Thirteen Canadian rock bands of the 1970s and 1980s rolled back the clock on Thursday as they were inducted into Canadas Walk of Fame with a night chock full of good memories and even greater radio hits.

Glass Tiger, Loverboy and Trooper were among the bands toasted at Torontos Massey Hall as part of a mega-induction ceremony dubbed Rock of Fame, which celebrated a time when the countrys rock pulse was pounding.

Between a packed lineup of live performances and acceptance speeches, the night was loaded with laughs about time passed, hair lost and the follies of aging.

Were all here on the same ride tonight, Loverboys Mike Reno proclaimed early in the ceremony.

His sentiment was shared by many of his fellow inductees on the pre-show red carpet, where they described the familiar faces they passed backstage.

Were certainly among friends here, noted guitarist Al Harlow, who was honoured as part of Vancouver rockers Prism.

So were just saying, Well, hi! How are the grandkids?

Chilliwacks bassist Ab Bryant said that with the combination of summer music festivals and casino gigs, many of the honourees see each other quite often.

But its fantastic to have everyone come together and all be honoured in the same place, the inductee added.

Even with so many Canadian musicians of the era together in one place, there were still notable absences, Bryant added. In the Vancouver bands case, several former Chilliwack members died in recent years.

You think about them when you get here, he said.

Onstage, the notion of mortality peeked through the festivities every so often.

Rocket Norton of Prism led the crowd in a defiant and expletive-charged chant against cancer, a fight hes been waging in recent years.

Rough Trades Carole Pope addressed leaving a positive impact for the 2SLGBTQ+ community after drag queen Brooke Lynn Hytes commended Popes bravery during the Toronto bands induction.

Ive always been out, Ive always been myself, said the High School Confidential singer.

So I just encourage everyone to be themselves.

Among the surprises, former The New Music host J.D. Roberts made a live video appearance from Washington to trade memories with the evenings co-host Jeanne Beker, who used to work with him on MuchMusic.

I know that weve lost so many great artists along the road, but to see so many artists play tonight just warms my heart, said Roberts, who now goes by John Roberts on the Fox News Channel.

For all the talk about legacies, Max Webster bassist Mike Tilka said the night was more about seeing friends and having a good time, than worrying about his Toronto bands spot in history.

Legacy is something that other people impart on you, he said.

Im just happy I got to be in a band -- and that I got to play in a good band.

Other honourees of the night included April Wine, Platinum Blonde, the Parachute Club and Lighthouse, as well as solo female rock singer Lee Aaron and Montreals Michel Pagliaro.

Organizers say the rock inductions are part of bigger plans to mark the Walk of Fames 25th anniversary.

The music-themed bash will be followed by the annual induction ceremony set for Dec. 2, when hockey superstar Connor McDavid and satirist Rick Mercer will be among the honourees.

Two Regina teens recently had the opportunity of a lifetime to showcase their musical talents.

15-year-old drummer Marshall Brooks and 17-year-old guitarist Jaxon Hicks were chosen for this year’s School of Rock All Stars program – putting their skills on display across North America.

The School of Rock is a franchise with hundreds of schools across the world.

Every year, a call is put out for high school aged students to audition for an opportunity to travel and team up with other All Stars, performing shows all over the United States.

“Less than one percent of the kids in all of the schools make this, so it’s pretty prestigious,” said Greg Mildenberger – co-owner of School of Rock in Regina.

“They’ll practice 10 to 12 hours a day and learn some songs, and then they’ll play venues in that area.”

Having two All Stars from the same program earns some bragging rights, according to Mildenberger.

Less than one per cent of the over 62,000 students who apply make the cut. On top of this – Brooks and Hicks were two of the four Canadians chosen this year.

Both musicians had some serious highlights from their time touring around Texas and New York respectively.

While travelling and seeing some new sights is certainly a perk – the All Stars explained that the appeal of music comes in its ability to bring people together.

“Meeting new people, getting to play at these places I’d never have gotten to play at,” Hicks told CTV News.

“Music is a way to find people like minded to me. Like Marshall for example, I never would’ve met him if it wasn’t for music.”

For Brooks – the experience is the real prize.

“Just to have the experience, play with new people, play with people better than myself so I can know how to grow and where to grow,” he explained.

“Just be able to see places I don’t usually see. Here, there’s always somebody for somebody. Everybody makes friends.”

A portion of ticket sales and donations from the tour go towards The Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide – which is an organization dedicated to helping youth, educators and parents have the proper skills to help kids in crisis.

As weve learned, Metallica can be very welcoming to their opening acts, but despite that generosity, Avenged Sevenfold initially balked at the idea opening for the metal giants early on in their career. Frontman M. Shadows reflected on the experience of opening for Metallica during a chat with host Jason Bailey on the Audacy Check In.

When asked why they were initially reticent to take the opening gig, Shadows explained, “We have only headlined for so long. One of the things we heard early in our career, and one thing we respected immensely about certain bands is, if you headline, people think of you as a headliner -- and if you go and open for people constantly, theyll always think of you as second fiddle.

The idea of opening and taking all the toys away, everything everyone had ever seen -- my question to [Metallicas Lars Ulrich] was, I dont think this is the right look for new people getting into Avenged Sevenfold. This isnt where were at, he added. But to a lot of mainstream people, it was Oh, youre the band that opened for Metallica, which put us on a higher pedestal, which was weird to me… I still walked away from that tour extremely grateful but extremely I think right about taking that tour. It did put us in that weird position of, ‘You’re second fiddle to this.’”

Within the chat, Shadows admitted that the experience was a little bit more uncomfortable, noting that they were not in their setting, playing in daylight and didnt have the full stage production.

He adds, When you’re opening for Metallica, and the place is slowly filling up, half the venue’s full, you’re in the daylight getting hit by the sun. So you almost have to go to war. You might have some people in the pit that are into this, but there’s a lot of skeptical arms crossed, like, ‘I don’t like these new bands. I don’t want anything to do with this. I’m waiting for the real metal gods to show up.’ It’s really a lot more feeling like you’re going to war.”

Metallicas new album 72 Seasons comes out on April 14 and James Hetfield has now offered fans a look at the packaging for both the vinyl and digipak CD variants.

Would ya look at that, It seems a box of vinyl fell off the back of a truck and somehow founds its way to HQ and into the tattooed hands of James Hetffield, the band jokingly exclaimed on Twitter, previewing the nearly two-minute video clip of the frontman examining the contents of the vinyl version of 72 Seasons.

He slices a plastic edge open with a knife, opens up the gatefold display to reveal the full album cover. Inside theres full-sized photos of each member, depicted in a steely grey which shows that these visages have weathered far more than just 72 seasons of life. Papa Het even pokes the mole on Kirk Hammetts face with his finger, presumably with a light laugh.

A yellow lyric booklet is also included, offering close-ups of some of the charred items seen on the 72 Seasons artwork and, near the end, he holds out the open gatefold to reveal a set of bars that form the numbers 7 and 2 on the respective inside jackets with the inserts being housed behind them.

Basically, the contents of the vinyl package are behind bars, much like a crib. See what they did there?!

This week, Queens iconic Bohemian Rhapsody surpassed 2 billion streams on Spotify.

The streaming feat by the classic British rock band shows that their signature six-minute rock opus is still delighting listeners nearly 50 years after its release.

It also shows the ultimate staying power of the hit 1975 Queen single from that years A Night at the Opera. Other rock acts whove achieved at least 1 billion streams of a single song on Spotify include Nirvana (Smells Like Teen Spirit), Journey (Dont Stop Believin), Guns N Roses (Sweet Child O Mine) and Linkin Park (In the End, Numb).

See Queens stats toward the bottom of this post.

Recorded by Queen and co-producer Roy Thomas Baker across multiple studios in 1975, Queen had referred to Bohemian Rhapsody as a mock opera that incorporated three different songs theyd written. The combination paid off, as Bohemian Rhapsody went No. 1 in multiple countries.

Spotify, which was founded by the Swedish entrepreneurs Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in 2006, initially launched in the U.S. in 2011. That means it took over a decade for Queens Bohemian Rhapsody to reach the 2-billion mark on the streaming service.

Bohemian Rhapsody is also the name of the 2018 biopic about Queen and their late lead singer, Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991. In the film, the actor Rami Malek plays Mercury.

See the music video for Bohemian Rhapsody below.

Queens Bohemian Rhapsody Surpasses 2 Billion Streams on Spotify - Dec. 19, 2022