Ex-Megadeth bassist David Ellefson has announced a new live album and an upcoming tour with his Kings of Thrash project.
The live album, titled Best of the West…Live at the Whisky a Go Go, is due out March 24. It was recorded during a Kings of Thrash show at the famed Los Angeles venue last fall.
The tour, meanwhile, will run from February 16 in Joliet, Illinois, to March 15 in Atlanta. The shows will feature Kings of Thrash, which also includes former Megadeth guitarist Jeff Young, performing the Megadeth albums Killing Is My Business…and Business Is Good! and So Far, So Good…So What!
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit KingsofThrash.com.
Megadeth, meanwhile, released a new album, The Sick, the Dying…and the Dead!, in September. It marked the group’s first record since Ellefson was let go from the band in 2021.
Jimmie Allen hangs onto the top spot on the country charts for one more week, making “down home” the first #1 of 2023.
It’s the Delaware native’s fourth chart-topper, and a special one, since it was inspired by the memory of his late father.
Jimmie also just learned he’ll be headed home on May 12 to be the commencement keynote speaker at Delaware State University.
“Delaware State University is where I am proud to say I attended,” Jimmie says. “I met lifetime friends there and learned so much about who I am as a Black man, and navigating my way through life. I’m honored to be the keynote speaker and hope I can share something that will inspire the next generation of leaders.”
The university’s president, Tony Allen,also plans to nominate Jimmie to receive an honorary degree at the ceremony.
In the meantime, Jimmie hits the road for the next leg of Carrie Underwood‘s Denim & Rhinestones Tour February 2 in Miami, Florida.
Billie Eilish won’t stop raising the alarm on climate change. She says her anxiety about the climate “makes me want to barf all over the floor.”
The 21-year-old singer is Vogue‘s January cover star and opened up about her thoughts on sustainability. Billie’s activism is highlighted through her green-focused tours, veganism, upcycled fashion, and participation in climate-focused summits and documentaries.
Billie said her approach is purposeful. “I’ve spent all of my effort trying not to be in people’s faces about it because people don’t respond well to that. It makes the causes that you believe in look bad,” she explained.
Instead, her approach is focused on telling people “why I do this” instead of “parading around like, ‘Look at me! I’m making a difference.'”
Billie is thrilled members of her generation connect with that message and are also taking climate change seriously. “They’re my age and they’re doing so much. It made me really, really, really hopeful,” she expressed.
Elsewhere in the interview, Billie revealed she turned to music after a growth plate injury when she was 13 benched her from dancing. “I got injured right after we made ‘Ocean Eyes,'” she recalled, noting she pursued singing once the song went viral.
She spoke of hating her body when she was younger and blamed her continued lower back injuries for robbing her of several opportunities, like her dancing dream. “I felt like my body was gaslighting me for years,” she explained. Eventually, she was diagnosed with hypermobility, which the NHS describes as extremely flexible joints that could be more prone to injury.
Billie recalled of the healing process, “I had to go through a process of being like, ‘My body is actually me. And it’s not out to get me.'”
YoungBoy Never Broke Again is gifting his fans with new music to start the year. According to Billboard, the rapper’s dropping his new album — the first under his deal with Motown Records — on Friday. The outlet also shared a photo of the artwork for the project, titled I Rest My Case, ahead of its release.
The cover art sees Youngboy seated on a black leather couch between two women dressed in black lingerie and ski masks. The lady to his left leans on his shoulder as he holds a cigarette up to the mouth of the girl on the right. On the wall above them, the name of the album is written out alongside images of a coffin, bat, skull and more.
I Rest My Case marks Youngboy’s first release of 2023 following a year that saw a lot of music from the Louisiana native. After dropping his Billboard 200 album Last Slimento in the summer, he came out with mixtapes Realer 2, 3800 Degrees and Ma I Got a Family.
Wynonna Judd is giving fans an update on her mental health more than nine months after her mother Naomi‘s death by suicide.
The 58-year-old took to TikTok on Tuesday to address a fan’s comment that she “doesn’t appear well.”
“I have heard some of the comments,” Wynonna began by saying, “and the first thought that I had was, ‘Opinions and buttholes.’ And then I realized people are genuinely concerned, so I want to respond to that piece.”
“I am working so hard on my mental, physical and spiritual well-being. I have a great team and I’m really blessed,” she continued. “And I’m broken and I’m working really hard at self-care — which is not selfish, it’s sacred.”
Wynonna explained that while she has a “very full schedule,” she also takes time off to “be on the farm and to walk in the woods and take the dogs,” noting that “tonight is Mexican night, we’re playing games and it’s family.”
“So I’m OK,” she added. “The last thing I’ll say is, you can’t keep a good woman down for too long.”
On January 26, Wynonna kicks off the 2023 leg of The Judds: The Final Tour with Ashley McBryde in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Kelsea Ballerini, Little Big Town, Tanya Tucker and Brandi Carlile will also join her on the trek, which continues through the month of February.
Whose songs will you be Shazaming in 2023? The music identification app has released its annual Predictions playlist via Apple Music, featuring 50 artists it predicts are “poised to have a breakthrough year.” But you’re probably already familiar with some of the five artists the app says have “global breakthrough potential” for 2023: Rosa Linn, charlieonafriday and Benson Boone.
In 2022, Rosa made waves with her song “SNAP,” which she performed on the Eurovision Song Contest as the official entry for her home country of Albania. Shazams for the song peaked in October, months after the competition, thanks to the song going viral on TikTok. It topped Shazam’s charts in Europe and Asia.
charlieonafriday, born Charlie Finch, currently has a radio hit with “Enough,” which showed up on Shazam charts in 40 countries. He tells Apple Music, “I’ve used Shazam as a fan first for as long as I can remember. It was a really exciting and full-circle moment for me when I realized my fans would be using Shazam to listen to my music in the same way I did, and still do, for my favorite artists.”
Over the past year, Benson Boone’s songs “Ghost Town” and “In the Stars” each got more than 1 million Shazams and entered the Shazam global chart. “Ghost Town” also got radio airplay in the U.S. He tells Apple Music that, “[It] blows my mind to know people are wanting to know what my songs are!”
Another artist on Shazam’s list of potential global stars is drill rapper Ice Spice, whose song “Munch (Feeling You)” peaked at #11 on Shazam’s Hip-hop/Rap chart and went viral on TikTok.
Thanks to Netflix’s Stranger Things, music fans couldn’t get enough of Kate Bush’s 1985 tune “Running Up That Hill” in 2022, and that was enough to make it one of the top songs in the United Kingdom last year.
The U.K.’s Official Charts is out with its list of the Top 40 Biggest Songs of 2022, with Kate’s hit landing at six. It also lands at seven on the list of the U.K.’s Most Streamed Songs of 2022.
Elton John’s collaboration with Dua Lipa, “Cold Heart (PNAU remix),” was also a big hit in the U.K. last year, landing at 13 on the Biggest Songs chart and 14 on the Most Streamed Songs list.
Overall, the biggest song of 2022 in the U.K. was Harry Styles’ “As It Was.” The entire Top 10 was made up of British artists, the first time that has happened in 50 years.
The Osbourne family has officially become even bigger now that Kelly Osbourne has welcomed her first baby with Slipknot‘s Sid Wilson.
Kelly’s mom, Sharon Osbourne, shared the news on the U.K. show The Talk this week, revealing that the child’s name is Sidney. Sharon added that mother and baby are doing “just so, so great.”
“[Kelly] won’t let a picture go out of him,” Sharon said. “And I’m so proud of her.”
Kelly announced that she was pregnant last May, writing that she was ecstatic. She had confirmed her relationship with Wilson a few months earlier.
In terms of inherited metal cred, it’ll be hard to beat Sidney, who not only has a Slipknot member as a dad but also Ozzy Osbourne as a grandfather. Maybe that baby who was born at a Metallica concert last year comes close.
Charles Kelley downs a pint of ice cream every night and drinks about 15 cans of LaCroix a day, he reveals in a new interview with Men’s Healthabout his sobriety. However, he’s also been exercising six days a week and going for 5 a.m. runs since giving up alcohol.
Last August, Lady A unexpectedly called off their Request Line Tour so Charles could pursue his sobriety. When the trio hits the road in 2023, there won’t be any booze backstage. Charles remembers earlier in his career not quite being able to understand why veteran artists would have a dry tour.
“They’ve been doing this thing for 15, 20 years and are in the same spot that I’m in right now,” he explains. “What do you want out of this life? Do you want to wreck your family and your career? Or do you want to put some things into place to keep it successful?”
Lady A has a full schedule ahead, starting February 22 in Detroit. Charles just released his latest solo effort, “As Far As You Could,” which is about his struggle with alcohol.
In 2022, Harry Styles pretty much conquered the world, but he didn’t too do badly at home, either.
The U.K.’s Official Charts Company has released the final numbers for 2022, and Harry’s song “As It Was” and album Harry’s House were officially the biggest song and album of the year in the U.K., respectively.
“As It Was” was the longest-running number-one song of 2022 in Great Britain, holding the top spot for 10 weeks. It was Harry’s second British number one, following 2017’s “Sign of the Times.” It was the best-selling and most-streamed track of the year as well.
The second biggest track of the year was Ed Sheeran‘s “Bad Habits.” The top 10 also includes Ed’s “Shivers,” Kate Bush‘s “Running Up that Hill” and Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves.”
On the album side, Harry’s House was the biggest seller of the year in the U.K., and also spent the most weeks at number one, with a total of six.
Ed Sheeran’s = (Equals) was the second-biggest album of the year, while Taylor Swift‘s Midnights was third.
