Classic Rock News

KISS is currently in the middle of a 2022 European leg of their End of the Road tour, and while no final date has been announced for the band’s farewell trek, singer/bassist Gene Simmons recently revealed that the outing’s end is definitely farther down the road.

In a phone interview late last month, a journalist for the Finnish rock fanzine Chaoszine asked Simmons how he felt about playing various European cities for the last time, to which Gene replied, “I don’t think it’ll be the last time. We are adding another 100 cities on the tour before we finally stop.”

He added, “The band is strong. We feel good. We’re playing strong, so we’re going to stretch it out a little more.”

Asked if the tour will come to an end sometime in 2023, Simmons said, “We don’t know. We’ve never retired before. This is our first time. So it’s like painting a painting or like writing a book. When somebody says, ‘When is it going to be finished?’ you’re in the middle of it. You don’t know, but you know it’s going to finish.”

As for how he thinks he will feel when the tour finally does wrap up, Gene explained, “It’s like climbing the tallest mountain in the world. Going up is really tough, but when you get to the top of the mountain, there’s no feeling like that. So you’re happy, but of course, you’re sad too because we’re never going to do that again.”

The current European leg of the KISS tour runs through a July 21 show in Amsterdam, and will be followed by a series of Down Under concerts in August and early September. The band also has a few U.S. performances and the two-part KISS Kruise XI confirmed for the fall.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

If you’re thinking of knocking the metal cred of any new Metallica fan who just discovered “Master of Puppets” through Stranger Things, maybe think again.

In the comments of a TikTok video celebrating the ’80s thrash classic’s inclusion in the season four finale of the Netflix sci-fi series, Metallica declares, “FYI — EVERYONE is welcome in the Metallica Family.”

“Whether you’ve been a fan for 40 hours or 40 years, we all share a bond through music,” the metal legends add.

The post also notes that everyone who may now be a longtime Metallica fan was once a new Metallica fan.

“All of you started at ground zero at one point in time,” Metallica writes.

Many others in the comments applauded Metallica’s stance, with one writing, “Protecting the newcomers from the gatekeepers. A new generation of Metallica fans [has] been born.”

“Master of Puppets” soundtracks a significant scene in the Stranger Things 4 finale involving the Dungeons and Dragons-loving character Eddie Munson, played by Joseph Quinn. In a statement following the episode’s premiere, Metallica wrote that they felt “beyond psyched” about the song’s inclusion.

“We were all stoked to see the final result and when we did we were totally blown away,” the band said.

Meanwhile, bassist Robert Trujillo revealed that his son, Tye, provided guitar tracks for the “Master of Puppets” performance.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

A special presentation of a concert that Queen + Adam Lambert played during the current European leg of their Rhapsody Tour will premiere July 24 via the Kiswe global streaming platform.

The event, dubbed Rhapsody over London, features Queen and Lambert performing in early June during their 10-show run at London’s O2 arena. The 28-song, two-and-a-half-hour concert was documented with 26 cameras and a crew of film technicians over 100 strong.

The presentation, which only will be available until July 31, will also include a live Q&A with Lambert and Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor speaking backstage before the next-to-last show of their European trek in Tampere, Finland.

Four ticket packages are available, and fans who purchase tickets will have the chance to submit questions that the band members may answer live during the Q&A. Questions must be submitted via video by July 19.

All packages include the O2 concert, the July 24 Q&A and a pre-show pass to watch the 2019 documentary The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story. The Show Must Go On will only be available for viewing on July 22 and July 23.

Some packages will also offer a video-on-demand bundle that will give viewers access to the world premiere of the Queen + Adam Lambert concert film Summersonic – Live in Japan, the band’s 2020 concert flick Live Around the World, a 2020 livestreamed Q&A event that featured Lambert, May and Taylor and promoted Live Around the World, and a feature called Meet the Press that compiles highlights from the group’s various press conferences over the last 10 years.

Tickets for Rhapsody over London can be purchased at Livestream.QueenOnline.com.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Carlos Santana reportedly passed out onstage during a Tuesday concert at Pine Knob Music Theatre, an outdoor amphitheater in Clarkston, some 40 miles northwest of Detroit, Michigan.

The 74-year-old rock legend was about an hour into his concert when he was “overcome with heat exhaustion and dehydration,” his manager, Michael Vrionis, said in a statement obtained by ABC News.

“Carlos was taken to the emergency department at McLaren Clarkston for observation and is doing well,” the statement continued.

“The show for tomorrow July 6th at The Pavilion at Star Lake (formerly the S&T Bank Music Park) in Burgettstown, PA. will be postponed to a later date. More details to follow thru Live Nation,” Vrionis added.

Santana was introducing the song “Joy,” from his 2021 album Blessings and Miracles, shortly before he passed out, according to Detroit Free Press journalist Jo-Ann Barnas. He was describing the song as “mystical medicine music to heal a world infected with fear.”

Santana was treated for about 20 minutes before medical staff covered him with a tarp and wheeled him offstage, according to social media posts and video.

“Ladies and gentlemen as you can we see have a severe medical emergency,” the venue staff reportedly announced to the audience. “Let’s share our prayers…We need it right now…Please send your light and love to this man.”

Last year, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer canceled the December dates of his Las Vegas residency to recover from what was described as “an unscheduled heart procedure.” He was scheduled to perform eight dates at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Santana also announced that he tested positive for COVID-19 in February.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Former Pink Floyd singer/bassist Roger Waters‘ This Is Not a Drill tour of North America gets underway Wednesday night with a concert in Pittsburgh.

The trek originally was scheduled to begin in July 2020, but was pushed back two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tour features a total 40 shows in the U.S. and Canada, running through an October 8 performance in Dallas. The outing will wind down with a trio of concerts in Mexico — on October 11 in Monterrey and October 14 and 15 in Mexico City.

The tour also includes multiple-night stands in Toronto, Philadelphia, New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

As previously reported, the This Is Not a Drill concerts will be staged “in the round,” a first for Waters.

In a statement about the trek, Roger explained that his performances will offer “a stunning indictment of the corporate dystopia in which we all struggle to survive, and a call to action to LOVE, PROTECT and SHARE our precious and precarious planet home.”

He added, “The show includes a dozen great songs from PINK FLOYD’S GOLDEN ERA along side several new ones, words and music, same writer, same heart, same soul, same man.”

Leading up to the start of the tour, Waters has been posting a series of black-and-white video clips on his social media sites featuring footage of him rehearsing with his backing group, and sharing his excitement about the new show and its stage production.

The clips have included snippets of Roger and company playing such Pink Floyd classics as “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” “Eclipse” and “Another Brick in the Wall.”

Check out Waters’ full schedule at RogerWaters.com.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

When the star-packed lineup of the RockIsland Fest 2023 event was unveiled last week, one headliner wasn’t announced but has since been revealed — Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil.

As previously reported, next year’s RockIsland Fest will take place January 17-21 in Key West, Florida. The bill also includes Styx, Loverboy, Tesla, 38 Special, Queensrÿche, Quiet Riot, Extreme, Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy, Stryper, ex-Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler, Enuff Z’Nuff, Honeymoon Suite and Autograph.

Tickets, passes and packages for the five-day rock extravaganza will go on sale to the general public Wednesday, July 6, at 10 a.m. ET. Presale passes are available now.

The main venue for the event is the 4,000-seat Truman Waterfront Park Amphitheater, located on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico.

The first edition of the festival was held earlier this year and included performances by Cheap Trick, Night Ranger, Poison‘s Bret Michaels, Twisted Sister‘s Dee Snider, Skid Row, Warrant, Winger, Dokken, Lita Ford and many others.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

When the star-packed lineup of the RokIsland Fest 2023 event was unveiled last week, one headliner wasn’t announced but has since been revealed — Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil.

As previously reported, next year’s RokIsland Fest will take place January 17-21 in Key West, Florida. The bill also includes Styx, Loverboy, Tesla, 38 Special, Queensrÿche, Quiet Riot, Extreme, Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy, Stryper, ex-Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler, Enuff Z’Nuff, Honeymoon Suite and Autograph.

Tickets, passes and packages for the five-day rock extravaganza will go on sale to the general public Wednesday, July 6, at 10 a.m. ET. Presale passes are available now.

The main venue for the event is the 4,000-seat Truman Waterfront Park Amphitheater, located on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico.

The first edition of the festival was held earlier this year and included performances by Cheap Trick, Night Ranger, Poison‘s Bret Michaels, Twisted Sister‘s Dee Snider, Skid Row, Warrant, Winger, Dokken, Lita Ford and many others.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Richie Furay, the country-rock pioneer who co-founded both Buffalo Springfield and Poco, has debuted a new cover of the 1958 Ricky Nelson hit “Lonesome Town” from his forthcoming covers album, In the Country, which will be released Friday, July 8.

Furay’s rendition of the memorable song premiered Tuesday at TheBluegrassSituation.com and on his official YouTube channel.

“Ricky Nelson was an idol and musical hero of mine. This song (or any) by Ricky had to be included on this record because of his influence on me,” Furay explains. “I remember watching and waiting for him to play on the old Ozzie and Harriet TV show. One such performance was the one that prompted me — I want to do this; I want to be a musician. Ricky was singing ‘Be-Bop Baby,’ and that was the clincher; I never looked back.”

The track features harmony vocals from country star and current Eagles touring member Vince Gill. Richie notes that his former Poco bandmate and longtime Eagles bassist Timothy B. Schmit, who also sings on In the Country, suggested that Furay use Gill on the song.

“What a thrill it is to have one of the greatest singers/musicians of our day perform on that special song,” Furay says.

As previously reported, In the Country is made up mainly of Furay’s interpretations of various well-known country songs and also includes a few notable crossover hits, like Marc Cohn‘s “Walking in Memphis” and John Denver‘s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

In the Country can be preordered now, and Furay has already released a couple of advance tracks from the album — covers of “Walking in Memphis” and Keith Urban‘s “Somebody Like You.”

Richie currently has just a few upcoming concerts lined up. Visit RichieFuray.com to check out his full schedule.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Iggy Pop has postponed a pair of upcoming European shows due to a “problem with his voice.”

In a statement posted to Facebook, the Godfather of Punk shares that he’d been dealing with vocal issues earlier on during the tour.

“If you were there, you know I croaked my way through my last show in Greece and my voice is still recovering,” Pop writes.

“I have not taken this decision lightly,” he adds of the postponement. “I love my fans. But I must protect my voice. I’m so sorry, but I’ll come back and make it up to you.”

The affected shows were set to take place in Italy on July 5 and Austria on July 7. They’ve already been rescheduled for August 30 and September 2, respectively.

Pop will be back in the U.S. to play California’s Desert Daze festival, taking place September 30 to October 2.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The lineup has been unveiled for the 2023 Monsters of Rock Cruise, which is scheduled to set sail from Port Canaveral, Florida, on April 29 and run through May 4.

The 11th annual edition of the seagoing hard-rock festival, which has been dubbed “They Came from Outer Space,” will feature over 35 acts, including Tesla, ex-UFO/Scorpions guitarist Michael Schenker, Queensrÿche, Winger, Extreme, Vandenberg, Autograph, Great White, Saxon, Faster Pussycat, Whitesnake guitarist Joel Hoekstra, Kix, Loudness, Rose Tattoo, Stryper and former Mötley Crüe singer John Corabi.

The cruise will make stops in Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic, and the private isle of Labadee in the Bahamas before returning to port.

In addition to the many performances, the cruise will feature Q&A sessions, karaoke, a “So You Think You Can Shred” contest, “Cooking with Rock Stars” and “Painting with Rock Stars” events, a basketball game where select rockers will face off against cruise attendees, comedy sets, theme nights, photo ops and the chance for fans to have dinner with some of the performers.

Other onboard activities include a surf simulator, a rock-climbing wall, hot tubs and pools, a world-class spa, a bungee trampoline experience called the SkyPad, waterslides, laser tag and an escape room.

Cabins can be reserved now, with prices stating at $1,699 per person, double occupancy. Visit MonstersofRockCruise.com for more details.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.