News

Welcome to Drummergeddon 2025, when the entire music world wants to know: What the hell is going on with the drummers? There’s an epidemic of high-profile bands dumping their drummers, or getting dumped by them, and nobody has any clue why. It’s not just the Who or the Foo Fighters. It’s not just Nine Inch Nails or Pearl Jam or Primus. It’s not even just Gnr or Oasis or Iron Maiden. It’s a host of rock and metal bands from different genres, at different levels of fame,...

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

“Well, all good things must come to an end,” Pete Townshend shared in a statement in May to announce The Who’s The Song Is Over North American Farewell Tour.

With some tickets already selling out online, the band’s forthcoming trek across America kicks off on Aug. 16, with a schedule that includes stops at Madison Square Garden in New York City, along with back-to-back dates at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles,...

When Ozzy Osbourne brought Metallica on tour in 1986, he noticed his young opening act blasting Black Sabbath in their dressing room and covering his old band’s songs in soundchecks. Osbourne’s first assumption, he said later, was that Metallica were mocking him. He was stunned to learn they were actually displaying their hero worship, and trying to coax him onstage with them.

As discussed in the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Osbourne — who died July 22 at the age of 76 — could be touchingly insecure for a beloved and wildly influential metal legend.

With strong albums from veterans Alex G, Japanese Breakfast, and Car Seat Headrest, and killer debuts from newcomers like Lifeguard, 2025 has been packed with great indie rock. In the latest episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, we look back at the year in indie so far, with Simon Vozick-Levinson joining host Brian Hiatt for the discussion. (To hear the whole episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play below.)

Alex G technically just departed the world...

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

Ozzy Osbourne played his farewell show with Black Sabbath just two weeks before his death on July 22. For the lucky few thousand in attendance at the rock band’s Birmingham, UK concert, it was — without hyperbole — likely the opportunity of a lifetime to see their favorite rockers reunite for one last refrain.

Black Sabbath were among a number of legacy rock bands playing concerts this year, and while...

“It was our Woodstock, but better,” Nile Rodgers asserts in Live Aid: When Rock ’n’ Roll Took on the World, referring to the all-star charity concerts broadcast around the world 40 years ago. Boomers may quibble, even with the presence of Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, and a reunited Led Zeppelin at those shows. But when it came to ambition, funds raised, and global cooperation, Rodgers has a point.

Those 1985 multi-artist shows in London and Philadelphia — which raised the equivalent of $450 million in today’s currency for African famine relief...

The Who have officially launched “The Song Is Over” farewell tour, which the legendary band has promised will indeed be its very last outing. The tour kicked off on Sunday night (July 20th) at the Anfiteatro Camerini in Piazzola Sul Brenta, Italy.

The concert was one of five shows that The Who are playing in Italy and the UK leading up to the farewell tour’s North American leg, which begins August 16th in Sunrise, Florida, and runs through September 28th in Las Vegas (pick up tickets here).

Get The Who Tickets Here

The show also marked The Who’s first gig since firing drummer Zak Starkey and naming Scott Devours as his replacement. The band’s lineup includes original members Pete Townshend (guitar) and Roger Daltrey (lead vocals) alongside Devours, Simon Townshend, Loren Gold, Jon Button (bass), and John Hogg (backing vocals).

At the kickoff show, The Who played...

The Who kicked off their Song Is Over farewell tour Sunday night at the Anfiteatro Camerini in Piazzola sul Brenta, Italy. It was their first gig since firing longtime drummer Zak Starkey and replacing him with Scott Devours, their first regular tour show without an orchestra since 2017, and the official unveiling of new background singer John Hogg after giving him a test run earlier this year at the Royal Albert Hall.

The setlist stuck largely to the standards, but they did break out the Who’s Next deep cut “Love...

In between standing on business in paparazzi clashes and dodging endless rumors about his personal life, it turns out Justin Bieber was busy in the studio, making a genuinely interesting album. Swag is full of well-chosen collaborators — Gunna, Sexyy Red, Cash Cobain, Lil B, Dijon — confessional lyrics, and even surprisingly self-aware skits recorded with Druski.

In the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, we break down the last few years of Bieber’s life and career, with Jeff Ihaza (who wrote a smart piece on Bieber’s...

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

Maison Margiela, the French fashion house that practically invented experimental style for the modern age, is back at it — and this time, it’s teaming up (once again) with British footwear designer Dr. Martens. Yes, those Margielas. The ones name-dropped by Chief Keef (“F*** the Pradas, I’ma take the Margielas”), worn by Zendaya and Ariana Grande, and beloved by every fashion aficionado who’s ever wanted to look effortlessly cool.

Sabrina Carpenter is as good as any current pop star at cultivating controversy and attention — the latest evidence was the now-subsided furor over her absurd Man’s Best Friend album cover, which seems to take cues from Spinal Tap’s Smell the Glove. “She’s leaning into it and laughing about it at the same time,” says Angie Martoccio, who profiled Carpenter for her recent Rolling Stone cover story — which revealed that image aside, the singer’s true obsession is music.

“I wasn’t aware that she was a full-on music nerd,...

Pete Townshend of The Who is still not 100% sure why Zak Starkey was fired from the band.

The saga of Starkey’s departure has been playing out for several months now, with the drummer being fired from The Who back in April, re-hired just days later, and subsequently re-fired in May and replaced by Scott Devour. Townshend originally offered an explanation after Starkey was re-hired, with the co-bandleader claiming it was a result of “communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily.”

Get The Who Tickets Here

Now relieved of his duties a second time, Starkey has told his side of the story, claiming that Roger Daltrey was frustrated by the drummer allegedly dropping beats during a show in London. “I watched the show and I can’t find any dropped beats,” Starkey told The Telegraph this month.

Pete Townshend has weighed in on the acrimonious split between the Who and drummer Zak Starkey, admitting of the situation, “It’s been a mess.”

Back in April, the Who — or Townshend and Roger Daltrey — announced they “made a collective decision to part ways with Zak” after the drummer’s three-decade tenure with the group. Three days later, Townshend proclaimed that “News Flash! Who back Zak!” but then reversed course again a month later to re-confirm Starkey’s exit, with the drummer himself confirming he was “retired” by Daltrey ahead...

There was an odd symmetry to the near-simultaneous deaths of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson at age 82 last week. “Both of them poets of summer,” Rob Sheffield says in the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now. “Both chroniclers of the American dream in California. Both from pretty much the same era. Both of them also started out very young as musical prodigies, who figured out early that they needed to be in charge of their music.”

As a Bay Area DJ, Sly Stone slipped Bob Dylan and the Beatles into R&b playlists,...

Rick Rubin has written a book about the new phenomenon of ‘vibe coding,’ or giving AI directions in natural language instead of a programming language, which the acclaimed producer calls the “punk rock of coding.” Before you start agreeing with Pete Townshend, the argument does kind of make sense in-context.

The Way of Code: The Timeless Art of Vibe Coding is an interactive book created with the AI chatbot Claude. According to Rubin it’s a kind of remix of the Tao Te Ching, a “a 3,000 year-old wisdom teaching combined with cutting-edge technology.” It’s full of Rubin’s observations about AI mixed with Rubin-esque ancient wisdom such as, “Do by not doing, and there is nothing that cannot be done.”

Rubin talked about the book during a May appearance on The Ben & Marc Show, a podcast hosted by the venture capitalists Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen. In a thoroughly...

Ringo Starr is standing by his son, Zak Starkey, following his firing from The Who.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Starkey gave the full rundown on The Who firing, re-hiring, and subsequently re-firing him this year. He revealed that he turned to his father, Ringo Starr, for advice, describing him as a strong source of support throughout the ordeal. “I’m very proud of him standing up for me,” Starkey said of his father. When asked what the former Beatle thought about the situation, Starkey responded plainly: “He said, ‘I’ve never liked the way that little man runs that band’,” apparently referring to Roger Daltrey.

While Starkey didn’t reveal any other details about his father’s thoughts on the band or his firing, he did clarify that he’s not holding any grudges against Daltrey and Pete Townshend — despite referring to them as “fucking insane” and...

The past few months have been quite a head-snapping time for Zak Starkey. The roller coaster began April 16 when the Who fired the drummer after three decades of solid work (“The band made a collective decision to part ways with Zak”), continued three days later when Pete Townshend announced Starkey was back in (“Zak is not being asked to step down from the Who”), and climaxed a month later when Townshend reversed himself (“After many years of great work on drums from Zak, the time has come for a change...

Swedish pop star Zara Larsson’s next album, Midnight Sun, due Sept. 26, will include the confessional track “Ambition,” which she describes as her most honest song — complete with lyrics about comparing herself to other performers as she stares at her phone late at night. “That’s the thing with ambition,” she sings. “Everything’s a competition.”

“ When you’re super-ambitious, I think that’s the blessing and the curse,” she says in the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now. “You can have so many amazing things happening to you,...

To get her music back, first Taylor Swift had to re-record it. After a consortium led by Scooter Braun bought the rights to the masters for her first six albums in 2019, much to Swift’s displeasure, she hatched a simple, if wildly labor-intensive plan: Make new Taylor’s Versions of her catalog available, and then ask her massive fanbase to stream them instead of the originals.

No one had ever tried anything like it before, but fans complied by the millions. The strategy worked exactly as intended, devaluing the masters...

For decades, the signature red Gibson guitar that Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) played at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance in Back to the Futurehas been missing. Whether the Gibson Es-345 guitar hitched a ride on a DeLorean remains to be seen.

Per Entertainment Weekly, Gibson is reaching out to fans to help find the instrument from the iconic 1985 film, directed by Robert Zemeckis. The guitar brand has launched a search for the guitar that Marty McFly played Chuck Berry’s "Johnny B. Goode" in one of the film's most memorable scenes. Filmmakers discovered that the guitar had gone missing 40 years ago during the making of Back to the Future Part II. Gibson Films is producing a documentary about the search for the missing guitar titled Lost to the Future.

Lost to the Future will also focus on the impact of the film, specifically Marty McFly's guitar solo and...

These past few weeks have been a very trying time for Who fans. The difficulties started in April when word slipped out they’d fired longtime drummer Zak Starkey, calmed down a bit when Pete Townshend reversed the decision, and then went into overdrive when they announced they were calling it quits after one more tour. (Yes, they said this before in 1982, but they weren’t in their eighties back then.) And once the reality that the Who were ending sank in, they announced that Starkey was indeed getting the...

Usually, it’s the employee that does the retiring, but in the case of Zak Starkey and The Who, it appears that the band “retired” the drummer. Starkey has offered new insight into his recent firing, re-hiring, and re-firing from the legendary rock act, saying that singer Roger Daltrey insisted that Starkey wasn’t “fired,” but “retired.”

Get The Who Tickets Here

In a new Instagram post on Monday (May 26th), Starkey noted that he had a confusing conversation with Daltrey at the end of last week. The drummer explained that it was not his decision to part ways with The Who ahead of the band’s upcoming North American farewell tour, despite the singer’s insistence on using the word “retired.” His full post reads as follows:

“Noise&confusion!!!! I had a great phone chat with Roger at the end of last week which truly confused both of us!

Zak Starkey clarified that he was apparently not “fired” from the Who, but rather “retired.” The drummer took to Instagram on Monday night to detail a phone call he had with Roger Daltrey about his much-discussed departure from the band.

“I had a great phone chat with Roger at the end of last week which truly confused both of us!!!” Starkey wrote. “Rog said I hadn’t been ‘fired’…I had been ‘retired’ to work [on] my own projects. I explained to Rog that I have just spent nearly eight weeks...

“The America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,” Bruce Springsteen declared from a Manchester, U.K. stage May 14. At the kick-off show of his newly rechristened Land of Hope and Dreams Tour with the E Street Band, Springsteen framed his criticism of Donald Trump in patriotism: “The America that I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and regardless of its faults, is...

The Who haven’t even launched their recently announced North American farewell tour, but things haven’t exactly been going smoothly in the lead-up to the final run. A new report claimed that singer Roger Daltrey is questioning if he even wants to tour with “half-hearted” guitarist Pete Townshend, but it turns out it was misleading.

As previously reported, the legendary rock band fired, re-hired, and then re-fired longtime drummer Zak Starkey, replacing him with Daltrey’s solo drummer Scott Devours. If that weren’t enough, Daltrey seemingly expressed disappointment in recent quotes made by Townshend.

Get The Who Tickets Here

In an interview with the UK’s Sunday People, Townshend said, “The Who has gone on a bit too long with two of us dying. It does sometimes feel like flogging a dead horse.”

The Daily Mail reported on Thursday (May 22nd) that Townshend’s comments irked Daltrey, writing that the singer responded,...

Zak Starkey, son of the famous Beatles member Ringo Starr, has been fired from rock band The Who for the second time in two months.

Starkley announced in April that he would be leaving the rock band after 29 years as their drummer, following a series of shows at the Royal Albert Hall. Later that week, band member Pete Townshend announced that there were “some communication issues” in the band, and Starkley would be staying with the group.

The band is preparing to launch their final North American tour.

However, on May 18, The Who announced that Starkley would, in fact, be leaving. In a post to Instagram, Townshend wrote, “After many years of great work on drums from Zak, the time has come for a change. A poignant time.”

He added, “Zak has lots of new projects in hang, and I wish him the best,” and proceeded to announce, “Scott Devours,...

Roger Daltrey’s longtime solo band drummer Scott Devours, who was recently promoted to the Who after a fairly bitter and drawn-out split with Zak Starkey, has shared some emotional thoughts about his new position via Instagram.

“Yesterday, with a short, simple Instagram post, Pete and Roger, once again, changed my life forever,” he wrote. “It’s hard to express the tsunami of emotions that I’m processing since that incredible news. The amount of positivity thrown my way has been overwhelming, I truly thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Whether you’ve been wailing on the same Superstrat since the Reagan era or just picked up the ukulele after watching the trailer for the new Lilo & Stitch live-action movie (no judgment), there’s never been a better time to level up your guitar gear. And right now, Fender’s throwing an early Memorial Day Sale, and it’s hitting harder than a Pete Townshend windmill — with up to 50% off electrics, acoustics, basses, pedals, and parts.

Deal

Limited Edition American Performer Timber Telecaster

$1,199.00 $1,499.00 20% off Buy Now on fender

We’re...

The Who have revealed the openers for their upcoming North American farewell tour, featuring Billy Idol, the Joe Perry Project, and more.

Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters will open on the first two dates of the Song Is Over tour, taking place on Aug. 16 in Sunrise, Florida, and on Aug. 19 in Newark, New Jersey. The Joe Perry Project — featuring Perry, Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford and Buck Johnson, the Black Crowe’s Chris Robinson, and Stone Temple Pilot’s Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz — will support the band in Boston on Aug.

Iconic rock band The Who has announced its final North American tour dates.

The band, which has been playing together for 61 years, has its final run of shows scheduled for this August through September.

The Who’s Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey made the announcement at a press conference in London. The tour is slated to kick off on Aug. 19 in Newark, New Jersey, and will make stops in major cities like New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and more before concluding on Sept. 27 in Las Vegas.

Reminiscing about the North American concerts the band has played in the past, Townshend said in the announcement, “The warmth and engagement of those audiences began back in 1967 with hippies smoking dope, sitting on their blankets and listening deeply and intensely. Music was everywhere. We all felt equal…Today, Roger and I still carry the banner for the late [drummer] Keith Moon and [bassist] John Entwistle and of course,...

The Who famously sang about not getting fooled again, but apparently it’s okay to get fired again. A month after firing and rehiring Zak Starkey, the legendary rock band has parted ways with the drummer once more.

On Instagram, guitarist and chief Who songwriter Pete Townshend wrote, “After many years of great work on drums from Zak the time has come for a change. A poignant time. Zak has lots of new projects in hand and I wish him the best.” Townshend added that Scott Devours of singer Roger Daltrey’s solo band will take over behind the kit for The Who’s upcoming farewell tour dates.

Get The Who Tickets Here

Townshend and Daltrey also issued a formal statement, writing, “The Who are heading for retirement, whereas Zak is 20 yrs younger and has a great future with his new band and other exciting projects. He needs to devote...

The Who and their drummer Zak Starkey have seemingly parted ways… again.

After initially announcing their separation last month, only to bring Starkey back days later, The Who’s guitarist-songwriter, Pete Townshend, shared on Instagram Sunday that the son of The Beatles’ drummer Ringo Starr has split from the band for a second time.

“After many years of great work on drums from Zak the time has come for a change,” Townshend wrote. “A poignant time. Zak has lots of new projects in hand and I wish him the best.”

However, Starkey, who had been the drummer for The Who since 1996’s Quadrophenia tour, took to his social media shortly after, claiming that he was asked to say it was his decision to quit the rock band this time, but that “this would be a lie.”

“I was fired two weeks after reinstatement and asked to make a statement saying...

As The Who prepares to embark on their North American farewell tour, the 60-year old rock group’s saga with drummer Zak Starkey continues.

Following Starkey’s announced departure last month, and founding member Pete Townshend‘s issued correction, the drummer said on Sunday that he’s been fired from the band once again.

“I was fired two weeks after reinstatement and asked to make a statement saying I had quit The Who to pursue my other musical [endeavors],” wrote Starkey on Instagram. “This would be a lie. I love The Who and would never had quit. So I didn’t make the statement …. quitting The Who would also have let down the countless amazing people who stood up for me (thank you all a million times over and more) thru the weeks of mayhem of me going in an out an in an out an in an out like a...

Ahead of the Who’s latest farewell tour, Pete Townshend announced that the band has parted ways with drummer Zak Starkey … for real this time.

“After many years of great work on drums from Zak the time has come for a change,” the guitarist wrote today on his official Instagram. “A poignant time. Zak has lots of new projects in hand and I wish him the best.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Yolanda Tarbox (@yaggerdang)

Starkey confirmed his exit in a response to Townshend’s post:...

Pearl Jam brought out surprise guest Peter Frampton during their concert Thursday in Nashville, with the two Rock Hall-inducted artists linking up for a rendition of the band’s “Black.”

“This gentleman was someone we looked up to before the Ramones. Some of our first guitar heroes, [like] Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend, he was right up there,” Eddie Vedder told the crowd before the Frampton Comes Alive rocker took the stage.

“It was one of reasons why we loved live records, and later we decided to release bootlegs because of his influence.

Gold Derby's top news stories for May 8, 2025.

The Conjuring: Last Rites gets spooky trailer

The Conjuring: Last Rites, which is described as the last Conjuring film for Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga), got a new teaser trailer. The ninth film in the Conjuring Universe, one of the most successful horror franchises of all time, tells the story of the married paranormal investigators' final case, and the trailer invites viewers to "discover why this case was their last." The film is directed by Michael Chaves. It opens in theaters on Sept. 5.

Wow, a trailer for Owen Wilson's golf comedy Stick

Stick, Apple TV+'s new Ted Lasso-esque sports comedy series, has sent a trailer down the fairway. Owen Wilson stars as Pryce "Stick" Cahill, a washed-up former pro golfer who sees a shot at redemption by coaching Santi Wheeler (Peter Dager), an immensely talented but raw young athlete.

The Who are saying goodbye. The rock band announced on Thursday that they’ve set their final North American tour, titled the Song Is Over Tour, after their 1971 song. The band calls it the “grand finale of their illustrious six-decade career.”

The Song Is Over Tour will kick off in Sunrise, Florida on Aug. 16, taking them across the country in stops including Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles, before the tour ends on Sept. 28 in Las Vegas. So far the band hasn’t revealed dates outside of North America. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, May 16 at 10 a.m. local time.

This of course isn’t The Who’s first farewell tour, as the band first said goodbye 1982. They also had their 50th anniversary tour in 2015 and played dozens of shows in 2019.

“Every musician’s dream in the early 60’s was to make it big in the US charts.

The Who have announced a “bittersweet” final tour of the US and Canada in what the venerable rock band calls “a truly grand finale” of their six-decade career.

The series of 2025 tour dates includes stops at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, two nights at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and, as the final night of the 16-date tour, the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on September 28.

See the full tour itinerary below.

Officially titled “The Song Is Over – North American Farewell Tour” – after the title of a song from the band’s 1971 album Who’s Next – the tour kicks off August 16 at Sunrise, Florida’s Amerant Bank Arena.

The band, now consisting of original members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend as well as, presumably, longtime drummer Zak Starkey, announced the tour at a press conference in London today. Watch the press conference below.

“Every musician’s...

The Who have announced several farewell tours dating back to 1982, but Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend insist this time they’re serious about calling it quits for good. Today, the legendary rock duo revealed “The Song Is Over,” a North American farewell tour they described as a “truly grand finale” to their illustrious six-decade career.

Get The Who Tickets Here

Kicking off in August, the North American leg currently consists of 16 concerts in venues including Fenway Park in Boston; Madison Square Garden in New York City; United Center in Chicago; Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles; Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California; and MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas; among elsewhere.

A variety of ticket pre-sales for The Who’s farewell tour will be available, starting with Citi Cardmembers and Whooligan Fan Club pre-sales on Tuesday, May 13th at 10:00 a.m. local time. A Live Nation ticket pre-sale will follow on Wednesday,...

As predicted, the Who have announced dates for The Song Is Over North American Farewell Tour, which they’re billing as their last runs through the United States and Canada before calling it quits. It kicks off Aug. 16 at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, and wraps up Sept. 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Ticket sales will begin Tuesday.

“Well, all good things must come to an end,” Pete Townshend said in a statement. “It is a poignant time. For me, playing to American audiences...

The Who’s Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are holding a press event in London on Thursday where they will be making a “special announcement followed by an exclusive Q&a session” that will be livestreamed to fans around the world. (They’re already soliciting questions via their social channels.) Enticingly, the project is called “The Song Is Over.”

They haven’t clarified what exactly they’re announcing, but it’s very possible this is a farewell tour. Rock bands don’t generally hold press conferences to announce anything besides tours,...

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

When it comes to footwear I don’t typically stick to just one style. Living in New York City, where the weather is unpredictable, and walking is a way of life, I often rotate between different brands and shoe types. I wear Hoka for commuting, Bruno Magli for nights out, and Nike for everyday kicks.

Shop dr. Martens 1460 boots

However, there is one boot that I will always...

This year, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will induct acts including Soundgarden, Outkast, and the White Stripes — but some huge names from the ballot didn’t make it, most notably Mariah Carey (for the third time!), Oasis, and Phish.

Carey is an undisputed pop legend; Oasis recorded some of the greatest songs of the Nineties and are about to embark on the most-anticipated reunion tour in years; Phish are, well, Phish, a band that’s created a universe of its own, playing arenas decades into their career. So what happened?...

Hardcore Wicked fans have a lot of unshakable opinions, including the widespread belief that the Wizard’s big moment in the first act, the talky “A Sentimental Man,” is the Broadway show’s single worst song. But when Jeff Goldblum stepped in as the Wizard for director Jon M. Chu’s blockbuster film version, he managed to salvage the song in fans’ eyes, playing up the character’s toxic blend of smarm and charisma. “I’ve had a lot of positive anecdotal response like that,” Goldblum says in the new...

How did Jeff Goldblum get one of the world’s biggest pop stars to sing on his new jazz album? As he explains on the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Ariana Grande’s lovely take on “I Don’t Know Why (I Just Do)” on Goldblum’s Still Blooming, recorded with his band, the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, came down to sheer proximity and an unexpected musical kinship. (To hear the whole episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or press play below.

The Who played an odd game of “meet the new drummer, same as the old drummer” this past week when they parted ways with longtime band member Zak Starkey (“They have nothing but admiration for him and wish him the very best for his future,” a statement read),” only to reverse the decision three days later (“There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily”).

For a few days, it seemed like the Who were...

Only a few days ago, The Who announced they were parting ways with Ringo Starr’s son, Zak Starkey, who has been their drummer since 1996. But that didn’t last too long.

On Saturday, it was announced that Starkey was now back in: “News Flash! Who Back Zak! He’s not being asked to step down from The Who,” read a post by The Who’s guitarist-songwriter, Pete Townshend posted on the band’s official website, as well as on his Instagram.

“There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily. Roger and I would like Zak to tighten up his latest evolved drumming style to accommodate our non-orchestral line up and he has readily agreed. I take responsibility for some of the confusion,” he wrote.

On Wednesday, it was reported that the band and...

The band is back together… but it turns out they were never really apart.

After The Who drummer Zak Starkey announced he was exiting the band earlier this week, founding member Pete Townshend took to social media to explain that the group has worked through their issues.

“News flash! Who back Zak! Zak is not being asked to step down from The Who,” wrote Townshend on Instagram. “There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been happily aired.”

Starkey reposted the statement on his own Instagram, writing, “V grateful to be a part of The Who family Thanks Roger and Pete xx.”

In a longer statement on the band’s website, Townshend explained that he and lead singer Roger Daltrey have asked Starkey “to tighten up his latest evolved drumming style to accommodate our non-orchestral line up and he has readily agreed.

The Who have reversed course and re-hired longtime drummer Zak Starkey, days after firing him following a round of concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Pete Townshend announced the news in a statement posted to the band’s website on Saturday. “[Starkey’s] not being asked to step down from The Who, there have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily,” he explained.

Earlier this week, The Who dismissed Starkey, son of Ringo Starr and their drummer of nearly three decades, over apparent “issues with the drumming” that occurred during the band’s concerts at Royal Albert Hall. Starkey subsequently confirmed the news in a statement to Rolling Stone, saying he was “surprised and saddened” by the band’s decision.

In his lengthy statement, Townshend provided a behind the scenes account of what led...

After the Who announced that they had parted ways with drummer Zak Starkey earlier this week, band co-founder Pete Townshend took to social media to say this is not the case.

“News Flash! Who back Zak!,” Townshend wrote on Instagram on Saturday. “Zak is not being asked to step down from The Who. There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily.”

The guitarist’s post directed fans to visit the band’s official website “for the full statement,...