Author: LRussell

Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton‘s new band Close Enemies has announced a brief tour of the northeastern United States for January.

The five-date trek begins on Jan. 8 in Philadelphia and concludes on Jan. 23 in Pawling, New York, with more dates to come. You can see the full list of currently announced shows below.

“Hey everyone, Here are a few dates we can post as of today,” the band wrote on Facebook. “There are more to come. Looking forward to seeing all of you there.”

READ MORE: Top 20 Aerosmith Songs

Who Plays in Close Enemies With Tom Hamilton?

Hamilton announced that he was part of Close Enemies in September, not long after Aerosmith announced their retirement from touring due to Steven Tyler‘s insurmountable vocal injury. The band consists of Hamilton, guitarists Trace Foster (Hamilton’s bass tech) and Peter Stroud (who plays with Sheryl Crow), drummer Tony Brock (the Babys, Rod Stewart) and singer Chasen Hampton. Gary Stier serves as their lyricist. Close Enemies played their first show at Nashville’s Eastside Bowl in October.

“When I joined, these guys had worked up a bunch of great songs, and I was able to contribute something I had,” Hamilton told AARP in August. “Hopefully, when the time comes, we’ll work up some others I’ve had in my pocket for a while. All of these guys are great musicians, and it’s an honor and a challenge to be part of it all. I’m looking forward to seeing how people like it. I think they’ll be pleasantly amazed!”

Close Enemies 2025 Tour Dates
Jan. 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ City Winery Philly
Jan. 9 – New York, New York @ City Winery NYC
Jan. 10 – Boston, MA @ City Winery Boston
Jan. 14 – Manchester, NH @ The Rex Theatre
Jan. 23 – Pawling, NY @ Daryl’s House

Guns N’ Roses are hitting the road again in 2025 for a world tour, promising another rock ‘n’ roll spectacle of epic proportions.

Maybe a little too epic.

The rockers have never shied away from excess in any department, and over the past several years, that mentality has translated to their live show, with performances routinely approaching — or even exceeding — three hours. Although more is certainly not always a bad thing, GN’R have kept a largely static set list since launching their Not in This Lifetime … reunion tour nearly a decade (!!) ago. They’ve added to the core set over the years, but they’ve rarely subtracted.

Consequently, fans who have caught Guns N’ Roses more than once in recent years may be yearning for a change of pace. That includes several UCR writers, whom we’ve tasked with cutting five (or more) songs from the band’s 2025 set list and replacing them with less common tracks.

Here are their picks.

Bryan Rolli: My GN’R allegiance is common knowledge around the proverbial UCR water cooler. There aren’t many songs I wouldn’t be happy to see them play live. That said, their over-reliance on covers has always been their Achilles’ heel. Their renditions of Velvet Revolver‘s “Slither” and Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman” were heartfelt gestures, but they’ve outworn their welcome. Likewise, the band could make better use of Duff McKagan‘s solo spot than a punk cover, which was most recently the Stooges‘ “T.V. Eye.” And if I never hear them play “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” again, it’ll be too soon. I know there’s a “not in this lifetime”-level chance of them cutting it, but hey, stranger things have happened.

As for original songs: Now that the novelty of new music has worn off, it’s safe to deem “Absurd” one of the worst things Guns N’ Roses have ever done. Put it on the chopping block along with “Perhaps.” (I’m also preemptively crossing my fingers that “The General” doesn’t become a set list staple.) And as much as I adore “Rocket Queen,” I’ve heard their hammy, 12-minute live version enough times to sustain me for the rest of my days.

Now let’s start having some fun. McKagan has been playing “Dust N’ Bones” on his solo tours lately, and it would make a great addition to Guns’ set. They could fill their Campbell-sized void with another acoustic sitdown number, “You Ain’t the First.” They cut “Dead Horse” from their set in 2021 just as they were starting to find their groove with it; it deserves more attention in 2025. Same goes for “Locomotive,” which could satisfy the “Rocket Queen” faction. And I’ll go to my grave wishing for a “Perfect Crime” revival. Lastly, if they really feel the need to add another cover, they could salute the recently retired Aerosmith and make a nod to GN’R Lies by bringing back their rendition of “Mama Kin.”

Listen to Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Dust N’ Bones’

Matt Wardlaw: Man, we get all of the tough jobs here at UCR, don’t we? Thanks for making me the one who gets to go and tell Axl Rose about our cuts. The easiest choices to slash would be some of the cover songs. But that kind of feels like the easy way out. Here’s where I’ll start: Let’s take out their cover of Velvet Revolver’s “Slither” and pop in a fan favorite that’s been on the shelf way too long: “Out Ta Get Me,” which has been surprisingly in rest mode since late 2017. I’d like to create a new illusion and pull out “Estranged,” a fairly regular presence, in exchange for the more sporadic “Yesterdays.” I think it’s great that they’ve had some “new” material in the set with things like “Hard Skool” and “Absurd,” but I’m also thinking we could swap out the latter and pop in “Shadow of Your Love.” To be fair, “Shadow” got some good stage time through 2022, but I didn’t get to see it, so that’s a selfish pick.

When it comes to cover songs, let’s lose “Wichita Lineman” and shake things up a song or two later by putting in a real rarity prior to the set-closing “Nightrain”: their Spaghetti Incident?-era version of Nazareth‘s “Hair of the Dog.” That seems like it could be a fun way to get the fans a bit more riled up going into the encore. For my final tweak, we’re going to take out “Anything Goes” and, indeed, because anything goes, I’m making this one the dealer’s choice of either “Oh My God” or “Perfect Crime.” Thanks for your consideration, guys — we’ll see you out there right next door to hell.

Listen to Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Hair of the Dog’

Matthew Wilkening: Call me old, call me lame, call me whatever you want, but two hours and 40 minutes is too long for a rock concert. I’ve seen Guns N’ Roses half a dozen times since their 2016 reunion, and as the set lists got longer and longer over those years, the pacing sagged, particularly in the middle of the set. More importantly, other than adding some new covers and recent singles such as “Absurd” and “Hard Skool,” the shows have largely featured the same 20 songs in the same basic order. It’s well past time for a shakeup. It sounds counterintuitive, but a shorter, punchier set is the way to go.

Starting from the 28-song set list of their most recent show (Nov. 5, 2023 in Toluca, Mexico), let’s cut 10 and put 5 different songs in their place. Out: “Bad Obsession,” “Chinese Democracy,” “Slither,” “Pretty Tied Up,” “Absurd,” “Perhaps,” “The General,” “Civil War,” “Anything Goes” and “Coma.” In: “Locomotive,” “Out Ta Get Me,” “Sorry” (the best song on Chinese Democracy by a mile), “Right Next Door to Hell” and then maybe rotate in an Aerosmith or AC/DC cover once in a while.

Listen to Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Sorry’

The announcement that REO Speedwagon would be ending its touring career in 2024 due to “irreconcilable differences” between Kevin Cronin and bassist Bruce Hall came as a huge shock to fans.

But as Cronin reveals, it’s something which also blindsided him personally. “The thought of REO Speedwagon coming to an end, it’s just unfathomable to me,” he tells UCR. “I never expected it.”

For the first time since the news broke in mid-September, the singer-songwriter sat for a conversation to lay out the details from his side. He has five more concerts with REO Speedwagon, starting later this week. After that, he will begin touring under his own name in 2025, backed by fellow longtime REO guitarist Dave Amato and drummer Bryan Hitt, and keyboardist Derek Hilland and bassist Matt Bissonette.  Fans will have ample opportunity to see Cronin on stage. He’s part of the newly announced Brotherhood of Rock tour, which will reunite him with his longtime touring partners and friends in Styx for a sixth run next summer.

“There’s a difference between Styx and REO Speedwagon and Styx and Kevin Cronin, at least on paper,” he says. “But those guys put their faith in me. We did a couple of shows this past year and they saw the current lineup of the band and they were blown away by it. I’m very, very grateful to Tommy Shaw and the whole Styx organization for having faith in me.”

Let’s start by talking about your health, briefly. You had to leave the tour with Train unexpectedly this summer due to health issues. I had the chance to see you with REO in Toledo since then, so the good news is you’re back at it – but fans were concerned. So whatever you’re comfortable with sharing about that whole journey, you can talk about it a bit if you want to.
You know, it was just an unexpected accident. I hurt myself and it required a little surgical repair in my abdominal area. Luckily, I had great care from a great surgeon out here in Southern California. She told me it would be four to six weeks recovery. I trusted her and did what I was supposed to do. Boy, the human body is an amazing organism. Its healing powers are astounding. The accident happened the night of our Forum show here in Los Angeles. It happened in the middle of the night. If you’d asked me a couple of days after that, I was just in pain [and had to] go to the hospital. But man, even at the ripe old age of 73 – and of course, I feel like I’m 23 – it healed up. If you saw the show in Toledo, you know that I really haven’t lost a step. I feel better than ever and made a full recovery, no complications. The bummer was that we couldn’t do the final two shows of the Train tour.

We got some shocking news with the word that REO Speedwagon is winding down at the end of this year due to what was described as “irreconcilable differences.” People have been understandably sad about that and I’m sure that extends to you as well. How did it come to this point?
Well, I mean, it’s very sad for me. I’ve spent my entire adult life putting 100% effort and energy into REO Speedwagon and it’s meant the world to me. All of my best songs were recorded by REO Speedwagon and we accomplished so much together. The thought of REO Speedwagon coming to an end, it’s just unfathomable to me. I never expected it. There was a lot of information that was circulating online. I would say a lot of it was inaccurate and some of it was hurtful. It’s very sad. [There are] a lot of people who connect their life to certain REO Speedwagon experiences they had. Whether it was a song of ours that they played at their wedding or their first date – or they went to an REO show for their anniversary, whatever it was … you know, REO Speedwagon has been the constant. It’s been an American institution. I never in my wildest dreams thought that REO Speedwagon would end before my career was over.

I expected to, for lack of a better term, ride the Speedwagon all of the way into the barn, when I couldn’t do it anymore – whether it was health or whatever. But I never expected what has come down this year. It’s sad and it’s unfortunate. There’s a part of me that’s angry about it. But there’s a part of it that has had to accept it. There’s only so much I can do. You know, REO Speedwagon at this point, it’s a partnership between the three heritage members. I got one vote. I wanted to keep the band that you saw in Toledo, that everyone saw with Train this year and in various other cities around the country. My intention was just to keep that going. It’s just too good. But I got outvoted, so it’s as simple as that. I’m kind of left with no alternative, because I want to keep this band. Playing with this band has been so fulfilling, uplifting and inspirational for me that I want to keep it together and keep it going.  If it can’t be called REO Speedwagon, we’ll call it Kevin Cronin or the Kevin Cronin Band and we will carry on and just keep building upon what we did in 2024.

Kevin, when someone joins a band like you did back in the day, they don’t necessarily think that it is eventually going to become a brand and a corporation and as you say, a partnership. But you guys have for so long, gone against the grain. The band always seemed really close-knit. So fans obviously have had a lot of questions, like, why can’t there be a farewell tour?
Well, you know, a farewell tour would be a farewell celebration of some sort. That would be a great idea, except for the fact that I’m not ready to say farewell. Some guys might be ready to say farewell, but I’m not one of them. At some point, when I’m ready and when I’m done for whatever reason that happens to be, I will have a massive farewell celebration – because the fans deserve that. You know, it’s the fans who have allowed me to pursue and reach beyond my wildest rock and roll dreams. I’ve been so fortunate to write songs that get into people’s DNA, basically. Here we are in 2024 playing sold-out arenas. A huge Live Nation tour. The audiences have been beyond enthusiastic, as opposed to people’s enthusiasm kind of dampening a bit as time goes by. It’s even become more powerful. I think people appreciate the fact that we’re still out here doing it. So there will come a time for a farewell tour and I wish it could be as REO Speedwagon. But as I said, there’s only so much I can do about that.

I guess I would say this. If people really look at the history and culture of REO Speedwagon – and I’m just talking about the way the band evolved – it’s never been like U2, Aerosmith or Cheap Trick, guys who grew up together and knew each other since elementary school. It’s never been that kind of thing. REO Speedwagon started in Champaign, Illinois, which was a place that people came from all over the country to go to school, because it’s an amazing school. It was a hotbed of activity for rock bands back in the late ’60s. There was an agency there called Blytham Limited, that was run by Irving Azoff, who of course went on to rule the world as he does now. REO Speedwagon and Dan Fogelberg were his first management clients, but I digress. The point is that REO Speedwagon, by the time I joined the band in 1972, they’d had three different lead guitar players, two different bass players. They had a brass section for a while.

They had made one album and Gary Richrath, who kind of discovered me up in Chicago, realized the band needed some reinforcements in the songwriting department. The fact that I also played guitar, they brought me in. Two years later, I had some vocal cord-related issues that got in the way of recording the Ridin’ the Storm Out album. I was replaced by Mike Murphy and a couple of years later, it wasn’t working with Murph, so they brought me back. The next year, it wasn’t working with Gregg Philbin and Bruce joined. It’s been a constant evolution. The unspoken truth  is that with REO Speedwagon, you gotta earn your job every day and if you don’t, look out! At any rate, as you said, there’s always been a closeness and camaraderie and it always showed on stage. But you know, like many bands over the year, people change, circumstances change and relationships change. It makes me sad, but I don’t know what I can do, except that, I’m not ready to stop. I’m not ready to call it quits. I feel like I’m surrounded by a great group of guys. The chemistry is great, the music sounds awesome and I want to keep this band together.

READ MORE: How a Road Trip Inspired REO Speedwagon’s ‘Roll With the Changes’

In order to do that, I have to change the name of my band to my own name – which seems weird. You know, I’ve always been a band guy. It wasn’t like I quit REO Speedwagon to pursue a solo career. Someone told me that was circulating online and that is the furthest thing from the truth. I never quit REO Speedwagon. I will never quit REO Speedwagon and I have no intention of embarking on a solo career. This is just the hand that I’ve been dealt. And as far as 2024 goes, the way I understand it is that Bruce agreed to sit out the 2024 tour and to receive full pay as if he was touring. That’s exactly what we did and that’s what he accepted. So that’s 2024 in a nutshell. I know there’s been a lot of opinions from people who think they know what goes on within this band. Honestly, I was a little bit disheartened that so much of this was played out publicly. The fans were actually brought into this whole thing.

You never like to see that.
Yeah, we don’t like that. You know, fans don’t like it and that’s why I’ve kept my mouth shut. I feel like these are private matters that are personal, they’re musical and they’re creative. Things happen in bands that no one can possibly understand unless you’re there, unless you’re in it and feeling it. Because music is such a spiritual thing. It’s a creative thing and things change. So that’s the way I understand it. I feel a combination of sadness and excitement. I feel sad that REO Speedwagon has to come to a close this way. But I feel excited that I’m going to continue making music. I’m writing. Richard Marx and I wrote a song together, which I’m so proud of. I’m looking forward to getting in and recording that with Richard. We’ve already got Richard’s version done. We’re going to work on [mine next], so we’re going to have two versions of the song.

Are you looking to do an album sometime in 2025?
You know, I love making records. I always have. Writing songs is probably the most rewarding part of my professional life. When you finish the song, that’s such a magical moment. Because you’re working on it and for me, there’s that moment of inspiration, I call it the holy moment, where it just hits you. A little chord progression hits a certain feeling and this magic trip happens. It ends up being a song. Once that part of the job is complete, then I start thinking in terms of the record. What could this song sound like? Where would there be vocal harmonies? Where would the guitars be? I love making records and it’s tough, because it takes so much time. At this point, we tour a lot. We’re probably on the road at least half the year, if not more. So then to come home and look at my wife, Lisa and go, “Yeah, honey, I know I’ve been gone for six months, but I’m going to go in the studio for the next six months,” I don’t know if that’s gonna fly.

The business has changed to the point that it used to be that you just kept writing until you had enough songs for an album and then you went in and made an album. Now, you can release songs one at a time if you want to. I’m definitely planning on recording my version of the song that Richard and I wrote. [Beyond that], I’m just looking forward to moving past the drama of the year and putting it behind us. I’m so grateful to the fans who have supported me through the years, who will hopefully continue to support me. Because starting in 2025, if you want to see an REO Speedwagon concert, you’ll come and see Kevin Cronin. Because that’s the songs, that’s the attitude and that’s what it is kind of going to be. I’m feeling grateful and at the same time, I can’t deny feeling sad about it. It’s both of those things at the same time. But we’re going to get through this and I’m looking forward to 2025.

Joe Satriani and Steve Vai have announced joint appearances as the SachVai Band, with another studio collaboration to follow. The Surfing with the Hydra Tour kicks off next summer, with more dates to come.

They’ve shared stages together – notably as part of the G3 tours – but never in a stand-alone group. See a complete list of announced dates below. Presales are set to begin later this week.

“I’m so looking forward to sharing the stage with Steve again,” Satriani said in an official statement. “Every time we play together, it takes me back to when we were teenagers, eating and breathing music every second of the day, pushing, challenging, and helping each other to be the best we could be. I guess we’ve never stopped!”

READ MORE: Things You Didn’t Know About Steve Vai

The first leg of the SatchVai Band’s tour kicks off in June 2025, with confirmed stops in London, Paris, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Major festival appearances include Hellfest, Umbria Jazz Festival and Guitares en Scene.

“Touring with Joe is always a pleasure and an honor,” Vai said. “He is my favorite guitarist to jam with, and now we have another opportunity to take it to the stage. I feel as though we are both at the top of our game, and the show will be a powerful celebration of the coolest instrument in the world, the electric guitar!”

Listen to ‘The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1’

When Does the SatchVai Band Pre-Sale Begin?

Satriani and Vai released a sweeping stand-alone single, “The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1,” last spring as they played select U.S. cities where both of their solo bands appeared. Their next single is due before the SatchVai Band begins these summer shows in 2025.

Satriani is coming off well-received dates with Sammy Hagar‘s Best of All Worlds Tour, while Vai has been part of the King Crimson offshoot band Beat. Pre-sale tickets for SatchVai Band shows will be available starting Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 11 and 12, with general sales opening on Friday, Dec. 13.

Joe Satriani and Steve Vai’s 2025 Surfing with the Hydra Tour:
June 13 – York, UK @ Barbican
June 14 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
June 17 – Glasgow, SC @ Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
June 18 – Wolverhampton, UK @ Civic Hall
June 19 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo
June 21 – Clisson, FR @ Hellfest
June 22 – Paris, FR @ Palais Des Congres
June 23 – Antwerp, BE @ Lotto Arena
June 24 – Amsterdam, NL @ Amsterdam Afas
June 26 – Copenhagen, DK @ Amager Bio
June 29 – Helsinki, FI @ House of Culture
June 30 – Tampere, FI @ Tampere Hall
July 2 – Uppsala, SE @ Parksnackan
July 3 – Oslo, NO @ Sentrum Scene
July 5 – Warsaw, PL @ Torwar
July 8 – Munich, DE @ Tollwood Festival
July 10 – Dusseldorf, DE @ Mitsubishi Electric Hall
July 11 – Frankfurt, DE @ Jahrhunderthalle
July 12 – Zurich, CH @ Volkshaus Zürich
July 13 – Milan, IT @ Comfort Festival @ Villa Casati Stampa
July 15 – Pordenone, IT @ Parco San Valentino
July 16 – Perugia, IT @ Umbria Jazz
July 17 – Bologna, IT @ Sequoie Music Park
July 18 – Saint-Julien, FR @ Guitares en Scene Festival
July 20 – Prague, CZ @ Forum Karlin
July 22 – Sofia, BG @ National Palace of Culture

Guns N’ Roses will embarked on a sprawling worldwide tour in 2025.

The newly announced trek — given the title Because What You Want and What You Get Are Two Completely Different Things — kicks off on May 23 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking the band’s first performance in that country. From there, GNR will wind their way through such major cities as Istanbul, Barcelona and London.

The tour, which will find the band headlining stadiums and festivals, is currently scheduled to wrap on July 31 with a performance at in Wacken, Germany. The full list of dates can be found below.

Public Enemy, Rival Sons and Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter will trade opening duties  on select dates. Tickets for all non-festival shows go on sale through Guns N’ Roses Nighttrain fan club Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 9AM local time.

When Was Guns N’ Roses’ Last Tour?

After touring extensively from 2021 to 2023, Guns N’ Roses took a break from the road in 2024.

“I think for me, I know I had to rest — I had to rest my body,” bassist Duff McKagan explained in a recent interview with Sirius XM’s Eddie Trunk. “A lot of hours on stage. A lot of traveling. And I’ve gotta listen to my body these days. I’ve gotta listen. So I had to rest. I think we all need to rest. Slash, he’ll go out and tour, like, four weeks later [with one of his projects] and do it all over again. I’m, like, ‘Okay, dude. More power to you. I’m gonna go to Hawaii. I’m going to Hawaii, man.’”

READ MORE: Every Guns N’ Roses Song Ranked Worst to Best

GNR’s members still found plenty of ways to stay active during their break. McKagan toured behind his Lighthouse solo LP and released a new live album, while Slash released and toured behind his second solo effort, Orgy of the Damned. Meanwhile, Axl Rose collaborated with other artists, covering UFO‘s “Love to Love” with Michael Schenker and making a surprise appearance alongside Billy Joel at the Piano Man’s final Madison Square Garden residency show.

Guns N’ Roses, Because What You Want and What You Get Are Two Completely Different Things 2025 World Tour
May 23 – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
May 27 – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
May 30 – Shekvetili, Georgia
June 2 – Istanbul, Turkey
June 6 – Coimbra, Portugal
June 9 – Barcelona, Spain
June 12 – Florence, Italy
June 15 – Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic
June 18 – Dusseldorf, Germany
June 20 – Munich, Germany
June 23 – Birmingham, U.K.
June 26 – London, U.K.
June 29 – Aaehus, Denmark
July 2 – Trondheim, Norway
July 4 – Stockholm, Sweden
July 7 – Tampere, Finland
July 10 – Kaunas, Lithuania
July 12 – Warsaw, Poland
July 15 – Budapest, Hungary
July 18 – Belgrade, Serbia
July 21 – Sofia, Bulgaria
July 24 – Vienna, Austria
July 28 – Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
July 31 – Wacken, Germany

Nicko McBrain performed his last show with Iron Maiden Saturday night.

The band’s longtime drummer announced that he would be leaving the group earlier that day. “After much consideration, it is with both sorrow and joy, I announce my decision to take a step back from the grind of the extensive touring lifestyle,” McBrain explained Saturday morning on IronMaiden.com. “Today, Sat, Dec 7th, Sao Paulo will be my final gig with Iron Maiden. I wish the band much success moving forward.”

Early in the show, singer Bruce Dickinson addressed McBrain’s imminent departure: “Tonight is a very special, night, as some of you, I think probably all of you, will know, because this morning we announced, Nicko announced that he was stepping back from playing live drums with Iron Maiden. For 42 years, Nicko’s been in this band. He was a drummer before I was a singer, he was a pilot before I was a pilot, and now he’s not leaving the band, but he’s just not playing live with us anymore. So we have a lot more music to get to tonight, and I want the rest of the night to be a celebration of Nick, a celebration of the joy that he’s brought to everybody around the world.”

Watch Bruce Dickinson Pay Tribute to Nick McBrain

After a set-concluding performance of “Wasted Years,” McBrain’s bandmates took turns hugging him as the crowd of 45,000 roared and sang his name. The teary-eyed drummer soaked in the love while throwing a variety of drum heads, sticks and arm bands out into the crowd.

The band’s drummer since 1982, McBrain suffered a stroke in January 2023 but was back on stage with Iron Maiden just four months later.  At the time he revealed that he wasn’t fully recovered yet, and was having difficulty with some of the band’s trickier material: “I unfortunately haven’t been able to give you lot 100% of my performance.”

To accommodate their longtime bandmate, Iron Maiden changed their set lists: “It ain’t the old Nicko – it’s not the old one by a long shot,” McBrain stated in July 2024. “But at least it’s part of me. And my band, bless their hearts, Steve Harris and the rest of the guys turn around and say, ‘If you can’t do something in a song, we just won’t do that song.’”

Read More: Iron Maiden Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide

“Thank you for being an irrepressible force behind the drum kit for Maiden for 42 years and my friend for even longer,” Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood said of McBrain. “I speak on behalf of all the band when I say we will miss you immensely! …As Steve Harris says, ‘Nicko is and will always be part of the Maiden family.'”

The show brought Iron Maiden’s 2024 The Future Past tour to an end. The band will return to the road in May 2025 for their 50th anniversary Run For Your Lives tour. Early Sunday mormning they announced that Simon Dawson, who’s been playing with Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris in the band British Lion for over a decade, will take over for McBrain.

Watch Nicko McBrain Say Farewell at His Last Iron Maiden Show

Jake E. Lee said he was lucky that the second of three bullets that hit him during a late-night attack in October missed his spine.

The former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist has been revealing details of the assault near his Las Vegas home over recent weeks, reporting that he’d interrupted two young men as they were preparing to steal a motorcycle, and that one then fired 15 shots towards him and his dog.

In the latest update, Lee discussed the second shot, saying it hadn’t occurred to him until much later that he’d come close to suffering paralysis from the wound.

READ MORE: Ozzy Osbourne Guitar Players: A Complete History

“The second bullet felt nothing like the first,” he wrote on Facebook. “Whereas the first one was a burning sensation, this one was an impact strong enough to push the air out of my lungs. Like getting hit with a baseball bat.

“The bullet entered mid back and exited out my left side. It fractured the 10th and 11th ribs and punctured my left lung. It wasn’t something I would consider that painful, much like the first one. On a 1-10 scale maybe a 4.”

He explained that one of the first things he was asked when paramedics arrived was whether he could move his legs. “They wanted me to show them. They told me a couple times on the way to the hospital how lucky I was. In the ER I was again asked if I could move my legs. They seemed impressed. Over the next couple days whenever a nurse was redressing my wounds I would hear about how close the bullet was to my spine.”

Jake E. Lee’s Reaction to Seeing Bullet Wound in His Back

A few days later, when Lee had been released from hospital, his daughter Jade was redressing his back wound. “[She] said, ‘Oh my God, Dad.’ So I asked her to take a photo so I could see wtf everyone was going on about. Oh. Yeah. I see. How did that not actually hit my spine?”

Explaining her photos, which appeared in the post, he said: “These are the photos she took, entrance mid back and exited left side. The lung initially needed a tube in it to drain the blood. Lung is now clear and ribs are almost healed…I got relatively lucky with that.”

(Disclaimer: the below photos are graphic in nature.)

Lee added that his next post would detail the wound he sustained to his foot, which “felt completely different than the first two.” He concluded: “After I document that I will put this incident behind me and focus on the future!”

Iron Maiden has announced a successor to recently retired drummer Nicko McBrain: Simon Dawson of British Lion.

The band posted the following statement to social media: “As The Future Past Tour concludes after 81 shows to over 1.4 million fans, from Ljubljana to the Coachella Valley and from Western Australia to Sao Paulo, Iron Maiden are delighted to announce that stepping in behind the kit for 2025 is a name familiar to many of our fans – Simon Dawson, a former session drummer and Steve [Harris]’s rhythm section partner of the past 12 years with British Lion. A native of Suffolk, England, Simon first teamed up with Steve Harris back in 2012. He debuted on three tracks on the first British Lion album and all of the second critically acclaimed The Burning, plus the many subsequent tours in the U.S., U.K., Europe, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and, most recently, both Mexico and South America.”

Iron Maiden will launch the Run For Your Lives Tour on May 27 of next year, starting in Europe.

Nicko McBrain’s Statement on Retirement From Touring

McBrain announced his retirement from touring on the morning of Dec. 7, 2024, his final scheduled performance with the band. “After much consideration, it is with both sorrow and joy, I announce my decision to take a step back from the grind of the extensive touring lifestyle,” he wrote in a statement. “Today, Sat, Dec 7, Sao Paulo will be my final gig with Iron Maiden. I wish the band much success moving forward.”

Prior to the announcement, McBrain had been candid about the challenge of drumming after suffering a stroke in January 2023. He returned to the road four months later but admitted he “[hadn’t] been able to give you lot 100% of my performance.” The drummer said if he encountered a part of a song he couldn’t play, the band would cut it from the set or find workarounds, citing “Caught Somewhere in Time” as an example of the latter.

READ MORE: Metal Snubs: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 10 Worst Omissions

Despite his retirement from touring, McBrain vowed to “remain firmly part of the Iron Maiden family working on a variety of projects” and expressed his gratitude for the past four decades. “Touring with Maiden the last 42 years has been an incredible journey,” he said. “To my bandmates, you made it a dream come true and I love you! I look into the future with much excitement and great hope! I’ll be seeing you soon, may God bless you all, and, of course, ‘Up the Irons!'”

The first global economic study into the effect of AI on the creative industries suggested that those working in the music industry could lose over a fifth of their income in the next three years.

The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) revealed the conclusions of the report, which, they said, emphasizes the need for urgent new legislation to protect their five million members and others.

The study suggested that, if new laws aren’t introduced, corporations will have the ability to continue developing AI music from poorly-protected copyrighted material created by humans, and will make more money than ever before out of that material, without having to share any with artists.

READ MORE: Singers Offered AI Voice Cloning by World’s Biggest Record Label

As a result, corporate profits could explode, while artists – and many others working in the creative industries – could see their income fall by over 20 per cent by 2028. By that time, the CISAC report said, the AI industry is expected to have expanded from $3.1 billion worldwide to $67.7 billion.

The key argument in the matter concerns how AI models are trained. It’s argued that if a model is given access to an artist’s work, and then generates its own version of that work, the new work is entirely the property of the AI’s owners, and the artist whose work was used to train the AI has no ownership rights. That position is disputed by many artists, who face having their material used and re-used without enjoying a share of profits.

AI Should Enhance Creativity, Not Replace it – Bjorn Ulvaeus

ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus, the current CISAC president, identified upcoming legislation in Australia and New Zealand which, he said (via the Guardian), was the kind of lawmaking needed to protect creatives around the world from the risk of losing out.

“By setting a gold standard in AI policy – one that protects creators’ rights while fostering responsible and innovative technological development – Australia and New Zealand can ensure that AI serves as a tool to enhance human creativity rather than replace it,” Ulvaeus said.

“The world is watching, and the decisions made will resonate far beyond these shores.”

Dean Ormston of Apra Amcos, the Australian music rights management organization, said that similar legislation was required as a matter of urgency. “It’s creators who stand to lose the most,” he argued.

“Our industry thrives on human creativity … [G]overnments need to take the lead and act decisively to protect the livelihoods of creators and the future of our creative industries.”

A Los Angeles judge told Kiss to consider settling an upcoming court case against their fired wig roadie, saying the band could be hit in its “deep, deep pockets” if the ruling didn’t go its way.

The lawsuit was brought in February 2023 by former crew member David Mathews, who claims he was mistreated on tour and then wrongfully terminated after his 30-year tenure turned sour.

Mathews – whose main responsibility as part of the costume team was to maintain the band’s hair – claimed he was forced to work in close proximity with Gene Simmons while the musician was suffering from COVID, but denying it.

In his six-point suit he also claimed he was fired by manager Doc McGhee for allegedly being involved in reports in which the Kiss crew revealed their concerns about the band’s COVID measures, in the aftermath of guitar tech Fran Stueber’s death from the illness on the road. Mathews insists he wasn’t one of those who spoke to journalists.

READ MORE: Paul Stanley Feels ‘Kind of Disoriented’ After Farewell Kiss Tour

“The first time I saw this lawsuit, it was clear both sides had very serious risks,” L.A. County Superior Court Judge Armen Tamzarian said during a hearing on Friday (via Rolling Stone).

He continued: “If this goes to trial, it would not surprise me if Mr. Mathews got nothing. It would not surprise me if he made a big pot of money. This is the kind of case any rational person would settle. There’s big risk this could swing dramatically one way or the other. This is a tough case for plaintiff to win, but if he wins, there are deep, deep pockets there, and there could be a big result.”

The judge admitted: “I don’t know what I’m doing to do with this” if the case commences as scheduled on Jan. 6. He told lawyers on both sides: “You’re both overconfident in your positions.”

Judge Says No Laws for Rock Bands with Makeup During Covid

He also criticized Kiss’ position that Mathews was a contractor rather than an employee, saying: “I’m not so sure I’m buying that argument. Let’s say he had his own hair studio in Beverly Hills, and every time they went on tour, they went to him and he fixed up their hair. That’s one thing.

“[But] he didn’t have his own hair studio. He didn’t cut anybody else’s hair. All he did for a couple years was cut the hair of these guys. He had some side gigs, but they weren’t side gigs in hair.”

He also queried Mathews’ position on how the band should have gone about COVID protection. “I’m unaware of any law or regulation about somebody who’s in a rock ’n’ roll band … where the performer who’s wearing makeup has to wear a mask.

“After they put on the makeup, Gene Simmons should have put on a mask? Wouldn’t that ruin the makeup and ruin the whole point? Is that what you’re saying they should have done? It’s not practical for how they do things. That’s going to be their argument at trial.”

Former Eagles guitarist Don Felder admits it was a “fun challenge” playing alongside Joe Walsh.

During a recent conversation with UCR’s Matt Wardlaw, Felder discussed his penchant for guitar solos, specifically those in which he and another rocker trade riffs.

“Somebody would be playing, and you step back and give them that period. And then they step back and give you an opportunity to step forward,” Felder explained. “And then somebody starts climbing up in their solo, and you go down below and play in a lower octave to support them. And then you crisscross on the way up and the way down and coming back. It’s just things you can’t necessarily teach somebody how to do. It’s more of a feel.”

Felder further noted the distinctive musical chemistry he enjoyed with his former Eagles bandmate, Walsh.

READ MORE: Top 10 Don Felder Eagles Songs

“Joe and I really felt that very, very comfortably to be able to jam together, whether it was in the Eagles or before he joined the Eagles or on Joe Walsh and Friends videos and stuff like that,” the rocker recalled. “We just instinctually were able to do that by having just the sensitivity of how another person plays and knowing when to play and when not to play, when to be a support character and when to step in and be a lead character.”

“That’s exactly what Joe and I used to do all the time, every song,” Felder continued. “But we had enough grace to allow the other person to take the lead step and to hold hands going through it. It was never a, ‘I’m better than you.’ It was never an ego competition at all. It was just a fun challenge to have Joe play a lick and then, ‘Hell, I can beat that.’ And I play something and then he takes a step back and then he comes in like a bull. It was just fun to be able to play off of people like that.”

Don Felder Hails Tommy Shaw as a ‘Talented Triple Threat’

Similar to his chemistry with Walsh, Felder feels a musical connection with Styx leader Tommy Shaw.

“Tommy Shaw is probably one of the most talented triple threats that I know. I have the ultimate respect for people that can write, sing and play,” Felder declared. “Tommy is just a monster at that. And for him to be able to have the guitar dexterity and talent, to be able to play all those solos on the end of the harmonies and everything, and be able to sing [is impressive].”

READ MORE: 2025 Rock Tour Preview

The rockers will have a chance to showcase their aligned energies when they hit the road together in 2025. The two have jammed together on the Eagles classic “Hotel California” in the past, though Felder cautioned its a not a guarantee to be in the set list every night.

“I’m not sure we’re going to do it this time,” he noted. “We might. We might not. Maybe save it for special occasions. I don’t know, we’ll see. It’s just going to be a lot of fun stuff.”

Eagles 10 Most Famous Concerts

Pearl Jam released their third album, Vitalogy, in late 1994 at a time when the Seattle band’s popularity was continuing to build at an explosive pace. Of the many unexpected things that developed in that time period, the biggest surprise was the group’s summit in the recording studio with Neil Young for 1995’s Mirror Ball.

The band’s longtime associate, Brett Eliason, has a vivid memory of how the collaboration took shape. “Pearl Jam had played Constitution Hall in D.C. for Gloria Steinem’s Voters for Choice [concert],” he recalled in a new interview on the UCR Podcast. “Neil and Crazy Horse joined us for that show. Pearl Jam was last. Neil had done his set [and] had some new songs he had been working on. He was so blown away by the energy of Pearl Jam that night that he asked if they would do an encore with him and play one of the songs that [eventually] became part of Mirror Ball. They learned [it] backstage, went out and it was great.”

Young and Pearl Jam performed “Act of Love” that night and the moment was the catalyst that planted a seed in the Canadian rocker’s head that he should make an album with the group. True to his usual form, he had a vision for how it should all go down. He told the band members that he wanted the sessions to be very “Pearl Jam-centric.” He would come to Seattle to record the material with the group, utilizing their longtime producer, Brendan O’Brien, plus Eliason and other members of their team.

Bad Animals, the area recording studio owned by Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart at the time, ended up being the location chosen for the sessions. “We brought this huge rug from the rehearsal space to lay down,” Eliason remembers. “We set up couches and lamps, and made this large room super homey, like a big living room. The band was set up in a semi-circle with live monitors….it was kind of similar to a state setup, but they could play live together out there and that’s what they did.”

Like so many of Young’s past recordings, Eliason recalls that the sessions were pretty loose. “We’d go until they captured what they wanted as a base and that was it. There was really no fixing unless it was such a great take and there was one little thing that needed to be repaired. We’d punch it in and fix it up. Neil would double his voice a bit, but even his vocal was being laid down at the same time the band was playing and he was playing guitar. It was just magical.”

Listen to Neil Young and Pearl Jam Perform ‘Downtown’

What you hear is quite literally what they got during the sessions in January and February of 1995. “The majority of that record was just the board mixes that were up,” Eliason confirms. “That’s Neil. If it was feeling right at the time, it’s done. I love that about him. He doesn’t overthink things. Probably 90 to 95% [of Mirror Ball] were just the rough mixes that were up on the console between Brendan and myself.”

Young and Pearl Jam took the fruits of what they’d accomplished to the road, playing a short series of shows in the summer of 1995. It capped a momentous year that had also seen Eddie Vedder give the speech to induct Young into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, two days before the Voters for Choice concert. He praised the songwriter for teaching Pearl Jam “a lot about dignity and commitment” and perhaps most importantly, “playing in the moment,” something they definitely eventually captured during the Mirror Ball sessions.

Fans who are hoping for an expanded reissue of Mirror Ball, can perhaps dim those hopes as far as unreleased studio material. “From the [sessions], all of that pretty much got out,” he says. “We did record a live show at Moe’s up on Capitol Hill in Seattle. That was the first time they’d played this record together. Those tapes are somewhere. That would be fun, because it was a good show.”

During the interview, Eliason also spoke about the recording process for Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy, which was recently remixed for the first time in spatial audio. You can listen to the conversation below.

Listen to Brett Eliason on the ‘UCR Podcast’

Nicko McBrain is about to play his last show with Iron Maiden.

The band’s longtime drummer, who suffered a stroke in January 2023 but returned to the road four months later, announced the news on the band’s official website: “After much consideration, it is with both sorrow and joy, I announce my decision to take a step back from the grind of the extensive touring lifestyle. Today, Sat, Dec 7th, Sao Paulo will be my final gig with Iron Maiden. I wish the band much success moving forward.”

McBrain joined Iron Maiden in 1982, first appearing on their 1983 album Piece of Mind. When he announced the news of his stroke, McBrain revealed that he wasn’t fully recovered yet, and was struggling with some of the band’s more complex material: “I unfortunately haven’t been able to give you lot 100% of my performance.”

A year later, in July 2024, McBrain explained how his bandmates had supported him and changed their set lists to accommodate him: “It ain’t the old Nicko – it’s not the old one by a long shot. But at least it’s part of me. And my band, bless their hearts, Steve Harris and the rest of the guys turn around and say, ‘If you can’t do something in a song, we just won’t do that song.’”

Read More: Iron Maiden Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide

In his statement, McBrain vows to “remain firmly part of the Iron Maiden family,” and to continue work on a variety of projects and existing businesses. “Touring with Maiden the last 42 years has been an incredible journey,” he concludes. “To my bandmates, you made it a dream come true and I love you! I look into the future with much excitement and great hope! I’ll be seeing you soon, may God bless you all, and, of course, ‘Up the Irons!'”

Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood offered his own statement on behalf of the band: “Thank you for being an irrepressible force behind the drum kit for Maiden for 42 years and my friend for even longer. I speak on behalf of all the band when I say we will miss you immensely! The band and I all have a thousand great memories of the past 42 years, great gigs, copious platinum and gold discs and awards, love from the fans and one beer too many on too many occasions! Such a bond is forever! And, as Steve Harris says, ‘Nicko is and will always be part of the Maiden family’.”

Tonight’s show marks the conclusion of Iron Maiden’s 2024 The Future Past tour. The band is scheduled to return to the road in May 2025 for the Run For Your Lives tour. Their statement notes that a replacement for McBrain is already lined up: “Maiden always get their man and our already chosen new drummer will be announced very shortly.”

In 1984, John Shepherd was a young actor looking for his first big break. It seemed to arrive in the form of a leading role in a film called Repetition.

“I read the character breakdown and I thought it was so cool,” he later recalled in the book Crystal Lake Memories. Eager to land the role, Shepherd went “very method,” by his own admission. He wore sweats and a heavy coat while running up 10 flights of stairs jus prior to his audition. “Then when I went into the reading, I took of my jacket and just started sweating. I didn’t look at them, I didn’t talk to them, I was just really intense. I could tell I struck something.”

Shepherd got the role, and then a somewhat unwelcome surprise: Repetition wasn’t really the name of the project. Instead, he would be starring in the fifth Friday the 13th movie, 1985’s A New Beginning. “I remember then finding out it was a Friday the 13th and being really disappointed,” he recalled. “I just thought, ‘Oh, gosh! I always swore I’d never do a horror film.”

He wasn’t the only one taken by surprise. “Nothing was said about the film being a Friday the 13th,” recalled Tiffany Helm, who played the punk rock-loving Violet in the movie. “I thought the reason being that if the potential cast members knew they were going to be involved in such a money making venue, they would ask for a better contract. It was not until we were cast that the real name of the project was even revealed. But I was happy to be working.”

Despite his deep religious beliefs, Shepherd decided to take the role. “I think I rationalized it,” he explains in Crystal Lake Memories. “The reason I found I could do the film was that evil was punished. Mercilessly and graphically. I wouldn’t have a problem with that or nudity in a script that ultimately had a redemptive worldview.”

Read More: Why ‘Friday the 13th Part VI’ is the Best Jason Movie Ever

Shepherd portrayed Tommy Jarvis, an older, traumatized and institutionalized version of the character played by Corey Feldman in the previous year’s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. At the end of A New Beginning (spoiler alert, I guess, but the movie is 40 years old…), Tommy battles and kills what turns out to have been a mere mortal impersonating the still-dead Jason Voorhees throughout the whole movie.

The final scene, in which Tommy dons Jason’s hockey mask and machete himself, strongly hinted at the producers’ plans for Tommy to take over as the series’ main villain.

The Box Office Drop for ‘A New Beginning’ Paved the Way for Jason’s Return

But after a strong, box-office topping opening weekend that grossed $8 million, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning faded from theaters rather quickly. Bad word of mouth, perhaps fueled by the fact that the “real” Jason Voorhees only appears in dream sequences, led to a final gross of $22 million, two-thirds of what the The Final Chapter earned the year before.

The studio got the message loud and clear, and the title of the next movie in the franchise – 1986’s Friday the 13th: Jason Lives – made it clear they were determined to give fans what they wanted. The character of Tommy Jarvis still appeared in that movie, but Shepherd declined the role, and instead decided to become a pastor. “I was counseling a church youth group after Part V came out,” he explained. “I felt, ‘How can I create a character in this franchise, then tell kids you shouldn’t go see R-rated films?'”

Alice Cooper and his daughter Calico have joined forces with Slash on “Freewheelin’,” a cycling anthem off the Grammy-nominated children’s album Solid Rock Revival.

You can watch the new animated music video below.

While plenty of rockers over the decades have sung about the joys of hitting the open road on their motorcycles, the Coopers take a different tack on “Freewheelin’.” “Now you’re freewheelin’ / ridin’ by yourself / pedalin’ faster without any help / I’m free feelin’ on my two wheels / fell a couple times / it ain’t no big deal,” the father-daughter duo sings about the milestone of removing the training wheels, making way for a characteristically fiery guitar solo from Slash.

READ MORE: Why Alice Cooper Isn’t Trying to Shock Audiences Anymore

Alice Cooper Could Win His First Grammy — for a Children’s Album

“Freewheelin'” appears on Solid Rock Revival, a star-studded compilation album credited to Rock for Children that came out in August. Cooper spearheaded the project, and kids recorded the songs at his Solid Rock Teen Centers in Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona. The album also features contributions from Rob Halford of Judas Priest and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run-DMC.

Solid Rock Revival earned a Grammy nomination for Best Children’s Music Album. If it wins, it will mark Cooper’s first Grammy. The irony of a shock-rock titan once seen as the veritable antichrist potentially winning this type of award is not lost on Cooper.

“Would it not be the craziest thing for Alice Cooper to get a Grammy for children’s music?” he asked The Arizona Republic. “But I get it. It was unique. It was something that came out of nowhere. And I think that that’s what people look for. They go, ‘Well, I never thought that that would ever happen, but good.’ It would be like if Marilyn Manson won for the same thing. I’m gonna tell him, ‘Make a kid’s album next. And try not to kill all of them.'”

Styx and Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon will hit the road next summer for a lengthy run of 40 dates featuring former Eagles guitarist Don Felder as special guest.

The Brotherhood of Rock tour kicks off May 28 in Greenville, SC and is set to wrap up on Aug. 24 in Milwaukee, WI. Tickets go on sale Friday, Dec. 13. Additional pre-sale information is available at the Styx and Kevin Cronin websites. You can see the complete list of tour dates below.

“It’s going to be so much fun,” Styx vocalist and guitarist Tommy Shaw tells UCR. “There’s going to be so much good music and it’s all good folks that we love spending time with. It really is a brotherhood and it has been, for a long, long time.”

This will be Cronin’s first outing sharing the stage with Styx under his own name. The singer-songwriter shared surprising news earlier this fall that he’d be retiring the REO Speedwagon brand at the end of 2024 due to “irreconcilable differences.”

Still, Cronin has a lengthy connection with the fellow Midwest rockers and toured with them numerous times over the years during his time with REO. “You know, I’m from Chicago and all of the original Styx guys are from Chicago. We have a long history that goes back to when I was in high school,” he told UCR in 2021. “We were kind of rivals on the south side of Chicago. They were a couple of years older than us, so they were a little bit better and their girlfriends were a little bit hotter. It’s a long and sordid tale.”

During a recent conversation, the vocalist expanded on how appreciative he is, getting to share the stage with Styx for a sixth tour, 25 years after they mounted their initial run together in 2000 on the Arch Allies trek. “It’s a great confluence of good luck,” he says. “We’re calling this tour the Brotherhood of Rock, because it really is. This tour is based on brotherhood and I’m very, very grateful to Tommy Shaw and the whole Styx organization for having faith in me.”

Both Cronin and Shaw praised the albums that they loved by the Eagles, noting the importance of the guitar work and songwriting that Don Felder contributed to the California legends during his time with the band. The guitarist quickly returned equal amounts of praise to them as well.

“The amazing thing about this tour, to me is the catalog of all three of these bands,” he told UCR. “It’s going to just be hit after hit after hit. [In the past], we’ve had a little grand finale on some of the nights that we were feeling up to it, to kind of button up the very end of the show. So it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Though the evening will be heavily focused on the hits, all three are in the midst of working on new music. Felder expects that his next album will be out shortly before the tour kicks off. Shaw is similarly excited about the record that Styx has that’s taking shape, which he says will likely be released sometime in 2025. Cronin is still in the midst of planning out his next musical moves, but shared that he’s looking forward to finishing off a song that he wrote recently with Richard Marx.

Watch the Styx and Kevin Cronin Tour Video

Styx, Kevin Cronin and Don Felder, Brotherhood of Rock Tour 2024
May 28 – Greenville, SC @ Bon Secours Wellness Arena
May 31 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
June 2 – Jacksonville, FL @ Daily’s Place
June 4 – Austin, TX @ Germania Insurance Amphitheater
June 6 – The Woodlands, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
June 7 – Ridgedale, MO – Thunder Ridge Nature Arena
June 9 – Denver, CO @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre
June 11 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
June 13 – Concord, CA @ Toyota Pavilion at Concord
June 14 – Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater
June 15 – Ridgefield, WA @ RV Inn Style Resort Amphitheater
June 28 – Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheatre
June 30 – Colorado Springs, CO @ Ford Amphitheatre
July 2 – Kansas City, MO @ Starlight Theatre
July 5 – Birmingham, AL @ Coca-Cola Amphitheatre
July 6 – Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
July 8 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
July 9 – Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek
July 11 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
July 12 – Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live
July 14 – Syracuse, NY @ Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater
July 15 – Bridgeport, CT @ Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
July 18 – Gilford, NH @ BankNH Pavilion
July 19 – Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center
July 20 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
Aug. 1 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion
Aug. 2 – Brandon, MS @ Brandon Amphitheater
Aug. 4 – Franklin, TX @ FirstBank Amphitheater
Aug. 6 – Richmond, VA @ Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront
Aug. 8 – Camden, NJ @ Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
Aug. 10 – Burgettstown, PA @ The Pavilion at Star Lake
Aug. 12 – Saratoga Springs, NY @ Broadview Stage at SPAC
Aug. 13 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage
Aug. 15 – Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center
Aug. 16 – Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre
Aug. 19 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
Aug. 20 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center
Aug. 22 – Maryland Heights, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Aug. 23 – Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
Aug. 24 – Milwaukee, WI @ American Family Insurance Amphitheater

2025 Rock Tour Preview

Tommy Shaw has confirmed that Styx is “working on a new album.”

During a conversation with UCR’s Matt Wardlaw, the rocker explained how the band has fit in songwriting around their busy touring commitments.

“I guess we just stumbled upon a way of doing it. Just writing, you don’t have to write the whole thing at one time,” Shaw explained. “Like Will (Evankovich, Styx’s producer)l and I, we’ve been writing songs together for you know for 10, 15 years. And when we get one that we like, Will’s a lot more organized than I am, but he’ll put it on a hard drive. And so we had amassed a whole bunch of songs.”

By revisiting those song ideas, along with a recent run of new inspiration, Styx found an album coming together.

READ MORE: Styx Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide

“Suddenly we got hot writing new stuff. And then we went back and looked at some other things and said these things all it all goes together,” Shaw explained. “Now we’re working on [the album] and finishing it. And it’s exciting.”

When Did Styx Release Their Last Album?

Styx’s last album, Crash of the Crown, was released in 2021.

Shaw described the upcoming LP as “a great rock album,” while also revealing that one of the tunes, tentatively titled “Blue-Eyed Raven,” is a folky “Boat on the River” kind of song. Overall, the rocker noted that “real-life experiences” influenced many of the new tracks.

“You’re writing about your experiences in your life and things that you love and enjoy, or things that were hard to go through and that sort of thing,” he explained. “So you’re just really just writing a book in little sections like that. And we’ve got a pretty good one going here.”

In fact, Shaw revealed, Styx’s recent songwriting has been so prolific, they suddenly have a happy problem.

“We have too many songs and we’re writing more,” the rocker declared. “So, it’s nice that it goes on, for sure.”

Styx will hit the road with Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon for a run of tour dates in summer 2025. Former Eagles guitarist Don Felder will also join the trek as a special guest.

In less than three weeks, a brand new Bob Dylan biopic titled A Complete Unknown will appear in theaters. Ahead of that, two songs from the film, which stars Timothee Chalamet as Dylan, have been released.

You can listen to Chalamet’s versions of “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Girl From the North Country Below.”

A Complete Unknown will arrive on Dec. 25. It also features Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Monica Barbaro (who can be heard on the version of “Girl From the North Country”) as Joan Baez, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash and more.

READ MORE: Will Bob Dylan Continue to Tour?

According to reporting by Rolling Stone, Chalamet worked with a vocal coach, guitar teacher, dialect coach, movement coach and a harmonica professional as he prepared for the film.

“He never wanted to take the easy way out,” Chalamet’s guitar teacher, Larry Saltzman, told Rolling Stone. “If I presented something to him like, ‘OK, this is the real way, but there’s a little bit of a shortcut,’ his answer to that was always ‘Don’t show me the shortcut.'”

Bob Dylan’s Seal of Approval

Dylan himself recently gave a rare public comment about the film, explaining its origins and praising Chalamet for his talent.

“There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!),” he posted on social media earlier this month. “Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me. The film’s taken from Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric – a book that came out in 2015. It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ’60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport. After you’ve seen the movie read the book.”

Listen to Timothee Chalamet Sing ‘Like a Rolling Stone’

Listen to Timothee Chalamet and Monica Barbaro Sing ‘Girl From the North Country’

The Led Zeppelin movie Becoming Led Zeppelin will be released exclusively in IMAX theaters next February.

Billed as a “docu-concert,” Becoming Led Zeppelin explores the group’s origins and the “meteoric rise” of their first year. It is the first film to be officially sanctioned by the band, and features never-before-seen footage, performances and footage.

You can see the film’s trailer and poster below.

Becoming Led Zeppelin will arrive at almost 200 IMAX theaters on Friday, Feb. 7. Two days earlier, a special “early access” screening will be held in 18 cites. Tickets for both dates are available now at IMAX.com.

“We spent five years flying back and forth across the Atlantic scouring attics and basements in pursuit of rare and unseen film footage, photographs and music recordings,” writer/producer Allison McGourty said in a press release announcing the movie. “Then we transferred each piece of media with custom techniques, so that in IMAX, these 55-year-old clips and music would look and sound like they came out of the lab yesterday.”

Earlier this year, Led Zeppelin guitarist and producer Jimmy Page revealed that the movie pitches they’d received in the past were “pretty miserable,” explaining: “[T]hey’d want to be concentrating on anything but the music, and consequently I would recoil immediately from that sort of thing.”

But he’s quite pleased with Becoming Led Zeppelin: “It’s everything about the music and what would make the music tick. And it’s complete versions of songs, not just a little sample and then talking heads. This is something in a totally different genre.”

Watch the ‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ Trailer

Jason Voorhees was his usual murderous self in the fourth Friday the 13th movie, but behind the scenes the actor playing the hockey mask-wearing killer played hero to one of his young co-stars.

In the book Crystal Lake Memories, Ted White, a veteran stuntman who plays Jason in 1984’s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, explains how he fought to protect actress Judie Aronson (who plays the doomed skinny-dipper Samantha Lane) when director Joseph Zito allegedly tried to keep the mostly naked actress in cold water for too long while filming her character’s death scene.

“It was extremely cold. We’d go through four or five takes, and they weren’t exactly right,” White recalls. After Zito allegedly refused several requests from Aronson to get out of the water temporarily, White had had enough. “Finally, I said, ‘That does it. Get the girl outta the damn water right now or I walk. I’m not gonna put up with this bullshit any longer. She’s an 18-year-old-kid and she’s dying in that water, and you’re telling her no?'”

White says his threat was enough to buy Aronson a temporary warm-up break, but Zito has a different take on the story, insisting it was White, not Aronson, who was complaining about the cold. “Yes, I bullied him into staying in the lake, when naked Judie was willing to stay there, and tough guy Ted wanted to get out. That’s a pisser. Ask Judie about that.”

Well, turns out they did. “No, that’s not true,” Aronson says of Zito’s account. “When half of your body is in the water for that many hours it becomes really unbearable. I cried. I tried not to. I was a little bit delirious. I was out of my mind. I remember saying ‘I can’t do it anymore, I just can’t go on’… they would not let me stop. I should have gone to the hospital, but I didn’t. I was sick like a dog after that.”

Read More: Why It’s Been Over a Decade Since Freddy or Jason Killed Anybody

Zito goes on to admit that it’s possible White advocated for Aronson to somebody else on the crew. “He might have had a conversation with the assistant director. … But she was okay. I don’t want you to think we were completely crazy. … It wasn’t like we just thought, ‘Hey let’s go to a freezing cold lake and put a naked girl in it.’ Ted was right to be concerned, but we were too.”

When asked what advice she’d give to young actresses, Aronson is very clear: “Always read your scripts before you accept the part. Never accept any part that takes place in water for long periods of time – I’d make sure to put that in the contract now.”

‘The Final Chapter’ Was Really Supposed to be the Final ‘Friday the 13th’ Movie. LOL

Frank Mancuso Jr., who produced both The Final Chapter and its 1982 predecessor Friday the 13th Part III, fully intended for the fourth movie to be the end of the series. “There was a moment in time where I hated the Friday the 13th movies because that’s all everybody ever affixed me to,” he explains in Crystal Lake Memories. “I entitled [the movie] The Final Chapter because I really wanted it to be done and walk away. … It became a chore.”

However, the logic of Hollywood economics soon set it. The movie cost just $2.2 million to make and earned $33 million a the box office. So Paramount Pictures simply ignored the seeming finality of Jason’s death at the end of The Final Chapter and hired another producer to create Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, which was released less than a year later.

Watch the ‘Samantha’s Death’ Scene from ‘Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter’

Pearl Jam has announced tour dates for 2025.

Ten shows have been scheduled starting in late April and ending three weeks later. The band will play two concerts at each stop, with one night off between each city’s performance.

The tour supports Pearl Jam’s latest album, Dark Matter, released earlier this year. The band has already played shows this year, starting the first leg in May, a month after the record’s release, and then hitting the road again in August.

READ MORE: Pearl Jam ‘Dark Matter’ Album Review

Opening acts for the new​ dates will be announced soon.

Where Is Pearl Jam Playing in 2025?

Pearl Jam’s new tour will start on April 24 in Hollywood, Florida; they will also perform there on April 26. They then play two shows each in Atlanta, Nashville and Raleigh before wrapping up in Pittsburgh on May 16 and 18. You can see the tour dates and venues below.

Tickets will be available via the Ten Club members-only presale, which starts today; public tickets will be available through an artist presale beginning Dec. 13 at 10 a.m. local time. More information on tickets and concerts can be found on Pearl Jam’s website.

Pearl Jam, 2025 U.S. Tour
April 24 – Hollywood, Florida – Hard Rock Live
April 26 – Hollywood, Florida – Hard Rock Live
April 29 – Atlanta, Georgia – State Farm Arena
May 1 – Atlanta, Georgia – State Farm Arena
May 6 – Nashville, Tennessee – Bridgestone Arena
May 8 – Nashville, Tennessee – Bridgestone Arena
May 11 – Raleigh, North Carolina – Lenovo Center
May 13 – Raleigh, North Carolina – Lenovo Center
May 16 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – PPG Paints Arena
May 18 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – PPG Paints Arena

Rick Springfield always aspired to rock stardom, but the singer says he was “severely battered” by critics due to his successful acting career.

In 1971, Springfield scored a hit in his home country, Australia, with the song “Speak to the Sky.” The single’s popularity landed him a U.S. record deal, though the label was unsure how to market the singer.

“They started putting me in all these teen magazines and that was just, I had no idea what a teen magazine was,” Springfield recalled during a recent interview with Sirius XM’s Eddie Trunk. “I’d do all these interviews about my music and they print up a story about, ‘Is Rick Springfield Too Tall to Love?’ or something. I’d never seen a teen magazine before. So I’m going, this is not right. I came over (to America), to be a musician and they’re trying to sell me with all these Williams Brothers and all these teen idols from the ‘70s.”

READ MORE: ’80s Australian Invasion: 24 Ways Down Under Took Over America

After “Speak to the Sky” was only a minor success in the U.S., Springfield began accepting acting offers.

“I was one of the last contract players at Universal,” he noted, adding that he “started to work in Incredible Hulk and Battlestar Galactica, Rockford Files, all those kinds of ‘70s shows.”

Rick Springfield Was ‘Severely Battered’ by Rock Critics

Springfield’s star rose further when he became Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital. However, he claims the soap opera tainted his music for critics.

“I was always very, very severely battered by critics because, according to most critics, I came out of a soap opera, which is not true because I was playing guitar since I was 14 years old,” the singer explained. “So I got a lot of critical bashings initially when I first came out and that really hit me hard too. That was kind of almost like a slap on the face.”

READ MORE: How Rick Springfield Broke Through With ‘Working Class Dog’

Of course, Springfield had the last laugh when he successfully became a platinum-selling artist while also starring on General Hospital. His 1981 album Working Class Dog sold more than three million copies and earned the singer a Grammy, thanks largely to the chart-topping classic “Jessie’s Girl.” He’s continued his parallel careers ever since, appearing on a wide range of television shows, including Californication, True Detective and Supernatural.

Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks will perform just one concert in the New York City area next summer. It will take place at MetLife Stadium in Rutherford, New Jersey on Aug. 8, 2025.

A presale for Citi cardmembers will launch on Dec. 9, followed by a general sale on Dec. 13.

Joel and Nicks have been occasionally co-headlining shows together since March of 2023.

“We met at a Fleetwood Mac gig in San Francisco probably 10 years ago,” Joel explained to the Los Angeles Times last year. “I just got to meet her backstage, but we’ve never worked together, even though we both kind of hit at the same time. So this’ll be a completely new thing for me.”

The pair are scheduled to perform one other joint date in 2025 on March 29 in Detroit.

Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks’ Other Plans

In the meantime, Joel has plenty of other concerts scheduled, both solo and with another famous singer-songwriter: Sting. The pair will co-headline four shows in 2025, scheduled to take place in Indianapolis; Syracuse, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Salt Lake City.

READ MORE: Stevie Nicks Solo Albums Ranked Worst to Best

Nicks, however, does not currently have any solo shows scheduled for next year. She’s also spoken recently about not being interested in a Fleetwood Mac reunion tour of any kind.

“We had lots and lots of time, and lots and lots of tours that could have been the reconciliation tour and ‘now we’re going to quit’ tour,” she said earlier this year. “So, I just felt that Christine [McVie] and I had done everything we could do to make it a happy place. And it wasn’t a happy place anymore.”

2025 Rock Tour Preview

When one thinks of Christmas music, a few famous vocalists likely come to mind: Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, perhaps Frank Sinatra. Certainly not Bob Dylan.

Nevertheless, Dylan decided to buck tradition in 2009 and go, well, traditional, releasing an album full of nothing but holiday music titled Christmas in the Heart. On it were both biblical numbers — things like “Little Drummer Boy,” “O’ Come All Ye Faithful” and “The First Noel” — as well as some less serious songs like “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Winter Wonderland” and “Must Be Santa.” Several of Dylan’s longtime band members contributed: Tony Garnier, Donnie Herron, etc.

Those people had no real idea what they were getting into when Dylan called them into the studio.

“I just got this call to say Bob was going to work for a couple of weeks, and if was I available could I come down. And so I said, ‘Yeah, sure,'” multi-instrumentalist David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, who played accordion, guitar, mandolin and violin on the album, said in 2015. “When I found out it was a Christmas record was actually the first day in the studio: we go in, and we’re going to do ‘Silver Bells,’ you know, an old standard, a Christmas song. And I just thought…wow. I said to Bob, ‘Is this a Christmas record?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I think so…’ He wasn’t quite sure yet either!”

Of course, as with many Dylan projects — studio, live or otherwise — the songs’ arrangements were straightforward and yet not. They stuck mainly to original structures, with room for the various musicians to put their own small spins on things.

We’d just start from a loose framework of a song,” Hidalgo explained, “we’d start playing, and we’d just goof around with it for a while until it started to sound like something – and usually, that would be the take that [Dylan] would like, it was usually the first or second take that he would keep.”

Joy appeared the central aspect of Christmas in the Heart, making merry during the holiday season. In a music video for “Must Be Santa,” an extra jaunty inclusion on the album, a wig-wearing Dylan frolics from room to room, partying with everyone along the way.

Watch the Music Video for Bob Dylan’s ‘Must Be Santa’

Bob Dylan, Born Again Christian (Kinda)

But why would Dylan, who was raised Jewish and continued to participate in Jewish religious events over the course of his life, feel the urge to make a Christmas-themed album?

For one thing, it must be remembered that Dylan converted to Christianity in the ’70s, made a trilogy of Christian albums and spent time in Bible classes. This, however, did not last all that long — by the mid ’80s, Dylan was again speaking in more general spiritual terms.

“Here’s the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don’t find it anywhere else,” he told Newsweek in 1997. “Songs like ‘Let Me Rest on a Peaceful Mountain’ or ‘I Saw the Light’ — that’s my religion. I don’t adhere to rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that. I’ve learned more from the songs than I’ve learned from any of this kind of entity. The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs.”

READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Bob Dylan Album

Really, what appeared to motivate Dylan was not religion but nostalgia. He may have grown up in a Jewish household, but Christmas time in Minnesota as a boy still had, as he described to The Big Issue magazine (via Reuters), “plenty of snow, jingle bells, Christmas carolers going from house to house, sleighs in the streets, town bells ringing, nativity plays.”

Listen to Bob Dylan’s ‘Little Drummer Boy’

As Dylan saw it, Christmas songs, like various other kinds of music, were simply “part of my life, just like folk songs.” Recorded at Jackson Browne‘s Groove Masters Studio in Santa Monica, California, Christmas in the Heart came out on Oct. 13, 2009.

For a Good Cause

Dylan may be ambiguous but he is not uncaring. True, Christmas in the Heart puzzled many critics and fans alike, but it all, quite literally, was for a good cause: proceeds from the album’s sale went toward Feeding America in the U.S. and the United Nations’ World Food Programme and Crisis in the U.K.

Why? “They get food straight to the people,” he explained then. “No military organization, no bureaucracy, no governments to deal with.” The royalty donations were made in perpetuity — Christmas in the Heart continues to raise money for those causes to date. (And just in case you can’t get enough: as of 2024, a forest green Christmas in the Heart t-shirt is available for purchase on Dylan’s website.)

All told, Dylan’s objective in making a holiday album likely boils down to nothing more than a sense of solidarity. Christmas music can be sung by anyone, or as Dylan said: “Everybody can relate to it in their own way.”

Listen to Bob Dylan’s ‘Silver Bells’

Kraftwerk has announced a North American tour for next year. The Multimedia Tour 2025 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the German electronic group’s classic album Autobahn.

The more than two dozen tour dates will also commemorate the 50th anniversary of the band’s first U.S. tour in 1975.

Autobahn was Kraftwerk’s fourth album and breakthrough LP, reaching the Top 10 for the first time in their native Germany and climbing to No. 5 in the U.S. It’s a pioneering work of electronic music and has been cited as an influence by post-punk, new wave and hip-hop artists over the years.

READ MORE: 25 Under the Radar Albums From 1974

Band cofounder Ralf Hutter, who formed the band in 1970 with the late Florian Schneider, will lead the quartet in shows that begin in early March and run through late April. You can watch a trailer for the tour created by skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, who appears in the clip, below.

The tour marks Kraftwerk’s first North American tour since 2022. A press release announcing the tour notes that it brings “together music, visuals and performance art. Kraftwerk concerts are a true ‘Gesamtkunstwerk – a total work of art.'”

Where Is Kraftwerk Playing in 2025?

The concerts launch on March 6 in Philadelphia and wind through the country with stops in Toronto, Boston, New York, Miami, Chicago and Portland, Oregon, before concluding on April 24 in Dallas.

Kraftwerk is also scheduled to play weekends at the annual Coachella gathering in Indio, California, on April 13 and 20. This will be the band’s third appearance at the festival.

Below is the full list of Kraftwerk’s Multimedia Tour 2025 North American dates. Tickets go on sale Dec. 13 at 10 a.m. local time at the band’s website. Fans can sign up for presale access, which begins Dec. 11, today.

Kraftwerk, Multimedia Tour 2025
MAR 06 – Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall
MAR 07 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE Outdoors
MAR 08 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
MAR 10 – Montreal, QC – Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts
MAR 11 – Boston, MA – Boch Center Wang Theatre
MAR 13 – Brooklyn, NY – Kings Theatre
MAR 14 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
MAR 16 – Washington, D.C. – The Anthem
MAR 17 – Charlotte, NC – Ovens Auditorium
MAR 19 – Orlando, FL – Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center
MAR 20 – Miami, FL – Adrienne Arsht Center
MAR 23 – Atlanta, GA – The Eastern
MAR 24 – New Orleans, LA – Orpheum Theater
MAR 25 – Memphis, TN – Overton Park Shell
MAR 26 – Nashville, TN – The Pinnacle
MAR 28 – Detroit, MI – Masonic Cathedral Theatre
MAR 29 – Chicago, IL – The Auditorium
MAR 30 – Minneapolis, MN – Orpheum Theatre
MAR 31 – Kansas City, MO – The Midland Theatre
APR 02 – Denver, CO – Ellie Caulkins Opera House
APR 06 – Portland, OR – Keller Auditorium
APR 07 – Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
APR 13 – Indio, CA – Coachella
APR 16 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Union
APR 20 – Indio, CA – Coachella
APR 23 – Austin, TX – Bass Concert Hall
APR 24 – Dallas, TX – Majestic Theatre

2025 Rock Tour Preview

The best reissues of 2024 include the usual assortment of box sets, deluxe editions, super deluxe editions, expanded sets, previously unissued recordings and other archival delights. However, several of the past year’s offerings went beyond the call of duty in their presentations.

As you will see in the below list of the Top 15 Reissues of 2024, there’s no shortage of classic rock heavyweights. Even after the rise in CD box sets made such archival collections the destination spots for serious collectors and music fans, new material still emerges every year inviting deep-diving explorations.

A pair of the year’s top reissues require approximately a 24-hour day to get through in one uninterrupted sitting; others require at least a workday from start to finish. And these are no mere exercises in excess: Taken together in one or two listening sessions, portraits begin to emerge as artists chart their evolutions through song and performance.

READ MORE: Top 25 Rock Albums of 2024

Even the smaller sets – two of 2024’s Top 15 reissues include just one disc – uncover specific moments in time in a limited space. Entire histories unspool within the best archival sets; from start to finish, familiar tracks, and many never heard before, tell stories of artists on the cusp of greatness.

Looking over the Top 15 Reissues of 2024, one thing ties them all together: a willingness to go further into an artist’s official story than the one that’s been presented for decades, whether it’s an entire comeback tour documented for the first time or the step-by-step creation of a classic album, from demo to studio to stage. These collections have it all.

Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan are heard on a new charity single that also features Cesar Gueikian, the CEO of Gibson Guitars.

Working under the title of the Gibson Band – which will feature other musicians in future releases – the trio launched their track “I Can Breathe,” which comes complete with artwork by System of a Down’s Serj Tankian.

The song can be heard below.

READ MORE: Guns N’ Roses Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide (We Think)

“A hard-hitting rock song, the new benefit single features rhythm guitars and piano from Cesar Gueikian, CEO of Gibson, with special guests Duff McKagan on lead vocals and lyrics, and Slash on lead guitar and solos,” a statement confirmed.

All proceeds will be donated to the National Alliance on Mental Illness via the Gibson Gives program. “NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health resource organization that is dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness,” the guitar corporation said.

“The cover artwork is based on a large-scale original painting by Serj Tankian titled ‘They’re Coming.’ The original painting by Serj Tankian will be auctioned off alongside a one-of-a-kind Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar – which also features the hand-painted artwork – as part of Julien’s Auctions forthcoming global auction.”

How Gibson Boss Secured Guns N’ Roses Men for Benefit Single

Guekian reported: “Guns N’ Roses had a profound influence on me and my guitar playing. So having the opportunity to write and record this song with Slash and Duff is a dream come true, and it’s an honor to call them friends and partners.”

He continued: “Guns N’ Roses had just come off touring when I shared the song with Duff. He loved it and quickly wrote the lyrics and cut the vocals at the Sound Factory in Los Angeles. Having Duff on vocals made the next step obvious – which was asking Slash if he would collaborate with lead guitars and solos.

“I’m grateful for the collaboration from Slash, Duff, and from my friend Serj Tankian’s participation with cover artwork. I’m thrilled we’re donating all proceeds from the song to a great and relevant cause.”

The Gibson Band – ‘I Can Breathe’

Tony Soprano once famously said, “’Remember when’ is the lowest form of conversation.” This never dawned on Kiss’ Gene Simmons, whose recent “rock is dead” rant amounted to little more than waxing nostalgic about the days when his band ruled the roost — and revealed his ignorance and disinterest in the current state of the genre.

Simmons made his latest proclamation on an episode of The Zak Kuhn Show. When asked if he believed rock was still dead, Simmons replied: “It is. And people don’t understand how I can say that when we all have our favorite songs and we love our favorite bands, you and I and everybody else. But what I mean is that — well, let’s play a game, and I’ve done this before. From 1958 until 1988, that’s 30 years. Thirty years. So what came during that period? Well, we had Elvis, we had the Beatles, the [Rolling] Stones, Jimi Hendrix, all that, Pink Floyd, the solo artists, David Bowie and just music that lasts forever, we’d like to think. In the disco world, you had Madonna, more heavy guitars, you had — oh, God — AC/DC and everybody else, Aerosmith and on and on. And you had Motown at the same time. You had Prince. It was a very, very rich musical menu. It could go up and down. You had prog bands, you had Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, and you had the heavy bands, Led Zeppelin and so on. And from 1988 until today — it’s something like almost 40 years, certainly 35 years — who are the new Beatles?”

When Kuhn suggested Nirvana, Simmons interjected: “Stop. We are blinded. I’m a major fan. If you walked down the street and asked a 20-year-old, ‘Who’s the bass player in Nirvana?’ they wouldn’t know what you’re talking about. Or, ‘Can you sing a Nirvana song?’ No, no. The Beatles — and, to a slightly lesser extent, the Stones and Elvis — everybody knew the Beatles. If you hated rock music, you knew about them. By the way, I’m delusional enough to believe some market reports about how the Kiss faces are the most recognized faces on the planet. And I’ve tried this before: You walk down the street, randomly ask people, ‘Who’s on Mount Rushmore?’ They’ll say, ‘Uh, Elvis.’ They won’t get it, but they know those four faces anywhere you go. They may hate the band, but you can’t deny that.”

READ MORE: Kiss Albums Ranked Worst to Best

It was a typically meandering and self-aggrandizing response from Simmons, and one that failed to offer any tangible evidence that rock is dead. Instead, it revealed that Simmons’ idea of a “thriving” rock scene can be commodified and sold on department store T-shirts around the world. Simmons is talking about rock as a corporate monolith that looks, sounds and acts the same as it did in 1977. There’s still a market for that, as evidenced by the many legacy rock artists who have announced massive tours for 2025, as well as young acts like Greta Van Fleet who have debuted inside the Billboard Top 10 and filled arenas off the strength of their classic rock cosplay. But this narrow, antiquated view of rock barely scratches the surface of the genre’s rich, albeit embattled, present-day ecosystem.

Simmons’ “Who are the new Beatles?” refrain is a lazy and irrelevant response to the discussion of rock’s current standing. For one, the Beatles were a one-of-a-kind sociocultural phenomenon that will simply never be replicated. (Taylor Swift may have made a similar global impact, but she operates in a music business and a world that is unrecognizable from that of the Beatles’ heyday, so it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison.) Secondly, the 30-year period Simmons is referencing, when labels had endless money to blow on fostering up-and-coming talent, is a mere blip on the radar in the scope of music as commerce. It wasn’t considered such a lucrative business enterprise before that, and it probably never will be in the same way again, save for the 99th percentile of pop superstars. The streaming economy has simultaneously democratized access to music, fragmented listenership and bankrupted small-to-midsize artists to the extent that a rock band cutting their teeth today has virtually no chance of achieving a whiff of the same success. They could be writing the next “A Day in the Life” as we speak, but it’s not going to sell 20 million copies, and it’s going to take some digging from avid music listeners to find. That’s a serious problem in its own right, but it’s not the problem Simmons purports to highlight here.

Furthermore, Simmons’ quick dismissal of Nirvana on the basis that no casual fan knows Krist Novoselic’s name rings hollow, considering the same casual fan would be hard-pressed to tell you who played alongside Simmons and Paul Stanley in Kiss for the past 20-odd years. His similar rejection of Pearl Jam, another one of Kuhn’s suggestions, ignores the inconvenient truth that both Nirvana and Pearl Jam outsold Kiss by at least five-to-one when you compare their highest-certified albums. (Pearl Jam’s Ten: 13 million. Nirvana’s Nevermind: 10 million. Kiss’ Destroyer: 2 million.)

READ MORE: Top 30 Grunge Albums

Kuhn also offered up Foo Fighters as an example of a modern-day rock giant, to which Simmons argued that Dave Grohl has eclipsed both Nirvana and Pearl Jam’s popularity by becoming a Hollywood socialite, not based on his music. This, he claimed, is the same reason that Snoop Dogg remains more popular than “other rappers who might actually be bigger rap stars — M.C. Criminal or whatever, I just made that up.” This is, um, ignorant at best and racist at worst, but it makes Simmons sound bafflingly out of touch at a time when rapper Kendrick Lamar’s new surprise album GNX reigns atop the Billboard 200 and he occupies the entire Hot 100 Top 5 — a feat previously accomplished by only Swift, Drake and, that’s right, the Beatles.

If Simmons wants to lament the death of rock ’n’ roll as monoculture, he has some grounds to do so. But to proclaim the entire genre dead across the board shows that Simmons has no interest in looking outside his insular world. If he did, he might notice that Green Day — whose major-label debut Dookie was recently certified double diamond for sales exceeding 20 million — is headlining Coachella next year. He might realize that My Chemical Romance just sold out an entire U.S. stadium tour. He might see that Linkin Park and Pierce the Veil have hefty arena tours booked for 2025. He might marvel that genre-bending psych-rock weirdos King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have become one of the biggest cult bands on the scene, packing theaters and amphitheaters around the world. And if he really wanted to do his homework, he might take pleasure in the rock/punk/metal hybrid of bands like the Dirty Nil or White Reaper, who are dutifully making the rounds on the club and theater circuit the way old-school rock bands used to do. (For the record, either of these bands could have made great openers on Kiss’ farewell tour if the band didn’t take the easy way out and handed the gig to Amber Wild, led by Paul Stanley’s son, Evan Stanley.)

But Simmons doesn’t want to do that. He would rather complain that he and his retired boomer cohort no longer run the show, and if they’re not in charge, then nobody should be. He’s well within his rights to lament the death of rock to anybody who will listen — but he ought to know it’s the lowest form of conversation.

Alex Van Halen has opened up about the final moments of Eddie Van Halen’s life.

During an appearance on the All There Is With Anderson Cooper podcast, the Van Halen drummer admitted his brother’s death felt shocking despite a long battle with cancer.

“None of us really thought he was gonna die,” Alex explained (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “He’d always bounced back. He had the most incredible DNA that I’ve ever seen in anybody. He could do more and more drugs than anybody and still wake up the next day and perform. I don’t think anybody really thought he was gonna die. So when he passed, it was really a shock.”

Alex pushed back against the suggestion Eddie knew his time had come, saying: “I don’t think he knew. Being human, you think you’re gonna go on one more day, one more day. You keep going forward. But then one day you don’t. So up to the very end, we were still making music and we talked about, what are we gonna do next year? But it was clear that he was going downhill.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Eddie Van Halen Guitar Solos

Eddie died Oct. 6, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Alex’s direct interactions with his brother had been limited. Still, he was by his side when the guitar great passed.

“He had a massive stroke. We were in the room with him when he actually took his last breath,” Alex recalled. “We just sat there. Everybody was in their own headspace.”

In stark contrast to the wild life he enjoyed, Eddie’s final moments were subdued.

“All I know is that when he stopped breathing, I didn’t hear anything. I didn’t see anything,” Alex noted. “There were no bells. There were no angels. It stopped. And then the room was empty. That was it. And then they pulled the plug because he was on a ventilator. And that was it. And because of COVID and the restrictions and the rules, they immediately carted the body off and that was it. Then we didn’t see him anymore. [It was] a very uneventful ending to an eventful life. But you know what? He fought it till the very end. I wanna think of Ed’s life in terms of that he never gave up.”

Alex Van Halen Still Breaks Down Listening to Eddie’s Music

Elsewhere in the conversation, Alex said he’s still “grieving all the time,” adding that he gets very emotional listening to the Eddie’s music.

“At times, it can be overwhelming, and the more the more I dwell on it, the more complicated it becomes,” the drummer explained. “When I’m alone and I put on a piece of music and I hear [Ed] play, I break down — that’s it — uncontrollably. But knowing what I know about the human body, you just let it happen. Otherwise it will happen in the line at the grocery store. And that wouldn’t look so good.”

READ MORE: Van Halen Albums Ranked Worst to Best

Alex admitted his grief sometimes turns to anger, part of a complex wave of emotions he continues to grapple with. Ultimately, he’s working to accept Eddie’s death with a broader understanding of mortality.

“Ed’s whole life was searching for something,” Alex added. “I don’t know what it was, ’cause musically we could play anything. Ed, come on. Maybe you could have been here a little longer. But then you realize, I have no control over that. And then maybe it’s not my place to tell him to be here longer. Maybe he knows intuitively that, ‘This is it. I’m done. I’m leaving.’ He was never satisfied. There was always that itch to do something else. So I don’t know. I’m still grappling with some of those things because, to me, it doesn’t make any sense.”

On Dec. 4, 1980, Led Zeppelin called it quits. Less than three months earlier, the band’s drummer, John Bonham, was found dead at age 32 after a night of heavy drinking. The remaining members, together since they formed the band in London in 1968, saw no reason to continue without one of its founders.

Led Zeppelin was on the cusp of a music revolution since their first show together in November 1968, followed by the release of their self-titled debut album the following January. Initial inspiration came from other heavy groups of the era, including Cream and Yardbirds, the band Zeppelin directly sprung from. But by the release of their second album in October 1969, they were forging a path all their own.

For the next decade, Led Zeppelin changed popular music in ways that are still inspiring artists today. No band was bigger throughout the ’70s; from No. 1 albums to sold-out tours, they set the template for artists, in rock music and beyond, for generations to come.

Their records were impeccably produced

Jimmy Page started in the mid-’60s as a session guitarist on dozens of recordings. The experience taught him the value of the spaces between the music; listen to Led Zeppelin’s most ambitious multilayered tracks, and there are many to choose from, and you’ll discover an artist and band that cared about how their records sounded. Page gets plenty of credit as a guitarist; his skill as a producer is every bit as influential.

READ MORE: Every Led Zeppelin Song Ranked

They gave artists the upper hand in concert bookings

Before Led Zeppelin came along and became a huge concert draw, most artists were paid a standard booking fee from venues, with extra money coming from ticket sales and merchandise. Zeppelin’s ruthless manager Peter Grant charged venues to showcase his band, guaranteeing a set fee for artists plus a higher cut of merchandise and ticket sales. Since then, big-name artists have controlled their concert revenue.

They didn’t care about singles

Even as albums became the art-form destination for serious musicians in the late ’60s, the single, the industry standard since recorded music was introduced at the turn of the century, was still the driving force to get an artist heard. Led Zeppelin changed all that, releasing just a handful of singles during their 10-year career, and all of them were pulled from their albums, their primary focus. Only “Whole Lotta Love” hit the Top 10.

They pretty much established the rock star lifestyle

Rock artists have always been flamboyant and prone to extravagant lifestyles. But Led Zeppelin took it to another level in the early ’70s, when only the Rolling Stones rivaled them in popularity and lavishness. They traveled via jet, looked like androgynous medieval gods and rarely interacted with the media, avoiding most promotional appearances and giving few interviews. They made rock stars larger than life.

They introduced a template still used by artists from all genres

From the start, Led Zeppelin sounded bigger than anyone else. John Bonham’s drums, Jimmy Page’s guitar and Robert Plant‘s howling wail took existing musical groundwork and transported them to thrilling new tiers of enormity during the height of their fame. From groundbreaking 1980s hip-hop artists to 2020s hard-rock copycats, Zeppelin’s riffs have been sampled and appropriated over generations and genres.

When you think of ’90s music, it’s easy to automatically start naming off a lot of bands in the grunge and alternative genre. But Seattle titans like Nirvana and Pearl Jam are just one part of the story, when you consider the eclectic range of groups and artists who put out albums in that time frame.

“Everything just exploded in the ’90s,” journalist Gary Graff explains on the UCR Podcast. “You had number one albums in the ’90s that were selling half a million [to] a million copies a week. Every genre out there [was extremely active]. With rock, you had hair metal coming into the grunge era as well as mainstream rock. There was West Coast rap and then the East Coast response to that. Techno and electronic really started to become a force. What we used to call folk music or country rock, we started to call it Americana. Then, you had country become a whole other thing during the ’90s. You had so much music and so much technology to listen to music on. You had all of this coming together to make music a monolithic force in everybody’s life.”

It’s a topic that Graff has been thinking a lot about in the past year as he led a team of writers, all fellow music aficionados, through the process of figuring out the best music that came out in the decade. The result is 501 Essential Albums of the ’90s: The Music Fan’s Definitive Guide, a massive tome which clocks at more than 400 pages with 600 images. It’s a read that’s full of surprises — especially when you consider some of the albums that aren’t here.

“There’s no James Taylor in this book, there’s no Jackson Browne, there’s no Joni Mitchell, there’s no AC/DC, there’s no Rush and there’s a reason for that,” he explains. “All of them were considered and all of them put out some good albums during the ’90s, but they were not albums that were essential to their own catalogs, much less to the decade.”

Fans of Counterparts and Test for Echo by Rush and AC/DC’s The Razor’s Edge might quibble with that statement, but hey, everybody’s a critic, right? The thing is, Graff at least has the authority to make that assessment, as someone who was working as a journalist in the ’80s and ’90s. His boots were on the ground as the albums in question were released and he spoke with many of the artists in that same time. Moments from some of those interview experiences naturally found their way into the book as he and his fellow contributors worked to dissect each record.

READ MORE: Rush’s ‘Counterparts’ Pushes Back Against Grunge

During our interview, Graff, who continues to write for a number of different outlets, including UCR, shared some of his personal highlights from the decade, including covering Woodstock ’94 and its sequel in 1999. “Woodstock ’94, we actually had a plan,” he remembers. “A bunch of [fellow] writers who play said, ‘Let’s get something together. We should play Woodstock.'” They got as far as setting the time and reserving some space on stage for that Sunday, but their dream gig went unrealized.

Listen to Gary Graff Discuss the ’90s on the ‘UCR Podcast’

“Saturday night was when the deluge happened,” he continues. “I’m still convinced that Michael Lang, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman seeded the clouds so they’d get their Woodstock rain — our stage washed away.” There are numerous memories like that, stored away, including hauling the coffin-like apparatus that he used to file stories at the time to cover Ozzfest — one of the few venues where he didn’t get static about bringing the gargantuan piece of technology through the gates.

So how did the ’90s ultimately change music? Graff has a lot of thoughts about that. “I think what the ’90s did was it introduced the idea of how music could become part of every damn thing that’s in your life,” he explains.  “As we got to the end of the decade, that quest for new ways to consume music and new delivery systems [intensified]. We got our file sharing and we got our Napster and we got the ability to steal music.”

“[As a result, I think that took it down a bad path. This is almost like how the Yankees ruined baseball,” he concludes. “When something gets too good and too big, it almost starts to turn around and feed on itself. We had all these great technologies, but the overpriced nature of CDs and of making people rebuy their vinyl catalogs and cashing in on that, created an appetite to maybe not pay money for music. It’s a decade that vaulted music to new heights, but also to heights that it had to be torn down from. I think we’re still paying the price for that.”

Top 30 American Classic Rock Bands of the ’90s

Dead & Company will return to Las Vegas for a spring 2025 residency at the Sphere, celebrating their 10-year anniversary with 18 more shows at the state-of-the-art venue.

The “Dead Forever 2025” residency begins on March 20 and will run through May 17. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Dec. 13, and artist presale begins on Dec. 10. You can see the full list of dates below.

The upcoming residency will mark Dead & Company’s second sojourn in Sin City, following their 30-date stint at the Sphere from May to August 2024. The shows routinely approached four hours in length and utilized the venue’s enormous programmable LED screen to incorporate the Grateful Dead‘s signature dancing bears, terrapins and skull and roses, transporting viewers from the band’s original San Francisco house all the way into the cosmos.

READ MORE: Dead & Company Kick Off Sphere Residency: Photos, Video, Set List

Grateful Dead Had Been Planning 60th-Anniversary Reunion

News of Dead & Company’s 2025 Sphere residency comes shortly after the revelation that Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart had planned to play together with Phil Lesh and were discussing the possibility of a 60th-anniversary reunion before the bassist’s death in October. “We were gonna see where it goes, but we were just gonna play the four of us,” Weir said. “Now there’s only three of us … and that’s different.”

Weir and Hart continue to perform with Dead & Company alongside John Mayer, Jeff Chimenti, Oteil Burbridge and Jay Lane, the last of whom replaced Kreutzmann on drums in 2023.

Dead & Company, ‘Dead Forever’ 2025 Las Vegas Sphere Residency
Thursday, March 20
Friday, March 21
Saturday, March 22
Thursday, March 27
Friday, March 28
Saturday, March 29
Thursday, April 17
Friday, April 18
Saturday, April 19
Thursday, April 24
Friday, April 25
Saturday, April 26
Friday, May 9
Saturday, May 10
Sunday, May 11
Thursday, May 15
Friday, May 16
Saturday, May 17

Gene Simmons has announced new solo tour dates for 2025.

If his 2024 festival appearances are any indication, the Kiss star’s set list will lean heavily on his former band’s catalog, with room made for the occasional solo or cover song.

Earlier this year, Simmons told Steve-O’s Wild Ride that in addition to wearing much more comfortable clothing and not having to spend hours applying his former band’s famous face paint, he makes more money at his solo shows than he did as a member of Kiss.

“I just show up with my guitar pick. That’s it. There’s no manager, no roadies, no trucks, no equipment,” he explained. “Everything is provided by the promoter: the flights, the hotels, the amplifiers, the drums, everything is rented locally. That’s the promoter’s cost and whatever six figure or more amount there is, I pocket.”

Earlier this week Kiss marked the one-year anniversary of their final farewell concert, which took place Dec. 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The band is working on a five-part documentary about their End of the Road farewell tour, although a release date has yet to be announced.

Read More: Kiss Band Member Power Rankings

Kiss is also currently developing an ABBA-style avatar show, which they previewed at their final concert. The show is expected to launch in 2027 in a yet-to-be-revealed location.

Gene Simmons 2025 Tour Dates
April 28 – Tallahassee, FL @ The Moon
May 3 – Beaver Dam, KY @ Beaver Dam Amphitheater
May 5 – Red Bank, NJ @ Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center
May 22 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
May 24 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues

Writing a memoir is not for everyone.

For one thing, the process of literally writing a book is not as easy as simply jotting down some stories and releasing it into the world — it takes time, planning, revision and diligence. But perhaps more importantly: it takes a certain level of confidence to put one’s life down on the page and put it out for the public to consume, question and possibly judge.

Some find it can be a cathartic experience to look backward at one’s own life, while others have struggled to piece together a book that both tells the truth and doesn’t give away every single secret. Take it from Cher, who released part one of her self-titled memoir in 2024 after years of hesitation.

“It was a bitch,” she freely admitted on The Tonight Show in November of 2024. “It’s not going through your life that’s hard so much. But I did it a couple of times because the first time it didn’t work out. The second time I just didn’t want to tell anything. And then I thought, ‘You know what? Give back the money.’ It’s hard because when you’re telling your life there’s parts you’d like to guard.”

Read More: 60 Rock Songs Inspired by Books and Literature