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The Zombies have enlisted Q Prime for label and distribution services, it was announced Tuesday (Oct. 22).
Under the agreement, Q Prime will manage marketing, manufacturing, distribution and licensing for the 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees’ new imprint, Beechwood Park Records. The imprint includes the pioneering British band’s catalog, which the group acquired the rights to last year from Marquis Enterprises Ltd. “There’s a very narrow window in a Venn diagram where love, admiration and business overlap. That’s what the deal is all about,” said Q Prime co-founder Cliff Burnstein in a statement.
Starting next year, Q Prime will physically reissue four of The Zombies’ albums, remastered from the original tapes. This includes the band’s seminal 1968 album, Odessey & Oracle, in its original mono mix; the LP, which was recorded for 1,000 British pounds, includes the classic songs “Time of The Season,” “Care of Cell 44″ and “This Will Be Our Year.” Its release will coincide with a new Zombies documentary, Hung Up On A Dream, directed by musician and filmmaker Robert Schwartzman and co-produced by Schwartzman’s Utopia Films, The Ranch Productions and Tom Hanks’ Playtone.
Chris Tuthill and Cindy da Silva of The Rocks Management, who have represented the band for the past 11 years, oversaw the deal along with attorney Monika Tashman of Loeb & Loeb. “We went through a painstaking process to find a strategic partner who would truly understand the unique qualities of these beloved recordings,” said Tuthill in a statement. “Ultimately, we knew we had to stay true to the band’s history. They have always benefited from a non-traditional and independent approach to both music and business, which is one of the reasons their songs are continually rediscovered by new generations of fans.”
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After former publishing executive Rick Krim introduced the management team to Q Prime, da Silva added, “We were incredibly impressed by the team and infrastructure that Q Prime assembled with their long-term clients Metallica to nurture and grow their own catalog, and their genuine desire to collaborate with us and the band to do the same for The Zombies.”
The Zombies’ four surviving founding members are lead singer Colin Blunstone, keyboardist Rod Argent, bassist Chris White and drummer Hugh Grundy. The band first appeared on the Billboard charts with 1964’s “She’s Not There,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“The setlist is how you communicate your story to your audience,” says Bruce Springsteen near the start of Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the new Thom Zimny-directed documentary on the Boss’s life as touring musician that debuts on Hulu on Friday (Oct. 25).
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The movie had its Los Angeles premiere Monday night (Oct. 21) before a star-filled audience at the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum’s David Geffen Theater, which included Catherine O’Hara, Danny DeVito, Judd Apatow, John Densmore, Jackson Browne, Richie Sambora and Brandi Carlile.
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As anyone who has seen Springsteen’s current tour knows, this outing’s setlist is relatively static for a Springsteen show, with the themes of mortality and loss interspersed with the joy of being alive running throughout. What it lacks in the spontaneity of past Springsteen tours, it more than makes up for in the emotional resonance Springsteen and the expanded E Street Band bring to the often transcendent material.
The documentary, which is a must-see for any Springsteen fan, pulls back the curtain on how the tour came together. By the time the first show was played in Tampa in February 2023, Springsteen had released three new albums and it had been six years since the E Street Band had toured due, in part, to the pandemic. The film takes fans behind the scenes from the first day of rehearsals in a small, black box theater in New Jersey to stages across the world and, in the process, tells the story of the band’s 50 year friendship.
In one of the film’s more poignant passages, musician and Springsteen’s wife Patti Scialfa reveals she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2018 and how that has affected her ability to tour with the band. The deaths of longtime band members Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons are also discussed in loving detail.
As to why now was the right time to reveal the behind-the-scenes machinations, at a Q&A following the screening, Springsteen, 75, kept with the mortality theme and half quipped, “Well, if we didn’t make it now, I’d be dead pretty soon so we got to make these while we can. That’s all there is to it.”
The tour, which picks up again in Europe next Spring, has as its tentpoles four songs from Letter to You, Springsteen’s 2020 album inspired by the death of George Theiss. His passing left Springsteen the only living member of his first band, The Castiles, which he joined as teenagers.
“I was with him the last few days before he passed away,” Springsteen said during the Q&A, moderated by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation chairman and iHeart president of entertainment enterprises John Sykes. “I came back from George’s, and I think he filled me with something where I think all of Letter to You was written in about two weeks and recorded in four days. It’s just, hey, you get up around our age and those are the things you’re thinking about, and Patti and I have had to deal with her illness and you’re worried about…it’s just part of your life now, questions and mortality. Like I say in the film, there’s a lot more yesterdays and goodbyes once you get up around where we are then there was 30 or 40 years ago.”
Zimny, who has worked with Springsteen on projects for 24 years, said during the Q&A that the project unfolded as shooting progressed. “I think it evolves every day that I was experiencing the band, filming and seeing what was going on. I think it’s a conversation that happens with Jon [Landau, Springsteen’s manager] and Bruce from day one and I just stay really open to what I’m experiencing. The first day of rehearsals. I was just so blown away by that sense of everyone’s happiness and I knew that I wanted that to come across, that sense of gratitude that they can perform again. But by time I reached the American concerts and Europe, the film evolved. I think a big thing is to be open, not have a set POV. I go for the adventure.”
The movie, which is narrated by Springsteen, ends with his citing a quote from The Doors’ Jim Morrison. In the Q&A, which also featured Landau and Springsteen’s longtime right-hand man Steven Van Zandt, Springsteen revealed the origin of its usage. He and Scalfia were at the same Doors show at the Asbury Park (N.J.) Convention Center in 1968, though they hadn’t met yet. Then, he told an endearing story that showed that, ultimately, the pair are music nerds just like his fans. Decades later, he and Scalfia were talking about the Doors show and found the setlist online. “We got in bed and we said, ‘OK, we’re going to recreate the entire show,’” he recalled. “I found live Doors cuts and we recreated the entire show from 1968 and listened to it before we went to sleep…Suddenly, I sort of went on a bit of a Doors binge and I started reading several book and I came across the quote and it just seemed like the perfect way to sum up what the band is about, what our relationship to our fans means, what our mission statement has been for the past 50 years. It just seemed to sum it up in those four very brief lines.”
Second Gentleman Dough Emhoff has established a reputation as a music nerd and, like his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, an inveterate crate digger. So it made perfect sense that as he’s been grinding it out on the road like a rock band touring in a panel van to support Harris’ presidential campaign, Emhoff took time out to chop it up with Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament to describe how he’s been connecting with voters at record shops around the country.
“I’m trying to highlight small business and talk about all the great things that Kamala Harris is gonna do for the country and merge it with my love of music,” Emhoff told the PJ singer and bassist during a visit to their SiriusXM Pearl Jam Radio channel. “And so it’s gotten me to local record stores across the country. I’ve gotten to, you know, meet you guys, but also [former R.E.M. singer] Michael Stipe kind of came out of semi-retirement, and Michael’s now done two events for us.”
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The most recent event featuring Stipe took place at an Oct. 4 Get Out the Vote concert in Pittsburgh that also featured Jason Isbell. Emhoff said indie rock legend Stipe took him to one of his favorite hometown indie rock shops [Wuxtry Records] in Athens, GA, which, he noted, is still standing. “I kind of did a whole, you know, go through shelf by shelf with him. I got to visit a record store with [California] Governor Gavin Newsom, who also loves music. So he and I were with a local business owner going through the stacks, picking out some records,” Emhoff said.
And that’s not all. Emhoff also noted that he’s gotten to hang and talk music with Jon Bon Jovi, another Harris/Walz campaign supporter, as well as Isbell. Though Bruce Springsteen has also given his thumbs-up to Harris, Emhoff lamented that he has yet to meet the Boss in person, while noting that Taylor Swift has also, famously, endorsed his wife’s 11th hour White House bid.
“So the music industry has come out in a way that you guys have always done this. It’s what you did from day one, using your voice, not only to make this music we all love, but to talk about the truth and being engaged,” Emhoff told the PJ members, who have long worn their activism on their sleeves. “And so to see that coming back and get to talk to some of the people I’ve listened to my whole life, and then see how active they are. But to do that in a record store with Michael Stipe in Athens and pick out some records was pretty, pretty damn cool, man.”
Vedder said he got the chills hearing the R.E.M. origin story, then reciting the details of it as chapter-and-verse, down to the album that Stipe and guitarist Peter Buck bonded over: Patti Smith’s Horses. To rub it in a bit more, Emhoff added that Stipe also took him to a compound of buildings he owns in Athens, where he got a personal tour, which included pointing out the very spot where the singer wrote the lyrics to the band’s 1985 album Fables of the Reconstruction.
Ament wondered what albums are still on Emhoff’s need-to-get list, which inspired the Second Gent to reel off a list of some more of his favorite bands, including the Pixies, Nirvana and, of course, PJ, as well as Radiohead and The Stone Roses’ legendary self-titled 1989 debut LP.
It also stood to reason that politically plugged-in Vedder would tell Emhoff what his biggest fears are about a potential second Donald Trump administration. “People’s safety is the most important thing. So you know, when I read about this event that happened, perhaps over the weekend. A large group gathered for Trump in the thousands, and there were 20 buses that brought them in. Intense heat in the Desert Valley there, gets up to 102 during the day,” Vedder said of a recent Trump rally in California’s Coachella Valley that reportedly left hundreds of followers stranded in desert heat with no way to get back to their cars.
Vedder said that chaotic scene of unpreparedness felt like a parallel to the whole vibe of the third White House campaign by the twice impeached former President. “Not to mention the confusion, again, chaos and some of the quotes are, are chilling. But I have to say, it seems analogous to the election,” Vedder said. “Unlike any other candidate in the history of our country, [Trump’s] got more at stake on a personal level, his personal freedoms, his future, all riding on this vote. And he’s, I think he needs people. And I think he uses people. And I think this Coachella’s situation is very analogous to what would happen if and when he would potentially win. He gets what he wants, uses the people as padding, and then they’re left in utter chaos to fend for themselves. That’s what we worry about.”
Emhoff replied by echoing one of Harris’ frequent refrains, that she believes convicted felon Trump is “only in it for [himself and] doesn’t care about others. And we already saw that the first time that he was president, and he was like that then. And he is worse now. You know, he’s a degraded version of what he was, and he was a pretty horrible President that time around,” Emhoff said. “And he has just gotten worse. He’ll be surrounded by people who are like him, incompetent, who don’t really care about us extremists. And that’s what’s at stake right now.”
Elsewhere, Emhoff talked about being blown away by the sense of family and community backstage at a recent PJ show he attended in Philadelphia. The full interview is in available now on SiriusXM’s Pearl Jam Radio (ch. 22) and on the SiriusXM app, with re-broadcasts scheduled to air during the rest of the week.
Check out highlights from their chat below.
Original Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno has died at 66 according to a statement from the late hard rock vocalist’s label, Conquest Music. “On behalf of his family, Conquest Music are sad to confirm the death of Paul Andrews, professionally known as Paul Di’Anno. Paul passed away at his home in Salisbury at the age of 66,” read Monday’s (Oct. 21) statement, which did not include the date or cause of death.
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Di’Anno was the lead singer for the legendary British metal group from 1978-1981, kicking off their 45-year run with his urgent, punk-inspired vocals on their self-titled 1980 debut, which featured the ripping lead-off track “Prowler” and the band’s turbo-charged eponymous anthem “Iron Maiden.”
He also sang on the band’s 1981 follow-up, Killers, which featured such knotty metal anthems as the opening instrumental “The Ides of March,” the pummeling “Wrathchild” and the blitzing barrage of “Purgatory,” which cemented the band’s pioneering mix of hard rock, punk and prog.
Iron Maiden issued a statement honoring Di’Anno on Monday featuring a picture of the singer with founding bassist — and reported chief antagonist while he was in Maiden — Steve Harris. “We are all deeply saddened to learn about the passing of Paul Di’Anno earlier today. Paul’s contribution to Iron Maiden was immense and helped set us on the path we have been travelling as a band for almost five decades. His pioneering presence as a frontman and vocalist, both on stage and on our first two albums, will be very fondly remembered not just by us, but by fans around the world,” read the statement.
“It’s just so sad he’s gone,” added Harris. “I was in touch with him only recently as we texted each other about West Ham and their ups and downs. At least he was still gigging until recently, it was something that kept him going, to be out there whenever he could. He will be missed by us all. Rest in peace mate.”
It concluded, “We were very grateful to have had the chance to catch up a couple of years ago and to spend time with him once more. On behalf of the band, Rod and Andy, and the whole Iron Maiden team, we extend our deepest sympathies to Paul’s family and close friends.”
Born in Chingford, East London on May 17, 1958, Di’Anno rose to prominence as the frontman of Iron Maiden, before splitting with the group before their 1982 commercial breakthrough with 1982’s The Number of the Beast, which introduced new vocalist Bruce Dickinson, who has held the gig ever since. After leaving Maiden, Di’Anno recorded a number of solo albums, as well as LPs with the bands Di’Anno’s Battlezone, Gogmagog, Killers, Praying Matins, Rockfellas and more.
The powerful singer continued to record and tour through 2016, when he was hospitalized for undisclosed medical reasons; at the time Blabbermouth reported that Di’Anno had been forced to perform from a wheelchair due to injuries from a number of motorcycle accidents. He also faced a number of other health challenges over the years, including a near-fatal battle with sepsis that landed him in the hospital for eight months in 2015.
“Despite being troubled by severe health issues in recent years that restricted him to performing in a wheelchair, Paul continued to entertain his fans around the world, racking up well over 100 shows since 2023,” read the statement from Conquest Music. Di’Anno first career retrospective album, The Book of the Beast, was released last month, featuring highlights of the songs he recorded post-Maiden.
According to an Oct. 10 post on Di’Anno’s FB page, he was slated to perform in Edinburgh on Dec. 30 of this year before that show was cancelled, though a string of UK dates later this month and in November were still slated to go on before his death.
Check out some of Di’Anno’s Maiden high points below.
He’s a “Lucky Man,” because the latest support act for Oasis’ upcoming reunion tour was announced Monday (Oct. 21). Richard Ashcroft of The Verve will join the Gallagher brothers on their upcoming U.K. and Ireland tour dates next summer. The band will play 19 sold-out shows beginning in Cardiff on July 4, with the trek including stops at stadiums in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Dublin.
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“As a fan from day one I was buzzing for many reasons when the news of Oasis’s return was announced,” Ashcroft said in a statement. “I can say with no exaggeration that the songwriting talent of Noel and Liam’s pure spirit as a lead singer helped to inspire me to create some of my best work. It was the perfection of ‘Live Forever’ that forced me to try and write my own.”
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He added: “They dared to be great, made the dreams we had real and I will always remember those days with joy. Now it’s time to create more memories and I’m ready to bring it. See you next summer. Music is power.”
The Gallagher brothers first met Ashcroft in the when Oasis supported The Verve on tour back in 1993, prior to the release of Oasis’ debut single “Supersonic.”
In 1995, Noel Gallagher dedicated “Cast No Shadow” from their second album (What’s the Story Morning Glory?) to Ashcroft. The band then recruited Ashcroft to perform backing vocals on Be Here Now single “All Around the World” in 1997; Liam Gallagher returned the favor when he appeared on Ashcroft’s Acoustic Hymns Vol 1 rework album in 2021.
The Verve released four albums during its career, including Urban Hymns in 1997, which went to No. 1 on the U.K.’s Albums Charts and No. 23 on the Billboard 200. They also had success with singles such as “Bittersweet Symphony,” “The Drugs Don’t Work” and “Lucky Man.” Ashcroft boasts two further chart-topping albums in the Verve and in his solo career.
Additional names will be announced as support acts in due course for Oasis’ European shows. In North America, it has been announced that rock band Cage the Elephant will appear as a special guest for their sold-out run next August and September in Toronto, Chicago, New Jersey, Los Angeles and Mexico City.
The band also recently announced – and promptly sold out – a string of dates in Australia. Last week, Liam said that he and Noel would not be doing joint interviews as a result of their reunion to avoid “intrusive” questions.
Morgan Wallen has revealed the multi-genre lineup for his previously announced Sand in My Boots Festival, set for May 16-18, 2025 in Gulf Shores, Ala.
The stacked lineup includes Wallen, Brooks & Dunn, Post Malone and Hardy headlining the fest.
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AEG Presents and Wallen, a 15-time Billboard Music Awards winner, have put together the festival, with Wallen curating a lineup that also includes Riley Green, Chase Rice, Ernest, Ian Munsick, Nate Smith, Ella Langley, Paul Cauthen, Kameron Marlowe, Josh Ross, Morgan Wade, Hailey Whitters, Lauren Watkins, John Morgan and Laci Kaye Booth.
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Alongside country music hitmakers, the lineup also features hip-hop luminaries T-Pain, Wiz Khalifa, 2 Chainz, Three 6 Mafia, Moneybagg Yo and BigXthaPlug, as well as indie alternative bands including The War on Drugs, 3 Doors Down, Future Islands, Real Estate, Wild Nothing and more.
“Morgan Wallen here to share some exciting news me and my team have been working on for a while for y’all,” the country star previously said on social media when announcing the festival. “We’re heading south to the beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama and I’m bringing some good friends with me. Mark your calendars for May 16 – 18, 2025 for the Sand In My Boots Fest. Stay tuned and we’ll get you some more info soon!”
The Sand in My Boots festival will offer multiple pass types, including a three-day only general admission pass, Party Pit, VIP, Super VIP and “Livin’ the Dream” options. Amenities across the various pass tiers can include access to exclusive viewing areas and lounges, main stage in-ground swimming pools, complimentary bar and gourmet food options, private restrooms, dedicated festival entryways, and more.
Tickets go on sale Oct. 25 at 10 a.m. CT at the festival’s website.
See the full Sand in My Boots 2025 lineup below:
2 Chainz
3 Doors Down
49 Winchester
Bailey Zimmerman
BigXthaPlug
Brooks & Dunn
Chase Rice
Diplo
Ella Langley
Ernest
Future Islands
Hailey Whitters
Hardy
Ian Munsick
John Morgan
Josh Ross
Kameron Marlowe
Laci Kaye Booth
Lauren Watkins
Moneybagg Yo
Morgan Wade
Morgan Wallen
Nate Smith
Ole 60
Paul Cauthen
Post Malone
Real Estate
Riley Green
The War on Drugs
Three 6 Mafia
T-Pain
Treaty Oak Revival
Wild Nothing
Wiz Khalifa
After a 55-year career, the sun will finally set on Mr Blue Sky next year. ELO, led by Jeff Lynne, have announced their date and location of their final live show.
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The gig will take place in London’s Hyde Park next year as part of BST Summertime festival on July 13, 2025. They are the first act to be announced for the annual run of gigs in the central London location. 2024 headliners included SZA, Morgan Wallen, Stevie Nicks and more.
“My return to touring began at Hyde Park in 2014,” band leader Jeff Lynne said in a statement. “It seems like the perfect place to do our final show. We couldn’t be more excited to share this special night in London with our UK fans. As the song goes, ‘we’re gonna do it One More Time!’”
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Tickets for the show go on sale on October 25 at 10am. A range of special guests are set to join the lineup, which will be announced in due course.
The band are currently in the midst of their Over and Out US tour, which will conclude with a pair of shows at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum on October 25 and 25.
The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) formed in 1970 in Birmingham, England and became a stalwart of the British rock scene throughout the following decades. Initially composed of Lynne, songwriter Roy Wood and drummer Bev Bevan, the group released their eponymous debut album in 1971 and went on to release 14 studio albums, most recently in 2019 with From Out of Nowhere.
In the late ‘70s and early 1980s, the band amassed six Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking with “Don’t Bring Me Down” in 1979 at No.4. They had similar success on the Billboard 200 with five Top 10 entries on the Billboard 200. Several of their albums, including 1977’s Out Of The Blue, were awarded platinum status in the US by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).
Speaking on the announcement Jim King, CEO of European Festivals at AEG Presents says, “Jeff Lynne’s ELO are loved the world over. The live shows are nothing short of extraordinary and a testament to the incredible catalog of hits we’ve enjoyed for over 50 years. Hosting their final performance at BST Hyde Park is a true honor, especially 30 years after their first festival show in the same park. We’re excited to be part of this special moment in music history.”
Singer-songwriter GOAT Joni Mitchell took over the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Saturday (Oct. 19) for the first of two “Joni Jam” concerts.
Despite the size of the open-air, highway-adjacent venue, a crowd of 17,000 worshipful fans was gifted with a show that felt like an intimate, inviting look into life for Mitchell at 80: shooting the breeze with friends and admirers from the comfort of a plush (yet appropriately regal) chair, sipping pinot grigio by the mellow lamplight and singing a song (or 25) when the spirit takes her.
Cozy at that may sound, getting to this warm hug of a victory lap has been a hard-fought victory for Mitchell — a brain aneurysm in 2015 left her unable to speak or walk, and she had to watch videos of herself playing guitar to relearn her own songs. But the Canadian artist, who suffered from polio as a child, is no stranger to uphill battles, and after years of keeping out of the public eye following her health crisis, the Grammy-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famer stunned the world in 2022 by making an unannounced return to the stage at the Newport Folk Festival.
A proper headlining gig followed in June 2023 at The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington, and her soul-scraping turn at the 2024 Grammys allowed an even wider audience to experience the depth and gravitas Mitchell is still capable of bringing to a performance.
Joining her at each of those gigs was Brandi Carlile, an avowed acolyte whom Mitchell has described as “my ambassador.” Naturally, Carlile joined Mitchell onstage Saturday at the Bowl, too, radiating joy and nervous excitement as she sang with her hero and served as the de facto emcee/hype woman for the evening. Carlile even revealed that the Joni Jams – when held in Mitchell’s real-life living room “five or six years ago” – helped Mitchell heal following the aneurysm. It started out with friends and musicians singing Mitchell’s own material to her as she recovered, an experience Carlile said was “terrifying”; before too long, Mitchell began harmonizing and taking a verse or two from the comfort of her couch. Now, she’s regained enough vocal control to command an audience of thousands.
“Joni is about to destroy us right now,” Carlile said with a Cheshire Cat grin before Mitchell sang the Blue standout “A Case of You” in a resonant, husky tone. That statement could easily have been inserted into any number of between-song moments, given how frequently folks could be spotted wiping away tears to the icon’s lyrically incisive meditations on love, pain and our brief lives on a rock circling a giant ball of gas.
“I’m honored to have her as a friend because she brought me out of retirement,” Mitchell said of Carlile during the show, laughing.
Thanks to a backing band that included Blake Mills, Robin Pecknold, Jacob Collier, Lucius, Annie Lennox, Marcus Mumford, Jon Batiste, Allison Russell, Wendy & Lisa, Rita Wilson, Celisse and more, Mitchell’s remarkable songs were treated more like jazz compositions than pop songs, stretched out and contracted depending on the lead vocal, embellished with curious flourishes in some moments then pointedly unadorned the next. Even if the Bowl got a little chilly toward the end of the evening, the warm tapestry of Mitchell’s music kept spirits warm.
Here are some of the highlights from an unforgettable evening.
‘Hejira’ Highlights
The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony in Cleveland on Saturday (Oct. 19) meant a lot to everyone involved, of course. But you can consider Peter Frampton among, if not the most, delighted people in the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Long considered one of the Rock Hall’s great snubs, Frampton’s induction was particularly poignant in light of his nearly decade-long battle with Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM), a degenerative condition that was expected to take him out of commission shortly after he revealed it six years ago and went on what was supposed to be a farewell tour. Yet he’s still playing — including at the induction ceremony, joined by his band and guest Keith Urban — and was beaming after his time on stage at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
“It was fantastic,” Frampton told Billboard. “It went better than I thought, which was wonderful.” He did note, however, that “halfway through the speech, as I looked down at my family… I needed a drink of water at that point. It can be a tear-jerker. It’s very emotional having everybody here. All my children are never all here together at a show. There’s always one here, one there or whatever. So it was wonderful.”
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Given, like other inductees, just seven minutes of performance time, Frampton originally planned a shortened version of his signature hit “Do You Feel Like We Do,” a song — featuring a Talk Box solo — that can stretch to 20 minutes during his concerts. “That’s the one everybody wants to hear,” Frampton noted, “so we edited that down, and that includes jamming with Keith as well. But then (show producers) said, ‘We feel really bad you’re doing just one number.’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve got the same amount of time as everyone else.’ They said, well, can you do another one for two minutes?’” For the “bonus cut” he chose “Baby (Somethin’s Happening)” from his third solo album, Somethin’s Happening, which turned 60 this year.
“The actual playing part, which I was most concerned about, obviously, because I’m the stupid perfectionist person and I worry about every little tiny detail… it just had to be great. That’s what made me nervous,” Frampton explained. “Or excited. Keith said, ‘Don’t say nervous. Say excited.’”
Urban, for his part, was excited to jam out with Frampton, even in an abbreviated fashion, on “Do You Feel Like We Do.” “When he called and asked me if I’d play that song, of all songs, I was very happy to get to do it,” Urban, who subbed for Bryan Adams at the 2021 Rock Hall inductions in Cleveland, told Billboard after the performance. “It was amazing getting to play with Peter. He’s just got such a control over sensitivity and dynamics and intents. He makes to look easy, but it’s really hard to do what he does. He’s like a black diamond (trail) skier making it look like a green. It’s insane.”
Peter Frampton performs onstage at the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on October 19, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Frampton and Urban spoke of their Nashville history, meeting up during the ’90s after they’d both moved there and before Urban’s career took full flight. “I was living in an absolutely awful, crap house in a pretty gloomy part of town at the time,” Urban recalled, “and my manager called and said, ‘Hey, do you want to write with Peter Frampton? I’m like, ‘Holy s—, yeah! Where are we gonna write.’ He goes, ‘He’s gonna come to your house.’ I Go, ‘No, no, no. He’s not gonna come to my house. But sure enough he came over to my dwelling and we spent the day just playing music and writing.” Nothing came out of the session, however. “It was one of those strange, mismatched moments, musically. I wasn’t in a good headspace. I don’t think either of us was in the best place we’ve been in — but I was glad we got a good, solid friendship out of it.”
Another friend on hand Saturday was the Who’s Roger Daltrey, who delivered the induction speech for Frampton, who had opened for the Who on his first tour with his band the Herd. Daltrey also led the humorous revelry in the press room after the induction, joking that the original tour was “the pinnacle of your (Frampton’s) decline. No wonder you joined up with [Humble Pie], because you needed to be there. You were gonna be forever stuck in the Who — if being in the Who is forever stuck.”
Daltrey also gushed about hearing Frampton and Urban playing together at the ceremony.“It was fabulous to hear the sound of real guitars instead of all the fuzz box s— that they put out these days, detuned…,” Daltrey noted. “It’s not rock ‘n’ roll. It’s not music… and it was wonderful to hear Peter’s guitar sound and Keith and the band work together, and the sensitivity in (Frampton’s) voice… Your secret is everything you do comes from the heart and it’s always been that way and it’s always affected me… And I mean it! I’m not blowing smoke up your ass, or blowing it on the way down. I really do mean it.”
Frampton, who partied after the ceremony with family and friends back at the Four Seasons hotel, recently finished a short late summer concert tour and said he’s hoping to go out again next year. In the meantime he’s working on completing both an album of all-new songs as well as a documentary that’s being directed by his keyboardist Rob Arthur.
For nearly 40 years, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has made it a tradition to gather together a batch of the biggest stars in the world and invite them to join the ranks of some of the greatest performers who have ever lived. On Saturday night (Oct. 19), that tradition continued with the […]