Most fans know that John Mellencamp is a talented painter, but it seems like his son is following in his footsteps.
On Friday, the rocker revealed that the painting on the cover of his new album Strictly a One-Eyed Jack— which shows him wearing an eyepatch — was done by his 26-year-old son, Speck Mellencamp.
Also on Friday, Mellencamp released another new song from the album, “Chasing Rainbows,” along with a lyric video. It’s the second song we’ve heard from the project, following the September release of a duet with Bruce Springsteen titled “Wasted Days.”
John also debuted a new acoustic tune from the album titled “I Always Lie to Strangers” during his performance at the 2021 Farm Aid concert in September.
Strictly a One-Eyed Jack will be released January 21.
The eighth studio effort from Chris Jericho and company — and their first since their 2017 breakout effort Judas — will arrive April 15. It includes the previously released singles “Sane” and “Nowhere to Run,” both of which hit the top 10 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
“Judas, both the album and the song, was a HUGE breakthrough for Fozzy,” Jericho says. “It took us to the next level and positioned us as legit players at rock radio and as a live draw. As a result, we knew that we had to follow up with the album of a lifetime…Boombox is that album!!”
Fozzy will hit the road in support of Boombox on a headlining tour kicking off March 2020. The outing includes an album release concert taking place April 11 in New York City.
An Eddie Van Halen Funko Pop! is set to be released next year.
The late Van Halen icon is the latest rocker to be turned into one of the toy company’s ever-popular big-headed vinyl figures as part of its Pop! Rocks line. The Eddie Funko finds him jumping in the air while jamming on a mini recreation of his signature Frankenstrat guitar.
You can pre-order your own now ahead of its expected January release.
Other artists who’ve gotten the Funko Pop! treatment include Machine Gun Kelly, Metallica, Pearl Jam, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Green Day and Ozzy Osbourne.
Jack White is returning to the road next year in a big way.
The White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather rocker has announced a huge world solo tour for 2022, dubbed the Supply Chain Issues tour. The first North American leg is set to kick off with a two-night stand in White’s hometown of Detroit on April 8-9, and will conclude June 11 in Broomfield, Colorado.
White will then embark on a trek through Europe in June and July, followed by a return to the States for a second outing, running from August 13 in Minneapolis to August 29 in Kansas City, Missouri.
The size of the tour makes sense, given that White plans to release not one, but two solo albums in 2022: Fear of the Dawn on April 8, and Entering Heaven Alive on July 22.
Tickets go on sale to the general public next Friday, December 17, at 10 a.m. local time. Various pre-sales, including for members of White’s Third Man Records Vault subscription service, will open next week leading up to the general sale.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit JackWhiteIII.com.
It’s the perfect holiday gift for the ZZ Top fan in your life: Billy F Gibbons’ boots.
The Texas guitar legend has teamed up with the Austin, Texas-based Alvies boot company for a signature “BFG” cowboy boot, described as combining “a classic style with a rock ‘n’ roll attitude.” The design of the cowhide boots, which cost $450, was inspired by “Billy’s personal infatuation with cars, guitars and making music.”
The boots come in three different ZZ Top-related colors — Sharp-Dressed, El Hombre and 33 Coupe — and the pull strap of each pair comes with a pocket containing several custom BFG guitar picks.
There are only 3,000 pairs of the limited-edition boots available and a percentage of each sale goes to the National Independent Venue Foundation, which offers financial support to music venues around the country that have been impacted by COVID-19.
If you can’t afford the boots, t-shirts and 10-packs of guitar picks are also available on the Alvies website.
Taylor Swift wasn’t able to shake off an upcoming court date after all.
Billboard reports that on Tuesday, a federal judge refused Taylor’s request to toss out a case in which she’s accused of stealing the lyrics to her 2014 number-one hit “Shake It Off” from the 2001 song “Playas Gon’ Play,” by the girl group 3LW.
U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald ruled that instead, a jury may be the ones to determine whether or not “Shake It Off” infringed on “Playas Gon’ Play’s” copyright. The judge ruled that there were “enough objective similarities” between the two songs that he couldn’t dismiss the case, and ruled that a jury trial was needed to determine the outcome.
The case was first filed in 2017 by the two men who wrote “Playas Gon’ Play.” They claimed that Taylor’s song, in which she sings, “‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate” was too similar to the lines in their song, which go “playas, they gonna play” and “haters, they gonna hate.”
Fitzgerald originally dismissed the lawsuit in 2018, saying that those phrases were used in many other songs, and so “lacked the…originality and creativity required for copyright protection.” But in 2019, a federal appeals court reversed the ruling and sent the case back to Fitzgerald.
Taylor then asked Fitzgerald to grant her summary judgement — meaning she asked him to rule immediately that she hadn’t done anything wrong — but Fitzgerald declined. “Even though there are some noticeable differences between the works, there are also significant similarities in word usage and sequence/structure,” he wrote.
But while the stage is now set for a jury trial, no date has been sent, and an out-of-court settlement is always a possibility.
Chris McKay/Getty Images; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Live Nation
Kanye West and Drake joined forces Thursday night to host the Free Larry Hoover benefit concert.
After a 90-minute delay, the event — which took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum — finally kicked off with Ye’s choir descending the coliseum stairs and arranging themselves in the form of two crosses on either side of the walkway.
The group then performed harmonic covers of hit songs including the Fugees “Ready or Not” and Adele‘s “Easy on Me.”
After almost a half hour of that, the moment fans had been waiting for finally came. Kanye and Drake appeared at the top of the staircase and descended together, making their way onto a smoke-filled field. Kanye then made his way atop a circular dome stage structure while Drizzy drifted off into the distance.
Ye, who rocked a light green short-sleeve shirt that had “FREE HOOVER” printed on the back and light wash jeans that had the same saying on the front leg, galvanized fans with a live performance of some of his biggest hits, ranging from 2004’s “Jesus Walks,” to “Praise God,” a track from his recently released album, Donda.
After almost an hour, Drake finally joined Kanye on stage while he rapped “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” and after that, it was the Certified Lover Boy‘s turn to put on a show.
The Canadian native, who also wore a hoodie with the “FREE HOOVER” phrase on it, followed the same formula, performing a medley of bangers like “Way 2 Sexy,” “God’s Plan,” and “Life Is Good.” He also took a moment to shout-out and thank the Yeezy founder, who he referred to as “one of his idols.” So it appears that beef really is well and truly over.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse‘s latest studio album, Barn, got its release today.
As previously reported, the album was recorded this past June in a restored 19th century barn Young owns in the Colorado Rockies. The album is the second Neil has made with Crazy Horse since multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren rejoined the band in 2018.
Lofgren, who first played with Crazy Horse during the early 1970s, tells ABC Audio that he hadn’t expected to record a full album when Neil invited the band to Colorado for the sessions.
“[I]n the middle of the pandemic, it was a beautiful surprise,” Nils says, “’cause originally Neil said, ‘Look, I got four songs. Why don’t we at least get together for a week or so and play and be mates, and maybe we can do that two or three times in different locations and get an album.’ So this was extraordinary, ’cause once we got there, he kept writing.”
Lofgren says after “about a week,” Young had penned nine songs.
As Nils recalls, “[T]hen Neil said, ‘Look, I think we’re almost done with an album…so let me write a song tonight…Tomorrow we’re gonna record the 10th song. We’re gonna have an album.'”
Playing with Young on and off for over 50 years, Lofgren says he’s gotten accustomed to how fast Neil records.
“As usual…a lot of the takes were while we were learning the song,” he notes. “And usually, when he gets a great vocal that captures the lyric, that’s it.“
Barn is available on CD, vinyl, cassette and digital formats, and as a deluxe box set featuring a CD, a vinyl LP, and a Blu-ray disc that includes a film capturing the making of the album directed by Neil’s wife, actress Daryl Hannah.
Rick Ross drops his 11th studio album, Richer Than I’ve Ever Been, on Friday, the follow up to his 2019 Port of Miami project. Ricky Rozay says the album name goes beyond having money.
“The title Richer Than I’ve Ever Been is about more than you being at your peak financially,” Ross tells Grammy.com. “In what other areas of your life do you feel the richest right now? Just my direction, going where I need to go. You have to ask yourself, do you feel the best spiritually? Emotionally? A lot of times, we don’t even know what the most important things to us are.”
The Miami MC says he feels the richest, and most creative, after spending time with his mother.
“After I leave my mom’s crib, I’m like, ‘Yo, let’s go forth and get it.’ I don’t want to go to sleep for four days, I want to get in the studio and have some fun and do something special.”
Ross began his recording career in 2006 when he was 30 years old, and he says his maturity was an advantage.
“If I would have become a multimillionaire at a much younger age, I could have been in the studio flirting around with drugs,” he says.
“I most definitely made mistakes. I still wanted to travel the world. But I wanted to f***ing do something that had never been done before coming from Miami. I wanted to also make sure the music translated that message, that level of success.
“And not just for financial purposes, but to show everybody else — the youngsters — like, ‘Yo, you can do it, too.” Ross continues. “You don’t have to just hit a baseball or slam dunk a ball. You could be creative and make something out of nothing.”
Bryan Adams has just released a new track from his forthcoming studio album, So Happy It Hurts, and the tune really, um, kicks a**!
The catchy, melodic-rock song is titled “Kick A**,” and it begins with a spoken-word interlude delivered in the form of a Biblical-style sermon by legendary Monty Python member John Cleese about the creation of rock ‘n’ roll music.
The track, which Adams co-wrote with famed producer “Mutt” Lange, is available now as a digital download and via steaming services, and you can check out a companion lyric video at Bryan’s official YouTube channel.
“Kick A**” is the third advance track released from So Happy It Hurts, following the title track and “On the Road.” The album is due out March 11 and can be pre-ordered now.
“On the Road” also was co-written by Adams and Lange and was penned specifically to promote the 2022 edition of the Pirelli Calendar, for which Bryan shot the photos.
As previously reported, the calendar is titled On the Road, and it was photographed in Los Angeles, the Italian isle of Capri and Canada last summer. Among the artists who Bryan shot for the calendar: Cher, Iggy Pop, Jennifer Hudson, rapper Saweetie, pop stars Normani and Rita Ora, alt-pop artist Grimes and alt-rocker St. Vincent.
