Classic Hits

The last concert featuring Lynyrd Skynyrd’s late founding member Gary Rossington is set to hit theaters in July, and now, fans are getting their first look at that particular performance.

A sneak peek of The 50th Anniversary of Lynyrd Skynyrd: An Exclusive Concert Film Experience has just been released, featuring the band performing the Skynyrd classic “Gimme Three Steps.”  

The concert, which took place in November 2022 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, featured a host of special guests, including Jelly Roll, Brothers Osborne‘s John Osborne, Marcus King, Shinedown‘s Brent Smith and 38 Special‘s Donnie Van Zant — brother of current Skynyrd frontman Johnny Van Zant and late frontman Ronnie Van Zant.

Rossington had stopped touring regularly with Skynyrd in 2020 but joined them for most of the Ryman show, which was his final concert with the band. He passed away March 5, 2023.

The 50th Anniversary of Lynyrd Skynyrd: An Exclusive Concert Film Experience will have a weeklong run in movie theaters, drive-ins and outdoor venues from July 8 to 14. Tickets are on sale now.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, which raises money for his Crossroads rehab center in Antigua, is returning in September. In a new post on Instagram, he explains why the festival is so badly needed now that the pandemic is over.

Clapton says the pandemic was particularly hard for those battling addiction, explaining, “For people that wanted to get well from alcohol or drugs or anything, it was a tough time, because the normal network of AA meetings was pretty much off limits.” He adds that “treatment centers were really badly hit because people couldn’t travel; and they were very fearful of going out,” noting many “voluntarily locked themselves down.”

Clapton explains, “A lot of people, and I think a lot of the community that I know, either died or dropped off or stopped going to meetings, as it was just too risky.”

The seventh installment of the Crossroads Guitar Festival will take place September 23 and 24 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, with a lineup that includes Clapton ZZ Top, Robbie Robertson, Santana, Stephen Stills, Gary Clark, Jr., John Mayer Trio, Sheryl Crow, Robert Randolph, Roger McGuinn, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa, Jakob Dylan and more.

More information, including the complete lineup, can be found at crossroadsguitarfestival.com.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Madonna has been released from the hospital, a source close to the singer’s camp confirms to ABC News.

The 64-year-old superstar is now at home and feeling better following a serious bacterial infection that landed her in the ICU.

As previously reported, the health scare led Madonna to postpone her upcoming The Celebration Tour, which was set to kick off July 15 in Vancouver.

“On Saturday June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which led to a several day stay in the ICU,” her manager, Guy Oseary, wrote on Instagram Wednesday, June 28. “Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care.” He noted, “A full recovery is expected.”

Oseary also addressed the tour postponement, writing, “We will share more details with you as soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and for rescheduled shows.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

U2 frontman Bono is helping raise money for Ukraine with some of his original artwork.

The rocker has teamed with UNITED24, the official fundraising platform of Ukraine’s government, for a limited-edition merch line featuring the drawing he did of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the June cover of The Atlantic. 

“My drawings are not cartoons, but they are often caricatures of character. In the case of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, we have burdened him with impossible expectations – and impossibly, he has not let us down,” Bono says. “I suppose that’s because President Zelenskyy is not now one person, he’s the Ukrainian people.”

The merch line, on sale now at U2.com, consists of T-shirts and hoodies with the artwork, as well as a lithograph of the drawing. All money raised will go toward the purchase of ambulances for Ukraine.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Recording Academy has set the date for the 2024 Grammy Awards. The 66th Grammy Awards will take place Sunday, February 4, at Los Angeles’ Crytpto.com Arena, airing live on CBS at 8 p.m. ET and streaming on Paramount+. 

Fans will know who’s in the running for awards before the holidays, with this year’s nominees to be announced Friday, November 10.

The 2024 awards will see several changes, including three new categories: Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album and Best Pop Dance Recording. It will also see the Record of the Year and Best New Artist categories scaled down from 10 to eight nominees.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

KISS fans hoping to see a reunion with original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss during their final shows at Madison Square Garden will be sorely disappointed, according to Gene Simmons.

In an interview with Linea Rock, Simmons reveals he asked them several times if they’d like to show up for an encore, or to just play a song, but they both turned him down. “So, I don’t know what to say about that…But it’s always welcome,” he says.

Simmons insists that only some fans will be disappointed by their absence from the final shows.

“For the fans — the older, older fans — the ones who’ve been around for 50 years, they’re old, and some of them wanna see Ace and Peter,” he says. “The newer fans never saw them, and they don’t know. But the older fans wonder about Ace and Peter.”

Simmons does say there will be surprises during the final concerts, but he also doesn’t think they are needed.

“There are many other big stars, superstars, who wanna jump up onstage and play a song. But we’re not sure about that,” Simmons explains. “Maybe the best thing to do is to end the way we started: four guys with guitars. No keyboards, no synthesizers — nothing. Just playing.”

KISS’ End of the Road tour hits Tuscany, Italy, on June 29. It returns to the U.S. on October 19 in Cincinnati, Ohio, with their final two shows set for December 1 and 2 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. A complete list of dates can be found at kissonline.com.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, June 29, 1984…

During a Bruce Springsteen concert in St. Paul, Minnesota, director Brian De Palma shot the video for The Boss’ Born in the U.S.A. single “Dancing in the Dark.”

The performance clip ends with Springsteen pulling a fan to the stage to dance with him. In reality, the woman, a then unknown actress named Courteney Cox, was placed in the front row so Bruce could pull her onstage to dance.

The video became a huge MTV hit and the song became Bruce’s biggest-ever single, spending four weeks at #1 and selling over a million copies.

Cox went on to become a huge star, thanks to the successful NBC series Friends, the Scream movie franchise and more.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Rosie O’Donnell has posted to Instagram an update on the condition of her longtime pal and former A League of Their Own co-star Madonna, following the superstar’s hospitalization for what her manager Guy Oseary called a “serious bacterial infection.”

Rosie posted a throwback photo of the pair on the floor doing yoga, shot on the set of Rosie’s old talk show, noting in the caption, “shes feeling good.” O’Donnell followed that with a thumbs-up emoji, and the hashtag #madonna #love.

The update received more than 13,000 likes in a matter of hours, and scores of supportive comments from relieved fans.

As reported, Madonna’s health scare led her to postpone her upcoming The Celebration Tour.

Oseary explained, “On Saturday June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which led to a several day stay in the ICU. Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care.” He noted, “A full recovery is expected.”

Oseary also informed fans the tour would be on hold, explaining, “We will share more details with you as soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and for rescheduled shows.”

Madonna: The Celebration Tour was meant to start in Vancouver on July 15, with plans to hit 43 cities globally and run through January 2024. The show is billed as the singer’s first retrospective tour, highlighting over four decades of her music career.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Guess Who will drop their new album, Plein D’Amour, on Friday, June 30. The album title translates to “full of love,” and lead singer Derek Sharp tells ABC Audio it just made sense to give it that name. 

“That’s really what the whole album is about,” he shares. “The whole album is really about, you know, coming together.”

Sharp says the band was inspired to get back in the studio after having a year off due to COVID-19. “We had a new member in the band that really loved the songs that we had,” he says, referring to guitarist Michael Staertow. Sharp says he and original member Garry Peterson had always planned to keep “the new music going,” sharing, “I think the fact that everybody was into it was part of the reason” they made the album.

For Garry, one of the best parts of making Plein D’Amour was being able to get back into the studio with all his bandmates. “It was a great experience to get back to the old way that we used to record, and I think that’s reflective in the sound of the album and just the whole feel,” he says.

In addition to the new music, The Guess Who are still on the road. After almost 60 years with the band, seeing fans enjoy their music is exactly what keeps Peterson motivated to continue.

“You know, we’re musicians, we play for people,” he says. “And that’s really what keeps you wanting to do this … I’ve always said it’s like a drug to be able to make people feel good and feel happy.” 

Plein D’Amour is available for preorder now. A complete list of The Guess Who tour dates can be found at theguesswho.com.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Madonna has postponed her upcoming The Celebration Tour due to health reasons.

The announcement comes from the superstar’s manager, Guy Oseary, who confirmed the news on his Instagram.

“On Saturday June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which led to a several day stay in the ICU. Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care. A full recovery is expected,” Oseary’s post reads.

“At this time we will need to pause all commitments, which includes the tour,” the post continues. “We will share more details with you as soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and for rescheduled shows.”

Madonna: The Celebration Tour was meant to start in Vancouver on July 15, with plans to hit 43 cities globally and run through January 2024. The show is billed as the singer’s first retrospective tour, highlighting over four decades of her music career.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.