The iHeartRadio Music Award Winners Are...
The 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards are in the books. The iHeartRadio Music Awards were hosted by Ludacris last night in Los Angeles. Miley Cyrus took home the big award of the night as she accepted the Innovator Award for her impact on music and pop culture. Taylor Swift won seven awards, making her the big winner of the night. She took home Artist of the Year, Best Pop album of the Year, and Best Pop Song of the Year, just to name a few. Alex Warren won several awards, including Best New Pop Artist.and Song of the Year for "Ordinary" and the Breakthrough Artist Award. Other winners included Leon Thomas, who won Best New R&B Artist; Sombr, who took home Best New Alternative Artist, and Ella Langley, who was named Best New Country Artist.
Rock Song of the Year went to Linkin Park, for their song "Heavy Is The Crown." Sublime's "Ensenada" was crowned Alternative Song of the Year. Twenty One Pilots was named Alternative Artist of The Year, while Shinedown took home the award for Rock Artist of the Year. Sombr also made the list of winners, walking away with the Best New Alternative Artist award.
- John Mellencamp was honored with the Icon Award. Mellencamp delivered a heartfelt, stripped-down set after accepting the Icon Award, turning the moment into both a celebration and a reflection on his decades-long career. With acoustic renditions of “Jack & Diane” and “Pink Houses,” he invited the crowd to sing along, creating a nostalgic vibe that really captured his enduring legacy.
PAUL McCARTNEY: First Album in Over Five Years
Paul McCartney has announced his new album. The Boys of Dungeon Lane, his 20th solo effort (31 if you count Wings and The Fireman), will be released on May 29th, with the first single, "Days We Left Behind," available now on YouTube.
He says, "This is very much a memory song for me. The album title, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, comes from a lyric in this track. I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind and I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else? It’s just a lot of memories of Liverpool. It involves a bit in the middle about
John [Lennon] and Forthlin Road, which is the street I used to live in. Dungeon Lane is near there. I used to live in a place called Speke [prn: speak] which is quite working class. We didn’t have much at all, but it didn’t matter because all the people were great and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much.” The seeds for the album were planted five years ago when McCartney got together with producer Andrew Watt, known for his work with The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Pearl Jam, Ozzy, Lady Gaga and many others. Their first session resulted in the album’s opening track, "As You Lie There," on which McCartney played all the instruments.
The Boys of Dungeon Lane contains 14 songs and is McCartney's first album since McCartney III in 2020. McCartney will celebrate the news with two shows this Friday and Saturday at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles.
JOHN FOGERTY: Put Him in Coach, It's Opening Day
With yesterday (Thursday) being opening day for 22 of Major League Baseball's 30 teams, John Fogerty announced that he will release a "Hall of Fame" edition of his 1985 album, Centerfield, this summer. The album was sourced from the original half-inch master analog tapes and remastered and will be released in deluxe packaging. The CD and digital editions have been expanded to include live performances of “Centerfield,” “Rock and Roll Girls,” and “Old Man Down the Road,” recorded in 2024.
On July 25th, 2010, in celebration of the album's 25th anniversary, Fogerty became the only musician honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York as the song "Centerfield" was inducted into its hallowed halls. "When I originally wrote this song it was basically an eight-year-old boy saying thank you to baseball for all the joy and inspiration it has given me -- and of course I've idolized the players and the game and the situations all of my life. So that eight-year-old boy right now is saying, 'It doesn't get any better than this.'" He performed the song at that summer's annual induction ceremony and donated his baseball-bat-shaped guitar to the Hall.
Fogerty will be in New York City this Saturday at Madison Square Garden for the Thank You, NYPD concert honoring New York City’s first responders. Also on the bill are Cyndi Lauper, Fat Joe, and more, celebrating the city’s service community. It's a free show for for roughly 15,000 NYPD uniformed officers, civilian employees and their loved ones. Then on June 11th, Fogerty will be back in New York to receive the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the institution's highest honor. (He was inducted into the SHOF in 2005.) He then has a one-off show later in the month in Lincoln, California followed by his tour in September with special guest Steve Winwood.
VAN HALEN: 5150 Amped Up
Three days after the 40th anniversary of the release of Van Halen's first album with Sammy Hagar, 5150 -- March 24th, 1986 -- comes the deluxe edition today (Friday). It contains not only a remastered version of the album, but also more than 90 minutes of previously unreleased recordings from their August 27th, 1986, concert at the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut, a selection of rare seven-inch single edits, and extended 12-inch versions. There's also a Blu-ray containing a high-definition upgrade of the video of that show, which was previously released as Live Without a Net, plus promo videos for “Dreams” and “Why Can’t This Be Love.” The collection will also be available on vinyl and digitally.
Looking back on the recording of that album, bassist Michael Anthony reflects on what Sammy Hagar brought to the band. "Besides his vocal talent, he plays guitar. So, he can come from that part of it to where's it's not just vocally. And of course, he didn't want to play guitar at all obviously 'cause of Eddie [Van Halen]. But he understood chord structure and stuff like that, where Dave [Lee Roth] really didn't do much of that at all, besides the lyrics, Sammy came from a musical standpoint to. So, we had that input now, which was great." And Anthony says Hagar also brought fun back into the band, especially when it came to recording. "In the early days with Dave [Lee Roth] it was obviously like four buddies going in and joking around and just having a good time. And of course, back then we were new to being in the studio, so we were also learning. But towards the end, like the [19]84 album, whatever, you know, it was more of a serious tone with Dave. When Sammy joined the band, it was right back to being four clowns in the studio again. And certain days, I swear to god Ed [Van Halen] would pick up a guitar and we would play something for about, you know, five, 10 minutes or whatever, and then we wouldn't play another note the whole day 'cause we'd just be goofing around the rest of the day." Anthony and Hagar are still bandmates in Hagar's Best of All Worlds Band. Hagar did his first show with Van Halen 40 years ago this Friday, March 27th, 1986 in Shreveport, Louisiana.
LOU GRAMM: Released Is Released Today
Original Foreigner singer Lou Gramm will release his first album in 17 years today (Friday).
Titled Released, it contains 10 songs left off his previous albums. Lou says "It's releasing these old pent up songs too. So, it's double entendre. And it's a very creative rock record. Different feels. There's some R&B feel to it. There's straight-ahead hard rock and a couple of really nice different ballad-type songs." Some of the songs were unfinished, but real gems. So, here it is, 30-something years later and I just went back and started listening to those ideas and they hit me over the head. Some needed a last verse, some needed a lead guitar, you know, enough to keep it off an album, but not enough to keep it out of my mind." The album features Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell – Gramm’s bandmate in Shadow King in 1990 and '91 – on the lead track, “Young Love." Gramm will hit the road as Foreigner's special guest next month for six dates in Florida from the 17th in St. Augustine through the 23rd in Key West. And Gramm and his band have scattered dates from May through August.
Weezer Plots 2026 North American Tour
Weezer has announced a 32-city North American arena tour called "The Gathering," kicking off September 8 in Sacramento and wrapping October 24 in Los Angeles. The Shins and Silversun Pickups will open all dates, and the tour hits major cities including Chicago, New York, Boston, Toronto, Seattle, and Denver. The band will also release a new single called "Shine Again" on April 1st, their first new music since signing to Reprise/Warner Records. A new, untitled album is expected later this year. Presales begin March Tuesday, with general on-sale starting April 3rd. For a full list of tour stops, head to weezer.com here.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Not Holding Back
Bruce Springsteen is ready to let spew his distaste for President Trump and his administration on his Land of Hope and Dreams tour, which starts Tuesday in Minneapolis. He tells the
Minnesota Star Tribune, "The tour is going to be political and very topical about what’s going on in the country. “The E Street Band is built for hard times. It always was. These are the moments when I think we can be of real value and real worth to the community. “I don’t know of another time when the country has been as critically challenged, and our basic ideas and values as critically challenged as they are right now. I’d have to go back to 1968 when I was 18 years old to another moment when it felt like the country was so on edge and like it felt there was simply so much at stake as far as who we are and the country we want to be and the people we want to be. It’s a critical, critical moment.”
As for the criticism leveled against him by Trump and White House spokesperson, Steven Cheung, who commented on the tour with a pun-filled, run-on statement that started by calling Springsteen a loser, he says, "My job is very simple: I do what I want to do, I say what I want to say, and then people get to say what they want to say about it. … I don’t worry about if you’re going to lose this part of your audience. I’ve always had a feeling about the position we play culturally, and I’m still deeply committed to that idea of the band. The blowback is just part of it. I’m ready for all that.” And based on his rehearsals at the Ocean Grove Youth Temple in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, his set list leaves nothing to the imagination as it opens with his cover of Edwin Starr's "War" right into "Born in the U.S.A." followed by "Death to My Hometown," "No Surrender" and his new song, "Streets of Minneapolis."
Springsteen is visiting 18 cities with arena shows in 17 before the finale in Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. on May 27th. Springsteen will get a head start on the tour this Saturday when he performs his new song, "Streets of Minneapolis," at the No Kings rally at the Minnesota state capital in St. Paul. The Springsteen rehearsal set list from this past Tuesday, March 24th:
1."War"
2."Born in the U.S.A."
3."Death to My Hometown"
4."No Surrender"
5."Darkness on the Edge of Town"
6."Streets of Minneapolis"
7."The Promised Land"
8."Out in the Street"
9."Youngstown"
10."Murder Incorporated"
11."American Skin (41 Shots)"
12."Long Walk Home"
13."House of a Thousand Guitars"
14."My City of Ruins"
15."Human Touch"
16."Because the Night"
17."Wrecking Ball"
18."The Rising"
19."Badlands"
20."Land of Hope and Dreams"
Earlier this week Springsteen posted a new video on Facebook and Instagram promoting the tour and the message he wants to covey.
QUEEN: What's II Is New Again
Queen's catalog reissue campaign continues this Friday with the deluxe reissue of their second album, Queen II. Originally released in 1974, the album has been remixed, remastered and expanded into a five-CD and two-LP box set. It includes previously unheard outtakes and demos, live tracks, radio sessions and a 112-page book. That book features previously unseen photographs, handwritten lyrics, diary entries and special memorabilia, as well as memories of writing and recording the album from the band members. Guitarist Brian May says, "Queen II was the single biggest leap we ever made. That’s when we really started making music the way we wanted to, rather than the way we were being pushed into recording it.” Drummer
Roger Taylor adds, "With Queen II, I couldn’t believe how much work we put into it. I think we felt we were evolving our own sound. We were pioneering this sort of multi-tracking thing. It gave you a tremendous pallet, massive choral effects with just three of us singing.” And from the archives, Freddie Mercury said, “I wanted to give it everything -- to be self-indulgent. But the whole band in particular, we don't go in for half-measures and I'm pretty hard with myself. There are no compromises.”
In addition to the deluxe set, the album is also available on two CDs or one vinyl LP. Like their 1973 self-titled debut album, which was reissued as Queen I in 2024, Queen II ends with the same track, "Seven Seas of Rhye." But instead of an instrumental that clocked in at just over a minute, they added lyrics, increasing it to 2:45. And, as Brian May explains, it became the only single off Queen II because the vocals started at 20 seconds in as opposed to "Keep Yourself Alive," the first single off their debut album, which was 35 seconds in.
See Billie Joe Armstrong Sing Ozzy Osbourne, David Bowie Songs at Coverups Concert
Billie Joe Armstrong and his all-covers band, the Coverups, performed a secret show at the Cornerstone in Berkeley, California earlier this week on Wednesday, featuring a 30-song set that included hits like Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” and David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust.” The band, which also includes Green Day guitarist Jason White, played songs Armstrong has sung with Green Day, as well as new selections. The rest of the set list, according to Setlist.fm, included Nirvana's "Drain You," the Strokes' "Last Nite," the Go-Go's "We Got the Beat," Misfits' "Where Eagles Dare," and Cheap Trick's "Surrender." The Coverups have been active since 2018, with occasional gigs and a lineup that includes Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt. The band is set to play at the Notes & Words benefit concert at Oakland’s Fox Theater on May 2.
JUDAS PRIEST: On the Wings of Kirk
Judas Priest and Rob Halford have a couple of interesting projects on tap for this year.
Halford has been announced as the first major guest star on William Shatner's upcoming album of metal covers due out later this year. Halford sings on a new take on "You've Got Another Thing Coming" from Priest's 1982 album Screaming for Vengeance. The 95-year-old Shatner said, “I’ve always been drawn to the energy and storytelling of heavy metal. Working with Rob on this track brings that intensity to life in a way that feels both timeless and entirely new.” Halford added, "'One life I’m gonna live it up!' William Shatner is boldly doing that more than ever, and I am honored to reinforce this message with him -- 'Taking flight I said I’ll never get enough!’” On the Priest front, their guitarist Richie Faulkner says they were in the studio in February "laying the foundation" for a new album. And they've regained the rights to their 1976 album Sad Wings of Destiny. Exciter Records is currently working on a reissue that will feature a remix of the original album plus a remastered version of the original mix.
NICKELBACK: "How" Did This Megan Cheetos Collab Happen?
Nickelback have teamed up with rapper Megan Thee Stallion for a big-budget video to promote the return of Cheetos Flamin' Hot Pickle flavor. The band's classic "How You Remind Me" gets a new set of lyrics -- plus rap breaks from Megan -- as it soundtracks what's basically a special effects-laden short film. You have to watch it to believe it, take our word on that.
Watch it now on YouTube.
BEASTIE BOYS: Ad-Rock Gets Another Role
Beastie Boys' Ad-Rock -- a.k.a. Adam Horovitz -- has signed on to star in a Netflix film with another famous Adam -- Adam Sandler. The film is called Time Out and the rest of the cast includes Willem Dafoe, Gaby Hoffmann, F. Murray Abraham, and Steve Zahn. It's based on a French film by director Laurent Cantet about a man who loses his job but doesn't tell his family. This adaptation will be written and directed by Scott Cooper, who did the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere. This is Ad-Rock's first film role in nine years. There's no release date as of yet.
IN OTHER NEWS
Founding Yes vocalist Jon Anderson will reissue two albums this Friday -- 1997’s Earth Mother Earth and 2011’s Survival & Other Stories. Both albums will be available on CD, vinyl, and all digital platforms. Details at JonAnderson.com.
Justin Hayward, the voice and sole surviving member of The Moody Blues, will once again headline the On the Blue Cruise, April 8th to the 15th, 2027 out of Miami. Joining him will be Don Felder, Rick Springfield, Asia, Ambrosia, Starship featuring Mickey Thomas, Al Stewart and many others. Details are at OnTheBlueCruise.com.
Another clip has been released from Power to the People, the John Lennon concert film that's coming to theaters on April 29th. Check out the performance of The Beatles' "Come Together" on YouTube.
Gene Simmons is one of the producers of the film Deep Water starring Ben Kingsley and
Aaron Eckhart. The description reads, “A flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai goes down in the middle of the Pacific. After surviving the crash, the survivors soon discover they’re not alone and they must survive the shark infested waters. The terrified group is forced to work together and overcome their differences if they hope to escape their sinking plane and the frenzy of sharks.” The film will premiere at the Sarasota Film Festival, April 10th to the 19th in Sarasota, Florida before opening in theaters on May 1st.
Kevin Cronin has posted photos on Facebook and Instagram from REO Speedwagon’s reunion show this month at the Peoria Riverfront Museum in celebration of the exhibit there on the late REO guitarist and Peoria native Gary Richrath. Cronin writes, “When [my wife] Lisa and I walked into the exhibition area, and I stood below Gary’s photo, projected larger-than-life, seemingly smiling down at me, I felt joy, sadness, love, nostalgia, grateful, proud… Most of the day was like that… It was a reminder of how much I miss Gary, and the special nature of the bond between Richrath and me.”