Classic Hits

Fan voting for the 2025 class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame closes Monday, and Billy Idol is making a case for why you should vote for him.

In a new interview with U.K. outlet The Independent, Idol, who is currently #3 in the fan vote behind Phish and Bad Company, argues that folks should vote for him “because I’m just f****** incredible.”

“It’s pretty amazing that I went from something like punk rock in England to mainstream success in the States,” he says. “I was not only involved in punk, I became a big part of the ’80s New Wave. And then I carried on making the music, living the rock ’n’ roll life.”

Idol continues his pitch by pointing out, “I’ve also gone beyond what people expect,” mentioning his 1993 album, Cyberpunk. “I didn’t stay in my lane. I took chances. Even coming to America, I had no idea I was going to do really well. And the risks I took worked.”

Finally he offers, “All of that shows an enterprising spirit – a spirit of rock ’n’ roll.”

The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees include Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Soundgarden, The Black Crowes, Chubby Checker, The White Stripes, Oasis, Mariah Carey, New Order/Joy Division, Outkast and Mexican rock band Maná.

This year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class will be announced later in April.

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Alice Cooper is releasing a new album and it marks a reunion with his original bandmates.

According to Billboard, Cooper is set to drop The Revenge of Alice Cooper on July 25. It features guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neil Smith, who he hasn’t worked with since 1973’s Muscle of Love.

“It was very much like this was our next album after Muscle of Love, just like, ‘OK, this is the next album,’” Cooper tells Billboard. “Isn’t that funny after 50 years? All of a sudden it just falls into place.”

The Revenge of Alice Cooper is dedicated “to our brother Glen Buxton,” their bandmate who also appeared on Muscle of Love, but passed away in 1997 at age 49.

The album features 14 tracks, including the first single, “Black Mamba,” which will be released Tuesday. It features the Doors’ Robby Krieger, with Cooper describing it as “definitely an Alice Cooper, from-the-ground-up song.”

He adds of recording the song, “We didn’t know where it was gonna go. At the end we looked at each other and went, ‘Oh, that’s pretty good!’”

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Foreigner’s classic tunes are getting an orchestral spin for a new Las Vegas residency.

Foreigner: The Hits Orchestral – Celebrating 50 Years Live in Vegas will have the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band performing their biggest hits alongside a 20-piece orchestra, with arrangements written by Juilliard cello virtuoso Dave Eggar and Chuck Palmer, who is also set to conduct.

The residency, at The Venetian Theatre inside The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, will consist of five shows in March 2026.

Various presales kick off Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT and run through Thursday at 10 p.m. PT. Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. PT.

Next up, Foreigner is set to launch a new South American tour on April 28 in Mexico City. The tour will feature original Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm and Luis Maldonado filling in for frontman Kelly Hansen. A complete list of dates can be found at ForiengerOnline.com.

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ZZ Top rocker Billy F Gibbons will be celebrating our nation’s independence onstage in Ohio.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and his band the BFGs are set to headline Madtree Red, White & Blue Ash, a festival taking place July 4 at Summit Park in Blue Ash, Ohio.

The event is free and will feature fireworks, rides, games and more.

Next up, ZZ Top is set to kick off a tour of Australia and New Zealand April 26 in Bendigo, Australia. They will then hit Canada before bringing their Elevation tour to the U.S., starting June 10 in Moorhead, Minnesota. The tour runs through Oct. 10 in Terre Haute, Indiana.

They are also booked to play the Sea.Hear.Now Festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on Sept. 13.

A complete list of ZZ Top dates can be found at ZZtop.com.

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Darren Hayes of Savage Garden, the Australian duo who scored the late-’90s #1 hits “Truly Madly Deeply” and “I Knew I Loved You,” has updated fans on a terrible accident he suffered last month.

On Instagram, Hayes wrote that on March 17, he fainted while getting out of bed and collapsed and lost consciousness three times in all. “The blunt force trauma was so severe it snapped my left jawbone in half. I woke up in a pool of blood, terrible pain in my left side of my head and with 9 teeth shattered,” he writes.

Hayes, who writes that he’s now gone through a “lengthy recovery,” says he was rushed to the ER in Santa Monica, California and underwent emergency reconstructive surgery on March 21. Doctors inserted a titanium brace in his jaw to reconnect the bones and then wired his mouth shut for eight weeks so he could heal.

Hayes adds that doctors still haven’t figured out why he fainted; he says he’d been having fainting spells and lightheadedness “for a period” before the spell that put him in the hospital.

“I just wanted my fans to know why I’ll be out of action for quite some time,” he concludes. “After my jaw heals it’s a long road to rehabbing my jaw function and then of course replacing my shattered teeth. I love you folks. I’m so grateful to be alive and every day I’m getting stronger … I am a survivor.”

He also posted a photo of his bruised, healing face as well as an X-ray showing the brace inserted into his jaw.

In addition to “Truly Madly Deeply” and “I Knew I Loved You,” Savage Garden also had hits with “I Want You” and “To the Moon and Back.”

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The B-52s have been eligible for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame since 2004, but have never been nominated. And singer Kate Pierson is a bit disappointed by that.

“Most musicians say, ‘I don’t care,’” she tells Gold Derby, noting that one of those musicians is her bandmate Fred Schneider.

“It would be nice to be recognized,” Pierson says. “I’m against the whole idea of it in some ways. It’s not a race. It’s not a contest. … But yes, it would be nice.”

She adds, “I wouldn’t say no if they invited us into it. But it’s not a big deal. We are who we are, anyway.”

Meanwhile, we may soon be seeing Pierson and her bandmates’ story on the big screen. A documentary about the band, produced by SNL comedian Fred Armisen, is in the works, and Pierson says they’ve been approached about a possible biopic.

Although she says not everyone in the band is on board with the idea, she’s not against it, noting, “I was like, ‘Sounds great! Who’s gonna play me?’”

The B-52s are currently headlining a residency at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas. They have two more shows, taking place Friday and Saturday.

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The Bruce Springsteen film Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White as The Boss, is due out later this year, and it sounds like Springsteen didn’t have many qualms about the film being made.

“They pitched the idea, and I said, ‘It sounds like fun,’” Springsteen tells Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “It’s an interesting concept, because it’s only a couple of years out of my life. It’s ’81, ’82, and centered around the creation of that particular record while I was simultaneously recording Born in the USA and also going through some personal difficulties that I’ve been living with my whole life. But it’s fantastic.”

Springsteen was often seen on the New Jersey set during the filming of the movie, although he notes they shot “a good amount of it without me there” because he was on tour.

“It was interesting to see it played out, to see your grandmother’s house again, and to go inside and get a general feeling of what it was like when you were very young,” he says. “So I enjoyed all those parts of it.”

Springsteen, who is due to kick off a European tour with The E Street Band May 14 in Manchester, also touched upon the current state of the U.S. and the role music plays in helping people get through it.

“One of the artists’ jobs to make sense of existence and to make sense of the current times that you live in, and to contextualize those times,” he says. “Every artist does it in a different way. So I’ve got that on my mind, and I’m sure it’ll be reflected in our next leg of the tour.”

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Ian Hunter has released a deluxe edition of his 2024 album, Defiance Part 2: Fiction, to digital services for the very first time.

Initially released as part of a Record Store Day vinyl, the deluxe edition features three bonus tracks: “How’d Ya Like To Meet Henry,” featuring Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, and Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready and Matt Cameron; “Normal Service Will be Resumed as Soon as Possible”; and “Needle Park” featuring The Black Crowes’ Chris and Rich Robinson.

Defiance Part 2: Fiction is the sequel to the Mott the Hoople frontman’s 2023 release, Defiance Part 1.

Other guests on Part 2 include Def Leppard’s Phil Collen, Queen’s Brian May, the late guitarist Jeff Beck, the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, Lucinda Williams, Heartbreakers‘ keyboardist Benmont Tench and more.

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Pink Floyd’s 1972 concert film, Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, is set to hit theaters and IMAX on April 24, but it sounds like the band almost skipped out on the whole project.

During a preview screening of the film in London, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason revealed that the band initially wasn’t interested in making the film. He credits the director, Adrian Maben, for getting them to do it.

“Someone that should be mentioned is Adrian Maben, who actually came up with this whole idea, we were unspeakably not interested,” Mason said, according to the U.K. outlet The Standard. “Adrian worked really hard to even persuade us to come out to Italy and actually make this movie.”

He added, “The thing that worked about it, that we didn’t see, and he did, was this thing of it being a live show, but with no audience, and the fact that this amphitheatre created such a sense of moment. Even without the audience, it had the feel of a full-on gig.”

There’s been a lot of animosity between the members of Pink Floyd in recent years, especially with Roger Waters and David Gilmour, and Mason said watching the film now he sees “an innocence” with the band. He notes, “[I]t’s extraordinary to sort of watch us just going at it and arguing, but in a constructive way.”

The version hitting the screen has been newly restored for audiences to enjoy, and Mason shared, “We’re delighted with the way it turned out.”

Tickets for Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII are on sale now.

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On This Day, April 18, 2024 …

Allman Brothers Band founding member Dickey Betts died at the age of 80.

Born Forrest Richard Betts on Dec. 12, 1943, Dickey co-founded Allman Brothers Band in 1969 with brothers Duane and Gregg Allman, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks and Jaimoe Johanson. They released their self-titled debut that year.

They went on to be considered one of the pioneering Southern rock bands and were particularly known for their touring career, which included long shows filled with extended jams.

In addition to playing lead guitar in the band, Betts wrote and sang lead on several songs, including “Ramblin’ Man,” their only top-10 hit, and “Blue Sky.” He also composed the band’s well-known instrumental tunes, including “Jessica” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.”

Betts was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Allman Brothers Band in 1995. He was officially ousted from the band in 2000 and never played with them again.

Jaimoe is currently the only surviving founding member of the Allman Brothers Band.

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