Classic Hits

Paul McCartney is giving fans a chance to win a front row trip to see him in concert, and it comes with a chance to meet The Beatles legend.

The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has just launched a new Fandiem sweepstakes, with the lucky winner receiving a trip for two to see McCartney’s Got Back tour at the United Center in Chicago on Nov. 24.

The package includes front row tickets to the concert, a chance to meet McCartney backstage and take a photo, and access to soundcheck. It also includes roundtrip airfare and three-nights hotel accommodations, a merch package and a gift card for ground transportation and food in Chicago.

To enter, fans can make a donation to Meat Free Mondays, an organization, founded by Paul and his daughters, Mary McCartney and Stella McCartney, that helps fight climate change and creates awareness of the environmental impact of animal agriculture. The sweepstakes is open until Nov. 11.

McCartney is set to return to the stage with a warm-up show on Sept. 26 at the Santa Barbara Bowl in Santa Barbara, California, before kicking off the North American leg of his Got Back tour on Sept. 29 in Palm Desert, California. The tour wraps Nov. 25 in Chicago.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Sonny Curtis, a member of Buddy Holly‘s Crickets who also wrote The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song and other hits, has died, according to a Facebook post by his daughter. He was 88.

“I’m heartbroken to tell you that my dad Sonny passed away yesterday after a sudden illness,” she wrote Saturday. “I’m so grateful that I was with him at the end, along with my mom. It was peaceful and he didn’t suffer.”

“He was 88 and he lived a more exceptional life than anyone I’d ever met,” she continued. “He made a mark on this world, and he made a mark on the hearts of all who knew him. It’s a sad day, but what a life. May we look at his life with joy rather than sadness. He would have wanted that.”

Born in Meadow, Texas, Curtis met Buddy Holly at age 15 and formed a band with him. He eventually left to work with other musicians, but rejoined Holly and his band, now dubbed the Crickets, in 1958. After Holly died in 1959, Curtis became the band’s frontman and toured and recorded with them on and off until 2016.

In 2012, the Crickets, including Curtis, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by a special committee convened to correct the fact that the band hadn’t been inducted along with Holly in 1986.

Curtis was also a hitmaking songwriter; in 1970, he wrote “Love Is All Around,” the theme for The Mary Tyler Moore Show. His other compositions included the Everly Brothers‘ 1961 hit “Walk Right Back;” “I Fought the Law,” a hit for the Bobby Fuller Four that was later recorded by The Clash and dozens of others; Leo Sayer‘s 1980 hit “More Than I Can Say” and Keith Whitley‘s 1989 country hit “I’m No Stranger to the Rain.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Looks like we may be getting a new album from The Rolling Stones.

Andrew Watt, who produced The Stones’ last album, Hackney Diamonds, confirmed to Rolling Stone that he’s once again working with the band.

 ”I’ve said it before, but it’s like working for Batman,” Watt, who’s also produced albums for Pearl Jam, Ozzy Osbourne and Elton John, tells the mag. “When the tongue is up in the air, you just go.”

He adds, “I can say we did some recording together, but that’s all I can say.”

Released in October 2023, Hackney Diamonds was The Stones’ first album of new material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. The album topped the chart in the U.K. and Australia, and peaked at #3 in the U.S.

Hackney Diamonds went on to win the Grammy for best rock album.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin is set to reunite with his bandmates for a special event in September.

In September 2024, REO Speedwagon announced they were going to cease touring as of January 2025. Following that announcement there seemed to be some bad blood between Cronin and his former bandmate, bassist Bruce Hall, and Cronin has since been touring as the Kevin Cronin Band. Well, now it appears that any issues between the bandmates have been put aside.

Hall shared on Facebook that REO Speedwagon, which formed in Illinois, will be the grand marshals at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s homecoming parade on Sept. 26. In addition, the school’s band, the Marching Illini, will be performing selections of REO’s music during the halftime show on Sept. 27, with the rockers playing along.

Although Hall’s initial post didn’t indicate whether Cronin would be taking part in the festivities, Cronin has now confirmed that he will be there.

“I am honored to have been approached by representatives of the University of Illinois, and invited to appear on the field for the Homecoming Game halftime show on September 27,” Cronin wrote on social media, noting it’s “been too many years to count” since he and his REO Speedwagon bandmates, Hall, Neal Doughty and Alan Gratzer, have all been together.

“As a songwriter, there are few greater honors than to hear other artists and musicians perform my songs,” he adds. “I know I will be looking on in awe as the four hundred-plus Marching Illini pay tribute to the music of REO Speedwagon with an all-REO halftime presentation.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Def Leppard is revisiting their 2023 hometown show in Sheffield, England, with a new live release.

Diamond Star Heroes Live From Sheffield, dropping Nov. 21, is a recording of their concert at Sheffield’s Bramall Lane during their world tour with Mötley Crüe.

The show, 47 years after the birth of the band, had them playing in front of 40,000 fans, treating the hometown crowd to such hits as “Photograph,” “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” “Animal,” “Foolin’” and more. They also performed the Diamond Star Halos track “This Guitar,” which was dedicated to their late guitarist Steve Clark, who died in 1991.

Diamond Star Heroes Live From Sheffield will be released in a variety of formats, including two-CD + Blu-ray, two-CD and two-LP. The vinyl is pressed on red, white and black splatter to honor the home kit colors of Sheffield United FC, the football team that plays at the same venue.

The release will also come out on 4K UHD (Ultra High Definition), which, in addition to the Bramall Lane show, will include Def Leppard’s 2023 Sheffield club show, One Night Only Live at The Leadmill. That show took place just days before the stadium gig.

All formats are available for preorder now.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Rockers 38 Special have just released  Milestone, their first new album in over two decades.

To mark the occasion the band, known for such hits as “Hold on Loosely” and “Caught up in You,” has dropped a new music video for the song “So Much So Right.”

“‘So Much So Right’ is, of course, about the moment of raw passion, but it is more than that,” says 38 Special co-founder and frontman Dan Barnes. “It also speaks to how a man feels when he’s found his partner for life. She can make so much so right!”

Milestone is the first new album from 38 Special since 2004’s Drivetrain. It features songs co-written by Train’s Pat Monahan, Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Randy Bachman and the band’s longtime collaborator Jim Peterik, who also co-produced the record.

38 Special is currently on tour, and will play a show in Coachella, California on Friday. A complete list of dates can be found at 38Special.com.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Legendary rock band Led Zeppelin will be the subject of a new photo exhibition in Los Angeles.

It’s Been a Long Time will feature never-before-seen Zeppelin photos from the archives of music photographer Jeffrey Mayer, including concert and backstage images from the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers’ first tour.

The exhibition is set to open Sept. 26 at Eye For Sound Gallery, which is owned by System of a Down lead singer Serj Tankian.

In addition to the archival photos, Mayer has teamed with graffiti writer and mural artist Marcel ‘SEL’ Blanco to reinterpret five photos as part of SEL’s Sonic Remix Series featuring his “signature LA Street Art Style.”

“Excited to be exhibiting these rare and powerful photos of an iconic band such as Led Zeppelin at Eye For Sound,” Tankian says. “As a musician and artist myself, seeing these great moments in rock immortalized on our gallery walls is always a treat.”

The exhibition will be open to the public and run through October. Some of Mayer’s photos will be available for purchase for the very first time. Images from the Sonic Remix Series will also be available, along with official Led Zeppelin T-shirts.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

David Byrne’s latest solo album, Who Is the Sky?, is making its mark on the charts.

According to Billboard, the record has landed in the top 10 on four separate Billboard album charts, although it debuted at #172 on the all-genre Billboard 200. It is his first solo album since 2018’s American Utopia.

The record had its best showing on the Indie Store Album Sales chart, where it debuted at #4, and the Vinyl Albums chart, where it debuted at #5.

The album also landed at #9 and #10 on the Top Current Album Sales and Top Albums Sales charts, respectively.

Byrne launched a tour in support of Who Is the Sky? on Tuesday in Pittsburgh. According to setlist.fm, his set included his first performance of the Talking Heads classic “Psycho Killer” since 2006. The tour hits Akron, Ohio, on Friday. A complete list of dates can be found at DavidByrne.com.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

U2 is set to be honored with the 2025 Woody Guthrie Prize.

Named after the late folk icon and presented by the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the award recognizes “a recipient who embodies the spirit of Woody Guthrie’s social consciousness and musical legacy.”

According to a press release, the Irish rockers “continue a tradition of using music as a force for social change, echoing Guthrie’s belief that songs can help make the world a fairer place.”

“U2 embodies the mission of the Woody Guthrie Prize, using music to confront injustice and inspire action,” Cady Shaw, senior director of the Woody Guthrie Center, says. “By presenting the 2025 Woody Guthrie Prize to U2, we honor a legacy of music that continues to challenge who we are and connect us the world over.”

U2’s Bono and The Edge will be on hand to accept this year’s prize at the ceremony on Oct. 21 at Tulsa’s Cain’s Ballroom. U2 previously played the venue in 1981 on their The Boy Tour.

Previous Woody Guthrie Prize winners include Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Joan Baez and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and Steven Tyler were back onstage together Tuesday night in California.

The Joe Perry Project — which also features Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford; Buck Johnson, who’s been part of Aerosmith’s touring band since 2014; The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson; drummer Jason Sutter; and Stone Temple Pilots‘ Robert DeLeo — was the opening act for The Who’s Hollywood Bowl show, and Tyler turned up as a special guest.

“The Who fans got an extra special treat tonight in Los Angeles,” Live Nation wrote in an Instagram post, which was shared on Perry’s account. “As The Joe Perry Project got the party started, Joe brought out Steven Tyler for a set that we’ll be talking about for years!”

The post included a clip of Perry, Tyler and Robinson performing “Walk This Way” together, and they also teamed for the Aerosmith track “The Train Kept A Rollin’.”

The set also featured a guest appearance by Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash on Aerosmith’s “Mama Kin.”

Perry and Tyler’s onstage reunion happened on the same day Aerosmith announced a new collaborative EP with Yungblud, One More Time, which is due out Nov. 21. The EP’s first single, “My Only Angel,” will premiere on Friday.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.