Rock
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Asking Alexandria notches its second No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, as “Psycho” lifts to the top of the Oct. 7-dated survey.
The song follows the one-week reign of “Alone Again” in November 2021.
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In between “Alone Again” and “Psycho,” the band charted with three titles, all in 2022, with “Never Gonna Learn” (No. 6, May); “Faded Out,” featuring Within Temptation (No. 14, September); and as featured, with Motley Crue, Ice Nine Kills and From Ashes to New, on The Retaliators’ “The Retaliators Theme (21 Bullets)” (No. 15, November).
Asking Alexandria first reached the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart with “The Death of Me,” which peaked at No. 23 in November 2013. Prior to “Alone Again,” the band reached a No. 23 best with “Antisocialist” in July 2020, one of the act’s eight top 10s.
Concurrently, “Psycho” leaps 13-8 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 2.5 million audience impressions, up 19%, Sept. 22-28, according to Luminate. It’s the band’s highest-ranking entry on the tally, surpassing the No. 10 peak of “Alone Again.”
“Psycho” placed at No. 20 on the most recently published, Sept. 30-dated, multi-metric Hot Hard Rock Songs ranking. In addition to its radio audience, the song earned 327,000 official U.S. streams Sept. 15-21.
The song is the lead single from Where Do We Go From Here?, Asking Alexandria’s eighth LP, which has earned 15,000 equivalent album units since its Aug. 25 release.
All Billboard charts dated Oct. 7 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Oct. 3.
Aerosmith is postponing the remainder of their farewell tour, due to frontman Steven Tyler’s vocal chord injury. “Unfortunately, Steven’s vocal injury is more serious than initially thought,” the band wrote in a statement posted to Instagram on Friday (Sept. 29). “His doctor has confirmed that in addition to the damage to his vocal cords, he […]
The best part of producing Mick Jagger’s vocals, according to Andrew Watt, is when he begins taking off his clothes.
“He starts in like, a sweater, a button-down and a T-shirt,” the producer-songwriter recalls of a studio session with the Rolling Stones legend, “and then, two takes in, the sweater comes off. Two takes later, the button-down comes off. All of a sudden, he’s down to a T-shirt, and he’s ripped, and he’s 80, and he’s f–king giving you full-blown Mick Jagger, shaking and sweating as he sings every note.”
Such fantastical rock-star run-ins have become relatively commonplace for Watt — but the 32-year-old and 2021 producer of the year Grammy winner, who wore a different Rolling Stones T-shirt every day to the studio while producing the band’s forthcoming album, Hackney Diamonds, still recounts the experience with giddy breathlessness. “You can’t not be jumping up and down with excitement,” he says of watching Jagger work his magic, “because that’s what we’ve all been trained to do for the last 60 years.”
Over the past half-decade, Watt has transitioned from scoring hits for pop stars like Justin Bieber, Camila Cabello and 5 Seconds of Summer to guiding late-career projects from rock’s legacy elites, including Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John and Iggy Pop. While the New York native still collaborates with modern A-listers — Watt worked on the majority of Austin, the recent full-length from frequent collaborator Post Malone — his career has become an inverse of the “How do you do, fellow kids?” meme, with the 1990s baby blending in with legends in their 70s and 80s. “It’s like going to college,” he says, “and learning from the literal masters.”
Helming Hackney Diamonds, due Oct. 20 on Geffen Records, represented a true bucket-list item for Watt, who was introduced to Jagger by veteran producer Don Was in the middle of the pandemic and struck up a friendship over FaceTime. In the summer of 2022, Watt was in London working with Dua Lipa, and Jagger invited him over for some tea; after years of false starts and scrapped demos for the Stones’ first album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang, Jagger asked Watt if he would be interested in helping them cross the finish line. Watt’s jaw dropped: “You have this moment where you’re like, ‘Am I even capable of that?’ ” he says. “It’s the greatest honor as a kid with a guitar who grew up idolizing every single thing Keith Richards ever did.”
Courtesy of Polydor
That level of lifelong fandom, combined with an urgency to secure results, is what Watt believes makes him so effective at sharing the studio with icons more than twice his age. He understands that “these legends don’t owe anyone anything,” as he puts it, “so the only reason they’re making a new album is for themselves.” With that in mind, Watt encourages artists to pursue ideas indiscriminately — less conversation, more raw creation — and then it’s his job to approach projects from the viewpoint of what fans most want to hear.
When it came to the Stones, “Any fan wants to hear the greatest live rock’n’roll band of all time,” Watt explains, “so to do anything else with them in the studio is just letting everyone down.” When preproduction for Hackney Diamonds began in September 2022, Watt pushed the band to work efficiently and made sure to prioritize its live energy, particularly within the interplay between Richards and Ronnie Wood.
Session locations ranged from Los Angeles to Paris; Steve Jordan took over the drum kit from Charlie Watts, who died in 2021 but is posthumously featured on two tracks carried over from earlier sessions; and Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder were among the guest stars to swing by. The result is a lean, 11-song Stones album that Watt says was mostly finished in under six months, and that “you could put on against other contemporary music, but is still loose and really gets grooving at certain points.”
Although Watt likens the experience of producing a Stones album to climbing a personal Mount Everest, he also says that he has plenty left to accomplish in his career. Aside from contributing to Lipa’s highly anticipated third album, Watt recently co-produced “Seven,” Jung Kook’s Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper featuring Latto. “That was the first time I worked with an artist who didn’t speak the same language as me, so we communicated through music,” he says of the BTS star. “It was the complete opposite of my work with The Rolling Stones, but that’s what keeps it interesting.”
Watt says that his work with various music legends has already started to inform his new stars. “Watching Paul McCartney arrange background vocals and harmonize with himself?” he says. “I’m taking that s–t with me to every production I do for the rest of my life.”
This story will appear in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.
The 1975 singer Matty Healy appeared to set off a bit of a panic among the group’s fans this week when he announced that his band would be taking an “indefinite hiatus” when they finish their current round of dates next spring. So, in an attempt to clarify things, the loquacious frontman made yet another […]
The late Tina Turner will be celebrated on the upcoming retrospective compilation, Queen of Rock ‘N’ Roll, due out on Nov. 24 via Rhino Records. The 55-song set showcases Turner’s solo-billed singles from 1975 through 2020, including such Billboard Hot 100-charting hits as “What’s Love Got To Do With It” (a No. 1 from 1984), “The Best” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome).” The Billboard chart-topping artist died on May 24 at age 83.
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Included on the collection is a reworked version of Turner’s “Something Beautiful Remains,” retitled to “Something Beautiful.” It was remixed by Turner’s longtime collaborator Terry Britten, who co-wrote and produced the original version of the song, released in 1996.
See the full tracklist below.
The Queen of Rock ‘N’ Roll collection will be released via streaming services and as a five-vinyl LP box, a three-CD package, and a digital download album. An abbreviated 12-song version of the collection will simultaneously be issued on a single vinyl LP. All iterations of the album will include a foreword written by Bryan Adams. Turner and Adams scored a top 20-charting Hot 100 duet with “It’s Only Love,” released in 1985.
Courtesy Photo
Queen of Rock ‘N’ Roll also helps salute the 50th anniversary of the launch of Turner’s solo career in 1974 with her first solo album, Tina Turns the Country On!, which was released while she was still part of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. While that album missed Billboard’s charts and didn’t launch any singles, the following year saw Turner secure her first solo chart hits. The Acid Queen album reached No. 155 on the Billboard 200 in 1975 and No. 39 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (then-named Soul LPs) rankings, and launched her first solo-billed hit song on Billboard’s charts: a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” The single reached No. 61 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (then-named Hot Soul Singles).
Included on Queen of Rock ‘N’ Roll are all of Turner’s post-Ike & Tina Turner Revue hits on the Hot 100 – 17 in total from 1984 through 1996. In addition, non-Hot 100 hits that charted on other key Billboard charts are represented, including “Afterglow,” “Cose Della Vita” (with Eros Ramazzotti), “Goldeneye,” “In Your Wildest Dreams” (featuring Barry White), “Look Me in the Heart,” “On Silent Wings,” “Open Arms,” “Tearing Us Apart” (with Eric Clapton), the 2020 remix of “What’s Love Got To Do With It” (with Kygo) and “When the Heartache Is Over.”
Queen of Rock ‘n’ RollTracklist
5LPSide 1
Whole Lotta Love (1975)
Acid Queen (1976)
Root, Toot Undisputable Rock’n Roller (1978)
Viva La Money (1978)
Sometimes When We Touch (1979)
Music Keeps Me Dancin’ (1979)
Side 2
Let’s Stay Together (1983)
Help (Edit) (1984)
What’s Love Got To Do With It (1984)
Better Be Good To Me (1984)
Private Dancer (1984)
I Can’t Stand The Rain (1985)
Side 3
Show Some Respect (1985)
We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) (1985)
One Of The Living (1985)
It’s Only Love (with Bryan Adams) (1985)
Typical Male (1986)
Two People (1986)
Side 4
What You Get Is What You See (1987)
Girls (1987)
Break Every Rule (1987)
Paradise Is Here (1987)
Afterglow (1987)
Side 5
Tearing Us Apart (with Eric Clapton)
Addicted to Love (Live in Europe) (1988)
A Change is Gonna Come (Live in Europe) (1988)
Tonight (with David Bowie) (Live in Europe) (1988)
River Deep, Mountain High (Live in Europe) (1988)
Side 6
The Best (Edit) (1989)
Steamy Windows (1989)
I Don’t Wanna Lose You (1989)
Look Me In The Heart (1990)
Foreign Affair (Edit) (1990)
Side 7
Be Tender With Me Baby (1990)
It Takes Two (with Rod Stewart)
Nutbush City Limits (The 90’s Version) (1991)
Love Thing (1991)
Way Of The World (1991)
Side 8
I Want You Near Me (1992)
I Don’t Wanna Fight (1993)
Disco Inferno (1993)
Why Must We Wait Until Tonight? (1993)
Proud Mary (1993)
Side 9
Goldeneye (1995)
Whatever You Want (1996)
On Silent Wings (1996)
Missing You (1996)
In Your Wildest Dreams (with Barry White) (1996)
Cose della Vita (with Eros Ramazzotti)
Side 10
When The Heartache Is Over (1999)
Whatever You Need (2000)
Open Arms (2004)
Teach Me Again (with Elisa) (2017)
What’s Love Got to Do With It (Kygo remix) (2020)
Something Beautiful (2023 Version)
3CD/Digital/StreamingCD1
Whole Lotta Love
Acid Queen
Root, Toot Undisputable Rock ‘n’ Roller
Viva La Money
Sometimes When We Touch
Music Keeps Me Dancin’
Let’s Stay Together
Help
What’s Love Got To Do With It
Better Be Good To Me
Private Dancer
I Can’t Stand The Rain
Show Some Respect
We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)
One Of The Living
It’s Only Love (with Bryan Adams)
Typical Male
Two People
What You Get Is What You See
Girls
CD2
Break Every Rule
Paradise Is Here
Afterglow
Tearing Us Apart (with Eric Clapton)
Addicted to Love (Live in Europe)
A Change is Gonna Come (Live in Europe)
Tonight (with David Bowie) (Live in Europe)
River Deep, Mountain High (Live in Europe)
The Best (Edit)
Steamy Windows
I Don’t Wanna Lose You
Look Me In The Heart
Foreign Affair
Be Tender With Me Baby
It Takes Two (with Rod Stewart)
Nutbush City Limits (The 90’s Version)
Love Thing
Way Of The World
CD3
I Want You Near Me
I Don’t Wanna Fight
Disco Inferno
Why Must We Wait Until Tonight?
Proud Mary
Goldeneye
Whatever You Want
On Silent Wings
Missing You
In Your Wildest Dreams (with Barry White)
Cose della Vita (with Eros Ramazzotti)
When The Heartache Is Over
Whatever You Need
Open Arms
Teach Me Again (with Elisa)
What’s Love Got to Do With It (Kygo remix)
Something Beautiful (2023 Version)
Abbreviated 1LP Version Side 1
What’s Love Got To Do With It
Let’s Stay Together
Private Dancer
We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)
Nutbush City Limits (The 90s Version)
River Deep, Mountain High (Live in Europe)
Side 2
Steamy Windows
I Don’t Wanna Lose You
I Don’t Wanna Fight
When The Heartache Is Over
Proud Mary
The Best
This summer, Disturbed launched a North American amphitheater tour in support of Divisive, the band’s eighth studio album over a three-decade career. For a group that deep into their journey as live performers, another summer tour can feel like a bit of plug-and-play. But this time around, the band’s Boxscore results were bigger than ever before. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the Take Back Your Life Tour earned $17.4 million and sold 336,000 tickets.
That makes 2023 the biggest year of the band’s touring career, surpassing the $14.6 million earned in 2019.
On a per-show basis, Disturbed averaged $601,000 per night, beating previous career-bests of $473,000 in 2011 and $405,000 in 2019. But as proven by an endless list of post-pandemic examples, inflation and platinum ticketing and dynamic pricing and primary-market re-sale make bulking up tour grosses more possible, if not easier, than ever. But in Disturbed’s case, this peak revenue cannot be explained by exploiting 2023’s chaotic ticketing market.
The average ticket price for the Take Back Your Life Tour was $51.07. That’s actually down by 11% from 2019’s $58.66, and only 7% above the average from 2016 ($48.72). That means that the band’s soaring earnings can be explained by increased attendance.
The Take Back Your Life Tour averaged 11,573 tickets per show, up from 6,901 in 2019 and 4,404 in 2016. Over the last two album cycles, Disturbed has multiplied its ticket-buying fanbase by more than two and a half. Sorted by attendance, the band’s 10 biggest concerts ever all happened this summer, led by the Sept. 2 show at Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center in Noblesville, Ind., marking its first headline show with more than 20,000 fans.
This year’s tour was in key Live Nation amphitheaters, after mostly playing in scaled down arenas. Located just outside of primary touring markets, these outdoor venues have the space to accommodate thousands of fans, often more than the indoor arenas situated in the center of major cities.
Not only did Disturbed have the literal space to sell more tickets, taking advantage of the venues’ large lawns (all dates had a baseline price of $29.50), but the infrastructure around amphitheaters also allows for modest pricing, even up to the first row. Parking, merchandise and concessions are major parts of the experience, especially with bulked-up lineups on long summer days. Breaking Benjamin and Jinjer supported Disturbed on the road this summer.
The decision to level up to amphitheaters did a lot of the heavy lifting for Disturbed’s new career peak, but the release of last year’s Divisive certainly helped as well. Before the tour began, the album had already made “Hey You” the band’s 11th No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, with “Bad Man” reaching No. 2 in March. Throughout the tour, “Unstoppable” climbed the ranks, ultimately becoming the band’s 12th chart-topper in mid-August. “Don’t Tell Me” featuring Ann Wilson is next, set for release in November.
Dating back to the band’s first show in the reported archives, when Disturbed earned $10,000 and sold 682 tickets at Saratoga Winners in upstate New York on Sept. 26, 2000, the metal superstars have grossed $71.2 million and sold 1.8 million tickets across 365 shows.
Lady Gaga skies up into her highest, most soulful register on the new Rolling Stones gospel blues burner “Sweet Sounds of Heaven.” The latest preview single from the Stones’ upcoming Hackney Diamonds album takes its time, unspooling over more than seven minutes of righteous rambling that sounds like an outtake from the band’s beloved 1972 Americana rock classic Exile on Main St.
The song opens with a rolling piano riff and Jagger in classic barroom crooner form, emoting, “I hear the sweet, sweet sounds of heaven/ Fallin’ down, fallin’ down to this earth,” before Gaga joins him on the second verse, parachuting in to echo Jagger’s lines in a high and sweet churchy register.
“I smell the sweet/ Sweet scents of heaven/ Tumblin’ down/ Tumblin’ down to the earth,” Jagger sings as Gaga’s voice rises to double his on the next verse, matching the 80-year-old rock legend note-for-muscular-note on the track that takes its sweet time. The song eventually rises to a joyous riot of guitar, drums, saxophone and keyboards more than five minutes in, building to a pair of joyous peaks as Jagger and Gaga get entangled in a growly soul shout-off.
In a new interview with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, Jagger heaped praise on Gaga, calling her a “really great singer,” noting that he’d “never heard her sing quite that style before.” The Stones vocalist also described tracking the song — which also features soulful Fender Rhodes, piano and Moog from Stevie Wonder — which he said the band laid down live while all in the same room in an era when many A-list collaborations are digitally stitched together from afar.
“That was a great experience, her just coming in the room and her just opening up and seeing her bits and feeling her way and then getting more confident,” Jagger said, noting that the band and album producer Andrew Watt then tidied it up and that he and Gaga were at some point, “really face-to-face, getting them really tight, the parts really tight, and then being slightly competitive and screaming” on the track that is reminiscent of such Stones classics as “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
Though guitarist Ronnie Wood recently told Sky News that the collab came together somewhat spontaneously when Gaga happened to be in the same studio complex working on a different project, it’s not the first time they’ve gotten together. Gaga jumped on stage with the Stones in Dec. 2012 during their 50 and Counting tour to duet on a version of their 1969 single “Gimme Shelter.”
Hackney Diamonds, the Stones’ first album of new material in 18 years, is due out on Oct 20. The album’s previous single, “Angry,” features a video starring Euphoria actress Sydney Sweeney.
Listen to “Sweet Sounds of Heaven” below.
Like any 80-year-old parent, Mick Jagger is thinking about what he will leave behind for his children. In the Rolling Stones singer’s case, though, that means doing the maths on dividing his fortune amongst his eight children, as well as pondering what to do with a potential blockbuster sale of the band’s hits-packed catalog. In […]
Saturday (Sept. 30) at The Rooftop at Pier 17 (one of NYC’s most scenic venues), thethe music and funky fresh magic of Prince will come to life when covers band Princess takes the stage. While there are plenty of Prince tribute acts, two things make Princess a bit of a glam slam: Prince himself gave […]
For the first time ever, viewers will be able to watch a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony live without being there in the flesh. On Thursday (Sept. 28) morning, the Rock Hall announced that the 2023 ceremony will be streaming live on Disney+ at 8 p.m. ET when it takes over Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Nov. 3. In past years, an edited version of each Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony aired on HBO several weeks following the in-person event; now, that edited broadcast of highlights will air on ABC come Jan. 1, 2024, from 8-11 p.m. ET.
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That news also came with the first announcement of who we can expect to take the stage at the Class of 2023 induction. Of the new inductees, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, Chaka Khan and Willie Nelson have been revealed as performers at the Nov. 3 event. Additionally, special guests Brandi Carlile, Dave Matthews, H.E.R., Chris Stapleton, St. Vincent and New Edition will also take the stage.
The Class of 2023 also includes Kate Bush, the late George Michael, Rage Against the Machine and The Spinners in the performers category. Additionally, DJ Kool Herc, Link Wray, Al Kooper, Bernie Taupin and Don Cornelius will be inducted.
“This historic live stream on Disney+ and special on ABC is a testament to the diverse sounds and enduring power of rock and roll,” said John Sykes, chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, in a press release. “Over the last three decades, the annual live Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction has become music’s highest honor, celebrating the artists who’ve defined generations and changed music forever.”
This year will mark the first induction ceremony since Rock Hall co-founder Jann Wenner was removed from the foundation’s board of directors by a near-unanimous vote. The Rolling Stone founder was widely lambasted following an interview with The New York Times about his book The Masters, which didn’t include interviews with women or Black artists. When pressed on this by the Times, he replied that women were not “as articulate enough on this intellectual level” about rock music and added that Black artists “just didn’t articulate at that level.” Since then, Wenner apologized in a statement, saying, “In my interview with The New York Times, I made comments that diminished the contributions, genius, and impact of Black and women artists and I apologize wholeheartedly for those remarks.”