Classic Rock News

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has launched his new podcast, This Little Light.

The series finds Flea interviewing “musical guests from all genres to discuss the teachers who guided them, the influences that inspired them, and how the lessons they learned as young musicians have shaped their creativity, resilience, and careers.”

The first two episodes, which feature conversations with FINNEAS and frequent Peppers producer Rick Rubin, are out now. Future guests include Patti Smith, bass virtuoso Thundercat, country artist Margo Price, and musician and actor Cynthia Erivo.

Meanwhile, Flea and RHCP are back on the road supporting their two 2022 albums, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen. The outing continues Saturday in Las Vegas.

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Def Leppard has shared a new director’s cut video for their reimagined version of the 1987 track “Animal.” It will be featured on their upcoming album, Drastic Symphonies, which has the rockers reimagining their classic tracks with the help of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

The video features footage of the orchestra recording the tune, along with clips of the band’s live performance and some snippets from the original 1987 video. Many of these clips are superimposed over atmospheric footage of a rundown castle, a group of naked mannequins — some with instruments, and more. 

Drastic Symphonies is set to drop on May 19 on CD, two-LP black vinyl, limited two-LP colored vinyl, limited two-LP picture disc, CD/Blu-ray (Atmos) and digitally. It is available for preorder now.

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The music of Lynyrd Skynyrd will be celebrated with an all-star tribute performance at Sunday’s CMT Music Awards.

The segment will feature a who’s who of guitarists, including Guns N’ Roses’ Slash, ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons and Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes. The performance will also feature Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers and country star Cody Johnson on vocals, along with the Rolling Stones’ keyboardist Chuck Leavell, and Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band members Ethan Pilzer on bass and Rich Redmond on drums.

Wynonna Judd and LeAnn Rimes are also on board to provide harmonies, filling in for Skynyrd’s backup singers, The Honkettes.

So far there’s no word on what songs they will be performing, but the segment will serve as a tribute to founding member Gary Rossington, who passed away earlier this month, as well as the 50th anniversary of the band’s debut album.

And all this will be happening in front of current Lynyrd Skynyrd members Johnny Van Zant and Rickey Medlock, who will be in attendance at the show, as will Rossington’s widow, Dale Krantz Rossington. 

The 2023 CMT Music Awards air Sunday, April 2, on CBS live from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.

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Photographs taken by Paul McCartney during the height of Beatlemania will be the subject of a new exhibit at London’s National Portrait Gallery, as previously reported, and now the gallery is giving fans a peek at what they can expect.

The Portrait Gallery has shared some new photos from the exhibit on Instagram, including a self-portrait of McCartney, one of Paul with John Lennon, a photo of a smiling Ringo Starr and another of George Harrison being handed a drink by a girl in a yellow bikini.

“Looking at these photos now, decades after they were taken, I find there’s a sort of innocence about them,” McCartney shares. “Everything was new to us at this point. But I like to think I wouldn’t take them any differently today.”

Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm is set to run from June 28 to October 1 and feature more than 250 never-before-seen photographs taken by McCartney. The portraits that will be on display are from McCartney’s own archive and were taken between December 1963 and February 1964, giving fans an insight into his point of view as The Beatles were becoming international superstars.

Tickets to the McCartney exhibit are available for preorder now.

McCartney is also releasing a book of the photographs, 1964: Eyes of the Storm, on June 13. It is available for preorder now.

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Metallica‘s played “Master of Puppets” live a whole lot — a total of 1,689 times, to be exact, according to the band’s website. So perhaps it’s understandable that Kirk Hammett isn’t exactly thrilled to keep playing the song’s famed solo.

Speaking with Total Guitar, Hammett shares, “What I’m going to say people are probably gonna hate, but it drives me nuts having to play that f****** guitar solo in ‘Master of Puppets’ every time.”

“People love that guitar solo and they come to see that. That’s fine,” Hammett continues. “For that part of our career, all those solos are locked in. I don’t view them as solos anymore; they’re parts. I’m freaking bored of it, but it’s exciting for people to hear.”

Hammett then clarifies, “I’m not bored of the solo; I just get bored of playing the same thing all the time.”

“I’m inviting all sorts of criticism and opinions but I don’t f****** care,” Hammett says. “It’s like the solo on ‘Fade to Black.’ I play the first eight bars and then I go on a tangent for like 20, 24 bars and then come back in the last four bars and play parts that everyone knows. That’s one of my most favorite parts of playing that song live because I don’t know what the f*** I’m gonna play.”

If Hammett ever wants to take a break from shredding the “Master of Puppets,” surely countless metalheads would offer to take his place, not to mention Stranger Things fans. “Master of Puppets” was memorably featured in the season 4 finale of the Netflix sci-fi series, leading to a chart resurgence for the 1986 track.

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A new lawsuit has been filed over the Rolling Stones’ iconic “tongue and lips” logo. 

According to Billboard, the suit was filed in federal court by an apparel retailer named Simply Southern. Simply Southern claims Universal Music Group’s Bravado merch company, which does the merchandising for the Stones and other bands, has been threatening them over a T-shirt that Bravado claims features a “confusingly similar” logo to the one made famous by the Stones. 

Simply Southern says Bravado sent them a cease-and-desist letter over the shirt, which features a “disembodied mouth,” which Bravado believes is too similar to the Stones logo. Simply Southern argues that their design is “clearly and demonstrably different,” noting their image has “a more plump lower lip, more square teeth, and a wider and more open mouth.” 

They want the court to rule that their design does not infringe on “Bravado’s asserted intellectual property rights.”

The Rolling Stones are not named in the lawsuit.

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On This Day, March 30, 1945 …

Eric Patrick Clapton was born in Surrey, England, and would go on to be regarded as one of the most influential and successful musicians to emerge from the 1960s British music scene.

Clapton started his career with The Yardbirds and went on to have successful careers with such groups as Cream with Ginger Baker, Blind Faith with Steve Winwood, and Derek and the Dominoes.

Clapton eventually went solo, releasing his debut solo album in 1969, and scored his first number one in 1974 with a cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sheriff.” Clapton has sold more than 280 million records worldwide and is best known for such classic songs as “Lay Down Sally,” “Tears in Heaven,” “Wonderful Tonight,” “I Can’t Stand It” and “Change the World,” as well as covers of the J.J. Cale songs “After Midnight” and “Cocaine.”

Clapton is the winner of 18 Grammys and to this day is the only musician to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame three times — as a solo artist, and as a member of both The Yardbirds and Traffic.

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After a week of teases, Metallica has now premiered the title track off the band’s upcoming album, 72 Seasons.

The eight-minute thrash epic is available now via digital outlets and is accompanied by a video streaming on YouTube.

The album 72 Seasons, the follow-up to 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, will arrive April 14. It also includes the previously released songs “Lux Æterna,” “Screaming Suicide” and “If Darkness Had a Son.”

Metallica will be supporting 72 Seasons on a massive world tour, which begins in Europe in April before hitting the U.S. in August.

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KISS may have announced their final tour dates, but that doesn’t mean they are done adding shows.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers just added four new U.S. dates to their The End of the Road Tour. The new shows will take place in October, starting with Detroit on October 20. The other additions are Nashville on October 23, St. Louis on October 25 and Fort Worth, Texas, on October 27. 

Tickets for the new dates go on sale to the KISS Army on April 3 at 10 a.m. local time, with a general sale happening April 7 at 10 a.m. local time.

As previously reported, KISS has already announced they will wrap the tour December 1 and 2 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, which they say will be the band’s final shows ever. A complete list of KISS dates can be found at kissonline.com.

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Metalchella is officially real.

The inaugural Power Trip festival will take place October 6-8 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. As previously teased, the headliners are Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden and Tool.

Power Trip is being produced by Goldenvoice, the company behind Coachella and 2016’s Desert Trip — snarkily nicknamed “Oldchella” — which featured a similarly stacked lineup of The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and The Who.

Beyond the big names involved, Power Trip is especially significant for Ozzy and AC/DC.

It’s the first announced live performance for the Prince of Darkness since he revealed earlier this year he was retiring from touring due to health issues and will be his first full live concert since New Year’s Eve 2018.

AC/DC, meanwhile, hasn’t played a show since 2016 and last took the stage with GN’R’s Axl Rose in place of Brian Johnson, who was dealing with hearing issues. Johnson reunited with AC/DC for their 2020 album, Power Up.

Tickets for Power Trip, which start at $599, go on sale Thursday, April 6, at 10 a.m. PT. Registration for the sale is required. For more info, visit PowerTrip.live.

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