Classic Rock News

Here’s wishing a supernaturally happy birthday to Carlos Santana, who turns 75 today.

The legendary guitarist helped create a groundbreaking fusion of rock, blues, pop, Latin music and jazz with his namesake band Santana.

Santana came to global prominence after an incendiary performance at the 1969 Woodstock festival, which showcased Carlos’ blistering and intense playing. The group’s self-titled debut album came out that same month, featuring classics like “Evil Ways” and the instrumental “Soul Sacrifice.” The band’s next two studio albums, Abraxas and Santana III, topped the Billboard 200 and included such hits as “Black Magic Woman,” “Oye Como Va” and “Everybody’s Everything.”

From the early 1970s through the ’90s, Santana’s lineup changed frequently as the band’s popularity fluctuated.

Santana was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, then experienced a huge career resurgence thanks to 1999’s Supernatural. The album, which featured Carlos and company collaborating with various guest artists, yielded two #1 hits — “Smooth” with Matchbox Twenty‘s Rob Thomas, and “Maria Maria” with Wyclef Jean and The Product G&B. Supernatural topped the Billboard 200 for 12 nonconsecutive weeks and went on to win nine Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.

More recently, Santana was saluted at the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors in 2013.

Santana’s latest album, Blessings and Miracles, was released in October 2021. Following a similar template to Supernatural, Blessings and Miracles features collaborations with various guest artists, including Thomas, Steve Winwood, Metallica‘s Kirk Hammett and Diane Warren.

On July 5, Santana collapsed onstage during a show in the Detroit suburb of Clarkston, Michigan — reportedly because of heat exhaustion and dehydration — leading him to postpone a series of shows. The band currently is scheduled to return to the road this Saturday, July 23, in Paso Robles, California.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the official formation of Heart, and frontwoman Ann Wilson has revealed that plans are in the works for some kind of celebration marking the milestone.

“I’m not at liberty to say exactly what they are yet because it’s such early days, but sure,” Wilson tells Grammy.com. “It will be next year. And we’re doing a thing. Definitely. We’re still formulating it now.”

The celebration would mark the first time Ann and her sister, Heart co-leader Nancy Wilson, will have worked together since the band ended its Love Alive tour in 2019. The siblings have recently been at odds over the direction of the group, and both have been focused on solo projects during the last few years.

Nancy released her debut solo studio album, You and Me, in 2021. She also recently launched a new group called Nancy Wilson’s Heart that features powerhouse lead singer Kimberly Nichole and members of Heart’s most recent touring lineup.

Ann released a new solo studio album called Fierce Bliss in April and has been touring with her own backing band, The Amazing Dawgs, that mainly features a group of Nashville session musicians who accompanied her on most of the record’s songs.

Ann tells Grammy.com that she’s expecting to make another album with The Amazing Dawgs.

“What I can do now with these ideas I have is just get ’em down and go in with this group of excellent musicians,” she notes. “What we have is really energized, fiery and sharp. I think it’s working for us right now. It’s real.”

You can check out Ann’s 2022 tour schedule with The Amazing Dawgs at AnnWilson.com.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Headlining sets by Metallica and the reunited Porno for Pyros are among the performances that will air online as part of the Lollapalooza festival’s Hulu livestream.

Metallica’s performance will stream on Thursday, July 28, at 11:15 p.m. ET, while Porno for Pyros set will stream on Sunday, July 31, at 7:45 p.m. ET.

The streaming lineup also includes Dashboard Confessional, Machine Gun Kelly and many others.

Hulu subscribers can watch the broadcast July 28-31. For more info, visit Hulu.com/Lollapalooza.

If you’re attending Lolla in person at Chicago’s Grant Park this year, you can also catch sets by Green Day, and dozens more.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

A new compilation from the NOW That’s What I Call Music folks — which focuses specifically on popular alternative-rock songs from the 1990s — will be released on August 5.

NOW That’s What I Call ’90s Alternative Rock! is an 18-track collection that will be available on CD and digital formats.

The album consists of memorable tunes from many rock acts that emerged in the 1990s, including Stone Temple Pilots‘ “Interstate Love Song,” Live‘s “Lightning Crashes,” Lenny Kravitz‘s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” and Blind Melon‘s “No Rain.”

The compilation also features hits from Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors, Sublime, Third Eye Blind, Gin Blossoms, Fastball, Lit, Cake, 311 and more.

NOW That’s What I Call ’90s Alternative Rock! can be pre-ordered now.

Here’s the complete track list:

“Are You Gonna Go My Way” — Lenny Kravitz
“My Own Worst Enemy (No S*** Mix)” — Lit
“Inside Out” — Eve 6
“Everything You Want – Vertical Horizon
“If You Could Only See” — Tonic
“Lightning Crashes” — Live
“Interstate Love Song” — Stone Temple Pilots
“No Rain” — Blind Melon
“All I Want” — Toad the Wet Sprocket
“Hey Jealousy” — Gin Blossoms
“Run Around” — Blues Traveler
“The Way” — Fastball
“The Distance” — Cake
“Semi-Charmed Live” (Radio Edit) — Third Eye Blind
“Down” — 311
“Steal My Sunshine” (Single Version) — Len
“Two Princes” — Spin Doctors
“What I Got” — Sublime

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Queen‘s 1981 Greatest Hits compilation has long been the best-selling album in U.K. history, and now, the collection has reached a new milestone in the band’s home country.

According to the Official Charts Company, Greatest Hits has become the first album ever to reach the seven-million mark in sales in the U.K. The record-breaking sales figure includes physical sales, downloads and streams.

The album has amassed a whopping 1.26 billion total streams in the U.K. with “Bohemian Rhapsody” being the most-streamed track, notching over 240 million. Greatest Hits also has spent more than 1,000 weeks on the Official Albums Chart, making Queen the first British artists ever to achieve this feat.

In celebration of the sales milestone, Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor recorded a video thanking fans.

“We’re here to bring you the joyous news that Queen’s Greatest Hits album has sold 7 million copies, which nobody has ever done before,” says May in the clip that’s been posted on OfficialCharts.com. “No album has done this before in history. Thank you, we appreciate it.”

Adds Taylor, “The British public in their infinitely great taste have made this the biggest-selling album in history. Thank you very much; we’re humbled and honored. We salute you!”

In other Queen news, today is May’s 75th birthday. He has continued to lead the band alongside Taylor since the 1991 death of frontman Freddie Mercury and is responsible for many of the group’s major hits. May wrote six songs on Greatest Hits, including “Fat Bottomed Girls,” “Save Me,” “Now I’m Here,” “Flash” and “We Will Rock You.”

Queen and singer Adam Lambert currently are on tour in Europe. The band’s next show takes place Wednesday, July 20 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

It feels like Elton John‘s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour has been going on forever, and it kind of has: It started back in 2018 and right now, it’s set to conclude in July 2023. Then, Elton swears, it’ll be over for good.

“I can tell you now that this is it,” he tells the British publication MusicWeek. “I will not be devoid of music, but as far as schlepping around the world doing shows, I don’t want to do it anymore. I’ve done it since I was 17.”

While Elton wants to wind things down touring-wise, his music career has had a big resurgence over the past few years. His set list includes both his first number-one hit — 1970’s “Your Song” — and his most recent number-one hit, which came last year with the Dua Lipa duet “Cold Heart.”

“I’m a 75-year-old heritage musician with a great catalog of songs and a great track record, but that doesn’t mean to say you stay relevant,” Elton points out. He thanks his management — which includes his husband David Furnish — for keeping him that way, and of course, Dua helped, too.

“She’s got everything there is to have as a female artist,” Elton says. “She’s bright, modest and not carried away by her own success.”

In fact, Elton feels young female artists like Dua and the bands HAIM and Wet Leg are “making the best music” these days. “It comes from innocence and pure joy and that, for me, is what music is about,” he says of those acts.

As for young male artists, Elton says he just got a listen to Lewis Capaldi’s eagerly anticipated sophomore album. While he reveals that Lewis has “apprehensions” about it, in his opinion, he says, “it’s a no-brainer.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The new documentary The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s “American Pie” gets its television premiere today on the Paramount+ streaming service.

The film, which focuses on Don McLean‘s enduring 1971 anthem “American Pie” and its legacy, features new interviews with the singer/songwriter, as well as with country star Garth Brooks, Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson, actor Peter Gallagher, “Weird Al” Yankovic, and others.

The film also tells the story of the 1959 plane crash that killed rock ‘n’ roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper — the incident that serves as a launching point for the tune — and features McLean, for the first time ever, sharing details about the tune’s creation and the meaning behind its lyrics.

McLean had previously been reluctant to discuss the song’s enigmatic lyrics, but he tells ABC Audio that he recently had a change of heart, noting, “I’m at the last portion of my life, and I feel if people want to know, I’ll tell them everything I can tell them.”

Don recalls that as he was shooting his last interview for the film, “I said, ‘You know what? We’re missing the most important thing. I’ve got to talk about the lyrics of this song and how I did this, and what I was thinking.'”

Among the revelations McLean offers up are whether some of the enigmatic characters he mentions in “American Pie” actually were intended to represent such legendary music figures as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, The Beatles and The Byrds.

The documentary also includes segments about the recording of “American Pie,” and about McLean’s performance this year at the Surf Ballroom — the Iowa venue where Holly, Valens and The Big Bopper played the night they were killed — on the 63rd anniversary of the tragedy.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Peter Frampton and Toto‘s Steve Lukather are among the talented guitarists who will participate in a new edition of Joe Satriani‘s G4 Experience guitar camp and concert series, taking place January 3-7, 2023, at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa in Henderson, Nevada.

Other musicians who will be jamming and sharing their musical expertise at the four-day event include Deep Purple‘s Steve Morse, Testament‘s Alex Skolnick, longtime Rob Zombie guitarist John 5, Five Finger Death Punch‘s Andy James and blues rocker Eric Gales.

The G4 Experience, which is returning for the first time since 2019, offers guitar workshops, jam sessions, nightly concerts, meet-and-greets, photo opportunities, autograph-signing sessions, recreational activities and more.

The nightly concerts will feature Satriani performing with his longtime backing band — drummer Kenny Aronoff, bassist Bryan Beller and keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte. It also will include appearances by special guests and faculty members.

In a message about the event, Satriani says about the diverse list of guest instructors, “We bring together this eclectic mix to show all the different sides of playing guitar. They’re all brilliant musicians with styles that are all over the map.”

He adds, “They all have such different jobs, they’ve made millions of people happy with their playing, and yet they do it so differently. Every one of these players comes with fantastic new insights and innovations on playing guitar.”

Visit G4Experience.com for more information and to reserve your place at the camp. Those who register now will receive a 10% discount.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Police drummer Stewart Copeland has collaborated on a new rock opera with The Pretenders‘ Chrissie Hynde and others called The Witches Seed that will get its world premiere on July 22 at the Tones Teatro Natura venue near Oira, Italy.

Copeland composed the music for the production, which was inspired by the history of the witch hunts in Europe during the bloodiest years of the Inquisition.

The Witches Seed includes some songs written by Hynde and features a libretto by award-winning British playwright Jonathan Moore, who has worked with Copeland on several previous opera projects.

The production features innovative video sets created by Edvige Faini, an acclaimed concept artist who has a long history working with Hollywood production studios, as well as with noteworthy video game producers.

The opera tells the tale of three women who are falsely accused of being witches during a time when the plague and other crises were causing great upheaval across Europe.

Irene Grandi, an Italian singer/songwriter who has scored many chart hits in her home country, has a starring role in the production.

The premiere of The Witches Seed is part of the 2022 Tones on the Stones Festival.

Meanwhile, Copeland has several of his “Police Deranged for Orchestra” concerts lined up for this year in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. The shows feature performances of reimagined orchestral versions of songs by his old band. Visit StewartCopeland.net for his full schedule.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

A new photo exhibition focusing on pictures of The Rolling Stones taken by rock photographer Norman Seeff in 1972 to promote the band’s album Exile on Main St. will open at Modern Rocks Gallery in East Austin, Texas, on August 19.

The exhibit, titled “Norman Seeff: Fifty Years in Exile,” will feature rare, unseen and vintage photos of The Stones that Seeff took during a late night session in ’72, some of which were used for a set of postcards that were included with the original Exile on Main St. packaging.

In addition, the exhibit will include a collection of prints of other noteworthy photos taken by Seeff, who also created a number of new prints especially for the show.

“I’ve always wanted to use my photography as source material for creating art pieces,” says Seeff. “The photos serve as a jumping off point. I decided to use the exhibition as an opportunity to experiment. People have been very pleased with the results I think.”

Adds Modern Rocks Gallery owner Steven Walker, “We’re absolutely thrilled to be hosting ‘Fifty Years in Exile.’ These original darkroom prints are testament to Norman Seeff’s greatness as both a photographer and an artist.”

An opening reception will take place August 19 starting at 7 p.m. local time. The event will feature a special Rolling Stones-themed cocktail called “Soul Survivor,” while Tumblin’ Dice bourbon also will be poured.

The exhibit will run until September 20.

Exile on Main St. was released in May 1972. The double album spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 and yielded two hit singles, “Tumbling Dice” and the Keith Richards-sung “Happy.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.