Rock
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Everything you need to know about Poison was summed up in the title of their 1988 hit “Nothin’ But a Good Time.”
Since forming in 1983 in Mechanicsburg, Pa., the stalwart glam-metal quartet has made music for literally nothing but a good time. Sure, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” may have dampened a hanky or two, but Poison’s raison d’rock has been to get the party started and keep it going until dawn and beyond. And the good times rolled to the tune of four multi-platinum albums and eight top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
Poison laid any doubts about its staying power to rest with its performances during 2022’s The Stadium Tour, warming up for Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe with an ebullient greatest set that had thousands of fans rocking each night like it was 1988.
“I never knew what would happen, but I never thought it couldn’t happen,” frontman Bret Michaels tells Billboard. “We just found a way to get it done and enjoyed it. My pot of gold is the journey. I’ve met incredible people, I got to play incredible places and travel the world and play music and have a great time doing it. I think that’s something everybody who comes to see us relates to.”
During its tenure, Poison released seven studio albums, from the triple-platinum blockbuster Look What the Cat Dragged In in 1986 up to the 2007 covers set Poison’d! The classic lineup of Michaels, guitarist C.C. DeVille, bassist Bobby Dall and drummer Rikki Rockett has remained intact since 1996, and the frontman says the group is looking at 2025 for another tour and possibly some new music.
From Billboard chart hits to deep cuts, here are our picks for the group’s 10 best songs.
“Unskinny Bop” (1990)
There’s often ambivalence over this song because it’s so silly. But that’s the point. There are no artistic pretensions to “Unskinny” — it’s just a good-time romp with a chorus that sticks in your ears after the first pass. You can feel conflicted about it on principle, but when you hear it, you know you’ll be bop, bop, bopping along. Listen here.
“Stand” (1993)
Heartland rock wasn’t exactly within Poison’s milieu, but the group did a creditable job on this lead single from Native Tongue. Co-penned by new guitarist Ritchie Kotzen, the rootsy flavors of mandolin and acoustic guitar (along with a gospel choir) took Poison somewhere different — think John Mellencamp in the last half of the ’80s. It certainly raised a few eyebrows among the faithful, but it gave the group one final appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 (No. 50). Listen here.
“(Flesh & Blood) Sacrifice” (1981)
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo
Poison’s collective libido did not necessarily make for poetic lyrics, but nobody really comes to this band looking for Shakespearean sonnets, do they? The title track from Poison’s third album leans toward the band’s grittier side, making for some guilt-free headbanging thanks to Rockett’s muscular wallop and a steady bottom pulse provided by Dall.
“Fallen Angel” (1988)
Poison tells its own story here — about moving west to find success — by creating the character of small-town girl (not that small-town girl) who takes the bus but doesn’t find the City of Angels to be quite so welcoming. The song won big, however, hitting No. 12 on the Hot 100. It’s not the last we’d hear of the Angel in question, either. Listen here.
“Shooting Star” (2002)
A sequel of sorts to 1988’s “Fallen Angel,” this chugging rocker from Hollyweird has a thicker, heavier tone than much of the band’s previous material with an opening riff that straddles ‘80s glam and ‘90s alt-rock. This time, Angel is fist-pumping throughout a compact, tightly executed track. Listen here.
“Look What the Cat Dragged In” (1986)
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo
The title track from Poison’s debut album sounds like the group found a Runaways/Joan Jett outtake in a back corner of some club and latched onto it like an unexpected Christmas present. “Cat” scratches just the right blend of punk, metal and personality to give a new band its sense of identity, and Poison drives the message home in a tight three minutes and 10 seconds.
“I Want Action” (1987)
The third single from Look What the Cat Dragged In is bouncy fun dipped in the glammy trough of Slade and Sweet — right down to the spoken exchanges after DeVille’s guitar solo. Like so much of the group’s oeuvre, “I Want Action” wears its message on its sleeve, and the video is four-minute calling card for all things Poison. Listen here.
“Every Rose Has Its Thorn” (1988)
“Every Rose” was the king of the power ballads at a time when power ballads were king. Heartbreak makes hits, of course, and Michaels’ spun Poison’s only Hot 100 No. 1 hit from hearing a male voice in the background of a phone call with his girlfriend while he was drying clothes at a laundromat in Dallas. His pain, our gain. Who knows how many Bic lighters or cell phone batteries have been drained while this was being played in concert. Listen here.
“I Won’t Forget You” (1987)
It’s been eclipsed in the power ballad department by “Every Rose” and “Something to Believe In,” but it sounds fresher because it hasn’t been played into the ground. It was an early highlight for DeVille as a guitar soloist, and its gentle, earthy production (especially compared to what came in its wake) makes it an easy, timeless listen. Listen here.
“Nothin’ But a Good Time” (1988)
Taylor Swift had a jovial backstage run-in with none other than Lenny Kravitz on Monday night at the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards.
“The moment Lenny Kravitz and Taylor Swift met backstage,” the official iHeartRadio account wrote on the behind-the-scenes video on TikTok. In the clip, fans can spot Ice Spice shuffling past before Kravitz stops Swift for a chat.
“Taylor! Girl!” he calls out as the pair hug, with the “Lavender Haze” singer telling the host, “You did amazing!”
From there, Kravitz jokes that the superstar just might have pilfered her sequined, hooded look directly from his flamboyant wardrobe. “OK, you went in my closet, huh? You went in my closet,” he quips while Swift volleys back, “Yeah, absolutely. I was just inspired by you, I was like, ‘My favorite color is…’” before the video cuts out.
While Kravitz MC’d the evening’s star-studded ceremony, Swift took home six awards out of her eight total nominations, including song of the year and best lyrics (for “Anti-Hero”), TikTok bop of the year (for fan fave “Bejeweled”), favorite use of a sample (for using her own “Out of the Woods” in Midnights album cut “Question…?”), pop album of the year (for Midnights) and the special honor of this year’s iHeartRadio Innovator Award.
Accepting the latter award, the superstar spoke about her own trial-by-error process of coming up with new ideas. “I never a single time woke up in the morning and said, ‘You know what I’m gonna do today? I’m gonna innovate stuff,’” she said. “What I did do was make the right decisions for me. People want an example of something working before, but I think the coolest ideas, moves and choices are new ones, ones that set a new precedent. I’m so thankful because my fans have backed me up on things like switching genres or re-recording all my old music.”
Watch Swift and Kravitz’s awards show meet-up below.
The Smashing Pumpkins announced a major North American summer tour on Tuesday morning (March 28) that will keep the veteran Chicago band on the road from late July through early September.
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The 26-date Live Nation-produced outing, dubbed The World is a Vampire Tour — a reference to an iconic line from 1995’s “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” — is slated to kick off on July 28 with the first of two dates at The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, followed by gigs in Albuquerque, Dallas, West Palm Beach, Toronto, Ottawa and Franklin, TN before wrapping up on Sept. 9 at the Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, IN.
The tour will feature a rotating cast of opening acts, including Interpol, Stone Temple Pilots and Rival Sons, as well as bouts featuring some of the biggest stars from the Corgan-owned National Wrestling Alliance. The pre-sale for the shows opened on Tuesday and will run through 10 p.m. local time on Thursday (March 30). The General onsale will start on Friday (March 31) at 10 a.m. local time; click here for more information on tickets.
“I grew up in a world where I needed to know bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure existed, it meant there was a place for people like me to hang out and belong,” Corgan said in a statement announcing the tour he hopes will remind fans of some of the classic alternative tours and festivals of the 1990s. “That’s what The World Is A Vampire is about. Bringing back that sense of community. If you don’t fit in, you belong here. It’s about having a shared experience and respecting others, but ultimately having fun. A true alternative festival, where all the self-proclaimed weirdos and outsiders of the world can get together and have a party.”
The Pumpkins’ driving, new wavey new single, “Spellbinding,” got its radio debut on Tuesday morning during Corgan’s appearance on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio show, during which the band also played “1979” and “Empires” live in the studio. The final act of the band’s three-part rock opera, ATUM, is slated for release on May 5.
Check out The World Is a Vampire tour dates below:
July 28 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan
July 30 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan
August 1 – Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheatre *
August 3 – Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre *
August 5 – Auburn, WA @ White River Amphitheatre *
August 6 – Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater *
August 7 – Wheatland, CA @ Toyota Amphitheatre *
August 9 – Irvine, CA @ FivePoint Amphitheatre *
August 10 – Chula Vista, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre *
August 11 – Highland, CA @ Yaamava’ Resort & Casino **
August 13 – Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater ^
August 15 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavillion ^
August 16 – Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP ^
August 17 – Huntsville, AL @ The Orion Amphitheater ^
August 19 – West Palm Beach, FL @ iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre ^
August 20 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre ^
August 22 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion ^
August 24 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center ^
August 25 – Gilford, NH @ Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion ^
August 30 – Wantagh, NY @ Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater ^
August 31 – Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live ^
Sept. 2 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage ^
Sept. 3 – Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre ^
Sept. 6 – Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre ^^
Sept. 8 – Franklin, TN @ FirstBank Amphitheater ^
Sept. 9 – Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center ^
^ w/ Interpol & Rival Sons
* w/ Stone Temple Pilots & Rival Sons
**w/ Stone Temple Pilots
^^ w/ Interpol
Tom Leadon, co-founder of Tom Petty‘s band Mudcrutch and brother of Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon, died on March 22 at age 70. The musician’s family confirmed the news, while Petty’s official fan club released a statement regarding Leadon’s passing.
“It is with great sadness, but profound love and gratitude for his life, that the family of Tom Leadon (Thomas Joseph Leadon) of Nashville, Tenn., and Gainesville, Fla., announce his passing on March 22, 2023 peacefully of natural causes. He was 70,” the statement read.
Mike Campbell, former Mudcrutch and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers member, also shared his thoughts regarding Leadon’s loss. “Tom Leadon was my deepest guitar soul brother, we spent countless hours playing acoustic guitars and teaching each other things,” he wrote. “A kinder soul never walked the earth. I will always miss his spirit and generosity. Sleep peacefully my old friend.”
Leadon’s music career dates back to high school, during which he was a member of the Epics and met Petty (who played bass in the group, while Leadon was on lead guitar). The duo then formed Mudcrutch, which Campbell joined to play guitar, and members Randall Marsh and Jim Lenahan joined for drums and vocals, respectively. Leadon would ultimately leave the band in 1972 following a fight with Petty, but later played in Linda Rondstadt’s band on bass, and joined Silver in 1976. (Silver earned a Billboard top 20 hit with its track “Wham-Bam.”)
Leadon also wrote the Eagles’ “Hollywood Waltz” in 1975; the band released it as part of its One of These Nights. Leadon is credited on the song alongside his brother Bernie, Glenn Lewis Frey and Don Henley.
Mudcrutch would see a reconciliation in 2007, when Petty got the group back together with Leadon, Marsh, Campbell and the Heartbeakers’ Benmont Tench. The reunited group would record two albums — Mudcrutch and Mudcrutch 2, which charted at Nos. 8 and 10 on the Billboard 200, respectively. The group disbanded upon Petty’s death in 2016.
“He was a dear friend of Tom and the fellas in the band and our entire family. He was part of the brotherhood,” Petty’s daughter, Adria, also shared in a statement on the late rocker’s official Instagram account. “He was an excellent and accomplished musician and was the reason Tom reformed Mudcrutch, so that the band could enjoy more time and more music together. Tom loved him deeply.”
Missed out on a chance to score tickets to John Mayer‘s 2023 solo acoustic tour? Fans are in luck, as the musician announced on Monday (March 26) an extension of his current trek into the fall, with a series of additional dates across the United States.
“Announcing new fall dates for the Solo tour. As a dear friend once told me, ‘never block a blessing.’ Something very special is happening out here and I want to keep it going – It’s too good for my soul. Thank you for making it such an incredible run so far,” Mayer shared on Instagram, along with the new dates included on a poster.
The fall leg of Mayer’s Solo tour will kick off on Oct. 3 at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden, and will make stops in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville and more before concluding on Nov. 10 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. JP Saxe will be the special guest for the new dates. “Deeply overjoyed we get to keep doing this. thx for bringing me along,” Saxe commented under the tour announcement.
The “Daughter” singer’s post also included details on how fans can buy tickets. “Tickets go on sale to the public Friday, March 31 at 9 AM local time,” he shared. “An exclusive fan presale will be available starting Wednesday, March 29, at 9 AM local time and end Thursday, March 30, at 10 PM. Sign up to access your unique presale code now at johnmayer.com. UK and Europe dates coming soon.”
See Mayer’s announcement, as well as the full list of tour dates, below.
A-ha’s “Take on Me” gives The Last of Us its first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top TV Songs chart, powered by Tunefind, reigning on the February 2023 ranking.
Rankings for the Top TV Songs chart are based on song and show data provided by Tunefind, and ranked using a formula blending that data with sales and streaming information tracked by Luminate during the corresponding period of February 2023.
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“Take on Me” was heard in the seventh episode of the HBO series’ first season, which aired Feb. 26.
It follows a pair of bows for the freshman show on the January 2023 survey: Linda Ronstadt’s “Long Long Time” at No. 5 and Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again” (No. 7).
In February 2023, “Take on Me” earned 15.1 million official on-demand U.S. streams and 3,000 downloads, according to Luminate.
The song was a-ha’s top charter in the U.S., reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1985.
It’s one of four songs from The Last of Us to reach the February 2023 tally. Agnes Obel’s “Fuel to Fire,” from episode five (Feb. 12), leads the group, hitting No. 5 (378,000 streams, 1,000 downloads).
The highest non-The Last of Us entry is TALK’s “Run Away to Mars,” which appears at No. 2. It was heard in the seventh episode of the 19th season of ABC’s long-running Grey’s Anatomy, which premiered Feb. 23.
In February 2023, “Mars” earned 5.3 million streams and 4,000 downloads. Concurrently, it could be heard on a variety of U.S. radio formats; it peaked at No. 1 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart for three weeks beginning Jan. 28 and also reached No. 6 on Alternative Airplay.
See the full top 10, also featuring music from YOU and Shrinking, below.
Rank, Song, Artist, Show (Network)
“Take on Me,” a-ha, The Last of Us (HBO)
“Run Away To Mars,” TALK, Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
“Heads Will Roll,” Yeah Yeah Yeahs, YOU (Netflix)
“I Would Die 4 U,” Holly Humberstone, Shrinking (Apple TV+)
“Fuel to Fire,” Agnes Obel, The Last of Us (HBO)
“True Faith,” Lotte Kestner, The Last of Us (HBO)
“Alone and Forsaken,” Hank Williams, The Last of Us (HBO)
“Killer,” Valerie Broussard, YOU (Netflix)
“I Know the End,” Phoebe Bridgers, Shrinking (Apple TV+)
“Dangerous,” Big Data feat. Joywave, YOU (Netflix)
Saturday (March 25) marks one year since Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins‘ shocking death at age 50 while while on tour with the band in South America. In the most fitting tribute imaginable, Belgian rock band Black Box Revelation gathered a group of 100 drummers to perform a thundering version of the Foos’ beloved 1988 single “My Hero” in a very special space to honor Hawkins.
The performance took place at Belgium’s largest arena, Sportpaleis Antwerp, which was the last venue in the country where Hawkins played with the Foos in 2018. “Taylor Hawkins was the best drummer of our times,” Black Box Revelation said in a statement. “Honouring him with this tribute was an experience we will never forget.”
The video opens with the song’s signature thumping rhythm, with the equally iconic hypnotic guitar riff coming in as the camera pans back to reveal row-upon-row of drummers — old and young, male and female — jamming in perfect rhythmic unison while all wearing black t-shirts featuring Hawkins’ signature hawk symbol.
The reverent performance echoed another from September, when the Foos performed “My Hero” at London’s Wembley Stadium with Hawkins’ 16-year-old son, Shane, during an emotional tribute to the beloved late bandmate.
Earlier this year, the Foos announced their first live dates following a year-long silence in the wake of Hawkins’ death, including spots at a number of festivals including Boston Calling (May 26), Sonic Temple (May 28), Rock Am Ring (June 2), Rock Im Park (June 4), Bonnaroo (June 18), Harley-Davidson Homecoming (July 15), Fuji Rock (July 28-30), The Town (Sept. 9) and Sea.Hear.Now (Sept. 17), among others. At press time the group had not yet announced who will play drums on those dates.
Watch video of the “My Hero” performance below.
Sitting in a studio with Demi Lovato in 2012, songwriter-producer Mitch Allen wanted her to hear something. The rising star was there to record “Two Pieces,” a track to be included her soon-to-be-released album Demi. After hearing her “gigantic vocal” on the emotional pop anthem, Allen pressed play on a demo he’d been workshopping and pitching around called “Heart Attack.”
“She looked me, her eyes lit up, and she just said, ‘Oh my God, I love it. I wanna cut it,’” he recalls in a conversation with Billboard. Looking back on that moment herself, Lovato remembers the same feeling. “I knew I wanted to record it,” she says. “I could hear what I wanted to do with the song — I just loved it.”
10 years after its official release in 2013, “Heart Attack” stands as one of the biggest hits of Lovato’s career (one of the star’s three top 10 solo hits on the Billboard Hot 100) and a well-established fan favorite in their discography. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of her signature, the singer decided it was time to give the song an update.
On Friday (March 24), Lovato unveiled the “rock version” of her hit single, first teased to fans who attended her latest tour dates. Swapping swelling synths for raging guitars and scintillating trap beats with double-time pop-punk drums, the updated anthem keeps the bones of the original while turning up the heat on the aesthetics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP0CB_2QjGo
Oak Felder, a longtime collaborator of Lovato’s and the executive producer of their 2022 rock opus Holy Fvck, struggled with how to approach remake a song that he “loved” already. “No matter what happens to it or how it’s changed, you just can’t get the original version outta your head,” he says. “To be truthful with you, that’s kind of what made it a challenge.”
The sound that Felder couldn’t shake was that of production duo The Suspex, made up of Allen and Jason Evigan. The duo wrote “Heart Attack” with Sean Douglas, Aaron Phillips and Nikki Williams, the latter of whom the song was originally intended for.
From the moment they first produced the demo, Allen says he knew that “Heart Attack” was a left-field pop song for 2013’s radio landscape, especially with its nods towards light rock and EDM sounds. But after hearing Lovato’s earth-shattering vocals, he knew they had to pare it down.
“We had a dubstep drop right after that massive bridge; it went to this crazy Skrillex-esque … I don’t even know what to call it, this dubstep break that Jason just sat down and just went nuts on,” Allen explains. “That was the first part that we ended up having to cut, because we realized as much as we loved the choppiness and aggressiveness, it wasn’t what was on the radio and it wasn’t right for Demi.”
What ended up being right for the singer was ad-libbing — once everyone was in the studio together, Lovato asked Allen if they could improvise a few runs on the song’s bridge. “They were pretty off-the-cuff, they kind of just came to me in the moment. It was a pretty simple and easy thing,” Lovato says, before adding with a laugh, “Well, actually, some of the notes were really hard. I remember kind of struggling to hit a few of those in the studio.”
Whatever struggle Lovato was feeling, Allen says he didn’t notice it. “That very last note [of the bridge] was the highest note I’d ever heard a human being hit with full voice, and she just did it,” Allen says, still amazed. “It was perfect. I’m the kind of producer that will always say, ‘That was awesome. Do it again.’ I don’t think I cut it a second time, I just sat there slack-jawed, staring at her and saying, ‘Oh my God.’”
That bridge went on the not only impress Allen, but fans as well — over the last few years, the bridge to “Heart Attack” has spawned a TikTok challenge where aspiring singers attempt to hit the stratospheric G5 in full voice at the end of the run, to varying effect.
For Lovato, that kind of legacy for the song means a lot to her. “It feels amazing, being able to see the song continue to reach people and inspire people to hit those high notes,” she says. “I used to try and hit those high notes in my favorite songs — it’s really cool that people are starting to do the same with mine.”
With that legacy came a set of unspoken expectations for a new rock version — but Felder says he quickly solved the problem he was facing by listening to “La La Land,” another fan-favorite song from Lovato’s discography.
“I realized Demi, in that era, sounded like a completely different person … Demi’s voice now is a witness and a testament to the things that she’s been through as a person,” he says. “Once you’ve gone to hell and you’ve come back, you really appreciate life … when I hear her sing about things that are emotional or painful or joyful, there is a lot more experience and understanding of those emotions behind the way that she’s singing it now. Once I got there, the production just came right out.”
Lovato agrees with Felder’s assessment, and takes it a step further — it’s not just their voice that has changed in the last 10 years. “I was so young, and I was a completely different person back then,” they explain. “I hadn’t come out as non-binary yet, so when I look back, I see a totally different person than I am today. But I still love that girl, I love that part of me.”
With the added context of all Lovato’s been through over the last few years — a public overdose, stints in and out of rehab, publicly coming out and more — the rock version of “Heart Attack” bears plenty more grit and anger where the original didn’t. When Lovato sings “It’s just not fair, pain’s more trouble than love is worth,” this time, you genuinely believe her.
That added context is everything Allen says they were aiming for when reinventing the song in the studio. “It was about capturing what she feels now,” he says. “I think that’s the magic that comes from a great song, where you get to go, ‘Okay, we did that version. We don’t need to rely on it. How do we feel today, and does it still hold up?’ I think it does.”
From her experience playing the new version of the song live on her Holy Fvck Tour, Lovato knows for a fact that it still holds up. “I saw [my fans] rocking out to it, and it just brought a lot of joy to my heart,” she says. “I wouldn’t have believed that I would be re-recording this song for a 10 year anniversary because it was that special. But being able to see it from that perspective today is really exciting to me.”
Neil Young has spent more than half a century as a dedicated road dog. But based on a heated screed the Rock Hall of Famer posted on his site this week, the road might have an end. Titled, “Concert Touring Is Broken,” the letter is a kind of addendum to the Don Quixote-like battle The Cure‘s Robert Smith has been waging against ticketing giant Ticketmaster over what both men say are its exorbitant added fees.
“It’s over. The old days are gone,” wrote Young under an all-caps opening line that claimed that TM fees are “at 30%.” Young wrote that he’s gotten letters from fans blaming him for $3,000 tickets for a benefit he’s doing. “That money does not go to me or the benefit,” he said. “Artists have to worry about ripped off fans blaming them for Ticketmaster add-ons and scalpers.”
“CONCERT TOURS are no longer fun,” said Young, who has mostly been keeping his road powder dry since before the COVID-19 pandemic (with the exception of a few benefit appearances). Young recapped the public battle Smith has been waging over the past few weeks surrounding his outrage over the additional fees tacked onto the price of tickets for his band’s upcoming North American tour, which, in some cases, exceeded the face value of the ticket.
Smith told his fans that the Cure were determined to make the tickets for their Songs of a Lost World tour affordable for fans and keep them out of the hands of price-gouging scalpers by going through TM’s Verfied Fans program and making them non-transferrable, with some seats available for as low as $20 each. But when Smith got wind of some of the fees added on, the goth rock icon went on a multi-day Twitter rampage that resulted in TM refunding fans $5-$10 on every order.
At press time a spokesperson for TM had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.
Young’s post also linked to news reports about Smith’s battle with TM, which came after the company’s disastrous roll-out of tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour when TM’s servers were overwhelmed by demand (and an army of bots). The Justice Department has also held hearings looking into TM and sister company Live Nation Entertainment as part of an antitrust investigation.
Since joining forces in 2011, Queen + Adam Lambert have quickly become one of the most successful touring acts in the world — and now, they’re ready to prove why.
On Friday (March 24), the internationally beloved rock group announced the latest North American expansion of the Rhapsody Tour, set to take place this fall. Kicking off at Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena in October, the tour will make 14 stops throughout the U.S. and Canada, including shows in New York, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Nashville and Dallas, before closing out at Los Angeles’ BMO Stadium in November.
For fans who saw the first North American leg of The Rhapsody Tour in 2019, fear not; the new set of dates promises an “expanded and updated” show, with guitarist Sir Brian May adding in a statement, “Our last tour featured our most ambitious production ever. So we decided to rip it apart and get even more ambitious.”
Billboard caught up with May, Lambert and Roger Taylor ahead of their official announcement, where the trio talked about what fans can expect from the new show, their favorite songs to perform live, and why “this is not a farewell tour,” according to May.
This is the first time in four years that the three of you will be touring the U.S. together, following your European tour last year — how are you feeling ahead of hitting the road this fall?
Brian May: It’s incredible, yeah. I think we all learned in COVID how much we really missed this. It was really tough for everybody. We already did our big outing in Europe, but with a lot of restrictions on that; we had a very strict protocol just to get through, because people were going down like flies. But we managed to get through that whole tour without losing a date, and it was all sold-out, packed, fantastic and better than ever, I think. So we thought, “Well, we just have to get back to the states.”
Outside of those restrictions, were there any significant learning curves you had to navigate in a post-COVID touring environment last year?
Roger Taylor: Not really, no, I think it was a huge relief to just get back to something approaching normality. That made up for the fact that we did have to have a lot of mask-wearing, and we temporarily lost a few people along the way. And it was a long tour wasn’t it?
May: Oh, yeah.
Taylor: We were changing it and improving it as we went, and we are now going through all of those improvements again when it comes to this American leg.
I’ve noticed that the phrase “one more time” has been thrown around quite a bit when it comes to this tour — are you planning on this being Queen + Adam Lambert’s final outing?
May: Let me be clear, this is not a farewell tour. You can always do one more time … and then one more time … and then another time after that!
Adam Lambert: [laughs] Yeah, why limit yourself, guys?
Taylor: It’s just a simple, five year farewell tour, right?
When it comes to the “improvements” you’ve made to the show, what can fans expect to see that’s new with this leg of The Rhapsody Tour?
May: Well, we’re not gonna tell you that much, we don’t want to spoil it. [laughs] But the nice things is that the material is what ultimately gives the ideas, and we’re able to develop those ideas as we go along. We get to throw more and more stuff in, production-wise.
Lambert: I will say, the technology has come so far, even in the 10 years that we’ve worked together. It gives us so much freedom when it comes to what we want to create, what environment we want to put around a song. We have all of these toys that we get to play with, which we all get a big kick out of. We have an amazing creative team that work with us — I mean, we add something in a couple of days if we have a cool idea. Once the show kicks off, the show is never locked. It’s never the same show every night, we have the ability to throw a new song in, move the set around, change the visuals. There’s so much freedom.
That’s really interesting — how exactly do you go about adding new songs or new moments on the fly like that?
Lambert: I’d say a couple of glasses of wine and a chat, yeah?
May: [laughs] I mean, we also always do a soundcheck. The soundcheck is the key thing for us, I think. Every time we go into a new city and set things up, we’ll go into a soundcheck for two or three hours sometimes. When we’re doing that, we’ll try new stuff out, and our team is so flexible with us, that we’ll just throw out, “Can you give us a certain lighting effect, can you do stuff on the screens?” And they’ll build it on the spot for us. We don’t work on backing tracks or anything, which means we can kind of do anything we want. And we’re really fortunate to have a technical team that can handle that — a lot of this stuff is programmed to work at pretty exact intervals, and ours is all human touch, which gives it that live feel.
Lambert: Also, when we add a song sort of impromptu, we don’t like to over-rehearse it. We play it in that soundcheck and maybe one more soundcheck, and then we throw it in. It makes it really fun, like it’s a thrill-seeking activity, where we just go for it and see what happens.
Brian, I wanted to congratulate you on your recent knighting from King Charles III — what was that experience like for you?
May: It was nice! It was a lot more exciting that I thought it would be, really. We’ve interacted with King Charles a lot — he was at Live Aid! We’ve worked with him on the Prince’s Trust, which is a wonderful charity that takes care of young people, over the years. So meeting him and having him actually do that for me, was actually a really big deal for me. We had a pleasant chat about how old age was treating us, because we’re about the same age [laughs]. It’s quite nice, I feel like it’s given me a little bit more power to do the work I do with animals. I view it in that light — not so much as a prize, but as a kind of empowerment.
And Adam, congratulations on your High Drama covers album — were there any big covers you wanted to include that didn’t quite make the cut?
Lambert: There were definitely a couple others I was considering, but it was a very thought-out project, so we weren’t wasting a lot of time or energy in the studio. We did it so quick, probably recorded those over about two months. I’m so happy with it, even though I did not write those songs, it felt like I was getting creative in the studio to find new ways to make them sound. That was such a cool challenge for me.
Queen has one of the most prolific songbooks in modern rock music. Obviously there are the core set of hits that you’re gonna play almost no matter what — do you have any favorites in particular to perform that maybe aren’t as monolithic?
May: You know, there’s some stuff that we know would be very difficult — Roger mentioned “The Millionaire Waltz” once.
Taylor: [laughs] Oh yeah, I don’t know if we could pull that off.
May: But a lot of the stuff we do anyways is fairly complex — the key is you don’t play the record. We really play how we feel on the stage. It’s funny, some people would call that a bluff, but there’s a lot of multi-track guitar harmonies in a lot of our songs, and I don’t do that onstage and I don’t use trickery to achieve it. I play what I’m feeling, and people hear that and get a purely live version of the song. No extra frills, because to me, recording has always been different than performing live.
Taylor: Sometimes, the song gains a whole new dimension of excitement from that. But the live version will not be exactly the same as the record — that’s not what we’re about.
May: Some people will do that — they’ll have clicks and backing tracks and make everything sound perfect, but why do that? Why not do something that’s real and in the moment and ready to fall off the edge?
Lambert: As far as the setlist goes, I think we’re all aware of what the fan favorites are. But the most important thing here is that, sure, we need to have fun, but the audience is buying a ticket to see the show. This is about their evening and giving them a show that feels fresh. We are keenly aware of what the favorites are and we try to include the big hits every night — they have a lot of hits, so it’s a lot to choose from. But it’s a two-plus hour show, so we’ve got plenty of time to get those big hits.
Tickets for The Rhapsody Tour officially go on sale Friday, March 31 at 10 a.m. local time on LiveNation.com.