Donald Fagen says, "There’s a very good reason there will be no new music issued under the Steely Dan moniker — namely, everyone knows Steely Dan was me and [the late] Walter [Becker]." But there will be another Fagen solo project. He tells The Salt Lake City Tribune it's "maybe two-thirds…written" and he’ll probably book studio time after wrapping up this summer's Steely Dan tour with The Doobie Brothers. Fagen hopes to get it out "in the next couple of years."
The Who’s Facebook page links to an excerpt from Kenney Jones's autobiography, Let the Good Times Roll: My Life in The Small Faces, The Faces and The Who. It’s out now in England and will be published in the U.S. in September.
Black Sabbath brought their touring career to an end last year, but they never said they wouldn’t play again. So, if Ozzy Osbourne gets his wish, they’ll perform in 2022 at the Commonwealth Games in their hometown of Birmingham, England.
Let’s Go! Benjamin Orr and The Cars, Joe Millikin’s biography of the band’s late bassist and singer, will be published on November 15th.
U2 broke out “The Electric Company,” from their first album, Boy, Saturday night in Uniondale, New York. It was the song’s first performance since 2015.
Robbie Robertson tweeted, “I admired Anthony Bourdain. Blessings to his family and friends.” Steve Van Zandt says, “Shocked by the terrible loss of Anthony Bourdain. Why is it always the best of us?” And Ted Nugent gets right down to it with, “Adios & Godspeed my kill it & grill it bloodbrother Anthony Bourdain.”
Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones attended the Festival of Writing and Ideas in Ireland over the weekend. He took part in a question-and-answer session and sat in with a band at a pub.
Scream for Help, a 1984 horror film for which John Paul Jones did the soundtrack, will be released on Blu-ray on September 18th.
Paul McCartney added his signature to the graffiti-filled Penny Lane street sign in Liverpool while he was there on Saturday.
Steve Miller and Peter Frampton start their summer tour tomorrow night (Tuesday) in Evansville, Indiana. It runs through July 3rd in Lewiston, New York.
The Charlie Daniels Band, Blackberry Smoke and The Marshall Tucker Band have been added to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Last of the Street Survivors homecoming show in Jacksonville, Florida on September 2nd.
Little Feat will perform at a benefit for the ARC Angels Foundation on August 11th at The Pageant Theater in St. Louis. ARC Angels Foundation helps high school students at risk for suicide.
Cheap Trick has been added to the Journey-Def Leppard show at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on August 24th. The same triple bill will also play Minneapolis and Boston. In December, Cheap Trick will tour the U.K. with Def Leppard.
Michael Anthony performed Van Halen’s “Jump” with the School of Rock band at the Children’s Hospital LA's Walk and Play LA fundraiser on Saturday. He says, “I want to thank everyone who donated through me to the hospital. I can’t tell you how much it means to our family.” Anthony took part in memory of his grandson Rex, who died of heart disease last year.
Ian Anderson’s show this Wednesday in Sacramento, California can be heard live on Jethro Tull Web Radio at 8 p.m. PT. You can access it at JethroTull.com.
Joe Walsh will stage his second VetsAid benefit concert on November 11th (Veterans Day) at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington. Guests will be announced over the summer. Last year’s show featured the Zac Brown Band, Keith Urban and Gary Clark Jr. Proceeds go to veterans’ service organizations.
Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee has relisted his Calabasas, California home for $4.65 million. He tried to sell it in 2016 for $6-million.
Moody Blues bassist John Lodge and his solo band will tour the U.S. in the fall and the U.K. next spring.
Ann Wilson has set September 14th as the release date for Immortal, her covers album of songs by dead artists, including Leonard Cohen, Amy Winehouse, David Bowie, Chris Cornell, Tom Petty, George Michael and the Eagles ("Life in the Fast Lane" in tribute to Glenn Frey, who didn’t sing it).
Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen has launched BonSac, a luxury bag company. He says, “In my world of rock and roll, with so many artists choosing compassion over conventional fashion, style with conscience is the future." The bags are now available on Amazon; the full collection will be out in the fall.
Journey's Neal Schon worked two songs into a guitar solo on Memorial Day in Cleveland. He says, “I thought about playing ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ but then when it came time to pay respect I fell into a free-form version of ‘America the Beautiful’ and ‘Amazing Grace.’ It’s always fun to be non-predictable.”
Eric Clapton sites warn fans, “There are a number of fake Eric Clapton social media sites including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook requesting ‘donations’ in Eric's name. When we find these sites we have them taken down. Please don't make ‘donations’ to these sites, they are a scam.”
The Cheap Trick-Poison show in Nashville that was moved from this Thursday to last night (Tuesday) has now been rescheduled for June 28th due to inclement weather.
Bon Jovi will post behind-the-scenes footage from the recent North American leg of their This House Is Not for Sale tour on Facebook starting Wednesday.
Warren Haynes will open up Gov't Mule's September 14th show at Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado with a solo set. The Mule will do a standard set and then close the night with their Pink Floyd show, Dark Side of the Mule.
David Byrne was spotted singing "When Doves Cry" by Prince at a karaoke night in Portland, Oregon over the weekend.
John Bonham’s 70th birthday was marked Thursday by the unveiling of a statue of the Led Zeppelin drummer in his hometown of Redditch, England. The bronze sculpture of Bonham behind his drum kit is life-sized and weighs more than 5,000 pounds. It’s covered in anti-graffiti paint and emblazoned with an ungrammatical sentence: "The most outstanding and original drummer of his time, John Bonham's popularity and influence continue to resonate with the world of music and beyond." Bonham died on September 25th, 1980 at the age of 32.
Peach Picks: Cream of the Crop 2003, a 36-track live Allman Brothers Band compilation, will be released on June 15th by the band’s Peach Records. Seven of the songs are already available to listen to on Spotify.
Metallica have added an October 25th show at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia to their WorldWired tour.
Horses: Patti Smith and Her Band, the concert documentary that premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, is now streaming on Apple Music.
The Rolling Stones have taken note of a sad anniversary by tweeting, "One year on but never forgotten #ManchesterArena." The bombing at pop star Ariana Grande’s concert happened on May 22nd, 2017.
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s first album, Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd, has been issued on blue vinyl in celebration of its 45th anniversary. Only 3000 copies have been pressed.
A documentary on former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman is in the works. He says he agreed to do The Quiet One to tell his “story right. I’ve had an unusual life… The best thing about working on the documentary was re-living the nice times. The worst was getting emotional at times… But I can’t get everything into the film that I hoped for. My life is a bit like War and Peace.”
Jack Osbourne’s wife Lisa has filed for divorce after seven years of marriage. In a joint statement on both their Instagram accounts, they noted that the news of their separation would “come as a bit of a shock to everyone.” They say they “absolutely still love each other,” that their “family is the most important thing” in their lives, and that they “tried everything they could for many years to make it work.” They say they “remain best friends” and are committed to raising their three children together.
Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains and Elle King make cameos in the new video from Shooter Jennings for "Fast Horses and Good Hideouts."
Former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts prepared for his first tour in four years with a rehearsal show on Wednesday in his hometown of Sarasota, Florida. He’s paying tribute to Gregg Allman by playing some of the songs Allman wrote or is known for -- including “Midnight Rider,” “Whipping Post” and “Statesboro Blues.” The tour started last night (Thursday) in Macon, Georgia.
Allman Brothers Band percussionist Marc Quiñones has joined The Doobies Brothersfor their spring and summer tour with Steely Dan.
A line of hand-sculpted bobble-heads inspired by The Grateful Dead will soon be sold by Kollectico.
Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain will release the album The Songs You Leave Behindon June 8th. Journey and Def Leppard start their tour Monday in Hartford, Connecticut.
Colin Blunstone is working on a solo album. The Zombies vocalist says, "We’re really hoping to make some progress over the summer months… I can’t wait to hear some of these tracks finished!"
Steven Tyler’s documentary, Out on a Limb, is now on iTunes and On Demand. He says, “Hold out for the X-rated version next year.”
Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells a Story, which includes "Maggie May," has been reissued on purple vinyl in an edition of 2000.
Foreigner With the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra & Chorus recently debuted at number-one on both Billboard’s Classical and Classical Crossover charts. Although the album sales number (3,000) was nothing to write home about for a pop release, it’s enough to top charts in the classical world.
With the number-31 debut of “Shadow of Your Love,” Guns n’ Roses have a single on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Songs chart for the first time since “Better” in 2009. The song, off the upcoming expanded edition of Appetite for Destruction, is the first cut by the original G n’ R lineup to chart since “Patience,” which peaked at number-seven in 1989. The album comes out June 29th.
Metallica will do a stadium tour in Europe in 2019. The dates and venues reportedly won’t be announced until September.
The Lynyrd Skynyrd documentary, If I Leave Here Tomorrow, will be screened at the Nashville Film Festival on Friday (5/11)
Joe Elliott of Def Leppard will tape an appearance on the PBS show Speakeasy next Friday at the Iridium club in New York. Elliott was last on the show when he interviewed Ian Hunter in 2016.
The Cheap Trick-Poison show in Nashville on May 31st has been moved to May 29th. The tour starts on May 18th in Irvine, California.
Gov’t Mule will team up with The Magpie Salute for a summer tour starting August 17th in Charlotte and ending September 2nd in Sun Valley, Idaho. At that last show, Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real will replace The Magpie Salute.
Peter Buck of R.E.M. says he and Joseph Arthur have "written some new songs for the tour, which will happen in September and beyond." The pair's album, Arthur Buck, is due out next month.
Cheap Trick's creative juices are flowing, and they'll release a new song next week.
"The Summer Looks Good on You" will be out on May 18th. Their spokesman says the album they've been working on does not yet have a release date.
Since signing to Big Machine Records in 2016, Cheap Trick have released three albums: Bang Zoom Crazy...Hello, We're All Alright! and Christmas Christmas.
Steven Tyler did some recording in Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama last week ahead of Aerosmith’s performance at JazzFest in New Orleans on Saturday. He writes on Facebook, “Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, The Stones, Little Richard…they all made some beautiful music and it all went down in legendary Muscle Shoals. You’re a small town with a big heart. Thank you for making us feel welcome. Nothing but love for you.”
38 years after its release, Back in Black by AC/DC re-entered the Billboard 200album chart dated last Friday at number-152, mostly on the strength of a Record Store Day cassette re-issue. Nearly 39 years after The Police debuted with Reggatta de Blanc, Sting captured his first number-one on Billboard’s reggae chart for 44/876, his duet album with Jamaican artist Shaggy.
Poco have been added to next February’s On the Blue Cruise starring Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues, along with Dave Mason, Steve Hackett, Alan Parsons, The Zombies and many others.
Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell tells a Nebraska radio station that there's a "very strong chance" the band will "at least start on a new record next year." He says making new albums is one of the things that keeps the group vital. On the other hand, there’s AC/DC drummer Chris Slade, who when asked whether plans are afoot to record an album with Axl Rose on vocals, replied that his “lips are sealed” and if he knew, he “couldn't say a word anyway.”
The two new Fleetwood Mac members performed together for the first time in public last Thursday, when Mike Campbell joined Neil Finn and Finn’s son Liam for two songs at Largo in L.A. They played an obscure Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac single, “Man of the World,” and David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream.”