State Champ Radio Music News
Page: 797
As introspective, detailed singer-songwriters such as Zach Bryan, Noah Kahan and Tyler Childers have topped Billboard charts and sold out amphitheaters and stadiums recently, Stillwater, Oklahoma native Wyatt Flores is primed to ascend to their ranks with his full-fledged debut album Welcome to the Plains, which came out last Friday (Oct. 18) via Island Records.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The album follows a trio of EPs: 2022’s The Hutson Sessions, 2023’s Life Lessons, and this year’s Half Life that have led to Flores’ rise in the public consciousness thanks to a blend of his unrefined, folksy sound and unflinchingly honest lyricism. It’s made him the latest in a strong lineage of musicians such as Cross Canadian Ragweed, Stoney LaRue, Turnpike Troubadours and other architects of the Red Dirt sound that has risen from Oklahoma since the 1970s.
Trending on Billboard
Flores, 23, began releasing songs in 2021, but it was “Please Don’t Go,” a raw-throated, emotional plea for a loved one to refrain from taking their own life, gained traction just over a year ago, ultimately earning over 154 million streams on Spotify alone. He’s followed such resonant songs as “Break My Bones” and “Losing Sleep.”
The songs’ success threw Flores into an ascendant surge, along with it a grind of being on the road, playing shows with 49 Winchester and headlining his own rapidly growing shows.
“We just played a 3,300-capacity venue in Oklahoma City,” he notes to Billboard. “The last time we played OKC, it was like a 500-capacity room. It’s crazy.”
He made his Grand Ole Opry debut seven months ago and played Stagecoach and the revered venue Red Rocks Amphitheatre for the first time this year. He also earned a nomination for emerging act of the year at this year’s Americana Music Honors & Awards. But when it came time to record Welcome to the Plains, Flores tells Billboard he was “so scared, honestly.”
“I sat there in Asheville and just went over the lyrics,” he recalls of recording at Echo Mountain Studios there, as well as in Los Angeles and Nashville. “I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m good enough for an album yet.’ But it came to a point where I was like, ‘Just let the songs be what they are and capture the moments of where I’ve been without overthinking it.’”
Welcome to the Plains was born during what Flores calls “a really dark spot in my life,” as he was meeting the demands of his skyrocketing career while battling anxiety and imposter syndrome, and also struggling to process and grieve the loss of a few people close to him, including Flores’s maternal grandfather, who took his own life in 2023.
In song and in conversation, Flores makes no secret that his utmost motivation lies not in massive sold-out shows, but in helping listeners through hard times. In releasing songs such as “Please Don’t Go,” Flores has also had to navigate the emotional weight of realizing that while his songs can be a balm and healing agent for some, music can’t always be a life-saving force. He delves into that feeling the new album’s “Oh Susannah,” particularly on lyrics such as “Why did I believe that I could save you, darling/ Without killing me?”
He had previously included a version of The Fray’s “How to Save a Life” on his Half Life EP, but in February, Flores had his own emotional moment onstage, breaking down during a performance in Kansas City, Missouri. “This is the only thing I ever cared about and for some reason I can’t figure out, I don’t feel a thing,” he told fans during a vulnerable moment in that show. “I’m struggling with it. I’m sorry, guys. I’ve gotta tell my truth. I don’t know why… I’m sorry that I can’t give y’all what y’all deserve. And I love y’all and I’m very grateful for y’all being here.”
Flores took a four-week break from recording and touring, cancelling a slate of shows and seeking help at mental-health counseling facility Onsite near Nashville.
“I’ve learned so much because, truthfully, people don’t go through this phase in their life until they are maybe 30,” Flores says. “I went to Onsite when I quit the tour, and I looked around the room and there were maybe three other people my age and the rest were mostly in their 60s. I felt like the last thing I want to do in this life is be that age and look back and go, ‘How have I been unhappy this entire time?’ I started doing a lot of personal work and I’m still working on myself.
“I knew I had to be a better leader than what I was,” he continues. “I wasn’t taking the time to process things that I needed to, and I wasn’t putting up boundaries in my own life between me and the fans. It just crippled me to the point where I couldn’t do it anymore. I was like, ‘I don’t even know if I like the music’—and that’s the only thing I ever loved.”
Unlike the primarily acoustic-driven songs on his previous releases, Welcome to the Plains is a harder-edged, full band project. The songs on the new album that flowed from that time away from the spotlight are often anything but somber, such as the driving heartland rock and nod to Red Dirt in the album’s title track, which he wrote with Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor. Elsewhere, in the pulsing “Don’t Wanna Say Goodnight,” he longs for his last minutes with a lover to linger before they have to part ways.
“You would’ve thought that I would have written some of the most depressing songs, but I had this weird way of daydreaming about a better time, I guess. That’s where it was all coming from, just wanting to get out of that dark place,” he says. However, multiple songs, such as “The Good Ones” and “Angels Over You,” do touch on mortality, as does “When I Die,” a song Flores calls “the weirdest love song I’ve ever written.” The song brings levity on lines such as “When I’m in the ground, if I hear you talking s—t/ I hope I get the chance to be a ghost and scare your kids,” while also weaving in heartfelt sentiments.
“I get that humor from my dad,” he says. “I’ve written so many songs about living and dying because I’ve lost a lot of people in my life, so that’s where my head space was. I’m sure people are going to be listening to it around the time they’re grieving over someone and I hope it gives them a bit of a smile instead of just sobbing.”
Flores’s father is a retired welder and former drummer, while Flores’s family also runs cattle. Growing up in Oklahoma, Flores credits his family’s hard-working lifestyle with instilling the discipline that has benefited him on the road.
“Without that life, I don’t know that I’d be responsible enough to do this,” he says. “You’re up at 5:30 in the morning when you’re 12 years old, going out to the barn, working in the freezing cold, then doing your homework then going to school. Hard work and dedication is where it’s at.”
Flores grew up in a household filled with a mix of country and blues. He briefly attended Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, before realizing the time he spent sneaking into local clubs to play music held more value for him. He eventually moved to Nashville, and immersed himself in folk and Americana music, including the works of Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson.
“I became obsessed with that music. It’s a huge influence,” he says. His new album offers a sampling of sounds, with deep emotional excavations sitting alongside flashes of sharp wit. (“I’m still figuring out what my [own] sound is,” he explains.)
“I also want to be a motivational speaker,” he adds. “I’ve always wanted to do speeches. I want to be good enough to where I can do that as a part-time thing. I’m also working on a bucket list of starting my own cattle company, branching off from what my parents have. We’re just waiting on buying land right now. We used to have 80 head back in the day. I want to get into the show cattle world again, to give kids a chance to show cattle, for those who don’t really have the money to do it, to let them learn from it.”
Eight months removed from that pivotal onstage moment in Missouri, Flores says he’s learning how to just be himself amid rising acclaim but knows he can always find refuge in Stillwater.
“It’s an odd feeling. I truly feel like I can just come back here and be myself, though I’m taking pictures [with fans] every single time I go to town. It’s an odd feeling because I went from being a nobody to everyone knowing who I am. It’s a feeling of being able to hide in plain sight, and then can’t hide anywhere. I don’t like hiding myself from people. I just keep going out and about and showing people I’m just a normal human.”
Riding a wave of indie success, Chicagoʼs Friko — led by vocalist/guitarist and principal lyric writer Niko Kapetan and drummer Bailey Minzenberger — will embark on a 40-date headlining tour beginning Nov. 2 in Amsterdam (with U.S. dates beginning Dec. 27) and on Nov. 22 release an expanded version of their 2024 debut album, Where we’ve been, Where we go from here — with 11 bonus studio and live tracks, and a cover of My Bloody Valentine’s “When You Sleep.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The first track from the expanded album, “If I Am” — which Kapetan says was among the first songs the band played at its initial club shows in the Windy City — drops on Oct. 23.
Trending on Billboard
This past summer, Friko brought its fiery full-on sound — powered by Kapetan’s turbo guitar-playing and quavering emo vocals, and Minzenberger’s high-energy drumming — to their first festival performances at Lollapalooza, Newport Folk Festival and Fuji Rock, and they recently finished a tour opening for Royel Otis. The group’s November European dates will be their first and include an appearance at Pitchfork Festival London. Tickets are on sale this Friday at 10am local time.
Before one of Friko’s last summer dates, as the band’s van chased Royel Otis’ buses and semi. Kapetan spoke to Billboard about the the evolution of the group, its album Where we’ve been, Where we go from here, the rigors of touring and plans for the future.
For a band that released its debut album in February, Friko has really blown up on the indie scene. How did you arrive at this point?
I had a cover band with friends beginning in sixth grade, and we would play local shops or block parties or whatever. Friko started in 2019, and that’s when we just started doing lives. We played a ton of Chicago shows and in Milwaukee, Minneapolis. By the time we got through making this debut record, we had a lot of live time in our back pocket. We were releasing stuff independently and in the Chicago scene but releasing with ATO introduced us to most of the people that know us now. We’re figuring out our live show at an exponential rate, especially now that we’ve been on a tour with big, sold-out rooms with Royel Otis over the past couple of weeks. Even now, this is the first time it feels like we’re a true band, band. We felt that with the record, too, and we just keep pushing that.
You’ve said that Where we’ve been, Where we go from here was completed before you signed with ATO.
Yeah, pretty much, because we recorded it – Scott Tallarida, a friend who has an event space in Chicago with a studio in the back of it, let us record there for free as long as we were out of the way of events. It could get booked at any time ,so that’s why it took a while, but we were able to do it basically free.
Is that what you hear when you play the album now, or did you sweeten it after signing to ATO?
After we recorded at Scott’s place and then also Palisade Studios in Chicago, we basically mixed it ourselves for months as well. We mixed it with our friend Jack Henry, and it was a learning process for us. This whole first record was just us pretty much doing everything ourselves and learning how to do it. It was a good learning experience, but we’re excited to expand from that. We probably had it done at the end of 2023 — maybe November-ish. We signed to ATO before we were done mixing it, but it was all recorded and half mixed.
Did ATO come to you?
We were playing Chicago clubs, and Erik Salz from Arrival Artists — who’s now our booking agent — came to some of them. Then once we got a small team together, they were pitching labels. It got down to a final few labels, and ATO was very passionate about working with us, not just for a record, but to start our career. It seemed like the right choice.
Were you able to keep your masters?
We definitely did.
The album has a kind of do-or-die urgency to it. It almost demands that you listen to it. Where does that come from?
It’s just a natural thing. Every show feels like that for us, and we play it that way. When you’re opening for another band, and everybody’s there to see them, you need to give them a reason to listen. You need to have the songs, but then you also need to have something for people to look at. I think Mitski said that people are paying to see people go out there and believe in themselves. There’s a bunch of bands coming up now — bands we grew up loving — that just give everything they can, and when that happens, I feel like I can get lost in the music.
I read that you love Nirvana’s “All Apologies.” What other artists do you like?
I don’t listen to The Beatles as I did growing up, but they definitely informed my melodic and cord progressions and learning the basics. I love The Replacements. I like a lot of the more melodic punk stuff that just has all the attitude but also the melody. There’s a lot of cool, new bands I love. Black Country, New Road definitely blew my mind in 2020. We just hung out with English Teacher in New York. They’re super cool. We want play shows with them. Them and Stellar, East. I like the local scene in Chicago, and I like Horsegirl, Genome. There’s a lot of exciting new bands out there.
You do put on a riveting live show, and I think that’s super-important for a band’s longevity. A number of bedroom acts that were signed around the time of the pandemic have faded because they’re not compelling onstage.
I don’t want to speak to TikTok bands. We just want to do the real thing, and we want to feel like we’re doing that every night. The goal is for the show to feel as cathartic as possible. The other day, at one of our shows, I accidentally broke my guitar from going too hard. My head was bleeding. There’s a beauty to that.
What was the inspiration for “Get Numb to It”?
During the pandemic, I dropped out after one year of college and started working in a warehouse. I did that for a few years, and after one particularly bad day there, I was in the car listening to a broadcast song. I started singing along to the song with lyrics that ended up in “Get Numb to It.” The demo came together through that, but then the band started playing it and it took on even more energy.
Is it true you released “Get Numb to It” on your own before it became a Friko tune?
I started off Friko as a solo thing at the start of the pandemic. I was just releasing demos and that was one of them. I remember showing it to everybody in the band one day on my laptop, and then it came together. It was the first song that people started singing along to at the Chicago shows, so it took on a real life with the fans.
How do you and Bailey collaborate. Is it just you two or are more band members involved now?
We probably would be considered a four-piece now. Especially with the live show, we’re writing new stuff, and it has been much more of a band effort from the start of the writing process. Also, Bailey plays guitar too, so there are a bunch of guitar parts. All four of us are the best at guitar in some way, so it has been a realy useful thing.
I love “Crimson to Chrome,” particularly the lyric, “Caught on the wrong side of the shoe” — nice turn of phrase. What are your favorite lyrics on the album?
“Where We’ve Been,” the first song on the record, is definitely one of them. That song came in like an hour or so. All the lyrics just flowed out and felt so natural. It’s what you want to go for with songwriting — where something just spills out and there’s no thought in it. That feels like the magic of it.
Now that you’re about to embark on a headlining tour, will your live show change?
It’s going to be kind of what we’ve been doing on the last tour, although we’ll be playing our new music. We’re playing larger venues — sweet spots that we’re excited to play. On the last tour, we started thinking more about stage design and lighting. For Thalia Hall, which will be a homecoming show at the end of the year, we’re definitely going all out. We’re touring with just five people — the band and our tour manager — so there’s only so much we can do on the road, evening with a headlining tour. We’re going to give it our all until we can have more people along.
When you say you’re playing new songs at your shows, are these slated for the next album?
Yeah, we’re in the talks about whatever the next thing is, whether it’s an EP or an album. For us, an album needs to be a full statement. We love the classic album format. So, we’ll see, but at this point we’re trying to keep writing and see what comes.
Have you started talking about when this new release will drop?
We want it to be fall 2025.
You’re also releasing a deluxe version of the current album. What’s new on that?
There are five songs that we were working on right before the album songs started coming along, and then we kind of pivoted. We were like, these are what we need to work on right now. We’ve always been fans of B-sides, so we’re excited that they’ll see the light of day. We are also including some demos that we released before Friko was playing shows, and some live mixes from our album release show.
What are the best and worst parts of touring?
The best is definitely when the shows are great and then you can — in New York, we went out with friends both nights. That feels like the adventurous part when you’re younger and you dream of going on tour. But sometimes that results in not getting much sleep and, like today, we’re bus-chasing Royel Otis for the first time. They have like a 20-person team — very nice, good people— two buses and a semi. We’re in a van and a trailer; just the band and two managers. So, we’re all driving, we’re setting up everything and we’re selling merch. So, it’s just a different team, amount of people on the road. It’s a lot of driving, which is not the worst thing, but when it’s two 10-hour days of just driving, you get kind of braindead.
Yeah. Do you have any advice for up-and-coming artists? Any survival tips?
Yeah, you have to love the people you’re touring with. Especially when it’s small scale. That’s the biggest thing by far, and just a s–t ton of caffeine. It’s sugar free herbal lattes because it’s the healthiest that you can do. There’s no other way around it.
Iron Maiden paid tribute to one of their own on Tuesday night (Oct. 22) during a show at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN. During the show, singer Bruce Dickinson marked the passing of the band’s original lead singer, Paul Di’Anno, who died on Monday at 66 of undisclosed causes.
“I don’t wanna put a downer on proceedings at all,” Dickinson said in a video posted by a fan, “[but] our friend, our band member, Paul Di’Anno, passed away, as you’re probably aware. If you’re not aware of that fact, you are now.” Dickinson — who took over from Di’Anno after the late singer fronted the band on their self-titled 1980 debut and it’s 1981 follow-up, Killers — praised his predecessor for being “instrumental” on the band’s first two albums, calling his work “groundbreaking” on Killers and the debut LP and possessed of what he dubbed an “amazing voice.”
“Devoted to rock n’ roll right up til the last minute of his life,” Dickinson said of the singer who had taken to performing in a wheelchair during his final years due to a variety of health issues. As fans clapped, cheered and yelled “we love you Paul!,” Dickinson paid tribute to D’Anno and asked the audience to keep him in their thoughts.
Trending on Billboard
“For those of you who were born and still remember those early albums, and those of you who were fans of [Di’Anno’s post-Maiden band] Battlezone and his own projects he did afterwards, and for anybody else that fancies having a listen to tracks like ‘Remember Tomorrow’ and stuff like that, I’m just gonna ask everybody to take a few seconds,” he said holding up his right hand. “Close your eyes in silence and say — just internally, mentally — if you believe in God, if you don’t believe in God, it doesn’t matter, believe in what you believe in and say, ‘Thanks boss, for doing what you did.’”
He ended with a final goodbye. “So, Paul, if you’re listening, this is a little message from Minneapolis to wherever you are, upstairs or downstairs, you’re having fun! Minneapolis, for Paul Di’Anno, scream for me!”
Di’Anno’s label announced on Monday that he’d died from undisclosed causes at his home in Salisbury, U.K. After helping to cement the British metal band’s signature mix of prog, punk and hard rock from 1978-1981, Di’Anno recorded a number of solo albums, as well as LPs with the band Di’Anno’s Battlezone, Gogmagog, Killers, Praying Matins, Rockfellas and more.
Maiden issued a statement honoring Di’Anno on Monday, writing, “We are all deeply saddened to learn about the passing of Paul Di’Anno earlier today. Paul’s contribution to Iron Maiden was immense and helped set us on the path we have been travelling as a band for almost five decades. His pioneering presence as a frontman and vocalist, both on stage and on our first two albums, will be very fondly remembered not just by us, but by fans around the world.”
The rest of us will have to wait one more month before we can see the first part of director Jon M. Chu’s big screen take on Wicked. Not Kim Kardashian. The Skims founder hosted her own private screening of the movie musical on Tuesday night (Oct. 22) at her home, where she was joined by stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
She chronicled the special night on her Instagram Story, where fans could watch her narrate the special night, beginning with a walk through the front door flanked by a giant arch of pink balloons. “Okay, I just came home, look what we’re watching tonight,” Kardashian says as she passes a pair of Wicked movie posters and makes her way down the green carpet, past a series of huge pink flower arrangements.
“Look what Cynthia and Ariana set up for us,” she says as she walks up to a giant movie theater lobby standee featuring the co-stars posted in front of the title rendered in towering pink and green letters. “Oh my gosh, I’ve never been more excited,” Kardashian says as she moves further down the green carpet to another room featuring green-draped cocktail tables and another massive standee of Grande and Erivo as Glinda and Elphaba reaching out to each other.
Trending on Billboard
There were, of course, also themed green and pink drinks for Kardashian, her children and family, who all joined her for the screening that took place the night after Kim celebrated her 44th birthday. There was also copious swag for the kids, including Glinda and Elphaba Barbie dolls and Funko! Pop figures. The Story featured a foot pic of sisters Kylie, Khloé and Kourtney, and mother Kris Jenner, all standing in their pink socks and green pajamas, though Grande stood out in her green socks and pink jammies.
The Story ended with a huge group photo of the Kardashian crew — including Kim’s kids, North, Chicago and Psalm West, as well as Kourtney’s daughter Penelope, Khloé’s kids True and Tatum and Kyli’s daughter, Stormi Webster — flanking Grande and Erivo. “We laughed, we cried (a few times) and we loved it so much!” Kim captioned the pic. “Thank you @arianagrande and @cynthiaerivo for watching @wickedmovie with us tonight [pink and green heart emoji]. The most magical pajama party.”
The first part of the big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical — which also co-stars Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater and Bowen Yang — opens on Nov. 22.
Artists see a lot of strange and beautiful things from the stage, and sometimes they just have to call them out and call in the proper authorities. Case in point: during Sabrina Carpenter‘s Short n’ Sweet tour stop at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena on Tuesday night (Oct. 22), the “Please Please Please” singer was so […]
Ever wondered what Dolly Parton‘s songs would sound like backed by a full orchestra? Fans can find out next year when the country icon’s new multimedia symphonic story-telling experience, Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony, makes it debut with the Nashville Symphony on March 20, 2025.
The world premiere of the show that features Parton’s songs and the stories behind them will feature images of the singer on screen, “leading audiences in a visual-musical journey of her songs, her life and her stories,” according to a release announcing the event. With the help of guest vocalists and musicians, the show will debut new and innovative orchestral versions of Parton’s songs “woven together into a full-evening multimedia symphonic story-telling experience.”
“The threads of my life are woven together through my songs. That’s why this project, Threads: My Songs In Symphony, is so special to me,” Parton said in a statement. “It’s all about sharing my music and my musical journey with audiences in a new way. I’m really excited for fans to experience it for the first time with the Nashville Symphony!”
Trending on Billboard
The show will feature such beloved hits as “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” as well as some of Parton’s personal favorites. The March premiere with the Grammy-winning Nashville Symphony, led by Principal Pops conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez, will feature a special appearance by Dolly.
“We are honored to help launch this extraordinary production with Dolly Parton in Nashville at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center,” said Nashville Symphony president/CEO Alan D. Valentine in the statement about the show that is being produced by Parton along with Schirmer Theatrical and Sony Music Publishing. “Enhanced by the stories and images that make up the threads of her extraordinary life and career, her legendary and timeless catalog – combined with the power and majesty of our Nashville Symphony orchestra – will create an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience for everyone.”
Check out the dates for the 2025-2026 performances of Threads: My Songs in Symphony below.
March 20, 2025 — Nashville Symphony Orchestra
May 17, 2025 — Fort Wayne Philharmonic
June 17, 2025 — Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
June 29, 2025 — San Diego Symphony Orchestra
Sept. 7, 2025 — The Cleveland Orchestra
Sept. 18-20, 2025 — Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Oct. 10, 2025 — The Alabama Symphony Orchestra (Birmingham)
Jan. 23-25, 2026 — Cincinnati Pops Orchestra
Feb. 14-15, 2026 — Oregon Symphony (Portland)
March 28, 2026 — Phoenix Symphony Orchestra
May 1, 2026 — Eugene Symphony Orchestra
Alt-rock singer-songwriter Matthew Sweet, known for his 90s hits “Girlfriend” and “I’ve Been Waiting,” is currently recovering from a debilitating stroke that occurred while on tour in Toronto on Oct. 12.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The news was confirmed by Sweet’s longtime manager, Russell Carter, in a statement on Tuesday (Oct. 22).
According to Carter, Sweet was immediately admitted to Toronto Western Hospital where he received urgent care. Though his condition was stabilized, he has since been transferred to a rehabilitation center in Omaha to undergo extensive therapy.
Carter described Sweet’s situation as “a long, difficult road to recovery,” adding that the artist will require weeks of around-the-clock care followed by months of rehabilitation.
Trending on Billboard
“Matthew has always been intensely focused and tenacious in all of his endeavors, not only in his recording career, but in all of his artistic and intellectual pursuits,” Carter shared.
“I am confident that his signature determination will serve him well as he focuses now on recovery to good health.”
Due to the stroke, Sweet was forced to cancel his cross-country tour, including both his headline dates and his supporting slots for Hanson.
On Oct. 10, Sweet’s team had already announced the cancellation of his shows via Instagram due to medical illness, but the full extent of the situation was only revealed this week. “Matthew’s primary source of income—like most professional musicians—is live touring, and he cannot perform for the foreseeable future,” Carter explained.
To help cover Sweet’s rising medical expenses, his family and management team have launched a GoFundMe campaign. The campaign notes that while Sweet received life-saving care in Toronto, health care for Americans in Canada is not free, and Sweet lacks both insurance and touring income during this period.
“We have set up a GoFundMe campaign so family, friends, and Matthew’s amazing network of fans can contribute to help pay his medical expenses,” Carter said.
The fundraiser aims to raise $250,000 to cover the cost of Sweet’s care, with donations already surpassing $115,000 from over 2,000 supporters.
The GoFundMe campaign was organized by Catherine Lyons, of Russell Carter Artist Management, who reiterated the severity of Sweet’s condition, noting that the musician’s recovery will be a long process, requiring multiple stages of care.
Sweet emerged from the Athens, Georgia music scene in the 1980s and became a figure in the 90s power-pop revival with the release of his album Girlfriend in 1991, with the album’s title track and the single “I’ve Been Waiting” becoming fan favorites.
Read the statement from Russell Carter in full below:
Last week, Matthew Sweet was forced to cancel an extensive cross-country tour of both headline dates and opening slots for longtime friends, Hanson after suffering a debilitating stroke in Toronto late Saturday evening (October 12).
Matthew was quickly admitted to Toronto Western Hospital where he was put into excellent care and taken out of immediate danger. Matthew was transferred to a rehabilitation center back home in Omaha today where he will undergo extensive therapy.
He is now on a long, difficult road to recovery. All of us who know and love Matthew have hope for a speedy recovery. Matthew has always been intensely focused and tenacious in all of his endeavors – not only in his recording career, but in all of his artistic and intellectual pursuits.
I am confident that his signature determination will serve him well as he focuses now on recovery to good health.
Matthew’s medical expenses in Canada and Omaha are exorbitant and his primary source of income – like most professional musicians – is live touring. He cannot perform for the foreseeable future. We have set up a GoFundMe campaign so family, friends, and Matthew’s amazing network of fans can contribute to help pay his medical expenses.
Please contribute if you can and please repost the link to the GoFindMe fundraiser anywhere you can.
Stevie Wonder used his Detroit homecoming as an opportunity to clap back at presidential candidate Donald Trump for disrespecting the city during the campaign.
“I just gotta say for the record, I don’t like nobody talking bad about Detroit,” the Motown icon told a sold-out crowd on Tuesday night at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena on the latest stop of his Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart tour. He then led the audience in a chant of “Don’t cha do it!,” pointedly aimed at Trump.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Wonder was referencing the Republican candidate’s disparaging remarks during an Oct. 13 speech to the Detroit Economic Club, where he warned that if his Democratic opponent, Vice-President Kamala Harris, is elected, “the whole country will end up being like Detroit — a mess.”
Trending on Billboard
He also called Detroit “a developing area more than most places in China.” His remarks generated equally harsh criticism from Detroit and Michigan civic leaders as well as labor leaders.
Wonder, who has publicly, endorsed Harris as “not just any woman, a wonderful woman, and she has done the work consistently.”
He announced the Sing Our Song! tour less than three weeks before its Oct. 8 opening in Pittsburgh, playing 11 shows in mostly swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the wake of his surprise single, “As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart.”
The swipe at Trump — on a night former President Barack Obama was campaigning for Harris nearby at Detroit’s Huntington Center (introduced by Eminem) — was not Wonder’s only political comment on Tuesday.
Later in the show he recited, for the first time ever, the lyrics of a new song, “Politic Playa,” which Wonder said will appear on his next album, Through the Eyes of Wonder, slated for release in March. T
he pointed song includes verses such as “you campaigned throughout the nation, saying you’ll unite the land/But when you get in office, you completely change the plan,” with a chorus that runs, “Politic playa/Why you playin’ politics so wrong/Politic playa/You get what you want, then you’re absent, up and gone.”
Introducing “Village Ghetto Land,” on which he sang accompanied only by a 12-piece string section, Wonder, who was born in Saginaw and moved to Detroit when he was four years old, recalled the violence and poverty he witnessed in the neighborhood in which he grew up.
“I just remember all this stuff was going on…a lot of what we saw then is what we’re seeing now, and that’s unacceptable. We gotta fix that,” he said, turning his attention to politicians as he added, “It’s not about what they say; it’s what they do. And my freedom and my rights for what I want can’t be bought.”
Wonder took one more shot at Trump while vamping during “Do I Do,” referencing the Economic Club remarks again before saying, “All this has gotta stop…Let’s make America LOVE again.”
Wonder’s Detroit show was also distinguished by some special moments, including a bit of fellow Motowners the Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” early on and the tour debut of “My Eyes Don’t Cry,” which had a line of fans on the arena floor doing an impromptu hustle.
During his mid-show break from the stage, meanwhile, Detroit’s Perfecting Greater Grace Singers choir performed Aretha Franklin’s “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)” before Wonder’s six backing vocalists paid tribute to the late Frankie Beverly with a rendition of Maze’s “Before I Let Go.”
Wonder also had to overcome some technical problems that shorted out the PA system three times during the night.
After the first — which interrupted “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” — was resolved he thanked the fans “for being patient, ’cause we can work it out, right?” before launching an impromptu rendition of the Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out,” which he covered for a Top 20 single in 1970. The second and third came in rapid succession during “Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing,” and an exasperated Wonder, while remaining composed, commented, “I’m sure the sound crew feels messed up.”
When it was finally fixed, he quipped “Oh, Stevie, Stevie, we forgive the mess up, and we’ll never mess up like that again.”
Wonder has four more dates on the Sing Your Song! tour, which wraps up Nov. 2 in Chicago.
Former President Barack Obama lost himself in the music, the moment on Tuesday night (Oct. 22) at Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s Detroit rally ahead of the 2024 presidential election next month. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The Detroit native rapper took the stage to introduce […]
Ab-Soul made an appearance on DJ Hed and Gina Views’ SiriusXM show Effective Immediately, over the weekend to talk about his upcoming album Soul Burger when the subject of J. Cole came up.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Gina Views asked him what the groupchat was like when J. Cole dropped his Kendrick diss song “7 Minute Drill” and then his Might Delete Later mixtape which included the song “Pi” featuring the Carson rapper and battle rapper Daylyt. Soulo admitted to being surprised by the track being on the mixtape and told a hilarious story about the day he found out.
“First of all, I was a little upset with Cole — not upset, but like… Cole was supposed to be on ‘Fuck Out My Face [FOMF],’ he revealed. “Cole is the homie, for real. That’s what I want to make very clear to the whole world. I just needed like a 12… I played him the album and he picked [FOMF] and I bugged him about it because I was trying to play the game at that point, and it just didn’t come to fruition.”
Trending on Billboard
He continued by saying, “But I did this joint — me and Lyt did the joint ‘Pi.’ I did it for Daylyt. I said like, ‘Let’s do a back and forth thing, it was kinda like a sparring [session] between me and him, and it’s called ‘Pi’ literally because me and Daylyt’s [version] ended on 3:14.”
Adding, “I wake up — I don’t know if it’s the next morning, but soon after — Lyt’s like, ‘Bro’ and sends me the song and Cole on there going crazy. I’m like, ‘Wait, what the f—k?’ I’m lowkey hot. I’m like, ‘Lyt, bro, this is one of the best rappers in the world. You gotta let me know before… I’m on his head like, ‘Bro, you have to let me know if you’re gonna send this shit off. He ate us up.’ Just off first listen, cuz got like 48 [bars] off.’ It wasn’t mixed yet and his vocals were louder than ours. I’m waking up to this, my ears are fresh. I called Cole immediately.”
He then mentions that Cole told him their verses inspired him. “Man, y’all was going so crazy, I just got in the spirit. My pen just started moving.” Ab added that he respected where the Carolina rapper was coming from. “Cole’s really an emcee emcee. I told him I was tryna play the game. Now it makes sense why he was more attracted to ‘Pi’ than ‘FOMF.’ That says a lot about him. All he needed to do was a 12. He had the upper hand. I gave him the whole thing.”
Not to be a rapper that enjoys being one-upped, Soul said he told Cole that they need to record a proper track where they go bar for bar.
Many assumed that Ab-Soul threw shots at Cole on his most recent song “Squeeze 1st 2” when he rapped, “Metasota warned me they wanna war/ But actually they forfeiting like their wardrobe for half of the week” and released the song after Cole dropped his song “Port Antonio” where he addresses bowing out of the “Big 3” beef. But those assumptions were debunked when TDE president Punch took to X to clear things up, tweeting, “I hate to clear up rumors, I usually let them fester and see how far they go, but ALL verses on Pi were recorded long before Like That,” in response to HipHopDX host Jeremy Hecht tweeting that Soul got at Cole for not telling him that “Pi” would be included on a project.
You can watch the full interview below:
