Classic Rock on Tour - Summer 2009

AC/DC will spend the month of June touring Europe, followed by 16 North American dates (July 28-September 9) then a few months' rest before playing a half dozen dates "at home" in Australia in early 2010. The set list will be a mixture of classics and new material from the 2008 Black Ice album.

Aerosmith's North American tour runs from mid-June through mid-September with 41 arena gigs scheduled. The tour was originally planned to support a new album, which has been delayed by various band members' health issues. Instead, the only recent issue in the pipeline is the Aerosmith Guitar Hero video game. So, in the absence of new material, the band is looking to liven things up by performing some of their earliest albums in their entirety. It'll be North meets South as the Boston-based rockers are joined on the tour by fellow veteran arena rockers ZZ Top, self-styled "little ol' band from Texas."

During the month of June, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood will work their way from east coast to west, with a 14-date reprise of their sellout three-night stand at Madison Square Garden in 2008. The May 19 release of a two-disc (CD/DVD) set recorded during the MSG performances sets the mood. Watch video of "After Midnight" from the new release, Live From Madison Square Garden.

Def Leppard, Poison, and Cheap Trick will set out together for a late June through early September tour of 40 cities. This will be Leppard's fifth straight U.S. summer tour, and vocalist Joe Elliot hints that it may be the last one for a while. "I seriously do think that it's time for us to not do it next year," Elliot said, "because I'm a firm believer in you don't want to do it too much — people start taking you for granted."

What could be more America's Heartland than Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson performing at (wait for it ...) minor league baseball parks. Dylan and Nelson did similar small town tours in 2004 and 2005. Between July 2 and August 15 the trio will play 22 ballpark concerts, some in cities as large as Louisville, Kentucky and Durham, North Carolina but mostly in places like Round Rock, Texas and Sevierville, Tennessee.

We now join the Fleetwood Mac tour, already in progress (and continuing through June 17.) There's no new album to promote, so the set list is strictly the Mac's classics. Reversing the usual order, there's talk that the tour may be followed by a new album. Says guitarist/vocalist Lindsey Buckingham to London's VIP News, "I think maybe there was ... a sense that we would make a better album if we went out and hung out together first on the road ... maybe even sowing some seeds musically that would get us more prepared to go in the studio rather than just going in cold."

For the second summer in a row, the Kid and Skynyrd will be tour buds. This time around, however, rather than sharing the stage, they'll each do full sets. It'll be a busy summer, with 24 dates between early July and early August.

Styx, REO Speedwagon and .38 Special are tripling up for a 30-date tour which began May 13 in Albuquerque and ends in St. Louis on July 11. The best part? Ticket prices that will be as low as $13.50, as part of what Styx's Tommy Shaw calls "our own personal rock ‘n’ roll stimulus package."