Classic Rock News

Fleetwood Mac drummer and co-founder Mick Fleetwood is set to executive produce the music drama 13 Songs, currently in development at Fox, according to Deadline.

The series reportedly follows an aging rock star who’s diagnosed with terminal cancer. Given just a few months to live, he reconnects with his old band to write and record 13 final songs as a final love letter to his fans and hopefully leave his mark on the world forever.

Will Reiser, who wrote the Joseph Gordon-Levitt-led comedy feature 50/50, will script the project, along with American Soul creator Jonathan Prince.

It will be directed by Jonathan Levine, who directed Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers.

Additionally, Fleetwood “will lend his creative and musical voice” to the project, according Deadline.

13 Songs is the latest in a series of musical dramas being prepped at Fox, along with Monarch, the country music family dynasty series starring Susan Sarandon and Trace Adkins, and Icon, an anthology drama series profiling some of the world’s biggest music legends, starting with country music duo The Judds.

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It’s been almost two years since Elton John‘s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour was sidelined because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the trek relaunches tonight in New Orleans, the first show of a lengthy two-part 2022 North American leg.

With the U.S. and many other areas around the world still dealing with COVID-related issues because of the easily spread Omicron variant, Elton’s longtime guitarist and music director Davey Johnstone tells ABC Audio he doesn’t know if the tour will go off without postponements, but he says every precaution is being made to help ensure the musicians and crew remain healthy.

“It seems it changes so much, and we’ve got to kind of be ready for anything,” Johnstone says regarding the COVID situation. “So, I know there’s no backstage, there’s no guests. There are no backstage passes. There are no wives or girlfriends or anything…[E]verybody’s [going to be] super masked up and getting tested every two days to make sure everybody on the tour stays safe.”

He adds, “I think there’s like a hundred people [who] travel around, between the crew and the production staff and…the band and all that. So it’s a lot of people to keep safe. So…it’ll be a different animal, but, you know, I think we’ll be OK as long as we can just keep to the program.”

Asked if, after a nearly two-year layoff, there might be some changes to Elton’s set list, Johnstone says he and the other band members are more focused on delivering an exciting show.

“[W]e just get out there and play some kick-a** rock ‘n’ roll, and that’s what we’ll do,” he declares. “And there might be a couple of subtle changes…but nothing too drastic.”

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When it comes to a way to like his own voice, Bono still hasn’t found what he’s looking for.

On a new episode of The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast, the U2 frontman says he feels “embarrassed” when he hears his singing, particularly on the group’s earlier recordings, explaining that, while he thinks the his band mates sound “incredible,” he finds his voice to be “very strained.”

“I’ve been in a car when one of our songs has come on the radio and I’ve been the color of, as we say in Dublin, scarlet,” Bono says. “I’m just so embarrassed.”

During the interview, Bono shares a story about a fellow rock star who had a similar disdain for the U2 frontman’s voice, the late Robert Palmer. He says Palmer once approached U2 bassist Adam Clayton and griped, “God, would you ever tell your singer to just take down the keys a little bit? He’d do himself a favor, his voice a favor, and he’d do us all a favor who have to listen to him.”

Bono adds that he feels he “only became a singer, like, recently.”

“Maybe that hasn’t happened yet for some people’s ears,” he laughs. “And I understand that.”

Another thing Bono isn’t all that jazzed about: the name U2.

“I still don’t really like the name,” he says. Guitarist The Edge adds that they only picked U2 in the first place because, of the potential candidates, it was the one they “hated the least.”

While Bono may have his own issues with his voice, that doesn’t seem to be bothering the voters for the Oscars, who placed U2’s new single “Your Song Saved My Life” — from the animated film Sing 2 — on the shortlist to be nominated for Best Original Song.

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What happens in Vegas…will be the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.

After canceling plans to hold the awards ceremony on January 31 because of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the Recording Academy has announced that “Music’s Biggest Night” will now take place Sunday, April 3, from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The show will air live on CBS, and also will be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

Trevor Noah will return as the host for the ceremony. Details about Grammy Week events like the MusiCares Person of the Year Gala and Clive Davis‘ annual pre-Grammy party will be announced soon.

Hits Daily Double reports that options being considered include holding these events in Las Vegas, holding them in Los Angeles that same week, or holding them the week after the Grammys.

Among the veteran rock artists receiving nominations for Grammy Awards this year are Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, AC/DC, Chris Cornell, Jackson Browne and ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

What happens in Vegas…will be the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.

After canceling plans to hold the awards ceremony on January 31 due to the Omicron variant, the Recording Academy has announced that “Music’s Biggest Night” will now take place Sunday, April 3 live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on CBS.  The show will also be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

Trevor Noah will return as the host for the ceremony.  Details about Grammy Week events like the MusiCares Person of the Year Gala and Clive Davis‘ annual pre-Grammy party will be announced soon. 

Hits Daily Double reports that options being considered include holding these events in Las Vegas, holding them in Los Angeles that same week, or holding them the week after the Grammys.

The leading nominee for the Grammy Awards this year is Jon Batiste, who has 11 nods, followed by Justin Bieber, Doja Cat and H.E.R., all of whom have eight nominations.

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No one may sing like Chris Cornell anymore, but the late Soundgarden frontman’s children seem to be forging their own musical path.

In a recent Instagram post, Cornell’s widow Vicky Cornell shared a photo of their children, Toni and Christopher, playing music together.

“Sneaked a pic,” Vicky wrote in the caption. “My babies all grown up working on songs together.”

Last month, Toni made a guest appearance on The Tonight Show during which she performed a cover of “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Her father’s version of the Prince-penned Sinéad O’Connor classic is posthumously nominated for Best Rock Performance at this year’s Grammys.

Chris also had a daughter named Lily with his first wife, Susan Silver. Lily hosts an ongoing mental health series called Mind Wide Open.

In related news, the YouTube channel of Chris’ band Audioslave recently unearthed a batch of footage from a 2003 performance for AOL. The sessions featured performances of songs including “Cochise,” “Like a Stone” and “I Am the Highway.”

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The new documentary Barn, about the making of Neil Young & Crazy Horse‘s 2021 album of the same name, will be streamed exclusively at Young’s official YouTube channel starting this Thursday, January 20, at 1 p.m. ET.

As previously reported, the Barn film was directed by Young’s wife, actress Daryl Hannah — aka “dhlovelife” — and offers an intimate look at Neil and the current Crazy Horse lineup working on the album in a restored 19th-century log barn in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains during the COVID-19 pandemic in June of last year.

Most of the album was recorded live.

A description of the movie notes that it “intentionally lingers on single shots for entire songs, showing there are no tricks, revealing the raw, organic and spontaneous process of the music bursting to life from unexpected moments.”

The Barn film previously premiered in a few select theaters around the time of the album’s December 10 release, and also is available on a Blu-ray disc that’s included in the deluxe box set version of the album.

Here’s the album’s full track list:

“Song of the Seasons”
“Heading West”
“Change Ain’t Never Gonna”
“Canerican”
“Shape of You”
“They Might Be Lost”
“Human Race”
“Tumblin’ Thru the Years”
“Welcome Back”
“Don’t Forget Love”

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Starting today, David Bowie‘s entire music catalog is available for Peloton users, and in conjunction with the launch, three brand-new mixes of Bowie songs by contemporary artists also have premiered exclusively for the home exercise platform.

The songs, 1980’s “It’s No Game (Pt. 1),” 1983’s “Let’s Dance,” and 1975’s “Golden Years,” were remixed, respectively, by alternative rocker St. Vincent and DJ/producers Honey Dijon and TOKiMONSTA.

St. Vincent says she chose to remix “It’s No Game (Pt. 1)” a song from David’s Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) album, “because it has a part 2 on the record, and I figured maybe Bowie wouldn’t mind so much if I made a part 3.” She adds, “I wanted to take Bowie’s throat-shredding vocal take from part 1, and make it front and center.”

Honey Dijon notes, “When I was asked to remix one of my favorite David Bowie songs, I chose ‘Let’s Dance’ because it’s a true celebration of music and movement — just like Peloton!”

As for TOKiMONSTA, she says she relates to Bowie because he was “an amazing innovator,” pointing out that he “was always reinventing himself and pushing the envelope of music, while somehow never ceasing to be authentically himself.”

The David Bowie Collection, including the remixes, will be available for various exercise classes under the “Collections” sections in the Peloton App or the Peloton hardware touchscreen.

For non-Peloton members, a free two-month trial of the app is available. Visit OnePeloton.com for more details.

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Rick Wakeman is preparing to return to North America in February for a new leg of his Even Grumpier Old Rock Star solo tour, but the former Yes keyboardist also says he’s making progress on a new concept album on which he’s been working for a while.

As he told ABC Audio late last year, the project is called A Gallery of the Imagination. Explaining the concept, the 72-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer noted, “[I]f you go into an art gallery, you’ll see all kinds of paintings…from surrealistic to renaissance paintings to modern art…So I wanted to have an album which was a gallery of all different kinds of music.”

In a recent post on his website, Rick said of the project, “I am really pleased with how it’s coming together and I now am going to spend some time playing around with the song melodies and the lyrics ready to send to [singer/sax player] Hayley [Sanderson] and also some more work from me is [needed] as regards the keyboard arrangements for the instrumentals.”

Wakeman told ABC Audio that in conjunction with the album, he plans to encourage fans to create works of art inspired by each track, and then “we want to collect them all and…get hold of a big gallery somewhere…and have those pictures [displayed].”

Rick envisions people who visit the gallery will put on headphones and listen to the songs from the album while looking at the corresponding pieces of art inspired by the tracks.

He added, “I suppose [it’s] the next stage of being interactive with the audience.”

Wakeman’s 2022 The Even Grumpier Old Rock Star Tour starts on February 22 in Seattle and is mapped out through a March 14 show in Toronto.

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An archival live album capturing the very first concert by the veteran rock band Cactus will be released this Friday, January 21, on multiple formats.

The album, titled The Birth of Cactus 1970, was recorded at a show that also featured The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Grateful Dead and Steve Miller Band. The concert featured Cactus playing several tunes from its 1970 self-titled debut, as well as select songs from its second and third albums — 1971’s One Way…or Another and Restrictions.

Cactus was formed by Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice and bassist Tim Bogert around the time of their group’s initial breakup. The band’s original lineup also included singer Rusty Day of The Amboy Dukes and guitarist Jim McCarty of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.

Appice recalls of Cactus’ first gig, “I remember…hanging out with Hendrix who was a friend of Cactus. We got on stage and the energy level was off the charts! All the songs kicked major a**. We were so excited to get Cactus going and this show helped. Crowd was great and we did ROCK!!”

The Birth of Cactus 1970 can be pre-ordered now and will be available as a CD digipak and a limited-edition purple-vinyl LP, as well as in digital formats.

Here’s the album’s track list:

“One Way…or Another”
“Sweet Sixteen”
“No Need to Worry”
Medley: “Let Me Swim/Big Mama Boogie/Oleo”
“Feel So Good”
“Parchman Farm”

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