Music

After stepping away from Florida Georgia Line to pursue his solo career, Tyler Hubbard has avoided doing many collabs — until now, that is. 

First, he teamed up with DJ/producer Steve Aoki on “Forget Tonight.” Then came “Whiskey Rain,” the title track of newcomer Graham Barham‘s EP that dropped Sept. 5.

“I haven’t done many collaborations in the last few years and that’s been intentional, so now I’m sort of itching to do that,” Tyler explains. “Everything kinda is determined by the song, so it’s gotta be the right song at the right time with the right team and all those things, but when all that lines up, man, I think doing music with friends is a lot of fun.”

Tyler and Graham’s duet came together after they met at a music festival and hit it off. 

From here, the “Park” hitmaker says “there’s a pretty good list that I look up to that I think would be fun to work with” and “[I] look forward to doing some more of that.”

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Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain retired from the band after 42 years back in June, and now he’s found something to do with all the extra time on his hands. The rocker is hosting a new heavy metal podcast, Metal Sticks, with Modern Drummer CEO David Frangioni.

The podcast will have the pair interviewing iconic artists like Alex Van Halen, Steve Vai and Ian Paice. Each episode will also have Nicko taking fans on an inside tour of his personal archive of Iron Maiden equipment and sharing important tips for maintenance of drumming gear.

There will also be a “Listen with Nicko” segment, something McBrain first did for Iron Maiden’s The First Ten Years box set, in which he shared the history behind specific Iron Maiden songs.

Metal Sticks is now available via streaming platforms and YouTube. In the first episode, McBrain opens up about his decision to retire.

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Starting with his new one, Play, Ed Sheeran‘s next series of albums will all be named after the buttons on a stereo, such as Rewind, Pause, Fast Forward and, eventually, Stop. But Ed says there’s one more album in that series — and it’ll come out after he’s dead.

Speaking to The Zane Lowe Show on Apple Music, Ed explains that he has plans in his will for the release of an album called Eject. “Cherry gets to pick the tracks for it,” he tells Zane, referring to his wife.

According to Ed, the idea is for her to choose the 10 best songs of his entire career, starting from the age of 18, and release them. “You know how posthumous albums come out, but they’re sort of unplanned?” Ed explains. “I want to sort of make a plan.”

When Zane replies, “You want the estate to take care of and do it properly?,” Ed says, “Yeah. And I’ll talk to Cherry [about it] throughout my life … ‘I really like this one. I really like this one. I really like this one.'”

Ed points out that “you never know” when your life will end so, as he puts it, “I don’t want to go and someone just to jumble up stuff and put it out. I want it to be planned.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Zane asks Ed why he thinks, given his massive success, that he hasn’t won more Grammys — he only has four. Ed replies, “Because the music industry is a massive school playground, and there are the cool kids and the uncool kids and I’ve always been on the other side.”

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Pearl Jam may have a song called “Rats,” but now some cats are being housed at the band’s headquarters.

The Seattle rockers revealed on Instagram that a tuxedo cat was found earlier this summer sunbathing in the parking lot of the band’s headquarters, and the group’s team helped get her and her kittens to safety.

The band shared video of the litter, writing, “Meet the Purrl Jam Family.” The mom has been named Mamasan, after the Mamasan trilogy, the first three songs (“Alive,” “Once” and “Footsteps”) that Eddie Vedder wrote lyrics to for the band. The kittens are named after three of the band’s songs: Dark Matter, the title track of their 2024 album; Gremmie, after the Lost Dogs B-side “Gremmie Out of Control”; and Bugs, after the track of the same name from 1994’s Vitalogy.

“With the help of @alleycatproject, a local non-profit organization dedicated to humanely reducing Seattle’s feral cat population, Mamasan and her 3-boy litter were safely captured and brought inside,” reads the post, noting that the cats were spayed and neutered, vaccinated and microchipped.

While Mamasan, who they say is a “true feral,” was ear-tipped and returned to the outdoors, her “tuxedo trilogy” will remain at Pearl Jam headquarters until they are ready to be adopted.

The band notes that the kittens are staying at their headquarters because their aren’t enough foster homes to help all the animals in need, asking fans to donate to Alley Cat Project or purchase supplies on their wish list to help the organization.

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Usher was honored with the Virgil Abloh Award Tuesday at the 18th annual Harlem Fashion Row Fashion Show & Style Awards. He took the stage to accept the award and thanked the family members who helped guide him in the absence of his father.

“All of these people were significant parts of my ambition…They taught me to dream and run wild and use my imagination in fashion,” he said, before taking time to praise God for allowing him to be an entertainer. He continued, “I recognize Him more than anything for saving me in my hardest moments.”

Usher acknowledged the truth that “there’s a relevance now more than I’ve had years previous,” joking that it was possibly due to his Las Vegas residency and cherry-feeding segments. He then shifted gears to provide a more serious answer, one connected to Virgil’s 3% rule. 

“This idea that innovation really starts by altering something that is familiar [by] 3%. So that right there became kind of a model for how I would view how I was introducing [my art] again, but I introduced it with what many of people on my team call my ambition of just looking up,” he said. “While they look right and left and always have my best interest and my back, I just dream and think of something that I think is a little better.”

Usher also found another connection to Virgil, calling back to one of the designer’s former quotes: “The world produces waves: You surf, you drown, you decide. Everything that you do is for that 17-year-old version of yourself.”

“That 17-year-old version of myself is the same thing that encourages me to this day, to make me fearless,” Usher said.

Nikki Ogunnaike, Christiane Pendarvis, Ruth E. Carter and Jason Bolden were also honored at the event.

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Harry Styles‘ latest romance has entered the “meet the parents” phase. People magazine reports that Harry and his alleged new girlfriend Zoë Kravitz met up with Zoë’s rock star dad Lenny Kravitz for lunch in New York City on Sept. 6. A source tells People, “Everyone looked like they had a great time. She’s also been introducing Harry to friends. This feels more than casual.” The source added that the actress and the singer “have great chemistry, lots to talk about and seem to be having fun together.” The two were first spotted together in Rome about a week ago.

Dua Lipa continued her tribute to the cities hosting her Radical Optimism tour this week. After performing Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” while playing in that group’s hometown of Chicago on Sept. 6, she paid tribute to the bad boys of Boston, Aerosmith, during her show there on Sept. 9. Dua sang “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” which remains the legendary group’s only U.S. #1 hit.

A while back, Ed Sheeran launched private, by-invitation only Instagram account called Teddy’s Vinyl Breakfast, where he documents the vinyl records he plays for his family every morning. Now, he’s offering instant access to that account if you preorder the Walmart special vinyl edition of his new album PLAY, which is pressed on Coke bottle clear green vinyl.

The video for Ava Max‘s 2018 breakout hit “Sweet But Psycho” has hit a billion views on YouTube.  It’s the singer’s first video to hit that milestone.

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