Classic Rock News

Sting will take part in the 2022 edition of Climate Action Live, an international event that’s being organized by the Peace One Day organization to promote positive action to help the environment.

The event will bring together musicians, actors, environmental activists, business leaders and others for performances, panel discussions and interviews to encourage individuals and organizations to work toward a more sustainable future for the planet while focusing on how peace and climate are interconnected.

The event will begin at 8 a.m. ET on June 21 and will be viewable live on Peace One Day’s Twitter page. Sting will give a performance that will air at 4:10 p.m. ET.

Filmmaker Jeremy Gilley, who founded Peace One Day, says, “The timing of Climate Action Live 21 June is more important this year than ever. Worldwide we’ve seen the devastating effect that conflict over resources manifests so please join the global community and tune into Climate Action Live…and listen to individuals of all ages from across the world as they inform, inspire and engage you towards positive climate action. ‘No Peace — No Climate Action.'”

Gilley founded Peace One Day in 1999 to establish an annual Peace Day that takes place on the same date each year, September 21.

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As Christine McVie prepares to release her first solo compilation, Songbird (A Solo Collection), on June 24, the Fleetwood Mac singer/keyboardist has shared some potentially disappointing news regarding her famous band with Rolling Stone.

Fleetwood Mac finished its most recent tour in 2019, with a lineup that featured Crowded House‘s Neil Finn and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell stepping in for Lindsey Buckingham after Buckingham’s much publicized firing from the group in 2018.

Christine tells the magazine, “Those guys were great. We have a great time with them, but we’ve kind of broke up now, so I hardly ever see them.”

Christine adds that Fleetwood Mac no longer exists “as we know it.” Regarding the band’s future, she says, “We might get back together, but I just couldn’t say for sure.”

Christine, who is 78, also notes that she isn’t sure if she wants to tour again.

“I don’t feel physically up for it,” she maintains. “I’m in quite bad health. I’ve got a chronic back problem, which debilitates me. I stand up to play the piano, so I don’t know if I could actually physically do it.”

In addition, Christine says that her ex-husband, Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie, also has “health issues” and isn’t sure if he wants to tour anymore. “You’d have to ask him,” she adds.

If Fleetwood Mac does decide to hit the road again, Christine says she’d like to have Buckingham back in the band.

“He’s the best,” Christine says. “Neil and Mike were such a cheerful couple, but Lindsey was missed.”

Although she says she’s “quite happy to be at home,” Christine won’t completely rule out another Fleetwood Mac tour.

“I’ll just leave it open and say that we might,” she notes.

You can preorder Songbird now.

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Just in time for Father’s Day, Rod Stewart is paying tribute to his late father, Robert, with a video and a concert.

Rod has dropped two teaser videos for “Touchline” from his most recent album, The Tears of Hercules. The song is about his father and, specifically, about how love and tradition is passed down to generations via sports — in this case soccer or, as they call it in the U.K., football. The full video will debut Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

Rod says in a statement, “If you know anything about me, you know that our dad’s love of football has most definitely left its impact on me and my brothers, and I’m delighted that it’s now such an important part of my children’s lives as well. The song ‘Touchline’ was my tribute to him and I’m so happy and moved that the new video takes that to the ultimate level just in time for Father’s Day.”

Rod will also perform a special show in Edinburgh, Scotland, on November 13 in honor of his dad, who was born in Leith, in northern Edinburgh, and died in 1990 at the age of 85. Details on that will be announced soon.

In addition, Rod has announced that select tickets on his U.K. tour this fall will be donated to National Health Service frontline workers. “It’s terrific that we’ll be able to have both NHS workers and doctors and nurses who have been on the front lines these last couple of years as our guests!” he says.

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Ringo Starr‘s All Starr Band recently postponed the last 12 concerts of the first leg of their 2022 North American tour after two members of the group — Edgar Winter and Steve Lukather — tested positive for COVID-19. Now all of those shows have been rescheduled.

The new dates run from a September 5 concert in Lenox, Massachusetts, through a September 22 performance in Providence, Rhode Island. The rescheduled shows take place immediately before the previously announced second leg of the All Starr Band’s 2022 North American trek, which is mapped out from a September 23 concert in Bridgeport, Connecticut, through an October 19-20 stand in Mexico City.

“We were having so much fun playing again and it was disappointing to have to stop,” says Ringo. “But we were able to reschedule these shows and add them to our Fall tour — and so as the song goes — I’ll see you in September! Peace and love.”

Here’s the full list of rescheduled All Starr Band dates:

9/5 — Lenox, MA, Tanglewood (original date: 6/17)
9/6 — Baltimore, MD, Modell Lyric (original date: 6/14)
9/7 — Baltimore, MD, Modell Lyric (original date: 6/15)
9/9 — Easton, PA, State Theater (original date: 6/11)
9/10 — Pittsburgh, PA, PPG Arena (original date: 6/18)
9/11 — Philadelphia, PA, Metropolitan Theater (original date: 6/19)
9/15 — St. Augustine, FL, The AMP (original date: 6/24)
9/16 — Clearwater, FL, Ruth Eckerd Hall (original date: 6/26)
9/17 — Hollywood, FL, Hard Rock (original date: 6/25)
9/19 — Atlanta, GA, Cobb Center (original date: 6/22)
9/20 — Richmond, VA, Virginia Credit Union Live (original date: 6/21)
9/22 — Providence, RI, PPAC (original date: 6/12)

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Def Leppard has certainly been waiting ages to rock on The Stadium Tour.

The much-anticipated run — which also features the reunited Mötley Crüe, Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts on the bill — will finally kick off Thursday in Atlanta after a two-year pandemic delay. As Def Leppard bassist Rick Savage tells ABC Audio, he and his band mates have been “dying” to return to the live stage.

“Back in 2020, it was going to be the biggest tour that Def Leppard have ever embarked upon, which after 40-odd years is some achievement,” Savage says. “It’s actually now … it’s gonna be even bigger.”

Def Leppard has released a whole lot of music in those 40-odd years — including a new album this year, Diamond Star Halos — which makes building a set list quite the challenge. While the band will be varying up the set throughout the tour, they’re always sure to include their “crown jewels,” which frontman Joe Elliott describes as “the songs you don’t get out the building alive if you don’t play.”

“Which is great, ’cause we wanna play them, anyway,” Elliott says. “You know, the Stones have got theirs, McCartney‘s got his, we’ve got ours.”

As for the new stuff, guitarist Phil Collen guesses two Diamond Star Halos tracks will be included in the set, and possibly another, depending on how fans are digging the record. After all, if a new tune were to unexpectedly pop, it wouldn’t be the first time for Def Leppard.

“‘Love Bites’ went to #1 on the Billboard charts and we’d never even played it as a band, it was studio thing,” Collen recalls. “We had to go and learn it in Vancouver and learn the vocals and guitar parts at the same time.”

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Ozzy Osbourne has confirmed he’s back home after undergoing surgery earlier this week.

In a statement posted to his Twitter, the metal legend writes, “I am now home from the hospital recuperating comfortably.”

“I am definitely feeling the love and support from all my fans and send everyone a big thank you for their thoughts, prayers and well wishes during my recovery,” he adds.

Ozzy’s statement comes after Page Six reported that he’d been discharged from the hospital on Tuesday alongside photos of him leaving the Los Angeles facility in a wheelchair. The tabloid also said that Ozzy was able to get up from the wheelchair and enter his car “under his own power with guidance from a hospital attendant.”

The surgery, which Ozzy’s wife Sharon described as a “major operation,” took place on Monday. During an episode of her U.K. talk show The Talk last week, Sharon said that the procedure was “really gonna determine the rest of [Ozzy’s] life.”

In a statement posted on Tuesday, Sharon said Ozzy was “doing well” and “on the road to recovery.” 

Ozzy, 73, told Classic Rock magazine in an interview published in May that he was “waiting on some more surgery” on his neck. Ozzy suffered a fall in 2019, which aggravated injuries he sustained in a 2003 ATV accident.

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Fifty years ago today, on June 16, 1972, David Bowie released his classic fifth studio album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, one of the defining recordings of the glam-rock era.

The record was a loose concept album focusing Ziggy Stardust, a character Bowie created as an alter ego that was an androgynous bisexual alien rock star, and his mythical backing group, The Spiders from Mars.

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars peaked at #5 on the U.K. albums chart in 1972, while in the U.S. it initially only reached #75 on the Billboard 200. After Bowie’s death in 2016, the album enjoyed its highest chart position in the U.S. — #21.

Only one single was released from the Ziggy Stardust album, “Starman,” which reached #10 on the U.K. singles chart, although it only peaked at #65 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. The album did feature several other classic Bowie songs, including such enduring tunes as “Moonage Daydream,” “Ziggy Stardust” and “Suffragette City.”

Bowie and his real band — guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick “Woody” Woodmansey — took on the personas of Ziggy and The Spiders from Mars in concert, and toured together for about a year and a half. Then, at the end of a July 3, 1973, show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, David dramatically declared onstage that the group had just played its last gig.

In 2020, Ziggy Stardust was ranked #40 on Rolling Stone‘s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list.

In honor of Ziggy Stardust‘s 50th anniversary, a new mix of Bowie’s historic 1972 performance of “Starman” on the U.K.’s Top of the Pops TV show was released as a special streaming single today.

Here’s the full Ziggy Stardust track list:

Side One
“Five Years”
“Soul Love”
“Moonage Daydream”
“Starman”
“It Ain’t Easy”

Side Two
“Lady Stardust”
“Star”
“Hang On to Yourself”
“Ziggy Stardust”
“Suffragette City”
“Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide”

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Country-rock pioneer Richie Furay, a founding member of both Buffalo Springfield and Poco, has released his new cover of Marc Cohn‘s 1991 hit “Walking in Memphis” as an advance track from his upcoming covers album, In the Country.

The song is available now via digital formats, and Furay has also debuted a music video for the tune on his official YouTube channel.

As previously reported, In the Country is due out on July 8 and is made up mainly of Furay’s interpretations of various well-known country songs.

Among the tunes featured on the 12-track collection are renditions of such country chart-toppers as Keith Urban‘s “Somebody Like You,” Garth Brooks‘ “The River,” Alabama‘s “I’m in a Hurry and I Don’t Know Why” and Lee Ann Womack‘s “I Hope You Dance,” as well as notable crossover hits like “Walking in Memphis” and John Denver‘s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

The album includes guest contributions from Vince Gill, John Berry, ex-Chicago singer/bassist Jason Scheff, and longtime Eagles bassist and former Poco member Timothy B. Schmit.

The digital version of In the Country features two bonus tracks — new renditions of the 1969 Furay-penned Poco tune “Pickin’ Up the Pieces” and George Strait‘s 1992 chart-topper “I Cross My Heart.” You can preorder the album now.

Furay is in Nashville this week, and his schedule includes a concert Thursday at the City Winery; his first performance at the historic Grand Ole Opry on Friday; and a special in-store appearance Saturday at East Nashville’s Vinyl Tap record shop, where he will be signing vinyl copies of In the Country in conjunction with Record Store Day.

Visit RichieFuray.com to check out his full concert schedule.

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The new Everly Brothers compilation Hey Doll Baby gets its release this Friday, June 17. To celebrate that album’s arrival, a star-studded streaming concert event will premiere this Sunday, Father’s Day, at 4 p.m. ET on the famed duo’s official YouTube channel.

The event, dubbed “Hey Doll Baby Festival: Celebrating the Lives & Music of The Everly Brothers,” will feature new and archival performances by Paul Simon with wife Edie Brickell, Graham Nash with Stephen Stills‘ son Chris, The Grateful Dead‘s Bob Weir with The Black Crowes‘ Chris Robinson, Carly Simon with son Ben Taylor, Eurythmics‘ Dave Stewart with Evanescence‘s Amy Lee, founding Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers members Mike Campbell and Stan Lynch, The Bangles‘ Susanna Hoffs with Semisonic‘s Dan Wilson, Chris Isaak, Jakob Dylan and more.

Also making appearances during the livestream will be the late Phil Everly‘s son Jason and the late Tom Petty‘s daughter Adria Petty, who curated the Hey Doll Baby album.

The album is a 17-track collection that features newly remastered versions of classic songs mixed with some lesser-known tunes by the sibling duo of Phil and Don Everly. The compilation was assembled by Adria Petty, who worked closely with the families of both late Everly brothers. Jason Everly contributed track-by-track commentary to the liner notes, while Don also took part in the project prior to his death in August 2021.

You can preorder Hey Doll Baby now.

Meanwhile, Gibson has just released a new limited-edition signature Everly Brothers acoustic guitar based on the matching SJ-200 models that Phil and Don recorded most of their memorable hits with, including “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie” and “All I Have to Do Is Dream.”

Priced at $7,999, the guitar is available now at Gibson.com and EverlyBrothers.com.

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Ozzy Osbourne was released from the hospital Tuesday after undergoing what his wife, Sharon, deemed a “major operation.”

That’s according to Page Six, which published photos of the metal legend leaving the Los Angeles facility in a wheelchair. The tabloid adds that Ozzy “stood up” from the wheelchair and got into his car under “his own power with guidance from a hospital attendant.”

Sharon first shared news of Ozzy’s surgery during an episode of her U.K. talk show The Talk last week. She added that the procedure was “really gonna determine the rest of [Ozzy’s] life.”

In a tweet Tuesday, Sharon wrote that Ozzy was “doing well” and “on the road to recovery.”

“Our family would like to express so much gratitude for the overwhelming amount of love and support leading up to Ozzy’s surgery!” Sharon wrote. “Your love means the world to him.”

Ozzy, 73, told Classic Rock magazine in an interview published in May that he was “waiting on some more surgery” on his neck. Ozzy suffered a fall in 2019, which aggravated injuries he sustained in a 2003 ATV accident.

Beyond that, Ozzy has been battling a number of health issues over the past few years. Prior to the 2019 fall, he was hospitalized with a bad case of pneumonia, and in early 2020, he revealed he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

In April of this year, Ozzy tested positive for COVID-19.

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