ROCK HALL: More Details
While the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is trying to keep a tight lid on Saturday night's induction ceremony, here are some of what we know will take place:
·David Letterman will posthumously induct Warren Zevon, his friend and frequent guest on Late Night and The Late Show. The Killers will perform in Zevon's honor.
·Iggy Pop will induct fellow Michigan natives The White Stripes. It's still up in the air whether Jack White and his ex-wife Meg will attend. Twenty One Pilots will perform "Seven Nation Army" in their honor.
·Actor Jim Carrey will induct Soundgarden.
·Brandi Carlile will sing "Black Hole Sun" and also joining Soundgarden for their performance are Taylor Momsen from The Pretty Reckless (who has performed with them before) along with Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready, Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell, and rounding out the list of Seattle guitarists is Nancy Wilson of Heart.
·Elton John will perform in tribute to Brian Wilson who passed away this past June.
·Bryan Adams will induct Joe Cocker, with Teddy Swims singing on behalf of him.
·Mick Fleetwood will induct Bad Company, and Bryan Adams will fill in for Paul Rodgers who has been advised by his doctors not to fly due to having 13 strokes since 2016. Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry will also take part in the Bad Company performance, which will include drummer Simon Kirke, the only member of the band who will attend as guitarist Mick Ralphs died this past June; bassist Boz Burrell preceded him in 2006.
·Salt-N-Peppa will perform.
·Questlove will reportedly induct Outkast, but they won't perform due to Andre 3000 being too nervous to do so. Doja Cat, Tyler the Creator and others will perform in a tribute.
·Cyndi Lauper will be inducted by Chappell Roan and Cyndi will also perform.
·Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea will induct Carol Kaye, bassist in The Wrecking Crew, who will not attend because the Rock Hall called her a member of the Wrecking Crew and Kaye has made clear that she hates the term invented by drummer Hal Blaine for the group of Los Angeles studio musicians in the 1960s.
·This Thursday's Grammy Museum/Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Q&A with Bad Company has been canceled due to Paul Rodgers being unable to attend.
·And next year's Induction Ceremony will be held in New York.
The Induction Ceremony will stream live coast to coast on Disney+ starting at 5 pm ET, and will also be available to stream afterwards. ABC will also air a condensed version on January 1st at 8 pm ET. Additionally, the 2025 Inductee Exhibit is on display at the Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland featuring artifacts such as the handwritten lyrics to “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper, the outfits worn by Meg White and Jack White on the cover of The White Stripes’ Icky Thump, a 1979 Gibson Les Paul electric guitar played by Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, and much more.
Foreigner To Ride "Stranger Things" Float In Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
"Hot Blooded," "Cold As Ice" and "Waiting For A Girl Like You" have all featured in "Stranger Things" at some point, so perhaps it's no surprise that when the "Stranger Things" float is seen in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Foreigner will be on it. The parade starts at 8:30am on Thanksgiving morning, broadcast live on NBC and streaming on Peacock. The day prior, at 8pm ET/5pm PT, the first four episodes of "Stranger Things" Season 5 will drop on Netflix.
STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, SUBLIME: Son to Pay Tribute to Scott Weiland
Noah Weiland will mark a decade since his dad's Scott Weiland's passing with a little help from the son of another famous musician. Noah will perform his dad's songs on December 3rd -- the 10th anniversary of the Stone Temple Pilots singer's death at age 48 -- at the Garden Amp in Garden Grove, California. The show will also feature Jakob Nowell, current Sublime frontman and son of the late Bradley Nowell, performing with his other project, Jakob's Castle. Noah wrote on Instagram, “10 years has gone by so fast, but his legacy must continue. We will be performing all of the hits & even some deep cuts.”
Download Festival To Be Headlined By Limp Bizkit, Guns N' Roses, Linkin Park
The lineup for 2026's Download Festival has been announced. There's a retro vibe to many of the acts, though current rock is also well represented. On the bill: Limp Bizkit, Guns N’ Roses and Linkin Park have been named as headliners. Also playing -- Architects, Bad Omens, BabyMetal, The Pretty Reckless, Bush, Trivium, Mastodon, Halestorm, Tom Morello, Ice Nine Kills, Black Veil Brides, Cypress Hill and a special appearance by the band Dogstar, featuring actor Keanu Reeves. Additional acts are slated to be announced. The 23rd edition of the European festival will be held from June 10-16 at Donington Park, Leicestershire. Tickets are on sale now.
Toto Confirms First 13 Dates For 2026 Tour
Toto is planning 13 new shows for 2026. The "Evening With Toto" performance will feature a new curated set list that adds up to two hours of music. The tour kicks off in February and will continue through March.Tickets will be available to the general public this Friday. Toto is currently touring South America and Mexico, with one more North American date set for 2025.
R.E.M., HOOTIE, DARIUS RUCKER, BLACK CROWES: Howl Owl Howl Starts Flight
Howl Owl Howl, the supergroup of Mike Mills of R.E.M., Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish and ex-Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman, played their first ever concert Monday night in Indianapolis, Indiana. The trio's touring lineup includes guitarist Sol Philcox-Littlefield, multi-instrumentalist Kenny Vaughn and fiddle player Carmella Ramsey. The show featured their first single "My Cologne" along with nine as yet unreleased songs from the group's first album. They also did a number of songs from their famous bands -- the Crowes' "She Talks to Angels" and their arrangement of "Hard to Handle," R.E.M.'s "I Believe," "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville," "Losing My Religion" and "The One I Love," plus Hootie's "Let Her Cry" and "Time."
Howl Owl Howl continued their tour last night (Tuesday) in Chicago.
Former Guns N' Roses Manager Sues Band To Stop Blocking His Book
Former Guns N' Roses manager Alan Niven is suing the band for attempting to block the release of his new memoir, "Sound N' Furry: Rock N' Roll Stories." The book was scheduled to be out in July 2025, however, it's been pushed back to March 31st of 2026. In his lawsuit, Niven claims that the band has made threats towards him and publisher ECW Press to prevent its release. In the lawsuit, he summarizes his memoir and details the reasons for its delay, saying he mentions his career with GNR and stories involving the five members. But the lawsuit also states that they've tried to prevent the release despite publicly commenting on Niven, with one member encouraging him to write the book. Niven's time with Guns' N Roses ended in 1991.
NEIL YOUNG: Another "Explodes" Video
Neil Young has shared a follow-up to last week's "As Time Explodes" video. This one is titled "As Time Explodes 2.0" and it uses footage of immigrant farmers working and raids by ICE agents to the instrumental intro to "Like a Hurricane" that Young and the Chrome Hearts
played this summer on tour. Check it out on on YouTube.
LYNYRD SKYNYRD: Giving Back
Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Johnny Van Zant and his family have organized Rockin' 4 a Cure, a fundraiser for the Alliance to Cure Cavernous Malformation, this Wednesday at Porsche Jacksonville in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. On September 24th, 2024, his 23-year old daughter Taylor had her right side go completely numb and was rushed to the hospital, where tests revealed a rare disease known as a Cerebral Cavernous Malformation (CCM), also called a Cavernoma, in the left thalamus of her brain. Taylor started a fundraising campaign to help fund research to find a cure, setting a goal of $500,000 for Alliance to Cure Cavernous Malformation. So far she has raised just under $126,000.
Proud papa Johnny says, "My whole point in putting this event together is to bring awareness to Cavernomas and to help fund a cure... There is no funding to help people with severe cases and this disease has a wide range of severity. I have watched so many testimonials of people of all ages, who are just hoping for relief and to live out semi-normal lives! The goal is to make a difference for those who are struggling and have lost all sense of hope." In addition to the music and food at the event, there is also a silent online auction with memorabilia donated by Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Styx, Paul Rodgers, Bret Michaels, Carrie Underwood, Lainey Wilson, the Mickey Mantle Estate, Doug Flutie, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Hendrick Motorsports, and many more. You can look at and bid on items at My.OneCause.com, which is also where you can buy tickets for the livestream.
Campaign Launched To Posthumously Award Ace Frehley Honorary Astronaut Status
A campaign aimed at giving late Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley Honorary Astronaut Status is taking off. Organizer Katherine Sugg says "in honor of his memory, and his one last remaining unfilled wish, NASA should posthumously make Ace Frehley an honorary astronaut with the rank of "Captain." The campaign can be found on Change.org. The musician came up with his Spaceman persona - Space Ace - when Kiss launched in 1973 and kept the theme going after parting ways with the band. Frehley died on October 16th at 74-years-old
Radiohead Plays First Show In 7 Years
Radiohead's first tour in over seven years is officially underway.The group kicked things off with a show in Madrid, Spain on Tuesday night. They opened with their song "Let Down," and played 24 other songs, including "Sit Down, Stand Up," "Lucky," "15 Step," and "Bloom." Radiohead is scheduled to play three more shows in Madrid before heading to Italy, the U.K., Denmark, and Berlin.
THE WHO: 60 Years of Their Generation
Today (Wednesday) November 5th, marks 60 years (1965) since The Who released "My Generation," their fourth single and title track of their debut album. The song features Roger Daltrey's stammering and stuttering vocals, but Pete Townshend reportedly wrote it on a train after being inspired by the Queen Mother, who is alleged to have had his 1935 Packard hearse towed off a street in Belgravia because she was offended by the sight of it during her daily drive through the neighborhood. He's also credited Mose Allison's "Young Man Blues" as the inspiration for the song, saying, "Without Mose I wouldn't have written 'My Generation'."
And practically since he wrote it, Townshend has been answering questions about the lyric, "I hope I die before I get old," which was the case at a 1989 press conference in New York. “The only thing now is that looking back on those words, ‘I hope I die before I get old,’ I really know now that that will happen — that will happen to all of us — and in a sense, in a lot of ways, it has already started, that process. Certain bits of me, which were operating extremely well when I wrote those lines, don’t function quite so adequately today.” While "My Generation" didn't light up the American charts, peaked at a lowly number-74 on the Billboard Hot 100, it got to number-two on the British singles chart.
BOB DYLAN: Dr. Robert
Bob Dylan has been presented with an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Boston's
Berklee College of Music. In accepting the degree he said, "Thank you, Berklee College of Music, for bestowing on me this prestigious honor. What a pleasant surprise. Who knows what path my career might have taken if I’d been fortunate enough to learn from some of the great musicians who taught at Berklee. It’s something to think about.” Dylan has no plans to appear at any event commemorating the honorary degree, but students, faculty, alumni and visiting artists will take part in a concert this Wednesday in his honor, Watching the River Flow: A Roots Salute to Bob Dylan. This is Dylan's first honorary degree from an American college or university since Princeton presented him one in 1970. He accepted one from Scotland’s University of St. Andrews in 2004.
In his 2004 memoir Chronicles, he wrote about the Princeton honor: “I was glad to get the degree, though. I could use it. The very look and touch and scent of it spelled respectability and had something of the spirit of the universe in it. After whispering and mumbling my way through the ceremony, I was handed the scroll. We piled back into the big Buick and drove away.” Dylan is on tour in Europe with another show in Amsterdam tonight (Wednesday).
IN OTHER NEWS
Bob Weir has issued a statement on the death Sunday of Grateful Dead singer Donna Jean Godchaux from cancer. He says, “Well OK, Donna’s moved on. She blazed a path in music many aspire to follow. In her quiet, unassuming way she’ll be goin’ for it, even though there may not even be words for what 𝘪𝘵 is - how she always was…” And Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann posted a lengthy tribute, in part saying, “Donna Jean Godchaux sure did mean something to me. She was my bandmate and she was my friend. So I loved her… Some of my favorite music that I ever made with the Grateful Dead was made with Donna… Donna, may your body rest in peace and your spirit soar, as the four winds do their thing. Love will accompany you every step of that infinite journey — and not fade away.” Donna Jean was 78.
ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons has announced a U.S. tour with his BFG Band featuring Steve Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton, and keyboardist Mike Flanigin. The tour starts January 20th in Napa, California with 27 dates through February 28th in Atlanta.
Former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman will undergo surgery this month. He says the recovery will be “fairly long…which is fine as I had allowed for this as long ago as three months when I knew I would need the surgery and indeed why the American tour had to be postponed as any long-distance flights were ruled out, although by March next year I will be fine to travel to the U.S.A. for the short tour with [my son and keyboardist] Oliver [Wakeman].”
Carl Palmer’s An Evening With Emerson, Lake & Palmer will circle back to the U.S. for dates in April and May. Get dates and details at CarlPalmer.com. Palmer starts a Florida tour this Friday in Mt. Dora with six shows through the 14th in Jacksonville.
The Band’s sixth album, 1975’s Northern Lights–Southern Cross, will be reissued on vinyl in celebration of its 50th anniversary on November 14th. It features “Ophelia,” “Acadian Driftwood” and “It Makes No Difference.”
Robby Krieger has posted on Instagram video highlights of his Doors 60th anniversary show last Thursday at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
Carlos Santana will participate in the 26th annual Latin Grammy Awards on November 13th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
John Fogerty has congratulated the Los Angeles Dodgers on winning back-to-back World Series by posting on Instagram a performance of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” with him, Newman, Tom Petty and Jackson Browne at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2013 when Newman was inducted.