STEVEN TYLER: Gets the Jams Out
Steven Tyler was back on stage Sunday night in Los Angeles at his seventh annual Jam for Janie Grammy viewing party at the Hollywood Palladium. He opened his five-song set with a duet of Aerosmith's "Back in the Saddle" with Yungblud, which they did on their EP released last November, One More Time. (Before heading over to the Palladium, Yungblood was at the Grammys at the Crypto.com Arena where his cover of Black Sabbath's “Changes" from last July’s Back to the Beginning concert won Best Rock Performance.) Tyler continued his set with "Mama Kin," a cover of Rufus Thomas's "Walking the Dog," "Last Child," and Aerosmith's version of The Beatles' "Come Together."
Hosted by actress Melissa Joan Hart, the night also featured performances from Cheap Trick singer Robin Zander, Belinda Carlisle of The Go-Go’s, Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins, Marcus King, and Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes.
TOWNSHEND, MELLENCAMP & DEF LEP: Pre-Grammy Gigging
While the Grammy Awards on Sunday night lacked any iconic acts who date back as far as the '60s, '70s and '80s, one of the pre-Grammy parties did. On Saturday, Pete Townshend, John Mellencamp, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott and Phil Collen, and others performed at Primary Wave Music publishing's bash in Beverly Hills. Townshend, backed by The Who's touring bassist Jon Button, longtime crew member Brian Kehew on keyboards, and drummer Jeremy Stacey, turned in a six song set of "Pinball Wizard,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” “I’m One,” “Magic Bus,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and “Let My Love Open the Door.”
Mellencamp played a three-song set of “Jack & Diane,” “Pink Houses,” and “Hurt So Good” backed by his bandleader and guitarist Andy York, and his longtime violin player Lisa Germano. Def Leppard's Joe Elliott and Phil Collen also did a three-song acoustic set of “Hysteria,” “Two Steps Behind,” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” (Def Leppard start their 12-date Las Vegas residency this Wednesday, February 3rd, at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.) Also on the bill Saturday were Trombone Shorty, CeeLo Green, Leo Sayer, and others.
Kiss' "I Was Made For Loving' You" Hits 1 Billion Views On YouTube
The music video of Kiss' "I Was Made For Lovin' You" is joining YouTube's Billion Views Club. The video for the song has officially passed one-billion views on the platform. The band announced the milestone on social media, writing "the numbers speak for themselves," adding "this one still dominates." The song previously reached another career milestone, hitting one billion streams on Spotify in July, 2024.
Ronnie Wood And His Band Announced As Special Guests For Eric Clapton's Sandringham Concert
Ronnie Wood is being announced as a special guest for Eric Clapton's Sandringham concert. The Rolling Stones guitarist will be playing with his all-star band at an event in Norfolk, England. The show is set for August 23rd. Other special guests include Andy Fairweather Low and the Low Riders and harmonica player Will Wilde. Clapton's Sandringham Concert will conclude the three say 2026 Sandringham Estate series, which kicks off on August 20th.
BEATLES, QUEEN & ELVIS: Rockin' the Super Bowl
While The Who were the last iconic rock act to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2010, you will hear original or re-recorded music from other icons, including The Beatles,
Queen, Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, during some of the "Big Game's" commercials on Sunday. Here's a sampling:
·The Beatles - "All Together Now" - Starbucks
·Queen - "I Want to Break Free" - Pepsi
·Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Free Bird" – Budweiser
·Blondie - "Call Me" - Supergirl movie
·Neil Diamond - "Sweet Caroline" - Hellman's Mayonnaise with Adam Samberg as "Meal Diamond"
·Lou Reed - "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" - Absolute Tobasco
·Elvis Presley - "Suspicious Minds" - Uber Eats with Matthew McConaughey and Bradley Cooper
·Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger" - Michelob Ultra with Kurt Russell
Timothee Chalamet Reveals He Paid "Over Six Figures" Out Of Pocket To Play Bob Dylan's Songs On "Saturday Night Live"
Timothée Chalamet revealed he poured more than just his heart into portraying Bob Dylan. Speaking at a Q&A for “Marty Supreme” in London, the Golden Globe winner revealed he funded his own “Saturday Night Live” performance. “I spent over six figures out of my pocket to do the ‘SNL’ performance,” Chalamet confessed, recalling how he pushed back on Lorne Michaels after being told “No” before ultimately securing the musical slot. Timothée looked back on the expense noting, “I really don’t look at it as promotion or marketing. I see myself as an artist expanding.” Timmy pulled double duty as host and musical guest in support of his 2024 biopic“A Complete Unknown” last year.
PETER GABRIEL: And Toto Too
Peter Gabriel and Toto shared a common interest in actress Rosanna Arquette. While Gabriel and former Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro each dated her -- Porcaro first -- only one wrote a song about her. Toto's other keyboardist, David Paich, has long maintained that their 1982 hit "Rosanna," which he wrote, is not the one. “When I came up with ‘Rosanna,’ and even the name, I came up with that before there was any involvement with another member of our band with a certain lady star out there. My father had done a lot of Ray Charles albums and I remember when I was a kid and I would pull it out my mother would go, ‘That’s the album your father did with all the girls’ names on it.’ It had this little flagpole. It had ‘Jeannie’ and ‘Carol’ and all this stuff. I write the worst song titles in the world, and I thought, ‘God, maybe now I’ll finally come up with something good.’ And ‘Rosanna,’ sound-wise and syllable-wise, just came out of nowhere and I start playing it and singing it.”
And while Rosanna recently confirmed in an interview with People that Paich is right, she did say Gabriel's 1986 hit "In Your Eyes" is about her. But Gabriel has never confirmed this, only to say in a 1986 interview that "there is a tradition in Africa that intrigued me; that of writing love songs so they can be heard as love God or the love between men and women. None seems to do that in Western lyrics so I thought I would try mixing images. The eyes are clearly a focus point for the soul." While the two songs were hits and continue to garner radio airplay, "Rosanna" is the more successful of the two having peaked at number-two on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for five consecutive weeks, and winning the Grammy for Record of the Year. "In Your Eyes" topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and peaked at 26 on the Hot 100. It also became Gabriel's first gold single in 2005.
ELTON JOHN: Lyricist Lessons
When Elton John's longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin accepted his Trustees Award on Saturday at the Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, he not only delivered an acceptance speech, he also shared his 10 tips for writing lyrics. He said, “I know that I’m blessed to do what I do in a world where so many people hate going to work, they don’t want to go to work, they can’t stand their jobs. Songwriters are the luckiest people in the world.
“From the first day that I ever wanted to write songs, it wasn’t songs so much, I wanted to tell stories. I’ve always wanted to tell stories, but I always wanted to think outside of the box, and so what I was thinking about on the way here, I made a list of things that I’ve always tried to avoid. So hopefully you agree with me. I’ve always thought in writing songs:
1.You’ve got to avoid cliches.
2.Avoid predictability.
3.Never paint-by-numbers.
4.Don’t ever write songs in cubicles.
5.Do not rely on romance and lost love as subject matters [as] there’s much more to write [about].
6.Always throw a curve ball in, even when you’re writing a simple song, because that’s what’s going to grab people’s attention.
7.Don’t say you’re going to die if she leaves you because you don’t. You get over it, believe me.
8.Study from those around you and draw from the eye, please. And if you’re going to poach, always poach from the best.
9.Oh, and definitely don’t read books about how to write songs.
10.Originality is a gift, so embrace it. Otherwise, you’re going to be boring.
Ironically, while Taupin has been honored with the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, a dozen Ivor Novello Awards, an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and a Commander of the British Empire, he's never won a Grammy in competition.
Here's Elton on how he came to write songs with Bernie."When I was with the band called Bluesology and I was getting fed up with playing cabaret, and I thought, 'What can I do? Maybe I can write songs.' So I went to Liberty Records, saw a guy called Ray Williams, I said, 'Listen I can't write lyrics, but I'm sure I can write melodies.' Well he said 'I've got this pile of lyrics on this desk by this guy from Lincolnshire called Bernie Taupin. Take those away and...' You can't get much more ridiculous than that. And I took them away and I started writing to them."
And here's Bernie in 2013 on what Elton has meant to his career.while accepting the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. "I always wanted to write stories. When I was younger I heard the songs of Woody Guthrie and people like Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, and most indelibly the late great Marty Robbins who for me was sort of the blue touch paper. And later on I got the opportunity to tell stories, but along with that I got something that was kind of heaven sent, something that I never dreamed of. I got somebody who took my stories and made them multi-genre, multi-dimensional and multi-generational. I got somebody who put wings to my songs and took them all over the world and made them belong to people. Made them special to people. Wrote things that made people believe those songs were their own. Made people believe that we wrote sort of the soundtrack of their life."
MEGADETH: Going Out on Top
Megadeth is going out on top. Their self-titled album, the last in their career, bowed at #1
on the new Billboard 200 album chart with 73,000 units. It's the first number-one album in the band's career and biggest sales week since 1999. Their previous peak was number-two back in 1992 with Countdown to Extinction. It's their ninth Top 10 album overall. In a statement, Dave Mustaine said, "After 40 years of delivering Megadeth music, playing shows around the world, I have nothing but gratitude at this moment. Finding out that our last Megadeth record is also our first #1 only further validates my will to go out on top."
CHUCK NEGRON: Three Dog Night Singer Dead at 83
Chuck Negron, singer and founding member of Three Dog Night, died peacefully today (Monday) surrounded by his family at home in Studio City, California. He was 83. While the cause of death was not announced, he had COPD, and in his final months, heart failure. Born Charles Negron II on June 8th, 1942, Negron grew up in The Bronx, New York, playing basketball and singing in doo wop groups from an early age. He was recruited by Allan Hancock College and, later, California State University to play basketball, bringing him to Los Angeles where he continued to explore work in music. In 1967, he joined Danny Hutton and the late Cory Wells to form Three Dog Night. The band was expanded to include guitarist
Michael Allsup, and the late Jimmy Greenspoon, Joe Schermie, and Floyd Sneed. Hutton and Allsup are the last living members of the original band and continue to tour as Three Dog Night. After decades of estrangement between Negron and Hutton, the two met last year in a timely effort to exchange apologies and bury the hatchet.
Negron sang lead on such classics like “Joy to the World (Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog),” "One (Is The Loneliest Number),” “Easy to be Hard,” “Old Fashioned Love Song,” “The Show Must Go On,” and more. With heavy drug use rampant during their quick ascension to the top, Negron developed an addiction that took it a step too far. The band’s success was stymied by fractions internally, and fell apart at their peak. Negron’s addiction overtook him, having spent his fortune on drugs that landed him on L.A.'s Skid Row for a time. After numerous stints in rehab, he finally got clean in 1991 and went on to have a successful solo career, releasing seven albums between 1995 and 2017. He published his autobiography, Three Dog Nightmare in 1999, in which he claimed responsibility for his downfalls and strengthening his path of rehabilitation. Danny Hutton paid tribute to his former bandmate, saying, "When Chuck left the band 40 years ago, we rarely spoke and lost touch for much of that time. Five months ago, his wife Ami called to tell me he was very sick, and I decided I should go see him. "When I
arrived at his house, we hugged, cried, reminisced, and shared many stories. In that moment, we realized how much time had been lost by not being in each other’s lives. It was a beautiful and deeply meaningful reunion. "Besides being a phenomenal singer, Chuck was a good college basketball player and had a great sense of humor. "I will always be grateful for the music we made together."
IN OTHER NEWS
Paul McCartney has released a visualizer video for “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” in conjunction with his recent archival release, Wings. The song is the closing track on his third album with the band, 1973’s Band on the Run. You can watch it on YouTube.
Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott posted a video on Instagram of him driving to Las Vegas and hearing the band’s new song “Rejoice” on the radio for the first time. Def Lep will begin a 12-night residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace tonight, Tuesday through the 28th.
86-year old Ian Hunter is showing no signs of slowing down as he says he’s in the middle of recording his third album in four years, Defiance Part III.
Foreigner have posted a photo on Instagram of a fake press release on a street pole that reads, “It has come to our attention that [our song] ‘Cold as Ice’ is trending. ‘Cold as Ice’ is NOT the official song of winter, it is the official song of ex-girlfriends. Stay warm.”
Mick Fleetwood has posted a video on Instagram in which he talks about Charlie Watts being his favorite drummer before playing along to The Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” on a bamboula, an exercise ball and a Bosu with oversized drum sticks.