HARDY‘s corralled a group full of superstars on his surprise new track, “McArthur.”
Tim McGraw, Eric Church and Morgan Wallen join him on the new tune.
“’McArthur’ is a very special one,” HARDY says.“It came together pretty fast. I know I wrote the song, but I also feel like how did I end up on this song? It’s a lineup of absolute legends.”
“My bloodline they bled on this ground/ Soon we all find that’s where we’re all bound/ And Father Time, don’t leave anyone out/ When you pass on, what you gonna pass down,” the four sing in the meditation on history and the passage of time.
This is HARDY’s first new music since his COUNTRY! COUNTRY! album came out in September, featuring his #1 “Favorite Country Song.”
He launches the THE COUNTRY! COUNTRY! TOUR! Feb. 5 in Oshawa, Ontario.
Mick Mars performs at SSE Arena Wembley on November 6, 2015 in London, England. (Neil Lupin/Redferns)
Mick Mars‘ lawyer has responded to Mötley Crüe declaring a “decisive victory” in their legal battle with the band’s former guitarist.
In a press release issued Wednesday, Mötley’s lawyer, Sasha Frid, of Miller Barondess, LLP, wrote that an arbitrator’s ruling “rejects every claim Mars made against the band and orders him to pay damages back to the group.”
“Mötley Crüe was fortunate to find an arbitrator who knows so little about the music industry and so little about the law,” says Mars lawyer, Ed McPherson. “He ruled that there was no difference between [vocalist] Vince [Neil] and [drummer] Tommy [Lee] quitting the band for a short time in the [’90s], and Mick spending his entire life in the band, and then, at age 72, having to stop touring because of a hideous crippling disease (Ankylosing Spondylitis).”
Mars first sued Mötley Crüe in 2023 over a financial dispute stemming from his retirement from touring in 2022. Mars, who was replaced by guitarist John 5, claimed that while he was no longer touring with Mötley due to health issues, he still remained a member of the band and deserved to be compensated as such.
Also in the suit, Mars accused the other Mötley members — Lee, Neil and bassist Nikki Sixx — of using prerecorded tracks during the band’s 2022 reunion tour, specifically claiming that Sixx “did not play a single note on bass” live.
According to the press release issued by Mötley’s lawyer, Mars “was forced to admit under oath that his statements were false” regarding the miming allegations.
“Mötley Crüe is correct that the recordings that they gave to the arbitrator had Nikki playing,” McPherson’s statement reads. “However, to this day, none of them has been able to explain the videos of Nikki’s bass sound blaring while his hands are nowhere near his bass, or the sound of Tommy’s drums playing before he steps up to them. I guess fans will have to make up their own minds as to whether the signature sound of Mötley Crüe is Nikki’s bass, Tommy’s drums, Vince’s voice, or Mick’s guitar.”
“Meanwhile, Mick will maintain his dignity, which he has done throughout this demoralizing process, focusing on his new music,” McPherson continues. “As always, the behavior of his former bandmates speaks for itself, as does the band’s press release on Wednesday.”
J. Cole performs during the 2025 Dreamville Music Festival at Dorothea Dix Park on April 06, 2025, in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Astrida Valigorsky/WireImage)
J. Cole has unveiled a second cover for his upcoming album, The Fall-Off, while explaining on Instagram why the project now has two album covers and sharing the stories behind each.
The original cover features a wooden chair in front of a table with a recording machine — a photo Cole says he took at age 15 of his first-ever recording setup. He says it’s where his “first beats were made” and where he recorded his song “The Storm.” He adds he initially felt that the “picture of where it all started for me felt fitting for an album that I made with the ending in mind.”
However, the concept expanded due to “the events that still feed the algorithm today,” seemingly a reference to the Kendrick Lamar diss on Future and Metro Boomin‘s “Like That” and all that followed. The experience, Cole says, left him “incredibly re-inspired” and ultimately led him to see The Fall-Off as a double-disc project.
“I felt there should be an additional cover that represented that. Something just as strong as the first, with my face on it,” Cole writes, “so that when I look back in 20 years, I can see an image of who I was at the time I released the project I worked on for so long.”
The second cover shows Cole standing against a red backdrop, wearing a denim hoodie with his hands in his pocket as he looks downward. Both covers are now available for preorder at thefalloff.com.
For the uninitiated, Kendrick was a feature on “Like That,” on which he rapped, “Motherf*** the Big 3, n****, it’s just big ME.” Cole responded with “7 Minute Drill” before later walking it back and issuing an apology. The ensuing backlash was addressed on the Birthday Blizzard ’26 mixtape.
It’s hard to imagine a Grammy Awards ceremony without Bruno Mars — after all, he’s won more than 30 Grammys in his career. So it’s not surprising that he’ll join his duet partners Lady Gaga and ROSÉ at the ceremony Sunday night.
The official Grammys Instagram account posted a photo of the “I Just Might” singer and wrote, “Guess who? You asked and we delivered. Bruno Mars is popping out at the 2026 GRAMMYS! You don’t wanna miss this.”
Bruno is nominated for three Grammys this year: record of the year, song of the year and best pop duo/group performance for “APT.,” his duet with BLACKPINK singer ROSÉ. He won in the latter category last year with his Gaga duet, “Die with a Smile.” Both Gaga and ROSÉ will be performing, as well.
In other Bruno news, he’ll be serving as Record Store Day ambassador for this spring’s event, which takes place April 18. He’ll be releasing a compilation vinyl called The Collaborations as part of the partnership, featuring his many duets, including the Gaga and ROSÉ tracks, and the Mark Ronson collab “Uptown Funk.”
In addition, listening parties in 200 record stores across the U.S. on Feb. 25 will preview Bruno’s new album, The Romantic, ahead of its release on Feb. 27. A complete list of participating stores is available at RecordStoreDay.com.
In a video, Bruno says he loves record stores because “I love being able to physically be surrounded by music. Not just staring at your phone and downloading something or listening to something on your phone, but to actually see all of this beautiful art around you. It inspires me.”
“Boys Don’t Cry” (86 Mix) single artwork. (Fiction Records)
The Cure has officially released their 1986 mix of the band’s classic song “Boys Don’t Cry.”
Following its original debut in 1979, frontman Robert Smith rerecorded the vocals for “Boys Don’t Cry” and remixed the backing track for The Cure’s 1986 best-of compilation, Standing on a Beach. However, the updated “Boys Don’t Cry” was left off the final Standing on a Beach track list.
“I re-sang it in 1986 because I thought I could do a bit more with the song – I felt I was improving as a singer, becoming more confident,” Smith says. “So although I didn’t really deviate too much from the original vocal melody or phrasing, I knew I could get a bit more tone and emotion into the rework.”
Now, after 40 years, you can listen to the 1986 mix of “Boys Don’t Cry” to your heart’s content via the digital outlet of your choice. It’s also now been released on vinyl and CD.
Considered one of The Cure’s signature songs, the legacy of “Boys Don’t Cry” lives on decades after its premiere. It joined Spotify’s Billions Club earlier in January, and according to Billboard, has been undergoing a resurgence on TikTok.
A sign marks the location of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) headquarters building on April 30, 2025, in Washington, DC. J. David Ake/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Three million pages from the Justice Department’s files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are being released to the public today, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a press briefing Friday.
Blanche said the release will include 2,000 videos and 180,000 images related to the Epstein case.
Blanche said in total there were 6 million documents, but due to the presence of child sexual abuse material and victim rights obligations, not all documents are being made public in the current release.
Blanche pushed back on the notion that the DOJ might have protected President Donald Trump from his name appearing in the files.
“We comply with the act, and there is no ‘protect President Trump.’ We didn’t protect or not protect anybody. I mean, I think that there’s a hunger or a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents. And there’s nothing I can do about that,” Blanche told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas.
Blanche said there was “no oversight” by the White House about what the material showed.
He added that if there was evidence in the files that others had abused victims, the DOJ would pursue charges against them.
A team of 500 attorneys from the Justice Department worked around the clock to redact and review material, Blanche said.
“If any member of Congress wishes to review any portions of the response of production in any unredacted form, they’re welcome to make arrangements with the department to do so, and we’re happy to do that,” said Blanche.
Friday’s tranche is the latest in a series of releases that began last month in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed Congress overwhelmingly and was signed into law by President Donald Trump on Nov. 19. The act gave the Justice Department 30 days to make publicly available all unclassified records pertaining to investigations and prosecutions of Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
The bill contains several exceptions that allow for withholding or redacting records, notably to protect the privacy of Epstein’s victims.
The DOJ to date had posted to its online Epstein library roughly 12,000 documents totaling about 125,000 pages — just a small fraction of the millions of records the department has been reviewing.
Those materials included a record of a complaint to the FBI filed in 1996, years before the disgraced financier was first investigated for child sex abuse. The documents also included new details about the government’s investigation into potential accomplices as well as thousands of photographs of Epstein’s New York and U.S. Virgin Islands properties that were searched by the FBI after Epstein’s arrest in 2019.
The initial release of the files also contained numerous old photos of Epstein traveling with former President Bill Clinton, including pictures of Clinton lounging in a jacuzzi and one of him swimming with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her 2021 conviction for sex trafficking of minors and other offenses.
The images, which were released without any context or background information, contained little information related to Trump, leading a spokesperson for Clinton to accuse the DOJ of selectively disclosing the pictures to imply wrongdoing on the part of Clinton where he said there is none.
“The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton,” Angel Urena said. “This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever. So they can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be.”
In an interview with ABC News on the day of the initial release, Blanche said that every document that mentions Trump will eventually be released, “assuming it’s consistent with the law.”
“There’s no effort to hold anything back because there’s the name Donald J. Trump or anybody else’s name,” Blanche said.
Both Trump and Clinton have denied all wrongdoing and have denied having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
Federal prosecutors have indicated in recent court filings that hundreds of government lawyers have spent weeks reviewing “several millions of pages” of materials — including documents, audio and video files — in preparation for disclosure to the public.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act came after the Trump administration faced months of blowback from its announcement last July that they would be releasing no additional Epstein files, after several top officials — including FBI Director Kash Patel and former Deputy Director Dan Bongino — had, prior to joining the administration, accused the government of shielding information regarding the Epstein case.
The files released thus far have yet to show evidence of wrongdoing on the part of famous, powerful men, against the expectations of many of those who pushed for the files’ release.
Epstein owned two private islands in the Virgin Islands and large properties in New York City, New Mexico and Palm Beach, Florida, where he came under investigation for allegedly luring minor girls to his seaside home for massages that turned sexual. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence for sex crimes charges after reaching a controversial non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami.
In 2019, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York indicted Epstein on charges that he “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations,” using cash payments to recruit a “vast network of underage victims,” some of whom were as young as 14 years old.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial.
Stevie Nicks, Rod Stewart, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash were among the artists who performed at the FireAid benefit concerts, held to raise money for those affected by the January 2025 California wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes in the Los Angeles area.
The event took place at two venues: the Intuit Dome and the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California.
Other artists who performed included John Fogerty, Joni Mitchell, The Black Crowes, Sting, a reunited Nirvana joined by Joan Jett, Kim Gordon and Violet Grohl, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Earth, Wind & Fire and Green Day.
The concert was broadcast live on several streaming platforms.
Ice chunks float in the Hudson River in front of the skyline of midtown Manhattan and the Empire State Building in New York City as seen from Hoboken, New Jersey, Jan. 26, 2026. (Gary Hershorn/ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — A massive snowstorm is headed to the Southeast this weekend, with blizzard conditions possible for millions.
Here’s the latest forecast:
The storm begins Friday night, bringing snow to eastern Tennessee, southern Virginia, northern South Carolina, northeastern Georgia and nearly all of North Carolina.
The brunt of the storm will hit on Saturday.
Six to 12 inches of snow is expected in Appalachia along the Tennessee-North Carolina border and in western Virginia.
Norfolk, Virginia, and other cities along the North Carolina and Virginia coast could see 7 to 12 inches of snow on Saturday and Sunday, along with wind gusts up to 70 mph.
In North Carolina, Asheville could get 5 to 7 inches of snow and Raleigh is on alert for 4 to 7 inches of snow.
Wilmington, North Carolina, could see 5 to 8 inches of snow while Charlotte could see 4 to 7 inches along with wind gusts up to 30 mph.
Further south, Charleston, South Carolina, could see get 3 to 5 inches of snow through Sunday morning, while Athens, Georgia, could see 2 to 4 inches with wind gusts up to 35 mph.
The governors of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia have declared state of emergencies.
“The State Emergency Response Team is activated and is positioning resources across the state to quickly respond to any needs,” North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said on social media. “Starting Friday depending where you are, please stay off the roads if you do not have to travel.”
By Sunday morning, snow may still be falling along the coasts of North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware and Massachusetts. By Sunday afternoon, much of the snow will be over, with only Massachusetts’ Cape Cod still getting snow by the evening.
The only real appreciable snow for the Northeast will be on Cape Cod, where 1 to 3 inches is possible. The rest of the Northeast coast will see flurries and likely less than an inch of accumulation.
Anthony Kiedis and Hillel Slovak of Red Hot Chili Peppers pose together during a soundcheck before a sold-out performance at the Ritz, New York, New York, December 12, 1986. (Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)
A new documentary on Red Hot Chili Peppers is coming to Netflix.
The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers focuses on the early years of the “Californication” outfit and specifically the artistic vision of original guitarist Hillel Slovak, who died in 1988. It will feature interviews with RHCP frontman Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea, as well as “others close to Slovak,” according to the doc’s description.
“The film explores the band’s early evolution on the LA music scene and the deep bond of their childhood friendship,” the description reads.
The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers will premiere on Netflix March 20.
Anthony Kiedis and Hillel Slovak of Red Hot Chili Peppers pose together during a soundcheck before a sold-out performance at the Ritz, New York, New York, December 12, 1986. (Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)
A new documentary on Red Hot Chili Peppers is coming to Netflix.
The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers focuses on the early years of the “Californication” outfit and specifically the artistic vision of original guitarist Hillel Slovak, who died in 1988. It will feature interviews with RHCP frontman Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea, as well as “others close to Slovak,” according to the doc’s description.
“The film explores the band’s early evolution on the LA music scene and the deep bond of their childhood friendship,” the description reads.
The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers will premiere on Netflix March 20.
