Classic Rock News

Tom Johnston will be able to listen — but not sing — to the music for a while: The Doobie Brothers‘ lead singer and guitarist is undergoing surgery to address his severe back pain.

This means Johnston will be sitting out the upcoming leg of the band’s 50th Anniversary Tour, which is set to kick off May 25 at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida. The other band members — including Pat Simmons, Michael McDonald and John McFee — will continue the tour so as not to disappoint the fans. 

“I hope for a speedy recovery and can’t wait to get back on the road and continue doing what I love,” Johnston says in a statement. “I would like to thank Pat, Michael, John, and the entire Doobie Brothers band for covering for me while I recover from back surgery…I’m sure they will bring it every night as they always do.” 

The Doobie Brothers’ 50th anniversary tour is set to run through October. A complete list of dates can be found at thedoobiebrothers.com.

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A guitar smashed and signed by the late Kurt Cobain sold for $595,900 at a Julien’s Auctions sale over the weekend.

The black Fender Stratocaster features an inscription from the Nirvana icon to Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan reading “Hell-o Mark/Love, your Pal, Kurdt Kobain/Washed up rock star.” It was expected to sell for between $60,000 and $80,000, meaning it went for nearly 10 times its original estimate.

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: it went for $6 million in 2020.

Along with the guitar, another historic Nirvana artifact sold during the auction: the 1991 handwritten set list from the band’s April 1991 show at Seattle’s OK Hotel, which notably featured the live debut of the then-unreleased “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” That went for $50,800, well above its $4,000-$6,000 estimate.

The auction also saw the sale of an Eddie Van Halen guitar from Van Halen‘s 2007-08 tour, which went for $114,300; a Bono-played Gretsch Irish Falcon Electric Guitar, which fetched $238,125; and John Lennon and Paul McCartney‘s handwritten lyrics for The Beatles‘ “Baby, You’re a Rich Man,” which brought in $65,000.

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Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen spoke to ABC’s Good Morning America about his recovery journey after he was assaulted after a show in Fort Lauderdale in March.

Allen, 59, told GMA that he was “totally blindsided” by the attack, explaining, “I heard a couple of steps and then I just saw this [flash] and the next thing I knew was I was on the ground. I landed on my backside… hit my head on the pavement.”

Allen, who lost his left arm in a car crash in 1984, added, “I don’t think he knew who I was, but he must have seen that I wasn’t a threat because, you know, I’ve only got one arm.”

Police arrested Max Hartley, a 19-year-old from Ohio, shortly after he allegedly attacked the drummer and a woman who tried to interfere in the incident, nearby the site of the attack at the Four Seasons in Fort Lauderdale, on March 13.  

Hartley was charged with two counts of battery and four counts of criminal mischief, according to a police report. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Allen’s wife, Lauren Monroe, to whom he’s been married since 2003, helped him recover. Allen told GMA, “I immediately just went to that place of just feeling grateful for the fact that I have an amazing wife and an incredible family and I just started thanking a higher power for the fact that I’m still here.”

Def Leppard kicks off the U.K./European leg of their Stadium tour on Monday, and Allen’s ready.

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Songwriter and poet Pete Brown, best known for co-writing “Sunshine of Your Love” and “White Room” for Cream in the 1960s, died of cancer on Friday, May 19 at the age of 82.

A post on Brown’s Facebook page read, “Pete was known to repeat the mantra ‘I come from a long line of worriers, not warriors.’ One of his other favorite expressions passed down from [British poet] Spike Hawkins was, ‘That’s life — up one minute, down the next twenty-five years.'”  

In continued, “Despite his tendency towards Jewish pessimism, he lived the life of a warrior poet. He was proudly anti-establishment, and dedicated his life to his creative endeavors, in an uncompromising way.”

Inspired by U.S. beat poets, Brown began writing poetry in 1955. He was approached by Cream drummer Ginger Baker to write lyrics for the supergroup, which also featured guitarist Eric Clapton and bassist Jack Bruce.

Brown also helped write the group’s song “I Feel Free,” and continued to write songs with Bruce more than four decades after Cream broke up.

He continued working until the end, collaborating with Joe Bonamassa on the album Royal Tea and, most recently, on the final mixes of a new album, Shadow Club, featuring guest performances from Clapton and Bonamassa.

Brown was featured in two documentary films: White Rooms and Imaginary Westerns, a loose adaptation of his autobiography, and The Cream Acoustic Sessions, a documentary on the re-working of many Cream songs. An accompanying album, Heavenly Cream, is due for release later this year.

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Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe kick off the U.K./European leg of their Stadium tour on Monday, May 22, in the band’s hometown of Sheffield, England, and while the tour has already played the U.S. and Latin America, guitarist Phil Collen is particularly excited about their upcoming shows.

“I’m a bit of a tourist,” he tells ABC Audio, noting that he’s looking forward to visiting cities like Prague and Milan. He’s also excited to play London’s Wembley Stadium, which he says is “a big deal.” And he’s even more stoked for opening night at Bramall Lane, home of frontman Joe Elliott‘s favorite football club, Sheffield United, which Collen says is “a huge deal for us.”

Collen also can’t wait to be back on tour with his buddies in Mötley Crüe. “It’s been like being at school with your best friends, only you’re on a 787 jumbo jet,” he says. “I mean, it’s ridiculous.” 

The new leg of the Stadium tour runs through July 6 in Glasgow, Scotland, and then returns to the U.S. on August 5 in Syracuse, New York. A complete list of Def Leppard/Mötley Crüe tour dates can be found at defleppard.com.

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Foo Fighters held a streaming concert Sunday, during which they revealed who will be the band’s new drummer following the death of Taylor Hawkins in March 2022.

Showing that they haven’t lost their sense of humor following what they’ve called “the most difficult and tragic year that our band has ever known,” the Foos began the stream faking out viewers with a trio of big-name drummers — Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith, Mötley Crüe‘s Tommy Lee and Tool‘s Danny Carey — showing up at the studio for a quick chat before leaving. The camera then turned around to reveal the true new Foos drummer sitting behind the kit: Josh Freese.

An acclaimed and prolific session drummer, Freese has played with bands including Nine Inch Nails, Guns N’ Roses, A Perfect Circle and The Offspring. He also was one of the many guest drummers to sit in with the Foos during their massive tribute concerts to Hawkins last September.

The set for the stream featured the live debut of “Rescued,” “Under You,” “Nothing At All,” songs off the upcoming Foos album But Here We Are, their first record since Hawkins’ death. They also played classics including “All My Life” and “Monkey Wrench,” and closed with “Aurora,” which was Hawkins’ favorite Foo Fighters song.

But Here We Are drops June 2. Foos will launch a U.S. tour May 24 in Gilford, New Hampshire.

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After years of estrangement, Graham Nash has said he and his former Crosby, Stills and Nash bandmate David Crosby were approaching reconciliation when Crosby died in January. Now, he’s planning two releases that will celebrate their work together.

According to Billboard, Nash plans to release a compilation of other artists’ songs on which he and Crosby made guest appearances. He also wants to put out a recording from a concert they did in Padua, Italy, in 2011 that he says “knocks me on my a**.”

Nash, whose new album, Now, is out Friday, tells Billboard, “It’s all sad, but I choose to only try to remember the good stuff, the good times we had, the good music that we made, ’cause the rest is just s*****, silly teenage stuff.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is touring a show he calls Sixty Years of Songs and Stories, with West Coast dates set for next month and more North American dates in the fall.

“I just want people to know you can still rock at 81,” Nash says. “I’ve made some fine music in my life, with my fantastic musical partners. And I feel there’s still more of it coming.”

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Many artists have covered The Beach Boys over the years, but one artist has completely taken the group’s music apart and put it back together again.

Superstar DJ and producer Steve Aoki has remixed the band’s 1964 top five hit “Fun Fun Fun” and turned it into something you’d be more likely to hear in a club at 1 a.m. versus cruising in a car listening to AM radio.

“I’ve been a huge fan of The Beach Boys all of my life. Growing up in California, I heard their music all around me,” says Aoki in a statement.

“The Beach Boys are musical geniuses and visionaries in the world of rock n’ roll. I continue to be inspired by their music to this day. It’s an honor to come together for the ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ remix, and I can’t wait to share it with all of our fans all summer long.”

Aoki shared the remix with fans at one of his recent shows and, according to a press release, “the crowd went wild.”

A statement from The Beach Boys reads, “It’s both gratifying and a whole lot of fun, fun, fun to have Steve Aoki – fun personified – reimagine one of our most enduring crowd-pleasers! As we cruise into summer, Steve (Aoki)’s ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ remix drives like an ace.”

If you prefer the original version, it was recently featured in the trailer for the upcoming movie Barbie.

In honor of their 60th anniversary, The Beach Boys are currently working on a documentary, as well as some other projects.

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If you’ve got lots of money and are tired of the usual rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia, listen up.

In addition to guitars, the late Eddie Van Halen also loved cars, and one of his favorites is going under the hammer Saturday, May 20, in Indianapolis.

Mecum Auctions is selling Eddie’s 2016 silver Porsche 2016 911 GT3 RS, which he custom ordered and then raved about to Car and Driver magazine. In addition to being a Porsche, the car is special because it comes with a signed certificate of authenticity, as well as custom carbon fiber door sill plates with an illuminated Van Halen logo.

As an extra bonus, the phone-dialing software in the dashboard hasn’t been erased and displays “Edward Van Halen’s iPhone” as one of the device choices.

According to Inside Hook, Eddie sold the car in July 2020, just three months before his death. When he sold it, the odometer read just over 15,000 miles; the current owner has put another thousand on it.

The car is estimated to bring between $200,000 and $225,000.

The Porsche was just one of several luxury and sports cars Eddie owned: a Lamborghini Miura can be heard revving on Van Halen’s 1984 hit “Panama.”

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Not every band that came up in the ’80s can brag that they’re still filling stadiums, but Def Leppard can: The U.K./European leg of their Stadium tour with Mötley Crüe starts on Monday. Guitarist Phil Collen says they’re still touring at this level because of some inspiration from KISS — and Beyoncé.

“Rolling with the punches and moving with the times … you have to go with it, you have to roll with it,” Collen tells Music Radar. He explains, “We keep raising the bar with our vocals and playing, and the way that we present the show. And I think you have to do that.”

“We learned something when we went out with KISS; the show is more important than anything, and you take the ego out and the crews work together and everything is the show,” Collen notes.

“Beyoncé just did a thing a few months ago in Dubai and it was so over-the-top. And that’s what you’re competing with … so you keep having to raise the bar, and you keep having to get better.”

“The minute you go out there and you’re not really into doing it, you’re turning your back on the audience,” he adds. “So I think there’s a constant thing of striving to be better, especially with the show.”

And Collen says Beyoncé isn’t the only pop star other rock artists can learn a lesson from: Ed Sheeran‘s another. Collen says he was “very impressed” that when Sheeran was first starting out, he’d play multiple shows a day in different venues.

As Collen notes, “If you can’t do that then you ain’t got a chance. … Whether you like him or not, that’s the role model.”

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