Classic Hits

Guitarist Ace Frehley isn’t feeling his former band KISS’ plans for the future now that they’ve retired from touring. 

At the end of their final show at New York’s Madison Square Garden earlier this month, KISS introduced fans to their avatars, suggesting an ABBA-like show is in the future.

Frehley has some thoughts on the subject.

During an interview with Germany’s Rock Antenne, Frehley said he was happy the final tour is over “because I’m not gonna be compared to them anymore.” 

“But I don’t get this avatar thing that they’re gonna do,” he added. “I mean, I saw some of it on a video on YouTube last night. It kind of looked like it was geared towards children. And it’s not rock ‘n’ roll.” 

As for what he considers rock ‘n’ roll, Frehley shares, “I get up on stage without backing tracks, plug my amp into it, plug my guitar into a Marshall and go. That’s it. It’s always been that way and always will be.”

As for the final KISS show, Frehley says he didn’t watch it, although he did see a video from their show in Indianapolis, noting, “I’m not impressed.”

Frehley is gearing up to wow fans with his own music. He’ll release his new solo album, 10,000 Volts, on February 23 and has already dropped the title track. The album, his first solo record since 2020’s Origins Vol. 2, is available for preorder now.

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Ed Sheeran and Elton John aren’t just friends — they’re also huge soccer fans, with Ed supporting Ipswich Town and Elton supporting Watford, the football club he used to own. When those teams played each other recently, Ed and Elton had a field trip to watch the match — and documented it all on social media.

“Went with @eltonjohn to watch our boyhood teams play each other, to celebrate 2 years of ‘Merry Christmas,'” wrote Ed, referring to the pals’ joint single that came out in 2022. He added, “Merry Christmas you wonderful people.”

In the clip, Ed and Elton exchange gifts, with Ed giving Elton an Ipswich Town Christmas sweater and Elton giving Ed a Watford one. “Thanks for the jumper, @teddysphotos! Hope you wear yours with pride!” Elton added in the comments. “Jumper” is British for sweater, in case you’re not familiar.

The video shows them sitting in the stands, being goofy while singing Elton’s classic “Your Song.” The two proceed to watch the game, with each singer cheering as their respective teams score. Ed’s Ipswich triumphed, 2 to 1.

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Robbie Robertson and Lenny Kravitz are among the nominees for the 2024 Critics Choice Awards. 

Robertson, who passed away in August, earned a nod in the Best Score category for his work on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. He’ll compete with scores from Barbie, Poor Things, Society of the Snow, Oppenheimer and Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse. 

Kravitz earned a nod in the Best Song category for “Rustin,” from the movie of the same name. The tune will compete against “Wish,” from the animated movie Wish, and three songs from Barbie: Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For”; “I’m Just Ken,” which features Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen on guitar; and Dua Lipa‘s “Dance the Night.” 

The 2024 Critics Choice Awards, hosted by Chelsea Handler, will air January 14 on The CW.

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It’s not unusual for artists who are writing autobiographies to use a co-writer or a ghost writer, but Michael McDonald tapped an Emmy-nominated actor to help pen his memoir: Paul Reiser.

The Mad About You and Stranger Things star was a fan of the Doobie Brothers singer, but after they met, they became friends and even played together. Like Michael, Reiser is a pianist — he co-wrote “Final Frontier,” the theme song for Mad About You. Reiser tells People that he joked that Michael should write a book so he wouldn’t have to constantly ask him about of his career.

According to Reiser, Michael told him, “I’ve thought about it, but I don’t know how you start that.” So, notes Reiser, during the spring of 2020, they began writing the book together over Zoom. It’s called What a Fool Believes and will be out May 21.

“The thing that was the most daunting was wondering if there ever even was a story there,” McDonald tells People. “Because my story really, I’ve always felt, existed more in the people I worked with. That was really basically my story. It wasn’t really so much about me as my good fortune to work with a lot of different people.”

“But as we kind of moved along, the story emerged for me, and I think for the first time, I understood my own story a little better on a more personal level,” he adds.

In the book, McDonald covers his years in Steely Dan and the Doobies, his many collaborations with other artists, and his struggles with addiction and insecurity.

Now that the book is done, Reiser says he and McDonald are writing a song together and are considering creating a Broadway musical.

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On This Day, December 13, 2008…

Joe Walsh married Marjorie Bach in Los Angeles, California. Bach is the sister of actress Barbara Bach, who has been married to Ringo Starr since 1981, meaning the union made Walsh Ringo’s brother-in-law.

This was the fifth marriage for the Eagles guitarist. He was previously married to Margie Walsh in the ’60s, Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. 

In addition to being related, Walsh and Starr have worked together several times. Walsh was part of Starr’s All-Starr Band from 1989 to 1992, and has occasionally guested with the group between 1995 to 2019.

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These days you can’t escape holiday tunes, and there are certain classics that folks just can’t seem to get enough of. Spotify has revealed some of the top holiday listening trends for the season, with songs by Wham!, Brenda Lee and more making the list.

While globally Mariah Carey’s classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is the top trending song of 2023, Wham!’s “Last Christmas” is close behind at #2, followed by Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock.”

In the U.S., Lee’s classic is Spotify’s top holiday song, followed by Mariah, Helms and Wham!, with Andy Williams‘ iconic “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” rounding out the top five.

And it looks like Elton John may have a holiday classic in the making. “Merry Christmas,” his 2022 collaboration with Ed Sheeran, tops Spotify’s instant classics list, made up of songs released in the past five years that are leading in global streams.

Overall, folks don’t seem to be getting sick of holiday tunes just yet. Since the start of November, the creation of Spotify holiday playlists has increased over 1,400%.

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ZZ Top is heading over to Europe this summer for the first time since 2019.

The band just announced dates for The Elevation Tour, which has them hitting Norway, Denmark, Germany, London and more.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been able to check in with our European fans, so it goes without saying that we’re excited about coming back this summer,” Billy F Gibbons shares on Instagram. “We’re looking forward to a good time and that goes for both those in the audience and on stage.”

The tour kicks off Friday, June 28, with an appearance at the Dalhalla Festival in Rattvik, Sweden, and wraps Tuesday, July 16, at the Sion Festival in Sion, Switzerland.

A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at zztop.com.

Before they head overseas, ZZ Top will be touring the U.S. They’ll once again hit the road with Lynyrd Skynyrd on the Sharp Dressed Simple Man tour, which kicks off March 8 in Savannah, Georgia.

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Stevie Nicks is set to headline the inaugural Lovin’ Life Music Fest, taking place May 3-5 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Post Malone and Noah Kahan will also headline the festival, which promises more than 40 artists across three stages. The rest of the lineup will be announced at a later date.

Early bird tickets go on sale Thursday, December 14, at 8 a.m. ET. More info on the festival can be found at lovinlifemusicfest.com.

Stevie has two more concerts before she wraps her 2023 schedule. She plays Sacramento on Tuesday, December 12, and San Francisco on Friday, December 15. She also has several dates on the books for 2024, starting February 10 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A complete list of dates can be found at stevienicksofficial.com.

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Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison is teaming up with the band’s touring guitarist Adrian Belew for a new tour this summer.

The 2024 Remain in Light summer tour, as the name of the tour suggests, will have the artists playing songs from the 1980s era of Talking Heads, when they released their fourth studio album, Remain in Light, which featured the hit song “Once in a Lifetime.”

The tour, featuring special guest Cool Cool Cool, will kick off July 26 in Cincinnati, Ohio, wrapping August 4 in Tarrytown, New York.

An artist presale kicks off Wednesday, December 13, at 10 a.m., with the general sale set for Friday, December 15, at 10 a.m. More info can be found at remaininlight.net.

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