Classic Hits

On This Day, June 24, 1944 …

Geoffrey Arnold Beck, better known as legendary guitarist Jeff Beck, was born in Surrey, England.

Beck came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds, with future guitar legends Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. He later went on to have a successful solo career, fronting his own Jeff Beck Group.

Beck was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice: in 1992 as a member of the Yardbirds and again in 2009 for his solo work.

Beck won six Grammys for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, plus additional wins for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best Pop Collaboration with vocals. He was honored with the British Academy’s Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music in 2014. Rolling Stone ranked him in its top five of the 100 Greatest Guitarists.

Beck passed away Jan. 10, 2023, from bacterial meningitis. He was 78.

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Most people know Darius Rucker for his work with Hootie & The Blowfish and his country solo career, but he has lots of interests outside of music — including wine. 

Rucker has partnered with winemaker Chris Radomski to join his As One Cru wine brand and tells ABC Audio there was a simple reason why he wanted to get involved.

“I fell in love with the first glass,” he shares, noting that after being wowed by its cabernet, coming on board was a “no-brainer.”

“There’s been so many things I’ve been asked to do with spirits and everything, but it just never seemed to be, like, real,” he says. “The one thing I really loved about One Crue is it was real.”

As for why Darius was the right person to join their team, Chris notes, “I find that the realms of food, wine, music are all interrelated in art a lot of ways. And when I was introduced to Darius and learned of his great love for wine, I thought it could be an amazing opportunity to get that reach.” 

And while people out there may have different ideas about what makes a great wine, for Darius it’s all about one thing.

“You know, it’s what I like. It’s sitting down and having a glass and wanting to have another glass,” he shares. “When I first started drinking the One Cru … it was just like, I want more of that.”

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The new tribute album to the late Tom Petty, Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty, is out now, and Petty’s Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell is 100 percent behind it.

“I’m so proud of all those artists, and I know that Tom would really be proud and happy that all these artists honored his songs,” Campbell tells ABC Audio. “I just want his memory and the legacy that we built together, I’m very proud of it, and anything that illuminates it is good for me.”

Campbell even appears on the album, joining Margo Price for her cover of “Ways to Be Wicked.” Campbell says it was written for Petty and the Heartbreakers’ second album, 1978’s You’re Gonna Get It!, but “has been collecting dust all these decades.”

“It’s, like, perfect for her, you know, a woman’s point of view and the way she belts it,” Campbell says, “and then she cut it and asked me to join in, and I put some guitar, little harmony on there. I call it a Lazarus song. It came back from the dead.”

Campbell says some of his favorite covers on the album include Dolly Parton’s take on “Southern Accents” and Chris Stapleton’s cover of “I Should Have Known It,” but he notes, “I like them all.”

“I think Tom would have liked it,” he says. “It’s nice to get the songs out there and keep them alive, keep people aware that, you know, Tom was real and he’s still with us with the music.” 

Campbell, who recently released Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits, a new album with his band The Dirty Knobs, is currently on tour. He and the band play Kansas City, Missouri, on June 24. A complete list of dates can be found at thedirtyknobs.com.

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Paul McCartney’s photo exhibit has found its next location.

The rocker just announced that Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm will debut at Knowledge Capitol Event Lab in Osaka, Japan, on Oct. 12 and run through Jan. 5. 

Eyes of the Storm features more than 250 photographs taken by McCartney between November 1963 and February 1964, giving fans insight into his point of view during the height of Beatlemania.

The exhibit first debuted in June 2023 at London’s National Portrait Gallery before moving to Virginia’s Chrysler Museum of Art. It is currently running at New York’s Brooklyn Museum until Aug. 18. It is also set to run at the Portland Art Museum from Sept. 14 to Jan. 19.

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REO Speedwagon is revisiting a classic live performance for a new release.

The band is set to drop Live at Rockpalast 1979 on July 5, a two-CD and DVD set featuring a concert recorded Nov. 10, 1979, at the Markthalle in Hamburg, Germany. 

The concert features the band’s classic lineup – Kevin Cronin, Gary Richrath, Bruce Hall, Neal Doughty and Alan Gratzer – performing classic REO Speedwagon tracks like “Ridin’ the Storm Out” and “Roll With the Changes,” as well as “Say You Love Me Or Say Goodnight,” “Easy Money” and more.

The first single from the record is a live performance of “Only The Strong Survive,” which you can hear now via digital outlets.

Live at Rockpalast 1979 is available for preorder now.

REO Speedwagon is currently on tour with Night Ranger. They play Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday. A complete list of dates can be found at reospeedwagon.com.

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The 25th anniversary of Alanis Morissette’s fourth studio album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie is being celebrated with a new reissue.

Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (Thank U Edition) will be released as a two-LP set with reimagined artwork on September 6. There will also be a crystal clear vinyl edition available at select retailers and at Rhino.com. 

In addition, a new digital deluxe edition of the album is out now, with four bonus tracks — two B-sides, an outtake, and a demo — along with an “Uninvited” remix by electronic duo, Freemasons.

The vinyl edition is available for preorder now.

Released November, 1998, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie hit #1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, topped the chart in several other countries, and went triple platinum in the U.S. It contained the top 20 single “Thank U,” which Alanis wrote with Glen Ballard, who produced her hugely successful debut album Jagged Little Pill. 

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U2 has shared another remix of their latest single, “Atomic City,” this time by Dutch producer/DJ Tiësto

The remix is the third new take on the song U2 has released. They previously shared remixes from David Guetta and Mike WiLL Made-It.

You can listen to “Atomic City (Tiësto Remix)” now via digital outlets.

U2 released “Atomic City” in September just ahead of the launch of their U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere residency in Las Vegas, which they wrapped in March after 40 shows. It was accompanied by a video shot on Vegas’ Fremont Street, the same location where they shot the video for “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” back in 1987.

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Daryl Hall’s latest solo album, D, is out now, and he tells Billboard it’s a “very personal” album.

“The album is a complete thought,” he says, “and we organized the songs to go through a journey with it.” He adds, “We didn’t write the songs with that in mind, but when we realized what we had we put it together into a story, in a progression.” 

The new solo album comes as Hall and partner John Oates have pretty much put an end to their relationship, with Hall filing a lawsuit when Oates tried to sell his half of their publishing. Both sides have since said it’s doubtful we’ll ever seen Hall & Oates together again. 

“John and I did not have a creative relationship for decades,” Hall shares. “We toured and we toured and we toured, and it was very restrictive to me, and to John.” He adds, “The real truth of it all is John just said one day he didn’t want to do it anymore. I said ‘OK,’ but the problem is (Oates) didn’t make the parting and breakup easy, and that’s where the difficulties lay and still lay, and that’s all it is.”

Now, Hall is welcoming the opportunity to truly be out on his own.

“I always say I’ve been a solo artist my whole life, I was just working with John, mostly,” he says. “I can’t speak for John ’cause I haven’t spoken to him in a long, long time, but I think that’s how he feels, too. And good on both of us.”

He adds, “I can still play all the songs that I wrote over the years, under my own name as well as under the Hall & Oates name. It frees me, really. It frees me up.”

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While Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page are often thought of as rock’s best guitarists, Ted Nugent has some differing opinions.

In an interview with Forbes, The Nuge shares that he believes ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons rivals the trio with his playing.

“Even as subtle as Billy Gibbons is, he does Beck, Clapton and Page better than Beck, Clapton and Page, as far as I’m concerned,” he says.

Nugent describes Beck, Clapton and Page as “okay,” acknowledging they are “top dogs,” but, notes, “they’re no better than Jim McCarty from Cactus and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.”

He adds The Yardbirds, the band Beck, Clapton and Page played in together, “were intensely influential to any guitarist who’s ever lived. But they’re no Jimi Hendrix or Eddie Van Halen.”

Asked why he thinks the trio get such accolades, Nugent shares, “Mostly because songs have a vastly more powerful impact on music lovers than individual instrumentalists do. The songs from The Yardbirds, and Clapton with Cream, are propelled almost solely by guitar lines. In three-piece groups like Cream, each member delivers equal impact, but the guitar is the theme of the song.”

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E Street Band guitarist Stevie Van Zandt is the subject of the new documentary Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple, premiering June 22 on HBO and streaming on Max.

Of course, the film delves into his work with Bruce Springsteen, and Van Zandt tells ABC Audio that director Bill Teck gives fans some new insight into the beginnings of their lifelong friendship and partnership.

“Bill really tells the story of those early Asbury days in a little bit more detailed way than most people even know,” Stevie shares. “And I think that’s going to be exciting for the fans before we even get into my other lives.”

The film features interviews with Van Zandt’s fellow musicians, including Springsteen, Eddie Vedder and Jackson Browne, and Teck says they were all eager to participate.

“People had been waiting, like, their whole lives to talk about Stevie,” he says. “Like you could tell that people knew, you know, how much of a story there was. … They wanted to be part of telling it.”

The film also delves into Van Zandt’s career as an activist, music historian and more, some things people may not be aware of, and Van Zandt says he hopes the doc helps bring his work “to a larger audience.” 

“That’s the nice thing about film, you know, it can find a way to tell the story and all these things you don’t have to categorize necessarily,” he says.

And while fans will certainly learn a lot about Stevie watching the doc, they won’t be the ones getting an education. 

“I hope it explains my life to me,” Van Zandt jokes. “Because it doesn’t make any sense, really. You know, I was just following things according to my instinct and wherever it went.”

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