Classic Hits

Def Leppard and Journey spent the summer on the road together, and Def Leppard’s Phil Collen is opening up about what it was like touring with a band whose members weren’t exactly getting along.

Over the summer Journey’s Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain were suing each other over financial disagreements, but Collen says it didn’t affect the tour at all.

When asked by Rolling Stone whether it was “weird” touring with a band that’s dealing with infighting, Collen shared, “It would be, but we didn’t see it when we saw them.”

“I know the whole beef is mainly Jonathan and Neal, but when we get to see them, they’re just always just lovely and just wonderful,” he said. “So you don’t really get into whatever they’re going through, that other stuff. We just see them on stage hearing, ‘Don’t Stop Believing,’ ‘Open Arms,’ and all that stuff, and it’s pretty magical.” 

Unlike Journey, Collen says all the members of Def Leppard get along.

“We’ve only ever have one dressing room. We make a point of doing that,” he says. “If we can we’re always in one room, and it’s just magical. It’s like a bunch of arrested development. Everyone makes each other laugh.” 

“Journey are such a great band. I hope they get everything sorted out,” he added. “But it sure wouldn’t happen to us. We just have a different approach. I don’t want to be in separate rooms from the rest of the guys. None of us do.”

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Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour appears in a new video for the cover of the band’s classic “Comfortably Numb” from Ice T’s heavy metal group Body Count.

The video features black-and-white footage of Gilmour performing his guitar contribution to the song, cut with footage of Ice T at the mic, the band performing and images depicting the lyrics Ice T is rapping.

“Body Count’s version of ‘Comfortably Numb’ is quite radical, but the words really struck me,” Gilmour shared when the tune was first released. “It astonishes me that a tune I wrote almost 50 years ago is back with this great new approach. They’ve made it relevant again.”

“Comfortably Numb” is available now via digital outlets. The song will appear on Body County’s new album, Merciless, which drops Nov. 22.

(Video includes uncensored profanity.)
 

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Chicago has announced nine new shows at The Venetian Theatre, running from Feb. 28 to March 15.

This will be Chicago’s eighth year headlining a residency at The Venetian. In 2024 they played their 50th show there, making it the longest running residency in the venue’s history.

Various presales kick off Oct. 15, with tickets going on sale to the general public Oct. 18 at 10 a.m.

Chicago is set to return to the road on Oct. 22 with a show in Nashville, and they have 2024 dates booked through Nov. 17 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A complete list of dates can be found at chicagotheband.com.

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Lionel Richie is getting ready to open up about his life. The R&B star is set to add “author” to his resume with the release of his yet-to-be-titled memoir on Sept. 30, 2025.

According to the description, the book will be an “intimate, deeply candid memoir,” with Lionel sharing “hilarious and harrowing events that seek to inspire all who doubt themselves or feel their dreams don’t matter.” 

“Lionel chronicles lessons learned in the course of his most unlikely of success stories—from a painfully shy, ‘tragically’ late bloomer to his dramatic transformation into a world-class entertainer and composer of love songs that have played as the soundtrack of our lives,” it continues.

The book will follow Lionel from his days growing up in Tuskegee, Alabama, and cover his “raucous adventures” as a member of The Commodores, being signed to Motown, his breakout solo career, writing “We Are The World” and more.

Richie’s memoir is available for preorder now.

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On This Day, Oct. 10, 2013 …

Paul McCartney surprised fans in New York City with an impromptu free concert in Times Square, announcing the show on social media about one hour before it occurred.

The rocker was promoting his 16th studio album, New, and treated fans to four songs off the record: “Save Us,” “Everybody Out There,” “Queenie Eye” and the title track.

Fans who could not make it to the Big Apple were able to enjoy the concert at home thanks to a Times Square webcam. 

New, which at the time was McCartney’s first album of new material in six years, was released one day later on Oct. 11. 

McCartney is currently on the latest leg of his Got Back tour. He plays Santiago, Chile, on Friday.

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Rod Stewart has won a Grammy, been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and been knighted at Buckingham Palace. But his latest honor isn’t for his music — it’s for his whisky.

Rod launched his own brand of whisky, Wolfie‘s, a little over a year ago, and on Oct. 7 he was honored by the Keepers of the Quaich, a society that recognizes people who’ve played a role in promoting Scotch whisky. At the society’s fall banquet at a castle in Scotland, Rod was named an Honorary Keeper of the Quaich in recognition of Wolfie’s award-winning success. 

A “quaich” is a traditional Scottish drinking vessel, which Rod evidently had to drink out of to make his honor official. Rod did a Q&A during the ceremony and also performed “Maggie May” with the house band.

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The Guess Who founding singer Burton Cummings released A Few Good Moments, his first solo album in over a decade, to digital services back in September, and now physical copies are on the way.

The record will be released on CD and two-LP orange vinyl on Nov. 15.

“The songs on this album took a while to become the proper collection. I believe in these songs because they are the result of having lived more years,” Cummings says. “At this point I have no interest in writing teenage love songs. Aging has changed the writing and that’s natural. I believe in these songs and I hope that the people who have followed my material enjoy them.”

He adds, “I want this album to stand up when it’s listened to years from now.”

Cummings is currently on a Canadian leg of his 60th Anniversary Hits tour and will bring it to the States starting Jan. 11 in Chandler, Arizona. He just announced a new set of March dates for the tour, which will now run through March 29 in Columbus, Ohio. A complete schedule can be found at burtoncummings.com.

In September, Cummings and his Guess Who bandmate Randy Bachman reached a settlement in their battle against fellow original members Jim Kale and Garry Peterson over the band’s name. Cummings and Bachman sued the pair in October 2023, accusing them of tricking fans into thinking Cummings and Bachman were still performing with the group, when they were actually getting a “cover band.”

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Rush has shared two classic live videos to their official YouTube channel, taken from the 1982 concert film Exit…Stage Left.

The clips are performances of “Closer To The Heart” and “Freewill,” both shot at the Montreal Forum on March 27, 1981.

Exit…Stage Left was a concert film that originally aired on MTV and was later released in various home video formats, including VHS and DVD. It followed the band on their Moving Pictures tour.

Rush also released a live album of the same name in October 1981, featuring recordings made over two years, during both the Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves tours. The album peaked at #10 in the U.S.

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Mariah Carey‘s first holiday album, Merry Christmas — which includes her timeless hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” — turns 30 this year, and she’s revealing some special releases she’s readying to mark the milestone.

She wrote on Instagram, “While it is definitely not time to listen to Christmas music yet ‼️ I wanted to share a glimpse of #MerryChristmas30 with you! An homage to the original album cover, here is the cover art for two of the four new ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ physical singles… available for pre-order now!”

On one cover, she’s recreating the cover pose from the original Merry Christmas album, and on the other, she’s standing in front of a snowy tree wearing a white gown with a long feather cape. You can preorder them now.

The 30th anniversary edition of the Merry Christmas album, meanwhile, comes in picture disc, colored vinyl and black vinyl versions, as well as a deluxe two-LP set with a 24-page photo booklet and a Mariah Christmas card, plus her 1994 concert at New York’s Cathedral of St. John The Divine. All the items ship in December.

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Gene Simmons was the guest judge for Dancing with the Stars’ hair metal night Tuesday, and it apparently didn’t go over so well with the public.

Several folks took to social media to complain that Simmons scored dancers too low, and that his critiques were “creepy” and focused too much on how the dancers looked, not on their actual dancing. 

“Shame on Gene Simmons for treating this like a beauty pageant,” one person commented on social media. “Never have him on the show again. EVER. He ruined it. #gross #DWTS.”

Another added, “it’s only the first dance and i’m already over gene simmons being a creep.”

“What was up with Gene Simmons scoring being all over the place?” another noted. “Stick with guest judges that understand the dancing process and the scoring process.”

The episode kicked off with the dancers performing to KISS’ hit tune “Rock and Roll All Nite,” with the show featuring dances to such hair metal tunes as Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer” and “You Give Love A Bad Name,” Warrant’s “Cherry Pie,” Europe’s “The Final Countdown” and Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”

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