Music
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Courtney Love delivered a surprise cover of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” during an event in London earlier this week, adding to her growing repertoire of unexpected live covers.
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The Hole frontwoman performed the iconic 1965 track at the Royal Geographical Society on Tuesday (March 4) while appearing in conversation with actor-writer Todd Almond. The event celebrated Almond’s new oral history collection Slow Train Coming: Bob Dylan’s ‘Girl From the North Country’ and Broadway’s Rebirth.
Following their discussion, Love stepped onto the stage alongside an acoustic guitarist, delivering a raw and impassioned rendition of the classic song, with Almond providing backing vocals.
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The performance took place nearly 60 years after Dylan famously played “Like a Rolling Stone” at the Royal Albert Hall, just next door to the event venue.
During the evening, Love also addressed longstanding speculation about a Hole reunion—shutting down rumors once again. Despite previously hinting in early 2024 that the band might reunite, she reiterated that there are no current plans to bring the group back together.
Love’s choice of cover continues a recent trend of unexpected performances. In February, she appeared onstage alongside Green Day frontman, Billie Joe Armstrong, who was performing at the U.K. venue The Garage with his side-project covers band, The Coverups.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Courtney Love,” Armstrong said halfway through the show according to fan video of the moment the singer unexpectedly took the stage. “Thank you, Billie Joe. My name is Courtney Love – you may not remember me. I’ve been living in a cave in Birmingham for about nine years. We’ll give this a f–king try, right?”
Love then crashed through revved-up takes on Cheap Trick’s 1977 power pop classic “He’s a Whore” and the 1979 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers tune “Even the Losers” and, according to NME, came back for an encore of Cheap Trick’s iconic “Surrender.”
In 2021, she also surprised fans with a rendition of Britney Spears’ “Lucky,” and in 2017, she took on Selena Gomez’s “Hands to Myself.”
Love’s surprise cover comes as Dylan remains a focal point of discussion in music and film circles. The legendary singer-songwriter was recently reported to have declined an invitation to perform and present at the 2025 Oscars. His biopic A Complete Unknown received eight nominations but did not secure any wins.
Ice Cube has found himself caught in the chaos of Cyclone Alfred, with the rap icon stranded at his Gold Coast hotel as the storm barrels toward Australia’s southeastern coast.
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Appearing on The Project on Wednesday night, Ice Cube, real name O’Shea Jackson Sr, gave his take on the situation, joking, “I’m staying clear of it. You know, I’m right here on the beach. The beach looks like it is going to be in the lobby in a minute.”
The “It’s My Ego” rapper in Australia for a string of shows in Sydney and Melbourne also admitted this was a first for him, saying, “It is pretty cool, I haven’t been through a cyclone before. I can check this off my bucket list for sure.”
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Cube, with B Wise, will perform at Sydney’s ICC Theatre on Friday, March 7, then head to Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Sunday.
While Ice remains in Gold Coast as the severe weather system approaches, authorities are urging residents to act immediately. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli warned, “There is a chance this cyclone will cross in the middle of the night with a high tide. That is not the time to be making your evacuation plan, now is the time.”
Cyclone Alfred, currently classified as a Category 2 system, is bringing dangerous conditions along the Queensland and New South Wales coastlines, prompting widespread disruptions. Public transport across Brisbane, Gold Coast, and other affected areas is being suspended from Wednesday, and several concerts and sporting events have been canceled.
Among the high-profile cancellations is Green Day’s final Australian concert, which was scheduled for March 6 at Gold Coast’s Robina Stadium as part of their Saviors tour. Promoters confirmed the show could not proceed due to the extreme weather forecast, with ticket holders urged to seek refunds.
Other shows being called off due to the impending weather event include Brad Cox, Courteneers, Alexisonfire and Underoath. Meanwhile, Cyclone Alfred has already caused flooding, power outages, and high winds in several coastal areas, with emergency services on high alert as the storm nears landfall.
Australian musician Nick Cave has always been full of surprises, from his incendiary live performances as the singer of The Birthday Party in the early ‘80s, to collaborating with Kylie Minogue as leader of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. However, few may have seen Staffordshire-style ceramic sculptures as the post-punk icon’s latest passion.
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While it’s not the first topic to come to mind when Cave’s name is mentioned, the 67-year-old has been hard at work as a ceramic sculptor for a number of years now, having first adopted the craft during the global pandemic. Later in 2022, he held his first exhibition, with a series of 17 figures depicting the life story of the devil going on display at Finland’s Sara Hildén Art Museum.
In a recent interview with The Art Newspaper, Cave discussed his fondness for the figures, and his ‘The Devil — A Life’ series, which is currently on display at Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar, Netherlands.
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“I’ve collected Staffordshire-style sculptures for years. I just love these things,” he explained. “They’re not expensive works of art; you find them in second-hand shops. I just had them in front of me as I was just sitting at my desk. We sort of grew idle through Covid [and] were allowed to do things that we normally wouldn’t have done. I sat there looking at one of these Staffordshires just thinking, ‘I can do this.’”
According to Cave, his mother had loved the clay figurines he made as a teenager, and her passing at 92 during Covid left him with a “sentimental tug” that soon evolved into his newfound passion. “Mostly it was just that I thought, ‘F–k, you know, it can’t be that hard to make one of these things,’” he explained.
Admitting there is “no irony” to his love of the art form, Cave added that his 17-piece ‘The Devil — A Life’ series also served as a way for him to come to terms with some of the internal feelings that still resonated following the accidental death of his 15-year-old son Arthur in 2015.
“The whole thing started to have a more mysterious, mystical pull,” he explained. “Then they started to be in order, one after the other. They were trying to make sense of my predicament in a way that I couldn’t make sense of it in my songs, for some reason.
“Ultimately, this ended up being something about culpability and forgiveness around the death of my son,” he added. “That was something that I could never quite get to in my songwriting. To me, these became acutely personal.”
Cave’s most recent body of work, Wild God, arrived in August as his 18th studio album with the Bad Seeds. The record reached No. 2 on the charts in his native Australia, while peaking at No. 66 on the Billboard 200. The album received two Grammy nominations and was also nominated for the Australian Music Prize, ultimately losing out to Kankawa Nagarra’s Wirlmarni.
Roy Ayers, the multi-hyphenate composer and artist nicknamed the ‘Godfather of Neo Soul,’ has passed away at the age of 84.
News of Ayers’ passing was confirmed on Wednesday (March 5), with a statement shared via his official Facebook page.
“It is with great sadness that the family of legendary vibraphonist, composer and producer Roy Ayers announce his passing which occurred on March 4th, 2025 in New York City after a long illness,” the post wrote. “He lived a beautiful 84 years and will be sorely missed. His family ask that you respect their privacy at this time, a celebration of Roy’s life will be forthcoming.”
Born in Los Angeles in 1940, Ayers was surrounded by music from a young age thanks to his pianist mother and trombonist father. Ayers himself took to the vibraphone at the age of five when he was gifted a pair of mallets from Lionel Hampton.
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Performing music throughout high school thanks to a church choir and local bands, Ayers launched his musical career in earnest in 1962, serving as a sideman for saxophonist Curtis Amy and cool jazz outfit The Jack Wilson Quartet, releasing his debut solo album West Coast Vibes in 1963.
By 1970, Ayers had formed his own group under the name Roy Ayers Ubiquity, and in 1973 he found wider fame after soundtracking Jack Hill’s blaxploitation film Coffy, starring Pam Grier. Roy Ayers Ubiquity experienced years of chart success in the latter half of the decade, starting with 1975’s Mystic Voyage, which hit No. 13 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and 1976’s Everybody Loves the Sunshine, which reached No. 10 on the same chart, and No. 51 on the Billboard 200.
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The title track to the latter record would become one of Ayers’ best-known compositions, going on to be sampled by artists such as Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige and Common, and covered by the likes of D’Angelo, Jamie Cullum and Robert Glasper. It also cemented his status as one of the more prominent figures in the neo-soul scene, with the likes of Pharrell Williams citing Ayers as one of his most influential artists.
While 1977’s Lifeline saw “Running Away” hitting No. 19 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, Ayers’ career continued as a solo artist in the coming decades, with his biggest chart success coming by way of 1980’s No Stranger to Love, which reached No. 22 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
He remained a prominent force on the charts throughout the ‘80s, and while he never scored a track on the Hot 100, 1986’s “Hot” would hit No. 20 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, while his Eric Benet collaboration “When You Think Of Me” would give him his last appearance on the same chart, peaking at No. 46 in 2000.
Ayers would continue composing and performing into the 21st century, working with the likes of Erykah Badu, Tyler, the Creator, Kerri Chandler, and more. He is survived by his wife Argerie, and their two children Mtume and Ayana Ayers.
Haim is back with new music and their characteristic sense of humor. The sister trio took to Instagram on Wednesday (March 5) to post a photo in promotion of their upcoming single “Relationships.” In the snap, Danielle, Este and Alana Haim are seen walking in a parking lot, basking in the sun with huge smiles […]
Coldplay vocalist Chris Martin is working with FIFA to curate the first Super Bowl-style halftime show at the World Cup final next year. The MetLife Stadium in New Jersey — to be known as New York New Jersey Stadium for the World Cup — will host the final on July 19, 2026. FIFA is also […]
Diplo is taking off on foot across the country, with the announcement that Diplo’s Run Club will happen in six U.S. cities in 2025 and 2026. Featuring a 5k run and what’s being categorized as a “mini music festival” headlined by the namesake producer, Diplo’s Run Club will take place in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, […]
Calvin Harris is getting ready to release a country-oriented song, featuring himself on vocals. Today (March 5), the Scottish superstar producer posted a 30-second clip of himself singing a new song called “Smoke the Pain Away.” In the video, occasionally filmed in soft focus, Harris sits on a chair and plays an acoustic guitar to […]
Hamilton is taking a stand.
The beloved musical was scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center for the third time in March and April of 2026, but have since canceled the run due to President Donald Trump‘s recent takeover of the performing arts institution. “Political disagreement and debate are vital expressions of democracy,” lead producer Jeffrey Seller said in a statement, shared to the official Hamilton X page. “These basic concepts of freedom are at the very heart of Hamilton. However, some institutions are sacred and should be protected from politics. The Kennedy Center is one such institution.”
He continued, “The Kennedy Center was founded over 50 years ago with a sincere bipartisan spirit. Indeed, it was founded during the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower, named after President John F. Kennedy, and opened in 1971 under the administration of Richard M. Nixon. The Kennedy Center was meant to be for all Americans, a place where we could all come together in celebration of the arts. Politics have never affected the presentation of thousands of shows and the display of extraordinary visual arts.”
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However, Seller noted that, “Given the recent actions, our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center.”
In the first month of his second term, Trump fired the Kennedy Center’s leadership and replaced the board of trustees with his supporters, ultimately announcing he had been “unanimously” elected the board’s chair. “At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” he wrote on his social media website at the time, according to the Associated Press. “I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”
Several other famous names associated with the Kennedy Center resigned following the news, including Ben Folds, Renée Fleming and Shonda Rhimes. Like the Hamilton production, Issa Rae is also among those who cancelled shows at the Kennedy Center.
As Carrie Underwood‘s career is about to come full-circle, the onetime American Idol hopeful is looking back to where she started.
In a new episode of the reality show’s Icon to Idol series posted to YouTube on Tuesday — just days ahead of the season 23 premiere, on which Underwood will make her debut as a judge — the country star rewatches her 2005 audition and gets emotional. In the old footage, a much younger version of herself sings Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” for the O.G. panel comprised of Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul, who unanimously push her through to Hollywood.
“I have no idea how that 21-year-old Carrie was able to muster up enough guts to walk into a room and audition in front of Simon, Paula and Randy, and the world,” Underwood says after the footage ends.
“At my audition, I think I was just trying to hold in all my emotions — literally, hold them into my body,” she continues, revealing that she still has her audition number memorized: “It’s tattooed in my brain. I should actually get a tattoo of that somewhere on my body. Because I will always be 14887.”
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A few months after her tryout, Underwood would go on to win the fourth season of Idol and kickstart a long, successful career in country music, complete with four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. She’ll soon experience what it’s like to be on the other side of the Idol auditions process once the next season of the show officially premieres Sunday (March 9), taking over Katy Perry’s vacant spot on the panel next to co-judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan.
She’ll also be the only judge to know exactly what it’s like to go through the show’s wringer. After rewatching her audition on Idol to Icon, Underwood also looked through the two-decade-old journal she kept while she was a contestant on the show and got choked up.
“I don’t even know if I could tell her what she’s about to experience,” she says in the video, fighting back tears. “Seeing myself, 21 years old, the world ahead of you. Obviously, it’s overwhelming, but you’re gonna do fine, kid. You’re gonna be OK. Just hold on.”
Watch Underwood get emotional after rewatching her Idol audition above.