Music News
LYNYRD SKYNYRD: In Toronto With Kid Rock
Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd will share a stage next Thursday at New York's Madison Square Garden and will then take their Rock and Rebels Tour across the country in August. The nine-show jaunt will begin August 8th in Oklahoma City. ...Read more
DEF LEPPARD: Nine to Five
Def Leppard's 14th career album, Songs From the Sparkle Lounge, will debut at number-five on next week's Billboard album chart after first-week sales of 55-thousand copies, according to SoundScan. That makes it their highest-charting debut since 1992's Adrenalize. ...Read more
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Lights It Up at Theater Show
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band did their first theater show in 28 years last night, a benefit for the Count Basie Theater in Bruce's backyard of Red Bank, New Jersey. It will go down as one of their greatest shows ever. Upon taking the stage, Springsteen announced that were doing his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town in sequence. ...Read more
STING: Feels Stung
Sting disputes a New York Post report that says only 41-percent of two-point-one-million dollars raised at his 2006 Rainforest Foundation benefit concert in New York went towards funding tree-saving programs. Speaking at an environmental initiative yesterday in New York ...Read more
JOHN MELLENCAMP: No Ghost of a Chance
The premiere of the musical John Mellencamp has written with author Stephen King, Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, has been postponed. It was scheduled to open next April at Atlanta's Alliance Theater, the theater says the production is being postponed because of "unanticipated scheduling problems which could not be resolved in time for the production ...Read more
PAUL McCARTNEY: Memory Almost Free
The U-K's Mail on Sunday will give away copies of Paul McCartney's most recent album, Memory Almost Full, with its May 18th edition. The disc only sold 100-thousand copies in the U-K, a disappointment considering all the press he did ...Read more
RANDOM NOTES: News on Bruce, Bad Company, Clapton, Winwood and Guess Who.
In addition to Queen and Paul Rodgers, the Nelson Mandela 90th birthday concert in London's Hyde Park on June 27th will feature appearances by former President Bill Clinton, Will Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Robert De Niro and Forest Whitaker. Among the performers are Annie Lennox, Simple Minds and Shirley Bassey. ...Read more
EAGLES: Every Other Month
97 Rock has learned that instead of announcing a full tour, the Eagles are announcing scattered dates for their outing in support of Long Road Out of Eden. Don Henley tells us, "This summer we're gonna tour every other month ...Read more
ROGER WATERS: New Album?
Roger Waters has been working intermittently on new material, but what form it will take is still up in the air. He says, "I've got a bunch of songs, and when I get some time something will develop... It might be that it's two albums; it might be one political album, and it might be one album that's about love. Or they might be connected. I just don't know." ...Read more
RANDOM NOTES: News on Roger Daltry, Ringo Starr, Jimi Hendrix and more.
Jimi Hendrix is back in the news again, but this time his clothes don't have to come off. Later this month, the Celebrity Vault gallery in Beverly Hills will unveil a collection of Hendrix photos called Hendrix Revealed: A Life Through the Lens. The exhibition, which opens with a V-I-P reception on May 29th, boasts more than 30 photos taken between 1967 and 1970. ...Read more
PEARL JAM: New Album in the Works
Pearl Jam have been warming up for a June tour by working on an album with producer Brendan O'Brien. It's the first project the band has done with O'Brien since 1998's Yield. ...Read more
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Rare Theater Gig
Bruce Springsteen's solo show this Wednesday in Red Bank, New Jersey -- a benefit to raise funds for the renovation of the Count Basie Theater -- is now an E Street Band gig. This will be their first theater show since 1980. Springsteen and the band wrapped another North American leg of their Magic tour Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Springsteen tossed in one more tour premiere, "I Wanna Be With You." ...Read more
VH, AEROSMITH: Among the Best
One of Rob O'Connor's recent List(s) of the Day on Yahoo featured the 25 Best and Worst Hair Metal Bands. While Van Halen, Aerosmith and Ozzy Osbourne pre-date the "hair band era," they did make the list of the 25 best, which is topped by Guns n' Roses. Over on the worst side, Poison is at number-one. The only other acts with classic rock connections on that list are Whitesnake, Damn Yankees and Bad English. ...Read more
DANNY FEDERICI: The Day Before the End
On April 16th, the day before E Street Band keyboard player Danny Federici succumbed to melanoma, the entire band visited him in his New York hospital room. Drummer Max Weinberg tells Rolling Stone, "All of us were singing songs [and] Danny was taking it in. Danny was the glue that held the E Street Band together. He was an unrestrained personality that created wildness in the music. ...Read more
JIMI HENDRIX: Family Reaction
Experience Hendrix, the family company that runs the estate of Jimi Hendrix, has issued a statement in regards to an X-rated video allegedly showing Jimi engaging in a threesome. It says, in part, "We strongly dispute the claimed authenticity and affirmatively state that Experience Hendrix is neither involved in, nor have we authorized the distribution of this film. Further, we deplore this unsubstantiated exploitation of Jimi Hendrix. ...Read more
SPRINGSTEEN & GABRIEL: Influential
97 Rock reports that Bruce Springsteen and Peter Gabriel are among Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people. Springsteen was number-63 on the list among "Artists and Entertainers." ...Read more
ROGER WATERS: Pulled Pork Found
Roger Waters' inflatable pig, which blew away during his appearance Sunday at the Coachella festival in Indio, California, has been located. It was found shredded in the driveway of Susan Stoltz of La Quinta, California on Monday. ...Read more
THE POLICE: The Final Countdown
The Police start the final three legs of their reunion tour tonight in Ottawa, Canada, and head to Buffalo on Saturday. Drummer Stewart Copeland tells the Ottawa Citizen that with the end of the tour in sight, they will have "completed [their] mission. ...Read more
RANDOM NOTES:Queen, Fogerty, Bruce to Play Ball at Rock Hall
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is paying tribute to baseball with its Take Me Out to the Ballgame exhibit. Included are a number of songs with tie-ins to America's pastime, including Queen's "We Will Rock You," Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days," John Fogerty's "Centerfield" and Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson." The exhibit runs through September 28th. ...Read more
ELTON JOHN: Headed North
Elton John is making good on a promise to perform in the three states he'd never visited before this year. He's already played a show in Newark, Delaware, and now he's scheduled dates in Alaska and Vermont. ...Read more
JIMI HENDRIX: Bold as Porn
Jimi Hendrix is the subject of an X-rated D-V-D, Jimi Hendrix, the Sex Tape, that will be released by Vivid Entertainment Tuesday. Vivid obtained the footage, which shows Hendrix in a threesome in a hotel room, from a memorabilia collector. ...Read more
JOHN LENNON: "Peace" Lyrics to be Auctioned
A handwritten copy of John Lennon's lyrics to "Give Peace a Chance" will be auctioned July 10th in London. The paper, given to Gail Renard -- a Montreal teenager who snuck past security at the city's Queen Elizabeth Hotel during John and Yoko's Bed-in for Peace in 1969 -- is part of a collection that also includes photos taken ...Read more
THE WHO: Not This Year
Pete Townshend has changed his mind about a new project for The Who this year. In the band's fan club newsletter, he says, "I've E-mailed everyone (in the band) to tell them I've changed my mind. I'm not mad. I'm not selfish. ...Read more
CLAPTON, ROBERTSON: Album Update
Longtime friends Eric Clapton and Robbie Robertson have told our 97 Rock reporters that they have started recording their first album together last month in London, and according to a source close to Robertson, it is "gong well." They've been working with drummer Ian Thomas and bass player Pino Palladino ...Read more
TOM PETTY: Has a Crutch to Share
Mudcrutch, the band Tom Petty fronted before forming the Heartbreakers, will release its debut album today. Recorded last August, the album, according to the liner notes, was done "live -- vocals, harmony, everything. Arrangements [were] done on [the] studio floor. Made in 10 days, [and] no headphones [were used]." It contains 14 songs ...Read more
ROGER WATERS (VIDEO): Ten Grand for the missing inflatable Pig!
97 Rock has learned that organizers of this past weekend's Coachella Music and Arts Festival are offering a 10-thousand-dollar reward plus four lifetime event passes to whoever locates the giant graffiti-covered inflatable pig that was sent aloft at the end of Roger Waters' first set Sunday night. ...Read more
STEVE WINWOOD: Number Nine
Steve Winwood releases his ninth solo album today, which contains nine songs, hence the title, Nine Lives. Like most of his albums, he harkens back to his days in Traffic by creating a "melting pot" of sounds on Nine Lives. ...Read more
ERIC CLAPTON: Band changes
97 Rock has learned that Eric Clapton is changing up his band again for his spring and summer tour of the eastern U-S, Canada and Europe. Doyle Bramhall the Second and Chris Stainton remain on guitar and keyboards, but Willie Weeks has been replaced on bass by Pino Palladino, who tours with The Who. ...Read more
DANNY FEDERICI: Video Tributes
The recent death of Bruce Springsteen's longtime E Street Band keyboardist Danny Federici has spurned several YouTube video tributes, which 97 Rock has posted: ...Read more
AC/DC: Album Done
It took them more than eight years to enter the studio, but once A-C/D-C started recording, it took little time to finish their next album. Singer Brian Johnson says Angus and Malcolm Young are in Vancouver mixing it with producer Brendan O'Brien. The album will be out later this year, followed by a tour. ...Read more
STEVE MILLER: Blues Times Three
Steve Miller finished recording three blues albums last week in Northern California. He tells us, "I just spent the last three months going through my entire blues collection." He says he boiled down 56-hundred songs to 50 for the three discs ...Read more
U2: Album Update
U-2 are moving ahead on their next album. The Edge says, "We went into this project allowing ourselves the indulgence of making music without thinking about where it was going to end up. We're starting to get serious now." No word on a release date -- Edge adds, "It won't be in the next few months." Their last studio album was 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. ...Read more
GENESIS: Rome in London
Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford will attend the May 20th London premiere of their forthcoming D-V-D, When in Rome 2007. They will also take part in a question-and-answer session as the entire event is simulcast to theaters across the U-K. ...Read more
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: An Emotional Night In Tampa
Just five days after keyboardist Danny Federici died of melanoma, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were back onstage in Tampa, Florida last night for a highly emotional and intense show. The concert started out with Springsteen walking out and saying, "We want to start with a little something for Danny." ...Read more
RICHIE SAMBORA: Fall From Grace Continues
Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora was officially charged yesterday in Laguna Beach, California with misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood-alcohol level of point-oh-eight or more. T-M-Z is reporting that he pled no contest to driving with the high blood alcohol level ...Read more
GENE SIMMONS: High Five for Female Driver
Our 97 Rock reporters caught up with Gene Simmons, whose Simmons-Abramson Marketing firm handles Indy Car marketing and branding, has nothing but good things to say about Danica Patrick, who became the first Indy Car driver to win a race over the weekend in Japan. Simmons says, "Danica is a firecracker ...Read more
BOSTON: Coming to Western New York
97 Rock has learned that as Boston continues to tinker with their summer schedule, their first tour since the suicide of singer Brad Delp last year, they will appear at the Seneca Allegany Casino in August. Taking Delp's place will be Stryper frontman Michael Sweet and Delp sound-alike Tommy DeCarlo. ...Read more
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