Music

Maroon 5 returns to Dolby Live at Park MGM Las Vegas on Thursday for the first 2024 dates of their residency show, which launched last year. Guitarist James Valentine says fans who come to the shows might get to see a side of Adam Levine they’ve never seen before.

Most Las Vegas residency shows are strictly timed and the set lists don’t change that much, but James notes there are definitely moments built into the show that allow them to let loose.

“We always get to inject a little bit of creativity and spontaneity within every song, and there’s certain moments in the set that are certainly engineered for that,” he tells ABC Audio. “And Adam also gets to sort of explore his Vegas lounge performer side.”

He laughs, “We never know what he’s going to be saying onstage. We’re always as surprised as the audience.”

Maroon 5’s Vegas set list may change slightly from last year’s shows, but it’ll still include their biggest hits, from “Moves Like Jagger” and “Girls Like You” to “Sunday Morning,” “This Love” and one of James’ personal favorites.

“It was really fun to play ‘She Will Be Loved’ [in Vegas] because we got to go out in the audience, me and Adam,” he says. “Y’know, I’d strap on my acoustic guitar … and we’d go walk around the audience. And so that was a pretty special moment every night. I really enjoyed doing that.”

However, James says that moment caused a slight problem.

“Sometimes when you are in the audience, people are excited, which I understand,” he says. “And so we did have some aggressive selfie taking. Our security had to explain, ‘Hey, they are performing’ and ‘back off a little bit.'”

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To record their new album Here to Eternity, Collective Soul headed to the late Elvis Presley‘s estate in Palm Springs, California. Once there, the “Shine” rockers found the house largely untouched since The King passed away.

“[It had] the same stove, same refrigerator,” frontman Ed Roland tells ABC Audio. “I mean, I showered in his shower.”

While recording, Roland and his bandmates would often invite Elvis fans and tourists who visited the house inside.

“It was kinda fun to watch people be excited about their experience,” Roland says. “I would talk to some of ’em [about] how much Elvis meant to ’em, how much music meant to ’em. It was kinda inspiring, it kinda helped, I think, our whole gig and our vibe while we were there.”

Collective Soul certainly felt inspired and ended up turning Here to Eternity into a 20-track double album, which had long been a dream of Roland’s since growing up with records such as Elton John‘s Goodbye Yellow Brick and The Rolling Stones‘ Exile on Main St.

While the creative juices were flowing in Elvis’ estate, Collective Soul’s stay wasn’t without an eerie moment or two. Roland remembers they were at the house the day Elvis’ daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, died in January 2023.

“The day she passed, the ceiling fell in her bedroom on all our gear and everything,” Roland says. “So, yeah, there was a lot of vibe going on.” 

Here to Eternity is out now.

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Lainey Wilson was the big winner at Thursday night’s 59th ACM Awards, winning three trophies, including the coveted Entertainer of the Year award. 

Lainey also nabbed her second straight Female Artist of the Year honor and shared Music Event of the Year with Jelly Roll for “Save Me,” a song they debuted on the ACMs last year.

Chris Stapleton also landed three wins, including his fourth for Male Artist of the Year, his fourth for Album of the Year and Artist Songwriter of the Year.

Plus, it was another year, another win for Old Dominion, who nabbed their seventh straight Group of the Year trophy, while Dan + Shay won Duo of the Year for the first time since 2020, their fourth win in the category. 

Host Reba McEntire kept the audience chuckling throughout the night, but the funniest moment came from Ashley McBryde and Schitt’s Creek star Noah Reid, who sang original songs poking fun at, among other things, Morgan Wallen’s arrest for throwing a chair, with Ashley advising Morgan, “You should smile in the mug shot.”

The show also included a poignant tribute to the late Toby Keith, with good friend Jason Aldean performing Toby’s first #1 hit, “Should’ve Been A Cowboy,” with Toby’s family in the audience.

As for the night’s performances, Stapleton offered up the biggest surprise: Dua Lipa, who joined him for “Think I’m In Love With You.”

And Post Malone shared a preview of his country album, performing a previously unreleased tune and “I Had Some Help,” sans singing partner Wallen. Posty and Reba also sang a bit of “Ramblin’ Man” in tribute to the late Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts.

Among the other performances: Lainey kicked things off with “God Bless Texas,” followed by “Hang Tight Honey”; Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan performed a mashup of “Mountain With A View” and “Stick Season”; Miranda Lambert debuted “Wranglers”; and Kane Brown covered the classic “Georgia On My Mind.” Reba then wrapped the show with her new tune “I Can’t.”

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The 59th Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Reba McEntire, streamed live on Prime Video Thursday night from Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.

Here are the winners in the main categories:

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Lainey Wilson

FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Lainey Wilson

MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Chris Stapleton

DUO OF THE YEAR
Dan + Shay

GROUP OF THE YEAR
Old Dominion

NEW FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR 
Megan Moroney

NEW MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Nate Smith

NEW DUO OR GROUP OF THE YEAR
Tigirlily Gold

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Higher, Chris Stapleton

SINGLE OF THE YEAR
“Fast Car,” Luke Combs

SONG OF THE YEAR
“Next Thing You Know,” Jordan Davis

VISUAL MEDIA OF THE YEAR
“Burn It Down,” Parker McCollum

MUSIC EVENT OF THE YEAR
“Save Me,” Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson

SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR
Jessie Jo Dillon

ARTIST-SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR
Chris Stapleton

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Kings of Leon have shared a video for their song “Seen,” a track off their new album, Can We Please Have Fun.

The clip follows a spotlight hopping between different members while the rest of the band is bathed in glowing white light. You can watch it now on YouTube.

“We’ve found that the more control we take, over all aspects of the creative process, the more authentic the experience is for us and the fans,” says bassist Jared Followill. “We love seeing people’s reactions and personal interpretations of the songs. But at the end of the day, nobody knows what these songs mean, and how they should come to life, better than we do.”

He continues, “This album is our baby, and we want it presented in the way we envisioned when we wrote and recorded it.”

Can We Please Have Fun, which also includes the single “Mustang,” is out now. Kings of Leon will launch a U.S. tour in August.

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Chance the Rapper has teamed up with DJ Premier for the track “Together,” on which he raps about the importance of protecting Black spaces in his hometown of Chicago, among other things.

It was released with a video featuring personal home video and archival footage of block parties, cookouts and Black Panther rallies.

“‘Together’ is really a call to action for Housing Justice in Chicago and abroad. It’s one of the key themes of the Star Line project, and for this song I wanted to try to paint that point with nostalgia rather than trauma,” Chance says in a statement. “Losing granny’s house is a fear and reality a lot of us deal with and instead of lingering on the negatives of that reality I wanted to highlight why those spaces are so important: they’re where we build memories, move family when they need somewhere to stay, raise our kids, do hospice. All of it.”

Chance performed a live rendition of the song for the live semifinal of The Voice on Wednesday.

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Pics or it didn’t happen? Céline Dion has posted photographic proof that she attended The Rolling Stones‘ Las Vegas concert on May 11. Céline, wearing a red dress and heels, is seen posing with Stones frontman Mick Jagger, her twins, Nelson and Eddy, and her oldest son, Rene-Charles. She captioned the photo, “What an incredible show! A very special thanks to @mickjagger for warmly welcoming my family. You got us rocking!”

And speaking of music legends posing together on Instagram, Elton John posted a photo of himself and husband David Furnish at the new exhibition of their personal photography collection at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. Joining them for the photo were Beatles legend Paul McCartney and two of his children, as well as Olivia Harrison, wife of the late George Harrison.

And while we’re on the topic of legends, Gloria Estefan will receive the Legend award at the 2024 Billboard Latin Women In Music celebration, which will air on Telemundo on June 9 and stream on Peacock. The Legend honor is for artists who have left a “unique and immeasurable legacy and have significantly impacted the industry throughout their careers with their musical work.” According to Billboard, Gloria is the most successful Latin “crossover” artist in history.

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Did you watch The Idea of You on Prime Video and come away from it wishing the film’s boy band was real? Well, luckily for you, that band — called August Moon — has released the music video for their song “Guard Down.” The track features lead vocals from Nicholas Galitzine and was produced by Savan Kotecha.

It seems Sabrina Carpenter ships Colin and Penelope on Bridgerton. Her hit song “Espresso” even features their ship name, albeit spelled a bit differently. “@bridgertonnetflix season 3’s about to dream come true it for Polin shippers,” @teamsabrina captioned a video filled with some of Colin and Penelope’s most memorable scenes. “Use #ComeAndGetThisPolin on videos of ur fav moments from this season!” the caption reads.

While out and about in LA on Thursday, Justin Bieber was spotted sporting a vintage R.E.M. T-shirt from the band’s 1989 Green World Tour. The band gave their approval on social media. “Nice t-shirt!” R.E.M’s official HQ page wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

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