Author: LRussell

Willie Nelson has shared his memories of late singer Kris Kristofferson, recalling the many years they worked together.

It was 1985 when Nelson and Kristofferson joined forces with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings in the outlaw country supergroup the Highwaymen. The famous quartet released three studio albums during their decade together. Nelson and Kristofferson remained close friends afterward, regularly performing together, including a memorable appearance at the 2014 Grammy Awards.

In a recent conversation with the Associated Press, Nelson expressed reverence for Kristofferson, who died Sept. 28 at the age of 88.

READ MORE: Kris Kristofferson Dies: Rockers React

“He was a great songwriter. He left a lot of fantastic songs around for the rest of us to sing, for as long as we’re here,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer noted. “Kris was a great friend of mine. And, you know, we just kind of had a lot of fun together and made a lot of music together — videos, movies. I hated to lose him. That was a sad time.”

“If you just take the music part of it and go back to, you know, Waylon and Kris and John and, you know, all of us working together, the Highwaymen,” Nelson continued. “I am the only one left. And that’s just not funny.”

Willie Nelson Doesn’t ‘Worry About Dying’

While being the last surviving Highwayman offers a sobering reality, Nelson insisted he has no fears regarding his own mortality.

“I’m 91 plus, so, you know, I’m not worried about it,” the singer declared. “I don’t feel bad. I don’t hurt anywhere. I don’t have any reason to worry about dying. But I don’t know anybody who’s lived forever. I take pretty good care of myself. And I feel like I’m in pretty good shape physically. Mentally? That’s another story,” Nelson joked.

As for his own legacy, the Red Headed Stranger insisted he doesn’t get caught up with such things. “I had a good time,” Nelson explained. “And I did what I came here to do: make music.”

Things got scary during a Morrissey concert in Dallas on Saturday night when fans rushed the stage, forcing the singer to cut his performance short.

Following his initial set, the former Smiths frontman returned to the spotlight for an encore. As he began to perform “First of the Gang to Die,” the second single off of 2004’s You Are The Quarry, concertgoers began jumping on stage.

The invasion was slow to begin with – initially, a lone woman climbed up from the crowd to grab Morrissey’s hand. A man soon followed suit, then another lady jumped onstage to embrace the singer.

READ MORE: Morrissey Claims Johnny Marr Ignored Smiths Reunion Deal

Things escalated from there, as further overzealous fans flocked towards Morrissey. The rocker’s security guards, who had been carefully managing the initial invaders, quickly decided to whisk the acclaimed vocalist backstage to safety. He did not return to complete the performance. Meanwhile, TMZ reported that one bodyguard was injured in the ordeal. Footage of the incident can be seen in the video below.

Morrissey’s History of Canceling Concerts

While Morrissey is known for his engaging and dynamic performances, he also has a reputation for canceling shows. In 2018 he pulled the plug on a run of dates due to “logistical circumstances,” while an incident with Italian police led him to cancel a string of shows there in 2017. You can go further back through the past few decades to find many instances of postponed or aborted shows, with excuses ranging from medical issues to Morrissey’s refusal to perform at venues serving meat.

The former Smiths singer is in the middle of a North American tour which will conclude Nov. 23 in Waukegan, Illinois.

Former Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro admits his band was “a little cocky” when it came time to record their second album.

“Every band’s first album is the best stuff they’ve done their entire life,” Porcaro explained during an appearance on the Bob Lefsetz podcast. “Every single band you can name, their first album was the best shit they did their entire life. And then in those days, it was every year we had to do a new album. It was every year. And this is after you’ve toured. Have you spent any time with your family at all? [Record labels] don’t care. Give us another. We need another one.”

Such was the case for Toto, who enjoyed huge success with their self-titled debut album. The 1978 LP featured the hit single “Hold the Line,” which spent six weeks in the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 10 and turned Toto into a household name. When it came time to record their sophomore album, Hydra, band’s confidence was at an all-time high.

“Did we get a little cocky after that first album did so good out of the gate? Sure,” Porcaro admitted. “Believe me, we were going for it. We did get a little cocky for sure and kind of thought, ‘Wow, we can do this. They’re buying it.’”

Toto Was ‘Definitely Self-Indulgent’ on ‘Hydra’

Toto got experimental on Hydra, embracing prog-rock influences and cryptic lyrics. While the album stretched the band musically, it was a far cry from the radio-friendly sound of their debut effort.

READ MORE: 20 Famous Bands That Suffered Sophomore Slumps

“There was some definitely self-indulgent [material] there,” Porcaro confessed. “I can speak for my song that was on Hydra, the song called ‘Secret Love’ was the weirdest two and a half minutes you’ll hear on a major label release.”

“I woke up one morning, I called this place called Kasimov Blutener in Larchmont in California, and I rented a harpsichord, a clavichord, a Mozart piano,” the rocker continued, recalling how ‘Secret Love’ was made. “I rented all these these vintage keyboards, acoustic keyboards, and had this idea for this very strange song and the guys let me do it. They let me do it. It’s on the album.”

Listen to Toto’s ‘A Secret Love’

Toto Was Proud of ‘Hydra’, Even Though It Was ‘a Stiff’

Released Octo. 26, 1979, Hydra failed to live up to the commercial success of its predecessor. Only one single, “99”, managed to crack the Top 40. Though Porcaro admitted the album was “a stiff,” he and his bandmates were nonetheless proud of their work.

READ MORE: Toto Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide

“We loved Hydra. We loved it. Did we get did we get a little cocky? Sure. Now, I don’t think being cocky is necessarily a bad thing unless you get way, way, way too cocky,” the musician noted. “Were there any ‘Hold the Lines’ on it? No. But there sure was a song called ‘99’ and there still was stuff that people could relate to and was still great songwriting and great production. There was still a lot of very strong stuff on there.”

No one is quite sure what to make of Bob Dylan‘s recent Twitter usage – not even his own son Jakob Dylan.

The elder Dylan, a notoriously private figure, has seemingly tweeted on his own accord six times in the last month or so, with no apparent rhyme or reason to the subjects. In one post, he mentioned running into a Buffalo Sabre hockey player in an elevator in Prague. In another he recommended a restaurant in New Orleans to all his followers. At present, no one from Dylan’s camp has publicly acknowledged the singer’s unexplained personal return to social media.

“Your dad tweets more than you do these days,” The Boston Globe recently pointed out to Jakob, who agreed.

“Yeah, like most people,” he replied. “I can’t tell you what’s going on with those. I’ve seen those. … I can’t tell you what that’s about. I’m not sure. But you’re right: Whatever it is, it’s more than I do.”

READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Bob Dylan Album

Jakob is also a lifelong musician, though he has tended to keep talk about his famous father to a minimum over the years. He is presently on the road with his longtime band the Wallflowers. When asked by the Globe if he would ever tour or perform a concert with his dad, he replied: “I’m available. He knows how to find me.”

Jakob also adressed his own kids’ interest in music.

“They enjoy it,” he said. “Nobody’s mentioned being in the industry. I don’t know that those dreams come hand-in-hand anymore. There is no record business. It’s the traveling business, the touring business, the social media business.”

77 Rock Stars Whose Kids Are Also Musicians

The Cure performed a three-hour set on Friday night in London, celebrating the release of their new album, Songs of a Lost World.

Appearing at Troxy, the band played the new album in full before launching into various fan favorites and other Cure classics, plus a mini set of five songs from their 1980 album, Seventeen Seconds.

In addition, the Cure livestreamed the show, which is now is available to replay in full below. (A complete set list can also be viewed below.)

Robert Smith Isn’t Backing Down When It Comes to Concert Ticketing

In 2023, Cure frontman Robert Smith went viral online for his dogged social media crusade against Ticketmaster, citing the company’s “unduly high” fees and dynamic pricing model that he felt placed dedicated fans in unfair situations and did not actually keep tickets away from scalpers. Smith’s words went heard — Ticketmaster eventually agreed to partially refund the fees Cure fans had paid for their tickets.

READ MORE: How the Cure Got Their ‘Wish,’ Then Immediately Regretted It

 

The Cure instead used a a “verified fan” approach in an effort to get affordable tickets into the hands of real fans and not scalpers. Additionally, at every venue on the band’s North American tour, tickets were available for as low as $20-25 dollars, and concert T-shirts were priced at $25 instead of the usual $50. It was, according to The New York Times, the Cure’s most lucrative tour ever, selling approximately $37.5 million in tickets in North America.

“Live Nation [the parent company of Ticketmaster] were perceived to have caved in,” Smith clarified. “But their decision was made because it looked good. It was optics. In the grand scheme of things, it’s like peanuts.”

The Cure, Troxy, London, UK, 11/1/24, Set List:
1. “Alone”
2. “And Nothing Is Forever”
3. “A Fragile Thing”
4. “Warsong” (Live Debut)
5. “Drone:Nodrone” (Live Debut)
6. “I Can Never Say Goodbye”
7. “All I Ever Am”
8. “Endsong”
9. “Plainsong”
10. “Pictures of You”
11. “High”
12. “Lovesong”
13. “Burn”
14. “Fascination Street”
15. “A Night Like This”
16. “Push”
17. “In Between Days”
18. “Just Like Heaven”
19. “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea”
20. “Disintegration”
21. “At Night”
22. “M”
23. “Secrets”
24. “Play for Today”
25. “A Forest”
26. “Lullaby’
27. “The Walk”
28. “Friday I’m in Love”
29. “Close to Me”
30. “Why Can’t I Be You?”
31. “Boys Don’t Cry”

The Best Song From Every Cure Album

 

Ed Sheeran has come out victorious in an appeal case involving his 2014 song “Thinking Out Loud,” with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruling that it did not infringe the copyright of Marvin Gaye‘s “Let’s Get It On.”

Sheeran was first accused of musical plagiarism in 2016 by the family of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote “Let’s Get It On.” That suit was dismissed in 2017, but was followed in 2018 by another suit filed by Structured Asset Sales, a company that owns part of the 1973 song’s royalties, claiming Sheeran copied Gaye’s chord progression and rhythm.

On Friday, the court deemed that the two songs share only “fundamental musical building blocks” and that to rule in favor of Structured Asset Sales would be detrimental to artists’ creativity everywhere.

READ MORE: How Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ Transformed Worry Into Faith

“The four-chord progression at issue — ubiquitous in pop music — even coupled with a syncopated harmonic rhythm, is too well-explored to meet the originality threshold that copyright law demands,” the judges said in their ruling (via Billboard). “Overprotecting such basic elements would threaten to stifle creativity and undermine the purpose of copyright law.”

Other Copyright Lawsuits

Sheeran and Gaye are just one example of high-profile plagiarism lawsuits that have surfaced in recent years. In 2020, after years of litigation, a court ruled that Led Zeppelin‘s “Stairway to Heaven” did not infringe on the copyright of a 1968 song called “Taurus” by Spirit.

In 2015, Tom Petty‘s name was awarded a co-writing credit for Sam Smith‘s 2014 hit “Stay With Me” due to similarities between it and Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”

“All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen,” Petty said in a statement at the time.

Before producer David Foster completed their transformation into pop stars, Chicago had built an early reputation as a tough jazz-rocking outfit.

Peter Cetera was just one of their vocalists, rather than the honey-sweet ballad-singing frontman. He actually played bass. Robert Lamm, one of Chicago’s other prominent singer-songwriters, served as principal pianist.

Foster changed all of that, beginning with 1982’s Chicago 16.

READ MORE: Top 10 Terry Kath Chicago Songs

“I get it — I get why they were unhappy,” Foster tells the Los Angeles Times. “I just came in like a young, arrogant barnstormer: ‘OK, I’m playing all the piano now,’ and Peter let me play the synth-bass on everything because he didn’t want to play bass anymore.”

So, suddenly Chicago’s new producer was also “the bass player, I was the piano player, I was the co-songwriter. I was the producer, I was the arranger for the most part,” Foster added. “I didn’t know then that I was making them be more like me than I was trying to be like them.”

These changes connected with a new generation of listeners: Chicago 16 became a platinum-selling Top 10 smash – their first since 1977’s Chicago XI. Under Foster’s guidance, the hits kept coming, too: 1984’s Chicago 17 was even bigger, reaching the Top 5 while selling more than six million copies in the U.S. alone.

Cetera clearly had no objections, as he continued to work with Foster even after going solo. Foster stuck around to help his old group move on: The subsequent Chicago 18 was a gold-selling Top 40 hit in 1986.

Watch Chicago’s ‘Hard to Say I’m Sorry’ Video

‘I Don’t Blame Them for Being Pissed Off’

But something was admittedly lost along the way.

“I was trying to imitate them, but I guess more of me came out than should have – and they got annoyed because they didn’t want to be a ballad band,” Foster now admits. “I mean, my mission with Chicago was I wanted to remind them of their greatness. I was such a fan in the late ’60s when it was the [Chicago] Transit Authority. But by Chicago 16, they’d just forgotten their greatness, that’s all. Bottom line is: I don’t blame them for being pissed off.”

Four Foster-produced Chicago singles – all ballads – also reached the Top 5, including the chart-topping “Hard to Say I’m Sorry.” But even that failed to change some minds about this new change in direction.

“No, because they’d had a ton of success before,” Foster added. “They were so revered — they were critic’s darlings, for the most part. I f—ed that up.”

Poison drummer Rikki Rockett will release a memoir on July 15, 2025. Ghost Notes will be a collaboration with writers Leif Eriksson and Martin Svensson.

He confirmed the book during a Thursday appearance on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk. “I was working on it all year last year,” Rockett said. “I was gonna launch it at the same time as the [Poison 2025] tour, but the tour is not gonna happen [next year]. So we’re gonna launch [the book] anyway.”

Rockett also explained the meaning of the title Ghost Notes. “The first chunk of our career, like Look What The Cat Dragged In, Open Up And Say … Ahh!, all those records, even most of Flesh & Blood, the way they were producing records at that time, they did not want drummers playing ghost notes,” he said. “If you know what ghost notes are … it’s kind of like a lighter tap on the snare drum, for example, the kind of the notes in between the notes that are not fully pronounced, I guess would be the best way to explain it in layman’s terms. And so a lot of times it gives it that little bit of swing groove to it.”

READ MORE: How Poison’s ‘Look What the Cat Dragged In’ Helped Define Hair Metal

He continued: “Producers did not want that in the early ’80s — they just wanted straight drums, almost machine-like and heavy and loud and detuned snare drums and all that kind of stuff. And it wasn’t really until Flesh & Blood, but even more Native Tongue, where I was able to really play the way I wanted to play. I think a lot of other drummers dealt with that. I know I talked to various drummers about their frustration back then. So I decided to name it. I finally was able to play however I wanted. And all those little notes between the notes are kind of what I’m talking about in my life. Instead of just the highlights that you always hear about, you know, ‘Poison did this’ or ‘Rikki Rockett did this’ or ‘Rikki got arrested for this’ or whatever, these are like all the stuff in between.”

Rockett said Ghost Notes will dig deeper into the popular Poison stories as well as the band’s early years in Pennsylvania and the surrounding area. “That stuff, to me, is more cinematic, if you will, than, ‘Oh, yeah, they played the Troubadour and the Strip and they hung up flyers,'” he said. “I mean, we’ve all heard those stories. But it’s the other stuff, like trying to hold jobs down and renting VFW halls and renting vans and trying to scrape enough money to get to the next gig and all that stuff. That was really the meat of our struggle, I think.”

Will Poison Tour in 2026?

Rockett raised eyebrows in September when he attributed Poison’s lack of immediate tour plans to frontman Bret Michaels. “I keep getting asked multiple times a day, ‘Why isn’t Poison touring in 2025 now?’ Super simple answer: Bret doesn’t want to,” he wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post.

In a follow-up message, Rockett wrote: “People, I never said that Bret is canceling the 2025 tour. It didn’t get booked. I said the reason Poison isn’t touring in 2025 is because Bret doesn’t want to. Doesn’t matter what the reason for him is as far as what I said. I’m simply telling you why so that CC [DeVille], Bobby [Dall] or myself doesn’t get blamed. It isn’t dirt. It isn’t a fight. Just the facts, ma’am. Surmise what you want from it. You will anyway!”

Michaels separately explained on Facebook that he was taking 2025 to “focus primarily on health, starting with my diabetes, which needs a tune-up.” He added, however, that he had his sights set on a 2026 Poison tour to mark the 40th anniversary of Look What the Cat Dragged In. “In my opinion, it would be the perfect 40th-anniversary tour, with 40 awesome limited dates to go out, play real live hit songs and rock the world,” he said.

Real-Life Spinal Tap Stories: Poison’s Richie Kotzen

Halloween only comes once a year, a night for everyone to be someone – or something — they’re not.

This year, most rock musicians appeared to take the spooky route. Paul Stanley somehow put together a costume that made it look as though his head was being carted around by an enormous Frankenstein monster — “HAPPY HALLOWEEN from me and my buddy…” he wrote online. Slash donned what looked to be a terrifying ape mask, but kept his signature top hat on for a photo with his girlfriend.

Other people went with a sweeter approach. The newly minted Rock Hall member Peter Frampton shared a photo of himself and his granddaughter, both dressed as characters from the children’s TV show Bluey, smiling ear to ear. Billy Joel shared a photo of two of his kids, one dressed as Beetlejuice and the other as Taylor Swift.

Some bands even played shows on Halloween night and went all out for the occasion. The Black Crowes and their band appeared on stage as a gang of skeletons. “The Black ‘Dead’ Crowes,” as their social media post put it. Meanwhile Duran Duran took the stage at Madison Square Garden in New York City dressed as a fearsome looking pirate crew, a fitting move considering many of the set list’s songs were from their 2023 Halloween-themed album, Danse Macabre.

But there’s more. Take a look below at some of this year’s best costume selections.

Thin Lizzy will release a stripped-down new album called Acoustic Sessions with archival contributions from late frontman Phil Lynott and former drummer Brian Downey. It’s due on Jan. 24, 2025.

Fellow band cofounder Eric Bell reimagined the songs by adding acoustic guitar to tracks from the 50th-anniversary super deluxe editions of Thin Lizzy’s 1971 self-titled debut, 1972’s Shades of a Blue Orphanage and 1973’s Vagabonds of the Western World.

Pre-ordering for the album is already underway. The complete track listing, an all-new acoustic version of “Whiskey in a Jar” and a trailer for Acoustic Sessions can be found below.

READ MORE: Ranking Every Thin Lizzy Album

Bell said he used an approach that wasn’t much different from how Thin Lizzy originally completed these songs. “I remember recording ‘Eire’ from our debut album Thin Lizzy in 1971. I wrote the main guitar part first on acoustic and then we built it up from there. I played the 12-string acoustic throughout the track and introduced the electric on top,” Bell said in an official statement.

“This was useful in the studio in Belfast recently where we recorded fresh guitar parts to allow us to create new Thin Lizzy acoustic versions of some of our favorite songs,” Bell added, “by recreating those original acoustic parts and adding the vocals which Philip laid down on the day and those original drum parts which Brian came up with in the original recording sessions.”

Bell left Thin Lizzy following the release of Vagabonds of the Western World. After Gary Moore‘s brief first stint, Scott Gorham succeeded Bell and subsequently led the reunited act in the wake of Lynott’s 1986 death at age 36. Downey has been out of the lineup for more than a decade.

Producer Richard Whittaker provided the basic tracks for Acoustic Sessions once he’d completed the recent Thin Lizzy remixes. “After sifting through all the Decca recordings, I presented a list of ideas,” he said. “However, in most cases, additional development and material was required. So the guys at the label approached Eric, who was happy to get involved with the project and between us, I think we’ve made something really quite unique and special.”

Acoustic Sessions also includes a bonus song titled “Slow Blues G.M.” in tribute to Moore, who died of a heart attack at the age of 58 in 2011. Thin Lizzy’s most recent studio effort dates back to 1983’s Thunder and Lightning, though the offshoot band Black Star Riders remains active in the studio.

Thin Lizzy, ‘Acoustic Sessions’ Track Listing
“Mama Nature Said (Acoustic Version)”
“A Song For While I’m Away (Acoustic Version)”
“Eire (Acoustic Version)”
“Slow Blues (Acoustic Version)”
“Dublin (Acoustic Version)”
“Whiskey in the Jar (Acoustic Version)”
“Here I Go Again (Acoustic Version)”
“Shades of a Blue Orphanage (Acoustic Version)”
“Remembering Pt. 2 (Acoustic Version)”
“Slow Blues G.M (Acoustic Version)”

There’s an old saying in journalism: if it bleeds, it leads. In other words, stories that involve tragedy, particularly those with gruesome or violent details, are much more likely to earn a reader’s attention.

The ethics of prioritizing stories of death, destruction and general mayhem could be discussed for days, but the reality is this: there is something about true crime that titillates many, and that includes musicians.

In the below list of 35 Rock Songs Inspired by True Crime, you’ll find tales of hometown homicide, serial killers, missing persons and more.

1. “5:15 A.M.,” Mark Knopfler
From: Shangri-La (2004)

In January of 1967 — several years before Mark Knopfler moved to London and formed Dire Straits — a financially motivated crime now known as the “one-armed bandit murder” took place in Knopfler’s childhood town of Newcastle. A man named Angus Sibbet was shot and killed by Dennis Stafford and Michael Luvaglio. (“One-armed bandits” was a colloquial term for people involved in the gambling industry, and the cover of Knopfler’s Shangri-La even displays a brightly-colored slot machine.) Sibbet’s body was found by a local miner at 5:15 a.m. on Jan. 4, 1967, leading to life sentences for both Stafford and Luvaglio, who only ended up serving 12 years.

 

2. “213,” Slayer
From: Divine Intervention (1994)

“Driving compulsion, morbid thoughts come to mind / Sexual release buried deep inside,” Tom Araya sings in Slayer’s “213,” but he’s most definitely not talking about himself. “213” is a reference to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, whose apartment number in Milwaukee was 213. Between the years 1978 and 1991, Dahmer killed and dismembered 17 people, crimes that also involved elements of necrophilia and cannibalism.

“When Dahmer hit the news I thought, ‘I have a lot of stuff to work with here!'” Araya said in a 2023 interview with Metal Hammer, discussing his years-long fascination with serial killers. In November of 1994, two months after Divine Intervention was released, Dahmer was murdered himself in prison by another inmate.

 

3. “3 Warning Shots,” Rick Springfield
From: Venus in Overdrive (2008)

Like many fellow musicians, the murder of John Lennon in 1980 had a lasting impact on Rick Springfield, who wrote a song about the incident called “3 Warning Shots.” It appeared on his 2008 album Venus in Overdrive.

“I was still angry,” Springfield explained to Songfacts. “But also I was upset that the guy who shot him – there was some talk of him maybe being paroled or something. And I didn’t want that. So I revisited all the anger that I felt when that happened, because I am a huge John fan, and it was just such a waste. So it was just a late reaction to him maybe getting paroled, or talking about some kind of field trip or something for the dickhead.”

 

4. “Annie Christian,” Prince
From: Controversy (1981)

Prince’s “Annie Christian” contains references to not one true crime event but three. In the first verse there’s an allusion to the Atlanta murders, which occurred between 1979 and 1981 — 28 Black people, mostly teenagers and children, were murdered. A 23-year-old man named Wayne Williams was charged with just two of the adult homicides. Then in the next verse, there’s mention of both Lennon’s killing and the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan.

 

5. “Bloodbath in Paradise,” Ozzy Osbourne
From: No Rest for the Wicked (1988)

Here we have just one of a couple songs on this list that drew inspiration from the California crimes of Charles Manson and his cult following. “If you’re alone then watch what you do ‘cuz Charlie and the family might get you,” Ozzy Osbourne sings in “Bloodbath in Paradise.” Manson was convicted in 1971 of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people, including the pregnant actress Sharon Tate in 1969.

“The Manson murders were all over the telly, so anything with a dark edge was in big demand,” Osbourne write in his autobiography I Am Ozzy. “Before he turned psycho, Manson had been a big part of the L.A. music scene. If he hadn’t gone to jail, we probably would have ended up hanging out with him.”

 

6. “Choklit Factory,” Marilyn Manson
From: After School Special (1991)

On the cover of Marilyn Manson’s 1991 tape After School Special is a photo of Jeffrey Dahmer, the aforementioned cannibalistic serial killer. On that tape is a song called “Choklit Factory,” a reference to Dahmer’s job at the Milwaukee Ambrosia Chocolate Factory, which he held while committing many of his crimes.

 

7. “Claudine,” The Rolling Stones
From: Some Girls (1978)

From 1961 until 1975 Andy Williams, the popular singer and TV entertainer, was married to a French actress named Claudine Longet. The year after their union ended, Longet was arrested and charged with the death of her boyfriend, the Olympic skier Vladimir “Spider” Sabich. She claimed the gun was fired accidentally and in the end was only convicted of negligent homicide, earning her a fine and a month in jail. Two years after that, the Rolling Stones included a song about Longet on the album Some Girls, dwelling on the mysterious circumstances of the death — “Now only Spider knows for sure / But he ain’t talkin’ about it any more.”

 

8. “Dancing in the Moonlight,” King Harvest
From: 1972 Single

“Dancing in the Moonlight” is the only song on this list inspired by a crime that happened to the song’s writer themselves. In 1969, musician Sherman Kelly went on a trip to Saint Croix in the Caribbean, where he ended up being the first victim of a gang that would go on to murder eight people.

“At that time, I suffered multiple facial fractures and wounds and was left for dead,” Kelly later recalled. “While I was recovering, I wrote ‘Dancin in the Moonlight’ in which I envisioned an alternate reality, the dream of a peaceful and joyful celebration of life.”

Below is one of the best-known versions of the song, recorded by King Harvest in 1972.

 

9. “Death Valley ’69,” Sonic Youth With Lydia Lunch
From: Bad Moon Rising (1985)

The lyrics don’t explicitly mention any murderers or victims, but it’s clear from the title of this Sonic Youth song that the tragic events involving Charles Manson played a role in the song’s creation. Kim Gordon herself had a potential tie to Manson: her older brother’s ex-girlfriend, Marina Habe, was found brutally slain on Jan. 1, 1969, a crime that remains unsolved to this day but speculated to be the work of the Manson family.

 

10. “Fireplace Poker,” Drive-By Truckers
From: Go-Go Boots (2011)

In 1998, a ghastly murder took place in Tuscumbia, Alabama, just a few miles from Muscle Shoals, where Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers was born and raised. “Tuscumbia is right next to the town I grew up in so it was all over the local papers,” Hood explained to American Songwriter in 2018. “Preacher hired these thugs to kill his wife, they botched the job so he finished her off with a fireplace poker. One of the guys was recently executed and the other one is still on death row in ‘Bama. The preacher ended up dead a few days later. Turns out his earlier wife died mysteriously also.”

Hood wrote not one but two songs about the incident, “Go-Go Boots” and “The Fireplace Poker,” both of which found a place on the 2011 album Go-Go Boots.

 

11. “Georgia Lee,” Tom Waits
From: Mule Variations (1999)

To date, no one knows who is responsible for the abduction and murder of 12-year-old Georgia Lee. She was last seen alive on Aug. 13, 1997 in Santa Rosa, California, where she got into a vehicle with an unidentified man. Her body was found just over a week later.

“Not to make it a racial matter,” Waits said in a 1999 interview with LA Weekly (via Songfacts), “but it was one of those things where, you know, she’s a Black kid, and when it comes to missing children and unsolved crimes, a lot of it has to do with timing, or publicity…And I wanted to write a song about it. At one point I wasn’t going to put it on the record, there were too many songs. But my daughter said, ‘Gee, that would really be sad — she gets killed and not remembered and somebody writes a song about it and doesn’t put it on the record.’ I didn’t want to be a part of that.”

 

12. “Hurricane,” Bob Dylan
From: Desire (1976)

Bob Dylan has written a few songs inspired by real-life crimes — “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” The Death of Emmett Till,” etc. — but the one that really stands out in his catalog is “Hurricane” from 1976’s Desire. It’s about the wrongful arrest and imprisonment of boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who was charged with a triple murder that occurred at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey in 1966. It was after meeting with Carter himself in prison that Dylan began writing the song, which emphasized the boxer’s innocence. Carter was finally released in November of 1985.

 

13. “I Don’t Like Mondays,” The Boomtown Rats
From: The Fine Art of Surfacing (1979)

Each year, the U.S. experiences hundreds of mass shootings, many of them in school settings. Even though they’ve become more prevalent in recent years, such horrific events have been happening for decades. On Jan. 29, 1979, for example, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer opened fire on the Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California. Two adults were killed, and eight children and another adult were injured. Spencer was charged and convicted of two counts of homicide and is, at the time of this writing, still in prison.

When asked in 1979 why she committed the crime, she responded: “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.” It was this quote that went on to inspire the Boomtown Rats’ song “I Don’t Like Mondays.”

 

14. “I Just Shot John Lennon,” The Cranberries
From: To the Faithful Departed (1996)

Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan clearly felt a certain kind of connection to John Lennon in that fame changed how she approached her life and considered herself, so it makes sense that she’d feel compelled to write a song about his death. “It’s like reading about someone else,” she told NME in 1995, speaking to the constant media attention she was then receiving. “Sometimes when I’m doing interviews I’ll start sarcastically referring to me as Dolores, ‘cuz it’ll feel like Dolores is this other person.”

 

15. “Jack the Ripper,” Motorhead
From: March or Die (1992)

He’s possibly the most famous serial killer to ever live: Jack the Ripper. The Ripper, who was active in London for just a few months in 1888, was never caught nor identified. During his reign of terror, he murdered at least five women — stabbing and beating them beyond recognition — but it’s unclear whether there were more victims that were never found. All five of the known victims were prostitutes, hence the lyric in this Motorhead song: “The last embrace you’ll ever know, the violence of romance.”

 

16. “Jeremy,” Pearl Jam
From: Ten (1991)

One day in early 1991, Eddie Vedder saw a newspaper article about a 15-year-old boy named Jeremy Wade Delle, a high school student who shot himself in front of his English class. Terrifyingly, it immediately reminded Vedder of something he experienced in school himself, in which a classmate of his brought a gun to school, very clearly distressed. “He kind of freaked out and brought a gun into class one day,” Vedder recalled in a 1991 interview with Billboard. “It was geography class and [he] shot up a 1000 gallon fish tank or something. I was in the hallway and I remember hearing it.”

 

17. “Killer on the Loose,” Thin Lizzy
From: Chinatown (1980)

We’re definitely not done with Jack the Ripper songs. In this Thin Lizzy number, Phil Lynott sings from the perspective of the Ripper himself — “there is something I’ve got to do to you honey /and it’s between you and me.” There was even a 1980 music video in which Lynott donned a trench coat not unlike the Ripper was said to wear surrounded by, well, women.

 

18. “Killer’s Eyes,” The Kinks
From: Give the People What They Want (1981)

In the spring of 1981, a man named Mehmet Ali Agca escaped from prison — he had murdered a Turkish journalist in 1979 — and traveled to Vatican City. There he attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II, a crime for which he was captured and imprisoned. At that time, the Kinks were touring in England, and a newspaper article about the incident prompted Ray Davies to write a song about it called “Killer’s Eyes.” “I saw that guy’s face in the paper, and it just wrote the song for me. His face,” Davies told Creem that year. “There was a quote in the story from his mother, and halfway through the song, I sort of take the role of the parent.”

 

19. “Let Him Dangle,” Elvis Costello
From: Spike (1989)

Derek Bentley was 19 years old when he was hanged for the 1952 murder of a policeman that occurred during a burglary in a neighborhood of London. A year after the hanging, Elvis Costello was born and heard all about the infamous case growing up.

“The case of Derek Bentley had been brought up in every capital punishment debate since I had been a child, so I put it in a song,” Costello wrote in the 2001 reissue liner notes to Spike. “Let Him Dangle” doesn’t deny Bentley’s culpability, but it does question if the punishment truly fits the crime: “From a welfare state to society murder / ‘Bring back the noose’ is always heard / Whenever those swine are under attack / But it won’t make you even / It won’t bring him back.”

 

20. “Midnight Rambler,” The Rolling Stones
From: Let It Bleed (1969)

Between the years 1962 and 1964, Albert DeSalvo killed 13 women in the city of Boston, earning himself the nickname the Boston Strangler. Even though DeSalvo provided details that only the murderer would have known, there was no physical proof to back up his confession and he was ultimately only convicted of several other unrelated rapes.

During his crime spree, newspaper headlines described the perpetrator with the phrase “midnight rambler,” which inspired the 1969 Rolling Stones song of the same name. “The title, the subject, was just one of those phrases taken out of sensationalist headlines that only exist for a day,” Keith Richards wrote in his memoir, Life. “You just happen to be looking at a newspaper, ‘Midnight Rambler on the loose again.’ Oh, I’ll have him.”

 

21. “Mister Garfield,” Johnny Cash
From: Johnny Cash Sings the Ballads of the True West (1965)

There’s a whole bunch of artists who have brought up President John F. Kennedy in their songs — we have a whole other list for that — but what about another of the fallen presidents James Garfield? Garfield, America’s 20th president, was shot by a man named Charles Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington D.C on July 2, 1881. He died over two months later on Sept. 19. Johnny Cash’s “Mister Garfield” is based on a traditional folk song, one that folksinger Ramblin’ Jack Elliot introduced him to.

 

22. “Nebraska,” Bruce Springsteen
From: Nebraska (1982)

Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” is another song sung from the perspective of the perpetrator. Here, the Boss tells the story of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend/accomplice Caril Ann Fugate who killed a whopping eight people in 11 days across Nebraska and Wyoming in 1958. And if you thought Springsteen didn’t do his research on the incident, think again.

“I actually called the reporter who reported on that story in Nebraska, and amazingly enough she was still at the newspaper, and she was a lovely woman, and we talked for a half hour or so,” Springsteen told CBS Sunday Morning in 2023. “It just sort of focused me on the feeling of what I wanted to write about.”

 

23. “Night Shift,” Siouxsie and the Banshees
From: Juju (1981)

You’ve heard of Jack the Ripper, but what about the Yorkshire Ripper? Unlike Jack, the Yorkshire Ripper was eventually caught and identified as Peter Sutcliffe, but not before he killed at least 13 women, though more were suspected. He typically struck under cover of darkness, targeting prostitutes and other vulnerable women in the latter half of the ’70s. It was Sutcliffe who Siouxsie and the Banshees based their song “Night Shift” off of.

“This news journalist told me that they had a lot of information about the [Yorkshire] Ripper before he was caught,” Siouxsie Sioux said in a 1981 interview, the year Sutcliffe was caught (via the Australian Broadcasting Corporation). “I don’t know how true…that he was a necrophiliac, at least while he was a gravedigger, and that was why he wanted to work the night shift.”

 

24. “Polly,” Nirvana
From: Nevermind (1991)

In June of 1987, a 14-year-old girl on her way to a concert in Tacoma, Washington was abducted at knife-point by Gerald Friend, who then proceeded to torture and rape her in his home. She eventually escaped and became the inspiration for Nirvana’s 1991 song “Polly.”

“Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth. And it happens every few minutes,” Kurt Cobain emphasized to NME that same year, not long after the release of Nevermind. “The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape. Go to the source and start there.”

 

25. “Revolution Blues,” Neil Young
From: On the Beach (1974)

Believe it or not, Neil Young had some up close and personal encounters with Charles Manson, then an aspiring musician himself whom he met through Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. This was, of course, before Manson landed on the wrong side of the law, but Young wrote about him several years later on 1974’s “Revolution Blues:” “Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon is full of famous stars / But I hate them worse than lepers and I’ll kill them in their cars.”

“He had this kind of music that no one was doing,” Young explained in a 1985 interview with writer Bill Flanagan. “He would sit down with the guitar and start playing and make up stuff, different every time, it just kept comin’ out, comin’ out, comin’ out. Then he would stop and you would never hear that one again. Musically I thought he was very unique. I thought he really had something crazy, something great. He was like a living poet. It was always coming out.”

 

26. “Riders on the Storm,” The Doors
From: L.A. Woman (1971)

“If you give this man a ride,” Jim Morrison warns in “Riders on the Storm,” “Sweet family will die / Killer on the road.” This terrifying premise was inspired by Billy Cook, whose 1950-51 killing spree took the lives of six total people, including a family of five. Cook’s story first inspired the 1953 film The Hitch-Hiker.

“In essence, ‘Riders on the Storm’ was a very filmic song about a serial killer,” Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek later said (via Dig!). “Jim was way ahead of his time in 1970, but he was pulled in two directions writing it. He didn’t want the song to be just about a killer hitchhiker. The last verse, ‘The world on you depends, our life will never end / You gotta love your man‘ – it becomes a very spiritual song.”

 

27. “Ripper,” Judas Priest
From: Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)

We’ve got one more Jack the Ripper song for you, this time in the form of “Ripper” by Judas Priest. (And yes, this is the song that wound up giving one-time Judas Priest singer Tim “Ripper” Owens his nickname.) It was written solely by guitarist Glenn Tipton, again from the perspective of the Ripper himself: “I’m sly and I’m shameless / Nocturnal and nameless.”

 

28. “Stagger Lee,” Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
From: Murder Ballads (1996)

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released an album in 1996 literally titled Murder Ballads, which as you might deduce is full of nothing but songs relating to murder, as well as the consequences of it. On it is a track called “Stagger Lee,” a traditional number about an African-American pimp named Lee Shelton in St. Louis, Missouri. Shelton was well-known amongst other pimps for being wealthy and not the sort of person you should cross.

But someone did on Christmas night in 1895: a many named Billy Lyons. The two had gotten into an argument in a bar, resulting in Shelton shooting and killing Lyons.

 

29. “Suffer Little Children,” The Smiths
From: The Smiths (1984)

The Smiths — and more specifically Morrissey — never shied away from writing about cheerless topics during their time together. “Suffer Little Children,” as its title plainly suggests, is no exception. This song was written about what became known in England as the Moors murders. Between 1963 and 1965, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley killed five children and sexually assaulted most of them. Morrissey was seven years old when the pair were sent to prison and grew up not far from where the murders had taken place.

“It was like the worst thing that had ever happened, and I was very, very aware of everything that occurred,” he would later recall (via The Telegraph). “Aware as a child who could have been a victim. All the details…You see it was all so evil; it was, if you can understand this, ungraspably evil. When something reaches that level it becomes almost…almost absurd really. I remember it at times like I was living in a soap opera.”

 

30. “Ted, Just Admit It…,” Jane’s Addiction
From: Nothing’s Shocking (1988)

The voice you hear speaking around the two-minute mark of “Ted, Just Admit It…” by Jane’s Addiction? Yeah that’s none other than a recording of Ted Bundy himself, the prolific ’70s serial killer responsible for dozens of rapes and murders. “There’s gonna be people turning up in canyons, there are gonna be people being shot in Salt Lake City. Because the police there aren’t willing to accept, what I think they know. And they know I didn’t do these things.” (Bundy did admit to 30 murders, but his total number of victims was likely higher.)

 

31. “The Killing of Georgie, Part I and II,” Rod Stewart
From: A Night on the Town (1976)

“The Killing of Georgie, Part I and II” by Rod Stewart is a semi-fictional song about a gay friend of Stewart’s who was targeted and ultimately murdered for his sexuality. “I only knew him fleetingly,” Stewart explained to The Guardian in 2016, noting that of course, since he was not present at the crime itself, he did embellish some parts of the story. “He would play songs for us and say ‘Have you heard this?’ I remember him turning us on to Sam and Dave singing ‘Night Time Is the Right Time.’ I can tell you, he was a hell of a good-looking guy.”

 

32. “Then Came the Last Days of May,” Blue Oyster Cult
From: Blue Oyster Cult (1972)

Back before Blue Oyster Cult became a world famous rock band and before they’d even landed a record deal, they were a group who played dances at Stony Brook University on Long Island to keep themselves afloat. It was there that a grisly story emerged that inspired the song “Then Came the Last Days of May.”

“Three Stony Brook students went to Tuscon, Arizona, to buy some bulk marijuana for resale,” Buck Dharma recalled to The Austin Chronicle in 2017. “I don’t know how they got whatever contact they had, but it was two brothers – scions from one of the better-to-do families in Tuscon. They never intended to sell them any pot. They just wanted to rip ’em off and shoot ’em, which they did. They took them out to the desert and shot them. It was three guys, and one managed to survive and get back to the highway. The brothers were arrested and convicted, and spent 10 years in jail, but then they got out. I wrote the story from basically the newspaper accounts of the Long Island newspaper, Newsday.”

 

33. “Tom Dula,” Neil Young and Crazy Horse
From: Americana (2012)

Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s “Tom Dula” stems from the traditional song “Tom Dooley,” written about a murder in Appalachia. In 1866, a woman named Laura Foster was stabbed to death by her own lover and the father of her unborn child, confederate veteran Tom Dula. (In the local dialect, “Dula” comes out sounding more like “Dooley,” hence the song’s title.) Dula was convicted and hanged for the crime in 1868.

 

34. “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” R.E.M.
From: Monster (1994)

In 1986, journalist Dan Rather was walking in New York City when he was attacked by two people who began beating him. As they were doing so, they repeated the phrase “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” It was a little over a decade later that an assailant was finally caught, a man named William Tager who murdered an NBC stagehand in 1997. It was reported that Tager believed that TV networks were beaming signals into his brain, which explained the strange question he had asked Rather.

But in between those years, the phrase “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” infiltrated popular culture, including as the title to a 1994 R.E.M. song. And yes, Rather later interviewed the band himself in 2023.

 

35. “Wrong ‘Em Boyo,” The Clash
From: London Calling (1979)

The Clash’s “Wrong ‘Em Boyo” is actually another “Stagger Lee” rendition. Lots of artists have put their own spin on this traditional song in addition to the Clash, including Taj Mahal, the Grateful Dead, Ike & Tina Turner, Bob Dylan and more.

Jon Bon Jovi is playing down the drama surrounding a recent incident where he helped an apparently suicidal woman to safety.

He was shooting a music video in September when the unidentified woman was seen on the wrong side of a bridge guardrail in Nashville, seemingly preparing to jump into the Cumberland River below.

Video clips showed Bon Jovi approaching and talking to her. They eventually shared a hug. Then he and an assistant then aided her climb back over the rail, and Bon Jovi continued talking to her until emergency services arrived.

READ MORE: Ranking All 359 Bon Jovi Songs

“We’d all do the same,” Bon Jovi said during a recent onstage conversation with Stephen Colbert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

He said the incident proves that mental health is a “real” issue. “This lady, she was completely coherent, had all of her wits,” Bon Jovi said. “She had said to me, ‘Look at me. I’m in paper scrubs with no shoes, no phone, no money, nowhere to go. They let me walk out of the hospital.’ … She said, ‘I am not suicidal or homicidal.”

Jon Bon Jovi Has ‘Extensive Training’ in Crisis Management

Bon Jovi agreed when Colbert noted that the woman was still in danger. “Obviously on the wrong side of the rail – in a situation,” Bon Jovi said. “I spoke with her, and then the wonderful police department, fire and emergency rescue came – and a therapist came and talked to her.”

The woman received further help after leaving the bridge, he confirmed. “But that’s all: I was just there,” Bon Jovi added.

Just after the incident, someone from the Bon Jovi camp reported that he’d received “extensive training in speaking with individuals experiencing a crisis” in connection with his JBJ Soul Foundation. Founded in 2006, the organization aims to tackle hunger, poverty and homelessness at community levels.

How a Naughty Moment Inspired Jon Bon Jovi to Learn Guitar

Get ready to kickstart your heart– Mötley Crüe‘s coming to Las Vegas, and we want YOU to be there for the action.

Here’s What You Could Win001

• Two tickets to see Mötley Crüe at Park MGM on April 4, 2024
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• $500 spending money
• PLUS a 35th Anniversary Dr. Feelgood Box Set

Here’s How You Can Get In to Win

Listen weekdays for the codes you need to enter the contest. We’ll share them starting Monday, November 4, through Friday, November 22.

You can also enter by completing the activities below beginning Monday, November 4, through Sunday, November 24. The more you like, share, and follow, the more entries you can earn.

*This is a multi-market contest open to residents of the contiguous 48 United States at least 18 years of age at the time of entry. One (1) winner will be randomly selected from eligible entries received on Monday, November 25. Prize is provided by Live Nation and Big Machine Records.*

Albums Banned by Walmart

Who’s Bruce Springsteen gonna call when he needs an opening number for his 2024 Halloween show?

That’s right… Ghostbusters.

Springsteen opened up his Thursday night concert in Montreal with a loving, unironic take on Ray Parker Jr.’s chart-topping theme song to 1984’s second-highest grossing film. In a year that’s already been filled with surprises, it’s still hard not to be taken aback by watching the 75-year old disputed billionaire enthusiastically shouting “I ain’t afraid of no ghosts!“

You can see fan-shot video of the performance below.

Read More: 11 Famous Halloween Rock Concerts

At the time of this writing the show was still ongoing but has seemingly settled into a more typical set list, with “Ghostbusters” followed by “Seeds,” which has been played live by Springsteen twelve times this year and more than 200 times overall despite never appearing on a studio album, then “Lonesome Day” and “No Surrender.”

Springsteen to Wrap Up Busy 2024 in Canada

Thursday night’s show marked the beginning of a Canadian tour that will see Springsteen crossing the Great White North (Beauty, eh? “Coooo-loo-cooo-cooo-coo-coo-coo-coo!“) for most of the next month, concluding with a Nov. 22 show in Vancouver. The Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band documentary debuted last week on Disney Plus, and was promoted by yet another TV special, ABC’s Backstage and Backstreets, which aired on Oct. 20.

Springsteen also made his choice in the upcoming Presidential election crystal clear, appearing onstage in support of Kamala Harris while labeling Donald Trump an “American tyrant.”

 

Kevin Cronin has announced his first solo show of 2025, which will notably take place following REO Speedwagon’s retirement from touring.

The concert, titled “The Songs of REO Speedwagon,” will take place on Jan. 25 at WinStar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, Oklahoma. It will feature Cronin performing a set full of “unforgettable hits” from throughout the band’s career.

In a message to fans, Cronin suggested that solo performances will be part of “exciting adventures” in 2025.

“During the late 70s and through the 1980s, Alan Gratzer, Neal Doughty, Bruce Hall, the late great Gary Richrath, and I all formed what our loyal REO Speedwagon fans have come to call the Classic REO Line-up,” the rocker wrote on social media. “These current bumps in the road cannot alter our legacy, take away any of what we accomplished together, or change what that music means to our fans.”

READ MORE: Top 10 REO Speedwagon Songs

“As I go full speed ahead into the REO shows for the next couple of months, and exciting adventures in the new year, I know I have much more music to make, many more songs to sing… and who knows what else the future may bring,” Cronin continued. “Meanwhile, I will continue to do my part in making sure Gary’s songs live on forever. And as the rest of us head off down our own separate paths, I wish everyone only the best in their future adventures and endeavors.”

Why Is REO Speewagon Done Touring?

In September, REO Speedwagon announced they would cease touring at the end of 2024 due to “irreconcilable differences” between Cronin and bassist Bruce Hall. The issues reportedly cropped up when Hall, who underwent back surgery in 2023, was unable to return to performing as originally hoped.

READ MORE: Kevin Cronin Says He’ll ‘Always Hold Out Hope’ for REO Speedwagon Reunion

REO Speewagon still has a run of performances remaining before the year ends. The band’s final show is scheduled for Dec. 21 at the Venetian in Las Vegas.

At the height of their fame, Toto was forced to fire their lead singer — a decision that cofounder Steve Porcaro describes today as “really traumatic.”

Though 1982’s Toto IV had put the band in a new stratosphere of commercial success, things were strained behind the scenes, most notably with frontman Bobby Kimball, who was in the grips of substance abuse.

“It was the usual stuff in the early ‘80, to be honest with you,” keyboardist and co-founder Porcaro recalled during a recent appearance on the Bob Lefsetz podcast. “I mean, we were all at the party, so to speak. But when you’re the lead singer of the band, there’s a time when you can pull that off those late nights and heavy drinking and whatever and still do your gig.”

READ MORE: Top 100 ’80s Rock Albums

“I can say that Bobby wasn’t wasn’t doing anything the rest of us weren’t doing,” Porcaro continued, “but he was the lead singer, and it just would become apparent when he couldn’t perform.”

Toto’s ‘Heartbreaking’ Decision to Fire Bobby Kimball

The move to dismiss Kimball couldn’t have come at a more impactful time for Toto. The band had scored massive hits with “Rosanna” and “Africa,” while Toto IV took home a total of six Grammys in 1983. Still, it became clear that the group could not continue with their frontman.

READ MORE: The Ongoing Legacy of Toto’s ‘Africa’

“It was heartbreaking. We had found our chemistry. We had found what clicks, what works for us,” Porcaro recalled. “We had figured it out. But then we had been working so hard up to that point. You have to understand, we’d been just constantly in the studio or on the road up to that point. By the time we did Toto IV and it was hugely successful and we toured behind it, everybody was exhausted and kind of needed a break.”

Unfortunately, some time off didn’t help Kimball refocus.

“When we finally got around to making a follow up to Toto IV, a lot of the bad habits, let’s say, that had been developing, had gotten to a point where people just couldn’t perform at the level they wanted to that we needed them to,” Porcaro continued, alluding to Kimball’s substance abuse problems. “We wound up having to switch lead singers, which we hated doing. We hated doing that. It was really traumatic for the band.”

Who Joined Toto After Bobby Kimball?

Toto cycled through several lead singers – including Dennis Frederiksen and Joseph Williams – over the next few years. Though Kimball eventually returned for another decade-long tenure beginning in 1998, the group never recaptured the magic they’d enjoyed on Toto IV.

“All of a sudden, that style of music — that polished kind of, what our detractors called ‘corporate rock’ — suddenly became very unpopular,” Porcaro recalled, pointing to rock’s changing landscape in the early ‘90s. “Bands like Nirvana were all of a sudden real popular. The whole Seattle thing was starting to happen. [Toto’s] whole style of music, with these synthesizer extravaganzas, were becoming very unpopular. And the record company let us know they weren’t as thrilled as they were [before]. I mean, if we had delivered enough other hits, they’d be okay. But you know what, it was just the music world was changing.”

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released Long After Dark, their fifth studio album, on Nov. 2, 1982. Ultimate Classic Rock is celebrating the milestone with a special radio broadcast and your chance to win a Long After Dark prize pack.

Benmont Tench and Adria Petty will join Ultimate Classic Rock Nights host Matt Wardlaw on Friday (Nov. 1) to play tracks from the new expanded reissue of Long After Dark and share their memories of the time period. Fans can listen live beginning at 7pm EST on affiliate stations and directly at this link.

As Tench shares during the broadcast, Long After Dark arrived after the band had been together as the Heartbreakers for less than a decade. A lot had happened in that time period. “Success for us, felt like a struggle,” he remembers now. “Because, to me, the struggle to get heard and understood musically as a band, started with Mudcrutch. The primary songwriter in Mudcrutch was always Tom, and this was me and Mike and Tom. So there’s a through line, but Mudcrutch never put out a record.”

READ MORE: How Tom Petty Got the Band Back Together for ‘Mudcrutch’

“By the time the Heartbreakers came about and we started working, we had to play and tour for a couple of years before we really started getting attention everywhere,” he explains.” It was least a year before we started getting attention anywhere other than San Francisco, Boston and the U.K. So while a lot did happen once people paid attention — which was definitely on Damn the Torpedoes — once we got there, things really started barreling ahead.”

Watch the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Video For ‘You Got Lucky’

The newly expanded edition of Long After Dark features a full bonus disc of additional material, including a number of songs that were not released on the original album. Fans can win a copy of the new reissue, plus a grand prize winner will score a special Long After Dark prize pack featuring a tour raglan reissue shirt from the era, plus a sticker pack, an illustrated notebook featuring Tom’s lyrics for “You Got Lucky”  and a “Straight Into Darkness” floating pen.

For your chance to win, simply enter your name, email and phone number into the entry form at the top of this page. You will be added to UCR’s daily newsletter mailing list. The contest ends Nov. 8, 2024 at 11:59pm EST.

Covers of “Come Together” began arriving almost immediately after the Beatles song was issued as a single in October 1969. Even John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Martin – three other people involved with the original sessions for its parent album, 1969’s Abbey Road – have returned to the song over the years.

Along the way, there have been new versions that were both offbeat (Bill Frisell and Marcus Miller have recorded jazz versions) and frankly mind-blowing (Marilyn Manson on his 1995 tour with Danzig, Sheila E. during a 2017 appearance on The Late Show).

Gary Clark Jr. also updated the song for 2017’s Justice League movie, though he admitted to needing a lyric sheet to complete the session. “I don’t know what ‘toe-jam football’ is,” he admitted to Rolling Stone, “but I’ll sing the s— out of it.” Kelly Clarkson liked Clark’s take so much that she used his arrangement for a new cover in 2024.

READ MORE: Top 10 Beatles Guitar Solos Not By George Harrison

Prince did his own take, too. In a typically iconoclastic move, however, he took pains to explain that he was never all that much into the Beatles. Clark, on the other hand, had a much different feeling: “I just hope that when [surviving Beatles] Paul and Ringo [Starr] hear it, they dig it,” he said. “That’s all you can hope for.”

Here’s a look back at the history of covers of the Beatles’ “Come Together.”

Ike and Tina Turner
From: Come Together (1970)

Ike and Tina Turner jumped on the bandwagon early, releasing a new version just months after the Beatles. Their scorching take reached No. 21 on the Billboard R&B chart.

Diana Ross
From: Everything Is Everything (1970)

Diana Ross opened Side Two of her second solo album with “Come Together.” Jean Terrell had taken over her old band, the Supremes, and already issued issued their update on 1970’s New Ways but Love Stays.

John Lennon
From: Concert Performance (1972)

Lennon introduced “Come Together” by saying, “You might remember this better than I do.” The only Beatles song covered as part of his One to One concerts at Madison Square Garden later appeared on 1986’s Live in New York City.

Kate Bush
From: Concert Performance (1977)

Before she rose to fame as a solo star, Kate Bush briefly led the KT Bush band. They played a mixture of originals like “James and the Cold Gun” and covers, including “Come Together.”

Aerosmith
From: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Soundtrack (1978)

One of the only redeeming qualities in a heavily criticized film flop, Aerosmith‘s Beatles update reached No. 23 on the Billboard chart and then became a stalwart feature of their live set.

Sarah Vaughan
From: Songs of the Beatles (1981)

David Paich worked as co-producer on this long-delayed studio project, originally recorded by the jazz-singing legend in 1977. Members of his band Toto back Vaughan on the album.

Eurythmics
From: Single (1987)

Eurythmics‘ synth-driven update wasn’t part of an album until 2005, and then only as a bonus track on the Savage reissue. But this version actually dates back to 1987 – and sounds like it.

Michael Jackson
From: Moonwalker (1988)

Michael Jackson performed “Come Together” regularly during the HIStory World Tour, and later included his version on the compilation album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I.

Soundgarden
From: Single B-side (1989)

Soundgarden‘s suitably grungy take appeared on the B-side of 1989’s “Hands All Over,” their fourth single. Later, they included “Come Together” on the 1990 EP Loudest Love.

Axl Rose and Bruce Springsteen
From: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (1994)

John Lennon’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame brought these two unlikely collaborators together. This would be Axl Rose‘s last public appearance for six years.

Smokin’ Mojo Filters
From: The Help Album (1995)

Paul McCartney joined an ad-hoc supergroup that also included Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller to record “Come Together” for a charity album. Weller later covered it again in 2004.

Pride and Glory
From: Pride and Glory (1995)

Zakk Wylde included an update of “Come Together” as a bonus track for a reissue of the debut album by his pre-Black Label Society band Pride and Glory, which also featured Brian Tichy.

George Martin, With Robin Williams and Bobby McFerrin
From: In My Life (1998)

Legendary producer George Martin oversaw a series of impishly oddball pairings as part of an all-Beatles covers project. Elsewhere, Goldie Hawn, Sean Connery and Jim Carrey were also featured.

Elton John
From: Concert Performance (2000)

Elton John returned to this John Lennon-penned favorite during a show at Madison Square Garden. The two had topped the charts back in the ’70s with “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers
From: Sessions at Abbey Road (2006)

Finding themselves in the same studio where the Beatles originally recorded, the Red Hot Chili Peppers perhaps inevitably returned to “Come Together” – if only for a moment.

Joe Cocker
From: Across the Universe (2007)

Decades after his definitive take on “With a Little Help From My Friends,” Joe Cocker returned to the Beatles songbook for a film that combined jukebox-musical elements and romantic drama.

Godsmack
From: Live and Inspired (2012)

Godsmack released “Come Together” as one of four bonus studio recordings for an album featuring 13 live songs. They ended up having a hit with their take on Joe Walsh‘s “Rocky Mountain Way.”

Arctic Monkeys
From: Concert Performance (2012)

Arctic Monkeys returned to the Beatles as part of the opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Their live take, later featured on Isles of Wonder, reached No. 21 in the U.K.

Rolling Stones
From: Concert Performance (2016)

Performing at Desert Trip in Indio, Calif., the Rolling Stones introduced their version of “Come Together” as having been originally done by “some sort of unknown beat group.”

Foo Fighters, Liam Gallagher and Joe Perry
From: Concert Performance (2017)

Liam Gallagher of Oasis forgot the words to “Come Together” during a 2017 performance with Foo Fighters and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry at the CalJam Festival in San Bernardino, California. He later explained that he thought they were going to perform “I Am the Walrus.”

Gary Clark Jr.
From: Justice League (2017)

Gary Clark Jr. recorded an amped-up version for the Justice League movie, shifting from his typical blues-rock setting to work with Junkie XL, Mike Elizondo, and Sam de Jong.

Kelly Clarkson
From: Concert Performance (2024)

Kelly Clarkson updated the Beatles classic as part of her TV talk show’s Kellyoke series, using Gary Clark Jr.’s more recent arrangement.

You Think You Know the Beatles?

Like chocolate and peanut butter, Halloween and rock concerts are a perfect match. Both are natural environments for expressing your inner theatrical streak, wearing costumes, overindulging and cutting loose for a bit of rebellious mischief.

Here’s a list of 11 of the most famous Halloween rock concerts of all time, many of which feature music’s biggest stars getting into the holiday spirit with costumes, special effects and unique cover songs.

Little Feat: Oct. 31, 1975 Boston, Mass.

It took far too long, but Little Feat finally broke through to the mainstream with albums such as 1974’s Feats Don’t Fail Me Now and 1975’s The Last Record Album. To celebrate the band returned to Boston – one of the cities to first show them love – for a Halloween show broadcast live on local radio station WBCN, which featured guitarist Lowell George and company in particularly strong form.

 

Parliament / Funkadelic: Oct. 31, 1976 Houston, Texas

George Clinton‘s P-Funk army was in peak form when they hit Houston for a Halloween show in 1976 – and of course, nobody in the band had to worry about being caught without holiday-appropriate stage wear. Luckily the show was professionally filmed, and the resulting The Mothership Connection Live 1976 is a must-have document of one of the most powerful and dynamic rock bands of the decade.

 

Frank Zappa: Oct. 31, 1977 New York City

Frank Zappa was never afraid to let his freak flag fly, so it makes sense that his Halloween shows were always something special. The 1977 Palladium shows captured in the concert film Baby Snakes are an excellent example, with Zappa joined by a typically stellar band of musicians including Adrian Belew, Terry Bozzio and Tommy Mars.

 

Van Halen: Oct. 31, 1980 Macon, Georgia

Van Halen got into the holiday spirit at the Halloween show of their World Invasion tour, dressing up before taking the stage at Georgia’s Macon Coliseum. No audio or video from the show is currently in circulation, but you can see their costumes below and in this Van Halen News Desk photo gallery

 

Grateful Dead: Oct. 31, 1980 New York City

Like Zappa, the Grateful Dead have more than their share of famous Halloween shows to choose from. Many fans seem to have a particularly warm spot in their heart for the 1980 show at Radio City Music Hall. The show was telecast live to some lucky movie theaters in America, and featured one acoustic and two electric sets. Portions of the concert can be found on the Dead Ahead home video and on the 1981 album Dead Set.

 

Rolling Stones: Oct. 31, 1981 Dallas, Texas

The Rolling Stones could have benefited from wearing costumes at their Oct. 31, 1981 show at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas – perhaps some raincoats or scuba diving gear, specifically. The band’s Halloween show got hit with a torrential downpour, resulting in the famous photograph seen below. Despite the weather Mick Jagger and company delivered a strong 23-song set.

 

Alice Cooper: Oct. 31, 1986 Detroit, Michigan

According to SetList.fm, Alice Cooper has played over 3,000 concerts – and no matter what the calendar said, it was Halloween on stage at every one of them. So it’s hard to pick just one concert for this list. But the master of shock rock’s 1986 Detroit homecoming show at Joe Louis Arena, professionally filmed and later released as The Nightmare Returns, is a pretty good place to start. Look for a pre-“Seventeen” Kip Winger on bass during the show.

 

Nirvana: Oct. 31, 1993 Akron, Ohio

Nirvana went costume crazy at their 1993 Halloween show in Akron, Ohio. Kurt Cobain dressed up in a gigantic Barney the Dinosaur costume, Dave Grohl as a mummy, Krist Novoselic as “a reverse Ted Danson,” and guitarist Pat Smear donned a wig and top hat in honor of Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, even starting the show with a brief snippet of “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” Sadly, there were no Devo or Pretenders covers performed in honor of the local music heroes.

 

Phish: Oct. 31, 1994: Glens Falls, NY

Phish‘s Halloween tradition of covering classic albums by other artists in full began in Upstate New York in 1994 with a performance of all 28 songs on the Beatles‘ White Album. Since then they have also covered the Who‘s Quadrophenia, Talking Heads‘ Remain in Light and the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street. Let us know if they ever decide to tackle Reign in Blood.

 

Kiss: Oct. 31, 1998 Los Angeles, Calif.

Much like P-Funk and Alice Cooper, Kiss never needed an excuse to hit the stage in outlandish costumes. They decided to make Halloween 1998 extra-special by launching their Psycho Circus world tour at L.A.’s Dodger Stadium, broadcasting the show on live TV. The tour featured huge screens with 3-D graphics that concert-goers could see with special glasses. Opening act the Smashing Pumpkins got in on the fun by dressing as the Beatles for their set.

Smashing Pumpkins: Oct. 31, 2008 Columbus, Ohio

Smashing Pumpkins turned the first set of their 2008 Halloween show into an unexpected covers party – delivering genre-hopping chestnuts such as “Louie Louie,” “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler.” After a second set of their own music, they closed out the evening with Pink Floyd‘s “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.”

 

Tony Iommi said he wanted the Hard Rock Cafe to return a guitar he sold them, as per the deal they’d done with him, but the corporation wouldn’t do it.

The Black Sabbath icon parted with the red Gibson SG, named Monkey after a sticker attached to it, which he’d used on at least four of the band’s early albums. In a new interview with Guitar World (via Guitar.com) he said an agreement had been put in place should he ever want it back.

“The guy who used to buy memorabilia for the Hard Rock came to England and visited me,” Iommi explained. “He wanted to buy some stuff… I’d retired the Monkey SG because it was too valuable to me; I didn’t want to take it on the road and risk it getting damaged.”

READ MORE: Tony Iommi Reveals Why Black Sabbath Turned Down Power Trip Offer

He continued: “He offered to buy it and it seemed like a good idea because the guitar could be displayed for people to see and kept safe, instead of sitting in a case somewhere in my storage. But the deal was if I ever wanted it back, I could let him know and buy it back for the same price. It seemed fair enough – a good deal.

“Anyway, he passed away… We tried to get in touch with Hard Rock to get it back, and they knew nothing about the deal.”

How Tony Iommi’s Monkey Guitar Became His Main Instrument

On Iommi’s website, the red Monkey guitar is described as a 1965 model, which “became the main instrument when the bridge pickup on Tony’s white Stratocaster failed after the band recorded ‘Wicked World’ on the Black Sabbath album. … The guitar was donated by Tony to the Hard Rock Cafe organisation (as seen in their documentary Hard Rock Treasures). At the time of writing it is on display at the Times Square location in New York City.”

In the interview, Iommi said the Hard Rock Cafe did agree to lending the guitar to Gibson so that replicas could be made in 2020. “I think we did about 50 of them, and I own two of those,” he reported.

“I have to say they are exactly like the one I owned, and they are what I used in the studio. They have the same knocks and bumps as the original, plus the little monkey sticker. It’s the same guitar, basically.”

Stephen Stills is unwilling to rule out a reunion with Graham Nash and Neil Young, despite Graham Nash‘s recent claims that a CSNY reunion without David Crosby would have no heart.

“I can’t be so absolute,” Stills told The Globe and Mail. “There might be a reason for us to sing together. Maybe the upcoming election. But, at this point, it’s not about would we get together. Should we, is the important question.”

Stills’ response comes shortly after Nash shot down the idea of a three-fourths CSNY reunion in a Rolling Stone interview. “I don’t think that me and Stephen and Neil will ever play together again,” he said. “There’s no heart there. David was the center of it all, as crazy as he was. And my God, he was crazy. But he was the heart of this band. And that’s why I think that if Stephen and Neil and I ever played together, people would be missing Crosby. We would be missing Crosby. It just would be a much colder scene.”

Although they disagree on future reunion prospects, Stills did echo Nash’s claims about the significance of Crosby, who died in January 2023 at the age of 81. “The heart of the band was the collective. The glue that held the harmonies together was David,” he said. “He really had a sense of where that perfect note was that set it apart from the standard three-part harmony.”

READ MORE: Rock’s Top 10 Supergroups

CSNY’s New ‘Live at Fillmore East, 1969’ Shows Supergroup ‘Just Throwing It Down’

The impetus for these recent interviews is CSNY’s freshly released Live at Fillmore East, 1969, which was recorded at the famous New York theater on Sept. 20, 1969. Split between its acoustic first half and electric second half, the album captures the nascent supergroup at the beginning of their tenure, and Stills said their camaraderie and enthusiasm are apparent throughout the recording.

“Doing the acoustic stuff from our first album was half a show. So, what are we going to do for the rest of it?” Stills said. “My idea was to have an acoustic part first, and then the curtains parted and there was the equipment and we went on to play some rock ‘n’ roll. We got the reaction, and we got to have all the glorious fun of playing insufferably loud. And, through that, I got a lot better at lead guitar.”

As for the groundbreaking talent of the era — including fellow folk star Joni Mitchell, who was in the Fillmore audience in September 1969 — Stills added: “We were full of ourselves, but, at the same time, we knew it was new territory. We were just throwing it down, you know?”

Stevie Nicks says she doesn’t have very many regrets in life, but one of them is not being an active voter until she was 70 years old.

“I never voted until I was 70, but I regret that. I’ve told everybody that onstage for the last two years,” she said in a new interview with MSNBC. “I regret that and I don’t have very many regrets. There’s so many reasons. You can say, ‘Oh, I didn’t have time. I was this and that.’ In the long run, you didn’t have an hour? You didn’t have an hour of your time that you could have gone and voted.”

The Fleetwood Mac singer has recently become much more vocal about her civic duty, encouraging her fans to make sure they are registered to vote in this year’s presidential election and to make a plan to cast their ballots. “Your vote in this election may be one of the most important things you ever do,” she wrote in a social media post in September.

Stevie Nicks’ New Song

Nicks’ newest song, “The Lighthouse,” was one she penned shortly after the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that protected an individual’s constitutional right to have an abortion.

READ MORE: How Stevie Nicks Almost Died Filming a Video for ‘Stand Back’

“We have to find a way to bring back Roe vs. Wade,” Nicks continued, citing various singer-songwriters who have used their music to advocate for causes in years past. “In the end of the ’50s and ’60s and into the ’70s, everyone was writing protest songs. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills — it was lots and lots and lots. I would say to all my musical poets that write songs to write some songs about what’s happening like I did.”

Mariah Carey lamented that she wasn’t inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – while her lawyer received the honor two years ago.

The singer admitted she’d been excited about the prospect of becoming part of the class of 2024 alongside Ozzy Osbourne, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Cher and others, but didn’t make the cut.

Asked about her thoughts on the matter, Carey told the L.A. Times: “My thoughts are, I didn’t get in.”

Read More: 20 Christmas Songs Everyone Should Play Instead of Mariah Carey

She continued: “Everybody was calling me, going, ‘I think you’re getting in!’ and so I was excited about it. But then it didn’t happen. My lawyer got into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame before me.”

Carey is represented by Allen Grubman, who’s also worked for Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, U2 and others. He was inducted in 2022 by another client, John Mellencamp, as recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Award. Grubman is a co-founder of the Rock Hall.

Mariah Carey Will Like Grammys If She’s Given More of Them

In the same interview, Carey sighed when asked about her Grammy wins, and explained: “They gave me two Grammys when I first started out. Then one year – huge year for me, career-wise – I had like six nominations with the Daydream album, and ‘One Sweet Day’ and ‘Always Be My Baby’ and ‘Fantasy.’

“All those songs in a row ended up being so big that you just thought, OK, at least ‘One Sweet Day’ is gonna win best duet or something. Then I sat there the whole time and I didn’t get anything.”

She added: “I was like, ‘This is not fun. But what can I do? Be a sore loser and say, F the Grammys?’ Whatever. If they give me more Grammys, I’ll like them more.”

Many of classic rock’s greatest artists have found a way to mix ghosts into their work.

In some cases — like songs from Ozzy Osbourne and Iron Maiden — the results have been demonic, but in many others they have been far from spooky. Bruce Springsteen invoked the ghost of a literary character for one of his most poignant social justice tunes, while the White Stripes conjured up a specter to create a bouncy little ditty about love.

Stevie Nicks used ghosts as a metaphor for living in the past, while Depeche Mode embraced apparitions as they pondered mortality.

Whether scary or symbolic, jarring or joyful, thrilling or thought provoking, all of the ghost songs below have one thing in common — they remained hauntingly memorable long after the music ended.

Rolling Stones, “Living in a Ghost Town”
Was Mick Jagger seeing into the future or was it simply a coincidence? When the Rolling Stones began recording what would eventually become “Living in a Ghost Town” in 2019, their frontman penned dark lyrics “about being left in a semi-alive state after a plague.” A year later, the topic felt prescient, as the world largely shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Stones’ made a few slight changes to “Living in a Ghost Town,” then released the tune in April 2020. It marked their first original song in eight years.

 

Ozzy Osbourne, “Ghost Behind My Eyes”
It’s no surprise to see the Prince of Darkness invoking spirits from the great beyond. In this track from 1995’s Ozzmosis, Ozzy describes a demon living in his head, who haunts his dreams and “dances on my heart with fire in my soul.”

 

The Doors, “Ghost Song”
In 1978, seven years after Jim Morrison’s death, the Doors released An American Prayer. The album featured the later frontman’s spoken word poetry, set to new music recorded by the surviving members. One of the most haunting tunes was “Ghost Town,” its lyrics reportedly inspired by a tragic car accident Morrison witnessed as a child.

 

Depeche Mode, “Ghosts Again”
Mortality was an overarching theme to Depeche Mode’s 2023 album Memento Mori, a topic which took on greater weight following the death of the band’s co-founder and keyboardist, Andy Fletcher. According to frontman Dave Gahan, lead single “Ghosts Again” struck the “perfect balance of melancholy and joy,” as Depeche Mode confronted death’s inevitability.

 

Bruce Springsteen, “The Ghost of Tom Joad”
The Boss famously invoked the name of Tom Joad, a character from The Grapes of Wrath, for this 1995 track. “The Ghost of Tom Joad” is pure Springsteen, with finely woven lyrical storytelling combined with a socially conscious message. While the original is a pensive acoustic track, Springsteen rerecorded the tune in 2013 with Tom Morello. The electrified version was officially released a year later on Springsteen’s High Hopes LP.

 

Stevie Nicks, “Ghosts”
Stevie Nicks’ 1989 album The Other Side of the Mirror featured the song “Ghosts,” which took an trancendental view on living for the moment. “‘Ghosts’ is about…a lot of people tell me that I live too much in the past,” Nicks explained in ‘89. “I don’t want even to use the word holy, but there is certainly a spiritual thing about it, you know, and you turn to your guardian angel, and you realize that the ghost of the past and the present and the future all are a part of you and that you have to dig the past and the future and what you’re living day to day and you have to stop for a second and check out how cool today is and how cool yesterday was and also hopefully how cool tomorrow’s gonna be. And that’s really what ‘Ghosts’ is about”

 

Radiohead, “Give Up the Ghost”
Radiohead’s music has always had a haunting, otherworldly element to it. “Give Up the Ghost” is a perfect example, with an eerie vibe that is equal parts foreboding and beautiful. One of the highlights from 2011’s The King of Limbs, the track features Thom Yorke singing on top of his own vocal harmonies, including the repeated line “Don’t hurt me.”

 

The Police, “Spirits in the Material World”
Ok, we’re cheating a little here since “ghost” isn’t in the song title. But considering “spirits” is a synonym, and that it came from an album titled Ghost in the Machine, we’re going to go ahead and allow this 1981 Police hit to make the cut. Inspired by the work of philosopher Arthur Koestler, Sting’s lyrics reflected society’s – and, more specifically, politicians’ – inability to see the larger cosmic picture.

 

Jethro Tull, “Old Ghosts”
Ian Anderson pulled out every ominous lyric he could conjure for Jethro Tull’s 1979 tune “Old Ghosts.” Growls, howls and killers all highlight the early verses, while Anderson later describes the titular apparitions: “Misty colors unfold a backcloth cold / Fine tapestry of silk / I draw around me like a cloak / And soundless glide a-drifting.”

 

Iron Maiden, “Ghost of the Navigator”
In this epic tune from Iron Maiden’s 2000 album Brave New World, frontman Bruce Dickinson harnesses an array of maritime imagery. His lyrics speak of treacherous seas and crashing waves, as he embarks on his “final journey.” Dickinson isn’t the only one making this voyage – a metaphor for life and death – as he witnesses other lost souls cast upon the waves: “I see the ghosts of navigators but they are lost / As they sail into the sunset they’ll count the cost / As their skeletons accusing emerge from the sea / The sirens of the rocks, they beckon me.”

 

White Stripes, “Little Ghost”
There’s no doom and gloom to this country tinged ditty from 2005, instead Jack White tells the story of falling in love with a charming specter that only he can see. The catchy track, found on the White Stripes’ album Get Behind Me Satan, featured the buoyant chorus: “Little ghost, little ghost / One I’m scared of the most / Can you scare me up a little bit of love? / I’m the only one that sees you / And I can’t do much to please you / And it’s not yet time to meet the Lord above.”

 

King Diamond, “The Family Ghost”
In 1989, Danish heavy metal group King Diamond released Abigail, a concept album centered around a young couple who moves into a haunted mansion. Early on, they come in contact with Count de La’Fey, a dead relative who is referred to as “The Family Ghost.” As you’d expect, the song of the same name is filled with titanic riffage, accompanied by howling, manic vocals.

 

The Specials, “Ghost Town”
The early ‘80s U.K. recession inspired English ska band the Specials to record their biggest hit. “Ghost Town” touched on the real life issues facing Britain at the time, including unemployment, violence and deindustrialisation. “The overall sense I wanted to convey was impending doom,” Specials founder Jerry Dammers later explained. “It’s hard to explain how powerful it sounded. We had almost been written off and then ‘Ghost Town’ came out of the blue.”

 

Johnny Cash, “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky”
The classic folk tune “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” tells the story of a cowboy haunted by a thunderous herd of demonic cattle. He watches in terror as they stampede through the clouds, chased by a group of damned cowboys. The vision serves as a warning to the earthbound rancher, who is cautioned to “Change your ways today / Or with us you will ride / Trying to catch the devil’s herd / Across these endless skies.” While “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” has been recorded by a long list of famous artists, Johnny Cash released what was arguably the definitive version in 1979.

 

Rush, “Ghost of a Chance”
This track, released on Rush’s 1991 LP Roll the Bones, isn’t about an apparition from beyond the grave. Instead, it focuses on something far more tangible – or scary, depending on your point of view – love. Though Neil Peart’s lyrics dispel notions of fate and destiny, the drummer remains open to romance: “I don’t believe in the stars or the planets / Or angels watching from above / But i believe there’s a ghost of a chance / We can find someone to love.”

 

Psychedelic Furs, “The Ghost in You”
English new wave group the Psychedelic Furs scored one of their biggest U.S. hits in 1984 with “The Ghost in You.” Here the titular specter is a former lover who has moved on, yet their impact on the narrator refuses to fade.

 

Suicide, “Ghost Rider”
Legendary punk rock group Suicide gleaned inspiration from the Marvel character Ghost Rider for their 1977 song of the same name. In the comics, Ghost Rider was a stunt motorcyclist who sold his soul to the devil to save his foster father. Suicide stay true to these origins in their song, noting their “Ghost Rider” is a “motorcycle hero” who is “screaming the truth.”

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers, “American Ghost Dance”
Red Hot Chili Peppers hadn’t yet perfected their distinctive formula when they released their sophomore album, 1985’s Freaky Styley. Still, you could hear the band’s ambition, and funk legend George Clinton even came on board to produce the LP. One of the standout tracks was “American Ghost Dance,” in which Red Hot Chili Peppers invoked the western classic “Home on the Range” to deliver a dramatic criticism on the treatment of Native Americans.

 

Mazzy Star, “Ghost Highway”
Alt-rock pioneers Mazzy Star are largely remembered for “Fade Into You,” the 1994 single that proved to be their biggest commercial hit. Still, the group had more to their arsenal, mixing ambient dream pop with elements of psychedelic rock. “Ghost Highway” was one of the standout tracks from their 1990 debut album, She Hangs Brightly. The tune find singer Hope Sandoval delivering engrossingly haunting vocals, declaring, “You’re a ghost on the highway / And I’ll love you forever.”

Elvis Costello has a theory for how he’ll be remembered when he dies, and it’s not necessarily the way he would like.

During a recent conversation with Vanity Fair, the bespectacled rocker was asked about his legacy – specifically, that his first two albums will always overshadow the rest of his work.

“At different times I’ve wrestled with that [concept] a little bit,” Costello admitted. “When my father died, he was the voice of a very famous lemonade commercial. The headlines actually said, ‘Secret lemonade drinker dies.’ As if he’d never done anything else in a 50-year career. I don’t doubt a similar indignity will accompany my demise.”

Elvis Costello’s Classic Songs Are Now ‘Regarded as Standards’

Costello’s debut album, 1977’s My Aim Is True, and sophomore LP, 1978’s This Year’s Model, were met with critical acclaim and have since been regarded as hugely influential releases. Still, the singer’s 50 year career has included plenty of other highlights, so you’d excuse Costello if he took umbrage to suggestions his early material was his best. Instead, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer expressed a big picture perspective when looking at his body of work.

READ MORE: How Elvis Costello Introduced Himself With ‘My Aim Is True’

“Think about what year it was when I started writing the songs which I’m known for,” Costello remarked, noting his early tune “Alison” was written nearly five decades ago. “Some of them come from 1975. Trace back 50 years from that and tell me what songs were still being played [in the mid-seventies]. If they’re enduring, they’re regarded as standards. So whether anybody else likes it or not, there are a few that I guess have joined that company. I don’t, self-consciously, regard them that way, but it is a historical fact.”

Costello’s latest box set, King of America & Other Realms, will be released on Nov. 1. It includes a newly remastered edition of his 1986 album King of America, along with a previously unreleased 1987 live concert, uncovered demos, outtakes and live recordings.

Bruce Springsteen explained how he’d dealt with drug issues among members of the E Street Band.

He said he was proud of how he and his colleagues had survived the music industry, describing its negative extremes as a “death cult.”

And he added that their concerts were about honoring late members Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici – who passed in 2011 and 2008 respectively – while sharing the audience’s grief over their own losses.

READ MORE: How Bruce Springsteen Got His Nickname ‘The Boss’

“One of the things our band is about is remembrance,” Springsteen told the Telegraph in a recent interview. “We believe that’s important. I think it’s important in a country, it’s important in a family, it’s important in a band – you honour the people who gave their all.”

He added: “You go out on stage to repair yourself of your hurts and your difficulties, and in doing so, you try to do the same for your audience. You address their grief.”

He connected his comments to the recent death of One Direction star Liam Payne, saying: “That’s not an unusual thing in my business… It’s a business that puts enormous pressures on young people [who] get lost in a lot of the difficult and often pain inducing [things]… whether it’s drugs or alcohol to take some of that pressure off.”

Springsteen continued: “I understand that very well. I mean, I’ve had my own wrestling with different things. The band has all wrestled with their own issues.”

Bruce Springsteen Laments Music Industry ‘Death Cult’

He reported that drugs was “not uncommon” in the band over the years. “There was a boundary, however,” he explained. “I stayed out of your business, but if I was on stage and I saw that you were not your complete self, there was going to be a problem. And so it made a bit of a boundary around that stage, where people had to be relatively sober and at their best.

“And I always say, one of the things I was proudest of is that if one of my fellas passed on, they passed on of natural causes.”

Reflecting on the phenomenon of the ’27 Club’ – the number of musicians who died at that age including Jimi Hendrix to Kurt Cobain – Springsteen said: “[P]eople continue to fall to it. It’s a death cult… It’s a grift, man. That’s a part of the story that suckers some young people in, you know, but it’s that old story. Dying young – good for the record company, but what’s in it for you?”

Heart has announced the opening acts for its Royal Flush Tour 2025. The band has tapped Squeeze, Cheap Trick and Lucinda Williams as special guests for most of the shows.

Last month, Heart added more concerts to their tour itinerary for next year, bringing the total number of dates for 2025 to two dozen. The concerts start with a pair of concerts at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, where the band will perform solo shows.

Starting in early March, they will head out on the road with Squeeze for a series of dates; Cheap Trick will pick up near the end of the month for 10 concerts. Lucinda Williams will then join the band for a couple of shows in April. Squeeze and Cheap Trick had previously opened for Heart on European dates of the Royal Flush tour before shows were canceled due to singer Ann Wilson‘s medical issues.

READ MORE: Top 50 Hard Rock Songs of the ’70s

North American tour dates were originally scheduled for July, but then Heart postponed nearly 20 dates for Wilson’s “time-sensitive but routine medical procedure.”

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

Wilson recently said she completed chemotherapy and is ready to hit the road again.

Where Is Heart Playing in 2025?

Heart’s Royal Flush Tour 2025 launches in February and currently runs through April 16. Dates with Squeeze include stops in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Vancouver; Cheap Trick shows include concerts in Milwaukee, Knoxville and Buffalo.

The final date is a stop at New York’s Radio City Music Hall with Williams opening. You can see the full list of dates and the opening acts below.

“Each of these acts can totally bring it all on their own,” Wilson said in a press release announcing the special guests. “It’s an honor for us to be hitting the road with them next year. I’m especially thrilled to be doing a few gigs with my dear friend Lucinda. We’ve wanted to tour together for years.”

“This tour promises to be super fun,” guitarist Nancy Wilson added. “We are super stoked to get back out there and bring the big 100% live rawk!”

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

Heart Royal Flush Tour 2025
February 28 – Las Vegas, NV – Fontainebleau Las Vegas – An Evening With
March 1 – Las Vegas, NV – Fontainebleau Las Vegas – An Evening With

With SqueezeE
March 3 – Los Angeles, CA – Crypto.com Arena
March 4 – Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center
March 6 – Phoenix, AZ – Footprint Center
March 8 – West Valley City, UT – Maverik Center
March 9 – Boise, ID – ExtraMile Arena
March 11 – Spokane, WA – Spokane Arena
March 13 – Vancouver, BC – Pacific Coliseum
March 14 – Portland, OR – Moda Center

With Cheap Trick
March 20 – Calgary, AB – Scotiabank Saddledome
March 21 – Edmonton, AB – Rogers Place
March 24 – Winnipeg, MB – Canada Life Centre
March 26 – Milwaukee, WI – Fiserv Forum
March 28 – Knoxville, TN – Thompson-Boling Arena
March 29 – Charleston, WV – Charleston Civic Center Coliseum
March 31 – Buffalo, NY – KeyBank Center
April 2 – Montreal, QC – Bell Centre
April 4 – Ottawa, ON – Canadian Tire Centre
April 5 – Québec, QC – Videotron Centre

April 10 – Toronto, ON – Coca-Cola Coliseum – with LUCINDA WILLIAMS
April 12 – Mashantucket, CT – Foxwoods Resort Casino – An Evening With
April 13 – Boston, MA – Agganis Arena – Special Guest TBA
April 16 – New York, NY – Radio City Music Hall – with LUCINDA WILLIAMS

Mike Campbell, former guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, will release his memoir, Heartbreaker, on March 18, 2025.

“This is my book,” Campbell said in a press release. “It’s the story of a poor kid from Jacksonville, Florida who realized a dream through music. It’s a long journey through hard work, dedication and luck. Playing guitar and writing songs has been my inspiration and purpose. It’s a story of hope, redemption and gratitude, a testimonial that dreams can come true if you believe in yourself and follow your truth. It took two years to write and it’s a labor of love. I hope you enjoy the ride!”

READ MORE: Tom Petty’s Rarest Songs: Playlist

Heartbreaker is currently available for pre-ordering.

“Mike Campbell’s Heartbreaker is everything one hopes for in a rock memoir,” Ben Schafer, Executive Editor for Grand Central Publishing added. “Like the remarkable body of work he co-created with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, it delivers on every level from beginning to end.”

Mike Campbell’s Recent Work

Campell released a new album earlier this year with his band the Dirty Knobs, titled Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits.

“My approach to songwriting is the same as it’s ever been,” Campbell told UCR back in June. “Except when I was partnered with Tom, I mostly just did music. I would make music tracks and give them to him and if he liked it, he would write the words. Now that he’s gone, I have my own band, I’m exploring the lyrics and the characters, as well as the music. So that’s a new frontier, but I’m really taking to it and I’m just trying to get good at it, you know? … This new album, I think, has some really good lyrics, and the band, as always. And just, you know, the music is just — it’s always there. I write all the time, you know, and that hasn’t waned at all.”

Currently, Campbell is on the road performing on the Life Is A Carnival: Last Waltz Tour, which also includes another former Heartbreaker, keyboardist Benmont Tench.

Only 10 people have ever known what it’s like to be a member of Kiss, and only two have held that role throughout the band’s five decade-plus history.

When ranking the influence of each member on the band’s career, it’s important to note that we’re not judging talent; you have to assume that anybody who reached this level had plenty of that to spare. Equally important are chemistry and timing, and as they say in How I Met Your Mother, “Timing is a bitch.”

You will not be surprised to find Kiss mainstays Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons at the very top of this list, which takes into account length of service as well as contributions to the band’s 20 studio albums, with a particular emphasis on songwriting credits.

10. Mark St. John
(1984: Animalize album)

Kiss’ lead guitarist spot became a revolving door in the early ’80s, with founding member Ace Frehley departing in 1982 and his replacement Vinnie Vincent getting fired just two years later. It quickly became clear to Paul Stanley that their next recruit, Mark St. John wouldn’t last even that long. “The guy could never play the same thing twice, because he was just puking notes,” Stanley told Guitar World. “There was no structure to it.” Mitch Weissman and St. John’s soon-to-be replacement Bruce Kulick were brought in for additional unaccredited guitar work on 1984’s Animalize. When St. John developed a (possibly stress-related) arthritis condition, Kulick was brought in for the band’s next tour. St. John eventually joined the band for a few shows, but it was clear to both sides that this was not a match. “The situation was a East meets West type of thing,” St. John later told Kiss Asylum. “We didn’t hate each other, but they solved things ‘their way or hit the highway.'”

Read More: Kiss Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide

9. Tommy Thayer
(2002-Present: Sonic Boom, Monster albums)

Tommy Thayer had quite a unique introduction to life as Kiss’ lead guitarist. “The first major show he played with Kiss was in a huge stadium with a 70-piece orchestra,” Paul Stanley told the Oregonian in 2004. “If you can handle that, you can handle anything. It was his turn to get off the bench and start hitting home runs.” Thayer would up with the longest tenure of any Kiss lead guitarist, but only appeared on their last two studio albums. Stanley is resolute in his praise of Thayer’s contributions to Kiss, refusing to perform during the band’s 2014 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction because Thayer and drummer Eric Singer weren’t invited. “This is the band that has carried the flag and taken it, really, to another level,” he told Howard Stern. “This is the band I always dreamed it would be.”

 

8. Eric Singer
(1991-1996, 2001-2002, 2004-Present: Revenge, Carnival of Souls, Sonic Boom, Monster albums)

Eric Singer became Kiss’ third drummer under tragic circumstances, after the November 1991 cancer-related death of Eric Carr. Singer helped Stanley, Simmons and Kulick pay tribute to their fallen bandmate with one of the best albums of their career, 1992’s Revenge, then remained with the band for four more years until their 1996 original lineup reunion. When the band’s relationship with original drummer Peter Criss went off the rails in the early ’00s Singer returned to Kiss, this time wearing his predecessor’s trademark makeup. He anchored the band for another two decades and two more studio albums; similar to Thayer he is now the longest-tenured drummer in Kiss history. “Eric is very, vastly underappreciated or thought of in rock circles,” Stanley told Roppongi Rocks. “He is right up there with the best. He’s a phenomenal drummer, not just because he plays rock but because he comes from a background that’s far beyond rock.”

 

7. Vinnie Vincent
(1982-1984: Creatures of the Night [uncredited], Lick it Up albums)

Granted, Vinnie Vincent only played on two Kiss albums, and was only officially a member of the band for one. But 1982’s Creatures of the Night and 1983’s Lick it Up were the albums that brought the group back from a commercial abyss and set the stage for their big ’80s comeback, and Vincent co-wrote three songs on the former and eight on the latter. Personality clashes and a tendency to extend his guitar solos past the point of Stanley’s patience quickly led to his departure from the group. But Stanley and Simmons respected his talent enough to give him a second shot at co-writing. Vincent penned two of the biggest hits from 1992’s Revenge before the two sides once again came into conflict and split for good. (Then he formed his own band, and then THAT band fired him too, but that’s a whole other story…)

 

6. Eric Carr
(1980-1991: Music From ‘The Elder,’ Creatures of the Night, Lick It Up, Animalize, Asylum, Crazy Nights, Hot in the Shade albums)

Eric Carr joined Kiss at the weirdest and worst time possible. The band was in the midst of a staggeringly steep fall from fame, and made the bizarre decision to try and pull out of it with the high-minded, medieval-themed concept album Music From ‘The Elder,‘ which flopped hard and only hastened their fall. Luckily, they mounted an impressive comeback almost immediately, putting Carr’s powerful drumming front and center in the mix on 1982’s masterpiece Creatures of the Night. He helped the band shift to a more MTV and hair metal-friendly sound on a string of successful ’80s albums such as Animalize and Crazy Nights, and contributed his first lead vocal on the spunky “Little Ceasar” from 1989’s Hot in the Shade. Sadly, a battle with cancer brought his life to an end far too early in 1991, leaving fans to wonder how much more he could have accomplished within the band and in his life. “At a time when Kiss was in the midst of upheaval and turmoil, Eric brought calm and an optimism that refocused our priorities  so we could move forward,” Paul Stanley stated in 2011. “I can’t overstate his contributions to our rebirth.”

 

5. Bruce Kulick
(1984-1996: Animalize [partial, uncredited], Asylum, Crazy Nights, Hot in the Shade, Revenge, Carnival of Souls, Psycho Circus [partial, uncredited] albums)

Bruce Kulick not only closed the revolving door that had been Kiss’ lead guitar position, he helped the band bridge the gap between their ’70s sound and the flashier approach of ’80s guitar heroes such as Eddie Van Halen. Kulick gets the slight nod over his good friend Carr not so much because of the albums they did and didn’t play on, but because Kulick earned notably more songwriting credits during his tenure with the group. He has also been a tireless and endearing champion of the band’s ’80s output, which has been unfairly ignored by many (talking to you, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) in favor of the band’s makeup-wearing years.

 

4. Peter Criss
(1973-1980, 1996-2000, 2002-2004: Kiss, Hotter Than Hell, Dressed to Kill, Destroyer, Rock and Roll Over, Love Gun, Psycho Circus [partial] albums)

If you had to squeeze one member of the original lineup out of the top four of this Kiss Power Rankings list, Peter Criss would be the most likely candidate. He was the first to leave the group; The last time he played drums on every track on an album was 1977’s Love Gun. His 1978 solo album and his multiple attempts to start a post-Kiss solo career were far less successful than his original bandmate Ace Frehley. But you just can’t do it. The jazz and R&B influences in Criss’ drumming and singing were vital to the band’s original sound, and he was the singer on several of their most important early songs, including “Black Diamond,” “Beth” and “Hard Luck Woman.”

 

3. Ace Frehley
(1973-1982, 1996-2002: Kiss, Hotter Than Hell, Dressed to Kill, Destroyer, Rock and Roll Over, Love Gun, Dynasty, Unmasked, Psycho Circus [partial] albums)

If my co-workers ever read this their heads will explode, but it’s a fact: Ace Frehley was the George Harrison of Kiss. His lead guitar work was crucial to the band’s sound, and has been cited as an influence by everybody from Pantera‘s Dimebag Darrell to Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready to Anthrax‘s Scott Ian. His push for more space and say on Kiss albums was a big reason the group released simultaneous solo albums in 1978, and the rapturous creative and commercial response to his album proved he was right. His songs were among the highlights of 1979’s Dynasty and 1980’s Unmasked, and he’s been the only one of the original four to mount a successful solo career. The only two songs on 1998’s so-called reunion album Psycho Circus that actually sound like ’70s Kiss are the ones he played on, and he can still be counted on for entertaining solo albums two decades after leaving the group.

 

2. Gene Simmons
(1973-Present: Every Kiss album)

If you had to picture just one face while looking back on Kiss’ career, it would probably be Gene Simmons in full “Demon” mode, spitting blood or breathing fire during the band’s explosive concerts. He was one of only two founding members to perform on every Kiss album and tour. If he hadn’t got a little lost in the ’80s – unsure of how to present himself without his trademark face paint, and instead dividing his attention between the band and dreams of a career in Hollywood – he would almost assuredly have reached the top of this list.

 

1. Paul Stanley
(1973-Present: Every Kiss album)

Gene Simmons may be the most recognizable face of Kiss, but Paul Stanley is the band’s undeniable heart and soul. In addition to serving as the master of ceremonies at every one of the band’s concerts, he’s kept Kiss at or near the top of the rock world through decades of changing trends and industry upheaval. When the band threw a hail mary by taking their trademark face paint off in the early ’80s it was Stanley who adjusted far better than Simmons, becoming the band’s undisputed frontman (while Simmons dabbled in acting and record label careers) and contributing lead vocals on every single between 1983 and 1991. It was also Stanley who insisted on a back-to-basics approach for the band’s final two studio albums. Admittedly, it’s a tight race between gold and silver medals here, so this last fact might just seal the deal: It was Stanley, not Simmons, who wrote the Demon’s spotlight-stealing concert centerpiece “God of Thunder.”

Primus is dealing with an unexpected change in their lineup.

Tim “Herb” Alexander, the band’s longtime drummer, has quit the group. His departure brings an abrupt end to the rocker’s third run with Primus. Alexander originally joined the band in 1989 before leaving in 1996. He returned when the band reformed in 2003, then left again in 2010. His most recent tenure began in 2013.

In a message shared via social media, the band explained that they received an email from Alexander on Oct. 17, “expressing that effective immediately he would no longer be involved with Primus.”

The band went on to admit that the news “came as a complete shock,” noting that Primus is in the midst of a period of exciting activity.

READ MORE: Rock Stars Who Walked Away and Never Looked Back

“On the heels of a wonderful Spring and Summer of touring and some fabulous plans ahead, it has been a bit bewildering for us that Herb would so abruptly opt out,” the message explained. “After several attempts to communicate with Herb, his only response was another email stating that he has ‘lost his passion for playing’. As disappointing as that is, we respect his choice and it’s forced us to make some tough decisions.”

How Will Tim Alexander’s Exit Affect Primus’ Plans?

Primus only have two shows left on their 2024 calendar, a pair of performances on Dec. 30 and 31 in Oakland, California. Though the band considered canceling in the wake of Alexander’s exit, both concerts will continue as scheduled with “an augmented version of Primus featuring members of Holy Mackerel and Frog Brigade.”

In 2025, the band will play as part of Tool’s Live in the Sand festival, where the latter group’s Danny Carey will fill in on drums. Carey has history with Primus, and previously joined the band in 2014 when Alexander was recovering from open-heart surgery.

Looking ahead to their extended 2025 touring, Primus “plans on searching for the greatest drummer on earth.” The band is scheduled to hit the road for a three month North American tour starting in April.

Muscle of Love, the seventh and final album from the original Alice Cooper Band, received a deluxe edition reissue this week, complete with early versions and alternate mixes of all of its tracks.

You can see the track listing and listen to “Teenage Lament ’74 (Acoustic Diversion)” below.

Muscle of Love (Deluxe) is available in 2-LP pink vinyl and 1-CD/Blu-ray configurations, with the Blu-ray disc including the 192/24 resolution quadraphonic mixes. A digital deluxe edition will be available on Nov. 20.

The liner notes, written by Jaan Uhelszki, also feature an in-depth, track-by-track account of the album, with interviews from surviving band members Alice Cooper, guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith, plus additional guitarist Nick Mashbir, who played on the album.

READ MORE:  Top 50 Hard Rock Songs of the ’70s

How ‘Muscle of Love’ Hastened the Demise of Alice Cooper

Released in late 1973, Muscle of Love marked a return to Alice Cooper’s straight-ahead hard rock sound after the more theatrical endeavors of its predecessors, Billion Dollar Babies and School’s Out. It underperformed those two albums, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 and limping to gold status. By contrast, Billion Dollar Babies topped the charts and School’s Out peaked at No. 2, and both albums went platinum.

The Alice Cooper Band played their final show in April 1974 and split shortly thereafter. Cooper had by then legally changed his name from Vincent Furnier, and he launched a successful solo career with 1975’s Welcome to My Nightmare.

Fifty years later, the titular frontman is still hard at work, having just announced a series of tour dates for early 2025.

Alice Cooper, ‘Muscle of Love (Deluxe)’ Track Listing
Disc 1 
“Big Apple Dreamin’ (Hippo)”
“Never Been Sold Before”
“Hard Hearted Alice”
“Crazy Little Child”
“Working Up a Sweat”
“Muscle of Love”
“Man With the Golden Gun”
“Teenage Lament ’74”
“Woman Machine”

Disc 2
“Big Apple Dreamin’ (Hippo) (Early Version)”
“Never Been Sold Before (Early Version)”
“Hard Hearted Alice (Alternate Mix)”
“Crazy Little Child (Early Version)”
“Working Up a Sweat (Alternate Mix)”
“Muscle of Love (Alternate Mix)”
“Man With the Golden Gun (Early Version)”
“Teenage Lament ’74 (Acoustic Diversion)”
“Woman Machine (Alternate Mix)”
“Teenage Lament ’74 (Single Version)”
“Muscle of Love (Single Version)”

Blu-ray Disc
“Big Apple Dreamin’ (Hippo)”
“Never Been Sold Before”
“Hard Hearted Alice”
“Crazy Little Child”
“Working Up a Sweat”
“Muscle of Love”
“Man With the Golden Gun”
“Teenage Lament ’74”
“Woman Machine”

LP 1
A1.” Big Apple Dreamin’ (Hippo)”
A2. “Never Been Sold Before”
A3. “Hard Hearted Alice”
A4. “Crazy Little Child”
B1. “Working Up a Sweat”
B2. “Muscle of Love”
B3. “Man With the Golden Gun”
B4. “Teenage Lament ’74”
B5. “Woman Machine”

LP 2
C1. “Big Apple Dreamin’ (Hippo) (Early Version)”
C2. “Never Been Sold Before (Early Version)”
C3. “Hard Hearted Alice (Alternate Mix)”
C4. “Crazy Little Child (Early Version)”
D1. “Working Up a Sweat (Alternate Mix)”
D2. “Muscle of Love (Alternate Mix)”
D3. “Man With the Golden Gun (Early Version)”
D4. “Teenage Lament ’74 (Acoustic Diversion)”
D5. “Woman Machine (Alternate Mix)”

The long path to the Cure‘s 14th album, and the first in 16 years since the release of 4:13 Dream, has been marked by occasional live performances, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction and another lineup change. Songs of a Lost World was in the planning stages for more than a decade and was first scheduled for release in 2019; so if expectations fluttered somewhere between cautious anticipation and nervous apprehension, the good news is that the finally delivered record is worth the delay.

Where 2008’s 4:13 Dream often seemed to play like the Cure’s greatest hits without the hits, Songs of a Lost World is something different: a summation of a career that sounds like both a progression and a milestone. It’s familiar in parts, but these moments serve as reminders of just how adept and intrinsic Robert Smith and the band are at reaching atmospheric highs (often at six or more minutes) and then sustaining that momentum throughout a record.

The subtleness with which the Cure assembles the eight songs befits Songs of a Lost World‘s main themes, which mostly deal with loss and mortality. Smith, now 65, announced before the album’s release that he plans to retire in five years; Songs of a Lost World is mournful but it only occasionally sounds like the end of something. It may be a stretch to call this a new beginning, but the Cure hasn’t been this compelling on record in more than three decades.

READ MORE: Revisiting the Cure’s ‘Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me’

“This is the end of every song that we sing” are the opening words on the album – nearly three and a half minutes into “Alone” and the halfway mark of the song – and they begin this record of deep introspection with notes of grace and elegance. “And Nothing Is Forever” continues the theme as a slow-building dirge that reaches a moment of peace by the end of its seven minutes; “A Fragile Thing,” meanwhile, repeats “Nothing you can do to change the end” as a sort of mantra.

Several of the songs were previewed during a lengthy 2023 tour, but the band – returning members Simon Gallup (bass), Jason Cooper (drums) and Roger O’Donnell (keyboards), and former David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels, with the Cure for more than a decade but making his recorded debut with them here – sounds perfectly comfortable with them in this setting, whether it’s the psychedelic wah guitar of “Drone:nodrone” or the midtempo “All I Ever Am,” which could be a lost cut from the early ’90s. “I’m outside in the dark wondering how I got so old,” Smith sings in the 10-minute closing track, “Endsong,” “I will lose myself in time.” It’s a fitting conclusion to Songs of a Lost World and, depending on where Smith plans to go next, maybe the Cure.

David Gilmour delivered an equal mix of Pink Floyd classics and songs from his two latest solo albums during an impressive concert at the brand-new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. last week.

You can see exclusive photos and the complete set list from the show below.

In addition to Pink Floyd classics such as “Wish You Were Here,” “Breathe (In the Air)” and the encore “Comfortably Numb,” Gilmour performed all nine songs from his new Luck and Strange album, and three from 2015’s Rattle That Lock.

Read More: David Gilmour, ‘Luck and Strange’ Album Review

After a brief anti-cell phone use plea from bassist Guy Pratt, the show began with Gilmour bathed in red light and accompanied by a keyboardist for the opening “5 A.M.” The full band didn’t emerge until the third song, the title track from Luck and Strange. The stage’s giant video screen illuminated the Dark Side of the Moon track “Time,” while lasers filled the sky for the A Momentary Lapse of Reason album closer “Sorrow.”

Next Up for Gilmour: Los Angeles and New York City

Gilmour will next embark on a three-night stand at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl, with shows set to take place Oct. 29, 30 and 31. He will then conclude his 2024 tour with four dates at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Nov. 4, 5, 6 and 9.

David Gilmour Oct. 25, 2024 Intuit Dome Inglewood, Calif. Set List
1. “5 A.M.”
2. “Black Cat”
3. “Luck and Strange”
4. “Breathe (In the Air)
5. “Time”
6. “Breathe” (Reprise)
7. “Fat Old Sun”
8. “Marooned”
9. “A Single Spark”
10. “Wish You Were Here”
11. “Vita Brevis”
12. “Between Two Points”
13. “High Hopes”
14. “Sorrow”
15. “The Piper’s Call”
16. “A Great Day for Freedom”
17. “In Any Tongue”
18. “The Great Gig in the Sky”
19. “A Boat Lies Waiting”
20. “Coming Back to Life”
21. “Dark and Velvet Nights”
22. “Sings”
23. “Scattered”
24. “Comfortably Numb”

Teri Garr, the actress best known for Young Frankenstein and Tootsie, has died. She was 79. According to Variety, she died in Los Angeles after years of battling multiple sclerosis.

In addition to her breakthrough role in Mel Brooks‘ 1975 comedy Young Frankenstein and an Oscar-nominated role in 1982’s Tootsie, Garr appeared in 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1989’s Mr. Mom and the TV show Friends, where she guest starred as Phoebe’s mom.

Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio, but raised in North Hollywood. Her career started in the mid-’60s when she appeared as a dancer in the acclaimed rock movie The T.A.M.I. Show and in six Elvis Presley movies from the era. In 1968, she was in the Monkees‘ movie Head, which featured her first speaking role, and the “Assignment: Earth” episode of Star Trek, which she once referred to as her big break.

READ MORE: Mel Brooks Movies Ranked Worst to Best

For the next few years, she appeared in various TV shows, such as The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, as a regular dancer and sketch player. Her bubbly personality soon landed big-screen roles in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation in 1974 before Young Frankenstein made her a star, as Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant, a year later.

What Movies and TV Shows Did Teri Garr Appear In?

In 1977, Garr played Richard Dreyfuss’ wife in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and John Denver’s wife in Oh, God! With 1982’s Tootsie, she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as Dustin Hoffman’s best friend. During this time she hosted Saturday Night Live three times.

By the mid-’90s Garr was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but she continued to act, most notably appearing in a recurring role as Phoebe’s estranged birth mom in the hit sitcom Friends, as well as a voice actress in animated Batman films. She acted into the ’00s, onstage in The Vagina Monologues, and onscreen in several independent films.

She retired from acting in 2011.

Adrian Belew‘s supergroup King Crimson tribute band Beat will livestream their Nov. 10 concert in Los Angeles. Many of their remaining shows have limited seats available, with multiple sellouts.

The focus is on King Crimson material from the ’80s, when Belew joined the band with Tony Levin. Their collaborations with guitarist Steve Vai and drummer Danny Carey of Tool only began after Belew asked for the blessing of Crimson stalwart Robert Fripp.

Beat’s concert at the United Theater on Broadway in LA will be streamed through VEEPS beginning at 11PM ET (8PM PT) on Nov. 10. The $24.99 ticket price gives viewers on-demand access for seven days.

READ MORE: How King Crimson Was Reborn on ‘Discipline’

They kicked off this tour in September, with dates continuing in December. A complete list of Beat’s remaining dates and cities is below. Other key stops include Cincinnati, Seattle, Nashville, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, New York City and St. Louis, among others.

Fripp, Belew, Levin and drummer Bill Bruford released a trio of King Crimson albums in the ’80s, including 1981’s Discipline, 1982’s Beat and 1983’s Three of a Perfect Pair. The Los Angeles livestream will be mixed by Bob Clearmountain, who has served in the same role for countless classic rock sessions – as well as livestream tributes in 2022 for the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Remaining 2025 Beat Tour Dates
10/25 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre
10/26 – Cincinnati, OH @ Taft Theatre (Sold out)
10/27 – Royal Oak, MI @ Masonic Cathedral Theatre #
10/28 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium (Sold out)
10/30 – Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theatre
11/1 – Chicago, IL @ Copernicus Center #
11/2 – Milwaukee, WI @ Riverside Theater
11/3 – Madison, WI @ Orpheum Theater
11/4 – Minneapolis, MN @ State Theatre #
11/6 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre #
11/8 – Las Vegas, NV @ Theater at Virgin Hotels
11/9 – San Diego, CA @ Humphrey’s Concerts #
11/10 – Los Angeles, CA @ United Theater on Broadway #
11/18 _ Thousand Oaks, CA @ BofA PAC
11/20 – San Jose, CA @ San Jose Civic
11/21 – Reno, NV @ Grand Theatre at the Grand Sierra Resort
11/22 – Portland, OR @ Keller Auditorium
11/23 – Eugene, OR @ McDonald Theatre
11/25 – Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theatre
11/26 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre #
11/30 – Hammond, IN @ Venue at Horseshoe
12/2 – Buffalo, NY @ UB Center For The Arts
12/3 – Hartford, CT @ Mortensen Hall at the Bushnell Center
12/4 – Wilkes-Barre, PA @ F.M. Kirby Center
12/6 – Lynn, MA @ Lynn Auditorium
12/7 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Tropicana Showroom
12/8 – Brooklyn, NY @ Kings Theatre
12/10 – Louisville, KY @ Brown Theatre
12/11 – St. Louis, MO @ The Factory
12/13 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Criterion
12/14 – San Antonio, TX @ Majestic Theatre
12/16 – Albuquerque, NM @ Revel
12/17 – Tucson, AZ @ Fox Tucson Theatre
12/18 – Highland, CA @ Yaamava’ Theater

# – Limited availability remaining

Paul Stanley has defended Kiss’ well-chronicled history with groupies, describing the relationships as “wholesome” flings in which “nobody got hurt.”

“I don’t think we promoted ourselves for what was going on backstage or at hotels,” the singer explained during an appearance on the Steve-O’s Wild Ride podcast. “It just was common knowledge. I mean, people were just seeing what was going on. And it was terrific. What a great, great life. It’s everything that people imagine it to be and more.”

Stanley went on to note that Kiss’ connection with their groupies went beyond sex.

READ MORE: Kiss Albums Ranked Worst to Best

“The interesting thing was for all the girls, groupies, young women, whatever they were, it was really kind of, no pun intended, wholesome,” he declared. “They were there because they loved music. And they would travel with you. They would do your laundry. You’d go to the movies with them. There was nothing tawdry about it. It was companionship. And they loved music. And I loved them. So it was a good tradeoff.”

Kiss’ Groupies ‘Never Walked Away Feeling Disrespected’

During the conversation on groupies, Stanley was asked who “takes the cake” between he and his bandmate, Gene Simmons. “It depends on what you consider cake,” the frontman replied, eliciting howls of laughter from Steve-O and his co-host (Stanley declined a chance to elaborate on who slept with more women).

When the Jackass star suggested that is was more honest to have a one-night stand than pretend a relationship could ever become something more, Stanley noted that “different circumstances call for different behavior.”

READ MORE: 18 Musicians Who Secretly Performed on Kiss Albums

“The women who would come to shows weren’t coming there to be courted,” the frontman explained. “You have tonight and we all know that. You know that and I know that. And it was very simple. And nobody got hurt. Nobody ever walked away feeling disrespected or diminished.”

According to the singer, Kiss and their groupies had an unspoken understanding that kept everything carefree and fun.

“We were very upfront and they were very upfront. They were there for a certain reason. So I don’t think anybody was deceiving anybody,” the rocker remarked. “And that’s why it was so much fun because it was uncomplicated. You know, whatever your relationship is with anybody, hopefully it’s uncomplicated, whether it’s somebody you’re involved with for a night or for a lifetime.”

The music used in a movie can often times be just as memorable as the movie itself. Done right, a film’s soundtrack can engage a viewer beyond just what they’re seeing on the screen and propel the narrative forward.

Music and movies have been intertwining art forms since films began incorporating recorded sound. So it makes sense that some flicks have inspired songwriters to pen new tunes – for that, see our list of 45 Rock Songs Inspired by Movies.

But what about the other way round? There are fewer of those, but below we’re taking a look at 16 Movies Inspired by Rock Songs.

1. Alice’s Restaurant (1969)
Song: “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” Arlo Guthrie

Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” is frankly the perfect kind of song to turn into a movie, chock full of eccentric detail. Guthrie himself starred in this 1969 film, alongside Pat Quinn as Alice Brock and James Broderick as Ray Brock. It premiered in Boston on August 19, 1969, just a few days after Guthrie appeared at Woodstock. Considering its wacky plot, director Arthur Penn still aimed to make a film with a sincere message. “I wanted to show that the U.S. is a country paralyzed by fear, that people were afraid of losing all they hold dear to them,” he said in one interview. “It’s the new generation that’s trying to save everything.”

 

2. The Gambler (1980)
Song: “The Gambler,” Kenny Rogers

A number of people have covered “The Gambler,” penned by Don Schlitz, but it was Kenny Rogers who really brought the song to its full potential in 1978. Two years later, Rogers himself starred in The Gambler, a made-for-TV movie loosely based on the song’s story, directed by Dick Lowry. In it, Rogers’ character Brady Hawkes, a singer and — you guessed it — gambler, attempts to reunite with a long lost son.

 

3. Coward of the County (1981)
Song: “Coward of the County,” Kenny Rogers

A double-dose of Kenny Rogers! A year after he appeared in The Gambler, he popped up in another Western film called Coward of the County, based on Rogers’ 1979 hit of the same name. To quote the film’s IMDb synopsis: “A life-long yellow-belly who made a deathbed promise to his father to be a pacifist seeks bloody revenge on the men who gang-raped his wife.”

 

4. Rhinestone (1984)
Song: “Rhinestone Cowboy,” Glen Campbell

Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton: it’s a more likely combination than you’d think. They co-starred in the 1984 film Rhinestone, based on the 1975 hit song “Rhinestone Cowboy,” as recorded by Glen Campbell. The movie itself was a bust, critically and commercially, but it did provide Parton with two Top 10 country hits of her own: “Tennessee Homesick Blues” and “God Won’t Get You.”

 

5. Copocabana (1985)
Song: “Copocabana,” Barry Manilow

In 1978, Barry Manilow collaborated with writers Jack Feldman and Bruce Sussman on the song “Copocabana” about the escapades of showgirl Lola and bartender Tony at a nightclub in Havana. “It’s a full story in three verses and three repeated choruses,” Manilow recalled in 2019. “I don’t know how they did it.” Seven years later, the same trio collaborated again on a cinematic expansion of the song that appeared on television, in which Manilow himself played Tony. It was then expanded even further into a two-act stage musical that was performed in London’s West End for two years.

 

6. Pretty in Pink (1986)
Song: “Pretty in Pink,” Psychedelic Furs

According to Molly Ringwald, star of 1986’s Pretty in Pink, it was she who introduced screenwriter John Hughes to the song “Pretty in Pink” by the Psychedelic Furs. “John had been wanting to write something for me, and he often used song titles for his projects since most of what he wrote was inspired by music,” she recalled to Vogue in 2021. “He wrote Pretty in Pink in between Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club and based it loosely around the Psychedelic Furs song. At that point in my life I also just really liked pink — [protagonist] Andie’s room was basically modeled after my own.”

 

7. The Hitcher (1986)
Song: “Riders on the Storm,” The Doors

The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” is prime movie-making material with its eerie and dramatic tone. Screenwriter Eric Red recognized that and, in the early ’80s, took inspiration from the song to write The Hitcher. “The script was inspired by the Doors song ‘Riders on the Storm,’ which I felt was a great jumping off point for a thriller,” he said in an interview with the Horror Writers Association. The Hitcher came out in 1986, starring Rutger Hauer as a homicidal hitch hiker.

 

8. Born in East L.A. (1987)
Song: “Born in East L.A.,” Cheech and Chong

Allow us to provide some backstory: in 1985, Cheech and Chong released a parody version of Bruce Springsteen‘s “Born in the U.S.A.” titled “Born in East L.A.,” which also included some references to Randy Newman‘s “I Love L.A.” Two years later, “Born in East L.A.” was turned into a comedy film directed by Cheech Marin — his debut directorial effort. Funnily enough, Cheech and Chong and the Boss went way back. “The first gig I ever did when I had my first record out was opening for Cheech & Chong in a small college in Pennsylvania,” Springsteen recalled in 2019. “And we came out, we played about five songs, I thought it was going really good. I was sitting at the piano and somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘That’s enough.’ That was it!”

 

9. The Indian Runner (1991)
Song: “Highway Patrolman,” Bruce Springsteen

This time we’re talking about an original Bruce Springsteen song: “Highway Patrolman.” That song appeared on the album Nebraska, released in 1982, the same year that a budding young filmmaker named Sean Penn started dating Springsteen’s sister. Penn was mesmerized with the song, drunkenly telling Springsteen one night: “I’m going to make a movie out of ‘Highway Patrolman.'” Just under a decade later, Penn made good on his promise in the form of 1991’s The Indian Runner, his directorial debut. Years later, Springsteen would release the music video seen below, which used clips from the film.

 

10. My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Song: “Private Idaho,” The B-52’s

Not even the B-52’s themselves really understand what their 1980 song “Private Idaho” is about. “Idaho is pretty mysterious to, you know, all of us,” Fred Schneider once said to the Idaho Statesman. “I know it’s a beautiful state, but then I know there’s also a lot of crazy right-wingers and all that stuff. … [the song] doesn’t relate to Idaho. The song’s about all different things. It’s not like a parody of Idaho or anything.” Nevertheless, the song served as inspiration for the 1991 film My Own Private Idaho — director Gus Van Sant had first heard it when he visited the state of Idaho in the ’80s.

 

11. Love Potion #9 (1992)
Song: “Love Potion #9,” The Searchers

Technically, Love Potion No. 9 the film, starring Tate Donovan and Sandra Bullock, flip flops the premise of the song “Love Potion No. 9.” In the song, first recorded by the Clovers and made into a No. 3 hit by the Searchers, the potion ingested by the narrator causes them to fall madly in love with everyone they see, while the 1992 movie makes other people become infatuated with the potion-taker.

 

12. Demolition Man (1993)
Song: “Demolition Man,” Sting

Sometimes a minor occurrence can spark a major idea. Such was the case for screenwriter Peter Lenkov, who found inspiration in Sting’s “Demolition Man.” “My boombox was broken,” Lenkov explained in a 2023 interview. “That song would replay over and over again in the car. So I was struck by the line in the song, which says ‘don’t mess around with the demolition man.'” Demolition Man the film subsequently came out in 1993, starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock and Nigel Hawthorne.

 

13. Feeling Minnesota (1993)
Song: “Outshined,” Soundgarden

“I am looking California but feeling Minnesota” is arguably one of Soundgarden’s best-known lines, which may be why it ended up the inspiration behind the 1996 film Feeling Minnesota, starring Keanu Reeves and Cameron Diaz. Interestingly, the song itself was not included on the film’s soundtrack.

 

14. Detroit Rock City (1999)
Song: “Detroit Rock City,” Kiss

The plot of 1999’s Detroit Rock City doesn’t exactly mirror the plot of the Kiss song, but there are some similar elements. In the 1976 song, a person on their way to a Kiss concert ends up dead in a car accident (a real-life incident that happened around the time of the song’s writing). In the 1999 movie, a group of teenage boys embark on the adventure of a lifetime as they make their way to a Kiss concert in Detroit.

 

15. Jolene (2008)
Song: “Jolene,” Dolly Parton

Jessica Chastain made her acting debut in the 2008 film Jolene, loosely based on — what else? — “Jolene” by Dolly Parton. Of course, the movie takes a lot of narrative license, expanding greatly on the basic premise of one red-headed woman’s (multiple) affairs.

 

16. Beer for My Horses (2008)
Song: “Beer for My Horses,” Toby Keith and Willie Nelson

In 2003, Toby Keith and Willie Nelson joined forces for a song called “Beer for My Horses,” which is about as country of a title as one can get. Five years later, Keith went to Las Vegas, New Mexico — a lightly populated place that still resembles something of a Western saloon town — to direct and star in Beer for My Horses the film. Nelson also appeared in the film, as did Ted Nugent.

Bruce Springsteen has rejected the suggestion that he’d become a billionaire in recent times – while also admitting he wished it was true.

In August Forbes reported that the Boss had crossed the 10-figure mark, saying: “Despite his discomfort with the trappings of wealth, the Garden State’s original guitar hero has amassed a substantial fortune over six decades – which Forbes conservatively estimates to be worth $1.1 billion – singing about his blue-collar roots.”

The business magazine admitted that no one in the veteran musician’s organization had confirmed the valuation, which was reached three years after he’d sold his rights for a reported $500 million.

READ MORE: Watch Courteney Cox Recreate Her ‘Dancing in the Dark’ Moves

In a new interview with the Telegraph, Springsteen stated: “I’m not a billionaire. I wish I was, but they got that real wrong. I’ve spent too much money on superfluous things.”

He added that after the difficult early years before he broke out and achieved “good fortune,” he’d earned his paydays as he “put the work in.” And he cautioned that if a musician’s career became all about money, “that’s usually where people go south.” From his perspective it was all about protecting and nurturing his artistic abilities, arguing: “If I had failed at that, I would have failed at everything, in my opinion.”

In the same interview, Springsteen talked about his upcoming biopic, in which he’s played by actor Jeremy Allen White. “I only had to see him on The Bear, and I knew he was the right guy, because he had that interior life – but he also had a little swagger,” he said.

Bruce Springsteen Issues Another Warning About Donald Trump

And he restated his current political thinking after recently describing Donald Trump as “an American tyrant,” saying: “I think in the States, there’s an enormous anxiety… at losing the things that are dearest to us; the danger of losing democracy, rule of law, peaceful transfer of power.

“And this is a guy who is committed to none of these things. He’s an insurrectionist. You know, he led a coup on the United States government, so there’s no way he should be let anywhere near the office of the presidency.

“Are you going to sleep well knowing that the nuclear codes have been given to Donald Trump? No. No one is.”

Why Bruce Springsteen Called Killers Collaboration ‘Cathartic’

You can be forgiven for not remembering Les Dudek’s tenure in Journey. After all, it didn’t last long. “I was in Journey for about two hours,” the guitarist admits to Guitar World magazine.

He’d already had a few brushes with fame by the time Journey’s founding manager Herbie Herbert began constructing the group around ex-Santana members Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon. Dudek made notable contributions to “Jessica” and “Ramblin’ Man” by the Allman Brothers Band and he’d toured with Boz Scaggs and Steve Miller.

Journey might have finally put him on the map.

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

“I had already moved to the West Coast and was trying to put something together with members from Steve and Boz’s bands,” Dudek remembered. “That’s when I got a call from Herbie Herbert, who said, ‘Les, I’m putting a super band together, and I want you to be one of the guitar players.’ I asked him who the other guitarist was, and he said, ‘Neal Schon from Santana – great player.'”

Dudek decided to feel things out. He said he rehearsed the next day with a core group that also included bassist Ross Valory and drummer Aynsley Dunbar. But Dudek already had another appointment, so their time together was cut short.

“We jammed for a couple of hours doing some cool fusion s—. It was great stuff,” Dudek remembered. “I looked at my watch because I knew I had a meeting across the street with somebody from Columbia. I went to the meeting, and the president and vice-president of Columbia were there waiting for me. They offered me a solo deal right on the spot.”

Dudek signed the contract, and a series of largely overlooked solo records followed: Ghost Town Parade became his highest-charting release in 1978 at No. 100. By then, Journey was becoming a multi-platinum juggernaut with the addition of Steve Perry.

Of course, nobody knew that back when Dudek was trying to decide whether to join Journey. He felt as if he’d hit the jackpot.

“It’s like the best Cinderella story ever told in the music business,” Dudek said. “I went from not knowing how I was going to pay my rent to having to decide: Do I go with Journey or a solo deal with Columbia? I chose Columbia.”

Nick DeRiso is author of the Amazon best-selling rock band bio ‘Journey: Worlds Apart,’ available now at all major bookseller websites.

Ranking Every Steve Perry Album

See Neal Schon Among Rock’s Forgotten Supergroups

It can be argued that punk rock started in the ’60s, when a bunch of kids holed up in a garage, bashed out two chords on their guitars and shouted into a taped-together microphone.

But for our chronological list of the 40 Best Punk Albums, we’re starting with the one that pretty much kicked off punk rock as we know it today: the Ramones‘ self-titled debut record from 1976.

It took several months before other bands picked up on this two-chord aggression, but once they started flooding in, the influx of bands never stopped, as you’ll see in our list, which includes albums from the ’70s through the ’00s.

Many of these records come from punk’s golden age: Albums by the Sex Pistols and Richard Hell are here. So are Wire and Stiff Little Fingers. And even though punk was a slash-and-burn-out genre, several artists have more than one record on the list — including the Clash and Talking Heads, who each have three.

READ MORE: Revisiting the Clash’s Masterpiece, ‘London Calling’

And despite what haters will tell you, punk didn’t die in the ’80s, even though its inevitable commercial moves turned off many old-school fans. In some cases, it just went underground and got even bigger (yep, Green Day is here) in the ’90s and beyond.

The one thing all these albums and bands have in common is their tendency to build so much from so little. Some of these bands could hardly play their instruments, but their determination made up for their lack of musicianship. And while punk initially reacted to mainstream rock music’s bloated excesses, some artists couldn’t help but nod to classic rock’s influence in their work.

From the start, punk was rock ‘n’ roll stripped to its fundamentals and played in a way that signaled the future, even while it declared there was no future. That’s never changed, even after four decades, as you’ll see in our list of the 40 Best Punk Albums.

Alice Cooper has announced tour dates for 2025, starting with a show in late January.

The new dates follow his recent tour with fellow shock-rocker Rob Zombie that got underway in late August with its latest leg. The 2025 dates so far include nine concerts that will keep Cooper on the road through February, plus a festival date in early May.

Cooper’s summer tour featured some of his best-known songs, including “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “I’m Eighteen,” “Billion Dollar Babies,” “Elected” and “School’s Out.” His latest album, 2023’s The Road, however, was not represented in the opening-night set of the tour he shared with Zombie.

READ MORE:  Top 50 Hard Rock Songs of the ’70s

Last week, the Black Keys released a new song with Cooper. “Stay in Your Grave” features the veteran rocker on vocals and is included on the duo’s upcoming expanded “Trophy Edition” of their latest album, Ohio Players, which was released in April. The new edition will be available on Nov. 15.

Where Is Alice Cooper Playing in 2025?

Cooper’s 2025 concert dates so far include nine dates starting on Jan. 31 in Augusta, Georgia. He will stay on the road for two weeks, playing shows in Greensboro, North Carolina, Mobile, Alabama, and Orlando, Florida, before wrapping up on Feb. 11 in St. Augustine, Florida.

He will also play a date on May 9 in Columbus, Ohio, at the annual Sonic Temple Festival. You can see all of the announced tour dates below.

More information on Cooper’s 2025 tour can be found on his website.

Alice Cooper, 2025 Tour
01/31 – Augusta, GA @ The Bell Auditorium
02/01 – Cherokee, NC @ Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort
02/02 – Greensboro, NC @ Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts
02/04 – Mobile, AL @ Saenger Theatre Mobile
02/06 – Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live Orlando
02/07 – Fort Myers, FL @ Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall at FSW
02/08 – Clearwater, FL @ The BayCare Sound
02/11 – St. Augustine, FL @ St. Augustine Amphitheatre
05/09 – Columbus, OH @ Sonic Temple Festival

The Who isn’t finished yet. After a year mostly spent apart, Pete Townshend confirms that he and Roger Daltrey will be working together again in 2025.

“I met with Roger for lunch a couple of weeks ago,” Townshend tells The Standard. “We’re in good form. We love each other. We’re both getting a bit creaky, but we will definitely do something next year.”

Their most recent tour together dates back to 2023, when the Who’s shows were augmented with strings. Townshend indicates that any future dates would more closely resemble Daltrey’s more stripped-down 2024 U.S. tour.

READ MORE: Ranking Every Who Album

“The last big tours that we’ve done have been with a full orchestra, which was glorious,” Townshend argues, “but we’re now eager to make a noise and make a mess and make mistakes.”

The Who played a couple of stand-alone shows in March in support of Teenage Cancer Trust at London’s Royal Albert Hall. More recently, Daltrey inducted Peter Frampton into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Townshend will take the stage in November at the Theatre Royal in London for a performance of The Seeker, an upcoming concept album completed with his wife Rachel Fuller. The most recent album under the Who banner remains 2019’s Who.

Townshend points the finger at Daltrey for this delay, though the dam may be close to breaking: “The album side of it – Roger’s not keen but I would love to do another album,” Townshend adds, “and I may try to bully him on that.”

Why the Who’s Drummer Invited Fans to Moon Him

Chances are, any self-respecting lead rock guitarist will tell you that solos are the place where they can truly shine — where they can wield their instrument as an extension of themselves and make their voice heard.

So when a lead guitarist secretly outsources their solo to another musician, it’s not a decision made lightly.

For decades, producers and musicians have employed “ghost players” on a myriad of recordings. These players are typically veteran session musicians, and they’ll show up to add a little extra zest to a recording, or to hasten the proceedings when a band’s actual lead guitarist hits a roadblock.

Despite the prevalence of these ghost players, uncredited guitar solos remain a dirty little (open) secret in the rock world. It’s easy to see why: Rock guitarists are judged with scrutiny similar to Olympic athletes, and even if they’ve got dozens of brilliant solos under their belt, passing off one job to an uncredited session player can jeopardize their credibility, and their pride. In other cases, ghost players will play on a recording without credit because of contractual obligations or other agreements that would otherwise preclude them from doing so.

Below, we’ve included well-documented examples of 5 Classic Rock Songs and Albums With Uncredited Guitar Solos. This list is far from comprehensive, and it doesn’t include artists like Jimmy Page, who made a living as a veteran session player in his pre-Led Zeppelin days but didn’t always contribute lead guitar. We’re focusing exclusively on solos here, because they’re a lead guitarist’s bread and butter, and the highest hill to die on for players and fans alike.

Aerosmith, “Train Kept a Rollin'” (Dick Wagner, Steve Hunter)

During the sessions for Aerosmith‘s sophomore album Get Your Wings, producer Jack Douglas called up veteran session guitarists Dick Hunter and Steve Wagner (best known for their work with Alice Cooper) to cut some additional leads, most notably on the band’s cover of Tiny Bradshaw’s “Train Kept A-Rollin’.” “It was Jack who had the difficult task of breaking the news to Joe [Perry] and me, and of course, that went down like a lead balloon,” Brad Whitford told Guitar World. “At first you fight, and you’re a little bit angry, and then you get sad to where you’re like really bummed out that you can’t do it. And the thing was that we’d done some good stuff and could play good stuff, but the tracks required some real finesse, you know?” Despite his disappointment, Whitford had to give credit where it was due. “Listen to ‘Train Kept A-Rollin’ today, those are some fucking genius rock leads,” he added. “That was some great stuff and probably some of the stuff that they were most proud of out of anything they’d done. That solo is blistering.”

The Beatles, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (Eric Clapton)

The Beatles were at the height of their dysfunction and animosity during the making of their self-titled 1968 album, colloquially known as the White Album. George Harrison, in particular, was frustrated with his bandmates’ apathy toward his composition, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and he was consequently unhappy with the group’s first attempt at recording the song. Seeking to shake things up, Harrison invited friend and guitar virtuoso Eric Clapton — who was then at the helm of British blues-rock power trio Cream — to record a solo on the track. “He said, ‘Oh, no. I can’t do that. Nobody ever plays on the Beatles records,'” Harrison told Guitar Player. “I said, ‘Look, it’s my song, and I want you to play on it.'” The result was one of the most famous solos in rock history and one of Clapton’s most aching, scorching performances. The formally uncredited guest spot from “Slowhand” also had another positive side effect: “So Eric came in and the other guys were as good as gold – because he was there,” Harrison said. “Also, it left me free to just play the rhythm and do the vocal.”

 

Kiss, Creatures of the Night (Vinnie Vincent, Robben Ford, Steve Farris)

Kiss‘ Creatures of the Night was a transitional record in several ways. It marked a return to riff-driven hard rock after several poorly received forays into disco, pop and prog, and it was the last album to feature guitarist Ace Frehley as an official member of the band — even though he didn’t play a note on the record. In his place, Kiss recruited session players Robben Ford, Steve Farris and Vincent Cusano AKA Vinnie Vincent. Although Vincent made several key contributions to Creatures of the Night and would become their new lead guitarist for 1983’s Lick It Up, the process was far from smooth. “I do feel Vinnie’s contributions are overstated,” Gene Simmons told Guitar World. “To begin with, that’s not even Vinnie playing on the entire record. He played on a few tracks in total.” Simmons added that he and Paul Stanley “would bring [Vincent] specific solos; we gave them to him and asked him to play them verbatim, but he refused. He didn’t want to do that, but honestly, everything that Vinnie did sounded like Yngwie Malmsteen on crack. You know, the kind of stuff that the rest of us normal human beings hate. It was ridiculous, and it certainly wasn’t Kiss.”

Michael Jackson, “Beat It” (Eddie Van Halen)

Eddie Van Halen initially went uncredited for his fretboard-melting solo on Michael Jackson‘s chart-topping “Beat It,” though his instantly recognizable playing style made it a moot point. The guitarist went so far as to rework the underlying chord progression and contribute his solo free of charge — partly because he didn’t think the song would catch fire, and partly because he was violating Van Halen‘s rule against extracurricular musical endeavors. “I don’t even think I’m credited on the record. It just says, ‘Guitar solo: Question Mark’ or ‘Guitar solo: Frankenstein’ [the name of his guitar],” Van Halen told CNN. “I said to myself, ‘Who is going to know that I played on this kid’s record, right? Nobody’s going to find out.’ Wrong! Big-time wrong. It ended up being Record of the Year.” Ironically, the success of “Beat It” kept Jackson’s Thriller at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, blocking Van Halen’s 1984 from the top spot. Decades later, Eddie’s “Beat It” collaboration remained a point of contention for his brother and bandmate Alex Van Halen. “Why would you lend your talents to Michael Jackson? I just don’t fucking get it,” the drummer told Rolling Stone. “And the funny part was that Ed fibbed his way out of it by saying, ‘Oh, who knows that kid anyway?’ You made the mistake! Fess up. Don’t add insult to injury by acting stupid.”

Warrant, Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich (Mike Slamer)

When Warrant released their debut album Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich in 1989, they were competing with a murderer’s row of wizkid guitarists. There was absolutely no room for error in the six-string department, so producer Beau Hill knew he’d have to call in the big guns for the album. “I went to their manager, Eddie, and I said, ‘Look, we’ve got a problem with the guitar players, because we’re in an era now where it’s Eddie Van Halen and Warren DeMartini,'” Hill said in Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock’s book Nothin’ But a Good Time. “‘These guys, they’re sweet and they’re good rhythm guitar players, but they can’t play solos to save their souls. I’d like to consider bringing somebody else in to do it.'” That somebody turned out to be ex-Streets guitarist and session musician Mike Slamer, who continued to work with Warrant after D.R.S.F.R. was finished. The band might not have been thrilled with the decision, but they begrudgingly agreed to it and used it as an opportunity for growth. “I’m like, ‘Okay, if I need to get my shit together here, if I’m not good enough to play all the solos on this record, I’m gonna learn from this guy,'” Warrant guitarist Joey Allen said. “I’d go over to Mike’s house four or five days a week and sit down with him and say, ‘Teach me, man.’ And we got a great relationship out of it.”

Billy Gibbons and ZZ Top will be crisscrossing the U.S. in early 2025. Dates and cities have now been confirmed for a band tour and a Gibbons solo trek. See a complete list below.

The first shows, in January and February, find Gibbons appearing with his BFGs solo group. They’ll make multi-show stops in Honolulu and Napa, California, then tour into Phoenix, St. Louis, Chicago, Cleveland and Atlantic City, N.J., among others. Tickets to see Billy F. Gibbons and the BFGs go on sale on Nov. 1.

ZZ Top subsequently kicks off the 2025 Elevation Tour in March. They open with dates in Alabama and Florida then continue through April with a series of stops that include Milwaukee and Cincinnati. On-going current dates run into November with a concert on tap at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium. Tickets are already on sale.

READ MORE: Top 25 Southern Rock Albums

Gibbons and fellow ZZ Top stalwart Frank Beard are touring with bassist Elwood Francis following the 2021 death of Dusty Hill. The BFGs were launched in 2015 with the release of Perfectamundo. Gibbons’ next two albums, 2018’s The Big Bad Blues and 2021’s Hardware, were both issued as solo projects. ZZ Top’s most recent studio LP remains 2012’s La Futura.

Billy F. Gibbons and the BFGs 2025 Tour
1/17-20/2025 – Blue Note Hawaii @ Honolulu, HI
1/21-24/2025 – Blue Note Napa @ Napa, CA
1/25/2025 – Agua Caliente Casino Cathedral City @ Cathedral City, CA
1/26/2025 – Musical Instrument Museum @ Phoenix, AZ
1/28/2025 – Vilar Performing Arts Center @ Beaver Creek, CO
1/31/2025 – The Pageant @ St. Louis, MO
2/1/2025 – Park West @ Chicago, IL
2/2/2025 – House of Blues @ Cleveland
2/4/2025 – Jergel’s Rhythm Grille @ Warrendale, PA
2/6/2025 – Kentucky Theatre @ Lexington, KY
2/7/2025 – The Paramount Theater @ Charlottesville, VA
2/8/2025 – Borgata Theater @ Atlantic City, NJ
2/10/2025 – The Bardavon 1869 Opera House @ Poughkeepsie, NY
2/12/2025 – The Music Hall @ Portsmouth, NH
2/13/2025 – The Cabot @ Beverly, MA
2/14/2025 – Ridgefield Playhouse @ Ridgefield, CT
2/15/2025 – Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center @ Great Barrington, MA
2/19/2025 – The Birchmere @ Alexandria, VA
2/20/2025 – Paramount Bristol @ Bristol, TN

ZZ Top’s 2025 Elevation Tour
3/5/2025 – Dothan Civic Center @ Dothan, AL
3/6/2025 – Saenger Theatre @ Mobile, AL
3/9/2025 – Pompano Beach Amphitheater @ Pompano Beach, FL
3/10/2025 – Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall @ Fort Myers, FL
3/12/2025 – Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa @ Tampa, FL
3/14/2025 – St. Augustine Amphitheatre @ St. Augustine, FL
3/18/2025 – Anderson Music Hall @ Hiawassee, GA
3/19/2025 – North Charleston Performing Arts Center @ North Charleston, SC
3/21/2025 – Crown Theatre @ Fayetteville, NC
3/22/2025 – Bell Auditorium @ Augusta, GA
3/23/2025 – Montgomery Performing Arts Centre @ Montgomery, AL
3/26/2025 – John Hunt Auditorium @ Tifton, GA
3/28/2025 – SKyPAC @ Bowling Green, KY
4/1/2025 – Brown County Music Center @ Nashville, IN
4/2/2025 – Blue Gate Performing Arts Center @ Shipshewana, IN
4/3/2025 – FIM Capitol Theatre @ Flint, MI
4/5/2025 – State Farm Center @ Champaign, IL
4/6/2025 – The Riverside Theatre @ Milwaukee, WI
4/8/2025 – Andrew J Brady Music Center @ Cincinnati, OH
4/11/2025 – Show Me Center @ Cape Girardeau, MO
4/12/2025 – East Arkansas Community College @ Forrest City, AR

You Think You Know ZZ Top?

It’s not often you see a stadium headliner walk onstage in casual attire to introduce their opening act at the start of the show. But when you’re Billy Joel — and you’re welcoming your longtime friend Sting to the stage — you’re allowed to flaunt the rules.

Both rock legends maintained an air of nonchalance during their Friday performance at San Antonio’s Alamodome, belying the top-tier musicianship and treasure trove of hits they brought to the table. (You can see UCR’s exclusive photos from the show below.) “I spent a lot of money on special effects,” Joel deadpanned. “The piano goes that way. The piano goes this way.”

Perhaps Joel was reveling in his newfound freedom after wrapping his historic, 100-plus-show residency at Madison Square Garden in July. Maybe he felt enlivened by the change of scenery, as he’s got more than a dozen shows booked across North America and the United Kingdom through mid-2025. Either way, he sounded light at heart on Friday as he updated the audience periodically on the Yankees-Dodgers game (“The Dodgers won with a grand slam? Shit!” he exclaimed right before “Piano Man”) and busted their chops with tried-and-true stage patter.

“Yeah, yeah, sure. You don’t have that album,” he said as he introduced “The Entertainer” off 1975’s Streetlife Serenade to applause. “Nobody has that album.”

READ MORE: Billy Joel Albums Ranked Worst to Best

Joel was also light on his feet as he abandoned his piano and gave his best Mick Jagger impression during a snippet of the Rolling Stones‘ “Start Me Up,” earning one of the biggest crowd reactions of the night. They spurred him further onward as he nailed the soaring falsetto notes of “An Innocent Man,” which had a lot riding on it. “If I don’t hit them, you’re gonna know,” he warned the crowd. “And you’re gonna make that real nasty noise: ‘Ewww, he can’t sing anymore!’ And you’d probably be right.”

That classic New Yorker self-deprecation has been Joel’s signature for more than half a century, but it proved unnecessary on Friday. The 75-year-old singer was in fine voice throughout his two-and-a-half-hour performance, embodying the downtrodden lounge lizard on “New York State of Mind” and the earnest loverboy on “Uptown Girl,” once again hitting some remarkable high notes. His newest single “Turn the Lights Back On,” his first in 17 years, was notably absent, but it’s difficult to gripe about that when Joel instead played relative rarities like “The Ballad of Billy the Kid” and “Big Man on Mulberry Street,” the latter featuring lead vocals from Sting.

The ex-Police frontman also impressed with his 70-minute opening set, split almost equally between originals and songs from his former band. The 73-year-old rocker looked and sounded robust as he prowled the stage and delivered powerful renditions of “Message in a Bottle” and “Roxanne,” still hitting many of those pixie-range notes with ease. The singer and bassist is backed on this tour by guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, and the new trio gave the songs a muscular, stadium-filling edge, often stretching into long-form territory while preserving the nuances of their recorded counterparts. Joel’s vocal assistance during “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” reinforced the show’s tagline: “Two Icons, One Night.”

You can add to that: “50,000 happy fans.”

In recent months, Franki Valli, 90, has raised some concerns. In videos of his live performances, he appeared to miss lyrics and hardly move his lips while singing, prompting allegations of lip-synching.

Valli put out a statement not long after: “I know there has been a lot of stuff on the internet about me lately so I wanted to clear the air. I am blessed to be 90 years old and still be doing what I love to do and as long as I am able, and audiences want to come see me, I am going to be out there performing as I always [sic]. I absolutely love what I do. And I know we put on a great show because our fans are still coming out in force and the show still rocks. … I get a chuckle from the comments wondering if someone forcing me to go on stage. Nobody has ever made me do anything I didn’t want to do.”

In a new interview with The Washington Post, Valli again addressed the possibility of him lip-synching: “If I say I’m not, you either believe me or you don’t.”

Graham Nash and Ann Wilson Aren’t Buying It

Some other musicians don’t believe Valli, including Graham Nash, who was interviewed for the same Washington Post article.

“Frankie Valli is not singing,” he said. “He’s just lip-syncing badly to a tape. As a musician, if you’re not singing, you shouldn’t be onstage.”

Nash, 82, offered up his longtime friend Joni Mitchell as an example of an aging artist utilizing their voice in new ways at live shows, instead of sticking to original notes and arrangements.

“She certainly doesn’t have the top-end range that she used to have,” he said. “But, at the same time, there is a beauty. What we are getting instead of a top range is incredible phrasing in a lower range.”

READ MORE: How Age Forces Rock Singers to Adjust: ‘It Happens to All of Us’

Ann Wilson of Heart also provided her reaction and opinion.

“Oh, my God. His face is completely still. He looks like he’s not even there. I suppose he’s not,” she said. “I think that’s the moment when you have to decide whether to walk offstage or not. You really have to look at your morals and go, ‘Do I just want to go up there and phone it in, give a bulls— performance because I’m me, or do I take the high road?'”

Geddy Lee will release a new book next spring, 72 Stories. It will center on Lee’s extensive  baseball collection and be released on May 13, 2025 via HarperCollins.

“Collecting is a younger person’s game. As you get older, you’re trying to simplify your life, not complicate it even more. I’m very bad at that. I appear to have really complicated a part of my life that should be much simpler than it is, but that’s my nature,” the Rush bassist told Illinois Entertainer in November of 2023, shortly after the release of his memoir My Effin’ Life.

“I have so many baseballs, so many wonderful memories tied up in there,” he continued. “A number of years ago, the fellow who I built my collection with passed on. I really have not bought a significant item [since then]. I’ve added things to my collection, but they’re mostly gifts from good friends that are in baseball or players. I would never sell any of those.”

Lee’s 2023 Baseball Auction

Also in November of 2023, 300 pieces of Lee’s collection went to auction, including a baseball signed in 1965 by members of the Beatles estimated to be worth between $100,000 and $300,000.

READ MORE: The 10 Weirdest Rush Songs

“Collections need to be fed, and I was no longer tending to my baseball collection. I was busy buying bass guitars and learning about vintage instruments,” Lee explained to Illinois Entertainer. “I have so many things that I want to do, that I want to learn, and I had let my baseball memorabilia sort of get dusty. So, I just thought, nothing lasts forever. We’re just a custodian of these things until we pass them to the next custodian. Let me give a gift to all the collectors out there. Let’s make these things available that have not been on the market for years and [let the collectors] have at it. I have no regrets about it. I still have a huge collection of baseball ephemera that has meaning to me. Some of them are very personal. I kept some wonderful things.”

Fast Times at Ridgemont High arrived in theaters in 1982 and struck a chord with movie fans, in part because of the characters. Stoner surfer Jeff Spicoli, played by Sean Penn, is just one particular example which helped to make the film relatable to their own high school experiences. Because who didn’t know a “Spicoli” while going to school?

It was a part that Penn took very seriously — something which was to become a trademark element of his work — but at the time Fast Times was released, he only had a couple of prior film credits to his name. “He was in character the whole time,” Cameron Crowe shared in a new interview with the Naked Lunch podcast, which you can watch below. “He never said, ‘Hi, my name is Sean,’ until after the movie had wrapped. He came and visited us in a black leather jacket and introduced himself. I thought it was hilarious, but he played it so seriously that you couldn’t really tell and it was just so real, which of course, is the funniest stuff.”

The Moment They Finally Heard Spicoli’s Most Famous Line

Crowe recalls that he was on pins and needles, waiting to hear Penn deliver what he says was his favorite line in the script, the moment when Spicoli indignantly replies to his teacher, Mr. Hand, played by legendary actor Ray Walford, “You dick!” Though he tried, Penn refused to deliver the line prior to filming it. “I would always say to him, you’ve got to say the line, ‘you dick.’ I will die if [the line] doesn’t come out perfect, because it’s my favorite thing in the script. Just say ‘you dick,'” he told hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild. The actor, after many requests, simply said, “I’m not going to do it. You’ll know it when we do it.”

READ MORE: How ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High Revolutionized Teen Movies

The moment of truth finally arrived and a number of people were on hand to witness it. Future Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis was behind the camera with Crowe, while his then-girlfriend and eventual wife, Heart’s Nancy Wilson, was also in the room. All were anticipating the delivery. “Ray Walston, the only celebrity in the cast, is there and he set Sean up for the line,” he reflects. “Sean goes, ‘you dick!’ We looked at each other and we’re like, ‘Oh my God, Eureka! It’s better than we even [expected]….it was spectacular.”

But the Famous Line Caused Drama on the ‘Fast Times’ Set

Walston, as it turned out, wasn’t pleased. “[He] stomped off the set and said to [director] Amy Heckerling, ‘I won’t have a young actor talk to me like that!’ Sean was so confident. He was so on fire with [the line] that he would do a take where he’d say to Ray Walston, ‘You red-faced mother-effer!’ We would be dying behind the camera,” Crowe recalls “Ray Walston at a certain point was like, ‘I didn’t do all that I did in the business to be talked to by a 21-year old kid [like that]. I didn’t work with Bill Bixby and Billy Wilder to be told I’m a red-faced MF by this little guy who also calls me a dick!’ Meanwhile, we’re high-fiving behind the camera. Because this is our shot at Spicoli and that’s Sean. He knew he had it the whole time.”

Watch Cameron Crowe on the ‘Naked Lunch’ Podcast

Tom Petty Saw Himself in Jeff Spicoli

Once Fast Times at Ridgemont High was released, Crowe learned he had a very famous fan of the movie, Tom Petty. The moment came to light as the pair were working on Heartbreakers Beach Party, his accidental directorial debut, which recently surfaced for its first-ever theatrical showings.

“[The movie] had just come out and the studio didn’t like the movie or believe in it. They cut [the number of] theaters [screening it] at the last minute. Basically, Fast Times was only seen by people on VHS later,” he shares. “It was bombing in the theaters, but he knew about Spicoli. He was [telling me], ‘I felt like Spicoli when I was in Gainesville. People would see me with my long hair and immediately assume that I was stoned and incapable of thought.’ That was when he said, ‘Pick up the camera, I’m going to play this song for you that you’re going to love’ and that was the beginning of my directing career. ‘I’m Stupid’ [in Heartbreakers Beach Party] is his ode to his own Spicoli-ness, which is crazy. I was going nuts when he was doing it. I’ll never forget how that felt.”

READ MORE: The Gift That Tom Petty Gave Cameron Crowe

For kids growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, let’s be real — we saw some stuff.

Thanks to the lack of helicopter parents (latchkey kids unite!) and endless hours spent plopped in front of the TV eating sugary cereals, you could say the line between reality and fiction (and cavities and no cavities) was probably a bit blurred.

😈⬇️ Keep Scrolling for the Creepy Stuff 💀⬇️

For kids in the ’70s, the movies and TV they were exposed to were super raw. From Vietnam war films to scenes that left nothing to the imagination, there were little to no boundaries. We really did witness it all.

The “melting face” scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark and the haunting question of what might lurk beneath the surface were just two things that kept many of us awake at night.

In the ’80s, the rise of gruesome blockbusters took things to a new level. These films not only pushed the limits of visual effects but also brought an onslaught of blood, gore, and heart-pounding jump scares. Sharks, ghosts, melting faces … we had it all.

RELATED: 10 ’80s Movies That Could Never Be Made Today

There wasn’t such a thing as “parental controls.” I distinctly recall watching late-night movies by myself and thinking, “Oh god, this is going to give me nightmares…” You’d think that a kid growing up in an old, creaky house would know better than to start watching Amityville Horror at midnight … by himself.

Let’s break it down and take a look at the things that kept us ’70s and ’80s ragamuffins up at night. For the most part, we’re steering clear of the heavy, real-life stuff and focusing on the lighter, less serious things that gave us a good scare (or two) back in the day.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were in rehearsals for a tour. Which is normal most of the time, but due to the pandemic, a planned break ended up being six years long.

“Like every good boxing story, it’s like the spirit of, will they survive?,” director Thom Zimny tells UCR. “Will they train and get back in the ring? Will they survive the fight?”

By the time they took the stage in Tampa, Fla. in February of 2023, they were ready. Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the new film by Zimny, takes stock of the intense work that the Boss and his longtime musical comrades had to put in. As the filmmaker recalls, even as they struggled with slower tempos on legendary warhorse songs like “She’s the One,” they found their footing within days.

Road Diary, which is now available to watch on Hulu and Disney+, also goes beyond the tour preparations. It examines the interpersonal dynamics of the band and how unavoidable loss — the deaths of core members Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici, for example — were addressed and how those same losses are still felt here in the present day.

Longtime fans will find familiar topics like that addressed in a new light and for the newcomers out there, Road Diary is an engaging watch that demonstrates just why the world can’t let go of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. During a recent phone conversation, Zimny shared his experience of working on the film.

When it comes to working with Bruce, you’ve said you go in not knowing what to expect. You started without a story in a sense. When did you realize the arc of what this particular film was going to become?
The arc of the film came into focus the moment that I started to go back to the edit room and realized, “Wait a minute, he’s thumbing through the notebook in a certain way. There’s a certain intensity piecing together these songs. There’s something going on, and I have to look at it,” I realized that’s the storyteller, that master magician who’s able to take a group of songs, piece them together. So that was a key moment for me, which was examining the dailies of the film footage of the band in those early days of rehearsals. Watching Bruce put one song against another and discuss it with Stevie [Van Zandt], I knew I had something there. Because he was taking on the tour set list in a different way. He was trying to tell a bigger story and it was something I was witnessing. I didn’t discuss with him. I just continued to film. Then when I saw the live concert, I knew it was really impactful, that these choices that he made as a songwriter, he was putting together these songs to create a feeling. That’s what was happening in the concert. So it just proved to me, that this was a storyline that I needed to chase and explore.

Watch the ‘Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’ Trailer

How are things organized as far as the Thrill Hill archive with audio and video of Bruce and the band? You do an impressive job of weaving in very specific archival footage, both performance-wise and also Interview clips with folks like Danny and Clarence are no longer here. How do you go retrieve, or if it requires a search, find a quote or insight that you want?
Well, you have to know the material intimately. I have to treat the archive like a tool and a device to use in the film. You have to know the archive. You have to know the vault inside and out. So you have to watch full interviews. That interview that’s in the documentary with Clarence and with Danny, that was something that I shot myself. So I knew years ago that I had this material that I didn’t use and it just would work for the doc.

I liked Steven’s anecdote about being at the pre-show huddle and Bruce telling a story about how they were back in the same venue where he’d gotten booed off the stage opening for Chicago. What is one of your favorite anecdotes you heard from the old school E Street guys?
I love the early days of E Street, where they talk about Clarence Clemons cooking for the band, when they’re traveling in a tour bus and they wake up to the smell of breakfast, and there’s Clarence, like a short order cook delivering breakfast, you know, like this big brother. Those are my favorite moments, because it really, as a fan, it brings you into the world of E Street and the history. It literally places you in a time and a place. That’s part of the archive too — I found footage of Clarence in 1975 during the time of that story. Hearing him talk and seeing Bruce next to him, it’s really an amazing time machine, the archive, because it takes you back. Road Diary has a lot of those moments that I was able to dig out of the vault and show things that have never been seen.

READ MORE: How Bruce Springsteen Got His Nickname ‘The Boss’

I like that the film addresses the losses of Clarence and Danny, even though it’s been covered in the past, it feels like you go at it from a different and more specific angle.
Well, I wanted to talk about Danny and Clarence’s loss in a different way, where I wanted Bruce to reflect on how he’s coped with that loss.. One of the things that Jon Landau so beautifully explains is that when Bruce finds somebody, he stays with them. The people who took on the roles of filling in for the sounds of the sax, Jake [Clemons], Clarence’s nephew, and Charlie Giordano, who took the position playing the keyboards. You know, there are important elements in this narrative to explain how Bruce carried on that sound equality of E Street,, but also how they’re not just players filling in. They have their own connection to the E Street legacy and the E Street story. And there’s still that loss — the loss of Clarence and Danny is always going to be there — but their love and their power and their sonic connection returns nightly through the work of Jake and Charlie.

This is a very different band than when you started with in 2000 when you were working on footage for the Live in New York City concert film with Bruce’s team. They’ve added the choir, the horn section and so on. What’s been the most interesting thing for you as far as how this band has evolved?
What’s interesting [for me] is watching Bruce take on new tracks like “Nightshift” and how he incorporated the vocals and how he’s expanded on those songs. The other interesting thing too is the presence of horns. Having the additional horns in the band, it’s really remarkable because he’s taken it to a whole other place with songs from the past, like “Kitty’s Back.” The doc has a moment where they really explore how Bruce uses not only the horns, but how that song is a free for all jam and what it brings to the night. But it also [shows] Bruce the band leader, controlling the environment and the band, leading the band on through his body gestures and also spontaneity. Each night is a different version [of the show]. It might be the same set list, but the spirit is different.

READ MORE: Listen to Bruce Springsteen’s Cover of Commodores’ ‘Nightshift’

I like how you demonstrated the juxtaposition of the slow tempo that they were working on with “She’s the One,” using both footage from back in the day and the current rehearsals. That was fascinating to see how it all lined up visually and musically with what they were struggling with.
Thank you. Yeah, one of the things I wanted was for the film to be truthful. When you get to the space of the band first coming back together, they are brushing off a bit of rust and dust from not playing together for six years. So I wanted “She’s the One,” that sequence where they’re playing it a little too slow, I wanted that to be explored. Because it sets up the challenge of acknowledging their age, acknowledging the time they haven’t played. Like every good boxing story, it’s like the spirit of, will they survive? Will they train and get back in the ring? Will they survive the fight? So it’s a metaphor for the story, in many ways, that whole sequence of playing the song too slow, but at the same time, it’s great just to see E Street, within days kick in and really find the tempo.