Classic Rock News

The Osbourne family has a new member.

Ozzy and Sharon‘s son, Jack, announced Wednesday that his fiancée, Aree Gearhart, gave birth to a baby named Maple Artemis Osbourne on July 9.

“Aree and Maple are doing great and are happy and healthy,” Jack wrote in a tweet.

Sharon also shared the news on Twitter, writing that she and Ozzy are “over the [moon].”

Jack and Aree announced they were expecting in March following their engagement at the end of 2021. Maple is their first child together; Jack has three kids with ex-wife Lisa Stelly.

Meanwhile, Jack’s sister Kelly announced in May that she was expecting her first child with Slipknot‘s Sid Wilson.

In addition to welcoming a new grandchild, Ozzy’s been promoting his upcoming new album, Patient Number 9, which arrives September 9. Last week, he made his debut at San Diego Comic-Con, where he set the record for the largest signing at this year’s event, according to a press release.

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Indie-pop act Bleachers welcomed a surprise guest to the stage during their show at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday: the one and only Bruce Springsteen.

The Boss joined frontman Jack Antonoff and company to perform their collaborative tune “Chinatown,” which appears on the latest Bleachers album, 2021’s Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night. Fan-shot footage of the rendition is streaming now on YouTube.

The onstage team up with Bleachers follows a recent run of live guest appearances by Springsteen, who also showed up at concerts by Coldplay and Paul McCartney over the past month or so. Bruce will head out on his own tour with his E Street Band in 2023.

“Chinatown” was first released as a single in November 2020, and Springsteen also appeared in the official music video for the song.

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Late Clash frontman Joe Strummer would have celebrated his 70th birthday this August 21, and to mark the milestone, a box set collecting all of his work with post-Clash band The Mescaleros will be released on September 16.

Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years features remastered versions of the group’s three studio albums — 1999’s Rock Art and the X-Ray Style, 2001’s Global a Go-Go and 2003’s posthumous Streetcore — as well as a disc titled Vibes Compass that boasts 15 rare and previously unreleased tracks.

Vibes Compass includes some of Strummer’s first demos for The Mescaleros, outtakes of Joe’s last recordings with the group and a song called “Ocean of Dreams” that features Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones.

The collection, which can be preordered now, will be available as a four-CD set, a seven-LP vinyl package and digitally.

The physical versions of the box set come with a book featuring new interviews with Strummer’s friends, collaborators and Mescaleros bandmates plus unseen handwritten notes, lyrics and drawings from Joe’s archives.

A demo version of the 1999 Mescaleros song “The Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll,” which appears on Vibes Compass, has been released as an advanced digital track. Its video, which features animated versions of Joe’s drawings, has premiered on YouTube.

Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years was curated by Strummer’s widow, Lucinda Tait.

“There’s so much great music that Joe left us in his archive,” says Tait. “[The] songs he made with [The Mescaleros] just seemed to resonate so strongly and reinvigorated his connection with his audience at a level he hadn’t experienced since his days with The Clash.”

Strummer died of a heart attack in December 2002. He was 50.

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Nearly 40 years after its release, Metallica‘s “Master of Puppets” finally has a video.

The metal legends have premiered a lyric video for the thrash classic, which originally debuted in 1986 as the title track off the third ‘Tallica album. The eight-and-a-half-minute clip, streaming now on YouTube, features imagery related to puppet strings and the field of crosses from the Master of Puppets cover artwork in between shots of a mysterious, sword-wielding figure.

The new visual comes amid renewed interest in “Master of Puppets” following its use in the season four finale of Netflix’s Stranger Things. After the episode’s premiere earlier this month, the song charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time and gave Metallica their first appearance on the all-genre ranking in 14 years.

Metallica released a statement saying that they were “beyond psyched” and “totally blown away” by the placement of “Master of Puppets” in Stranger Things. They even released a TikTok of them shredding along to the scene in which the character Eddie Munson plays the song.

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Bush has announced a new album called The Art of Survival.

The ninth studio effort from the “Glycerine” rockers arrives October 7. It’s the follow-up to 2020’s The Kingdom, which includes the single “Flowers on a Grave.”

The first preview of The Art of Survival is a song called “More than Machines,” which alludes to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

“This is an action-packed song with three really big topics,” says frontman Gavin Rossdale. “Off the bat, I don’t understand how anyone has the audacity to get involved or assume responsibility for women’s bodies. I wanted to reference that because it’s important to discuss.”

“As much as the song is about the destruction of women’s rights, it’s about the destruction of the planet and the move for A.I. and a world of robots to replace us,” he continues. “It’s a topic we’ve heard since the fifties. I’m not here to teach anything though; my job is medieval like a town crier. I come into town with my elixirs and sing about it, so it hopefully goes out into the universe.”

You can listen to “More than Machines” now via digital outlets. An accompanying lyric video is streaming now on YouTube.

Bush will hit the road this summer on a U.S. tour with Alice in Chains and Breaking Benjamin. The outing kicks off August 10 in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania.

Here’s the track list for The Art of Survival:

“Heavy Is the Ocean”
“Slow Me”
“More Than Machines”
“May Your Love Be Pure”
“Shark Bite”
“Human Sand”
“Kiss Me I’m Dead”
“Identity”
“Creatures of the Fire”
“Judas Is a Riot”
“Gunfight”
“1000 Years”

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Comic books might usually cover superheroes, but this one is all about a music superstar.

Stevie Nicks is the focus of a new 22-page comic book detailing the rocker’s life and career from TidalWave Comics.

The comic book is part of the brand’s “Female Force” series, which highlights impactful women from all around the world. As per its description, it explores Nicks’ “passion and unrelenting drive to succeed as an artist.”

Michael Frizell penned the story, with illustrations by artist Ramon Salas.

“There’s a popular meme that talks about how Taylor Swift writes sad songs about her exes, but Stevie Nicks makes her exes sing songs she wrote about them explaining how horrible they are, and every time I see it, I laugh,” notes Frizell. “Stevie’s fearlessness makes her a rock legend and explains her staying power and popularity.”

You can check out a preview of Female Force: Stevie Nicks at Tidal Wave Comics’ Twitter page.

Female Force: Stevie Nicks is available now in both print and digital formats.

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On Wednesday night, The Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and his longtime partner, clothing designer Chloé Mendel, are hosting Together and Together Again, a virtual benefit concert to support the victims of the July 4 shooting in Highland Park, Illinois.

Corgan and Mendel are longtime residents of the Chicago suburb, and the show will be filmed at the couple’s Highland Park tea shop, Madame Zuzu’s.

“Our business is located just within one block of the crime scene,” Mendel tells ABC Audio. “It was really important for us to keep it home, to embrace our community, embrace our location, and create a show that could raise as much awareness and funds as possible to those in need.”

Along with Corgan, the performer lineup includes Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, Bob Moses and Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, who’s built a strong connection to the Chicago area since bringing Lollapalooza to the Windy City in 2005 and can relate to Highland Park’s large Jewish community.

“Perry’s a very, very proud Jewish American, and I know these issues are very, very sensitive to him, as well,” Corgan says.

Corgan is, of course, well versed in the healing power of music, having seen so many fans connect to his songs on a personal level and turning to his own favorite artists during tough times in his life. For him, one of those songs is Pink Floyd‘s “Wish You Were Here.”

“When I was 17 years old and my grandmother was dying of cancer, it was the first time in my life that I found that one song that got me through this horrible and tragic moment in my life,” Corgan shares.

Together and Together Again airs at 8 p.m. CT on YouTube. Viewer donations will benefit the Highland Park Community Foundation‘s shooting response fund.

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Lollapalooza is expanding once again, this time to Asia.

The inaugural edition of Lollapalooza India will take place January 28-29, 2023 in the city of Mumbai. The festival will feature 40 acts spread across four stages.

The lineup and exact venue details will be announced at a later date. Until then, you can stay tuned to LollaIndia.com.

Lollapalooza was founded in 1991 by Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell as a touring festival. In 2005, Lolla was retooled as a destination festival taking place in Chicago’s Grant Park, where it’s been held ever since.

Starting in 2011, Lollapalooza expanded internationally to South America with a festival in Chile and then in Brazil and Argentina. The festival has since widened to Europe with events in France, Germany and Sweden.

The U.S. Lollapalooza takes place this year July 28-31. The lineup includes Green Day, Metallica, Machine Gun Kelly, Glass Animals, Porno for Pyros, Måneskin, WILLOW and Royal Blood.

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The Kinks have announced plans for the latest in a series of expanded 50th-anniversary reissues, this one focusing on two of the lauded U.K. band’s albums — 1971’s Muswell Hillbillies and 1972’s Everybody’s in Show-Biz – Everybody’s a Star.

The collection, which can be pre-ordered now, will be released on September 9 in multiple formats and configurations, including a box set featuring six vinyl LPs, four CDs, a Blu-ray, a 52-page hardback book, a badge, glossy photos and more.

Additionally, remastered versions of Muswell Hillbillies and Everybody’s in Show-Biz will be released as standalone CD and LP packages, while a two-CD set featuring both albums and select bonus remixes will also be available.

Muswell Hillbillies found The Kinks reflecting on growing up in the London area of Muswell Hill and celebrating the American music and culture that influenced them. The album includes the gem “20th Century Man.”

Everybody’s in Show-Biz – Everybody’s a Star was a double album that featured a studio disc of new songs and a live disc recorded at the band’s two-show engagement at New York’s Carnegie Hall in March of 1972. The studio portion includes the classic singles “Celluloid Heroes” and “Supersonic Rocket Ship.”

The box sets, LPs and CDs feature remastered versions of the two albums as well as 11 new remixes by Kinks frontman Ray Davies. The Blu-ray contains an unseen 15-minute 1971 home movie shot and narrated by Ray.

In advance of the collection’s arrival, a new edit version of “Celluloid Heroes” has been released as a digital video, while a companion video boasting archival footage of the band has been posted on YouTube.

For more details, visit TheKinks.info.

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Founding Grateful Dead singer/guitarist Bob Weir and his side band Wolf Bros have lined up a fall U.S. tour that’s mapped out from a September 30 show in Waterbury, Connecticut, through a November 4-5 stand in Denver.

The trek includes a number of multiple-show engagements, including a three-gig stint at San Francisco’s Warfield theater — October 14-16 — during which Weir will celebrate his 75th birthday; Bob turns 75 on the 16th.

The Wolf Bros lineup for the tour features acclaimed producer/bassist Don Was, RatDog drummer Jay Lane and RatDog and Dead & Company keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. Weir and his group will be joined by the horn-and-string section The Wolfpack and, as a special guest, veteran pedal-steel player Barry Sless.

Tickets for almost all of the shows will go on sale to the general public this Friday, July 29, at 10 a.m. local time. Pre-sales tickets will be available starting today at 10 a.m. local time.

Special VIP bundles also will be available offering premium seats, an invitation to attend a soundcheck, an exclusive singed and numbered poster and more. Visit CIDEntertainment.com for more details.

Before the trek kicks off, Weir and Wolf Bros’ trio lineup, featuring just Was and Lane, will play a September 10 benefit concert at the Hoodoo Ski Area in Sisters, Oregon, supporting the Oregon Adaptive Sports organization.

In other news, Weir will perform with his Dead & Company band mate John Mayer on August 8 in Livingston, Montana, at the first of three benefit concerts Mayer has organized to raise money for those devastated by Montana’s recent historic flooding.

The concert series, dubbed Rise for the River, also will feature comedian David Chapelle joining Mayer on August 4 and John performing solo on August 21.

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