Classic Rock News

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Following last week’s surprise San Francisco concert, Metallica has announced another intimate, last-minute show.

Tonight, the metal legends will play the 1,100-capacity Metro club in Chicago. Tickets will cost just $20 and will only be available in-person at the venue. Proof of full COVID-19 vaccination is required.

You can start lining up at the Metro to buy tickets at 6 p.m. local time.

Last week’s S.F. show marked Metallica’s first full, live and in-person concert in 738 days. Following the Chicago stop, the band will hit this weekend’s Louder than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky, during which they’ll perform two distinct headlining sets.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Over the weekend, Pearl Jam played their first full live show in three years at the Sea.Hear.Now Festival in New Jersey. Not only did it give the grunge icons their first chance to debut new songs from their 2020 album Gigaton, the set allowed them to introduce the newest member of their touring band: ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.

“We started working with [Klinghoffer] to…fill out some of the new songs…covering all the basses and filling in some of the words,” frontman Eddie Vedder told the crowd. Throughout the show, Klinghoffer played guitar, drums and piano.

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

Klinghoffer’s addition to the PJ lineup isn’t totally unexpected — he previously joined them for a virtual performance of the Gigaton single “Dance of the Clairvoyants” last year, and played in Vedder’s solo band during the VAX LIVE special this past May. He as also set to open for Pearl Jam during their 2020 tour with his solo project, Pluralone, before the outing was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Pearl Jam gig comes after Klinghoffer parted ways with Chili Peppers in 2019 when longtime guitarist John Frusciante rejoined the band. He’d played with them for 10 years.

(Klinghoffer comments begin around 10:24 mark.)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

It seems as though Eric Clapton might have had a change of heart over playing shows that require proof of vaccination to enter.

As Rolling Stone notes, on Saturday, Clapton performed at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, which is following city regulations requiring all attendees 12 and over, plus staff, to show proof that they’ve been vaccinated, or provide the results of a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of the event.  All attendees must also be masked when they’re not eating or drinking.

In July, after the U.K. announced that vaccine passes would be required to attend concerts, Clapton announced, “I wish to say that I will not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience present. Unless there is provision made for all people to attend, I reserve the right to cancel the show.”

Over the past year, Clapton has made headlines for his anti-lockdown stance — even releasing a song about it called “This Has Gotta Stop.”  He’s also complained about what he called the “disastrous” side effects he suffered after getting the vaccine.

Rolling Stone speculates that Clapton may have realized that adhering to his promise would essentially require him to cancel numerous planned tour dates.  The publication points out that the venue for his next show, in Nashville, TN, also requires fans to show proof of vaccine or a negative test in order to attend.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Night is once again entering the Billboard 200 top 10, courtesy of Metallica.

The metal legends’ 1991 self-titled record, aka The Black Album, finds itself at number nine on the chart following its 30th anniversary reissue earlier this month. According to Billboard, The Black Album last visited the Billboard 200 top 10 more than 29 years ago, back in August 1992.

While it took The Black Album nearly three decades to return to the top 10, its been a near constant fixture on the Billboard 200 since is release. With its new position this week, The Black Album has now spent a total of 625 weeks on the chart, or a little over 12 years. Only three other albums have charted longer: Pink Floyd‘s The Dark Side of the Moon, Bob Marley and the Wailers‘ Legend and Journey‘s Greatest Hits.

Along with the Black Album reissue, Metallica also released The Metallica Blacklist, a 53-track compilation featuring covers of every song off the original record by artists including Weezer, Ghost, Royal Blood, Cage the Elephant, Corey Taylor, St. Vincent, Volbeat and Phoebe Bridgers, among many others.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In early 2020, Foreigner played a series of dates at in Las Vegas at The Venetian Theatre inside The Venetian Resort Las Vegas. It was supposed to be the first part of a two-part residency, but of course, those later shows never happened due to the pandemic.   Well, the band’s now making up for lost time.

Starting March 25, 2022, Foreigner will take over the venue with their show The Best of Foreigner 4 Live, celebrating the 40th anniversary of their biggest-selling album, 1981’s 4. 

Eight shows in all are going on sale: March 25, 26 and 30, and April 1, 2, 6, 8 and 9.  The general on-sale date is Friday, September 24 at 10 a.m. PT via Ticketmaster and VenetianLasVegas.com, or by calling 866-641-7469. Foreigner fan club members and members of various loyalty programs will have access to pre-sales starting tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT.

The band’s Vegas shows in 2020 featured all the hits from 4, including “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” “Juke Box Hero” and “Urgent,” as well as some deep cuts like “Night Life” and “Girl on the Moon.”  Most of the band’s other hits — from “Cold as Ice” to “I Want to Know What Love Is” — were also on the set list.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Dave Grohl has announced a book tour in support of his upcoming memoir, The Storyteller.

The live and in-person events will take place September 27 in London, October 5 in New York City, October 7 in Washington, D.C. and October 12 and 13 in Los Angeles.

For more info, visit DaveGrohlStoryteller.com.

The Storyteller, Grohl’s first-ever book, is set to be released October 5. It spans from his childhood and throughout his career, including his days with Nirvana and forming Foo Fighters.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The efforts of some Van Halen fans to memorialize the late Eddie Van Halen in the band’s hometown of Pasadena, CA have succeeded.

Julie A. Gutierrez, assistant city manager of Pasadena, wrote in her weekly newsletter that a memorial plaque honoring the late guitarist has been approved for installation outside the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, where Van Halen played some of their earliest gigs. 

She noted that since Eddie’s death, Pasadena has received several “requests and suggestions” to memorialize him via naming a street, alley or other monument in his honor.  The plaque has gotten the city’s official endorsement, Gutierrez explained, and money raised by Pasadena 4 Van Halen, a GoFundMe started by fans, will fund the effort.  The plaque should be ready for installation some time around October 6, the anniversary of Eddie’s passing.

Pasadena 4 Van Halen’s GoFundMe had an initial goal of $3,000, but has since raised nearly $7,000 as of Monday morning.  The group is continuing to campaign for a new park in Pasadena to be named in honor of the guitarist. Voting on the name of the park is underway now and continues through September 24.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Lindsey Buckingham is continuing to snipe at Stevie Nicks via the media, even after Nicks issued a rare rebuttal of his version of the events that led to him being fired from Fleetwood Mac.

In a recent interview with The Los Angeles Times, Buckingham claimed that Nicks demanded he be fired, and that Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie went along with it for financial reasons. Nicks in turn told the newspaper that Buckingham’s comments were “factually inaccurate.” But in a new interview with the Times of London, Buckingham is still blaming Nicks for his exit from the band.

“There were a number of years where I wasn’t over her,” says the guitarist. “It is possible that she has never been completely over me either.” 

He explains that he and Nicks have never “had time to heal or move on” from their breakup, adding, “We both had to compartmentalize our feelings. That is not a healthy thing to do because those little compartments can remain sealed up for years, until things start seeping out when you don’t realize.”

Buckingham also suggests that the fact that he’s a married dad and Stevie is single has something to do with it.

“It’s hard for me to know what her mentality is towards me, but I know what mine is to her because I’ve been married for 21 years and I have three children and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” he muses.

Buckingham further suggests that Stevie has “lost touch” with the creative part of herself.  And while Buckingham has been in touch with Fleetwood and McVie recently, his rejoining the band “would be down to Stevie having that epiphany herself,” he says.

“And hey, stranger things have happened,” he adds. “This is Fleetwood Mac. Anything is possible.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

A new documentary focusing on the late Joe Cocker‘s famous 1970 Mad Dogs & Englishmen Tour, as well as a star-studded 2015 Lockn’ Festival performance led by the Tedeschi Trucks Band that paid homage to the trek, will get its world premiere September 30 at the Woodstock Film Festival in Woodstock, New York.

The movie, titled Learning to Live Together: The Return of Mad Dogs & Englishmen, features archival footage of the original tour, scenes from the 2015 performance and interviews with musicians who participated in the trek, the tribute or both.

For the Lockn’ Festival performance, Derek Trucks, wife Susan Tedeschi and their band were joined by 12 of the original artists who were part of the Mad Dogs & Englishmen Tour, including Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge and Claudia Lennear, as well as such guest performers as The Black Crowes‘ Chris Robinson and ex-Traffic member Dave Mason.

The film features commentary from acclaimed music journalist David Fricke, and conversations with Trucks, Tedeschi, Robinson, Coolidge and many others, including the last interview with Russell, who died in 2016.

Learning to Live Together will get its North American theatrical release on October 22.

You can check out a trailer for the new documentary at Tedeschi Trucks Band’s official YouTube channel. In the preview, Fricke notes that the Mad Dogs & Englishmen Tour and its 1970 companion film “summarized what was possible, coming out of the ’60s — new community, new lessons in American soul, blues, R&B.”

Tedeschi and Trucks say of Learning to Live Together in a joint statement, “This film is a labor of love many years in the making, and we’re so proud to share the music and the stories of the men and women of Mad Dogs & Englishmen.”

For more info, visit MadDogsDoc.com.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.