Pulse Music

The Wedding Band -- featuring Metallica's Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo played on Friday night (May 27th) at Napa, California's Margrit Mondavi Theatre. Blabbermouth reported the gig, "Was part of the BottleRock Afterdark performances that are taking place in conjunction with this year's Metallica's co-headlined edition of the BottleRock Napa Valley music festival, which was held last weekend at the Napa Valley Expo in Northern California."

The band is rounded out by Mark Osegueda of Death Angel, Jon Theodore from the Mars Volta and Queens Of The Stone Age, along with Bad Wolves and God Forbid's and Doc Coyle. The two-set, 19-song show included covers of classics by Motörhead, Black Sabbath, the Ramones, the Clash, the Misfits, Black Flag, Rick Derringer -- even Robert Palmer and Kool & The Gang.

Harry Styles announced Friday (May 27th) that he is planning on donating proceeds from Love On Tour 2022 to help end gun violence.

In the wake of recent mass shootings across the US, including the events that took place in Uvalde, Texas last week, he will be donating proceeds from the tour, with Live Nation matching, equaling over $1 million to Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund.

The singer said in a press release, "Along with all of you, I have been absolutely devastated by the recent string of mass shootings in America, culminating at Robb Elementary School in Texas. On our North American tour, we will be partnering with Everytown who work to end gun violence, donating to support their efforts, and sharing their suggested action items."

Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund is the education, research, and litigation arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country.

Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band are officially back on the road, having kicked off their 2022 dates over two nights -- May 27th and 28th at Rama, Ontario's Casino Rama.

The latest All Starr Band lineup features such veteran All Starr's as Toto's Steve Lukather, Men At Work's Colin Hay, Edgar Winter, Paul McCartney sideman Hamish Stuart from the Average White Band -- along with percussionist Warren Ham and drummer Gregg Bissonette.

We caught up with Ringo just prior to opening night and he explained that things only seem to be getting tougher for up and coming musicians: "It's very difficult for bands to start now. Most of the venues have gone. Y'know what I mean -- the clubs. . . and it's a lot more difficult now. And also, I'm a bit disgusted with big bands who make the opening band pay to play. Where's the help? There's no help. So, they're making plenty, they could let somebody come on." (19 OC: . . . somebody come on)

• Kiss guitarists Ace Frehley, Vinnie Vincent, and Bruce Kulick all appeared together for the first time on Saturday night (May 28th) Creatures Fest in Nashville. The mini set featured bassist Shane Smith from the Kiss tribute band You Wanted The Best and included Vincent playing his signature pink Gibson Flying-V, decked out in full "Ankh Warrior" Kiss stage makeup, while standing on a reproduction of Kiss' early-'80s tank stage design.
• The musicians played along to a drum track and tackled "I Love It Loud," "War Machine" with Bruce Kulick, along with Ace Frehley joining them for the early favorites, "Deuce" and Cold Gin."
  • The night before (May 27th), original drummer Peter Criss joined Ace Frehley and his band for a pair of early favorites "Strange Ways" from 1974's Hotter Than Hell and "Hard Luck Woman" from 1979's Dynasty. (Ultimate Classic Rock)
    
    
• Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea appears in the new Disney+ Star Wars series, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Flea portrays the bounty hunter Vect Nakru, who has been given the task of abducting a young Princess Leia. The Chili Peppers next perform on June 4th in Seville, Spain at Estadio La Cartuja De Sevilla. (Loudwire)
  
  
• Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro revealed that he's among those suffering from the dreaded "long Covid." Earlier this month, Jane's was forced to pull out of the Welcome To Rockville festival due to Navarro, with Perry Farrell enlisting his other band, Porno For Pyros to perform instead.
  • Navarro posted on Instagram: "I'm one of the ones who came down with the 'long haul Covid'. Been sick since December and supposedly will be back to my old self in. . . nobody knows how long. If there are any of you who are still suffering long after your negative results, I'm just saying you aren't alone. The fatigue and isolation is pretty awful but try to spend your time with the ones you love and stay creative. That's how I'm trying to get through this thing. Also lots of spiritual practices, meditation and yoga have been very helpful. I'll be ok, just don't know when."
    
    
• Poison's Bret Michaels ensured fans that what they hear is what they get at the band's shows. Blabbermouth transcribed some of the frontman's chat with Boise radio station 96.9 The Eagle, in which he explained, "I warm up. I do stuff. . . Because let's be really honest -- the fans are traveling; they're coming out to see you; they want a good show. For me, I wanna put on a badass show -- I wanna sing good, I wanna sound good. And you've gotta remember. . . we don't use anything -- There's no backing tracks. We sit at soundcheck and work on those harmonies, we work on making it sound good. That's what I set out to be, a musician, so you've gotta be able to bring it."
  • Michaels went on to admit, "I'm not gonna lie to you. One stretch I was doing solo (dates) and Poison (shows), and I did 14 in a row. And that beat my voice up pretty good. But then I had to take a little medication, got through it, for the voice, and then had a day off and got it to heal. And I'm good to go." (Blabbermouth)

ED SHEERAN DROPS EXTENDED EDITION OF '=': Ed Sheeran released = ('Equals' Tour Edition) on Friday (May 27th). The extended version of his chart-topping album features nine additional tracks, four of which were previously unavailable. Joining the original 14-track album are brand new songs, "I Will Remember You" and "Welcome to the World" alongside previously unreleased fan favorites, "One Live" and "Penguins."

DEMI LOVATO TEASES 'SKIN OF MY TEETH': Demi Lovato announced on social media that their forthcoming single, "Skin of My Teeth" will drop on June 10th. A snippet of the song shared to Instagram has more of a rock vibe than her last album, which is expected following the "funeral" they held for their pop music in January.

PANIC! AT THE DISCO TEASES 'VIVA LAS VENGANCE' AND MORE: Panic! At The Disco announced Sunday (May 29th) that their next single "and so much more" will be dropping on June 1st. According to the Brendan Urie project's Instagram page, the track "Viva Las Vengance" will be released Wednesday (June 1st) at 10amET.

Journey, the Beach Boys, Extreme, the Cramps, Kiss, Talking Heads and others are all featured on the just-issued Stranger Things: Soundtrack from the Netflix Series, Season 4. Coming on July 1st will be Season 4, Volume II, which features all of Volume I -- plus additional music from the season's closing episodes.

The new compilation features the newly created buzzworthy Bryce Miller/Alloy Tracks Remix of Journey's 1983 classic, "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)."

We recently caught up with keyboardist Jonathan Cain, and he walked us through how one of his and Steve Perry's greatest team-ups -- the lead single and opening track to 1983's Frontiers album -- "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" -- came into being: "We took Escape on the road and we knew we needed more teeth. We knew we needed something like 'Separate Ways,' y'know? Like, what would make our set undeniably great? And we tried to fill in what we were missing musically. I think we all sensed it. And I remember writing 'Separate Ways' with Steve (Perry) on the road. We wrote that in a hotel room -- (bassist) Ross (Valory) was going through a divorce and boom -- out comes 'Separate Ways,' and we're playin' it at the end of the Escape tour. Y'know, 'cause we needed it in the set. Now, we start fine tuning ourselves, y'know? And that's how in tune we were with our music. It was all of us, man."

The tracklisting to Stranger Things: Soundtrack from the Netflix Series, Season 4 is:

"Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" (Bryce Miller/Alloy Tracks Remix) - Journey
"California Dreamin'" - The Beach Boys
"Psycho Killer" - Talking Heads
"Running Up That Hill" - Kate Bush
"You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" - Dead Or Alive
"Chica Mejicanita" - Mae Arnette
"Play With Me" - Extreme
"Detroit Rock City" - Kiss
"I Was A Teenage Werewolf" - The Cramps
"Pass The Dutchie" - Musical Youth
"Wipeout" - The Surfaris
"Object Of My Desire" - Starpoint
"Rock Me Amadeus (The Gold Mix)" - Falco
"Travelin' Man" - Ricky Nelson
"Tarzan Boy" - Baltimora
"Dream A Little Dream Of Me" - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

It was 54 years ago today (May 30th, 1968) that the Beatles began recording their 30-song self-titled double album, which is commonly known as "The White Album."

On May 30th, 1968, the "White Album's" first session was held for John Lennon's "Revolution 1," which was recorded in London at EMI's Studio Two, with the session stretching from 2:30 p.m. to 2:40 a.m. the next day. It was the group's first studio work since returning from Rishikesh, India after an extended stay to study transcendental meditation under the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In 2009, a near-10-minute version of "Revolution 1" made the rounds of underground collectors -- the majority of which stems from the May 30th session.

Most of the songs from "The White Album" were written while the group was in India, including "Back In The U.S.S.R.," "Yer Blues," "I Will," "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill," "Rocky Raccoon," "I'm So Tired," "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," "Dear Prudence," "Mother Nature's Son," and Lennon's thinly-veiled attack on the Maharishi, titled "Sexy Sadie." Other highlights on the album included "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Julia," "Helter Skelter," "Glass Onion," "Martha My Dear," "Birthday," and Ringo Starr's first composition, the country-flavored "Don't Pass Me By."

Several songs originally intended for the "White Album" turned up on later solo albums, such as "Junk" which Paul McCartney released on his 1970 solo debut McCartney, "Child Of Nature" which John Lennon rewrote as "Jealous Guy" for his 1971 album Imagine, "Not Guilty" which made its way onto George Harrison's 1979 self-titled album, and Harrison's "Circles" which finally saw release on his 1982 album Gone Troppo.

The main difference between the "White Album" sessions and all that had come before was the constant presence of John Lennon's then-new girlfriend, Yoko Ono, who was seemingly glued to Lennon's side at all times, breaking a long-standing unwritten rule that girlfriends and wives pretty much stayed away from the studio. Now, they had an outsider there all the time that was quite comfortable voicing an opinion about the music they were recording.

George Harrison's first wife Pattie Boyd says that the days of all the Beatle wives being a close-knit group pretty much ended with Yoko entering the inner circle: "John fell in love with Yoko and that was that. She was more a man's woman than a woman's woman. She would never have girlfriends, I don't think, anyway. Y'know that was fine, so I knew I'd never get close to her. She was quite friendly toward me. I mean, she and John once stayed in our house and she was just so intent on John all the time. John was her only focus, really and truly."

During The Beatles Anthology, George Harrison defended the group's decision to release a 30-song album: "But y'know, what do you do when you've got all them songs and you want to get rid of them so that you can do more songs? Y'know, there was a lot of ego in that band, and there was a lot of songs (on 'The White Album') that should have been elbowed, or maybe made into B-sides." 15

The Beatles' late-producer George Martin said that the album sounded more like the work of four solo artists rather than one unified band: "They came back from abroad. . . They'd been away for quite a while after the death of (manager) Brian Epstein. They came back and presented me with 33 songs, which they all wanted to record at once, literally. They said, 'Well, you've got another studio. George has something going in one studio, and I can go in another,' says Paul. I was running from one studio to another, doing a kind of executive role."

Martin recalled that the material seemed to not be up to their usual standards when they first presented it to him: "A lot of the recordings, they would have a basic idea, and then they would have a jam session to end it, which sometimes didn't sound too good. But this was fairly small criticism. When they did 'The White Album,' I thought we should have made a very, very good single album out of it, rather than make a double album out of it. I think it was an album that could have been a fantastically good album if it had been compressed a bit and condensed. But a lot people I know think it's the best album they made. So, it's not my view."

Paul McCartney doesn't buy into Martin's revisionist beliefs that it could have made a single album on par with Revolver and other single-disc Beatles masterpieces: "Well, y'know, you can always say that. Perhaps I'll go with -- but not definitely -- in fact I think it's a fine little album. I think the fact that it's got so much on it is one of the things that's cool about it, 'cause they're very varied stuff, y'know 'Rocky Raccoon,' 'Piggies,' 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' -- that kind of stuff. I think it's a fine album. I'm not one for that: 'Maybe it was too many of that -- what do you mean? It's great, it sold, it's the bloody Beatles' 'White Album' -- shut up!"

With tensions in the band high between the Beatles, the group's longtime engineer Geoff Emerick quit the sessions rather than face further attacks by the band. Engineer Chris Thomas stepped in and later went on to produce key albums for the Sex Pistols, the Pretenders, Pete Townshend and McCartney. Emerick was asked if he ever regretted his decision to miss out on engineering White Album and Let It Be classics such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Back In The U.S.S.R.," and later on, "Get Back" and "The Long And Winding Road": "Not at all. And thinking about it afterwards, I think it was good because it certainly jolted them. It's something that should have been done a long time ago. Looking back, I'm glad I did it. I didn't lose any respect (from them) because I went back and worked at (the Beatles' company) Apple and recorded (their album) Abbey Road."

James Taylor was one of the initial artists signed to the Beatles' Apple Records. He remembers watching the band record "The White Album" at London's Trident Studios, which unlike EMI's Abbey Road had made the upgrade to an eight track console as opposed to EMI's severely limiting four track machine: "I remember listening to the Beatles in 1968, when they were recording 'The White Album,' I was using the time they weren't using in the studio between their sessions essentially. I remember listening back to their playbacks of 'Hey Jude' or 'Revolution' or -- y'know those were intact. Those were like done. They had just moved up to eight-track, that's why they were in Trident Studios. But y'know, with four musicians, and one of them a set of drums, eight tracks is gone, that's it."

The Beatles' "White Album" was released on November 22nd, 1968 and went on to top the charts for nine non-consecutive weeks beginning on December 28th.

FAST FORWARD

November 2018 saw the Beatles back in the Top 10 with the 50th anniversary reissue of the band's "White Album." The set jumped back onto the Billboard 200 album charts hitting Number Six, with the magazine reporting "The new reissue climbs back onto the tally with 63,000 units earned -- up 1,499 percent in the week ending November 15th, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 52,000 were in traditional album sales -- up 5,596 percent."

The massive six-CD, one Blu-ray "Super Deluxe" version of the "White Album" features the album's 30 tracks newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell in stereo and 5.1 surround audio, joined by 27 early acoustic demos and 50 session takes, most of which are previously unreleased in any form.

This is the first time the "White Album" has been remixed and presented with additional demos and session recordings. The album's new edition follows 2017's universally acclaimed Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band "Anniversary Edition" releases.

To create the new stereo and 5.1 surround audio mixes, Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios in London. All the new "White Album" releases include Martin's new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original four-track and eight-track session tapes. Martin's new mix is guided by the album's original stereo mix produced by his father, the late-George Martin.

Ed Sheeran is releasing more new music today (5-27).

He made the announcement through a video on his social media. It's part of what will be a new deluxe edition of his latest album, = (Equals).

The Tour Edition of (Equals) drops today and will include 9 additional tracks. Two of them are brand new and two others are from the 2018 musical film, Yesterday.

Although he performed them on screen, "One Life" and "Penguins" were never officially released until now.

The original version of the album was released in October and became Sheeran's 4^th consecutive #1 album on the Billboard 200.

TL;DR:

BTS is headed to Washington D.C. next week in celebration of Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Month.

The group will join President Biden at the White House and will participate in a discussion about Asian inclusion and the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes and discrimination

The President has credited K-pop for growing "people-to-people and cultural connections" between the US and South Korea.

The visit will take place on May 31^st.

TL;DR:

• BTS is headed to Washington D.C. next week in celebration of Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Month.
• The group will join President Biden at the White House.
• The visit will take place on May 31^st.

Nick Jonas has confirmed that he his brothers are working on new music. He was asked about it during an interview with Kelly Clarkson and said, "I can tell you I think it's my favorite stuff we've ever done. It's basically an evolution of the sound in a way I think is really natural for us and feels like a great next step."

He told her the new Jonas Brothers songs will feature some exciting unnamed collaborators. He didn't give away any names, but said they've always wanted to work with them.

TL;DR:

• Nick Jonas has confirmed that he his brothers are working on new music. He said, "It's my favorite stuff we've ever done."
• It will feature some exciting unnamed collaborators.

The members of BLACKPINK are in discussions about their comeback and that will include a big tour. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Jennie revealed that they're in preparation mode to make their return.

She also shared that the last tour was so strenuous that she became sick, both physically and mentally. Along with other members Jisoo, Lisa, and Rose, they worked non-stop without resting for 3 years following their debut.

She explained, "Our sleep systems were breaking down; we weren't eating properly; I wasn't hydrating myself. We did that for three to four years, and then started our tour.

She said, at one point they were on the road for a solid year and a half… and the road was their home.

She did not mention an expectation date.

TL;DR:

• The members of BLACKPINK are in discussions about their comeback
• Jennie revealed that they're in preparation mode to make their return.
• She says the last tour was so strenuous that she became sick, both physically and mentally.
• She did not mention an expectation date.

Depeche Mode founding member Andrew Fletcher has died at the age of 60.

The band announced on social media Thursday (May 26th), "We are shocked and filled with overwhelming sadness with the untimely passing of our dear friend, family member and bandmate Andy "Fletch" Fletcher. Fletch had a true heart of gold and was always there when you needed support, a lively conversation, a good laughe, or a cold pint."

Fletcher once told us that there was time when he couldn't imagine a career that lasted a few years, let alone one that spanned decades with millions of fans spread across the globe: "I don't think we ever considered, really, that we were gonna last 20 years, two years, three years. I don't know. When we first started we were just having fun and it was a gradual thing. I mean, we were on Top Of The Pops -- a famous pop program in Britain -- and I was still at work at the time, y'know, which was a bit bizarre. That's what being on an independent label was about. So I sort of did Top Of The Pops to about half the population of the country and I went in to my work the next day."

Machine Gun Kelly is learning how the movie industry works… He wanted Drake to be in his new movie, but couldn't afford him. The two had discussed it, but when it came down to scheduling the day of the shoot, Drake's travel expense of booking a private jet from Toronto to LA was going to cost too much. Kelly said, "That's the whole movie budget."

In the end, he decided it was more economical to just get an actor to play Drake.

Kelly wrote and directed the new stoner-comedy called Good Mourning, with his friend and fellow musician, Mod Sun.

TL;DR:

• Machine Gun Kelly wanted Drake to be in his new movie, but couldn't afford him. Drake's travel expense of booking a private jet from Toronto to LA was "the whole movie budget."
• It was more economical to just get an actor to play Drake.

Ringo Starr is set to become the first Beatle to launch an NFT collection.

According to Billboard, the drummer announced the collection during a virtual press conference at Ontario, Canada's Casino Rama. The 81-year-old rockstar's collection will be comprised of digital artworks accompanied by signed canvas prints created by Starr.

The "Ringo Starr NFT Collection – The Creative Mind of a Beatle," is presented by Julien's Auctions and live bidding will take place on June 13th.

Alan White, longtime drummer of Yes, died at the age of 72, following "a short illness."

The band wrote on Instagram Thursday, (May 26th) "The news has shocked and stunned the entire YES family. Alan had been looking forward to the forthcoming UK Tour, to celebrating his 50th Anniversary with YES and their iconic Close To The Edge album, where Alan's journey with YES began in July 1972."

In addition to being a member of Yes, the drummer has worked with artists like John Lennon, George Harrison, Ginger Baker's Air Force, Joe Cocker, Gary Wright, Doris Troy and Billy Preston.

The drummer once told us what it was like working with the two former Beatles. He said, "George was just a wonderful guy. Y'know, he told you to do certain things, whereas with John he used to tell me, 'Alan, whatever you're doing is great -- just keep doing it.' Y'know? And George would say, 'No, it would be good if we can kind of approach it this way.' But sometimes I'd play a song and he'd say, 'No, just keep doing that, that's great.' So as long as you came up with the right parts, you were fine. If not, I'd just listen to what he said and try to adjust it."

White was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame as a member of Yes in 2017. The band announced that they will dedicate their 50th Anniversary Close to the Edge UK Tour in June to White.

ABBA made a rare public appearance together on Thursday (May 26th) to walk the red carpet for the premiere of their virtual concert series celebrating Voyage.

According to Billboard, the foursome last made a public appearance in 2016 for a performance celebrating the 50th anniversary of members Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson's friendship.

Voyage marks the group's first release since 1981's The Visitors.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will be making up for last time with what will amount to a massive 2023 global trek. "The Boss" appeared on Sirius XM and mapped out how the tour will play out, explaining the band will rehearse in January -- tour North America from February to April, hit Europe for an extended stadium run, return to our side of the pond for a string of stadium shows, then head Down Under -- before coming "back around again" to the States.

When reminded that the E Street Band has been sidelined since 2017, Springsteen admitted he was still coming to terms with the layoff: "It's kind of mind-boggling to be honest with you. I mean, it doesn't feel that long -- we stayed busy over that time, but still, I've got the jones to play live very badly at this point, so I'm deeply looking forward to getting out there in front of our fans. Y'know, I'm just aching to play, y'know? And actually, not just play, but to travel and see our fans in all our different cities and feel that life again and see their faces again. And we've got an old school tour planned where we'll be out there for quite a while and give everybody a chance to see us."

So far, on the E Street Band's European dates have been rolled out. There's been no word when the North American shows will be announced.

Rumors have been swirling about Taylor Swift making a cameo appearance on the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. It started after she was listed in the credits on the IMDb page and her fans caught on to it and reposted it.

Billboard reached out to ABC and Taylor Swift's team and she is yet to confirm or deny it.

The page, which has since been taken down, had her listed as appearing as herself. It wasn't clear if any of her music would be included in the show.

Swift is famously a longtime fan of the series and even named her cat Meredith Grey, after Ellen Pompeo's iconic character

The season finale of Grey's Anatomy airs tonight (May 26) on ABC.

TL;DR:

• Rumors have been swirling about Taylor Swift making a cameo appearance on the finale of Grey's Anatomy.
• She was listed in the credits on the IMDb page.
• The season finale of Grey's Anatomy airs tonight (May 26) on ABC.

Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen says that band's new album, Diamond Star Halos, which drops tomorrow (May 27th), has gotten the band excited over its new material in a totally unique way.

Collen revealed to us that the band feels they've hit a grand slam with the new collection: "It's the best reaction we've ever had to anything off the bat. I remember when Hysteria came out, it was a mixed bag (of reviews). This has been all positive, It's been, like, 'Oh my God, we've been waiting for something like this.' Y'know, just 100 percent positive. It was influenced by. . . y'know, and we've said this before but, it was influenced by the era that we were baptized into music. That was the very early-'70s. 1971 was a pivotal year for music. It was, almost, saying goodbye to the 60's and moving to the '70s."

Harry Styles has broken the modern-era, vinyl sales record for the United States.

According to Billboard, his new album, Harry's House has sold more than 146,000 copies within three days of its May 20 release. Styles takes the crown from Taylor Swift, whose vinyl version of Red (Taylor's Version) broke previous records when it debuted last year.

Harry's House has made its mark outside of vinyl as well. The lead single, "As It Was" debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top 100 and became the most-streamed song in 24 hours on Spotify upon its release.

This is his 3^rd sold release.

TL;DR:

• Harry Styles has broken the modern-era, vinyl sales record for the United States.
• Harry's House has sold more than 146,000 copies within three days of its May 20 release.
• Styles takes the crown from Taylor Swift's Red (Taylor's Version)
• This is his 3^rd sold release.

Kelly Clarkson has announced that she'll be releasing an EP of covers next month.

Known for being able to sing just about anything, she has chosen songs like "Happier Than Ever" by Billie Eilish and The Weeknd's "Call Out My Name." She also included songs by Radiohead, Whitney Houston, Linda Ronstadt, and Shaed.

She and her band have covered over 500 songs since The Kelly Clarkson Show premiered in 2019, but this marks the first time she's gone into a studio to record an entire collection for sale.

Explaining how the project came about, she simply said, "Music is in the DNA of everything I do."

Clarkson's six-song project called Kellyoke will be out June 9^th.

TL;DR:

• Kelly Clarkson will be releasing an EP of covers on June 9.
• Songs like "Happier Than Ever" by Billie Eilish and The Weeknd's "Call Out My Name."
• She also included tracks by Radiohead, Whitney Houston, Linda Ronstadt, and Shaed.

Olivia Rodrigo took time out during her concert in Los Angeles on Tuesday night (May 24) to talk to her audience about common sense gun legislation. Her emotional plea came only hours after the mass school murder of 19 children and 2 adults at a Texas elementary school.

While telling the crowd she was devastated and heartbroken about the latest mass shooting, she talked about how America needed stricter gun control laws.

Videos were posted online of her short speech and she said, "I wish we would never have to worry about our safety or our lives at places that are dedicated to our learning and growing,"

The 19 year old was one of many artist that spoke out. Others included Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez.

TL;DR:

• Olivia Rodrigo took time out during her concert in Los Angeles on Tuesday night (May 24) to talk to her audience about common sense gun legislation.
• She said, "I wish we would never have to worry about our safety or our lives at places that are dedicated to our learning and growing,"

Although devastating for him personally, Pete Townshend admitted that the 1978 death of Who drummer Keith Moon was actually liberating for him musically.

Townshend's new two-hour Audible Original mini-biography, titled Somebody Saved Me, finds the Who genius talking frankly about that period in his life and career -- and explain that having a more durable and staid drummer in Kenney Jones, he was able to flourish onstage during the Who's legendary 1979 tour: "What I liked (laughs) about, y'know, the second phase of the Who, was is that it felt to me like I didn't have to pretend anymore. If I felt bad -- I would just be bad. Y'know, if I felt good, I would be good, I would look good. Y'know, if I felt like I didn't want to work on the stage, I wouldn't work. I just concentrated on the music. And I, I didn't bother with showmanship and I didn't bother with any fancy guitar stuff, I just played the chords and wanged away and. . . Yeah. I enjoyed it. It was a good change for me."

Green Day leader Billie Joe Armstrong says he owes a debt of gratitude to the Sex Pistols. The legendary '70s punk unit is the subject of Pistol, a six-part FX on Hulu miniseries premiering on May 31st. Pistol, which is directed by Danny Boyle, is based on Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones' 2017 memoir, Lonely Boy: Tales Of A Sex Pistol.

Billie Joe Armstrong spoke of his love and admiration for the Pistols, recalling to Rolling Stone, "Never Mind The Bollocks was one of the first punk records I ever heard. . . The first thing that popped into my mind when I heard 'Holidays In The Sun" is how those guitars sounded so gigantic and real; and hearing (Johnny) Lydon's vocals, how he was just sort of this anti-singer (laughs). For me, it just had a huge impact. Everything about it, from the lyrics to the guitar sounds to the songs, I thought was just perfect."

Armstrong went on to say, "When Green Day first started playing, we were called Sweet Children. It was me and Mike (Dirnt) and rotating drummers, and we covered 'Holidays In The Sun.' Hardcore was everywhere, and everything was about playing as fast as humanly possible. And to me, it was like, 'There's no groove in that!' But the Pistols, they had a groove! Paul Cook is such a great drummer, and the way he and Steve Jones just completely locked in and played off each other, it's sort of like they were brothers."

Billie Joe Armstrong told us a while back that it's important for rock artists to stay connected to what's happening in the world when they write: "I think that rock stars, or whatever they like to call themselves nowadays, when they tend to get pretty big, a lot of people go way deep inside themselves and sort of shut out the world and kinda become disconnected with what is going on. I think it's really important, especially in music, that you have to have some sort of connection and you have to be some sort of member of society to comment on it. Or else people are just sorta like, 'Well, you're just this whiny rock star. Y'know -- what are you talking about?'"

Green Day will next perform with Weezer on June 1st in Berlin, Germany.