On This Day, April 26, 1978 …

The concert documentary The Last Waltz, about The Band’s farewell concert, opened in theaters.

The movie, directed by Martin Scorsese, focused on The Band’s Thanksgiving Day show on November 25, 1976, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco; it was billed as their “farewell concert appearance.”

The show featured guest appearances by a whole host of musicians, including Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Ronnie Wood, Muddy Waters, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison and Neil Young.

Considered one of the greatest concert documentaries of all time, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2019.

The 45th anniversary of the movie was celebrated in 2023 with the release of a three-LP audiophile pressing of the soundtrack and a one-night screening of the film in movie theaters.

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Mötley Crüe has unleashed the "Dogs of War" with their first new song in five years.

The track, which is available now via digital outlets, also marks the "Kickstart My Heart" outfit's first release since new guitarist John 5 joined the band following the retirement of Mick Mars.

"It's always great getting back in the studio with the guys in the band," bassist Nikki Sixx says. "We know you're gonna like this one."

You can watch the accompanying "Dogs of War" video, which features animated, anthropomorphic doberman dogs and pigs in suits, streaming now on YouTube.

The last time Mötley Crüe put out new music was for the soundtrack to their 2019 biopic, The Dirt, which included the Machine Gun Kelly collaboration, "The Dirt (Est. 1981)."

Mars, meanwhile, announced his retirement from touring in 2022, which led to an ongoing legal action regarding his financial stake in Mötley Crüe. He put out his debut solo album, The Other Side of Mars, in February.

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Richie Sambora is out with new music. The former Bon Jovi guitarist just released the brand new single, “I Pray,” and that's just a taste of what's to come.

Sambora is planning to release three more tracks to digital platforms throughout the month of May. “I Pray” will be followed by "Livin’ Alone,” coming May 3, “Songs That Wrote My Life,” out May 10, and “Believe (In Miracles),” coming May 17.

You can listen to “I Pray” now via digital services and on YouTube.

“I’m at that point in my life where I am truly happy and a big part of that joy comes from writing songs and making music,” Sambora shares. “There’s a tremendous freedom with these songs because I don't have to think about charting #1 or what’s happening on the radio, but I still put the same craftsmanship, care and love into it as I did with Slippery When Wet or New Jersey and I hope they bring a similar happiness to those that choose to listen and push play on streaming services."

The song release comes as Richie is featured in the brand new docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, which is streaming now on Hulu. The four-part series follows the 40-year career of his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band Bon Jovi.

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The Smashing Pumpkins have welcomed new guitarist Kiki Wong to the band.

Billy Corgan and company chose Wong after going through a reported 10,000 submissions for the position, which they'd opened up in January to anyone interested in applying.

"Reviewing the work of these incredible musicians was a herculean, albeit worthy effort," Corgan says. "First off, I really want to thank everyone who submitted materials for consideration. It wasn't an easy decision with how much great guitar playing we were lucky enough to hear and see over the past few months."

"I was a fan of Kiki's before she submitted her name to be considered -- and it's great that someone of her acumen will be part of our touring family," he continues. "I can't wait to hit the road with Kiki as part of our mad circus."

Wong, who's played with artists including Taylor Swift, Usher and Bret Michaels, adds, "It’s been an absolute wild ride, but I am beyond honored and humbled to be chosen to perform alongside some of rock's greatest and most influential musicians of all time."

"I never thought little ole 15-year-old me playing metal guitar in my bedroom would amount to this moment," she says. "It goes to show hard work and perseverance truly pays off if you're willing to push through the tough stuff, so never lose hope out there. I am so grateful for this opportunity and can't wait to share the stage with The legendary Smashing Pumpkins!"

Wong, who joins the Pumpkins following the 2023 departure of longtime guitarist Jeff Schroeder, will make her live debut with the band on their European tour, which launches in June. They'll launch a U.S. tour in July, including dates with Green Day.

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Pearl Jam is raffling off tickets to one of their upcoming sold-out shows at New York City's Madison Square Garden.

The grand prize winner will receive two tickets to PJ's September 3 concert at the famed arena. Round-trip travel and a two-night hotel stay will be provided, as well.

You'll also go home with a signed poster and vinyl copy of the new Pearl Jam album, Dark Matter.

The raffle is being run through the platform Fandiem and is open through June 26. A portion of the proceeds raised will benefit Pearl Jam's Vitalogy Foundation charity organization.

For more info, visit Fandiem.com.

Dark Matter, the 12th Pearl Jam album and the follow-up to 2020's Gigaton, dropped April 19. Pearl Jam will launch a North American tour in support of the record May 4 in Vancouver.

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Bon Jovi is looking back at their 40-year career with the new four-part docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, and front man Jon Bon Jovi tells ABC Audio he’s very proud of the final product.

“Overall, it's a very emotional piece, to see your life flash before your eyes,” he says. “You're showing everything. You're putting all your cards on the table.”

As for why he felt now was the right time for such an in-depth look at the band, Jon says, “I just felt that it was an opportunity for us to mark the first 40 years and to look back while I'm looking ahead.”

There’s no doubt Bon Jovi’s devoted fan base will tune in to watch — and while some may think they know all there is to know about the group, Jon thinks there’s still a lot fans can learn about how the band got to where they are today.

“I think that folks think that these songs fall out of the sky, and then we just do things,” he says. “There's a lot of hard work that goes into making it look easy.”

But will this documentary bring a new set of fans to Bon Jovi? Jon’s not so sure.

“That's what's interesting about putting a documentary out,” he says. “Even if you have a perception of something, how it's then viewed and perceived by others is completely out of your control.” 

Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story premieres Friday, April 26, on Hulu.

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The Lollapalooza docuseries now has a premiere date.

The three-part Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza will debut May 21 on Paramount+. It'll follow Lollapalooza's history from its formation in 1991 as a touring festival to becoming the Chicago destination event it is today, all while exploring the "exciting and strangely symbiotic 30+ year relationship" between Lolla and its founder, Jane's Addiction front man Perry Farrell.

"Finally, someone cares about the generation that no one cared about," Farrell says in a press release.

Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza was first announced in 2023 and debuted during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in January.

Meanwhile, Lollapalooza 2024 takes place August 1-4 and features headliners including blink-182, The Killers and Hozier.

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The members of Talking Heads will once again reunite to talk about their groundbreaking documentary, Stop Making Sense.

All four members of the group — David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison — will come together to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the concert documentary at two Q&A sessions following screenings of the film. They took part in a similar Q&A at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

Brooklyn, New York's Kings Theatre announced the band members will be on hand for a June 13 screening of the film, with the Q&A moderated by Questlove. The event will also feature The Linda Lindas covering “Found a Job” from the upcoming Stop Making Sense tribute album, Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense, which comes out May 17.

A ticket presale is open now, with tickets going on sale to the general public on Friday, April 26. 

Brooklyn Vegan reports that the band will also be on hand for a June 4 screening of the film at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, which is where the original Stop Making Sense concerts took place. That night’s Q&A will be moderated by Fred Armisen and will feature Blondshell performing “Thank You For Sending Me an Angel,” also from the tribute album. 

Considered by many to be the greatest concert film of all time, Stop Making Sense, directed by Jonathan Demme, was recorded over three shows at Pantages Theatre in December 1983; the documentary came out the following October. 

A Stop Making Sense Collectors Edition Blu-ray, featuring two extended cuts of the film, a 25-minute documentary and more, will be released May 8. It is available for preorder now.

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The new Hulu docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story features some unheard music from the group — and Jon Bon Jovi says in the future everyone will get to hear it.

Asked by Billboard if the archival music will ever come out, he says, "Yes. One thing that we have always known, and our deep fan base knows as well, is that we always write 30 songs to get 10. And so there’s always been a backlog of material that’s been unreleased. There’s no shortage of it."

"So I think that we stumbled on 30 or 40 songs that no one’s heard, and they’ll all come out, yeah," he added.  Jon notes that the unreleased songs are from "all the records" — including Slippery When Wet and New Jersey.

The bad news is that Jon doesn't know when these songs will be released. "But," he explains, "We know what we’ve got. It’ll happen during the course of the release of the album." That'd be Forever, which is coming out in June.

"There’s some really good songs that I can’t believe didn’t make those records," he says.

The docuseries also shows Jon's struggle to get his voice back after undergoing surgery. He says he won't go on tour until he can, as he puts it, "go out on that stage ... and pick any song I want throughout [our] catalog on a nightly basis, the way I used to be able to do."

He adds, "That’s where I have left to go ... that’s the bar that I need to get back to."

As for what he's doing to get back to that point, Jon says it involves vocal therapy four times a week, as well as, "Hoping, wishing. Wishing, hoping. Praying."

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The second annual American Music Honors, hosted by the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center For American Music at Monmouth University, took place in New Jersey on Wednesday, with The Boss on hand to induct one of this year’s honorees, John Mellencamp.

“Seymour, Indiana, is the birthplace of our next honoree, and I have been there and I can tell you it is a small town,” Springsteen shared, according to the Asbury Park Press. “His eye for the details of working-class life in the belly of the country has been flawless and unforgiving."

He noted of Mellencamp's songs, "[H]e’s captured and remained true to an unflinching vision of a country at war with itself, a country caught between its hard realities and better angels."

Mellencamp took the stage to perform an acoustic version of “Jack and Diane,” but later in the night, Springsteen honored him by performing his take on Mellencamp's classic “Small Town,” with the Indiana rocker joining him.

This year’s other honorees included Jackson Browne, who performed “Running on Empty” and “Take It Easy”; Mavis Staples, who performed “Come Go With Me”; and Dion DiMucci, who performed “King of New York Streets” and “The Wanderer.”

The night ended with Springsteen returning to the stage, backed by the house band, Steven Van Zandt’s Disciples of Soul, to perform "Glory Days” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out." Staples and the other acts also performed the gospel hymn “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.”

The first American Music Honors event was held in 2023. Van Zandt, Sam and Dave's Sam Moore, Darlene Love and Steve Earle were the honorees.

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Ozzy Osbourne answers who he wants to induct him into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in a new interview with Rolling Stone.

After replying "I don't know" and sharing that his wife, Sharon, is "working on that for me," Ozzy adds, "I think she'd like to have Jack Black from Tenacious D."

"He might not be available, but if he can do it, that would be great," the Prince of Darkness says.

Black, by the way, sang Ozzy's solo tune "Mr. Crowley" in October during a 100th birthday party for Tom Morello's mom.

Ozzy also speaks on the possibility of him performing during induction night. Due to a variety of health issues, he hasn't played a full live set since New Year's Eve 2018.

"If I can," Ozzy says. "My wife is organizing it. If I did it, I'd start thinking about it now and I'd lie in bed going, 'Oh, we have to start rehearsing.' But we're definitely going along."

Ozzy is being enshrined in the Rock Hall for the second time, having previously been inducted with Black Sabbath in 2006. Sabbath was inducted by Metallica's James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, and they did not perform.

The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place October 19 in Cleveland and will stream live on Disney+. An ABC special will air at a later date.

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The Rolling Stones are getting ready to kick off their Hackney Diamonds tour on Sunday, April 28, at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, and they’ve just revealed the lineup of acts set to open for them on the trek.

The opening show will feature already announced special guest Gary Clark Jr., with The Pretty Reckless, KALEO, Joe Bonamassa, The Linda Lindas, Lawrence, Tyler Childers, Widespread Panic, Lainey Wilson, The Beaches, Electric Mud, Carin León, Ghost Hounds, Bettye LaVette, The Red Clay Strays and The War and Treaty among the artists booked for the rest of the tour.

Clark Jr., Ghost Hounds and KALEO have all opened for The Stones in the past.

The Rolling Stones Hackney Diamonds tour, their first North American tour since 2019’s No Filter tour, consists of 19 shows, with multiple nights in New Jersey, Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as a headlining set at Jazz Fest in New Orleans on May 2.

The tour wraps July 17 in Santa Clara, California. A complete list of dates can be found at rollingstones.com.

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Neil Young & Crazy Horse opened their Love Earth Tour in San Diego, California, on Wednesday, April 24, treating fans to a 14-song set filled with classics.

Rolling Stone reports that Young opened with his iconic track “Cortez the Killer." The band — drummer Ralph Molina, bassist Billy Talbot and guitarist Micah Nelson filling in for Nils Lofgren — spent six minutes jamming before Young uttered a lyric.

In early April, Young told fans on Zoom that he had discovered some lost lyrics to the song that were never recorded; as promised, he added them during the show. “I floated on the water/I ate that ocean wave/Two weeks after the slaughter/I was living in a cave," he sang. "They came too late to get me/But there’s no one here to set me free/From this rocky grave/To that snowed-out ocean wave.”

As for the rest of the set, Young performed such classic tunes as “Cinnamon Girl,” a 16-minute “Down by the River” and an equally long “Love and Only Love,” as well as solo acoustic performances of “Comes a Time,” “Heart of Gold” and “Human Highway." He wrapped the show with “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black).”

Young & Crazy Horse have one more show in San Diego on Thursday, April 25, before they move to Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday, April 27. A complete list of dates can be found at NeilYoungArchives.com.

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Artists including Graham Nash, Yes and Duran Duran have signed an open letter supporting the proposed Fans First Act, which aims to "combat predatory resellers and the use of illegal bots" in the concert ticket industry.

The letter was released by a coalition called Fix the Tix, organized by the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA).

"As artists and members of the music community, we rely on touring for our livelihood, and we value music fans above all else," the signees write. "We are joining together to say that the current system is broken: predatory resellers and secondary platforms engage in deceptive ticketing practices to inflate ticket prices and deprive fans of the chance to see their favorite artists at a fair price."

"Predatory resellers have gone unregulated while siphoning money from the live entertainment ecosystem for their sole benefit," the letter continues. "They use illegal bots, speculative ticket listings, and deceitful advertising, which cause real harm."

It concludes, "We, as artists, as music lovers, and as concert attendees ourselves, urge you to support the Fans First Act to combat predatory resellers’ deceptive ticketing practices and the secondary platforms, which also profit from these practices. Predatory resellers should not be more profitable than the people dedicating their lives to their art."

Others who signed include Blue Öyster Cult, Nile Rodgers, Cyndi Lauper, Green Day, Darlene Love, Men at Work's Colin Hay, Dave Matthews, The Cure’s Robert Smith, Billie Eilish, Jack Johnson and Pixies.

To read the whole letter, visit NIVAssoc.org/fixthetix.

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Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour has given fans their first preview of his upcoming solo album Luck and Strange, which drops September 6. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer just released the new tune “The Piper’s Call,” with the video set to debut on Friday, April 26.

“It's been such a joy to make my new album, Luck and Strange, and I look forward to you hearing it,” Gilmour shared on Instagram following the release of the song. 

Luck and Strange is Gilmour’s first album of new material in nine years. The album consists of eight new songs and one cover, with the title track featuring a contribution from late Pink Floyd keyboard Richard Wright, taken from a jam session at Gilmour's barn back in 2007.  

Luck and Strange will be released in a variety of formats, including LP, CD, Blu-ray and digital. All formats are available for preorder now.

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