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When Rush walked off the stage in California on Aug. 1, 2015 and closed out their R40 Live Tour, fans remained hopeful it wouldn’t be their last live show. After almost a decade, and the passing of their longtime drummer, the surviving members of the Canadian prog-rock outfit have made peace with there not being another Rush show.
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Earlier this month, Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson and bassist Geddy Lee spoke to Classic Rock about the regret they felt about shortening their final tour, apologizing to the British and European fans who didn’t get a chance to see them perform live. “I really felt like I let our British and European fans down,” Lee explained. “It felt to me incorrect that we didn’t do it, but Neil was adamant that he would only do thirty shows and that was it.”
Ultimately, it was drummer Neil Peart that put an end to the chances of more shows, announcing his retirement from music later that year. While Lifeson confirmed the group’s inactivity in 2018, Peart’s passing in 2020 put an end to any potential future for Rush.
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In 2022, however, Lifeson and Lee reunited in public to perform as part of the tribute shows in Los Angeles and London for late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. Though these performances were well-received and undoubtedly left fans eager for more, Lifeson has explained to Classic Rock that he’s satisfied where Rush left things.
“The energy was fantastic around that show, I know, and some days I wake up wanting to go out and tour again and some days I don’t,” Lifeson explained. “For forty years Rush included Neil, and I don’t think putting some new version together would have the same magic.
“After those two gigs and the months of prep Ged and I went through, I was excited by the response and to be in the dressing room again with so many fellow artists in Wembley and LA I respected and felt a kinship towards. But after a few weeks that wore off and it occurred to me that despite all the pain of loss, Rush went out on a high note playing as well as ever with one of our best stage shows on R40. I guess I’d rather be remembered for that legacy than returning as the top Rush tribute band.”
Since Rush’s untimely dissolution, Lifeson and Lee have remained active in the world of music. While the former performs as part of the Envy of None supergroup, the latter penned a memoir titled My Effin’ Life in 2023. However, the pair still live close by and regularly get together and jam, though there’s no saying if these collaborations will lead to anything.
“It’s good to jam with friends as you get older,” says Lifeson. “I need to play. Once a week I go to Ged’s – it’s in the calendar – keep my fingers moving, play Rush stuff, new jams. We do record it, but I couldn’t even begin to tell you where it’ll go.”
When Devo opened their 1978 album Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! with “Uncontrollable Urge”, few listeners could have foreseen how much money it would generate decades down the line – especially not its writer.
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Fans of Devo would note that “Uncontrollable Urge” was never released as a single, despite its status as one of their most played songs. Nor was it their most successful track on the charts – that honor belongs to 1980’s “Whip It”, which peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 after being issued as the second single from Freedom of Choice. However, it’s far from their biggest earner.
As co-founding Devo vocalist Mark Mothersbaugh told Rolling Stone, even though “Whip It” became a staple of the burgeoning MTV network in the early ’80s, his biggest success has indeed come via the channel, but in a manner that was wholly unexpected: MTV’s ubiquitous Ridiculousness.
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When Ridiculousness first launched in 2012, the viral video series used a cover of “Uncontrollable Urge” by host Rob Dyrdek. Over 12 years later, the program boasts over 1,500 episodes, becoming a staple of MTV in the process. Famously, the show saturates the network so much that in August 2020, The Ringer noted it was played on repeat for 36 hours straight. Two months earlier, Variety noted that 113 of a single week’s 168 hours (or 67.3%) were filled with episodes of Ridiculousness.
For Mothersbaugh – who has penned music for beloved series such as Rugrats and Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and scored films for directors such as Wes Anderson – the revenue from the ubiquity of Ridiculousness generates around $1 million annually, according to estimates from his wife and manager Anita Greenspan
“I’ve written so many other songs for films and television shows,” Mothersbaugh explained. “I would’ve been shocked [years ago] if you told me this is the one that would become this prime source of income.”
“It’s ironic and kind of funny,” adds Greenspan. “In the beginning of MTV you saw a lot of Devo because they were early to make videos, but MTV started questioning the videos Devo were making. [The videos] were subversive, they didn’t like them and wouldn’t play them anymore. Now ‘Uncontrollable Urge’ is easily the most-played song on MTV, so [Devo] wins.’”
Despite the massive exposure the world has had to “Uncontrollable Urge” thanks to Ridiculousness, it’s far from the first big earner that Mothersbaugh has had in the world of music. As Greenspan told Rolling Stone, his theme song to Rugrats managed to pay for their home back in the ’90s.
After more than five decades in the musical game, the touring life has begun to take its toll on Sammy Hagar, with the rock veteran admitting he no longer wants to take his music on the road.
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The 77-year-old Hagar made the admission while speaking to The Miami Herald ahead of a recent guest appearance at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, where he expressed his disdain with the grueling nature of the touring cycle.
“I don’t think I want to go on tour anymore. I hate to say that, because I don’t want to piss my fans off,” Hagar explained. “I’ll go out and do a one-off show and do things like that, but the residency is going to give me a good extension of my career. That’s what I’m hoping for.”
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The Red Rocker’s comments came just months after his The Best of All Worlds Tour, which saw him perform throughout the U.S., Canada, and Japan. Even then, a series of Birthday Bash performances throughout Mexico and Las Vegas followed, with 2025 set to feature a number of performances for Hagar, namely his The Best of All Worlds Tour Residency in Las Vegas throughout April and May.
As Hagar explains, it’s residencies and similar events that work best with his desires to continue within the world of live music.
“With this, I don’t have to travel, I don’t have to unpack and pack and get on an airplane every day,” he continued. “You know, at my age, it hurts my shoulders to do all this. And I have to perform. I’m a performer, at the end of the day.
“I keep telling my manager, ‘Don’t take any tours, let me do this residency,’” Hagar added. “If I like it enough, I’ll do another one. And if that’s successful I’ll do another one, and I can squeeze a few more years out of my career.”
Hagar last released a studio album in 2022, issuing Crazy Times with his band The Circle. That album was also promoted with a series of dates throughout North America, though it remains their last large-scale tour to date.
Dave Chappelle is set to host Saturday Night Live for the fourth time this weekend (Jan. 18), with GloRilla making her musical guest debut.
In a promotional clip for the upcoming episode posted on Thursday (Jan. 16), SNL fan-favorite cast member Marcello Hernández says, “Man, what a chaotic time in the world. I’m so glad that you’re here to bring us together and remind us of what makes us human.”
When Chappelle goes to thank him, Hernández hilariously clarifies, “I was actually talking to GloRilla.” An immediately flattered Glo then tells the comedian, “Thanks, BB!”
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Elsewhere in the promo, Hernández tells GloRilla how much he loves her 2024 hit, “Yeah, Glo!,” explaining to the rapper that “if it was in Spanish, it would be like ‘Si, Glo!’”
“Oh, I like that. You gonna keep going?” Glo asks, wondering if he’ll deliver the expletive-filled hook in Spanish as well. “I don’t know, I gotta translate,” a flustered Hernández replies with a laugh.
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GloRilla’s SNL debut comes three months after the release of the Memphis rapper’s debut solo album, Glorious, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200. The project spawned the single “TGIF,” which peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, Glo’s highest-reaching unaccompanied entry on the chart.
Watch the promo below, and catch the full episode of Saturday Night Live on Jan. 18 at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC, before it begins streaming on Peacock.
Wendy Williams and her niece called in to The Breakfast Club recently to speak with her old protégé Charlamagne on her health, the conservatorship she’s apparently in and her thoughts on Diddy, who is currently awaiting trial on multiple charges which includes sex trafficking. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts […]
Like a bandage for the heart, Argentine singer-songwriter Yami Safdie teams up with multi-award-winning Colombian artist Camilo to release her new single “Querida Yo,” a sweet pop ballad loaded with incredible performance.
The new ballad is a tribute to personal empowerment and the hope of releasing the vulnerabilities we face by choosing to become our greatest strength, conveying the true message of the meaning of faith.
“It’s like a letter to myself,” Yami Safdie tells Billboard Español during an interview in Miami. “I do this a lot of spoiling songs on TikTok when I don’t even have them finished or recorded.” If I wrote something that I liked, I uploaded it, and that video went quite viral, many people connected.”
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Safdie continues, “Then I uploaded a story, and Cami saw it and told me: ‘What a beautiful song.’ And I’ve been following him for a long time; I admire him a lot; it was like, ‘Well, let’s do it together! It’s for you. “I invited him, and we finished it together.”
As a manifestation, the Argentine singer-songwriter visualized this collaboration in a certain way. For his part, Camilo tells how he connected to join this collaboration. “I found it to be a sincere, unpretentious way to have a conversation with yourself. I saw myself in that song, more than singing it, and as an artist, I was part of the song,” Camilo reveals. “I saw myself, my story, and my life in that song. I saw myself reflected. It is the power of the song, and it is very nice to see how it happened to me.”
For Yami, this collaboration is another dream come true in his career. Camilo also remembers some of the collaborations that he dreamed of at some point and that have occurred in his career. “I remember, for example, when I was in the pandemic, there was one day when Pablo Alborán uploaded a video, and he was singing a song of mine, and he told me, ‘Let’s make this song together,’ says Camilo. “And I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe it.’ Or when Shakira sent me a message and said, ‘I love this song,’ to see if I wanted to join in. Suddenly, those kinds of things don’t happen if you plan them. “It’s very nice when things happen in a real way.”
“But if I tell you the truth, my favorite moment in my life and career is this,” the Colombian singer-songwriter confesses. “I love doing this with Yami because it is also very important to see [the] perspective. “I see the future, and I see someone as talented as Yami.”
Justin Baldoni filed a bombshell $400 million lawsuit against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds Thursday (Jan. 16), and he appears to have referenced Taylor Swift in the filing.
In a 179-page suit obtained by Billboard, the actor-director accused the Gossip Girl actress — who starred in It Ends With Us, which Baldoni directed — and her famous husband of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy, alleging the couple hijacked his vision for their film before trying to destroy his image with false allegations of sexual harassment. In one of several complaints raised in the filing, Baldoni implies that Lively at one point attempted to use the influence of a “megacelebrity friend” to pressure him to comply with Lively’s ideas for the It Ends With Us script.
A screenshot of text messages between Baldoni and Lively also included in the filing appears to confirm that the famous friend is Swift. “Was working on rooftop scene today, I really love what you did,” Baldoni at one point texted Lively. “Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor).”
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In other screenshots, Lively refers to Reynolds and her famous friend as “my most trusted partners” who have “established themselves as absolute titans as writers and storytellers outside of their primary gig — just singing or just acting.”
Billboard has reached out to reps for Baldoni, Swift, Lively and Reynolds for comment.
Also on the topic of the megacelebrity friend, Baldoni’s attorneys wrote that Lively at one point summoned him to her New York penthouse to talk about her version of the script.
“Baldoni was greeted by Ryan Reynolds, who launched into enthusiastic praise for Lively’s version of the scene,” the filing says of the meeting. “Hours later, as the meeting was ending, a famous, and famously close, friend of Reynolds and Lively, walked into the room and similarly began praising Lively’s script. Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction for the script.”
“Later, Baldoni felt obliged to text Lively to say that he had liked her pages and hadn’t needed Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him,” the suit continues. “The message could not have been clearer. Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively. He was also facing … two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who were not afraid to make things very difficult for him.”
Baldoni is seeking $400 million from Lively and Reynolds for “deploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio.” His lawsuit comes about a month after Lively filed her own lawsuit against Baldoni, accusing the director of harassment on set and coordinating a smear campaign against her after the film was finished.
In December, Baldoni sued The New York Times for $250 million over its coverage of the fallout between him and Lively.
Selena Gomez is giving back amid the devastating Los Angeles wildfires. In a series of Instagram Stories she posted on Thursday (Jan. 16), Gomez is seen volunteering by helping separate and distribute sandwiches to those who have been displaced by the tragedy. “Grateful for these individuals,” she wrote over one of the clips, which featured […]
Method Man has denied allegations of assault at a gym in Staten Island as reported by the New York Post on Thursday (Jan. 16). A rep for Meth — born Clifford Smith — tells Billboard: “Mr. Smith categorically denies the allegations as reported and has not been the subject of an arrest by any law […]
Brianna LaPaglia may not have gotten the love story she thought she would with Zach Bryan, but she’s still thankful for their breakup as it led her to Taylor Swift‘s discography.
In a cover story interview with Sports Illustrated published Wednesday (Jan. 15), the 25-year-old influencer — known to many by her nickname, Brianna Chickenfry — opened up about turning to the pop superstar’s music following her messy split from the country musician. “It’s unfortunate that it took this circumstance to get to be a Swiftie, but at the end of the day, I’m very grateful that I have found Taylor,” she told the publication.
“Now I’m not just listening to pop music, I’m listening to the diary of someone who experienced something completely the same as me,” LaPaglia added. “I can listen to it and be like, ‘Wow, how the hell does she have a song for everything?’ And I mean, everything. For what I’m going through now, there’s a song, there’s an era, there’s something for everything in Taylor Swift’s music.”
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The podcaster and Bryan broke up in October after over a year of dating. LaPaglia soon opened up about the issues she faced in the relationship, accusing the “I Remember Everything” artist of emotionally abusing her and claiming that she refused his offer of $12 million and a New York apartment to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) following their split.
While speaking to SI, LaPaglia revealed that she’s opened up more emotionally now that she’s single again. “When I walk into a room, I want to talk to everyone,” she reflected to the publication. “When the relationship first started, that became a problem for him; I was talking too much or I was being too much, and maybe the spotlight was not on him enough. That’s how he made me feel: Oh, I need to dim myself down.”
As for Bryan’s history with Swift, the former previously found himself in hot water with Swifties after tweeting, “eagles > chiefs / Kanye > Taylor” and adding, “who’s with me.”
He quickly apologized, writing on X in September, “I was drunkenly comparing two records and it came out wrong. I know there’s a lot of stuff that clouds around Ye and I was speaking purely musically. I love Taylor’s music and pray you guys know I’m human and tweet stupid things often. Hope one day I can explain this to her.”