Classic Hits

Traffic’s Dave Mason is ready to share his story in the upcoming memoir Only You Know and I Know, but it may not have happened if it wasn’t for his fans and his wife.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer tells ABC Audio he was “badgered” into writing the book, noting that for a long time fans have been telling him he should write one. 

“And frankly, if it was up to me, you know, left to my own devices, I probably would never have done it since I’m (a) pretty private person,” he shares. “And then, of course, my wife got on my back, which was, that was the end of that.” 

Mason writes about all the artists he’s worked with over the years, including his Traffic bandmates, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton, but he notes that the book is about more than the music.

“For the most part, I tried to write about a personal journey, a life’s story,” he says. “It just happens to have some major sort of highlights that … normally most people would never get to do.”

The book also contains essays from several of Mason’s friends and colleagues, and he says he was open to include whatever anybody wanted to write about him.

“Write whatever you want is how I left it with everybody,” he says. “If they want to say well it was great, and this was great, but he’s a real a******, I mean, it would have been fine. It would of just lent a little more salt and pepper to the narrative.” 

Only You Know and I Know will be released Sept. 10. It’s available for preorder now.

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In his 1985 solo hit “Lucky In Love,” Mick Jagger sang that he was “a bettin’ fool/ a gamblin’ man.” Well, an actual person who fits that description has now changed his name … to Mick Jagger.

According to the U.K.’s ITV, the 62-year-old man says he ruined his life gambling and has now changed his name to Mick Jagger in an effort to escape his past. The recovering gambling addict started betting on horse races at age 12 and subsequently went through hundreds of thousands of dollars. His family disowned him and he was forced to live on the streets.

“I’ve had plenty of low points when I’ve thought it would just be better to end it all,” Mick told ITV News Anglia. “I’ve had flats. I’ve had jobs. I’ve lost them through gambling. I spent more time in the betting shop than I did at work. I never paid my rent or my bills because I always gambled it away.”

The good news is that five years ago Mick connected with a local homelessness charity. He now lives at the charity’s home base and works in its garden, and he hasn’t gambled in 18 months.

“I’m a new person. Just because we suffer with addiction we’re not bad people,” he tells ITV News Anglia. 

No word on what the real Mick Jagger thinks about this — perhaps he has “Mixed Emotions.”

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Rod Stewart was set to perform at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace Wednesday, Aug. 7, in what was to have been a residency-ending performance of his show Rod Stewart: The Hits. Earlier on Wednesday, he announced that the final show wouldn’t actually be his final show after all and he would be returning to the Colosseum in 2025. But now, the point is moot — because Wednesday’s show has been canceled.

The concert, the 200th show of Rod’s current residency, is off because Rod is sick. He wrote on Instagram, “I’m desperately sorry to miss this 200th show celebration. Many people can work with strep throat but obviously not me. I’m absolutely gutted.”

“I’ve been looking forward to this concert for so long,” he continued. “My deepest regrets for any inconvenience this has caused. Thankfully we’ll now be returning in 2025 and I hope to see you all there.”

It’s not clear if the tickets for this show will be good for the new residency, The Encore Shows, which starts in March. According to a press release, this will be a somewhat different show, with new production and different songs.

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Neil Young recently announced the release of Archives Vol. III (1976-1987), a massive box set that includes  15 previously unreleased songs among its 198 tracks. Ahead of the package’s release on Sept. 16, you can now stream one of those never-before-heard songs.

The website of the U.K. magazine MOJO has premiered “Winter Winds,” which Young recorded at his Broken Arrow Ranch in Half Moon Bay, California, as part of the sessions that resulted in the 1980 LP Hawks & Doves. The country-rock tune features fiddle and pedal steel, similar to those released on the second side of the album. The song will be officially released on Aug. 9.

As previously reported, the deluxe edition of Archives III includes 22 discs: 17 CDs and five Blu-rays. It includes 198 musical tracks, with 121 previously unreleased versions of songs, including live and studio recordings, and new mixes or edits, plus the 15 previously unreleased songs.

The Blu-rays feature 11 films, four of which have never been released before. 

If that’s too much for you, there’s also a separate 17-CD limited-edition Archives Vol. III box set, as well as a double vinyl LP, Takes, which has 16 tracks, featuring one song each from 16 of the 17 CDs.

Archives Vol. III sets are available for preorder at the Greedy Hand Store at Neil Young Archives. Those who preorder the set will get a CD with the songs from the Takes vinyl included. The 17-CD set will also be available at music retailers.

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Sammy Hagar has talked at length about his failed attempts to get in contact with his former bandmate Alex Van Halen. Now he thinks he may know why the drummer is ghosting him.

Speaking to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Hagar, who’s currently out on his Best of Both Worlds Tour, says, “I reached out to Alex a dozen times, before this tour was announced, and got no response. I mean, I’ve asked him to meet me under any conditions, any circumstances, anytime, anyplace, anywhere. It’s not like, ‘Well, let me think about it.’ It’s like, no answer. Zero.”

According to Hagar, he wants to offer Alex a spotlight during the tour to “just play a couple of songs” or, if he wants to, “be the drummer the whole night” — or, he laughs, “be the executive producer. What do you want to do?”

But Sammy is now floating the idea that Alex is ignoring him because he’s going to put out his autobiography, called Brothers, this fall.

“I’m sure when he made his book deal, they said, ‘You cannot talk to Dave [Lee Roth], and you cannot talk to Hagar,” says the Red Rocker. “I guarantee you, that that was part of the deal.”

Still, Sammy is soldiering on with his current lineup: Joe Satriani on guitar, Jason Bonham on drums, Van Halen‘s Michael Anthony on bass and keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte.

“The idea of putting together guys who maybe have not played together before — Joe and Mike and I have not played together with Jason before — is a revelation,” says Hagar.

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 Fifty-five years ago — Aug. 15, 1969, to Aug. 17, 1969 — the original Woodstock festival took place in Bethel, New York. And while many revere it as the ultimate “peace and love” musical experience, some of those who were there don’t remember it that fondly.

Joan Baez, who headlined the first night of the festival, told the San Diego Union-Tribune, “It was a rare, historic moment, but it’s been over-glorified. People say to me, ‘Oh, man, you played at Woodstock and you had everything — the music, the political scene, the community.’ And I tell them: ‘Yeah, we had the rain and the mud!’”

Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart told the Union-Tribune, “I recall the people who played really well at Woodstock — Carlos Santana, Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix — were over-the-top great. But we just didn’t play well. It was a missed opportunity.”

The Who‘s guitarist Pete Townshend didn’t buy into the scene. He told the Union-Tribune, “The dream and ideology of rock ‘n roll was rooted in the idea that … the ‘Woodstock generation,’ were super-luminaries, but I’ve never agreed with that. I always thought that was the biggest crock of s*** America has ever come up with.”

Billy Joel attended Woodstock as a fan, but left after a day and a half. “I hated it,” he said. “I think a lot of that ‘community spirit’ was based on the fact that everybody was so wasted … it was all muddy, and you couldn’t go to the bathroom unless you stood up and went right where you were.”

The Jefferson Airplane‘s Grace Slick confirms that, recalling, “I’m amazed I was able to be on the side of the stage for 12 hours before we played — without having to take a pee. There were no bathrooms.”

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Carole King once performed a groundbreaking concert in New York City’s famed Central Park, but she isn’t planning a repeat of that performance, despite what you might have seen online.

Apparently someone on Facebook created an event claiming that the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has a show taking place in the park on Oct. 16 — and that information spread to other outlets. It evidently became so widespread that King’s team was forced to take to Instagram to debunk the rumor. 

“We have recently been made aware of a fake event circulating online, claiming to feature a live performance by Carole King,” reads the statement on King’s account. “Please be advised that this event is not legitimate and has not been endorsed by Carole King or the management team.”

Astute fans may have realized something was off with the event listing, because it says the concert will take place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. CDT. New York, of course, is in the Eastern time zone, not Central.

King’s legendary homecoming concert in Central Park in 1973 drew an estimated 100,000 fans. It was commemorated in the 2023 documentary Home Again: Carole King in Central Park.

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After announcing that he was going to end his 13-year Las Vegas residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace  with his 200th show on Aug. 7, Rod Stewart has changed his mind.

Speaking about ending the residency earlier this year, Rod told ABC Audio that he “can’t imagine not going back [to Vegas] again” — and that’s exactly what he’s doing, in 2025. He’s announced Rod Stewart: The Encore Shows, which will begin in March. There are 12 shows scheduled, taking place in March, May and June.

These new performances will evidently be different from his residency, which was called The Hits. It will include the hits, but also, according to a press release, “surprises from the songbook, swing … deep cuts, and stunning new production elements.” 

This would seem to indicate that Rod plans to incorporate some material from his most recent album, Swing Fever, a collaboration with former Squeeze keyboardist and band leader Jools Holland.

Fan club presale tickets go on sale Aug. 8 at 10 a.m. PT, and so will Citi cardmember tickets via citientertainment.com. Other presales start on Aug. 9, and tickets go on sale to the general public Aug. 12 at 10 a.m. PT via ticketmaster.com/rodstewartvegas.

Here are the show dates:

March: 12, 14, 15, 19, 21, 22

May: 29, 31

June: 1, 5, 7, 8

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On This Day, Aug. 7, 1987 …

Lindsey Buckingham quit Fleetwood Mac, one day after a contentious group meeting at Christine McVie’s house led to a physical altercation between him and Stevie Nicks.

With a tour starting in a month, the band replaced Lindsey with Billy Burnette and Rick Vito and hit the road for the Shake the Cage Tour.

Buckingham would eventually return to Fleetwood Mac when they reunited in 1993 to perform “Don’t Stop” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. They then reunited in 1997 for a live concert, which was recorded for the live album The Dance and followed by an arena tour.

Buckingham remained with Fleetwood Mac until 2018, when he was fired over a disagreement about touring. He was again replaced by two guitarists, Crowded House’s Neil Finn and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell.

The current future of Fleetwood Mac is uncertain. In fact, Nicks recently shared in an interview that she didn’t think the band could go on following the 2023 death of McVie.

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Rod Stewart‘s 13-year residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace is coming to an end Aug. 7 with his 200th show in the venue. He tells ABC Audio one of the reasons why he’s choosing to end his successful run at the venue now.

“Possibly ’cause it’s a nice rounded number, 200 shows,” he says.

But this last show might not be the end of his time in Sin City forever. As he tells ABC Audio, “I mean, I can’t imagine not going back there again.”

One of the reasons that Rod spent 13 years at the Colosseum is because he just really loves the venue. “Caesars are the best,” he says. “I mean, they really looked after me. Best place to play.”

While the Vegas run is over, Rod still has a number of other North American shows booked for August and into September, including a Sept. 13 stadium show co-headlining with Billy Joel in Cleveland, Ohio. The two have never shared a bill before, so how did that come about?

“I don’t know,” Rod says. “I know he lives in Palm Beach now, where I live sometimes. I don’t know, I’ve got no idea. But I’m actually looking forward to it — I’m honored, in fact.” 

In a recent interview, Rod, who turns 80 in January, said he has no plans to retire and feels that he could “do probably another 15 [years] easy.”

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