Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on September 27th, 2025

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor revealed their iconic band won't be wrapping things up any time soon as they currently celebrate the 50th anniversary of their signature hit "Bohemian Rhapsody." "I don't think we're done," Taylor said. "And I don't think we're gonna say, you know, final farewell tour or whatever. 'Cause it never is, is it?" Reality talent TV show winner Adam Lambert took over as frontman for the band 2011, most recently playing with the rock legends on their huge "Rhapsody Tour," which concluded in Tokyo in 2024. In the same interview, May went on to reveal that Queen have worked on new music with Lambert, though they're not sure it will go anywhere. "Not many people know, but Adam and we have been in the studio trying things. Nothing really materialised so far. Some things are meant to be and some things are not." He then added that the band have considered bringing their live show to The Sphere in Las Vegas. "I'm very keen on the Sphere. It's got my mind working," he said. In other Queen news, Brian May recently opened up about his fears that he would never play guitar again following suffering a stroke last year. Meanwhile, in 2024 Queen released a newly mixed, mastered and expanded reissue of their 1973 self-titled debut album. - New Musical Express, 9/25/25...... The glasses worn by John Lennon during his fabled "Lost Weekend" period living in Los Angeles for 18 months between 1973 and 1975 are among the main items currently up for auction at Propstore's Music Memorabilia Live Auction in London. One of the most recognizable personal items of the legendary late Beatles founder, the glasses are estimated to fetch between £148,000-£297,000 ($198,000-$396,000). "Never known as a violent person and more famous for his involvement with the peace movement, John Lennon's glasses came to market due to a scuffle with Tom Smothers at the Troubadour Club in Los Angeles," revealed Propstore's Mark Hochman. "After the incident, Smothers' wife collected the glasses, phoned her friends, and hosted a party where, apparently, guests were thrilled to wear John's trademark glasses. There's full photographic documentation that shows Lennon entering the Troubadour on 12 March 1974, and leaving without them." Lennon's notorious "Lost Weekend" period came after he separated from his second wife, Yoko Ono, whom he married in 1969. The couple reunited and remained married until his death in 1980. The Propstore Memorabilia Auction brings together some of the most significant pieces of music history, from stage-used guitars and handwritten lyrics to iconic wardrobe and personal artifacts. - Music-News.com, 9/26/25...... In other Lennon-related news, John and Yoko's son Sean Ono Lennon recently told BBC Radio 6 Music host Chris Hawkins that his dad "resented having to be a Beatle" in the end. "I think there's a bit of a myth about that," Sean, 49, said when asked about the period including the pair of "One to One" benefit concerts in 1972 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. "[But] I don't feel that he'd fallen out of love with music. I think he'd fallen out of love with a certain kind of fame. I think he'd fallen out of love with having to be a part of a machinery, of a pop machine, you know. I think that was -- even though he was always rebellious within that framework, I think that he still resented, you know, having to be a Beatle in a way. I think he really wanted to move on from that, you know," Sean added. Sean believes his father struggled when John and Yoko's as the Plastic Ono Band's 1972 double album, Some Time in New York City, flopped and was annihilated by critics. He added: "I think there were some growing pains, you know. And by growing pains, I just simply mean he made a record with my mum that people didn't necessarily like Some Time in New York City, you know. I think the songs are really great. I just think they're less manicured than what people were used to. You know, they were clearly recorded impulsively and quickly. And I think that was the rock and roll spirit. It was almost like a punk, a proto-punk kind of spirit. But I don't think people were ready for that, paired with how heavily political the messaging was. But it still -- I think when it didn't sell, I think that was hard for them." Sean is currently promoting the forthcoming new John Lennon Power To The People box set, which includes the Madison Square Garden concerts and a wealth of unreleased songs from the same period as Some Time in New York City. - Music-News.com, 9/26/25...... In a new Time magazine cover story published on Sept. 25, Bruce Springsteen says he isn't going to shy away from criticizing his arch-nemesis Pres. Donald Trump. "I'm going to stay true to who I've tried to be -- I can't give these guys a free pass," he said about speaking out about Trump back in May as he kicked off the European leg of his "Land of Hope and Dreams Tour." During that set, the 20-time Grammy winner slammed the president, saying that the United States was "currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration." (His speech was included in The Land of Hope and Dreams EP, which arrived in May.) Two days after Springsteen shared his stance about the current occupant of the White House on stage, Trump responded to the insult on his Truth Social platform, calling the Boss a "jerk" who's "not talented" and "dumb as a rock," then warned the musician to "KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country." But Springsteen -- who endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 election -- told Time he "couldn't care less" what the twice-impeached president thinks of him. "He's the living personification of what the 25th Amendment and impeachment were for," he said. (The 25th Amendment refers to the removal of the president from office.) "If Congress had any guts, he'd be consigned to the trash heap of history." Springsteen went on to say that "a lot of people bought into [Trump's] lies," and yet, he added, "[The president] doesn't care about the forgotten anybody but himself and the multibillionaires who stood behind him on Inauguration Day. You have to face the fact that a good number of Americans are simply comfortable with his politics of power and dominance." Meanwhile, an expanded 5-disc edition of his celebrated 1982 album Nebraska arrives on Oct. 12. Nebraska '82: Expanded Edition will include never-before-heard material, the E Street Band's "Electric Nebraska" sessions, a previously unreleased version of "Born in the U.S.A." and much more. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, the film about the making of Nebraska and starring The Bear's Jeremy Allen White as the Boss, arrives in theaters Oct. 24. - Billboard, 9/25/25...... In a new interview with the UK's The Sun paper, Robert Plant said he isn't interested in being "a big deal any more." The former Led Zeppelin frontman is currently making music with a group of acoustic performers called Saving Grace and says he loves the lack of "stress" in their collaboration because the 77-year-old singer is only interested in doing things that are "worth" it, regardless of the size of the project. "I can't say I have the ambition to be a big deal any more. Because I've been in so many big deal situations... I've walked away from so many situations. At this time in my life, it has to be something really worth doing -- I don't just want to be hanging on," Plant remarked, adding "These are great people. I see Saving Grace as a beautiful, no stress, no bludgeoning thing. There were no big announcements when we started." Recalling his days with Zeppelin, Plant said fronting the band was "a very precarious and sensitive place to be -- and overwhelming." "Ego played a part but it was so momentary," he said. "Mostly, it was fear of being in that position. If any of us four guys weren't on it, where would we have been? There was nowhere to hide in those days and we didn't have a support structure behind us." Plant also recalled how difficult he found it when he first went solo after the band split in the wake of Led Zep drummer John Bonham in 1980: "It was such a head warp for me to imagine myself without the other three guys." He knew regardless of the musicians who appeared on his solo records "the critique would be, 'Well, he's not a Jimmy Page, is he?'" With Saving Grace and singer Suzi Dian, Plant has been playing a reworked version of "As I Roved Out," which includes the line: "The green, green grass/Trampled underfoot/Will rise and bloom again." The lyric "gives a nod" to LZ's 1975 Physical Graffiti track "Trampled Under Foot," and Plant admitted he has done similar "a few times over the years." He added: "Every time I sing that line, I smile. And I know Suzi hasn't got a clue why I'm smiling." - Music-News.com, 9/26/25....... Van Morrison's classic 1970 track "Into the Mystic," which is featured in the season's fifth episode of the Amazon Prime TV series The Summer I Turned Pretty, has topped Billboard's Top TV Songs Chart. "Into the Mystic," featured in the season's fifth episode (Aug. 6), racked up 10.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams and sold 2,000 downloads in August, according to Luminate. The Summer I Turned Pretty's recent dominance on the TV songs chart began in July, with the show snagging eight of the 10 positions, paced by Chappell Roan's "Hot To Go!," on that month's chart. The series' third and final season premiered July 16. - Billboard, 9/25/25...... Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford has revealed he married his longtime partner late in 2024 in a "beautiful, simple" poolside ceremony. Halford told Scissor Sisters singer Jake Shears on his Queer the Music podcast that after years of putting it off the couple finally made it official in a small, private ceremony last year. "We got married by the cactus outside on December the something or other, about a year or so ago," Halford, 74 said. "He's [Thomas] from Alabama. Extremely conservative. I stopped asking, 'Let's get married.' 'No, I don't want to get married.' 'Oh, let's just get married. We've been together forever.' 'No, I don't want to get married.'" Halford added that despite living in the U.S. for a long and seeing some progress, he still finds the country "incredibly homophobic." "America is still incredibly homophobic," said Halford. "I've lived here for a long time and I've seen a lot happen since the '80s. And really it gets me angry and upset, but when I go on stage and perform with Priest, some guys will say, 'I love Judas Priest, but I'm not gay.' You know that thing -- 'I'm a huge fan of Priest, but I'm not a gay guy' -- that still lives with me now to some extent. It might be a fraction." Halford hailed the great strides the LBGTQ community has made over the past half-century, but said there is much more work still to be done. He said we have a way to go until everyone can pick up on the message to, "Love everybody, not be judgmental, let people live their lives how they see fit for themselves. There should be no rules on how you look and how you speak and how you dress. All that should be an open book, because that's what love is." Halford's full Queer the Music interview can be streamed on YouTube. - Billboard, 9/25/25...... A Missouri woman has been sentenced to prison over a bizarre fraud scheme to auction off Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tenn. On Sept. 23, Lisa Jeanine Findley, 54, was ordered by Judge John T. Fowlkes Jr. to serve four years and nine months over the brazen scam, in which she used a fake company and forged documents to try to conduct a foreclosure sale of the legendary Memphis home. The outlandish scheme, which befuddled media outlets and officials alike in May 2024, centered on Findley's false claims that Presley's daughter Lisa Marie Presley had pledged Graceland as collateral for a loan before her sudden 2023 death. "Fame and money are magnets for criminals who look to capitalize on another person's celebrity status," said Eric Shen of the United States Postal Inspection Service, which investigated the scheme. "Ms. Findley took advantage of the very public and tragic occurrences in the Presley family as an opportunity to prey on the name and financial status of the heirs to the Graceland estate." Findley pleaded guilty in February to a single charge of mail fraud as part of a plea deal that saw prosecutors drop a charge of aggravated identity theft. In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Fowlkes ordered the woman to serve three years of probation after her release. When Elvis died in 1977, Lisa Marie inherited his estate, including Graceland -- a tourist mecca that pulls in millions a year in revenue. But in early 2024, a mysterious foreclosure notice claimed the mansion would be auctioned off to the highest bidder. It said Lisa Marie, who died suddenly in Jan. 2023, had failed to repay a 2018 loan of $3.8 million -- and that she had posted the iconic building as security. Actress Riley Keough, Lisa Marie's daughter, who had inherited control of Graceland, quickly filed a lawsuit to stop the sale, claiming the estate had been the victim of a fraud scheme. She argued that her mother had never borrowed the money and that the paperwork surrounding the phony loan was a forgery. Almost immediately, a judge issued an injunction blocking any auction. Months later, Findley was arrested and charged with orchestrating the entire scam. Prosecutors said she used phony companies (Naussany Investments and Private Lending) and fake names (Kurt Naussany, Lisa Howell and others) and had threatened to go through with the sale unless the estate settled by paying $2.8 million. - Billboard, 9/24/25...... In other Elvis-related news, the King's ex-wife Priscilla Presley has been candid about her disapproval of daughter Lisa Marie's relationship with Michael Jackson in her new memoir Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, saying their brief marriage in the '90s "appalled" her. The late Lisa Marie, the only daughter of Elvis and Priscilla, married Jackson in 1994, and the two remained married for around two years, finalizing their divorce in Aug. 1996. In her book, Priscilla recalled asking Lisa Marie, who died at the age of 54 in 2023, if she and Jackson "had a physical relationship," according to an excerpt published by The Sun tabloid. "Like so many people, I wasn't sure," she wrote. "She said yeah. I was appalled by the marriage. I knew in my bones that Michael wasn't marrying Lisa Marie; he was marrying the Presley dynasty." In Lisa Marie's own posthumous memoir, From Here To The Great Unknown, she claimed that he was "still a virgin" when they began dating, at which time Jackson was around 35 years old. Priscilla went on to claim Jackson saw a relationship with Lisa Marie as "good publicity" amid accusations of sexual abuse that first emerged in 1993, the year before their marriage. "Michael was a manipulative man," Priscilla said. "And I think he had his sights set on her long before she realised it. The childlike innocence he projected was part of his public mask." When the two eventually divorced, Priscilla recalled that she "could practically hear Elvis sigh with relief." - NME, 9/22/25...... To mark the re-release of her and former partner Lindsey Buckingham's 1973 album Buckingham Nicks, Stevie Nicks has shared an unearthed letter sent to her parents before the peak of her fame. On Sept. 22, Nicks took to Instagram share the handwritten note with fans, saying: "I wanted to share this letter I wrote to my family while Lindsey and I were making 'Buckingham Nicks'. My mom saved it and it's been in a drawer for over 50 years." In the letter, penned on stationery from California's Sound City Studios, Nicks began her letter by joking about "getting very tired of sitting around listening to 12 hours of music per day." Addressing her mother, father, and brother Chris, she said: "I know it will pay off in the end," adding that when she one day was sitting in her "small but luxurious Beverly Hills home," it would "all be worth it." After checking her family were doing OK, she moved onto her imminent 25th birthday, declaring they "should set aside the entire month of May to celebrate the fact that I am now 1 quarter of a century old," and playfully called it a landmark milestone that warranted a "gala celebration." Then returning to how the recording process was going, she told her family: "I certainly do miss you all, and wish you could be here to hear some of this stuff." Addressing her father and Chris, she noted that "rock and roll tune" "Don't Let Me Down Again" -- with "the fancy guitar work" they both liked -- was "almost finished," "Lindsey may go down in history as one of "greats" in guitar playing," she insisted. "It really is quite amazing." Rounding off, she asked them to "hold good thoughts about this thing." While the initial release of Buckingham Nicks wasn't a great commercial success, it was the precursor to Mick Fleetwood asking the then couple to join Fleetwood Mac, and the rest is rock 'n' roll history. - NME, 9/23/25...... In 2002, Cher embarked on her "Living Proof: The Farewell Tour." At the time, it was the highest-grossing tour by a female artist -- a massive global undertaking of 325 shows. A live album, appropriately tiled Live! The Farewell Tour, was released shortly thereafter. Now the album has received a vinyl release and has hit streaming, newly remastered and with three bonus tracks: "Save Up All Your Teaers," "We All Sleep Alone" and "Different Kind of Love Song." - AP, 9/22/25...... On Sept. 24 The Rolling Stones announced they're prepping a Super Deluxe box set of their 1976 LP Black and Blue. The group will mark the album's upcoming 50th anniversary with an upcoming definitive Super Deluxe box set due out on Nov. 14 through Interscope/UMe featuring six previously unreleased songs. Black and Blue Super Deluxe, remixed and expanded across multiple formats, will include a 4-CD box set as well as a 5-LP vinyl box set, with both including a Blu-ray disc, replica tour poster and 100-page hardback book with a new essay by Stones expert Paul Sexton and exclusive photos from the album session and tour. A limited-edition vinyl version will be pressed on black and blue marbled vinyl, alongside streamlined two-disc and one-disc formats on CD and vinyl. Black and Blue, the band's 13th studio album, marked a turning point for the band following the departure of former guitarist Mick Taylor, who was eventually replaced by ex-Faces member Ronnie Wood. As the band searched for Taylor's replacement, they brought a series of guitar greats in to perform on the LP, including Canned Heat guitarist Harvey Mandel, songwriter and session great Wayne Perkins, as well as Yardbirds wiz Jeff Beck and Memphis blues guitarist Robert A. Johnson. Wood would later join the band full-time, appearing on three tracks on the Billboard Hot 200 chart-topping LP, which mixes reggae, funk and soul into the Stones' signature mix on songs including "Hot Stuff," "Fool to Cry," "Memory Motel" and "Melody." - Billboard, 9/24/25...... Barry Manilow has announced U.S. tour dates for Jan. 2026, which will mark his final concerts in nine markets, including Orlando and Tampa, Florida, and Columbus, Ohio. But fans who miss out on these dates shouldn't despair: BarryManilow.com has tickets available to shows at his residency at the International Theatre at Westgate Las Vegas through Dec. 2026. Tickets for Manilow's new tour dates went on sale Sept. 26. For all dates, tickets, and VIP packages visit Manilow's website. Manilow's long-running Las Vegas residency and his record-breaking appearances at Radio City Music Hall have contributed to his reputation as a legendary showman. He was a road warrior by the time of his second chart hit in 1975, "It's a Miracle," which contained this memorable line: "From Boston to Denver/ And every town in between." Manilow has had two No. 1 albums on the Billboard Hot 200, nearly 30 years apart -- Barry Manilow Live! (1977) and The Greatest Songs of the Fifties (2006). He has had three No. 1 hits on the Hot 100 -- "Mandy," "I Write the Songs" and "Looks Like We Made It." Manilow has won two Primetime Emmys, a Grammy and an honorary Tony. He was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002. - Billboard, 9/23/25...... Elton John has given rising English pop singer Lola Young the keys to his house after losing a bet with her. In a hilarious video posted on Instagram by the pair, Sir Elton gifts Young the keys to his house to uphold his end of a bet he sadly lost. "I'm here with Lola, and I said, 'Lola, if your single didn't get to No. 1 & that I would give you the keys to my house,'" he says of Young's track "Dealer." When John asks whether he and husband David Furnish can still sleep over occasionally, Young fires back, "No, sorry, it's mine now." "Me and my big mouth," John grumbles, after which the two friends start laughing together. "Since Dealer isn't no.1 yet, @eltonjohn had to give me his house (as promised)," Young captioned the clip. "I'm sure this is the last time he'll make a bet & Thanks @eltonjohn, love ya x." John wrote in the comments, "Thanks for letting us sleep over every now and then, @lolayounggg!" In July, Elton raved to Young about "Dealer" on his Apple Music show Rocket Hour, calling it "unbelievable" and "the biggest smash I've heard in years. "I just can't tell you how proud of you I am, because I know what you've been through and you've come out of it on the other side. You're going to have the best career. - Billboard, 9/22/25...... Legendary rock bassist and Pentangle founder Danny Thompson passed away on Sept. 24 at his home in Rickmansworth, UK. He was 86. A cornerstone of British music and a globally revered acoustic bassist, Mr. Thompson was known for his versatility and the profound musicality he brought to every performance, and his career spanned genres and generations, leaving behind a body of work as vast as it is respected. Born in Teesside, Mr. Thompson's journey began with early session work that saw him playing bass for Roy Orbison at a time when The Beatles were still on Orbison's supporting bill. His diverse talent led to an astonishing array of collaborations, becoming a founding member of the influential folk-jazz fusion band Pentangle, whose unique sound helped define a new musical landscape. Beyond Pentangle, he worked with such singer-songwriters as John Martyn, Nick Drake, and Kate Bush showcased his ability to elevate a song with both subtlety and power. He also crossed paths with jazz luminaries such as Tubby Hayes and Stan Tracey, as well as folk icons like Donovan and June Tabor. A later collaboration with The Blind Boys of Alabama further cemented his reputation as a musician without boundaries. - Music-News.com, 9/25/25...... Acclaimed Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, who starred in some of the most celebrated European films of the 1960s and 1970s, died in France on Sept. 24, her agent Laurent Savry told The Associated Press. She was 87. Ms. Cardinale starred in more than 100 films and made-for-television productions, but she was best known for embodying youthful purity in famed Italian director Federico Fellini's 8 1/2, in which she co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni in 1963. Ms. Cardinale also won praise for her role as Angelica Sedara in Luchino Visconti's award-winning screen adaption of the historical novel The Leopard that same year and a reformed prostitute in Sergio Leone's spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West in 1968. Ms. Cardinale began her movie-career at the age of 17 after winning a beauty contest in Tunisia, where she was born of Sicilian parents who had emigrated to North Africa. The contest brought her to the Venice Film Festival, where she came to the attention of the Italian movie industry. Before entering the beauty contest she had expected to become a school teacher. Her success came in the wake of Sophia Loren's international stardom and she was touted as Italy's answer to Brigitte Bardot. While never achieving the level of success of the French actor, she nonetheless was considered a star and worked with the leading directors in Europe and Hollywood. The sensuous brunette with enormous eyes was often cast as a hot-blooded woman. As she had a deep voice and spoke Italian with a heavy French accent, her voice was dubbed in her early movies. Her career in Hollywood brought only partial success because she was not interested in giving up European film. Nonetheless, she achieved some fame by teaming with Rock Hudson in the 1965 comedy thriller Blindfold and another comedy Don't Make Waves with Tony Curtis two years later. Among her industry prizes was a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement that she received at the Venice film festival nearly 40 years after her initial appearance on screen. In 2000, she was named a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for the defense of women's rights. Praise for Ms. Cardinale's talent, beauty and impact on the European cinema poured in after the news of her passing, with French Pres. Emmanuel Macron saying, "We French will always carry this Italian and global star in our hearts, in the eternity of cinema." Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli offered condolences to Ms. Cardinale's family and hailed her beauty and "exceptional talent" that inspired "milestones" of Italian cinema. "One of the greatest Italian actresses of all time has passed away," he said in a statement. She is survived by two children, one with with Franco Cristaldi, who produced her 1958 comedy classic Big Deal on Madonna Street, and a second with her later companion, Italian director Pasquale Squitieri. - Associated Press, 9/24/25.