Classic Rock News

Ozzy Osbourne sure doesn’t sound like someone who’s retired from touring.

Earlier this year, the Prince of Darkness canceled his 2023 tour of the U.K. and Europe due to health reasons, adding, “Never would I have imagined that my touring days would have ended this way.”

Ozzy’s since announced that he’ll be playing the much-hyped Power Trip festival this fall, and he now tells Metal Hammer he’s “determined” to continue to perform live.

“I’ve gotta do more gigs if I have to get someone to wheel me out there,” Ozzy says. “I mean, you can’t retire from this game. It’s not a job, it’s a f****** passion. I don’t know how to do anything else.”

“The thought of sitting in my house all day … I’m a road dog, you know?” the metal legend continues. “I’ve been doing it f****** 55 years. It’s the best thing to have ever happened to me.”

Power Trip takes place October 6-8 in Indio, California, on the same site as Coachella. The stacked bill also includes AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Iron Maiden and Tool.

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Mickey Hart will certainly be busy this summer with Dead & Company’s final tour, but he’s making time in his schedule to help show off his art.

The rocker is set to make two rare in-person art gallery appearances to promote his latest art collection, the Art of Mickey Hart. The first will take place at the Wentworth Gallery at Tysons Galleria in McLean, Virginia, on June 4 at 2 p.m., followed by an appearance at the Wentworth Gallery at Short Hills Mall in New Jersey on June 23 at 6:30 p.m.

“These visual representations from my sonic-driven world are snapshots into the music I am making,” Mickey shares. “The basis of all life is vibratory, from the cosmos to human organism to the rhythms of nature and the music that come from what we make, from what we call culture. These are the worlds of rhythm that envelop us on a daily basis. Understanding these rhythms is essential in our daily lives.” 

He adds, “These works have been drummed, vibrated into existence. This technique is essential in the creation of my art.”  

More info on Mickey’s appearances can be found at wentworthgallery.com.

But up next for Mickey, he and the rest of Dead & Company will headline New Orleans Jazz Fest on May 6. They’ll launch their final tour with a two-night stand in Los Angeles, California, May 19 and 20. A complete list of dates can be found at deadandcompany.com.

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The late Tom Petty is getting a new title this week. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer can soon be referred to as doctor, now that he’s being awarded a posthumous doctorate by the University of Florida School of Music.

A member of Petty’s family will be on hand to accept the Gainesville native’s Doctor of Music degree during the UF spring doctoral ceremony on Thursday, May 4.

“We in the UF School of Music and College of the Arts are privileged to honor Tom Petty with an honorary doctorate degree in Music, celebrating not only his extraordinary achievements as an artist, but the ways in which his music has and continues to unite us as a community,” UF School of Music director Kevin Orr shares.

To celebrate the honor, the Petty family has established the Tom Petty Endowment for Guitars & Innovation at UF College of the Arts, pledging $100,000 to expand the school’s guitar program. It will also go toward the new Music Business & Entrepreneurship program. 

“It is so incredible for everyone in the family that UF is honoring our dad in his hometown this way,” Petty’s daughter Adria says. “He loved the Gators, and he loved Gainesville. He always talked about wanting a doctorate from UF and he would have been totally blown away by all this.”

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In the latest instance of artificial intelligence messing with music, People reports that a YouTube user has used artificial intelligence to transform solo songs by Paul McCartney and John Lennon into full blown Beatles songs. 

The videos were posted by a user named Dae Lims, who reimagined McCartney’s 2013 track “New” and the 1983 posthumous Lennon release “Grow Old with Me” as complete band songs. The McCartney song features an AI version of Lennon singing along in the chorus, while “Grow Old With Me” adds McCartney’s voice to the song.

And fans seem to be digging the reimagined tracks. “This is unbelievable, just like a new Beatles song,” one person commented about “New.” “Thank you so much for making this.” Another called “Grow Old With Me” a masterpiece, describing it as “truly stunning!”

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E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren is set to release a new solo album, Mountains, on July 21 and has shared the first single from the record, “Ain’t The Truth Enough,” featuring special guest Ringo Starr on drums.

In addition to Ringo, the 10-track album features guest appearances by several of Lofgren’s famous friends, including Neil Young and the late David Crosby.  

“These songs are all born of raw emotion,” Lofgren shares. “I gave myself permission to share my fear and my anger, my love and my hope, to be open about what I was experiencing without overanalyzing or editing my life out of it.”

He adds, “This album started as a form of therapy but it very quickly grew beyond that,” noting “it was so freeing to work without any restrictions, to just write whatever came out, and it turned into some of the most inspired work I think I’ve ever made.”

To coincide with the release, Lofgren will launch his Rockality video series, where he’ll share stories from his music career. The videos will be available for purchase starting July 21 at nilslofgren.com.

Here is the track list for Mountains. It’s available for preorder now. 

“Ain’t the Truth Enough” (feat. Ringo Starr)
“Only Ticket Out”
“Back In Your Arms” (feat. the Howard Gospel Choir)
“Won’t Cry No More”
“Nothing’s Easy” (feat. Neil Young)
“Dream Killer”
“Only Your Smile” (feat. Ron Carter)
“I Remember Her Name” (feat. David Crosby)
“We Better Find It”
“Angel Blues”

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Def Leppard is treating their hometown fans to a very special show. The band just announced they’ll be playing an intimate club show at The Leadmill in Sheffield, England, on May 19.

The band promises fans the concert will feature “a unique set list,” with portions of the proceeds going to Music Venue Trust, a charity that aids grassroots music venues. 

The concert will happen on the same day Def Leppard releases their new album Drastic Symphonies with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Fans in the U.K. who preorder the album by May 10 at 5 p.m. BST will get exclusive presale access to tickets. 

And Def Leppard will be sticking around their hometown after the gig. The European leg of their tour with Mötley Crüe kicks off May 22 at Sheffield’s Bramall Lane. A complete list of dates can be found at defleppard.com.

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A guitar smashed by Kurt Cobain and a historic Nirvana set list are going up for auction.

The guitar, a black Fender Stratocaster, is signed by and features an inscription to Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan reading, “Hell-o Mark/Love, your Pal, Kurdt Kobain/Washed up rock star.” It’s expected to sell for between $60,000 and $80,000.

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 when it went for $6 million in 2020.

The set list, meanwhile, is handwritten by Cobain and is from Nirvana’s April 1991 show at Seattle’s OK Hotel, which notably featured the live debut of the then-unreleased “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” That’s expected to go for between $4,000 and $6000.

Both the guitar and the set list will be included in Julien’s Auctions’ upcoming Music Icons sale, taking place May 19-21 at New York City’s Hard Rock Cafe and online via JuliensAuctions.com.

Other items part of the auction include an acoustic Top of the Pops guitar signed by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Freddie Mercury‘s stage-worn New York Yankees jacket from Queen‘s 1977 Madison Square Garden show and an Eddie Van Halen guitar played during a 2008 Van Halen concert.

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On This Day, May 3, 1986…

English singer/songwriter Robert Palmer landed his first and only Billboard Hot 100 number one with “Addicted to Love,” which went on to become his signature song. 

The song was the second single released from Palmer’s eighth studio album Riptide, which also featured the number two hits “Simply Irresistible” and “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On.” “Addicted to Love” was originally intended to be a duet with Chaka Khan, but her label wouldn’t give her permission to record it. 

The track’s success was aided by a stylish music video that got massive play on MTV, featuring Palmer being backed by a group of models all dressed in black, with pale faces and heavy makeup. The video went on to be parodied several times, including in the movie Love Actually, and in videos for Shania Twain‘s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman,” Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing” and more.

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Bush has premiered a new song called “All Things Must Change.”

The track will appear on the upcoming deluxe version of Gavin Rossdale and company’s 2022 album, The Art of Survival, due out June 9.

“This is nature,” Rossdale says of the tune. “All things are changing. All the time.”

You can listen to “All Things Must Change” now via digital outlets and watch its accompanying lyric video streaming now on YouTube.

Along with “All Things Must Change,” the deluxe The Art of Survival includes a new version of the album track “1000 Years” featuring Evanescence‘s Amy Lee, and live recordings of the tracks “More Than Machines” and “Heavy Is the Ocean.”

Bush is currently touring in support of The Art of Survival alongside Breaking Benjamin.

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Neil Young is the latest artist to pay tribute to fellow Canadian, singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, who passed away Monday at the age of 84.

“I just spoke to Gordon a few weeks back and he sounded happy, although he had cancelled some shows and was re-organizing his touring,” Young shared on his Neil Young Archives site Tuesday. “I was saddened when I learned today of his passing.” 

Young called Lightfoot “a great Canadian artist,” and “a songwriter without parallel,” noting, “His melodies and words were an inspiration to all writers who listened to his music, as they will continue to be through the ages.”

Finally, he shares, “There is a unique and wonderful feeling to Gordon’s music. Lightfoot is a Canadian legend.”

And Young has been inspired by Lightfoot’s music in the past. He covered two of his songs, “Early Morning Rain” and “If You Could Read My Mind,” for his covers album A Letter Home, which came out in 2014.

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