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One of Kurt Cobain‘s most iconic instruments is about to go on display for the first time in Europe. The Royal College of Music London announced that its “Kurt Cobain Unplugged” exhibit — which opens on June 3 and runs through Nov. 18 — will feature the late Nirvana singer’s rare Martin D-18E guitar, which […]
Unlike some other artists, Guster did not cancel their booked gig at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center in the wake of the prestigious venue’s MAGA makeover in which Donald Trump had himself appointed as chairman and filled the organization’s board with loyalists while vowing to fill the stage with “non-woke” musicals such as his favorite, Cats.
In fact, Guster did just the opposite. During their gig on Friday night (March 28), the band staged a subtle protest against the administration’s planned make-over — which has quickly resulted in more than two dozens shows and performers canceling scheduled gigs — by bringing out the cast of Finn, an LGBTQ+ musical whose performances were called off after the Trump revamp.
Finn is a children’s musical that opened to good reviews at the Kennedy Center last year, telling the story of a young shark who “wants to let his inner fish out.” According to a video of the performance , Guster invited out the cast of the musical with trans themes, with singer Ryan Miller explaining, “I have a friend named Michael who wrote the songs for a musical called Finn” in the midst of the band’s show with the National Symphony Orchestra.
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“In the before times they were booked to play here at the Kennedy Center. But as all of you know, things happened, and the show is no longer being presented here,” Miller continued. “As the new administration has made abundantly clear, Finn’s themes of inclusivity, love, and self-acceptance aren’t going to be welcome in this building while they are in control. So tonight our band is here to say our stage is your stage. We are your allies, we stand with the LGBTQ community, and we want you to sing with us. Please welcome the cast of Finn and composer Michael Kooman.”
The six singers from the cast received a prolonged, raucous standing ovation before the performance of Guster’s “Hard Times” and then again after.
Following Finn‘s cancellation at the Kennedy Center — which the venue said at the time was a “purely financial decision” — the show was performed by a cast of Broadway stars for a one-night-only livestream at New York’s Town Hall earlier this month, with a portion of the proceeds earmarked for The Trevor Project. Among the stars who participated in the special event were: Andrew Rannells, Bonnie Milligan, Nikki M James, Kelli o’Hara, Lea Salonga, Michael Urie, Peppermint, Brenda Braxton and more.
To date, more than two dozen events have been canceled by the artists or postponed at the Kennedy Center following the Trump revamp, including shows by Issa Rae, a production of Hamilton, the National Youth Poet Laureate event, Blacks in Wax, as well as shows by Low Cut Connie and Amanda Rheaume, a book event with J. Geils Band singer Peter Wolf and many more.
Looks like running — and playing Forrest Gump — runs in the Hanks family. In the “You Better Run” music video for Chet Hanks’ band Something Out West, the singer tapped his famous father Tom Hanks to re-create scenes from Forrest Gump more than 30 years after the actor starred in the iconic film. The […]
Mumford & Sons announced an extensive summer 2025 North American tour on Friday (March 28) in support of their just-released Rushmere album. To celebrate the folk rockers’ first LP in seven years, Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane will launch a summer tour of arenas and amphitheaters beginning on June 5 at the Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Bend, OR.
The run will feature stops in California, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Ontario, Montana, Colorado, Georgia and Alabama during the summer, before the group return in October for a second string of dates in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma, winding down at the CHI Health Center Arena in Omaha, NE on Oct. 26.
The new album — named for the spot in Wimbledon, U.K. where the band members first met — was produced in collaboration with Grammy-winner Dave Cobb and recorded in Nashville, Savannah, GA and Devon, England. The upcoming run of dates will expand on a series of intimate shows the group performed this month in Europe, Australia and the U.S., culminating with a gig on Wednesday (March 26) in Brooklyn.
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Tickets for the North American shows will go on sale on April 4; click here for information on pre-sale and on-sales. Mumford & Sons has teamed with PLUS 1 to support War Child, with $1 from every ticket sold going to the organization to help and protect children affected by war.
Check out the tour dates for Mumford & Sons’ 2025 North American tour (and their European swing) below.
June 5: Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater*
June 9: Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre*
June 12: Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl†
June 14: West Valley City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre†
June 17: Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center†
June 18: Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center†
June 20: Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center†
June 21: Saratoga Springs, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center‡
June 22: Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion†
June 24: Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage†
July 18: Quincy, WA @ The Gorge Amphitheatre§
July 19: Whitefish, MT @ Under The Big Sky Festival
July 21: Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre^
July 22: Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre^
July 24: Bonner Springs, KS @ Azura Amphitheater#
July 26: Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre#
July 27: Charleston, SC @ Credit One Stadium#
July 29: Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park||
July 31: Huntsville, AL @ Orion Amphitheater||
August 8: Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium~
Oct. 8: Chicago, IL @ United Center**
Oct. 9: St. Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center**
Oct. 11: Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum**
Oct. 12: Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena**
Oct. 14: Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center**
Oct. 16: Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center**
Oct. 17: Montréal, QC @ Centre Bell**
Oct. 19: Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena**
Oct. 20: Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena**
Oct. 22: Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena††
Oct. 24: Austin, TX @ Moody Center††
Oct. 25: Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center††
Oct. 26: Omaha, NE @ CHI Health Center Arena††
2025 European tour dates
July 4: Dublin, Ireland @ Malahide Castle
July 7: Verona, Italy @ Arena di Verona
Nov. 6: Stockholm, Sweden @ Avicii Arena
Nov. 8: Copenhagen, Denmark @ Royal Arena
Nov. 10: Berlin, Germany @ Uber Arena
Nov. 12: Cologne, Germany @ Lanxess Arena
Nov. 13: Antwerp, Belgium @ Sportpaleis
Nov. 14: Paris, France @ Adidas Arena
Nov. 16: Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg @ Rockhal
Nov. 17: Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Ziggo Dome
Nov. 19: Bologna, Italy @ Unipol Arena
Nov. 20: Zurich, Switzerland @ Hallenstadion
Nov. 21: Milan, Italy @ Unipol Forum
Nov. 23: Barcelona, Spain @ Palau Sant Jordi
Nov. 25: Lisbon, Portugal @ Sagres Campo Pequeno
Nov. 29: Newcastle, U.K. @ Utilita Arena††
Nov. 30: Leeds, U.K. @ First Direct Arena††
Dec. 2: Glasgow, U.K. @ OVO Hyrdo††
Dec. 3: Manchester, U.K. @ Co-op Live††
Dec. 5: Sheffield, U.K. @ Utilita Arena††
Dec. 7: Birmingham, U.K. @ Utilita Arena††
Dec. 8: Cardiff, U.K. @ Utilita Arena††
Dec. 10: London, U.K. @ The O2††
Dec. 11: London, U.K. @ The O2††
*with Divorce
†with Good Neighbours
‡with Gigi Perez
§with Japanese Breakfast
^with Madison Cunningham
#with Gregory Alan Isakov
||with Margo Price
~with Lucius
**with Michael Kiwanuka
††with Sierra Ferrell
Carlos Santana likes to ascribe metaphors to his music. And in the case of his new album, Sentient, that would be floral arrangements.
“When I go to the lobby in hotels in Europe, they always have these incredible flower arrangements,” the San Francisco Bay Area-based guitar hero tells Billboard. “They hire some people to come in and arrange the flowers in the lobby. That’s how this album was made — that’s how I make all my albums. I feel like a florist who is trying to combine the right colors and textures and create a beautiful ornament. That’s what Sentient is, an ornament of flower arrangements — colors, passions, textures, emotions.”
Variety is certainly the hallmark of the 11-track set, which comes out March 28 and is the follow-up to 2021’s Blessings and Miracles. It includes three previously unreleased tracks, while the rest are remastered songs drawn from various points in Santana’s career, including collaborations with friends living (Smokey Robinson, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and his wife Cindy Blackman Santana) and deceased (Michael Jackson, Miles Davis). The selections might appear random, but Santana promises there’s a unity when they’re brought together.
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“The theme of the story is to bring God out of people,” he explains. “There’s too much fear, there’s too much anger, too much harmony. There’s too much doubt, and the opposite of compassion. I’ve played music since the beginning — and now more than ever — to bring kindness, compassion, generosity, gratitude and divine attributes…elements to take make this world and life more delicious. I trust and believe that God wants something incredible for me to share with people, and that thing is to remind everyone that everyone is worthy of their own divinity and their own light. That’s the message.”
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He adds that featuring collaborations with some of his late friends (“Whatever Happens” from Jackson’s 2001 album Invincible, “Get On” and “Rastafario” with Davis from their collaborations with Italian pianist Paolo Rustichelli for his 1996 album Mystic Man) help illustrate that idea.
“Miles Davis is not here and Michael Jackson’s not here, but they’re in my heart, and it makes me very grateful,” Santana says. “I learned very well from them. I am one of them. It may sound a little this or that, but I’m immortal like them. Like Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, I am here to do the same thing they’re doing, which is to invite people to have a deep sense of self-worth, to look at yourself in the mirror and say ‘I am worth God’s grace. I can create blessings and miracles myself, with my grace.’ That’s the highest thing you do as a musician, to bring God out of people instead of the devil.”
Other tracks include “I’ll Be Waiting” from the Santana band’s Moonflower live album in 1977 and the title track from 1987’s Blues For Salvador, which netted Santana his first Grammy Award, for best rock instrumental performance, the following year. “Please Don’t Take Your Love,” meanwhile, is an earlier take of a track from Robinson’s 2009 album Time Flies When You’re Having Fun, while “Coherence” is a trio track with Blackman Santana and bassist Matt Garrison that’s intended as a preview of the drummer’s own next album.
Santana invokes Jackson again in an unreleased instrumental version of his “Stranger in Moscow,” which Santana recorded with Narada Michael Walden and his band during a club gig in San Rafael, Calif. “We played that on the spot, no rehearsal, and it felt really good,” Santana says. “I had been listening to that particular song for awhile. When I play ‘Stranger in Moscow’ I become Michael Jackson. My fingers become Michael Jackson; I was imagining how he would phrase, how he would sing it, so my guitar became his voice and I learned how to articulate the language, the phrasing. I learned all this from Aretha Franklin, because I play that album, Lady Soul, over and over. I play that album so much I learned the bass, the drums, how to hear her voice.”
After Sentient‘s release Santana will begin a nine-date Oneness Tour beginning April 16 in Highland, Calif., and wrapping May 1 at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. His next residency at the House of Blues Las Vegas runs May 14-25, and a European Oneness Tour leg begins June 9 in Poland and runs through Aug. 11 in Copenhagen.
Santana is working on another performance idea as well — a multi-day, multi-act worldwide festival with the utopian perspective of Woodstock. “With everything that’s happening with this planet, with fear of nuclear war and Korea and China and Russia, the Middle East, I want to create a global concert that goes around the world and (promotes) unity, harmony, oneness,” says Santana, who envisions sites such as San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, New York’s Central Park and Hyde Park in London. “It’ll keep going in Asia, Japan, Singapore, all the way to Australia and New Zealand and end up with a concert in Honolulu,” he says.
No dates or solid details have yet been determined, but Santana says he’s already reached out to some acts to participate, including Eric Clapton, Metallica, Earth, Wind & Fire and others. “Everybody I talked to, they want to do it,” he says. “It starts and begins with me. This is my vision. This is my aspiration, and I’m not afraid to manifest what I learned from Bill Graham and (Woodstock co-producer) Michael Lang and Clive Davis. I’ve learned from the best, and I believe it’s not impossible to create a global event of this magnitude…and celebrate, celebrate, celebrate. Instead of fear. Celebrate — with joy.”
One of the indisputable perks of being a rock star is the ability to rock out with other rock stars when they swing through your hometown. Just ask Paramore singer Hayley Williams, who hopped up on stage with the Deftones during their headlining set at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Wednesday night (March 26) to […]
Anthony Raneri says the person least surprised that his band Bayside is still around to celebrate its 25th anniversary may be the teenage version of himself, the one from Queens, NY, who knew he wanted to be a rock star.
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“I was just so sure it was gonna happen,” Raneri, 42, tells Billboard. “You could ask me (at a different age) and I would be shocked there was a version of me still doing this. But at 15 or something, I was just so sure. I started this band so young that reality never factored in. I was a kid. I was a dreamer. Bills weren’t part of my life. It was all hopes and dreams at that point. I was too young to know better. And now fast forward…and it’s actually happened.”
Raneri and Bayside — which still includes first-album member Jack O’Shea on guitar, with Nick Ghanbarian on bass since 2004 and drummer Chris Guglielmo since 2006 — will be celebrating the group’s overall 25th anniversary this spring with The Errors Tour. The three-leg outing kicks off March 29 in Buffalo, NY, and all but one of its 23 stops will be two-night affairs with completely different setlists; the first show will feature songs from Bayside’s first four albums, and the second from the subsequent five titles, leading up to last year’s There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive.
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“We conceptualized this years ago, and we decided the 25th anniversary was the right time to put it into place,” Raneri explains. “Every tour we try to shake things up a little bit. It can’t just be the same show all the time. At this point in our career, with the back catalog we have, so many singles over the years, it’s hard to get songs into the setlist. That means track eight on our first record or track five on our fifth record, when do you ever get to that? So this way, if we can dedicate an hour and a half to just the first four records and then the next night to the next five, we get to those deeper cuts and songs that have been left out, which makes it more interesting for us and, I think, for the fans.”
Not surprisingly, Raneri says preparations for the tour have been “very intense” for the quartet. In addition to its own choices Bayside solicited fan requests via social media, which yielded surprises such as “Indiana,” a B-side from 2014’s Cult that also appeared as a bonus track on a deluxe edition of the album.
“We’ve bought into the concept,” Raneri says. “The cool thing about our band, and something we’re so insanely lucky with, is that we can pull something like this off. There’s a lot of bands that exist that have as many records as we do that couldn’t dedicate nights of a tour to newer albums. But we’re lucky that people like and buy and still enjoy our new albums. Our anniversary doesn’t mean we have to go out and just play old records.”
Bayside has, of course, scored some must-play hits from its nine albums as well as EPs, including “Devotion and Desire” from its self-titled 2005 set and “Sick, Sick, Sick,” a top 40 Alternative Airplay chart hit from 2010’s Killing Time. “The second night might not have ‘Devotion and Desire,’” Raneri notes, “but ‘Sick, Sick, Sick,’ it’s crazy to think that’s in the second half of our career, and ‘Already Gone’ and ‘Go To Hell.’ I think there’s plenty to keep people happy either night, if you don’t come for both.”
Raneri feels he and his bandmates have become “more proficient” players during the intervening years, while diving deep into the catalog has given him a perspective on why Bayside has been able to maintain a loyal following for all this time.
“I just think there is an honesty in what bands from our world have always done that’s different than other genres,” he explains. “What we do, it’s not image stuff. With other genres, there’s a lot of things that are of their time. You look at A Flock of Seagulls or something like that, and it’s just so ’80s; they look like the time, they sound like the time, the lyrics are of the time. Same thing with hair metal: [Cinderella’s] ‘Hot and Bothered’ is a bad-ass song when you’re in high school, but when you’re 40 or 50 does it still connect like that? Do you still wear your hair like that? Do you still dress like that? Of course not. I think our scene, it’s earnest as a pillar of its identity. The emotions are more timeless and not as much about the moment the (songs) were made in.”
Raneri and company plan on adding to Bayside’s catalog soon. The group is concentrating on The Errors Tour for the time being, but the frontman promises that “the day after our big, final 25th anniversary show on Long Island (Sept. 26), I’m writing the new record, and that will be our main focus. All of next year we’ll be working on a new record.
“I always start with finding influences,” Raneri explains, “so I’m just listening to a lot of music, and I’m writing down ideas. When I hear a song that I think would be a cool inspiration for something, I write it down. I have notepads around my house with my ideas, notes apps in my phone, playlists that I’ve made of songs I want to take inspiration from for the next record. I’m not at a stage where I know what that inspiration turns into, but I’m shaping. It’s almost like I’m making this very large Pinterest board in my head, and then when it comes time to actually put pen to paper, I’ll have that board to reference.”
Bayside
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Bayside’s The Errors Tour itinerary includes:
(with Sincere Engineer)3/29 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom3/30 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom4/1 – Toronto, ON @ The Opera House4/2– Toronto, ON @ The Opera House4/4 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues4/5 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues4/6 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues4/7 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues4/9 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre4/10 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
(with Smoking Popes)6/6 – Denver, CO @ Summit Theater6/7 – Denver, CO @ Summit Theater6/8 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot6/9 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot6/11 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox6/12 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox6/13 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall6/14 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall6/16 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall6/17 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall6/19 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues6/20 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues6/21 – Las Vegas, NV @ Fremont Country Club6/22 – Las Vegas, NV @ Fremont Country Club6/24 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile6/25 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile6/27 -Austin, TX @ Emo’s6/28 -Austin, TX @ Emo’s
(with The Sleeping)9/6 – Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues9/7 – Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues9/8 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Hell)9/9 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Hell)9/11 – Nashville, TN @ Main Stage at Eastside Bowl9/12 – Nashville, TN @ Main Stage at Eastside Bowl9/13 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground9/14 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground9/16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Brooklyn Bowl9/17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Brooklyn Bowl9/19 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza9/20 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza9/21 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club9/22 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club9/24 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony9/25 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony9/26 – Huntington, NY @ The Paramount
On May 16, The Weeknd will bring his album Hurry Up Tomorrow, which topped the Billboard 200, to the big screen as a suspense thriller. Tomorrow has precedents in many yesterdays: Artists have been making movies out of albums, partly to boost their sales, for decades. March 19 marked the 50th anniversary of the premiere of The Who’s Tommy. But The Who wasn’t first — and it certainly wasn’t the last.
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Anything You Want
“Arlo Guthrie is about to become The Thing to talk and write about,” trumpeted an ad in the Aug. 23, 1968, Billboard for the just-released Alice’s Restaurant movie based on his 1967 album of the same name. Soon, Guthrie’s name was littering the pages of Billboard, and a piece in the Oct. 18 issue said the film “sparked sales for the Reprise album … racking up $1 million sales.” A month later, the Nov. 15 issue showed the set at a new chart peak of No. 17 on the Billboard 200, two years after its release.
See It, Feel It, Buy It
Six years after The Who released Tommy, the British rockers followed it with a 1975 film starring Roger Daltrey as the titular pinball wizard. The Ken Russell movie was divisive: The March 29, 1975, Billboard ran two reviews. One praised it as a “gripping fantasmagoria,” while another panned it as a “travesty of worn-out symbolism and general tackiness.” The same issue also reported on “the record war between the original rock opera and the movie soundtrack,” which were on MCA and Polydor, respectively. Buyers bought in, pushing the soundtrack to No. 2 on the Billboard 200, above the original album’s No. 4 peak.
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Band From the ‘Club’
When the Bee Gees’ 1978 jukebox musical Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band hit theaters, expectations were as high as Lucy in the sky. The July 29, 1978, Billboard reported that the soundtrack of Beatles covers was “taxing virtually every record presser, jacket printing facility and freight company contracted to get the initial order of four million units in the hands of consumers.” A report from an advance screening told a different story: “A movie where the audience laughs at all the wrong moments is in trouble, no matter what its advertising budget.” It was a boon for The Beatles, at least: “Sales of Capitol’s Beatles catalog are surging,” according to the Aug. 26 issue.
Hitting a ‘Wall’
Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Billboard’s No. 1 album of 1980, famously inspired an animated film of the same name. Unfortunately, critics wanted to run like hell. “The $10 million movie adaptation of Pink Floyd’s international double-album bestseller was demolished” at a London premiere, reported the Aug. 7, 1982, issue. Despite an end-credits promise of a forthcoming soundtrack, one never appeared. “We intended to make a soundtrack album,” David Gilmour told the Sept. 18 Billboard. “But we just didn’t have enough new music to reasonably justify putting one out.”
This story originally appeared in the March 22, 2025 issue of Billboard.
Lucy Dacus has some mixed feelings about her newly minted public profile. “My dream is that I could play huge shows where [the crowd] knows every word,” she says, “we can connect after the show — and then I can wipe everyone’s mind of myself once they leave.”
The lack of Men in Black-esque technology notwithstanding, it’s easy to see why Dacus may feel that way. After spending the majority of her career as a cult artist with a tight-knit fan base in the indie scene, the singer-songwriter broke big alongside her friends Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker with The Record in 2023. Their supergroup, boygenius, sold out arenas, led Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart while also earning a top 10 debut on the Billboard 200 and dominated the rock categories at the 2024 Grammys, winning three awards.
As she prepares her first solo release since the band’s breakthrough, Dacus, 29, still struggles with her shift from underground phenom to rock headliner. “Honestly, I don’t like being culturally relevant,” she says with a giggle. “I don’t like being somebody where people think they need to have a ‘take,’ in either direction.”
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Yet even in that discomfort, Dacus exudes a confidence that feels new for her. Forever Is a Feeling, her fourth studio album (out March 28 on Geffen Records), takes the sound that Dacus has painstakingly crafted over the last decade and broadens it as her most lush collection to date.
Going into the creation of Forever Is a Feeling, Dacus says she “knew the scope was going to be different” for this album. That process included honing what she wanted to sing about. Whereas her past albums confronted loss and childhood trauma, the new set focuses almost entirely on romance. The first proper track off the album, “Big Deal,” finds Dacus reminding a doomed lover just how important they are; “Talk” traces the shifting dynamics of a relationship to its near end; and album closer “Lost Time” is one of the boldest love songs of her career, on which she declares, “I notice everything about you.”
Meredith Jenks
That line also encapsulates a key part of the singer’s songwriting process: Since she broke onto the scene with 2016’s No Burden, Dacus has always thrived at transforming specificity into universal lyrics. “Once you focus on one thing and one person, it actually recontextualizes everything else, and you realize that every detail is its own universe,” says Dacus, who recently revealed that she and her boygenius bandmate Julien Baker are in a relationship. She then quotes a line she read in one of Susan Sontag’s journals: “Love is noticing.”
With Forever Is a Feeling marking Dacus’ major-label debut on Geffen, the singer’s new music is striking a chord with mainstream listeners. “Ankles,” the project’s exhilarating lead single, earned Dacus her first solo entries on the Adult Alternative Airplay and Rock & Alternative Airplay charts. “She writes songs that are potent and timely but will endure for years to come,” says Matt Morris, executive vp of A&R at Interscope Geffen A&M. “The success of ‘Ankles’ at radio is a very deserved accomplishment for an artist who has already been so influential and continues to break new ground with this album.”
The set also finds Dacus continuing to evolve as a producer, after she recently helmed singer-songwriter Jasmine.4.t’s debut, You Are the Morning, alongside her boygenius bandmates. “A lot of [producing Jasmine’s album] was about advocating when it comes to being less experienced in the studio,” she explains. “It’s about helping develop a language and asking folks, ‘What do you want? Here’s how to say it.’ I want to continue to help hold the emotional space of saying, ‘Do us the favor of being a control freak.’ ”
Meredith Jenks
That experience speaks to Dacus’ larger goal of late: using her newfound platform to create good. Shortly after the Trump administration began rolling out its anti-trans policy agenda, Dacus took to her social media and called for any of her trans fans hosting fundraisers for gender-affirming surgeries to share their campaigns so that she could donate $10,000 in $500 increments to those in need of help.
There’s a reason Dacus made that pledge in public. “Ten thousand dollars is not that much in the grand scheme of things,” she says. “But I wanted there to be a list of links on my profile so that if anybody else wanted to do what I was doing, then they could scroll through and donate as well. If other people are jumping in, then that can really matter.”
It’s that sense of renewed purpose that shows how far Dacus has come as a leading voice in rock — even if, as she points out, she is the “guinea pig” of the boygenius bandmates as the first of the trio to release a solo project since The Record.
“I feel really gratified when putting my albums out means something to someone else,” she says with a warm smile. “I wouldn’t do this if it didn’t matter to some people.”
Lucy Dacus photographed on March 5, 2025 in New York.
Meredith Jenks
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.