Pulse Music

Journey has just dropped "You Got The Best Of Me" -- the band's lead single from its upcoming album, Freedom, which is set for release on July 8th. Journey is currently out on the road and plays tonight (April 27th) -- with special guests Toto -- at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena.

Co-founding guitarist Neal Schon said of the new track: "I wanted kind of a punky rendition of 'Any Way You Want It.' I usually don't go in saying I'm going to look for something like that, but then it just came to me, like 'Wheel In The Sky' did years ago. It just kind of flew out of my mouth. During the pandemic, there wasn't much to do. I spent a lot of time in my little studio at home, learning how to play keyboards and looping. Some of those ideas ended up being songs. So it kind of came out of nowhere."

Freedom marks Journey's first new studio set since Eclipse was released in May 2011. The Walmart exclusive debuted on the Billboard 200 album chart at Number 13 and was the band's second to feature current frontman Arnel Pineda.

Neal Schon recently explained how he urged his bandmates to look past the classics to showcase everything that Journey is about musically during its shows: "I said, 'Guys, I want you to have an open mind and check out this list that I've put together here, 'cause I think that we're missing a lot of these elements in our show. And there's no reason to be missing 'em, 'cause we own it. (Laughs) It's ours! Just 'cause we don't play it all the time doesn't mean that we shouldn't be playing just 'cause they're not so so-called 'pop hits.'' I've never been from the school where every song has to be a hit. I think we're really fortunate that we have so many hit songs -- but you can't play 'em all in one show."

The B-52's have just announced their farewell tour. The band, who'll be joined at various stops by either the Tubes or KC & The Sunshine Band, launch their final trek on August 22nd at Seattle's McCaw Hall and wrap things up over two nights for hometown gigs on November 11th and 12th at Atlanta's Fox Theatre.

The group is currently working with director Craig Johnson on the definitive documentary of their career, which is expected to see release next year.

The group addressed their final dates in a press release:

Kate Pierson: "Who knew what started as a way to have some fun and play music for our friends' at house parties in Athens in 1977 would evolve into over 45 years of making music and touring the world. It's been cosmic."

Cindy Wilson: "It has been a wild ride, that's for sure. We feel truly blessed to have had an amazing career encouraging folks to dance, sing along with us and feel they can be whomever they are with our music."

Fred Schneider: "No one likes to throw a party more than we do, but after almost a half-century on the road, it's time for one last blow-out with our friends and family. . . our fans. And with KC & The Sunshine Band and The Tubes on board, it's going to be one hell of a farewell party at these concerts."

We asked singer Kate Pierson how the B-52's have been able to keep the show on the road so smoothly after all these years: "We learned to accept each other with all our, y'know, wonderful things, and flaws, and attributes (laughs). Y'know, we really accept each other; we're still like a family. We still make each other laugh -- that's the key thing. Of course I'm not saying there aren't ups and downs, but I think it's still amazing that we can still make each other laugh, we still hang out after the show. Y'know, we really have fun together."

JUST ANNOUNCED: The B-52's tour dates (subject to change):

August 22 - Seattle, WA - McCaw Hall (with The Tubes)
September 29 - Mashantucket, CT - Foxwoods Casino (with KC & The Sunshine Band)
September. 30 - Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall (with KC & The Sunshine Band)
October 1 - Washington, DC - The Anthem (with KC & The Sunshine Band)
October 7 - Chicago, IL - Chicago Theatre (with KC & The Sunshine Band)
October 13, 14 - New York, NY - Beacon Theatre (with KC & The Sunshine Band)
October 15 - Atlantic City, NJ - Ovation Hall at Ocean Casino (with KC & The Sunshine Band)
October 19, 21, 22 - Las Vegas, NV - The Venetian Theatre|
October 28, 29 - San Francisco, CA - The Masonic Auditorium (with The Tubes)
November 4 - Los Angeles, CA - YouTube Theater (with KC & The Sunshine Band)
November 11, 12 - Atlanta, GA - The Fox Theatre (with KC & The Sunshine Band)

Justin Bieber's latest track dropped last night (April 26th).

The video for "I Feel Funny," directed by Cole Bennet, made its debut at midnight.

In the description, Bennet shared the story of how the visual was made. He wrote that the two had some downtime while shooting a video for "Honest," and added, " I went into his trailer and said "Remember that song you sent me? Let's shoot a video for it on my phone in between takes of the actual video." ... The rest was history."

According to the video posted by Lyrical Lemondade, the 90-second clip took about 15 minutes to shoot and features a cameo by Don Toliver.

CAMILA CABELLO IS THE FACE OF VICTORIA'S SECRET'S BOMBSHELL: Camila Cabello is the star of Victoria's Secret's first ever bilingual campaign. The singer is the newest face of the brand's Bombshell Fragrance. She wrote on her Instagram, "Bombshell is about embracing who and what you are and celebrating that every day."

LIZZO AND GAYLE TO PERFORM IN ROBLOX: Lizzo and Gayle will perform at the second annual Logitech Song Breaker Awards, hosted in Roblox. The show will premiere on Saturday, April 30th, and will be hosted by YouTuber and TikTok entertainer Bretman Rock. Lizzo will perform "Special" for her first ever metaverse performance.

LIL NAS EX ANNOUNCES FIRST TOUR: Lil Nas X will embark on his first ever tour this fall. The North American leg of the Long Live Montero tour will kick off in Detroit on Tuesday, September sixth and make stops in Chicago, Nashville, Los Angeles, and more before wrapping up in San Francisco on Sunday, October 23rd. Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, April 29th.

Roger Daltrey has just announced the makeup dates for his postponed 12-city, full-band, UK tour, dubbed, "Who Was I," featuring, "an evening of Who classics, rarities, solo hits, and fan Q&A."

According to the official announcement: "Last autumn, due to ongoing concerns about the uncertainty of the Covid-19 situation as it could have affected his band, crew and audience, Roger Daltrey decided to move his 'Who Was I' solo UK Tour to summer 2022. . . If you already have tickets for the 2021 autumn dates, they will be honored for the new summer 2022 dates."

Last year, an announcement on TheWho.com revealed the tour would comprise a unique mix of music and conversation and is "built around Roger's musical journey and encompasses nearly every style imaginable -- including blues, rock, country, soul, and metal."

Daltrey will touch upon and play music from all facets of his career. The gigs promise "a plethora of songs with some questions answered and rock n' roll stories along the way."

Although Roger Daltrey does tip his foot into his solo career during his solo shows, he told us that he's often faced criticism for performing Who material without Pete Townshend: "Y'know, people say, 'Ah, well, y'know, why are you doing Who songs?' And I think, well, they're my songs, it's my history, it's my voice that gave them birth. I mean, Pete wrote them, but it's my voice that brought them out to the public."

In his most recent solo shows, Roger Daltrey has taken to playing a solo ukulele version of the band's 1975 Townshend-sung The Who By Numbers standout "Blue, Red, & Grey" giving fans the opportunity for the first time to hear any member of the Who perform it live: "'Blue, Red, & Grey' I love, because it's a song we never, ever did onstage, that I used to plead with Pete to play. It's the song that John (Entwistle) did the brass arrangements for, which we now can replicated on keyboards, of course -- which, y'know, give me memories of my days that I grew up with working class societies and communities that had all those bands; the coal mine bands, the steel mill bands, shipyard bands. It just evolves a memory of a past that we lost, y'know?"

The Who performs tonight (April 27th) at Tampa's Amalie Arena.

JUST ANNOUNCED: Roger Daltrey UK tour dates (subject to change):

June 20 - Bournemouth, England - Bournemouth International Centre
June 22 - Brighton, England - The Brighton Centre
June 24 - Oxford, England - New Theatre Oxford
June 27 - Portsmouth, England - Portsmouth Guildhall
June 29 - Nottingham, England - Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
July 1 - Southend, England - Cliffs Pavilion
July 4 - Birmingham, England - Symphony Hall
July 6 - Glasgow, Scotland - SEC Armadillo
July 9 - Manchester, England O2 Apollo
July 11 - Liverpool, England - Liverpool Empire
July 13 - Newcastle, England - O2 City Hall Newcastle
July 17 - London, England - London Palladium

It was announced 41 years ago (April 27th, 1981), that Paul McCartney's solo band Wings had disbanded. McCartney and his first wife Linda had formed the group in the summer of 1971 with drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist and Moody Blues co-founder Denny Laine. The McCartney's and Laine remained the nucleus of the band's ever-changing line up throughout their decade-long run. At the time of Wings' split the band included Wings' third lead guitarist Laurence Juber and fourth drummer Steve Holley.

The same day the announcement was leaked to the press, McCartney, along with Linda and their four children, joined his bandmates from his other band, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, at Ringo's wedding to actress Barbara Bach in London.

McCartney first broke Wings in by playing small, unannounced university gigs throughout Britain in early 1972. Gradually, he began booking the group into theaters and arenas across Europe, Australia, and America as the group started racking up Top Ten hits such as "Hi, Hi, Hi," "Live And Let Die," "Helen Wheels," "Jet," "Junior's Farm," "Let 'Em In," and "Goodnight Tonight," along with the Number Ones "My Love," "Band On The Run," "Listen To What The Man Said," "Silly Love Songs," "With A Little Luck," and "Coming Up."

In 2001 McCartney released his Wingspan documentary chronicling the group's career. He admitted at the time that he was horrified by at the public and critical beating Linda took after marrying and co-founding Wings with him: "She took some s*** -- major league. Not only from the critics, (but) from the fans. I mean, we had stuff daubed on our front wall in large letters, and it was highly offensive, y'know? So, she had to put up with that. Luckily, she was a very strong woman, and was able to overcome it and the period passed, and as she went on, people started to appreciate more and more."

Denny Laine says that despite the band's success, being an active member of top act like Wings is hardly as easy as it looks: "Well, there's a lot of pressure on you when you're in a band like Wings -- to come up with the goods, to be continually working. It's not like taking it easy and taking it at your own pace. Y'know, you're out there and you've got to do what the public expects you to."

The Beatles' late-engineer Geoff Emerick, who went on to work on several Wings projects, including the One Hand Clapping film and the Band On The Run and London Town albums, told us that above all the members, it was Linda that was really the unsung hero of the group: "Wings was Wings, and Linda was such an integral part of that -- if you took Linda's vocals out of those harmony voices -- it wasn't Wings anymore."

Wings' final lead guitarist, Laurence Juber, told us that although the band was specifically not brought on for McCartney's Tug Of War sessions, they remained an active studio unit for McCartney's other recording work -- including his still-unreleased outtakes project, Cold Cuts: "George Martin didn't want it to be a Wings album, that's what I was told. Paul called up and said, 'George wants to make this a 'Paul McCartney' album and thanks, but no thanks.' But subsequently, we were still back in the studio as Wings, 'cause during January of '81 we were loosely working on what was called Cold Cuts."

Beatlefan magazine publisher Bill King had covered all of McCartney's exploits leading up to Wings calling it quits -- including his infamous January 1980 Tokyo drug bust which curtailed Wings' second proposed world tour. We asked King if he was shocked by the announcement signaling the end of the band: "I was mildly surprised but after the who Japanese thing, that was sort of a major demarcation in his life and career. 'Cause we had heard the reports that the last British tour was underwhelming. Everybody remembered Pete Townshend's comment about him getting out there with an 'under-rehearsed band.' I seem to recall that my feeling was that this had run its course, it was a good time for him to try something different, and to basically record with a whole bunch of different people."

McCartney biographer Christopher Sanford feels that there was probably no clear moment at which McCartney decided that Wings was an unworkable situation: "His solo album (McCartney II) that came out in May of '80 was sort of an organic process. I don't think there was a 'big bang' moment where he decided to demolish Wings. And I think it developed in the first six or seven months of 1980. And I suspect that John's murder had -- among many other horrible repercussions -- a disinclination to go out on the road immediately. I mean, for one thing, you're more vulnerable physically; and secondly it's hard to go out and sing with the best will in the world 'Silly Love Songs' and the other upbeat stuff when you're grieving your best friend."

Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett credits the band's personal growth for his debut solo release of Portals. While chatting with Kerrang, Hammett explained how the new EP came to be through his own sobriety and the band's maturity. He touched upon how former-bassist Jason Newsted's 2001 exit came about, in part, to his wanting to pursue a solo project away from the band.

Hammett compared the difference between Newsted wanting to stretch his wings and him doing so today: "It is 20 years later and Metallica have gotten even bigger since then. So trying to divert any kind of focus at this point, it would take an army to do that. And it's just good ol' me. And also we've all grown. We've all grown from our experiences and we've certainly grown from (Jason Newsted's departure). It's a recognition that we're all musicians, we're all artists. Who's to say to someone else, 'Don't put your art out there, I don't want you to'? We've all grown up, basically."

He went on to say, "So the question is, were we not grown up back then? Of course not. We'll be the first ones -- or at least I will -- to put my hands up and say I only feel like I've reached maturity in the last 10 f***ing years. Also I have to say I've been sober for seven-and-a-half years now and my mind is in a different place, I'm better focused. I got my brain back, I've gotten my memory back so nowadays I'm in a better place. I record music and my focus is that much better."

Hammett spoke about being able to tap into a different mindset when writing and playing the material he creates apart from Metallica: "It was a very conscious effort to write things for Portals that did not sound like they could be on the next Metallica album. And that's very easy because I play all different kinds of music. I play jazz, bossa nova, rock, all sorts of stuff. It's very easy for me to know what a Metallica formula is because I helped f***ing formulate it. So it was very easy for me to not write stuff that sounded like Metallica and vice-versa -- it's very easy for me to slip into Metallica mode and write heavy, aggressive music. I've been doing it for so long I can literally put myself in that mode in 10 seconds."

During the pandemic, recording has proved to be a big hurdle for Metallica -- but the band has been busy culling ideas for its next studio project. Kirk Hammett told us a while back that coming up with material is never a problem for Metallica: "We're a band that never has a shortage of ideas. Y'know, you hear about these bands that are like, oh, they're sitting in the studio and they don't have any songs, what are they gonna do? That's not Metallica. Metallica's problem is the total opposite: we have too many ideas, which ones are we gonna use. And so that's pretty much how it stands with us."

Metallica performs tonight (April 27th) in Santiago, Chile at Club Hípico.

Roger Daltrey maintains he's about $10,000 out of pocket after recording the last Who album -- 2019's Top Two hit, WHO. Daltrey, who along with the band, is back out on tour and spoke to Britain's The Independent about the state of the record business and explained, "Musicians cannot earn a living in the record industry any more. That is ridiculous, and they're being robbed blind by streaming and the record companies, because the old deals with record companies that existed in the '70s, '80s, and '90s -- they're still working on the same percentage breaks."

He added: "Of course, they don't do any work. They just press a button and it goes out on digital, whereas before they had to manufacture, they had to distribute, they had to do all that stuff. They're doing bugger all and taking all the money, and the musicians are getting nothing."

Daltrey isn't alone among veteran musicians who feel that recording new music is essentially giving away the store for free -- and that live music is the only way to guarantee money earned gets to the musicians: "Our music industry, I think, has been stolen. I think we really do have to be concerned when young musicians can't earn a living writing music. The streaming companies pay so little in the beginning and then the record companies take 85, 90 percent of that. You need a billion streams to earn 200 quid. That's the reality. We've given our music industry to a lot of foreign-owned companies, and the money's not coming here anymore. We used to lead the world in that, pay an awful lot of tax. It's terrible."

Despite his issues with the music business in general -- creatively, Roger Daltrey couldn't be happier. He told us he believes the band's latest music on 2019's WHO album easily stands tall alongside the band's most beloved material: "I think it's some of our best work since the '70s. I would've liked a bit more time on it, 'cause we did it in a bit of a rush, 'cause it was supposed to be out in July and they pushed the date back for release 'til now. But, all in all, I'm pleased with it. It's good. It's really good stuff. It shows that Pete hasn't lost his bite as a writer -- as a songwriter. Which is important, y'know, he's just not a product stuck in the '60s -- he's very much a man of today."

Stevie Nicks has rolled out a string of new spring and summer shed dates. Nicks, who due to Covid scrapped all her 2021 concerts, has now filled out her schedule around her sprinkling of high-profile festival appearances. Nicks kicks off her spring run on May 7th at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival with a dozen total dates running through September 30th in Dana Point, California at Ohana Festival.

Stevie Nicks believes the art of songwriting is an act of healing for both the creator and the listener: "To me, the music is writing songs and that is to be able to write something that maybe at a time in somebody else's life, they need a little help or a little inspiration, or something, that they would sit down and listen to something I wrote and it would just either make them feel a little better or they'd be able to go 'Somebody else's been there, too -- and that helps me.'"

UPDATED: Stevie Nicks tour dates (subject to change):

May 7 - New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
May 11 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
May 14 - George, WA - The Gorge Amphitheatre
June 10 - Ridgefield, WA - RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
June 12 - Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre
June 16 - Salt Lake City, UT - USANA Amphitheatre
June 19 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Music Festival
June 21 Noblesville, IN - Ruoff Music Center
September 2 Snowmass, CO - JAS Aspen Snowmass
September 17 Asbury Park, NJ - Sea.Hear.Now Festival
September 24 - Bridgeport, CT - Sound on Sound Festival
September 30 - Dana Point, CA - Ohana Festival

Although Sting is hardly a man living in the past, the fact that he constantly reinvents his older Police material keeps the legendary band front and center in the public consciousness. Over 35 years after first going solo with 1985's The Dream Of The Blue Turtles album, Sting still has very specific thoughts about why he decided to break out on his own.

During a new chat with Mojo, he spoke about the prospects in 1984 of heading into the studio to record the followup to the previous year's blockbuster Synchronicity set: "My frustration was I would have written an album's worth of material but also had to entertain these other songs that were not as good. Explaining to someone why their song isn't working is a bit like saying their girlfriend's ugly. It's a very personal thing. That pain was something I didn't want to go through any more."

He went on to say, "I don't think any grown man can be in a band, actually. A band is a teenage gang. Who wants to be in a teenage gang when you're knocking 70? It doesn't allow you to evolve. You have to obey the rules and the gestalt of the band. As much as I love the (Rolling) Stones and AC/DC, it's hard to see growth in their music. For me, the band was merely a vehicle for the songs and not the other way around."

Sting was asked if he would've been more willing to keep the Police an ongoing concern had Blue Turtles tanked, and said, "Well, both Andy (Summers) and Stewart (Copeland) had made albums without me so it was my right, too. I recruited a band from the jazz world and I was lucky it was a hit. I have no idea what would have happened if it hadn't been a hit. Would I have gone back to the band and eaten humble pie? I hope not."

One of rock's most iconic '80s moments was on June 15th, 1986 when the reunited Police played the Amnesty International benefit at New Jersey's Giants Stadium and passed their instruments to U2: "I remember the night well. We were all playing for Amnesty. We came off and I handed my bass to Adam (Clayton): 'Here you go, run with it.' I didn't feel sad about that at all. I wanted to start again. I wanted to get that feeling we had in the early days when it was us against the world. Admittedly, I had momentum. Whatever I did, people would have been at least curious even if they didn't like it."

Regarding the incredibly successful Police reunion tour of 2007 and 2008, Sting remembered, "I'd said no, no, no, no, no on numerous occasions but I thought my timing was impeccable. Any later I think would have been wrong. Any sooner would have been wrong. It was cashing that asset in, saying, 'Let's do it one more time and see what happens.' It was hugely successful but I wouldn't do it again. That would be a bridge too far. It was hard because the power struggles were still very apparent, but we got through it and people loved it, they really did."

Sting shed light on his relationship these days with his Police bandmates: "We always communicate on birthdays. We have separate lives but it's very cordial. I'm very grateful for those guys and their immense talent, and their patience with me. I love them."

We recently asked Sting point blank if the Police's 2007-2008 reunion concerts were in fact the band's last: "Yeah, I think so. I think in an exercise in nostalgia it was very successful. It was certainly a successful tour commercially. But is there a need to do it again? I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean, it wasn't the easiest tour I've ever done. Y'know, it was a bit like going back to a dysfunctional marriage in many ways, but as I said, hugely successful. People were very happy to see us playing together again. So I think we covered all the bases there. I don't see the need to do it again."

We asked Andy Summers if he was frustrated that although the band's global reunion trek was a resounding success, superseding all expectations, the end result of a new Police album never came to fruition: "Y'know, I've been in this scene for a long time (laughs). I didn't go in with those expectations knowing the personalities involved. I thought, there's no way. . . Sting will do this tour, but there's no way he's gonna makes a new album and get into that. Because, most of the truth is he's sort of in denial he was ever in the Police. He is. That's fine, if that's what he wants to do. But I know that none of us will ever overcome it. He goes out and plays the songs of the Police. I've just come back from two weeks in Brazil playing the songs of the Police."

IN OTHER STING NEWS

Sting has produced collaborator Shaggy's new Frank Sinatra songbook collection, titled Come Fly Wid Mi. The set, which drops on May 25th, features the Grammy Award-winning team on their first joint project since their 2018 album, 44/876.

Sting said in the album's announcement: "This idea of getting my friend to sing ten iconic songs from the Frank Sinatra songbook in a reggae style had been brewing for a while. . . I know, it sounds crazy! But every time the idea crossed my mind, it made me smile. And what does the world need now, more than anything else. . . something to smile about!"

Highlights on the set include "Fly Me To The Moon," "That's Life," "That Old Black Magic," "Witchcraft," "Under My Skin," "Luck Be A Lady," "Angel Eyes," and "Come Fly With Me," among others.

Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott feels the delays caused by the pandemic to the soon-to-be launched "Stadium Tour" ultimately benefitted the band. Leppard will be out on the road all summer with Motley Crue, Poison, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts with opening night set for June 16th at Atlanta's SunTrust Park.

While talking to Heavy Consequence, Joe Elliott explained that having the band's new album, Diamond Star Halos in the can and ready for release upon hitting the road, is a best case scenario: "The advantage as well, now in 2022, over last year, or the year before, is that we can play some new music which we wouldn't have been able to do in 2020. It would have been fine because that's what the tour was set out to be, not a greatest hits tour but a trip down memory lane, your legacy, your back catalog, all the songs that people want to hear in the Stadium."

Elliott touched upon the risks of introducing new material in a mammoth football stadium jam-packed with fans on a summer night: "It's not the environment. If you want to play 12 new songs, you need to be in an open mic night in a basement somewhere. It's not really what (Paul) McCartney, the (Rolling) Stones, or anybody with a brain would do in a stadium, but we can introduce some of the new songs into this tour which we couldn't have done before."

He went on to say, "It's been an advantage for us that this tour got delayed for two years. Obviously, under the backdrop of a terrible situation for the world, people dying all over the place and getting sick, all we could do was write it out. The best thing we could do was to stay as safe as possible, stay as remote as possible, and not waste our time."

Def Leppard's Diamond Star Halos drops on May 27th. Although Leppard is no doubt proud of their new material, Joe Elliott told us to never expect the band to try out unreleased material during a concert anytime soon: "Nowadays we play one song, it's gonna be on YouTube two minutes later. And it's gonna be. . . Everyone is gonna know it that cares about it, six months before the thing comes out."

He also said that even when the new material has been released, it isn't always familiar enough to put into their set list: "We'd love to play some new songs, but at the same time, we're also aware of the fact that (even) when you play new songs that are actually out and available, they sometimes die on stage. Just not enough people know them yet."

Gene Simmons revealed that in addition to packing it in on the road -- Kiss is done as a recording entity. The band's last album was 2012's Top Three Monster collection.

Simmons was pressed by Classic Rock magazine as to whether he saw Kiss ever recording a followup to its 20th studio set. Simmons said, "I do not. Not to say we don't enjoy the creative process, but Kiss is not a charity. Working your ass off to have somebody download or stream your music for free is not my idea of how things should be. When you don't put a value on music, it doesn't have value."

When asked about his emotions regarding Kiss winding down its touring career, Simmons admitted: "Quite honestly, I don't really think about it much, because we really are having the best time ever. And we're playing better than ever. But I know that at some point there's going to be that last song that Kiss will ever play on stage, and I know I'll be crying like a baby and won't be able to hold back the emotions, because what an amazing journey this has been."

Simmons spoke about his 2006 to 2012 A&E reality show, Gene Simmons Family Jewels, and his decision at the time to expose his family and private life to fans: "I looked at it as a family video album. Also, it was a chance to teach commerce to my kids Nick and Sophie. I never gave them an allowance, so that was when they got their first paychecks."

Gene Simmons is arguably the most unapologetic rock star out there and has always been completely comfortable letting people into his personal life: "From about 20-to-45, you can go through the, 'No, we really did crawl out from under your bed' and 'we really are the boogeyman' and all that stuff. Then, past a certain point, there's nothing left to prove to anyone. When you're filthy rich and you've been around for over three decades, it's okay to say this is who you are on stage, and this is who I am off stage. If I tried to do it other ways, it wouldn't be convincing."

Kiss performs tonight (April 26th) in Porto Alegre, Brazil at Arena do Gremio.

The band kicks off its North American dates on May 11th at Milwaukee's American Family Insurance Amphitheater.

Lorde doesn't want fans to "stress too hard" because she shushed some fans while trying to sing the ballad "Writer in the Dark" from her 2017 sophomore album Melodrama live.

In a video shared with the fan account @lordecontent, the singer said, "OK, I just woke up. I just wanted to talk about this thing of me shushing people at my shows.

"That was something I did in that one song, a couple of times, when I wanted to sing it a capella and/ or off the microphone so people could hear me and because I wanted to try something different. If you come to my shows, you know it's like an hour and a half of all of us singing and screaming together."

It was 40 years ago today (April 26th, 1982) today that Paul McCartney released his critically acclaimed Tug Of War album -- which marked his last chart-topping set in the U.S. until 2018's Egypt Station. The collection -- which was the first to be released following John Lennon's December 1980 murder -- marked both his first album released since Wings' 1981 split, and McCartney's reunion with legendary Beatles producer, the-late George Martin.

Tug Of War featured cameo appearances by such heavyweights as Ringo Starr on the album's second single -- the Top 10 "Take It Away," childhood hero Carl Perkins, and Stevie Wonder, who appeared on two songs -- including the pair's seven week chart-topper "Ebony And Ivory." The track marks the final time a song composed solely by McCartney hit the top spot. The album also featured McCartney's poignant tribute to Lennon, "Here Today," which McCartney has performed on every tour since 2002.

George Martin had previously worked with McCartney during the '70s as an arranger on select tracks from his 1971 Ram album and his 1973 blockbuster "My Love" -- but had only co-produced the former Beatle once for the 1973 Top Two Oscar-nominated theme to Live And Let Die. Shortly before his 2016 death, Martin remembered worrying if McCartney had been his own boss for so long that he would be above or beyond any musical direction: "He had been used to working by himself for seven or eight years and wasn't used to having a producer telling him: 'That's no good, or you should do this again.' And I wondered how he would react to it. And he said, 'Oh, we know each other so well, I don't think it'll be a problem. (Laughs) The first thing that happened was, I said, 'First of all, I think we ought to look at your material and see what the songs are like.' And he said, 'Well, do you mean I've got to pass an audition?' (Laughs) So, I could see that that was. . . might've been a problem, but in fact, it worked out fine. We got into a method of working where we weren't rubbing each other up the wrong way too much. There's gotta be a certain amount of abrasion."

At the time of the sessions, McCartney spoke about the game plan for how Tug Of War was recorded: "I'm not working with Wings, I'm working with various people. Really on the idea of sort of casting the particular piece of music, rather than just using a group for everything. Wings, anyway, had a few lineup changes and stuff. The idea is that if we ever wanna get back together again we will and we're just keeping it really loose. But for this album, I'm not working with them. I'm just working with other people. Really, 'cause I just fancy the change and I thought it was getting a bit limiting just working with the same group of people all the time."

Although Wings was still in operation during the beginning of the Tug Of War sessions in the fall of 1980, Wings lead guitarist Laurence Juber -- who was working other sessions for George Martin -- told us that he was ready to try things out on his own: "I was part of a particular era. That era had, y'know, time had moved on. There certainly. . . there was no reason for me to hang around and kind of ingratiate myself into the sessions, 'cause I wanted to move on. Y'know, I got my masters from 'McCartney University.' I had an impulse to get on with my life."

Paul McCartney talked to the BBC's Dermott O'Leary and shed light on his state of mind going it alone as a solo artist: "I was a little bit nervous, ‘cause you're, sort of, now starting a new period; but it's exciting ‘cause you've written some new songs, you wanna get in the studio. And I was getting in with George Martin, so that was really exciting, starting to work with George again. So, I knew I loved working with him, he's just a fantastic person. I mean, in truth, I always think it's an exciting time to make music, no matter what's going on, ‘cause the focus to me is the making of the music. But that time it was good, because -- as we said before -- it was a new phase for me. It was something I was going to be working on my own as a solo artist. And what was that going to bring me? Was that going to work, or was it not? Y'know?"

Returning to the fold for Tug Of War and Pipes Of Peace was the Beatles' late-great, engineer Geoff Emerick. Emerick had been behind the boards for several Wings projects, including the Band On The Run and London Town albums, as well as the long-unreleased One Hand Clapping film project. He maintained that it was actually McCartney's decision not to use Wings on the Tug Of War sessions: "No. No, I don't think George said ‘I don't wanna produce a Wings album' at all. I mean, I wasn't privy to any conversations between Linda and Paul as to whether you should be doing your own album, or it should be a Wings album. Yeah, I think we started it off as just being Paul's album."

Although McCartney's longtime second banana Denny Laine contributed musically to the Tug Of War sessions, a loose tongue with a reporter ultimately cost him his decade-long job of a lifetime. When it came time for vocal overdubs, he was replaced by 10cc's Eric Stewart -- McCartney's right-hand man for the next four years.

We asked McCartney about the state of their relationship after parting ways in 1981: "Denny Laine, no, I'm not -- we're not big friends. Y'know, we had a bit of a fall out. And he sold his story to the newspapers -- which is never gonna make a great friend with those kind of people, y'know? He says he was drunk when he did it and stuff -- and he probably was. But, he's okay. He's okay, but we don't see much of each other, y'know?"

Bassist Stanley Clarke, a legend in the jazz world, was a long-time favorite of McCartney, and was part of the album's sessions on the West Indian island of Montserrat, where George Martin's Air Studios was situated. He told us that in the weeks following Lennon's murder that McCartney was unable to escape the madness which followed his former partner's killing: "Y'know, we went to some island somewhere, I think it was. . . the Tug Of War record, that was right after or during the John Lennon (murder) -- 'cause I remember those interviews, when they interviewed Paul McCartney, I think we were recording at that time. Yeah, 'cause I remember we were on this island and then the secret service came in and they wanted us to wear some (bullet-proof) vest, 'cause some people were saying -- y'know, there was pranks, they were saying 'We're gonna bomb the island,' this is 'Kill a Beatle week,' and all that kind of mess, y'know? And he was cool. It's like, there's a price when you're really famous, y'know? Like that kind of fame."

The 'Take It Away" video made McCartney a huge player on early MTV -- and marked the first of several videos which would feature Ringo Starr over the years: "'Take It Away,' it's lovely to see him. And he very kindly agreed to be the drummer. It was just fabulous, y'know, George Martin even appears."

Britney Spears announced Sunday (April 24th) that she'll be going on a "social media hiatus for a little while".

The pregnant pop star wrote, "I send my love and God bless you all !!!"

The singer followed up with two posts on Monday (April 25th). In the first, she thanked her fans for her 2021 People's Choice Award for Social Media Star, and in the second, she modeled a variety of outfits.

HALSEY NEEDS TO ‘SLOW DOWN OR STOP': Halsey needs to "slow down or stop for real" in order to deal with some health challenges. According to The Independent, the 27-year-old singer, who has been open about their battle with endometriosis, wrote on Instagram Sunday (April 24th) that they have been in and out of the hospital for the past few weeks. They continued, "My body is putting up a strong protest and ultimately demanding that I slow down or stop for real this time."

PSY IS PLANNING A COMEBACK: PSY is poised to make a comeback. The "Gangnam Style" singer announced Monday (April 25th) that his new single, "That That" is posed to drop on Friday (April 29th). The new track is produced by BTS singer, Sugar.

LIZZO ANNOUNCES 'THE SPECIAL TOUR': Lizzo is hitting the road with Latto in the fall for The Special Tour. The tour will begin in Florida in late September and will make stops in Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, and Atlanta before wrapping in Los Angeles in November.

Over the weekend, Blackpink's music video for "Boombayah" crossed the 1.4 billion views mark on YouTube.

In doing so, the group has made history as "Boombayah" is the first K-pop music video debut to earn this achievement. It premiered on August 8, 2016. It reached 1.4 billion views in just five years, eight months, and 14 days.

With this latest accomplishment, Blackpink is the only female K-pop artist to have reached this milestone with three different music videos. The others were "DDU-DU" and "Kill This Love."

TL;DR:

• Blackpink's music video for "Boombayah" crossed the 1.4 billion views mark on YouTube.
• "Boombayah" is the first K-pop music video debut to earn this achievement.

The Who kicked off its 2022 "Who Hits Back" tour on Friday night (April 22nd) at Hollywood, Florida's Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The show marked the first full-scale road date Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey have performed since the pandemic hit. The Who's performance was split into three parts -- with an opening set including a substantial portion of Tommy, along with such classics as "Who Are You," "Eminence Front," "Join Together," as well a nod to the band's die-hard fanbase with 1975's "Imagine A Man" from The Who By Numbers album.

A band-only set followed, highlighted by an acoustic reading of "Won't Get Fooled Again" featuring the only time Townshend and Daltrey performed unaccompanied by either the group or the orchestra.

The third portion of the show welcomed back the orchestra and tackled key tracks from 1973's Quadrophenia, before the band closed the concert with "Baba O'Riley" -- a number that has only recently been pushed to the encores and now, for the first time, is serving as the band's finale.

In an exclusive interview with us, Pete Townshend spoke frankly about the artistic and commercial merits of him and Roger Daltrey driving the Who in today's age: "It's not just about the largest numbers, it's about the greatest effectiveness. And I think that Roger and I, together -- once the creative work is done -- we're a good delivery system; that's what we understand. Y'know, maybe what I've done is found a balance between my solo needs, creatively, and my needs to feel that the Who was not just a stereotypical classic rock machine churning out songs that were eventually be used to sell soap powder. Y'know, we have really put down some very, very clear boundaries: This is what you get."

The Who's opening night setlist on April 22nd, 2022 at Hollywood, Florida's Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino:

Orchestra:
"Overture"
"It's A Boy"
"1921"
"Amazing Journey"
"Sparks"
"The Acid Queen"
""Pinball Wizard"
"We're Not Gonna Take It"
"Who Are You"
"Eminence Front"
"Imagine A Man"
"Hero Ground Zero"
"Join Together"

Band only:
"Substitute"
"The Seeker"
"I Can See For Miles"
"The Kids Are Alright"
"Won't Get Fooled Again" - Townshend & Daltrey acoustic
"Behind Blue Eyes"

Orchestra:
"Ball And Chain"
"The Real Me"
"I'm One"
"5:15"
"The Rock"
"Love, Reign O'er Me"
"Baba O'Riley"

During her headlining performance at the Coachella festival on Saturday (April 23), Billie Eilish slipped and fell, face down on the stage. She got up immediately, laughed it off, and said, "Ouch! You guys, I just ate A** up here…. ok, I'm good."

It happened just as the stage went dark and she was getting ready to sing her hit "Getting Older."

After finishing the song, Billie explained what happened. "It was pitch black and you see that square? This F—king thing? I went de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de and fell onto my face."

In response, members of the crowd then chanted, "F—k the square."

Before her set was over, she surprised the audience by bringing out Paramore's Hayley Williams. Alongside her brother, Finneas, they sang an acoustic version of "Misery Business."
TL;DR:

• At Coachella, Billie Eilish slipped and fell, face down on the stage.
• She got up immediately, laughed it off.
• She surprised the audience by bringing out Paramore's Hayley Williams.

After ending up with egg on his face for revealing tentative plans regarding a Van Halen reunion, ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted is choosing to instead blame the reporter for printing his ultra-newsworthy quotes regarding the project.

Blabbermouth transcribed some of Newsted's interview with West Palm Beach, Florida's 98.7 The Gater, in which he complained that rather than focusing on a benefit show he was playing with the Chophouse Band, The Palm Beach Post ran with his revelation that he was at one time tapped to playing in a revamped version of Van Halen.

Newsted spoke about the item, in which he let it slip that David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen, and Joe Satriani were planning some sort of Van Halen outing: "That was bad, dude. I'm not happy about that. I'm really, really not happy about that. I don't do very many interviews anymore, and I agreed to do that to promote the show for the kids. So if I go to talk about that, and I mentioned two little things over here about the calls that I've received in the past 20 years from whoever it is -- Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, whatever; man, whatever -- I was just listing a list of the calls that I received over time that never went anywhere."

He went on to say, "I only said yes to a couple of the 30 that I received, and I mentioned a couple of them that impressed me. People that if I wouldn't have had their records, I wouldn't play the way I do, they called me on my home phone and said, 'You wanna come and jam with us?' Dude, I'm off the ground; I'm levitating. I'm, like, 'Why would Aerosmith call me?' That's a big frickin' deal to a kid. Just a kid from a farm in Michigan, dude, and a guy from Aerosmith calls and asks me to play bass? However many years later when you stole that album from your brother's collection. It's frickin' huge. That's all I was doing. I talked about two seconds about that, and that's what they chose to go for. They didn't talk about the Conservatory, the kids' classes, the things that we're doing, the Chophouse Band, why we do that we do."

Newsted, who disinvited the reporter to the benefit show he was initially being interviewed for, seems to remain unaware that it was he who spilled the beans on the Van Halen reunion plans -- and in no way was tricked into doing so by the reporter -- who actually knew nothing about it -- adding, "That really rubbed me wrong. I don't know what interviews I'll do again. I'm not sure if I'll say yes to anything."

Mick Jagger claims he has no intention for the Rolling Stones' upcoming European tour being the band's finale, according to The Independent. During an appearance on Swedish radio station P4, Jagger said, "I am not planning it to be the last tour. I love being on tour. I don't think I would do it if I did not enjoy it. I enjoy going out there on stage and doing my stuff. That is what I do. I want everyone to enjoy themselves and forget the troubles in their lives for a couple of hours and just chill out and have a great afternoon and evening."

He went on to look back at the band's formative London years when they were branded the "bad boys" of British rock: "The early days were the days of shock and awe, things can't stay like that forever. When you start out, I mean popular music is always in need of shaking up. We were quite good at that. We had our own style and our own way of approaching things and we had a different way of behaving. And it provoked a lot of people. I thought a lot of it was super over-reaction but it became a bit of a cliché. It served us well in some ways -- we got noticed."

Jagger went on to name check some younger performers these days that have caught his attention: "You have Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly. That kid of post-punk vibe makes me think there is still a bit of life in rock n' roll."

We asked Mick Jagger, who's always in tune to the pulse of popular music, what's he's currently listening to: "Uh, I listen to a lot of stuff, y'know, I go out. . . and went out and bought some. . . see what was in the store the other day. I bought some new records. I listen to some jazz and things like that. I mean, I listen to a bit of everything, to be honest. I've been in India I listened to a lot of Hindi dance music (laughs). It's kind of popular in England, y'know?"

The Rolling Stones' 14-stadium European run kicks off on June 1st in Madrid, Spain and plays through July 31st in Stockholm, Sweden.

Olivia Rodrigo has become the very first celebrity ambassador for Glossier makeup products.

She'll be working with the company on product development, social content, and ad campaigns.

Rodrigo already has favorite products listed on the Glossier website including eyebrow gel, lip color and liquid eyeliner.

She said, "I love eyeliner. Winged eyeliner is my favorite thing in the world. I think I'm getting better at my winged eyeliner game too. I just try to do it every day and statistically, I have to have improved at least a little."

She's been wearing the makeup for a while, including at the most recent Grammy Awards.

TL;DR:

Reports say that Rihanna was "forced to cancel" her baby shower after A$AP Rocky's arrest. According to the UK Sun, Rihanna has been emotional and has been "crying non-stop" after being blindsided by the arrest. Rocky was arrested last week stemming from a non-fatal shooting in Hollywood back in November.

According to The Sun, Rihanna was emotional and had been "crying non-stop" after being blindsided by the arrest. A source said, "She's heavily pregnant and these are very serious accusations, it's a nightmare scenario for her."

The source continued, "It was meant to be Rihanna's baby shower in L.A. on Wednesday night but they had to cancel. Rihanna was very, very upset and stressed by Rocky's arrest. It's not the best time for her to be on such an emotional rollercoaster."

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea admitted he and drummer Chad Smith pretty much only share a musical relationship. MusicRadar.com reported that despite being one of rock's most creative rhythm sections in any era, while chatting on Rick Rubin's Broken Record podcast, Flea shed light on how the two co-exist in the Chili Peppers: "My relationship with Chad is that we don't hang out outside of the band. Never have. I've probably been to his house once, it's like this different thing. It's just this very grounded, rhythmic thing, there's no bulls*** about it. Not that the others (relationships within the band) have bulls*** about it either, but, we get down, we look at each other, and that's how we talk. Very rarely do we speak about emotional things, about spiritual things, even things that trouble us or things we aspire to. It's just, we get down and f***ing hammer out some grooves (laughs)."

He went on to explain, "We talk by playing, we talk by looking at each other and knowing when to lay back into a groove or knowing when to lean forward, and knowing when to sit right in the middle, or knowing when he should lay back and I should lean forward or vice versa. . . That is a beautiful conversation that Chad and I share, and I'm so grateful for that. That's the way that we are, and that's what it is, that's awesome."

Chad Smith told us a while back that it's rare for members of the Chili Peppers to write new music without each other: "We always got ideas bouncing, but until the four of us get in a room together, y'know, that's when we really see how it takes shape. And for the most part when we all get together, that's when it really starts -- get into a groove of jamming and writing."