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Tate McRae doesn’t just score her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, as So Close to What soars in atop the tally dated March 8 — she also becomes the first Canadian woman to lead the list during the 2020s.
The Calgary, Alberta, native is the first woman to proudly fly the Canadian flag atop the Billboard 200 since Celine Dion debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated Nov. 30, 2019, with Courage. Dion boasts the most leaders on the chart among Canadian women, with five dating to her first in 1996.
McRae further makes her mark as the first woman from the province of Alberta to top the Billboard 200.
Alanis Morissette has earned three Billboard 200 No. 1s — and became the first Canadian woman to reign when her pop-culture juggernaut Jagged Little Pill rose to the top of the chart dated Oct. 7, 1995.
Fellow Canadian chanteuses Avril Lavigne and Shania Twain have also each notched multiple Billboard 200 No. 1s.
Shoutout to two revered Canadian women singer-songwriters who have both hit No. 2 highs on the Billboard 200: Joni Mitchell and Sarah McLachlan. Mitchell, from Fort Macleod, Alberta, sent Court and Spark and Miles of Aisles to the runner-up spot in 1974-75. McLachlan, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, took Surfacing and Afterglow in 1997 and 2003, respectively.
Plus, soft rock/country icon Anne Murray, from Springhill, Nova Scotia, has charted more than 30 titles on the Billboard 200, along with 18 top 10s on the Top Country Albums chart.
Meanwhile, McRae succeeds two Canadian men atop the Billboard 200, as $ome $exy $ongs 4 U by PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake dips to No. 2 in its second week. Canadian soloists rule back-to-back for the first time since October 2016, when Shawn Mendes’ Illuminate dethroned Drake’s Views. Adding to Canada’s legacy atop the Billboard 200, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U became Drake’s 14th No. 1 — tying him with Jay-Z and Taylor Swift for the most among soloists.
Below, celebrate the achievements of the Canadian women who have hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Celine Dion
On the brick wall facing the Pittsburg Hot Links parking lot, a mural memorializes the small East Texas town’s most famous citizens, including Mean Gene the Hot Link King and Homer Jones, the New York Giants receiver who invented spiking the football after a touchdown.
Soon enough, Pittsburg native Koe Wetzel could be right up there with them. “Maybe [after] a couple more No. 1s,” Wetzel muses as he looks up at those faces. He sounds dubious that he has earned his spot quite yet, but the 32-year-old singer-songwriter is well on his way. His breakthrough hit about a volatile relationship, “High Road” with Jessie Murph, spent five weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart in December and January. “I know the folks who own the place,” he adds with a laugh. “I might go buy some watercolors and paint it myself.”
Koe Wetzel performs at Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW at Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park in Austin on March 13. Get your tickets here.
Wetzel may not believe he’s a local legend yet, but it’s clear that here in his hometown, his star status is confirmed. As he strides across the crosswalk Abbey Road-style in historic Downtown Pittsburg at 8:30 a.m., a fan sticks his head out of a store door and yells “My hero!” his way. Wetzel left Pittsburg (population: 4,335) when he was 18 to attend Tarleton State University in Stephensville, Texas, on a football scholarship as a linebacker. He now lives outside Fort Worth, but his roots run through his gritty brand of country rock, which he delivers in a powerful twang that draws on the long tradition of Texas outlaw country and confessional storytellers like Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark.
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“Koe is the epitome of an artist that is writing his own narrative,” Jelly Roll tells Billboard of Wetzel, whom he toured with in 2022 on the wryly titled Role Models outing. “He’s not writing what everyone else writes. He’s not trying to write another person’s narrative; he’s writing the way he naturally feels. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time — since his first project.”
Whatever he’s singing about — turbulent romances, getting busted for drunk driving or popping pills to get to sleep after a show — in song and conversation, Wetzel is unashamedly himself, with no apologies and no regrets, just like his namesake, country rabble-rouser David Allan Coe. “I was probably conceived to a David Allan Coe song,” he speculates. (His full name is Ropyr Madison Koe Wetzel; “My mom was pretty indecisive,” he says with a playful shake of his head at the multiple names.)
By the time he got kicked out of college his sophomore year for “having too good a time,” Wetzel was already playing shows and focused more on music than books. “Being a Texas artist, you can tour year-round here in Texas. A lot of people do and make a damn good living at it,” he says. “Coming up, that was kind of my main goal and pretty much my only goal.”
Koe Wetzel photographed January 22, 2025 in Pittsburg, Texas.
Eric Ryan Anderson
Jeb Hurt, who has managed Wetzel since 2019, recalls seeing him at a 300-capacity venue in San Marcos, Texas, in 2016. “If there were 200 there, 125 of them were college girls, and they were crammed against the stage screaming every word back to the band,” he says. Hurt, then a booking agent, quickly signed Wetzel, whose audiences grew exponentially through word-of-mouth. “If it was 200 people, the next time there were 400, then 800,” Hurt says. “Next thing you know, we’re in 5,000-cap venues in 24 months.”
Now, Wetzel — who signed with Columbia Records in 2020 — is building his audience around the rest of the country and the world. He toured in Europe last year and will play Australia in March. “It used to be about having a good time, making rent, making gas money to get to the next show,” Wetzel reflects. “And now it’s completely different. It’s wild to see where it’s come from and where we’re at.”
While his act is still built around raising hell onstage, Wetzel has realized that by sharing his own often unsettling stories, he’s helping others feel less alone. “Whenever I see those people sing the songs back or I’m meeting them and [they’re] telling me that what I told them saved their life — they were going to off themselves — that is really special,” Wetzel says, his voice growing thick with emotion. “I didn’t know that it was going to be that way, but now that it is, it’s opened up my mind and my eyes … This isn’t about just taking care of the family anymore and setting everybody up. It’s more about helping these folks live life. But they’re helping me as well. Without them, I’d be out pouring concrete.”
When Wetzel began working on his current album, 2024’s 9 Lives, with Columbia senior vp of A&R Ben Maddahi, his relationship with the label was bruised. “We’d had a bumpy road in our first few album cycles with Columbia,” Hurt says. “Some people left pretty consistently, and so by the time we got to Ben, there was kind of a sense of exhaustion on our [part] of just another A&R person being thrown our way.”
That’s not to say he hadn’t achieved some level of success. After releasing three albums independently, Wetzel had put out two more through the label, including his cheekily titled Columbia debut, Sellout. That and his second album, 2022’s Hell Paso, had together registered eight songs in the top 40 of Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, and the latter set reached No. 3 on Top Country Albums.
Columbia Records chairman/CEO Ron Perry asked Maddahi, who had worked with pop forces like Sia, Flo Rida and Charlie Puth, to meet with Wetzel. “Ron said something to the effect of, ‘He sells tons of tickets and has a die-hard fan base … We have really high hopes for him, but for some reason this hasn’t worked so far,’ ” Maddahi says.
In June 2023, Maddahi flew to Fort Worth to see Wetzel perform a sold-out show at the 14,000-capacity Dickies Arena. “He had an entire arena of people shouting out every word from the nosebleeds to the front row,” Maddahi recalls. “I came back [to the office] saying, ‘This guy’s a superstar.’ ”
Eric Ryan Anderson
Maddahi next flew to a show in Modesto, Calif., after which he and Wetzel had a heart-to-heart about the next album. “I wanted to slow things down,” says Wetzel, who was listening to acts like ambient pop band Cigarettes After Sex. “I didn’t want the super-edgy guitars, really loud drums.”
Maddahi paired him with Gabe Simon, best known for co-producing Noah Kahan’s Stick Season, and brought in several new co-writers, including Amy Allen, who won the 2024 Grammy Award for songwriter of the year and has written hits for Sabrina Carpenter and Harry Styles. It was during a writers camp with Allen and several other songwriters that the midtempo “High Road,” about a tempestuous, dysfunctional relationship, was born.
He and Maddahi immediately thought of Jessie Murph, whom Wetzel had co-written with before, to join him on “High Road,” and when she sent over a verse, “she killed it,” Wetzel recalls. Columbia partnered with RECORDS Nashville to work the song to country radio, and its ascent began.
“He’s very true to himself, and the songs he writes are exactly how he is, which is something I respect a lot,” Murph says of Wetzel. “When I first heard ‘High Road,’ it felt very nostalgic to me. It felt like a song I could’ve heard when I was a kid, which I loved.” To thank Murph, Wetzel bought her a pistol engraved with their names and the song’s title that took three months to make. “I felt it was really Texas of me,” he says proudly.
9 Lives’ cover is a photograph of the double-wide trailer Wetzel lived in with his parents until he was 12. It’s abandoned now and has fallen into disrepair, with broken slats on the wood steps and prickly bushes growing over the front porch. But inside, it’s still full of books, video tapes, pots and pans, photos of his maternal and paternal great-grandparents and a CD of Miranda Lambert’s 2007 album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Long gone are the posters that hung on Wetzel’s bedroom walls of his first crush, teen pop star JoJo, and legendary slugger Mark McGwire. The last inhabitant he remembers was his uncle, who died several years ago. He’s not sure who’s living there now, if anyone. Standing inside, he surmises, “I think it’s just a big ol’ family of raccoons.”
His father was a truck driver who shifted into construction when Wetzel was around 11, enabling the family to build a house on the land and move out of the trailer. His mother was a bank teller and a singer who often took Wetzel along to her gigs. He remembers, at age 5, grabbing his dad’s old Hummingbird guitar that was down to two or three strings, “being in my Spider-Man underwear and feeling like I was playing to a million people. Looking back now, it’s like a dream come true.”
Koe Wetzel photographed January 22, 2025 in Pittsburg, Texas.
Eric Ryan Anderson
As a teen, he loved ’90s country, especially acts like the rough-hewn Kentucky Headhunters. But he also loved Nirvana, so much so that at 12 he asked for tickets to see the band for Christmas — and his parents had to break the news that not only was the band not together, but Kurt Cobain had been dead for a decade. “Nirvana had a huge impact,” he says. “I think that resonates with the way I play music — the big guitars, the catchy melodic hooks.”
The trailer sits on 100 acres of land that his great-grandfather bought in the 1930s. Wetzel’s family had gotten behind on the taxes and risked losing it until he bought and paid off the property in 2021. “This land means so much to me and my family. I never wanted anyone else to have it,” he says. While he doesn’t see living on it again himself, he plans to add some cows and, “hopefully, raising a family and having them come out here.”
That family is expanding soon: Wetzel and his girlfriend, Bailey Fisher, are expecting a baby girl in June, news they would announce on social media a few weeks after our interview. “We dated in college, and the last two years resparked everything,” Wetzel explains, then adds with typical candor, “It’s not some random chick I knocked up. I mean, we’re excited as hell. I’m scared as f–k … I’m getting older, I’m growing out of the college party lifestyle I’ve been on the last 10 years … They say there’s always a time to grow up and get your s–t together, and my stuff is not together by no means at all, [but] it’s a lot different than what it was.”
In a corner of Koe Wetzel’s Riot Room stands Dirty Sancho. The nonworking mechanical bull, named for the first Professional Bull Riders bull Wetzel bought (he now owns eight) is just one piece of his personal memorabilia decorating the 7,000-square-foot bar and nightclub Wetzel opened in Fort Worth’s Cultural District in 2023. “We’ve had to sew his head back on a couple of times,” he says of Dirty Sancho. “He’s seen some s–t.”
Wetzel opened the Fort Worth bar, in part, so he would have a place to “drink and party and not worry about people putting me in jail at night,” he says, sitting on a stool in the Riot Room sipping tequila over ice. (A second Riot Room will open in Houston later this year, with hopes of more locations to follow.)
He’s not kidding around. His boisterous “February 28, 2016” from 2016’s Noise Complaint chronicles the night he was arrested for drunk driving, describing how in his inebriated state he just wants to find someone “sober enough to take me to Taco Bell.” The song has become an anthem for his fans, so much so that they’ve made Feb. 28 unofficial Koe Wetzel Day. On that day this year, he released a live album culled from 2024’s Damn Near Normal tour to thank his fans and dropped by the bar to play a few songs live, but he winces a little when he talks about the tune.
“Whenever we play it, I’m very grateful for what it’s done for us, but I’m kind of like, ‘F–k,’ ” he says. He doesn’t hate the song, exactly — it’s just that he’s in a very different place at 32 than he was when he wrote it at 24. “I’m not that person as an artist anymore,” he says. “I’m not that person just having a good time.”
Eric Ryan Anderson
He has different regrets about “Drunk Driving” from 2020’s Sellout. In a catalog of dark songs, it’s one of Wetzel’s darkest: The narrator is driving drunk and trying to outrun his sins as he sings, “Everybody’s got to die somehow/Why not me right now.” It was Wetzel’s attempt to put himself in the mindset of some friends who had died in drunk driving accidents, and, looking back, he wishes he had named it something else. “The song’s not about condoning drunk driving or anything like that,” he says. “It’s a very emotional song.”
Then there’s Hell Paso track “Cabo,” which he swears is a true story about spending money on hookers and blow in the Mexican resort town. The crowd goes crazy when he plays it, he says, but he admits, “Me and Mama haven’t really talked about that one. I know it’s not her favorite by far.” (His mother and father do have plenty of other favorites and frequently come to his gigs: “I think they cry every damn show, her and my pops,” he says. “They’re crying, singing all the words. They’re proud of their baby boy.”)
The connection his fans have to some of Wetzel’s older, often brutally honest lyrics can lead to the misperception that he’s “some f–king hellion,” says Wetzel, who quit counting his number of tattoos at 36. “I feel like most of my music came from whenever I was going balls to the wall, and it’s just kind of not who I am anymore. I can still run it with the best of them, but I feel like they make their opinion of me before they get to meet me, and sometimes that sucks.”
Still, he admits that 1 p.m. Koe and 4 a.m. Koe are two different people. “That’s rock star Koe. He’s kind of a d–k,” he says of the late-night version. “He’s a lot of fun, but he can get out of hand really f–king fast.”
Eric Ryan Anderson
He has somewhat curbed his drinking, including switching from whiskey to tequila. On his Damn Near Normal tour last year, he and some of his bandmates had a ritual: “An hour before the show, we’ll drink a bottle of tequila. If I start earlier, then the show will be s–t, but if I start just after 5 p.m. and kind of drink a couple beers, bottle of tequila, then it’s like the right amount. You get onstage, everything’s smooth sailing, and it feels good.”
He has also changed his after-show routine, hopping straight on the bus as soon as the concert is over. “They took the after-parties away from me. I go shower on the bus, put my comfy clothes on, drink a couple beers, watch a movie, and I was in bed by midnight, 1 o’clock,” he says before admitting: “Honestly, I kind of enjoyed it. I sounded better than I ever had because I was taking care of myself a little bit more.”
Koe Wetzel’s lake house is haunted by a ghost his two younger sisters have named Irene. There’s an underwater cemetery about 100 yards away in the lake, but no one knows if there’s any connection. Irene causes all kinds of mischief, Wetzel says, including throwing bottles off the bar and turning on the TV. “You’ll see her walking the balcony up here every now and then,” he says, describing an opaque apparition. “She kind of f–ks with new people who stay here.” As if on cue, the closed front door suddenly swings wide open on its own.
Irene’s presence notwithstanding, “it’s a safe haven for me,” Wetzel says of this place on Pittsburg’s outskirts. With its spotty cell service, he can unplug, write and relax. “I bought it for us to make more memories,” he says of his friends and family, who come to grill and hang out on his five boats.
The walls on one side are lined with RIAA plaques — 12 of his songs have been certified gold or platinum — while the rest are covered with fish, bird and deer mounts, including deer killed by three generations of Wetzel men. But pride of place goes to an alligator skull on a sideboard; Wetzel killed the reptile with a buck knife during COVID-19 isolation in Matagorda Bay, Texas. “I got in the water, Steve Irwin’d him a little bit,” he says, sipping a Busch Light and pointing to a photo of him sitting astride the alligator. “Cool story to tell but my mom hates that story. She don’t like it when I do dumb s–t. She worries about her baby way too much.”
Eric Ryan Anderson
There’s also a photo of him with a giant catfish he caught with his bare hands — known as noodling — in the lake. His biggest catch has been 62 pounds, which he and his buddies tagged and tossed back. Asked whether killing a bear with a bow and arrow or having a five-week No. 1 is more satisfying, Wetzel pauses to give the question considerable thought, then decides: “Adrenaline-wise, killing a bear with a bow. Accomplishment-wise, a five-week No. 1.”
For all his love of hunting and fishing, those subjects haven’t found their way into Wetzel’s music. “I feel like I was put here to write about relationships gone bad or going good. Real-world stuff, I guess,” he says. “Not saying that hunting is not. It’s a huge part of my life and I love it to death, but I just guess I haven’t figured out what I wanted to say about it yet.”
Yet as he begins working on new music, Wetzel, who will tour this year with HARDY and Morgan Wallen, as well as play Stagecoach and other festivals, says he’s increasingly finding that all his passions are intertwined.
“I feel like every time I’m [writing], it peels back a layer of who I am. I find something that I didn’t know was there,” he says. “Whenever you get the song completed, there’s no more holes in it. There’s nothing else you could do for that song. It’s like, ‘Man, this is insane. This is really cool.’ It’s almost like the noodling and the hunting for me: It’s something that I feel like I’ll never master, but it’s what keeps me coming back and back. It’s a cool deal.”
This story appears in the March 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
On the brick wall facing the Pittsburg Hot Links parking lot, a mural memorializes the small East Texas town’s most famous citizens, including Mean Gene the Hot Link King and Homer Jones, the New York Giants receiver who invented spiking the football after a touchdown. Soon enough, Pittsburg native Koe Wetzel could be right up […]
Souvenirs, Dan Fogelberg’s second album and the revered singer/songwriter’s commercial breakthrough, will be introduced to a new generation with a special vinyl reissue and digital remastered version to celebrate the album’s 50th anniversary.
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The Joe Walsh-produced album, originally released in October 1974, was Fogelberg’s first album to reach the top 20 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified double platinum by the RIAA. The upbeat, philosophical single, “Part of the Plan,” reached No. 31 on the Hot 100 and was also an adult contemporary hit, peaking at No. 22.
The digital version will include four bonus tracks via Sony’s Legacy Recordings, including previously unreleased tune, “I Know a Thief,” a delicate, yet intense song that will be available on all streamers today. Also included on the digital release, which will be available for streaming in full on April 4, are three other bonus tracks: early versions of “As the Raven Flies” and “Illinois” and the original demo of “There’s a Place in the World for a Gambler.” Sony found the recordings in their vaults as work began on the reissues.
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The 180-gram audiophile vinyl LP version, which can be pre-ordered here, will be limited to 3,000 numbered copies, and will ship on May 30. The Chris Bellman-remastered edition includes a 16-page booklet featuring previously unseen photographs by Henry Diltz, as well as liner notes from Charles L. Granata and exclusive interviews with many involved in the album’s creation, including Fogelberg’s friend and manager Irving Azoff, Full Moon Records executive Bryan Garofalo, Diltz, producer/engineer Bill Szymczyk and bassist Kenny Passarelli and Gerry Beckley of America.
DAN FOGELBERG
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Impex Records/Sony Music will release both projects in conjunction with Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group (IAG), which oversees Fogelberg’s legacy in partnership with his estate. Azoff and Fogelberg, who died in 2007 from cancer, dropped out of the University of Illinois together in the early 1970s to come to Los Angeles, moving into a one-bedroom apartment in West Hollywood from which Azoff oversaw Fogelberg’s nascent career.
Souvenirs, which was released on Azoff’s Epic Records-distributed Full Moon imprint, followed Fogelberg’s Norbert Putnam-produced Columbia Records debut, Home Free, which came out in 1972 but had not yielded any hits. With Souvenirs, he found his sound.
“When Dan made the first record, that was kind of the post-Neil Young After the Gold Rush era. He was inspired by a lot of the production on those records,” Azoff tells Billboard. “But he wanted to go more electric on the second album.”
Azoff had also begun managing the Eagles and Fogelberg opened for the band and struck up a friendship with Walsh, leading the Eagles guitarist to produce Souvenirs and record the set fully in Los Angeles. Eagles Don Henley and Glenn Frey also sang backing vocals on the set.
The album helped make Fogelberg a mainstay on adult contemporary radio for nearly 20 years, scoring such top 10 hits as “Longer,” “Heart Hotels,” “Same Old Lang Syne,” “Leader of the Band,” “Make Love Stay” and “Rhythm of the Rain.”
In 2023, IAG acquired the controlling interests in a broad range of Fogelberg’s rights, including name, image, likeness, sound recordings, audiovisual works and music publishing. His widow, Jean Fogelberg, controls the rest.
The hope is that the reissue will appeal to Fogelberg devotees, as well as introduce him to new listeners.
“We are always looking for a new generation of fans and I think his music will identify with younger people,” Azoff says. “There seems to be room now for sensitive lyrically relevant music. We are just happy to try to put his work in front of fans new and old.”
As significant anniversaries arise for subsequent Fogelberg albums, Azoff says, “I am sure we are looking forward to remarketing each album as they hit milestones.”
At this stage, though, there are no plans for visual components, such as a documentary. “I wish there enough footage for the right documentary but in those days, there just isn’t enough,” Azoff says.
Track Listing:
Part of the Plan
Illinois
Changing Horses
Better Change
Souvenirs
The Long Way
As The Raven Flies
Song from Half Mountain
Morning Sky
Someone’s Been Telling You Stories
There’s a Place in the World for a Gambler
BONUS TRACKS (Digital Only):
I Know a Thief (Never Before Heard)
As the Raven Flies (Early Version)
There’s a Place in the World for a Gambler (Original Demo Version)
Illinois (Early Version)
Nashville will host its first-ever professional rodeo this spring when the Music City Rodeo touches down at Bridgestone Arena fromMay 29-31. The partnership between Tim McGraw‘s Down Home entertainment group, Skydance Media and Humes Rodeo will feature McGraw, Jelly Roll and Reba McEntire headlining shows during Music City’s first Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) event.
“As a Nashville native, this felt like a chance to be a part of a history-making event for the city,” said Jelly Roll in a statement. “I have vivid memories when it was announced in Nashville that we were getting a hockey team with the Predators, or a football team with the Titans… and I watched Bridgestone Arena be built from the ground up. Headlining Music City Rodeo in my hometown as a part of the first rodeo brought to town feels like the same type of milestone.”
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Jelly also appears in a minute-long promo video for the Rodeo, jumping behind the bar at a nightclub and saying, “ain’t your usual stop, is it boys?” to a group of cowboys, as Reba says in voiceover, “right here in the heart of Broadway where honky tonk neon meets daredevil grit, rodeo and country music collide. “Three nights of guts, glory and history in the making,” McGraw adds over thrilling footage of the cowboys roping and riding.
According to a release, “each day will showcase 7 thrilling rodeo events from bull riding to barrel racing, team roping to broncs, featuring the world’s best cowboys and cowgirls going head-to-head for over $200,000.00 in prize money. Fans will enjoy the full pageantry of rodeo with additional family-friendly activities like mutton bustin’, clowns and Rodeo Queens, before culminating each night in a headlining arena concert.”
McEntire is slated to perform on opening night (May 29), followed by Jelly on the 30th and McGraw on the 31st.
McGraw, McEntire and Jelly Roll are serving as the founding members of MCR, with McGraw — who has played more than 20 historic rodeos across the country during his carer — saying in a statement, ““For eight decades, Nashville’s music stars have been the soundtrack to America’s iconic rodeos — country music and rodeo go hand in hand. So, it was time to bring the magic of the rodeo home to Nashville and I’m thrilled to be bringing it here.”
Tickets for MCR will go on sale on Friday (March 7) at 10 a.m. CT. A select amount of pre-sale tickets and VIP packages will be available starting Wednesday (March 5) at 10 a.m. CT here.
“It’s no secret that rodeo is in my blood, and I’m thrilled to be a part of starting a new Nashville tradition,” added McEntire. “Country music and rodeo coming together in Music City, what a perfect combination…I just knew I had to be part of it.”
MCR is partnering with Nashville’s Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt to benefit the patients and families it serves, with a portion of all event proceeds earmarked to support the hospital’s mission of providing world class pediatric healthcare and research.
“Having been involved in rodeo my entire life, both inside and outside the arena, there is no other city built better for rodeo than Nashville,” said Pat Humes of Humes Rodeo. “I knew it from the moment my boots first hit the ground here. You can feel it. The people here are genuine, kind, polite and they like to have fun. They act and live like cowboys. The city breathes country music. It’s woven into the fabric of life here. It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced.”
Check out the promo video for the Music City Rodeo below.
Reunited thrash metal icons Slayer announced a run of 2025 shows in the North America and Europe on Tuesday (March 4), with the gigs representing the band’s first U.K. and Canadian concerts in six years. As previously announced, the group — bassist/singer Tom Araya, guitarist Kerry King, drummer Paul Bostaph and guitarist Gary Holt — will also make an appearance at Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s final show on July 5.
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The run of shows will kick off on July 3 when Slayer hit the 35,000-capacity Blackweir Fields in Cardiff, Wales, with a line-up featuring support acts Amon Amarth, Anthrax, Mastodon, Hatebreed and Neckbreakker.
Their next stop will be the Back to the Beginning show with Black Sabbath at Villa Park in the Osbourne-led group’s hometown of Birmingham, where Slayer will join a galaxy of stars saluting the pioneering metal band that will include: Metallica, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice in Chains, Lamb of God, Anthrax, Mastodon and a supergroup featuring Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins), David Draiman (Disturbed), Duff McKagan & Slash (Guns ‘n Roses), Frank Bello (Anthrax), Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), Jake E Lee, Jonathan Davis (Korn), KK Downing, Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), Mike Bordin (Faith No More), Rudy Sarzo, Sammy Hagar, Scott Ian (Anthrax), Sleep Token ii (Sleep Token), Papa V Perpetua (Ghost), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Wolfgang Van Halen and Zakk Wylde.
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“I am a Sabbath fan, and doing this show is an honor,” said Araya in a statement. “I was hanging out with my brother and his friends during my junior year in high school, and we would play Sabbath all the time, so I am a big fan. Black Sabbath were the originators, people call them ’the godfathers of metal music.’ I think it’s going to be an amazing experience, from the beginning to the end. I’m really, really honored to be a part of this, it’s going to be great.”
King added, “I remember when we played with Black Sabbath at Ozzfest in 2004. It was when Rob Halford came back to Judas Priest and we were third on the bill. You couldn’t give me a better bill, I’ll never forget that. As it stands now, Slayer plays a handful of gigs a year. But that’s how important this Sabbath date is, and it’s great we will get to play a longer set for our fans in Cardiff and London on this visit too. Being on the Sabbath bill means the world to me, because these are my uber-heroes. And to know that their camp thinks enough of us to offer us a spot is flattering and humbling.”
Following the Sabbath celebration, Slayer will move on to the 45,000-capacity Finsbury Park in London with the same roster of support acts before moving on to the Quebec Festival d’été in Québec City, Quebec with Mastodon on July 11. The final announced stop will be a Sept. 18 gig at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, KY, where they will share the stage with Rob Zombie, Lamb of God, Down, The Story So Far, Cannibal Corpse, Cavalera, Neck Deep, Exodus and Atreyu, among others.
Green Day were forced to cancel the final Australian stop on their global Saviors stadium tour on Wednesday (March 5) due to Tropical Cyclone Alfred. As citizens hunkered down in anticipation of imminent landfall, the veteran punk band informed fans that the show at CBUS Super Stadium had been called off amid severe weather warnings for Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
“Hey Australia, unfortunately due to circumstances out of our control, tomorrow’s Gold Coast show has been cancelled,” they wrote on their Instagram Stories. “With Cyclone Alfred bringing some seriously nasty weather, it’s just not possible to go ahead safely. We know this is a huge disappointment, as we’re just as bummed as you are. Stay safe out there!”
In a series of statements, the venue first warned ticket holders on Monday that they were monitoring forecasts calling for “windy and rainy” conditions, encouraging fans to keep an eye on the weather in the coming days. The bad news arrived on Tuesday evening (Australian time), when the venue wrote on X, “CBS Super Stadium has been advised that the the Green Day Saviors concert has been cancelled, due to the extreme weather conditions forecast.”
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It continued, “We know how excited fans were for the concert and we share your disappointment. Concert organisers explored every opportunity to go ahead with the event, but the safety and travel certainty of concert goers, performers and staff cannot be ensured under current conditions.”
Promoter Live Nation also posted about the show’s cancellation, writing, “We understand the immense disappointment surrounding the cancellation of tomorrow’s Green Day show on the Gold Coast due to Cyclone Alfred. This decision was made in close consultation with local authorities and with Green Day, prioritising the safety of all involved.”
LN also explained why the show was called off instead of postponed. “Due to Green Day’s international touring schedule it will not be possible to reschedule the Gold Coast show to a later date,” LN added, with ticket holders promised a full refund. Green Day — who last visited Australia in 2017 on their Revolution Radio tour — are slated to play Lollapalooza India on Sunday (March 9).
Cyclone Alfred is expected to be the first extreme storm to impact the Queensland area in more than half a century, with expected wind speeds exceeding 80 m.p.h. and up to 17 inches of rainfall over the next three days.
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Billboard U.K. will head to The Great Escape in Brighton, England, for its inaugural Billboard Live event May 14-17.
Mercury Prize winners English Teacher will headline the The Beach stage at the new music festival as part of the Billboard U.K. Live takeover. Additional names will be added to the stage’s bill in the coming weeks.
The takeover marks the inaugural Billboard U.K. Live event, and will precede the launch of the upcoming U.K. Power Players list and in-person event at SXSW London in June.
Speaking on the announcement, Mo Ghoneim, president of Billboard U.K., says, “The Great Escape has long been a launchpad for breakthrough artists, making it the perfect partner for Billboard U.K. Live’s debut. With Billboard Live, we’re creating immersive experiences that connect fans with the artists shaping the future of music. English Teacher are leading this new wave, and we’re excited to have them headline our stage as we bring Billboard U.K. Live to one of the U.K.’s most essential festivals.”
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English Teacher’s debut LP This Could Be Texas (Island) was the recipient of the 2024 Mercury Music prize, which recognises an outstanding album from the U.K. and Ireland. The judging panel — which includes Billboard U.K. staff writer Sophie Williams — said that the LP “stands out for its originality and character. A winning lyrical mix of surrealism and social observation, alongside a subtle way of wearing its musical innovations lightly, displays a fresh approach to the traditional guitar band format.”
Thomas Smith, editor of Billboard U.K., adds, “English Teacher are one of the U.K.’s most exciting young bands right now. Over the last few years they’ve developed their craft and live show, leading to a well-deserved victory at the Mercury Prize last year. They’re a testament to the talent and determination of the grassroots scene in the U.K. and an example of why we must fully back and support artists like them.”
The Great Escape festival is held on an annual basis every May in the seaside city of Brighton, and spotlights emerging and rising talent from the U.K. and Ireland as well international newcomers. Across four days, an array of artists perform live at the city’s vast network of independent venues. There’s also industry panels, networking opportunities and more in its extensive programme. Tickets are on sale now from the festival’s official website.
This year’s lineup will feature appearances by Pete Doherty, Rizzle Kicks, Jordan Adetunji, Chloe Slater and more. Previous performers at the festival include Adele, Charli XCX, Stormzy, Fontaines D.C., Sam Fender, Billie Eilish and more.
Stay tuned for further announcements related to the Billboard U.K. Live stage and The Great Escape.
English Teacher
Denmarc Creary
