Classic Hits

Drummer Jason Bonham has posted a message on Instagram explaining why he sat out the last four shows of Sammy Hagar‘s The Best of All Worlds Tour. In his absence, drummer Kenny Aronoff, who’d replaced Chad Smith in Hagar’s band Chickenfoot, stepped in.

Bonham, son of Led Zeppelin‘s John “Bonzo” Bonham, wrote, “I wanted to take a moment to explain my absence over the past few weeks. As many of you know, my mother has been facing some serious health issues, and it’s been an incredibly challenging time for our family.”

“I’m grateful to share that she’s on the mend and has been discharged from the hospital!” he continued. “She’s now home and recovering, which brings me immense relief.”

“It was truly difficult to step away from ‘The Best Of All Worlds’ tour with only four shows left,” Bonham noted. “The energy, the connections, and the experiences were nothing short of incredible, but my priority had to be with my mother during her fight for life.”

Bonham went on to announce that JBLZE aka Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening will kick off a tour Nov. 19. “I can’t wait to see all of you and share this journey together once more,” he concluded. “Thank you for your understanding and love. See you soon!”

Bonham’s mother, Pat, was married to John Bonham from 1966 until his death in 1980.

Van Halen‘s Michael Anthony, who played bass on Hagar’s tour, wrote in the comments, “Glad to hear your mom’s recovery is going well … miss ya brother.” Joe Satriani, the guitarist on the tour, added, “That’s great news Jason.” Others adding their well-wishes included Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen and Deep Purple‘s Glenn Hughes.

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On This Day, Nov. 4, 1963 …

The Beatles took part in the Royal Variety Performance show in London, in front of an audience that included the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret.

The show is held annually to raise money for the Royal Variety Charity.

The band performed “From Me To You,” “She Loves You,” “Til There Was You” and “Twist and Shout” on the show.

John Lennon made headlines for cheekily telling the crowd ahead of “Twist and Shout,” “For our last number, I’d like to ask your help. The people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands. And the rest of you … if you’d just rattle your jewelry.”

It was the only time The Beatles performed on the show, despite repeated attempts to get them back.

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Mariah Carey has received many honors over her storied career, including six Grammys and induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. But she’s still salty that she didn’t get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — and that she hasn’t won even more Grammys.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mariah’s asked if she has any thoughts about being nominated for the Rock Hall, but failing to actually be inducted. “My thoughts are: I didn’t get in,” Mariah says bluntly.

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

Indeed, Grubman, who’s also represented big stars like U2, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna, was inducted in 2022 for “negotiating ground-breaking long-term agreements for his clients that allow them to maintain creative control of their work.” At the time, however, Rock Hall co-founder Jann Wenner complained that Grubman “made no contribution of any kind, by any definition, to the creative development or the history of rock & roll.”

But Mariah is apparently even more upset about the Grammys. She tells the Times that she still can’t believe that one particular year when she had six nominations, she “sat there the whole time and I didn’t get anything.”

“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.”

Asked to comment on embattled hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ involvement in her hit song “Honey,” Mariah says, “Honestly, ‘Honey’ was more a representation of me than anybody else … the other person that we’re talking about wasn’t really that involved.”

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At a rally for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in Atlanta Sunday, Michael Stipe sang an R.E.M. classic with an unlikely musician backing him up: Jon Bon Jovi.

In fan-captured footage, you can see Stipe sing “The One I Love” backed up by Bon Jovi on guitar and country duo The War & Treaty on vocals. 

Stipe also performed another R.E.M. classic, “Driver 8,” at the rally and encouraged the crowd to join him in singing “It’s fun to get out the V-O-T-E,” to the tune of the Village People song “Y.M.C.A.”

Stipe has been supporting the Harris/Walz ticket with appearances, while R.E.M. collectively has shared a new lyric video for their song “I Believe” to encourage people to vote. They also released a digital compilation of 18 hand-picked songs called We Are Hope Despite the Times in honor of National Voter Registration Day.

As for Bon Jovi, he and The War and Treaty will appear with Walz at a rally in Detroit on Monday.

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Sammy Hagar is once again dipping into the Van Halen archives to share a classic performance from the band.

The rocker posted a video to YouTube of the band performing the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge track “Runaround.” The performance is from a July 27, 1995, concert at Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, Wisconsin.

“Wow this sounds so good. ’95 top of our game,” Hagar shared in the comments, noting that bassist Michael Anthony “sounds like Geddy Lee, ha ha!” referring to the Rush frontman.

Hagar adds, “brings back some memories that’s for sure.”

This is just the latest classic Van Halen performance Hagar has shared with fans. In October he posted a video of the band performing the 5150 track “Why Can’t This Be Love,” recorded in August 1995 in Toronto for Canada’s Much Music.

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Eddie Murphy has reportedly signed on to play a funk music icon on screen.

Variety reports that the actor/comedian is set to star as Parliament-Funkadelic leader George Clinton in a biopic directed by Bill Condon, the same director who directed Murphy in Dreamgirls, a role that earned him an Oscar nomination.

The film, which Murphy will also produce, will be based on Clinton’s 2014 memoir Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard On You?

Clinton, who launched his funk career in the ’70s as one of the founding members of the collective known as Parliament-Funkadelic, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. He and the band were also honored in 2019 with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. 

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Queen recently released the box set Queen 1, dedicated to their self-titled debut album, and in the latest installment of their Queen The Greatest video series, they are giving fans a little insight into the making of the record.

Guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor share what it was like when they got into the studio for the first time, with Taylor noting, “it was tough in the beginning,” because they could only get studio time during odd hours when it was free. 

Despite the difficulties, which also included different producers and pressures to sound a certain way because of the studio, May notes, “I think us as a band, we came through.”

But when the album came out in 1973, critics were indifferent, with Taylor calling it a “tsunami of nothing.” 

“Tell you what helped, we looked at some of the reviews for the Led Zeppelin albums that had been out at that time, some of which were appallingly bad,” May shares. “And we thought, well, if they can run these people down, we shouldn’t be too worried about being run down ourselves.”

The audience also helped, with May noting, “once we had that first album out we had an audience that understood us and were really behind us …That really gives you the energy you need.”

With the new box set, Queen was able to use modern technology to right some of the wrongs they felt happened during the recording.

“Essentially with the Queen 1 box set we’ve made the actual album sound the way we wanted it to sound,” Taylor notes. “The overall sound of it is better … I think we’ve greatly improved it.”

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With Halloween in the past, many are already focusing on their plans for the Christmas season. NBC, for example, has just announced A Motown Christmas special, which will bring together legends and contemporary stars for performances of more than 25 Motown hits and a few holiday favorites. 

The lineup includes Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, The Temptations, Ashanti, Andra Day, BeBe Winans, Jamie Foxx, JoJo, Jordin Sparks, mgk, October London and Pentatonix, with Smokey Robinson and Halle Bailey taking on hosting duties.

There will also be tributes to Diana Ross and The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Motown founder Berry Gordy as well as an exclusive performance from the Broadway company MJ the Musical.

“Motown’s timeless hits have played as a soundtrack for American families for the last six decades. NBC is honored to spotlight the iconic legacy of Motown with a festive celebration for the holiday season,” said Jen Neal, NBCUniversal Entertainment’s executive VP of live events & specials.

Debbie Allen will serve as executive producer of A Motown Christmas, as will Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones of De Passe Jones Entertainment. Rickey Minor is the musical director and SpringHill’s the leading production of the telecast.

“I’m thrilled to be back in the saddle with Motown and Suzanne de Passe to bring to the world this much-needed holiday family special. The music of Motown has always been magical, and we are going to sing and dance everyone into Christmas joy!” Debbie said.

A Motown Christmas will air Dec. 11 on NBC at 9 p.m. ET/PT and the following day on Peacock.

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The Grateful Dead is ringing in November by once again launching 30 Days of Dead.

The month-long campaign offers fans an unreleased live Dead track from the vault every day throughout November, with each download selected by Dead archivist and producer David Lemieux.

“The tracks are yours, 100% free gua-ran-teed,” reads a post on Instagram, “but the real fun is taking part in the challenge for the chance to win some sweet swag from the Dead.”

The songs, posted to dead.net, will be taken from a past Dead show, and fans can win prizes if they correctly guess the date and venue of the concert where the song came from. The daily prize is a 2025 Grateful Dead wall calendar, but there’s also a grand prize, a copy of one of the limited, numbered, Friend of the Devils: April 78 box sets.

30 Days of the Dead kicked off on Friday, with a performance of the songs “Space” and “The Wheel,” which, according to the website, were from Bobby Weir and Jerry Garcia’s respective 1972 solo albums, and never actually recorded in the studio by the Grateful Dead.

More info can be found at dead.net.

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Talking Heads have shared a previously unreleased track from their upcoming box set celebrating the band’s debut album, Talking Heads: 77.

The latest is “Pulled Up (Alternate Pop Version),” a new take on the album’s closing track.

Talking Heads: 77 (Super Deluxe Edition), dropping Nov. 8, will be made up of four LPs, one of which is a remaster of the original album. There’s also an LP of unreleased demos and outtakes, along with the two-LP live album, Live at CBGB, New York, NY, Oct. 10, 1977. 

The set also includes four 7-inch singles, an 80-page hardcover book with never-before-seen photos and liner notes written by the members of Talking Heads — David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison — and recording engineer Ed Stasium.

In addition to the super deluxe edition, the reissue will be in a variety of other formats, including digitally, on two-LP standard black vinyl and as a three-CD/Blu-ray set, with the Blu-ray featuring new high-quality mixes of the album.

Talking Heads: 77 (Super Deluxe Edition) is available for preorder now.

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