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Josh Freese announced on social media Friday (May 16) that he’s been abruptly removed from the Foo Fighters‘ lineup after two years drumming for the band.
“The Foo Fighters called me Monday night to let me know they’ve decided ‘to go in a different direction with their drummer.’ No reason was given,” he wrote, punctuating the news with an old-fashioned sad-faced emoticon. “Regardless, I enjoyed the past two years with them, both on and off stage, and I support whatever they feel is best for the band.
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“In my 40 years of drummer of drumming professionally, I’ve never been let go from a band,” Freese continued, adding that he’s “not angry—just a bit shocked and disappointed” by the decision.
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Still, his message ended on a cheerful note that showed the musician seems to be taking the cryptic dismissal in stride. “I’ve always worked freelance and bounced between bands so, I’m fine,” he concluded before promising, “Stay tuned for my ‘Top 10 possible reasons Josh got booted from the Foo Fighters’ list.”
Before taking up the mantle left by Taylor Hawkins’ tragic and sudden passing in 2022, Freese spent his decades-long career drumming with everyone from The Zappas, The Vandals and Devo to Guns N’ Roses, Sting, Nine Inch Nails and Weezer.
He’s also worked extensively as a studio musician for the likes of The Offspring, Lostprophets and the Replacements, and contributed drums to hit albums like Avril Lavigne’s Let Go, Kelly Clarkson’s Thankful, Good Charlotte’s The Young and The Hopeless, Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream and Lana Del Rey’s Norman F–king Rockwell.
Meanwhile, the Foo Fighters booked their very first show of 2025 earlier this week by announcing they’ll be performing at the Singapore F1 Grand Prix in October — just months after frontman Dave Grohl hit the stage at Coachella with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Representatives for the Foo Fighters declined Billboard’s request for comment. Read Freese’s full statement about his firing here.
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Fans from all around the world can to tune-in to the Sammy Hagar’s “Best of All Worlds” concert slated for Friday (May 16).
The concert event livestreams from Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas, Nevada at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT on Veeps. Read on for details on how to stream on Veeps.
How to Watch Sammy Hagar: Best of All Worlds Live
Veeps subscribers can livestream Sammy Hagar for $19.99. If you’re not subscribed, you can sign up for at $19.99 per month, or $199 per year. Veeps has a free subscription tier, while you can still purchase access to the livestream feed for the “Best of All Worlds” concert with a free subscription.
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Owned by Live Nation Entertainment, Veeps All Access features hundreds of livestream concerts, a catalog of past shows, exclusive bonus interviews, discounts and other benefits. Learn more about Veeps All Access on the Veeps website.
Courtesy of Veeps
Sammy Hagar: Best of All Worlds Live from Dolby Live at Park MGM
May 16 at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT
Want to attend the Sammy Hagar concert in person? There are still last-minute tickets available via Vivid Seats (get $20 off purchases of $200 and over with code BB30), StubHub and GameTime (score $20 off ticket orders of $150 and over with code SAVE20). Prices vary depending on the city and seats available.
Moreover, you can save $150 off when you spend $500 with promo code BILLBOARD150, or $300 off when you spend $1,000 with promo code BILLBOARD300 at TicketNetwork.com.
Meanwhile, those who want to watch internationally can access different the streaming service with a VPN, such as ExpressVPN or NordVPN.
The Sammy Hagar: Best of All Worlds livestreams from Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas with a start time of 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT. You can watch the entire event live for $19.99 on Veeps All Access.
Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
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Chris Brown has been denied bail by a British court and will remain in custody until at least June 13, following a charge of assault stemming from an incident in a London nightclub.
The American singer appeared at Manchester Magistrates’ Court, where he was formally charged with grievous bodily harm with intent. The alleged assault took place on February 19, 2023, at a venue in Hanover Square, London, and reportedly involved a music producer. Brown was arrested by London’s Metropolitan Police in Manchester on Thursday. At his court appearance, he was flanked by officers, dressed in sweatpants and a black T-shirt, with his signature bleached blonde hair.
He confirmed his identity and provided the address of the Lowry Hotel, where he was taken into custody.
His case has now been transferred to Southwark Crown Court in London, where he is scheduled to appear on June 13. Until then, he will be held in custody, a decision that carries significant implications for his ongoing “Breezy Bowl” UK tour. Being held until June 13 means Brown will miss several scheduled performances, including anticipated shows in Birmingham, Glasgow, and London.
Fans had been eagerly awaiting the tour, which was touted as one of his biggest UK appearances in years. Promoters have yet to release an official statement regarding refunds or rescheduling, but Brown’s legal situation is likely to disrupt the tour’s continuity. This latest development adds further controversy to the singer’s already turbulent public image.
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Joey Bada$$ batlle with the West Coast doesn’t appear to be losing steam anytime soon. On Thursday (May 15), the Brooklyn rapper and actor clapped back at Ray Vaughn’s recent diss track “Hoe Era” after Joey mentioned the TDE signee as he stood next to his labelmate Ab-Soul and Big Sean during their Red Bull […]
This week in dance music: DJ Snake graced the cover of Billboard France ahead of his giant stadium show in Paris last weekend. “With all humility, I don’t claim to represent France,” the producer said in the story. “I represent a guy from Paris, who’s Franco-Algerian, and I just try my best to do interesting […]
The Weeknd shares how his music from his album Hurry Up Tomorrow helps tell the story of his new movie of the same name, his inspiration for how the song works through the movie, why he decided to include his older songs in the movie and more with Billboard‘s Senior R&B, Hip-Hop & Afrobeats Writer Heran Mamo.
Heran Mamo:Heran Mamo from Billboard, as you know …
The Weeknd:Yes, how are you?
Heran MamoI’m good. How are you?
The Weeknd:I’m good, I’m good.
Heran Mamo:Good, well, congratulations on the film.
The Weeknd:Thank you.
Heran Mamo:Exciting to see you venture out into, you know, different mediums. But also I feel like knowing how much you love film, it’s such a natural progression to see your career go this way.
The Weeknd:Thank you.
Heran Mamo:One thing I wanted to know is, obviously you said in previous interviews that the film came before the album. Yeah, and you hear a lot of the like, the songs in the film, like, “Wake Me Up,” Cry for Me,” “Drive,” etc. Were those made specifically for the film and then later appeared on the album, and then all the other songs on Hurry Up Tomorrow the album, like, “Enjoy the Show,” “Reflections,” “Laughing,” etc., made when you realize, “Oh, OK, now this is gonna become an album”?
The Weeknd:Yeah. So there are certain songs that we needed completed for the film. Obviously, that performance drive was actually it wasn’t complete, but the idea was there, but we always wanted a performance song, like it was like, “What’s a concert song that we can open the film with, and in the vein of a pop record of live performance,” and “Wake Me Up,” was kind of the inspiration some of the stuff that Justice was doing. We always wanted that to kind of hit in that type of way. So, so there are certain songs, and then, of course, the the title track, the title song. That’s that idea.
You know, I was really inspired by, by Robert Altman, The Long Goodbye, where there’s this one song that you you hear it throughout the entire film. That’s what different iterations of it. When you hear it on the radio, you hear like a pop version of it, and you know, subjectively in the score, you know, diegetically, like a mariachi band will sing it every time he’s like when he goes to Mexico. And I kind of wanted to do that with Hurry Up Tomorrow, where you know, you hear, you know, pieces of this song throughout the film. It’s essentially you’re you’re seeing the making of it, not literally me making it, but like the themes and the concept and the melody and the soul of it is being made throughout the film. And you hear it the DNA is you. You hear it in the in the in the score. But eventually, by the end of it, it’s fully blossomed into this, this song, which essentially is what the film is saying. And funny enough, I actually had to finish the lyrics so that the night before, I had to perform it at the end. So yes, this music is very much a big part of the film. It came after, but it is like a sister piece. They don’t exist without each other.
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This week, Billboard’s New Music Latin roundup and playlist — curated by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors — features fresh new music, including new albums by DannyLux (Leyenda), Sebastián Yatra (Milagro), and Astronomía Interior (Hélices), to name a few. Cuban duo Gente De Zona also released its new album, Reparto, as a nod to the genre’s growth in popularity. “We’re showing […]
Most cruise ships clear their top decks to fit as many passengers as possible in the pool, but on the Norwegian Gem, that valuable real estate is sacrificed for something a little more sacred: the blues.
That’s because the 965 foot-long vessel, part of the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) fleet, is currently the home of the Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea X cruise — a sold-out annual expedition for which the ship’s theaters, lounges and swimming pool are all repurposed for hi-fidelity performances of guitar-driven rock, rhythm and blues.
On the Norwegian Gem, what was once a swim-up bar and pool is now drained and filled with monitors, rigging and enough staging to accommodate a full-scale live show built for theaters and performing arts centers. On Keeping the Blues Alive, contemporary blues legend Joe Bonamassa headlines a lineup of more than a dozen artists that also includes Grammy-winning duo Larkin Poe; rock and blues veteran Big Head Todd and the Monsters; Grammy winner Christone “Kingfish” Ingram; and blues guitarist Eric Gales. Launching out of Miami with stops in Belize and Cancun, Mexico, the cruise is facilitated by the Atlanta-based company Sixthman, a subsidiary of NCL since 2009. This year, the five-night voyage is accommodating about 2,500 diehard Bonamassa fans who have spent approximately $2,500 per cabin to hit the seas with the blues legend and the rest of the lineup, curated by Bonamassa and manager Roy Weisman.
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Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea
Will Byington
“Initially, I was not interested in doing a blues cruise — I had done one before and hated it,” explains Bonamassa, cigar in hand, speaking on the open-air deck of his top-level suite aboard the Gem. “And then I got a call from Sixthman in 2015 and was pitched on an experience that was more artist-friendly and didn’t require me to be in it so much. So we tweaked my schedule a bit, gave it a shot and I just saw how much fun everyone was having. Not just the fans, but the interactions with the other bands.”
Each artist on the Keeping the Blues Alive cruises is paid a festival rate and contracted for three appearances: typically two large stage performances and then a smaller, more intimate engagement. For Bonamassa, that means two main stage performances and a live session of his podcast Welcome to Nerdville.
This edition of Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea, a nod to Bonamassa’s non-profit of the same name, sold out months in advance. When the cruise hit the seas on March 20, the blues man already had two more sold-out Sixthman cruises on the books, including one to Alaska that departs from Seattle.
“Our model is that we focus on passionate communities, and this is one of the most passionate communities out there,” says Jeff Cuellar, who has served as Sixthman’s CEO since Jan. 17. Prior to that, Cuellar worked at festival company AC Entertainment, founder of the famed Bonnaroo festival outside of Nashville.
Larkin Poe
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Bonamassa fans are on the older side, averaging ages 55 to 60. Besides an affinity for Bonamassa’s live performances, they are generally interested in blues, rock and guitar-driven music. However, Sixthman and NCL’s music business goes beyond Bonamassa; the company services more than 35 cruises annually, with upcoming voyages planned for Creed, Lindsey Stirling, Michael Franti, and Coheed and Cambria. Sixthman has also seen success with non-music themed voyages, including several chef-driven food cruises, a true crime podcast cruise and a recently launched cruise celebrating the Hallmark Channel, which sold out hours after going on sale, breaking a company record.
Most cruises take off from Miami and by law are required to make one stop at a foreign port — for NCL, that typically means Nassau, Bahamas; Costa Maya, near Cancun; and Harvest Caye, a private island owned by NCL in Belize. Most cruises include all-inclusive food offerings — alcohol packages are sold separately, typically in advance — and a variety of amenities including outdoor basketball courts, rock climbing walls, full-service gyms, specialty restaurants and casinos with poker rooms that often feature appearances by talent.
Cuellar says Sixthman operates much like a traditional promoter: “For the longest time, music has been the core of what we do and will always be the core, but we have started to diversify and look at other passionate communities, whether it be [for baseball team] the Savannah Bananas or Jay and Silent Bob,” the cinematic duo from Kevin Smith’s cinematic universe. Prices for most cruises start at $1,172 per person for interior cabins and run as high as $2,937 per person for high-end suites with meet and greets. The Norwegian Gem has a total of 1,197 cabins, while larger ships like the Norwegian Encore boast 2,043.
Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea
Will Byington
“It’s a lot of inventory to sell, and while we can have conversations about VIP sales and merch sales, we want to dig even deeper,” says Cuellar. “We want to know where fans are talking about the artist. Is it on Reddit? Is it Facebook? Where are other conversations happening?”
That information becomes critical when it comes to selling and marketing cruises, Cuellar explains, noting that Sixthman heavily relies on the artist to help sell cruise packages. Drawing from data points like Spotify listens, merch and VIP sales, the Sixthman team creates an index for participating artists and then “put[s] out a couple of scores that we use for evaluation to determine how confident we feel that this engagement will be a success,” he says.
“We’ll actually survey a section of their audience so that we know who would be willing to participate,” Cuellar adds. “Sometimes, you get great responses, and we decide to book it immediately, and other times we find it’s not the experience fans are looking for.”
Sixthman’s success with Bonamassa is due to “his amazing connection to his fans,” Cuellar says. “When Joe talks about it, people respond. When he sends out an email, people respond because they know they’re going to get a top-quality experience.”
It’s an experience that Bonamassa and Weisman, his longtime manager and business partner, have spent the last 26 years cultivating, evolving Bonamassa’s live show into a global touring brand with around 100 performances a year. Bonamassa began his career in 1989 as a 12-year-old guitar prodigy opening for blues legend B.B. King and spent his early 20s working the blues nightclub circuit. Weisman, a longtime music executive whose father was Frank Sinatra‘s manager for the last few years of his career, met Bonamassa in 1999 and worked with the bluesman to elevate his live shows to theaters and performing arts centers.
Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea
Will Byington
Their company, J&R Adventures, is home to Bonamassa’s record label, artist management group and vertically integrated touring entities that promote, market and produce his live shows. Early on in their relationship, the men discovered the pathway to success “was super serving an underserved marketplace,” Weisman says. “The key was for us to approach the blues like we’re not afraid of it,” he adds. Instead of trying to mold Bonamassa into a AAA-radio-friendly artist, Weisman says he and Bonamassa had to “go into the blues like a house on fire. Walk right into it. Not be afraid or try to circumvent around it because there’s room as an independent to make a wave without being crushed by the majors.”
That means owning and controlling every part of Bonamassa’s business, from his label to concert promotion. J&R Adventures books the venues for Bonamassa’s tours, takes the risk on each show and handles everything from production to marketing. For Sixthman, Bonamassa’s familiarity and understanding of his audience make him a natural partner, says Cuellar. Bonamassa’s team books all of the support talent and helps curate some of the artist-to-fan activities, like poker tournaments, cooking demonstrations, fireside acoustic performances and meet and greets.
Neither Cuellar nor Weisman would say how much Bonamassa earns from the cruises, other than to note that the model is based on profit sharing and Bonamassa is one of the top-selling artists in the history of the company.
“And they give us this amazing suite,” Weisman says of his accommodations on the top floor of the 14-deck sea liner that’s located inside NCL’s luxury penthouse complex called The Haven, which is equipped with high-end furnishings, private balconies and a 24-hour concierge service, all roped off from the rest of the cruise.
“Norwegian makes it very easy for artists who are used to living out of a suitcase and a hotel room,” he continues. “Being on a cruise like this allows you to settle in a bit, even if it’s just for five days. The privacy and hospitality they facilitate makes a noticeable difference.”
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
It’s amusing to think modern-day cowboy Cody Johnson has much in common with an ancient Chinese philosopher. And yet his current single — “The Fall,” released by Warner Music Nashville to country radio on April 10 — mirrors thoughts about life and resilience expressed by Confucius around 500 years B.C. Johnson’s performance may hinge metaphorically on a rodeo experience, but its meaning resonates beyond the arena and across the centuries.
“When I heard the song, it sounded like the story of a lot of different people,” he says. “It is kind of cowboy, and it is authentic to me, as ‘The ride was worth the fall,’ you know. ‘I’d climb back on again.’ But it also has this relativity to a lot of other different people and their story. It’s a very unique thing that I couldn’t ignore.”
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Songwriter Bobby Pinson (“Burning Man,” “It Happens”) came up with the hook, “The ride was worth the fall,” in 2021. That line would lead to a connected thought — “The fall was worth the smiles” is the next line in the chorus — and the chorus would build one step at a time with each phrase borrowing from its predecessor.
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“There was definitely the ankle-bone-connected-to-the-knee-bone theory going,” Pinson recalls. “That’s what I call it when one thing causes the other.”
That summer, with a wave of COVID-19 bubbling in Nashville, he booked a Zoom co-write with Jeremy Stover (“Time’s Ticking,” “You’re Like Comin’ Home”) and Ray Fulcher (“When It Rains It Pours,” “Lovin’ on You”), who was signed as an artist at the time with Black River and was about to head out on a radio promotion tour. Fulcher had no idea when he would be free to write again. He told his co-writers that since he might be opening a new chapter, he wanted to close this one with something meaningful. Fulcher had been enamored as a kid with the movie 8 Seconds about rodeo star Lane Frost, so “The Fall” had the potential to turn a personal interest into a universal lesson. The writers hinted at the sport, but avoided obvious words, such as “rodeo,” “horse,” “rope” or even “cowboy.”
“We wanted it to feel that way, without all of those pictures,” Fulcher explains. “We thought it would be cooler if we could say all that stuff without saying it.”
They dug in on the chorus first, constructing a melody that matched the lyrical idea. Each line would peak a half-step or full step higher than the previous one as the story built toward a new plateau. The chorus reached a crescendo about three-quarters through, then subsided in intensity as it circled back to a repetition of the original line, “The ride was worth the fall.”
“I think that aspect of it is a big part of the song,” Stover says, “the way the melody goes with the lyric — especially the way it goes into the minor [chord] at the end of the hook.”
Turning their attention to the verses, they similarly used a minor chord to launch a dark, conversational melody as the character confessed some of his failings.
“That’s life,” Stover suggests. “We obviously know no one is perfect, and that aspect of life, I think a lot of people relate to.”
The melody turned almost bouncy in the fourth and fifth lines of the verse — just enough to enhance the sing-along quality — then returned to a serious tone, setting up the impactful chorus. After piling up nebulous, non-rodeo images — alcohol abuse, arrogance, spiritual shortcomings — the first verse’s final line set up the chorus with a bronco-busting notion: “even when I fell off.”
“Everybody’s been through these things,” Pinson says, “and the key to a good song, to me, is to put things in there that people can use to their own advantage or insert into their own life. It’s not necessarily my stories or my pictures. It’s just my paint for somebody else’s painting.”
As they wrapped, Fulcher felt like they had written the significant kind of song he had desired.“It was pretty emotional — not every write is — to kind of dig into some of those parts of yourself that have felt the same way,” he says.
Subsequently, while Fulcher was on a radio tour, Pinson and Stover produced a demo that made its way to producer Trent Willmon (Granger Smith, Drake Milligan). “The Fall” reminded Willmon of Garth Brooks. “It felt like it could be a song like Garth’s ‘The Dance,’ but in a little more cowboy sort of language,” Willmon says. “And Cody loved it.”
Still, Johnson remained “on the fence about the song,” he says, fearful that it might sound like “’Til You Can’t, Part II.” Willmon, Johnson remembers, talked him into moving forward with it:
“His exact words were, ‘You’re at a point in your career where, if you want to record songs to try them on, record them. Try them on, and if you don’t like them afterward, we’re good. We just wasted a little time in the studio, and it’s OK.’ ”
They cut it at the Starstruck Studios in Nashville with a band that included drummer Jerry Roe, bassist Mike Brignardello, keyboardist Jim “Moose” Brown, acoustic guitarist Tim Galloway, steel guitarist Scotty Sanders and electric guitarists James Mitchell and Justin Ostrander. The demo gave them a good road map, though Johnson asked them to cut the tempo just a bit and to play with a tougher vibe.
“It needed that kind of ‘pump your chest out and be proud’ aspect,” Johnson says. “When we explained that to the band, I’d been kind of playing with the little acoustic riff at the beginning. Obviously, the players that played on the track were better than me, so they took it and ran with it.”
In the process, they scrapped a bridge and replaced it with Ostrander’s scene-changing solo. Johnson sang full-throated on every pass.
“The great thing about a great band is they’re paying attention not just to the numbers that are written on the chart, but they’re paying attention to the lyric and they’re listening to the singer,” Willmon says. “I think a lot of the changes that happened during tracking was because Cody was in there singing it with all this raw power and emotion and they’re feeling it. So that dictates a lot of how that band plays.”
Fiddler Jenee Fleenor overdubbed a pile of parts, creating a string section in the process. Willmon and Greg Barnhill provided backing vocals, and the song emerged as a fan favorite at concerts. It’s at No. 50 in its second week on Country Airplay as it establishes a home on the airwaves, seemingly fulfilling its destiny.
“It was not a single, we hadn’t pushed it, and I started noticing when I played ‘The Fall,’ as soon as I started playing the guitar [intro], every cell phone in the audience came up,” Johnson says. “After the first chorus, when I sing ‘The ride was worth the fall,’ the crowd goes insane. It feels like this song has already been on radio.”
Now, “The Fall” begins its rise.
LISA and Tyla unveiled the scorching music video for their collaborative single, “When I’m With You,” on Friday (May 16).
As the Olivia De Camps-directed visual opens, the onset of a heatwave is announced over the radio promising “the hottest summer ever recorded.” The two international stars trade lines on the first verse, — LISA fanning herself from the comfort of a lounge chair and Tyla hanging with friends at a salon — before coming together to dance through the song’s chorus.
Later, a shirtless Mason Gooding makes an appearance during the second verse, flirting poolside with LISA as she raps, “Quick trip, won’t wait and I’m there for you/ Good girl, I’ll dare, but I’m bad for you/ Elevate my space and my bed for you/ Anyways, any day, I’ll make plans for you.”
Eventually, the video culminates with the K-pop idol and South African Grammy winner taking a dip in the pool during the song’s chant-ready outro, singing, “You must be outta your, outta your, outta your mind/ Can’t tell me nothing ’bout, nothing ’bout, nothing ’bout mine.”
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“When I’m With You” is the latest track off LISA’s debut solo album, Alter Ego, to get the music video treatment following lead single “Rockstar,” Rosalía collab “New Woman,” “Moonlit Floor (Kiss Me),” the Doja Cat and RAYE-assisted “Born Again” and “FUTW,” which featured the Thai superstar stepping into the shoes of her alter ego, VIXI.
The studio set debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 upon its March release, and since then, LISA has brought Alter Ego to Coachella and walked the carpet of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for her very first Met Gala.
Meanwhile, Tyla dropped her latest single, “Bliss,” earlier this month, just days before also making a splash on the Met Gala carpet in a pinstripe Jacquemus suit. Next, she’s set to host the 2025 Kids Choice Awards on June 21.
Watch LISA and Tyla’s “When I’m With You” video below.
