Classic Hits

Smokey Robinson has done a lot in his career, but there’s still one thing he’s hoping to accomplish. In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Smokey reveals his desire to try his hand at acting.

“If there’s anything left on my bucket list, it would be that I would like to make a movie, a good movie,” he tells the show. “… I’d like to be in a really good movie and be a character.”

Smokey also discussed how he feels about a movie or Broadway show being made about his life and career, and he says if it happens, it’s “gonna be very candid.”

“I might as well be candid. I don’t want to sugarcoat it… There’s going to be my ups and my downs, and my positives and my negatives, and all that has to be included, if it’s going to be real,” he shares. “I want it to be real, so people can get a good feeling of what my life has been and what it’s like.”

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Queen has just landed a new Spotify milestone: The band’s classic track “We Will Rock You” has surpassed one million streams on the streaming service.

“We Will Rock You,” written by guitarist Brian May, was featured on the band’s 1977 album, News of the World, and was released as a single on October 7 of that year. It went on to be certified six-times Platinum by the RIAA, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009.

The song isn’t the only Queen track to reach such a milestone on the streaming service: Back in December, “Bohemian Rhapsody” surpassed two billion steams on Spotify.

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KISS’ Gene Simmons has welcomed a new member into his family. People reports that the rocker’s daughter Sophie, with wife Shannon Tweed-Simmons, wed fiancé James Henderson Wednesday at Shannon’s home in Los Angeles.

The mag reports that the couple first tied the knot Friday at a courthouse in Los Angeles, before celebrating with 30 guests at a bash in the backyard of Shannon’s “she-shed.”

“We couldn’t be prouder of our daughter,” Gene and Shannon tell the mag. “James is a solid young man, and Sophie can do anything she puts her mind to,” adding, “We wish them a lifetime of love and happiness. If they are even half as happy as we are, they will last long.” 

Sophie chose a blush Lahav dress for her big day, while her groom wore a Tom Ford suit.

As for the location of the wedding, Sophie shares, “The view truly can’t be beat and I love that it is intimate and family oriented,” adding, “James and I never wanted a big wedding so this is the perfect space for us.”

And the couple plan to continue the party: Another speakeasy-style bash with 250 guests is happening Thursday in Los Angeles, and on Friday, they are hosting a brunch for out-of-town guests who flew in for the affair.

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We are getting our first real look at the upcoming Disney+ docu-special about U2’s Bono and The Edge, featuring talk show host David Letterman. A trailer for Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming has just been released, with the special described as “part concert movie, part travel adventure plus a whole lot of Bono and The Edge, with Dave’s humor throughout.”

The trailer features clips of the two rockers walking through Dublin with Letterman, along with performance footage, clips of the two singing with others at a local pub and more. 

“Traditional storytelling part of Dublin,” Bono shares in the clip. “It’s in our music. Our songs, they’re still growing, they’re still emerging.”

In the trailer, Letterman asks the rockers about changing up the songs for their upcoming album, Songs of Surrender, dropping March 17. Bono notes, “We wanted to strip away the artifice that inevitably emerges when you’ve been around this long.”  

Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, directed by Morgan Neville, debuts March 17 on Disney+.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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As previously reported, a recent article in Variety claimed The Rolling Stones had collaborated with Paul McCartney for their upcoming album, with the Beatle allegedly laying down bass tracks recently at a studio in Los Angeles. Well, it turns out fans shouldn’t expect to hear McCartney on the entire record. 

ABC Audio has learned that McCartney does play bass on one track, and early reports, also by Variety, suggesting Ringo Starr was also part of the project are inaccurate.

As for the record itself, it is reportedly being produced by Ozzy Osbourne/Iggy Pop/Elton John producer Andrew Watt. So far, there’s no word on when The Stones’ album will come out, but whenever it does, it will be the band’s first album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. The last new album they released was the 2016’s blues covers album Blue & Lonesome.

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Elton John is making it even harder to break his record of having the highest-grossing tour of all time.

Last month, Billboard reported Sir Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour became the first trek ever to earn more than $800 million, besting the previous record Ed Sheeran set in 2019 after his Divide tour made $776.4 million.

The outlet reports Sir Elton’s tour added an additional $40.9 million to its coffers in the month of January, during which he performed eight shows across Australia and New Zealand.

The numbers now extend his lead atop the Top Tours chart. Sir Elton is also #1 on the Top Boxscores chart for making $11.3 million after performing a pair of shows at Allianz Stadium in Sydney, Australia.

This marks the ninth time an artist has simultaneously ruled both charts, but the second time for Sir Elton. The only other act who ruled both charts twice is K-pop sensation BTS. 

Sir Elton’s pair of performance at AAMI Park in Melbourne, Australia, is #2 on the recent Boxscores chart after making $10.2 million. He also appears in fourth place, making $8.4 million for his two shows at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle, New South Wales.

Sir Elton’s farewell tour is scheduled to conclude on July 8 in Stockholm, Sweden.

As previously reported, Sir Elton’s career total when it comes to concerts stands at $1.863 billion grossed and 19.9 million tickets sold — the highest for any solo artist in Billboard Boxscore history.

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The Eagles’ Don Henley received quite an honor this week. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer was feted at the 2023 Pollstar Awards with this year’s Milestone Award.

“I appreciate this very much,” Henley said in accepting his honor. “We are three shows into our 51st year as a band and touring entity — and feeling every one of them. But we feel very fortunate.”

Henley was referring to the band’s current Hotel California tour, which hits Palm Springs, California, on Friday, and wraps April 8 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Other winners at the Pollstar Awards include: Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard’s co-headlining Stadium Tour, which nabbed Rock and Roll Tour of the Year; Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, who were among the openers on the trek, won Support/Special Guest Act of the Year.

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A new documentary on rock’s founding father Little Richard is heading to theaters in New York and LA on April 21.

Little Richard: I Am Everything premiered at Sundance. It details the life of the man born Richard Penniman, and how he pioneered a new form of gender-bending showmanship that was later adopted by everyone from Mick Jagger, Elton John and David Bowie to Prince and Harry Styles. 

His music, meanwhile, influenced generations, from The Beatles, Robert Plant and AC/DC, to Patti Smith and Michael Jackson, to Bruno Mars and Chris Cornell. 

Jagger is interviewed in the documentary about Richard’s influence, as is Emmy-winning actor and singer Billy Porter.

The documentary also covers Richard’s internal battle between rock and roll and religion, which led him to temporarily abandon secular music and switch to gospel in the late ’50s, and become ordained as a minister in 1970.

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On this Day, February 23, 2000…

Santana’s album Supernatural won nine Grammys, breaking the record held by Michael Jackson’s Thriller for most Grammys won by a single album in one night. Among the wins was Album of the Year, making Carlos Santana the first Hispanic artist to win that award. 

Supernatrual was a huge hit for Santana, landing at number one in eleven countries. It spent 12 non-consecutive weeks at number one in the U.S., and went on to be certified 15-times Platinum by the Recording Industry of America.

The album’s biggest hit was the song “Smooth,” featuring Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks. On Grammy night the song won Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

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Barbra Streisand has been chosen as this year’s recipient of the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award, according to The Washington Post. The superstar will receive the honor April 22 at a ceremony held at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

The award, which Ginsberg established with her friend, philanthropist Julie Opperman, 18 months before her death, honors “women who strove to change society in positive ways.”

“She wanted to honor women of great passion and achievement,” Opperman tells the paper. “She wanted it to be women in the RBG tradition. I’m pleased to say Barbra Streisand was among them.”

“Women everywhere have benefited from the brilliance and courage of the Hon. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” Streisand said in a statement to the paper. “She is an inspiration to us all. She devoted her life to advancing equality and justice, and the world is a better place for it.” She added, “I am so deeply honored to receive an award in the name of such an extraordinary woman, American hero and an icon to the world.”

Previous winners of the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award include arts patron Agnes Gund, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and Queen Elizabeth II.

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