ZZ Top Heading To Europe For The First Time In 5 Years
ZZ Top is heading to Europe for the first time in five years. The band just announced a batch of dates in Europe and the UK, with 13 shows in 9 countries starting in June. It will be their first trip across the pond since 2019, and their first European tour since the death of bassist Dusty Hill in 2021.
Dusty Hill's Fur Bass Sells For $300K
The new owner of a furry bass guitar once played by Dusty Hill spent thousands of dollars to get the instrument. The 1983 Dean Explorer style bass was part of a Dusty Hill collection auction at a Julien's late last week. The instrument features a sheepskin finish with the ZZ Top logo on the fretboard. It sold for over 317-thousand-dollars, which is nearly four times its original estimate of 80-thousand. The guitar was played by Hill in ZZ Top's music video for their track "Legs."
Nicks To Headline Inaugural Lovin Life Music Fest
Stevie Nicks is set to headline the Lovin' Life Music Fest that's coming up in 2024. The festival takes place on May 3rd through the 5th in Charlotte, North Carolina. Post Malone and Noah Kahan are also headlining the event which will have 40 artist across three stages. The rest of the lineup will be announced at a later date. Tickets go on sale this Thursday.
Ozzy Osbourne Reveals He Never Felt Comfortable Being Labeled "Metal"
Ozzy Osbourne is revealing he's not happy being labeled a "metal" artist. In a conversation with Spin, the Black Sabbath frontman said the title has affected his musical approach and makes it hard for him to do acoustic or "lighter" songs. He also admitted that he does make metal songs but there are other artists and bands who are "REALLY heavy metal" and everyone is just put into the same category. Osbourne said he's never felt comfortable with the metal title.
Rockers Pay Tribute To Bon Scott
Scott Ian, Larry LaLonde, Steve Gorman are among several musicians who are set to pay tribute to AC/DC's Bon Scott next month. The concert dubbed "A Tribute To Bon Scott Of AC/DC" will take place in Hollywood on January 9th. The event will begin with a 45-minute stand up comedy set by Dean Delray and Bill Burr before a two hour set of Bon Scott-era AC/DC music. Other musicians who will take part in the event include Billy Rowe, Mike Inez,Jay Buchanan and Scott Holiday and more. Tickets are available now.
BILLY IDOL: Movies & TV
Had Billy Idol not smacked up his motorcycle in Hollywood in 1990, he might have had another footnote in his acting resume. He tells Q magazine that he was indeed cast as T-1000 in Terminator 2, a role that went to Robert Patrick. Idol says, "Well, I did do an audition for it. [Director] James Cameron always shoots the reading or the audition, whatever you want to call it...where at one point he says, 'The T-1000 lives!' I had the police helmet on and the shades. But the trouble was, I had to be able to run... There's one point where the T-1000 runs after the car... Well, I had a terrible limp from the motorcycle accident, so I couldn't do the movie. It was such a drag... But in the end, Robert Patrick brought a cold veneer that I could never have brought to it. He brought a cold veneer that was really robotic. So the right man got the job!"
So, while Idol's trademark snarl didn't make it into that film, it did make it onto Saturday Night Live in a skit where Sting imitated him. Asked if he ever discussed it with Sting, he says, "Actually, he had a really funny story he told me! One day I went to something where him and [his wife] Trudie [Styler] were there together, and he told me that after he did that sketch, she said to him, 'Have sex with me as Billy Idol.' I thought that was fantastically funny. I mean, I thought the sketch was funny...but I thought that was even funnier."
Idol’s new concert film, Billy Idol: State Line, is streaming on Veeps.com. It features his performance at the Hoover Dam outside Las Vegas from this past April.
GREEN DAY: The Performance of Saviors
Mike Dirnt feels that Green Day's new album Saviors captures what it feels like when they get into a room and start playing together. Dirnt tells Alternative Press, "I feel like there’s a lot of performance in this record. Being in the same room, we’re really just playing off each other a lot on this record. You can hear it. It’s really fun..."Over time, you go through different ways of writing. Billie [Joe Armstrong] will have a song, sometimes fully done. Other times, he’ll want to get in a room and go, 'Let’s flesh this out.' And Saviors was a lot more of just getting in, and he’d say, 'Look, this is the palette. Let’s just play it. Don’t think about it. Just start playing it together and see what we all pull out together.'" Saviors comes out January 19th.
CROSBY, TURNER, BUFFETT & BECK: Pepperized
With the year coming an end, British artist Chris Barker has, for the eighth time, immortalized 175 celebrities who died this year in his version of the cover of The Beatles' 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Among those in the front row are Tina Turner, Jeff Beck and Tony Bennett, with David Crosby and Burt Bacharach right in the center in row two. Also represented are Jimmy Buffett, BTO's Robbie and Tim Bachman, Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington, Robbie Robertson, Matthew Perry, Suzanne Sommers, and even the three most recent to pass -- Ryan O'Neal, Norman Lear and Shane MacGowan.
Commenting on this year's piece, Barker says, "This is the most overwhelming number of huge significant losses I remember in the eight years doing this since 2016. The front two or three rows are all really recognizable legends. It’s a bit much to be honest... “I know it’s a very sad topic, it’s a very strange hobby and I really don’t know how I’ve ended up as this weird custodian of international grief, but people do really seem to like it so I’m kind of stuck with it now!”
IN OTHER ROVK NEWS
Derek and The Dominos' drummer Jim Gordon is the subject of a new book. Drums & Demons: The Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon by former San Francisco Chronicle critic Joel Selvin will be published on February 27th. Gordon, who was mentally ill and killed his mother in 1983, died in prison this past March 13th. He was 77.
Bret Michaels, Dee Snider and Night Ranger will perform at the M3 Rock Festival, May 4th and 5th, at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10am ET. Michaels has also teamed with country singer Chris Janson for an episode of CMT Crossroads that will air next Wednesday, December 20th, at 9pm ET.
Rod Stewart will perform on CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen.
George Thorogood & The Destroyers are the subject of a new exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It features stage clothing, instruments, gear and more. Thorogood says, “For the past fifty years, we’ve spent nearly every night making music. According to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, we were also making history. Our heart and soul have been in this since day one; rock fans recognize that. The band and I are enormously humbled by this honor.”
Anthony Kiedis revealed that the Red Hot Chili Peppers had to postpone their performance in Los Angeles on Saturday because guitarist John Frusciante broke a finger. They’ll play a makeup gig on March 2nd.
Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads and Adrian Belew will take their Talking Heads' Remain in Light show back on the road next summer. It starts July 26th in Cincinnati and wraps up August 4th in Tarrytown, New York.
Alice Cooper held his 21st Annual Christmas Pudding fundraiser in Phoenix on Saturday and among his guests were Sammy Hagar and Nancy Wilson, who collaborated on a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” Hagar says it was “the first time I’ve ever played that solo on one of my favorite songs of all time.” The show raises money for Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Centers in Phoenix and Mesa, where teenagers are encouraged to take part in music, dance and art activities.