Classic Rock News

Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and acclaimed country-bluegrass artist Alison Krauss have added four new dates to the end of their forthcoming second U.S. tour leg in support of their 2021 album, Raise the Roof.

The trek, which kicks off with an August 15 concert in San Diego, California was originally plotted out through a September 4 performance in Austin, Texas. The new shows are scheduled for September 7 in Franklin, Tennessee; September 9 in Boston, Massachusetts; September 10 in Mashantucket, Connecticut; and September 12 at New York City’s famed Beacon Theatre.

In addition, an Atlanta concert that was to have taken place on June 16 but was postponed because of bad weather has been rescheduled for September 6.

Tickets for the Beacon Theatre show go on sale to the general public this Friday, June 24 at 9 a.m. ET, while tickets for the other three concerts will be available to the public that day at 10 a.m. local time. Pre-sale tickets for all four performances will go on sale starting tomorrow.

For more information, visit PlantKrauss.com/#tour.

The first leg of Plant and Krauss’ 2022 U.S. tour wrapped up on Friday, June 17 with a performance at the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The duo will launch a series of European shows with an appearance this Friday, June 24 at U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival. The trek will run through a July 20 gig in Berlin.

Released in November 2021, Raise the Roof peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album is a follow-up to Plant and Krauss’ Grammy-winning 2007 collaborative record, Raising Sand.

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A new capsule collection of t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts featuring images of and quotes by late Queen singer Freddie Mercury has been launched by the BOSS apparel brand as part of its BOSS Legends series.

According to a press release, the new collection, which arrived during Pride Month, celebrates “the attitude, vision and spirit” of Mercury, noting that shared philosophy of the singer and the brand “exemplifies the desire to defy convention, live life on your own terms, and be your own BOSS.”

The t-shirts are available in black, white and bright yellow, with the latter color a nod to the famous jacket Mercury wore during his final tour with Queen in 1986. The hoodie comes in black.

The shirts and the hoodie feature black-and-white photos of Freddie performing as well as Mercury’s autograph and a specially created design combining the BOSS logo and the autograph.

One of the t-shirts from the collection boasts a quote by Mercury declaring, “I’m not going to be a star. I’m going to be a legend!”

The Freddie Mercury BOSS Legends capsule collection is available now online and in BOSS stores around the world. A portion of proceeds from sales of the items will benefit the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the AIDS-related charity founded by Queen guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and manager Jim Beach in Mercury’s honor.

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Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Crosby, Stills & Nash‘s Daylight Again, the famed folk-rock trio’s third studio album.

Daylight Again featured two hit singles, “Wasted on the Way” and “Southern Cross,” which peaked at #9 and #18, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album reached #8 on the Billboard 200.

The project began as duo collaboration between Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, but David Crosby, who had been struggling with drug issues at the time, was eventually brought in to make it a full-fledged CSN album.

“David was going through…a difficult time in his life, but we made the best record that we could at the time, absolutely,” Nash tells ABC Audio. “And I think it’s a fine piece of music.”

In Crosby’s absence, various other singers were brought in to fill out the tracks, including Art Garfunkel and Eagles bassist Timothy B. Schmit.

Nash says a musician who made particularly important contributions to Daylight Again was keyboardist and backing singer Mike Finnigan, who died of cancer in 2021.

“Mike Finnigan was our organ player for many, many years, and he…was a fantastic musician,” Graham notes. “A lot of Daylight Again was done with Michael singing with me and Stephen, that we replaced with David’s voice when David came back to health.”

Meanwhile, Nash explains that “Wasted on the Way,” which was CSN’s second-highest-charting single ever, was written about his feeling that he and his band mates could’ve made much more music together than they did.

“I understand that CSN and CSNY did a lot of really fine music, and I’m very proud of it all,” he says, adding with a laugh, “but once you play me a great song, I want more.”

Here’s Daylight Again‘s full track list:

“Turn Your Back on Love”
“Wasted on the Way”
“Southern Cross”
“Into the Darkness”
“Delta”
“Since I Met You”
“Too Much Love to Hide”
“Song for Susan”
“You Are Alive”
“Might as Well Have a Good Time”
“Daylight Again/Find the Cost of Freedom”

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If you’re a Pretenders fan, here’s some potentially disappointing news: Frontwoman Chrissie Hynde says she no longer plans to play concerts that focus on her band’s best-known tunes.

In a Facebook message posted Friday, Hynde revealed she had some “good news,” writing, “I’m completely dumping any sort of Greatest Hits set for now on. I never wanted to go there in the first place but was trying to keep myself alive and pay the bills. And yes, I know that’s no reason to be in a rock band. (I was just too scared to go back to waitressing.) But those greatest hits/ballads days are now behind me.”

She added, “If anyone wants to come and see me in the future it’s going to be punk rock/no hits.”

Hynde also sung the praises of and shared a video clip of a hard-rocking new song by longtime Pretenders guitarist James Walbourne‘s current project, His Lordship‘s “All Cranked Up.”

The Pretenders currently have no tour dates scheduled, although Hynde has been announced as one of the performers at the Foo Fighters-headlined star-studded tribute concert to late Foos drummer Taylor Hawkins that will take place September 3 in London.

Also, Hynde announced in a Facebook post last month that The Pretenders had finished recording a new album.

Hynde explained that the project “started out as more of a Valve Bone Woe sort of thing” — referring to her jazz-influenced 2019 solo album — “but morphed into a rock thing.” 

She added, “I guess I just can’t help it. I know I shouldn’t name drop, but in the words of Neil Young ‘she’ll be rocking till she drops.'”

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If you’re a director looking to make a new Popeye movie, look no further than Flea.

In a recent tweet, the Red Hot Chili Peppers suggested he’d be a good choice to play pipe-chewing, spinach-eating Sailor Man, should the opportunity ever arise.

“If a good director decides to make a Popeye movie, I’m your man,” Flea declared.

Should Flea be able to manifest a starring role in a new Popeye film — which, judging by other franchise reboots/sequels, would probably be called Dawn of Popeye or Popeye Returns or simply The Popeye — he’d be following in the footsteps of the late Robin Williams, who played the character in the 1980 live-action movie Popeye. The Robert Altman-directed feature received poor reviews, but has developed more of a following in recent years.

In the meantime, Flea is currently on tour with the Peppers in support of their new album, Unlimited Love. The global trek will come to the U.S. in July.

You can also catch Flea in the new Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Brett Tuggle, a veteran keyboardist who toured with the David Lee Roth Band, Fleetwood Mac, Rick Springfield and many other artists, died on Sunday, June 19, “from complications related to cancer,” Rolling Stone reports. He was 70.

“Our sweet Brett Tuggle made it home tonight,” tweeted Springfield, with whom Tuggle toured and recorded during the mid-1980s. “God bless his beautiful spirit.”

Brett is survived by his two children — son Matt and daughter Michelle.

“He was loved by his family so much,” Matt told Rolling Stone. “His family was with him throughout the entire time of his illness. He was a lovely father. He gave me music in my life.”

Tuggle was a founding member of Roth’s first solo band after Diamond Dave split with Van Halen. He was a member of Roth’s backing group from 1986 to 1994. He co-wrote several songs with the singer, including “Just Like Paradise,” which reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988.

In 1992, he began playing with the Mick Fleetwood side project The Zoo, and he later served as Fleetwood Mac’s touring keyboardist from 1997 to 2017. He also played keyboards on Mac members Lindsey Buckingham‘s and Stevie Nicks‘ solo tours, as well as on Buckingham and Christine McVie‘s trek in support of the duo’s 2017 collaborative album.

In a 2020 Rolling Stone interview, Tuggle explained that he lost his gig with Fleetwood Mac after Buckingham was fired from the group in 2018, claiming that he was perceived as “Lindsey’s guy.”

Most recently, Tuggle had been touring with Buckingham during Lindsey’s 2021 solo tour, but he did not appear at any of the singer/guitarist’s 2022 concerts.

Over the years, Tuggle also played with Jimmy Page & David Coverdale, John Kay and Steppenwolf, Styx‘s Tommy Shaw and many others.

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For the first time in 14 years, Billy Joel is going Down Under.

The Piano Man has announced that he’ll be performing a one-night-only show on December 10 at Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia. Tickets go on sale on July 4 via FrontierTouring.com/BillyJoel. The venue holds 95,000 people.

In a video statement, Billy tells fans, “It’s been a really long time since I’ve been there, I’m really looking forward to coming and I’m bringing the whole family and we’re going to enjoy it. I’ll see you there.”

Billy won’t just enjoy the gig; he’ll enjoy the weather, too. When he heads to the gig, it’ll be cold in his home state of New York, but it’ll be summer in Australia.

Just ahead of the show in December, Billy will play his regular monthly concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden on November 23. He hasn’t announced his December show there yet. Billy’s next gig is this weekend at Notre Dame Stadium in Indiana.

In other Billy news, you can check out some adorable pictures of him with his young daughters Della and Remy on the Father’s Day post on his website.

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After postponing two concerts because frontman Mick Jagger recently tested positive for COVID-19, The Rolling Stones are ready to relaunch their SIXTY tour on Tuesday in Milan, Italy.

Jagger has posted a video message on his Twitter feed in which he tells fans, “Thanks so much for all your lovely messages. I really appreciate them. And I’m sorry for the inconvenience about the shows, but we’ll be on stage at Milan on Tuesday, so see you there.”

In addition, The Rolling Stones posted a Twitter message Monday featuring a series of photos of their crew setting up the stage at Milan’s San Siro Stadium for Tuesday’s concert.

Unfortunately, the band has announced the second show that was postponed because of Jagger’s illness, a June 17 performance in Bern, Switzerland, can’t be rescheduled and has been canceled.

The announcement explains, “The Stones concert promoters have worked extremely hard all week and tried everything they possibly could to find an alternative date or venue for the concert in Switzerland but sadly this was not possible. The band wish to send a huge apology to all the fans in Switzerland who bought tickets and are deeply saddened they cannot perform in Bern on this tour.”

The message explains that fans who bought tickets can get refunds from their point of purchase until July 17.

As previously reported, the first postponed date, a June 14 show in Amsterdam, has been moved to July 7.

Check out all of the band’s tour dates at RollingStones.com.

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Brian Wilson was born 80 years ago today, and in celebration of his milestone birthday, special messages from some of The Beach Boys legend’s famous musical friends, fans and associates have been compiled in a video that’s been posted on Wilson’s official YouTube channel.

Among the stars featured in the video are Bob Dylan, Elton John, John Fogerty, Joe Walsh, Graham Nash, David Crosby and Wilson’s fellow Beach Boys co-founder Al Jardine.

Elton, who is the first artist featured in the tribute, tells Brian, “Have a wonderful 80th birthday with [your wife] Melinda and your family…You’ve inspired me all my life. To me, you’re the only real pop genius in the world, and I love you very much.”

Fogerty declares, “Happy 80th birthday, and thank you for all the great music!”

Walsh is shown playing the intro to The Beach Boys classic “California Girls” on an electric guitar, and then singing a fun rendition of “Happy Birthday to You.”

Nash says, “I wanted to take a moment and wish you a very, very happy 80th birthday. Do me a favor, please. Keep writing all your wonderful music. I’ll be listening.”

Crosby adds in a separate clip, “Happy Birthday. I love your music. I always have.”

Jardine, who’s been touring with Wilson in recent years as part of his solo band, says, “Hi Brian, I’m the guy who sings on your left…Always remember, we’ll always be younger than your cousin Mike [Love].”

Dylan ends the presentation with an acoustic rendition of “Happy Birthday to You.”

Among the other stars who are featured in the video are Smokey Robinson, the Bee Gees‘ Barry Gibb, Carole King, The Monkees‘ Micky Dolenz, My Morning Jacket‘s Jim James, producer Don Was, actors Jeff Bridges and John Cusack, and filmmaker Cameron Crowe.

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Elton John is the latest legend to get in on the NFT craze for charity.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique pieces of digital artwork that many artists have been either creating themselves, or commissioning, and then selling to fans. Elton has teamed with LGBTQ+ artist Voxel Bunny to create an NFT that’s a digital animation.

Set to Elton’s hit “Rocket Man,” it features a robot-like figure sailing through the galaxy on a hoverboard, which is designed to look like the pinball machine Elton played in the “Pinball Wizard” sequence in the 1975 movie Tommy. 

The starting bid on the NFT is $5,000 with all proceeds going to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and you have until June 22 at 6 p.m. ET to bid.

“Whilst I’m no metaverse expert, I wanted to make sure that my first NFT was something true to me, and collaborating with LGBTQ+ artist Voxel Bunny…on something so unique which benefits the Elton John AIDS Foundation for Pride month, was the perfect opportunity,” Elton said in a statement.

If $5,000 is too steep for you, you can also get a different NFT for just $30, which is available to anyone. It’s a spinning, gold-and-black “Rocket Collectible,” which gets you access to Elton’s new Rocket NFT Club. You can get the latest news, enter special contests, get discounts and have access to ticket pre-sales.

Get all the details at NFT.EltonJohn.com.

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