Bill Ward, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath appear at a press conference at the Whisky a Go Go on November 11, 2011 in West Hollywood, California. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward has shared an update on his health.
In a Facebook post published Thursday, the 78-year-old drummer writes, “I’m announcing today somewhat sadly but nonetheless truthfully, that I’ve reached a place where publicly more and more I need to use a wheelchair, mostly in airports, or public events.”
“I can still walk, let there be no doubt,” Ward continues. “But I can’t walk very far without needing to rest, meaning I need to sit down.”
Ward adds that he’s “still a drummer” and feels he “can still play pretty good for 78 years old.”
“My talents and ambitions, and my unyielding need to be artful, and to play drums, is still as strong as it was so many years ago now,” Ward writes. “I’m just saying if you see me in a wheelchair, I’m just catching a ride, I’m not in retirement or ill or giving up, or any of those thoughts that ignite when we see people in wheelchairs. I’m making myself public and transparent about my new transport, and letting you know I’m OK.”
He concludes, “Much love to you all and I’ll keep rocking until I’m dead.”
Ward reunited with his Black Sabbath bandmates Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler in 2025 for the massive Back to the Beginning concert, which marked the final live performance by the legendary metal outfit’s original lineup. Ozzy died just over two weeks later at age 76.
Sir Mick Jagger (L) and Ronnie Wood attend the launch of The Rolling Stones’ new album “Foreign Tongues” at the St Clement Hotel on July 08, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
The Rolling Stones celebrated the upcoming release of their new album, Foreign Tongues, Wednesday at a star-studded party in London.
The event, held at the St. Clement hotel, included a light show over the River Thames. The show was soundtracked to the Foreign Tongues single “In The Stars” and featured drones lighting up the sky with images of the band’s tongue logo, album artwork and more.
The Stones’ Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood attended the festivities and even performed the Foreign Tongues track “Ringing Hollow” for their A-list audience.
Attendees included Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Sam Fender, Sacha Baron Cohen, Simone Ashley, Christian Louboutin, John McEnroe and Glen Matlock.
“We put this album together in under a month at Metropolis Studios in our hometown of London – it was a lot of fun,” said The Stones. “The critics seem to like it, we hope everyone loves it!”
Foreign Tongues, The Rolling Stones’ 25th studio album, comes out Friday.
Bonnie Tyler at Rewind South 80s Music Festival at Temple Island Meadows, Aug. 17, 2014, in Henley-on-Thames, United Kingdom. (Rob Ball/Redferns via Getty Images)
Bonnie Tyler, the singer known for hits including “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Holding Out for a Hero” died on Wednesday, according to a statement attributed to her family and team. She was 75.
The Welsh singer died in a hospital in Portugal, where she was being treated for an illness, according to the statement, which was posted on the singer’s official social media channel.
“We will issue a further statement shortly but for now ask for privacy to deal with this tragedy,” the statement said.
Born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951, in Wales, Tyler’s distinctive husky voice helped her climb the charts. She landed her first big hit in 1977 with the track “It’s a Heartache,” which peaked at #3 in the U.S. and #4 in the U.K.
But it was the 1983 hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” that launched her career to superstardom. The track, written and produced by Jim Steinman, known for his hits with Meat Loaf, spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and also topped the charts in the U.K. and several other countries. The song’s video has been watched over 1 billion times on YouTube, and the tune has been streamed over 1 billion times on Spotify.
The track, which appeared on Tyler’s fifth studio album, Faster than the Speed of Night, earned Tyler a Grammy nomination for best female pop vocal performance. It went on to sell over 6 million copies and has been certified Gold by the RIAA.
Tyler’s other big U.S. hit was “Holding Out For a Hero,” also written by Steinman, which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1984 film Footloose; itlater appeared onher sixth studio album, Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire. While the song was only a top-40 hit in the U.S., peaking at #34, it grew in popularity over the years thanks to its use in a variety of commercials and movie trailers, including the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy and the 2026 film Masters of the Universe.
While her biggest successes came in the ’80s, Tyler continued to put out music, releasing 18 albums over the course of her career. Her last album was 2021’s The Best Is Yet to Come.
Among Tyler’s accolades, she was nominated for three Grammy awards and three Brit Awards. In 2022 she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.
Tyler’s family shared a statement in May saying that she was in “seriously ill but stable” condition after being put in a medically induced coma as she recovered from emergency intestinal surgery.
A month later, her family shared another statement, saying Tyler was still recovering and that she “remains very unwell and in intensive care” in a hospital in Portugal.
Cody Johnson’s ‘Banks of the Trinity’ (COJO Music/Warner Records Nashville)
Since the title track of Cody Johnson’s new record, Banks of the Trinity, seems like an autobiographical throwback to his Texas childhood, it’s easy to assume he wrote it specifically as the album’s anchor.
But the truth is, Cody didn’t have a hand in writing it at all — or a vision for what his sixth album would be called.
“I really didn’t have a title for my new album until I heard the song ‘Banks of the Trinity,'” he reveals. “And I went, ‘Oh, that’s it. I can paint a visual picture on this piece of work from the vinyls to the CDs to the t-shirts to the hats that’s a little bit different than, “Hey, look, it’s Cody Johnson on a horse,”‘ you know.”
“That’s what I live every day, but the song, ‘Banks of The Trinity,’ really took me back to a piece of my childhood,” he adds.
“Banks of the Trinity” was written by Rodney Clawson, Chris Tompkins and Josh Kear.
Since the ACM entertainer of the year grew up near the Trinity River in Sebastopol, Texas, hearing the lyrics brought back a flood of memories for him, including ones of Lawrence Grocery, which is immortalized on the cover.
And speaking of horses, they’re still getting their fair share of attention, since the album’s lead single is the humorous, rap-adjacent “Horseback.”
Musician Dave Davies of the Kinks attends the “Entertainment” premiere during the Sundance NEXT FEST at The Theatre at Ace Hotel on August 8, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Sundance)
A recent book about the Kinks is getting some backlash from one of the legendary band’s members.
All Day and All of the Night The Day-By-Day Story Pt 1: 1940-1971, written by Doug Hinman and Andrew Sandoval, came out in February. Now the Kinks’ Dave Davies is letting fans know he has some issues with it.
“I cannot endorse the new Kinks book by Doug Hinman and Andrew Sandoval because there’s misinformation in it about our early recording sessions,” Davies wrote on X. “I signed some copies for charity before I had read the errors.”
While he didn’t go into specifics about what information in the book is incorrect, it seems Davies hasn’t given up on the book completely.
“I’m optimistic that a correction or two will be issued in due course,” he later tweeted.
Asked whether he was given the opportunity to proofread the book before it came out, Davies replied, “No.”
Davies has often used X to set the record straight with fans. Back in 2024, he took to the social media site to shoot down the long-held rumor that Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page played guitar on the band’s hit “You Really Got Me.”
He reiterated that fact in a July 6 post, where he corrected a Wikipedia entry. He noted, “No @JimmyPage did not provide distortion on any Kinks songs period.” He also added, “I’m sick and tired of this misinformation. Jimmy Page did not play on any Kinks hits.”
Death Cab for Cutie performs on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ (Disney/Randy Holmes)
Death Cab for Cutie will launch a U.S. tour Friday in Minneapolis in support of their new album, I Built You a Tower. While they plan on playing I Built You a Tower material, the band hopes to craft a setlist that touches on their whole discography.
“We’ll do kind of a version of what we always do, which is try to lean into the new record but not play too much of it, make sure that we’re representing the whole history of the band,” frontman Ben Gibbard tells ABC Audio. “This is our 11th record, so even if we’re playing an average of, like, two songs from every record before that, we’re kind of running out of runway.”
Gibbard acknowledges that playing new material can sometimes feel like “you’re hitting a speed bump” — “You have to really buckle down and concentrate,” he says — but in the instances where Death Cab has gotten to perform songs off I Built You a Tower so far, he feels they’ve translated well to the live setting.
“For the most part, the new songs we were playing, they just felt very natural kind of coming in and out of the old songs,” Gibbard says.
“Famous last words, but I feel like the new songs are going to play really well against the older stuff,” he adds.
I Built You a Tower, the follow-up to 2022’s Asphalt Meadows, is out now. It includes the single “Riptides.”
“We are so happy to release this intimate version of an already deeply personal song,” reads a post on the Black Stone Cherry Facebook. “I think stripping it back, and adding in the layers of mandolin, dobro, and slide guitar, add to its emotion and convey its message in a very unique way. We hope you enjoy this version as much as we did creating it.”
Celebrate, which follows Black Stone Cherry’s 2023 album, Screamin’ at the Sky, dropped in March. It also includes the single “Celebrate” and a cover of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” featuring Theory of a Deadman frontman Tyler Connolly.
Black Stone Cherry will be playing a run U.S. shows in July before kicking off the Wild Cherry tour with Buckcherry in August.
Jennifer Hudson performs at the 51st AFI Lifetime Achievement Award: A Tribute Celebrating Eddie Murphy at Dolby Theatre on April 18, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Jennifer Hudson and Patti LaBelle have been tapped as entertainment for the 2026 MLB All-Star Game pregame festivities, which celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.
Jennifer will perform her rendition of “America the Beautiful,” accompanied by the U.S. Army Old Guard Fife & Drum Corps with orchestral support from the Philly Pops. Patti will close the ceremony with the national anthem, joined by the Military District of Washington Joint Chorus and the West Point Band.
Boyz II Men are also set to appear, while actor Miles Teller will narrate a tribute highlighting baseball’s influence on American life.
The 2026 MLB All-Star Game will take place at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on July 14.
: Brandy performs onstage during 2026 ‘ESSENCE’ Festival Of Culture® Presented By Coca-Cola® at Caesars Superdome on July 04, 2026, in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Josh Brasted/Getty Images for ESSENCE)
Brandy is reflecting on receiving the Legend Award at the Essence Black Women in Music event over the weekend.
In an Instagram post, she opened up about reaching this stage in her life and career.
“Standing in this moment, I realize the greatest honor isn’t simply being recognized… it’s becoming the woman God always knew I could be,” she wrote, alongside a video of her accepting the award. “Every season, the celebrated ones and the quiet ones, was preparing me to stand fully in my own light, rooted in faith instead of fear…purpose instead of proving.”
Brandy said that she’s grateful her daughter, Sy’Rai Smith, has been able to witness “what’s possible when you trust God” and “honor your heart.” She added that she’s thankful “that my parents know that everything I am is because of the love, faith, and foundation they gave me. Making them proud will always be one of my life’s greatest blessings.”
Brandy also thanked Essence, writing, “To be celebrated by a community that has uplifted the beauty, brilliance, and divinity of Black women for generations is something I will carry with me forever.”
“Here’s to becoming. To purpose. To faith. And to the quiet miracles that shape us long before the world ever notices.”
Brandy performed on the Essence stage Sunday before returning to her hometown of McComb, Mississippi. She was honored on Monday by the City of McComb, the Mississippi Legislature and Pike County, which awarded her a key to the city.
While accepting the key, she reflected on a valuable lesson that has served her throughout her career.
“McComb taught me something that the world would spend years trying to teach me,” she said. “Slow down.”
‘Entire State of Tim Montana’ album artwork. (BMG)
Tim Montana has released a new song called “Long Long Year,” a track off his upcoming album, Entire State of Tim Montana.
“This one is special so turn it up, stream it loud, and if you’re feeling it, share it with someone who needs to hear it!” the “Devil You Know” rocker says.
“Long Long Year” marks the third song to be released from Entire State of Tim Montana, following “Break Me Down” and “Brown Sugar” featuring Slash and ZZ Top’s Billy F Gibbons. The album will arrive in full on July 31.
Entire State of Tim Montana also includes contributions from actors Martin Sheen, Charlie Sheen and Robert Patrick.
Montana will be touring the U.S. alongside Alter Bridge starting in November.
