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Journey entered the 21st Century at a crossroads. Make that two crossroads.

They’d recently moved on Steve Perry, placing the Steve Augeri-sung “Remember Me” on 1998’s chart-topping multi-platinum Armageddon: The Album soundtrack. They followed that up with 2001’s Arrival before Journey and their long-time label, Columbia Records went their separate ways.

This newfound freedom sparked a rangy creativity with 2002’s Red 13 EP, but Journey’s heavy touring schedule led to vocal issues for Augeri. He’d share the mic with every other member of the group on 2005’s Generations before exiting the lineup.

READ MORE: Ranking All 52 Journey Songs From the ’80s

Arnel Pineda then became the longest-tenured singer in Journey history, following a brief stint by Jeff Scott Soto as frontman. Journey was back on track: 2008’s No. 5 smash Revelation became the first platinum seller of the post-Perry era.

Journey again reached the Billboard Top 20 with 2011’s No. 13 Eclipse but then took a long break before 2022’s pandemic-sparked Freedom album. Their talented drummer Deen Castronovo also continued to double as a singer after making his debut on Generations.

They were no longer cranking out hit single after hit single. “After All These Years” reached the Top 10 on the Billboard adult-contemporary chart in 2008 – but it was the only one. Their last visit to the Hot 100 was in the ’90s. Still, as shown by this list of Top 25 Journey Songs of the 21st Century, there have been plenty of tracks that might have been a hit in another era.

No. 25. “Turn Down the World Tonight”
From: Revelation (2008)

The always-powerful Arnel Pineda must have been listening as predecessor Steve Augeri found a way to do more with less emoting. Pineda is carried along by a track that appears headed toward this almost operatic conclusion – then Journey switches gears to end “Turn Down the World Tonight” on a nicely placed grace note.

No. 24. “What It Takes to Win”
From: Revelation (2008)

Pineda lets a roughness slip into his vocal, and a little bit more of himself. “What It Takes to Win” is better for it. He was 40 when he joined Journey, a fully formed singer in his own right. He deserves a lot more of these moments.

No. 23. “You Got the Best of Me’
From: Freedom (2022)

Soaring chorus? Gnarly riff? Lovesick lyric? Compact, fleet-fingered solo? Welcome one and all, but not quite unexpected. “You Got the Best of Me” stands apart because of its soaringly emotional finale – oh, and Jonathan Cain‘s cool little keyboard squiggle.

No. 22. “World Gone Wild”
From: Arrival (2001)

Neal Schon, Cain and the rest of the Augeri-era Journey lineup credibly recreate a “Separate Ways”-type groove, switching things up with a spacious, inspirational bridge.

No. 21. “Never Walk Away” from ‘Revelation’ (2008)

Pineda came bursting out of the gates with the opening track on his first Journey studio effort, singing with power to spare. Kevin Shirley, back for his third Journey album after 1996’s Trial by Fire and 2001’s Arrival, turns everything up around Pineda – particularly Schon.

No. 20. “After Glow”
From: Freedom (2022)

Castronovo began his second stint in Journey too late to contribute to the rhythm tracks for this pandemic-era return to recording, but he wasn’t absent from the finished LP. Initially, Castronovo only planned on adding some backgrounds. Then Neal Schon suggested that he try singing lead on this surging ballad. “After Glow” came alive.

No. 19. “Walkin’ Away from the Edge”
From: Red 13 (2002)

Before being felled by vocal issues, Steve Augeri was able to convey a depth, a relative darkness, that no other Journey singer since Gregg Rolie could touch. Here’s your proof.

No. 18. “Loved by You”
From: Arrival (2001)

Augeri updates the patented Journey ballad model by staying modulated, singing with a steadier, quieter certitude. That showed no small amount of guts. Problem: This was not what Journey fans wanted. Arrival stalled at No. 56, the group’s worst finish since Next in 1977.

No. 17. “In Self-Defense”
From: Generations (2005)

“In Self-Defense” actually dates back to Schon’s 1982 Here to Stay collaboration with Jan Hammer. The original version showcased Journey’s early-’80s lineup (minus Cain) at the peak of their increasingly rare heavy-rocking form. Same here, with Castronovo in place of Steve Smith. If only they’d had Augeri provide his own version of Perry’s elevating vocals during the solo.

No. 16. “She’s a Mystery”
From Eclipse (2011)

Schon had long hoped for a return to the wide-open heavy fusion of Journey’s original ’70s-era records. He got his wish with Eclipse, which boldly reanimated an era when he pulled and stretched his muse. But it wasn’t all guitar histrionics. A lovely Pineda co-written acoustic aside, “She’s a Mystery” finds Journey taking their foot off the gas without swerving into power-ballad cliche.

No. 15. “All the Way”
From: Arrival (2001)

In their first album without Perry, Journey obviously had an eye on recapturing the successes they found when Jonathan Cain joined the band in the ’80s. Cain was game, co-writing this instantly familiar love song with Schon, Michael Rhodes and the recently installed Augeri. “All the Way” may not have been a big hit, but it showed Journey could still be Journey even without their famous former frontman.

No. 14. “Anything Is Possible”
From: Eclipse (2011)

Pineda got the chance to showcase his pop-star sensibilities as Eclipse became his second consecutive Top 20 album with Journey. There’s a feeling of soaring expectancy about “Anything Is Possible” that balances the tough, guitar-focused tracks found elsewhere on Eclipse.

No. 13. “Together We Run”
From: Freedom (2022)

Pineda begins in a darker vocal place before soaring into his highest highs, setting the stage for a classic Journey narrative filled with big possibilities and bigger dreams. In this way, quietly determined verses set the stage for the kind of heart-filling choruses that once poured out of every passing car window.

No. 12. “Like a Sunshower”
From: Revelation (2008)

Schon couldn’t have done a better job of smoothing the way for the just-arrived Pineda than he did on “Like a Sunshower,” which begins with a lick straight out of “Stay Awhile” from Departure. It apparently worked: Revelation became Journey’s best-selling project since Trial by Fire, their last with Perry.

No. 11. “Out of Harms Way”
From: Generations (2005)

A hard-nosed war song, “Out of Harms Way” was handled with an eye-opening aggression unique to Journey, thanks to the gone-too-soon Augeri.

No. 10. “Beyond the Clouds”
From: Generations (2005)

A slow burner co-written by Augeri in his final outing, “Beyond the Clouds” illustrates why he was such a good initial fit. Augeri’s ability to elevate, as this track zooms into the stratosphere, and then to wind down into a whispery vulnerability certainly recalls a Certain Other Steve. But then Augeri makes it his own.

No. 9. “Red 13 / State of Grace”
From: Red 13 (2002)

They followed the soft rock-dominated Arrival with a scorching, fusion-kissed EP-opening song. But that’s not the way it started. Instead, Journey spent two minutes easing into things before launching into a wrecking-ball groove – and Augeri is with them, step for breathless step.

No. 8. “City of Hope”
From: Eclipse (2011)

You could say Schon is an unstoppable force on this song, except that Pineda – in one of his most impressive vocal performances – is every bit the equal of his molten riffs. At least at first. Eventually, Schon and company step forward for a floorboard-rattling, song-closing jam that edges all the way into fusion. Journey hadn’t sounded this wide open since the Jimmy Carter administration.

No. 7. “A Better Life”
From: Generations (2005)

As Augeri struggled with the vocal problems that would end his tenure in Journey, they turned to a then-surprising figure for help: Castronovo had never sung lead during tenures with the Journey offshoot bands Bad English or Hardline, but quickly took command at the mic. “A Better Life” confirmed that Castronovo was more than a temporary fill-in. This delicately conveyed track, featuring one of Schon’s more restrained turns, is one of the very best moments on Generations. Within a few years, he’d be leading his own offshoot band.

No. 6. “Edge of the Moment”
From: Eclipse (2011)

Castronovo and Ross Valory create a foundation-rattling rhythm, while the big-voiced Pineda ably conveys the fiery sense of sensuality required by this song. But “Edge of the Moment” will always belong to Neal Schon, who’s by turns melodic, out there, gurgling, eruptive. Long after their hit single-making days, and a couple of albums into Pineda’s tenure, Journey finally found their rock-music mojo again on this track, emerging with a sense of furious third-act abandon.

No. 5. “The Way We Used to Be”
From: Freedom (2022)

Journey’s COVID-themed video for “The Way We Used to Be” reflected its beginnings as a loop created by Schon while Journey was separated by quarantines. He added some guitar then shared the skeletal results over to Cain, but questions remained. After all, the band hadn’t released a new song in more than a decade. Things started clicking even before co-producer Narada Michael Walden’s R&B-leaning influences nudged the song into a entirely different space.

No. 4. “Higher Place”
From: Arrival (2001)

Journey again moved beyond Augeri’s similarities with Perry on this composition by Schon and Jack Blades, which at one point has an almost a proggy feel. In that way, “Higher Place” references previous successes but ultimately uses them as a foundation for something different.

No. 3. “Faith in the Heartland”
From: Generations (2005)

The urge to return to an everyday working-stiff theme has been almost unavoidable for a group that, in no small way, is best remembered for “Don’t Stop Believin.'” And yet “Faith in the Heartland” never slips into tribute – or, worse still, parody. Credit goes most of all to Steve Augeri, who strikes a visceral pose on upbeat tracks like this one, singing every line as if his whole heart is in it. Unfortunately, Generations went nowhere, and Augeri was gone after just two albums with Journey.

No. 2. “Where Did I Lose Your Love”
From: Revelation (2008)

Very familiar but even more fun, “Where Did I Lose Your Love” is a welcome return to Journey’s arena-ballad sound. Sure, it’s very much in the style of their Escape / Frontiers era. Castronovo and Cain, who co-wrote this track with Schon, even close things out with a fierce entanglement that again recalls “Separate Ways.” But Pineda added a few new wrinkles as Journey continued to move past the same old Perry comparisons.

No. 1. “We Will Meet Again”
From: Arrival (2001)

Castronovo’s inventively layered rhythm gives “We Will Meet Again” a distinct character among Journey’s more anthemic-leaning tunes, setting the stage for a moment of controlled fury from Augeri. It all builds toward a sweeping vista reminiscent of Journey’s classic Roy Thomas Baker-helmed sides like “Winds of March” and “Opened the Door,” a welcome development indeed. And as with those two 1978 tracks, “We Will Meet Again” serves as an emotionally resonant side-closing moment. Questions about whether they could continue into a new era were now answered.

Nick DeRiso is author of the Amazon best-selling rock band bio ‘Journey: Worlds Apart,’ available here and at all major bookseller websites.

You Think You Know Journey?

There is nothing more frustrating for rock fans than when their favorite bands just stop putting out new music. Of course, there are many reasons for bands to stop putting out music, first and foremost, people pass away. However, with a few exceptions, many of these groups stop putting records out for reasons other than losing band members. Many didn’t feel like it for whatever reason. Others broke up, members went their own way, solo careers, families, or just got tired of the whole rock and roll scene. Nonetheless, the one commonality that every group on this list shares is after a long period of time without releasing any new music, these groups finally released a new album. Not all of them were the original members, but they did release new music.

Sadly, many older acts seem to assume that there’s no real demand for new music from them: anyone who’s been to a classic rock concert knows that the words “This is from our new album” is typically met with collective groans or even a Pavlovian response by which a good portion of the audience suddenly feels like they need to use the bathroom.

Thus, reunited bands – like long-running acts and even veteran solo artists – often forgo creating new studio material, believing that it’s not worth the trouble and expense when their target audience “just wants to hear the old stuff.” However, here’s is a look at 11 classic bands that did take the plunge, coming back with new music after quite a few years, and how they fared.

# 11 – THE CARS (14 years)

Quirky Boston rockers The Cars originally disbanded in 1988. Eight years later guitarist Elliot Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes attempted to continue to band as the New Cars, but the project was considered an utter failure (even with Todd Rundgren fronting the new line-up) and never even got as far as releasing a full studio album.

In 2010 Easton and Hawkes re-joined the two other surviving original members, vocalist/guitarist Ric Ocasek and drummer David Robinson (bassist/vocalist Benjamin Orr died in 2000) for live dates. The following year they released the all-new studio album Move Like This, which did move into the US Top 10 otherwise didn’t make much traction. Any real future that the band might have had ended with the Ocasek’s death in 2019.

# 10 – VAN HALEN (14 years)

We’re already anticipating the comments insisting that Van Halen III (1998), featuring one-time frontman Gary Cherone, shouldn’t be considered a Van Halen album. We’re just as sure at least a couple of people will try to make the same case even for the four multi-platinum albums that the band did with Sammy Hagar… but we’ll leave that topic for everyone’s next drunken bar argument. Strictly speaking, at least, we can say that Van Halen’s 2012 release A Different Kind of Truth – which marked the return of original lead singer David Lee Roth – was their first album of new material in fourteen years.

New-ish anyway: Many of the songs were re-workings of material that actually dated as far back as far as 1975 (the first single “Tattoo,” for example, was originally a song called “Down in Flames,” which was old news to Van Halen bootleg traders). In 2019, David Lee Roth deemed the band “finished,” a sentiment which sadly was clinched by the death of guitarist Eddie Van Halen the following year.

# 9 – THE BEACH BOYS (16 YEARS)

The Beach Boys have been a staple of summer concerts for what seems like – to quote one of their songs – “Forever,” even if for the past few decades the live version of the band has been comprised of longtime frontman Mike Love surrounded by rando touring musicians. In 2012 Love and other surviving original members, including songwriter Brian Wilson (Love’s first cousin), was able to put aside their differences long enough to tour together in commemoration of the group’s fiftieth anniversary.

While this seemed to epitomize that nostalgia entity that the Beach Boys had long become, during this period they also released an all-new studio album, That’s Why God Made the Radio. The record went Top 5 in the US, making it their highest charting since 1965 (their previous, released in 1996, didn’t even make the US Top 100). Less surprising was the fact that Wilson ultimately only lasted a short time in the touring band.

# 8 – BLONDIE (17 years)

New York City new wave band Blondie was a major success at the top of the Eighties but disbanded in 1982 after the disappointing commercial results of an album and tour. In the mid-Nineties, perhaps encouraged by the success of newer bands they’d clearly influenced (No Doubt, Republica), four original members – including lead singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein – reformed the group.

The transition was not entirely smooth (the two holdout former members sued to prevent them from using the band’s name), but in 1999 they released a new full-length studio album, No Exit. The record made the US Top 20 and was certified gold, besting the performance of The Hunter, the last album from the band’s original run (plus, the single “Maria” went to number one in the UK). No Exit proved to be no one-time reunion, as the band has released another four new studio albums since then.

# 7 – JEFFERSON AIRPLANE (17 years)

In 1974 several members of the Jefferson Airplane re-christened the band Jefferson Starship, which after another decade was shorted to just Starship for legal reasons. By 1989, there were enough former members of the original band (including lead singer Grace Slick) to re-form under that name, touring and releasing a self-titled album of all-new material.

Ironically, Starship not only remained active but even had their own new release, Love Among the Cannibals, that same year. Anyone who’s read science fiction might have been concerned that Starship and Jefferson Airplane existing at the same time might have caused a riff in the space-time continuum. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, but Jefferson Airplane was grounded permanently after this.

# 6 – The Rolling Stones (18 years)

The Rolling Stones waited 18 years between releasing an album of brand new studio material. Hackney Diamonds was released during the summer of 2023. Their previous studio album of brand new material was released in 2005 and titled A Bigger Bang. Yes, we know that the Rolling Stones released a new album in 2016 called Blue & Lonesome. However, that was an album filled with just Blues covers and did not contain any new material, so it doesn’t count in our logic. Nonetheless, even though we had to wait 18 years, the album is spectacular and well worth the wait, we wish they had released more albums during that time, because who doesn’t love the Rolling Stones.

# 5 – THE EAGLES (18 years)

Highly successful SoCal band The Eagles (they can currently boast having two of the three highest-selling albums of all time) disbanded in 1980 but returned in 1994 with a tour and live release both entitled Hell Freezes Over (quite possibly an overstatement, as guitarist Don Felder in his memoir indicates that the tentative plan was always for the band to eventually reunite). Their next full album of all-new material, released in 2008, was given the classier and less snarky title Long Road Out of Eden, and at thirty tracks was also the lengthiest in their history.

The band’s extended dormancy clearly hadn’t impeded their Midas touch in the slightest, since Eden went to number one not just in the US (where it’s been certified seven times platinum) but also the UK and at least five other counties. Despite the success, vocalist/drummer Don Henley said at the time that it would most likely be the last ever new Eagles album, a scenario made ever more likely by the death of vocalist/guitarist Glenn Frey in 2016 (although the band continues to tour).

# 4 – BLUE OYSTER CULT (19 years)

Unlike the other bands on this list, this one doesn’t represent any sort of a reunion project: Blue Oyster Cult have consistently been an active band since debuting in the early Seventies (1987 was the last year in which they didn’t perform a single live date). However, only guitarist/vocalists Donald Roeser (aka Buck Dharma) and Eric Bloom have been present for the band’s entire history, and BOC’s studio output has become sporadic since the mid-Eighties.

In 2020 they released The Symbol Remains, their first album of all-new material since Curse of the Hidden Mirror in 2001. Symbol Remains is the longest studio album in the band’s catalogue (maybe they took a cue from the Eagles?) and focused mainly on their harder sound (always a collaborative effort, the band allotted a surprising amount of the record to newer member Richie Castellano, who hadn’t appeared on any previous studio albums). Though not quite a throwback to their glory days, The Symbol Remains did become the first Blue Oyster Cult album to chart in the US since 1988’s Imaginos, and even went Top 40 in Germany.

# 3 – STEELY DAN (20 years)

Steely Dan – comprised of vocalist/keyboardist Donald Fagan and guitarist Walter Becker – was not only unique for their smooth-but-potent jazz-influenced sound, but also for the fact that beginning in 1974 they ceased to perform live, making them one of rock’s few successful studio-only bands at the time. This served them very well until the end of the Seventies, when a barrage of legal, creative and personal troubles prompted the duo to split up. They reunited in 1994, this time flipping the script entirely: they become strictly a touring live act, not putting out another new studio album until 2000’s Two Against Nature, which was followed by Everything Must Go three years later (both albums went Top 10 in the US). Becker died in 2017 but Fagan continues to tour under the band’s name.

# 2 –  PINK FLOYD (20 years)

In 2014, nearly a quarter century after their last album of all-new material, The Division Bell (1994), Pink Floyd released The Endless River, a collection comprised almost entirely of instrumental and ambient music. Most of what appears had been either composed or recorded during sessions for that last album, quite of bit of which included contributions from group founding member Richard Wright, who died in 2008. Guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour would say that to a major degree it was all meant to be a tribute to the late Floyd keyboardist (and let’s just get this out of the way: David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason acknowledged, not surprisingly, that at no point did they consider inviting long estranged vocalist/bassist Roger Waters to be part of the project).

Though some cynics dismissed the release as an afterthought or even a cash-grab, it entered the UK charts at number one and achieved that same position in at least twenty other countries (interestingly, not the US, where it had to settle for a still-impressive #3). Gilmour has also insisted that The Endless River closes the book on Pink Floyd’s legendary recording career.

# 1 – Tie  THE WHO (24 years)

In 1982 The Who underwent what was billed as a “farewell tour,” and the following year guitarist and principal songwriter Pete Townshend announced that he was officially done with the band. However, he and lead singer Roger Daltrey would both later admit that this was all just a way of giving themselves more flexibility to do the band when they wanted to, not when they had to. The Who played Live Aid just a couple of years later and have toured fairly regularly since 1989 (even after the death of founding member John Entwistle in 2002). However, another full-length Who album didn’t appear until 2006, with Endless Wire, and it was another extended gap before the next one, titled simply Who, was released in 2019 (and though Townshend says he’s continually working on new music, whether we ever get more originals from the Who remains to be seen).

11 Classic Bands Who Returned With New Music After A Long Gap article published on Classic RockHistory.com© 2025

Little Feat will release a new album on May 9. Strike Up the Band arrives four days after the veteran band starts a new tour.

The first single from Strike Up the Band, “Too High to Cut My Hair,” is available now.

“[Guitarist] Fred Tackett shines all over this record, as he always does, but in particular in his writing,” bandleader Bill Payne notes in a press release announcing the album. “‘Too High to Cut My Hair’ is based on a true story where he and his wife Patricia were in a hotel room in New Orleans. Fred had asked for a trim, but decided that she was too high to cut his hair. And then he thought, ‘Oh, my god, what a title!’

“People love the humor in our records, a cherished entree to those when they find it. So I’m happy this song displays that humor and in full. It’s also got the classic Sam Clayton doing his, three octaves below middle C voice in there. … Everyone that has heard it has said, ‘That’s a Little Feat song”, and I know what they mean!'”

You can hear “Too High to Cut My Hair” below.

The new record comes out just a year after Little Feat’s previous album, Sam’s Place, the band’s first recording since 2012.

READ MORE: Little Feat, ‘Sam’s Place’ Album Review

“When discussing the album with the band and where it sits in our canon, our predecessor to this record in my mind was [1988’s] Let It Roll,” Payne says. “We are in a similar position to introduce Little Feat once again with this new collection of songs.

“It is my feeling that, from what we had been playing over the last few years, there’s no question the overwhelming majority of fans would accept the album for what it is: an unmistakable iteration of Little Feat that highlights, with great songs and musicianship, the very best of an ongoing legacy, expressly evoking and expanding upon what people think of when they hear Little Feat.”

You can see the track listing for Strike Up the Band below.

Where Is Little Feat Performing in 2025?

Little Feat will launch a summer tour on May 9 with a date in Rutland. Vermont. The band will stay on the road through the end of June before a two-month break.

Shows will resume in late August with an appearance at the Rhythm & Roots festival in Charlestown, Rhode Island. More dates run through the end of October, when the tour will conclude in Red Bank, New Jersey.

You can see Little Feat’s 2025 touring schedule below.

Little Feat, ‘Strike Up the Band’ Track Listing
4 Days of Heaven 3 Days of Work
Bayou Mama
Shipwrecks
Midnight Flight
Too High To Cut My Hair
When Hearts Fall
Strike Up The Band (feat. Larkin Poe)
Bluegrass Pines (feat. Molly Tuttle, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams)
Disappearing Ink
Love and Life (Never Fear)
Dance a Little
Running Out of Time with the Blues
New Orleans Cries When She Sings

Little Feat 2025 Tour
May 5 Mon – Rutland, VT – Paramount Theatre *
May 6 Tue – Medford, MA – Chevalier Theatre *
May 8 Thu – Port Chester, NY – The Capitol Theatre *
May 9 Fri – Montclair, NJ – Wellmont Theater *
May 10 Sat – Ithaca, NY – State Theatre *
May 12 Mon – Akron, OH – Goodyear Theater *
May 13 Tue – Shipshewana, IN – Blue Gate Performing Arts Center *
May 15 Thu – Nashville, IN – Brown County Music Center *
May 16 Fri – Davenport, IA – Capitol Theatre *
May 17 Sat – Des Plaines, IL – Rivers Casino Des Plaines *
May 19 Mon – Peoria, IL – Prairie Home Alliance Theater *
May 23 Fri – Chandler, AZ – Gila River Resorts & Casinos Wild Horse Pass *
Jun 13 Fri – Santa Cruz, CA – Rio Theatre *
Jun 14 Sat – Napa, CA – Blue Note Napa Summer Sessions at Meritage Resort
Jun 15 Sun – Reno, NV – Grand Theatre at Grand Sierra Resort *
Jun 18 Wed – Eugene, OR – McDonald Theatre *
Jun 19 Thu – Boise, ID – The Egyptian Theatre *
Jun 21 Sat – Airway Heights, WA – Spokane Live at the Spokane Tribe Resort & Casino #
Jun 22 Sun – Redmond, VA – Marymoor Live #
Jun 24 Tue – Bonner, MT – Kettlehouse Amphitheater #
Jun 25 Wed – Pocatello, ID – Portneuf Health Trust Amphitheatre #
Jun 26 Thu – Salt Lake City, UT – Red Butte Garden
Jun 28 Sat – Winter Park, CO – Blues From The Top
Aug 29-31 – Charlestown, RI – Rhythm & Roots 2025
Sep 15-21 – Ketchikan, AK – Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea – Alaska 2025
Oct 14 Tue – Birmingham, AL – Alabama Theatre *
Oct 15 Wed – Franklin, TN – Firstbank Amphitheater <
Oct 17 Fri – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater <
Oct 18 Sat – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion <
Oct 19 Sun – Atlanta, GA – Atlanta Symphony Hall *
Oct 21 Tue – Richmond, VA – Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront <
Oct 22 Wed – Wilmington, NC – Live Oak Bank Pavilion at Riverfront Park <
Oct 24 Fri – Baltimore, MD – The Lyric Baltimore *
Oct 25 Sat – Huntington, NY – The Paramount *
Oct 26 Sun – Red Bank, NJ – Count Basie Center for the Arts *

2026
Jan 11-18 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Sandy Beaches Cruise 2026
Jan 18-25 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – The Big Easy Cruise 2026

* Strike Up The Band Tour
# Little Feat & Nitty Gritty Band: Dirty Feat Tour
< With Tedeschi Trucks Band (Live in 25 Tour)

Former Cinderella frontman Tom Keifer will hit the road this summer and fall for a U.S. tour with support from fellow ’80s rockers L.A. Guns.

The joint trek begins on Aug. 28 in Louisville, Kentucky, and concludes on Oct. 4 in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Tickets for some dates are available now; others go on sale to the general public on Friday.

You can find more information at Keifer’s website and see the full list of dates below.

READ MORE: Tom Keifer Recalls Freezing While Making Classic Cinderella Video

Tom Keifer and L.A. Guns’ New Music Plans

Keifer released his second and most recent solo album, Rise, in 2019. When asked about the possibility of new music last summer, he told Rock 100.5 The KATT FM (via Blabbermouth): “Well, I think there’s a record probably brewing. There always is one. Music is kind of floating in the air. Songs are, they’re always out there somewhere. It’s just when the inspiration strikes you. I like to keep it organic and wait for a strong emotion or a feeling to hit that really feels like a song. And you kind of collect those. I call ’em like the little seeds of songs — you get these chorus lines in your head. I just kind of let ’em brew.”

L.A. Guns, meanwhile, will release their 15th album, Leopard Skin, on April 4. They’ve previewed the collection with two singles so far: the raunchy “Taste It” and the slinky “Lucky Motherfucker.”

Tom Keifer and L.A. Guns 2025 Tour Dates
Aug. 28 – Louisville, KY @ Iroquois Amphitheater
Aug. 30 – Eau Claire, WI @ The Sonnentag
Sept. 1 – Paw Paw, MI @ Warner Vineyards
Sept. 4 – Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
Sept. 5 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater & Ballroom
Sept. 6 – Rockford, IL @ Coronado Performing Arts Center
Sept. 12 – Airway Heights, WA @ Spokane Live
Sept. 13 – Idaho Falls, ID @ Mountain America Center
Sept. 14 – Boise, ID @ Morrison Center
Sept. 17 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Theater at Virgin Hotels
Sept. 19 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre
Sept. 20 – Phoenix, AZ @ Celebrity Theatre
Sept. 21 – Albuquerque, NM @ Revel Entertainment Center
Oct. 3 – Carteret, NJ @ Carteret PAC
Oct. 4 – Stroudsburg, PA @ Sherman Theater

Top 30 Glam Metal Albums

There’s nothing guilty about these pleasures.

Gallery Credit: Bryan Rolli

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Mike Campbell explained why he couldn’t have prevented Tom Petty’s death in 2017, and said his conscience was clear on the matter.

Petty passed at the age of 66 of an accidental overdose. He’d been using drugs to manage the pain of a fractured hip and marriage problems, which had also affected the Heartbreakers’ last tour.

In a new interview with Guitar Player, Campbell said he could only intrude so far into Petty’s personal life. “With Tom it was like, ‘Your private life is yours, and mine is mine. I can see what you’re doing, but out of respect for you, I’ll trust you’ll do the right thing. If you need me, call me.’

READ MORE: Mike Campbell Announces New Memoir, ‘Heartbreaker’

He continued: “I could have said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to cut this shit out,’ … [Y]ou could say that and he would just look at you like, ‘But I’m Tom Petty. I’m going to do whatever I fucking want. Get out of my face.’

“Tom made his own decisions about what he wanted, even to the last tour. That was his decision – he wanted to go on tour. Nobody was going to tell him ‘no’ for any reason. We suggested to him that we could postpone the tour, but he said, ‘Nope, I’m doing this.’”

Asked how he felt about the road trip likely contributing to Petty’s death, Campbell said: “I don’t torture myself. My conscience is clear because Tom knew that I knew, and Tom knew that I wasn’t forcing him and getting in his face about it.

“[T]he last conversation I had with Tom about it, I said, ‘Are you sure you want to do this? Are you up to it?’ He said, ‘I’m not staying home. I’m going out. I want to do it. If I have to be in a wheelchair, I’m going to do it.’ I said, ‘Okay, then what?’ He said, ‘Well, when the tour’s over, I’m going to go get my surgery. We’ll write some more songs, make another record.’

He added: “So I have no second thoughts about it. I don’t beat myself up like that.…I did all I could.”

What Mike Campbell Thinks of the Last Song the Heartbreakers Played

Campbell also reflected on the fact that “American Girl,” the classic track he’s described as the Heartbreakers identifying their sound, was the final song the band played together.

“Yeah. Irony,” he said. “But I don’t ever think of ‘American Girl’ as the last song we ever played together, unless somebody brings it up. It’s like one of the first songs we ever played together. I don’t have a sad attachment to it – it’s too much of an optimistic burst of joy.

“But I am glad we played that song together at the Hollywood Bowl… Every time we played it, the hair on the back of my neck would stand up. There’s something about it that’s just inspired and poetic and exuberant. It’s the Heartbreakers, that tonality we found that day between the keyboards and the guitar harmonics and the energy and the riffs.

“That was the sound of our band. That’s what we sounded like when we were at our best. And that’s what we tried to do after that. That’s the sound we worked for.”

Watch Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Final Performance

As usual during the first few months of a new year, the best reissues, archival recordings and box sets surveyed below arrived too late for holiday gift-giving but still manage to set a pace for the next 12 months.

While the ramp to the latest big reissues – whether deluxe box sets, expanded versions of classic albums or compilations based around a unifying theme – only begins to start here, it’s not short on great recordings.

Essential Tina Turner and Yes records receive lavish box-set overhauls, with fresh remasters, alternate versions, outtakes and live performances. Likewise, Wilco‘s follow-up to their breakthrough album celebrates its 20th anniversary with much more music, including the musical blueprints to the work.

READ MORE: 2025 Album Reviews

Two artists, fresh from the ’60s bands that made the famous, find the next projects in their career collected in new sets that wrap up their entire discographies: Eric Burdon, who followed up his role as leader of the Animals with the multicultural Los Angeles group War, and Noel Redding, who moved on from the Jimi Hendrix Experience to Fat Mattress.

There’s also an anniversary edition of a comeback album from a British folk singer who started her career with a song the Rolling Stones gave away instead of releasing themselves and a punk classic stretched to four CDs. A few various artists compilations – collecting progressive and psychedelic folk music from the ’60s through mid-’70s – are here, too. It’s a wild-card round-up from a season that sets its own rules.

Reissue Roundup: Winter Sets From Yes, Tina Turner and More

The best box sets, archival releases and expanded LPs from the past three months.

Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci

More From Ultimate Classic Rock

It’s a typical winter day in London: cold and grey with the damp doing its best to seep into your bones. Nonetheless, Takiaya Reed is beaming. As the driving force behind anti-colonial doom/drone behemoth Divide And Dissolve, she’s been delivering chest-crumpling heaviness and flights of unbridled joy for the best part of a decade.

Beyond being a formidable riff-wielder, though, she’s also a classically trained saxophonist – one who’s currently putting the finishing touches to her first symphony for the BBC Concert Orchestra. “My entire life I have wanted to write a symphony, and now… I have,” she smiles.

We catch up while she takes a break from composition, feeling somewhat guilty for breaking her concentration. “It’s something I felt called to do,” she explains. “I am so excited to do it again – now I just want to write symphony number two, because I’m learning so much and there are things that I would love to do differently next time. I hope there is a next time.”

Takiaya is crackling with excitement, and her enthusiasm is absolutely infectious. She was contacted, seemingly out of the blue, to take part in BBC Radio 3’s Unclassified Live, an ambitious event that sees three outlier artists commissioned to compose or reinterpret music for performance at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.

“They’re so amenable to helping you achieve what you want to achieve,” she says. “They didn’t have a choir and I asked for a choir. Because my music is so low and heavy, I asked for a tuba… and I got a tuba.”

The headcount tops out at around 60 world-class musicians, what with the orchestra, choir, tuba, conductor and Takiaya herself on soprano sax.

“I’ve got all of this to work with and it’s awesome,” she says delightedly. “When I’m composing for Divide And Dissolve I hear all these instruments anyways, I’m just condensing it down for two people. Here, I was given the opportunity to be more expansive.”

While many would be daunted by the prospect of a blank sheet of paper and a 60-strong orchestra to wrangle, Takiaya is clearly in her element. To bring her vision to life, she’s been working with arranger Fiona Brice (also a solo artist and session musician, who has worked with the likes of Placebo and Beyoncé) to pare back her four-movement composition from its initial, maximalist incarnation to something leaner, where the energy is more powerfully focused. The process has been rapid, with Takiaya spending much of her downtime on tour writing and ruminating, gathering her ideas in order to meet the project’s stringent deadlines.

“I’m not sure if it’s my preference to write under pressure, but everyone involved needs time,” she explains. “I write quickly, though, and when you are working with a brilliant arranger like Fiona, the process moves faster than if I was writing all the parts down by myself. And something different would’ve happened if I’d had a lot of time, so I’m happy that it moved quickly because I needed it to. I had something to get out, and it’s there now.”

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Takiaya isn’t exaggerating when she says she writes quickly. As well as penning the symphony for the BBC, she has two new albums in the bag.

“I was staying in Berlin for a couple of months,” she says. “I have a friend there who’s an incredible musician, and she invited me to stay at her studio to write and record. I wrote a brand new Divide And Dissolve album. Then, we got in the studio in January last year and I started writing new music. I just felt compelled to write a brand new album on the spot.”

This second album was named Insatiable, fittingly enough, and it will be Divide And Dissolve’s first release for their new label, Bella Union. Although it was written and recorded months before the symphony was on the table, there are certain threads that connect them.

“I feel like they’re indistinguishable in a way,” says Takiaya. “There are certain moments from Insatiable that are being transposed, or rather, being infused into the symphony. But they’re being expressed differently because there are so many voices.”

In many ways this duality sums Divide And Dissolve up nicely. The band effortlessly combine heaviness, beauty, rage and hope in a manner that suits sticky-floored rock clubs full of metalheads in Black Sabbath shirts as well as arts spaces or concert halls.

“I do appreciate that it transcends genre,” laughs Takiaya. “I feel like it’s something that happens personally, as well. People look at me and they get something that’s different to what they expected. And it’s represented in the people I’m friends with. I’ll have parties at my house, and people are like, ‘Takiaya’s having a party… we’re about to meet people we’ve never met before!’”

Divide And Dissolve’s Insatiable is out April 18 via Bella Union.

Sleep Token have kicked off their long-hyped new era in bold fashion, announcing a new album, detailing a new tour and releasing a new song.

The masked metal sensations will put out their fourth record Even In Arcadia on May 9 via RCA. Its lead single Emergence, packing the usual mix of big riffs and smooth hooks plus a bonus saxophone solo, is now streaming, and the band will play across North America in September and October.

Listen to the song, see the new album’s artwork and get details of their newly announced live dates below.

The band say of Even In Arcadia: “This new chapter follows [2023 album] Take Me Back To Eden and continues the unfolding journey, where Sleep Token further intertwines the boundaries of sound and emotion, dissolving into something otherworldly.”

Sleep Token, arguably the fastest-rising metal stars of this century, have been teasing a ‘new era’ since they played their first arena show at London’s Wembley Arena in December 2023. The four-piece unveiled new masks at the concert, and designer Lani Hernandez-David coyly told Metal Hammer: “There’s definitely a new era coming, but I won’t speak too much on that, because I’m not really clued up on it.”

Since then, Sleep Token have trekked across North America and sold-out multiple arenas across Europe. In February 2024, they signed to RCA (home of Doja Cat, A$AP Rocky, Britney Spears and other pop-culture giants) and announced, “Welcome to the new era.”

In November, Sleep Token were announced as one of the three headliners of Download festival 2025. The weekender, which has a capacity of up to 100,000, will also be headlined this year by Green Day and Korn. It will take place from June 13 to 15 at Castle Donington in Leicestershire.

This year, teases of new Sleep Token music have come thick and fast. On March 7, the band posted a video depicting a black flamingo with the caption, “Prepare for a new offering.” Another video with the same caption followed on Wednesday (March 12).

Outside of the Download slot and North American tour, Sleep Token will perform at Germany’s Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park festivals, which will take place in Nürberg and Nuremberg simultaneously from June 6 to 8. They also have a set at Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky, on September 18.

Sleep Token 2025 tour dates:

Jun 06–08: Nürburg Rock Am Ring, Germany
Jun 06–08: Nuremberg Rock Im Park, Germany
Jun 14: Donington Download festival, UK

Sep 16: Duluth Gas South Arena, GA
Sep 17: Orlando Kia Center, FL
Sep 18: Louisville Louder Than Life, KY
Sep 20: Greensboro First Horizon Coliseum, NC
Sep 22: Brooklyn Barclays Center, NY
Sep 23: Worcester DCU Center, MA
Sep 24: Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center, PA
Sep 26: Detroit Little Caesars Arena, MI
Sep 27: Cleveland Rocket Arena, OH
Sep 28: Rosemont Allstate Arena, IL
Sep 30: Lincoln Pinnacle Bank Arena, NE
Oct 01: Minneapolis Target Center, MN
Oct 03: Denver Ball Arena, CO
Oct 05: West Valley City Maverik Center, UT
Oct 07: Tacoma Dome, WA
Oct 08: Portland Moda Center, OR
Oct 10: Oakland Arena, CA
Oct 11: Los Angeles Crypto.com Arena, CA

The long-awaited and much-anticipated sequel to Rob Reiner’s classic 1984 ‘rockumentary’ This Is Spinal Tap is set to open in US cinemas on September 12.

The date was revealed as the first short teaser for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is released, confidently suggesting that director Marty DiBergi’s (Reiner) new film about the legendary English hard rock band will go up to 11.

According to an interview Reiner gave to Empire magazine last year, the sequel comes together after DiBergi – who’s been teaching at the Ed Wood School of Cinematic Arts – discovers that Spinal Tap’s core members David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) are putting the band back together to play a gig, and gets back in contact to ask if he can document it. Reiner also revealed what the three band members have been doing since the group fell apart.

“Nigel has been running a cheese and guitar shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed,” he said. “He’s also been performing with a local folk band in the village that play penny whistle and mandolin, and he plays electric guitar with them. We show a little clip of that.

“David St Hubbins has been living in Morro Bay in California, and he’s been writing music for podcasts, particularly this one true-crime podcast called The Trouble With Murder. He also writes the music that you hear when you’re on hold on the phone.

“And then we have Derek. Derek is living in London and is now the curator of the New Museum of Glue. He’s curated glue from every country in the world, the whole history of glue, and he shows me around. He’s also been performing with a philharmonic orchestra, and he’s written this kind of symphony about the fact that the devil wears a bad hair piece. It’s called Hell Toupée.”

Spinal Tap II will reunite McKean, Guest) and Shearer for the first time since the trio performed an acoustic set at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.

Elton John, Paul McCartney, Lars Ulrich and Chad Smith are among the bonafide rock stars making cameo appearances in the film. And both Elton John and Paul McCartney contribute songs to the soundtrack, which also features a host of new original material by Spinal Tap, including a Derek Smalls meditation upon death titled Rockin’ In The Urn.

A UK release date for the film is yet to be announced.