Classic Rock News

On Tuesday morning, Foo Fighters announced a North American headlining tour for the spring and summer of 2022. Now, one of the dates has already been canceled.

In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Dave Grohl and company share that they will no longer be performing at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on August 3 due to the venue’s “refusal to agree to the band’s COVID safety measures.”

“We apologize for any inconvenience and are working on finding a suitable replacement,” the statement reads. “One that will prioritize the health and safety of everyone working and attending the show.”

Previous Foo Fighters concerts have required attendees to show proof of vaccination or a negative test.

As for the rest of the tour, that’s scheduled to run from May 14 in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, to a two-night stand in Los Angeles taking place August 18 and 20. Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 3, at 10 a.m. local time.

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Jon Bon Jovi, KISS bassist/singer Gene Simmons, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, and Green Day are among the music stars taking part in a charity initiative celebrating Giving Tuesday.

The campaign, launched by Bandsintown in partnership and the charitable fundraising platform Fandiem, will offer special items and experiences from the participating artists to raise money for nonprofit organizations of their choosing. The more you donate, the more entries you’ll receive for the raffle.

Bon Jovi, Simmons and Grohl all have donated autographed, custom-designed electric guitars that will benefit Jamsz Konnections, a company that helps plan charitable events.

Pearl Jam and Green Day also have offered signed guitars, while all five Pearl Jam members have autographed a Fender Player Stratocaster that will raise money for the band’s Vitalogy Foundation, which supports environmental, homelessness and indigenous causes.

Green Day has donated a Fender Squier Strat that the band has autographed, and that also features the signatures of their fellow Hella Mega tour mates Fall Out Boy and Weezer. The sale of that instrument will benefit Reverb, a company that works to reduce the environmental footprint of touring artists, festivals and live music venues.

Other artists participating in the initiative include Matchbox Twenty‘s Rob Thomas, Evanescence‘s Amy Lee, Imagine Dragons, Jack Johnson, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, My Morning Jacket, Willie Nelson, and Taylor Swift.

For more info, visit Fandiem.com/GivingTuesday.

Giving Tuesday takes place today, November 30. It was conceived as a contrast to the commercialism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

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Foo Fighters have announced a North American headlining tour for 2022.

The outing is set to kick off May 14 in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, and will wrap up with a two-night stand in Los Angeles taking place August 18 and 20.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 3, at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit FooFighters.com.

The Foos will be touring in continued support of their new album, Medicine at Midnight, which was released this past February. They’ll close out 2021 with a run of West Coast dates in December, hitting Las Vegas and Sacramento and Fresno, California.

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In the last couple of years, biopics of Elton John and Queen‘s Freddie Mercury — Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody, respectively — were hugely successful at the box office, and Rod Stewart isn’t about to let a similar opportunity pass him by: He claims that he’s actively working on a movie of his life.

During an interview with the music newsletter The New Cue, Stewart is asked if a biopic is happening, to which he replies. “Yeah, yeah! I want that to happen!!” When asked for details, Rod says, “We’re working on it, that’s all I can tell you.”

So who would play Stewart in this alleged film? He tells The New Cue, “Oh God, I’ve haven’t thought of that. I know my 18-year-old son wants to play me at 18. Maybe I could get my other son playing me when I was 10.”

In addition to planning a biopic, Rod is also promoting his new album The Tears of Hercules, which is his fourth album of original songs in eight years.  Sir Rod says this late-career creative roll he’s been on is a result of a few different things.

“I didn’t enjoy writing songs back in the day because it was taking up such a huge part of my life, with all the drinking and a-drugging and a-shagging and a-drinking,” he explains. “But now that’s all gone out the window, I’m concentrated on writing songs and enjoying it a great deal.”

“Also, I’ve realized the capability for writing personal songs and telling the truth,” he adds, pointing out that he’s got plenty of material. As the father of eight puts it, “I’ve lived a life. Over and over and over again.”

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Graham Nash‘s new book, A Life in Focus: The Photography of Graham Nash, gets its official release today.

The 79-year-old folk-rock legend helped curate the book, which celebrates his lifelong passion for photography and offers a collection of captivating images that he shot spanning from his childhood to the present.

A Life in Focus includes candid photos of family members, friends and musical associates, self-portraits and artistically shot images captured in various natural settings. Nash also wrote commentary to accompany the pics.

Explaining his approach to photography, Graham tells ABC Audio, “I never want to take pictures of, you know, kittens with balls of wool. I don’t want to take images that match my couch…I want to capture something that will disappear in the blink of an eye unless you have the courage to press that trigger.”

Among the photos of Nash’s famous collaborators and musical contemporaries appearing in the book are images of his ex-girlfriend Joni Mitchell; his former band mates David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Neil Young; and other legends like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, George Harrison and Cass Elliot.

Graham says some of his favorite pics in the book feature Mitchell, including “one of Joan looking through [a] magnifying glass…[and another taken] through [a] chair hole…when [she was] listening to music.”

Other standout photos for Graham include one of Crosby shot in Sag Harbor, New York, while Crosby, Stills & Nash were rehearsing for their debut album, and several of Young, among them “one of [Neil] driving away from us…in his car.”

Reflecting on the new book, Nash says, “I want it to be a fun read…I want people to go, ‘Wow, all right!’ I want people to smile. I want to bring some joy into life.”

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In addition to being a musician, Bryan Adams is also a noted photographer. On Monday, he unveiled his latest work: the 2022 edition of the legendary Pirelli calendar, which in the past has been shot by such legendary photographers as Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and Annie Liebovitz.  Unfortunately, Bryan had to participate in the event in Milan, Italy virtually, because he’s battling COVID for the second time in a month.

On Instagram, Adams revealed that he’d been hospitalized when he arrived in Italy, and wrote, “I was symptomatic even though I had been vaccinated but I’m on the mend now.”

During the calendar launch event, Bryan said he was “O.K.,” but still had “some of the residual COVID bug.” He added, “I should be O.K. in a couple of days, I hope.”

As for the calendar, it’s titled On the Road, and it was photographed in L.A., Capri and Canada last summer.  Among the artists who Bryan shot for the calendar: Cher, Jennifer Hudson, St. Vincent, Iggy Pop, Grimes, rapper Saweetie, pop stars Normani and Rita Ora, and Latin star Kali Uchis.

Bryan previously tested positive for COVID at the end of October, which required him to drop out of a planned tribute to Tina Turner at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

 

 

 

 

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Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin‘s Hanukkah Sessions series continues on night two of the Jewish holiday with a cover of the Ramones classic “Blitzkrieg Bop.”

In contrast with their night one black metal rendition of Lisa Loeb’s “Stay (I Missed You),” the Foo Fighters frontman and the producer stay pretty much note-for-note true to the original punk staple, though they do change the iconic “Hey ho/Let’s go!” chant to a more holiday-appropriate “Hey oy/Let’s goy!”

“Once upon a time, two nice Jewish boys from Queens named Jeffery Hyman and Thomas Erdelyi changed the world forever with their music…as Joey and Tommy Ramone!” Grohl says.

You can watch the “Blitzkrieg Bop” cover streaming now on YouTube.

Grohl and Kurstin first launched Hanukkah Sessions in 2020, and covered songs by eight different Jewish artists to celebrate each night of the holiday: Beastie Boys, Drake, Mountain, Peaches, Bob Dylan, Elastica, The Knack and The Velvet Underground.

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On December 3, 1979, 11 young people lost their lives in a stampede as fans rushed the doors of a Who concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio.  This weekend, a 1973 Who concert will be streamed online to raise funds in memory of three of those 11 victims.

The 12th annual P.E.M. Memorial event — named after victims Stephan Preston, Jackie Eckerle and Karen Morrison — will help to fund three annual scholarships for graduating seniors from the victims’ alma mater, Finneytown High School.  The scholarships will go to students who plan to major or minor in music or the arts.

The livestream event starts December 4 at 6:15pm ET, and includes the Who’s March 1973 show at Voorburg, Netherlands, which has never been seen before.  It’ll be followed by a concert by the high school’s Alumni Band.

Visit PemMemorial.org to access the livestream.  You can also donate at that link, or visit The Who’s official website for more information on how to donate.

The tragedy at the recent Astroworld festival in Houston — which left 10 people dead —  has been compared by many to the Who concert tragedy. After those 1979 deaths, festival-style seating was banned at concerts, but has since returned at many venues, and at music festivals like Astroworld.

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Toto is already scheduled to join Journey for a tour in April of 2022, but the band has just announced a series of headlining appearances before that.

The Dogz of Oz World Tour kicks off in Las Vegas on February 25; tickets go on sale to the general public this Friday, December 3 at 10 a.m.  After the band wraps up its stint with Journey, it’ll head to Europe in July and August for a series of festival dates, as well as regular concerts.

The tour features the newest Toto lineup: Founding member Steve Lukather and longtime member Joseph Williams, plus new members John Pierce, Robert “Sput” Searight and Steve Maggiora, who are joining existing members Xavier Taplin and Warren Ham.

In a statement, guitarist Steve Lukather says of the tour, “We’ll be selecting a broader mix from the Toto catalog that includes deep cuts, the hits, and tunes from Joe’s and my recently released solo albums. Both of ushttps://totoofficial.com/ could not be more thrilled with the global response to these records.”

Lukather notes that currently, he and Williams are the “only long-tenured members of the band that want to be on the road continuing to bring music to our multi-generational fan base,” adding that it’s “something I’ll never stop doing.”

Williams adds of Lukather, “I can’t think of anyone else on Earth I’d rather launch the next chapter with than with this lifelong, loyal and gifted friend and band mate. We’re the last men standing…The Dogz of Oz.”

Visit TotoOfficial.com for a full list of tour dates.

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Legendary Australian rockers Midnight Oil have announced that while they’ll continue as a band, they’ll be calling it quits on touring.

On social media, James Moginie, a founding member of the “Beds Are Burning” band, writes that the group has rethought performing live since their longtime bass player Bones Hillman died in November of 2020 and that next year’s tour will be their last.

“We’ve played intensely physical gigs since our humble beginnings back in 1977 and we never want to take even the slightest risk of compromising that,” writes Moginie, adding, “With the passing of Bones much has been lost, so it now feels like we’re at the end of a cycle.”

“These will be sad and beautiful gigs but luckily we’re still capable of blowing the roof off any stage and that’s what we intend to do,” he continues. “You could call this a farewell tour, but Midnight Oil will still continue in some form or other as we’re brothers, family.”

Frontman Peter Garrett added, “Having always tackled every tour like it’s the last – this time it actually will be.”

Meanwhile, the band is releasing a new album next year called Resist, and its 12 songs represent the last recordings they made with Hillman.  As for future recordings, they explain, “Each of the members will continue their own projects over the years ahead. They remain very open to recording new music together in future and supporting causes in which they believe.”

In the U.S., Midnight Oil broke through with their 1987 album Diesel and Dust, featuring “Beds Are Burning” and “The Dead Heart.”  Their 1990 release Blue Sky Mining featured the hits “Blue Sky Mine,” “Forgotten Years” and “King of the Mountain.” Their last major U.S. success came with 1993’s Earth, Sun and Moon.

 

 

 

 

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