Music

15 Aug 2024

Willie Nelson Releasing ‘Last Leaf on the Tree’ Covers LP With Tracks Written By Beck, Tom Waits, Flaming Lips, Neil Young & More

Willie Nelson will release his 153rd album, Last Leaf on the Tree, on Nov. 1. The Legacy Recordings LP features a mix of the country icon’s interpretations of songs by Tom Waits, Keith Richards, Beck, the Flaming Lips, Neil Young, and Nina Simone, among others, as well as a handful of tracks written by the singer and his son, Micah Nelson, who also produced the album.

The first single from the collection is a cover of Tom Waits’ “Last Leaf,” a melancholy meditation from Waits’ 2011 Bad As Me album about the autumn of life that speaks to the 91-year-old country icon’s legendarily indefatigable spirit and boundless energy well into his six decade as a performer. “I’m the last leaf on the tree/ The autumn took the rest/ But they won’t take me/ I’m the last leaf on the tree,” Nelson sings in a hushed voice over his signature nylon string guitar strumming in the song that confronts the vicissitudes of aging.

The collection, Nelson’s 76th solo studio album, marks the first time Micah — who performs and produces under the name Particle Kid — has produced one of his dad’s albums, though they have appeared together on family LPs such as 2017’s Willie and the Boys and 2021’s The Willie Nelson Family.

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“It’s an approach that I really love and have used a lot over the years — just throwing the clay down and stepping back, then maybe adding a little more, and then maybe shaving down here, and kind of building the tracks that way,” said Micah, 34, who said he used a “sculptor’s approach” to working on the album on which he played more than a dozen instruments, including guitar, piano and “sticks and branches, logs and dead leaves” according to a press release.

Micah also created the album’s cover illustration and made the animation for the “Last Leaf” video, as well as illustrating the album cover and creating the animation for the “Last Leaf” video along with his wife, Alexandra Dascalu Nelson; in addition to digital, CD and LP versions, Nelson’s webstore will also sell an exclusive, limited-edition version with a lithograph created by Micah.

The choice of “Last Leaf” was fitting according to Micah Nelson, as his dad has not shied away from addressing the unstoppable march of time before as well as facing his own mortality via a series of health scares, including on the title track of his 2018 album Last Man Standing, on which he lamented watching “my pals check out.” Micah said, “there are little side-quests, but that became the through-line — facing death with grace.”

That vibe makes sense given such song selections as Warren Zevon’s bittersweet ode to everlasting love “Keep Me In Your Heart,” as well as another haunting Waits song, “House Where Nobody Lives” and the Lips’ joyful meditation on the preciousness of life, “Do You Realize??” Another track that fits the theme of the fading of the light was chosen by Nelson’s longtime harmonica player, Mickey Raphael, jazz giant Nina Simone’s 1967 song “Come Ye.”

In addition to the Nelsons and Raphael, the album also features guest musicians Daniel Lanois on pedal steel, former Doors drummer John Densmore and Senegalese percussionist Magatte Sow.

Listen to Nelson’s “Last Leaf on the Tree” and see the album’s track list below.

Last Leaf on the Tree track list:

1. “Last Leaf” (written by Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan)

2. “If It Wasn’t Broken” (written by Sydney Lyndella Ward)

3. “Lost Cause” (written by Beck David Hansen)

4. “Come Ye” (written by Nina Simone)

5. “Keep Me In Your Heart” (written by Warren Zevon & Jorge Calderon)

6. “Robbed Blind” (written by Keith Richards)

7. “House Where Nobody Lives” (written by Tom Waits)

8. “Are You Ready For The Country?” (written by Neil Young)

9. “Do You Realize??” (written by Wayne Coyne/Steven Drozd/Michael Ivins/David Fridmann)

10. “Wheels” (written by Micah Nelson)

11. “Broken Arrow” (written by Neil Young)

12. “Color Of Sound” (written by Willie Nelson & Micah Nelson)

13. “The Ghost” (written by Willie Nelson)

15 Aug 2024

Woodstock, 55 Years After: Ten Years After Looks Back on Career-Shifting Performance

They say if you can remember the original Woodstock Music and Art Fair from 1969, you probably weren’t there. But some of the musicians who played the festival beg to differ.

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Fifty-five years later, the performers’ memories are clear as mud — well, make that about mud, as most of them well recall the rain-soaked wallow that was Max Yasgur’s farm during those “Days of Peace & Music” from Aug. 15-18, 1969. Some of braver ones even slogged their way onto the grounds to experience Woodstock from their fans’ point of view. And they certainly remember being flown into the site by helicopter as well as the late-running performance schedule and a backstage area where most were warned not to consume anything that wasn’t in sealed bottles or packages — unless they wanted to be on another kind of trip than they one they’d taken to get there.

Ten Years After drummer Ric Lee has good reason to be clear in his recollections; not only is it a significant chapter in his 2019 memoir From Headstocks To Woodstock, but on Friday (Aug. 16) the group releases Woodstock 1969, its entire six-song performance from Sunday, Aug. 17, 1969 — including a rendition of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl” that had to be restarted when Alvin Lee’s guitar was out of tune. It was a ferocious hour on stage for the British blues-rock band, and the epic version of “I’m Going Home” — immortalized in the Woodstock concert documentary that came out the following year — elevated the quartet’s fortunes during the ensuing decade.

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“Crikey, we played as well as we could under the circumstances, I think,” Lee, the younger brother of late Ten Years After guitarist Alvin Lee, tells Billboard. “And ‘I’m Going Home,’ you can see it in the movie. When we went to see it a year later at a cinema on Wilshire Boulevard…a lot of the other acts were there, and when ‘I’m Going Home’ played everybody in the theater gave us a standing ovation, which was incredible from our peers. Alvin and I talked about it a few times; we wondered what it would have bene like if, for example, ‘Good Morning Little Schoolgirl’ had been used instead of ‘I’m Going Home’ — although it’s very different to speculate about those things.”

Lee says TYA was not aware of how significant Woodstock would be leading up to the festival. The group was on the road in the U.S. and was even resistant to adding it to the schedule, but its agent, the late Frank Barsalona, persisted. “Chris Wright, our manager, kept turning it down,” Lee says. “Frank kept saying, ‘You really ought to get on this. This is gonna be a big festival.’ He finally said, ‘Look, Janis (Joplin) has signed, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are gonna do it and (Jimi) Hendrix is doing it, so you’d be crazy not to do it.’ Finally Chris caved in, and we did it.”

That meant flying to New York at “some daft time” after a show the previous night in St. Louis, then taking cars to the Holiday Inn, aka “Tranquility Base,” in nearby Goshen, N.Y., where the musicians were lodging. “Janis and her band were in the room, a bunch of other people,” says Lee, who was traveling with his first wife. “I had a carry-on bag with me, a rucksack; I put that down on the floor (in the lobby) and was gonna use that as a pillow and get some sleep, but then they said, ‘You’ve got to go to the site.’” TYA was pushed off its initial helicopter site by Bob Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman, but the next one got the band to the site on time to watch Joe Cocker perform — and also to be warned “don’t eat anything that’s not been cooked ’cause we got hepatitis breaking out.” The musicians sheltered in trailers during the Sunday afternoon rainstorm that pushed TYA’s slot into the evening.

Despite the “Schoolgirl” snafu (the aborted attempt is also included on the Woodstock 1969 album), Lee says TYA was satisfied with its performance but was more than ready to get out of Bethel, N.Y. — which was an adventure in itself. Though the roads were blocked by cars abandoned by concert goers, Lee found a limousine driver who was ready to get out of Dodge, too. “We found a state trooper who was very helpful,” Lee recalls. “We said, ‘Can you find us a way out of here?’ ‘I can, but you’ve got to be very careful. You’re going to be driving between the tents, so you have to be careful not to hit the ropes — and there are people sleeping between the tents, so you’ve got to be careful not to run them over.’ So we did that and got out of there.”

The restaurant at Tranquility Base was closed, however, so the by-then famished band found a late-night diner down the road. “The waitress said, ‘What would you like?’ We said, ‘Everything!’” Lee says with a laugh. “So she went away and came back with food. Then we had to jump back in the limousines and leg it down to New York. When we got there they’d sold our rooms ’cause we were so late, so we managed to find another hotel that could put us up, then the next day we drove down to Baltimore to get back on our tour.”

It was a lot to go through, but like many of its Woodstock peers, TYA has no regrets about being part of the experience. “Especially when the film came out, we were suddenly on the world stage, and we started playing in Japan and all sorts of other places,” says Lee, who’s planning to publish an updated edition of his memoir. “Our U.K. and European audiences got larger. There was a definite shift that was the result of playing (at Woodstock).”

Seen, Felt, Touched, Healed

While The Who were already enjoying Stateside popularity when they brought the rock opera Tommy to Woodstock, Pete Townshend — who was also cajoled into accepting the gig — felt a boost from the festival and the film, too.

“I would have preferred not to have done it,” Townshend told us some years ago, “but it did actually cement our career in America. And then the film came out and it re-cemented it. Tommy was finished; it had sold maybe a million and a half copies. Woodstock put it back on the charts, and then the film came out and Tommy sold another four million copies. It was a huge part of our career, and I was very grateful we were there.”

But, Townshend added, “I can’t say I enjoyed it. It was chaos, wasn’t it? It was completely nuts. What was going on off the stage was just beyond comprehension — stretchers and dead bodies and people throwing up and people having bad trips. And all they could say was, ‘Isn’t this fantastic?! Isn’t this beautiful?!’ I thought the whole of America had gone mad at that moment.”

The Who frontman Roger Daltrey, meanwhile, remembers a scene that “was muddy, smell, but great to see old friends.” Fifty-five years later, however, he has a different perspective on what made Woodstock great.

‘”I’ve always felt that the stars of Woodstock were the audience, never the bands,” he explains. “It was the audience that created a wave that…To me it was the beginning of the end of the Vietnam War, even though casualty-wise it got worse. But it was start of making the government realize that you’re gonna have to get to grips with this, ’cause they’re gonna have a rebellion on their hands. It was the Woodstock audience that did not, not the bands.”

Souls Sacrificed

Carlos Santana echoes Daltrey’s feelings about Woodstock’s impact beyond the music. The band that bore his surname was one of the unquestioned highlights of the festival, with a fiery, reputation-making Saturday performance that preceded the release of its debut album by a week — and also translated well to film with a galvanizing rendition of “Soul Sacrifice.”

“Woodstock is a spiritual frequency, a spiritual event,” says Santana, who’s used footage and sound from the film during his own shows for quite some time. “When you think of Jesus walking around on the mountain, passing out gluten-free bread and mercury-free fish — people made Woodstock sort of like that kind of event. It’s out of time. Woodstock was not a commercial, Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola event. It was three days of unity, harmony, oneness to bring awareness to equality, fairness and justice. The people at Woodstock, if you look at them, they’re hippies who believe in something different than the corrupt corporations of religions and politicians. We believed then and we believe now that peace is possible in our lifetime, on this planet. That’s why Woodstock is still relevant. We still need peace.”

Santana, who also performed at Woodstock ’94, recalls arriving at the site and seeing the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia “already playing his guitar on the hill, with this beautiful, blissful smile on his face.” As for the crowd, he remembers “an ocean of flesh and hair and teeth and arms and eyes. Woodstock was like a living ocean of people. Then you could just feel the sound, which had a different kind of reverberation when it bounced of the people and came back to you.”‘

Long Time Gone

The four members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were admittedly nervous when they finally took the stage at 3 a.m. Monday for only their second performance as a quartet — including both acoustic and electric sets. As David Crosby noted years ago, “Everybody we knew or cared about in the music industry was there. They were heroes to us — The Band and Hendrix and The Who…They were all standing behind us in a circle, like, ‘OK, you’re the new kids on the block. Show us.’” Stills, in fact, told the crowd that the group was “scared sh-tless.”

Graham Nash concurred more recently that, “Stephen was pretty nervous that night, but I thought we did well. I didn’t give a sh-t how many people were there; I had already been through that with the Hollies for six or seven years before I had ever met David or Stephen. My fondest memory was playing ‘Guinnevere’ with David, just his guitar and the two voices trying to reach however many thousands of people were there.” Another good memory, he adds, was that “the first thing we did was go to John Sebastian’s tent and get high on weed. (Woodstock) was a brilliant piece of work. It should not have happened as well as it did, and I think that (co-producer) Michael Lang really put his all into it and pulled it off. It was a wonderful idea, and it came off really well.”

Brotherly Love

Edgar Winter got to experience Woodstock “from both sides,” as a performer and a fan. The former was playing three songs with his older brother Johnny Winter and his band on Sunday at midnight, after The Band. But Winter, who had yet to release his first solo album and launch his band White Trash, also spent time in the field, checking out the other performers.

“I loved Hendrix,” Winter reports. “I loved Sly. I loved Richie Havens, Crosby, Stills & Nash. Janis, of course; we knew her from back home (in Texas). There was so much great music. It was just an amazing diversity of music; I enjoy festivals that are organized like that as opposed to the ones that say, ‘OK, we’re gonna get three blues guitar players.…’”

Winter also recalls that, “There was no real schedule. It was just organized confusion, like whoever they could find that was capable of getting on stage and doing a performance was next. That was crazy.”

Winter also credits his own time on the Woodstock stage as putting his career into motion in earnest. “Johnny was the guy who had the ambition and the drive, much more than me,” Winter says. “I had been more interested in jazz and classical, but he had decided he was gonna be a star at a very early age. After Woodstock, that indelible moment of being on stage in front of hundreds of thousands of people, this endless ease of humanity, that made me realize music can be so much more than just my personal world. It can reach out and transcend so many boundaries and bring people together. That’s when I thought about being an artist, writing songs and doing something in popular music, and the rest is history.”

15 Aug 2024

Chayanne Dances Again

Chayanne strides into a rehearsal space at Blue Dolphin Studios in Miami, dressed in black from head to toe — tight pants and shirt, crisp blazer, formal leather shoes — and warmly embraces his manager, his assistant, his creative director. He then extends his hand to greet the photographer waiting for a cover shoot. “Nice to meet you,” he says with a broad smile. “I’m Chayanne.” 

“I think we all know who you are here,” I say lightly, but Chayanne stops and turns to look at me. 

“No,” he tells me without reproach, his smile intact and his voice firm. “My dad taught me that no matter where you are, you say hello and introduce yourself. You can’t assume people know who you are.”

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And just like that, this encounter becomes another among a long list of anecdotes about Elmer Figueroa Arce, better known as Chayanne. The artist who goes out to dinner and gets up multiple times to greet his fans. The performer who’s first to arrive at rehearsals and the last to leave. The star who greets housekeepers by name and dances with them in the hallways. The guy who runs in the mornings, alone.

“He is an exemplary father, an exemplary husband; good-looking, tall; he dances; he’s the perfect man,” says Henry Cárdenas, CEO of Cárdenas Marketing Network, which has produced Chayanne’s tours for decades, including his upcoming global arena trek. “He’s been a guy untainted by scandal. [Chayanne has been married to Marilisa Maronesse for over 30 years and has two children with her: Lorenzo and Isadora, the latter also a singer.] I’ve known him for years. I’ve spent a lot of time with him, and what you see is who he is. He’s the guy who interrupts his golf game to take a photo with a fan.”

Today, at this studio in Miami, Chayanne reveals yet another facet of himself: that of the impeccable perfectionist who, at 56 years old — and looking 15 years younger — is preparing to start the longest tour of his career.

The Bailemos Otra Vez (Let’s Dance Again) tour, which takes its name from the hit album released last year, begins Aug. 21 at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. It will stop in 40 arenas in 39 cities in North America, ending in Miami on Dec. 15, and then continue to Latin America and Spain. 

Chayanne photographed on July 18, 2024 at Blue Dolphine Studios in Miami.

Chayanne photographed on July 18, 2024 at Blue Dolphin Studios in Miami.

Mary Beth Koeth

“You’re backstage, you haven’t come out, they dim the lights, and everyone starts shouting, ‘Chayanne, Chayanne!’” he replies when I ask how he stays motivated after so many years of performing. He closes his eyes for a moment.

“It’s awesome. Because it’s been many years, but it’s an inexplicable feeling … I started at 10 years old, and I just turned 56. I say it calmly and with joy, because I feel so good, and I have lived the stages of my life with passion, with joy, with emotion. And I have also grown professionally, personally. All of that has shaped the person you have in front of you, but also the people who are going to see the show. Because I didn’t do this alone. They all grew up with me too.”

Talking to Chayanne feels a little like talking to a close friend, albeit a super handsome, super charismatic one who also happens to be among the most revered Latin artists in the world.

Today, we’re chatting in front of a rehearsal stage, designed to exactly replicate his tour set, where he has been practicing seven hours a day for the past six weeks. This interview break is an anomaly, because when Chayanne is in tour prep mode, he shuts down everything else — though he has been preparing for this for decades.

Chayanne began his professional music career at the age of 10. As a member of Puerto Rican boy band Los Chicos, he played stadiums, traveled on private planes and celebrated birthdays in hotels with cakes sent by fans.

But it was later, when he signed with Sony as a solo artist, that he became a true international star. The name Chayanne, which sounds like a stage moniker, is actually his given name (his mother was a fan of 1950s TV show Cheyenne), although it’s not on his birth certificate.

“As a kid, they called me ‘Chancito,’” Chayanne says. “People who really loved me — my mom, my grandma — called me Chancito. You know, the diminutive we use when we’re little. Fortunately, the ‘ito’ eventually dropped out and it became just Chayanne.”

Today, more than 40 years later, Chayanne has accumulated a catalog of hits that includes more than 49 entries and 29 top 10s on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart, a record surpassed only by Enrique Iglesias and Luis Miguel among male artists.

In 2023, Chayanne released Bailemos Otra Vez, his first studio album in nine years (on Sony, his longtime label), which debuted in August in the top 10 of the Top Latin Albums chart, his 15th album to do so — making him only the second artist in history (the other is the late Rocío Dúrcal) to achieve a top 10 on the chart in every decade from the 1980s until now.

Simultaneously, Chayanne’s single “Bailando Bachata” became his seventh No. 1 on the Latin Airplay chart, where he has already placed 35 songs. The track was No. 1 for 15 weeks, marking a resounding return for Chayanne, who hadn’t had a No. 1 on that chart in 16 years.

And yet, Chayanne hadn’t gone anywhere. During the heyday of reggaetón in the early 2000s, his pop sound — a mix of heartfelt ballads and uptempo dance fare — endured, and his tours continued to be enormous and constant. The last one, in 2019, grossed $28.3 million and sold 311,000 tickets across 49 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore, becoming the second most successful Latin tour of that year, after Luis Miguel.

Chayanne photographed on July 18, 2024 at Blue Dolphine Studios in Miami.

Chayanne photographed on July 18, 2024 at Blue Dolphin Studios in Miami.

Mary Beth Koeth

Plenty of legacy Latin artists tour regularly and sell massive amounts of tickets: Marc Anthony, Ricardo Arjona, Alejandro Fernández and Ana Gabriel, to name just a few. But Chayanne’s fan base, made up largely of women ages 50 and older, is particularly loyal, at least in part, Cárdenas says, because Chayanne’s career has been devoid of scandals. “We Latinos tend to support those idols of ours that have been ‘clean.’ There’s no dirt on Chayanne.”

It also partly explains why Chayanne’s music endures. Beyond their catchiness as hit pop songs, “Tiempo de Vals” and “Yo Te Amo,” for example, are still favorites at quinceañeras and weddings, respectively, passed down from mother to daughter, with multiple generations going together to Chayanne’s shows.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, Chayanne was forced to cancel his Desde El Alma tour after 113 shows, with all of South America still left to play. There was a silver lining: With a clear schedule, he finally had time to think about an album.

“Chayanne is an artist who focuses on one project at a time, and if he’s in tour mode, everything is dedicated to the tour,” says Patty Vega, his manager of 30 years. And although he hadn’t released new music prior to the trek, “it didn’t mean he wasn’t listening to material or wasn’t doing his homework. Everything was being finessed.”

“When you release an album, you’re always thinking about what’s going into the tour, because touring is part of my life,” Chayanne says. “Performing live for fans is what I’ve enjoyed most in my career. In other words, the tour was planned; we just didn’t know when it was going to happen. A tour demands dedication. You know you’ll need months of rehearsal, exercise, new eating habits. It’s a responsibility.”

The Bailemos Otra Vez tour, like all Chayanne treks, was conceived as an invitation to take a tour of his career. However, because it will promote his new album and follows five years away from the road, as well as a pandemic, the name took on new meaning.

The process began more than a year ago, when Chayanne sequestered himself to review his setlists from over the years, including the order of songs, arrangements, mood boards and stage production for each.

“Chayanne has an extremely extensive catalog. Getting things out of the setlist isn’t easy,” says Cheche Alara, the renowned music producer (Annie Lennox, Camila Cabello, Natalia Lafourcade) who has served as musical director for Chayanne on four of his tours over the past 10 years. He began working on the Bailemos Otra Vez tour months ago, adding five songs from the album to Chayanne’s classic repertoire.

Chayanne photographed on July 18, 2024 at Blue Dolphine Studios in Miami.

Chayanne photographed on July 18, 2024 at Blue Dolphin Studios in Miami.

Mary Beth Koeth

From a musical point of view, Alara says that this time around “our vision is different. It’s very rare that we do something the same from tour to tour.” Asked to sum up the tour’s concept in a single word, he replies: “Gratitude.”

Chayanne “wants to thank his fans who have been with him for a long time,” Alara says. “He is not only an extraordinary artist but a very beloved artist, and the more you work with him, the more you realize that it’s not a facade.”

And he’s beloved for far more than his artistry. When I ask if at any point in his career, especially after he scored his first big hits, someone sat him down and explained what success entailed and how to behave in the face of it, he looks at me with surprise.

“That’s what I call values, principles,” he says. “That comes from before, from when I was a kid. It’s everything that I try to transmit and have tried to transmit at home with my children. In my career, I always felt support from my parents. From my dad, a home, food, respect. And from my mom, the romantic part: music, parties, the ‘Come, let’s dance.’ It’s been a beautiful balance. But it all came from my childhood.”

From the beginning of his career, for example, Chayanne made it his mission to go to every Latin country in which his music was released and promoted, visiting every major city and each essential music person in it. “It was going to Venezuela and saying hello, to Argentina, to Puerto Rico, Mexico. It meant shaking hands with every label employee, every radio station owner, every promoter.”

That philosophy extends to his daily life today. Although Chayanne keeps his personal life just that, he embraces his role as a public figure with gusto.

Beyond being accessible to fans when he’s out and about, since the pandemic, Chayanne has become an avid social media devotee. A few weeks ago, he even posted a shirtless photo of himself in his bathing trunks on Instagram that generated commotion among his 10 million followers, with nearly a half-million likes and thousands of comments.

“I have a problem, Chayanne used to be my dad. Now, I want him to be the father of my children,” wrote one fan. “Patrimony of humanity!” wrote another. “What a beautifully-done piece.” “The most beautiful man in all Latin America!” The list goes on and on.

“Oh, my God. Let me cover myself!” he says with a laugh. “OK, yes, I read some of the comments,” he admits. “Some were very cute, very lovely. Like, ‘If you’re going to take off your shirt, why stop there?’ I mean, really,” he says, blushing a bit.

How about his daughter, Isadora, I ask. What did she think of posting that photo?

“She took it!” he says, laughing.

Chayanne photographed on July 18, 2024 at Blue Dolphine Studios in Miami.

Chayanne photographed on July 18, 2024 at Blue Dolphin Studios in Miami.

Mary Beth Koeth

Chayanne keeps those fans in mind when planning a tour. “Chayanne thinks about the audience and the fans first. It’s not about what he wants to do but about what the audience wants,” says Nancy O’Meara, Chayanne’s choreographer and creative director of 27 years.

Choreography in particular is essential to a Chayanne tour. He’s an accomplished dancer and participates in all numbers alongside the eight dancers (four men and four women from all over the world) who O’Meara trains at her Los Angeles studio.

The entire team then moved to Miami to rehearse with Chayanne every day, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., here at Blue Dolphin Studios, where he keeps a keen eye on all details of the performance.

“He always rehearses as if he were in front of a live audience,” says O’Meara, who has also worked with John Legend and Charlie Puth. “I don’t know anyone else who has such a level of detail.”

At 56, he can still sing and dance for almost three hours nightly — and on this tour, he’ll do just that for 18 months. His stamina in part comes from the discipline he’s developed since childhood, but at his age, his lifestyle matters as well. An athlete who loves golf and water sports and runs daily (“because I like it — I’m not running away from anything!” he says with a laugh), he has also been doing Pilates for the past three years, “because it stretches my body and strengthens my muscles and that’s what I need.”

He’s quick to joke that he keeps expectations for himself within reason. “What I can’t do, I’m not going to do,” he says, laughing. “But [what] I will say is, it’s a dynamic show.”

Chayanne is not high maintenance on the road. His needs are, for a touring superstar, fairly basic: good transportation (a private plane is standard), a gym (he’ll take weights to his room to work out there) and a good bed, “because after the show what I want is to take a shower and go to sleep.” Perhaps he’ll also indulge in a nice meal: “I like to eat well.”

Before every show, he’ll do a meet-and-greet, take photos with fans and, finally, get a little alone time. But that’s not what he ultimately craves.

“I’m restless, like a lion. I can’t wait to start,” he says, his eyes lighting up. “Look,” he adds, pointing to his leg, which is bouncing excitedly. “I pray and hope that everything goes well, that people enjoy themselves. I pray to my mom, to God.

“And then you go out on that stage and all that love that’s coming at you, you can’t describe it. I literally see my life flash before my eyes, because it has been my life. It is a whole life that I have dedicated to music.”

Chayanne Billboard Espanol Digital Cover

15 Aug 2024

Chayanne: Photos From the Billboard Español Cover Shoot

Chayanne strides into a rehearsal space at Blue Dolphin Studios in Miami, dressed in black from head to toe — tight pants and shirt, crisp blazer, formal leather shoes — and warmly embraces his manager, his assistant, his creative director. He then extends his hand to greet the photographer waiting for a cover shoot. “Nice to meet you,” he says with a broad smile. “I’m Chayanne.”

“I think we all know who you are here,” I say lightly, but Chayanne stops and turns to look at me.

“No,” he tells me without reproach, his smile intact and his voice firm. “My dad taught me that no matter where you are, you say hello and introduce yourself. You can’t assume people know who you are.”

And just like that, this encounter becomes another among a long list of anecdotes about Elmer Figueroa Arce, better known as Chayanne. The artist who goes out to dinner and gets up multiple times to greet his fans. The performer who’s first to arrive at rehearsals and the last to leave. The star who greets housekeepers by name and dances with them in the hallways. The guy who runs in the mornings, alone.

“He is an exemplary father, an exemplary husband; good-looking, tall; he dances; he’s the perfect man,” says Henry Cárdenas, CEO of Cárdenas Marketing Network, which has produced Chayanne’s tours for decades, including his upcoming global arena trek. “He’s been a guy untainted by scandal. [Chayanne has been married to Marilisa Maronesse for over 30 years and has two children with her: Lorenzo and Isadora, the latter also a singer.] I’ve known him for years. I’ve spent a lot of time with him, and what you see is who he is. He’s the guy who interrupts his golf game to take a photo with a fan.”

Check out the exclusive photos below and read the Billboard Español cover story by Leila Cobo here.

15 Aug 2024

The 20 Most Iconic Sets at the Legendary 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair

When we think about the first Woodstock Music and Art Fair we think about the hippies. The mud. The brown acid. The helicopters. The chaos that became a utopia and a definitive statement for the ideals of the 60s counterculture.

And, oh yeah, the music.

The artists — three days of ’em — were, of course, the primary draw to the festival, and Woodstock boasted a lineup of formidable names, some of which were already historic, others that were on their way there and some who would use the festival to launch their careers. “We wanted the biggest and the best, and we worked hard to get them,” the late Woodstock producer Michael Lang told us in 2009, while preparing to celebrate its 40th anniversary. He acknowledged that it took a minute for the festival to be viewed seriously by booking agents and managers, but once Creedence Clearwater Revival signed on, interest was stoked and the gets became easier.

Thirty-three bands played in total, and there was even an impressive list of could’ve-beens: Lang made a run at the Beatles, for instance, but could only get John Lennon to offer a basically non-existent Plastic Ono Band, which wound up making its debut a month later at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival. Bob Dylan was invited but never showed. The Rolling Stones, Simon & Garfunkel, The Doors, The Moody Blues, The Guess Who, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Love were among acts that turned down offers. The Jeff Beck Group canceled its slated performance after breaking up shortly before it. Iron Butterfly attempted to change the day it would perform at the last minute and never made it to the site.

But nobody at Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, N.Y. was complaining about what they did get to hear.

“I guess by Saturday, when everybody had arrived or everybody who was gonna get there arrived, we knew that this was gonna be a historic moment,” Lang said. “Nobody ever thought about or how it would resonate, but we knew that this was extraordinary. I knew that we were all freaks and there were many of us out there and we were disbursed around the country and around the world really, so it was like a gathering of the tribes if you will.”

Through the Academy Award-winning 1970 documentary and an array of music releases — both individual titles and multi-disc compilations, including the Woodstock Back to the Garden — 50th Anniversary Experience in 2019 — we’ve come to know their sets well, which has kept a little whiff of The Garden fresh during the ensuing decades. They demonstrate that even amidst turbulent conditions, there were amazing — and also, again, historic — performances all the way through the extra, unplanned Monday morning.

With Woodstock turning 55 on Aug. 15, these are our picks for the 20 most iconic sets on that fateful weekend…

15 Aug 2024

Cash Cobain Drops Super-Packed Posse Track ‘Problem,’ Announces Release Date for ‘Play Cash Cobain’ Album

Cash Cobain has recruited a massive crew to help him on his new single, “Problem,” a nearly eight-minute posse cut featuring 14 MCs that dropped on Wednesday (August 14) in the lead-up to the release of the buzzing Bronx rapper’s upcoming album.

The woozy sexy drill track whose visualizer video features footage of Cash and friends and others dancing to the track that prominently samples Laila!’s “Not My Problem” — which was released just two months ago — is super-packed with feature bars from Fabolous, Kenzo B, Big Sean, Lay Bankz, Luh Tyler, Anycia, Chow Lee, Kaliii, 6LACK, Flo Milli, YN Jay, Flee, Don Q, and Rob49. In announcing the track, Cobain joked about the long feature roster, “did something different for yall today yall lucky it wasn’t 15 minutes lmaoo.”

And, as packed as it is, it could have been even more jammed. “It seems like every day somebody new comes out with an Instagram, aesthetic video so I really don’t know [how many people will be on the song]. It’s well over 10,” Cobain said on Lil Yachty‘s A Safe Place Podcast last month. At the time he also noted, “Everyone not gonna make it.” HipHopDX also said that some artists who’d been hyping the song on their socials along with the MC before its release didn’t make the final version, including King Combs, Veeze and Rylo Rodriguez and Karrahbooo.

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Cobain also announced that this upcoming album, Play Cash Cobain, is due out on August 23. The follow-up to 2023’s Pretty Girls Love Slizzy will feature previously released singles “Fisherrr,” “Rump Punch” and “Dunk Contest.” The rapper is on tour now with “Fisherrr” remix collaborator Ice Spice on her headlining Y2K! tour.

Watch the “Problem” visualizer below.

15 Aug 2024

Post Malone Makes Star-Studded Grand Ole Opry Debut: ‘I’m Terrified and Honored To Be Standing Right In This Spot’

Over the past year, Post Malone has been integrating himself into Nashville’s country music circles, co-writing and recording songs with numerous country artists, writers, producers and musicians in Music City for his upcoming debut country album, F-1 Trillion, out on Friday (Aug. 16).

But on Wednesday night (Aug. 14), he was welcomed into the most prestigious of those circles — the six-foot circle of hardwood, originally part of the stage of the Ryman Auditorium, and which now resides in the middle of the stage at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House, as Post Malone made his Grand Ole Opry debut — and yes, he had some help.

Quite a lot of it, actually.

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Post Malone’s 18-song F-1 Trillion project brims with collaborations with artists including Tim McGraw, Luke Combs, Dolly Parton, Jelly Roll, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton, Morgan Wallen, ERNEST and Lainey Wilson.

Triple threat singer-songwriter-guitarist Paisley, a Grand Ole Opry member since 2001, took to the stage first with a warm introduction.

“He has a country heart and he is someone who immersed himself in the Nashville way,” Paisley said, while also laying down a challenge: “But you aren’t a country singer until you’ve played this,” Paisley said. He then welcomed Posty, who garnered an instant standing ovation as he walked onstage and stepped into the famous circle, in the process becoming part of the ongoing legacy of the longest-running radio broadcast in history.

“What’s going on Nashville? My name is Austin Richard Post and I’m here to play some songs tonight with some really amazing folks and I’m honored to call them friends,” six-time Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper Malone told the crowd as he joined Paisley.

“I’m terrified and honored to be standing right in this spot. My mom’s here tonight. Brad I remember going to see you [perform] when I was like six. I wanted to say how amazingly grateful and floored I am to have you bring me out tonight and I appreciate you.”

From there, the evening — hosted by WSM Radio’s Kelly Sutton — was a heart-warming mix of music and friendship. It was another Opry member, Vince Gill, who joined Posty for the first song, a rendition of Gill’s 1993 hit “One More Last Chance,” with Paisley also offering up some smooth guitar riffs.

Post Malone, clad in jeans, a white shirt, a blue blazer and cowboy hat, displayed a self-depreciating sense of humor, quipping early in the evening, “I was going for like a K-Mart George Strait [look],” drawing laughs from the audience.

He also noted, “how cool it is to rock out to people that I’ve listened to my whole entire life,” before welcoming John Michael Montgomery to join him on Montgomery’s 1994 hit “Be My Baby Tonight,” trading off high-octane verses and intertwining their voices on the chorus.

“I’m having the freakin’ best time of my life,” Malone said, clearly taking in the experience. He added, “We’ve been here in Nashville for a couple of months, like six or seven months, and I have made so many beautiful friends along the way. I’m so honored to be able to work with my friends.” He then welcomed reigning ACM and CMA entertainer of the year Wilson, who was inducted as an Opry member in June.

“Her heart is bigger than her hat,” he quipped, as she added, “What a special night.”

They debuted a song from F-1 Trillion called “Nosedive” about finding the beauty in the painful moments. The heartfelt ballad elicited cheers from the crowd and marked one of the evening’s more tender moments.

“Welcome to country music, Post Malone. We’re glad to have you!” Wilson said before exiting the stage. Paisley then returned to debut another new F-1 Trillion track, their collaboration “Goes Without Saying.”

“I’m honored to be on your album. This is one of my favorite records I’ve ever cut,” Paisley said, before deadpanning, “We’re going to mess this up. We’ve played this once.”

“Watching Brad growing up, I was always just mind-blown by someone who could play guitar like that,” Posty told the crowd, before telling Paisley, “You are the best living guitar player on the planet and I’m so honored to call you my friend, sir.”

From there, Malone delved into a slice of country-meets-’70s soul with “California Sober” — a song from the new album that features Chris Stapleton. Stapleton wasn’t at the Opry, but Posty welcomed two other stellar vocalists — The War and Treaty’s Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter — to perform the song, their voices soaring and swooping, marking one of the evening’s most musically-rousing moments.

“It’s unreal how y’all sound,” Malone told them.

Post Malone is known to drop a few curse words during his shows, but given that the Grand Ole Opry is also a radio broadcast, he did his best to keep things clean. In introducing The War and Treaty, he said, “I recently made some friends and I’m so honored to know these people and they can sing their a–es off,” before quickly asking, “That’s not a cuss, right? It’s in the Bible, right?”

He then closed by performing a solo version of his multi-week Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper, the Morgan Wallen collab “I Had Some Help,” before ending his set with a countrified, fiddle-laden version of his 2019 hit “Sunflower.”

The audience members swiftly rose to their feet to cheer and applaud, making it all but certain that given the audience’s approving reception, this could be but the first of many Opry performances for Texas native Malone.

15 Aug 2024

Taylor Swift Treats Tour Staff to Night Out Before London Eras Tour Dates Kick-Off

Taylor Swift is gearing up to kick off a five-night run at London’s Wembley Stadium tonight (August 15) after her Eras Tour shows in Vienna were cancelled last week due to a foiled terror threat. The singer — who has not commented on the plot or made any public appearances since the revelation of the alleged plan to harm fans gathered for her shows in Austria was revealed — reportedly took her staff out in London on Monday night (August 12) to mark the end of the European leg of her juggernaut global outing.

According to People, Swift, 34, was seen at the swanky, members-only club Annabel’s in London for the wrap party wearing what Glamour described as a “Cher Horowitz-esque plaid jacket and skirt set from the Vivienne Westwood fall/winter 2024 collection” paired with a ruffled white shirt and chunky heels.

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At press time a spokesperson for Swift could not be reached for comment on the reported staff outing.

It’s not the first time Swift has treated her Eras Tour staff. Last August it was reported that the singer gave $100,000 bonuses to each of the 50 truck drivers on her tour, for a reported bonus total around $5 million; she also reportedly gave bonuses to her band members, dancers, lighting and sound techs, caterers and other staffers.

Austrian promoter Barracuda Music announced on August 7 that it had “no choice but to cancel” the three shows planned for Ernst Happel Stadium From August 8-10 due to the threat in which the suspects were planning to use explosives and knives to attack Swifties outside the venue in an effort to cause a mass casualty event.

So far, the main 19-year-old suspect — who was reportedly radicalized online and had pledge allegiance to the Islamic State terror group — has been arrested, along with a 17-year-old who’d reportedly gotten a gig working for a company providing services to the stadium. A 15-year-old boy who reportedly had knowledge of the plan but was not directly involved, was also detained last week and a third suspect believed to be connected to the main suspect was arrested on August 9. A lawyer for the main suspect said this week that the case against his client is exaggerated and that he had “neither the means nor the possibility and the explosives to carry this out.”

Wembley Stadium announced earlier this week that Swifties will be let in a bit earlier than usual for the shows and that set times have been pushed up for the sold-out gigs that run from tonight through Tuesday (August 20). In addition, while unticketed Swifties have gathered by the thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, outside stadiums on the European tour for “tay-gating” events, Wembley announce that only ticketed fans would be allowed to stand outside any entrance or in the area around the stadium. “Non ticket holders will be moved on,” the venue said in a statement.

15 Aug 2024

Missy Higgins to be Inducted Into ARIA Hall Of Fame

Missy Higgins will be elevated into the ARIA Hall Of Fame later this year, one of the greatest honors in the Australian record industry.

The singer and songwriter will be inducted during the 2024 ARIA Awards, set to be presented Nov. 20 at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion.

Higgins is no stranger to ARIAs glory. Since releasing her debut 2004 LP The Sound of White, which spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart and is now 12-times platinum certified, the Aussie artist has collected nine ARIA Awards.

“Missy has gone on to become one of the highest selling singer-songwriters of our era, creating some of Australia’s most loved and recognized songs,” reads a statement Thursday, Aug. 15, announcing her induction.

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Her 2007 followup, On A Clear Night, also peaked at No. 1, as did 2012’s The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle. Oz (from 2014) and Solastalgia (2018) both cracked the top three of the national albums tally.

“I feel very honored and grateful,” she comments in a statement. “So many artists I love and admire are in the ARIA Hall Of Fame so it feels a bit surreal to be joining them. This year has already been really special, now this is going to make it even more memorable.”

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To celebrate her salute, Higgins will release her first full length release in six years, The Second Act (via EMI Australia) on Sept. 6, following her biggest Australian tour in nearly 20 years. Higgins has previewed new songs from it on her The Second Act Tour, which has criss-crossed the country for five months, playing 40 sold-out shows. Most of those 80,000 tickets were “snapped up within minutes,” according to Frontier Touring. Missy adds a final Victorian encore show, presented by ALWAYS LIVE and Frontier Touring, at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne on Dec. 6.

“Australia has seen Missy Higgins’ music career go from strength to strength, including nine ARIA Awards, several No. 1 albums, and multiple sell-out national tours,” comments ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd.

The ARIA Hall of Fame “is all about celebrating legendary music talent who leave a unique mark, inspiring not only the industry but Australia and the world. Missy is the absolute epitome of this. We couldn’t be happier to be welcoming one of Australia’s most loved and admired artists, Missy Higgins, into the ARIA Hall of Fame.”

With her induction, Higgins joins a who’s who of great Australian acts, including AC/DC, Cold Chisel, Nick Cave, Kylie Minogue, Archie Roach, Dame Joan Sutherland, Johnny O’Keefe, Slim Dusty, Men at Work, Midnight Oil and others.

More announcements for the 2024 ARIA Awards in partnership with YouTube are “coming very soon,” reps say.

15 Aug 2024

Sublime Performs ‘Santeria’ on ‘The Howard Stern Show’: Watch

Sublime, the iconic ska-punk rockers from Long Beach, CA., recently took to the stage on The Howard Stern Show for an exclusive performance.

The band, featuring Jakob Nowell—the son of the late Bradley Nowell—on vocals and guitar, delivered a powerful four-song set that included their timeless classics “Santeria,” “Wrong Way,” and “What I Got,” as well as “Feel Like That,” their first new song in 28 years.

Jakob’s inclusion in Sublime is more than just a tribute to his father; it’s a continuation of the band’s legacy. During their Howard Stern performance, Jakob’s vocals echoed his father’s emotional depth while bringing his own distinct style to the mix. His confident delivery, alongside original members Eric Wilson on bass and Bud Gaugh on drums, created a nostalgic yet fresh experience.

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Bradley Nowell, the original frontman of Sublime, tragically died of a heroin overdose on May 25, 1996, just two months before the release of their self-titled album.

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Despite his passing, the album went on to achieve tremendous success, cementing Sublime’s place in music history. Recently, Jakob spoke with Conner Coffin on the 805 Cold Beer Surf Club, reflecting on the weight of carrying his father’s legacy.

“I wouldn’t have these opportunities without the sacrifices my father and others made. The goal isn’t just about playing big shows; it’s about bringing people together and honoring their legacy. I’m focused on relaunching Skunk Records with my father’s best friend, Miguel, to support the next generation and tie together the SoCal alternative scene. It’s about having a purpose and giving back to the music community.”

He added, “It feels like having a purpose for sure.”

Sublime’s appearance on The Howard Stern Show is just the latest highlight in Sublime’s recent resurgence.

Fresh off a triumphant set at Coachella, which introduced them to a new generation of fans, the band has embarked on an extensive tour that’s drawing large crowds across the country. Their new single, “Feel Like That,” has also made waves, debuting at No. 35 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, marking the band’s first entry on this chart in 26 years.

Meanwhile, “Santeria,” one of the band’s most iconic tracks, originally peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart in 1997, becoming a defining song of the era and continuing to be a fan favorite decades later.

Check out Sublime’s recent performance of “Santeria” on The Howard Stern Show below.