Papa Roach has premiered a new single called “BRAINDEAD.”
The track features Toby Morse of the hardcore band H2O, who joins Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix in declaring “I don’t want to waste it/ wake up f****** brain dead.”
You can listen to “BRAINDEAD” now via digital outlets and watch its accompanying lyric video on YouTube.
“BRAINDEAD” follows Papa Roach’s January single, “Even If It Kills Me.” The band’s most recent album is 2022’s Ego Trip.
Papa Roach’s Rise of the Roach tour alongside Rise Against will return to the U.S. in September.
Elton John headlined the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival, which was the final U.K. show of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.
This was Elton’s first ever time headlining Glastonbury, and he treated the crowd to a set filled with hits, including “Bennie and the Jets,” “Daniel,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Your Song,” “Candle in the Wind,” and more, wrapping the night with “Rocket Man.”
Elton was also joined by several guests including The Killers’Brandon Flowers, Stephen Sanchez, Jacob Lusk and Rina Sawayama.
While the concert was billed as Elton’s final U.K show, that didn’t turn out to be true. In March, he headlined a special concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall with Brandi Carlile.
The 2025 Glastonbury Festival kicks off Wednesday, with Neil Young and Rod Stewart among the performers.
Your ex isn’t the only thing Olivia Rodrigo is “obsessed” with.
The “drivers license” star is also a big fan of Fontaines D.C., which she revealed during her show in the “Starburster” outfit’s hometown of Dublin on Tuesday.
“Lately I’ve been really obsessed with this band Fontaines D.C.,” Rodrigo told the crowd in fan-shot footage. “I’ve been playing this song alone in my room for fun, and I was wondering if it would be cool if I played it for you guys?”
Needless to say, the audience was very enthusiastic about that suggestion, and Rodrigo then launched into a rendition of the Fontaines tune “I Love You.”
As luck would have it, both Rodrigo and Fontaines D.C. are performing at the upcoming Roskilde and Rock Werchter festivals, taking place in July in Denmark and Belgium, respectively. Perhaps we’ll see a live collaboration.
Ryan Coogler is out with a new series exploring a character from his blockbuster hit Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The first three episodes of the new series, Ironheart, launch on Disney+ on Wednesday. The series focuses on Riri Williams (DominiqueThorne), “a young, genius inventor determined to make her mark on the world” and whose iron suits “rival the best” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, according to a press release.
Coogler, who is an executive producer on the project, spoke with Good Morning America at the Ironheart fan event in Hollywood on Monday and shared why Riri is the next superhero fans need in the MCU.
“She’s a true Gen Z MCU hero,” Coogler said. “I think she’s dealing with the world at a point where it’s very similar to our own. It’s a lot of anxiety around AI, around ethics of advanced technology and its usage and, also, she’s dealing with relationships and her own mental health.”
He added, “I’m so excited, it’s the perfect time for this show.”
Along with Thorne, the cast includes Lyric Ross, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Manny Montana, Matthew Elam and AnjiWhite.
Additionally, Anthony Ramos portrays Parker Robbins/”The Hood.”
Ironheart is set after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, according to a press release. In the film, Riri is introduced as a brilliant 19-year-old MIT student who has reverse-engineered Tony Stark’s Iron Man tech to build her own suit. She becomes a target after she created a vibranium-detecting machine used by the U.S. government.
The 30th anniversary of Van Halen’s tenth studio album Balance is being celebrated with an expanded reissue, which will offer a boatload of extras for fans.
Balance (Expanded Edition), dropping Aug. 15, will be released as a two-LP/two-CD/Blu-Ray set featuring a remastered edition of the original album, along with audio and video rarities, like the B-side “Crossing Over,” and non-album tracks like “Humans Being” and “Respect the Wind,” which were originally featured on the Twister soundtrack.
The set will also include eight live performances from the band’s 1995 show at London’s Wembley Stadium, including a performance of “The Seventh Seal,” which is out now via digital outlets.
The expanded edition’s Blu-ray will include restored promo videos for songs like “Can’t Stand Lovin’ You,” “Not Enough,” and others, along with a previously unreleased live clip of “The Seventh Seal,” shot in Minneapolis in 1995.
In addition to the full expanded set, Balance will be released as a standalone two-CD set featuring the remastered album and the rarities, as well as on vinyl, marking the album’s first time on vinyl in three decades.
Released in January 1995, Balance was the band’s last studio album with frontman Sammy Hagar and the last to feature bassist Michael Anthony. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and was certified triple Platinum by the RIAA.
Kevin Mazur/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Attendees of a benefit concert in Nashville on Tuesday night probably didn’t have a performance by Taylor Swift on their bingo cards.
As Variety reports, Taylor took the stage at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, which holds about 1200 people, during a concert to raise money for Tight End University, the annual summit for NFL tight ends which is spearheaded by Travis Kelce and others. Travis was one of the hosts of the event, which featured performances by country stars Kane Brown and Chase Rice.
As Variety reports, at the end of Kane’s set, he said “Do y’all care if I bring out a really, really, really, really special guest?” Taylor then walked onstage with a guitar that she borrowed from Chase. She told the crowd, “We were thinking, like, ‘How loud could this place get? Theoretically, how loud could the singing be in here?’ So, I was like, ‘I don’t have a guitar,’ but then Chase Rice was like, ‘You can use mine.’”
She then said she wanted to dedicate a song to “our favorite players who are going to play,” before launching into “Shake It Off.”
If you want to see the performance, it’s currently all over social media.
Bailey Zimmerman already has plenty of country hits under his belt, but he owes his first major crossover, “All the Way,” to his collaboration with rapper BigXthaPlug.
The way it came together, it’s almost like he manifested it.
“I had heard that X was gonna release a country EP or a country project,” Bailey recalls. “And I thought, ‘Man, how cool would that be to do that? I would love to get a song with him.’ I love his music. I’ve been listening to him for years.”
“And then about four months later I get a text on my phone. BigXthaPlug: ‘Hey, do you like this song?’ And I’m like, OK … that’s crazy. Listen to the song, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh. This song is insane, dude!'”
Bailey happened to be in his studio at the time, so he immediately laid down a vocal and sent it to his potential collaborator.
“He was like, ‘Dude. There’s a lot of people that tried this song, but man, you crush it. I want you on it,'” Bailey remembers. “I feel like it was the perfect blend of our music. Even though I didn’t write the chorus and the hook, it feels like I could have written it myself, which is usually what I’m looking for when I’m collabing with somebody.”
BigXthaPlug joined Bailey to play their hit at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest. You can check out their performance when the annual three-hour special airs Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
The late guitar great Jeff Beck has inspired a new guitar from Epiphone.
The company has just debuted an Inspired by Gibson Custom Collection recreation of Beck’s 1954 Oxblood Les Paul, which is featured in the artwork on the cover of his 1975 debut solo album, Blow by Blow. Beck’s original Oxblood guitar sold at auction in January for $1.3 million.
The new Jeff Beck 1954 Oxblood Les Paul from Epiphone features a mahogany body with a maple cap and a one-piece mahogany neck, with mother-of-pearl trapezoid inlays, along with several other details that match the original guitar.
“Bringing the Epiphone version of the infamous ‘Oxblood’ Les Paul to life was something Jeff Beck wanted, and the team has now truly delivered,” says Lee Bartram, head of commercial and marketing EMEA at Gibson. “Making this guitar accessible to a wider market was important to Jeff and his family; this Epiphone guitar turned out truly exceptional and is a worthy tribute to the legacy of a legend.”
The Jeff Beck 1954 Oxblood Les Paul from Epiphone is now available online, at the Gibson Garage in Nashville and London, and at authorized Epiphone dealers around the world.
Universal Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Rod Stewart is set to perform at the U.K.’s prestigious Glastonbury Festival on Sunday, and ahead of that milestone performance, the location where he was standing when his music career officially began has been recognized with a special plaque.
The Evening Standard reports that the plaque has been unveiled at Twickenham train station, located in the suburbs of London. It reads “Music legend and train enthusiast Sir Rod Stewart started his career at Twickenham Station in 1964.”
So how was a train station the start of Rod’s career? In 1964 he went to see blues singer Long John Baldry in concert, and while waiting at the station for his train home, he started singing a Muddy Waters song on the platform. Baldry, it turns out, was also waiting for his train, heard Rod singing and offered him a job in his band right then and there.
Rod became the lead singer for Long John Baldry and his Hoochie Coochie Men, later known as Steampacket. He left in 1966 and joined a number of other bands, eventually landing in future Rock & Roll Hall of Famers band Faces in 1969. Rod simultaneously launched a successful solo career that ran parallel, until Faces split in 1975 and he became a full-time solo artist.
By the way, Long John Baldry is also partly responsible for the career of another British rock legend. After Steampacket broke up, he formed a band called Bluesology, which featured a guy named Reg Dwight on keyboards. When Reg went solo, he adopted the name Elton John, taking the “John” from Baldry and “Elton” from another member of the band, Elton Dean.
Since we’re halfway through the year, Billboard has compiled a list of the 50 Best Albums of 2025 So Far, and among them are releases by Tate McRae, Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga.
The 50 albums aren’t ranked, they’re simply listed alphabetically. Gaga’s Mayhem is included because, Billboard says, she managed to create “a brand-new album that somehow evokes the best of [her] earliest hits while feeling wholly original and modern, delighting casual fans and die-hards alike.”
Miley’s Something Beautiful is included because, according to Billboard, she’s finally created an album that’s a “coherent front-to-back listen that demanded to be ingested in full … an album that no one song lives above.”
Tate’s album So Close to What is praised for using “elevated production to develop a clearer artistic identity,” making her a member of the “next class of stars shaping pop music.” She’s also featured on another album on the list: Morgan Wallen‘s I’m the Problem.
Other albums that made the list include Teddy Swims‘ I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2), which “further solidifies [his] current leading-man status”; Addison Rae‘s “fantastic” debut album, Addison;JENNIE‘s Ruby, which “radiates confidence, elegance, and empowerment”; and The Weeknd‘s Hurry Up Tomorrow, which the publication says “brings his legendary catalog full circle.”
