Classic Rock News

For a second year in a row, the Grammy Awards will not take place on January 31 as originally planned because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABC News confirms the Recording Academy has delayed this year’s ceremony, which was to be hosted again by Trevor Noah.

“After careful consideration and analysis with city and state officials, health and safety experts, the artist community and our many partners, the Recording Academy and CBS have postponed the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards Show,” the organization announced in a statement on Wednesday. 

The Recording Academy continued, “The health and safety of those in our music community, the live audience, and the hundreds of people who work tirelessly to produce our show remains our top priority. Given the uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant, holding the show on January 31 simply contains too many risks.”

At this time, the organization has not announced when the Grammys will be rescheduled, but promised the new date “will be announced soon.”

Currently, federal data reports that more than 100,000 people are hospitalized in the U.S. for COVID-19.  Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from the weekend shows that the U.S. is now averaging nearly half a million new cases a day — averaging out to nearly six Americans testing positive every second.

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In a new memoir being published this month, Valerie Bertinelli opens up about her relationship with her late ex-husband Eddie Van Halen and shares what happened during his final moments.

People has shared an exclusive excerpt from the book, titled Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today, in which Bertinelli reveals that she and son Wolfgang — her and the Van Halen guitarist’s only child — had been visiting the cancer-stricken rock legend daily in the hospital until his death on October 6, 2020.

“‘I love you’ are the last words Ed says to Wolfie and me,” the actress writes in the book, “and they are the last words we say to him before he stops breathing.” Bertinelli notes that’s Eddie’s second wife, Janie Liszewski, and his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, also were there.

Valerie and Eddie were married in 1981 and separated in 2001, eventually divorcing in 2007 — his drug and alcohol issues being a major factor — but Bertinelli writes that she and Van Halen grew closer again as he became seriously ill.

“I hated the drugs and the alcohol but I never hated him,” she explains. “I saw his pain.” She also admits, “I loved Ed more than I know how to explain. I loved his soul.”

Bertinelli reveals that around Thanksgiving 2019, Eddie privately gave her a gold pendant he’d bought while in Germany for cancer treatments.

“I hope you don’t think it’s weird…that I bought my ex-wife this gift and didn’t get my wife anything,” Valerie says Eddie told her with tears in his eyes. “I just love you.”

She notes, “He want[ed] me to know he messed up [during our marriage].”

Enough Already will be released on January 18.

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Hulu has released a second trailer for the upcoming Pam & Tommy limited series about Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee‘s infamous sex tape.

While the first teaser focused mostly on the two men who stole and then sold the tape, played by Seth Rogen and Nick Offerman, the new clip gives us more of a preview of Lily James and Sebastian Stan‘s respective performances as the Baywatch superstar and the Mötley Crüe drummer.

“You don’t seem to understand what a big deal this is,” James’ Anderson tells Stan’s Lee, who replies, “I’m on that tape just the same as you.” When Anderson says that the tape is “worse” for her, Lee shoots back, “How is this worse for you?”

Pam & Tommy is set to premiere February 2 with three episodes. Subsequent episodes will air weekly.

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David Byrne is one of the many music artists who have contributed to a new tribute album called Ocean Child: Songs of Yoko Ono that’s been compiled by Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and will be released on February 18 — Yoko Ono‘s 89th birthday.

The former Talking Heads frontman teamed up with veteran indie-rock group Yo La Tengo to record a version cover of Ono’s 1970 song “Who Has Seen the Wind?” for the project. The track is available now via digital formats, and an animated companion lyric video has premiered at Death Cab for Cutie’s official YouTube channel.

The 14-track collection also features newly recorded renditions of songs from throughout Ono’s career by such other artists as Death Cab, The Flaming Lips, Magnetic Fields singer Stephin Merritt and more.

Gibbard says in a statement, “It is my sincere hope that a new crop of Yoko Ono fans fall in love with her songwriting due in some small part to this album we have put together.”

To accompany the album, Gibbard will be co-hosting a podcast diving deeper into Ono’s music that will feature some of the Ocean Child guest artists. The podcast will premiere on February 18, as well.

In a trailer for the podcast, Byrne says, “Yoko, in her own words, is perceived as a witch, and she’s underappreciated…so that gives us an opportunity to work with her material in a way that would be harder to do with someone who was kind of more universally appreciated.”

He adds, “She has a very open and curious approach, which is something that is really inspirational.”

A portion of proceeds from Ocean Child will be donated to the charity organization WhyHunger.

Here’s the full Ocean Child track list:

“Toyboat” — Sharon Van Etten
“Who Has Seen the Wind?” — David Byrne and Yo La Tengo
“Dogtown” — Sudan Archives
“Waiting for the Sunrise” — Death Cab for Cutie
“Yellow Girl (Stand for Life)” — Thao
“Born in a Prison” — US Girls
“Growing Pain” — Jay Som
“Listen, the Snow Is Falling” — Stephin Merritt
“No No No” — Deerhoof
“Don’t Be Scared” — We Are KING
“Mrs. Lennon” — The Flaming Lips
“No One Sees Me Like You Do” — Japanese Breakfast
“There Is No Goodbye Between Us” — Yo La Tengo
“Run Run Run” — Amber Coffman

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If the promise of watching Peter Jackson‘s acclaimed three-part documentary The Beatles: Get Back wasn’t enough to make you sign up for Disney+, it’s now coming to home video — and to a theater near you.

The complete docuseries will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 8, but to whet your appetite, the “rooftop concert” portion of the series, which runs 60 minutes, will debut at select IMAX theaters as part of a special screening on January 30. The screenings will feature a Q&A with Jackson via satellite, as well as exclusive mini-posters for attendees.

“I’m thrilled that the rooftop concert from The Beatles: Get Back is going to be experienced in IMAX, on that huge screen,” says Jackson in a statement. “It’s The Beatles‘ last concert, and it’s the absolute perfect way to see and hear it.”

The concert, which took place on the rooftop of The Beatles’ Apple Corps headquarters on London’s Savile Row on January 30, 1969, was the last time all four member of the band performed together live. The performance was seen in its entirety for the first time in The Beatles: Get Back.

Tickets for the IMAX Event Screening and Filmmaker Q&A are currently on sale at tickets.imax.com. A regular global theatrical showing of The Beatles: Get Back — The Rooftop Concert will then run from February 11 to February 13.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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David Lee Roth has issued a statement regarding the cancellation of his scheduled Las Vegas residency at the House of Blues, while also alluding to possibly playing more shows in the future.

The longtime Van Halen frontman’s statement, which EW.com received via his manager, reads, “Sometimes you win…Sometimes you lose…We got rained out…Covid cancelled…Future shows? When the benefit concerts for Colorado, Farm Aid, and hospital workers ‘everywhere’ come up; Call me.”

Accompanying the note was a photo of a road case that features multiple images the singer wearing a red top hat and holding a microphone, along with the message, “To be continued…”

As previously reported, Roth had announced in an October 2021 interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he planned to retire after his Vegas shows. David scheduled nine concerts at the House of Blues, on New Year’s Eve and January 1, 5, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 and 22, all of which were canceled in recent days.

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The Rush pinball machine has arrived.

Last month, the company Stern Pinball teased that a game dedicated to the Canadian prog legends was in the works. Now, Stern has officially revealed the details of the machine.

Not only will the game feature 16 Rush songs, such as “Tom Sawyer,” “Limelight,” “2112” and “Fly By Night,” but it also includes custom-recorded dialog by surviving band members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson.

In a behind-the-scenes video, you can watch Lee and Lifeson recording their parts alongside pinball enthusiast and fellow Canadian rocker Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies.

“I particularly love it when a pinball machine taunts you,” Robertson tells Lifeson while coaching his voiceover performance.

The Rush pinball machine will be seen in action for the first time during a virtual event at the 2022 Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, taking place January 5-8.

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With 2021 in the record books, Heritage Auctions has announced that it raked in a record of its own: $1.4 billion in sales from everything from sports memorabilia to comic books to coins to music-related collectibles.

The 45-year-old institution revealed that among the year’s biggest sellers in the latter category were a collection of guitars belonging to Journey‘s Neal Schon, and a touring piano played by Elton John.

Schon’s guitar collection, which was auctioned in July, brought in a total of $4.2 million, and included 10 instruments that fetched six figures.

Among the more than 90 instruments that were sold was the 1977 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe Black Solid Body model that Schon used to record many songs on Journey’s chart-topping 1981 album, Escape, including “Don’t Stop Believin’.” That guitar was purchased for $268,000, including fees.

Meanwhile, Elton’s touring piano, a Steinway grand that the pop-rock legend played on the road for about 20 years, fetched $915,000 at a July auction. Elton wrote a note in black marker on the piano’s gild-iron frame that reads, “Enjoy this as much as I have, Elton John.”

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After canceling the first two shows of his nine-date Las Vegas residency at the House of Blues, scheduled for New Year’s Eve and in January, David Lee Roth‘s entire run of performances at the venue has now been nixed.

According to a statement shared by the House of Blues with ABC Las Vegas affiliate KTNV a few days ago, the founding Van Halen frontman’s concerts on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day were canceled “[d]ue to unforeseen circumstances related to COVID and out of an abundance of caution for those working and attending the shows.” However, no reason for the cancellation of the remaining shows — scheduled for January 5, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 and 22 — has been announced.

The House of Blues website lists all of Roth’s upcoming gigs as canceled, and reports that refunds will be available “at point of purchase.” For more information, visit LiveNationEntertainment.com/ticketrefund.

For Roth’s part, he posted the image of a new painting on his official website and social media pages that includes the caption, “A funny thing happened on the way to Las Vegas…” The painting appears to be of a dirt road stretching out into a barren desert landscape.

As previously reported, Roth announced in an October 2021 interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the House of Blues shows would be his farewell performances.

“I am throwing in the shoes. I’m retiring,” Roth said in the interview.

According to KTNV, Nevada governor Steve Sisolak announced on Monday that the state has had an “alarming” surge of COVID-19 cases following the holidays. Last Thursday, the Southern Nevada region recorded its highest number of daily COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.

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2021 was tough for Bryan Adams: He got COVID-19 twice. Thankfully, he didn’t succumb to his illness. But the veteran star has considered how he’d like to be remembered — and it’s pretty unique.

The publication Ramp.space asked Bryan if he’d like to be remembered as a musician or as a photographer, which is his other passion. “I could [sic] care less if I’m remembered or not,” Adams responded. “In fact, if I woke up tomorrow and there was no trace of me on the internet, I’d be thrilled.”

But after that harsh response, the “Summer of ’69” rocker gave the question a bit more thought.

“I once did an interview with a Brazilian journalist who asked me if I knew how many kisses my songs were responsible for. I had never thought about that before,” Bryan mused. “He calculated that it would be in the billions. I really liked that. Imagine being responsible for a billion kisses!”

He went on to say that if he were to be remembered in that way, “That would be okay with me, because without love we are nothing.”

“So to be able to bring a little love into this world — that means everything to me,” he added.

Bryan’s new album, So Happy It Hurts, is out March 11. He’s already released three songs from it: the title track, “On the Road” and “Kick A**.”  While his New Year’s Eve show in Vancouver was canceled due to COVID-19, he hints that he might want to hit the road this year after doing a November 2021 mini-residency in Las Vegas.

On Instagram, Bryan wrote, “I wonder what 2022 will be like, because after the Vegas shows, the idea of touring got under my skin again. Looking forward to seeing you all.”

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