Unlike other major acts that reunite for high-paying arena tours, the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and Phil Lesh insist that the band's upcoming 19-date spring trek was fated to happen. Weir told Rolling Stone that the band -- who now perform under the name the Dead -- had reunion plans in motion before their recent show for Barack Obama last fall, explaining, "We've got some unfinished business. Everybody has a whole new bag of tricks; we have the body of material we worked up over the years and we have a mind meld going on here and it would be a sin to let that just wither and die."
Phil Lesh added, "When you walk out on the stage the possibilities are infinite every time. It's infinite and therefore you can still explore it till the day that you die."
The band's lineup now consists of Weir, Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Micky Hart, with keyboardist Jeff Chimenti filling in for the late Vince Wellnick and Allman Brothers Band/Gov't Mule guitarist Warren Haynes stepping in for Jerry Garcia. Pre-sale tickets for the tour go on sale January 13th.
Mickey Hart admits that with so many Dead shows under his belt, some legendary gigs seem blurrier than others: "It pretty well falls into, you know, history. I mean, we've done so many concerts that sometimes, we can remember the concerts, but what we played (chuckles) -- I don't think so. That's left up to the archivists, the historians, and for the people now to savor it. We sort of cut it loose. You have to do that in music, 'cause if you live in the past and you have too much memory of that, there's no room for the present and the future. We just kept moving, moving, moving, and playing, playing, playing, and it was just fortunate enough that we have recorded most of the legacy."
The Dead tour dates (subject to change):April 12 - Greensboro, NC - Greensboro ColiseumApril 14 - Washington, D.C. - Verizon CenterApril 15 - Charlottesville, VA - John Paul Jones ArenaApril 17 - Albany, NY - Times Union CenterApril 18 - Worcester, MA - DCU CenterApril 19 - Worcester, MA - DCU CenterApril 21 - Buffalo, NY - HSBC ArenaApril 22 - Wilkes-Barre, PA - Wachovia ArenaApril 24 - Uniondale, NY - Nassau ColiseumApril 25 - New York, NY - Madison Square GardenApril 26 - Hartford, CT - XL CenterApril 28 - East Rutherford, NJ - Izod CenterApril 29 - East Rutherford, NJ - Izod CenterMay 1 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia SpectrumMay 2 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia SpectrumMay 5 - Chicago, IL - Allstate ArenaMay 7 - Denver, CO - Pepsi CenterMay 9 - Los Angeles, CA - The ForumMay 10 - Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre
Graham Nash will release a career-spanning, three-disc boxed set called Reflections on February 2nd. The collection, which covers his time in the Hollies, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Crosby-Nash, as well as his solo work, spans the past 40 years and features a 150-page booklet containing 75 legendary and unseen photos plus liner notes written by Nash himself.
Among the classic tracks featured on the 64-track set are Nash's Hollies hits "On A Carousel," "Carrie Anne," and "King Midas In Reverse," along with CSN/CSNY standards "Marrakesh Express," "Our House," "Teach Your Children," "Just A Song Before I Go," and "Wasted On The Way."
Nash' solo work is represented by such fan favorites as "Military Madness," "Chicago," "Simple Man," and "Sleep Song." Reflections also features such legendary Crosby-Nash tracks as "Immigration Man," "To The Last Whale," "Jesus Of Rio," and others.
Among the rarities on Reflections is Nash's solo acoustic demo of "Right Between The Eyes," recorded during CSNY's Deja Vu sessions, which was first released on CSNY's 1971 live album 4 Way Street.
Nash, whose been writing songs for five decades now, still finds the process both familiar and mysterious: "The truth is I'll find out what I already know. You know, we don't know what it is. I have no idea how it happens. I'm glad that it does, and for songwriters it's quite simple -- you wake up in the morning, and you deal with your day, and the stuff that affects you, you write about it. I mean, I must've saved myself millions of dollars in psychiatry fees."
Reflections is the companion set to David Crosby's three-disc box set Voyage, which Nash compiled and co-produced. In 2007, Nash helped compile Stephen Stills' archival release, Just Roll Tape: April 26th, 1968.
Michael Jackson has reportedly redrafted his will and is leaving his share of the copyrights to John Lennon and Paul McCartney's Beatles classics to none other than McCartney. A source close to Jackson told mirror.co.uk, "Michael is worried about his health so he decided it was time to look at his finances. Most of his estate has been divided up between his three children. But Michael told his lawyers he was sad he no longer talks to Sir Paul and said he wanted to make things right."
The Jackson insider went on to say that the singer is currently in dire health, explaining, "Michael is suffering serious back and leg pain and has for a few years. He gets spasms in his back which means he spends a lot of time in bed and a wheelchair. He weighs just over seven stone and is very frail. He's also had a nasty bout of emphysema and there have been reports he has another lung disease."
A source close to McCartney said, "If Michael Jackson was to give back the song rights in his will then Macca would be delighted."
McCartney, who urged Jackson to invest in music copyrights, severed their friendship in 1985 after Jackson outbid him to acquire the Beatles song rights. The pair were last photographed together backstage at McCartney's L.A. Forum show in November 1989, but the duo -- who scored massive early '80s hit duets with "The Girl Is Mine" and "Say, Say, Say" -- presently have no relationship.
FAST FACTS
Sony/ATV Music Publishing owns the copyright to all of the songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney between 1963 and 1970. It also holds the copyright to some early George Harrison compositions.
Lennon and McCartney, who were minority owners of their publishing companies Northern Songs and Maclen Music after the company went public to avoid taxes, sold their shares in the company during a complicated hostile takeover in 1969. They continued to collect artists' royalties on their songs, but the company ATV Music held actual ownership of the songs, and kept most of the money the songs earned.
In 1985, Michael Jackson outbid McCartney and others to buy a controlling interest in ATV Music, which then owned Northern Songs, for a reported $64 million. He has since merged ATV Music with Sony Music's publishing company, to finance ongoing debt.
The Northern Songs catalog, which includes nearly all of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's 1960s compositions -- including "Yesterday," "Come Together," "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "And I Love Her," "If I Fell," "She Loves You," "Yellow Submarine," "Let It Be," "In My Life," "Michelle," "All You Need Is Love," "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, "Nowhere Man," and "Hey Jude," among hundreds of others -- is reportedly worth about $510 million.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has told Classic Rock magazine that he'd love the chance to play with one of Deep Purple's best-known lineups if the band chooses to reunite. Known as the "Mark III" version of Purple, singer David Coverdale, bassist Glenn Hughes, and keyboard player Jon Lord have reportedly been in discussions about a reunion tour, with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore possibly involved as well.
With drummer Ian Paice still on the road with the current version of Purple, Ulrich has offered his services, saying, "I know there's talk about the fact that if they got Coverdale, Hughes, Lord and Blackmore together, they would have four members who aren't in the current Deep Purple -- then they just need a drummer. I'll volunteer myself for that. If they need a drummer, David Coverdale has my number."
In separate interviews in the February edition of Classic Rock, Coverdale, Hughes, and Lord all hint that they'd be interested in a tour.
Ulrich's only Purple-related live performance to date came in September 2006, when he played "Smoke On The Water" at a solo show by current Purple frontman Ian Gillan in San Francisco.
Bruce Springsteen has issued the third track from his upcoming album Working On A Dream via a free digital download on amazon.com. The song, "Life Itself," follows the previous free download "My Lucky Day," and the iTunes exclusive of the album's title track.
Billboard reported that "The Boss" will also be making the new track "My Lucky Day" and "Born To Run" available as free downloads on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii versions of "Guitar Hero: World Tour," beginning on Working On A Dream's January 27th release date and running through February 4th. After that, the downloads will sell for $2.
So far, Springsteen's only confirmed date is for February 1st as part of the halftime show at Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Florida. The British fan site Stone Pony London (spl-messages.net/forums/ubbthreads.php) reports that inside sources have confirmed that Springsteen and the E Street Band will be performing on June 11th in Bergen, Norway.
The band is rumored to be performing later that month at Tennessee's Bonnaroo Festival and Britain's Glastonbury Festival also in June, although no dates beyond the Super Bowl have been officially announced.
Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen is auctioning off two classic Chevrolets from his personal collection of automobiles, according to Blabbermouth.net. The cars will be sold during the 38th annual Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, which runs from January 11th through the 18th. The 1956 Chevy 210 and 1956 Chevy Nomad will each be accompanied by matching, one-of-a-kind, custom EVH Brand "Wolfgang" guitars and a pair of red, white, and black EVH striped sneakers.
Van Halen said in a press release, "Out of all the cars I have owned over the years, I hung onto the '56 Sedan and Nomad because I was closely involved in restoring and building them, so they are very special to me. I almost hate to let them go, but I don't have the time to drive them. It kills me to see them sit there when someone else could be driving them and have the pleasure and joy of owning these beautiful classic cars."
The guitarist added that he had the custom guitars built to match the cars to make the auction "even more special."
Barrett-Jackson president Steve Davis said in a statement, "The Nomad is restored to original specifications while the 210 is a custom-built street rod with modern performance gear. I expect these cars to enter special collections that salute both rock 'n' roll and automobiles."
The Barrett-Jackson event has been called "the world's greatest collector car auction." Much of this year's auction will be broadcast on the Speed channel.
Van Halen launched the EVH Brand line of guitars, amps and accessories in 2007 in partnership with Fender. He's slated to debut the new Wolfgang guitar this month, with more info available at evhgear.com.
All has been quiet on the Van Halen band front since the reunited group completed a massively successful world tour last summer.