BBC One Pulls Ozzy Osbourne Doc Just Hours Before Airtime
Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, the BBC documentary that followed the final months of his life, was set to premiere last night (Monday), but has been pulled from the schedule. A BBC spokesperson says, "The film has moved in the schedules and we'll confirm new broadcast details in due course." Filmed over three years, it was described as "an intimate glimpse into [the Osbourne family's] journey as they prepare to return to the U.K. It features family moments, humor, reflection and shows the enduring spirit that made Ozzy a global icon. We hope it brings comfort and joy to Ozzy's fans and viewers as they remember and celebrate his extraordinary life." Meanwhile, production continues on a bio-pic on Ozzy and his wife Sharon. Ozzy was 76 when he died of a heart attack at his Buckinghamshire estate on July 22nd.
In other Ozzy news, the Birmingham's Aston Villa Football Club, at whose stadium Ozzy and Black Sabbath did their final show (July 5th), paid tribute to him Saturday during their opening Premier League match with Newcastle United. There was a video tribute at the start of the game before the two teams walked out to the pitch to footage of Osbourne performing ‘Crazy Train’ at that last show. And Bostin’ Brass, the band that performed at Ozzy’s funeral procession in Birmingham, did songs from his and Sabbath's catalog in the stadium’s fan zone. And the the program for the match contained an illustration of Ozzy walking up the steps to the stadium wearing a number-9 jersey with his name, Ozzy, above it.
JOE PERRY: A Good Problem to Have
Joe Perry and his latest incarnation of The Joe Perry Project are four shows into their 10-date tour. This time out he's joined by his Aerosmith bandmate Brad Whitford, Black Crowes
singer Chris Robinson, and Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo, along with Aerosmith
touring keyboardist Buck Johnson, and former JPP drummer Jason Sutter in place of STP's Eric Kretz who had to drop out due to a "family emergency." So, in addition to Aerosmith songs, Perry is also including tunes from the Crowes and STP, as well as the odd cover or two. At one point, there were 45 songs on the list, which Whitford says is "a good problem to have."
BW: "Too much good music to play, so this is gonna be really cool."
JP: "I've had a few sleepless nights over trying to figure it out. We're just doing this to entertain each other and there's gonna be songs that people have never heard before and, you know, it's fun to play that stuff and we'll see how it goes."
Over the first four shows they've done 20 songs -- 18 of which they've done each night while two Aerosmith songs flip-flop -- "Mama Kin" and "Same Old Song and Dance." And with Whitford in the band, Perry has pulled out some deep Aerosmith cuts including "My Fist in Your Face," "Combination," "Get it Up," "Bright Light Fright" and "Chip Away the Stone."
As for songs by The Black Crowes and Stone Temple Pilots, they're the ones you'd expect -- "Twice as Hard" and "Jealous Again" from the Crowes, and "Interstate Love Song" and "Vasoline" from STP. The tour moves to Boston for the first of two shows this Tuesday. The second one is August 26th when they open for The Who.
Foreigner's 50th Anniversary Concert To Be Filmed For A Documentary
FOREIGNER has announced they're marking their 50th anniversary with a closed-set performance at Ellis Island, New York on September 6. (Ellis Island...Foreigner...get it?). The performance is being filmed for a documentary set to come out next year. The concert will be live in front of a select crowd of only 250 people; mobile devices will not be allowed during filming and waivers will be required. Original lead singer Lou Gramm will front the band for the event, along with "surprise guests."
John Fogerty Talks Forgiving His Late Brother And Bandmate Tom Fogerty
John Fogerty has had a long and acrimonious relationship with his Creedence Clearwater Revival bandmates -- his brother, the late Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug "Cosmo" Clifford -- because they continued to deal with Fantasy Records, who owned all of CCR's material, and whose president, Saul Zaentz, John had various legal battles. So, it's a bit surprising to hear him say something nice about them in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.
Asked if there was "something special about that group of people, or do you truly think you could have done it with any other three musicians," he said, "To think that you could just get any old person and then have them play something — I’ve learned through the process of just being a bandleader that that’s hit-and-miss. When my two boys [Shane and Tyler] joined [my] band, it just was there immediately. And that’s biology. I really have to acknowledge that [they] just have the feel I’m looking for, right? So obviously, I think that’s certainly true with Tom. Even though Tom was limited as a guitar player — he wasn’t full of technique and years of lessons and all that — he certainly had great rhythm and could play great rhythm parts. And the same with Doug and Stu eventually.
"I think a lot of the process of getting there was that I constantly let them know what I was looking for.… Those are the four people that made those records. And that didn’t particularly happen again in history. So obviously, those four human beings are unique. That might sound like my reserved or side-[wise] way of giving credit, and I don’t mean it to sound that way. I think the stamp that was put on those records by those four people was arrived at naturally because all of our hearts were in the right place — everybody wanted to arrive at this mysterious place up in the sky. And we got there." While Fogerty, Cook and Clifford remain at odds, John did forgive his brother, who at one time told John that his best friend was Saul Zaentz. "I look back at all that time as a tragedy and I'm sad about it. In the years since Tom passed I've certainly let that go. You know, someday in heaven I'm gonna meet Tom and I'm gonna be very happy to see him. My forgiveness is for both of us."
This Friday, John Fogerty will release his new album, Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years (John’s Version), a re-recording of 20 CCR songs.
Finally! The Who Plays Classic Song Live For The First Time Ever
It took them 54 years, but the Who have finally performed one of their best-known songs live....but even that performance comes with an asterisk. Saturday, the band took the stage in Sunrise, Florida, and performed "Going Mobile." The song, from 1971's "Who's Next," had never before been presented in a live performance...but even now, there's a catch. While Pete Townshend sang lead on the recorded version, it was his brother, Simon Townshend, who sang it with the band. Still, it would be hard to tell the difference between the two, as they sound almost identical.
Oasis Announces Pop-Up Stores Ahead Of North American Leg Of Reunion
Oasis will have pop-up stores open ahead of the North American leg of their reunion tour. The stores will feature official Live '25 merchandise, including exclusive brand collaboration and limited edition items. The stores will be set up in Los Angeles on August 20th, August 21st in Toronto, August 23rd in New York City, and August 26th in Milwaukee. The pop-up shops will have T-shirts featuring album and single artwork graphics honoring the band's debut and sophomore albums "Definitely Maybe" and "What's the Story) Morning Glory?"
JACK WHITE, METALLICA: Kirk Tweaks Jack's Design
Jack White gave Kirk Hammett of Metallica one of his Fender Triplecasters earlier this year -- and that inspire Hammett to do some tweaking to the design. White posted a video of his wife Olivia Jean playing a Triplecaster and wrote in the caption, "This was dropped off to me [Saturday] by the Fender Custom Shop in Nashville. Why? Because Kirk Hammett asked them if they could make him a Thinline version of the Triplecaster and if they could also 'Make one for Jack too.'" "Kirk asked me if I approved and I of course fully endorse ANY mods done to any of my designs, let alone from the great Hammett, and this one is especially cool because a lot of folks don't know that the Triplecaster is already chambered! Which I added to the design to reduce weight from all the other metal objects happening on it. So, all that was needed at the custom shop was to get the patterns out for the F hole and voila. Cool mod and thank you Kirk for getting me one too...Can't wait to dig into this today."
JOHN MELLENCAMP: All He Is Saying...
In May 2023, John Mellencamp released "The Eyes of Portland," a song that addresses the homeless population in the Oregon city, as well as the rest of the country. Over two years later and the problem continues, which he addressed today (Monday) on social media. He says, "Everywhere I go, I see the tragedy of homelessness and continue to wonder how this became such a problem nationwide. We should all feel a sense of shame that our elected officials have failed so miserably to meaningfully address the plight of our fellow human beings. I continue to educate myself. "A big reason for today’s homelessness crisis goes back to the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan shut down state-run mental institutions and prisons to cut government spending. He promised private replacements, but only the prisons were rebuilt — because they made money. Mental health care? That didn’t turn a profit, so it was left behind.
"As a result, people with mental illness and addiction were dumped onto the streets. The prison system became the new mental institution — but it wasn’t built to help, only to punish. Just look at the change: in Johnny Cash’s 1968 concert at Folsom Prison, the inmates were mostly white. Now, prisons are overwhelmingly filled with poor black and brown men, many of whom never stood a fair chance. "We’re not just facing a housing crisis — we’re seeing the long-term effects of de-funding care and prioritizing profit over people. It’s time to reverse course." Mellencamp also provided a link to a 2013 Salon.com article referencing what President Reagan failed to do.
Mellencamp will release a new album titled Orphan Train next year. His last album was 2023’s Orpheus Descending, which contains "The Eyes of Portland." Up next for Mellencamp is Farm Aid on September 20th at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE: Morello's Okay if They're Done
It's been three years since Rage Against the Machine played their last show, and if the band never plays again guitarist Tom Morello seems satisfied with how it ended. Rage's last concert was August 14th, 2022 at Madison Square Garden in New York City and Morello posted about that anniversary over the weekend. He wrote, "In 1990 I was on tour with my band Lock Up playing a show on my birthday in rural Pennsylvania. There were zero people in attendance at the show. Literally ZERO. Sitting depressed in the motel room afterwards with the chain smoking bass player I said, 'Gimme a cigarette.' He said, 'Dude, you’ve never smoked a day in your life you must really be depressed!' I put the cigarette in my guitar case and said, 'No I’m going to smoke this one onstage when I sell out Madison Square Garden.' We laughed."
"So 32 years later at the last MSG show I took it out of the case and thought about smoking it, but, well, I still hate the idea of smoking, so I didn’t. Afterwards I just put it on my mantel next to the platinum commemorative ticket for the 5 sold out shows. Nothing but love and gratitude to the band and the fans for making this very improbable story come true."
Rage axed the rest of their tour so frontman Zack de la Rocha could have surgery on his Achilles, and in January 2024 drummer Brad Wilk posted that Rage would never perform again.
IN OTHER NEWS
Mick Jagger took a vacation this summer in Portugal, saying it’s “a beautiful place to explore.” He posted photos of his visit on Instagram.
Huey Lewis, Mike Rutherford of Genesis, and Tico Torres from Bon Jovi are taking part in golf's pro-am at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, October 2nd through the 5th in St. Andrews, Scotland.
Steven Jenkins, the director of the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is bringing a program of rare Dylan films to the Paris Theater in New York City on September 6th and will talk about them with Elvis Costello.
Boston’s 1976 song “More Than a Feeling” has surpassed a billion streams on Spotify.
Mick Fleetwood and Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers performed at the second annual Maui Music and Food Experience Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa. Fleetwood, who lives on Maui, posted photos on Instagram.
Neil Young broke out "This Note's for You" for the first time in 27 years Sunday night when he played the Budweiser Stage in Toronto Sunday night. (The song contains the line "don't sing for Bud.") Watch the performance on YouTube.