Classic Rock News

President Joe Biden has named The Eagles’ Joe Walsh to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. 

The committee was founded in 1982 to advise the president on enhancing federal support for the arts, humanities, and museum and library services, which it deems relevant to the country’s “health, economy, equity, and civic life.” 

“For more than 50 years, I’ve been blessed with opportunities to share my music with my fellow Americans and with the world,” Walsh shares on social media. “I’ve been humbled by participating in the creation of sacred spaces where those who disagree can come together, if only maybe for just a few minutes at a time, sing along in a shared experience and celebrate the things that make us all unique, American and uniquely American.”

He continues, “I love American Rock and Roll. I love my job. I love my country. If there’s anything I can do to assist in the guidance of future generations of Americans in finding their voices, sign me up, Mr. President.”

He added, “I graciously accept your invitation to serve on @PCAHgov and will do so with pride and with honor.”

In addition to Walsh, other newly appointed members to the committee include George Clooney, Jennifer Garner, Shonda Rhimes, Kerry Washington and Grammy winner Jon Batiste, with Lady Gaga and Oscar-winning TV and movie producer Bruce Cohen named as the committee’s co-chairs.

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On This Day, April 14, 2009…

Beatle George Harrison, who passed away in November, 2001, was honored with a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles.

The ceremony was attended by Harrison’s widow Olivia and son Dhani, along with the late rock star’s famous friends, including Sir Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Sheryl Crow, Eric Idle, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson and more.

The star, at 1750 Vine Street, was the 2,382nd star on the Walk of Fame.

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Graham Nash is set to release his new album, Now, on May 19, and it features a song he wrote about his band, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

In the tune “I Watched It All Come Down,” he sings about “the rock and roll parade,” and watching it both fall and grow. He tells Variety he’s singing about his “emotional feelings” about his band.

“I reached incredible heights musically with them, and the opposite has been true with them, too – saddened that we didn’t make more music,” he explains. “We do, though, know that the music we did make is the most important part of our relationship.” 

He adds, “So this is about the thrill of having made music with David, Stephen and Neil. I wish it could have continued.”

Nash also talks about Crosby, and how they had rekindled their friendship before his death in January and had a FaceTime call planned for the day he passed away. “I’d like to only think of the good times, now,” Nash says of his friend. “I’ll remember the great music that we made, the fun times that we had.”

He also shared a sweet story that showed the goodness of Crosby, noting that once while they were on a hike with their tour manager, the manager shattered his kneecap and Crosby carried him a mile to find help. Nash notes, “I always thought that such a moment showed off what a big heart that David had.”

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Metallica‘s four-night residency on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! came to a close Thursday with a performance of “If Darkness Had a Son,” a track off the band’s brand-new album, 72 Seasons.

The residency launched Monday with a rendition of the lead 72 Seasons single “Lux Æterna.” Throughout the week, Metallica also played the Black Album tune “Holier than Thou” and the Stranger Things-boosted classic “Master of Puppets.” The metal legends also took part in a comedy skit in which they learned puppetry.

Metallica played the residency in honor of 72 Seasons‘ arrival, which finally came Friday. 72 Seasons is the 11th Metallica album and the long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct.

Metallica will hit the road on a world tour in support of 72 Seasons starting later this month in Europe. The trek will come to the U.S. in August.

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Queen is back with episode 13 of their year-long YouTube series Queen The Greatest Live, this time taking a look at the band’s iconic stage wear.

Not surprisingly, Brian May and Roger Taylor share that it was frontman Freddie Mercury who had the biggest impact on what the band looked like on stage. 

“The clothes are part of it, and no one was more aware of that than Freddie,” May shares. “Freddie really pioneered a lot of stuff…And what we tried to do was, I guess, call on the traditions of opera and other art forms and make the costumes speak for us, make them part of the storytelling.”

Roger adds, “For Freddie it was an aspect of the live show that he reveled in, and he particularly enjoyed surprising his fellow band members, as much as he did the fans.”   He notes, “You know, we could have gone ‘don’t be so ridiculous,’ but because it was Fred, it was ‘yeah, come on. That’s brilliant.’ You know, why not?”

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In 1973, Neil Young and the Santa Monica Flyers, made up of Nils Lofgren, Ben Keith, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina, hit the stage at the Rainbow Theatre in London for a show that went on to become a classic for fans. Although it’s finally getting an official release on April 14, if you believe Lofgren, at the time of the show the audience didn’t really love what they were experiencing. 

The tour was in support of Neil’s album Tonight’s the Night, and Lofgren tells ABC Audio the record was “this otherworldly adventure in darkness and redemption.” He noted, “It was born of having to wrestle with a lot of our friends and heroes starting to die on us.” 

The band would play the album in its entirety, and since fans didn’t know it yet, Lofgren says they weren’t happy. “Everyone was wondering when we were going to play ‘Cinnamon Girl’ or ‘Heart of Gold,'” he says. “And people got pissed off. They’d yell, they’d boo, they’d throw bottles.”

It took some time but folks eventually came to realize the special night they witnessed. Lofgren says as he’s played in England over the past 30 years there’s always at least one person who’ll apologize for “booing and yelling for hits” during that Rainbow concert, telling him, “’and now I realize I witnessed one of the greatest artistic nights of my life.’” 

Somewhere Under the Rainbow will be available Friday on vinyl and CD at the Greedy Hand Store at Neil Young Archives, as well as at most music retailers.

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There has been a lot of bad Mötley Crüe news out there lately thanks to Mick Mars‘ recent lawsuit, but this may make some fans happy. Bassist Nikki Sixx confirmed on Twitter that the rockers are actually working on some new music.

Sixx posted a photo of him, Tommy Lee and guitarist John 5 in the studio with the message, “another killer songwriting day.” He clarified the music they were working on was indeed for the Crüe.

“We are writing. The creative process of songwriting has always been the heartbeat of our band,” he tweeted. “We’re gonna go in the big studio next week and record a few off the floor and see where it goes. We don’t have a definitive plan at this point. Just letting the songs guide us.”

The news is interesting, considering in response to Mars’ recent lawsuit Mötley’s manager, Allen Kovac, seemed to suggest that the only thing left for the band was touring. Mars has always insisted he didn’t quit Mötley Crüe, he just retired from the road.

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Earlier this year, Def Leppard appeared in the feel-good movie Bank of Dave, which only aired on Netflix in the U.K. Well, it looks like U.S. fans are finally going to get to see what all the fuss was about.

Deadline reports that Samuel Goldwyn Films has landed the North American rights to the British comedy, and will release it in theaters and digitally later this year.

Bank of Dave tells the real-life story of a working-class, self-made millionaire named Dave Fishwick, who tries to set up a community bank to help his town’s local businesses survive. It stars actor Rory Kinnear, who’s been in Penny Dreadful, Black Mirror and James Bond films, including Quantum of Solace and Skyfall.

Def Leppard appear in a cameo in the film, performing at a charity fundraiser for the bank, and were so excited about their appearance they shared behind-the-scenes footage of the filming with fans back in January.

“What a special day,” drummer Rick Allen shared in the clip. “I’m really excited about how this turns out and I think it’s just really an honor to be involved with something like this, with such a fantastic story.”

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John Fogerty was honored Thursday with the National Association of Music Merchants’ Music for Life Award, which is the organization’s highest honor. Fogerty was celebrated for his contributions to music and for inspiring artists everywhere.

“To get a lifetime achievement-type award is always very satisfying,” Fogerty tells ABC Audio. “It’s nice to be recognized for things that you’ve accomplished in your career.” A fire alarm interrupted his celebration, prompting Fogerty to joke about his award, “I hardly got a chance to hold it.” 

Fogerty joins a prestigious list of past Music for Life winners, including Graham Nash, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Bob Weir, Melissa Etheridge and Kenny Loggins.

Next up for Fogerty, he’s set to hit the road for his Celebration Tour, which kicks off April 27 in Uncasville, Connecticut. A complete list of dates can be found at JohnForgerty.com.

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When Billy Joel first released his #1 hit “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” he could’ve created a video that included an image of every single event and person he mentioned, from Marilyn Monroe to Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan. He didn’t, but now we’ve got one, thanks to the magic of AI, aka artificial intelligence.

A TikTok content creator who goes by the handle @digitalresonator has used a popular AI program called Midjourney — which creates images from descriptions you feed into it — to craft an entirely new video for “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” 

“Lots of requests for this one,” the creator wrote. “I hope you guys like this one. It took a long time between the research, the length, and the number of images.”  Responding to comments, they said it took “four or five hours” to do.

All the events and people Billy names in the song are depicted via AI-created images, including more generic ones like “hypodermics on the shore,” “Rock ‘n Roller cola wars” and “British politician sex.”

So far, the video has racked up 91,000 likes, and as one fan put it, “I feel like this is the video Billy Joel wanted to do. This is perfection!!”

“This was just beautiful to experience. Really stunning,” another wrote. “Thank you for putting the effort in.”

“That’s incredible! I wish Billy Joel would write the sequel,” one fan chimed in, with many others agreeing that Billy should do an update that covers the 1990s through today. The original covered the year of his birth, 1949, through 1989, when he turned 40.

Years later, Billy admitted, “The melody is horrendous. It’s like a mosquito droning. It’s one of the worst melodies I’ve ever written. I kind of like the lyric though.”

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