Classic Rock News

Elton John has released the hotly anticipated music video for his and Britney Spears‘ “Hold Me Closer.”  

Neither Sir Elton nor Britney appear in the colorful music video, but it does borrow some elements attributed to the legendary singers — mainly their ability to make others want to dance.

The song features a variety of dancers of all ages and ethnicities as they perform across Mexico City. The performers wear different colors, which seemingly represent the mood of their unique dances.

While some routines are jubilant, others reflect elements of pain and passion. The music video closes with some dancers ending on a protective embrace while others hold their partner either on their shoulders, back or in their arms.

Ukrainian music director Tanu Muino helmed the work and she said of the moving piece, “Going into this video, I knew there would be a lot of emotional expectations the audience and fans would have. With this responsibility, I had to do something different and unexpected. The visuals had to be different. The dance had to be forward-thinking to raise eyebrows and make Elton and Britney proud.”

Muino revealed her career was inspired by watching Britney’s past music videos and added, “This was an emotional one for me as I grew up with Britney.”

Elton lauded the music video on Twitter, calling it “stunning.” He added in his glowing review, “The award-winning director Tanu Muino beautifully captur[ed] an immeasurable feeling of intimacy so missing from the world through the turmoil and chaos of recent times.”

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Neil Young ain’t singing for Pepsi or Coke, and he apparently isn’t thrilled about Beck singing for the NFL.

Over the weekend, the “Loser” artist released a cover of Young’s song “Old Man” for an ad promoting NBC’s upcoming Sunday Night Football match-up between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs. On Monday, the cover was released as a digital single.

Seemingly in response, Young posted a throwback photo on his Instagram page Monday of him holding up a bottle labeled “Sponsored by nobody.” That same label appears on a beer can in Young’s video for his 1988 song “This Note’s for You,” which famously criticized the commercialization of music and artists taking corporate sponsorships.

Beck has not publicly responded to Young.

As for how Beck was able to release the “Old Man” cover seemingly without Young’s approval, it may be because the “Heart of Gold” rocker sold 50% of his song catalog to the company Hipgnosis Songs in 2021.

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The Beach Boys have revealed full details of their next archival multi-disc set, Sail On Sailor – 1972, which will focus on two of the band’s early-1970s album — 1972’s Carl and the Passions – “So Tough” and 1973’s Holland.

The 105-track collection, due out November 18, will be available as a five-CD set, via digital formats and as a vinyl package featuring seven LPs and one EP.

Sail On Sailor – 1972 features newly remastered versions of the two albums as well as 80 previously unreleased recordings. Among the latter are unreleased outtakes, alternate versions and mixes, isolated backing tracks and more from the recordings sessions and live performances from the era.

The collection features the Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairytale) EP, which originally was included as a bonus disc with Holland, and a full concert that The Beach Boys played at Carnegie Hall in November 1972.

One of the live tracks, a rendition of Carl and the Passions lead song, “You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone,” has been released as an advance digital single.

Carl and the Passions — “So Tough” saw the Beach Boys welcome two new members to the lineup, Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar, who played together in a South African group called The Flames.

Chaplin and Fataar played on both Carl and the Passions and Holland, which peaked at #50 and #36, respectively, on the Billboard 200. The highest-charting single released from the albums was Holland‘s “Sailor On Sailor,” which reached #49 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a popular radio track.

The Sail On Sailor – 1972 collection, which can be preordered now, will also be released in abbreviated versions, including a one-EP package, two-CD set and a two-LP. 

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The second of Foo Fighters‘ two tribute concerts honoring late drummer Taylor Hawkins takes place tonight, Tuesday, at the Kia Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, Caliornia.

The first show was held at London’s Wembley Stadium on September 3. Many of the artists who performed at the London tribute will be making the trip back across the pond for the LA concert, including Led Zeppelin‘s John Paul Jones, Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich, Rush‘s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, Queen‘s Brian May and Roger Taylor, The Police‘s Stewart Copeland, the Joe Walsh-fronted James Gang, Wolfgang Van Halen, David Bowie drummer Omar Hakim, Blink-182‘s Travis Barker, Queens of the Stone Age‘s Josh Homme, Kesha, session drummer Josh Freese and Hawkins’ cover band Chevy Metal.

The LA lineup also includes Def Leppard‘s Joe Elliott, Phil Collen and Rick Savage, Joan Jett, Heart‘s Nancy Wilson, The Cars‘ Elliot Easton, Mötley Crüe‘s Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx, Soundgarden‘s Matt Cameron and Kim Thayil, Black Sabbath‘s Geezer Butler, Nirvana‘s Krist Novoselic, Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith, Yes vocalist and Hawkins’ childhood friend Jon Davison, Miley Cyrus, Tool‘s Danny Carey, Alanis Morissette, ex-Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, Pink and Rage Against the Machine‘s Brad Wilk.

Additionally, Dave Grohl‘s daughter Violet and Hawkins’ son Shane will perform. Foo Fighters’ performance of “My Hero” with Shane on drums was widely considered to be the highlight of the six-hour London concert.

Like with the London show, proceeds from the LA tribute will be donated to MusiCares and Music Support. Unlike the London show, however, no streaming details have been announced for the LA concert.

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The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland will host a special John Mellencamp Fan Day this Thursday, September 29, that will celebrate the opening of a permanent exhibit dubbed “Legends of Rock: John Mellencamp.”

Mellencamp, who was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2008, will be on hand on Thursday to give a special performance and take part in an interview that will air live on select satellite radio stations at 5 p.m. ET.

The heartland rocker also will reveal plans for a 2023 tour during the event.

Prime access to view the performance and Q&A is sold out, but visitors will be able to listen to the presentation at the Union Home Mortgage Plaza.

Fans who purchase general admission Rock Hall tickets for Thursday will be able to check out the exhibit and enjoy all other John Mellencamp Fan Day activities. Tickets are available at RockHall.com.

The “Legends of Rock: John Mellencamp” exhibit will feature such memorabilia as the suit the singer/songwriter wore in promo photos for his 2003 album, Trouble No More; the 1976 Fender Telecaster guitar he played onstage extensively starting in 1981; a guitar that David Bowie gifted him; and a new original oil painting.

As part of the Fan Day festivities, video clips from John’s Rock Hall will be screened in a theater in the Ahmet Ertegun Exhibition Hall; a career-spanning Mellencamp playlist will be played throughout the museum; the Rock Hall’s house band, The Mechanics, will help teach fans to sing and play Mellencamp songs in the Jam Room of the museum’s Garage area; and more.

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Scott Ian has shared an update on the status of the next Anthrax album, telling Metal Hammer that the thrash icons are “getting there.”

“We had started writing before COVID, but then eventually we jumped back in, so we do have eight arrangements and half of them with lyrics,” Ian says. “We’ve got at least another six really, really great things that we just need to start bashing out as a band.”

The guitarist adds, “We’re not that far off!”

Anthrax’s most recent studio effort is 2016’s For All Kings. Over the summer, they released a live album titled XL, which captured their 2021 40th anniversary streaming concert.

The 40th anniversary celebration continued this year with a U.S. Anthrax tour also featuring Black Label Society and Hatebreed.

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Founding Pink Floyd singer/bassist Roger Waters‘ April concerts in Krakow, Poland, were canceled by promoter Live Nation Polska and the Tauron Arena, according the venue’s official website.

The cancellation comes after Waters’ recent comments defending Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine drew the ire of Krakow city councilor Łukasz Wantuch, who has called for the rocker be declared “persona non grata” in Krakow.

In early September, Waters posted an open letter to Olena Zelenska, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy‘s wife, suggesting that Ukraine negotiate with Russia rather than continue fighting. He maintained that U.S. military support for Ukraine was prolonging the conflict.

Zelenska responded with a Twitter message that read, “It is Russia that invaded Ukraine, destroys cities and kills civilians. Ukrainians defend their land and their children’s future. If we give up — we will not exist tomorrow. If Russia gives up — war will be over.”

Roger then wrote a lengthy response to Zelenska reiterating his beliefs.

Now Waters has penned an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the invasion of Ukraine.

The message reads in part, “I know some people who think you want to overrun the whole of Europe, starting with Poland and the rest of the Baltic states. If you do, f*** you, and we might as well all stop playing the desperately dangerous game of nuclear chicken that the hawks on both sides of the Atlantic seem so comfortable with, and have at it.”

He also declares, “[Y]our invasion of Ukraine took me completely by surprise, it was a heinous war of aggression, provoked or not.”

Waters concludes by asking Putin to reply to his letter, writing, “I would mightily respect you for it, and take it as an honorable move in the right direction towards a sustainable peace.”

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Alice in Chains‘ deluxe 30th anniversary Dirt reissue includes a hardcover book featuring various never-before-seen photos, accompanied by memories of the original album from different artists. Ahead of the box set’s arrival, the “Man in the Box” rockers have shared one of those memories from Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson.

“Hearing Dirt for the first time was cathartic,” Wilson writes. “It was a defining, amazing moment in the begrudgingly called ‘grunge’ era that se the world on fire. [Alice in Chains] invented a whole new signature sound with their sinister, melodic, dissonant two-part harmonies.”

Wilson recalls being on the set of the film Singles, which was directed by her then-husband Cameron Crowe, and seeing Alice in Chains’ memorable performance of the Dirt single “Would?” during the movie.

“That night I witnessed some of the best hair-flipping I’d ever seen in Seattle, which is really saying a lot when you [think] about all of the fine hair-flipping we’ve come to know and love,” Wilson says. Heart, like Alice in Chains, started in Seattle.

Wilson also shares that she’d written a song around that time called “The Dragon” about AiC vocalist Layne Staley “forecasting what darkness might lay ahead for him.” Staley died in 2002 at age 34; Wilson released “The Dragon” last year on her solo album, You and Me.

“Dirt remains something to celebrate 30 years later because it was a real revolution for progress and against a corporate construct that had take over culture in the ’80s,” Wilson concludes. “Dirt and other albums of the day are part of what I consider possibly the last great renaissance in rock history.”

The Dirt reissue is out now. The 1992 album will officially turn 30 on September 29.

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Hard-rock band Ruffyunz has just released its second album, Ruffyunz II, which includes contributions from a variety of well-known musicians.

Among the guest artists featured on the record are Deep Purple keyboardist Don Airey, former Blue Oyster Cult/Rainbow drummer Bobby Rondinelli, Night Ranger/ex-Whitesnake guitarist Joel Hoekstra, one-time Pat Travers bassist Pat Thrall and former Dio guitarist Tracy G.

Ruffyunz II is available to listen to for free at HyperspaceRecords.com. The core members of Ruffyunz are veteran singer Ed Terry, Emmy-winning engineer JZ Barrell and Randy Pratt of Cactus on bass.

A music video for one of the album’s tracks, the heavy-grooving “Hype in My Head,” has premiered on Hyperspace Records’ official YouTube channel. Airey, Rondinelli and Thrall all lent their talents to the song.

Here’s the full track list of Ruffyunz II:

“Hype in My Head”
“Back It on Up”
“Undercover Agent for the Blues”
“Doesn’t Matter”
“Candyman”
“Dark Side”
“Slither Man”
“Bubbles”
“Can’t Slow Down”
“Keep It Coming”
“The Game”

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Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson has released a new song called “Amigo Amiga” that pays tribute to her friend, late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

The melancholy tune, which Wilson began writing on the night that Hawkins died, got its premiere Monday at Consequence.net along with a lyric video featuring footage of Nancy singing the song and playing acoustic guitar.

“I heard myself in tears saying ‘too soon too soon’ which became a refrain in the song,” Wilson explains to Consequence. “I spent quite a few sleepless nights trying to express it all. He was a wonderful friend and we always had funny pet names for each other like ‘Amigo’ and ‘Amiga’ as well as ‘Luv’ and ‘Dahling.'”

Hawkins was featured on a song called “Party at the Angel Ballroom” that appeared on Nancy’s 2021 debut solo studio album, You and Me. Wilson is also among the many stars scheduled to perform at the second of two Hawkins tribute concerts organized by the Foo Fighters, taking place this Tuesday, September 27 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California.

“It is such a painful loss — but it also feels like Taylor has galvanized and re-energized rock ‘n’ roll with so many of his musician friends and fans coming together,” Wilson says. “It’s a new renaissance Taylor and the Foo family have gifted us all.”

All proceeds raised by sales of the track will be donated to the Recording Academy’s MusiCares charity.

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