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Eric Church looked back on his unexpected involvement in the lawsuit over Taylor Swift‘s hit single “Shake It Off” in a new interview.
Back in 2017, the superstar got hit with allegations of copyright infringement by Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, the songwriters behind 3LW’s 2001 single “Playas Gon’ Play.”
“In her deposition, when [talking about the line] ‘players gonna play, haters gonna hate,’ she says, ‘The first time I heard that phrase was in Eric Church’s song ‘The Outsiders,’” the country singer explained in a sit-down with Rolling Stone published Friday (June 6). “She was saying she never heard it on [the 3LW song], which is what they were suing her for. And two weeks later, I got served by the people that were suing her!”
According to Church, getting slapped with his own legal papers prompted him to reach out to Swift via text. “I was like, ‘Hey, thanks. Next time, let’s just skip that part?’” he said. “And she sent me a text: ‘I’m sorry. It’s the truth, though. That’s when I heard that phrase.’”
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“It’s since been settled,” Church added of his own involvement. However, the “Hands of Time” singer concluded in the interview that the whole experience still had him wondering, “‘How did this even happen?’”
Since an agreement to drop the “Shake It Off” lawsuit was reached between Swift, Hall and Butler in late 2022, Church has released his eighth studio album, 2025’s Evangeline vs. the Machine, which he’ll be promoting this fall with his upcoming Free the Machine Tour.
More recently, Church also collaborated with Morgan Wallen on I’m the Problem album cut “Number 3 and Number 7,” and in the same Rolling Stone interview, defended Bruce Springsteen after the namesake of his hit 2011 single “Springsteen” criticized President Trump and his administration during a concert.
This week in dance music: deadmau5 and Rezz graced the cover of Billboard Canada, talking about their longstanding collaboratove project, Rezzmau5. In the story deadmau5 also spoke about selling his catalog to Create Music Group earlier this year, saying that “it was time to just let it go.” Elsewhere, Italian techno producer Deborah de Luca […]
Laufey shares how Disney has inspired her music, why she chose Suki Waterhouse to go on tour with her, and teases her new album!
Are you excited for her new album? Let us know in the comments!
Tetris Kelly: Hanging out with Laufey at the House of Mouse. How’s it feel to be here tonight?
Laufey: I’m so excited. There’s like, I’m seeing already so much, like, many ears and bows and like-
It’s the merch for me.
It’s always the merch for me.
I mean, what is your Disney experience like? What has the brand meant to you?
Oh, my God. I mean, it’s just my childhood, right? I think growing up, I didn’t really have… I always loved, like, old music, old sounds. I didn’t have much context for it, but I always heard it in movies. And like, the way I told my friends about my music and, like, my musical aspirations was kind of always through the lens of music. It’s like you listen to the music from, like, the old Peter Pan movies, like the old Disney princess movies. It’s that kind of vintage sound is everything that I strive for in my modern project. So it means a lot to me.
I love that you can connect all the lines there. And I mean you’re gonna be taking the music out on the road with Suki Waterhouse. We’re so excited about that. So how did you decide to partner with her? And what’s it gonna be like on the road?
Oh, my God. I mean, I’m such a fan of hers, I kind of, I wanted it to be like a girly show. Like I was like, I need a girl.
Keep watching for more!
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For comedian Dave Chappelle, the opening monologue he gave as the host of Saturday Night Live after the 2016 presidential election isn’t something he regrets. He had the chance to reflect on it during a conversation with comedian Mo Amer for the Actors on Actors series for Variety.
“I haven’t watched it in a while, but I remember it fondly,” Chappelle said at the 27-minute mark of the conversation, which was shared Wednesday (June 4) after Amer asked him about his perspective on it from back then to now. The monologue went viral, as Chappelle declared that “an internet troll” had won the White House, also pointing out his history of sexual assault. He would then segue into how he felt after former President Barack Obama won in 2008. “And it made me very happy about the prospects of our country,” he said then. “So, in that spirit, I’m wishing Donald Trump luck. And I’m going to give him a chance. And we, the historically disenfranchised, demand that he give us one, too.”“Oh, I remember that part,” Chappelle said. “You know what? I look at it like a photograph. That’s what it felt like in that moment. Now, if it ages well or not, I don’t get mad if I look at a picture because it’s not today. That’s what it was at that time.” He continued, “You might look at an old set and cringe, but you could just cringe because of how you were at that time. And in that sense, I’m fine with it.”Chappelle’s conversation with Amer is one of the rare moments he’s opened up for media – he has declined direct interviews in the wake of brushback from jokes he made against the transgender community in his 2021 Netflix special The Closer. But he and the Palestinian comedian bonded during the COVID-19 pandemic, making this a keen opportunity for the two to talk about comedy and their perspectives on the current times particularly with Amer’s hit Netflix show. “As you know, I notoriously don’t like to do press,” Chappelle said, “but today I wouldn’t have missed, because it’s you.”Check out the entire conversation above.
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This week, Jon Bellion returned to center stage after years of remaining behind the scenes: the veteran songwriter-producer released Father Figure, his first album in seven years and a poignant reflection on fatherhood, including his relationship with his own father and his experiences as a dad of three. A deeply personal project that includes a picture of his parents on the album cover and a voicemail from his uncle on the track list, Father Figure also demonstrates Bellion’s status as a gifted collaborator, with Luke Combs, Pharrell Williams and Jon Batiste lending their voices to his story.
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Bellion — who has contributed to hits by Justin Bieber, Maroon 5 and Miley Cyrus, and recently co-helmed “Friend of Mine,” Rihanna’s first new single in three years — says that he’s not playing a “numbers game” with the album, and that the metric of success he’d like to reach with Father Figure is more abstract. “If my album can give you one more day, then I’m cool with that — that’s the goal,” he tells Billboard. “To give a listener another day of inspiration? I could live with that.”
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Yet along with its emotional power, Father Figure also offers a fresh industry blueprint, as the rare project in which its credited co-writers will receive a percentage of master royalties, or “points,” on the album. Bellion worked alongside the artists that comprise Beautiful Mind Projects — his management, publishing and label company — including studio whizzes Pete Nappi, Tenroc and Elkan, all of whom also contributed to Rihanna’s “Friend of Mine.”
Bellion says that the decision to provide points to his fellow songwriters was the result of his own “frustrations of being a songwriter and being paid dirt — morally paid dirt — for 10 years. I don’t want to hear people talking about, ‘Oh, he’s made money and he’s successful, so he can’t talk about how songwriters get paid dirt.’ … If you write an entire song with a group of people, and there’s $10 and they only pay you 25 cents, there’s moral injustice there.
“If it’s $10 million and they only pay you $250,000, there’s moral injustice there,” he continues. “It doesn’t matter the way you microscopically change that — it’s an insane thing to say. I’ve always been vocal about that, and I don’t care what people’s perception of that is, because songwriters get paid f—king dirt.”
After self-funding Father Figure, Bellion admits that he does have “a new perspective and a new appreciation for what the label is doing,” but still believes that there’s a way for record labels to allocate less money toward promotional efforts and more towards creative collaborators. To that end, Bellion says that he decided to focus his promotional campaign less on short-form content, and more on proper music videos for four songs from the album — including the title track, which received a moving visual on Friday (June 6).
Bellion says that the album rollout has been an invaluable learning process. “You’ve got to start somewhere,” he says. “I’m understanding the workings of the label, and stumbling through it. And even if I come out losing money — which I think I will on this album — but still getting the writers paid at least a point or two, and giving them the courage to go into the next meeting to say ‘Well, John did it!’ … Someone has to be the guy to be like, ‘I don’t really know how to make my money back while giving out a ton of points if I’m funding the thing myself, but I’m gonna have to jump into the world to put my money where my mouth is.’ I don’t know if this is gonna work out, but at least I tried to do the thing.”
As Bellion gears up to promote Father Figure from the stage — he’ll perform a sold-out intimate show at SOB’s in New York, and headline Forest Hills Stadium on Aug. 23 — he hopes that his unique standing in the industry will turn his gambit with the album into a successful model.
“I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum,” he says. “I’ve been on the label side, I’ve been on the publisher side, I’ve been on the writer side, and I’ve been on the artist side. So there’s more of a holistic angle, and I can try to bring everything in closer, to get to a better place, possibly.
“I’m not trailblazing,” Bellion continues. “I’m gonna go to Capitol Hill and dedicate my life to — I’m not saying that. But putting my money where my mouth is, where it actually counts? It’s a good place to start.”
This week, Billboard’s New Music Latin roundup and playlist — curated by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors — features fresh new music, including a handful of new albums by Belinda (Indómita), Elvis Crespo (Poeta Herío) and Óscar Maydon (Rico o Muerto, Vol. 1). Mexican star Belinda further expands her música mexicana foray with a full-length album, her first música mexicana project […]
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Aeris, rejoice. Baekhyun is going on tour. That’s right. Dust off your light sticks and EXO merch because the band’s lead singer is coming to a city near you with his 2025 Reverie tour. It’s all thanks to the release of Baekhyun’s latest album, Essence of Reverie, his fifth mini album.
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To properly celebrate the release, Baekhyun is going on his first-ever solo tour, titled Reverie. The K-pop star plans to visit 29 cities across North and South America, Europe, Oceania and Asia. The tour will kick off with a bang as Baekhyun will host two nights at Seoul’s KSPO Dome on June 7 and 8. The tour ends on Nov. 1, with six of his stops being in the U.S. Tickets can be snagged now via Ticketmaster, StubHub, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek Ticket Network and GameTime.
Where to Buy Tickets to Baekhyun’s 2025 Reverie Tour
Courtesy of Ticketmaster
best seats
Ticketmaster has a slew of good seating options that are pretty close to the stage, with standard tickets at some venues starting at $83. The ticketing company also offers a Fan Guarantee, which allows for cancellations, refunds or exchanges within 24 hours of booking, subject to certain exclusions.
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best prices
StubHub features some of the best pricing on tickets for Baekhyun’s tour, with some going for just $42. You can shop for all dates and arenas with ease thanks to the ticketing service’s FanProtect Guarantee, which ensures valid tickets or your money back. Plus, if your event is canceled and not rescheduled, you will receive a credit worth 120% of the amount you paid for the impacted event, or the option of a cash refund.
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You can grab seating options through Vivid Seats now, with some venues charging only $70. The ticketing service offers a 100% Buyer Guarantee that vows your transaction will be secure, that your tickets will be delivered before your event and that those tickets will be valid and authentic. Right now, you can use promo code BB30 to snag $30 off of your purchase.
promo codes
With our help, you can grab Baekhyun’s tour tickets with ease. Right now, you can use promo code BILLBOARD10 at checkout to receive $10 off at checkout. The ticketing service features a Buyer Guarantee that ensures smooth ticket purchases every time.
promo code
More savings can never be bad. You can grab Baekhyun’s tour tickets through TicketNetwork with the code BILLBOARD300 to save $300 off orders of $1,000, and BILLBOARD150 to save $150 off orders of $500. Don’t have the funds yet? You can also buy the tickets on the website now and pay later with Affirm. Plus, the website includes all-in pricing that lets you see exactly what you’ll be paying upfront (fees included).
Courtesy of Gametime
seating options
Gametime features a slew of seating options for a range of prices, the most versatile we’ve seen. Some venues have tickets starting at $74. Gametime guarantees the lowest prices, event cancellation protection, job loss assurance and on-time ticket delivery for a smooth ticket buying experience every time, no matter the occasion.
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Dropped on May 19, Essence of Reverie features R&B-esque slow jam songs such as “Elevator” and “Chocolate.” The album was received well, and the charts prove it too.
On the Billboard charts following the release, Baekhyun claimed the No. 1 spot on the Emerging Artists chart, ranked No. 4 on Top Album Sales, No. 35 on the Artist 100, and made a notable debut at No. 121 on Billboard 200.
Baekhyun began his career as the main vocalist of EXO, a South Korean boy band currently consisting of nine members. In July 2019, Baekhyun dropped his first solo release, City Lights, an album full of jazzy R&B hits, cementing him as one of the great vocalists in the K-pop sphere. Since then, the singer has worked to drop four more albums, including Delight, Bambi and Hello World, along with his work as a member of EXO.
Vans Warped Tour might be one of the best-selling festivals of 2025, but organizers say no one music act is responsible for moving the bulk of the 240,000 tickets sold so far across three U.S. cities. Indeed, the brand name alone seems to have been enough.
“We sold the vast majority of those tickets before we had a lineup,” says Kevin Lyman, founder and producer of the traveling punk show, which ran from 1995 to 2018 before returning this year for a limited 30th anniversary run. Lyman, who has partnered with Live Nation festival company Insomniac for this year’s Warped, is working from a makeshift office and headquarters after the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year forced him to leave his Altadena home, which was damaged but largely spared from the blaze.
“I think there’s nostalgia in the market, but it’s not just for the music — people are longing for events that are affordable and give them a chance to discover something,” says Lyman. Prices for this year’s Warped Tour are $149 for a two-day pass, and the tour is much shorter, with just three stops this year instead of the typical 36 markets. Two of the three markets piggyback off events organized by Insomniac: Warped’s Washington, D.C. stop, from June 14-15, comes two weeks after Insomniac’s Project Glow EDM fest; while the Orlando stop, Nov. 15-16, takes place one week after EDC Orlando at Camping World Stadium. Warped Tour is also coming to Long Beach, Calif., from July 26-27 at Shoreline Waterfront Park.
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Each of the three two-day stops on the tour accounts for nearly 80,000 tickets sold. When combined, the fans attending all six days of the Warped Tour this summer will have purchased 240,000 tickets. That’s likely more tickets than were sold at Coachella this year, which took place over two consecutive three-day weekends, sources tell Billboard. It also likely surpasses the number of tickets sold at the three-day Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas.
Billboard recently caught up with Lyman to discuss the 30th anniversary tour, including how he pitched it to Steven Van Doren, son of Vans founder Paul Van Doren; his expectations from the fans; and whether the 2025 outing is a one-and-done or has the potential to return in 2026 and beyond.
What made you decide to bring Warped Tour back?
People don’t miss something until it’s taken away. I had a fantastic crew; we did a lot of marketing for bands and helped a lot of younger artists. And then, when we took it away, people realized that there was a place for something like Warped Tour. But by then I was busy doing other things — traveling, teaching my class at USC and working on other projects. And then the pandemic hit, and being on a college campus and being around young people, I could see a new need for Warped Tour arise.
What kind of reception have you received so far?
I think it’s been exciting because the bands that remember Warped Tour remember how important it was to their careers, and the younger bands now are super excited to be able to have that experience and be part of it.
Why did you bring in Insomniac for this year’s Warped Tour?
There’s a lot of people over there that grew up around Warped Tour, attended in the past and even worked on Warped Tour. Maureen Valker-Barlow, who works as a senior vp at Insomniac and landed her first job at Warped Tour, approached me, and it was easy for us to figure out how to work together. And then it was like the green light came on, and we just ran with it. They have great people over there like Amanda Phelan, who is a great booker, and Maureen, who I previously mentioned, handling sponsorship, as well as Chris Barlow and Nathan Armstrong in production. I’ve always operated as very small and independent, working in a garage, and they’re a big company, and they know how to run festivals. They handle a lot of the day-to-day stuff, absorbing a significant part of the logistics. And marketing. They’ve given me a little bit more of that structure. What was it like approaching Vans to do another tour? That was easy, because Steve Van Doren and myself go back — we’re talking 25 years of Warped Tour and years before that. It was easy to go over there and say, “Hey, here’s the idea, let’s bring it back with these people. I have faith in them.” Sure, there was a lot of paperwork, but it only took ten minutes of conversation to get this thing going.
Was it difficult to come up with a budget around a $149 ticket price?
Not at all, because I knew from the beginning that Warped would only work if we kept the ticket price fair. I feel strongly that a $149, two-day ticket is affordable to our fans. I think 90% of the reason that people are getting turned off by festivals is because they’re too expensive. Warped was always the show for people that maybe didn’t have that money for some of the other festivals. Both myself and Insomniac felt $149 was the right price, and a lot of people have responded to that price. It also helps that we delivered the lineup. It’s an eclectic lineup that touches on our history and past, but it also looks forward to the future. I’m excited to see which of the younger bands we’ve booked get the biggest reaction from the fans.
You’ve got some big names on the lineup this year like Avril Lavigne, Fishbone, Less Than Jake, Dropkick Murphys, Pennywise and Sublime. You’ve also got dozens of baby bands and newcomers scheduled to play. How do you strike the right balance between old and new?
Well, it’s partially an economic exercise. Every band you book, no matter how big, makes up part of your ticket price, and you always have a few that are reliable and a few that are more of a gamble. We’re booking some of these bands in January, wondering how big they will be in August? Are they going to be bigger than what we paid them? Can the $5,000 band generate $25,000 in value from fans who are excited to see them? If you look at our social media right now, we really don’t need to push Sublime or Rise Against. They’re already known. People are going to enjoy them, and they’re going to have a big, big crowd. We want to grab onto those younger acts like LØLØ or Honey Revenge and really boost them on our social media so they have a big audience at Warped Tour. A lot of what we focus on is leveraging the Warped brand and the larger bands to help raise the profile of the smaller acts.
Did you get the idea to list the bands on the lineup poster in alphabetical order from Insomniac?
No, that’s something I started doing in 1996 because I hate arguing over billing. I think we waste so much time arguing over font size on the poster when we should be marketing to fans and getting behind the show. People are smart. People will come and find the bands they want to see. If you could put Korn in the bottom corner of a festival lineup, people would find them and be excited about them.
What about scheduling? How do you keep egos in check with the schedule?
We don’t announce the set times until the day of the show. I do that because I want people to come early and enjoy all the young bands. I go to too many festivals where people come in at sunset and miss all the great young bands. And my thing is, Warped fans are diehard music fans. They’re not fashion fans, they’re there for the music. And they’re going to figure out the lineup. And I think everything we’re doing so far is working. Hopefully, we deliver the show that people will want to come see next year.
So Warped is not a one-and-done? This is a multi-year project?
I want to really go see what the first show is like in D.C. before we make any final decisions on that. I want to go see the audience and who’s coming. Is it people that want to be part of something moving forward, or people trying to capture a memory? My guess is that it will be a blend of both, but we’ll see.
Could it return as a true touring property, going from city to city, buses and all?
No. Definitely not. I can’t do that to myself, hitting the road for two months straight. I’ve had seven different surgeries because of the Warped Tour. I don’t need any more.
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Khadiyah “KD” Lewis, who was known for being on Love & Hip Hop Atlanta, has passed away at 44.
Her brother, Elijah Inegbedion, confirmed the sad news with a post on Facebook, writing about how hard it’s been to find the right words to express how much his sister meant to him. He shared that KD had an amazing legacy and was always there for him. “You left behind a legacy most people can only dream of,” he said in the emotional tribute.
KD was born on March 31, 1981, and passed away on May 30, 2025. She first appeared on Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta in Season 3 and became a regular on Season 4. During her time on the show, she was known for her relationship with rapper Yung Joc.
KD was more than just a reality TV star. She was also an entrepreneur and businesswoman. She owned a real estate investment firm and worked as a tax consultant. She was always working hard and had her hands in a lot of different things, from speaking engagements to being a brand ambassador.
Even though her time on TV was relatively short, KD’s impact was big, and she’ll be remembered for her hard work, her love for her family, and the mark she left on those around her.
More news to come as the story develops.
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The Weeknd unveiled the eerie music video for Hurry Up Tomorrow album cut “Baptized in Fear” on Friday (June 6). In the cinematic clip, the R&B crooner sits alone in a desolate row of church pews as he sings, “I fell asleep in the tub, I was met with paralysis/ My foot hit the faucet, […]
