Music – Page 3 – 105.7 WDNY

On This Day, March 19, 2005: Paul Rodgers makes public debut as Queen’s lead singer

March 19, 2026 by WDNY Radio

On This Day, March 19, 2005 …

Queen and Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers performed together at Nelson Mandela’s 46664 charity concert in George, South Africa.

While the two acts had previously collaborated for Queen’s October 2004 induction into the U.K. Music Hall of Fame, the Mandela concert marked the public debut of what was dubbed Queen + Paul Rodgers.

They performed Queen classics “We Are The Champions,” “We Will Rock You,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love and “Radio Gaga,” as well as the Bad Company tracks “Can’t Get Enough,” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” as well as “All Right Now,” by Rodgers’ former band, Free.

That same year, Queen + Paul Rodgers launched a world tour, which hit North America in 2006.

Queen released one album with Rodgers, The Cosmos Rocks, in 2008, followed by the Rock The Cosmos tour.

The collaboration between Queen and Rodgers ended in 2009, when Rodgers left to reunite with Bad Company.

Sleeping with Sirens premieres new single, ‘An Ending in Itself’

March 19, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Sleeping with Sirens has premiered a new single called “An Ending in Itself.”

“‘An Ending in Itself’ is the band returning to form, getting back in a room together, creating without expectation, which is why we started doing this in the first place,” frontman Kellin Quinn tells Kerrang! “I haven’t felt this way about our music since [the 2011 album] Let’s Cheers to This. Oddly enough this feels more like a beginning than an end…”

You can watch the video for “An Ending in Itself” streaming now on YouTube.

“An Ending in Itself” follows Sleeping with Sirens’ 2022 album, Complete Collapse.

You can catch Sleeping with Sirens live at a number of upcoming festivals, including Welcome to Rockville, Inkcarceration, Louder than Life, Aftershock and select Warped Tour dates.

Lorde’s contract with Universal ends

March 19, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Lorde and Universal are no longer on each other’s “Team.”

The “Royals” artist has revealed in a voice memo to fans, as captured by the fan account @lordecontent, that her contract with her long term label has come to an end.

“I have been in that contract for a very, very long time, in some form of that contract since I was 12-years-old, when I signed my first development deal with Universal,” the now 29-year-old Lorde says.

Lorde adds that she had an “amazing experience” with Universal but notes, “The truth is a 12-year-old girl pre-signed her, pre-sold her creative output before she knew what it would be like and before she knew what she was signing away.”

“I’m sure I’ll have a deal again, could well be with Universal,” Lorde continues. “But I knew that I needed to take a second to have nothing being bought or sold that comes from me.”

Lorde released four albums with Universal: 2013’s Pure Heroine, 2017’s Melodrama, 2021’s Solar Power and 2025’s Virgin.

Billy Corgan named to board of directors of Chicago’s Lyric opera house

March 19, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Billy Corgan has been named to the board of directors of Chicago’s Lyric opera house.

“Thank you to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for the great honour and distinction of being invited to join Lyric’s Board of Directors,” the Smashing Pumpkins frontman writes in an Instagram post. “I personally aim to make the Lyric, our great opera house of Chicago, the most exciting and dynamic opera house in the world.”

Corgan previously performed at the Lyric in 2025 with a series of shows celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1995 Pumpkins album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. In a video accompanying his post, Corgan calls his shows at the Lyric “one of the most exciting moments of my life.”

Also in the video, Corgan mentions a “fine young actor” who “sort of attacked the arts obliquely, saying nobody cared,” presumably referring to Timothée Chalamet’s recent comments about the opera and ballet.

“But if want to be part of the change, if you want to be part of the restoration of the arts in America, then you have to lean in, and of course you have to support,” Corgan says.

Taylor Swift belongs in Country Music Hall of Fame, says country legend

March 19, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Taylor Swift will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June, and she’s got five years to go before she’s eligible for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. On Friday, her name just may come up as an inductee for the Country Music Hall of Fame, and she’s been heartily endorsed by one legend who’s already in there.

On the Rolling Stone Nashville Now podcast, Hall of Famer Vince Gill says, “I think they’ll put her in there. Why wouldn’t you?” Vince, who also performs with the Eagles, says that Taylor is one of the Country Music Hall of Fame’s biggest donors

“I’m crazy about her. I fully support that,” he adds.

Taylor, of course, was a country music superstar before she went full-on pop star with her album 1989. When this year’s inductees are announced, Taylor may appear in the “Modern Era” category because artists become eligible “twenty years after they first achieved national prominence,” according to the website. Her self-titled debut album, featuring the hit “Tim McGraw,” was released in 2006.

If Taylor does get inducted, she’d be the youngest person ever to get in. At age 36, she’s more than a decade younger than the youngest Hall of Famers Johnny Cash and Eddy Arnold, who were both 48 at the time of their inductions.

Trisha Yearwood will take over the Opry Sunday to raise money for breast cancer

March 19, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Trisha Yearwood is hosting her second Band As One Nashville Concert for the Cure on Sunday, and expectations are high for several reasons.

The first is the progress Trisha’s seen since losing her mother to breast cancer in 2011.

“I’ve watched friends in treatment [for the same cancer as my mother] take a drug … that helped them survive longer, that I know could’ve helped her, you know, and so I feel like everything that we can do to kind of keep that progress going forward, it’s so important,” Trisha tells ABC Audio.

The second is how successful the first year was.

“I loved how this community came together and raised so much more money than we were expecting last year,” she says. “Now I have big expectations for this year.”

Reba McEntire, Ashley McBryde, Charles Kelley, Hailey Whitters, Luke Nelson, The War & Treaty, The Band Loula and Rissi Palmer are all set to play the benefit, as it moves from the Ryman to the larger Grand Ole Opry House in 2026.

“It kinda reminds you of the Opry,” Trisha says, “because you have a house band and, you know, it’s not a heavy lift for anybody. You get to come out and do a couple songs and go home. … It’s like a who’s who … of artists that — I mean anybody who had the time in their schedule said yes, you know, I think because everybody’s affected by it.”

Tickets are on sale now, with proceeds going to Susan G. Komen, one of the leaders in the fight against breast cancer.

How Miley Cyrus managed to avoid ‘child-star syndrome’ during ‘Hannah Montana’ years

March 19, 2026 by WDNY Radio

We’ve all heard the sad stories of the struggles that former child stars have endured: being robbed of their money by greedy family members, drug and alcohol addiction, mental health problems and — as the 2024 docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV exposed — actual abuse at the hands of the adults in charge. But Miley Cyrus didn’t have to deal with that, despite her Hannah Montana fame, and in her Variety cover story, she explains why.

First, there was the money issue. As the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, who was already a hugely successful country star, Miley wasn’t responsible for paying bills in her family. “My parents didn’t need me to be famous to survive or to be stable,” she tells Variety.

“What happens to a lot of these kids is their parents want it more than they do, or the kids become responsible for the entire income of the family. That was never my job. Every penny I ever made went into my bank account because my parents were good.” 

Then, there was the fact that Billy Ray co-starred with her on Hannah Montana, playing her dad. As Variety notes, his dressing room was connected to Miley’s, and between them, there was an office where Miley’s grandmother managed her fan club. The presence of family, Miley says, kept her safe.

“My dad was on set every single day, so there was nothing that could happen that he wouldn’t know about,” she explains. “There was never a time where I was going to be alone in that dressing room.” 

And while Miley has had experiences with drugs and alcohol, she never went to rehab and became sober on her own.

“My life is so beautiful. It never feels like I’m swimming upstream anymore,” she tells Variety.

Lindsey Buckingham says reissue of ‘Buckingham Nicks’ was a ‘pleasant surprise’

March 19, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Back in September, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks reissued their only studio album as a duo, 1973’s Buckingham Nicks. In a new video, Buckingham explains why he felt the time was right for the rerelease.

In a video posted to Buckingham’s social media accounts, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer calls the reissue “a pleasant surprise on a number of levels.”

“We had talked about releasing it a couple of times earlier in maybe the 10 or so years previous and couldn’t really agree on anything,” he says. “But I think you have to look at the timing of it as something that perhaps was meant to be. That now, as we sort of have evolved into this point in our respective careers and lives, I think both Stevie and I are able to appreciate the arcs that we’ve both experienced individually and together for 50-something years.”

He says the reaction to it “was just a completion of the circle, a completion of the karma.”

“And there’s just a lot of good energy flying around anyway in both our lives, and even the way we’re beginning to interact again,” he says, referring to his previous estrangement from Nicks. “And so I think the timing of the release of Buckingham Nicks was right and seems to be resonant with what’s going on in our lives.”

While Buckingham Nicks wasn’t a commercial success, shortly after the release Mick Fleetwood heard a track from the album and was so impressed he invited Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham insisted his then-girlfriend Nicks come with him, and the pair officially joined the band on New Year’s Eve 1974.

Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready prepares ‘my version of a rock opera’ with ‘Farewell to Seasons’ project

March 19, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready is releasing a new graphic novel called Farewell to Seasons, which is set in the Seattle music scene of ’80s and ’90s. It will be accompanied by a soundtrack of original music, which McCready tells ABC Audio he wanted to sound like “my version of a rock opera.”

“I wanted to push myself to be able to write something that’s specifically about something,” McCready says. “Not just a song, but a whole story.”

While he’s known for shredding songs like “Even Flow” and “Alive,” Farewell to Seasons showcases another aspect of McCready’s musical repertoire.

“I wanted to write something where I sang on it,” McCready says. “To be honest with you, I took four years of singing lessons and I wanted it to be good, so I’ve been working on it for a long time. And I feel really good about it now.”

The Farewell to Seasons soundtrack is presented as a piece written by David Williams, a character in the graphic novel. To bring that to life, McCready recorded with musicians including Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, Stefan Lessard of Dave Matthews Band, drummers Mike Musburger, Chris Friel and Nate Yaccino, and vocalist Molly Sides.

“It’s not necessarily any genre really,” McCready says. “It’s just, I want it to be part of the mythology of the story.”

Farewell to Seasons and its soundtrack are due out in October, and are available to preorder now. As for McCready’s day job, he says Pearl Jam is still looking to find a new drummer following the 2025 departure of Matt Cameron.

“The four of us are ready to keep doing stuff, but we don’t have anybody in line right now,” McCready says. “I’m excited when that happens, because we’ll get right into it when we do.”

Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz sign on as executive producers of ‘Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story’

March 19, 2026 by WDNY Radio

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz have joined the team behind the film Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story, according to Deadline. They will serve as executive producers, joining Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath, Misfits Entertainment’s Andee Ryder, The Creative Coalition’s Robin Bronk, and The Kwame Brathwaite Archive’s Kwame S. Brathwaite and Robyn Brathwaite.

According to Deadline, Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story follows Kwame Brathwaite, and his work as a photographer and activist. He helped launch the Black Is Beautiful movement, and captured images of both everyday people and celebrities.

Among those he photographed are Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali, Marvin Gaye, Roberta Flack, Nina Simone and The Jackson 5.

The news comes after Alicia surprised fans with a performance at Grand Central Terminal’s 50th anniversary celebration.

“Performing with just strings, piano, bass, and guitar in that massive, iconic space was pure magic. Every train I’ve ever run to catch flashed through my mind as I looked out and saw a sea of faces sharing this once-in-a-lifetime moment with me. I love you all so much!” she said on Instagram.

It also follows Swizz’s announcement that Westies, a show for which he serves as a consulting producer, is heading to MGM+.

“From the dream team that gave you @godfatherofharlem!!!!!! We hope you’re ready for our new show THE WESTIES,” Swizz wrote.

The Westies premieres on July 12.

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