WTBO

09/25/2026

U2: Dolly's Last Dance
U2's new album, Carnaval de Luz, features Dolly Parton's final recording on the song "Torn."

Bono tells Rolling Stone, "When she got ill, she got out of her bed to sing this song. And you can hear that. And I can’t even listen to it now.”

Having wanted to collaborate with her on a still-unreleased side project inspired by Irish folk music, he played her a few sketches over the phone. He says she felt that was a "little too Irish" for her before telling him she had a song titled “Torn” and asked him if he wanted to see if he can "take it somewhere else."

Bono rewrote the lyrics with Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid around a mother watching her family split apart, and Dolly agreed to sing that version.

“She sang her heart out,” says Bono, “and I cannot believe that’s an 80-year-old woman.”

U2's onetime producer and collaborator Daniel Lanois plays pedal steel on the track, and Larry Mullen Jr.'s drum part was inspired by Bob Dylan’s “Most of the Time,” which Lanois produced.

Garret “Jacknife” Lee, who produced this new album, says Dolly approved the final mix.

"She loved it. She was so proud of her vocal and the recording. She was thrilled with it. We were very nervous that she might not approve, or would be uncomfortable with it, but she loved it.”

Reflecting on her death on August 25th at 80 from cancer, Bono says, “It’s very moving to have had these intimacies with such a figure. The fact that they’re not there now, in any way you can call back, other than through her songs, is very sobering.”

Carnaval de Luz, U2's 16th studio album, will be released on November 13th.

09/24/2026

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09/24/2026

More dates have been added to the tribute tour celebrating the late Moody Blues bassist John Lodge. Featuring his son-in-law, Yes singer Jon Davison, and Lodge's 10,000 Light Years Band, the first show is November 29th in Annapolis, Maryland at Rams Head on Stage followed by the 30th in Woodstock, New York at the Bearsville Theater; December 1st at The Vogel in Red Bank, New Jersey; the 3rd in Hartford, Connecticut at Infinity Hall; the 4th in Glenside, Pennsylvania at the Keswick Theatre; and the 6th at The Royal Oak Theater in Detroit.

09/23/2026

THE BEATLES: Just Another Day in Their Life
Beatles' producer Giles Martin wants fans to know that "Little Girl," the unreleased song from John Lennon included on next month's expanded reissue of Rubber Soul, is no diamond in the rough.

He tells Billboard, "When we do these projects we cast a net over a period of time and really look for everything. 'Little Girl’ comes from the same area as 'Day Tripper.' The boys having their own reel-to-reel tapes and recording home demos. It’s just a little ditty; don’t expect ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ or ‘In My Life’ from it...

"John was playing around with the word ‘girl’ quite a lot. ’You can run for your life if you can, little girl’; obviously ‘Girl’ was on the record… You know, he liked words. He was obsessed with [poet] Dylan Thomas, etc. So it’s a valid sketch of the songwriting of the period.”

Asked what other rarities he came across for this reissue, he says, "For me, nothing; for other people, probably loads.

"Obviously my sensibilities are different from other people, and I might get hated for it… Sometimes (other engineers) might go, 'The down mix of this song has a different fade,' or whatever it is. And I just go, 'So what? Do I have to get through the song before I find that out?' See, I don’t think that music is meant to be collected; I think music is meant to be listened to -- same as guitars and instruments and people who hang them on their wall. Some people…they’ll never have enough. And I think everyone should have everything, but there is a limit; I know that George Harrison or my dad [Beatles producer George Martin], or Paul [McCartney] or Ringo [Starr], would think it was a terrible idea, so I have to respect their wishes. And I swear, hand on heart, I’m not holding things back for a next release. I’m not like Gollum -- 'You can’t have it because it’s mine.'"

The expanded edition of Rubber Soul will be released on October 2nd.

09/22/2026

TOM PETTY: Should the Heartbreakers Reunite?

Last week's reunion of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers at the Americana Honors & Awards in Nashville, where they were presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award and performed with country singer Chris Stapleton, has at least one person suggesting they should take it on the road.

In the Rolling Stone article titled "The Heartbreakers, With Chris Stapleton Singing, Need to Think About a Reunion Tour," writer Adam Gold makes a compelling argument for why they should.

Their three-song set opened with "American Girl," which was the last song they played with Petty at their final show -- September 25th, 2017 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and Gold says, "If there was any rust on the outfit from nine years of inactivity, it was knocked off the instant the song’s trademark chiming riff gave way to the thwack of Stan Lynch’s snare drum, bringing the band to life...

"Stapleton, for his part, sang it smoother than Tennessee whiskey and sweeter than strawberry wine. It all gelled with such intimacy and immediacy that, if the 2000-plus people packing the Ryman Auditorium’s pews are the only ones to ever experience it, it would be a rock & roll crime. The Heartbreakers featuring Chris Stapleton need to take this show on the road."

While Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell sounds like Petty when he sings, Gold says, "Stapleton is uniquely suited for the gig — he is constitutionally incapable of doing a Tom Petty impression. He’s his own animal, an anti-frontman. Much in the way Campbell has never made a stank face during a guitar solo, the ever-stoic Stapleton hides behind a big beard and searching eyes, and lets his big voice do the heavy lifting...

"[He] was fronting the band without fronting the band, approaching — serving — the songs with the deference of a supporting player. And the Heartbreakers are perhaps the most tasteful song-servers in rock history. Stapleton’s neat trick was never asking the room to forget who wasn’t there. Petty’s physical absence remained conspicuous, which only made his spiritual presence loom larger — in Campbell’s soundtrack-to-100-million-lives guitar licks and leads, Benmont Tench’s tickled keys, Lynch’s pocket groove reaching deeper than the Mariana Trench, the economy of the arrangements and, obviously, the songs themselves..."

Tom Petty died in 2017.

09/11/2026

Graham Nash once again says he has no plans to work again with Stephen Stills and Neil Young following the death of David Crosby in 2023. He tells ArtsFuse.org, “David was the heartbeat of the band… Also, Stephen has retired and Neil won’t play any Crosby, Stills & Nash songs so if you want to hear them you have to come see me.” Nash starts his fall tour Saturday in Northampton, Massachusetts followed by Lowell, Massachusetts on Sunday.

09/10/2026

BILLY JOEL: Health Update
Billy Joel has provided an update on his health, more than a year after having to stop performing due to the brain disorder Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus.

In an interview on his SiriusXM channel he says, "The doctors told me because of my job, which is playing rock and roll music very loud, that it was giving me something like a concussion every time I did a show. It was causing damage to my brain nerves and I could be losing more brain cells the more shows I did and I realized that means I shouldn’t be doing this right now. I got to improve. They don’t want me to stress too much.”

He goes onto say that following the diagnosis he declined to have a shunt surgically implanted into his skull to remove the excess fluid, but then changed his mind after doing his research.

"I realized it can help improve your balance and can help your memory. You know, I don’t want to lose my marbles. It’s hard to tell what’s age and what’s a condition, so they implanted a shunt in my brain and it actually improved things. My memory got better, my balance got a little better, my ability to function was better.”

Billy's last headlining show was on February 22nd, 2025, at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, where he fell down after tossing his microphone stand at the end of “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me.” He played it off as a joke, but it was due to his diagnosis. He last performed this past January 2nd when he sat in with the Joel tribute band Turnstiles in Wellington, Florida to sing “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and “Big Shot.”

It's uncertain whether or not he'll ever perform again, but he wants his fans to know that he's "okay ... don’t worry about me. I’m not going anywhere. I’m still here.”

Billy Joel is 77.

09/08/2026

JOURNEY: Today and Tomorrow?
Following up on why Journey were joined at their two recent shows in Japan by Steve Perry look-alike and somewhat sound-alike Hugo Valenti, who leads a New Jersey-based Journey tribute band, all signs are pointing toward another incarnation of the band without their current singer Arnel Pineda -- should their tour continue beyond what's now listed as the final date, November 28th in their hometown of San Francisco.

As plans for their Final Frontier farewell tour took shape, Pineda told Rolling Stone, "I was really not happy with how they scheduled this tour. My body has changed. I can’t take the cold weather anymore." He went onto say that he "wanted to retire because of my personal problems (he's going through a 'nasty' divorce)... Obviously, they don’t want to find another singer..."

Well, having Valenti join them could be their way of holding an open audition as Pineda, responding to a post on Instagram showing photos of Valenti onstage in Tokyo, wrote, "That’s the band right there. Now I can step back..congratulations Journey."

Nothing else has been said and Valenti was not with Journey when they performed on Saturday and Sunday in Honolulu with their third and final show there set for Tuesday.

However, three of Journey's other members -- keyboardist Jonathan Cain, drummer Deen Castronovo, and their other keyboardist Jason Derlatka have been singing lead on at least eight songs.

09/05/2026