The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger will make a guest appearance on the upcoming album from Nigerian singer/songwriter Burna Boy.
Burna Boy will release his album No Signs of Weakness on July 11 and just revealed the track list, which includes the tune “Empty Chairs” featuring Jagger.
Jagger and his bandmates recently appeared on a tribute album celebrating the late King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier. The band covered the track “Zydeco Sont Pas Salés” on A Tribute to the King of Zydeco, which is out now.
As for their own music, The Stones haven’t released any new music since 2023’s Hackney Diamonds, which was their 24th studio album and their first album of new material in 18 years. The album won best rock album at the 67th annual Grammy Awards.
A band was disinvited from playing Black Sabbath‘s massive Back to the Beginning reunion/farewell concert because, as Sharon Osbourne tells Billboard, they “wanted to make a profit.”
“It’s not the time to make a profit,” Sharon says of the show.
Sharon does not name the act that was booted from the bill, though it seems they won’t stay anonymous for very long.
“After the show I’ll let everybody know who it was,” Sharon says. “I think people will be shocked.”
Sharon previously said that she kicked a band off the lineup amid a “huge to-do” with their manager. It’s unclear if she’s referring to the same act or a different one.
Even without whatever band or bands are no longer playing, Back to the Beginning certainly isn’t hurting for big names. Along with the original Sabbath lineup’s final performance and Ozzy Osbourne‘s last live show ever, the lineup includes Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice in Chains, Lamb of God and Anthrax.
All that adds up to about a 10-hour music experience, according to Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello, who will be the show’s musical director.
“The goal from day one was very, very simple — to make it the greatest day, the most important day in the history of heavy metal music,” Morello says. “There’s never gonna be a dull moment. We’ve unearthed some incredible footage of things and people that no one’s ever seen, and a lot of surprises in a lot of other areas, too.”
Back to the Beginning takes place Saturday in Sabbath’s hometown of Birmingham, England. The concert will stream online.
As the United States of America gears up to celebrate its birthday, so does the debut Foo Fighters album.
The self-titled record was released on July 4, 1995 — 30 years ago Friday.
Coming off the death of Kurt Cobain and the dissolution of Nirvana in 1994, drummer Dave Grohl entered the studio and started working on possible solo material. While he was recording, Tom Petty recruited Grohl to play drums with The Heartbreakers during their performance on Saturday Night Live, and even offered him the full-time gig. However, Grohl, who was still mourning Cobain and the end of Nirvana, decided instead to focus on his own project.
That project became the album Foo Fighters, which Grohl recorded entirely on his own, save for a guitar solo by Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs. Once Foo Fighters was finished, Grohl recruited a full band, consisting of Nirvana touring guitarist Pat Smear, and bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith of Sunny Day Real Estate.
With the singles “This Is a Call,”“I’ll Stick Around” and “Big Me,”Foo Fighters proved Grohl was equally adept at being a frontman as he was manning the kit. That anyone at one point thought otherwise now seems absurd, as Foo Fighters and Grohl especially have continued to be the face of modern rock three decades later.
Smear and Mendel remain in the Foos alongside Grohl, while Goldsmith was replaced by drummer Taylor Hawkins. Guitarist Chris Shiflett joined in 1999, and keyboardist Rami Jaffee started touring with the group in 2005. That lineup remained the same until Hawkins died in 2022 and was replaced by Josh Freese, who was fired from the Foos in May.
Foo Fighters marked their debut’s anniversary Wednesday with a new single called “Today’s Song.”
Ringo Starr is profiled in a new article in the New York Times, and his Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney discusses the importance of their more than six decades of friendship.
With their bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison gone, McCartney says they understand “nothing lasts forever.”
“So we grasp onto what we have now because we realize that it’s very special. It’s something hardly anyone else has,” he says. “In fact, in our case, it’s something no one else has. There’s only me and Ringo, and we’re the only people who can share those memories.”
In the article, McCartney recalls his December reunion with Ringo onstage at McCartney’s show at the O2 Arena in London, where they played “Helter Skelter” together. McCartney shares that while the song was “an out-and-out rocker” he got “a little bit emotional” during the performance.
McCartney also had nothing but praise for Ringo’s abilities, telling the paper, “Even though I’ve played with other drummers, he’s the best. Ringo has got a certain feel that is very difficult for other drummers to capture.”
He adds, “He’s Ringo. And nobody else is.”
But one area where Ringo wasn’t so confident, at least in the beginning, was in his writing songs.
“It’s hard to come to the front when you’ve got John and Paul,” he says. “I’d say, ‘I’ve got this song.’ And halfway through they’d all be laying on the floor laughing, because I wasn’t writing new songs. I was writing new words to old songs.”
McCartney adds, “We’d say, ‘Yeah, that’s a great one. That’s a great Bob Dylan song.'”
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
John Mellencamp is giving a shoutout to Olivia Rodrigo after the pop star was photographed wearing a Mellencamp T-shirt at the Glastonbury Festival over the weekend.
The 73-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer reshared a photo of the 22-year-old Rodrigo in a vintage tee from his The Lonesome Jubilee era, simply writing, “‘Thank You’ @oliviarodrigo.”
The post also featured a clip of the Mellencamp song “Thank You,” which appeared on his 2019 box set On The Rural Route 7609.
Rodrigo wasn’t even alive when Mellencamp released The Lonesome Jubilee in 1987. It was the rocker’s ninth studio album and featured three hit singles, “Paper and Fire,” “Check it Out” and “Cherry Bomb.” The album peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200.
After headlining 65 North American tour dates in 2024, former King Crimson members Adrian Belew and Tony Levin, guitar great Steve Vai and Tool drummer Danny Carey are set to release a live album of their Beat tour.
The tour, which also hit Mexico and South America in 2025, had the four artists celebrating the ’80s-era music of King Crimson, reinterpreting three of the band’s albums – 1981’s Discipline, 1982’s Beat and 1984’s Three of a Perfect Pair – which were also the first three to feature Belew and Levin.
The live album captures the Beat performance at the United Theater on Broadway in Los Angeles. You can watch video of the performance of the song “Neal and Jack and Me” streaming on YouTube.
Beat Live will be released Sept. 26 as a three-LP set, a two-CD/Blu-ray set, and a limited collector’s edition that adds a bonus CD and 36-page art book to the two-CD/Blu-ray edition.
The next live Beat concert will be a record release show, Sept. 1 at Tokyo’s famed Budokan venue.
Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx marked his 24th year of sobriety on Wednesday, sharing a post on social media in which he reflected on how sobriety has “completely transformed” his life.
“Sobriety isn’t just about eliminating substances; it’s about the ability to be honest with yourself and those around you,” he wrote. “Over the past 24 years of sobriety, I’ve experienced profound joy, but not without significant challenges. Through this journey, I’ve learned how to navigate adversity with grace and how to be truly selfless.”
He added, “We’re not here solely for ourselves; we’re here to serve those who are still struggling.”
Sixx writes that when people are unable to be honest with themselves “more often than not, they fail and end up hurting those around them. Honesty can be frightening, but it’s also liberating.”
He then recalled a lesson he learned from a sponsor after a fellow addict had died.
“He said, ‘Some people have to die to teach the rest of us how to live.’ That broke my heart—and reminded me just how important this journey really is,” he shared. “A friend recently gave me a copy of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. One quote that struck me deeply was: ‘Practice what seems impossible.’ I like that. I accept that challenge.”
Mötley Crüe recently released a new take on their classic track “Home Sweet Home” featuring Dolly Parton. It will appear on their upcoming compilation album, From the Beginning, dropping Sept. 12.
On the same day they’ll kick off a new Las Vegas residency at the Dolby Live theater, with dates confirmed through Oct. 3. A complete schedule can be found at MotleyCrue.com.
Queen’s performance at Live Aid in 1985 is often considered one of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest live performances, but it turns out they could have missed out on the gig had Brian May not talked frontman Freddie Mercury into it.
In a new interview with the U.K.’s Radio Times, May shares that they were hesitant to sign on since at the time they weren’t on tour. He notes, “It seemed like a crazy idea, this talk of having 50 bands on the same bill.”
He says while Roger Taylor was on board, he, Mercury and John Deacon weren’t so sure, but May quickly changed his mind after tickets went on sale.
“I said to Freddie: ‘If we wake up on the day after this Live Aid show and we haven’t been there, we’re going to be pretty sad,” May says. “He said: ‘Oh, f*** it, we’ll do it.'”
But the band didn’t take the stage without first getting advice from Live Aid founder Bob Geldof.
According to May andTaylor, Geldof told them, “Don’t get clever. Just play the hits – you have 17 minutes.”
Queen wound up wowing fans with a set filled with hits, as well as an infamous “Ay-Oh” call and response with the audience. Taylor says he knew they did a good job during “Radio Ga Ga,” noting, “It did seem that the whole stadium was in unison.”
He adds, “But then I looked up during ‘We Are the Champions,’ and the crowd looked like a whole field of wheat swaying.”
Queen is set to mark the 40th anniversary of Live Aid on July 13: they’ll show their set on their YouTube channel for 24 hours starting at 6:41 p.m. BST, the same time Queen took the stage at Wembley Stadium.
Ozzy Osbourne and Billy Idol guitarist Billy Morrison have released a stripped-down mix of their collaborative song “Gods of Rock N Roll.”
The track originally dates back to 2015, and was rerecorded by Ozzy and Morrison 10 years later alongside a choir and 61-piece orchestra, plus fellow Idol guitarist Steve Stevens. This new stripped mix features just Ozzy’s vocals alongside the orchestra.
“It is an absolutely unique and emotional mix and I can’t wait for you all to hear it,” Morrison says.
The updated recording is accompanied by a lyric video, which is streaming now on YouTube.
You can hear the full version of “Gods of Rock N Roll” on the deluxe version of Morrison’s latest solo album, The Morrison Project. The record also includes another Ozzy collaboration called “Crack Cocaine.”
Foreigner is revisiting their multi-Platinum album 4 with a new super deluxe edition.
Foreigner 4 Deluxe, dropping Sept. 12, is a five-disc CD/Blu-Ray package that includes newly remastered stereo and Atmos remixes of the album. There’s also a whole host of extras, including five previously unreleased songs, early and alternative versions of tracks, instrumentals, and live performances recorded on tour between 1981 and 1982.
Foreigner founder Mick Jones shares that recording 4 “took the better part of two years,” noting the band and producer Mutt Lange felt it “was something that just had to be right.” He adds, “This package, and particularly the stunning Atmos mixes present a spectacular culmination of one of the most exciting periods of my life.”
The deluxe edition will also be released digitally, while the remastered and remixed album will get a vinyl release. All versions are available for preorder now.
Released in 1981, as the album’s title suggests, 4 was Foreigner’s fourth studio album. The title also refers to the band now being a foursome following the departure of Ian McDonald and Al Greenwood.
The album spent four weeks at #1, thanks to top-five hits “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and “Urgent,” as well as the classic tune “Jukebox Hero.” The album has gone on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide and has been certified six-times Platinum in the U.S.
To celebrate the release, Foreigner has announced dates for the Foreigner 4 Deluxe Tour, which will feature original lead singer Lou Gramm joining the band for some songs. The tour kicks off with two nights, Dec. 3 and Dec. 4, in Port Chester, New York, and runs through Dec. 13 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
