Rock
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The world is mourning the loss of Tina Turner, who died on Wednesday (May 24) at 83. The news of Turner’s death was confirmed to Billboard and in a statement posted to her official Instagram account. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner. With her music and her boundless […]
Rob Thomas believes that the lead single to Matchbox Twenty’s first album in over a decade works because the band didn’t overthink it.
“Wild Dogs (Running in a Slow Dream),” the pop-rock sing-along that deploys a racing tempo and a handful of rousing hooks, was added to the track list of Where the Light Goes, the band’s fifth studio album, after Thomas, drummer/multi-instrumentalist Paul Doucette and producer Gregg Wattenberg recognized a spark in its music and lyrics — then proceeded to do as little as possible to mess with its momentum.
“There was a vitality to that track – a drive, a visceral feeling, that if we spent too much time polishing and re-polishing, it was gonna go away,” Thomas tells Billboard. “Gregg was very careful to be like, ‘We’re gonna get in, and once we get it, I want you to get out. Capture it, then step away from it. Don’t just keep adding to add.’”
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In some respect, Matchbox Twenty didn’t need to add to its discography: the alt-rock veterans’ catalog, beginning with 1996’s diamond-certified Yourself or Someone Like You, boasts hits like “3AM,” “If You’re Gone,” “Unwell” and “How Far We’ve Come” that could power summer amphitheater shows for years to come. Yet Where the Light Goes, due out this Friday (May 26) on Atlantic Records, is the product of a creative drive and longstanding collaborative ease: Thomas, Doucette, bassist Brian Yale and guitarist Kyle Cook have conceived the follow-up to 2012’s North, which topped the Billboard 200 chart upon its release, as a loose, unabashedly heartfelt check-in from a collection of old friends.
Matchbox Twenty kicked off their 54-date Slow Dream tour earlier this month, and will be playing a mix of old hits and new album cuts on the road through August. Ahead of the tour kickoff and album release, Thomas and Doucette chatted with Billboard about how an unlikely full-length turned into one of the most satisfying projects of their shared careers. (Ed. note: this conversations has been condensed and edited for clarity.)
Considering it’s been over a decade since the last Matchbox Twenty album, how does it feel to start the machine back up?
Thomas: Oddly comfortable and normal.
Doucette: We’ve done so much in our lives, so it’s like, we haven’t done it in a long time, but it doesn’t necessarily feel that different. The world is different — like, we didn’t have to worry about TikTok [before]. We just made a video for “Wild Dogs,” and part of that conversation is, “How does this work in small little cuts?” Those aren’t conversations that we used to have. So there’s definitely new things in this process for us, but it is still the process that we’ve been doing all of our adult lives.
Thomas: From 1996, we’ve only existed through change. When we started out, it was this period where we got to make a lot of mistakes, and they were private — they didn’t exist online, nobody was there with a camera, TMZ didn’t exist. We were a band that came out at a time when we said the actual phrase, “Do you think we need a website?” Social media didn’t exist until like three records in.
So I think that we came along at a really good time to expect and be ready for change, whenever we were starting a new endeavor. But then at the same time, we’re getting ready to go on tour, and this process where we bring out the gear, we make sure that we’ve got the sound just so — this was exactly the same in 2017, in 2015. That’s the job, and that feels very familiar.
When did you guys start focusing on this group of songs?
Thomas: We were pretty much at a place where we didn’t think we were ever going to make a full-length record. Going into 2020, it was, “Let’s record a couple of songs to accompany the tour, and then maybe that’s our business model — you know, we tour every couple of years, and we maybe release a song or two.” That didn’t excite Paul. He wasn’t sure how much effort he wanted to put into a couple of songs, so he was like, “If you guys want to run with that, go for it.” So during that time, Paul listened to [the song] “Where the Light Goes,” and he was just like, “I like that one, maybe you guys should work on that.” And me and Kyle worked on it.
It was 2022, and other bands were really out touring, and we didn’t go out. And there was a sense that we were letting fans down. It was Kyle who would start the conversation of, “Maybe we do want to make a full-length record — we’re gonna be sitting at home, we’re not gonna be doing anything this summer, and that would make next summer even more exciting for people that have been waiting for three years. It’s another level of excitement to that touring process.” So that just got the ball rolling.
Doucette: I ended season three of [co-composing the score for] For All Mankind in April, I think, and then in May I flew to New York to start working on this, and it was basically from May until December. I think we all kind of felt like we were never gonna make another record — and then suddenly, we were making a record, and that record’s done! In the grand scheme of things, this record came together probably more quickly than any record we’ve ever done.
Thomas: To be fair, though, this wasn’t a situation where we went into the studio and wrote all the songs. Some of those were written during the process, but then some of those were 75% done and then we’d jump in and help finish it together, and some were 100% done. We came in with a lot of material, and then we whittled down a good portion of this album with things that were started at different times, and then just finished as a band.
How much of the creative energy between you guys was just like old times, and how much has it evolved over the years? Since it’s been such a long time that you all worked on an album together, what was it like trying to regain a rhythm?
Thomas: Some things are just very automatic. You’re just like, this is how this works, I see where you’re going with that, let me pick that up. It’s happening amongst a group of guys who are 10 years older than the last time we did it — and the last time we did it, we weren’t young. And so I think there’s a refinement to the process that’s welcomed, in a really big way, and a civility to the process. We’re less precious with our feelings and our ideas — we want to get something done, but at the same time, we’re very precious with other people’s feelings and other people’s ideas. So I feel like everything about it that was different was only for the better.
Doucette: Also, like, you’re not fighting for an idea simply to fight for it. We just want to come up with the best thing, and that takes a lot of the pressure off, because you’re more willing to try stuff that might get shot down. We were working on a song called “One Hit Love” on this record, and we were trying to find the chorus for it. We were playing the track in Gregg’s studio, and we had a microphone, and Rob would get up and say a line, sing a melody. And I’d go, “Oh, no, let me try this.” And I’d try something and he’s like, “No, not that.” It was going back and forth until we got it right, not going, “It has to be this, I believe in this more than anything!” The benefit of age is just being better at that, at being more conscious of each other’s feelings. You can have that conversation in a healthy way.
A lot of lyrics on the new album contain a personal specificity, even as the themes are pretty universal. I’m thinking of a song like “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” which is about identity and how your past informs your present.
Doucette: I know that, at least for me, I’m trying to write from a place that’s searching for positivity. There’s a poster from an artist named Deedee Cheriel that says ‘You Have Everything You Need,’ so I wrote “Friends” about that. “One Hit Love” is a song that we wrote that’s about this might be doomed, but we’re gonna go for it anyway. I just want to keep writing about hopeful things. That said, there’s a song, “Warm Blood,” that’s totally negative.
Thomas: I’m always like write, write, write, and I end up writing four or five songs for every one that I actually like. After 30 years, it’s become about getting a sense of what you’re writing about, but then trying to find a way to say it that has its own flair, its own color. When you talk about relationships, it’s easy to fall into the same tropes – you want to try and find new ways to express yourself. The effort that we put into the lyrics on this record, I think makes it one of our strongest ones that we’ve written.
Roger Waters has provoked the ire of Israeli authorities after a pair of concerts last week in Berlin during which the former Pink Floyd leader displayed Nazi-like symbolism and made what is described as offensive comments about Holocaust victim Anne Frank. “Good morning to every one but Roger Waters who spent the evening in Berlin (Yes Berlin) desecrating the memory of Anne Frank and the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust,” read a tweet from the State of Israel’s official account on Wednesday (May 24).
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During a two-night (May 17-18) stand at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin, the singer reportedly took to the stage with a message that read, “The show will start in 10 minutes and a court in Frankfurt has ruled that I am not an antisemite… just to be clear, I condemn antisemitism unreservedly.” In April, a court in Frankfurt ruled that the city could not cancel a planned May 28 show by Waters after city officials dubbed the singer “one of the most widely known antisemites in the world.”
Waters, whose lyrics and concert imagery have long trafficked in transgressive and provocative imagery, reportedly offended some with the content of his Berlin shows, which the Jerusalem Post reported repeatedly employed images of “humanoid pigs and shady businessmen… pulling the strings” that activists condemned as “antisemitic dogwhistle[s].”
Perhaps most offensive was a segment of the show featuring the names of activists killed by authorities, including anti-Nazi activist Sophie Scholl, Mahsa Amini, who was killed by Iranian morality police, George Floyd and Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager murdered by the Nazi regime at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
The latter’s name was listed just before Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian-American journalist who is thought to have been killed last May by shots from Israeli soldiers during a shootout with Palestinian militants. The paper reported that the juxtaposition sparked “outrage from Israeli and Jewish activists and officials around the world.”
After an intermission, Waters reportedly returned to the stage wearing a costume similar to a Nazi SS soldier’s uniform with a red armband while pointing a fake rifle at the crowd. The set piece also included a giant inflatable pig with a variety of symbols and words on it — including a prominent Jewish star — that floated over the crowd as “banners in the style of the Third Reich but with crossed hammers instead of swastika” hung from the ceiling.
The show took place in the city where more than 60,000 Jews were deported to their deaths during WWII and which was the site of the Nov. 1938 “Kristallnacht” purge, in which most of Berlin’s synagogues were burned down and Jewish-owned stores and homes were vandalized and robbed. It is against the law in Germany to display Nazi symbols or memorabilia.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned the concert in a tweet, writing, “Shame on Frankfurt authorities and Mercedes Benz arena in Berlin — a place from where Jews were deported by the Nazis — for providing anti-Semite #RogerWaters this venue for his concert with no concern/care for the Jewish community.” In a follow-up tweet the leading Jewish human rights organization asked, “Will Germany prosecute #RogerWaters for Holocaust distortion or will promoters rush to book the anti-Semite for more lurid 3-D anti-Israel + #Antisemitic hatefests masquerading as concerts?”
At press time a spokesperson for Waters had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment. Waters has repeatedly been condemned for making what many consider to be anti-semitic comments on the state of Israel, including comparing the actions of the Israeli government to that of South Africa under the apartheid regime and Nazi Germany, as well as questioning Israel’s right to exist.
See the tweets below.
Good morning to every one but Roger Waters who spent the evening in Berlin (Yes Berlin) desecrating the memory of Anne Frank and the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. pic.twitter.com/4tcrV6f8mt— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) May 24, 2023
“THAT ONE LOOKS JEWISH:” ROGER WATERS BRINGING NAZISM BACK TO BERLIN // @rogerwaters disgraced the memory of Anne Frank, compared Israel to Nazis, flew his notorious pig balloon, and dressed up as an SS officer… /1 pic.twitter.com/QwOjyCd9Yi— Jewish Defense Network (@JewDefense) May 24, 2023
Shame on Frankfurt authorities and Mercedes Benz arena in Berlin — a place from where Jews were deported by the Nazis — for providing anti-Semite #RogerWaters this venue for his concert with no concern/care for the Jewish community. https://t.co/XYAS4bFi7h— SimonWiesenthalCntr (@simonwiesenthal) May 23, 2023
Post-pandemic anticipation helped accelerate a new class of arena headliners, but also cemented long-time road warriors on their ways to new peaks. More than 20 years into the band’s touring career, Muse is reaching new heights on the Will of the People World Tour. With reported data through April 12, the glam hard rockers break the $200 million barrier in career grosses, having earned $206.6 million, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.
The Will of the People World Tour launched in October with theater-sized underplays in major markets, before playing a quartet of shows in Mexico in January. Muse then traveled north for a proper run of arena shows in the U.S. and Canada, playing 24 dates across two months. In all, the tour has reported grosses of $36.1 million and sold 402,000 tickets over 30 shows.
Broken out by region, it’s the biggest tour of the band’s career. In Mexico City, two shows at Foro Sol grossed $6.8 million and sold 107,000 tickets, eclipsing plays in the same city in 2019, 2013 and 2007, in terms of revenue and attendance. In Guadalajara, the Jan. 20 show grossed $1.2 million and sold 13,000 tickets, up 34% from an area play in 2013.
In arenas in the U.S. and Canada, Muse’s business averaged out to $1.1 million per show, marking the band’s first North American tour to crack the seven-figure line. Previously, The 2nd Law World Tour (2012-14), the Drones World Tour (2015-16) and the Simulation Theory World Tour (2019) each paced between $700,000-800,000, while the current run represents a 50% increase from what had seemed to become their standard business.
Muse’s star rose throughout the 2000s and 2010s, reaching increasingly higher until they amassed some of the biggest rock hits of all time (2009’s “Uprising” and 2012’s “Madness” are Nos. 1 and 4, respectively, on Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Alternative Songs chart) and then scored a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with 2015’s Drones. But years beyond those chart peaks, Muse hits a new high on tour, backed by last year’s Will of the People.
The Will of the People World Tour resumes this weekend in the U.K., continuing throughout Europe with a mix of headline tour dates and headline-festival gigs. Muse’s tour history indicates that the shows across the pond will earn about 20% more than the spring’s North American dates, pushing the tour gross toward the $50 million mark.
More than two decades as road warriors, Muse’s latest grosses push their career total to $206.6 million and 3.1 million tickets.
The Foo Fighters launched their first tour with new drummer Josh Freese on Wednesday night (May 24) at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion at Meadowbrook in Gilford, N.H. The bittersweet evening marked the band’s first tour in a quarter century without beloved late drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died last March while on tour with […]
I had the good fortune to interview Tina Turner in February 1984 when her remake of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” was climbing the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. The interview ran in the Feb. 25, 1984, issue under the headline “Tina Turner Rocks Back Into Top 40.”
Turner’s remake of “Let’s Stay Together,” which climbed from No. 38 to No. 34 that week, was her first top 40 hit since Ike & Tina’s “Nutbush City Limits” in late 1973. And Turner was then in the midst of a 40-date British tour. So, she was already doing well.
But she could not possibly have imagined how big her comeback would be. On Feb. 26, 1985, almost exactly one year after we spoke, she won three Grammys, including record of the year for “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”
Turner credited her improved fortunes to changes she had made in her career, including signing for management with Roger Davies, who was then best known for guiding the career of Olivia Newton-John. She had decided to focus on rock’n’roll, which was unusual for a woman of color – and a woman of a certain age (Turner was 45 at the time).
“I changed my band and changed a lot of the songs,” she said. “I was doing a high-energy Vegas type of show, because I was working a lot of clubs. I changed that and made it more rock’n’roll. I got into a lot of the rock’n’roll clubs, and a result my audience is getting younger and younger.”
Turner also attributed her rediscovery by rock fans to recent pairings with The Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart. Turner performed duets with Mick Jagger during The Stones’ 1981 tour and also appeared with Stewart at a 1982 concert that was televised worldwide via satellite.
Though the door to Turner’s comeback was opened by a remake of an R&B classic, rock’n’roll is where her heart was.
“My stage performance is basically rock’n’roll,” she said. “I’m more comfortable with it; the energy is good and I like the words. I don’t really want to do R&B right now. I can’t say that I won’t go back to it, because it’s my roots. I just like to sing uptempo things. I’m very optimistic now.”
“Let’s Stay Together” was only the seventh top 40 hit of Turner’s career, which stretched back nearly 24 years to Ike & Tina Turner’s breakthrough hit “A Fool in Love.”
Asked about pop radio’s seeming reluctance over the years to add her records, Turner said, “I hate to talk about racism, but that has a lot to do with it. When I started my career, you had to hit R&B before you could make the crossover. I understand it’s still that way a lot. In foreign countries, they don’t put a label or color on music. They just program it.”
Of her smooth re-entry after a five-year absence from the recording scene, Turner said, “It wasn’t as if I was constantly putting out records that were losers. I just worked at doing good performances and holding on to my audience, so when I did come out with some material they were all there for it.”
And that stat about “Let’s Stay Together” being just her seventh top 40 hit in a 24-year career? Turner would collect her next seven top 40 hits – from “What’s Love Got to Do With It” to “It’s Only Love” (with Bryan Adams) — by the end of 1985.
The “optimistic” feelings Turner spoke of that day in February 1984 were fully justified.
Despite appearances, Tool singer Maynard James Keenan was not trying to stir the pot when he took the stage in a blonde wig, smeared lipstick and a body-hugging top that accentuated his prosthetic breasts during a headlining set at Daytona Beach’s Welcome to Rockville Festival on Sunday.
While the outfit appeared to be a reaction to the series of controversial bills signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis recently that ban minors from attending drag shows, Keenan told The Messenger his choice was personal, not political. “I’ve been cross-dressing since long before these clickbait-junkie dupes were out of diapers,” said the singer who has been wearing shock makeup and costumes for years, including falsies he first wore in the late 1990s; Keenan noted that he’s been shopping online recently for a new set of stage breasts.
“It’s pretty crazy the technology and the prosthetics nowadays, how they’ve come along, and I just was considering bringing the look back,” added the prog rock vocalist who has long favored outrageous looks, from fetish cop getups to Mexican wrestling masks, pilot uniforms, blue full body paint and superhero costumes. “And that’s really all there is to it. I’m not a political fella — had nothing to do with Florida.”
While Keenan swears he wasn’t trying to poke the eye of culture warrior DeSantis — who is slated to announce his long-expected White House run on Wednesday (May 24) on Twitter — because Welcome to Rockville was an all-ages fest, technically, the singer was in violation of the new law. If anything, Keenan said he was a bit annoyed by the false dots-connecting spurred by his stage attire.
“It’s amazing to me how every single thing you say or do is twisted and conformed into some fundamentalist far-right or far-left agenda,” said Keenan, who will be back on stage this weekend in Columbus, OH at the Sonic Temple Festival.
Now, that said, father of two Keenan, 59, told the outlet that he thinks legal restrictions on drag show attendance is kind of dumb. “I think limiting people’s access to anything is absurd,” he said. “Good parenting allows you to teach your kids how to be reasonable and reason and puzzle things out and decide for themselves what the f—k they wanna see or not wanna see.”
Keenan also noted that he does consider himself to be part of the drag community, saying, “I guess so, yeah… On occasion, I am a drag queen; I’ve been a drag queen. I’m casual, so the hardcore people are going to dismiss me as being a tourist.” He added that he feels some affinity for people who use drag as a form of self-expression. “Solidarity with people who are not afraid to express themselves? Absolutely. People that want to express themselves in whatever f—king way they want to express themselves, as long as they’re not physically directly hurting someone? Yeah, go for it. I’m all for ya.”
KISS‘ farewell End of the Road tour has hit a snag. The greasepaint rockers were slated to kick off the U.K. portion of the outing on June 3 at Home Park Stadium in Plymouth, but on Tuesday the venue announced that the show has been canceled. “Sadly, KISS and Robomagic, the show’s promoter, have today announced that they […]
Now more than a year removed from the tragic death of drummer Taylor Hawkins, the Foo Fighters return this summer with a heap of headlining festival gigs spanning four continents. Bonnaroo, Boston Calling and Riot Fest are all on the stateside docket, as are Japan’s Fuji Rock, Germany’s Rock AM Ring and a pair of […]
In the midst of a week off from Metallica‘s recently launched European leg of their M72 world tour, singer/guitarist James Hetfield took some time to visit an injured Ukrainian soldier who is receiving treatment at Vail Health Hospital in the singer’s Colorado hometown. As reported by the Vail Daily, Ukrainian serviceman Roman Denysiuk was brought […]