Classic Hits

Sting has been honored with Bass Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

While the magazine’s 2026 awards ceremony will take place Jan. 22 in Santa Ana, California, the mag presented Sting with his award earlier in New York, sharing the moment in a video on Instagram.

In the clip, Sting jokes that while it’s a lifetime achievement honor, he’s “only halfway through” his lifetime. He then gets serious and says, “Thank you so much, I’m deeply, deeply honored, profoundly honored.”

The rocker then reads from a letter he wrote in 2001 about the Fender bass guitar, which he says was addressed to the “archeologist of the future.”

“There are few artifacts of the 20th century as consistently recognized and recognizable as the Fender bass. Those elegant functional lines have etched themselves into our consciousness for over half a century,” he says. “A Fender bass can shake a room with its thunder or moan softly like a sleeping giant. The bass is the ground of all harmony, the root, the foundation of all musical structure.”

He adds, “A Fender bass has been my constant companion for most of my life, a brother to me, sister. The loom on which I have woven dreams and stories, and my oldest friend.”

Next up for Sting, he’ll star in a production of his musical The Last Ship, which is set to open in Amsterdam on Jan. 13. He’ll also appear in a run at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House from June 9 to 14.

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Chaka Khan is set to be honored at the 2026 Resonator Awards, presented by We Are Moving the Needle.

Khan will receive the Luminary Award, which according to a press release, is given to “a creator whose profound impact has transcended the confines of the music realm to significantly change culture.”

“Empowered women empower women. I am honored to be part of a movement that celebrates the creativity, resilience, and determination of women creators everywhere,” Khan said in a statement. “We lift each other and shine. Together, we are moving the needle.”

The Resonator Awards, which recognize “artists, producers, and engineers whose craft shape the sound and culture of our time,” as per the release, will take place during Grammy Week, on Jan. 27 at Chaplin Studios in Los Angeles.

Also being honored at the event are rocker St. Vincent, who is set to receive the Golden Trifecta Award, and the band Haim, the recipients of the Disrupters Award. Olivia Rodrigo, Sia, Anderson. Paak and more are confirmed to present.

The 2026 Resonator Awards marks the second iteration of the event. The first took place in 2024 and honored artists including Alanis Morissette and Corinne Bailey Rae. The 2025 awards were canceled due to the Los Angeles wildfires.

As for Chaka, this isn’t the only honor she’ll be receiving during Grammy week. She’s also being recognized with the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Special Merit Awards, taking place Jan. 31 in Los Angeles.

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A new children’s book inspired by the life and career of rocker David Bowie is set for release this fall.

Starman: The Cosmic Voyage of David Bowie, by author Matthew Cordell, imagines Bowie as a real spaceman. It is described as “the galactic journey of Bowie’s life, with stops for each phase of his ever-transforming career.”

People revealed the cover of the book, which features Bowie inside a star. Each point illustrates a different iconic Bowie look, including the face of Ziggy Stardust.

“I wanted to share with young readers Bowie’s journey in a similar sense of how he lived it — traveling with eyes wide open, constantly seeking and observing, all with an intergalactic flair,” Cordell tells the mag. “I love the way Bowie’s endless curiosity led him to discover, be inspired by and implement new sounds into his own artistic output, throughout his artistic life.”

Starman: The Cosmic Voyage of David Bowie will be released Sept. 1.

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ZZ Top’s Billy F Gibbons has confirmed a story that the band members were once offered $1 million to shave off their iconic beards.

In an interview with Jay Mohr’s Mohr Stories podcast, Gibbons said it’s true that they were offered the money to shave their beards for a Super Bowl commercial. When asked if it was razor company Gillette, Gibbons confirmed that it was, but noted, “They deny it.”

“It was a million dollars per man,” Gibbons said, before revealing why they turned down the money. He explained that they went to their publicist Bob Merlis with the offer, and he was the one who gave them a reason to reconsider.

“He said, ‘The money’s good, you might as well consider doing it, but I’m not so sure you guys — any of you guys — know what’s under there,’” Gibbons said. “So we passed. We passed, and our fans loved it. Word got out.”

Gibbons and ZZ Top have a busy 2026 ahead of them. Gibbons kicks off a tour with the BFG Band on Jan. 20 in Napa, California. Then ZZ Top will hit the road on the Big One! tour starting March 21 in Abilene, Texas. They are also headlining the Dos Amigos tour with Dwight Yoakam, which consists of 15 shows starting March 26 in Brookings, South Dakota.

ZZ Top is also bringing their the Big One! tour to Europe, which will be their first European tour in two years. The trek starts June 13 in Estonia.

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

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Billy Joel shocked fans on Jan. 2 when he took the stage — for the first time since his brain condition diagnosis — to perform with a Billy Joel cover band in Wellington, Florida. The singer in that cover band is now speculating that the Rock & Roll of Famer is working toward a return to the stage.

Tony Monaco, lead singer of the tribute band Turnstiles, tells Spin.com that he had no idea Billy was coming to their gig until he, his wife and his daughters showed up backstage and Billy said “maybe” he’d be interested in sitting in with the band.

According to Tony, Billy suggested they do “New York State of Mind” together, despite the fact that, as he told Tony, “I haven’t sang in months and I don’t play piano much lately.” When the time came for the song, Billy was nowhere to be found. Soon afterward, Tony says, he saw Billy making his way to the stage.

“I was excited, but now I didn’t know what we’d play,” Tony said. Billy suggested “We Didn’t Start the Fire,”  followed by “Big Shot,” which thrilled the audience.

“He’s not 100%, but his voice was strong, and I do think he’s going to come back,” Tony concluded.

“He may not do it on such a grand scale or get up from the piano too much, but I know he wants to play again and hasn’t shut the door on doing so. I’m not so sure that this wasn’t a little testing of those waters.”

Billy, 76, announced in May that he’d been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus, which causes hearing, vision and balance problems. He canceled all his concerts.

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Peter Frampton took to Instagram Tuesday to mark the 50th anniversary of his iconic live album, Frampton Comes Alive!

“I can’t believe today’s the day. It’s now been 50 years since Frampton Comes Alive! was released. Wow, 50 years,” he said. “Thank you all for helping it become such a huge phenomenal success,” he added, before joking, “probably time to buy a new one anyway.”

Frampton Comes Alive! helped launch the now-Rock & Roll Hall of Famer to stardom, with the album becoming one of the bestselling live albums of all time. It features live performances of now-iconic Frampton tunes like “Show Me the Way,” “Baby, I Love Your Way” and “Do You Feel Like We Do,” which all became top-15 hits.

Frampton Comes Alive! was the first live album to really make an impact, and in an interview with ABC Audio, Frampton said he was very proud of what the album did for both him and “music in general.”

“They say that it changed everything because of the massive sales for not a studio album. The biggest-selling album at that time for a couple of years there, and not even biggest-selling live album, biggest-selling album,” Frampton said. “We surpassed Tapestry, Carole King‘s wonderful album.” 

Frampton Comes Alive! would go on to become Frampton’s only #1 record, spending 10 nonconsecutive weeks in the top spot. In 2020 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

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Elton John has announced some details of his annual Elton John Aids Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party.

The party will be held Oscar night, March 15, at West Hollywood Park, hosted by Elton and his husband, David Furnish, as well as actor Neil Patrick Harris and his husband, David Burtka.

“EJAFOscars has always been about more than films, it’s about coming together to change lives,” reads a post on Elton’s Instagram. “We’re excited to return this March to bring heart and purpose to Hollywood’s biggest night.”

Elton has not revealed the evening’s entertainment, although he is asking for input from fans. The post asks, “Who would you like to see join our hosts on stage? Let us know in the comments!”

Last year’s party featured a performance by Chappell Roan, with money raised going to both Elton’s foundation and L.A. wildfire relief.

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On This Day, Jan. 6, 1987 …

Eric Clapton kicked off a six-night residency at London’s Royal Albert Hall, treating the crowd to such classic songs as “I Shot the Sheriff,” “Wonderful Tonight” and “Cocaine,” as well as Cream tracks “White Room” and “Sunshine of Your Love.”

The residency became a near-annual event for Clapton. In 1991, he played a whopping 24 shows at Royal Albert Hall, breaking his own record for the longest run of concerts at the venue.

During that run, Clapton performed with three lineups — a rock band, a blues band and an orchestra. In June 2024, he released a box set, The Definitive 24 Nights, featuring performances from that run.

Clapton’s most recent Royal Albert Hall residency took place in May 2025. He has not yet revealed plans to play the venue in 2026. 

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David Bowie is the latest artist to see a streaming bump thanks to the Netflix series Stranger Things.

Bowie’s “Heroes” plays over the closing credits of the show’s series finale, and according to Billboard, Luminate data shows that the song saw a 500% increase in streams following its inclusion.

“Heroes,” the title track to Bowie’s 12th studio album, saw about 342,000 streams on Jan. 1, the day after the show’s New Year’s Eve debut, and then continued to increase up to 456,000 streams on Jan. 2 and 470,000 streams on Jan. 3. Those numbers mark a significant increase compared to the months prior to the episode’s airing, when “Heroes” would average about 94,000 streams per day.

Stranger Things has a history of boosting the visibility of songs from previous decades. Most notably, Kate Bush‘s 1985 single “Running Up That Hill (Deal With God)” became the most streamed song on Spotify in the U.S. and the U.K. after its use in the fourth season of the show. It also went to #1 in the U.K. and #3 in the U.S.

“Heroes,” originally released in 1977, wasn’t the only song featured in the Stranger Things series finale. Other songs in the episode include Prince‘s “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain,”  Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper,” Pixies’ ” Here Comes Your Man” and Cowboy Junkies’ cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane.”

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Saturday marks 10 years since David Bowie’s death and his longtime pianist Mike Garson is opening up about the last time he spoke with the rock legend.

Garson tells Gold Derby that their last conversation was quite hopeful, despite the fact that Bowie was secretly battling cancer.

“It was only a few weeks before. He reached out to me, talking about continuing the trilogy of the Outside album,” Garson says, referring to Bowie’s 1995 album, and planned sequels that never happened. “He never gave up hope. … He was dying, and yet he was saying, ‘Let’s do this.’ So, of course, I got excited.”

Garson also recalls the last message he got from Bowie, noting he knew it was the end even though he was unaware of Bowie’s illness.

He says he had just listened to Bowie’s discography which left him “awestruck,” prompting him to send Bowie an email. Garson says, “And within three seconds, he emailed me back, saying, ‘Mike, we did a great body of work together.’”

Garson said the “finality” of that statement had him telling his wife “that’s the last time I’m going to hear form him.” “I don’t know if it was just my intuition,” he explained. “I did not know he was dying then, because he kept [his illness] secret from everyone. … But we had a very special connection.”

Garson is set to headline a trio of shows, Bowie’s Piano Man: A Decade in the Stars, at the Sun Rose West Hollywood in Los Angeles Jan. 8-10. The shows will celebrate Bowie’s birthday and the 10th anniversary of his death, and will feature guest appearances by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Bowie touring bassist Carmine Rojas and others.

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