Rock
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Charlie Colin, the founding bassist of pop-rock band Train, has died. He was 58 years old.
According to TMZ, who spoke to the musician’s mother, the California-bred artist died after slipping and falling in the shower while house-sitting for a friend in Brussels, Belgium. His mother said it’s unclear when Colin passed away, as his body was found only after his friends returned from their trip approximately five days ago. Colin’s sister also confirmed his death to Variety.
His mom also told TMZ that the musician had moved to Brussels to teach a music masterclass at a conservatory, and was working on new music for a film at the time of his death. Colin had been documenting his time abroad on Instagram, where he declared that the locale was his “officially [his] favorite city” in a March post.
Colin helped form Train with lead singer Pat Monahan, Rob Hotchkiss, Jimmy Stafford and Scott Underwood in the ’90s. Before leaving the group due to substance abuse issues in 2003, he took part in recording hits such as “Drops of Jupiter” — which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned the band its first Grammy nominations for best rock performance by a duo or a group and record of the year — and “Meet Virginia.” Train’s self-titled debut album reached No. 76 on the Billboard 200 in 1999.
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In 2015, Colin, Hotchkiss and Underwood formed the band Painbirds with Tom Luce.
Raised in Newport Beach, Colin first met Hotchkiss in middle school. The two later went to Boston’s Berklee College of Music at separate times before reconnecting when the latter formed the band the Apostles.
After the Apostles disbanded, Hotchkiss met Monahan and began collaborating on songs in the Bay Area. They later invited Stafford and Colin to join their lineup, after which Colin brought in Underwood to play drums — and Train was born.
“Charlie called me up and said, ‘It’s been this weird synchronicity where we’re not even willing to consider quitting,’” Hotchkiss recalled of his friend in a 2015 interview with The Los Angeles Times. “First and foremost, our priority is writing songs, and we really enjoy playing live.”
This month, Incubus reinvented one of their most beloved albums with the release of Morning View XXIII, a track-by-track re-recording of their 2001 album — and the process of returning to their fourth studio album may ultimately speed up the release of their in-the-works ninth album.
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“This new version [of Morning View] has been a jumping-off point, too, because we’ve been working on new music steadily over the last several months,” Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger tells Billboard during a Zoom chat earlier this month. The band’s recent tour of Australia, New Zealand and Asia “took us away from that process for a little bit,” Einziger continues, “but we’re jumping right back into it. All of it has reinvigorated us in ways that are new, that are going to result in new music from us that’s different than music we made before.”
Before Incubus begins unveiling the follow-up to 2017’s 8, however, they felt the need to revisit Morning View, which included alt-rock hits like “Wish You Were Here” and “Nice to Know You,” and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 upon its October 2001 release. Singer Brandon Boyd says that the band originally wanted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Morning View, but that the pandemic prohibited any extensive plans in 2021.
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“So we did this livestream event from the room where we wrote and recorded the record, and it was a really fun challenge,” says Boyd. “I was listening to the live recording, and it was good — but to me, it wasn’t special enough. And then we started playing with the idea of properly recording it.”
That thought resurfaced last October, after Incubus performed Morning View in its entirety during a one-off show at the Hollywood Bowl. “It felt like a genuine, very authentic connection from the audience to a group of songs that we wrote quite a long time ago,” Einziger adds. “And it made me a lot more excited about the idea of re-recording these songs.”
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The stylistic tweaks on Morning View XXIII are fan-friendly: “Echo,” for instance, tacks on a full extra minute for a blistering outro that had recently become a live staple, while the slow build of the “Nice to Know You” opening gets stretched out and more muscular. Meanwhile, the presence of new bassist Nicole Row, who officially stepped in for longtime bassist Ben Kenney last year, “re-engaged” the rest of the band with her energy, says Boyd. “Re-recording this record reminded us again how lucky we are to be able to write music in a room, with people that we love and admire.”
In late August, Incubus will kick off a 10-date arena run, where they’ll perform the entirety of Morning View as well as other hits from their catalog. In the meantime, the band will keep plugging away at their next album, which will end Incubus’ longest drought between studio albums upon its release.
“We’ve written probably half a record already,” says Boyd. “We have another 30 ideas that we’re still chipping away at, and it feels like we just got started. I think the plan is to keep writing, [and] probably start recording while we’re writing. The way that people seem to absorb music now is so vastly different than when Morning View came out — we don’t have to have a finished album to start releasing songs. … It’s fun to listen to an album from front to back to see the artist’s full vision, but that doesn’t mean we can’t put out a single or two while we’re still writing the record, so that’s probably what we’re going to do.”
A Pitchfork-celebrated LP from 2005 that crested at No. 121 on the Billboard 200 is unlikely source material for a Broadway musical, but Sufjan Stevens’ career has long defied expectations. Branching out from intimate folk to expansive chamber pop to hypnotic electronica, Stevens’ unpredictable career has seen the singer-songwriter veer into the worlds of moviemaking (both directing and soundtracking), ballet, classical, essay writing and even Christmas music.
Earlier this year, acclaimed choreographer and frequent collaborator Justin Peck brought a stage musical version of Illinois (rechristened Illinoise: A New Musical) to Manhattan’s Park Avenue Armory – a fitting enough place for the kind of suggestive, balletic storytelling director/choreographer Peck delivered (he also co-wrote the musical’s book with Jackie Sibblies Drury). But when Illinoise: A New Musical successfully hopped to Broadway shortly thereafter, playing to rave reviews and sold-out crowds, it felt like a new trail was being blazed. Sure, Broadway has always trafficked in nostalgia, and we’ve seen beloved albums (American Idiot, Jagged Little Pill) inspire hit musicals before. Never has an album this uncommercial blossomed into a structurally experimental musical and succeeded with Broadway crowds and critics, nabbing four 2024 Tony nominations, including best musical.
Now, those who haven’t had the chance to catch it on Broadway – or who have and simply want to relive it – can experience the emotionally charged glory of Illinoise: A New Musical when Nonesuch Records releases the original cast album on May 31.
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Ahead of its release, Billboard can share an exclusive preview of two of the songs: “The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!” and “Chicago (Reprise).” With Timo Andres providing arrangements that punctuate the songs subtly and expressively, vocalists Elijan Lyons, Shara Nova and Tasha Viets-VanLear are able to offer performances rich with yearning, heartache, hope and tender joy. Lyons, in particular, takes us on a cross-country emotional road trip with “Wasp,” his voice building from dulcet fragility to heartbroken fervor on the nearly seven-minute musical odyssey courtesy an 11-piece band deftly guided by Nathan Koci.
Check them out below.
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The cast album is produced by Dean Sharenow, Timo Andres, Nathan Koci, Garth MacAleavey and executive produced by Orin Wolf & Nate Koch. It was edited, mixed and mastered by Sharenow at Steel Cut Audio and Garth MacAleavey served as recording engineer. The album’s band includes Elijah Lyons, Shara Nova, Tasha Viets-VanLear, Christina Courtin, Sean Peter Forte, Domenica Fossati, Daniel Freedman, Kathy Halvorson, Nathan Koci, Eleonore Oppenheim, Brett Parnell, Brandon Ridenour, Kyra Sims and Jessica Tsang.
Nonesuch Records
Imagine a hardcore Black gangsta rapper going toe-to-toe with a wild-eyed white indie rock freak in makeup and shiny black leather pants, as the two repeatedly, gleefully, refer to one another using racial slurs. Then imagine those two men clasping hands and giddily doing a same-sex waltz on stage in front of 15,000 screaming suburban kids to celebrate their transgressive tango.
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That is one of the first images — as well as the very last — that you will see in the new three-part Paramount+ documentary series Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza, which premieres today (May 21). The sprawling doc, directed by Michael John Warren (Free Meek), uses the electric scene of Jane’s Addiction singer (and Lolla co-founder) Perry Farrell singing Sly and the Family Stone’s incendiary 1969 anthem “Don’t Call Me N—er, Whitey” with OG gangsta rapper Ice-T during the tour’s inaugural 1991 run as a framing device, to explain how and why Lolla changed music festivals in America forever.
It is one of Farrell’s favorite moments from the madcap ride through the fest’s three decade run, during which it blossomed from a multi-act touring anomaly to the industry standard for touring fests, before shrinking, floundering and finally relaunching in the early 2000s as a stay-put in Chicago — with tentacles that now reach throughout South America, Europe and India.
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“I wasn’t thinking [about a] documentary at all,” says the eternally bright-eyed, future-focused Farrell, 65, during a Zoom call. “Because I feel our best work is ahead of us… people usually do documentaries at the end of things and I feel that Lolla is just getting started.”
It’s a classic Farrell forward spin on the festival he originally launched in 1991, as a swan song for his genre-defining alt rock band Jane’s Addiction. After falling in love with such well-established multi-day English festivals as Reading, Farrell and his partners — late promoter Ted Gardner, agent Don Muller and SAVELIVE CEO Marc Geiger — cooked up the idea for a traveling fest that would bring the best of indie rock to the masses.
Before the commercial internet, before cell phones or texting, freaks and geeks could only go to their hometown rock clubs or find each other in their local record store as they browsed the racks and flipped through zines like Maximum Rocknroll. After launching with an initial 1991 lineup topped by Jane’s and featuring Siouxsie and the Banshees, Living Colour, Nine Inch Nails, Ice -T & Body Count, the Butthole Surfers and the Rollins Band, Lolla quickly became a safe haven for the indie diaspora.
For a generation of musical misfits who loved art, nature and peace, it was the place where no one judged you based on how you looked, who you loved or what you listened to. Goths sat side-by-side with metal heads, grunge moppets shared space with indie nerds and hip-hop heads and everyone realized that they were not the only outsiders in their hometown.
The full story of Lolla is a wildly sprawling one, and director Warren says wrestling it into a three-plus-hour doc meant crawling through 20,000-30,000 hours of footage, much of it courtesy of MTV News, which thoroughly covered the fest for years. Luckily, there was no one on the planet who seemed like a better fit for the job.
“Every morning [my research team] would send me an email that felt like Christmas,” says Warren of the difficulty of discerning what to keep in the project given his embarrassment of taped riches. As much as he wanted to include the incredible full Pearl Jam sets from 1992 — during which singer Eddie Vedder would climb perilously high into the stage rigging and take death-defying leaps into the crowd — Warren says he had to remind himself to put his fan boy hat to the side, despite the huge impact the fest had on his life and later, career.
“It was personal for me, since I was at the first Lollapalooza when I was 17 years old in [my hometown of] Mansfield, Massachusetts,” he says. “I had not seen the world at all and me and my weird friends in an avant garde jazz band thought we were the only ones who felt the way we did about things that we were pissed about.” But as soon as he walked onto the Lolla grounds, he says, he found his tribe.
“There were thousands of us there — and if there were thousands there, there must be millions all over the country and the world!,” Warren recalls thinking. It’s a sentiment repeatedly driven home in the film by the pierced, punk haired and black-clad masses who may have come in the first few years for for Alice In Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Beastie Boys and Dinosaur Jr., but who left turned on to Fishbone, Sebadoh, Royal Trux, A Tribe Called Quest, Stereolab, Shonen Knife and dozens of other less radio-friendly alternative acts.
Undaunted by the mountain of material, Warren set out to tell a roughly chronological tale of how Lolla grew from a scrappy idea for a traveling carnival, using just a handful of key voices instead of the sometimes overwhelming barrage of talking heads in other music docs. Farrell and his partners are key players, of course, with the former Jane’s singer acting as a kind of spirit guide for the entire journey, on which he’s joined by artists including tango partner Ice-T, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, Chance the Rapper, Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid and L7’s Donita Sparks.
“It felt like a revolution,” Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor says in the doc of the accepting, electric vibe that saw audiences embrace his then-new band’s industrial earthquake of sound and chaotic vision.
They all tell the tale of how Lolla not only blew minds with the music on three stages, but also expanded them by providing space for a wide breadth of social, environmental and political voices.
With an early focus on offering information from a diversity of interests — from PETA to the National Rifle Association, pro-choice group NARAL, Greenpeace, vegetarian organizations and petitions to overturn the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, Lolla looked to blow minds with information as well as sonics. “I didn’t realize we were so ahead of the curve with gun control [and abortion rights],” Farrell says, adding, “It’s an ongoing process of blowing people’s minds from year-to-year.” Farrell continues to believe that the purpose of the festival is to expose the audience to the new, young rebels in music and to spread their message across the globe: “We never thought about the status quo, we only thought about he truth, what I considered radical fun with my friends.”
The film elegantly takes you through an initial year nobody was sure would hit, to a sold-out second run with the Chili Peppers, Lush, Jesus & Mary Chain, Pearl Jam, Ice Cube and Soundgarden. It chronicles registering thousands of voters each day, adding the stomach-churning Jim Rose Sideshow Circus to the mix, as well as a second (and later third) stage that exposed audiences to such then up-and-coming acts as Rage, Tool and Stone Temple Pilots.
All along, in addition to focusing on the attitudes and gratitude of the audiences, the doc weaves in elements of the larger culture at the time, from Tipper Gore’s PMRC slapping profanity stickers on albums (and Rage’s full-frontal protest of that move from the Lolla stage), to the missed opportunity to book Nirvana during their prime and the constant gripes that the event had gone “too mainstream.”
It traces the path of increasingly mega lineups, a return to punk roots and a 1996 Metallica-topped lineup that was not only controversial, but also the initial sign that just five years in, things may have begun to go sideways for the festival as a panoply of other package tours — including Ozzfest, Smokin’ Grooves, H.O.R.D.E. and Lilith Fair — took flight. After a final 1997 run with a mostly techno/electronica-focused lineup of Prodigy, Orbital, the Orb, Tool, Tricky and Korn, Lolla petered out and went silent for several years.
All along, though, Warren says the footage showed him that — as Morello says in the film — Lollapalooza was like a “Johnny Appleseed,” spreading the word about hip-hop and alt rock, and how much bigger the world outside your hometown was. Elsewhere in the film, Morello calls the trip from the underground to suburban amphitheaters across the country, the “Declaration of Independence of the alternative nation.”
“It was really important to tell the story of the cultural context, which happens in the very first episode,” says Warren. “What I’m proud of in our film is that you actually understand what is going on in America — not just about the music, but about the cultural revolution in youth culture. How kids were f–king pissed about the environment, gun safety and these things that are so painfully relevant today. It was almost mind-numbing to go through these things and see that the stuff we were so upset about are as bad as ever today.”
Warren points to that first taste, in which he saw Ice-T and his hardcore band play their then-controversial anthem “Cop Killer,” and his fear that they were all going to get arrested for indecency, along with the nearly naked Farrell and Jane’s. Warren says his impression of that inaugural tour was how “extremely dangerous” the whole prospect felt to him then. That narrative line of pushing the boundaries and connecting the dots between formerly disjointed music tribes is the crucial through-line of the film, and the festival.
After the 1997 meltdown, the third episode focuses on the fest’s phoenix-like rebirth in Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan, where Lolla put down roots in 2005. Taking the show off the road has allowed it to sprout wings, growing into a massive annual event in the Windy City, as well as at satellite locations in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Paris and India.
“I think [Farrell] wanted it to be truthful and I know when he started seeing cuts it really struck him — this sounds self-serving — how good it was, and he was really relieved,” says Warren of the journey through the highest highs, lowest lows and almost inconceivably eclectic lineups over the years. This year’s event in Chicago will feature headliners SZA, Tyler, the Creator, Blink-182, the Killers and more.
With one eye always focused on the next adventure, Farrell takes a long, considered pause while contemplating the question of what Lollapalooza has changed in the larger culture and whether the movie gets any closer to capturing that shift.
“I think that I can’t take credit for anything Lollapalooza does,” Farrell says with a smile before unleashing a perfectly Lolla notion of what it all has, or does, mean. “I work, I serve [Rastafarian God] Jah, Jah makes the decisions … I just try to follow Jah’s direction.”
Check out the trailer for Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza below and watch it on Paramount+ now.
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After years of speaking mostly to right-wing outlets, Kid Rock recently sat down with a reporter from Rolling Stone magazine, and according to writer David Peisner, their sometimes unhinged chat included Rock ranting about immigration, liberally using the N-word and, at one point, waving a gun in the air.
The story features a number of disturbing and off-putting scenes, including Rock casually dropping racial slurs a number of times and the opening bit where the writer notes that Rock’s white butler goes by the racially charged nickname “Uncle Tom.” It also mentions that Rock keeps the original General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard — which famously has a Confederate flag emblazoned on its roof – in a hangar on his 214-acre Nashville estate. Rock makes sure to tell the writer that Tom is his major domo’s real name, laughing, “don’t give me some s–t in the article.”
Near the end, after noting that Rock has switched from sipping white wine to downing three or four Jim Beam and Diet Cokes in quick succession, Peisner writes, “He’s sitting in a dark leather chair, shouting at me about something or other, when he reaches behind the seat, pulls out a black handgun, and waves it around to make some sort of point.”
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Rock then notes, “And I got a f–king g–damn gun right here if I need it! I got them everywhere!” At press time a spokesperson for Rock had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment the claims in the RS piece.
The article traces Rock’s path from a child of privilege in the Detroit suburbs living in a huge house with his Republican dad, to his rise as an ambitious rapper and a libertarian who criticized the GOP’s stance on gay marriage and abortion before his deep-dive into right-wing politics. “I’m part of the problem,” Rock says at one point about the divisions roiling the country. “I’m one of the polarizing people, no question. Sometimes I bitch about other people, then I look in the mirror and I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, why don’t you shut the f–k up too?’”
The rapper-turned-rocker-turned-country crooner wore a “This Bud’s For You” hat during the chat, a year after posting a video in which he attempted to shoot up a case of Bud Light, seemingly in pique over the brand’s celebration of trans social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. While Rock says he’s moved on from the boycott of parent company Anheuser-Busch he helped promote, the piece notes that among the “bigger targets” Rock, 53, is now going after are progressive ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s and Planet Fitness, reportedly a target of right-wing anger for its trans-inclusive policies.
“I don’t want to hurt people’s jobs and stuff like that when they don’t have any dog in the fight, but there’s a whole lot of other companies we should be going after,” he tells Fox News host Laura Ingraham during an appearance taped a few hours into RS sit-down, during which he also rages against “DEI crap” and predicts that friend Donald Trump will win the presidential race in Michigan this year. On his way to the taping, Peisner says Rock tries to dial up one of his “besties,” former one-term president Trump, who doesn’t take the call.
Peisner says he spent a year trying to get Rock to talk to him, speaking to a dozen people who’d worked with the singer over the years who had been upset by his transformation from a party-time rapper and rocker to a MAGA-fueled culture warrior whose music has taken a backseat to his public protestations. Kenny Olson, who played lead guitar in Rock’s band for more than a decade in the 1990s said he couldn’t understand the heel turn.
“I don’t understand where a lot of this came from,” said Olson. “I’ve always felt music should inspire people, not divide people. A lot of people from back in the day ask me, ‘What’s going on?’ I don’t know.”
Rock explains to Peisner that he hasn’t done many interviews lately because he felt they all became “this gotcha moment,” saying he doesn’t need the attention while gesturing to the green valley in front of him and adding, “look around. I live in my own world. And it’s great.” At one point, while flipping through a photo album of pics from his career, Rock lands on one in which he’s wearing a rebel flag-designed shirt while sharing the stage with the members of Run-DMC.
“Nobody said a f–king word,” he says of the group’s three Black members. “No one. That was the thing until all this woke s–t started happening.” He claims there was no deeper meaning to him rocking the reviled symbol many see as a nod to the era of slavery. “I was using the Confederate flag because I love Lynyrd Skynyrd, and I think it just looks cool,” he says.
The story includes a trip to one of the dates on Rock’s Rock the Country tour, in which Peisner describes a “sea of American flags, Trump 2024 merch” and rants by Rock about “open borders, high taxes and a declaration that ‘Joe Biden can kiss my motherf–king Anglo-Saxon ass.’” In one back-and-forth, Rock appears to parrot Trump’s hateful rhetoric against immigration, calling some “murderers! They’re rapists! They are! MS-13!” before shouting “9/11!” in a seeming attempt to tie immigration to terrorism; Peisner says he noted the well-documented anecdotal evidence that immigrants commit crime at much lower levels than citizens.
As for his full-throated embrace of Trump — the presumptive GOP presidential nominee currently embroiled in a criminal hush money trial and facing three other trials tied to his attempts to hide top secret documents and interfere with the 2020 election — Rock says he knows exactly who the former Apprentice host is.
“You think I like Trump because he’s a nice guy?” Rock says. “I’m not electing the deacon of a church. That motherf–ker likes to win. He likes to cheat in his f–king golf game. I want that guy on my team. I want the guy who goes, ‘I’m going to fight with you.’”
Peisner says Rock — whose bi-racial son was born from a high school relationship with a Black woman — liberally uses the n-word throughout the interview, in which he speculates that a decade out from his last big hit, the singer’s right wing embrace might be as much about “managing the emotional fallout of a waning career as it is about any deep-seated beliefs.”
In the end, even after lamenting that, “no one’s ever going to say, ‘F–k Prince,’” as he considers his checkered legacy, Rock triples down on his divisive nature in a most Trump-ian fashion. “I don’t care,” he maintains as Peisner tries to suggest that maybe he actually cares a lot what people think of him. “No, I don’t. You don’t understand. I really don’t give a f–k.”
So, after insisting that the writer watch a series of performance videos before allowing him to leave, the chat ends with Rock asking Peisner for a favor. “Just write the most horrific article about me,” says the tipsy host. “Do it. It helps me.”
Eddie Vedder had some choice words for Harrison Butker following the Kansas City Chiefs kicker’s controversial commencement speech at Benedictine College last week.
During Pearl Jam’s Saturday (May 18) concert at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the 59-year-old rock star cut right to the chase when expressing his feelings about Butker’s beliefs, particularly the athlete’s assertion that women should prioritize raising families instead of pursuing careers outside of the home.
“There should be pride in homemaking, whether you’re a man or woman,” he began. “It’s maybe one of the hardest jobs and you should definitely take pride in it. But you shouldn’t not follow a dream because you think … you’re going to benefit by giving up your dreams? I couldn’t understand the logic.”
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“He was telling men, ‘Don’t forget to puff up your chest and be more masculine, don’t lose your masculinity,’” Vedder continued while strumming his guitar, as captured in a fan video. “The irony was that when he was saying that, he looked like such a f–king p—y.”
The “Even Flow” singer added, “There’s nothing more masculine than a strong man supporting a strong woman.”
The concert comes a little over a week after Butker took the stage at Benedictine’s May 11 commencement ceremony to condemn President Joe Biden, abortion, birth control, Pride Month and “the cultural emasculation of men” before discouraging the female graduates in attendance from “thinking about all of the promotions and titles” they would soon get in their careers.
“I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world,” the NFL player continued at the time. “I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”
In the same speech, Butker also promoted antisemitic misinformation about a congressional bill, as well as quoted the song “Bejeweled” by Taylor Swift — whom he simply referred to as Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s “girlfriend” — while admonishing church leaders who become “overly familiar” with their parishioners. “This undue familiarity will prove to be problematic every time,” he said with a smile. “Because as my teammate’s girlfriend says, ‘Familiarity breeds contempt.’”
Vedder isn’t the only star who’s spoken out against Butker’s comments. Maren Morris, Flavor Flav and more celebrities have all used their platforms to condemn the athlete’s words. However, other stars such as Whoopi Goldberg and actress Patricia Heaton have publicly defended Butker’s right to say them.
See the moment Vedder slammed Butker at Pearl Jam’s Las Vegas concert below.
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Jon Wysocki, the founding drummer of rock band Staind has died at 53. The news was confirmed on Saturday, when Wysocki’s current band, Lydia’s Castle, posted about his passing on Instagram, writing, “On 5/18/2024 at 8:02pm, @jonwysocki4 passed away surrounded by family and friends that loved him dearly.”
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Staind also paid tribute to Wysocki in an Instagram post on Sunday, in which they wrote, “We first met Jon through mutual friends in 1994. We came together with Mike, Aaron, and Johnny April in 1995 and founded Staind. The 17 years that followed were some of the best memories of our times together. From practice in Ludlow, Mass to touring around the world, Jon was integral to who we were as a band. Our hearts go out to Jon’s family, and fans around the world who loved him.”
At press time no information on the cause of death had been announced. Lydia’s Castle member Shawna Hornbeck wrote on Saturday that Wysocki, was, “currently in the ICU. He has been having issues with his liver that requires him to be under the attention of medical professionals to ensure that he is treated properly. While he has been struggling, there are signs that he is recovering slowly.”
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Born on Jan. 17 ,1971 in Westfield, Mass., Wysocki co-founded second-wave grunge band Staind in Springfield, Mass. in 1995 with singer/rhythm guitarist Aaron Lewis, lead guitarist Mike Mushok and bassist Johnny April. The band self-released their debut album, Tormented, in 1997, followed by their 1999 major label debut, Dysfunction, which was co-produced by Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst and featured the singles “Mudshovel” and “Home.”
After co-headlining the Family Values tour with Limp Bizkit in late 1999, the band dropped their third LP, Break the Cycle, in May 2001, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and spawned their signature No. 5 Hot 100 hit “It’s Been Awhile.” Wysocki played on seven on the band’s eight studio albums — through 2011’s self-titled seventh LP — before taking his leave in 2011, reportedly due to friction with singer Lewis; he was replaced by drummer Sal Giancarelli.
In a statement on his X account on Sunday, Lewis wrote, “I’m so sad. I lost my friend. A friend I loved like a brother… fought with like a brother… cared for like a brother… worried about like a brother… cried over like a brother… because he was my brother in arms. My journey would’ve been different without him… The battles we fought together. The battles we fought against each other. The battles we fought side by side alone with our own demons. The battles we won and the battles we lost. He was my friend. He was our brother. My heart is broken. My world has changed. I’ll see you on the other side my friend. My brother. Godspeed. My heart, my love, and my condolences go out to his family and loved ones. I’m so fu–ing sad. He will be missed.”
After leaving Staind, Wysocki briefly joined Chicago hard rock group Soil, but never recorded with them. On Sunday they also paid tribute to their late bandmate, writing on FB, “Today we lost one of the greats. Jon Wysocki was not only a great friend, a great drummer, but a great human being. It was an honor to have him in SOiL for the time we did. We had so many laughs, so many good times. You will be missed dearly. Until we meet again dear friend…..”
See the statements about Wysocki’s death below.
I’ll see you on the other side my friend. My brother. Godspeed. My heart, my love, and my condolences go out to his family and loved ones. I’m so fucking sad. He will be missed.— Aaron Lewis (@Aaronlewismusic) May 19, 2024
A24’s full compilation album Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute To Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense has finally arrived, featuring new covers of the quintessential rock band’s music by Miley Cyrus and more artists. The “Flowers” singer contributed a rendition of Talking Heads’ 1977 hit “Psycho Killer” to the project, which dropped Friday (May 17). Singing […]
Falling in Reverse, Tech N9ne and Alex Terrible’s collaboration “Ronald” bows big on Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart, debuting at No. 1 on the May 18-dated survey. “Ronald” starts with 2.4 million official U.S. streams and 3,000 downloads sold in the week ending May 9, according to Luminate. It reigns from only three days […]
05/17/2024
It wasn’t all dancing bears at Dead & Co.’s debut Sphere show (though the bears were there!). Here are our favorite moments from show 1.
05/17/2024