Classic Rock News

The Last Band on Stage, a new documentary about Chicago and how the group dealt with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, will premiere in select theaters Thursday, September 29, and will be available on demand starting Friday.

The movie, which is narrated by Joe Mantegna, features many of Chicago’s current members, including co-founders Robert Lamm, James Pankow and Lee Loughnane, discussing how the health crisis forced the band to put touring plans on hold for the first time in their 55-year career.

The film also documents the remote recording of the title track of Chicago’s new studio album, If This Is Goodbye, and how the experience led to the group members realizing they will eventually have to call it a day.

A trailer for the documentary has been posted on YouTube. It features various band members talking about the final concert Chicago played before the COVID-19 shutdowns began in March 2020 and their joy in returning to the stage over a year later.

The Last Band on Stage will be released digitally via iTunes this Friday and is available for preorder now.

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A new archival box set that explores the 12-month period leading up to the arrival of David Bowie‘s classic 1971 album Hunky Dory will be released November 25.

David Bowie: Divine Symmetry, which can be preordered now, features four CDs and one Blu-ray audio disc that include home demos, BBC radio sessions, live performances and studio recordings. The collection boasts 48 previously unreleased tracks and new alternative mixes of songs from Hunky Dory, created by the album’s original co-producer, Ken Scott.

The box set is packaged with two books: a 100-page hardback featuring rare memorabilia and photos and a 60-page book featuring replicas of Bowie’s notebooks from the period that include handwritten lyrics, drawings, recording notes, set lists and more.

Among the many unreleased tunes on Divine Symmetry are songwriting demos of the classic songs “Life on Mars?” and “Changes.”

An alternate version of the Hunky Dory tune “Kooks,” recorded in September 1971 with Spider from Mars guitarist Mick Ronson for the BBC radio show Sounds of the 70s, has been released as an advance digital track.

David Bowie: Divine Symmetry also will be available via digtial formats, while a 12-track vinyl LP featuring selections from the box set will be released February 24, 2023.

Check out more information, including the full track list, at DavidBowie.com.

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If you’re going to see the new Ronnie James Dio documentary, maybe bring some tissues along with your metal horns.

The film, titled Dio: Dreamers Never Die, follows the metal legend’s entire musical career from his days as a ’50s doo-wop singer and forming the band Elf to joining Ritchie Blackmore‘s Rainbow and replacing the fired Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath to finally launching his own namesake band, Dio.

It continues throughout the ’80s and into the ’90s, with Ronnie’s career taking a plunge amid to the grunge and alternative explosion, to his triumphant reunion in the 2000s with former Black Sabbath bandmates in the band Heaven & Hell, and his untimely death of stomach cancer in 2010.

Making Dreamers Never Die was a “bittersweet” experience for Ronnie’s widow, Wendy Dio, who’s an executive producer on the film.

“When we were going through all the archives and everything … there was certain things I laughed about, and then other things I cried about,” Wendy tells ABC Audio. “It was just a very emotional journey.”

Wendy adds the film’s directors, Don Argott and Demian Fenton, were “just amazing.”

“They just did everything that I wanted and more,” she says. “I was so, so proud of this movie.”

Ronnie’s story struck Fenton as one different from the usual rock ‘n’ roll tale.

“Normally you hear the story about the young rock people, rocker gets discovered early on and everything crashes and burns and all this stuff, but Ronnie is the opposite,” Fenton says. “He worked for years, he worked for decades honing his craft, learning about who he was as an artist.”

Dio: Dreamers Never Die will be shown in theaters on September 28 and October 2. For more info, visit DioDreamersNeverDie.com.

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Former Youngbloods frontman Jesse Colin Young has three concerts lined up in Northern California in the coming week as part of the veteran folk-rock singer/songwriter’s ongoing tour in support of his 2020 solo album, Highway Troubadour.

The first show will see Young opening for the Steve Miller Band this Friday in Lincoln; the second concert, which takes place Saturday, is a headlining gig in Santa Cruz; and the final performance will be a set at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival on Sunday.

Jesse tells ABC Audio that his friendship with Steve Miller dates all the way back to 1967, after they’d both relocated to the Bay Area. Young says Steve likely will hit the stage with him in Lincoln to perform The Youngbloods’ classic 1960s hit “Get Together.”

“He loves that song as much as I do, I think,” Jesse maintains.

Joining Young at all of the gigs will be his daughter Jazzy, a singer/songwriter in her own right who recorded a duet version of Cat Stevens‘ “Trouble” with her dad that was released as a single last year.

While Jazzy will sing with Jesse at the end of his sets opening for the Miller Band and at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Young says his daughter will get to play three of her own tunes during his headlining show.

“[S]he’s so musical and so real in the way she approaches writing about relationships,” Young enthuses.

Meanwhile, Jesse describes his performance at the San Francisco festival, which is a free event at the city’s Golden Gate Park, “a completion of the circle.”

He notes that when The Youngbloods moved to the Bay Area from New York in ’67, one of their early shows was a free performance in the famous park.

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Foo Fighters held their second star-studded tribute concert to late drummer Taylor Hawkins Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

Unlike the first show, which took place in London earlier this month, the LA tribute did not stream online, but, according to the Los Angeles Times‘ live recap, it still boasted an epic night of impromptu supergroups often backed by the Foos themselves.

Among the highlights were Joan Jett jamming “Cherry Bomb” with Blink-182‘s Travis Barker on drums; Def Leppard‘s Joe Elliott, Rick Savage and Phil Collen playing “Photograph” with vocals by Miley Cyrus; Pink joining Heart‘s Nancy Wilson for “Barracuda”; The Pretty Reckless‘ Taylor Momsen belting Soundgarden classics alongside Matt Cameron, Kim Thayil and Nirvana‘s Krist Novoselic; and Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich and Black Sabbath‘s Geezer Butler rocking Sabbath tunes with ex-Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach.

Attendees also saw Alanis Morissette, with whom Hawkins played drums before joining the Foos, perform “You Oughta Know” with Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers on drums; comedian Dave Chappelle cover Radiohead‘s “Creep”; Wolfgang Van Halen rip Van Halen‘s “Panama”; Mötley Crüe‘s Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee play “Home Sweet Home”; and Tool‘s Danny Carey join Rush‘s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson for “YYZ.”

As with the London concert, the LA show ended with a triumphant Foo Fighters set featuring various guest drummers, including Smith, Barker, Cameron, Rage Against the Machine‘s Brad Wilk, David Bowie, Omar Hakim, Weezer‘s Patrick Wilson and Hawkins’ son, Shane, who once again manned the kit for “My Hero” as well as the song “I’ll Stick Around.”

The night ended around 1 a.m. local time with a full-band performance of “Everlong,” which Dave Grohl played solo to finish the London show.

Proceeds from the concert are being donated to MusiCares and Music Support.

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Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood has lent his talents to a new song called “Wouldn’t You Know,” a collaboration with the Road Recovery charity organization that was released Tuesday via digital formats.

The tune was written and recorded by Type II, the house band of Road Recovery’s Trax Program, which “offers young people the opportunity to build healthy networks during challenging times, helping them avoid self-destructive or risky behavior.”

“My message of hope [to Road Recovery youth] is to stay on track, to believe in yourselves, and to also encourage those around you that are working to the same goal,” Fleetwood says, “and the goal is to have something in your heart that really makes you feel good, to make you feel that what you are doing is really worthwhile, which it is, and knowing that you’re all there as a team of people is what you should remember.”

Footage of Fleetwood recording “Wouldn’t You Know” with the Trax Program’s participants is featured in a music video for the track that’s streaming on Road Recovery’s YouTube channel.

Fleetwood first became involved with Road Recovery in 2018 through an introduction by his good friend, producer/musician Don Miggs. Miggs, a longtime Road Recovery supporter, produced “Wouldn’t You Know.”

The track is the latest installment in the Trax Program’s recently launched Golden Promise Project series of original recordings. A song titled “Crimson Chaos” that featured Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash was released last month as part of the series.

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Steve Perry released his first Christmas album, The Season, last year and now the former Journey singer is hinting he has more holiday music on the way.

On Monday, Perry posted a grinning, crazed-looking depiction of himself wearing a Santa Claus hat on his social media pages, along with a message that reads, “Here’s another one of my sketches because, ‘Maybe This Year one NEW SP original Holiday song, plus one more, could be coming!'”

Earlier in the month, Perry posted a different drawing of the same character wearing reindeer antlers and standing in front of a microphone, with the caption, “Regarding the Holidays, Maybe This Year? Sincerely Steve Perry.” In a separate post, Steve wrote, “Follow me on Spotify to get special notifications of anything I might be up to — Maybe This Year?”

The Season, which was released November 5, is an eight-song collection featuring Perry’s renditions of such classic yuletide tunes as “Winter Wonderland,” “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” “Silver Bells” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

In an interview with ABC Audio shortly before the album’s release, Perry was asked if he’d consider putting out more holiday music in the future, to which he responded, “If I can pull it off, if Uncle Steve’s still here, I might do that, yes.”

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Tony Iommi has teamed up with Epiphone to create a new signature guitar.

The Tony Iommi SG Special was inspired by the Black Sabbath guitarist’s own 1964 Gibson SG Special, famously nicknamed “Monkey.” Iommi played “Monkey” extensively with Black Sabbath’s original lineup throughout the 1970s, and was played on every album and tour by the band during that decade, basically making it the guitar that pioneered metal.

In 2020, Iommi released a limited-edition recreation of the “Monkey” guitar with the Gibson Custom Shop, which, as you might imagine, wasn’t exactly what one might call “affordable.” The Epiphone version, meanwhile, is available at a relatively cheaper price point of $999.

For more info, visit Epiphone.com.

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Stevie Nicks is featured on a track called “Oil” on the upcoming album by the virtual alternative-rock group Gorillaz, Cracker Island, and the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee says she only one “demand” for taking part in the song.

Speaking with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Nicks shares that she requested to be in the video for the track.

“That’s how I know about the Gorillaz, is because of all their crazy cartoon videos,” Nicks says. “I’m going, ‘I want to be in the ‘Oil’ video. I want to be a Gorilla, and I want to have big, false eyelashes, and I want to have blond hair, right?'”

The Fleetwood Mac singer and solo star continues, “I said, ‘This is my one demand that I will make.’ And so, they’re doing it as we speak.”

Nicks adds that she’s “so proud” of the collaboration, which she describes as “somewhere between love and war.”

“I was an honorary Heartbreaker, I was an honorary Foo Fighter,” she says. “And now, I’m an honorary Gorilla. I’m so happy.”

Cracker Island will be released February 24, 2023. It also features collaborations with artists including Beck, Tame Impala, Bad Bunny and Thundercat.

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Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett has opened up regarding the response to drummer Taylor Hawkins‘ death.

In an interview with The Plug podcast, Shiflett takes aim at “yahoo[s] on Twitter” spreading conspiracy theories about Hawkins and how he died.

“Especially right after [Hawkins] died, all these Twitter private investigators, they absolutely know what happened, and are sure of it, and it’s all wrong,” Shiflett says. “That’s been really strange to watch.”

“I understand people’s fascination with it, Taylor was this big character and he meant a lot to millions of people all over the world,” the guitarist continues. “But it’s, like, so much of what I’ve seen out there is so completely wrong.”

In addition to conspiracy theories on social media, Shiflett calls Rolling Stone‘s article about Hawkins’ death “complete nonsense, for the most part.” The article, titled “Inside Taylor Hawkins’ Final Days as a Foo Fighter,” features quotes from artists — including Pearl Jam‘s Matt Cameron and Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith — claiming that Hawkins had expressed concern with the amount of touring he had to do with Foo Fighters leading up to his death. Both Cameron and Smith distanced themselves from the article and apologized for taking part.

In speaking about the reaction to Hawkins death, Shiflett seemingly suggests that another Foo Fighters album could be possible. When asked if he’s found in recent press interviews that people have been “awkwardly not asking” about the subject, Shiflett replies, “It probably will be when we ever get around to putting out another Foo Fighter record and go back into the promo boogie woogie.”

Shiflett recently released two singles with his solo country project. He’ll join Foo Fighters for the second of their two tribute concerts to Hawkins Tuesday in Los Angeles.

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