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*NSYNC has come a long way since their last album arrived in 2001, reuniting this year for the boy band’s first new single in two decades. But in a recent interview, Joey Fatone reflected on how he honestly felt after his bandmate Justin Timberlake went solo, effectively ending the group’s run at the peak of its success.
“I was not blindsided by the breakup,” the 45-year-old singer told Yahoo Entertainment. “I was more blindsided as far as him coming out with music and not knowing that he was going to go and do an actual album/tour thing.”
Fatone said he originally thought Timberlake’s departure was temporary. “It was more of, ‘Hey, I’m going to do some music, and then we’ll get back together,’” he recalled.
Timberlake, of course, went on to become an extremely successful soloist, releasing his first of five straight hit albums in 2002 with Justified, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. “And it wasn’t him,” added Fatone, who emphasized that he never resented Timberlake for his solo success. “It was the record company … When you’re younger, you think it’s that person. But then you look at the whole bigger scheme of things, and you go, ‘Oh, that’s why I wasn’t there for that.’ That’s the business.”
Twenty years later, all five of the band members have worked on solo endeavors, and recently reunited for Trolls Band Together single “Better Place.” Fatone and Timberlake have appeared alongside JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick and Lance Bass as a united front in several press junctions in recent weeks, including Sean Evans’ Hot Ones.
The guys also made a group appearance at this year’s VMAs, presenting the best pop award to Taylor Swift. “I had your dolls!” she exclaimed as they handed her the Moon Person. “You’re pop personified, so to receive this from your golden pop hands is really too much!”
And if you thought that *NYSNC might feel a little rusty after a 20-year hiatus, think again. The quintet is fully confident in its new song, with Timberlake joking in a hilarious Instagram reel, “Let us know if you like it. If you don’t, go f–k yourself.”
Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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This week, Drake lets the Dogs out, NewJeans joins the League of Legends, and Noah Kahan spins gold with Kacey Musgraves. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Drake, For All The Dogs
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Following the long-awaited, chart-conquering Certified Lover Boy in 2021, Drake spent last year experimenting — first with his house music detour Honestly, Nevermind, and then with his jaw-smashing 21 Savage joint album Her Loss. To some degree, For All The Dogs represents a return to the star-studded, knowingly indulgent aesthetic of CLB, but Drake’s highly anticipated new album also offers a more diverse approach to that maximalism, from the raucous fun of “Rich Baby Daddy” with Sexyy Red and SZA to the haunted rhyming of “First Person Shooter” with J. Cole to the zonked-out crooning with “All the Parties” with Chief Keef. There’s a lot to dig into with For All The Dogs, the ultimate more-is-more declaration from Drake, upon first listen.
NewJeans, “GODS”
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If “GODS” sounds like quick-rising K-pop group NewJeans striking a particularly anthemic pose, that’s because the new single arrives as the official song of the League of Legends 2023 World Championship; it’s a pretty lofty platform for the collective considering that series’ track record of success, and “GODS” sounds like it will fit in just fine as another crossover hit. “Welcome to the big show / Next on the ladder / Is it your name in the rafters?,” Hyein sings over trap drums, in between an arena-sized chorus that aims to turn “GODS” into your new favorite jock jam.
Noah Kahan & Kacey Musgraves, “She Calls Me Back”
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After separately linking up with Zach Bryan in recent months — Kacey Musgraves on the Hot 100-topping duet “I Remember Everything,” Noah Kahan with the tender surprise collaboration “Sarah’s Place” — the two singer-songwriters have joined forces on their own with “She Calls Me Back,” a heartfelt slice of storytelling that gains its power in its brisk pace. Kahan’s voice adopts a jittery cadence in the back half of the opening verse as the guitar strums gain steam, and when Musgraves arrives with the line, “I’m running out of tears to cry,” the emotional heart of “She Calls Me Back” swells, then strides forward.
Tems, “Me & U”
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On her first solo music release since 2021, Tems looks upward instead of around at all of the success she’s achieved over the past few years, and addresses a higher power with devotion and purpose: “Give me one break, I need faith / Faith to believe you, faith to receive you,” she sings. “Me & U” relies on those intimate pleas, but also isn’t confined to a small scale — if anything, the single expands the Nigerian-based superstar’s collection of sensual dance music, capable of soundtracking a night out in addition to a request to the heavens.
Jennie, “You & Me”
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BLACKPINK’s Jennie has been previewing the solo track “You & Me” on the K-pop quartet’s stadium tour, so while its sleek pop contours may be familiar to fans across the globe, receiving the studio version of the single represents an exclamation point on another huge year for the collective and its supporters. The ping-ponging production envelops Jennie’s voice as she effortlessly navigates the different components of the track; it’s been years since Jennie’s last solo song, and her confidence has grown considerably since then.
Editor’s Pick: Sufjan Stevens, Javelin
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Some Sufjan Stevens fans solely want to hear the quiet, heartbreaking indie-folk of projects like Seven Swans and Carrie & Lowell; others want their minds blown with epic writing exercises like The Age of Adz and The Ascension. Javelin, Stevens’ towering new full-length, feels like a summation of both modes: songs like “So You Are Tired” and “A Running Start” are built around finger-picked elegance, but the greatest achievement here might be the eight-minute, devastating “S–t Talk,” as one of the greatest songwriters of his generation fully justifies widening his stance.
NCTzens, the wait is over. NCT 127 is back, and released new album Fact Check on Friday (Oct. 6). The album arrived alongside a music video for the high-energy title track. The visual features members Taeil, Taeyong, Yuta, Jaehyun, Winwin, Mark and Haechan hitting intricate choreography in streetwear outfits, dancing in abandoned alleyways, shutting down […]
Megan Thee Stallion couldn’t be happier about being welcomed into the Knowles family. After Beyoncé referred to the 28-year-old rapper as her “sister,” Meg freaked out on Instagram with the rest of the BeyHive. “Yall… nobody can tell me nothing else EVERRRRRRRR 🐝🐝🐝🐝” the “Plan B” musician captioned a carousel of photos from Bey’s Renaissance […]
P!nk is beloved for her no-holds-barred honesty, even when it comes to her own music. In a new Los Angeles Times interview, the singer was asked to rate her best and worst singles and, without hesitation, she picked her 2001 Missundaztood song, “Get the Party Started,” which hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
She also tagged 2008’s No. 1 hit “So What” from Funhouse, which she said was “fun from start to finish — writing it, singing it, performing it, the video,” also crediting the high-energy track with reuniting her with husband Carey Hart after their earlier separation.
She also got really real about the songs she wished she’d never recorded, which include her 2013 love hurts anthem “True Love,” which features the lyrics, “Sometimes I hate every single stupid word you say/ Sometimes I wanna slap you in your whole face/ There’s no one quite like you, you push all my buttons down/ I know life would suck without you/ At the same time, I wanna hug you/ I wanna wrap my hands around your neck.”
Why that one? “Because it’s mean. Carey’s got thick skin, but I owe him a love song,” she said of the song whose chorus has her singing, “True love, true love/ It must be true love/ Nothin’ else can break my heart like/ True love, true love/ It must be true love/ No one else can break my heart like you.”
Worse yet, though, she said, was the minute-long “We’ve Got Scurvy” from the 2009 SpongeBob’s Greatest Hits album, in which she yarrrs, “Our gums are black, our teeth are falling out/ We’ve got spots on our backs, so give it up and shout/ We’ve got scurvy, we need some vitamin C/ We’ve got scurvy, we need a lemon tree.”
“I wish I never did that,” she said. “That was a real mistake.”
Asked if she’d ever make a full-on country record, P!nk noted that she has made country songs, pointing to tracks she’s recorded with Chris Stapleton, Keith Urban and Kenny Chesney, with the latter team-up on “Setting the World on Fire,” hitting No. 1 at country radio that year. But a whole country album? “Nah,” laughed the singer who has dabbled in pop, R&B, dance and rock over the years. “I don’t do whole albums of anything.”
With just three dates left on the U.S. swing of her high-flying Summer Carnival tour, P!nk told the Times that she “100%” thinks she’s a better live performer than recording artist, despite her 36 Billboard Hot 100 charting hit singles over the past 28 years.
“Because live is messy. It’s life, it’s gritty, it’s authentic — it’s unrehearsed,” said the singer whose meticulously plotted acrobatic moves and high-wire work are a staple of her shows. “I mean, we rehearse to a certain extent for safety. But you never know what’s gonna happen. And I’m never in my head. The second I step onstage, I’m in my heart, I’m in my body. There’s no other place that I operate — as a Virgo, as a mother, as the most responsible person I know — like the stage. It’s where I live.”
And though the former gymnast seems to effortlessly soar above the crowd, she said she is “absolutely” scared every time, which is why she started doing it. “I’m afraid of heights, and I don’t want to be afraid,” she explained. “I’ve been in some situations that don’t feel good. I wonder every night if my bungees are gonna work. But it’s a cool way to go if they don’t.”
With so many stars putting down roots for residencies in Las Vegas, P!nk said she would consider her own stay-put (“when I do Vegas, it’ll be the best show Vegas ever saw”), but she hasn’t agreed yet because her children are still young enough to join her on the road. “Vegas is something I can do when they don’t want to be with me anymore. Willow’s getting close,” she said of her 12-year-old daughter; she and Hart also have a six-year-old son, Jameson.
As for whether she was surprised by the recent dust-up around Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner’s sexist, racist comments suggesting that women and Black artists weren’t as “articulate” or interesting the white men he interviewed for his recent book, she was not.
“Misogyny and racism are so prevalent today. But they’re the dinosaurs, and they’re on their way out,” she said of men like the 77-year-old Wenner, whose comments got him booted from the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. “I don’t know how successfully they passed down their poison.”
With four No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 15 top 10s over her 23-year career, P!nk is undeniably a pop superstar. But at Thursday night’s (Oct. 5) Summer Carnival tour stop at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., she made a pretty strong case that she’s a rock star too. P!nk has been […]
Even though her son, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, recently said that he thinks the NFL is “overdoing it” with their relentless coverage of his alleged romance with Taylor Swift, Trav’s mom is here for it.
In a chat with the Got It From My Momma podcast this week, Donna said the past year has been a wild experience, including Travis winning a second Super Bowl while beating his older brother Jason’s Philadelphia Eagles as well as the past two weeks of hugging and mugging with Swift. “It’s just very surreal. In fact I was just thinking on Sunday, going to both games and everything that has happened within the past 12 months… I feel like I’m in an alternate universe. It’s not the one I grew up in, for sure. So it’s very, very fun, it’s exciting, but also taxing,” she told pod host Jennifer Vickery Smith, noting that there’s nothing a mom likes to do more than brag about her kids.
Donna said she didn’t think anyone knew who she was before the splash of press she got in February when the Kelce boys squared off in the Super Bowl. But the past couple of weeks blew up her profile by an unimaginable magnitude. “It’s something that I’ve never been involved with before,” Donna Kelce said of the red-hot spotlight that has fallen on her again thanks to Swift’s sudden NFL interest, adding that she was given a heads-up that the pop star would be hanging in the suite with her during the past two KC games.
“I think about right now they’re probably saying it’s getting out of control,” she laughed about the screen time she’s garnered over the past two weeks as the cameras have repeatedly swung to the sky box where she was shows laughing with and hugging Swift. Asked about the breathless coverage of the alleged romance, which has reportedly boosted sales of her son’s jerseys by 400% and pushed the Kelce brothers’ New Heights podcast to, well, new ratings heights while driving up tune-in to KC’s games by young female fans, Donna said it’s hilarious.
“All I can tell you is that the NFL is laughing all the way to the bank,” she said about the league’s tripling-down on coverage of the romance that neither Kelce nor Swift have officially confirmed. “You know what I’m saying? Good for them. They’re getting the ramifications of everything. I can tell you this, that they’ve told me personally that the Kelce family has done more good PR for football than they could have paid a $1 million to a PR firm.”
Donna Kelce also shared that she recently got a DM from a dad who told her that he was excited because, he said, “finally my daughter is watching football with me.” And, because even she can’t help herself, when asked how she’s feeling about an upcoming Monday Night Football showdown between the Kelce boys on Nov. 20, Donna cheekily said it will be a “tough game… they’ve obviously met in the Super Bowl and there’s a lot of bad blood.”
See what you made Donna do there?
For the record, Donna’s favorite Taylor song is “Shake It Off,” because “we’re getting a lot of that lately about haters.”
Watch Donna Kelce on Got It From My Momma below.
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The Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert movie is on track to open as the top-grossing music concert film ever. The movie chronicling the singer’s sold-out, career-spanning 2023 stadium tour doesn’t open until Oct. 13, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, it has already racked up advance ticket sales of $100 million a week before […]
In her six-decade-long career, Cher has done many things, including sell more than 100 million records worldwide, star in a multitude of hit movies, land a No. 1 single on one of Billboard’s charts in each decade from the 1960s through the 2010s and win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy and three Golden Globe Awards.
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But on Oct. 20, she’ll accomplish a new first: she’ll release Christmas, her first holiday album.
“I had no intention of doing a Christmas album,” Cher admits to Billboard with her typical candor. “But [Warner Records] said, ‘Why don’t you do a Christmas album, Cher?’ and I said if I can do my version I’ll do it, and they were very pleasant.”
Doing her version meant staying away from some of the more overdone holiday standards. “Everybody’s gotten ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ and ‘Jingle Bells’ and all that,” she says. “I just said to them, ‘There will be Christmas songs and they’ll be appropriate, but I want to do what I feel.’”
“She’s made not just a Christmas album, but an incredible Christmas album that will rival and sit alongside the great Christmas albums of all time,” says Tom Corson, Warner Records co-chairman and COO. As Cher began playing him tracks over the summer, Corson says he felt “excitement and joy and the feeling of Christmas coming six months early. It’s quality from top to bottom.”
Christmas, Cher’s first new studio album in 10 years, features 13 songs, including four originals. Produced by her longtime producer Mark Taylor, the set includes the legend’s interpretations of “Santa Baby,” “Run Rudolph Run” and “Please Come Home For Christmas.”
Additionally, Stevie Wonder joins her for a remake of “What Christmas Means to Me,” which he originally released in 1967; she and Michael Buble´ recreate his 2005 hit, “Home”; Cher and Cyndi Lauper collaborate on “Put a Little Holiday in Your Heart,” Tyga raps (Cher does not) on original “Drop Top Sleigh Ride” and, sentimentally, Cher and Darlene Love reunite for “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)” 60 years after a 17-year old Cher made her debut singing backing vocals on the Phil Spector-produced classic.
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The other originals are upbeat dance twirlers “DJ Play A Christmas Song,” which dropped as the first single at midnight (Oct. 6) and reunites Cher with the famous autotune sound she deployed on “Believe,” and “Angels in the Snow, as well as the bluesy “I Like Christmas.”
“They’re not ‘Christmas Christmas’ songs, OK, they’re just great songs,” Cher says. “And I never say that because I almost never like what I do. But I mean people love it and I’m happy. I’m so particular, but I love the songs and everyone who hears them loves them.”
Her excitement is so great that she volunteers to play “DJ Play a Christmas Song” over the phone during the interview and raves about the song’s co-writer, Sarah Hudson, who also co-wrote “Angels in the Snow” and “Drop Top Sleigh Ride.”
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“I’ve known her father, [songwriter] Mark Hudson, for a million years,” she says. “I didn’t even know she’s a writer. I’ve known her since she was three of four years old, so that was great for me. I’m really thrilled about that.”
She was also thrilled to reunite with Love, with whom she’s stayed in touch all these decades. Love even toured with Cher as a background vocalist on the 1989-1990 Heart of Stone tour.
In the liner notes, she thanks Love, writing: “Singing with you – ‘one of the greatest singers ever’ – is a special kind of miracle. Just think, I was l7 when I sang background on this song… I’m still so in awe of you! Now we’ve come full circle.”
Cher called Love out of the blue to suggest the remake. “Very rarely do I get a chance to talk to her on the phone, I usually talk to her in person somewhere when we run into each other,” Love tells Billboard. “And she said, ‘Hey, doll!’ I hadn’t talked to her in so long I said, ‘This is who?’ and she said ‘Cher, b–ch!’” Love says, bursting into laughter. “I was so humbled that she wanted to sing, ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ with me. Between the two of us, I don’t know who was more excited.”
Love recorded her part in New York, singing the song all the way through as lead vocalist and also tracking a version with her singing with backing vocals, and sent it to Taylor. The result is a high-octane duet with both Love and Cher belting out the yearning lyrics. “There are parts in the song when sing together and I’m hitting high notes and she goes right there with me. Cher’s voice has not changed in the smallest bit, it is still so powerful,” Love says. “I think everybody is going to be shocked and surprised because it really came out fantastic. Not that I didn’t think it would, but the song is 60 years old. I’m 82. Cher is [77].”
Warner Bros. is already working on licensing songs from the album for film and TV. “Synch opportunities are at the top of our list. We’re already getting great feedback from places like Hallmark and other networks and other people that really want to include it,” Corson says. “We expect it to be not just for this year, but an annual synch opportunity.”
Christmas won’t be the only release fans get from Cher this year. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Believe, her 1998 album that spawned the huge electro-pop hit of the same name, Warner Records will release a deluxe edition that encompasses three LPs or two CDs on Nov. 3.
The deluxe edition includes the original album plus 13 remastered remixes including Tee’s Radio One and Ray Roc’s Latin Soul instrumentals of “Dov’e l’Amore” together in one package for the first time. The original album, produced by Taylor, sold more than 11 million copies worldwide, according to the label. The title track, which was Billboard’s No. 1 song of 1999, went to No. 1 in 23 countries.
Cher concluded her last major tour in 2005 and a Las Vegas residency in 2011, but she has been contemplating playing live again. She says she recently said to Taylor that she’d like to do a concert of her favorite songs. In turn, he suggested a concert for the Christmas album, which she nixed. But when asked if there’s a possibility of another tour, she says, “Well, I don’t know. Look, if I do a concert, there’s gonna be a tour behind it. I’m working really hard right now. I’m training, like, unbelievably. So I’m training and singing at the same time, which is always fun,” she says sarcastically. “So I’m working on it.”
There will be no concert to celebrate the Believe reissue because she says she wouldn’t be ready, but also because her immediate calendar is filled with a project that is sure to delight fans: “I have another album to do right after this,” she says.
Christmas track listing:
1 DJ Play A Christmas Song2 What Christmas Means To Me (with Stevie Wonder)3 Run Rudolph Run 4 Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) (with Darlene Love)5 Angels In The Snow6 Home (with Michael Bublé)7 Drop Top Sleigh Ride (with Tyga)8 Please Come Home For Christmas 9 I Like Christmas 10 Christmas Ain’t Christmas Without You 11 Santa Baby 12 Put A Little Holiday In Your Heart (with Cyndi Lauper)13 This Will Be Our Year
In May of 2020, Travis Barker’s label DTA announced its first signee: a relatively unknown artist named jxdn. Since then, the rising rocker scored two top 10 hits on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, opened for Machine Gun Kelly on tour and became a key player in pop-punk’s next wave.
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But now, after a particularly trying few years – during which his best friend Cooper Noriega died of an accidental drug overdose, he struggled with his own mental health and ultimately entered rehab this summer – the artist is ready for his fresh start.
In July, he returned to social media after a brief hiatus, captioning a fresh-faced smiling selfie: “I finally feel like Jaden Hossler so that’s who I’m going to be.” In September, he announced his new single “Chrome Hearted” to be released under his full name for the first time. The single is not only a reintroduction, but also a redirection for the artist, as the trap-pop song more prominently features his vocals than previous singles and steps away from the punk and rock roots through which he launched his career.
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“I’ve always wanted to be a pop star,” says Hossler while sipping chamomile tea (since prioritizing his sobriety, he’s cut out caffeine). “And I think I couldn’t be the pop star without being the rockstar that I was.”
And while his rockstar persona led Hossler to career highs, it also paved the way for personal lows. He recalls his breaking point this summer, when he “lost it” in London just before he was about to go onstage with MGK. Instead, he booked a ticket home and soon after checked himself into a treatment center for his mental and physical health as he battled anxiety, depression and addiction.
“This past year has been by far the hardest time of my life…and it’s all finally catching up to me,” wrote Hossler in a June Instagram post. “I am trusting my gut that this will put me in the best possible position to be who I want to be, feel how I want to feel and go where I want to go.”
Jaden Hossler
Hunter Moreno
When we meet in mid-July at the Sherman Oaks staple Sweet Butter Kitchen, it’s only been a couple of weeks since he finished his 21-day treatment – and it’s clear his manifesto held strong. Hossler wrote “Chrome Hearted” before entering rehab, saying “I think it was a big reason why I felt comfortable going, because I felt like I had a glimmer of hope. Like I wasn’t coming out to nothing.”
“I wasn’t coming out having to change everything, I had already started this process for myself,” he continues. “And if I came out of rehab and just wanted to drop all of it, I could. But being in rehab and leaving rehab, I felt even more [confident] about it. This song was really the first moment where I was proud of myself again in a really, really long time. And it felt the same way as soon as I got out.”
“Jaden has always had pop tendencies in his music, so it felt like a natural evolution,” says Johnny Minardi, SVP of A&R at Elektra (through which DTA signed a joint venture). “It’s been super exciting for me to witness Jaden’s [growth] both as an individual and as an artist.”
Below, Hossler opens up about his year of change, revealing what encouraged his reintroduction and why he finally feels like the artist, and person, he was always meant to be.
How did the idea for “Chrome Hearted” come about – and why was this the right song to venture more into pop music with?
I’ve been playing with pop for about a year, but I could never find the right sound. It was either too bubble gummy or just didn’t feel like me – I really wanted to find a sound of my own. I’ve always leaned towards ballads, but then I was like, “I want to make [a song] that is uplifting and could go on radio.” I kind of got obsessed with [luxury brand] Chrome Hearts at the time so it came into my mind to use it as an adjective. I had this melody and as soon as I sang it, I was like, “This is gonna be one of my biggest songs.”
We [Hossler and songwriter-producer Andrew Goldstein] made a demo of the hook in 15 minutes. I was showing everybody – I even went up to the president of Elektra, Greg [Nadel], because we were at the Blink-182 concert, and I was like, “I just wanted to let you know I just made a hit.” Once we finished the song, I woke up the next morning and [Greg] called me, my A&R called me, my manager and everyone called me, and they were like, “Holy shit, you were right.” I’ve really struggled with trusting my instincts over the past two-three years, especially when Cooper died, I felt like I lost my identity. And this was the first time where I trusted myself, so that was the start of this whole new process for me.
There’s a bit of attitude to “Chrome Hearted,” which is very different from your prior single “Elevated Heartbreak.”
I kind of wanted to talk my shit a little bit, you know what I mean? I haven’t really shown off my voice as much as I could because of the style of music I was making. This song isn’t the focus track of my album or anything – I’m working on my album separately – but this song is to let everyone know, “Hey, I’m Jaden Hossler now.” It felt like a complete 180 shift, but still felt like me.
Some of the lyrics are a little pointed, like “you don’t hold me down, you just watch me drown” and “she’s so obsessed with herself.” As someone who launched their career online, how do you deal when fans want to know who or what your music is about?
I kind of love it because now I’m in a position where I don’t really care. I think it’s awesome to leave it up to the interpretation of the listener because even when I listen to music I’m like, “What is this about?” I do the same thing. People want a story associated with it. But that’s the best part, a little bit of a mystery. Before, I thought I had to put everything on the table for people to accept me. Now I feel very different. I feel very confident and secure in who I am and my story.
It’s also important to not only have but protect your private life.
And I never understood that. And I haven’t really had one. Especially with social media and TikTok. It’s overtaken everything, and some people lean into it, but I know why they do, it’s because either side hurts. Either side is very invasive and anxiety-ridden and I just am not dealing with that anymore.
Is “Chrome Hearted” indicative of what your next album will sound like?
I haven’t completely put my project together but I made 25 songs, so my plan is to make around 40 and pick from there. I’m itching to make music. That’s all I can do right now. I’m genuinely obsessed with it, which is such a good feeling because for a while I just wasn’t in the studio. I wasn’t really present.
I’m reaching far and wide on the landscape of pop music and trying to center it on my voice. And more than that, center the songs on my story. I feel like I’ve been through a lot of shit and I really want to talk about it. It’s cool for me to express myself in a lot of different ways. It’s a lot of trap-pop, there’s an 80s pop vibe, like The Weeknd, which is really cool. And then R&B, these past few weeks I’ve been making a lot of SZA and Bryson Tiller [inspired] songs. This album’s gonna be a conglomeration of a few different sounds, I never want to put myself in a box again.
The Weeknd recently told W Magazine he wants to kill off his artist character. Do you see your own shift being as dramatic?
Oh it’s incredibly dramatic for me. When I decided to be jxdn, I just wanted to be anything but Jaden Hossler because I couldn’t live with myself from high school and my past. I felt like there was an opportunity to be someone different, and quite literally it was. And a lot of amazing things came from being jxdn, but then there’s a point where the pendulum comes back and I hit that wall of, “I can’t be this person anymore.” I’ve come to terms with all my trauma and all the things that I’ve hated about myself before and all my insecurities. That’s why I’m proud to be Jaden Hossler. I think it’s gonna be the key to open the door for everything that I’ve been dreaming of my entire life.
What is that dream?
I watched Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, when I was nine years old. I can see it clear as day, I was sitting in front of my parents bed and I just started bawling my eyes out throughout this documentary. I saw myself on the stage like he was. And so that was the beginning of manifesting that entire journey for myself. And that night I literally went and found a camera in my house, put on purple because that was his color, and started singing. That was the first time I realized I had a voice. I [always] knew what I wanted, but I didn’t know who I was. Having both is very important.
Who are some other pop stars you’re a fan of?
I didn’t listen to Taylor Swift really at all my entire life but recently I’ve been listening to her because she’s such an amazing writer. And listening to these different styles of music, I have a lot to learn. I’m excited about that. So I listen to anyone and everyone that I can right now, it’s almost like I have homework. There’s this guy named Brakence who I really love. Olivia Rodrigo is amazing; I love “Vampire.” Funny enough, I never listened to the radio before, but I listen to the radio a lot now because I want to see what they’re playing. I want to understand, because as much as people don’t want to believe, it is sort of an algorithm. And so I want to infiltrate it and then fuck everything up.
And Travis [Barker] has always been so supportive of what I want. He’s always believed in me, even when he really had no reason to. And so that’s really the biggest blessing, is to be able to have someone like him that no matter what I do, he backs me because he knows that I’m doing this for the right reasons.
How did the rollout of “Chrome Hearted” compare to previous releases?
I directed my first music video, which is pretty cool. I’m more invested in this project than I’ve been in anything else. Also, I’m fully sober. I thought that I would be less creative before I got sober, but I’m more creative than I’ve ever been in my life. Like, I needed sobriety to fulfill my dreams, and I never knew that.
In a weird way, it almost feels like restarting. Right now, I’m not thinking about 10 years down the line, because one of the things about being sober is trying to be present, but I do know that I’m building a career that’s lifelong.
What did you learn in rehab that you’re still implementing in your daily life now?
It’s the structure that I miss the most. The waking up, making your bed, going to breakfast. I eat three meals a day now, minimum, and I ate one meal every two days before. And obviously it has to do with sobriety, but even more so I meditate, I do things that actually help me throughout the day, that no matter if anything else changes, I have that structure, and that’s what I got to take from the treatment center.
I don’t drink caffeine because I know that if I start drinking caffeine enough it gives me anxiety, and then that anxiety makes me want to smoke, and that makes me want to drink. Little things that make a big difference.
Leading up to this reintroduction, why was it so important to be open about how you ended up here?
People like to talk about the story of starting from nothing and getting to the top. But there’s another story that I think a lot of people can resonate with: I started from nothing and I got success and then I lost myself in that success. I got lost in even good things, too much of anything can kind of turn you the wrong way, but it’s never too late to be who you really want to be, it’s never too late to make a change for yourself. I chose not to give up on myself. I’m here to remind people that you control what happens now and what happens next. And I’m really grateful for that. I feel like this is the start of a brand new life for me.