Rock
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Kid Rock is enraged over the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
On Saturday (July 13), the 53-year-old rocker — a staunch supporter of the former president — took to social media to share his anger over the shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa., where the presumptive GOP presidential nominee was struck in the ear and an audience member was killed.
“You f— with Trump, you f— with me,” Rock furiously yelled in a video posted on Instagram.
The short clip, which appears to have been recorded on a boat, finds the “We the People” singer-rapper shirtless and sporting black sunglasses with a “White Boy of the Year” baseball cap.
At Saturday’s Pennsylvania rally, held on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show, the shooter was immediately killed by the Secret Service after firing numerous shots from a nearby rooftop. The FBI has identified him as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. A motive has not yet been determined.
Following the incident, Trump wrote on Truth Social that a bullet struck the upper part of his ear. Videos and photos from the event show the Secret Service quickly escorting the bloodied former president from the stage while Trump pumped his fist to the crowd. One rally attendee was killed and two additional audience members are in critical condition.
In addition to his passionate video, Rock also shared a link on his X (formerly Twitter) account to a “President Trump Authorized” GoFundMe page dedicated to the victims of the Pennsylvania rally. The effort had raised nearly $900,000 as of Sunday morning.
Rock, whose real name is Bob Ritchie, has been a major supporter of Trump over the years. The rapper-turned-southern-rocker visited the former president at the White House in 2017 and he has golfed with Trump on numerous occasions. In 2022, Rock spoke to Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson about his past interactions with Trump. He also called Trump “one of my besties” in a 2024 profile in Rolling Stone.
Kid Rock wasn’t the only musical artist who reacted to the Trump assassination attempt. Other acts — including 50 Cent, John Rich, Scotty McCreery, Soulja Boy, Randy Houser, Kid Cudi and Lil Pump — also shared their thoughts about the shooting.
“Trump was shot!!!” Rich, of Big & Rich, alerted his X followers, later adding, “They couldn’t beat him in a fair contest, so they tried to kill him. BUT THEY MISSED.”
“Praying for our country rn,” said country singer and American Idol alum McCreery.
“I know the vibes,” noted 50 cent, posting a clip of his track “Many Men (Wish Death)” from Get Rich or Die Tryin’. “We are all in trouble now!”
See Kid Rock’s response to the Trump rally shooting on Instagram and X below.
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats’ “Heartless” ascends to No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart dated July 20. The song reigns as the Rateliff-fronted act’s first leader since “Survivor” ruled for six weeks in 2021. In between “Survivor” and “Heartless,” Rateliff & the Night Sweats reached Adult Alternative Airplay with two tracks, paced […]
Falling in Reverse and Jelly Roll’s “All My Life” rises to No. 1 from No. 4 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart dated July 20, becoming each act’s third leader on the list and completing a brisk five-week trip to the summit.
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Both acts wrap their quickest coronation on any Billboard airplay survey. Falling in Reverse’s two previous radio rulers, “Popular Monster” and “Zombified” (both on Mainstream Rock Airplay), took 16 weeks to No. 1 in 2020 and 2022, respectively.
Jelly Roll soars past his prior fastest run to No. 1 on a radio chart, as “Need a Favor” needed 18 weeks to lead Mainstream Rock Airplay in 2023; he boasts three No. 1s on Mainstream Rock Airplay and four on Country Airplay.
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“All My Life” wraps the second-quickest flight to No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Airplay this year; Pearl Jam’s “Dark Matter” led in its fourth frame in March.
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Each of Jelly Roll’s entries has led Mainstream Rock Airplay, with “All My Life” and “Need a Favor” preceded by “Dead Man Walking,” a one-week No. 1 in 2022. He becomes the first act to send three initial entries to No. 1 since The Pretty Reckless, which racked up a streak of four out of the gate in 2014-16 via “Heaven Knows,” “Messed Up World,” “Follow Me Down” and “Take Me Down.”
Concurrently, “All My Life” jumps 8-5 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 2.9 million impressions in the week ending July 11, up 8%, according to Luminate. It’s Falling in Reverse’s best-charting song on the survey, having surpassed the No. 11-peaking “Last Resort (Reimagined),” a cover of Papa Roach‘s original, last year. Jelly Roll’s best remains “Need a Favor,” which reached No. 3. Assisting the success of “All My Life” is support on alternative radio, as it’s currently bubbling under the Alternative Airplay survey.
On the most recently published multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart (dated July 13, reflecting data in the week ending July 4), “All My Life” ranked at No. 2 after three weeks at No. 1. In addition to its radio airplay, it drew 3.2 million official U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads.
“All My Life” previews Popular Monster, Falling in Reverse’s fifth studio album, due Aug. 16.
All Billboard charts dated July 20 will be updated on Billboard.com on Tuesday, July 16.
The story of Glass Animals’ 2020 slow-burning smash “Heat Waves” had a miraculous ending: The fourth single from the British band’s third album Dreamland landed at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 2022, following a record-breaking 59-week rise on the charts.
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The sleeper hit ruled the charts for 5 weeks, and following its 91st week, “Heat Waves” became the longest-charting song on the Hot 100 of all time, dethroning The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights”; it currently sits at three billion streams on Spotify alone. Since the millennium, only two U.K. groups have reached the Hot 100 summit: Coldplay and Glass Animals. The song’s origins are equally engrossing, proof that doors can almost slide shut as quickly as they open.
“Heat Waves”, which features Glass Animals’ trademark fusion of indie-rock, R&B and pop, was written and produced solely by frontman Dave Bayley. Its lyrics reference the death of a close friend and the pain when the subject’s birthday rolls around: “Sometimes, all I think about is you/ Late nights in the middle of June/ Heat waves been fakin’ me out”.
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“Even before I released it, I felt that “Heat Waves” was a bit too personal and too sad,” Bayley tells Billboard on Zoom from London. He was in the process of selling the song to another artist, though picked it back up when he learned the potential buyer wasn’t going to record it. “It’s really easy to write something personal and to give it to someone else as you have a little bit of distance from it and you can be more honest.”
He continues: “When [the song’s success] started happening, it felt weird. It was like walking outside naked – I felt exposed. It’s a personal song and it has an optimism, but hearing it out and about… it was haunting me in a way.”
The campaign around Dreamland, their first album released in conjunction with Polydor after years on indie label Wolfe Tone, was equally disorientating. Bayley, who grew up in the U.S. until he was 12, built a nostalgic mood board inspired by his ‘90s childhood memories for the autobiographical songs: NBC’s hit sitcom Friends, early internet communities and the dominance of Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. By the time Dreamland was released in August 2020, the world was deep in lockdown, the online and IRL worlds one blurry mess. We were back online and reliving Jordan’s prowess through ESPN’s documentary The Last Dance.
Glass Animals’ new record I Love You So F***ing Much, due July 19, is informed by this “head f–k” period. Bayley sought to juxtapose the personal songwriting with existential sonics, and sought inspiration in the cosmos. The LP’s artwork – a close-up of Bayley’s eyes surrounded by pitch-black nothingness – presents either an intimate message from the outer reaches of humanity, or, depending on your viewpoint, a detached, lost soul searching for salvation.
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The Oxford band – completed by Drew MacFarlane (guitar), Edmund Irwin-Singer (bass) and Joe Seaward (drums) – had flirted with commercial and critical success in the past. “Gooey,” from the group’s 2014 debut Zaba, was certified two-times platinum by the RIAA, and sophomore record How To Be A Human Being was nominated for the U.K.’s prestigious Mercury Prize in 2017. Along the way, the group collaborated with hip-hop heavyweights like Denzel Curry and Joey Bada$$, with the material charting globally in Australia, Canada and the U.S.
In 2018, the band cancelled a string of live dates when Seaward was hit by a lorry while cycling in Dublin; he suffered a broken leg, fractured skull and neurological injuries. Speaking to NME in 2020, Bayley said that Seaward returning to the stage “felt like a miracle”.
Months after its first shows back with Seaward, however, the band was pulled off the road due to the developing COVID pandemic. It eventually began booking shows again in 2021 – including a performance at the Billboard Music Awards – but the experience of success still felt at an arm’s reach. The band kept its own touring bubble and shunned parties to avoid scuppering any live dates with a positive test.
“It was a very strange time. We were watching everything happen from a distance and feeling quite detached from it,” Bayley says. “We would see Instagram stories of people dancing in the park to [“Heat Waves”], which was wonderful… but there was also a disconnect.”
In 2022, Glass Animals was nominated for best new artist at the Grammys (ultimately losing to Olivia Rodrigo) just as “Heat Waves” was peaking at No.1. In the days leading up to the April 4 event, though, Bayley returned a positive test and had to miss the ceremony, the biggest dip on the most bizarre of roller coasters.
“It might sound melodramatic, but I had a lot pinned on going to that and absorbing the moment,” Bayley says. “It felt like a unifying opportunity for our fans, and a chance to experience everything that had happened in the real world. It would have been a tangible thing, and it didn’t happen. That spun me out a bit.”
To counteract these missed opportunities, Bayley put himself into situations where he thought he ought to be: at parties, socialising and in the studio with external writers and producers. He gained writing and production credits on Florence + The Machine’s 2023 LP Dance Fever alongside Jack Antonoff, including on lead single “My Love”.
But it was due to another positive COVID test a year later that forced Bayley to quarantine for a fortnight in a rented AirBnB in Los Angeles. He turned to his pen, and the songs came fast in a fit of inspiration. “I was in this massive doom hole and feeling s–t about everything. I was trying to make sense of it all and the writing felt good,” he says. The uncertainty and unrealness of the era eventually became the motor: “That chaos is actually really exciting and beautiful – there’s sadness, hate, happiness and love, and you need all of them in your life.”
He paired the intimacy with the expanse of space, building a “retro futuristic” recording studio in London, kitting it out with gear from the 1950s and ‘60s to give the electronics an appropriate warmth. He gleefully reels of the disparate sonic inspirations on his personal “S–t I Like” playlist, including Throbbing Gristle, Suicide, My Bloody Valentine, Frankie Valli and British electronic pioneer Delia Derbyshire.
This grandeur and ambition collides with yearning confessions on their new album. “ICMYFILA” – short for “I Can’t Make You Fall In Love Again” – sings of someone who “walked out of my life” without a proper farewell, the chiming synths behind it reminiscent of Hans Zimmer’s score for Christopher Nolan’s space epic Interstellar. On “White Roses”, Bayley’s bouncing vocals meet the booming rap-inspired beat behind it: “I’ll just be the ghost on photos on your phone”, he warns.
It all makes for a fitting coda to a period of such confusion and chaos, a band caught up in the dizzying nature of success. “There was a huge sense of perspective and questions and it led to this existential theme to the record,” Bayley says. “It doesn’t have a whole lot of answers, other than that it’s OK to be lost and not really understanding what’s going on.”
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But could history be about to repeat itself? “Take a Slice”, an album track from 2016’s How To Be a Human Being, is currently surging up the Shazam charts and streams of the song are spiking on DSPs. The song has reached No. 22 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 after the app’s users connected it to a scene from Pixar’s Inside Out 2, pairing its squealing guitar breakdown with frenetic imagery. Fresh releases and catalogue releases are now at the mercy of unpredictable users and growth, but Bayley is familiar with and accepting of the terrain now.
“It’s really beautiful [to have these moments], but you have to be careful as the temptation is to stop releasing bodies of work,” he says. “I love cohesive bodies of work where the end result is greater than the sum of its parts, but that can get lost if you start thinking too much and chasing virality.”
As “Heat Waves” – a paean to a lost friend – proves, the conviction of the message is what remains.
“A lot of these platforms are great, but eventually there’ll be a new one and something different and what matters is the song,” he says as a smile spreads across his face. “The thing that’s proven itself over and over again is that if you write something that is meaningful and honest, it hopefully stands the test of time.”
Simple Plan‘s pop punk take on Sir Elton John‘s The Lion King classic “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” is the first single from the upcoming Disney album A Whole New Sound. The group’s take on the soaring ballad — which drops at midnight Friday (July 12) — is the first taste of the Mouse House’s 30th anniversary celebration of the iconic animated classic.
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“When Disney reached out to us to be a part of this project, it was a bit overwhelming because there are so many amazing Disney songs. But it became obvious pretty quickly that The Lion King song book, and especially ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight,’ stood out from the rest,” Simple Plan tells Billboard. “The song just has such a classic feel, and the melodies are so memorable and timeless. We also felt like it would lend itself really well to our style and would sound awesome as a pop-punk version.
“It’s also one of those songs and movies that has been such an important part of people’s lives. Lots of our fans grew up watching it and listening to the soundtrack and we also played them for our own kids,” the band continues. “So, it holds a special place in our hearts and felt like the rare song that could connect to a very wide range of listeners across many generations. Finally, the fact that the movie celebrates its 30th anniversary this year was just the icing on the cake! It’s such an honor to offer our own version of this song and to cover such an iconic artist like Sir Elton John. We’re not sure if he heard the song or not, but we hope he will enjoy this new version and feel like we did it justice.”
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The band is set to perform the song on Aug. 9 at the D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event.
According to a release, the collection will feature a number of alternative, rock and pop punk bands reworking popular Disney songs, as well as a fresh streetwise look for Mickey and his friends, with Goofy and Donald Duck slipping into sneakers, skinny jeans and backwards baseball caps for the celebration.
Guitarist Jeff Stinco teased out the collaboration earlier this week when the band posted a video of him taking a Disney-centric quiz in which someone asked him to choose his favorite Mouse House animated film, with the shredder repeatedly choosing The Lion King over such classics as Toy Story, Ratatouille, Lilo & Stitch and Tarzan.
“Why are you always choosing Lion King?” an off-camera voice asked Stinco as he stood in the shadow of Cinderella’s castle. Stinco silently shrugged and smiled, though the caption on the post made sense once the news was unveiled. “Jeff’s really been feeling the love for The Lion King lately,” it read. “There must be a reason [chin stroke and shifty eyes emoji].”
Then, on Wednesday (July 10), Disney Music unveiled a brief preview of the Simple Plan song, with Goofy and Donald rocking out to it along with Mickey under a banner that read “A Whole New Sound.”
On July 12, 1962, The Rolling (then Rollin’) Stones played their first show at the famed Marquee Club in London. By the fall of 1963 they were on the road in Europe, on the low end of a package with the Everly Brothers, Little Richard, Bo Diddley and more.
Flash forward 60-plus years, and they’re filling the world’s biggest stadiums — as they have been since the mid-’70s — with the current North American leg of their Hackney Diamonds Tour.
Few acts boast the kind of road resume the Stones have built over the decades. Conservative estimates put the group’s tally at more than 2,000 concerts for more than 45 million people — including an estimated 1.5 million alone on Feb. 18, 2006 at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And sometimes it seems like Mick Jagger has worn precisely that same number of outfits during all those years of performing.
Two of the Stones’ treks — A Bigger Bang from 2005-2007 and No Filter from 2017-2021 — are among the top 10 grossing tours of all time, according to Billboard Boxscore. The group’s two ’90s tours, Voodoo Lounge and Bridges to Babylon, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 for that decade, and A Bigger Bang topped the 2000s. Clearly, we like it when the Stones come to town — yes we do.
Why? So many reasons — not the least of which is a wealth of rock anthems the Stones dependably deliver most every time they hit the stage. There’s also staging, which is just as dependably awesome, and a sense of seeing bona fide history on display. We can certainly marvel at (and maybe be a little jealous of) Jagger’s continued vigor as he nears 81, and take comfort in the fact that Keith Richards, also 80, is still inexplicably with us despite behaviors that would take most everyone else off this mortal coil. “How do you make rock ‘n’ roll grow up? It seems to me that’s a very interesting question, and we’re the only answer,” Richards told this writer back in 2005. “When we finally croak, you’ll find out how long we can do this.”
The Hackney Diamonds Tour, which began April 28 in Houston and runs through July 17 in North America, is showing that the Stones have yet to gather any moss. Invigorated by a strong new album of the same name, the early shows have featured strong performances and changing set lists, and fans are still coming in droves.
And that has us thinking back over the group’s touring history, and the enormous legacy that’s been created since those Stones started rolling. Check out our ranking of the band’s 17 tours below,
British and American Tours (1964) / Irish Tour (1965)
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Nickelback’s catalog sports sizable gains following the June 16 U.S. Netflix premiere of the band’s career-spanning documentary, Hate to Love: Nickelback, with one of its signature songs ruling a Billboard chart dated July 13.
“How You Remind Me,” the group’s breakthrough 2001 hit, bounds in at No. 1 on the Hot Hard Rock Songs tally, as well as No. 12 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. (Older songs are eligible to rank on Billboard’s multimetric charts if placing in the top half and with a meaningful reason for their re-entries.)
In the tracking week ending July 4, “How You Remind Me” earned 5.1 million official U.S. streams, up 12%, and sold 2,000 downloads, up 171%, according to Luminate.
The song makes its first appearance on Hot Hard Rock Songs, which began in 2020, and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, which started in 2009. “How You Remind Me” was released on Nickelback’s third studio album, Silver Side Up, and became its to-date only No. 1 on the all-format Billboard Hot 100, ruling for four weeks in 2001-02.
While “How You Remind Me” is the only song from Nickelback’s catalog to reach the newest multimetric Billboard charts, the band’s music dots other surveys. “Rockstar,” from 2005’s All the Right Reasons, crowns Hard Rock Digital Song Sales (2,000 sold), where it’s followed by “How You Remind Me” at No. 2; “Photograph,” also from All the Right Reasons, at No. 4; “Someday,” from 2003’s The Long Road, at No. 8; and “Savin’ Me,” likewise from All the Right Reasons, at No. 9.
“How You Remind Me” also leads a pair of Nickelback tracks on Hard Rock Streaming Songs, lifting 4-3 as the survey’s Greatest Gainer. “Rockstar” follows as a re-entry at No. 23 via 3.1 million streams.
On the Top Hard Rock Albums tally, The Best of Nickelback: Volume 1, released in 2013, rises 3-2 thanks to 18,000 equivalent album units earned, a 30% jump. The 19-song compilation features each of the aforementioned tracks.
In all, Nickelback’s catalog received 28 million official on-demand U.S. streams in the week ending July 4, up 22% from 22.9 million in the week ending June 27.
Hate to Love: Nickelback premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023 prior to its Netflix arrival.
The four-piece’s most recent album, Get Rollin’, was released in November 2022 and debuted at its No. 2 high on the Top Hard Rock Albums survey. It has earned 149,000 equivalent album units to date and spawned a No. 2-peaking Mainstream Rock Airplay hit in “San Quentin.”
Eminem’s “Houdini” achieves a feat that no single from the rapper had in over 20 years: make Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart.
The song bows at No. 35 on the ranking dated July 13, marking Eminem’s fifth appearance on the survey and first since “Lose Yourself,” which peaked at No. 14 in December 2002.
“Lose Yourself” logged an 18-week run on the chart, through February 2003. As such, the break between Eminem’s Alternative Airplay hits numbered 21 years and five months. That’s the longest between appearances since Kate Bush went over 28 years between January 1994 (“Rubberband Girl”) and June 2022 (“Running Up That Hill [A Deal With God]”), the latter charting after the 1985 classic’s synch in Netflix’s Stranger Things.
Eminem’s respite is the third-longest in Alternative Airplay’s nearly 36-year history, behind only Bush’s and Debbie Harry’s; the latter waited almost 29 years between “Kiss It Better” in 1990 and her featured turn on Just Loud’s “Soul Train” in 2018.
Eminem’s Alternative Airplay history extends before “Lose Yourself,” though it’s his highest peaking entry on the tally. He first reached the list with “My Name Is” in 1999 (No. 37), followed by “The Real Slim Shady” (No. 19, 2000) and “Without Me” (No. 15, 2002).
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“Houdini” has been described as evocative of many of those earlier Eminem singles, which is not lost on Kevin Weatherly, Audacy senior vp of programming and program director of KROQ Los Angeles. “This Eminem song has an instant familiarity, and it resonates with a large segment of our audience that was there when he arrived 20-plus years ago,” he tells Billboard. “Much like when we played him in the past, the response is mostly positive, but there are also some negatives. That said, we recognized the pop-culture moment and wanted to reflect it and be a part of it.”
KROQ played “Houdini” 21 times in the latest tracking week (July 28-July 4), sixth-most among stations on the Alternative Airplay panel, according to Mediabase.
KTCL Denver spun the song 29 times in that span, the fourth-most on the panel in that stretch; KKDO Sacramento led all stations with 38 plays. “One of my Jocks, B-Large, brought it to our music meeting for discussion,” KTCL program director Jeb “Nerf” Freedman tells Billboard. “We play four Eminem songs in catalog, so it makes sense to take a listen to the new song – but not every artist has a comeback this late in their career. Lucky for us, we constantly engage our audience with online surveys. When we tested it and it went through the roof, we knew they didn’t think of Eminem as just a part of history. Slim Shady is alive and well!
“It sounds a little weird hearing that Steve Miller melody on our station, but it certainly jumps out of the speaker at you. So far, it’s a massive hit.”
The Miller melody Freedman references is that of “Abracadabra,” the 1982 hit from The Steve Miller Band that topped the Billboard Hot 100; “Houdini” interpolates the song’s melody in its chorus.
Concurrently, “Houdini” lifts to a new No. 29 high on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart via 1.2 million audience impressions, up 21%, according to Luminate. Upon its debut in late June, it became Eminem’s first song on the list, which began in 2009.
“Houdini” boasts multi-format approval; in addition to its Alternative Airplay rank, it has so far reached No. 8 on Rhythmic Airplay, No. 16 on Pop Airplay, No. 18 on hot-rap-tracks and No. 32 on Adult Pop Airplay.
The track launched at No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts dated June 15, as well as No. 2 on the all-format Billboard Hot 100. It holds at No. 16 on the latter list’s latest edition via 20.9 million radio audience impressions, 15.7 million official U.S. streams and 6,000 downloads sold.
“Houdini” is the lead single from The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace), Eminem’s 12th studio album, due Friday, July 12. One other song was released ahead of the album: “Tobey,” featuring Big Sean and BabyTron, which bows at No. 95 on the Hot 100.
Rod Argent has suffered a stroke, leading to his immediate retirement from touring. The 79-year-old Zombies keyboardist is currently recovering at home after an overnight hospital stay, with doctors advising several months of rest and recuperation.
The news came in the form of a release from the band’s managers Chris Tuthill and Cindy da Silva Thursday (July 11), which notes that the group’s founding member had spent a weekend in London with his wife Cathy to celebrate their 52nd wedding anniversary as well as his birthday before his hospitalization. All upcoming performances on The Zombies’ schedule have now been canceled, including the band’s two festival shows in the U.K. slated for later this month. A fall 2024 U.S. tour had also been in the works prior to his stroke.
“He was already preparing to wind down his live performance schedule after health scares on recent tours,” the announcement read. “However, the stroke was an unmistakable warning sign that the risks are too great.”
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Though he will no longer be performing with the English rock trailblazers, Argent plans to continue writing and recording with bandmates Tom Toomey, Søren Koch, Colin Blunstone and Steve Rodford. According to Tuthill and da Silva, he’s “already been back at his piano for some much-needed “’Bach therapy.’”
Plus, The Zombies’ second annual Begin Here Festival in St Albans U.K. will continue as planned in November, although their performance will be replaced with a special show honoring Argent. At this time, the band’s team asks that fans sit tight with their tickets until they’ve “had time to regroup and announce new plans.”
Argent’s retirement from touring ends quite a run, with The Zombies getting their start in the early ’60s. He’d previously stepped away from the group in 1975 in order to focus on his family and being a songwriter, but agreed to temporarily fill in for a few shows in 1999 — something that turned into 25 more years of touring and recording with the band. The group has had two albums chart on the Billboard 200 — 1965’s self-titled release and 1969’s Odessey & Oracle — as well as five Billboard Hot 100 hits over the course of its career.
“Our last message is that if a classic artist that has made music you love is performing nearby, don’t miss the opportunity to see them,” Tuthill and da Silva’s message concludes. “You can sit on the couch and binge Netflix another day. The communal experience of a live performance by a veteran artist is a singular and joyous moment. These artists are treasures who have stood the test of time and are giving their all, but they are fragile human beings like all of us.”
More than 20 years after its release, The Killers’ “Mr Brightside” continues to break records and collect awards.
The American alternative rock act was this week presented with two Guinness World Records, for its extraordinary chart success in the United Kingdom.
With a total of 416 weeks — and counting — on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, “Mr Brightside” has the longest stay on the singles survey by a group and the most cumulative weeks on the U.K. tally for one song, according to GWR.
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Earlier this year, “Mr Brightside” was crowned as the biggest-ever single in the U.K. which had never gone to No. 1.
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Hailing from Las Vegas, the band was originally discovered by and signed to U.K. independent Lizard King, and were embraced by Brits as one of their own. “Mr Brightside” was initially released in 2003 with a limited-edition 500 CD run, and was reissued in May 2004, peaking at No. 10.
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Now, after eight years on the national chart, the track is also recognized as one of the U.K.’s all-time top three singles for combined units (sales and streams) and among the top five most-streamed tracks.
“It’s infectious still to us, I know some people can’t wrap their head around it but you’ll see the response [when you see it live],” frontman Brandon Flowers tells GWR. “It’s tough not to be touched by it or be excited by it and there’s going to be people tonight who’ve never seen it live, there’ll be some people who’ve seen it 45 times. And we just don’t get tired of it.”
It would seem, no one has tired of the song. In recent weeks, The Killers were inducted with the SoundExchange Hall of Fame Award, recognition for their status as one of the most streamed acts in the organization’s 21-year history.
The Killers complete a six-night stand at London’s O2 arena tonight (July 11), part of a tour of the U.K. and Europe that runs through mid-July. The band returns to the U.S. for festival appearances at Lollapalooza and Outside Lands before kicking off an August Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, and additional North American festival dates through September.