Classic Rock News

Last month, Blondie released the expansive Against the Odds box set, which takes a deep dive into the influential new wave band’s past. But the group is also looking toward the future with a new studio album that founding drummer Clem Burke says is due out next year.

“I think it’s gonna come out in the spring,” Burke tells ABC Audio. “I think we’re pretty much on track for that. And we have been getting a lot of interesting offers to play live next year at festivals that we are probably going to do, in conjunction with the release of the album.”

Blondie started work on the album before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which Burke says delayed the project.

“Yeah, we put that process on hold until we were all able to be in the studio together,” the 67-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer explains, “’cause we wanted to follow suit with the way we did our last album of new music, [2017’s] Pollinator.”

Burke says the upcoming record was made with the same producer who worked on Pollinator, John Congleton.

Pollinator featured several guest collaborators, including former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who wrote the song “My Monster.” Clem says Marr has also written a track that’s expected to appear on the new album.

Meanwhile, Burke reports that original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, who filled in for Blondie’s bassist, Leigh Fox, on their recent tour dates, also contributed to the upcoming record.

In addition, Clem reveals the album will include “a very left-field cover” of a song by a 1960s New York underground band “that will be very surprising for a lot of people,” and that’s “not The Velvet Underground.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson‘s autobiography, The Lives of Brian: AC/DC, Me, and the Making of Back in Black, which originally was scheduled to be published in October 2021, will finally be released October 25.

In the memoir, Johnson shares the story of his journey from growing up in a working-class town in northern England to singing for one of the world’s biggest rock bands.

Back when The Lives of Brian was first announced last year, Johnson posted a video trailer for the memoir on his official YouTube channel, along with a note that reads, “I’ve had some long nights and some great nights, bad days and a lot of good ones. I’ve gone from choirboy to rock ‘n’ roll singer, and now I’ve gone and written a bloody book about it.”

According to a description at HarperCollins.com, The Lives of Brian will follow Johnson’s life from his formative years in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, to his experiences fronting the local glam-rock band Geordie, to being hired by AC/DC in 1980 to replace their late singer Bon Scott.

The memoir also will feature Johnson’s stories about the making of his first album with AC/DC, the landmark Back in Black and his adventures of touring behind what’s become one of the best-selling rock records of all time.

The Lives of Brian can be preordered now at HarperCollins.com and will be available as a hardcover, an e-book and an audio book.

Johnson, who’s also a well-known car-racing enthusiast, previously wrote a book about his passion for fast cars, called Rockers and Rollers: A Full-Throttle Memoir, which was published in 2009.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer‘s sole surviving member, drummer Carl Palmer, will resurrect his old band with the help of modern technology for a new U.S. tour this fall.

Palmer, in association with the estates of his late ELP bandmates Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, will launch the Welcome Back My Friends — The Return of Emerson Lake & Palmer Tour on November 18 in Philadelphia.

The trek will feature Palmer performing live onstage with his current group, ELP Legacy, flanked by two huge video screens where digital footage of Emerson and Lake playing in concert will be projected.

“About five years ago I explored the idea of trying to reunite the band using digital holograms,” Palmer explains. “We saw a few shows of other artists but it did not seem like an honest approach.

“Then we realized the film we made of ELP’s sold-out run at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1992 had everything we needed. We were able to use just the camera shots of Keith and Greg, with the sterling audio tracks of their performances, resulting in a combination of film and onstage performance that brings back the magic of ELP.”

The tour currently features 10 confirmed dates and is mapped out through a December 3 show in Akron, Ohio. More shows are expected to be announced soon. Tickets for the Welcome Back My Friends Tour are on sale now at CarlPalmer.com.

You can check out a trailer for the trek now on the YouTube channel of ELP and Carl Palmer’s manager, Bruce Pilato.

Emerson died by suicide in March 2016 at age 71, while Lake passed away in December that year of cancer at age 69.

Palmer also has plans to take part in a 40th anniversary Asia tour in early 2023.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

David Bowie‘s estate has partnered with NFT marketplace OpenSea and the We Love the Arts venture for the “Bowie on the Blockchain” sale, which will feature a series of unique Bowie-themed NFTs, each created by a different artist.

The sale, which takes place on September 13, will feature nine NFTS that pay tribute to the late rock legend and his influential life and music. Among the artists who created the collectible digital tokens are Nadya Tolokonnikova of the Russian activist and music collective Pussy Riot.

The Bowie estate will donate all of the profits from the sale to the anti-poverty and humanitarian organization CARE, for which David’s widow, Iman, serves as Global Advocate.

“David Bowie is an icon and a trailblazer in every way,” says OpenSea executive Ryan Foutty. “This incredible collection brings together some of the most groundbreaking NFT artists with Bowie artifacts to bring a new generation of fans together in [the new World Wide Web iteration] web3.”

Adds We Love the Arts co-founder Andrew Keller, “David Bowie’s artistry has had an indescribable impact on my life. I’m truly honored to have had the privilege of guiding this project. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to engage with the Bowie Estate as well as this group of artists, all of whom I have immense respect for.”

The “Bowie on the Blockchain” sale takes place three days before the global premiere of Moonage Daydream, the kaleidoscopic documentary paying tribute to Bowie that was fully sanctioned by his estate.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Ozzy Osbourne has premiered another new track off his upcoming solo album, Patient Number 9.

The latest cut is titled “Nothing Feels Right” and features Ozzy’s longtime guitarist and Black Label Society frontman Zakk Wylde, who delivers a characteristically blistering solo.

You can listen to “Nothing Feels Right” now via digital outlets and watch its accompanying visualizer streaming now on YouTube.

Patient Number 9, the follow-up to 2020’s Ordinary Man, arrives this Friday, September 9. It features guests including Wylde, Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready, Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo and late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Ozzy will celebrate the release of Patient Number 9 with a halftime performance at the NFL’s season opening game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Buffalo Bills, kicking off Thursday, September 8.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

David Lee Roth has debuted the latest in a series of solo recordings, a new version of Van Halen‘s classic hit “Panama” that was recorded live in a studio.

The track was posted on Diamond Dave‘s official YouTube channel along with a caption that reads, “Roth Lives! … David Lee Roth Studio Live.” The clip features an archival photo of the Van Halen frontman standing with his arms crossed as a scantily clad woman peers out of a window behind him.

According to the reliable Van Halen News Desk fan site, “Panama” was one of 14 songs that Roth recorded on May 2 of this year during a two-hour session at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles.

Accompanying Roth at the session were the current members of his solo backing band — guitarist Al Estrada, bassist Ryan Wheeler and drummer Francis Valentino.

Prior to the new rendition of “Panama,” Dave debuted a previously unreleased solo song in July called “Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway.” That song, which pays homage to his early days in Van Halen, was recorded years ago with current Rob Zombie and former David Lee Roth Band guitarist John 5.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The lawsuit filed by the Nevermind cover baby Spencer Elden has been dismissed for the final time, Rolling Stone reports.

As previously reported, Elden sued Nirvana in August 2021, alleging that the cover artwork of the band’s 1991 album Nevermind constituted child pornography. The now-iconic cover features a photo of Elden, then a four-month-old baby, swimming naked underwater while reaching for a dollar bill.

The suit named current Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, as well as late frontman Kurt Cobain and his widow, Courtney Love. The Nevermind cover photographer, art director and various record labels were also listed as defendants.

Lawyers for Nirvana called Elden’s suit “not serious” and “absurd,” and argued that the statute of limitations on Elden’s allegations have expired. The suit was initially dismissed in January 2022, but Elden was allowed to refile an amended complaint.

Now, according to Rolling Stone, U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin has dismissed the suit once more, citing the expired statute of limitations.

“Because plaintiff had an opportunity to address the deficiencies in his complaint regarding the statute of limitations, the court is persuaded that it would be futile to afford plaintiff a fourth opportunity to file an amended complaint,” the judge’s ruling reads.

Elden’s lawyer tells Rolling Stone that their client “intends to appeal this ruling.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

New details have been unveiled about Rarities Oxhumed – Volume One, the recently announced forthcoming compilation that will feature rare and unreleased recordings by late Who bassist John Entwistle.

The album will be released on CD on October 21, while the first track from the collection, “I’ll Try Again Today,” will debut on September 16.

“I’ll Try Again Today” originally appeared on The John Entwistle Band‘s the 1999 live album, Left for Live, which featured performances recorded during the group’s 1998 tour.

As previously reported, Rarities Oxhumed – Volume One will feature previously unheard studio tracks, demos, remastered live performances and other unreleased gems. Among the live recordings is a performance of the Entwistle-penned and sung 1978 Who tune “Trick of the Light.”

The compilation will be available to preorder starting sometime this week. On DekoEntertainment.com’s webpage promoting the compilation, a countdown clock has been posted that’s scheduled to hit zero on September 9 at 4 p.m. ET, so we’re assuming that’s when preorders will begin.

Meanwhile, you can check out a couple of video trailers promoting Rarities Oxhumed at Deko Entertainement’s YouTube channel. The clips include archival interview footage of Entwistle, Mr. Big bassist Billy Sheehan and Deep Purple‘s Roger Glover.

A second Rarities Oxhumed volume is expected to be released at a later date. The albums have been put together by the Deko label in collaboration with longtime Entwistle solo band member Steve Luongo and John’s son, Chris.

Entwistle died in June 2002 of a heart attack one day before The Who was scheduled to launch a U.S. tour. He was 57.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On Saturday, while Paul McCartney was playing a pair of classic Beatles songs with Foo Fighters at the star-studded Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in London, his old band’s acclaimed docuseries was busy winning a bunch of trophies at the 2022 Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

The Beatles: Get Back, which premiered on Disney+ in November 2021, won all five Emmys for which it was nominated — in including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series — tying for the most awards won that evening Adele‘s Adele:One Night Only concert special.

The Beatles: Get Back also won Emmys in the following categories: Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program; Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program; Outstanding Sound Editing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program (Single or Multi-Camera); and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program (Single or Multi-Camera).

As co-producer’s of the series, McCartney, Ringo Starr and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison — Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison — were among those receiving the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, along with director Peter Jackson.

Starr posted a message on his social media sites reacting to Get Back‘s winning night, writing, “Wow I just heard we won … five Emmys[.] I want to congratulate Peter and everybody [who] was involved in the making of [Get Back] … peace and love.”

Meanwhile, a second Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony was held Sunday, and among the winners was Pam & Tommy, the Hulu miniseries that tells the story of Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and Baywatch star Pamela Anderson‘s infamous sex tape. The program took home the Outstanding Period and/or Character Makeup (Non-Prosthetic) award.

The main Primetime Emmy Awards takes place Monday, September 12, and airs live on NBC and Peacock at 8 p.m. ET.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.