The Police, Fall Out Boy, Kelly Clarkson and More: 15 Can't-Miss Summer Tours

During their recent residency at New York's Beacon Theatre, the Southern-rock kings tested some surprising new material for their summer tour, including covers of Miles Davis' "In a Silent Way" and Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused." "The band is taking more liberties, both in the super-improvisational realm and in tipping the hat to bands that were rolling when the Allman Brothers were first going," says guitarist Derek Trucks. "Gregg [Allman] and the original guys are much more comfortable in their skin and with the legacy of the band."

Velvet Revolver
August 4th-October
Tickets: TBD
Opener: Alice in Chains

"I'm the epitome of a teenage rock fan," says Slash, who'll hit the interstates with Velvet Revolver in August to promote their killer new disc, Libertad. "The whole circus aspect of it has always turned me on. I love touring. I don't give a fuck if it's in the summer or the dead of winter."

Billy Idol told me that sweating in leather pants leaves your legs black. Does that happen to you?
Yeah. The ultimate combination is leather, extreme heat, alcohol and drugs. You sweat in those leather pants and jacket, and your whole body is like black ink. But that's how I dress, rain or shine.

What music do you bring on the road?
I used to carry a stereo around in a road case on wheels. It was two feet by four feet and three feet high, and it had drawers full of CDs: the Stones, Zeppelin, Cream, Albert King, B.B. King, AC/DC, Albert Collins and Jeff Beck. The roadies had to roll it into my hotel room, but at least they knew where the party was later. Now I got an iPod loaded with everything from ZZ Top to fuckin' Disney soundtracks.

How many axes do you take on the road?
There's my main ax [his signature Gibson Les Paul] and a backup, guitars that have different tunings, a double-neck and a backup, Fly guitars, tremolo guitars. I'd say fourteen.

Your birthday is July 23rd. How do you like to celebrate on the road?
I like to pretend it's not happening. I don't like to have a lot of attention, unless I'm onstage.

Genesis
September 7th-october 13th
Tickets: $57-$352

Last October, Phil Collins bumped into John Mayer backstage at a charity event in Las Vegas. "He said, 'It's fantastic Genesis is getting back together,' " Collins recalls. "It struck me that people like John Mayer, who you would never suspect of being a Genesis fan, were interested in coming to see us." There must be millions who share Mayer's dark secret, because Genesis are selling out stadiums across Europe and America.

Wasn't this originally going to be a reunion of the Peter Gabriel-era Genesis?
The original five members of the group got together in a hotel room in Glasgow a couple of years ago. It was interesting to see everybody thirty years on. I was still the joker, Pete was still indecisive, Steve [Hackett] was still dark. Everybody had assumed their old positions, and I think that may have sounded a warning bell to Peter. After he and Steve left, I said, "Do you fancy just doing the three-piece thing?"

Have any songs not made it past rehearsal?
That happened with "Abacab," which I'm sure everyone expects us to do. Halfway through the first verse, I said, "I don't really want to sing this. I don't know what it's about."

How much drumming are you doing?
Quite a lot. I'm stuck behind a kit playing songs I haven't played for twenty-five years, so I had an awful lot of work to do. It's slowly coming back.

What's the main difference between touring in the Seventies and touring now?
As the stage lights tilt and hit the audience, we get blinded by the reflection off all the eyeglasses and balding pates.

Beastie Boys
Dates: TBD
Tickets: TBD

"The plan is, we're actually going to do two different shows," says B-Boy Adam Yauch, whose group is about to release the new, all-instrumental The Mix-Up. "Some will be more like a regular show and some based around our instruments." So in addition to the full B-Boy bouillabaisse, Yauch, Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond will play more intimate theater performances, jamming on cuts from their new album as well as gems from The In Sound From Way Out. Though the full lineup of dates isn't concrete, "we're talking about Madison Square Garden, Shea Stadium, wherever," says Horovitz, who is probably lying about one of those venues.