Author: LRussell

It’s hard to think of a more quintessentially summertime subgenre than ’80s hard rock.

Colloquially known as glam metal (or, more derisively, the dreaded “hair metal”), these songs celebrate life’s simple-but-universal pleasures: soaking up the sun, throwing a blowout party and congregating around the nearest radio to blast your favorite tunes.

The ’80s are long gone, but these sentiments are eternal — and that’s why you need The 20 Best ’80s Hard Rock Summer Songs on your next playlist.

20. Motley Crue, “Kickstart My Heart”

The connection between getting a shot of adrenaline to the heart after a heroin overdose and pounding beers by the pool with your buddies is tenuous at best — still, nothing screams “summer” like the supersized gang vocals and thundering riffs of this Dr. Feelgood classic. You’re all but guaranteed to encounter it at any summertime sporting event or tailgate as well.

19. Cinderella, “Gypsy Road”

Despite the title of Cinderella’s sophomore album Long Cold Winter, the bluesy, jaunty “Gypsy Road” is a readymade summer anthem. “And who’s to care if I grow my hair to the sky?” Tom Keifer asks. Nobody! It’s the season of long hair and all-night drives, where you’re in charge of your own destiny. At least until morning comes and you have to clock back into work.

18. Van Halen, “Panama”

Legend has it that after being criticized for only writing songs about women, partying and fast cars, David Lee Roth had the revelation that he’d never actually written a song about a car. He promptly wrote “Panama” about a car of disputable origin, with plenty of lyrical innuendos about a woman who liked to party. Roth ambiguously described “Panama” as “the farthest south that you could possibly go and still have a really corrupt good time” — but this hard-charging anthem sounds like the halcyon days of summer no matter where you’re listening.

17. Kiss, “Crazy Crazy Nights”

Crazy Nights was the name of Kiss’ much-maligned, keyboard-heavy 1987 album. The title track was called “Crazy Crazy Nights.” In the chorus, Paul Stanley marvels, “These are crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy nights!” That’s four times the crazy for those keeping score at home. Despite the album’s failure on the whole, “Crazy Crazy Nights” cements its summertime banger status through sheer force of will and a Bon Jovi-style key change. Stanley sums it up best: “If life is a radio, turn up to 10.”

16. Whitesnake, “Here I Go Again”

Fast cars and beautiful women: long regarded as the bare necessities for a great summer. Thankfully, the music video for Whitesnake’s chart-topping power ballad has both — two cars, even, with Tawny Kitaen doing somersaults across both hoods! Best to leave the stunts to the pros and focus on cruising with the top down to the soothing sounds of David Coverdale.

15. Warrant, “Down Boys”

Warrant’s debut single is a thinly veiled reference to oral sex, but Jani Lane sings it with the youthful exuberance of a kid playing in the woods on a Saturday morning. Pining after a woman to the tune of catchy riffs and soaring choruses is not exclusively a summer activity, but it somehow feels more appropriate at that time of year.

14. Y&T, “Summertime Girls”

Y&T’s only Billboard Hot 100 entry peaked at No. 55, but it’s the kind of minor-league classic that lives on in the hearts and playlists of rock-loving bums in the sun. And for good reason: It’s frothy pop-rock fun with a silly, charmingly irreverent video to boot. When Dave Meniketti sings, “When you lift me up, I never come down,” one assumes he’s talking about practicing a cheer routine on the beach.

13. Def Leppard, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”

Def Leppard didn’t write the quintessential stripper anthem for you to not blast it at every cookout, beach bash and backyard rager from June through September. Summertime got you feeling hot and sticky sweet (from your head to your feet)? Then take a bottle and shake it up — and crank the tunes while you’re at it.

12. David Lee Roth, “Goin’ Crazy”

A word of caution: This summertime slammer from Diamond Dave may cause reckless behavior, such as quitting your job, telling your boss to go to hell, drunkenly stumbling off the pier and canoodling with the mayor’s daughter. (Apparently, “crazy from the heat” is not a legitimate defense in a court of law.) Listeners are encouraged to make a contingency plan before indulging.

11. Guns N’ Roses, “Paradise City”

The chorus to “Paradise City” — “Take me down to the Paradise City / where the grass is green and the girls are pretty” — is perhaps the most uncharacteristically optimistic sentiment on Guns N’ Roses’ meteoric debut album, Appetite for Destruction. The verses, meanwhile, tell a winding tale of a piss-broke street urchin fighting to make ends meet. It’s this duality that gives “Paradise City” such thematic heft, and it makes the chorus payoff that much sweeter. If GN’R could fight for their slice of paradise, then you, too, can fight for your rock ‘n’ roll summer.

10. Bon Jovi, “99 in the Shade”

The Bon Jovi multiverse gets another wrinkle on this New Jersey B-side, with Sahara Jack and Suntan Sally joining “Livin’ on a Prayer” protagonists Tommy and Gina for a little fun in the sun. Senoritas and margaritas abound as Jon Bon Jovi sings about hitting the sun and surf and blasting the radio in his old man’s Chevrolet. That sonuvabeach sure knows how to party.

9. Ratt, “Round and Round”

Where are we meeting? Out on the streets! What are we doing? Tightening our belts and … abusing ourselves? The motivations of Ratt’s breakthrough single are unclear, but as one of the definitive songs of the glam-metal era, it demands to be blasted at every summertime hang. Dig!

8. Skid Row, “Youth Gone Wild”

Rachel Bolan and Dave Sabo probably had more severe misdeeds in mind than sneaking a few beers or staying on the beach past curfew when they wrote “Youth Gone Wild.” Nevertheless, this bare-knuckle rebel anthem has come to epitomize personal freedom and the pursuit of a good time at all costs. Ironically, it now probably appeals to many of the three-piece Wall Street types that the band initially decried. Time comes for everyone.

7. Autograph, “Turn Up the Radio”

Autograph singer Steve Plunkett taps into a universal truth on Autograph’s signature song and lone Top 40 hit: “Daytime, nighttime, anytime, things go better with rock.” Amen, brother. “Turn Up the Radio” is an essential party-rock anthem for anybody who’s ever slogged through a miserable workweek in pursuit of a fun-in-the-sun weekend. Plunkett also reminds listeners what they’re entitled to: “For every minute I have to work, I need a minute of play.”

6. Aerosmith, “Permanent Vacation”

On the surface, the title track to Aerosmith’s career-reviving Permanent Vacation expresses the desire to hitch a ride to the tropics for a change of scenery. But underneath the steel drums and name-checking of exotic locales, the song bristles with unease. “My nose is clean and lordie don’t need no sedation,” Steven Tyler sings in reference to the band’s newfound sobriety. His struggle to keep the demons at bay while soaking up the sun is relatable. Mostly, though, it’s just infectious fun.

5. David Lee Roth, “Just Like Paradise”

The Top 10 lead single off Roth’s sophomore solo album Skyscraper sounds like a spiritual successor to “Goin’ Crazy,” with bouncy keyboards and soaring hooks the sonic equivalent of the stomach-churning climb the frontman completed for the album cover. “This must be just like livin’ in paradise,” Roth marvels before adding with just a twinge of anxiety, “And I don’t wanna go home.” Who among us hasn’t felt that way on vacation?

4. Quiet Riot, “Cum on Feel the Noize”

Metal Health producer Spencer Proffer knew a cover of Slade‘s “Cum on Feel the Noize” would be a smash hit in the right hands. “This was anthem participatory rock,” he recalled. “It invited people to participate: ‘Come on feel the noise, girls rock your boys.'” The song was so infectious that Quiet Riot couldn’t help but turn it into a party-metal anthem, even though they had planned to sabotage it in the studio. Decades later, the opening drum beat can still turn the most mundane hangout into a rager in seconds flat.

3. Def Leppard, “High ‘n’ Dry (Saturday Night)”

Summer nights (spoiler) are historically known as the best time to get raving drunk, but on the title track to their sophomore album, Def Leppard makes a convincing case for getting blotto during the day and riding the buzz into the wee small hours. The meaning of “dry” in this context presumably doesn’t mean alcohol-free.

2. Van Halen, “Summer Nights”

David Lee Roth purists will often argue that Van Halen’s first frontman was more effortlessly cool and fun than his successor, Sammy Hagar. The Red Rocker handily squashes that assertion on this 5150 highlight, one of the most indomitable tracks in Van Halen’s catalog. Hagar offers a short-but-definitive checklist for the perfect summer bash: uh, summer nights, and the radio! That’s it! Factor in Michael Anthony‘s contact high-inducing harmonies and one of Eddie Van Halen‘s wildest solos, and you’ve got a perennial summer playlist staple.

1. Poison, “Nothin’ but a Good Time”

Allow us to set the scene: You just wrapped a grueling shift bussing tables at the busiest restaurant in town, your boss barking in your ear about who-knows-what. You kick open the door, cue up your favorite song and get ready to savor your slice of freedom. This is essentially the “plot” of Poison’s “Nothin’ but a Good Time” video, but the pop-metal pretty boys sold this rock ‘n’ roll escapism so effectively that it’s impossible not to feel the same way when you hear the song. To paraphrase Bret Michaels: How can you resist?

When the Rolling Stones consider their set list, some tough decisions have to be made. Of their 400-plus songs, only a handful will make the cut.

As the Stones make their way across North America on their Hackney Diamonds Tour, they’ve been sticking to a pretty consistent set of 18-19 songs, though there have been a few curveballs and tour debuts thrown in. For one thing, there’s new material to be played from the band’s 2023 album Hackney Diamonds. There’s also the Stones’ regular strategy of allowing their audiences one fan-voted song.

READ MORE: How Have the Rolling Stones’ Set Lists Changed Over 60 Years?

The reality is that some beloved classics have taken a back seat on this tour. There’s still time for them — the 2024 tour doesn’t end until July 21 — but in the meantime, we’re taking a look at the top 10 songs the Rolling Stones have not played.

1. “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
From: Sticky Fingers (1971)

This list will start off strong with the seven plus minute “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” from 1971’s Sticky Fingers. The Stones had been including this song in their sets quite routinely through the 2000s, with its last appearance being on July 7, 2022 during their Sixty anniversary concert tour. But so far in 2024, we haven’t heard them knocking with this one.

2. “Street Fighting Man”
From: Beggars Banquet (1968)

“Street Fighting Man” may be the most surprising exclusion on this list considering it’s presently the Stones’ 13th most played song of their career (via setlist.fm) with over 600 performances since its release in 1968. The last time the band played it was in August of 2022 in Germany. “Street Fighting Man” was once shunned by U.S. radio stations for its dissident lyrics — ironic, then, that decades later it’s the Stones keeping the song from North American audiences.

3. “Before They Make Me Run”
From: Some Girls (1978)

To be fair, the 2024 tour already has a handful of moments — “Tell Me Straight” from Hackney Diamonds, “Little T&A” and “Happy” — for Keith Richards to sing lead. But one famously Richards-sung number that hasn’t been played is “Before They Make Me Run” from 1978’s Some Girls, which last appeared in a set list during the Stones’ 2021 No Filter Tour.

4. “Angie”
From: Goats Head Soup (1973)

One thing that’s important to consider when crafting a set list is the balance between high-energy numbers and slower ballads. But on this 2024 tour, the Stones appear to be prioritizing the former and not including very many of the latter. If they decide to change that, one popular option could be “Angie” — the Stones’ 21st most played song — which hasn’t been played since the 2022 tour.

5. “Ruby Tuesday”
From: Between the Buttons (1967)

Goodbye “Ruby Tuesday,” we haven’t heard you live since 2022. To make up for that, the Stones have played a few other songs from their earlier years, like “She’s a Rainbow,” “Out of Time” and, from the same album as “Ruby Tuesday, “Let’s Spend the Night Together.”

6. “Live With Me”
From: Let It Bleed (1969)

For a while in the 2000s, “Live With Me” from 1969’s Let It Bleed was a pretty regular inclusion on the Stones’ set list, making many appearances during their 2002-2003 Licks Tour and their 2005-2007 A Bigger Bang Tour. Then it started to fall away, and its most recent play was at the band’s 2016 Desert Trip concert.

7. “Rip This Joint”
From: Exile on Main St. (1972)

“Rip This Joint” is a bit of a longer shot in terms of potential for inclusion on the 2024 tour, mainly because it’s been over two decades since the Stones played it last in 2003. Also, it would have been a good choice for their New Orleans show with its lyric about the Dixie Queen, but so far, it’s stayed on the back burner.

8. “19th Nervous Breakdown”
From: 1966 Single

During the Stones’ 2021 No Filter Tour and their 2022 Sixty Tour, “19th Nervous Breakdown” was on practically every set list. And before that, it was played heavily during their 1997-98 Bridges to Babylon Tour. But it appears to have been dropped for this trek in favor of other songs…

9. “Waiting on a Friend”
From: Tattoo You (1981)

“Waiting on a Friend” from 1981’s Tattoo You presents a similar problem to the one “Angie” does: inserting a slower number into a set jam-packed with energy. This one has not been heard live since a 2014 concert in Berlin, Germany, so it’s been a full decade. For those Tattoo You lovers, the 2024 set does still include “Start Me Up” and “Little T&A.”

10. “Fool to Cry”
From: Black and Blue (1976)

Not to keep pushing the ballads, but “Fool to Cry” could make an excellent addition to the set list with its easy-to-sing-along-to chorus. This song was played exactly once on both the 2021 and 2022 tours, why not play it once in 2024?

Queen has reportedly agreed to sell their recording, publishing and other rights to Sony Music for a record-smashing $1.27 billion.

According to Hits, the deal also includes name and likeness rights, potentially opening the door to musicals, commercial and film placements, merchandising and other money-making opportunities. The band’s 2018 autobiographical film Bohemian Rhapsody earned over $900 million worldwide.

Disney and Universal Music Group will permanently retain the rights to distribute Queen’s records in North America, but the band’s share of the royalties will now go to Sony Music. For the rest of the world, those rights are expected to transfer from current owners UMG to Sony Music in either 2026 or 2027.

According to Variety, revenue from live performances is not included in the deal. Founding members Brian May and Roger Taylor continue to perform live with singer Adam Lambert. Bassist John Deacon retired shortly after the 1991 death of founding singer Freddie Mercury.

The $1.27 billion marks the largest music rights sale on record, surpassing Bruce Springsteen‘s previous $500 million deal in 2021, also to Sony Music, as well as a deal reached earlier this year in which Sony agreed to pay $600 million for half of Michael Jackson‘s publishing and recorded masters catalog.

Rumors of a potential deal for Queen began circulating in 2023 and continued for over a year. Universal Music was also reported to be interested in purchasing the catalog.

Other Rockstar Catalog Sales

Queen is the latest rock act to sell the rights to their catalog, joining a list of artists that include Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, Blondie, Chrissie Hynde, Journey, Nikki Sixx, Steve Winwood and a number of others.

READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Queen Album

“I can’t work, and streaming stole my record money,” the late David Crosby, who sold his catalog in 2021, explained on social media. “I have a family and a mortgage and I have to take care of them, so it’s my only option. I’m sure the others feel the same.”

The fourth video release from Ross Valory‘s debut solo album All of the Above is a fun cover of War‘s Top 10 1975 smash “Low Rider.” Check out the dazzling exclusive premiere below.

Journey‘s former co-founding bassist says this studio update happened quite organically. “As I had just completed the basic tracks in 2018 for the first cover tune, [Santana‘s] ‘Incident at Neshabur/Senior Blue,’ I said to the boys that there was one more cool cover tune that I had always wanted to do,” Valory said in an official statement. “They all said, ‘Let’s do it.’ So, we did!”

The title of the song is styled as “Lowrider” on All of the Above, which arrived in April. “Tomland” was the first single, followed by “Wild Kingdom” (another UCR exclusive premiere) and “Windmill.”

READ MORE: Ranking All 81 Steve Perry Journey Songs

Valory’s band includes drummer Gregg Errico (Sly and the Family Stone), keyboardist Eric Levy (Night Ranger), guitarist Vernon “Ice” Black (Herbie Hancock) and percussionist Karl Perazzo (Santana). Vocals were handled by Josh Ramos, who was part of the Storm in the ’90s with Valory and his former Journey bandmates Gregg Rolie and Steve Smith. Harmonica player Led Stroud and saxophonist Marc Russo add their own twist to lines originally created by War’s Lee Oskar and Charles Miller.

“On a complete impulse, I decided to record this song, just for the heck of it. I first arranged the session by inviting Greg Errico, who was the perfect drummer for the song. Les ‘Survivorman’ Stroud, who recorded the harp, just happened to be passing through town,” Valory said. “I brought in guitarist Josh Ramos, who has the perfect voice for this song, to cut the vocal tracks.”

Valory said Black “brought the perfect touch for such a tune. The overdubs were completed by veterans Marc Russo on saxes and Karl Perazzo on percussion. The whole recording experience was fast and easy, as a song like ‘Lowrider’ should be!”

Who Directed Ross Valory’s New Videos?

The video for “Lowrider” was directed by Michael Cotten, who also handled the three earlier clips from All of the Above. The goal was to feature the namesake hot rods while making a broader cultural connection.

“We could say that this visual treatment of the classic song is an homage to the great tradition of Mexican-American car culture,” Cotten said in an official statement. “We wanted to heighten the brilliant baroque sensibility that low-rider cars and bikes display. The ornate decoration of powerful machinery and elegant aesthetic of the painted surfaces are celebrated in all their candy-colored lacquered perfection as they ultimately dissolve into a flowing freeway of light.”

Valory says this new creative partnership with Cotten has added a different dimension to his long-awaited solo debut. His level of trust has grown with each collaboration.

“Michael Cotten has done exceptional work on the videos for every song on the album,” he said. “It may be obvious to all that he is greatly inspired by my music. Michael and I are naturally in sync. Michael hears what I see; he sees what I hear – and likewise! With the exception of a few strategic edits recommended on my part, Michael Cotten ran with the ball on this song from the beginning.”

You Think You Know Journey?

Jonathan Cain is defending Donald Trump after the former president was convicted on 34 felony counts. But even if Trump ends up running for reelection from a jail cell, the longtime Journey member says “it will make him a legend.”

Asked if he thought Trump was innocent of the charges, Cain told Kitty Chrisp from London’s Metro newspaper: “Put it this way, there might have been some misdemeanors. Crimes, as they’re calling it. But yes, I do.”

Years before his New York trial, Trump was the source of a very public falling out between Cain and Journey bandmate Neal Schon. Cain, who’s married to Trump’s spiritual advisor, visited Trump’s White House press room in the summer of 2017 with singer Arnel Pineda and now-former bassist Ross Valory – apparently without Schon’s knowledge.

READ MORE: Ranking All 52 Journey Songs From the ’80s

Schon immediately began expressing surprise and dismay. Subsequent news reports then misrepresented the trip as group-sanctioned, which Schon angrily reiterated was not the case. (NBC, for instance, reported that “Journey, the Band, Poses for Pictures in the White House Press Briefing Room.”)

Schon later confirmed that the group had met specifically to discuss the implications of such an official visit and that he’d argued against it – “many, many times.” In these discussions with management and counsel, “they both agreed that there should never be anything to do with religious beliefs or politics with Journey.”

‘He Can Run for President From Jail’

As the rhetoric heated up, Schon even seemed to be hinting at a breakup. The deteriorating situation led to a flurry of lawsuits, but they were dropped when Cain and Schon eventually mended fences.

Trump’s conviction was related to an alleged scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush-money arrangement with a porn actor who claimed they had sex. After serving between 2017-21, Trump is now seeking re-election as the Republican party’s presumptive nominee. He has not yet been sentenced.

“I think it was unfair what happened,” Cain told Metro. “It was a sad day for the United States but I think he’s a fighter. He has a chance. They can’t stop him legally. He can run for president from jail.”

See Neal Schon Among Rock’s Forgotten Supergroups

The world’s biggest record label, Universal Music Group, announced plans to offer its artists AI models of their own voices.

The corporation’s deal with digital startup firm SoundLabs will create software called MicDrop, designed to replicate an individual voice via machine learning techniques. The artist will retain full control of the model – it won’t be used in any way without permission, won’t be available to the public, and the voice owner will profit from its use.

MidDrop is the latest iteration of technology that’s been under development for years and has already begun impacting the music industry. Practical uses include being able to sing in foreign languages without having learned them; being able to create music after health issues prevent one’s vocal cords from working; and even allowing music to be made after one’s death.

READ MORE: Hear 25 AI ‘James Hetfield’ Covers: Toto, Wham!, Seal and More

In addition, the voice model can by used like the voices on a synthesizer, offering additional creative opportunities. While its use as an onstage tool remain to be revealed, it could theoretically be used by a singer like Jon Bon Jovi – who fears he may never tour again as a result of health issues – to stay on the road.

“MicDrop is the first in a suite of interoperable AI tools and services developed by SoundLabs for sound design and music generation,” UMG said in a statement. “It gives artists new ‘music super-powers’ and completely reimagines how music is made, enabling them to expand what is possible.

“SoundLabs’ goal is to place powerful new compositional tools at artists’ fingertips, while supporting proper management of their intellectual property. SoundLabs… is focused on helping artists retain creative control over their data and models.”

Future of Music is Human, Says AI Developer

“We believe the future of music creation is decidedly human,” said BT, musician and boss of SoundLabs – which uses the tagline “Transform your voice into any voice, instantly.” He continued: “Artificial intelligence, when used ethically and trained consensually, has the promethean ability to unlock unimaginable new creative insights, diminish friction in the creative process and democratize creativity… We are designing tools not to replace human artists, but to amplify human creativity.”

Chris Horton, SVP of UMG – which recently revealed its Principles for Music Creation With AI – added: “UMG strives to keep artists at the center of our AI strategy, so that technology is used in service of artistry, rather than the other way around.

“We are thrilled to be working with SoundLabs and BT, who has a deep and personal understanding of both the technical and ethical issues related to AI. SoundLabs will allow UMG artists to push creative boundaries using voice-to-voice AI to sing in languages they don’t speak, perform duets with their younger selves, restore imperfect vocal recordings, and more.”

Former Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes has no interest in reuniting with his old bandmates on account of what he felt to be disrespectful behavior at their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2016.

In a recent interview with Guitar Interactive, Hughes directed his attention toward Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and Ian Paice, the three longest-standing members of the band. Hughes and singer David Coverdale joined Deep Purple and replaced Gillan and Glover, respectively, from 1973 to 1976, though they were also included in the 2016 induction.

“I will never speak to any of them again, simply because they were rude,” Hughes said of Gillan, Glover and Paice. “Both Roger, Ian and Gillan were rude to David [Coverdale] and I. Very, very hurtful. I didn’t give a fuck, actually, because I knew they were rude to begin with.

“I was the only sober man there. I don’t care about those guys. Gillan was rude to me on stage, accepting the award. I went to congratulate him. He looked at me in the eyes like I didn’t exist. The guy has a problem with me, period. I’ll let him run with it. I feel bad for him. I’m really sorry about his wife [Gillan’s wife of 40 years died in 2022]. I’ve tried to reach out to him. He doesn’t want to know.”

Ian Gillan’s Perspective

Gillan has also spoken publicly about the 2016 induction specifically, emphasizing in a 2021 interview with Tales From the Road [via ultimateguitar.com] that “we were very kind to everybody,” and that “all of those [other comments] are just opportunistic remarks from the others.”

According to Hughes, the absence of connection between himself and Gillan is not for a lack of trying.

“I’ve tried to make some kind of friendship with him over the last 40 years,” he explained. “He doesn’t want to know. David Coverdale and I don’t exist to him. I wish him only the very best, but I have no time left for that behavior.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Deep Purple Songs

Like his high-school pal Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart is an acquired taste. This makes our list of Captain Beefheart Albums Ranked Worst to Best a tough one to navigate for traditional rock fans who may not be familiar with his influential work.

He started his career in the mid-’60s as the leader of the California-based blues-influenced group the Magic Band, which he’d keep throughout the years, though personnel changes were frequent.

Beefheart, who was born Don Van Vliet, released a couple of singles (produced by David Gates, before he formed the soft-rock group Bread) during this period – including a cover of Bo Diddley’s “Diddy Wah Diddy,” which became a garage-rock classic even though it failed to make a dent commercially (a sign of things to come, unfortunately).

READ MORE: 25 Under the Radar Albums From 1974

Within a couple of years, Beefheart and the Magic Band – with some guidance from Zappa, whose own unconventional path to rock ‘n’ roll was picking up a cult audience – had changed course a bit, injecting their bluesy grind, guided by Beefheart’s multi-octave voice, with absurd asides, surreal detours and a flair for music that sounded little like anything else on the planet.

They released a dozen albums over the years as Beefheart swapped out members, tried to become a proper rock star and eventually settled into his placement as one of rock’s most original and boldest artists. In 1986, after a period of inactivity, he retired from music altogether to focus on painting. (Beefheart was an accomplished visual artist whose work has been exhibited in some of the world’s top galleries and museums.) He died of multiple sclerosis at age 69 in 2010.

There’s a lot of money in the rock ‘n’ roll business, and much of it comes from touring.

Especially when it comes to high-profile legacy acts performing in stadiums and arenas, the amount of dough a tour can bring in has the potential to enter the hundred millions. This is particularly important in an age where the sale of actual music —  via CDs, vinyl and streaming services — isn’t as lucrative as in previous decades. These days, it’s touring and performing live that supplies artists with the most income.

In the below gallery, we’re taking a look at 30 of the Highest-Grossing Rock Tours Ever. Some went all over the world, some involved brand new, state-of-the-art technology, some saw artists visiting countries they’d never played in before.

It is, of course, difficult to compare tours that took place in different time periods, monetarily speaking. For example, U2’s 1987 Joshua Tree Tour, one of the most successful tours of the entire ’80s, is at the bottom of this list with a gross income of only $40 million, but that comes out to around 110 million in 2024 dollars.

READ MORE: 20 of the Biggest Single-Act Rock Concerts Ever

To be clear, other rock tours over the years have grossed similar numbers to the one in this list, but below you’ll find those that either broke records or were in the top 10 most lucrative tours of their respective decades.

Generations of fans probably knew this already, but science has now confirmed that AC/DC is the top rock band for drinking songs.

They notched four of the Top 10 rock songs in a study conducted by whiskey retailer Flask & Barrel, claiming the No. 1 spot with 1990’s “Thunderstruck,” No. 2 with 1979’s “Highway to Hell,” No. 4 with 1980’s “Back in Black” and No. 8 with “You Shook Me All Night Long,” also from 1980.

Brian Johnson sang “Thunderstruck” and the Top 40 hits “Back in Black” and “You Should Me All Night Long,” while original frontman Bon Scott handled vocals on “Highway to Hell.”

READ MORE: The Most Overlooked Song From Each AC/DC Album

Flask & Barrel analyzed Spotify playlists that referenced drinking or partying in their titles. They found a little over 23,400 of them, then separated the tracks by various types of music. “Thunderstruck” was tops among rock songs with 521 spots on party playlists. “Highway to Hell” appeared on 477 playlists, “Back in Black” was on 447 and “You Shook Me All Night Long” was on 393.

In all, AC/DC showed up on a genre-best 4,143 party playlists. Hip-hop was the most popular genre, however, with 70,249 tracks. Usher‘s “Yeah!” topping the hip-hop drinking songs list, with 1,191 appearances.

No. 3 among rock songs was Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s “Sweet Home Alabama” with 470; No. 5. was Eagles‘ “Hotel California” with 430. Tracks by Creedence Clearwater Revival (“Fortunate Son”), Fleetwood Mac (“Dreams”), Journey (“Don’t Stop Believin'”) and Toto (“Africa”) rounded out the Top 10 for rock song appearances.

Top Rock Band Appearances on Party Playlists
1. AC/DC: 4,143
2. Queen: 3,512
3. Rolling Stones: 3,242
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers: 2,885
5. Fleetwood Mac: 2,864
6. Nirvana: 2,788
7. Led Zeppelin: 2,713
8. Creedence Clearwater Revival: 2,603
9. Guns N’ Roses: 2,451
10. Green Day: 2,332

AC/DC Discuss Making ‘Back in Black’

Although Kiss released only three albums during the ’90s, it was quite an eventful time for the group.

At the start of the decade, the group found themselves in a mirror version of their dilemma in the early ’80s. In 1982, after squandering nearly all of their career momentum with questionable trend-chasing albums, they released the masterful Creatures of the Night, which didn’t get nearly the attention it deserved. Chastened but determined, Kiss took off their trademark facepaint and clawed their way back to platinum sales and sold-out arenas with a string of successful ’80s albums.

Although the situation wasn’t nearly as dire, after closing out the ’80s with a pair of somewhat disappointing albums – 1987’s Crazy Nights and 1989’s Hot in the Shade – Kiss hit it out of the park with 1992’s Revenge, which much like Creatures failed to get its due on the sales charts.

This time, the band responded by putting their makeup back on, with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley bringing back founding members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley for a massively successful reunion tour that led to what can only be called a “reunion” album if you use air quotes. Oh, and before they they had a brief flirtation with grunge which resulted in a controversial but underrated album that sat on the shelf for a year before being unceremoniously dumped into the marketplace. It’s all explained below, in our list of the Top 10 ’90s Kiss Songs.

10. “Master & Slave”
From: Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions (1997)

Unlike his eager bandmate Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley was “dead set” against Kiss attempting to incorporate grunge music into their sound on the Carnival of Souls album. “I never believed the world needs a second-rate Soundgarden, Metallica or Alice in Chains,” Stanley declared in the 2001 book Kiss: Behind the Mask. But as a good teammate the once and future Starchild gave it his best shot and even made the formula work a couple of times, most notably on the storming “Master & Slave.”

Recorded with the Revenge-era Stanley / Simmons / Bruce Kulick / Eric Singer lineup, the album was shelved during the original lineup reunion tour, and released with little fanfare in late 1997 after being heavily bootlegged by fans.

9. “In My Head”
From: Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions (1997)

It’s easy to see why Gene Simmons was excited by the darker, edgier sounds of the ’90s alternative rock revolution, which suited his once (and again, future) demonic alter ego very nicely. He unleashes his most sinister growl on the savage “In My Head” while lead guitarist Bruce Kulick attacks the riffs like a bull that just broke out of his pen.

8. “Childhood’s End”
From: Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions (1997)

Simmons reaches back to the ’70s on the surprisingly touching Carnival of Souls ballad “Childhood’s End,” incorporating a children’s choir similar to the one on Destroyer‘s “Great Expectations” and even throwing a few lines from “God of Thunder” in near the end of the song.

7. “Within”
From: Psycho Circus (1998)

After mounting a highly successful full-makeup reunion tour in 1996, Kiss’ original lineup attempted to record a new studio album together. Just one problem: Stanley and Simmons didn’t really trust Ace Frehley and Peter Criss to carry their own weight and recorded most of the album without them. Psycho Circus only occasionally sounds like a ’70s throwback, instead offering up an enjoyable tour through most of the band’s former eras. With Bruce Kulick on lead guitar, Simmons’ “Within” offers up a slightly psychedelic twist on Revenge-style hard rock, complete with heady lyrics that make you wonder if somebody slipped the famously anti-drug bassist a brownie.

6. “I Just Wanna”
From: Revenge (1992)

Reunited with producer Bob Ezrin two decades after Destroyer, Kiss delivered their hardest-hitting and most consistent album since 1982’s Creatures of the Night with Revenge. The kinetic “I Just Wanna” takes Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” and pumps it full of all kind of steroids. Bonus points must be awarded for the gorgeous mid-song vocal breakdown section.

5. “I Pledge Allegiance to the State of Rock & Roll”
From: Psycho Circus (1998)

Unpopular opinion alert: The title track to Psycho Circus is an admirable near-miss, an example of the band trying a bit too hard to craft an epic new anthem. Despite its unwieldy title, Stanley’s “I Pledge Allegiance to the State of Rock & Roll” is a much more relaxed, confident and enjoyable rocker, with the Starchild trading guitar licks with Tommy Thayer, who would replace Frehley in the Spaceman outfit in a few short years.

4. “Spit”
From: Revenge (1992)

Kiss lets their guard down on Revenge‘s most exciting and most fun track. Stanley and Simmons trade lead vocals and openly steal Spinal Tap’s “The bigger the cushion, the better the pushin'” line, while Kulick offers up his take on “The Star-Spangled Banner” mid-song. It’s like the band either finally got the joke or finally revealed they were in on it all along.

3. “Into the Void”
From: Psycho Circus (1998)

According to Psycho Circus engineer Mike Plotnikoff, it took a lot of work to complete “Into the Void,” the only track on Kiss’ 1998 “reunion” album to actually feature the four original members of the band playing their individual instruments. “If we had to cut the [whole] album with only the four original members of Kiss it would have taken a year,” he noted in Kiss: Behind the Mask.

The thing is, it might have been worth it to try that. While the rest of the record is very good – underrated, in fact – none of the other songs have quite the same swagger or swing of the Ace Frehley-fronted “Into the Void,” proving that the chemistry between the original goup members could still yield impressive results, however difficult it was to mine them.

2. “God Gave Rock and Roll to You II”
From: Revenge (1992)

Originally released on the soundtrack to 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, Kiss’ cover of Argent’s “God Gave Rock and Roll to You” was the start of their Revenge-era collaboration with producer Bob Ezrin, and also sadly the last song to feature Eric Carr (on vocals) before his November 1991 death. The song works as both a fitting capstone to Carr’s decade in the band and a powerful restatement of purpose, punctuated by soaring twin-guitar work from Stanley and Kulick.

1. “Unholy”
From: Revenge (1992)

A good alternate title for Kiss’ Revenge album might have been Return of the Demon. By his own admission, Gene Simmons spent part of the prior decade on autopilot, juggling his duties in the band with his pursuit of acting and record producer careers. Part of the problem was that he didn’t know how to present himself without the facepaint the band took off in 1983. “I didn’t know how I was supposed to act, because the non-makeup version of the band was an entirely new idea. Paul [Stanley] was in his prime,” Simmons explained in his book Kiss and Make-Up. “He was very comfortable being who he was – because, in some ways, Paul is the same offstage as onstage.”

As a result of these two factors, prior to 1992 Kiss hadn’t released a Simmons-fronted single in a full decade. But on the pummeling “Unholy” the bassist successfully unlocked his alter-ego, dominating the proceedings with a sinister yowl that seems to come from the bowels of hell.

Michael Schenker has recruited Slash and ex-Skid Row singer Erik Gronwall for an updated version of UFO‘s “Mother Mary,” the first single off his upcoming retrospective album My Years With UFO.

You can listen to the song below.

Originally released in 1975 on UFO’s fourth album Force It, “Mother Mary” sports a titanic groove and no shortage of punchy riffs. Schenker and Slash trade leads on the new version, while Gronwall hits plenty of the piercing high notes that made him a vocal phenom ever since he won Swedish Idol in 2009.

READ MORE: Phil Mogg Confirms UFO Is Done: ‘It’s Come to a Conclusion’

Details on Michael Schenker’s New Album

My Years With UFO features 11 revamped tracks from Schenker’s initial six-year tenure with the group. The star-studded LP includes cameos from Axl Rose, Dee Snider, Joe Lynn Turner, Carmine Appice, Stephen Pearcy and many more. The album arrives on Sept. 20 and is available to preorder now.

Schenker is gearing up for a busy next few years, as the guitar great has signed an exclusive three-album deal with earMusic. My Years With UFO marks the first installment in the planned trilogy, with other albums slated for 2025 and 2026.

You can see the full track listing and guest list for My Years With UFO below.

Michael Schenker, ‘My Years With UFO’ Track Listing
1. “Natural Thing: (feat. Dee Snider, Joel Hoekstra)
2. “Only You Can Rock Me” (Joey Tempest, Roger Glover)
3. “Doctor, Doctor” (Joe Lynn Turner, Carmine Appice)
4. “Mother Mary” (Slash, Erik Gronwall)
5. “This Kids” (Biff Byford)
6. “Love To Love” (Axl Rose)
7. “Lights Out” (Jeff Scott Soto, John Norum)
8. “Rock Bottom” (Kai Hansen)
9. “Too Hot To Handle” (Joe Lynn Turner, Adrian Vandenberg, Carmine Appice)
10. “Let It Roll” (Michael Voss)
11. “Shoot, Shoot” (Stephen Pearcy)

Don’t expect a new album after the surprise release of Billy Joel‘s first new song in nearly 20 years. “Nope!” he bluntly answered, when asked about a larger studio project by Variety.

“Who makes albums anymore anyway?” he added. “I think the only person making new albums these days is Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo. I don’t know other people who make albums. I don’t know what the marketing of that is like now.”

Part of that marketing effort might have been appearances at the Grammys and the national broadcast of a glitzy concert at Madison Square Garden. But then the New York show was controversially cut short. Worse, the snafu happened while Joel was performing his signature song, “Piano Man.”

READ MORE: Ranking Every Billy Joel Album

“I wasn’t surprised,” Joel admitted. “I’ve never been really happy with the way music is presented on television. I think for TV people, it’s really all about the visual. If you’re looking at a television set, you’ll see a big screen and a little tiny speaker and that should tell you enough about where their priorities are.”

Why Billy Joel Says Songwriting Is ‘Torture’

CBS quickly announced a re-airing of the concert in full, but the damage was already done. Joel busied himself with a co-headlining tour alongside Sting after his lengthy residency at the Garden came to a close.

His setlists included “Turn the Lights Back On,” Joel’s long-awaited new song. But despite its warm welcome, Joel still describes songwriting as a “form of torture.”

Referring to his piano, Joel told Variety: “There’s this big black beast with 88 teeth that wants to bite my fingers off while I’m writing. I drive myself nuts. It’s just not as good as I want it to be. It’s a great deal of torment, and I decided I don’t want to put myself through that anymore.”

The pressure led to “drinking problems and all kinds of self-hate when I was writing, because I set the bar so high,” Joel added. “It’s not something I miss.”

They Hated Their Own Albums

Switzerland’s Supreme Court is set to decide if a priceless watch given to John Lennon by Yoko Ono will be returned to the late Beatles legend’s widow.

She claims the Patek Philippe 2499 was stolen by a since-fired chauffeur, while an unnamed Italian national says he legally purchased the item. “To me, if anything, the watch is just a symbol of how dangerous it is to trust,” son Sean Lennon tells The New Yorker.

The Patek Philippe 2499 is an unusual artifact in that the company produced fewer than 350 of them between 1952 and the mid-’80s. Known as a perpetual calendar chronograph, the watch records time in a then-revolutionary number of ways, including seconds, minutes, date, day, month and moon phase. No other company had been able to fit all of those functions into a wristwatch before.

READ MORE: How the B-52’s Brought John Lennon Back to Music

Lennon was famously photographed by Bob Gruen while wearing the Patek during sessions for Double Fantasy, released just before he was murdered by a deranged fan in December 1980. Ono had given Lennon the watch for his birthday in October, paying around $25,000 at Tiffany – or around $100,000 today. A now-eerie description on the back reads, “(JUST LIKE) STARTING OVER, LOVE YOKO. 10 • 9 • 1980. N. Y. C.”

She placed the Patek Philippe 2499 in a locked room of her apartment following Lennon’s death, and it remained there for more than two decades. Estimates about how much the Patek would bring at auction range from $10 million to $40 million, according to The New Yorker.

Ono’s long-time employee Koral Karsan was charged with grand larceny in 2007 after she accused him of a $2 million blackmail scheme. Karsan countered that Ono had sexually harassed him but ended up pleading guilty to a lesser charge. He was sent back to his native Turkey after serving 60 days in jail.

Karsan reportedly took a treasure trove of stolen items with him. Many were later recovered from a storage room at a bankrupt auction house in Germany. “We think he was the thief,” Martin Steltner, a spokesman for the state prosecutor’s office in Berlin, told The New York Times.

Yoko Ono Didn’t Know the Priceless Watch Was Missing

The Patek Philippe 2499, however, was still gone. “He took advantage of a widow at a vulnerable time,” Sean Lennon told The New Yorker. “Of all the incidents of people stealing things from my parents, this one is the most painful.”

Karsan apparently gave Lennon’s watch away as collateral for a loan, according to The New Yorker. By 2013, the watch was under consideration for bidding on a new digital auction platform called Auctionata. The owner, granted anonymity in the court documents by German privacy laws, believed he rightfully owned the Patek – because an unaware Ono hadn’t filed a missing report. Karsan also reportedly signed a notarized document stating that Ono gave him the watch as a gift in 2005.

The owner changed his mind and never publicly auctioned the Patek Philippe 2499. Instead, he found a private buyer and struck a deal in 2014 for 600,000 euros – or about $800,000. When the watch was subsequently submitted for another auction at Christie’s Geneva office, a representative reached out to Ono’s lawyer for confirmation. Only then did she learn the Patek was gone.

Legal action followed and the case has been winding through the Swiss judicial system. An appeals court has already affirmed a lower court’s declaration that Ono is the “sole legitimate owner of the watch,” but a new appeal took the case to the Swiss Supreme Court.

Swiss Supreme Court Will Decide the Rightful Owner

The Italian citizen who had the watch likewise maintains that it was not stolen. As the Patek languished in Christie’s Geneva vault, he decided to file his own legal action in 2018.

Meanwhile, the person who’d originally tried to auction the Patek Philippe 2499 was found guilty in Germany of knowingly dealing in stolen goods. He was given a one-year suspended sentence, but only after admitting that the chauffeur’s story about being gifted the watch “did not correspond to reality.”

READ MORE: 20 Beatles Songs That John Lennon Hated

That case has provided the legal foundation for previous lower-court rulings in Switzerland. A final ruling is expected later in the year.

“It’s important that we get it back because of all we’ve gone through over it,” Sean Lennon told The New Yorker. Ironically enough, he’s “not a watch guy.” Lennon also admits to being “terrified to wear anything of my dad’s. I never even played one of his guitars.”

How an Old Beatles Song Connected David Bowie With John Lennon

Back in the 70s part of takin’ care of business for Bachman-Turner Overdrive meant performing underneath a large steel replica of the band’s gear-shaped logo, with flashing lights — a visual gimmick as heavy as the opening chords of “Not Fragile” or “Four Wheel Drive.”

The quartet used the prop throughout its arena-filling heyday, when it had three albums in the Top 50 of the Billboard 200 chart (BTO II, Not Fragile, Four Wheel Drive) and “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” lodged at No. 1. “that thing weighed tons,” Randy Bachman tells UCR. It was tonnage. It was built on one-inch plywood all bolted together, and it had real sockets and wire and real lightbulbs and real neon. It was out of Army Navy Surplus; you get a big round chunk of wood or a big overdrive gar from a saw mill in British Columbia, where they’re cutting logs to make lumber. You go with what you got, right?”

By 1976, however, the going was getting tougher with hauling around the gear around the world. So the final gig of the tour wound up being the last hurrah for BTO’s signature stage accoutrement.

Read More: How Yes Inspired a BTO Album Title

“Someone had invented better lights that were lighter and stuff,” Bachman recalls. “So when we finished our last gig (of the tour) we’re driving through Texas, like Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner kind of territory, and there were these cactuses out there. We backed up to one, took the BTO thing and threw it over a cactus and left it there in the middle of the desert and drove off.

“So that gear is somewhere. We replicate it now onstage, but everything is so much lighter and faster and easier.” Bachman nevertheless says that recovering the original gear “would be incredible. I would pay to get that back right now.”

Why Bachman Turner Overdrive is Back on the Road

Bachman is touring again under the BTO name, playing the band’s hits as well as some favorites from his days in the Guess Who and “She’s So High,” a hit from his son Tal Bachman, who’s part of the band. The shows also build a medley around BTO’s “Hey You” that includes a number of other rock hits from AC/DC, Free, the Steve Miller Band, the Rolling Stones, Frankie Valli and more.

“I’d been playing a good 12 years as the Randy Bachman Band, but because of my brothers’ (deaths in 2023) and different things going on I got the rights to BTO back,” Bachman explains. “So why call it the Randy Bachman Band when I’m doing the same songs. The (BTO) name has a ka-ching to it that people recognize. It’s really rewarding to go out and play 15 or 20 hit songs that everybody just sits there and hungers for and consumes it and breathes it and gets up and screams and dances.”

Watch BTO Perform Live

Bachman and company have the blessing of former bandmates C.F. “Fred” Turner and Blair Thornton, who he says “might” make guest appearances during occasional BTO shows. “They both have had health issues, and Fred lost his wife in the last six months so he’s recovering from that,” says Bachman, who himself underwent successful cancer treatments recently. “Hopefully they’ll make it out, but when we’re on stage we’re showing old films of BTO and Blair Thornton’s there, Fred Turner’s there, my brother Robbie’s there, on drums. We’re celebrating, just like if you go see Queen, Freddie’s (Mercury) gonna come out (on screen) and everybody sings ‘BoRap’ (‘Bohemian Rhapsody’) with him. Lynyrd Skynyrd does the same thing.”

Deep Purple returns with new music, while expanded reissues offer deep dives into albums by Van Halen, John Lennon and the Police. The list of July new music releases also includes live recordings from Pete Townshend, Styx and Foreigner, among others.

Deep Purple’s Bob Ezrin-produced =1 is their first LP since 2021’s Turning to Crime and first to feature guitarist Simon McBride, who joined the lineup in 2022. Deluxe editions include 13 new live tracks and an hour-long behind-the-scenes documentary. A new reissue of Lennon’s gold-selling Top 10 hit Mind Games has been expanded to include eight discs of remixes, remasters, outtakes and other session recordings to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Van Halen’s chart-topping 1991 album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge has also been expanded with rarities, previously unreleased live footage and promo videos. The Police are commemorating their multi-platinum 1983 album Synchronicity with a six-disc box set featuring 55 previously unreleased tracks, including Sting‘s original demos.

Townshend has packaged nine rare solo shows into Live in Concert 1985-2001. The massive 14-disc set includes entire renditions of the Lifehouse and Psychoderelict rock operas, among other rarities. Styx and Foreigner are also releasing a joint eight-song live album called Renegades & Juke Box Heroes in conjunction with their summer tour of the same name.

More information on these and other pending rock albums can be found below. Remember to follow our continuously updated list of new music releases for details on records issued throughout the year.

July 5
Focus, Focus 12
Grateful Dead, Reckoning; Dead Set (vinyl reissues)
Melissa Etheridge, I’m Not Broken: Live From Topeka Correctional Facility
UFO, The Visitor (expanded vinyl reissue)

July 12
Dr. John, Frankie & Johnny
John Entwistle, Rarities Oxhumed Vol. 2
John Lennon, Mind Games: The Ultimate Collection
Styx and Foreigner, Renegades & Juke Box Heroes
Thom Yorke [Radiohead], Confidenza: Music From the Film By Daniele Luchetti
Phish, Evolve
Van Halen, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (expanded 2CD/2LP/Blu-ray reissue)

July 19
Deep Purple, =1
Duran Duran, Duran Duran, Rio, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, Notorious, Big Thing (vinyl reissues)
John Miles [Alan Parsons Project/Jimmy Page], The Albums 1983-93 (3CD box)
Various artists, Can’t Seem to Come Down: The American Sounds of 1968 (3CD box with Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Velvet Underground, Mothers of Invention, Grateful Dead, Beach Boys, others)
Various artists, Roots Rock Rebels: When Punk Met Reggae 1975-1982 (3CD box with the Clash, Elvis Costello, Madness, others)
War, The World Is a Ghetto: 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition

July 26
Cat Stevens, Foreigner (vinyl reissue)
Fleetwood Mac, Best of 1969-1974
Jack Bruce, Songs For a Tailor (2CD/2Blu-ray box and gatefold vinyl)
John Cale [Velvet Underground], Ship of Fools: The Island Albums (3CD remastered reissue box)
Nik Kershaw, The MCA Years (10CD/1DVD box)
Pete Townshend, Live in Concert 1985-2001
The Police, Synchronicity (expanded 2CD or 6CD deluxe edition reissues)
Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense (2LP or 2CD/Blu-ray deluxe edition reissue)
Various artists, Heaven Sent: The Rise of New Pop 1979-83 (4CD box with the Cure, Tears for Fears, Eurythmics, Human League, Soft Cell, Style Council, Scritti Politti, others)
Various artists, Stop Making Sense: Everybody’s Getting Involved – A Tribute Album

August and Beyond
Dickey Betts, Live From the Lone Star Roadhouse, New York City 1988
Lindsey Buckingham, 20th Century Lindsey (4CD box)
Jon Anderson [Yes], True (with Band of Geeks)
Hawkwind, In Search of Space (2CD/Blu-ray/LP reissues)
David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (Blu-ray audio disc)
David Gilmour, Luck and Strange
Jimi Hendrix Experience, Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision (3CD/5LP/Blu-ray box)

Rock’s Most Expensive Out-of-Print LPs

Country music is in the DNA of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ catalog.

Decades ago, before the Heartbreakers even existed in their full form, Petty was playing country songs in what he would later describe as “real redneck country” Floridian bars, trying to earn a living as a burgeoning performer.

“[The crowd was] always kind of weirded out by us because we had long hair, playing country music,” Petty said in 2005’s Conversations With Tom Petty. “And that was completely unheard of in those days.”

Petty’s country influences were the classics — people like Carl Perkins, George Jones and Conway Twitty — and over the course of his career, he never dropped the torch, collaborating with people like Willie Nelson, Hank Williams Jr. and Johnny Cash. Perhaps the most blatant nod was 1985’s Southern Accents album, whose title track emphasized that while “the youn ‘uns call it country,” Petty didn’t feel the need to label his “own way of talkin’.”

There came a point where Petty felt country music had lost its way. “I hate to generalize on a whole genre of music, but it does seem to be missing that magic element that it used to have,” he told Rolling Stone in 2013. “I’m sure there are people playing country that are doing it well, but they’re just not getting the attention that the shittier stuff gets. But that’s the way it always is, isn’t it?”

This prompted a response from country musician Chris Stapleton, who penned an open letter to Petty. “I, for one, would like to see you put you [sic] money where your mouth is in a tangible way,” he said. “So, in the interest of making country music less ‘shitty’ (your words), I suggest a collaboration. I’m extending an open invitation to you to write songs with me, produce recordings on or with me, or otherwise participate in whatever way you see fit in my little corner of music.”

After 11 years, Stapleton has gotten a small part of his wish, recording a version of the Heartbreakers’ “I Should Have Known It” for a new album titled ‘Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty,‘ out June 21. In addition to Stapleton, it features both legends of the industry like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and George Strait, plus newer faces like Margo Price, Lainey Wilson and Dierks Bentley, all covering the music of Petty.

UCR recently spoke with Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell, who appears on the album himself and believes “Tom would be really, really happy with this.”

When you first heard there was going to be a country tribute album to Tom Petty, what went through your head?
Well, it made perfect sense to me, you know? Because we grew up in the South and we grew up around country music and there’s a lot of country music strings in the Heartbreakers’ music, I think. Tom wrote that character quite a bit. And I was just really excited, mostly because I want to keep the history and those songs alive and all these great artists doing his songs, it was wonderful thing.

It feels like a lot of times when the word “country” is associated with an album, there are automatic assumptions made about what it will sound like, but this album, I think, proves that the “country” genre is actually quite versatile. 
Well, you know, you bring up a good point. Country — the idea “what is country?” has morphed so much since Tom and I were listening back in the ’60s when it was George Jones and Loretta Lynn. To me, that’s pure country, and Tom made up the new country, which sounds like, you know, a rock and roll band with a fiddle in it [Laughs]. The point is that country music nowadays has morphed into pop in a lot of ways. It’s big business and it’s not hardcore country, but it’s got strings of it, you know?

It’s cool that there’s a range of people on this album. You’ve got artists like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and George Strait who have been in this business for decades, and then you’ve got people like Margo Price, Lainey Wilson and Luke Combs who are newer to the scene. That just shows how influential this music has been across generations. 
Yeah, I think Tom would be really, really happy about this, because he was proud to have country roots and I think he would like the record.

Dierks Bentley’s cover of “American Girl” is special because he used one of Tom’s actual Rickenbacker guitars. What was it like to see and hear someone else play that song with that instrument?
Yeah, you know, I didn’t know that that was the exact instrument, but it’s one of my favorites. … “American Girl” is one of those songs that just lives, you know, and that song always represents the sound of the Heartbreakers to me when we first found our groove and our sound and our attitude. And even ’til the last tour whenever we played that song, I would just get a thrill up my spine, just because there’s something about the music, so I’m glad they picked it for the album.

I’d like to go back to Margo Price for a moment. You play guitar and sing some backing vocals on her cover of “Ways to Be Wicked,” which is a bit of a deeper Tom Petty cut. Can you tell me about recording that one with her?
It was great, you know, because that’s sort of what we call a “Lazarus song.” It dies and then it comes back alive. The Heartbreakers cut that back with Jimmy Iovine, I think on our second album [You’re Gonna Get It!], but we never got it right. And then Jimmy Iovine took it and gave it to a band called Lone Justice, [and they cut] a version of it. But I always loved that song and then Margo cut the track and told me “Yeah, I’ve cut this track. Would you help me finish it?” And I put some guitar and sang a little low harmony with her. And I’m just so happy that song is out there because it’s a great lyric by Tom, and a real exuberant — she’s a firecracker. She belts the hell out of it. And she really did the song justice, but it’s out there now, it’s alive again. So I couldn’t be more pleased.

Listen to Margo Price’s Cover of ‘Ways to Be Wicked’ With Mike Campbell

Just recently you played “I Should Have Known It” live with Chris Stapleton and “You Wreck Me” live with George Strait. What was it like to play with those guys in front of an audience?
You know what, Allison, it’s just kind of an out of body experience for me to be doing this because I’ve kind of entered the second chapter of my musical life. And I never dreamed I’d be playing a giant stadium, you know, beyond the Heartbreakers in any way, shape or form. But there I was, you know, with Chris Stapleton and George Strait, doing songs that I co-wrote, with these huge audiences and having them respect me to do the songs and ask me up to join them. It was really, really exciting, I gotta say. It kind of breaks my brain a little bit.

Again, it’s proof that the Heartbreakers’ music is multigenerational.
Yeah. It’s simple really: I’m so proud of our legacy. And I think maybe the reason that that is, is because the songwriting is strong, and Tom’s delivery was so unique. It connected with a lot of people, but mostly the songs, you know, the songs hold up over time. That’s what I’m most proud of.

Do you have any other favorites on this album?
I like Marty Stuart‘s song [“I Need to Know”]. I like them all, you know? Dolly’s [“Southern Accents] really tugs at your heart. Probably my favorite would be the Margo song because I didn’t know that song would ever see the light of day, and I got to play on it with her. But everybody did a bang-up job on all the songs. A lot of the artists, I hadn’t heard of them before, because I’m not in that world, but when I listened to it I thought “It’s good, these young whippersnappers have got it down.”

Listen to Dolly Parton’s Cover of ‘Southern Accents’

Another thing that stood out to me with this album is that it’s really cool to hear a bunch of these songs sung by women. Wynonna Judd and Lainey Wilson’s cover of “Refugee” is really powerful and works great as a female duet. It’s almost like these songs take on a new life that way.
I agree. And, you know, it’s the strength of the song, really. A woman’s point of view singing Tom’s lyrics sometimes is very powerful, even if you go back to “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” which was going to be just a Heartbreakers song. And Jimmy Iovine heard it as a duet. Stevie [Nicks] came in and when the female character comes into the song the lyrics take on a new meaning.

I know you’ve said before that you’re wary of doing Heartbreakers tribute concerts, which is understandable. Has this album, though, made you think any more about the possibility of other people performing these songs?
It hasn’t made me think more about it, but to be honest with you, I’m open to anything that honors the legacy of Tom and the band. I don’t know what the future holds, but if it’s got integrity and and it holds to the honesty that Tom and I helped build with the Heartbreakers…We didn’t really follow any trends or anything, so anything going forward that I feel that Tom — actually it comes down to if I feel like Tom would like this, I’ll say yes.

What does that mean? What are the criteria for whether Tom would like it?
I mean, that would be — I can’t speak for Tom. I just know that integrity, purity, believability, no phoniness…like what Dolly Parton put into “Southern Accents.” She made it her own, and I think if Tom had heard that, he would have been really happy. So if I hear something I think, you know, Tom would like this idea — I knew him pretty well, and I use that as the criteria for what I might do in the future. It’s as simple as that.

Watch Mike Campbell Perform ‘I Should Have Known It’ With Chris Stapleton

Axl Rose, Slash and Dee Snider will be among the artists guesting on Michael Schenker’s upcoming album.

Due to arrive on Sept. 20, My Years With UFO features 11 classic tracks from across the guitarist’s time with the band.

Rose sings on “Love to Love” while Slash contributes guitar to “Mother Mary” and Snider fronts “Natural Thing.” Additional guests include Stephen Pearcy, Roger Glover, Joe Lynn Turner, Jeff Scott Soto, Joel Hoekstra, Carmine Appice and more.

READ MORE: Did Michael Schenker Reactivate Ailing Aerosmith?

Schenker’s core band for the record features keyboardist Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Black Country Communion), drummer Brian Tichy (Whitesnake, Ozzy Osbourne) and bassist Barry Sparks (UFO, Dokken) on bass.

“For the first time ever, Michael Schenker returns to his classic years with UFO, revisiting the era that catapulted both him and the British hard rock band to international stardom,” his label earMusic said in a statement.

“Touring the globe as a teenager, Schenker became a driving force behind some of UFO’s most beloved tracks… During these meteoric years, the albums Phenomenon, Force It, No Heavy Petting, Lights Out, Obsession and the seminal live album Strangers in the Night were released, each contributing significantly to the genre.

“Now, Michael Schenker is set to celebrate those glory days with his new album, My Years With UFO, alongside today’s rock elite.”

Hear UFO Perform ‘Love to Love’

Michael Schenker, ‘My Years With UFO’ Track List

1. “Natural Thing: (feat. Dee Snider, Joel Hoekstra)
2. “Only You Can Rock Me” (Joey Tempest, Roger Glover)
3. “Doctor, Doctor” (Joe Lynn Turner, Carmine Appice)
4. “Mother Mary” (Slash, Erik Gronwall)
5. “This Kids” (Biff Byford)
6. “Love To Love” (Axl Rose)
7. “Lights Out” (Jeff Scott Soto, John Norum)
8. “Rock Bottom” (Kai Hansen)
9. “Too Hot To Handle” (Joe Lynn Turner, Adrian Vandenberg, Carmine Appice)
10. “Let It Roll” (Michael Voss)
11. “Shoot, Shoot” (Stephen Pearcy)

Kiss started the ’80s in free fall and spent the first two years of the decade alienating a staggeringly large portion of the impressive rock music fan base they had built in the ’70s by unabashedly chasing even greater mainstream fame.

After weathering the departure of their two fellow founding bandmates, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons demonstrated impressive levels of determination and adaptability while re-building the band into a record and ticket-selling powerhouse. To do so they had to remove their famous greasepaint, endure several more lineup changes and change up their musical approach multiple times.

Here are the Top 20 ’80s Kiss Songs:

20. “Little Caesar”
From: Hot in the Shade, 1989

Nine years and seven studio albums into his career with Kiss, drummer Eric Carr finally got the chance to handle lead vocals on this rousing Hot in the Shade track. Sadly it would be the last album he recorded with Kiss, as he died in November 1991 after a battle with heart cancer.

19. “Under the Gun”
From: Animalize (1984)

With Gene Simmons largely focused on his movie career, Paul Stanley picked up the slack and kept Kiss on the comeback trail with 1984’s Animalize. New lead guitarist Mark St. John may not have been the best overall fit for the band – he was gone in less than a year – but his whirlwind flurries fit in very well on the metallic “Under the Gun,” which also showcases Carr’s precision and power.

18. “Rise to It”
From: Hot in the Shade (1989)

Kiss’ decision to make a back-to-basics album after the keyboard-infested Crazy Nights was smart, but they didn’t fully stick the landing on the shapeless and overlong Hot in the Shade. The infectious opening track “Rise to It” was a notable exception, with Stanley and Simmons sharing vocals ’70s style on the second verse and Bruce Kulick showing why he deserved to be the one to lock down Kiss’ lead guitar job after years of uncertainty.

17. “Get All You Can Take”
From: Animalize (1984)

Paul Stanley is best known for singing about his love gun, but if you go through Kiss’ catalog you’ll find he also writes plenty of legitimately empowering self-help anthems. This unheralded Animalize track is one of the best, as he extols the importance of making the most of each day over a swaggering guitar riff.

16. “Radar for Love”
From: Asylum (1985)

Asylum is probably the ’80s Kiss album you’d play first for time-traveling fans of their ’70s heyday. It finds the band shifting away from the metal flirtations of their previous two albums and more towards their original rock and roll formula. The extended instrumental section at the end of “Radar for Love” gives new lead guitarist Bruce Kulick a welcome chance to show off his impressive skills.

15. “Down on Your Knees”
From: Killers (1982)

After alienating a large portion of their fans with three straight under-performing albums that found them flirting with pop, disco and progressive rock, Kiss finally got back to doing what they do best on the new tracks included on their overseas 1982 compilation Killers. All four are highly recommended but Stanley’s braggadocious “Down on Your Knees” is the one that really deserved a spot in the band’s live set lists. Most importantly, this is also where the band hooked up with producer Michael James Jackson, who would take the helm on Kiss’ next two career-saving albums.

14. “I”
From: Music From ‘The Elder’ (1981)

Kiss had no business attempting a medieval-themed concept album, but Music from ‘The Elder’ is not without its highlights. On the album-closing “I,” Simmons and Stanley trade lead vocals while extolling the importance of self-belief hard work and clean living – the latter almost assuredly a shot at long-gone former bandmate Peter Criss and soon-to-be-gone lead guitarist Ace Frehley – while also conjuring up a thunderous racket.

13. “Let’s Put the X In Sex”
From: Smashes, Thrashes & Hits (1988)

OK yes, the lyrics to “Let’s Put the X in Sex” are hysterical, like something Saturday Night Live would come up with if they were doing a parody of ’80s hair metal song craft. But if you just replace all the “Love’s like a muscle and you make me wanna flex” talk with humming you’ve got one hell of a catchy hard rock song.

12. “Who Wants to Be Lonely”
From: Asylum (1985)

Over the years Paul Stanley has proven himself particularly skilled at adapting to changing musical trends, beginning with his massive disco-influenced 1979 hit “I Was Made for Lovin’ You.” As the dramatic “Who Wants to Be Lonely” demonstrates, by 1985 he had the hair metal formula down cold. The garish neon outfits he wore in the song’s video, however, are a bit harder to defend.

11. “Mr. Blackwell”
From: Music From ‘The Elder’ (1981)

As with “I,” it’s rather difficult to explain what connects the lyrics of “Mr. Blackwell” directly to the purportedly being told in Music From ‘The Elder.’ But it really doesn’t matter, as Gene Simmons aims his glorious demonic venom at a “rotten to the core” villain over an inventively sinister and bass-heavy backing track.

10. “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose”
From: Lick It Up (1983)

Eric Carr was far from thrilled with the way Paul Stanley altered “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose,” a song idea he brought to the band for their 1983 album Lick It Up. While the drummer was aiming for something akin to Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir,” Stanley instead steered the song into rap territory with spoken verses. “I’m going, ‘Oh my god what are you doing to my song?'” Carr later told Kiss Neon Glow. Here’s the thing: Carr was wrong, Stanley was right and this song is one of the most exciting and inventive tracks Kiss released in the ’80s.

9. “Torpedo Girl”
From: Unmasked (1980)

The undeniable success of Ace Frehley’s 1978 solo album earned him a lot more real estate on future Kiss studio albums. He took lead vocal duties for three songs on both 1979’s Dynasty and 1980’s Unmasked. The gloriously loopy “Torpedo Girl” is the best of the bunch, as the Spaceman takes listeners on an off-kilter undersea adventure complete with gorgeous “oooh-wahhh-ooooh” backing vocals.

8. “Rock and Roll Hell”
From: Creatures of the Night (1982)

With their careers on their line as a result of several consecutive gold ring-chasing creative decisions, Kiss buckled down and delivered their hardest-hitting album ever with 1982’s Creatures of the Night. It’s hard not to read the desperation and determination in Simmons’ throbbing “Rock and Roll Hell” in autobiographical terms. The album didn’t immediately turn their fortunes around, but it definitely stopped the bleeding and has gone on to be regarded as one of the group’s creative high points.

7. “Tears Are Falling”
From: Asylum (1985)

After previously earning their way back to chart-topping and arena headlining status with 1984’s Animalize Kiss solidified their comeback with Asylum‘s lead single, the Motown-inspired “Tears are Falling.” Again, we’re not defending the outfits.

6. “Saint and Sinner”
From: Creatures of the Night (1982)

If you focus solely on the Gene Simmons songs, Creatures of the Night just might be the concept album Kiss intended Music From ‘The Elder’ to be. Over a heavy and unexpectedly melancholy music backdrop, the Demon sends a thinly-veiled shot in the direction of departing lead guitarist Ace Frehley: “Without you, it’s aces high.”

5. “Tomorrow”
From: Unmasked (1980)

Kiss turned off a large portion of their fan base with their turn-of-the-decade pop and disco experiments, but songs like “Tomorrow” show that the customers aren’t in fact always right. Simply put, this infectious little slice of sunshine deserved to bring the band a bigger audience, not scorn.

4. “War Machine”
From: Creatures of the Night (1982)

After a few years of taking a back seat to Paul Stanley’s more commercially-minded contributions to Kiss’ studio albums, Gene Simmons re-asserted himself triumphantly on Creatures of the Night. Co-written by a pre-fame Bryan “Summer of ’69” Adams, “War Machine” wasn’t released as a single but became a can’t-skip staple of the band’s live shows right up until their farewell tour.

3. “Heaven’s on Fire”
From: Animalize (1984)

Kiss pulled their last ace out of their sleeve for 1983’s Lick it Up, removing their trademark makeup to earn themselves the support of MTV and a foothold in the new rock landscape. They punched through to the end zone the following year with the scorching “Heaven’s on Fire,” re-establishing their spot as platinum-selling, arena-filling headliners.

2. “I Love It Loud”
From: Creatures of the Night (1982)

All but one of the five songs Gene Simmons sang and co-wrote on 1982’s Creatures of the Night earned a spot in this top 10. “I Love it Loud” is an anthem of the highest order, a defiant re-statement of the band’s original rebellious spirit, and a joyous sing-a-long the they shared with their fans more than 1600 times over the next four decades.

1. “Lick It Up”
From: Lick It Up (1983)

Here’s a pointless but fun question: Did Kiss really need to take off their makeup in 1983, or would “Lick It Up” have kick-started their comeback even if they had left it on? The song features the kind of deceptive simplicity of true songwriting genius, continually building momentum until it feels like the whole world is singing along with you during the final chorus, even if you’re alone in your car.

Yngwie Malmsteen will embark on a North American tour to commemorate 40 years of his solo career.

The trek begins on Sept. 26 in Fort Myers, Florida, and is currently set to run through Nov. 18 in New York City, with more shows to be announced. Kurt Deimer will provide support. More ticketing information will be available at Malmsteen’s website. You can see the full list of dates below.

“Excited to announce I’ll be embarking on a new USA tour celebrating 40 years of my solo career,” Malmsteen wrote in a social media post. “Can’t wait to see you all on the road — you’re not going to want to miss this.”

READ MORE: Did the Metric System Really Keep Yngwie Malmsteen Out of Kiss?

How Yngwie Malmsteen’s Debut Revolutionized Rock Guitar

After brief stings in Steeler and Alcatrazz, Malmsteen released his debut solo album, Rising Force, in 1984. The album peaked at No. 60 on the Billboard 200 and became a milestone in the neoclassical metal subgenre, blending classical compositions played at dizzying speed with hard rock arrangements. Songs such as “Black Star” and “Far Beyond the Sun” have remained set list staples for decades.

“Each night when I go on stage I play songs that I wrote 40 years ago, and I challenge myself to play them differently,” Malmsteen told Classic Rock in 2023. “I’m not a jukebox. And that’s what makes things exciting. Every time I plug in a guitar, things still feel new, and I’m very happy about that.”

Yngwie Malmsteen 40th Anniversary Tour
09/26 – Fort Myers, FL – The Ranch Concert Hall
09/27 – Clearwater, FL – Capitol Theater
09/28 – Mt Dora, FL – Mt Dora Music Hall
09/29 – Tallahassee, FL – The Moon
10/02 – Charlottesville, VA – Jefferson Theater
10/04 – Plattsburgh, NY – Strand Center
10/05 – Pawtucket, RI – The Met
10/06 – New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place
10/07 – Boston, MA – The Wilbur
10/09 – York, PA – Double Barrel Roadhouse
10/10 – Woodstock, NY – Colony Woodstock
10/11 – Millville, NJ – Levoy Theatre
10/12 – Buffalo, NY – Electric City Music Hall
10/13 – St. Charles, IL – Arcada Theatre
10/16 – Denver, CO – Oriental Theater
10/18 – Tacoma, WA – Temple Theatre
10/19 – The Dalles, OR – Granada Theatre
10/20 – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater
10/22 – Roseville, CA – Goldfield Trading Post
10/24 – Los Angeles, CA – Saban Theater
10/25 – Anaheim, CA – The Grove
10/26 – Agoura Hills, CA – The Canyon
10/27 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
10/30 – Oklahoma City, OK – Diamond Ballroom
11/01 – Tulsa, OK – Tulsa Theatre
11/02 – San Antonio, TX – Vibes Event Center
11/03 – Austin, TX – Come & Take It Live
11/04 – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
11/05 – Dallas, TX – Trees
11/07 – Covington, KY – Madison Theatre
11/08 – Lorain, OH – Lorain Palace Theatre
11/09 – Columbus, OH – King of Clubs
11/10 – Leesburg, VA – Tallyho Theatre
11/14 – Ashland, KY – Paramount Arts Center
11/15 – Oakmont, PA – Oaks Theater
11/16 – Newton, NJ – Newton Theatre
11/28 – New York City, NY – Gramercy Theatre

Dennis DeYoung has issued a pointed response to his former Styx bandmate, Tommy Shaw.

During a recent interview, Shaw explained how he was able to let go of his “resentment list,” which included long harbored animosity towards DeYoung. The Styx guitarist claimed he had “no hard feelings” towards the band’s former singer, adding that he was “honored to play” the DeYoung-penned song “The Best of Times” during Styx’s shows.

In a message shared with fans via Facebook (see below), DeYoung took an acerbic tone.

READ MORE: Tommy Shaw Explains How He Stopped Resenting Dennis DeYoung

“A quarter of a century after the fact Tommy Shaw has an epiphany,” the singer began, noting Shaw’s aforementioned praise for “The Best of Times.” “Well thanks, T, that’s mighty kind of you. And you are correct, your solo on the song is perfect. So is the one on “First Time” — you sure can pick the right notes given that (there) are so many to choose from.”

“I sure wish you would have invited me back this tour to sing this one, it is one of my favorites,” DeYoung continued. “In case you have forgotten there’s a bunch more that youze guys are playing that I could sing and play as well, like ‘Mr. Roboto.’”

READ MORE: Did ‘Mr. Roboto’ Really End Styx’s Classic Era?

As most Styx fans know, “Mr. Roboto” is a point of contention in the band’s history. Though the 1983 single was a big hit, it’s theatrical style – part of the broader futuristic concept album Kilroy Was Here – rubbed some people the wrong way. DeYoung was Styx’s creative force at the time and the LP has historically been regarded as the beginning of his discourse with the rest of the band.

‘Think of Me Each Night’

DeYoung was fired from Styx in 1999. For many years, the band refused to play “Mr. Roboto” in concert. In 2018, Styx added it back to their set list at the request of fans.

“I know you have been playing [‘Mr. Roboto’] as an encore for some time,” DeYoung continued in his recent Facebook post. “You also had very kind words for that one as well calling it ‘a timeless song with an incredible arrangement.’ No need for you to come up with any songs about robots when ya got that one in your arsenal don’t ya know. Even though that song isn’t about robots but the concerns I had regarding the technology humans could create. Thank goodness that never happened.”

DeYoung went on to point out that Shaw was an important part of “Mr. Roboto”’s creation, even if he later distanced himself from the track.

READ MORE: Styx Manager: Band Hasn’t Spoken to Dennis DeYoung Since Firing

“But you know that you were there adding the vocoder to the song and that was you me and JY [Young] singing in Japanese that JY’s friend’s parents came up with, man we had fun doing that one,” the singer continued. “All the band members and two engineers gathered round the board, mixing it in real time, each of us with hands on knobs with individual responsibilities, a real team effort. We wanted it to sound like machines had recorded it which even dictated the way John played his drums. It was also why the guitars are underplayed. Guitars sound too human. This song was our way of saying here come the machines.”

DeYoung closed his message by saying: “It does an old guy’s heart glad to know my ballads and my one foray into techno are still loved by so many of our fans. Think of me each night when the audience goes nuts over ‘Roboto’ and when they get all weepy over ‘The Best of Times.’ I know they will cause I’ve seen it myself countless times these past 25 years.”

Styx’s summer tour alongside Foreigner is scheduled to run through the end of August. Meanwhile, DeYoung, who issued his final studio album in 2021, has no touring plans at this time.

Rock may not have been invented in the ‘60s, but it’s certainly when the genre came into its own.

After decades of evolution – pulling influences from blues, jazz, folk, country and soul – rock was finally a living, breathing entity ready to be explored. As such, musicians began to experiment with just how far they could push the burgeoning genre’s boundaries.

Add some funk? Absolutely. Get trippy with psychedelia? Sure. Try bold new recording techniques? Go for it. No innovation was off the table.

Much like the world of music, society at the time was changing at a furious pace. The Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, political discourse and the Space Race were just some of the historical events that played out during the decade. And since music is so often a reflection of society, these seismic cultural shifts inspired an array of famous songs.

READ MORE: Top 100 ’60s Rock Albums

“The ’60s was one of the first times the power of music was used by a generation to bind them together,” Neil Young once famously declared. Other future icons who came to prominence in the ’60s include the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys.

Whittling down a list of Top 10 ‘60s Bands was no easy feat. For the sake of this task, solo artists were excluded (apologies to Young and Bob Dylan). Honorable mentions should also be given to Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds and the Velvet Underground, who were among our most difficult acts to leave off. So who did make the cut? See for yourself in our list of the Top 10 ‘60s Bands below.

Stevie Nicks said that there’s “no chance of putting Fleetwood Mac together” following the 2022 death of Christine McVie.

“Without Christine, no can do,” Nicks recently told Mojo. “There is no chance of putting Fleetwood Mac back together in any way. Without her, it just couldn’t work.”

McVie’s last performance with Fleetwood Mac occurred in 2019 when the band concluded a tour without longtime member Lindsey Buckingham, who was ousted from the group in 2018. The band went on the road with Crowded House guitarist Neil Finn former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers member Mike Campbell.

READ MORE: Ranking Every Classic Era Fleetwood Mac Song

Nicks told Mojo that news of McVie’s death came as a surprise. “It was all stunningly strange because there wasn’t any lead-up to it,” she said. “We got a call, and I was going to rent a plane and go see her, but her family said, ‘Don’t come, because she may not be here tomorrow.’ And the next day, she passed away.

“I wanted to go there and sit on her bed and sing to her – which definitely would have made her pass away faster,” she joked. “But I needed to be with her. And I didn’t get to do that. So that was very hard for me. I didn’t get to say goodbye.”

Why Can’t Fleetwood Mac Tour in 2024?

McVie, who joined Fleetwood Mac in 1971 after playing with the band on earlier records, retired from performing with the group between 1998-2014. She and Buckingham reunited in 2017 for an album, but he was out of Fleetwood Mac the following year, reportedly because longtime differences with Nicks finally came to a head.

Nicks addressed a possible farewell tour with Fleetwood Mac, including Buckingham, with Mojo, but noted that even if everyone agreed to it, Buckingham’s health issues over the past few years may prevent such a run. (Buckingham had open-heart surgery in 2019 following a heart attack. He’s since released another solo album and has toured .)

“Even if I thought I could work with Lindsey again, he’s had some health problems,” she said. “It’s not for me to say, but I’m not sure if Lindsey could do the kind of touring that Fleetwood Mac does, where you go out for a year and a half. It’s so demanding.”

Nicks, meanwhile, is wrapping up her spring tour in Chicago this week before heading overseas for some dates in Glasgow, London and Amsterdam. Fans can expect plenty of songs from her old band, she said.

“Fleetwood Mac is all over my set,” she noted. “Now that there is no more Fleetwood Mac, that opens the door for me to do other songs, like ‘The Chain,’ that I’ve never done [solo]. I will keep the music of Fleetwood Mac alive, for as long as I can.”

There’s been another volley in the seemingly endless back-and-forth between Duff McKagan and The Simpsons creators over the inspiration for Duff Beer — this time from original show writer and producer Jay Kogen, who has yet again denied any connection to the Guns N’ Roses bassist.

McKagan reignited the debate last week, telling Stereogum: “So I was Duff, the King of Beers. But this is 1988, 1989 and our management, I remember they called me and said some arthouse-like cartoon wants to use your name as the beer, like a college arthouse cartoon. There weren’t any adult cartoons at this point.

“I didn’t know about branding or anything like that, but that show took off,” McKagan continued. “And then they started selling merch and stuff. I never went after him, but I’m like, ‘Hey, motherfuckers,’ you know?”

READ MORE: When the Rolling Stones Took Homer Simpson to Rock Camp

Jay Kogen’s Response to Duff McKagan’s Duff Beer Claims

Kogen recently denied McKagan’s influence over Duff Beer, telling TMZ that the reasoning behind the name was not that deep. “We named it Duff because it’s a synonym for butt, tushy, booty and so on,” he said. “Duff is a beer for people who sat on their fat ass all day.”

Furthermore, Kogen said The Simpsons writers and producers at the time didn’t know any members of Guns N’ Roses besides Axl Rose. Keeping in mind that Appetite for Destruction had already sold 8 million copies by the time The Simpsons debuted in December 1989, that might not be something to proudly advertise. It seems unbelievable that one of the most pop-culturally astute writing teams in television history wasn’t at least familiar with iconic top-hatted guitarist Slash by that point.

Nevertheless, Kogen is sticking to his guns (pun intended). “It’s very weird this Duff McKagan guy wants to claim credit for Duff Beer,” he told TMZ. “He had zero to do with it.”

Gene Simmons recalled how his avoidance of alcohol provided him with the opportunity to “swoop” on girls when he went to parties as a teenager.

The Kiss star said he’d never been attracted to drinking – but because other boys his age and older were, he was able to indulge his attraction to women.

“Well, the word ‘no’ is in the dictionary,” Simmons told Backstage Pass in a recent interview (video below). “I’ve never seen anybody drunk be witty or intelligent. Have you? And people who are high sound like aliens. And people who smoke stink like ashtrays.”

READ MORE: Rock’s Longest Lasting Marriages

He continued: “I can understand if smoking or drinking or getting high would make you smarter, richer, made your shmeckel bigger, made you more attractive — all those things that we all wish we had.… But nothing happens, really.”

He argued a drunk person was more likely to “throw up on the shoes your girlfriend just bought” than “be witty,” adding: “The next day your head will hurt; and if you drink enough, your shmeckel is not gonna work. So I don’t get it.”

Simmons went on to recall being invited to parties when he was around 13 or 14, although he was younger than most of the others. “I was always bigger, so they’d invite me,” he said. “They’d think I was older. And like a vulture on the side, I’d just wait for the guys to get drunk, and then just swoop in and take any girl I wanted.”

How Gene Simmons Escaped His Womanizing Ways

In a separate recent interview, Simmons explained how he’d escaped his womanizing ways and settling down with Shannon Tweed, his wife of 13 years and partner of 41 years.

“I had this epiphany: I’m probably going to die alone and a miserable old fuck,” he said. “You are lucky if you find, as they say, your soulmate. You never think about those things when you’re younger, when you’re busy – bang, bang, bang, bang, bang – because it doesn’t mean anything and you’re having a lot of fun.

“That’s fine. But what does it mean? Do you miss those people? You never miss anybody. You just say, ‘That was good then. Tomorrow’s another day. I’ll have another salad, a doughnut and I’ll have that piece of ass over there.’”

Watch Gene Simmons’ Interview

David Gilmour has released a new single, a cover of the Montgolfier Brothers’ 1999 song “Between Two Points,” featuring his daughter Romany Gilmour on vocals and harp.

“I’ve had that song on my playlist since it was released,” David Gilmour explained in a press release. “More recently I mentioned it to one or two people: I assumed that it had been a hit, but no one knew it. I asked Romany to give it a go.”

You can listen to the track below.

“I realized that Romany has exactly the right sort of vulnerability and youth for the song,” he continued. “In fact, she was halfway through an essay with a train to catch when we asked her: ‘OK, I’ll sing it once, put the mic on’ and that is 90 percent of the finished vocal.”

Who Were the Montgolfier Brothers?