Author: LRussell

For the past quarter century, Nick Lowe has quietly made some of the best albums of his five-decade recording career. Addressing age, lost love and the always-advancing steps of life moving on, the singer, songwriter and producer is just as sharp melodically and lyrically as he was when he made his two irrefutable classics, 1978’s Jesus of Cool and the following year’s Labour of Lust.

Now, though, Lowe has settled into the role of elder statesman, a new wave and power pop icon who looks back without much nostalgia, but with lessons learned, as he strides to the next stage of his life. Indoor Safari, his first album since 2013’s holiday offering Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family, features backing by Los Straitjackets – the masked instrumental surf garage rock band from Nashville – and a dozen songs, some new, some pulled from his catalog to be retooled in new settings.

Lowe and Los Straitjackets have an easy chemistry, undoubtedly honed when the band backed him on a 2019 tour and a trio of EPs starting in 2018; several of the songs on those earlier records appear on Indoor Safari in newly recorded versions. At its loosest, such as in the opener “Went to a Party” and rockabilly throwback “Tokyo Bay,” the album breezes through its 37-minute playing time with few concessions to the 21st century. This is timeless music that could just as easily have been made 40 years ago.

READ MORE: Reviews of 2024’s Best Rock Albums

Like Lowe’s best work over the decades, Indoor Safari pulls from various stops, including new wave, pop, power pop, pub rock, Americana and traditional singer-songwriter music; Los Straitjackets bring other elements: garage, surf and classic rock ‘n’ roll. They also at times pull Lowe out of his recent self-reflection and into the more universal observations of his earlier records (“Went to a Party,” “Love Starvation”).

Indoor Safari mostly lifts the clouds that occasionally dampened Lowe’s aging spirit on 2007’s At My Age and 2011’s The Old Magic; however, they’re not quite shaken on the heartbroken “Different Kind of Blue” (first recorded during the sessions for 2001’s The Convincer) and “Blue on Blue.” “I’ve been wisecracking like the good old days, but pretty soon I’m going to slip away,” Lowe sings on “Crying Inside,” nodding to this uplift and ushering in a guitar solo with a casually cool “Here come the tears.” But as he sings at one point, “I’ll be back like a jet pac boomerang.” There’s no reason to doubt him.

As someone who was born in the ’70s and shaped in the ’80s, I can tell you that trips to the “corner store” in search of candy weren’t just about pleasing our insatiable sweet teeth (tooths?)—they were also our first taste of independence and even a crash course in financial planning.

A Sugary Trip Down Memory Lane

The ’80s was all about standing out and proudly rocking bright colors, and that spirit extended to candy packaging too. With cartoonish designs, vivid primary colors, and neon everywhere, we often picked candy just because it looked fun—or because the container could be repurposed into something cool, even becoming a cherished plaything.

RELATED: Try Guessing These Awesome ’80s Movies From a Single Freeze-Frame

Trading was a big part of childhood in the ’80s, so if your candy came with a collectible prize, all the better.

Candy as a Cultural Touchstone

Just like toy stores, candy racks in the ’80s were treasure troves of sweets that frequently made appearances in movies and TV shows. One standout example is a candy that played a starring role in an iconic film about an alien with a serious sweet tooth who just wanted to call home.

RELATED: Nostalgic ’90s Cartoons That Deserve a Comeback

If you Google some of your favorite candies from the past, you’ll find a host of companies dedicated to bringing these treats back. Sites like The Penny Candy Store and Candy Nation thrive on the fact that these candies aren’t just sweets—they’re time capsules from a cherished era.

From the sweet to the sour to the downright teeth-destroying, let’s unwrap some of the most awesome ’80s candies.

David Gilmour‘s first live performance in four years happened in an unexpected place: He played a Pink Floyd classic alongside daughter Romany Gilmour last night during an open-mic night at a pub in East Sussex.

Watch footage from their performance of the title track from 1975’s Wish You Were Here inside the Neptune Live Music Bar below. In a post on X, David Gilmour said he “very much enjoyed crashing” the gig “after finishing tour rehearsals.”

Shows in support of his just-released Luck and Strange include U.S. dates in October and November. Gilmour is also playing residencies at the Royal Albert Hall in London and Circo Massimo in Rome.

READ MORE: The Best David Gilmour Pink Floyd Songs

His most recent public appearances were in 2020, including the tribute concert for Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green, held at the London Palladium.

Watch David Gilmour Perform ‘Wish You Were Here’

When Does David Gilmour Play the U.S.?

Gilmour took the stage after Romany asked if he wanted to “come and upstage me.” The venue later described what followed as an “electrifying evening.”

Luck and Strange, Gilmour’s first solo album in nine years, includes vocal and harp performances by Romany on “Between Two Points” and the bonus track, “Yes, I Have Ghosts.” The latter was released as a stand-alone single in 2020.

Their initial collaboration on “Yes, I Have Ghosts” was basically by happenstance. “I was working on this song just as we went into lockdown,” Gilmour said back then, “and had to cancel a session with backing singers – but, as it turned out, the solution was right here and I couldn’t be happier with the way Romany’s voice blends with mine and her beautiful harp playing has been another revelation.”

More From David Gilmour’s Surprise Appearance

Why Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and Roger Waters Are Still Fighting

Kansas turned to a familiar figure when replacing bassist and co-lead vocalist Billy Greer, who retired last week after nearly 40 years in the lineup. Dan McGowan, a recent sub for Greer, will take over.

A native of southern New Jersey, McGowan previously played bass with Kansas keyboardist Tom Brislin’s band Gold Rotation. His promotion means Kansas has completely rebuilt its rhythm section this year after stalwart drummer Phil Ehart’s recent health issues led to his replacement in February by long-time drum tech Eric Holmquist.

“I am thrilled and honored to be joining Kansas,” McGowan said in an official statement. “I am also deeply aware of the gigantic shoes that I will be filling. [Early-era Kansas bassist] Dave Hope and Billy Greer are among the best musicians in rock history.”

READ MORE: Phil Ehart Looks Back on Eight Key Kansas Albums

McGowan remains a member of the Tea Club, a progressive rock band, with his brother Patrick. Their sixth album is due later this year. McGowan also does all of the cover artwork.

Still, his passion for this new gig is evident. “I want the fans to know that I love the music of Kansas, and I hold it in highest reverence,” McGowan said. “I am committed to doing justice to the band’s incredible legacy, and I am so grateful for this unbelievable opportunity!”

Joining just before 1986’s surprise comeback Power, Greer had appeared on stage with Kansas for more than 2,300 concerts before leaving in early September after a show in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Only Ehart and guitarist Rich Williams have had longer tenures. More recently, Greer also served as the group’s in-concert emcee.

When David Gilmour was considering producers for his fifth solo album, a famous name came to mind.

“We had thought about Rick Rubin,” the former Pink Floyd rocker admitted during an appearance on The Rockonteurs podcast, adding that “a number of other people who’ve been around for quite a while” were also discussed. Rubin, of course, has a resume featuring some of the biggest names in the history of rock. Yet Gilmour ultimately decided he wanted to go in a different direction, instead enlisting a young rising star who could offer a fresh perspective.

“My lovely wife, Polly, came up with the notion of looking at who was younger and hot in the production world,” he explained. That idea led him to Charlie Andrew, best known for his work with U.K. indie rock groups Alt-J, Wolf Alice and London Grammar.

READ MORE: David Gilmour’s 10 Best Solo Songs

“There was a fresh thing in those records that really appealed to me,” Gilmour continued, adding that he initially reached out to Andrew via Instagram. “He came down and listened to the early formation of the demos, which some of them weren’t that early, but they were certainly unfinished. And he asked some pertinent questions and then said he’d love to work.”

Andrew Helped Gilmour Find a ‘Different Sound’

The result is Luck and Strange, an album Gilmour believes is his best work since Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. Stylistically, the rocker notes Andrew was able to help him capture “something different” than what older producers would have done.

READ MORE: All 167 Pink Floyd Songs Ranked Worst to Best

“There’s less of a crystal clear purity,” he explained. “And the cohesiveness of the whole album, to me, I find quite extraordinary. They have put all those sounds together and every track ties in in a certain way. It’s a different sound. I don’t think it’s any less brilliant or any less pure.”

Some of Andrew’s choices – like “distorted elements” and “out of tune elements” – initially made Gilmour shake his head, only for him to soon grasp the idea. “There are some things which were just, one of those moments you’re sitting there and going, ‘What? What the hell?’” the rocker admitted. “And the next day you’re going, ‘Yeah.’”

We hate to break it to you, but summer is nearly over.

Ideally, you’ve spent the last few months blasting good tunes by the pool or beach while working on your tan, or maybe with your windows rolled all the way down in the car. But alas, we’ve reached the final weeks of the summer season. The temperature is beginning to drop, the days are getting every so slightly shorter and before long, autumn will fully sink in — unless, of course, you live somewhere where the weather is more or less summer all year long, in which case, good for you.

For those of us facing the impending colder months, it’s time to shift gears, and to help do that, we’ve compiled a list of 40 End of Summer Songs.

“Maggie May,” Rod Stewart
From: Every Picture Tells a Story (1971)

The end of summer, for many people, also spells the beginning of the academic year, which Rod Stewart acknowledges in 1971’s “Maggie May,” the song that essentially made the singer a household name. “It’s late September and I really should be back at school.”

 

“Boys of Summer,” Don Henley
From: Building the Perfect Beast (1984)

Sometime in the early ’80s, Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers brought the song “Boys of Summer” to Petty for possible inclusion on their next album. Petty wound up turning it down, so Campbell passed it off to Don Henley, who added lyrics about driving by the empty beach, reminiscing about his sun-kissed lover.

 

“Urge for Going,” Joni Mitchell
From: 1972 B-Side

Not all summer loves are meant to last. Joni Mitchell wrote what is possibly the most poignant song about this. “I had me a man in summertime / He had summer-colored skin,” she sings in “Urge for Going,” but the cruel hands of time continue. “I’d like to call back summertime and have her stay for just another month or so / But she’s got the urge for going so I guess she’ll have to go.”

 

“Summer’s End,” John Prine
From: The Tree of Forgiveness (2018)

John Prine’s “Summer’s End” is made even more touching when one learns it was included on Prine’s last album before his passing in 2020. “Summer’s end is around the bend just flying,” he sings. “The swimming suits are on the line just drying / I’ll meet you there per our conversation.”

 

“The Last Day of Summer,” The Cure
From: Bloodflowers (2000)

The Cure isn’t exactly a happy-go-lucky, summertime band. It makes a lot more sense that they wrote a song about summer ending instead of having fun during it. “The last day of summer never felt so cold,” Robert Smith laments. “The last day of summer never felt so old.”

 

“September,” Earth, Wind and Fire
From: The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 (1978)

Let’s make this perfectly clear: astronomically, summer does not officially end until the latter half of September when the autumnal equinox begins. This means that Sept. 21, the date mentioned in Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1978 hit “September,” is still a part of summer. So go ahead and keep blasting it.

 

“Wake Me Up When September Ends,” Green Day
From: American Idiot (2004)

When he was 10 years old, Billie Joe Armstrong’s father passed away in September of 1982 A little over 20 years later, Armstrong finally put some of those childhood feelings into the song “Wake Me Up When September Ends. “Summer has come and passed,” he sings at the top of the American Idiot track. “The innocent can never last / Wake me up when September ends.”

 

“Summer’s Almost Gone,” The Doors
From: Waiting for the Sun (1968)

Interestingly, the Doors’ “Summer’s Almost Gone” was a song the band had already made a demo of prior to guitarist Robby Krieger becoming a member of the group. As keyboardist Ray Manzarek would put it in 1997 box set liner notes, it was “a cool Latino-Bolero kind of thing with a Bach-like bridge. It’s about the ephemeral nature of life. A season of joy and light and laughter is coming to an end.”

 

“All Summer Long,” The Beach Boys
From: All Summer Long (1964)

The end of summer doesn’t have to mean the end of listening to the Beach Boys, but even they understand all good things must come to a conclusion at some point. After a few months of spilled Coca Cola, cut off shorts and miniature golf, it’s time to accept reality, this song emphasizes.

 

“We’re Going to Be Friends,” The White Stripes
From: White Blood Cells (2001)

Here’s another “end of summer” meets “back to school” song: “We’re Going to Be Friends” by the White Stripes. “Fall is here, hear the yell,” declares Jack White, painting a sweet, nostalgic portrait of school days gone by. (A fun fact: this was the very first White Stripes song to appear in a film, 2004’s Napoleon Dynamite.)

 

“The End of Summer,” Frank Black
From: Fast Man Raider Man (2006)

Leave it to Frank Black to write an awfully depressing end of summer song. “Save me, the end of the summer,” he sings in “The End of Summer” from his 2006 album Fast Man Raider Man. “Save me, I’m not feeling whole.”

 

“The Other Side of Summer,” Elvis Costello
From: Mighty Like a Rose (1991)

Another way of putting it: the other side of summer. “The arrangement is a pastiche of the Beach Boys after the fashion of the Beatles‘ ‘Back in the U.S.S.R.,’ Elvis Costello explained of this track in 2002 liner notes. “The words are a catalog of pop conceits, deceits, hypocrisies and delusions. I include myself in this parade of liars and dupes.”

 

“Summer Nights,” John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John
From: Grease: The Original Soundtrack From the Motion Picture (1978)

“Summer Nights” is sort of like the teenybopper version of Henley’s “Boys of Summers” — nothing but cute, warm-weather moments with your honey. “Summer days drifting away,” John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John sing together. At least they have the memories.

 

“Night Moves,” Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
From: Night Moves (1976)

Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” was inspired by his adolescence in Ann Arbor, Michigan — a coming of age story of sorts in which a shy kid comes out of his shell bit by bit with the help of music. “Nobody has ever told about how it was to grow up in my neck of the woods,” Seger recalled thinking to himself just before writing the song, with its lines about “sweet summertime” and “autumn closing in.”

 

“Hot Fun in the Summertime,” Sly and the Family Stone
From: 1969 Single

Sure, Sly and the Family Stone’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” an enormous hit for the band, is an ode to warm-weather fun, but there’s also a few lines about the end of it all. “First of the fall / And then she goes back / Bye, bye, bye, bye there / Them summer days / Those summer days.”

 

“Summer Days,” Bob Dylan
From: Love and Theft (2001)

“Summer days and the summer nights are gone,” Bob Dylan declares in 2001’s “Summer Days,” a rockabilly-style tune. But fear not, he knows “a place where there’s still somethin’ going on.” And don’t miss the lines referencing The Great Gatsby, a story about summer extravagance if ever there was one.

 

“Summer’s Gone,” The Kinks
From: Word of Mouth (1984)

Turns out there’s quite a few songs about not only feeling sad that summer is over, but also about remembering happy summers from previous years. The Kinks’ “Summer’s Gone” is one of those. “When I think about what we wasted, makes me sad,” Ray Davies sings. “We never appreciated what we had.” Let this song be a lesson: savor every second of summer you can.

 

“Last Rose of Summer,” Judas Priest
From: Sin After Sin (1977)

Judas Priest singer Rob Halford appreciates the fact that 1977’s “Last Rose of Summer” can be interpreted different ways. “If you say to somebody, ‘the last rose of summer,’ that’s not only the changing of the seasons, but it could also be the changing of a relationship. It could be the completion of something,” he once explained to Songfacts. “It’s just got a multi-faceted opportunity, and I like it.”

 

“All Summer Long,” Kid Rock
From: Rock n Roll Jesus (2007)

If you have ever considered what Warren Zevon‘s “Werewolves of London,” Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” and Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s “Sweet Home Alabama” might sound like mashed together, Kid Rock already has you covered with his 2007 song “All Summer Long.” It is, to date, the biggest hit of his solo career.

 

“Indian Summer,” Al Stewart
From: Live/Indian Summer (1981)

Indian summers are becoming more and more common, periods of unseasonably warm and dry weather that carries over from summer into fall. It’s not entirely clear which part of the world Al Stewart is referring to in his 1981 song “Indian Summer,” but wherever it is, one can see the Northern Lights, the aerial phenomenon that begins to show itself at the end of August into the winter months.

 

“Summer Soft,” Stevie Wonder
From: Songs in the Key of Life (1976)

Here’s another song about the end of a summer love, snuffed out by autumn’s arrival. “Summer soft wakes you up with a kiss to start the morning off,” Stevie Wonder sings gently over a smooth groove. “But it breaks your heart in two when you find it’s October.”

 

“Come Monday,” Jimmy Buffett
From: Living and Dying in 3/4 Time (1974)

As previously noted, summer technically goes until the latter half of September, meaning Labor Day weekend isn’t really the end. And yet, it’s still awfully symbolic of the changing seasons, something Jimmy Buffett touched on in the first few lines of 1974’s “Come Monday,” one of his biggest hits — “Headin’ out to San Francisco / For the Labor Day weekend show.” Time to pack away the margarita supplies…

 

“Summer Is Over,” Dusty Springfield
From: 1964 Single

Well, the title of this 1964 single by Dusty Springfield sums it all up. “The grass that was green is now hay,” she sings, backed by an orchestral arrangement. Springfield wasn’t the only person to cover this song, originally written by Tom Springfield (her brother) and Clive Westlake, but her version went to the Top 10 in the U.K.

 

“I Didn’t Have Any Summer Romance,” Carole King
From: 1962 Single

While other people on this list are singing about a summer love who has left them, Carole King apparently never had one to begin with in 1962, the year she released  “I Didn’t Have Any Summer Romance” as a B-side single. “No one could be as blue as I was in the fall,” she sings at the end. “‘Cause I didn’t have any summer romance at all.”

 

“End of the Summer,” New York Dolls
From: Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011)

“End of the Summer” is not only a song about the conclusion of a summer fling, written by David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain, it also serves as the very last track on the New York Dolls’ very last album, which certainly gives new meaning to lines like “regrets lose their luster in a carnival of time.”

 

“Indian Summer,” Poco
From: Indian Summer (1977)

“Indian Summer” is actually the title track to Poco’s 10th LP, released in 1977, so really it’s a whole album experience. But “Indian Summer” in particular is notable for being one of two tracks on the album that feature Donald Fagen of Steely Dan playing synthesizer.

 

“September Song,” Lou Reed
From: Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill (1985)

Lou Reed is not the only person to have covered the American standard “September Song” — Lindsey Buckingham did so in 1981, Jeff Lynne in 1990, etc. — but his version is especially memorable for Reed’s spoken word style of singing against an excellent arrangement. “These few golden days,” Reed says, “I’d like to spend them with you.”

 

“Nightswimming,” R.E.M.
From: Automatic for the People (1992)

R.E.M. might win for the most poignantly painted image of late August with 1993’s “Nightswimming,” an ode to those late summer evenings with a striking string arrangement by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. “Nightswimming, remembering that night,” Michael Stipe muses. “September’s coming soon.”

 

“Summer’s End,” Foo Fighters
From: Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007)

Like nearly all of the song’s on Foo Fighters’ 2007 album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, “Summer’s End” is a co-write between all four members of the band then: Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel and Chris Shiflett. Both Grohl and Hawkins are credited as adding piano to this track, while Drew Hester, a longtime collaborator of the band’s, provided the extra percussion.

 

“Flaming September,” Marianne Faithfull
From: A Secret Life (1995)

In 1995, Marianne Faithfull joined forces with the composer Angelo Badalamenti, not long after his work appeared in the American TV series Twin Peaks, for her 12th album, A Secret Life. This was a much more classically-based project than many of Faithfull’s previous albums, and tracks like “Flaming September” definitely have the mysterious touch of Badalamenti. “The summer dying,” Faithfull sings. “September lives in flames.”

 

“Waiting in the Weeds,” Eagles
From: Long Road Out of Eden (2007)

As a Los Angeles-born band, it’s hard to feel bad for Eagles considering it’s basically summer all the time in their neck of the woods. In any case, 2007’s “Waiting in the Weeds” highlights the idea of, well, waiting for someone or something that simply never arrives. “Another summer’s promise almost gone,” Don Henley sings. “And though I heard some wise man say / That every dog will have his day / He never mentioned that these dog days get so long.”

 

“U.S. Blues,” The Grateful Dead
From: From the Mars Hotel (1974)

The Grateful Dead’s “U.S. Blues” gives off a more patriotic than end-of-summer vibe, but there is that line about “summertime done, come and gone.” This song was a co-write between Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, and the leading track to 1974’s From the Mars Hotel.

 

“(Only A) Summer Love,” REO Speedwagon
From: R.E.O. (1976)

What is it about warm weather romances never seeming to stretch into fall? Guitarist Gary Richrath penned REO Speedwagon’s “(Only A) Summer Love,” which appeared on their 1976 album R.E.O. “I guess it was only a summer love,” he sings. “Nothing too serious and nothing to last / I feel like a fool to be longing for that lyin’ summer love.”

 

“Famous Last Words,” Billy Joel
From: River of Dreams (1993)

“Famous Last Words,” the final track on Billy Joel’s last rock album, serves as something of a broader metaphor. In it, Joel describes the cleanup after the Labor Day parade, the remaining tourist souvenirs and the boat moorings being pulled up, all of which is traded for “the apples in the early fall.” It’s an accurate description of a seaside town winding down for the summer, but also for the closing of one chapter of Joel’s life, to be replaced by another.

 

“These Are the Days,” Van Morrison
From: Avalon Sunset (1989)

Hats off to Van Morrison for writing possibly the only song on this list about savoring summer while you can and living in the moment, instead of lamenting its inevitable conclusion. “These are the days that will last forever,” he insists. “You’ve got to hold them in your heart.”

 

“Footprints,” Squeeze
From: Babylon and On (1987)

What’s a summer without some great parties? Certainly Squeeze would agree with that sentiment, having penned 1987’s “Footprints” about spending too much money and doing “much damage deep in our insides” — we’ve all been there. “Now the summer is over I can count the cost,” Glenn Tilbrook admits. “Footprints on the beaches are now footprints in the frost.”

 

“We Just Got Here,” Carly Simon
From: Have You Seen Me Lately (1990)

“The beach is a haze and old love’s a ghost,” Carly Simon sings in “We Just Got Here,” conjuring up an image of an empty strand of sand that once hosted people in swimsuits and sunscreen. Now come the signs of fall, arriving just as quickly as summer left. “The apples are ripe and the corn is past / Everyone says summer goes by so fast / And we just got here.”

 

“Leaves That Are Green,” Simon and Garfunkel
From: Sounds of Silence (1966)

Arguably one of the most beautiful signs of the end of summer is the shift in color the leaves undergo, from a lush green to red, orange, yellow, brown and much in between. This is the metaphor Paul Simon adopted for “Leaves That Are Green,” which fade to brown and “crumble in your hand” like the love he once had for a girl.

 

“Kingdom of Days,” Bruce Springsteen
From: Working on a Dream (2009)

Oftentimes in his songs, Bruce Springsteen explores the uglier sides of love. But not in “Kingdom of Days” from 2009’s Working on a Dream. “I don’t see the summer as it wanes,” he says to his loved one, “just a subtle change of light upon your face.” Actually, the lyrics seem to emphasize, there’s something especially romantic about this time of year: “My jacket ’round your shoulders, the falling leaves / The wet grass on our backs as the autumn breeze drifts through the trees.”

 

“Time of No Reply,” Nick Drake
From: Time of No Reply (1987)

The song “Time of No Reply” by Nick Drake was released in 1987, over a decade after his death at the age of 26 in 1974. Drake has become posthumously famous for his wise-beyond-his-years lyricism and enigmatic songwriting. “Time of No Reply” sees him noting the sort of liminal space just before summer fully ends and fall begins — “Summer was gone and the heat died down / And Autumn reached for her golden crown.”

A new biopic about Janis Joplin will star Shailene Woodley as the powerful singer.

According to reporting by Variety, the project has received $2.5 million in funding from the California Film Commission. Woodley will also produce the film.

“California meant so much to Janis Joplin,” the actress said in a statement, “from the stoops of San Francisco to the wooden walls of Sunset Sound, the state became the stage upon which she explored not just the world of music, but the world of her vibrant humanity.”

Neither a title nor a release date has been confirmed.

Why Hasn’t a Janis Joplin Film Been Made Yet?

This is not the first time a film about Joplin has allegedly been in the works and subsequently scrapped. Amy Adams was slated to play Joplin in Janis: Get It While You Can in 2010. Before that, Zooey Deschanel was to take on the role for The Gospel According to Janis, later replaced by the singer Pink. There was also 2004’s Piece of My Heart starring Renee Zellweger. None of the films ever came to fruition.

READ MORE: How Janis Joplin Inspired Bette Midler Film ‘The Rose’

“I think there’s a lot of things that go into that. I think that it’s a lot harder to get a biopic done about a female, that’s why we don’t have that many,” Pink told Howard Stern in 2023. “And also, I just don’t think that Janis wants it made.”

Judas Priest will release a remixed and remastered version of their debut album Rocka Rolla to commemorate the LP’s 50th anniversary. The digital remaster arrives on Friday, and vinyl and CD copies will hit shelves on Nov. 22.

“It’s great to look back and see our future unfurl — from little metal acorns mighty metal oaks do grow,” Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford said in a statement. “One small step for metal, one giant leap for metalkind — a lifelong metal journey began with these songs. This album lit the eternal metal flame — as real and fresh as ever five decades on.”

The seeds of Judas Priest’s world domination were planted on Rocka Rolla, but listeners had to use their imaginations to envision the Metal Gods’ futures. The band — Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, bassist Ian Hill and drummer John Hinch — recorded the album during night-shift sessions to save money and had no say in the mixing and mastering processes. Consequently, the album suffered from subpar production and featured little of Judas Priest’s signature heavy metal thunder.

READ MORE: Judas Priest’s ‘Rocka Rolla’ Track-by-Track: Exclusive Excerpt

“I put the needle onto the groove and I sat back. And I just slowly started to deflate,” Halford recalled. “I was so disappointed with the way it was sounding … All of us were — we’d all worked so hard to get to this place. And now this music that we know when we play live is roaring — the heavy metal is roaring even in those early primitive days — none of that was coming out of the speakers.”

For a long time, it seemed like Judas Priest’s inauspicious debut would be doomed to “wasted potential” status. But in 2022, Gull Records — which originally released Rocka Rolla and its successor, Sad Wings of Destiny — sold the masters and publishing rights to Reach Music and Exciter Records in partnership with Judas Priest. Longtime producer Tom Allom helmed the remixing and remastering process.

“I’m just thrilled … because it just goes to show you when you get an expert involved in a project, it’s likely that you have a second chance,” Halford said. “And I think that Tom Allom is giving us a second chance here with the way that a lot of the elements were lost in Rocka Rolla. And it’s also nice, like a really nice feeling, especially to attach it to what will be a 50th anniversary moment. It’s just a beautiful feeling.”

Cameron Crowe’s directorial debut, 1983’s Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party, is coming to theaters this fall.

It’s been fully restored and also includes 20 additional minutes of footage starring Petty and his bandmates Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and Stan Lynch. According to a press release, it features “in-depth interviews, electrifying live performances and unprecedented intimate access to [the band].”

For the first time ever, the film will be available to watch in theaters on Oct. 17 and 20, the latter being what would have been Petty’s 74th birthday. More information about tickets can be found here.

You can watch a trailer for the movie below.

READ MORE: Underrated Tom Petty: The Most Overlooked Song From Each Album

“Heartbreakers Beach Party occupies a special place in my heart,” Crowe said in a statement. “Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers leaned into the making of the film with a kind of hilarious music-filled honesty that still feels fresh forty years later. It was also my first experience as a director. Thanks to Adria Petty and the Petty Estate, along with our co-filmmakers Danny Bramson, Phil Savenick, Doug Dowdle and Greg Mariotti, I’m so happy we’re bringing it back in all its reckless glory. The fact that it was yanked from MTV after only one airing at two a.m. [in 1983] just shows that it was indeed an outlandish feast for fans in all the best ways. Let that sucker blast!”

In Other Tom Petty News…

Later this month, the Petty estate will release a deluxe reissue of 1982’s Long After Dark. Included is a remastered version of the original album, plus recordings taken from French TV sessions, commentary from Jimmy Iovine and Crowe, as well as archival photographs.

On Aug. 18, 1969, at 3:30 in the morning, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young made just their second appearance as a quartet at the Woodstock music festival, a performance where Stephen Stills famously quipped, “We’re scared shitless.”

The group soon hit the road for a series of concerts that helped set the stage for their 1970 album, Deja Vu. On Sept. 20, 1969, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young played New York’s Fillmore East. Now, the multitrack tapes from that show are being released as Live at Fillmore East, 1969.

All four members – including the late David Crosby – were involved in the assembly of the album. The 17-song set arrives on Oct. 25 in CD and vinyl formats.

READ MORE: Top 10 Crosby, Stills & Nash Songs

The performance captured on the upcoming set was the group’s fourth show in two days at the historic venue. The concert included both acoustic and electric sets, with drummer Dallas Taylor and bassist Greg Reeves assisting onstage.

Following the release of a debut album as a trio in May 1969, Stills, Crosby and Graham Nash joined with Stills’ former Buffalo Springfield bandmate Neil Young for a tour later in the year. Woodstock really was their second show as a four-piece. An album would arrive in the first part of 1970.

“For me, CSNY was a chance to reunite with Steve Stills and carry on the Buffalo Springfield vibe,” Young says in the album’s notes. “Crosby’s great energy was always our catalyst. Graham and Stephen’s vocals, along with David’s and mine, were uplifting every night. Great moments I will never forget.”

“I remember the first Fillmore East shows with great fondness,” Nash adds. “Hearing the music again after all these years, I can tell how much we loved each other and loved the music that we were creating. We were so confident in what we were doing, and you can hear it in this recording.”

What’s on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s ‘Live at the Fillmore East, 1969’ Album?

Live at Fillmore East, 1969 begins with an 11-song acoustic set launched with the trio’s “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” which was also played at Woodstock.

From there, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young work their way through the trio’s debut (“Guinnevere,” “Lady of the Island”), Buffalo Springfield history (“On the Way Home”), Young’s solo career (“Down by the River”) and songs that would end up on March 1970’s Deja Vu (“Our House,” “4 + 20”).

You can see the track listing for the album below.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s ‘Live at the Fillmore East, 1969’ Track Listing
Acoustic Set
1. “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”
2. “Blackbird”
3. “Helplessly Hoping”
4. “Guinnevere”
5. “Lady Of The Island”
6. “Go Back Home”
7. “On The Way Home”
8. “4 + 20”
9. “Our House”
10. “I’ve Loved Her So Long”
11. “You Don’t Have To Cry”
Electric Set
12. “Long Time Gone”
13. “Wooden Ships”
14. “Bluebird Revisited”
15. “Sea Of Madness”
16. “Down By The River”
17. “Find The Cost Of Freedom”

Motley Crue will return to their roots with shows at three famous Los Angeles clubs next month.

The band will perform at the Troubador on Oct. 7, the Roxy on Oct. 9 and the Whisky a Go Go on Oct. 11 as part of their “Hollywood Takeover.” Motley Crue famously emerged from the Hollywood club scene in the early ’80s, performing their very first show at the Starwood Hotel in April 1981.

Hopefully they’ll get a slighter better reception this time around. “People were yelling ‘F— you!’ and flipping us the bird” during the kickoff song, ‘Take Me to the Top,'” singer Vince Neil wrote while recalling the band’s first show in the book The Dirt. “Then one meathead, in a black AC/DC shirt, hocked a loogey that landed on my white leather pants. Without even thinking, I leapt off the stage mid-phrase and put him in a headlock and started pummeling him.”

Read More: The Night Motley Crue Played Their First Show

Motley Crue Aim to Raise a Quarter-Million Dollars for Homeless Youth

In addition to promoting their new EP Cancelled, which includes a cover of the Beastie Boys’ “Fight for Your Right,” Motley Crue will use the Sunset Strip shows to launch a new charitable endeavor. They aim to raise $250,000 to benefit Covenant House by auctioning off instruments played at each of the shows, as well as a pair of tickets to the Troubadour concert. Covenant House is a non-profit organization supporting young people experiencing homelessness.

The group will also host a charity dinner at the Rainbow Bar and Grill on Oct. 8. A pop-up shop featuring exclusive merchandise will open at the venue on Oct 6. Tickets for the three concerts will be available only at the respective venue box offices beginning Saturday, Sept. 14 at 10AM PT.

One of the towering presences in movies, television, and theater — not to mention one of the most distinctive voices of the 20th century — has died. James Earl Jones passed away on Monday morning at his home in New York. He was 93 years old. His death was confirmed by Deadline. They did not list a cause of death.

Jones won Emmys, Grammys, and Tony Awards for his work as an actor on screens and on stage, and as a recording artist. He won several Emmys, including one for his work on Gabriel’s Fire, a Grammy for his spoken word recording of Great American Documents, and Tonys for his performances in the Broadway productions of The Great White Hope and Fences. He also received an honorary Oscar in 2011.

But Jones will be best remember for a pair of vocal performances: As Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga and as Mufasa in the original animated version of The Lion King as well as its recent remake.

READ MORE: The Best Movies of the Year So Far

Born in Mississippi in 1931, Jones studied drama at the University of Michigan. After serving in the military, he began working as a stage actor, making the biggest early impressions of his career in productions of Shakespeare plays like Othello. The Great White Hope, a play about the struggles of a boxer, became his acting breakthrough; the role won him a Tony for Best Actor, and solidified his career as an up-and-coming star in the theater world.

Success in movies came later — most prominently as the booming, menacing voice of Darth Vader, the iconic villain of Star Wars. Jones reprised the role in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and then made additional appearances as Vader in later years, including in 2005’s Revenge of the Sith and 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Jones’ career on film began in 1964 with a small role in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove; his best-known movies include The Great White Hope, Conan the Barbarian, Coming to America, Field of Dreams, The Hunt for Red October, and the ’90s kids classic The Sandlot.

In 1994, Jones voiced the wise king Mufasa in the original Lion King. He then reprised the role in Disney’s 2019 remake. It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing the role — although a prequel is coming later this year, directed by Barry Jenkins, with Mufasa voiced by Aaron Pierre.

As for Vader, Jones quietly retired from the role in recent years; for the character’s appearance in the recent Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, it was revealed that Jones had “stepped back” from actively performing the part, and allowed Lucasfilm to create his dialogue using archival recordings of his voice as well as AI technology.

Jones’ accolades are almost too extensive to mention; he received the National Medal of Arts, was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame, and was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor. He appeared in many of the most famous plays and movies of the 20th century. No one will forget his presence — or that incredible, distinctive voice.

13 Actors Who Returned To Iconic Roles Decades Later

America has had dozens of Presidents, but only four have their faces carved into the side of a mountain in South Dakota. Similarly, some very big and important names will be regrettably but unavoidably excluded from any ranking of the “Big 4” rock guitar players.

This list attempts to identify the four guitar players who have made the biggest impact on the evolution of rock music, on their peers and on future generations of guitar players. With apologies to Tony Iommi, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend and many, many others, here are the ‘Big 4’ of Rock Guitar:

Keith Richards

Keith Richards‘ guitar playing is one of the main reasons the Rolling Stones have become the most enduring and successful band in rock history. He’s also the co-writer of nearly all of their biggest hits. He’s also the “how is he still alive?” embodiment of rock and roll, the guy who composed and recorded the famous riff to “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” in his sleep. Although primarily acclaimed for his rhythm work, Richards can be heard playing lead guitar on many classic Stones songs, including “Sympathy for the Devil,” which also features him on bass.

But if he was writing this list he’d almost assuredly put somebody else first. “Chuck [Berry] is the granddaddy of us all,” Richards told Rolling Stone in 2017. “Even if you’re a rock guitarist who wouldn’t name him as your main influence, your main influence is probably still influenced by Chuck Berry.” Fair point, but Richards helped the Stones take the genre to even greater creative heights by steadily incorporating a wider range of influences and textures into landmark songs such as “Gimme Shelter,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Miss You” and… this could go on forever.

Working together with three distinctly different guitar duo partners – Brian Jones, Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood – Richards has helped the Rolling Stones build a recorded catalog that towers over every other rock band in terms of both quantity and quality, and inspired an unimaginable  number of younger rock stars. Plus, let’s be clear, the story isn’t over yet. In 2023 Richards, co-founder Mick Jagger and their band mates released the very well-regarded Hackney Diamonds album, and earlier this year they mounted a highly successful stadium tour of the United States.

 

Jimi Hendrix

It’s safe to say Jimi Hendrix made a strong first impression on the rock world. “After Pete Townshend and I went to see him play, I thought that was it, the game was up for all of us, we may as well pack it in,” Eric Clapton later said of his first time seeing Hendrix perform.

After paying his dues as a sideman for acts such as the Isley Brothers, Little Richard and Curtis Knight, in 1966 Hendrix moved to London and exploded onto the scene by completely re-writing the vocabulary of rock guitar with his use of feedback, distortion and effects such as wah-wah on singles such as “Hey Joe,” “Purple Haze” and “The Wind Cries Mary.” His talent, creativity and bold experimental streak helped him craft songs such as “Are You Experienced?,” that still sound like they’re from the future more than five decades after their release. But he was also a devoted student of the blues, capable of delivering a mesmerizing version of “Hear My Train A Comin'” with just a 12-string acoustic guitar.

Although he only released four albums of original material (three studio, one live) before his untimely death in 1970, Hendrix’s unique blend of rock, blues, soul and psychedelia instantly changed the way many of his peers played, and continues to inspire and influence countless generations of rock musicians. The demand for his music is so strong that nearly every studio session or live concert of his that was recorded and preserved has been released as part of one of the dozens of posthumous Hendrix releases.

Read More: Who are the ‘Big 4’ of Prog Rock?

Jimmy Page

After spending years honing his craft as a highly-sought after session musician, Jimmy Page took over and completely rewired a floundering late-era version of the Yardbirds, and wound up building and leading perhaps the most important band in hard rock history: Led Zeppelin.

“I wanted Zeppelin to be a marriage of blues, hard rock and acoustic music topped with heavy choruses – a combination that had never been done before. Lots of light and shade in the music,” Page explained in a 1993 Guitar World interview. The collective talent and chemistry of Page, singer Robert Plant, drummer John Bonham and John Paul Jones proved to be the perfect vessel for Page’s vision, with his guitar playing front and center at all times.

“I owe a lot to Jimmy Page, of course – the master of the riff and the master of deliberately getting lost in time signatures,” Queen‘s Brian May told Guitar World in 2023. “Those guys were not that far ahead of us in age, but the first time we heard Zeppelin, we thought, ‘Oh, my God, this is where we’re trying to get to, and they’re already there!”

Page’s hard-earned studio mastery also played a big role in the band’s recorded sound and overall success. He produced all of the band’s albums, using creative tunings, unique microphone placement techniques, violin bows and innovations such as reverse echo to enhance his playing on classic songs such as “Whole Lotta Love” and “Kashmir.”

Although Page has largely retreated from the public eye, only sporadically releasing new music or performing live since Zeppelin’s demise in 1980, his influence looms as large as ever. “Jimmy Page, to me, is the consummate guitarist,” Kiss star Paul Stanley declared in Guitar World. “He’s Beethoven. He paints with music in a way that’s just so stellar. He’s not rock or metal, he’s true world music that encompasses so much.”

 

Eddie Van Halen

As rock music was in danger of being pushed aside by punk and disco in the late ’70s, Eddie Van Halen and his namesake band exploded onto the scene. Just like Hendrix before him, Van Halen re-wrote the vocabulary of rock guitar, partly by popularizing (not inventing) the tapping technique of using both hands on the guitar neck.

His 1978 instrumental showcase “Eruption” almost instantly became the much-imitated gold standard for guitar solos, essentially serving as a new alphabet for a legion of hard rock and heavy metal players. But what kept Eddie elevated above the pack was how well he used his technique to enhance, not detract from, his band’s songwriting. Van Halen (the band) spent years on the club circuit before emerging on the national scene, playing covers of everything from Black Sabbath to disco. When the time came to write their own songs they used that knowledge to meld Eddie’s jaw-dropping riffs with big pop hooks and tightly disciplined arrangements. This helped Van Halen become the most popular rock group for both guitar nerds and mainstream fans.

“From the first moment I heard them, I knew straight away that they were something special. The way that Ed plays is very different. He came up with a style that’s been imitated a million times, and they had great songs,” Tony Iommi declared in a 2010 Guitar World interview. Van Halen was also a mad scientist off stage, custom-building and drastically modifying his guitars and amplifiers in an eternal pursuit of better sound.

Ironically, in 1984 Eddie Van Halen brought the band to even greater commercial and creative heights by briefly temporarily putting his guitar down (over the initial objections of singer David Lee Roth) for their first-ever No. 1 hit, the keyboard-dominated “Jump.” Almost immediately just about every other hard rock band added the instrument to their arsenal. It was yet another example of the boundary-smashing innovation that made Eddie not just one of the most influential guitarists, but one of the most important musicians of the rock era.

Heart has announced rescheduled North American tour dates for 2025 after postponing them in July after it was revealed singer Ann Wilson had undergone an operation to treat a cancer diagnosis.

The upcoming tour will start on Feb. 28 in Las Vegas and conclude on April 5 in Quebec. Heart will perform 19 dates in all. You can see the rescheduled dates below

“The best is yet to come!” guitarist Nancy Wilson said in a press release announcing the concerts. “We are so, so excited to resume this tour. We were just starting to fire on all cylinders and the vibe was entirely major. To be continued.”

READ MORE: Watch Heart Launch 2024 Tour

Back in July, North American tour dates for the band’s Royal Flush Tour were put on hold as Ann Wilson tended to ongoing health issues, which resulted in the cancellation of European tour dates in late May for what was referred to as a “time-sensitive but routine medical procedure.”

“I underwent an operation to remove something that, as it turns out, was cancerous,” she wrote in July. “The operation was successful and I’m feeling great but my doctors are now advising me to undergo a course of preventive chemotherapy and I’ve decided to do it. And so my doctors are instructing me to take the rest of the year away from the stage in order to fully recover.

“To the ticket buyers, I really do wish we could do these gigs. Please know that I absolutely plan to be back on stage in 2025. My team is getting those details sorted and we’ll let you know the plan as soon as we can. Thank you all for the support. This is merely a pause. I’ve much more to sing.”

Where Is Heart Playing in 2025?

After the rescheduled dates begin in late February in Las Vegas, Heart will perform shows in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Milwaukee and Buffalo, among other North American cities, before wrapping up the run of shows with three dates in Canada.

You can find more information on the shows at Heart’s website.

In August Nancy Wilson hinted that the band is working on an acoustic album. While no date was set for the record, Wilson did note that they “could finish that before we go back out on the road.”

Heart, 2025 Royal Flush Tour
February 28 – Las Vegas, NV – Fontainebleau Las Vegas
March 3 – Los Angeles, CA – Crypto.com Arena
March 4 – Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center
March 6 – Phoenix, AZ – Footprint Center
March 8 – West Valley City, UT – Maverik Center
March 9 – Boise, ID – ExtraMile Arena
March 11 – Spokane, WA – Spokane Arena
March 13 – Vancouver, BC – Pacific Coliseum
March 14 – Portland, OR – Moda Center
March 20 – Calgary, AB – Scotiabank Saddledome
March 21 – Edmonton, AB – Rogers Place
March 24 – Winnipeg, MB – Canada Life Centre
March 26 – Milwaukee, WI – Fiserv Forum
March 28 – Knoxville, TN – Thompson-Boling Arena
March 29 – Charleston, WV – Charleston Civic Center Coliseum
March 31 – Buffalo, NY – KeyBank Center
April 2 – Montreal, QC – Bell Centre
April 4 – Ottawa, ON – Canadian Tire Centre
April 5 – Québec, QC – Videotron Centre

Will Jennings, whose many hit collaborations included work with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, has died at age 80. His agent Sam Schwartz told the Los Angeles Times that Jennings passed away at home in Texas but did not reveal a cause of death.

He first worked with as principal co-writer with Winwood on 1980’s million-selling Arc of Diver, including the Top 10 hit “While You See a Chance.” Their partnership peaked two albums later with 1986’s multi-platinum international smash Back in the High Life. Jennings co-wrote “Higher Love,” “Back in the High Life Again” and “The Finer Things” with Winwood, all of which reached the Top 20.

Their collaborations were decidedly low key, Jennings later revealed. “We hang out. We go down to the pub, drink some beer, take walks – just live and talk about this and that, spend some time,” he told Songfacts. “It’s not like you show up and start writing. Show up and take a look around, see what the weather’s like.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Steve Winwood Songs

Jennings also co-wrote “Valerie,” a 1982 single that peaked in the Top 10 in 1987 after Tom Lord-Alge remixed the song for the Winwood compilation Chronicles. Winwood’s 1988 chart-topping multi-platinum album Roll With It included his second No. 1 Billboard hit, the title track, and the Top 10 single “Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do?” Both were co-written with Jennings.

Among Jennings’ other collaborators were Jimmy Buffett, Roy Orbison, B.B. King and Christopher Cross. “I’m deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my friend and collaborator Will Jennings,” Cross wrote on X. “Working with Will was a master class in lyric writing for me. He was the consummate wordsmith and his gift to the world is eternal.”

Whitney Houston covered the Grammy-nominated “Higher Love,” which was Winwood’s first-ever Billboard chart-topping song. Jennings later co-wrote her No. 1 1987 song “Didn’t We Almost Have It All.” He also wrote the lyrics for the Oscar-winning songs “Up Where We Belong,” performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes for An Officer and Gentleman, and Celine Dion‘s “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic, the top-selling song of 1998.

Watch Steve Winwood’s ‘Higher Love’ Video

How Will Jennings Helped Eric Clapton Through Tragedy

Eric Clapton, Winwood’s former bandmate in Blind Faith, memorably co-wrote “Tears in Heaven” with Jennings for the 1991 film Rush – but the platinum Top 5 single was actually a tribute to Clapton’s son Conor, who’d recently died at age 4 after falling out of an open window in a New York City high rise.

“We wrote a song called ‘Help Me Up’ for the end of the movie,” Jennings told Songfacts, “then Eric saw another place in the movie for a song and he said to me, ‘I want to write a song about my boy.’ Eric had the first verse of the song written – which, to me, is all the song – but he wanted me to write the rest of the verse lines and the release.”

Jennings completed the track – including the lines “time can bring you down / time can bend your knees,” even though he said, “I told him that it was so personal he should write everything himself. He told me that he had admired the work I did with Steve Winwood, and finally there was nothing else but to do as he requested, despite the sensitivity of the subject. This is a song so personal and so sad … it is unique in my experience of writing songs.”

Watch Eric Clapton’s ‘Tears in Heaven’ Video

The Rock Supergroups You Totally Forgot

Prince’s otherworldly guitar solo at the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony remains a timeless example of his extraordinary musical ability. Now, a documentary has shed some light on the context behind his performance.

In a recent story for New York Times Magazine, writer Sasha Weiss offered an in-depth examination of the yet-to-be-released documentary about Prince’s life. The film, directed by Academy Award winner Ezra Edelman, takes a strikingly honest look at the complex musical genius that Prince was.

Towards the end of the film – which currently sits at nine hours in length – Prince’s Hall of Fame performance is highlighted. On that night, the Purple One joined Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne and Dhani Harrison to honor George Harrison with a rendition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Prince remained unseen for much of the performance, lingering in the background as each of the other musicians played through their respective portions of the song. Then he stepped up and delivered a blistering guitar solo that remains unmatched in the history of Hall of Fame events.

Watch Prince Performing ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’

Prince Reportedly Felt Slighted by ‘Rolling Stone’

According to the new documentary, Prince had something to prove that night. The previous year, he had been left out of Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone’s co-founder, was also one of the heads of the Hall of Fame.

“Prince nursed these kinds of slights,” Weiss reported in the New York Times Magazine article, “and his commandeering of the stage — at an event associated with Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone — was, in part, an act of revenge. There’s spite and aggression in the performance. But there’s also pain — in his wincing face, his apartness: a small, soigné Black man onstage with these rumpled white rockers.”

READ MORE: 145 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

In the documentary, Prince’s Hall of Fame performance is contrasted with scenes from his past, including his tumultuous childhood.

“Suddenly, this triumphant performance is given this other dimension of insecurity and insistence in the face of all doubters — the white rock establishment, his uncomprehending parents, the demons in his head,” Weiss explained. “The keening he elicits from the guitar is so plaintive, you want to weep too. A close friend of his later told me that Prince would watch this performance over and over.”

Why the Prince Documentary May Never Be Released

Edelman has been working on the Prince documentary since 2019, when he was recruited by executives at Netflix to helm the project. Despite five years of painstaking work, the film may never be released.

READ MORE: The Best Rock Movie From Every Year

The crux of the problem seemingly stems from a debate over final edit. When Edelman signed on, Prince’s estate was being administered by a bank in Minnesota. The filmmaker was given access to Prince’s expansive vault of material, along with a promise that the estate would have no influence over his documentary. However, years later the estate changed hands. Its new executors reportedly objected to Edelman’s portrayal of Prince – which included his prodigious talent, but also his controlling nature and, at times, confrontational manner.

“Last spring, [the estate] saw a cut and, claiming that it misrepresented Prince, entered into a protracted battle with Netflix, which owns the rights to the film, to prevent its release,” Weiss reported. “As of today, there is no indication that the film will ever come out.”

Patti Scialfa, the longtime E Street Band member and wife of Bruce Springsteen, has revealed her ongoing battle with blood cancer.

In the new documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Scialfa shared her news publicly for the first time.

“In 2018, well, Bruce and I were doing a play on Broadway. I was diagnosed with early stage multiple myeloma,” the backing singer confessed (as reported by People). Scialfa also added that “touring has become a challenge for me” as a result of her condition.

READ MORE: When Bruce Springsteen Married Patti Scialfa

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in plasma cells found in bone marrow. According to the Mayo Clinic, “Multiple myeloma treatment isn’t always needed right away. If the multiple myeloma is slow growing and isn’t causing symptoms, close watching might be the first step.” Multiple myeloma is rare. The American Cancer Society notes that less than 1% of women in the United States are diagnosed with the condition.

Patti Scialfa Details Her ‘New Normal’

Scialfa had been a member of the E Street Band since 1984. She and Springsteen married in 1991 and together they have three sons. In Road Diary, the singer addressed how her touring life has changed since the diagnosis.

“This affects my immune system so I just have to be careful what I choose to do and where I choose to go,” she explained. “Every once in a while, I come to a show or two and I can sing a few songs onstage, and that’s been a treat. That’s the new normal for me right now, and I’m OK with that.”

READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Bruce Springsteen Album

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 8. It will be officially released via Hulu and Disney+ on Oct. 25.

Meanwhile, Springsteen and the E Street Band have been touring for much of 2024, with performances scheduled through November. Further concerts have also been announced for 2025 in Europe.

Bassist Herbie Flowers, whose long and diverse career including work with David Bowie, Elton John, Harry Nilsson, Cat Stevens and three members of the Beatles, has died of unspecified causes at the age of 86.

The BBC reports that Flowers’ death was confirmed on social media by close family members. He is best known for composing and performing the twin bass lines on Lou Reed‘s 1972 hit “Walk on the Wild Side.” He also plays the distinctive bass part on David Essex’s 1973 smash “Rock On” and Nilsson’s “Jump in the Fire.”

In a 2005 interview, Flowers confirmed that he was only paid about 30 pounds for his memorable contribution to Reed’s highest-charting single, double the usual fee at the time.

“It’s never ever occurred to me that I have any right whatsoever to ask for a commission or a royalty or an involvement in the composition of the piece,” Flowers explained. “It was a magical three days and it gave me all the confidence, and it reassured me that the style of a soul jazzist had never ever disappeared. …My favorite memory was [Reed] listening to Ronnie Ross putting that baritone sax solo on the end of ‘Walk on the Wild Side.’ He just looked and said, ‘that was divine.’ And that said it all, he was divine.”

Hear Bernie Flowers Perform on Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’

Born in Isleworth, Middlesex, England in 1938, Flowers began his musical career in 1956 by playing tuba for the Royal Air Force, eventually switching to bass. In addition to his long list of session credits, he was at one point a member of Blue Mink, T. Rex and Sky. He co-wrote Clive Dunn’s 1970 novelty hit “Grandad.”

Flowers also performed on Bowie’s Space Oddity and Diamond Dogs albums, as well as Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson and Son of Schmilsson and albums from Paul McCartney (Give My Regards to Broad Street), Ringo Starr (Stop and Smell the Roses) and George Harrison (Somewhere in England, Gone Troppo and Brainwashed).

Nearly three years ago, Northern Ireland’s health minister Robin Swann filed a defamation lawsuit after Van Morrison accused him of mis-handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Swann is no longer the health minister, but the suit has finally been settled, just weeks before it was scheduled to go to trial.

Swann’s suit claimed that Morrison repeatedly referred to him as “dangerous” in public, as well as made similar comments to newspapers. At that time, the singer was often vocal about his disagreement with pandemic lockdown measures and what he called “pseudoscience.”

In response to some of these comments, Swann wrote an op-ed in 2021 for Rolling Stone.

“It’s entirely right and proper to debate and question policies,” he stated then. “It’s legitimate to ask if the right balance is being found in what is being done; if the right steps are being taken. None of this is easy or straightforward.”

He continued: “But Van Morrison is going way beyond raising questions. … His words will give great comfort to the conspiracy theorists – the tin foil hat brigade who crusade against masks and vaccines and think this is all a huge global plot to remove freedoms.”

Suit Settled

On Friday at the High Court in Belfast, a lawyer for Swann provided a statement. Neither party was present themselves.

“Sir Van, while not agreeing with a number of the steps adopted by government during the COVID crisis, acknowledges that in performing his then role as minister for health in Northern Ireland, Mr. Swann acted at all times honestly and in good faith and on the advice of responsible officials,” it read (via Rolling Stone). “Mr. Swann, while not agreeing with Sir Van’s views on the handling of the pandemic, acknowledges that those views were sincere and expressed in the context of Sir Van being prevented by government regulations from performing in a role for which he is justly famous.”

READ MORE: When Van Morrison Returned to His Roots With ‘Beautiful Vision’

In addition to the statement, there was also a note from Ireland’s Department of Health, which said that “any views they may have wished to express about Sir Van’s song lyrics might have been more appropriately expressed in the usual form of media interviews or statements provided to the Northern Ireland media, rather than providing copy to a U.S. rock music magazine.”

In an exclusive chapter-long excerpt from the newly updated edition of Martin Popoff’s Iron Maiden: Album by Album, Mike Portnoy, Nita Strauss and Blaze Bayley analyze the group’s Powerslave album.

Released in September of 1984, the album was home to the classic tracks “Aces High” and ‘2 Minutes to Midnight,’ as well as the nearly 14-minute historic epic “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

You can read the chapter below.

“Powerslave is the pinnacle of my love for Iron Maiden,” declares Portnoy. “I think for the original classic period of the band, they took everything as far at they could possible to; to me, this is the most progressive album. Alice Cooper Band and solo guitarist Strauss, a former member of the all-female tribute band the Iron Maidens, called it “the one album we could’ve done from start to finish. We used to do every single song in our set, so I had a great appreciation for the lesser-known tracks.”

Read More: How Iron Maiden Wrote ‘2 Minutes to Midnight’

Iron Maiden: Album by Album (Updated Edition) is available for pre-order at all major retailers. In addition to exclusive interviews, the book contains live and off-stage photos, as well as pictures of rare memorabilia from every era of the band’s history.

David Gilmour isn’t about to turn his back on his legacy with Pink Floyd, but it’s clear in speaking with him that creatively, he’s got his feet firmly planted in the present.

“I just felt liberated from any idea of owing something to my past,” he tells UCR. “I was able to just move forward [and] do something different.”

The Pink Floyd guitarist and vocalist is celebrating the arrival of Luck and Strange, his first new solo album in nearly a decade. It’s a piece of work that’s colored by the unexpected period of isolation that came with the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, he found himself sequestered with his family. They began hosting livestreams, dubbed the “Von Trapped” series, a clever nod to the 1965 film, The Sound of Music and the Von Trapp family.

As a result of those unexpected musical moments, Gilmour was energized and thought about how he might apply what he was feeling to the direction of his next solo LP. Discussions with Polly Samson, his wife and longtime collaborator, fueled further activity. “That led to finding a new, younger producer [Charlie Andrew] who was not tied to any of the old ways of thinking. In fact, he had no real idea about Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd’s career, me or my solo career or any of those things,” he explains. “A lot of elements from this are just starting from a fresh standpoint that I would describe as being liberated in some way. That’s not to say that I’m not full of pride and joy with the long career and the things that have happened in the past. But my focus is definitely looking forward.”

As he was preparing for upcoming live dates supporting Luck and Strange, Gilmour joined Ultimate Classic Rock Nights host Matt Wardlaw to talk about his new music and what fans can expect from the pending live shows.

You spent a day jamming with your band in your barn, back in 2007. One particular musical moment from that day helped to form the roots of the title track for this new record. What was the impetus for that jam?
It was really that we were on tour, during the On an Island tour. When we got to the end of that tour, I was thinking, “It feels like it’s a waste for these guys, who are cooking and hot…you know, we’re really in a groove together and playing really well.” I thought it was a waste not to do something else with that and the cohesiveness that we had. I got the core of the band, Rick [Wright], me, Guy [Pratt] and Steve DiStanislao to go to my house, into a barn. Of course, there were things that hadn’t occurred to me. It was January and the barn, the boards don’t even meet. There’s howling, icy winds blowing through it and it’s about five degrees below zero. [Laughs] But we managed.

So that was the plan and we did that. There are still 30 or 40 other bits of music, but that one was the first morning. It was the first thing that we did. I had that little piece of guitar. [Gilmour imitates musical section that became part of “Luck and Strange”]. I was just listening to that happening and listening to myself playing that and thinking, “That’s quite nice.” Gradually, they all joined in, one by one and we played it for 20 minutes. And that is the track. Obviously, we’ve worked on it a bit. We’ve added bridges and middle eights, choruses, but there was no rehearsal [with the original recording] and no second take. That is the take. They joined in so naturally and “Luck and Strange” all came out in that moment.

Listen to David Gilmour’s ‘Luck and Strange’

What brought you back to that particular piece of music?
It’s very hard to know or be able to explain why some pieces of music put their hand up and insist that now is their moment. I can’t explain it, really. That one, I mean, I had it in that basic form with the choruses and bridges before I did Rattle That Lock, but for some reason, it didn’t raise its hand and say, “Do me.” This time it did. I work a little bit that way. On the song “Sings,” there’s a sample of me, in which I recorded [myself] writing the chorus for that song in 1997 when my son was 2. You can hear him going, “Sing, Daddy, sing.” He’s now nearly 30. [Gilmour chuckles]. That was a chorus of a song that I tied it together with another piece of music that I wrote maybe six or seven years ago. There’s a lot of chance and a lot of accidents that happen on the way to this thing taking the form that it did.

You’ve spoken about how you have over a thousand “little tunes and stuff” that you’ve got catalogued. How did you get all of that organized? Because it seems like that would have been an interesting process.
To be honest, I’ve got lots of pieces of music going back into the ‘80s. I’ve got some whole songs, I’ve got some newer ones that I’ve done and I’ve got my trusty iPhone. I have recorded over a thousand tiny bits of something. I mean, it might just be a sound of a bird singing. I haven’t actually really been through those yet, but one of these days, I will — or I think I will — when I need something. [Laughs] It sounds like a hell of a lot, but to be honest, you play through them and 19 out of 20, you say, “That can go straight in the bin.”

The way you’re playing acoustically with the orchestra, building up to the solo, on “Scattered,” is pretty stunning. Just generally, that made me wonder how you work out your guitar solos. Is there any one way?
No, there’s no one way. I mean, it’s not like I sit down with a piece of paper and have that song [with] its components and parts, I’m afraid I just sort of let it happen. You know, you get to that point and I’m holding the nylon string guitar in my hand. I think, “Just keep playing, that’s nice.” I don’t know if I should mention this, but it’s a lot more haphazard than you would imagine. The moments for the different things just choose themselves and assert themselves onto you.

Listen to David Gilmour’s ‘Scattered’

You and Polly have been collaborating for a long time now. But you’ve got a lot of the family involved with this record. What do you think that added to the overall spirit of it?
The family thing is one issue. That really came out of the COVID experience and the locking down, where I was together with my family a lot more. The topics of these pandemic-type illnesses — at the beginning, we thought were going to be really much more dangerous than they eventually turned out to be. At the same time, Polly’s book, A Theatre for Dreamers, was coming out. Some events that we had booked in for promotion to get that known a little bit in the world had to be canceled. Charlie [Gilmour], our son, suggested that we do some livestreams. We didn’t know what that meant, at all. But that’s what we did. It tied in with Polly’s lovely book, doing readings from it and answering questions from people online while that was all going on, [with] me singing a song or two.

Usually, it was a cover of a Leonard Cohen song, because [he] appears in her book to some extent. I had Romany [Gilmour] there with us and she’d been learning the harp, playing it beautifully. It turned out that we were doing these songs with Romany singing harmony with me and playing the harp. That showed me what we could do together and how the sound of her voice with mine seemed to have something extra to it that’s not the usual thing when you get other people singing with you. You know, the Everly Brothers sound pretty good together, the Beach Boys. There’s a hundred elements due to the world and time and political situations that led us towards the way this album got made. There’s a liberation in there as well, with these livestream things and my daughter being a part of it.

Polly’s been a part of [my collaborative process] for [more than] 30 years. Getting Charlie in to help write some lyrics, I just felt liberated from any idea of owing something to my past. I was able to just move forward, do something different and that led to finding a new, younger producer who was not tied to any of the old ways of thinking. In fact, he had no real idea about Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd’s career, me or my solo career or any of those things. A lot of elements from this are just starting from a fresh standpoint that I would describe as being liberated in some way. That’s not to say that I’m not full of pride and joy with the long career and the things that have happened in the past. But my focus is definitely looking forward.

Watch David and Romany Gilmour Perform ‘Yes, I Have Ghosts’ on the ‘Von Trapped’ Series

What can you tell us about the upcoming shows?
I haven’t really gotten these shows very well worked out yet. I’ve got a very loose list of songs and things that I’m expecting to do, which do include one or two from the ‘70s. [Laughs] Everyone seems to want to know about that! I imagine that I’ll be doing all of this album, but maybe in a couple of chunks. It’s not quite clear yet. But a lot of the music will be newer and younger than 50 years old.

One area in your catalog that you don’t seem to revisit in the live setting is the first two solo records.
You know, I love both of those earlier two solo records. I’ve got nothing whatsoever against them. I listened to About Face and the sound is dated — that’s not overcomable — but some of the topics that are being discussed are also way out of date. Some of the themes aren’t quite as universal as you might want to be doing today. You’re right, I haven’t played any of them for years and probably won’t this time either. [Laughs] It’s just that thing that they don’t sound like me now.

t’s interesting how in the electronic press kit for this new album, you’ve got a lot of gear and pedals around you. But it doesn’t seem like you require much to get your sound.
No, I mean, I sound like me. That’s a great positive, but it’s inescapable. I can’t not sound like me. [Laughs] You know, I’ve always been a bit of an aficionado for pedals, but I don’t like to overuse them. I just bang one in when I want a bit more boost or something. Half the ones, I don’t even know what they are that I’m using, to be honest. I have a great tech guy, Phil Taylor, who looks after all of those things for me and says, “Try this.”

One of the other things about your guitar playing is the economy of your approach. You’ve demonstrated that you can express so much in your playing without using a lot of notes. What was the moment when you realized the fact that less can be more?
When I realized my fingers were just never going to go much faster. You’ve got to find your own path in this thing. I love making music and I love playing guitar, but to me, it’s like, I’m playing melodies over a bed of something. While it would be nice to occasionally whiz from one slow delicate melody to another through a flurry of 36 notes in five seconds, it’s just not really quite me. I do wish I could do it a bit better sometimes. [Laughs]

With this album, there’s the unmistakable feeling of mortality that we’re all facing at some point. I hear that in a song like “Sings.” It seems like it would have been an emotional thing recording some of these songs.
I love that song. I think Polly was worried that it was too sweet. But I told her it’s a work of genius. I am so happy with the way this record has formed itself. The way Polly has gotten herself into my brain and obviously, hers — and created subjects that she writes about so beautifully, so poetically, but so eloquently. They all tie in together. The subject of each song is not the same as the subject of other songs. We’re not talking a concept album here, but we are talking about a cohesion between all of the songs that creates something maybe a bit better than all of the parts.

Watch David Gimour Discuss ‘Luck & Strange’

When tickets for Oasis‘ 2025 reunion concerts went up for sale recently, there was a mad dash. Liam Gallagher says he’s “gutted” for the fans who were unfortunately not able to secure tickets.

The singer has been noticeably quiet on social media, but is now back to replying to fans.

“I’m seriously gutted for people that can’t get tickets I can’t even go there it hurts my heart,” he wrote on Saturday. “I know people will think I’m taking the piss but I’m not I want to celebrate this biblical moment with everyone I gotta go I’m sorry.”

At the moment, Oasis is scheduled to perform shows in five different cities in the U.K., all of which have sold out. Plans are reportedly underway for dates in other continents, though further details on this have not been announced.

Liam Gallagher Is Saying Nice Things About His Brother

Tickets are not the only thing Liam is posting about. He’s also posted several kindly-worded messages about his older brother and primary songwriter of Oasis Noel Gallagher. When asked by one fan if Noel is “still a potato” — a belittling nickname Liam has previously used for his brother — he responded: “No he is bloody well not [I] won’t have a bad word said about that gorgeous talented young man.”

READ MORE: Underrated Oasis: The Most Overlooked Song From Each Album

Liam also addressed a post that insinuated the band is only participating in the reunion shows for the money. “How do you know mystic dickhead we could both be doing it for climate change and pot noodles,” he replied.

Screamin’ Scott Simon of Sha Na Na has died at the age of 75, following a lengthy battle with sinus cancer.

The news was confirmed by his daughter, Nina, in a social media post.

“My dad was a rock star. Literally,” she wrote, sharing a photo of her father and family. “A member of Sha Na Na for over 50 years. He loved early morning diners and late nights onstage. But he loved his girls most of all.”

Simon’s Background

Simon was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1948, later graduating from Columbia in New York City in 1970. That same year, he joined Sha Na Na, the doo wop revival group who rose to fame covering ’50s rock ‘n’ roll songs and even performing at Woodstock in 1969.

With Sha Na Na, Simon wrote a number of the band’s songs. In 1978, the whole group appeared in Grease as “Johnny Casino and the Gamblers,” but Simon did more than just appear on screen — he also co-wrote the song “Sandy” with Louis St. Louis, which John Travolta sang.

Over the years, Sha Na Na performed with the likes of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Steve Martin, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel. They also had their own television series named after themselves, which ran from 1977 to 1981 and included guests like Chuck Berry, the Ramones, Dusty Springfield, Billy Crystal and more.

Simon was a member of Sha Na Na until 2022, the year the band stopping touring.

Watch Screamin’ Scott Simon Perform on the ‘Sha Na Na’ Show

Columbia Pictures, producers of Saturday Night – the movie that explores the minutes leading up to Saturday Night Live’s first-ever broadcast in 1975 – has announced the feature will begin rolling out two weeks ahead of its original schedule.

It had been set to arrive everywhere on Oct. 11, but will now land in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto on Sept. 27, followed by a limited release farther afield on Oct. 4 and wide release on Oct. 11.

The news follows a series of positive reviews, with reports that test screenings also went better than might have been expected.

READ MORE: Meet the Cast of the Upcoming ‘Saturday Night Live’ Movie

Variety’s review said director Jason Reitman “isn’t the first to take audiences behind the scenes of SNL and its ilk – 30 Rock, Studio 60 and The Larry Sanders Show all demystified that world — but he does it so convincingly,” adding that the movie “seems destined to be the way we remember the night that changed television.” Variety also described it as a potential Oscar-winner, “thanks to its superb ensemble, sizzling script and expert craftsmanship.”

World of Reel shared comments from a contact who’d attended a test screening, who said: “Fantastic. Big response from audience…[I]t’s also hard to fully pinpoint a bonafide standout within the ensemble because it’s all over the place with the way it’s constantly moving and bouncing around to different characters (not a bad thing though, I thought it kept things fresh and avoided lingering/losing momentum).”

Rolling Stone called the production “extremely potent,” noting that while it was sometimes a “sloppy and overly reverent tribute,” it was also a “part hilarious 1970s gross-out romp, and an all-out assault to recreate the adrenaline rush of producing that inaugural SNL.”

Which Viewers Will Most Enjoy ‘Saturday Night’?

And while the Hollywood Reporter’s review tended towards the negative, it appeared more critical of the premise rather than the performances, arguing: “We go into the movie with high expectations, but only some of them are realized. … Those who remember the excitement of SNL‘s early years will want to catch up with this revolutionary moment in TV history, but younger viewers may not find enough here to tickle or tantalize.”

The cast includes Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster and Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris. The soundtrack was composed by Grammy-winner Jon Batiste, who plays the show’s first musical guest, Billy Preston.

Watch a Trailer for ‘Saturday Night’

Billy Greer, the bassist and co-lead vocalist for Kansas, has retired after nearly 40 years in the band.

In a message announcing his departure, Kansas thanked Greer for his decades of service.

“For 39 years, Billy has been a loyal, dedicated, and immensely talented bandmate. He’s traveled around the world with us including USO tours,” drummer Phil Ehart wrote.

Guitarist Richard Williams added that Greer “stood shoulder to shoulder with us through both the ups and the downs. His voice, both singing and emceeing, has been a constant with us on stage. The entire Kansas family will miss him.”

Who Is Billy Greer?

Though he was not an original member, Greer’s tenure was the third longest in Kansas history behind Ehart and Williams. The bassist joined in 1985, part of a new lineup following the group’s brief hiatus. He appeared on seven of the band’s studio albums: Power (1986), In The Spirit of Things (1988), Freaks of Nature (1995), Always Never the Same (1998), Somewhere to Elsewhere (2000), The Prelude Implicit (2016) and The Absence of Presence (2020). For the last 18 years, Greer has also taken a prominent role in Kansas’ live shows, serving as emcee.

READ MORE: Kansas Albums Ranked Worst to Best

“I consider myself lucky. There have been a couple of incarnations along the way, but we’ve managed to push through the rough times,” Greer explained during a 2023 interview with 100% Rock Magazine. “I was part of those rough times. In the ‘90s when grunge became the flavor of the month, that set us on a course for doom.”

“We kept going. Those were some dark times. Playing small clubs from Tuesday through Thursday to get to the good gigs on the weekends,” he continued. “It was a rough go for a lot of years, but we slowly made our way back.”

Greer’s final performance with Kansas took place Sept. 1 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The band has not announced a replacement, but assured fans that Greer’s departure “will not impact any Kansas performance scheduling.” The group’s next show is Sept. 7 in Spencer, Iowa.

The beauty of writing a song is that you can take inspiration from literally anywhere. You can also, if the mood strikes you, write about one specific person.

Often, songs end up a mixture of both of these approaches — certain lines prompted by real-life people and others more general in nature. This gray area is where it can become hard to tell where factuality ends and where fictional story-telling begins, and in turn, can lead to a whole lot of speculation.

Female singer-songwriters in particular have suffered for decades under the assumption that their creative output revolves around the men in their lives, an antiquated and sexist stereotype that holds little water. When male characters — real or otherwise – appear in women’s songs, it’s more likely because the artist is doing the same thing any other gender of songwriter does: write about the people, places and events they observe in their lives.

Still, when the rumor mill starts going it’s hard to stop it. Below, in no particular order apart from chronological, we’re taking a look at 10 of the best songs written by women, possibly inspired by specific men.

1. “A Case of You,” Joni Mitchell 
From: Blue (1971)

Joni Mitchell is famous for what was, in the early ’70s, referred to as “confessional songwriting,” as in the kind of emotionally personal writing that takes directly from one’s own life and exposes it to the world. It was Kris Kristofferson who heard Mitchell’s 1971 album Blue and allegedly warned her to “save something of yourself,” but this approach helped usher in an entire generation of singer-songwriters who scraped at the sides of their souls in the name of art. Because she was so prolific in writing about her emotions, Mitchell’s songs were often examined closely for hints of their potential subjects, and though parts of Blue contained material regarding one of her exes, Graham Nash, “A Case of You” is said to be more about a previous partner, Leonard Cohen, with its allusions to Shakespeare and lines he said to Mitchell.

 

2. “It’s Too Late,” Carole King 
From: Tapestry (1971)

In “It’s Too Late” we have something of a double-hitter. Lyricist Toni Stern penned the words in a single day after her relationship with James Taylor, who played guitar on Tapestry, ended. “I won’t say who ‘It’s Too Late’ is about — I don’t kiss and tell,” Stern said for Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon — and the Journey of a Generation. That’s okay, we can put two and two together.

Meanwhile, King’s nearly decade-long marriage to Gerry Goffin had also ended and she’d gotten remarried to her bass player, Charles Larkey. “[Stern’s] lyrics, you know, speak for people who are going through divorces,” King noted to CBS in 2012.

 

3. “You’re So Vain,” Carly Simon
From: No Secrets (1972)

Any song that begins with the words “son of a gun” is bound to be juicy. Enter Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” a track that has beget question after question over the subject’s identity. Among the people whose names have come up over the years: Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Warren Beatty, James Taylor, David Cassidy, Cat Stevens, Dan Armstrong, David Geffen and Jack Nicholson. Simon has said that the song is indeed about a real-life man who walked into a party she was at in Los Angeles with an air of egotistic confidence, but has refused to name him specifically and has also insinuated it is a conglomerate of several people. Either way, if you recognize yourself in the lyrics to “You’re So Vain,” you may want to reevaluate your personality.

 

4. “Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire,” Joni Mitchell
From: For the Roses (1972)

James Taylor had the pleasure of dating several exceptionally talented women, including both Simon and Mitchell. Like several musicians of his time, Taylor struggled with substance abuse as his fame rose, which Mitchell witnessed firsthand and wrote about in 1972’s “Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire,” a troubling but also jazzy account of a lover’s descent into addiction — “Sparks fly up from sweet fire / Black soot of Lady Release / ‘Come with me, I know the way’ she says.”

Taylor knows the song is about him. “I’m not able to listen to it,” he told The Guardian in 2020.

 

5. “Diamonds & Rust,” Joan Baez
From: Diamonds & Rust (1975)

For many years, Joan Baez was better known for her interpretations of traditional folk songs. When she began releasing her original music, she proved to be an equally adept songwriter. In 1974, she was at work on a song about something else when she got a call from her old boyfriend Bob Dylan. “He read me the entire lyrics to ‘Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts,’ that he’d just finished from a phone booth in the Midwest,” Baez recalled to HuffPost in 2010. (That song would end up on Dylan’s 1975 album Blood on the Tracks.) Baez swiftly shifted gears, crafting the title track to her own 1975 album Diamonds & Rust with lyrics about Dylan being “the unwashed phenomenon, the original vagabond.” “I don’t remember what I’d been writing about,” she said in 2010, “but it had nothing to do with what it ended up as.”

 

6. “Silver Springs,” Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac
From: 1976 Single

Not to pigeonhole her work, but Stevie Nicks is arguably the queen of writing songs like this — “Silver Springs” is just one of them. Nicks has never hidden the fact that the song, like others, was written about her relationship and breakup with Lindsey Buckingham. “‘I’m so angry with you. You will listen to me on the radio for the rest of your life, and it will bug you. I hope it bugs you,'” she said to The Arizona Republic in 1997, describing why she wrote it and what message she wanted to get across to Buckingham. That was the same year Fleetwood Mac reunited for an album and TV special both titled The Dance, in which Nicks could be seen staring a hole through Buckingham as the band performed “Silver Springs.” You’ll never get away from the sound of a woman that loved you.

 

7. “Barracuda,” Heart 
From: Little Queen (1977)

Being a female rock ‘n’ roll artist in the ’70s presented challenges, as the sisters of Heart became all too familiar with them. At one point, someone at Mushroom Records, the label responsible for releasing Heart’s first two albums, had the extraordinarily stupid idea to create a publicity stunt of sorts that implied Ann and Nancy Wilson were involved in an incestuous relationship. When a radio promoter at a concert asked Ann how her “lover” was doing and she realized what he was referring to, she was livid. Her sister was too, and they ended up writing the fiery “Barracuda” as a response.

 

8. “Songbird,” Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac 
From: Rumours (1977)

Stevie Nicks is not the only member of Fleetwood Mac to have written some remarkable songs about lost love. Christine McVie’s “Songbird” was written before her 1976 divorce from bassist John McVie, while Fleetwood Mac was touring no less. “I broke up with John in the middle of a tour. I was aware of it being rather irresponsible,” she told Rolling Stone in 1977. McVie never explicitly stated who the song was about, but the poignancy of lyrics like “I wish you all the love in the world, but most of all, I wish it from myself” speak for themselves. “When Christine played ‘Songbird,’ grown men would weep,” John McVie once said. “I did every night.”

 

9. “Talk of the Town,” Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders
From: Pretenders II (1981)

Some people assumed the Pretenders’ “Talk of the Town” was written about Ray Davies of the Kinks, who would later have a daughter with Chrissie Hynde in 1983 — “One thing leads to another I know / Was a time I wanted you for my mine.”

But actually, Hynde wrote it about a stranger. “I had in mind this kid who used to stand outside the soundchecks on our first tour,” she explained on the BBC Songwriters Circle program in 1999 (via Songfacts). “I never spoke to him. I remember that the last time I saw him I just left him standing in the snow, I never had anything to say to him. I kind of wrote this for him, so, in the unlikely event that you’re watching this, I did think about you.”

 

10. “You Oughta Know,” Alanis Morissette
From: Jagged Little Pill (1995)

Those who have been rumored to be the subject of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” include the actor Dave Coulier, hockey player Mike Peluso and actor Matt LeBlanc, plus others. But Morissette’s lips have been sealed since the song came out in 1995.

“Well, I’ve never talked about who my songs were about and I won’t, because when I write them they’re written for the sake of personal expression,” she said to the Vancouver Sun in 2008. “So with all due respect to whoever may see themselves in my songs, and it happens all the time, I never really comment on it because I write these songs for myself, not other people.”

Rockers Who Dated Their Bandmates

Clutch and Rival Sons brought a prime selection of heavy rock to New York on Thursday as they began their Two Headed Beast co-headlining tour.

Both bands are celebrating the anniversaries of key albums. Rival Sons turned in an energetic set that covered a lot of their catalog, including six songs from 2014’s Great Western Valkyrie, including “Good Luck” for the first time since 2018. Clutch subsequently performed the bulk of 2004’s Blast Tyrant, honoring its 20th anniversary, while also mixing in additional cuts from their catalog. Set highlights included three songs from 1993’s Transnational Speedway League: Anthems, Anecdotes and Undeniable Truths, which marked its 30th anniversary last year and was the major label debut for the Maryland group.

READ MORE: How Rival Sons Swung for the Fences With ‘Great Western Valkyrie

Fellow stoner rock veterans Fu Manchu are opening the initial dates of the tour and delivered a tight performance that checked a lot of boxes despite their limited time on stage. Serving up two tracks from their latest album, 2024’s The Return of Tomorrow, they also made room for fan favorites like “Evil Eye” and the title track from 1999’s 10 inch, Eatin’ Dust.

For Rival Sons, the night’s performance at at the Brooklyn Paramount found them walking a bit of a wire. “We haven’t seen each other for a good month and a half. Generally, we’ll get together and rehearse for a few days, but we didn’t,” guitarist Scott Holiday tells UCR. “We were really working out the kinks and kicking the dust on deck, which is kind of fun. You show everything and there’s a certain excitement and energy about it.”

According to Buchanan, they eventually plan to play all of the songs from Great Western Valkyrie — including one that they’ve never performed before. “I think it was a really strong record for us and they’re songs that work well live, for the most part. So we regularly play a lot of songs from that record already,” he shares.”We’re really hoping to bring ‘Destination on Course [Slipped from the Rail)’ to the set.”

“It’s got some interesting parts that we weren’t able to work out quickly and for some reason, we just never circled back around on that one,” Holiday explains. “It has this huge choral section that we weren’t sure how we were going to accomplish that properly. It wasn’t going to be with us singing the background vocals. Now that we’re working with Jesse Nason as the keyboard player — he has a Mellotron and all of these interesting things that I think will be able to close these little gaps.”

The guitarist happily acknowledges that they’re the odd band of the tour. “Clutch and Fu Manchu are way more stoner rock than we are,” he laughs. “We’re just fans and kind of enjoy being this black sheep, you know, signing to a death metal label, booking a stoner tour! It was Clutch-heavy last night as far as the fans, but I think we won some fans [also] and it was a really fun night.”

The Two Headed Beast tour continues tonight (Sept. 6) in Atlantic City.

Watch Fu Manchu Perform ‘Evil Eye’ in Brooklyn

Watch Rival Sons Perform ‘Too Bad’ in Brooklyn

Watch Clutch Perform ‘Electric Worry’ in Brooklyn

Rival Sons Set List, Sept. 5, 2024, Brooklyn, New York
“Mirrors”
“Nobody Wants to Die”
“Tied Up”
“Too Bad”
“Good Luck”
“Electric Man”
“Belle Starr”
“Where I’ve Been”
“Open My Eyes”
“Pressure and Time”
“Torture”
“Do Your Worst”
“Keep on Swinging”
“Secret”

Clutch Set List, Sept. 5, 2024, Brooklyn, New York
“Mercury”
“Profits of Doom”
“The Mob Goes Wild”
“Cypress Grove”
“Promoter (of Earthbound Causes)
“The Regulator”
“Worm Drink”
“Army of Bono”
“Spleen Merchant”
“(In the Wake of) the Swollen Goat”
“Subtle Hustle”
“Ghost”
“(Notes from the Trial of) La Curandera”
“Spacegrass”
“A Shogun Named Marcus”
“El Jefe Speaks”
“Binge and Purge”
“Electric Worry”

Fu Manchu Set List, Sept. 5, 2024, Brooklyn, New York
“Eatin’ Dust”
“Evil Eye”
“Hands of the Zodiac”
“Hell on Wheels”
“Laserbl’ast”
“King of the Road”
“Loch Ness Wrecking Machine”
“Weird Beard”

Weezer launched their Voyage to the Blue Planet tour with a rousing performance in Saint Paul, Minnesota on Sept. 5.

The trek celebrates the 30th anniversary of the beloved alt-rockers’ self-titled album, commonly referred to as the Blue Album. While that LP was performed in its entirety, it was only part of a much broader show.

From the opening moments of their St. Paul performance, Weezer made clear that their sci-fi-themed tour name wasn’t just for show.

A large spacecraft started on the stage, then “blasted off” to reveal the band members, decked out in astronaut suits. Weezer – made up of frontman Rivers Cuomo, guitarist Brian Bell, bassist Scott Shriner and drummer Patrick Wilson – then proceeded to rock through material from throughout their career, as stars, planets and UFOs periodically appeared around them.

READ MORE: How a Trip to the Grocery Store Helped Weezer Make the Blue Album

The show was loosely separated into three parts. The first, Blue Voyage Takeoff, featured a collection of the band’s various hits, including “Hash Pipe,” “Beverly Hills” and “Island in the Sun.”

Next, the show’s plot, which was reminiscent of a campy Star Trek or Lost in Space episode, placed Weezer in the Pinkerton Asteroid Belt. Appropriately, the rockers delivered a series of tunes from their cult-classic second album, including “Why Bother?” and “Pink Triangle.”

Weezer Lands of the Blue Planet

Then came the moment everyone was waiting for. After their intergalactic travels, Weezer touched down on the Blue Planet, only to discover it was dying. What could bring it back to life? Why, playing their debut album in its entirety, of course. “That’s one small step for Weezer, one giant leap for Weezer-kind!” Cuomo declared, fully embracing the fun of the moment. The crowd then happily rocked out to such classic tracks as “My Name Is Jonas,” “”Undone – The Sweater Song” and “Buddy Holly.”

Pictures from the show and a full set list can be found below. Weezer’s Voyage to the Blue Planet tour continues through mid-October, with stops throughout the U.S.

Weezer, Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Set List

1. “Anonymous”
2. “Return to Ithaka”
3. “Dope Nose”
4. “Hash Pipe”
5. “Pork and Beans”
6. “Beverly Hills”
7. “Burndt Jamb”
8. “Island in the Sun”
9. “Any Friend of Diane’s”
10. “Perfect Situation”
11. “Run, Raven, Run”
12. “Getchoo”
13. “Why Bother?”
14. “Pink Triangle”
15. “You Gave Your Love to Me Softly”
16. “Across the Sea”
17. “My Name Is Jonas”
18. “No One Else”
19. “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here”
20. “Buddy Holly”
21. “Undone – The Sweater Song”
22. “Surf Wax America”
23. “Say It Ain’t So”
24. “In the Garage”
25. “Holiday”
26. “Only in Dreams”

Weezer ‘Voyage to the Blue Planet’ Tour Launch

Sergio Mendes, the influential Brazilian jazz musician known for bringing bossa nova to worldwide audiences, has died at the age of 83.

In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, the musician’s family said he died “peacefully.” No official cause of death was given, but the family noted he “had been challenged by the effects of long term COVID.”

Born in Niteroi, Brazil, Mendes began playing music at an early age and attended school in hopes of becoming a classical pianist. He eventually transitioned towards jazz, cutting his teeth in Brazilian nightclubs in the 1950s.

Mendes formed the band Sexteto Bossa Rio and released his debut album, Dance Moderno, in 1961. Soon, American jazz musicians came calling, including Cannonball Adderly and Herbie Mann, who recording with Mendes in the early ‘60s.

As his star continued to rise, Medes reallocated to the U.S.A. Still, American record companies were leery to sign him.

“We’d play three, four, five songs” Mendes recalled to NPR regarding his early U.S. auditions. “No answer, nothing,” was the reply, “just, ‘Oh, thank you. You guys sound great, bye.’ “

Listen to ‘Mas Que Nada’

However, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, founders of A&M Records, were intrigued by Mendes’ sound and eventually signed him to his first American record deal. The move immediately paid off, as Mendes and his newly formed backing band Brasil ‘66 scored a mainstream hit with their rendition of “Mas Que Nada.” The tune reached No. 47 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped push their debut album to platinum sales.

“It was the first time that a song in Portuguese was a hit in America and all over the world,” Mendes noted.

An expansive career continued from there. In 1968, Dusty Springfield’s rendition of “The Look of Love” was nominated for an Oscar. Mendes and Brasil ‘66 covered the song during the award show telecast and turned it into another hit, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard chart.

Later in 1968 he’d put his own spin on “The Fool on the Hill,” resulting in another Top 10 single. It was one of many Beatles covers Mendes recorded over the years, with “All My Loving,” “Day Tripper,” “With a Little Help From My Friends” and “Norwegian Wood” among the others. Mendes’ also covered material from the Mamas & the Papas (“Monday, Monday”), Simon & Garfunkel (“Scarborough Fair”) and Buffalo Springfield (“For What It’s Worth”).

Listen to Sergio Mendes’ Version of ‘Fool on the Hill’

Medes’ popularity took him all over the world, and even resulted in performances at the White House for presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon. Best known for his distinctive bossa nova style, Mendes began mixing his sound with funk and soul during the ‘70s. He collaborated with Stevie Wonder on “The Real Thing,” a minor hit in 1977.

Mendes enjoyed a late career resurgence with the 2006 album Timeless. The LP featured many modern hip-hop artists collaborating with the Brazilian legend on new versions of his classic material. The Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake, Jill Scott and John Legend were among the guest appearances. Mendes also served as co-producer for the soundtrack albums for the popular animated films Rio (2011) and its sequel, Rio 2 (2014).

In total, Mendes released more than 40 albums in his influential career. He won a Grammy for his 1993 album Brasileiro and earned an Academy Award nomination in 2011 for the song “Real in Rio.”

Just in time for the 50th anniversary of Judas Priest‘s 1974 debut album Rocka Rolla, rock journalist Martin Popoff is releasing a new book dedicated to the band.

Due in stores Nov. 12, Judas Priest: Album by Album examines the legendary metal band’s entire catalog, all the way up to and including 2024’s Invincible Shield. In our exclusive preview, you can find the entire chapter dedicated to Rocka Rolla below. in it, Popoff and fellow historians Pete Pardo and Matt Thompson break down each track on the album, illustrating how it hints at the band’s future ascendance.

The book features interviews with rock stars such as Slash, Marty Friedman and Charlie Benante. It also includes rare photos taken both onstage and off, as well as shots of vintage memorabilia.

Read More: Top 40 Debut Rock Albums

In a recent interview, Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill revealed that the band had regained the rights to Rocka Rolla and 1976’s Sad Wings of Destiny, and would soon be announcing the release of an upgraded version of their debut album. “It’s just been re-engineered by Tom Allom after all of these years,” he told Talking Rock with Meltdown. “The multi-tracks were in remarkably good condition, and he’s changed some of the sounds, made it more modern and obviously remixed it. And he’s done a great job.”

Judas Priest: Album by Album is available for pre-order at all major retailers.

Jerry Cantrell has released a video for his solo track “Afterglow.”

It appears on his upcoming solo album I Want Blood, set for launch on Oct. 18. The single follows the appearance of “Vilified” when the new LP was announced.

The Alice in Chains star worked with guests Robert Trujillo, Duff McKagan and Faith No More’s Mike Bordin – among others – to deliver I Want Blood, which comes after his 2021 solo outing Brighten.

The video can be seen below.

READ MORE: How Jerry Cantrell Entered Uncharted Territory With ‘Cut You In’

“The incredible Matt Mahurin and I created a moving piece of film to accompany the song,” said the Alice In Chains guitarist. “Check it out. If you want blood, you got it.”

Mahurin added: “Two of my all-time favorite videos I’ve directed are ‘No Excuses’ and ‘Angry Chair’ for Alice In Chains in the early 1990s. To be able to once again offer my visual work to Jerry’s ‘Afterglow’ some 30 years later was a blast. From opera aria to pop tune, everybody sees a movie playing in their mind’s eye when they listen to a song. Jerry inspired a welcome fever dream that I was grateful to lure out of my mind’s eye.”

Cantrell previously described I Want Blood as “a serious piece of work,” continuing: “It’s hard, no doubt, and completely unlike Brighten. And that’s what you want, to end up in a different place. There’s a confidence to this album. I think it’s some of my best songwriting and playing, and certainly some of my best singing.”

Watch Jerry Cantrell’s ‘Afterglow’ Video

Jerry Cantrell – ‘I Want Blood’ Track Listing
1. “Vilified”
2. “Off the Rails”
3. “Afterglow”
4. “I Want Blood”
5. “Echoes of Laughter”
6. “Throw Me a Line”
7. “Let It Lie”
8. “Held Your Tongue”
9. “It Comes”

Pink Floyd‘s solo catalog, like the band’s main discography, is typically thought of in terms of David Gilmour and Roger Waters. It’s understandable since they have been the band’s opposing poles for so long.

But Pink Floyd existed before Gilmour’s arrival and after Waters’ departure, with important contributions made in these eras by the whimsical Syd Barrett and the more ruminative Richard Wright. Both often-overlooked figures find a home on our list of Top 20 Pink Floyd Solo Songs.

Of course, Gilmour and Waters dominate the remaining entries – even if neither of them could exactly be described as prolific solo artists. There were 22 years separating Gilmour’s About Face and On an Island – though some fans may derisively describe Pink Floyd’s intervening A Momentary Lapse of Reason as a Gilmour album, too. Waters bested that by waiting almost 25 years between Amused to Death and Is This the Life We Really Want?

READ MORE: Richard Wright’s Best Pink Floyd Songs

Each nevertheless made their own arguments for carrying forward the separate musical visions that ultimately tore apart the classic-era edition of Pink Floyd. Waters remained smart and novelistic, sharply critical, sometimes preachy. On the other hand, Gilmour turned toward emotive placidity once he was no longer forced into a square peg of diffidence or crankiness by Waters’ narrative contortions.

Together, the Top 20 Pink Floyd Solo Songs might have made the band’s next great double album. They certainly have a similar ebb and flow. Any hopes of a reunion were apparently dashed, however, by Wright’s death in 2008. By then, Barrett – the group’s lost soul – had already been gone two years.
 

No. 20. “Out of the Blue”
From: About Face (1984)

The smartly episodic “Out of the Blue” was one of three David Gilmour demos that were ultimately discarded as Roger Waters built his didactic finale with Pink Floyd, 1983’s The Final Cut. They finally found a home on Gilmour’s second solo LP. About Face sometimes suffers from this era’s mechanized sensibility (in particular on “Blue Light” and “Murder”), but “Out of the Blue” transcended those of-the-moment sounds. Beginning with a diaphanous meditation on the suddenness of our fates, Gilmour fills the song’s middle with a thunderous bit of rage, before settling into a perfectly conceived, open-ended conclusion. This is what Gilmour was trying for again – but not quite reaching – with “On the Turning Away” from Pink Floyd’s first LP without Waters, A Momentary Lapse of Reason.

No. 19. “Woman of Custom”
Richard Wright, Broken China (1996)

Arriving during an era when Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell was edited down into a more song-focused release, Broken China more accurately reflected the group’s rangy vision. “Woman of Custom,” like the rest of this LP, would not be similarly constrained. Inspired by his future wife Mildred, Wright ended up creating a shattering four-part meditation on depression – with this layered and intense song as a centerpiece. Anthony Moore, collaborator on a pair of late-period Pink Floyd albums, helped sharpen Wright’s ideas. A striking cover image from the band’s longtime designer Storm Thorgerson framed it all perfectly.

No. 18. “There’s No Way Out of Here”
David Gilmour, David Gilmour (1978)

Gilmour’s work with the Surrey-based group Unicorn included producing Blue Pine Trees and Too Many Crooks in 1974 and One More Tomorrow in 1977. Then he stole one of their songs. That’s an oversimplification, of course, but it’s not untrue. They met Gilmour while jamming at a wedding reception, and soon Unicorn was being managed by Pink Floyd’s Steve O’Rourke. “No Way Out of Here,” written by Unicorn bandleader Ken Baker, had appeared on Too Many Crooks. It’s easy to see why this quite Floyd-like song appealed to Gilmour, who basically recreated their approach. Still, the single went nowhere. That provided an early indication that no matter how great the song, Gilmour needed to work under the Pink Floyd banner to find his widest audience. Within a few years, he would.

No. 17. “Gigolo Aunt”
Syd Barrett, Barrett (1970)

“Gigolo Aunt” deftly recreated the early Pink Floyd magic but, by this point, Syd Barrett was a hopeless mess. His second solo album would be the last – and that was obvious even as the badly faltering former Pink Floyd frontman attempted to finish it. Co-producer David Gilmour resorted to fastening a Barrett warm-up session onto the beginning of the Byrds-y “Baby Lemonade” just to complete the song. “Maisie” was nothing more than an extended jam with Barrett’s wandering lyrics on top. Only “Gigolo Aunt” – and to a lesser degree, “Effervescing Elephant” – really showed how Barrett invented the template for subsequent successes by the likes of David Bowie, Robyn Hitchcock and Blur.

No. 16. “What God Wants. Pt. 1”
Roger Waters, Amused to Death (1992)

Maybe Roger Waters’ best take on the conflicts of organized religion, “What God Wants, Pt. 1” is also a showcase for the molten contributions that Jeff Beck made on Amused to Death. Like the best Pink Floyd albums released so many years before it, Waters found some of his greatest success as a solo artist through a collaborative bond with a forceful and equally artful guitarist.

No. 15. “Scattered”
David Gilmour, Luck and Strange (2024)

Taking a page from Waters’ Is This the Life We Really Want?, Gilmour makes a surprisingly direct reference to his storied past: “Scattered” starts with a pulse straight out of Dark Side of the Moon. That’s where the comparisons end. Unlike his erstwhile bandmate, Gilmour proceeds to build a different kind of song about mortality and the passage of time. In fact, at one point, the whole enterprise nearly falls to pieces in a tumble of orchestral wreckage. When Gilmour rouses himself once more, it’s with a stubborn sense of hopefulness – or, barring that, a form of accepting reverie – that too often eludes Waters. The entirety of what made them so great together, and what in turn tore them apart, might be found inside this one song.

No. 14. “The Powers That Be”
Roger Waters, Radio K.A.O.S. (1987)

Commercial flourishes like sequenced drums and programmed keyboards all but sink “The Powers That Be” on first listen. But sort through those aural missteps, and you’ll find a smart update of Waters’ patented call to arms against bloated bureaucracy and war-mongers — “They like fear and loathing / They like sheep’s clothing” — amid a deeply funky horn signature.

No. 13. “Against the Odds”
Richard Wright, Wet Dream (1978)

Like Gilmour, Wright was itching for a creative outlet as Waters’ muse began to take center stage in Pink Floyd. Like Gilmour, he recorded his solo debut at France’s Super Bear Studios. Like Gilmour, it went virtually unnoticed – even with a definitely noticeable but rather unfortunate album title. Still, “Against the Odds” makes the case for a reappraisal that somehow wouldn’t get underway until Steven Wilson remixed Wet Dream some 45 years later. Wright blamed a still-evolving solo musical vision but there was a long precedent for the subdued jazz-inflected dreamscapes created here by a sessions group that included Mel Collins and Snowy White, two members of Pink Floyd’s touring band. “Against the Odds” sits comfortably alongside ethereal Wright contributions to “Us and Them” or the second side of Wish You Were Here.

No. 12. “So Far Away”
David Gilmour, David Gilmour (1978)

Several songs in the Gilmour solo catalog appeared to be directed at Waters, including “You Know I’m Right” from About Face. But “So Far Away” seems to speak to a deeper sense of confusion about where their relationship – and Pink Floyd itself – was headed in the late ’70s. “Why am I suspended here?” Gilmour asks, as Waters moved to take control of the group. “I get no choice, I just have to wait. It may already be too late.” It was, of course. The Wall would subsequently appear with only a smattering of his creative ideas (including a chorus progression that’s similar to this song in “Comfortably Numb”), followed by The Final Cut – which had none at all. Pink Floyd was coming apart at the seams. That added new gravitas to soaring moments of uncertainty and alienation like “So Far Away,” whether that was Gilmour’s intent or not.

No. 11. “Bird in a Gale”
Roger Waters, Is This the Life We Really Want? (2017)

Waters’ comeback some 25 years after Amused to Death was perfectly timed in its own sad, weird way. Who better to douse the era of polarization with a cauldron of seething anger? But Is This the Life We Really Want? wasn’t all fire and brimstone. The searching, starkly personal “Bird in a Gale” allowed fans the rare opportunity to see him as more than an aggressive orator. After years of bitter public spats, Waters was also finally ready to deal with his former band’s always-looming specter. This is one of his most Floyd-ish sounding solo moments, like “Welcome to the Machine” for a new age. In this way, he challenged the conventions of what a Roger Waters album could be, even as he belatedly embraced his own towering musical legacy.

No. 10. “A Boat Lies Waiting”
David Gilmour, Rattle That Lock (2015)

Gilmour returned with a more rock-focused album after descending into this studied quietness for much of On an Island and Pink Floyd’s almost completely instrumental farewell The Endless River. Those earlier albums were gorgeous, largely meditative, and for some fans admittedly boring. Yet the truth was that Gilmour remained in mourning over the loss of Richard Wright, who’d succumbed to cancer in 2008. He summoned up those billowing emotions in “A Boat Lies Waiting.” Gone forever was the “blend of his and my voices and our musical telepathy,” as Gilmour recalled in his emotional eulogy for Wright, but Gilmour’s grievously tender goodbye somehow found beauty in that loss.

No. 9. “Home”
Roger Waters, Radio K.A.O.S. (1987)

Despite being part of a plasticine bid for MTV acceptance on Radio K.A.O.S., “Home” rings true as Waters challenges us all to stand up to the creeping indignities that eventually coalesce into true injustice. Best of all is when he hits a lyrical riff while talking about any number of unexpected personalities who might one day provide the greatest danger to our everyday lives. Water couldn’t have known it, but he was neatly presupposing the sweeping fear that eventually gripped the U.S. in the wake of 9/11.

No. 8. “On an Island”
David Gilmour, On an Island (2006)

Gilmour’s waltzing title track was based on a twilit memory from the island of Kastelorizo near Greece and featured old collaborators Richard Wright, drummer Andy Newmark (who appeared on The Final Cut) and bassist Guy Pratt (part of the post-Waters touring units). But Graham Nash and David Crosby actually gave “On an Island” its emotional force as they settled in behind Gilmour’s airy vocals. Together, they discover a place that’s very much “halfway to the stars” just before Gilmour’s typically visceral solo. Sensitive orchestrations by Zbigniew Preisner serve as both launching pad and soft landing. When Gilmour returns to the lyric, Crosby and Nash create a cascading counterpoint that only adds to the song’s enchanting embrace.

No. 7. “Smell the Roses”
Roger Waters, Is This the Life We Really Want? (2017)

Waters belatedly resumed his solo career during a time of deep political turmoil. No surprise then that Is This The Life We Really Want? is perhaps his most confrontational album – but, in a surprising turn of events, also his most musically sentimental: “Deja Vu” had already featured a Wall-like orchestral sweep when the hard-eyed “Smell the Roses” arrived with stabbing guitars and a barking dog right out of Animals. (“Bird in a Gale,” found earlier in our list of Top 20 Pink Floyd Solo Songs, would have fit nicely on Wish You Were Here, too.) This tended to give more heft to Waters’ grievances, no matter how familiar. Blame nostalgia for an age when they were all brand new, if so inclined, but it worked.

No. 6. “The Piper’s Call”
David Gilmour, Luck and Strange (2024)

Though he often seems settled into one of them lately, Gilmour always had his feet in two distinct worlds: He’s by turns brooding and contemplative or flinty and eruptive. Gilmour begins here again in the former, with a trickling guitar figure and whispered entreaties to avoid life’s darker temptations. It’s a feel made familiar by Gilmour’s recent solo work. Then, at about the midpoint of “The Piper’s Call,” drummer Steve Gadd’s heartbeat rhythms become more insistent. Conductor Will Gardner begins to build a sweeping sense of anticipation. Seems Gilmour’s other foot is ready to mash down on a guitar pedal. A solo of wit and sudden fury unfolds, putting his entire solo career in perspective.

No. 5. “Watching TV”
Roger Waters, Amused to Death (1992)

This remarkable song arrives within a broader concept – Amused to Death decried the influence of mass media – but like “5:06 AM: Every Strangers’ Eyes” from 1984’s The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, it works as a separate statement. Waters duets with Eagles star Don Henley on a devastating chorus, using the death of a single student as a prism to discuss the 1989 Chinese youth movement against Communism. The result is maybe the most sadly beautiful thing he’s ever attempted.

No. 4. “Short and Sweet”
David Gilmour, David Gilmour (1978)

Co-written by Roy Harper (who later issued his own version), “Short and Sweet” combines the sweetly romantic sound of Gilmour’s voice with a serrated guitar edge. Think of it as a kind of precursor to the more widely known “Run Like Hell” on The Wall – and that’s the story of Gilmour’s debut disc, really. David Gilmour was supposed to assert some measure of independence but his brief reunion here with Bullitt, an early Gilmour group, wouldn’t last. Gilmour quickly folded back into Pink Floyd, and this album – other than the rock-radio deep cut “There’s No Way Out of Here” – became largely forgotten. Gilmour would rejoin Waters at these same Superbear Studios in France to work on The Wall, where Pink Floyd continued its disintegration.

No. 3. “Three Wishes”
Roger Waters, Amused to Death (1992)

In a smart twist, this guy finds a genie in a bottle, and makes his wishes – only to realize that he’d included lofty notions like peace in the Middle East but not something far more personally relevant, like fixing a broken relationship. Sound familiar? The thrice-divorced Waters didn’t just construct one of his best narrative arcs with this introspective triumph, he’d grown comfortable enough in his own skin to skewer even himself.

No. 2. “A Pocketful of Stones”
David Gilmour, On an Island (2006)

An excruciatingly beautiful song, “Pocketful of Stones” connects with the same shattering sense of loss that defined Wish You Were Here but with a contemplative orchestral counterpoint that adds new depths. Gilmour’s most important contribution here is vocally. “Pocketful of Stones” stands as perhaps his most sensitive work ever at the mic. Quietly confidential, strikingly open, Gilmour’s approach to the lyric is the perfect accompaniment to a typically searching solo. Together, they create something simultaneously wonder filled and so very still, a song with this darkness around the edges that couldn’t be less like what we’ve come to expect from him with Pink Floyd, or even as a solo artist.

No. 1. “Picture That”
Roger Waters, Is This the Life We Really Want? (2017)

“Picture That” once again returned to the machine from Wish You Were Here, but this time we find a world inside that’s on the verge of shattering – rather than a heart, as with “Bird in a Gale.” Either way, rest assured that no punches are pulled: “Picture a shithouse with no f—ing drains,” Waters seethes at one point. “Picture a leader with no f—ing brains.” Best of all? Decades after he unceremoniously dumped Richard Wright just before The Wall tour, he finally reintroduces the cerulean keyboard flourishes that always served to balance out Waters’ latest spittle-flying invective. He’d plumb new emotional depths elsewhere on this LP with moments like “Wait for Her” – but “Picture That”? This was vintage Waters vitriol.

Why Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and Roger Waters Are Still Fighting

Two major and largely unexpected reunions were recently announced, as both Oasis and Linkin Park will be returning to the stage.

Both reunions have been overwhelmingly celebrated, with the bands’ respective fan bases clamoring for the chance to see their favorite act in concert once again. Still, the return of Oasis and Linkin Park also opens questions surrounding their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame likelihood.

Could momentum from these respective reunions push both bands to induction in 2025? Let’s dive in.

Oasis Reunion Could Revive Hall of Fame Debate

Of the two acts, Oasis is the one who has been previously considered for enshrinement. The band was nominated for the 2024 class, but did not receive the necessary support to earn induction.

Never afraid to court controversy, both Noel and Liam Gallagher have openly expressed their distaste for the Hall.

In 2017, Noel refuted the suggestion his band should be inducted, saying: “I know what it is. I know what it entails, and it won’t be fucking happening, OK?’”

Likewise, Liam rejected any idea of Oasis in the Hall. “Fuck the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame its full of BUMBACLARTS,” the singer tweeted in 2024. In a separate discussion around the same time, the frontman described the Hall as “mentally disturbed.”

READ MORE: Five Reasons Oasis Should Be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

So why should anything have changed now that Oasis have gotten back together? Well, for starters, it’s clear that both Gallaghers have a history of changing their minds. After all, Noel and Liam insisted they’d never reunite, yet here we are. And while Oasis has a history of rebelling at awards shows – in 2010 Liam infamously threw his BRIT Award in the crowd after the band’s 1995 LP (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? was named the best album of the last 30 years – the Gallaghers do enjoy celebrating their own greatness. With a new harmonious outlook, it seems likely the brothers would reconsider their stance on the Hall of Fame if elected.

Watch Oasis Performing ‘Wonderwall’ in 1996

On the flip side, the Hall has undoubtedly taken notice of the excitement surrounding Oasis’ reunion. The band’s U.K. ticket sales caused a Taylor Swift-like meltdown at Ticketmaster, and there’s already substantial anticipation for a U.S. tour leg. When Oasis appeared on the 2024 ballot, some argued the group’s commercial peak was too short to be worthy. Considering the worldwide enthusiasm generated by their reconciliation, such criticisms now feel invalid. Oasis’ staying power and legacy is front-page news once more. It seems impossible for the Hall to ignore.

Will Linkin Park Be Elected in First Year of Eligibility?

In 2025, Linkin Park will become eligible for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for the first time. While classic rock purists will undoubtedly scoff at the suggestion that a band who debuted in 2000 could get inducted before such legendary acts as Styx, Iron Maiden or Motorhead (among many others), Linkin Park’s resume is downright daunting.

With more than 100 million albums sold, the band ranks among the most commercially successful acts of the 21st Century. Their debut and sophomore LPs, Hybrid Theory (2000) and Meteora (2003), each sold more than 10 million copies. We cannot find evidence of another rock band matching that achievement.

READ MORE: These Are the Only 33 Classic Rock Albums to hit No. 1 Since 2000

Like Nirvana and Pearl Jam less than a decade before them, Linkin Park led a massive musical movement. For as much as people like to decry the early 2000s rap-rock era, there’s no denying its complete cultural dominance at the time. Tracks like “In the End,” “Crawling” and “One Step Closer” were ubiquitous radio hits. Linkin Park was all over MTV, their posters plastered in bedrooms across the world, and they even memorably shared the stage with Paul McCartney and Jay-Z at the 2006 Grammys, combining “Numb/Encore” with the Beatles‘ “Yesterday.”

Watch Linkin Park, Jay-Z and Paul McCartney Perform at the 2006 Grammys

After the tragic 2017 death of Chester Bennington – and a star-studded tribute concert that followed – Linkin Park appeared to be done for good. Now, the band’s return with singer Emily Armstrong has ignited their fan base once more. With a new album and fall tour dates on the way, Linkin Park is once again one of the most talked-about acts in music.

We’ve seen the Hall gleefully jump on hype trains in the past – see Kate Bush’s induction following her Stranger Things bump, or Foreigner finally earning induction on the wave of a viral campaign. The institution clearly knows that timing is everything, and welcoming Oasis and Linkin Park in 2025 would capitalize on their reunion hysteria.

When it comes to rock ‘n’ roll, many layers make up the workings of the music. From its earliest days when country and R&B converged for a new, wilder hybrid to its evolution over the decades including punk, metal and roots, there’s never been just one single shade to rock ‘n’ roll.

But it’s all part of the natural progression. The blues-based rockers of the ’60s slowly gave way to heavier music mid-decade; bands such as Yardbirds, Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience laid the foundations for a new music that would dominate much of the ’70s’: hard rock.

As you will see in the below list of the Top 35 Hard Rock Albums of the ’70s, even this singular subgenre has its offshoots, and it’s not quick to be defined. (Our criteria? We know it when we hear it.) From leftover pieces of the previous decade to the birth of heavy metal, hard rock music has always had more textures to it than it lets on. Finding a line between the Who‘s stately rock operas and AC/DC‘s bad-boy boogie isn’t always easy, but dig deep enough, and a pattern will begin to reveal itself.

READ MORE: Top 40 Soft-Rock Songs

Familiar names show up often, more than just one or two times, in the Top 35 Hard Rock Albums of the ’70s, which were chosen by the UCR staff. Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Black Sabbath place several records in the upper half; there are even some surprises among the candidates.

Yet they all have one thing in common: the outlining structure of rock ‘n’ roll amplified through the sheer force of their music and, especially, the guitars at the center of much of it. For better or worse, hard rock turned into something else during the following decades. But here, in its ’70s glory, there was rarely music as exciting and significant to the genre’s progress.

Scotti Hill insists Skid Row won’t reunite with former singer Sebastian Bach, despite calls from fans to do so.

The band’s most recent vocalist, Erik Gronwall, left the group in March to focus on his health. Halestorm‘s Lzzy Hale filled in for a handful of shows, but Skid Row has yet to find a permanent replacement.

With the position open, many fans have clamored for Bach’s return. The singer fronted Skid Row from 1987 to 1996, the most commercially successful period of the band’s history. Despite this, Hill says there’s no chance a reunion will happen.

“We did great things in the past, but this is about way more than a band or music,” the guitarist explained during an appearance on the Appetite for Distortion podcast. “‘Do it for the fans.’ No, no. I’m not going to put my good life and well-being and peace, I’m not gonna sacrifice that for the fans. That’s not what I do. And anybody that calls himself a fan wouldn’t ask the band to put themselves through something they don’t want to do. But people just want what they want. They just want what they want. They want that band back with that guy. They still want Bon Scott back in AC/DC. I mean, come on.”

READ MORE: Forgotten Frontmen: 27 Lead Singer Fans Don’t Remember

Bach has been estranged from Skid Row since ’96, but has recently expressed interest in a return. The feeling has not been reciprocated.

“I don’t want to have food poisoning every day of the week,” Hill declared, explaining what a reunion with Bach would feel like. “That’s all. It’s toxic.”

“If you don’t like Skid Row without that singer, you don’t have to listen,” the guitarist added. “And on the flip side of that, if you love that singer, if you love both of us, then go see him, go see him.”

‘I Don’t Want to Be in the Room With Somebody That I Don’t Like’

Hill conceded that fans are “never gonna stop asking” about a reunion with Bach, yet he insisted outside pressure won’t change his mind.

“It’s just a simple quality-of-life issue,” the guitarist noted. “People are like, ‘Just put your differences aside and do it.’ Well, I don’t want to do it. There are no differences. I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to be in the room with somebody that I don’t like.”

In an apparent response to Hill’s statements, Bach posted a picture on social media with the caption “photo of actual last time in a room together.” The image shows the happy rockers alongside their respective families.

Skid Row Searching for New Singer

According to Hill, Skid Row’s search for a new singer is ongoing.

“We are looking at some people. We’ve got a nice list of people that we’re gonna sit down with,” he revealed. “A lot of people are getting in touch with us and some of them are really good. Some of them are not really good. But with YouTube and Instagram and such, you can go out and find people quite easily. It wasn’t like the old days where you had to put an ad in every music paper in the country and word of mouth and all that stuff, pre-Internet. It’s much easier now.”

Assuming they don’t go back to Bach — or any of their previous frontmen — the band’s next singer will be the seventh in Skid Row’s history.

When Rival Sons released their fourth album, 2014’s Great Western Valkyrie, they had navigated past a crossroads as a group. Founding bassist Robin Everhart left the ranks the prior year, citing a need to get away from the “road warrior” lifestyle.

The California hard rockers decided to carry on and though singer Jay Buchanan admits there were feelings of uncertainty, they ultimately figured it out. “[Robin’s departure] caused us to look at it and go, “We’re going to keep going, but we’re going to change a little bit now,” he tells UCR. “I think we were really swinging for the fences to try and push ourselves in a new direction.”

Road work with Aerosmith, Deep Purple — and a stint as the sole opener on Black Sabbath’s final tour helped to strengthen the band’s resolve. A decade later, they’re heading out  with Clutch and Fu Manchu for the Two Headed Beast tour, which begins tonight (Sept. 5) in Brooklyn, New York.

Buchanan joined Ultimate Classic Rock Nights host Matt Wardlaw to discuss the legacy of Great Western Valkyrie and more.

The band is marking the 10th anniversary of its fourth studio album, Great Western Valkyrie. How do you look back on that record now?
It’s interesting, because you don’t really tend to look back. But when you have an anniversary like this, it places it ten years behind you. All of these songs, they’re part of our dialogue. They’re part of our collection, when we’re making set lists. Most of these songs from the Great Western Valkyrie record, they’re very much part of the now that we’re living. We have nine records, right? So when we’re putting our set lists together, a lot of these songs from [that record] or any of the other albums too, they’re part of the current dialogue. Like, they never go, “Oh, that was way back when.” You know, a song’s got two different lives. It’s got the life that it lived very briefly when it was written and recorded. That’s just this tiny little flashpoint on its timeline. And then the real life is how that song lives on the road, night after night — and the legs that it grows. All of the improvisation and what it incites on a nightly basis.

So all of those songs have been living with us and that’s been part of my conversation every night. Looking back is introspection. But it’s great to look back and think about recording that record and where we were as a band. Our founding bass player, Robin Everhart, had just quit and we had to figure out what we were going to do. We got our buddy Dave Beste on bass, who is still in the band. But that was [Dave’s] first album and we weren’t exactly sure [how things were going to work out]. You know, losing a member when you’re a four-piece, especially a bass player and musician as formidable as Robin is, it caused us to look at it and go, “We’re going to keep going, but we’re going to change a little bit now.” Because when 25% of the band is fresh blood, I think we were really swinging for the fences to try and push ourselves in a new direction. I really think we achieved that. Great Western Valkyrie, I think, is a really healthy turning point for the band.

Listen to Rival Sons’ ‘Where I’ve Been’

I was revisiting the album today and “Where I’ve Been” is still stunning. What’s the history behind that song?
I had started that one as a country waltz that was a lot quicker. But it stuck with me for a couple of years. It was just the idea, “How could you love me/ When you know where I’ve been.” People that live by the code of forgiveness, they receive that gift in return. The gift of forgiveness when they dole it out, because they’re making it clear that they refuse to carry the bad blood. They refuse to carry the remnants of the wound or the trauma of an action. So there’s the forgiven and the forgiving. It’s equal parts. It’s a mutually beneficial thing, you know? I think that people can tend to think that they can’t dole out forgiveness. They can’t participate in that because they’re so wounded by something — or they’re just maybe filled with judgment and indignation.

But when you refuse to forgive people for whatever it is that they had to go through or whatever it is that they did…..what do they say, anger, it poisons the vessel. As much as you can let go of it, you’ve got to let go of it. So I’d held onto that for a little bit. While we were in the studio, I knew I wanted to [record] a ballad. I’d grabbed our producer, Dave Cobb’s 1976 Martin 00-18C. It’s like a gut-string [guitar], it’s nice and beat-up. I’ve written a lot of songs on that guitar. I wrote “Jordan” on that guitar and I’ve written quite a few [other ones]. I just picked that guitar up and started writing it and as soon as I had the chorus and the verse together, I brought it to Scott [Holiday] and said, “What do you think about this?” He said, “Hey, I’ve got this turnaround.” That really beautiful almost-music box motif that the song starts with, it just worked perfectly. I love the way that song turned out.

READ MORE: 11 Bands Leading the Classic Rock Revival

There were two new Rival Sons albums last year, Darkfighter and Lightbringer. It must have been Interesting figuring out how to present those records.
The two albums began as one collection. It was a large undertaking for us, just to make those records. It was written and recorded through the pandemic and 2022 and we finally finished it. It was close to two years in the making and we’d never intended for it to be that long. With the lockdown and everything, we had that time. We dug really, really deep and by the time all of the dust was settling, we had entrenched ourselves so deeply that we couldn’t just exit. We couldn’t just jump off and be like, “Okay, the album is done.” It was more like, we got down in the mine deep enough where we wanted to mine all of the gold that was down there. We ended up making it a larger collection.

When we finished, the decision was pretty easy. Scott and I were discussing it and realized, “This is a larger collection.” We didn’t want to make a bloated album that was too terribly indulgent and long. It would have been an hour and a half or whatever. That’s just so taxing and so what we decided to do was to partition it into two records and release [them both] in one year. In hindsight, that’s also very bloated and self-indulgent. [Laughs] But releasing those two records, I think that really, they’re just companions. They’re two installments to one story and I think it’s some of the best work that we’ve done, like, far and above. It’s the most ambitious collection so far.

Listen to Rival Sons’ ‘Darkfighter’

What are some of the choice memories you have from touring with Aerosmith?
I’m friends with Brad [Whitford] and I’ve hung out with him quite a few times as well as his sons — including Graham. Graham’s band, Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown, that’s how I know Brad. He’s just a great dude. But going out on the road and playing shows with Aerosmith, I can’t get too far into it, but I remember the first time when I met Steven [Tyler]. Steven has one of the most iconic rock voices, period. I’m not talking about all of the reality television over the last 10 years or whatever. It’s not that. It’s just the man and his voice. It’s his voice that’s unmistakable. For me, when I was a little kid, I’d play in coffeeshops and things like hat. I’d play “Dream On,’ because it’s just a great song that you can sit and play on an acoustic guitar and everybody loves that song. I’d do that, being 14 and 15 years old.

Finally, the first time when we played with them, I think it was in Copenhagen, Denmark. Steven pulled me aside and talked to me for a couple of minutes. I don’t want to repeat what he said to me, because I don’t think it would be in good taste, but he gave me some of the highest praise I’ve ever received from anyone, about what I do artistically. It just melted me. For him to pull me aside and take the time and talk to me in this fashion, I’ll never forget it, the things that he said to me. That was so surreal to have that conversation with him. Later that night, after we had opened for them, I went out into the pit, right on the side of the big catwalk and everything that they had.

I was out there past security where their touring photographer, Zack Whitford was out there shooting. He was like, “Hey man, come out here.” So I was just below them and Steven was at the piano. They’re playing “Dream On” and I was just transported. I’d had that heavy conversation with Steven like three hours before then. Then, I went on stage and played to their audience and now here I am 10 feet from these guys. He’s singing the song that I played when I was a kid. It was so cathartic. I can speak to this. If he doesn’t feel comfortable singing and touring anymore, great. You’ve already given enough. Whatever comes now is one thing, but quality of life comes first. It’s tough to imagine not hearing Steven Tyler sing again, but you never know what the future holds. People do heal up and things change. But even if Aerosmith never did play [again], the legacy stands.

READ MORE: Aerosmith’s 10 Most Memorable Concerts

25 of the Coolest Tour Pairings in Rock History

There is no more devastating loss for a band than the death of a lead singer.

Fans, by and large, recognize a group based on the unique sound of the frontman’s vocals. Robbing a band of their voice takes away their most identifiable ingredient.

It’s understandable, then, that many acts have opted to simply break up following the tragedy of losing a singer. Others, most notably the Grateful Dead and Joy Division, opted to evolve into different bands (Dead & Company and New Order, respectively).

READ MORE: 30 Rockers Who Died Before 30

Still, what about those groups who decide to forge forward and continue with a new lead singer? While rarer, there are certainly many instances in rock history of bands doing just that.

Below, we’ve highlighted 10 Famous Bands That Continued After a Lead Singer’s Death. The list is impressive and features a variety of acts, including Grammy winners, Rock & Roll Hall of Famers, era-defining groups and multi-platinum stars.

In many cases — like those of the Doors and Queen — these bands were able to continue building upon a legacy they’d already begun writing with their late vocalist. Others managed to even take their career to new heights following the difficult transition to a new lead singer. Such was the case for AC/DC, who soldiered forth after the sudden death of Bon Scott.

“For us, it was like losing a member of your family,” Angus Young recalled of the trying situation. “It’s very, very difficult to go through something like that. Not only is it your friend, it’s also somebody you’ve been working with all that time.”

These acts weathered the storm and found a way to keep going.

10 Famous Bands That Continued After the Lead Singer’s Death

Steve Lukather has played a loaned guitar that belonged to Jeff Beck just weeks after John Mayer appeared on stage with the same signature white Fender Stratocaster. It’s easy to spot because of the distinctive reverse headstock.

Mayer borrowed the instrument for Dead and Company‘s residency shows in June at the Sphere. Fans initially theorized that the Strat was a custom build, but Joe Bonamassa later confirmed that the guitar was authentic. Lukather played the same Stratocaster over the weekend during Toto‘s homecoming at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

“I’ve got something special to do tonight,” Lukather said on stage. “If you’re wondering, I normally don’t play a white Stratocaster. … This is a special one. This was brought from England. This is Jeff Beck’s guitar.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Jeff Beck Songs

After the crowd’s applause, Lukather also cleared up the mystery behind these guitar loans while describing how the Beck project might continue to grow.

When Did Jeff Beck Get His White Strat?

“His lovely wife Sandra and his closest friend and guitar tech … brought this out, and they’ve been bringing it out to guitar players to put a little love on it,” Lukather added. “They asked a certain amount of guitar players, but they’re just getting started. They asked Billy Gibbons, John Mayer and me – and they’ve probably got a long list.”

Lukather then led Toto through a seven-minute cover of Jimi Hendrix‘s “Little Wing.” “I wish this would make me sound like Jeff Beck,” he jokingly added, “but it won’t.”

Beck’s Strat was built around 2014 by the Fender Custom Shop and was his main late-career guitar. He died in early 2023.

Why Steve Lukather’s Autobiography Took the High Road

Michael Anthony is the last member of Van Halen‘s early classic lineup to still be actively touring – a fact that is both shocking and sobering for the bassist

“I don’t really think about it consciously that I’m the only person,” Anthony admitted during a recent conversation with Sirius XM’s Eddie Trunk, noting that he didn’t even realize the situation until a friend pointed it out. “I’m the only one from the original band left out here doing this. And I thought, ‘Whoa, that’s a trip.’ I never thought about it.”

As Anthony noted, Eddie Van Halen’s death in 2020 “closed the whole deal on the original Van Halen or any incarnation of Van Halen.”

“I always thought that it would have been either him and Alex or whatever that would have carried on after everybody was gone or everyone broke up or everyone stopped getting along,” the bassist admitted. “And here I am, I’m the guy.”

READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Van Halen Album

By all accounts, Van Halen’s other surviving original members are done with touring. Singer David Lee Roth last performed in 2020. He announced his retirement in 2022, and a farewell residency in Las Vegas was canceled before ever getting underway. Meanwhile, drummer Alex Van Halen has remained reclusive since his brother’s death, and recently sold the majority of his instruments and gear.

“He was selling everything right down to the last drumstick,” Anthony noted. “Now that really kind of surprised me, but maybe that’s his way of just, that’s going to be his closure on the whole thing with doing that and the book now.”

Michael Anthony Has Tried to Reconnect With Alex Van Halen

Speaking of Alex, Anthony admitted he’s tried to get in contact with his former bandmate, to no avail.

“I tried to get ahold of him on his birthday in May,” the bassist recalled. “I did not hear back from him. So, I don’t know. I didn’t want to push it or keep trying to get ahold of him or whatever.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Van Halen Michael Anthony Songs

Anthony, who is on the road with Sammy Hagar on the Van Halen-focused Best of All Worlds Tour, added that the Red Rocker also tried to reach out to Alex.

“Obviously Sammy and I were, we’re both hoping that Alex at some point might get in touch with us,” the rocker explained. “Sammy’s been trying to get ahold of Alex.”

One of the most ubiquitous sporting-event anthems in rock history, Queen‘s “We Will Rock You” has received another facelift courtesy of rapper Megan Thee Stallion in Pepsi’s new Gladiator-themed NFL commercial.

You can watch the full three-minute ad below.

After a brief conversation between actors Jake Lacy and Lamorne Morris, the lid of a Pepsi can transforms into a coliseum where gladiatorial games are underway. The crowd stomps and claps to the beat of “We Will Rock You” as the gladiators — NFL stars Travis Kelce, Josh Allen, Derrick Henry and Justin Jefferson — enter the arena.

Megan Thee Stallion then calls for the gates to be opened, releasing a pair of tigers into the arena. The Houston star raps over the Queen track, delivering bars like: “Win, that’s all that we do / Everybody’s watchin’ and they all came for you / Hard work, dedication, an understatement / We fill up arenas that’ll rock the whole nation.” At the end of the commercial, the sand on the floor of the arena gets blown away to reveal a football field.

READ MORE: Brian May’s Battle for ‘We Will Rock You’

Does This ‘Gladiator’-Themed Pepsi Ad Look Familiar? Here’s Why

Pepsi’s new NFL commercial is a remake of the soda company’s 2004 ad, which featured Britney Spears, Beyonce and Pink putting their spin on “We Will Rock You.” (The full ad never aired in America and didn’t become a pop-culture phenomenon until fans circulated it online years later.) That commercial was based on the 2000 blockbuster Gladiator, and the new version arrives ahead of Gladiator II, which is slated for a November release.

Neil Young is getting back on the road, one step at a time. He’s now scheduled to perform two dates with the band he’s dubbed the Chrome Hearts on Sept. 23 and 24 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York.

At those shows, Young will perform with members of Promise of the Real: multi-instrumentalist Micah Nelson (son of Willie Nelson), plus drummer Anthony Logerfo and bassist Corey McCormick.

Presales start today for Neil Young Archives subscribers, followed by a general sale on Sept. 7.

Other Concert Dates for Neil Young

Young has other performance plans on the horizon. On Sept. 21, he’ll appear at Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid festival in Saratoga Springs, New York. Not long after his Port Chester shows, he’ll play a benefit concert on Oct. 5 in Lakes Hughes, California with Stephen Stills, his former bandmate in Buffalo Springfield and then Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

All four of these concerts come after the cancellation of Young’s summer tour with Crazy Horse, which began in April but ultimately was scratched midway through.

READ MORE: Neil Young Archives Albums Ranked Worst to Best

“A couple of us really hit a wall,” Young recently explained to the subscribers of his Neil Young Archives website (via Rolling Stone). “I just woke up one morning on the bus and I said, ‘I can’t do this; I gotta stop.’ I felt sick when I thought of going onstage. My body was telling me, ‘You gotta stop.’ And so I listened to my body.”

According to Young, plans are being made for more small concerts like Port Chester. “They’re mostly theaters that I played before – little theaters,” he continued. “I can play a little bit of acoustic and then have the band come out and play.”

Pete Townshend has collaborated with his wife and fellow composer Rachel Fuller for a new album, The Seeker, a “musical reinvention” of Hermann Hesse’s 1922 novel, Siddhartha.

According to the project’s website, the double album “follows the quest of the young Siddhartha as he embarks on a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment during the time of the Gautama Buddha.” It comes accompanied with an illustrated novel, authored by Fuller, narrated by Christopher Plummer and with artwork by Emilia Wharfe.

Recorded at Angel Studios in London, The Seeker stars Townshend as the Ferryman, South African multimedia artist Nakhane as Siddhartha, Elton John as Kamaswami, Emeli Sande as the River, Bollywood star Sunidhi Chauhan as Kamala, Layton Williams as Siddhartha’s son, Tyrone Huntley as Govinda and Biddu as Siddhartha’s father. It also features the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and choir. Both the album and novel will be released on Nov. 7, one day after members of the cast will perform the music with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and choir at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

READ MORE: Pete Townshend Albums Ranked Worst to Best

Though no track listing has been revealed, the aforementioned website promises “new orchestral arrangements of some recognizable Who songs, but also original solo songs written by Pete in 1976 for a friend’s amateur stage play of Siddhartha.”

“The creation and realization of The Seeker in musical and book form has been part of my own spiritual journey,” Fuller said in an earlier statement. “This collaboration with the musical artists, orchestra, choir, the illustrator, Emilia Wharfe and the beloved Christopher Plummer has created something truly magical – far exceeding my original vision for the piece. I feel truly blessed to be a part of it and hope that the story resonates with listeners and readers in today’s world, where we need the energy of love, peace and hope more than ever. Music and art has been and forever will be universal.”

Sting has released a new single, “I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart),” with his latest power trio.

The track features guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, and arrives before the group’s upcoming Sting 3.0 North American tour, which starts in Detroit on Sept. 17.

You can watch the video for “I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart)” below.

The song takes a decidedly tougher stance than many of Sting’s recent songs, adapting the classic Bo Diddley beat and featuring an appealingly raspy vocal take from the singer.

READ MORE: Top 40 Soft-Rock Songs

“I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart),” on which Sting plays bass and guitar, is the former Police frontman’s first new music since his 2021 album The Bridge.

Where Is Sting Playing in 2024?

Sting launched his Sting 3.0 tour in May in Dresden, Germany. The set list included solo favorites (“Fields of Gold,” “Fortress Around Your Heart”) and Police classics (“Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne”).

The trio starts its North American leg of the tour on Sept. 17 with two consecutive nights at the Fillmore Detroit. From there, the group winds through cities such as Toronto, Boston, Atlanta and Chicago before wrapping up with two dates at Los Angeles’ Wiltern.

You can see the full itinerary below.

While Sting has not announced a new album to accompany “I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart),” a box set centered on the Police’s final album, 1983’s Synchronicity, was recently released. The six-CD set documents the making of the Grammy-winning album through demos, alternate versions and live songs.

Sting 3.0 2024 North American Tour
Sept. 17 – Detroit, MI – Fillmore Detroit
Sept. 18 – Detroit, MI – Fillmore Detroit
Sept. 20 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
Sept. 21 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
Sept. 30 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met
Oct. 01 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met
Oct. 04 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall @ Fenway Park
Oct. 07 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
Oct. 09 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
Oct. 10 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
Oct. 12 – Port Chester, NY – The Capitol Theatre
Oct. 15 – Washington, DC – MGM National Harbor
Oct. 20 – Miami, FL – Fillmore Miami Beach
Oct. 22 – Atlanta, GA – Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre (CEPAC)
Oct. 28 – Chicago, IL – Auditorium Theatre
Oct. 29 – Chicago, IL – Auditorium Theatre
Nov. 06 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
Nov. 07 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
Nov. 12 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
Nov. 13 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern

Sammy Hagar has explained why Kenny Aronoff took over for Jason Bonham on the Red Rocker’s Best of All Worlds tour.

He said Bonham had tried to keep working after his mother suffered a stroke, but in the end realized he had to visit her in a U.K. hospital.

And the singer added that Aronoff had done a great job in covering for Bonham, joking that he was actually performing the Van Halen-heavy set list better than Hagar was himself.

READ MORE: Watch Sammy Hagar Fight 114-Degree Heat in Arizona

“His mother had a stroke and went into a coma, and it’s serious,” Hagar told KSHE 95 in a new interview (below). “The whole family went over there, and he held out for two or three days. [Then] he says, ‘I gotta go; I gotta go.’ I said, ‘You go – go.’

“So we told Kenny; he had about 24-hour notice, and he came in [for] the first night… at six in the morning. We played that night in Cincinnati, and he did a 90-percent perfect show. I swear to you, I make more mistakes every night than he did! So that’s a big hats-off to this guy.”

Sammy Hagar Hails Kenny Aronoff’s attitude

With the North American dates now complete, Hagar is set to tour Japan with Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and Ray Thistlethwayte. “If Jason is still with his mom, he’s gotta be there till she either comes through or… whatever,” Hagar said, admitting he shouldn’t speculate. “But he’s got a medical emergency with his mother. You don’t ignore that.”

Returning to Aronoff – who previously stood in for Chad Smith in Chickenfoot, which also featured Hagar, Anthony and Satriani – the vocalist said: “We got Kenny, thank God. And if we have to go to Japan with him, we’ll go to Japan. I just love playing with him… he’s so enthusiastic. He’s the most enthusiastic guy – ‘Oh man, we’re gonna kill it! ‘Oh, don’t worry about me!’ He’s like, foaming at the mouth. He’s crazy!”

Watch Sammy Hagar’s Interview

Jeff “Skunk” Baxter recalled how he helped make Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” a hit using a $35 guitar.

And the Steely Dan co-founder, who went on to work with the Doobie Brothers, said he nearly hadn’t bothered attending the session for Summer’s 1979 album Bad Girls.

The single was Summer’s second of four No. 1 hits. It opened her music to new listeners with a more rock-oriented sound as she crossed over from disco music under the auspices of Italian producer Giorgio Moroder.

READ MORE: The Best Songs of 1979

“It almost didn’t happen,” Baxter told Vertex Effects in a recent interview (below). “My assistant forgot to tell me that Giorgio had called. I saw it on a message pad. So I called him back; I said, ‘What kind of music is it?’”

On being told it was disco, the guitarist’s response was muted, because he and his musical partner Jay Graydon had played a lot of sessions in the genre. “[N]ot to be snotty about it – but Jay and I [would] get together on a Monday and decide what riff we’re gonna play, for the whole week!” he explained. “To us it was all the same.”

So he told Moroder: “There’s a million guitar players who can do this. If you want something different, then I’m happy to do it. But I’d like to have some space.” The producer’s reply was: “Play whatever you want.”

The next issue was that Baxter was moving into a new house at the time, meaning he didn’t have access to his guitars. He went down to the nearby Hollywood branch of Guitar Center and spoke to the manager. “I said, ‘Paul, I need a guitar – now!’ So he laughed [and] pointed to a box in the middle of the store. The box said, ‘Buy me – $25.’ It had a bunch of weird guitars in it.”

Did ‘Skunk’ Baxter Know ‘Hot Stuff’ Was a Hit?

For some reason he was drawn to an instrument that didn’t even have matching tuning pegs. “I picked it up, plugged it in, played it – ‘Okay, fine.’ I gave him $35. Bought a six-pack of Bud, went down to Rusk studios. And they played me the song… I turned everything up to 10, plugged the guitar in and said, ‘Roll tape.’ That was it – one take.”

Asked if he’d known how successful “Hot Stuff” would be, Baxter allowed: “I don’t think I had any foresight… After it was over, I thought, ‘Wow, this is different.’ And I said to Giorgio, ‘I think I know what you wanted to do.’ … [H]e said, ‘Absolutely.’”

He reflected: “All we can do is sew the body back up and see what happens!”

Listen to Donna Summer Perform ‘Hot Stuff’

Watch Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter’s Vertex Effects Interview

Scorpions guitarist Matthias Jabs has detailed the injury that forced his band to cancel all of their September tour dates.

“Dear fans and friends, as you might have heard already, I had a bad accident in my rented summer house,” the rocker explained in a social media post. “I fell down the stairs with 16 steps and broke my left pinky twice and I also broke my left heel. I had surgeries on both, hand and foot, by the best specialists I could find in Hamburg. Now it is time to heal and start the physical rehabilitation for a speedy recovery.”

“I will try everything to be able to play guitar again on stage as soon as possible,” the guitarist continued. “I am sorry to tell you, that the shows in September won’t be happening, but I am very optimistic that we will see us again very soon. Rock n Roll forever, Yours Matthias.”

At present, no dates are listed on the Scorpions website beyond their now canceled September shows.

 

Statement From Scorpions

In a separate statement, released prior to Jabs’, Scorpions announced the cancelation of five shows in their home country of Germany. The impacted dates were the last scheduled stops on the band’s Love at First Sting 40th anniversary tour.

The statement reads:

We deeply regret, especially Matthias Jabs, that due to the accident of our friend and SCORPIONS lead guitarist, the five concerts on our German tour cannot take place in September as planned and we will work closely with the tour organizer to announce new information as soon as possible. We kindly ask for your understanding from all our fans, all the Rock Believers in Germany who were looking forward to the shows with us.

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Scorpions’ Canceled Dates

The five affected tour dates, all in Germany, fall between Sept. 11 and 20.

Sept. 11 – Nuremberg, Germany @ Arena Nurnberger Versicherung
Sept. 13 – Hamburg, Germany @ Barclays Arena
Sept. 15 – Leipzig, Germany @ Quarterback Immobilien Arena
Sept. 18 – Cologne, Germany @ LANXESS Arena
Sept. 20 – Frankfurt, Germany @ Festhalle

Scorpions’ most recent show, which took place on Aug. 1, was at Germany’s Wacken Open Air Festival. They played 18 songs and even welcomed fellow German icon Doro Pesch onstage during “Big City Nights.”

Brian May has suffered a minor stroke that briefly left him unable to move his left arm.

The Queen guitarist says he hasn’t discussed the emergency because he didn’t want any public attention. He added that he was making a full recovery while observing doctors’ orders to do nothing but rest.

“The good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days,” May, 77, said in the social media video below. “I say this because it was in some doubt, because [a] little health hiccup… happened about a week ago – what they called it was a minor stroke.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Brian May Queen Songs

He continued: “All of a sudden, out of the blue, I didn’t have any control over this arm. So it was a little scary, I have to say.” He thanked the staff at the hospital he’d attended, recalling the experience of “blue lights flashing, the lot” as “very exciting.”

May had kept quiet, he explained, because “I didn’t want anything surrounding it. I really don’t want sympathy – please don’t do that, because it’ll clutter up my inbox, and I hate that.”

He added: “I’m okay and doing what I’m told, which is basically nothing. I’m grounded; I’m not allowed to go out, drive, get on a plane; I’m not allowed to raise the heart rate too high. But I am good.”

Last month May appeared on BBC TV in the U.K. to host a documentary titled Brian May: The Badgers, The Farmers And Me, in which he continued his campaign against badger culling. The animals are destroyed in a bid to prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis – but May has long argued that there’s no need for the extreme response, and aimed to prove it on the show, where he worked with a farmer to eradicate the disease without harming any badgers.

Watch Brian May’s Health Update

Neil Young is slowly but surely putting together another run of concerts after abruptly canceling a tour with Crazy Horse.

Just weeks after announcing an appearance at 2024’s Farm Aid, Young has confirmed a shared date with Stephen Stills, his former bandmate in Buffalo Springfield and then Crosby Stills Nash and Young. They’ll appear together at the charity Harvest Moon concert on Oct. 5 at the Painted Turtle Camp in Lakes Hughes, California. Proceeds benefit the camp and the Bridge School.

“This event not only brings together amazing musicians and families but also raises vital funds for two organizations committed to changing lives,” April Tani, executive director of the Painted Turtle, said in an official statement. “It’s a day of music, fun, and philanthropy — what could be better?”

READ MORE: Top 10 Neil Young Songs

In the meantime, Young has also hinted at mounting a series of theater shows, but this time with guitarist Micah Nelson, bassist Corey McCormic and drummer Anthony Logerfo rather than Crazy Horse. “I can play a little bit of acoustic, and then have the band come out and play,” Young said. “They won’t be marathons. They won’t be two hours and 10 minutes of blasting rock ‘n’ roll like it was with Crazy Horse.”

Young’s tour with Crazy Horse began in April before grinding to a halt in June. Young cited health issues as dates scheduled for July through September were called off. Farm Aid will be held on Sept. 21 in Saratoga Springs, New York. Also appearing are  Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews, Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff and Lukas Nelson, among others.

This will be the second Harvest Moon charity concert, following the 2019 edition where Young played a 15-song acoustic set that concluded with an all-star rendition of the title track from 1992’s Harvest Moon. Young also previously performed benefit shows for the Bridge School from 1986 to 2016 at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California.

The Best Crosby Stills Nash and Young Fight Stories

It took more than a year – and one extraordinarily drastic legal measure – but the Guess Who has settled an argument over control of the band.

Classic-era frontman Burton Cummings and co-founding guitarist Randy Bachman filed suit in 2023 against original members Jim Kale and Garry Peterson over false advertising claims. Kale and Peterson had continued to tour as the Guess Who even after Bachman and then Cummings departed – giving the impression that fans would see the creators of such hits as “American Woman,” “No Time,” “These Eyes” and “Undun.” Instead, Bachman and Cummings described the act as a “cover band.”

Cummings then took things one step further, terminating the performing rights for those hits. No one, including the touring edition of the Guess Who, would be allowed to sing their songs – and royalty payments from concerts, TV and movie placements and radio plays abruptly stopped. The move was both unprecedented and effective.

READ MORE: How the Guess Who Carried on After Randy Bachman

“It was painful, but we’d have done it indefinitely just to stop that fake band from taking over our history,” Cummings tells Rolling Stone. “They took over streaming sites; they were using old photos of me and Randy. It gets me going thinking about it, but that’s over. It’s a painful success. It cost a lot of money with lawyers and I gave up a lot of publishing money, but we finally won this terrible battle.”

Details of this new settlement were not released, but Cummings and Bachman confirm that trademark details have been worked out with Peterson after hours of mediation in Los Angeles. They both expressed relief that this ugly standoff was over. Cummings is even talking about touring again.

“If there is a group out there calling themselves the Guess Who, it’s going to have the lead singer who wrote the songs and the guitarist who made the riffs,” he said. “It’s going to have Bachman and Cummings in it. I say ‘if’ because we don’t know. Randy has a lot of bookings and I’ve got solo gigs. What we do know is that Randy and I are happy because there isn’t a fake Guess Who out there anymore.”

Who Owns the Guess Who Trademark?

The Guess Who apparently never filed a trademark for the band name during their turn-of-the-’70s glory years. Kale belatedly secured one in 1986, then began mounting tours as the Guess Who. Peterson rejoined him in the late ’80s, though the rest of the lineup regularly changed. Then Kale retired in 2016 and Peterson began playing more infrequently, leaving the Guess Who without any direct connection to the past.

It was a bridge too far for Cummings. “We’re trying to preserve the history and the legacy of the Guess Who for our fans all over the place who have followed the real band and the real songs,” he said.

What becomes of the group that had been calling themselves the Guess Who is unclear. Their Facebook page has vanished. The band’s official account on X has been scrubbed of all content except a screenshot and link to coverage of this settlement – and an older post promoting their most recent album, 2023’s Plein D’Amour. Cummings said the LP is going to be removed from the Guess Who’s official discography, though Plein D’Amour remains on Spotify.

“I’m not concerned with the other band. Don’t even know who they are. It doesn’t matter to me,” Bachman said. “When you’re a football player, you’re not thinking about who gets traded for you when you get signed by a team. As far as I know, they’ve been earning a living for decades, trading off the Guess Who names and playing the songs that Burton and I wrote, pretending they were us.”