Christopher Sabec is the co-founder and CEO of the copyright monetization company Rightscorp Inc. He has over 20 years in the music industry as an entertainment lawyer and manager. Some of his more notable clients were the Dave Matthews Band, Hanson, and Jerry Garcia. You can visit his music website here
Just two days after the debut of the Purposetrack list, Justin Bieber has tacked his own remix on to the ever-growing list of remakes of Drake's "Hotline Bling." For Bieber's take, listeners can call the number (231) 377-1113 or listen to the track below.
Bieber released his hotline digits on his social media accounts after Instagramming a photo of himself holding a tennis racket with "1-800-HotlineBling Remix" emblazoned across it. "Should I?" he wrote in the photo's caption. "Love to my bro @champagnepapi. Canadian bros really doing it."
After dialing the number, Bieber launches directly into a lo-fi, short skit before his cover. "What do you mean it's not like that? Oh, you're sorry?" the singer says over the track's beat. "Well, where are you now that I need you? But girl, lemme just tell you something."
For Bieber, "Hotline Bling" transforms from a tale about an ex-girlfriend who left moved out of the city to a more heartbreaking story of an ex who cheated on him. "You used to call him on his cell phone, when you couldn't reach my love," he sings
At the end of the call, an operator briefly plugs Purpose, due out November 13th, before offering the option to "stay in touch with Justin's bling bling."
South Park gave Peter Gabriel fans a very unexpected treat this week when they played a big chunk of his "The Book of Love" cover during a wonderfully bizarre episode about Tweek and Craig's supposed gay romance. Gabriel recorded the Magnetic Fields tune on his 2010 covers collection Scratch My Back.
Now we have a question for you: What is the best Peter Gabriel song? We'll accept anything he recorded during his solo career. Feel free to vote for a huge hit like "In Your Eyes" and "Sledgehammer," something from the 1970s like "Here Comes the Flood" and" White Shadow" or something more recent like "Growing Up" and "Signal to Noise." Just please don't vote for any Genesis songs since we're focusing this solely on his solo output. Also, please only vote once and only for a single song.
"I am definitely working and making music with every intention of people hearing it at this point," Lee tells Rolling Stone. "I don't know the plan with Evanescence. I don't have any news or plans for new Evanescence, but new music for me, for sure."
Lee also explained why the band will reunite for dates in Nashville, Dallas and Los Angeles leading up to the November 21st appearance in Tokyo. "We got offered to do Ozzfest Japan in the beginning of the year, so I was like 'Let's say yes to that,'" she begins. "I just added the three U.S. dates on to it so we could get a little practice before doing a big gig where everything is out of your control. It will be good to see the fans again. I'm going to be keeping my eye open to us for more opportunities. Like probably next year."
During the hiatus, Evanescence split from their former record label after a dispute over royalties. Lee also began exploring a career in composing film scores, partnering with Dave Eggar on scores for War Story and the new short film Indigo Grey: The Passage. Most recently, she launched a cover series, beginning with Portishead's "It's a Fire."
"It feels really good to have a lot of different things going on at once in the sense that I feel like I'm not just flexing one muscle," Lee says. "The point of it is just to show another side of myself again aside from what people already know about me as the Evanescence girl. It's cool to be able to show what else I can do."
Still, Lee regards the reunion as an exciting opportunity to explore her past. "It's such a wonderful gift to have this bag of songs that people know. It makes me very happy to sing 'Bring Me to Life.' I don't feel so disconnected that I can't sing 'My Immortal,' [though] that's just not completely who I am anymore. Yes, I have grown since then. I wouldn't write that song today, but it's become a beautiful part of my history and my fans."
Evanescence will play Nashville's Marathon Music Works on November 13th, Dallas' South Side Ballroom on November 15th and Los Angeles' Wiltern on November 17th before heading to Ozzfest Japan.
Fall Out Boy release their rap-remix album Make America Psycho Again on Friday and to tease the new set, the band has released the Azealia Banks-assisted remix of "The Kids Aren't Alright."
The slowed-down take on the rock track features only one verse from Banks at the beginning before launching into the Fall Out Boy portion. "Let me tell the truth, I like me some you," she says on the pining verse. "And if you alright with me, then a bride got a groom."
Banks joins a hefty roster of rap's current rising stars on Fall Out Boy's new album, including Migos, OG Maco and iLoveMakonnen. Fall Out Boy's summer tourmate Wiz Khalifa also jumped on one of the songs, remixing the band's single "Uma Thurman."
All tracks on Make America Psycho Again originally appeared on the band's latest album, American Beauty/American Psycho. Along with the rap remixes of the entire album, Fall Out Boy also collaborated on a separate remix of single "Irresistible" with singer Demi Lovato.
The Chicago rock group contributed a cover of "I Wan'na Be Like You" from The Jungle Book to the star-studded compilation We Love Disney. Produced the David Foster, We Love Disney also features covers of classic Disney tunes by Ariana Grande, Gwen Stefani, Ne-Yo and more.
In February, the band will head out on their 'Wintour,' featuring support from Awolnation. The tour will kick off in San Juan, Puerto Rico on February 25th and end on March 26th in Irvine, California.
Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of Queen's monumental prog-opera-pop-metal hit "Bohemian Rhapsody," a tune that topped the charts in the U.K. in 1975 and then nearly repeated the feat in America in 1992 thanks to an especially iconic lip-sync in Wayne's World. Its influence cannot be understated, practically inventing the music video seven years before MTV went on the air. But to this day nothing sounds quite like it. The band is releasing their much-bootlegged 1975 London Hammersmith BBC broadcast as Queen – A Night at the Odeon – Hammersmith this holiday season and Rolling Stone caught up with Brian May to reminisce over the iconic, generation-crossing hit.
When you were recording "Bohemian Rhapsody," did you have any idea what a big deal it was going to be? I don't think anybody thought that. We were just thinking, "This is fun, this is interesting, this'll be something that people enjoy." Freddie [Mercury] wrote it. Of course we all interacted, we all contributed bits and pieces and argued as we always did, but it was Freddie's baby and everyone respected that in the end.
We had an unwritten law that whoever brought the song in would have the final say in how it turned out. But we weren't that shocked, because we were used to that way of working and we'd done things like "My Fairy King" on the first album, and lots of complexity on Queen II, so it wasn't unusual for Freddie to come in and have this rather baroque-sounding backing track and wondering what was going to go on top. Probably the most unusual thing was, John [Deacon] said to him, "What are you going to call it then, is it called 'Mama?'" And Freddie went, "No, I think we'll call it 'Bohemian Rhapsody.'" And there was a little silence, everybody thought, "Okaaay…" I don't think anybody said, "Why?" but there it was. How strange to call a song "Bohemian Rhapsody," but it just suits it down to the ground and it became a milestone. But nobody knew.
How did you feel about the Wayne's World scene when you heard about it? Mike Myers phoned me up and said, "We've got this thing which we think is great, do you want to hear it?" And I said, "Yeah." And he said, "Do you think Freddie would want to hear it?" Now Freddie was really sick by that time but I said, "Yeah, I'm sure he will." Mike gave me a tape which I took 'round to Freddie and played to him and Freddie loved it, he just laughed and thought it was great, this little video.
It's odd because that was a huge thing in the States. You've got two events there – you've got Wayne's World and Freddie dying which, looking back on it, is the oddest thing and it did become a sort of rebirth for us in the States. We have a strange history with the States. We worked there more than anywhere in the world in the early days, we'd generally tour there for months and then do a couple of months in other places, and then go back in the studio again. So life was more or less all about touring the States and recording.
And then there came a period where we really lost our contact with the States because of a number of things. There was a big backlash to our video for "I Want to Break Free," where we all dress up as women. Everyone thought it was really funny around here and Europe but in the States a lot of people did not find it funny. I remember going out with that on a little promo tour and people's faces would go ashen when they saw that we were dressed as women, because it was just unheard of. These days, you get the Foo Fighters doing something similar on "Learn to Fly" and everybody is rollicking with laughter, but in those days there was a real feeling of shock and horror in some of those media people and it absolutely damaged the record. In Europe it was huge, same in Australia. But in the States, no.
Then our [U.S.] record company at the time [Capitol] got investigated for payola. They suddenly dropped all their independent promotion people and got a massive backlash from the system and that made "Radio Gaga" drop like a stone.
And the other thing was Paul Prenter, who became Freddie's personal [manager]. We had a great relationship with radio in America; we'd get off the plane and go and do two or three or four radio stations. But this guy, whenever anyone rang up for Freddie, he'd say, "No, Freddie's not interested, he doesn't need to talk to you" — and that, in a very short time, spoiled our relationship with radio. So we lost touch with the States until the Mike Myers time.
Did you know that the movie people actually wanted Guns N' Roses in that scene, rather than Queen? No, I did not know that. Is that right? How funny. It's a great scene. The funny thing was, we always regarded ["Bohemian Rhapsody"] tongue in cheek ourselves. If it would come on the radio, we would all be headbanging when it came to the heavy bit as well, us as a group. It was very close to our sense of humor. Mike's an Anglophile so he has a real feel for what people find funny in this country.
Was it strange to be catapulted back into the MTV generation when you won the Video Music Award? Well, people tell us we invented it, that we're to blame because "Bohemian Rhapsody" was effectively the first [music video]. We found ourselves unwittingly at the center of that and then it zoomed off at a tangent and became something that was harder for us to relate to. We never had the idea that a song would only be represented by a video, it was just one way of promoting it. And suddenly you couldn't possibly put out a record without having a video and the video locked in people's minds in terms of how they visualized the song. Very often music is about people spinning their own images in their head and [videos] took away that ability and meant that the song was forever welded to this creation and you couldn't get away from it.
Is it a bit like that now for "Bohemian Rhapsody?" Is it always linked in people's minds to Wayne's World? Yeah, but "Bohemian Rhapsody" does cross a lot of boundaries. It's been done so many different ways now by different people. I think Freddie did good — and we did good, I guess!
Pope Francis doesn't release his prog rock-infused Wake Up! – a collection of his most enduring speeches paired with contemporary music – until November 27th. But on Friday, the Pontiff shared a second track from the album: the somber, choir-backed "¿Por Qué Sufren los Niños?" The track's title translates to "Why do children suffer?," and on the piece, Pope Francis delivers a heartbreaking speech in Spanish about impoverished children to the Sports Field of St. Thomas University in Manila, Philippines.
"Why do children suffer? Only when our hearts can ask this question and weep, can we begin to understand. There is a worldly compassion which is completely useless," the Pope says on the track. "Can I weep when I see a child who is hungry, on drugs and on the street, homeless, abandoned, mistreated or exploited as a slave by society? Or is my weeping the self-centered whining of those who weep because they want to have something else?"
"¿Por Qué Sufren los Niños?" also features vocal flourishes courtesy of Academia Ars Canendi, Compagnia Aquero. Those who pre-orderWake Up! will also receive instant downloads of the new single as well as the introductory track "Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward!"
Fleetwood Mac will revisit their 1979 epic Tusk this December with an ultra-deluxe reissue featuring dozens of unreleased alternate takes and live renditions of the album's tracks. In addition to the completely remastered original album and the demo recordings and single remixes that were previously included in the 2004 reissue, the new 5-CD/2-LP/1-DVD edition will also feature an "Alternate Tusk," a disc that reassembles the album's original track listing using different takes of each song.
The reissue also zeroes in on two tracks – "I Know I'm Not Wrong" and "Tusk" – to show how the album developed over the course of two years: In the former case, the song appears six times, first as Lindsey Buckingham's home demo, then its maturation over the course of five recording sessions stretched across a 10-month period. Five attempts at "Tusk" – from demo to the USC Marching Band – are also included. (A seventh version of "I Know I'm Not Wrong" and a sixth take on "Tusk" are similarly featured on the "Alternate Tusk" disc.)
On top of the largely unreleased "Alternate Tusk," the Tusk super deluxe reissue will boast two CDs' worth of unreleased live tracks culled from Fleetwood Mac's yearlong Tusk tour. The deluxe edition also includes a 2-LP of the original album as well as a DVD-audio of Tusk with a 5.1 surround mix. Rhino will release the 5-CD/2-LP/1-DVD edition – as well as a 3-CD reissue (minus the live CDs, vinyl and DVD) and a digital version – on December 4th. Pre-order now at Amazon.
Tusk(Deluxe Edition) Track List
Disc One: Original Album Remastered
1. "Over & Over"
2. "The Ledge"
3. "Think About Me"
4. "Save Me A Place"
5. "Sara"
6. "What Makes You Think You're The One"
7. "Storms"
8. "That's All For Everyone"
9. "Not That Funny"
10. "Sisters Of The Moon"
11. "Angel"
12. "That's Enough For Me"
13. "Brown Eyes"
14. "Never Make Me Cry"
15. "I Know I'm Not Wrong"
16. "Honey Hi"
17. "Beautiful Child"
18. "Walk A Thin Line"
19. "Tusk"
20. "Never Forget"
Disc Two: Singles, Outtakes, Sessions
1. "Think About Me" (Single Remix)
2. "That's All For Everyone" (Remix)
3. "Sisters Of The Moon" (Remix)
4. "Not That Funny" (Single Remix)
5. "Sara" (Single Edit)
6. "Walk A Thin Line" (Song #3 - 03/13/79)
7. "Honey Hi" (Alternate Version - 10/18/78)
8. "Storms" (Alternate Version - 11/30/78)
9. "Save Me A Place" * (2nd Version -10/10/78)
10. "Never Make Me Cry" (Version - 04/17/79)
11. "Out On The Road" (aka "That's Enough For Me" - Demo - 12/19/78) *
12. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" - Lindsey's Song #1 (Demo)
13. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" * (10/10/78 Version)
14. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" * (11/3/78 Version)
15. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" * (4/25/79 Version)
16. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" * (8/13/79 Version)
17. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" * (1/23/79 Version)
18. "Tusk" (Demo - 01/15/79) *
19. "Tusk" "Stage Riff" (Demo - 01/30/79)*
20. "Tusk" (Outtake Track - 02/01/79)*
21. "Tusk" (Outtake Mix - 01/23/79) *
22. "Tusk" (USC Version - 06/04/79) *
Disc Three: The Alternate Tusk
1. "Over & Over" (04/02/79) *
2. "The Ledge" (03/13/79)
3. "Think About Me" (02/18/79) *
4. "Save Me A Place" (10/18/78) *
5. "Sara" (03/10/79)
6. "What Makes You Think You're The One" (02/24/79) *
7. "Storms" (06/02/79) *
8. "That's All For Everyone" (10/20/78) *
9. "Not That Funny" (05/19/79) *
10. "Sisters Of The Moon" (11/12/78)
11. "Angel" (04/02/79) *
12. "That's Enough For Me" (09/29/78) *
13. "Brown Eyes" (with Lindsey & Peter Green, 09/20/78) *
14. "Never Make Me Cry" (02/08/79) *
15. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" (11/02/78) *
16. "Honey Hi" (10/11/78) *
17. "Beautiful Child" (10/09/78) *
18. "Walk A Thin Line" (04/06/79) *
19. "Tusk" (07/19/79) *
20. "Never Forget" (06/29/78) *
Disc Four: Tusk Tour Live I *
1. Intro (Wembley, 06/26/80)
2. "Say You Love Me"(Wembley, 06/26/80)
3. "The Chain" (Wembley, 06/20/80)
4. "Don't Stop" (Wembley, 06/27/80)
5. "Dreams" (Wembley, 06/20/80)
6. "Oh Well" (Wembley, 06/20/80)
7. "Rhiannon" (Tuscon, 08/28/80)
8. "Over And Over" (St. Louis, 11/05/79)
9. "That's Enough For Me" (Wembley, 06/21/80)
10. "Sara" (Tuscon, 08/28/80)
11. "Not That Funny" (St. Louis, 11/05/79)
12. "Tusk" (St. Louis, 11/05/79)
Disc Five: Tusk Tour Live II *
1. "Save Me A Place" (St. Louis, 11/05/79)
2. "Landslide" (Omaha, 08/21/80)
3. "What Makes You Think You're The One" (St. Louis, 11/05/79)
4. "Angel" (St. Louis, 11/05/79)
5. "You Make Loving Fun" (Wembley, 06/20/80)
6. "I'm So Afraid" (St. Louis, 11/05/79)
7. "World Turning" (Wembley, 06/22/80)
8. "Go Your Own Way" (Wembley, 06/22/80)
9. "Sisters Of The Moon" (Wembley, 06/22/80)
10. "Songbird" (Wembley, 06/27/80)
The first-ever Kurt Cobain solo album comes out on November 13th. Brett Morgen, director of this year's haunting Cobain documentary, Montage of Heck, whittled down more than 200 hours of previously unreleased material, drawn from the Nirvana leader's private cassette tapes, to arrive at Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings. "I curated the album to create a feeling that the listener was sitting in Kurt's apartment in Olympia, Washington, in the late Eighties, and bearing witness to his creation," Morgen told Rolling Stone. Here's our preview of five standout songs.
"The Happy Guitar"
A young, cheerful Cobain plays a jaunty folk-blues number on acoustic guitar like he's holding down the stage in a mid-Sixties Greenwich Village coffeehouse. Morgen says that on the early tapes, "You're hearing [Cobain] smile," and this is what he means. On a later acoustic instrumental, "Letters to Frances," Cobain sounds like an aspiring John Fahey, fingerpicking an intricate melody with delicate facility.
"Rehash"
Cobain revs up the distortion for an upstairs-downstairs riff that suggests Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi in his early-Seventies prime and pushes his voice up to a manic, shredded falsetto. The neighbors must have been delighted. But there is a genuine song — clearly indebted to Cobain's Northwest-punk idols the Melvins — coming through the turbulence. At points, Cobain shouts "Solo!" and "Chorus!" where he plans to put more noise and ideas later.
"And I Love Her"
The grunge-rock avenger often cited as the John Lennon of his generation covers this Paul McCartney ballad — originally recorded by the Beatles in 1964 — with blatant, plaintive need. "We all thought of Kurt as in the Lennon camp," Morgen says, "but there was a lot more Paul in Kurt than he let on. I could see him doing his own version of [McCartney's 1970 solo LP] Ram with Courtney and Frances."
"She Only Lies"
Heard near the end of Morgen's documentary — as Cobain nearly takes his own life in Rome, then succeeds in Seattle — this emotional seesaw between accusation and helplessness literally sounds like the depth of despair: Cobain picking a bone-y riff on bass guitar, singing as if he is already receding into the distance. He never recorded the song again. "There is only one version," Morgen says. It is more than enough.
"Do Re Mi" (medley)
"There is no resurrection," Morgen says of his Cobain film — it ends with the singer's death. But the Montage album concludes with more hope: the breaking-light spell of "Do Re Mi," Cobain's last known song. An excerpt from his 1994 demo appeared on the 2004 Nirvana box set, With the Lights Out; Morgen includes the complete surviving performance. "You leave," the director says of the soundtrack, "with more of a sense of the legacy."
Three days before issuing her new album 25, Adele will perform a one-night only concert at New York City's Radio City Music Hall that the singer will film for a television special. The concert will take place on November 17th and Entertainment Weekly reports that the program, Adele Live in New York City, will air on NBC on December 14th.
Outside of that broadcast, Adele has a busy schedule of television appearances ahead of her new LP. She'll appear as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on November 21st and is set to perform on Today on November 25th; both shows air on NBC. In the U.K., the "Hello" singer will also be the focal point of a one-hour special, Adele at the BBC, which will be filmed before a studio audience early next month and hosted by talk-show host Graham Norton.
Adele revealed the title and track list of the new LP, set for release on November 25th, last week. She released the song "Hello" and put out a mournful video for the single, the latter of which broke the record for single-day views on Vevo. Subsequently, Lionel Richie has joked about its similarities to his own "Hello," Rick Ross has issued a remix of the tune and Ellen has spoofed it.
The singer has described 25 as a "make-up record," the antithesis of a breakup record. "My last record was labeled a 'break-up record,' and rightly so, because it was a break-up record," she told Apple Music DJ Zane Lowe in a recent interview. "This record is all about how I feel as opposed to how someone else has made me feel, it's about how I made myself feel."
So Familiar, the second collection of banjo-fueled folk music from Edie Brickell and Steve Martin, hits the racks today, arriving two and a half years after the pair's Grammy-winning debut, Love Has Come for You. Celebrations for the new release began a little early, though, with Brickell and Martin hitting The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon yesterday evening to perform the album's first single, "Won't Go Back."
They had more than a few reasons to celebrate. Several songs from So Familiar will hit Broadway early next year, when "Bright Star" — a musical featuring Brickell and Martin's music — makes the jump from regional playhouses to the Great White Way. "It's tremendously exciting!" Martin recently told Rolling Stone Country, adding, "We don't know if it's a hit or not, but we know we're on Broadway."
With Martin on banjo and Brickell on lead vocals, the duo brought similar excitement to their Fallon performance, where they bounced between the song's half-time verses and harmonized chorus with help from a six-piece band of percussionists and pickers.
The seeming incongruity of the burly, bearded Spartanburg, South Carolina group standing in front of the Paris landmark was not lost on them. As the band's lead singer recalls with a chuckle, people were "mesmerized because we were big, country-ass looking boys." Out on their first European tour, the Marshall Tucker Band weren't sure how their brand of boot-stomping southern rock was going to translate across the pond.
As they surveyed the Hammersmith Odeon stage in London they were uneasy but excited. "Let's face it, the Beatles played there. And the Queen went and hung out and listened to music there. And some amazing orchestras had played there," says Gray. "I thought, 'This is either going to be real hard or real good.'"
There was culture shock on both sides of the stage, but it ended up being real good.
"We were amazed and stunned at the response" to the tour, he says, which included stops in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France before concluding with four gigs in the U.K. Those last shows — in London, Manchester, and Birmingham, England and Glasgow, Scotland — have been memorialized on the 10-track collection Live in the UK 1976, out today. "The music crossed lines," says Gray. "The minute we started 'Can't You See' or 'Take the Highway,' people were up and digging it."
Hear the epic version of "Take the Highway" — flute solo and all — from the show at the Apollo Theater in Glasgow below in a Rolling Stone Country exclusive premiere. The album also includes other familiar MTB tracks like "Searchin' for a Rainbow," "Fire on the Mountain," and a version of the country classic "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" with guest Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie fame.
The album captures the original line-up of the group—including Gray, chief songwriter and guitarist Toy Caldwell, his bassist bother Tommy, flute and saxophone player Jerry Eubanks, drummer Paul Riddle and guitarist George McCorkle— in its vital early years and Gray wanted to be sure the sound quality was up to snuff.
"I didn't take any of the music away or add any music but I knew that we had to update it and make it sound it fresh," he says of the tweaking he did to the live recordings.
Averaging more than 100 shows a year, Gray says there is no chance of the Marshall Tucker Band — who have played with everyone from jazz fusionists Spyro Gyra to descendants like Kid Rock and the Zac Brown Band in the last 44 years — slowing down anytime soon.
"We go out there with these guys who have a blistering fever to play this music as good if not better than the way we played it then," Gray, the sole original member, says of the current line-up. (Both of the Caldwells and McCorkle have passed away and Eubanks retired.) And the crowds keep coming as new generations hear the music. Says Gray with a chuckle, "They got trapped in the back seat and their parents kept playing that 8-track over and over."
Country music's biggest stars will be joined by some of Hollywood's finest, along with athletes and other celebs who'll be announcing winners and presenting trophies during next week's 49th Annual CMA Awards telecast.
The latest country artist to be added to the already stellar lineup is CMA nominee Chris Stapleton, who will be joined, according to CMA organizers, by "a very special guest" who will be announced Monday, November 2nd. (In fact, Rolling Stone Country will help reveal that guest on our Ram Report Monday, in an exclusive interview with Stapleton.) The "Tennessee Whiskey" singer is a first-time CMA nominee, with nods for Male Vocalist and New Artist of the Year. He's also nominated for Album of the Year for Traveller, which he produced with Dave Cobb. While Stapleton only receives one nomination for the category, he could potentially receive a second trophy as a producer of the LP.
Stapleton and his mystery guest join previously announced performers Jason Aldean, Kelsea Ballerini, Dierks Bentley with Lindsey Stirling, Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Maddie & Tae, Kacey Musgraves, Blake Shelton and Zac Brown Band. The show's co-hosts, Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood, will both perform during the three-hour telecast, as well.
Added to the list of awards presenters are Female Vocalist of the Year nominee Lee Ann Womack, reigning New Artist of the Year Brett Eldredge, Charles Kelley of Vocal Group of the Year nominee Lady Antebellum, and CMA Country Christmas host Jennifer Nettles. Country artists Reba, Darius Rucker and Cole Swindell will also appear, along with musicians Edie Brickell and Steve Martin and a capella performers Pentatonix. They'll be joined by actor Kiefer Sutherland, actress Erika Christensen of the ABC drama, Wicked City, Miss America 2016 Betty Cantrell, ESPN College GameDay's Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, Sports Illustrated cover model Hannah Davis, and Heather O'Reilly and Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team. The pre-televised CMA awards and honors – including the trophies for CMA Broadcast Personality and Station of the Year – will be hosted by Frankie Ballard.
Also previously announced are the one-of-a-kind collaborations throughout the night as Eric Church joins Hank Williams Jr. for the show-opening musical number, Reba teams with her Vegas pals, Brooks & Dunn, Thomas Rhett performs with rockers Fall Out Boy and Keith Urban, in a clever nod to his recent hit single, "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16," is joined by John (formerly Cougar) Mellencamp.
Lush textures of clickety-clackety keyboards, slide guitar and disco-ish drums open up "One Step at a Time," a new Electric Light Orchestra single that will appear on the group's upcoming LP Alone in the Universe. When frontman Jeff Lynne, who recorded nearly every instrument on the record, sings, though, it sounds like classic ELO, as he pleads for understanding before a relationship totally breaks down.
When it comes out on November 13th, Alone in the Universe will be the first Electric Light Orchestra LP since 2001's Zoom and it finds Lynne flying solo mostly. "I did everything except the shaker and the tambourine, which my engineer Steve [Jay] played," he told Rolling Stone earlier this month. "It was just a two-man exercise, with him manning all the lifeboats and me doing all the singing and playing."
So far, Lynne has released two songs from the album, the reggae-tinged "When the Night Comes" and the piano ballad "When I Was a Boy." He has also put out a quasi-autobiographical video for the latter song, which depicts him as a young man looking up at the group's trademark spaceship logo.
One year after the release of her Americana Award-winning double album, Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, Lucinda Williams has put the finishing touches on another record. The Ghosts of Highway 20 is due out February 5th, bringing with it another batch of raw, ragged alt-country songs.
This time, Williams turns to I-20 — a 190-mile highway that cuts a line across the northern end of her home state, Louisiana — for inspiration. The Ghosts of Highway 20 is filled with characters who either travel along the highway or live near its off-ramps, using I-20 as a jumping-off point for an album that focuses on lovers, losers, leavers and landscapes. Williams beefs up the album's 12 original songs with two covers, too, including a version of Bruce Springsteen's "Factory." There's also an updated take on a forgotten Woody Guthrie song, "House of Earth," featuring lyrics by the folk music icon and music by Williams herself.
Pedal-steel player Greg Leisz plays a central role on The Ghosts of Highway 20, layering the songs with textured twang and sharing production duties with both Williams and Tom Overby. Guitarists Bill Frisell and Val McCallum also make appearances, joined by Williams' familiar rhythm section of Butch Norton and David Sutton.
Williams is currently on a tour of New Zealand and Australia.
Rod Stewart shook, shimmied and wailed through a performance of his new song "Please" on the The Tonight Show Wednesday, with house band the Roots dutifully serving as his backing band.
"Please" appears on Stewart's new record, Another Country, and is one of several originals the rocker co-wrote with producer Kevin Savigar. It's a sultry, pleading blues burner, criss-crossed with conversing guitars and, on Tonight, driven by Roots drummer Questlove's splashy, steady beat.
Stewart, however, showed he's still in complete control, busting out slick footwork and belting the track in his eternally raspy, ripped-heart voice. Most impressive were the howls he unleashed throughout "Please," accenting his final a cappella belt with a few well-earned shadowboxing punches.
Another Country marks Stewart's 29th studio album and follows 2013's Time. Along with the new LP, the rocker has been busy this year: He reunited with the Faces for their first public gig in over two decades in September, and also appeared alongside Miguel, Mark Ronson and A$AP Rocky on the latter's "Everday."
"This is the first time I've ever held my actual album," says Chris Janson, the affable underdog behind 2015's country song of the summer, "Buy Me a Boat." "It's really happening."
Lounging on the leafy patio atop Warner Brothers' Music Row headquarters, the newly-minted star turns his just-delivered album (also titled Buy Me a Boat) over and over in his hands. Inspecting each photo and song title, he grins and shakes his head in disbelief over his long and laborious path to this moment. Over the last six years Janson has persevered through two failed record deals, two EPs and three singles that failed to make a major impression — but never released a full-length album.
That was before fans got on board with the independently released "Buy Me a Boat," however. A delightfully sarcastic blue-collar kiss-off built on hot-rod twang, the song steadily climbed radio charts and became Janson's first Number One in September. Now signed to Warner Music Nashville, he'll release his long-awaited debut album on October 30th.
In an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone Country, the modest Missouri native explains how his first-ever big-time release came together, and how it compares to his buoyant calling card. According to Janson, fans will find rowdy up-tempos, deeper-meaning ballads and even a guest appearance by Tim McGraw on Buy Me a Boat, all of it co-written by Janson and played with a proud, straight-ahead country sound.
"Every song on this record is just a simple song written by a simple dude — me," he says. "Every time I've tried to overthink something in my life it either failed, or I wasn't that proud of it. . . I can tell you right now that I'm never gonna make records I have to sit around and think about forever. I want to have fun with this stuff."
Indeed, the project was put together in near-record time to capitalize on the success of "Buy Me a Boat," which was first championed by DJ Bobby Bones. Of the album's 11 tracks, Janson co-produced five with Chris DuBois and Brent Anderson (the crew behind "Buy Me a Boat"), while Byron Gallimore (McGraw's hit-maker of choice) led the sessions for six others. As a result, the record has a loose, under-the-gun feel that's undeniably exciting.
"It's probably the quickest turnaround in history," the singer-songwriter jokes, "but it wasn't a rushed process. It was thought-out and planned just enough to be right, but not planned enough to get in the way."
Luckily, the team had plenty of material to work with. A prolific songwriter, Janson simply turned in a list of his favorite songs. The label did the same, and they met in the middle. As a result, the album features a diverse mix of testosterone-fueled debauchery, cautionary tales of sin and thankful ballads of blessing.
Such variety has always been a hallmark for Janson, who co-wrote McGraw's over-the-top 2012 hit "Truck Yeah," as well as LoCash's jubilant current single "I Love This Life" and two tracks on Hank Williams Jr.'s upcoming new album, It's About Time.
"On the 'Truck Yeah' side, 'Power of Positive Drinkin'' is kind of like that," he says. "It's rocking, raucous, rowdy, kind of in your face. And then songs about life and legacy like 'Where You Come In,' 'Holdin' Her,' 'Messin' With Jesus' — those have more of a serious undertone to them than just the hands-in-the-air, make-you-wanna-sing kind of thing."
With its bait-and-switch title, "Messin' With Jesus" is actually a Saturday-night/Sunday-morning duet about redemption and getting right with God. Dripping with steel guitar and twangy vocals, the song raises questions of faith, a common theme for Janson, who counts himself as a Christian but won't claim to be a perfect example.
"I'm not scared of Jesus," he says. "Whether you believe in him or not, that's your business. I do believe personally and I like to keep that relationship good, but I'm right on the fence [between living right and wrong] all the time."
On the other side of the coin, "Power of Positive Drinkin'" finds Janson putting deep thoughts aside for a wild night at the bar. Janson actually quit drinking when he met his wife Kelly, but he remembers the feeling well. Co-written with DuBois and Mark Irwin, the cheeky anthem is Janson's new single, one that mines the same ironic territory as "Buy Me a Boat."
"Beer five, and I'm comin' alive/Beer six, man that went down quick/Seven, eight, nine, I'm feelin' fine/And by number ten, life's good again" goes its chorus.
"People have been asking, 'How can you relate to 'Power of Positive Drinkin''?" Janson says. "I can relate because not so long ago I was that guy, I totally get it. . . I've drank a lot of beer in my life, and whatever problems I had walking in, they were gone by 10.
"I could still drink to this day," he continues. "I just choose not to because it always made me feel bloated and fat — I'm 135 pounds, so 10 beers makes me feel like a balloon, man."
All told, Janson believes his time has finally arrived. Holding his debut album for the first time, he has the look of a proud father imagining all the possibilities that lie ahead. (He actually is a dad too, to a son and a daughter with wife Kelly, and two "bonus kids" — he refuses to call them "step children.")
"For as rowdy and raucous as it will be at times, there will be storytelling, too," he says of his album, and his career in general. "That's always been my goal: to be a renaissance man of sorts with songs and have some identity. I finally feel like I have that identity."
Buy Me a Boat arrives tomorrow, October 30th, and Janson will celebrate the release with a performance at his home away from home: the Grand Ole Opry. On February 18th, he returns to the road on a major tour, opening for Blake Shelton.
Taylor Swift has filed a countersuit against the Denver radio host who was fired from his job after allegedly inappropriately touching the singer. In the initial lawsuit, David Mueller claimed he was terminated from his job at country music station KYGO two days after the contact occurred during a photo session backstage at Denver's Pepsi Center. In his wrongful termination suit, Mueller sued Swift and denied that he was the person who grabbed the singer's buttocks. Swift's legal team disagreed.
"Mueller's newfound claim that he is the 'wrong guy' and, therefore, his termination from KYGO was unjustified, is specious," Swift's attorneys wrote in the counterclaim (via The Associated Press). "Ms. Swift knows exactly who committed the assault. It was Mueller." Swift's lawyers added that she was "surprised, upset, offended and alarmed" by the grope.
In Mueller's suit, the former radio host did not deny that the inappropriate contact happened; instead, he blamed the buttock grab on one of his co-workers. According to Mueller's lawsuit, the co-worker approached Mueller backstage at the Denver concert and "described and demonstrated how [he] had put his arms around her, hands on her bottom" while taking a photo with the singer. Mueller's suit also accused Swift's security team of verbally abusing him and his girlfriend.
However, following the incident, KYGO was presented with enough evidence against Mueller that he was fired two days later, Swift's reps said after Mueller filed his lawsuit in September. If Swift were to win her countersuit, she has promised to donate the money to charities "dedicated to protecting women from similar acts of sexual assault and personal disregard."
Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash fell in love with horror around the same time he fell in love with hard rock. In recent years, as he's built his solo career as a musician, he's also established himself in horror. A few years ago, he cofounded a production company with a perfect pun for a name, Slasher Films, and produced his first film, Nothing Left to Fear, which starred Anne Heche, in 2013. He already has another one in the works.
Since the guitarist is a de facto aficionado of the genre, he picked his five favorite horror movies for Rolling Stone, including some that have scared him since he was a little kid. "My mom was a huge horror fan and weaned me on all the horror movies from the Fifties and the Sixties," the guitarist, age 50, says. "And both my parents took me to see everything through the Seventies. So yeah, I'm a hardcore fan."
Watch the video above to see which movie he calls "one of the most visually appealing and hair-raising horror movies of all time," and why movies like The Exorcist, Night of the Living Dead and The Omen still haunt the musician to this day.
"You know how Gloria Gaynor has her 'I Will Survive'?" Karen O asks from her New York home. "I always wanted to do my version of that and this was it."
Earlier this year, Microsoft approached the Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman to pen the theme song for the upcoming video game Rise of the Tomb Raider. The result is "I Shall Rise," the dramatic new track that serves as the vocalist's first original song since last year's Crush Songs.
While the full version of the song won't be available until Friday, Rolling Stone is premiering the Rise of the Tomb Raider trailer, soundtracked by O's haunting, Bond-esque new song. The clip features protagonist Lara Croft traveling to Siberia to unearth the secret to immortality against an evil group known as Trinity. The sequel to the 2013 hit Tomb Raider is set for release on November 10th via Xbox One and Xbox 360.
"It all sounded really tasty," O tells Rolling Stone on creating music for video games. "They wanted drama and high-stakes and melodrama. That was very appealing to me because I love making music connected to a storyline. It was all stuff I loved like having the theme song to [Lara Croft] becoming an icon and the creation myth to the moment she becomes Lara."
While the singer admits to not being a gamer — "I'm not used to the 3D. I'm used to characters just moving forward," she says, laughing — the new mother can relate to Croft's own traits. "Some of the themes [Microsoft] gave me was transformation and survival and realizing one's own destiny and pushing past one's own limits, which is basically everything I've been going through with a newborn baby the past two months," O says. "I've been going through my own transformation."
For O, who says she got so emotionally invested in watching her brother play video games growing up, she cried when he won, working with video games is similar to her recent work in film and television. "Nowadays, the artistry of video games have come so far, it's more like a film you can interact with," she says.
In contrast to the personal, autobiographical Crush Songs, "I Shall Rise" uses Croft as its muse to portray a boastful, defiant protagonist. "They'll know my name/After the storms are passing through," O sings. "They'll know my name/When they've forgotten all about you."
O also drew real-world inspiration at the christening of a relative's daughter. "I picked up a Book of Hymns, thumbed through it and was really into how much melodrama there was," she says. "It could be the half-Korean part of me; Koreans love melodrama. That sparked some inspiration for the lyrics to this with the themes of survival against the elements and the transformation of being reborn. The melodrama of the Biblical stuff is a lot to sink your teeth into."
Despite the new song, O's current top priority is more personal than professional. "I'm in babyland at the moment," says the singer. "It's all quite fresh and I'm technically on maternity leave right now, so everything is really up in the air. I'm going to see how it all pans out over the next few months with how to move forward with projects. But I'm so ensconced with having my first baby, that I'm just going to wing it and see how it goes."
Winging it extends to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who have been on hiatus for at least a year. "It's just waiting to see how everything works out with starting a family and seizing the moment when it strikes," she says of the band's status. "I'm in the full-time job of [motherhood] at the moment."
"I Shall Rise" is just the latest of many soundtracks the singer has recorded. In 2009, O wrote and recorded the soundtrack to Spike Jonze's Where the Wild ThingsAre. The singer reteamed with Jonze for Her, where her track "Moon Song" earned the singer an Oscar nomination. In 2013, O joined Trent Reznor to cover Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" for David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Earlier this month, the singer released her sultry cover of Animotion's 1984 hit "Obsession" for the Starz show Flesh and Bone.
Rihanna is returning to the big screen. Director Luc Besson, the man behind Lucy, announced via Instagram that the singer has been cast for his upcoming sci-fi movie, Valérian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The film is set to release on July 21st, 2017.
The film stars Cara Delevingne, Dane DeHaan and Clive Owen. Based on a French graphic novel set in the 28th century, it explores the concept of time travel. There's no word yet on what role Rihanna will play, but Besson wrote that "she has a big part." This will be Rihanna's third big film role. She starred in this year's Home and in 2012's Battleship alongside appearances in 2014's Annie and 2013's This is the End.
A photo posted by @lucbesson on Oct 28, 2015 at 7:44am PDT
Rihanna has been readying her long-anticipated eighth album, Anti. She recently revealed the cover art, featuring original paintings by artist Roy Nachum. The cover depicts a child wearing a gold crown that covers its eyes and a message written in braille. "He sees things beyond the surface, which is why we even decided to collaborate," Rihanna said of the artist. "It felt like there was another spirit, another layer to the art. After we met, we talked about what I wanted visually, what would make me the happiest girl in the world. This is my favorite album cover ever." A release date for Anti has yet to be announced.
A little over a year after Ozzy Osbourne announced that Black Sabbath would record a second reunion record, the band has abandoned plans to go into the studio. A rep for the group has confirmed to Rolling Stone that Black Sabbath have opted out of recording another studio album for Universal. Instead, the band has booked a lengthy farewell tour it has dubbed "The End."
The singer had told Metal Hammer last September that the group would record one more record – which would follow up 2013's chart-topping 13, an album that is also home to their Grammy-winning song "God Is Dead?" – and do a final tour. The vocalist said the idea arose at a time when he deciding whether or not to work on a new solo album, so he asked his wife and manager, Sharon, what was going on with Black Sabbath.
Osbourne told the magazine he'd like to record "sooner rather than later," and the circumstance of recording at the time came down to guitarist Tony Iommi's battle with lymphoma. "He's obviously got his cancer treatment, but we'll get onto it next year," Osbourne said. "I don't know if we'll be writing in England or Los Angeles, but I'll fly to the fucking moon for it if I have to."
This week, as Osbourne prepped for a solo appearance at New Orleans' Voodoo Fest, he told the city's Times-Picayune that Sabbath had chosen not to do another LP. "It's the end of Sabbath, believe me," he said.
The group will kick off its final tour on January 20th in Omaha, Nebraska, with a first leg of U.S. dates running through February 27th. After international touring, they will return to North America for a run that begins in Wantagh, New York on August 17th and go through September 21st.
Desaparecidos has canceled the remainder of their tour after singer-guitarist Conor Oberst was hospitalized. The announcement, which the band shared on its website, followed its show cancellation in Jacksonville, FL, on Tuesday.
"Regretfully, we need to cancel our Jacksonville show on 10/27. Conor has a case of laryngitis and needs to rest his voice on doctor's orders," the band tweeted on Monday.
On Wednesday, the quintet posted a more detailed statement on its website, where it announced the tour is cancelled. "Desaparecidos has been forced to cancel the remainder of their US tour dates. Conor Oberst fell ill whilst on tour in Jacksonville, Florida and was briefly hospitalized due to laryngitis, anxiety, and exhaustion," the statement said. "In consultation with his doctors, the band has reluctantly agreed to cancel all scheduled live dates. Conor will be heading home to Omaha to recuperate. We wish him a speedy recovery."
The band was in the midst of its tour for its punk-tinged Payola, its first album in 13 years, which was released in June. The 21-date cancellation included its appearance at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX, on November 7th alongside a benefit concert for the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project with Tom Morello and The So So Glos on November 10th in Phoenix, AZ. Oberst also cancelled a December 2nd solo show at New York's Webster Hall.
Justin Bieber spent his Wednesday teasing fans with song titles from his forthcoming album, Purpose. On Wednesday afternoon, he began tweeting and sharing on Instagram the album's track list via photos of graffiti on walls located around the world.
The first one, "Mark My Words," was from Sydney, Australia. Track two, "I'll Show You," came by way of London. "What Do You Mean?" was from Stockholm, Sweden. The single, "Sorry," featured graffiti from Paris, France, while the fifth song, "Love Yourself," showcased a wall in Oslo, Norway. The sixth artful script, "Company," was taken in Berlin, Germany.
A photo posted by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) on Oct 28, 2015 at 4:09pm PDT
The singer took a several-hour-break before resuming his song posts up, with art from North American cities. The album includes high-profile collaborators, including Big Sean on "No Pressure," Travi$ Scott on "No Sense," "The Feeling" with Halsey and "Where Are You Now" featuring Diplo and Skrillex of Jack Ü. Skrillex also serves as the co-producer of "Sorry" alongside Blood.
Purpose is Bieber's fourth LP and his first since 2012's Believe. He released Journals, a compilation of new songs in 2013. His new Kanye West-assisted album is out November 13th.
Purpose Track List
1. "Mark My Words"
2. "I'll Show You"
3. "What Do You Mean?"
4. "Sorry"
5. "Love Yourself"
6. "Company"
7. "No Pressure" featuring Big Sean
8. "No Sense" featuring Travi$ Scott
9. "The Feeling" featuring Halsey
10. "Life Is Worth Living"
11. "Where Are Ü Now" featuring Jack Ü
12. "Children"
13. "Purpose"
14. "Been You"
15. "Get Used To Me"
16. "We Are" featuring Nas
17. "Trust"
18. "All In It"
19. "What Do You Mean" (Remix)
Earlier this week, Keith Urban fans began looking toward the future and the anticpicated release of the "Break on Me" singer's upcoming album, Ripcord. But beginning next month, a brand-new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will be all about looking back — "Keith Urban So Far" tracks the origins of the guitar player's phenomenal career.
Opening November 20th, the new exhibit will run through May 2016. The items on display will trace Urban's path to music superstardom and include his 1989 Fender Custom Shop 40th Anniversary Telecaster (dubbed "Clarence") and the Levinson Blade electric guitar that he played on the first of his 19 Number One hits, "But for the Grace of God."
Along with handwritten song manuscripts and other items culled from scrapbooks of his childhood and teen years in Australia, visitors will also see the shirt Urban donned for the cover of his self-titled 1999 debut LP.
"Keith Urban So Far" also emphasizes the philanthropic entertainer's passionate commitment to music education and the arts. Since 2009, he has co-hosted (with Vince Gill) the star-studded "All for the Hall" concert events in support of the Hall of Fame and Museum's education-based efforts.
Urban's upcoming LP Ripcord is the follow-up to 2013's Fuse and already has a hit with "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16," which recently became Urban's 34th Top 10 single.
With a CMA nomination for Vocal Duo of the Year and a Top 15 hit in "Stay a Little Longer," John and TJ Osborne, collectively known as Brothers Osborne, are gearing up for the release of their debut album. Titled Pawn Shop, the LP is set for release January 15th on the EMI Nashville label.
Featuring 11 tracks, all of which the Maryland-born siblings had a hand in co-writing (with heavyweight writers including Barry Dean, Craig Wiseman, Shane McAnally, Jessi Alexander and more), Pawn Shop is the Osbornes' bid to deliver music that they believe will have some staying power. The siblings produced the record with Jay Joyce (Eric Church).
"I think people are tired of the bullshit and are ready for the real substance," guitarist John Osborne told Rolling Stone Country earlier this year, after the pair's debut single "Rum" was released.
"We went through an era of big hit songs that no one is going to listen to 10 years from now," says lead vocalist T.J. "And we're about to hit a decade of country that I think is going to be played for a long time. It's about to hit the same stride it hit in the Nineties."
The blue-collar brothers, who previously toured with Darius Rucker, Little Big Town and Kacey Musgraves, among others, will be hitting the road with Jon Pardi as part of the All Time High Tour.
Here's the track list for Pawn Shop, along with songwriting credits:
1. "Dirt Rich" (Brothers Osborne, Barry Dean)
2. "21 Summer" (Brothers Osborne, Craig Wiseman)
3. "Stay a Little Longer" (Brothers Osborne, Shane McAnally)
4. "Pawn Shop" (Brothers Osborne, Sean McConnell)
5. "Rum" (Brothers Osborne, Barry Dean)
6. "Loving Me Back" (Brothers Osborne, Casey Beathard)
7. "American Crazy" (Brothers Osborne, Ross Copperman)
8. "Greener Pastures" (Brothers Osborne, Ryan Hurd and Maren Morris)
9. "Down Home" (Brothers Osborne, Jessi Alexander)
10. "Heart Shaped Locket" (TJ Osborne, Lisa Carver and Andi Zack)
11. "It Ain't My Fault" (Brothers Osborne, Jessi Alexander)
"There was a spirit and reverence they brought to it," Derek Trucks said in a recent interview, marking the one-year anniversary of his final performance with the Allman Brothers Band, at New York's Beacon Theater on October 28th, 2014. "I hoped it would be that way," the guitarist went on, "but I didn't know how it would turn out. People have a tendency — you let your ego get in the way of the big moments," he adds, laughing.
"That night everybody got out of the way," Trucks said, with gratitude and pride evident even over the phone from his home in Jacksonville, Florida. The group's suriving original members — singer-organist Gregg Allman, drummer Jaimoe and Derek's uncle, drummer Butch Trucks — "were all thinking about those first days in Jacksonville when they formed the band. I could see my uncle between sets — you could see the wheels turning. It was all in the right spirit. That night was one of the few times you got off stage and feel, 'That's how it was supposed to go down.'"
Trucks, 36, was speaking for a story, also featuring fellow Allmans guitarist Warren Haynes, in the current issue of Rolling Stone about their respective lives since the end of that band. Like Haynes, Trucks was talking between gigs — after an extensive summer tour with the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the R&B big band he co-leads with his wife, singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi; on the verge of a TTB spectacular at the recent Lockn' Festival in Virginia, honoring the 45th anniversary of Joe Cocker's historic Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour; and a few weeks before TTB's own two-weekend run at the Beacon, now a fall tradition in New York City. The Tedeschi Trucks Band has also signed a new deal with Concord Records and completed their debut for the label, Let Me Get By, out early next year.
"I was watching that movie the other day," Trucks said of the Mad Dogs & Englishmen documentary, fimed on that 1970 tour. "It was kind of the end — maybe the peak, the remnants — of the hippie movement. They did all the drugs, had all the sex, all the fun," Trucks noted, with another laugh. "And it spun Cocker out for a bit. That tour wore his ass out."
So when does Trucks relax now, with so much on his itinerary, even without the Allmans?
"That's a good question," he replied cheerfully. "There'll probably be a few days off after the Beacon." He paused, as if catching his breath. "But then we gear up and head overseas. Mixing the new record, touring, playing — it's all work." But after the Allmans, Trucks concedes, "It's a different level of stress. It's lower most of the time."
Do you have more or less time off since the Allmans ended?
In some ways, it's really close. There is so much going on. But the ability to focus has been really nice — just not having to think about that dynamic, changing hats musically. The Mad Dogs thing — that was a one-off. Outside of that, it's been nice between touring and working on the record, to keep that in your head at all times.
How would you characterize the new album? It's more adventurous sonically and in some of the places it goes musically. It's more of an extension of what we were doing with my solo group but evolved in a different group. I heard the record for the first time last night, with everything mixed, and I feel like I can see everybody — everybody's personality in the band — a lot more [laughs]. It feels like hanging on the tour bus.
Was there a point when you wondered if a band that size was economically feasible? The first few years, it was certainly touch and go. Me and Susan are pretty stubborn — musically, idealistically. "Whatever! It'll be fine." But there was defnitely a time when we really had to think about it. It was like going back a decade or so, the early days with the solo band, where everyone makes a living but you.
Did you and Susan have to take out a second mortgage, for instance, to keep the tour bus rolling? It was right on the edge. But it worked. The momentum for the group caught just in time. Another year or two in the same place — it might have been tough, with hard decisions. We just added a 12th member, and we went out this summer for the first time with our own PA and production. As it builds, you put that energy and cash back into it. You're feeding the beast.
When did you come to the conclusion — for yourself, Susan and your family — that it was time to leave the Allmans? You and Warren announced your departures together in January 2014, but he said it had a long gestation. When I was out playing with Eric Clapton in '06, that was the first time I sat down with the band and said, "This is going to be my last [Allmans] tour. I want to focus on my solo band." I was trying to find a way out that was comfortable with everybody, because it's family and friendships. Not that I felt leaving would slow the train down. But when the momentum is there, you don't want to rock the boat too much. I basically gave my notice a few times. And the family loyalty pulls you back in.
Me and Warren had talked quite a bit. He didn't want to reinvent the band again. So if I was going, he was gonna go too. That factored in to me hanging around. I didn't want to push him.
How much of your decision to go involved work load, like the time and energy that went into the Beacon residencies each year? And how much of it was about the room left to grow in the band?
Honestly, for me, it was a lot more than that, especially since the band wasn't in the mode of writing tunes or interested in making records. I love that [classic] material as much as anyone on earth. But I knew you can only do it so many times and feel like you're making a statement. That's one of the reasons I put my Derek Trucks Band aside [in 2010]. It wasn't out of gas yet, but I could feel it coming. I could feel my interest waning.
Warren said that he felt there was half of a new Allmans studio album in the works, in terms of material he had and songs already in live rotation. The problem was getting it past the concept, to something concrete. A few of the guys just weren't into making records with the Allman Brothers. My uncle would always say, "This is a live band." He hated being in the studio. And I get that. But the Allman Brothers made some great studio records. To me, the one big missed opportunity with that [last] incarnation was not making another record. Hittin' the Note [released in 2003] was good, but there was a better record in there. Having a studio in my backyard where we could have easily recorded the band — between me and Warren, we would have crushed an Allman Brothers record. It only takes time. Get people down here, writing, focused. You have to be mentally into it. And it never came to pass.
"Between me and Warren, we would have crushed an Allman Brothers record."
What did you take away from your Allman Brothers experience that has influenced the way you and Susan run your band now? There were some things the Allmans did conceptually that were forward-thinking and high concept. Any of the music the band performed live — it was communal. It wasn't like because this guy's been here longer, he gets a different share. Those things, without a doubt, they did not have to do. It was very much in the spirit of the way the music was made.
Even when the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award came up [in 2012], they insisted that me, Warren, [percussionist] Marc Quiñones and [bassist] Oteil Burbridge be included, which was an incredibly gracious thing to do. There's a way you think things should be, and there's a way the music industry does it. And they are pretty far apart. I've always been of that mindset — when you're writing tunes with people, there's a traditional way of chopping things up, and then there's the way that feels right. If people contribute, you hit 'em accordingly.
The other part I took away was the things you don't do — just the grudges and the saga with [original guitarist] Dickey Betts, the lack of communication at times. Susan and I have been really forward with our band. When things come up, you deal with them. However uncomfortable that is, let's have this discussion right now.
Why do you think you and Warren connected so profoundly, as soloists and partners, in your time with the Allmans? There was quite a gap in your ages. The first time I met Warren was when they were making Seven Turns, the [1990] reunion album. I was 9 or 10, down in south Florida playing this bar called Tropics International. Gregg, Warren and [then–Allmans bassist] Allen Woody came and sat in. I remember it because there was this great photo taken. The stage was above a bar, so there's all these liquor bottles at your feet. My grandparents hung that picture in their living room, but they put a piece of paper over the liquor bottles because they were super-conservative. I always thought that was funny.
Warren and I dove into the Allman Brothers gig at different times, but we both dove into it pretty hard and headfirst. There was so much love and respect for the Duane parts, the Dickey parts, the whole history. That was a pretty big book that we absorbed, and we lived it for awhile. He was there for several years before I joined; then I was there before he rejoined. But having known him since I was 9 or 10, there was enough respect and trust already. It took a few years for us to work through having both played the same role and having to relearn it. But once that settled in, it got really good. There were a handful of years where you didn't have to think about it at all.
When the Tedeschi Trucks Band does their fall Beacon weekends now, is that your way of keeping the Allmans spring residencies alive in your own way? It certainly is. It feels like home — and a new tradition. But it's firmly rooted in that [Allmans] time. You feel those moments and the way it resonates. And for me, the sixth-floor dressing room was where I was, always, for 15 years. My wife and son came up when he was seven days old. The kids have been in those dressing rooms since they were babies. It's a way to mark time — every time I come up to the Beacon dressing room.
Just days after releasing her fifth studio album, Storyteller, Carrie Underwood has been named the headliner of one of the world's largest celebrations — the New Year's Eve countdown from Times Square in New York City.
Underwood will be the star performer in the live telecast of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2016, taking the stage just before the ball drops to announce the new year. In Times Square alone, Underwood's audience is expected to top one million people, while millions more could tune in worldwide.
"There's nowhere else I'd rather be than New York's Times Square, one of the most magical places in the world, to ring in the New Year," Underwood said in a press statement.
The telecast begins at 8:00 p.m. ET on December 31st, live on ABC, and will be hosted for the 10th year by Ryan Seacrest. He'll be joined in New York by Jenny McCarthy, while Fergie will host the pretaped West Coast party from Hollywood.
Meanwhile, Underwood appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! as musical guest Tuesday (October 27th), wearing a tasseled white dress and belting out her latest single, the foot-stomping "Smoke Break." (Watch the video below.) Playing acoustic guitar and singing with radio-ready tone in front of her eight-piece band, her performance was the latest in a string of promotional appearances for Storyteller. Yesterday, the entertainer announced dates for her in-the-round Storyteller Tour.
The follow-up to 2013's Fuse, Ripcord got off to a chart-topping start with its first single, "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16." Urban takes the tempo down and the emotion up with its second release, "Break on Me." And he's hinted that he'll crank up the guitars on a few more tracks, as he's been collaborating with lauded musician Nile Rodgers.
"We finally got together a few months ago and started writing in the studio," Urban tells Rolling Stone Country. "I've always just liked his guitar playing and it felt like we would click musically."
The feeling is mutual: "[Urban]'s scary; I didn't know he played guitar like that!" Rodgers recently told Yahoo! Music.
Rodgers, who co-wrote Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams' Grammy-winning "Get Lucky," has worked with artists ranging from Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross to Madonna and David Bowie.
Built around a potent combination of dainty string plucks, booming bass and scattershot trap percussion, "Switch Up" finds R. Kelly in classic form vocally. His lyrics about dropping one flame for another at a whim are silly and bombastic, but his staccato flow is as infectious as ever as he traipses across a remarkably vast melodic range.
Jeremih manages to keep pace with Kellz with his own quick-tongued verse, while Lil Wayne, as is his wont, ends up on another planet entirely, spewing out a laundry list of lines that are equally goofy and grotesque.
"Switch Up" follows previous Buffet track, "Backyard Party," which recently received a cameo-filled video featuring Snoop Dogg and fellow Chicago native, Chance the Rapper.
The Buffet arrives November 20th, and marks R. Kelly's first album since 2013's Black Panties. In an interview with EW about the new record, the singer said he wrote 462 full songs for the album. "I wanted to be sure that I really nailed it to the point that when I started breaking it down to the 14, 15, 16 songs that go on the album that I had more than enough to choose from, and they would all be great choices," he said.
While Kelly's recent albums have been tied to a similar concept — Love Letter and Write Me Back's soul-indebted sound, Black Panties' hip-hop-oriented production — The Buffet, like its title suggests, will sample a wide array of musical genres, including a potential foray into country.
David Gilmour has released another video from his new album, Rattle That Lock, a harrowing black and white clip for "Faces of Stone" that mixes old film footage and shots of the guitarist performing the song in the studio.
The footage used follows a woman as she scavenges for stones on a beach and eventually walks into a nearby town. She finds her way to a dinner party, and though her presence is ostensibly obtrusive — at one point she drags herself across a table — she goes completely unnoticed. As another quintessentially heroic Gilmour guitar solo brings the song to its end, the woman tumbles back towards the beach as if all life beyond it is no longer accessible to her.
In a post on Facebook, Gilmour said "Faces of Stone" was written about a peculiar time in his life when he was surrounded by birth and death. "Towards the end of my mother's life, when she was suffering from dementia, there was a brief crossover period of about nine months, when she was alive and my daughter was newly born," Gilmour wrote. "This song is a musing on that time. Specifically it refers to a walk in the park where my mother was 'seeing' pictures, or 'faces of stone,' hanging in the trees."
"Faces of Stone" arrives in the wake of two other Rattle That Lock clips: The relatively straight-forward "Today," in which the guitarist and his band prep for their upcoming tour, and the beautifully animated "The Girl In The Yellow Dress."
Rattle That Lock, which saw release in September, marked Gilmour's first solo album since 2006's On an Island. It also arrived in the wake of Pink Floyd's final studio LP, 2014's The Endless River. Gilmour will begin his tour in South America this December; a North American leg will kick off March 24th, 2016 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
Taylor Swift celebrated the one-year anniversary of her blockbuster pop album, 1989, with an acoustic performance of "Out of the Woods," recorded last month at the Grammy Museum's Clive Davis Theater.
Swift introduced the song by saying it chronicled a relationship dominated by anxiety: "I think a lot of relationships can be solid, and that's what you hope for — solid and healthy — but that's not always what you get," she said. "And it doesn't mean that it's not special and extraordinary just to have a relationship that's fragile and somehow meaningful in that fragility."
Though "Out of the Woods" — co-written with Bleachers' Jack Antonoff — thrives as an outsized synth-pop anthem, Swift's stripped-down rendition was an apt compliment to her description. With her vocals driving the performance, Swift kept her piano playing simple, staggered and sparse, letting that fragility shine during the bridge when each chord rang out beneath her quickening lyrics.
Since the release of 1989, Swift has spent much of the past year touring behind the record. While a slate of international dates loom this winter, she will finally wrap up her extensive North American leg on Saturday, October 31st, in Tampa, Florida.
