Classic Hits

Last year, Rod Stewart made headlines when he rented a house near his home in England in order to put a roof over the heads of a Ukrainian family of refugees. Now he’s thinking of taking in a second family.

After the war in Ukraine started, Rod and his nephews organized a convoy of trucks to bring much-needed supplies to the border and to bring back a number of refugees. He was then put in contact with a different group of refugees — a family of seven who’d escaped the war and had made it to the U.K. He rented them a house, and has pledged to pay their rent and bills for a year. On top of that, he found jobs for two other refugees on his estate.

Now, Rod tells the Las Vegas Review Journal that he’s considering building another house just so he can take in a second family. “I’m just waiting for the Ukrainian offensive to stop this guy,” Rod says, referring to Vladimir Putin. “We can’t let him win. It’s 1939, all over again.”

During his Las Vegas shows at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Rod wears a blue and yellow suit, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, and dedicates his hit “Rhythm of My Heart” to the people of Ukraine.

Rod recently played his 182nd show in Las Vegas, which he says is more than he’s done in any other city. However, for now he’s refraining from kicking his signature soccer balls into the audience — not only because people fight over them, but occasionally people get injured by them.

“I’ve got one or two lawsuits,” he admits.

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Otis Redding passed away in 1967, but his music lives on. The four Redding albums released after his death are about to come out in a new vinyl box set, along with a compilation of the albums’ 24 singles in Mono.

The limited edition Otis Forever: The Albums & Singles (1968-1970) will be released June 9 as a multicolored set, with The Dock of the Bay on yellow vinyl, The Immortal Otis Redding in silver, Love Man in green, To Tell The Truth in blue and The Singles in yellow. Only 1,000 copies are being produced and sold through Rhino.com. There will also be a six-LP black vinyl set released to retailers.

In addition, fans will be able to purchase The Singles 1968-1970 as a standalone double album. It will include such songs as “(Sittin’ On )The Dock Of The Bay,” “The Happy Song (Dum-Dum),” “Hard To Handle” and more.

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Grateful Dead fans are getting their first peek at the band’s upcoming 11th annual Meet-Up At The Movies screening.

This year’s screening highlights the band’s June 22, 1991, concert at Chicago’s Soldier Field, the first time they ever played the venue. A just-released clip of the concert shows them performing the In The Dark track “Hell in a Bucket.”

The concert features the Dead’s Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, along with Bruce Hornsby and Vince Welnick on keyboards, taking the place of Brent Mydland, who had passed away a year earlier. It features performances of such songs as “Shakedown Street,” “Playing In The Band” and “Terrapin Station.”

This year’s Meet-Up At The Movies will screen in select theaters worldwide on June 22 and 24. Tickets are on sale now.

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Lionel Richie is going on vacation in November — and he wants you to join him.

The American Idol judge has announced a destination festival event dubbed Dancing on the Sand, which will take place at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas from November 30 to December 3. Joining him will be Sheryl Crow, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Vanessa Carlton and country star Megan Moroney.

A fan club presale for the event starts May 16; another presale starts May 18 at 10 a.m. ET at dancingonthesand.com. The general onsale date is May 19.

In addition to concerts by all the artists involved, fans will get to attend a hosted conversation with Lionel and exclusive pool parties, one of which is an ’80s-inspired bash. There are also VIP packages, one of which includes a meet-and-greet photo op with Lionel and Sheryl.

In a statement, Lionel says, “I’m beyond excited to spend the weekend with my fans beachside in the Bahamas later this year … so this party will be going All Night Long!”

This is the third live event that Lionel has announced for 2023. Starting August 4, he’ll hit the road with Earth, Wind & Fire for the Sing A Song All Night Long tour. From October 11-21, he’ll be performing his all-new headlining show Lionel Richie: King of Hearts at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas.

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Pete Townshend‘s solo catalog is the latest to get the reissue treatment on half speed mastered vinyl.

The first two releases in the series are Rough Mix, Pete’s 1977 collaboration with late Small Faces bass player Ronnie Lane, and his 1980 solo album Empty Glass. Both will be available June 23 but can be preordered now.

Both albums have been mastered on limited edition black vinyl by noted producer and engineer Jon Astley, who’s also Pete’s former brother-in-law. The half speed mastering technique produces superior quality vinyl LPs. The albums have also been repackaged in their original sleeves; Empty Glass also comes with a 12-by-24-inch poster.

Rough Mix, whose best known track is “My Baby Gives It Away,” was recorded during The Who‘s hiatus after their 1976 tour. It features contributions from The Who’s John Entwistle, as well as Eric Clapton, who co-wrote the track “Annie,” and The Rolling Stones‘ Charlie Watts.

In addition to compositions by Townshend and Lane, the album features a cover of country star Don Williams‘ 1976 #1 hit “Til All the Rivers Run Dry.”

Empty Glass features one of Townshend’s biggest solo hits, “Let My Love Open the Door,” as well as the classic rock staple “Rough Boys.” Its songs were inspired by what Townshend was going through at the time, including substance abuse, problems in his marriage and his sadness over the 1978 death of Who drummer Keith Moon.

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On This Day, May 11, 1981 …

Reggae legend Bob Marley died from cancer at a hospital in Miami, Florida, at the age of 36.

In July 1977, Marley was diagnosed with a type of malignant melanoma under a toenail. By the fall of 1980, the cancer had spread to his brain, lungs and liver, and he played his final concert in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 23, 1980.

After the cancer spread throughout his body, he went to Germany to undergo an alternative cancer treatment, but during his flight home his health got worse and he was taken to the hospital in Miami, where he passed away.

He was laid to rest with a state funeral in Jamaica on May 21, 1981.

Marley is best known for his 1984 album Legend, which is the bestselling reggae album of all time. It features a live version of the Marley classic “No Woman No Cry,” along with other classics like “I Shot the Sheriff,” “One Love,” “Is This Love,” “Get Up Stand Up” and more. 

Marley was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

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The new EP from Belinda Carlisle — her first English-language pop collection in decades — is called Kismet. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer says “kismet” pretty much describes how she ended up coming out of semiretirement to record it.

It all started, she says, when her son ran into legendary songwriter Diane Warren, who wrote Belinda’s 1987 hit “I Get Weak,” in an LA coffee shop. 

“She said, ‘What is your mom doing? Let’s call her!'” Belinda tells ABC Audio. “So they FaceTimed me, and she goes, ‘Get down to the studio. I have some hits for you!’ And I was like, ‘OK, well, do I really want to do that?’ Because that’s a big commitment.”

“So I thought, ‘Well, you don’t say no to Diane.’ And I thought, y’know, you never know,” she continues. “So I went to the studio and she played me a few of the songs, and I completely freaked out about them.” 

That’s Kismet: five songs, all written by Diane, including the single “Big Big Love.” 

“It was all kind of magical,” Belinda says. And she’s not ruling out more music in the future.

“I just think you can never say never … I learned that lesson over and over again,” Belinda notes. “I’m not planning on doing anything else, [but] … if something comes up … I’m not opposed to that.”

What she is opposed to is her band The Go-Go’s reuniting again.

“It’s done,” she says of the band. “I can’t possibly fit that in anymore. And I also, like, it has to end at some point. And I think it can go on too long. And I don’t want that with the Go-Go’s. And a few of the other girls felt the same way.”

Kismet is out on Friday.

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August marks the 50th anniversary of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s debut album, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd), and now a new coffee table book is looking at the band’s early history through photos.

Pronounced: A Photographic History of Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1973 to 1977 will be released by Rufus Publications this fall. Compiled by legendary photographer and longtime Skynyrd fan Ross Halfin, the book “is a true celebration of the band’s classic period.”

The book features more than 340 pages, with hundreds of rare and unseen images from photographers like Michael Zagaris, Tom Hill, Dick Polak, Barry Plummer and others, along with written contributions from Halfin, music journalist Pete Makowski and Sounds editor Geoff Barton. 

The book will be released in three different formats, including a standard edition and a deluxe collectors edition. Only 450 numbered copies will be available, each personally signed by Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington before his March 5 death. There’s also a leather and metal edition, limited to only 50 copies and also signed by Rossington, which is supersized, bound in recycled leather and enclosed in a metal slipcase.

Presales of Pronounced begin May 12, with the copies set to ship in October.

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While he’s most famous for being the drummer of The Rolling Stones, the late Charlie Watts recorded a lot of jazz music — and now that side of his career is being explored in a new collection from BMG.

Anthology, dropping June 30, will focus on Watts’ catalog of jazz recordings covering a span of close to 20 years. The collection features Watts’ drumming as part of a quartet, quintet, tentet and with an orchestra.

But it’s not Watts all alone, with the set featuring a variety of collaborators, including bassist Dave Green, saxophonists Peter King, Evan Parker and Courtney Pine, trumpeter Gerard Presencer, drummer Jim Keltner and vocalist Bernard Fowler, a member of the Rolling Stones’ live band.

Anthology will be released in double vinyl and double CD formats, with both including liner notes by music journalist Paul Sexton, who wrote Charlie’s Good Tonight: The Authorized Biography of Charlie Watts.

Anthology is available for preorder now.

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The death of singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot on May 1 sparked lots of renewed interest in his classic songs. According to Billboard, in the week following Lightfoot’s death, on-demand streams of his music jumped 290%, while downloads jumped from 1,000 songs to 41,000 songs, an increase of 3,629%.

The songs seeing the biggest increase include the classic “If You Could Read My Mind,” which tops the Digital Song Sales chart this week, thanks to a 4,162% increase in sales. Other Lightfoot songs landing in the top 10 include “Sundown” at #3, up 2,976%; “The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald” at #5, up 3,429%; and “Carefree Highway” at #10, up 4,283%.

In addition, all four songs land in the top five on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart: “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown” and “Edmond Fitzgerald” in the top three, with “Carefree Highway” at five.

Also returning to the chart is Lightfoot’s 1975 compilation album, Gord’s Gold, which jumps to #95 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, its first return to the chart since January 1977, when it landed at 34.

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