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It’s been six years since Illinois native Mason Ramsey, then 11 years old, caught the world’s attention after a video of Ramsey yodeling the Hank Williams Sr.’s classic “Lovesick Blues” went viral. In the years following, he’s proven adept at adding more musical milestones — from his song “Famous,” which reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 2018, to joining Lil Nas X on a remix of “Old Town Road” the following year.
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Now 17, Ramsey is keen to show the world that his appreciation of classic music extends far beyond country’s pioneering greats such as Williams. Sure, he still includes “Lovesick Blues” in his concert sets, but on his debut full-length album I’ll See You In My Dreams (out on Atlantic Records) he delves headlong into the sonically varied, vintage sounds of the 1950s through the 1970s.
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Ramsey, who splits his time between Nashville and his home in Illinois, describes his sound as “American Country Soul,” adding, “I do Americana and classic gentlemen’s country with soul, and I blend those sounds together to create the sound I love.”
The 14-song platter of music easily conveys the inspirations of artists including Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and Ricky Nelson. Ramsey’s voice has matured into an immensely versatile instrument, with a warm patina that makes classic crooner material a natural musical vessel. As his sound has changed, so has his aesthetic, swapping the jeans and starched shirts for ’70s-inspired, sometimes-embroidered suits, wide-collared shirts, flared pants and the occasional scarf.
Ramsey was raised in Illinois by his grandparents, who didn’t have access to the internet for many years. Shortly after experiencing that sudden rush of fame, he began searching out the music of Elvis, Johnny Cash and Orbison online.
“We didn’t stream music, but we did buy CDs,” he recalls. “I started getting into ’50s and ’60s music. Then, once we had internet access, I found songs from artists like Elvis and [Presley’s song] ‘That’s Alright,’ and everything went from that point.”
Earlier this year, Ramsey began working with writer-producer Dan Fernandez, known for his work with artists including Maren Morris and Lee Brice, with his songs having been recorded by Nate Smith, Boy Named Banjo and others. Ramsey and Fernandez co-wrote all 14 songs together, and recorded much of the project in Fernandez’s home studio. When they first began collaborating, Ramsey had previously released a few EPs, but says, “I felt like I was still missing my sound, as if I was still searching for what moved me, sound-wise.”
In January, they talked via phone, discussing Ramsey’s influences. The following day they went into the studio and began writing songs that evoked that timeless style of the songs of Nelson and Presley.
“It made me so happy for someone to understand my sound and just overall helped me feel more connected with my music,” Ramsey says. “I had actually ended up writing with him a few years before, so it was awesome to see him again. He helped me find the music part of what I wanted and I just put the lyrics to the music.”
The project is filled with the mellow, piano-based countrypolitan of “Come Pick Me Up,” and the smooth ’50s vibe of “Blue Over You,” while “All the Way to Memphis” sizzles with a soulful swagger that feels pulled from the heart on Sun Studio.
“I had been spending some time with this girl,” he says of the inspiration for “All the Way to Memphis.” “She lived pretty close to Memphis and I got to know her pretty well. Like I said, we were hanging out quite a bit, and I just really wanted to tell her what I would do to see her in the song. And it talks about that I would swim to Mississippi and I would run all the way to Memphis just for her. And so that song is pretty much just about doing whatever I can to go see her.”
Meanwhile, “The Woman From Havana” is flush with a sultry, old-school dinner club vibe and accented with a Latin flair.
“My producer has family from Cuba. He was playing a few licks on a Spanish traditional guitar, and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a song with like a little spaghetti guitar sound mixed with a bit of a Spanish flavor?’ We just started playing around with the music and the lyrics just kind of painted themselves. We made up this song about this guy that is in love with this girl and she’s from Havana. He just wants to dance with her and wants her to fall in love with him.”
It’s not only Ramsey’s fans who have taken notice of his new, retro-tilted sound. Lana Del Rey brought Ramsey onstage at her Fenway Park concert to perform Ramsey’s “Blue Over You” in June.
“I had put out ‘Blue Over You’ and posted a video of the song on my socials, and she commented and said, ‘We need to collab,’” Ramsey recalls. “A couple of months later, she invited me to Fenway, and we sang ‘Blue Over You’ together. It was such a magical moment for me and a fun time. She is very — if you were to talk to her, it is almost as if you’ve known her forever. She’s just a down to earth, very sweet person.”
However, though Del Rey has previously said she is set to release the country album Lasso, Ramsey says a collab between the two is not in the works at the moment.
“That has not been part of the conversation yet, but hopefully in the future,” he says. “I would love that very much — if she put out a country album and I could have a feature on it, I’d be so honored.”
As he was creating his new album, Ramsey and his producer did receive a request from Atlantic Records about writing and recording a song for the Twisters soundtrack, resulting in his foot-stomping rocker “Shake, Shake (All Night Long).”
“That was a huge deal,” Ramsey says. “We took a break from our album — which is great because we kind of needed it — but we wrote the song and it only took us about, 45 minutes to an hour to write, and then we immediately pitched it to the label. It just really had groove and it just had a good pocket, a high-energy type of song.”
Notably, Ramsey’s love of all things vintage extends beyond music and clothing. “I love trucks, specially older vehicles,” says Ramsey, who has a blue and white 1968 Chevrolet K10 that he’s fixed up. “I love that truck and I drive it all over town.”
With tour dates on the books for his Falls Into Place Tour Pt 2 trek, and a batch of music he closely connects with, he says, “I’m just super-excited to finally accomplish my first album. All of these songs came together simply and easy, because we don’t overthink on the writing — we just write what is on our hearts and minds, and put it on paper.”
Mr. 305 will bring his Miami swagger to Las Vegas again for a new musical residency, Billboard Español can exclusively announce on Friday (Sept. 20). Pitbull: Vegas After Dark the Residency will debut on Nov. 8 at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, where the Cuban-American superstar will take the stage at the BleauLive Theater for a series of eight weekend concerts between the end of this year and the beginning of the next.
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The dates are Nov. 8-9, Jan. 24-25, and March 7, 8, 14 and 15. Tickets go on presale on Tuesday (Sept. 24) and to the general public the next day at 9 a.m. PT/12 p.m. ET on the Fontainebleau website.
“Fontainebleau’s legacy of top-tier entertainment stems from its Miami Beach roots,” said Fontainebleau Las Vegas Senior Vice President of Entertainment, Fedor Banuchi, in a press release. “We are honored to have Mr. 305 himself bring his Miami flair to BleauLive Theater for this iconic limited engagement.”
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Pitbull is in the midst of his Party After Dark Tour, a 26-city trek that began on Aug. 21 in Virginia and ends on Oct. 5 in Albuquerque, N.M. His new show in Las Vegas will include “state-of-the-art visuals, pyrotechnics,” and a repertoire of hits such as “Give Me Everything,” “Timber,” “Time of Our Lives,” “International Love,” “Feel This Moment,” “Fireball” and “Hey Baby (Drop It to the Floor).”
“Backed by his incredible band, The Agents, and his dynamic dancers, The Most Bad Ones, the fusion of music, lights and special effects will create a sophisticated, high-energy party for everyone in attendance,” according to the press release.
Pitbull, who frequently performs in Las Vegas, opened a SLAM charter school in Nevada in 2016, expanding his commitment to education that began with the first SLAM school in Miami. According to the release, the schools — whose name is an acronym for Science, Leadership, Arts and Management — now serve nearly 10,000 students in various states.
The artist’s last residency in Sin City was Time of Our Lives, which opened at The AXIS on Sept. 23, 2015, and closed on May 25, 2019.
“You know how the bass guitar in a song is like its ‘thickness,’ the ‘bottom’? I kind of related a body to that,” Meghan Trainor mused to Billboard in 2014 after her debut hit, “All About That Bass,” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 that July.
Kevin Kadish, who wrote and produced the song with Trainor, “had the title and said that none of his prior co-writers could figure out what to relate that to,” she noted. “So, I said, ‘What about a booty? Let’s talk about that!’ From there, it turned into, ‘Let’s do a song about loving your body … and your booty.’ ”
Mixing pop with retro R&B/Motown and elements of tropical, all of which influenced Trainor growing up on the island of Nantucket, Mass., “All About That Bass” ruled the Hot 100 for eight weeks, consecutively, beginning on the chart dated Sept. 20, 2014.
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One of the song’s lyrics especially caused a stir socially: “I’m bringing booty back. Go ahead and tell them skinny b—-es!” “Even with some of the ‘hate’ comments I’ve seen, they’ve gotten a conversation going,” Trainor told Billboard at the time. “But, I’m not bashing skinny girls. Some girls have commented, ‘I’m a size zero, so you must hate me.’ But that’s not it at all! There have been battles on my YouTube page, like, ‘You don’t know what she’s talking about. She’s actually saying, ‘I know even you skinny girls struggle.’ ’ And that’s exactly how I feel.
“I wrote it for me, as well, because I’ve struggled with [body image] since I was very young,” Trainor shared in 2014. “And, my best friend is a beautiful goddess, but she’ll pick on herself in the mirror. ‘My forehead’s too big,’ or, ‘My shoulders go out too far …’ So, if other girls can relate to the song, it makes me feel even better. It’s unreal that I’m kind of helping people.”
Trainor’s first LP, Title, topped the Billboard 200 for a week in January 2015. She became the lucky 13th woman to earn a debut a No. 1 album and Hot 100 song in the more than half-century that the charts have coexisted. Others to achieve such double domination include Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Kelly Clarkson and Britney Spears.
Trainor was also crowned best new artist at the Grammy Awards in February 2016.
Title yielded two more Hot 100 top 10s: “Lips Are Movin” (No. 4 peak) and “Like I’m Gonna Lose You,” featuring John Legend (No. 8). Trainor added a fourth top 10, “No” (No. 3, 2016), among eight career top 40 hits, most recently “Made You Look” in 2023.
Trainor notched a second Billboard 200 top 10, the No. 3-peaking Thank You, in 2016. Her sixth and most recent top 40 entry, Timeless, debuted at its No. 27 high this June. The set’s deluxe version arrived in August and current single “Whoops” ranks at its Nos. 19 and 27 bests on the Adult Pop Airplay and Pop Airplay charts (dated Sept. 21), respectively. Plus, the album’s “Criminals,” as featured in Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, bows at No. 19 on Digital Song Sales.
Trainor has additionally co-written two No. 1s on the Country Airplay chart: “I Like the Sound of That,” which Rascal Flatts took to the top in 2016, and “Road Less Traveled,” a leader for Lauren Alaina in 2017. “Since my father [Gary] is a musician, as well, he wanted me to be a songwriter that can do any genre. I’m all about doing every genre,” she said in 2014. “So, at one point he said, ‘Girl, give me some country cuts!’ I said, ‘All right, Dad, I’ll get you those country cuts, not a problem!’”
Trainor’s mother, Kelli, has even charted a hit with her daughter: Their “Mom” reached Digital Song Sales after Mother’s Day in 2020.
Trainor has also forged an extensive TV presence, including as an advisor on NBC’s The Voice in 2015, and released her first book, Dear Future Mama, in 2023. Her The Timeless Tour began on Sept. 1 and runs through Oct. 19 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
Trainor is still signed to Epic Records, which released and promoted “All About That Bass.” The song has drawn 4.9 billion in radio audience and 1.1 billion on-demand U.S. streams and sold 5.8 million downloads to date, according to Luminate.
“When I got my record deal, and with this song, I was like, ‘Perfect, I have the opportunity to say something to the world.’ I’ll take it,” Trainor shared in 2014. “This is the best message I could say.”
To underscore the message in his new single “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart,” Stevie Wonder will be playing 10 select dates during October in advance of this year’s critical presidential election in November. Produced by Wonder Productions and promoted by AEG Presents in partnership with Free Lunch, the Sing Your Song! As We […]
It’s been six days and I can’t stop listening to “Groupies & Goofies.”
Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and play it on my phone a couple times before going back to sleep. It’s one of the best rap album intros of the year, right up there with the opening tracks of Future & Metro Boomin’s back-to-back collaborative albums. I didn’t know what to expect when Babyface Ray‘s team sent me his latest album, The Kid That Did, but I was immediately grabbed by the intro.
After diving into the rest of the album, I came away thinking that this is the Detroit rapper’s most ambitious project to date. He sounds confident, and with confidence comes big swings. Songs like “I Need Some Motivation” and “Delusional” showcase his versatility, while others like “Watching My Page” and “Nights Like This” “Legacy” show more of his personal side.
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Ray has been prolific over the course of his decade-long career, releasing a slew of mixtapes and EPs as a solo artist and as a member of Team Eastside. The Kid That Did, released on September 13, is his fourth solo album and his first since his Wavy Gang label entered a partnership with Empire earlier this year. With 20 tracks clocking in at under an hour, the album’s already spawned six singles with accompanying videos with more on the way. One notable single is “Count Money,” with BossMan Dlow, which samples the iconic pause music from N64’s GoldenEye 007. “We got the original composer from GoldenEye to do the beat over,” he answers when asked how they managed to get the sample cleared. But there’s much more to the story.
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According to one of his A&Rs, Dre Edwards, Babyface Ray’s team had a hard time clearing the beat (made by producer Rich Treeze), so they decided to reach out to Grant Kirkhope, the original composer of the GoldenEye soundtrack, to see if they could get it cleared. Well, it turns out that Kirkhope was already familiar with Ray’s music and gladly offered to collaborate with Treeze to make a version of the beat that would work for all parties involved. He even posted the video on his Instagram.
I caught up with Ray at the Billboard‘s New York office, where we talked about the making of what is probably the most important album of his career, how his rap style is informed by his parents and how he managed to get Rich Paul on the outro. Check out the interview below.
This album feels like your most ambitious. There are some records that feel big on there. Would you agree?
Yeah, big for sure. I know what you mean. I was just trying to show a little more growth this time and make it sound different from the last projects I put out.
When you were making this album, did you go in with the approach that this was going to be an ambitious record?
I think the records I picked were just more along the lines of what you’re saying. I had other records that I wanted to use, but I went more with that type of style.
Yeah, because some of the beats are different from the stuff you usually rap over. Were you aiming for that sound? Or were they beats that you were coming across that happened to grab your attention?
Yeah, what I was coming across and what I felt like wanting to do at that time.
Detroit has had its rap moments with the likes of Eminem, Royce Da 5’9″, D12, and J Dilla, but the last few years have felt different. What is it about this era of Detroit rap that resonates with fans?
Probably the rawness. Probably being able to connect with the music a little bit more.
What are some of your favorite records from this album?
“Nights Like This,” “High Off Life,” the intro. I like “Delusional.” I like “Stuck in My Ways.” There’s a few on there.
There’s a couple of tracks that you get real personal on. You mentioned a couple of them. Can you talk about why you felt the need to go super personal on some of those?
Really, just updating people on what’s going on with me type stuff. And, really on all my projects, it’s always gonna be a song on there that’s kind of like super personal and I get deeper on what’s going on for real.
The way you rap, it’s like you put people on game. Can you credit your style to your father being a preacher?
Yeah, if you know my dad, it don’t got nothing to do with religion or him being a preacher. That’s just how he comes off, putting us on game and just schoolin’ us and kickin’ it with us since we were little. I can definitely credit that to him, for sure.
Did you spend a lot of time in church when you were younger?
Hell yeah. All the way up until eighth grade, I went to church every Sunday. I wasn’t really too much a fan of church, though. Nothing against religion, but the whole going to church thing — I would just feel burnt out.
Did your parents give you a hard time for wanting to be a rapper at first?
They ain’t know. So, it was like — once I got old enough to get out the house and do my own thing, I was just doin’ that on the low. But I wasn’t a bad kid, so they didn’t have to worry about me too much. I was just doing it. They didn’t really find out until I became poppin’. And then people was telling them, and by that time, it was already too late. They couldn’t really have a conversation with me about it.
How do they feel about it now that you’re successful?
I mean, they ain’t trippin’, they love it, and even my dad, he be talking about it. You know, back then he really didn’t understand, but now he sees what I’ve grown into as a man. He can understand and enjoy my music. He can see where I’m coming from.
When would you say you felt that you was poppin’ as a rapper? When it felt real.
My first feeling was around probably 2011 or 2012. We used to get booked in the city a lot with my group [Team Eastside.]
In earlier interviews you had mentioned that you dropped out of college. Around what year was that?
I graduated [high school] in 2009, so it had to be around 2010.
That’s around the time you said you started poppin’, so you were already rapping?
I was already rappin’ throughout high school and all that stuff. When I got out of school, I was still staying with my parents. My pops was like, “You either gonna get a job or you gonna go to school.” So, I ended up choosing college and when that didn’t work out I just left the house completely.
Word, and you had said that they used church money to help send you to college.
Yeah, for sure. No cap. That really happened.
Rich Paul is on the outro. Can you explain that relationship? How did you guys link up? Was he a fan of your music?
He was a fan of my music. I met him through my partner, V, who owns a clothing line called Jack Ripp. He called me and connected me with Rich Paul, and then we hit it off just conversating about music. He really just wanted to talk about music, for real.
Has he given you any business advice?
Not really, head on. I just watch and learn from what he’s doing.
How do you feel about this album compared to your other tapes?
I feel good. I feel like I got some good records on there. I think people are gonna enjoy it. I’m geeked for it to get out, so I can see how the feedback is going to be.
Gillie and Wallo had mentioned that they noticed the ladies rock with your music on social media. Explain why you like to make records for them.
It’s always good to have a record or two for the ladies when you put a project out, because they’re consumers. And, really, I feel like it’s the women that get the men hip sometimes. You gotta have something that the ladies enjoy too.
Bossman Dlow seems to have that effect too. The ladies use his stuff on social media all the time. He did a show with Teezo for us recently and when he hit the stage, mad shorties ran to see him perform.
That’s fire. Dlow got a strong presence on social media with the women. I feel like the women be on it more than the men these days.
And you guys linked up on this project over the GoldenEye beat. How did that come about?
I had never met him. I was on Live one time just poppin’ shit and I said something along the lines [of] somebody talking to me in the club while the music was loud, and I was saying, ‘Stop trying to talk to me, Bossman Dlow is playing’ blah, blah, blah. And then it reached him and that kind of went crazy and he said something to me, and he came to Detroit, and we met up. We kicked it off like that. I did a song for him first, and then I was sitting on “Count Money” and I was like, ‘I think Dlow would sound good on here.’ I sent it to him and he sent it back.
You’re a video game head, right? What games do you play?
2K, Madden, NCAA. But I had woke up from my sleep, and seen my kids watching some s–t on YouTube, and I ended up downloading this new game called Little Nightmares. S–t fire. It’s like some horror-mystery shit.
You don’t play Grand Theft Auto?
I used to play Grand Theft Auto RP on my PC, but I stopped playing it. l was gettin’ burnt out on it.
You weren’t in Tee Grizzley’s world?
Yeah, I was in there. I was the only one with the Ferrari truck in there. That s–t turnt, for real, but I was getting burnt out.
What else you got planned for this album? You going on tour?
Yeah, I’m going on tour. I’m announcing the tour on Friday with the album [release]. That’s pretty much it. Hopefully, I can get a deluxe out because I do got some more records, more features, some more vibes that I wanna add to it.
You gonna put out more videos?
For sure, 100 percent.
Yeah, because you put out mad s–t already for this album.
S–t, I was just telling them. I got like seven videos already in, but I’m still trying to get at least two or three more.
Last week, Coldplay teased their upcoming U.K. tour in a fairly low-key way. A vintage flyer from one of their early gigs in 1998 was discreetly displayed at Camden music venue The Dublin Castle in London, and contained news of a run of shows that the band were set to announce for August 2025. But it featured a big statement that could throw a lifeline to the grassroots music scene: scrawled in pen at the bottom of the poster, it announced that 10% of proceeds were to go to “small venues and upcoming acts”.
When the band formally announced the run of next year’s shows in London and Hull, the scale of the message became clear. They confirmed that 10% of all revenue generated at their eight stadium shows next summer will be donated to the scene and that the concerts’ promoters (SJM Concerts, Metropolis Music and Live Nation), the band’s booking agent (WME), the venues (Wembley Stadium and Hull Craven Park) and the official ticket agents (Ticketmaster, See Tickets and AXS) would all do the same.
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This will be no small figure. For context, the Music Of The Spheres tour was recently named the biggest rock tour of all time and passed the $1 billion (USD) gross mark for the full run of shows that began in 2022. Coldplay remain a big ticket seller and their run of eleven shows in July 2024 grossed $66 million according to Billboard Boxscore figures. Even once production costs and more are deducted, the donation from these U.K. shows will be seismic.
Music Venues Trust will be at the heart of the project alongside Save Our Scene and other key stakeholders. It arrives at a critical juncture for the U.K.’s music scene. Figures from the MVT reported that 125 venues had closed in 2023, and that places like North West England have suffered more than anywhere else.
Mark Davyd, MVT’s founder and CEO, has been vocal about the challenges at hand and what needs to be done to protect and re-energise the U.K.’s scene. The newly-elected Labour government has made positive noises about a mandatory ticket levy on large-scale music events in the country to be reinvested to the grassroots scene.
Talk is cheap, but Coldplay – who release new album Moon Music on Oct. 4 – have put their money where their mouth is. They follow British rock band Enter Shikari who partnered with the MVT in 2023 to donate £1 from every ticket sale to help safeguard the scene’s future.
Following the announcement, Davyd spoke to Billboard about the state of the grassroots music industry, and what Coldplay’s donation will do for its future.
How did this collaboration come about with Coldplay?
Davyd: “The conversations began in December 2023 and came directly from the band and their management. The band were very concerned about what was happening to grassroots venues and touring, and had worked with their management to think about who they should be in contact with. They reached out to an organization called Save Our Scene run by George Fleming, who very graciously in turn recommended speaking to the Music Venues Trust. By February 2024, it had been agreed that when they announced their 2025 shows, that they’d be making a contribution to the grassroots to support the venues, artists and promoters.”
Did you ever feel like it might not come to fruition and that there would be opposition to a move this seismic?
“We’re hyper-aware that there are lots of companies who would at least like to slow this process down if not completely avoid it, which is a bit depressing as it is the music industry itself that is the beneficiary of schemes like this with support for new and emerging artists. I try to press the point that, ultimately, financial support into the grassroots ecosystem will create the talent of the future from which people make lots of money.
But ultimately we all do respond to what the artists tell us that they want. If it’s an artist the stature of Chris and the lads and they want something to be done, people are going to find a way to get it done. I’m a huge admirer of their other work including making their concerts carbon-neutral, and I think that’s a good example of something that is important to the band and important to the management and everyone in the ecosystem around them.”
Coldplay
Anna Lee
It must feel extra pleasing that it was Coldplay, a band that has been on the exact journey you’re trying to protect.
“The vast majority of artists that are headlining stadiums have a story about their progress through the music industry that nearly always includes grassroots venues. Even Dua Lipa played a load of smaller venues at the start of her career.
This particular one has a ring of authenticity to it. In fact, I actually booked Coldplay three times at Tunbridge Wells Forum about 25 years ago! I think the band and the management around them very much understand these arguments and conversations about why waterfalling music down to the grassroots is so important.”
What will the money do for the grassroots music scene?
“We will be ringfencing this money as this type of money must achieve a number of things. It’s not just about venues, it’s also about artists and promoters. It’s about getting more artists into more venues into more places across the U.K.
There are certainly some things that venues would benefit from: there are venues, for example, that aren’t accessible where we can put some support behind that so more people can use it. Because of the nature of where this money comes from, I think we will be looking at what we can do regarding energy consumption in venues, too.
We want to create something that’s really impactful, meaningful and we want every pound to do something constructive. Everybody in the industry knows that there is a real crisis at grassroots touring. There’s fewer tours as artists can’t afford to play them, but also the length of the tours is a real challenge alongside the locations of where they’re going.
The first tour Oasis did back in 1994, for example, was 34 shows long. There is no band playing that level of shows at grassroots levels anymore. It just isn’t happening. That means that vast swathes of the country are not able to see emerging bands and artists as they’re coming onto the market.”
Do you believe the pipeline from grassroots to stadium is still possible?
“I think it’s still possible. We’ve been doing it for 60 years. There is no lack of enthusiasm for live music. We’re selling more tickets than ever across all sectors, but we’re selling them to a decreasing demographic across the population. So this is a project not just for the artists, but creating future music consumers.”
Do you have an idea on how much this donation might end up totalling?
“I don’t at this stage. We’re not being evasive about that, but there are a number of things in play about their production costs and obviously we don’t know those yet. But we do know that 10% of a stadium run is a sizeable amount and will have a significant impact. This will mean that venues stop closing, that tours can happen and that promoters can take risks on bands that really need support but don’t have the money to make that happen. It is that impactful. It won’t be geographically located in one place, it’ll be spread right across the UK. We’ll see more shows happening with better facilities at venues; this money will achieve a lot.”
The Oasis ticket scandal in the U.K. reignited the discussion about how tickets are sold, the value of them and what could be done on these big tours to support the future of music. What was your response?
“I was disappointed with the Oasis thing, mainly because if you go back to the Commons select committee hearings in March, you can read the words of the representatives of the music industry saying to MPs that they know about the problem with grassroots venues and that they’re going to get it solved. At the point when they were saying that, Coldplay had already made that decision and taken a leadership position while apparently the music industry was working on solutions… but we haven’t seen any solutions of that work that the industry said they were going to undertake.
Everyone’s talking about Oasis but I can throw out other names. There were show announcements for Catfish and The Bottleman and Glass Animals right around the same time. These are artists that if you asked them, would completely understand that the grassroots is important and that music in our communities is important, so why isn’t there contribution from those shows? I’m not blaming anyone, but if we’re going to stand in parliament and say that we’re going to sort this out, let’s sort this out.”
Will the MVT be looking to collaborate with more artists like this going forward?
“Absolutely, our door is very open to anyone on this topic. I want this to become the new normal – I don’t think that’s stupidly ambitious. There are lots and lots of examples of industries – all properly functioning industries – to reinvest to get future gains. As soon as you start talking about it as an investment program into research and development, I don’t think companies should be resistant to that but should be thinking, ‘that makes perfect sense’.”
Sure, Noah Kahan has been nominated for Grammys and Billboard Music Awards, played sold-out shows from coast-to-coast and scored his first Adult Pop Airplay chart No. 1 in May with his breakthrough hit “Stick Season.”
But the Vermont native won the most important award of all this week when Ben & Jerry’s rolled out a custom flavor in his honor. Even super-mellow strummer Kahan could not contain his chill about the Green Mountain State’s equivalent of a lifetime achievement award.
“F–king pinch me,” Kahan tweeted on Thursday night (Sept. 19) after the announcement from the Burlington, VT-bred ice cream brand of their new limited “Northern Latte-tude” flavor. The fresh mix inspired by Kahan’s 2022 song “Northern Attitude” features a maple latte ice cream with graham cracker cookie dough and graham cracker pieces.
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The special mix was created specifically for Thursday night’s (Sept. 19) sold-out show at the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds in Essex Junction, VT, a benefit gig with proceeds going to the singer’s non-profit, the Busyhead Project, which provides resources and information to help end the stigma around mental health.
“We were more than excited to partner with Noah Kahan to create this flavor,” said Ben & Jerry’s head of brand innovation Emily Smith in a statement. “With Noah being from Vermont and establishing his non-profit The Busyhead Project to support such an important issue that he cares deeply about, we saw tons of fan gratitude for Noah’s Latte-tude, all while doing good.”
The flavor will now be available for a limited time on Friday (Sept. 20) at B&J scoop shops in Burlington and Waterbury, VT while supplies last. In honor of the concert, VT Gov. Phil Scott proclaimed Thursday “Noah Kahan’s Busyhead Project Day” in honor of the singer’s efforts to speak out about mental health; Kahan, 27, has frequently discussed his own struggles with panic attacks and episodes of depression and anxiety as a child and teen, which he has chronicled on songs such as “Call Your Mom.”
“It is the most tremendous honor to have September 19th be named Noah Kahan’s Busyhead Project Day in the greatest state in America. I will celebrate by eating Ben & Jerry’s, getting a horrific stomach ache from my lactose intolerance, and then drinking a Heady Topper as the sun sets over the Green Mountains,” said Kahan in a statement shared by the Governor’s office. “I have been so fortunate to call this place my home, and I will never forget the love and support that the 802 has showed me. There is no combination of words, lyrics, or music that can fully describe the beauty of this place. I will not try to. I am just honored to be able to live here, to breathe the air, to exist in this magical place, and to call it my home. Thank you Vermont for this great honor.”
Since its launch in 2023, the Busyhead Project has raised more than $2.5 million in its drive to make mental healthcare accessible to all.
You wanted it, you got it. New Kids On the Block announced their first-ever Las Vegas residency on Friday (Sept. 20), The Right Stuff, which will kick off on June 20, 2025 at Dolby Live at Park MGM.
The follow-up to the man band’s 2024 Magic Summer Tour will find Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Donnie Wahlberg, Joey McIntyre and Danny Wood setting up shop for 16 shows in June, July and November of next year.
“We cherish every opportunity that we get to perform for our fans, but a Las Vegas residency gives us an opportunity to take our performance, and interaction with our fans, to the next level,” Wahlberg said in a statement. “We plan on maximizing everything that the amazing Dolby Live at Park MGM has to offer, to create the most incredible NKOTB concert ever. As well as everything that Las Vegas has to offer — to create multiple events to directly engage with our fans. Las Vegas will never be the same after The New Kids and The Blockheads take over the town.”
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According to a release, the group announced the residency while in town for their headlining set at the 2024 iHearRadio Music Festival on Saturday (Sept. 21), taking over the Las Vegas strip after arriving on a double-decker bus. The group then had a special fan event and Q&A at The Park hosted by iHeart’s Valentine.
A fan club pre-sale will kick off on Tuesday (Sept. 24) at 10 a.m PT, with a Citi pre-sale also kicking off on Tuesday at noon p.m. PT lasting through Sept. 26 at 10 a.m. PT; details available here. MGM Rewards and MGM Resorts loyalty rewards program members — and SiriusXM, Live Nation and Ticketmaster customers — will get access to a presale that will begin on Sept. 26 at 10 a.m. PT. A public onsale will begin on Sept. 27 at 10 a.m. PT here.
NKOTB recently wrapped their Magic Summer tour with Paula Abdul and DJ Jazzy Jeff after releasing Still Kids, their first full-length studio album in 11 years.
New Kids on the Block 2025 Las Vegas residency dates:
June 2025: 20, 21, 25, 27, 28
July 2025: 2, 3, 5
November 2025: 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15
Check out the announcement video below.
There’s a magnetism to Carin León that instantly captures your attention, and his first Boca Chueca Tour date at the United Center in Chicago on Thursday (Sept. 19) was a reminder of how dynamic the Mexican hit-maker can be. Just before 9 p.m., León — clad in jeans, a t-shirt, cowboy boots and one of his signature cowboy hats — took over the stage, which he commanded for over two hours, honoring the past, the present and the future of música mexicana and beyond.
“Tonight, we’re leaving our sorrows behind,” he told a multigenerational crowd that mirrored the artist’s cowboy aesthetic. But it was clear that the sorrows would eventually creep back in at some point during the show since León is one of those artists that can’t help but get emotional, especially when he’s singing some of his most heartfelt songs that can mend broken hearts.
Whether you were ready or not, León took you on a roller coaster, perfectly capturing how nuanced regional Mexican music can be. “Genres no longer exist. Borders no longer exist,” he declared. León is among a new generation of Mexican music artists who have clearly defied expectations that have haunted regional Mexican artists for decades — limiting them to some extent.
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León, on the contrary, is pretty limitless and his setlist is a declaration of liberation. With a hefty live band in tow — that quickly adapted from banda to norteño to rock and country — he of course performed fan favorites including “Te Lo Agradezco,” “Según Quién,” “The One (Pero No Como Yo),” “Que Vuelvas,” “La Boda del Huitlacoche,” “No Es Por Acá” and “Primera Cita.”
And he also paid homage to the artists that have influenced him along the way, including Hombres G’s “Te Quiero,” Joan Sebastian’s “Tatuajes,” Banda Zeta’s “La Niña Fresa,” Mi Banda El Mexicano’s “Ramito de Violetas,” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen The Rain,” and Banda Toro’s “La Noche en Que Chicago Se Murió.”
His versatility, which he put on full display during the show, is what has made León stand out in a crowded field of a new wave of Mexican music artists since he had a breakthrough nearly five years ago. That and his infectious hip-swiveling cumbia dance moves and mesmerizing zapateado stomping. Since then, León has only cemented his status as one of the most exciting artists of this generation.
“Long live regional Mexican music, Latin music, long live American music,” he said. “At the end of the day, music is what reunited us here tonight.” By this point, León — sporting a Chicago Bulls jersey — had already chugged down some beers and had emptied a Clase Azul tequila bottle, which he took shots from directly while sharing the wealth with his fans. Throughout the show, he handed over the bottle to someone on his team so they could pour tequila in fans’ cups.
“Qué rifados, Chicago,” he said, noting the crowd’s enthusiasm. “Thank you for always showing up for me.”
León’s back-to-back shows in Chicago come on the heels of his four Latin Grammy nominations, including album of the year for Boca Chueca, Vol. 1. Produced by CMN and AEG, the trek continues with stops in Washington, D.C., New York, Austin and Nashville.
For Seether frontman Shaun Morgan, it’s more exciting to be bringing out a new album — The Surface Seems So Far, which drops Friday, Sept. 20 — than it is to be celebrating the band’s 25th anniversary.
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It has been that long since Morgan formed Seether, as Saron Gas, in his native South Africa (bassist Dale Stewart joined in January of 2000 and has remained since). During the interim the group has released nine studio albums and netted 26 top 10 singles on Billboard’s various rock charts, including 10 No. 1 Mainstream Rock Airplay hits with the new album’s first single, “Judas Mind.” Seether was also Billboard’s No. 1 Active Rock Artist and Heritage Rock Artist in 2011, the same year “Country Song” was the top Active Rock song of the year.
“Sometimes it feels like 25 minutes, sometimes it feels like 250 years,” Morgan tells Billboard via Zoom from his home in Nashville — where, he acknowledges with a chuckle, “I’m 45 now, so it’s been a long time and I’m starting to feel it in the bones, all the respective ailments that slowly creep in with age. There’s always that reality check to let you know you’ve been doing it for awhile.
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“I guess for us the most exciting thing is still to be able to do it…at this level and with this kind of enthusiasm and this kind of fan base. Thankfully so far we’ve managed to keep on trucking and keep the band moving forward. That in itself, I think, is the achievement I focus on.
“I’ve toured many, many years with many, many bands that no longer exist, and they were bands I thought were better than us. We’ve certainly weathered some genres and trends and seen some go and return, and we’ve just sort of been trucking away in the background. Somehow we’ve managed to keep ourselves around and be relevant on some level.”
Seether’s continuing connection with its audience isn’t hard to figure out. The music remains a kind of timeless, high-powered brand of heavy rock, steeped in well-established traditions of classic grunge, metal and, occasionally, punk. As a lyricist, meanwhile, Morgan wears his proverbial heart on his sleeve, unafraid to mine dark emotions all the way back to early favorites such as “Fine Again,” “Gasoline” and “Broken,” the worldwide breakthrough single when it was re-recorded with Evanescence’s Amy Lee for 2004’s Disclaimer II album.
“I just try to write what I like to listen to and what I like to play and what makes me feel something on an emotional level,” Morgan explains. “I don’t try to overthink it; I just write what I’m feeling every time we do an album and try and write music that helps me get through situations, or darker days I guess. I try and always represent the music and myself in an honest and real way and be as vulnerable as I can without being trying to give away too much. I try and be as vague as I can, lyrically, so people can apply the songs to how they’re feeling and maybe get something out of it that way.
“So all of that combined would contribute maybe, to the fact we’re still here.”
Fans likely won’t have trouble relating to the 11 tracks on The Surface Seems So Far, either.
Written during an 18-month period during which Morgan’s wife gave birth to their third child, the songs stem from “a lot of existential crisis moments” he was experiencing during the 2020 pandemic lockdown, which came just a few months before the release of Seether’s last album, Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum.
“Obviously 2020 was a wash, and 2021 and ’22 weren’t much better,” Morgan explains. “I’d been told by the powers that be that I was not a relevant or important person and my livelihood was not important for a very long time.” And while he wasn’t sorry that “I got to sit and be with family and really enjoy being a dad and a husband,” Morgan also faced “moments of self-doubt and the genuine anguish of wondering, ‘OK, what’s next? Is this all that there is? Do I have to find something else I want to do for the rest of my life, where I feel more fulfilled and maybe don’t feel quite so expendable?’ There were many times I thought about quitting, yeah.
“Those were the biggest issues for me in writing this album.”
Those heavy questions can be felt throughout The Surface Seems So Far as Seether — Morgan, Stewart drummer John Humphrey and guitarist Corey Lowery — steam through the leaden dynamics of songs such as “Try to Heal,” “Same Mistakes,” “Semblance of Me,” “Paint the World,” “Dead on the Vine” and “Illusion,” while “Walls Come Down” stands out as a more melodic counterweight.
“It’s funny; this is the first album we’ve done that doesn’t have an acoustic (track) on it, which I didn’t realize until we were done,” Morgan notes. “I wrote about 20 songs and we ended up recording about 13 of them. But there was never really a thought about what I wanted it to sound like. Whenever I start writing for albums it’s sort of a fishing expedition; I don’t know what I’m doing and I have no direction, so I just start writing and the direction reveals itself to me.
“And the most powerful emotions of the past few years for me were certainly rage and anger, and in this particular snapshot of my life most of it was, ‘I need to get rid of this frustration and this anger,’ and that leads to heavier music, obviously.”
The Surface Seems So Far marks Morgan’s third consecutive album as producer, too, a task he first found “daunting” but that he’s grown more comfortable with over time. “There’s only one producer I worked with who I felt the experience was positive and I learned something from, and that was Brendan O’Brien,” who produced Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray in 2011 and 2014’s Isolate and Medicate. Morgan explains that, “I came out the other side of those albums with him and thought, ‘OK, I’ve learned enough about songwriting from him. I’ve learned enough about producing from him, the approach of making an album from him, and I’ve learned from the either guys what I DON’T want to do, so lemme give it a shot and see how it works out.’ And because of that these past three albums are actually the first time a high percentage of me is proud of how they sound.”
That said, Morgan doesn’t rule out working with someone else in the future.
“I’m not opposed to it,” he says. “I always had in my mind there would be this trio of albums I’d produce, and they’d all kind of be in a similar vein and have a similar kind of theme or a similar kind of sound, and when the next album comes it’s gonna be a brand new chapter…and maybe have somebody else come in and give me an opinion again from an outsider’s perspective. We’ll see.”
For now Morgan and Seether are excited to be getting back on the road. Dates have just started with Skillet, running into October with some festival stops (Louder Than Life in Louisville, Rocktoberfest in Oceanside, Calif. and Aftershock in Sacramento) and more ahead for 2025. The new album will be fresh, of course, but Morgan predicts that “‘Judas Mind’ will definitely be in the set list, and I might want to play ‘Illusion’ ’cause it’s one of my favorite songs on the album and is on the streaming platforms, so people can know it. You do want to play the songs that fans are there to see, right? So I do want to play all the classics, so to speak, and once the album’s been out a little longer we can start to play more of those songs and get a feel about those from the audience.
“We’re just happy to be getting back on the road, man. We are a touring band, and we haven’t been able to do as much in the last few years, so we’re really ready for this now.”