Classic Hits

Peter Frampton, Patti Smith and Neil Young are among the artists who have donated one-of-a-kind memorabilia to the ASCAP Foundation’s fourth annual Holiday Auction. 

Frampton, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year, has donated a signed black Les Paul Gibson guitar, while Young has donated a framed and signed cover of his 2019 book To Feel the Music, and Smith has offered up a set of signed books and music.

Other items that are part of the auction include two tickets and a VIP experience to a Graham Nash concert in 2025, a G3 reunion album signed by Steve Vai, Eric Johnson and Joe Satriani, a signed copy of Bernie Taupin’s memoir Scattershot, and signed music and merchandise from Huey Lewis and the News.

The auction is open from now until Dec. 18 at charitybuzz.com. Proceeds will benefit ASCAP’s mission to support the next generation of songwriters and composers, with the money going to music education and talent development programs across the country.

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Yoko Ono never remarried after John Lennon was killed in December 1980, and in a new interview, the couple’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, said his mother “never has moved on from that relationship.”

Sean made the revelation as he was talking to BBC Radio 6 Music host Chris Hawkins about what he learned putting together the box set for his dad’s 1973 album, Mind Games, which was released earlier this year.

He noted that even though his parents separated after the making of the album — Lennon went on to have a relationship with May Pang, in what was called Lennon’s Lost Weekend — his mom and dad still loved each other.

“The truth is, even when they were apart they were always talking, so I don’t think they ever really broke up. All his stuff was still in the apartment with my mum, it’s not like they had a real separation,” he said. “And on top of it, all my dad was thinking about was her.” 

He added, “You look at the album cover [of Mind Games], it’s a collage of my mum literally the size of a mountain, and he’s this little tiny thing sort of fading into the background. And I think it’s clear what his view of my mum was in his life.”

Sean noted, “She was monumental, obviously. And the whole album is about her.”

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Alex Van Halen opened up about coping with the death of his brother, Eddie Van Halen, in an interview with Anderson Cooper for his CNN podcast, All There Is With Anderson Cooper.

“I’m grieving all the time. I’m not running from it, because that doesn’t solve the problem,” Alex shared. “At times, it can be overwhelming, and the more I dwell on it, the more complicated it becomes.” 

Although Eddie had been battling cancer for years, Alex said, “None of us really thought he was going to die.”

“He’d always bounced back. He had the most incredible DNA that I’ve ever seen in anybody,” he said. “He could do more and more drugs than anybody, and still wake up the next day and perform.”

He noted, “I don’t think anybody really thought he was gonna die. So when he passed, it was really a shock.”

Alex says even Eddie didn’t think he was going to die.

“Being human, you think you’re gonna go on one more day, one more day. You keep going forward,” he said. “But then one day you don’t. So up to the very end, we were still making music and we talked about, what are we gonna do next year? But it was clear that he was going downhill.” 

Alex also talked about his final moments with Eddie in the hospital.

“All I know is that when he stopped breathing, I didn’t hear anything. I didn’t see anything. There were no bells. There were no angels,” he says, noting that because of the COVID-19 pandemic Eddie’s body was immediately taken away. “[It was] a very uneventful ending to an eventful life. But you know what? He fought it till the very end. I wanna think of Ed’s life in terms of that he never gave up.”

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It sounds like Bob Dylan is confident that the upcoming movie A Complete Unknown is going to be a good one. He took to social media platform X Wednesday to share his thoughts on the film, which is set to open Dec. 25.

“There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!),” he tweeted. “Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me.”

Dylan went on to recommend the book on which the movie is based, 2015’s Dylan Goes Electric, by Elijah Wald. 

“It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport,” he shared. “After you’ve seen the movie read the book.”

A Complete Unknown follows a 19-year-old Dylan as he arrives in New York from Minnesota and tracks his rise as a folk singer during the ’60s, ending with his electric rock ‘n’ roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

This isn’t the first time Dylan has shared his thoughts on the project. A Complete Unknown director James Mangold has said that Dylan had some input during the making of the film. In fact, in a recent Rolling Stone interview Ed Norton, who plays Pete Seeger in the movie, shared that Mangold revealed Dylan made him put what’s described as “one totally inaccurate moment” into the flick, although Mangold didn’t say what it was.

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Gene Simmons may no longer be touring with KISS but he hasn’t given up playing live.

The rocker has announced a set of spring dates with the Gene Simmons Band, including shows in Florida, New Jersey and Texas.

Simmons is set to play Tallahassee on April 28, followed by a previously announced show in Beaver Dam, Kentucky, on May 3. He’ll then play Red Bank, New Jersey, on May 5, followed by Dallas on May 22 and Houston on May 25.

A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at GeneSimmons.com. 

Following KISS’ final show at New York’s Madison Square Garden last December, Simmons has played several dates with the Gene Simmons Band. His first post-KISS show took place in April 2024 at the grand opening of the Rock & Brews Restaurant and Concert Bar within the ilani Casino Resort in Ridgefield, Washington. The band then went on to play shows in Brazil and Europe.

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On This Day, Dec. 4, 1988 …

Roy Orbison performed what would be his final concert at the Front Row Theater in Highland Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. 

The concert featured performances of such Orbison classics as “Crying,” “In Dreams,” “Only the Lonely,” “Oh, Pretty Woman” and more.

After the show, Orbison returned home to Hendersonville, Tennessee, where he died from a heart attack on Dec. 6. He was 52.

Orbison’s many accolades include being a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Musicians Hall of Fame. He won five Grammy Awards and was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Dead & Company are once again set to take up residency at the Las Vegas Sphere. 

The band just announced a set of 18 new spring dates for their Dead Forever – Live at Sphere residency, kicking off March 20 and wrapping May 17. The shows will be in celebration of Dead & Company’s 10th anniversary and will be the only Dead & Company Sphere dates for 2025. 

Presale sign-up is open now, with the artist presale kicking off Dec. 10 at 10 a.m. PT, followed by other presale opportunities that begin Dec. 12 at 10 a.m. PT. Tickets go on sale to the general public starting Dec. 13 at 10 a.m. PT. Travel and VIP packages go on sale Thursday at 7 a.m. PT. 

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

Dead & Company launched their Dead Forever – Live at Sphere residency in May, treating fans to a four-hour show that combined the iconic Dead music with visuals that helped celebrate the 60-year legacy of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group.

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The Rolling Stones want to make sure you smell good.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers have just unveiled their first-ever fragrance, RS No. 9, described as “a unique scent that summons the spirit of a scene that made history, the place where it all began.”

The scent, released in partnership with The Stones, fragrance company Nirvana Brands and Bravado, is designed to recall the feeling of London’s Soho area in 1962, which is when The Stones played their first live show at London’s Marquee Club.

As for what it smells like, the scent is described as having “bourbon-infused notes of velvet swagger onto centre stage, as warm leather brawls under electric musk while tempting patchouli and sultry oud seductively linger.”

“It’s the perfect fragrance for those who dare to be different,” The Stones share, “and we hope it will bring some joy to our fans.”

The fragrance will be limited to 999 numbered bottles and will cost $99.99 for a 100ml bottle. They’ll be available at The Stones’ RS No.9 stores in London and Tokyo, and are also available to preorder online, with bottles shipping on Jan. 31.  

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Gibson has unveiled the newest addition to its Jimmy Page guitar collection.

The latest is a new replica of the Led Zeppelin rocker’s most recognized guitar, his 1969 EDS-1275 Doubleneck, which he used on such songs as “Stairway to Haven,” “The Song Remains The Same” and “Celebration.”

The new Jimmy Page EDS-1275 Doubleneck VOS ’69 Cherry is described as an “effective clone” of the original, with Gibson using 3D scanning technology while crafting the instrument. It also got “significant input” from Page while crafting the guitar.

Gibson first announced its collaborative partnership with Page back in February, and in March released a limited collector’s edition of the 1969 EDS-1275 Doubleneck guitar, at a cost of $50,000. The new model comes at a more reasonable price of $9,999 and is available to order now.

Gibson also released the Jimmy Page 1964 SJ-200 and 1964 SJ-200 Collector’s Edition guitars in October, which were inspired by Page’s own mid-’60s Gibson SJ-200 acoustic, which he used to record Led Zeppelin’s debut album.

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A producer on Fleetwood Mac’s classic album Rumours has settled his lawsuit over the Tony Award-winning play Stereophonic.

Ken Caillat, who co-produced the 1977 album, filed a lawsuit in October against the writer and producers of Stereophonic, alleging the play used portions of his 2013 book, Making Rumours: The Inside Story Of The Classic Fleetwood Mac Album, without permission.

In the suit, which was also filed on behalf of Caillat’s co-author Steven Stiefel, the pair claimed Stereophonic “copies the heart and soul of Making Rumours, and is substantially similar,” noting they didn’t authorize the play’s writer, David Adjmi, to “copy, reproduce, or create a fictional adaptation or derivative work of their book.”

In legal documents filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York, the parties asked for the adjournment of a planned conference that was supposed to take place Thursday, noting that both sides have “resolved the dispute in principle” and expect to have their settlement finalized before Dec. 23.

So far no details of the settlement have been revealed.  

Prior to filing the suit, Caillat, father of singer Colbie Caillat, gave an interview with The New Yorker, in which he detailed the similarities of his book and the play, including portions of dialogue he believes were taken right from his book.

Stereophonic opened on Broadway in April and won five Tony Awards, including Best Play. It was originally scheduled to run until July 7, but its run was extended several times. It is now scheduled to close on Jan. 12.

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