Classic Hits

Lionel Richie has posted his appreciation at the news that he’s now a nominee for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

On Twitter and Instagram, the chart-topping, Grammy and Oscar-winning star wrote, “I’m honored to be nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame alongside so many other incredibly talented artists. Congratulations to all the nominees!”

Lionel also reminded people that “Fan voting is open now and you can vote every day through April 29 at vote.rockhall.com.”  The top five vote-getters in that online poll will make up a “fan ballot,” which will then be included in the voting that will determine which artists will be inducted later this year.

Lionel is one of 17 acts who are nominated this year, including Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Carly Simon, Dionne Warwick, Dolly Parton, Eurythmics and Devo.  Even if he doesn’t get in, he’s getting a nice consolation prize this year: On March 9th, he’ll receive the Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize for Popular Music during an all-star tribute concert in Washington, D.C.  The event airs on PBS May 17.

Meanwhile, Lionel is gearing up for the debut of the 20th season of American Idol, which debuts February 27 on ABC.

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Tuesday, Graham Nash announced that he was removing his solo music from Spotify in solidarity with Neil Young over alleged COVID-19 misinformation hosted by the streaming service.  Now Graham and his Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young band mates David Crosby and Stephen Stills have joined together in support of Neil.

While its been years since they’ve collaborated, the members of Crosby, Stills & Nash have teamed up to ask their labels to pull all of their collective recordings from Spotify.

A statement from trio reads, “We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast. While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music — or the music we made together — to be on the same platform.”

The request covers recordings by CSN, CSNY and Crosby & Nash, as well as David’s and Stephen’s solo projects.

Young recently announced that he was pulling his music from Spotify after he was alerted to an open letter signed by hundreds of scientists and medical professionals expressing concern that harmful misinformation was being circulated on some recent episodes of the popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, which is hosted exclusively by the streaming platform.

Neil had sent a letter to Spotify that basically gave them an ultimatum, and the service ended up removing his music rather than cutting ties with Rogan.

After Young exited Spotify, the company did announce that it will be adding content advisories before podcasts that discuss COVID-19.

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This Sunday, February 6, marks what would’ve been Bob Marley‘s 77th birthday, and to commemorate the milestone the late reggae legend’s family is curating a series of special in-person, virtual and charitable events that will take place in the coming days.

Marley’s 77th Earthstrong ROOTS festivities include a newly curated exhibit at the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaica, dubbed The 7 Roots of Bob Marley’s Livity, which will feature artwork by young, up-and-coming artists. Submissions will be accepted until Friday, February 4.

Also on February 4, The Marley Brothers, a group featuring Bob’s sons Ziggy, Stephen, Damian, Julian and Ky-Mani Marley, will release a new cover of their dad’s song “Cornerstone,” a day before the siblings perform a headlining set at the CaliVibes Festival in Long Beach, California.

The 77th Earthstrong ROOTS festivities will wrap up on Bob’s birthday this Sunday with a limited-capacity concert celebration at Tuff Gong International studio in Kingston, Jamaica that will be streamed live on Marley’s official YouTube channel and the Tuff Gong Television YouTube channel.  Also that day, a performance by Stephen Marley from his Lion’s Den Studio in Miami will premiere at Bob’s YouTube channel.

For more information about Bob’s 77th birthday festivities, visit Tuff Gong International’s official Facebook page.

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Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood has celebrated his famous band with a new painting, a Pablo Picasso-inspired piece title “Abstract Performance” that offers a surreal depiction of the legendary rock group playing live.

Wood was on hand to debut the painting on Tuesday during a surprise visit to Wood Lane in London outside the popular Westfield shopping center. A billboard teasing the painting appeared at the same location earlier this week. You can check out photos of Ronnie’s visit to Wood Lane, including a pic of him with his wife, at his Twitter page.

Limited-edition prints of “Abstract Performance” are available for purchase now through February 15 at the Art Store section of RonnieWood.com, priced at $2,000. Each print will be hand-signed and hand-numbered by Wood and feature a personal dedication from him.

“Abstract Performance,” which Wood completed in 2020, is among a recent series of abstract, Picasso-inspired paintings of The Rolling Stones that Wood has created.

“Picasso did his own take on a lot of artists, but I bet he never thought no one would ever do a take on him,” Wood says. “I hope and think he’d be flattered, but also a bit shocked and pleasantly surprised at my take on his work.”

Meanwhile, a new post on Wood’s Instagram page reports that “[e]xciting new works [are] coming soon from Ronnie’s art studio.” The message is accompanied by a photo of a variety of paintings on which he apparently is currently working, including another abstract of The Stones and a portrait of Buddy Holly.

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Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Lionel Richie, Devo, Carly Simon, Dionne Warwick and Dolly Parton are among the 17 artists who have been nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Also on the ballot are Beck, Kate Bush, Eminem, Fela Kuti, Judas Priest, MC5, New York Dolls, Rage Against the Machine and A Tribe Called Quest.

To be eligible for induction, an artist must have released their first commercial recording 25 years before the year of their nomination.

Benatar, Eurythmics, Warwick and Devo have all been nominated for induction before, while Duran Duran, Richie, Simon and Parton are among the first-time nominees.

Speaking with ABC Audio, Rock Hall executive Jason Hanley notes, “I think it’s a great year for someone like Pat Benatar. Between her and [her husband and guitarist] Neil Giraldo…they wrote some of the great classic songs of the 1980s.”

He adds, that songs like “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” “were such good songs and delivered with this great rock edge, classic kind of clean but distorted ’80s guitar, and Pat’s just amazing voice.”

Hanley also says he’s excited that Duran Duran have been nominated, noting that the British New Wave act combined good looks, catchy tunes and excellent musicianship.

“Yes, they were on the cover of Tiger Beat. And yes, they also wrote and performed really great songs,” he offers. “And I think if you can handle both sides of Duran Duran…then you really have a really good argument to vote for them.”

Hanley also similarly touts Eurythmics for the multifaceted appeal of their music.

Singling out the ’80s synth-pop duo’s signature tune “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)” as an example, Hanley notes, “[T]heir music was so catchy, but it also really made you think and it kind of dug into these darker sides of the human emotion.”

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Legendary Motown group The Temptations will take part in a special free streaming Q&A event that will be viewable at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s and the Motown Museum’s official YouTube channels this Friday, February 4, at 7 p.m. ET.

The event, which is being presented by the Rock Hall in partnership with the Motown Museum, will feature founding Temptations member Otis Williams and the rest of the current lineup, as well as the group’s manager, Shelly Berger, discussing their band’s storied history and their new studio album, Temptations 60.

The album, which was released last Friday, celebrates the 1989 Rock Hall inductees’ 60th anniversary, and is made up almost entirely new original songs. One of those tunes, “Is It Gonna Be Yes or No,” was written and produced by fellow Motown great Smokey Robinson, who also provides guest vocals on the track.

“When we started out as a part of that Motown movement that took the world by storm in the ’60s, I never could have imagined we’d still be performing today,” says Williams, who turned 80 this past October. “To mark our 60th anniversary with two of the most distinguished institutions in American music culture, recognized for preserving, inspiring and teaching music history between generations, is such a great honor for me and The Temptations.”

After the livestream ends, the Q&A will be archived for viewing on demand on YouTube.

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CD and digital versions of Moody Blues singer/bassist John Lodge‘s new live album, The Royal Affair and After, were released in mid-January, and now a limited 180-gram vinyl edition of the record pressed on blue vinyl has arrived.

As previously reported, the 10-track album features performances by Lodge and his solo group, The 10,000 Light Years Band, from a Las Vegas concert they played during their stint on the Yes-headlined 2019 Royal Affair Tour and from their subsequent U.S. headlining trek.

Coinciding with the arrival of the blue-vinyl LP, Lodge has debuted a video for his rendition of the classic 1971 Moody Blues ballad “Isn’t Life Strange” on his official YouTube channel.

The Royal Affair and After includes renditions of several well-known Moody Blues songs, including “Isn’t Life Strange,” “Ride My See-Saw” and “Nights in White Satin,” the latter two of which features guest vocals by current Yes frontman Jon Davison.

Also on the album, is a version of the Days of Future Passed interlude “Late Lament” written by late Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge that features a recording of Graeme reciting the spoken-word piece made especially for Lodge’s tour.

“I’m absolutely delighted by the incredible reaction to the album,” says Lodge says. “[I]t truly is ‘the soundtrack of my life’…It also makes me so very happy that Graeme did his special performance of ‘Late Lament’ for the album, he will be deeply missed, but always stay with us in our hearts and on this album.”

Lodge will launch a new U.S. solo tour on March 8 in Norfolk, Connecticut. Visit JohnLodge.com to check out his full schedule.

Meanwhile, a black 180-gram vinyl version The Royal Affair and After will be released on February 11.

Here’s the LP’s track list:

Side One
“Steppin’ in a Slide Zone”
“Saved by the Music”
“Legend of a Mind”
“Late Lament” (with Graeme Edge)
“Nights in White Satin” (with Jon Davison)

Side Two
“Sunset”
“Gemini Dream”
“Isn’t Life Strange”
“I’m Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)”
“Ride My See-Saw” (with Jon Davison)

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Graham Nash has joined Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and others in asking that his music be removed from Spotify because the streaming service has been hosting Joe Rogan‘s popular podcast, which many medical and scientific professionals have charged with spreading potentially harmful misinformation about COVID-19 and the vaccines.

Nash has issued a statement explaining his decision to have his solo recordings pulled from Spotify, which also appears to reference comments Rogan made in an Instagram video posted Monday in which the host addressed some of the accusations regarding his podcast.

“There is a difference between being open to varying viewpoints on a matter and knowingly spreading false information which some 270 medical professionals have derided as not only false but dangerous,” Graham writes. “Likewise, there is a difference between misinformation, in which one is unaware that what is being said is false, versus disinformation which is knowingly false and intended to mislead and sway public opinion. The opinions publicized by Rogan are so dishonest and unsupported by solid facts that Spotify becomes an enabler in a way that costs people their lives.”

In Rogan’s video, he denies “trying to promote misinformation,” adding, “I’m not trying to be controversial. I’ve never tried to do anything with this podcast other than just talk to people and have interesting conversations.”

After Young and Mitchell announced they were removing their music from Spotify, the company announced that it will be adding content advisories before podcasts that discuss COVID-19.

“Personally, there are plenty of individuals and views on Spotify that I disagree with strongly,” wrote Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek. “It is important to me that we don’t take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them.”

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Following Meat Loaf‘s death at age 74 on January 20, the powerhouse singer’s albums and songs have shot up the Billboard charts like, well, bats out of hell.

First of all, Meat Loaf’s classic 1977 album Bat Out of Hell re-entered the Billboard 200 at #13, one spot higher than it originally peaked back in 1978. The album, which has been certified 14-times Platinum by the RIAA, moved 28,000 album equivalent units during the most recent week-long tracking period, according to MRC Data, a 3,677% increase from the previous week.

Bat Out of Hell also debuted at #1 on the Top Rock Albums chart and re-entered the Catalog Albums tally at #1.

Meanwhile, Meat Loaf’s chart-topping 1993 sequel album Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell re-entered the Billboard 200 at #91 after notching 10,000 album equivalent units during the latest tracking period, a 2,320% surge from the previous week.

Bat Out of Hell II included Meat Loaf’s only #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” The tune has now debuted at the top of the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart and Hard Rock Streaming Songs tally.

Those two songs were streamed 4.4 million and 4.5 million times in the U.S., respectively, during the most most tracking week, accounting for 40% of Meat Loaf’s song streams.

As for Meat Loaf’s epic Bat Out of Hell track “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” it debuted at #1 on the Hot Hard Rock Songs and Hard Rock Streaming Songs charts.

Looking at Meat Loaf’s overall catalog, it amassed 21.1 million on-demand official audio and video streams in the U.S. during the latest tracking period, a 1,422% increase from the previous week, according to MRC Data reported by Billboard.

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After moving them several times, Aerosmith has now permanently canceled their planned European tour dates because of uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a Facebook message the band writes that the tour, which was to have taken place in June and July of this year, has been scrapped due to “related uncertainty around travel logistics and the continued presence of COVID restrictions and other issues.”

“The health, safety and well being of our fans is our number one priority,” the band continues, adding, “We will be back to rock out with everyone and we hope to have some exciting news to announce soon…Until then, take care and we deeply apologize for any inconvenience.”

The tour was originally supposed to take place in 2020, but it was then moved to 2021, and then to this year.  The last time Aerosmith played live was February 15, 2020 as part of their Deuces Are Wild Las Vegas residency.

The band’s only live date this year is now its September 8 show in Fenway Park in Boston with Extreme. It was originally supposed to have taken place in 2020 to celebrate Aerosmith’s 50th anniversary.

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