David Gilmour In The Studio
David Gilmour is working on a new solo record which is expected to be released in 2024.
The new album would be the follow-up to 2015's ‘Rattle That Lock.” The news comes from social media posts by Gilmour's wife, Polly Samson, who posted a series of photographs on Instagram of David working in the studio with various artists. There is no word yet on a release date.
Guitar Gifted By Eddie Van Halen Snatches Six Figures At Auction
Guitarist and composer Jason Becker put a very special guitar up for auction… for a great price. Auction Guernsey’s fetched $110,000 for the instrument gifted to Becker by Eddie Van Halen. The late rock legend signed the guitar with a personal message that read: “Jason. We will play guitar together in the future. Love- from here to your soul, Eddie Van Halen ’96.” Becker was diagnosed with ALS in 1989, and the proceeds went towards the costs of his medical care.
Lars Ulrich's Dad Dies
Lars Ulrich’s dad, Torben Ulrich, is no longer with us. The Metallica drummer’s father passed away at the age of 95. In a tribute posted to Instagram yesterday, Lars wrote, “95 years of adventures, unique experiences, curiosity, pushing boundaries, challenging the status quo, tennis, music, art, writing and quite a bit of Danish contrarian attitude. Thank you endlessly! I love you dad.” The elder Ulrich was also a musician, playing clarinet and saxophone and contributing to a variety of projects over the years.
Beatles Painting Up For Sale
A painting made by the Beatles in 1966 is going up for auction. The band painted the 21.5- by 31-inch piece while in Japan and it is believed to be the only artwork jointly made by all four Beatles and signed by all four. “Images of a Woman” will be up for sale at Christie’s auction house in New York on February 1. It is estimated to fetch between $400,000 and $600,000.
Christie’s specialist Casey Rogers says the piece “crystallizes a magic moment in Beatles history.” She explained, “It’s such a rarity to have a work on paper outside of their music catalog that is (a) physical relic, this tangible object with contributions from all four of The Beatles. It’s memorabilia, it’s a work of art, it appeals to probably a much larger cross-section of collectors. It’s a wonderful piece of storytelling.”
Nirvana Album Cover Child Porn Suit Revived By Judge
It’s been over 30 years since Nirvana’s iconic album “Nevermind” was released… but its controversial album cover is still making waves. That’s because one federal appeals court judge has revived a suit by Spencer Elden, the now-grown man who became infamous as the naked infant on the LP’s artwork. A panel on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals reverse a district court’s dismissal due to the statute of limitations… which means the case may be headed for trial in the future.
Rare Performance: U2 Plays Christmas Cover
U2 is in the Christmas spirit. During their December 15th show at the Las Vegas Sphere, the band performed a cover of Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." Making the performance notable is that U2 had not played the song live in more than three decades. The last time U2 played the song in concert was on December 20th, 1987 in their final show of "The Joshua Tree" tour. The song was featured in U2's "Rattle and Hum" documentary, but was not included on the soundtrack.
Motley Crue Drops New Year's Eve Show In Palm Springs
Any of you who were planning on ringing in the New Year with Mötley Crüe are probably going to be sad to hear this news. Yesterday the band announced that their December 31st gig in Palm Springs’ Acrisure Arena has been cancelled. Claiming they had “deep regret,” the band wrote “the very short timeframe to produce the event resulted in issues beyond our control.” There’s been no promise of a make-up show as of this writing, but the rockers did promise they are looking “forward to seeing you all in 2024!”
Would Ozzy Osbourne Revive Randy Rhoads With AI?
Ozzy Osbourne says he's open to the idea of using AI to revive the late, great guitarist Randy Rhoads. Ozzy and his family discussed it on the most recent episode of their The Osbournes podcast. Ozzy was talking about how the Beatles used AI to help create "Now and Then" - but said he didn't have any old Rhoads material to use. When Jack asked him about using AI to create new guitar parts inspired by Rhoads, Ozzy said "You know what? I'm open for anything, if it is good quality."
New Buddy Holly Book On The Way
Buddy Holly’s life and career are the subjects of a new book. ‘Words of Love’ is being released in collaboration with Holly’s widow, María Elena Holly, and the Buddy Holly Educational
Foundation. The book, conceived in 2017 by The Who’s Roger Daltrey, shares Holly’s life and legacy through never-before-seen photos and personal items, along with stories by María Elena and contributions from artists like Eric Clapton, Robert Plant, Keith Richards, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Pete Townshend, Van Morrison and Brian May.
The book is available for preorder in three limited-edition collectible box sets, with original cover art by The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood. The most expensive of the three is the Luthier edition, which sells for over $13,000. It includes a leather-bound copy of the book with gold foiling and gold edging, signed by Daltrey, Townshend and María Elena. It also comes with a limited-edition replica of Holly’s Gibson J45 guitar, on which he wrote such songs as “Send Me Some Lovin'” and “Everyday,” and a 7–inch vinyl with two rare home recordings by Holly.
BILLY JOEL: Ringing in New Music?
Billy Joel hasn’t released new pop music since his 1993 album, River of Dreams, but that streak may soon come to an end. Having just launched a TikTok account, his first post shows him on stage where he says, “I have good news and bad news. The bad news first: We don’t have anything new to play for you. The good news is, you don’t have to sit through something you have no idea what it is, although, we got a little somethin’ we’re working on you might hear sometime.”
While we wait to see what he has planned, Joel will ring in the New Year at the UBS Arena in Elmont on Long Island, New Yor
DAVE GROHL: Opens Up About Mom’s Death
Dave Grohl opened up about the death of his mother Virginia in a new episode of the podcast Song Exploder. She died in July 2022, and Grohl started writing the Foo Fighters epic 10-minute song "The Teacher" from But Here We Are when she was in the hospital.
He explained, "I was with her for all of the time leading up to her passing. Every day during that period, I would write something on the guitar, because I felt that if I didn’t have that release, I would explode. I would spend the day at the hospital and then try to translate it musically -- with no clear intention of what I was trying to achieve. I was finding these chords and progressions that mirrored the way that I felt.”
Grohl originally made two separate demos but then realized if he put them together into one track, "I could have a piece of music bigger than anything that we’ve ever done that I could dedicate to my mother... "She was the most important person in my entire life. So I thought this had to be the most important music I ever made.”
ERIC CLAPTON: Secret Policeman’s Deal
Police guitarist Andy Summers is much older than his bandmates, putting him on the London music scene years before he met Sting and Stewart Copeland. And it was during his pre-fame years that he first met Eric Clapton and ended up selling him a guitar.
In a new YouTube interview, he says he had a Sunburst Les Paul with him when he ran into Clapton in a club and Clapton fell in love with it. Summers told him he got it at Rose Morris, a guitar shop in London, and that they had another one, which Clapton purchased. But, Summers says, that wasn't the end of the story. “So, time moves on. Eric’s Les Paul gets stolen, and he knows I’ve got the other one. He starts calling me relentlessly.
“I kept resisting it. But finally, he called me so many times that I actually agreed to sell it. I didn’t feel great about it, but he just really wanted it. So, we agreed on a price. I charged him 200 pounds for it. It’s worth about two-million now. Who knew?”
When the deal went down, Summers had switched to playing a 1958 White Fender Telecaster with the Les Paul in a case under his bed. Ironically, Clapton pretty much stopped playing a Les Paul in the '70s, having switched to a Fender Stratocaster, which is still his guitar of choice today.
"Immediate Family" Doc Profiles Session Musicians-Turned-Band
A group of five longtime sessions musicians that became a band is the subject of a new documentary. "Immediate Family" the name of the band and the new film, which is being shown at theaters and streamed on platforms such as Prime Video and Apple-TV. "Immediate Family" is comprised of guitarists Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel and Steve Postell, bassist Leland Sklar and drummer Russ Kunkel. Their individual and collective range of credits include albums by the likes of James Taylor, Phil Collins, Carole King and numerous others over the past five decades. Kortchmar, Kunkel and Sklar all played on Jackson Browne's "Running On Empty" live album.
BOB DYLAN: Someone Knew How He Felt
It's no secret that Bob Dylan has led a relatively private life, but he once said there was one person who understood him. Onetime Grateful Dead co-manager John Scher, during an appearance on The Bob Lefsetz Podcast, says he walked out of Jerry Garcia's funeral at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Belvedere, California on August 12th, 1995 with Dylan who said to him: "The guy lying there (Garcia), he's the only one in the world and knows what it's like to be me," which Scher says was "pretty profound.”
Another person trying to figure out Dylan is actor Timothée Chalamet who will play him in the film, A Complete Unknown. He tells MTV to help him prepare for the role, Dylan's office sent him 12 hours of unreleased music from 1959 to '64. “I feel like I’m holding onto gold or something,” he says, adding, “some of it I’d love to sneak in the movie.”
While the film has been in development for four years, Chalamet has yet to meet Dylan.
“I would love to meet him now but my feeling for the last four years was God forbid I met him and he was like ‘No.’ All this hard work will go down the drain.” No word yet on when the film will be out.
Brotherly Love: No Feud Between Lennon's Sons
Julian Lennon says there has never been anything other than brotherly love between him and his brother Sean. In an interview with Esquire, Julian used the words "such bull" to describe constant media reports of feuds between John Lennon's two sons. The older brother said the two of them have "never had a fight" in their lives. The Beatles' smash "Hey Jude" was written for Julian by Paul McCartney after John Lennon and his first wife divorced.
IN OTHER NEWS
While Bruce Springsteen has been nominated for Best Song at the Golden Globe Awards for "Addicted to Romance" from She Came to Me, he didn't make the cut for an Oscar nomination. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its shortlist of 15 songs that will determine the five nominees, and Springsteen isn't on there. However, Lenny Kravitz's "Road to Freedom" from Rustin did make it. Also, the late Robbie Robertson made it for Best Original Score for his work on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. The Oscar nominations will be announced January 23rd.
Cheap Trick singer Robin Zander, Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider, and KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer were among those who performed at illusionist Criss Angel's 56th birthday party Monday at the House of Blues in Las Vegas. Among those in the audience were Tony Orlando, Steven Van Zandt and Paul Stanley. The show was a benefit for Make-a-Wish Southern Nevada.
Original KISS drummer Peter Criss was surprised this week by his wife Gigi with a 78th birthday party at a Florida restaurant. She posted video and photos on his website. His birthday was Wednesday, December 20th.
Billy Joel hasn’t released new pop music since his 1993 album, River of Dreams, but that streak may soon come to an end. Having just launched a TikTok account, his first post shows him on stage where he says, “I have good news and bad news. The bad news first: We don’t have anything new to play for you. The good news is, you don’t have to sit through something you have no idea what it is, although, we got a little somethin’ we’re working on you might hear sometime.”
While we wait to see what he has planned, Joel will ring in the New Year at the UBS Arena in Elmont on Long Island, New Yor