Classic Hits

This past Saturday, the same day Journey rocked Chicago’s Lollapalooza festival, the band’s co-founder, Neal Schon, auctioned off a collection of his guitars, in the process bringing in a whopping $4.2 million.

More than 90 instruments were sold in total, among them the 1977 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe Black Solid Body model that Schon used to record many songs on Journey’s chart-topping 1981 album, Escape, including “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

That guitar was purchased for $268,000, including fees, by Indianapolis Colts owner and renowned memorabilia collector Jim Irsay.

Irsay, who says he plans to include Schon’s guitar in a museum hopes to open in the future, previously has purchased historic instruments that have belonged to Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Elton John, Jerry Garcia, and David Gilmour.

“I look forward to sharing this and other pieces of the collection in the hopes that they may educate and inspire others to do great, meaningful things,” Irsay said.

The two guitars that brought the most money at Schon’s auction were a pair of 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard Sunburst models that sold for $350,000 and $300,000, respectively.

Other high-priced instruments sold during the auction included a 1959 Gibson ES-335 Natural Semi-Hollow Body guitar that fetched $137,500, a 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop Solid Body that brought in $131,250, and a 1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard Goldtop Solid Body that was purchased for $125,000.

Check out the full results of the auction at HA.com.

Journey’s next concert is scheduled for August 20 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Visit JourneyMusic.com for a complete list of the band’s shows.

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The upcoming official Led Zeppelin documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin has been added to the lineup of the 2021 edition of Italy’s Venice International Film Festival, which runs from September 1 through September 11.

The movie will be screened as part of the out-of-competition section of the festival.

As previously reported, Becoming Led Zeppelin features new interviews with band members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, as well as archival interviews with late drummer John Bonham.

The film, which was directed by Bernard McMahon, follows the individual paths of Led Zeppelin’s four members through their various groups and musical endeavors en route to becoming part of one of the biggest and most influential rock bands in the world. The documentary ends in 1970, at the height of Led Zeppelin’s meteoric rise.

“With Becoming Led Zeppelin my goal was to make a documentary that looks and feels like a musical,” McMahon says in a statement. “I wanted to weave together the four diverse stories of the band members before and after they formed their group with large sections of their story advanced using only music and imagery and to contextualize the music with the locations where it was created and the world events that inspired it.”

McMahon adds, “I used only original prints and negatives, with over 70,000 frames of footage manually restored, and devised fantasia sequences, inspired by Singin’ in the Rain, layering unseen performance footage with montages of posters, tickets and travel to create a visual sense of the freneticism of their early career.”

McMahon also directed American Epic, an award-winning documentary series focusing on American roots music and its impact on the world.

Becoming Led Zeppelin was co-written and produced by Allison McGourty, who also co-wrote American Epic.

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Ahead of the release of his second blues-inspired solo album, Under Your Spell, Tito Jackson is setting the record straight about the status of The Jacksons. Contrary to the rumors, Tito says he and his brothers Jackie, Jermaine and Marlon are still together and touring, but just not necessarily in the U.S.

“We have always been together and we work tremendously,” he tells ABC Audio. “I would say 90 percent of our work comes in other countries. So we’re always in Europe or Brazil or Asia or somewhere in Russia doing shows.”

In fact, Jackson says The Jackson 5, which included himself, Jermaine, Jackie, Marlon and Michael, would still be touring together today — if Michael was still alive.

“Sad thing for us all is that when Michael was going to do the O2 [arena shows], we had planned to do another tour of the complete members,” Jackson says. “And that never came to fruition… But, we will always sing together as long as we can, as long as the brothers are healthy enough to do so.”

While MJ’s planned 2009 concert residency at London’s O2 Arena, and a subsequent Jackson family tour never took place because of Michael’s untimely death, Tito says other options to reunite The Jackson 5 are being discussed.

Tito says the idea of incorporating an MJ hologram into a Jackson 5 reunion tour has “been discussed a few times, [but]…to have it done [takes] a tremendous knowledge, work in technology, what have you.”

Jackson adds, “And it’s not a cheap process. It’s getting cheaper and cheaper as time goes along. But to have a hologram Jacksons show live…would be the next thing.” 

Under Your Spell arrives this Friday, August 6, on the usual platforms.

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Sir Paul McCartney is hoping to encourage more of his fans to get the COVID-19 vaccine if they haven’t already done so.

Taking to Instagram on Monday, the 79-year-old music legend shared a photo of him getting the jab and captioned his post in all capital letters, “BE COOL. GET VAX’D.”

Sir Paul opted to wear navy blue beanie, navy sweater and a matching face mask for his appointment.

The former Beatles member shared his latest PSA as COVID-19 infections caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant continue to rise worldwide.  

The music legend previously expressed to British publication The Sun that he was eager to be vaccinated, as it will allow him to perform before a live audience in the near future.

“The vaccine will get us out of this,” Paul said at the time. “I think we’ll come through it, I know we’ll come through, and it’s great news about the vaccine. I’ll have it as soon as I’m allowed.”

The British government reports that, as of Monday, nearly 90 percent of its adult population has obtained at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 72 percent of eligible adults are fully vaccinated.

COVID-19 has killed over 153,000 people in the U.K., according to government figures, and has infected nearly six million British citizens.

BE COOL. GET VAX’D – Paul pic.twitter.com/33PtIyub5X

— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) August 2, 2021

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In recent new episode of Marc Maron‘s WTF Podcast, Lindsey Buckingham says despite his firing from Fleetwood Mac in 2019, “pretty much everyone [in the band] would love to see me come back.”

Having said that, Buckingham admits that he’s not sure if returning to the group is “doable.”

Buckingham reveals that his conflicts with Fleetwood Mac began after he finished a tour with Christine McVie supporting their 2017 duo album when he asked if the band would delay its own planned trek so he could promote a solo album he was preparing.

“[I asked the band,] ‘I have this other album that I’m really proud of…and I’d love if you could give me an extra three months to just put it out and do some American dates before Fleetwood Mac goes out,'” Lindsey explains. “And there was certainly one person who did not want to bestow that on me.”

The “one person,” of course, was Stevie Nicks.

Buckingham adds, “To be fair, everyone was anxious to get on the road. But…we’ve all made time for each others things. You know, I’d been in the band for 43 years for God’s sake.”

Lindsey then notes that the touring issue “led to other things that kind of built up around that. And then it just got to the point where someone just didn’t want to work with me anymore, and other people were perhaps not feeling empowered enough to stand up for me when possibly they should have or could have.”

Buckingham said he feels his firing harmed the band’s legacy.”

Meanwhile, Lindsey reports that he’s still in touch with drummer Mick Fleetwood, noting, “we love each other and we reinforced each other’s sensibilities in the band.”

Buckingham’s new self-titled solo album will be released on September 17.

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The Beach Boys have debuted two more advance tracks from the band’s forthcoming box set, Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971, the release of which was recently pushed back from July 30 to August 27.

The tracks, an a cappella version of “Surf’s Up” and a newly created reimagined mix of “This Whole World,” are available now for download and via streaming services.

As previously reported, the Feel Flows collection, which you can pre-order now, features newly remastered versions of two of the band’s underappreciated albums — 1970’s Sunflower and 1971’s Surf’s Up — as well as 108 previously unreleased recordings from the sessions for those albums.

The harmony-laden “Surf’s Up” was the final song on The Beach Boys’ 1971 album of the same name, although the tune dates back to the band’s famously aborted late-1960s album, Shine.

“This Whole World” originally appeared on Sunflower, while the new mix features an alternate lead vocal by Carl Wilson, a lead vocal part from Brian Wilson on the bridge that wasn’t used on the original track, and an alternate ending previously only heard in an Eastern Airlines commercial that aired in 1971.

Feel Flows, which will be available as a five-CD set and digitally, features the aforementoned remastered versions of Sunflower and Surf’s Up, as well as rare live tracks, outtakes, alternate versions and mixes, radio promos, isolated backing tracks and a cappella renditions of songs, and more.

Abridged editions of the collection also will be released, including a two-CD package and a four-LP vinyl set available in standard black vinyl and limited-edition colored vinyl versions.

Check out the Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971 box set’s full track list, and more details, at uDiscoverMusic.com.

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After the sudden and unexpected death of ZZ Top‘s Dusty Hill last week, the group’s frontman, Billy Gibbons, revealed that the late bassist had recorded several tracks, including some vocals, that likely will appear on the band’s next album.

In a recent interview with Variety, Gibbons noted that the recordings were “gonna require some completion work,” while adding that Hill luckily laid down vocal tracks for two tunes.

“I handed Dusty a couple of lyric sheets and I said, ‘Hey, see if you can make heads or tails out of this,'” Billy recalled. “He said, ‘Can I sing it?’ I said, ‘Dusty, you could sing the calendar if you wanted to — people would love it.’ He goes, ‘Hey, that’s not a bad idea. If we ever get back to go to work, can we add the calendar into the show? I know all the words.'”

Gibbons also told Variety that he wasn’t sure about Hill’s cause of death, while noting that in recent years Dusty had broken a shoulder and a hip, and also had suffered from ulcers.  Dusty’s health issues prompted him to leave ZZ Top’s current tour after only a couple of shows, and the band tapped its longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis, to step in for him. Sadly, just a few days later, Hill passed away in his sleep at his home in Houston.

Gibbons said it was a coincidence that Francis had decided to stop shaving during the pandemic, so that when ZZ Top enlisted him to fill in for Hill, he’d already grown a long beard.

“I was looking over the front row and everybody was kind of giving each other the elbow, and they were pointing up and said, ‘Look, the ZZ Top circus still rolls on,'” Billy noted. “‘There’s another freak up there.'”

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Former Poco singer/guitarist Paul Cotton, who was one of the influential country-rock act’s main songwriters during his long tenure with the band, has died.

According to a post on his official Facebook page, Cotton “passed away unexpectedly, peacefully” at the age 78.

Cotton joined Poco in 1970, replacing founding member Jim Messina, in time to contribute to the band’s third studio album, 1971’s From the Inside.

After founding singer/guitarist Richie Furay left Poco in 1973, Cotton co-led the group with singer/pedal-steel player Rusty Young until 1987, when Paul exited the band. Among the many songs Cotton wrote for the Poco were “Indian Summer,” “Under the Gun” and “Heart of the Night,” the latter of which reached #20 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Cotton rejoined the band in 1991 and continued to play with them until 2010. He also released for solo studio albums, the most recent of which, 100% Paul Cotton, came out in 2014.

In 2015, Cotton was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame as a member of Poco and he reunited to perform with many of his former band mates at the ceremony.

Cotton’s Facebook page reports that a private and public celebration of his life and tribute concert will be held during the last week of January in Key West, Florida, where he and his wife resided for many years.

Paul’s death comes less than four months after the passing of Young, who died of a heart attack at age 75 in April.

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Just prior to her death, Aretha Franklin cast her handprints in concrete in 2017. Three years later, they’ve finally found a permanent home.

The Detroit native’s hand prints were unveiled Sunday, according to the Detroit Free Press, to celebrate a new exhibit from the Detroit Historical Museum honoring the late legend.  Originally, the castings were meant to be installed in the city’s then-newly announced Aretha Franklin Way. Plans for the installation were changed when Franklin passed away in 2018.

The temporary exhibit, titled “Respect,” showcases several artifacts belonging to the Queen of Soul, as well as props and costumes from her new biopic of the same name that opens in theaters later this month. The display will be available for viewing until the end of August at the museum’s Motor City Music Exhibition space.

In addition to the new exhibit, a private screening of Respect, starring Jennifer Hudson as Franklin, was also held Sunday for the singer’s inner circle.  

Hudson, who was Aretha’s hand-picked selection to play her in the film, was also in the city for the festivities.  She was joined by the movie’s director, Liesl Tommy, at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History for a Q&A session regarding the biopic.  The event was invitation only.

Respect, which follows Aretha’s life story from being a singer in her father’s choir in church to becoming a worldwide music legend, debuts in theaters August 13.

Aretha died August 16, 2018 following a battle with pancreatic cancer.  She was 76.

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First announced in 2019, a new Led Zeppelin documentary — the first in 50 years to feature the band’s participation — has been completed, and now has a title: Becoming Led Zeppelin.

As Variety reports, the director, Bernard McMahon, had what’s described as “unprecedented” access to the band for the project.  “Becoming Led Zeppelin is a film that no one thought could be made,” Variety quotes MacMahon as saying. “The band’s meteoric rise to stardom was swift and virtually undocumented. Through an intense search across the globe and years of restoration of the visual and audio archive found, this story is finally able to be told.”

Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones all sat for new interviews for the doc, and archival interviews with late drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980, are also included.  Never-before-seen pictures and film, plus state-of-the-art audio transfers of Zeppelin’s music, round out the project.

McMahon also directed American Epic, a documentary series focusing on American roots music and its impact on the world.  According to Variety, when Becoming Led Zeppelin was first announced, Page said that he knew McMahon would be “qualified’ to tell their story based on his “remarkable achievement” with American Epic.

So far, the documentary does not have a release date.

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