Classic Rock News

Warren Haynes has revealed the lineup of artists joining him for his 32nd annual Christmas Jam, happening Saturday, December 9, at the ExploreAsheville.com Arena in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina.

The lineup includes Haynes’ band Gov’t Mule, ZZ Top’s Billy F Gibbons, Slash & Myles Kennedy, Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening, Clutch, American Babies and Karina Rykman, with more artist to be added.

“Christmas Jam is such a special event for me and my family and more than 30 years later, it’s still so exciting to see the dynamic talent that comes together for the community in my beloved home of Asheville,” Haynes shares. “After a few years off, following an extraordinary two-night 30th Anniversary event, it felt great to return last year to continue the cause, which has and will always be: to have fun, play music, and celebrate being together while raising money for a local charity.”

In order to serve the Asheville community, an in-person local presale will kick off Saturday, October 21, at 9 a.m. ET, with a nationwide presale starting Tuesday, October 24, at 10 a.m. ET. The public onsale will begin Friday, October 27, at 10 am.

Proceeds from the concert will benefit Asheville Habitat for Humanity and BeLoved Asheville.

Fans will also be able to relive a past Christmas Jam with the December 8 release, The Benefit Concert Volume 20. Recorded live during the 30th annual Christmas Jam on December 7 and 8, 2018, it features performances by Foo Fighters’ frontman Dave Grohl, Gov’t Mule, Joe Bonamassa, Jim James, Grace Potter and more. It is available for preorder now.

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The iconic documentary The Last Waltz, which captured The Band’s final concert, is returning to theaters as part of the film’s 45th anniversary celebration. Fathom Events will screen the Martin Scorsese-directed film on Sunday, November 5, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET.

The return to theaters was in the works before the August 9 passing of The Band frontman Robbie Robertson. Each screening will feature an introduction from the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, in which he shares his perspective on The Band’s final show. 

The Last Waltz, considered one of the greatest concert documentaries of all time was released April 26, 1978. It  focused on The Band’s show at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976. 

Billed as their “farewell concert appearance,” the show featured guest appearances by a whole host of musicians, including Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Ronnie Wood, Muddy Waters, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison and Neil Young. 

The film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2019.

Tickets for the Fathom screenings are on sale now.

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The Rolling Stones are set to drop their new album Hackney Diamonds on Friday, October 20, and it looks like fans are going to get some insight into how it was made. 

Variety reports that a new one-hour TV documentary, The Stones: Still Rolling, will take fans inside the studio with the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers as they record their first album of new material in 18 years.

According to the description, the doc gives fans “a rare glimpse of the Rolling Stones as they power forward,” with the story “told vividly through a first-ever roundtable conversation between the band (members)… giving viewers access to places they have never been.”

The special was directed by Paul Dugdale, whose credits include Elton John: Farewell From Dodger Stadium and Adele: One Night Only. It is being produced by Mercury Studios and Fulwell 73, the producers behind The Kardashians Hulu series and Carpool Karaoke: The Series.

So far, there’s no word on where or when the doc will air.

Hackney Diamonds, featuring guest appearances by the late Charlie Watts, former Stones bassist Bill Wyman, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder, is available for preorder now.

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Nikki Sixx has responded to Sharon Osbourne calling him an “a**hole.”

As previously reported, Sharon made the comment on the latest episode of The Osbournes Podcast amid a conversation about the time Ozzy Osbourne allegedly snorted a line of ants while on tour with Mötley Crüe in the ’80s. The legend, which Sharon doubts but Ozzy maintains is true, was depicted in the 2019 Crüe biopic, The Dirt. Ozzy also disagreed with Sharon’s assessment of Sixx.

In a social media post reacting to the podcast, Sixx writes, “We had a lot of love and respect for Sharon. We love Ozzy.”

Sixx’s tweet quoted another post mocking Sharon’s appearance, which he’s apparently seen more of since she made her comments.

“When people comment on stuff calling [Sharon] a plastic granny t***** I have it deleted,” Sixx writes, though he spells out the word. “Not sure what she’s upset about now but let’s not [perpetuate] her comments by posting negativity about her.”

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Paul McCartney made his first appearance with John Lennon’s band The Quarrymen at New Clubmoor Hall in Liverpool, England.

McCartney was so nervous that he messed up his big guitar solo on the song “Guitar Boogie.”

Years later, McCartney claimed George Harrison, who joined The Quarrymen in February 1958, was recruited because McCartney realized he was “just too frightened” to be the group’s lead guitarist.

Of course by 1960, the band evolved into The Beatles, one of the most successful rock groups of all time. McCartney also went on to have a successful solo career and continues to tour to this day. In fact, he launches the latest leg of his Got Back tour on Wednesday, October 18, in Adelaide, Australia. 

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Peter Gabriel has spent the past year giving fans previews of his new album, i/o, dropping a new song with each full moon. Now, he’s finally ready to share the entire project. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is set to release the 12-track record December 1. It will be his first album of new material since 2010’s Scratch My Back.  

“After a years-worth of full moon releases, I’m very happy to see all these new songs back together on the good ship i/o and ready for their journey out into the world,” Gabriel shares. 

All songs on the album are getting two stereo mixes: the Bright-Side Mix by Mark “Spike” Stent and the Dark-Side Mix by Tchad Blake. Each artist’s mix will be part of a double-CD package and will also be available as separate double vinyls.  

“We have two of the greatest mixers in the world in Tchad and Spike and they definitely bring different characters to the songs,” Gabriel explains. “Tchad is very much a sculptor building a journey with sound and drama, Spike loves sound and assembling these pictures, so he’s more of a painter.”

There will also be a third remix, the In-Side Mix in Dolby Atmos, by Hans-Martin Buff, which will be included in a separate three-disc set that also includes a Blu-ray. 

Peter Gabriel’s i/o is available for preorder now. 

Here is the track list:

“Panopticom”
“The Court”
“Playing for Time”
“i/o”
“Four Kinds of Horses”
“Road to Joy”
“So Much”
“Olive Tree”
“Love Can Heal”
“This Is Home”
“And Still”
“Live And Let Live”

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A previously unreleased concert from the Grateful Dead is coming out on CD later this month, featuring liner notes by a famous celebrity Deadhead.

Dave’s Picks Volume 48 will feature the band’s complete November 20, 1971, concert from UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, with Basketball Hall of Famer Bill “Grateful Red” Walton, who attended the show, sharing his memories in the notes.

“Basketball and music have always been alike for me, the celebration of life and all other good things,” Walton, who played for the UCLA Bruins, shares. “UCLA and the Grateful Dead embody the highest levels of this celebratory joy. At UCLA, it was endless fun, every day, in every way. We couldn’t wait to get there, to get going — though it was never as much fun as when the Grateful Dead came to play with and for us.”

Chosen by Dead archivist David Lemieu, the two-CD concert features performances of such Dead classics as “Casey Jones,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Bertha,” “Ramble On Rose,” an over 23-minute jam on “The Other One” and more.

The set also comes with a third CD featuring a concert from October 24, 1970, at Keil Auditorium in St. Louis, Missouri, with performances of such songs as “Not Fade Away,” “Good Lovin,’” “Dancing In The Street” and others. 

Only 25,000 numbered copies of Dave’s Picks Volume 48 are being produced. They are available for preorder now and will ship October 27. 

In other Grateful Dead news … fans can now get their hands on the first-ever Grateful Dead vape pen from Grenco Science. The Grateful Dead x G Pen Dash is covered in the band’s colors and features their signature imagery, including the Grateful Dead skeleton. It’s available at gpen.com.

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Foo Fighters are headed back to Saturday Night Live.

The “Everlong” rockers will be the show’s musical guest for the ninth time — 10th if you count their special guest performance alongside Mick Jagger in 2012 — on October 28. Comedian Nate Bargatze will host.

Dave Grohl and company were reportedly booked for an SNL episode earlier in the year, but, according to Variety, it was scrapped due to then-ongoing writers strike.

Foo Fighters released a new album, But Here We Are, in June. They’ve been supporting the record with one-off headlining shows and festival performances throughout 2023, during which they’ve introduced new drummer Josh Freese, who joined the Foos following the 2022 death of Taylor Hawkins.

A more extensive U.S. Foo Fighters tour will launch in July 2024.

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Timothée Chalamet is gearing up to play Bob Dylan in the upcoming James Mangold-directed film A Complete Unknown, and he wants to make sure he nails the role. 

In a new interview with GQ, he says in preparing for the part he’s been inspired by actor Austin Butler’s commitment to the role of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, so much so that he’s hired the same people to help turn him into Dylan.

“I’ve basically been working with his entire Elvis team for my Dylan prep,” he says. “There’s a wonderful dialect coach named Tim Monich. Vocal coach named Eric Vetro. Movement coach named Polly Bennett.”

He adds of Butler, “I just saw the way he committed to it all, and realized I needed to step it up.”

Chalamet will be doing his own singing for the flick, but fans shouldn’t expect him to sound exactly like Dylan.

“It’s taking on all the characteristics of Dylan’s voice and his mannerisms and his speech patterns, and bringing that into the music – so that when you hear Timothée do the music, what you’re really getting is the essence of Bob Dylan,” Vetro tells the mag. “You’re not getting an impersonation of him. It’s breathing new life into that voice that we know so well.” 

And while the project’s been in development for three years, Chalamet has yet to meet the iconic Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. “I didn’t want to three years ago, because I just didn’t want to for superstitious reasons,” he said. “Now I would love to.”

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Queen has been touring with Adam Lambert since 2011, but they are still working on perfecting their performance, as proven by a recent clip guitarist Brian May shared on Instagram.

The video was shot at the band’s Rhapsody Tour stop in Boston, Monday, October 16, and it shows May’s reaction to Lambert singing the final line in the Queen classic “Somebody To Love.” It seems this time Lambert’s delivery of the line was adjusted after a suggestion from May. 

“Adam sings our songs in his own unique way, bringing in lots of new ideas and adding sometimes amazing extensions of the vocal lines,” May explains. “Well, there’s one point in the song which all our fans know very well,” referring to the moment where fans finish the line, “somebody tooooooo.” 

May says Lambert usually extends it so it doesn’t sound like the original Freddie Mercury recording, and he believes that left the audience unsure how to sing along.

“So I suggested to Adam that, as an experiment, he might try singing the end of the line completely straight, to give a clear cue to the audience. He tried it for the first time tonight, and this is the result,” he says.

It all worked out, which is why you can see May telling Adam, “not bad” with a laugh. Lambert then goes on to improvise all he wants, much to May’s delight.

“So in my face you see my admiration and enjoyment of this moment – in which we’re all clearly finding a new joy !!!” he shares.

Queen + Adam Lambert’s Rhapsody Tour hits Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, October 18. A complete list of dates can be found at queenonline.com.

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