Don’t even think about talking to Miranda Lambert until she’s had her morning cup of joe.
The superstar admits she’s relatively charm-free until she’s had her morning dose of caffeine.
“I love coffee. I’m actually not nice until I have it,” she reveals. “My husband knows that, so he usually like hands it to me in silence in the bed, like, ‘Have your charm, honey.’ But yeah, I love coffee.”
While a lack of coffee may make her cranky, Miranda’s not picky about what kind she drinks.
“I will kinda drink any kind, but I’m also just, like, on the bus [I’ll drink] simple Folgers and some cream, you know, keep it simple,” she says.
Miranda’s keeping her schedule fairly simple for the rest of 2025. She plays Boots in the Park in San Juan Capistrano, California, on Oct. 18, with a couple more shows still to come in December.
Ken Casey of Dropkick Murphys performs at Iveagh Gardens on July 07, 2024 in Dublin, Ireland. (Debbie Hickey/Getty Images)
Dropkick Murphys have announced the 2026 edition of their annual St. Patrick’s Day concerts.
The “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” outfit will play shows at Beantown’s MGM Music Hall on March 13, 14 and 15 leading up to the big day concert on March 17, which will take place at the House of Blues.
The run will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dropkick Murphys, which first formed in 1996.
A presale begins Wednesday, and tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. ET. For all ticket info, visit DropkickMurphys.com.
Dropkick Murphys released their latest album, For the People, in July. A physical edition featuring five bonus songs drops Friday.
Jerry Garcia’s Cosmic Journey/(courtesy of Jerry Garcia Family & Twogether Studios)
Artwork by the late Grateful Dead founder Jerry Garcia is being highlighted in a new dice game.
Jerry Garcia’s Cosmic Journey, a collaboration between Jerry Garcia’s family and game designers Twogether Studios, is being described as “an easy to learn dice game for people of all ages.”
Fun for up to eight players, the game has folks taking a journey through Jerry’s art, collecting “Bummer” tokens on the way. After there are no more tokens to collect, the participants begin their journey home, with the first one to get rid of all their “Bummers” declared the winner.
“We’re excited to partner with an independent company full of creative and imaginative individuals,” says the rocker’s daughter Trixie Garcia. “It’s been a true grassroots effort, and we’ve enjoyed seeing it grow into something that will bring people together.”
“My dad’s legacy lives on through moments of joy, laughter, and connection,” she adds. “Like music, games foster community, and Jerry Garcia’s Cosmic Journey is a whimsical way for fans to keep that spirit alive wherever the road may lead. Let’s get together and play!”
Taylor Swift, ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ cover image (Mert Alas & Marcus Piggot)
Since Taylor Swift released The Life of a Showgirl, seemingly everyone has weighed in with their hot takes on it — not just fans and critics, but those mentioned in and those who coined phrases that appear in the lyrics. Not every reaction is positive, but Taylor believes that ultimately all publicity is good publicity.
While appearing on The Zane Lowe Show on Apple Music, Taylor was asked, “How do you absorb all of that?” She replied, “I welcome the chaos. The rule of show business is, if it’s the first week of my album release and you are saying either my name or my album title, you’re helping.”
She added, “I have a lot of respect for people’s subjective opinions on art. I’m not the art police. It’s like, everybody is allowed to feel exactly how they want.”
“We’re doing this thing for keeps,” Taylor noted. “I have such an eye on legacy when I’m making my music. I know what I made. I know I adore it, and I know that, on the theme of what the Showgirl is, all of this [reaction] is part of it.”
Taylor was also asked about her video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” in which she says she inserted “over 100 Easter eggs.” She says, “I was just going through my list and checking them off one by one.” She added, “It’s a blast because the fans have made it a blast, because they know that this all points to current art, past art or future art.”
Taylor said she’s “very honored” that fans “care that much” about her hints, so she’ll keep on doing it. “As long as this is something that’s fun for them, it’s going to be fun for me to plan.”
Nas performs during 2025 Essence Festival of Culture at Caesars Superdome on July 06, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images)
Nas is paying homage to the pioneers of hip-hop and the artists who helped shape the genre with an album series and comic book titled Legend Has It. He tells Rolling Stone his goal is to celebrate their talent and impact, as well as the high standard they set that “keeps us aiming higher.”
“This series is to encourage [and] inspire hip hop and remind us all [of] the pureness of hip hop,” he explains. “I hope that we all can do this together.”
He adds it’s “a dream come true” to amplify the voices in hip-hop with his series.
Legend Has It the comic book is a partnership with Marvel featuring hip-hop acts who are comic book fans. It immortalizes the artists as superheroes, created with their input.
“Every one of us had a bunch of questions and a bunch of ideas, and we put together what we felt would be the best representation of us and a comic book superhero,” Nas says.
He also discusses with Rolling Stone his ongoing Legend Has It album series, which will see the release of new music from hip-hop legends including Big L, Prodigy and De La Soul.
“Big L was always ahead of his time,” Nas says of the late rapper, who has a posthumous record coming out on Oct. 31.
He adds that Prodigy of Mobb Deep is “one of the best,” and notes it was a blessing for Havoc and Prodigy’s family to give the green light for the new Mobb Deep album, Infinite, which is set to drop on Oct. 10.
Nas also talks about De La Soul, calling them “hippies in hip-hop,” and says he’s excited “for people to finally hear” his upcoming album with DJ Premier.
Corey Beaulieu and Matt Heafy of Trivium perform in concert at Palacio Vistalegre Arena on February 27, 2025 in Madrid, Spain. (Mariano Regidor/WireImage)
On Friday, Trivium announced that drummer Alex Bent had left the band after a nine-year run with the metal outfit. Speaking with ABC Audio, guitarist Corey Beaulieu says that Bent’s departure “definitely was not something we were expecting.”
“But it’s like, when s*** happens, you just gotta kind of buckle down and figure the s*** out,” Beaulieu says.
For Trivium, that meant finding a new drummer to play with them for their set at the Aftershock festival on Saturday. They recruited Greyson Nekrutman of Sepultura, who Beaulieu says was one of Trivium’s top choices for the gig.
“I think when we called him, he was on a drum clinic tour in Canada,” Beaulieu recalls. “He was like, ‘Yeah, I’m available, I’ll start learning the songs.’ And then we had, like, two days of rehearsal and we played Aftershock.”
“It was a pretty intense couple days trying to get up to speed,” he continues. “Luckily he’s such a great drummer that we were able to pull it off.”
Nekrutman will continue playing with Trivium for their U.S. tour, which kicks off Oct. 31 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, but will return to Sepultura for their 2026 tour. Having Nekrutman manning the kit in the meantime, though, allows Trivium to “observe the landscape of drummers and potential good fits” for a permanent replacement, Beaulieu says.
“It’s [an] unexpected end of our year, but we’re kind of running with it and figuring out the best positive outcome for the band moving forward,” Beaulieu says. “So we’re all in good spirits over here.”
Trivium is also releasing a new EP, Struck Dead, on Oct. 31.
Tom Morello at 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. (Disney/Jennifer Pottheiser)
Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello has put out plenty of material on his own, but now he’s prepping his “first-ever solo rock album.”
“I really wanted to make … a record that is relentless in its big guitar riffs, relentless in its inventive guitar solos,” Morello tells BillboardEspañol.
Morello’s previously released three albums under his own name, The Atlas Underground, The Atlas Underground Fire and The Atlas Underground Flood, but those all featured guest vocalists and brought in electronic elements. He’s also recorded acoustic folk music with his project The Nightwatchmen.
With his upcoming album, which is due out in 2026, Morello also wanted to showcase his teenage son Roman Morello, who he calls a “tremendous guitar player.” He hopes the record “welcomes [Roman] and his ideas into it, as a new generation who has this Morello DNA of rock ‘n’ roll power.”
You can catch Morello playing a run of U.S. tour dates starting in November.
The 20th anniversary celebration of Alicia Keys‘ Unplugged continues.
MTV has announced they will replay the performance on air through Sunday across MTV Live, MTVU and MTV Classic in the U.S., as well as several international channels. Excerpts from the concert event will also be included in this week’s “Fresh Out” playlist, with graphics encouraging people to watch the entire Unplugged episode on Paramount+.
MTV’s Unplugged announcement is Alicia’s latest act celebrating 20 years of the album. She previously performed songs from the album at Broadway’s Shubert Theater and at Jungle City Studios in New York City. She also released Unplugged 20th Anniversary, a 2-LP black vinyl edition of the album featuring live footage of the original 2005 concert.
It marked Alicia’s first-ever live recording and the first by a female artist to top the Billboard 200.
An album featuring live songs from her set was released in October of that year and was nominated for the best R&B Grammy.
Tate McRae‘s latest album, So Close to What, has been RIAA certified Platinum for sales of 1 million units. Three songs from the album have also been certified Platimum: “It’s ok I’m ok,” “Revolving door” and “Sports car.” Another track, “2 hands,” has been certified Gold for sales of 500,000 units. The Canadian star’s Miss Possessive tour wraps up Nov. 8 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California.
Ed Sheeran wants everyone to know that what Taylor Swift said about him on The Tonight Show is true. While appearing on the show Monday, Taylor told Jimmy Fallon the reason she didn’t call Ed to tell him she was engaged is that he literally doesn’t own a phone. Taylor said, “You have to email him and then if you wanna set up a FaceTime, he has to find an iPad — they have to give it to him like he’s a child, they give the iPad to him.” When the Tonight Show TikTok posted the clip, Ed wrote in the comments, “Hello from my allotted iPad time, this is factual.”
Speaking of Taylor Swift, Billboard reports that her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has now sold 3 million copies, according to data tracking firm Luminate. As previously reported, in its first day of release it sold 2.7 million copies. The only album that has ever sold more in a single week since Luminate began electronically tracking data in 1997 has been Adele‘s 25, which sold 3.378 million copies in its first week in 2015.
Bruce Springsteen on Jimmy Kimmel Live!/(Disney/Randy Holmes)
Bruce Springsteen is looking back at a classic show in his home state of New Jersey.
The rocker just released a recording of his July 6, 1981, concert, which is significant because it was part of his first-ever stand at the then-new Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The concert, part of Springsteen’s The River tour, was one of six shows The Boss played to open the venue. They were also Springsteen’s first-ever arena shows in the Garden State; prior to Brendan Byrne’s opening, New Jersey didn’t have an arena to play in.
The 27-song set opens with “Thunder Road” and features such tunes as “Prove It All Night,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” “The River,” “Badlands,” “Jungleland” and “Born to Run,” along with covers of Jimmy Cliff’s “Trapped,” Woody Guthrie‘s “This Land Is Your Land” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Who’ll Stop the Rain.”
The show is now available to stream or purchase at nugs.net.
