“Addiction is a family disease,” says Jakob Nowell, the 28-year-old son of late Sublime frontman Bradley Nowell. “Rock & roll is a family disease, man. I seek to keep it in the family.” Jakob bears an eerie sonic and physical resemblance to his dad, who was also 28 when he …
Read More »Cassadee Pope Is Through Playing Country Music's Game
T he folder had been sitting unopened on Cassadee Pope’s computer desktop for years when she finally deleted it. It was a collection of photographs taken with mostly male country-radio programmers whom she’d been expected to suck up to, snapped every time she went to a station to promote her …
Read More »Todd Snider Re-Recorded All of His Albums and Is Releasing Them for Free
Todd Snider hunkered down during the first year or so of the pandemic, and like some musicians suddenly knocked off the road, he took to online music-making —but with a unique twist. Starting in October 2020, Snider devoted each Sunday to playing and live-streaming the entirety of one of his …
Read More »Beyoncé Always Said You'll Never Take the Country Out of Her
Back in 1997, Beyoncé stepped into the recording booth to croon the lyrics to “Sail On,” the Commodores single that Destiny’s Child covered on their eponymous debut album. Her thick Southern twang still coated her singing voice — she was only 15 — as she lamented the end of a …
Read More »From Naomi Sharon to Zelooperz, Here's the Best Hip-Hop and R&B You Missed in 2023
Anyone complaining about the state of hip-hop needs only to look beyond the top of the charts, as the latest episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast makes clear. In the episode, Andre Gee breaks down some of his under-the-radar 2023 hip-hop picks, from Zelooperz‘ experimental Microphone Fiend to …
Read More »Brian Wilson Began Work on a Country Album in 1970. It's Finally Coming Out
In early 1970, Brian Wilson called Beach Boys manager Fred Vail to a Los Angeles hotel room to propose an idea that was outlandish even by his wild standards: a country music album with Vail on lead vocals that he’d produce. The fact that Vail was a businessman without any …
Read More »DYSTINCT Is Taking Moroccan Culture Global, One Hit at a Time
The first time that DYSTINCT ever attended a soccer match was in Qatar to watch his beloved Morocco beat Spain in the Round of 16 at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It just so happened that his track “Ghazali” — a fun love song with Belgian artist Bryan MG, featuring …
Read More »Robert Plant and Alison Krauss on Their 2024 Tour, 'Stairway to Heaven,' Retirement, and Much More
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss aren’t ready to stop singing together just yet. “We’ve been doing this on and off since 2007,” says Krauss, “and it’s just gotten better every time we’ve gotten together.” So after touring for the past two years behind their second collaborative album, 2021’s Raise the …
Read More »Beyoncé Wanted Some 'Country Fire.' She Knew Just Who to Call
Robert Randolph was tooling around Florida when the call came. The musician, whose sacred steel slide guitar has powered his own Family Band albums and has popped up on records by Elton John, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Thomas, Santana, and Dave Matthews Band, was behind the wheel when his office phoned …
Read More »What's Next for Lil Jon After the Super Bowl? A Meditation Album, Of Course
Just a few days before he would make his inevitable appearance on Usher’s Super Bowl LVIII halftime stage, rapper-producer extraordinaire Lil Jon tells me about the self-soothing mantras that kicked his decade-long wellness journey up a notch. “My affirmations in my time of really finding meditation were ‘I am healthy, …
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