Classic Rock News

Good news from Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, who says he’s recovering well after testing positive for COVID-19, which forced the band to postpone two shows on its current SIXTY tour of Europe.

“Thank you all so much for your well wishes and messages the last few days,” the 78-year-old rock legend writes in a message posted on his social media pages. “I’m feeling much better and can’t wait to get back on stage next week!”

Jagger also reveals that the first of the postponed shows, a June 13 concert in Amsterdam, “has been rescheduled for July 7,” adding that a new date for the postponed June 17 gig in Bern, Switzerland will be announced “ASAP.” The Rolling Stones also posted details about the new Amsterdam date on their social media sites.

The next scheduled concert on The Stones’ 60th anniversary tour is a June 21 show in Milan, Italy.

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After announcing the performers for the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in London, Foo Fighters have now revealed the lineup for the Los Angeles show.

The LA bill includes many artists who are also booked for the London performance, including Queens of the Stone Age‘s Josh Homme, Queen‘s Brian May and Roger Taylor, Rush‘s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, Jane’s Addiction‘s Chris Chaney, Wolfgang Van Halen, The Police‘s Stewart Copeland, producer Mark Ronson and drummer/producer Omar Hakim.

Additionally, the lineup features a number of acts exclusive to the LA date, including Miley Cyrus, Joan Jett, Alanis Morissette, KISS‘ Gene Simmons, Mötley Crüe‘s Nikki Sixx, Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith, The Struts‘ Luke Spiller, Rage Against the Machine‘s Brad Wilk and Weezer‘s Pat Wilson.

Artists including Liam Gallagher and Chrissie Hynde of Pretenders are exclusive to the London lineup. Comedian Dave Chappelle will also be making a “special appearance” in the London show.

The guests will be “playing the songs that Taylor loved and created, with and alongside his FF brothers Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear and Rami Jaffee,” a press release says.

As previously reported, the concerts will take place September 3 at London’s Wembley Stadium and September 27 at LA’s Kia Forum. Tickets to both shows go on sale this Friday, June 17 at 9 a.m. local time. Proceeds will benefit charities in the U.K. and U.S. chosen by the Hawkins family.

For more info, visit FooFighters.com.

Hawkins died on March 25 at age 50.

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Foo Fighters have announced the first performers who’ll appear at the upcoming Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts.

As previously reported, the two shows in London and Los Angeles will feature Hawkins’ “bandmates and his inspirations playing the songs that he fell in love with, and the ones he brought to life.”

The artists who’ll be joining the Foos onstage at London’s Wembley Stadium on September 3 include Rush‘s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, Queen‘s Brian May and Roger Taylor, The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, Stewart Copeland of The Police, Liam Gallagher, Wolfgang Van Halen, Josh Homme, Mark Ronson, bassist Chris Chaney of Jane’s Addiction and Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, and legendary drummer/producer Omar Hakim, who’s worked with Foo Fighters, David Bowie, Dire Straits, Miles Davis, Journey, Kate Bush and dozens more.

Plus, Dave Chappelle will make a special appearance, and Hawkins’ cover band Chevy Metal is also on the bill.

The guests for the September 27 Los Angeles show at the Kia Forum will be announced at noon Wednesday. The charities that will benefit from both shows — chosen by the Hawkins family — will be announced shortly. For ticket information, join the Foo Fighters’ mailing list.

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Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the Steve Miller Band‘s 12th studio album, Abracadabra.

Powered by the chart-topping title track, Abracadabra peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200 and was the group’s last album to enjoy significant commercial success in the U.S. The song “Abracadabra” spent two nonconsecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September of ’82. The tune was only one of two tracks that frontman Steve Miller wrote on the album, along with “Give It Up.”

Steve Miller Band drummer Gary Mallaber co-wrote the album’s remaining eight songs, four of which in collaboration with Miller Band guitarist John Massaro.

“Cool Magic” and the aforementioned “Give It Up” were also released as singles, although they only reached #57 and #60, respectively, on the Hot 100.

“Abracadabra” is the Steve Miller Band’s final top-40 hit to date. Its popularity was bolstered by a music video that received heavy airplay on MTV.

The album, which was co-produced by Miller and Mallaber, has been certified Platinum by the RIAA for sales of over 1 million copies in the U.S.

Here’s the full Abracadabra track list:

“Keeps Me Wondering Why”
“Abracadabra”
“Something Special”
“Give It Up”
“Never Say No”
“Things I Told You”
“Young Girl’s Heart”
“Goodbye Love”
“Cool Magic”
“While I’m Waiting”

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Ringo Starr‘s first NFT collection was sold Monday, June 13, at an online sale hosted by Julian’s Auctions.

The “Ringo Starr NFT Collection — The Creative Mind of a Beatle” included a total of 20 NFTs based on five unique works of art created by the legendary Beatles drummer. All 20 NFT packages, each of which included an animated digital version of a Starr painting and a 25-by-25-inch canvas print of the same artwork signed by Ringo, were sold.

Winning bids spanned from $5,760 to $10,240, and the 20 packages sold for a cumulative total of $127,360. You can check out the full results at JuliensLive.com. As previously reported, most of the NFTs also incorporated a custom-made drum track played and recorded by Starr.

The paintings that served as the basis for the NFTs included self-portraits and colorful spin art pieces.

Those who purchased an NFT package will also be given access to a virtual gallery of Starr’s digital art, called RingoLand.

A portion of the proceeds raised by the auction will be donated to Ringo’s Lotus Foundation, which funds and supports charitable projects that focus on various social welfare causes.

In conjunction with reducing the carbon footprint associated with the creation of the NFTs, a donation was made to the CarbonFund.org climate-change organization.

Meanwhile, as announced Saturday, the last 12 concerts of the first leg of Ringo and his All Starr Band’s 2022 tour have been postponed until September after two members of the group — Edgar Winter and Steve Lukather — tested positive for COVID-19. The rescheduled dates are expected to be announced soon.

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Eddie Vedder has announced the lineup for the 2022 edition of his Ohana Encore festival, taking place October 8-9 in Dana Point, California.

As its name suggests, Ohana Encore is a companion to the Pearl Jam frontman’s Ohana Festival, which will be held the prior weekend, from September 30 to October 2.

Vedder himself will headline the first day of the Ohana Encore fest, along with Alannis Morissette, while The Black Keys and HAIM will top the bill on the second day. Other artists on the lineup include The Afghan Whigs, The Roots, Marcus King and Band of Horses.

Tickets to Ohana Encore go on sale this Friday, June 17, at 10 a.m. local time, with a pre-sale beginning Thursday, June 16, at 10 a.m. local. For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit OhanaFest.com.

Vedder founded Ohana Festival in 2016. Ohana Encore made its debut in 2021.

The 2022 Ohana Festival lineup includes Vedder, Stevie Nicks, founding Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and his current group The Dirty Knobs, Jack White, Pink, St. Vincent and Brittany Howard. Tickets are on sale now.

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Ozzy Osbourne is “doing well” and “on the road to recovery” after undergoing surgery Monday.

That’s according to the metal legend’s wife, Sharon, who shared an update on her husband’s condition in a tweet Tuesday afternoon.

“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.”

Last week, Sharon revealed during an episode of her U.K. talk show The Talk that Ozzy was set to have a “very major operation.” She added that procedure was going to “really gonna determine the rest of [Ozzy’s] life.”

Sharon didn’t speak on the exact nature of the operation, but 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’d been hospitalized with a bad case of pneumonia, and in early 2020, he revealed he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

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

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Metallica has announced a collaboration with the guitar instruction platform Yousician. 

The course allows you to jam alongside ‘Tallica members James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett as they take a deep dive into their approach and technique.

“So, you want to play like Metallica?” Hetfield asks in a trailer for the program. “The best way to play like us is to play with us.”

“The Metallica x Yousician courses get guitar players up close and personal with the master musicians they idolize,” says Hadley Spanier, Yousician’s Head of Artist Partnerships. “Players will have the opportunity to learn how to play like Metallica straight from Metallica!”

“The unique course pairs unmatched access to the band with Yousician’s AI technology so that guitarists-in-training not only get to learn from the masters, but also get the feedback they need to improve,” Spanier explains. “Players will feel like they are part of the band, playing alongside their idols as they try to master some of the greatest guitar-driven songs of all time.”

The course offers lessons on 10 Metallica songs including “Enter Sandman,” “Nothing Else Matters” and “Master of Puppets,” which, as Hetfield quips, you’ll learn to play “the real way.”

For more info, visit Yousician.com.

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Elton John‘s collaboration with Dua Lipa, “Cold Heart,” which combines four of his previous songs into one track, has become his biggest hit in years. Now, there’s a report that he’s working on a follow-up.

Showbiz411 reports that Elton is going to re-team with PNAU, the Australian trio who created “Cold Heart,” for another such mashup, and he’ll be joined by “a secret superstar” — likely “someone contemporary and young.”

The website reports that the song will arrive next month with an eye towards summer airplay. The report notes that this will not be a track from Elton’s star-studded duets album The Lockdown Sessions — it’ll be a completely new song.

The Lockdown Sessions featured Elton singing with everyone from Lil Nas X and Nicki Minaj to Eddie Vedder, Stevie Wonder and Stevie Nicks.

Also next month, Elton’s latest theatrical work, The Devil Wears Prada: The Musical, premieres at Chicago’s James M. Nederlander Theatre. Elton wrote the music, and Shaina Taub wrote the lyrics for the show, which launches July 19 and is based on the hit movie of the same name. Showbiz411 notes that this marks the first time Elton has collaborated with a female songwriter.

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My Songs, Sting‘s Las Vegas residency show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, first launched last November and is running this week. Sting just announced that he’s expanding the show in 2023, which proves he’s really changed his attitude toward Vegas. As he tells ABC Audio, initially he wasn’t sure he wanted to do a residency at all.

Sting admits, “I was kind of apprehensive at first but it’s really wonderful; the audiences are great.”

It turns out the thing that concerned the former Police front man the most about playing Las Vegas was just that: the audiences. Specifically, he wasn’t exactly sure who’d be filling the seats in the Colosseum.

“I wasn’t sure who the audience would be. I thought just a bunch of tourists,” he explains. “But no. People come from all over the world, all over America, to see my show, and … they’re determined to have a great time.”

“We’re at the best venue in Vegas at Caesars Palace,” he adds. “And we’re just having a ball. It’s fantastic!”

As for how Sting manages to keep the set list — which includes his solo hits and songs by The Police — fresh for these shows, he tells People, “It’s my job to find something new every night in a song that I may have been performing for decades, and I always do. It’s something incremental. It may not be noticed by anyone but me.”

The 2023 dates for Sting’s My Songs  — April 1, 2, 5, 7, 8 and 9 — go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. PT. Fan club members can access tickets starting Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT. Visit Sting.com for more information on how to join.

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