Classic Rock News

There’s some sad news for fans of the ’80s band Kix. While performing this weekend, the band’s frontman, Steve Whiteman, announced that the group is calling it quits. 

“I wanna make an announcement here. And it’s gonna be probably a little hard to get through, but I wanna do it anyway, ’cause we want you all to know,” he shared in video from the show posted to the band’s Facebook page. “We’ve decided that after 45 years of doing this, I think we’re gonna call it a career.”

He continued, “It’s been a long, long, long road. And my health is failing. (Drummer) Jimmy‘s [Chalfant] health is definitely failing. And we just decided we’re gonna finish up these dates through the summer.” 

Their current tour was originally set to end in Hinckley, Minnesota, but now they’ve decided to end their career with a September 17 concert at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, in Columbia, Maryland, which they’re calling KIX…Walkin’ Away, The Final Show.

On their website, Whiteman shared that the final show is “for our fans.” “We owe a lot to them for their never-ending support over our long 45-year career,” he writes. “It was tempting to just fade away and stop booking gigs and ride off into the sunset, but we wanted our fans to be part of a local farewell show and give them a chance to see the band one last time.” 

Tickets for the final show go on sale Tuesday, May 9, at 10 a.m.

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Metallica has premiered a live video for “Screaming Suicide,” a track off the band’s new album, 72 Seasons.

The performance was recorded during the first date on ‘Tallica’s world M72 tour, which kicked off April 27 in Amsterdam, and marked the live debut of “Screaming Suicide.”

You can watch the video streaming now on YouTube.

The M72 tour continues May 17 in Paris and comes to the U.S. in August. For each city on the tour, Metallica is playing two shows with completely unique set lists.

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Bailey Cypheridge is sharing fond memories of her biological father, the late Rock & Roll Hall of Famer David Crosby.

Bailey’s moms are Melissa Etheridge and her ex partner Julie Cypher, and they eventually revealed that Crosby was their sperm donor, something Bailey says she always knew. 

“He was always a really cool presence in my life, even if we never meant to have that kind of parent-child relationship,” she tells People. “He was friends with my parents, he was their donor for me. I thought it was cool growing up, knowing who he was.”

Cypheridge is currently featured on the MTV/Paramount+ series Family Legacy, and she says it gave her some more insight into her family history.

“It’s special that I got to see some footage of him and my mom while I was working on this project,” she says. “It was really special for me to be able to see that and revisit those memories, especially because he passed away earlier this year.”

Crosby passed away in January at age 81, and Cypheridge says, “It’s been tough, missing him, but I think that it was really cool that I got the call, that I got to do this project before that happened.” 

She also shares that she has one very special memento of her family that she keeps in her bedroom: the cover of the Rolling Stone where her moms announced Crosby as her bio dad. “I just think it’s really cool thing to have that,” she says, joking, “I mean, I peaked in ’99. Can’t really top that.”

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On This Day, May 8, 1993 …

Aerosmith topped the Billboard 200 Album chart with their 11th studio album, Get A Grip, their first U.S. number one.

The album contained the hit songs “Living On The Edge,” “Crazy,” “Cryin’” and “Amazing,” with the success of the latter three aided by a trio of videos featuring Alicia Silverstone that got regular play on MTV. 

The cover of the album featured a cow with a nipple ring through its udder and the Aerosmith logo branded into it, which was deemed “the worst album cover ever” by one music critic. It also sparked backlash from animal rights groups, although the band insisted the image was produced digitally.

Get A Grip went on to sell over 20 million copies to become the band’s bestselling studio album worldwide.

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A new video for Motörhead‘s cover of the Metallica classic “Enter Sandman” is now streaming on YouTube.

The animated clip, in which a kid haunted by nightmares is saved by the power of rock ‘n’ roll, premieres Monday in honor of this year’s Motörhead Day, which is held May 8. If you don’t know why, trying singing “the eighth of May” to the tune of “Ace of Spades.”

Motörhead’s “Enter Sandman” cover was originally released in 1998. It’s long been exclusive to a CD compilation recorded for the now-defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Along with the video premiere, the “Enter Sandman” cover is now available via digital outlets for the first time. You can also preorder a limited edition vinyl single.

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Billy Joel was back at New York’s Madison Square Garden for the 90th show of his residency, and took some time out of the concert to pay tribute to singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, who passed away last week at the age of 84. 

Joel added a bit of Lightfoot’s 1974 classic “Sundown” to his set. “You might know him from the hit records he had,” Joel told the crowd, according to Rolling Stone, “I want to say ‘thank you,’ and rest in peace Gordon Lightfoot.” 

The rocker also performed his own Storm Front track “Downeaster Alexa” in honor of Lightfoot, noting “I was thinking of him singing this next song that I wrote.” 

Joel had already paid tribute to Lightfoot on social media, playing a bit of “If You Could Read My Mind,” and calling him “a lifelong musical hero of mine,” adding, “His songs were the heart of Canada. R.I.P.”

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Elton John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year in the Musical Excellence category, and he’s honored to be chosen.

“I’m just happy that it’s happened, and at my age,” the 73-year-old tells Rolling Stone. “’Excited’ is not a word I tend to use too much, but I’m very appreciative of the whole thing. It’s nice to be in a club with so many legends and so much history.” 

The honor comes almost 30 years after Elton’s induction ceremony, during which he gave Taupin his trophy. Asked whether he would return the favor and give his to Elton, Bernie replied, “I never thought about that! Um … no!”

Next up for Taupin, he’ll release his memoir, Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton & Me, on September 12. Then it’s back to work with Elton. He says they have plans to make another album once Elton’s wrapped his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, although nothing’s solidified yet. He suspects they’ll be in the studio “by the end of the year.”

And while Taupin insists Elton is really saying goodbye to the road to spend more time with his family, he says he’s not done with performing altogether.

“The idea of sitting down and doing a residency, but letting people know you’re not going to hear ‘Crocodile Rock’ or ‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.’ You’re going to hear ‘I Feel Like a Bullet (in the Gun of Robert Ford)’ or ‘Amoreena.’ I think it would be incredibly liberating for him,” Taupin says. “He’s a born showman, but as long as it appeals to his family life, it’s possibly predictable.”

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As previously reported, Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider released a statement Friday following him being removed from the SF Pride celebration for his support of a tweet by KISS’ Paul Stanley in which he said gender confirmation treatment for children has been “turned into a sad and dangerous fad.” 

Snider’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” was supposed to serve as the rallying cry for this year’s SF Pride festivities, but organizers parted ways with Snider after he approved of Stanley’s comments. Well, now SF Pride has responded to Snider’s recent statement. 

“Don’t get it ‘twisted,’ Dee Snider was not dropped from this year’s San Francisco Pride celebration,” Nguyen Pham, president of SF Pride, said. “It was a mutual decision after a productive, educational conversation with him.” 

Suzanne Ford, executive director of SF Pride, added, “Like any ally, we’re glad that Dee wants to continue learning about the issues that affect the transgender community.” She noted, “As a trans woman, I can tell you that no two stories are alike – this isn’t a black and white conversation, which is why educating the public is so critical.”

Snider said in his statement he believes young children aren’t “mentally developed enough” to make such drastic decisions about gender affirming care that could affect the rest of their lives. He did say he will continue to support the transgender community no matter how they feel about him, adding, “I am open to educating myself so I can be a better ally.” 

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Gov’t Mule is giving fans another taste of their upcoming record, Peace…Like A River, which drops June 16. The band just shared the new single “Same As It Ever Was,” the opening track of the album.  

“‘Same As It Ever Was’ is such an opus, an expansive piece,” Warren Haynes shares. “Life throws challenges at you when you least expect it. We’ve all dealt with what in some cases seem like insurmountable hardships, but in my lifetime, the pandemic is the first time that the entire planet went through it together.” 

He adds, “The whole message of the tune is we’ve come a long way, but now we’re on the other side and life is normal, life is good. Same as it ever was.”

Gov’t Mule launches their spring tour on Friday, May 5, at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, with special guests George Porter Jr. and Runnin’ Pardners. They are also set to play a special show Friday, May 12, at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, which will feature surprise guests. The show will be livestreamed for free to subscribers on nugs.net.

And later this summer they’ll launch their Dark Side of the Mule tour, featuring a tribute to Pink Floyd‘s classic album The Dark Side of the Moon. It kicks off July 29 in Bethel, New York. A complete list of Gov’t Mule tour dates can be found at mule.net.

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Def Leppard’s new album, Drastic Symphonies, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, comes out May 19, and they’ve just given fans another taste of what to expect. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers dropped the official visualizer for the new take on the 1987 classic “Hysteria.”

Def Leppard is one of the few bands from the ’80s that is still making records and having hits today, with many rock bands of that period not surviving the ’90s grunge era of bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. 

In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Joe Elliott insists he had “no issues with (Nirvana’s) Kurt Cobain trying to kill the ‘80s,” adding, “I don’t think he tried to kill Def Leppard; I think he tried to kill 99 copyists.”

“I think he’d have been fine with it if we’d have been the only ones out there,” he adds. “But it was saturated.”

Def Leppard survived by taking risks, like their latest album, and those risks brought the band to the place Elliott always wanted them to be – on top.

“We always had ambitions … saying, ‘We are gonna be the biggest band in the world,’” he explains. “I didn’t see the point, with all due respect, of being a band that once got to No. 42 on the Billboard charts. That wasn’t an ambition that resonated with me.”

He adds, “If that’s all we ever got, fair enough, but you don’t stand at the bottom of Mount Everest saying, ‘Oh, I just want to get a hundred yards up.’ You want to get to the summit.”

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