Gene Simmons isn’t bothered by the critics of his Dancing with the Stars appearance.
The KISS rocker was a guest judge on Tuesday’s hair metal episode, and received backlash from the public over what some argued were “creepy” comments that focused on the dancers’ appearance and looks rather than their performance.
A cameraman caught Simmons out in Los Angeles, with the Daily Mail sharing video of him brushing off the critiques.
“All media is clickbait. I stand by every word I said,” he said. “I had a great time. The contestants were great. The show was great.”
He added, “It was a lot of fun. But media? Everybody’s got something to say. Watch the show. It was a lot of fun. Everybody had a great time.”
Former Journey frontman Steve Perry is getting into the holiday spirit once again.
The singer just announced that a new version of his holiday record, now titled The Season 3, will be released Nov. 8, featuring six previously unreleased tracks.
One of those new tracks is a cover of the classic “What A Wonderful World,” which is out now.
Perry originally released The Season in 2021, then followed it up with a deluxe edition a year later. The new release features a total of 16 holiday tunes, including the new additions of “Call Me Irresponsible,” featuring Ray Perry, “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Let It Snow.”
The Season 3 will be released on CD, vinyl and digitally, with a Dolby Atmos mix. It is available for preorder now.
Here is the track list for The Season 3: “What A Wonderful World” “The Christmas Song” “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” “This Christmas” “Jingle Bell Rock” “Call Me Irresponsible” (feat. Ray Perry) “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve” “Auld Lang Syne” “Silver Bells” “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” “Let It Snow” “Maybe This Year” “Winter Wonderland” “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” “’Twas The Night Before Christmas”
Jon Bon Jovi is the latest musician to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election.
Sharing a clip of “The People’s House,” his collaboration with The War And Treaty, Jon writes on Instagram, “The People’s House is a song that celebrates this beautiful place that we call home, from sea to shining sea.”
He adds, “The truth matters. And the truth is on election day I’ll be voting for @KamalaHarris and @TimWalz because I believe in the power of we, not of me. I’ve written a song reminding us that out of many, we are still one.”
Jon follows fellow New Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen in endorsing the Harris/Walz ticket. Springsteen announced his support in early October, sharing that the Democratic candidates stand for “the vision of America I’ve been consistently writing about for 55 years.”
Joan Jett also just endorsed Harris/Walz with a new music video for the 2023 track “If You’re Blue.”
“More than ever, we need politicians who can implement massive positive change for our nation. We have come to that point where we’re not just voting for our party or a candidate, but on whether our democracy survives,” she shared. “And make no mistake! Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will guide us to a more positive future. A future we MUST look to for ourselves, our children, our country and our planet.”
Foghat has just released a new single dedicated to their original lead singer and guitarist, LonesomeDave Peverett, who passed away in 2000.
The tune, “On Tonsils & Sneakers,” is inspired by Peverett’s stage introduction, “… on Tonsils and Sneakers, I’m Lonesome Dave,” and celebrates the silver and gold sneakers the rocker would wear during shows.
“When Lonesome Dave sang and played with this band, he gave nothing less than 100%,” drummer and founding member Roger Earl shares. “I loved playing with Dave. All I had to do was have fun playing drums.”
“Every once in a while you meet someone who changes the whole trajectory of your life,” guitarist Bryan Bassett adds. “Lonesome Dave Peverett was that person for me. From the day we met in the late ‘80s our friendship blossomed, I became his touring partner, I met my future wife and became a part of the Foghat family.”
“On Tonsils & Sneakers” is out now via digital outlets and will be released on 7-inch red translucent vinyl on Nov. 29 for Record Store Black Friday. The B-side will feature “Black Days & Blue Nights,” a song from Foghat’s 2023 album, Sonic Mojo, which was a tribute to the band’s original slide guitarist, Rod Price, who passed away in 2005.
Carole King has teamed up with Reba McEntire to write the theme song for Reba’s new NBC sitcom, Happy’s Place.
“I’m so happy for the opportunity to write the theme song for Happy’s Place with my good friend, Carole King,” Reba shares. “It just doesn’t get much better than that! I hope my fans will love this song as much as they did the theme song for the Reba show.”
In the series, Reba’s character, Bobbie, inherits her father’s tavern, only to find out she’ll have to run it with her twentysomething half-sister she didn’t know she had.
Elton John landed at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Candle in the Wind ’97,” a tribute to his close friend, the late Princess Diana.
Elton first performed the song, a reworking of his 1974 single, at Diana’s funeral that September. He then recorded the track, with proceeds going to the Diana, Princess of Wales Fund. The song was released as a double A-side single with “Something About the Way You Look Tonight,” from Elton’s album The Big Picture.
The track spent 14 weeks at #1 in the U.S. and topped the charts in 20 different countries, including the U.K., Japan and Australia. It went on to become the first single to earn Diamond certification by the RIAA for sales of 10 million copies.
“Candle in the Wind ’97” is also the second highest-selling physical single of all time, behind Bing Crosby‘s 1942 classic “White Christmas,” according to the Guinness Book of World Records, and has sold more than 33 million copies worldwide.
The track also earned Elton a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
Friday marks the 50th anniversary of Billy Joel’s third studio album, Streetlife Serenade, which was a top 40 hit for the future Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.
Released Oct. 11, 1974, the album is best known for the song “The Entertainer,” which had Billy clapping back after his classic track “Piano Man” was cut for radio. In it he sings, “If you’re gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05.”
While “The Entertainer” went on to become a fan favorite and a staple at Joel’s live shows, he says the song is often misunderstood. It features lyrics that appear to have Joel complaining about being a music superstar, although they’re actually meant to be sarcastic, something Joel says fans, and DJs, didn’t often get.
“The disc jockey saying, ‘OK, first he’s a piano man. He’s b******* about playing in a piano bar. He’s moaning about his life,’” Billy said in a video about the album made for his website. “’Now he’s got a successful record. Now he’s b******* about being successful.’”
Streetlife Serenade wasthe follow-up to his 1972 breakthrough Piano Man, and even Billy admits he wasn’t at his best. He says the quality suffered because he was too busy opening for other acts on the road, sharing he “didn’t really have a lot of time to write new material.”
“But there was a lot of pressure to put out another album after Piano Man and I just didn’t have a lot of stuff,” he said. “There’s even two instrumentals and when’s the last time, you know, a singer-songwriter put out an instrumental?”
Streetlife Serenade went on to sell over 1 million copies and has been certified Platinum by the RIAA.
The first trailer for Midas Man, the upcoming biopic on the late Beatles manager Brian Epstein, has just been released, giving fans their first look at The Queen’s Gambit star Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Epstein.
The clip also features glimpses of The Beatles: Jonah Lees as John Lennon, Blake Richardson as Paul McCartney, Leo Harvey-Elledge as George Harrison and Adam Lawrence as original drummer Pete Best.
“What I saw on that stage, I shall never forget it,” Epstein says in the clip after his first experience seeing The Beatles. He is later heard telling a group of men, “Those boys will be bigger than Elvis,” which elicits laughs.
The clip also features footage of The Beatles in the studio and touches on Epstein’s private life. It also gives us a look at Jay Leno playing Ed Sullivan as he introduces the band on his show.
The cast for Midas Man also includes Emily Watson, Eddie Marsan and Eddie Izzard.
Midas Man debuts in the U.K. in October. So far a U.S. release date hasn’t been announced.
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts are showing their support for the Democratic party. The rockers shared a new video using their 2023 song “If You’re Blue” to encourage folks to “Vote Blue” at the polls this November.
“We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the world” blasts across the screen at the opening of the clip. “It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done.”
Then a quote from Vice President Kamala Harris appears, reading, “We must be worthy of this moment.”
The video cuts to images of America, with words like freedom, opportunity, compassion and dignity flashing across the screen, along with phrases like “turn the page,” “our fight our future,” “the American dream belongs to all of us” and “when we fight, we win,” the latter being a slogan used by Harris.
“If You’re Blue” appeared on Joan Jett & The Blackhearts’ 2023 EP, Mindsets. It was the band’s first new music release since their acoustic album Changeup, which dropped in March 2022.
Rolling Stone frontman Mick Jagger is a grandfather again.
The rocker’s daughter Georgia May Jaggerannounced on Instagram that she and her boyfriend, skateboarder Cambryan Sedlick, welcomed son Dean Lee Jagger Sedlick on Sept. 30.
Georgia shared a collage of pictures of the family, including one with mom Jerry Hall.
“We are so in Love and happy and can’t stop staring at him,” she writes. “Thanks @cambryans for being so incredible through everything and taking such good care of us.”
Georgia is one of Mick’s four children with Hall. He has a total of eight kids with five different women. His youngest, son Deveraux, with current girlfriend Melanie Hamrick, is 8. His daughter Karis, who he had with former girlfriend Marsha Hunt, is already a mom, as is daughter Jade, whose mother is Jagger’s former wife, Bianca.
