Classic Hits

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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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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