Founding Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna guitarist and singer Jorma Kaukonen has announced a solo tour for early 2023.
The dates kick off February 19 in Pontre Vedra, Florida, and are set to wrap up March 5 in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Two of the shows — February 21 in Atlanta and February 22 in Charleston — feature Kaukonen sharing a bill with the David Bromberg Quintet. For tickets, visit Kaukonen’s website.
Kaukonen, who’ll turn 82 in December, still has a number of dates on his schedule for 2022. Some are solo gigs, but most of them are with Hot Tuna Acoustic & Electric, for which he’ll be joined by bassist Jack Casady and drummer Justin Guip. Those shows wrap up December 15 in Sag Harbor, New York.
Artists including Dead & Company, Bob Weir and newly-minted Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Annie Lennoxare taking part in a new climate change social media campaign coinciding with the start of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP27, which began this week in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
The initiative, which is being spearheaded by the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, hopes to “rally support for United Nations Human Rights climate justice goals” and for “the world leaders and dignitaries assembled in Sharm El Sheikh to view climate change through a human rights lens.”
Others participating include The Lumineers, Cher, Leonardo DiCaprio, Quincy Jones, Ellen DeGeneres, Edward Norton, Jack Black, LL Cool J and Joss Stone.
“By working together and supporting inclusive rights-based climate action for people and the planet, we can realize a better, more sustainable future for all,” DiCaprio says.
The metaverse version of Ozzfest now has a lineup.
As previously reported, a virtual edition of Ozzy Osbourne‘s namesake festival will be held during the Metaverse Music Festival, put on by “virtual social world” Decentraland.
In addition to the Prince of Darkness, the bill includes Motörhead, Megadeth, Black Label Society and Skid Row.
Motörhead, of course, hasn’t performed since the 2015 death of frontman Lemmy. The exact nature of Motörhead’s performance hasn’t been revealed — perhaps it’ll be a restaging of archival footage — but the description for the Metaverse Music Festival notes that it will “be unconstrained by the boundaries of reality.”
The Metaverse Music Festival takes place November 10-13. For more info, visit TheMetaverseFestival.io.
The Beatles‘ album Revolver, which first topped the Billboard 200 album chart in 1966, is back in the top five, thanks to a deluxe special edition reissue that came out October 28.
The special edition, which is available in a variety of formats, features demos, alternate versions, outtakes and different mixes of classics like “Yellow Submarine,” “Got to Get You Into My Life,” “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Eleanor Rigby,” as well as different takes of the non-album tracks “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.” It sold 54,000 units, enough to reenter the chart at #4.
Revolver is the latest in an ongoing series of Beatles studio albums that are being reissued in expanded versions. It follows the releases of expanded reissues of Let It Be last year, Abbey Road in 2019, The Beatles aka The White Album in 2018 and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 2017.
As with Revolver, all the albums originally topped the Billboard chart and then returned to the top 10 after the special versions were released.
The Black Crowes will be spending Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas.
The band has booked two performances at the Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort on Friday, February 10 and Saturday, February 11. Tickets go on sale this Friday, November 11 at 10 a.m. PT via ticketmaster.com.
Citi cardmembers can grab presale tickets starting Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT through the Citi Entertainment program. An artist presale starts on Wednesday, and there are also presales for members of various loyalty programs.
After those shows, as previously reported, the Black Crowes will play the 2023 Innings Festival, taking place February 25-26 in Tempe, Arizona. Also on the bill are Green Day, Eddie Vedder, Weezer and The Offspring.
David Crosby has released another advance track from his first ever solo live release, David Crosby & The Lighthouse Band Live at the Capitol Theatre.
You can watch stream, download or watch a live performance of Crosby and his band performing the Crosby, Stills & Nash classic “Guinnevere” now. The live set, originally slated for release in November, will now arrive December 9.
As previously reported, the album documents a show that Crosby played with The Lighthouse Band — Becca Stevens, Michelle Willis and Michael League — in 2018 at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY.
David previously recorded a solo album, 2016’s Lighthouse, with Stevens, Willis and League, and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, had been touring on and off with with them regularly.
Among the tracks featured on the album are live renditions of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young‘s “Déjà Vu” and Joni Mitchell‘s “Woodstock,” which was famously covered by CSNY.
Here’s the complete track list:
“The Us Below”
“Things We Do for Love”
“1974”
“Vagrants of Venice”
“Regina”
“Laughing”
“What Are Their Names”
“By the Light of Common Day”
“Glory”
“The City”
“Look in Their Eyes”
“Guinnevere”
“Janet”
“Carry Me”
“Déjà Vu”
“Woodstock”
When Mark David Chapman stared at a picture of John Lennon, he said to himself, “Wouldn’t it be something to kill him?” That’s according to a transcript of Chapman’s parole hearing obtained by ABC News through a New York State Freedom of Information Law request.
“At that point, the seed was planted to kill him. That seemed like the way out of all my problems and that’s it, basically, in a nutshell,” Chapman told the parole board, which denied him parole for a 12th time in September.
The transcript shows the parole board thought releasing Chapman “would so deprecate the serious nature of the crime as to undermine respect for the law.” It conceded Chapman, 67, poses a low risk at this point after 41 years in prison, but cited his “selfish disregard for human life of global consequence” in deciding to keep him locked up.
“The worldwide impact of your crime resonates such as to evoke images, memories and emotions internationally, leading the panel to concur that your release at this time would be incompatible with the welfare of society,” the decision said. “The panel is significantly concerned about your behavior before and during the [incarcerating offense], underscoring your stated quest to be immortalized, identifying, murdering your victim as your path to said end.”
Chapman shot and killed Lennon on December 8, 1980. He told the parole board he acted on a “compulsion to kill” Lennon.
“I was that desperate for attention. I gave up everything in my life, my wife, my family, my location in beautiful Hawaii, for one thing and that was to be somebody. I was feeling like a big nobody in the world, and this would change that, and that’s why I did it,” Chapman said.
Ozzy Osbourne apparently isn’t completely on board with moving back to England.
The metal legend, who’s long lived in Los Angeles, is gearing up to return to his home country with his wife, Sharon Osbourne. However, in an interview with Consequence, the Prince of Darkness shares that if he “had [his] way,” he’d “stay in America.”
In speaking about their decision to move, Ozzy brings up Sharon’s 2021 departure from the U.S. talk show The Talk, which happened after she asked former co-host Sheryl Underwood to explain how Piers Morgan‘s comments about Meghan Markle‘s then-recent interview with Oprah Winfrey were racist.
“When my wife got called a racist on, she is absolutely not a racist,” Ozzy says. “Her friend is Piers Morgan. She didn’t say, ‘I agree with him.’ She just respected his ability to have freedom of speech. That’s all that she said. And she got a lot of flak from that, so we actually had to have f***ing armed guards and all that.”
“It hasn’t gone sideways, it’s gone down,” Sharon adds of LA. “It’s not a fun place to live. It’s dangerous here. Every big city’s got crime, but I don’t feel safe here. Neither does Ozzy.”
Even so, Ozzy says, “To be honest with you, I don’t want to go back [to England]. F*** that.”
Speaking previously with The Observer about the move, Ozzy said he was “fed up with people getting killed every day,” adding that he doesn’t “want to die in America.”
“I’m English. I want to be back,” he said. “But saying that, if my wife said we’ve got to go and live in Timbuktu, I’ll go.”
The Osbournes’ return to England will be documented in the upcoming series Home to Roost.
Aside from his 2018 album, Traces, and his 2021 Christmas album, The Season, Steve Perry hasn’t done a lot of recording in the past 20+ years. But apparently, the former Journey singer couldn’t resist an invitation from arguably one of the most beloved celebrities on the planet: Dolly Parton.
The country icon and newly minted Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee tellsAccess Hollywoodthat for her forthcoming rock album, she’s recorded Journey’s classic “Open Arms” and has Perry singing with her on it. She adds that she’s also recorded an Elton John song and that she hopes to get Steven Tyler to join her on the project as well.
“Hopefully, I’m gonna just ask all the girls and the guys to sing with me,” Dolly continued, noting that she is personally contacting people to ask them to collaborate, rather than letting her manager or publicist do it. “I think it’s gonna be a good album,” she concludes.
Dolly performed a song from the album when she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Saturday night in Los Angeles.
In other Steve Perry news, it seems he does pay close attention to what’s happening in the music biz. He tweeted on Saturday, “Back when I was the singer in Journey we sold out 5 nights at the LA Forum. Well my deepest Congrats to #HarryStyles for selling 15 nights out — Truly amazing Harry…Congrats!”
Harry’s has been performing for multiple nights in major cities across the country on his current Love on Tour trek.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony took place Saturday in Los Angeles, officially enshrining acts including Judas Priest, Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, Dolly Parton, Eminem, Carly Simon, Eurythmics and Lionel Richie. Here’s a recap of what happened:
Judas Priest was inducted with the Musical Excellence Award, adding some much-needed heavy to the metal-light Rock Hall. Alice Cooper did the inducting honors, declaring Rob Halford and company to be “truly the definitive metal band.” Halford, who came out as gay in 1998, introduced himself as “the gay guy in the band.”
“We call ourselves the heavy metal community, which is all-inclusive,” Halford said. “It doesn’t matter what your sexual identity is, what you look like, the color of your skin, the faith that you believe in or don’t believe in, everybody’s welcome.”
Priest also reunited with former band mates K.K. Downing and Les Binks for performances of songs including “Breaking the Law” and “Living After Midnight.” They were also joined by guitarist Glenn Tipton, who retired from touring full time in 2018 due to Parkinson’s disease.
Pat Benatar was inducted by Sheryl Crow alongside husband and longtime musical partner Neil Giraldo. They performed songs including “Love Is a Battlefield” and “Heartbreaker.”
Referencing her long journey to the Rock Hall, and the many years she wasn’t nominated, Benatar joked, “First, I just wanna say that all is forgiven.”
Duran Duran was inducted by actor Robert Downey Jr. The celebration of their induction was subdued a bit by the news that Andy Taylor had been diagnosed with prostate cancer four years ago, and recently “suffered a setback” in his treatment, and was unable to attend the ceremony.
U2‘s The Edge inducted Eurythmics, who reunited for a rare performance, including a rendition of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).” Lenny Kravitz introduced Lionel Richie, who was joined by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl for a performance of “Easy,” while Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler rocked with Eminem for the rapper’s song “Sing for the Moment.”
Carly Simon was unable to attend, but was inducted by pop singer Sara Bareilles. Olivia Rodrigo performed “You’re So Vain” in Simon’s honor.
Dolly Parton was the final artist to be inducted, and commented on her upcoming rock album that she decided to record after she was initially nominated. She was joined by several other inductees, including Rob Halford, for a performance of “Jolene.”
The night closed with Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp performing a tribute to the late Jerry Lee Lewis.
The 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will air November 19 on HBO.
![Ozzy Osbourne would “stay in America” if he “had [his] way”: “I don’t want to go back”](https://s3.amazonaws.com/syndication.abcaudio.com/files/2022-11-07/G_ozzy_110722.jpg "Ozzy Osbourne would “stay in America” if he “had [his] way”: “I don’t want to go back”")
