“We went and recorded the whole record, and then I got a phone call from Myles in the studio when I was about to do overdubs, and he goes, ‘Man, I tested positive,'” Slash recalled. “Subsequently, two of the other guys tested positive, so they all had to go into quarantine.”
While his band mates were recovering, Slash himself tested positive.
“I [had] just got vaccinated, so I only had to quarantine for a few days,” he said.
As the virus struck the Conspirators camp towards the end of the recording process, Slash and company were able to put the finishing touches on the album once they were all COVID free.
4, which features the lead single “The River Is Rising,” arrives February 11.
Foo Fighters have shared a statement expressing their gratitude following their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame over the weekend.
In a tweet, Dave Grohl and company thanked the Rock Hall and the city of Cleveland, as well as Beatles legend Paul McCartney, who did the inducting honors, and, of course, the fans.
“Most importantly…Thanks to all of YOU for singing along for all these years,” the Foos write. “We wouldn’t be here without you.”
“Can’t wait to see you again soon!” they add.
Along with the induction — which marked Grohl’s second, following his enshrinement with Nirvana — the Foos performed their songs “Best of You,” “My Hero” and “Everlong,” and closed out the night with a rendition of The Beatles’ “Get Back” alongside McCartney.
The 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will premiere on HBO and HBO Max November 20. Other artists who were inducted include Carole King, The Go-Gos, Tina Turner, Todd Rundgren and JAY-Z, as well as Kraftwerk, Charley Patton and Gil Scott-Heron for Early Influence, and Randy Rhoads, Billy Preston and LL Cool J for Musical Excellence.
Foreigner will help bring some rocking holiday cheer to the 95th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which will air live on NBC from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET on Thursday, November 25.
The veteran rockers will be featured on “The House of Marvelous Milestones” float, sponsored by New York Life. Among the other music artists scheduled to appear or perform during the parade are Matchbox Twenty‘s Rob Thomas, rapper Nelly, R&B singer Kelly Rowland, pop singer-songwriter Andy Grammer, Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth, and country stars Carrie Underwood, Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton and Chris Lane.
The annual New York City event will be hosted by Today show co-hosts Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker.
In other news, Foreigner has a series of upcoming 2021 U.S. shows, scheduled from a concert this Thursday, November 4, in Corbin, Kentucky, through a November 21 performance in Estero, Florida. The latter gig is a previously reported benefit show headlined by John Fogerty that will raise money for The Charity Pro’s organization.
Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has announced a U.S. spoken word tour for 2022.
The outing is set to kick off January 17 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and will wrap up March 12 in Las Vegas, followed shortly thereafter by a run through Canada.
For the uninitiated, Dickinson’s spoken word performances find him “taking a humorous and often satirical look at the world from his own very personal perspective, treating the audience to private insights into his drive and ambition, peppered with plenty of Maiden anecdotes.” That will be followed by an audience Q&A session.
“The more left-field and quirky the question, the more interesting and compelling the response is likely to be!” a press release promises.
Tickets go on sale this Friday, November 5. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit Dickinson’s website, ScreamforMe.com.
Maiden, meanwhile, will return to the road for a European tour in June 2022. The metal legends just released a new album, Senjutsu, in September, which is the highest-charting Billboard 200 album of the band’s career.
Elton John has scored his 21st top-10 album on the Billboard 200 with his latest studio effort, The Lockdown Sessions, which debuted at #10 on the chart after earning 29,000 equivalent album units during its first week out. Seventeen thousand of that sum were for album sales.
The Lockdown Sessions boasts collaborations Elton recorded virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic with a wide variety of artists. The album includes the U.K. pop-rock legend’s latest top-40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix),” a duet with British pop star Dua Lipa that mashes up four of Elton’s earlier songs. The single reached #21 on the Hot 100 last week.
The album also features collaborating with Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj and many others.
Elton scored his first top-10 album back in January of 1971 with his self-titled 1970 record, which reached #4 on the tally. His most recent album to break into the top 10 was 2016’s Wonderful Crazy Night, which peaked at #8.
Meanwhile, over the past few days, Elton’s social media pages have featured severaliconicphotos of the performer without his signature glasses. Well, now we know why: He’s launching his own line of eyewear.
A video on Elton’s Instagram announces the news, with the caption, “I’m just not myself without my glasses. Which is why I’m very excited to finally announce my eyewear collaboration with @walmart and @samsclub. Designed by me to celebrate you!”
The video shows a wide range of specs in many shapes, sizes and colors, though none as quite elaborate as some of the ones Elton wore in the ’70s. As Elton notes, the proceeds will support his Elton John AIDS Foundation.
It’s Billy Joel‘s golden anniversary as an artist: 50 years ago, on November 1, 1971, his first album, Cold Spring Harbor, was released. Here are some things you may not know about the record that first introduced us to Billy’s talents:
–The album was named after a hamlet on the north shore of Long Island, New York, near where Billy grew up. The cover photo shows him standing on Harbor Road in Cold Spring Harbor.
—In 2011, Billy said he made Cold Spring Harbor because he wanted other artists to hear his songs and record them; he was advised the best way to do that was to make an album of them and then go on the road.
–One of the songs on the album, “Tomorrow Is Today,” was inspired by the depression Billy had gone through the year before, which culminated in him attempting suicide by drinking furniture polish, followed by a hospital stay to recover.
–Due to a technical error, the Cold Spring Harbor master tapes were transferred to vinyl at the wrong speed, making Billy sound, he said, “like a chipmunk.” It was finally remastered in 1983, but Billy still thinks he sounds like a chipmunk.
–Cold Spring Harbor flopped, but when Billy included a few of its songs on his 1981 live album Songs in the Attic, one of them, “She’s Got a Way,” became a top-40 hit — 10 years after he first recorded it.
–In 2011, when Billy’s catalog was reissued as a box set, he said ofCold Spring Harbor, “You don’t have to pay a lot of attention to this one. It’s the embryonic Billy Joel, I suppose.”
Here’s the full track list of Cold Spring Harbor:
“She’s Got a Way”
“You Can Make Me Free”
“Everybody Loves You Now”
“Why Judy Why”
“Falling of the Rain”
“Turn Around”
“You Look So Good to Me”
“Tomorrow Is Today”
“Nocturne”
“Got to Begin Again”
The rocker was scheduled to perform with his solo band at a Runaway Tours event at the Loews South Beach in Miami over the weekend when the diagnosis came back, forcing him to cancel the show.
Fans got the unfortunate news by Jon’s brother, Matt Bongiovi, just before the show on Saturday. He reportedly told the audience that Jon felt great but would not be performing and was going “to bed,” according to WSVN.
Bon Jovi’s rep confirmed the positive test and told Asbury Park Press that he’s “fully vaccinated and feeling fine.”
Saturday’s show was the second of three nights planned for the Runaway Tours Halloween weekend getaway, scheduled for Friday through Sunday.
Even though fans didn’t get to see Jon, the rest of the band, who tested negative, played the set as scheduled.
As previously reported, Jon is scheduled to receive the Intrepid Lifetime Achievement Award at the Salute to Freedom Gala, which takes place November 10 in New York City aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid. No word on whether or not he’ll make it.
KISS will no longer be turning Sin City into Rock City in late 2021 and early 2022. The band’s upcoming Las Vegas residency at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino has been canceled, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Ticketmaster.com.
No reason has been given for the cancellation, but Ticketmaster reports that people who purchased tickets for the shows will automatically receive a refund.
The Vegas concerts had been scheduled for December 29, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, as well as on January 19, 21, 22, 26, 28 and 29, and February 2, 4 and 5.
News of the cancellation comes a couple of days after Rolling Stone published a story that called into question how stringent the COVID-19 safety protocols for KISS’ End of the Road farewell tour were in the wake of the October 17 death of the band’s longtime guitar tech, Francis Stueber, who passed away two days after being put in quarantine because of the virus.
The article interviewed three members of the road crew — who wished to remain anonymous — who alleged that the tour “didn’t take strict enough safety measures,” and suggested that this may have led to Stueber’s death.
Meanwhile, KISS currently are taking part in the 10th edition of their KISS Kruise. As seen in fan-shot video from the cruise, former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick joined his old band Friday to perform a pair of songs — “Heaven’s on Fire” and “Tears Are Falling” — during an outdoor performance.
KISS Kruise X runs through Wednesday, November 3. KISS also confirmed plans for a KISS Kruise XI, which will set sail from Los Angeles on October 29, 2022, and will visit Enseneda, Mexico, and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, before returning to port on November 3.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
After skipping a full-on ceremony in 2020 due to the pandemic, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Gala returned in full force to Cleveland on Saturday night, ushering in Foo Fighters, Carole King, The Go-Gos, Tina Turner, Todd Rundgren, JAY-Z and more.
Here are some of the evening’s many highlights:
—Paul McCartney inducted Foo Fighters, and compared Dave Grohl‘s post-Nirvana career to his own time in Wings, noting, “We had a great time with our groups, but eventually tragedy happened and my group broke up. Same happened with Dave. His group broke up under tragic circumstances. So the question is, what do you do now?”
Macca continued, “In my case, I said, ‘Well, I’ll make an album where I play all the instruments myself.’ So I did that. Dave’s group broke up…what’s he do? He makes an album where he plays all the instruments himself. Do you think this guy’s stalking me?”
The Foos performed “Everlong,” “Best of You” and “My Hero” before taking the podium. Grohl’s acceptance speech was short, he explained, “because the last 25 years has been me, just like, ‘‘Blah, blah, blah…rock ‘n’ roll…blah, blah, blah.'” He thanked his band and crew family, and his actual family, ending with “We did it!” In his speech, drummer Taylor Hawkins campaigned for the eventual induction of Soundgarden and George Michael.
The night concluded with McCartney and Foo Fighters jamming on “Get Back.”
—Drew Barrymore inducted The Go-Go’s, and recreated the cover of their album Beauty and the Beat by wrapping herself in a bath towel and applying face cream. “Beauty and the Beat blew the doors of my life off,” she told the crowd, adding, “They made me believe in things that weren’t possible.”
While the group accepting their honor, bass player Kathy Valentine said now that The Go-Go’s had been inducted, they’d be “advocating for the inclusion of more women,” adding, “Here is the thing: There would not be less of us if more of us were visible.” The band then rocked the crowd with “Vacation,” “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat.”
—Angela Bassett, star of the Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It, inducted Turner for the second time — the singer had already been inducted in 1991 as one half of Ike & Tina Turner. As Bassett noted, “What brings us here tonight is Tina’s journey to independence. For Tina, hope triumphed over hate…ambition eclipsed adversity.”
Turner herself didn’t attend; she sent a pre-recorded thank-you. Instead, country star Mickey Guyton took the stage in Tina’s iconic ’80s uniform of denim jacket and black leather dress to sing “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” Then, country star Keith Urban and Oscar-winning R&B star H.E.R. sang “It’s Only Love.” Urban stepped in last-minute for Bryan Adams, Tina’s original duet partner on the song, who’d tested positive for COVID.
Christina Aguilerabrought it all home with a stunning rendition of the Ike & Tina Turner classic “River Deep, Mountain High.”
—Todd Rundgren, who’s said for many years that if inducted, he wouldn’t attend, pointedly booked a concert the night of the ceremony. He was virtually inducted by Patti Smith, who has known Todd since their twenties. A tribute video included commentary from The Bangles‘ Susannah Hoffs and Daryl Hall.
—Taylor Swift opened the ceremony by performing King’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” a number-one hit for The Shirelles before King herself recorded it for her iconic album Tapestry. “I cannot remember a time when I didn’t know Carole King’s music,” Taylor told the crowd during her induction speech, adding that her parents raised her to believe King was “the greatest songwriter of all time.”
King, who’d already been inducted as a songwriter in 1990, acknowledged that even though she’s been told “that today’s female singers and songwriters stand on my shoulders,” we shouldn’t forget that “they also stand on the shoulders of the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. May she rest in power, Miss Aretha Franklin!”
Jennifer Hudson then took the stage to perform “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” followed by King herself leading the crowd in a singalong of “You’ve Got a Friend.”
–Other honorees included JAY-Z, inducted by Dave Chappelle, and Musical Excellence Award recipients Randy Rhoads, inducted by Tom Morello; Kraftwerk, inducted by Pharrell Williams; Billy Preston, inducted virtually by Ringo Starr; Gil Scott-Heron, inducted by Common; LL Cool J, inducted by Dr. Dre; and bluesman Charley Patton, inducted by Gary Clark Jr.
The Rolling Stones have teamed up with the Boston Dynamics robotics company on a unique remake of the band’s “Start Me Up” music video, which features robots recreating the band members’ moves from the original clip, released 40 years ago this month.
The video, which you can watch at Boston Dynamics’ YouTube channel, features the original video side-by-side with the robotic re-creation. The new clip features the company’s dinosaur-like “Spot” robots displaying moves like Mick Jagger, as well as like Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts.
The new clip has been rechristened “Spot Me Up.”
“Start Me Up” appeared on The Rolling Stones’ 1981 album Tattoo You. The song and album peaked at #2, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts. An expanded, 40th anniversary Tattoo You reissue was released earlier this month.
Meanwhile, The Stones continue their 2021 No Filter Tour of U.S. with a concert tonight in Tampa, Florida.
