Music – Page 161 – 105.7 WDNY

Duran Duran’s John Taylor on Nile Rodgers: ‘I always feel kind of safe when he’s around’

May 28, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Duran Duran recently dropped the new song “Free to Love,” which is their latest collaboration with Chic’s Nile Rodgers.

Bassist John Taylor tells ABC Audio that Nile’s greatest contribution to the song is “this crazy kind of almost Afro, this guitar riff of his.”

“It’s one of those deceptively simple licks that Nile specializes in,” he says. “We get almost the whole song really just sitting on top of this lick of his.”

Duran Duran and Rodgers go way back, first working together in 1984, when Rodgers remixed “The Reflex,” which became the band’s first #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Taylor says back then he was too young to think about how long their relationship may last.

“I just was never thinking that far ahead,” he says. “I knew that I loved Nile’s work, and that there was something very special about Chic and they were very inspirational to Duran Duran, you know, at a very early age.”

“And the first time we met Nile, we just connected,” he adds.

Duran Duran and Rodgers continued to work together over the years, with Rodgers also producing “The Wild Boys” and producing or co-producing several of the band’s albums, including 1986’s Notorious.

“He’s got an extraordinary energy about him,” Taylor says of Rodgers. “We’ve had some big moments together,” adding, “I always feel kind of safe when he’s around.”

Duran Duran will kick off a European tour on June 19 in Denmark. They are also set to headline BST Hyde Park in London on July 5. A complete list of dates can be found at DuranDuran.com.

Tyler Hubbard’s ‘Land’ is an encouraging taste of his next chapter

May 28, 2026 by WDNY Radio

If you happen to be going through a tough time, Tyler Hubbard’s new song, “Land,” may just be the bit of encouragement you need.

“When the rug gets pulled on your best made plans/ It’s how you fall and where you land,” he sings on the track.

“Really, it’s about overcoming obstacles in life,” Tyler says of the new song. “It’s about how you handle curveballs, if you will, and hurdles and speed bumps and all the things along the way.”

“And you know, it also talks about celebrating the good things in life and the successes,” he continues, “but it’s really, I think what makes a man is how you handle and how you overcome the hard, difficult seasons of life.”

“Land” is the beginning of Tyler’s next chapter of music, which is coming soon.

He heads out on the road in September with Dan + Shay on The Young Tour.

Lou Gramm on being back out on the road: ‘I get excited about seeing a large audience’

May 28, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Original Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm is currently on tour and tells ABC Audio that getting out on a stage is something he loves to do.

“I get excited about seeing a large audience,” he says, “and then running out there and starting the first song is incredibly exciting.”

The tour follows the March release of Gramm’s new solo album, Released, which is made up of songs the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer recorded in the 1980s that didn’t make it onto his previous solo albums.

On tour, fans can expect a mix of solo singles like “Midnight Blue,” and Foreigner tunes like “Cold As Ice” and “Hot Blooded,” plus songs from the new album.

As for which new songs he’s most excited to perform, Gramm notes, “They’re all special. I mean, we took 2 1/2 years putting a lot of songs together, and picking songs that sounded the best and different from each other.”

And while Gramm still loves to perform, he does admit that at 76 he’s just not up for long tours anymore.

“I don’t have the stamina, and my mind starts to wander,” he says. “I enjoy playing and I enjoy performing to an audience and it’s a lot of fun, but an hour and a half set is taxing to an old bird like me, you know?”

Gramm is set to play Stamford, Connecticut, on Thursday, with the tour wrapping Oct. 8 in Columbia, South Carolina. A complete list of dates can be found at LouGrammOfficial.com.

‘Hate Me,’ 20 years later: Blue October revisits signature hit with 20th anniversary ‘Foiled’ reissue

May 28, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Blue October will release a vinyl reissue of their 2006 album Foiled on Friday in honor of its 20th anniversary. The original album spawned the single “Hate Me,” which remains Blue October’s signature song.

Speaking with ABC Audio, frontman Justin Furstenfeld recalls his mindset when he was first writing “Hate Me.”

“My initial hopes for the song was to explain why I kept messing up relationships and choosing drugs and dark ways, sick ways of living over normal, healthy girlfriend relationships,” Furstenfeld says.

The vinyl Foiled reissue includes an acoustic version of “Hate Me,” which puts an even greater emphasis on Furstenfeld’s lyrics about cockroaches and porno in between the song’s anthemic chorus.

In recording the acoustic version, Furstenfeld says he was inspired by late country icon Johnny Cash’s famed cover of the Nine Inch Nails song “Hurt.”

“It was just all about the words, and sung down and sung really low with just an acoustic and this rumbling voice,” Furstenfeld says.

Furstenfeld adds that country music has long been a part of his life.

“I grew up on a lot of country music, and dark country, like, cocaine cowboy kinda country,” he says. “And my dad loved it.”

Channeling all that into an acoustic recording of “Hate Me” results in a song Furstenfeld describes as “the one you would hear at a bar where you kinda went, ‘OK, maybe I should chill out.'”

Blue October will be performing Foiled in full on a U.S. tour kicking off in October.

Joe Jonas reveals he ‘crashed and burned’ while auditioning for ‘The Morning Show’

May 28, 2026 by WDNY Radio

When they’re not doing music stuff as Jonas Brothers, Joe Jonas and Nick Jonas also act. But just because they’re famous doesn’t mean they get every part they go up for. In the latest episode of the brothers’ podcast, Hey Jonas!, Joe recalls the time he blew an audition for an Emmy-winning Apple TV series.

Explaining why being early doesn’t always work out, Joe told a story about auditioning for The Morning Show; specifically, for the role of a news anchor who’d be a love interest for one of the show’s stars, Jennifer Aniston. Joe showed up early, so they put him in a private room. But that meant that while he was waiting his turn, he could hear all the other actors auditioning “clear as day” and got intimidated.

“These guys were crushing it,” Joe recalled. “I didn’t bring headphones so I’m just like literally sitting in silence, reading the lines … and I go in and I just, like, crash and burn.” It seems he made the mistake of saying he didn’t need a script, then proceeded to forget all his lines.

When Nick asked him if that was his “worst” audition, Joe mentioned that something similar happened when he tried out for the part of Fiyero in the Wicked movies.

“There were, like, incredible theater vocalists I could hear, clear as day,” Joe recalled. He didn’t get that part either.

Nick then shared that he blew an audition when he met with the director, and asked him who was directing the movie. And Kevin Jonas revealed that when they were younger, he was told to his face, “I can clearly tell you don’t have any acting experience.”

Good thing they’ll always have music to fall back on.

Wyclef Jean explains why he’s kicking off ‘Quantum Leap’ with hip-hop focused ‘Clef Notes’

May 28, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Wyclef Jean has been teasing the first installment of his Quantum Leap series, Clef Notes, the hip-hop focused chapter of the project. He’s already previewed tracks with Rapsody and G Herbo, but there’s more in store. He tells ABC Audio that Andra Day and Lil Wayne also appear on the album, which pays tribute to the genre that launched his career.

“Starting it with hip-hop is like paying tribute to what made me who I am today. Coming to America from the islands, growing up in a project, you know, started off [with] church music and a jazz major and found myself through hip-hop. If it wasn’t hip-hip I wouldn’t be here, so it’s important,” he explains.

He says the project will first spotlight his lyrical genius before reminding fans of his production style.

“I know y’all haven’t heard me produce in a minute, so this is back to that Wyclef production,” he says. “1996 mixed with 2030, the sonics are crazy. Y’all gonna love it.”

Clef Notes is scheduled to arrive on June 26, marking the first of Quantum Leap, a seven-album series Wyclef will release over the next year, each centered on a genre that’s shaped him as an artist. He hopes listeners take away at least one message from the ambitious project: “never put yourself in a box.”

“When you listen to seven albums or you listen to one album, always remember once somebody starts categorizing y’all and saying, ‘Oh, you’re this, or you’re that, or you’re this,’ no, I am all things. Like, why you trying to belittle me? That’s what I want y’all to get out of that,” he says.

“Mr. October” featuring G Herbo, the lead single off Clef Notes, is due out Friday.

AWOLNATION side project The Barbarians of California announce new album

May 27, 2026 by WDNY Radio

The Barbarians of California, AWOLNATION frontman Aaron Bruno’s hardcore side project, have announced a new album.

The record is called MEGATONS and is due out Aug. 21. It’s the sophomore follow-up to the 2024 Barbarians debut, And Now I’m Just Gnashing My Teeth.

“Everyone has heard of the sophomore slump,” says Barbarians member Eric Stenman. “Making a second album can be a fraught process full of overthinking and self-doubt. Perhaps, the benefit of us starting this band, at this later point in our lives, relieves some of that pressure. This felt so easy, and is a seamless continuation of whatever we started with the first batch of song — just bigger and better.”

MEGATONS includes the previously released songs “VANILLA LATTE,” “BOMB TO A KNIFE FIGHT” and “MODERN FASHION.” A fourth cut, titled “THE GNARLYCORE CLASS,” is out now.

The Barbarians will be opening for two dates on Guns N’ Roses upcoming tour in August and September. They’re also playing a run of headlining shows in September.

AWOLNATION’s most recent album is 2024’s The Phantom Five.

Bret Michaels performing at Freedom 250 Great American State Fair in Washington, DC

May 27, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Poison frontman Bret Michael is performing at the Freedom 250 Great American State Fair, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States.

The festival takes place June 25 through July 10 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Admission is free.

The lineup also includes Flo Rida, Morris Day & The Time, Vanilla Ice, Milli Vanilli, The Commodores, Young MC and C+C Music Factory.

For more info, visit the Freedom 250 Instagram.

Music notes: Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran and more

May 27, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Ariana Grande has announced that the video for her new single, “hate that i made you love me,” will be out Monday at 11 a.m. ET. She’s posted a snippet of her riding in the back seat of a car, driven by a desperate-looking guy. Just as the video ends, we hear her sing one word of the song: “I.” The song itself drops Friday.

In other Ariana Grande news, her Wicked co-star Cynthia Erivo tells Variety that during the seemingly endless press tours for the two films, “I think that people didn’t really believe that we were actually friends. But that’s also because people don’t know me very well. If I’m a friend, then I’m a friend.” According to Cynthia, she and Ari still text “almost every day.”

For the eighth time in 11 years, Ed Sheeran is the most-played artist across radio, TV and public places in the U.K. According to PPL, which licenses the use of recorded music in that country, Ed’s songs are played an average of 574 times per day, or 24 times per hour.

In her song “Adult Size Medium,” Hilary Duff sings, “Was it a sip of wine or Aperol?” So it’s not surprising that the orange apéritif is now an official sponsor of her upcoming lucky me tour. That means there will be Aperol Spritz Day Club pre-show experiences at select tour venues, bars and restaurants in cities Hilary visits. Plus, fans in select cities who are 21 and over can enter to win tickets to the show by registering at aperolsharethemoment.com.

BLACKPINK’s dance video for “How You Like That” has hit 2 billion views; it’s their third video to hit that milestone, following “Kill This Love” and “DDU-DU DDU-DU.”

Madonna describes the ‘most respectful way’ to listen to new album, ‘Confessions II’

May 27, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Madonna wrote on Instagram Wednesday of her new album, “Confessions II is a love letter to dance music and to all the spaces and communities that create it or enjoy it. The dance floor isn’t about a specific space or building, it’s wherever we gather to dance, celebrate and connect.” But in the same post, she recommends that when listening to the album, people not gather together.

To promote the album, Madonna has teamed with Bilt.com, which helps members earn rewards based on their monthly housing payments. In a video to promote the partnership, Madonna is asked to describe the “ideal way” fans should listen to Confessions II.

“By yourself, with nobody around and no distractions, from start to finish,” she replies. “That’s the most respectful way to listen to the album.”

As part of her Bilt partnership, Madonna is offering Bilt members a version of the album with exclusive artwork. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the partnership is that Bilt is paying one month of studio rent for every musician who is currently leasing space at The Music Building, a rehearsal space in midtown Manhattan where Madonna lived when she was a struggling artist with no money.

She says in a statement, “As much as I struggled when I showed up here with nothing, I look back very fondly on this time in my life. The creativity, diversity and community of artists all supporting each other while having the freedom to experiment is something I would have never experienced in another place.”

Members will also have a chance to win rent payments of up to $2,500.

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