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Mumford & Sons announced an extensive summer 2025 North American tour on Friday (March 28) in support of their just-released Rushmere album. To celebrate the folk rockers’ first LP in seven years, Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane will launch a summer tour of arenas and amphitheaters beginning on June 5 at the Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Bend, OR.
The run will feature stops in California, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Ontario, Montana, Colorado, Georgia and Alabama during the summer, before the group return in October for a second string of dates in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma, winding down at the CHI Health Center Arena in Omaha, NE on Oct. 26.
The new album — named for the spot in Wimbledon, U.K. where the band members first met — was produced in collaboration with Grammy-winner Dave Cobb and recorded in Nashville, Savannah, GA and Devon, England. The upcoming run of dates will expand on a series of intimate shows the group performed this month in Europe, Australia and the U.S., culminating with a gig on Wednesday (March 26) in Brooklyn.
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Tickets for the North American shows will go on sale on April 4; click here for information on pre-sale and on-sales. Mumford & Sons has teamed with PLUS 1 to support War Child, with $1 from every ticket sold going to the organization to help and protect children affected by war.
Check out the tour dates for Mumford & Sons’ 2025 North American tour (and their European swing) below.
June 5: Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater*
June 9: Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre*
June 12: Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl†
June 14: West Valley City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre†
June 17: Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center†
June 18: Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center†
June 20: Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center†
June 21: Saratoga Springs, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center‡
June 22: Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion†
June 24: Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage†
July 18: Quincy, WA @ The Gorge Amphitheatre§
July 19: Whitefish, MT @ Under The Big Sky Festival
July 21: Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre^
July 22: Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre^
July 24: Bonner Springs, KS @ Azura Amphitheater#
July 26: Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre#
July 27: Charleston, SC @ Credit One Stadium#
July 29: Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park||
July 31: Huntsville, AL @ Orion Amphitheater||
August 8: Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium~
Oct. 8: Chicago, IL @ United Center**
Oct. 9: St. Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center**
Oct. 11: Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum**
Oct. 12: Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena**
Oct. 14: Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center**
Oct. 16: Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center**
Oct. 17: Montréal, QC @ Centre Bell**
Oct. 19: Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena**
Oct. 20: Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena**
Oct. 22: Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena††
Oct. 24: Austin, TX @ Moody Center††
Oct. 25: Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center††
Oct. 26: Omaha, NE @ CHI Health Center Arena††
2025 European tour dates
July 4: Dublin, Ireland @ Malahide Castle
July 7: Verona, Italy @ Arena di Verona
Nov. 6: Stockholm, Sweden @ Avicii Arena
Nov. 8: Copenhagen, Denmark @ Royal Arena
Nov. 10: Berlin, Germany @ Uber Arena
Nov. 12: Cologne, Germany @ Lanxess Arena
Nov. 13: Antwerp, Belgium @ Sportpaleis
Nov. 14: Paris, France @ Adidas Arena
Nov. 16: Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg @ Rockhal
Nov. 17: Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Ziggo Dome
Nov. 19: Bologna, Italy @ Unipol Arena
Nov. 20: Zurich, Switzerland @ Hallenstadion
Nov. 21: Milan, Italy @ Unipol Forum
Nov. 23: Barcelona, Spain @ Palau Sant Jordi
Nov. 25: Lisbon, Portugal @ Sagres Campo Pequeno
Nov. 29: Newcastle, U.K. @ Utilita Arena††
Nov. 30: Leeds, U.K. @ First Direct Arena††
Dec. 2: Glasgow, U.K. @ OVO Hyrdo††
Dec. 3: Manchester, U.K. @ Co-op Live††
Dec. 5: Sheffield, U.K. @ Utilita Arena††
Dec. 7: Birmingham, U.K. @ Utilita Arena††
Dec. 8: Cardiff, U.K. @ Utilita Arena††
Dec. 10: London, U.K. @ The O2††
Dec. 11: London, U.K. @ The O2††
*with Divorce
†with Good Neighbours
‡with Gigi Perez
§with Japanese Breakfast
^with Madison Cunningham
#with Gregory Alan Isakov
||with Margo Price
~with Lucius
**with Michael Kiwanuka
††with Sierra Ferrell
Bachman-Turner Overdrive is takin’ care of business again with “60 Years Ago,” the Canadian stalwart’s first new material in more than 25 years. And there’s more where that came from.
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The sentimental single, releasing formally on Friday, March 28, was first written by Randy Bachman and his son Tal during their pandemic YouTube show Bachman & Bachman Friday Night Train Wreck and is part of a father-son album that has not yet been released. But after hearing that a highway section in Randy Bachman’s native Winnipeg was to be renamed the Bachman-Turner Overpass – with the dedication on April 18, the day before BTO plays there – inspired the Bachmans to revise the song and make the song public.
“I thought, ‘I’ll go and get “60 Years Ago,” and I’ll give it back to Winnipeg as a thank-you,’” Randy Bachman tells Billboard via Zoom from his current home in Victoria, B.C.. “There was no great plan for this song, y’know. But maybe they’ll play it on Winnipeg radio, and if you live in Winnipeg maybe you’ll want to download it and drive around singing ’60 years ago, so damn cold, so much snow’ and that kind of stuff. And I have a million BTO fans, followers on Instagram and my web site, so maybe some of them will download it.
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“I have a lot of people asking me, always, ‘Is there anything new? Is there anything new?’ So now… yes, there is.”
With its remembrances of the Winnipeg music scene of the mid-’60s, Bachman further torqued up “60 Years Ago” with some appropriate guests – childhood friend and fellow Winnipegian Neil Young, whose guitar solo can be heard at the end, and BTO co-founder Fred Turner who, despite spates of bad health, contributed vocals to the song. Both men are name-checked in the lyrics, along with Bachman’s Guess Who partner Burton Cummings and, as Bachman notes, Winnipeg’s frigid climate.
“I sent it to Neil Young and said, ‘Here’s a song about us and Winnipeg,’” Bachman says. “And he said, ‘I love this. I’ll scream something and play my solo at the end of the track.’ So we did that.” Turner’s part took a bit more doing, however.
“Fred Turner has suffered a lot in the last three years, from Covid, from his own illness. He lost his wife, that was depressing. He lost his voice,” Bachman explains. “When I sent him [the song] I said, ‘Just put this on your computer… put on headphones and sing to it. I just want your voice, Fred.’ He said, ‘I haven’t sang in two and a half years, but I gave it a shot. But I lost my voice in the second verse.’ But because of digital (technology) now you can get a little, tiny sound and make it big, so we managed to get a great vocal on him throughout the song.
“This wasn’t planned to be a single targeting the charts or anything like that. If we have success with this, it’ll be stunning. But people who hear it are saying to me, ‘You’ve done a great thing here. It sounds like BTO in 1976,’ which is great. The new [Rolling] Stones album doesn’t sound like the Stones, right? But this sounds like BTO.”
“60 Years Ago” comes as BTO prepares to hit the road for an extensive Canadian tour that kicks off an extensive, 22-date tour of Canada, followed by summer dates in the U.S., both on its own and with the Marshall Tucker Band, Jefferson Starship and the Outlaws. Bachman is also preparing a BTO live album from 1976 shows at the Budokan in Tokyo for release, and he’s hoping that Takin’ Care of Business, a documentary about finding his stolen Gretsch 6120 guitar while in the midst of a serious cancer battle a couple of years back will see wider release after running on the film festival circuit.
Bachman says more new BTO songs may be in the offing as well, including one called “Rock ‘n’ Roll is the Only Way Out.”
“Rock ‘n’ roll is the only way out of rap and all this crazy pop stuff that’s going on,” Bachman says, “and all this weird country stuff…everybody’s trying to get on the country bandwagon because they still sell CDs.” He’s also collaborating with Turner on other new songs.
“When we were doing [’60 Years Ago’] I said, ‘Have you got any songs, Fred? People are asking for new BTO,’” Bachman recalls. “And he says, ‘Yeah, here’s a couple of old songs. You want to do something new with ’em?’ All he’s got are little cassette tapes, but with AI I can lift off his vocal and get them reformatted and rewrite them and do this and that. I just get a BPM, tick-tick-tick and match his vocal to it. I play guitar. My son Tal plays guitar, drums, bass, flutes, everything. Then we’ll send it back to Fred and get him to sing once it’s a good demo and we’ve got the new groove and new feel. So I am working on new BTO stuff, which is amazing.”
Bachman is also looking forward to a return to the Guess Who now that he and Cummings have successfully wrested control of the trademarks and copyrights from former bandmates Jim Kale and Gary Peterson, who operated the band with other musicians – which Bachman calls “the clones” – until last July. The guitarist says he and Cummings – who have toured together since Bachman’s 1970 departure, including under the Guess Who moniker during the early 2000s – plan to be on the road together during 2026 playing the band’s material along with BTO and Cummings’ solo hits.
“We’re gonna really have an incredible show, about two hours,” Bachman says. “It’ll be a celebration of the Guess Who. The fans have been wanting it. We’ve already got offers for gigs – really big gigs, really good money. We’re just dealing with them all and working out who’s gonna be in the band – but definitely me and Burton. It’s like Joe Perry and Steven Tyler; you get a rhythm section, and as long as you have those two, you still get Aerosmith. With me and Burton, it’s still the Guess Who.”
BTO’s upcoming tour dates include:
Canada 2025 Tour Dates
April 1 – Save On Foods Memorial Centre, Victoria, BCApril 3 – Abbotsford Centre, Abbotsford, BCApril 4 – South Okanagan Event Centre, Penticton, BCApril 6 – Western Financial Place, Cranbrook, BCApril 8 – CN Centre, Prince George, BCApril 9 – Bonnetts Energy Centre, Grand Prairie, ABApril 11 – Event Centre at Grey Eagle Casino, Calgary, ABApril 12 – Event Centre at Grey Eagle Casino, Calgary, ABApril 13 – VisitLethbridge.com Arena, Lethbridge, ABApril 15 – Brandt Centre, Regina, SKApril 17 – Westoba Place at Keystone Centre, Brandon, MBApril 19 – Canada Life Centre, Winnipeg, MBApril 24 – The Aud (Kitchener Memorial Auditorium), Kitchener, ONApril 26 – Great Canadian Resort Toronto, Toronto, ONApril 28 – Meridian Centre, St. Catharines, ONApril 29 – Peterborough Memorial Centre, Peterborough, ONMay 1 – Canada Life Place, London, ONMay 2 – The Arena at TD Place, Ottawa, ONMay 4 – Sudbury Arena, Sudbury, ONMay 5 – Place Bell, Laval, QCMay 7 – TD Station, Saint John, NBMay 8 – Scotiabank Centre, Halifax, NS
US Tour Dates with The Marshall Tucker Band and Jefferson Starship
July 18 – Harrah’s Stir Cove, Council Bluffs, IAJuly 19 – Treasure Island Casino, Welch, MNJuly 20 – Scheels Arena, Fargo, NDJuly 22 – Kresge Auditorium, Interlochen, MIJuly 24 – Neuroscience Group Field, Appleton, WIJuly 25 – The Mill Terre Haute, Terre Haute, INJuly 26 – Rose Music Center, Huber Heights, OHAug. 1 – Lucky Star Casino, El Reno, OK#
# Outlaws replacing Jefferson Starship as special guest
US Tour Dates – BTO only
July 28 – Bloomington Center For The Performing Art, Bloomington, ILJuly 29 – The Village Green at the Charles Zettek Municipal Complex, Elk Grove Village, ILJuly 31 – MU Health Care Capital Region Amphitheater, Jefferson City, MOAug. 15 – Peppermill Casino, Wendover, NVAug. 16 – Vilar PAC, Beaver Creek, COAug. 18 – Western Idaho Fair, Boise, IDAug. 21 – Pala Casino, Pala, CAAug. 22 – We-Ko-Pa Casino, Ft. McDowell, AZ
Just over two years since the arrival of their last record, English virtual band Gorillaz have confirmed that a new album will be arriving in 2025.
Word of the forthcoming LP was shared by frontman Damon Albarn in a nascent interview with French publication Les Inrockuptibles, where the prolific artist also touched on the premiere of his new opera, The Magic Flute II: La Malédiction, alongside his plans for the rest of the year.
“I’m finishing a new Gorillaz album,” Albarn explained. “One opera and one new Gorillaz album seems like enough for 2025! Unless someone accuses me of taking my foot off the gas!”
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Albarn’s Gorillaz collaborator Jamie Hewlett reportedly confirmed the news, with an Instagram account focused on the band sharing a DM from the musician in which he stated, “Yes, the new album is coming out this year.” That same post also noted that Albarn confirmed to a French podcast the record would be completed in “6 more weeks.”
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The current influx of French press from Albarn shouldn’t come as a surprise, especially given that his new opera premiered at Paris’ Théâtre du Lido on Thursday (March 27), and will run until Sunday (March 30). The production is a rather ambitious one, with The Magic Flute II: La Malédiction serving as the sequel to Mozart’s 1791 opera, The Magic Flute.
“The idea of me writing an opera and for it to be a continuation of The Magic Flute sounds ridiculous, it was and is, not only was I grappling with the genius of Mozart but I had Goethe to contend with too!!” Albarn said in a statement. “I suppose I took a relatively reductionist approach to the question, how the fuck do I do this? The answer came from a surprising source but one no less brilliant, Kraftwerk.”
Gorillaz last released a new album in 2023, with Cracker Island serving as their eighth record. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and was nominated for best alternative music album at the 2024 Grammys.
Albarn has remained busy since the release of the latest Gorillaz record, with Blur releasing The Ballad of Darren – their first album in eight years – in July 2023. It peaked at No. 94 on the Billboard 200 (their lowest-charting release since 1995) and hit No. 5 on the Top Alternative Albums chart, and would become their seventh consecutive release to top the U.K. charts.
Meanwhile, neither Gorillaz nor Blur have not made their return to the stage for some time, with the former not appearing live since the 2023 edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California, and the latter not performing since the 2024 edition of the same event.
Carlos Santana likes to ascribe metaphors to his music. And in the case of his new album, Sentient, that would be floral arrangements.
“When I go to the lobby in hotels in Europe, they always have these incredible flower arrangements,” the San Francisco Bay Area-based guitar hero tells Billboard. “They hire some people to come in and arrange the flowers in the lobby. That’s how this album was made — that’s how I make all my albums. I feel like a florist who is trying to combine the right colors and textures and create a beautiful ornament. That’s what Sentient is, an ornament of flower arrangements — colors, passions, textures, emotions.”
Variety is certainly the hallmark of the 11-track set, which comes out March 28 and is the follow-up to 2021’s Blessings and Miracles. It includes three previously unreleased tracks, while the rest are remastered songs drawn from various points in Santana’s career, including collaborations with friends living (Smokey Robinson, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and his wife Cindy Blackman Santana) and deceased (Michael Jackson, Miles Davis). The selections might appear random, but Santana promises there’s a unity when they’re brought together.
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“The theme of the story is to bring God out of people,” he explains. “There’s too much fear, there’s too much anger, too much harmony. There’s too much doubt, and the opposite of compassion. I’ve played music since the beginning — and now more than ever — to bring kindness, compassion, generosity, gratitude and divine attributes…elements to take make this world and life more delicious. I trust and believe that God wants something incredible for me to share with people, and that thing is to remind everyone that everyone is worthy of their own divinity and their own light. That’s the message.”
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He adds that featuring collaborations with some of his late friends (“Whatever Happens” from Jackson’s 2001 album Invincible, “Get On” and “Rastafario” with Davis from their collaborations with Italian pianist Paolo Rustichelli for his 1996 album Mystic Man) help illustrate that idea.
“Miles Davis is not here and Michael Jackson’s not here, but they’re in my heart, and it makes me very grateful,” Santana says. “I learned very well from them. I am one of them. It may sound a little this or that, but I’m immortal like them. Like Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, I am here to do the same thing they’re doing, which is to invite people to have a deep sense of self-worth, to look at yourself in the mirror and say ‘I am worth God’s grace. I can create blessings and miracles myself, with my grace.’ That’s the highest thing you do as a musician, to bring God out of people instead of the devil.”
Other tracks include “I’ll Be Waiting” from the Santana band’s Moonflower live album in 1977 and the title track from 1987’s Blues For Salvador, which netted Santana his first Grammy Award, for best rock instrumental performance, the following year. “Please Don’t Take Your Love,” meanwhile, is an earlier take of a track from Robinson’s 2009 album Time Flies When You’re Having Fun, while “Coherence” is a trio track with Blackman Santana and bassist Matt Garrison that’s intended as a preview of the drummer’s own next album.
Santana invokes Jackson again in an unreleased instrumental version of his “Stranger in Moscow,” which Santana recorded with Narada Michael Walden and his band during a club gig in San Rafael, Calif. “We played that on the spot, no rehearsal, and it felt really good,” Santana says. “I had been listening to that particular song for awhile. When I play ‘Stranger in Moscow’ I become Michael Jackson. My fingers become Michael Jackson; I was imagining how he would phrase, how he would sing it, so my guitar became his voice and I learned how to articulate the language, the phrasing. I learned all this from Aretha Franklin, because I play that album, Lady Soul, over and over. I play that album so much I learned the bass, the drums, how to hear her voice.”
After Sentient‘s release Santana will begin a nine-date Oneness Tour beginning April 16 in Highland, Calif., and wrapping May 1 at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. His next residency at the House of Blues Las Vegas runs May 14-25, and a European Oneness Tour leg begins June 9 in Poland and runs through Aug. 11 in Copenhagen.
Santana is working on another performance idea as well — a multi-day, multi-act worldwide festival with the utopian perspective of Woodstock. “With everything that’s happening with this planet, with fear of nuclear war and Korea and China and Russia, the Middle East, I want to create a global concert that goes around the world and (promotes) unity, harmony, oneness,” says Santana, who envisions sites such as San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, New York’s Central Park and Hyde Park in London. “It’ll keep going in Asia, Japan, Singapore, all the way to Australia and New Zealand and end up with a concert in Honolulu,” he says.
No dates or solid details have yet been determined, but Santana says he’s already reached out to some acts to participate, including Eric Clapton, Metallica, Earth, Wind & Fire and others. “Everybody I talked to, they want to do it,” he says. “It starts and begins with me. This is my vision. This is my aspiration, and I’m not afraid to manifest what I learned from Bill Graham and (Woodstock co-producer) Michael Lang and Clive Davis. I’ve learned from the best, and I believe it’s not impossible to create a global event of this magnitude…and celebrate, celebrate, celebrate. Instead of fear. Celebrate — with joy.”
Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World, AFI and Jawbreaker will headline the Four Chord Music Festival at EQT Park in Pittsburg/Washington, PA on Sept. 13-14. The 11th annual edition of the event will also featuring Hot Mulligan, Bowling For Soup, State Champs, Set Your Goals, Knuckle Puck, Homegrown, Eternal Boy, Driveways, Charly Bliss and others joining Blink and Jimmy Eat World on night one.
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Night two will host Say Anything, Face to Face, The Wonder Years, Drug Church, Punchline, Koyo, Deathbyromy, Sincere Engineer and others warming up the stage for AFI and Jawbreaker.
“We’ve worked hard to make this year’s festival something special, not only with this incredible lineup, but by making it more accessible for our fans than ever before. We can’t wait to celebrate with everyone at EQT Park!,” founder Rishi Bahl said in a statement.
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A general public on-sale will launch on Friday (March 28) at 11 a.m. ET; The festival is also introducing a ticket layaway plan this year. In addition to single-day general admission and VIP options, Four Chord will also offer up a deluxe VIP option for both days that incudes access to a climate-controlled VIP lounge area, VIP acoustic performances, an exclusive VIP shirt not available to the public, unlimited water refill stations and a Four Chord water bottle, unlimited snacks, a custom VIP holographic commemorative ticket and early entry into the venue and early access to merch, as well as front row access to the main stage and a deluxe VIP lounge overlooking the field, up to three free alcoholic drinks, a parking pass, free storage a merch concierge and private, temperature-controlled bathrooms.
Check out the Four Chord lineup poster below.
One of the indisputable perks of being a rock star is the ability to rock out with other rock stars when they swing through your hometown. Just ask Paramore singer Hayley Williams, who hopped up on stage with the Deftones during their headlining set at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Wednesday night (March 26) to […]
Evanescence has stepped into the animated world of Devil May Cry.
The rock band has contributed the new track “Afterlife” to the upcoming Netflix animated series based on the popular Capcom video game. From showrunner and executive producer Adi Shankar, the show’s description reads that “sinister forces are at play to open the portal between the human and demon realms. In the middle of it all is Dante, an orphaned demon-hunter-for-hire, unaware that the fate of both worlds hangs around his neck.”
Evanescence’s Amy Lee wrote “Afterlife” with Mako (real name Alex Seaver), and while she wasn’t familiar with the Devil May Cry series before, she tells Billboard, “I absolutely love the show, art and story.”
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She adds, “I have always loved good anime. Right from the first scene of the show, I knew it was going to be good. Creative and thought-provoking, horrific and beautiful, classic.”
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As for “Afterlife,” Lee says she wanted to capture a particular feeling through the Mako, Nick Raskulinecz and Tyler Demorest-produced track. “For me, the song is both the pain and the resolve. From the perspective of someone who has lost so much, and will always carry the marks of that, but also someone who has reached the point of being past the fear. No trepidation, no hesitation in your quest when you have committed to the fight and have nothing left to lose.”
Shankar, meanwhile, knew immediately that Evanescence was the perfect fit for the Devil May Cry musical universe. “Amy and her squad own this space. Evanescence sculpts entire emotional landscapes,” he says. “Their sound is alchemy — gothic grandeur meets raw vulnerability, a fusion of cinematic and anthemic. Amy Lee is a frequency that cuts straight to the soul. The way Amy Lee’s voice carries pain, power, and transcendence in a single note is exactly what Devil May Cry needed. To me, it wasn’t about picking a band—it was about recruiting the only band that could make this moment immortal.”
Shankar describes Devil May Cry as a “melancholic rock & roll Shakespearean tragedy — an operatic dance between fate, loss, and the relentless pursuit of redemption,” noting that “Afterlife” resonates with “two pivotal narrative threads” leading up to “several” season 1 plot twists. “Trauma is not just an event; it is an imprint, a fracture in time that the psyche never stops trying to mend,” the showrunner says. “When part of the child dies through heartbreak, the adult self is sentenced to an unending quest — seeking to reclaim what was lost, to heal a wound that has shaped them in ways they may never fully understand. In that sense, ‘Afterlife’ is not just a song in the story; it is the echo of a soul reaching for what once was, and perhaps, what could still be.”
Watch the “Afterlife” music video exclusively via Billboard below. Devil May Cry premieres April 3 on Netflix.
A new documentary about Billy Joel is set to air on HBO this summer, it has been confirmed.
As Deadline reports, the two-part series, titled And So It Goes, will be produced and directed by Susan Lacy, who is best known as the creator of the long-running American Masters, and for directing HBO documentaries such as Jane Fonda in Five Acts and Spielberg. Producer Jessica Levin – who produced the latter documentaries – is also slated to co-direct.
The forthcoming documentary is reportedly set to provide “an expansive portrait of the life and music of Billy Joel,” while focusing on the love, loss, and personal struggles that have informed his creative process. Filmmakers have also been given access to previously unseen performances, home movies, and photographs for the production.
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“For those who think they know Joel’s story, as well as those who are not as familiar, I believe this two-part film is both a revelation and a surprise,” Lacy stated in a press release. “I was drawn to his story as someone who knew little at the outset, and was astounded at how autobiographical his songs are and how complex his story is.”
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Billy Joel: And So It Goes arrives via Lacy and Levin’s Pentimento Production, Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner’s Hazy Mills Productions, and Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman’s Playtone for HBO Documentary Films. The documentary also credits Hanks, Goetzman, Milliner, Hayes, Steve Cohen, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller and Sara Rodriguez as executive producers
News of the documentary also comes just weeks after Joel announced he would be postponing a number of tour dates due to a need for recovery and physical therapy necessitated by a recent surgery for an undisclosed medical condition
“While I regret postponing any shows, my health must come first,” Joel said in a statement posted to Instagram. “I look forward to getting back on stage and sharing the joy of live music with our amazing fans. Thank you for your understanding.”
Joel will return to the stage at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh on July 5.
The respective children of Dean Ween (aka Mickey Melchiondo) and Gene Ween (aka Aaron Freeman) are set to perform together this weekend, but make no mistake, the duo are adamant they “are not Ween.”
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The performance was announced on social media on Tuesday (March 26) by Michael Melchiondo, who also performs as Bugger. The event takes place on Saturday (March 29) at the Soupcon Gallery in Lambertville, NJ, and features Hover and Rubix Pube on a lineup that also names Ashton Freeman.
“My good friend Ashton Freeman has asked me to join them in playing a show this Saturday in Lambertville,” Melchiondo. “We’ve come up with a very unique collaborative set. So come and witness the genetic duo merge our sounds… We are Not Ween.”
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The pair have previously made music separately, with Melchiondo sharing a photo of his father on social media last week, pairing it with the caption, “in the studio with dad, feeling great and making music.” His current project includes Bugger, while previous music was also released under the name Veal Marsala. Freeman, meanwhile, has released a small handful of releases under their own name between 2016 and 2020.
Ween were first formed by the elder Melchiondo and Freeman in 1984 as teenagers, with a large array of independent releases preceding the arrival of debut album GodWeenSatan: The Oneness in 1990. The group would largely escape widespread commercial success over the next 22 years, with final album – 2007’s La Cucaracha – giving them their career peak of No. 69 on the Billboard 200.
The group would announce their disbandment in 2012, though reformed again in 2015. In late 2023, it was announced that Ween would undertake a 40th anniversary tour the following year that would also double as a 30th birthday celebration for their fourth album, Chocolate and Cheese.
A number of those tour dates were cancelled in March 2024, with Dean Ween citing a need to preserve his “mental and spiritual wellbeing.” The band would later return to the road, though they announced in August that “Ween must make the decision to step away from the stage for the foreseeable future,” adding that “it’s become clear that touring and performing is too taxing on Deaner’s mental health to continue.”
Currently, no further news in regard to Ween’s return to the live stage has been announced.
Almost three decades after the release of their final album, a newly-active Sublime have revealed they’re currently in the studio working on a new record.
The group, which disbanded in 1996 following the passing of frontman Bradley Nowell, found themselves active once again in late 2023 when it was reported Nowell’s son Jakob was fronting the group. Following live performances at the likes of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2024, the group have now told Rolling Stone the reformation is set to feature a new record.
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The 29-year-old explained that he had recently spent a week working with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and producer John Feldmann penning tracks for the new album. Founding members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh will reportedly join for recording sessions soon.
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“Travis is an old-school fan and scholar of the Sublime catalog,” Nowell said. “They feel like family members now too, man. There was that feeling from everyone that what we’re doing here is something generational and special on an emotional, spiritual, familial level.”
In a statement, Barker noted that the project was “going to be really special,” with the spirit of the group’s late frontman still present within the band. “Bradley comes through his son Jakob,” he added. “Chills every day in the studio when he sings and plays guitar.”
Cynical fans who might be expecting the album to be a poor imitation of what was once was have also had their fears assuaged somewhat, with Nowell specifically noting that the plan isn’t to create a modern, updated version of the band. “No, just more of a solid respect and homage to the works of Sublime,” he says.
Wilson and Gaugh co-founded Sublime with the late Bradley Nowell in 1988, with the group’s first two albums – 1992’s 40oz. to Freedom and 1994’s Robbin’ the Hood – released on the independent Skunk Records label, which Nowell co-founded.
Nowell died of a heroin overdose in May 1996 at the age of 28, just two months before the release of their self-titled major label debut. The record would peak at No. 13 on the Billboard 200, while lead single “What I Got” would top the Alternative Airplay chart in August 1996. Their sole Hot 100 entry came by way of “Doin’ Time” in December 1997, when it hit No. 87.
In 2009, Wilson and Gaugh reunited under the Sublime name with vocalist Rome Ramirez. Use of the band’s name was denied by the Nowell estate, leading to the creation of Sublime With Rome, which would continue with varying lineups until their official dissolution in 2024.
In May 2024, the reformed Sublime issued the track “Feels Like That,” which features Stick Figure alongside vocals from both Bradley and Jakob Nowell. According to Jakob’s latest comments, this archival discovery process has been integral to his new role up the front of thee acclaimed band.
“We’re combing through and trying to distill down what makes a Sublime song a Sublime song,” he explained. “It’s been this fun learning process to get close to and get to know my lost family member in a spiritual sense. I think we leave so much of ourselves, like this blueprint of our DNA, in the work that we create and put out there. So really it’s been also a fact-finding mission.”