On Jan. 5 of 2024, Michael Bolton told fans that he had to undergo brain surgery. Now, a year later, he seems healthy and happy.
Back in January, Michael wrote on Instagram, “Just before the holidays, it was discovered that I had a brain tumor, which required immediate surgery. Thanks to my incredible medical team, the surgery was a success.”
On Wednesday, Christmas Day, he shared a photo on Facebook of himself and some family members. They wore festive pajamas, while he sported a Santa hat. “Sending warm wishes for a holiday season filled with peace, love, and joy,” the post’s caption reads. “May the New Year bring health, happiness, and countless moments to cherish. Here’s to fresh starts and beautiful moments in 2025!”
In his initial January post, Michael said he’d be taking a “temporary break” from touring. In October, he canceled some scheduled shows, noting on Facebook that he wasn’t “quite 100% yet,” adding, “I only want to give you my very best, so please bear with me as I continue my road to recovery.” He also teased “a couple exciting projects.”
Neil Young gave fans a Christmas present on Wednesday, sharing a video on social media of him performing “Silver and Gold,” a song written in the ’80s that wound up being the title track off his 2000 album.
According to Rolling Stone, Young has rarely performed “Silver and Gold” live, and the video marks Young’s first performance of the song since 2007.
The video cuts off with Young saying, “Is that our first fireside session?” Rolling Stone notes that Young went on to share that he has a new album in the works called Talkin’ to the Trees, and he’s also planning a new tour of the U.S. and Europe, with his most recent band Chrome Hearts.
Young toured with Crazy Horse in 2024, although he played about 15 shows before canceling the tour in June, citing health reasons. Since then he’s played only a handful of shows, including Farm Aid in September, which was his first with Chrome Hearts, made up of Micah Nelson, Anthony LoGerfo and Corey McCormick.
George Harrison landed at #1 with the song “My Sweet Lord,” which went on to spend four weeks in the top spot.
The chart-topper, produced by Harrison and Phil Spector, made Harrison the first former member of The Beatles to score a solo #1 in the U.S. The track, which was released as a double A-side single with “Isn’t It a Pity,” also went to #1 in several other countries, including the U.K. and Australia.
“My Sweet Lord” was featured on Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass, which was his first solo album following the Beatles’ breakup. He later released an updated version of the tune, “My Sweet Lord (2000),” for the 30th anniversary reissue of the album.
L-R: Rod Stewart, record label head Clive Davis, producer Richard Perry; L. Cohen/WireImage
Rod Stewart is “devastated” by the death of Richard Perry, who produced most of his best-selling Great American Songbook albums. Perry died of cardiac arrest on Dec. 24 in LA, according to the New York Times. He was 82.
“Dearest Richard, farewell, my dear buddy,” Rod wrote on Instagram. “They say in life a man is lucky if he can count his true friends on one hand, and you were certainly one of them. Now I’ve lost you and I’m devastated.”
“We played and worked so closely together for so many years, creating some of the most memorable music together,” he continued. “You were there when [my wife] Penny and I first started dating, encouraging our relationship. We were both in tears as I post this farewell.”
In addition to Rod’s Songbook albums, which revived his career in the early 2000s, Perry also produced classic albums like Barbra Streisand‘s Stoney End, Carly Simon’s No Secrets, which included “You’re So Vain;” Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson, featuring “Without You” and “Jump Into the Fire” and Ringo Starr‘s Ringo, which featured the hits “Oh My My,” “Photograph” and “You’re Sixteen.”
Other hits Perry produced include Leo Sayer’s “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,” Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better,” The Pointer Sisters‘ “I’m So Excited,” “Jump (For My Love)” and “Slow Hand,” DeBarge‘s “Rhythm of the Night” and “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” by Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias.
In 2023 Bruce Springsteen was forced to postpone his tour with the E Street Band due to a bout with peptic ulcer disease, but he didn’t stay away from the stage for long. The Boss returned to the road in April 2024, kicking off his rescheduled tour in Phoenix, and then spent a good portion of the year touring, with the trek hitting both the U.S. and Europe.
He did have to postpone a few shows in Europe due to vocal issues, but that just led to him announcing another tour of Europe next summer.
But that was only one of the many Springsteen-related highlights this year. Among the others:
– In early January it was reported that a movie about the making of Springsteen’s 1982 album, Nebraska, was in the works. Deliver Us From Nowhere will be based on the Warren Zanes book Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, with The Bear star Jeremy Allen White cast to play The Boss. The film, directed by Scott Cooper, is currently in production.
– In the middle of his tour, Springsteen flew across country from San Diego to Brooklyn to join Zach Bryan on stage for two songs, including “Sandpiper,” a collaboration between the two that appeared on Zach’s album The Great American Bar Scene. Springsteen also showed up at Bryan’s Philadelphia concert in August, where they performed “Sandpiper” and Bruce’s “Atlantic City.”
– Springsteen made a guest appearance on the HBO Max comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm, in an episode in which star Larry David gives him COVID-19.
– The Boss was chosen as the next Academy Fellow of The Ivors Academy, the U.K. organization that presents The Ivor Novello Awards, which celebrate excellence in British and Irish songwriting. He became the first international songwriter to earn a fellowship, which is the highest honor handed out by the Ivors.
– In June, Bruce celebrated the 40th anniversary of his iconic album Born in the U.S.A., which spent seven weeks at #1 in 1984. As part of the celebration he released an anniversary edition of the album on translucent red vinyl.
– In July, Forbes magazine claimed Bruce was now a billionaire, although he later denied the report.
– Springsteen brought his live show home, headlining the Sea. Hear. Now festival in his old stomping ground of Asbury Park, New Jersey. He popped in during sets by fellow New Jersey natives Gaslight Anthem, as well as the Trey Anastasio Band, with his headlining set filled with songs from the early days of his career.
– He appeared on the tribute album for longtime New York City punk fixture Jesse Malin, called Silver Patron Saints, contributing the song “She Don’t Love Me Now” featuring Jesse’s band and E Street Band saxophonist Jake Clemons.
– Bruce wrapped the year by giving fans a peek behind the scenes at his live show with the Hulu documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. In the doc, Bruce’s wife, Patti Scialfa, revealed that in 2018 she was diagnosed multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, which has made it hard for her to perform and is why she wasn’t on tour with him.
– And if all of that wasn’t enough, The Boss also turned 75 in September.
Bruce’s bandmate Stevie Van Zandt also had a great year. Not only were he and and his brother — playwright, actor and director Billy Van Zandt —honored with a street named after them in their hometown of Middletown, New Jersey, Stevie was featured in his very own documentary. Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and debuted on Max in June. The film also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Music Film.
Kate Bush has posted her annual Christmas message to her website.
In the piece, the “Running Up That Hill” artist shares that she went to see an exhibit of paintings by the French Impressionist Claude Monet, and draws a comparison between Monet’s paintings of smog-covered London and the current increasing use of artificial intelligence in the world today.
“Is that us? Standing in awe at the dawn of AI, the symbol of modernity, as smog was for Monet at that time in the newly industrial London?” Bush writes. “Do we only see the twinkling light of the new invention, which so often catches the eye of our imagination… and what are those vague, dark sardonic shapes we can see in the background, behind the theatrical gauze?
“It’s hard to make them out, but could they be our human pods, like those from the Matrix, being readied for us by eager, playful digits?” she continues. “Or maybe they are freshly painted bridges – robust, and lovingly built to carry us all into a much longed-for new age of healthy thinking?”
Bush concludes, “All will be revealed when the smog begins to clear. Merry Christmas everyone. I hope it’s a really joyful one for you all.”
2024 was a milestone year for Billy Joel, in more ways than one.
It started in February, when he released “Turn the Lights Back On,” his first pop single since 2007’s “All My Life.” The ballad was cowritten by Billy, Freddy Wexler, Arthur Bacon and Wayne Hector, and was reminiscent of his classic sound. The video, which used AI to morph him from his ’70s, ’80s and ’90s selves into his present-day self, upped the nostalgia factor, too.
“Turn the Lights Back On,” which Billy performed at the Grammy Awards days after its release, returned Billy to the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts — as an artist, not just a writer — for the first time since 1998.
Billy was back on CBS in April for a special documenting the 100th show of his Madison Square Garden residency. Billy Joel: The 100th – Live at Madison Square Garden aired April 14, but it was delayed due to coverage of the Masters Tournament, then cut short for local news programming. CBS mollified angry fans by reairing the show, which won three Emmys, on April 19.
On May 9, Billy celebrated his 75th birthday onstage at Madison Square Garden. On July 25, he officially ended his 10-year residency with his 150th career show at the Garden, where he was joined by Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose and by his young daughters, Remy and Della.
According to Billboard, the residency grossed a total of $267 million. Only Céline Dion‘s two residency shows in Las Vegas have earned more.
Billy also performed stadium shows across the country in 2024, but added a new twist: He coheadlined with, variously, Stevie Nicks, Sting and Rod Stewart. He’ll continue performing with all three of them into 2025.
If you’re looking to stream holiday songs, keep in mind that if you choose WHAM!‘s “Last Christmas,” you’ll be helping people in need.
In a Christmas message to fans, George Michael‘s sister, father and former manager write that they have “donated a substantial amount from George’s Last Christmas record royalties to some 20 organizations raising money for causes close to George’s heart.”
The donations will be made through the newly established George Michael Fund, which continues the singer’s history of philanthropy.
George, who died on Christmas Day 2016, wrote “Last Christmas” and played all the instruments on it. He initially donated the royalties from the song to the Band Aid Trust, after participating in the recording of the charity record “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” You can learn more about that by watching the new Netflix documentary Last Christmas Unwrapped.
In George’s native U.K., “Last Christmas” just became the first song ever to spend two consecutive years as the country’s Christmas #1. In the U.S., it’s #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Glam rockers Poison landed their first and only #1 song with the power ballad “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”
The song, from the band’s sophomore album, Open Up and Say … Ah!, spent three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and was #3 on the Billboard year-end charts that year.
The band’s frontman, Bret Michaels, shared in an interview for VH1’s Behind the Music that the song was inspired by a cheating girlfriend. He said he wrote it after he called her while at the laundromat and heard a male voice in the background.
The Black Crowes are nominated for a Grammy for their latest album Happiness Bastards, and they certainly feel honored by the recognition.
The album, the group’s first collection of new material in 15 years, is nominated for Best Rock Album, and will compete with The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds, Green Day’s Saviors, Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter, JackWhite’s No Name, Fontaines D.C.’s Romance and Idles’ Tangk.
“To be nominated with the Rolling Stones? I mean, that’s pretty cool,” Rich Robinson tells Forbes.
“For me, to be recognized in the industry that we have somehow kept at bay for 35 years? That feels good,” Chris Robinson adds. “And to be included with the Stones and Pearl Jam and Jack White and Green Day? And the younger bands! IDLES is such a f****** strong group. To be included with all of those bands makes me feel really good.”
He adds, “And, yeah – it’s something that I’m not used to.”
The Grammys will take place Feb. 2 in LA, and will air live on CBS and will stream live on Paramount+.
