Rock
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Canadians have each others’ backs!
Nickelback shared a video on Tuesday (July 23) defending the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine film from any hate. In the clip, all four members of the band rock Deadpool and Wolverine masks, though they soon decide that the costumes are too itchy and unmask themselves.
“We’re Nickelback, experts in navigating irrational hate in the face of tremendous success,” the band’s frontman Chad Kroeger tells the camera. “We have an important preemptive message for anyone thinking of criticizing the film Deadpool & Wolverine or Ryan Reynolds.”
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Kroeger then begins listing off the film franchise’s list of accomplishments, including that the first two Deadpool films grossed more than $1.5 billion at the box office, and accolades including two Critics Choice Awards, four MTV Movie & TV Awards, one GLAAD Award, a People’s Choice Award, two Teen Choice Awards and many more.
“As for Mr. Ryan Reynolds, just look at this photograph,” Kroeger adds, before the screen flashes to a photo of the Deadpool star as Nickelback’s 2005 hit “Photograph” begins to play. “That is a beautiful Canadian man right there.”
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Upon seeing the clip, Reynolds was overjoyed. “My god. I love those guys,” he said in response.
Nickelback’s video was a hilarious parody of a 2018 Once Upon a Deadpool teaser, in which Reynolds’ Deadpool vehemently defends the rock band after someone likened the Marvel franchise to “if the Beatles were produced by Nickelback. It’s music, but it sucks.”
“I’ve had it with all this Nickelback hating. You think that makes you cool with the cool kids in school?” Deadpool angrily says in response, before listing off Nickelback’s array of accomplishments, including selling 50 million albums worldwide, and an array of nominations and awards.
Watch the original video below. Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on Friday (July 26).
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07/24/2024
His choices of onstage friends and cover versions made his decade-long MSG run a celebration of pop music history.
07/24/2024
Phish’s Trey Anastasio has 17 years of sobriety under his belt and in late 2023 he paid it forward by opening a residential recovery program, Divided Sky, in his native Vermont with the caseworker who helped him after a 2006 arrest for heroin possession and DWI.
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According to People, the 46-bed facility in Ludlow, VT is a “nonclinical, abstinence-based center that follows the 12-step program” and costs $7,500 for a 30 day stay; financial aid is available for those in need. “I’ve seen people in dire situations come back from this. It’s never too late to have hope,” Anastasio, 59, told the magazine. “Families can be saved.”
The facility’s model is based on The Minnesota recovery center The Retreat, which does not put patients through detox, which Anastasio said helps to keep the cost down. “So basically, you know you’re a drug addict, you’re an alcoholic when you walk in the door. If you need to do detox, we are connected in the local Vermont sober community with places where we would send you to a medical facility to detox,” he said. “Some people need longer than others. There’s a staff that assesses the condition that your loved one is in, and some people would come 20, 30 days, other people might need 90. It’s based on your individual situation. Some people might need longer and that’s perfectly fine.”
Anastasio developed an addiction to OxyContin in 2000 after first taking the prescription painkiller following dental surgery. Within four year, though, the married father of two adult daughters said, “I lost my band, then I almost lost my family,” in reference the substance issues that forced Phish into a two-year hiatus (2000-2002) that led to a reunion and then to another break in 2004 that lasted until 2008. “Drinking and drugging, for me it was a slow death of isolation.”
Anastasio got professional help after a Dec. 15, 2006 arrest in upstate New York on drug and DWI charges. “The minute I got arrested, I was relieved,” he said, adding that when he was handcuffed he “knew it was over.” At the time, prosecutors said Anastasio was arrested for weaving down a rural road near the Vermont border and was facing felony drug possession charges after police found hydrocodone, as well as misdemeanor drug possession charges for heroin, oxycodone and the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam (also known as Xanax).
The jam band leader and solo star pleaded guilty in April 2007 to a felony drug charge and avoided jail time in a plea agreement in which the more serious charges were dropped and he agreed to enter a 14-month drug court program in which he attended meetings and did court-ordered community service. According to People he hasn’t touched drugs or drink since.
Divided Sky’s program director is Melanie Gulde, who served as Anastasio’s caseworker at the time. “She saved my life,” Anastasio said of Gulde. “She’s a badass, but she’s also very loving.” Anastasio began raising the funds to open Divided Sky in 2020 via his “Beacon Jams” residency shows at the Beacon Theatre in New York.
“I hope people take away the fact that humans are resilient. Recovery is the greatest gift we can give ourselves,” said Gulde. “Divided Sky came about as Trey’s desire to give back on a bigger scale. I have had countless people tell me that Trey has been an inspiration for their own recovery. We must do the work, and that is exactly what he does.”
In addition to his ongoing touring and recording with Phish — who recently released their 16th studio album, Evolve — Anastasio has released a dozen albums, including 2022’s Mercy.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
If you’re on the couch with your popcorn just aching for some more drama between pop singers, do not invite Paramore singer Hayley Williams to your party, because she’s not interested. In an Instagram Story recorded after a show in Hamburg on Tuesday (July 23), Williams hopped on camera to give her no-holds-barred take on the attempts by some to pit female pop stars against each other.
Sliding off screen to change, Williams gave a two-minute treatise on why she hates the internet, but also on the irrational focus on competition between artists. “Something I’ve been thinking about a lot, and why I don’t really love it [the internet]… Especially in the music world, like when it comes, to like, music, whether it’s the pop girls or any scene, really. People only give a f–k about numbers now, and stats. And that is so lame. It’s very fun, don’t get me wrong. It’s sick. We’ve had a #1 album and top this and that albums, yes. That s–t is great…,” she said.
After a quick change into sweatshirt, Williams continued, “But I just remember a time when that was not so important, and that also wasn’t like a gotcha for a stan-war type of situation. Anyway, I just think it’s really f–king annoying… My side of the internet, which is basically not really the internet. Where I just get to support all the pop girls. Maybe that’s privilege. because I’m not a pop girl, but I just think everyone should cool it and let people make really great music and s–t… I’m over it.”
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With just the top of her head visible as she hung upside down in the frame to give a view up her nostrils, Williams concluded that she is, “over it.” (Watch the whole video here.) As noted by Stereogum, the Story has since disappeared, but a residual tile remains on which Williams added, “witnessing stan wars makes me so happy pmore is not really in the pop world. i just get to enjoy the good s–t thats come out this year and im sorry some of yall cant thats gotta be tough damn.”
Paramore’s great summer adventure opening for Taylor Swift rolls on tonight (July 24) with the final show in Hamburg, Germany, before the outing moves on to Munich’s Olympiastadion for gigs on Saturday(July 27) and Sunday (July 28). The group will stay touring with Swift through a fifth and final gig at Wembley Stadium in London on August 20.
John Mayall, the British blues musician whose influential band the Bluesbreakers was a training ground for Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood and many other superstars, has died. He was 90.
A statement on Mayall’s Instagram page announced his death Tuesday (July 23), saying the musician died Monday at his home in California. “Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world’s greatest road warriors,” the post said.
He is credited with helping develop the English take on urban, Chicago-style rhythm and blues that played an important role in the blues revival of the late 1960s. At various times, the Bluesbreakers included Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, later of Cream; Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac; Mick Taylor, who played five years with the Rolling Stones; Harvey Mandel and Larry Taylor of Canned Heat; and Jon Mark and John Almond, who went on to form the Mark-Almond Band.
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Mayall protested in interviews that he was not a talent scout, but played for the love of the music he had first heard on his father’s 78-rpm records.
“I’m a band leader and I know what I want to play in my band — who can be good friends of mine,” Mayall said in an interview with the Southern Vermont Review. “It’s definitely a family. It’s a small kind of thing really.”
A small but enduring thing. Though Mayall never approached the fame of some of his illustrious alumni, he was still performing in his late 80s, pounding out his version of Chicago blues. The lack of recognition rankled a bit, and he wasn’t shy about saying so.
“I’ve never had a hit record, I never won a Grammy Award, and Rolling Stone has never done a piece about me,” he said in an interview with the Santa Barbara Independent in 2013. “I’m still an underground performer.”
Known for his blues harmonica and keyboard playing, Mayall had a Grammy nomination, for “Wake Up Call” which featured guest artists Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Mick Taylor and Albert Collins. He received a second nomination in 2022 for his album The Sun Is Shining Down. He also won official recognition in Britain with the award of an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2005.
He was selected for the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class and his 1966 album Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton is considered one of the best British blues albums.
Mayall once was asked if he kept playing to meet a demand, or simply to show he could still do it.
“Well, the demand is there, fortunately. But it’s really for neither of those two things, it’s just for the love of the music,” he said in an interview with Hawaii Public Radio. “I just get together with these guys and we have a workout.”
Mayall was born on Nov. 29, 1933 in Macclesfield, near Manchester in central England.
Sounding a note of the hard-luck bluesman, Mayall once said, “The only reason I was born in Macclesfield was because my father was a drinker, and that’s where his favorite pub was.”
His father also played guitar and banjo, and his records of boogie-woogie piano captivated his teenage son.
Mayall said he learned to play the piano one hand at a time — a year on the left hand, a year on the right, “so I wouldn’t get all tangled up.”
The piano was his main instrument, though he also performed on guitar and harmonica, as well as singing in a distinctive, strained-sounding voice. Aided only by drummer Keef Hartley, Mayall played all the other instruments for his 1967 album Blues Alone.
Mayall was often called the “father of British blues,” but when he moved to London in 1962 his aim was to soak up the nascent blues scene led by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Eric Burdon were among others drawn to the sound.
The Bluesbreakers drew on a fluid community of musicians who drifted in and out of various bands. Mayall’s biggest catch was Clapton, who had quit the Yardbirds and joined he Bluesbreakers in 1965 because he was unhappy with the Yardbirds’ commercial direction.
Mayall and Clapton shared a passion for Chicago blues, and the guitarist later remembered that Mayall had “the most incredible collection of records I had ever seen.”
Mayall tolerated Clapton’s waywardness: He disappeared a few months after joining the band, then reappeared later the same year, sidelining the newly arrived Peter Green, then left for good in 1966 with Bruce to form Cream, which rocketed to commercial success, leaving Mayall far behind.
Clapton, interviewed for a BBC documentary on Mayall in 2003, confessed that “to a certain extent I have used his hospitality, used his band and his reputation to launch my own career,”
“I think he is a great musician. I just admire and respect his steadfastness,” Clapton added.
Mayall encouraged Clapton to sing and urged Green to develop his song-writing abilities.
Mick Taylor, who succeeded Green as a Bluesbreaker in the late 1960s, valued the wide latitude which Mayall allowed his soloists.
“You’d have complete freedom to do whatever you wanted,” Taylor said in a 1979 interview with writer Jas Obrecht. “You could make as many mistakes as you wanted, too.”
Mayall’s 1968 album Blues From Laurel Canyon signaled a permanent move to the United States and a change in direction. He disbanded the Bluesbreakers and worked with two guitars and drums.
The following year he released The Turning Point, arguably his most successful release, with an atypical four-man acoustic lineup including Mark and Almond. “Room to Move,” a song from that album, was a frequent audience favorite in Mayall’s later career.
The 1970s found Mayall at low ebb personally, but still touring and doing more than 100 shows a year.
“Throughout the ’70s, I performed most of my shows drunk,” Mayall said in an interview with Dan Ouellette for Down Beat magazine in 1990. One consequence was an attempt to jump from a balcony into a swimming pool that missed — shattering one of Mayall’s heels and leaving him with a limp.
“That was one incident that got me to stop drinking,” Mayall said.
In 1982, he reformed the Bluesbreakers, recruiting Taylor and McVie, but after two years the personnel changed again. In 2008, Mayall announced that he was permanently retiring the Bluesbreaker name, and in 2013 he was leading the John Mayall Band.
Mayall and his second wife, Maggie, divorced in 2011 after 30 years of marriage. They had two sons.
The Rolling Stones have been known as the world’s greatest rock and roll band for six decades, but Grammy voters were shamefully late in getting on board. The Stones weren’t nominated in any category until the 1979 ceremony, when Some Girls was nominated for album of the year.
How could that be? How could such classic albums as Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. have been completely ignored – not to mention such landmark singles as “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Honky Tonk Women” and “Brown Sugar”?
One reason is that Grammy voters in ’60s and ’70s were resistant to rock, favoring pop and what we now call traditional pop. (Nowadays, Grammy voters love rock and have been slow to embrace hip-hop. Resistance to the new and different is often a byproduct of institutional voting.)
The Beatles landed five consecutive album of the year nominations in the ’60s, but The Beatles were more in line with Grammy tastes. They were more often on the pop side of pop/rock, and Lennon/McCartney’s songwriting was more rooted in traditional songcraft.
Another reason The Stones were left out for so long was the Grammys didn’t have performance categories dedicated to rock until 1990 – and didn’t have a best rock album category until 1995. (Fittingly, The Stones were the first winner of the latter award.)
Since Grammy voters belatedly discovered The Stones, the band has fared pretty well in the nominations. They won a Grammy (best traditional blues album) for their previous studio album, High & Lonesome. Their three studio albums before that were each nominated for best rock album.
The band’s 2023 album Hackney Diamonds, which was mostly produced by Andrew Watt, has an excellent chance of landing a best rock album nod and an outside chance of landing an album of the year nod. “Angry,” the album’s opening track and lead single, was nominated for best rock song at the ceremony in February. The 2025 nominations will be announced on Nov. 8. The awards will be presented on Feb. 2, 2025.
Watt (profiled here) has his own following in Grammyland – he won producer of the year, non-classical in 2021, which makes him the most recent producer not named Jack Antonoff to win that award. Watt, who is just 33, wasn’t even born when The Stones’ Steel Wheels album was released in 1989.
Look and see how The Stones have fared in the Grammy nominations since 1979, the year Grammy voters first invited them to the party. The year show is the year of the Grammy ceremony.
1979: Some Girls
The path to 50 has not always been easy for Journey, whose members have been celebrating the milestone on the road, including a summer stadium tour with Def Leppard.
Over the decades, there has been rancor amid the music, lineup changes and lawsuits, periods of uncertainty and open-ended hiatus.
And yet the wheel — in the sky and elsewhere — keeps on turning for the group whose first show, at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom, ushered in 1974.
Legacy has a lot to do with it, of course. Journey’s catalog features a dozen platinum-or-better sellers, including two albums — 1981’s Escape and 1988’s Greatest Hits — that are certified diamond by the RIAA for sales (including downloads and streams) exceeding 10 million units.
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The band has notched 18 top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, and one would be hard pressed to attend a sporting event where the 1981 hit “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” (also famously played in the finale episode of The Sopranos) isn’t piped over the PA.
Given those accomplishments, Journey’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 was long overdue.
Meanwhile, since the end of the pandemic, the act’s current lineup — including co-founding guitarist Neal Schon, longtime keyboardist-guitarist Jonathan Cain and, since 2007, Filipino frontman Arnel Pineda (whom Schon discovered on YouTube) — has been headlining arenas. And its summer stadium tour, which began July 6 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, reprises its 2018 bill with Def Leppard.
“They’ve sold out every ticket everywhere we go — it’s kind of crazy, and well-deserved,” says Jeff Frasco, Journey’s agent at Creative Artists Agency. “The songs are amazing; people want to hear them. Combine that with putting on a great show, and it’s great. They give people their money’s worth.”
All of that has somewhat mitigated the rancor of the past decade, which has included legal skirmishes that led to management changes and the departure of original bassist Ross Valory and longtime drummer Steve Smith, as well as trademark disputes with Steve Perry, singer of the band’s biggest hits. Schon and Cain have gone at each other, too, in well-reported conflicts over business issues that spilled into social media, most recently in 2023.
The good news, according to drummer Deen Castronovo — who played with Schon and Cain in the late-1980s group Bad English — is that “everybody has mended fences,” he says. “They’ve made amends and we’re all on one jet again, and it’s all for one and one for all.”
Clearly, “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” seems to be not just a song title, but an ethos for the band.
Fifty years is a big milestone for any act. What has kept Journey around and active — and successful — for this long?
Neal Schon: Well, it all started with the songs themselves, and I think we got some things right a long time ago and continue to bring it live. We made our statements and continued to move forward in writing new music.
Jonathan Cain: It’s something you respect and you’re grateful for; that’s how I feel about it. For me, it’s 44 years, and I’ve always felt like it was the highest honor to join such a prestigious band and then to be able to contribute and take it to another level.
Schon: Our fans are so loyal to us, and we have young fans now whose parents were fans of ours and now they have their own kids who are coming to the concerts, too, and they love the music. Bands usually disband because they stop growing, but we keep growing and getting new fans. That keeps it alive.
Take us back to Journey day one.
Schon: I had just come out of Santana and almost formed a band with Greg Errico and Larry Graham from Sly & The Family Stone. Then Herbie Herbert approached me; he was my guitar tech [in Santana] and he said, “Look, I’m starting a management firm. I want to manage you and wrap a band around you.” I was definitely looking for something to do. Herbie and I had always gotten along and he believed in me, and it just went from there.
Journey has been through a lot of changes — 18 members, give or take — and some major shifts, like when Steve Perry joined in 1977, or Cain in 1980, or Arnel Pineda in 2007. How has the group been able to navigate those changes and remain a draw?
Schon: I think the creativity. Any new person in a band brings out a different side in the chemistry in a band. We definitely had that chemistry between the three of us — me, Jonathan and Perry — in the old band, and we’ve shown signs as well in the [current] band.
Cain: The music’s bigger than [the band members]. Journey has always connected with the audience. It really comes down to the integrity of the songs and the message. It was positive music — which [critics] loved to hate. (Laughs.) A song like “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” has a huge connection because there are a lot of small-town girls and city boys wanting to get on the midnight train to anywhere. We worked hard to write songs [for the fans] about their lives.
It’s no secret there has been a lot of drama, especially over the past few years. You two seemed to be at each other’s throats and yet managed to pull it back from the brink. How?
Cain: Just looking at the big picture: The music is louder than the noise of the grumbling and the arguments and the disagreements and stuff. The show must go on, right? It’s just the drive of knowing that there are fans out there that don’t care about our differences but care that we show up and play for them. They care that we carry on, so we’ve got to put aside our differences for them.
Schon: The one thing I can tell you is Journey is everything to me. Journey comes first, and I’m going to do anything I need to do to prevail and make sure that ship does not go down. You have to forgive and you have to move forward. We’ve chosen to do that.
The band is managing itself these days, right?
Schon: Yes. It’s like myself, my wife, Jonathan and his wife. It comes down to how much you understand what your situation is about. I would tell a young player, “Get involved in [the business]. Know what’s going down with the contracts, understand it, trademark yourself. If something shady comes by, know what question to ask.” It took a long time to learn all that, but I’m happy we have.
If you could only have one album to hand to someone as a representation of Journey — and not Greatest Hits — what would you choose?
Schon: Infinity [released in 1978]. To this day, that’s one of my favorite records. There are many bigger records, although that was no slouch of a record, and musically it’s very, very creative. We did an amazing job of turning that corner, of keeping some of the past and moving forward into the future with Steve on board and everything. It was like a new era for us.
Cain: I’d have to say Escape. That’s our biggest record, and there was no accident it was. It still sounds fresh and it connects with people. I think the chemistry between all of us at the time, we were just a good, good band. We were on fire, young dudes with a mission.
You put out Freedom in 2022, which was your first new studio album in 11 years. Will there be another?
Cain: A single here, a single there. I’ve just written a new song; hopefully we can get it out there. Albums don’t really matter much anymore. You have to accept reality and adapt to it. Fortunately, I’ve got a lot of albums under my belt. I’m just happy the catalog is continuing to cook along.
Schon: I continue to be creative; we all do. We recorded [Freedom and] we recorded way more than what ended up on the album, a lot of great stuff that wasn’t used, so there is some stuff like that. But the business now is really about live performances and about whatever you can do with merchandise.
Speaking of live, you’re out this summer again with Def Leppard, like the two bands did in 2018. What are you anticipating?
Cain: It’ll be fun. It’s a rock’n’roll show, and there’s nothing better than playing in a big, open space and a place where you don’t have to worry about the echo coming back at you. It’ll be nice just letting it blow; a full-on rock experience.
Schon: We love those guys. We’ve always had an amazing time with them. We’ve had great chemistry together going way back to the first tour we did with them, when [lead singer] Steve Augeri was in the band.
Are there any archival projects in the pipeline related to the 50th anniversary or otherwise?
Schon: There’s lots of stuff I don’t think has ever been heard, live, from the early band. But I don’t think there’s anything from the older band, the ’80s band, that hasn’t been put out.
Cain: There was an album that came out in Japan, The Ballads, that I think would be a huge seller back here. You could even have [Volumes] 1 and 2; there are enough songs.
Has a stage musical or biopic about Journey ever been considered?
Cain: We’ve been down that road. I worked with Anthony Zuiker [creator of TV’s CSI franchise]; he’s a huge Journey fan and he had these songs in mind to create a play. And Perry shot it down. He didn’t want to know about it. Then [Zuiker] came back to me again; he had this Journey-Cirque du Soleil idea, and we were supposed to get something else with Netflix, the same producers who did the Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary. Right now, I think that’s in the hands of Steve Perry to say yea or nay. You can’t use his songs without his permission, obviously.
So that’s another gorilla in the room. Arnel has been with the band 17 years now. Steve wouldn’t even sing with you at the Rock Hall induction. People are always asking about it, but is it time to stop and realize he’s never coming back?
Schon: I love Steve’s voice. I just wish he continued singing. If Steve wanted to be heard, he’d be heard. He came with his last solo record [2018’s Traces], and it showed hope that he was going to get out there and start doing things again. Without seeing him do it, I can’t answer something like that.
Cain: I just wish the guy well. Arnel is the longest tenured of any lead singer that we’ve ever had and he has crushed it for all those years, so you got to go, “How lucky are we to have a gentleman like that?” And [Perry] is always going to be judged on his contributions [to Journey] and the legacy he left behind. He wins more than he loses.
This story originally appeared in the July 20, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Slash announced the passing of his stepdaughter, Lucy Bleu-Knight, 25, on Monday morning (July 22). In a post, the Guns N’ Roses guitarist and solo star posted a tribute to the young woman he called an “incredibly talented artist, a passionate dreamer, and a charming, lovable, sweet soul.”
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The post noted that Bleu-Knight, born on Dec. 6, 1998, was the “beloved daughter of Meegan Hodges and Mark Knight, stepdaughter of Samantha Somers Knight and Slash, sister of Scarlet Knight, stepsister of London and Cash Hudson,” and that she died in Los Angeles on July 19; Slash’s birth name is Saul Hudson and Meegan Hodges is the guitarist’s longtime girlfriend.
At press time no information about Bleu-Knight’s cause of death was available and the family asked for privacy during this time, adding a request that “social media speculation be kept to a minimum as they grieve and process this devastating loss.”
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On Sunday morning (July 21), Slash also announced the cancellation of four dates on his S.E.R.P.E.N.T. tour, announcing that “due to unforeseen circumstances, the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. tour regrettably has to cancel the below performances.” A spokesperson for Slash had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on the cause of the show cancellations.
The affected shows are:
July 22 — Cincinnati, OH @ PNC Pavilion at Riverbend
July 24 — Interlochen, MI @ Interlochen Center for the Arts
July 25 — Huber Heights, OH @ Rose Music Center
July 27 — Windsor, ON @ The Colosseum at Caesars Windsor
The traveling blues festival features a headlining set from Slash and support on select dates from the Warren Hayes Band, Keb’ Mo’, Larkin Poe, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Samantha Fish, ZZ Ward, Robert Randolph, Eric Gales and Jackie Venson. The next scheduled date on the tour is a July 28 show in Toronto at the Budweiser Stage.
See Slash’s posts below.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the S.E.R.P.E.N.T tour regrettably has to cancel the below performances. Refunds will be available at points of purchase. July 22 – Cincinnati, OH – PNC Pavilion at RiverbendJuly 24 – Interlochen, MI – Interlochen Center for the ArtsJuly 25 –… pic.twitter.com/zsQV2oLgOY— Slash (@Slash) July 21, 2024
Chris Cornell’s 60th birthday came with a surprise for fans – a snippet of the late Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman covering Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.”
In a tribute clip to mark the occasion, Cornell’s widow Vicky shared a previously unheard snippet of Cornell’s cover of the Chapman classic on July 20.
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The rocker died in 2017 at the age of 52 in Detroit following a Soundgarden show.
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“Chris would have turned 60 today. Although everyone that loved him is sad that he’s no longer here, it’s all of you, the fans, who made him, whose love has continued to keep his legacy alive. I’m so grateful to you all for that,” Vicky wrote alongside the video.
“While I remember him best as the wonderful husband, father and human being he was, I’d like to celebrate his whole life and everything he gave us. On his 60th we can all celebrate his genius as an artist who redefined music, but also the incredible man who touched and changed lives.”
She added, “He’s an icon, and he gave us all so much — his unique voice, his poetry, his creativity. His life was a gift to so many. And as you can hear — there’s more to come!!! Sharing this to thank you all for your love and support and come together in celebrating.”
The timing couldn’t be more fitting. “Fast Car” has been enjoying a major comeback, with country star Luke Combs’ version hitting No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023. Combs and Chapman even teamed up for a memorable duet at the 2024 Grammys, introducing the song to yet another generation.
Now, Cornell’s interpretation adds a new dimension to the song’s legacy. It’s a reminder of his ability to cross musical boundaries, much like his earlier cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
The unreleased track seems to be part of a larger collection of unheard material.
In 2021, Cornell’s estate released “No One Sings Like You Anymore: Volume One,” a covers album he recorded in 2016. At the time, Vicky hinted there was more to come. Her recent Instagram post, declaring “there’s more to come!!!”, has fans speculating about what else might be in store.
From Soundgarden’s 1994 chart-topper “Superunknown” to his Bond song “You Know My Name,” Cornell’s career was marked by versatility, and this unearthed “Fast Car” cover, even in its brevity, is a reminder of his skill for reimagining familiar tunes with his unique style.
As we mark what would have been Cornell’s 60th year, this musical snippet leaves fans curious for more.
Will a full version be released? Are there other covers waiting to be heard? For now, we’re left with this small but impactful reminder of Cornell’s enduring influence.
Check out the snippet in the video below.
Jack White has some tricks up his sleeve. The rocker seemingly released a brand new album on Friday (July 19), and employees at Third Man Records’ retail shops have been secretly slipping it into customers’ bags. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news According to Stereogum, a fan […]