John Lodge, the celebrated bassist and vocalist of the iconic British rock band The Moody Blues, has died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 82. His family announced on October 10 that he peacefully slipped away surrounded by loved ones and the sounds of The Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly. No cause of death has been reported. Lodge's passing marks the end of a remarkable six-decade career that helped shape the sound of progressive and orchestral rock.

Birmingham-born Lodge joined The Moody Blues in 1966, two years after the band's formation, alongside fellow singer Justin Hayward. This lineup would go on to create some of the most enduring music of the psychedelic and progressive rock era. Lodge penned some of the band's most memorable songs, including "Ride My See-Saw" and "Isn't Life Strange", which showcased his distinctive bass playing and melodic sensibility. His contributions were instrumental in developing the band's signature orchestral sound that blended rock with classical elements, influencing countless musicians who followed.

Beyond his work with The Moody Blues, Lodge maintained an active solo career, releasing albums including Natural Avenue (1977), 10,000 Light Years Ago (2018), and Days of Future Passed – My Sojourn (2023), with his most recent EP Love Conquers All released earlier this year. He continued to tour throughout 2024 and 2025, demonstrating his enduring passion for performing. As a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Lodge leaves behind a rich musical legacy and is survived by his wife Kirsten, daughter Emily, son Kristian, and extended family members.

Back in 1974, Genesis was cookin’ up something weird, wild, and wonderful—The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. But with Peter Gabriel writing an entire surreal story about a New York street kid named Rael, tensions were high, especially between him and Tony Banks. Add a stressful pregnancy at home and a side flirtation with a Hollywood director, and Gabriel was basically one foot out the door. Fast forward 50 years, and surprise: the big, fancy anniversary box set got delayed—but not from band drama this time (maybe), just some technical hiccups. All good now, and both Gabriel and Banks are credited as “supervisors” on the new Dolby Atmos and hi-res audio mixes. What could possibly go wrong this time, right?

So, what do you get? Basically, a sonic overhaul that makes the original album sound like it just came back from a luxury spa. This thing breathes. You’ve got swirling keyboards, raw emotion, insane guitar licks, and vocals that shift from tender to totally unhinged in seconds. The whole double album feels like a fever dream scored by a prog-rock orchestra. Plus, they've thrown in a remastered live show from '75, unreleased demos, a chunky photo book, and even a replica tour program and ticket for the full fan experience. It’s part museum piece, part space opera, part “What the heck is going on?”—and that’s exactly why fans love it.

Critics called it “pretentious” back in the day (which, to be fair, it kind of is), but it still climbed the UK charts and went gold in the US. Now, with all five classic members finally on the same page—miracle!—the 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition is here to blow new minds and rewire old ones. Whether you’re a long-time fan or just discovering the magic of talking lamias and supernatural anesthetists, this is Genesis at their most gloriously weird. And yeah… it was totally worth the 50-year wait.

Iconic stages don’t come much more legendary than Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium—the “Mother Church of Country Music.” But London’s Royal Albert Hall isn’t far behind. With a capacity of 5,272, the Albert Hall is more than twice the size of the Ryman, and British country fans filled every seat on Friday night as the Grand Ole Opry made its international debut, 100 years into its existence. The broadcast-taped Oct. 4 BBC2 special featured Opry members Marty Stuart, Luke Combs, Ashley McBryde, Carly Pearce, and Darius Rucker, joined by UK guests Breabach and Mumford & Sons.

Inside the storied hall, the energy was electric: pockets of fans in snappy Western shirts and others in bold cowboy hats—think goth-meets-my‑Chemical Romance at a Halloween show. Back in Nashville, they’d be tourists; here, they were craving a piece of Americana they’d waited a century to hear. Ten minutes before showtime, the venue rang with a singalong to “Take Me Home, Country Roads” blasting through the PA. Then, with a roar, Darius Rucker kicked things off with a blazing version of “Wagon Wheel”—a moment that felt fit for a thousand Nashville bachelorette parties and more.

Paul McCartney opened his 2025 North American tour with a last‑minute warmup gig at the Santa Barbara Bowl in California on Friday night. He kicked things off by performing the Beatles classic “Help!” in full for the first time since 1965.

The Santa Barbara Bowl holds just 4,562 people—about a quarter of the size of the arenas he’ll play on the rest of the run. The show was announced only two weeks ago and sold out within minutes, with fans required to lock their phones in Yondr pouches for the night. That’s why no full video of “Help!” has surfaced online yet. One enterprising fan did shoot about 30 seconds of the song during soundcheck, giving a rough sense of how it sounded.

McCartney last staged only a portion of “Help!” during the final leg of his 1989–90 Flowers in the Dirt tour, when he performed a medley of John Lennon songs that included snippets of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Give Peace a Chance.” The “Help!” segment at that time lasted under a minute. He hadn’t played the song in full since December 12, 1965, at the Capitol Theatre in Cardiff, Wales.

The revival of “Help!” is notable because McCartney usually avoids Beatles songs primarily written by John Lennon. “When ‘Help!’ came out in ’65, I was actually crying out for help,” Lennon told Playboy in 1980. “Most people think it’s just a fast rock ’n’ roll song. I didn’t realize it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie Help!. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help. It was my fat Elvis period…I was fat and depressed and I was crying out for help.”

There weren’t a lot of other surprises in McCartney’s Santa Barbara set. The program leaned hard on Beatles staples like “Getting Better,” “Lady Madonna,” “Hey Jude,” and “Helter Skelter,” alongside Wings favorites such as “Jet,” “Live and Let Die,” and “Let Me Roll It,” plus solo picks like “My Valentine,” “Coming Up,” and “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty‑Five.” He also dropped the “new” Beatles track “Now and Then,” and delivered a virtual duet with John Lennon on “I’ve Got a Feeling” using footage from the 1969 Apple rooftop performance.

The tour continues Monday night at the Acrisure Arena in Thousand Palms, California. If “Help!” stays in the set, we can expect more footage to surface online soon after the show wraps.

Whiskey Myers, the six‑piece Texas band, keeps climbing with their seventh album, Whomp Whack Thunder. Recorded in Nashville with Grammy‑winning producer Jay Joyce, the record delivers a high‑voltage blend of blues‑rock and gospel‑tinged country soul, rooted in the band's distinct Southern spirit. Joyce pushes them out of their comfort zone, yielding songs that feel both raw and personal—songs like Time Bomb, Tailspin, and Midnight Woman, the latter pushing into bigger rock territory while still carrying their signature groove. The lineup—Cody Cannon on vocals, John Jeffers and Cody Tate on guitars, Jamey Gleaves on bass, Jeff Hogg on drums, and Tony Kent on percussion—drives every track with a mix of gritty blues, swaggering rock, and soulful strains. True to their indie stance, Whiskey Myers isn’t chasing trends; they’re delivering a record that sounds like a Whiskey Myers record—perhaps their boldest and most fearless album yet.

Robert Plant’s Saving Grace isn’t a single album so much as a long-gestating roots revival. Born during the pandemic and developed over six years with a tight group of collaborators, the project blends blues, folk, gospel, and country into a fresh set of ten reimagined songs—plus a hypnotic take on Gospel Plough. Plant and the band produced the record themselves, recording from 2019 through early 2025 in the English countryside, with voices ranging from Memphis Minnie to Low. He describes Saving Grace as “a song book for the lost and found,” proof that roots music can be living, breathing, and continually renewed.