LED ZEPPELIN: Back To IMAX
The Led Zeppelin documentary, Becoming Led Zeppelin, returns to IMAX theaters for a second time today (Friday). Earlier this month it had the biggest debut weekend for any IMAX music film, taking in over $3 million. Following the IMAX screening, it opened in more than 1,000 U.S. theaters on February 14th, landing it in the Top 10 at the box office these last two weekends bringing the total U.S. take to $7.7 million. It's grossed over $9 million worldwide. Becoming Led Zeppelin tells the story of the band's beginnings through their second album, Led Zeppelin II. John Paul Jones recalled "The name Led Zeppelin was coined by Keith Moon, which was originally going to be for a band that recorded [Jeff Beck's] 'Beck's Bolero', which was Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Nicky Hopkins, myself and Keith Moon. I think we did a couple of tracks actually. And then the thought of it all going on the road I thought was sort of fairly horrific. Quite a bunch of characters as you can probably imagine. And so that never came about, but we remembered the name and asked if we could use it."
Kurt Cobain's Hair Is Up For Auction
This is your chance to own part of rock history. A new auction from Potter & Potter Auctions has a ton of rock memorabilia up for grabs, and some of them are certainly…unique. Fans now have the chance to purchase Kurt Cobain’s hair or even a pair of GG Allin’s underwear…allegedly signed in his own blood. This isn’t the first time Cobain’s hair has gone on the auction block. Back in 2021 six strands of his hair sold for just over $14-thousand! All the items are part of the auction house’s Punks, Monsters, Smut & Madmen: A Countercultural Cross-Section event. Bidding starts on March 6th.
Gallagher Brothers Meet Ahead Of Oasis Reunion
Noel and Liam Gallagher met in public for the first time in over a decade, ahead of their massive reunion tour later this year. Noel and Liam's sons, Lennon and Gene, were present at the meeting and acted as peacemakers. The meeting took place at the Nobu Hotel London Portman Square, where Noel arrived before Liam and his sons joined him in a private room.Oasis confirmed their reunion in August, marking their first performance since their 2009 split. The first show will be July 4th in Cardiff.
HEART: Beating Again
Heart will resume their Royal Flush Tour today and Saturday in Las Vegas after being off the road for eight months while Ann Wilson underwent an operation and treatment for cancer.
They started rehearsals last week and Nancy Wilson says her older sister is ready. "She's actually looking great, sounding great, feeling great, moving well. She did all the PT (physical therapy). She did all the health stuff. So, we're excited and happy to just get back on the metal horse, you know."
Ann provided an update last September, saying she was doing "absolutely fine, but it's been, to put it mildly, a lot," adding that "chemo is no joke. It takes a lot out of a person." But it doesn't end there. "Then there's that two weeks of waiting around for test results -- a form of mental torture. For anyone's who been through that I empathize big time. Luckily for me, when the results finally came, they were the good kind. And so I'm excited to share with you that I'm now finished with chemo and I'm officially ready to get ready for the tour in 2025. There's maintenance going forward, but I'm told the side effects are much less severe. The worst is over and I'm thankful for the efficacy of this poison. But it's more than welcome to get the [BLEEP] out of my body now. My story has a happy ending, due in part to early detection. My advice, get checked regularly."
Squeeze will open the tour starting Monday in Los Angeles through the 14th in Portland, Oregon. Cheap Trick takes over from March 20th in Calgary, Alberta through April 5th in Quebec, and Lucinda Williams joins for two shows – April 10th in Toronto and the 16th in New York City, which is the final date for this leg. They'll be back out again in the late spring with a June 1st date in Vienna, Virginia being the only date announced thus far. This Royal Flush Tour, which got underway last April, was Heart's first since 2019.
Billy Joel, Stevie Nicks team up for blockbuster concert in the Bay Area
Music legends Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks are set to perform at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara in October, marking their first performances at the venue. Nicks, who has ties to the Bay Area, will be returning to her childhood roots, while Joel will make a long-awaited comeback to the region after a decade. The concert is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 4, with tickets going on sale on Friday, March 7 at ticketmaster.com.
Billy Joel Fans Talk About His Concert Fall
Billy Joel has joined a long list of performers that have taken a tumble on stage. While it happened last weekend, Joel’s fans have spoken to “The Daily Mail” about it this week. The icon was in the middle of “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut on Saturday when he lost his footing. He stumbled backward and fell on his back. Joel was helped up and then sang one more song before wrapping up the show. One fan noted that “I was really very concerned about him throughout the concert,” while another shared “He looked frail hobbling across the stage. At one point, he was using the microphone stand as a cane.” There’s no word on how the “Piano Man” singer is doing.
George Harrison’s Piece Of Toast Sells At Auction
George Harrison’s breakfast toast from 1963 just sold at auction. The toast was part of Harrison’s meal the night of The Beatles’ final show at The Cavern Club in Liverpool. After it left Harrison’s hands, the toast was snapped up and sold at a 1991 auction for $94,800. Now it has been sold for an undisclosed price by a collector named Joseph O’Donnell.
Paul Stanley Defends Not Including KISS Alum At Farewell Show
Paul Stanley has come out to defend the fact that no former KISS members appeared at the group’s final concert in 2023…or were even mentioned. The show featured Gene Simmons as well as Stanley and the group’s most recent and longest-tenured lead guitarist and drummer…Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer. Founding members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss as well as former members Vinnie Vincent, Bruce Kulick, Mark St. John, and Eric Carr were not mentioned by name. Stanley defended the choice while speaking on the “Talk is Jericho” podcast. “It wasn't…a celebration of the beginning of the band. It was a celebration of 50 years of a band, as opposed to a tribute to the start,” Stanley says, adding. “What are we gonna have videos up on the screen or draped photos? The fact that we were there, we were there because of everybody who participated, some more than others, but the tribute to everyone is us existing."
Sons Of Kiss Members Recording Together
Don't call them "Kiss, Junior," but the sons of two original Kiss members have been recording together. Gene Simmons' son Nick and Paul Stanley's son Evan posted photos of themselves on social media with the caption "one song turned into ten real quick." Another post was a video of the two jamming in a casual setting with guitarist Jacob Bunton. Evan Stanley has his own band -- Amber Wild -- which opened for Kiss during the final leg of their "End of the Road" farewell tour. In an interview last year with music website Misplaced Straws, Stanley says he's a fan of Kiss, but he has no intention of ever putting on the Kiss makeup. There's no word if the recordings will evolve into a formal project.
Gibson Launches New Eric Clapton Les Paul Custom Guitar Limited to 150 Pieces
Gibson has released a limited-edition Eric Clapton 1958 Les Paul Custom guitar, modeled after the one Clapton played during his Cream days. The guitar is made from solid mahogany with an ebony fretboard and features three unpotted Custombuckers for a rich tone. Each guitar includes two pickguards, one signed by Clapton and Albert Lee, and comes in a wooden display box with accessories. Priced at $19,999, the guitar is available on the Gibson website and at select Gibson Garage locations in Nashville and London.
BON JOVI: Another Attempt at Forever
Jon Bon Jovi is putting some extra work into his band's last album, 2024's Forever. The "new" album that guitarist Phil X recently said they're working on is a re-recording of Forever with guest vocalists. In an interview with Sound On Sound magazine, Jon says, "This is an album that we're very proud of, and I think it's the best Bon Jovi record since [2007's] Lost Highway or at least [2005's] Have a Nice Day. We love every song on it, and it was a joy to make this album, but I just wasn't ready to go and book shows post-surgery recovery. So, I reached out to a number of friends, and I said, 'If you guys would sing a verse here and there, it'll give this great album another life.' ..."My focus moving forward is on the re-release of Forever, and God willing, getting back out on the road and running that project through its life."
The only guests known at this time are The War and Treaty, which joined him last year to re-record "The People's House." A video for that version was released last October in conjunction with Jon endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President. When it was released last June, Forever debuted at number-five on the Billboard 200, but then quickly fell off the chart.
It's their second consecutive album not to be embraced by their fans as 2020 only hung around for two weeks after debuting at number 19. This Sunday, March 2nd, is Jon's 63rd birthday.
MAMMOTH WVH: Focusing On Songs for LP 3
Wolfgang Van Halen is hard at work on the third Mammoth WVH album, and he's got a different focus this time around. In an appearance on Billy Corgan's The Magnificient Others podcast Van Halen said "I'm having fun expanding the sound and finding where the limits are. I think the first album was very much a comfy rock album. And when it came to the second one I was itching more to do some virtuoso-eque things like some more solo moments on guitar now that I was comfortable." "And now that I think I've gotten that out of my system I'm having fun really focusing on the song."
BOB DYLAN, MACHINE GUN KELLY: Who Expected This Shout Out?
Bob Dylan has been posting some weird film clips on his Instagram account the past couple months, but on Wednesday night he decided to share a performance done by singer-rapper Machine Gun Kelly. It's a video shot at Park Ave CDs in Orlando in 2016 and features MGK doing four rap tracks. No one knows why Dylan posted it, and the person most surprised by it has to be MGK himself. He took to his Instagram Story late Wednesday to write "this was not on my 2025 bingo card." He then added a video where he said he believed that the post was a sign to keep working on his new album. He also called the moment “so cool” and said he was “so grateful” for Dylan’s post.
VAN MORRISON: He Really Is the Man
Van Morrison, at 79, remains the most prolific songwriter of his generation. On June 13th he will release Remembering Now, his 47th studio album, his 15th in the last 13 years, and his first with original material since 2022. The album contains 14 songs with the first single and video, "Down to Joy," out now. Morrison will be back on the road for a U.K. tour starting March 18th in Nottingham, England. He'll follow that up with European dates in April and June.
IN OTHER NEWS
Today’s (Friday) all-star tribute to the late Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts – In Memory of Dickey Betts – will be live-streamed for free at Nugs.net. Organized by his son Duane, the show features Allman Brothers Band members Jaimoe (the last surviving member of the original lineup), Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Chuck Leavell, and Oteil Burbridge, plus Susan Tedeschi and Gregg Allman’s son Devon Allman. A portion of the proceeds from the show will go toward the Dickey Betts Memorial Endowed Scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
If you’re so enamored with Ozzy Osbourne that you want to share a wall to his childhood home in Birmingham, England, then perhaps you want to bid on the house next door. The three-bedroom, terraced house at 16 Lodge Road will go on the auction block on March 27th. The sale will be livestreamed with details at BondWolfe.com/auctions/properties/.
Close Enemies, the new band featuring Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton, have released a new song, "Inside Out.”
Stanford University in Palo Alto, California has added another course on the Grateful Dead to its Continuing Studies curriculum. Composition, Interpretation, and Improvisation: The Music of the Grateful Dead is a six-week course that will be taught by Dead insider David Gans from April 8th to May 13th. It “offers a comprehensive exploration of their distinctive musical style —where individual contributions converge into a cohesive sound that creates ‘gestalt magic.’” Last fall the school held another eight-week course, Did It Matter? Does It Now? The Music and Culture of the Grateful Dead.
Rod Stewart, Def Leppard, George Thorogood and many others are part of Festival d’Été de Québec, July 3rd to the 13th in Quebec City, Canada.
Jackson Browne will be honored by Music Will, the largest non-profit music education program for schools in the U.S., at its annual benefit at Gotham Hall in New York City on April 9th.
Sting and Shaggy have released a video for their latest collaboration, "Til a Mawnin." Watch it on YouTube.