On Wednesday night, Lainey Wilson steps into the spotlight to host the CMA Awards solo for the very first time, after sharing the honor with Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning in 2024.
“It’s crazy to think that I even got the opportunity to host the first time,” she reflects. “But I’m getting to do it this year again, and it feels good to have a little bit of experience under your belt.”
“Truth is, I don’t think you could ever be fully prepared for something like this,” she admits, “but I like doing things that are a little scary, so throw me in coach!”
Ultimately, Lainey feels like Luke and Peyton got her ready to lead Country Music’s Biggest Night by herself.
“I learned to get up there and relax and don’t take yourself too serious and just keep the main thing about the main thing,” she says. “We’re there to celebrate country music. It is really the biggest night in country music, so that’s what it’s gonna be.”
Lainey’s also tied with Ella Langley and Megan Moroney for the most nominations going into the night, with six apiece.
Tune in to witness all the winners and the performances live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena starting at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday on ABC. You’ll also be able to stream the 59th annual CMA Awards Thursday on Hulu.
Poster for Erykah Badu’s Veeps livestream of Mama’s Gun ’25 tour (Courtesy of Veeps)
Erykah Badu wants fans to join her in celebrating 25 years of her album Mama’s Gun. She’s teaming with VEEPS to livestream one of the performances from her Mama’s Gun ’25 – Return of The Automatic Slimtour.
Erykah Badu: Mama’s Gun | Live from King’s Theater will capture her second show in Brooklyn, featuring a performance of the album in full, storytelling and “signature Badu arrangements,” a press release states.
“Celebrate 25 years of Mama’s Gun with @ErykahBadu. Raw emotion. Deep grooves. Pure Baduizm,” Veeps writes on Instagram.
Tickets are now available at online, with the stream set to take place Dec. 6 at 9 p.m. ET. It will also be available for ticket holders to watch following the live broadcast.
Mama’s Gun ’25 – Return of The Automatic Slim tour kicked off in early October and is set to wrap Dec. 10 in Dallas. The next stop is Tuesday in Boston.
It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but some people have been bumping Christmas music since Halloween. Pentatonix have been out on their Christmas In the City tour since Nov. 8 so, as the Christmas experts, what do they think is the best time to start listening to holiday tunes?
“You can start in the ‘ber,’ months,” the groups Kirsten Maldonado tells ABC Audio. That’s September, October, November and December.
“A long time ago, I would have said, don’t do it before Halloween, because Halloween was like my favorite holiday,” she says. “But now Christmas is so year ’round that … the ‘ber’ months feel appropriate.”
The Christmas In the City tour features nearly 30 songs, including much of their new Christmas In the City album. “It’s the longest show we’ve done. And it’s hard because we’re singing the entire time!” says Kirstin.
It was also hard figuring out the perfect mix of old songs and new material.
“I think we balanced it by bringing back some of our super classics — like, we brought back ‘Little Drummer Boy,’ we, of course, are keeping ‘Mary Did You Know?’ ‘Hallelujah’ … So we try to pull from, like, ‘old old’ so people would be happy, and then grab all the ‘new new.'”
The group’s also grateful that all their members are at full strength. If he hadn’t gotten eliminated in October, Scott Hoying would have simultaneously been doing the tour and competing on Dancing with the Stars, which Kirstin says “would’ve been a lot.”
“We were very excited for him and wanted him to be able to continue,” Kirsten says, noting that they changed their schedule to accommodate him. “But he would have very stressed, because I don’t know how he was even doing it with rehearsals …. he would’ve had to be drinking a lot of energy drinks and coffee!”
Zoltan Bathory and Ivan Moody from Five Finger Death Punch perform on stage at Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, Norway on January 23, 2020 in Oslo, Norway. (Per Ole Hagen/Redferns)
Five Finger Death Punch‘s collaborative single with BABYMETAL, “The End,” has hit #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. The Las Vegas metallers now have a total of 17 leaders on Mainstream Rock Airplay, including a streak of 13 in a row, while BABYMETAL becomes the first Japanese act to reach the top spot on the ranking.
Guitarist Zoltan Bathory tells ABC Audio how “The End” reflects the “visual” way in which he writes music.
“It’s almost like I’m always writing some kind of a soundtrack to a little movie that’s playing in my head,” Bathory says.
In writing “The End,” the image that came to Bathory’s mind was of a samurai battle.
“When we were talking about a possible feature, that, to me, was immediate, like, ‘Oh, man, if this would be BABYMETAL,’ because they could do it in Japanese,” Bathory says.
BABYMETAL vocalist SU-METAL sings on “The End,” and Bathory noticed how she adapted her voice specifically for the track.
“She didn’t sing in her style, she found a way to use her voice and sing something that would be fitting for this song,” Bathory says. “I see that in the comments … her fans are saying, like, ‘Wow, we’ve never heard her singing this way.'”
Not only was Bathory impressed with SU-METAL’s vocals, he and his bandmates had absolutely zero notes on BABYMETAL’s contribution, which he says is very rare in the world of collaborations.
“That’s unreal,” Bathory says. “We just got the tracks and we were like, ‘Yeah, perfect.’ There was nothing to say.”
“The End” is featured on FFDP’s new Best Of – Volume 2 compilation, which features rerecorded versions of some of the band’s biggest hits.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Mike Mills, bass player of R.E.M., performs onstage during the Jim Irsay Collection Exhibit and Concert at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on January 11, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
R.E.M. called it quits in 2011, and while fans may be holding out hope for a reunion, Mike Mills doesn’t see that happening.
“R.E.M. broke up because it was time, and we all recognized it and we all had thought about it before we ever mentioned it to each other,” Mills said on the latest installment of the Rolling Stone Music Nowpodcast. “And, you know, it’s fine.”
Although the band did perform “Losing My Religion” together at their Songwriters Hall of Fame induction in 2024, Mills doesn’t see it as that big of a deal.
“We didn’t reform, we got together to play one song one time, because that’s what you do with the Songwriters Hall of Fame,” he says. “It’s churlish to go in there and not do the thing that everyone does when you play there. So we did … and it just completely reinforced our belief that we’d done the right thing.”
The interview had Mills, Hootie & the Blowfish’s Darius Rucker and former The Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman talking about their new band, Howl Owl Howl, which wrapped a U.S. tour Saturday in Atlanta. Their show in Athens, Georgia, on Friday included an appearance by R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry.
Mills reveals in the interview that it was his R.E.M. bandmate Michael Stipe who came up with the name for the new group.
“Stipe said, ‘Howl Owl Howl,’” Mills says. “And I was like, ‘OK, that’s it. That is so weird that I’m gonna send it to ’em and they’re gonna hate it.’ And they did.”
Gorman adds that he changed his mind after a couple of days, noting, “It was just in my brain. I couldn’t get rid of it. I was like, ‘Oh s***. Howl Owl Howl’s great.’”
Dominic Sessa as Bosco, Justice Smith as Charlie, and Ariana Greenblatt as June in ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.’ (Courtesy of Lionsgate)
Justice Smith plays one of the new, up-and-coming magicians in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, and without giving too much away, his character, Charlie, is certainly more than what meets the eye.
“[Director] Ruben [Fleischer] and I talked a lot about the specific nuances of Charlie’s front-facing personality,” Smith tells ABC Audio.
Smith describes Charlie as “the ultimate magic nerd” who “has such a reverence” for the Now You See Me franchise’s original characters, the Four Horsemen, played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher. Mostly, though, he “shies away from the spotlight” while he works behind the scenes for the benefit of the other members of his troupe, played by Dominic Sessa and Ariana Greenblatt.
“It was important for me to try and slip in as much insecurity as I could into Charlie,” Smith laughs. “Like, making sure I apologized in, like, every scene I could, or I freaked out … every time I met one of [the Horsemen].”
“Sorry” might be the word Smith says the most as Charlie in the film, much of which was off-script.
“All the fanboy moments I improvised, all the ‘sorries’ I improvised,” Smith says. “Except for the one in the scene with Isla. I think that was scripted.”
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, the third film in the franchise, is in theaters now. It opened at #1 at the box office.
Tyler, The Creator‘s Camp Flog Gnaw has been pushed back to Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 due to bad weather. “Due to the fact this storm became an atmospheric rain torrential downpour we had 2 choices — cancel or move to next weekend,” read an announcement on the festival’s Instagram. “we chose the latter. we understand this is not ideal so we will offer refunds. for everyone else we will see you next weekend. full details at campfloggnaw.com.”
Ryan Coogler‘s next film is Black Panther 3, he revealed Saturday during Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles event. “If it was anybody but you, I would say I can neither confirm or deny. But we are working on it hard. Yeah, it is the next movie,” he told Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr.This will mark the third installment of the movie series, which kicked off in 2018 with Chadwick Boseman as the titular star.
Pusha T is having another boy. He shared the news in a letter on Instagram, where he tells son NigelThornton about his new role as a big brother. “It’s time to share them toys, teach your gifts, and love on the new best friend that mommy gave you,” he wrote. Push also addressed his wife, Virginia Thornton, thanking her for making “things very easy for” him as a dad. He then concluded, “See you spring 2026, my boy.”
Cardi B‘s album Am I the Drama? has been certified three-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It jumped from #10 to #8 on the Billboard 200, earning 30,000 album equivalent units in the United States, in the week ending Nov. 13, according to Luminate.
Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup performs at Revolution Live on June 19, 2019 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Johnny Louis/Getty Images)
Bowling for Soup has released a new version of the song “Endless Possibility.”
The original song featured lyrics written and sung by BFS frontman Jaret Reddick for the 2008 video game Sonic Unleashed.
“I can’t tell you how many times I get asked about this song a day — and it’s more now than ever!” Reddick says. “I know people will always love the original; it’s part of their childhood. But I have to say, this new version keeps the song intact and, sonically (see what I did there), it’s gonna knock your socks off!”
The updated recording also features “Teenage Dirtbag” outfit Wheatus and cover band Punk Rock Factory. You can watch its video on YouTube.
Bowling for Soup also just released a cover of Taylor Swift‘s “Actually Romantic.”
‘Creature in the Black Night’ album artwork. (Spinefarm)
Dayseeker has announced a U.S. tour for 2026 in support of the band’s new album, Creature in the Black Night.
The headlining trek launches May 1 in Huntington, New York, and wraps up May 20 in San Diego.
“This is our first headlining tour for our new album Creature in the Black Night and we couldn’t be more thrilled to bring some of these songs to life in our live show with a stacked lineup,” Dayseeker says.
Presales are open now, and tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit Dayseeker.band.
Creature in the Black Night was released in October. It includes the single “Pale Moonlight,” which currently sits in the top five on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
Earlier in November, Dayseeker announced that they’d parted ways with guitarist Gino Sgambelluri.
