Music Features

Although Robert Smith says he hopes the Cure never truly fit in with the cultural landscape, he is very aware of just how unusual the group’s success has been over the past four decades. “One of the lovely things about the band is that we’re able to headline Glastonbury, play …

If you ask LL Cool J, there is no “worst part” of being successful. “I think the worst part of life would be not going after your dreams and living a life of quiet desperation,” he tells Rolling Stone. The rapper, actor, and entrepreneur, born James Todd Smith, went after …

“I’ve always wanted to work with a girl band,” Charli XCX says. “Not a classically pop girl band, but a girl band who have a rock & roll-type energy.” Enter Nasty Cherry, a four-piece outfit with members from both London and Southern California that’s released a series of hooky, atmospheric …

Miranda Lambert has scrubbed her life clean. “I have been spending time and I got married and I’m happy,” she recently told Rolling Stone Country. After taking an extended break from the studio, the singer has teamed up with left-field country producer Jay Joyce (Eric Church, Keith Urban) for her …

At 78, Willie Hightower sometimes struggles to remember details from his long career, but there are some occasions he recalls vividly: like the day his wife died (April 16th, 1995 — Easter Sunday), or the time he met Sam Cooke. The gospel phenom had traveled to Hightower’s Gadsden, Alabama, hometown …

There’s a scene near the beginning of the final episode of Of Mics and Men, Showtime’s four-part docuseries on Wu-Tang Clan premiering Friday night, that finds the crew — older, wiser, calmer — sitting around a large table enjoying a group meal. For the past three episodes, we’ve seen the …

On July 28th, Joan Baez will walk offstage at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain, and wrap up her career as a live performer almost exactly 60 years after making her debut at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival. The show will be the culmination of a farewell tour that’s kept …

Forty-five years ago this week, Elton took “Bennie and the Jets” to Number One on the Hot 100. And all this time later, we still know precious little about the fictional rock band at the center of the song other than the fact that lead singer Bennie has electric boots …

Rob Thomas breaks down his upcoming solo album, Chip Tooth Smile (due April 26th) along with the whole rest of his career on the latest episode of our podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now. In an in-depth interview with host Brian Hiatt at our SiriusXM studio, Thomas touches on his short-lived …

Theon Cross can still vividly remember when the instrument that’s taken him around the world was more of a liability than an asset. “Playing the tuba didn’t make me cool when I was at school,” the 26-year-old tells Rolling Stone, speaking via Skype from his London home. “On the bus …