This Week in Rock

Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” (released in 1977) is the best charting Rock album on the Billboard 200’s year-end tally holding the #30 slot – just ahead of Queen’s “Greatest Hits” at #31. Nirvana’s “Nevermind” (#57) and AC/DC’s “Back In Black” (#84) are the only two original Rock albums listed in the Top 100.  All the others…

Queen amassed 2.3 billion song streams this year via Spotify. According to Spotify Wrapped’s year-end survey Queen had 120.7 million fans spending over 139.2 million hours listening to the band’s music via the streaming service.  The only other Rock act with more than a billion streams this year was Machine Gun Kelly (1.7 billion streams). …

Ghost won the Favorite Rock Album category for “Impera.” Machine Gun Kelly was the Favorite Rock Artist. Måneskin’s “Beggin’” earned the Favorite Rock Song honor. The 50th Annual American Music Awards were held on November 20th at the Microsoft Theater in L.A. in recognition of the most popular artists and music within the eligibility period…

Finally, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted Judas Priest! Reunited with guitarist K.K. Downing and drummer Les Binks, Priest performed a three-song medley of “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’,” “Breaking The Law” and “Living After Midnight” at the Hall of Fame ceremony (November 5th) at the Microsoft Theater in L.A. Priest members inducted, with Alice Cooper handling the honors,…

Iron Maiden recently completed its “Legacy Of The Beast” tour – the last stop (October 27th) on the American leg was at the Amalie Arena in Tampa in front of over 12,000 fans. More than three-million people attended 139 shows in 33 countries since the trek began in Tallinn, Estonia on May 26th, 2018. The tour’s…

Chaim Witz, The Demon – otherwise known as Gene Simmons – was born in Israel in ’49. His parents had survived the Holocaust in Eastern Europe and immigrated to Israel. When Chaim’s parents divorced in ’54 he and his mother came to the U.S. settling in Brooklyn. As Chaim began learning English, comic books and…

Let’s clear up one thing right away. Alice Cooper is the name of the band AND its lead singer. Alice Cooper the band – lead guitarist Glen Buxton (who passed away 10/19/97), rhythm guitarist Mike Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith – backed Alice Cooper, the singer. A minister’s son the singer was…

When Judas Priest enters the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for “Musical Excellence” on November 5th they plan to play a medley of their songs. “They give you a limited amount of time ’cause there’s obviously lots of artists that are gonna be performing,” explained Priest drummer Scott Travis during an interview on 107.7…