Author: Rap Hooks

The wife of former Maroon 5 bassist Mickey Madden says in new court filings that he physically assaulted her after she confronted him about “sexting with teenage girls.”

In court documents seeking a domestic violence restraining order against Madden, his wife, Kate Bowman, says he attacked her on July 21 at their Los Angeles home after she discovered sexual messages with “at least two high school girls,” including “fantasies” about “raping one of the girls.”

“I am completely traumatized by the discovery that respondent has been engaging in behavior with high school girls that is probably criminal,” Bowman writes in the document, filed Wednesday (July 30) in Los Angeles court. “When I discovered this, I approached him about it and said that I knew what was going on. Respondent then physically beat me repeatedly.”

Bowman says in the document that Madden “became enraged” when she grabbed his phone away from him during the confrontation.

“He put both his arms around my body around my abdomen and arms to restrain me,” she says. “He then slammed my body against the marble kitchen counter. I felt pain in my hip and waist area. He shoved me to the ground and was out of his mind. I landed on my knees. He kept screaming for me to give him the phone. He appeared literally insane to me.”

Bowman says that later, when she ran from the home to escape him, he followed her outside and “shoved my body against the metal gate.” After allegedly chasing her down the street, she says he “slammed my body into the rock wall that bordered the street with his body.” When she was finally able to hide from him, she says she was able to look through his phone.

“The communications were so upsetting, I was crying hysterically,” Bowman says. “I was absolutely disgusted to be reading his texts about raping her and horrendous other details. His Cash App showed he was paying them as well, in exchange for sexual content and sexual acts.”

In the court filings, Bowman says she believes that Madden has since “entered into sex addiction rehabilitation program.” She says that he has repeatedly apologized via text and included screen captures of the exchanges.

“Please forgive me. This all felt like a private and fake harmless fantasy it has no bearing on real life at all,” the alleged text reads. “I am so ashamed and so sorry can you please come back and talk to me in person.”

On Thursday (July 31), a Los Angeles judge granted the restraining order against Madden, barring him from any contact and ordering him to stay 100 yards away from his wife and their shared home where the alleged incident took place. A further order requiring him to move out of the house entirely was deferred until a court hearing can take place.

A representative for Madden could not immediately be located for comment on Thursday.

Madden was a founding member of Maroon 5 after also playing alongside Adam Levine in their earlier band, Kara’s Flowers. But he left Maroon 5 in 2020 after being arrested over accusations of domestic violence. It’s unclear if that alleged incident involved Bowman or another alleged victim.

“I have some things that I need to deal with and address right now and so I have decided to leave Maroon 5,” Madden said in a statement at the time. “I do not want to be a distraction to my bandmates. I wish them the absolute best.”

No charges were filed following Madden’s arrest, but he never returned to the band after the incident.

The Grateful Dead, which is now celebrating its 60th anniversary, contained multitudes. Its best music was both of the Sixties and out of time, improvised in the moment yet collected like relics by the faithful — first on traded cassettes, then CDs and now vinyl. Its members played as though they were of one mind, but they came together from very different places — Phil Lesh from the avant-garde, Pig Pen from R&B, Bob Weir from blues and country and Jerry Garcia from every genre all at once. And although the Dead disbanded in 1995, after Garcia died, they never really went away: The successor group Dead & Company will play three shows in San Francisco on the first weekend of August 2025, and the band just released a 60-CD archival set, Enjoying the Ride. In a way, the Dead are peaking right now.

In the name of stunt journalism, I wanted to listen to the 60-CD album, which includes 20 shows, 17 complete, adding up to 60 hours of music, recorded between 1969 and 1994. Then I realized that this would take the better part of a week. Instead, I listened straight through to The Music Never Stopped, a three-CD, four-hour collection of highlights. It’s familiar ground for me: I’ve been a Dead fan since the late Eighties, and I saw the group about a dozen times between 1988 and 1993. And I’ve heard enough concert recordings over the years that I recognized the compilation’s 1984 jam of “Scarlet Begonias,” “Touch of Grey” and “Fire on the Mountain.” The band played fast in those years.

The Music Never Stopped plays like a sampler platter of incredible performances: a stunning 1978 version of the title track, all funk tempo and guitar madness; a 1971 cover of “Hard to Handle” that shows its roots in R&B; a searching, jazzy take on “Estimated Prophet” and “Eyes of the World” from 1979. It shows the sheer range of a band that put its own stamp on more kinds of American music than any other, from the traditional folk of “Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad” to the early rock of “Not Fade Away” to its own nods to rock (“Brown-Eyed Women”), psychedelia (“Bird Song”) and jazz (“Let it Grow”). Multitudes. For all that, fans may find that it lacks the organic throughline of a single show, since it jumps around so much in years and styles, and it’s too dense to be a good introduction to the group. (For that, start with American Beauty or Live/Dead.)

Among the most remarkable things about the Grateful Dead, and there are plenty, is that the band has released far more music in the past decade than it did in its first three. Yes, really. Until 1995, the Dead was really a touring act. In its first three decades, it released 13 studio albums — of which only Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty hold up well as recordings (though my colleague Dan Rys thinks I’m nuts) — and nine live albums. It’s not much for a band that by the late Eighties would play the New York area three times a year — a few spring performances in suburban arenas, a couple of summer concerts at Giants Stadium and as many as nine shows at Madison Square Garden in September. Then, in 1993, the band started to release “Dick’s Picks” albums of past concerts, which took its name from band archivist Dick Latvala.

At the time, most Dead fans listened to concerts on cassette, which the band allowed them to record and trade, but not make a business of selling. The idea of curated concerts on CD was a revelation. And over the next decade, the band put out another 34 volumes of “Dick’s Picks” (36 in total), plus 12 “Grateful Dead Download Series recordings,” eight retrospective live albums, and a half dozen live box sets, plus a compilation of Bob Dylan covers and one of live performances handpicked by Lesh. The Dead was just getting started, though.

In 2006, the Dead signed a deal with Warner Music’s Rhino Entertainment to manage its official albums (its early ones came out on Warner but it released others independently and then on Arista), live recordings and direct-to-consumer merchandise business. (The band renewed the deal in 2016.) Since then, under Rhino President and “resident Deadhead” Mark Pinkus, the label has released 17 “Road Trips” albums; 55 “Dave’s Picks” albums (named for Dead archivist Dave Lemieux); 15 box sets, including a 73-CD set of every show of the band’s 1972 tour of Europe and an 80-CD 50th anniversary box, plus a variety of smaller of box set highlights and vinyl editions of individual shows. Some Dave’s Picks albums have come out on vinyl, while others are marketed with glassware, coasters or other tchotchkes.

As I said, peaking. The vault is not infinite — there are only so many tapes of so many shows — but there’s plenty in there. It’s a good business: The 60-CD Enjoying the Ride was limited to 6,000 copies, but it sold for $600, and it will help market The Music Never Stopped, which is available on CD, vinyl and streaming services. Rhino has never shared much information about this business, but a rough estimate suggests that the Dead brings in about a gold record’s worth of revenue in physical albums alone — at a good margin, since the recordings already exist, not much marketing is needed and most items are only sold by mail order. This also fuels a merchandise business that is astonishing in its scope.

If you listen closely to The Music Never Stopped, you can hear this kind of potential — the way the band could play psych-rock or folk or another genre well enough to suggest that this was all it did, but in fact it was only a small part of a bigger picture. Listen even closer and you might hear something that sounds like nothing else but itself — instantly identifiable but different enough that you can’t stop listening, comparing, even following. To me, those differences can be stark — I’m not much interested in most of what the Dead did from 1979 to 1988. But when the band was at its best — I’d say 1969 to 1972, most of 1977 and parts of late-1989 and early-1990 — there wasn’t anyone better. That kind of specificity might sound ridiculous to the uninitiated — is there that big a difference between spring and fall 1989? To me there is, and I’m hardly alone. The Dead was a cult band so big that it could not only sell out stadiums — it could do so for multiple shows, every summer, in cities it played three times a year.

The Dead’s catalog is an odd one because most of its albums just aren’t that good, and only one had a real hit, in “Touch of Grey.” Its best recordings were never intended to be recordings at all — they’re in-the-moment improvisations, captured on tape and stored in a vault, that somehow retain their immediacy decades later. Some of them bring back memories, like the Road Trips recording of the first show I went to, when a high school buddy rhapsodized about how amazing it was to see this concert outdoors, under the stars — when we were in an indoor arena. OK, maybe you had to be there for that one. But the recording sounds pretty great even if you weren’t — even if you weren’t even born yet. So do many of these other meticulously packaged moments, created in and for a specific time and place, that seem to have taken on a life of their own.

HYDE has launched his biggest-ever world tour, HYDE [INSIDE] LIVE 2025 WORLD TOUR, playing 24 shows in 16 cities throughout Japan, Latin America, Europe, and other parts of Asia over the course of five months.

This tour is the continuation of his HYDE [INSIDE] LIVE 2024 WORLD TOUR, which he started last year in support of his album HYDE [INSIDE]. This was his first release in five years and his heaviest to date.

One of the most enthralling parts of HYDE’s live performances is that they are artistic shows in which HYDE’s own aesthetic sensibilities are evident throughout the chaos. The June 25 show at Zepp Haneda (TOKYO) began with a stage covered in curtains. A digital clock counted up to the start of the show, and when the clock struck 17:06 (=16:66=666, the number of the beast), the audience is drawn into the fantastic world INSIDE HYDE.

When the curtains part, the first thing you see is the name “HYDE” in electric lights, evocative of a circus freak show. At the center stands a massive podium with a snake and cross motif, decorated with carved skulls. HYDE, his face enveloped in a deep hood and half-covered by a mask, appears at the podium to the wild cheers of the audience. The show began with “LET IT OUT.” Backed by the heavy sound of his band, HYDE looked down on the masses, stirring the audience into a frenzy with just his voice and the movements of his fingers. He then descended from the podium to put on two powerful, back-to-back performances of “AFTER LIGHT” and “I GOT 666.” The audience let out everything they had bottled inside, through their voices and through their whole bodies.

“Good to see so much energy out there. Tonight, we’re going to tear things up! You’re still looking cool and collected, but by the end of the night you’re going to be a mess!”

With “DEFEAT,” he started out singing sensuously, but when he ripped away the mask covering half his face, the wild aggression inside HYDE came bursting to the surface. During “SICK,” he sang through a megaphone, transforming into a ferocious agitator. He climbed the casks at the side of the stage, mounting the amps and sounding a siren through his megaphone, as if to exhort the crowd to go even wilder. It looked like he would dive into the audience any moment. With the crowd even more amped up by the siren, HYDE dropped “TAKING THEM DOWN.” While he created the burning hot atmosphere of a rock show, violently inciting the crowd, a close look at his megaphone revealed two tiny horns, a unique touch. This pop sensibility was something shared in common with HYDE’s music, which is aggressive but also has catchy, beautiful melodies. After completely enthralling the crowd with his cool, mature performance, he raised a flag over his shoulder and began swaying it to and fro as he sang “ON MY OWN.” The song began with his distinctive bewitching vocal style, growing more intense as it went on, as if HYDE was venting what he had deep inside. This was accompanied by white smoke gushing from the stage, creating a dramatic spectacle.

The venue was then brought under the sway of a romantic piano melody, and the inflamed passion of the audience slowly settled. However, the piano gradually grew noisier and noisier, the sound becoming unsettling. The stage grew dark, and the band launched into “TOKOSHIE,” the ending theme to the TV anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc. The Far Eastern sensibilities and dark melody interwove, creating a sense of expectation in the venue, like an awe-inspiring ceremony had just begun. The sound gradually rose in intensity, reaching a dramatic climax like achieving nirvana. HYDE, lit by spotlights from above his dais, exuded an unapproachable, godly aura as he sang, a figure of overwhelming grandeur.

In previous shows, HYDE has covered artists like Slipknot, Duran Duran, and Linkin Park. In this show, he performed My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade.” When the song’s tempo slowed, HYDE put his own punkish spin on the song, sending the crowd wild.

Then he had the audience sit down and transitioned to “6or9,” where, at HYDE’s signal, the entire audience leapt into the air. Throughout the song, he engaged the crowd in call & response, swinging around a towel and creating an even greater sense of unity with everyone at the show. The band then performed “MAD QUALIA” in front of the floor’s heaving circle pit, and HYDE banged his head as if possessed. The rest of the band also paced the stage, inciting the crowd and creating the kind of over-the-top rock show atmosphere that seemed scarcely possible for a small concert venue. Then, as if to light a match to the powder keg of the crowd, HYDE went down to the crowd. As he stood behind the barrier, reaching down and grasping the hands of fans, audience members throughout the venue began crowd surfing, aiming to get closer to HYDE. When HYDE began “DEVIL SIDE,” the audience, perfectly coordinated, swayed back and forth, hearts united as one.

As if to smash the joyous atmosphere of the crowd, brought together by the melodic killer tune, the band launched into their heaviest number, “SOCIAL VIRUS.” Repeating the mantra, “I want to see more chaos,” HYDE contorted his body to the heavy bass sounds of his masked band mates, his voice distorted by his frenzied shouting. After turning both the stage and the floor into a chaotic spectacle, he continued with “MIDNIGHT CELEBRATION II.” HYDE thrashed around the stage, like a man possessed.

As the show came to its close, HYDE collapsed on stage, looking up into the rafters. A bittersweet melody began to play, and HYDE, with a delicate, beautiful voice on the verge of tears, sang “LAST SONG.” His soft singing voice rose from a whisper, gradually becoming more fevered and filling the hearts of the audience with emotion. A deluge of crimson paper confetti fell from the rafters and HYDE sunk to his knees on stage, like a scene from a movie. Taking his voice to its limits, he repeated the frenzied final lines, his voice midway between crying and screaming, and then fell to the floor, a sight so sublime and beautiful that the audience watched with bated breath, feeling like their hearts had been ripped from their chests. HYDE put his all into the performance, with the climax of the show sweeping the audience from its feet as it showed the ephemeral beauty inside HYDE’s aggressive ferocity. It was the highlight of the show. The paper confetti rained on HYDE’s crumpled form as the audience gazed on as if in a trance. And with this, the show came to an end.

When the curtains opened on the stage again for an encore, each band member performed a gorgeous solo. These led into “PANDORA,” and HYDE suddenly appeared on the second-story corridor, making the crowd go wild. Next, he suddenly appeared in front of the first-story PA, surprising the first floor audience. After delighting the fans by suddenly appearing in their midst, HYDE returned to the stage.

“I’m pouring everything I have into this music. I’m getting older, so I just want to do what I love. And since I’m doing what I want, that means I’m weeding people out. I’m going my own way, and I’m sure there are people out there who don’t like that. But that’s fine. I’ll always have my core fans who stick with me. I pray that there are people out there whose hearts are reached by this show. So we’re going to play three more songs, and we’re going to play with all our hearts, so we have no regrets. Total concentration–my singing, your energy. Don’t hold anything back!”

After pouring out his heart about how he felt about the tour, he performed “MUGEN,” the opening theme to the TV anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc, followed immediately by “GLAMOROUS SKY.” Then he brought the audience’s voltage to its peak with the show’s finale, party anthem “SEX BLOOD ROCK N’ ROLL.” The curtains fell and the words “THE END” appeared on them, bringing the show to a close.

HYDE will continue jetting across Japan to perform at numerous summer festivals, and then his momentum will take him overseas to meet fans around the world. If you’re planning to see HYDE, you’d best be prepared.

—This article by Sachie Tojo first appeared on Billboard Japan

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With Paul McCartney going back on the road again with the “Got Back 2025” tour starting Monday, Sept. 29, at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California, Beatlemania is surging with old and new generations of fans alike.

To celebrate the rock legends, Amazon has a wide selection of Beatles merch and apparel to show your love and pride for the Fab Four, including Paul McCartney. The British rock band has an official online store from the retail giant that includes tees, hoodies, books, drinkware, toys, home video releases and much more.

Scroll down and check out our recommendations for the best Beatles merch and apparel you can purchase online.

The Beatles, Band Photo T-Shirt

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And if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can order now and any one of these Beatles merch items will be delivered to your home in less than two days once it’s released, thanks to Prime Delivery. However, if you’re not a member, your cart has to go over $35 to get free shipping on your order.

But you can sign up for a 30-day free trial to take advantage of all that Amazon Prime has to offer, including access to Amazon Music for online music streaming, Prime Video and Prime Gaming; fast free shipping in less than two days with Prime Delivery; in-store discounts at Whole Foods Market; access to exclusive shopping events — such as Prime Day and Black Friday — and much more. Learn more about Amazon Prime and its benefits here.

Additionally, there’s a new book about the relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney as songwriters titled John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs. It’s currently a No. 1 bestseller on Amazon and priced at $20.99 (regularly $32) from the online retailer, a 35% savings.

In the meantime, shop more merch and apparel from The Beatles on Amazon, below:

Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.

At the final night of the Cowboy Carter Tour at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, Beyoncé had quite a few tricks up her fringed sleeve. But her ace card on Saturday night was definitely when she was joined onstage by her Destiny’s Child bandmates — Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams — for their first performance together since Beyoncé’s 2018 headlining Coachella set, lovingly dubbed Beychella.

On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are chatting about the surprise reunion and what it might mean for Act III — the expected third act to complete the trilogy that started with 2022’s Renaissance and continued with 2024’s Cowboy Carter. There’s been a lot of speculation of what the Act III genre might be, following Bey’s dance and country projects, but what if it’s a new Destiny’s Child album? Or if Beyoncé’s O.G. girl group will be a part of at least one new song?

Listen to our full conversation below:

Also on the show, on the Billboard 200 albums chart, Tyler, The Creator’s DON’T TAP THE GLASS debuts at No. 1, while Alex Warren, Ozzy Osbourne, Jessie Murph and BTS shake up the top 10. Plus, Osbourne is remembered on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, where one of his most iconic songs — more than 40 years old — finally makes its chart debut.

The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)

The SOCAN Polaris Song Prize has its inaugural short list.

The list comprises songs recorded by Lou-Adriane Cassidy, Saya Gray, Yves Jarvis, Mustafa and Ribbon Skirt. The winner will receive $10,000 split between the song’s Canadian performers and the song’s credited Canadian songwriter(s), courtesy of Canadian performing rights society SOCAN.

Here is this year’s short list:

* Lou-Adriane Cassidy— “Dis-moi dis-moi dis-moi,” written by Lou-Adriane Cassidy and Alexandre Martel

* Saya Gray — “SHELL (OF A MAN),” written by Saya Gray and John Mavro

* Yves Jarvis — “Gold Filigree,” written by Yves Jarvis

* Mustafa — “Gaza is Calling,” written by Mustafa Ahmed, Emmanuel Hailemariam, Simon Hessman and Nicolas Jaar

* Ribbon Skirt — “Wrong Planet,” written by Tashiina Buswa and Billy Riley

These songs were selected from the previously announced 20-song long list.

Of these five artists, only Toronto artist/poet Mustafa has previous experience of a Polaris-related short list, via a 2021 nomination for the Polaris Music Prize for his debut release, When Smoke Rises.

An interesting facet of this short list is that all five of the artists listed are also on the 10 album short list for the 2025 Polaris Music Prize. As a result, they will all be performing at the Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony, at Toronto’s Massey Hall on Tuesday, September 16. Both Prizes will be awarded at that event.

As with the Polaris Music Prize, the Song Prize is voted on by the members of the Polaris jury without regard to musical genre, label affiliation or commercial popularity.

The SOCAN Polaris Song Prize is the organization’s first new award since the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize was introduced in 2015 to award albums from the pre-Polaris Prize era. The launch of the Song Prize is part of an extensive initiative of programming changes announced for the organization’s 20th anniversary.

Tickets for the Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony are on sale now via the Massey Hall website.

This article was originally published by Billboard Canada.