Classic Rock News

Megadeth is getting back together with guitarist Marty Friedman for at least one show.

Friedman, who last played with the thrash metallers in 2000, will be a “special guest” during Dave Mustaine and company’s upcoming concert at Tokyo’s famed Budokan venue on February 27.

“Marty and I have remained friends over 23 years, since we last played together,” Mustaine says. “However, I hear his music every night, and he still is among the top guitar players I’ve ever heard.”

“This is an amazing treat for the fans, as well as myself,” Mustaine continues. “I am going to enjoy this as much as the fans are, and I’m sure many of you will catch me sneaking a peek during Marty’s appearance.”

You won’t have to be at the Budokan to enjoy said treat, either. As previously reported, the concert will stream live online.

Friedman joined Megadeth in 1990, and played on albums including Rust in Peace and Countdown to Extinction. Following his departure from the band, Friedman moved to Tokyo in 2003, where he’s continued to live.

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U2 is set to release the new album Songs of Surrender in a little over a month, and they have just shared another track from the record. The band has released their new take on the Achtung Baby classic “One,” which has basically been turned into a piano ballad, with an added choir at the end. 

U2 will release Songs of Surrender, containing 40 reimagined and rerecorded songs, on March 17. Curated and produced by The Edge, each song on the album is a completely new recording, with new arrangements — and in some cases new lyrics. 

This is the third taste of the record the band has shared with fans. They previously released their new takes on “With or Without You” and “Pride (In The Name of Love).”

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A new Bruce Springsteen song is heading to the big screen. Variety reports The Boss has written the tune “Addicted to Romance” for Rebecca Miller’s new movie She Came to Me, which stars Peter Dinklage, Marisa Tomei and Anne Hathaway.

The romantic comedy is set to have its world premiere Thursday, February 16, at the Berlin Film Festival, with the song playing over the end credits. 

“I really love Bruce’s music. For the end of She Came to Me, we wanted an original song,” Miller tells the mag. “I had a secret wish it might be Bruce, but I was reluctant to ask because I felt it was so unlikely, and frankly I was a bit shy.” 

She says she eventually got up the nerve to ask; Bruce and wife Patti Scialfa watched the film and “loved it.” She notes, “Bruce said he’d take a few days to see if anything came to him for a song. Miraculously, ‘Addicted to Romance’ was the result. He says he was inspired by the film, which is a great honor for me.”

This isn’t the first time Springsteen has written a song for the movies. In fact, he won an Oscar for the song “Streets of Philadelphia,” from the 1994 movie Philadelphia. And in 1996 he was nominated for an Oscar for his song “Dead Man Walkin’,” which he wrote for the Sean Penn/Susan Sarandon film Dead Man Walking.

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Richie Sambora got all dressed up for his latest gig. The former Bon Jovi guitarist has just been revealed as the “Jacket Potato” (aka baked potato in the U.S.) on The Masked Singer UK. 

According to NME, during his appearance on the show he performed songs like “Viva Las Vegas,” Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way,” and even got a chance to play guitar in costume. 

“My hiatus from Bon Jovi and the Covid impact on my solo touring meant I could only do one thing which is make a new record, until I saw The Masked Singer,” he said after being unmasked. “I loved it and it was a lot of fun to watch it at a time where due to lockdowns and being forced to be at home the world was a little quieter than it had been since Bon Jovi kicked off 37 years ago.” 

And it sounds like we’ll be hearing a lot more from Sambora soon. He revealed on Good Morning Britain, “There’s new music coming in about a month. We’re looking towards the end of March, beginning of April.” He also revealed that Dolly Parton just called him and he’ll be playing on her new rock album.

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Steven Van Zandt is known for wearing his signature bandana on his head, and now he’s helping Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who is battling cancer, master the look. Raskin recently took to social media to thank the E Street Band member for sending along one of his signature bandanas to cover his head as he loses hair due to his treatment. 

“Look what I received from one of the greatest musicians on earth, a gift I will treasure almost as much as his song ‘I am a patriot,’” Raskin tweeted. “You are about to see a step up in my chemo head-cover fashions for the next few months. Rock on Stevie, keep spreading the light.”

Little Steven soon responded to Raskin’s post, writing, “That gift is from all of us who want to thank you every day for giving us hope that there is a politician that cares about justice! Here’s to a rapid complete recovery.”

Raskin announced in December that he had been diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. It is his second bout with cancer, following a 2010 colon cancer diagnosis.

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The Alarm’s Mike Peters is healthy and ready to share new music. The band has just released the new song “Next,” which follows a year of Peters battling a relapse of leukemia, which he was first diagnosed with in 2005.

“The lyrics of the song were conceived while I was being treated for a leukemia relapse and a lung that had filled with blood,” Peters explains. “Being able to play music to myself kept me going, and I’m convinced that it helped me make the transition back to life.”

The video for the song was filmed in hospital corridors, a place he became very familiar with in the past year.

“I wanted to film something that captured the elation of knowing you are going home, moving on, going forwards ready for what lies ahead, for what’s next,” he says. “At night and in between IV sessions, I would walk the very same empty hospital corridors of the North Wales Cancer Centre, trying to preserve whatever human strength I could hang on to.”

And now that Peters has got his strength back, he’s already back onstage. He returned to performing at the band’s annual The Gathering concert in North Wales last month. They have two shows scheduled at New York’s Gramercy Theatre on June 23 and 24.

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A new collaboration between Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach was released Friday, just two days after Bacharach’s death at the age of 94.

Variety reports the song, “You Can Have Her,” was a previously unreleased track recorded by Costello in 2021. He’s backed by a full orchestra for the recording, which was released digitally on Friday. The track is believed to have been recorded in one of the last sessions Bacharach took part in.

The song had always been planned for release on Friday to help promote Costello and Bacharach’s upcoming box set, The Songs of Bacharach and Costello, which drops March 3. It features, among other things, the new collection Taken From Life, featuring unreleased songs from a proposed Painted From Memory musical score. It is available for preorder now.

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It appears we have Pantera to thank for Dave Grohl appearing on our TVs during the Super Bowl.

As previously reported, the Foo Fighters frontman starred in an ad for Crown Royal during Sunday’s big game. To celebrate his appearance, Grohl played a private, Crown Royal-sponsored acoustic concert over the weekend, during which he credited the “Walk” metallers for his love of the Canadian whisky brand.

“If you’re wondering why I’m here, I’ve had a long, fruitful relationship with Crown Royal,” Grohl told the crowd. “This goes back a long, long time. I’m talking late-’90s, maybe mid-’90s.”

“We hung out with the band called Pantera,” he continued. “If you’ve ever had a night with Pantera, you won’t remember it. But Pantera loved the Crown Royal. And they got us hooked on that Crown Royal.”

Soon enough, the Foos starting drinking Crown Royal onstage, so much so that some fans made a cape for the group out of the Crown’s signature purple bags. Grohl added that he even wore the cape while Foo Fighters were mixing their 2002 album, One by One.

“Prized possession,” Grohl said of the cape, which he may be ironing and wearing in the Super Bowl ad.

You can watch footage of Grohl’s comments on Pantera’s Facebook.

Perhaps Grohl will wear his Crown Royal cape to one of Pantera’s tour dates this year. The group reformed at the end of 2022 with longtime members Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown alongside Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde and Anthrax‘s Charlie Benante in place of the late Abbott brothers, “Dimebag” Darrell and Vinnie Paul, respectively.

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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band brought their tour to Dallas this weekend, but it was short a few people. Three members of the E Street Band had to sit out the show: Steven Van Zandt and Soozie Tyrell due to COVID and Springsteen’s wife, Patti Scialfa, for an undisclosed reason.

“We got a few members missing tonight,” The Boss told the crowd, according to Rolling Stone. “Stevie Van Zandt – COVID, Soozie Tyrell – COVID, Patti Scialfa … But goddammit, we’re gonna give Dallas the best show they’ve ever seen.”

Van Zandt later took to social media to confirm his COVID diagnosis, telling fans, “Thank you all for your best wishes and positive vibes. I’ve got a very mild case and hope to be back for Houston or Austin at the latest.”

But being down three members didn’t stop Springsteen from rocking the American Airlines Center. He played a 27-song set that featured a tour debut of “Detroit Medley,” along with such classics as “The Promise Land,” “Thunder Road,” “Born to Run,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” and more.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s next show is happening Tuesday in Houston, Texas.

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On This Day, February 13, 1950 …

Peter Gabriel was born in Surry, England. The musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and activist gained fame as the original lead singer of the rock band Genesis and appeared on the band’s first six albums.

He left the group in 1975 and went on to have a hugely successful solo career, releasing his self-titled debut that year, which featured the future classic “Solsbury Hill.” His fifth studio album, 1986’s So, became his bestselling album, moving over 5 million copies in the U.S. It featured the number one song “Sledgehammer,” as well as songs like “Big Time” and “Don’t Give Up” with Kate Bush.

Gabriel is the winner of six Grammy Awards, as well as 13 MTV Video Music Awards, nine of which went to the video for the “Sledgehammer.” He’s also a two-time member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2010 as a member of Genesis and in 2014 as a solo artist.

Gabriel is expected to release his first new album in 20 years, i/o, sometime in 2023. He’s already released two new singles from the record, “Panopticom” and “The Court (Dark-Side remix).”

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