Rock
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British rocker Yungblud announced on Tuesday (May 6) that his new album, Idols, will be released on June 20, and confirmed that it is the first part of an upcoming double LP; the second part of the collection is yet to be announced.
The release is the artist born Dominic Harrison’s fourth album under the Yungblud moniker, and is described by the Doncaster-born musician as “a love letter to self-reclamation … to rock music … [and] to life in all it’s f–king madness.”
In an accompanying statement, Yungblud said that the record explores the theme of hero-worship. “We turn to others for an identity before turning to ourselves. Self-belief, self-reclamation, self-evolution and change. As we grow up, we lose our belief in magic and mystery. We begin to rationalize everything; our cage walls build up.”
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The LP was recorded in Leeds, England, near his hometown of Doncaster in Yorkshire, and he said in the press release that he “wanted to make a project that didn’t focus on singles or anything else except feeling and world-building,” and described the project as having “no limitations.”
That much was obvious with its lead single and album opener “Hello Heaven, Hello,” a nine-minute mini-rock opera and latest single “Lovesick Lullaby.” The record was produced by close collaborator Matt Schwartz, Bob Bradley and touring guitarist Adam Warrington.
Yungblud’s past two records — Weird! (2020) and Yungblud (2022) — both hit No. 1 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart, with the latter giving him a career high of No. 45 on the Billboard 200. Idols is his first record on Island Records (U.K.) and Capitol Records (U.S.) following his previous home of Geffen/Interscope.
Speaking to Billboard U.K. in August, he shared details on the label move. “It’s a new phase in my life and these labels are so classic, and this new album feels like it belongs on prestigious labels like that,” he said. “The last few months have been a lot more creatively fruitful and inspiring. I really had a choice about staying in the comfort zone or do I want to go to different places and experiment.”
Following its inaugural edition in 2024, his Bludfest event will return on June 21 in Milton Keynes, England, and features appearances from Yungblud, Chase Atlantic, Rachel Chinouriri and more.
See the Idols tracklist and his album announcement on Instagram below:
“Hello Heaven, Hello”
“Idols Pt I”
“Lovesick Lullaby”
“Zombie”
“The Greatest Parade”
“Change”
“Monday Murder”
“Ghosts”
“Fire”
“War”
“Idols Pt II”
“Supermoon”
He’s here to answer all your questions about how the Rock Hall works.
Chappell Roan is no piker when it comes to belting out a tune. But on the latest episode of Heart singer Ann Wilson‘s After Dinner Thinks podcast, the “Pink Pony Club” singer made a bold statement about the number one voice in rock. “You’re rockin’ mama! I’m rockin’ because you rockin’, really, truly,” Roan told the singer of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band.
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“I think you have the best voice in rock,” Roan said to Wilson, noting that “nothing” has ever made her feel as powerful as when she sang Heart’s iconic hit “Barracuda” onstage at the Austin City Limits festival in 2024, introducing it as her “favorite song.”
“I was like, ‘actually, this is the coolest song ever. And I feel like a rock star!,” Roan said. Fellow guest Lucy Dacus recalled the pair talking about the cover, with Roan telling her at the time, “I remember when you were like, ‘I’m gonna cover this because I want to feel what it feels like in my body to be a rocker like that.’”
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Wilson agreed that it’s a whole different thing to rock out on stage, with Roan saying that pop is fine, but rock, well, it’s a different beast. “A song like that… you can’t hold it in like that. It has to be an independence of the soul where you just let it go and you go, ‘what the f–k? This is a physical event,” Wilson said.
After watching a Heart show before the pod recording, Dacus opined on how most self-described rockers are wannabes who are just pretending, or trying to be a “rock character or avatar. Y’all are just ‘bees,’ you’re not wannabes… they’re trying to be you.”
That comment got Roan going, with the “Hot To Go” singer slamming “b–ches who will never come out on stage. They’re just like, ‘oh! I can’t. My arm hurts!’ Like you are… that is punk!”
Elsewhere in the chat, the three women talked about how style plays into their identity, Dacus asked Wilson is she’d ever considered retiring from music and Roan wondered how the singer handled the huge success and pressure to follow-up Heart’s smash 1975 debut album, Dreamboat Annie, when the group went in to record the follow-up. Dacus also talked about attending a Heart show with her birth mother, with Wilson sharing her moving journey adopting two children.
Definitely stick around until the end, because Wilson opened up about her record label once sending Paula Abdul to teach Heart some choreography, a move that did not go well.
Chappell Roan, Lucy Dacus and Ann Wilson
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Oasis’ reunion tour kicks off in just under two months, but there’s still plenty of questions around the shows, including: what will be played and who will be joining Noel and Liam Gallagher on stage when it all kicks off in Cardiff, Wales on July 4?
While a number of U.K. tabloids have been doing their best to get the scoop on the brothers’ reconciliation, frontman Liam has been using his X (formerly Twitter) profile to plant nuggets of information and strike down any inaccurate reports.
Over the weekend The Sun shared a pair of reports about the upcoming tour. One claimed that Noel and Liam were planning to have separate dressing rooms, and that friends of both brothers were restricted in where they could spend the after parties. It reported that “if you’re on Noel’s list but fancy going across to say hello to Liam, it’s going to be a case of trying to blag entry. It seems like they are totally separate events.” The report claimed: “It’s gutting for people who want to hang out with both of them but it seems they’re keeping it all at a distance.”
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Liam responded to the story and said that “After party’s are for w–––s,” throwing cold water on the idea that they were being kept separated. “I’m getting straight of after the gigs get my beauty sleep this level of sexiness doesn’t happen by staying up talking bollox to bellends.”
After party’s are for wankers I’m getting straight of after the gigs get my beauty sleep this level of sexiness doesn’t happen by staying up talking bollox to bellends— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) May 3, 2025
A second article in the The Sun on Sunday said that Oasis were set to drop the song “Hello” from its setlist due to its connection to convicted pedophile Gary Glitter. The 1995 song, which opened their sophomore album (Whats The Story) Morning Glory?, features the lines “Hello, hello, it’s good to be back, it’s good to be back.” The lyrics and melody mirror Glitter’s 1973 song “Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again,” and Glitter was credited as a writer on the Oasis song alongside writing partner Mike Leadner.
The story added, “The lyrics of the song would obviously have been a good fit for the reunion tour but the band have decided to leave it in the past. It would be inappropriate to play it given its connotations to Glitter and his convictions.” Glam rock star Glitter was convicted of child sexual abuse in 2006 and has faced a number of court cases since; he is currently being held in a U.K. prison for breaching his release conditions.
The Sun’s reporting was once again slapped down by Liam on his X account on Monday (May 5), confirming that the song will appear on the setlist. “We’ll be playing HELLO trust me,” he responded to one fan. He also debunked a rumoured leaked setlist and confirmed that none of his solo songs would appear in the shows.
“Hello” featured prominently in the band’s setlist following its release and appeared at their 1996 appearances at Knebworth House, Hertfordshire. The song fell out of rotation around 2002, but was played a number of times during Liam’s solo tours from 2020 onwards.
The band are set to open their tour on July 4 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, before a further run of shows in the U.K. and Ireland, before heading to North America, Latin America, Asia and Australasia.
We’ll be playing HELLO trust me— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) May 5, 2025
Morrissey is planning to get back on stage at Centennial Hall in Tucson, AZ on Monday night (May 5) after postponing a pair of shows on his spring U.S. tour over the weekend due to health issues. “The Morrissey tour will reconvene at Tucson Centennial Hall (Arizona) on Monday 5 May,” the singer wrote on Instagram on Sunday (May 4).
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“Following the [April 30] show at The Fox in Bakersfield, Morrissey contracted a severe sinusitis attack and was treated at Coronado Hospital in San Diego,” the statement continued. “Missed shows at Rancho Mirage [May 3] and San Diego [May 1] are not cancelled and now have new dates. Morrissey, the band and crew, are very appreciative of those who convey understanding at difficult moments during tours.”
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The show at the San Diego Civic Theatre originally scheduled for May 1 has been pushed back until Jan., 6, 2026, while the May 3 show that was scheduled to hit the Agua Caliente Resort in Rancho Mirage, CA is now slated for Oct. 24. Morrissey, 65, released his most recent solo album, I Am Not a Dog on a Chain, in 2020. In November, the singer singer claimed that his as-yet-unreleased album, Bonfire of Teenagers, has been shelved so far because of his various controversial statements. “As you know, nobody will release my music anymore,” Morrissey told a crowd in New Jersey. “As you know because I’m a chief exponent of free speech. In England at least, it’s now criminalized.”
In 2019, Morrissey supported the far-right Britain First political party and while his Bonfire of Teenagers LP was scheduled for release in February 2023, it was pulled from calendars a few months before its street date with the singer claiming its “fate is exclusively in the hands of Capitol Records (Los Angeles.)”
After winding down his U.S. swing with shows in Atlanta and St. Petersburg and Hollywood, FL later this month the former Smiths singer will hit the U.K. and Ireland for his first shows there since 2023, with planned shows in Dublin (May 31), Glasgow (June 4-5) and Manchester (June 7); he will then embark on a summer run of European shows.
Rebecca and Megan Lovell, otherwise known as the musical duo Larkin Poe, are the first to say they aren’t breaking new musical ground. “We’re all derivative,” Rebecca says to Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast from a tour stop in Boise, Idaho. “There are very few original ideas.”
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Take “Easy Love Pt. 1,” an upbeat, Bonnie Raitt-styled number from the group’s new album, Bloom. “That’s not reinventing the wheel. It’s a song that is built upon basically the changes [of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s] ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’” says Rebecca.
Then again, the Georgia-raised, Nashville-based sisters are taking the blues and Southern rock to unlikely places. In January, the sisters visited Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform “Easy Love Pt. 1.” Not many blues-based artists get a national television audience these days. And few women are winning a Grammy award for best contemporary blues album, which Larkin Poe did in 2024 for its 2022 set, Blood Harmony.
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Guitar-playing Rebecca and lap steel guitar-playing Megan deserve credit for crafting an accessible, modern spin on traditional music. The sisters have succeeded in honoring the histories of some great American musical genres without being afraid to finding their own approach to a familiar sound.
Over the years, the Lovell sisters, who began Larkin Poe in 2010, incorporated beats to their music and occasionally changed the lyric of a cover song. “I do think that there is this temptation at times for — and I hear it a lot in the blues, specifically on a lot of the festival touring circuit that we’ve done — you speak with the same metaphor. You are honoring the past, and you’re putting this whole genre of music kind of behind glass. And it’s a little museum. And we look at it, but we don’t engage, we don’t tweak it. And so I think, very respectfully, Megan and I, over the years, have done our best to get in there, and if we’re going to do a blues cover and there’s a lyric in there that we don’t agree with, we’ll change it. And and we do so with utmost respect, because we respect the songs, and we believe that art and genres of music, specifically traditional American music, needs to evolve.”
Bloom “is a little bit of a departure,” says Rebecca. “It embraces a lot of different types of Southern music that we previously were maybe limiting ourselves [to] a little bit in order to be a blues-fronted outfit. Because I do think [Bloom is] more driven by melody, whereas previous records were more driven by riffs.”
Following the release of Bloom, Larkin Poe reached No. 11 on the Top Album Sales chart, No. 16 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart, No. 20 on the Vinyl Albums chart and No. 66 on Billboard’s Artist 100 chart. Larkin Poe arguably has a stronger presence on the road, though, and has spent 2025 performing at mid-sized clubs and theaters across the U.S. In March, the band set sail on Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea cruise.
The sisters, who began their career in music as folk trio The Lovell Sisters with older sister Jessica, began their appreciation of blues music in their late teens. “We unbraided some of the hillbilly jazz influence of our bluegrass upbringing in order to allow more soul into the music,” says Rebecca. “And I do have to shout out Son House and Skip James, those two artists specifically as really capturing our imagination for turn of the century blues and showing us the possibility of a human voice and an acoustic or electric guitar.”
They were prompted to dig deeper into the blues when on tour with Elvis Costello, who Rebecca calls “a fount of knowledge.” Since Rebecca and Megan were listening to the Allman Brothers, Costello encouraged them to follow the group’s history and research its musical predecessors. “That definitely influenced us to go back and do our research about where these songs were coming from,” says Rebecca.
Listen to the entire interview with Rebecca and Megan Lovell using the embedded Spotify player below or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, Podbean or Everand.
“Back in the day,” Chubby Checker tells Billboard from his home in New Jersey, “I said, ‘I don’t want to be in the Rock Hall when I’m dead. I want to smell my flowers when I’m here.’ And I’m smelling my flowers…a little late in the game, I would admit, but I’m still alive to see Chubby Checker in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”
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Eligible since the first Rock Hall class in 1986, the 83-year-old responsible for “The Twist” and other dance sensations will finally arrive in the shrine during the Nov. 8 induction ceremony in Los Angeles — on his first nomination, no less. That’s come as a surprise, even shock, to many fans since the news broke about Checker’s induction, but the South Carolina native (born Ernest Evans) says it’s not something he’s been fretting about over the years.
“It’s another milestone — and the beat goes on,” he notes.
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Nevertheless, Checker famously protested outside of the Rock Hall museum in Cleveland back in 2002, but he clarifies that it wasn’t simply about his exclusion from the ranks. “I wanted people to know that Chubby’s music was not being played, that’s all it was,” he explains. “The protest was, ‘Please play Chubby’s music.’ The best thing for any artist is to get his music played, and my music wasn’t getting played and I was a little upset about it. You can walk into the supermarket and hear (sings) ‘Bennie and the Jets’…but not ‘The Twist,’ and you look around the supermarket and every company’s got some kind of twist product, you know? I did it very nicely. I didn’t try to cause any problems. I never protested anything in my life except that.”
Checker will, of course, enter the Rock Hall with ample credentials as a groundbreaker and architect. Inspired to pursue music after seeing country great Ernest Tubb perform at a South Carolina fair when he was four years old, Checker and his family moved to South Philadelphia and he began singing doo-wop as a youth. Nicknamed Chubby by a boss at the produce market where he worked, he auditioned as a teen for American Bandstand host Dick Clark, whose wife Barbara added Checker as a surname as a salute to Fats Domino.
Checker imitated Domino, Elvis Presley and other poplar singers at the time for a 1959 single called “The Class,” after which Clark suggested he take on “The Twist,” which was written by Hank Ballard — based on dances he saw teenagers doing in Tampa, Fla. It was only a modest success for him and his band, the Midnighters. Adding dance moves to his performance, Checker took the song to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 during September 1960 and then for a second time in January 1962 — the only single to do that until Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” decades down the road.
“‘The Twist’ gave us what we have on the dance floor — and is still giving us that,” says Checker, who despite his Philadelphia roots was a supporter of the Rock Hall being built in Cleveland, in deference to pioneering radio DJ Alan Freed. “Before (‘The Twist’), Elvis and Little Richard and Bill Haley and Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly, they were doing the swing to their songs. Then Chubby Checker comes along and…the whole world changed.” Checker followed “The Twist” with other dance songs, including “Pony Time,” “The Fly,” “Limbo Rock,” “Let’s Twist Again” and a resurrection of the late ‘40s dance “The Hucklebuck.”
“Chubby Checker never left the dance floor,” he says. “I used to call myself the wheel that rock rolls on, because anyone after Chubby Checker who had a song that you could dance to, they were in my world, that I brought to the dance floor. Dancing to the beat is what we brought, and it’s still there — no matter what it is. It’s called the boogie, and the boogie is still going on. Someone once said, ‘Chubby, you want to do a disco song?’ ‘Why? I did that already.’”
In all, Checker has had 32 songs (and seven top 10 hits) on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2008 Billboard honored “The Twist” as No. 1 on the Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs list, which it held until the Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” took the honor in 2021. Nevertheless, Checker notes, “it will always be the No. 1 song. There will be a number two No. 1 song, a number three No. 1 song, but (‘The Twist’) was the first and will always be the first.”
“The Twist” has also been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. The Rock Hall honored “The Twist” in 2018 by inducting the single as part of a new initiative — a practice that has not been repeated since.
Checker has no intention of recording anything new — “How am I gonna invent the wheel twice?” he asks — but still performs regularly. And that continuing demand, he says, has mitigated any disappointment he may have felt while waiting for his Rock Hall induction.
“Listen, I’m a blessed human being,” Checker says. “In spite of everything, my dreams come true every day. Every time I go on stage my dream comes true, my dream is renewed — that’s what keeps me going. I’m a blessed man in this world.”
R.E.M. have released a five-track benefit EP featuring three remixes of their landmark 1981 debut single, “Radio Free Europe,” ahead of Saturday’s (May 3) World Press Freedom Day. The collection also features the song’s original b-side, “Sitting Still” and instrumental “Wh. Tornado,” a cassette-only song that is being issued on digital and vinyl for the first time. The Radio Free Europe 2025 EP is a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty services (RFE/RL), the broadcasting groups that have delivered uncensored news, analysis and cultural programming in a variety of languages in places lacking a free press since 1949.
The special package includes a never-before-released 2025 remix of “Radio Free Europe” by the band’s longtime collaborator, producer Jacknife Lee, as well as a 1981 remix of the song by the band’s original producer, Mitch Easter. RFE/RL currently broadcast in 27 languages to 23 countries to an audience of nearly 50 million people in places where a free press is either illegal or under threat, often serving as the only line to the outside word for people living under onerous government censorship.
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“Whether it’s music or a free press – censorship anywhere is a threat to the truth everywhere. On World Press Freedom Day, I’m sending a shout-out to the brave journalists at Radio Free Europe,” said singer Michael Stipe in a statement. The band’s effort comes one day after a federal appeals court in Washington ruled that, for now, the Trump administration can continue to withhold money from the RFE/RL — as well as Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks — temporarily reversing two earlier lower-court rulings that stopped the White House from cutting off funds from the outlets as part of its wide-ranging DOGE cost-cutting measures.
DOGE boss and Tesla/Space X CEO Elon Musk has been unequivocal in his disdain for the services, writing in February on X, “shut them down… Europe is free now… nobody listens to them anymore… it’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves.”
“Radio Free Europe’s journalists have been pissing off dictators for 75 years. You know you’re doing your job when you make the right enemies. Happy World Press Freedom Day to the ‘OG’ Radio Free Europe,” added bassist Mike Mills in a statement. While the band’s members did not directly reference the Trump administration’s efforts to defund the organizations, RFE/RL president and CEO Stephen Capus was more direct in his praise for the song and the group’s efforts to help shine a light on the services’ vital work.
“To me, R.E.M.’s music has always embodied a celebration of freedom: freedom of expression, lyrics that make us think, and melodies that inspire action,” said Capus. “Those are the very aims of our journalists at Radio Free Europe — to inform, inspire, and uphold freedoms often elusive to our audiences. We hold dictators accountable. They go to great lengths to silence us — blocking our websites, jamming our signals, and even imprisoning our colleagues.”
In an interview with CBS Mornings on Friday, Stipe said the band decided to honor the services because “we love journalism, we love freedom of speech… and we love the world.”
Stipe told CBS that when he got the call from the imperiled service asking for some help he said there was no hesitation at all. “It’s important to democracy and a fight against authoritarianism that they remain.” All of the proceeds from vinyl sales of the new remix will go to Radio Free Europe, which is still waiting for its frozen April and May funding as it soldiers on with is rapidly dwindling reserves.
The new EP is being released through Craft Recordings and was overseen by Easter, who first recorded the band at his Drive-In Studio during their first-ever road trip to a professional studio in April 1981; that original session produced “Radio Free Europe,” “Sitting Still” and the instrumental “Wh. Tornado.” In 2009, “Radio Free Europe” was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.
Fans can stream and download the EP today and pre-order a limited-edition 10-inch orange vinyl pressing due to ship on Sept. 12 here. You can also click here to make a tax-deductible donation to RFE/RL here.
Listen to the jaunty Jacknife Lee remix and the full EP below.
Green Day got their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday (May 1), with former MTV VJ Matt Pinfield serving as emcee for the ceremony in his first public appearance since suffering a massive stroke in January.
Dressed in rock-appropriate black leather motorcycle jackets — except for drummer Tre Cool, who opted for a traditional suit and tie — the band were introduced by an emotional Pinfield. Making his way to the stage holding a cane, Pinfield said, “What an honor it is to be here today with these three guys that I love. Love their music and love them as people.”
Praising them as “one of the greatest live bands in the world,” Pinfield honored the trio’s breakthrough 1994 classic, Dookie, which he said, “made so many young people pick up guitars, bass, and drums, and want to sing and write songs. And that is what rock ‘n’ roll, punk rock is all about. That beauty, that love, a passing on of that gift. And that’s the thing that’s so special about Green Day and why it’s such an honor to be here today.”
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The ceremony also featured a speech from Green Day’s longtime producer Rob Cavallo, who recalled hearing a demo of “Longview” in 1993 and thinking, “this is the greatest band I have ever heard.” Next up was Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds, who jokingly called himself “the modern face of punk.” The star nodded to the band’s earliest days, when they were known as “Blood Rage” and “Sweet Children.”
He also told a story about being in the edit for the Deadpool & Wolverine movie a few years ago and how he imagined a poignant end credit sequence he wanted to express “warmth, gratitude and love.” Then, Green Day’s 1997 classic “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” came on and he realized he had his tune. “I’ve always loved this song. It isn’t just a song because anything that endures the way that this song, along with so many that these gentleman have blessed is with in the world, they endure because they’re a feeling as much as they are a story,” he said.
Reynolds said he wanted to thank singer Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and Cool for letting him use the song, so he found Armstrong’s number after the singer had attended a screening. “It’s cheating to use that song. You could set my colonoscopy to that song and people will weep,” he joked.
Earlier this week, Pinfield said he was “slowly but surely” recovering from the stroke he suffered on January 6 and looking forward to Thursday’s event. “Slowly but surely recovering.. lots of physical therapy.. Fighting my way back!!” he told fans in an update on his health last week. “One day at a time.”
The ceremony ended with the group taking the stage and Armstrong thanking his family and shouting out his mom, saying the Walk of Fame hoopla was like her “Super Bowl,” but also like “being at your own funeral.” He also thanked all the fans who buy their records and come to their shows, while Dirnt shouted out Armstrong’s mom for taking him in when he was a teen and his own mom for making him believe he could do anything.
“I hope everybody comes here and takes pictures for as long as you want to and as long as you can. We’ll never say thank you enough,” Dirnt said, getting choked up. Cool also thanked the fans who showed up and closed down the street for the event, as well as his bandmates, who he sweetly hugged. When the star was finally revealed, Green Day had an unexpected, surprise guest in the form of Public Enemy hype man Flavor Flav, who ran up at the last minute and got down on the ground next to Cool so he could appear in the official pictures.
The Flav crash came two weeks after the rapper hopped on stage with the band on their second Coachella weekend on April 19 dressed as their iconic dirty drunk bunny mascot.
Watch the full Green Day Walk of Fame ceremony and some highlights below.
Ozzy Osbourne will definitely be on stage at the upcoming Back to the Beginning gig in his hometown of Birmingham, U.K. for what is being billed as Black Sabbath’s final-ever show. But given his recent run of ill health and surgeries, the 76-year-old rock icon said his madcap performance days are definitely over.
Speaking to the Guardian, Osbourne said, “I’ll be there, and I’ll do the best I can. So all I can do is turn up.” The July 5 show at Villa Park is slated to feature a massive roster of metal acts paying tribute to Osbourne and the band’s iconic career, including Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Alice in Chains, Pantera, Gojira, Lamb of God, Mastodon and many more.
But after Tool singer Maynard James Keenan recently said that Osbourne — who hasn’t performed a full set since Dec. 31, 2018 — will need “modern miracles” to get on stage given his health issues, Ozzy said he is, indeed dealing with a lot. “You wake up the next morning and find that something else has gone wrong. You begin to think this is never going to end,” he said of a series of health setbacks including a 2019 fall that aggravated a previous spinal injury and required several surgeries, as well as pneumonia and the diagnosis of a form of Parkinson’s.
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Regardless, Osbourne has said he’s begun rigorous training to play the first show by the original Black Sabbath lineup in 20 years, where he’ll appear alongside guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward. “I do weights, bike riding, I’ve got a guy living at my house who’s working with me. It’s tough – I’ve been laid up for such a long time,” Osbourne said of his regimen. “I’ve been lying on my back doing nothing and the first thing to go is your strength. It’s like starting all over again. I’ve got a vocal coach coming round four days a week to keep my voice going. I have problems walking. I also get blood pressure issues, from blood clots on my legs. I’m used to doing two hours on stage, jumping and running around. I don’t think I’ll be doing much jumping or running around this time. I may be sitting down.”
Osbourne noted that the reunion concert was originally conceived by his wife/manager, Sharon Osbourne, as “something to give me a reason to get up in the morning.” That said, Ozzy confirmed that he won’t be performing a full set, but “only playing a couple songs each. I don’t want people thinking ‘we’re getting ripped off’, because it’s just going to be… what’s the word? … a sample, you’re going to get a few songs each by Ozzy and Sabbath.”
Among the newly added acts who will be playing a few songs alongside Guns N’ Roses and members of Judas Priest, Limp Bizkit, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Megadeth, Ghost and more, according to Sharon Osbourne, are members of Soundgarden and Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler.
Musical director Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine told the Guardian that there are also “some pretty great surprises that are not posted anywhere [yet].”
The show will raise funds for three charities: Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and the Birmingham-based Acorns Children’s Hospice.