Classic Rock News

Iggy Pop may have “Lust for Life,” but he never had lust for a Grammy.

Speaking with Classic Rock magazine, the Godfather of Punk shares that he initially had no interest in receiving the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, with which he was honored in 2020.

“The Grammys kept wanting to talk to me on the phone and I kept telling my manager, ‘I don’t want to talk to them. I hate those people. They want me to be an exhibit in their museum or something,'” Pop explains.

Eventually, however, Iggy softened his stance when he heard more about the meaning of the award.

“When I finally spoke to the lady from the Grammys a couple of months later she said, ‘We’re giving you the lifetime achievement. Without you there’s no Lil Nas X and there’s no Billie Eilish,'” Pop recalls. “According to her, ‘You’re a direct link to the artists that are at the top of our awards list this year.’ So that’s what one person had to say, and I’ll take that for what it’s worth.”

Pop was previously nominated for two Grammys, once in 1989 and again in 2017. He may add to his total next year with his new album, Every Loser, which just dropped last Friday.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

As previously reported, Gov’t Mule was forced to postpone their New Year’s concerts due to a medical emergency in the band. It turns out it was Warren Haynes who suffered that emergency and now he’s giving fans an update on his health. 

In a post on Instagram, Haynes shared that he is “doing OK,” but that he had been hospitalized for the past week “due to some pretty serious complications from COVID and influenza.” He is home now.

“I’m very sorry Gov’t Mule couldn’t do our New Year’s Eve run,” he writes. “Trust me when I say we were actually really excited for these shows and the band was raring to go.” He also assured fans they would be rescheduled. 

But in some more bad news, Haynes let fans know that he will not be able to attend Gov’t Mule’s annual Island Exodus in Jamaica, which kicks off January 15, because doctors say he needs more time to recuperate.

The four-day festival will go on, however, and it’s added Anders Osborne, Jackie Greene, John Scofield, Robert Randolph, Audley Freed, Rob Barraco, Robert Kearns and Jeff Sipe to the lineup, which already includes special guests Jimmy Vivino and Ron Holloway, as well as Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience, Duane Betts, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country and Little Days.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard will downsize from stadiums for an upcoming one-off show in Hollywood, Florida.

The two bands will co-headline the comparatively intimate Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on March 12. Tickets go on sale this Friday, January 13, at 10 a.m. ET.

Last year, Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard joined forces for the U.S. Stadium Tour, which became both groups’ highest-grossing tour. The outing is going international in 2023 with dates in Mexico, South America and Europe, and will return to the U.S. in August.

You can also see Def Crüe playing two arena shows in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in February.

As previously reported, Mötley Crüe will be playing this year without guitarist Mick Mars, who announced at the end of 2022 that he was retiring from touring. Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 will be filling in.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Smashing Pumpkins will headline the 2023 BottleRock Napa Valley festival, taking place May 26-28 in the wine country of Napa, California.

The bill also includes The National, Phantogram, Sheryl Crow, Bastille, Lucius, War, Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Struts, KennyHoopla, Beach Weather and The Unlikely Candidates. Post Malone, Lizzo, Duran Duran and Lil Nas X will headline, as well.

Tickets go on sale this Tuesday, January 10, at noon PT.

For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit BottleRockNapaValley.com.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

David Bowie’s classic album Aladdin Sane turns 50 this year, and the milestone will be marked with two special vinyl releases.

On April 14, just one week before the actual anniversary, a special limited-edition 50th anniversary half-speed mastered LP of Aladdin Sane is coming out, along with a picture disc LP, which will be pressed from the same master. The new release was cut by John Webber at AIR Studios from the restored masters of the original master tapes, with no additional processing.

Aladdin Sane, Bowie’s sixth studio album, was released April 30, 1973, just ten months after The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. It featured such songs as “The Jean Genie” and “Drive-In Saturday Night,” and marked Bowie’s debut on the U.S. album charts, landing in the Top 20. It is probably best known for its classic album cover, featuring a photo by Brian Duffy of Bowie donning his iconic red and blue lightning bolt makeup.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Billy Idol was honored Friday with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He received the 2,743rd star, and the first of the year, in the category of Recording. His star is located on Hollywood Boulevard in front of Amoeba Records.

Henry Rollins was on hand to honor Idol, noting he “has rock n roll in his veins and punk rock in his DNA,” and adding, “That is to say, he is the real thing, and maybe that’s why we’re here today. Because decade after decade, he has remained himself, and it takes a lot of guts and a lot of integrity.” 

“It really is crazy to find myself getting an award like this, or being honored in this way,” Idol shared during the ceremony. “I mean, 47 years of doing this after I started in Generation X, and 35 years after coming here, I just really could never have imagined anything like this.” 

Idol said that punk rockers in the ’70s didn’t have “much hope or anything,” so with no future they were “going to do what we love,” adding, “I did the music because I loved it. It wasn’t for any other reason, really.” 

“Anyway, I didn’t really think doing this would last very long. We thought maybe six months, maybe a year, maybe two years,” he said. “I could never have imagined something like this. It’s just incredible.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Looks like Journey is no longer dealing with at least one court case. While Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain are still at odds, former frontman Steve Perry has decided to drop a lawsuit he filed over the band’s trademarks.

Perry filed his suit back in September, asking a court to stop Schon and Cain’s company, Freedom JN LLC, from using Journey song trademarks on merchandise, clothing and more. He argued the three of them agreed that any business decisions on the matter required unanimous consent from all of them and he hadn’t given his. He argued Cain and Schon committed “fraud on the trademark office” by applying to register the song names without informing the office of the true status of the ownership of the songs.

But based on a tweet by Schon, that legal battle is behind them. He shared the document showing Perry withdrew his lawsuit on Friday, and when asked if that’s indeed what happened he replied, “yes he did. Now we can talk as we were.” 

Schon had previously blamed Cain for Perry filing the lawsuit, and in his tweet the guitarist noted, “So much for [Cain] trying to throw me under the bus as he claimed I was blatantly trying to rip off [Perry] while collecting the checks for the very diligent work my wife and I did to protect our Merch.”

Meanwhile, Schon and Cain are getting to hit the road for the band’s Freedom tour kicking off February 4 in Allentown, PA. When asked by a fan how they can share a stage together with all their fighting, he responded, “We’ve written great music. Gregg Rolie will be there also. Channel the great music. Honor it.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In November, KISS‘ Gene Simmons told Page Six that the band had added “another 100 cities” to their End of the Road farewell tour and also claimed to know “the last day and date” of the tour, which has been ongoing since 2019. Well, all that is news to KISS’ Paul Stanley, who tells ABC Audio that both of Gene’s assertions are false.

“I love Gene to death. He’s my brother. We’ve been together forever,” Stanley said when asked about Simmons’ comments. “[But] if you put a microphone in front of him or a camera, there’s no telling what he’s going to say. Do we know the date of the last show? No. Are we adding 100 shows? Um, I don’t plan on being there.”

Paul does acknowledge, however, that the End of the Road has gone on longer than he expected due to fan demand and will be continuing. He also reveals that he knows where it will end, if not when.

“There is an end. And certainly I can say the end will be New York City, where it began,” Stanley notes. “[This is] the end of the road, yes, but they keep paving the road!”

He adds, “We’re going further … [but] to say we booked 100 shows or we know the exact date … Gene and I tend to know what the lay of the land is, and at this point, I’m scratching my head. Because I was like, “Really? Tell me!” 

Currently, the End of the Road tour is set to resume April 15 at the Monsters of Rock Festival in Bogotá, Colombia, and is mapped out through a July 15 show in Norway.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

There’s nothing like a live Metallica show, and now fans will get to relive some of their classic performances.

The band just announced they are bringing back their Wherever We May Roam archival streaming series, this time focusing on 10 “rare performances” from their tour supporting 1991’s Metallica aka The Black Album. 

The concerts will stream on nugs.net from Sunday, January 8, to February 6, with a new concert every Sunday and Monday. Things kick off with a September 11, 1991, show from Graz, Austria, and wrap with a June 30, 1993, show from Tel Aviv, Israel. 

Subscribers will also get to hear shows from Cleveland; Los Angeles; Washington, DC; Pasadena; Stuttgart, Germany; Montreal, Canada; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On November 20, just a little over two months after announcing the loss of his eldest brother, Don, 94, Rod Stewart shared that his other brother, Bob, 87, had died. On Friday, the singer laid Bob to rest.

Posting a photo of Bob’s funeral program on his socials, Rod wrote, “I said Farewell to my Brother Bob today, with his coffin draped in a Rangers flag (life long Glasgow Rangers fan).”

“We loved our game days up in Scotland together,” he added. “Now he joins Brother Don, rest in peace boys. Two of my best mates gone within just a few months.”

Rod, 77, is the youngest of five siblings. His two sisters, Peggy and Mary, are still with us. Rod turns 78 on Tuesday.

When Rod initially announced Bob’s death, he called him and Don “irreplaceable buddies.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.