The 2017 Bridge School Benefit Concert has been canceled and Neil Young—the rock star behind the star-studded charity show—has announced he will no longer be performing at the shows. In a letter from Young, posted on the Bridge School website, the singer and songwriter—known for his work in Buffalo Springfield, CSNY and a long solo career—cited “personal reasons” for his decision.

“Although I will continue in fund raising efforts, for personal reasons beginning this year I will no longer be hosting The Bridge School Concert,” Young wrote.

Some have speculated that the decision might be due to a health condition or to a rift between Young and Pegi Young, his former wife. The couple split in 2014. Pegi also posted a letter on the Bridge School website. Read both of their letters here.

Check out pictures from the 2016 Bridge School Benefit—the 30th anniversary of the event—here.

The long-anticipated lineup for the 29th Annual Bridge School Benefit arrived today with a power trio of ladies who rock—the Dixie Chicks, Sheryl Crow and St. Vincent—on the bill with benefit co-founder Neil Young.

Ryan Adams, Gary Clark Jr., Spoon and Nils Lofgren will also perform at the two-day concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre on Oct. 24-25. A “plus special guests” caveat on the flyer could mean a few more big names in music will hit the stage, including Eddie Vedder, who seems to make an appearance every year, and other frequent Young collaborators.

By far the most interesting booking this year is St. Vincent, who has challenged rock music conventions since her 2007 debut with angular guitar riffs and avant-garde concepts and arrangements. With filtered guitar tones, synth blasts and other effects, it’s not music that easily lends itself to the acoustic format of the Bridge shows.

Another interesting wrinkle this year—in terms of ticket sales and promotions—Young will also perform at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre on Oct. 18, just one week before the Bridge School concerts this year.

There should be plenty of new music to serve all three shows. The concerts arrive at exceptionally prolific period for Young, who has released five albums and two memoirs since 2012, including this year’s anti-agribusiness LP, The Monsanto Years.

The Bridge School concerts are an annual tradition at Shoreline, marking the end of the concert season at the Mountain View amphitheater. Previous lineups read like a pop music history book with some of the biggest names in music gracing the stage for mostly acoustic performances, from Bob Dylan to Arcade Fire.

The concerts benefit the Bridge School, a nonprofit school in Hillsborough created to help people with severe speech and physical impairments. Neil and Pegi Young’s son Ben attended the school.

The complete Bridge School lineup:

Neil Young and Promise of the Real
Dixie Chicks
Sheryl Crow
Ryan Adams
St. Vincent
Gary Clark Jr.
Spoon
Nils Lofgren

Tickets for the concert go on sale Friday at 10am via Ticketmaster. More info.

Tom Waits made the surprise announcement over the weekend that he will join the Oct. 27 Bridge School Benefit lineup, which already includes My Morning Jacket, Queens of the Stone Ages, the Killer and more.

Waits announced the performance on his Facebook page, stating that he’ll be playing an acoustic set featuring songs off of his 2011 album Bad As Me with his band, which includes Les Claypool on bass.

Also on Facebook Waits stated, “I had every good intention to stay home and work on my JD Salinger Halloween mask, but when Neil told me yesterday he was serving burnt cow’s eyes on a flat tire and it’s all gluten free, I invited myself!”

No word on when Waits plans to play live again beyond Bridge School, so this could be the only opportunity to see him live for the near future.

The 2013 Bridge School Benefit lineup is out with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young headlining with Queens of the Stone Age, My Morning Jacket, Fun. and the Killers.

The lineup for the 27th annual concert, on October 26-27 at Shoreline Amphitheatre this year, was announced in a video posted by the Bridge School today. Tickets go on sale September 13.

The concert was first introduced by Pegi and Neil Young to raise money for the Bridge School, a nonprofit in Hillsborough created to help people with severe speech and physical impairments.

The Complete Lineup:
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Queens of the Stone Age
My Morning Jacket
The Killers (Saturday only)
Elvis Costello
Diana Krall
Fun.
Heart
Jenny Lewis

Guns N’ Roses’ acoustic set at this weekend’s Bridge School Benefit concert is one of the most-talked-about additions to Neil Young’s annual event and marks their first appearance at Shoreline Amphitheater in 21 years.

It’s particularly sweet for South Bay fans after the aborted Chinese Democracy tour resulted in the cancellation of GNR’s New Year’s Eve show at the HP Pavilion ten years ago—and they haven’t been seen here since.

Guns N’ Roses bass player of 15 years Tommy Stinson showed up in San Jose Thursday night and shot some pool at South First Billiards with Anya and The Get Down guitarist Matthew Gonzalez, then rolled over to the Blank Club where it was, ironically, ’80s night.

Stinson’s former band, the Replacements, helped displace electronic Brit-pop as the dominant music of that era, launch the alternative rock movement and inspire bands like Green Day.

GNR’s longest surviving bass player, Stinson is no stranger to the valley, having played One Step Beyond, Cactus Club and the Blank Club as a member of the Replacements, with his 1996 band Perfect and more recently as a solo artist. This will be his first time stepping out on the Shoreline stage. And he’s looking forward to the non-paying gig, which supports a school founded by Neil and Pegi Young to teach communication skills to disabled children.

“It’s about the kids,” he says. “Of all the different types of things we do, charity stuff is the most fulfilling.”

Stinson has been prolific recently; in addition to performing with Guns N’ Roses, he’s completed three recording projects, including his second solo album (“more rootsy than Guns stuff.”) and a new Replacements effort.

A Minneapolis native, he joined his brother’s band when at age 11 and was a touring professional musician in his early teens, with all the rock star abandon. He remembers one time in London, “they gave us our per diem in pound coins. We didn’t really understand what they were. What the fuck is this? We were yelling the mantra, where’s the pot roast and Cadillacs? We were whipping the coins off the roof of the hotels like they were pennies and dimes. It was a week’s worth of pay.”

The Replacements disbanded when Stinson was 27, and his brother, Replacements lead guitarist, Bob Stinson died less than four years later.

Tommy moved to Los Angeles and was recruited by Axl Rose in 1998 for the marathon 10-year effort to produce the Chinese Democracy album. After a rocky initial return to touring, GNR began a heavy touring schedule, with more than 100 dates in 2010 and 2011. “We went to Moscow, Israel, Istanbul, Romania, South Korea, all kinds of crazy places,” he says. “And India’s coming up.”

He moved to New York state last year with his wife Emily and their four-year-old daughter. He recently recorded an album in his home studio with his 22-year-old daughter, Ruby, who works in the Manhattan fashion industry. “I played all of the instruments. She did all of the singing. I’m just hoping my four year old doesn’t want the same path, because I’ll be too old by then,” he laughs.

This summer he recorded an EP with former Replacements bandmate Paul Westerberg that has fueled speculation of a reunion, something Westerberg hasn’t ruled out. “’ I’m closer to it now than I was two years ago, let’s say that.” Westerberg told Rolling Stone earlier this month.

Stinson said the EP, recorded to benefit former Replacements guitarist Slim Dunlap, who had a severe stroke, went well. “It’s like 21 years hadn’t passed. We didn’t overdub anything. We just played live, like we were doing a show almost. The way we used to do things.”

“When Paul and I get together and play, there’s a certain chemistry that’s undeniable. It’s just a very special, finite thing that we have. Many bands never get that. They can get in a room together and play, but that’s it. There’s a certain chemistry that he and I have that goes beyond that.“

As the Flaming Lips approach their 30-year anniversary, it is impossible to guess just what they will do next. In the last year alone, they released Heady Fwends, an album of collaborations with everyone from Nick Cave to Bon Iver and kei$ha.

They released a 24-hour song that can be streamed on their website, broke Jay Z’s record for the most shows in 24 hours and continue to tour. As 2013 approaches, they are set to release their 13th studio album.

GIVEAWAY: Enter to win Bridge School Benefit tickets here.

“It is possibly the greatest record we have ever done,” says Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, by phone, as the band prepares to head to Shoreline for the Bridge School Benefit. He describes it as a collection of strange, somber, melodic, beautiful music. In the midst of everything else this year, Coyne says the band took breaks to just play music with no thought of what it would be. These “magic moments,” as he calls them, seemed to just pour out from some subconscious place, he says.

While the Lips seem to always be touring, Coyne says he prefers to constantly switch things up—recording new material, collaborating with other musicians, filming videos, etc. Last week, they were working on a commercial that will air during the Super Bowl. “I have a studio at my house, so I am able to wake up and do my thing each day,” says Coyne. It truly is a DIY operation—he stays connected to every project.

The band’s performance at Shoreline this weekend follows a Big Sur concert in September, where they debuted their new “Emerald City” stage in front of a crowd of about 300 people. Whether it’s a large-scale festival—the band has earned a reputation for mind-blowing live shows with performances at most major festivals—an intimate gig like Big Sur or the one-off show at Bridge School, Coyne says he believes it to be a collective experience between the band and audience. “Our audience encourages us to be ourselves,” he says.

Coyne remembers his own formative audience experiences, including seeing the Who in 1977, and wanting to be in a band ever since. More recently, he says, Radiohead blew him away at a show earlier this year.

As for the upcoming benefit, Coyne says he’s excited and honored to play at the benefit, which has hosted some of the biggest names in rock history. Special for this show, Reggie Watts will sit in with the Lips to showcase his beatboxing skills, and they hope to do a cover of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” with Neil Young.

More info on Bridge School.

For more than 25 years now, the annual Bridge School Benefit concert organized by Neil Young and his wife, Pegi, have brought together some of the biggest names and legends of rock & roll at Shoreline Amphitheatre to raise money for the Hillsborough-based organization that helps educate children with severe speech and physical impairments.

Neil and Pegi, co-founded the Bridge School in 1986 after finding limited educational options available at the time for their son Ben, who was born with cerebral palsy. The first benefit concert took place that same year, and now every October, Young puts together a stellar lineup of different bands and artists, which has included everybody from Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam to Elvis Costello, David Bowie and Sonic Youth.

As one of the figureheads for the Bridge School concerts, Young performs every year, generally playing one song to kick off the show before bringing on the other acts and eventually coming out for his headlining slot. The show often ends with a big, all-star jam session will most of the performers from the bill.

This weekend finds Young slated to play with Crazy Horse, with whom he reunited to record and release Americana, a collection of mostly covers, earlier this year, along with the forthcoming album Psychedelic Pill, which is due out at the end of the month. Based on their epic two-and-a-half hour gig at Outside Lands in San Francisco this past August, and the fact that the opening track of the new record supposedly clocks in at 27 minutes and 36 seconds, one could surmise that Young and company will be in a jamming mood this weekend.

Jack White, who also played at this year’s Outside Lands, comes back to the Bay Area in support of his excellent debut solo album, Blunderbuss, a blues- and country-infused collection of songs that mark the first time he has released material under his own name, and not that of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, the Dead Weather or any of the number of other collaborations and projects he’s worked on over the years.

White is touring with two backing bands this year, one all male and the other all female. It’s unclear if he’ll bring just one band for the two shows, or if the guys will hit the stage on one day and the girls on the other. But that’s what makes the Bridge School Benefit so great—the unpredictable nature of who’s going to sit in with who, what odd cover or rare gem will an artist unearth, or in the case is this year’s lineup, whether the singer of a headliner will show up on time.

The inclusion of Guns N’ Roses on the bill likely came as a surprise to many, especially considering the acoustic slant of the shows, but then again, Ministry played back in 1994, and after taking the stage with acoustic instruments and playing a set of cover tunes, they turned on the distortion and ripped through a couple of songs to end their time slot.

The question on many fans minds will probably be “Which Axl Rose is going to show up?” Will it be the one that led G N’ R to be one of the biggest rock bands of the ‘80s and ‘90s with his fiery stage presence and searing vocals? Or will it be the angry, bloated one who comes on two hours late and gets in fights with fans?

He might have blown off the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and his former band mates, but if recent review are accurate, and Rose and his current group can manage to pull out the stops and tear through some epic versions of “November Rain,” “Don’t Cry,” or “Sweet Child O Mine,” it will be worth it.

Also performing at this weekend’s concerts are the Flaming Lips, Sarah McLachlan, Foster the People, Lucinda Williams, Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, K.D. Lang and Gary Clark Jr.