Tom Morello at 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. (Disney/Jennifer Pottheiser)
If you want your Halloween to have more of a rocking feel this year, Tom Morello is here to help.
The Rage Against the Machine guitarist has shared a new playlist dubbed “Spooky Jams,” which he describes as “a soundtrack to get you into the Halloween spirit.”
The playlist includes artists such as David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Bruce Springsteen, Iron Maiden, Coldplay, Portishead, Tool, Florence + the Machine, A Perfect Circle, Alice in Chains, AC/DC, The Cure, Bob Dylan, Ozzy Osbourne, PJ Harvey, Ghost, Led Zeppelin, Hozier, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica and Van Halen.
Taylor Swift arrives at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards, Los Angeles, February, 2025 (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
The parents of a 2-year-old girl suffering from a rare form of brain cancer are thanking Taylor Swift for an extremely generous GoFundMe donation.
Taylor donated $100,000 to the online fundraiser for the girl, Lilah, who has had to undergo chemotherapy and stem cell treatment since she was diagnosed earlier this year. Taylor may have gotten wind of Lilah’s plight when her mom, Katelynn, posted a TikTok on Oct. 8 showing Lilah watching Taylor’s video for “The Fate of Ophelia” and calling the singer her “friend.”
“So this might be my fault,” Katelyn wrote, explaining, “I listened to Taylor my whole pregnancy and then birthed a mini swiftie. Lilah loves Taylor’s music and during her cancer treatment she always found joy in it. I hope Lilah gets through this diagnosis and gets to one day go to a Taylor Swift concert in person.”
In the video, Katelyn also shared that she first felt Lilah kick when she attended the opening night of the Eras Tour while pregnant, and originally planned to name Lilah “Willow,” after one of Taylor’s songs.
Taylor made her donation on Oct. 17, and it helped them surpass their $100,000 goal by nearly $60,000. As of Oct. 18, the total stood at nearly $227,000.
Katelyn reacted by posting a TikTok showing a screenshot of the note Taylor wrote with her donation: “Sending the biggest hug to my friend, Lilah! Love Taylor.”
In the video, Katelyn and Lilah dance to “The Fate of Ophelia,” and the on-screen text reads, “Thank you beyond words Taylor Swift. We can now just focus on being here with our girl. Truly we are so incredibly grateful. I am in shock … You have no idea what this means to our family.”
Eric Bellinger performs at the 4th Annual Guitar Center Music Foundation Gala at The Maybourne Beverly Hills on September 11, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Michael Tullberg/Getty Images)
Eric Bellinger is not only a singer, he’s a renowed songwriter with credits on songs by Usher, Justin Bieber and Chris Brown. Ahead of Chris’ final Breezy Bowl XX tour stop Saturday, Eric shared how it felt to see some of the songs he’s written performed on a stadium stage.
“I feel like I’m on stage,” he tells ABC Audio. “To see him flying in the air and doing the songs and people singing the songs, it’s like, it’s just another level.”
Eric notes that he doesn’t write better songs for artists than he does himself, but he’s witnessed the differences in charting.
“When I have a song and maybe it goes like top 20, we shoot a video, we pushing for it, it’s not the same reach [as Chris has with his #1 singles],” Eric shares.
“I kind of know that the independent versus like the major versus the push versus the marketing dollars versus the time in the game, it all like plays a part in it,” he shares. “So to feel what my songs do, it’s always great, but to see the songs go there, it’s always like, I knew my song was hard. You feel me?”
Eric will take his own music out on the road as part of Jagged Edge‘s Cuffing Season Tour, kicking off Nov. 6 in Ontario. Lloyd will also be on the trek.
Alexa Ray Joel, ‘Riverside Way’ single (Andrew H. Walker)
Billy Joel once sang “Don’t care if it’s Chinatown or on Riverside.” Now, his daughter Alexa Ray Joel is also singing about Riverside, but in a very different way.
Alexa has a new EP project called Tales from a Winding Tower, which she’s releasing one song at a time. The first song and video is “Riverside Way,” which is about shedding her good-girl skin and taking a wild ride with a bad boy.
Alexa tells ABC Audio the song was originally called “Riverside Drive,” after the Manhattan street, but she explains, “[It’s] a little awkward to sing,” so “‘Way’ just popped out.”
“It was really fun to just get in touch with that bad girl side,” Alexa adds of the song and video, which are both pretty steamy. Surprisingly, it’s Billy’s favorite on the EP.
She laughs, “He was like, ‘Where’d that one come from?’ He liked that it was such a departure.”
Other songs on the EP also find Alexa embracing her bad girl side. “It’s very much about female desire,” she says of the project. Its decidedly darker edge led Billy to compare Alexa’s EP to his own 1982 album.
“My father was saying to me, ‘Hey girl, this record’s kind of like your Nylon Curtain.’ And it kind of is,” she agrees.
Alexa says Billy, who’s been diagnosed with a condition that causes fluid buildup in the brain, is “doing great,” adding, “He is the most resilient man that I’ve ever met or will meet.” Meanwhile, she’ll pay tribute to him in March at a charity concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall celebrating his music.
“I’m not gonna not pay tribute to my legend of a father, arguably, if not the greatest songwriter ever, I put him up there with The Beatles,” she laughs, and then whispers, “I think he’s better, though.”
Sabrina Carpenter and Marcello Hernandez during ‘SNL’ promos (Rosalind O’Connor/NBC)
Sabrina Carpenter pulled double duty as host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live on Saturday — and she also managed to sing the F-word several times without being censored.
Her performance of “Manchild” was self-censored: She sang, “Eff my life.” But when it came to her second performance, “Nobody’s Son,” that went out the window when she came to the part of the song that went viral on TikTok.
During the performance, which was set in a martial arts studio, Sabrina sang the line, “He sure f***** me up/ And yes, I’m talkin’ ’bout your baby,” twice, singing the F-word loud and clear. In the version posted to YouTube, the audio drops out during the profanity.
As for the show itself, the cold open brought backMarcello Hernandez’s Domingo in a revisit of the viral bridesmaids sketch, originally set to Sabrina’s “Espresso.” Sabrina played the childhood bestie of Chloe Fineman‘s Kelsey and she and Kelsey’s other friends sang about Kelsey once again cheating on her husband with Domingo. During the skit, Sabrina and the girls sang songs set to Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” and Lady Gaga‘s “Abracadabra” before Domingo appeared to sing about his love for Kelsey in a take on Alex Warren’s “Ordinary.”
In her monologue, Sabrina also jokingly addressed the controversy about her Man’s Best Friend album cover photo, which shows her on all fours, with someone pulling her hair.
“What people don’t realize is, that’s just how they cropped it,” she said. “If you zoom out, it’s clearly a picture from the 50th anniversary special of Bowen [Yang] helping me up by the hair, after Martin Short shoved me out of the buffet line.”
Bassist Sam Rivers of Limp Bizkit performs a show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. on Friday, June 20, 2025. (Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Original Limp Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers has died. He was 48.
“Today we lost our brother,” the “Break Stuff” outfit writes in an Instagram post published Saturday. “Our bandmate. Our heartbeat.”
“Sam Rivers wasn’t just our bass player — he was pure magic,” the post continues. “The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound.”
Rivers co-founded Limp Bizkit alongside frontman Fred Durst in the mid-’90s. He played on every Bizkit album, including 1999’s Significant Other and 2000’s Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water.
“From the first note we ever played together, Sam brought a light and a rhythm that could never be replaced. His talent was effortless, his presence unforgettable, his heart enormous,” Limp Bizkit writes. “We shared so many moments — wild ones, quiet ones, beautiful ones — and every one of them meant more because Sam was there.”
“He was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of human,” the post concludes. “A true legend of legends. And his spirit will live forever in every groove, every stage, every memory. We love you, Sam. We’ll carry you with us, always. Rest easy, brother. Your music never ends.”
In the post’s comments, turntablist DJ Lethal adds, “We are in shock. Rest in power my brother! You will live on through your music and the lives you helped save with your music, charity work and friendships. We are heartbroken.”
If all you need is new Cannons music, then you’re in luck.
The “Fire for You” outfit has dropped a song called “All I Need.” It marks the band’s first fresh material since their 2023 album, Heartbeat Highway, which spawned the single “Loving You.”
“[Guitarist] Ryan [Clapham] reworked the sketch with a darker, shinier edge, somewhere between Air and Pink Floyd, and I found melodies that leaned into that weight, giving the chorus a Radiohead-like pull,” vocalist Michelle Joy says of recording “All I Need.” “I recorded my first take one night in complete darkness during a power outage; its raw imperfection unlocked some sort of magic in the song. From there, the track began to take on its own life.”
Eva Under Fire has premiered a new single called “Awakening.”
The track will appear on the “Blow” band’s upcoming sophomore album, the follow-up to their 2022 debut, Love, Drugs & Misery.
“These songs are everything we wanted to write,” says frontwoman Amanda Lyberg. “We made sure it was the most honest version of our story.”
“‘Awakening’ is an anthem about conquering personal demons,” she continues. “The rest of the album is what it took to get there. It’s also a story packaged in the heaviest riffs we’ve ever played so I think listeners will be pleasantly surprised. Cheers to the new era!”
In the meantime, you can catch Eva Under Fire live playing shows with Buckcherry in October and November.
Pink is bringing her Carnival tour to Mexico next spring, marking her first time performing in that country in 23 years, and her first-ever headlining show there. “I’m so excited to scream my lungs out with you,” she says in an Instagram video. The show takes place April 26 at Estadio GNP Seguros; tickets go on sale next week.
Ariana Grande celebrated one of her favorite artists on Friday. She reposted a video of British singer Imogen Heaptalking about the 20th anniversary of her album Speak for Yourself on her Instagram Story and captioned it, “happy 20th anniversary to Speak for Yourself @imogenheap I love you so.” Imogen reposted Ari’s comments and wrote, “Well @arianagrande I’m pretty sure this album has been largely kept alive and revived by the likes of you too over the years. Love and respect so many things you’ve done over the years.” Ariana reposted that and added a graphic of a cat fainting with emotion. Imogen’s best known for her song “Hide and Seek” and also co-writing “Clean” on Taylor Swift‘s 1989 album.
The executive chef and partner of one of Montreal’s best restaurants is addressing the fact that Katy Perry and former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau seemingly began their alleged romance at his establishment back in July. Speaking to CBC Radio on Thursday, Le Violon’s Danny Smiles said of the couple’s dinner date, “There was a weird energy in the room. That’s all people were talking about. It took on a world of its own.” He hopes that going forward, his Michelin-starred eatery won’t simply be known as “the restaurant that Justin and Katy ate at.” Katy and Justin were recently photographed embracing on a yacht, and Katy has coyly intimated that she’s no longer single.
Eric Bellinger performs at the 4th Annual Guitar Center Music Foundation Gala at The Maybourne Beverly Hills on September 11, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Michael Tullberg/Getty Images)
Ice-T, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Arabian Prince bring the grit of hip-hop to an animated action series titled Tehk City. They’re working with producer Ambitious Entertainment on the “high-octane animated neo-noir” that “unfolds in a brutal, near-future penal colony where every choice is life or death, chaos reigns and only the ruthless survive,” Deadline reports. “I just wanted to bring something new to animation that’s never been seen before, coming from the mind of a black creator out of the projects of the Upper West Side of Manhattan,” Ice-T says in a statement.
Issa Rae will be celebrated at the 2025 Clio Entertainment Awards hosted by Rachel Bloom, where she will receive the honorary Clio Entertainment Award. She’ll be honored for her role in reshaping pop culture with elevated, female-forward and Black-led storytelling. The event will take place Nov. 13 atthe Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
The 2025 Hip Hop Grandmaster Awards will take place Saturday in Sin City, with a focus on Kool G Rap and Grand Puba. The two will be celebrated for their overlooked contributions to art and culture and presented with an award that includes a financial stipend to further their creative journeys. Also being honored are Fat Boys‘ Kool Rock Ski and Whodini‘s Jalil Hutchins, who will receive theinaugural Contributor award. George Clinton is this year’s first Quincy Jones Award recipient.
Raheem DeVaughn is currently on his 20 Lessons of Love tour, where he’s celebrating 20 years of his debut album, The Love Experience. The trek includes shows in Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia and more. “Love is the common thread that unites us all,” Raheem shares in a press release. “With this tour, I want to create a space where people can not only celebrate love, but also learn, grow, and heal through it.”
