Carlos Santana is set to return to the Las Vegas stage in January, but fans don’t have to worry about this being their last chance to see him. While he may be 76 years old, the guitar great has no plans to retire anytime soon.
“I don’t think like that because it’s like this: people are flowers, music is water and I’m a hose,” he tells ABC Audio. “Why would I stop?”
And Santana has some strong opinions about artists who make big announcements about retiring from the road, like Elton John, KISS and Aerosmith,to name a few.
“Usually when people say that they’re already done anyway mentally, and so they’ve been retiring for the last 50 years,” he says. “I wish they would just, you know, either do it or shut up or stop saying it.”
But even though Santana’s not hanging things up for good, he knows he can’t keep going at the pace he once did.
“I promised my daughter Stella that I would balance it more,” he says, although he adds, “I feel really strong, really clear and very passionate about living life to the fullest.”
Carlos’ Las Vegas residency, An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live, returns to the House of Blues at the Mandalay Bay on January 24, with dates booked through May. A complete list of shows can be found at santana.com.
Billy Joel rang in 2024, not at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, but at the UBS Arena in his home of Long Island, New York. And he took the opportunity to assure hometown fans that he’s not leaving the area, even though he’s put one of his Long Island mansions on sale for $49 million.
“Just because I’m selling that house doesn’t mean I’m leaving Long Island. I still have a house on Long Island,” Billy said, referring to his home in the upscale village of Sag Harbor.
He added, “I’m just gonna spend a little more time in Florida, like old Jewish guys from Long Island do.”
Besides, Billy joked, his mansion, which he’s been renovating for five years, is so expensive that nobody will be able to afford the 26-acre waterfront property.
Billy’s New Year’s Eve show was attended by his daughter Alexa Ray Joel, as well as his friend, legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb, who he saluted by performing a brief instrumental version of one of Webb’s iconic songs: “Wichita Lineman.”
In addition to well-known hits like “My Life,” “Big Shot,” “You May Be Right,” “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “Allentown” and “River of Dreams,” the show — Billy’s first at the UBS Arena — also featured some deeper cuts. Among them: “Big Man on Mulberry Street,” “Everybody Loves You Now,” “Half a Mile Away” and “Souvenir.”
When the clock struck midnight, Billy and the band launched into the traditional New Year’s song “Auld Lang Syne,” followed by The Beatles‘ “All You Need Is Love.”
Billy’s first show of the New Year will be January 11 at Madison Square Garden. He’ll end his record-breaking residency at the legendary venue in July 2024.
Noah and Scott Weiland in 2008; Michael Tran/FilmMagic
Noah Weiland, the 23-year-old son of late Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland, is opening up about his relationship with his father and the misconceptions about his upbringing.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Noah says, “I’m not a trust fund baby or anything like that,” and that he barely saw his dad after he divorced his mother.
“I always get annoyed when people say that type of stuff,” he shares. “My dad was millions in debt when he died. My mom has always worked a normal job. And truthfully, even if my dad’s estate ever does get out of debt, I don’t even want that money. I want to make a career out of myself as much as possible.”
Like his father, Noah’s career is music. Also like his father, the dissolution of a major musical project was blamed on his drug use.
Noah had been in a band with London Hudson and Tye Trujillo, the sons of Guns N’ Roses‘ Slash and Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo, respectively, called Suspect208. However, he was soon let go from the group, which his former bandmates said was due to his drug addiction.
While Noah maintains that he “wasn’t necessarily an addict at that time,” he was using opioids, which then became an addiction after his firing from Suspect208.
Now, Weiland says he’s clean from opioids, and is making music under his own name, which he describes as “gritty alternative pop” as opposed the hard rock and grunge his father was known for. He adds that his experience with drug use allowed him to “finally understand [Scott’s] situation.”
“It made me realize it wasn’t his fault,” Noah says. “He was just in too deep. He had too many demons. They caught up to him. It actually made me forgive him.”
Life of a touring musician isn’t easy, which is why it isn’t surprising that after years of touring, several artists either gave up, or cut back, on the road in 2023.
– While Elton John announced he was retiring from the road back in 2018, his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour didn’t come to an end until July 8 in Stockholm, Sweden. The final leg featured a historic headlining set at England’s Glastonbury Festival. By the time the tour was over, it had grossed almost $940 million from 328 shows, making it the highest grossing tour of all time — until Taylor Swift broke his record a few months later.
– Although their goodbye to the road has been three years in the making, KISS finally played their last two shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden on December 1 and 2. But the band isn’t going away completely: They wrapped the final night by introducing fans to their KISS avatars, suggesting an ABBA-like hologram tour in the future.
– In May, Aerosmith announced they, too, were ready to hang it up, revealing dates for their Peace Out tour. The tour kicked off September 2 in Philadelphia, but after playing only a handful of dates, it was put on hold after frontman Steven Tyler fractured his larynx. The tour is supposed to resume in 2024.
– In 2022, Dead & Company revealed their 2023 summer tour would be their final trek, with the tour kicking off May 19 and 20 at the Kia Forum near Los Angeles. The trek featured an appearance at New Orleans’ Jazzfest and wrapped with a triumphant two-night stand at Oracle Park in San Francisco, California.
– Another veteran rock act plotting its final touring days are the Eagles, who in July announced dates for The Long Goodbye farewell tour. They initially announced a run of 13 shows, but have gone on to expand the trek into 2024. All shows were scheduled to have Steely Dan as opener, but they were replaced on several dates due to frontman Donald Fagen’s health.
– Although he’s not saying goodbye to the road completely, Billy Joel decided to end his New York residency at Madison Square Garden, which launched in January 2014. The rocker revealed in June he would end the residency on what will be his 150th lifetime show at MSG. The final concert is set to happen July 25.
– Another rocker who’s wrapping up a residency is Rod Stewart, who after 13 years announced the final dates for his Las Vegas show, Rod Stewart – The Hits, at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The final show is set for August 7 and will be the 200th Rod has played at the venue.
– One band that isn’t saying goodbye to the road, despite losing their last original member, is Lynyrd Skynyrd. Following guitarist Gary Rossington’s March death, the rockers decided they would go on, insisting that is what Gary would have wanted. They went on tour with ZZ Top over the summer, with another leg of the co-headlining tour scheduled for next year.
Freddie Mercury‘s birthday will once again be celebrated with a big bash this fall.
The Queen frontman would have turned 78 on September 5, and the band just announced that the Official Freddie Mercury Birthday Party 2024 will take place Saturday, September 7, at the Casino Barriere in Montreux, about two hours outside of Zurich, Switzerland.
“We will be celebrating The 1980s and 40 years of ‘The Works’ album,” Queen drummer Roger Taylorshares on Instagram. “The dress code for party guests will be anything in an 80s style! – so start thinking, crimped hair and mullets, bright colours, shoulder pads, mini skirts, bleached denim, sweatbands, sunglasses and very bright heavy makeup!”
The party will feature a performance by the Italian tribute band Galileo, along with Icelander DJ Thor.
More information on the party, along with ticket info, will be announced at a later date. Proceeds from the event will go to The Mercury Phoenix Trust, which raises funds for the fight against HIV/AIDs. It was founded by Taylor, Brian May and their manager Jim Beach in memory of Freddie, who died from the disease in 1991.
It was a big year for Pink Floyd. Even though the band is no longer together, and not necessarily on the best of terms, they didn’t let the anniversary of one of their most iconic albums, The Dark Side of the Moon, go unnoticed.
– The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers released a deluxe box set of Dark Side, featuring a newly remastered version of the album, as well as Blu-ray and DVD audio with the original mix and remastered stereo versions. It also included a new Blu-rRay disc and CD of the classic concert “The Dark Side of the Moon — Live at Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974.”
– To coincide with the release, Pink Floyd held a contest asking fans to create animated music videos for any of the songs on the album and launched a new The Dark Side of The Moon planetarium exhibit.
– They also held a special solar eclipse event on a remote peninsula off the coast of Western Australia to coincide with the Ningaloo eclipse. They hit play on the album at 10:16:54 a.m. so the line “but the sun is eclipsed by the moon” would sync exactly when the total solar eclipse happened. Eight lucky contest winners got to experience the unique event, which was turned into a short film.
– But Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters had a totally different way of celebrating The Dark Side of the Moon — he remade it. The rocker released a solo reimagined version of the album, called The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, explaining it was “a way for me to honor a recording that Nick [Mason] and Rick [Wright] and Dave [Gilmour] and I have every right to be very proud of.”
– Waters even performed the album live at two shows in London, although reports claimed he was heckled for not playing enough music, instead reading from his unpublished memoir and ranting about Julian Assange.
– Unfortunately for Waters, any Dark Side celebrations were overshadowed by the constant controversy that surrounded his political views. He was accused of being an antisemite and two cities in Germany attempted to cancel shows on his This Is Not A Drill tour, although he won a court battle claiming his free speech was being violated. There was even a documentary released purporting to prove his antisemitism, which he vehemently denied.
– Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour inserted himself into the drama when his wife, Polly Samson, called Waters out on social media for being “antisemitic to your rotten core.” He reshared the post and also shared the antisemitism doc on his social media account.
– Released March 1, 1973, The Dark Side of The Moon spent one week at number one and went on to spend a total of 972 weeks on the Billboard chart. As of 1998, the album had been certified 15-times Platinum by the RIAA.
Metal headlines in 2023 were dominated by the return of Metallica and the touring retirement of Ozzy Osbourne.
At the end of 2022, Metallica announced the release of 72 Seasons, their first album since 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct. To support the album, the “Enter Sandman” outfit planned the M72 World Tour, during which they’d play two shows with completely unique set lists in each city.
72 Seasons arrived in April and included the singles “Lux Æterna,” “Too Far Gone?” and the title track, all of which hit #1 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. Each song off the album got its own video and was accompanied by American Sign Language interpretations.
Metallica also promoted the arrival of 72 Seasons with a weeklong residency on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The M72 tour kicked off in Europe shortly thereafter before coming to the U.S. in August. Openers on the trek included the reformed Pantera, Five Finger Death Punch, Mammoth WVH, Ice Nine Kills, Architects and Volbeat. Along the way, Metallica broke numerous attendance records and found themselves at the center of an adorable viral story, when a dog sneaked out of their house and ended up at an M72 show in Los Angeles.
While Metallica was tearing up the road, Ozzy Osbourne was stuck at home. The Prince of Darkness, who last played a full concert in 2018, continued to deal with a number of health issues, including undergoing numerous surgeries after suffering a fall in 2019. After postponing previously scheduled tour dates multiple times, Ozzy announced in February that he was retiring from the road.
In subsequent interviews, though, Ozzy shared that he hoped to still play one-off shows in the future. That seemed to come to fruition with the announcement of Power Trip, a new festival from the producers of Coachella and a metal-themed sequel to 2016’s stacked Desert Trip.
The initial Power Trip lineup included Ozzy and Metallica, as well as AC/DC playing their first show with vocalist Brian Johnson since 2016, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden and Tool. However, Ozzy soon dropped off the bill, citing his health, and was replaced by Judas Priest.
President Barack Obama has come out with his annual list of his favorite music of 2023, with Lenny Kravitz earning one of the coveted spots.
Kravitz makes the list for his tune “Road to Freedom” from the movie Rustin, which was produced by Barack and Michelle Obama‘s Higher Ground production company. The film tells the story of Bayard Rustin, an African American civil and gay rights leader who helped organize the March on Washington.
The tune has already been recognized with Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards nominations, and is on the short list for an Oscar nomination.
Kravitz fans, which apparently includes Obama, are about to get even more new music from the rocker. He’ll release the new album Blue Electric Light on March 15, with the album’s first single, “TK421,” out now.
Queen + Adam Lambert spent part of 2023 on the road touring the U.S. on their Rhapsody Tour. For BrianMay and Roger Taylor, the live experience certainly has changed since the ’70s and ’80s when they were touring with Freddie Mercury.
In this week’s episode of the band’s weekly YouTube series, Queen the Greatest Live, the two Rock & Roll Hall of Famers discuss how their live show has evolved, and share some of the biggest differences between shows today and those of the past.
“The reaction is very similar to what it used to be,” May says. But he notes mobile phones have changed the concert experience, because audiences of the past “would just be there, their whole selves interacting in mind and body and eyes and ears.” He adds, “It’s not like that now. Everybody has this urge to kind of immortalize stuff. So, when you look out, you see almost as many mobile phones as people, which is weird.”
May says all that recording has taken away some of the magic because “there’s nothing secret anymore,” and fans can easily go online to see highlights of what the band has done at previous shows.
Roger adds that modern technology has its benefits, though, noting that lights aren’t as hot as they once were, plus, “you’ve got these wonderful screens, which are getting better every year.”
“It’s possible to do amazing things with them,” he says.
But while some artists will use technology to have all their lights preset and ready to go, Brian says Queen still has people “pushing the buttons in time with us, feeling what we’re doing.”
Billy Joel became a father when he and his wife, model Christie Brinkley, welcomed daughter Alexa Ray, the only child they had together.
Their daughter’s middle name was a tribute to legendary musician Ray Charles, who Billy had collaborated with on the 1987 song “Baby Grand.” Joel later wrote the 1993 song “Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)” for Alexa.
Alexa followed in her father’s footsteps as a musician and released the EP Sketches in 2006, along with several other singles.
Joel went on to welcome two more daughters with his fourth wife, Alexis Roderick; Della Rose wasborn in August 2015 and Remy Anne inOctober 2017.
