Superstar Elton John and longtime partner David Furnish were officially married at their estate in Windsor, England.
Their celebration came nine months after same-sex marriage became legal in the U.K., and nine years to the day that they entered into a civil partnership.
Their 2005 ceremony took place at Windsor Guildhall, the same month the Civil Partnership Act became official in the U.K.
The pair, who have been together since 1993, are parents to two sons, Zachary, born December, 2010, and Elijah, born January, 2013.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich is mourning the death of his father, Torben Ulrich.
The younger Ulrich shared the news of his dad’s passing in an Instagram post on Wednesday, December 20.
“95 years of adventures, unique experiences, curiosity, pushing boundaries, challenging the status quo, tennis, music, art, writing….and quite a bit of Danish contrarian attitude,” the post reads. “Thank you endlessly! I love you dad.”
Born in 1928, Torben was a professional tennis player in his native Denmark. As a kid, Lars was set to follow in his father’s tennis-playing footsteps, but ended up pursuing music instead.
Torben was also a musician himself, and appeared in a number of films. He memorably had a cameo in the 2004 Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster.
December 21 is the first day of winter, and the Grateful Dead is helping welcome the season by treating fans to a winter solstice playlist.
The band announced the new playlist on Instagram, which is made up of “over 16 hours of the best and longest versions of essential Dead tracks – roughly the same amount of darkness we’ll see during the Winter Solstice!”
The playlist includes performances from the ’70s and ’80s, including live versions of such songs as “Playing in the Band,” “Shakedown Street,” “Scarlet Begonias,” “Fire on the Mountain,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Casey Jones,” “Truckin’” and “Not Fade Away.”
There are also various jams and solos, including a Watkins Glen soundcheck jam from 1973, a Phil Lesh solo from Rochester, New York, in 1977 and a “Mind Left Body Jam” from Oklahoma City in 1973.
The Grateful Dead winter solstice playlist is available now to stream on Spotify, Apple Music and more.
Metallica‘s song “You Must Burn!,” a track off their new 72 Seasons album, marks the first time bassist Robert Trujillo has sung on a record with the metal legends. In an interview with Metal Hammer, Trujillo shares how he approached his debut “official semi-solo vocal moment.”
“I was just trying to channel Ozzy [Osbourne],” Trujillo says. “You may or may not hear that!”
As for whether we’ll hear more of Trujillo singing on future Metallica songs, Trujillo says he’s “always there for what the band need[s].”
“I was expecting to just do gang vocal-type things [on ‘You Must Burn!’], adding a bit of texture and presence to the recording, but I didn’t realize I’d get a semi-solo moment!” Trujillo says. “I always do my best whatever I’m asked to do though man, and these are the moments you can cherish.”
72 Seasons, the first Metallica album in seven years, dropped in April. It also includes the singles “Lux Æterna,” “Too Far Gone?” and the title track.
Metallica supported 72 Seasons throughout 2023 on their M72 world tour, which will pick back up again in May 2024.
The Police guitarist Andy Summers reveals in a new interview that he once sold his Les Paul guitar to Eric Clapton after Clapton begged him for it.
The revelation came during an interview with YouTuber Rick Baeto, as Summers was discussing how he was friends with guitar players like Clapton, Jeff Beck and Albert Lee in the ’60s.
Summers says he walked into a club with his Sunburst Les Paul and Clapton was simply in awe of it. Summers let Clapton know he got it at the London guitar shop Rose Morris and that they had another one, so Clapton went out and purchased it.
“So, time moves on. Eric’s Les Paul gets stolen, and he knows I’ve got the other one. He starts calling me relentlessly,” Summers shares, noting that by then he had moved on to playing a ’58 White Telecaster.
Summers says the Les Paul was in a case under his bed, and even though he wasn’t playing it, he was still reluctant to sell it.
“I kept resisting it. But finally, he called me so many times that I actually agreed to sell it,” he says. “I didn’t feel great about it, but he just really wanted it. So, we agreed on a price.”
And Clapton wound up getting it for a bargain.
“I charged him 200 pounds for it,” he says. “It’s worth about 2 million now. Who knew?”
The National Symphony Orchestra is set to pay tribute to the late Leonard Cohen with a very special night of music.
Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen, taking place April 26 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., will feature artists like Don Henley, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi performing Cohen’s classic songs backed by the orchestra, conducted by Vince Mendoza.
The concert will feature performances of tunes like “Hallelujah,” “Suzanne” and “Famous Blue Raincoat,” with JD Souther, Ben Folds, Trisha Yearwood, Bill Frisell, Gregory Porter and Madison Cunningham also confirmed for the event.
The concert was inspired by the tribute album Here It Is from Cohen’s friend and Grammy-winning producer Larry Klein. “It helped keep him in the air around me,” he says of the creation of the album, “the musical language we developed together makes the songs connect with people in a new way.”
Tickets for Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen go on sale Friday, December 22, at 10 a.m.
Billy Gibbons has added one more show to his 2023 schedule. The ZZ Top rocker is set to headline a concert at New York’s City Winery, with the gig billed as “Billy Gibbons & Friends.”
The show is happening Saturday, December 30, at 8 p.m., and while there’s no word on who those “friends” will be, the show also promises an “all-star jam with surprise special guests.”
The City Winery show isn’t the only gig Gibbons has left this year. He’s also set to play Antone’s nightclub in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, December 28.
And ZZ Top also has plenty of live performances planned for 2024, including a second leg of the Sharp Dressed Simple Man tour, with Lynyrd Skynyrd, which kicks off March 8 in Savannah, Georgia. A complete list of dates can be found at zztop.com.
Blur’s Damon Albarn recently blasted The Rolling Stones and their album Hackney Diamonds, specifically calling out the video for the first single, “Angry,” because he felt it “objectified” actress Sydney Sweeney. Well, Sweeney doesn’t see it that way.
“I felt hot,” she tells Glamour about the video, in which she rides around Los Angeles in a convertible while rocking out to the song. “I picked my own outfit out of racks and racks of clothes. I felt so good in it.”
Albarn isn’t the only person to call out the video, but Sweeney doesn’t really understand all the backlash.
“One of the questions I get is, ‘Are you a feminist?'” she says. “I find empowerment through embracing the body that I have. That’s sexy and strong, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.”
She noted, “I’m in a Rolling Stones video. How cool and iconic is that? I felt so good.”
“I mean, who else gets to roll around on the top of a convertible driving down Sunset Boulevard with police escorts? It’s the cool things in this career that I had no idea I’d get to do,” she adds.
A company called Marquis Who’s Who, founded in 1898, publishes annual lists of the most important people in every major field — from politics to religion to entertainment. This year, in honor of its 125th anniversary, Marquis has come out with a list of the Most Influential People Over 125 Years, with artists like Bruce Springsteen and Nirvana making the cut.
The list is broken down by decade, with The Boss getting recognized in the 1980s, the decade he released such albums as The River, Nebraska, Tunnel of Love and, of course, his mega hit Born in the U.S.A. Other influential artists of the ’80s include Tina Turner, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Dolly Parton.
Nirvana is recognized in the 1990s, the height of the grunge era, when they released their breakthrough album, Nevermind, as well as the follow-up, In Utero.
Other musicians earning a Most Influential honor include Elvis Presley in the 1950s, Aretha Franklin and Sonny & Cher in the 1960s, and Stevie Wonder in the 1970s. More recently, the 2020 list includes such artists as Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Billie Eilish and Rihanna.
Elton John isn’t touring anymore, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t traveling around performing: He did a private gig for 900 people on December 19 at the iconic opera house in Venice, Italy.
On the 20th anniversary of a performance he did at Le Gran Teatro La Fenice to commemorate its reconstruction after a 1996 fire, Elton returned to the famous stage for the solo gig, organized by yacht company Ferretti Group. You can see footage of it on Ferretti Group’s Instagram.
The concert was a benefit for Save Venice, which works to preserve the city’s artistic heritage. Elton reportedly owns an apartment in Venice.
According to Italy 24 News, Elton played for about 90 minutes, performing hits like “Your Song,” “Rocket Man” and “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word.”
