The stage of the Grand Ole Opry (Chris Hollo/Grand Ole Opry)
Megan Moroney, Drew Baldridge, Tigirlily Gold, Pam Tillis, Suzy Bogguss, Bill Anderson and Rhett Akins will all have cameos in the Grand Ole Opry’s new Hallmark Christmas movie, according to Variety.
Actors James Denton, Sharon Lawrence, Luke Benward and Rob Mayes have been added to the cast, as well.
In the film, which started shooting in mid-August, Nikki DeLoach plays the daughter of a country icon killed in a car accident three decades ago. She distances herself from her dream of a songwriting career after her father’s death, but is suddenly transported back to 1995 when she returns to the Opry for its 100th birthday.
A Grand Ole Opry Christmas is set to air during Hallmark’s 16th Countdown to Christmas this year, complete with new music from Brad Paisley.
Stephen King performs at opening of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; 1995, Cleveland, OH (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc)
Despite the horror-movie overtones of their classic work, Stephen King is apparently no fan of Black Sabbath.
The superstar author did an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit to promote the upcoming movie adaptation of the first novel he ever wrote, The Long Walk, which he penned under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. The movie, set in a dystopian future America, is about a group of young men who enter a contest in which they must walk continuously; if they fall below 3 miles per hour, they’ll be shot. The winner is the last man left alive.
While answering fans’ questions, King was asked what would be on his playlist if he was taking the Long Walk. Noting that he wrote the book in 1967, King replied, “Back then I would have picked ‘Get Together,’ by the Youngbloods, ‘Eve of Destruction,’ by Barry Maguire, ‘Carol,’ by the Rolling Stones, ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues,’ by [Bob] Dylan, maybe ‘Summertime Blues,’ by Eddie Cochran, ‘Rock and Roll is Here to Stay,’ by Danny and the Juniors.”
He continued, “Now I’d load my playlist with AC/DC, Rancid, Metallica, Stones, [Bruce] Springsteen. Not Black Sabbath, I never liked them.”
In Black Sabbath-adjacent news, the BBC reports that one of a set of silver rings designed for the members of the band for their farewell concert in July is going up for auction on Sept. 17.
The designer, Jagga, created the five rings and four of them were presented to Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. The rings feature the crest of the Aston Villa football club — whose home stadium was the location of the final concert — and the year 1968, when the band was founded. The spare fifth ring is expected to fetch around $2,000.
Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian of System of a Down perform on December 13, 2014 in Inglewood, California. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
System of a Down paid tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne during the opening date of their North American stadium tour Wednesday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Guitarist Daron Malakian led the crowd in an “Ozzy!” chant before introducing a cover of the Black Sabbath song “Snowblind.”
“We’re gonna do a number now about cocaine!” Malakian exclaimed.
In other Ozzy tribute news, Mastodon‘s Brann Dailor and Bill Kelliher share in an interview with Bloodstock TV that they plan to record their cover of Sabbath’s “Supernaut,” which they performed during the Back to the Beginning concert on July 5.
“We’ve been talking about it, for sure,” Kelliher said. “I mean, we have to, we’ve been playing it every night.”
“We’re definitely recording it,” Dailor added.
Back to the Beginning was previously announced as Ozzy and the original Black Sabbath lineup’s final concert. Ozzy died just over two weeks later, on July 22.
Halsey performs during ‘Badlands’ era, October, 2015 (Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
It’s the 10th anniversary of Halsey‘s debut album, Badlands, and she’s taking the celebration on the road.
The singer announced a Back to Badlands trek for her triple-Platinum 2015 debut LP. Shows will kick off with a concert at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles on Oct. 14 and hit cities across the U.S., including Boston, Chicago and New York. She’ll then take the show abroad to Europe, the U.K. and Australia.
Presales begin Sept. 2, with tickets going on sale to the general public on Sept. 5 at 10 a.m. local time at BadlandsTour.com.
Halsey recently wrapped her For My Last Trick tour.
Badlands was released on Aug. 28, 2015, and became one of the only albums to have every song RIAA-certified Gold, Platinum or multi-Platinum. Halsey is releasing three new anniversary vinyls — Badlands Decade Edition, Badlands: Live from Webster Hall and Badlands: Anthology — on Friday to commemorate the milestone.
Neil Young performs at Glastonbury festival, June 2025 (Jim Dyson/Redferns)
Neil Young has been openly critical of President Donald Trump this year, and that criticism continued on Wednesday night, when Young and his band the Chrome Hearts performed in Chicago.
Young performed a brand-new song called “Big Crime,” concerning Trump’s use of the National Guard in Washington, D.C. He posted audio of the soundcheck version of the song on his Neil Young Archives website, along with the lyrics.
“Don’t need no fascist rules/ Don’t want no fascist schools/ Don’t want soldiers on our streets,” Young sings. “There’s big crime in DC at the White House.”
“No more money to the fascists/ the billionaire fascists/ Time to blackout the system,” he added. In his transcription of the lyrics, he put “Time to blackout the system” in all caps and italicized the repetitions of “Don’t want soldiers on our streets.”
Earlier this year, Young speculated that as a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, if he was critical of Trump, he might be “barred” from reentering the country, should he leave. He also called out Trump’s attacks on Bruce Springsteen and other musicians who have been critical of him.
He wrote, “STOP THINKING ABOUT WHAT ROCKERS ARE SAYING. Think about saving America from the mess you made. Taylor Swift is right. So is Bruce. You know how I feel.”
Billy Joel hit #1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart with River of Dreams, his 12th studio album and his final pop/rock record.
The album, with a cover painted by Joel’s then-wife Christie Brinkley, was Billy’s fourth #1 and spent three weeks on top of the chart.
The album’s title track went on to become a top-five hit, Joel’s last on the Billboard Hot 100. The record also featured “Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel),” which he wrote as a tribute to his daughter Alexa Ray Joel.
Offset performs onstage during day 5 at Summerfest 2025 at Henry Maier Festival Park on June 27, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Joshua Applegate/Getty Images)
Once his divorce with Cardi B is finalized, don’t expect to see Offset walking down the aisle again.
The rapper tells the Full Send Podcasthe’s done with marriage. “It’s not for me,” he said. “I’ve done it, had three kids with it. It’s like a mission that’s been complete.”
He also offered some words of advice for anyone considering getting hitched. “I’ll tell you don’t get married,” Offset said. “I would say unless you’re cool with changing your life. [If] you got a partner, that’s different. Especially when it’s written and it’s a real thing.”
Offset added, “Depends on how we move, like our careers and s***, it’s just hard. … I wouldn’t tell you to get married while you moving. Wait till you get that money.”
Offset’s third studio album, Kiari, came out Aug. 22. He addresses his split with Cardi on the track “Move On.”
“Hurt People Hurt People” single artwork. (Alchemy Recordings)
Mudvayne has released a new song called “Hurt People Hurt People,” marking the reunited band’s first fresh material in 16 years.
“‘Hurt People Hurt People’ has probably been around since the beginning of man,” says frontman Chad Gray. “Certainly longer than the phrase ever existed. The endless cycle of projecting our pain onto others.”
“I think I wrote this song as a reminder to myself to break the cycle,” he continues. “We create our own suffering, our own hurt. It’s time for us to create self-love and let go of the pain. It was never ours to begin with.”
You can watch the lyric video for “Hurt People Hurt People” on YouTube.
“Hurt People Hurt People” follows Mudvayne’s last album, 2009’s self-titled effort. The group went on hiatus in 2010 before reuniting in 2021.
Mudvayne will launch a U.S. tour in September celebrating the 25th anniversary of their 2000 debut album, L.D. 50. Static-X is also on the bill.
Arianators everywhere are saying ‘thank u’ to their queen: After a not-so-subtle tease on Instagram, Ariana Grande announced on Thursday her first tour in six years.
The Eternal Sunshine Tour will visit North America and the U.K. in the summer of 2026, and will see the Oscar-nominated superstar playing multiple nights in every city. Four-night runs in both LA and Brooklyn are on the agenda, as is a five-night residency at London’s O2 Arena.
The trek gets rolling June 6, 2026, in Oakland, California, and is set to wrap up Aug. 23, 2026, in London. In between, Ari will play Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Montreal and Sunrise, Florida, in addition to the previously mentioned cities.
The tour, in support of Ariana’s album Eternal Sunshine and the expanded version, Eternal Sunshine: Brighter Days Ahead, marks the first time Ari will return to the stage in a major way since her Sweetener Tour, which saw her playing to more than 1.3 million fans across 100 shows.
To participate in the presale, which starts Sept. 9 at 10 a.m. local time, sign up by Sept. 7 at 2 p.m. ET at livemu.sc/arianagrande. Anyone who signs up can join the sale, since access is tied to your Ticketmaster account. The remaining tickets will go up for sale Sept. 10 at 10 a.m. local time at ArianaGrande.com.
VIP packages will also be available via vipnation.com.
A lot has happened since Ariana’s Sweetener tour ended in 2019, including scoring seven #1 hits, releasing her album Positions, getting married and then divorced from Dalton Gomez, starting a new relationship with Ethan Slater, receiving critical acclaim for Wicked and being cast in the new film Focker-In-Law.
Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards (Todd Williamson/CBS via Getty Images)
Because Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got engaged two weeks ago, it’s quite possible that Selena Gomez has been sitting on the news all this time. But she’s now publicly acknowledged her friend’s major life change on her Instagram Story.
Selena reposted Taylor and Travis’ announcement, soundtracked to the classic hit by Queen “You’re My Best Friend.” She captioned it, “When bestie gets engaged.” She followed that up by reposting a fan-made collage of side-by-side photos of her own engagement to Benny Blanco and one of the Taylor and Travis engagement photos, along with a screengrab of a tweet that Taylor sent to Selena on April 13, 2009.
“Real love still happens sometimes,” she wrote to Selena. “It’s not just something we make up when we’re [sic] nine. I have to believe that. You do too.” The caption was, “16 years later.”
Selena and Benny have not yet announced a wedding date, though no doubt the two BFFs will coordinate so they don’t step on each other’s dates.
