Classic Hits

A never-before-heard interview with the late Jeff Beck is featured in the latest Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, where he opens up about the important role guitar played in his life.

“The only friends I had were pretty low-life,” Beck says of his childhood, in the unearthed audio from an interview with the mag’s Kory Grow. “They were one step away from jail, most of them. The guitar saved me from that.” 

In the interview, Beck, who passed away Tuesday from bacterial meningitis, also discussed how it may have been a good thing that he “never made the big time.” “When you look around and see who has made it huge, it’s a really rotten place to be when you think about it,” he says. “Maybe I’m blessed with not having had that.”

In addition to the interview, the podcast features tributes to Beck by such fellow guitar legends as The Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid and Joe Satriani.

You can listen to the podcast here.

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Paulina Porizkova is sharing fond memories of her very first date with her late husband, The Cars’ Ric Ocasek. 

“I’m sitting at a table at the Odeon restaurant, the very same table where, 39 years ago, I had my first dinner with the man who would become my husband,” she shares in an Instragram post. “We were having dinner with the whole band, their manager, and actor Timothy Hutton, but I hardly noticed anyone else but the tall, lanky and akwardly (sic) elegant man with turquoise eyes next to me.” 

Paulina then writes about how the rocker accepted a dare during the meal to sit on top of a table where another couple was dining. 

“Without a word, he pushed condiments and food aside and then got up on the table, folding his body so the entirety of him fit right on the table top, along with the plates and food,” she explains. “He sat there, mutely, for a minute, looking back and forth between the man and the woman, who gaped back at him. Then he got off, and slinked back next to me as if nothing happened.”

Paulina adds that while his band didn’t even notice what he was doing, “I thought he was the most compelling man I had ever met. Confident and funny in a absurdist Monty Python-esque way.”

The couple married in 1989 and had two sons together before announcing their separation in 2018. The Cars frontman passed away in 2019.

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U2 frontman Bono is set to appear on the next episode of Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett’s Smartless podcast, debuting January 23.

“We needed a lead vocalist, so we got Bono,” they share in announcing the news. “Come join us for breaking-news, the similarities between Ireland and Jamaica, the difference between EQ and IQ, and, um… World of Warcraft.”

The news comes barely a week after U2 announced their new album, Songs of Surrender, will drop March 17. It will feature 40 rerecorded and reimagined U2 classics.

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The Beach Boys are the latest artists whose career will be celebrated by the Recording Academy.

Billboard reports that A Grammy Salute to The Beach Boys is set to happen February 8 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The event, which takes place three days after the Grammy Awards, will be recorded and air at a later date on CBS. So far, the lineup of artists paying tribute to The Beach Boys has not been announced.

Last year, Paul Simon was the subject of the annual Grammy Salute, with the special airing this past December. It featured performances by Dave Matthews, Sting, Bonnie Raitt, The Bangles, Garth Brooks and more.

While The Beach Boys have never won a Grammy, in 2001 they were honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Recording Academy, and five Beach Boys recordings have made it into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In addition, Brian Wilson was named MusicCares Person of the Year in 2005.

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Billy Joel was back at New York’s Madison Square Garden Friday night and Rolling Stone reports he took some time out of his residency to pay tribute to the late Jeff Beck, who died Tuesday at the age of 78.

“He was a musician that I always loved. He was the best. Jeff Beck just passed away…,” Joel told the audience at his 86th MSG show. “I couldn’t let the night go by without doing something by Jeff.”

Billy then performed the track “People Get Ready,” which Beck recorded with Rod Stewart for for Beck’s 1985 album, Flash.

He paid tribute to Beck again later in the evening after the night’s last song, “You May Be Right,” with the band playing a jam session that morphed into “Going Down,” a track that appeared on the Jeff Beck Group’s 1972 self-titled third album. Noted Billy, “we should have rehearsed this today.”

Following the news of Beck’s death, Billy posted a tribute to him on social media, calling him “one of my heroes,” and noting, “I was fortunate to meet him recently and I’m very grateful now that I was able to tell him how much I admired his musical skill. This is the end of an era.”

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We’re about to learn a lot more about the early days of The Police, thanks to Stewart Copeland. The drummer has announced that diaries he kept in the ’70s are being compiled for a new book, The Police Diaries, 1976-’79, coming later this year from Rocket 88 Books. 

Copeland shares the book will be “the truest account of the Police’s beginning and early days,” explaining, “It’s full of my original diary pages, hand-made poster designs, ragged accounts, callow observations and other scribblings of a proto-rock star, illuminated by hitherto unseen vintage photos from the deepest vaults. It’s a big, noisy book about one heckuva ride.” 

He’s also sharing some never-before-heard demos and recordings from that era of The Police, including the just-released “Clown’s Revenge.”

Fans can sign up now, which will allow them to be among the first to get the book — and also get a discount for it. There will also be an opportunity for fans to get their name in the book.

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It appears that the rumors are true: Sources tell Billboard that Madonna plans to celebrate her 40th anniversary as a recording artist with a massive tour later this year.

On the tour, Madonna plans to perform music from every phase of her career, from her 1983 self-titled debut album right up to 2019’s Madame X, her most recent album of new material.  The Queen of Pop, who normally doesn’t like to look back, has never done a retrospective tour like this before.  According to Billboard, the tour will include a multi-night stand at London’s O2 arena.

Madonna’s last tour, in support of Madame X, was plagued by difficulties, including production delays, late starts and shows that were canceled due to her hip and knee injuries.  The tour began in 2019 and ended in early March of 2020, cut short by three days due to the COVID-10 pandemic.

Madonna currently holds the record for the highest grossing tour ever by a female artist: Her Sticky and Sweet tour of 2008-2009 took in $407 million.

Madonna’s first single, “Everybody,” released in October of 1982, peaked on Billboard‘s Dance Club Songs chart on January 8, 1983: It was her first song to appear on a Billboard chart.  Her debut album came out in July of 1983.

In 2021, Madonna signed a deal with Warner Music Group for “extensive, multi-year series of catalog releases.” Last year, she released the career-spanning compilation album Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones, which collected all her dance club hits.

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Stevie Wonder has paid tribute to guitar legend Jeff Beck, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 78.

“He was a great soul who did great music,” Wonder told the Detroit Free Press. “I’m glad that I was able to meet him and have him in my life, giving some of his gift to my music.”

Wonder and Beck met in 1972 as Wonder was recording Talking Book, the follow-up to his classic Music of the Mind. They wound up working together on some tracks. 

“I really didn’t know too much about him,” Wonder said. “But then I heard him play in New York. We were working on ‘Lookin’ for Another Pure Love’ (in the studio) and I said to him, ‘Why don’t you play on this?’ He thought that would be great. He laid one part down, then another part and another part. It was just amazing.”

Wonder added, “It was just a wonderful thing, the whole deal. … It was great. He put his touch on it. It was just really cool.” 

This relationship led to both Wonder and Beck recording the classic “Superstition.” In fact, it was Wonder who encouraged Beck to record the tune, which appeared on the 1973 self-titled debut of Beck’s band Beck, Bogert & Appice.

Wonder’s version wasn’t supposed to be Talking Book‘s lead single, but the label insisted, and it wound up being released before Beck’s and went on to be a huge hit. While some have suggested it caused tension in their relationship, Wonder says that’s not true. In fact, the pair came together to perform it at a 2009 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert.

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As previously reported, Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were among the people who gathered together in Malibu earlier this week for a “Celebration of Life” for their Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie, who passed away in November. In an Instagram post Thursday, Mick shared the eulogy he wrote for her.

Calling it a “beautiful tribute to a wonderful woman and an incredible talent,” Mick first shared a poem he wrote for McVie after she passed away: “This is a day where my dear, sweet friend Christine McVie has taken flight. And left us Earthbound folks to listen with bated breath to the sounds of that ‘songbird.’ Part of my heart has flown away today … I will miss everything about you Christine McVie. Memories abound … they fly to me.”

Mick said he believes Christine “would have been truly amazed at all the attention and celebrations of her music around the world,” noting, “She is being remembered everywhere. Just as her song says, ‘I want to be with you everywhere,’ and she is.”

“It’s with a sense of gratitude and thanks to the Fleetwood Mac family that we are a part of … and losing such a magical component has sparked a celebration of what Christine means to us,” he concluded. “We all miss her as a family member, as a friend, an artist, a performer, and God knows, a writer of excellence. And those years sharing life together will always be remembered.”

Read the complete eulogy here.

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At November’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, the members of Duran Duran read a letter from their original guitarist Andy Taylor, revealing he has stage four prostate cancer. Now, in a new interview, he’s opening up about his cancer battle.

Talking to UK TV 5 News, Andy says he first realized something was wrong at age of 56 after experiencing an “arthritic sort of pain” while out jogging, and says he began to have these “symptoms, and didn’t recognize them for what they could be.” He then noticed “what felt like tumors” on his neck, and a biopsy revealed the cancer was stage four metastatic, which he called “a death sentence,” saying, “no one can be prepared” for that news.

The 61-year-old Taylor now hopes to encourage others to get tested, and suggests women, who he realizes comprise the bulk of the Duran Duran fan base, do their part to get their men to get tested, saying ladies should “give them a nudge, go get a test.” 

“Every minute is like an hour, every day is like a week,” Andy explains. “You really want to get the most out of life. And I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had so much in terms of living the dream.”

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