Classic Rock News

Guns N’ Roses guitarist Richard Fortus, Poison drummer Rikki Rockett and Rob Zombie guitarist/current Mötley Crüe touring member John 5 are all taking part in the upcoming “80s Anthems” edition of Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp.

The program takes place May 4-7 in Los Angeles. Participants will be able to jam their favorite ’80s tunes alongside the all-star mentors, culminating with performances at the famed Viper Room and Whisky a Go Go venues.

“I can’t wait to relive the ’80s, jamming out to the most iconic and huge rock anthems of the decade at Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp with my fellow campers,” Rockett says. “See you there, and prepare to lead the Whisky a Go Go in some epic sing-a-longs.”

For more info, visit RockCamp.com.

Other upcoming Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camps this year will take place January 19-22 in Nashville with Halestorm‘s Lzzy Hale and Vicki Peterson of The Bangles and March 16-19 in LA with Soundgarden‘s Kim Thayil, and Stone Temple Pilots‘ Robert and Dean DeLeo.

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Phil Lesh & Friends, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and Nile Rodgers & Chic are among the artists booked to perform at the 2023 Echoland Festival, taking place May 11 to 13 in Live Oak, Florida.

The festival, which goes down at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, also features Gov’t Mule, The Flaming Lips performing the album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots in its entirety, Tyler Childers, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Tenacious D, Grace Potter and more.

Early access tickets go on sale January 19 at 10 a.m. ET. Click here for more info and the full lineup.

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Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell are among the artists who have contributed items to the new MusiCares Charity Relief Auction, set to coincide with this year’s Grammy Awards.

Items up for grabs include three guitars from MusiCares Person of the Year honorees. There’s a 2014 Gibson Les Paul electric guitar signed by the five members of Fleetwood Mac — Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and Christine and John McVie — who received the honor in 2018; a black Epiphone acoustic guitar from the 2015 celebration of honoree Bob Dylan, signed by the artists who paid tribute to him, including John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen; and a 2021 Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar signed by the 2022 MusiCares Person of the Year, Joni Mitchell, which is paired with an autographed four-LP vinyl box set of The Reprise Albums (1868-1971).

There is also a Joni Mitchell watercolor painting that was created live by artist Rob Prior ahead of the 2022 event, which Mitchell added a few strokes to, as well as a signed print of Joni’s original painting of Jimi Hendrix. 

And that’s just a little of what’s up for bid. The auction will also include items from such artists as Slash, David Lee Roth, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant, Sting and The Who. Check out the full list of items available here.

The auction is scheduled for February 5 at 11 a.m. PT; it will take place at Julien’s Auctions and online. Proceeds benefit MusiCares, the Recording Academy’s charity arm that provides health and human services to the music community.

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A never-before-heard interview with the late Jeff Beck is featured in the latest Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, where he opens up about the important role guitar played in his life.

“The only friends I had were pretty low-life,” Beck says of his childhood, in the unearthed audio from an interview with the mag’s Kory Grow. “They were one step away from jail, most of them. The guitar saved me from that.” 

In the interview, Beck, who passed away Tuesday from bacterial meningitis, also discussed how it may have been a good thing that he “never made the big time.” “When you look around and see who has made it huge, it’s a really rotten place to be when you think about it,” he says. “Maybe I’m blessed with not having had that.”

In addition to the interview, the podcast features tributes to Beck by such fellow guitar legends as The Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid and Joe Satriani.

You can listen to the podcast here.

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Axl Rose is sharing his grief over the loss of his friend Lisa Marie Presley, who died Thursday after suffering cardiac arrest. She was 54. 

“I will miss my friend Lisa. Her passing, just as her son’s, or as a kid, her father’s, doesn’t seem real,” the Guns N’ Roses frontman shares with People. “Lisa loved her family, all her children. My heart goes out to them.”

Axl tells the mag that he knew Lisa Marie, the only daughter of Elvis Presley and wife Priscilla, had a hard time dealing with the July 2020 death of her son, Benjamin Keough. “It was something that, at a point, you obviously didn’t want to bring up but awkwardly would in an effort to let her know you cared and were thinking about her, about them, and to be of any comfort one could, which she appreciated.” 

He also revealed that after Benjamin’s death he used to send her “jokes, news articles and lots of animal vids” to try to make her smile, sharing, “I wanted her to be happy, to feel good about things, at least as much as one could under the circumstances. But truthfully, it didn’t seem, at least without some real time passing, a reasonable reality.”

Finally, he notes, “What comes after life who knows but I’d like to think they’re together, her and Ben with her father and Ben’s grandfather in some way, and Lisa, and the most important men in her life are happy together.”

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Paulina Porizkova is sharing fond memories of her very first date with her late husband, The Cars’ Ric Ocasek. 

“I’m sitting at a table at the Odeon restaurant, the very same table where, 39 years ago, I had my first dinner with the man who would become my husband,” she shares in an Instragram post. “We were having dinner with the whole band, their manager, and actor Timothy Hutton, but I hardly noticed anyone else but the tall, lanky and akwardly (sic) elegant man with turquoise eyes next to me.” 

Paulina then writes about how the rocker accepted a dare during the meal to sit on top of a table where another couple was dining. 

“Without a word, he pushed condiments and food aside and then got up on the table, folding his body so the entirety of him fit right on the table top, along with the plates and food,” she explains. “He sat there, mutely, for a minute, looking back and forth between the man and the woman, who gaped back at him. Then he got off, and slinked back next to me as if nothing happened.”

Paulina adds that while his band didn’t even notice what he was doing, “I thought he was the most compelling man I had ever met. Confident and funny in a absurdist Monty Python-esque way.”

The couple married in 1989 and had two sons together before announcing their separation in 2018. The Cars frontman passed away in 2019.

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U2 frontman Bono is set to appear on the next episode of Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett’s Smartless podcast, debuting January 23.

“We needed a lead vocalist, so we got Bono,” they share in announcing the news. “Come join us for breaking-news, the similarities between Ireland and Jamaica, the difference between EQ and IQ, and, um… World of Warcraft.”

The news comes barely a week after U2 announced their new album, Songs of Surrender, will drop March 17. It will feature 40 rerecorded and reimagined U2 classics.

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The Rolling Stones have given fans another taste of their upcoming live album, GRRR Live! The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers just shared a video of their live performance of “Wild Horses,” which originally appeared on their 1971 album, Sticky Fingers.

The video is taken from the Stones’ December 15, 2012, concert at Newark’s Prudential Center, which was part of their 50 & Counting tour, celebrating their 50th anniversary as a band. The original show aired as a pay-per-view event.

GRRR Live!, which is a full recording of the concert, is set to drop February 10. It features special guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, John Mayer, Gary Clark Jr., Mick Taylor and The Black Keys.

To celebrate the release, the band is holding a special online interactive screening of the concert February 2 at 8 p.m., where viewers from across the globe will be able to share short video selfies, and see themselves and be seen by others on screen as the performance airs. Fans can find out more info here.

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NOTE LANGUAGE) Living Colour’s Vernon Reid was understandably shocked when he learned of Jeff Beck’s passing last week, sharing a series of profanity-laced tweets about the news. Now he’s opening up a bit more about what Beck meant to him and the legacy he left.

In a conversation with Variety, Reid noted that Beck’s death from bacterial meningitis “blindsided” the guitar community. He mentioned other shocking rock deaths, like Chris Cornell and Stevie Ray Vaughan, but noted, “This is undoubtedly one of the worst.” 

Reid calls Beck a “fearless guy,” explaining, “He was one of those rare prodigy people that actually kept developing. He was in the top (rock) ranks like a Jimi Hendrix or Van Halen or Jimmy Page, but he was also uniquely himself like a Robert Fripp — he could be both those things. He went forward in a way that would frighten normal people.”

Reid discussed how he was first introduced to Beck, and shared that some of his favorite songs were Beck’s version of “Somewhere over the Rainbow” and the instrumental ballad “Where Were You.” As for their relationship, Reid explains, “I didn’t spend as much time as I would’ve liked to with him, but he was always incredibly gracious and, and he was a really friendly dude.”

“Now, it’s like the idea that Prince is a character of the past — it’s crazy,” Reid concludes. “He was a living person doing his thing in real time. And it always comes down to: We were fortunate to even have them with us. At some point you go, ‘Sh**, I was on earth with this person when they were doing their thing.’”

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Billy Joel was back at New York’s Madison Square Garden Friday night and Rolling Stone reports he took some time out of his residency to pay tribute to the late Jeff Beck, who died Tuesday at the age of 78.

“He was a musician that I always loved. He was the best. Jeff Beck just passed away…,” Joel told the audience at his 86th MSG show. “I couldn’t let the night go by without doing something by Jeff.”

Billy then performed the track “People Get Ready,” which Beck recorded with Rod Stewart for for Beck’s 1985 album, Flash.

He paid tribute to Beck again later in the evening after the night’s last song, “You May Be Right,” with the band playing a jam session that morphed into “Going Down,” a track that appeared on the Jeff Beck Group’s 1972 self-titled third album. Noted Billy, “we should have rehearsed this today.”

Following the news of Beck’s death, Billy posted a tribute to him on social media, calling him “one of my heroes,” and noting, “I was fortunate to meet him recently and I’m very grateful now that I was able to tell him how much I admired his musical skill. This is the end of an era.”

(A previous version of this story published on 1/16/23 misspelled Jeff Beck’s name in the headline. The text above has been updated to correct the error.)

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