Classic Rock News

Founding members of The Guess Who, Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman, are suing two of their former bandmates. 

The pair has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court against original members Jim Kale and Garry Peterson, accusing them of misleading fans into thinking that they are included in the current lineup.

Peterson is the only original member still performing with the group; the suit accuses him and Kale of “concocting a deceptive scheme” that has tricked fans into buying tickets to Guess Who shows thinking Burton and Cummings are still performing with the band. Burton and Cummings say fans are instead getting “a cover band.”

The suit also accuses Kale and Peterson of replacing original photos of The Guess Who with pictures of Peterson’s version on streaming services and of using songs written by Burton and Cummings to promote the current lineup’s tour. They say all of this has left them unable to tour and has “tarnished the band’s legacy.”

Cummings and Bachman are seeking in excess of $20 million; they want a judge to force Kale and Peterson to inform the public and venues of the truth of who’s performing.

“With this lawsuit, Randy and I hope to set the record straight and protect fans from imposters trying to rewrite history,” says Cummings. “Even after we’re gone, the legacy of The Guess Who will live on, and we want to make sure that legacy is restored and preserved truthfully.”

Bachman adds, “Anyone presenting and promoting themselves as The Guess Who are clones who are ripping off our fans and tainting the legacy of the band. It’s about time for the real story to come out.”

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Bob Dylan has added a New York City date to his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour.  The rocker will now play the Beacon Theatre on November 16, one of seven shows in the New York/New Jersey area. 

In addition to the Beacon, Dylan is already set to play The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, on November 7 and 8, Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre November 14 and 15, and Newark’s New Jersey Performing Arts Center on November 20 and 21. 

Tickets for the Beacon show go on sale Friday, November 3, at noon ET. A complete list of dates can be found at bobdylan.com.

Dylan brought his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour to Montreal on Sunday, October 29. Rolling Stone reports he surprised the crowd with a cover of “Dance Me to the End of Love” by Leonard Cohen, a Montreal native. Dylan’s been covering local artists at many of his shows; he’s played John Mellencamp in Indiana, Chuck Berry in St. Louis and more. 

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Peter Gabriel shared another track from his upcoming album i/o over the weekend, coinciding with October’s full moon. The latest is “And Still,” a song he wrote for his mother after she passed away.

“I wrote a song for my dad a number of years back, which I was actually able to play him, which was ‘Father, Son,'” Gabriel says. “When my mum died, I wanted to do something for her, but it’s taken a while before I felt comfortable and distant enough to be able to write something.”

He adds, “In the middle I wanted to write my mum a beautiful melody. She loved classical music, so we have a beautiful cello playing there. It took a while to get that right, it can’t be too emotional or too underplayed, but I think we got there in the end.”

You can listen to “And Still” now via digital outlets and YouTube.

As he’s done with all the other songs he’s shared from i/o, Gabriel plans to release several different remixes of “And Still.” The first is the Tchad Blake (Dark-Side Mix), which will be followed by Mark “Spike” Stent‘s (Bright-Side Mix) and Hans-Martin Buff’s Atmos mix (In-Side Mix). 

i/o, Gabriel’s first album of new material since 2010’s Scratch My Back, is due out December 1. It is available for preorder now.

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Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top are teaming up once again for a second round of The Sharp Dressed Simple Man Tour. 

The bands have announced 36 new dates in 2024, with the first leg, featuring special guest Black Stone Cherry, kicking off March 8 in Savannah, Georgia, and running through April 20 in Corpus Christi, Texas.

A second leg of the trek will then launch August 15 in Syracuse, New York, wrapping September 22 in Ridgefield, Washington, with openers The Outlaws. A complete list of dates can be found at lynyrdskynyrd.com and zztop.com. 

An artist presale is set to run from Tuesday, October 31, at 10 a.m. local time until Thursday, November 2, at 10 p.m.; the general onsale will kick off Friday, November 3, at 10 a.m. local time.

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Mötley Crüe will be among the headliners for Milwaukee’s 2024 Summerfest.

The “Kickstart My Heart” rockers will take the Summerfest stage on June 21. Tickets go on sale Friday, November 3, at noon CT. You can also get access to a presale beginning Thursday, November 2, by signing up for the Summerfest Insider newsletter.

For all ticket info, visit Summerfest.com.

Summerfest 2024 will take place June 20-22, June 27-29 and July 4-6. The full lineup has yet to be announced.

Mötley Crüe’s been on the road throughout 2023 on an international tour. The shows have featured guitarist John 5, who joined the band following the departure of Mick Mars in 2022. Mars and Mötley Crüe are currently involved in a lawsuit over a financial dispute.

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John Mellencamp is heading back out on the road next year. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer announced a 2024 leg of his Live and In Person Tour, playing 27 new cities.

Mellencamp has booked one night only in each city, starting March 8 in Rochester, New York. He’ll perform in Newark, Hartford, Birmingham, Washington, D.C., and more, before wrapping the tour April 22 in Savannah, Georgia. A complete list of dates can be found at mellencamp.com.

Presales are happening from October 31 to November 2, with the general onsale kicking off Friday, November 3, at 10 a.m.  

Mellencamp launched his Live and In Person tour in February, playing small theaters with multiple nights in some cities. He wrapped the tour in June, the same month he released his 25th solo album, Orpheus Descending.

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Bruce Springsteen was the surprise guest at a symposium this weekend celebrating the 50th anniversary of his sophomore album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, the Asbury Park Press reports.

The event was held at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, on Saturday, October 28, with Springsteen interviewed by Robert Santelli, executive director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music. He also sat in on a panel that featured original E Street Band members Vini Lopez and David Sancious, and original and current member, Garry Tallent.

“The album is a lovely wild card — me finally getting a chance to express myself,” Springsteen told the audience. “Everything I’ve basically done for the rest of my career started on The Wild and the Innocent. It’s a lovely little record and I’m still very proud of it.” 

“The main thing for me on The Wild and the Innocent was that I wanted to introduce myself as a rock ‘n’ roll performer,” he continued, noting he wasn’t supposed to put any electric guitar on his debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., because he was originally signed as a singer/songwriter.

He added, “But the second record I knew I wanted to write basically a rock and soul music.” 

Released in 1973, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle received critical praise but wasn’t initially a commercial success. It features future Springsteen classic “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” and fan favorites like “4th of July Asbury Park (Sandy),” “Kitty’s Back” and more.

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While The Rolling Stones‘ new album, Hackney Diamonds, topped the chart in the U.K. and Australia, it settled for #3 on the Billboard 200 Album chart in the U.S., coming in just behind blink-182’s ONE MORE TIME… at #1 and Drake’s For All The Dogs at #2.

The Stones moved 101,000 equivalent album units of Hackney Diamonds to give them their 38th top-10 album, adding to their record for the most Top 10 albums in the history of the list.

Hackney Diamonds did particularly well with actual album sales, moving 94,000 units, thanks to over 30 different vinyl options, box sets, CDs and more.

Hackney Diamonds is The Stones’ first album of new material in 18 years. Their last was 2005’s A Bigger Bang, which also debuted at #3 on the album chart.

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On This Day, October 30, 1971…

John Lennon topped the Billboard album chart with his sophomore solo album, Imagine.

The album, co-produced by Lennon, Yoko Ono and Phil Spector, was Lennon’s first solo #1 record, and spent 47 weeks on the chart. It also went to #1 in the U.K.

Imagine is best known for its iconic title track. It also featured “How Do You Sleep?,” a song attacking his former writing partner Paul McCartney, “Gimme Some Truth” and more.

Lennon would go on to have two more solo number ones, Walls and Bridges, in 1974, and the posthumous release, Double Fantasy, which spent eight weeks on top of the chart in 1980.

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The Beatles‘ music has brought a lot of families together, and that idea is the subject of a new one-man play from Ted Lasso writer and star Brendan Hunt.

The actor’s new show, The Movement You Need, reveals how the band’s music was one of the things that united him and his late mother, with whom he had a complicated relationship. 

According to Variety, the idea for the show came after Hunt got to meet Paul McCartney thanks to his Ted Lasso boss Jason Sudeikis, who invited him along to watch the rehearsal for the Taylor Hawkins memorial show in London. He says his show represents the things he had wanted to say to McCartney.

Hunt says his sister’s social media post about how her love for The Beatles came from their mother got him thinking. “I started to realize there are so many moments in my life that are connected to The Beatles,” he says.

The show will have its New York premiere at the SoHo Playhouse, running November 1-7. Hunt says you don’t have to be a Beatles fan to enjoy it. 

“You don’t have to know the Beatles, you don’t have to like the Beatles. I have to be able to reach people who don’t like the Beatles or who are just sick and tired of having the Beatles shoved down their throats,” he tells the mag. “The story is about a mom and a son, and it happens to have the Beatles as the framework. Any amount of Beatles knowledge you might need is provided during the show.”

Tickets for The Movement You Need are on sale now.

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