Free Republic

Director Amy Berg tells NME about the obsession that fuelled her 15-year quest to honour the singer-songwriter’s incredible legacy and complex personal lifeOn May 29, 1997, Jeff Buckley was en route to a rehearsal space in Memphis, Tennessee to work on his second album, tentatively titled ‘My Sweetheart The Drunk’. The follow-up to his acclaimed debut ‘Grace’, an alt-rock classic that eventually shifted two million copies, was not coming easily. Read More: ‘It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley’ review: hallelujah, this moving rock doc is celebratory not sad Frozen by fame and the weight of expectation, he’d retreated into his...

My Weekly Reaction Brad & Lex at it again (4 years ago) with Metallica: Master of Puppets

Art reflects the human condition in all its messiness—violence, identity, madness The classic horror film, The Silence of the Lambs has recently been labeled as transphobic. Progressivism is seeking to sacrifice another Hollywood masterpiece to their “problematic” gods because the mentally ill villain of the film is a man so desperate to be a woman that he murders for it. While the character is never labeled as trans, the fictional portrayal has been deemed offensive. In the annals of cinematic history, few films have left as indelible a mark as The Silence of the Lambs. Released in 1991, Jonathan Demme’s...

The soul man from Crawfordsville, Arkansas rang up his 14th soul chart entry, from an impressive total of 43.Early in 1971, Johnnie Taylor was in the middle of his heyday at Stax Records, flying as high as the label itself. On February 20 that year, one Stax hit replaced another at the top of the Billboard R&B list. Johnnie achieved his second No. 1 with “Jody’s Got Your Girl And Gone” and, in the process, replaced Rufus Thomas’ “Do The Push and Pull” at the peak. Taylor had topped the R&B survey in 1968 with the Top 5 US pop...

The ‘Star Trek’ alum called the album a ‘gathering of forces.’ Are you ready to join Captain Kirk—aka William Shatner—to boldly headbang where no one has headbanged before? Shatner, 94, announced on Feb. 19 that he will soon release a heavy metal album on Cleopatra Records. The project, whose title or release date hasn’t been revealed, will pair the Star Trek alum with 35 handpicked metal icons. “Metal has always been a place where imagination gets loud,” said Shatner in a statement. “This album is a gathering of forces—each artist bringing their fire, their precision, their chaos. I chose them...

Bruce Springsteen can seemingly offer “No Surrender” from his TDS. Announced this week, his 2026 “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour starts symbolically in Minneapolis, ground zero for the anti-ICE wine-mom rebellion against federal law enforcement. “We are living through dark, disturbing and dangerous times, but do not despair — the cavalry is coming,” The Boss crowed in a promotional video that dropped Tuesday. The cavalry he’s promising is a Boomer “No Kings” protest. But instead of being gratis, like most demonstrations, one will have to pay through the nose to get into arena doors. Don’t believe me? Springsteen has...

My latest song. Burn rubber.

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s 1994 death has been declared a homicide by a Seattle Police captain who was ordered to probe the “botched” investigation in 2005.

Part 1 of "The Man with the Midas Touch" Donald Trump receives a tip from a suspicious informant (Bill Clinton) that the evil supervillain Porge Poros is plotting a sinister scheme.

Her turn to marriage, modest living and a homespun new album now reads as political provocation in a polarised US Say the name Lana Del Rey and a particular image of the United States materialises: one of rusted trucks and faded flags, a waitress curling her hair before the breakfast shift, the smell of petrol in the heat, the hum of late-night television in a room where no one is really watching. For more than a decade, despite being from New York City, the singer has been the patron saint of small-town melancholy, the US’s emblem of heartbreak. Somewhere along...

As the Department of Justice has continued releasing millions of files regarding disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, the world has looked on in horror as tales of abuse, sex trafficking and murder seem all too evil and gruesome to be true. Epstein, who died in jail in 2019, was hugely wealthy and successful, often socializing with the cultural elite. As such, a wide array of politicians, socialites, celebrities and media moguls appear in the Epstein files. Musicians do too. The collection of famous rockers who appear in the Epstein files may come as a surprise to some, but it’s very important...

Interesting to watch them react to something NOT in English.. 😁 Brad always too serious, while Lex is bubbly, as always.

A planned collaboration between late night host Jimmy Fallon and powerful entertainment executive Tommy Mottola to launch a branded line of pasta sauces is now kaput as the entertainment mogul’s name is being discovered all over the Epstein Files, exposing his close relationship with the late financier and convicted sex offender and trafficker. Fallon and Mottola have been close friends for years, often spotted palling around New York together and frequently enjoying Italian American dishes at East Harlem mainstay Rao’s.

Gene Simmons is doubling down on the controversial comments he recently made about rap artists being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During an appearance on the Feb. 7 edition of the LegendsNLeaders podcast, the Kiss star complained about Iron Maiden - "[who] can sell out stadiums" - being passed over for induction in favor of hip-hop artists such as Grandmaster Flash. "Ice Cube and I had a back and forth [about this}, Simmons continued. "He's a bright guy and I respect what he's done. It’s not my music. I don’t come from the ghetto. It doesn’t...

As you likely know by now, Jelly Roll has undergone a dramatic body transformation, losing nearly 300 pounds. But even though he insists he didn’t use GLP-1 drugs to help with his weight loss, some people still accuse him of not being truthful about it. Last month, Jelly Roll appeared on the cover of Men’s Health, where he spoke candidly about the speculation surrounding GLP-1 medications. He explained that he didn’t use GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic or Mounjaro to lose nearly 300 pounds, saying he instead chose to focus on confronting the emotional and psychological roots of his food...

First Lady Melania Trump stepped into Valentine's Day early with a stop at the National Institute of Health on Wednesday (2-12) and was asked by a girl who was making crafts next to her what music she listens to. A bold question to ask the First Lady, but Trump did not hesitate in her response. Mrs. Trump replied, “I listen to all kinds of music. I like Michael Jackson, I like Pavarotti, I like Tina Turner, I like Miley Cyrus,” smiling as she placed a bit of extra emphasis on Cyrus’ name. Cyrus, of course, is the daughter of country...

Yep, the entire second movement. Don't thank me. I'm a giver.

Slade drummer Don Powell has shared insight on his life-changing car accident. It was the early morning of July 4, 1973 when the rocker was severely injured in a crash near his home in Wolverhampton, England. At the time, Slade was the biggest band in Britain, having scored five No. 1 singles on the U.K. chart. Powell and his fiance were both ejected from the vehicle in the accident. She died instantly, but the drummer miraculously survived. “I've still got no idea what happened,” Powell confessed during a recent appearance on the Rockonteurs podcast. “We were both, myself and my...

The Super Bowl now plays like America’s divorce proceedingsThe country still shares one screen, but not one meaning. One side will dominate the other, or separation will harden into something more permanent.The Seattle Seahawks trampled the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX, but the postgame chatter barely touched football. Fans and pundits argued about anthems, halftime, commercials, and what the whole spectacle “said” about America.For better or worse, the Super Bowl serves as the premier civic liturgy of the American empire, a night when strangers share the same screens and offices share the same small talk. When that...

Gene Simmons is again sticking his tongue out at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for allowing hip-hop artists to snag a spot in rock’s most exclusive club. The 76-year-old KISS co-founder — who was inducted into the Cleveland shrine for rock with the band in 2014 — appeared on the “LegendsNLeaders” podcast last week, where he flipped the script on host Ben Weiss and asked which band shaped him most growing up. When the 25-year-old host revealed he gravitated toward more “hip-hop adjacent stuff” in his youth, Simmons blasted the genre and seethed that rap stars have scored...