Classic Hits

August 1 would have been Jerry Garcia’s 81st birthday, and the New York Yankees will be celebrating the late Grateful Dead frontman for an entire week. 

For the games running August 1 to August 6, the first 3,000 fans who purchase tickets will receive an exclusive New York Yankees Jerry Garcia bobblehead.

And it’s all for a good cause. A portion of the proceeds from each ticket will go to The Dead’s nonprofit, the Rex Foundation, which “provides extensive community support to small organizations making an impact in the arts, sciences, education, the environment, and social justice.”

And the Yankees aren’t the only ones celebrating Jerry. The Oakland A’s are holding Jerry Garcia Night on August 18, with special tickets that include a tie-dye Athletics T-shirt with Garcia’s face. The A’s take on the Baltimore Orioles that night, and the game will feature a pregame concert by Moonalice, as well as a special guest for the first pitch. A portion of the proceeds from each ticket will also be donated to the Rex Foundation.

Garcia died August 9, 1995, at the age of 53.

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Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason has been made an honorary citizen of the Italian city of Pompeii, Planet Rock Radio reports. Mason received the honor on July 24 ahead of his Pompeii concert with his current band, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets.

Mason and Pink Floyd have a long history with Pompeii; in October 1971 they shot their concert film Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii at the Pompeii Amphitheater, and Mason acknowledged that history in accepting the new citizenship. 

“I am overwhelmed by being here and having such a great honor given to me. What I really need to say initially is thank you, not only from myself, but the other people who made this happen. Of course, that’s Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Richard Wright,” Mason said. “I’m sorry that I can’t bring the rest of the band with me. I can’t even bring my mustache.”

He added, “We have been linked to Pompeii for 50 years now. If you told me 50 years ago that I’d be back here I would have thought that was impossible. I should have returned 30 years ago.”

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Downes Braide Association, made up of Yes’ Geoff Downes and songwriter Chris Braide, is ready to release new music. The duo will drop their fifth studio album, Celestial Songs, on September 8 and have shared the first single from the record, “Clear Light.”

“As we were writing the songs for the album, they started to become thematic in emotion and feeling,” Braide shares, “more classic rock than the predecessor Halcyon Hymns. The songs were about life and death, time, love, nostalgia, spirituality. Very DBA in fact.”

Downes adds, “There’s a lot of variety on the album, too…I hope people will appreciate it and get behind it, not just the songwriting and vocals but the overall instrumentation and musicianship is very high on this album.”

The album features a cameo by Soft Cell’s Marc Almond on the track “Darker Side of Fame,” with Downes noting, “Marc and Chris’ voices blend really well.”

Celestial Songs will be released as a CD, two-LP and box set, the last of which includes a 12-inch purple vinyl, 12×12 special edition print and more. All are available for preorder now.

Here is the track list for Celestial Songs:

“Look What You Do”
“Clear Light”
“Keep On Moving”
“Darker Side Of Fame”
“Hey Kid”
“Will To Power”
“Heart Shaped Hole”
“Dear Petra”
“On The Run”
“Goodbye To You (Sister Shame)”
“Beyond The Stars”

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Blondie guitarist and co-founder Chris Stein is mourning the loss of his daughter Akira, who he just revealed passed away in May from a drug overdose.

“There are a lot of you I care for that didn’t know and even though it’s not like me to post personal events publicy (sic) Akira was important to many,” he shared on Instagram. “She was wonderful and a bright place in the world. She had been struggling for years and addiction took her.”

He adds that his wife, Barbara, and other daughter, Vali, “are moving ahead but there’s a huge piece missing from our lives. Just remember her and be kind to each other and you young people please avoid this trap.” 

Stein’s Blondie bandmate Debbie Harry also wrote about Akira on Instagram, in a post in which she first expressed how unbelievable it is to her to still be performing in Blondie at the age of 78.

“The flip side of this positivity is the loss of my god daughter Akira. She was just turning 20 and we lost her to fentynal,” she writes. “So my joys and sorrows are all the more extreme.” 

Harry adds, “I will grieve for the rest of my life along with Barbara Sicuranza and Chris Stein, her mom and dad, and her sister Vali, at our terrible loss. Fentynal is too dangerous, seductive and easy to get.”

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John Fogerty launched his solo career 50 years ago, and now, he’s celebrating the milestone with two new vinyl reissues.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is set to release his debut solo album, Blue Ridge Rangers, and its follow-up, the self-titled John Fogerty, on vinyl for the first time.

Following the demise of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fogerty released Blue Ridge Rangers in April 1973, playing every instrument on the record. It featured two Top 40 singles: “Jambalaya,” which went to #16, and “Hearts of Stone,” which went to #37. 

The follow-up, John Fogerty, was released in September 1975 and featured the track “Rockin’ All Over the World,” which became a huge hit when it was covered by the British band Status Quo.  

Both albums will be released August 25 and are available for preorder now. 

Fogerty is continuing the anniversary celebration with his current Celebration Tour, which hits Franklin, Tennessee, on Tuesday, July 25. A complete list of dates can be found at johnfogerty.com.

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Tony Bennett may be gone, but he won’t be forgotten: A documentary about his surprising collaborative relationship with Lady Gaga is coming in September.

That’s according to Tony’s son and manager, Danny Bennett, who tells Variety, “We’re finishing this documentary called The Lady and the Legend, which is going to be on Paramount+ in September, and it chronicles their 10-year relationship.”

Danny points out that the documentary is different than the 2021 CBS TV special One Last Time, which captured their final performances together at Radio City Music Hall in celebration of Bennett’s 95th birthday.

“You’re seeing backstage, where people are like, ‘He has no idea where he is,'” explains Danny. “And Gaga, rightfully, was like, ‘Is this the right thing to do?’ But I just knew that when he hit that stage, it was going to all come back. It went so well that I actually got accused of saying that he had Alzheimer’s as a publicity stunt, because people didn’t believe it.”

Danny also says the documentary will cover Gaga’s life before Tony, when she was struggling following her split with her manager and the poor response to her album Artpop.

“She was not feeling great about things…and she was doubting herself,” says Danny. “And you watch Tony nurturing her, and telling her to move straight ahead and believe in herself. And then all of a sudden at the end, she is supporting him. It’s a full circle and it’s beautiful.”

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On This Day, July 25, 1980…

AC/DC released their seventh studio album Back in Black, which was their first album following the death of singer Bon Scott.

The album featured new lead singer Brian Johnson, and contained such future AC/DC classics as the title track, “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Hells Bells.”

Back in Black was a massive hit for the Aussie rockers, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. It sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, and was certified 25-times Platinum by the RIAA.

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After recently wrapping the European and U.K. leg of their Stadium Tour with Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard is giving fans another behind-the-scenes video from the trek, this time sharing a look at what went down at their show in Switzerland and their massive concert at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Guitarist Phil Collen says the show at Wembley was a “really big deal” for the band because it was their first time headlining the stadium.

“In a way, it’s a journey that’s lasted 45 years ‘Cause when we were growing up and forming the band, we had little goals, but we always knew at the back of our minds, there was the big goal,” bassist Rick Savage adds of the show. “And here we are — this was the big goal, Wembley Stadium. In England, to English people, it doesn’t come much bigger than Wembley Stadium.”

Savage said getting to play Wembley was an “emotional” experience for the band, sharing, “it proves something to us, to ourselves, that we’ve actually made it this far for this long.” 

Drummer Rick Allen also recalls the first time the band was onstage at Wembley, when they were guests at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert in 1992. He called it one of his “most incredible mind-blowing experiences,” adding, “it was just friggin’ awesome.”

The Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe Stadium Tour returns to North America on Saturday, August 6, in Syracuse, New York. A complete list of dates can be found at defleppard.com. 

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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If you’re going to insult Bruce Springsteen, you better be ready for the consequences, as one person on social media recently found out when they dared to question The Boss’ “mental state.”

It all started when someone on Twitter posed a question to E Street Band members Garry Tallent, Steve Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren, which was basically a complaint about Springsteen playing very similar sets each night on tour.

“This is a serious question. Is Bruce’s mental state in decline? Is he just unable to perform other songs?” the user wrote. “These rinse and repeat shows are such the opposite of greatness.” 

Tallent was quick to shut the Twitter troll down, and it was clear he wasn’t happy, writing, “You are f****** kidding, right??”

And he wasn’t the only one who clapped back. Kathi Van Zandt, sister of Steve Van Zandt, responded, “Why don’t you stay home and let some real fans take your ticket? Decline? This man and this band play for three hours—performing from an extraordinary songbook most artists only dream about.” 

Fans still have plenty of chances to see just how mentally fit Bruce Springsteen is. He wraps his European tour in Monza, Italy, on Tuesday, July 25, and kicks off a new North American leg with two shows, August 9 and 11 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.net.

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Another long-lost Steely Dan song has hit the internet.

The tune was posted by the Expanding Dan website, although it’s not actually a song, but a jingle Donald Fagen wrote for the Milwaukee beer company Schlitz.

According to Vulture, “The Schlitz Jingle” was recorded before the band began making 1973’s Countdown To Ecstasy, but the commercial never saw the light of day because it includes the Spanish word for “grab,” which apparently sounded an awful lot like a Spanish curse. 

The release of the jingle comes about a month after Expanding Dan released the “The Second Arrangement,” a 1979 Steely Dan song thought to be lost after a studio technician erased it. Like “The Second Arrangement,” the jingle was released by the daughter of the band’s late longtime engineer Roger Nichols.

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