Classic Hits

Peter Frampton is one of the many superstar special guests on Dolly Parton’s first rock album, Rockstar. He appears on two tracks, including Dolly’s take on his classic “Baby, I Love Your Way.”

Frampton tells ABC Audio he was actually the one who reached out to Dolly’s producer about the project, asking if there was anything he could play guitar on. Dolly’s producer was surprised that Frampton would want to just play on any old song and offered another suggestion.

“He said, ‘Wait a sec, would you be interested if Dolly wanted to do one of your songs?’ And I said, ‘Let me think for a minute. Yes,’” Frampton explains. “He said, ‘I’ll call you back in five minutes.’ He called me back in three minutes, and he said, ‘Dolly’s jumping up and down. She wants to do “Baby, I Love Your Way.”‘”

But Frampton was still interested in contributing his guitar to a song that wasn’t necessarily his. Dolly’s producer eventually asked him if he’d be interested in playing the solo on Dolly’s cover of The Beatles’ “Let It Be,” which also features Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Mick Fleetwood. Frampton couldn’t refuse.

“I said, ‘I think I can do that, yes,’” Frampton shares. “So yeah, I’m the only person that played on two tracks.” 

Dolly Parton’s Rockstar, which also features special guests Steven Tyler, Steve Perry, Sting, Stevie Nicks, Richie Sambora, Elton John, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, John Fogerty and more, is out now.

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Sammy Hagar just announced dates for The Best of All Worlds Tour, where he’ll joined by Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Joe Satriani to perform songs from the Van Halen catalog.

Satriani will be taking over the guitar parts made famous by the late Eddie Van Halen — and he realizes that’s no easy task.  

“You can’t fill them. You can put them on, but you can’t fill them,” he tells Forbes about stepping into Eddie’s shoes. “But you’ve got to enjoy it. You have to respect the genius of the architecture of his guitar parts and how he built the songs and you’ve got to get in there and just enjoy what he was building cause he would weave in and out of his original composition every time he played it live and bring new amazing little nuggets to each little section.”

And while Satriani is certainly an accomplished guitar player in his own right, he notes, “It is really frightening because I don’t play like him and I’ve had to learn to anticipate all his quirky accents where he likes to push things and turn things upside down.”  

“Just when you think they’re going to go left, they go right or up or down. So, it’s exciting,” he adds.

The Best of All Worlds Tour, featuring special guest Loverboy, kicks off July 13 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Tickets go on sale Friday, November 17, at 10 a.m. A complete list of dates can be found at redrocker.com.

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Mickey Thomas, best known for being the singer for Jefferson Starship and its later iteration Starship, is the latest musician getting into the holiday spirit.

The singer is set to release A Classic Christmas on December 1, a digital double-sided single, featuring covers of the holiday classics “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”

“In general, I prefer Christmas songs that are pensive and reflective. I love the ones that transport me into a warm nostalgia—the ones that express deeply personal feelings as opposed to religious themes,” he says. “‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ is a perfect example. It’s somewhat melancholy yet hopeful at the same time.”

As for “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” Thomas describes it as “truly a celebration of all things Christmas. Parties, singing carols, sledding, roasting marshmallows, social gaiety, reminiscing about past Christmases.”

A Classic Christmas is available for preorder now.

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Bono has previously said that U2’s next album will be a rock record, and now he’s giving fans some insight into what he means by that.  

“I announced it, without discussion, as ‘an unreasonable guitar record,’” he tells Mojo. “And Edge called me up and goes, ‘How unreasonable?’ And I said, ‘As unreasonable as you’re ready to take it.’”

But when fans will actually hear that record is still up in the air. Not only is U2 busy with their Las Vegas residency, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere, they are also waiting for drummer Larry Mullen Jr. to recover from surgery. 

“Starting work on new songs is somewhat tied to Larry’s situation,” bassist Adam Clayton says. “Could he commit to an album project? I don’t know.” 

But when they do finally get that album out, Bono wants to make sure it’s something special.

“I don’t think the world is waiting on the next U2 album,” he says. “I think we have to give them a reason to be interested in it.”

Bono adds, “I just want to write great tunes, because that’s where U2 started – with big choruses, clear ideas. And let’s go back there, but do it with some petrol and some matches.”

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The Immediate Family will be releasing a new studio album next year.  The group, made up of renowned session musicians Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel, Steve Postell, Russ Kunkel and Leland Sklar, will release Skin in the Game on February 16.

The album features 13 original songs and one cover: the album’s first single “The Toughest Girl in Town,” which was originally released in October 2022. The album’s title track is set for release in January.

“This band has such power. It’s almost like an embarrassment of riches,” Wachtel shares, with Sklar adding, “The Immediate Family’s unrivaled musical chemistry comes from years of playing together. We all know each other backward and forward and can play to each other’s strengths in ways that other groups can’t always get to.” 

The new album announcement comes just as a new documentary about the musicians is due for release. Immediate Family, directed by Denny Tedesco, will open in theaters for special one-night screenings on December 12, and will be available everywhere on December 15.

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A new limited edition print autographed by The Who’s Roger Daltrey is being sold to benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust.  

The print, designed by Steve Mitchell at 45 Original, features the phrase “Think Lucky, Be Lucky!” — which seems to be inspired by the band’s song “Be Lucky,” featured on the 2015 compilation The Who Hits 50!

Only 300 copies of the five-color screen print are available, each one individually signed by Daltrey. They are available for preorder now, with the print expected to ship on December 11.

Teenage Cancer Trust, founded in 1990, seeks to improve the cancer experience for young people. Daltrey is a patron of the charity.

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Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett is giving fans some new music next year. 

On February 16, the rocker will release the new studio album The Circus and the Nightwhale, described as an autobiographical concept album revolving around a character named Travla. 

“I love this album. It says the things I’ve been wanting to say for a very long time,” he shares. “It’s a lovely journey that starts dirty, scratchy and smoky and becomes heavenly and divine. How can you resist it?”

The Circus and the Nightwhale is Hackett’s first album of new material since the instrumental album Under A Mediterranean Sky, released back in 2021. It will be available for preorder starting December 1.

Here is the track list for The Circus and the Nightwhale: 

“People Of The Smoke”
“These Passing Clouds”
“Taking You Down”
“Found And Lost”
“Enter The Ring”
“Get Me Out!”
“Ghost Moon and Living Love”
“Circo Inferno”
“Breakout”
“All At Sea”
“Into The Nightwhale”
“Wherever You Are”
“White Dove”

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On This Day, November 16, 1968…

Jimi Hendrix Experience landed their first and only #1 album with the double LP Electric Ladyland.

The record, which was their third and final studio album, included a cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” which went on to become an iconic track for Hendrix. It was the album’s bestselling single, reaching #20 in the U.S. and #3 in the U.K.

Electric Ladyland, which spent two weeks on top of the charts, also featured such songs as “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” “Gypsy Eyes” and “Crosstown Traffic.”

It is often featured on greatest albums lists, including Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, where in 2020 it was ranked 53.

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Blondie co-founder and guitarist Chris Stein is ready to share his story. The rocker is set to drop his memoir, Under a Rock, next year.

“I’ve been working on this memoir for two years and it’ll show up allegedly in 2024,” he writes on Instagram. “I mean, I like it… I wrote the whole f****** thing myself. It’s got a lot of weird a** stuff that actually happened even if it might seem made up.” 

“I’m quite looking forward to people interacting with it,” he adds.

Under A Rock will feature a foreword by Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry. Described as Stein’s “nothing-spared autobiography,” it is “about the founding of the band, ascending to the heights of pop success, and the hazards of fortune.” 

Under A Rock will be released June 11. It is available for preorder now.

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Rush’s Geddy Lee can see the band’s music being turned into a film one day. 

Speaking to Vulture, Lee, who just released his memoir My Effin Life, was asked what song he thought could be adapted to a screenplay. He couldn’t quite narrow it down to one.

He says the 1976 album 2112 seems to be the easiest to turn into a movie, noting it’s “obvious as a sci-fi story of ‘the individual against the collective.’”

“I think the setting of it would lend itself to visual interpretation. Whether that’s been done too much, I don’t know,” he says. “You’ve got generations of Star Wars films. It’s not new territory, but there’s something in that story that would translate into the genre.”

He says there have been ideas for 2112 films over the years “but nothing has ever really made us want to go down that road.”

But Geddy thinks 2012’s Clockwork Angels would make a better film or series.

“It’s based on a classic story of a naïve and innocent person going out into the world, and running away to try to find the place to make his dreams come true,” he shares. “That really would lend itself to a fantasy story, but not necessarily a sci-fi fantasy story.” 

“When you look at what’s been done with shows like The Last of Us or Game of Thrones, you can take cinema anywhere now. Yet the story at the heart of Clockwork Angels is a full circle of life,” he adds.

Geddy says his late bandmate Neil Peart also wanted to see a Clockwork Angels adaptation. “It was a big deal for him, and he had done some work in the hopes he could make something like that happen,” he says. “Maybe one day.”

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