Classic Rock News

When Andrew Watt was growing up, he predicted he’d end up working with Eddie Vedder. He just didn’t know it then.

Speaking with Billboard, the producer/guitarist shares that he would go to Pearl Jam shows when he was younger while holding a sign reading, “Let me play the guitar solo to ‘Alive.'” Flash forward to the year 2021, and Watt is indeed playing alongside Vedder in his solo backing band, The Earthlings.

“It’s just an actual full-circle, unbelievable moment that I feel like I’ve been ready for my whole life,” Watt says. “It’s not supposed to happen like that — you’re not supposed to have those posters on your wall and be in the position where you’re creating with those people.”

In addition to playing in his live band, Watt is also producing Vedder’s upcoming solo album, Earthling, due out February 11, 2022.

“I’m so excited for everyone to hear it,” Watt says of the record. “We’re just finishing up the mixes and stuff, and I’m just really excited.”

He adds, “I don’t want to say too much besides, just to hear his voice in front of me, and get to play guitar and bass under that? It’s like a celebration.”

Vedder and The Earthlings will launch a U.S. tour in February 2022. The collective also features Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, ex-Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney, and singer-songwriter and Once star Glen Hansard.

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Fox’s New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2022 special, which was going to feature performances by Billy Idol and various other stars, has been canceled due to the surging number of COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant.

The show was set to be hosted live in New York City’s Times Square by Ken Jeong and Joel McHale, alongside special correspondent Kelly Osbourne, daughter of Ozzy Osbourne.

A statement from Fox obtained by Variety reads, “While we are confident in the health and safety protocols for Fox’s New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2022, the recent velocity of the spread of Omicron cases has made it impossible to produce a live special in Times Square that meets our standards.”

The statement continues,”We will not be moving forward with Fox’s New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2022 in New York. The health and safety of our casts and crews has always been, and will continue to be, of the utmost importance. Replacement programming for New Year’s Eve on Fox will be announced in the coming days.”

Variety notes that it “remains to be seen” whether the announced musical guests, including Idol, whose performance was among several that were recorded at an earlier date, will still be part of said replacement programming.

In an unrelated note, Idol canceled his planned appearance this past Monday at the 2021 Above Ground benefit concert, an event organized by his longtime touring guitarist Billy Morrison and Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro.

Billy explained in a Twitter post that he’d dropped off the bill of the Los Angeles event because he’d caught a respiratory cold that affected his voice, while noting that he’d tested negative for COVID-19 twice.

Idol is next scheduled to perform in February, when he serves as the opening act for Journey‘s 2022 tour.

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Founding Vanilla Fudge lead singer and keyboardist Mark Stein recently released his first official solo album, There’s a Light.

Stein put the album together during the COVID-19 pandemic, mixing brand-new songs with older originals and a few covers, all featuring themes reflecting issues that the U.S. and the world have been facing during this volatile period in history.

Speaking about There’s a Light to ABC Audio, Stein notes that the album features “songs about love and patriotism and social issues that we’ve all been dealing with. Songs like ‘Racism’ and ‘All Lives Matter’ and ‘We Are One‘ and my cover of [The Temptations‘] ‘Ball of Confusion.’ It all holds together and has a message.”

Stein says the song that kickstarted the project was “We Are One,” a song about unity that he wrote in response to the divisiveness he noticed in the U.S. during the early days of the pandemic.

“I wrote that about six weeks after the initial pandemic, in April 2020,” he recalls. “I was compelled to write this song, and it started out like a ball of fire.”

Another song with a positive message on the album is “Let’s Pray for Peace,” and Mark recently released a music video for the tune to coincide with the holidays.

“During this Holiday Season, I hope this song helps to bring our volatile world a little closer together,” Stein says in a message. “Merry Christmas & A Happy Healthy New Year.”

Among the guest musicians featured on “There’s a Light” are longtime Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton, former Billy Joel drummer Liberty DeVitto and Vanilla Fudge’s bassist, Pete Bremy.

There’s a Light is available now. Limited-edition bundles featuring a signed CD copy of the album and special merchandise items can be purchased at MerchBucket.com.

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Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain will be co-hosting a special Christmas concert called “Wonder of Wonders” tonight with his wife, pastor Paula White-Cain, at her City of Destiny church in Apopka, Florida.

The event, which begins at 7 p.m. ET, is free and open to the public, and also will be livestreamed at CityofDestiny.us.

The concert will feature guest appearances by Brianna Alomar, a young singer-songwriter who has collaborated with Jonathan in recent years; Cain’s brother, drummer Tommy Cain; and guitarist Kevin Eknes, who plays in Jonathan’s solo touring band. There also will be a full choir and a string quartet.

Cain tells ABC Audio that he’s planning to have the show filmed, and possibly put it out on video.

According to a press release, Cain will take people “on an adventure through the Nativity” during the concert, which will feature performances of his 2019 Christmas radio hit “Wonder of Wonders,” and other songs from his recent faith-based solo releases, including material from his new EP, Oh Lord Lead Us.

Jonathan also will perform a tune called “Behold” that he wrote specially for this concert.

Cain tells ABC Audio that his family Christmas celebration will be “abbreviated” this year, because of how busy he’s been this month, with Journey having played a series of shows in Las Vegas leading into his preparation for the holiday concert.

“I’m coming right out of Vegas into church, and then straight into Christmas,” he explains. “So it’s gonna be crazy.”

Cain will stay busy right into 2022, as Journey will be heading to New York City to perform in Times Square on New Year’s Eve as part of the ABC special Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.

“Hopefully, Paula and I will get a vacation in January,” Jonathan declares.

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Former Mötley Crüe singer John Corabi is releasing an autobiography.

The book, titled Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, will be released June 2022, and finds Corabi telling the story of his life “from the mean streets of Philadelphia to the Sunset Strip,” including tales from his days in Crüe, as well as his other musical endeavors.

A publisher’s escription for Horseshoes and Hand Grenades reads, “Whether it’s detailing his parents difficult divorce, his family’s dark history of abuse, his run-in with a serial killer, or simply the best way to arrive at a wedding — which maybe is by helicopter and maybe it isn’t — [Corabi] pulls no punches and outlines the good and bad of it all in this raucous autobiography.”

Corabi joined Mötley Crüe in 1992 after the band parted ways with founding vocalist Vince Neil. He sang on Mötley’s 1994 self-titled album before being fired himself in 1996, after which Neil rejoined.

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Think you’ve got it tough, trying to wrangle all your kids together for Christmas? Consider Rod Stewart, who has eight children by five different women. While he says he managed to get most of them together years ago, it’s just become way too complicated now that they’re adults.

“We did it once, I think about 20 years ago,” Rod tells ABC Audio. “There was my first wife, Alana, and then my second wife, Rachel, and my to-be third wife, Penny, and the mother of Ruby, my third daughter. So they were all there, cooking the turkey in their own particular way.”

But Rod says these days, spending Christmas together is pretty impossible.

“We’re in all different parts of the world now, you know,” he explains. “The kids all go home to their mums’ for Christmas Day. But hopefully we’re all going to get together in Florida for New Year’s Day and my birthday, which is the 10th of January.”

However, Rod admits that he doesn’t mind that gathering his brood is a logistical nightmare.

“I’m glad it’s difficult because they’ve all got their own careers you have to consider,” he notes. “It’s not like they’re little and they depend on me. They’ve got their own careers, their own relationships and I have to be, y’know, a different father to every one of them, such is the age group: It goes from 10 up to 57.”

Rod’s eldest child, Sarah, was given up for adoption when she was born, but the two now have a relationship. Alana Hamilton is the mother of Sean and Kimberly Stewart. Kelly Emberg is the mother of Ruby Stewart. Rachel Hunter is the mother of Liam and Renee Stewart, while Penny Lancaster is the mother of Aiden, 10, and Alastair, 16.

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U2, Brian Wilson and Van Morrison are among the music artists that have made the shortlist to be nominated for a Best Original Song award for the 2022 Oscars.

Among the finalists in the Best Original Song category are U2’s Sing 2 track “Your Song Saved My Life”;  “Right Where I Belong,” from the Wilson documentary Long Promised Road, which the Beach Boys legend co-wrote with My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James;  and Morrison’s “Down to Joy,” from the film Belfast.

Meanwhile, a few music-related movies also were chosen for the shortlist of the Best Documentary Feature prize, including the Todd Haynes-directed The Velvet Underground, about the influential Lou Reed-led rock band.

The 2022 Oscar nominees will be announced February 8. The ceremony takes place March 27 on ABC.

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Guitarist Ronnie Wood has revealed that he was the last Rolling Stones member to see Charlie Watts before the drummer passed away on August 24.

Last Friday, Wood was a guest on Ireland’s The Late Late Show, where he chatted with host Ryan Tubridy and performed a duet version of the Elvis Presley hit “Blue Christmas” with Corrs singer Andrea Corr. A studio version of the tune was released as a digital charity single earlier this month.

During the interview portion, Wood revealed that he saw Watts “a couple of weeks” before he died, explaining that he visited Charlie at the Royal Marsden cancer hospital in London, where the drummer was in the same room where Ronnie stayed when he was being treated for cancer.

Wood recalled that Watts quipped, “This is the Ronnie Wood Suite. I can’t wait to get out of here,” to which Ronnie responded, “Well…come out, Charlie, in your own good time.”

Wood said Watts had been doing well at the time, but was given some additional treatments that he “didn’t handle well,” and went downhill after that.

Ronnie also mentioned that drummer Steve Jordan, who stepped in for Watts on The Rolling Stones’ recent U.S. tour, “with Charlie’s blessing,” “put a new boot in the band…and each concert got better and better.”

Reflecting on Watt’s passing, Wood added, “Everyone’s handled it well, and I’m sure he’s with us all the time when we’re playing.”

Regarding the “Blue Christmas” single, Corr explained that she approached Wood with the idea to do the track, and he happily agreed.

The song is available now, with proceeds to benefit Our Lady’s Hospice & Care Services in Dublin.

You can watch the full Late Late Show episode at RTE.ie; Ronnie’s appearance begins at the 1:07:15 mark.

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Ringo Starr has published several photo books over the years, and now the famed Beatles drummer has a new volume of images coming out next year that focuses specifically on his legendary group.

The limited-edition book, titled Lifted: Fab Images and Memories of My Life with The Beatles from Across the Universe, will be released on Valentine’s Day, February 14, and can be pre-ordered now exclusively at JuliensAuctions.com.

Two editions of Lifted will be available — a Collector’s Edition that’s priced at $59 and a Signature Edition that costs $495. The Signature Edition, limited to just 500 copies, will feature a color cover of The Beatles signed by Ringo and will come housed in a special slip case.

The book will pay tribute to Starr’s years with the Fab Four and will feature many rare, unseen and newly discovered photos of the band members, alongside with Ringo’s written recollections and anecdotes.

Starr put together Lifted with help from noted pop-culture journalist and author David Wild while quarantining during the COVID-19 lockdown. In addition to including images from his personal archives, Ringo “lifted” photos of the band that caught his eye from the internet.

“These fantastic images came back to me in recent years from across the universe and have somehow helped me get back to seeing my life with The Fab Four through fresh eyes,” Ringo says in a statement. “A lot of the photos in this book I saw on my phone and on my computer and I lifted them because they brought back so many fabulous memories.”

Proceeds from Lifted: Fab Images and Memories of My Life with The Beatles from Across the Universe will benefit Ringo’s Lotus Foundation, which funds and supports charitable projects that focus on various social welfare causes.

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Metallica is here to help make your holiday season a bit heavier.

The metal legends have announced rebroadcasts of their recent 40th anniversary concert streams. You can watch both shows on-demand via the Coda Collection channel on Amazon Prime Video from December 24 at noon ET through December 27.

Metallica’s 40th anniversary shows took place December 17 and 19 in the band’s hometown of San Francisco, and were streamed online for free. The sets included performances from songs off every one of ‘Tallica’s 10 studio albums.

In other Metallica news, a beloved shirt belonging to Cliff Burton has finally been returned to the late bassist’s family. The shirt, which featured the logo from the ’70s horror classic Dawn of the Dead, was brought back by Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin, who’d played with Burton in their first band, EZ-Street.

“A huge Thank You to Mike ‘Puffy’ Bordin for bringing Cliff’s original Dawn of the Dead shirt back home where it belongs,” the Burton family writes in an Instagram post. “It’s been a roller coaster of emotions and we appreciate Mike and the person who kept it safe for us for 30 plus years.”

“Our only regret is Ray isn’t here to see it,” the post concludes, referring to Cliff’s late father, who died in 2020.

 

 

 

 

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