Classic Rock News

The cannabis brand Dad Grass has launched a new line of George Harrison-themed products celebrating the late Beatles guitarist’s classic 1970 solo album, All Things Must Pass, and approved by Harrison’s estate.

The All Things Must Grass collection in includes pre-rolled joints featuring organic CBD and CBG hemp flower, as well as paraphernalia and merch items. The products can be purchased online now, and will be available at select U.S. stores this month.

Among the products available is a pack of joints made to look like an All Things Must Pass cassette case, featuring the classic cover image of Harrison on the lawn of his Friar Park estate surrounded by garden gnomes. The collection also includes rolling papers, a rolling tray, silk-screened posters, buttons, pins, and stickers.

To promote the All Things Must Grass collection, a teaser video has premiered online set to George’s song “Let It Roll.” The clip brings the All Things Must Pass cover to life, with an animated Harrison frolicking with his garden gnomes, and the gnomes sampling the Dad Grass products.

Dad Grass CEO and co-founder Ben Starmer says, “For this project, we set out to create a mellower kind of joint, something that blended together the type of high quality, low potency, and all-natural flower that was around when George was ‘having a laugh’ back in the early ’70s. Just a classic smoke for a classic bloke.”

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Alice in Chains‘ Jerry Cantrell has canceled two upcoming shows on his ongoing solo tour due to “some positive COVID-19 cases” amid members of his touring party.

The affected dates include a stops in Orlando and St. Petersburg, Florida, originally scheduled for April 12 and 13. Those who bought tickets will be refunded at point of purchase.

“We apologize for any inconvenience and hope to return to these cities as soon as possible,” Cantrell says.

Cantrell has been on tour in support of his new solo album, Brighten, which was released last October. The outing is expected to resume Friday, April 15, in Atlanta.

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Alice Cooper has announced dates for a new fall leg of his 2022 U.S. headlining tour.

The new dates of the shock rocker’s Detroit Muscle tour kick off with a September 7 concert in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and will wrap up October 8 in Las Vegas. Tickets go on sale to the general public this Friday, April 15, at 10 a.m. local time.

For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit AliceCooper.com.

Cooper will be touring in continued support of his new album Detroit Stories, which was released February 2021.

If you can’t wait until the fall, you can catch Cooper on his spring tour leg, which comes to a close April 24 in Los Angeles. Buckcherry and Ace Frehley open on select dates.

Cooper is also hosting his CoopStock 2 — Grooves and Divots charity event on April 30 in Mesa, Arizona. The fundraiser, which will support Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Centers dance, music and art education program, will feature Judas Priest‘s Rob Halford, R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills and Creed‘s Scott Stapp, among others.

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How’s this for a grunge supergroup?

Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil and Pearl Jam/Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron have released a new album together as the new band 3rd Secret. The group’s self-titled debut record is out now via select digital outlets, including Spotify.

Cameron previously hinted at the existence of 3rd Secret in an Instagram post late last year featuring a photo of Novoselic at the Avast! Recording Studio in Seattle. “Tracking with Krist,” the caption read.

Along with the grunge trio, 3rd Secret includes Bubba Dupree of the hardcore band Void, and vocalists Jillian Raye and Jennifer Johnson. Raye also played with Novoselic in the band Giants in the Trees.

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Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of John Mellencamp‘s breakthrough fifth studio album, 1982’s American Fool, which was the last collection of original tunes that the Indiana-born singer/songwriter issued under the moniker John Cougar.

American Fool is Mellencamp’s only album to date to top the Billboard 200 chart, spending nine weeks at #1, spanning from September to November. It features two of his most-enduring hits, “Hurts So Good” and a little ditty called “Jack and Diane,” which peaked, respectively, at #2 and #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“Jack and Diane” became John’s biggest hit, and his only song ever to reach the top of the Hot 100, where it enjoyed a four-week run in October of ’82.

The track features guitar and background-vocal contributions from Mick Ronson, best known as the lead guitarist in David Bowie‘s famed 1970s backing band The Spiders from Mars.

The album also includes one other hit single, “Hand to Hold on To,” which peaked at #19 on the Hot 100. American Fool has been certified five-times Platinum by the RIAA for sales of 5 million copies in the U.S.

Meanwhile, in 1983, Mellencamp won his only Grammy for “Hurt So Good” in the Best Male Rock Vocal Performance category, while American Fool was nominated for the Best Rock Album that year.

Mellencamp teamed up producer Don Gehman to co-produce American Fool, which the first of a run of four consecutive multi-Platinum albums on which the duo collaborated. The others were 1983’s triple-Platinum Uh-Huh, 1985’s fives-times Platinum Scarecrow and 1987’s triple-Platinum The Lonesome Jubilee.

Here’s the full track list of American Fool:

“Hurts So Good”
“Jack & Diane”
“Hand To Hold On To”
“Danger List”
“Can You Take It”
“Thundering Hearts”
“China Girl”
“Close Enough”
“Weakest Moments”

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Eagles bassist Timothy B. Schmit has released a second advance track from his upcoming solo studio album Day by Day, a melodic, R&B-flavored love ballad called “Heartbeat.”

The song is available now via digital formats, while a lyric video has premiered on Schmit’s official YouTube channel. The tune finds the 74-year-old Schmit reflecting on the things that help make a long-term romantic relationship work.

As previously reported, Day by Day will be released on May 6. The 12-track collection features guest contributions from an impressive roster of artists, including Jackson Browne, Lindsey Buckingham, John Fogerty, longtime Tom Petty keyboardist Benmont Tench, Doobie Brothers multi-instrumentalist John McFee, blues-rocker Kenny Wayne Sheppard, and acclaimed session drummer Jim Keltner.

Preceding “Hearbeat,” Schmit released Day by Day‘s lead track, “Simple Man,” as a digital single, along with a companion music video. Buckingham contributed electric guitar to the song, which also features backing vocals from ex-Beach Boys touring members Chris Farmer and Matt Jardine, the latter the son of founding Beach Boys member Al Jardine.

You can pre-order CD and two-LP versions of Day by Day now at Timothy’s online store.

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Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and acclaimed country-bluegrass artist Alison Krauss have announced plans to mount a second 2022 U.S. tour leg in support their latest album, Raise the Roof, that will run from mid-August to early September.

The new series of shows features 13 dates and will visit cities in the western half of the U.S., running from an August 15 concert in San Diego through a September 4 performance in Austin, Texas.

Tickets for the newly added shows go on sale to the general public this Friday, April 15, at 10 a.m. local time, while pre-sale tickets will be available starting Tuesday, April 12, at 10 a.m. local time. Visit PlantKrauss.com/#tour for a full list of concerts.

Plant and Krauss’ “Raising the Roof” trek will begin with a 11-date stateside leg that will make stops at venues in the eastern half of the country, plotted out from a June 1 show in Canandaigua, New York, through a June 17 appearance at the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tennessee.

The U.S. tour legs will sandwich a series of European concerts that’s mapped out from a June 24 performance at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival through a July 20 date in Berlin.

The shows will feature Plant and Krauss, accompanied by a backing band, performing songs from Raise the Roof, as well as from the duo’s Grammy-winning 2007 collaboration, Raising Sand.

Released in November 2021, Raise the Roof peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart.

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The Who will return to late-night TV when they make an appearance this Friday, April 15, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which airs at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS.

The British rock legends will be performing in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Teen Cancer America charity, which Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend co-founded in 2012. The organization raises money to fund programs and create designated social and recreational areas in U.S. hospitals geared specifically toward adolescents and young adults with cancer.

In conjunction with the anniversary, Teen Cancer America has launched a campaign encouraging people to donate $10 to the cause to mark the milestone. Visit GiveButter.com/TCA10for10 if you’d like to contribute.

The Who’s Late Show appearance is scheduled to take place one week before the band kicks off its The Who Hits Back! 2022 North American tour with an April 22 concert in Hollywood, Florida. Check out the group’s full schedule at TheWho.com.

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The Black Crowes will release a six-track EP titled 1972 that finds the band celebrating the 50th anniversary of some of their favorite songs.

The EP, which you can pre-order now, will be available digitally exclusively via Amazon Music on May 4, and will get a wide release on CD and vinyl on May 6.

1972 includes covers of six tunes selected by the band in collaboration with Amazon Music. The songs, which were recorded this past January at Los Angeles’ historic Sunset Sound studio, are renditions of The Rolling Stones‘ “Rocks Off,” T. Rex‘s “The Slider,” Rod Stewart‘s “You Wear It Well,” Little Feat‘s “Easy to Slip,” David Bowie‘s “Moonage Daydream,” and The Temptations‘ “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.”

The “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” was released as an advance digital single today via Amazon Music.

“The year 1972 was a watershed moment, some of the greatest rock and roll songs ever made came out of that year,” Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson says. “To get our band back together in the studio, it had to be a celebration of rock and roll. This record is about love and devotion to something that makes us feel good. We hope that it makes fans around the world feel the same.”

The Black Crowes will celebrate the EP’s release with a special performance taking place May 4 at 10 p.m. ET at the famed LA-area club the Whiskey a Go-Go that will be livestreamed at Amazon Music’s channel on Twitch.

During the streaming event, physical copies of the 1972 EP and exclusive merchandise will be available for purchase.

Meanwhile, a behind-the-scenes video focusing on the 1972 sessions has been posted at The Black Crowes’ YouTube channel.

(Video includes uncensored profanity.)

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The guitar Kurt Cobain played in Nirvana‘s iconic “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video is going up for auction.

The instrument, a 1969 left-handed Fender Mustang with a Lake Placid Blue finish, will be sold at Julien’s Auctions’ Music Icons event, taking place May 20-22 at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City and online.

According to a press release, the “conservative starting estimate” for the guitar’s winning bid is between $600,000 and $800,000. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Kicking the Stigma mental health initiative.

You may recall in 2020 when Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E guitar, which he played during Nirvana’s famed MTV Unplugged special, sold for $6 million, the highest price ever paid for a guitar at auction.

In addition to the Mustang, several other Cobain-related items will go up for auction during the Music Icons sale, including various NFTs, as well as the late musician’s 1965 Dodge Dart, which is thought to be the only remaining car that he owned and drove. The car’s expected to fetch between $400,000 and $600,000.

For more info, visit JuliensAuctions.com.

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