Classic Rock News

Dee Snider’s new graphic novel is getting a boost from Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

Morello has written the foreword to He’s Not Gonna Take It, a comic book-style retelling of the Twisted Sister frontman’s crusade against the Parents Music Resource Center.

Snider famously spoke out against the PMRC during a 1985 Senate hearing over adding a “parental advisory” sticker to albums containing explicit material. In addition to supporting the advisory label, the PMRC compiled a list known as the “Filthy Fifteen,” which included Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” as well as songs by artists including Judas Priest, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Prince and Madonna.

In Morello’s foreword, which Rolling Stone shared along with panels from the release, he writes, “Dee Snider’s heroic appearance before a congressional committee in 1985 to stand up against censorship was a high-water mark of musician activism.” 

“[Snider] stunned Congress and the world by speaking powerfully and eloquently about free speech while looking like the bada** heavy metal demon that he is, making everyone present question every false assumption they had about heavy metal or the people who play it and love it,” Morello continued. “His uncompromising stand in his music and on the witness stand were very inspirational to me and I was so proud of him on that day, and I still am.” 

The foreword concludes, “It’s OK to play kick-a** music and be smart and be yourself and stand up for what you believe in. Thanks Dee for proving that you can’t stop rock n roll!”

He’s Not Gonna Take It, which was co-written by Snider, will be released November 21. Frequent rock collaborators Z2 Comics will publish the novel.

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Sammy Hagar is getting ready to launch his very own beer, and he’ll be celebrating onstage.

The rocker and his band The Circle, made up of Michael Anthony, Jason Bonham and Vic Johnson, has announced a special show at The Fillmore in Detroit on October 23, in connection with the launch of Sammy’s Red Rocker Brewing Co. and their inaugural beer, Red Rocker Lager.

Tickets for the concert go on sale Friday, September 22, at 10 a.m. local time.

“Rock ‘n’ roll is at the heart of Red Rocker Brewing Co. and there’s no better place to brew our beer than in Detroit Rock City,” Sammy shares. “We created Red Rocker Lager to not only honor the fans, but to also pay tribute to the soul of Detroit rock ‘n’ roll.” He adds, “I can’t wait for beer lovers in Michigan and all around the world to try it.”

For now, the beer, described as a Mexican style lager, will only be sold in liquor stores in Michigan, although it will eventually be available for shipping to select states in the U.S. More info can be found at redrockerbrewing.com.

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Julian Lennon says he’s waiting for Paul McCartney to tell him some private stories about his dad, John Lennon.

During an appearance on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, Julian recalled running into McCartney at Heathrow Airport back in November 2022, a moment he captured for social media.

Julian, who was 17 when his father died, said, “We sat there chatting away for a little bit.” He described his relationship with his late father’s The Beatles bandmate as “weird,” noting, “We’re close but we’re not that close.”

He said he and McCartney never really sat down for a conversation like the one he was having with Maher, although McCartney has promised it will happen.  

“We keep saying, and he keeps telling me, we’re going to try and push for this, this year, sooner than later anyway,” Lennon said. “He keeps telling me, ‘I’ve got so many stories about your dad that I’ve never told anybody that I want you to hear about.'” 

He added, “And you know, he gave me some samples I thought I’d never heard before. But we just got to find the time and lock in to do that,” to which Maher responded, “Do it, like, yesterday.”

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Carlos Santana is extending his Las Vegas residency into next year. 

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer just announced 2024 dates for his An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live residency at the House of Blues at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

This will be the 12th year of Santana’s residency, with the guitar great adding 16 new shows in January, February and May of next year. The new dates kick off January 24 and wrap May 23.

Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. PT.

Santana still has some residency dates on the books for 2023. His next set of shows begins November 1. A complete list of dates, including just-added shows, can be found at Santana.com.

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A new Jimi Hendrix Experience live album is coming this fall.

Jimi Hendrix Experience: Hollywood Bowl August 18, 1967 features a live performance recorded five days before the band released their debut album, Are You Experienced, when they were the opening act for The Mamas & The Papas.

The concert featured performances of such classics as “Purple Haze,” “The Wind Cries Mary” and “Foxey Lady,” along with covers of The Beatles‘ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” Bob Dylan‘s “Like a Rolling Stone” and others. The first track released from the record is a performance of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor.” 

You can listen to “Killing Floor” now via digital outlets and on YouTube.

The album is being released November 10 on CD, vinyl and digitally; it will be the first time the concert has ever been officially released. It is available for preorder now.

To coincide with the live album announcement, a new mini-documentary, Monterey Pop To The Hollywood Bowl, has just been released, chronicling how the band went from their U.S. debut at the Monterey Pop Festival to being booked to open for the Mamas & The Papas at the Hollywood Bowl.

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Dave Grohl is reuniting with his first band.

The Foo Fighters frontman contributes to the upcoming new album from the D.C. hardcore punk outfit Scream. The record, titled DC Special, will be released on November 10.

DC Special marks the first new music from Scream since 2011, as well as the group’s first full-length effort since 1993’s Fumble. It was recorded by the classic Still Screaming lineup — vocalist Pete Stahl, guitarist Franz Stahl, bassist Skeeter Thompson and drummer Kent Stax — and also features Fugazi‘s Ian MacKaye.

The first DC Special single, “DC Special Sha La La,” is out now.

Grohl started playing in Scream in 1986 following the departure of Stax. As the legend goes, the then-17-year-old Grohl lied about his age so that he could join the band.

After Scream’s initial breakup in 1990, Grohl would go on to play drums in a little band called Nirvana. He then formed Foo Fighters after the 1994 death of Kurt Cobain.

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R.E.M.’s 11th studio album, Up, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. To commemorate the occasion, the band is reissuing the album with lots of extras for fans.

Dropping November 10, the reissue will be released in a variety of formats, including a two-CD/Blu-ray deluxe edition, which includes a remastered version of the album, along with a previously unreleased 11-song set the band recorded in 1999 at Los Angeles’ Palace Theatre for the Fox show Party of Five. One of those performances, of the track “Daysleeper,” is now available digitally and on YouTube. 

The deluxe edition also includes a Blu-ray with HD music videos of the album’s singles, along with Uptake, a six-song Up-era performance recorded at a London studio. It also includes hi-resolution audio and surround sound versions of the album. The whole set comes housed in a 32-page hardcover book, with new liner notes and new interviews with the band. 

The Up reissue will also be released as a two-CD set, with both the album and Party of Five performance, and digitally. There’s also a two-LP vinyl edition on 180-gram black vinyl, along with a limited-edition green marble vinyl, the latter of which is only available on the band’s website.

All formats are available for preorder now.

Released October 26, 1998, Up was R.E.M.’s first album following the October 1997 retirement of drummer Bill Berry.  It featured the popular singles “Daysleeper,” “Lotus” and “At My Most Beautiful.”

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Ozzy Osbourne is hoping his next neck surgery will be his last.

The Prince of Darkness has undergone several procedures over the last few years after falling in his home in 2019, which aggravated injuries he suffered in a 2003 ATV accident. In the latest episode of the newly relaunched The Osbournes podcast, which premiered Tuesday, September 19, Ozzy shares, “Tomorrow, I have my final surgery on my neck.”

“It is gonna be the final surgery, because I can’t do it anymore,” Ozzy says. “Regardless of the way it ends after tomorrow, I’m not doing it anymore.”

Ozzy’s health, which has also been impacted by Parkinson’s disease, has kept him from playing a full live show for nearly five years. That wait was set to end at the upcoming Power Trip festival in October, but Ozzy dropped off the bill in July, saying, “My body is telling me that I’m just not ready yet.”

We’ll surely get an update on the outcome of the surgery in the next episode of The Osbournes, which airs weekly on Tuesdays. The podcast also features Ozzy’s wife, Sharon, and their children Jack and Kelly.

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Living Colour is calling out Jann Wenner for his recent comments in The New York Times, in which he suggested Black and female artists weren’t “articulate enough” to be included in his new book, The Masters.

“The very idea of a book called The Masters‘ which blatantly omits the essential contributions of Black, people of color and women to Rock & Pop Culture speaks to a much larger and more systemic problem,” the “Cult of Personality” rockers wrote on social media. “His New York Times interview statement that African American and female artists are not ‘articulate’ enough to express themselves about their own work is absurd on its face.”

They contend the comments from Wenner, who co-founded Rolling Stone in 1967, are “an insult to those of us who sit at the feet of these overlooked geniuses.”

“To hear that he believes Stevie Wonder isn’t articulate enough to express his thoughts on any given subject is quite frankly, insulting,” they add. “To hear that Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Tina Turner, or any of the many Woman artists that he chooses not to mention, are not worthy of the status of ‘Master’, smacks of sexist gatekeeping, and exclusionary behavior.”

The band then disregards Wenner’s attempt at an apology, noting, “That his book is a reflection of his worldview suggests that it is narrow & small indeed.”

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On This Day, September 19, 1979…

A series of five star-studded concerts opposing nuclear energy kicked off at New York’s Madison Square Garden. 

Organized by Musicians United for Safe Energy, an activist group made up of Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and John Hall, the concerts featured performances by Browne, Raitt, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Doobie Brothers, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Tom Petty and more. 

Two of the nights were recorded, with a triple album released in November 1979, followed by a documentary film, released in July of 1980.

Springsteen and The E Street Band also released a live album of their performance, The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts, in November 2021.

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