Classic Hits

Paul Rodgers will no longer be attending Bad Company‘s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Rodgers was set to reunite with former bandmate Simon Kirke, the only other surviving member of the original Bad Co. lineup, at the ceremony, with Kirke recently confirming that they will perform together. However, Rodgers says in a Facebook post published Monday that he won’t be taking part due to health reasons.

“My hope was [to] be at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and to perform for the fans, but at this time I have to prioritize my health,” Rodgers, who’s had multiple strokes over the years, writes. “I have no problem singing, it’s the stress of everything else. Thank you for understanding.”

He adds, “Simon along with some outstanding musicians will be stepping in for me – guaranteed to rock.”

Bad Company last performed live in 2019.

The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place Nov. 8 in Los Angeles and will stream live on Disney+. The other inductees include Joe Cocker, Warren Zevon, Soundgarden, The White Stripes, Cyndi Lauper, Outkast and Chubby Checker.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News. 

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Paul McCartney looks back at the infamous rumors that he’d died in the 1960s in his upcoming new book, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run. 

As the story went, conspiracy theorists alleged that the Beatles member had actually died in the mid-’60s and had been replaced by a lookalike. As a piece of evidence, they claimed that John Lennon said the phrase “I buried Paul” in the Beatles song “Strawberry Fields Forever,” though Lennon maintained he was actually singing “cranberry sauce.”

In an excerpt from Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run published in The Guardian, McCartney writes, “The strangest rumor started floating around just as the Beatles were breaking up – that I was dead.”

“We had heard it long before, but suddenly, in that autumn of 1969, stirred up by a DJ in America, it took on a force all its own, so that millions of fans around the world believed I was actually gone,” McCartney continues. 

While certainly not dead, McCartney writes that he’s now come to realize that he’d indeed lost a part of himself at the time.

“Now that over a half century has passed since those truly crazy times, I’m beginning to think that the rumors were more accurate than one might have thought at the time,” McCartney writes. “In so many ways, I was dead … A 27-year-old about-to-become-ex-Beatle, drowning in a sea of legal and personal rows that were sapping my energy, in need of a complete life makeover.”

Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run is due out Tuesday.

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Sting has announced a 2026 leg of his Sting 3.0 tour. 

The newly added dates run from May 9 in Durant, Oklahoma, to May 25 in Richmond, Virginia. Members of the Sting fan club will have access to a presale beginning Tuesday. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. local time.

For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit Sting.com.

On the Sting 3.0 tour, the ex-Police frontman performs alongside guitarist and longtime collaborator Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas. A live album recorded on an earlier leg of the tour was released in April.

You can also catch the end of the 2025 U.S. Sting 3.0 tour, running through November.

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On This Day, Nov. 3, 1991 …

The Grateful Dead, Santana and a reunited Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were among the artists who performed at Laughter, Love and Music, a free concert at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to honor the late music producer Bill Graham.

Graham, known for booking such venues as the Fillmore and the Winterland Ballroom, died in a helicopter crash on Oct. 25, 1991, on the way home from a Huey Lewis and the News concert.

An estimated 30,000 people attended the concert, which also featured performances by John Fogerty, Jackson Browne, Journey and Joan Baez.

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AC/DC is powering up for a return stateside.

The “Back in Black” rockers have announced a 2026 U.S. leg of their Power Up tour, running from July 11 in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Sep. 29 in Philadelphia.

Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. local time with the exception of the dates in Denver, Las Vegas and Philadelphia, which go on sale Friday at noon local time.

For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit ACDC.com.

The Power Up tour, which takes its name from AC/DC’s 2020 comeback album, launched in 2024 before coming to the U.S. in 2025.

The band lineup for the 2026 dates will feature guitarist Angus Young and vocalist Brian Johnson, plus guitarist Stevie Young, drummer Matt Laug and bassist Chris Chaney.

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After 30 years of eligibility, and one previous nomination, the late Warren Zevon is set to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Saturday in the Musical Influence category.

Zevon is best known for such songs as “Werewolves of London” and “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” as well as “Keep Me In Your Heart,” from his 12th and final studio album, The Wind. It was released in August 2003, just weeks before his Sept. 7 death at 56.

Zevon also wrote songs that were recorded by other artists, including Linda Ronstadt, who covered tunes like “Hasten Down the Wind” and “Poor Poor Pitiful Me.”

While “Werewolves of London” was Zevon’s only top-40 hit, he had a devoted fanbase. In fact, Billy Joel wrote a letter to the Rock Hall in support of Zevon in 2023, before his first nomination.

“I just wanted to put in my two cents of supporting Warren Zevon to be included,” Joel told the Los Angeles Times in 2023. “If anyone deserved to be, he did. He was a real original, and I don’t know if that’s appreciated enough.”

That same year, the Rock Hall’s Jason Hanley told ABC Audio why Zevon deserved the recognition, saying “people loved his music,” and that he “influenced so many other artists and songwriters over the years.” 

After revealing he had been diagnosed with cancer, Zevon said his emotional goodbye to the public during an October 2003 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, where he was the sole guest and musical performer. Letterman, a well-known Zevon fan, is scheduled to appear at Saturday’s induction, so there’s a good chance he’ll take part in the artist’s tribute.

The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held Saturday in Los Angeles and will stream live on Disney+ starting at 8 p.m. ET. ABC will also air a highlights special on Jan. 1, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Writer/director Cameron Crowe has offered an update on his long-in-the works biopic on Joni Mitchell.

Crowe, whose memoir The Uncool came out Tuesday, has been attached to the project since 2023 and tells Variety he’s still “working on” it.

“We’re gonna do it next year. And I just feel really confident that we are telling that story in a way that you wouldn’t call a traditional so-called biopic,” he explains. “It’s the telling of her story with amazing input from the artist herself, who is opening her life, her closet, her collection of instruments, her notes, her everything for us to make a movie that is as emotionally authentic as her music.”

He adds, “I just feel really lucky to have spent the last few years finding the way to tell the story that will give you a physical body rush as well as loving her story. … I can’t wait for you to check it out.”

While there have been all sorts of rumors about who’ll play Joni, Crowe says as of now there’s “nothing I can confirm.” But he adds, “I’m just grateful that people are talking about it and that I get to tell the story.”

The movie will be the first one Crowe has written and directed since 2015’s Aloha, although he created the 2016 Showtime series Roadies and directed the 2019 David Crosby documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name.

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The Rolling Stones are giving fans a preview of the upcoming super-deluxe reissue of their 1976 album Black and Blue.

The band just shared a video of a performance of “Fool to Cry” from an unreleased TV broadcast of their 1976 concert at Les Abattoirs in Paris, which is part of a Blu-ray included in the set.

According to a post on Instagram, the performance is “a rare glimpse into the Black and Blue era.”

The five-LP or four-CD super-deluxe Black and Blue box set, dropping Nov. 14, includes a 2025 remix of the album by producer Steven Wilson, along with an album of outtakes and jams. It also includes a recording of a 1976 concert at Earls Court in London, which was part of a six-night residency at the venue.

The Blu-ray that comes with both versions includes the Paris concert, as well as the Wilson remix and the Earls Court concert in Dolby Atmos. The set also includes a 100-page hardcover book and replica tour poster.

The Black and Blue reissue will also be released in a variety of other formats, including a limited-edition five-LP black and blue marbled vinyl set; two-disc and one-disc formats on both vinyl and CD; and a limited-edition zoetrope vinyl.

Released in April 1976, Black and Blue was The Stones’ 13th studio album and the first since guitarist Mick Taylor left the group. His eventual replacement, Ronnie Wood, is featured on three songs.

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The late Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson’s first live album, Brian Wilson: Live at the Roxy Theatre, is set to be reissued on Nov. 7 in celebration of its 25th anniversary, and now fans are getting a look at one of the performances on the album.

A video for the song “This Isn’t Love” has just been released. Brian notes in the clip, “This is a love song with a very beautiful lyric that my friend Tony Asher wrote.”

Brian Wilson: Live at the Roxy Theatre is being released digitally and as a three-LP or two-CD set. It captures recordings from two nights at the West Hollywood venue back in April 2000.

In addition to the original live recordings, the new release will feature newly unearthed performances and tour recordings, some of which have never been released before. It also includes Wilson’s own reflections on making the album.

Originally released in 2000, Live at the Roxy Theatre captured Wilson’s return to the Sunset Strip for the first time in 30 years. He performed songs from his legendary catalog, backed by a 10-piece band.

Brian Wilson: Live at the Roxy Theatre is available for preorder now.

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We now know the actresses who will play the love interests of The Beatles in the upcoming four-film cinematic event centered on the iconic band.

Sony Pictures has announced that Saoirse Ronan, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Anna Sawai and Aimee Lou Wood will play Linda Eastman, Maureen Cox, Yoko Ono and Pattie Boyd in the films directed by Sam Mendes.

“Maureen, Linda, Yoko and Pattie are four fascinating and unique figures in their own right – and I’m thrilled that we’ve managed to persuade four of the most talented women working in film today to join this amazing adventure,” Mendes said in a press release.

The Beatles films will star Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn and Barry Keoghan. The project marks the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and The Beatles — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film about the band.

Mendes will direct four different films, each told from a different member of the band’s point of view. They will all intersect to tell the full story of the band’s history, according to the release.

All four of The Beatles films will arrive in theaters worldwide in April 2028.

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