Metallica‘s new single, “Lux Æterna,” has debuted at #2 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, the best start for any song on the ranking in over 15 years.
The last track to bow that high on Mainstream Rock Airplay was Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ “Dani California,” which also debuted at #2 back in 2006.
With “Lux Æterna,” Metallica now has 25 top-10 entries on Mainstream Rock Airplay, 10 of which hit #1.
“Lux Æterna” is the lead single off Metallica’s upcoming album 72 Seasons. The follow-up to 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct arrives April 14.
Metallica will support 72 Seasons on a world tour in 2023 and 2024, featuring completely different set lists across multiple shows in each city.
Stevie Nicks usually takes to social media to comment on world events, politics or major personal news. For example, she mourned the loss of her bandmate Christine McVie in a lengthy post. But now she’s been moved to do a special post praising the acceptance speech delivered by Lizzo at the People’s Choice Awards earlier this week.
While accepting The People’s Champion trophy, Grammy winner Lizzo told the crowd, “I don’t need a trophy for championing people … to be an icon isn’t about how long you’ve had your platform. Being an icon is what you do with that platform.”
She then brought a group of female activists onstage — 17 in all — and individually highlighted their work, which encompassed transgender and female rights, the rights of Indigenous peoples, anti-gun violence organizations and more. Images of each woman were also shown on video screens around the stage.
“Give them their flowers,” the “About Damn Time” singer concluded. “Power will always be to the people … follow them and support them.”
Stevie was so moved by Lizzo’s speech that she wrote on her socials, “Dearest Lizzo … your presentation … was not only so beautiful and so needed, that you get the award for being a great woman of our time.”
“I was so impressed and so touched that you put that together and pulled it off,” Stevie continued. “It was stunning, and everyone heard you. You have given all women soundbites forever — flute player, singer, songwriter, future politician…?”
Stevie concluded, “Your name is in the stars now.”
So far, Lizzo hasn’t responded to Stevie’s kind words.
Iggy Pop is causing a “Frenzy” on the Billboard charts.
The Godfather of Punk’s latest single enters the Mainstream Rock Airplay tally this week at #38 and, in doing so, sets a new record for the longest gap between appearances on that particular ranking.
Pop last charted on Mainstream Rock Airplay in 1991 with his song “Candy,” a collaboration with Kate Pierson of The B-52‘s. It took him 31 years, nine months and two weeks to get back on the chart.
The previous high-water mark for longest gap in between Mainstream Rock Airplay appearances was actually just set earlier this year by Jeff Beck. The guitar virtuoso waited 28 years and four months in between charting in 1994 with a cover of Jimi Hendrix‘s “Manic Depression” with Seal and returning in 2022 with his guest spot on Ozzy Osbourne‘s “Patient Number 9.”
“Frenzy” is the lead single off Pop’s upcoming album, Every Loser, due out January 6. The Andrew Watt-produced record features Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, Blink-182‘s Travis Barker, Jane’s Addiction‘s Dave Navarro and Eric Avery, Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard, ex-RHCP guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
If Iggy is celebrating his Billboard achievement, it probably won’t be with his signature move. In a recent interview with NME, the 75-year-old rocker shares he’s now “too rickety” for stage dives.
The band has canceled the remainder of their Deuces Are Wild Las Vegas residency — two shows, scheduled for Thursday night and this Sunday — due to frontman Steven Tyler‘s ongoing illness. “On the advice of doctors, Steven has to sit these out,” the band wrote on Instagram. Tickets will be refunded.
The band had already scrapped the December 2 and 5 shows of the residency at Dolby Live theater at Park MGM due to Tyler’s undisclosed illness. At the time, Tyler, 74, said on Instagram, “On the advice of my doctor, I’m taking more time to rest… there is nowhere we’d rather be than on stage surrounded by the greatest fans in the world.”
In May, Aerosmith canceled their June and July Las Vegas residency shows so that Tyler could “voluntarily” enter rehab, with the band explaining at the time that he’d relapsed after using pain medication following foot surgery.
Following their successful North American stadium tour this past year, Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe are ready to rock the entire planet with their co-headlining 2023 The World Tour — and they’ve just announced that the U.S. will be a part of it.
As previously reported, the two bands will start 2023 with two shows in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in February, and will then launch a series of European and Latin American dates. They’ll bring the tour to the U.S. starting August 5 in Syracuse, New York, and wrap up August 18 in El Paso, Texas. Alice Cooper is the special guest on all dates.
“We had an incredible time playing The Stadium Tour in North America this summer and we truly can’t wait to take the show around the globe with The WORLD Tour in 2023,” Mötley Crüe said in a joint statement. “Crüeheads get ready because we have a few amazing U.S. dates set for you!”
The general onsale date is Friday, December 16, at 10 a.m. local time via motley.com and defleppard.com. Citi cardmembers can access a presale starting December 13 at 10 a.m. local time via citientertainment.com.
The global outing follows Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard’s 2022 U.S. Stadium Tour, which also featured Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts on the bill.
Crüe guitarist Mick Mars announced in October that he’s retiring from touring. Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 will take his place for the upcoming shows.
Even though Elton John‘s ending his touring career, he’ll continue to make music. In fact, he believes he’ll never have writer’s block and will always be able to come up with new songs, because he’s just so much better than everyone else.
During a conversation with Elton, his husband, David Furnish, and ex-Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele about fashion, creativity and philanthropy for Saks Live Events, Furnish tells Elton he’s amazed that he and other musicians haven’t “run out of notes” yet when it comes to writing songs, since there are only a finite amount of them.
“Somebody will run out of notes, but I won’t,” Elton declares. “Most people will run out of notes, but I will not — because I just have faith … that something will happen.”
“Also I’m a better musician than most people,” he boasts. “I’m a piano player, so … I don’t just use three or four chords.” He then admits, “I know it sounds really egotistical to say that, but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think that.”
Elton also dismisses American musicians’ fashion sense, saying they “never really got it as far as dressing [up onstage].” “American rock ‘n’ roll acts were usually just very boring to look at. They were just like, ‘Oh, God,'” he added, rolling his eyes for effect.
The exceptions, he notes, were Sly & the Family Stone and Earth, Wind & Fire — “people like that.”
So why are Brits so much better at fashion? “It’s a British tradition,” he explains. “You look at the great British singers like Mick Jagger and Bowie and Marc Bolan and Rod Stewart and Freddie Mercury … they dressed up and they were flamboyant. It’s a theatrical thing in England … and we were raised in Britain to love that kind of stuff.”
Interest in the Beatles on film is at an all-time high thanks to Peter Jackson‘s eight-hour Disney+ documentaryThe Beatles: Get Back. That’s why New York’s Paley Center for the Media is hosting an event called From Paperback Writer to the Rooftop Concert: Directing The Beatles.
The event, which takes place Wednesday night, is a conversation with Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who directed the original 1970 Let It Be film that Jackson expanded and reworked, as well as the music videos for “Paperback Writer,” “Rain” and “Revolution.”
Lindsay-Hogg will be joined by The Beatles: Get Back producer Jonathan Clyde of Apple Corps, Rolling Stone‘s Rob Sheffield and Beatles academic Dr. Holly Tessler of the University of Liverpool.
The videos, as well as highlights from the Beatles’ 1969 rooftop concert — their last public performance — will be screened, and the panelists will discuss the Fab Four’s groundbreaking use of visual media to complement their music.
If you can’t make it to New York City on such short notice, the discussion will be posted on the Paley Center’s official YouTube channel for your viewing pleasure.
The South by Southwest Music Festival is known for spotlighting emerging artists, but one of the festival’s showcase artists this year has been making records for nearly 60 years.
The Zombies are one of the more than 300 artists announced Wednesday as performers at next year’s edition of the legendary Austin, Texas, festival, which will run March 13 through March 18. The Zombies are from England, of course, but the lineup features acts from all over the world, from Australia, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine, Norway and Colombia to New Zealand, Denmark, Argentina, Nigeria and Japan.
Also included on the list is Painted Shield, the side project of Pearl Jam‘s Stone Gossard. Their debut album, featuring Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and drummers Josh Freese and Matt Chamberlain, came out in the past few years.
The music festival is part of the larger South by Southwest Conference, which includes TV, movie and comedy festivals, as well as panels and exhibits covering everything from technology and food to climate change, the gaming industry, marketing, transportation, the cannabis industry and more.
It must be hard to play in a band, manage that band and file lawsuits against your fellow bandmates at the same time.
Journey‘s Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain, who were both jointly managing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group, have decided to step back from that role, Billboard reports.
Schon and Cain have handed the reins over to Def Leppard‘s manager, Mike Kobayashi, who confirms he was “just hired,” according to Billboard. While the band has been a cash cow on the road, raking in $40 million this year, Cain and Schon have been embroiled in a legal squabble over expenses.
As previously reported, Schon is suing Cain for setting up a band American Express card without his knowledge, while Cain denies that and claims that Schon has been “running up enormous personal charges on the band’s credit card account.” That lawsuit is pending, but it’s not the only recent legal dispute involving the band.
As Billboard notes, in September, former lead singer Steve Perry sued to stop Schon and Cain from trademarking the names of the band’s hits. And in 2020, Schon and Cain sued bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith, accusing them of trying to get control of the band’s name. The lawsuit was settled in 2021, and Valory and Smith left the band.
Amid all these issues, it’s no wonder Journey needs someone to look after their affairs, especially since the band’s 50th anniversary Freedom tour is set to kick off February 4 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
The legal saga over Nirvana‘s Nevermind cover artwork reportedly has a new chapter.
According to Spin, Spencer Elden has filed an appeal after his lawsuit against the grunge rockers was dismissed in September. The suit, which was first filed in August 2021, alleges that the cover of the band’s hit 1991 album, featuring a photo of a then-4-month-old Elden swimming naked underwater while reaching for a dollar bill, constitutes child pornography.
Surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic were named as defendants in suit, along with late frontman Kurt Cobain and his widow, Courtney Love, as well as the Nevermind cover photographer and various record labels.
The suit was initially dismissed in January of this year, after which Elden filed an amended complaint. It was then dismissed again in September, with the judge citing the expired statute of limitations.
In Elden’s appeal, his lawyers argue that the case should not have been dismissed for statute of limitations reasons, since Elden continues to suffer from “extreme ongoing psychic or emotional injury for which he is entitled to damages and an injunction.”
“Courts have repeatedly held that distribution of child pornography infringes a victim’s dignity interests no matter the victim’s age at the time of distribution,” the appeal reads.
Nirvana’s attorneys have not yet responded to the appeal. In previous request to dismiss, they’ve called Elden’s suit “not serious” and “absurd.”
