‘Master of Puppets’ album artwork. (Blackened Recordings)
It may seem like time itself is crawling faster now that Metallica’s Master of Puppets is officially 40 years old.
The metal legends’ third studio effort was first released on March 3, 1986. The album continued to push the boundaries of thrash on its way to becoming one of the most seminal and influential albums in heavy metal music history, as evidenced by its octuple-Platinum RIAA certification and its induction into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2015.
Master of Puppets is centered around its epic 8 1/2-minute title track. Frontman James Hetfield’s meditation of drug addiction is intensified by fiery down-picking and dueling guitar solos.
Today, the song “Master of Puppets” is Metallica’s most-played song live, and its legacy continues to live on in new ways. In 2022, “Master of Puppets” made its debut on the Billboard Hot 100 after its use in the season 4 finale of Stranger Things. Metallica’s also named their upcoming Life Burns Faster residency at the high-tech Sphere venue in Las Vegas after a lyric from “Master of Puppets.”
Along with the title track, Master of Puppets includes the ripping opener, “Battery,” and the instrumental “Orion,” which was written primarily by bassist Cliff Burton. “Orion” would turn out to be something of a swan song for the 24-year-old Burton, who was killed in a bus accident during Metallica’s tour in support of Master of Puppets in September 1986.
Burton was replaced by Jason Newsted, who was then replaced by current Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo.
‘The Music of Billy Joel’ (Courtesy Music Of Presents)
Billy Joel is the subject of this year’s Music Of concert put on by New York entrepreneur Michael Dorf.
This is Dorf’s 21st Music Of charity concert, and he tells Rolling Stone it was the rocker’s documentary, Billy Joel: And So It Goes, that finally pushed him to make the Piano Man this year’s honoree.
“I think there’s a lot of love for Billy, and a desire to hear his music,” Dorf says.
This year’s show will be held March 12 at New York’s Carnegie Hall. The lineup includes Joel’s daughter Alexa Ray Joel, Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas, Train’s Pat Monahan and others, with Joel’s eight-piece touring band serving as the house band.
“The fact that it is his band, that’s exciting for people,” Dorf says. “We sold out without a single artist mentioned who’s performing, and we got a great lineup, as people trusted. Fingers crossed, let’s see if we have any special guests.”
Of course fans would love for one of those special guests to be Joel, who canceled his 2025 tour in May after being diagnosed with a brain condition. The only time he’s performed since then was a surprise appearance with a Billy Joel cover band in Wellington, Florida, in January.
Dorf will only say that like all previous honorees, Joel has been invited to the concert.
“There’s a box for the band, and if we’re lucky and they want to jump on stage, great,” he tells the mag. “But it’s really for them as much as it is anybody.”
Money raised from the concert benefits music education programs. Previous concerts celebrated the music of Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Paul McCartney, Van Morrison and The Who.
Keke Palmer in ‘I Love Boosters’ still photo (Neon)
The West Coast premiere of Boots Riley’s new movie, I Love Boosters,will take place in Oakland, California, as part of the 69th San Francisco International Film Festival in April. The new project has been named the Centerpiece film for this year’s festival, used to showcase culturally significant films.
Held at Oakland’s historic Grand Lake Theatre, the first screening is set for April 28 at 6:30 p.m. PT, followed by a moderated conversation. A second screening will begin at 9:30 p.m. PT after a moderated introduction. Tickets are currently available to SFFILM members, but will go on sale to the general public on Wednesday.
“I’m hyped as hell to bring I Love Boosters to SFFILM since they were the first organization to recognize me as a filmmaker and to support me in my filmmaking journey,” Boots Riley said in statement. “It’s going to be extra special to premiere in my hometown at Grand Lake Theater [where] I’ve been going to since I was a kid. This film is my best work and it’s going to be special to see this movie, which is set in the Bay Area, play here.”
The movie will premiere March 12 during opening night of the 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival. It’s about a crew of professional shoplifters who choose a cutthroat fashion maven as their next target. Keke Palmer, LaKeith Stanfield, Don Cheadleand more star in the film.
David Harbour as Floyd in ‘DTF: St. Louis.’ (Tina Rowden/HBO)
HBO’s newest miniseries finds Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini and David Harbour in a love triangle gone wrong.
DTF: St. Louis, which premiered its first episode on Sunday, finds three adults who have middle-age malaise stuck in a love triangle that leads to one of them dying.
At the end of the premiere, viewers discover that person is Harbour’s Floyd Smernitch. Even though he meets his demise, the rest of the season takes place over a nonlinear timeline and Harbour continues as a main character throughout it all. He told ABC Audio all about what it was like to work with Bateman and Cardellini on the new dark comedy.
“These are two actors that I’ve admired for years and years, and I got to do some of the best scenes of my whole career, some of the most intimate work I’ve ever done, with these people,” Harbour said. “The scripts were very unexpected — the twists and turns, the way people react to things, who these people are. Floyd is a character that I deeply love. I find him just tragic and wonderful and weird and beautiful. And so it was just like a joy every day to come to work.”
Floyd works as an American Sign Language interpreter. Harbour said he had to learn how to sign ASL for the role.
“It’s hard, especially because you want to do it justice, because it’s its own … language, it’s own form of expression [and] it’s so deeply intrinsic to who Floyd is as a person.”
As the season continues, Harbour says viewers will discover why ASL is so important to Floyd.
“There is this moment when you really understand what ASL means to Floyd,” Harbour said. “And so, in that way, you can see that it’s something that I had to really invest in.”
Stop of us if you’ve heard this perhaps 21 times before, but Shinedown is once again sitting at the top of the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
Brent Smith and company’s single “Searchlight” has hit #1 on the ranking, giving them a total of 22 Mainstream Rock Airplay leaders.
The ascension of “Searchlight” extends Shinedown’s previously set record for the most number ones in the history of Mainstream Rock Airplay, which first launched in 1981. Three Days Grace sits in second place, with 20.
“Searchlight” appears on Shinedown’s upcoming album, EI8HT, due out May 29. It also includes the singles “Three Six Five,” “Dance, Kid, Dance” and “Killing Fields.”
Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” has just set another Billboard chart record. The song has now spent 33 weeks in the top three of the Billboard Hot 100, the most time ever spent in that region of the chart. The previous record of 32 weeks was held by Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Ten of those 33 weeks were spent at #1.
In other Alex Warren news, he’s apparently mortified by what he said to a certain superstar he met at the BRIT Awards Saturday. He wrote on Instagram, “can someone please train me before I see @harrystyles again? ‘I didn’t know you had moves like that’ should NOT have been the first words out of my mouth when I met him.”
And speaking of Harry Styles, you’ll be able to watch his sit-down interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe on Wednesday. In an advance clip, Harry tells Zane that because many of his friends are married with kids, he doesn’t have anyone to go to clubs with.
“Silent Treatment” singer Freya Skye will be returning to the franchise where she got her start. Disney+ and Disney Channel have greenlit season 5 of Zombies, and Freya will return as Nova, opposite Malachi Barton’s Victor. Filming starts this spring in New Zealand. Disney is the parent company of ABC News.
Jay-Z looks on prior to the start of Super Bowl LX between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium on February 08, 2026, in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Jay-Z has added to his list of collectibles, releasing his song “N**** What, N**** Who (Originator 99)” featuring Big Jaz and Amil on 12-inch vinyl. It includes the clean and explicit versions of The Black Album single “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” as well as a few songs from his discography.
“N**** What, N**** Who (Originator 99),” which was produced by Timbaland and appeared on Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life, is now available on streaming services as well.
Links to the vinyl and streaming options are on Hov’s new website page, jayz30.com, which fans think teases his potential return for the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Reasonable Doubt.
Other hints include the recent release of Reasonable Doubt‘s single “Dead Presidents” on DSPs; the change on streaming platforms from Jay-Z to JAŸ-Z — which was used early in his career; and the shirt he wore at this year’s Super Bowl. The shirt read, “The Game needs me,” a lyric from Jay’s song “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” on which he rapped, “Can’t leave rap alone, the game needs me/ Haters want me clapped in chrome, it ain’t easy.”
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to the press after testifying in a closed-door deposition with the House Oversight Committee at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center on February 26, 2026 in Chappaqua, New York. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Videos of the closed-door depositions of ex-President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released on Monday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The Republican-led committee questioned each of the Clintons individually last week in their hometown of Chappaqua, New York, as part of an inquiry into the federal government’s handling of investigations into Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
The deposition of Bill Clinton on Friday marked the first time a former president was compelled to testify before a congressional committee.
After being sworn in for his appearance, the former president acknowledged that the Oversight Committee’s desire to question him was justified while also distancing himself from Epstein.
“Through my brief acquaintance with Jeffrey Epstein, though it ended years before his crimes came to light, and though I never witnessed during our limited interactions any indication of what was going on, I’m here to offer what little I know so I can do my part to prevent something like this from happening again,” Bill Clinton said.
“I think you should have called me. I did take those plane trips with him and you have a right to ask those questions,” he added.
He also criticized the Oversight Committee for subpoenaing and questioning Hillary Clinton, arguing she had nothing to do with Epstein.
“I have to just say one personal thing. Since Hillary came in yesterday, she had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing,” he said.
During her opening statement Thursday, Hillary Clinton argued that the committee was attempting to protect “one political party and one public official rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims.”
“You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files. And when you did, not a single Republican member showed up for Les Wexner’s deposition,” she said of the former Epstein associate. “This institutional failure is designed to protect one political party and one public official rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors as well as inform the public who want to get to the bottom of this matter. ”
President Donald Trump has denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein.
“I don’t know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein. I never went to his island. I never went to his homes, I never went to his offices. So it’s on the record numerous times,” Hillary Clinton told reporters after her closed-door session with the committee concluded Thursday.
In prepared opening remarks Clinton denied any knowledge of the crimes committed by Epstein, going on to say making his wife Hillary Clinton testify “was simply not right.”
In his statement as released, he stated that he would often say, “I do not recall” throughout his questioning because the events were “all a long time ago.”
“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton said, according to the statement.
Neither Bill Clinton nor Hillary Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing and both deny having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
No Epstein survivor or associate has ever made a public allegation of wrongdoing or inappropriate behavior by the former president or his wife in connection with his prior relationship with Epstein.
Bill Clinton said in his opening statement that he had “no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing.”
Bill Clinton’s association with Epstein was first noted publicly in 2002 after reporters learned of the former president’s flight that year on Epstein’s jet for a humanitarian mission to multiple African nations.
In his statement as released, he stated that he would often say, “I do not recall” throughout his questioning because the events were “all a long time ago.”
“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton said, according to the statement.
Neither Bill Clinton nor Hillary Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing and both deny having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
No Epstein survivor or associate has ever made a public allegation of wrongdoing or inappropriate behavior by the former president or his wife in connection with his prior relationship with Epstein.
Bill Clinton said in his opening statement that he had “no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing.”
Bill Clinton’s association with Epstein was first noted publicly in 2002 after reporters learned of the former president’s flight that year on Epstein’s jet for a humanitarian mission to multiple African nations.
None of the flight records from Epstein’s planes that have surfaced in litigation indicate that Clinton was ever aboard for a trip to Epstein’s island.
The Clintons were subpoenaed to appear under oath in front of the committee for a deposition in January, but failed to comply, arguing the subpoenas were without legal merit. Rather, they proposed a four-hour transcribed interview instead.
Following the Clintons’ refusal to appear, the Oversight Committee passed the contempt resolution with nine Democrats voting in favor of it, teeing it up for a full House vote.
At the last minute, just before the resolution was to be voted on in the House, the Clintons agreed to sit for a deposition, postponing further consideration of a contempt vote.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon on March 2, 2026, in Arlington, Virginia. Secretary Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine held the news conference to give an update on Operation Epic Fury. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Additional American troops are being sent into the Middle East as the joint U.S.-Israeli war against Iran entered its third day Monday, with senior Pentagon officials warning that the death toll of American troops will likely rise as the conflict widens across the region.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon news briefing Monday that the war against Iran would not be swift and that more U.S. casualties should be expected. “We expect to take additional losses, and as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses,” he said.
The warning echoed a stark message from President Donald Trump, who on Sunday on his social media platform, offered condolences to the families of fallen service members and braced the public for a higher death toll. “Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends,” Trump said. “That’s the way it is.”
U.S. troops have been under sustained pressure from Iranian retaliation, including a strike targeting the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain and attacks on American bases in Kuwait, which serve as key logistics hubs and staging grounds.
So far, six U.S. troops have been killed in what sources tell ABC News was an Iranian strike on an American command center in Kuwait, and 18 service members have been wounded in the operation.
Trump mourned the American casualties again on Monday at a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House.
“Today, we grieve for the four heroic American service members who have been killed in action and send our love and support to their families. In their memory, we continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people and a threat indeed it is.”
Meanwhile, three U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles were mistakenly shot down Sunday by Kuwait, a U.S. ally, U.S. Central Command confirmed Monday, adding that all six aircrew members ejected safely and are in stable condition. The U.S. aircraft were in “active combat” against Iranian aircraft, missiles and drones.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said an invasion of Iran with ground forces, which would demand a much greater surge of combat power beyond what’s already deployed, hasn’t been ruled out.
“We’ll go as far as we need to go to advance U.S. interests,” he told reporters.
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), attends a press conference during a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors on March 02, 2026, in Vienna, Austria. The Board is meeting at the request of Russia and in response to the ongoing U.S. and Israeli air strikes against Iran. (Photo by Christian Bruna/Getty Images)
(VIENNA, Austria) — The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned on Monday that the possibility of radiological release due to U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran can’t be ruled out.
Speaking before the Board of Governors at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said there were no signs of strikes to Iran’s nuclear facilities or elevated radiation levels above the usual background levels detected in countries bordering Iran.
Rossi said that, currently, it doesn’t appear the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the Tehran Research Reactor or other nuclear fuel cycle facilities have been damaged or hit.
“The IAEA has extensive knowledge of the nature and location of nuclear and radiological material in the region, and we have clear guidance for actions necessary in case an attack or an accident causes a radiological release, as well as the ability for hands-on help if it is required,” Rossi said.
“Let me underline that the situation today is very concerning,” he continued. “We cannot rule out a possible radiological release with serious consequences, including the necessity to evacuate areas as large or larger than major cities.”
Rossi said the IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) has a team in place collecting information and assessing the situation, but the conflict has made communication difficult.
The IEC said it is continuing to try and connect with Iranian nuclear regulatory authorities, but with no response so far.
“Let me again recall past General Conference resolutions that state that armed attacks on nuclear facilities should never take place and could result in radioactive releases with grave consequences within and beyond the boundaries of the State which has been attacked,” Rossi said.
He urged all parties to return to diplomacy and regulation to achieve the long-term assurance that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons.
President Donald Trump said over the weekend that a preemptive attack on Iran was justified by “imminent threats” from the Iranian guard, though he provided no evidence, and to topple the Iranian regime.
U.S. intelligence seemed to counter the president’s claims. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, Iran is working on developing a missile capable of reaching the U.S. by 2035.
Last year, the U.S. bombed three of Iran’s nuclear sites. Experts have said there are recent signs of Iran trying to rebuild its program and begin again enriching uranium, but that there was no evidence they were close to building a bomb.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
