Classic Rock
Mötley Crüe Officially Name John 5 as Mick Mars’ Replacement in Touring Lineup
Mötley Crüe have officially named Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 as a new member of their touring lineup. He replaces founding member Mick Mars, who retired from touring on Wednesday (October 26th) due to his ongoing battle with the degenerative disease Ankylosing Spondylitis. John 5 had been rumored to take Mars’ place, even before the latter officially announced his retirement. In recent days, John 5 posted pictures of himself hanging out with Mötley Crüe members Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx, and Vince Neil during a celebration of Lee’s 60th birthday. In the statement that Mars’ representative issued on Wednesday night, it was made clear that Mars would still “continue as a member of the band,” but would no longer play shows with them. However, the Crüe’s statement on Thursday (October 27th) reads...
Top 5 Mötley Crüe Guitarist Candidates Following Mick Mars’ Retirement from Touring
With Mick Mars stepping away from touring, one of the highest profile guitar gigs in rock music is now on the job market. Mötley Crüe’s founding axeman will still remain a member of the band, but will no longer play live shows due to his ongoing battle with Ankylosing Spondylitis, a crippling degenerative disease that affects the spine. In addition to his health issues, Mars is the elder statesman of the Crüe, roughly a decade older than everyone else in the band. In the infamous Crüe biography The Dirt, Mars described how he often caught flak for his age, as he was already established as a journeyman guitarist in the years prior to Mötley Crüe’s formation. Given Mars’ experience, it’s only fitting that Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, and Vince Neil tap someone who not only fits the part but has al...
Mötley Crüe Guitarist Mick Mars Retires from Touring
Founding Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars has retired from touring, according to an official statement released on Wednesday evening (October 26th). The veteran musician will still remain an official member of the band, but will no longer hit the road with the legendary rock act due to his ongoing battle with Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.). After a two-year delay due to the pandemic, Mötley Crüe finally embarked on their co-headlining “Stadium Tour” with Def Leppard this past summer. The outing was an enormous success, grossing $173.5 million in ticket sales. Now, it appears that the tour marked Mars’ last with the Crüe. The full statement, issued by Mars’ representative to Variety, reads as follows: “Mick Mars, co-founder and lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe for the past 4...
Rick Rubin Picks His Desert Island Discs
What items would you bring with you to a deserted island? It’s a classic question, and now we have Rick Rubin’s answer: the super-producer appeared on a new episode of the BBC show Desert Island Discs, and he chose tracks by The Beatles, LCD Soundsystem, Simon & Garfunkel, and more to tide him over in complete isolation. For track number one, Rubin pointed to The Beatles’ “Across the Universe,” which he said not only taught him the basics of songwriting, but inspired him to learn how to meditate. “From three years old to seven years old, The Beatles was everywhere, and everywhere in my home,” he recalled. “And it somehow imprinted what a great song is, in a very deep level, before I knew that I was looking for what that was.” Skipping ahead a few decades, Rubin chose LCD Soundsystem’s ...
AC/DC’s Brian Johnson Quashes Rumor That Bon Scott Wrote Lyrics for Back in Black
AC/DC singer Brian Johnson has closed the book on long-running rumors suggesting his late predecessor Bon Scott penned lyrics for Back in Black. For years, hardcore AC/DC fans have wondered whether Scott wrote lyrics for the seminal 1980 album, being that he passed away only months before the album was recorded and released. Songs like “Hells Bells,” “Have a Drink on Me,” and of course the legendary title track certainly share some of the imagery and themes of Scott’s lyrics. But Johnson insists that it was he himself who penned the words. Johnson laid the rumors to rest in Chapter 22 of his new memoir, The Lives of Brian: “It was me at the end of the pen, writing every night and every morning, with only the title to work with. That’s what happened. That’s the truth and I really hope that ...
Ozzy Osbourne to Perform Virtually as Part of “Ozzfest” at Metaverse Music Festival
Ozzy Osbourne is set to perform virtually for the “Ozzfest” portion of the second annual Metaverse Music Festival, which takes place online November 10th through the 13th. The Metaverse Music Festival (MVMF) will be hosted in Decentraland, the largest user-owned and operated virtual social world. Presented by digital asset platform Kraken, this year’s MVMF will feature 100-plus artists virtually performing across curated community genre stages that utilize new, Web3-enabled immersive virtual concert experiences. That said, the festival is free for all and can be attended even if you have don’t have a VR headset. As an example, the main attraction for this year’s MVMF is the “Tower of Babel” stage, which is set in a futuristic cyberpunk city. Here, attendees can watch headliners such as Uni...
Iron Maiden Bring the “Beast” to Newark, New Jersey: Recap, Photos + Video
Iron Maiden are set to wrap up their extensive “Legacy of the Beast World Tour,” with the latest North American leg having kicked off last month in El Paso, Texas. The ongoing run made a stop in Newark, New Jersey, at a packed Prudential Center on Friday (October 21st), featuring support from Within Temptation. The worldwide outing, which began in 2018, comes to an end at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, on October 27th, with tickets available here for the last couple shows. Iron Maiden are on the road in support of their 17th studio album, Senjutsu, and the UK heavy metal legends made sure to bring a few new tunes to Jersey, kicking off their 15-song set with the album’s title track, while also showcasing “Stratego” and “The Writing on the Wall.” Fans pumped their fists in the air as the b...
How to Get Tickets to Joni Mitchell’s 2023 Concert at the Gorge
After making a surprise public appearance on stage with Brandi Carlile at this year’s Newport Folk Festival, Joni Mitchell has announced that she will perform an entire concert at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington on June 10th, 2023, marking her first publicly-announced show in two decades. Since the gig will be the first time fans can buy tickets to an advertised Mitchell performance since 2000, you can expect a ton of folks trying to score seats to the event. Read on to see how to get tickets yourself to Joni Mitchell’s 2023 concert. What Is Joni Mitchell’s 2023 Concert? Mitchell’s concert will come as part of Carlile’s “Echoes Through the Canyon,” a two-night event at the Gorge taking place on June 9th and 10th. Carlile will headline night one before leading a backup band for...
Original Alice Cooper Band Is Working on More New Music
The original Alice Cooper group has been collaborating together in recent years, and more new music is on the way. In a new interview, Cooper revealed that he’s once again recording with guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith (all from the band’s ’60s and early ’70s heyday), and they have about a dozen new songs in the works. Previously, the three appeared on two songs on 2021’s Detroit Stories — “Social Debris” and “I Hate You” — and also on select tracks on 2017’s Paranormal. “We’re working pretty close right now,” Cooper told Ultimate Classic Rock during a Q&A session at the Motor City Comic Con this past weekend in Detroit. “We wrote, like, 12 songs together [for future projects].” Advertisement Related Video Cooper didn’t have an ETA for when the n...
Jack Black Sings to Young School of Rock Fan with Terminal Illness in Heartwarming Video: Watch
Jack Black recently serenaded a young School of Rock fan receiving end-of-life care with an impromptu performance of a song from the film. The actor and Tenacious D singer-guitarist was in attendance at the Layla Paige and Friends Walk for TrinityKids Care, a fundraiser event for a hospice program providing end-of-life care to children in Southern California. A video from the October 8th event sees Black being introduced to Abraham, a 15-year-old receiving palliative care for a rare mitochondrial disease called Pearson syndrome. A huge School of Rock fan, Abraham tells Black that his favorite song from the film is “In the End of Time.” Black then gets down on a knee, level with Abraham, and busts into an impromptu rendition of the song, much to the delight of the young fan. Advertisement “...
How to Get Tickets to Journey’s “Freedom Tour 2023”
Journey are preparing to head out on their massive North American “Freedom Tour 2023,” and for the band that practically wrote the motto for a guaranteed good time, fans will want to secure tickets fast. The group will be supporting their first album in 11 years, July’s Freedom. Get tickets here, and read on for more details including pre-sale dates. What Is Journey’s Next Tour? The “Freedom Tour 2023” spans 38 cities across North America and begins on February 4th in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Journey will spend the first week on the East Coast between Virginia and North Carolina, then they’ll head south via Lexington, Kentucky and Knoxville, Tennessee. They’ll play Austin’s Moody Center on February 22nd, Jacksonville’s Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena on February 26th, and Washington, D.C.’s...
Syd Barrett Documentary Have You Got It Yet? to Explore Pink Floyd’s Troubled Genius
Pink Floyd’s original, troubled frontman is the subject of Mercury Studios new documentary, Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd. As Deadline reports, the film was co-directed by Roddy Bogawa and the late Storm Thorgerson, co-founder of Hipgnosis and designer of some of rock’s most iconic album covers, including pretty much every Pink Floyd record from 1968’s Saucerful of Secrets through the greatest hits collection The Best of Pink Floyd: A Foot in the Door (2011). Thorgerson died in 2013 at the age of 69 of cancer. According to a statement, “The film was completed by Bogawa with StormStudios photographer Rupert Truman and producer Julius Beltrame after Storm’s untimely death.” Thorgerson went to high school with Barrett and Roger...
