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The first trailer for the upcoming Beatles 64 documentary chronicling the band’s arrival on U.S. shores six decades ago captures the hysteria that greeted John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr all those years ago.
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The nearly two-and-a-half-minute clip opens with black and white footage of the band doing bits on a train ride before cutting to footage of McCartney wailing on a cover of Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally.” The film directed by David Tedeschi (Personality Crisis: One Night Only) and produced by Martin Scorsese will premiere on Disney+ on Nov. 29.
The doc folds in footage shot by famed documentarians Albert and David Maysles (Gimme Shelter), as well as new interviews with living members McCartney and Starr, as well as with Smokey Robinson, Motown founder Berry Gordy and the late Ronnie Spector. “We’re in America! America!,” Starr says enthusiastically to Scorsese at one point in describing the Beatles’ exuberance about making their trip across the Atlantic. Cue archival footage of Ringo raving about arriving in New York only to be told he’s actually in Washington, D.C.
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“It was like being in the eye of the hurricane. It was happening to us and it was hard to see,” Lennon says in voiceover in the film that includes footage of the band’s first American concert. The trip included, of course, the Fab Four’s historic appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, where more than 73 million people tuned in to what would be the big bang of Beatlemania in the U.S.
A synopsis of the film reads: “On February 7, 1964, The Beatles arrived in New York City to unprecedented excitement and hysteria. From the instant they landed at Kennedy Airport, met by thousands of fans, Beatlemania swept New York and the entire country. Their thrilling debut performance on The Ed Sullivan Show captivated more than 73 million viewers, the most watched television event of its time. Beatles ’64 presents the spectacle, but also tells a more intimate behind the scenes story, capturing the camaraderie of John, Paul, George, and Ringo as they experienced unimaginable fame.”
Director Tedeschi told Rolling Stone that the doc features more than 17 minutes of never-seen-before footage — mostly from the Maysles — with the music produced by Giles Martin. He said the movie covers the three week period the Beatles were in America, from their arrival in New York, where they stay four four or five days, before moving on to Washington and then Miami. The Washington show at D.C. Coliseum was the Beatles’ first-ever arena concert, with Tedeschi promising that the Martin-restored sound on the D.C. gig has made it sound “better than it ever has.”
“There’s footage from the Maysleses all the way through, but there’s other stuff. We had a great researcher who found a lot of local Miami footage from local archives — a lot of footage was buried, and he really had to go digging in order to find it. So that’s exciting,” the director said of the cleaned-up tape that was remastered by Peter Jackson’s WingNut Studios, which did the same for Jackson’s Get Back Beatles series.
In a fresh interview, McCartney notes that the Beatles’ visit came shortly after President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated, speculating that “maybe American needed something like the Beatles to be lifted out of sorrow.”
Watch the Beatles 64 trailer below
For nearly 40 years, Kim Deal has maintained a formidable presence in the annals of rock n’ roll, first as the bassist for the Pixies and then as the leader of The Breeders.
Now, six years after the last Breeders LP All Nerve, Ms. Deal returns Nov. 22 with Nobody Loves You More (via 4AD Records), an album that showcases the talents of the self-proclaimed ‘70s rocker from Dayton, Ohio, in a different light from anything she’s done before. And while this isn’t her first time going solo — having released the magnificent Pacer in 1995 under the aegis The Amps as well as a 10-song white label 7-inch vinyl series in 2013 — this is the first proper album released in her own name. It’s something her fans have been clamoring for since she first emerged onto the scene in January 1986 after answering an ad in the Boston Phoenix to join the Pixies — or at least since fans first heard her sing lead on “Gigantic.” And she does not disappoint.
Produced by the late Steve Albini, with songs dating back as early as 2011, Nobody Loves You More finds Deal experimenting with different sounds and tones, including strings, a horn section, pedal steel guitar and even a ukulele. At times it feels almost like a Julie London record from the early ‘60s, as on songs such as the touching, personal “Are You Mine” (which addresses her mom’s Alzheimer’s disease), “Summerland” and the opening title track. Elsewhere, “Coast” finds her wasting away in her own private “Margaritaville,” while “Big Ben Beat” sees her getting industrial with Fay Milton and Ayse Hassan of Savages fame.
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But longtime fans need not worry, as the indelible loud softness that Deal has mastered over the decades remains firmly intact as well across such highlights as “Disobedience,” “I’ll Come Running” and “A Good Time Pushed.” Helping Kim along the way is a host of collaborators, including Breeders alum Mando Lopez, twin sister Kelley Deal, Jim Macpherson and Britt Walford, Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs and Raymond McGinley of Teenage Fanclub.
Billboard caught up with Deal to discuss working with Albini on the new album, opening for Olivia Rodrigo and more.
Between JD Vance and “they’re eating the dogs,” your home state of Ohio has unfortunately been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. What do you think of what’s going on in the country?
I used to think, “Oh my God, what’s happening? Things are happening. It’s never been this bad.” And then I just look around and see, you know, women couldn’t get a credit card in 1974. Black folks couldn’t drink out of the same fountain in the ‘50s. And I think people have always been this s—ty, man, millennia after millennia. I think it’s just the human experience. There’s always been a warmongering, hate-filled group to reactivate people. It’s always been like this.
It must’ve been a thrill, however, for The Breeders to open up those shows for Olivia Rodrigo in New York and L.A. What was that experience like?
It was really fun to get to play with her. There was a part of the show where she sits at the piano, and she has a bit where she talks about the opening band — because she’s a professional — and she mentions how her life has a before “Cannonball,” and then it has an after “Cannonball.” She said she listened to the song and it blew her mind open, or it blew her world apart, or something like that, which is really cool to know that music does have the power to transform one’s experience, being able to listen to a song and have it just blast my perspective wide open. Like there’s something more.
Nowadays we can check out a song by going on the internet and just checking out where the artist is from. But it’s more than just about where someone is from, but rather using the imagination of what could be an adventurous idea of looking at what could possibly be out there that I’ve never seen before, a feeling that I’ve never felt before. It’s not something specific; it’s just a feeling.
It’s wild to think that the time between Guts and Last Splash is the same distance as the years between Last Splash and a lot of the surf music from three early ‘60s that’s inspired your sound through the years …
I love surf guitar music for sure. There were these gateway songs in my youth that pointed me there, like I’ll hear “Tequila” and I’ll start looking for similar songs. It’s a little different now than it was then, because you could look that song up online and you can have this vast encyclopedia of all surf music ever done.
One of the locales of your new album is Florida. Your parents used to rent a house in the Keys, and you’d go down there with them?
My family was getting old, but they liked to go down there. I didn’t. I’m not a Florida person. I’m not a beach person. I don’t like the sand. I don’t like the hot sun. I don’t like water sports. But since my family was getting older, we all loaded the cars together and we drove down and we would be there to help them. I stayed with them, and I did it year after year. And then when they got too old to go, I found I enjoyed going. I would bring guitars down. They would go back early, and I would stay back with my guitars, because I liked the view of the ocean.
“Are You Mine?” is such a touching song about your mom and her final years suffering from Alzheimer’s.
She passed away in 2020, right before COVID. Like the day before. We were happy, because it would have been horrible to go through COVID with an Alzheimer’s patient.
Do you think of her often?
When I think of my mother, she had been diagnosed in 2002, so she lasted for 18 years. So when I think of Mom, I think of her only as that person. And I don’t know if she was like that. Like, I can’t remember her as a thriving person. My dad, I remember him as a human being and he’s Dad. But my mom, I don’t have anything other than nothing. But she did love to eat ice cream, I’ll tell you that. Put a smile on her face.
It makes me think that maybe I wanna leave early, so people could remember who I was. But, at the same time, I like ice cream, too. So do I really care if they think I’m a muttering poopy butt? Hopefully I’ll live long enough to have some sort of dementia. Just maybe a little bit, anyway. My mom was 69 when it hit, so …
There’s one song in particular on the album, “Summerland,” that really seems to capture the beauty and grace of Nobody Loves You More. How did the ukulele come into play on this song?
Steve Albini’s wife is from Hawaii. So when they got married, they wanted to go to Hawaii. So they invited us, and they wanted me to do the music, the wedding march. So me and [twin sister] Kelley [Deal] got some ukuleles and we gave them as a gift to the whole wedding party too, because everybody there at the wedding is a musician. We got a bunch of ukuleles and we all played the wedding march and we also played a Dolly Parton song, “He’s Gonna Have to Marry Me Now.” And so as a gift, Steve and his wife gave us a ukulele. So I threw it in the car on the way down to Florida, and I just thought I’d mess around with it. And all of a sudden my fingers were making these four chord formations and I really liked it. So when I told [Josephine Wiggs], the Breeders’ bass player, “Jo, I got this ukulele song, let me play it for you,” she was like, “Absolutely not!” Because she’s a goth girl, big time. She’s old school goth. She didn’t want any ukulele on a Breeders record, so I knew it could be a solo song.
The strings on this album are stunning as well.
[Albini] was just so good at recording everything. You know, everybody thinks that Steve is just like these three man bands and he just sets them up. “I’m a plumber, this is what I do.” But he was really professional and he is gonna do the best job he can to make your band sound like your band. And record it in the best, most professional way. He did a Japanese band called Mono, which is like tons of strings. He also worked with Mucca Pazza, who is this huge horn conglomerate from Chicago and recorded all of them.
So for like that “Summerland” song, I called Steve and I said, “I’ve got a string section in my head. Every time I play this song, I hear it. I don’t know how many pieces it is.” And he would just let me know, like, “Okay, we can do a double string section, and when that happens they usually use a low-end phase so they can sound as one.” He was so knowledgeable about everything. Like Kelley says, he answers in paragraphs. He was thorough, and he had his wits about him. So then he made me realize it was a film score that I was hearing in my head.
So anyway, the players come, he knows who’s coming, and there’s like a dozen people. And every single headphone box works. Come on. When you go into the studio and you’ve got more than like five people, one of the headphone boxes isn’t gonna work, right? Not with Steve. Whatever you’re gonna do, everything’s gonna work. Everything is on point. And we’re going to tape, not digital, and all the microphones are set up. So this guy who I’m used to with this superseding reputation as just being this punk guy is just so prepared, so professional. The players all line up and come in and sit down, and there’s no harried fuss about what’s happening and what isn’t working. Everybody knows what they are doing. So me and the string arranger Susan Voelz, who was in Poi Dog Pondering, are in there. We look at Steve, and he goes, “Okay, well, it sounds great. We don’t need to do another one, right?” So we just did it in one take.
Strings can sort of be like guitar. You get too many on there, and then they sound weak and soft. More guitars don’t make something harder. And you know, the reason why I wanted strings was because every time I picked up my guitar and started singing the melodies, I just had it all in my head. I heard it all.
Was this album your final project with Steve?
I finished recording with him in the fall of 2022. This was the last thing I did with him. I can’t believe it. You know, his album, that Shellac album, they had been working on it for years, like a decade. He died on a Monday night, but I found out on Tuesday. Then the new Shellac record [To All Trains] was released that Friday. It was so close. They had tour schedules and everything. It’s still hard to believe.
That flamingo on the cover, is it real?
No, it’s CGI. We tried to get a real one. There’s a farm in West Virginia. [The label] called evidently, and they said, “We’d like to get one of those flamingos into a photo shoot.” And the people said, “You don’t know much about flamingos, do you? They are very aggressive animals. You would have to drug them within an inch of their life for them to be held or even reined in on the set.” We were like, OK then lol.
Next year marks the 35th anniversary of The Breeders’ first album. Any plans to tour?
I want to. We are supposed to do something in March and then maybe some other shows. So that’s why the Pod 35 is such a surprise to me.
Is there any plan for a commemoration?
I’m not sure! I’m shocked at how long it’s been. The Breeders just did three shows. We did Ohana, Pearl Jam’s festival in Dana Point in Orange County, Calif., which was a really cool festival. We came out and played all of Pod, and then we played Last Splash back to back.
Do you ever talk to your old Breeders partner Tanya Donnelly?
My gosh, Belly played shows with us last year. We did a run down the West Coast and they came out and played shows. She came up on stage and played with us every night that we played together. You know, Britt Walford, who also played on Pod, he plays on the new record. He plays on “Summerland” and he plays on “Nobody Loves You More.” He just lives in Kentucky, which is like an hour and a half away from me in Ohio.
Any plans to do a solo tour?
I want to. We are supposed to do something in March and then maybe some other shows. So that’s why Pod 35 is such a surprise to me.
Nothing More claims two straight No. 1s on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart for the first time, ruling the Nov. 23-dated ranking with “Angel Song” featuring David Draiman.
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The song follows the band’s two-week reign with prior single “If It Doesn’t Hurt” in June and July.
Nothing More now boasts three total Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1s, having also led with “Go to War” in 2017.
As for Draiman, frontman of Disturbed, “Angel Song” is his second solo No. 1 on the chart, following “Dead Inside” with Nita Strauss in 2022. Disturbed has scored 12 rulers, while he made another trip to the top as the singer of the short-lived band Device (with “Vilify” in 2013).
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Concurrently, “Angel Song” bullets at its No. 11 high on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 2.9 million audience impressions (up 14%), Nov. 8-14, according to Luminate. That’s the band’s second-best rank on the tally, following the No. 7 peak of “If It Doesn’t Hurt.”
On the most recently published multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart (dated Nov. 16, reflecting data Nov. 1-7), “Angel Song” placed at a new No. 10 best, becoming Nothing More’s second top 10 dating to the ranking’s 2020 inception. (“If It Doesn’t Hurt” reached No. 8 in February.) In addition to its radio airplay, “Angel Song” earned 365,000 official U.S. streams, according to Luminate.
The track is the second single from Carnal, Nothing More’s seventh studio album. The set bowed at No. 9 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart in July and has earned 48,000 equivalent album units to date.
All Billboard charts dated Nov. 23 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Nov. 19.
They may not have had quite as bountiful of a vault as for the All Things Must Pass anniversary edition, but the George Harrison estate and Dark Horse Records had no shortage of, well, material in putting together the new 50th anniversary edition of George Harrison’s fourth solo (and second post-Beatles) album, Living in a Material World.
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The expanded two-disc set, which was curated by Harrison’s widow Olivia and son Dhani, is part of an expanded deal with BMG that Dark Horse signed last year. Out Friday (Nov. 15) with a new mix by Grammy Award-winning engineer Paul Hicks; in addition to the 11 original tracks that came out on May 30, 1973, a second disc (on LP and CD) includes an outtake of each song as well as two rarities, “Miss O’Dell” and, on CD only, the unreleased “Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)” (which Harrison contributed to Ringo Starr’s 1973 album, Ringo, and recorded with Starr and members of The Band). The package also includes a 60-page hardcover book featuring previously unseen images and memorabilia from the period.
“We’re going in chronological order,” Dhani Harrison, Dark Horse’s CEO, tells Billboard about the estate and label’s approach to reissuing his father’s catalog. “There was obviously (The Concert For) Bangladesh in-between but that’s a full concert movie, so that doesn’t affect the order as we release his solo studio albums.”
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Harrison adds that his father “really loved this album because of what it stood for. It was designed to help people living in the material world — it had a purpose. It always meant a lot to him. He named his charity after it, so it was also the beginning of the foundation, which still goes on today.” Royalties from the 50th anniversary edition will go to the Material World Foundation.
Living in the Material World was Harrison’s second consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified gold, spawning the Billboard Hot 100-topping single “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth).” It was also the first album Harrison recorded at the studio in his Friar Park estate in Henley-on-Thames, England, which he’d purchased in January 1970. Unlike All Things Must Pass’ legion of contributors, Living in a Material World was made with a small core band that included keyboardists Nicky Hopkins and Gary Wright, bassist Klaus Voormann, Starr and Jim Keltner on drums and Jim Horn on woodwinds.
“It was very cozy,” recalls Voormann, who was living in a cottage at Friar Park at the time. “It was a very personal atmosphere, very comfortable. It was a beautiful house, and the (studio) room itself was one end and very secluded and not really big, so it was very intimate. And George was in a very calm state. He was very happy with his meditation and his friends from India, so he was in a certain mood which made it into this wonderful atmosphere.”
Dhani Harrison, meanwhile, views the album as the start of a new era for his father, the first of “a long line of Friar Park albums that stretch all the way to the end of his career,” including albums by Ravi Shankar and the all-star Traveling Wilburys, whose debut album was mixed there. Having worked through a backlog of Beatles-era songs for All Things Must Pass, Living in the Material World offered a spate of brand-new songs, many reflecting Harrison’s spiritual focus at the time.
“He also produced this album all by himself,” Dhani notes. “It’s the first time we see him in his element in his home studio, producing and writing…. If you listen to the album that’s a real band on there, which is what makes it different from All Things Must Pass. They were really ripping as a band on those sessions. It was also coming off the back of Bangladesh, so there was a lot of synergy with the musicians from that on this album.”
Hicks, who’s also worked on reissue projects by the Beatles and John Lennon, says the streamlined process benefited the remixing as well. “I think in general my mission is to just start fresh and have a new sort of sonic take on the album,” he explains. “Timeless is the term I always use; we’re not trying to make things sound modern…although I think people maybe listen differently now — on their phones and headphones — so to me there’s a different sort of detail in what you’ve got to do.
“It’s obviously a lot simpler production than All Things Must Pass. Apart from a few songs, like the title track, it’s almost sort of like an acoustic album, but with some extra instruments. It doesn’t strike me as a rock album. So I kind of went into it emotionally mixing it and really trying to bring out the lyrics, because (Harrison) is saying some really fascinating things. I thought we should have a bit more focus on George on this one, and the Harrisons agreed.”
The vaults held plenty of options. The additional material ranges from a third take of “The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)” to some takes in the 20s and even the 93rd take of “Who Can See It.” “We did that — but, you see, I don’t remember it,” Voormann says, with a laugh, about the process. “We were just playing the songs and going through them. We weren’t keeping count…George was very precise. John was more direct; if there were mistakes on the take it didn’t matter, the feeling had to be right and that was good enough for him. But with George…all the details had to be right.”
Dhani adds that, “the fact there was a take 93 shows how deep we went. Ultimately, we only put stuff in that makes the album stronger…what we’re looking for is the really worthy stuff, and if you have to go through 90 takes to find that one take, that’s what we do. It wasn’t just a ‘remaster’; we’ve gone back to every single master track. It’s really an ‘ultra remaster,’ as we went back to the original masters and remixed them without stepping on the original, which is what we did with All Things Must Pass. We did a deep, deep dive, and that’s what the fans deserve.”
George Harrison Box Set
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Despite the substantial number of takes, however, Hicks notes that “they’re all basically the same. George taught (the band) the songs, and then they did it. All Things Must Pass was kind of a treasure trove — that one’s loads slower, that one’s faster…. On this (album) they definitely seemed to have a plan. Maybe the title track outtake (take 31), that’s possibly one of the most different because it’s a much more square bit, not as swung as the (album version), so that’s quite interesting. But they didn’t really experiment with styles… they were just playing the songs until (Harrison) felt they’d done it enough.”
The Harrisons are already working on what’s next. The estate began working concurrently on The Concert for Bangladesh, with Peter Jackson helping to restore footage of the film “so it’s of the same quality as Get Back,” according to Dhani. “It’s just incredible when you see the show. It took it into another level, which is why you haven’t seen it yet as we’ve been taking our time with it. But when you de-grain it and up-res it, it becomes a whole new thing. With the level of musicians who are in that show, it deserves that attention.” Dark Horse is looking at doing something similar with Harrison’s 1974 tour as well.
“If there’s any way of doing Dark Horse (the album) and the Dark Horse ’74 tour in the same way as well, that’s my ultimate goal,” Dhani says. “The band is incredible, and the shows set the template for bringing classical Indian music and rock n’ roll together.
“All these releases require so much work. It took us five years to do the All Things Must Pass 50th anniversary. We started doing all this in 2001 — we’ve been at it for nearly 25 years and we’re only up to the second album.”
As Brandi Carlile watched Elton John: Never Too Late, she was so moved she put pen to paper and was immediately inspired to write a song. The new documentary chronicles the first five years of Elton John’s meteoric rise and the road to his two 1975 Dodger Stadium dates juxtaposed against his final tour concluding with his triumphant return to Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium in 2022.
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The song, “Never Too Late,” performed by John and Carlile, not only became the end title song, but it also became the film’s title (watch the video for the track below). Elton John: Never Too Late is available in select theatres Friday (Nov. 15) and streams on Disney+ starting Dec. 13.
The documentary, helmed by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish, was originally called Farewell Yellow Brick Road, “which was really boring,” John tells Billboard. And then Carlile’s song “just summed up the whole of the documentary perfectly,” he continues. “What she saw she wrote down in a very concise way and summed up the whole of that hour and 40 minutes of time in a lyric, which was incredible.”
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“I was moved by what I was watching. I especially loved some of that historical footage, and it just sent me back throughout my childhood,” Carlile says. “I felt like my life admiring Elton just sort of flashed before my eyes. And I came to this conclusion that I had something to say about him and that I wanted him to say it,” she says.
The idea of words about John not written by John coming out of John’s mouth had captivated Carlile from the time she was 11 or so and first heard Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, John’s autobiographical 1975 album about his and longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin’s relationship. The album became the first to enter Billboard’s album chart at No. 1.
“I remember looking at the liner notes to Captain Fantastic and seeing this autobiographical rock opera play out that was written by another man about Elton and it was just like the greatest love story I think I’d ever seen,” says Carlile.
“Never Too Late,” credited to Carlile, John, Taupin and producer Andrew Watt, looks at how it’s never too late for new adventures and moving forward.
Carlile’s lyrics stress John’s penchant for not looking back, a trait he talks about admiring in John Lennon when he and the Beatle became friends in the ‘70s. As John remarks in the film, he “loves people who think about tomorrow, not yesterday.”
“I love that Elton doesn’t like to self-reflect,” Carlile says. “He’s too forward thinking. He’s too forward moving. And I’m so inspired by that ruggedness. I don’t think ruggedness is a word that gets associated with Elton John quite enough. He’s really f–king tough and he’s overcome a lot. And I just wanted to sort of take pause and slow it down and write a lyric about that for him to sing because he doesn’t like to say nice stuff about himself.”
Carlile didn’t allow herself to feel intimidated when she handed over the lyrics to John to see if he felt inspired to write music to them. “I think I took a page out of his book and just didn’t look back and I just gave them to him,” she says. “But now, in retrospect, yeah, that should have been f–king terrifying because he’s absolutely a cornerstone of everything that I am, not just musically, but he’s influenced me as an activist and as a mother and a gay person living in the world. I’m so happy that it turned out the way it did.”
The song opens with instantly recognizable piano chords played by John, and he says the music poured out of him. “It was pretty easy to write to because it’s such a great lyric and, obviously, I knew what it was about,” John says. “For her to write something for me and for Bernie — as Brandi says, we’re hand-in-hand.”
The doc, through animation, recreates the serendipitous moment that John and Taupin connected more than 55 years ago via their publishing company giving John Taupin’s lyrics in an envelope. As well known as the story is, it still seems like some kind of modern miracle to this day — even to John.
“It’s one of the greatest glories of my life and mysteries as how lucky was I to meet Bernie and the happenstance involved,” John says. “I appreciate our relationship and our writing more and more. [Brandy] mentioned the Captain Fantastic album, which I think is probably my best album because it’s about us. It’s so personal. As soon as he gave me the lyrics, it was so easy to write to because it was about us. It’s not something like ‘Tiny Dancer’ or ‘Madman Across the Water’ or ‘Levon’ or something like that. The more I think about and the more I appreciate Bernie’s lyrics, the better it gets and the more I feel so gratified. What a life! What a life we’ve had.”
Taupin and John, as the documentary notes, were extraordinarily prolific in those early years, with John releasing 13 albums between 1970 and 1975, including four in one year.
“It was called adrenaline and gratitude and love for what I was doing. I was a kid in the candy story,” John says. “I was playing America. I was meeting Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, The Beach Boys, Linda Ronstadt, all these wonderful people. I used to look at their albums on the floor and listen to them on headphones. I’m an unusual guy, I suppose, but when you’ve got lyrics handed to you that are so good and Bernie keeps writing them, we just couldn’t stop. We were like a never-ending faucet.”
As the documentary depicts, though, that life was filled with pain at times. As John’s star was rising, he felt very alone and turned to drugs to help him fill the void when he was off-stage. “My music saved me when I was drug addicted and were going through bad times. I didn’t just shut myself away. When I was sad, I played music and when I was happy, I played music,” John says. “When I was unhappy, I still went on stage and the music for two hours took me out of my sadness. And so, you know, music saved me. By God, did it save me because I didn’t sit at home doing a lot of drugs.”
The documentary contrasts those 1975 Dodger Stadium dates and the emptiness John felt offstage with his 2022 Dodger date and the completeness he felt surrounded by his husband, Furnish, and their two young sons.
These days, two years after his retirement from the road, John says he doesn’t miss the stage at all — in fact, it’s quite the opposite.
“I did a scene in Spinal Tap 2, where we had to drive into a coliseum in New Orleans, and David was with me in the back of the car. And I said, ‘David, I’m having a panic attack. I do not want to go back to doing these things.’ I do the odd charity thing, the odd private show, but I do not want to tour again.”
He also doesn’t have time. John has had two musicals open this fall: The Devil Wears Prada on London’s West End and Tammy Faye on Broadway.
Both John and Carlile had reflections while watching the documentary.
For Carlile, the film provided another life lesson from her pal. “[Elton’s] given me so many things, but the thing that he’s given me that’s most pertinent to this film is that he’s given me an energy to move forward in my life. To ask, ‘What’s now and what’s next’ and to not dwell in the past.”
For John, as he watched archival footage he’d never seen before, including recording Goodbye Yellow Brick Road at the Chateau studio in France, “it reaffirmed the fact that we made good music. The documentary really helped me with my attitude toward my past catalog: it was bloody good.”
John may have been the only one who had any doubts about his early output and Carlile adores that the film compelled John to acknowledge a job well done.
“I love that this documentary is a forced reflection on his achievements and that he has to sit there and watch a story of goodness play out for what he’s done for the world,” she says. “I love that he has to see it. I love that he has to reflect. I love that he’s sitting here saying his music was bloody good. It’s a good thing that this has been [foisted] upon him and it’s an inspiration. It’s why I wrote the song.”
Watch John and Carlile’s video for “Never Too Late” below.
The long wait is over: Sam Fender has shared his first taste of new music in two years with comeback single “People Watching.” The song is the first to be released from his third album People Watching, which he announced earlier this week will drop on Feb. 21 via Polydor Records. Explore Explore See latest videos, […]
For years, the idea of a Linkin Park without Chester Bennington seemed unfathomable. When the singer with the titanic voice and breathtaking emotional range passed away in 2017 at the age of 41, the band had just released their seventh studio album, One More Light, two months earlier, and the sorrowful pop album became what amounted to a swan song for one of the best-selling rock acts of the 21st century. Years passed, early albums were reissued, cutting-room-floor tracks were scavenged — but for all intents and purposes, Linkin Park had finished.
And then in September 2024, they roared back with stunning vitality.
With new co-vocalist Emily Armstrong and drummer/co-producer Colin Brittain in the fold, guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave “Phoenix” Farrell, turntablist/producer Joseph Hahn and singer/rapper/producer/sonic architect Mike Shinoda revived their once-mighty band, with arena shows that included their many hit singles and hints at what a next era could become. While longtime supporters will likely (understandably) approach new album From Zero with hesitancy and a range of feelings, Linkin Park have proven time and again that they deserve to have their creative instincts trusted.
Throughout their run with Bennington, the band changed its sound from its rap-rock beginnings, explored new sonic ideas and often presented rewarding full-lengths that harnessed the boundaries of their aesthetic. Now with Armstrong’s voice front and center, Linkin Park use From Zero (a play on their pre-Linkin Park band, Xero) to press the restart button and let their artistry roam into new, often thrilling territory.
This was always the upside of bringing in a new vocalist that wasn’t simply a Bennington impersonator: Armstrong, formerly the singer of Dead Sara, can scream with towering fury and croon with fragile beauty in a way that recalls Bennington at times, but she brings different musical sensibilities and a singular point of view to the band’s palette, her wrath more pronounced and her melancholy finely drawn. Shinoda, who’s spent the past half-decade developing his voice as a solo artist and producer, sounds reinvigorated working in a band setting once again, and raps, sings and occasionally yells with an urgency that suggests that he understands how unique this new chance can be.
Fans of different eras of Linkin Park will find favorite moments on From Zero — A Thousand Suns supporters will adore the woozy “Overflow,” for instance, while Meteora diehards will wrap their arms around the breakneck speeds of “Heavy is the Crown” and “Two Faced.” Yet on the whole, From Zero imagines a new beginning for one of the biggest bands of the past few decades in a way that any fan can appreciate. Most of us never thought we’d be pressing play on a new Linkin Park album. In that sense, From Zero is a gift that sounds as special as it deserves to be.
While there may be no skippable tracks on the new album, here is a humble, preliminary opinion on the best songs on Linkin Park’s From Zero.
From Zero (Intro)
Linkin Park is heading back on tour with new co-vocalist Emily Armstrong, and the band’s co-founder Mike Shinoda is opening up about returning to the stage with the group seven years after the untimely death of frontman, Chester Bennington.
In an upcoming interview with The Zach Sang Show alongside Armstrong, Shinoda shared that getting back in the swing of Linkin Park has been “amazing,” despite his initial nervousness. “Part of it is going from the band being an indefinite hiatus or whatever it was — we didn’t put names on it, it was just like, ‘We’re not doing it anymore.’ From it being that to standing on the stage doing it, there were all these weird little moments that were so surreal,” he explained. “Getting in a room and doing it was so cool.”
He added that there were moments that were “stressful,” because he wanted to “set aside enough time for us to get this right,” continuing that with Armstong’s vocal talent, “We were changing keys on songs we played for 20 years. I had to relearn ‘Breaking the Habit’ from scratch basically.”
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“It’s like, having a thing that you felt like it was taken away and then being able to get it back like, ‘Oh, you can’t play shows as Linkin Park anymore,’ even though Linkin Park is like Part of my DNA,” he added.
Shinoda concluded by noting, “Linkin Park is part of my DNA. Everybody’s got a core identity diagram, like, this is who I am. If you were to sit down with a piece of paper and write down the things that make you you, that’s a crazy exercise when you think about it. It’s things you love to do, your family, your kids, your spouse, whatever. The things that make you you and your beliefs, right there in the middle of it is Linkin Park for me. There are many other things too, but to have that one out was painful. To have it back in, there’s nothing like it. There never will be anything like it.”
Ahead of their 2025 tour, Linkin Park is set to drop their eighth studio album, From Zero, on Nov. 15 via Warner Records. Check out the exclusive clip from the interview via Billboard below, and catch the full episode of The Zach Sang Show on Friday (Nov. 15).
The 2025 Welcome to Rockville festival announced its power-packed 2025 lineup on Thursday morning (Nov. 14), including headliners Shinedown, Green Day, Linkin Park and Korn. The four-day event that will take place at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, FL from May 15-18 bills itself as North America’s largest rock festival.
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The 14th edition will also feature Rob Zombie and Three Doors down supporting Shinedown on night one (May 15), Alice in Chains and Good Charlotte (in only their second show since 2019) backing up first-timers Green Day on night two (May 16), Incubus and Pierce the Veil taking the stage with the recently rebooted Linkin Park on Saturday night (May 17) and Bad Omens and Marilyn Manson warming up for Korn on the final night.
According to organizers, last year’s event drew more than 200,000 fans from all 50 states and 57 countries for sets form Zombie, Tool, Slipknot, Deftones, Pantera and more.
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Among the 150 bands who will perform on five stages at this year’s festival are: Sublime, Knocked Loose, Halestorm, Mudvayne, I Prevail, Jimmy Eat World, Motionless in White, Beartooth, Crossfade, Seven Hours After Violet (marking the East coast debut of the new band from System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian), Bush, Chevelle, Taking Back Sunday, Hollywood Undead, Killswitch Engage, New Found Glory and many more.
“We take this very seriously…it’s symbolic and a massive honor to be a headliner at Welcome To Rockville. This is the biggest rock festival in North America, so LET’S GO!!!!,” said Shinedown singer Brent Smith in a statement.
Next year’s show will feature a number of firsts and notable reunions, including Shinedown returning to their home state and headlining Rockville for the first time, Alice in Chains’ first Rockville show since 2013, one of the first appearances of Sublime with new singer Jakob Nowell, Body Count’s first Florida show in more than two decades, the U.S. debut of Swedish progressive metalcore band Allt and reunion gigs by Three Days Grace, the Dillinger Escape Plan, It Dies Today, All Shall Perish, Power Trip, Chiodos, Dry Kill Logic, Chimaira, Evans Blue and Snot.
“We can’t wait to turn the World Center of Racing back into the World Center of ROCK once again as we will be welcoming back one of the largest rock music festivals in the world, Welcome To Rockville!” said Daytona International Speedway president Frank Kelleher. “Rockville always delivers a high level of electric energy in the fan friendly festival atmosphere. Rockville will yet again continue its tradition of hosting top-tier bands in rock, metal, and alternative genres.”
Single day GA, VIP and Daytona Owners Club passes are on sale now, with 4-day weekend GA, VIP and DOC passes still available; full details are available here. Passes can be locked-in via layaway starting at $1 down (or 10% of the total purchase), with access to nearby hotels, shuttle service and other exclusives.
Check out the full 2025 Welcome to Rockville lineup poster below.
Zach Bryan only has a handful of shows on his schedule for next year so far, and on Wednesday (Nov. 13) he announced a major new addition. “Always been a dream to play MetLife Stadium, so we’re doin it with Kings of Leon on July 20th, 2025,” the “I Remember Everything” singer revealed in an […]