Flea at 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. (Disney/Ser Baffo)
Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea is set to perform on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The episode will air March 23 at 11:35 p.m. ET/10:35 p.m. CT on NBC.
The performance comes ahead of Flea’s debut solo album, Honora, dropping on March 27. The record features Flea playing his signature instrument along with the trumpet, which he showcases on an instrumental cover of the Frank Ocean song “Thinkin Bout You.”
Honora also includes collaborations with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Nick Cave.
Cover of George Thorogood & The Destroyers’ ‘The Baddest Show on Earth: Greatest Hits Live’ (Craft Recordings)
George Thorogood & The Destroyers have been performing live for over 50 years, and now a new compilation album is highlighting some of their iconic performances.
The Baddest Show on Earth: Greatest Hits Live, dropping June 12, will feature live performances that span from 1978 to 2024, many of which have never been released before.
The collection includes performances of such classic Thorogood tracks as “Who Do You Love,” “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer,” “Bad to the Bone” and “Move It on Over.” As a preview of the album, a previously unreleased performance of “Who Do You Love” from a 1980 concert in Atlanta is now available via digital outlets.
The Baddest Show on Earth: Greatest Hits Live will be released in a variety of formats, with the LP release featuring four previously unreleased tracks, and the CD and digital releases featuring eight previously unreleased performances. There will also be a yellow vinyl pressing, sold exclusively at Barnes & Noble, and a blazing Red Smoke vinyl, available on Thorogood’s website.
George Thorogood & The Destroyers are currently on a Canadian tour and will play Enoch on Thursday. Their next U.S. show is March 25 in Duluth, Minnesota.
Admat for Gov’t Mule’s Island Exodus 16 (Courtesy of Gov’t Mule)
After having to postpone their Island Exodus 16 this year due to hurricane damage, Gov’t Mule has announced dates for the rescheduled festival, happening in 2027.
Island Exodus 16 will now take place Jan. 17-21, 2027, at Hideaway at Royalton Blue Waters Montego Bay in Trelawny, Jamaica.
The lineup for the 2027 edition will be exactly the same as the planned lineup for 2026. It will include three two-set shows from Gov’t Mule, with guitarist John Scofield sitting in with the band as a special guest. It will also feature Mule frontman Warren Haynes headlining a special afternoon solo show.
Other artists on the bill include moe. and Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country doing two shows each.
The festival will include a whole host of events, including a Q&A with Haynes, a cornhole tournament, yoga, beach tie-dye and more.
Presale for previous Island Exodus attendees opens March 30, with reservations open to the general public April 1 at 10 a.m. ET.
Gov’t Mule launched the annual Island Exodus back in 2010. The 2025 festival also featured three two-set beachfront concerts from Gov’t Mule, plus a headlining afternoon solo set from Haynes. Other artists on the bill included Drive-By Truckers, Karina Rykman, Big Sugar and Ron Holloway.
Artwork for Paul McCartney’s ‘Words + Music’ episode, ‘The Man on the Run (courtesy of Audible)
Paul McCartney is the latest artist to take part in Audible’s Words + Music series.
The latest episode, The Man on The Run, expands on the recent McCartney documentary Man on the Run, which covers his post-Beatles career, including the formation of Wings. The Audible episode is centered around interviews between McCartney and the film’s director, Morgan Neville. It also features musical performances.
“I don’t normally spend a lot of time looking back but I was flattered when Morgan said he was interested in this period,” says McCartney. “The first bit of Wings was quite hard work and not very rewarding, but eventually we got some songs under our belts that were hits.”
He adds, “Morgan got me to think about stuff I hadn’t thought about for a long time. He was asking all the right questions and I was happy to be transported back.”
In a clip posted on Instagram, McCartney talks about rekindling his relationship with John Lennon following the breakup of The Beatles, noting they started talking again after Lennon welcomed son Sean Lennon, with the conversations centered around every day things like kids and even baking bread.
“The things that we had in common were just ordinary, little domestic things,” McCartney says. “So, somehow that was peaceful. It was nice that we had that in common. And we weren’t fighting anymore.”
The three-hour The Man on the Run installment is available now. The Man on the Run documentary is currently streaming on Prime Video.
Previous installments of the Words + Music series featured such artists as James Taylor, Elvis Costello, Eddie Vedder, Alanis Morissette and Sting.
Queen and Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers performed together at Nelson Mandela’s 46664 charity concert in George, South Africa.
While the two acts had previously collaborated for Queen’s October 2004 induction into the U.K. Music Hall of Fame, the Mandela concert marked the public debut of what was dubbed Queen + Paul Rodgers.
They performed Queen classics “We Are The Champions,” “We Will Rock You,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love and “Radio Gaga,” as well as the Bad Company tracks “Can’t Get Enough,” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” as well as “All Right Now,” by Rodgers’ former band, Free.
That same year, Queen + Paul Rodgers launched a world tour, which hit North America in 2006.
Queen released one album with Rodgers, The Cosmos Rocks, in 2008, followed by the Rock The Cosmos tour.
The collaboration between Queen and Rodgers ended in 2009, when Rodgers left to reunite with Bad Company.
Billy Corgan performs at Madame ZuZu’s on August 31, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Mireya Acierto/Getty Images)
Billy Corgan has been named to the board of directors of Chicago’s Lyric opera house.
“Thank you to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for the great honour and distinction of being invited to join Lyric’s Board of Directors,” the Smashing Pumpkins frontman writes in an Instagram post. “I personally aim to make the Lyric, our great opera house of Chicago, the most exciting and dynamic opera house in the world.”
Corgan previously performed at the Lyric in 2025 with a series of shows celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1995 Pumpkins album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. In a video accompanying his post, Corgan calls his shows at the Lyric “one of the most exciting moments of my life.”
Also in the video, Corgan mentions a “fine young actor” who “sort of attacked the arts obliquely, saying nobody cared,” presumably referring to Timothée Chalamet’s recent comments about the opera and ballet.
“But if want to be part of the change, if you want to be part of the restoration of the arts in America, then you have to lean in, and of course you have to support,” Corgan says.
Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready at 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. (Disney/Cristian Lopez)
Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready is releasing a new graphic novel called Farewell to Seasons, which is set in the Seattle music scene of ’80s and ’90s. It will be accompanied by a soundtrack of original music, which McCready tells ABC Audio he wanted to sound like “my version of a rock opera.”
“I wanted to push myself to be able to write something that’s specifically about something,” McCready says. “Not just a song, but a whole story.”
While he’s known for shredding songs like “Even Flow” and “Alive,” Farewell to Seasons showcases another aspect of McCready’s musical repertoire.
“I wanted to write something where I sang on it,” McCready says. “To be honest with you, I took four years of singing lessons and I wanted it to be good, so I’ve been working on it for a long time. And I feel really good about it now.”
The Farewell to Seasons soundtrack is presented as a piece written by David Williams, a character in the graphic novel. To bring that to life, McCready recorded with musicians including Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, Stefan Lessard of Dave Matthews Band, drummers Mike Musburger, Chris Friel and Nate Yaccino, and vocalist Molly Sides.
“It’s not necessarily any genre really,” McCready says. “It’s just, I want it to be part of the mythology of the story.”
Farewell to Seasons and its soundtrack are due out in October, and are available to preorder now. As for McCready’s day job, he says Pearl Jam is still looking to find a new drummer following the 2025 departure of Matt Cameron.
“The four of us are ready to keep doing stuff, but we don’t have anybody in line right now,” McCready says. “I’m excited when that happens, because we’ll get right into it when we do.”
Cover of 1973’s ‘Buckingham Nicks’/(Rhino Records)
Back in September, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks reissued their only studio album as a duo, 1973’s Buckingham Nicks. In a new video, Buckingham explains why he felt the time was right for the rerelease.
In a video posted to Buckingham’s social media accounts, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer calls the reissue “a pleasant surprise on a number of levels.”
“We had talked about releasing it a couple of times earlier in maybe the 10 or so years previous and couldn’t really agree on anything,” he says. “But I think you have to look at the timing of it as something that perhaps was meant to be. That now, as we sort of have evolved into this point in our respective careers and lives, I think both Stevie and I are able to appreciate the arcs that we’ve both experienced individually and together for 50-something years.”
He says the reaction to it “was just a completion of the circle, a completion of the karma.”
“And there’s just a lot of good energy flying around anyway in both our lives, and even the way we’re beginning to interact again,” he says, referring to his previous estrangement from Nicks. “And so I think the timing of the release of Buckingham Nicks was right and seems to be resonant with what’s going on in our lives.”
While Buckingham Nicks wasn’t a commercial success, shortly after the release Mick Fleetwood heard a track from the album and was so impressed he invited Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham insisted his then-girlfriend Nicks come with him, and the pair officially joined the band on New Year’s Eve 1974.
‘Your Favorite Toy’ album artwork. (Roswell Records/RCA Records)
Foo Fighters are teasing a new song from their upcoming album, Your FavoriteToy.
The track is called “Caught in the Echo” and will arrive Friday. You can hear a 30-second preview now via the Foos’ Facebook.
“Caught in the Echo,” which opens the album, will be the third cut to be released off of Your Favorite Toy, following the single “Asking for a Friend” and the title track. The record will arrive in full on April 24.
Foo Fighters will play a one-off show in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on April 28, followed by headlining sets at the Welcome to Rockville and BottleRock Napa festivals in May. They’ll launch a full North American stadium tour in August.
The Zombies’ ‘Odessey and Oracle’/Beechwood Park Records
Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and The Zombies are among the nominees for the 2026 Libera Awards, which celebrate the best in independent music.
Byrne is recognized in the best pop record category for his 2025 solo album, Who Is the Sky? The Zombies have earned a nomination in the best reissue category for Odessey and Oracle: Mono Remastered, the 2025 reissue of their 1967 sophomore album, which includes their iconic track “Time of the Season.”
“We’re truly honoured to be part of this year’s celebration,” The Zombies wrote on Instagram. The band is also releasing a mono remaster of their 1965 debut album, Begin Here,on April 17.
The 2026 Libera Awards will take place June 8 in New York City.
