Ozzy Osbourne Tribute Held At 2025 MTV VMAs
A heartfelt tribute concert for Ozzy Osbourne during the MTVA VMAs included powerful performances from his close friends, including Steven Tyler and YUNGBLUD. Jack Osbourne expressed gratitude in a message, thanking fans for their overwhelming support after his father's passing. YUNGBLUD opened the tribute with a rocking performance of "Crazy Train," followed by Tyler and Joe Perry's emotional rendition of "Mama, I'm Coming Home."
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Born To Reunite
Bruce Springsteen was back on stage Saturday at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey as part of the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music's — which is housed at the school — symposium on his third album, 1975's Born to Run. He not only took part in three of the panel discussions, but also brought the day to an end by reuniting the surviving members of the E Street Band who played on that album — drummer Ernest "Boom" Carter and keyboardist David Sancious to play alongside current E Street Band members who also played on that album — bassist Garry Tallent, guitarist Steve Van Zandt, keyboardist Roy Bittan and drummer Max Weinberg -- plus current E Street Band saxophonist Ed Manion. Springsteen led them through the album's "Thunder Road" and title track.
Also taking part in symposium were the album’s engineer Jimmy Iovine, Springsteen’s former and current managers, Mike Appel and Jon Landau, Eric Meola, who shot the album’s iconic cover, plus some of the Columbia Records employees who were involved in the album's promotion. During one of the panels, Springsteen said, “These were the guys that were there when you need them. When you have nothing, and were no one, these were the guys that gave [me] everything.” He also talked about how the album sounds to him 50 years later: “It sounds like I [bleeping] sound!” How the Peter Pan poster hanging in his bedroom in 1974 inspired him to name the character in “Born to Run” “Wendy”: “Not sure what that [says about] my adult life; It actually explains quite a bit of it!” He also said he stole the opening of “Born to Run” from “The Locomotion.”
ERIC CLAPTON: The Journey Continues
Eric Clapton is reissuing his 11th album, 1989's Journeyman. It contains four bonus tracks, which he was reminded of while poking around YouTube and finding that fans had uploaded outtakes and bonus cuts from the album sessions. After going through his vaults, the songs have been remixed and remastered. They are "Higher Power," "Border Song," "That Kind of Woman" and "Forever," which is out now along with a video on YouTube. He says, “Journeyman... It’s what I want to be known as; I like to think I’m a craftsman. I think I’m always working on mastering my craft."
Clapton was joined on Journeyman by George Harrison, Phil Collins, Chaka Khan, Daryl Hall, Robert Cray, David Sanborn and others. This deluxe edition will be released on November 21st on CD, vinyl and digitally. Clapton started an eight-city U.S. tour Friday night with a benefit for his Crossroads Centre Antigua at the Mershon Auditorium in Columbus, Ohio, where he lives part time — his wife Melia is from there. The tour runs through September 20th in Uncasville, Connecticut with Nashville, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston and New York in between.
ERIC CLAPTON: An Intimate Benefit
Eric Clapton did a rare theater show Friday in Columbus, Ohio, where he has a home (his wife Melia is from there). Held at the 2,500-seat Mershon Auditorium, it was a benefit for his Crossroads Centre Antigua, the treatment and education facility he founded in 1998 to help individuals, their families and significant others affected by chemical and alcohol dependency.
It also served as a warm-up for his brief arena tour that begins tonight (Monday) in Nashville followed by stops in: Cleveland (11th), Philadelphia (13th), Boston (16th) New York (19th) and Uncasville, Connecticut on the 20th.
Eric Clapton - September 5th, 2025 in Columbus, Ohio set list:
1.White Room
2.Hoochie Coochie Man
3.Key to the Highway
4.Sunshine of Your Love
Acoustic Set:
1.Bell Bottom Blues (first time since 2017)
2.Kindhearted Woman
3.Golden Ring
4.Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
5.Layla
6.Can’t Find My Way Home (bassist Nathan East on vocals)
7.Tears in Heaven
Electric Set 2:
1.Tell the Truth
2.Old Love
4.Little Queen of Spades
5.Cocaine
Encore:
·Before You Accuse Me
LED ZEPPELIN: In the Time of Their Frontman
Led Zeppelin have released a video of them performing "In My Time of Dying" in May 1975 at Earls Court in London, which you can watch on YouTube. The release is in conjunction with next Friday's release of Live EP in celebration of the 50th anniversary of their sixth album, 1975's Physical Graffiti, which that song is from. Live EP also includes "Trampled Under Foot" from Earls Court, and “Sick Again” and “Kashmir” from the 1979 Knebworth Festival in England. Also out on September 12th is a remastered version of the 2015 deluxe edition
of Physical Graffiti, which contains a bonus disc of rough mixes and early versions of songs, plus a new replica Physical Graffiti poster.
And in other Zeppelin news, Robert Plant tells BBC Radio 2 that being the frontman for the band was “really nerve-wracking. “I’d been what I call at the sharp end in these power trios with somebody glued on the front, which is how I quite often saw Zeppelin. “I mean, my contribution was what it was. [If] you think about it, the first songs that we wrote, John Bonham and I, we were 20 years old when ‘Good Times, Bad Times’ was conceived. So you go back then and being the lone guy at the front and trying to get in amongst all that was a huge challenge, and it was really nerve-wracking."
Plant also talked about their concert performances. “John Paul [Jones] and John Bonham
would have this world of post funk, we’d spent quite a bit of time in New Orleans with The Meters and people like that. They had a thing going on. Jimmy [Page] was in another place again and I was just sort of trying to figure out how I could create melody and some kind of syncopation. “Sometimes, as you quite rightly say, it was very, very tight and it was magnificent. Sometimes it was quite the opposite because that was the great thing about that group was it was like the weather. It could be extraordinarily good or on the other hand perhaps not quite so magnificent. It wasn’t sent down from the gods every day, every week.”
Plant and his band Saving Grace will release their self-titled debut album on September 26th.
THE WHO: Old Is New Again
The Who have released the first previously unreleased song off the forthcoming deluxe reissue of their eighth album, Who Are You. It's an early version of the album's first track, “New Song,” with Pete Townshend’s guide vocals for Roger Daltrey while the band are still learning the song. Back in the '90s, Townshend said, "This is a diatribe against the requirements of FM radio (at the time) for every band of the day to produce 'clones' of their earlier successful airplay hits. This was my signal to everyone that I had decided to deal a wonky deck full of theatrical parodies and anachronisms. Needless to say, the song didn't get airplay and neither did it make the critics happy.”
Who Are You was released on August 18th, 1978, three weeks before drummer Keith Moon's death on September 7th at age 32. It peaked at number-two on the Billboard 200. The deluxe version will be available on October 31st in numerous configurations, including a seven-CD/one Blu-ray set that includes Atmos & Stereo mixes It has been bolstered with more than 70 unreleased tracks, including never-before-heard versions of the title track, newly mixed live tracks from their first tour with Kenney Jones in place of Moon, and recordings from their rehearsals in 1977 and 1978. Among the unreleased material are:
·Keith Moon singing covers of The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" and The Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann"
·An early live version of "Who Are You" from 1976 in Toronto
·A Who Are You album mixed by Glyn Johns, which was rejected
·Early run-throughs, sessions and out-takes plus several demos by John Entwistle
·Six tracks from the live concert at Shepperton Studios for the filming of The Kids Are Alright documentary, plus rehearsals with new drummer Kenney Jones for The Who’s 1979 U.S. tour.
·Recordings from the 1979 U.S. tour, including tracks recorded at the Pontiac Silverdome, the Spectrum in Philadelphia and the Masonic Temple in Detroit
Check out a trailer for this collection on YouTube. The Who rescheduled the two shows they had to postpone last month "due to illness" on The Song Is Over -- The North American Farewell Tour. The Philadelphia show will now take place on September 10th followed by Atlantic City, New Jersey on the 12th.
DEF LEPPARD: Before They Settle In
Def Leppard hope to have new music out before their February residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Singer Joe Elliott, in an interview with online radio Planet Rock, said, “We’re working through a new album right now, which won’t be out next year, but we may – and probably will – release a new song in time for Vegas and then release another one again for the British tour [in the summer]. That’s the plan that we have right now. “So, we’re gonna kind of drip feed songs from the album and then it’ll come out late '26, early '27 maybe. Hopefully. So, it gives us a great opportunity to do that.” Def Leppard's latest song, a cover of Ben E. King's "Stand by Me," was released in February to benefit FireAid. Their last album was 2022's Diamond Star Halos, and they also released another standalone song last year, “Just Like ’73” featuring Tom Morello on guitar.
Def Leppard performed in Writtle, England Sunday, and next up is a one-off show in Gary, Indiana on October 11th before the 12 shows in Vegas starting on February 3rd.
FOREIGNER: It Did Feel Like the First Time
Foreigner stripped it down Friday night for an acoustic show at Long Island University's Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Brookville, New York. It was a benefit for the premiere production of Feels Like the First Time – The Foreigner Musical, which will open there in April.
Hosted by original singer Lou Gramm, who did not perform, the band did their first-ever performance of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” with new singer Luis Maldonado on vocals. The Long Island University marching band opened the show with "Feels Like the First Time," which was then performed later in the evening with Broadway actor and singer Adam Pascal -- Rent, Aida, Cabaret, Chicago and more -- on vocals. Pascal will direct the musical, which will feature 14 of the band's hits. It will undergo a developmental workshop and staged reading this fall with the premiere set for April 17th to the 26th at Long Island University’s Little Theatre. Also on hand Friday was Foreigner's original keyboardist Al Greenwood, who addressed the audience. On Saturday, Foreigner did their 50th anniversary show at Ellis Island in New York harbor, which was filmed for a documentary to be released next year.
Green Day Teasing Trailer For "New Years Rev"
Green Day is teasing their upcoming "New Year's Rev" movie with one of their most iconic songs. The trailer dropped over the weekend and features their hit song "Holiday" from the "American Idiot" album.The film follows the chaotic journey of a garage band, The Analog Dogs, who dream of opening for their punk idols on New Year's Eve. "New Year's Rev" premieres on September 12 at the Toronto International Film Festival.
DAVID BOWIE: The Man Who Had a Secret
Not only was David Bowie recording new music in the last months of his life, he was also writing a musical. And it was set in 18th-century London. According to notes locked away in his New York City office, it was tentatively titled The Spectator, and he kept such a closed lid on it that not even his closest collaborators knew about it. The notes were part of his archives that were acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2023. Combining fact and fiction, it was inspired by a periodical published between 1711 and 1712 also called The Spectator. He had sketched out a story and some possible characters, and considered making the folk-hero thief and jailbreaker “Honest Jack” Sheppard a main character. He was also thinking of including Jonathan Wild, the prominent figure in London’s criminal underworld who got Shepard arrested and executed.
In the notebook Bowie kept on this project, he wrote notes about key stories and even ranked them on a scale of 1 to 10. Some were considered for possible subplots, like a morality tale about a beautiful but “vain and severe” woman, whose suitor ditches her for her plain but agreeable sister. Professor Bob Harris, an 18th-century specialist at the University of Oxford, says, "London threw up so many different juxtapositions. Juxtapositions between high and low, between the virtuous and the criminal, and these things existed cheek by jowl. I think it presented so much that was beguiling to contemporaries, but also clearly that Bowie himself found fascinating.” And Madeleine Haddon, a curator at the V&A, says, “It seems he was thinking, ‘What is the role of artists within this period? How are artists creating a kind of satirical commentary?'”
The notes will be on display when the David Bowie Centre opens at the V&A East Storehouse in London on September 13th. Bowie died from liver cancer on January 10th, 2016. He was 69.
R.E.M.: Stipe Offers Up More Lyric Answers
Michael Stipe has offered up some more clarifications on the lyrics to R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." Stipe posted on BlueSky Thursday night, "Ok it's ‘Feed it off an aux, speak, grunt no strength, the ladder start to clatter with fear fight down height, wire in a fire representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site.'"
Internet lryic sites and the band's official Hal Leonard songbook have the lines as "Speed it up a notch, speed, grunt, no strength/The ladder starts to clatter/With a fear of height, down, height/Wire in a fire, represent the seven games/And a government for hire and a combat site." Stipe also added that sometimes he adapted other people's interpretations of his lyrics. He said that with "Driver 8," "I actually changed it to ‘a way to shield the hated heat’ because that was much better [than what I wrote]." Stipe's final word on what he wrote for the band -- "Any other lyrics -- don’t even try Chronic Town, Murmur or Reckoning by the way -- just form vowels and syllables, and mean it."
Chester Bennington's Choor Teacher Attends Linkin Park Concert
Linkin Park fans in Phoenix, Arizona, witnessed a special moment on Satuyrday with someone who knew the late Chester Bennington.During "When They Come For Me," Mike Shinoda noticed a concert-goer in graduation attire, who had skipped his ceremony to attend. After some banter, Shinoda learned the man's mother was Chester's high school choir teacher and thanked her for her impact on the band. The crowd cheered as Shinoda embraced the teacher and her son, acknowledging their deep connection.
Sebastian Bach Curses Out Fan After She Asks For A Hug
Sebastian Bach exploded at a fan during a Chevy Metal show in Las Vegas on Friday after she asked for a hug while he was talking to his wife. The former Skid Row singer cursed out the woman from the stage, calling her names and demanding she be removed from the venue. Bach said from the stage that the fan approached him while he was with his wife asking for a hug, which he found disrespectful. The woman reportedly also flipped him off during the concert. Bach's outburst was captured on fan-filmed video and included him yelling profanities and telling security to remove her. The incident happened at The Copa Room Bootlegger Bistro during Bach's guest appearance with the band Chevy Metal.
IN OTHER NEWS
Paul McCartney went to see Oasis perform Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
It looks as though the next song Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks will release off the September 19th reissue of their self-titled 1973 album, Buckingham Nicks, is "Frozen Love." There is a video on their socials of her singing him part of the lyrics at a Fleetwood Mac show.
Dave Grohl will be honored for his volunteer work by Hope the Mission at their Hope in the City of Angels Gala October 18th at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
Police guitarist Andy Summers will star in an eight-part docu-series, Global Guitar, in which he travels around the world to learn about the impact of the guitar through meetings with local musicians. He says, “I’ve always been interested in the music of other cultures, and the guitar in particular. It is absolutely the preeminent instrument in the world. Every culture has accessed it and made it something of their own. It’s a very evolving instrument that just never seems to stop.” Production will begin in February. Summers will start the fall leg of his The Cracked Lens + Missing String tour on September 17th in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
Wolfgang Van Halen shows how to play Mammoth's song "Right?" in a new video for EVH Gear. Watch it on YouTube.