Classic Hits

James Taylor is one of the acts set to perform at The Nearness of You Concert, an all-star benefit concert supporting cancer research at Columbia University Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The event honors the memory of Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Michael Brecker, who died in 2007. He played sax on Taylor’s 1972 track “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight,” described on Instagram as “one of the most memorable collaborations in James’s catalog.”

The concert will be held Feb. 9 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room in New York, hosted by comedian Susie Essman. The lineup also includes trumpeter Chris Botti, singer/songwriter Lisa Fischer, inaugural poet Richard Blanco and special guests.

This is the fifth Nearness of You Concert that’s been held. Previous shows have raised over $5 million for cancer research and featured artists like Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Christopher Cross and others.

Tickets for the concert are on sale now.

In December Taylor revealed his plans to tour in 2026, noting in a social media video that he would be out west in California and Nevada in April, and then hit the East Coast in June. So far the only confirmed U.S. shows are his annual July 3 and 4 concerts at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. Taylor also has dates in the U.K. and Europe in July. A complete schedule can be found at JamesTaylor.com.

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Sammy Hagar has announced a new set of dates for his Best of All Worlds Tour.

The latest leg, featuring special guest Rick Springfield, will once again have him backed by Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, guitar great Joe Satriani and drummer Kenny Aronoff. The tour features a set filled with Van Halen classics, some of his solo tunes and tracks from his bands Chickenfoot and The Circle.

“We’re celebrating the legacy of the music and bringing it to a whole new generation of fans,”  said Hagar.

The tour consists of eight shows, kicking off June 13 in St. Louis, Missouri, and wrapping June 27 in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Artist and Citi presales for tickets begin Tuesday at 10 a.m. local time, with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. local time.

Sammy will next headline another set of Best of All Worlds Las Vegas residency dates, starting March 11 at Dolby Live at Park MGM. He’ll also launch a Best of All Worlds U.K. tour on July 4 in Manchester, marking his first performances in the U.K. since 1996. A complete list of dates can be found at RedRocker.com.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Sammy Hagar has announced a new set of dates for his Best of All Worlds Tour.

The latest leg, featuring special guest Rick Springfield, will once again have him backed by Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, guitar great Joe Satriani and drummer Kenny Aronoff. The tour features a set filled with Van Halen classics, some of his solo tunes and tracks from his bands Chickenfoot and The Circle.

“We’re celebrating the legacy of the music and bringing it to a whole new generation of fans,”  said Hagar.

The tour consists of eight shows, kicking off June 13 in St. Louis, Missouri, and wrapping June 27 in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Artist and Citi presales for tickets begin Tuesday at 10 a.m. local time, with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. local time.

Sammy will next headline another set of Best of All Worlds Las Vegas residency dates, starting March 11 at Dolby Live at Park MGM. He’ll also launch a Best of All Worlds U.K. tour on July 4 in Manchester, marking his first performances in the U.K. since 1996. A complete list of dates can be found at RedRocker.com.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, Jan. 12, 1995…

Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin and the Allman Brothers Band were among the artists inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at the 10th annual induction ceremony, held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York.

Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder handled the induction for Young, while Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry inducted Led Zeppelin. Willie Nelson inducted the Allman Brothers, and Melissa Etheridge led Joplin’s induction.

The evening ended with an all-star jam, where Young performed with Vedder and his Pearl Jam bandmates Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, as well as the surviving members of Led Zeppelin — Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones — who were also joined by Tyler and Perry, among others.

The ceremony was the first to be taped and broadcast by MTV.

Other inductees included Al Green, Frank Zappa and Martha and the Vandellas

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Mickey Hart, one of the last two surviving members of the Grateful Dead, has paid tribute to his bandmate Bob Weir, who passed away at the age of 78.

“Bob Weir was a little brother to me for almost sixty years. He was my first friend in the Grateful Dead,” Mickey wrote on Instagram. “We lived together, played together, and made music together that ended up changing the world.”

“Bob had the ability to play unique chords that few others could. Long fingers, that’s the difference,” he continued, noting their late bandmate Jerry Garcia “once told me that the harmonics Bob created became an inspiration for his own solos. When all of us were entrained, rhythm section, guitars, and voices… it was transcendent.”

“What was a lifetime of adventure boils down to something simple – we were family and true to the music through it all,” he added.

Hart also shared a carousel of photos, noting the shots “show the bookends of our lives together.” He ended the tribute saying, “Still cannot believe he’s gone. I miss you so much already, dear friend.”

Hart joined the Grateful Dead in 1967, two years after it was formed by Weir, Garcia, Phil Lesh, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Bill Kreutzmann, the only other surviving member of the band.

John Mayer, Weir’s bandmate in the Grateful Dead offshoot Dead & Company, which was formed in 2015, also paid tribute to Weir.

He posted a black-and-white photo of Weir on Instagram, writing, “Thanks for letting me ride alongside you. It sure was a pleasure. If you say it’s not the end, then I’ll believe you. I’ll meet you in the music. Come find me anytime.”

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Gov’t Mule frontman Warren Haynes has shared another song from the upcoming remixed and remastered version of his 1993 debut solo album, Tales of Ordinary Madness.

The latest release is “I’ll Be There One,” the second remixed track to be unveiled from the album, following “Fire in the Kitchen.” The song is now available via digital outlets.

The updated take on Tales of Ordinary Madness is set to drop Jan. 30 and includes the bonus song “Tear Me Down,” which did not appear on the original album.

The album, co-produced by Haynes and Allman Brothers Band‘s Chuck Leavell, was originally released in March 1993.

Since then, Haynes has released several solo records, his most recent being 2024’s Million Voices Whisper.

Haynes will support the Tales of Ordinary Madness reissue with the Winter of Warren 2026 Tour, which begins with a run of stripped-down solo shows starting Feb. 12 in Grass Valley, California, and concluding Feb. 26 in Pelham, Tennessee. He’ll then tour with the Warren Haynes Band beginning March 1 in Birmingham, Alabama, including a newly announced March 6 stop at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York.

Following that run, Haynes will hit the road with Gov’t Mule starting March 27 in Denver, Colorado, before embarking on a summer co-headlining tour with Joe Bonamassa,which kicks off July 29 in Vienna, Virginia.

A complete list of dates can be found at WarrenHaynes.net.

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Instruments and other music memorabilia previously owned by The Beatles, David Gilmour, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and more are headed to auction in March.

The items are part of The Jim Irsay Collection — an assortment of instruments, sports items and pop culture memorabilia acquired over decades by Indianapolis Colts owner and CEO Jim Irsay, who died in May.

Christie’s will handle a series of auctions throughout 2026, with the first featuring over 400 items and running from March 3 to 17.

Among the items being sold: Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics to “Hey Jude”; the drumhead from the kit Ringo Starr used during The Beatles’ debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show; John Lennon’s 1963 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 guitar, used during the recording sessions for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”; and George Harrison’s stage-played Gibson SG Standard guitar, used between 1966 and 1969.

Also included are Cobain’s 1966 Fender Mustang, used while recording Nevermind and In Utero and featured in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video; David Gilmour’s Black Strat guitar, played on Pink Floyd albums including The Dark Side of the Moon; Eric Clapton’s 1939 C.F. Martin & Co. 000-42 guitar, used during his iconic MTV Unplugged performance; and Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics to “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”

Items from the auction will be on public display at Christie’s at Rockefeller Plaza in New York from March 6 through March 12. Select highlights will also go on tour, with stops planed in London, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The auction will take place both live and online, with a portion of the proceeds going to philanthropic causes Irsay supported during his lifetime. More details on the auction and the items available can be found at Christies.com.

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Former Deep Purple singer/bassist Glenn Hughes announced on social media that he’s canceling a planned spring U.S. tour to deal with a “minor health issue that requires his attention over the upcoming months.”

“I am taking advice from my medical team, who I am working closely with,” he wrote in the post. “Hoping to see you on the road of happy destiny.”

The tour, dubbed The Chosen Years, was supposed to kick off March 27 in San Juan Capistrano, California, and run through May 10 in Tempe, Arizona. Refunds will be available at point of purchase.

Hughes released his 15th studio album, Chosen, in September, his first solo album in nine years. He launched a European tour in support of the album that same month. This would have been his first U.S. tour since the album’s release.

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Songs by The Police, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie and more have jumped up the U.K. Official Singles Chart thanks to their use in the final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things.

The iconic Police tune “Every Breath You Take” has jumped to #17 from #41, which is its highest chart placement in 43 years. Meanwhile, Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” originally released in 1975, makes its first-ever appearance on the Official Singles Chart, coming in at #20.

In addition, Bowie’s “Heroes,” which plays over the closing credits of the series finale, lands at #34 on the chart, while The Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” is at #40.

Other songs that saw chart jumps thanks to Stranger Things include: Prince’s “Purple Rain,” which charted the highest at #12; Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (Deal With God),” up two spots to #14; Diana Ross’ “Upside Down” at #26, its first time in the top 40 in 46 years; and Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now,” at #27, its highest position on the chart in 38 years.

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The Doors’ John Densmore and Robby Krieger have teamed with Playing For Change, a multimedia project that aims to connect the world through music, to release a reimagined take on the Doors’ 1971 classic “Riders on the Storm.”

The new recording, part of Playing For Change’s Song Around The World project, is noted as a tribute to the late Doors band members Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek. It has Densmore and Krieger joined by Lukas Nelson and Micah Nelson, Foo Fighters’ keyboardist Rami Jaffee,  Sierra Ferrell, Don Was and over 20 international artists across eight countries.

“Vocally, Lukas Nelson filled Jim Morrison’s leather pants quite well!” Densmore says. “Ray would be proud of the way Rami Jaffee ‘channeled’ the piano solo.”

“Anytime Densmore and I get together with our instruments, it always works out well. I loved the final cut … seeing all the players on screen,” adds Krieger. “I’d like to thank everyone for their participation for such a  special cause. Luckily, it’s never difficult to find great players to play Doors songs.”

The just-released video for the song first premiered in December at the rerelease of the Doors’ 2009 documentary, When You’re Strange, directed by Tom DiCillo and narrated by Johnny Depp.

In addition to the song, a special limited-edition “Riders on the Storm” Song Around The World T-shirt and hat are now available. Proceeds benefit the Wicahpi Olowan Music Program, which was the first Playing For Change Foundation music program established in America serving Indigenous youth and communities.

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