Blog Posts by Andy Greene

Most songwriters would be thrilled to have Linda Perry's career. Over the past decade the former 4 Non Blondes singer has become one of the most sought-after writers in the industry, penning Pink's "Get The Party Started" and Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" in addition to hits by Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani and many others. "I've just been really bored," Perry tells Rolling Stone. "If I hear another label tell me that they need a song for the radio I'm going to poke out their eyeballs with a fork. Nobody I work with wants anything out of left field. They just want to keep following the same game plan."

This frustration led Perry to form Deep Dark Robot, her first band since she quit 4 Non Blondes in 1995. The idea came to her when she began writing intensely personal songs she realized nobody else would want to record. "Basically, I fell in love with a woman and really quick it turned into an emotional tsunami," Perry says. "She ended up being an incredible muse, even though things

After months of rumors, Buffalo Springfield have announced dates for their first tour since splitting up in 1968. The group - featuring original members Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay - are going to play a six-date California tour in early June, leading up to their set at Bonnaroo on June 11th. Young's longtime bassist Rick Rosas will be taking the place of the late Bruce Palmer and Crosby, Stills and Nash drummer Joe Vitale is filling in for the late Dewey Martin.

"It's hard to believe 42 years have passed since we played together as the Buffalo Springfield," Richie Furay said in a statement. "Over the years, music never stopped flowing from each of us, and it's come 'full circle,' if you will.  And now, we get to share our hearts with you again - yes, Buffalo Springfield again!"

Buffalo Springfield Bridge School Reunion A Triumph

Last October the band performed two nights at Young's annual Bridge School Benefit. "Before I got the call about the reunion I always told

This week in rock history the Beatles ended, the Ramones began, Genesis embraced pop, Madonna flipped out and N'Sync peaked.

April 1st, 1970 - The Beatles hold their final recording session

The Beatles' recording career ended very quietly in April of 1970. At the time all four members of the band hadn't appeared together in the studio since they finished "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" seven months earlier. In early 1970 Phil Spector was given the difficult task of carving an album out of the group's disastrous Let It Be sessions from the previous year. He called back all four Beatles to flesh out some of the songs, but John refused to show up. For the last session on April 1st Spector just needed Ringo to overdub some drums on "The Long and Winding Road," "Across The Universe" and "I Me Mine." Just nine days later McCartney announced that the group had broken up.

March 30th, 1974 - The Ramones stage their first concert

Four years after the Beatles dissolved a Queens, New York trio

Chris Cornell freely admits that he has some butterflies in his stomach about his first-ever solo acoustic tour, which kicks off tonight in Aspen, Colorado. "I'm very used to a full band where you can hide behind a sonic wall if you want," he tells Rolling Stone. "You can't do that sitting down and playing songs with an acoustic guitar. You're right there with the people and you can hear every word they say. But I feel like you're not a real musician or entertainer if you can't go into a room, pick up an instrument and entertain people."

Photo Gallery: A Decade Of Soundgarden

The Soundgarden frontman doesn't want to reveal his setlist, but he promises he'll play a wide cross-section of material from throughout his career. "I want to do everything - going pretty far back," he says. "Some songs I just think won't sound good in an acoustic format. So I'll just keep playing it and then one day, on the 50th time, suddenly it'll work. It gets very interesting finding songs that don't make

Pinetop Perkins, a delta blues pianist who played with Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Nighthawk, died of a heart attack at his Austin, Texas home on March 21st. He was 97. "He was one of the last great Mississippi Bluesmen," B.B. King said in a statement. "He had such a distinctive voice, and he sure could play the piano. He will be missed not only by me, but by lovers of music all over the world."

Perkins was raised on a plantation in Honey Island, Mississippi. He spent his childhood picking cotton and plowing fields with a mule, very rarely going to school. He began his musical career as a guitarist, but after severely damaging his left arm in a barroom knife fight in 1943 he switched to the piano. Around that same time he moved to Arkansas and began performing with blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson and slide guitarists Earl Hooker and Robert Nighthawk. By the Fifties he was backing musicians on early rock labels Sun and Chess.

In 1969 he joined Muddy Waters' backing

Elton John was wrapping up a nearly 10-minute rendition of "Rocket Man" at Madison Square Garden last night when his roadies wheeled a second piano onstage and set it up with the lightning speed of a Nascar pit crew. Two nights earlier John had inducted Leon Russell into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame across the city at the Waldorf Astoria, so it wasn't a huge surprise when Russell slowly shuffled onstage and sat down behind the piano, looking like the last surviving Confederate soldier with his massive white beard and cane. It was the first time that Russell had stood on the Madison Square Garden stage since his legendary performance at George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, and he seemed genuinely touched by the standing ovation.

Photos: Elton John's Outfits Through The Years

Until that point the show had been a standard Elton John arena concert. As usual, he opened with the prog-rock majesty of "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" before ripping into "Saturday

It was nearly 1:00 a.m. and Neil Diamond's three-song set at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's induction ceremony was over, but the singer was simply having too much fun to stop. He had just wrapped up a joyous sing-along rendition of "Sweet Caroline" by running into the crowd and having Robbie Robertson and Bruce Springsteen sing a bit of the chorus into the mic ("keep practicing and you'll go places!" he joked to Springsteen) when he stood on the chair in the center of the floor and made a seemingly spontaneous decision.

"What am I doing out here?" he said, turning to bandleader Paul Shaffer. "Hey Paul, can we do it one more time just to get me the heck out of here?" Diamond then proceeded to sing the entirety of "Sweet Caroline" again, and somehow it was even more euphoric the second time around.

Watch Tom Waits, Neil Young, Darlene Love and Bruce Springsteen Perform at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony

About 15 minutes later, as the tipsy black-tie crowd at the Waldorf-Astoria

Legendary Los Angeles ska punk band Sublime have signed to Fueled by Ramen, and this summer will release their first LP since original frontman Bradley Nowell died in 1996. The group - now billed as Sublime With Rome - features surviving members Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson alongside twenty-two year old Rome Ramirez, who joined the reformed group in 2009.

Sublime Debut New Singer At SmokeOut Festival

The band is currently cutting the disc at Sonic Ranch studio in El Paso, Texas with producer Paul Leary, who worked with the band on their self-titled 1996 LP. "Everything's been going amazing in the studio," Ramirez said in a statement.  "The music has been coming along great, and we're confident that we're making a record that will stand the test of time.  We can't wait for the fans to hear it, and are already planning a world tour to bring it to them live." Details of the tour will be announced shortly.

Judge Rules Surviving Members Of Sublime Cannot Use Band Name

After Nowell's death in