Classic Rock News

Not long ago, Bruce Springsteen‘s YouTube channel posted an official lyric video for one of his classics, “Badlands.” As for what prompted a lyric video treatment for a song released in 1978, well, just look to your local movie theater.

“Badlands,” which first appeared on Darkness on the Edge of Town, just happens to play over the credits of the hit film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. It’s not clear if the two things are connected, but in the comments, many fans indicate that’s why they’ve come to watch the lyric video.

“Found this song through Guardians of the Galaxy and I’m glad that I did,” one person wrote.

“Came here after seeing Guardians of the Galaxy and so glad to see this new lyric video released. Such a timeless song and hit the right notes for the film,” added another.

“Got such a huge smile when this started playing at the end of Guardians 3. Listening to one of my favorite songs by my favorite musician on the big screen was amazing,” read another comment.

“Badlands” didn’t get an official video when it was released, but there are numerous live videos of the song posted on Springsteen’s YouTube channel. It’s also part of the set list on Bruce’s current tour.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, May 22, 1976 …

Paul McCartney & Wings hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Silly Love Songs,” which spent five weeks on top of the chart.

The tune, from the 1976 album Wings at the Speed of Sound, was McCartney’s answer to critics who suggested he only wrote lightweight love songs.

“Silly Love Songs” was McCartney’s fifth number one as a solo artist and his 27th number one as a songwriter, which was a new record. McCartney still holds the record for the most number ones by a songwriter with 32.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

This year’s Cruel World festival unexpectedly turned into a two-day event over the weekend.

Toward the end of the festival’s originally scheduled day on Saturday, the venue was evacuated on account of “unsafe weather conditions and lightning strikes in the area.” Iggy Pop‘s performance was cut short, while Siouxsie‘s headlining set, which was set to mark the Siouxsie and the Banshees frontwoman’s first U.S. performance in 15 years, was canceled.

Luckily, organizers were able to reschedule full Siouxsie and Iggy sets for Sunday at the same venue.

Prior to the evacuation, Cruel World featured sets from Love and Rockets, Echo & the Bunnymen and Billy Idol.

Those who bought Cruel World tickets but could not attend the Sunday makeup show can receive partial refunds.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Tom Johnston will be able to listen — but not sing — to the music for a while: The Doobie Brothers‘ lead singer and guitarist is undergoing surgery to address his severe back pain.

This means Johnston will be sitting out the upcoming leg of the band’s 50th Anniversary Tour, which is set to kick off May 25 at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida. The other band members — including Pat Simmons, Michael McDonald and John McFee — will continue the tour so as not to disappoint the fans. 

“I hope for a speedy recovery and can’t wait to get back on the road and continue doing what I love,” Johnston says in a statement. “I would like to thank Pat, Michael, John, and the entire Doobie Brothers band for covering for me while I recover from back surgery…I’m sure they will bring it every night as they always do.” 

The Doobie Brothers’ 50th anniversary tour is set to run through October. A complete list of dates can be found at thedoobiebrothers.com.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

A guitar smashed and signed by the late Kurt Cobain sold for $595,900 at a Julien’s Auctions sale over the weekend.

The black Fender Stratocaster features an inscription from the Nirvana icon to Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan reading “Hell-o Mark/Love, your Pal, Kurdt Kobain/Washed up rock star.” It was expected to sell for between $60,000 and $80,000, meaning it went for nearly 10 times its original estimate.

Last year, a Cobain-smashed guitar sold for over $480,000 at auction. Another Cobain guitar, the 1959 Martin D-18E guitar he played during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged special, holds the record for most expensive guitar sold at auction: it went for $6 million in 2020.

Along with the guitar, another historic Nirvana artifact sold during the auction: the 1991 handwritten set list from the band’s April 1991 show at Seattle’s OK Hotel, which notably featured the live debut of the then-unreleased “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” That went for $50,800, well above its $4,000-$6,000 estimate.

The auction also saw the sale of an Eddie Van Halen guitar from Van Halen‘s 2007-08 tour, which went for $114,300; a Bono-played Gretsch Irish Falcon Electric Guitar, which fetched $238,125; and John Lennon and Paul McCartney‘s handwritten lyrics for The Beatles‘ “Baby, You’re a Rich Man,” which brought in $65,000.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen spoke to ABC’s Good Morning America about his recovery journey after he was assaulted after a show in Fort Lauderdale in March.

Allen, 59, told GMA that he was “totally blindsided” by the attack, explaining, “I heard a couple of steps and then I just saw this [flash] and the next thing I knew was I was on the ground. I landed on my backside… hit my head on the pavement.”

Allen, who lost his left arm in a car crash in 1984, added, “I don’t think he knew who I was, but he must have seen that I wasn’t a threat because, you know, I’ve only got one arm.”

Police arrested Max Hartley, a 19-year-old from Ohio, shortly after he allegedly attacked the drummer and a woman who tried to interfere in the incident, nearby the site of the attack at the Four Seasons in Fort Lauderdale, on March 13.  

Hartley was charged with two counts of battery and four counts of criminal mischief, according to a police report. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Allen’s wife, Lauren Monroe, to whom he’s been married since 2003, helped him recover. Allen told GMA, “I immediately just went to that place of just feeling grateful for the fact that I have an amazing wife and an incredible family and I just started thanking a higher power for the fact that I’m still here.”

Def Leppard kicks off the U.K./European leg of their Stadium tour on Monday, and Allen’s ready.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Songwriter and poet Pete Brown, best known for co-writing “Sunshine of Your Love” and “White Room” for Cream in the 1960s, died of cancer on Friday, May 19 at the age of 82.

A post on Brown’s Facebook page read, “Pete was known to repeat the mantra ‘I come from a long line of worriers, not warriors.’ One of his other favorite expressions passed down from [British poet] Spike Hawkins was, ‘That’s life — up one minute, down the next twenty-five years.'”  

In continued, “Despite his tendency towards Jewish pessimism, he lived the life of a warrior poet. He was proudly anti-establishment, and dedicated his life to his creative endeavors, in an uncompromising way.”

Inspired by U.S. beat poets, Brown began writing poetry in 1955. He was approached by Cream drummer Ginger Baker to write lyrics for the supergroup, which also featured guitarist Eric Clapton and bassist Jack Bruce.

Brown also helped write the group’s song “I Feel Free,” and continued to write songs with Bruce more than four decades after Cream broke up.

He continued working until the end, collaborating with Joe Bonamassa on the album Royal Tea and, most recently, on the final mixes of a new album, Shadow Club, featuring guest performances from Clapton and Bonamassa.

Brown was featured in two documentary films: White Rooms and Imaginary Westerns, a loose adaptation of his autobiography, and The Cream Acoustic Sessions, a documentary on the re-working of many Cream songs. An accompanying album, Heavenly Cream, is due for release later this year.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe kick off the U.K./European leg of their Stadium tour on Monday, May 22, in the band’s hometown of Sheffield, England, and while the tour has already played the U.S. and Latin America, guitarist Phil Collen is particularly excited about their upcoming shows.

“I’m a bit of a tourist,” he tells ABC Audio, noting that he’s looking forward to visiting cities like Prague and Milan. He’s also excited to play London’s Wembley Stadium, which he says is “a big deal.” And he’s even more stoked for opening night at Bramall Lane, home of frontman Joe Elliott‘s favorite football club, Sheffield United, which Collen says is “a huge deal for us.”

Collen also can’t wait to be back on tour with his buddies in Mötley Crüe. “It’s been like being at school with your best friends, only you’re on a 787 jumbo jet,” he says. “I mean, it’s ridiculous.” 

The new leg of the Stadium tour runs through July 6 in Glasgow, Scotland, and then returns to the U.S. on August 5 in Syracuse, New York. A complete list of Def Leppard/Mötley Crüe tour dates can be found at defleppard.com.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Foo Fighters held a streaming concert Sunday, during which they revealed who will be the band’s new drummer following the death of Taylor Hawkins in March 2022.

Showing that they haven’t lost their sense of humor following what they’ve called “the most difficult and tragic year that our band has ever known,” the Foos began the stream faking out viewers with a trio of big-name drummers — Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith, Mötley Crüe‘s Tommy Lee and Tool‘s Danny Carey — showing up at the studio for a quick chat before leaving. The camera then turned around to reveal the true new Foos drummer sitting behind the kit: Josh Freese.

An acclaimed and prolific session drummer, Freese has played with bands including Nine Inch Nails, Guns N’ Roses, A Perfect Circle and The Offspring. He also was one of the many guest drummers to sit in with the Foos during their massive tribute concerts to Hawkins last September.

The set for the stream featured the live debut of “Rescued,” “Under You,” “Nothing At All,” songs off the upcoming Foos album But Here We Are, their first record since Hawkins’ death. They also played classics including “All My Life” and “Monkey Wrench,” and closed with “Aurora,” which was Hawkins’ favorite Foo Fighters song.

But Here We Are drops June 2. Foos will launch a U.S. tour May 24 in Gilford, New Hampshire.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

After years of estrangement, Graham Nash has said he and his former Crosby, Stills and Nash bandmate David Crosby were approaching reconciliation when Crosby died in January. Now, he’s planning two releases that will celebrate their work together.

According to Billboard, Nash plans to release a compilation of other artists’ songs on which he and Crosby made guest appearances. He also wants to put out a recording from a concert they did in Padua, Italy, in 2011 that he says “knocks me on my a**.”

Nash, whose new album, Now, is out Friday, tells Billboard, “It’s all sad, but I choose to only try to remember the good stuff, the good times we had, the good music that we made, ’cause the rest is just s*****, silly teenage stuff.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is touring a show he calls Sixty Years of Songs and Stories, with West Coast dates set for next month and more North American dates in the fall.

“I just want people to know you can still rock at 81,” Nash says. “I’ve made some fine music in my life, with my fantastic musical partners. And I feel there’s still more of it coming.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.