Classic Rock News

Over 200 artists, including The Who, Aerosmith, ZZ Top and KISS, are taking part in Live Nation’s 2022 Concert Week promotion, which will offer $25 tickets to shows across North American throughout the summer.

Among the many, many other participating tours are Alice Cooper, Alice in Chains & Bush, Anthrax, The Beach Boys, The Black Crowes, Bonnie Raitt, Chicago & Brian Wilson, Collective Soul, Def Leppard & Mötley Crüe, Devo, The Doobie Brothers, Elvis Costello, Foreigner, Kraftwerk, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Megadeth, REO Speedwagon & Styx with Loverboy, Rod Stewart, Roxy Music, Sammy Hagar, Santana, Steely Dan, Sting, Tedeschi Trucks Band and Tesla.

In total, over 3,700 shows will be discounted as part of the promotion.

The $25 Concert Week tickets will be on sale beginning Wednesday, May 4 at 10 a.m. ET, through Tuesday, May 10. For the full list of participating artists and all other info, visit LiveNation.com.

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David Bowie‘s landmark 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was released 50 years ago this June, and to commemorate the milestone, two special vinyl collections will be issued that month.

The first is a limited-edition half-speed-mastered Ziggy Stardust LP, while the second is a picture disc featuring the same master and packaged with a replica promotional poster. Both discs are due out on June 17, one day after the 50th anniversary of the Ziggy Stardust album’s original U.K. release.

The new master for LPs was created using restored masters of the original master tapes from Bowie’s sessions at London’s Trident Studios.

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was Bowie’s fifth album and his first to break into the top 40 of the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at #21. While the record yielded no hit singles in the U.S., it features many of classic Bowie songs, including “Moonage Daydream,” “Starman,” “Ziggy Stardust” and “Suffragette City.” The record is a loose concept album focusing on the Bowie-created Ziggy Stardust character, a bisexual alien rock star, and his mythical backing group, The Spiders from Mars.

During that time, Bowie and his real band took on the personas of Ziggy and The Spiders from Mars in concert, until David dramatically declared onstage at the end of a July 1973 show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon that the group had played its last gig.

Today’s announcement of the upcoming vinyl discs coincides with the 50th anniversary of release of the album’s first single, “Starman,” which reached at #10 in the U.K.

Here’s the full Ziggy Stardust track list:

Side One
“Five Years”
“Soul Love”
“Moonage Daydream”
“Starman”
“It Ain’t Easy”

Side Two
“Lady Stardust”
“Star”
“Hang On to Yourself”
“Ziggy Stardust”
“Suffragette City”
“Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide”

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Ozzy Osbourne has tested positive for COVID-19.

The 73-year-old Black Sabbath legend’s wife Sharon Osbourne revealed the news in an interview on the U.K.’s Talk TV Thursday. Sharon, who’s currently in the U.K. while Ozzy is in Los Angeles, said that she spoke to her husband and that he’s “OK,” while adding that she’s “very worried” about him.

“We’ve gone two years without him catching COVID,” Sharon said through tears. “It’s just Ozzy’s luck he would get it now.”

She added that she’s returning to L.A. to be with Ozzy so that she can “hold him and kiss him with about three masks on.”

Sharon had just started a new show on Talk TV called The Talk, not to be confused with the CBS show The Talk that she used to co-host before her controversial exit in 2021. In returning home to Ozzy, she says she’ll miss a week before returning to the U.K. The Talk.

“I know my husband,” Sharon said. “We’re gonna get him back on his feet and we’re going to get a negative test by next week.”

Various members of the Osbourne family have contracted COVID-19 over the pandemic, including Sharon and several of her and Ozzy’s grandchildren.

Ozzy received his first COVID-19 vaccine in February 2021.

In an interview with Metal Hammer last October, Ozzy joked that being a “devil worshipper” helped him avoid catching the virus.

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The Beach Boys are launching a yearlong worldwide celebration to mark their 60th anniversary that will include special audio releases, an official documentary, a tribute special, new music videos, exhibitions, other commemorative events, and more.

Kicking things off will be an expanded and remastered reissue of the band’s 2003 hits compilation Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys that will be released on June 17.

The updated collection, features 80 tracks, 50 more than the original version, including classic hits and deeper cuts spanning from the group’s 1962 debut album, Surfin’ Safari, through 1989’s Still Cruisin’.

The track list boasts nearly every top-40 single that the band released, including “California Girls,” “I Get Around,” “Surfer Girl,” “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” “God Only Knows,” “Good Vibrations” and “Kokomo.” Newly added songs include such gems as “Feel Flows,” “Sail On Sailor” and “Surf’s Up.”

The Sounds of Summer reissue includes 24 new mixes, with two tracks getting stereo mixes for the first time. The collection, which can be pre-ordered now, will be available as a three-CD set, digitally and as a six-LP vinyl package. A limited-edition, numbered version of the vinyl collection will feature a rainbow foil slipcase and four lithographs.

A remastered version of the original 30-track compilation also will be released, on CD and as a two-LP set.

In advance of the reissue’s arrival, a new stereo mix of “Good Vibrations” has been made available as a digital single.

The Beach Boys also are planning to release an archival multi-disc set this fall that delves into two of the band’s early-’70s albums — 1972’s Carl and the Passions — “So Tough” and 1973’s Holland.

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Phil Collins and his ex-wife Orianne Cevey faced off — online, at least — Wednesday in front of a judge, in the latest chapter of their ongoing multi-million-dollar legal battle over Phil’s Miami mansion.

The New York Post reports that Phil and Orianne are fighting over the proceeds to the mansion, which he sold in January of 2021 for $40 million. Phil believes Orianne has no right to half the proceeds from the house; she thinks otherwise. In their latest court filing, Phil’s lawyers accuse Orianne of “committing a fraud” when it comes to the various affidavits she’s filed in connection with the case.

Phil and Orianne were married from 1999 to 2008. Orianne then married Charles Mejjati, but divorced him, she claims, after Phil promised to give her half of the proceeds from the Miami mansion if she split up with Mejjati. She also claims that Phil asked her to move in with him and said he’d “take care” of her.

Phil denies ever promising her half the house. However, the two did reconcile in 2016 and were together until 2020, when Orianne secretly married another man named Thomas Bates — who, court papers reveal, she “picked from a male escort site.” 

She then moved Bates into the Miami mansion when Phil was in Europe; the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was forced to legally evict them. Phil then sold the mansion and moved to Switzerland.

Phil’s lawyers say there are “literally dozens of additional irreconcilable conflicts between” Orianne’s position in the case and things she stated in 2016 when she divorced Mejjati.

Orianne was Phil’s third wife. They have two children: 21-year-old Nic — who drummed in Phil’s place during his farewell tour with Genesis — and Matthew, 17.

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It’s been almost three years since Paul McCartney last played a full-length concert — with his long hiatus due, of course, to the COVID-19 pandemic — but the former Beatles star finally is ready to get back on the road, with a new U.S. tour kicking off tonight in Spokane, Washington.

McCartney’s trek, dubbed the Got Back tour, features a total of 16 dates, and runs through a June 16 performance at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The outing includes three multiple-night engagements — May 2-3 in Seattle; May 6 and May 8 in Oakland, California; and June 7-8 at Boston’s famed Fenway Park.

With Sir Paul and his band just about ready to kick things off, McCartney has posted a video on his YouTube channel and social media sites featuring some behind-the-scenes and rehearsal footage, as well as audio of a performance of “Get Back.”

In the clip, McCartney says, “Very excited. Final days of rehearsal, and we’re gonna get back out. We’re really excited to see those happy faces, and try and bring ’em some peace, love and a little bit of joy in these dark days.”

The video also features some comments from drummer Abe Laborial Jr., who notes, “I can’t believe how much I’ve missed this. You know, I thought maybe having a couple months off would be nice. Wasn’t expecting it to be two-and-a-half years, so I’ve really missed my family. I’ve missed all of these people.”

To check out Sir Paul’s full U.S. tour schedule and to buy tickets to the shows, visit PaulMcCartneyGotBack.com and PaulMcCartney.com.

After the stateside trek, Sir Paul will be playing a headlining set at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival on June 25.

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Devo is among the nominees for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, marking the third time that the quirky and influential New Wave band has been in the running for the honor.

Founding Devo member Gerald Casale tells ABC Audio that “it’d be nice” if the band is chosen for induction, and “a feather in [our] cap,” while admitting, “I won’t cry if it doesn’t happen.”

The 73-year-old musician says if Devo is selected to inducted, the band will be up for performing at the ceremony. He notes that if he had to choose the songs that the group would play, “they would have to be the tent poles of Devo, [and]…would certainly have to…include ‘Whip It!,’ ‘Uncontrollable Urge’ and ‘Beautiful World.'”

Gerald also has ideas about who he’d like to see induct Devo into the Rock Hall, pointing out that since David Bowie is no longer with us, “Neil Young would be the first logical choice.”

Young was not only an early Devo devotee, he featured the band in his apocalyptic 1982 cult comedy film Human Highway, and collaborated on some recordings with the group around that time.

“We loved working with him. We actually loved him,” Casale tells ABC Audio. “We had no idea that the…grandfather of granola rock would take to Devo so well and he’d be such an interesting, iconoclastic person, and easy to talk to and [with a] full sense of humor and still [with] boy-like enthusiasm and energy for new music.”

The Rock Hall’s 2022 inductees will be announced in early May. Voting for the online fan poll, which only has minor influence on who gets inducted, ends this Friday, April 29. Devo currently is ranked ninth out of the 17 nominees.

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KISS bassist/singer Gene Simmons has extended an invitation to the band’s founding lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, to join the group during encores at some of the upcoming shows on KISS’ End of the Road farewell tour.

Simmons’ invite was part of a birthday message he sent via Twitter to Frehley, who turned 71 today.

“Happy Birthday Ace…And many more,” Gene wrote. “The invitations still stand. Jump up on stage with us for encores. The fans would love it.”

Frehley last performed with KISS in 2018, when he joined the band’s current lineup to play a few songs during the group’s annual KISS Kruise. That same year, Ace released the solo studio album Spaceman, which included two tracks on which he collaborated with Simmons.

In interviews around that time, Frehley said he wasn’t opposed to rejoining KISS to tour, but insisted the money had to be right.

Meanwhile, as reported last month, Frehley is slated to reunite with original KISS drummer Peter Criss to perform a few songs during the first day of Nashville’s Creatures Fest event, which runs from May 27 to May 29.

KISS’ next show on its End of the Road tour takes place on Thursday, April 28, in Curitiba, Brazil. The band begins a new U.S. leg of the trek on May 11 in Milwaukee.

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Randy Rand, founding bassist of the ’80s glam-metal band Autograph, has died, the group announced Tuesday in a Facebook message.

“It is with great sorrow and heavy hearts to announce the unexpected passing of our cherished friend and founding member of Autograph, Randy Rand,” the message reads. “At the time of death, Randy was surrounded by his beautiful and infinite love, Regina Rand and family.”

Autograph formed in 1983 and enjoyed its biggest success with its 1984 debut album, Sign In Please. The record featured the hit single “Turn Up the Radio,” which Rand co-wrote and which peaked at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album itself reached #29 on the Billboard 200 chart, and went on to be certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 in the U.S.

The band broke up in 1989 but reunited in 2013. At the time of his death, Rand was the only original member still in the group. In January, the band announced that it had signed with the Frontiers label, and a new studio album is expected out soon.

The message announcing Rand’s passing also notes, “Although beyond devastated, we find some comfort and solace knowing the last couple of years have been some of his happiest as an artist and as a performer. Randy was the consummate optimist and was so excited to see the new direction, creativity and renewed energy with the band.”

The note continues, “Collectively in the last couple of years with this formation, we spent numerous hours that turned into something magical while creating an unbreakable bond few bands are fortunate enough to ever experience,” adding, [W]e will continue to honor Randy Rand, as he would want us to and honor our musical commitments and keep his legacy alive.”

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Metallica has announced Rye the Lightning, the latest spirit from the band’s signature Blackened Whiskey brand.

Named after the 1984 ‘Tallica album Ride the Lightning, Rye the Lightning is a 90-proof Kentucky straight rye whiskey with “notes of dried fig, hay, pinewood, pear, and rum cake on the nose, and on the palate, clover honey, mint, corn husk, sugar cane, walnut, and cinnamon.”

As with previous Blackened Whiskeys, Rye the Lightning was made using “Black Noise,” a method that involves playing Metallica songs during the distilling process. Apparently, the low-frequency sound waves of the band’s music helps “shape the flavor” of the whiskey.

Fittingly, the playlist used in crafting Rye the Lightning features Metallica’s reverse-order performance of Ride the Lightning at the 2012 Orion Music + More festival.

“Orion Music + More was an awesome experiment and experience,” recalls bassist Robert Trujillo. “The vibe from the crowd was electrifying, and it’s really cool that we get to capture that energy in this release.”

Adds Trujillo, “We’ve used a few live songs in our playlists before, but never a full live playlist. So to be able to incorporate our fans in the Blackened journey and have them be a part of the whiskey-making process is really unique.”

You can pre-order your bottle of Rye the Lighting now via BlackenedWhiskey.com.

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