Classic Rock News

Journey co-founder and original rhythm guitarist George Tickner has passed away, according to a Facebook post by his former bandmate Neal Schon.

Schon shared a series of posts about Tickner’s death at the age of 76, captioning it, “Dear George ‘Of a Lifetime’ is still one of my favorite songs ever. RIP brother God Speed.” He added in a post on Twitter, “RIP George you now fly with the Angels.”

Tickner appeared on Journey’s 1975 self-titled debut. He wrote three songs on the album, including the one Schon mentioned in his post, “Of a Lifetime.” He also has a writing credit on two songs on the band’s follow-up, 1976’s Look Into The Future, but he had left the group to attend Stanford’s medical school by the time it was released. He was credited with writing one song on the band’s third album, 1977’s Next. 

Journey, of course, went on to superstardom, selling 48 million albums in the U.S. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. 

Although Tickner hadn’t been with the band for years, he was on hand in 2005 when Journey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Jethro Tull is celebrating the 40th anniversary of their 14th studio album, Broadsword and The Beast, with a new reissue.

Broadsword and The Beast 40th Anniversary Edition, available September 1, will feature a host of goodies for Jethro Tull fans, including demos, live recordings, sessions from 1981 and more, along with new mixes from Steven Wilson. 

It will be released in a variety of formats, including a five-CD, three-DVD Monster Edition, which features a live concert recorded in Germany in 1982. There will also be a four-LP vinyl edition.

Broadsword and The Beast 40th Anniversary Edition is available for preorder now. 

Jethro Tull is currently on a tour of Europe and will hit the U.S. this summer, starting with a show in Highland Park, Illinois, on August 18. A complete list of dates can be found at jethrotull.com.

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Dead & Company brought their Final Tour to Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado, and wrapped their three-night stand on Monday, July 3, with a very special guest: Dave Matthews.

Matthews came out towards the end of the second set, joining the band on acoustic guitar for their cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower.” He then stuck around to join in on The Crickets’ “Not Fade Away” and  returned for two encores: Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and The Band’s “The Weight.”

That wasn’t the only surprise during the band’s time in Boulder. During the July 2 show, drummer Mickey Hart provided vocals for the third verse of the classic “Fire on the Mountain.”

Dead & Company’s Final Tour is winding down. They are at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington on July 7-8, and will wrap the tour with a three-night stand at Oracle Park in San Francisco, July 14-16.

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Elton John‘s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour is set to wrap up this weekend in Sweden, but it’s managed to set one more record.

Already the highest-grossing tour of all time, the trek is now the first ever to earn $900 million or more, reports Billboard. Based on new figures through June 18, Elton’s tour has now grossed $910.4 million. By comparison, the second highest-grossing tour of all time, Ed Sheeran‘s Divide tour, only earned $776.4 million.

There are just eight shows left to gather ticket sales data on, and Billboard Boxscore estimates that when all is said and done, Elton will have added another $15 to $20 million to the total.

The Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour started way back in 2018 but was postponed in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. It eventually resumed in January 2022.

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U2 has announced a vinyl reissue of the band’s 1993 album, Zooropa, in honor of its 30th anniversary.

The record will be available as a limited edition transparent yellow two-LP set in October. You can preorder your copy now.

Zooropa was first released July 5, 1993, 30 years ago Wednesday. It followed U2’s massive 1991 album, Achtung Baby, and continued to experiment with the dance and electronic elements of its predecessor, which came to a head with 1997’s Pop.

The arrival of the Zoorapa reissue coincides with U2’s upcoming UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere Las Vegas residency, which launches in September.

Meanwhile, U2 will be streaming their ZOO TV: Live from Sydney concert film, which was recorded in 1993, during a free global watch party beginning July 12 at 3 p.m. ET.

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The relationship between Mick Mars and his former Mötley Crüe bandmates is certainly strained now that they’re battling it out in court over money. It turns out, however, they haven’t been on good terms for quite a while.  

Mars tells Rolling Stone he hasn’t really had a conversation with any of his former bandmates since the 2019 premiere of Netflix’s The Dirt, which was the movie based on the band’s memoir.

“Nobody spoke to me in 2022,” Mars says, despite the fact that the band spent that year on tour with Def Leppard. “A lot of the time felt like I was just playing by myself. You know how you can be in a crowd of people and still feel alone? That’s how I felt that whole tour.”

Mars says the whole thing made him feel “used, sad and inferior,” adding he “felt relieved” after what would be his last show with the group in September 2022.

“A lot of the pressure was gone. But I was very emotionally wounded,” he explains. “They weren’t just shallow wounds. They were deep ones; the kind you can’t get over.”

After their legal battles are finally over, Mars doesn’t care if he ever speaks to his former bandmates again. 

“I think all of us would be okay with that,” he says. “And I don’t just mean me with them. I mean them with each other,” adding, “I don’t plan on having a funeral. If I did, I think maybe they’d show up for that just out of courtesy. But for me, there’s no funeral. There’s no nothing.”

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The legacy of Guns N’ Roses‘ headlining set during June’s Glastonbury Festival will live on through two baby owls.

According to the U.K.’s Secret World Wildlife Rescue organization, the chicks were rescued from underneath Glastonbury’s main Pyramid Stage, which the “Welcome to the Jungle” outfit rocked on Saturday, June 24. Fittingly, they were named Axl and Slash after the GN’R frontman and guitarist, respectively.

“Both Axl and Slash are now in an outside aviary at Secret World and although a little camera shy are both doing well,” Secret World Wildlife Rescue says. “No signs of them exhibiting their musical talent yet though!”

Perhaps having adorable baby animals named after them will help Guns N’ Roses get over from some of the bad reviews they got for the Glastonbury set, though they didn’t seem to care too much about that in the first place. In a tweet tagging two writers who penned particularly scathing critiques, GN’R quoted the “Chinese Democracy” lyric, “It would take a lot more hate than you.”

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Jimmy Buffett has returned to the stage.

People reports that the 76-year-old was the surprise guest this past weekend at a Rhode Island concert headlined by songwriter and Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band bandmate Mac McAnally.

Fan-shot video posted to Facebook shows McAnally performing the Alan Jackson/Buffett hit “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” changing one of the lyrics to sing, “At a moment like this, I can’t help but wonder what would Jimmy Buffett do?” The crowd immediately went wild at the sight of Buffett, who replied to the question, “I would come play for you.”

The pair then continued the song together, with Buffett later telling the crowd, “Well, it is good to see an audience, let me tell you that.”

Buffett canceled a South Carolina show in May, telling fans on social media he’d been hospitalized to “address some issues that needed immediate attention.” He was supposed to headline Milwaukee Summerfest on July 6, but that performance was also canceled.

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Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron contributes to a new recording of the band’s song “4th of July,”  which is spearheaded by the metal project Marc Urselli’s SteppenDoom.

The cover was recorded for an upcoming tribute album to Soundgarden’s 1994 album, Superunknown, dubbed Superunknown Redux.

“When [record label] Magnetic Eye invited me to do ‘4th of July’, I jumped at the opportunity to do a sludgy and weird rendition,” Urselli says. “I immediately thought about inviting Matt Cameron to play drums on it. Matt graciously agreed to participate and this clearly is a major honor.”

The Redux recording of “4th of July” also features Alain Johannes, who previously worked on the late Chris Cornell‘s Euphoria Mourning solo album and toured with the Them Crooked Vultures supergroup.

Superunknown Redux will be released July 14.

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On This Day, July 5, 2015…

The Grateful Dead played the final show of a three-night stand at Chicago’s Soldier Field, featuring special guests Bruce Hornsby and Trey Anastasio.

The show was billed as the final time Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann would perform together, but that fall, Kreutzmann, Hart and Weir formed Dead & Company, with guitarist John Mayer. They initially announced just one show, but went on to tour the country and would subsequently go on to tour each summer. 

Dead & Company, without Kreutzmann, is currently on what they are billing as their Final Tour. The trek wraps with a three-night stand in San Francisco, July 14-16.

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