Classic Rock News

Dozens of artists, including KISS, The Doobie Brothers, Sammy Hagar and Rod Stewart,are taking part in Live Nation’s 2022 Lawn Pass promotion.

A Lawn Pass ticket allows you to attend up to 40 concerts this summer at one of a select number of Live Nation amphitheaters for a total of $199, plus fees.

Other tours participating in the promotion include Chicago, Foo Fighters, Iron Maiden, Phish, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Santana‘s joint trek with Earth, Wind & Fire, Steely Dan, and Styx‘s outing with REO Speedwagon and Loverboy. More artists will be announced soon.

The promoter says Lawn Pass not only will allow fans to catch concerts at their local selected music venue, they will also be able to access some select sold-out shows. “Each Lawn Pass purchaser will receive a custom personalized credential with their name that serves as their ticket on each show day,” Live Nation says.

Only a limited number of Lawn Passes will be available per venue, and are on sale now at LawnPass.LiveNation.com on a first-come, first-served basis.  Check out the website to find eligible venues and artists.

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Record Store Day is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, and in honor of the milestone, a limited-edition 12-inch vinyl single featuring two versions of the recent Paul McCartney tune “Women and Wives” has been chosen as Record Store Day’s first Song of the Year release.

The single will feature McCartney’s original version of “Women and Wives” — which appeared on 2020’s McCartney III album — on one side, and alt-rocker St. Vincent‘s 2021 remix of the tune on the other.

St. Vincent’s “Women and Wives” remix was featured on the McCartney III Imagined album, which was released in April 2021 and included covers or remixes of all the McCartney III tracks by various artists.

As previously reported, Record Store Day 2022 will take place on April 23, with an additional drop date for select releases on June 18. The “Women and Wives” vinyl single will be released on June 18, and a limited run of 3,000 numbered copies will be available.

Explaining why “Women and Wives” was chosen as Song of the Year, Record Store Day co-founder Michael Kurtz says, “I was driving down a Montana highway one sunny, snowy morning when St. Vincent’s imagined version of ‘Women and Wives’ came on [satellite radio]. I was stunned by the song’s message of chasing the future. When St. Vincent’s Jeff Beck-like guitar solo arrived at the end, I got goosebumps. This is a classic McCartney song, up there with some of his best.”

McCartney was inspired to write the song after reading blues legend Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter‘s biography, and he recorded the track with an upright bass that belonged to Elvis Presley‘s early bassist, the late Bill Black.

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Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson says he has no current plans to collaborate with his fellow surviving band mate, singer/bassist Geddy Lee, but isn’t ruling out working with him on new music in the future.

“We’re not putting any pressure on it or anything,” Lifeson explains in a new interview with Guitar World. “We had a lot of good years together and we still love each other very much. I talk to Geddy every other day — we’re best friends. There’s more to our life together than just writing music. So if it happens, it happens. And it’ll happen when it happens.”

Rush played its final show in August 2015, when the band wrapped up its R40 40th anniversary tour. Any chance for a full reunion ended with the passing of drummer Neal Peart, who died of brain cancer in January 2020 at age 67.

Lifeson currently is preparing for release of the self-titled debut of his new group, Envy of None, which also features bassist/singer Andy Curran of the veteran Canadian rock band Coney Hatch, and a 24-year-old vocalist named Maiah Wynne from Portland, Oregon.

Alex tells Guitar World that Envy of None’s music doesn’t sound like anything he’s previously done.

“There’s lots of straight-ahead guitar, but there’s also mandola and lots of manipulated, sequenced things,” he notes. “And I’ve really become an aficionado of backwards guitar as well. So there’s everything from acoustic fingerstyle stuff to really heavy stuff, trippy kind of backwards things to Hendrix-y melodic parts. I’m really quite pleased with it.”

The Envy of None album, which can be pre-ordered now, will be released on April 8.

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High-quality audiophile versions of the Electric Light Orchestra‘s fourth studio, 1974’s Eldorado, will be released in the coming months by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab — as a two-LP box set mastered at 45 rpm, a single LP mastered at the standard 33 rpm, and on the hybrid SACD format.

All three versions have been remastered from the original analog tapes, and can be pre-ordered now at MusicDirect.com.

The single-LP version and vinyl box sets, which are both pressed on 180-gram “SuperVinyl,” will be available in March and September, respectively, priced at $59.99 and $125.

The LPs in the two-disc collection were created using Mobile Fidelity’s ultra-hi-fi UltraDisc One-Step lacquering process. The sets are limited to 10,000 numbered copies.

The SACD version will be released in April and is priced at $29.99.

Originally released in September ’74 in the U.S., Eldorado was a concept album that frontman Jeff Lynne wrote about a man who escapes the disillusionment of his dull life by journeying into fantasy worlds via his dreams. Musically, the record is heavily influenced by The Beatles, and blends pop and rock sounds with orchestral and choral elements.

Eldorado became ELO’s first album to break into the top 40 of the Billboard 200, peaking at #16. It featured the group’s first stateside hit, “Can’t Get It Out of My Head,” which reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“Our team is proud and honored to reissue ELO’s groundbreaking album Eldorado,” says Mobile Fidelity executive president John K. Wood. “We want to bring fans closer to the music by revealing all the intricate sonic details and subtle nuances in Jeff Lynne’s mix of this iconic album.”

Here’s the full Eldorado track list:

“Eldorado Overture”
“Can’t Get It Out of My Head”
“Boy Blue”
“Laredo Tornado”
“Poor Boy (The Greenwood)”
“Mister Kingdom”
“Nobody’s Child”
“Illusions in G Major”
“Eldorado”
“Eldorado Finale”

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Van Morrison is among the music artists and composers who will discuss their Oscar nominations for this year’s Best Original Song honor during a virtual event hosted by the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

You can tune in to watch beginning March 3 at 8 p.m. ET. The event is free to watch, though you do need to register ahead of time.

Morrison is nominated for his song “Down to Joy,” from the film Belfast.

The conversation will also include Billie Eilish and her brother FINNEAS, Diane Warren, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Dixson, who are nominated for their respective songs for the James Bond film No Time to Die, Four Good Days, Encanto and King Richard. Disco and funk legend Nile Rodgers, who is the current chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, will moderate the discussion alongside Oscar-winning composer Paul Williams.

Incidentally, Morrison is a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, as are Warren, Rodgers and Williams.

For more info, visit SongHall.org.

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Eddie Vedder had a “serious” case of COVID-19 ahead of his just-wrapped solo tour.

The Pearl Jam frontman discussed his experience with the virus during his show in Los Angeles last Friday, telling the crowd, “I got the COVID right before we were supposed to start practicing [for the tour], probably five, six weeks ago.”

“[I] literally saw my life flash in front of my eyes,” Vedder said.

He added, “To get through that and then be back in a room like this facing this many people facing this way and listening to us play for you…it’s been a gift and an honor.”

You can watch fan-shot footage of Vedder’s comments streaming now on YouTube.

Vedder’s tour, which supported his new solo album, Earthling, concluded Sunday in San Diego. Both the LA and San Diego shows were postponed from earlier in February due to a positive COVID-19 test amid Vedder’s touring party.

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Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have debuted a music video for their new cover of the 1965 soul tune “Searching for My Love,” which appears on the duo’s 2021 collaborative album, Raise the Roof.

The clip, which is the first official music video that Plant and Krauss have released in 14 years, depicts a series of lonely male travelers on various quests to find seemingly unattainable objects of desire.

The video includes scenes of a man climbing to a mountaintop, a pirate standing in front of a treasure chest, an adventurer soaring through gray clouds on man-made wings, and a man swimming in the ocean toward a mermaid who disappears just as he reaches her.

“Searching for My Love,” which originally was recorded by American soul group Bobby Moore & The Rhythm Aces, is a tune that Plant first sang when he was a teenager. The Led Zeppelin frontman says the song was “another nugget of beautiful lost soul music which has been ricocheting between me and Alison for a long time.”

As previously reported, Raise the Roof, which was released in November, is a 14-track collection that features 13 covers of songs by “legends and unsung heroes of folk, blues, country and soul music,” as well as one original tune co-written by Plant and producer T Bone Burnett, titled “High and Lonesome.”

In support of Raise the Roof, Plant and Krauss will launch a U.S. tour leg that runs from a June 1 show in Canandaigua, New York, trough a June 17 appearance at the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The duo also has a series of European concert in late June and July.

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Police drummer Stewart Copeland made a surprise appearance at Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder‘s solo concert in Los Angles this past Friday.

Vedder invited Copeland on stage for the show’s encore, which included a ramshackle cover of The Police’s “Message in a Bottle” — “Still practicing,” Eddie quipped at one point — and a closing performance of Neil Young‘s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Copeland’s guest spot allowed Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith, who’s been Vedder’s drummer for the tour, to take a breather during “Message in a Bottle,” but he returned to the stage to play guitar on “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Fan-shot footage of the performance is streaming now on YouTube.

Vedder’s tour, which launched earlier this month in support of his new Earthling solo album, concluded Sunday in San Diego. For the run, Vedder was joined by his Earthlings solo band, which included Smith, ex-RHCP guitarist and current Pearl Jam touring member Josh Klinghoffer, Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney, singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, and producer and guitarist Andrew Watt.

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Brian Jones, the accomplished slide guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who founded The Rolling Stones, was born 80 years ago today, February 28, 1942.

Jones, who died at age 27 in July 1969, formed The Stones in 1962 to showcase the music of the American blues artists he loved, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Elmore James. Brian came up with his band’s name, taken from the Waters song “Rollin’ Stone Blues,” and he initially was the group’s leader.

Jones’ slide guitar was a key element of the group, and he also played harmonica on many of the band’s recordings.  However, the band’s leadership soon shifted to singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards, as they emerged as The Stones’ main songwriting team.

As The Rolling Stones began exploring other musical styles, Brian’s ability to play almost any instrument allowed him to add interesting sonic flavors to many songs.  Jones played the recorder on “Ruby Tuesday,” sitar “Paint It Black,” dulcimer on “Lady Jane,” marimba on “Under My Thumb” and “Out of Time,” Mellotron on most of 1967’s Their Satanic Majesties Request album, and autoharp on “You Got the Silver.”

However, as the 1960s progressed, Jones’ talents became increasingly hindered by drugs and his contributions began to wane. In June 1969, he was fired from The Rolling Stones. Less than a month later, he was found dead in the swimming pool at his house in Hartfield, U.K.

The coroner ruled Jones had died by drowning and later listed the cause as “death by misadventure,” noting that he had an enlarged liver and heart due to drug and alcohol abuse. Allegations that Jones had been murdered have circulated over the years, but a 2010 review by local police asserted that no new evidence had emerged to change the coroner’s original verdict.

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Green Day has canceled the band’s upcoming concert in Moscow due to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

“With heavy hearts, in light of current events we feel it is necessary to cancel our upcoming show in Moscow at Spartak Stadium,” the punk trio writes in an Instagram Story.

“We are aware that this moment is not about stadium rock shows, it’s much bigger than that,” the statement continues. “But we also know that rock and roll is forever and we feel confident there will be a time and a place for us to return in the future.”

The Moscow concert was scheduled to take place in May, ahead of the European leg of Green Day’s Hella Mega tour with Fall Out Boy and Weezer, launching in June.

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