Classic Rock News

Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi are back together on a new song.

The Black Sabbath bandmates have reunited for a solo Ozzy track called “Degradation Rules,” which will appear on the Prince of Darkness’ upcoming solo album, Patient Number 9.

“Degradation Rules” features Iommi’s iconic guitar riffage, paired with a bluesy harmonica. You can listen to the song now via digital outlets.

Patient Number 9, which marks the first solo Ozzy record to feature Iommi, will be released September 9. It also includes the previously released Jeff Beck-featuring title track as well as collaborations with artists, such as Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready, Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde, Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, Jane’s Addiction‘s Chris Chaney and Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo.

Additionally, late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins makes a posthumous appearance.

Ozzy, meanwhile, is set to make his debut at San Diego Comic-Con Friday to reveal a new comic book designed by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, who directed the “Patient Number 9” music video. His appearance at the famed pop culture celebration is being promoted with a giant, 25-foot Ozzy inflatable outside of the convention center.

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ZZ Top‘s latest album, Raw, hit stores Friday.

As previously reported, the stripped-down collection of live performances is dedicated to the band’s longtime bassist, Dusty Hill, who died in July 2021 at age 72.

“I think nothing could be a more fitting tribute [than] to release something that was so telling of how ZZ Top actually came about,” singer/guitarist frontman Billy Gibbons tells ABC Audio.

The 11-track album was recorded live at historic Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas, in conjunction with the famed blues-rock trio’s 2019 documentary That Little Ol’ Band from Texas.

The album features ZZ Top’s classic lineup — Gibbons, Hill and drummer Frank Beard — playing versions of various songs from their back catalog, including hits like “Legs” and “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” and as well two tunes from the band’s 1971 debut album: “Brown Sugar” and “Certified Blues.”

Gibbons says the performance was unplanned, noting the film’s director had invited ZZ Top to Gruene Hall for what the band thought was just a photo shoot.

“Upon arrival, we discovered that some wires had been crossed,” Gibbons notes. “The ZZ Top equipment crew had not been told it was just a photo session. They set up the entire backline. We had guitars, amps, drums, the works.”

Gibbons says the trio proceeded to play a bunch of songs, and while footage of some performances were featured in the movie, Billy maintains he wasn’t aware that audio of the full set had been recorded until an engineer informed him a few months later.

“Upon listening to it, we all took a shine,” Gibbons notes, “and said, ‘Gee whiz, this sounds like the ZZ Top we’ve always known. That’s how we started.'”

Here’s Raw‘s full track list:

“Brown Sugar”
“Just Got Paid”
“Heard It on the X”
“La Grange”
“Tush”
“Thunderbird”
“I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide”
“Gimme All Your Lovin'”
“Blue Jean Blues”
“Certified Blues”
“Tube Snake Boogie”

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The Beatles‘ Ringo Starr, The Police‘s Stewart Copeland, and The Grateful Dead‘s Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann are among the famous musicians featured in an upcoming documentary titled Let There Be Drums!, according to Deadline.

The film, which aims to “examine the essential role drumming plays in great bands and how music passes from generation to generation,” will also feature interviews with Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith, ex-Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum, Jane’s Addiction‘s Stephen Perkins and late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Hawkins’ appearance in the film marks, as Deadline puts it, “what may have been the final filmed interview” he gave prior to his unexpected death earlier this year.

Let There Be Drums! was directed by Kreutzmann’s son, Justin, who told Deadline the project gave him the opportunity “to talk to the world’s most influential drummers in hopes of better understanding his father and the instrument that defined his life.”

Let There Be Drums! is set to premiere in theaters October 28. Hart and Bill Kreutzmann are serving as executive producers on the movie.

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Another project about The Beatles may be on the way.

In a recent interview, Peter Jackson, the director behind the Disney+ three-part docuseries The Beatles: Get Back, revealed that he’s in talks with surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr about a new endeavor.

“I’m talking to The Beatles about another project, something very, very different than Get Back,” Jackson told Deadline. “We’re seeing what the possibilities are, but it’s another project with them. It’s not really a documentary … and that’s all I can really say.”

Get Back, which hit Disney+ in November 2021, was created from dozens of hours of previously unseen footage that focuses on the January 1969 sessions that yielded the band’s Let It Be album.

The docuseries recently scored five Emmy nominations, in categories honoring outstanding documentary, directing, picture editing, sound editing and sound mixing.

Jackson told Deadline that he’s especially happy about the nominations in the sound-related categories.

“Get Back is all about the sound, and restoring the sound and developing the AI things to separate the musical tracks,” Peter notes. “We did a lot of groundbreaking work, so it’s really great that the guys who did that work are part of the Emmy nominations.”

The Beatles: Get Back is available now on DVD and Blu-ray.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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The Zombies will be playing a sold-out show tonight at the intimate Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace venue in Pioneertown, California, but if you can’t make it to the concert in person, the event will be streamed live via the Veeps.com platform.

Tickets for the virtual event are available now for $17.99 and will give on-demand access to the concert for 72 hours after the live performance takes place. The show starts at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT. Opening for the British Invasion legends will be veteran U.S. alternative rock band Rooney.

In a recent interview with DesertLocalNews.com, Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone discussed getting the chance to play at Pappy & Harriet’s, which hosted a concert by Paul McCartney in 2016. “I have heard of the reputation of this place and how unusual it is. I’m very much looking forward to going there,” he said.

According to Blunstone, The Zombies have “completely finished” recording their next studio album, a follow-up to 2015’s Still Got That Hunger.

“I don’t have a release date and I don’t even have a title,” he said about the upcoming record.

The Zombies will wind down the North American summer leg of their Life Is a Merry-Go-Round Tour with a three-night stand, July 28-30, in Park City, Utah.

The band also has a series of Europe shows scheduled from early September to early October, followed by a U.K. leg that will take place in April and May of 2023.

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Your week’s about to get a lot heavier, courtesy of Ozzy Osbourne and Megadeth.

Both the Prince of Darkness and the thrash metallers are set to premiere new songs this Friday, July 22.

Ozzy will be dropping a track called “Degradation Rules,” which notably features his Black Sabbath band mate Tony Iommi. Megadeth, meanwhile, is readying a cut titled “Night Stalkers,” a collaboration with rapper and Body Count frontman Ice-T.

“Degradation Rules” will appear on Ozzy’s upcoming solo album Patient Number 9, due out September 9, while “Night Stalkers” is a track from Megadeth’s forthcoming record The Sick, the Dying…and the Dead!, arriving September 2.

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Irish rockers U2 are among the five honorees who will be saluted at the 45th edition of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors gala. The star-studded tribute ceremony will be held December 4 at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C.

This year’s other Kennedy Center honorees are and pop/R&B legend Gladys Knight, actor/filmmaker George Clooney, Christian music artist Amy Grant and Cuban-born American composer and conductor Tania León.

The awards are presented annually by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to people who have made lasting contributions to American culture through the performing arts.

A two-hour TV special documenting this year’s event will be broadcast at a later date on CBS, and will be streamed and be made available on demand on Paramount+.

In a joint statement, U2’s Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. say of the honor, “[W]e never imagined that 40 years on [from our first trip to the U.S.], we would be invited back to receive one of the nation’s greatest honours…It has been a four-decade love affair with the country and its people, its artists, and culture. We consider America to be a home away from home and we are very grateful to the Kennedy Center Honors for welcoming us into this great clan of extraordinary artists.”

Meanwhile, Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein lauds U2 as “one of most influential rock bands of the modern rock era,” noting that they “won over America and the world long ago with their iconic anthems, potent lyrics, and powerful messages of social justice and global citizenship — earning a musical legacy that crosses generations, inspires, and unites.”

For more details about this year’s event, visit Kennedy-Center.org.

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Moody Blues singer/bassist John Lodge says he’s been working on new music with Yes frontman Jon Davison, who has made regular guest appearances at Lodge’s solo concerts in recent years.

“We’ve been writing a couple of songs together … for the future,” Lodge tells ABC Audio, while also noting that Davison will appear with him and his 10,000 Light Years Band at a one-off concert this Monday, July 25, at Ocean City Music Pier in Ocean City, New Jersey.

“I’m looking forward to that,” Lodge says. “It’s great having [Jon] onstage.”

The 77-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, who mounted a three-week U.S. tour in March, tells ABC Audio that he’d initially planned to play more concerts this summer, but decided to take a break before scheduling a new trek.

Lodge notes he couldn’t pass up doing the Ocean City show because he loved the idea of playing in that location.

“To go to a pier in New Jersey in the summer, it intrigued me,” he says. “The boardwalk and all that, you know?”

Lodge says it reminded him of England during the late 1950s and early ’60s, when rock ‘n’ roll shows were commonly held on Sundays at various piers during summertime.

Meanwhile, he says the New Jersey concert will basically feature the same set as the ones he played in March.

At those shows, he performed renditions of classic Moody Blues songs that he wrote and also paid tribute to his former bandmates Justin Hayward, Mike Pinder and the late Ray Thomas by playing tunes they composed for the group.

A major highlight was a rendition of the Hayward-penned “Nights in White Satin,” with Davison on guest vocals.

Tickets for the concert are available at Ticketmaster.com; special upgrades can be purchased at OneLiveMedia.com.

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Doors guitarist Robby Krieger has revealed plans to release a new album this summer with a new group called Krieger & The Soul Savages.

According to a post on Robby’s official Facebook page, the band features keyboardist Ed Roth, bassist Kevin Brandon and drummer Franklin Vanderbilt playing “a blend of melodic, psychedelic rock and soul.”

Krieger & The Soul Savages appears to be a rechristened version of Robby’s jazz-flavored side group The New Experience, which debuted in 2019 and also featured Roth, Brandon and Vanderbilt.

Krieger & The Soul Savages made their live debut last week at two concerts in the Los Angeles area. The band also has club gigs lined up on July 31 at Bogies in Westlake Village, California, and August 10 at Vibrato Grill in LA.

Meanwhile, Robby has five other upcoming concerts scheduled with his other group, the Robby Krieger Band. Those shows will take place on July 21 in St. Charles, Illinois; July 22 in Des Plaines, Illinois; September 23 in San Juan Capistrano, California; and September 25-26 at the famed Whisky a Go Go club in West Hollywood.

During the two-night stand at the Whisky, Robby and company will celebrate the 55th anniversary of The Doors’ second album, Strange Days.

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Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi is among the musicians who will perform during the opening ceremony for the 2022 edition of the Commonwealth Games sporting event, which will run from July 28 to August 8 in Iommi’s hometown of Birmingham, U.K.

The Commonwealth Games is an international multiple-sport competition held every four years that features athletes from countries that are part of the Commonwealth of Nations.

The Opening Ceremony will take place July 28 at Alexander Stadium. According to a press release, Iommi will perform with acclaimed sax player Soweto Kinch during a “dream sequence” segment called “Hear My Voice,” which is based on the title track of the 2020 movie Trial of the Chicago Seven. The performance will also feature Birmingham-born R&B vocalists Indigo Marshall and Gambimi.

“It’s true, that I will be performing at the opening of the Commonwealth Games,” Iommi tweeted. “I’m very honoured to have been asked to do it and I’m really looking forward to the day! It’s such a great boost for Birmingham to have the games held here.”

The opening ceremony will also feature a variety of other noteworthy local musicians, including headliners Duran Duran, who will perform during the finale. The band, which will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this November, will play four classic songs from their back catalog with accompaniment from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

For more information about this year’s Commonwealth Games, visit Birmingham2022.com.

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