Happy Birthday to Rolling Stones and Faces guitarist Ron Wood who turns 75 today (June 1st)!!! Wood recently tood part in Eric Clapton pair of Jeff Beck Royal Albert Hall tribute shows, and is currently at work on the eagerly anticipated next Rolling Stones studio set.

Last year, drummer Kenney Jones revealed the upcoming Faces reunion album with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood was gaining steam. Jones spoke about the still-untitled set with Uncut and explained the new collection will feature both recently recorded material mixed with archival tracks.

Released in September 2021 was Mr. Luck - A Tribute To Jimmy Reed: Live At The Royal Albert Hall. The live album -- billed to the Ronnie Wood Band -- features Wood's longtime friend and the man he replaced in the Rolling Stones back in 1975 -- guitarist Mick Taylor.

The show was recorded back in 2013 at London's Royal Albert Hall and marks the second in a trilogy of live sets from Wood, following 2019's Mad Lad: A Live Tribute To Chuck Berry.

Back in April 2021, Ron Wood admitted that during the pandemic he battled back from another bout of cancer. The guitarist told Britain's The Sun: "I've had cancer two different ways now. I had lung cancer in 2017 and I had small-cell more recently that I fought in the last lockdown. I came through with the all-clear." Small-cell carcinoma is a fast-growing type of lung cancer commonly caused by smoking.

Out now on DVD and streaming services is Somebody Up There Likes Me, the career-spanning Ron Wood documentary. The film, directed by Mike Figgis, covers Wood's life and career from making his bones in the mod-based mid-'60s London combo the Birds, through the Jeff Beck Group, the Faces, the Rolling Stones, and beyond. Among the participants in the doc are Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, the late-Charlie Watts, and Rod Stewart.

In addition to his work with the Stones, Ron Wood co-wrote such Faces and Rod Stewart classics as "Stay With Me," "Miss Judy's Farm," "Ooh La La," "Gasoline Alley," and "Every Picture Tells A Story."

Although clean and sober for over a decade, Ron Wood spoke candidly on why he drank and did drugs, and ultimately what caused him to go get straight: "Y'know, I think a lot of it is to do -- the drink and drugs -- with the celebration thing. Like, if you've done something really well, you go, 'Yeah! Let's drink to that.' And that was just getting kind of out of hand. And I realized that I wasn't getting any happier if I drank. In fact, I was getting this person that I wasn't. I was getting very depressed and quite an angry person, and very snappy with people, and I don't like to think that that is me."

Keith Richards attributes much of the Stones' longevity over the years to Ron Wood, who joined in time for the band's 1975 tour dates: "Definitely without Ronnie Wood, we wouldn't have had the cohesion to stick together. But, y'know, it was. . . he came along at just the right time. And with a guy like that around, you gotta hang around, 'cause he so damn funny (laughs)."

Ron Wood -- who first recorded with the Stones 49 years ago -- is still considered the "new guy" in the band. He told us that he was actually born a Rolling Stone, and it simply took until '75 for him to actually become part of the group: "I was born with those songs in my mouth, anyway. Y'know, you can name any song of their. . . And I was with it, y'know, I didn't have to learn it. When I joined the band back in, '74, or whenever and I had to learn 160 songs, or something -- that was my initiation down in Woodstock -- I ended up teaching them to the band! I mean, I knew the songs. I'd never played them before, but I just knew them."

Ron Wood recalled the lead up to his debut as the Rolling Stones' third and final second guitarist: "Well, it was a fragile ship when I joined, y'know, because they'd been through many ups and downs, and there was kind of a grey cloud. Even though I knew the music, I'd never actually played the songs. So, at Montauk, Keith and I hardly slept and we kept going through the songs and, like he was hittin' me -- ‘Okay, ‘All Down The Line' -- here we go (sings riff, laughs)!' And all these songs going through my head and June the 1st in Baton Rouge in 1975, that was my opening gig. Yeah, that was really. . . I said, ‘Come on, throw it at me. Whatever you've got.'"

Newly republished is Under Their Thumb -- How A Nice Boy From Brooklyn Got Mixed Up With The Rolling Stones And Lived To Tell About It, by rock writer Bill German. German, who's best known in music circles as being the editor of the legendary Stones fanzine Beggars Banquet, recalls his first impressions of Ron Wood as a member of the Stones: "At first I had no idea, like, why is this guy coming over from the Faces? It was like, where's Mick Taylor going (laughs), y'know? I remember -- I think I read it in (Rolling Stone's) Random Notes first, like in 1974 -- the end of '74: 'Mick Taylor Is Leaving The Stones.' But I kept an open mind, y'know? And the first thing I heard was that he played on the back of a truck on Fifth Avenue. And it was just one song, but it sounded good -- I guess I was caught up in the excitement of another Stones tour. Y'know, I read that it was working out, so I was more than happy to welcome this guy once I started to get to know who he was."

On September 5th, 2015 the surviving Faces -- Wood, Rod Stewart, and Kenney Jones -- reunited at Surrey, England's Hurtwood Park Polo Club benefited Prostate Cancer UK. The performance marked the first time in 22 years that Rod has taken to the stage to publicly front the Faces. Sadly, keyboardist Ian McLagan died in 2014 with bassist Ronnie Lane passing in 1997 at age 51 after suffering from multiple sclerosis for over two decades.

The Faces' seven song set marked the first time all three members had played live together since their 1993 appearance at England's Brit Awards. In recent years, the Faces have played a string of shows featuring Simply Red frontman Mick Hucknall on lead vocals.

Recently released is You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything (1970-1975), the Faces' latest box set, which features newly remastered versions of all four of the band's studio albums, plus a bonus disc of rarities.

The collection includes The First Step (1970), Long Player (1971), A Nod Is As Good As A Wink. . . To A Blind Horse (1971), and Ooh La La (1973). All the discs feature unreleased bonus tracks recorded in conjunction with each set.

Kenney Jones told us that the Faces' sound came about due to Ron Wood reinventing himself as a musician: "When we first got together, Ronnie was learning how to play lead guitar. He was -- and still is -- a fantastic bass player. So, for him to convert from bass, it was a bit tricky, so we were with him every inch of the way when he did it. So, we were kind of learning his style along with him. So that really was a benefit to all of us -- especially me."

Over the past dozen or so years, Rod Stewart and Ron Wood have teamed up in the studio for a supposed joint album, which at one point was said to be tentatively titled, You Strum - I'll Sing. A while back we asked Rod if there's any chance we'll see him and Ron Wood teaming up for new sessions: "There may be, there may be. Y'know, it all depends on Ronnie. . . Ronnie's got another group that he's in, y'see (laughs). He wants to know what they're going to do before -- y'know, I can't put my career on hold waiting for Ronnie, who's waiting on them. So that's the way it goes on and on. Y'know, maybe one day when they pack it in, we'll have a bit more time together."

Wood's close friend, former Stones bass player, Bill Wyman remains one of Wood's biggest fans -- both on and off the stage: "Woody? He's mad (laughs). He's a clown, he's great. Good guitar player -- learns very quickly, picks up things very easily. He's a great in-between person, he gets people together and he makes you laugh, and got a lot of humor, and lots of mates. He's a good-time boy, and he's great for the band."

2015 saw the publication of Ronnie Wood: How Can It Be? A Rock & Roll Diary. Featuring a cast of characters that went on to figure heavily into his life and career -- including Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, Marianne Faithfull, and many more -- the story of Wood's adventures as the 17-year-old guitarist for the Birds was handwritten in his 1965 diary, which includes newly created illustrations for the book.

AUDIO: BILL WYMAN ON RON WOOD
AUDIO: ROD STEWART ON RON WOOD'S TIES TO THE ROLLING STONES
AUDIO: KENNEY JONES ON BONDING WITH RON WOOD MUSICALLY
AUDIO: BILL GERMAN ON RON WOOD JOINING THE ROLLING STONES
AUDIO: RON WOOD ON BECOMING A ROLLING STONE
AUDIO: RON WOOD ON EARLY DAYS OF BEING A ROLLING STONE
AUDIO: KEITH RICHARDS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF RON WOOD
AUDIO: RON WOOD ON HIS ALCOHOLISM

It was 38 years ago today (June 1st, 1985) that Sting released his first solo album apart from the Police. Although the collection was originally conceived as just one of the three separate solo projects he, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland embarked on following the global success of the band's Grammy Award-Winning 1983 Synchronicity album and its subsequent world tour, which stretched into 1984; barring one reunion track the following year for their greatest hits compilation, The Dream Of The Blue Turtles marked the end of the Police and the official start of Sting's solo career.

The Dream Of The Blue Turtles, which topped out at Number Two on the Billboard 200, has remained one of the decade's most important and durable albums, spawning four Top 20 hits: "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" (#3), "Fortress Around Your Heart" (#8), "Love Is The Seventh Wave" (#17), and "Russians" (#16).

Sting enlisted the era's top young jazz musicians for the sessions, introducing a whole new audience to such heavyweights as saxophonist Branford Marsalis, keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, drummer Omar Hakim, and future Rolling Stones bassist Darryl Jones, who was then best known for his work with Miles Davis. The Dream Of The Blue Turtles, which was co-produced by Sting and Pete Smith, went on to snag Grammy nominations for Album Of The Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, and Best Engineered Recording.

At the time of the album's release, Sting was far from pitching it as his first album following the split of the Police, telling Spin magazine: "The Police and my solitary projects are logically very separate. We haven't broken up, but we've become separated by our own plans for ourselves for the time being. It's nothing more than that. . . We're all extremely busy. Stewart is immersed in a successful musical life that includes a solo album this summer. Andy's working on a solo record starting next month. We're pleasantly preoccupied, which is a good sign, rather than a bad one."

Then-Musician magazine editor Vic Garbarini played a pivotal role in the sound of Blue Turtles, telling Spin: "Sting knew I was in close touch with this network of players. I said to him, 'But you don't want the older jazzmen who grew up playing bebop. What you want are the young ones who were raised on jazz, fusion and funk and are closet rock fans. In other words, a more assimilated crew but still with a contemporary edge. I suggested he sign up Branford sight unseen, because I knew Branford and his sax has got that Wayne Shorter/(John) Coltrane sensibility but also his own very contemporary funk-influenced sound. Sting agreed. Overnight, I put together workshop-type auditions with the full spectrum, from the avant-garde end of James Blood Ulmer sidemen to the neo-classical guys. By the second day, we had most of the group."

Sting told us that leaving the Police had nothing to do with ego and everything about pushing his own musical boundaries: "I think it was really about freedom. The freedom to follow my muse, to follow my curiosity about music. And a band is a very restrictive, reactionary, conservative thing -- any band -- 'Oh, we gotta be the band! We have to have our little image! And we must never change, it's what we do.' My nature is much more of a gadfly (laughs), y'know? I'm intrigued by a lot of things. I'm also intrigued by music as a universal mystery -- not just one bit of it."

He told us that despite his fans criticizing him at the time for switching musical gears -- he didn't "go jazz" -- as many Police fans accused him of doing: "It wasn't really a direction. It might've looked like a direction because of the casting of the band was very much from the world of jazz; but we weren't playing jazz. Anything but. That direction was driven by songs. Very disparate song genres. As different as 'Moon Over Bourbon Street,' which is a kind of Kurt Weil sort of (laughs) strange theater song, to "Fortress Around Your Heart," uh, "If You Love Someone Set Them Free" -- it was just a very, very disparate collection of songs. No, there was no, like, 'direction.' There was no, like, 'This is what we're doing' -- other than me exploring my freedom."

Although Sting's initial break from the Police was only supposed to be temporary -- yet open ended, solo super-stardom kept him from rejoining his bandmates for nearly a quarter century. Andy Summers told us he's got no issues with the fact that Sting essentially left the Police behind following the release of Blue Turtles: "I think he made, y'know, what was the right decision for him. Y'know, I don't point any fingers at him for doing that. Y'know, we'd had phenomenal success. . . Y'know, he wanted to do his own thing and, and he actually proved it, because he has become a very successful male solo singer. Now, a lot of guys who leave big bands, that's not true, or they don't make it, and then they have to do the reunion thing, y'know?"

Sting kicks off his next North American dates on September 1st and 2nd at Vienna, Virginia's Wolf Trap.

AUDIO: ANDY SUMMERS SAYS HE'S OK WITH HOW & WHY STING LEFT THE POLICE
AUDIO: STING ON FIRST SOLO ALBUM
AUDIO: STING ON WHY HE WENT SOLO

It was 56 years ago today (June 1st, 1967), that the Beatles released the legendary Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album in the U.K. The album, which was released a day later in the U.S., was one of the most groundbreaking and influential records in history. There had been an unprecedented eight-month gap with no new Beatles music since the group's previous album, 1966's Revolver, with the exception of the double A-sided single "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever," which was recorded during the Sgt Pepper sessions. The album was highly anticipated and an immediate critical and commercial success.

In June 2017, the Beatles released the six-disc 50th anniversary deluxe edition of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album was re-released in both single and double-disc versions, as well as a two-record set. The motherload was the super deluxe six-CD set that featured a brand-new stereo mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell created from the original master tapes, with two discs including 100 minutes of never-before heard outtakes, along with new mixes of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane."

Also included are both DVD and Blu-ray versions of the 1992 documentary, The Making Of Sgt. Pepper, along with 5.1 surround sound and hi-res stereo mixes, a 114-page booklet, two posters and a replica "cut-out" insert from the original album release. The remixed and remastered Sgt. Pepper album debuted at Number Three on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Sgt. Pepper was the first Beatles album to be recorded after the group had stopped touring. As a result, the band could now take all the time they wanted with producer George Martin, rather than try to squeeze sessions in between tours, films, and other activities. The recording sessions stretched over a five-month period, spanning from November 24th, 1966 to April 21st, 1967, at the legendary Abbey Road Studios.

The album was notable for its advance in the Beatles' songwriting, its unusual arrangements and orchestration, and its groundbreaking production techniques. It also represented a musical and visual step into psychedelia and the counterculture by the world's most popular band, and its release coincided with the famous 1967 "Summer of Love." It was hailed as a masterpiece by musicians and critics in all fields, and helped show the world that pop music could be taken more seriously as art.

Many other aspects of the album raised the bar for pop music albums, from the way the songs ran into each other, to sonic jokes embedded in the tracks, to the elaborate cover photo and packaging. The album's influence on pop culture has been immense.

Because of the group's success, they were allowed unlimited studio time and creative carte blanche to rehearse, arrange, record, and overdub while in the studio. Instead of coming to the studio with finished and fully arranged tracks as they did in the past, many of their songs were brought to life on the studio floor, including "With A Little Help From My Friends," "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite," and "A Day In The Life."

THE SONGS

SIDE ONE:

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" - The album opener, which led many people to initially believe that the album was recorded in front of a live audience, features a searing lead guitar part from Paul McCartney. Since 1989, the song has been a concert staple for McCartney.

"With A Little Help From My Friends" - One of the last songs recorded for the project, it features Ringo Starr on lead vocals, with McCartney on piano and also playing one of his most distinctive and melodic bass parts. The song was originally called "Bad-Finger Boogie."

Since returning to the road in 1989, Starr has included "With A Little Help From My Friends" in his concert setlists, usually as the show closer

On April 4th, 2009 McCartney and Starr performed the song for the first time together in public at New York City's Radio City Music Hall during the "Change Begins Within" benefit concert.

"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"- This song caused more controversy than the other tracks. The initials of the song's title were rumored to stand for the hallucinogenic drug LSD, and caused the song to be banned from British airwaves. John Lennon, who wrote the majority of the lyrics, always insisted that the song was written after his then three-year-old son Julian came home from school with a crayon drawing of a schoolmate. When Lennon asked him what the picture was of, Julian answered, "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."

This was the only song from the album that Lennon ever performed live, when he sang it with Elton John on Thanksgiving night, 1974, at New York's Madison Square Garden.

"Getting Better" - The most straight-forward pop track on the album, and stylistically closest to the band's signature lineup of two guitars, bass and drums, is representative of how Lennon and McCartney were collaborating at the time. McCartney wrote the main body of the song, with Lennon supplying the "bridge" or "middle eight," of "I used to be cruel to my woman . . ."

McCartney has said that Lennon's answering vocal of "Couldn't get much worse" to his "It's getting better all the time" perfectly summed up the sweet and sour elements of their musical partnership.

McCartney cribbed the title from a pet phrase of substitute drummer Jimmy Nicol, who filled in for Ringo during the Beatles' Australian tour in 1964.

The song got its concert premiere during McCartney's 2002-2003 world tour.

"Fixing A Hole" - There is some uncertainty as to the exact instrumental lineup on this song. According to session tapes, McCartney is featured on the harpsichord, with the bass part being recorded simultaneously on the same track. Seeing as how McCartney couldn't be in two places at once, it's a safe bet George Harrison was on bass guitar. Harrison also provides the distinctive "spiraling" guitar solo in his only true six-string spotlight of the album.

"Fixing A Hole" got its live premiere in 1992 when McCartney returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater. On his 2005 tour, he performed the song alone, unaccompanied on the piano.

"She's Leaving Home" - A classic Lennon and McCartney collaboration about the burgeoning 1960's generation gap. The verses of the song were written by McCartney, with Lennon supplying the song's bridge of "We gave her most of our lives . . ." No Beatles play instruments on this track.

McCartney and George Martin got into a slight tiff over this song when McCartney enlisted the help of producer Mike Leander to score the string part for the song, rather than waiting for Martin to finish his session work with Cilla Black.

McCartney premiered the song live during his 2002-2003 world tour.

"Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" - Lennon composed the song after purchasing an 1800's circus poster which literally describes the story of the song. The song's characteristic pump organ circus sound came from Lennon playing an actual organ, combined with tape loops of an organ played by George Martin spliced, thrown into the air, and reassembled. McCartney supplies the acoustic guitar solo that sounds like a Greek stringed instrument.

An early version of the song can be found on The Beatles Anthology 3, with McCartney coaching Lennon on how to deliver the song's lead vocal.

McCartney is currently performing a note-perfect rendition of the song on his current dates.

SIDE TWO:

"Within You, Without You" - George Harrison's sole songwriting contribution to the album, this features a mini-Indian orchestra arranged by producer George Martin. It was Harrison's idea to add the laughter at the end of the track, to dispense with the overly serious mood and subject of the song.

The song, which is the longest on the album, reflects Harrison's deepening spiritual quest through Hindu teachings.

Shortly before his death in 1980, Lennon praised this song as one of Harrison's best, and said it was a personal favorite of his.

"When I'm Sixty-Four" - One of McCartney's earliest songs, which he began around 1958 but took another eight years to finish. The song has a speeded-up lead vocal with a wordless backing vocal by McCartney, Harrison and Lennon, who although admittedly not a fan of the song, supplied the names of the subject's mythical grandchildren, "Vera, Chuck, and Dave," along with other lyrics. This song, "Strawberry Fields Forever," and "Penny Lane" were the only tracks on the album to have been recorded in 1966.

"When I'm Sixty-Four" and is the only McCartney tracks on the album that he has never performed live.

In 2002 Julian Lennon recorded a version of the song for an Allstate TV commercial.

"Lovely Rita" - McCartney's ode to a mythical British meter maid. The song features soaring backing vocals by Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison, as well as a piano solo by George Martin, and comb and paper effects by Lennon and Harrison. McCartney currently performs the song, playing a 12-string acoustic guitar.

"Good Morning, Good Morning" - Lennon was inspired by a Kellogg's Cornflake commercial for this slightly psychedelic look at suburbia. The song features the horn section of the Brian Epstein-managed group Sounds Incorporated -- who opened for the Beatles on their 1965 U.S. tour. George Harrison doesn't appear on the track, which features McCartney supplying a virtuosic raga-like lead guitar solo. In 1980 Lennon dismissed the song as "garbage."

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Reprise"- This short reprise matches its opening guitar note perfectly with the rooster crow that ends the previous track. McCartney occasionally closes his shows with the "Pepper" reprise played in medley with "The End" from 1969's Abbey Road.

"A Day In The Life" - Lennon, McCartney and George Martin's tour de force combined a stark and plaintive ballad by Lennon with a brisk shuffle by McCartney. At Lennon and McCartney's urging, George Martin arranged an orchestra to go from the lowest note of their instruments to the highest in order to create the cacophony of sound that links the sections. The song also used the orchestra part to end the song, before the final droning piano chord, which had all four Beatles hitting the chord with both hands on different keyboards.

On June 1st, 2008, in the Beatles' hometown of Liverpool, England, McCartney paid a poignant tribute to both the 41st anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper and his former partner John Lennon, by performing for the first time ever their crowning production moment "A Day In The Life." Shortly after, the song was regularly featured in McCartney's setlists in medley with Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance."

The Beatles produced a promotional video for the song, filmed primarily at the orchestral session, but it was not released at the time. Studio guests seen in the footage include Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithful, Donovan and the Monkees' Mike Nesmith.

At the end of "A Day In The Life," the band added two sonic "jokes" -- first, a high-pitched "dog whistle" noise many people could not hear, but which was audible to small children and dogs, and then a two-second loop of laughing gibberish in the vinyl record's run-out groove, that would continue playing indefinitely on many phonographs.

AUDIO CLIPS

In 1995's Beatles Anthology, George Harrison credited Paul McCartney with coming up with the concept of the Beatles taking on an alter-ego for Sgt. Pepper: "Well really, it was Paul who had been on a plane journey with (Beatles road manager) Mal Evans and come up with this idea of Sgt. Pepper. And he was just kind of. . . To me, we were just kind of in the studio to make the next record, and he was going on about this idea of some fictitious band."

Paul McCartney recalled that the types of names that various West Coast groups were using inspired the concept of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: "At the time there were lots of those sort of bands that y'know, 'Laughing Joe and his Medicine Band Thank You Wham Bam Ma'am', kind of group names. 'Colonel Tucker's Medicinal Brew & Compound.' So I just thought, if there was a band, what would be a mad name for it?"

John Lennon claimed that despite Sgt. Pepper being called rock's first concept album, he never considered it to be one: "It's called the first concept album. It doesn't go anywhere. '(Being For The Benefit Of) Mr. Kite,' all of my contributions have absolutely nothing to do with this idea of Sgt. Pepper and his band. But it works because we said it worked, and that's how it appeared."

Paul McCartney recalled how the recording sessions for Sgt. Pepper differed from all that had come before: "'Let's pretend we're not the Beatles' -- that's a pretty big dare right there, y'know, and it changed everything. What was great about it, it was liberating, because you could go in and work on a track and whereas before someone would sort of say, 'Okay, y'know, it's 'Eleanor Rigby' -- now Paul sings the lead.' Now it could be 'Crazy Moon-dog' is going to do the vocal.'"

Not long before his 2021 death, the Monkees' Mike Nesmith recalled the group traveling to London in early-1967 -- with Nesmith and his first wife Phyllis staying with John and Cynthia Lennon at their Weybridge estate during the recording of Sgt. Pepper: "It was just a small bedroom, one of many that he had. I remember a lot about the poster for '(Being For The Benefit For) Mr. Kite' being in John's little music room and us sitting there painting that piano -- he had the paintbrushes and everything. Sitting side-by-side playing the piano with him, and when he would play 'Mr. Kite' for me. 'Showed me how it went and sharing the music space with him, that was really nice. It was good. He was, y'know, gifted."

McCartney recalls writing "A Day In The Life" with Lennon: "For instance, 'A Day In The Life," John and I sat down and he had the opening verse. I think he had the opening idea, or we then took the idea from like The Daily Mirror or something. The Black-burn Lanc-ashire, the holes, Albert Hall all got mixed, a little poetic jumble that sounded nice. It was obviously a gorgeous song when he brought it. And I say, I was a big fan of John's, you gotta remember that. It wouldn't be, 'Yes professional person, we'll write this.' It would be, 'Can't wait to get my hands on this!'"

George Martin recalled scoring the orchestra that linked Lennon and McCartney's sections together: "They told me they wanted an orchestral climax to fill these empty bars. A giant orgasm of sound rising from nothing at all to the most incredible noise."

George Harrison explained that the Beatles' drug use -- mainly pot and LSD -- greatly influenced the music they were making in the mid-'60s: "It mightn't have affected creativity for other people -- I know it did for us, and it did for me. I mean, the first thing for people who smoke marijuana and were into music, is that somehow, it focuses your attention better on the music, and so, you can hear it clearer. You can see things, or y'know, you could see things much different. I mean, LSD was something else, it wasn't just. . . marijuana was just like having a couple of beers, really (compared to acid). But LSD was more like going to the moon."

Ringo Starr recalls that although the "Fab Four" were known to party during their sessions during their "psychedelic" period, they always needed to keep it in check for the sake of the recording: "We actually learned that years ago in the Beatles. Because we weren't saints and we would work late some nights and we'd make these (laughs) records -- it was like 'Oh wow! yeah, yeah, give me a cassette, let's take that home!' And every time we'd come in the next day to EMI (Studios) (and say), 'Well we'd better re-do that.' Because the next morning it was never so thrilling."

McCartney felt vindicated after the album's release, in view of the press' constant speculation that the Beatles were breaking up: "I was very pleased 'cause the newspapers, the musical papers, had been saying recently -- a month or two before -- 'What are the Beatles up to? Drying up, I suppose.' And it was nice making an album like Pepper thinking, 'Drying up? Yeah, I suppose that's right, yeah.' So it was lovely to have that on them, you know?"

The group's recording engineer Geoff Emerick says that while the group worked out the songs' arrangements, he was happy to have the extra time to experiment on the group's sound: "They never realized what we were doing. As you know most of the tracks were constructed down in that studio. And while they were doing that it gave me the time, the luxury of time to, to be able to think up ideas of how to record different instruments in a different way and get different sounds. But they were never really aware of what we were doing, I don't think"

Paul McCartney recalled some of the snags that the Beatles faced with their label EMI while creating the mosaic of people surrounding them on the Sgt. Pepper cover: "There was a bit of dispute about this cover, y'know, everyone -- 'Oh, you can't do t hat!' Y'know? 'Cause that's the thing if you're being free, it's obviously a lot of people saying, "Naughty! Watch it.' He was great (EMI Chairman) Sir Joe (Lockwood), actually. He was very good during that time. 'Cause, I think it must've come as shock to him, all this stuff. Anyway, he came around to my house and said, 'I'm afraid old chap, we can't have Gandhi (laughs).' (I said) 'Whaddya mean, can't? He's alright! Y'know, what's wrong with him?' 'Well,' he said, 'Might offend the Indians.'"

Beatlefan magazine's executive editor Al Sussman explains that the wait for new Beatles music seemed almost intolerable: "The week that Sgt. Pepper came out was absolutely amazing, because we had been by that point it had been 10 months since the last Beatles album . . . I mean that's an eternity in those days!"

Sussman went on to say that Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club album was the first major example that the youth of the world were all in tune with each other: "In those days, records came out on Friday. So that weekend, everybody was listening to this album. The same thing happened when 'The White Album' came out (the year after). And you knew, that everybody, everybody, who were at all hip to what was musically relevant was listening to this. Oh yeah."

Sussman recalls that at the time most fans were noticing that their heroes might be smoking something stronger that just cigarettes: "The fold-out of Sgt. Pepper. You'd fold the picture over and look in their eyes, and you can tell. There was definitely a glint, a certain glint to their eyes, that we hadn't really seen before."

Al Sussman says that one of the album's greatest achievements is that it showed the world that rock n' roll was not just disposable kids music: "Sgt. Pepper was the first album the non-rock n' roll world looked upon as being. . . this is a significant record. Y'know, this isn't 'yeah, yeah, yeah' anymore. These guys are doing music that really says something."

After the Beatles' 1970 breakup, John Lennon re-evaluated everything he ever did with the band: "It wasn't that spectacular when you look back on it. I mean, like anything, it was great then, but people just have this dream about Pepper. And it was good for then, y'know?"

THE ALBUM COVER

The Beatles designed the album cover concept with then-husband-and-wife team Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, explaining that they wanted to appear with a crowd behind them of "people they liked." Blake created the scene of the group wearing psychedelic marching band outfits, being flanked by their audience, using mainly cardboard blown-up photographs of famous people. The final shot, which was photographed by the late Michael Cooper, has gone on to be one of the most recognizable and imitated album covers in rock history.

Among the famous figures that the group's record company EMI flat out rejected for the cover were John Lennon's suggestions of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and Adolph Hitler -- although a Hitler cardboard cutout was prepared.

The label made the Beatles write to each of the people appearing on the cover and ask them for permission. Prior to granting approval, Mae West responded by asking, "What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?" Only Bowery Boy star Leo Gorcey declined, after requesting $400. His face was painted over.

Among the many 72 faces featured in the cover are Lenny Bruce, W.C. Fields, Edgar Allan Poe, psychoanalyst Carl Jung, Dion, Fred Astaire, Bob Dylan, Aldous Huxley, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Karl Marx, original Beatles bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, Oscar Wilde, Albert Einstein, Marlene Dietrich, and Shirley Temple.

Also featured on the cover were figures on loan from Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, of former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston and the Beatles themselves with their earlier "mop-top" look.

A wax figure rumored to be the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson has cropped up on several photos from the session.

A doll featured in the corner of the cover wore a sweater declaring "Welcome The Rolling Stones," as a nod to the group's good friends and friendly rivals.

AUDIO: BEATLES 'SGT PEPPER' ALBUM - DOG WHISTLE AND RUN OUT GROOVE
AUDIO: JOHN LENNON ON THE MYTH OF 'SGT. PEPPER'
AUDIO: AL SUSSMAN ON UNIVERSAL PRAISE OF 'SGT. PEPPER'
AUDIO: AL SUSSMAN ON THE BEATLES BEING VISIBLY STONED ON THE COVER OF 'SGT. PEPPER'
AUDIO: AL SUSSMAN ON THE BEATLES' SGT. PEPPER RELEASE
AUDIO: AL SUSSMAN ON THE LONG WAIT FOR THE BEATLES' 'SGT. PEPPER'
AUDIO: PAUL MCCARTNEY ON EMI AND 'SGT.PEPPER' COVER
AUDIO: GEOFF EMERICK ON EXPERIMENTING ON 'SGT. PEPPER'
AUDIO: THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY PAUL MCCARTNEY ON THE PRESS AND 'SGT. PEPPER'
AUDIO: RINGO STARR ON THE BEATLES PLAYING SOBER
AUDIO: GEORGE HARRISON ON POT AND LSD
AUDIO: THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY GEORGE MARTIN ON THE ORCHESTRATION FOR 'A DAY IN THE LIFE'
AUDIO: THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY PAUL MCCARTNEY ON CO-WRITING 'A DAY IN THE LIFE'
AUDIO: MIKE NESMITH ON VISITING JOHN LENNON IN 1967
AUDIO: PAUL MCCARTNEY ON CHANGING THE RULES WITH 'SGT. PEPPER'
AUDIO: THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY JOHN LENNON ON 'SGT. PEPPER' NOT BEING A CONCEPT ALBUM
AUDIO: THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY PAUL MCCARTNEY ON 'SGT. PEPPER' NAME
AUDIO: THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY GEORGE HARRISON ON 'SGT. PEPPER' NAME

Pete Townshend is promising changes in the upcoming Chicago revival of The Who's Tommy at the Goodman Theatre. Once again, the Tony-Award Broadway extravaganza is being led by Townshend and director Des McAnuff. Previews for the acclaimed musical will begin on June 13th in advance of an opening night set for June 26th -- with the show running through July 23rd.

In a new video announcement for the Chicago run, Pete Townshend touched upon how the early-'90s musical has been updated for a new generation: "We had to write our own rules. We did that, we broke all the established rules and now, the current generation, they're breaking all those rules again. What Des is suggesting is that we honor that, and we start our story -- instead of in this post-war period, we turn everything on its head. I think it's going to work, I think it's going to be great. And I'm excited for Chicago. This has always been a really, really special place for me. And I can't wait to see how this show jacks in to where Chicago is today."

A nine-piece band performs the Tony Award-winning original score, behind the 28-member cast. For ticket information, log on to GoodmanTheatre.org/Tommy.

AUDIO: PETE TOWNSHEND ON 2023 'TOMMY' THEATRICAL RUN

In a surprise move, Rod Stewart has called off a prospective catalogue accusation deal with music conglomerate Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited, according to Digital Music News. After what was deemed "a lengthy negotiation process," Rod is now free to sell his wares to a company more in line with his needs and/or the highest bidder.

Rod Stewart issued a statement, which read:

This catalog represents my life's work. And it became abundantly clear after much time and due diligence that this was not the right company to manage my song catalog, career, or legacy.

Hipgnosis now owns major stakes in the catalogues of Neil Young, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, the late-Christine McVie, Richie Sambora, Justin Bieber, Kenny Chesney, and Metallica producer Bob Rock, among many others.

Although he possesses one of rock's most raucous voices, Rod Stewart told us he says that he prefers singing the softer tunes to anything else: "To be honest, I've always felt I sung ballads better than up-tempo stuff. I enjoy the up-tempo stuff, but. . . my meat and veg are probably mid-tempo ballads. If you got a good set of lyrics, y'know, it just makes such a difference."

AUDIO: ROD STEWART ON SINGING BALLADS

Guns N' Roses have announced the opening acts for their upcoming summer and fall North American tour. The band has tapped the Pretenders, Alice In Chains, Carrie Underwood, and the Warning, respectively to serve as their special guests across their 26-date run.

New shows now on the books are August 18th at Pittsburgh's PNC Park with the Pretenders supporting and October 14th at Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena with the opening act still TBA.

Guns bassist Duff McKagan is a Seattle native and goes way back with the guys in Alice In Chains: "Yeah, they're really good friends of mine and I love those guys, and those are my homeboys and I love those songs, and Jerry (Cantrell's) an amazing songwriter."

Guns N' Roses perform tonight (June 1st) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates at the Etihad Arena.

UPDATED: Guns N' Roses' North American dates (subject to change):

August 5 - Moncton, NB - Medavie Blue Cross Stadium (with Carrie Underwood)
August 8 - Montreal, QC - Parc Jean Drapeau (with Carrie Underwood)
August 11 - Hershey, PA - Hersheypark Stadium (with The Pretenders)
August 15 - East Rutherford, NJ - MetLife Stadium (with The Pretenders)
August 18 - Pittsburgh, PA - PNC Park (with The Pretenders)
August 21 - Boston, MA - Fenway Park (with The Pretenders)
August 24 - Chicago, IL - Wrigley Field (with The Pretenders)
August 26 - Nashville, TN - GEODIS Park (with Carrie Underwood)
August 29 - Charlotte, NC - Spectrum Center (with The Pretenders)
September 1 - Saratoga Springs, NY - Saratoga Performing Arts Center (with The Pretenders)
September 3 - Toronto, ON - Rogers Centre (with The Pretenders)
September 6 - Lexington, KY - Rupp Arena (with The Pretenders)
September 9 - St. Louis, MO - Busch Stadium (with The Pretenders)
September 12 - Knoxville, TN - Thompson-Boling Arena (with The Warning)
September 15 - Hollywood, FL - Hard Rock Live (with The Warning)
September 17 - Atlanta, GA - Midtown Music Festival
September 20 - Biloxi, MS - Mississippi Coast Coliseum (with The Pretenders)
September 23 - Kansas City, MO - Kauffman Stadium (with Alice In Chains)
September 26 - San Antonio, TX - Alamodome (with Alice In Chains)
September 28 - Houston, TX - Minute Maid Park (with Alice In Chains)
October 1 - San Diego, CA - Snapdragon Stadium (with Alice In Chains)
October 6 - Indio, CA - Power Trip Festival
October 8 - Sacramento, CA - Aftershock Festival
October 11 - Phoenix, AZ - Chase Field (with Alice In Chains)
October 14 - Seattle, WA - Climate Pledge Arena (TBA)
October 16 - Vancouver, BC - BC Place (with Alice In Chains)

AUDIO: DUFF MCKAGAN ON ALICE IN CHAINS