Classic Rock News

Joe Walsh‘s sixth annual VetsAid benefit concert is scheduled for November 13 in Columbus, Ohio and will feature a reunion of his old band James Gang — with drummer Jim Fox and bassist Dale Peters — for what’s being billed as their final performance or “One Last Ride.”

The event’s lineup also features Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, Nine Inch Nails, The Breeders and The Black Keys.

Walsh, who spent part of his youth growing up in Columbus and went to college at Ohio’s Kent State University, wanted to create an all-Ohio bill for the concert, which this year will specifically support Ohio veterans and their families.

The James Gang and NIN formed in Cleveland, The Black Keys are from Akron, The Breeders hail from Dayton, and Grohl was born in Warren.

“It all started in Ohio,” says Walsh. “Picking up my first guitar as a kid in Columbus set me on a musical journey to Kent State, Cleveland and then the world. Now it is a great privilege and humbling opportunity for me to share the stage once again with my original James Gang buddies and with this absolutely incredible group of Ohio rock legends.”

The 2022 VetsAid concert will be held at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Tickets go on sale this Friday, August 5 at 10 a.m. ET atTicketmaster.com. Pre-sale tickets will be available on Wednesday, August 3, starting at 10 a.m. ET. For more info, visitVetsAid.org.

This marks the first time since 2019 that the show will be held live and in person after being aired as a streaming event in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So far, VetsAid has distributed $2 million in grants to charities that support veterans and their families.

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The Dio spin-off group Last in Line has released a heavy-rock cover of The Beatles‘ classic 1967 song “A Day in the Life” as an advance single from a new EP that’s due out on November 11.

“A Day in the Life” is available now via digital formats, while a visually evocative companion music video has debuted on the earMUSIC label’s official YouTube channel.

The A Day in the Life EP will feature four songs, including the title track, the new song “Hurricane Orlagh” and live versions of two Last in Line tunes — “Devil in Me” and “Give Up the Ghost” — that first appeared on their earlier studio albums.

The EP, which can be preordered now, will be available digitally and as a limited-edition silver-vinyl disc. Only 3,000 copies of the vinyl EP will be produced.

Last in Line features two Dio alums — longtime Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell and ex-Black Sabbath drummer Vinny Appice — as well as singer Andrew Freedman and one-time Ozzy Osbourne bassist Phil Soussan.

Last in Line also has plans for a 2022 fall U.S. tour that’s mapped out from a September 23 concert in Laconia, New Hampshire, through a November 12 show in Columbus, Ohio.

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August 1 marks what would have been late Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia‘s 80th birthday.

The singer/guitarist was the de facto leader of The Dead, inspiring an entire subculture of “Deadheads” who’ve embraced the San Francisco area group’s mix of rootsy, laid-back music and psychedelic jams, as well as the counterculture lifestyle the band espoused.

Garcia co-wrote most of The Dead’s songs, usually in collaboration with lyricist Robert Hunter, including well-known tunes like “Casey Jones,” “Ripple,” “Friend of the Devil,” “Truckin’,” “Bertha,” “Alabama Getaway” and “Touch of Grey.”

Outside of The Grateful Dead, Garcia was involved in a variety of solo and side projects, including the Jerry Garcia Band, the bluegrass group Old and in the Way and as a duo with mandolinist David Grisman. He also lent his talents to many other artists’ recordings.

Garcia was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Grateful Dead in 1994. When he declined to attend the ceremony, his bandmates jokingly brought a life-size cutout of him to the event.

Jerry died of a heart attack on August 9, 1995, at age 53. Since his passing, Garcia’s surviving Dead bandmates have carried on his legacy by continuing to perform and record — together, individually and in varying combinations.

In 2015, Garcia was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside Hunter, who died in 2019 at age 78.

A variety of events have been scheduled to commemorate Garcia’s milestone birthday. Among them, three Major League Baseball teams will be hosting Jerry Garcia-themed celebrations at their home games in the coming days — the New York Yankees on Monday, the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday and the Boston Red Sox on August 9.

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Jimy Sohns, lead singer of the 1960s garage-rock band The Shadows of Knight, died Friday after suffering a stroke earlier in the week. He was 75.

Sohns’ death was announced by the band’s official Facebook page, which shared a note from Sohn’s daughter, Rachael, that reads, “My dads is gone at 5:10pm! He wired for me to go outside and left us! Fly high my rock n roll [ruler].”

Conor Mahoney, who manages the Shadows of Knight Facebook page, added, “Absolutely devastated. My thoughts go out to Jimy’s family and friends at this time. My best friend is gone, and I will miss running this page with him. His legend will live on forever.”

The Shadows of Knight are best known for their hit cover of the Van Morrison-penned 1964 Them classic “Gloria,” which reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. The Chicago-based band also scored a top-40 hit with their follow-up single, a cover of Bo Diddley‘s “Oh Yeah.”

The band released three albums during its original 1960s heyday. Sohns continued to lead various lineups of the group over the years.

In 2006, The Shadows of Knight took part in the “Little Steven” Van Zandt-organized Underground Garage Tour with The Romantics and also released a new studio album called A Knight to Remember.

In 2020, The Shadows of Knight released a new single — “Wild man”/”I Ain’t Got You” — on Little Steven’s Wicked Cool Records label that featured Sohns recording with the band’s early guitarist Jerry McGeorge for the first time since the ’60s.

In March, Sohns released his first solo single, a collaboration with former Pretty Things keyboardist Jon Povey and the Italian psychedelic group Technicolour Dream.

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Music merchandising company KnuckleBonz is releasing a mini, collectible statue of late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton.

The officially licensed figure — which was made in collaboration with Burton’s estate — will be limited to just 3,000 pieces. Each one stands at approximately 8.5 inches high and is hand-crafted, painted and numbered. 

The statues will be released in 2023, but you can pre-order your own now via KnuckleBonz.com. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Cliff Burton Music Scholarship Fund for Rising Youth Musicians.

As previously reported, the Burton estate has also teamed up with KnuckleBonz and the Calicraft Brewing Co. to create a signature beer inspired by Cliff. Sales from the beer, dubbed Cliff ‘Em All, will also be donated to the Burton Music Scholarship Fund.

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The deluxe CD version of America co-founder Gerry Beckley‘s latest solo album, Aurora, was released Friday. Coinciding with the disc’s arrival, a capsule collection of T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts showcasing the singer/songwriter’s photography is now available.

Beckley partnered with New York-based fashion designer Todd Snyder to create the limited-edition apparel collection, which features three T-shirts and three hoodies, each boasting a different photo taken during Gerry’s travels. The pieces can be purchased now at ToddSnyder.com and select retail stores.

Beckley is a longtime photography enthusiast, and while touring, he began snapping a photo each day and emailing it to family and friends. Some of Gerry’s photos are included in the packaging of the physical versions of Aurora.

“Gerry is this total style maven — cars, clothes, eyewear. He’ll email me out of the blue to suggest a classic item we should make, and his photographs are an extension of this unique point of view,” says Snyder, who’s a longtime friend of Beckley’s. “He makes normal things look artful, and his pictures are modern takes that get us to reconsider places we might otherwise take for granted.”

As previously reported, Aurora is an 11-song collection that Beckley recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic at his two home studios — in Sydney, Australia, and Venice, California. The album’s tracks include tunes that began as unfinished demos and scratch recordings that date back as far as the early 1970s, as well as new songs written during the past two years.

One of the tunes, “Tickets to the Past,” was co-written by Gerry’s co-founding America bandmate Dewey Bunnell, who also sings on the track.

Aurora was released on digital formats last month, while a deluxe vinyl version is due at a later date.

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Neil Young has made available a live version of his 1995 song “Throw Your Hatred Down,” recorded with his backing group Promise of the Real while on tour in Europe in 2019, as an advance digital track from his upcoming album Noise & Flowers.

“Throw Your Hatred Down” originally appeard on Mirror Ball, Young’s 1995 collaborative album with Pearl Jam.

As previously reported, Noise & Flowers will be released on August 5 on audio and video formats. The album and film, which were recorded during Young’s nine-date 2019 European tour with Promise of the Real, are dedicated to Neil’s longtime friend and manager Elliot Roberts, who died at age 76 just a couple of weeks before the trek was launched.

Noise & Flowers, which can be preordered now, will be available on CD, as a two-LP vinyl set, via digital formats and as a deluxe CD/two-LP/Blu-ray collection featuring the film on the Blu-ray disc. In addition, a standalone Blu-ray can be purchased exclusively at Young’s Greedy Hand Store. The film was co-directed by Young and his wife, actress Daryl Hannah, under their Bernard Shakey and dhlovelife pseudonyms.

Those who purchase Noise & Flowers at the Greedy Hand Store will receive a high-res digital download of the album from Young’s Xstream Store at his Neil Young Archives website.

Here’s Noise & Flowers full track list:

“Mr. Soul”
“Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”
“Helpless”
“Field of Opportunity”
“Alabama”
“Throw Your Hatred Down”
“Rockin’ in the Free World”
“Comes a Time”
“From Hank to Hendrix”
“On the Beach”
“Are You Ready for the Country”
“I’ve Been Waiting for You”
“Winterlong”
“F***in’ Up”

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On Wednesday, David Lee Roth posted a previously unreleased solo song called “Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway” on his official website and YouTube channel. The song pays homage to Van Halen, and now Roth’s main collaborator on the track, one-time DLR Band guitarist John 5, has debuted a music video for the tune.

The clip, which you can watch now on John 5’s YouTube channel, features archival performance footage, home movies and rare photos of Van Halen during the band’s early years.

In a message accompanying the video, John 5 writes, “Honored to be a part of this amazing piece of history. When I wrote the song with Dave, I knew it was something very special. I created this video on the tour bus as a tribute with [director] Mike Savage. Very proud to share it with everyone.”

As previously reported by the Van Halen News Desk fan site, “Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway” is one of a number of songs that Roth recorded with guitarist John 5 several years ago. Over the last couple of years, Diamond Dave has released a number of other tunes from those sessions, including “Somewhere over the Rainbow Bar and Grill,” “Giddy-Up!,” “Low-Rez Sunset” and “Pointing at the Moon.”

“Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway” is available now via select streaming services.

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A limited-edition vinyl reissue of David Bowie‘s 1977 album “Heroes” will drop on October 14 in celebration of its 45th anniversary. Pressed on gray vinyl, the reissue will only be available at brick-and-mortar stores.

“Heroes,” Bowie’s 11th studio album, was released in October of ’77 and is best known for its classic title track, which was one of four songs Brian Eno co-wrote on the record. It was released as a single and became a minor hit in the U.K. Though it didn’t chart in the States, it’s become one of Bowie’s most enduring and widely covered tunes. The album peaked at #3 in the U.K. but only reached #35 in the U.S. 

The “Heroes” album was the second of what is known as Bowie’s “Berlin Trilogy,” which also includes 1977’s Low and 1979’s Lodger, but it’s the only one that he recorded entirely in the German city. The album, which Bowie co-produced with frequent collaborator Tony Visconti, features the same group of musicians who recorded Low, with the addition of King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp.

Also on October 14, the mini album Live in Berlin (1978) will be released via digital formats for the first time. The eight-song collection, which was recorded at a May 1978 concert at the Deutschlandhalle in West Berlin, was previously only available as a limited-edition orange vinyl LP, sold in 2018 at the “David Bowie Is…” exhibition in Brooklyn, New York.

The performance included versions of three songs from the “Heroes” album, as well as the Bowie hits “Fame” and “Rebel Rebel.”

Here’s the full “Heroes” track list:

Side 1
“Beauty and the Beast”
“Joe the Lion”
“‘Heroes'”
“Sons of the Silent Age”
“Blackout”

Side 2
“V-2 Schneider”
“Sense of Doubt”
“Moss Garden”
“Neuköln”
“The Secret Life of Arabia”

And here’s the complete Live in Berlin (1978) track list:

“‘Heroes'”
“Be My Wife”
“Blackout”
“Sense of Doubt”
“Breaking Glass”
“Fame”
“Alabama Song”
“Rebel Rebel”

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Sammy Hagar and his band The Circle have unveiled plans to release a new studio album titled Crazy Times this fall and made the title track available as an advance digital single Friday, along with a companion music video for the tune.

The 10-song collection, which can be preordered now, will be released on CD and via digital formats on September 30, while standard black vinyl and limited-edition red vinyl LP versions will follow on October 28.

Hagar & The Circle recorded Crazy Times at Nashville’s famed RCA Studio A with Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb.

Crazy Times, which is a follow-up to the group’s 2019 debut, Space Between, features nine songs either written or co-written by Hagar, as well as a cover of Elvis Costello and the Attraction‘s 1978 classic “Pump It Up.”

The title track was one of three tunes the Red Rocker co-wrote with his Circle bandmates — bassist Michael Anthony, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Vic Johnson — and Cobb.

The video for the hard-driving, riff-heavy song features Hagar and the band performing the tune as a montage of explosions and other ominous images appear behind them.

Hagar says that after the long COVID-19 lockdown, he really appreciated getting to work with his bandmates again in person.

“Going back in the studio, creating and being with the music is just what felt natural,” Hagar notes. “There was joy in the hard work, catharsis and the comradery we’d craved. It was like those two years of not being able to do very much fell away and we really all came together and let it out in the music and lyrics.”

The digital version of Crazy Times also features a pair of bonus tracks. Here’s the album’s full track list:

“Intro: The Beginning of the End”
“Slow Drain”
“Feed Your Head”
“Pump It Up”
“Be Still”
“You Get What You Pay For”
“Crazy Times”
“Funky Feng Shui”
“Father Time”
“Childhood’s End”

Digital-only bonus tracks:
“2010”
“Father Time” (acoustic demo)

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