Pulse Music

Several celebrities, including Shawn Mendes and Ariana Grande have spoken up against Florida's Don't Say Gay bill.

Mendes tweeted in support of equality and asked people to contact their Senators and posted a link to do so.

Grande was even more vocal and called the bill "really disgusting."

The potential law would restrict teachers from speaking about LGBTQ history, people, and other topics in Florida classrooms and give parents the right to sue educators and administrators who did so. It would also require school counselors and teachers to "out" students to their parents if they confide in a trusted adult at school. If the bill is signed into law, it would go into effect July 1.

TL;DR:

• Mendes tweeted in support of equality and asked people to contact their Senators
• Grande called the bill "really disgusting."

Multi-platinum selling band, 5 Seconds of Summer announced a North American tour to kick off June 11 in Vancouver. They'll make stops in Los Angeles, New York City, Nashville, and more before wrapping in St. Louis on July 24. Tickets for the Take My Hand World Tour are on sale now.

Their new single, "Complete Mess," released this week, has already become one of the most added songs at Top 40 and Adult Contemporary radio.

TL;DR:

• North American tour to kick off June 11 in Vancouver.

• Their new single, has already become one of the most added songs at Top 40 and Adult Contemporary radio.

Megan Thee Stallion's new series on Snapchat is taking off. In it, she gets back to her Texas roots to take some much deserved time off.

In the current episode, she's joined by celebrity friends such as Normani, Nicole Richie, and Kelly Rowland, who bring along their animals.

Off Thee Leash airs weekly until April 9.

TL;DR:

You'll see a little less of Olivia Rodrigo on the next season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

According to ET Online she'll step down from being a regular on the series and instead, will be a recurring cast member.

Rodrigo will be busy launching her headlining tour in April.

TL;DR:

• She'll step down from being a regular on the series and instead, will be a recurring cast member.

John Oates of Hall & Oates fame is heading out on a seven-date acoustic run next week. Oates and collaborator Guthrie Trapp will play a string of East Coast shows taking in stops in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, and Rhode Island.

Oates spoke about his acoustic American-styled solo gigs, telling McCall.com: "This show gives me an opportunity to show a side of myself that I don't think a lot of people really know. Everyone knows me from Hall & Oates, the MTV videos, and big hits, and that's great. But I had a whole musical life before I met Daryl Hall, and this is my sweet spot.

He went on to say, "This is the kind of music that I was making as a kid. it's very deeply ingrained in my musical DNA, and these types of shows give me a chance to showcase that side of my music career."

Oates explained that acoustic-based music was part of the ingredients he brought to the initial Hall & Oates mix: "I think that any time you have a collaboration between two or more people, it's always going to be more than the sum of its parts. I was making this kind of music, Daryl was classically trained and he was doing other things -- singing doo-wop on the street corner, you know, that kind of thing. I think we both brought our individual musical personalities together, and what evolved was what became Hall & Oates."

John Oates admitted that his current music, with its scaled back sound and folk influences, he's finally truly showing his musical stripes: "Now that I've had a chance to establish myself and people see how committed I am to it, it's totally being accepted and I think for the first time people are actually seeing my true musical personality."

JUST ANNOUNCED: John Oates tour dates (subject to change):

March 16 - Phoenixville, PA - The Colonial Theatre
March 18 - Laconia, NH - Colonial Theatre Laconia
March 19 - Norwood, MA - The Norwood Theatre
March 20 - Ridgefield, CT - The Ridgefield Playhouse
March 22 - New York, NY - Sony Hall
March 24 - Bethesda, MD - Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club
March 26 - Newport, RI - Jane Pickens Theater & Event Center

AC/DC has just announced "For Those About to Rock" Ale via Half Time Beverage. The new officially sanctioned beer is available to ship to 33 U.S. states. For a special limited time, the first 500 customers get a 12x15 print insert free with your purchase.

According to the press release:

AC/DC's For Those About to Rock Ale (5.9%) is cold fermented for the cool, crisp, refreshing flavor you'd expect from a seasonal Australian lager.

By combining traditional Australian brewing methods with native Aussie hops and cane sugar, the brewers have developed a highly drinkable beer that is true to its heritage, with a clean citrusy hop profile, a subtle malty sweetness, and a bright straw color.

Frontman Brian Johnson told us that despite the decades flying by, AC/DC stays the same: "There's one important thing I think is very important, is we've never changed. The band has never, ever changed. As one interviewer said to Angus (Young), 'Y'know, you've made 15 albums, Angus, and they're all the same.' And Angus said, 'That's not true. We've made 17 albums, and they're all the same.'"

Tenacious D, the Jack Black and Kyle Gass duo has added a fall leg to their U.S. tour.

The new string of shows will kick off on September 9th in Wilmington, North Carolina, and includes stops in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis. In all, 10 new dates have been added.

The tour serves as a belated 20th anniversary celebration of their 2001 self-titled debut album.

Tickets go on sale Friday, (March 11).

TL;DR:

• Tenacious D added a fall leg to their U.S. tour.
• It will kick off on September 9th in Wilmington, North Carolina.
• Tickets go on sale Friday, (March 11).

It was 34 years ago today (March 10th, 1988) that Andy Gibb died. Andy, who was the younger brother of the Bee Gees -- Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb -- died just five days after his 30th birthday from an inflammatory heart virus exacerbated by years of substance abuse. Andy, who was almost a decade younger than his brothers, had desperately wanted to become part of the group, but because of his age he missed out on the Bee Gees' first era of success in the late-'60s. By the time he was 19, he had emigrated from Australia to be with his brothers, who helped him sign with Robert Stigwood, who managed the group and owned their record label, RSO.

Success for Andy came fast, with his brother Barry's songwriting and producing help. He racked up three Number One hits -- "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" in 1977, and "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" and "Shadow Dancing" in 1978 -- all before his 21st birthday.

The long shadow of the Bee Gees was never far from Andy when discovering his own musical success: "I don't honestly think I'd be here now if it wasn't for them, if they hadn't come along first. Well, who knows how it would've worked out? But my brother Barry gave me my first break. He produced my first records -- he wrote most of my hits, so, who's to say? If it hadn't been for him first. . ."

Andy Gibb was briefly married to his high school sweetheart, Kim Reeder, and they had a daughter named Peta in 1978. By 1980, Andy, who had previously been romantically linked with Susan George, Marie Osmond, and Olivia Newton-John, became involved with Dallas star Victoria Principal. With his musical career drying up, he turned to TV, serving as the host of the syndicated music show Solid Gold. As his substance abuse problems increased, he began performing such musicals as The Pirates Of Penzance and Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat, but frequent absences due to drug problems ended all his stage runs prematurely.

Victoria Principal recalled realizing that drugs were playing a major role in Andy's life: "Well, it was became very apparent to me that his behavior was becoming erratic and that he was very, very thin. And Andy was a very kind person and a very gentle person, and some of his behavior seemed the antithesis of who I knew him to be. And over a period of (laughs) deduction, I finally realized that it had to be drugs."

In 1982, once back on track doing the rounds on the comeback trail, Andy publicly blamed his addictions on Principal leaving him -- rather than acknowledging the fact that she had left because of his drug use: "I want to tell a story now -- I turned to drugs for a month. I did quite. . . an awful lot of cocaine -- which I no longer do. I gave up everything. I started missing tapings of Solid Gold -- I would not turn up for tapings. A very bad boy. I didn't care. I didn't care about people, I didn't care about life. I thought so much of the girl -- and I still do -- it just, I just fell apart."

In the last years of his life, Andy was forced to perform a cabaret act based around Bee Gees hits and was supported almost completely by his brothers.

Singer Marilyn McCoo, who co-starred with Andy on Solid Gold, said that he had a tough time living up to his famous brothers: "Andy was fragile. Andy wanted so desperately to be successful like his brothers. Y'know, he was the youngest brother in the 'Brothers Gibb.' So, when Barry decided to produce him, he ended up having some hits on his own, he was very excited about it."

In the mid-'80s, after the hits had dried up, Andy was able to take a long hard look at what his brothers had famously termed "First Fame": "It certainly made me very spoiled. I thought that it was always going to be that way and there would always be those Number One hit records and stuff. Also, I mean, y'know, I'd be foolish to deny it -- you suddenly do get an ego and you've got to come back down to Earth and control that. It was a pretty wild roller coaster ride for those two or three years."

At the time of his death Andy was penniless, living at his brother Robin's estate in England, and had been working on demos for a comeback album to be released in conjunction with the Bee Gees' One album. Tentative plans were in the works for a 1989 Bee Gees/Andy Gibb world tour, after which Gibb would become a permanent member of the Bee Gees -- providing he could get clean.

Oldest brother Barry spoke about Andy's death in the 2000 official Bee Gees biography, Tales From The Brothers Gibb, saying, "To me Andy's problems were not drugs and booze -- to me they were a massive insecurity, psychological problems, compounded by drink and cocaine. Maybe they also caused it, but at the end of the day (he) had no confidence in himself, yet had a lot of talent. . . he seemed to have lost the will or desire to use it."

Barry Gibb explained that the severity of Andy's heart condition was kept a secret from his brothers: "We would play tennis and we would play five or six sets and he'd get very, sort of, flushed and red -- and I didn't know why, y'know? And what he wasn't telling me was that -- he really shouldn't be doing it."

Marilyn McCoo was aware of the substance abuse problems that had been shadowing Andy prior to his death, but says that she thought he was on the road to recovery: "I did not foresee Andy dying the way he did. I hadn't heard from or about Andy in some time at the time that he passed. He was really getting his life together, it seemed like he was on the path toward self-discovery and peace. And so, it was really tragic to see that happen."

Barry Gibb recalled his last heartbreaking conversation with his baby brother: "The last thing that happened between me and Andy was an argument, which is devastating for me, because I have to live with that all my life. And there was a phone call between him and me and I was, sort of, saying, 'Yeah, you've really gotta get your act together. . .' and '. . . this is no good.' Instead of being gentle about it -- I was angry, because someone had said to me at one point -- 'Tough love is the answer,' y'know? So, for me, it wasn't, because that was the last conversation we had. That's my regret. That's what I live with."

Andy Gibb was survived by his daughter, his brothers, his sister Leslie, and his late-parents Barbara and Hugh.

Barry, who produced the majority of Andy's work, has been working on a box set of his demos, outtakes, and works-in-progress for sometime in the near future.

In 2009 the Bee Gees released the four-disc set called Mythology with Barry and Robin selecting the tracks for their own personal discs, Maurice's wife and two children handpicking the songs for his disc, and the songs for Andy's disc selected by his daughter Peta in her first official role acting on behalf of her father. The collection marks the first time Andy Gibb's work was presented alongside his older brothers' catalogue.

The adult children of Barry, Maurice, Robin, and Andy Gibb joined forces to record an album, the 2017 album, Please Don't Turn Out The Lights. The group has been named Gibb Collective, and features Peta; Barry's sons Stephen and Travis; Robin's sons Spencer and Robin John; and Maurice's children Samantha and Adam, who cover their father's classic songs. Peta Gibb covers his Shadow Dancing deep cut "Fool For Love."

Robin Gibb died of kidney failure at the age of 62 on May 20th, 2012 after battling colon and liver cancer.

Maurice Gibb died on January 12th, 2003 at age 53 after undergoing emergency abdominal surgery in Florida.

In 2021, Foo Fighters paid tribute to Andy Gibb on the Rock-N-Relief charity livestream, by performing "Shadow Dancing" with drummer Taylor Hawkins singing lead.

Bob Dylan's first new book in 18 years, titled, The Philosophy Of Modern Song, will be published on November 8th, according to Rolling Stone. The new non-fiction work follows his 2004 autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One -- but will not be the longg awaited second volume of memoirs, but instead will feature 60 essays featuring Dylan's musings on other popular musicians -- including Stephen Foster, Elvis Costello, Hank Williams, and Nina Simone. Dylan has been working on the manuscript for the past decade.

According to the book's official press release:

Bob Dylan analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan's unique prose. They are mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny.

And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on the human condition. Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work's transcendence.

Jonathan Karp, the President and CEO of publishers Simon & Schuster said in a statement, "The publication of Bob Dylan's kaleidoscopically brilliant work will be an international celebration of songs by one of the greatest artists of our time. The Philosophy Of Modern Song could only have been written by Bob Dylan. His voice is unique, and his work conveys his deep appreciation and understanding of songs, the people who bring those songs to life, and what songs mean to all of us."

During a chat a while back with CBS' 60 Minutes, Bob Dylan was asked why he continues to write, record, and tour: "Well, it goes back to that destiny thing. Y'know, I made a bargain with it, y'know, a long time ago, to get where I am now. I'm holdin' up my end." SOUNDUE

Bruce Springsteen was on hand in his hometown of Freehold, New Jersey yesterday (March 8th) at the official ceremony announcing, "The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music." APP.com reported the joint effort between New Jersey's Monmouth University and the city of Freehold will be housed at the firehouse on Main Street in Freehold which is no longer, "adequate for the borough's fire safety needs." The official opening date for the Archives is set for some time in 2024.

Springsteen, who grew up nearby, told the assembled crowd, "The bottom line is you can't get away from the fact that it feels bizarre. I sat three blocks from here, came up with a few songs, things that I liked. The idea that 50 years later anybody was going to be interested in them at all, I mean, what are the odds, folks? They're very small."

"The Boss," who still lives close his hometown in Colts Neck, spoke wistfully about his time in Freehold, revealing, "Everything I've learned of deep importance, I learned in this town. You learn most of what makes you who you are, gosh, I don't know, by the time you're 12. Maybe your teen years. I had all the usual joy and heartbreak of growing up in a small town like this, and of course the minute the opportunity arose, I got the hell out (laughs)."

He went on to say, "I suppose the unusual thing was that moving around the world as I did, all I do is I always came back. I always come back. To this day I've spent quite a bit of money and time trying to figure out what I came back for, and so far no answer. I'll let you know as things go along."

Bruce Springsteen prides himself that throughout his career -- be it on the stage or in the studio -- the thread of where he comes from is still fully evident and ringing true: "My heroes, a lot of my heroes, the people that came before me lose something when they lost a little sense of -- I hate to say their 'roots' -- 'cause you can go anyplace and you can take it with you anywhere you go. It's not, it's not necessarily being in a physical place -- although that may help somewhat. But it's just that sense of your own history and what your initial motivations were. What the point was in the beginning."

Mandy Moore announced Tuesday (March 8th) that she will release her new full-length studio album, In Real Life,on May 13th.

Along with the album, Moore announced an expansive summer headlining tour for North America, her first in over a decade, and is set to perform at Newport Folk Festival in July. The tour will kick off at the Variety Playhouse on June 10rh in Atlanta, GA and will visit 26 major cities including Webster Hall in New York on June 15th, The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on June 25th and The Fonda Theater in Los Angeles on July 22th.

In Real Life follows Silver Landings, the critically acclaimed album that marked Moore's first new body of work in over a decade and was released in March 2020.

Camila Cabello accidentally flashed the hosts of BBC's The One Show during an appearance to promote her new single "Bam Bam" on Monday (March 7th).

The 25-year-old singer was demonstrating her favorite dance move from the song's video when her blouse slid down, briefly revealing her entire right breast.

As the Cinderella star covered herself, she told the hosts she hoped they "didn't see nipple," to which co-host Alex Jones replied, "There was a bit of a wardrobe malfunction. I don't know what I saw, there was a flash of something."

After the show, Cabello went on TikTok to lip sync the lyrics, "I wish I had a time machine," from Muni Long's song "Time Machine" with the caption, "When my stylist asked me if I wanted nip covers and I said no."

Justin Bieber is back on the road after his bout with Covid-19, and he celebrated by bringing several famous friends on stage at his Los Angeles stop Monday (March 8th).

According to TMZ, the nearly two-hour-long show – with a 24-song setlist – featured Leon Bridges, who played "River," Don Toliver for "Don't Go" and Quavo for "Intentions."

He also dedicated the song "Anyone" to his "beautiful wife" Hailey, saying, "She's out there somewhere. She hates me when I put her on the spot. She's probably over there blushing. She probably hates me right now, but I love her. I love you so much baby. Let's do the damn thing."

Bieber's next stop on the Justice World Tour will be Portland, Oregon on March 11th.

Kanye West has shared a poem about being "dead." In the poem, he wrote, "No one wanted to tell me I was DEAD / And only people that would talk to me were in my head. No one wanted to tell me I was DEAD / Only people who loved me visit in their dreams instead." He added, "My kids would dance for me in a home I once led."

He also addressed the media in the poem, saying, "Every thing was wrong in the press that I read." He added, "I found out one day at the newsstand in purgatory / There was a front page article of my murderer's story. I was so surprised at what it said / This info is for the living / And surprise… You're DEAD."

Kanye captioned the poem, "I will not explain this new piece for the explanation destroys the mystery and magic of true love and puts it in a box that can be counted. Art is subjective Art only works when it is the artist absolute truth Someone's truth can be another persons lie."

Lynyrd Skynyrd is heading back on the road and has announced the first 14-dates to their 2022 "Big Wheels Keep on Turnin' Tour." As it stands now, Skynyrd will kick things off on April 9th in Scottsdale, Arizona at Westworld for Arizona Bike Week and will stay on the road through September 23rd when they hit Sparks, Nevada's Nugget Event Center.

Opening for Skynyrd will be former-Eagles guitarist Don Felder, the Outlaws, the Devon Allman Project, and the Marshall Tucker Band, who'll alternate the opening spot in varying combinations. No word whether sole founding member, guitarist Gary Rossington, will be joining Skynyrd on the road after being sidelined by emergency heart surgery last year.

Frontman Johnny Van Zant told us that the best of Lynyrd Skynyrd's music has always seemed to defy genres: "They gave us a tag years ago of 'Southern Rock,' and to me I always thought that must mean it's 'Country Rock,' which is the truth, and around our house we were listening to Merle Haggard and George Jones, but we also watched Ed Sullivan and saw Elvis Presley and the Beatles, too, and loved all that stuff too, so there's no boundaries in music these days."

It was 15 years ago today (March 9th, 2007) that Boston lead singer Brad Delp committed suicide at his home in Atkinson, New Hampshire, at the age of 55. Emergency operators in Concord, New Hampshire, got a phone call seeking help and when local police responded, they found Delp had suffocated from the smoke of two charcoal grills he had lit inside his bathroom. The singer was found lying on a pillow by his fiancee, Pamela Sullivan. His cause of death was listed as carbon monoxide poisoning.

Delp will be remembered for his peerless vocals on such timeless Boston classics as "More Than A Feeling," "Peace Of Mind," "Foreplay/Long Time," "Rock & Roll Band," "Smokin'" -- which he co-wrote with Boston co-founder Tom Scholz, "Hitch A Ride," "Something About You," "Let Me Take You Home Tonight," -- which Delp wrote on his own, "Don't Look Back," "We're Ready," and Boston's only chart-topper, 1986's "Amanda." Delp is featured posthumously on Boston's latest album, 2013's Love, Life, And Hope.

Immediately following his death, Tom Scholz posted a statement on the official bandboston.com website: "We've just lost the nicest guy in rock and roll. . . As you all know by now, Boston's lead singer, Brad Delp, was found dead in his home on Friday, March 9th, 2007. Plans for live Boston performances this summer have, of course, been canceled. My heart goes out to his wonderful fiancee Pamela, his two children and other family members, his close friends and band mates, and to the millions of people whose lives were made a little brighter by the sound of his voice. He will be dearly missed."

Shortly before his death, Brad Delp recalled to us the first time that rock n' roll entered his life back in October 1956: "I was told the story of when Elvis first came on Ed Sullivan, my sister flipped the chair over (laughs) when he came on, and I do remember playing her Elvis records, and her Buddy Holly records. And I was lucky enough that I got to see Elvis. It was the last tour I think that he ever did, and he played in Providence, Rhode Island, so he wasn't in the best of health, but I can say that I actually got to see Elvis on stage."

Like many people his age, Delp decided to become a musician after watching the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, and he worked with a number of groups in the area while he was still in school. Delp graduated from Danvers High School in 1969, and it wasn't long before he hooked up with Scholz to work on the music that became the first Boston album.

Delp left Scholz and Boston following the release of the band's second album, 1978's Don't Look Back, and he spent a few years working with former Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau on a number of projects, including the groups RTZ and Orion The Hunter, before returning to Boston in 1986 for the album Third Stage. He was out again for the recording of the band's next album, 1994's Walk On, but he returned for the tour and shared lead vocal duties with Fran Cosmo. That arrangement was still in place until fairly recently, when Fran and his son Anthony Cosmo were dismissed.

When he wasn't working with Boston, Delp could often be found doing Beatles covers with the band BeatleJuice, which had been playing the local circuit for many years.

Back in 2007, Tom Scholz told us that Brad Delp had the greatest set of pipes he'd ever heard: "He's the best singer I've ever heard -- period. I have worked with a ton of 'em -- nobody can do the things that he can do. I'm not talking about singing high notes -- lots of people can do that. He can do amazing things with his voice, and his grasp of music is just mind-boggling. The things that he can keep upstairs. . . it's like you're tapping into some kind of computer memory bank or something."

Scholz credits Delp as the key to Boston's global success: "He and I were the ones, y'know, that put most of those tracks on the albums. Y'know, I did the instruments, mostly, and he did the singing. That was the key. That's what we did in the demos -- I mean, other than the drum track -- and that's what worked. We basically did that on the albums and we certainly had some contributions from people along the way. But in my mind, y'know, none of them would've been successful without Brad's voice on them. I don't think there would've been a Boston today if he hadn't been the singer."

THE AFTERMATH

In 2012 Tom Scholz filed suit against The Boston Globe, accusing the paper of claiming that he allegedly drove Brad Delp to suicide in 2007. In legal testimony and the press, Delp's closest friends took to Delp's defense, with Ultimate Classic Rock quoting former Boston member David Sikes saying, Delp "didn't like Tom and didn't trust Tom. He felt that Tom had taken advantage of him financially, especially."

Shortly before his suicide, Sikes says that Delp told him "how much he envied me, that I had the guts to stand up to Tom Scholz and the guts to quit the band and to move on with my life, to leave Boston."

Close friend Joy Baker testified, "Brad just could not stand one more minute of feeling like he could not stand up for himself or do the right thing, if you will, in any aspect of his life, because he was so afraid. . . he would run from confrontation and I think he was just beaten down by the years of dealing with Tom Scholz."

Examiner.com reported that on August 24th, 2012 Superior Court Judge John C. Cratsley threw out Scholz' defamation lawsuit against Brad Delp's ex-wife Micki Delp. Scholz claimed that Micki's interview with The Boston Herald alluded that Scholz was the cause for Delp's suicide.

Scholz has gone on record stating that "an extremely upsetting and embarrassing incident" was the real reason for Delp's suicide. To make a long story short -- according to Scholz -- Delp was engaged to Pamela Sullivan at the time of his death. For the two years leading up to his suicide, Pamela's sister Meg lived with Delp in a very close, but platonic relationship. Meg and her boyfriend found a secret battery powered camera planted in her bedroom -- allegedly set up by Delp.

When confronted, Delp was humiliated and contrite -- blaming the emotional fallout from an alleged previous affair of Pamela's for his problems. The couple allowed Delp to tell Pamela himself. Instead, Delp brought two charcoal barbecue grills up to his bedroom, turned the gas on and killed himself.

In the notes Delp left behind, he told the couple: "I have had bouts of depression and thoughts of suicide since I was a teenager. . . (Pamela) was my 'ray of sunshine,' but sometimes even a ray of sunshine is no substitute for a good psychiatrist."

Alanis Morissette announced Tuesday (March 8th) that she will hit the road with Garbage this summer to celebrate 25 years of Jagged Little Pill.

The new tour dates will kick off in Ottawa on July 10th and hit cities including Toronto and Vancouver before wrapping in Mountain View, CA on August 6th.

Tickets go on sale Friday, March 11th. The singer will also release her new song, "Olive Branch" the same day.

Tickets are already on sale for the Foo Fighters' six-city stadium tour of Australia and New Zealand. Between November 30th and December 17th, Dave Grohl and the gang will hit Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney, Australia -- along with stops in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand.

NME reported the assorted Australian and New Zealand support acts opening the shows will include the Chats, Teenage Joans, Teen Jesus & The Jean Teasers, Amyl And The Sniffers, and Dick Move. Britain's Hot Milk will also join the tour for three dates, marking their first-ever Down Under shows.

Dave Grohl told us a while back that it's vital for the band to change up the live show from night to night: "You've got to change it up. To keep things interesting musically, like, that's our lifeline, y'know, and to experiment and do things we've never done before. So we go out every night and we play all the loud, old rock stuff, we play all the loud new rock stuff, we play acoustic stuff, newer acoustic stuff, we just kind of change it up a little bit."

JUST ANNOUNCED: Foo Fighters Down Under tour dates (subject to change):

November 30 - Perth, Australia - HBF Park
December 4 - Melbourne, Australia - AAMI Park
December 10 - Brisbane, Australia - Suncorp Stadium
December 12 - Sydney, Australia - Accor Stadium
December 15 - Wellington, New Zealand - Sky Stadium
December 17 - Auckland, New Zealand - Western Springs Stadium

Kelly Clarkson and Brandon Blackstock have settled their divorce battle.

According to TMZ, L.A. Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon signed off on the terms, giving Clarkson primary custody of their two kids, while her ex will have them one weekend a month.

The talk show host will continue to hold on to the couple's Montana ranch but Blackstock is allowed to rent the home for $12,500 a month until June 1st. And although the entertainment manager turned rancher has been awarded $115,000 a month in spousal support, payments will end in January 2024.

The couple was married from October 2013 until their divorce was finalized in August 2021. They have two children together, River Rose and Remy Alexander.

Lady Gaga has rescheduled The Chromatica Ball.

The singer announced Monday (March 7th) that the 15-stop summer stadium tour will run from July 17th to September 10th. She'll be making stops in Washington DC, New York, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco annd Los Angeles.

Tickets for domestic dates go on sale March 14th. One dollar from each ticket purchased will be donated to Born This Way Foundation, a non-profit founded by the House of Gucci star and her mother in 2012.

Originally scheduled for the summer after Gaga's 2020 album Chromatica was released, the tour was postponed due to coronavirus concerns.

Machine Gun Kelly wants BTS to play at his wedding to Megan Fox.

During the game "Burning Questions" on Monday's (March 7th) episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, he said he said that if he had to pick a boyband to play at his reception, he would probably pick NSYNC or BTS, adding that he had an in with the "Permission To Dance" group.

He told DeGeneres, "I met them at the Billboard Awards, they were, like, stoked to meet me. I think I have a better chance of getting BTS to come."

One of Olivia Rodrigo's previously unheard tracks will be revealed in the performer's forthcoming Disney+ documentary.

The "Drivers License" singer told Rolling Stone Monday (March 7th) that a song, previously cut from her debut album, Sour, will be featured in the film Driving Home 2 U (A Sour Film).

An iPhone recording of the untitled, unfinished tune will appear during the end credits of the documentary when it premieres on March 25th.

ZZ Top are heading back on the road and have rolled out a 25-date spring and summer "Raw Whisky" tour itinerary. The tour's title is a hat tip to both the forthcoming album as well as the recent release of ZZ Top Tres Hombres whisky from Balcones Distilling of Waco TX, a flavorful 100 proof mash bill of roasted blue corn, malted barley and rye.

As it stands now, the band featuring Billy F. Gibbons, Frank Beard, and bassist Elwood Francis will kick things off on May 6th in Niagara Falls, Ontario at the Fallsview Casino Resort and run through August 27th when the tour wraps at Beaver Dam, Kentucky's Beaver Dam Amphitheater.

Coming on July 22nd will be the new 11-track Raw album, which recorded as part of the 2019 Netflix documentary That Little Ol' Band From Texas. Highlights include such classics as "La Grange, "Tush," "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide," and "Gimme All Your Lovin'," among others. The recordings, which feature late-bassist Dusty Hill, were recorded at a "very intimate session at Gruene Hall -- the oldest continually run dance hall in Texas."

Billy F. Gibbons and Frank Beard wrote about the sessions in the album's liner notes:

It was, in a very real way, a return to our roots. Just us and the music, no audience of thousands, no concession stands, no parking lot social hour, no phalanx of tour busses. Just us and the music.

We knew right then it was a very special circumstance, all of us in the same place at the same time and what a time it most certainly was!

It was as bare bones as when we first started touring in a behemoth Chrysler station wagon, driving vast stretches between those early far-flung shows under blackened Texas skies and first hearing our records on the radio. We were bonded as brothers.

'The Dust'' may have left the building but he's still very much with us.

It's going on 40 years after ZZ Top's MTV era-defining 1983 Eliminator album, which featured such instant band classics as "Gimme All Your Lovin'," "Sharp Dressed Man," and "Legs." We asked guitarist Billy F. Gibbons how the band was able to embrace the 1980's while staying true to themselves musically: "Yeah, well as the old saying goes: 'One foot in the blues.' It keeps it honest and kinda straight ahead. We can narrow the range -- take it far left, far right; let's go back to step one -- the blues."

JUST ANNOUNCED: ZZ Top tour dates (subject to change):

May 6 - Niagara Falls, ON - Fallsview Casino Resort
May 29 - Paso Robles, CA - Vina Robles Amphitheatre
June 1 - Redding, CA - Redding Civic Auditorium
June 2 - Saratoga, CA - The Mountain Winery
June 5 - Jacksonville, OR - Britt Pavilion
June 7 - Bend, OR - Hayden Homes Amphitheater
June 8 - Walla Walla, WA - Wine Country Amphitheater
June 9 - Spokane, WA - First Interstate Center for the Arts
June 12 - Billings, MT - MetraPark – First Interstate Arena
June 14 - Grand Junction, CO - Las Colonias Park Amphitheater
June 17 - Tucson, AZ - Casino Del Sol's AVA Amphitheater
June 19 - Colorado Springs, CO - Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts
June 21 - Loveland, CO - Budweiser Events Center
June 22 - Grand Island, NE - Fonner Park - Heartland Events Center
June 24 - Park City, KS - Hartman Arena
June 25 - Oklahoma City, OK - Zoo Amphitheatre
June 26 - Little Rock, AR - First Security Amphitheater
June 29 - Rogers, AR - Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion
July 1 - Toledo, OH - Toledo Zoo & Aquarium – Amphitheater
July 2 - Sterling Heights, MI - Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill
July 5 - Fort Wayne, IN - Foellinger Theater
July 9 - Greenville, WI - Greenville Lion's Park
July 22 - Boston, MA - Leader Bank Pavilion
July 23 - Watertown, NY - Watertown Fairgrounds Baseball Diamond
August 27 - Beaver Dam, KY - Beaver Dam Amphitheater

Rather than escalate his feud with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx is trying to explain his anger at Vedder's comments. During a recent chat with The New York Times, Eddie Vedder recalled working at a San Diego venue back in the 1980's when glam metal was at its peak. Vedder remembered, "I'd end up being at shows that I wouldn't have chosen to go to -- bands that monopolized late-'80s MTV. The metal bands that -- I'm trying to be nice -- I despised. 'Girls, Girls, Girls' and Mötley Crüe: F*** you. I hated it. I hated how it made the fellas look. I hated how it made the women look. It felt so vacuous."

Blabbermouth transcribed a chat between Sixx and Brazilian entrepreneur Paulo Baron and music critic Regis Tade in which he shed light on his feelings about Vedder's unprovoked slamming of his band: "I'm not trying to be the guy that wrote (the Crüe song) 'Bastard' (from 1983's Shout At The Devil album), 'cause I'm not the guy that wrote 'Bastard'. I wrote that song about somebody that ripped us off. I am the guy that if you f*** with me, I will f*** with you back. And that's what that song is about. You take a swipe at my band; I'll take a swipe at your band. You try to hurt my family, which is my band; I will try to hurt you. That's not something to be proud about (laughs)."

Sixx explained that he and his bandmates were totally open to the grunge scene emanating out of the Pacific Northwest, recalling, "I remember going to MTV with (a copy of Nirvana's) Nevermind before it had come out. We were, like, 'Hey, you guys gotta check out this band. You gotta check out this band.' And they were bands that were coming. I remember having a cassette -- I think it was demos; it might not have been; it might have been early recordings -- for Rage Against The Machine, and I remember telling everybody about that."

He went on to say, "We've never been afraid to embrace music changing because that's the whole idea behind music. If you listen to 'Too Fast For Love' and then you listen to 'The Dirt', you're, like, 'Well, it's the same band, but it has grown.' So we never had a problem with that. My only thing is, you wanna take a crack at my band, I'm probably gonna say something back. But what I don't understand is why's the guy even talking about my band? He's a successful guy."

Nikki Sixx added, "Listen, let's face it: the guy flies around in private jets; he lives in a mansion in a gated community; he sells out stadiums; and then he dresses at the thrift store and tries to pretend some guy in the '90s. Don't take a swipe at my band, dude. I mean, I'm at least being honest."