Music

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.” 

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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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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.

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Sabrina Carpenter responded on social media to someone who believes that her song “Manchild” is a diss at all men. A clip of Sabrina singing the song at Lollapalooza Chile, with fans shouting out the lyric “Useless!,” prompted someone to write, “women are always like ‘men are useless’ but sabrina carpenter is like 4 foot 11, she cant even climb into a mid size SUV without help.” Sabrina wrote back,”yes i can ?”

Thanks to its win and performance at the Oscars on Sunday, the KPop Demon Hunters hit “Golden” and the movie’s soundtrack are way up in streams and downloads. Billboard reports that “Golden” experienced a 608% increase in sales since the Oscars, while sales of the soundtrack increased 282%.

David Archuleta will release his DEVOUT EP on March 27, featuring songs he wrote to accompany his memoir of the same name. You can preorder the three-song EP now. He says in a statement the tracks are “a bit more raw, more vocally focused, and really about telling the story to complement the story I tell in my memoir. “

Doja Cat has new music coming. She tells Vogue for an April cover story that she’s got another project on the way, which will either be a standalone EP, or a deluxe version of her most recent album, Vie. She tells Vogue that she hopes it will “surprise people,” adding that it’s “bubbly” and “futuristic.”

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Foo Fighters are teasing a new song from their upcoming album, Your Favorite Toy.

The track is called “Caught in the Echo” and will arrive Friday. You can hear a 30-second preview now via the Foos’ Facebook.

“Caught in the Echo,” which opens the album, will be the third cut to be released off of Your Favorite Toy, following the single “Asking for a Friend” and the title track. The record will arrive in full on April 24.

Foo Fighters will play a one-off show in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on April 28, followed by headlining sets at the Welcome to Rockville and BottleRock Napa festivals in May. They’ll launch a full North American stadium tour in August. 

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Shakira is nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year, and if she gets in, she will be the first Latina woman ever to do so. Shakira says that sort of recognition seemed impossible to her in the past, and she gives all the credit to her fans.

“I thought someone was joking with me. I had to double-check, and then I just felt really grateful,” Shakira tells Billboard of finding out about her nomination. “It’s not something you expect. I’m so over the moon with my fans who’ve been supporting me for 30 years already, and they continue to … make things like these that sound almost impossible happen.”

Shakira says she “started out as a rock kid” who was a big fan of Nirvana, Metallica and Led Zeppelin. She adds, “It’s pretty crazy, honestly. I grew up in Barranquilla [in Colombia] and I dreamt about things like these, but I never thought that they could come true.”

The “Whenever, Wherever” singer says that if she makes the final cut in April, she’d “be so humbled and thrilled to be representing Latin music, Latina women, and the fans of rock and roll in my Hispanic community.”

But even if she doesn’t, Shakira — who points out that she’s put rock songs on all her albums — says, “[T]o me, just being nominated to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is a huge motivation. It’s a huge honor, but also I think it’s gonna inspire me even more for the next years.”

Meanwhile, Shakira’s current tour has set a record as the highest-grossing tour of all time by a Hispanic artist, earning nearly $422 million.

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The speculation that Jay-Z would be hosting shows to celebrate his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, turned out to be true. He has announced a show at Yankee Stadium that will celebrate 30 years of the project, as well as a show in honor of the 25th anniversary of his album The Blueprint.

The Reasonable Doubt celebration is set for July 10, followed by The Blueprint show on July 11.

“Two historic nights to celebrate the iconic albums Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint,” read a post from the Roc Nation Instagram account.

Speculation about the shows began in February, when fans noticed he had updated his name on streaming services to the classic stylization seen on his 1996 debut.

He has since launched a new website, jayz30.com, and announced vinyls for “N**** What, N**** Who (Originator 99)”; Reasonable Doubt single “Dead Presidents”; The Black Album’s “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”; and “Wishing on a Star” featuring Gwen Dickey from the 1998 project In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. 

Hov’s shows will be his second and third performances of the year, following his headlining set at The Roots Picnic on May 30.

Reasonable Doubt, released on June 25, 1996, spawned the tracks “Ain’t No N****,” “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” “Feelin’ It” and “Dead Presidents,” among others.

The Blueprint, which arrived Sept. 11, 2001, was home to songs including “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” “Jigga That N****” and “Girls, Girls, Girls.”

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