- Metallica was still on top in 2021 with the band streaming a whopping 1.3 billion times across 58 million listeners — which figures 22.4 songs per listener. The band posted on Instagram: "With all the ups and downs of 2021, one thing remained consistent: you listened to a lot of Metallica on @Spotify! Honestly, we don’t even know what to say. But a massive THANK YOU, 'TALLICA FAMILY feels pretty appropriate. Happy New Year; we’ll see ya in 2022!" (Metal Injection)
- Kiss drummer Eric Singer joined the band's former-guitarist Bruce Kulick onstage on December 30th in Las Vegas for a 20-song Kiss retrospective. The setlist at Count's Vamp'd mainly featured 1980's classics — with a handful of '70s and '90s favorites thrown in. Singer was a last-minute fill-in for Kulick's drummer Brent Fitz, who fell ill with covid. (Ultimate Classic Rock)
Bruce Kulick's Las Vegas setlist from December 30th, 2021:
"Creatures Of The Night"
"Unholy"
"Uh! All Night"
"Domino"
"Heaven's On Fire"
"Watchin' You"
"Tears Are Falling"
"I Love It Loud"
"Detroit Rock City"
"King Of The Night Time World"
"God Gave Rock And Roll To You"
"Forever"
"War Machine"
"Jungle"
"Paralyzed"
"I Just Wanna"
"Spit"
"Star Spangled Banner"
"Crazy Crazy Nights"
"Turn On The Night"
- Journey got some unwanted attention from their appearance on Friday's Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest on ABC. After performing a medley featuring the intro to 1986's "Be Good To Yourself" into 1980's "Any Way You Was It" and 1981's "Don't Stop Believing' — Andy Cohen, who was feigning drunkenness as he co-hosted CNN's New Year's programming with Anderson Cooper, decided to slam the band, which performed with Arnel Pineda — who's been holding down the frontman sport for the past 14 years.
- Drummer Deen Castronovo was unable to play the show due to testing positive for covid. Sitting in for him was longtime drum tech Steve Toomey.
- Andy Cohen chastised the group, which features co-founding guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain — a 41-year veteran of the band and co-writer of most of the band's hits — calling them "fake." Cohen, referencing the band's classic frontman Steve Perry, who left in 1998, screamed into the camera: "If it's not Steve Perry, it's not Journey!. . . It's propaganda! Not Journey!" (US Magazine)
