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We are saddened to report that legendary guitarist, Mick Ralphs, has passed away at the age of 81.  Although his official cause of death is unknown at the time of this writing, he was battling ill health for the last decade. Known for his legendary guitar work, Mick was also a songwriter and co-founder of 2 bands that helped define the genre we now refer to as classic rock: Bad Company and Mott the Hoople. While he may not be a household name like some of the other guitarists lumped into t …

Progressive rock pioneers, Yes, are embarking on a Fragile tour of the United States.  Scheduled for the fall of this year, the band will be performing the entire Fragile album, along with a few additional tracks, at each show.  Released in 1971, Fragile established Yes as a headline act here in the US and featured some of the band's career defining tracks including "Roundabout" and "Long Distance Runaround."  Fragile was also the band's first album whose cover art and imagery wa …

Brian Wilson, the prolific songwriter, singer, record producer and co-founder of the legendary rock band, the Beach Boys, has passed away, at the age of 82. Although often tormented by mental illness in his personal life, Brian is admired by his fans and peers in the music industry alike, including Elton John, The Who's Keith Moon and Paul McCartney to name a few. Brian was a true innovator in terms of song writing and mastery of recording techniques and is both recognized and respected as one …

Calling all the original punk rockers out there, the legendary, groundbreaking, genre defining band of the 1970s punk rock movement, the Sex Pistols, are touring North America! While this may not come as news to some of you, the band has now added 4 additional shows to this tour. Performing their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols in its entirety, along with a few other tracks they recorded before breaking up in 1978, the tour features the entire surviving original …

Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, the last 2 surviving members of the original lineup of The Who, have announced they're going to be embarking on The Who's farewell tour. With 16 dates scheduled in North America, this will truly be the last tour the band performs here.  Titled "This Song is Over," after the song of the same name from the band's 1971 album, Who's Next, the tour will commence on August 16 in Sunrise, Florida and conclude just over a month later, on September 28, in Las Vegas …

What do the famed TV competition show, American Idol, & the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame have in common?  To many die-hard rock fans, pretty much nothing, but to others, quite a bit, and now maybe more.  This is because the most recent episode of American Idol was also the official announcement venue for who have been officially inducted into the 2025 class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And in typical Hall of Fame fashion, some of the inductees were surprises, others were n …

Clem Burke, the drummer for Blondie, passed away this past Sunday (April 6, 2025) after a private battle with cancer.  He was 70 years old. Clem joined the band in 1975, shortly after their formation by Chris Stein and Debbie Harry, and has been the drummer on every one of the band's albums up to present.  In addition to his work with Blondie, Clem also performed with the Ramones and The Romantics along with being a session drummer for Bob Dylan, Joan Jett, and members of both Th …

Do you remember, back in the 1990s, MTV had this really successful program called, Unplugged?  It was a show where major rock bands unplugged from the amplifiers, put away their electric guitars and performed their best known songs, acoustically.  Many times the songs recorded during the program would be released as an official Unplugged album. The legendary hard rock band, AC/DC, was asked multiple times to perform on Unplugged, but rather than follow the trend, they bucked it and co …

Rock legends Kiss have announced that they're performing a surprise concert in Las Vegas! Arriving on the heels of Gene Simmons postponing 17 dates of his 26-date solo tour which I reported on last week (article can be found here), and despite claiming that their End of the Road Tour, which wrapped up in December, 2023, would be the band's farewell tour, KISS have scheduled a one off show, at the Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas, NV, for the weekend of November 14-16, 2025, to celebrate the 50th anniv …

KISS co-founder &  bassist, Gene Simmons, was set to embark on a 26 date solo tour, but has postponed 17 of those shows. Originally scheduled to begin on April 3, in Anaheim, CA, the tour will now officially kick off on May 2, in Peachtree, GA.   These cancellations come as a bit of a surprise, as Gene recently said "I tried to stay away from being on stage, but it's too much fun."  No official reason for the cancelled dates has been given, including any health issu …