Author: smngrx01

Roger Waters has shared a new live video of him performing the Pink Floyd classic Wish You Were Here as he announces the release of his new This Is Not A Drill – Live from Prague The Movie.

Presented in 8k, This Is Not A Drill – Live from Prague The Movie will be released in cinemas worldwide through Trafalgar Releasing and Sony Music Vision beginning on 23 July. Tickets will go on sale from June 12. The ticket link is listed below.

The film captures Waters’ This Is Not A Drill tour, billed as his “first ever Farewell Tour”, at the O2 Arena in the Czech Republic on May 25 in 2023. The tour was dubbed as attack on “corporate dystopia in which we all struggle to survive and is dedicated to our brothers and sisters all over the world who are engaged in the existential battle for the soul of humanity”.

“What do you want? A quote? Alright Errr… THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” Waters quips drily.

The show features 20 classic Pink Floyd and Waters solo songs, including: Us & Them, Comfortably Numb, Wish You Were Here, Is This The Life We Really Want? and a brand new song, The Bar.

The accompanying music will be released on Legacy Recordings, the catalogue division of Sony Music Entertainment, on August 1, and will see the performance presented as a 4 LP set, Blu-ray, a 2 CD set, on DVD and as Digital Audio.

Pre-order This Is Not A Drill – Live from Prague.

Get tickets.

Whether they’re building tension or coming out swinging, our list of Top 5 AC/DC Concert Opening Songs proves they’re masters of starting a show with high-voltage rock ‘n’ roll.

The Aussie rockers have never exactly prided themselves on diversity — they gleefully recycle chords to craft a seemingly endless supply of iconic riffs, and they’ve been delivering fairly standard, meat-and-potatoes set lists for decades. Instead, blunt-force impact and relentless, infectious energy have always been AC/DC’s stock in trade.

As a result, most of their show openers over the years have been beloved hits or well-worn fan favorites. And that’s just fine, because no matter what song they choose to kick off their concerts, they always hit like a wrecking ball.

READ MORE: Top 5 Kiss Concert Opening Songs

Read on to see the Top 5 AC/DC Concert Opening Songs.

5. “Hells Bells”

From: Back in Black (1980)
Tours: Back in Black (1980-81) / For Those About to Rock (1981-82)

With its ominous bell tolling and sinister, arpeggiated riff, the opening track off Back in Black offers one of the album’s few moments of respite. It’s a strong bit of counter-programming both live and on record, building the tension to a breaking point before the song explodes into full-throttle metallic mayhem. AC/DC knew they had struck gold with “Hells Bells,” hence why they opened their shows with it on the Back in Black and For Those About to Rock tours.

4. “Back in Black”

From: Back in Black
Tour: Ballbreaker (1996)

It doesn’t get more iconic than this. With its earth-shaking riffs and lighter-waving chorus, “Back in Black” rightfully remains one of AC/DC’s career-defining songs and is precision-engineered to work audiences into a frenzy. Every time the Aussies hit the stage to the tune of “Back in Black” — which they did on 1996’s Ballbreaker tour — they gave fans a blistering reminder that they were back with a vengeance. Don’t try to push your luck, just get out of their way.

3. “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)”

From: Highway to Hell (1979)
Tour: Power Trip (2023) / Power Up (2024-25)

There was a lot riding on AC/DC’s 2023 Power Trip performance. Could these injury-ridden senior citizens still summon the thunder after seven years away from the stage? AC/DC answered that question with an emphatic “hell yes” when they stormed the Coachella Valley with “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It),” the anthemic album cut off Highway to Hell. It was the first time in their half-century career that they’d used it as a show opener, and their first time performing it with Brian Johnson since 2003. It was such a rousing success that AC/DC continued slotting it first on their 2024-2025 Power Up tour. Fans wanted blood, and they got it.

2. “Riff Raff”

From: Powerage (1978)
Tour: Powerage (1978)

One of the hardest, fastest songs in AC/DC’s catalog, “Riff Raff” opens with a series of aggressively strummed chords that practically taunt the audience about the maelstrom Angus Young is about to unleash. After working listeners into a lather, the band crashes in with a steamrolling riff and a groove that just doesn’t quit. Different AC/DC show openers achieve different goals — “Riff Raff” is the perfect tone setter for a sweaty, breathless punk show. For proof, just listen to the incendiary version that opens their 1978 live album If You Want Blood You’ve Got It.

1. “Live Wire”

From: T.N.T. (1975)
Tours: High Voltage (1975) / T.N.T. (1975-76) / Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976-77) / Powerage (1978) / If You Want Blood (1978-79) / Highway to Hell (1979)

No band can wring as much life out of three chords as AC/DC. “Live Wire,” which served as a stalwart show opener in their early years, is a prime example. The song begins with a slow-burning chug, then gathers steam once the vocals enter, with Bon Scott serving libidinous swagger and thinly-veiled menace. “Live Wire” climaxes during Young’s fiery solo, then ratchets up the tension again with a guitar break augmented by cymbal catches. For a song with barely a handful of chords, it’s a masterclass in dynamics — and its 1979 rendition on Let There Be Rock: The Movie – Live in Paris shows why it’s the best concert-opening song in their oeuvre.

George Harrison began the ’70s with a multi-platinum smash and ended the ’80s with a pair of them. In between, there were a few notable successes, long disappearances and some obvious duds.

Through it all, his opening songs were just as varied and unpredictable.

The monstrous 1970 triple-album All Things Must Pass begins with an enchanting but decidedly small-scale song, while 1974’s Dark Horse kicks off with the only instrumental released in Harrison’s lifetime after 1968’s Wonderwall Music and 1969’s Electronic Sound. (The Grammy-winning “Marwa Blues” later appeared on 2002’s posthumous Brainwashed.)

READ MORE: Ranking Every Beatles Solo Album

Of course, 1973’s Living in the Material World and 1988’s Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 both get underway with huge hit singles. Gone Troppo was clearly meant to follow that pattern in 1982 with its too-synthy opener. The first song on Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 was the lead single, too.

But Harrison also dug into the archives to resurrect older tracks for 1975’s Extra Texture (Read All About It) and 1976’s Thirty Three & 1/3. He started 1987’s celebrated comeback Cloud Nine with a slide-driven throwback tune that could have been from that era, but only after entering the decade with a punchy track aimed at his record label on 1981’s Somewhere in England.

Here’s how they stack up in a ranked list of George Harrison’s opening songs:

No. 14. “Under the Mersey Wall”
From: Electronic Sound (1969)

Harrison’s second solo project was released on Zapple Records, the experimental boutique label that he said the Beatles created to “let serendipity take hold.” It certainly seemed to have on “Under the Mersey Wall,” a side-long recording of Harrison fooling around on his new Moog 3 modular system. The complex early synthesizer, which would cost more than $70,000 today, was just the third to arrive in the U.K. Nobody really knew what to do with one yet, as heard here.

No. 13. “Microbes”
From: Wonderwall Music (1968)

Harrison traveled to Bombay to record a portion of his debut solo album and became enamored with an oboe-like instrument called a shehnai. Collaborators were rounded up by Shambhu Das, a sitar student of Ravi Shankar’s who was introduced to Harrison on his first visit to the country for lessons. They included shehnai players prominently featured on this lyrical but rather slight album opener. “Microbes” was originally named after a Hindu raga that served as its early inspiration.

No. 12. “Hari’s on Tour (Express)”
From: Dark Horse (1974)

Harrison was in a personal free-fall just one year after completing a sterling run that included the multi-platinum All Things Must Pass, his celebrated Concert for Bangladesh and a second solo No. 1 single with 1973’s “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth).” Dark Horse finds him slipping into an awful mid-decade depression. He was even losing his voice. So, you take your offbeat collaborations with some Los Angeles jazz-rock aces where you can get them.

No. 11. “Blood from a Clone”
From: Somewhere in England (1981)

Harrison began the ’80s in a furious argument with his label. He decided to use “Blood From a Clone” to address his plight, adding lyrics that just mercilessly twist the shiv into meddling, greedy executives. Then he led his next album with it. Of course, if you don’t listen too closely, “Blood from a Clone” is a gangly little goof of a track. That must have been why Warner Bros. approved it.

No. 10. “She’s My Baby”
From: Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 (1990)

Despite the sudden death of Roy Orbison, Harrison was clearly having fun as he reconvened the Traveling Wilburys for their second studio project. You see it in the winking album title and you hear it on the LP’s opening song. (In the video, Harrison breaks out into a broad smile while singing “she’s got a body for business, got a head for sin. She knocks me over like a bowling pin” – prompting an appreciative laugh from Bob Dylan.) Unfortunately, “She’s My Baby” stalled at No. 79 in the U.K. and the supergroup split.

No. 9. “Any Road”
From: Brainwashed (2002)

Harrison had some version of this song bouncing around in his head since the early Traveling Wilburys era, and it retained their easy-go-lucky vibe. Well, at least musically. He’s tangling with much edgier subject matter (“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there) perhaps inspired by an exchange in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Harrison walks a fine line on “Any Road,” never giving in to the impulse to insult or become facetious. After all, we’ve all taken a wrong turn or two.

No. 8. “Wake Up My Love”
From: Gone Troppo (1982)

This album opener is as dated an item as any Beatles-related ’80s release this side of Paul McCartney‘s awful “Spies Like Us.” Released as Gone Troppo‘s first single, the out-of-place “Wake Up My Love” bears an uncomfortable resemblance (both in tone and in chart performance) to the earlier “Teardrops” from Somewhere in England. Neither reached the Top 40 in the U.S., and both finished unranked in the U.K. Beneath the sophomoric synth riff, however, there seems to be a good song struggling to get out.

No. 7. “Cloud 9”
From: Cloud Nine (1987)

Returning from a five-year break after Gone Troppo, Harrison signaled his aim to climb the charts again by pairing up with Jeff Lynne. A stone-cold Beatles fan, the former Electric Light Orchestra mastermind encouraged Harrison to embrace the past, whether that meant subject matter like “When We Was Fab” or pulling out his old 12-string Rickenbacker. Harrison also returned to his slide, brilliantly tangling with Eric Clapton on the tough title track from Cloud Nine. He’d finally found his way out of a musical wilderness.

No. 6. “Woman Don’t You Cry for Me”
From: Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976)

Harrison began work on “Woman Don’t You Cry for Me” during his guest turn on a Delaney and Bonnie tour held after Abbey Road arrived but before the Beatles officially split. This track briefly became a contender for All Things Must Pass, and then was shelved for years. By that point, the song’s principal innovation had become old hat: This was the first time Harrison tried out slide guitar.

No. 5. “You”
From: Extra Texture [Read All About It] (1975)

Harrison had returned to drink and drugs, and Extra Texture couldn’t have strayed further from his religious moorings — or from the free-spirited uplift that made his initial post-Beatles records such pleasant surprises. This Top 20 U.S. hit – actually a relic from a scrapped 1971 solo album by Ronnie Spector – takes you right back. Still, it says a lot when the best thing on an LP is essentially a table scrap.

No. 4. “Love Comes to Everyone”
From: George Harrison (1979)

He should know. Harrison completed this breezy, encouraging song in early 1978, after a briefer time away. He’d marry Olivia Arias and then become father to Dhani during the sessions for a self-titled comeback album. Clapton and Steve Winwood stopped by his home studio to complete things.

No. 3. “I’d Have You Anytime”
From: All Things Must Pass (1970)

“I’d Have You Anytime,” with its Beatle-ish guitar signature and a lyrical assist by Bob Dylan, is every bit as moving as earlier triumphs like “Something.” (They’d begun work on the song during Harrison’s November 1968 visit to Woodstock.) What the lithe, simply gorgeous “I’d Have You Anytime” lacks is the army of additional instruments, backup singers and horns that Phil Spector employed elsewhere on Harrison’s hulking post-Beatles triple album. It’s a gutsy opening song for such an enormous undertaking.

No. 2. “Handle With Care”
From: The Traveling Wilburys’ Vol. 1 (1988)

Harrison’s smash hit about sly resiliency was originally recorded as a throwaway B-side, until his label intervened. He’d called up Jeff Lynne, who was then working with Roy Orbison. They arranged to use Bob Dylan’s studio, then Tom Petty got involved when Harrison stopped by to retrieve a guitar. All of a sudden, perhaps rock’s greatest supergroup was born. Thankfully, Warner Bros. refused to bury their first song on the back of Harrison’s “This Is Love” single. “Handle With Care” soared to No. 2.

No. 1. “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)”
From: Living in the Material World (1973)

Things probably had to get smaller. Harrison began the ’70s by reaching No. 1 with the expansive “My Sweet Lord,” then organized a huge Bangladesh benefit concert. He gathered a more tightly knit group for his next project. Harrison’s expressive slide took center stage rather than a Wall of Sound, and his message of faith and forgiveness became more direct. Harrison later described the chart-topping “Give Me Love” as “a prayer and personal statement between me, the Lord and whoever likes it.” Turns out, everybody did.

See the Beatles in Rock’s Craziest Conspiracy Theories

The original Alice Cooper Group have released a video for their track “Wild Ones,” shot during recording sessions for their upcoming album.

The Revenge of Alice Cooper arrives on July 25 and features all surviving members of the band – Cooper himself, guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith.

Late guitarist Glen Buxton is also heard on the song “What Happened To You,” which was written using demo riffs he’d recorded.

READ MORE: How to Assemble a ‘Hidden’ Alice Cooper Group Album

“Reuniting five decades after their rise to fame, the band channels the chaos, danger, and cool of their early days, a time when rock was feared, eyeliner was scandalous, and every show felt like a revolution. ‘Wild Ones’ is the sound of the Alice Cooper Group with their engines roaring, still loud, still dangerous, and still not asking for permission.”

The album, which was produced by returning early-days studio mastermind Bob Ezrin, is the group’s first since 1973’s Muscle of Love. They previously released the track “Black Mamba” in April.

The footage seen in the “Wild Ones” video was shot by Banger Films, known for their series of in-depth rock documentaries, suggesting that a new movie might be on the way, following their 2014 production Super Duper Alice Cooper.

The Revenge of Alice Cooper is available for pre-order now in multiple formats.

Watch The Original Alice Cooper Group in Their ‘Wild Ones’ Video

Alice Cooper Albums Ranked

You can’t kill Alice Cooper.

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff

More From Ultimate Classic Rock

In the beginning, Sixx:A.M. was a passion project for Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx. It was an outlet which worked well for him to be able to record a companion soundtrack for his memoir, The Heroin Diaries, which went on to become a New York Times bestseller.

But the unexpected happened as the musical component took off as well. The lead single from The Heroin Diaries soundtrack, “Life is Beautiful,” became a Top 5 smash at rock radio. It kicked off a string of eleven similarly successful tracks that followed. The group, also featuring vocalist James Michael and guitarist DJ Ashba, went on to release a total of five albums before entering a period of inactivity and eventually announcing a hiatus in 2021.

Now, they’re revisiting the last chapter of their work together with the arrival of Prayers for the Damned & Blessed, which is being made available (June 6) on collector’s vinyl and also streaming platforms. It brings together the two albums that they put out in 2016, Prayers for the Damned and Prayers for the Blessed, adding some additional bonus tracks to round out the set.

READ MORE: Sixx:A.M. Details ‘Prayers for the Damned & Blessed’ Deluxe Set

“We knew it from the outset that we were going to do two records,” James Michael tells UCR now in an interview you can listen to on the UCR Podcast.  “It was something that we had talked to the label about, and they liked the idea. We felt it was kind of a bold move. So when we started writing songs, we literally were writing songs for two albums. [But] we’d write a song, and then we’d kind of have to determine, is this going to be on Blessed, or is this going to be on Damned? Where does this fit into the storyline?”

“So that was fun, but we knew from the very beginning that it was going to be two and it was quite a daunting task, because we were also touring at the time. That was a lot of music for us to have to write,” he admits. “I think about halfway through it, we were like, ‘What have we gotten ourselves into? You know, maybe we bit off more than we can chew.’ But in the end we just put one foot in front of the other, and kept on writing songs until we felt that we had the right collection of songs, and we felt that there was kind of an arc to it.”

Watch Sixx:A.M.’s ‘We Will Not Go Quietly’ Video

For Michael, the arrival of the two albums marked an important transitional moment. “We were a touring band at that point. When we were writing songs, we had a much clearer idea of how these songs were going to translate live, and we would make adjustments based on what we thought was going to work well live,” he says now. “On the first three records, we really didn’t have that. We had done some touring, but those were much more just studio conceptual albums. I feel like Blessed and Damned really did reflect a band that had figured out what it was like to be on the road. By then, we had really admitted to ourselves that we were a band [and] that we were a touring band, so it was a different experience.”

What’s Next for Sixx:A.M.?

In the present day, Michael says he’s largely retired and doing “very little music,” though he has recently launched a podcast where he talks in-depth about his experiences in the industry. He’s also teaching at a local performing arts school in Northern Island, where he lives these days. The singer and producer says he’s “very happy” that the two albums are finally available together as a duo, but any future activity for Sixx:A.M. is a murky vision, hearing him talk about how things came to an initial conclusion. “We never really talked about it, but I think that we knew [these two albums were] going to be the period at the end of the sentence,” he says. “We were so exhausted from just writing and producing and recording and then getting out and touring and coming back and finding any free moment to get back in the studio, just to try to get these two albums done. It nearly killed me and, and I think it nearly killed all of us, in a way. I think at the end of that, we just thought, you know, I don’t think that we’re going to do this again.”

Listen to Sixx:A.M.’s ‘Prayers for the Damned’

Top 15 Sunset Strip Bands

Don Felder got a real taste of major fame, thanks to the success of Eagles’ Hotel California album. Having co-written the title track, naturally, he wanted to follow up strong.

But it would take some time for Eagles fans to hear his lead candidate, which originally began taking shape during recording sessions for what became 1979’s The Long Run. It wasn’t because the guitarist was short on ideas. “I wrote this really heavy track that Joe [Walsh] and I could play ascending chromatic scales and harmonies and trade off solos,” he tells the UCR Podcast in a new interview you can listen to below.

“We got in the studio and cut a track of it. It was probably the heaviest thing that the Eagles had ever attempted to play,” he continues. “It was for The Long Run and we got down to the very end of the amount of time we had set aside to finish this record. There were no lyrics, no vocals, no guitar solos, just the basic track. We had to leave and go on tour for [the album]. We were jamming to try to get this stuff finished, mixed and done. We just didn’t have time to finish it.”

Even though they were tight on time, The Long Run did quite well once it was released in the fall of 1979, notching three successful singles, including one that Bob Seger co-wrote with Glenn Frey, “Heartache Tonight,” which went to No. 1 and also won a Grammy Award. The LP ended up being the swan song for the California group, who went their separate ways after touring for the record wrapped up.

READ MORE: How Eagles Fought Off Punk, Disco and Fatigue on ‘The Long Run’

Felder’s proposed song might have ended up on the sidelines at the time, but it was a blessing in disguise, as it turns out. “[A few years] later I get a call from a movie director who wants me to write a song for an animated movie. So I go over and watch this movie, Heavy Metal,” he recalls. “I go, ‘I’ve got a pretty strong, heavy track that I wrote and recorded for the Eagles.’ And at the time, since we used to have these working titles, the nickname for that track was, ‘You’re Really High, Aren’t You?’ Most of the time, probably. [Felder chuckles] Anyway, it never got made into anything. So when I got back to my house after looking at that movie, I thought I should take that idea, which never got finished, and make it into another track. So I really rewrote it pretty much with the same intent. If you listen to “Heavy Metal,” you can imagine Joe and I playing those harmonies and the trading of solos would have been perfect.”

Listen to Don Felder’s New Version of ‘Heavy Metal’

Felder’s New Album Features Another Eagles Obscurity

Though Felder has been out of the Eagles mix since 2001, he continues to make new music. His latest album is an interesting project that takes stock of the 50 years (and counting) that he’s spent working in the industry. The Vault: Fifty Years of Music features songs that the guitarist created using ideas from his archives, mixed with tracks that he wrote exclusively for the record. In addition to a new version of “Heavy Metal,” fans will hear rarities like “Hollywood Victim,” which comes from another chapter. It emerged in the midst of the Eagles’ Hell Freezes Over reunion as they were going through material for a possible album.

But it went back even further than that and it was another outside contribution that knocked it out of contention. “Myself, Timothy B. Schmit, [former 38 Special vocalist] Max Carl, and a really famous English singer, Paul Carrack, we were putting together a band,” he explains. “We were making demos and Paul came in with a song. We recorded it with him singing and all of us singing the backgrounds and the solo on it. Everything was like it was when we went in to do Hell Freezes Over. That song, ‘Love Will Keep Us Alive,’ was recorded from our old demos. Except instead of Paul singing it, who I absolutely love his voice to death, Timothy wanted to sing it. So we rebuilt the entire track from the ground up. It’s interesting how some of the things from one stage of my life or another, wound up on Eagles records or [ended up ] in the vault somewhere.”

The guitarist is currently on the road celebrating the arrival of his new album and playing songs from his Eagles history as part of the Brotherhood of Rock tour with Styx and Kevin Cronin.

Listen to Don Felder on the ‘UCR Podcast’

Listen to Don Felder’s ‘Hollywood Victim’

On September 23, 1971, Led Zeppelin played their first-ever Japanese show at Tokyo’s famous Nippon Budokan Hall, and more than half a century later more than 40 minutes of newly upscaled footage from the show has been posted online.

The two films, which were originally shot by Zeppelin fans Hideo Yamada and T. Ohtaki, were initially shared online in 2018. More recently, the footage was shipped off to the US, where it was scanned in 4K and colour-corrected to produce some of the best quality fan-shot footage from the era.

“At that time, there were almost no videos of Led Zeppelin, so we were happy just to see Led Zeppelin in action,” Yamada tells LedZepNews.

“And we were blown away by how cool Jimmy’s actions were. When the members appeared, the excitement in the venue was more exciting than in previous bands. When the performance began, the hi-hat sound bounced off both walls, and my personal first impression was that this high note was very pleasant.”

The first of the films, shot by Yamada, is a short clip featuring Dazed and Confused, Jimmy Page’s Stairway to Heaven solo and the acoustic set, while Ohtaki’s longer clip features 37 minutes of footage including Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Dazed And Confused, Celebration Day, What Is And What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love and Communication Breakdown.

“These are films I’ve waited years to work on,” say LedZepFilm, “and I’m so grateful Hideo was willing to send these reels out to the United States to be re-scanned.”

Multiple audio recordings made by audience members at the Tokyo show have circulated over the years, but it’s also been reported that the Japanese shows were professionally recorded for a mooted Japan-only live album. These recordings have never officially surfaced.

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Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 39 years in music industry, online for 26. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.

John Fogerty said he was once offered the chance to buy back the guitar he played during Creedence Clearwater Revival’s glory days, but refused because of the memories connected with the instrument.

But his wife and manager, Julie, bought it anyway and gave it to him as a Christmas present, kick starting a healing process that helped him return to music.

Fogerty used the Rickenbacker, with the word “Acme” hand-painted on it, on his upcoming album, Legacy – The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years. The 20-track collection, which features meticulous recreations of CCR classics, arrives in August.

READ MORE: John Fogerty Didn’t Understand CCR Drama: ‘Why Are You Mad?’

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Fogerty said he parted with the guitar in the ‘70s. Roughly 20 years later, he was offered the chance to buy it back for $40,000. But the guitar made him think of the bitter legal battles with his former bandmates and record label.

How Getting His Old Guitar Back Helped John Fogerty Heal

“I was hurt. I was damaged,” Fogerty said. “I started as a kid full of joy doing music, but during the time of Creedence, and shortly after that, it became certainly not joyful.”

Picking up the guitar, though, Fogerty’s feelings began to change, leading to his return to the stage. Now, with Legacy, he’s taken another step.

“The idea was to reconnect and feel that way about everything again,” he said. “The guy who couldn’t even stand to look at his own guitar in the ’90s or beyond would have never done that.” 

READ MORE: When John Fogerty Thought Someone Beat Him to ‘Lodi’

Although Fogerty revealed a new song titled “Weeping in the Promised Land” in 2021, he played down the suggestion of a new album of original songs, even though he’d previously said it might happen.

“Do I have a bunch of songs written and recorded? No, I don’t,” he said. But he added that he’d been inspired by receiving the American Music Honors last month, when Bruce Springsteen inducted him and Jackson Browne led a performance of the Eagles’ “Take It Easy.”

“On our drive back to the hotel with my wife I said, ‘I’m like 10 feet off the ground. I want to go write songs and record them!’” Fogerty enthused. 

John Fogerty’s Three Reasons for Recording ‘Legacy’ Album

“When you’re 80 years old, you finally are given the special key to the kingdom. I guess you can do whatever you want,” he said of Legacy. “I decided this is what I wanted to do – to give myself a present.”

Fogerty offered two more reasons for making the album: “Number one, there’s probably no chance in the world I will ever have any part of the ownership of the old masters. This is kind of the Taylor Swift part. But another thing is, I think there’s a joy quite evident in the music that may not be there in the original versions.”

Despite being one of the biggest rock bands of all time, Guns N’ Roses don’t have many albums. Consequently, the list of Guns N’ Roses Album Opening Songs Ranked is small but mighty.

Axl Rose and Co. have always known how to make an entrance. On their star-making debut album Appetite for Destruction, they welcomed listeners into their debauched hellscape with the sinister “Welcome to the Jungle.” They took a similarly rough, raucous approach with later songs like “Reckless Life,” “Right Next Door to Hell” and the long-gestating “Chinese Democracy.”

On the other hand, Guns N’ Roses knew how to flip the script and serve up the complete opposite of what fans had come to expect from them. If “Right Next Door to Hell” opened Use Your Illusion I by going straight for the jugular, then “Civil War” kicked off the companion Use Your Illusion II by seeking to raise listeners’ consciousness. Their cover of “Since I Don’t Have You” off “The Spaghetti Incident?” did neither, but it found Guns N’ Roses doing what they do best: ignoring conventional wisdom and indulging their every whim.

See how all of these tracks stack up in our list of Guns N’ Roses Album Opening Songs Ranked.

6. “Since I Don’t Have You”
From: “The Spaghetti Incident?” (1993)

Kicking off their ostensibly punk rock covers album with this 1959 hit from doo-wop group the Skyliners was certainly … a choice. Then again, fans shouldn’t have expected anything less from Guns N’ Roses by this point. Their rendition of “Since I Don’t Have You” is disarmingly sincere, featuring Slash‘s aching lead guitar and a Rose vocal that shifts from lovesick croon to piercing rasp. Its placement on “The Spaghetti Incident?” made little sense, but it’s still a potent cover that shows off a different side of the band.

5. “Chinese Democracy”
From: Chinese Democracy (2008)

The long, hard, incredibly expensive road to Chinese Democracy had many GN’R fans convinced (not unreasonably) that Rose had lost his mojo. But the album-opening title track assagued all doubts, at least temporarily. With its buzzsaw riffs, sandpapery screams and anthemic hooks, “Chinese Democracy” proved that Rose could still rock with abandon, regardless of whose names were next to his in the liner notes.

4. “Right Next Door to Hell”
From: Use Your Illusion I (1991)

The same-day releases of Use Your Illusion I and II showed two different sides of Guns N’ Roses. The harder-rocking Illusion I kicked off appropriately with “Right Next Door to Hell,” a high-speed blaster inspired, in part, by Rose’s then-neighbor Gabriela Kantor, who accused the singer of clubbing her in the head with an empty wine bottle and throwing her car keys over his 12th-floor balcony. New drummer Matt Sorum smashes and bashes through ironfisted fills, and Rose sounds more venomous than ever when he screams, “Fuuucccckkkkk yoooooouuuuuu, bitch!” Rock stars: They’re just as petty as us.

READ MORE: Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Use Your Illusion’: The Stories Behind Every Song

3. “Reckless Life”
From: GN’R Lies (1988)

Following the life-changing success of Appetite for Destruction, Guns N’ Roses had to look back in order to move forward. The stopgap GN’R Lies was cobbled together from 1986’s Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP and four newly recorded acoustic tracks. Album opener “Reckless Life” appealed to fans of Guns’ raunchy, metallic side with its punk-metal tempo, sleazy guitar work and hedonistic lyrics. (Not to mention Slash’s pitch-perfect intro of “Hey, fuckers! Suck on Guns N’ fuckin’ Roses!“) It was the last time Guns N’ Roses would ever sound so genuinely free-spirited and, well, reckless.

2. “Civil War”
From: Use Your Illusion II (1991)

This is where the scope of Guns N’ Roses’ newfound ambition came into full view. With its broad-strokes anti-war sentiment and quotes from Cool Hand Luke and a Peruvian Shining Path guerilla officer, the sprawling “Civil War” should have been a total disaster. But Guns N’ Roses pulled it off through a combination of haunting vocals, smoldering guitar work, lighter-waving choruses and sheer force of will. Bonus points for being the only Use Your Illusion song (and final GN’R tune overall) to feature drummer Steven Adler, whose drug-addled performance had to be spliced together form multiple takes.

1. “Welcome to the Jungle”
From: Appetite for Destruction (1987)

Did you really expect anything else? “Welcome to the Jungle” isn’t just Guns N’ Roses’ best album-opening song; it’s their definitive track and one of the best album openers in history. Beginning with Slash’s stuttering guitar riff and Rose’s fear-stricken “Oh my God,” “Welcome to the Jungle” gives a crash course on everything that made Guns N’ Roses a once-in-a-generation band. The serpentine guitar work, swinging grooves, evocative storytelling and alleycat screech all perfectly teed up an album that brought Guns N’ Roses not to their knees, but into the upper echelon of rock stardom.