Classic Rock News

Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer will fill in for Dave Navarro during Jane’s Addiction‘s upcoming tour.

Navarro previously missed last fall’s Jane’s tour with The Smashing Pumpkins due to continued effects from long COVID-19. Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen played in place of Navarro during the tour, while Klinghoffer also helped out during select dates.

In a Twitter post announcing the news, Jane’s writes, “As a band we are in a great place, writing new music, and the bond is tighter than ever.”

The statement continues, “We all hope Dave can be out playing with us; when he feels healthy and ready.”

Klinghoffer will join Jane’s for the band’s U.S. West Coast run in March and for their performances at Lollapalooza Argentina, Brazil and Chile, as well as several to-be-announced international shows.

By the way, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction have a history of swapping members. Navarro played in RHCP from 1993 to 1998, while Flea briefly toured with Jane’s in 1997.

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KISS is delving into their archives to treat their fans to another classic live performance. The rockers announced the fifth installment in their Off The Soundboard live bootleg series, which will focus on a classic concert from 1984.

KISS – Off The Soundboard: Poughkeepsie, New York, 1984 is set to drop April 7, featuring a November 28, 1984, concert recorded live at Mid-Hudson Arena during the band’s Animalize World Tour. 

The lineup for the Poughkeepsie show included Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Eric Carr and Mark St. John, who performed an 18-song set that included songs like “Creatures Of The Night,” “I Love It Loud” and “Lick It Up,” along such classic tunes as “Detroit Rock City,” “Love Gun” and “Rock And Roll All Nite.” 

The bootleg will be available digitally, as well as on two-LP standard black vinyl, CD and a limited edition two-LP set on 180g custard yellow vinyl. The set is available for preorder now at the official KISS online store.

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Queen is out with the latest installment of their yearlong YouTube series Queen The Greatest Live, which, like episode one, focuses on the band’s rehearsals.

Queen The Greatest Live – Episode 2: “Rehearsals – Part 2” delves into the work that led to the band’s iconic 1985 set at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in London. The episode cuts between rehearsal and live footage of such songs as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Radio Ga Ga” and more.

Queen’s 17-minute Live Aid set is considered by many to be one of the greatest live performances in history. Other songs performed during the historic concert include “Hammer to Fall,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions.” 

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Pamela Anderson was not happy about Hulu’s Emmy-nominated series Pam & Tommy, and she says her ex-husband, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, reached out to her before it aired because he was concerned for her. 

“It was just shocking. Tommy probably thought it was funny,” she tells Variety in a new interview. “I remember Tommy writing me a note saying, ‘Don’t let this hurt you like it did the first time,’ because he had heard through the kids that I was kind of struggling with the idea of bringing this all up again.” 

She adds, “I don’t think he was portrayed kindly. I just know that I refuse to watch it.”

The couple were married from 1995 to 1998 and have two sons together. The series revolved around their infamous stolen sex tape, which quickly went viral on the internet. 

Anderson is out promoting her new biography, Love, Pamela, and the upcoming Netflix documentary Pamela: A Love Story, which both come out January 31. She said she wasn’t all that impressed by the look of Sebastian Stan, who played Lee, and Lily James, who played her, noting that judging from billboards, “It just looked like a Halloween costume to me.”

While Anderson has some choice words for the creators of the series, she doesn’t actually have any hard feelings for James and even told Netflix she’d like to invite her to the premiere of her series. “I think it’s hard to play somebody when you don’t know the whole picture,” she says. “I think that she’s a beautiful girl and she was just doing the job. But the idea of the whole thing happening was just really crushing for me.”

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Rod Stewart is so fed up with the British health system that he’s opening up his own wallet to help people in need. The rocker made a surprise call into Sky News Thursday following a report about people stuck on National Health Service waiting lists to get their yearly health scans. 

Rod said that he recently went for his yearly scans; he was late to the appointment, but because he was going to a private health clinic, it was no big deal because the clinic was “empty.” Calling the whole waiting list ridiculous, he offered to “pay for 10 or 20 scans, or however much it takes.”

“I don’t know how we’re (going to) work this out and, hopefully, some other people will follow, because it seems ridiculous that this particular scanning clinic was empty,” he said. “There are people dying because they cannot get scans.”

Rod said he was not doing this for the publicity, offering, “I just want to do some good things and this, I think, it’s a good thing, because if other people follow me, I’d love it.”

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The Sex Pistols‘ original bassist, Glen Matlock, has performed with various artists over the years, including touring with Iggy Pop in the ’70s. In a new interview with the UK Times, he reveals there was one major downside to touring with Iggy.

Seems Iggy liked to flash the crowd, and Matlock pretty much had enough of it.

“The problem with flashing your willy on stage is that you have to get ready to flash your willy on stage,” he shares. “And he always did it in front of me. I got a bit fed up with seeing it, to be honest.” 

He added, “It’s not that impressive.”

Matlock also reveals he wasn’t a big fan of Pistol, Danny Boyle’s 2022 miniseries about the Sex Pistols, noting, “I was highly disappointed. John (Lydon) tried to stop it, I think because it was based on Steve’s (Jones) book and not his, and its portrayal of my leaving the band was totally not true.”

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The Beach Boys are the latest artists getting a special salute by the Recording Academy, and now we know who’s on board to celebrate them. 

A Grammy Salute to The Beach Boys is set to happen February 8 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, with a lineup of performers that includes Michael McDonald, Brandi Carlile, Beck, Fall Out Boy, Norah Jones, John Legend, Pentatonix and Weezer.

The celebration is set to take place three days after the Grammy Awards and will be recorded for a special to air on CBS later in the year. 

Last year, Paul Simon was the subject of the annual Grammy Salute, with the special airing last December. It featured performances by Dave Matthews, Sting, Bonnie Raitt, The Bangles and Garth Brooks.

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Elton John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin is ready to tell his story. The songwriter just announced he’s releasing his memoir, Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton & Me, on September 12.

“I loved writing, I loved chronicling life and every moment I was cogent, sober, or blitzed,” Bernie shared. “I was forever feeding off my surroundings, making copious notes as ammunition for future compositions.” He added, “The thing is good, bad, or indifferent I never stopped writing, it was as addictive as any drug.”

According to Hachette Books, which is publishing the memoir, Taupin’s story will be told “in a non-linear yet grounded narrative,” noting it “allows the reader to witness events unfolding from Taupin’s singular perspective, sometimes front and center, sometimes from the edge, yet always described vibrantly, with an infectious energy that only a vivid songwriter’s prose could offer.”

The book is available for preorder now.

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Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott appears on a new version of Ghost‘s “Spillways,” a track from the Swedish rockers’ 2022 album, Impera.

While some may be shocked by the pairing, it turns out Elliott is a big fan of the band, telling Planet Rock he was introduced to the group by Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen. And after he found out that Ghost frontman Tobias Forge was a Def Leppard fan, “we both put two and two together and realized it kind of made five!”

“I’ve been saying out loud for a long time now how much I love the Impera album, and how much I really love the song ‘Spillways’ so when Tobias got in touch and asked me if I wanted to have a crack at it, I said ‘yeah I can do that!’” Elliott shares. “It was all quite organic. It (‘Spillways’) wasn’t broken, it didn’t need fixing, I just sang it as it is, and I think we sound pretty good together.”

Ghost announced the collaboration with an episode of their ongoing YouTube series, which finds Elliott in a Dublin pub about to perform his karaoke take on “Spillways” when he’s suddenly overcome by a demonic force. 

“The video was shot in my local [pub], it was co-directed by Tobias and that was a lot of fun too,” Elliott says. “It was good to actually meet in person and trade stories, ideas and a few scoops!”

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The latest Funko Pop! sees, hears and speaks no evil.

The toy company is releasing a new figurine inspired by Megadeth‘s Vic Rattlehead mascot. The plastic recreation stands over 3 inches tall and was inspired by the cover of Megadeth’s 1990 album, Rust in Peace.

You can preorder yours now via HotTopic.com.

Megadeth released a new album, The Sick, the Dying…and the Dead!, last September. The record is accompanied by a continuing video series, which tells the Vic Rattlehead origin story.

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