Soaring Far Above The Flames with Illenium

Posted on by nyocum

Today, one of ILLENIUM’s favorite escapes is a (self-described) addiction to golf. When Hit Parader catches up with ILLENIM, a.k.a. Nick Miller, he has just left the exclusive Summit Club golf course in Henderson, Nevada. He is eager to talk about his debut of the Odyssey residency at the Las Vegas Sphere. To say he is very present in the conversation is an understatement.

If you rely on AI for intelligence, you may notice that it does not get it right when you search ILLENIUM. It incorrectly states that the beloved GRAMMY®-nominated EDM artist and producer did his Sphere residency in March and April 2026 “to support his sixth studio album Odyssey (Republic Records).” In truth, Miller set out to create an engrossing storyline designed specifically for the world’s most technologically advanced venue. The album’s 19 tracks simply support a live visual experience highlighting his much loved bass genre, hardcore and country influences. Odyssey’s music drives the narrative for an unprecedented immersive experience designed specifically for the space in partnership with Berlin-based visual animation studio Woodblock. Other artists appearing at Sphere have added visuals to existing songs (Dead & Company, U2, The Eagles) or designed visuals for specific unreleased tracks (Anyma). Yet no artist has created an entire album designed to be a full-on Sphere experience – until now.

Born in San Francisco and now living in Denver, ILLENIUM is most closely associated with the iconic symbol of the Phoenix rising from the flame. After kicking drug addiction in 2012 he became one of the biggest electronic music creators to emerge in the last decade. One of his most impressive attributes is his passionate, loyal following who resonate with the artist’s ability to transform pain into beauty through musical experiences they can escape into.

The tracks on Odyssey deliver on this promise as a storyline unfolds with different collaborators on each track including Ellie Goulding, Alok, Hayla, Bring Me The Horizon, Mako, Lauren Alaina and more. The immersive aspects of the show, including haptic seats and the spatial audio, set the dramatic stage, to bring ILLENIUM’s light and dark story to life in a manner that has never been done before. He explains, “I love the black and the white and different energetic fields of our lives coming together and how we captured it with the Odyssey production. When we first started our journey, no pun intended, it was in December 2024. In January and February, we were seriously writing the plot and I knew I wanted it all to be new in terms of a creative experience at the Sphere – unlike anything else in the entertainment world. We didn’t use any visuals we’ve used before or even anything similar. But the whole immersive aspects of the story were started from the ground up when I wrote the album and made the set before I finished the album. The Phoenix is always consistent in my brain – that’s what I love, and really how I feel. It connects me to music in my own life story.”

Adding, “We pretty much finished the album by October, and since then we’ve been spatially mixing it nonstop. I love how it sounds. It’s a really dynamic show, really intense and loud at points, but really huge with moving soundscapes and a lot of creativity. My brand doesn’t really revolve around deep visuals, so it was kind of tricky to announce the show and tease how amazing and beautiful it is. It’s much larger than just going to see an ILLENIUM concert. We went way deeper, which paid off. I am so proud of the show!”

You can acutely sense Miller’s obsession with gaming, films like Dune, and anime when experiencing Odyssey live. “It’s just nuts,” he says, “because Sphere is a place where you can brilliantly meld all those types of influences. Oh, man, I still freaking love The Witcher 3 games and all the Game of Thrones series, Lord of the Rings, Elden Ring. I play a lot of shooters and stuff but in terms of fascinating world building, those are definitely tops for me including Star Wars and Red Dead Redemption. I’ve done a lot of work with deadmau5, as well. Yeah, Joel’s the man!” In fact, Miller uses deadmau5’s OSC/Pilot GUI-Building Performance tool to create his onstage performance at Sphere.

Considering all of this, it may seem strange that the word most people use to describe ILLENIUM is “authentic.” British singer-songwriter Hayla, who co-wrote and sang Odyssey’s biggest hit, “In Your Arms,” claims “Honestly, it’s been a true honor to work with Nick and his team. I have to say they are probably some of the most wonderful people I’ve ever worked with. Everybody’s just so authentic and considering they’re in a show like the Sphere, everybody just has it sewn together, and there’s this calming atmosphere around them.” Hayla and ILLENIUM’s hit song has nearly 17 million plays on Spotify and was nominated for Best Dance Song of the Year by iHeart Music Awards.

When reading Reddit discussions, fans say, “Odyssey is exactly why ILLENIUM is the only EDM artist I have consistently followed for over a decade” and they thank him for always being “so open and personal with your music… your authenticity is inspiring and one of the reasons why we love all of your music.” Adding that the Sphere visuals blew their mind.

ILLENIUM has always scaled an innovative edge in Las Vegas, a city that has been a
transformative part of his journey. He was the first artist to play Allegiant Stadium after it was built for the Raiders football team in 2021 (ironically after Garth Brooks backed out), presenting his Trilogy Show where he performed three sets from his earlier albums Ashes, Awake and Ascend. He had one of the first residencies at Resorts World’s state-of-the-art club, Zouk, and prior to that he held residencies with the Tao Group at Hakkasan and Omnia. And now, the Sphere…

When asked if he has an even earlier history with the city, he tells us that his grandmother and mom’s grandparents lived in Vegas “for a long time but I didn’t visit much.” His grandfather had a full cattle ranch outside of Wells, Nevada and his family “was hardcore into country music.” Miller’s mom grew up in Reno but the first time he truly came to Vegas was for EDC in 2014. “The very first time I ever came to Vegas is kind of funny. I flew into the airport once. I went to this wilderness rehab, Freeman Center. It was an hour and a half outside of the city in between here and St. George. I spent 70 days out in the wilderness. It was actually awesome. I just needed to get out of San Francisco to remember what it was like to be human, you know? I’ve always loved the outdoors, and I felt like I found my sense of humor again. You have no temptations in the outdoors. It’s basic core survival… like building a fire. Thank God I got out of drugs before the whole fentanyl thing. It’s always been playing with fire, but it’s especially nowadays.”

So, at the end of the day, what impact does Nick Miller want to leave behind? As ILLENIUM, he feels like he’s doing it with the Sphere shows. “Anyone who I saw that went to the show in person had really remarkable comments about it. They said it was really emotional because some of the music really helped them get through whatever their struggle is. I want my work to be a place for humans to have a human experience and human connections. It’s meant for you to get some escape, and that can be as simple as being in Vegas for the weekend. You go and it’s super entertaining and it leaves an impact, you know? Anything on that scale is what I want to leave behind.”

As for the most emotional moment of the Sphere shows, ILLENIUM doesn’t hesitate to say, “Oh, man, it was that first night, getting to the encore. There’s a little medley where I go through the journey of my albums. And having six now, I knew it was gonna hit. But it really hit me emotionally realizing where I was standing and seeing all the fans reacting to it… understanding that everybody’s been on the journey with me, listening to me and following these six albums. And we’re now in this place that’s magical. At the end of a set, there was so much emotion and so many highs and lows!”

So, was it worth clearing his schedule and dedicating all those months to just a handful of
shows?

“Hell, yeah!”

Melissa Auf Der Maur Lived Through This

Posted on by nyocum

“The greatest stars, the ones that endure, are the ones, beautiful or not, who are generous with their spirits and faces in the images they present to us…” – Courtney Love “Beauty Manifesto DuJour” from 11/09/1998, reprinted in Melissa Auf
Der Maur’s Even the Good Girls Will Cry 

After Courtney Love appeared on Billy Corgan’s music podcast The Magnificent Others last month, people had a lot to say— about her, about him, about Kurt Cobain and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, and about the 1990s in general. Whose band was better? What’s Dave Grohl’s deal? Are these rockstars mad narcissists, genius icons or both? 

There’s literally nobody who could answer these questions better than Melissa Auf der Maur, who played with both Hole and Smashing Pumpkins during one of the most pivotal — and currently most reconsidered — periods in music. 

If Auf der Maur’s new book Even the Good Girl’s Will Cry seems incredibly well-timed, prophetic even,  amid the culture’s current obsession with the 90’s, there’s a good reason for that. Approaching her 50th birthday and finding herself with free time during the COVID 19 pandemic, the Montreal, Canada native and current Hudson, New York resident, began reflecting as a lot of us did, about her life. 

As touring bass player alongside two of the most enigmatic characters in rock, she explores each band’s impact in the book, recalling interactions with them as an innocent 22-year-old young woman finding herself as she perfected her instrument. More significantly, she delves into a unique period of time that only Generation X can fully understand, as humanity transitioned from analog creation and communication to a digital dominance of basically everything. There was a lot to unpack.  

Sifting through her extensive archive of photographs, journals and other ephemera, the project took shape, though it was something she’d intended to revisit for years as she was just as much a “documentarian as a musician” back then. It was — like seemingly everything that happened to her in 1991-2001 — cosmically destined. Given the 30-year nostalgia pendulum, it was also the right time to dive in. 

“I always knew that I was documenting a time in history; in my personal history, in our cultural history, and in the history of rock music,” Auf der Maur tells me in the parking lot of a Koreatown cafe before her first LA book event at the nearby Dynasty Typewriter. “This is the history of women in culture and women in arts.”

Her story as it pertains to the scheme of feminism and music’s evolution is insightful, a bit juicy at times, but mostly unflinchingly real, especially for those of us who happen to be around her age and remember what it was like to be turned on by the visceral riffs of alternative music, and the imposing grandeur of her “grunge parents” Love and Corgan in their heyday. 

Beyond the pair’s own love triangle (Courtney left Billy for Kurt in 1991), both were polarizing all on their own, even back then. In Love’s case, there was a shadow of drugs and death to contend with as well as overall public disdain for her raw and outspoken ways, mostly rooted in misogyny. Defiant and dangerous, Hole challenged it all on stage and Auf der Maur not only contributed, she took notes and lived through it all.   

She initially said no when Corgan, who she met at an early SP gig in Montreal, suggested she join Hole. Kurt Cobain’s suicide was followed by Hole’s original bassist Kristen Pfaff dying of an overdose just as they were about to tour 1994’s Live Through This. She was stepping into a dark situation, but she was bringing light and she seemed to know it even back then. Things weren’t much easier when Love got sober, became a movie star and they began to record Celebrity Skin four years later, but the band had something to prove and despite the struggles, they made a great high-production value rock record. 

Auf der Maur’s time with Smashing Pumpkins came immediately afterward and lasted about a year, during which she honed her bass skills and saw more of the world. Her wild rockstar journey ended as the aughts began, but she continued with some stellar solo music, a Black Sabbath tribute band, more photography and years later, the creation of a thriving NY arts community (built with her husband Tony Stone) called Basilica Hudson. Then she became a mother, which changed her focus for years to come, but also inspired her to look at her past experiences through a modern female lens for the memoir. 

“We came through the birth canal of this new world and we weren’t submissive. We weren’t blind. We saw what was happening and we were angry, but we couldn’t stop it,” the author shares. “A big part of my book is trying to say to my daughter and her generation — she’s 14 — we saw this happen and I am so fucking sorry. I just want my story to be of help to understand… so that the future, the people who are living in this new future, can somehow put the pieces together. So, I wrote it for personal healing, but also as my offering to the cultural reflection of history books. It’s so disturbing where we’ve landed and we all are grieving what we’ve lost, you know?”

True, but with the exception of her father’s death and losing drummer Patty Schemel from the band in 1998, her story is not somber. Auf der Maur’s tales of tempestuous stage moments alongside Love, rocking the globe playing for tens of thousands nightly, doing fabulous fashion-focused photo shoots and big budget videos, working with the biggest producers in the music business and hob-nobbing with famous actors and fellow musicians (even making out with some of them, though she only references her ex-boyfriend Grohl by name) is a really fun, aspirational read. 

“I didn’t do this to just publish a book about the 90’s and go on podcasts,” the writer, who did her mentor’s pod before Love, explains of her motivations. “I did it because I needed to unpack the past that I went running from, to heal the wounds I hadn’t yet dealt with and to purge — to get the 90’s out of me, because it was such an intense time for all of us, especially those in rock bands, especially the ones in the nexus with all the levels of death, fame, talent, greatness, horrificness.”

It’s no tell-all, but it is honest, mostly on an introspective level. There’s also a contextual and mystical flair to her prose that makes it stand out amid other memoirs out there, not surprising considering her parents were celebrated journalists. Auf der Maur is an evocative storyteller. But did she have any trepidation writing about others in the book? Did she check with everyone first? 

“I emotionally, spiritually and personally checked in with every major character, Dave, Billy and Courtney. I reached out and I went to see each of them to discuss and say, ‘I’m doing this,’ to let them know, not ask for their approval but just simply to let them know I’m writing my story,” she shares. “I got a full thumbs up and ‘we love you and trust you’ from all three. They know I’m not in it for money, glory or fame. I just want to be true to who I am. I love them. There was no threat, and I did show all parts of them.” 

In particular, her examination of Love’s place in rock music and the influence it had — and can continue to have — on women, girls and culture itself, has a redemptive quality that’s been sorely missing on the media landscape. As Love prepares to release new music (Auf der Maur sings on a few songs and says “it’s incredible”) and a documentary about her unapologetic past and present that just premiered at Sundance, her bassist’s book couldn’t have been more prescient. 

The alignment was coincidental, but it all feels like it was meant to be. After a recent viral Instagram post that had the web buzzing about a Hole reunion, which quickly got quashed, the bassist still doesn’t rule out ever playing live with Love again in some capacity. 

“I’m not against it. I always say that Courtney is the most unpredictable, wild, wonderful force,” she says. “The fact that in 2026, we both are coming out of 15 years of a kind of hibernation — we could not have planned that. So you just have to trust in the magic of it.”

She clearly did just that with Even the Good Girls Will Cry. Its cathartic energy may have started with her, but it is for everyone. “The writing process was amazing, but to look back at that person and the painful parts; I could have lost a big part of myself permanently,” she says as we wrap up an inspiring conversation. “I finally grieved for my loss and the things our generation lost. A big part of writing the book was trying to celebrate and grieve what we lost, while hoping that we can bring some of it back.”

Info on Melissa Auf der Maur upcoming book events can be found here.

Sick New World 2026: Community, Chaos, and the Power of Nostalgia

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There’s a moment early in Cypress Hill’s set that crystallizes everything Sick New World is about. B-Real steps to the mic, the opening chords of Rage Against the Machine’s “Bombtrack” ring out across the field, and he leans into it with a simple explanation: “Because of all the fucked-up shit happening in the world right now, this song is needed.” The crowd erupts in cheers, a shared exhale from the thousands of people who came here dressed up in their finest alt gear, to feel something real together.

That sense of communal catharsis was the throughline of this year’s Sick New World. Through long merch lines and some frustrating sound issues, the festival delivered on the thing that matters most: the feeling that you are exactly where you’re supposed to be surrounded by people who get it. I attended this festival with my mom who (thankfully) introduced me to all the ALT, metal, and rock bands at a young age. As soon as we stepped foot onto festival grounds, we immediately felt that sense of pride and belonging to such an amazing community of people.

Entry was Successful!


Entry and security, a pain point I’ve heard from the past years, ran surprisingly smoothly. It was a small but appreciated upgrade that set the right tone before a single note was played. The crowd arrived eager and dressed to the nines: corsets, platform boots, face paint, band tees, and patched vests. The energy before the gates even opened was high and had me buzzing.

We had GA+ tickets and overall, the experience wasn’t anything to write home about. It offered a middle-ground upgrade with a small area in the back that hosted a few bar and food stalls and private bathrooms. The designated area, with a modest shaded patch of grass and some water misters, lacked meaningful sightlines to the stage and left those who paid for the tier feeling somewhat shortchanged. The weather was a breezy 70 degrees but if it was that hotter Vegas weather, I do think GA+ would’ve felt more significant in value. VIP, by contrast, offered ample real estate, and did seem worth the price. Although the GA crowds far surpassed the overall energy of VIP, which is often the case at music festivals.

The Performance Nitty Gritty


Lords of Acid, one of my mom’s favorites, kicked off the day with the kind of unhinged energy you want from an opener. Dressed in a leather red dress with an ACID choker, the frontwoman Carla Harvey wasted no time by hair flipping, running through the barrier, holding hands with the crowd, and announcing simply: “The lords are here.” They were.

Cypress Hill sounded phenomenal and brought an energy that matched their legacy. Classics like “Insane in the Brain” and “How I Could Just Kill a Man” landed exactly as expected, but the surprise was the closing stretch with a cover of “Bombtrack” in solidarity with the current climate. They ended their set with House of Pain’s “Jump”, the crowd dropping low in unison before exploding upward at the drop. It was a genuinely joyful ending from a group who you can always count on to fully show up and deliver.

AFI brought a different kind of spectacle. The band’s lead singer Davey Havok was in full glamorous rock star mode, jumping across the stage and working every corner of the crowd. The girls near me were losing their minds, my mom included! The highlight was the famous crowd walk, the audience lifting him up and carrying him in the tradition that AFI shows have always honored. It was theatrical and earnest all at once.

Then there was Knocked Loose who, and I cannot stress this enough, should 1000% be headlining festivals. Playing midday, they somehow generated one of the most electric crowds of the entire day. They encouraged crowd surfing from the start and called for a wall of death during “Everything is Quiet Now,” but what struck me most wasn’t the chaos, it was the care. Fans were picking up lost phones and hats; kids on parents’ shoulders watching the mosh pits with wide eyes; everyone smiling and laughing. “Hive Mind” had the crowd screaming every word back at them. My mom and I successfully started a mosh pit, much to the happiness of everyone around us. We pushed, shoved, spun it around, leading to a memorable shared experience with strangers…who no longer felt like strangers once the set concluded. Knocked Loose understands something essential, communal chaos done right is an act of community. I hope everyone is lucky enough to witness one of their shows at least once!

She Wants Revenge was a dance party for both old and new fans alike. “These Things” and “Tear You Apart” were perfect, and the moment the singer Warfield shed his jacket and adjusted his beanie mid-set, the crowd screamed like it was 2006. The biggest news being they announced they’re working on a new album, their first in over a decade. As someone who is a huge longtime fan and has been quietly hoping for exactly this, it was the cherry on top of their performance. They even previewed a new track which did not disappoint. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a tour!

Evanescence filled the festival with one of the largest crowds of the evening. Amy Lee’s voice remains devastating in the best sense. She is melodic and effortless, a true legend. They moved through the hits and wove in new material from their latest album without losing the room. If “dreamy rock” can be a descriptor for something with this much weight, that’s what it was.

Korn was everything. Opening with “Blind”, always the right call in my opinion, they immediately recalibrated the entire atmosphere. They live-debuted “Reward the Scars,” performed “Dirty” and “Proud” (last played live in 2011), and the crowd knew every word of “Y’all Want a Single”. One of my favorite moments is when they brought out the bagpipes for “Shoots and Ladders”, hyping the crowd up even more. The sound was clean, the energy was raw and watching Jonathan Davis command that stage felt like witnessing something legendary. Korn was a bucket list band for my mom and I, and they delivered a set that went beyond our expectations.

System of a Down: A Complicated Closer


The final act of the night went to System of a Down and the conditions set up something magical: “Radio/Video” began just as rain started to fall, and the lasers scattered across the wet air made the sky look like it was sparkling. At one point during the set, Serj Tankian paused to address the crowd “Stop letting the government and the media divide you”, which earned a thundering roar from the crowd. They ran through a greatest hits set with favorites like “ATWA,” “Chop Suey!,” “Lonely Day,” “B.Y.O.B.,” “Prison Song,” and “Aerials”. We sang and screamed our hearts along to all of it.

And yet there was a sound problem that sadly undercut the whole thing. For a headlining closer, the microphones were muted in a way that left us wanting more, instead of pulling us in. I’ve seen SOAD at Golden Gate Park in 2024, where their sound was crisp and clean and you could feel the songs in your chest. This wasn’t that and while we did enjoy the set for what it was, it felt like a slightly disappointing close. Sound seems to have been a problem in past runs of the festival and being such a solvable problem, they should prioritize fixing for future years. For a band of this magnitude closing out a festival, not having perfect sound felt like a disservice.

The Bigger Picture

Walking out of Sick New World, what stayed with me is a feeling. Watching band after band with a crowd of people across generations, each set delivered some version of the same message, “the world is heavy right now, things are strange and difficult, but we are all here together”. That sentiment landed because it was true, and because the crowd embodied it.

Sick New World has found something genuine, a festival with real soul. I hope it continues for years to come, and I will definitely be attending again for more moshs and headbanging.

Sick New World: Home Away From Home

Posted on by nyocum

At long last, for avid nu metal and alternative music fans alike, after the cancellation of the festival in 2025, Sick New World once again returned to the Las Vegas Festival grounds for the festival’s third instalment, which took place April 25th. Lucky enough, fans of the festival also got an extra treat this year – with an addition of a new location for the festival, happening October 24th of this year in Fort Worth, Texas, with a slightly different yet all familiar lineup to the Sick New World brand. However, we will just be focusing on Vegas, and at some time will shift to Texas. For now, let’s have a chat about this year’s installment, and see how it has grown since its first installment on May 13th of 2023.

My first year attending Sick New World I had come in as a fan ravenous to see the artists that had been influencing my early 20s, such as acts like Death Grips, Machine Girl, and 100 Gecs. This year the main shift in lineup (which we see in both dates for the 2026 installments) is that it mainly brought back the artists who made the first year so special (including 2024, even though I did not attend) with acts at the Vegas location including Korn, Evanescence, and Bring Me The Horizon, while Texas offering the other half of that initial lineup, with Deftones being its biggest pull. Both dates share their main headliner, and the reason we are all so in love with the brand, System of a Down. The Vegas lineup had many familiar faces such as Alien Ant farm, Melvins, and Orgy. I am happy it was done this way, since many were returning fans of the festival, giving them a chance to see the new acts on the bill, and an opportunity for new attendees to see why the show is so well loved in the community. 

Sick New World is a one-day festival. Since its start, there have been a few major shifts implemented so the show could run as smoothly as possible, with satisfaction for all fans. Since its debut in 2023, the festival has moved the middle of May to the tail end of April. This may not seem like a major date difference, however, being also from the desert, living in Phoenix, Arizona myself, those few weeks can be a massive shift in terms of the weather. The first year hit almost 91 degrees and dropped to about 56, while this year was gorgeously overcast, with a high of 76 and low of 55. The overcast did bring in some wind, but absolutely nothing compared to the damage it did during another major Vegas festival, When We Were Young, back in 2022 causing the first date of the first installment of the festival to be cancelled. Since then, the fest has done a great job in terms of fan safety, and most importantly, artist safety. During its first year, Korn was hit with the wind during their set (they had the same exact time slot and stage this year) and had a large, sheeted metal cage come down in front of them. This way they were protected yet still giving fans a view. Personally, I thought this actually made their set even more entertaining since I had never seen anything like it. Luckily, it didn’t have to happen this year (even though selfishly, I would have been stoked to see it happen again). 

Another major difference was how cabanas and VIP were set up. I had general admission my first year, and media with VIP this year. I remember that GA was filtered out on the side the first year, and VIP in the front, but this year VIP was on the sides with GA filtering more towards the middle. I am not sure if there was a cabana the first year, even though When We Were Young did, but it was on the right side and not the left. I feel that the flow of traffic was perfect, it was easy to move to one stage to another pretty quickly, at least only about 10 minutes of walking max (not including getting in closer, but also easily doable in under 10, especially if you know how to cheat the system by crowd surfing to get in further). The food and drink options stayed relatively the same, including the return of my favorite, the magnificent lobster roll truck, but that could be a whole three-page review in itself. It puts even east coast rolls to shame. Some of the other food and beverage returns included Beatbox Beverages, who you may know from dominating the festival beverage scene, Korn Coffee, and even Deftones signature IPA, Phantom Bride. I would strongly recommend this beer for anyone who is not too sure about IPAs, it is not too powerful to where it feels difficult or too heavy to complete. Drink prices were also reasonable for the festival, even including the specialty cocktails from the Rockstar Energy tent. All of our bartenders were lovely and fantastic; the staff was an absolute standout this year! 

The other change I would like to highlight was its photo opportunities and exhibits. They had limited the amount of them in the middle of the festival, making it easier to float from set to set. This made a massive difference, especially during its first year having a massive metal fire shooting cage situation, that ate up probably almost 500 attendee spaces. I was happy with the change to the two highlight exhibits, being Rockstar Energy’s half pipe (which had even gotten Tony Hawk to come out and attend the show) and System of a Down’s 25th anniversary interactive museum, celebrating the initial release of Toxicity, which will turn 25 on September 4, 2026. The museum was filled with art and instruments, even a fun photo opportunity with a table filled with sunflower seeds referencing the lyrics of “Toxicity” (yes, they were edible) and a massive “System Of A Down” Hollywood styled sign, similar to the cover of the record. At the end, you were able to write a message to the band, or other attendees. I had written my wishes to other fans for beautiful futures in music and my thanks to Serj, Daron, Shavo, and John. While small, and short, only lasting about five minutes, it made enough impact in those short seconds to be a very moving moment in my life, especially as a fan.

Now, let’s get into what everyone’s curious to know, who was the best act at the gig? Before I reveal my pick, I would like to highlight other acts that I see having a bright future being a headliner on their own tours or even maybe a festival of their own, but with my hopes they will return to headline Sick New World once again. Showing Teeth, who is powered by the 26-year-old Nashville screaming sweetheart, Addison, was everything I could want to open the day up for the festival. Not only was it the collective’s first festival show, but only their fourth show to date. While they have minimal music released, they were able to use this opening slot to show everyone what they’re about – and teased demos and new releases.

My other favorite act who I was so ecstatic to see, especially becoming a newer post punk fan myself, was the magnetizing Texas based darkwave duo Twin Tribes. The group only contains two members, Luis Navarro on vocal duties, while Joel Nino Jr. is mainly responsible for his bass efforts. Despite it only being two bodies on stage, the sound and storytelling of the band made it feel as if a whole orchestra was present on stage. I was extremely happy to see my personal favorite track from them, “Monolith”, and I am so happy to report the performance made me dive deeper into the world of the song and now has me even more hooked and on the edge of my seat to see where the band goes next. 

The set of the weekend might not be who you were thinking. Most would assume one of the three headliners, but no one can ever compare to the energy and performance brought on by the Oldham county legends, Knocked Loose. This was my sixth time seeing them, with my first time being back in 2017 at the full sail stage at Warped tour. It’s been almost a decade since that set, but my excitement for the set and enthusiasm remained the same, if not, more.

Bryan Garris, the frontman of the Kentucky hardcore group, is one of the most magnetic vocalists of the 21st century. Not only does Garris always come forward to do a flawless performance, identical to their recordings, but has a firm grip on the crowd. The encouragement to get up, get rowdy, crowd surf, and most importantly, to let loose and to have fun, charmed everyone in the crowd. Everyone was under the trance of Garris’ crowd control – not a single body was still.

Isaac Hale, the youngest member of the group, is a star of his own, responsible for his guitar duties and deeper vocals that beautifully complement his fellow bandmate Garris, like the two of them were always meant to share the stage in every lifetime. Isaac, himself, also did a wonderful job of building almost a sense of fear that snowballed into an energy spike that made the crowd continue to keep growing in amplification throughout the whole set.

The group’s drummer, Kevin “Pacsun” Kaine held both of his members grounded with his engaging performance and crowd interaction, which for any drummer is difficult to do and usually is not their main duty, but Kaine is a completely different story. His eye engagement with the crowd while playing these rambunctious yet technical breakdowns made me somewhat emotional – this is a guy who clearly loves what he does, and he wears it strongly on his chest (and the magnificent 24 inches of hair).

Kevin Otten, bass, and Nicko Calderon on rhythm, were wonderful with their duties as well. Watching these two move so gracefully yet with so much power was exciting to be a part of and helped balance out the rest of the chaos happening, even though this is the kind of chaos that isn’t something we avoid, we get drawn into it. While the band does a great job of ensuing this feeling of fear, or even a sense of impending doom, it’s the type of fear that makes you want to fly, fight, jump, and be consumed by all the action the Kentucky-based quintet has always successfully been able to give us.

My favorite part of it all – aside from the pyros and stage smoke, was the graceful and extremely emotional tribute to Bo Luedens, a very important member of the scene, who had tragically passed away April 3 this year. It was a beautiful sight to see him honored on such a massive stage. While I didn’t get to know Bo or his contributions outside of his band Harm’s Way, you could tell that while it has been a dark and challenging past few weeks for the hardcore scene, the crowd gave exactly what Bo would have wanted, a pit of a lifetime.

I was so pleased by the third installment of the Las Vegas Sick New World. I am so grateful I got to see this show in my early twenties at 23 and returned back this year at 26. It feels like I have another home and community outside my hometown of Phoenix that I get to grow up with and share these memories for years to come. Sick New World, thank you for giving me the gift of community and freedom, and I cannot wait for its first installment this October in Texas. 

Dinner Menu: Udo Belew

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When the Plate Has a Soundtrack

Chef Udo Belew, who works at Jason Scoppa’s Electric Jane in Nashville, has a very interesting and unique take on the marriage of music and food. That is to be expected, though, when your father is iconic guitarist Adrian Belew, best known as the guitarist for King Crimson.

Unsurprisingly, while Udo had five choices, he whittled his selection down to his final pick, which was an easy one.

“I really keep hitting on an album my dad wrote when I was a little kid, Mr. Music Head. It’s a great record, and it’s something I’ve had stuck in my head pretty much my whole life. It’s got this strange part of my soul just because I remember when he wrote it, I remember being in the studio, I remember him doing the cover artwork, and the songs are about my mom and us as kids,” he explains. “That album was the developmental stages of my life. I was trying to find out who I was. I didn’t obviously want to be a chef back then. I wanted to ride my bicycle off of big dirt jumps and stuff. But it definitely shaped something in my mind, and I think the process that he goes through as an artist is similar to what I go through trying to find something new to show people, and I just hope they like it. So I kind of attribute my culinary adventures to that part of my childhood, and that album really represents it.”

As one would imagine, the album and food are intertwined in his mind.

“We lived in this house. Actually, the album cover on the back has a picture of my dad on the piano in the house that we lived in at the time. And we had this big old antique table that we’d have dinner at. At the time, it felt more mandatory to have dinner with the family. But I know now that it really just brought us together,” he says. “I remember a lot of things that happened at that table, like eggs and toast. Every day we’d have toast with scrambled eggs. And we had cockatiels and parakeets that we’d let fly around the house. Sounds weird, but they would land on the table, and we could feed them eggs and whatnot. My mom would always cook spaghetti. And we had birthdays there. There are tons of memories. We would cook out and play volleyball. My dad’s friends would come over, and I didn’t know they were cool at the time. I thought they were dorks, but they were all really cool people.

This is the menu inspired by the album that was the soundtrack to my childhood: cooking out with the family and friends, riding BMX bikes off homemade death traps, eating wild berries, and drinking garden hose water.

Option I: Salad Days

Compressed watermelon & wild berries · ancho reyes verde · toasted cumin and pepita · sunflower sprout salad

Option II: Hot Zoo

Soda pop short ribs · guava demi · warm baby potato salad · mint and cilantro gremolata · charred cebollitas asadas.

Option III: The Simple Life is Complicated

Saffron liquor-soaked pound cake · macerated urban strawberries · sweet cardamom cream · orange zest.

Victory Boyd Finds The Darkness and Glory

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In terms of American cities and the most prestigious music histories, Detroit is right up there with any city. Motown – which includes Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, the Four Tops and Diana Ross – Eminem, Madonna, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Jack White, techno, Iggy Pop, the MC5, the Stooges, the list goes on and on.

Now the next potentially great artist to come from the Motor City is the impossible to define Victory Boyd, an extremely promising singer who melds soul and folk into a superbly vulnerable and powerful hybrid of genres. The result is the beautiful debut album, Confessions of a Lonely Girl, an emo, folk and soul collection.

As Boyd told us when we spoke recently, Detroit is not just in her music, but in her
blood.


“I think Detroit is just one of those classic American cities that has a lot of unique aspects that are different. A lot of really classic American cities have manufacturing in common or something that drew families from all different parts of America. For Detroit it was the motor industry, and it drew a lot of people from the south. My grandparents talk about when they migrated to Detroit and it drew a lot of people of all different persuasions to these industries. But that was because of all these various people having this promise of a better life if they move to Detroit,” she says. “Because of that, you attracted a lot of extremely hard workers, a lot of culture and all of these aspects.


You had my grandmother for example, she was a sharecropper and she was one of 14 siblings and they grew up working the fields down south but then they migrated to Detroit and then they worked in the motor industry, but they came with music too. It was never just coming to do nine to five jobs. It was bringing the entire culture. And then that culture became what we know as Detroit today. It’s the melting pot of all of these things.


So, I’m a product of that exact storyline. It’s not just a product of music but a product in in family values and all the things that come from that from that lineage of life. With that comes a particular sound. There are all sorts of things that come from that origin story. I’m one of those individuals.”


While Confessions might be difficult to categorize musically, Boyd can easily explain her thinking behind the record’s sound and feel.


“The biggest influence, sonically speaking, is I have this theory called darkness and glory,” she says. “Basically if you want people to feel the triumph and the beauty of glory then you have to show them the darkness that came before. For example, every morning we see a sunrise we can appreciate as beautiful because it came after nighttime. Or if you knew that they used to be in prison for 20 years and now they’re walking free, you can celebrate the fact that they’re just simply walking around outside and that’s a point of glory, not just a mundane moot point. With that theory I always try to contrast things with my storytelling both sonically and lyrically.”


A large part of what makes the album so effective is that Boyd had a clear idea of what both darkness and glory sound like to her. And she was determined to make sure listeners understood the sound of those feelings as well.


“This album starts with loneliness. How does loneliness sound? I re-recorded that first song, ‘’Confessions of a Lonely Girl,’ with at least five different productions. And I landed on a version where I recorded it together with a vibraphone player, because the sound of a vibraphone feels so warm, sad and comforting. It’s not just in theory that I try to capture the darkness and sadness, but in sound. You have to really feel and be immersed in this sad experience so when we get to the end, and the last song on the album is called ‘Steady,’ and it’s just so much joy, so much life, it’s the joy of marriage and the joy of finally realizing and coming into love after experiencing such dark and sad feelings of loneliness. I want people to experience the miracle of love and recognize that it is a miracle and not just mundane, everyday life that everyone gets. So, the album is contrasted heavily from how it starts and how it ends. And the sound is always bending towards painting.”


When she says painting, she is referring to the idea of painting a story, art as a medium. Something she learned as a child from C.S. Lewis. “His writings are very profound for me and specifically as a child going to watch the movie Chronicles of Narnia, it resonated strongly with me and even as a child moved me to tears. And I wanted to create stories like C.S. Lewis, create art pieces like Chronicles of Narnia that would resonate so strongly. So after when I got a little older, I was maybe seven years old when I saw that, I started writing stories that appear to be fictional because they’re whimsical and they’re not exactly something that you would see as real life but behind these whimsical fictional stories is truth. Having that flexibility as an artist to invent and to create things that are not real for the purpose of being able to communicate through entertainment, through a fun story, universal truths that could really help empower people and even save their lives. And so sometimes you have to meet people where they are. In America, especially, many people are seeking to be entertained.”


Inspired by movies like Chronicles and the 2012 version of Les Miserables, starring Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman, Boyd learned a valuable lesson about creating art in America. If you want to include a message you need to wrap that message in candy coating. And Boyd says yes, this album absolutely includes a message she wants everyone to hear and understand.

“I always have a key thesis for all of my albums and for this specific one it is it is the message of divine love. It’s a type of love that that comes to find you and reaches out to you and a lot of times it’s written from a woman’s perspective, but the woman in this story is representative of the whole world. Everyone in this world desires the kind of love that is steadfast, that is unconditional and not going anywhere, even if you fall, this divine love that transcends all of the limits that human love can give,” she says. “I personally had to walk through and test this theory of this divine love. When I started writing this album, I thought that this divine love was when a man would come into my life and be the love of my life and cherish me and protect me and provide for me and do all the things that a wonderful husband would do. I never had that experience, but I finally got to have that experience. I thought that this was the pinnacle destination that answered all of these desires and hopes. Dreams about finally being one of those chosen ones that is loved. I found that human love can only go so far. Seeing that fall apart, going through divorce and finding myself on the other side, that I am still loved by God. That’s really where this album leads to in the end. The whole idea is that your faith, hope and love is never in vain because there will always be a divine love that is always there with you.”

SOMBR Levels Up With Massive You Are the Reason Arena Tour

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Fresh off his Coachella set (dubbed Sombrchella) that had critics scrambling for superlatives, SOMBR is scaling up again. The 20-year-old breakout has announced his You Are the Reason North American arena tour, a sprawling fall run that cements his transition from buzzy upstart to full-fledged headliner.

The 37-date trek kicks off July 22 in Mexico City before weaving through major markets and landing at Madison Square Garden on November 23 (his hometown). Along the way, he’ll hit iconic venues including Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Bridgestone Arena, backed by a rotating and notably eclectic slate of support: Interpol, The Last Dinner Party, Tom Odell, Dove Cameron, King Princess, The Hellp, Hannah Jadagu, and more.

The announcement lands just days after SOMBR’s much-hyped debut at the aforementioned Coachella, where he drew one of the weekend’s largest crowds. Mid-set, Billy Corgan joined him onstage for a performance of the The Smashing Pumpkins classic “1979,” a passing-of-the-torch cameo that critics seized on. Rolling Stone praised the set’s “undeniable rock star energy,” while the Los Angeles Times noted fans spilling “to the outer edges of the field.”

Timing-wise, SOMBR isn’t letting the momentum cool. His new single “Potential” drops April 16 alongside an official video, following the chart surge of “Homewrecker,” which marked another strong showing on the Billboard Global 200 and Hot 100. That run builds on the long tail of his 2025 breakout “Back to Friends,” a track that camped out on the charts for over a year and helped define his hybrid of indie-rock moodiness and arena-pop scale.

Tickets for the You Are the Reason tour go on artist presale April 14, with general on-sale beginning April 17. Between a packed festival calendar — Lollapalooza, Reading Festival, and Leeds Festival among them — and a fall arena sweep, SOMBR’s 2026 is shaping up less like a victory lap and more like a full-blown takeover, and we’re so here for it.

2026 FESTIVAL DATES
April 18—Coachella (Weekend Two)—Indio, CA
May 24—BottleRock Napa Valley—Napa, CA
July 30 – Lollapalooza Festival – Chicago, IL
August 1 – Osheaga Festival – Montreal, QC
August 11—Sziget Festival—Budapest, Hungary
August 13 – Syd For Solen – Denmark, Copenhagen
August 14—Øyafestivalen—Oslo, Norway
August 15 – Way Out West – Gothenburg, Sweden
August 16 – Flow – Helsinki, Finland
August 20 – Openair Gampel – Gampel, Switzerland
August 22 –  Lowlands – Biddingghuizen, Netherlands
August 23 – Pukkelpop – Hasselt – Belgium
August 26 – Rock En Seine – Paris, France
August 28 – Electric Picnic – Stradbally, Ireland
August 29—Reading Festival—Reading, UK
August 30 – Leeds Festival – Leeds, UK
September 1 – Superbloom – Munich, Germany
September 11 – Fono Festival – Quebec City, QC
September 12—Sommo Festival—New Glasgow, NS

NEWLY ANNOUNCED NORTH AMERICAN YOU ARE THE REASON ARENA TOUR DATES
July 22 – Mexico City, MX – Pepsi Center **
July 26 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheater **
Sep 29 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena +#
Oct 1 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena +§
Oct 2 – Portland, OR – Moda Center +§
Oct 6 – Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center +‡
Oct 7 – San Jose, CA – SAP Center +‡
Oct 9 – Anaheim, CA – Honda Center +‡
Oct 10 – Los Angeles, CA – The Kia Forum +‡
Oct 13 – San Diego, CA – Pechanga Arena +‡
Oct 14 – Glendale, AZ – Desert Diamond Arena +‡
Oct 16 – Oklahoma City, OK – Paycom Center +*
Oct 17 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center +*
Oct 18 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center +*
Oct 20 – Austin, TX – Moody Center +*
Oct 22 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena +*
Oct 24 – Sunrise, FL – Amerant Bank Arena +*
Oct 25 – Orlando, FL – Kia Center +*
Oct 27 – Charlotte, NC – Spectrum Center +*
Oct 28 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena+* 
Oct 30 – St. Louis, MO – Enterprise Center =* 
Oct 31 – Kansas City, MO – T-Mobile Center =*
Nov 1 – Minneapolis, MN – Target Center =* 
Nov 3 – Milwaukee, WI – Fiserv Forum =*  
Nov 4 – Chicago, IL – United Center =*  
Nov 6 – Indianapolis, IN – Gainbridge Fieldhouse =^ 
Nov 7 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena =^ 
Sun Nov 8 – Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena =^ 
Nov 10 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena =^
Nov 12 – Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paints Arena =^ 
Nov 13 – Cleveland, OH – Rocket Arena =^
Nov 14 – Buffalo, NY – KeyBank Center =^ 
Nov 16 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena =^ 
Nov 18 – Boston, MA – TD Garden =^ 
Nov 19 – Philadelphia, PA – Xfinity Mobile Arena =^ 
Nov 21 – Newark, NJ – Prudential Center =^ 
Nov 23 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden =^
Support
# Interpol
* The Last Dinner Party
‡Tom Odell
^ Dove Cameron
§ Balu Brigada
** King Princess
+ The Hellp
= Hannah Jadagu

Billie Eilish Reveals New Trailer For HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D)

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Pop’s most shape-shifting auteur is headed for the big screen, and she’s bringing James Cameron and RealD 3D tech. Billie Eilish has revealed the second trailer for HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D), a concert film captured during her sold-out global run and co-directed by none other than the aforementioned James Cameron (Avatar, Titanic).

Set to hit theaters May 8, 2026, via Paramount Pictures, the film promises a fully immersive experience, landing in Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D, and other premium large formats. If Cameron’s track record with spectacle is any indication, this won’t be your standard concert doc, with the tagline itself promising to “Reinvent the Concert Experience.” While concerts heading to theater are nothing new (Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Metallica, BTS, etc…), the 3D formatting of the release and the household name Director seems to be (but let’s not forget Martin Scorsese directing The Last Waltz).

The project pulls from Eilish’s latest era, Hit Me Hard and Soft, a record that doubled down on her instinct for emotional whiplash. Translating the dynamic of that record into a 3D theatrical environment suggests a sensory-forward approach, blurring the line between live performance and cinematic world-building.

Tickets go on sale Thursday, April 16, with a newly released trailer teasing the scale and intimacy of the production. For an artist who’s consistently redefined the boundaries of pop staging and visual identity, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D) looks poised to extend that vision into theaters. Check out the new trailer below.

From Foo Fighters to The Black Keys: Here Are Our Top Songs of March 2026

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March arrives with a noticeable throughline this month: hard hitting rock n’ roll — between long standing acts like Corrosion of Conformity, Foo Fighters, Modest Mouse and more recent buzz-worthy acts like Blood Command, Don Broco, and Drug Church, this list has it all. Whether it’s the arena-sized hooks of Des Rocs new heater or basement-born chaos of The Black Keys fresh cut, these ten tracks don’t sit still — they linger. Just the way we like them. Dig in below.

01:

The Black Keys – Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

A slow-burn blues rocker that leans into the duo’s rawest instincts, this track trades polish for grit. Fuzzy guitar tones crawl under a simmering groove before erupting into a chorus that feels equal parts menace and release. It’s vintage Black Keys, but meaner. Their new record, Peaches, the fourteenth from the Nashville based duo is due out May 1st.

02:

Des Rocs – When the Love is Gone

A cinematic rock track that thrives on tension and an incredible hook. Minimalist verses explode into a towering chorus, with Des Rocs channeling heartbreak into something massive and theatrical without losing its edge. This is the new rock God at his very best… we can’t wait to hear what’s next.

03:

Foo Fighters – Caught in the Echo

Built on a driving, mid-tempo pulse, this song feels like a reflection piece without losing the band’s stadium DNA. Layers of guitar swell and recede as Dave Grohl delivers a hook that’s both anthemic and introspective. The Foo’s new album, their twelfth, Your Favorite Toy is out April 24th.

04:

Modest Mouse – Look How Far

Quirky, off-kilter, and quietly profound, Modest Mouse return with a slithery track that sways between jittery verses and an oddly uplifting refrain. Isaac Brock’s signature existential spiral is intact, but there’s a sense of hard-earned perspective baked into the chaos. Not just the bands first new song in five years, it’s also Janet Weiss, formerly of Sleater-Kinney’s first song on the drums for the Mouse.

05:

Dogstar – All In Now

After being inactive for more than two decades, Keanu Reeves spoked with NME about returning to the studio for their new record, also titled All In Now, saying “We couldn’t f***ing wait. Personally, I loved it all. For me, the attitude was like, ‘let’s work hard and let’s GO.'” The first single back itself is a healthy mix of Muse and Queens of the Stone Age. But no imitation here. These guys are in their own lane.

06:

Blood Command – Wet Death

Chaotic in the best way, this track jumps between punk energy and glossy, almost hyperpop-adjacent hooks. It’s abrasive, theatrical, and unpredictable… Blood Command’s signature style. Vocalist Nikki Brumen has been such a fitting replacement for Karina Ljone, now on her fourth release in just four years with Blood Command since joining up with Yngve’s never ending bag of riffs. Wet Death, their newest EP is out now.

07:

Don Broco – True Believers ft. Sam Carter

Hot off their last single featuring… Nickelback? Don Broco returns with another single from the recently released Nightmare Tripping. A high-energy track of the heaviest variety for the Don, it’s elevated by Architects vocalist Sam Carter’s unmistakable bite. The track thrives on dynamic shifts — melodic one moment, explosive the next — building into a chorus designed for crowd-sized catharsis.

08:

Drug Church – Pynch

Blunt, punchy, and packed with attitude, “Pynch” delivers its message with zero excess. Crunchy power chords and deadpan vocals create a track that feels both confrontational and melodic. Not that you’d expect anything less from Drug Church.

09:

Portrayal of Guilt – Human Terror

A heavy assault that doesn’t waste a second, “Human Terror” is pure sonic violence. Thick and filthy bass highlight a Korn-esque instrumental while harsh vocals hover over the track, bringing the feeling that it’s all collapsing in on itself. It’s oppressive and impossible to ignore. Did we mention Portrayal is a three-piece? POG’s new record, …Beginning of the End is out April 24th.

10:

Corrosion of Conformity – Gimme Some More

Southern sludge meets hard rock swagger here, with thick riffs and a groove that feels almost defiant. It’s a no-frills, high-volume track that leans on attitude over intricacy, and lands because of it. Hard to believe these punk-metal fusion guys have been going for over forty years but here we are… still going strong at that. Their new record, a killer one, Good God // Baad Man is out now.

Hit Parader Legend Interview: Melissa Etheridge on Family, The Rock Hall Nomination, and Her New Album

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Photo: Candice Lawler

Nearly 40 years into her career (38, to be precise, since her brilliant self-titled debut album), Melissa Etheridge is not only having more fun than ever, she is enjoying one of her biggest years yet.

She has a superb new record, Rise, including a duet with superstar Chris Stapleton, and a highly anticipated co-headlining tour with country icon Wynonna Judd. And the icing on the cake is she is nominated for the first time for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yes, 2026 is proving to be a very good year for Etheridge.

Most importantly though for Etheridge, she has found her sweet spot as both an artist and person. A wife and mother, Etheridge, who tells us, “I never thought I’d have a family,” is reveling in the balance of both worlds. The result is more fun making music as she explained during our hour-long chat.

Hit Parader: Congratulations on the Rock Hall nomination.
Melissa Etheridge: Oh, that’s fun. Thank you.

HP: Who would be the dream person to induct you? And who would be your dream collaboration?
Etheridge: You know what? Anybody who’s interested, really. But collaborations? It depends on who’s there. If Bruce is there, I would certainly always love to do something with Bruce. I’m hoping I can get Taylor Swift to come, and maybe rock with her. I’m hoping Sheryl Crow will be there. We could do something together and just whoever really wants to.

Photo: Candice Lawler

HP: I did interviews not long ago with both Chris Robinson from Black Crowes and Billy Corgan, who both now are around their late 50s, early 60s. We talked about the fact that when you’re in your 20s, there’s so much competition. But as you get older, they’re having so much fun with the sense of community that now exists because there’s nothing more to prove. And we had spoken in the past about the fact that when you were coming up, there was definitely that issue of pitting women against each other for radio for example.
Etheridge: The truth back then was when I first went to radio with my first album, they would tell us, “Oh, I’m sorry, we’re already playing a woman.” And you’re like, “Oh, Jesus. So, there is really only one of us.” But it is so good not to be in that state anymore, to just be playing the music and not worrying that if I get it, somebody else won’t, or if they get it, I won’t, and there’s not enough. It’s really nice to just go, “Yeah, we’re just going to have some fun, and we’re all singing and playing, and we’ve all been blessed, and we’re great.”

HP: For all of you, this is just the natural state of life as you get older. Other things matter more. I love the fact that on your Instagram, you have it listed as “Mother, rockstar, activist.” as you get older, you realize it matters, but it doesn’t matter the way you thought it did when you were 23.
Etheridge: Exactly, life is completely different from when I was 23. And that Instagram profile was actually written by my son years ago. I love that he put mother first. And I was like, “Oh, that means that he knows that I put that first.”

HP: It’s also nice to have that, for lack of a better term, separation of church and state, But I remember talking to Patti Smith, who’s as badass a woman as there is. And she was telling me that when she’s home, she’s doing laundry. That when she’s home, she’s mom.
Etheridge: Yes, I make dinner. I’m not so good at cleaning. My wife does that a little better than I do. But life is number one, and your life is your family and your home. I never thought I would have a family. I didn’t think that was in the cards for me. And I had four children, and it’s surprising and very rewarding because I can walk off the stage when there’s always the end of the show. I can always go to my wife, I can always go to my children, I could always go home and that’s really good to know that I have all of that. It’s a lovely balance

HP: I’m sure it also makes music a lot more fun for you.
Etheridge: Much more fun absolutely and now that my children are older, I don’t have as much separation fear like, “Oh. I’m not there for them.” None of my children have ever said that I’m not around enough, ever.

HP: So, when you’re making Rise, which is a wonderful album, is it so much less pressure internally?
Etheridge: Definitely making this record was so much less stressful. There’s not that [pressure], “Oh, it’s got to have a hit. Where’s the hit? Where’s the rock radio thing?” I don’t think about that anymore. I just think, “Is this the best way to express this emotion that I’m thinking and feeling? Is this the best way to bring that about? Oh, how can I make this even more delicious?” And it was just amazing. Because I recorded here in L.A., I was home for dinner every night, and that was really fun, too.

HP: I’ve talked about this with so many people over the years. Cooking is so much like music in that once you get comfortable with it, there’s a creative freedom to it. You play with it and you’re improvising. Of course, when you start off, you’re following the recipes and then you get more comfortable and you go from following the recipe to feeling like John Coltrane.
Etheridge: Exactly, that’s what I’ve done with my chicken recipes. I looked at them and I followed them and then I put a little bit more of this, a little bit more of that. Now I’m just improvising. I’m throwing all kinds of stuff in. That’s what life’s about – creating. I create in the garden, on the road, in the kitchen. I create wherever I go. That’s what it’s about – creating, building and moving forward.

HP: Then, as you get more successful, you get to create with different people and learn from them as well, like Chris Stapleton. I remember seeing a few years ago at a concert, blew me away. Even though he is considered “country,” I said, it’s exactly like seeing Neil Young in the 70s.
Etheridge: Yeah, I think the genre labels are all messed up. I think we need to shuffle them up and start over again because you can’t pigeonhole people anymore. I was always very hard to put into a genre and so I just said rock and roll. But many people have said folk rock, country rock, midwestern rock, singer/songwriter. Nowadays there’s americana, country and outlaw country and they all sound like rock and roll to me, but okay.

Photo: Candice Lawler

HP: Talk about working with different people this time around. I’ve followed your career since the beginning and it’s very rare for you to do a duet? And I use the term duet because it makes me think back to like Marvin [Gaye] and Tammi [Terrell].
Etheridge: Yeah, that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want to throw some guy on my song and he’s singing harmony, and you can’t hear it. We went in and I wanted to write a song with him. I wanted him to feel like he was part of the song so that we could sing it together. And that’s the way it was written. We wrote it that way with the verses and the chorus and I love it. I love his voice and my voice together. There are times I can’t even tell whose is whose. I’m not a duet-y kind of artist. I haven’t done many. The ones that I have done, I’ve enjoyed with Bruce, with the few people that I’ve been able to collaborate with like that. But I have not done many at all. So, this was a big step for me, and I just love it. I’m really happy with it.

HP: You can know someone’s really cool, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to have chemistry with them. So how did you know Chris was the right person?
Etheridge: I just would listen. I didn’t know him, so I would listen to his music, and his writing spoke to me. But his voice, his understanding of blues, of gospel, of all that. We came from that same well. And I’d heard enough nice things about him that I felt confident that we could probably do something. I at least wanted to try.

HP: As you say, you haven’t done many. But the older you get, the more you loosen up. You want to try different things. One of my favorite quotes from Bruce is talking about the biopic. They asked him why he did the movie now. He goes, because I’m old. I don’t give a fuck anymore.
Etheridge: I can understand. I’m very close to there. We’re so fortunate now we have audiences that will come see and people that are interested in our new music. But we don’t kill ourselves over it anymore and for that I’m very glad.

Photo: Candice Lawler

HP: As you continue to expand these new horizons, who else would you love to do duets with?
Etheridge: Maybe because I was talking about him, I think of Don Henley. I feel like that would be like a really good one. I wonder how he’s doing. I haven’t talked to him forever, but Don Henley would be great. Steven Tyler was always someone that I would always say when people asked me, and I still haven’t been able to do anything, but there’s a possibility I will. I always wanted to work with Neil Diamond. He lost his voice, and I seem to be calling these artists up right as they’re unable to sing anymore. Glenn Campbell, I reached out to him right before he died actually. I would love to sing with Adele. What a great voice. Pretty much anybody who really wants to jump in and do a good song, I would be into it.

HP: I love the opening to “If You Ever Leave Me” because it feels so autobiographical and who knows if it actually was or not. Is it just fun to look back at this point?
Etheridge: Oh, it’s fun. I loved everything I did. And I wouldn’t want to go back and do it because that’s just crazy, but, yeah, it was fun. I actually wrote that song as a joke to my wife. I was laughing and I said, “Honey, I wrote you a song.” And I couldn’t stop laughing. She’s like, “I’m not sure I want to hear this.” Then I sang the first line, “Rips in my shirt, spritz in my mullet.” And we just howled for a while. Then I ended up finishing it going, “I’m going to put this on the record because it’s just fun to play.”

HP: You look at the contrast of that with a song like “More Love,” which is such a beautiful song. They both come from the same place though of nostalgia and learning.
Etheridge: Yeah, I like the album to be well-rounded like that. It did make it hard to do the sequence of the album, what was going to come before and after some songs, because you couldn’t go from a really sad to a funny song. So, I had to really work on that.

HP: We haven’t talked about the tour with Wynonna, who’s amazing. How much
fun is it, going back to the idea of camaraderie, to be out on the road with
someone who’s in a similar place, who’s a great artist, and someone you respect?
Etheridge: I love that in the last handful of years people are finally going, “Oh, it might be good to have two women tour together. Maybe they could sell tickets.” I would have the hardest time before. Sheryl and I used to try to do it, and it was just hard to have people think that two women together on a bill would work. This is the first time I’ve toured with Y, and I’m really looking forward to it because there’s a crossover in that country rock area, and yet our fans are deep on both sides.

Photo: Candice Lawler