Elton John was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, where he’s mistakenly announced as “Sir John Elton” as he approached Her Majesty. He was honored for his for services to music and his charitable services.
After his investiture, Elton revealed his conversation with the Queen: “She said I must be terribly busy…but there was no way I would miss this.”
Elton was honored by the Royal Family once again in 2020, appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by then Prince Charles (now King Charles II).
While Val Kilmer seemed like perfect casting to play The Doors frontman Jim Morrison in OliverStone’s 1991 film The Doors, he was far from the first choice for the role. In a new interview, recording artist and writer Bebe Buell, mother of actress Liv Tyler, reveals John Travolta was once in the running and had a really good shot at getting it.
During an appearance on the Totally 80s podcast, Buell says her former manager, the late Danny Sugerman, who also managed The Doors and co-wrote the Morrison biography No One Here Gets Out Alive, really wanted Travolta in the role.
“He was really, really, really gung ho on getting that Doors movie made,” Buell says. “But believe it or not, his first choice for Jim was not Val Kilmer. It was John Travolta.”
In fact, Buell says about 10 years before the film was actually made she witnessed Travolta’s unofficial audition for the role, and she was impressed.
“I actually saw him come over to Danny’s house, kind of Jim Morrison-y, and he stood up on Danny’s table. And when he sang, it was mind-blowing,” she says. “He channeled him. I guess that’s what a great actor can do. He channeled him like nothing I’d ever seen. It wasn’t as wacky as it sounds.”
In a follow-up email, Buell told Yahoo Entertainment that Travolta “nailed it,” adding, “Danny was raving to me later that night. JT blew his mind!”
Queen is back with another peek behind the scenes with the latest episode of their weekly YouTube series Queen The Greatest Live. After last week’s episode focused on picking the right opening number, this week they look at one of their go-to openers, the song “Now I’m Here.”
The episode features four live performances of the 1974 track, from the Sheer Heart Attack album, which has appeared on more Queen set lists than any other song.
Two of the live performances feature Freddie Mercury performing the song, one at the London Rainbow in 1974 and another at the London Hammersmith in 1975. The other two feature Adam Lambert and were shot at Summer Sonic, Tokyo, in 2014 and at the band’s Rhapsody Over London show in 2022.
The band’s GRRR Live! debuts at number seven on the Billboard Total Album Sales chart, which since May of 1991 has tallied album releases based on traditional album sales, as opposed to the Billboard 200, which ranks them based on sales, streaming and more.
This is the fifth straight year the band has landed in the Top 10 on this chart.
GRRR Live! was recorded at the band’s December 15, 2012, concert at Newark’s Prudential Center, which was part of their 50 & Counting tour, celebrating their 50th anniversary. It features guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, John Mayer,Gary Clark Jr., Mick Taylor and The Black Keys.
The artwork of two Black Sabbath albums will be turned into collectible statues.
The music merchandising company KnuckleBonz is releasing officially licensed figures inspired by the witch on the cover of Sabbath’s 1970 self-titled debut and the pilot that graced the front of 1978’s Never Say Die!
In keeping with their respective albums’ release dates, KnuckleBonz is making only 1,970 witch statues and 1,978 pilot figures.
You can pre-order your own — separately or as a two-piece set — now via KnuckleBonz.com.
KnuckleBonz has previously worked with artists including Metallica, AC/DC and Ghost.
Steve Vai has shared a statement clarifying remarks he made about recording an album with Ozzy Osbourne.
In a recent interview with eonmusic, the guitar virtuoso shared that he was “sitting on a whole Ozzy record,” adding, “It’s a project that I recorded that’s sitting on the shelf.”
After outlets picked up Vai’s quote, he took to Facebook to explain that said Ozzy record isn’t as concrete as his original comments may have made it seem.
“In a recent interview I spoke a bit carelessly about ‘Sitting on an entire Ozzy album’ and then the clickbait headlines went viral,” Vai writes. He then recounts how he and Ozzy entered the studio together to write some more songs for the Prince of Darkness’ 1995 solo effort, Ozzmosis.
“We demoed a handful of tracks and then there was a bunch of tracks I built for [Ozzy] to check out,” Vai says. “He ended up picking one song to use on his album and that’s ‘My Little Man.’ It was re-recorded with his band, and it came out great. Only one other demoed track from those sessions had an Ozzy scratch vocal on it and I handed in all the Master demo tapes to the label and kept safety tapes of the tracks I personally built.”
Vai adds that while there’s “enough music for a whole record” on those tapes, “those songs would require re-recording.”
“I, like many Ozzy fans, would love if there was a secret hidden Ozzy album somewhere, only to be revealed to our surprised ears at a future time, but it wouldn’t come from those sessions,” Vai concludes. “So sorry for the confusion.”
Queen has just landed a new Spotify milestone: The band’s classic track “We Will Rock You” has surpassed one million streams on the streaming service.
“We Will Rock You,” written by guitarist Brian May, was featured on the band’s 1977 album, News of the World, and was released as a single on October 7 of that year. It went on to be certified six-times Platinum by the RIAA, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009.
The song isn’t the only Queen track to reach such a milestone on the streaming service: Back in December, “Bohemian Rhapsody” surpassed two billion steams on Spotify.
Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation
KISS’ Gene Simmons has welcomed a new member into his family.People reports that the rocker’s daughter Sophie, with wife Shannon Tweed-Simmons, wed fiancé James Henderson Wednesday at Shannon’s home in Los Angeles.
The mag reports that the couple first tied the knot Friday at a courthouse in Los Angeles, before celebrating with 30 guests at a bash in the backyard of Shannon’s “she-shed.”
“We couldn’t be prouder of our daughter,” Gene and Shannon tell the mag. “James is a solid young man, and Sophie can do anything she puts her mind to,” adding, “We wish them a lifetime of love and happiness. If they are even half as happy as we are, they will last long.”
Sophie chose a blush Lahav dress for her big day, while her groom wore a Tom Ford suit.
As for the location of the wedding, Sophie shares, “The view truly can’t be beat and I love that it is intimate and family oriented,” adding, “James and I never wanted a big wedding so this is the perfect space for us.”
And the couple plan to continue the party: Another speakeasy-style bash with 250 guests is happening Thursday in Los Angeles, and on Friday, they are hosting a brunch for out-of-town guests who flew in for the affair.
As previously reported, Neal Schon teased a “special surprise” at Journey’s 50th anniversary tour stop in Austin, Texas, with many fans guessing it would be an appearance by original keyboardist Gregg Rolie. Well, it turns out they were right.
Blabbermouth.net reports Rolie made a guest appearance at the Moody Center ATX Wednesday night, performing early Journey tunes like “Just the Same Way,” “Of A Lifetime,” “Feeling That Way” and “Anytime.”
Schon and Rolie, who both played in Santana, also teamed up for a cover of “Black Magic Woman,” the Fleetwood Mac song that Santana covered for his album Abraxas. The performance included a guest appearance by Steve Lukather of Toto, the tour’s opening act.
“I just wanna say: Fifty years?” Rolie told the crowd. “Fifty years of one band going through changes, but it’s like a runaway freight train that just keeps going with no brakes.”
Rolie was Journey’s original lead singer and keyboardist back in 1973, when the group formed back in San Francisco; he appeared on their first six albums. In 1977, Rolie was replaced as lead singer by Steve Perry; he left the group in 1980.
We are getting our first real look at the upcoming Disney+ docu-special about U2’s Bono and TheEdge, featuring talk show host David Letterman. A trailer for Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming has just been released, with the special described as “part concert movie, part travel adventure plus a whole lot of Bono and The Edge, with Dave’s humor throughout.”
The trailer features clips of the two rockers walking through Dublin with Letterman, along with performance footage, clips of the two singing with others at a local pub and more.
“Traditional storytelling part of Dublin,” Bono shares in the clip. “It’s in our music. Our songs, they’re still growing, they’re still emerging.”
In the trailer, Letterman asks the rockers about changing up the songs for their upcoming album, Songs of Surrender, dropping March 17. Bono notes, “We wanted to strip away the artifice that inevitably emerges when you’ve been around this long.”
Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, directed by Morgan Neville, debuts March 17 on Disney+.
