Classic Rock News

Rob Halford is celebrating 37 of years of sobriety, and he marked the occasion with an inspirational post to social media.

Noting that the key to his sobriety is to take things “one day at a time,” the Judas Priest frontman holds up a coin representing the amount of time he’s been sober and shares, “When I look at this commemorative coin, I’m full of love for my higher power and grateful to you because having you in my life helps me maintain my focus making the best I can in all areas of metal as well as trying to be a better person by taking a daily inventory.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer adds, “I believe we never stop growing and searching to find ways to do anything that improves not only our lives, but also for all those we love. None of this is easy and it wasn’t meant to be. We constantly have to work and dig deep into every aspect of ourselves to stay clean and sober.” 

Halford then offers some supportive words for “those of you on this same journey,” sending them his “unconditional love.” He adds, “And to those of you who are about to begin, please take that first step into your new life. I love you.”

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It seems Neal Schon has problems not just with his Journey bandmate Jonathan Cain, but with Cain’s wife, Paula White-Cain, as well.

The New York Post reports Schon sent White-Cain, a former spiritual adviser to Donald Trump, a cease-and-desist letter last month accusing her of accessing the band’s bank accounts without Schon knowing or giving his permission. The letter demanded she take herself off the accounts by December 27, although there’s no word on whether she actually did. He also demanded she stop “inserting” herself into the band’s business. 

But White-Cain’s lawyer Alan Gutman calls Schon’s claims “nonsensical” and “entirely pretextual,” noting that Schon and Cain each own 50% of the band through a personal trust, and White-Cain is a co-trustee of her husband’s trust, so she is allowed to have access to it. Plus the lawyer adds Schon was fine with the arrangement for two years, and while Cain offered up a suggestion to resolve the issue, Schon “refuses to cooperate in any resolution.”

As previously reported, Schon and Cain have been in the news a lot lately because of their legal battles. The most recent incident had Schon sending a cease-and-desist letter to Cain over a performance of “Don’t Stop Believin’” at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Schon also had an issue with Cain opening up an Amex credit card through the band’s company and not giving him access to it.

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Peter Gabriel is out with new music. The artist just released the new single “Panopticom” from his upcoming album i/o, which is his first album of new songs in 20 years. 

“The first song is based on an idea I have been working on to initiate the creation of an infinitely expandable accessible data globe: The Panopticom,” Gabriel shares. “We are beginning to connect a like-minded group of people who might be able to bring this to life, to allow the world to see itself better and understand more of what’s really going on.”

The new song, featuring electronics from Brian Eno, was released in connection with Friday’s full moon, and Gabriel plans to release new songs with each full moon this year.

“Some of what I’m writing about this time is the idea that we seem incredibly capable of destroying the planet that gave us birth and that unless we find ways to reconnect ourselves to nature and to the natural world we are going to lose a lot,” Gabriel says. “A simple way of thinking about where we fit in to all of this is looking up at the sky … and the moon has always drawn me to it.”

And each new song will be accompanied by its own unique piece of art, with “Panopticom” featuring the piece “Red Gravity” by David Spriggs.

i/o is expected to come out this year, but so far it doesn’t have an exact release date.

And that’s not all. Gabriel also announced dates for i/o – The Tour, starting off in Europe on May 18 in Krakow, Poland, and running through June 25 in Dublin, Ireland. North American dates are expected to be announced soon.

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Yes, your suspicious are correct: Iggy Pop is, indeed, very cool.

Don’t take our word for it, just ask Andrew Watt, who produced the Godfather of Punk’s new album, Every Loser.

“He’s so cool and laid back,” Watt tells ABC Audio of Iggy.

In working with the “Lust for Life” rocker, Watt would send music ideas to Pop, who would then return with feedback.

“It was just, like, ‘OK, I’m just gonna make music and I’ll send you stuff, and the stuff you like that inspires songs, great!'” Watt explains. “‘And if you don’t like it, tell me if you don’t like it and point me in a direction. But I’m just gonna kinda go.'”

All in all, producing Every Loser was a “quite painless” process.

“If [Pop] felt he needed something to go longer or shorter, he’d tell us,” Watt says. “He wrote the toplines 100 percent himself.”

Every Loser is out now. It includes contributions from Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns N’ Roses‘ Duff McKagan, Blink-182‘s Travis Barker, Dave Navarro and Eric Avery of Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam‘s Stone Gossard, ex-RHCP guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

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A new book of writings by the late Lou Reed is due out later this year, but it won’t be giving insight into his music. Instead, it will focus on one of his other interests — tai chi.

Reed began practicing the Chinese meditative movements in the ’80s. The new book The Art of the Straight Line: My Tai Chi, being published by HarperOne, is described as “a comprehensive collection of Reed’s writings on Tai Chi.”

Edited by his wife, musician Laurie Anderson, along with Stephan Berwick, Bob Currie and Scott Richman, the book includes conversations Reed had with a variety of people, including Iggy Pop, the late music producer Hal Willner, artist Julian Schnabel and some tai chi practitioners.

The unpublished writings in the book cover such subjects as the “technique, practice and purpose of martial arts,” and has Reed sharing his thoughts and observations on meditation and life. 

The Art of the Straight Line: My Tai Chi is due out March 14.

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As previously reported, Ian Gillan’s wife, Bron, passed away in November at the age of 67, and now the Deep Purple rocker has shared a tribute to her on his personal website.

“My darling wife, Bron, died of heart failure on Saturday 19 November, 2022, in Exeter Hospital,” he writes. “It’s taken some weeks until I could find the words to dignify her publicly. Publicly, because our life together, (forty. wonderful, happy years), was mainly private.” 

He adds, “But, I don’t think she’d mind if I said out loud that ‘I love you my sweet B, we are forever entwined. The wrench of bereavement is softened by your continued presence. Thank you for your love and guidance. See you later.’” 

Gillan also shares that Bron was “was funny, beautiful, intelligent and strongly supportive to me and our daughter Grace, in our work,” adding, she “made a wonderful happy place for me and Grace, to come home to.”

As for the upcoming year, Gillan offers, “I’m getting my head together for the year of work ahead, for which I’m grateful (it helps) and excited. We are getting around a bit in this coming year, so I hope to see as many as possible of your smiling faces on the road, or in a bar somewhere.”

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Netflix’s latest Knives Out film, Glass Onion, is sparking some renewed interest in The Beatles classic of the same name. Billboard reports that the White Album track, which plays over the credits of the hit flick Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, has seen a streaming bump since the film debuted on the streamer December 23. 

During the week of December 23 to 29, The Beatles’ “Glass Onion” was streamed 160,000 times, up from 60,000 the previous week, an increase of 167%. 

And that’s not the only song to get some help from the movie. David Bowie’s “Star,” which plays during a Kate Hudson dance sequence, saw a 60% increase, while the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” which is also in the flick, saw a 37% streaming increase.

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Robert Plant admits it wasn’t easy to go on with his career after the end of Led Zeppelin, but credits his friends, including Phil Collins, with helping him move on. 

“After [Led Zeppelin drummer] John [Bonham] passed away and there was no Led Zeppelin, there had to be a way to go,” Plant shares in a new interview with Vulture. “I floundered around a lot because until I was 32, I was in some kind of wild and absurd adventure.” 

Plant says Led Zeppelin was “a lot to live up to.” As he struggled with his first solo album, 1982’s Pictures at Eleven, there were a lot of friends who gave him “support and strength,” including Collins, who appeared on five of the album’s tracks. 

“Phil Collins especially was a driving force and had positive energy with the first record,” he says. “With Phil, it wasn’t so much advice as encouragement and consideration. He was taking no prisoners. He would only allow himself a short amount of time to come to the studio in Wales and make it work. Nobody was hiding behind the performance.”

Collins actually went on tour with Plant, telling the rocker he wanted to help because of his admiration for Bonham, who was his hero. Plant notes, “That was it. He said, ‘Anything I can do to help you to get back into fighting shape again, I’m here.’”

As this was all happening, Collins was dealing with his own successful solo career, with the 1981 single “In The Air Tonight.” Plant notes, “Yet he was still mixing and working with me while kicking off a particularly impressive and successful time. He’s a great spirit, a good man.”

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Neal Schon appears to be asserting his dominance when it comes to his band Journey. Despite his ongoing legal battles with bandmate Jonathan Cain, the guitarist insists in a recent tweet that he “won’t take orders” about the band from anyone.

“No one is going to dictate to me at this point what I can and cannot do in regards to JOURNEY,” Schon tweeted. “I haven’t been here and not here to take orders- never have and never will. It’s my band and I’ll own it as I should and make the right changes as needed.”

The post prompted one fan to ask him who was trying to “dictate” to him, with Schon responding, “Have a guess,” an indication he was talking about Cain. He also posted an image that read “narcissists act out with frustration, sulking, resentment and rage when things don’t go their way.”

As previously reported, Schon and Cain have been in the news a lot lately because of their legal battles. The most recent incident had Schon sending a cease-and-desist letter to Cain over a performance of “Don’t Stop Believin’” at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

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Rolling Stone’s list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time has caused a lot of controversy since its release this week, and Gene Simmons has something to say about it.

A TMZ reporter asked the KISS frontman how he felt about being left off the list, to which he replied, “Well, that’s OK,” joking, “I was thinking of buying Rolling Stone.”

“Well, it’s skewed. You have to consider who’s popular and who’s not,” Simmons elaborated. “But if you really think about it, how good somebody sings may be part and parcel of what they do. For instance, if Jimi Hendrix, who had a long, well, actually, a short career, but he was very famous, would he make it on American Idol? How about Bob Dylan … And I wrote songs with Bob Dylan; I know the guy. Would he make it on American Idol?”

He also added, “How well you sing is not the most important thing. It’s, do you have style? Do you have a fingerprint that says, ‘I know that voice immediately’?”

Simmons insists artists shouldn’t really care about the list. “If you’ve got success, that’s enough,” he says. “Accolades and all that, you get that when you do a concert or when fans come up. That’s the best thing. To be on a poll by a magazine by people in the backroom, I don’t know how much that means.” 

And Simmons also shared his thoughts on Ozzy Osbourne making the list at #112: “That’s a crime.”

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