Classic Hits

Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart is exploring the connection between the worlds of music and sports in the new ESPN film Rhythm Masters: A Mickey Hart Experience. The film will have him talking to legends from the world of sports and using those conversations to create an original score.

“Rhythm is the heartbeat of life, and it’s everywhere — in the music we create and the sports we love,” Mickey shares. “When I set out to make Rhythm Masters: A Mickey Hart Experience, my goal was to explore this universal pulse and celebrate how music and sports are deeply intertwined.”

He adds, “Through the voices and stories of some of the greatest athletes, we uncover the profound connection that rhythm brings to their performance and passion. This film is a journey into that shared human experience, a testament to the power of rhythm in uniting us all.” 

In Rhythm Masters, Hart talks to such athletes as Joe Montana, Marshawn Lynch, Laila Ali, Phil Jackson and others, including the late basketball legend Bill Walton, a huge Dead fan, who passed away on May 27. Hart dedicates the film to him, noting Walton’s “own rhythmic journey in sports and life has been a true inspiration.”

Rhythm Masters: A Mickey Hart Experience will debut Aug. 14 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN+.

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Mick Fleetwood has some new music to share.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has teamed with ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro for a new album, Blues Experience, dropping Oct. 18.  

As the title suggests, the record has the pair sharing their take on classic blues tracks, including “Rollin’ N Tumblin’,” which you can listen to now via digital outlets. 

Jake also penned one original song that appears on the album, “Kula Blues,” about the area in Maui where Mick lives. The album also includes their take on Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World,” Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale” and the Christine McVie-penned Fleetwood Mac track “Songbird,” with Mick also adding a spoken word version of the song.

“I’ve always wanted to do a blues album, and when Mick and I started talking about working together, I thought who better to work with than Mick Fleetwood?” Jake shares. “Mick’s energy when he plays is so infectious. He’s such an intense musician. He pushes everyone around him, and it’s inspiring to see his facial expressions and watch his movement and the way he hits the drums.”

Mick adds of “Rollin’ N Tumblin’,” “Jake and I had a full let-it-all-go moment on this one!! Jake let his hair down. A blues standard being given a wake-up call!”

Blues Experience is available for preorder now.

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Eric Clapton has paid tribute to his “mentor,” blues and rock legend John Mayall, who passed away Monday at the age of 90.

Before hitting it big, Clapton was a member of Mayall’s band the Bluebreakers. In a video posted to Instagram, Clapton thanked Mayall “for rescuing me from oblivion and God knows what when I was a young man ’round the age of 18, 19 when I decided that I was gonna quit music.” 

“He found me and took me into his home and asked me to join his band and I stayed with him and I learned all that I really have to draw on for today in terms of technique and desire to play the kind of music I love to play,” he said.

Clapton called playing in Mayall’s band “a fantastic experience,” noting Mayall taught him “it was OK just to play the music you wanted to play.”

“He was my mentor and a surrogate father,” Clapton added. “He taught me all I really know and gave me the courage and enthusiasm to express myself without fear, without limit.” Clapton then noted that all he taught Mayall was drinking and womanizing, noting, “I wish to make amends for that. I did that while he was alive and I have obviously since learned that is not the best way to carry on.” 

“I shall miss him but I hope to see him on the other side,” Clapton concluded. “Thank you, John. I love you, I’ll see you soon, but not yet, as they say in the Gladiator movie.”

Clapton wasn’t the only one to honor Mayall. The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood both shared tributes on social media, as did Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler.

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On This Day, July 24, 2022 …

Joni Mitchell was the surprise musical performer at the Newport Folk Festival, joining Brandi Carlile for a special set that featured the legendary musician performing with a variety of guests. 

The so-called Joni Jam was Joni’s first public performance since surviving a brain aneurysm in 2015.

During the set, a seated Joni was joined by artists like Wynonna Judd, Marcus Mumford and Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, performing 13 songs, including some of her classic tunes like “Both Sides Now,” “A Case of You” and “Big Yellow Taxi.”

An album from the performance, Joni Mitchell at Newport, was released in July 2023. Joni also went on to headline another Joni Jam in June 2023 at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. She’s scheduled to headline two similar concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Oct. 19 and 20.

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Cher first announced that she was working on her memoir back in 2017. Now, we’re finally getting the first installment.

November 19 will bring Cher: The Memoir, Part One, with the second part coming in 2025.  The first part will start with her upbringing as a dyslexic child who had a difficult relationship with her mother, and run through her relationship with Sonny Bono, from their meeting, to their marriage, to their eventual divorce.

According to the publisher, Dey Street Books, “Cher: The Memoir traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century … it is a life too immense for only one book.”

In November of 2023, Cher told Jimmy Fallon that she had “totally chickened out” while writing the book because, she explained, “I didn’t put in some things that needed to be in. And they’re not comfortable, but they need to be in, so I have to go back and man up.”

She also teased that the memoir would be extensive, telling Fallon, “I’ve lived too long and done too much and so it’s like it should be the encyclopedia.”

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Dead & Company is giving fans a chance to win a very unique piece of memorabilia.

The band just launched a new Prizeo sweepstakes, with a grand prize of a one-quarter-scale functioning recreation of the Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound. The original Wall of Sound was created by sound engineer Owsley Stanley for The Dead’s 1974 concert tour.

The replica stacked sound system, built by Anthony Coscia, has been on display at the Dead Forever Experience, the immersive pop-up in Las Vegas that opened to coincide with Dead & Company’s Dead Forever residency at the Sphere. 

Money raised from sweepstakes entries will benefit Hope for the City, a nonprofit aiming to end hunger across the Vegas valley, and the Recording Academy’s charitable arm MusiCares. 

Dead & Company returns to the Las Vegas Sphere on Aug. 1, with their final show happening on Aug. 10. A complete list of dates can be found at deadandcompany.com.

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British blues and rock musician John Mayall passed away Monday at the age of 90.

“It is with heavy hearts that we bear the news that John Mayall passed away peacefully in his California home yesterday, July 22, 2024, surrounded by loving family,” read a post on his Facebook page. “Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world’s greatest road warriors,” adding, “John Mayall gave us ninety years of tireless efforts to educate, inspire and entertain.”

The post noted, “We, the Mayall family, cannot thank his fans and long-list of bandmembers enough for the support and love we were blessed to experience secondhand over the last six decades.”

Mayall was the frontman of the band the Bluebreakers, which was formed in 1963. Different incarnations of the band featured artists who would go on to be huge rock stars of the’ 60s and ’70s, including Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green, The Rolling Stones’ Mick Taylor, Cream‘s Jack Bruce, Journey‘s Aynsley Dunbar and more.

Mayall and the Bluesbreakers released their now-classic debut album, Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton in 1966. Mayall’s best-known song in the U.S. was the harmonica-centric track “Room to Move.”

Mayall, a two-time Grammy nominee,  was set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this October in the Musical Excellence category. He was also made an Officer of the British Empire, or OBE, in 2005.

Mayall’s career lasted six decades. He released his final studio album, The Sun is Shining Down in 2022 and played his final show in March of that same year in San Juan Capistrano, California.

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Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen is stepping into the world of graphic novels.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the rock star has co-authored the new graphic novel Hysteria, which will be released in the spring.

The release, which shares a name with Def Leppard’s multi-Platinum 1987 album, is descried as “a horror story dealing with the dark side of rock stardom” and follows the frontwoman of an indie band, Darkside, who inherits a demonic guitar from her father’s estate that promises her fame and success. Def Leppard makes an appearance in Hysteria: Darkside is set to open for them in concert. 

“Poured out on the pages of this graphic novel is a story (Phil) couldn’t tell you in a song that takes you to places Def Leppard have never gone before with their music,” says Damian Wassel, CEO of Vault Comics, the graphic novel’s publisher.

Collen co-wrote Hysteria with Eliot Rahal, writer of graphic novel Bleed Them Dry. “It reminded me of songwriting with someone you really like,” Collen tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It was very much like that, bouncing ideas, and he would run with it.” 

He adds, “When you hit on something, it runs away, and you’re part of the slipstream. It was very inspiring, I gotta say.”

An exact release date has not been announced, but Hysteria is expected to come out in retail and deluxe editions, with an accompanying merchandise line, including a guitar custom made with Collen’s input.

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Artwork created by the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, is set to go up for auction in August. 

Kings Auctions will auction off 76 pieces of Jackson art, some of which are double-sided. The auction includes pieces hand drawn with wax colored pencil and others in watercolors. Some pieces are even drawn on presidential paper obtained by Michael during a White House visit. All are signed by Jackson.

“Get ready to own some of the most coveted pieces of art by one of the biggest music icons in the world,” reads the auction house’s website. “These one of a kind pieces of art aren’t just an investment, they are your chance to own a piece of music history.”

Among the drawings available are a sketch of Martin Luther King, portraits of presidents, Disney characters, pop icons, fine artworks and more.

The auction, taking place Aug. 3, is not affiliated with the Jackson estate. More info can be found at kings-auctions.com.

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Elvis Costello & The Imposters are set to headline a benefit concert for the Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

The rocker, with special guest Charlie Sexton, will headline the theater’s Fall Gala, happening Nov. 9.

According to a post on Elvis’ Instagram, “All proceeds will support the Playhouse, ensuring the continued success and growth of theater programs.” The nonprofit performing arts center opened in 2000 and holds more than 200 live shows for more than 100,000 patrons each year.

A Ridgefield Playhouse member presale is happening now, with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. More info can be found at ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

Elvis Costello & The Imposters have been touring with Daryl Hall this summer. The tour wraps on Thursday in Vienna, Virginia. Elvis is also scheduled to play the Newport Folk Festival on Aug. 3. A complete list of dates can be found at elviscostello.com.

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