The Zac Brown Band just dropped a new song, “Fun Having Fun,” from their upcoming The Comeback album, out on October 15. The song was written by lead singer Zac Brown, along with Kenny Habul, Kurt Thomas and Ben Simonetti, and inspired by reminiscing about their own respective carefree childhoods.
“‘Fun Having Fun’ is about all the dumb stuff you do when you’re a kid. One of my co-writers on the track is actually my buddy Kurt, who I went to high school with in Dahlonega,” Zac says of his Georgia upbringing. “He and I made a demo tape when we were kids called KZ, for Kurt & Zac, and he was the first guy I ever sat down with and thought, ‘We’re gonna be big.’”
Zac is now the proud parent of five children, which is why he felt so drawn to “Fun Having Fun.”
“It was fun to circle back to that time in my life and remember some of the things that we did together, especially with the perspective of now being a parent,” Zac adds.
It’s a big day for Carly Pearce! The Grand Ole Opry member has released her autobiographical 29: Written in Stone album, and also announced her own headlining The 29 Tour.
29: Written in Stone is the follow-up to Carly’s telling 29 EP, adding eight new songs to the original project.
“Once I started writing, I thought I’d gotten it all out of my system,” Carly said of the new record. “But the songs just kept on coming, and I realized to truly understand how you come out the other side, not just a quick snapshot, this full project needed to happen. Now people can see how you thrive and shine even in the lowest moments.”
Carly will kick off her headlining tour on November 4 in Des Moines, Iowa. Andrew Jannakos will serve as her opening act. Dates and her new album are available at CarlyPearce.com.
Snooze you lose: Metallica fans in San Francisco who weren’t paying attention to the band’s social media yesterday missed out on the opportunity to see the metal giants rock their hometown at a tiny venue, for 20 bucks.
The group announced the surprise show at the San Francisco Venue The Independent on Thursday: It required proof of vaccination, as per a mandate by the city. The show sold out in 30 minutes, but there is footage posted on the band’s Instagram Stories and, frankly, all over YouTube if you want to see what you missed.
The wristbands for the show noted that it had been 738 days since Metallica’s last concert. The last time Metallica played its hometown was in 2019.
According to Setlist.FM, the band’s set list included “Whiplash,” “Ride the Lightning,” “Sad but True,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Creeping Death,” “One,” “Master of Puppets,” and “Seek & Destroy.”
Ed Sheeran is ready to send “Shivers” down fans’ spines with the announcement of a 2022 stadium tour.
Ed dropped the news via Instagram video on Friday morning that he’s embarking on the + – = ÷ x Tour next year that will see him headlining several stadiums across Europe.
The tour kicks off April 28 in Cork, Ireland and continues through September 23, when it wraps in Frankfurt, Germany.
Along the way, Ed will headline three shows at Wembley Stadium in London and host multiple two-night stays at venues including Glasgow’s Hampden Park, Etihad Stadium in Manchester in Ed’s native England, and the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, U.K.
This marks the megastar’s first major tour since 2019, when the two-year ÷ Tour set a record as the highest-grossing tour of all time.
Check out the full list of tour dates on Ed’s website. Tickets go on sale September 25 at 8 a.m.
ABBA’s Gold is has caught a second wind, rising back up thecharts for the first time in three years.
Gold: Greatest Hits, the compilation album by the Swedish pop group, soared up the Billboard 200 chart from number 114 to number 34 on the survey dated September 18.
According to the outlet, the album moved 15,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. for the week ending September 9, a 61% jump, as per MRC data. Part of that includes 5,000 units in physical album sales, which allows it to climb the Top Album Sales chart from the 33rd spot to the 11th, as well.
ABBA’s climb up the charts comes after the quartet dropped two new singles — “Don’t Shut Me Down” and “I Still Have Faith In You” — earlier this month. Additionally, they announced a new album, Voyage — their first in 40 years — as well as a special production to open in London next year featuring digital avatars of the group’s members performing their legendary songs.
Gold: Greatest Hits, whichwas originally released in 1992, last saw the top 40 in August 2018, when it peaked at number 25. That was likely due to the release of the movie Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which features the group’s songs.
All in all, the set has spent an impressive 168 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart in total since its release.
After spending months hyping his debut album, Lil Nas X‘s emotionally charged Monterois finally here.
Released Friday at midnight, Lil Nas X also delighted fans by dropping the heartbreaking music video for the song, “That’s What I Want.”
The single explores the 22-year-old Grammy winner’s pains of the heart as he openly craves sharing his life and success with a significant other that loves and needs him just as much. Lil Nas X also confesses that he’s garnered a reputation “for givin’ love away,” admitting it’s a crutch to combat the loneliness that’s consuming him.
The music video follows Lil Nas X loving and, eventually, losing the man he thought was going to be his forever, culminating with the rapper donning a wedding dress and walking down the aisle to accept a guitar given to him by Billy Porter.
Montero boasts a robust list of collaborators, including Elton John, Miley Cyrus, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion and several others.
Montero explores personal themes of self-hatred and struggling with self-acceptance, such as in the track “Sun Goes Down,” with lyrics describing what it means to be happy or at peace with one’s self. The album, which boasts an array of pop and hip hop crossover tracks, also features the song “Dead Right Now,” which has Lil Nas X looking back at those who have doubted him when he took a leap of faith to drop out of college and pursue his dream of making music.
Montero is now available to purchase and stream everywhere.
The Jonas Brothers are out with a brand-new single, which asks the question “Who’s In Your Head”?
The mysterious single finds the brothers learning that the love of their life has cheated on them, leading them to agonize over their doomed romance. It boils down a the point where the three can’t even look at their significant others without thinking of the mysterious third person who tarnished their relationship.
“I wanna know/ Who’s in your head/ Stealin’ your heart while I’m still bleeding/ Who’s in your bed/ Wrapped in your arms while I ain’t sleepin,” the brothers harmonize.
And while the trio reminisce about what made them fall in love with their partner in the first place — from their “like magic” moves to getting “lost in your halo” — they also begin to wonder if those attributes were red flags in disguise.
“Who’s In Your Head” is available for purchase and streaming on demand now. A music video is forthcoming.
The Jonas Brothers are currently on their road with Kelsea Ballerini as part of their Remember This Tour. They’re set to play in Nashville, Tennessee, tonight.
More than ten years after winning the tenth season of American Idol, Scotty McCreery arrives with his fifth studio album, driving the Same Truck he won on the popular singing competition.
The 27-year-old wrote ten of the record’s twelve tracks, including his top five hit, “You Time.” In fact, he believed he was almost done with the follow-up to 2018’s Seasons Change — and then 2020 happened.
“You know, I thought I had this album pretty much ready to go a couple of years ago,” Scotty reveals. “But then after COVID hit, suddenly [I] had a lot of extra time on my hands. So I started writing new songs and before I knew it, we’d come up with almost a whole new album.”
For Scotty, Same Truck has both a literal and a much deeper meaning.
“Can you believe I’m actually driving the same truck I won 10 years ago as part of my American Idol title?” he asks. “The truck’s name is Loretta after one of my favorites, Loretta Lynn.”
Amid divisive times, Scotty believes we’re more alike than different, i.e. we’re all in the same boat — or “Same Truck,” if you’re from North Carolina.
“[It] was one of those songs that got started by a conversation talking about how I drive the same truck…” he tells ABC Audio. “But it morphed into something a lot more important than that, just talking about how, ‘Hey, guys, we’re all on the same team here. Let’s build each other up instead of tear each other down.'”
“And it’s just a message I think we all need to hear right now,” he adds.
Same Truck is new today, and features Scotty’s nod to King George, “Damn Strait,” which he’s set to sing Tuesday on NBC’s Today show.
Thirty years ago today, September 17, Guns N’ Roses simultaneously released their third and fourth studio albums, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II.
With the band riding high after the massive success of its 1987 debut, Appetite for Destruction, and its popular 1988 follow-up, G N’ R Lies, Use Your Illusion I and II debuted at #2 and #1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Former GN’R drummer Matt Sorum, who joined the group just as they were starting to record the albums, tells ABC Audio that most of the band initially thought they were going to make a single record featuring 12 or 13 songs.
“We ended up recording 34, I believe,” Sorum recalls. “When we did that…[frontman] Axl [Rose] was the one that came in and said, ‘Let’s put it all out. I want to release it all.’ And we’re like, ‘What?!'”
Sorum says it also was Rose’s idea for the two albums to have identical covers, with the only difference being the color schemes — Use Your Illusion I is red and yellow and II is blue and purple.
Use Your Illusion I features two top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, “Don’t Cry” and “November Rain,” which reached #3 and #10, respectively. Use Your Illusion II includes one Hot 100 hit, “You Could Be Mine,” which peaked at #29.
Each album features a well-known cover song — Paul McCartney & Wings‘ “Live and Let Die” and Bob Dylan‘s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” appear on I and II, respectively. GN’R’s version of “Live and Let Die” peaked at #33 on the Hot 100.
The albums both have gone on to be certified seven-times platinum by the RIAA for amassing seven million sales units.
Here’s the Use Your Illusion I track list:
“Right Next Door to Hell”
“Dust N’ Bones”
“Live and Let Die”
“Don’t Cry” (Original)
“Perfect Crime”
“You Ain’t the First”
“Bad Obsession”
“Back Off Bitch”
“Double Talkin’ Jive”
“November Rain”
“The Garden” — featuring Alice Cooper
“Garden of Eden”
“Don’t Damn Me”
“Bad Apples”
“Dead Horse”
“Coma”
And here’s the Use Your Illusion II track list:
“Civil War”
“14 Years”
“Yesterdays”
“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
“Get in the Ring”
“Shotgun Blues”
“Breakdown”
“Pretty Tied Up” (“The Perils of Rock n’ Roll Decadence”)
“Locomotive” (“Complicity”)
“So Fine”
“Estranged”
“You Could Be Mine”
“Don’t Cry” (Alternate Lyrics)
“My World”
Twenty years ago on this Saturday, John Mayer‘s major-label debut, Room for Squares, was released. No overnight success, the album steadily climbed the charts until it finally reached the top 10 in 2002. Here are Five Fascinating Facts about Room for Squares:
5. The album’s title is a play on the title of a 1963 album by jazz saxophonist Hank Mobley called No Room for Squares.
4. The original version of the album was released online in June of 2001, but after John landed a record deal with Columbia, the label remixed and re-released it with new artwork, an extra track called “3X5,” and four reworked songs from John’s 1999 indie EP Inside Wants Out.
3. John co-wrote several songs on Room for Squares, including “No Such Thing,” with his former college buddy Clay Cook, who’s now a member of the superstar country group Zac Brown Band.
2. By the end of 2002, Room for Squares had spun off the hits “No Such Thing,” “Your Body Is a Wonderland” and “Why Georgia.” In 2003, John won his first Grammy for “Your Body Is a Wonderland.”
1. In 2006, John allowed the TV show The Office to use “Your Body Is a Wonderland,” in exchange for a “Dundie” — a fictitious award given out by Steve Carell‘s character — for “Tallest Music Dude.”
20 years on, John Mayer still matters. He just won an MTV VMA last Sunday, and his current album, Sob Rock, released in July, became his 10th top 10 album.
