Classic Hits

Billy Joel is getting ready to wrap his Madison Square Garden residency in July, and while fans got a taste of the show when his 100th concert aired on CBS earlier this year, Billy wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of the telecast.

“I’m never crazy about doing TV. I don’t think I’m telegenic anyway,” he tells Variety. “I think I’m one of those artists who should be heard and not necessarily seen.”

He adds, “I don’t like being on camera. I’m camera-shy. … it just doesn’t feel rock ‘n’ roll when you’re on camera.”

Fans at home wound up upset when CBS mistakenly cut the telecast short in the middle of his “Piano Man” performance, with Joel sharing he “wasn’t surprised” it happened. 

“I’ve never been really happy with the way music is presented on television,” he says. “I wasn’t surprised that it got cut off short because I’ve always kind of been cut short by TV.” 

Joel says he’s looking forward to playing other venues in New York City when the residency ends, something he wasn’t allowed to do because of an exclusivity clause. He does think he’ll miss the place, noting the venue’s “acoustically perfect.”

But even though he’s saying goodbye, it doesn’t mean he’ll never be back.

“I am kind of remorseful about not playing there anymore, for the time being,” he says. “It doesn’t mean we can’t go back there any time. … And if we get an opportunity to play the Garden again, we probably will.” 

Billy Joel’s final Madison Square Garden residency show is happening July 25. A complete list of show dates can be found at billyjoel.com.

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Paul McCartney has added more dates to his Got Back tour. 

The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is returning to Mexico this fall with two shows: Nov. 8 in Monterrey and Nov. 12 in Mexico City. 

“The shows at Foro Sol were a highlight of last year for me. What a magical time we all had,” McCartney shares, referring to his November 2023 shows in Mexico City. “I can still hear your singing ringing in my ears!”

He adds, “Mexican audiences are so special. We always have a massive party together. I’m really looking forward to getting back and to rocking n’ rolling with you all as well as my first ever visit to Monterrey!”  

A ticket presale kicks off June 24 at 9 a.m., with tickets going on sale to the general public June 28 at 1 p.m.

The Mexico dates are just the latest additions to McCartney’s Got Back tour. He also recently announced shows in South America and Europe. A complete list of dates can be found at PaulMcCartney.com.

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Queen has reportedly made a lot of money selling off their catalog.

According to Variety, sources have confirmed a report first revealed on Hits that the British rockers are selling their catalog to Sony Music for a reported $1.27 billion.

The catalog includes such Queen hits as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” “We Are The Champions” and “We Will Rock You.” The deal reportedly includes revenues for everything but the band’s live performances.

There have been rumors for months that the Queen catalog was up for sale, with Sony often mentioned as the front-runner. The latest report claims another buyer was in the running, but would not go over $900 million for the catalog.

Disney has owned the Queen recorded-music rights in the U.S. and Canada since 1991, and that will continue. The band also currently has a distribution deal with Universal, which will expire in either 2026 or 2027, and then it will be transferred to Sony outside the U.S. and Canada.

Queen isn’t the first act Sony has shelled out big bucks for. It previously purchased Bruce Springsteen’s catalog for a reported $500 million, and reportedly paid even more for 50% of Michael Jackson’s catalog.

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Music fans know Stevie Van Zandt as the legendary guitarist in Bruce Springsteen‘s E Street Band, but he’s a lot more than that, as they’ll learn watching the new documentary Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple.

Director Bill Teck tells ABC Audio he’s been a Van Zandt fan since his teens and wanted to make the film to show people all sides of the rocker.

“I felt like people knew some of the story, but not all the story,” Teck says. “Some of the work, but not all the work.”

The film covers Van Zandt’s early days starting out with Springsteen in Asbury Park, his solo career, his acting career and his role as a rock historian. It also focuses on his activism, including his 1985 all-star charity single “Sun City,” which helped end apartheid in South Africa.

The doc features previously unseen footage, including long-lost video of Stevie’s wedding to his wife of over 40 years, Maureen, in which Springsteen was best man and Little Richard performed the service. There’s also very early footage of Stevie’s days with Springsteen and Southside Johnny.

Teck notes, “For me, as a lifelong fan, to be able to show other fans this great stuff was very fulfilling.”

Of course covering everything about Van Zandt wasn’t easy, and Teck says the original cut of the doc was quite long.

“There’s all the many lives of Stevie. He’s Miami Steve, he’s Little Steven, he’s the activist, the entrepreneur. There’s the friendship with Springsteen. There’s the love for rock ‘n’ roll,” Teck notes. “There’s so many different threads, so it was challenging to get all that in.”

You can see how he does it when Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple premieres June 22 on HBO and streams on Max.

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Huey Lewis has had a big year: A musical based on his songs, The Heart of Rock and Roll, opened on Broadway and he’s featured in the hit Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, about the making of the charity single “We Are the World.” Huey tells ABC Audio that he agrees with Lionel Richie, who has said that you just couldn’t make a “We Are the World”-type record today.

According to Lionel, the thing that made “We Are the World” special was that all the artists who participated had instantly recognizable, distinctive voices that fans could pick out as the song went on. Lionel feels that today’s singers just don’t have that quality.

“I think that’s true,” Huey tells ABC Audio. “It’s interesting, but if you think back to that time, there was no internet, there was no YouTube, there was none of that stuff. So the only avenue was a hit record. And those of us who aren’t conventionally great singers had to write our own song in order to have a hit record.”

Unlike today, when many pop songs are written by professional songwriters and sung by polished-sounding performers, Huey says, “I had to write a song that only I could sing better than anybody else.”

“And that’s true of a lot of us: me and, arguably, you know, Bob Dylan and and Bruce Springsteen, maybe even Paul Simon and so on,” he notes. “So the personalities in those voices were so diverse. And I don’t think that exists today.” 

The Greatest Night in Pop is expected to receive a nod in the Documentary (Special) category when Emmy nominations come out in July.

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On This Day, June 19, 2020 …

Bob Dylan released his 39th studio album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, which was his first album of original songs in almost eight years.

The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, but hit #1 on the Top Rock Albums chart. It also went to #1 in several countries, including the U.K., Switzerland and Germany.

The album’s first single, “Murder Most Foul,” ran almost 17 minutes long and addressed the John F. Kennedy assassination. The song landed at #5 on the Billboard Hot Rock and Alternative charts, and hit #1 on the Digital Song Sales chart, making it Dylan’s first #1 single. 

Dylan launched a Rough and Rowdy Ways tour in support of the album in November 2021, which just wrapped in April. 

He’s due to head out on Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival Tour starting June 21 in Alpharetta, Georgia. A complete list of dates can be found at bobdylan.com.

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Def Leppard recently released the new single “Just Like 73,” and it turns out it was a song they’ve been hanging onto for a while.

Guitarist Phil Collen tells ABC Audio the tune is one he demoed while they were recording their 2022 album, Diamond Star Halos. He notes it all started with “the classic Mike Leander drum sound,” referring to the producer known for working with Gary Glitter on his hits “Rock and Roll Part 1” and “Rock and Roll Part 2.” 

Collen says “Just Like 73″ was inspired by “big hits from the early ’70s” that featured chants like the one featured in the song.

“The backing vocals, we just shout in tune, we don’t sing,” Collen notes. “There’s a lot of bands who do very nice harmonies, which we can do, but it’s more the Sex Pistols kind of school of shouting the stuff out.”

He says the song also has a bit of T-Rex’s Marc Bolan, with the lyrics inspired by David Bowie, who was a huge influence for Collen growing up.

“The three albums by Bowie, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, my favorites,” he says, noting that music “shaped where I was going musically.”

An added bonus on “Just Like 73” is a guitar solo by Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, who used to cover Def Leppard’s “Rock of Ages” growing up. Collen says Morello heard the demo, loved the song and wanted to be on it.

“It’s been great. And, you know, I love Tom Morello, love Rage Against the Machine,” he says. “So that was really cool.” 

Def Leppard will hit the road with Journey this summer, starting July 6 in St. Louis. A complete list of dates can be found at defleppard.com.

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Paul McCartney celebrated his 82nd birthday on Tuesday, and received a lot of well wishes from famous friends. 

The rocker himself acknowledged the big day on Instagram, writing, “They say it is my birthday and I’m looking forward to being spoilt rotten by my loved ones!”

One of those loved ones was daughter Stella McCartney, who took to social media to mark her dad’s big day.

“On this day, a few years ago, my magnificent Dad was born… ,” she wrote. “My grandma Mary, from Northern Ireland, brought her first baby boy into existence and I raise a glass to celebrate her bringing the most brilliant and incredible human to our world.”  

She added, “I share my father with all of you because you all know him and his creations, and some of you may have had your life changed by him in some way…,” and asked fans to share birthday messages to the rocker.

“It is impossible to say how much I love you in words, so I will just squeeze you later and you can feel it instead xxx,” she concluded.

McCartney also got birthday shout outs from the likes of The Rolling Stones’ Ron Wood, and The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, as well as Julian Lennon, son of McCartney’s Beatles bandmate John Lennon.  

“Hoppy Birdy, Uncle Paul! Only love…,” he wrote, next to a video set to The Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” which McCartney wrote to comfort him after Lennon split from his wife and Julian’s mother Cynthia.

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Eagles are extending their time at the Las Vegas Sphere.

After the presale launched for the initial run of eight shows at the state-of-the-art venue, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers announced four additional concerts. 

The new dates will once again happen on Fridays and Saturdays, Nov. 1 and Nov. 2, and Nov. 8 and Nov. 9.

A presale for the new dates is happening now; tickets go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m.

Eagles – Live in Concert at Sphere kicks off Sept. 20. A complete list of dates can be found at eagles.com.

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Stevie Nicks fans may soon hear some new music from the legendary singer.

In an interview with MOJO, Nicks reveals that she’s been working on new music and may begin recording a new album this summer.  

“At the end of [the] pandemic, I finally started to write again,” she tells the mag. “I’ve got this song about women’s rights that I think is really strong. And I wrote a song called ‘The Vampire’s Wife,’ which is one of the best things I’ve ever written. It’s a story song, like ‘Gypsy’s’ a story song, and ‘Rhiannon’s’ a story song.”

She adds, “So maybe that’s the beginning of an album.”

If she does record and release a new album, it would be Nicks’ first solo record since 2011’s In Your Dreams. 

As for when fans may get to hear it, that’s another story. Stevie says her plans are to head into the studio after she wraps up her European tour, which kicks off July 3 in Dublin, and includes a headlining show at London’s Hyde Park on July 12.

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

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