Classic Hits

Music from the late Robbie Robertson will be featured in the new History Channel documentary Sitting Bull, Rolling Stone reports.

The score features music Robertson made with his son, Sebastian Robertson, and is among the final pieces of music Robbie worked on before his August 2023 death.

“We were thrilled by the prospect and dove right in,” Sebastian tells the mag of the project. “This was a complicated time in our lives as my dad’s health was declining. However, like for a lot of us, the art of music was an escape.”

Sebastian says he was the one who began the work on the music, sending his composition to his father, who he described as a “tough critic.”

“The inspiration of this project, my heritage and honoring both my culture and my father, kicked me into the highest gear,” Sebastian said, referring to Robbie’s mother being of Cayuga and Mohawk heritage. “He was thrilled with the demo. We batted ideas, guitar licks, and vocals back and forth until we were satisfied and sent it along to production. We nailed it.”

Following his father’s death, Sebastian completed the score on his own. He tells Rolling Stone, “[My] dad and I created what will always be one of my proudest and most memorable compositions. Harnessing the words of his mother, our people, and the rhythm of our lives in all existences, we created our final piece of music together … or maybe, just maybe, there’s more to come.”

Sitting Bull is a four-hour documentary about the life and legacy of the titular leader of the Lakota people. The documentary will air in two parts, the first airing May 27, followed by the second on May 28, both at 9 p.m. ET.

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A documentary about Scottish rockers Simple Minds is set to hit U.S. theaters in June.

Deadline reports that Greenwich Entertainment has picked up the North American rights to Simple Minds Everything is Possible, from director Joss Crowley.

“From working-class kids in post-industrial Glasgow to rock stars playing Live Aid, this is the unlikely story of an extraordinary band that continues touring around the world to this day,” reads the film description.

Simple Minds formed in Glasgow in 1977, with frontman Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill the only original members still with the group. According to Crowley, the film tells the story of “how music brought them together and completely changed their lives – precisely the inspirational touchpoints we’re all craving in 2025.”

Simple Minds is best known for their breakout track “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” which was a #1 hit for the band and was featured on the soundtrack to the ’80s Brat Pack flick The Breakfast Club. Other well-known songs by the band include “Alive And Kicking,” which hit #3 on the singles chart, and “Sanctify Yourself,” which was a top-20 hit.

Simple Minds Everything is Possible will hit U.S. theaters on June 13. Simple Minds is due to launch a U.S. tour on May 16 in Ridgefield, Washington. A complete list of dates can be found at simpleminds.com.

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Def Leppard is set to headline the inaugural Rock the Tides, a new destination festival taking place Nov. 7-9 in Riviera Maya, Mexico.

The festival will also be headlined by Mötley Crüe, with Poison‘s Bret Michaels, Extreme, The Struts, Buckcherry, Dorothy and Living Colour rounding out the bill.

Presales begin April 23 at 10 a.m. PT. For more info, visit RocktheTides.com.

This isn’t the first time Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe have shared a bill. In fact, they co-headlined tours together in 2022 and 2023.

Def Leppard’s next show is May 15 in Puerto Rico. They will also headline amphitheaters starting June 23 in Rogers, Arkansas, and have several festivals scheduled for this summer, including a trio in Canada: Rockin’ Thunder in Edmonton, Country Thunder Craven 2025 in Saskatchewan and Ottawa Bluesfest in Ottawa.

A complete list of dates can be found at DefLeppard.com.

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Stevie Nicks hinted back in June that she was going to be working on a new album, and now she’s shared a new update about the project.

Nicks was inducted into the Pollstar Live! Hall of Fame Wednesday night in Los Angeles, and during her speech she spilled the beans on her new music.

“I’m actually making a record right now. I call it the ghost record because … it just kind of happened in the last couple of weeks,” she said.

Nicks explained that she was motivated to start working on it after the Los Angeles fires kept her holed up in a hotel with nothing to do.

“I was sitting in a hotel for 92 days and at some point during that last part of the 92 days I said, ‘You know what, I feel like I’m on the road but there’s no shows,’” she said. ”And I thought, ‘You need to go back to work.’ And I did.”

Stevie went on to say that she’s already written seven songs, sharing, “They are autobiographical, real stories where I’m not pulling any punches for probably the first time in my life.” She added they aren’t “airy fairy songs,” but rather “they’re real stories of memories of mine of fantastic men.” She notes that one song is about Prince, who she said was a friend.

There’s no word on when Stevie plans to release the record, but when she does it will be her first solo album since 2011’s In Your Dreams. She did release a new single, “The Lighthouse,” back in September.

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New York City restauranteur Keith McNally has outed musician Patti Smith for her rude behavior.

McNally, who is behind such NYC restaurants as Balthazar and Minetta Tavern, has a new memoir coming out, I Regret Almost Everything. In an excerpt shared by New York Magazine’s Grub Street, he writes about Smith driving a server to tears back in the ’70s.

The incident occurred at the Manhattan restaurant One Fifth, where McNally was working. He writes that Smith would often dine there with her ex-boyfriend, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, and art curator Sam Wagstaff.

“On nights when Wagstaff wasn’t at the table, Smith and Mapplethorpe could be very difficult to wait on,” he shares. “Smith, unfortunately, was incredibly rude to the servers.”

He writes that on one occasion Smith made a server cry “because she forgot to put bread on the table.” McNally adds, “[I]t’s impossible for me to listen to a Patti Smith song today without remembering her reducing a waitress to tears.”

McNally says that Smith and Mapplethorpe gave off “the surly appearance of young, rebellious artists (which they were),” although he had a better opinion of Mapplethorpe than Smith. He noted Mapplethorpe “could be terse,” but “he never tried to belittle [servers] the way Smith did.”

I Regret Almost Everything is due out May 6.

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Dead & Company and Bruce Springsteen were among the winners at the 36th annual Pollstar Awards, which were held Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Dead & Company took home the trophy for residency of the year for their Dead Forever residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, with Bob Weir and John Mayer on hand to accept the award.

Springsteen and the E Street Band took home rock tour of the year for their 2024 world tour.

Stevie Nicks also attended the event, where she was honored with induction into the Pollstar Live! Hall of Fame.

Other 2025 Pollstar winners included Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Festival for music festival of the year (global, under 30K attendance), Glastonbury Festival for international festival of the year and Taylor Swift, who won major tour of the year for the second consecutive year.

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In addition to his own musical endeavors, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Robbie Robertson spent years working with his close friend Martin Scorsese on many of the filmmaker’s biggest movies. November will see the publication of Insomnia, a book Robertson wrote prior to his death about their decadeslong creative partnership.

The book is a sequel of sorts to Robertson’s 2016 memoir, Testimony, which ended in 1976 as his group The Band gave their final performance, The Last Waltz, which was documented on film by Scorsese. After both of their marriages failed, Robertson and Scorsese became roommates in the ’70s. The resulting relationship became legendary, not only for its creativity, but for — as the book’s description puts it — its “excess.”

Robertson, whose songwriting was always deeply inspired by film, first collaborated with Scorsese on the music for 1980’s Raging Bull. He then worked variously on either selecting, supervising, composing or creating music for Scorsese films including The King of Comedy, The Color of Money, Shutter Island, The Irishman, The Wolf of Wall Street, Gangs of New York and Casino. 

Robertson eventually received a posthumous Oscar nomination for best original score for Scorsese’s 2023 film Killers of the Flower Moon, which was dedicated to his memory. 

Robertson’s final album, 2019’s Sinematic, featured two songs from The Irishman, including the Van Morrison duet “I Hear You Paint Houses.”

Insomnia will be released Nov. 11.

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The Marshall Tucker Band is set to kick off their All Our Friends Tour in May, but it will be without founding member and lead singer Doug Gray.

The band, best known for the song “Can’t You See,” just announced that Gray is “taking a hiatus” from the road due to health issues.

“Taking care of business as I always do,” Gray says. “Thanks and see you soon.”

Gray also wants fans to know that even though he won’t be performing, he’ll still be very involved with the tour.

“Everyone knows I’m not one to sit on my hands,” he shares. “I’ll be making sure all of the stars are aligned. Let’s rock!”

Gray is currently the only original member of The Marshall Tucker Band still with the group. Despite his absence, the band will press on with their tour, which kicks off May 9 in West Wendover, Nevada, with dates confirmed through Oct. 9 in Saratoga, California. They’ll be joined on several of those date by Bachman-Turner Overdrive and JJ Grey & Mofro.

A complete list of dates can be found at marshalltucker.com.

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On This Day, April 17, 1970…

Paul McCartney released his debut solo album, McCartney, which he recorded secretly, performing all the instruments himself, with some contributions from his wife Linda McCartney.

The album, which was released three days later in America, was recorded during a period of estrangement with The Beatles after John Lennon privately left the group.

Songs on McCartney included “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “The Lovely Linda,” and others.

The album went to #1 in the U.S. and #2 in the U.K.

McCartney went on to release two more solo albums, McCartney II in 1980, and McCartney III in 2020.

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Bruce Springsteen has shared another preview of his upcoming box set Tracks II: The Lost Albums.

The Boss has released the song “Blind Spot,” off the set’s Streets of Philadelphia Sessions album, which features 10 tracks recorded around the time Springsteen wrote the Oscar-winning tune “Streets of Philadelphia.” For fans, the album has been known as Springsteen’s so-called “loops record.”

According to the press release, the album “found Springsteen exploring an interest in the rhythms of mid-1990s contemporary music, and particularly West Coast hip-hop.” Springsteen himself recorded most of the instruments on the record, although he had help from his 1992-1993 touring band along with wife Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell.

“Blind Spot,” available now via digital outlets, is described as a song exploring “doubt and betrayal in relationships.”

“That was just the theme that I locked in on at that moment,” Springsteen shares. “I don’t really know why. Patti and I, we were having a great time in California. But sometimes if you lock into one song you like, then you follow that thread. I had ‘Blind Spot,’ and I followed that thread through the rest of the record.”

Tracks II: The Lost Albums, will be released June 27, and is available for preorder now. It features seven previously unheard Springsteen records — LA Garage Sessions ’83, Streets of Philadelphia Sessions, Faithless, Somewhere North of Nashville, Inyo, Twilight Hours, and Perfect World —  featuring 83 songs, all of which were originally recorded between 1983 and 2018. Of those songs, 82 have never been released before and 74 have never been heard before.

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