Rock
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It’s been 24 years since No Doubt released their Return of Saturn single, “Ex-Girlfriend,” but the track still brings up emotions for Gwen Stefani.
“I can’t listen to a lot of the songs because they speak so clearly to me,” the singer told KROQ’s Klein & Ally during an Audacy Check-In interview this week. “And it’s like you have regret and mistakes you’ve made. Most of the songs are about that. If I do ‘Ex-Girlfriend,’ even when I say it, I almost throw up in my mouth because…it’s just like, ‘Oh my God.’ It just brings you right back.”
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She continued, “There are lots of times when you’d be on tour doing the repetitive songs, but it’s not the songs. You’re not in the songs. You’re there with these new people every night and they’re receiving the songs. So that’s where you get the energy and you relive that moment with them. I can remember when ‘Don’t Speak’ came out. My family was very conservative. I was very naive. The only place we’d ever traveled to was San Francisco. I’m not kidding you. We would [do]…Catalina Island, Big Bear. [I lived at home until I was 26] and when I was 21, they called this family meeting, and we were like, ‘We’re going to go to Italy next year, and it’s going to be this big trip.’ And we did. I cried when we left. I was like, ‘I’ll never get to go back to my Italy.’”
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After going on what sounded like a permanent hiatus in 2013, the singer will be reuniting with longtime bandmates bassist Tony Kanal, guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young for this year’s Coachella festival in April.
“We’ll see you in the desert this April!!!,” read a statement on No Doubt’s social accounts last week announcing the Coachella gig alongside a stacked roster featuring Lana Del Rey, Tyler, The Creator and Doja Cat as headliners, along with Peso Pluma, Lil Uzi Vert, Blur, Ice Spice, J Balvin, Jhené Aiko and more.
Listen to Audacy’s full interview with Gwen Stefani below.
Reunited thrash metal band Slayer will headline the second night of this year’s Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, KY. The band join fellow headliners Slipknot, Mötley Crüe and Korn at the event slated to take place at the Highland Festival Grounds at Kentucky Exposition Center on Sept. 26-29.
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The 10th anniversary of North America’s largest rock festival will also feature sets from Disturbed, Judas Priest, Five Finger Death Punch, Evanescence, Falling in Reverse, Breaking Benjamin, The Offspring, Staind, Till Lindemann, Chevelle, Dropkick Murphys, Halestorm, Gojira, Seether, In This Moment, Anthrax, Sum 41, Mastodon and Rage Against the Machine guitarist and solo act Tom Morello.
“We’re thrilled to announce that Slayer will be reuniting for an earth-shattering performance at Louder Than Life,” promoter Danny Wimmer of Danny Wimmer Presents said of the thrash icons who retired in 2019 after what they said at the time was their final tour. ”I was at their last show at The Forum in 2019 and have been working since then to bring them back to the Louder stage! With over 140 bands on five stages, we’re celebrating our 10th Louder Than Life with the biggest lineup yet!”
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Slayer — whose final lineup included original members guitarist Kerry King and bassist/singer Tom Araya along with drummer Paul Bostaph and guitarist Gary Holt — were also announced as headliners for this year’s Riot Fest on Wednesday (Feb. 21).
The 150 acts at Louder Than Life will set up on five stages at the festival that will also include a selection of Louisville’s best spirits and local cuisine and sets from Anthrax, Mastodon, Architects, Skillet, Clutch, Highly Suspect, Lorna Shore, Body Count, Spiritbox, Grandson, Nothing More, Sevendust, Jinjer, Poppy, Badflower, Starset, Sleeping With Sirens, Filter, Eagles of Death Metal, Juliette Lewis and the Licks, Marky Ramone Plays the Ramones Classics, Black Stone Cherry, PUP, Three 6 Mafia, P.O.D., Fozzy, Fugitive, Saosin, L.S. Dunes, Biohazard, Polaris, From Ashes To New, LIT and many more.
Single day and weekend GA admission along with Park Community VIP passes and information on new Loud Lounge Suites are on sale now here; Angel’s Envy Top Shelf VIP passes, RV and car + tent camping passes are already sold out.
Check out the 2024 Louder Than Life festival poster below.
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 […]