Classic Rock News

David Bowie’s 10th studio album, Station to Station, is getting reissued to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

The album is being released as a limited-edition 50th anniversary half-speed mastered vinyl, and as a picture disc that comes with a poster reproduction of an archival ad for the album. Both formats will drop on Jan. 23, 2026, 50 years to the day of the original album’s release.

The follow-up to 1975’s Young Americans, Station to Station saw Bowie introduce a new persona, the Thin White Duke. Co-produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin, the rocker was influenced by electronic dance music, as well as a genre of German experimental rock known as krautrock.

Station to Station peaked at #3 on the Billboard album chart and at the time was Bowie’s highest-charting album in the U.S.

The lead single, “Golden Years,” spent 16 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #10. The tune would later be used for the soundtrack to the 2001 Heath Ledger movie A Knight’s Tale.

The 50th anniversary reissue of Station to Station is available for preorder now.

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For Kirk Hammett‘s birthday, he was covered in Silly String.

The Metallica guitarist, who turned 63 on Tuesday, was pranked by his bandmates during their show in Auckland, New Zealand, on Wednesday in honor of the occasion.

As seen in a video posted to Metallica’s Instagram, crew members took to the stage at the end of the show and sprayed Hammett head to toe with Silly String while frontman James Hetfield sang “Happy Birthday.”

“They said they weren’t gonna do this!” Hammett says in the video. “My friends, I love ’em. Thank you, everyone!”

The post’s caption reads, “Thanks, Auckland, for helping us wish The Ripper himself, @kirkhammett, a very happy birthday!”

In other Metallica news, the metal legends posted a tribute to Evanescence thanking the “Bring Me to Life” band for opening their tour of Australia and New Zealand.

“Metallica. You are legends for a reason,” Evanescence wrote in response. “Thank you for the inspiration, then and now. You exceeded every expectation, onstage and off. This is how you do it.”

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Mick Jagger just went back to school.

The Rolling Stones frontman paid a visit to The Mick Jagger Centre at Dartford Grammar School in Kent, England, on Wednesday as part of the Centre’s 25th anniversary celebration. Jagger went to Dartford Grammar before going on to study at the London School of Economics.

“It was a great privilege for me to visit my old school today and meet some of the inspiring young students,” Jagger wrote on Instagram alongside pictures and video of the visit. “I really enjoyed getting to hear them sing and play!”

The school’s headmaster Julian Metcalf called Jagger’s visit “very special and icing on the cake.”

Jagger has been funding a project, called Red Rooster, since 2003 that covers weekly music tuition for over 1,200 local children. The students performed for him during his visit, and video posted to Instagram shows that he joined in on a performance of The Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

Jagger also got a chance to talk to the students and was given a tour of the school. He was even presented a trophy to the Dartford Grammar basketball team.

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Aerosmith and Yungblud are set to release their collaborative EP, One More Time, on Friday. They recently released an acoustic take on its first single, “My Only Angel,” featuring actor and comedian Steve Martin, who plays banjo on the track.

The Only Murders in the Building star tells ABC Audio that the invite to appear on the song came “out of the blue.” He notes that he heard from his agent that Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler was trying to reach him, so Martin told his agent to give him his number.

“(Tyler) sent me a little sample of it. And the first thing I think of is, you know, can I even play this? I’ve never played rock ‘n’ roll like that,” Martin says. “So I send him a sample of like, ‘Is this what you mean?’ And then they used it.”

And while he may have been concerned about his contribution, Martin seems pretty happy with the final product.

“I thought it was really good,” he says. “Really, it was so catchy and rock ‘n’ roll and his voice is extraordinary.” He adds, “I was impressed with myself.” 

Martin’s version of the song doesn’t actually appear on the EP, but it’s currently available to stream on YouTube.

The five-song One More Time is the first new music from Aerosmith since their last studio album, 2012’s Music From Another Dimension. Prior to the EP announcement, Yungblud performed with Tyler and Joe Perry during the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 7 for a tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne.

A two-day pop-up celebrating One More Time is taking place Friday and Saturday at Complex LA, featuring exclusive merch and more.

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There have likely been countless debates over which rock band is the best, and now Billboard has chimed in with its picks.

The outlet has just revealed its complete list of the 50 best rock bands as chosen by Billboard staff, with The Beatles coming out on top.

Of course, a lot of people are likely not surprised by the pick, and even Billboard acknowledges that.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah — another list with the Beatles at #1. But with a legacy like theirs, you know you can’t be mad,” they write, a callback to the band’s classic “She Loves You.”

The rest of the top five is not all that surprising either, with The Rolling Stones at #2, followed by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Queen.

Rounding out the top 10 are Fleetwood Mac, U2, Sly & The Family Stone, Black Sabbath and Nirvana.

The complete list can be found at Billboard.com.

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ZZ Top is headed overseas in 2026. The Texas rockers have announced dates for The Big One! tour, their first European trek in two years.

The 23-show tour will have them hitting 13 countries, with a mix of festival appearances and headlining dates. The tour starts June 13 in Estonia and hits Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland and France before wrapping July 25 in Cadiz, Spain, which is one of several shows in that country.

“We love playing for European audiences as they’re among the most energetic and enthusiastic we’ve encountered over the course of the past five decades,” ZZ Top frontman Billy F Gibbons says. 

He adds, “We predict a circumstance of direct communication because there’s no language barrier when the common parlance is to let it rock.”

A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at ZZTop.com.

The announcement of the European shows follows the news that ZZ Top will be playing several dates in 2026 with country star Dwight Yoakam. Their Dos Amigos Tour kicks off March 26 in Brookings, South Dakota.

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Two of R.E.M.’s early releases are getting a sound upgrade.

The band’s debut EP, Chronic Town, and their debut album, Murmur, are being reissued as part of Interscope-Capitol Records’ Definitive Sound Series.

The albums will be released together as a two-LP, 180-gram high-definition vinyl set, with the upgraded audio sourced from the original analog master tapes. Mitch Easter, who produced both releases, and Don Dixon, who co-produced Murmur, were directly involved with the upgrade.

The set will be released Dec. 10 and is limited to a one-time-only pressing of 3,000 copies. It is available for preorder now.

Released in August 1982, Chronic Town was a five-track collection that was recorded following the success of their first single, “Radio Free Europe.” A demo of the EP helped land R.E.M. a record deal with I.R.S. records.

Their debut album, Murmur, was released in April 1983 and debuted at #36 on the Billboard Albums chart. It was a huge hit with critics and went on to be certified Gold by the RIAA.

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Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, best known his work with Deep Purple and Rainbow,  has postponed the rest of his tour with his medieval folk-rock band Blackmore’s Night.

“All Blackmore’s Night shows postponed at this point due to medical reasons,” read a post on the rocker’s social media. “We are sorry for any inconvenience.”

No other details regarding the reason for the postponement were released.

The tour was to consist of six shows, although the band only got to play two of them, Nov. 9 in Alexandria, Virginia and Nov. 13 in Lititz, Pennsylvania. They then postponed shows in Newton, New Jersey, and Wilmington, Delaware, before scrapping the rest of the tour, which was supposed to wrap Nov. 29 in Tarrytown, New York.

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While we have to wait a little longer to see if it gets any Oscar nominations, the Bruce Springsteen biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere has been recognized by at least one award show.

The film earned two nominations for this year’s Movies for Grownups Awards, put on by AARP. The awards honor “outstanding films and television projects that celebrate the voices and stories of the 50-plus,” according to a release.

Deliver Me From Nowhere, which follows Springsteen as he makes the 1982 solo album Nebraska, earned a best director nod for Scott Cooper, while the film was also nominated for best period film.

Also recognized this year is the Led Zeppelin doc Becoming Led Zeppelin, which is nominated for best documentary.

The annual Movies for Grownups Awards ceremony will take place on Jan. 10, 2026, in Los Angeles. Tony and Emmy winner Alan Cumming returns to host the awards show, which will be broadcast by Great Performances on PBS on Feb. 22.

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KISS fans have a chance to get their hands on a guitar previously owned by the late Ace Frehley.

The site Gotta Have Rock and Roll is auctioning off Ace’s Sunburst Gibson Les Paul “Smoker” guitar, which he used during KISS’ 1999 Psycho Circus tour and their 2000 Farewell tour.

The stage-used guitar, which is signed by Ace, is modified to produce the rocker’s signature “Smoking” effects and includes a letter of authenticity from Frehley. The description notes the instrument was part of the rocker’s personal collection and “represents a unique piece of rock history from an influential period of his career.”

Bidding on the guitar is open until Dec. 5, with a minimum bid of $100,000 required. The guitar is expected to sell for between $150,000 and $200,000.

Frehley, founding guitarist of KISS and a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, died Oct. 16 at the age of 74.

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