Classic Hits

Warren Haynes has announced dates for a new 2026 solo tour.

The trek will feature just Haynes and his guitar, and will have him playing stripped down shows that will feature two sets each night. He plans to play songs from his catalog, including solo recordings, and Gov’t Mule and Allman Brothers Band tunes, plus music that has influenced his career.

“Although I have done a few solo dates here and there, I’ve never afforded myself the opportunity to do an actual solo tour so I’m extremely excited about this,” Haynes says. “Anytime I get the chance to do something that I don’t get to do often enough is a rewarding experience for me and hopefully for the audience as well.”

The 11-date tour kicks off Feb. 12 in Grass Valley, California, and wraps Feb. 26 in Pelham, Tennessee.

Haynes will also be hitting the road with the Warren Haynes Band starting March 1 in Birmingham, Alabama, and wrapping March 7 in Ithaca, New York.

A fan club presale for all new shows will begin Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET, with local presales starting Thursday at 12 p.m. ET. Tickets go on sale to the general public starting Friday at 12 p.m. ET. A complete list of dates can be found at WarrenHaynes.net.

Next up, Haynes will hit the stage in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, for his annual Christmas Jam. The concert, taking place Dec. 13 at ExploreAsheville.com Arena, will be headlined by Warren Haynes & Friends, with the lineup also including Stone Temple Pilots and MJ Lenderman & The Wind.

The show will feature a special Christmas Jam tribute to Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, featuring Haynes, Lesh’s son Grahame Lesh, Widespread Panic‘s Jimmy Herring, John Molo and Jason Crosby, along with special guests.

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Cheap Trick is revisiting their iconic live album Cheap Trick at Budukon, but fans won’t have to travel to Japan to experience it.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers announced two shows in Las Vegas where they will play the 1978 live record in its entirety, along with their other hits. Cheap Trick at Budokan – Live in Las Vegas will take place April 17 and 18, 2026, at The Venetian Theatre inside The Venetian Resort Las Vegas.

A ticket presale is underway, with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. PT.

Cheap Trick at Budokan was recorded April 28 and 30, 1978, at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan. It was the band’s first live album, and featured performances of such classic tracks as “Surrender” and “I Want You To Want Me.” It went on to become the band’s bestselling album and has been certified triple Platinum by the RIAA. In 2019 it was chosen by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

The Vegas announcement comes just days after Cheap Trick released their 21st studio album, All Washed Up. It’s the band’s first album since 2021’s In Another World.

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On This Day, Nov. 17, 2010…

Rocker Patti Smith was awarded the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids.

The book documented Smith’s relationship with late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the late ’60s and early ’70s New York art scene. The book was a New York Times bestseller and won several other awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Patti released her second memoir, Bread of Angels, on Nov. 4. Described as “the most intimate” of Smith’s memoirs, the book follows the musician through her childhood in Philadelphia and South Jersey, her teenage years “when the first glimmers of art and romance take hold,” her marriage to Fred “Sonic” Smith and their family life, and more.

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KISS returned to the stage for the first time since their final End of the Road World Tour concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden in December 2023. They performed Friday to Sunday at their KISS Kruise: Landlocked convention in Las Vegas.

The performances were the band’s first since the death of founding member Ace Frehley, who they paid tribute to at their first unmasked performance Friday, fan-shot footage posted to YouTube shows.

“Obviously, before we get going, and we’re going to have an awesome time … we just wanted to take a moment to think about somebody who was at the foundation of this band, and we’re talking about Ace,” Paul Stanley said. “We certainly had differences, but that’s what family is about.”

He then asked fans to take a moment of silence to honor Ace and “think about him looking down on us,” which was followed by chants of “Ace, Ace” from the crowd.

The KISS Kruise featured a reunion of the final KISS lineup: Paul, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer.

They played the tracks “Hard Luck Woman” and “Hide Your Heart” at their Friday acoustic performance for the first time since 2019, according to setlist.fm. The set also featured their classic ballad “Beth” and a cover of The Beatles’ “I’ll Be Back.”

The band broke out more KISS classics at their Saturday electric show, including “Detroit Rock City” and “Black Diamond,” as well as “Lick It Up” and “Rock and Roll All Nite” featuring former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick.

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Robbie Robertson‘s final solo album, 2019’s Sinematic, features “Beautiful Madness,” a song inspired by the two years he and Martin Scorsese lived together after their respective marriages collapsed. That “madness” is now detailed in The Band guitarist’s brutally honest new book Insomnia, the sequel to his memoir, Testimony.

In Insomnia, Robertson and Scorsese are creatively on fire. As The Band dissolves, they work on The Last Waltz and Raging Bull; hang with Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel and Warren Beatty; travel the world; bed beautiful women and do ridiculous amounts of drugs, stopping only after Scorsese nearly dies. Their creative partnership, though, continued for decades.

“I think they both admired each other greatly … Robbie thought Marty was a genius filmmaker, and I think Marty thought Robbie was an amazing writer and an amazing storyteller,” Robertson’s longtime manager, Jared Levine, says of their relationship.

Levine says Robertson had wanted to tell the “origin story” of his friendship with Scorsese for years, but in the form of a movie, which David Fincher planned to direct. Dissatisfied with the screenplay, Levine says, “Robbie was like, ‘You know what? I need to write the story for this to be done properly.'” 

While Robertson completed Insomnia’s first draft prior to his unexpected 2023 death, Levine says, “We didn’t rush to release it” — in part because Robertson’s family was “ambivalent” about it. “They weren’t prepared for what this book was,” Levine notes.

“It’s so irreverent and so much about being a bad boy,” Levine says, noting the guitarist’s descriptions of his affairs with actresses and models “aren’t things that Robbie ever talked to his kids about.” He continues, “To read it after he had passed, it was even more so a difficult thing.”

Consequently, Insomnia includes an afterward by Robertson’s ex-wife and lifelong friend, Dominique Robertson, providing context for that period.

Filmworks: Insomnia, an LP collecting Robertson’s music for The Last Waltz, Raging Bull and his acting debut, Carny, arrives on Record Store Day Black Friday, happening Nov. 28.

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He wasn’t dancing, but Pete Townshend did appear onstage during Friday’s New York City premiere of Quadrophenia: A Rock Ballet, the latest iteration of The Who‘s 1973 concept album. The production, which debuted in London this past summer, is playing at New York’s City Center through Sunday.

Townshend strolled onstage nonchalantly with a guitar during the “I’m One” portion of the ballet to thunderous applause. He then sat down off to the side of the stage and played — or appeared to play — while Paris Fitzpatrick, who plays the central character of Jimmy, danced.

As the cast took their bows during the end of the show, Townshend made another appearance, sharing with the audience that he wanted the show to be a tribute to its choreographer, Paul Roberts, who died of cancer in September, after working on it right up until the end.

Referring to the ballet, Townshend said, “I brought it to New York out of my own pocket. You all know how I feel about the U.S. of A, but also this city, and I really wanted to bring it here for him and for his husband Phil, and everybody in the company.”

“Thanks for supporting us here,” he added. 

Directed by Rob Ashford, Quadrophenia: A Rock Ballet debuted in the U.K. in May. It features an orchestral version of the album by Townshend’s wife, Rachel Fuller. Like the album and the 1979 film, it focuses on Jimmy, a working class mod who yearns for a different life than his parents. 

In the ballet, Jimmy and the other characters — his childhood friend, the girl he loves, his parents, head mod Ace Face and rocker The Godfather — tell their story solely through dance, costumes and scenery. There are no lyrics or vocals.

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War has teamed up with Playing For Change, a multimedia project that aims to connect the world through music, to release a new version of their iconic tune “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” to mark the 50th anniversary of the song, and the album of the same name.

The new track features 30 musicians from around the world, including War founding member Lonnie Jordan and former band members Howard Scott, Harold Brown and Lee Oskar.

“Fifty years on, ‘Why Can’t We Be Friends?’ feels more powerful than ever,” says War’s longtime producer Jerry Goldstein. “It’s a beautiful message, and we’re grateful to share it with the world and bring people together through the music.”

Released in April 1975, “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” was a top-10 hit for War, peaking at #6 on the Hot 100 singles chart. The album of the same name, which also featured the iconic tune “Low Rider,” was also a top-10 hit, reaching #8.

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The B-52s’ Kate Pierson has released a cover of Patti Smith’s classic tune “People Have the Power,” featuring the teens of Uniting Voices Chicago, a nonprofit that “empowers and unites youth from diverse backgrounds to find their voice and celebrate their common humanity through the power of music.”

“[Its] dream of peace, empowerment and hope feels more urgent now than ever,” Pierson says of the tune, which Smith wrote with her husband, the late Fred “Sonic” Smith. “And what better way to bring this to a new generation than to feature the powerful young voices of Uniting Voices Chicago.”

“Taking this on was daunting. Patti Smith has always been one of my greatest inspirations—as a performer, a poet, a writer—and I’ve seen her perform this song many times. Every time, she lifts the audience into absolute ecstasy,” she adds. “I knew the only way I could approach a cover was to create something different enough to be true to myself, yet still honor the soul and message of the original.”

Finally Pierson notes, “The lyrics are beautiful, poetic and visionary – but still the meaning rings clear – people do have the power – and we need to use it now!”

“People Have the Power” is now available via digital outlets.

Proceeds from the song will go to Uniting Voices Chicago and Sandy Hook Promise.

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One of David Bowie’s most iconic films is headed back to the big screen in 2026.

Fathom Entertainment has announced that Jim Henson’s 1986 fantasy adventure Labyrinth has been remastered in 4K for its 40th anniversary and will return to theaters Jan. 8-11. The new screenings will include a featurette with footage of the recent U.K. fan celebration Labyrinth Experience & Masked Ball.

Originally released in 1986, Labyrinth starred Bowie as the Goblin King Jareth. The film follows a 14-year-old Jennifer Connelly tasked with solving Jareth’s elaborate maze in order save her baby brother before Jareth turns him into a goblin forever.

In addition to acting in the film, Bowie wrote and performed several songs that were featured in the movie.

Tickets for the new Labyrinth screenings are on sale now.

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Former Styx fromtman Dennis DeYoung is calling out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for waiting too long to induct some rock legends.

In a post on Facebook, he cites the recent induction of Bad Company as an example of this. They’d been eligible for over 25 years before finally being inducted on Nov. 8. Two members — Mick Ralphs and Boz Burrell — died before they were inducted, and frontman Paul Rodgers had to pull out of the ceremony out of concerns for his health.

“Speaking of the Rock Hall it’s a shame that Bad Company had to wait so long to get in that it rendered Paul Rodgers unable to perform due to health concerns,” he writes. “Bollocks!! I would have liked to have seen him perform years ago to demonstrate how one of rock’s premiere singers ACTUALLY ROCKS.”

“The induction ceremony clearly pointed out the tragic manner in which this joint operates,” he continues. “Making so many musicians wait until they either incapacitated or dead is shameful. Joe Cocker, Warren Zevon et al are suddenly eligible decades after their success? Explain that, what’s changed except the Hall’s inability to let go of their clear prejudices and induct them?”

DeYoung notes that the Hall’s “mission statement about who qualifies was always a ruse and a joke concocted to protect their own personal choices.”

He adds, “I have said this before — as someone whose band has never been considered, whatever I write ends up sounding like sour grapes. ‘Sour Grapes’ would be a good name for a band.”

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