Classic Rock News

The late Ronnie James Dio would’ve celebrated his 80th birthday on Sunday.

Dio was born Ronald James Padavona on July 10, 1942, and died of stomach cancer May 16, 2010. His career included fronting Black Sabbath after Ozzy Osbourne was fired in 1979 and forming his own, namesake band, Dio, releasing the classic album Holy Diver in 1983. Along the way, he popularized the iconic “metal horns” gesture.

In honor of the milestone occasion, Holy Diver has been reissued as a deluxe box set, including remastered and remixed audio, live recordings, outtakes and B-sides. For original Dio drummer Vinny Appice, the reissue allows him to reminisce about the “ball” he, Ronnie and the rest of the band had recording the now double-Platinum album.

“It was a fun time in everyone’s life, and that shows in the music,” Appice tells ABC Audio. “The music’s pretty kick-a**.”

For Appice, having fun recording an album was the most he expected out of the Holy Diver experience.

“I remember one of my drum techs saying, ‘It’s gonna go Platinum, man!'” Appice recalls. “I said, ‘Come on, nah’… And then sure enough.”

“Album comes out, we start playing theaters,” he continues. “Then about three months, four months later, we’re playing arenas. It’s the typical rock story.”

The remix for the Holy Diver reissue was done by Joe Barressi, who’s worked with bands including Tool and Slipknot. He worked from the original analog tapes to put a new spin on the audio, such as including an ending on the song “Holy Diver,” which just fades out on the original released recording.

“I don’t know what else [Barressi] might’ve found on those tapes,” Appice laughs. “Probably a lot of cursing and swearing.”

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Journey‘s first new studio album in 11 years, Freedom, was released today.

The 15-track collection, which was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, is the first Journey album to feature drummer Narada Michael Walden, who also co-produced Freedom with guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain.

Freedom also marks the return of bassist Randy Jackson, who previously played with Journey from 1985 to 1987. Walden and Jackson joined the band after longtime Journey drummer Steve Smith and bassist Ross Valory were fired in 2020.

“There’s a different strut to this record altogether,” Schon tells ABC Audio. “[M]any people probably can imagine that…replacing a whole rhythm section is gonna change the overall rhythm, feel in the band. And personally, I love it…I think it’s got a new vibe, and even some of the ballads are…coming from a different place than what we’ve done before.”

Freedom includes songs that sound like they could have come from various eras in Journey’s history, and features a mix of power ballads, hard-rocking tunes, sensitive love songs and even a funk-influenced track.

“I just think the album is very musical,” Neal maintains. “I feel like, for me, it goes back to maybe the Infinity era, when I first started writing with Steve Perry, to what we are now…and what we’re becoming.”

Schon says an important factor in the album’s sound was that, while most of the band contributed their parts remotely, he and Walden worked together laying down guitar and drums tracks live in the studio.

“I personally like [cutting] drums and guitar live…even if there’s no other instruments,” Neal says, “because it breathes new life. You know, there’s a lot of life to the music then.”

Here’s Freedom‘s full track list:

“Together We Run”
“Don’t Give Up on Us”
“Still Believe in Love”
“You Got the Best of Me”
“Live to Love Again”
“The Way We Used to Be”
“Come Away with Me”
“After Glow”
“Let It Rain”
“Holdin On”
“All Day and All Night”
“Don’t Go”
“United We Stand”
“Life Rolls On”
“Beautiful as You Are”

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If you ever saw an album cover that you thought would make a great movie, you and Taika Waititi are on the same page.

At a recent press event, the director for the new Thor sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder, shared how the music from bands like Guns N’ Roses and Metallica shaped the aesthetic of the film.

“We wanted it to be this bombastic, loud, colorful palette, which kinda reflected spray-painted panel vans in the ’80s and rock album covers,” Waititi said.

That influence is even found in the Love and Thunder title treatment and logo, which Waititi wanted to look like something he might’ve “drawn on my school book in class when I wasn’t listening.”

“I remember spending months and months perfecting the Metallica logo,” Waititi recalled.

Anyone who’s seen the Love and Thunder trailer shouldn’t be too surprised, as it’s soundtracked by the GN’R classic “Sweet Child o’ Mine.”

“Guns N’ Roses is one of my all-time favorite bands,” Waititi says. “To be able to use that stuff to reflect the crazy adventure that we’re presenting visually was another one of my dreams that came true.”

Thor: Love and Thunder premieres in theaters Friday, July 8. It’s produced by Marvel Studios, which is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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Three years after they first listed it, Paul Simon and wife Edie Brickell have finally sold their mansion in New Canaan, Connecticut. But the musical couple have taken a big loss on the property.

The real estate website Dirt reports that the 32-acre residence sold for $10.8 million, $5.7 million less than they paid for it about 20 years ago.

According to Dirt, Simon and Brickell initially asked for $13.9 million for the estate when they put it up for sale in 2019, but slashed the price to $11.9 million in 2020.

The 1938 mansion has six bedrooms, eight bathrooms and three powder rooms, a paneled library, a large living room, a tiled sun room and a three-car garage. The three-story home sits on grounds that include “sweeping meadows,” “formal walled gardens,” a swimming pool and a private pond.

There’s also a 2,400-square-foot cottage on the property that Paul and Edie used as a recording studio.

According to Dirt, Simon and his wife still have three at least other residences, among them a duplex in New York City, a 30-acre oceanfront home in New York’s ritzy Hamptons and a 10-acre estate in Allen, Texas, outside of Dallas.

The couple celebrated their 30th anniversary last month.

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A high-def analog audio disc featuring a new version of Bob Dylan‘s classic folk song “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which Dylan recorded last year, sold Thursday at a Christie’s auction in London for about 1.5 million pounds, or almost $1.8 million.

Dylan recorded his new version of the famous tune with acclaimed producer T Bone Burnett using Burnett’s new ultra-high-definition Ionic Original audio format.

The one-of-a-kind acetate disc, which had been estimated to sell for between $752,000 and $1.2 million, was auctioned as part of Christie’s “Exceptional Sale” event. The sale took place two days before the 60th anniversary of the recording of the original “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

The 10-inch aluminum disc, which resembles and can be played like a vinyl LP, comes packaged in a specially created wooden cabinet and boasts the etched signatures of Dylan, Burnett and mastering engineer Jeff Powell.

The new track was recorded in Los Angeles and Nashville, with Dylan accompanied by Burnett on electric guitar, Greg Leisz on mandolin, Stuart Duncan on violin, and both Dennis Crouch and Don Was on bass.

In a statement posted by Variety following the auction, Burnett says, “With Bob Dylan’s new version of ‘Blowin’ in the Wind,’ our first Ionic Original archival analogue disc, we have entered and aim to help develop a music space in the fine arts market. I trust and hope it will mean as much to whomever acquired it today…as it does to all of us who made it, and that they will consider it and care for it as a painting or any other singular work of art.”

The Ionic Original technology was developed by Burnett’s recently launched company NeoFidelity Inc.

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Journey was forced to postpone the last four concerts of their spring North American tour because an unspecified member of the group tested positive for COVID-19, and now those dates have been rescheduled for March 2023.

The concerts, which were to have taken place on May 10 in Washington, D.C.; May 11 in Hartford, Connecticut; May 13 in Toronto; and May 16, in Quebec City, Canada, are now scheduled for next year on March 1, March 4, March 12 and March 9, respectively.

Toto, who served as Journey’s support act for the band’s entire spring 2022 tour leg, will also open those four 2023 shows. Heart‘s Ann Wilson had been announced as the opening act for the Toronto and Quebec City concerts before they were postponed.

As previously reported, Journey will release a new studio album titled Freedom on Friday, July 8.

The band also has a dozen upcoming 2022 concerts scheduled, including four special symphonic shows in Las Vegas — on July 15, 16, 22 and 23. Visit JourneyMusic.com for more info on the group’s tour schedule.

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Former Pink Floyd singer/bassist Roger Waters kicked off his long-delayed This Is Not a Drill Tour of North America last night at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

As seen in fan-posted videos and photos, Waters and his band performed in the round on a rectangular stage that featured massive video walls.

In pre-tour announcements, Waters hinted that the shows would feature plenty of the pointed social and political commentary he’s known for, and that was the case. As the concert began, a message ran across the screen notifying the crowd, “If you’re one of those ‘I love Pink Floyd but I can’t stand Roger’s politics’ people, you might do well to f*** off to the bar right now.”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also reports the video screens bombarded the audience with provocative messages, film clips and images that focused on issues, including the evils of war, racial injustice, corporate greed, political corruption, gun violence and reproductive, trans and Palestinian rights. At one point, Waters fired a fake automatic rifle at the crowd.

Waters’ two-set show featured over 20 songs and included multiple-song segments from Pink Floyd’s classic 1970s albums The Wall, Wish You Were Here and The Dark Side of the Moon. In the middle of his first set, Roger introduced a brand-new tune called “The Bar,” which he reprised later in the concert.

Waters also played two songs from his most recent solo album, 2017’s Is This the Life We Really Want?: the title track and “Déjà Vu.”

Roger’s backing band features guitarists Jonathan Wilson and Dave Kilminster, keyboardist/guitarist Jon Carin, bassist Gus Seyffert, keyboardist Robert Walter, drummer Joey Waronker, sax player Seamus Blake, and backing vocalists Shanay Johnson and Amanda Belair.

Here’s the show’s full set list:

Set 1
“Comfortably Numb” (Acoustic)
“The Happiest Days of Our Lives”
“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”
“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 3”
“The Powers That Be”
“The Bravery of Being Out of Range”
“The Bar” (New song)
“Have a Cigar”
“Wish You Were Here”
“Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)”
“Sheep”

Set 2
“In the Flesh”
“Run Like Hell”
“Déjà Vu”
“Is This the Life We Really Want?”
“Money”
“Us and Them”
“Any Colour You Like”
“Brain Damage”
“Eclipse”
“Two Suns in the Sunset”
“The Bar” (Reprise)
“Outside the Wall”

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Earlier this week, Guns N’ Roses postponed a scheduled show in Glasgow, Scotland due to an unspecified “illness” and “medical advice.” Now, frontman Axl Rose has revealed he’s been battling vocal issues.

In a statement posted to Twitter Thursday, the “Welcome to the Jungle” rocker says, “I’d like to thank everyone [for] their well wishes! It’s greatly appreciated!”

Rose — who, in keeping with his band’s branding, replaces the word “and” every time with “n'” and “are” or “our” with “r” — adds that he’s “been following [doctor’s] orders, getting rest, working [with] a vocal coach n’ sorting out r sound issues.”

“Seems good so far,” he adds. “Thanks again [for] everyone’s concern! At the end of the day it’s about giving u the fans the best of rselves n’ the best time we can give u n’ that’s all I, the band n’ crew r focused on.”

GN’R plans to return to the stage Friday, July 8 in Munich, Germany.

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Metallica‘s “Master of Puppets” is the latest recipient of the coveted post-Stranger Things bump.

According to Billboard, the title track off the metal legends’ 1986 album has seen a 400% increase in streams since it was used in the season four finale of the Netflix sci-fi series.

While that certainly is a major bump, “Master of Puppets” still has a long way to go if it hopes to match the resurgence of Kate Bush‘s “Running Up That Hill,” which soared all the way to the top five of the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 after its use in an earlier episode of Stranger Things’ fourth season. 

Metallica previously commented on Stranger Things‘ use of “Master of Puppets,” which is heard during a significant scene involving the Dungeons and Dragons-loving character Eddie Munson, sharing that they were “beyond psyched” about the song’s placement.

“We were all stoked to see the final result and when we did we were totally blown away,” they said.

Meanwhile, Metallica took to TikTok to defend any newcomers who might’ve just discovered the band’s music through Stranger Things, declaring, “FYI — EVERYONE is welcome in the Metallica Family.”

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After Carlos Santana collapsed on stage Tuesday during his band’s concert in Clarkston, Michigan, the group immediately postponed the show scheduled for the next night in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania.

Now, the new date for the Burgettstown concert, which will be held at Star Lake Pavilion, has been confirmed for Friday, August 4.

While the original show was supposed to have featured Santana performing with Earth, Wind & Fire as part of their Miraculous Supernatural joint tour, the new date will just be a Santana concert. All tickets purchased for the June 6 date will be honored at the August 4 show.

On Wednesday, Carlos’ wife, Santana band drummer Cindy Blackman Santana, shared an update on her husband’s health via Facebook.

“Hi Everyone! Carlos & I thank you so much for your prayers, love, care & concern for him!” she wrote. “Please know that he’s resting and doing very well! He was diagnosed with heat exhaustion & dehydration…it was 100 degrees on stage and 114 under the lights so that coupled with not enough water is what caused the issue. He’ll be as good as new soon! Thank you again and we love you!”

The next Santana concert is scheduled for Friday, July 8 in Noblesville, Indiana and is slated to feature Earth, Wind & Fire.

Visit Santana.com to check out the group’s full itinerary.

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