Rock
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Everyone has a price, it seems, except for Noel Gallagher. In a new interview with MOJO magazine, former Oasis singer and solo star Liam Gallagher says that his estranged older brother put the kibosh on one of the most anticipated reunions in modern rock history.
After years of rumors, innuendo and testy back-and-forth between the famously battling siblings, Liam told MOJO that he tried to call the band’s songwriter, guitarist and occasional vocalist — well, his people attempted to called Noel’s people — to proffer a major offer to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band’s landmark August 1994 debut album, Definitely Maybe.
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“I did call him! Well, my people called Noel’s management team,” Liam said. “We put an offer on the table for an Oasis thing – because we got offered it – and he said no. It was a big tour, a lot of money. He turned it down. I get it, he’s got a divorce going down. I’ll do the Definitely Maybe thing and have a nice time without him.”
Definitely Maybe is on the Mt. Rushmore of the 1990s Britpop movement thanks to such enduring tracks as “Supersonic,” “Shakermaker” “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” “Cigarettes & Alcohol” and “Live Forever,” which helped the collection become the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history. The band’s signature mix of Beatles reverence, punkish swagger and Liam’s snarling, no f’s given vocal delivery immediately rocketed the Manchester-bred band into the British rock pantheon during what turned out to be a too-short-lived ride due to the near-constant sniping between the brothers and a merry-go-round of rhythm sections and guitarists.
Their run began with a signing to legendary Creation Records in 1993 and included the release of 1995’s equally epic (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? — featuring hits “Some Might Say,” “Roll With It,” “Wonderwall,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and “Champagne Supernova” — and five more studio albums before an acrimonious split in 2009. Since then, the Gallaghers have made a sport of denigrating each other in the press and on social media, often blaming one another for a failure to re-launch.
It sounds like the band, who’ve been nominated as part of the 2024 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, will not likely reach a détente this year. But Liam suggested that maybe a 2025 Morning Glory? get back could happen. “It’s down to the universe. It’ll happen when it happens, it’s not in our hands anymore,” Liam told MOJO. “Me, I love nostalgia though. I’m doing the lot.”
But in a recent interview, Liam said that he won’t be singing any Oasis or Stone Roses songs on his upcoming joint tour with Roses guitarist John Squire to support their self-titled duo album. “Nah, not doing any of that. It’s gonna be just this album and maybe a few covers that we might get round to doing, but it won’t be our other bands and that, ‘cause that’s naff,” he said. “No, them songs mean too much to me man for me to be howling over.”
At press time a spokesperson for Noel Gallagher had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on Liam’s interview.
Foreigner founder Mick Jones’ ongoing absence from the band’s live concerts since 2022 has been widely noticed and commented on by fans. He’s now revealing that it is Parkinson’s disease that has sidelined him from being on stage with the group, which is in the midst of a farewell tour.
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“Fans will have become very aware that for some time now, I have not been performing onstage with the band. Several years ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. I want everyone to know that I am doing alright,” Jones said in a statement released on Wednesday (Feb. 21). “However, I’ve always liked to be at my best when performing onstage, and sadly, at present, I find that a bit difficult. I am still very much involved in the background with Foreigner and remain a presence. Parkinson’s is a daily struggle; the important thing is to persevere and remind myself of the wonderful career I’ve had in music. I thank all the fans who have supported Foreigner throughout the years and continue to attend our concerts — I want you to know I appreciate your support; it always means so very much to me, but especially so at this point in my life.”
The English-born Jones, 79, formed Foreigner during 1976 in New York, shortly after playing in the Leslie West Band. He put together a band of British and American musicians, including Ian McDonald of King Crimson fame and Lou Gramm from the band Black Sheep, and hit it out of the box with a self-titled debut in 1977, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200, was certified five-times platinum and launched the enduring hits “Feels Like the First Time” and “Cold as Ice.” In its wake Foreigner has released eight more studio albums and sold more than 80 million records worldwide, spawning additional hits such as “Hot Blooded,” “Urgent,” “Juke Box Hero” and “I Want to Know What Love Is” (the lattermost a Billboard Hot 100 topper).
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Earlier this month the group received its first-ever nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. After the first week of fan voting, Foreigner ranked third, behind Ozzy Osbourne and Peter Frampton, with well over 100,000 votes.
During his last years of touring with the band Jones would come on for a few songs each night, a bit like a special guest at the shows. Foreigner is currently led by bassist Jeff Pilson, who’s been with the band since 2004, and frontman Kelly Hansen, who joined the following year.
In a previous interview, Billboard asked Jones — who had heart surgery during 2012 and was playing only a few songs each night with the band during the late 2010s — about the prospect of Foreigner continuing without him on board. “That’s a tough one,” he said, adding that, “I look at it as a team. If you think about…any kind of sports teams, they change players all the time. The thought of my music carrying on in that way has some appeal to me.”
Pilson, meanwhile, told Billboard last year that Jones still makes “the final decision” on anything related to the band — including checking off on the farewell tour that began last summer. “I would say it was difficult for him because (Foreigner) is his baby,” the bassist noted. “This is his lifetime achievement. It’s difficult, but I know he endorses the decision.” The tour is slated to finish in North America this summer; dates have been announced through Aug. 28, including a summer run with Styx and John Waite. Band manager Phil Carson says some international dates might take the tour into 2025, however.
There may also be some new Foreigner music in the offing — the band’s first since 2009’s Can’t Slow Down album, save for “The Flame Still Burns” from the 2017 compilation 40. “It is very much in the realm of possibility,” Pilson said last year. “We do have some tracks floating around unfinished, and they’re unfinished for a reason; we haven’t figured out what to do just yet. But they’re good songs, so at some point I’m really hoping they come out.”
Hansen added that Jones has been writing with longtime collaborator Marti Frederiksen. “There’s a whole bunch of stuff in different stages of completion,” he said. “We’ve got stuff going back a long time, so I think that might be something that’s going to happen.”
Mark Ronson is biased, but he think Foreigner definitely deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The “Cold As Ice” rockers earned their first nomination for enshrinement at the Hall in Cleveland this year despite being eligible since 2002 and in an Instagram video posted on Tuesday (Feb. 20), Ronson recruited some heavy hitters to help stump for his stepdad’s band.
“Everything that made me want to be a record producer came from being in the studio watching Foreigner make records. I’m still completely in awe of the sound of those first five albums. Guitars with swagger and bite. Heavy drums that groove like a mutha with the bass. Wide layers of synths. And then there’s that voice. And those songs. It’s really crazy,” Ronson wrote in the post alongside a video touting some of the band’s bona fides, including sales of more than 80 million albums and their status as one of the most-played artists on classic rock radio.
“It’s also kind of crazy that this is the first time they’ve ever been on the ballot for the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame – after 20 years of eligibility,” Ronson added, with a “WTF???” exclamation point to drive the point home.
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The arena rock “Juke Box Hero” band were formed in New York in 1976 by Ronson’s stepfather, guitarist Mick Jones, singer Lou Gramm, drummer Dennis Elliott, keyboardist Al Greenwood, multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald and bassist Ed Gagliardi. The band went on a chart-topper tear from jump with their 1977 self-titled debut album, which featured the hit singles “Cold as Ice,” “Feels Like the First Time” and “Long, Long Way From Home.” They kept the streak going on 1978’s Double Vision, which spun off rock radio staples “Hot Blooded,” “Double Vision” and “Blue Morning, Blue Day.”
The hits kept coming on 1979’s Head Games, thanks to such hits as “Dirty White Boy,” “Head Games” and “Women” and 1981’s smash 4, which included “Urgent,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and “Juke Box Hero.” In total, the band had nine top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (and 22 songs total on the tally), released six multi-platinum albums and have long been considered one of the Hall’s biggest annual snubs, with fans waging campaigns for their inclusion for many years.
Despite all those hits, the band has never been nominated before, so Ronson corralled some A-list pals to stump for the the band in the accompanying video, including Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Jack Black, GNR’s Slash, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Queens of the Stone Age singer Josh Homme.
“You want to know what love is? Love is putting Foreigner in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame… Foreigner should absolutely be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” Homme says in the video, with Grohl adding that he’s “loved Foreigner since I got their debut record… There’s one drum riff that I have used in more than a few songs,” he notes before cueing up said beat.
“I can’t believe they’re not in already, oh my God,” Smith says, as video unspools of the always excitable Black singing along to “Feels Like the First Time” before sending a personal message, complete with hand heart, “Hey, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, open the door! Foreigner’s waiting outside. Let ’em in.”
When the nomination was announced last month, Jones told Billboard, “I deeply appreciate the recognition from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (nominating) committee. It is wonderful that Foreigner has maintained its presence all these years and brought the music to our fans. Getting this news is an incredible endorsement of what we have achieved over time.”
Ronson appears in the video as well, saying there is “no way” he’d be the record producer he is today without Foreigner. The Grammy-winning producer (Amy Winehouse, Barbie soundtrack) ended his post with a list of Foreigner’s achievements, including: “Foreigner are the most played band on classic rock radio to not be in the hall of fame. They’ve been sung by our fave characters from the Simpsons, The Office, I, Tonya, Stranger Things and Wet Hot American Summer. They’ve been covered by Diana Ross and Mariah Carey (what the rock band can boast that??). They were sampled and turned into HOT FIRE by M.O.P. (remember that ‘Cold As Ice’ joint?) and Tone-Loc who used them to concoct some ‘Funky Cold Medina.’ Yes, Mick is my stepdad and I love him more than anything. But I’m also a MEGA fan just like Dave, Jack, Slash, Chad and Josh (shown here). Enjoy this video and VOTE BABY VOTE!”
The other class of 2024 RRHOF nominees include: Ozzy Osbourne, Jane’s Addiction, Dave Matthews Band, Oasis, Mary J. Blige, Eric B. & Rakim, Kool & the Gang, Sade, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, Sinead O’Connor, Peter Frampton, A Tribe Called Quest and Cher.
Check out Ronson’s video below.
Machine Gun Kelly’s tattoo collection just got larger. The “Bloody Valentine” rocker took to Instagram on Tuesday (Feb. 20) to show off his new ink, a massive blackout tattoo that covers his chest and arms. The negative space on the chest area shows a cross, while his arms create a peek at his previous tattoos. […]
U2 singer Bono paid tribute to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny during the band’s residency show at Las Vegas’ Sphere on Saturday night, less than a day after the most prominent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin was reported dead. “Alexei Navalny!” Bono said as the crowd repeated the Kremlin critic’s name back to him in full.
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“Next week it will be two years since Putin invaded. For these people, freedom is not just a word in a song,” Bono said about the Russian dictator’s unprovoked war on Ukraine in video captured by a fan. “For these people, freedom is the most important word in the world – so important that Ukrainians are fighting and dying for it. And so important that Alexey Navalny chose to give his up,” Bono added to cheers from the crowd.
Navalny’s death while in custody has drawn worldwide condemnation in light of the opposition leader’s history speaking out against Putin’s repressive rule. In 2020, anti-corruption crusader and lawyer Navalny, 47, was poisoned with a deadly nerve agent Novichok. Though he never confirmed Putin was behind the attempt on his life, Navalny blamed the Russian leader for the attempted assassination using a method preferred by Russia’s Federal Security Service.
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Despite the clear and present danger to his life, Navalny returned to Russia in 2021, where he was immediately arrested and accused of parole violations, leading to rare mass protests across the nation. He was then sentenced to more than 20 years in prison on embezzlement and contempt charges in what international observers dubbed a show trial. After going missing from the prison he was sent to for three weeks in Dec. 2023, Navalny popped up in a barren Arctic Circle penal colony earlier this year before his death was announced on Friday.
Officials at the Russian prison service said Navalny reportedly died after falling unconscious while taking a walk. “Apparently, Putin would never, ever say his name so I felt tonight, the free people from here – people who believe in freedom – we must say his name,” Bono said during Saturday’s show, according to CNN.
Former one-term president Donald Trump — the leading Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election — has so far declined to publicly condemn Russia and Putin for Navalny’s death, which has still not been explained. In fact, Trump used it as a means to once again denigrate his political opponents and complain about his many legal issues in what he dubbed a “FAILING NATION!” in one of his all-caps social media missives over the weekend.
The White House on Tuesday (Feb. 20) announced plans for “major sanctions” on Russia in the wake of the incident, with National security communications advisor John Kirby saying the new sanctions are designed to “hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr. Navalny,” according to USA Today.
U2, long known for their political activism, followed the Navalny shout-out with a cover of Crowded House’s 1986 ballad “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” a staple of their Vegas shows. Just months after Russia launched the war on Ukraine, Bono and U2 guitarist The Edge played a May 2022 show at the Khreschatyk metro station in Kyiv at the invitation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Edge and I got to stand with some of the people in Ukraine as they stood in that train station, which was a converted bomb shelter,” Bono told the Sphere crowd of that underground gig. “We got to stand with some of the people of Ukraine as they waited for the train to arrive with the rest of the free world on it. They’re still waiting for some of that train to arrive. America, you’re so generous. But let’s get these people what they need.”
Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes (1917, Spectre) has gotten the green light to begin work on four separate feature films that will tell the individual stories of all four Beatles. According to a release from Sony Pictures Entertainment announcing the project on Tuesday morning (Feb. 20), Mendes will direct the films focused on George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr due out in 2027.
The project will mark the first time the band’s Apple Corps Ltd. and the group — McCartney and Starr and the families of Harrison and Lennon — have given full access to life story and music rights for a scripted film. “I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies,” said Mendes in a statement.
Mendes will direct the four stand-alone theatrical movies — with each one told from one band member’s point of view — as well as intersecting to tell the full story of the Fab Four. SPE, which will finance and distribute the movies conceived by Mendes, will share the details of the roll-out, which it promised will be “innovative and groundbreaking.”
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The director’s Neal Street Productions partner, Pippa Harris, added, “We intend this to be a uniquely thrilling, and epic cinematic experience: four films, told from four different perspectives which tell a single story about the most celebrated band of all time. To have The Beatles’ and Apple Corps’ blessing to do this is an immense privilege. From our first meeting with Tom Rothman and Elizabeth Gabler, it was clear that they shared both our passion and ambition for this project, and we can’t think of a more perfect home than Sony Pictures.”
One of the most scrutinized and studied groups in popular music history, the Fab Four have been the subjects of hundreds of books and docs, including Peter Jackson’s acclaimed 2021 four-part documentary series, Get Back, which incorporated previously unseen and unheard audio and video.
Apple Corps Ltd. CEO Jeff Jones said the company is “delighted to collaborate with Sam, Pippa and Julie to explore each Beatle’s unique story and to bring them together in a suitably captivating and innovative way. Sony Pictures’ enthusiastic support, championing the project’s scope and creative vision from the start, has been invaluable for all of us.”
The Foo Fighters will scale down from stadiums and arenas to perform an intimate, one-night-only private gig in Washington, D.C. in support of Power to the Patients on March 5. The show will be hosted by the non-profit that is fighting for a more affordable, accessible and equitable healthcare system via price transparency. Explore Explore […]
While today (Feb. 20) is officially Olivia Rodrigo‘s 21st birthday, the singer jokingly celebrated her milestone bday a day earlier with friends in an Instagram post on Monday in which she joked, “Today is my last day of being able to under age drink (hypothetically) !!!!” The series of snaps included Rodrigo rocking a plunging […]
Paul McCartney no longer gently weeps for his original bass guitar.
A five-year search by the manufacturer of the instrument that was aided by a husband-and-wife team of journalists helped reunite The Beatles star with the distinctive violin-shaped 1961 electric Höfner that went missing a half century ago and is estimated to be worth 10 million pounds ($12.6 million).
McCartney had asked Höfner to help find the missing instrument that helped launch Beatlemania across the universe, Scott Jones, a journalist who teamed up with Höfner executive Nick Wass to track it down, said Friday (Feb. 16).
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“Paul said to me, ‘Hey, because you’re from Höfner, couldn’t you help find my bass?’” Wass said. “And that’s what sparked this great hunt. Sitting there, seeing what the lost bass means to Paul, I was determined to solve the mystery.”
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McCartney bought the bass for about 30 pounds ($37) in 1961 when The Beatles were developing their chops during a series of residencies in Hamburg, Germany. The instrument was played on the Beatles first two records and featured on hits such as “Love Me Do,” “Twist and Shout,” and “She Loves You.”
“Because I was left-handed, it looked less daft because it was symmetrical,” McCartney once said. “I got into that. And once I bought it, I fell in love with it.”
It was rumored to have been stolen around the time The Beatles were recording their final album, Let it Be, in 1969. But no one was sure when it went missing.
What began as a long and winding road for Wass to track down the bass picked up speed when Jones serendipitously joined the hunt after seeing McCartney headline the Glastonbury Festival in 2022. The stage lights at one point seemed to illuminate nothing but the sunburst pattern on his bass and Jones wondered if it was the same instrument McCartney had played in the early ‘60s.
When he later searched the internet he was stunned to find the original bass was missing and there was a search for it.
“I was staggered, I was amazed,” Jones said. “I think we live in a world where The Beatles could do almost anything and it would get a lot of attention.”
Jones and his wife, Naomi, both journalists and researchers, got in touch with Wass to spread the word more broadly.
After hitting a dead end following a lead about a roadie for The Who, they relaunched The Lost Bass Project in September and within 48 hours were inundated with 600 emails that contained the “little gems that led us to where we are today,” Jones said.
One of those emails came from sound engineer Ian Horne, who had worked with McCartney’s band Wings, and was the first big breakthrough in the hunt. Horne said the bass had been swiped from the back of his van one night in the Notting Hill section of London in 1972.
The researchers published the new information on their website in October, adding that Horne said McCartney told him not to worry about the theft and that he continued working for him for another six years.
“But I’ve carried the guilt all my life,” Horne said.
After publishing that update, a bigger break came when they were contacted by a person who said their father had stolen the bass. The man didn’t set out to steal McCartney’s instrument and panicked when he realized what he had, Jones said.
The thief, who was not named, ended up selling it to Ron Guest, landlord of the Admiral Blake pub, for a few pounds and some beers.
As the Joneses were starting to look for relatives of Guest, word had already reached his family. His daughter-in-law contacted McCartney’s studio.
Cathy Guest said that the old bass that had been in her attic for years looked like the one they were looking for.
It had been passed from Ron Guest to his oldest son, who died in a car wreck, and then to a younger son, Haydn Guest, who was married to Cathy and died in 2020.
The instrument was returned to McCartney in December and then it took about two months to authenticate it.
The project had planned to announce the news but were upstaged by Cathy Guest’s son, Ruaidhri Guest, a 21-year-old film student who posted photos Tuesday of the guitar on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: “I inherited this item which has been returned to Paul McCartney. Share the news.” He posted a message Friday saying the family had been inundated with interview requests and would tell its story eventually.
The estimated value of the instrument is based on the fact that a Gibson acoustic guitar Kurt Cobain played on MTV Unplugged sold for $6 million (4.7 million pounds), Jones said. But it held almost no value during the past half century.
“The thief couldn’t sell it,” Jones said. “Clearly, the Guest family never tried to sell it. It’s a red alert because the minute you come forward someone’s going to go, ‘That’s Paul McCartney’s guitar.’”
It is now McCartney’s once again. His official website posted a message announcing its return, saying “Paul is incredibly grateful to all those involved.”
Papa Roach notches its 10th career No. 1, and its fourth from its 2022 album Ego Trip, on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, as “Leave a Light On” leaps 4-1 on the Feb. 24-dated survey.
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Papa Roach becomes the 11th act to achieve 10 of more rulers in the chart’s 43-year history. Shinedown leads all acts with 19 No. 1s.
Speaking of Shinedown, Papa Roach joins the band as one of only seven acts with at least four Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1s from a single album. Eight sets in all have reached the milestone, with two belonging to Shinedown. The Black Crowes first did so in 1992 via The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. Prior to Papa Roach, Linkin Park joined the elite club thanks to a fourth No. 1 from its 2003 album Meteora, with “Lost” leading from the set’s 20th-anniversary deluxe version.
Albums With Four or More Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1s:5, The Sound of Madness, Shinedown, 2008-11: “Devour,” “Second Chance,” “Sound of Madness,” “The Crow & the Butterfly,” “Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)” (the lattermost song was added for the album’s 2010 deluxe release)4, Ego Trip, Papa Roach, 2021-24: “Kill the Noise,” “No Apologies,” “Cut the Line,” “Leave a Light On”4, Meteora, Linkin Park, 2003-04; 2023: “Somewhere I Belong,” “Numb,” “Lying From You,” “Lost” (the lattermost song was added for the album’s 2023 20th anniversary reissue)4, F8, Five Finger Death Punch, 2020-21: “Inside Out,” “A Little Bit Off,” “Living the Dream,” “Darkness Settles In”4, When Legends Rise, Godsmack, 2018-20: “Bulletproof,” “When Legends Rise,” “Under Your Scars,” “Unforgettable”4, Attention Attention, Shinedown, 2018-20: “Devil,” “Get Up,” “Monsters,” “Attention Attention”4, Immortalized, Disturbed, 2015-16: “The Vengeful One,” “The Light,” “The Sound of Silence,” “Open Your Eyes”4, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, The Black Crowes, 1992: “Remedy,” “Sting Me,” “Thorn in My Pride,” “Hotel Illness”
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Papa Roach first topped Mainstream Rock Airplay in 2009, for six weeks with “Lifeline.” The band’s history on the chart stretches back to 2000, when its debut entry “Last Resort” hit No. 4.
“Leave a Light On” is the sixth song from Ego Trip to reach Mainstream Rock Airplay. In addition to its four rulers, “Swerve” peaked at No. 35 in September 2021 and “Stand Up” reached No. 12 in April 2022.
Concurrently, “Leave a Light On” lifts 25-22 on Alternative Airplay. On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, it ranks at No. 12, after hitting No. 10, with 3.3 million audience impressions, up 2%, Feb. 9-15, according to Luminate.
Ego Trip, Papa Roach’s 11th studio LP, debuted at No. 6 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart in April 2022 and has earned 125,000 equivalent album units to date.
All Billboard charts dated Feb. 24 will update on Billboard.com Wednesday, Feb. 21, a day later than usual due to the Presidents’ Day holiday (Feb. 19) in the U.S.