A new musical about legendary disc jokey Alan Freed is set to open in New York this summer.
Rock & Roll Man stars American Idol’s Constantine Maroulis as Freed, the DJ who popularized records by such artists as Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis. It will begin previews June 2 at the New World Stages, Stage 3 in Manhattan, with the opening set for June 21.
The musical is set in the final days of Freed’s life; during a fever dream, Freed’s musical legacy is on trial, with J. Edgar Hoover as prosecutor and Little Richard as the defense attorney. It features an original score, along with classic tunes like “Lucille,” “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” “Tutti Frutti,” “Peggy Sue,” “Wake Up Little Susie” and “Great Balls of Fire.”
We are getting our first look at the new Blood, Sweat & Tears documentary, What The Hell Happened To Blood, Sweat & Tears?, which is set to hit theaters March 24.
A trailer for the John Scheinfeld-directed doc has just been released.
The film, which was made with the full cooperation of band members, delves into how the band got caught up in political controversy following a State Department-sponsored tour of Iron Curtain countries Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland in 1970. As the description notes, “As a result, they found themselves in the crosshairs of a polarized America – as divided then as it is now – and became an early victim of cancel culture.”
“It has been fascinating for me to re-live these incidents of some 50 years ago, through the footage, documentation and, incredibly, the live performance tapes John and his team discovered through some very deep and tireless digging. I believe the music we made then holds up today,” founding member and drummer Bobby Colomby shares. Blood, Sweat & Tears is known for such hits as “Spinning Wheel,” “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” and “And When I Die.”
Scheinfeld adds, “Uncovering the details of the extraordinary story took us far and wide, and we were amazed by the unexpected twists and turns of the tale. We hope people will be as struck as we were by the political parallels and counterpoints between then and now.”
Diane Warren is supporting PETA’s attempt to call out the cruelty of the annual Iditarod dogsled race, which kicks off Saturday in Alaska.
The songwriter has donated her Oscar-nominated track “I’m Standing With You” for a new PETA ad, which features footage of Iditarod dogs chained up in the cold, as well as images of PETA supporters rallying on the dogs’ behalf.
“The images of trembling dogs chained up alone in the snow and ice and others limping from being run to the brink of collapse are hard to watch, but the protesters who show up to the Iditarod every year to speak up for these dogs give me hope that this cruel event will end,” Warren shares. “I’m standing with PETA and the kind people worldwide who are demanding an end to this cruel race.”
According to PETA, more than 150 dogs have died in the two-week race through the snow, ice and wind, not including dogs they say are killed during the off season or because they aren’t fast enough.
“I’m Standing With You,” from the 2019 movie Breakthrough, was sung by This Is Us’Chrissy Metz and earned a Best Original Song Oscar nomination. It lost to Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman.
Gov’t Mule is headed back out on the road this spring.
The band just announced a new set of tour dates, kicking off May 5 at the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans, Louisiana. The special show, taking place during Jazz Fest, will feature guests George Porter Jr. & Runnin’ Pardners.
The 10-show run features stops in Memphis, Cleveland, Nashville and more, including a two-night stand in Warren Haynes’ hometown of Ashville, North Carolina. The trek also includes a July 23 show at the Great South Bay Music Festival in Patchogue, New York.
Artist presale tickets begin Friday at 10 a.m., with the general sale set for March 8 at 10 a.m. local time. A complete list of dates can be found at mule.net.
Musician and future Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Roger Daltrey was born in London, England.
In 1959, Daltrey founded a band called The Detours, which in 1964 was renamed The Who, with bandmates Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon. Daltrey’s voice can be heard on such Who classics as “My Generation,” “Pinball Wizard,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Baba O’Riley,” “You Better You Bet” and many others.
Daltrey also launched a solo career in 1973, releasing ten solo studio albums, and dabbled in acting, playing the title role in Tommy, the 1975 Ken Russell film inspired by The Who’s classic album. He also appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows over the years, including That ’70s Show, CSI, Tales from the Crypt and more.
Daltrey is also well known for his extensive charitable work, including his patronage of the United Kingdom’s Teenage Cancer Trust and its U.S. counterpart, Teen Cancer America.
As a member of The Who, Daltrey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2008. He was also appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to music, entertainment and charity as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s New Year’s Honor’s List of 2004.
Daltrey and The Who are set to release The Who with Orchestra Live at Wembley on March 31 and will launch a U.K. summer tour in July.
March 1 marks the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, which was their eighth studio release and to this day is one of their most commercially successful releases ever.
The album, which features such songs as “Money” and “Brain Damage,” spent only one week at number one. But it went on to spend 741 weeks on the Billboard Album chart between 1973 and 1988, and has since gone on to spend a total of 972 weeks on the chart. As of 1998, the album had been certified 15-times Platinum by the RIAA.
“Dark Side of the Moon is not only one of the great Pink Floyd albums, but I think it’s one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll albums of all time,” Jason Hanley, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s VP of education and visitor engagement, tells ABC Audio. “It really is a record that is so revolutionary at the time when it comes out in 1973, it’s revolutionary even for the band.”
He adds, “The songs are fantastic, the album was on the charts almost longer than I think any other album in history, sold so many copies, and still continues to be part of pop culture today.”
To celebrate the 50th anniversary, Pink Floyd has a lot of goodies in store for fans.
They are releasing a newly remastered version of the album on March 24, along with a Blu-ray and DVD audio with the original mix and remastered stereo versions. There will also be a new Blu-ray disc and CD of the classic concert The Dark Side of the Moon — Live at Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974 and a new book, Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon: 50th Anniversary.
John Mellencamp is continuing his very public support of farmers. The Farm Aid co-founder and board member is set to join farmers, ranchers and farmworkers in Washington, D.C., on March 7 at the Rally for Resilience: Farmers for Climate Action.
Mellencamp, who is currently on his Live and In Person tour, is expected to perform and offer some remarks at the rally, which kicks off at Freedom Plaza at 11 a.m. ET.
The rally comes as Congress begins work on the 2023 Farm Bill. It is part of a three-day gathering starting March 6, which also includes cultural events and a demonstration of climate-friendly farming practices.
“As a Farm Aid board member, I’ve been to Washington a few times to ask for farmer voices to be heard. I hope on March 7, members of Congress hear farmers and ranchers loud and clear,” Mellencamp shares. “If we want a better world, it starts with us.”
He adds, “Farmers know this. They have the tools and know-how to better our climate future, but they can’t do it alone. Policymakers — and all of us — need to support the solutions they can deliver.”
A new documentary is setting out to answer the question What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? Directed by John Scheinfeld, who directed The U.S. vs. John Lennon and more, the documentary is set to hit theaters March 24.
According to the description, the film explores how the band “was unknowingly embroiled in a political rat’s nest involving the U.S. State Department, the Nixon White House and a controversial concert tour of Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland, countries that were behind what was then known as the Iron Curtain.”
It continues, “As a result, they found themselves in the crossfire of a polarized America, as divided then as it is now.”
Blood, Sweat & Tears is known for such hit songs as “Spinning Wheel” and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.” Their self-titled sophomore release won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1970, beating out such iconic records as The Beatles’ Abbey Road, Johnny Cash’s Johnny Cash at San Quentin and Crosby, Stills & Nash’s self-titled release.
Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott recently teamed up with Ghost for a new version of “Spillways,” a track from the Swedish rockers’ 2022 album, Impera. Well, it sounds like this may not be the last time we see Elliott and Ghost’s Tobias Forge collaborate.
“It has come up in the last while, and I’d be more than happy to,” Elliott tells NME. “Next time though, when we’ve both got some time off, I want us to actually find some neutral place where we can get together in a room with a little recorder, a couple of guitars, pen, paper, our brains, a bottle of wine and see what we come up with.”
Elliott says it would be fun to write a song with Forge, noting, “I don’t want to do it for a job, I just want to write together to see what we’d get. I want to play around and see where it goes.”
John Fogerty regained control of the worldwide publishing rights to his music with Creedence Clearwater Revival last month and he couldn’t be happier.
“Finally getting ownership of my songs now, you can see it’s correcting something that has been wrong in my life for most of my life — you know, since my early twenties,” he tellsVarietyin a new interview in which he delves into his 55-year fight to get those rights back.
The news comes as many of Fogerty’s peers are actually selling their publishing rights, and the irony isn’t lost on him.
“It is ironic, certainly, that everybody else is selling and I end up buying my songs, but of course it makes perfect sense,” he says. “It has been such a wrong use of music business law, all these years. To finally own ‘Proud Mary’ is a big deal.” Fogerty adds, “I understand other people, especially older people, wanting to sell. But that’s not my frame of mind, certainly at the moment, anyway.”
How he got the rights back is long and involved, and at one point had him refusing to perform any CCR songs. But now that it’s over, he isn’t dwelling on what he’s been through.
“I am now, at this point in my life, looking to all the positiveness of this blessing, and I’m not turning around and looking at the horror that was the past,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer shares. “It is a blessing, for sure — it could have been a situation that never changed, but it did change, and I’m really happy.”
He adds, “I don’t know what simple phrase would work here. ‘Good things come to those who wait’ — maybe that’s one.”
