Classic Rock News

Stevie Nicks and Green Day are set to headline the 2022 Sea.Hear.Now festival, taking place September 17-18 is Asbury Park, New Jersey. The Fleetwood Mac singer will top the bill on the event’s first day, while the veteran pop-punk group will close out the fest on the 18th.

The bill also includes Gary Clark Jr., Cage the Elephant, My Morning Jacket, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Skip Marley and Courtney Barnett, among others.

In addition to the music, Sea.Hear.Now festival-goers can also enjoy two-day surfing contest.

Tickets go on sale this Wednesday, March 9, at 10 a.m. ET. For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit SeaHearNowFestival.com.

Nicks is confirmed to perform at four other U.S. festivals this year — on May 7 at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; on June 19 at Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee; in early September at the JAS Aspen Snowmass event in Snowmass, Colorado; and at the Sound on Sound festival, which is scheduled for September 24 and 25 in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Green Day, meanwhile, has three other U.S. festival appearances lined up this year — on March 19 at the Innings Festival in Tampa, Florida; April 29 at the Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta; and September 24 at the Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware.

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Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Last November, KISS announced its new “Drink It Up by KISS” line of liquors. Now the latest addition to the alcohol brand, KISS Cold Gin, has been launched in the U.S. and can be ordered online.

Named after the band’s Ace Frehley-penned 1974 tune “Cold Gin,” the liquor features a five-time distilled base that includes juniper, lemon peel and various fine spices, and is made without the use of artificial flavors or added sweeteners, says the band.

“Now it REALLY is ‘Cold Gin time,'” KISS frontman Paul Stanley says in a statement. “If gin is your thing, then this is the one to bring. Like the song, this one’s a classic!”

To celebrate the arrival of KISS Cold Gin, a new promotion has been launched offering fans who by a four-bottle bundle four free exclusive guitar picks with each boasting a design inspired by the makeup of the band’s four members — The Starchild, The Demon, The Catman and The Spaceman. Those who purchase one bottle of the gin will receive one guitar pick randomly chosen.

KISS Cold Gin is the fourth liquor from the Drink It Up brand to be released in the U.S., following last year’s launch of the of KISS Rum Kollection, which includes KISS Black Diamond Premium Dark Rum, KISS Detroit Rock Premium Dark Rum and the limited-edition Monstrum Ultra Premium Dark Rum.

As previously reported, to produce the Drink It Up line, KISS partnered with the Epic Rights licensing company and the award-winning Swedish spirits producer Brands for Fans.

Visit DrinkItUpbyKISS.com to order bottles of the liquor and for more information.

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A new lyric video for “999,” the lead track off Keith Richards‘ 1992 sophomore solo effort Main Offender, has premiered at the Rolling Stones guitarist’s official YouTube channel in advance of the March 18 release of the album’s 30th anniversary reissue.

The clip features archival footage of Richards performing with his solo backing band The X-Pensive Winos, with whom he recorded Main Offender. Keith co-wrote the song with two key Winos members — drummer Steve Jordan and guitarist Waddy Wachtel.

Richards also has posted a recent video clip of him playing a segment of “999” solo on an acoustic guitar at his social media pages.

As previously reported, the Main Offender reissue will be available in multiple formats and configurations, including a limited-edition super-deluxe box set featuring remastered CD and vinyl versions of the album, as well as a bonus live album on CD and two LPs.

The live album featured in the box set, titled Winos Live in London ’92, features Keith and his band playing select songs from Main Offender and Richards’ 1988 solo debut album, Talk Is Cheap, as well as renditions of The Stones’ “Gimme Shelter,” “Before They Make Me Run” and “Happy.”

The super deluxe collection also features an LP version Main Offender pressed on smoke-colored vinyl; an 88-page, leather-bound book offering rare photos and Keith’s handwritten lyrics; and collectibles including a guitar pick, a bumper sticker and posters.

You can pre-order the reissue now.

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1980s prog-rock supergroup Asia released its self-titled debut album 40 years ago today.

While all four band members had plenty of success with their respective previous groups — drummer Carl Palmer with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, guitarist Steve Howe with Yes, singer/bassist John Wetton with King Crimson and U.K., and keyboardist Geoff Downes with The Buggles and Yes — the Asia album was the first #1 album in the U.S. for any of them.

Asia spent nine weeks atop the Billboard 200, and yielded two hit singles — “Heat of the Moment” and “Only Time Will Tell,” which peaked at #4 and #17, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100. Asia wound up being the best-selling album in the States in 1982.

Palmer tells ABC Audio that he wasn’t surprised that the band members had immediate chemistry, since he, Howe and Wetton already were quite familiar with each other.

“The DNA between Steve and myself [and] John, all very close, you know,” Carl explains. “So from my point of view, it was a natural group…And obviously, Geoffrey, when he came in, having that success with The Buggles and [Yes]…all of that was great…And it worked immediately.”

Palmer says Asia’s success is all the more impressive because prog-rock wasn’t popular on radio during the early ’80s. Carl notes that the band realized that it needed to incorporate more mainstream-rock elements into its music if it wanted to get radio airplay, and it also successfully utilized music videos to promote the group as MTV was such a popular media outlet then.

Palmer says Asia was one of the few albums he recorded that he actually played “back to back several times at home,” noting, that “the melodies [of the hits] were so strong.”

Here’s Asia‘s full track list:

“Heat of the Moment”
“Only Time Will Tell”
“Sole Survivor”
“One Step Closer”
“Time Again”
“Wildest Dreams”
“Without You”
“Cutting It Fine”
“Here Comes the Feeling”

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In the past couple of years, Billy Joel‘s charity foundation has pivoted from funding music education programs to helping with pandemic-related causes, such as providing PPE for healthcare workers and helping with food insecurity.  Now, the Billy Joel Foundation is providing aid to the people of Ukraine.

Billy’s foundation is donating $250,000 to BStrong, a charity started by Bethenny Frankel that has been providing “direct and immediate aid to refugees at the Ukrainian/Polish border.”  The money will go to, among other things, survival supply kits, transportation, short and long-term shelter and food relief as the Russian military continues their invasion of the Eastern European nation.

In a statement, the Foundation notes it continues to monitor the situation to determine what will be needed in the coming weeks, and asks those who want to help to donate at Bethenny.com/BStrong.

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Foo Fighters‘ new movie Studio 666 is full of blood and gore, but if you really want to shock Dave Grohl, just mention that The Colour and the Shape is turning 25 this year.

Originally released in May 1997, the sophomore Foo Fighters album spawned the future classic “Everlong,” as well as the singles “My Hero” and “Monkey Wrench.”

In response to ABC Audio asking him about the record’s upcoming milestone, Grohl says, “Our reaction is it’s exactly what just happened: [guitarist] Pat [Smear] goes, ‘Wow!’ and we look at each other, like, ‘Oh my god!'”

He laughs, “I don’t even think we realized it.”

In 2020, the Foos had mapped out a giant celebration to mark the 25th anniversary of their 1995 self-titled debut. Then, of course, came the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced Grohl and company to stay home during their big year.

While Grohl says that he doesn’t currently have any plans to mark The Colour and the Shape‘s silver anniversary, he’s open to the idea of 2022 making up for what they missed out on in 2020.

“We lost our last 25-year [anniversary], so let’s take this one,” Smear says.

“I know, I think 2020 was supposed to be our big 25, our big 25th anniversary,” Grohl adds. “So yeah, let’s take this one.”

While the Foos ponder that idea, you can catch the band on the silver screen in Studio 666, which is in theaters now.

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Alice in Chains has announced that it will tour the U.S. later this year with Bush and Breaking Benjamin.

The summer and fall outing will kick off August 10 in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, and will come to a close October 8 in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, March 11, at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit AliceinChains.com.

Alice in Chains released their latest album, Rainier Fog, in 2018. Bush dropped their newest album, The Kingdom, in 2020. Breaking Benjamin’s most recent release is their acoustic compilation, Aurora, which also arrived in 2020.

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Deep Purple has canceled their upcoming concerts in Ukraine and Russia, which had been scheduled to take place on May 31 in Kyiv and June 4 in Moscow, respectively, in the wake of Russia’s military invasion of its neighboring country.

Coinciding with the cancellations, all five current members of Deep Purple have posted messages on the band’s official website and social media pages regarding the harrowing situation, prefaced by a note that reads, “As a rule, Deep Purple is apolitical, but on this occasion…”

The messages also are accompanied by the lyrics to the group’s Cold War-inspired 1970 song “Child in Time.”

Frontman Ian Gillan writes, “If speaking out means we shall never see our Russian friends again, then that is a big sacrifice, but nothing compared with never again seeing our Ukrainian friends who are being killed to satisfy the psychopathic ambitions of the Russian leader. I would like to see Russians on the streets in their millions, to show their disgust at the Ukrainian invasion, and I’d like to dream that very quickly, Russia can find some modern leadership that will bring them back into the world as friends. We have so much in common.”

Bassist Roger Glover writes, in part, “We condemn [Russian President Vladimir] Putin‘s military for the atrocities to innocent men, women and children in Ukraine[,] and we apologize to our Russian and Ukrainian fans that the shows have been cancelled. We live in hope that we can fulfill those dates in the future.”

Drummer Ian Paice‘s message reads, partly, “What’s happening is beyond distressing. It’s criminal and should be treated as such. The invasion of Putin’s army into Ukraine, (because that’s what it is), I hope will turn out to bring his ultimate downfall.”

Check out all the messages at Deep-Purple.com.

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ZZ Top has will release a new album called Raw on July 22 that was recorded in conjunction with the famed blues-rock trio’s 2019 documentary, That Little Ol’ Band from Texas.

That film included a segment where ZZ Top’s classic lineup — singer/guitarist Billy Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard — played an intimate set of songs from their back catalog at historic Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas, and that “raw” performance served as the basis for the album.

The 12-track collection boasts versions of such classic ZZ Top hits as “Legs,” “Tush,” “La Grange” and “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” and other gems like “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide” and “Tube Snake Boogie,” as well as renditions of “Brown Sugar” and “Certified Blues,” two tunes from the band’s 1971 debut, ZZ Top’s First Album.

Raw, which was produced by Gibbons, is dedicated “in righteous memory” of Hill, who died in July 2021 at age 72. The record will be available as a 180-gram vinyl LP, on CD and via digital formats.

In liner notes for Raw, Gibbons and Beard write jointly about the album, “[I]t was, in a very real way, a return to our roots. Just us and the music, no audience of thousands, no concession stands, no parking lot social hour, no phalanx of tour buses. Just us and the music.”

They add, “‘The Dust’ may have left the building but he’s still very much with us.”

In other news, ZZ Top will launch a new U.S. trek on May 27 in San Diego.  Dubbed the Raw Whisky Tour, the outing is mapped out through a July 23 concert in Watertown, New York. Tickets for most dates go on sale on March 11.

Here’s full Raw track list:

Side 1
“Brown Sugar”
“Just Got Paid”
“Heard It on the X”
“La Grange”
“Tush”
“Thunderbird”

Side 2
“I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide”
“Gimme All Your Lovin'”
“Blue Jean Blues”
“Certified Blues”
“Tube Snake Boogie”

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