State Champ Radio Music News
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Tommy Lee isn’t fond of artists engaging in self-promotion while the Los Angeles wildfires continue to rage, it seems. The founding Mötley Crüe drummer let his opinions be known in an Instagram post shared on Monday (Jan. 13), where he took aim at those who have continued to plug upcoming products and events while the […]
Paramore‘s Hayley Williams is about to have some familial competition in the music game, with her grandfather releasing his debut album five decades on from its recording.
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Rusty Williams, at 78 years old, will release Grand Man on Feb. 14 thanks to the help of his granddaughter and her bandmates, but his musical journey has been a long time coming. According to a press release, Rusty was a lifelong lover of music, having written songs and joined a band in his earlier years. In fact, his talents even made an appearance on Hayley’s Petals for Armor album in 2020 – providing vocals and piano on the closing track, “Crystal Clear”.
For many, that was likely as far as Rusty’s musical story was going to go. Despite claims that he’d recorded an album back in the ’70s, few were certain the album even existed until “the senior Williams’ old production partner” Frank Morris rediscovered the record.
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“So many people our age are mining these albums for tones and things you can’t even replicate,” Hayley said in a statement. “And Grandat has a way of cutting to the core of a feeling, and not overcomplicating it. Which we tend to do, because the world is hard. It’s nice when you can hear something plain and simple and know that it is true.”
Rusty’s songs hadn’t ventured much further than the Mississippi recording studio where the tracks were first laid down all those years ago. However, Paramore’s Zac Farro put his hand up to ensure that they live on, plotting to release the record by way of his Nashville-based label Congrats Records. “I thought that it was a crime that these songs were sitting there on the shelf,” Farro said.
Ahead of its arrival next month, the album has been previewed by way of the single “Knocking (At Your Door)”. However, despite the long-awaited release of Grand Man, Rusty isn’t hoping for a major career renaissance to come his way.
“I don’t expect anything, and I’m too old to be famous,” he explained. “But I just want to know someone liked what I did, and to be touched by whatever the hell they are listening to. I want people to see how it felt when things were real.
“You write stuff, and you want somebody to get something out of it,” he added. “I just had to wait for a granddaughter and a band with her to really do anything with mine.”
Rusty joins a slowly-growing list of famous relatives who have released albums due to their more famous descendants. In 2023, Lana Del Rey’s father, Rob Grant, issued his debut album Lost at Sea at the age of 69, all while leaning into the tongue-in-cheek “nepo daddy” descriptor.
Ever since its release in 2015, Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” has become a musical representation of hope for anyone overcoming obstacles or struggling with tragedy.
As the wildfires in Los Angeles continue to devastate the city, Platten took the stage at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Monday (Jan. 13) to perform her hit before the playoff game between the LA Rams and the Minnesota Vikings. “It was such an emotional night. It was so much bigger than me and the song,” she tells Billboard of the moment, which served as a tribute to victims of the fires as well as first responders who are risking their lives to save their city.
Platten and her family are thankfully safe, and were able to return home after a precautionary evacuation. “My heart breaks,” she says. “We know friends who have lost their houses, friends whose schools have burned down. It’s horrifying, and it’s been a really scary experience.”
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During her “Fight Song” performance, Platten switched up the line in the song’s first verse — “I might only have one match/ But I can make an explosion” — to a fitting and more appropriate lyric given the circumstances: “We might have been knocked down/ But I know we’ll keep going.”
“I feel really incredibly grateful for the whole night,” she says. “We can do so many things with tragedy. We can mourn together, and we can cry together — but then there are also times to be strong together. What I felt on stage was, ‘May this song touch people like medicine, may this song be healing.’ I did feel feel a reverberation and an echo in the stadium of that hunger for hope in the midst of darkness. Sometimes music can do what words can’t.”
Platten hopes to continue her message of hope as she embarks on her Set Me Free tour, which kicks off on March 17 in Denver, Colo., and hits multiple cities including Los Angeles before wrapping on May 9 in Orlando, Fla. “It’s freedom, and it’s earned joy, not superficial way of celebration,” she says of the upcoming run of live shows. “It’s the kind of joy where you’ve been through some shit, and you’ve seen pain and you’ve seen tragedy, and you are choosing to stay strong and resilient. We’re all going to sing and dance, but we’re also going to cry and feel our feelings. Hopefully, the whole tour gives people permission to feel everything.”
Watch Platten perform “Fight Song” before the Rams and Vikings game below.
As wildfires continue to devastate parts of Los Angeles, Billboard is working to support the community by canceling all of the company’s Grammy-related events. “Our hearts are with the people of Los Angeles as they face the reality of these devastating fires. Many members of our staff and community have been personally affected, and our […]
The calendar may have turned to 2025, but the Cardi B and Offset drama has spilled into the new year. Cardi took to X Spaces on Tuesday (Jan. 14) where she accused her estranged husband along with his mother, Latabia Woodward, of robbing her. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts […]
Dipset fans and Harlem residents have been heartbroken over this recent spat between Cam’ron and Jim Jones. In recent days, the two Diplomats and close friends have been going back and forth about things that happened in the past. Jim Jones ultimately took issue with Cam’ron’s December interview with former foe 50 Cent where the […]
As wildfires continue to threaten Los Angeles and surrounding areas, organizers behind awards shows and related events are figuring out how to pivot to best support the community. Should they move forward and become fundraisers for relief efforts? Or is it best to cancel or postpone to a later date? Explore Explore See latest videos, […]
There have already been rumors about real estate developers offering up money to homeowners impacted by the recent fires in the Los Angeles area, and Vince Staples may be one of those people. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The Long Beach rapper took to X and […]
Keke Palmer is a proud friend. In a new interview with People ahead of the release of One of Them Days, the actress praised costar SZA‘s performance in the film and said that viewers aren’t even prepared for how brightly the singer-songwriter shines in her new vocation. “The world is about to be just gagged,” […]
The members of O-Town are making sure the public knows they have zero ties to Sean “Diddy” Combs amid the disgraced music mogul’s ongoing legal battles.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Tuesday (Jan. 14), bandmates Erik-Michael Estrada and Jacob Underwood alleged that their brand has suffered from false perceptions that Combs was involved with O-Town simply because the producer worked on separate seasons of Making the Band, the reality show on which the boy band got its start.
“We make a living touring and can’t afford to have [bookers] Googling us to find the latest Diddy clickbait,” Underwood told the publication.
“Of all the bands in Making the Band, we’re the only one not tied to him,” he added, noting that he’s never met Combs. “The more people confuse us with a Diddy band and post our pictures with his story, the more it goes against us.”
O-Town first formed on the inaugural season of Making the Band, going on to chart three songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and tour with Britney Spears at the turn of the millennium. Combs later became involved with other iterations of the reality TV show in the early 2000s, working with different groups such as Danity Kane, Da Band and Day26.
Decades later, Estrada, Underwood and bandmates Trevor Penick and Dan Miller are still going strong as a group (without original bandmate Ashley Parker Angel), while the Bad Boy Records founder is currently awaiting trial in prison on charges of sex abuse and racketeering. The accusations against him — which Combs has repeatedly denied — are sprawling, and O-Town says that having Making the Band in common with Combs has lost them lucrative deals, even after all these years.
For instance, O-Town’s agent, Matt Rafal, told THR that a large gaming company dropped the band from a year-end party billing due to confusion over the matter. “The offer was pulled due to the perception of the group being attached to Diddy,” Rafal said. “We made it clear O-Town’s Making the Band had no association with Diddy, but the company worried guests may be confused … Since the Diddy news, we’ve received questions and hesitancy from several talent buyers, especially for soft tickets like fairs and theme parks, as well as city-funded events.”
“I wish people looked at Making the Band and went, ‘Making the Band was O-Town and it was the pioneering brand for music reality television in the States,” Estrada added, calling the show “the blueprint” for programs like American Idol. “Unfortunately, the actions of one man have tainted the reality, which is four individuals who met on a reality show and are going strong 25 years later.”
Estrada also said that he did attend some of Combs’ parties in New York back in the day, and that “there was always a salacious energy” at the events. “He encouraged people to dip into their wild side, but I never witnessed anything firsthand,” the boy band star told the publication. “Gratefully, I can look my fiancé in the face and swear I never attended any after-hours version of a Diddy party.”
The “All or Nothing” singer also noted the irony of another disgraced music mogul’s associations with O-Town and Making the Band: Lou Pearlman, who spearheaded the series and managed O-Town, the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC before he was convicted of running a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme in 2008. The businessman died in prison in 2016 while serving his 25-year sentence.
“We’ve already had a Lou and now we’re dealing with a Diddy … it’s the MO of our career,” Estrada said. “Despite the steep climbs, we’ve generated a successful national tour with Pop 2000, had families, done other projects and strengthened our bond with fans, so when noise like this creeps up, we’re in good standing with the people who matter most.”
