Now we know where the name for The Black Keys‘ Dropout Boogie tour comes from.
As promised, the “Lonely Boy” rockers premiered a new single called “Wild Child” overnight. But that wasn’t all: they also announced a new album, titled Dropout Boogie.
The follow-up to 2021’s blues covers compilation Delta Kream will arrive May 13. Dropout Boogie will be the first original Keys record since 2019’s “Let’s Rock”.
You can listen to the rambunctious “Wild Child” now via digital outlets. Its accompanying video will premiere today at 11 a.m. ET.
Meanwhile, the Dropout Boogie tour will launch July 9 in Las Vegas. Band of Horses will provide support.
It’s going to air on PBS on May 17, butUSA Today has a preview of what you can expect from Lionel Richie‘s tribute concert celebrating his Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, which took place Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
The tribute concert opened with Gloria Estefan performing Lionel’s song “Dancing on the Ceiling,” which brought Lionel to his feet. Country superstar Chris Stapleton sang “Say You, Say Me,” and Lionel’s fellow American Idol judge Luke Bryan sang “Lady,” the hit Lionel wrote for Kenny Rogers.
Luke told Lionel, “You fill my life with so much happiness,” and noted to the crowd, “He’s the most creative interpreter of a love song. You didn’t put him in a category; he was just the world’s music.”
Other highlights included Boyz II Men performing The Commodores’ hit “Easy,” Andra Day singing “Hello,” Yolanda Adams doing The Commodores’ “Jesus Is Love,” Miguel performing “You Are,” and Lionel himself closing the show with “All Night Long.”
“Love is the only answer to everything we’re doing,” Lionel told the crowd.
The Gershwin Prize recognizes an artist’s lifetime achievement in music. Past recipients include Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Smokey Robinson, Paul McCartney and Gloria and her husband, Emilio Estefan.
The exhibition, located at the Freehold Fire Department building on Main Street, is expected to open in 2024 and will include artifacts and photographs, as well as film, concert footage and interviews from the Jersey rock legend’s life and career, according to Variety.
“Everything I learned of deep importance, I learned in this town,” said Springsteen, adding, “I had all the usual joy and heartbreak of growing up in a small town like this, and the minute the opportunity arose, I got the hell out.”
Springsteen called the firehouse “the coolest building in town,” adding that “it feels bizarre, I sat three blocks from here, came up with a few songs about things that I liked and the idea that 50 years later anybody was going to be interested in it at all, I mean what are the odds, folks? They are very small.”
Bruce, who currently lives just 15 minutes away in Colts Neck, concluded by saying, “I come to town very, very often. I’ll be sitting in Federicis or I’ll just drive through on my own — I still do all the time. So, I’m watching you. It’s been wonderful having this town as the center of my art and my life. I look forward to doing that until they put me in a box.”
HARDY accepted his Songwriter of the Year trophy at the ACM Awards on Monday night, and he made sure to thank all the artists who’ve helped him get to where he is today: Dierks Bentley, Morgan Wallen and Thomas Rhett, to name a few.
“There have been so many,” HARDY emphasized. But the very first people to take a chance on him were Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley, as country duo Florida Georgia Line.
“I was nobody then, I truly was. I had nothing going on,” he remembers. “I was writing songs, but they were the ones who were like, ‘You’re doing something cool.’”
But it was another sentiment HARDY had to share about FGL that made press do a double take backstage at the ACMs: “It started with FGL. RIP,” he said.
Sure, the superstar duo announced recently that they’re taking a break, but “RIP”? They haven’t shared anything that final about their status as a group with the public. Of course, it’s possible HARDY could have just been making an offhand comment about their break — but it could also be the case that he knows something we don’t about FGL’s plans, or lack thereof, for an eventual return.
After all, as HARDY says, he and the guys from FGL are close. He’s written many songs for them and is a guest vocalist on “Y’all Boys,” off their 2019 Can’t Say I Ain’t Country album.
Whatever might be in the future for FGL, it seems likely that HARDY’s star will continue to rise. Not only is he an increasingly hot artist himself, he’s also continued to write for other country stars’ projects, and has become so in-demand that it feels “surreal,” he says.
HARDY released his full-length debut, A Rock, in September 2020.
Lady Gaga and her Born This Way Foundation have launched a new resource for young people on their mental health journey.
Gaga and Born This Way have teamed up with Canadian charity Jack.org to offer the Be There Certificate, a free online mental health course for youth and youth advocates. The course is designed to teach people how to recognize when someone might be struggling and learn ways to be a support.
In a video message announcing the course on social media, Gaga laid out the “five golden rules of how to safely be there for someone.”
“Number one: Say what you see. Number two: Show you care. Number three: Hear them out. Number four: Know your role. Number five: Connect to help, kindly and safely,” Gaga says.
Johnny Nunez/2021 BET Hip Hop Awards/Getty Images for BET
NOTE LANGUAGE) In honor of the upcoming South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival on March 17, Billboard featured Atlanta duo Young Thug and Gunna on the cover of its March 12 issue.
The rap duo is set to perform at the entertainment festival and after recently collaborating on one of the hottest hip-hop anthems of today, “Pushin P,” the upcoming performance seems to fall right in line with the crazy success the two have had.
Since meeting in 2015, the dynamic duo has been almost inseparable. Young Thug says it was the fact that Gunna wasn’t really star-struck upon meeting him, that made him sign the College Park rapper to his Young Stoner Life label.
“He was quiet, cool, a chill n**** that wasn’t trying to do too much. Just chilling back and relaxing. That’s how we really got super close, though: It just took nights in the studio…” Thug said.
Elsewhere in the interview, the rappers conversed with Billboard about fatherhood, fashion, Atlanta hip-hop culture, the “Pushin P” movement and more.
“We were ‘Pushin P’ before the song got made. Atlanta was already ‘Pushin P’ before the song came out,” Gunna said.
The cultural phrase can be interpreted as a lifestyle, as Gunna previously told Vibe: “It’s like anything you’re doing that’s positive or just player…or just anything you can just think of that’s cool.”
While both Gunna and Young Thug are currently at the top of the music game, Young Thug hints he may already be thinking of retirement. “I got kids that gonna need more attention from me in 10 years,” the father of six said.
“I don’t want him to stop no time soon,” Gunna emphasized.
Yungblud‘s “Funeral” is looking to be pretty metal.
Earlier this week, the U.K. rocker announced he’d be releasing a new song called “The Funeral” this Friday, March 11. Now, in an Instagram post, Yungblud is teasing the track’s video, which will apparently feature the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne.
The post includes a clip of Yungblud palling around with Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne during the video shoot. In the caption, Yungblud writes, “Bringin some mates to my funeral,” while tagging Ozzy and Sharon, as well as their daughter, Kelly Osbourne.
“The Funeral” follows Yungblud’s 2021 single “Fleabag,” which currently sits in the top 10 on Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart. Yungblud’s most recent album is his 2020 sophomore effort, Weird!
Carrie Underwood is 39 and feeling fine. The singer celebrated her birthday on Thursday surrounded by her family, husband Mike Fisher and sons Jacob and Isaiah.
For Mike, it wasn’t too hard to top his birthday present to his wife from last year: He flexed his dad humor for her 38th birthday, giving her a t-shirt that read “I Don’t Need Google, My Husband Knows Everything.”
Unsurprisingly, Carrie hasn’t been spotted on any red carpets wearing the shirt, but she did pose for a birthday photo in it, smiling for the camera.
Mike did a little better for Carrie’s 29th birthday back in 2012, when he threw her an ‘80s-themed party to celebrate her birth year: 1983. But when she turned 30, Carrie decided against moving into a new decade: Instead, she joked to CMT, it was “the first anniversary of her 29th birthday.”
Of course, there were some parts of her birthday that she didn’t mind hanging onto. “I’ll still, like, blow out candles and stuff, because I want my wish, but it’s not a birthday,” Carrie added.
By that logic, it’s a pretty safe bet that Carrie is enjoying a birthday cake this year. Over the course of her recent birthdays, she seems to have warmed up to the idea of being in her 30s. All bets are off for next year, though, when the country star will turn the big 4-0.
The story of a legal battle that John Lennon fought with a notorious mob-connected music mogul during the 1970s is the subject of a new book that will be published on May 1.
Lennon, the Mobster & the Lawyer: The Untold Story was written by Jay Bergen, a lawyer who represented the former Beatles star in a lawsuit against Roulette Records owner Morris Levy, who’d released an unauthorized album of bootleg recordings from the sessions for John’s 1975 covers project Rock ‘n’ Roll.
While Lennon was still working on Rock ‘n’ Roll, Levy released a collection of raw versions of the tracks under the title Roots. In response, Capitol Records quickly released Rock ‘n’ Roll, and Levy responded by suing John for breach of contract, claiming that Lennon had verbally promised to promote Roots on TV. John then countersued Morris.
The book features Bergen’s recollections of his experience representing Lennon in the lawsuits, as well as John’s own words taken from the trial transcripts of his testimony. Lennon’s testimony included details about his recording process, and the making of the Rock ‘n’ Roll album; and explanations of why he decided to record an album of vintage rock tunes, and why he felt the release of Roots could damage his musical legacy.
The book features a foreword penned by famed rock photographer Bob Gruen, who snapped some of the most iconic images of Lennon during his years living in New York City.
Gruen writes in his intro, “Lennon, the Mobster & the Lawyer: The Untold Story reveals the John Lennon I knew as he describes his artistic process and shows his keen sense of humor. Jay tells many stories of his interactions with John and what he was like as a person.”
Heart frontwoman Ann Wilson has released a second advance single from her forthcoming solo album, Fierce Bliss — a hard-rocking cover of the 1987 Eurythmics hit “Missionary Man.”
Wilson’s version is available now via digital formats. The track features guest guitar from Kenny Wayne Shepherd and additional vocals from a gospel choir, The Rev. Nathan Young Singers.
As previously reported, Fierce Bliss, which you can pre-order now, will be released on April 29. The 11-track collection was recorded at various sessions in Nashville, Seattle, Connecticut and Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The album features mostly new originals co-written by Wilson, while also including covers of Queen‘s “Love of My Life,” Robin Trower‘s “Bridge of Sighs” and the aforementioned “Missionary Man.”
“Love of My Life” features guest vocals by country star and current Eagles touring member Vince Gill.
Wilson recorded two tracks — “Gladiator” and “Angel’s Blues” — with Gov’t Mule, the group led by former Allman Brothers Band singer/guitarist Warren Haynes, who also co-wrote the tunes with Ann. Accompanying her on most tracks is a group of session musicians who now serve as her solo touring band, The Amazing Dawgs.
The first track issued from the record was an original tune titled “Greed.”
Wilson will kick off a series of tour dates with The Amazing Dawgs in support of Fierce Bliss with a May 4 concert in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has launched a “flyaway sweepstakes” offering a fan and a guest the chance to win a trip to Napa, California, to attend Ann’s May 5 concert at the Uptown Theater. The winner and guest also will receive round-trip airfare to the event and a two-night stay at a local hotel.
