AEROSMITH: Do They Have a Final Show in Their Bones?
We may not have seen the last of Aerosmith in concert. Appearing on SiriusXM's Faction Talk, Joe Perry talked about possibly touring or doing one final show. "I'm always hoping, but going on the road, it's a big deal pulling that together... there's so much planning, and what it takes out of you physically, it's a lot more than people realize. It's one thing when you're doing it when you're 25 or 30, but it's another when you're starting to get up there like us. It's a really physical thing, going out on stage... "[Steven Tyler and I] talk probably a couple of times a week, and [we] played together up at a charity up in San Francisco [in late April]… So I don't know. But we're talking about it. I mean, except for anything on the calendar, we're all alive and well. So, we'll just have to see. I know there's gotta be at least another Aerosmith gig, and I'm not looking forward to putting the set list together for that one. But I don't know... We'll just have to see. I've always played like every show's the last one. I hate to sound like it's a downer, but I give it up every night." Aerosmith's last show was September 9th, 2023 at which Tyler fell and fractured his larynx. They rescheduled their Peace Out farewell tour for 2024 but canceled it.
The Joe Perry Project with Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford will start a short tour on August 13th in Tampa.
FOO FIGHTERS: Drop an Old Yet New Cover
Foo Fighters have released their first new track in two years -- but it's not exactly new. It's
a cover of “I Don’t Wanna Hear It” by the widely influential hardcore band, Minor Threat. The song's YouTube description says "Instrumentals recorded in 1995. Vocals recorded in 2025."
It also uses the hashtag the band's social media has been using for the past two weeks -- #FF30 -- when sharing images of Dave Grohl and the group from 1995. The Foo Fighters self-titled debut turns 30 on Friday.
QUEEN: 21 Minutes to Remember
In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Live Aid on July 13th, Queen's 21-minute set be shown for 24 straight hours on their YouTube channel that day starting at 1:41pm ET, which is when they took the stage -- 6:41pm in England. The all-day, all-star concert in both London's Wembley Stadium and Philadelphia's J.F.K Stadium saw them do "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Radio Ga Ga", "Hammer To Fall", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "We Will Rock You" and "We are the Champions". Looking back, Brian May says, "Freddie [Mercury] was our secret weapon. He was able to reach out to everybody in that stadium effortlessly, and I think it was really his night.”And Roger Taylor adds, "Sunshine and renewed hope! The whole day was one of those stand out wonderful days. A great credit to music which can move mountains if it has to! It’s beyond politics and politicians!” In addition to the video, the Band Aid Trust and The Mercury Phoenix Trust have teamed up to offer limited-edition merchandise in aid of both charities. Two T-shirts and a poster have been specially designed and overseen by the trustees of both charities, including Bob Geldof, May and Taylor. You can pre-order now at QueenOnlineStore.com.
And in other Live Aid celebration news, the 80s Central website will rebroadcast the entire show starting at 8am ET on July 13th. The special will also include new interviews with Brian May and Howard Jones.
Metallica Concerts Break Empower Field Attendance Records
Metallica is leaving Denver as the new two-show attendance record-holder at Empower Field at Mile High. LiveNation says Metallica's two-shows on June 27th and June 29th, brought in over 152-thousand fans, setting a new record for the venue.Metallica's foundation All Within My Hands also teamed up with the Denver Red Cross to collect 240 units of life-saving blood in the days leading up to the concert, the largest in Denver Red Cross History. The two-shows in Denver were the last of Metallica's M-72 World Tour.
ROBERT PLANT: Lends Ex Another Hand
Robert Plant and his ex-girlfriend, singer Patty Griffin, continue to remain on good terms as he once again makes an appearance on her latest album, Crown of Roses, this time providing backing vocals on "Long Time." Patty was a member of his Band of Joy starting in 2010 and they were a couple into 2013. In 2014, Plant told The Independent, “Patty and I tried a sort of zig-zag across the Atlantic, but she didn’t share my penchant for cider, and she used to marvel at the Black Country character I became after four pints of Thatchers. "My feelings are very much ones of sadness and regret, but I also disturbed myself. I had to come back [to Worcestershire] to find out just how much I valued what I’d left behind – it’s an old song, I guess.” Plant also sang on Griffin’s 2013 album, American Kid, her 2019 self-titled album, and 2022's Tape. Crown of Roses will be released on July 25th. In other Plant news, he recently
took part in a protest over the pollution in the River Severn in Worcestershire. "It's not support, it's reality," he said. "I looked over the river bridge, I sat on the side of the river here, I wondered where it had gone. "I wondered where all the green was that the fish used to feed."
LYNYRD SKYNYRD: More Songs in the Tank?
With Lynyrd Skynyrd having recently signed with Frontiers Music Srl for last Friday's release of Celebrating 50 Years - Live at the Ryman, an album and DVD captured at the historic Nashville venue in 2022 -- their final performance with founding member and guitarist Gary Rossington -- a new studio album is not out of the question. Singer Johnny Van Zant tells
Classic Rock magazine, “We were headed to doing a new studio album, and then Gary’s health got really bad. There are other songs written with Gary before he died that we could record. We will leave that door open for the future... “For me, Skynyrd always made great records, but it was a live band, and that’s still true today. “When I first joined [in 1987] we were all still into drinking and having a party on stage – just like the audience – but nowadays we soak that music up. It’s become more of a spiritual thing, and we never, ever phone it in. That’s something I’m very proud of.” Skynyrd last released a new song in 2020, "The Last of the Street Survivors,” and their last studio album was 2012's Last of a Dyin' Breed. They obviously like the word "last." Skynyrd are on tour in Europe through July with a show in Munich, Germany las night (Monday). They start another U.S. leg on August 1st in Saratoga, California.
SOUNDGARDEN: Vintage Concerts Uploaded to YouTube
Two vintage pro-shot Soundgarden concerts have made it to YouTube in celebration of their upcoming Rock Hall induction later this year. The concerts come from the archives of the
PinkPop festival in The Netherlands. The first is half of a set from 1992 and the other is a full concert from 2012. Soundgarden will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on November 8th in Los Angeles alongside Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Outkast, The White Stripes, Salt-N-Pepa and Warren Zevon.
Black Sabbath given the freedom of Birmingham before Villa Park's farewell gig
The original members of Black Sabbath were honored with the Freedom of the City of Birmingham, the highest honor in their UK hometown. Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward each received city scrolls and medals from the Lord Mayor of Birmingham. The ceremony took place last weekend on Saturday, ahead of the band's final concert this Saturday July 5th at Birmingham's Villa Park. The band members expressed their gratitude for the recognition and their pride in being from Birmingham. Their final concert will be available via a paid livestream featuring other music acts like Metallica, Guns N' Roses, and Slayer.
Jake E. Lee Shooters To Be Sentenced This Month
Jake E. Lee says the two perpetrators involved in his shooting will be sentenced for several crimes this month. The former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist was hurt during an incident near his home in Las Vegas in October. In a series of updates, he revealed that he confronted the men when they were trying to steal a motorcycle, leading them to shoot him and his dog. In a new message on social media, Lee said the gun they used was tied to two previous murders and both suspects will be sentenced this month. In the same post, the musician confirmed that he will be playing at Black Sabbath's final show in Birmingham, England on July 5th.
'F--- Rod Stewart': Glastonbury Set Accompanied by Controversy
Rod Stewart's performance at Glastonbury over last weekend featured special guests Mick Hucknall and Ronnie Wood. However, controversy arose when Stewart seemingly endorsed far-right politician Nigel Farage in a recent interview. Other performers at the festival called out Stewart during their sets, criticizing his political views. Despite the controversy, Stewart delivered a set list of hits and covers, including collaborations with Hucknall and Wood. Stewart and Hucknall duetted on the classic "If You Don't Know Be My Now," Lulu joined him on "Hot Legs," and Wood accompanied him on "Stay With Me."
Pretenders Announce Reissue Of "The Singles" With Remastered Audio
Pretenders are reissuing their 1987 compilation album, "The Singles." The 16-track compilation will include songs like "Brass in Pocket," "Back on the Chain Gang," and "Don't Get Me Wrong." "The Singles" reissue will be available as a double vinyl and CD. It's available for pre-order now.
SMASHING PUMPKINS: One Big Machina
Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins has finally shared details about the multiple reissues of Machina/The Machines of God, due out August 22nd. The remastered album will be released on CD, digitally and two LP sets that are black or red vinyl from traditional retailers. This version adds the song "Speed Kills," which was first released on Japanese CD version back in 2000. There's also an 80-song box set available only through Corgan's Madame Zuzu's tea shop. That has a 48 track version of Machina that's been remixed and remastered and given a new running order with the addition of songs from the companion album Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music. The rest of the tracks are demos, live cuts and other rarities. Corgan says, "Machina was meant as our swan song, and it was truly a labor of love to bring it to fruition, however broken we were back then. But with the band about to embark on a global tour in 2025, as well as my solo tour with The Machines of God, this set stands as a celebration and testament of will, for the songs alone have helped James [Iha], Jimmy
[Chamberlin], and I keep the faith.”
BOB DYLAN & THE BAND: Came Out of the Basement 50 Years Ago
Today (Tuesday) marks the 50th anniversary of the release of The Basement Tapes from Bob Dylan and The Band. The 24 songs were recorded between June and October, 1967 in the basement of "Big Pink," the pink-sided house in West Saugerties, New York, just outside Woodstock, that was shared by The Band's Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson.
Hudson served as the recording engineer for those sessions, which basically meant he set up the mics and turned the two-track tape recorder on and off. Tapes of the recordings circulated over the eight years before the official release, with seven of them contained on the Great White Wonder, one of the first notable and best-selling bootleg albums. The cover of the album was not taken at "Big Pink," but rather the basement of a Los Angeles YMCA. In 2014,
Dylan released 138 of the songs from those sessions on Volume 11 of his Bootleg Series ... The Basement Tapes Raw.
IN OTHER NEWS
Alice Cooper will be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame on October 30th in Chicago. He's being recognized for his syndicated shows, Nights With Alice Cooper and Alice's Attic.
Czech Republic President Petr Pavel was in the audience last week at AC/DC’s show in Prague. And while the band tours Europe, they broke the record for the most tickets sold in one day for their Australian tour this November and December with 320,000, breaking the record they set in 2009.
Former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman says it’s “time to clear out some space for new stuff.”
He’ll be parting with equipment, stage clothing, collectibles and memorabilia and even cars. The first three are a 1988 Jaguar XJS V12 convertible; 1998 Rolls Royce Silver Seraph; and a 2007 Audi Q7 diesel, which was his personal transport on U.K. tours for the last six years. If you’re interested, he says to “register by writing to [his] website with details and you will be contacted privately by the sales agent.”
Iron Maiden has teamed up with luxury streetwear brand Represent for a line of T-shirts, hoodies and jackets. And these don't come cheap -- the shirts start at $155.
Jim Parkinson, the typographer who designed the logo for Rolling Stone magazine, died last Thursday, at 83 from Alzheimer’s Disease. He also designed logos for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Kansas, The Doobie Brothers, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Esquire and Variety.
Kudos to Michael Anthony and his family, who raised just under $50,000 for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles during Walk and Play LA 2025. They walked in memory of his grandson Rex, who died from a heart condition in 2017, two weeks after he was born. If you’d like to donate in support of Rex and the Heartbeaters, go to CHLA.org.
Deep Purple have released a remixed version of “Clearly Quite Absurd,” the second single from the 20th anniversary edition of their 2005 album, Rapture of the Deep. Bassist Roger Glover says, “‘Clearly Quite Absurd’ is a very unusual Deep Purple song, which I like. We’ve always liked being unusual. We don’t follow traditions, really. We are just who we are at a specific time.” It’s accompanied by a previously unreleased instrumental studio rehearsal take of “MTV”. The 20th anniversary edition of Rapture of the Deep will be released on August 29th.
Gene Simmons has posted four more videos of him appearing alongside fictional TV/movie characters thanks to AI (Artificial Intelligence). These include Spider-Man, Star Wars, and The Muppets. Watch them on his website or YouTube.