Classic Hits

The “Love Train” is preparing for its final journey: Legendary R&B/soul group The O’Jays have announced that they will be mounting a farewell tour.

The group, which has been together for over 60 years, continues to be led by founding members Eddie Levert and Walter Williams Sr., who began singing together more than 70 years ago.

“The reason that this is our last tour is because, between Eddie and I, our ages will be over 160 years old by the end of the tour. I will be 60, and Eddie… you can do the rest of the math,” jokes Williams. “But really, we wanted one last tour to say goodbye to our friends, family and fans, and ride The Love Train together, one last time.”

Adds Levert, “I was thinking that I would quietly retire, but our fans and my body weren’t having it…The love and physical benefits of performing keeps us on the younger side of our age. This tour is a celebration of all of our lives and the struggles and joys that got us to today. It is time for us to say goodbye and we would like to do it in person. Please come join us as we play the music we have shared together over the past 60 years, one last time.”

The O’Jays are best known for their run of 1970s hits co-written by the Philadelphia-based songwriting and production duo of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, including “Back Stabbers,” “For the Love of Money,” “I Love Music,” “Use ta Be My Girl,” and the chart-topping “Love Train.” In 2019, the group released a comeback album titled The Last Word. So far, no dates have been announced for the tour, but visit MightyOJays.com for the latest updates.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Bob Dylan has recorded updated versions of some of his well-known songs with acclaimed producer T Bone Burnett in conjunction with Burnett’s plans to introduce a new ultra-high-fidelity audio format, Variety reports.

According to Variety, a press release issued Tuesday announced that the Dylan recordings will be part of a series of releases dubbed “Ionic Originals” that will be put out by Burnett’s newly formed company NeoFidelity Inc. on a new medium that resembles a vinyl LP but is made of aluminum.

According to the statement, the “newly developed discs…advance the art of recorded sound and mark the first breakthrough in analog sound reproduction in more than 70 years.”

No details yet about what songs Dylan re-recorded for the new releases, but the statement notes that he “revisited a personally chosen set of his iconic songs for the first time in decades.”

The new discs bring to apparent fruition a plan Burnett has long been working on that he said would improve on the sound of LPs, CDs and digital formats.

“An Ionic Original is the pinnacle of recorded sound. It is archival quality. It is future-proof. It is one of one. Not only is an Ionic Original the equivalent of a painting, it is a painting,” Burnett said in a statement.  “It is lacquer painted onto an aluminum disc, with a spiral etched into it by music. This painting, however, has the additional quality of containing that music, which can be heard by putting a stylus into the spiral and spinning it.”

The release also notes that Burnett formed NeoFidelity with the intention to record artists across a wide range of musical genres and provide a platform of distribution for Ionic Originals, [as well as to] reset the valuation for recorded music.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

If you were unable to watch Jagged Little Pill on Broadway, the musical based on Alanis Morissette‘s breakthrough album, you can now enjoy the compelling story in book form.  The two-time Tony Award-winning musical is now a young adult novel.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody, who co-wrote the musical with Alanis, told ABC Audio it “was just a pleasure” turning it into a YA novel.  “It’s definitely new territory for me,” she added. Cody, along with Alanis, teamed with author Eric Smith to “expand these characters’ worlds” and flesh them out even more.

Smith says it was “wildly exciting” to work with Alanis and Cody, adding the latter told him to “take more risks” with the story.  “I printed that [email],” he laughed.

The author said Jagged Little Pill, the musical, resonated with him.  One reason is that one of the protagonists is “a transracial adoptee,” just like him, and the other being Alanis’ 1995 album had a strong impact on him.

Alanis’ album featured “this huge emotional swell of wanting to be heard and wanting people to listen to you and pay attention to you,” Smith explained, adding, “The musical brings that to the stage.”

Now that Jagged Little Pill has gone from musical to YA novel, what’s next?

“The book is sort of inspiring me to think about possibilities for the screen… Now I’m thinking, well, what else can we do?” Cody teased. 

As for Smith, he hopes Jagged Little Pill‘s success story inspires more artists to make their own musicals.  “I’d love to see a Ben Folds jukebox musical,” he offered.  “I think Melissa Etheridge could do the same thing because her songs are so full of longing.”  

Jagged Little Pill the novel is available now. 

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Aerosmith has announced a new concert that will be part of the band’s 50th anniversary celebrations this year, a September 4 performance in Bangor, Maine, at Maine Savings Amphitheater.

Tickets for the show go on sale to the general public this Friday, April 29, at 10 a.m. ET, while an Aerosmith fan club pre-sale begins on Wednesday, April 27, at 9 a.m. local time.

Not including Aerosmith’s recently announced 2022 Las Vegas residency dates, the Bangor, Maine, concert is only the second show that the band has scheduled this year. The other is the long-delayed September 8 hometown performance at Boston’s Fenway Park that will feature Extreme as the opening act.

As previously reported, Aerosmith has scheduled a total 24 Las Vegas residency dates at at the Dolby Live at Park MGM. The performances are broken up into three eight-show engagements running from June 17 to July 8, from September 14 to October 5, and from November 19 to December 11.

To buy tickets and for more info about the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers’ tour plans, visit Aerosmith.com and Ticketmaster.com.

In other news, 1971: The Road Starts Here got its official release on CD and digital formats earlier this month.  It’s a collection of seven recently rediscovered rare early live Aerosmith performances that was first issued as a limited-edition vinyl disc and cassette for the 2021 Record Store Day Black Friday event.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The B-52s have announced that they will launch a farewell North American tour this summer that’s set to kick off on August 22 in Seattle.

The trek currently is scheduled to visit 11 cities, and is mapped out through a November 11-12 stand in Atlanta, although more dates will be added soon. KC & the Sunshine Band and The Tubes will serve as the support acts at select stops on the tour. The outing also includes multiple-show engagements in New York City, Las Vegas and San Francisco.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public this Friday, April 29, at 12 p.m. ET, while pre-sale tickets will be available starting Wednesday, April 27, at 12 p.m. ET. Visit TheB52s.com for more information.

In celebration of the impending farewell tour, The B-52s will be performing on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday night. In addition, the band has announced that a long-awaited official documentary about the influential New Wave group will be released in early 2023.

“Who knew what started as a way to have some fun and play music for our friends’ at house parties in Athens [Georgia] in 1977 would evolve into over 45 years of making music and touring the world,” says B-52s singer/keyboardist Kate Pierson. “It’s been cosmic.”

Adds singer Fred Schneider, “No one likes to throw a party more than we do, but after almost a half-century on the road, it’s time for one last blow-out with our friends and family…our fans. And with KC & The Sunshine Band and The Tubes on board, it’s going to be one hell of a farewell party at these concerts.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Founding Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell has a very busy 2022 tour schedule plotted out with his current band, The Dirty Knobs, which last month released their second studio album, External Combustion.

The group’s itinerary includes headlining shows at clubs and theaters, some festival appearances, and a stint supporting country star Chris Stapleton at select large venues in June and July.  But perhaps the cherry on top for Campbell and The Dirty Knobs is a recently announced series of seven concerts opening for The Who this fall.

“For me, that’s like, ‘Yeah, man, sign me up! I’m there,'” Mike tells ABC Audio about getting to perform with the British rock legends. “We’re all excited about that.”

He continues, “I’m a huge…’60s fan. The Who is one of my favorite bands, so I’m just kind of thrilled that that happened.”

Campbell cites The Who’s Pete Townshend as a major inspiration, noting, “He is one of the best riff writers and songwriters ever, and from that British mold…That’s what I grew up on was the ’60s, so it’s a big deal for The Dirty Knobs to be on that bill.”

The Dirty Knobs’ seven-show stand with The Who runs from an October 14 performance in St.Louis through a November 1 concert at the famed Hollywood Bowl in LA.

The 72-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer tells ABC Audio that the Hollywood Bowl show will be poignant for him because that’s where Petty & the Heartbreakers played their last concert in September 2017, a week before Tom Petty‘s death.

“[I]t’ll be [a] kind of full circle, emotional thing to go back to the Hollywood Bowl and play, you know, opening for The Who,” Campbell says.

Check out TheDirtyKnobs.com for the band’s full schedule.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

He may be 78 years old, but Mick Jagger is still inspired by current music. In fact, there are two young artists he feels are helping keep rock music alive and well.

In an interview with Sweden’s P4 Extra, the iconic Rolling Stones frontman was asked what “inspires [him] most today musically.”

“I like people with energy, a lot of the time,” Jagger responded. “In rock music, you need energy, and there hasn’t [sic] been a lot of new rock singers around.”

He then added that he feels there’s now “a few” rock singers “coming up.”

“You’ve got a few in England, you’ve got Yungblud,” Jagger said, referring to the British alternative rock artist born Dominic Harrison. He added, “In America, you’ve got Machine Gun Kelly and so on, people like that.”

While he first found fame as a rapper, Kelly, born Colson Baker, has been at the forefront of the current pop/punk revival.  He’s also collaborated with Yungblud.

Jagger continued, “That kind of post-punk vibe makes me thing there’s still a bit of life in rock n’ roll…it’s nice to see people still enjoying doing that high-energy stuff.”

Meanwhile, The Who‘s Roger Daltrey is also a Yungblud fan, telling The Independent, “Rock desperately needs people like Yungblud. The kind of rock we made, it’s kind of gone, hasn’t it? [But] Yungblud is a resurgence of that kind of rock.”

In fact, Daltrey tapped Yungblud to perform at The Who‘s recent Royal Albert Hall charity concert for Teenage Cancer Trust, along with Liam Gallagher, Paul Weller and Ed Sheeran.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

With just a week left to go, Duran Duran seems to be running away with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “Fan Vote.”

Fans are allowed to vote once a day for up to five of this year’s Rock Hall nominees through April 29. The top five vote-getters will then make up a “fans’ ballot” that will count towards choosing the 2022 inductees.  So far, Duran Duran is way ahead of every other nominee, with more than 903,000 votes. The second and third biggest vote-getters are Eminem, with more than 672,000 votes and Pat Benatar, with nearly 606,000 votes.

The rest of the top five is rounded out by Eurythmics, with nearly 423,000 votes, and Dolly Parton with more than 382,000.  As previously reported, Parton asked to withdraw her name from consideration, but the Rock Hall is moving forward with her as a nominee.

Some of this year’s nominees who aren’t doing very well in the votes include the MC5, Beck, New York Dolls and pioneering African musician Fela Kuti.  In the middle of the pack, Judas Priest, Carly Simon and Lionel Richie are hovering just outside the top five.

Voting closes on Friday; the official inductees will be announced soon afterwards.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

After postponing their April concerts after Warren Haynes fractured his shoulder, Gov’t Mule has now added dates to their upcoming U.S. summer tour.

The tour, in support of Gov’t Mule’s latest album, Heavy Load Blues, starts June 3 in Hayes’ hometown of Asheville, NC.  The newly announced shows include a June 4 show in Birmingham, AL, a June 19 concert in Ojai, CA, a June 21 show in Tempe, AZ and a June 22 show in Tucson, AZ.  The final new date is August 19 in Indianapolis.

Pre-sale tickets for Ojai, Tempe, Tucson and Indianapolis are available via pre-sale on Wednesday; the general on-sale date is April 29 at 10 a.m. local time.  All ticketing information is available at mule.net. 

The tour features a mix of headlining and festival dates, as well as a few support dates with ZZ Top, Grace Potter, and Willie Nelson on his Outlaw Festival Tour. In addition, the band has rescheduled its shows in Philadelphia and New York City for December 29 and December 30 and 31, respectively.

In a statement, Haynes says, “I can’t overstate how happy and excited we are to finally get back on the road and be together with our amazing fans this summer. It’s been far too long, but I’m getting better every day and appreciate the well wishes and your patience.”

He adds, “We’re really looking forward to performing all these new songs for you. We’re also going to dig deep into our catalog and include many songs we haven’t played in a while. As always, every show will be a different experience. See you all very soon!”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

We finally have our first look at the poster for the upcoming Whitney Houston movie, I Wanna Dance with Somebody.

The movie’s official Twitter account debuted the poster Monday, which shows star Naoimi Ackie dressed in a black leather jacket, white tank, skinny jeans and black ankle boots — the same outfit Whitney wore for her “So Emotional” music video.  Her arms are splayed wide and her head is thrown back as she strikes a joyful pose on the poster.

“Don’t you wanna dance?” the account teased. “Whitney Houston, the greatest voice, has an even greater story. I Wanna Dance With Somebody is exclusively in movie theaters December.”

Clive Davis, who signed Houston to Arista Records, is producing the movie and previously told USA Today, “The goal…is to come up with a very realistic, very honest story…as well as capturing her losing battle with addiction, capturing her vocal genius and influence on music and contemporary musicians.”  He added that his overall mission with I Wanna Dance is to “present the full story of Whitney Houston impeccably and [ensure] that it will be realistic in every respect.”

I Wanna Dance with Somebody was written by Anthony McCarten, who’s behind the Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody movie, which told the story of another late music legend and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.