Classic Rock News

Bruce Springsteen may not have won a Golden Globe Sunday night, but he did attend the ceremony and even got a shout-out during the acceptance speech by director Yorgos Lanthimos, whose film Poor Things took home the award for Outstanding Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

As he took to the mic to accept his award, Yorgos looked at The Boss and shared, “I just wanted to speak to Bruce Springsteen the whole night,” adding, “We have the same birthday, 23 of September. He’s been my hero since I grew up.”

Then, after thanking the studio behind the film and all the actors who worked on it, Springsteen got his very own thank you for “making me grow up the way that I did.”

Springsteen attended the show because his song “Addicted To Romance” from the movie She Came To Me was nominated for Best Original Song. It lost to the Barbie tune “What Was I Made For?” from Billie Eilish and her brother FINNEAS.

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On This Day, January 8, 2016 …

David Bowie released his 25th album, Blackstar, to coincide with his 69th birthday.

The record, produced by longtime producer Tony Visconti, wound up being Bowie’s final release, as it came out just two days before his death from liver cancer. The album had been recorded in secret while he was battling the disease, and Visconti described the record as Bowie’s “parting gift” to fans.

Blackstar debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, making it Bowie’s only #1 album. It also went to #1 in several other countries, including the U.K., Canada, France and Australia.

A critical and commercial success, Blackstar won three Grammy Awards and was named British Album of the Year at the 2017 Brit Awards.

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Metallica has unveiled the winners of their marching band competition.

The metal legends launched the contest, dubbed For Whom the Band Tolls, in April 2023, and asked colleges and high schools across the U.S. to submit renditions of ‘Tallica songs for a chance at thousands of dollars’ worth of instruments and equipment. A panel of professional judges picked the finalists across five different categories — Division 1 college, Division 2 and 3 college, and small, medium and large high schools — before the Metallica members chose the winners.

Taking home the Division 1 college crown was Auburn University, which earned $75,000 in prizing. Division 2 and 3 college winner Eastern New Mexico University was awarded $40,000 in prizing.

The high school winners were Tennessee’s Dobyns-Bennett High School for large; a tie between Texas’ Boerne High School and New York’s Malverne High School for medium; and Virginia’s Oakton High School for small. Each of those schools received $15,000 in prizing.

Auburn University and Dobyns-Bennett High School also got an additional $10,000 in prizing as winners of the Fan Favorite categories, which were voted on by the public.

You can watch all the For Whom the Band Tolls winners’ performances via MetallicaMarchingBand.com.

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The Who has revealed the star-studded lineup for their annual Teenage Cancer Trust charity concerts, happening March 18-24 at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

The Who, backed by an orchestra, will play shows on March 18 and 20, with special guest Squeeze. The Who’s Roger Daltrey will return for the closing night on March 24, which will also feature Robert Plant with Saving Grace, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Stereophonics’ Kelly Jones and Paul Weller.  

That final night is being billed as Ovation, a Celebration of 24 Years of Gigs for TCT, to celebrate Daltrey’s tenure as host and curator of the annual shows. The rocker has announced that he’s stepping down from the post after this year. The shows will be hosted by a variety of guest curators beginning in 2025.

The rest of the shows include a night of comedy on March 19; Noel Gallagher’s the High Flying Birds, with special guest Blossom, on March 21; Young Fathers on March 22; and The Chemical Brothers on March 23.

Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday, January 12, at 9 a.m., with proceeds going to Teenage Cancer Trust’s mission to provide specialist treatment and support for young people with cancer.

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David Lee Roth hasn’t been performing in a while and it looks like he may be trying out for a new gig – food critic.

The former Van Halen frontman just posted his own food review on Instagram, sharing his thoughts on Irv’s Burgers in Los Angeles. 

“Irv’s fun fact, like so many hard earned red, white and blue joints, it’s owned and operated by first generation Ukrainians,” Roth says in the post. “I don’t want to say Irv’s was on the funky side, but if you needed it, there’s probably still some John Belushi DNA under the toilet lid.”

Roth gives Irv’s props for its motif, noting it’s “very American, very red, white and Irv.”

“There’s a menu up there, barely visible. You can barely see it,” he says of the place, noting the food is “a veritable wheel of gastro turbulence, featuring extraordinary samples of nutritionally bereft fare so greasy and so good you want to hop the counter and just punch the f****** cook in the face.”

Irv’s Burgers has been around since 1946, with the original location opening in West Hollywood under the name Queens Burgers. It was one of the first roadside burger stands in Los Angeles.

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Billie Eilish and brother FINNEAS won their second Golden Globe for Best Original Song Sunday night.

The siblings won for “What Was I Made For?” from the Barbie movie. It was one of three Barbie songs nominated in the category: The other ones were Dua Lipa‘s “Dance the Night” and Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken.”

The other nominees in the category included Lenny Kravitz for his Rustin track “Road to Freedom,” and Bruce Springsteen for his song “Addicted to Romance,” from the movie She Came to Me.

Accepting the award, Billie said she “did not expect this at this moment” and thanked her co-writer FINNEAS, saying he was “the reason I am who I am.” She also thanked Barbie director Greta Gerwig, star and producer Margot Robbie and Mattel.

Billie noted that it had been almost exactly a year since she and FINNEAS were first shown Barbie — at the time, Billie said, she was “very, very miserable and depressed.” She added, “Writing that song kind of saved me a little bit. A year later, and here we are, and it’s really surreal. I feel incredibly, incredibly lucky and grateful.”

The siblings had previously won the Golden Globe for their James Bond theme “No Time to Die.”

The late Robbie Robertson, who was nominated in the category of Best Original Score for Killers of the Flower Moon, lost to Ludwig Göransson, who won for Oppenheimer.

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Pink Floyd recently released a collection of live concert recordings, although most fans probably knew nothing about it. 

Variety reports that in December the band quietly released about 18 concert recordings to streaming services in order to comply with European “use it or lose it” copyright laws, which say that after 50 years, any sound recordings can become public domain if they aren’t used.

The concerts were all from the ’70s, around the time they put out their classic album The Dark Side of the Moon. Pink Floyd didn’t make any big announcements about the release, and even made them a bit difficult to find, including them in the “compilations” section of their Spotify page.

This isn’t the first time Pink Floyd has quietly released concert recordings in order to comply with the copyright laws. In 2016 they released a box set of ’60s-era material, in late 2021 they released concerts from 1970 to early 1972, and in 2022 they released more concerts from 1972.

But Floyd fans may not want to wait too long to listen to the latest release. Past copyright drops disappeared after only a few weeks.

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Paris is set to formally name a street after David Bowie on Monday, January 8, which would have been the rock star’s 77th birthday. 

The Connexion reports that the street, “rue David Bowie,” will be a brand new road near Austerlitz train station, in the 13th arrondissement. There will also be an inauguration party on the same day, with a photo and painting exhibit dedicated to Bowie running until January 14 at the city’s Galerie Athéna.

Arrondissement Mayor Jérôme Coumet first revealed the plans for the Bowie street back in 2020, noting that the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer “had a strong link with the city of lights.”

Interestingly, while Bowie will now have a street named after him in France, there currently isn’t one in his home country, the U.K.

Bowie passed away January 10, 2016, after a secret battle with liver cancer.

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Elton John is celebrating a new milestone. The rocker just revealed on social media that his classic tune “Rocket Man” has reached 1 billion streams on Spotify.

“Thank you to all of you who keep listening and streaming,” Elton wrote, “it brings me so much joy that this song continues to mean so much to you all after all of these years.”

“Rocket Man” is the second Elton song to reach 1 billon streams on Spotify. His first was his Dua Lipa collaboration “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix),” which joined the Billions Club in July 2022.

Released in April 1972, “Rocket Man” was the lead single off Elton’s album Honky Château. It went on to become one of Elton’s signature tunes and has been certified three-times Platinum by the RIAA.

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Despite all your rage — or, perhaps, because of it — you could be The Smashing Pumpkins‘ newest member.

The “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” outfit has announced an open call for applicants to become an additional guitar player in the band.

“The application process is open to anyone who might be interested,” the Pumpkins write in a Facebook post. If you’d like to apply, send your resume and “related material” to SPGuitar@redlightmanagement.com.

The position will presumably fill the absence of departing guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who’d been with the Pumpkins since 2006 before leaving in 2023. The band, which currently includes original members Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin, has a busy touring schedule for 2024, including U.S. stadium dates with Green Day.

You may recall that Corgan previously held an audition process for a new drummer after Chamberlin left the Pumpkins in 2009. He ended up hiring 19-year-old Mike Byrne, who played with the band until 2014.

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