Classic Rock News

Former Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum is a proud papa!

Sorum and his wife, Ace Harper, have just announced that Harper gave birth to a baby girl named Lou Ellington Sorum on June 11.

Lou, who is the couple’s first child, was born in Palm Springs, California, and weighed in at 6 pounds, 14 ounces.

“Our Hearts are so full of gratitude that God has brought this angel into our lives,” Matt and Ace say in a statement. “Our baby girl Lou Ellington is pure Love & Joy.”

Sorum and Harper, who’ve been married since 2013, announced the impending birth of their daughter back in March in a People magazine article.

Ace is a singer/songwriter, dancer, artist and fashion designer who previously collaborated musically with her husband in a band called Diamond Baby.

Sorum, meanwhile, co-produced, co-wrote and plays drums on ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons recent solo album, Hardware. In addition, he’s preparing to publish a book called Double Talkin’ Jive: True Rock ‘n’ Roll Stories on September 7 that will feature him discussing his experiences trying to achieve a successful music career, while reflecting on the challenges of being a rock star.

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Bruce Springsteen has joined forces with Barack Obama to create a book titled Renegades: Born in the USA, featuring a series of candid conversations between the rock legend and the former president, which will be published October 26.

The book focuses on the conversations between Springsteen and President Obama that were featured on the eight-part podcast of the same name, which premiered on Spotify earlier this year. The podcast captured the two men reflecting on various topics involving their lives, music, and their love of the U.S.

The Renegades book will feature rare and exclusive photos and previously unseen material from the two authors’ archives, including handwritten lyrics by Springsteen and Obama’s annotated speeches.

The conversations featured in the podcast and the book took place last year, and included segments contemplating the volatile and conflict-filled climate in the U.S.

Bruce writes in the Renegades introduction, “There were serious conversations about the fate of the country, the fortune of its citizens, and the destructive, ugly, corrupt forces at play that would like to take it all down…Will we let slip through our hands the best of us or will we turn united to face the fire? Within this book you won’t find the answers to those questions, but you will find a couple of seekers doing their best to get us to ask better questions.”

Adds President Obama, “[T]he conversations Bruce and I had in 2020 feel as urgent today as they did back then. They represent our ongoing effort to figure out how it is that we got here, and how we can tell a more unifying story that starts to close the gap between America’s ideals and its reality.”

For more details about the book, and to order a copy, visit RenegadesBook.com.

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After postponing the 2020 North American leg of their No Filter tour because of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Rolling Stones are ready to start things up again in the fall.

The 2021 edition of their trek will kick off September 26 in St. Louis and is plotted out through a November 20 concert in Austin, Texas.

The 13-date outing includes confirmed stops at most of the venues where The Rolling Stones were scheduled to play in 2020, as well as concerts in three new cities — an October 13 appearance at this year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, an October 13 show in Los Angeles and a November 6 performance in Las Vegas.

The Stones originally had been scheduled to play the New Orleans Jazz Fest in 2019, but they canceled their performance because frontman Mick Jagger needed to undergo emergency heart surgery.

All tickets purchased for rescheduled 2020 concerts will be honored for the new dates. Tickets for the newly added shows will go on sale to the general public on Friday, July 30, at 10 a.m. local time. Some exclusive VIP packages will be available. Visit RollingStones.com for more details.

Meanwhile, the band unfortunately was unable to reschedule concerts in four cities they had been slated to visit in 2020: Vancouver, Canada; Louisville, Kentucky; Cleveland, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York.

People who purchased tickets for these shows will be contacted by Ticketmaster directly with more information. These ticketholders may be given the opportunity to purchase priority tickets for concerts taking place in nearby cities.

“I’m so excited to get back on the stage again and want to thank everyone for their patience,” Jagger says. “See you soon!”

Adds Keith Richards, “We’re back on the road! See you there!”

Here’s the full list of Stones tour dates:

9/26 — St. Louis, MO, The Dome at America’s Center
9/30 — Charlotte, NC, Bank of America Stadium
10/4 — Pittsburgh, PA, Heinz Field
10/9 — Nashville, TN, Nissan Stadium
10/13 — New Orleans, LA, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
10/17 — Los Angeles, CA, SoFi Stadium
10/24 — Minneapolis, MN, U.S. Bank Stadium
10/29 — Tampa, FL, Raymond James Stadium
11/2 — Dallas, TX, Cotton Bowl Stadium
11/6 — Las Vegas, NV, Allegiant Stadium
11/11 — Atlanta, GA, Mercedes-Benz Stadium
11/15 — Detroit, MI, Ford Field
11/20 — Austin, TX, Circuit of the Americas

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Police drummer Stewart Copeland has teamed up with Grammy-winning Indian-music composer Ricky Kej to record an epic album titled Divine Tides that was released this week via all major streaming platforms.

According to a press statement, the nine-track album, which also includes contributions by a variety of musicians from across the globe, is a “tribute to the magnificence of our natural world and the resilience of our species,” and “features a diverse musical canvas of soundscapes, melodies, lush ambient textures and pulsating rhythms.”

Explaining how he got involved in the project, Copeland says, “One day during the Apocalypse I got a call from Ricky Kej about making an album. He had assembled an amazing collection of exotic musicians, or perhaps I should say deeply traditional musicians, in the exotic context of his inspired production style. The flow of ideas soon became a torrent of recording and music.”

He adds, “The spiritual ambience…infused my aggressions upon inanimate objects with loving passion. The timpani were ringing! The crotales were singing! Making this record has been a unique adventure in both music and divine awareness.”

Meanwhile, Kej, who won a 2015 Grammy in the Best New Age Album category for Winds of Samsara, says working with Copeland on Divine Tides “was one of the best, most fulfilling personal and musical experiences I could have ever asked for,” adding, “Stewart is not only a living legend but an extremely humble human being, filled with positive energy, that pushed us to deliver our very best.”

Copeland and Kej are planning to release music videos for eight of Divine Tides‘ nine tracks, two of which — “Himalayas” and “Art of Devotion” — have already premiered and can be viewed on YouTube.

Here’s the album’s full track list:

“Wonders of Life”
“Himalayas”
“Our Home”
“At of Devotion”
“Pastoral India”
“I Am Change”
“Prayer”
“Gandhi”
“Mother Earth”

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The Beach Boys‘ Brian Wilson has unveiled dates for a 2021 U.S. solo tour that kicks off August 29 in Long Beach, California, and is followed by a run of October concerts in the Northeast and Midwest.

The fall dates start with an October 5 show in Huntington, New York, and are mapped out through an October 23 performance in Waukegan, Illinois. The tour has been dubbed “Greatest Hits Live!” and, as in recent years, Brian and his band will be joined by two fellow Beach Boys alums: Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin.

Pre-sale tickets for most shows are available now; visit BrianWilson.com for more details and the full list of dates.

In other news, Wilson recently relaunched his official website, which features a new Timeline that looks at different eras of his life and career. The various sections feature historical recaps, photos, images of memorabilia, audio commentary and rare recordings, including previously unheard demos, outtakes and live performances.

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A limited-edition 20-CD live Grateful Dead box set, featuring seven full previously unreleased concert performances that the band played in St. Louis in 1971, 1972 and 1973, will be issued on October 1.

Listen to the River: St. Louis ’71 ’72 ’73 includes audio of shows that took place December 9-10, 1971, and October 17-19, 1972, at the Fox Theatre, as well as October 29 and 30, 1973, performances at Kiel Auditorium.

The box set comes with an 84-page hardbound book that features several essays about the concerts, including one penned by The Dead’s tour manager during that time, Sam Cutler.

The shows featured the band playing 60 different songs, including covers of three tunes by St. Louis’ own Chuck Berry — “Run Rudolph Run,” “Johnny B. Goode” and “Around and Around.”

“The seven shows in this boxed set perfectly summarize 22 months of Grateful Dead music, performances, and growth,” says Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux, who also produced the collection.

Only 13,000 copies of the 20-CD box set, each individually numbered, will be available. You can pre-order copies now exclusively from Dead.net. High-res digital versions also are being sold at the website.

In advance of Listen to the River‘s arrival, a performance of “Sugaree” from the December 10, 1971, show has been made available digitally and via The Grateful Dead’s official YouTube channel.

Also on October 1, the December 10, 1971, concert will be released individually at traditional retail outlets as a three-CD set, a five-LP collection, and digitally. In addition, the October 18, 1972, performance will be issued as a limited-edition two-LP set titled Light into Ashes: Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO (10/18/72) that will be available exclusively at Dead.net.

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Eric Clapton has threatened to cancel performances at U.K. venues that require audience members to be vaccinated to attend his concerts.

Clapton’s message, which was posted on the Telegram page of Robin Monotti, an anti-vaccine advocate, was in response to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson‘s recent announcement that COVID-19 vaccine passes would be required to attend events at nightclubs and other venues.

“Following the PM’s announcement on Monday…I feel honour bound to make an announcement of my own,” Slowhand writes. “I will not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience present. Unless there is provision made for all people to attend, I reserve the right to cancel the show.”

Accompanying the message is a link to Clapton’s rendition of the 2020 Van Morrison song “Stand and Deliver,” which criticizes the U.K. government’s pandemic-related restrictions on live performances.

In May, another message from Clapton was posted on Monotti’s Telegram page in which he revealed he experienced a severe reaction after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“[M]y hands and feet were either frozen, numb or burning, and pretty much useless for two weeks, I feared I would never play again,” Eric wrote. “[I] should never have gone near the needle.”

In a statement to Rolling Stone in May, a spokesperson for the U.K. government agency overseeing the vaccine maintained that “over 56 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 have now been administered in the UK, saving thousands of lives through the biggest vaccination programme that has ever taken place in this country.”

The rep added, “Our advice remains that the benefits of the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca outweigh the risks in the majority of people.”

Clapton’s next U.K. concerts are scheduled for May 2022. He begins a run of U.S. dates in September 2021.

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Metallica‘s 30th anniversary Black Album celebration will include a collaboration with Vans.

The famed footwear company is launching a new collaboration with the metal legends inspired by the famed “Sad but True” design by artist Pushead. The shoe will come in two styles: the Sk8-Hi, and the Classic Slip-On.

You can order a pair of your own starting July 26 at noon ET. For more info, visit Metallica.com.

Metallica has worked with Vans several times in the past on signature designs, and in 2016, the band performed at the House of Vans venue in London.

Meanwhile, Metallica is releasing a 30th anniversary Black Album deluxe reissue, as well as the 53-track all-star The Metallica Blacklist tribute compilation, on September 10.

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Green Day played their first full, in-person concert since the COVID-19 pandemic began Tuesday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The sold-out show, which required all attendees to be fully vaccinated, featured the live debut of the punk trio’s latest song, “Pollyanna,” which was released in May. Fan-recorded footage of the performance was posted to social media.

Other songs played during the set include “Longview,” “Welcome to Paradise,” “Brain Stew” and “Holiday,” as well as a cover of KISS‘ “Rock and Roll All Nite,” according to Setlist.fm.

Green Day played the Tulsa concert as a warm-up gig for their Hella Mega tour alongside Weezer and Fall Out Boy, which launches July 24 in Dallas.

Pollyanna LIVE premiere!!!(from punk_relief stream) In Tulsa ❤️🤟 #greenday pic.twitter.com/ajvu28TMR4

— Green Day Australia (@greendayAU) July 21, 2021

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A new collection of Slash signature Epiphone guitars was released Tuesday, featuring multiple acoustic and electric models, as part of a partnership between Epiphone and the Gibson company.

The Epiphone Slash Collection features guitars inspired by Gibson models that the Guns N’ Roses legend has played throughout his career. The electric models are the Epiphone Slash Les Paul Standard finished in Appetite Burst, November Burst, Anaconda Burst and Vermillion Burst, and the Slash “Victoria” Les Paul Standard Goldtop, which is gold. The collection’s acoustic model is called the Epiphone Slash J-45, which is available in Vermillion Burst and November Burst finish.

All of the guitars in Epiphone Slash Collection feature Slash’s “Skully” signature drawing on the back of the headstock, the guitarist’s signature on the truss rod cover, and a hardshell case that also includes the “Skully” logo.

Speaking about his signature collection in a new Epiphone promo video, Slash notes, “It’s a huge honor to be able to have a guitar that’s got your name on it…representing you…These are really well put together, all the best materials, all the best components. Everything I could want in an electric guitar is all in this. And so for…a reasonable amount of money, you can get a really great guitar that will last your whole career.”

All of the new Slash Epiphone models are available at a list price of $899. For more information about the instruments, visit Epiphone.com.

The Epiphone models were inspired by the pricier guitars released last year as part of the Gibson Slash Collection.

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