Classic Hits

The Grammys weren’t the only awards show to announce its nominees Friday. The concert trade publication Pollstar has also revealed its nominees for the 2025 Pollstar Awards.

Up for the Rock Tour of the Year prize are Foo Fighters, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Green Day, blink-182, Metallica and Coldplay. 

Coldplay is also nominated for the all-genre Major Tour of the Year prize, along with Noah Kahan.

Other nominees include Paramore and The Smashing Pumpkins for Support/Special Guest of the Year for opening for Taylor Swift and Green Day, respectively, Billie Eilish for Pop Tour of the Year, and Sleep Token for New Headliner of the Year.

Meanwhile, the Residency of the Year category includes U2, Dead & Company and Eagles‘ runs at the Las Vegas Sphere, and Billy Joel‘s residency at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, which concluded in July after 10 years.

The 2025 Pollstar Awards will take place Feb. 19.

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KISS fans are no doubt disappointed that the band’s live career has come to an end, but even the band’s Paul Stanley says he’s having trouble getting used to the idea.

In a preview of an upcoming interview on the Rock of Nations podcast, Stanley says that it’s been an “adjustment” for him to realize that, after 50 years, he isn’t going to be touring in the near future.

“There’s no way to give that up and not feel a sense of, if not lost, kind of disoriented,” he says. “It was time [to stop] and intellectually it made sense, but that doesn’t mean that emotionally it doesn’t play a part in it. So, yeah, being home … is normal. What’s not normal is I’m not going back out.”

“KISS remains. We’re so involved in what’s going on now and the future and this phenomenal, mind-boggling KISS avatar show,” he continues. “But, yeah, to not be up there — I see video from 10 months ago, 11 months ago and it almost seems like a lifetime ago, because I’ve kind of come to grips with not doing that again.”

Referring to the band’s planned avatar show, which will feature holographic representations of each member in makeup as their iconic characters, Stanley noted, “Star Child is forever — but me up there, that’s done.”

Incidentally, November marks the 51st anniversary of KISS signing their first record contract.

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Art Garfunkel and his son Art Garfunkel Jr. have teamed up for a joint album — called, appropriately, Father And Son — which features them covering songs from the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

The album is out now, and includes the two singing everything from Cyndi Lauper‘s “Time After Time” and The Everly Brothers‘ “Let It Be Me” to Eurythmics‘ “Here Comes the Rain Again” and Nat King Cole‘s “Nature Boy.” The two even duet on the Simon & Garfunkel classic “Old Friends.”

“I like to say my son is a better singer than I am. I mean, I’m pretty good … but he is better … it’s very thrilling to record with him now,” the elder Garfunkel says in a statement. “The new album is a love letter. It brings us together.”

The younger singer, born James Garfunkel in 1990, says, “It’s truly a father-son project. I brought more of the 80s influences into the project, and my father brought more of the Great American Songbook – wonderful songs from the 1940s and so on. These two influences came together in a pretty exciting way.”

The father-son duo will do a residency at New York City’s The Carlyle hotel from Nov. 12 through Nov. 16.

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Fans who missed U2‘s acclaimed residency at Sphere Las Vegas now have more chances to enjoy the concert film of the event.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that V-U2 An Immersive Concert Film at Sphere Las Vegas, which has been running at Sphere since Sept. 5, has been extended to the end of February 2025. The final date is now Feb. 27; you can choose either a 7 p.m. or a 9:30 p.m. screening, depending on the day. Visit Ticketmaster for all the information.

Of course, the downside is that you have to go to Las Vegas to see the film — it’s only showing at Sphere, with tickets starting at $98.

As previously reported, the film, directed by U2 guitarist The Edge and his wife, Morleigh Steinberg, captures the band during their residency, which ran from September 2023 to March 2024. Over that time, the band played to 700,000 fans. The concert was shot with Sphere’s high-res camera system.

The Eagles are currently headlining a residency at Sphere that will run through March. There are rumors that an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz is being developed to play at the venue later next year.

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Ahead of the release of the box set focused on Queen‘s 1973 debut album, the band issued a 7-inch vinyl single of “The Night Comes Down.” The latest episode of the band’s Queen: The Greatest video series now focuses on the creation of that song.

According to a press release, the song, written by guitarist Brian May, is “perhaps the most enigmatic song in Queen’s five-decade catalogue” due to its “otherworldly instrumental,” “soul-baring lyric” and the fact that the band never performed it live.

May says in the video, “The song, actually, was about those moments when you’re not jolly. When you feel like you’ve lost it. When I look back at it, I was very young to be writing that stuff, but I did get depressed in those days.”

He adds, “It was always about relationships. And I had moments when I thought, ‘I’m in a great place, I can make music. I’m with great friends … everything’s great.’ And then, somehow, everything would fall apart, and then it’s like the night came down in my head. So that’s what it’s about. It’s not a jolly song.”

May then taught the song to singer Freddie Mercury, who he says “as always would make it his own and take it to the next level.”

May also digs up the original guitar he used to record the tune, a “very cheap” one he’d restrung with wire strings. That created a unique buzzy sound that he compares to “a sitar but warmer.” May says he used the guitar “all over” the first Queen album.

The Queen I box set, out now, comprises 63 tracks with 43 brand-new mixes, as well as alternative takes, demos and rare live tracks.

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Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer Kenney Jones, known for his work with The Small Faces, Faces and The Who, has revealed that his son Jesse has passed away.

On his official Facebook page, Jones, 76, wrote, “It is with a broken heart that I share the devastating news that my son Jesse has passed. I don’t have the words right now to fully express how I am feeling. But I want to thank you all for your kind wishes at this indescribably painful time and ask for continued love, respect and privacy as we try to navigate this profound loss as a family.“

Jones didn’t share the cause of his son’s death. Jesse was one of his six children from two marriages.

Jones is the only surviving member of The Small Faces, which morphed into Faces after their lead singer, Steve Marriott, left to form Humble Pie, and Rod Stewart and Ron Wood joined. The two bands were jointly inducted into the Rock Hall in 2012. In 1978, Jones replaced the late Keith Moon in The Who and played on their albums Face Dances and It’s Hard. 

In the early ’90s, after his stint in The Who, Jones formed The Law with Bad Company‘s Paul Rodgers; in 2001, he formed The Jones Gang. He’s also played with The Rolling Stones, Wings, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and the individual members of The Who.

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David Gilmour wants you to know that no, Pink Floyd did not design The Dark Side of the Moon to sync up with the movie The Wizard of Oz.

While appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote his new album, Luck and Strange, the guitarist was asked to clear up an age-old rumor: that the album was deliberately created to provide a soundtrack to the classic Judy Garland film. “No. I mean, I only heard about it years later,” Gilmour told Fallon.

“Someone said you put the needle — and you’ve got the film running somehow — and on the third roar of the MGM lion, you put the needle on for the beginning of Dark Side, and there’s these strange synchronicities that happen,” he continued.

Gilmour said he had tried it, though he didn’t really have to, considering how many people on the internet have done it for him.

“Now people have done the donkey work, the chore work and added it on YouTube,” he said. “You can watch bits and there are these strange coincidences. I’ll call them coincidences.”

Gilmour also denied the rumor that hearing himself cough on the song “Wish You Were Here” made him stop smoking. And he confirmed that before he joined Floyd, he indeed worked as a model — simply because it paid better than his regular job as a van driver.

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Sting was recently announced as a mega mentor for the Knockout Rounds of NBC’s The Voice, where he’ll advise Snoop Dogg and Gwen Stefani‘s teams. But he tells People he wasn’t sure about accepting the gig, since he’d never watched the show before.

“I’d never seen The Voice,” he tells People. “When I was given the premise of the show, I was a little bit anxious, but I know Gwen very well. I’m a big admirer of Snoop Dogg, and so I thought, I’m going to take a risk. I’m going to go on the show even though I’m a little trepidatious.”

But he says once he got into it, he found coaching the contestants to be “nourishing and joyful.”

He says, “I really feel good about the show. I feel good about myself, and I feel good about the young singers who are putting themselves through this ordeal. It is an ordeal, but I’ve loved it so far.”

Sting had a unique perspective, given that he was a teacher before he became a rock superstar.

“In teaching, there’s no such thing as teaching, actually. What happens in a classroom is learning and people learn through enthusiasm,” he says. “A teacher’s job is just to be enthusiastic, show appreciation, curiosity. And that’s your job here [on The Voice].”

Sting also welcomed the opportunity to work with Stefani. The two first met when she was a 13-year-old Police fan. In 2003 they played the Super Bowl halftime show together, and she inducted The Police into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that same year.

“I’m so impressed by her ability to communicate with the singers so succinctly and so intelligently, so compassionately,” he notes. As for Snoop, Sting worked with the rapper on his upcoming solo album, Missionary.

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On This Day, Nov. 8, 1971 …

Led Zeppelin released their fourth studio album, which became known as Led Zeppelin IV.

The album featured what became their signature tune, “Stairway to Heaven,” along with such future classics as “Going to California,” “The Battle of Evermore,” “When the Levee Breaks” and “Rock and Roll.” 

The album went to #1 in Britain and Canada, and peaked at #2 in the U.S. It is Led Zeppelin’s bestselling album, moving over 37 million copies worldwide.

Led Zeppelin IV is often included on lists of the greatest albums of all time. In 1999 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

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Valerie Bertinelli was married to Eddie Van Halen for more than 25 years, but she isn’t rushing to read Brothers, the new book by Alex Van Halen that came out Oct. 22.

Appearing on The Drew Barrymore Show on Nov. 7, Bertinelli says she was “shaking” just thinking about reading the book, which has been sitting in her house for awhile now. “It’s going to be emotional,” she said. “It’s going to be very emotional, because I love these two men. They are good men and they are very complicated men.”

The actress said Alex told her last year he was writing the book, which surprised her. “He’s a very private man, and for him to do this is extraordinary. And to do it so beautifully — I’m so proud of you, Al. I’m so happy that you wrote your story.”

Brothers is about the relationship between Alex and Eddie, who died of cancer in 2020 at age 65.

“I truly believe that [through the book], people get a different insight into Ed the man, and not the icon, or whatever you think you might know about him,” Bertinelli continued. “He was not that. He was a gentle, gentle soul who went through extreme trauma and Al did, too.”

Bertinelli concluded by congratulating her former brother-in-law on his bestseller.

The One Day at a Time star married Eddie in 1981; they shared a son, Wolfgang Van Halen, leader of the band Mammoth WVH. They were officially divorced in 2007. In 2009, Eddie married Janie Liszewski. Both Janie and Valerie were at his bedside when he died.

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