Classic Hits

Bon Jovi will be there for its fans later this year.  The rockers unveiled plans for a 15-stop tour that will span across the U.S. starting in the spring.

Called the Bon Jovi 2022 Tour, the band will hit up arenas in the country’s biggest cities, starting April 1 in Omaha, Nebraska, at the CHI Health Center.  The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers’ tour wraps April 30 in Nashville, Tennessee, at the Bridgestone Arena.

The tour will support Bon Jovi’s 2020 album, and frontman Jon Bon Jovi cannot wait to hit the road again to see his fans.  “We have all missed touring and we know that nothing can replace the energy of a live show for the fans or the band,” he said in a statement.

Tickets for the 15-stop tour go on sale starting Friday, January 14, at 10 a.m. ET on Bon Jovi’s official webpage. Fans will be able to cut the line if they are a member of the JBJ Experience, and can access the pre-sale a few days earlier, on Tuesday, January 11, at 10 a.m. ET.

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Just a reminder that the star-studded A Bowie Celebration virtual concert event commemorating what would’ve been David Bowie‘s 75th birthday takes place this Saturday, January 8, starting at 9 p.m. ET.

As previously reported, the presentation was organized by longtime Bowie keyboardist Mike Garson, and will feature performances by Def Leppard, Duran Duran‘s Simon Le Bon and John Taylor, Noel Gallagher, Living Colour, Rob Thomas, WALK THE MOON, and actors Gary Oldman and Evan Rachel Wood, among others.

In addition, Ricky Gervais will make a special appearance during the show, part of the proceeds from which will benefit the Save the Children charity.

Garson will lead a house band featuring various musicians who toured and/or recorded with Bowie.

The event will be dedicated to legendary late photographer Mick Rock, and also will celebrate the 35th anniversary of Jim Henson fantasy film, Labyrinth, which starred Bowie as the Goblin King and featured five songs he wrote.

Tickets and ticket bundles for the event are available now at RollingLiveStudios.com/Bowie.

Meanwhile, a contest has been launched in conjunction of the livestream offering a variety of special prizes.

The grand prize features Bowie’s new 18-LP Brilliant Adventure box set, a one-on-one Zoom with Garson, a ticket to the streaming event, access to a virtual Q&A with some of the show’s musicians, a signed copy of Garson’s book Bowie’s Piano Man, t-shirts and other goodies.

To enter, fans must follow @bowietour, @licoricepizzarecords or @rollinglivestudios on Instagram, leave comment under the post about the contest, tag at least five friends and ask them to follow. The person who generates the most follows wins the contest. The winner will be announced at 3 p.m. ET on Friday.

Seven additional randomly chose winners each will receive a different Bowie album.

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The Cars‘ Elliot Easton and The Scorpions‘ Matthias Jabs are among a variety of artists who will take part in the NAMM organization’s Believe in Music online event, which is scheduled for January 20 and 21.

Taking place instead of the annual in-person NAMM Show music-equipment trade conference — which has been moved to the summer — Believe in Music is a global online gathering that will help unify and provide support for the people and organizations that bring music to the world.

Believe in Music will offer a variety of free music-business-related presentations, including artist interviews, performances, round-table discussions, forums, tutorials, gear unveilings and more.

Easton and Jabs both will be participating in interviews on January 20, scheduled for 4:15 p.m. ET and 5:30 p.m. ET, respectively.

Other artists also taking part in interview events include rock-guitar virtuoso Steve Vai, Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd and Struts members Luke Spiller and Adam Slack.

For full details about the online event, visit BelieveinMusic.tv.

The 2022 NAMM Show has been combined with the Summer NAMM conference, and is scheduled to take place July 3-5 at California’s Anaheim Convention Center.

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Dead & Company won’t be playing in the Mexican sand after all this month, as the band has just announced that it’s called off its entire two-weekend Playing in the Sand destination festival.

The news of the cancellation comes after drummer Bill Kreutzmann dropped out of the event earlier this week due to health issues, and then singer/guitarist John Mayer dropped out because he got COVID-19.

On Instagram, Dead & Company posted a message that reads, “With much sadness and after great consideration of every possible scenario, the Playing in the Sand shows in Riviera Cancun on January 7-10 and January 13-16 have now been canceled…due to the spiking COVID-19 cases.”

The statement continues, “Dead & Company…tried everything possible to bring normalcy and to deliver a great experience and amazing music, but with each day it became increasingly clear that canceling is the correct thing to do for the fans and for our crew.”

Noting that anyone who has tickets will receive an email about refunds, the statement ends by saying, “See you soon, hug your loved ones, stay safe and be kind.”

The event was to have featured multiple performances by the Grateful Dead spinoff group and other artists at the Moon Palace Cancún resort.

 

 

 

 

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Cobra Kai co-creator Jon Hurwitz is hoping to add a bit of “Thunder” to the titular dojo’s “Strike First Strike Hard No Mercy” motto.

As Hurwitz tells Entertainment Weekly, he’s been trying to use the AC/DC classic “Thunderstruck” in the Karate Kid sequel series for some time now. In fact, “Thunderstruck” was specifically written into a script for a montage season in the recently premiered fourth season of the show.

“We’ve written ‘Thunderstruck’ into the script several times over the years,” Hurwitz shares. “We’ve never been able to afford it in that moment or to make that choice [to spend the money on it] right now.”

“Our fantasy is having the kind of music budget that would allow for us to have nonstop AC/DC and Bon Jovi and Guns N’ Roses,” he adds.

While viewers have yet to hear “Thunderstruck” soundtrack any epic Cobra Kai karate showdowns, the show does feature a lot of Karate Kid-era appropriate rock music, including Mötley Crüe, Poison and Ratt.

“[Music supervisor] Michelle Johnson has done an amazing job, she’s been phenomenal in understanding the tone of the show,” says Hurwitz. “She’ll pitch us many, many songs or send music to our editors and we’ll narrow it down. There’s nothing we love more than finding the right song for a montage.”

Cobra Kai season 4 also featured a wink to metalheads in an episode when a neighbor of the character Stingray yells at him for “blaring s***ty Metallica all night.” Stingray, who’s played by Richard Jewell star Paul Walter Hauser, then replies, “That was actually Exodus‘ Bonded by Blood, but it’s not your fault, you don’t know the genre.”

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The Eagles have more than doubled the number of scheduled U.S. concerts for their Hotel California 2022 Tour, adding 12 new shows in a variety of major cities in March, April and May.

The new dates run from a March 17 concert in Cleveland through a May 25 performance in Salt Lake City, and also include shows in Chicago. Indianapolis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Nashville and the New York City suburb of Belmont, New York.

Tickets for the newly announced dates will go on sale to the general public on Friday, January 14, at 10 a.m. local time, and a limited number of VIP packages will be available that same day. There also will be opportunities to purchase pre-sale tickets; visit Eagles.com/events and Ticketmaster.com for more info.

The Eagles already had 10 other U.S. concerts lined up, spanning from a February 19 performance in Savannah, Georgia, through a May 19-20 stand in Austin, Texas.

As previously announced, the Hotel California trek features the current Eagles lineup performing the band’s classic 1976 album of the same name in its entirety, as well as other memorable tunes by the group, accompanied by an orchestra and a choir.

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Sammy Hagar was awarded the title of Honorary Ambassador of Mexico’s Los Cabos municipality on Wednesday at a ceremony held in the town of San Jose del Cabo, not far from where the Red Rocker’s Cabo Wabo Cantina venue is located.

During the event, Hagar was presented with the municipality’s first Medal of Honor, which was created to recognize people who have made extraordinary contributions to the development and promotion of Los Cabos and Mexico’s economic growth.

Hagar is a longtime resident of Los Cabos, and his Cabo Wabo Cantina, where he usually stages his star-studded annual birthday bash, has brought many tourists to the area. In addition, Sammy’s hugely successful Cabo Wabo Tequila and Santo Tequila liquor brands also have helped boost the local economy.

“Being honored for anything in Los Cabos is the same for me as being honored in my hometown, because I feel this is my hometown and has been since the early ’80s,” Hagar said at the ceremony. “I will treasure this award [and]…will continue to do my part in bringing this, one of the most beautiful places in the world, to the rest of the world, as your new ambassador of tourism.”

Sammy was joined by his wife, Kari, at the event, which also was attended by various local politicians and officials, including Los Cabos’ municipal president, Oscar Leggs Castro.

Castro said at the ceremony, “Mr. Hagar has long been the unofficial ambassador to Los Cabos and through this designation we look forward to strengthening our tourism brand by leveraging his national and global appeal to promote Los Cabos throughout the world.”

After the ceremony, Hagar treated select local fans to a performance at Cabo Wabo Cantina.

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The popular Disgraceland podcast, which showcases stories combining music with true crime, has announced that its upcoming ninth season will feature episodes focusing on the late Tom Petty, the Eagles, The Temptations and late Beatles guitarist George Harrison, among other stars.

Information about the new season was revealed in an audio trailer, an accompanying press release, and a video preview posted by host Jake Brennan on the podcast’s Instagram page.

The Petty episode, which debuts in January 18, will include details of the rocker’s secret heroin habit and an arson fire that destroyed his Encino, California, home.

Two Disgraceland episodes will focus on the Eagles, premiering on February 8 and 15. Topics covered on those programs will include the band members’ former heavy cocaine use and other excesses, according to the trailer.

The episode about The Temptations will debut on March 22, and apparently will look at singer David Ruffin‘s volatile relationship with Tammi Terrell.

The last episode of season nine, which premieres on March 29, will focus on Harrison and the 1999 home invasion by a deranged knife-wielding fan that almost cost the Beatles legend his life.

Disgraceland‘s new season will kick off on January 11 with a podcast about Taylor Swift and her problems with stalkers.

Other artists featured on upcoming Disgraceland episodes include 1990s ska-punk band Sublime, late jazz greats Miles Davis and Billie Holiday, the late country icon Hank Williams, and the late rapper Juice WRLD.

New episodes of Disgraceland will be available exclusively on Amazon Music starting January 11, and then across all other podcast platforms on January 18.  Visit DisgracelandPod.com for more information.

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John Mayer has been forced to drop out of Playing in the Sand, a three-day destination festival in Mexico’s Riviera Cancun that he was scheduled to do with Dead & Company beginning this Friday.

On Instagram, Dead & Company said that just before he was set to leave for Mexico, John tested positive for COVID-19 and so is unable to travel and perform.  “In these unprecedented times, fans should expect many rare and different tunes,” the group said in a statement.

Dead & Company’s Bob Weir added, “We came down here to have fun. Unfortunately some of our brothers cannot make it but fun is what we’re going to have.”   The festival will continue with “special guests and sit ins,” the statement continued.

Another installment of Playing in the Sand is scheduled for January 13-16. It’s not clear if John will perform during that weekend.

Meanwhile, John is scheduled to kick off his solo tour in support of his latest album, Sob Rock, on February 17 in Albany, NY.

 

 

 

 

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Founding Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood and drummer Kenney Jones both recently revealed that they and singer Rod Stewart had been working on songs for a new album by the band.  Now Stewart also has commented about the project.

“It’s very, very worthy,” Stewart tells ABC Audio about how the new material stands up to classic Faces tunes.

Reflecting on his former band’s music, Rod adds, “When you dig out tracks that [are], like, 40 years old or whatever, you suddenly realize, wow, we were good and we did have a different sound, chaotic as it may have been.”

As for the status of the record, Stewart says, “We’re working on it.” He notes that depending on whether his planned 2022 Australian tour takes place, “we’ll have two or three months to work on it. And it’s gonna be good.”

Wood, who joined The Rolling Stones after the Faces’ 1975 breakup, wrapped up a U.S. Stones trek in November, although it’s not been announced if the band will hit the road again in 2022. Stewart, who released a new solo album called The Tears of Hercules in November, is scheduled to launch his Australian tour in March. However, ongoing issues with COVID-19 could derail those plans.

Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Uncut, Jones shared some more details about the Faces reunion project.  According to BANG Showbiz, he told the magazine that the album will feature a “mixture of old and new” material.

“What we’ve decided to do is work on some of the original stuff that we didn’t use,” Kenney explained. “Ronnie and I, in particular, have been working on lots of the old stuff together and we’ve rerecorded a couple of those songs with more of a modern feel.”

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