Author: Rap Hooks

Kacey Musgraves has canceled three dates from her upcoming Middle of Nowhere tour, including what had been scheduled as the trek’s opening night.

The canceled shows include the Aug. 20 performance at United Center in Chicago, the Aug. 29 show at TD Garden in Boston and the Sept. 2 concert at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Fans were notified of the cancellations via emails from Ticketmaster, according to multiple reports and social media posts.

“Please be advised that the Kacey Musgraves concert scheduled for Saturday, August 29, 2026 at TD Garden has been canceled,” one fan’s notice read, according to a screenshot shared on Reddit. “All tickets will be automatically refunded to fans at their original point of purchase. Please allow 7-10 business days for refunds to process.”

No reason has been given for the cancellations. Musgraves has not publicly addressed the changes, and no explanation has been posted to her official social media accounts.

The affected cities were all scheduled to host multiple Musgraves shows, and tickets for alternate dates in Chicago, Boston and New York remain available. The Middle of Nowhere tour is still scheduled to begin in Chicago on Aug. 21, according to Ticketmaster’s tour listing.

The tour supports Musgraves’ latest album, Middle of Nowhere, released May 1. The project follows 2024’s Deeper Well and includes the singles “Dry Spell” and “Mexico Honey.” Earlier this week, Musgraves released the video for “Mexico Honey,” which features the singer performing the track in a karaoke-bar setting.

Middle of Nowhere debuted in the top 10 across seven Billboard charts dated May 16, including three No. 1 bows. The album opened at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, Vinyl Albums and Indie Store Album Sales, while also arriving at No. 2 on Top Country Albums and Americana/Folk Albums, No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 10 on Top Streaming Albums.

The project launched with 100,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending May 7, marking Musgraves’ best week ever by units. Vinyl accounted for a little more than 37,000 of that total, also giving Musgraves her best sales week on vinyl. “Dry Spell” peaked at No. 15 on Hot Country Songs in March. On Top Album Sales, Middle of Nowhere marked Musgraves’ third No. 1, following Deeper Well in 2024 and Star-Crossed in 2021.

Billie Joe Armstrong has turned two pillars of his Green Day sound into new signature gear. The frontman has announced a limited-edition Radiant Red Epiphone Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior, along with his first artist signature amplifier with Marshall, the 1959BJA Artist Signature.

Both releases nod to the stripped-down, high-impact guitar tone Armstrong has used across decades of Green Day songs, from the band’s 1994 breakthrough Dookie through its more recent stadium-scale era.

The new Epiphone model features a bright red finish, similar to Armstrong’s Les Paul Junior, while maintaining a deliberately simple setup. The guitar features a single P-90 PRO pickup, master volume and tone controls, and a Lightning Bar wraparound bridge — a no-frills build in line with Armstrong’s long-running punk approach.

The guitar also includes a reproduction of Armstrong’s signature on the back of the headstock and comes with a custom black hardshell case with a leopard-print interior.

Armstrong’s new Marshall amp, meanwhile, marks the company’s first artist signature model in 14 years. The baby-blue 1959BJA Artist Signature is based on Marshall’s handwired 1959HW platform and includes a custom “Dookie Mod,” inspired by the guitar tone Armstrong developed with producer Rob Cavallo during the making of Dookie.

The amp’s look also reaches back into Armstrong’s own mythology. Its baby-blue covering is a tribute to “Blue,” the heavily stickered Fernandes guitar that became one of his most recognizable instruments during Green Day’s early years.

“I’m so overjoyed to have my own signature Marshall amp,” Armstrong said in a statement. “These amps have been a part of my musical life, from my heroes down to little old me. Turn it the f— up!”

The gear news arrives during another busy stretch for Green Day. Earlier this month, the band announced the soundtrack to its upcoming coming-of-age comedy Nimrods, due July 31. The 22-track set includes career-spanning favorites, four previously unreleased live recordings from the Hollywood Palladium and a new song, “I’m Never Gonna R.I.P.”

Armstrong has also been back onstage with his covers band, The Coverups. At recent shows, he was joined by Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson for David Bowie’s “All The Young Dudes,” and the group also covered Nirvana’s “Drain You,” which Armstrong dedicated to late L7 bassist Jennifer Finch.

Green Day released its most recent studio album, Saviors, in January 2024. The album continued the band’s long-running Billboard presence following a catalog that includes Dookie, American Idiot, 21st Century Breakdown and Revolution Radio.

Bret Michaels is recovering from surgery to remove a kidney stone, the Poison frontman revealed this week, after playing several shows rather than cancelling on fans.

In a Facebook post shared on what he dubbed “#WisdomWednesday,” Michaels said the stone would not pass after almost seven days of waiting it out.

“The pain became intense but, as usual, I played through Charleston, WV, Grantville, PA and a special private show at Fairchild AFB in Spokane for veterans, active duty and their families,” he wrote. The day after the Spokane performance, he was admitted to hospital “as the pain became too much when the stone would not pass.”

Michaels said the procedure is now complete. “The operation has been done and is complete & I’m out of post-op recovery, and I’m doing everything within my power to feel better and continue playing great shows for great fans when I’ve got a complete clean bill of health,” he wrote.

He used the post to thank the medical staff who treated him, saying the first thing he learned was “complete gratitude for the frontline workers, doctors and nurses,” and adding that he is “wise enough to know how important family, friends, fans, doctors and nurses play such a vital role in our everyday health.”

Ever the showman, he signed off with a joke about being “forced” out of his stage clothes and into a hospital gown, having gone straight from the show to the hospital.

The health scare is the latest chapter in a long, well-documented medical history for the 63-year-old, who has been unusually candid with fans throughout his career.

Michaels has managed Type 1 diabetes since childhood — his mother co-founded a youth diabetes camp during his upbringing — and has become one of music’s most prominent diabetes-awareness advocates. In 2010, he survived a life-threatening brain hemorrhage and a related warning stroke before making a full recovery and returning to the stage. .

Michaels co-founded Poison in Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s before the band relocated to Los Angeles, where they became one of the defining glam-metal acts of the Sunset Strip era. Poison charted 10 singles in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including six top 10 hits, and scored their sole No. 1 with the 1988 power ballad “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” which spent three weeks atop the chart over the Christmas holiday. The single anchored their second album, Open Up and Say… Ahh!, certified 5x platinum, and remains the band’s signature song.

Michaels has not announced any changes to his tour schedule, saying he intends to return once he has a full clean bill of health.

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and Bruce Springsteen received a new award from the American Civil Liberties Union recognizing contributions to American thought and culture.

Kaepernick and Springsteen were honored Friday night (July 24) with the ACLU Ralph Ellison Award for Defenders of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in the Arts, Business, Science and Sports. The honor comes a decade after Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem in protest against police violence and racial inequality.

“We know our civil liberties are under attack, we know humanity is under attack, education is under attack. They are trying to encroach on our rights, encroach on our dignity, encroach on the future that we want to build together,” Kaepernick said in his acceptance speech at the event in Washington, D.C. “When we look back at this moment, it will not be the speeches that change the direction of history. It’s going to be whether we decided: Are we going to build the schools or not? Are we going to defend the rights of others, or are we going to watch? Are we going to build community together, or are we going to stand in isolation?”

“The consequences of these decisions are going to be the reality that the future generations inherit.”

Kaepernick was joined in protest by teammate Eric Reid and others, but he also drew criticism from politicians, team owners and other players. Kaepernick and Reid filed collusion grievances against the NFL in 2017, saying they were blacklisted. They reached a settlement in 2019.

“He demonstrated in real time the price America too often exacts from those who challenge racial injustice,” said Deborah Archer, the ACLU’s president. “His peaceful protest was met with extraordinary personal sacrifice. He lost the career he spent his life building. He became the target of criticism, hostility and relentless public attack, and yet he never retreated.”

Springsteen — who closed the event with a solo rendition of “Streets of Minneapolis” — and Kaepernick were honored as part of an awards ceremony hosted by actress Laverne Cox.

“It’s important for us to recognize all of the people who are contributing to the fight to protect civil rights and civil liberties,” Archer said. “Those folks — actors, athletes — these folks have all shown up in incredibly powerful ways.”

Springsteen’s performance of “Streets of Minneapolis” was uploaded to his official YouTube channel. Watch it below.

A set billed “Hayley Williams & Friends” at the 2026 Newport Folk Festival featured a long list of guests taking the stage with the Paramore frontwoman on Friday (July 24). Among the guests joining Williams for her headlining slot live at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, R.I., were Jack Antonoff, Lucy Dacus and Jenny Lewis.

During her 16-song setlist at the fest, which started with her 2025 album title track “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party” and ended with a group cover of the Bill Withers classic “Lean on Me,” Williams performed “I Wanna Get Better” with Jack Antonoff — his band Bleachers’ debut single back in 2014 — and was also joined by him on guitar for her Ego Death song”Good Ol’ Days.” The pair shared a hug ahead of “I Wanna Get Better,” which had Antonoff and Williams harmonizing on vocals.

Williams played “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris” live for the first time ever, accompanied by Lucy Dacus — one third of Boygenius (with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers), who originally sang background vocals on the 2020 Petals for Armor track. Dacus also had a set of her own on the Fort Stage on Friday.

In another surprise moment during Williams’ time on stage, as filmed by a concertgoer at the front of the crowd, Williams welcomed Jenny Lewis out to cover “Silver Lining” with the Rilo Kiley singer-songwriter, from the group’s 2007 album Under the Blacklight. She joined Lewis on vocals at verse three, singing, “And the grass it was a-ticking/ And the sun was on the rise/ I never felt so wicked/ As when I willed our love to die/ And I was your silver lining, as the story goes/ I was your silver lining, but now I’m gold.”

Other musicians taking the stage with Williams Friday in Newport included Karly Hartzman, This Is Lorelei, Joy Oladokun, Liam Benzvi, Annie DiRusso, Kelsey Lu, Remi Wolf, Phoenix Rousiamanis and Madi Diaz. Newport Folk Festival shared a slideshow of pictures from the Williams & Friends set on Instagram post-show.

Friday night’s Newport Folk Festival schedule also featured a headlining set from Ms. Lauryn Hill.

This year’s lineup at the historic Newport Folk Festival continues Saturday-Sunday, with performances from The Lumineers, Nathaniel Rateliff, Brandi Carlile, Brandon Flowers, Tom Morello and more.

Afterpay Arena — the Sydney venue formerly known as Qudos Bank Arena — officially opened on Thursday (July 23), marking the completion of a physical overhaul and the formal launch of the five-year naming rights partnership first announced in May.

The launch ceremony, held in the arena bowl, was attended by Afterpay co-founder Anthony Eisen, Afterpay VP APAC Mike Ryan, Legends Global COO for Asia Pacific and Middle East Peter Loxton, and Federal Shadow Assistant Minister for the Digital Economy Simon Kennedy.

It was the first time the fully transformed venue was presented under its new name, following months of interior redesign and technology integration.

The partnership, which runs through 2031, positions the venue as the first major entertainment destination in Australia to offer payment flexibility across the entire fan experience. Attendees can now split ticket purchases into four interest-free instalments via Afterpay Pay in 4, and use tap-to-pay for food, beverage and merchandise inside the venue, powered by 150 Square Registers and 65 Square Handheld devices — the first full Square commerce integration at a venue of this scale in Australia.

The physical transformation includes a foyer uplift, two redesigned hospitality spaces, venue-wide wayfinding, and what the companies describe as one of the world’s largest transparent holographic LED installations.

“Afterpay now has a permanent home in the place where fans come for the moments that matter most to them,” Eisen said. “We’ve built everything here around keeping fans in the moment — from the way they buy their ticket to the last song of the night.” Loxton framed the deal as more than a signage play. “This partnership isn’t just a name on a building,” he said. “That’s exactly the kind of engaged partner we want beside us for the next five years.”

The venue draws approximately 1.1 million attendees annually and was named to Billboard’s Top 5 Live Music Venues in 2025. Operated by Ticketek Entertainment Group and managed by Legends Global, the arena’s naming rights move reflects a broader push by buy-now-pay-later operators into live entertainment, as promoters and venues increasingly position payment flexibility as a lever for driving attendance and per-head spend.

Afterpay-commissioned research cited by the company found that 94% of cost-affected event-goers have missed live events due to upfront payment barriers, while 74% said they would spend more at venues offering payment choice.

Among the first acts scheduled to play the transformed venue are Tame Impala, J. Cole, Khalid, Laufey, Robyn, Olivia Dean, Zara Larsson and Hilary Duff.