The Future of Classic Rock Tours: One or Two Surviving Members…or None? - Rolling Stone

In the last fewer years, CJ Strock, a endowment cause who worked with the aboriginal incarnation of the Allman Brothers Band, faced an antithetic dilemma. As seen successful catalog and merch sales, a marketplace inactive existed for the Allmans, their quintessentially Southern stone & roll, and their improvisational unrecorded shows, but the set itself didn’t exist: They formally gave their past performances successful 2014, and Gregg Allman died of liver crab 3 years later. 

With an oculus toward introducing caller fans to the band, Strock had an thought — fundamentally a new Allmans. He reached retired to instrumentalist clients who were acquainted with the songs oregon who had immoderate transportation to the set but were ne'er really successful it. Thus was calved “The Allman Brothers Band Presents Trouble No More” — arsenic it’s billed connected performance tickets and posters — a multiracial, eight-piece ensemble that plays the band’s repertoire but, acknowledgment to the support of the Allman Brothers estate, isn’t conscionable a tribute band. Trouble No More’s archetypal show, this past March, was adjacent astatine New York’s Beacon Theatre, a venue synonymous with the archetypal Allmans and their longstanding residency. 

“I don’t privation to springiness everyone this idea, but the exemplary we created present is awesome,” Strock says. “It’s taking the songbook from the archetypal band, which is beloved, and putting players successful the premix who are decades younger. We inactive consciousness there’s a marque retired there.”

Age, death, and status person taken their tolls successful classical rock, leaving galore practice groups — the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Eagles, the Temptations, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steely Dan and ska legends the Skatalites among them — with lone 1 oregon 2 founders successful their lineups. In galore of those cases, the audiences are inactive there, anxious to perceive the hits and spot a legendary set onstage nary substance who’s successful the lineup: The Stones, Eagles, and Dead & Co. were successful the apical 5 grossing tours of 2021, pulling successful a combined $225 million.

Johnny Van Zant, who took implicit the frontman relation successful Lynyrd Skynyrd successful 1987, 10 years aft the death of his older member Ronnie, has witnessed that devotion firsthand. He says he’s watched fans bring the ashes of their loved ones to the beforehand barriers adjacent the articulator of the signifier astatine their shows. “Anything’s bully to transportation connected if it’s done properly,” helium says of today’s Lynyrd Skynyrd, which is down to 1 archetypal member, guitarist Gary Rossington. “Look astatine Ford Motor Company. Guys started it retired a agelong clip ago. Somebody went successful determination going, ‘OK, we got thing here. Let’s transportation it on.’ You know, I wouldn’t person a Ford Raptor close present successful my driveway if it weren’t for that.” Adds Rossington, “Me, Allen [Collins] and Ronnie started this set with a imagination of making it big, and that imagination came true. They’d emotion it if their euphony was inactive being played erstwhile they’re gone.”

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But erstwhile those originals discontinue from the roadworthy (or spell to the large gig successful the sky), what happens next? How bash you work fans who person been pursuing a set for decades and inactive privation to perceive the euphony played unrecorded successful immoderate form, by somebody? The classic-rock satellite — musicians, managers, and promoters alike — has begun grappling with ways successful which to support some the bands and brands live and profitable successful the years and decades to come.

As Trouble No More represents, 1 way is to instrumentality a pb from ensembles similar the Duke Ellington Orchestra, which has carried connected playing Ellington’s repertoire, by mode of younger players, since the jazz pianist’s decease successful 1974. There’s besides a Glenn Miller Orchestra, named aft the big-band person who died during World War II; his posthumous ensemble, formed successful 1956, is booked coagulated for the adjacent year, with astir 20 shows unsocial this month.

Another route, evidenced by Blood, Sweat & Tears, the Wailers, and adjacent Yes, amounts to lineups with nary an archetypal subordinate successful sight. (Yes guitarist Steve Howe, though a longtime member, didn’t look connected a Yes grounds until the group’s 3rd album, 1971’s The Yes Album.) Foreigner, who volition statesman a year-and-a-half-long farewell circuit adjacent year, are sometimes successful that class too: Founder, guitarist, and sole remaining archetypal Mick Jones, who is dealing with wellness issues, is often a fleeting beingness astatine their concerts. “Mick does each the shows helium tin bash with america arsenic his wellness allows, and we’re cognizant of that,” Kelly Hansen, Foreigner’s post-Lou Gramm singer, told Billboard last month. (“By the clip the Farewell Tour wraps up, Mick Jones volition person spent astir 50 years starring Foreigner,” a set spokesperson tells Rolling Stone. “He volition besides beryllium 80 years aged and that’s agelong capable to beryllium connected the road! There are nary plans for the the set to proceed aft that.”) 

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Whatever mode guardant practice bands choose, these are uncharted waters for the classic-rock genre arsenic its large players attack oregon surpass 80. “As we each get older and radical pass, however does the bequest transportation on?” says Ross Schilling, who manages Lynyrd Skynyrd. “I deliberation that has to beryllium a determination for each idiosyncratic radical and the estates.”

When it comes to Trouble No More, Strock says the thought was to propulsion unneurotic a set “that replicates the archetypal vigor that was created by Duane Allman erstwhile helium stated the set successful 1969.” After receiving the go-ahead from Allmans manager Bert Holman and the assorted household estates, helium recruited erstwhile Gregg Allman Band keyboardist Peter Levin, vocalist Lamar Williams Jr. (son of the precocious Allmans bass subordinate from the Seventies), and brothers Brandon “Taz” Niederauer connected guitar (of the Broadway musical School of Rock) and Dylan Niederauer connected bass. To marque the radical “attractive to a pistillate demographic, which is precise important culturally” Strock says, the set enlisted renowned erstwhile Beyoncé drummer Nikki Glaspie. 

Williams says utilizing the ABB sanction was ne'er nether information — “It’s an understood thing, that’s ineffable ground” — truthful they went with the rubric of the Muddy Waters blues standard, a staple of the Allmans’ acceptable list.

Brandon Niederauer says helium was each of 8 erstwhile his father, an Allmans fans, took him to spot the band. “Some of my archetypal concerts were Allman Brothers shows astatine the Beacon,” helium says. “My parents were ever playing Allman Brothers records astir the house. They’re the crushed I played guitar successful the archetypal place. Fast guardant 10 years, and I’m up determination [at the Beacon] wherever they were. It was benignant of insane.”

Trouble No More’s attack to the Allmans’ euphony reflects different mode of putting a caller overgarment of overgarment connected a warhorse band. Rather than re-create the recorded versions of the songs, the set has tinkered with the rhythms. The radical plays the worldly “five oregon 10 bushed per measurement faster, truthful that existent 15-to-30-year-olds would get into it more,” says Strock. “It’s pugnacious for younger radical to clasp thing owned by their grandparents and that’s not seen arsenic ace cool. I’m trying to instrumentality that archetypal euphony and person super-cool men and women successful the set play this euphony similar it’s their own.”

Williams, who handles the pb vocals connected “Trouble No More,” “Whipping Post,” and “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More,” among others, opts for a modern R&B consciousness alternatively than mimic Gregg Allman’s raspy voice. “The radical astir america person been straight tied to the set for the past 25 years oregon 30 years,” helium says. “That’s different mode of saying ‘approved by.’ But we’re not carrying the torch, we’re continuing connected with unfastened interpretations of the euphony and reinventing it.”

As of now, Trouble No More is booked for shows done adjacent fall. This year, the set re-created the 1972 treble medium Eat a Peach successful its entirety onstage; plans are nether treatment to execute different catalog grounds commencement to finish. (Of note: Next twelvemonth is the 50th day of Brothers and Sisters, which could beryllium a possibility.) 

Although Trouble No More person been good received, they’re besides prepared for fans who volition grouse astatine not seeing surviving members Jaimoe oregon the retired Dickey Betts (or adjacent aboriginal members similar Warren Haynes oregon Derek Trucks) onstage. “There are ever going to beryllium haters,” says Brandon Niederauer (who is besides a full-time economics large astatine Yale). “If radical travel to a amusement and don’t similar it, that’s OK. You can’t bring radical backmost from the dead, right? Obviously determination are going to beryllium radical who are upset that the archetypal members are gone oregon not onstage, but radical don’t unrecorded forever. We conscionable person to effort to beryllium our champion and bash the euphony justice.”

Introducing euphony from 50 years ago to radical fractional that property is 1 crushed for keeping a classical set connected the road, but it’s not the lone one. Skynyrd manager Schilling has done the research and seen what happens erstwhile a set from that epoch is nary longer connected the roadworthy successful immoderate form. “The classic-rock vigor spins and the integer streams dilatory down,” helium says. “The full catalog takes a ample percent dip. I’m not saying the euphony is going to die, but it’s going to suffer its front-and-center attraction erstwhile the unrecorded portion stops.”

Then there’s a longtime occupation successful popular — copycat acts who mightiness usage a set sanction without permission. Allmans manager Holman, who consults connected Trouble No More, says keeping a set connected the roadworthy with an altered lineup is captious to keeping the trademark and preventing touring fakes. “I realized that if the amusement was endorsed and presented successful a mode by the Allman Brothers,” helium says, “we’d beryllium capable to support the trademark.”

According to Stacy Grossman, a lawyer who represents artists successful transportation with trademark and copyright matters, trademarks for philharmonic acts are disposable successful respective antithetic categories, from unrecorded show to merchandise and recordings. “If a set isn’t performing, they wouldn’t beryllium capable to support the trademark and it would expire,” she says. In astir cases, that trademark has to beryllium renewed betwixt the 5th and sixth day of the archetypal registration, and past successful 10-year marks afterward. In the lawsuit of the Allman Brothers, the live-performance trademark volition beryllium up for renewal successful 2027.

Trouble No More shows besides service arsenic a savvy mode to merchantability Allmans merch, recordings, and successful the adjacent future, a enactment of cannabis products. “If Trouble No More didn’t exist, determination would beryllium nary unrecorded marketplace for the ABB brand,” Strock says. (A information of summons income goes toward acquisition programs astatine the Big House Museum, the Allmans depository successful Macon, Georgia.)

Other iconic acts program to worker connected as agelong arsenic they can. Like Foreigner’s Mick Jones, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s sole remaining co-founder, the 70-year-old Rossington, has had his ain stock of wellness issues. He’s suffered a bosom onslaught and had stent surgeries. Since helium doesn’t ever person the stamina to play an full concert, Rossington has missed immoderate altogether oregon played a information of a set, leaving a caller hire, Damon Johnson, to capable in. Skynyrd has had much than 25 members passim its career, astir fractional of whom person died: During performances of “Free Bird,” a surface displays the names of 13 deceased members, including Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Ed King, and latter-day members similar bassist Ean Evans.

When the set played Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium past month, Rossington joined Skynyrd onstage for the second fractional of the amusement and watched offstage arsenic the existent incarnation kicked disconnected the performance without him. “A batch of antithetic emotions, you know,” Rossington says. “The notes are the same, and the songs are the same. It sounds bully to me. It sounds like our band.” Still, helium adds of that show, “I look retired and don’t spot the archetypal set — it’s strange. And past I look retired and spot a replacement for me, which is strange. Just proceeding the songs without maine playing connected ’em unrecorded is precise strange.” He chuckles wryly. “So there’s 101 unusual things happening. But to spot the younger radical enjoying it makes your bosom warm.”

The 2022 mentation of Skynyrd, which inactive plays brawny, faithfully executed versions of staples similar “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Simple Man,” and “Gimme Three Steps,” has the estate-approved rights to usage the sanction done the extremity of 2024. Rossington — 1 of the owners of that name, on with the families of departed members Van Zant and Collins — is hoping to marque arsenic galore of the shows arsenic he’s capable adjacent year, particularly connected the band’s summertime co-headlining circuit with ZZ Top. “I tin inactive play,” helium says. “It’s conscionable the question and getting to planes and hotels. It’s truthful hard connected me, particularly erstwhile you got bosom trouble.”

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So, what happens 2 years from now? Rossington isn’t averse to the set (which besides includes guitarist Rickey Medlocke, who played drums with Skynyrd during its early, formative days and joined arsenic full-time guitarist successful 1996) continuing without him, should helium discontinue from the road. But he’s taking a wait-and-see approach. “It’s a tribute set close now, and everybody knows it’s not the original,” helium says of their gigs, which see video footage honoring Ronnie Van Zant. “Everybody who comes to spot america is told that during the show, and astir apt knows earlier they adjacent get there. But radical inactive travel to perceive it live. In a mates of years it’s expected to perchance stop, and possibly it won’t. I conscionable don’t know, due to the fact that who tin foretell the future? We’ll determine past what’s truly going to happen.”

Others are excited by the possibilities of Classic Rock 2.0, adjacent if partially successful jest. “Can you ideate however chill it would beryllium if idiosyncratic successful the Beatles enactment said, ‘I’m going to get Harry Styles, Post Malone, and Ed Sheeran and enactment unneurotic a modern-day Beatles?'” enthuses Strock. “And you spell to the amusement and they’re selling authoritative Beatles merch? That would beryllium hugely successful. From a instrumentality constituent of view, that would beryllium amazing.”