Classic Rock News

As much fun as Metallica had playing the Power Trip festival, frontman James Hetfield might’ve had an even better time watching fellow headliner Judas Priest take the stage.

You may have seen viral footage of Hetfield shredding air guitar during Priest’s performance of “Living After Midnight,” or Metallica’s Instagram post of him and guitarist Kirk Hammett rocking out while standing between the crowd barricade and the stage.

In the latest episode of the weekly Metallica Report podcast, Hetfield reflects on his Power Trip experience.

“I just kind of realized that we’re down in the very front looking up, you got Rob Halford riding out on a motorcycle, and there’s fans behind us looking at us,” Hetfield shares. “They’re watching us enjoy that. How cool?”

“We’re fans, at the end of the day,” he adds. “We wanted to be in the mix and see it.”

Power Trip also featured Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, Tool and AC/DC, who played their first live show in seven years at the festival.

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Van Morrison will be celebrating his upcoming album, Accentuate the Positive, with two hometown shows.

He just announced a pair of album release concerts taking place November 4 and 5 at the Limelight in Belfast, Ireland, and urged concertgoers to “bring your dancing shoes.” 

Tickets for both shows go on sale Friday, October 13, at 10 a.m. local time.

Accentuate the Positive, Morrison’s 45th studio album, has him covering some of his personal rock ‘n’ roll favorites, like the already released singles “Shakin’ All Over,” originally recorded by Johnny Kidd, and “Problems,” made famous by The Everly Brothers in 1958.

Accentuate the Positive, dropping November 3, is available for preorder now.

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On This Day, October 11, 1997…

Elton John landed at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Candle in the Wind ’97,” a tribute to his close friend, the late Princess Diana.  

Elton first performed the song, a reworking of his 1974 single, at Diana’s funeral that September. He then recorded the track, with proceeds going to the Diana, Princess of Wales Fund. The song was released as a double A-side single with “Something About the Way You Look Tonight,” from Elton’s album The Big Picture.

The track spent 14 weeks at #1 in the U.S, and topped the charts in 20 different countries, including the U.K., Japan, Australia and more. It went on to become the first single to earn Diamond certification by the RIAA for sales of 10 million copies. 

“Candle in the Wind ’97” is also the second highest-selling physical single of all time, behind Bing Crosby‘s 1942 classic “White Christmas,” according to the Guinness Book of World Records, and has sold more than 33 million copies worldwide.

The track also earned Elton a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

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ZZ Top guitarist Billy F Gibbons is throwing himself a birthday party this December. 

The rocker announced a trio of Birthday Jam concerts taking place December 19, 20 and 21 at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. All shows, billed as “3 Nights of Rock and Blues,” will feature the LA AllStars Band and promises unnamed special guests.

The December 19 and 21 shows are already sold out, but tickets for the 20th are still available.

Gibbons’ actual birthday is December 16; he’ll be turning 74.

In the meantime, Gibbons is currently on tour with ZZ Top. They’ll hit Calgary, Canada, on Wednesday, October 11. A complete list of dates can be found at zztop.com.

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May Pang, the woman who had an 18-month relationship with The Beatles‘ John Lennon in the ’70s, is telling her story in the new documentary The Lost Weekend: A Love Story. But she says it took a while for her to be ready to share it on the big screen.

She tells ABC Audio that while she previously released a book about their romance, putting it on the big screen is much different.

“We’re in an age right now that people rather see something than read it,” she says. “And I think it makes a bigger impact on my story.”

May was working as Lennon and Yoko Ono’s personal assistant when the couple decided to separate in 1973; Yoko told Pang she wanted her to date her husband. The movie covers their happy time together in Los Angeles and New York; it also touches on how Pang helped Lennon rebuild his fractured relationship with his son Julian, as well as his musical friends.

When their relationship ended, it was often referred to as The Lost Weekend, but Pang hopes the movie shows folks that what they had was real.

“There was a lot of good that came out of that for both him and, you know, myself,” she says.

And Pang says she has few regrets about their time together, which she claims didn’t actually end when John finally returned to Yoko.

“I knew that he wasn’t completely 100% happy because he was one of those type of people, once you are over, it’s over,” she says. “But it wasn’t when it came to me.”  

The Lost Weekend: A Love Story comes to VOD and Blu-ray on Friday, October 13.

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Music fans are getting their first look at a new documentary centered around the relationship between The Rolling Stones and founding member Brian Jones, who was fired from the band in 1969 due to alcohol and drug problems. He died less than a month later.

A new trailer has just been released for The Stones and Brian Jones, directed by Kurt & Courtney director Nick Broomfield. The movie will hit theaters on November 7, before being released digitally on November 17.

The trailer features archival footage, some of which has never been seen before. According to the description, the film “explores the creative musical genius of Jones” and “uncovers how the founder of what became the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world was left behind in the shadows of history.”

One thing you won’t see in the film is a new interview from Mick Jagger or Keith Richards. Broomfield tells Rolling Stone mag he didn’t approach them because “they’re extremely controlling.”

“One of the reasons there are no films about this period is because no one’s ever been able to make one. So, we just made this film and showed it to people afterward,” he says. “(Former Stones bassist) Bill Wyman came onboard, which was great because he was the guy who was the diarist and note-keeper of the Stones. He has all these diaries in his study — every day he kept a notebook of what happened.”

He says Wyman was amazed after watching the documentary, noting, “I think when you can surprise the Stones’ own archivist, you’re doing OK.”

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The music of the late Warren Zevon is being celebrated with a new live album from Shooter Jennings and his Werewolves of Los Angeles band.

Shooter Jennings and the Werewolves of Los Angeles Do Zevon is a recording of their 2023 Rebels & Renegades Music Festival performance in Monterey, California. It features live performances of such Zevon tunes as “Werewolves of London,” “Keep Me In Your Heart” and more; their performance of “Excitable Boy” is out now.

Jennings and his band will soon celebrate Zevon onstage again. On November 1, they’ll play New York’s Brooklyn Made, which Shooter shares is a response to Zevon not making it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year, even though he was nominated.

“When Zevon was picked to be potentially inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year we, along with millions of Zevon fans, were hoping that he would finally get his due in the halls of Rock & Roll History,” Shooter says. “Unfortunately, Zevon didn’t make it in this year and won’t be honored on November 4, 2023, in New York City at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony.”

He adds, “We decided that even though Warren wasn’t going into the Hall of Fame, we could take a special trip up to New York City that weekend and do our own celebration of Warren’s bad-a** music.” 

Shooter Jennings and the Werewolves of Los Angeles Do Zevon will be released November 3. It is available for preorder now.

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Sting is currently touring North America, and he’ll head to Europe for a string of dates that run through December. But he has no plans to slow down in the new year: He’s just announced two concerts for March.

Sting will perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra on March 8 and March 9 in the City of Brotherly Love. Unusually, each show will begin at 5 p.m. It’ll be the second time Sting’s done this: He first performed with the orchestra in 2010 at the Philadelphia Academy of Music’s 153rd anniversary concert.

Sting is an old hand at playing his songs with an orchestra. In 2010, he teamed up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to record Symphonicities, an album of orchestral versions of his hits. That was followed by a world tour with the orchestra and a live album.

A presale for the March dates will start October 11 at 10 a.m. ET for members of the Sting.com fan club and orchestra members. The general onsale is Monday, October 16, at 10 a.m. ET.

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Illness has forced Steely Dan to drop off several dates of the Eagles’ The Long Goodbye Tour.

The Indianapolis Star reported that Steely Dan frontman Donald Fagen had been hospitalized, although ABC Audio has learned Donald is not hospitalized and expects to be back on the road soon.

Michael Leonhart, who is currently on tour with Steely Dan, posted on Instagram, “All is fine. Just a little illness. We’ll be back on stage soon.”

Steely Dan has actually been off the Eagles bill since Friday, October 6, when Sheryl Crow filled in for them in Denver. The Steve Miller Band then took over for the Indianapolis shows on October 9 and 10 and will again fill in October 13 in Detroit and October 17 in Cleveland. Current Eagles member Vince Gill and the Nashville Band will open the October 15 show in Pittsburgh.

Once those shows are over, Eagles aren’t back onstage until November 2 in Atlanta, Georgia. A complete list of tour dates can be found at eagles.com.

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While The Rolling Stones certainly don’t seem like they’re about to slow down anytime soon, the band members are getting older. For Keith Richards, all the guitar playing over the years has apparently taken a toll on his hands.

In a new interview with BBC, Richards discusses how he deals with arthritis in his hands and reveals it has affected his playing.

“Funnily enough, I’ve no doubt it has, but I don’t have any pain, it’s a sort of benign version,” he says. “I think if I’ve slowed down a little bit it’s probably due more to age.” 

He adds, “And also, I found that interesting, when I’m like, ‘I can’t quite do that anymore,’ the guitar will show me there’s another way of doing it. Some finger will go one space different and a whole new door opens. And so you’re always learning. You never finish school, man.” 

The Stones are about to release their new album, Hackney Diamonds, on October 20, and it sounds like fans may soon be seeing Keith play guitar on the road again. He says the band plans to tour next year “if everybody is still standing.”

“We’re all in good fettle. We’re not looking at each other and saying, ‘time’s up,’” he shares.  

As for whether he sees a time when they will hang it up, he jokes, “My answer is I’m not Nostradamus.” He adds, “Of course it’s going to end some time, but there’s no particular rush. We’re having great fun doing this.”

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