This year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show caused the most controversy we have seen during a Super Bowl performance since the Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson spectacle. While that controversy stemmed from an incident that happened during the performance, this year’s backlash was caused mostly by people over 50 who had no idea who Kendrick Lamar was. That wasn’t the only reason, though. The fact that Kendrick Lamar decided to showcase his dispute with Drake in front of the largest TV audience of the year was just another public display of juvenile behavior that, for the most part, people are tired of.
For the past 20 years, the Super Bowl Halftime Show has largely shifted toward hip-hop and rap music. Now, while my generation did not grow up on that type of music, I have no problem with it. I truly believe that every generation deserves its own music to grow up with, and for the most part, that’s what hip-hop and rap have been to people probably 40 and under. Nonetheless, I think it’s time for a change.
There was a great five-year stretch in the early 2000s where we saw bands like The Who, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen, and Paul McCartney perform fantastic halftime shows. Of course, people at the time criticized those performances, but you can’t please everybody. So, for next year, we’re proposing a list of bands that we would love to see bring rock and roll back to the forefront. These picks are based on rock bands that we feel have a large audience and would satisfy most of the Super Bowl’s viewers. I completely understand that younger people may not know who that Lynyrd Skynyrd or Led Zeppelin guy was, but what better way to introduce young people to some classic rock and roll?
We are serious about this list. These are bands that are still together or could possibly reunite for one more show—who knows? But these groups could actually do it, and we believe they would put on a fantastic halftime show. So, here’s a list of the bands or solo musical artists and why they should take the stage.
This list includes only musical artists who have never played the Super Bowl.
# 10 – The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers are back with a brand new album, marking the first record in over 40 years to feature Michael McDonald, Tom Johnston, and Pat Simmons on vinyl. What better way to celebrate The Doobie Brothers’ reunion than with a Super Bowl Halftime performance? Everybody loves The Doobie Brothers, and this would be a perfect opportunity for them to reach a younger audience while everyone else celebrates their reunion.
Everyone loves Heart—even younger generations recognize the song Barracuda. This is an absolutely perfect choice. The band has countless hits, and they still sound incredible. Imagine how Ann Wilson would light up the stadium with her phenomenal voice, while Nancy Wilson captivates the audience with her stunning guitar work and signature high kicks. Now picture this: Jimmy Page joins them on stage for a roaring rendition of Rock and Roll to close out the show. That would be the ultimate rock and roll performance!
Just imagine an all-star jam featuring Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Marshall Tucker Band, and The Outlaws. Think about the songs these three bands could play together or individually during the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Then, for the grand finale, Free Bird performed with members of all three bands on stage together. Am I getting carried away? Probably. Could this actually be done? Oh yes—let’s make it happen!
Listen, we’re not going to get Led Zeppelin. There’s no way Led Zeppelin would ever reunite for a Super Bowl Halftime performance. And, of course, all true-blue Led Zeppelin fans realize that the band was done when John Bonham died. However, Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes is a definite possibility. If you ever caught any of the tours they did or have heard the live album they released, it was phenomenal. Additionally, there are plans to release another live album featuring Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes. This would make for an incredible Halftime Show.
If you caught any of the Sammy Hagar & The Best of Both Worlds tour shows, you know this would be a phenomenal performance. Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani, and Kenny Aronoff are absolutely on fire, tearing through classic Van Halen tracks and Hagar’s solo hits. Now, here’s the real kicker—if they could get Alex Van Halen to play drums and maybe David Lee Roth to share the lead vocal mic and turn this into a celebration of Eddie Van Halen’s life, you would have an entire stadium and millions around the world dancing and crying at the same time. That would be incredible! Eddie deserves to be honored in front of the biggest audience of the year.
Right now, the Eagles are a stadium band—one of the biggest in the world. Large venues are all they play. Of course, it’s not the same without Glenn Frey, but they’re still packing stadiums and putting on phenomenal shows. This is a solid pick.
Who doesn’t love Rod Stewart? If there is one rocker who can charm an entire audience of people of all ages while also rocking the roof off the joint, it’s this man.
Sting may have performed at a Super Bowl Halftime Show with Gwen Stefani, but The Police never did. This is probably the longest shot on the board, but when The Police reunited for a tour back in 2008, it was spectacular. Not many people would argue against this choice. This is another one of those bands that are universally recognized, with songs that span generations. This would be an absolutely phenomenal pick, but Sting probably wouldn’t do it. But then again what do I know? Are you listening Gordon?
It wouldn’t be the same without Christine McVie, but if you could get Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks back together on stage as part of Fleetwood Mac, I think many people would be on board. Just imagine them opening the Halftime Show with Tusk—anyone who has seen that video would understand exactly what I mean. And then they close with Go Your Own Way. Holy smokes, would that be earth-shattering!
Our top two choices are pretty much interchangeable. Since they have toured together many times, the ultimate pick would be for both of them to perform the Halftime Show. However, it’s been a long time since they shared a stage, so either one of them performing the show by themselves may be the more realistic possibility. That woudl be great also. There aren’t many musical artists who have spanned generation after generation in music history popualiryty like these two. The Beatles are probably the ultimate example, but the next two would likely be Billy Joel and Elton John. These two are stadium acts. These two are legends.
Ask anyone who saw King Crimson’s 27-date tour of the UK in November and December 1972 what they recall of the show there’s a good chance that the name of one person will be uppermost in their memories: Jamie Muir.
The death of the 82-year old musician and artist sparked numerous tributes and a wave of appreciation not just for his work as a member of the now-legendary Larks’ Tongues-era quintet but also for his pioneering contribution to the UK’s free jazz scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s where he worked as part of The Music Improvisation Company alongside luminaries such saxophonist Evan Parker and guitarist Derek Bailey.
Although Muir was only a member of King Crimson for a few months he was a hugely influential figure, not only during his tenure on stage and in the making of the Larks’ Tongues In Aspic album, but also left a legacy would resonate through successive line-ups thanks to his coining of the phrase ‘larks’ tongues in aspic’ when he was once asked to describe that quintet’s music.
King Crimson – Larks’ Tongues In Aspic Part I (OFFICIAL) – YouTube
Born in 1942 after initially taking to the stage as a trombonist after being expelled from art school in Edinburgh in 1966, he would ultimately become a drummer. Having founded a group called The Assassination Weapon in which he also controlled the band’s psychedelic light show, his aim shifted from Edinburgh to London where he quickly became embedded in the improvisation scene while funding himself with a day job as a salesman in Bentalls Department Store. Muir, who was also briefly a member of Pete Brown’s Battered Ornaments, saw King Crimson performing at Hyde Park in 1969 when the original group supported The Rolling Stones. Impressed by the force of Crimson’s set, decades later he told me in the first of many interviews, “Most bands come along and then develop but Crimson just came on and exploded with this very adult, intelligent, cutting-edge music. It was just this whole package that went wallop!”
Muir also played with Sunship, a jazz-rock outfit that included ex-Soft Machine sideman saxophonist Lyn Dobson, Allan Holdsworth, and future Gilgamesh/National Health keyboard player Alan Gowen, with whom Muir had also played in the Afro-rock combo Assegai in 1971. The other notable band Muir was part of was Boris. Championed by Melody Maker’s Richard Williams, Boris mixed rock, jazz, free-improv, and theatrical presentation led by Muir himself. Williams, who recommended Muir to Robert Fripp in the summer of 1972, recalls, “Jamie was such an interesting man. He was a funny combination of intensity and craziness. There was a looning side to him obviously. That Dadaist thing was interesting. He was obviously very serious but serious in a way that most musicians wouldn’t have understood, which is why Robert, even with his meticulous viewpoint, did respond to him.”
Just three years after witnessing King Crimson Muir found himself jamming with Robert Fripp to become the first recruitment to the new incarnation of King Crimson. Jamie recalled the occasion. “Fripp came round and we played for a couple of hours, upstairs in my little rehearsal room with mattresses plugged up against the windows. All I remember was playing some really fast and furious blowouts, which from a drummer’s perspective was the Tony Williams/Billy Cobham type of thing. It was fairly energetic stuff and I think we enjoyed ourselves. My feeling about getting the call was: ‘Terrific.’ King Crimson was the ideal for me because it was a rock band that had more than three brain cells. I was very much more an instrumental style of musician rather than being song-based and there weren’t many other bands that I would have been any good in. I was extremely pleased and I felt completely at home with Crimson.”
A little older than everyone else, he was quick to lead with suggestions for ideas or approaches to the material and musical vocabulary they were attempting to develop. Such was the sense of adventure and open-mindedness in those formative days nobody in the group baulked at or questioned the percussionist’s arsenal of pistachio shells, bags of dried leaves, domestic baking trays, tuned plastic bleach bottles, old suitcases, rolled-up newspapers, a large saw, duck calls, toys, and an aerophone – a brass mouthpiece affixed to a length of rubber hose which when whirled above the head produced a pitch with a doppler effect – in addition to a more conventional drum kit, cymbals and gongs.
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(Image credit: Getty Images)
Situated near the centre of the stage, Muir provided a visual focus for many in those audiences. Dressed in a split fur jacket that had once belonged to a girlfriend, he resembled something akin to a shaman dressed in animal skins as he moved rapidly around his array of percussion and toys. In the climatic sections of the music, he would work himself into a frenzy, moving with an anarchic abandon as though possessed, flailing his kit and nearby equipment flight cases with chains while appearing to be spitting blood from his mouth. Although these were theatrical capsules secreted in his mouth, the visual effect was startling. If the punters regarded him as something of an eccentric performer, then spare a thought for his fellow musicians on stage who had no inkling as to what Muir would do when he joined them on stage.
Many of the sounds and ideas Muir came up with were adopted and accommodated no matter how unorthodox they appeared to be. During the making of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Muir suggested the buzz of overlapping voices heard at the coda of LTIA Part I, the otherworldly and tape-manipulated sounds that grace the opening of Exiles and of course, recording the sound of hands sloshing around in buckets of mud during the introduction of Easy Money. While many of these sounds were fleeting and ephemeral in their nature and deployment, that did not prevent them from becoming etched into Crimson’s future musical vocabulary. The shocking screeching marking the transition between the climax of The Talking Drum and the grating intro of LTIA Pt II was produced by the band members blowing as hard as they could into the reeds of vintage bicycle horns. Many of those sounds left an indelible drummer Pat Mastelotto, whose habit of triggering electronic samples of Muir’s work had the effect of summoning that mercurial spirit into the 21st-century body of King Crimson.
Prompted by a profound spiritual awakening, Muir quit Crimson, music, and London, after the recording of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic in February 1973. However, before driving north he paused long enough to tell Yes’s Jon Anderson about Paramhansa Yogananda’s book, Autobiography Of A Yogi and thereby inadvertently inspired the conceptual framing for Yes’s Tales From Topographic Oceans. Thereafter Muir joined the Samye Ling Monastery near Eskdalemuir in southern Scotland to pursue a monastic Buddhist life, also attended by artist Fergus Hall who would provide the cover art for The Young Persons’ Guide To King Crimson and The Compact King Crimson. Upon returning to secular life in the early 1980s Muir once again became part of the improvised music scene and also took to painting large surrealist paintings. Not many of these have survived thanks to Jamie’s habit of burning those canvases he no longer liked. Happily, a less pyrotechnically inclined means of deleting unsatisfactory work presented itself after he began creating digital art in the early 2000s.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Although I only saw Jamie once in December 1972 with King Crimson, the memory of his incandescent presence never left me. I’m doubly lucky to have talked to him several times in subsequent years about that period of his life. Not only was he an inspiring, catalysing force of nature, he was also a lovely, modest soul. A long-time resident of Somerset, although he’d clearly moved on with his life, whenever I talked to him Jamie retained a great fondness for what was achieved during King Crimson. “The essence of it was that we were five musicians carrying with them their qualities and gifts and still trying to find a way of welding it all together into one distinct personality.”
Sid’s feature articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including Prog, Classic Rock, Record Collector, Q, Mojo and Uncut. A full-time freelance writer with hundreds of sleevenotes and essays for both indie and major record labels to his credit, his book, In The Court Of King Crimson, an acclaimed biography of King Crimson, was substantially revised and expanded in 2019 to coincide with the band’s 50th Anniversary. Alongside appearances on radio and TV, he has lectured on jazz and progressive music in the UK and Europe.
A resident of Whitley Bay in north-east England, he spends far too much time posting photographs of LPs he’s listening to on Twitter and Facebook.
Kansas have canceled their next two concerts following news that vocalist Ronnie Platt is battling cancer.
The singer revealed earlier this week that he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer on Feb. 11. “Before everyone gets all excited, it has a 99% survival rate [and] it has not spread,” he wrote on social media. “It’s contained to my thyroid [and] I just have to have my thyroid removed. [I’ll] go through some rehab time and be right back in the saddle. I sincerely appreciate everyone’s positive thoughts and prayers. I have some absolutely amazing people going to bat for me. As it has been put to me, this is just a bump in the road and will be behind me very soon! So everyone, please CARRY ON!”
As a result of Platt’s current situation, Kansas made the decision to cancel two Louisiana concerts in New Orleans on Feb. 21 and Lake Charles on March 1. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase. They also rescheduled two earlier dates in Oklahoma to November. “Our goal is to be back on the road as soon as possible,” assistant band manager J.R. Rees tells UCR. “Right now, we’re all focused on supporting Ronnie through this.”
Ronnie Platt’s History With Kansas
The vocalist has been with Kansas for more than a decade now and can be heard performing on the two most recent studio albums, 2016’s The Prelude Implicit and 2020’s The Absence of Presence. He joined the band in July 2014 after longtime singer Steve Walsh announced his departure earlier that month.
As Platt told UCR later during a 2016 interview, he got the job with Kansas in a whirlwind four day period that included him flying from his home area of Chicago to Atlanta for three hours. But the circumstances of the trip were unique, because he wasn’t being asked to audition. “We know you can sing your ass off,” they told him. “We just want to know if you’re a good guy who fits in with the band.”. By the time he woke up the next morning, he had an email from drummer Phil Ehart, letting him know that he had the gig.
“[It was] complete numbness,” he laughed, remembering the first show he played with Kansas. “You know, when I think about it, it’s still surreal. Just being a huge prog rocker from the late ‘70s, I mean, I grew up just listening to everything Kansas put out, So as a huge prog rocker and just having a similar tonality to Steve’s voice, you know, I always felt a close affection to singing Kansas stuff.”
Kansas wrapped up its 50th anniversary tour at the end of last year with a show in Pittsburgh, which featured a number of special highlights, including a guest appearance by original bassist Dave Hope. Their upcoming plans for the year include a series of co-headlining dates this summer with 38 Special.
Metal Hammer has teamed with Killswitch Engage for an exclusive bundle, celebrating the release of the metalcore greats’ new album This Consequence.
Only through the Louder webstore, you can get your hands on a variant of the latest issue of Hammer that features Killswitch on the cover. The magazine also comes with a t-shirt you can’t buy anywhere else and has a comprehensive interview with frontman Jesse Leach inside. Buy yours now while stocks last.
Inside, Leach talks openly about growing up in a religious household, the rise of Killswitch, his sudden 2002 exit, and his return to the band 10 years later.
(Image credit: Future)
Getting candid about why he left the band via email, with Howard Jones quickly taking his place, he says: “Back then, I was a very insecure, social anxiety-ridden kid, who didn’t have a total handle on my art. I started to get depressed. My anxiety was crippling me.
“I would hide out before the show, play the set, hide out after, not be sociable, not have fun, and that just started wearing thin on me. I felt very alone, I was having a rough time with my voice and my mental health. I became pretty much suicidal. I had the wherewithal at least to bail and get out of there.”
He goes on to talk about how now balances his mental health with his position singing in a prominent metal band. “You learn how to live with it,” he explains. “You exercise certain techniques and thought patterns, and there’s so many things you can do to sort of live with mental disorders. If I’m going through a bout of depression, I can write some pretty intense stuff.”
The new Hammer also comes with an in-depth review of This Consequence, which comes out on Friday (February 21) and marks Killswitch’s first album since Atonement came out six years ago. Journalist Stephen Hill offers a glowing eight-out-of-10 write-up, saying, “This Consequence sees [Killswitch] roaring back to classic form, possibly even heavier, just as emotionally raw, and still leaders of the metalcore pack.”
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On February 5, it was announced that the heavy metal originators’ founding lineup will reunite for one last show this summer, following their retirement back in 2017. The one-day Back To The Beginning event will also feature the final solo performance from frontman Ozzy Osbourne, plus a support bill that includes a ‘who’s who’ of hard rock royalty.
As the metal world gears up for what could be the defining gig of this generation, we’ve prepared the essential Q&A so you know everything you need to about the extravaganza.
Why are Black Sabbath coming back?
Black Sabbath retired following an extensive farewell tour from 2016 to 2017. The shows featured three of the band’s four founding members – singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler – but not original drummer Bill Ward, who pulled out of the band several years earlier due to a contract dispute.
Last year, Osbourne said on his podcast The Madhouse Chronicles that Sabbath’s career felt “unfinished” because they didn’t bow out with Ward behind the kit. He called for a true original lineup reunion, and Iommi, Butler and even Ward all expressed interest in the idea over the following weeks. The comeback finally became official with Back To The Beginning’s announcement in February 2025.
BLACK SABBATH – “Paranoid” from The End (Live Video) – YouTube
It certainly looks that way. From the moment Ozzy Osbourne started discussing a Black Sabbath reunion last year, the idea was for it to be a proper farewell with every founding member present. When Back To The Beginning was announced, it was promoted as the singer’s “final bow”, meaning it’s set to be his last time onstage both with Sabbath and as a solo performer.
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“As you may all know, four years ago, this month, I had a major accident, where I damaged my spine,” The Prince Of Darkness wrote on social media. “My one and only purpose during this time has been to get back on stage.
“My singing voice is fine. However, after three operations, stem cell treatments, endless physical therapy sessions, and most recently groundbreaking Cybernics (HAL) Treatment, my body is still physically weak.”
As his wife and manager Sharon Osbourne recently explained, the singer’s health issues have only worsened since then. She told The Sun that he can no longer walk as a result of Parkinson’s, despite his voice still being in top form. This has doubtlessly all played into Ozzy’s decision to retire from the stage after Back To The Beginning.
Which members will appear at the Black Sabbath reunion show?
Back To The Beginning will feature all of Black Sabbath’s original members: Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitars), Geezer Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums). The four men initially played together from 1968 to 1979, when Osbourne was fired due to his excessive substance use. The singer started a solo career while Sabbath continued, with Iommi being the only constant member.
The Osbourne/Iommi/Butler/Ward lineup reunited in 1999 but disbanded again in 2006. Iommi and Butler started the project Heaven And Hell, and Osbourne went back to his solo work. Though the classic Sabbath members came together yet again in 2012, Ward quickly abandoned the return due to contractual disputes.
Sabbath’s 2025 show will mark the first time Osbourne, Iommi, Butler and Ward have played together since late 2005. Their last full-length concert was in September 2005 in West Palm Beach, Florida, during the Ozzfest tour.
Black Sabbath’s original lineup in 1970. L–R: Geezer Butler (bass), Tony Iommi (guitars), Bill Ward (drums) and Ozzy Osbourne (vocals). (Image credit: Dom Slike / Alamy Stock Photo)
Who else will play at the Black Sabbath reunion show?
There will also be an all-star “supergroup” playing, with Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), David Ellefson (ex-Megadeth), Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), Jonathan Davis (Korn), Wolfgang Van Halen and others among their ranks. Morello will be the musical director of the event and famed actor Jason Momoa (Aquaman, Game Of Thrones) will compere.
See the full list of performers in the poster below.
(Image credit: Live Nation)
What will happen at the Black Sabbath reunion show?
According to a recent interview with Sharon Osbourne, Back To The Beginning will start at 12 noon on July 5. “Then you’re going to see one icon playing with another icon, doing a Sabbath song and one or two of their own songs, and people playing with each other that you never you’d see,” she added. “Tom Morello is going to play with the drummer from Tool [Danny Carey] and they’re going to have Billy Corgan with them.
“Then you’ll see Slash and Duff [Mckagan] and whoever they choose to play with. [Disturbed singer] David Draiman is going to come up and sing, Jonathan [Davis] from Korn is going to be here and he could be playing with [Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer] Chad Smith or whoever! Alice In Chains are coming and they’re playing as the band.”
The day will end with performances from Ozzy Osbourne and the original Black Sabbath lineup. However, on his Sirius XM radio show in mid-February, Osbourne said he’ll only play “bits and pieces” with Sabbath onstage.
“I’m not planning on doing a set with Black Sabbath but I am doing little bits and pieces with them,” he said in full. “I am doing what I can, where I feel comfortable.”
Where and when is the Black Sabbath reunion show?
The Black Sabbath return will take place at Villa Park, Aston, on July 5. The venue isn’t only in the band’s birthplace of Birmingham, but is the home stadium for the members’ beloved football team Aston Villa. Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler demonstrated their love for the club last year, appearing in the reveal trailer for their 2024 kit. Iommi recently held up their colours at a photoshoot announcing Back To The Beginning.
Tony Iommi and Sharon Osbourne at Villa Park in February 2025 (Image credit: Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Live Nation UK)
Can I still get tickets to the Black Sabbath reunion show?
After multiple pre-sales, tickets to Back To The Beginning went on general sale at 10am UK time on Friday, February 14. The BBC reports that the online queue for tickets exceeded 60,000 people, while Live Nation claims that the event sold out in fewer than 10 minutes. So, unless you’re willing to keep an eye on resale sites and potentially pay exorbitant prices, your chances of getting tickets for Black Sabbath’s final show are now slim-to-none.
How much are tickets to the Black Sabbath reunion show?
After the artist presale for Black Sabbath tickets started on February 11, The Independent reported that prices ranged from £197.50 to £834. On February 13, Birmingham Live reported that one local father spent more than £6,000 on two passes for himself and his daughter.
All proceeds from Back To The Beginning will go to the charities Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital, Acorn Children’s Hospice and Cure Parkinson’s.
Depends who you ask. There were bands who took the groove of blues rock and made it heavier before Black Sabbath came around, such as Iron Butterfly and Cream. However, it’s broadly accepted that Sabbath codified the heavy metal genre with their self-titled song in 1970. Not only was it heavy, but it started metal’s lengthy habit of pulling ideas from the horror genre: guitarist Tony Iommi used an ominous tritone while bassist Geezer Butler’s lyrics were themed around a demonic encounter. Many journalists and musicians have thus called Sabbath the first real metal band.
How many albums have Black Sabbath made?
Black Sabbath have released 19 studio albums and are unlikely to make another. Here they are in chronological order:
Black Sabbath (1970)
Paranoid (1970)
Master Of Reality (1971)
Vol. 4 (1972)
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)
Sabotage (1975)
Technical Ecstasy (1976)
Never Say Die! (1978)
Heaven And Hell (1980)
Mob Rules (1981)
Born Again (1983)
Seventh Star (1986)
The Eternal Idol (1987)
Headless Cross (1989)
Tyr (1990)
Dehumanizer (1992)
Cross Purposes (1994)
Forbidden (1995)
13 (2013)
What’s the best Black Sabbath album?
There’s no general consensus on what the best Black Sabbath album is, but the fan-favourites from the band’s original lineup are Black Sabbath and Paranoid (both 1970), Master Of Reality (1971), Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) and Sabotage (1975). Many are also partial to the band’s first album with Ronnie James Dio on vocals, Heaven And Hell (1980), while Headless Cross (1989) featuring singer Tony Martin is frequently described as underrated.
Classic Rock magazine recently ranked Sabbath’s albums from worst to best and put Paranoid at the top of the pile. “Released just seven months after their debut, Sabbath’s second album is their masterpiece,” wrote journalist Paul Elliott.
Paul Simon has announced a new tour for four months this year.
A Quiet Celebration Tour will play throughout North America in the spring and summer, with Simon performing at intimate venues during the run. The shows support Simon’s latest album, Seven Psalms, which came out in 2023.
In addition to songs from his most recent album, Simon will play classic cuts from his career, including favorites from Simon & Garfunkel.
After the release of Seven Psalms in 2023, Simon said he couldn’t perform live because of hearing loss. In 2024, he noted that some of his hearing had returned and hoped to play some shows again.
The upcoming concerts will be played in smaller, more intimate venues to accommodate Simon’s hearing loss. The concerts start in April in New Orleans and wrap up in August in Seattle.
This past weekend, Simon, with Sabrina Carpenter, kicked off Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary special with a performance of “Homeward Bound.” Simon was one of the program’s earliest supporters, having appeared on the show several times over the past five decades.
Where Is Paul Simon Performing in 2025?
Simon worked with specialists to create a stage setup that would make performing easier for his hearing loss, which started to surface when he recorded the acoustic and mostly solo Seven Psalms.
A Quiet Celebration Tour starts on April 4 with two dates in New Orleans at Saenger Theater. Over the next four months, Simon will play multiple nights in cities such as Denver, Dallas, Nashville, Toronto, New York and Los Angeles before concluding on Aug. 3 with the second of two concerts at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall.
You can see the list of dates below.
Simon’s band for the tour includes viola player Caleb Burhans, percussionist Jamey Haddad), guitarists Gyan Riley and Mark Stewart, keyboardist Mick Rossi, saxophonist Andy Snitzer, flute player Nancy Stagnita, cellist Eugene Friesen (Cello), and drummers Steve Gadd and Matt Chamberlin alternating for performances.
Tickets go on sale Feb. 21 at 10 a.m. local time. More information can be found at Simon’s website.
Paul Simon, A Quiet Celebration Tour 2025 April 4 Saenger Theater, New Orleans, LA April 5 Saenger Theater, New Orleans, LA April 8 Bass Concert Hall, Austin, TX April 10 Bass Concert Hall, Austin, TX April 11 Bass Concert Hall, Austin, TX April 14 Paramount Theatre, Denver, CO April 16 Paramount Theatre, Denver, CO April 17 Paramount Theatre, Denver, CO April 20 Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN April 22 Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN April 23 Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN April 26 Midland Theatre, Kansas City, MO April 28 Stifel Theatre, St. Louis, MO April 29 Stifel Theatre, St. Louis, MO May 7 AT&T Performing Arts Center, Dallas TX May 8 AT&T Performing Arts Center, Dallas TX May 11 Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN May 13 Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN May 14 Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN May 17 Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI May 18 Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI May 21 Symphony Center, Chicago, IL May 23 Symphony Center, Chicago, IL May 24 Symphony Center, Chicago, IL May 27 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON May 29 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON May 30 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON June 6 Wolf Trap, Vienna, VA June 7 Wolf Trap, Vienna, VA June 10 Boch Center, Wang Theatre, Boston, MA June 12 Boch Center, Wang Theatre, Boston, MA June 13 Boch Center, Wang Theatre, Boston, MA June 16 Beacon Theater, New York, NY June 18 Beacon Theater, New York, NY June 20 Beacon Theater, New York, NY June 21 Beacon Theater, New York, NY June 23 Beacon Theater, New York, NY June 26 Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA June 28 Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA June 29 Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA July 7 Terrace Theater, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, Long Beach CA July 9 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA July 11 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA July 12 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA July 14 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA July 16 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA July 19 Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA July 21 Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA July 22 Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA July 25 The Orpheum, Vancouver BC July 26 The Orpheum, Vancouver BC July 28 The Orpheum, Vancouver BC July 31 Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA August 2 Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA August 3 Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA
Paul Simon and Simon & Garfunkel Albums Ranked
He was always an uneasy folksinger, a role his record company tried to push him into starting with Simon & Garfunkel’s debut.
Savage Imperial Death March, a six-song collaboration with the group’s 2025 touring partners Napalm Death, will be available on vinyl on tour and as a “cheapy $5 CD” from AmRep at an unspecified point. A limited-edition online vinyl edition sold out instantly on Sunday.
You can hear “Victory of the Pyramids” from Thunderball below.
Melvins previously toured with the grindcore legends – ask Loudwire what that means – back in 2016. The album release page doesn’t specify which Melvins members participated in the Death March sessions. Guitarist and singer Buzz ‘King Buzzo” Osbourne founded the band in 1983. Drummer Dale Crover joined in 1984 and bassist Steven McDonald has been with them since 2015.
Thunderball will be the third album from the band’s “Melvins 1983” lineup, which features Osbourne and founding drummer Mike Dillard. Crover switched to bass for 2013’s Tres Cabrones and 2021’s Working With God Melvins 1983 albums, but is not credited on Thunderball.
Buzzo and Dillard are instead joined by Void Maines and “electronic noise terrorist” Ni Maitres on the five-track, 37-minute album, which arrives on April 18.
“I wanted this one to be bombastic. I think it is,” Osbourne declared in the Thunderball press release. “I’ve been wanting to do something with Void Manes and Ni Maîtres for a long time. Both of them are exceptional talents and were a joy to work with. Their out-of-the-box use of electronics pushed Thunderball beyond my expectations.”
Crover sat out the Melvins’ 2023 tour after undergoing spinal surgery but recovered quickly enough to release and tour behind his 2024 solo album Glossolalia. He will rejoin Osbourne and McDonald for the band’s 2025 tour, which includes a brief March trip through California and two months of dates with Napalm Death beginning April 4 in San Diego and concluding June 7 in Berkley.
Melvins will be joined on these dates by Big Business and High on Fire drummer Coady Willis, who along with Big Business bandmate Jared Warren served as a member of the Melvins’ four-piece, twin-drummer lineup from 2006 to 2015.
Melvins 1983 ‘Thunderball’ Track Listing 1. “King of Rome” 2. “Vomit of Clarity” 3. “Short Hair With a Wig” 4. “Victory of the Pyramids” 5. “Venus Blood”
Melvins / Napalm Death ‘Savage Imperial Death March’ Track Listing 1. “Tossing Coins Into the Fountain of Fuck” 2. “Some Kind of Antichrist” 3. “Nine Days of Rain” 4. “Rip the God” 5. “Stealing Horses” 6. “Death Hour”
Melvins The Spring Break Tour Dates March 1 Bakersfield, CA The Nile Theater March 2 Fresno, CA Strummer’s March 3 Sacramento, CA Goldfield Trading Post March 4 Santa Cruz, CA The Catalyst Atrium March 5 San Luis Obispo, CA SLO Brew Rock March 7 Pioneertown, CA Pappy & Harriet’s
Melvins and Napalm Death Savage Imperial Death March Part II Tour Dates
April 4 San Diego, CA Music Box April 5 Santa Ana, CA The Observatory April 7 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall April 8 San Jose, CA The Ritz April 10 Los Angeles, CA The Belasco April 12 Las Vegas, NV Swan Dive April 13 Phoenix, AZ The Van Buren April 14 Tucson, AZ Rialto Theatre April 15 El Paso, TX Lowbrow Palace April 17 Dallas, TX The Echo Lounge & Music Hall April 18 Austin, TX Emo’s April 19 Houston, TX White Oak Music Hall – Downstairs April 20 Baton Rouge, LA Chelsea’s Live April 21 New Orleans, LA House of Blues New Orleans April 23 Tampa, FL The Orpheum April 24 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Culture Room April 25 Orlando, FL The Beacham April 26 Savannah, GA District Live April 27 Atlanta, GA The Masquerade – Heaven Stage April 28 Birmingham, AL Saturn April 29 Athens, GA 40 Watt Club May 1 Charlotte, NC The Underground – Charlotte May 2 Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle May 3 Virginia Beach, VA Elevation 27 May 4 Baltimore, MD Baltimore Soundstage May 5 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer May 6 Allentown, PA Archer Music Hall May 7 Brooklyn, NY Warsaw May 8 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club May 10 Pittsburgh, PA Mr .Small’s May 11 Cleveland, OH Globe Iron May 12 Detroit, MI Saint Andrew’s Hall May 13 Grand Rapids, MI The Intersection May 15 Cincinnati, OH Bogart’s May 16 Louisville, KY Mercury Ballroom May 17 Nashville, TN Brooklyn Bowl Nashville May 18 St. Louis, MO Red Flag May 19 Chicago, IL Metro May 20 Milwaukee, WI The Rave II May 22 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue May 23 Des Moines, IA Wooly’s May 24 Kansas City, MO Madrid Theatre May 25 Omaha, NE The Waiting Room May 27 Denver, CO Summit May 29 Salt Lake City, UT Metro Music Hall May 31 Bozeman, MT The ELM June 1 Spokane, WA Knitting Factory June 2 Seattle, WA The Showbox June 3 Portland, OR Revolution Hall June 4 Eugene, OR McDonald Theatre June 6 Reno, NV Virginia Street Brewhouse June 7 Berkeley, CA Cornerstone Berkeley
Grunge Pre-Nirvana: 20 Things That Set the Stage For ‘Nevermind’
The bands, people, places and trends that paved the way for grunge’s landmark album.
When Pete Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger penned 1970’s “Without You,” they almost certainly had no idea it would one day become an international hit.
In fact, neither man thought the song had much potential to begin with. They also wouldn’t live to see the success. Ham would die by suicide in 1975, five years after the song was released on Badfinger’s album No Dice, and Evans would die by the same cause in 1983. Conflict over financial matters played a role in both men’s death — their manager Stan Polley signed them to a contract with Warner Bros. in the early ’70s that provided Polley himself with most of the band’s earnings. In 1974, Warner sued Polley, who more or less disappeared from the picture, effectively leaving the members of Badfinger with nothing.
“I will not be allowed to love and trust everybody,” Ham wrote in his suicide note (via The Independent). “This is better. Pete. PS Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me.” Less than a decade later, Evans fought over the phone with his bandmate Joey Molland over royalties to “Without You.” After the argument, Evans hanged himself in his garden.
Listen to Badfinger’s ‘Without You’
There was someone, however, who thought “Without You” had merit: Harry Nilsson, who released a cover of it in 1971. Why? He reportedly mistook it for a Beatles song when he first heard it at a party one night, an understandable mistake.
That recording did not come without its own share of challenges over how best to present the song.
“I had to force him to take a shot with the rhythm section,” producer Richard Perry would later recall to Mojo (via Far Out). “Even while we were doing it, he’d be saying to the musicians, ‘This song’s awful.'”
Nilsson’s version turned out more somber — or rather some parts of it did, since Perry managed to persuade him to lean into the big, orchestral sound on the choruses. And Nilsson turned it into more of a Beatles-adjacent song than Badfinger did, with Klaus Voormann on bass, Jim Keltner on drums and Gary Wright on piano. It all paid off when Nilsson’s version went to No. 1 in both the U.S. and U.K., plus earned a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. The members of Badfinger were rightfully thrilled.
“No one had recorded any of our songs until then,” Evans said in 1972. “It had been our ambition to write songs other people would record. It’s one of the most exciting things that has happened.”
Listen to Harry Nilsson’s Cover of ‘Without You’
Nilsson died in 1994, coincidentally the same year “Without You” would find yet more life with another artist, Mariah Carey.
By that point, Carey had already made a name for herself as a songwriter and vocalist with multiple hit singles and Grammy awards. She wrote or co-wrote every song on her third album, Music Box, with one exception: a cover of Badfinger’s “Without You.”
Carey may have been young – she was in her early 20s when she recorded Music Box — but she had a wide palette, which might have explained why she chose to cover the song.
“I listen to different music at different times,” she explained in a 1993 interview with Us. “I like gospel music at night — I’m pretty religious in my own way. … I like rap when I’m in a rowdy mood. I like songs from the ’80s, ’70s, ’60s, old soul music.” (She also said in her cover’s official music video that “Without You” used to make her cry as a little girl.)
But the answer is actually much simpler. “I heard that song in a restaurant and just knew it would be a huge international hit,” Carey would say many years later in 2013.
And it did. Carey’s version, which mimicked Nilsson’s arrangement but of course featured her tremendous vocal, was released as a single on Jan. 21, 1994, six days after Nilsson’s passing. It became her first No. 1 hit in the U.K, spent six weeks at the No. 3 spot in America and went to the top of the charts in a variety of European countries — not bad for a song that Badfinger paid little mind to.
Watch Mariah Carey’s Music Video for ‘Without You’
Feature Photo: Masao Nakagami, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
The Beastie Boys’ rise from the raw energy of New York City’s punk underground to the forefront of global hip hop redefined how genre boundaries could be shattered with creativity and humor. Formed in 1981, the group initially started as a hardcore punk band, with founding members Michael “Mike D” Diamond on drums, Adam “MCA” Yauch on bass, John Berry on guitar, and Kate Schellenbach on percussion. After Berry’s departure and the arrival of Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz in 1982, the band transitioned into a rap-oriented direction that would set them apart from the start. This pivotal shift saw Schellenbach leave the lineup, forming the trio that would change music history.
The Beastie Boys first gained traction in New York’s burgeoning hip hop scene with their comedic and experimental single “Cooky Puss” in 1983, blending rap and punk influences. Their breakthrough came with their debut album, Licensed to Ill (1986), released under Def Jam Recordings. The album was a cultural phenomenon, becoming the first rap record to top the Billboard 200 chart and delivering iconic hits like “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” and “No Sleep till Brooklyn.” With its rebellious energy and innovative sampling, Licensed to Ill cemented the Beastie Boys as pioneers of crossover appeal in rap and rock.
Their second album, Paul’s Boutique (1989), marked a creative evolution, showcasing complex sampling and collaboration with producers the Dust Brothers. Although initially underappreciated commercially, the album grew into a critical favorite, often hailed as a landmark in hip hop. Subsequent releases like Check Your Head (1992) and Ill Communication (1994) saw the group return to their instrumental roots while embracing funk and hardcore punk influences. Hits like “Sabotage” and “So What’cha Want” not only expanded their sound but also demonstrated their ability to reinvent themselves with each project.
Over the course of their career, the Beastie Boys released eight studio albums, with highlights including Hello Nasty (1998), which featured the Grammy-winning single “Intergalactic,” and To the 5 Boroughs (2004), a tribute to their home city. Their ability to blend humor, social commentary, and innovative production earned them a loyal global fanbase and critical acclaim.
The group’s accolades include six Grammy Awards and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, making them only the third rap group to receive this honor. Outside of music, the Beastie Boys demonstrated a commitment to philanthropy, with Adam Yauch founding the Tibetan Freedom Concerts to raise awareness for human rights. Yauch’s death in 2012 marked the end of the band’s active career, but their influence continues to resonate across genres and generations.
(#-D)
“14th St. Break” – The Mix-Up (2007) “3 the Hard Way” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “3-Minute Rule” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “33% God” – Paul’s Boutique (Japanese bonus track) (1989) “5-Piece Chicken Dinner” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “Alive” – Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science (1999) “All Lifestyles” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “Alright Hear This” – Ill Communication (1994) “An Open Letter to NYC” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “And Me” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Ask for Janice” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “B for My Name” – The Mix-Up (2007) “B-Boy Bouillabaisse” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “B-Boys Makin’ with the Freak Freak” – Ill Communication (1994) “Beasley Is a Beast” – The Mix-Up Bonus Tracks (2008) “Beastie Boys” – Polly Wog Stew (EP) (1982) “Beastie Groove” – Non-album single (B-side to “Rock Hard”) (1984) “Beastie Revolution” – Non-album single (B-side to “Cooky Puss”) (1983) “Believe Me” – Aglio e Olio (EP) (1995) “Benny and the Jets” – Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science (1999) “The Bill Harper Collection” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “The Biz vs. The Nuge” – Check Your Head (1992) “The Blue Nun” – Check Your Head (1992) “Bobo on the Corner” – Ill Communication (1994) “Bodhisattva Vow” – Ill Communication (1994) “Body Movin’” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Bonus Batter” – Non-album single (1983) “Brand New” – Aglio e Olio (EP) (1995) “Brass Monkey” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “The Brouhaha” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “Car Thief” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “Ch-Check It Out” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “Cooky Puss” – Non-album single (1983) “The Cousin of Death” – The Mix-Up (2007) “Crawlspace” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “Crazy Ass Shit” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “Deal with It” – Aglio e Olio (EP) (1995) “Dedication” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Dis Yourself in ’89 (Just Do It)” – Paul’s Boutique (Japanese bonus track) (1989) “Do It” – Ill Communication (1994) “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win” (featuring Santigold) – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “Dramastically Different” – The Mix-Up (2007) “Drunken Praying Mantis Style” – Non-album single (B-side to “Pass the Mic”) (1992) “Dr. Lee, PhD” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Dub the Mic” (Instrumental) – Non-album single (B-side to “Pass the Mic”) (1992)
(E-H)
“Egg Man” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “Egg Raid on Mojo” – Polly Wog Stew (EP) (1982) “Electric Worm” – The Mix-Up (2007) “Electrify” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Eugene’s Lament” – Ill Communication (1994) “Fibonacci Sequence” – The Mix-Up Bonus Tracks (2008) “Fight for Your Right” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “Finger Lickin’ Good” – Check Your Head (1992) “Flowin’ Prose” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Flute Loop” – Ill Communication (1994) “Freaky Hijiki” – The Mix-Up (2007) “Funky Boss” – Check Your Head (1992) “Funky Donkey” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “Futterman’s Rule” – Ill Communication (1994) “The Gala Event” – The Mix-Up (2007) “Get It Together” – Ill Communication (1994) “Girls” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “The Grasshopper Unit (Keep Movin’)” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Graditude” – Check Your Head (1992) “Groove Holmes” – Check Your Head (1992) “Heart Attack Man” – Ill Communication (1994) “Here’s a Little Something for Ya” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “Hey Fuck You” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “Hey Ladies” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “High Plains Drifter” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “Hold It Now, Hit It” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “Holy Snappers” – Polly Wog Stew (EP) (1982)
(I-M)
“I Can’t Think Straight” – Aglio e Olio (EP) (1995) “I Don’t Know” – Hello Nasty (1998) “I Want Some” – Aglio e Olio (EP) (1995) “I’m Down” – Unreleased “In 3’s” – Check Your Head (1992) “Instant Death” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Intergalactic” – Hello Nasty (1998) “It Takes Time to Build” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “The Jerry Lewis” – Unreleased “Jimi” – Polly Wog Stew (EP) (1982) “Jimmy James” – Check Your Head (1992) “Johnny Ryall” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “Just a Test” – Hello Nasty (1998) “The Kangaroo Rat” – The Mix-Up (2007) “The Larry Routine” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “Lee Majors Come Again” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “Lighten Up” – Check Your Head (1992) “The Lisa Lisa / Full Force Routine” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “Live at P.J.’s” – Check Your Head (1992) “Live Wire” – Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science (1999) “Long Burn the Fire” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “Ltd” – The Mix-Up Bonus Tracks (2008) “The Maestro” – Check Your Head (1992) “Make Some Noise” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “Mark on the Bus” – Check Your Head (1992) “The Melee” – The Mix-Up (2007) “Michelle’s Farm” – Polly Wog Stew (EP) (1982) “The Mix-Up” – The Mix-Up Bonus Tracks (2008) “The Move” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Mullet Head” – Non-album single (B-side to “Sure Shot”) (1994) “Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011)
(N-R)
“Namasté” – Check Your Head (1992) “The Negotiation Limerick File” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Nervous Assistant” – Aglio e Olio (EP) (1995) “Netty’s Girl” – Non-album single (B-side to “Pass the Mic”) (1992) “The New Style” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “No Sleep till Brooklyn” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “Nonstop Disco Powerpack” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “Now Get Busy” – The Wired CD (2004) “Ode To…” – Polly Wog Stew (EP) (1982) “Oh Word?” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “Off the Grid” – The Mix-Up (2007) “OK” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “The Panda Rat” – The Mix-Up Bonus Tracks (2008) “Party’s Getting Rough” – Non-album single (1984) “Pass the Mic” – Check Your Head (1992) “Paul Revere” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “Picture This” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Politickin’” – The Mix-Up Bonus Tracks (2008) “Posse in Effect” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “POW” – Check Your Head (1992) “Professor Booty” – Check Your Head (1992) “Putting Shame in Your Game” – Hello Nasty (1998) “The Rat Cage” – The Mix-Up (2007) “Remote Control” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Rhyme the Rhyme Well” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “Rhymin & Stealin’” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “Ricky’s Theme” – Ill Communication (1994) “Right Right Now Now” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “Riot Fight” – Polly Wog Stew (EP) (1982) “Rock Hard” – Non-album single (1984) “Root Down” – Ill Communication (1994)
(S-Z)
“Sabotage” – Ill Communication (1994) “Sabrosa” – Ill Communication (1994) “Say It” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “The Scoop” – Ill Communication (1994) “Shadrach” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “Shake Your Rump” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “Shambala” – Ill Communication (1994) “Shazam!” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “She’s Crafty” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “She’s on It” – Non-album single (1985) “Slow and Low” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “Slow Ride” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “Sneakin’ Out the Hospital” – Hello Nasty (1998) “So What’cha Want” – Check Your Head (1992) “Soba Violence” – Aglio e Olio (EP; Japanese edition only) (1996) “Something’s Got to Give” – Check Your Head (1992) “Son of Neck Bone” – Non-album single (B-side to “Sure Shot”) (1994) “Song for Junior” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Song for the Man” – Hello Nasty (1998) “The Sounds of Science” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “Square Wave in Unison” – Aglio e Olio (EP) (1995) “Stand Together” – Check Your Head (1992) “Suco de Tangerina” – The Mix-Up (2007) “Super Disco Breakin’” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Sure Shot” – Ill Communication (1994) “Tadlock’s Glasses” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “That’s It That’s All” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “Three MC’s and One DJ” – Hello Nasty (1998) “Time for Livin’” – Check Your Head (1992) “Time to Get Ill” – Licensed to Ill (1986) “To All the Girls” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “Too Many Rappers (New Reactionaries version; featuring Nas)” – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) “Tough Guy” – Ill Communication (1994) “Transit Cop” – Polly Wog Stew (EP) (1982) “Transitions” – Ill Communication (1994) “Triple Trouble” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “Twenty Questions” – Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science (1999) “Unite” – Hello Nasty (1998) “The Update” – Ill Communication (1994) “The Vibes” – Non-album single (B-side to “Sure Shot”) (1994) “We Got The” – To the 5 Boroughs (2004) “What Comes Around” – Paul’s Boutique (1989) “You Catch a Bad One” – Aglio e Olio (EP) (1995)
Check out our fantastic and entertaining Beastie Boys articles, detailing in-depth the band’s albums, songs, band members, and more…all on ClassicRockHistory.com
Brian Kachejian was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx. He is the founder and Editor in Chief of ClassicRockHistory.com. He has spent thirty years in the music business often working with many of the people who have appeared on this site. Brian Kachejian also holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Stony Brook University along with New York State Public School Education Certifications in Music and Social Studies. Brian Kachejian is also an active member of the New York Press.
“Anybody down there on acid seeing this figure flying down with flames coming out of his head must have thought God was coming”: The crazy life of Arthur Brown, the wildman who set rock’n’roll on fire
Arthur Brown is one of the great originators of rock’n’roll. As leader of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, his 1968 hit Fire inspired generations of shock rockers. But that was only the tip of the iceberg, as Classic Rock found out when we sat down with this great British eccentric in 2004.
Arthur Brown has always had a warm and intense relationship with Fire. That single (now a bone fide classic) reached No. 1 in the UK in August 1968 and No. 2 in the US chart a couple of months later. And although it was Arthur’s only chart appearance, it briefly took him from the shadows of being an underground cult figure into the full glare of rock stardom.
From time to time you’ll catch a grainy monochrome clip of manic-looking Arthur on some retro TV show, prancing about in his flaming helmet, sinister black-and-white face paint and outlandish cape, his voice building from the deep, resonant ‘I am the God of Hellfire!’ introduction to the song’s screaming climax. Even now, all these years on on such a vision makes compelling viewing.
Fire was a cornerstone of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown’s wild theatrical shows. And Arthur was always looking to give the act a spectacular twist. Like the time he made his entrance at London’s Roundhouse, swinging down a rope from the ceiling in full regalia, helmet ablaze. “Anybody down there on acid – and there must have been a few – seeing this figure flying down with flames coming out of his head must have thought God was coming,” he laughs.
Or the time at the Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival when he was lowered on stage by crane while similarly attired and ablaze. Except that a stagehand mistook his opening shrieks for cries of pain and rushed over and poured his pint of beer over Arthur’s head.
But Fire also gave Arthur Brown a brain haemorrhage nearly 30 years later. “It was a hot, sweltering club in Southend and I was singing the high note in Fire,” he recalls. “It was near the end of a thirty-eight-date tour and I was fifty years old. I’d also been trying out loads of different fasts, which had undermined my constitution.”
He survived, thanks to the National Health Service, and went back to recuperate in Texas where he’d been living since the early 80s. “But I was still in a bad way. I was having to learn to walk again. But the heat in Texas was starting to get to me. I basically stayed alive by folding napkins. It was all I could do. And then I wrote some really good songs. That part of me didn’t seem to disappear,” he finishes with a smile.
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Arthur Brown onstage at the International Love-In Festival, Alexandra Palace, London, July 29, 1967 (Image credit: Michael Putland/Getty Images)
Texas seems a strange place for Arthur to have ended up. Stranger still when you discover he spent some time running a house-painting business with original Mothers Of Invention drummer Jimmie Carl Black. “I had married this lady from Texas and we had a child and I’d brought him up,” Arthur says by way of explanation. Which doesn’t explain a lot.
But then Arthur’s career was never going to be conventional, from the moment he ignored the questions on his first-year law exam at London University and substituted questions about Marilyn Monroe’s wardrobe instead.
This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock issue 63 (January 2004) (Image credit: Future)
That could have had something to do with being introduced to the Chelsea Set at the start of the 60s: a hip, swinging crowd who were into jazz, French films and dandy clothes. Suddenly Arthur’s musical tastes took on gourmet proportions: “I was guided by voices, really – Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Nina Simone, Joan Baez, James Brown…”
He was not invited to return to London University. When he switched to Reading University he kept his musical options wide open, singing in a jazz band, a folk duo and a mod/R&B band. The theatrical element came when he was offered a residency at a Paris club in 1964.
“Up until then I’d just been standing there singing. I didn’t know anything about stage acts. But playing three sets a night, seven nights a week, just singing the songs was not enough. I started to incorporate poetry, mime and sketches into the act. I’d come on holding a mop, with a bucket on my head, and pretend to be the Statue Of Liberty.”
Returning to England in 1966, Arthur wanted to expand his new-found art-rock talents and looked around for like-minded musicians – while narrowly avoiding becoming a member of the Foundations: “I was going to sing alongside Clem Curtis, and when I walked into the first rehearsal, above a bar in Westbourne Grove, the drummer was bent backwards over the bar and Clem was leaning over him with a spear at his throat.”
In fact the musician Arthur wanted was in the West Kensington house he was living in. “[Future Crazy World keyboard player] Vincent Crane was going out with the landlady’s daughter, and he had a couple of friends who used to come over and write songs. Vincent was a brilliant, classically trained musician with an immaculate taste in music, but he had not really started writing,” Arthur says.
“Together we developed this concept show. We started with costumes, and that led on to makeup, and then we got a proper lightshow. At that time there was virtually nobody else here that was linking lights to music and really going for it.”
But they still needed a drummer. An ad in Melody Maker got a response from drummer Drachen Theaker, who’d got caught in a traffic jam on the way to audition for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and called in on Arthur and Vincent instead.
Now there was some solid rock credibility for Arthur’s art-rock, and they started getting club gigs around London, including the Speakeasy, a fashionable haunt for off-duty stars such as the Rolling Stones. “They [the Stones] were apparently quite bemused by our set,” Arthur recalls. “It was before ‘Their Satanic Majesties…’ and all that stuff.”
Someone else who saw them at the Speakeasy was Joe Boyd, who had just started the underground UFO Club. The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown were just the kind of band he was looking for. Legendary as the club that launched Pink Floyd, UFO was not just about the music. Theatre troupes, mime artists, trippy lightshows and huge inflatable mattresses (this was way before bouncy castles) were all part of the night’s entertainment.
“It wasn’t so much a scene as a forum where you could explode,” remembers Arthur, who did just that. “That’s when the flaming helmet and the act really came together.”
Arthur would emerge through a haze of smoke, the flames from his helmet licking perilously close to the low ceiling tiles as he stalked menacingly around the stage, performing The Fire Suite accompanied by swirling rhythms and gothic, jazzy organ riffs. The lighting mirrored the action, switching to strobes when the going got frenetic. Quite how he avoided serious facial injuries while cavorting around with what effectively amounted to a saucer of burning lighter fuel balanced on his head remains an unexplained miracle.
“My hair was singed many times, my clothes caught fire once, and we were always leaving burn marks on stages. But my face only got burnt on a couple of occasions,” he says.
It was Pete Townshend who got Arthur signed to The Who’s managers Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert and their Track Records. Suddenly there was some commercial muscle behind The Crazy World. Their first single, Devil’s Grip caught the essence of the band’s creepy, compulsive style but didn’t have a catchy enough hook to chart. However, Atlantic Records in the US were keen for an album, and the band began recording The Fire Suite based around the song that was already a highlight of their set.
Arthur Brown in his signature flaming helmet in 1968 (Image credit: Mark and Colleen Hayward/Getty Images)
But Kit Lambert wasn’t happy with a concept album. “He wanted more cover versions like I Put A Spell On You,” Arthur says. “In the end he let us have the first side of the album while he had the second.”
It made for an uneven album, not helped by being recorded in different studios, although the highlights were pretty high. But that was just the start of the album’s woes.
“Kit took the album to America and Atlantic said: ‘It’s great, but the drummer’s out of time’. He came back and got Vincent to write some brass arrangements. The drums were buried; if you listen, it’s the brass that’s carrying it.”
They were on their first American tour – supporting the likes of The Doors, Frank Zappa and The MC5 – when Chris Stamp arrived with acetates of the album. “We found a record player and put it on,” Arthur recalls, “and at the end of the first song Drachen walked across and said: ‘You fucking cunts!’ He picked up the record and hurled it against the wall.”
After that The Crazy World got crazier. “Drachen was already freaked out by the whole American experience, now he was angry. And Vincent was not happy with the way it was going. I was just managing to hold it all together.”
“Then one day Drachen, midway through the gig – whether he’d been watching Keith Moon too much I don’t know – kicks all his drums off the front of the stage. At least Keith Moon did it at the end! Drachen thinks it’s a great stunt until I start shouting at him, and then he walks off. Except that he falls off the front of the stage on to his own kit!
“Back at the hotel he’s really lost it. He’s running around the hotel with his trousers around his ankles, thrusting his wobbler up against the windows. Then Vincent comes in and says: ‘Right, either I go or that fucking wanker does’. I’m trying to calm him down but he’s adamant. I know I will not be able to replace Vincent. So I go to Drachen and say: ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to leave’. And he says: ‘Right, I’m going now’. So now we have no drummer.
“Someone recommends this Canadian guy. He’s a really good groove drummer. The next thing, Vincent starts to get the James Brown vibe. He buys all his albums and plays them constantly. In fact he starts to go over the top. He begins to speak in numbers – ‘You’re the one. Two. Arthur three. Four. Maybe five’. And there was an aggressive undercurrent about it. We thought someone had spiked him. But it turned out he was manic depressive.
“Just as we’re starting one show, he sees a crate of beer that some fool has left at the front of the stage. He walks across while I’m lighting my helmet and starts throwing the cans at the audience. So I go over to him and push my flaming helmet into his face; I push him back round to the keyboards and he sits down. I nod at him and he starts to play. And the show was fantastic. But the next day he was back to speaking in numbers. And after eighteen hours we’re exhausted, because if you weren’t paying him attention he’d break something.
“We got to the hotel, cancelled the gig, then locked him in a cupboard while we went to look for some food. When we got back the cupboard’s smashed open – no sign of Vincent. We eventually found him on the main street, wearing just a cape that he opened from time to time, trying to hitch a lift. And there’s a police car heading toward us. So we grab him and run back to the hotel with him. And just as we get into the room there’s a phone call: ‘When are you arriving for the soundcheck?’ ‘But we cancelled the gig’. ‘No, your keyboard player rang earlier and said it’s on again. And now people are turning up’.”
Vincent was invalided back home. Arthur limped back soon afterward, having somehow managed to complete the tour with stand-in musicians. But if he was looking for sympathy from the management, he was wrong.
“Chris and Kit had always seen me as a solo star. They didn’t think the underground thing was going to last. Kit called me in and said: ‘You can do your underground nights at the weekend. But the rest of the week we want you to play in the lounge. We’re going to make you as big as Engelbert Humperdinck’. And the funny thing was that Engelbert’s people actually came on to me as well. They also wanted me to change my image – shave, haircut, maybe even a nose job. Kit even suggested I could wear a wig for the underground gigs. I just looked at him incredulously and said: ‘No, you’re joking. You just don’t understand me at all. The Crazy World is where I’m at.”
To be fair, Stamp and Lambert had a point. The range and operatic qualities of Arthur’s voice are exceptional, and he could have been moulded into a successful solo artist. But the concept of Arthur Brown as some Bryan Ferry-style crooner is more surreal than any of the characters he has invented over the years.
So it was back to The Crazy World. Or at least it was once Vincent Crane had recovered. And they struck lucky with their next drummer, Carl Palmer, who was fresh out of Chris Farlowe’s band and a potent musical match for Vincent.
“Carl’s arrival changed the whole style of our music because he was much more of a technical drummer,” Arthur says. “Vincent loved that, and they also got on well together which was great because it was just when Fire was a hit.”
The Crazy World were hastily dispatched for another American tour. And this time it was Arthur’s turn to flip. “Before the first American tour I’d never even touched a joint. On the second tour I took acid and that changed everything. I had a completely different realisation of what was going on.”
This new realisation culminated in the infamous Houston Holiday Inn Experience that began when Arthur checked in, wearing white robes and carrying two suitcases. He was shown to his room and, still carrying the suitcases, walked through it on to the patio and straight into the pool. Minutes later he emerged from the pool, dripping, still carrying the cases, returned to reception and asked for another room on a higher floor.
At sunset, drivers on the highway were confronted by the sight of the full Arthur Brown stage show from the balcony of his hotel room – including smoke, strobe lights and psychedelic effects. Complete but for one small detail: Arthur’s clothes. He wasn’t wearing any. He had, however, remembered his helmet.
The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown in 1969: (from left) Carl Palmer, Arthur Brown, Sean Greenwood, Pete Solley (Image credit: Pictorial Press / Alamy Stock Photo)
“There was pandemonium out on the highway,” he remembers. “There were pile-ups, it was completely blocked. There were probably a thousand people watching, and the police were trying to get through on their bikes. Then we got put in jail. Which in the US is not very pleasant.”
Things really started to disintegrate when Arthur contrived to turn down a £650,000 advance for their second album.
“We had a new stage act about a black magician,” Arthur explains. “Our American managers set up a deal with CBS and we’d recorded a song that they thought was bound to be a hit. But we were under contract to Track Records. So we had a meeting in a hotel with Chris and Kit upstairs and the American management downstairs; I was going up and down in the lift between them. But I eventually decided that whatever Chris and Kit’s shortcomings – and I did leave their management later – they had got us up there and it was not morally fair to walk out at that point. I think Vince and Carl thought I’d lost my marbles. We played more gigs, but it wasn’t really going anywhere after that.”
There was also the saga of what could have been: the possibility of forming a band with Jimi Hendrix. “We used to play a New York club called The Scene, and Hendrix used to come down. We got to know each other a little bit and he’d come up and jam with us. He’d play bass, he’d never sing even when I asked him. He hated singing, but he was a fucking great bass player!
“One night I was summoned to his hotel and he told me wanted to put something together with me and Vincent. He had this whole idea of screens, and tapes of Wagner playing in the background. He was in something of a reverie, but he could focus on anything musical.
“At the time, however, I was in a state of nervous exhaustion and could do little more than nod agreement. I know he made a similar suggestion to Keith Emerson later, but I was flattered even to have been asked.”
The flattery is enough to withstand a deflating comparison with Hendrix as a lover, from someone fully qualified to judge. “She told me: ‘Your love-making was okay, but Jimi takes me right to the edge, until it feels like I’m going to fall into an abyss. It goes on like that for a long time. You don’t do that’.” Arthur’s voluntary humiliation in the cause of the Hendrix legend is truly commendable.
But none of it was enough to prevent The Crazy World from imploding soon afterwards, Vincent and Carl heading off to form Atomic Rooster. Arthur, meanwhile, decided to follow his spiritual instincts – something that was to be a regular occurrence over the next decade.
“I’d gone through this whole spiritual growth thing in America, and it transformed everything; not only what I wanted to do with my music, but also how I wanted everything structured. I decided there was no place for leaders, and democracy didn’t work either; there was no room for hierarchies.”
It’s fair to say that an anarchic spirit pervaded Arthur’s next group, Puddletown Express. Their act included the Fire Rite that involved Arthur in a ritual dance with his Crown Of Flames before making a grand disappearance, only to reappear… naked.
The band’s groundbreaking artistic endeavours were not always appreciated; the French Communist Party reckoned that a so-called benefit gig by Puddletown Express cost them a parliamentary seat. And following a spot at the Palermo Pop Festival, Arthur found himself thrown into Sicily’s maximum-security jail.
Not surprisingly, Puddletown Express was short-lived. And while its successor, Kingdom Come (not to be confused with the 80s Led
Zeppelin clone), had a similarly loose structure the music was more focused and innovative. Kingdom Come’s first album, Galactic Zoo Dossier, was released in 1970 and could have been a successful concept album if it had been given the full-on production and direction by a ‘name’ producer. It certainly left a mark on Alice Cooper, who had already been studying Arthur’s make-up carefully.
While Kingdom Come‘s self-titled second album was a rather muddled venture into the theatre of the absurd, 1973’s Journey broke new ground with its use of a primitive drum machine. The fact that Arthur was forced into using it because his drummer had run off with the bassist’s wife should not detract from his pioneering use of technology.
Arthur Brown with The Who’s Roger Daltrey in Los Angeles in 1975 (Image credit: Mark Sullivan/Getty Images)
But without proper management and promotion, Kingdom Come were always going to struggle. After touring the Journey album for a year, Arthur removed his body and soul to a school of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) in Gloucestershire; his band went off to join singer Kiki Dee.
Arthur’s career for the rest of the 70s was seldom dull. He pre-empted the world music brigade by nearly a decade with his 1975 album Dance, using African, Eastern, reggae and disco beats on various tracks. He also guested on Alan Parsons’s Tales Of Mystery And Imagination and Klaus Schulze’s Dune’ and Live albums.
Then there was his appearance in the movie Tommy that should have been more than it was: “Pete Townshend originally wanted me to be the doctor or the Pinball Wizard, but the man in charge of it all was Robert Stigwood, who I’d fallen out with back in the Crazy World days. So I ended up sharing Eyesight To The Blind with Eric Clapton. But on the later soundtrack it’s just Clapton.”
Arthur’s free-spirited artistry was incompatible with punk, which is another reason why he spent the 80s and much of the 90s in Texas. He wasn’t entirely inactive musically, however, and released a couple of industrial/electro albums in the US.
The embers of Fire were periodically stoked by cover versions from Marc Almond, Pete Townshend, The Ventures, Prodigy and Die Krupps – Arthur even helped out on the latter. He returned to England in the late 90s after linking up with Big Country’s former manager Ian Grant, who was, just by chance, setting up a record label called Track Records. Grant had even secured the label’s original logo, though not the original label’s now priceless catalogue.
After re-establishing himself on tours with Robert Plant and The Pretty Things and festival shows at Glastonbury and Canterbury Fayre, in 2003 Arthur recorded a new album, Vampire Suite, with Big Country drummer Mark Brzezicki and keyboard player Josh Phillips.
“The idea was to get back to the original format of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown. It’s about a vampire who gets redeemed after attacking someone who turns out to be a saint. It’s a dramatic story, full of hyperventilating falsettos and screaming. And darkness, too.”
Arthur Brown. Still crazy after all these years.
Originally published in Metal Hammer issue 63
Hugh Fielder has been writing about music for 50 years. Actually 61 if you include the essay he wrote about the Rolling Stones in exchange for taking time off school to see them at the Ipswich Gaumont in 1964. He was news editor of Sounds magazine from 1975 to 1992 and editor of Tower Records Top magazine from 1992 to 2001. Since then he has been freelance. He has interviewed the great, the good and the not so good and written books about some of them. His favourite possession is a piece of columnar basalt he brought back from Iceland.
