 Michael McDonald recalled the moment he told his Doobie Brothers bandmates that he didn’t think the group had a future, leading to their farewell tour of 1982.
He’d been a member for seven years by the time they split; and, in a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, he recalled that the idea of splitting hadn’t been on his mind until Patrick Simmons had decided to bow out. “I don't think I would have ever quit the band, except when Pat quit,” McDonald said. “It just didn't seem like the Doobies anymore… that original creative core of the band was gone. Pat had written music for the band since the beginning.” He became even more convinced when the band tried to rehearse without Simmons. “[W]e didn't get through one song and we all just stopped and had a look around the room. And I think it was me that spoke up and said, ‘You know, guys, I think this doesn't feel right. I don't think we're the Doobie Brothers anymore. I don't think the Doobie Brothers exist anymore. I think we need to accept that reality.’” McDonald continued: “It was a big decision for all of us to make because there wasn't just the guys in the band – there was close to 30 people employed by this corporation. It was their whole livelihood.” But he knew they couldn’t face a crowd. “It wouldn't have been fair for us to get up there and pretend to be the Doobie Brothers,” he asserted. He said he didn’t take it personally when a different lineup later assembled without him. “I think rightfully they got back together as close to the original band as they could,” he said. “[T]here was always those moments in time when you had to make those tough decisions. What's the best configuration here for music we hope to make, going forward? …[W]as there some part of me that felt left out? Maybe, but not when I thought about it, not when I gave it a couple of minutes worth of thought and realized, ‘This is what these guys are hoping to regain their roots as a band – and you can't fault that.’” Following the split, McDonald soon embarked on the solo career he’d been edging towards for some time. “Looking back it was a blessing in disguise,” he said, “because at the time what I felt was, ‘Oh, now I've been flushed out here… I’ve written 12 good songs for an album.’ And so then that became a whole other trial of fire.” https://ultimateclassicrock.com/
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 This year's Volunteer Jam has been rescheduled to August due to COVID-19 concerns, while the names of more stars have added to the list of performers.
David Corlew and Associates announced that the 2021 "Volunteer Jam: A Musical Salute to Charlie Daniels," previously scheduled for February 22, will now take place on August 18 at 7 p.m. CT at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. Randy Travis, Chris Young, Michael W. Smith, Lorrie Morgan, Exile and rising Nashville star Anthony Castagna have been added to the previously announced lineup. "As much as we are disappointed that we have to move the Volunteer Jam, we appreciate the fans sticking with us," Daniels' longtime manager David Corlew said, adding, "We want to make sure everyone stays safe." The salute to the late Charlie Daniels will also include performances by a number of other artists. Daniels' longtime band, The Charlie Daniels Band, will also perform to honor its legendary frontman. Tickets for the event are on sale now via ticketmaster.com and the Bridgestone Arena box office. Previously purchased tickets will be honored at the rescheduled date. Guns N' Roses keyboardist Dizzy Reed's covers side project Hookers & Blow has released a rendition of The Zombies' classic 1968 hit "Time of the Season" as a digital single and via streaming services. "Time of the Season" is the fifth advance single that released from Hookers & Blow's forthcoming debut studio album, which is due out sometime this year. "We love the Zombies. Great band with a great name led by the incomparable Rod Argent and his keyboard wizardry," Reed says. "'Time of the Season' is an iconic song with a timeless message. It was our intention to try and honor them and all of that." Hookers & Blow was co-founded by Reed and longtime Quiet Riot guitarist Alex Grossi. The band's current lineup also includes Danzig/ex-Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly, Black Star Riders bassist Robbie Crane and singer Nadja Reed, who's Dizzy's wife. Dizzy and Nadja share lead vocals on "Time of the Season." Previously released tracks from the forthcoming album include renditions of Eddie Money's "Shakin'," The Rolling Stones' "Rocks Off," David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust", and Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Underfoot." Fifty years ago, February 10, one of the best-selling and most beloved albums of all time was released: Carole King’s Tapestry. Here are five fascinating facts about this landmark 1971 album: #5. In 1972, Carole King became the first solo female artist to win the Grammy for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, for "It's Too Late" and "You've Got a Friend," respectively. Both songs were from Tapestry, which was named Album of the Year. #4. Tapestry was #1 on the charts for 15 straight weeks and spent a total of 318 weeks in the Billboard Top 200 -- a record for a female artist that wasn't broken until 2017, by Adele and her album 21. #3. Tapestry featured Carole's versions of two songs she'd written that were already hits for other artists: The Shirelles' "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." While Tapestry was still on the charts, James Taylor had a #1 hit with another Tapestry song: "You've Got a Friend." #2. The iconic cover of the Tapestry album was shot in King's house in Laurel Canyon. She's holding an actual tapestry that she hand-stitched, and she's posing with her cat, Telemachus. #1. In 2016, King performed Tapestry live in its entirety for the first time in London's Hyde Park. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame VP of Education Jason Hanley says of Tapestry, "It was an album that set a standard for any songwriter coming after that." He adds, "The intimacy of that record, listening to her voice and the piano, the really gorgeous arrangements...I think that's an album now, 50 years on, looking back, you still feel like that album is so important every time you put it on." By Andrea Dresdale Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Elektra/Rhino Carly Simon celebrated the 50th anniversary of her eponymous debut solo album Tuesday. Released on February 9, 1971, the album yielded Simon's first Top 10 hit, "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be," and scored her two Grammy nods -- winning her Best New Artist in 1972. Speaking to Billboard, Simon opened up about how her explosive solo career started. Prior to releasing Carly Simon the album, the singer reflected, "The previous two years I was writing material, still not knowing if I was going to be accepted by a record company." To make ends meet, she worked for her uncle, who ran a jingle company, and earned $5 per jingle. "I've got some pretty funny examples of the jingles that I was doing," she recalled. "One was Noxzema and another was O-Cedar, the mop company. And a bank in New England." As for how she penned her debut single, Simon admitted the lyrics came to her last. "I wrote the melody first, it was very hard for me to get the lyrics after I'd written the melody," said Simon, who then turned to songwriting collaborator Jake Brackman, who helped her hone the song. Carly also opened up about overcoming her stage fright; she credits her band for curing that obstacle. "My band would have to spank me before I went on stage," she laughed. "And they'd spank me so loud and so hard that I'd be stinging by the time I went on stage, and sometimes the physical pain of being spanked overcame my heart fluttering and my panic." Unfortunately, that tradition came to bite her on the butt -- literally -- at a birthday party for President Bill Clinton. "The curtains opened early, so the whole audience got to see me being spanked," she groaned. Courtesy of HBO Following the announcement that Tina Turner is once again a nominee for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there's now even more good news for her fans. A new documentary about the legendary performer is heading to cable and streaming.
The film, Tina, has been acquired by HBO and will debut exclusively on the cable network and its streaming service, HBO Max, on March 27. It will arrive in theaters in early summer and then move to other home entertainment platforms. The movie, which was first announced in 2018, is from the team that brought us documentaries like Undefeated, Searching for Sugar Man and Belushi. The film follows Tina from her early fame with her ex-husband Ike Turner, the struggles she faced after they split up, and and the 1980s comeback that made her one of the world's biggest stars. Tina herself sat for interviews from her home in Zurich, Switzerland, as did people close to her. Never-before-seen footage, audio tapes and photos round out the film. Billboard quotes the producers as saying of the film, "From her early career as the queen of R&B to her record-breaking sell-out arena tours of the '80s, Tina Turner draws back the curtain to invite us into her private world in a way she has never done before." By Andrea Dresdale Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Tom Petty guitarist Mike Campbell says he expects to finish his second Dirty Knobs album by May2/13/2021 The Dirty Knobs, the band fronted by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell, just released their debut album, Wreckless Abandon, in November, but Campbell says he's hoping the group's sophomore effort will be completed within a few months.
"We're gonna try to finish a second album by May," he tells ABC Audio, noting that the record will be "in the can" by the time that The Dirty Knobs are able to tour again. The band currently is scheduled to return to the road in June, when its slated to serve the opening act on country star Chris Stapleton's late-spring/early-summer U.S. tour. Of course, those dates could be affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking of Stapleton, he lent his talents to two songs on Wreckless Abandon, including co-writing the hilariously profane "F*** That Guy." Campbell says of collaborating with Stapleton, "[I]it was a new experience writing with another person for me. I normally write on my own, but I really enjoyed it with him. We were like kindred spirits…It just seemed to work." The collaboration also yielded two songs -- "Arkansas" and "Watch You Burn" -- that appear on Stapleton's new album, Starting Over, which also was released in November. Campbell tells ABC Audio that currently he isn't involved in any other significant music project besides focusing on The Dirty Knobs. That being said, Mike notes that he recently contributed guitar to a cover of the 1978 Petty and Heartbreakers gem "I Need to Know" by a band called Starcrawler. A video of the performance aired during the October 23, 2020, virtual tribute event commemorating the late Petty's 70th birthday. Every once in a while a great debate will break out among friends or strangers. It can be the greatest heavyweight fighter......the best looking muscle car...or the greatest songs of all time. It happens, and there is NEVER any definitive answer because its always a matter of opinion. Very subjective. So to help stir the pot a bit more, give this video a whirl and see where your favorites land.  Vocalist Mary Wilson, who co-founded the Supremes as a 15-year-old in a Detroit housing project and stayed with the fabled, hitmaking Motown Records trio until its dissolution in 1977, died on Monday night at her home in Las Vegas. She was 76.
Wilson’s longtime publicist, Jay Schwartz, reported that she died suddenly. The circumstances of her death were not immediately revealed. Funeral services will be private because of COVID, he said, but there will be a public memorial later this year. “I was extremely shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of a major member of the Motown family, Mary Wilson of the Supreme,” said Berry Gordy in a statement Monday night. “The Supremes were always known as the ‘sweethearts of Motown.’ Mary, along with Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, came to Motown in the early 1960s. After an unprecedented string of No. 1 hits, television and nightclub bookings, they opened doors for themselves, the other Motown acts, and many, many others. … I was always proud of Mary. She was quite a star in her own right and over the years continued to work hard to boost the legacy of the Supremes. Mary Wilson was extremely special to me. She was a trailblazer, a diva and will be deeply missed.” ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME FOUNDATION ANNOUNCESNOMINEES FOR 2021 INDUCTION
36th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony to take place this fall in Cleveland, Ohio NEW YORK (February 10, 2021) — The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced today the following Nominees for 2021 Induction:
While each artist is talented and accomplished.....those in purple, again in my opinion aren't rock and roll artists. I love Dionne Warwick far more than Devo or Rage Against the Machine. But two of the three are rock artists while the other isn't. |
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