Classic Hits

Billy Joel made an appearance Tuesday, November 21, at a preview of Billy Joel — My Life: A Piano Man’s Journey, a new exhibit at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame.

“This is a little overwhelming. Did you ever find yourself surrounded by you?” Joel told the VIP crowd, according to Newsday. “I always wondered, did I pick this life or did it pick me? ‘Cause I really didn’t think I had much of a choice. I was going to do this no matter what because I love music.”

The exhibit showcases over 50 years of Billy Joel memorabilia, including awards, rare audio and video recordings, instruments and behind-the-scenes footage and photos, many of which Billy donated from his archives.

“Where did they get all this junk? I didn’t know where they were storing all these things,” he said. “This is quite an honor. I didn’t expect it to be that extensive. I’ve had a life.” 

One of the instruments on display is the 9-foot piano Joel used on his Face to Face Tour with Elton John. There’s also a selfie station where fans can insert themselves into the covers of the rocker’s hit albums, including 52 Street and Glass Houses.

As for whether he hopes the exhibit will inspire future musicians, Joel noted, “I hope they are encouraged to stay with it because that’s what it takes. Don’t give up and don’t let people talk you out of it. Follow your dream.” 

The Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame is located in Stony Brook, New York. The exhibit officially opens Friday, November 24. Tickets are available at TheBillyJoelExhibit.com.

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The Black Crowes‘ Chris Robinson made a surprise appearance during Dirty Honey‘s concert in Los Angeles on Monday, November 20.

The “She Talks to Angels” singer joined the “When I’m Gone” rockers for a collaborative rendition of the AC/DC song “Rock ‘n’ Roll Damnation.”

Dirty Honey previously opened for The Black Crowes on their 2021 reunion tour. In introducing Robinson to the stage at the LA show, Dirty Honey frontman Marc LaBelle told the crowd, “He’s been teaching me since before he knew me.”

Dirty Honey is currently on tour in support of their new album, Can’t Find the Brakes, which includes the single “Won’t Take Me Alive.”

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While fans are used to seeing Daryl Hall and John Oates onstage together, it sounds like we may soon be seeing them on opposite sides of a courtroom.

Hall recently filed a lawsuit in Nashville Chancery Court against his musical partner Oates. While details regarding the suit are unknown because it’s under seal, the case summary describes it as a “Contract/Debt” dispute. Oates’ wife, Aimee, is also named in the suit for her role as a trustee of her husband’s trust.

What’s more, Hall was granted a motion for a temporary restraining order against Oates, although the reason he sought one is currently unknown.

ABC Audio has reached out to the duo’s representatives for comment. 

Hall & Oates formed in Philadelphia in 1970 and have six #1 singles: “Rich Girl,” “Kiss on My List,” “Private Eyes,” “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do),” “Maneater” and “Out of Touch.”

They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

While their musical partnership has been hugely successful, their personal relationship is another story. In an interview with Bill Maher last year, Hall described Oates as “my business partner,” noting, “He’s not my creative partner.”

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The Rolling Stones just announced dates for their 2024 tour in support of their new album, Hackney Diamonds. And while fans are excited, many are also having a field day poking fun at the fact that the trek is sponsored by AARP, the organization for the over-50 crowd previously known as the American Association for Retired Persons.

Plenty of folks have taken to social media to crack jokes about the pairing, given the age of the band and the age of their fans.

“Wait WAIT the new Rolling Stones tour is being sponsored by *AARP*? really leaning in to it huh,” one person wrote, with another commenting, “Rolling Stones tour presented by AARP is painfully on brand.” 

And another wondered whether the band would be catering to their older fans, writing, “Rolling Stones Tour in 2024 is sponsored by AARP… Oh, the irony… does that mean they’ll serve fibre drinks.. and the doors will open at 3pm and end by 7pm so everyone can be home and in bed by 9pm?”

The Stones Tour ’24 Hackney Diamonds kicks off Sunday, April 28, in Houston, Texas, and wraps Wednesday, July 17, in Santa Clara, California. A presale for AARP members runs from Wednesday, November 29, to Thursday, November 30, with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday, December 1, at 10 a.m. local time.

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

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George Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, is confident that her late husband approved of The Beatles‘ just-released tune “Now and Then.” 

In a post to George’s social media accounts, Olivia shares a “surprising magical story” about how a clock that her husband purchased gave her a sign that he supported the song’s release.

“We were in this store, George saw this clock made out of bits and pieces and it had some Scrabble letters and it just said ‘Now And Then,’” she explains. “He was attracted to it for some reason, he just took it off the wall and bought it. [He] built this little Russian dacha in the garden and hung the clock on it and there it sat for 25 years.”

She notes that last summer after cleaning it and putting it on her mantelpiece, she got a call from Paul McCartney about the unfinished tune from their Anthology sessions.

“I said, ‘I remember it, it’s called ‘Now and Then.’ And I’m standing there looking at the clock,” she says. “We were so moved and happy that this thing that George had held in his hand somehow magically appeared. And I said, ‘I think this is Georgie saying it’s OK.’”

“Now and Then” is being billed as the final song from The Beatles. It debuted at #1 in the U.K. and at #7 in the U.S.

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In a recent interview, Sammy Hagar invited both David Lee Roth and Alex Van Halen to join him on his upcoming The Best of All World Tour, where he plans to focus mostly on Van Halen tunes. In news that’s bound to excite the band’s fans, it seems Roth has accepted.

While speaking to Howard Stern, Hagar offered up an open invitation to both musicians: “If Alex Van Halen wants to jump out, if David Lee Roth wants to come out and join us, come on motherf*****, you are welcome.” He added, “This is about Van Halen.” 

Well, Roth has seemingly responded Hagar, sharing in a statement to the Van Halen News Desk website, “I’m ready to go. Let’s do this.” 

The site does add, though, that they have it on good authority that Hagar hasn’t actually called Roth directly with the invite. 

The Best of All Worlds Tour, featuring special guest Loverboy, kicks off July 13 in West Palm Beach, Florida. A complete list of dates can be found at redrocker.com.

Meanwhile, Hagar’s tour will feature Joe Satriani on guitar, and Journey‘s Neal Schon has some definite opinions about Satriani trying to fill Eddie Van Halen‘s shoes. In a response to a Guitarist magazine post, Schon wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “Ed can be emulated… but the soul-tone-fire and fury is owned by him alone on VH material. Do your own thing Joe.”

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On This Day, November 22, 1997…

INXS frontman Michael Hutchence was found dead by a maid in his hotel room at the Ritz Carlton in Sydney, Australia. He was 37.

The coroner ruled the rocker’s death a suicide. Alcohol and drugs, including cocaine, Prozac and prescription medicine, were found in his system. 

His partner at the time, TV personality Paula Yates, told police that prior to Hutchence’s death she had informed him she wouldn’t be able to fly home to Australia with their daughter because her custody hearing with ex Bob Geldof had been pushed back, which upset him.

In a 1999 interview, Yates had suggested that Hutchence’s death may have been the result of autoerotic asphyxiation.

INXS had a string of hits in the mid-’80s to early ’90s, including “Need You Tonight,” their only U.S. #1, “What You Need,” “Never Tear Us Apart,” “New Sensation,” and “Suicide Blonde.”

The band went on after Hutchence’s death, touring with guest singers and even starring in a reality series, Rock Star: INXS, to find a new frontman. Their final concert took place in Perth, Australia, in November, 2012.

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Looks like fans in Ottawa, Canada, have missed out on KISS’ goodbye to the road.

The rockers were supposed to play the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on Tuesday, November 21, but the concert was canceled just hours before they were to hit the stage.  

“Due to an unforeseen illness in the band party, @kiss is unable to perform tonight in Ottawa,” read an official statement from Live Nation. “Refunds will be available at your point of purchase.” 

KISS is getting closer to the final shows on their End of the Road tour, which they claim will be their last. They are scheduled to play Toronto on Wednesday, November 22, and will wrap the trek with two nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden on December 1 and 2.

For those who can’t make it to the final night, it will be available to stream live worldwide exclusively on PPV.COM starting at 8 p.m. ET.

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War is celebrating the 50th anniversary of their hugely successful third studio album, The World is a Ghetto.

The milestone will be marked on Friday, November 24, with the Record Store Day Black Friday release of a 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition of the record; a limited-edition five-LP box set, featuring a newly remastered edition of the album, with six unreleased bonus tracks; and unreleased “the making of” recordings showing the evolution of the album’s six original songs.

War founding member Lonnie Jordan, who curated the project along with War’s producer, Jerry Goldstein, and Jeremy Levine, tells ABC Audio that when he thinks about recording the album, his greatest memory is of summertime and the kids in Long Beach, California, who’d listen to the music coming out of their recording truck. He reveals that Snoop Dogg was one of those kids.

Jordan says when they first started recording the album’s iconic track, it was originally supposed to be about a “ghetto man.” But they soon realized “we were recording about a situation, a moment” and the song took on a different message.

“We were pretty much talking about the ghetto man being no different from a person who had more than him,” he explains. “And we’re all one, whether we know it or not.”

The World is a Ghetto wound up spending two weeks at #1 and became the biggest selling album of 1973, something Jordan and his bandmates never expected.

“We was as surprised as anyone else, because we never even thought any of our music would ever be played on the radio,” he shares. “We just pretty much just played what we felt. All of our music was really an experience, you know, from the streets.”  

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David Lee Roth has shared another new song with fans.

The former Van Halen frontman just dropped the new tune “Wash and Fold,” the second previously unreleased song he’s released this year. The first, “Manda Bala,” was released in October.

While Roth did not reveal when he recorded “Wash and Fold,” the last time he confirmed that he was recording new music was in 2014 when he went into the studio with current Mötley Crüe guitarist John 5.

Roth hasn’t released an album since 2003’s Diamond Dave, but he has been sharing music with fans since mid- 2022. He’s released new takes on several Van Halen songs, including “Unchained,” “You Really Got Me,” “Dance The Night Away,” “Panama,” “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” “Everybody Wants Some!!” and “Atomic Punk.”

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