Director Spike Lee (L) and Denzel Washington seen at Apple Original Films and A24’s HIGHEST 2 LOWEST – Los Angeles Special Screening at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Ted Mann Theater on August 13, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/A24 via Getty Images)
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington‘s friendship has survived the test of time, and it’s because they have a strong foundation. Spike tells People their “relationship is based upon love and trust, trust and love,” which is reflected in the closeness of their families, as well as the five movies they’ve done together.
“The five films together, you know, they stand up,” Lee says, referring to Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, He Got Game, Inside Man and Highest 2 Lowest, which he suggests may be their last.
He says Denzel “has been talking about retirement, even though he just did another deal.”
If that is indeed the case, Spike is grateful for their existing collaborations. “It’s been a blessing to have this body of work of us doing films that the people love,” he says.
Cover of Howl Owl Howl’s single ‘My Cologne’/(Howl Owl Howl)
R.E.M.’s Mike Mills,The Black Crowes‘ former drummer Steve Gorman and Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker recently announced they were joining forces for a new supergroup, Howl Owl Howl, and now they’re sharing their first single.
The band has just released the track “My Cologne,” and Mills explains on Instagram that it was actually inspired by pop star Ariana Grande.
Mills says in the video, “Ariana Grande put out a record not long ago and her first single was called ‘R.E.M.,’” referring to the track on her 2018 album, Sweetener.
Despite it being his band’s name, Mills didn’t think much of it. He says, “OK, sure, it’s the dream stage of sleep, that’s where we got it. You know, it’s universal, that’s fine.”
Ari went on to launch a cosmetics line called r.e.m. beauty, and Mills notes that one of the fragrance containers was shaped like a cassette tape with R.E.M. on the cover.
“And then I said, OK, that’s going over the line. I gotta say something about that,” he says. “So, you know, we’re not upset or anything, but I thought it was just funny.”
His response is “My Cologne,” featuring a line in the chorus, “I wanna smell like Ariana Grande and I think she wants you to smell like me.”
Says Mill, “It’s all in good fun and I hope she likes it.”
Howl Owl Howl is set to hit the road for a nine-date tour starting Nov. 3 in Indianapolis. The tour wraps Nov. 15 in Athens, Georgia, which is the birthplace of R.E.M. A complete list of dates can be found at howlowlhowl.com.
Ariana Grande speaks onstage during the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards at UBS Arena on September 07, 2025 in Elmont, New York. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for MTV)
Ariana Grande has inspired a song from the new supergroup Howl Owl Howl.
The band is made up of R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, The Black Crowes‘ former drummer Steve Gorman and Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker.They just dropped their first single, “My Cologne.” According to Mills, he wrote it in response to Ari and her r.e.m. beauty line.
Mills says in an Instagram post, “Ariana Grande put out a record not long ago and her first single was called ‘R.E.M.,'” referring to the track on her 2018 album, Sweetener.
Despite it being his band’s name, Mills didn’t think much of it. He says, “OK, sure, it’s the dream stage of sleep, that’s where we got it. You know, it’s universal, that’s fine.”
Ari then went on to launch her cosmetics line r.e.m. beauty, and Mills notes that one of the fragrance containers was shaped like a cassette tape with R.E.M. on the cover.
“And then I said, OK, that’s going over the line. I gotta say something about that,” he says. “So, you know, we’re not upset or anything, but I thought it was just funny.”
His response is “My Cologne,” featuring a line in the chorus, “I wanna smell like Ariana Grande and I think she wants you to smell like me.”
Says Mills, “It’s all in good fun and I hope she likes it.”
Taylor Swift, ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ cover image (Mert Alas & Marcus Piggot)
If you’ve been playing Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” on repeat, you now have a whole new version to add to your rotation.
Taylor has released “The Fate of Ophelia (Alone in My Tower Acoustic Version),” a stripped down, guitar-driven interpretation of the hit The Life of a Showgirl track.
In addition to streaming, the acoustic recording will be available as a CD single that also features an instrumental version. The CD single has a double-sided cover with new artwork from the set of the “Ophelia” music video. It’s only available until Oct. 31 at 4 p.m. ET or while supplies last.
“The Fate of Ophelia” has spent three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 so far. The Life of a Showgirl also spent a third week at #1. Billboardreports this is the first time that an artist’s album and song have both debuted at #1 and then stayed there for three weeks.
Cover of Queen’s 50th anniversary ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’/(Hollywood Records)
Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Queen’s iconic track “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and to commemorate the occasion, the band has launched Queen The Greatest Special, a five-part weekly YouTube series.
In this week’s episode, The Path to Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor discuss the band’s journey to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” noting that while the public may have been surprised by such a grand song, for them it was just something they came to expect from their frontman Freddie Mercury.
They give earlier examples of Freddie’s experimentation, including “My Fairy King,” from their debut album, as well as “The March of the Black Queen” and “The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke” from Queen II.
“It’s interesting. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is viewed as a giant step for Queen creatively, but from the inside, it didn’t really look that way, it didn’t feel that way,” May says. “It’s one of the threads of Queen in our development. This is the stuff that Freddie brings to the table. We’re used to it and we love it. It’s very entertaining. It’s quite off the wall.”
May adds, “You don’t always know where he’s going, but that’s the thing people love most about Freddie.”
The video series also launches on the same day Queen has released “Bohemian Rhapsody” on transparent blue heavyweight 12-inch vinyl, as a 12-inch picture disc and as a blue cassette single. It is available now.
Candy corn (Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
It’s Halloween, and even if you’re not thinking about costumes, you’re probably thinking about candy.
“I’m a chocolate guy, so I do love just a good ol’ Reese’s or a good ol’ Snickers,” Tyler Hubbard says, admitting he has a weakness for the perennial favorite.
While you’d likely have a hard time finding someone who’s blatantly anti-chocolate, there’s still the most polarizing Halloween debate of all: candy corn.
“When it comes to classic Halloween candy, I still, I like ol’ candy corn,” Tyler weighs in. “I do. I like candy corn. It only comes around once or twice a year — well, I guess once a year. Maybe it’s nostalgic, all that sugar, get a couple good cavities, remind you of childhood.”
Even an avowed fitness buff like Tim McGraw agrees.
“Candy corn’s always been my favorite at Halloween,” he says. “And then, I mean, Reese’s, I could eat Reese’s [Peanut Butter] Cups anytime.”
Tim’s “Paper Umbrellas” collaborator has an equally old-school favorite when it comes to Halloween goodies.
“What I can eat like 6,000 of are Tootsie Rolls,” Parker McCollum says. “If I eat one Tootsie Roll, I’m gonna eat like 30. Yeah, they’re so good.”
Chris Stein and Debbie Harry attend the “Game Of Thrones” Season 8 NY Premiere After Party on April 3, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO)
Blondie is revisiting their past with Friday’s reissue of their 1999 comeback album, No Exit. But in a new interview with NMEthey’re looking at their future, and they sound unsure about what’s to come.
Frontwoman Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein are the only surviving founding members of the band, following Clem Burke’s death in April. While they plan to release a new album in 2026, the future beyond that looks uncertain.
Harry previously said she wasn’t sure about returning to the stage as Blondie, and she stands by that statement.
“Well it was Chris, Clem and myself who were the only original members doing live shows,” she tells the outlet. “We just lost Clem, and Chris isn’t playing anymore … but maybe that could change.”
“Essentially, I don’t know. I’ve never liked it when there was just one original member performing and everybody else there is a stand-in,” she continues, although she says she’d “be tempted” to tour again if it was under a different name, “like ‘Blondie Presents.’”
“But, I just don’t feel comfortable marching out on stage without my original guys and calling it Blondie,” she says. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”
As for new music, Blondie’s new album, High Noon, is due out in 2026 and could be their last.
Stein says he doesn’t know about making more records, explaining he’s been dealing with health issues, but adds, “[H]opefully at some point I’ll get back at it.”
Harry says her thoughts are the same as the ones she has about doing more shows, noting, “[M]aybe it would be ‘Blondie Presents’ or something like that. I haven’t really ironed it out yet.”
After releasing two albums back-to-back in 2020 and 2021, Trivium has returned with their first new music in four years in the form of Struck Dead, a three-song EP.
As guitarist Corey Beaulieu tells ABC Audio, Trivium wrote the material for Struck Dead while rehearsing for their 2025 tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of their 2005 album, Ascendency.
“The plan was to have a song,” Beaulieu says. “It was, like, one song turned into two, and then two turned into three, and we were just like, ‘F*** it, let’s just record all of ’em.'”
Shifting between going through Ascendency and coming up with new stuff ended up influencing the feel of the material, even if subconsciously.
“The songs that came out of it were obviously, I don’t think, sound like they were Ascendency songs,” Beaulieu says. “But I think they’re kinda like spirit animal songs in a way, where we were trying to, like, just capture that intensity and energy that that record had.”
Struck Dead is out now, and Trivium also launches a U.S. tour Friday. It will mark their first live outing with new drummer Alex Rüdinger. The EP, Beaulieu feels, “clears the slate” for the next Trivium album.
“The EP can be its own little [thing],” he says. “Then we can kinda start fresh focusing on a record with having more of a, I guess, concept, plan of what we want the record to be.”
Matt Bellamy from Muse performs on the NOS stage during day 3 of NOS Alive Festival at Passeio Marítimo de Algés on July 12, 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Pedro Gomes/Redferns)
Muse frontman Matt Bellamy‘s guitar company, Manson Guitar Works, has launched a new pedal themed around the band’s song “Supermassive Black Hole.”
The Manson Supermassive Black Fuzz is inspired by the “lush, thick tones” of the 2006 Black Holes and Revelations single and was co-designed by Bellamy.
The history of Manson Guitar Works dates back to the ’60s, and its instruments have been used by artists including Dave Grohl, Led Zeppelin‘s John Paul Jones and Royal Blood‘s Mike Kerr. Bellamy purchased the majority share in the company in 2019.
Muse’s most recent album is 2022’s Will of the People. They put out a new single, “Unravelling,” in June.
Alice Cooper performs at The Kia Forum on October 19, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)
Rocker Alice Cooper is teaming with magician Criss Angel for a new Las Vegas show, Welcome to Our Nightmare, at The Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.
The two-night limited engagement, March 6 and 7, 2026, is described as “an unprecedented ninety-minute revolutionary concert spectacle of magic, music, and mayhem,” with Cooper playing hits like “Poison,” “I’m 18” and “School’s Out.”
A ticket presale begins Nov. 4 at 10 a.m. PT, with tickets going on sale to the general public Nov. 6 at 10 a.m. PT.
Cooper wrapped a co-headlining tour with Judas Priest on Sunday and is next scheduled to head to Germany for a run of shows that start Nov. 28. The Welcome to Our Nightmare shows are currently the only U.S. dates on his schedule. A complete list of dates can be found at AliceCooper.com.
