Billy Joel became a father when he and his wife, model Christie Brinkley, welcomed daughter Alexa Ray, the only child they had together.
Their daughter’s middle name was a tribute to legendary musician Ray Charles, who Billy had collaborated with on the 1987 song “Baby Grand.” Joel later wrote the 1993 song “Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)” for Alexa.
Alexa followed in her father’s footsteps as a musician and released the EP Sketches in 2006, along with several other singles.
Joel went on to welcome two more daughters with his fourth wife, Alexis Roderick; Della Rose wasborn in August 2015 and Remy Anne inOctober 2017.
A special featuring highlights from the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will air Monday, January 1, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
The star-studded event took place in November in Brooklyn, New York. Among the inductees were Elton John‘s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin, Chaka Khan, R&B group The Spinners, the late George Michael, country icon Willie Nelson, “Running Up that Hill” singer Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, rapper Missy Elliott and rockers Rage Against the Machine.
Highlights of the show included: Stevie Nicks and guitar legend Peter Frampton teaming up with Sheryl for her hit “Everyday Is a Winding Road”; a surprise appearance by Jimmy Page, who performed a tribute to late guitar legend and Musical Influence inductee Link Wray;and an all-star rendition of The Band‘s “The Weight” in memory of the late Robbie Robertson.
Elton was also on hand to induct Taupin: He sang“Tiny Dancer” and surprised the audience by announcing he and Bernie recently completed a new album.
Other highlights of the night included Maroon 5‘s Adam Levine performing “Faith” as part of a tribute to George Michael that also included R&B star Miguel singing “Careless Whisper” and Carrie Underwood belting out “One More Try”; Chaka Khan teaming up with Sia for her hits ”I’m Every Woman” and “I Feel For You”; and New Edition performing a medley of tunes by The Spinners.
A Bruce Springsteen tour after a seven-year absence was something fans were celebrating — until his stomach had other ideas.
– In February, Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off their first tour since 2016 in Tampa, with a show that had Bruce exploring loss and mortality.
– The show included several songs off 2020’s Letter to You, as well as lots of old favorites, like “Rosalita,” “Born to Run” and “Dancing in the Dark,” and deeper cuts like “Kitty’s Back” and “E Street Shuffle.”
– While the shows received critical praise, some fans were left disappointed because unlike previous tours, the set each night remained mostly unchanged with the exception of one or two songs.
– Fans also continued to be upset over the high ticket prices, with the organizers of longtime Springsteen fanzine Backstreets even announcing their decision to shut down over the issue.
– The tour also had to deal with COVID-19, with some shows going on without an E Street member and others postponed or canceled outright due to illness.
– After the first leg ended, Bruce brought the trek to Europe and the U.K., which included headlining British Summertime Hyde Park in London, a show attended by celebrities like Peter Gabriel, Jon Bon Jovi and Billy Joel.
– The tour returned to the U.S. in August with Springsteen playing stadium gigs, but he had to postpone several shows due to illness.
– Then, after a triumphant three-night stand in his home state of New Jersey, things took a turn, with The Boss announcing in early September he was postponing the month’s remaining shows to recover from peptic ulcer disease.
– By the end of the month, Springsteen had announced the postponement of the rest of the 2023 tour in order to have more time to recover.
– The shows were eventually rescheduled for 2024, with the new dates kicking off March 19 in Phoenix. He also announced a 2024 European leg of the tour.
Also in 2023 …
– Springsteen’s debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., as well as The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, celebrated their 50th anniversaries.
– In March, President Joe Biden honored Springsteen at the White House with the National Medal of Arts.
– New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared The Boss’ birthday, September 23, Bruce Springsteen Day in the Garden State.
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.
