’s five children — including Devon Allman, lead singer of The Allman Betts Band — and Cher’s son Chaz Bono, from her marriage to the late Sonny Bono.
A hearing for a temporary order of conservatorship is set for January 5. A hearing that will decide whether to make the order permanent is set for March 6.
In October, Cher dismissed as “not true” a claim by Elijah’s wife that the singer, in an intervention attempt, had hired men to “kidnap” Elijah from New York City hotel room.
