Classic Rock News

Elton John is the latest celebrity to condemn the homophobic remarks made by rapper DaBaby at Miami’s Rolling Loud Festival over the weekend. 

The “I’m Still Standing” singer explained that spreading homophobic misinformation is harmful to the LGBTQ community — especially those with HIV.

Taking to Instagram Wednesday, Sir Elton shared an post that read, “HIV misinformation and homophobia have no place in the music industry.  We must break down the stigma around HIV and not spread it.  As musicians, it’s our job to bring people together.” 

“We’ve been shocked to read about the HIV misinformation and homophobic statements made at a recent DaBaby show. This fuels stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs to fight the AIDS epidemic,” the five-time Grammy winner continued in a lengthy caption.

“HIV has affected over 70 million people globally: men, women, children and the most vulnerable people in our communities,” he expressed. “In America, a gay black man has a 50% lifetime chance of contracting HIV. Stigma and shame around HIV and homosexuality is a huge driver of this vulnerability. We need to break down the myths and judgements and not fuel these.”

“You can live a long and healthy life with HIV,” he continued. “Treatment is so advanced that with one pill a day, HIV can become undetectable in your body so you can’t pass it onto other people.”

Sir Elton reiterated that rather than spread misinformation, musicians should “bring people together.”

“Homophobic and HIV mistruths have no place in our society and industry and as musicians, we must spread compassion and love for the most marginalized people in our communities,” he closed.

DaBaby has since apologized for his weekend remarks, tweeting on Tuesday night, “What I said was insensitive.”

 

 

 

 

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Anybody who done ever been effected by AIDS/HIV y’all got the right to be upset, what I said was insensitive even though I have no intentions on offending anybody. So my apologies

But the LGBT community… I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. y’all business is y’all business.

— DaBaby (@DaBabyDaBaby) July 27, 2021

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Journey returns to the concert stage this week for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 with two shows in Chicago — one tonight at the Aragon Ballroom and the second on Saturday at the Lollapalooza festival in Grant Park.

The concerts also will mark Journey’s first live performances since three new members were welcomed into the band — bassist Randy Jackson, drummer Narada Michael Walden and keyboardist Jason Derlatka. However, keyboardist Jonathan Cain tells ABC Audio that Jackson — who previously played with Journey during the mid-1980s — will be missing the Chicago gigs.

“Unfortunately, Randy’s not going to be there, ’cause he’s got back surgery,” Cain reports. “Marco Mendoza, a good friend of ours [who] plays great, he’ll fill in for now.”

Cain says he finds it interesting that Journey will launch its new chapter in Chicago, where he was born.

Journey recently released its first single with the new lineup, “The Way We Used to Be,” and Cain says the band likely will include it in their sets this week, as well as plenty of the group’s classic hits. Jonathan also notes that Journey will be playing a longer set at the Aragon Ballroom — which is considered an official Lollapalooza “Aftershow” event — so they may dig deeper into their catalog for that performance.

Journey guitarist Neal Schon, meanwhile, tells ABC Audio that he’s hoping the band will be jamming more and be doing more extended sets in the future.

“I think Journey is capable of being one of the greatest jam bands in the world ever,” he declares. “And everything in my intuition is telling me that it’s time to…encompass it all in one concert, be daring, go out on a limb with no net and create…in front of people.”

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This year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler‘s debut solo album, Golden Heart.  To commemorate the milestone, an expansive box set featuring newly remastered versions of all of the solo studio efforts Knopfler issued from 1996 through 2007 will hit stores on December 10.

Mark Knopfler: The Studio Albums 1996-2007 will be available as a six-CD package or an 11-LP set, and will feature remastered editions of the lauded singer, songwriter and guitarist’s first five solo records — 1996’s Golden Heart, 2000’s Sailing to Philadelphia, 2002’s The Ragpicker’s Dream, 2004’s Shangri-La and 2007’s Kill to Get Crimson. The box set also will include as a bonus disc a new companion compilation titled Gravy Train: The B-Sides 1996-2007.

The vinyl box set will feature two-LP versions of the five studio albums, plus the single-disc compilation, all pressed on 180-gram black vinyl. This will mark the first time that Golden Heart, Sailing to Philadelphia and, of course, Gravy Train, will be available on vinyl.

Both box sets will come with a download card allowing access to digital versions of the albums, plus six embossed art prints of the albums’ covers.

The Knopfler studio album featured in the box set that saw the most commercial success is Sailing to Philadelphia, which peaked at #4 on the U.K. chart and was certified gold for sales of over 500,000 copies in the U.S.

For full details about the box set, visit MarkKnopfler.com.

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Joan Jett loves rock ‘n’ roll, and the rock legend will get back to doing what she loves with her band, The Blackhearts, when they kick off a series of 2021 concerts with a show this Sunday, August 1, in San Francisco at the Stern Grove Festival.

Jett & the Blackhearts have 20 concerts lined up this year, running through a November 21 performance in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Several shows on Jett and company’s schedule are joint gigs with some other big-name rock acts. These include an August 12 concert in Vienna, Virginia, with George Thorogood & The Destroyers; performances with Cheap Trick on August 28 and 29, respectively, in Chesterfield, Missouri, and Kansas City, Missouri; and an October 2 show in Laughlin, Nevada, with Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Joan and the band also will play the 2021 of Milwaukee’s Summerfest on September 9.

Meanwhile, The Stadium Tour, the long-delayed trek that will feature Joan Jett & the Blackhearts teaming up with Def Leppard, the reunited Mötley Crüe and Poison, is scheduled to finally get underway on June 16, 2002, in Atlanta. The outing is plotted out all the way through a September 7 show in San Francisco.

Visit JoanJett.com for a full list of dates.

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Sure, getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is nice, but now New Jersey’s own Jon Bon Jovi is getting a real honor: a rest stop named after him on the Garden State Parkway.

The neighboring New Jersey Turnpike has rest stops named after historical New Jerseyites, like Thomas Edison, but the Parkway is going for star power, reports NorthJersey.com.  The rest stop formerly known as — no joke — Cheesequake will now be known as the Jon Bon Jovi Service Area.

Other famed New Jerseyites who are getting the rest stop treatment include Whitney Houston, Frank Sinatra, Toni Morrison, James Gandolfini, salsa legend Celia Cruz and author Judy Blume.  It’s all part of a campaign by the New Jersey Hall of Fame, which is installing displays about each rest stop’s famous namesake.

But wait, you ask — where’s the Bruce Springsteen Service Area?

“Bruce Springsteen respectfully declined to have a service area named after him,” a New Jersey Hall of Fame spokeswoman told NorthJersey.com. “It should be noted, though, that Bruce has been very supportive of the New Jersey Hall of Fame over the years, and is very much a part of the fabric of the Hall.”

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Dusty Hill, the long-bearded, longtime bassist for beloved Texas blues-rock trio ZZ Top, has died at age 72.

ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons and drummer Frank Beard announced Hill’s passing with a message on the band’s official Facebook page.

“We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, TX,” the note reads. “We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ‘Top.’ We will forever be connected to that ‘Blues Shuffle in C.'”

Hill joined ZZ Top shortly after the group’s formation in 1969. Gibbons sang lead on most of the group’s songs, while Hill usually handled backing vocals, although he occasionally did take over as lead singer for select tunes, including the band’s classic 1975 hit, “Tush.”

Dusty co-wrote many of ZZ Top’s songs, including “Tush” and other enduring classics including “Cheap Sunglasses,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’, “Got Me Under Pressure,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs,” and “Sleeping Bag.”

Hill was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of ZZ Top in 2004.

The band’s plans for a major 50th anniversary tour in 2020 were sidetracked because of the COVID-19 pandemic. ZZ Top had recently started playing shows again, but the band announced last week that Hill had to return home to Texas “to address a hip issue,” and that the group’s longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis, was filling in for him.

These recent shows marked the first time since Hill had joined ZZ Top that they performed with out him.

ZZ Top’s most recent album, La Futura, was released in 2012, although Gibbons revealed in recent interviews that the band had been working on material for a new record.

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A second annual edition of Daze Between, a series of events celebrating the life and legacy of Jerry Garcia that’s scheduled on and around the late Grateful Dead frontman’s August 1 birthday, recently kicked off and is slated to run through August 10.

While last year’s inaugural Daze Between was a virtual celebration because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 edition is a hybrid of live and streaming events and activities.

In conjunction with Daze Between, a variety of Garcia tribute concerts by Melvin Seals & JGB, The Garcia Project, Dark Star Orchestra and others will be held at various venues between Thursday, July 29, and Monday, August 9. Among these is a special Daze Between show on August 8 in New Haven, Connecticut, featuring Warren Haynes, Grace Potter and more.

In addition, Major League Baseball will host a series of special “Jerry Day” games featuring special Garcia merch giveaways and taking place July 29 at Boston’s Fenway Park, August 2 at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park, and August 10 at San Francisco’s Oracle Park.

Other events include livestreamed concert, an exhibition of Garcia’s digital art hosted by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and an online auction featuring a selection of Grateful Dead collectibles.

Daze Between was launched in partnership between Garcia’s family and the Grateful Dead’s Rex Foundation charity. Proceeds raised will benefit the foundation, which supports people involved with creative endeavors in the arts, sciences and education.

For details about the celebration, visit DazeBetween.com.

Garcia was born on August 1, 1942, and passed away on August 9, 1995, at age 53.

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Olivia Vedder is following in her father’s footsteps.

The teenage daughter of Eddie Vedder is making her musical debut with the song “My Father’s Daughter,” which was co-written by the Pearl Jam frontman. The track was recorded for the upcoming film Flag Day, which, fittingly, stars another father-daughter pair: Sean and Dylan Penn.

In Flag Day, which was also directed by the elder Penn, Sean stars as real-life counterfeiter John Vogel; Dylan plays his daughter, Jennifer.

You can hear a preview of “My Father’s Daughter” in the newly released Flag Day trailer, streaming now on YouTube. It’ll also be featured on the Flag Day soundtrack, due out August 20. The film premieres in select theaters that same day.

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Tuesday marked 40 years since the release of Stevie Nicks‘ solo debut album, 1981’s Bella Donna. Now the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has released an essay explaining how important the album is to her.

On her socials, Stevie writes that “Bella Donna was a dream…I did not want the record to sound anything like Fleetwood Mac. That would have defeated the dream.”  Instead, she explains, she wanted her and her two backup singers Lori and Sharon to sound like “the girl version of Crosby, Stills & Nash.”

According to Stevie, the inspiration for the album was a poem she wrote, inspired by her then-boyfriend’s mother, Maria Teresa Rojas.  As Stevie tells it, Rojas’ lover in Chile was “banished to France” after the Chilean coup of 1973.

“She never saw him again,” Stevie writes. “I was so touched by this story of lost love that I wrote Bella Donna. The moment the poem and then the song was finished, I knew I had the basis for my first solo record.”

Stevie goes on to say that Bella Donna “defined how I would feel about love forever,” adding, “I could not have been more proud of those songs, or the three months it took [us] to craft it. It did not break up Fleetwood Mac. If anything, it kept us together.”

And finally, Stevie notes that Bella Donna “opened the doors of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, took my hand and invited me in for my own work…the thing I am most proud of. And all because of a tragic love affair that caused… an important and relevant song to be turned into a story that the world seemed to love.”

Bella Donna topped the Billboard 200 album chart and has since been RIAA-certified four-times Platinum on the strength of hits including “Edge of Seventeen,” “Leather and Lace,” and its highest-charting single, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” a duet with the late rock legend Tom Petty.

 

 

 

 

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Back in January, Steve Martin posted a photo of himself with Martin Short and Selena Gomez — his co-stars in the upcoming Hulu series Only Murders in the Building — and Sting was in the picture, too.  At the time, Martin wrote that it was a “special day” on set, but Hulu wouldn’t confirm that Sting was actually in the show. Well, now we know he is.

The full trailer for the series has dropped, and the former Police frontman makes an appearance as himself.  The show follows Martin, Gomez and Short as the three true-crime fanatics who decide to do a podcast about the murder of one of the residents of their New York City apartment building — and attempt to solve the crime in the process.

In the trailer, we learn that the police believe the murderer is one of the building residents, and we see Sting, who is seemingly one of those residents, opening the door to his palatial apartment.  “There’s a very strong chance the killer is musical superstar Sting,” declares Short.

“The guy from U2?” Gomez asks, prompting to Martin to wince at the young star’s appalling lack of knowledge about one-named singers of iconic ’80s bands.

Of course, in real life, Sting does own a palatial apartment in New York City, so the casting is somewhat believable.

Only Murders in the Building debuts August 30 on Hulu.

(Trailer contains uncensored profanity.)

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