AWOLNATION frontman Aaron Bruno is a big Weezer fan, and he’s following in the footsteps of Rivers Cuomo and company with his new covers album, My Echo, My Shadow, My Covers and Me.

Weezer, of course, released a covers compilation, the Teal Album, in 2019, which followed the viral success of their spin on the Toto song “Africa.” Speaking with ABC Audio, Bruno shares that Weezer’s “Africa,” which became the band’s biggest hit in over a decade, was “definitely encouraging” in the process of making his own covers record.

“I’m a big Rivers fan,” Bruno says. “To hear his voice on some of those songs that I was a big fan of…I love Toto, I think [‘Africa’ is] one of the greater songs ever written.”

Aside from the spirit of Rivers Cuomo guiding him, Bruno just wasn’t in the mood to work on new AWOLNATION music, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic canceled all his plans related to his last original record, Angel Miners & the Lightning Riders, which had dropped in April 2020.

“I also felt like a little tired of my own songs,” Bruno explains. “I had just released an original album, and everything got paused, let’s just say. The tour got canceled and everything, and I really didn’t feel like making new, original songs.”

He adds, “So I wanted to just get into this side project and have a lot of fun with it.”

My Echo, My Shadow, My Covers and Me will be released May 6. It includes a version of the Scorpions hit “Wind of Change” featuring Incubus‘ Brandon Boyd and Portugal. the Man, and a rendition of Midnight Oil‘s “Beds Are Burning” alongside Rise Against‘s Tim McIlrath.

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(SPOILERS AHEAD) If you watched the season finale of 1883 on Sunday night, then you can rest assured knowing that Tim McGraw and Faith Hill were just as emotional as you were about what happened. 

The season one finale included with the heartbreaking death of Elsa Dutton, 17-year-old daughter to Tim’s James Dutton and Faith’s Margaret Dutton. The country couple says that they often read the scripts aloud to each other, but when it came time to read the season’s final two episodes leading up to their TV daughter’s death, they could barely keep it together. 

“When we got the final two, we literally couldn’t read them to each other because we were crying so much — I mean, ugly, boohoo crying,” Tim tells Variety, referring to himself as a “blubbering idiot.” 

“It took me about an hour to read it to him because most of the time, I couldn’t catch my breath I was crying so hard,” adds Faith. 

Tim and Faith are parents to three daughters: 24-year-old Gracie, 23-year-old Maggie and 20-year-old Audrey. The “My Little Girl” singer remarks that Isabel May, the actress who plays Elsa, looked like she could be one of their daughters, adding even more emotion to the scene. 

“You do become emotionally invested and you do bring your real-life situation into the way you act. You find that piece of your life or a piece of who you are and you can sort of put it under a magnifying glass,” Tim says. “It does expose all those emotions, and it’s hard as a parent, playing that role — you don’t want to go to any dark places in your mind about your kid.” 

1883 premiered in December and recently was renewed for a second season. 

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Megan Thee Stallion isn’t allowing the pandemic to prevent her from performing for her fans. The “Hot Girl Summer” announced Monday her “Enter Thee Hottieverse” virtual reality concert tour in 10 cities between April and July 2022.

Fans will be able to go to their local movie theater and enjoy the VR concert performance featuring a variety of of environments and custom wardrobes. The virtual tour begins April 5-10 in Los Angeles, followed by stops in San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., and New York City.

“Virtual reality has always been an interest of mine and I’m glad that we’ll be able to make history with this experience,” Megan said in a statement. “My hotties will get to watch me perform in a completely different and unique way and I appreciate the AmazeVR team for helping me to bring this VR vision to life.”

“We are thrilled to work with Megan to launch AmazeVR’s very first VR Concert Tour,” says Ernest Lee, Amaze VR co-CEO. “She’s an artist who has incredible stage presence and can create iconic moments that will make the most of the VR technology we’re developing.” 

“Not everyone owns a headset, and not everyone can make it to their favorite artist’s live show,” Lee adds. “A VR Concert by AmazeVR opens up the possibilities for fans to encounter artists in a completely new way, while knocking down all the barriers to entry that have made it hard to access the amazing experiences VR can provide.”

For more information, access the AmazeVR website.

The “Savage” rapper will be performing n person on the Dua Lipa tour beginning March 15 in Denver. Megan will also be featured at the Coachella Festival April 16 and April 23.

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GAYLE‘s breakthrough hit “abcdefu” is reaching new heights: Not only has it risen to number three on Billboard‘s Hot 100 — its best placing so far — but it’s also jumped to number one on the publication’s Pop Airplay chart. Obviously, the song is connecting with people all over the country, and the 17-year-old Texas singer has a few ideas why that is.

“I don’t always sit and think about, like, ‘This is why people like my music’ — I’m still coming to terms with the fact that people can like my music, you know?” she tells ABC Audio. “I think the biggest thing for me is I just try and tell the problems that I’ve had in my life and the difficulties I’ve had and the difficulties I’ve seen other people have in their lives.”

Noting that she wants to “talk about the things that aren’t always talked about, in my opinion,” as well as “the things that are talked about,” Gayle says the fact that her music is intensely personal is the very reason why it’s so relatable.

“I talk about things from my own personal perspective and my life, and so I think people can find that relatable because it’s literally just me living my life and I write songs about it,” she tells ABC Audio.

“My personal experiences are unique, but there are some general experiences that I think — just living my life — I’ve had, and other people have, and that I tried my best to highlight and talk about,” GAYLE continues. “And so I think, because I’m coming from such a personal space, [the songs] have the ability to be relatable to people.” 

GAYLE’s debut EP, A Study of the Human Experience Volume One, is out March 18.

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Megan Thee Stallion isn’t allowing the pandemic to prevent her from performing for her fans. The “Hot Girl Summer” announced Monday her “Enter Thee Hottieverse” virtual reality concert tour in 10 cities between April and July 2022.

Fans will be able to go to their local movie theater and enjoy the VR concert performance featuring a variety of of environments and custom wardrobes. The virtual tour begins April 5-10 in Los Angeles, followed by stops in San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., and New York City.

“Virtual reality has always been an interest of mine and I’m glad that we’ll be able to make history with this experience,” Megan said in a statement. “My hotties will get to watch me perform in a completely different and unique way and I appreciate the AmazeVR team for helping me to bring this VR vision to life.”

“We are thrilled to work with Megan to launch AmazeVR’s very first VR Concert Tour,” says Ernest Lee, Amaze VR co-CEO. “She’s an artist who has incredible stage presence and can create iconic moments that will make the most of the VR technology we’re developing.” 

“Not everyone owns a headset, and not everyone can make it to their favorite artist’s live show,” Lee adds. “A VR Concert by AmazeVR opens up the possibilities for fans to encounter artists in a completely new way, while knocking down all the barriers to entry that have made it hard to access the amazing experiences VR can provide.”

For more information, access the AmazeVR website.

The “Savage” rapper will be performing n person on the Dua Lipa tour beginning March 15 in Denver. Megan will also be featured at the Coachella Festival April 16 and April 23.

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The 2022 ACM Awards will be a special occasion for Lainey Wilson in more ways than one.

The singer admits that while she’s been invited to the show in the past, she wanted to wait for the right reason to attend: and now she has two with nominations for New Female Artist of the Year and Song of the Year for “Things a Man Oughta Know.” 

“My friends would be like, ‘do you want to go to the ACMs?’ But I always said, ‘I don’t really want to go until I have a reason to be there.’ And [it] turns out this year I do,” she explains, calling her nominations “mind blowing.” “It’s still really crazy to me that anybody even knows my name. So I’m just honored to be there.”

But the way the singer got there is by writing her truth. Lainey says she pulled the lyrics from her chart-topping hit from a personal place.

“It’s a little mind blowing, but it shows you too that if you write what you know, if you write your truth, even if it is super personal…those are things that my daddy taught me,” she expresses. “I was writing my story, and if you do that, then you never even know the amount of people who are going to relate to it.” 

The Louisiana native will be bringing her parents with her to the star-studded ceremony in Las Vegas. “My daddy did not get on an airplane for the first time ever until about two years ago, and it was to go to the rodeo in Vegas. So he’s going to feel like a hotshot shot rolling up there,” she laughs. 

The ACM Awards air live from Allegiant Stadium on March 7 on Amazon Prime Video at 8 p.m. ET. 

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Michael Bublé opened up about why he chose now to return to music, after not having released an album since 2018’s Love.

“The pandemic, in a strange way, has made it easier for me to [do things],” the singer said during a virtual conference in the Philippines recently, according to Filipino media company ABS-CBN News. “People are willing to do Zoom, unlike before, [where] you had to fly to LA or take off to London. [The pandemic] made the world smaller. I was so open to working with new people, and trying different things.”

The “I’ll Never Not Love You” singer explained how these changes impacted his family, saying “it was difficult to make music” even prior to the pandemic.  Michael says he was “still hurting” from the ordeal of his now eight-year-old son Noah‘s 2016 liver cancer diagnosis and recovery.  “I don’t know if I was ready to come back [to music],” he admitted.

“What I found interesting was when the pandemic hit, it put everyone on a level playing field. For the first time, every single person, from every country. I don’t care if you’re Black, white — we all felt the same thing. All of us were scared. We were anxious,” the Grammy winner noted. “Our metal health became an issue. For the first time, we need to cling to each other for hope.”

Michael also said that, while the pandemic brought out the best in people, some people “didn’t learn anything,” so he wanted to combat that with his new music.

“There’s so much negativity, so many things to drive us apart. I was hoping I could have a small part in bringing people together,” he said of his new album.

Michael’s “ambitious” new album, Higher, arrives March 25. 

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