genre rock
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Morrissey is planning to get back on stage at Centennial Hall in Tucson, AZ on Monday night (May 5) after postponing a pair of shows on his spring U.S. tour over the weekend due to health issues. “The Morrissey tour will reconvene at Tucson Centennial Hall (Arizona) on Monday 5 May,” the singer wrote on Instagram on Sunday (May 4).
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“Following the [April 30] show at The Fox in Bakersfield, Morrissey contracted a severe sinusitis attack and was treated at Coronado Hospital in San Diego,” the statement continued. “Missed shows at Rancho Mirage [May 3] and San Diego [May 1] are not cancelled and now have new dates. Morrissey, the band and crew, are very appreciative of those who convey understanding at difficult moments during tours.”
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The show at the San Diego Civic Theatre originally scheduled for May 1 has been pushed back until Jan., 6, 2026, while the May 3 show that was scheduled to hit the Agua Caliente Resort in Rancho Mirage, CA is now slated for Oct. 24. Morrissey, 65, released his most recent solo album, I Am Not a Dog on a Chain, in 2020. In November, the singer singer claimed that his as-yet-unreleased album, Bonfire of Teenagers, has been shelved so far because of his various controversial statements. “As you know, nobody will release my music anymore,” Morrissey told a crowd in New Jersey. “As you know because I’m a chief exponent of free speech. In England at least, it’s now criminalized.”
In 2019, Morrissey supported the far-right Britain First political party and while his Bonfire of Teenagers LP was scheduled for release in February 2023, it was pulled from calendars a few months before its street date with the singer claiming its “fate is exclusively in the hands of Capitol Records (Los Angeles.)”
After winding down his U.S. swing with shows in Atlanta and St. Petersburg and Hollywood, FL later this month the former Smiths singer will hit the U.K. and Ireland for his first shows there since 2023, with planned shows in Dublin (May 31), Glasgow (June 4-5) and Manchester (June 7); he will then embark on a summer run of European shows.
With just two months to go until Black Sabbath perform their final-ever live show, founding bassist Geezer Butler has admitted to some intense anxieties ahead of the gig.
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The band’s final performance will take place as part of the Back to the Beginning concert, which takes place in Birmingham, England on July 5. The event will see the band’s classic line-up – comprising frontman Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Butler and drummer Bill Ward – play live together for the first time in two decades, while the likes of Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Alice in Chains, and myriad others also join the bill.
While Osbourne hasn’t performed a full set since Dec. 31, 2018 – two months before his diagnosis of Parkinson’s – he’s previously tempered expectations for the upcoming gig, noting he isn’t “planning on doing a set with Black Sabbath,” but rather “little bits and pieces” with the group. “I am doing what I can, where I feel comfortable,” he explained.
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Speaking to The Guardian ahead of the July event, Butler admitted that while he’s unsure of how the performance will roll out, or how Osbourne’s health may affect the show, the lofty expectations behind such a gig have left him feeling immensely anxious.
“I’m already having palpitations,” he noted. “In fact, I had a nightmare last night. I dreamed everything went wrong on stage and we all turned to dust. It’s important that we leave a great impression, since it’s the final time that people will experience us live. So it has to be great on the night.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Osbourne again pointed out that Black Sabbath aren’t planning on performing a full-length set. “We’re only playing a couple of songs each,” he explained. “I don’t want people thinking, ‘We’re getting ripped off’, because it’s just going to be … what’s the word? … a sample, you’re going to get a few songs each by Ozzy and Sabbath.”
Though Osbourne also noted he has been undergoing extensive training as part of his preparation for the show, the end result will undoubtedly be far different to what fans may have hoped for, but as much as he can handle given his health circumstances.
“I’m used to doing two hours on stage, jumping and running around,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll be doing much jumping or running around this time. I may be sitting down, but the point is I’ll be there, and I’ll do the best I can. So all I can do is turn up.”
Julien Baker and TORRES have announced the cancellation of their spring tour dates, citing a need for Baker to focus on her health.
News of the tour’s cancellation was shared on Sunday (May 4) via social media, just hours before the pair’s scheduled performance at Stable Hall in San Antonio, TX.
“Due to recent events, Julien Baker is prioritizing her well-being and taking time to focus on her health,” the post read. “Therefore, the Julien Baker & TORRES ‘Send A Prayer My Way’ Tour has been canceled. This decision was not made lightly, and we understand the disappointment this may cause for fans. We deeply appreciate your understanding.”
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“Thank you for your continued support and compassion,” the post concluded.
First announced in early February, the pair hit the road in March with a series of shows throughout the U.S. and U.K., with their spring tour officially launching on April 23 in Richmond, VA.
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A pair of appearances at Ohio University and Tennessee’s Big Ears Festival were also cancelled, with a social media post explaining that “one of our key members sustained a concussion and will need to take the next few weeks to recover.” An additional performance at Iowa’s Mission Creek Festival was also cancelled due to an “unforeseen medical situation.”
No further specifics relating to these incidents were announced at the time, and currently, the pair’s website lists an appearance at Massachusetts’ Green River Festival on June 20 as their next scheduled performance.
Baker and TORRES released their Send a Prayer My Way album on April 18, debuting at No. 5 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated May 3), and also reached the top 10 on both the Vinyl Albums and Indie Store Album Sales rankings.
According to the pair, their collaborative project has been years in the making, with its roots tracing back to 2016 when Baker and TORRES first played a show together. That night, the idea of making a country album was casually thrown out, with the notion coming to fruition almost a full decade later.
Baker has previously found success as a member of boygenius alongside Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. The trio’s debut full-length album, the record, landed at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 in 2023, while Baker’s solo album Little Oblivions peaked at No. 39. TORRES, known for her sharp, introspective songwriting, has built a loyal following with critically acclaimed releases like Thirstier and Three Futures.
Ghost grabs the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time, as the Swedish hard rock band’s new studio effort Skeletá debuts atop the tally (dated May 10) with 86,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending May 1, according to Luminate. Of the album’s starting sum, 89% was driven by traditional album sales — buoyed by a big vinyl sales figure.
Skeletá launches with Ghost’s best week ever by both equivalent album units and traditional album sales.
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Skeletá marks the ninth charted effort for the group on the Billboard 200. The band first visited the list in 2013 with its second album, Infestissumam, which also marked the act’s first top 40-charting set, reaching No. 28. Skeletá scores Ghost its eighth top 40 set, and fifth to reach the top 10. The band had previously gone as high as No. 2 with its last full-length studio album, 2022’s Impera.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new May 10, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on May 6. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of Skeletá’s 86,000 first-week equivalent album units, album sales comprise 77,000 (it debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 9,000 (equaling 12.45 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The set’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across more than 15 vinyl variants, three CD variants and four cassette variants (all containing the same tracklist, but in collectible packaging).
With Skeletá scoring 9,000 in SEA units (12.45 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs), the group logs its biggest streaming week ever for an album. It surpasses the opening-week of Impera (7,000 SEA; 9.11 million streams for its songs).
The new album was led by the radio-promoted single “Satanized,” which became the act’s 10th top 10-charting hit on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in April. It’s one of a trio of hits that the album yielded on the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart prior to the album’s release. “Satanized” hit No. 3 (March 22 chart), followed by “Lachryma” (No. 3, April 26) and “Peacefield” (No. 13, May 3). (Skeletá is also the first full-length project from the band since the act garnered its first hit on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, when its viral hit “Mary on a Cross” reached No. 90 on the tally in 2022.)
With the No. 1 arrival on the Billboard 200, Skeletá lands a number of milestone achievements for Ghost. Here’s a recap:
Skeletá yields Ghost’s best week ever by both equivalent album units and traditional album sales. The act’s previous high in both metrics came in the debut week of Impera (March 26, 2022), which earned 70,000 units (of which nearly 63,000 were album sales). As noted earlier, Skeletá also garners the largest streaming week for a Ghost album.
Ghost lands the biggest week of 2025, by either equivalent album units or traditional album sales, for any rock, hard rock or alternative album.
Of Skeletá’s first-week album sales, vinyl purchases comprised just over 44,000 copies. That’s not just the largest sales week on vinyl for Ghost, but the biggest week for a hard rock album on vinyl in the modern era (since Luminate began tracking data in 1991). It’s also the third-largest sales week on vinyl in the modern era for any rock album, trailing only the opening weeks of blink-182’s One More Time… (49,000; 2023) and boygenius’ The Record (45,000; 2023).
Skeletá is the first hard rock album to lead the Billboard 200 in over four years, and the only rock, hard rock or alternative album to be No. 1 in 2025. The last hard rock album at No. 1 was AC/DC’s Power Up, which premiered at No. 1 on the Nov. 28, 2020, chart and spent one week at No. 1. The last rock, or alternative, album to lead the tally was Coldplay’s Moon Music, when it debuted at No. 1 on the Oct. 19, 2024, chart (spending one week at No. 1).
Rock, alternative and hard rock albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, Billboard’s Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums charts, respectively.
Not only is Skeletá the group’s first No. 1, but it’s the first chart-topper for its label Loma Vista Recordings and the first leader for Concord Label Group in nearly a decade — since James Taylor’s Before This World (on Concord Records) debuted at No. 1 on the July 4, 2015-dated chart. Loma Vista had previously gone as high as No. 2 with Ghost’s last full-length studio album, Impera, in 2022.
Skeletá is the lone debut in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200 chart. The titles at Nos. 2-7 are all former No. 1s. SZA’s SOS slips to No. 2 (52,000 equivalent album units earned; down 1%), Kendrick Lamar’s GNX falls 2-3 (48,000; down 5%), Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time is down 3-4 (46,000; down 4%), Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet descends 4-5 (44,000; down 8%), PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake’s $ome $exy $ongs 4 U falls 5-6 (43,000; down 6%) and Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos is down 6-7 (38,000; down 3%).
Shaboozey’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going gallops 45-8 with 35,000 equivalent album units earned (up 110%) after a deluxe reissue on April 25 that added six additional songs, bringing its total song count to 18. The set debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the June 15, 2024-dated list. (He also played the Stagecoach Festival on April 26.)
Playboi Carti’s chart-topping MUSIC (7-9; 34,000 equivalent album units, down 11%) and Morgan Wallen’s former leader Dangerous: The Double Album (9-10; 33,000, down 3%) round out the Billboard 200’s top 10.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
CAAMP’s “Let Things Go” climbs a spot to No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart dated May 10.
The track marks the band’s fourth leader on the list, following “Believe” (2022), “Officer of Love” (2020-21) and “Peach Fuzz” (2019).
In between “Believe” and “Let Things Go,” CAAMP charted the No. 3-peaking “The Otter” in 2022. Four of the band’s six Adult Alternative Airplay entries have hit No. 1, and five have reached the top three. “By and By” peaked at No. 11 in 2020.
CAAMP is tied for the second-most Adult Alternative Airplay No. 1s dating to its first week on top (Nov. 2, 2019), after only Hozier’s five in that span. Also with four each in that stretch: The Black Keys, The Lumineers, Phoenix and Nathaniel Rateliff (solo and with the Night Sweats).
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Concurrently, “Let Things Go” ranks at No. 29 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 1.4 million audience impressions, up 3%, in the week ending May 1, according to Luminate. The song’s best on that tally so far, No. 28, was achieved on the May 3 ranking; it stands as CAAMP’s highest-peaking hit, surpassing the No. 29 high of “Believe.”
“Let Things Go” appears on the four-song EP Somewhere, which the band released in February and has earned 8,000 equivalent album units to date. A full-length album, Copper Changes Color, will follow on June 6. CAAMP’s fifth album follows 2022’s Lavender Days, which peaked at No. 5 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart that July and has accumulated 240,000 units so far.
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All Billboard charts dated May 10 will update Tuesday, May 6, on Billboard.com.
Flavor Flav added a dose of good-spirited chaos to Green Day‘s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Thursday (May 1). The rapper was on hand to help celebrate the punk rock trio receiving their much deserved star on the famous Tinseltown walkway along with the likes of Ryan Reynolds, the band’s longtime record executive and […]
Welsh rock group Stereophonics has earned its ninth U.K. No. 1 album with 13th studio LP, Make ‘em Laugh, Make ‘em Cry, Make ‘em Wait, on May 2.
The band earned its first chart-topper in 1999 with Performance and Cocktails, and has appeared at the summit a further eight times with Just Enough Education to Perform (2001), You Gotta Go There to Come Back (2003), Language.Sex.Violence.Other? (2005), Pull the Pin (2007), Keep the Village Alive (2015), Kind (2019) and Oochya! (2022).
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The ninth No. 1 sees the four-piece leapfrog Oasis, Ed Sheeran and Led Zeppelin — all of whom have eight — and pulls them level with Bob Dylan and Take That on the all-time leaders list. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are the only British rock bands to have landed more No. 1s with 15 and 14, respectively.
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The group will headline a number of massive outdoor and stadium shows in the U.K. this summer, including at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium and London’s Finsbury Park.
Swedish band Ghost has equaled its career high at No. 2 with its sixth album, Skeletá. The theatrical rockers, led by Tobias Forge under the Papa Emeritus persona, has hit the top 10 several times previously: 2018’s Prequelle (10), 2023’s Phantomime (8) and 2024’s Rite Here Rite Now (10).
Former X Factor winner James Arthur has netted a sixth top 10 with his new LP PISCES; he scored the top spot three times previously with 2016’s Back From the Edge, 2021’s It’ll All Make Sense In the End and 2024’s Bitter Sweet Love.
Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet nets another week in top five (No. 4) and Self Esteem hits a new peak with her third album, A Complicated Woman (No. 5). The new release saw the Rotherham-born artist sign to Polydor after years on indie labels with her previous band The Slow Club and earlier Self Esteem LPs. Speaking to Billboard U.K., she said, “This whole journey has taught me that what’s important is people and community. That’s what the music means to me.”
The Black Keys top Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart for the eighth time as “The Night Before” lifts a place to No. 1 on the May 10-dated tally. The duo notches its first leader since “Beautiful People (Stay High)” led for two weeks in March 2024. In between its latest No. 1s, the act hit No. […]
Neil Young is ready to roll again, but not if Elon Musk‘s company logo is on the hood. On his new song “Let’s Roll Again” released Friday (May 2), the rock star briefly takes aim at the billionaire’s electric car company amid lyrics imploring auto manufacturers such as Ford, General Motors and Chrysler to build […]
“Back in the day,” Chubby Checker tells Billboard from his home in New Jersey, “I said, ‘I don’t want to be in the Rock Hall when I’m dead. I want to smell my flowers when I’m here.’ And I’m smelling my flowers…a little late in the game, I would admit, but I’m still alive to see Chubby Checker in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”
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Eligible since the first Rock Hall class in 1986, the 83-year-old responsible for “The Twist” and other dance sensations will finally arrive in the shrine during the Nov. 8 induction ceremony in Los Angeles — on his first nomination, no less. That’s come as a surprise, even shock, to many fans since the news broke about Checker’s induction, but the South Carolina native (born Ernest Evans) says it’s not something he’s been fretting about over the years.
“It’s another milestone — and the beat goes on,” he notes.
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Nevertheless, Checker famously protested outside of the Rock Hall museum in Cleveland back in 2002, but he clarifies that it wasn’t simply about his exclusion from the ranks. “I wanted people to know that Chubby’s music was not being played, that’s all it was,” he explains. “The protest was, ‘Please play Chubby’s music.’ The best thing for any artist is to get his music played, and my music wasn’t getting played and I was a little upset about it. You can walk into the supermarket and hear (sings) ‘Bennie and the Jets’…but not ‘The Twist,’ and you look around the supermarket and every company’s got some kind of twist product, you know? I did it very nicely. I didn’t try to cause any problems. I never protested anything in my life except that.”
Checker will, of course, enter the Rock Hall with ample credentials as a groundbreaker and architect. Inspired to pursue music after seeing country great Ernest Tubb perform at a South Carolina fair when he was four years old, Checker and his family moved to South Philadelphia and he began singing doo-wop as a youth. Nicknamed Chubby by a boss at the produce market where he worked, he auditioned as a teen for American Bandstand host Dick Clark, whose wife Barbara added Checker as a surname as a salute to Fats Domino.
Checker imitated Domino, Elvis Presley and other poplar singers at the time for a 1959 single called “The Class,” after which Clark suggested he take on “The Twist,” which was written by Hank Ballard — based on dances he saw teenagers doing in Tampa, Fla. It was only a modest success for him and his band, the Midnighters. Adding dance moves to his performance, Checker took the song to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 during September 1960 and then for a second time in January 1962 — the only single to do that until Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” decades down the road.
“‘The Twist’ gave us what we have on the dance floor — and is still giving us that,” says Checker, who despite his Philadelphia roots was a supporter of the Rock Hall being built in Cleveland, in deference to pioneering radio DJ Alan Freed. “Before (‘The Twist’), Elvis and Little Richard and Bill Haley and Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly, they were doing the swing to their songs. Then Chubby Checker comes along and…the whole world changed.” Checker followed “The Twist” with other dance songs, including “Pony Time,” “The Fly,” “Limbo Rock,” “Let’s Twist Again” and a resurrection of the late ‘40s dance “The Hucklebuck.”
“Chubby Checker never left the dance floor,” he says. “I used to call myself the wheel that rock rolls on, because anyone after Chubby Checker who had a song that you could dance to, they were in my world, that I brought to the dance floor. Dancing to the beat is what we brought, and it’s still there — no matter what it is. It’s called the boogie, and the boogie is still going on. Someone once said, ‘Chubby, you want to do a disco song?’ ‘Why? I did that already.’”
In all, Checker has had 32 songs (and seven top 10 hits) on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2008 Billboard honored “The Twist” as No. 1 on the Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs list, which it held until the Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” took the honor in 2021. Nevertheless, Checker notes, “it will always be the No. 1 song. There will be a number two No. 1 song, a number three No. 1 song, but (‘The Twist’) was the first and will always be the first.”
“The Twist” has also been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. The Rock Hall honored “The Twist” in 2018 by inducting the single as part of a new initiative — a practice that has not been repeated since.
Checker has no intention of recording anything new — “How am I gonna invent the wheel twice?” he asks — but still performs regularly. And that continuing demand, he says, has mitigated any disappointment he may have felt while waiting for his Rock Hall induction.
“Listen, I’m a blessed human being,” Checker says. “In spite of everything, my dreams come true every day. Every time I go on stage my dream comes true, my dream is renewed — that’s what keeps me going. I’m a blessed man in this world.”