Former President Barack Obama has unveiled the 2022 edition of his annual summer playlist.
Among the 44 songs that made the cut are Obama pal Bruce Springsteen‘s “Dancing in the Dark” as well as tunes by several other veteran artists, including Prince‘s “Let’s Go Crazy,” Otis Redding‘s “I’ve Been Loving You,” Joe Cocker‘s “Feelin’ Alright” and The Spinners‘ “Mighty Love.”
“Every year, I get excited to share my summer playlist because I learn about so many new artists from your replies,” Obama says in a post on his social media sites. “It’s an example of how music really can bring us all together.”
The eclectic playlist also includes songs by Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Dr. John, Miles Davis, Beyoncé, Lyle Lovett, Drake with Rihanna, Jack White, Nina Simone, Dave Brubeck, Kendrick Lamar, Kacey Musgraves, Harry Styles and Maren Morris.
Slash is bringing his shredding chops to the advertising world.
The Guns N’ Roses rocker is featured in a new Capital One commercial in which the spokesperson declares that working with the bank is the “easiest decision in the history of decisions,” even easier than, say, letting Slash join your band.
Cut to Slash jamming the GN’R classic “Sweet Child o’ Mine” for a stunned young band holding auditions for a guitarist.
The commercial follows a similar Capital One ad that features a kid picking NBA legend Charles Barkley to be on their pickup basketball team.
Meanwhile, you can hear “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” as well as several other GN’R tunes, in the new MCU movie Thor: Love and Thunder.
Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
Details have been unveiled about the 2022 Farm Aid festival, which will take place on Saturday, September 24 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
As usual, the event will be headlined by Farm Aid board members John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Dave Matthews, who’ll be playing with his longtime collaborator Tim Reynolds.
Co-founding Farm Aid board member Neil Young, who missed the 2021 concert because of COVID-19-related concerns, is also skipping this year’s festival.
“I don’t think it is safe in the pandemic,” he wrote in a post on his official website. “I miss it very much.”
Other performers confirmed for the 2022 Farm Aid event include Sheryl Crow, Chris Stapleton, Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real and Margo Price.
Farm Aid 2022 will take place at Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek. This year’s festival will showcase how farmers are working to alleviate climate change.
“Farmers in North Carolina, across the Southeast, and all over the country are growing solutions to our toughest challenges, including climate change,” says Farm Aid President Willie Nelson. “We’re bringing Farm Aid here to highlight their hard work and celebrate the ways we can all join farmers to help.”
Tickets go on sale to the general public this Saturday, July 30 at 10 a.m. ET via LiveNation.com, while a limited amount of pre-sale tickets will be available starting this Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET. at FarmAid.org/Festival. In addition, a Live Nation pre-sale will begin Thursday, July 28 at 10 a.m. ET.
Farm Aid 2022 will be viewable at FarmAid.org and Farm Aid’s YouTube channel as well as live on the Circle network and on its social media sites.
Kate Bush‘s “Running Up That Hill” keeps on running up that chart. Specifically, the Billboard Hot 100.
The English artist’s 1985 single, which has seen a massive resurgence over the past two months thanks to its inclusion in the latest season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, has now reached #3 on the all-genre ranking, previously beating its previous peak of #4.
The latest jump gives Bush the highest-charting Hot 100 single of her career, after “Running Up That Hill” previously became her first top-10 and top-five hit on the tally.
In Bush’s home country, “Running Up That Hill” hit #1 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart, breaking several records along the way.
The newfound success of ”Running Up That Hill” led the normally press-shy Bush to publish several public statements and even give a rare interview.
After a mysterious tease earlier this week, Green Day has indeed announced an intimate Lollapalooza aftershow.
The punk rockers will play Chicago’s Metro concert hall this Friday, July 29. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, July 27 at 11 a.m. CT.
The 1,100-capacity Metro is a much smaller venue than the one Green Day played when they last hit the Windy City: A little place called Wrigley Field. Billie Joe Armstrong and company headlined stadiums across the U.S. last summer on their Hella Mega tour with Fall Out Boy and Weezer.
Lollapalooza takes place July 28-31 in Chicago’s Grant Park, with Green Day scheduled to headline the final day. The lineup also includes Metallica, Machine Gun Kelly, Måneskin, Porno for Pyros, Glass Animals, Turnstile and Wallows.
Elton John, Madonna and Red Hot Chili Peppers are among the nominees for the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards.
Elton has received two nods thanks to his hit collaboration with British pop star Dua Lipa, “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix),” which is up for Song of the Year and Best Collaboration.
Madonna’s Madame X documentary and concert film will compete for the Best Longform Video prize.
The Chili Peppers, meanwhile, have been nominated in the Best Rock category for their “Black Summer” video.
Scoring the most MTV VMA nominations were rappers Kendrick Lamar, Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow, who each tallied seven nods. You can check out the full list of nominees at MTV.com.
The 2022 MTV VMAs take place August 28. Voting is now open at Vote.MTV.com.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell has been busy this year touring with his own band The Dirty Knobs, whose second album, External Combustion, was released in March.
Since Tom Petty‘s unexpected death at age 67 in October 2017, Campbell hasn’t played with most of his Heartbreakers band mates, but would he consider eventually doing a reunion project or tour with the guys? In a recent interview with ABC Audio, the 72-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer admitted that he had mixed feelings about that.
“I go back and forth. I’m not really feeling it right now,” Campbell said. “I’m still grieving, and I still feel uncomfortable with the idea of getting all the guys in a room…and starting a song and Tom’s not there. I don’t know if I want to feel that grief at this moment.”
Mike also noted that he was busy with The Dirty Knobs now and he “wouldn’t want to distract from [that].”
Campbell added that he wouldn’t absolutely say “no” to some kind of reunion, “but right now it doesn’t look like it.”
He continued, “I don’t want to mess with the past…I’m really proud of our legacy, and I don’t want to cheapen it by going out with some…homogenized version of what it was. And without Tom, I don’t care who’s singing, it wouldn’t be the same.”
Campbell also pointed out that The Dirty Knobs have been honoring Petty by playing several of Tom’s songs at their concerts this year.
“[T]hat’s where I get that out of my system,” he maintained.
The Dirty Knobs’ upcoming 2022 tour schedule includes a bunch of headlining shows, some festivals, four gigs opening for Gov’t Mule in early October, and seven concerts in October and November supporting The Who.
Bob Rafelson, the director, producer and writer best known for co-creating The Monkees TV series and helming the 1970 film Five Easy Pieces, “died peacefully, surrounded by his family” Saturday evening at his home in Aspen, Colorado, his former personal assistant, Jolene Wolff, tells Variety.
In 1965, Rafelson teamed up with fellow aspiring filmmaker Bert Schneider — who died in 2011 — to form the Raybert Productions company, whose first project was a comedy show that followed a fabricated rock group seemingly modeled on The Beatles. The series, which ran from 1966 to 1968, was initially a huge success, as were several of the albums that the band created for the show released.
In 1968, Rafelson directed and co-wrote, with Jack Nicholson, the movie Head, which starred The Monkees. Raybert Productions also produced the classic 1969 counterculture film Easy Rider.
Rafelson directed, co-wrote and co-produced Five Easy Pieces, which starred Nicholson and scored four Oscar nominations.
Rafelson also co-wrote and/or directed a number of other films starring Nicholson, including 1972’s The King of Marvin Gardens and 1981’s The Postman Always Rings Twice.
In addition, he directed the music video for Lionel Richie‘s 1983 hit “All Night Long (All Night).”
Monkees member Micky Dolenz paid homage to Rafelson in a Facebook post that reads in part, “One day in the spring of 1966, I cut my classes in architecture at LA Trade Tech to take an audition for a new TV show called, The Monkees … Needless-to-say, I got the part and it completely altered my life…Regrettably, Bob passed away last night after a long illness but I did get a chance to send him a message telling him how eternally grateful I was that he saw something in me.”
Eddie Vedder‘s Ohana Encore, the companion weekend to the Pearl Jam frontman’s Ohana Festival, has been canceled.
No official announcement was made, but the Ohana website no longer lists the Encore event. Additionally, the festival’s FAQ section states that tickets that have been purchased for Ohana Encore will be automatically refunded.
According to Spin.com, ticketholders received an email saying that Ohana Encore was canceled due to “circumstances beyond our control.”
Ohana Encore was set to take place October 8-9 in Dana Point, California, and was to have featured headlining performances by Vedder and Alanis Morissette on the first day, and The Black Keys and HAIM on the second.
Ohana Festival, meanwhile, will be held in Dana Point from September 30 to October 2, and will include performances by Vedder, Stevie Nicks, Pink, founding Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and his current group The Dirty Knobs, Jack White, St. Vincent and Brittany Howard.
In a tweet Monday, the punk rockers shared an image of the American Idiot heart grenade surrounded by a nearly whole circle.
While fans in the comments are hoping that the mysterious post is hinting at new music, it seems to be teasing an announcement for an intimate Lollapalooza aftershow around Green Day’s upcoming headlining set at the Chicago festival.
The same image was also tweeted by Lolla, while the Chicago club Metro tweeted, “Now might be a good time to be signed up for the Metro newsletter…Just sayin.” The Metro logo also features the same almost-circle in Green Day’s post.
Lollapalooza takes place July 28-31, with Green Day scheduled to headline the final day. The lineup also includes Metallica, Machine Gun Kelly, Måneskin, Porno for Pyros, Glass Animals, Turnstile and Wallows.
