Music News

06 Nov 2023

Tate McRae Set as Musical Guest on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Jason Momoa to Host

Aquaman star Jason Momoa will host Saturday Night Live for the second time on Nov. 18, while the rising star that is Tate McRae will make her musical guest debut.

McRae, the Canadian singer and songwriter, is riding a wave with “Greedy,” which caught fire on TikTok before crossing over on charts around the globe.

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The single has a No. 14 peak on the Billboard Hot 100, and has cracked the top 10 in the U.K. (No. 3) and Australia (No. 2).

Despite being just 20 years of age, the Calgary native has a few hits in her bag of tricks. She scored a top 20 Billboard Hot 100 hit in 2020 with “You Broke Me First,” while singles like “She’s All I Wanna Be” and the Regard/Troye Sivan collaboration “You” also made their impacts felt at top 40 radio.

“I think I have a pretty good grasp on what my fans like to hear and what they enjoy,” McRae told Billboard in a recent interview. “But I don’t think you ever really know. I was like, ‘This is a big risk for me as an artist’ — turning 20, I felt like I had to make a big change in my life and my sound. And you can only see so much on TikTok. You never know which direction it’s gonna go, or if it’s going to translate. So it’s been pretty special.”

Momoa, who has portrayed Duncan Idaho in Dune, played the lead in Conan The Barbarian, and the fearsome Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones, got his first taste of hosting SNL in December 2018.

As previously reported, Timothée Chalamet will host SNL for a second time on Nov. 11, while the women of boygenius make their show debut on the same evening.

In addition to the broadcast on NBC, SNL streams live on Peacock (11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT).
SNL is produced in association with Broadway Video. The creator and executive producer is Lorne Michaels.

06 Nov 2023

‘A Celebration of Taylor Swift’ Night Coming to ‘Dancing With the Stars’

Dancing With the Stars will devote an entire night to Taylor Swift later this month during the Nov. 21st “A Celebration of Taylor Swift” episode. This season’s six remaining couples will take the dance floor for an evening of hot-stepping to Swift’s music when the Taylor-focused episode airs at 8 p.m. ET; the show will be simulcast live across both ABC and Disney+ in local time zones and the next day on Hulu.

One of the special guests on hand for the show will be Mandy Moore, longtime Dancing With the Stars choreographer and the lead choreographer of Swift’s massive Eras Tour. Moore will serve as a special guest on the episode, with the couples and their dance styles to be announced soon.

Fans can vote during the live simulcast in the Eastern and Central time zones, with online voting available to fans in any time zone in the U.S., its territories and Canada here. Live viewer votes will be combined with the judges’ scores on each episode to determine which couples could be facing elimination.

Billboard broke the news about the Swift night last month, when pro dancer Peta Murgatroyd exclusively revealed the plans to for the Taylor-themed episode. “We will be having a Taylor Swift week here,” Murgatroyd said, before adding, “Am I allowed to say that?”

Pro dancer Artem Chigvintsev had previously hinted at a Swift-themed DWTS night during an episode of The Nikki & Brie Show, in which his celebrity partner, Charity Lawson, revealed that she had wanted to use one of Swift’s songs for a dance, only to have her request rejected.

Swift has some DWTS history, celebrating the release of her 2010 album Speak Now on the show with a performance of “Mine” as well as throwback of her Fearless track “White Horse.”

Swift is the leading finalist with nods in 20 categories at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards. You can watch the BBMAs here, and via Billboard and the BBMA’s social media channels on Nov. 19.

06 Nov 2023

Celine Dion Makes Rare Appearance at Final Night of Katy Perry’s Las Vegas Residency

Just a week after making her first public appearance in more than three years amidst a battle with Stiff-Person Syndrome, Celine Dion ventured out again on Saturday night to take in the final date of Katy Perry‘s Las Vegas residency.

Dion was in the audience at the Resorts World Theatre amid a group of other A-listers on hand to help Perry salute the end of her two-year Play residency, including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Cameron Diaz and husband Benji Madden and Zoe Saldana, among others. In fact, among those others was none other than Perry’s three-year-old daughter, Daisy Dove, who made her first public appearance during an on-screen segment of Saturday’s show.

Perry appeared to shout out Dion, 57, at one point, saying, “Katy Perry if you’re wondering. I’m not Celine Dion. That show is coming up next!” The appearance was notable because Dion has been out of the public eye since her diagnosis three years ago. She made her first public appearance in years at an NHL game at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas a week ago to see a game between her hometown team, the Montreal Canadiens, and the Las Vegas Golden Knights, joined by her three sons.

Dion revealed her Stiff-Person Syndrome diagnosis in December 2022, sharing that she was suffering from the rare condition marked by uncontrolled and severe spasms, which she said has sometimes caused difficulties walking and using her vocal cords appropriately. The condition caused Dion to push back or cancel all her 2023 tour dates to 2024.

According to People, just before Perry sang her 2008 hit “Hot n Cold,” she took a break to acknowledge the child she welcomed in 2020 with fiancé actor Orlando Bloom. “Daisy! I love you so much,” Perry said in video posted by fans on X (formerly known as Twitter) in which the adorable tot — wearing a red and white polka dot Minnie Mouse-style dress and pink headphones — waved to her mom from the crowd. “You’re my best friend, I’m so glad you’re here.”

Perry also shouted out her partner, Bloom, praising the actor for being an “incredible support system” and “amazing father,” while also praising Daisy Dove for helping to inspire the long-running show. “I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove,” she said. “When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. She made me whole, and she healed me, and she showed me how to play again. So this show is for everyone’s inner child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free.”

Watch Perry’s shout out to Daisy and Celine below.

06 Nov 2023

Paul McCartney on Completing Beatles’ ‘Last’ Song ‘Now And Then’: ‘It Was Kind of Magical’

Paul McCartney is more active than most folks a quarter of his age. The 81-year-old two-time Rock Hall inducted singer and songwriter dropped a “new” Beatles song last Thursday, its official music video on Friday, and completed a stadium tour of Australia on Saturday, produced by Frontier Touring. Add-in a 12-minute Beatles mini-film and media commitments, and McCartney has seemingly managed to be everywhere, all at once.

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Speaking with BBC Radio 1, McCartney revealed that “Now And Then” is more than an ambitious passion project. The single, which took more than 40 years to complete, had a touch of magic about it.

“When we were in the studio we had John’s voice in our ears so you could imagine he was just in the next room in a vocal booth or something and we were just working with him again so it was joyful,” he says, “it was really lovely you know, because we hadn’t experienced that for a long time obviously and then suddenly here we were working with ol’ Johnny.”

The track was originally a demo, written and sung by John Lennon into a tape recorder at New York’s Dakota Building back in the 1970s. McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr attempted to resurrect the recording in the 1990s, but the audio quality was beyond help. That was, until Get Back director Peter Jackson and his team at WingNut Films developed the MAL audio technology, powered by artificial intelligence, which could separate the stems.

Completed with a string arrangement, written by Giles Martin, Paul and Ben Foster, and featuring contributions from all four Beatles, it’s pitched as the “last” Beatles record.

“It was kind of magical doing it,” McCartney adds.

The single has blasted out of the gates in the United Kingdom. According to the Official Charts Company, “Now And Then” leads the race for the chart crown, by outselling the rest of the top 5 combined.

“Now And Then” was completed with the assistance of AI, a story thread that arguably sidetracked the message around the announcement. Technology always intrigued the Beatles, McCartney notes.

“The first time we heard a tape go backwards by mistake we went ‘Oh what’s that?’ and we wanted to put that on our record, whereas other people would just go ‘Oh come on get the tape on the right way and let’s get on with it’,” he explains. “But we always grabbed little things like that so Peter Jackson, he’s organized it so it’s magic. It’s very special for me to be singing with John again.”

McCartney also recounted his latest, hits-laden performance at Glastonbury Festival 2023, in June of this year. “Well you know Glastonbury is special,” he enthuses. “We’d done an American tour to get up to speed with the band, we were excited to do Glastonbury just ’cause it’s Glastonbury and then you get that many people singing something like ‘Hey Jude’ and you know, in this world today when the news is so often bad, it’s just so great to see all these humans with such a loving vibe that you get at Glastonbury. No, it was great to do and I’m glad we pulled it off.”

Stream the interview here.

05 Nov 2023

Fans Choose Jung Kook’s ‘Golden’ as This Week’s Favorite New Music

Jung Kook‘s Golden tops this week’s new music poll.

Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Nov. 3) on Billboard, choosing the pop icon’s re-recorded album as their favorite new music release of the past week.

Golden brought in 88% of the vote, beating out new music releases from Olivia Rodrigo, The Beatles and more.

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Jung Kook is the final member of BTS to release a full-length solo album. Golden, featuring the singles “Seven” (with Latto) and “3D” (with Jack Harlow) among its tracklist, arrived on Friday.

In a new interview with British GQ, the K-pop star spoke about recording without his bandmates by his side: “While working on the album by myself, and performing on stage alone, [I noticed] things about myself that I was unaware of — the good points and the areas I’m lacking in,” Jung Kook said. “In terms of music, I found myself realizing, ‘Oh I can do these kinds of things as well, huh?’ or ‘Ah, this is something I can work on.’ I found myself missing the members [of BTS] quite a bit.”

He noted that ARMY will likely love the song “Standing Next to You.” While recording the track, he says, “it was so tiring that I did feel my soul almost leaving my body, but the process itself was extremely fun.”

Trailing behind Golden on the poll is Rodrigo’s “Can’t Catch Me Now” off of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes original motion picture soundtrack, with 6% of the vote.

See the final results of this week’s poll below.

05 Nov 2023

Steven Van Zandt Gives Update on Bruce Springsteen’s Recovery From Peptic Ulcer Disease

Steven Van Zandt commented on Bruce Springsteen‘s health amid The Boss’ recovery from peptic ulcer disease.

The E Street Band guitarist said Springsteen is in “great shape” when he spoke with People at the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York City on Friday (Nov. 2).

“We’re gonna come back stronger than ever in March,” he added, referring to Springsteen and the E Street Band’s tour picking back up in March 2024. “It was a very, very intense first six months of the tour — maybe our most intense ever. And so we’re gonna come back with that same intensity, and it’s gonna be great.”

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“Well, it’s wonderful, isn’t it? Because we were gone for seven years. So, you know, we weren’t really sure what was gonna happen. It could have been like, ‘E Street who?’” Van Zandt remarked.

“But we came back stronger than ever in terms of the business, in terms of enthusiasm,” says Van Zandt. “Everything sold out immediately. So it was a wonderful surprise and, I think, just a tribute to the craft.”

Springsteen and the E Street Band had to announce new tour dates after postponing their September schedule in order to allow Springsteen time to recover from the stomach issue. The U.S. dates of the tour are set to start up again on March 19 at the Footprint Center in Phoenix.

About a week ago, the band announced more dates, this time for a 22-date European stadium run beginning in May 2024.

To learn more about peptic ulcer disease, Billboard recently spoke to a medical professional, Dr. Rudolph Bedford, a gastroenterologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, who says that it can cause “severe abdominal pain… to the point of doubling you over.” He explained that the condition is caused by an imbalance in the protective lining of the stomach: “The stomach is full of acid and whenever something in that acid destroys the protective lining the nerves in the stomach wall become inflamed and cause severe pain.”

05 Nov 2023

Slipknot Parts Ways With Drummer Jay Weinberg

Slipknot is parting ways with drummer Jay Weinberg.

On Sunday (Nov. 5), the masked metal band took to its website and social media accounts to announce that Weinberg — who joined Slipknot in 2014 following the departure of Joey Jordison a year earlier — is no longer a part of the group.

“We would like to thank Jay Weinberg for his dedication and passion over the past ten years,” the band wrote in a statement. “No one can ever replace Joey Jordison’s original sound, style or energy, but Jay honored Joey’s parts and contributed to the last three albums and we, the band, and the fans appreciate it. But as ever, Slipknot is intent on evolving. The band has decided to make a creative decision, and to part ways with Jay. We wish Jay all the best and are very excited for what the future holds.”

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During his time with Slipknot, Weinberg — the son of longtime Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg — played on the hard rock band’s albums .5: The Gray Chapter (2014), We Are Not Your Kind (2019) and The End, So Far (2022).

Weinberg had not publicly commented on his departure from Slipknot as of press time.

The 33-year-old drummer joined Slipknot in 2014 following the departure of founding drummer Jordison, who formed the group in 1995 along with percussionist Shawn Crahan and the band’s late bass player Paul Gray, who died in 2010.

Slipknot announced in December 2013 that Jordison and the group were “parting ways” after nearly two decades together, though the drummer later said in interviews that he was fired. In 2016, Jordison revealed that his exit from Slipknot coincided with his getting sick with a disease called transverse myelitis and claimed that his bandmates confused his medical issues with a substance abuse problem. He died in 2021 at age 46.

See Slipknot’s announcement about Weinberg’s departure on Instagram below.

05 Nov 2023

Taylor Swift’s ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 With Biggest Week in Nearly a Decade

Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) blasts in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Nov. 11), scoring the superstar her 13th No. 1 on the chart. The set debuts with 1.653 million equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 2, according to Luminate. That marks the largest week for any album, by units earned, since Adele’s 25 launched with 3.482 million units earned in the week ending Nov. 25, 2015.

Further, of 1989 (Taylor’s Version)’s first-week units, traditional album sales comprise 1.359 million of that sum — Swift’s single-largest sales week for any of her albums. It surpasses her previous high, logged when the original 1989 album debuted with 1.287 million sold in the week ending Nov. 2, 2014.

The first-week sales of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) are the largest for any album since Adele’s 25 bowed with 3.378 million. In total, since Luminate began electronically tracking music sales in 1991, the debut of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) marks the sixth-largest sales week for any album. The top six biggest weeks are (all in debut frames): Adele’s 25 (3.378 million), *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached (2.416 million, in 2000), *NSYNC’s Celebrity (1.878 million, 2001), Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP (1.76 million, 2000), Backstreet Boys’ Black & Blue (1.591 million, 2000) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (1.359 million).

The sales of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) were enhanced by its availability in 15 collectible physical formats: five color vinyl variants, eight CD editions and two cassette editions. Of the five vinyl variants, Target carries a color variant that includes one bonus track (“Sweeter Than Fiction”). The album is also available to buy in two digital download editions: a standard 21-song version and a deluxe 22-song version (which adds a re-recorded version of the album’s “Bad Blood,” featuring Kendrick Lamar). (Notably, Swift did not offer an autographed edition of the new album to purchase, as she did in time for the first weeks of her last three No. 1s: Speak Now [Taylor’s Version], Midnights and Red [Taylor’s Version]. Signed editions of her albums are a major sales driver.)

With Swift’s total of No. 1s on the Billboard 200 albums chart rising to 13 (Swift’s lucky number), she extends her record for the most leaders among women in the chart’s history, dating back to March of 1956, when the list began publishing on a regular, weekly basis. Among all artists, The Beatles have the most No. 1s (19), followed by Jay-Z (14) and Drake and Swift (tied with 13 each).

All 13 of Swift’s full-length studio albums and re-recorded projects from 2008’s Fearless, her second studio album, through 2023’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) have debuted at No. 1.

Swift announced 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on Aug. 9, while performing at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., as part of her The Eras Tour. Pre-order sales for the album began shortly afterward via Swift’s official webstore. 

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 Nov. 11, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Nov. 7. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of 1989 (Taylor’s Version)’s 1.653 million equivalent album units earned in the week ending Nov. 2, album sales comprise 1.359 million, SEA units comprise 288,000 (equaling 375.49 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 21 songs) and TEA units comprise 6,000.

The original 1989 album debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart dated Nov. 15, 2014, and spent 11 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1. It is tied with Swift’s first leader, Fearless, for her most weeks at No. 1 with a single album. The 1989 album boasts three songs that hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the most No. 1s generated from any Swift album. She sent “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space” and “Bad Blood,” featuring Kendrick Lamar, to No. 1 in 2014-15.

1989 (Taylor’s Version) includes re-recordings of the original 1989 album’s standard 13 songs plus the three tracks from its deluxe edition. The new 1989 (Taylor’s Version) adds five additional previously unreleased “From the Vault” re-recordings, bringing the total number of songs on the standard version of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) to 21.

Million-Selling Week: With 1.359 million copies sold in its first week, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) marks the sixth Swift album to have sold at least a million in a single week, following the debut weeks of Midnights, reputation, the original 1989, Red and Speak Now. She is the only act with six different albums to each sell at least 1 million copies in a single week since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991.

In total, there have been 25 instances — by 23 different albums — in which an album sold at least 1 million copies in a week in the Luminate era. One of those albums, Adele’s 25, sold more than 1 million in three separate weeks.

2023’s Biggest-Selling Album: 1989 (Taylor’s Version) has already become the year’s top-selling album. It surpasses the year’s previous best-seller, Swift’s own 2022 release Midnights, which has sold 791,000 in 2023. Swift now has the top-three-selling albums of the year, as Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is the No. 3-seller, with 755,000 sold since its release in July.

Modern-Era Single-Week Vinyl Sales Record: 1989 (Taylor’s Version) sold 693,000 copies on vinyl in its first week. That marks the largest sales week for a vinyl album since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991. Swift breaks her own modern-era vinyl sales record, set by the debut of her last studio album of all-new material, Midnights, which sold 575,000 copies in its opening week (ending Oct. 27, 2022).

Biggest Sales Week for a CD Album Since 2015: Of 1989 (Taylor’s Version)’s first-week sales across all formats (CD, vinyl, digital download and cassette), its combined eight CD editions sold 554,000 copies. That marks the single-largest sales week for an album on CD since Adele’s 25 sold 1.03 million copies on CD in its fifth week of release (week ending Dec. 24, 2015).

Swift’s Biggest Streaming Week for a Re-Recorded Album: As 1989 (Taylor’s Version) earned 288,000 SEA units, which equates to 375.49 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 21 songs, the album tallies Swift’s biggest streaming week, by total streams for its songs, for any of her four re-recorded projects. Her previous biggest streaming sum for a re-recorded project was the opening week of Red (Taylor’s Version), which saw its collected 30 songs generate 303.23 million streams. (Swift’s biggest streaming week overall for any album is the debut frame of Midnights, with 549.26 million clicks — which is also the single-largest week for any album by a woman.)

At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, SEVENTEEN debuts with SEVENTEENTH Heaven: 11th Mini Album, marking the Korean pop group’s fourth top 10-charting effort. The set launches with 100,000 equivalent album units earned, driven almost entirely by CD sales (98,000 in total), bolstered by its availability across 16 collectible CD variants.

The rest of the top 10 comprises former No. 1s. Drake’s For All the Dogs falls 2-3 (95,000 equivalent album units earned, down 21%); Bad Bunny’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana is a non-mover at No. 4 (73,000; down 25%); Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time is steady at No. 5 (64,000; down 7%); Rod Wave’s Nostalgia rises 9-6 (46,000; down 9%); Swift’s Midnights dips 6-7 (45,000; down 15%); Swift’s Lover falls 7-8 (just over 44,000; down 15%); Zach Bryan’s self-titled album descends 8-9 (44,000; down 14%); and SZA’s SOS climbs 11-10 (42,000; down 5%).

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.

05 Nov 2023

BTS’ Jung Kook Talks New ‘Golden’ Solo Album, Reveals Which Song ARMY Will Like Most

Jung Kook is opening up about his debut solo album, Golden.

The 26-year-old K-pop star spoke with British GQ about what is was like recording without the members of BTS by his side, the mature themes in his music, which new song ARMY members will like the best, and much more.

During the interview, Jung Kook touched on the positives and negatives of recording without the creative input of his fellow BTS members.

“While working on the album by myself, and performing on stage alone, [I noticed] things about myself that I was unaware of — the good points and the areas I’m lacking in,” Jung Kook told British GQ. “In terms of music, I found myself realizing, ‘Oh I can do these kinds of things as well, huh?’ or ‘Ah, this is something I can work on.’ I found myself missing the members [of BTS] quite a bit.”

Golden, which dropped Friday (Nov. 3), features Jung Kook’s Billboard Hot 100 chart No. 1 hit single with Latto, “Seven,” as well as his new song with Jack Harlow, “3D.”

Of all the songs on the 11-track set, the superstar believes that BTS fans, known as ARMY, will gravitate most to “Standing Next to You.”

“The song itself is great, and as soon as I heard the song, I could picture myself on stage performing [it],” Jung Kook said. “The recording process was not easy, so it’s particularly memorable, too. It was so tiring that I did feel my soul almost leaving my body, but the process in itself was extremely fun. I think this will also be the one song ARMY are most amazed by.”

The singer-dancer also discussed the mature themes of his new music, as heard in the Latto collab “Seven,” when he promises, “Night after night, I’ll be f—ing you right.”

“You make the song guided by your feelings [and] where your heart leads you,” he told British GQ. “By following my heart and my feelings, I think I have been able to mature.”

Golden follows a string of previous solo singles from the K-pop star, including “Euphoria,” “My Time,” “Still With You” and “My You,” as well as collab singles with Lauv (“Who”) and Charlie Puth on the latter’s 2022 single “Left and Right.”

Jung Kook is stepping out on his own amidst BTS’ pause to allow the boys to report for South Korea’s mandatory military service. Suga, Jin and J-Hope have already enlisted. Suga, who began fulfilling his duty on Sept. 22, told fans to hang tight for the group’s planned 2025 return.

05 Nov 2023

Nick Carter Reflects on Journey of Grief One Year After Brother Aaron’s Death: ‘It Hurts’

Nick Carter is still grieving the loss of his younger brother Aaron one year after his passing.

The Backstreet Boys singer, 43, says he’s still having a hard time coming to terms with the loss of his sibling, who suddenly died on Nov. 5, 2022, at the age of 34.

“It’s still unbelievable to me,” Carter told E! News. “I’m still processing the whole situation and trying to make sense of it –because it hasn’t.” He added, “But I’m hoping that one day I can make sense of it all.”

Aaron, who struggled with substance and mental health issues, was found dead in the bathtub of his home in California. Earlier this year, the former child star’s autopsy results were released by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, who ruled his death as accidental and revealed that he drowned in his bathtub after taking a deadly combination of difluoroethane and alprazolam.

Nick told E! News that despite their differences over the year, he and his late brother always made an effort to repair their relationship.

“No matter what he and I had gone through in our lives, we always were able to make amends, always were able to get back to that place, and now I can’t anymore and it hurts,” he said.

To help cope with the loss, Nick has been finding comfort in the support of his wife, Lauren Kitt Carter, and their three young kids.

“My children are my everything,” Carter said. “If I lost everything, if I wasn’t a Backstreet Boy anymore, if I didn’t have the opportunity to still perform for people and entertain them — as long as I still had my kids and still had my family, I’d be OK. All this stuff on the outside doesn’t matter to me.”

At the time of his brother’s death, Nick posted an emotional and devastating memorial to him, writing, “My heart is broken. Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded. I have always held on to the hope that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed…God, Please take care of my baby brother.”

In January, Nick also released a tribute song to his late brother. The emotional ballad “Hurts to Love You” was accompanied by a video featuring footage of the siblings as children, along with a message from Nick on Instagram.

“Feel like we’ve been through some wars together/ Nobody else could understand/ Way too many nightmares to remember,” Carter sings over a spare, heartbeat-like beat. “Always hoped your tomorrows/ Would be better than the days before/ I hoped you’d find your road to follow/ To a place you were happy in this world,” he adds before the heartbreaking chorus, “Cuz it hurts to love you, but I love you still/ Miss you with all my heart you know I always will.”