Accept ‘Teutonic Titans 1976–2026’ album artwork. (Napalm Records)
Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett and Ghost frontman Tobias Forge are among the artists featured on an upcoming compilation celebrating the 50th anniversary of the German metal band Accept.
Titled Teutonic Titans 1976–2026, the set is due out Sept. 4, and features 50 guests contributing to 19 reimagined versions of Accept songs.
“There is no better way to celebrate this 50-year anniversary than to have our musical peers, friends, and inspirations come together with us to record these classic ACCEPT songs, which I am honored and proud to share with the World,” says guitarist Wolf Hoffmann. “I hope everyone enjoys this very special record as much as we all enjoyed making it.”
Other guests include Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo and Fozzy vocalist Chris Jericho.
In related news, Tobias Forge is also featured on the upcoming new album from “The Final Countdown” band Europe. The record, titled Come This Madness, is due out Sept. 25.
Stewart Copeland is interviewed by Katie Puckrik at Shoreditch Town Hall during SXSW London 2025 on June 03, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Lorne Thomson/Redferns)
The Police drummer Stewart Copeland has added more shows to his Have I Said Too Much – The Police, Hollywood, and Other Adventures spoken word tour.
The trek, Copeland’s first North American spoken word tour, was initially supposed to hit 34 cities this summer, but has been extended into the fall and will now visit 53 cities.
The new dates begin Oct. 28 in Thousand Oaks, California, with stops including Tucson, Arizona; Boulder and Denver, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; Detroit; and Homer and Bethel, New York. The tour will wrap Nov. 22 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The show is described as an evening of conversation with Copeland. It will include photos and videos, along with a Q&A.
An artist presale for the new dates begins Thursday at 10 a.m. local time, with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
Have I Said Too Much – The Police, Hollywood, and Other Adventures launches June 3 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. A complete list of dates can be found at StewartCopeland.net.
ERNEST is set to make his Today show debut Wednesday during the 10 a.m. hour, ahead of the release of his third studio album, Deep Blue, on Friday.
Opry Live will start airing every Saturday on RFD-TV beginning May 9 at 9 p.m. ET. You’ll also be able to see Circle Sessions starting Friday, May 8, at 9:30 p.m. ET.
A limited number of premium seats for Garth Brooks’ June 16-17 Summerfest concerts at American Family Insurance Amphitheater in Milwaukee will go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m. CT.
Zara Larsson, Greek Theatre show (Charlotte Rutherford)
Not only can you buy Zara Larsson’s new album, Midnight Sun: Girls Trip, on Friday, you can also buy tickets to a special concert she just announced for September.
Zara will play a special show at LA’s legendary Greek Theatre on Sept. 29. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, but presales start Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT. You can sign up now for presale access at Laylo.com.
As previously reported, Zara’s album is a reimagining of her album Midnight Sun, partly inspired by Charli XCX’s Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat. Among the guest artists on the album: Shakira, Robyn, PinkPantheress, Madison Beer, Kehlani, JT and Tyla.
On April 29, Zara will be honored with the Breakthrough Award at Billboard’s Women in Music ceremony in LA. She currently has three songs on the Billboard Hot 100: her remix of “Stateside” with PinkPantheress, “Midnight Sun” and her viral 2015 song “Lush Life.”
Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney perform live on stage during a concert at the Kesselhaus on August 17, 2024 in Berlin, Germany. (Frank Hoensch/Redferns)
Sleater-Kinney and Liz Phair are teaming up for a co-headlining tour.
The joint trek, dubbed The Flannel and the Fury tour, launches Sept. 6 in El Cajon, California, and wraps up Sept. 21 in Boston.
“For those of us who listened to Exile in Guyville on repeat in 1993, Liz Phair has always been a leader and a truth-sayer for the female experience,” S-K’s Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein say. “She’s a legend and a stone cold classic; what a thrill to share the stage with one of our biggest inspirations – we can’t wait to tear it up with her.”
“The Flannel and the Fury is a nod to 1990’s alt-rock culture and the female-fronted bands who staked their claim to center stage in a male-dominated music industry,” Phair adds. “Sleater-Kinney and I both cut our teeth in the early Riot Girl scene. It’s been a dream of mine ever since to bring our music and our fans together for one night of reckless hope and musical splendor.”
Presales begin Wednesday at 10 a.m. local time, and tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
Jay-Z looks on prior to the start of Super Bowl LX between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium on February 08, 2026, in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Jay-Z has been writing raps for over a decade, starting with documenting them in a green notebook before eventually abandoning writing them down altogether. His hardest album to create, he told The New York Times Magazine, was 4:44.
“‘4:44’ was the toughest thing I had to write—and not lyrically, not the greatest metaphors I’ve ever created. But like the vulnerability and the honesty, the transparency—that’s hard. That’s a difficult thing,” he said as part of an article naming him one of the 30 greatest American living songwriters.
“But to do it for the entire album and to sit in that and like talk about real subjects … and how your kids are going to feel, and you know, at some point, you’re going to have to sit down and speak to them, and all these different topics, that was the most difficult album that I had to write.”
Jay was praised by the magazine as a rapper who has always spoken with the “voice of experience,” one whose “combination of sangfroid and swagger established a new way for rappers to self-present, maintaining street credibility while pursuing both pop success and a more audacious kind of crossover, from performer to executive to tycoon.”
Others on the list include Smokey Robinson, Outkast, Babyface, The-Dream, Missy Elliott, Young Thug, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie and Kendrick Lamar.
The criteria included input from more than 250 music insiders and six New York Times critics who focused on “contemporary practitioners working in the ever-evolving tradition of the great American songbook,” according to the publication.
Europe’s ‘Come This Madness’ (Silver Lining Music / Hell & Back Recordings)
Europe is getting ready to release their first new album in nine years.
The Swedish rockers, best known for their 1986 hit “The Final Countdown,” have announced that their 12th studio album, Come This Madness, will be released Sept. 25. They are previewing the record with the new single “One on One.”
“‘One On One’ is definitely one of my favorite tracks from the album,” says Europe’s founding member and frontman Joey Tempest. “The power and feel is fresh, but some of the melodies bring me back to where it all began.”
“Lyrically, it’s perhaps not filled with as much escapism as early Europe. These lyrics automatically ended up being more of a reflection of the times we live in today,” he adds. “Ever since ‘One On One’ was just a demo, we’ve stayed with it … never gave up on it, and elevated it to a place where it belongs: a high-flying, classic hard rock track.”
The “One on One” release is accompanied by a new video, featuring Fargo actor Peter Stormare.
Come This Madness, Europe’s first album since 2017’s Walk the Earth, features guest appearances by Ghost’s Tobias Forge and Opeth’s Michael Åkerfeldt. It will be released digitally, and on CD and vinyl, and is available for preorder now.
How’d you like to see Tucker Wetmore and The Red Clay Strays for free the week of CMA Fest? Thanks to Billboard, that’s certainly in the realm of possibility.
The respected music magazine will once again take over Luke Combs’ Nashville honky-tonk, Category 10, June 3-5 for Billboard Country Live.
The festivities kick off that Wednesday with an exclusive rooftop gathering honoring Billboard‘s Country Power Players. Then Thursday, CMA vocal group of the year The Red Clay Strays take the stage, followed by Tucker Wetmore on Friday.
Look for more talent to be added in the weeks to come.
The shows are free and open to the public. RSVP online if you’d like to attend.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour on Aug. 3, 2023 in Inglewood, California. (Emma McIntyre/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Taylor Swift, one of the most recognizable names in entertainment, is moving to protect her world-famous image and voice.
The pop superstar filed three trademark applications on April 24, each attempting to protect the likeness of Swift as questions continue to swirl around how artificial intelligence will respect artistic brands.
The applications, filed individually, look to trademark two voice clips and one image of Swift. In the voice clips, Swift is heard saying “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” and “Hey, it’s Taylor.” The image shows Swift playing a guitar mid-concert during the Eras Tour.
Josh Gerben, a prominent trademark attorney, explained the ramifications of the trademark applications on ABC’s Good Morning America Tuesday.
“By filing a trademark application that contains her voice … Taylor’s lawyers could then make claims that anything that sounds like her voice is a violation of her trademark rights,” Gerben said.
Swift has been recreated in AI form in several instances over the years, which have then been shared online. In one instance, President Donald Trump, while campaigning for his second term in August 2024, reshared on his social media platform one AI-generated image of Swift and others appearing to show her fans falsely endorsing him.
In response, Swift posted on Instagram at the time, “Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation.”
In early 2024, fake sexually explicit AI-generated images of Swift made rounds on social media, prompting then-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to tell ABC News the Biden administration was “alarmed” by what happened to Swift online and that Congress “should take legislative action.”
The trademark filing is not unique among high-profile entertainers. Actor Matthew McConaughey recently filed a trademark to protect his likeness, including his famous phrase “Alright, Alright, Alright.”
Paul Dean (L) and Mike Reno of Loverboy performs at Pine Knob Music Theatre on June 08, 2022 in Clarkston, Michigan. (Photo by Scott Legato/Getty Images)
Loverboy’s Mike Reno and Paul Dean are among this year’s inductees into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The pair, known for writing such songs as “Working for the Weekend” and “Turn Me Loose,” will be celebrated at a ceremony taking place at Toronto’s Massey Hall on Sept. 26.
“We set out to write songs that made people feel something right away, that energy, that release, that connection,” Reno and Dean said in a statement. “To have that songwriting recognized all these years later, and to know the songs are still out there doing their job, means everything to us.”
This year’s other Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees include Tragically Hip, Feist and Roch Voisine.
“The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame exists to honour the songwriters whose work has shaped our culture and defined how Canadian music is heard at home and around the world,” said Nick Fedor, executive director of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. “This year’s inductees represent that standard at the highest level. These are writers whose songs have endured, traveled, and become part of the country’s shared experience. They did not follow a template; they defined one.”
He added, “Their induction recognizes a body of work that continues to resonate across generations and audiences.”
Tickets for the induction ceremony go on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m ET.
