Classic Rock News

The Smashing Pumpkins are set to drain the U.S. on their upcoming The World Is a Vampire tour.

The headlining outing begins July 28 in Las Vegas and will conclude September 9 in Noblesville, Indiana. Stone Temple Pilots, Interpol and Rival Sons will provide support on select dates.

Tickets go on sale Friday, March 31, at 10 a.m. local time, with various presales throughout the week. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit SmashingPumpkins.com.

The Pumpkins previously headlined a World Is a Vampire festival in Mexico and are also bringing it to Australia in April.

“I grew up in a world where I needed to know bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure existed, it meant there was a place for people like me to hang out and belong,” says frontman Billy Corgan. “That’s what The World Is a Vampire is about. Bringing back that sense of community. If you don’t fit in, you belong here.”

“It’s about having a shared experience and respecting others, but ultimately having fun,” Corgan continues. “A true alternative festival, where all the self-proclaimed weirdos and outsiders of the world can get together and have a party.”

In related news, the Pumpkins have released a new song called “Spellbinding,” a track off their upcoming album, Atum. You can listen to “Spellbinding” now via digital outlets.

As previously reported, Atum is described as a “rock opera” divided into three acts. The first two acts are out now, while the third will arrive on May 5, a few weeks after its initially announced April 21 release date.

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COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on Stevie Nicks’ solo tour.

After postponing two shows earlier this month, she’s now postponing two more “due to continued Covid illness within the band.” She has not revealed who in the band is dealing with the virus.

The latest shows affected include Thursday’s scheduled concert in Oklahoma City and Sunday’s show in New Orleans. Both concerts have already been rescheduled, with Oklahoma City moved to April 11 and New Orleans moved to April 15.

Stevie’s next scheduled concert is set for April 5 in Birmingham, Alabama, followed by a co-headlining date with Billy Joel in Arlington, Texas, on April 8. A complete list of dates can be found at stevienicksofficial.com.

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Elvis Costello will be working during his summer vacation. The singer and his band The Imposters, featuring Charlie Sexton, just announced the 23-date We’re All Going On A Summer Holiday tour, named after a line in his song “The Beat” from the 1978 album This Year’s Model.

The tour, featuring Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets, kicks off June 7 in Vancouver, British Columbia, hitting such cities as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Nashville, Boston and New York before wrapping July 14 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday, March 31. A complete list of dates can be found at elviscostello.com.

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Metallica has shared a second clip of the next 72 Seasons song to be released.

Like the first snippet, the latest teaser is just an instrumental, though it offers a longer preview of the tune’s thrash-y guitar riff. The clip’s caption also teases that the song will be the 72 Seasons title track.

You’ll be able to hear the song in full Thursday, March 30.

72 Seasons, the follow-up to 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, drops April 14. It also includes the previously released songs “Lux Æterna,” “Screaming Suicide” and “If Darkness Had a Son.”

Metallica will be supporting 72 Seasons on a massive world tour, which begins in Europe in April before hitting the U.S. in August.

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On This Day, March 28, 1976 …

Phil Collins makes his U.S. live debut as Genesis’ lead singer on the band’s first tour since Peter Gabriel‘s departure.

Gabriel announced his departure from Genesis in August 1975, following the tour in support of their sixth studio album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The first tour without him was in support of The Trick of Tail, with Genesis performing across North America and Europe. 

Interestingly, on March 28, 1996, exactly 20 years after he made his live debut as frontman, Collins announced he too was leaving Genesis to focus on solo work and movie soundtracks.

That break lasted almost nine years, with Genesis launching a reunion tour in 2007.

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Tom Leadon, co-founder of Tom Petty’s early ’70s band Mudcrutch, passed away March 22 at the age of 71, Variety reports.

The news of Leadon’s death prompted Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell, who was also a member of Mudcrutch, to pay tribute to his bandmate on social media.

“Tom Leadon was my deepest guitar soul brother,” Campbell shared. “We spent countless hours playing acoustic guitars and teaching each other things. A kinder soul never walked the earth. I will always miss his spirit and generosity. Sleep peacefully my old friend.” 

Heartbreaker Benmont Tench, who also played in Mudcrutch, paid tribute as well, writing, “Tom Leadon. I am out of words. But i will never be out of love.”

Petty and Leadon formed Mudcrutch in Gainesville, Florida, in 1970. Leadon left the group in 1972 and moved to Los Angeles, where he played with Linda Ronstadt and was in the country rock band Silver. In 2007 Petty and Leadon reunited and a reformed Mudcrutch, with Campbell and Tench, released a self-titled album in 2008. They also went on tour to support it. They released a live EP, Extended Play Live, featuring songs recorded on the tour.

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March 28 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin’s iconic album Houses of the Holy, the band’s fifth studio album and the first to not feature an eponymous title.

Houses of the Holy featured such Zeppelin classics as “The Song Remains the Same,” “The Rain Song” and “Dancing Days.” Interestingly, the record’s title track didn’t make the album and later appeared on 1975’s Physical Graffiti.

“The sound of it is so much more interesting than any other Zeppelin album because they had more time to play around with it,” Jason Hanley, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s VP of education and visitor engagement, tells ABC Audio about Houses of the Holy. “It was their moment to push those boundaries a little bit.”

Hanley notes that Zeppelin “always sort of diverted people’s expectations in a way.”

“If (1971’s) Led Zeppelin IV became the blueprint of what Zeppelin could sound like, Houses of the Holy is a different record and it takes it in a new direction,” Hanley says. “They just kept upping the ante each time.”

Houses of the Holy went on to be a huge success for Led Zeppelin and was certified Diamond by the RIAA for over 10 million albums sold. In addition, it has made several lists as one of the greatest albums of all time.

“This album was their moment to experiment, and have fun and do something different. And because of that it’s become one of the great iconic records of rock ‘n’ roll,” Hanley says.  

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Robert Trujillo is singing on a Metallica record for the first time.

Speaking with the band’s online So What! publication, the bassist reveals that his vocals are featured on the song “You Must Burn!”, a track off the upcoming ‘Tallica album 72 Seasons.

“When I joined Metallica, I’d never sung in my whole life, so the fact that I can now support a backup vocal is pretty cool,” Trujillo shares. “For the first time in my life, I get to sing on a Metallica record and support James [Hetfield]. I’m very proud of that.”

Trujillo joined Metallica in 2003 in place of Jason Newsted. His recruitment is memorably featured in the 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster.

72 Seasons is due out April 14. It’s the third album Metallica’s recorded with Trujillo — or fourth if you count the 2011 Lou Reed collaboration Lulu — following 2008’s Death Magnetic and 2016’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct.

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Sammy Hagar & The Circle are coming to Las Vegas. The band is set to play the Pearl at the Palms Hotel on July 15, with The Circle made up of former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer Jason Bonham. 

Hagar tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal that fans who come to the show should expect to hear his numerous hits, as well as some classic Van Halen songs. 

“Michael and I will feature what we call, ‘The Other Half,’ with a lot more Van Halen, even a few early songs,” Hagar explains. “We debuted this band in Cabo at my birthday bash, years ago, and it makes all the sense in the world that there is no one out there supporting the Van Halen catalog, which has some of the greatest rock songs ever written.” 

Tickets for the show go on sale Friday, March 31, at 10 a.m. local time.

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Def Leppard is back with the fourth installment in their tour diary, sharing behind-the-scenes footage of their shows in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Hollywood, Florida.

“This is the last South American show, Buenos Aires, Argentina,” frontman Joe Elliott says in the clip. “It’s been a blast. Absolute blast.” 

Before the Buenos Aires concert, guitarist Vivian Campbell predicts it will be the “best audience yet.”

“Not that the previous audiences have been anything but spectacular, but Buenos Aires, I have a strong suspicion,” Campbell says. “It doesn’t change how we play. We always try our best, regardless. We always give at least 11%, sometimes 12.”

And it’s good they like Buenos Aires, because they got stuck there. After taking off in their joint Def Leppard/Mötley Crüe jet, they had to return because of mechanical problems. They wound up stuck in the airport lounge for about seven hours before they finally left the airport. 

The clip also features footage from off and on the stage during their show in Hollywood, Florida, including Rick Savage warming up backstage, and a drum duet between Rick Allen and Mötley’s Tommy Lee.

“It was a really good way to finish off a month away from home doing this whole South American kinda expedition as it were,” Elliott says of the show. “Absolutely very exciting, especially at this stage in our career to be able to do something like this is absolutely astonishing.”

Next up the tour hits the U.K., with the first show May 22 in Sheffield, England. A complete list of dates can be found at defleppard.com.

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