No Tour? No Problem.

Granted, it wasn’t ideal when, back in March, one of Gen Z hip-hop’s brightest rising stars had to slam the brakes on a year that was supposed to include his debut headline tour and first trip to Europe. But Golden Landis Von Jones, known to the world as 24kGoldn, the affable rapper and singer who blew up in 2019 with the melodic-trap TikTok-fueled mega-hit, “Valentino,” is nothing if not optimistic and persistent, and quickly found a way to make coronavirus lemons into lemonade. Although 2020 may be the most challenging era of our collective lifetime, for Golden, through a mix of determination and happy surprises, it’s turning out to be even bigger than his breakout year.

“In a weird way, the pandemic has kind of been the best thing for my career,” Golden says via Zoom, from the back porch of his L.A. home. “I think just because, I’ve been really consistent with my work. And not everyone has taken the same approach, you know? A lot of people have just taken this time to chill. But for me, I felt like, ‘Now is the time to go even harder.’ Because it’s less…cluttered? There’s less distractions? If I can capture people’s attention, I might be the thing they really focus on right now.”

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When COVID struck, Golden was already flying high with “City of Angels,” the explosive, infectious alt-pop-rock bop that became, after “Valentino”, his second monster single, racking up nine-figure streams, a flurry of remixes, and prompting a re-think of just what Golden was capable of, musically. He had just come off a US tour supporting YBN Cordae and was halfway through a planned two-week album camp when it became apparent 2020 would not be proceeding as normal. His first move was to return to his native San Francisco, already under a “shelter in place” order, to see his parents and sister.

“I went back for like three weeks, just to be with them and make sure we were all okay,” he explains. “Because this has never happened in the history of our country. I didn’t know if there was gonna be riots or looting, stuff like that, and thankfully, everything was fine with quarantine. But when I got back to L.A. I was like, 'I can’t just be stuck in the house playing video games all day. This isn’t gonna take me to where I want to be in life. I need to work, I need to make music, I need to be inspired.'” So Golden and his right-hand man, musician and producer Omer Fedi, got an Airbnb and set about making new songs.

One track, cooked up in an afternoon at their friend and fellow muti-hypnenate hip-hop-pop-emo-rap charmer iann dior’s house, would prove to be yet another game-changer. “It was me, iann, Omer, KBeaZy [producer Keegan Bach] and the engineer Ryan [Cantu],” he recalls. “And me and iann were playing Call of Duty, actually. And Omer and KBeaZy were cooking up a beat. We didn’t even go into that day with the intention of making music. I wasn’t trying to make music! I was trying to win in this video game, and I was just struck by inspiration and pure feeling and that made me sing that hook.”

“Why you always in a mood?” he sang. “F**kin’ around, acting brand new.” In an instant, he says, Omer knew Golden was onto something. “He said, ‘Holy s**t, you need to stop everything right now, and lay that down, cause that’s hot!’ And then iann laid his verse, and here we are today.” Here we are, with “Mood”, Golden and iann’s breezy, made-for-summertime smash that, as of this writing, is firmly wedged between Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” and BTS’ “Dynamite” in the stratosphere of Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits. It’s topped Billboard’s Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart, and the video, in which the boys make frustrating girls seem actually fun, has done 11 million views in a month.

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“Mood” is not far away from matching “Valentino” and “City of Angels”’ numbers, but unlike those two hits, Golden didn’t necessarily see this one coming.

“I knew it was gonna be a big one, but I would be lying I said I knew it was gonna happen like this,” he says. “Because with ‘Valentino’ and ‘City of Angels,’ it was a gradual build-up into becoming a beast. But with this song, we really hit the ground running, and I think it was just a lot of support from both me and iann’s fans that pushed this so strong, from the beginning.” And it might never have happened if not for a lockdown. 

“I think I can see the silver lining in this,” he continues. “Whereas, because I didn’t go on tour, because I didn’t go to Europe, well now I have so much more time to concentrate on making new music, just making the best songs ever. If this pandemic didn’t happen, we wouldn’t have ‘Mood’, because I might not have been with iann on that day, you know?”

His 2020 successes don’t end there. In April he scored with the soulful “Unbelievable” with Kaash Paige; he featured on pal Landon Cube’s rousing rocker “Eighties”; and he got his feet wet in the dance world with spots on “Tinted Eyes” by DVBBS featuring blackbear, and most recently, “Tick Tock” a Top 20 dance chart hit by the UK’s Clean Bandit and Mabel.

“That was really a surprise when I heard that they wanted to put me on the song,” he admits. “Cause I always underestimate how many people know who I am. And I was like, ‘Yo, Clean Bandit, y’all have huge songs, and you selected me to be on this soon-to-be huge song.’ I was very grateful. So, shout out Clean Bandit, shout out Mabel.”

If jumping on a club banger seems like an unlikely move for a young artist who not that many years ago was making straight raps over trap beats at his SF home – it shouldn’t. Like so many of his Zoomer peers, including Cube and dior, Golden is proudly genre-agnostic. If he is first and foremost a hip-hop artist, he’s proving himself adept at a wide swath of sounds.

“I feel like the whole concept of ‘genre’ is a thing of the past,” he asserts. "Music is more democratic now than it’s ever been before. If you like an artist, if you like a song, you just go on Spotify and listen to it. Versus like, 20, 30 years ago, artists had to create songs for the radio, you know to fit in a certain slot, a certain type of station. For me, it’s like, if I think it’s a dope song, whether it’s hip-hop, pop, rock, dance, jazz even? You know? I’ll get on a jazz song! [laughs] Miles Davis, something like that!”

He had to convince RECORDS/Columbia to give him that leeway when it came to "City of Angels." While it is arguably the most immediate song Golden has released to date, the sort of alt-rock gem that one could easily imagine hearing on TRL circa 2004, alongside Good Charlotte and Fall Out Boy, the label wasn’t initially convinced it was the right move for him. While it was included on his debut EP Dropped Outta College, released in November of last year, just after Golden’s 19th birthday, the label wanted the more reliably hip-hop title track (along with its hilarious, Nick Jandora-directed, hot-for-teacher video) to take the lead.

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“Part of the agreement was, ‘Okay we’ll let you put “City of Angels” out, but you have to let 'Dropped Outta College' be the focus track,’” he recalls. “So I was like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna let y’all spend your money on 'Dropped Outta College,' but I’m gonna blow up this song 'City of Angels myself.'" So, I did!! With this music s**t, you have to keep proving yourself over and over and over again before someone even thinks about listening to what you have to say as an artist.”

Of all the happy surprises that 2020 has offered up to Golden, none has made him prouder than his selection last month to XXL’s Freshman Class of 2020, taking the fan-voted 10th spot, and joining a group that includes Polo G, NLE Choppa, Chika, Lil Tjay, Fivio Foreign and Jack Harlow. If, as Golden points out, social media has changed the landscape of new artist discovery since the inception of the Freshman issue as a tastemaker back in 2007, being included is still a huge achievement that has left him stunned.

“You have no idea how special that whole moment was to me,” he says. “This is something that I have wanted literally since I was like 15, 16. And I know that if 15, 16-year-old me was looking at me now, he’d be like, ‘Yo that guy is sick as f**k. He did it. I want to be like that guy!’ So – it’s a full circle thing. And I’m really grateful and honored that the fans chose me, that XXL chose me.”

Just last week, Golden offered up his XXL Freshman Freestyle, an all-sung reflection on the wild path his life has taken. Opening with “Let me introduce myself, nice guy turned into a player,” the track also casts him as a “good kid turned into a beast.” “But that’s not necessarily ‘beast’ in a negative connotation,” he explains. “That’s more like saying, ‘He’s a beast’ in sports. It’s more just how passionate I am for this music that I am making. And as far as being a ‘player,’ I wouldn’t consider myself a player, because that kind of insinuates purposely playing with people’s emotions, and shit like that. And I’m not, but I think it’s the best word to kind of describe the kind of ‘going with the wind’ lifestyle that I live.”

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The song concludes with the croon, “So let’s go to El Dorado”, a reference to Golden’s in-the-works debut album El Dorado. Golden considers the freestyle the most “personal” music he’s released since last year’s “A Lot to Lose,” and a taste of what’s to come with the LP. “Something I’m really proud of with this album, El Dorado,” he says, “is that I feel like I am baring more of myself, with my audience and with the world, than I have before.” That’s something, because for all his Midas touch with irresistible melodies and hooks, a finesse with lyrics, one thing Golden is not particularly known for is baring his soul, preferring upbeat good times to overt vulnerability.

“Don’t worry! I’m gonna have the upbeat songs for the fans too!,” he is quick to add. “But my fans give me a lot. And I think it’s only right to give back and let them in on my life. To connect deeper, you know? That’s how you really form connections in music, and in life, is having a little bit of vulnerability and offering something where people can accept me for who I am. And if not? F**k em!”

"With this music s**t, you have to keep proving yourself over and over and over again before someone even thinks about listening to what you have to say as an artist."

From an early age, Golden says, performing came naturally to him. It was noticed by casting agents when as a young kid he acted in commercials for Honda and Blue Diamond Almonds, and his music videos regularly showcase his comedic acting skills. At the risk of sounding like a sleazy Hollywood agent, he has that “it” quality that you saw in a young Will Smith or Miley Cyrus – a charisma and confidence that can’t be taught. He started making music at 14, at the encouragement of his mentor, SF rapper and entrepreneur Paypa Boy, and developed a taste for business early on. He attended a high-achieving high school and says he was the type of kid to not study for a test but still know he was gonna ace it. Early on he even dreamed of becoming a hedge fund manager, though that’s a road he now says he’s quite happy not to have taken – “I probably would have hated working 80-hour weeks and having to crunch numbers every day.”

The pivotal moment for him, sonically, came with discovering the wonders of Auto-Tune on the 2018 track “Ballin’ Like Shareef” – title inspired by Shareef O’Neal, son of NBA legend Shaquille, and a friend of a friend. The song opened up a whole new world. “The studio I was at for probably the first six months to a year of making music, they didn’t have live Auto-Tune, so I couldn’t really experiment with it,” he explains. “But once I was given that tool? It was like you just gave a painter a paintbrush, and this painter had been painting with like sticks for years, you know?”

“Shareef” led to writing “Valentino,” and from there it was off to the races. Support from and collaboration with producer D.A. Doman (d.a. got that dope) led to his Columbia deal, signed only a few months into his first semester at USC. As his music was taking off, with “Valentino” catching fire, rather than drop all his courses, he cleverly kept enrolled in one through the spring of 2019, to maintain his room and board. Before he finally dropped out (he took a leave of absence and can return to the school within ten years if he chooses), he did leave the Trojan community a parting gift: the frat-ready, chant-along “Bitch I Go to USC”, a rowdy soundtrack to the admissions scandal unfolding at the time.

If the City of Angels, to quote the song, is where he has his “fun”, and where he’s living out musical dreams, it’s the high-priced City by the Bay where he was raised. The past 20 years – Golden’s life, in effect – have seen tech turn San Francisco from merely expensive to obscenely so, a gilded city of super-haves and a handful of remaining have-nots. Golden’s family was not wealthy, something he discusses bluntly.

“In San Francisco, the poverty line is a hundred thousand dollars,” he says. “And we definitely were not making even close to a hundred thousand dollars. The only reason I was able to grow up in San Francisco was because we had lived there so long that we had rent control. I think my parents pay like 1,300 dollars a month, for a house. But if we were to just move into it now? It would be like 10,000 a month! I was just really fortunate to have parents who worked really hard, and kept me busy, so that I didn’t even know I grew up in the hood ‘til I was 10, 11, 12 years old.”

But in Golden’s view, the greatest gift of being a child of California’s most cosmopolitan metropolis is something you can hardly put a price on. “I think the best thing about growing up in San Francisco is experiencing such a diverse range of cultures,” he says. “Like, I ate every food under the rainbow, I saw every race of people, every sexuality, and I just think it made me very open-minded, and very tolerant. And I’m very thankful for that now.”

The kid from the Golden State with the Golden name who has a gold record on his wall for “City of Angels” (in addition to a platinum one for “Valentino”) was long ago given a particular nickname by Spanish-speaking co-workers of his mom, a name that will soon serve as the title of his debut full-length. “They would call me ‘El Dorado’ which means ‘the golden one’, or the golden city, in [Spanish conquistador] mythology,” he explains. “So, for me this is something that has held meaning in my life before, but it also ties into where I grew up, the City by the Bay, with the Golden Gate Bridge, it’s very much the golden city. So I’m trying to combine this idealistic world in my head with elements of my past, and just to create something that’s really aesthetically pleasing and dope, but I also want it to have meaning.” It’s a theme rich with possibilities for a live show: Gold coins? A vintage gold Cadillac El Dorado? Maybe, I suggest, dancers in gold body paint? “No, you’re on it! Are you reading my mind or something?” he laughs. “Yeah, I would love to have some dancers in gold body paint, some jungle-type thing, a little Indiana Jones vibes maybe coming in there too!”

Golden figures the LP is about two songs away from finished, and should be out in early 2021, “when the fans are thirsty for it,” after two or three more singles. Other than that, and a more confessional bent, he will only say to expect the unexpected. “Yo, I’ve shown I can make a rock song, I can make a pop song, I can make a hip-hop song, I can make an emo rap song,” he asserts. “But now it’s like, how can I take the best elements of all those different sounds, and put them together to have something cohesive? And that’s really what I feel like El Dorado is for me. It’s me pushing my own new genre into the world, and just creating good music. I mean, the fact that there’s n**gas in the hood bumping “City of Angels”? To me, that’s incredible! That’s like pushing the culture, and opening people’s minds to stuff they’ve never heard.”

G Herbo & Chance The Rapper Perform "PTSD" For Press Play

 

 

Updated Friday Oct. 13, 2023 to include info about Kendrick Lamar's most recent GRAMMY wins, as of the 2023 GRAMMYs.

A GRAMMY veteran these days, Kendrick Lamar has won 17 GRAMMYs and has received 47 GRAMMY nominations overall. A sizable chunk of his trophies came from the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards in 2016, when he walked away with five — including his first-ever win in the Best Rap Album category.

This installment of GRAMMY Rewind turns back the clock to 2016, revisiting Lamar's acceptance speech upon winning Best Rap Album for To Pimp A Butterfly. Though Lamar was alone on stage, he made it clear that he wouldn't be at the top of his game without the help of a broad support system. 

"First off, all glory to God, that's for sure," he said, kicking off a speech that went on to thank his parents, who he described as his "those who gave me the responsibility of knowing, of accepting the good with the bad."

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He also extended his love and gratitude to his fiancée, Whitney Alford, and shouted out his Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates. Lamar specifically praised Top Dawg's CEO, Anthony Tiffith, for finding and developing raw talent that might not otherwise get the chance to pursue their musical dreams.

"We'd never forget that: Taking these kids out of the projects, out of Compton, and putting them right here on this stage, to be the best that they can be," Lamar — a Compton native himself — continued, leading into an impassioned conclusion spotlighting some of the cornerstone rap albums that came before To Pimp a Butterfly.

"Hip-hop. Ice Cube. This is for hip-hop," he said. "This is for Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. This is for Illmatic, this is for Nas. We will live forever. Believe that."

To Pimp a Butterfly singles "Alright" and "These Walls" earned Lamar three more GRAMMYs that night, the former winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song and the latter taking Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (the song features Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat). He also won Best Music Video for the remix of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood." 

Lamar has since won Best Rap Album two more times, taking home the golden gramophone in 2018 for his blockbuster LP DAMN., and in 2023 for his bold fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

Watch Lamar's full acceptance speech above, and check back at GRAMMY.com every Friday for more GRAMMY Rewind episodes. 

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It's rare that a genre can be traced back to a single artist or group, but for funk, that was James Brown. The Godfather of Soul coined the phrase and style of playing known as "on the one," where the first downbeat is emphasized, instead of the typical second and fourth beats in pop, soul and other styles. As David Cheal eloquently explains, playing on the one "left space for phrases and riffs, often syncopated around the beat, creating an intricate, interlocking grid which could go on and on." You know a funky bassline when you hear it; its fat chords beg your body to get up and groove.

Brown's 1965 classic, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," became one of the first funk hits, and has been endlessly sampled and covered over the years, along with his other groovy tracks. Of course, many other funk acts followed in the '60s, and the genre thrived in the '70s and '80s as the disco craze came and went, and the originators of hip-hop and house music created new music from funk and disco's strong, flexible bones built for dancing.

Legendary funk bassist Bootsy Collins learned the power of the one from playing in Brown's band, and brought it to George Clinton, who created P-funk, an expansive, Afrofuturistic, psychedelic exploration of funk with his various bands and projects, including Parliament-Funkadelic. Both Collins and Clinton remain active and funkin', and have offered their timeless grooves to collabs with younger artists, including Kali Uchis, Silk Sonic, and Omar Apollo; and Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, and Thundercat, respectively.

In the 1980s, electro-funk was born when artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Man Parrish, and Egyptian Lover began making futuristic beats with the Roland TR-808 drum machine — often with robotic vocals distorted through a talk box. A key distinguishing factor of electro-funk is a de-emphasis on vocals, with more phrases than choruses and verses. The sound influenced contemporaneous hip-hop, funk and electronica, along with acts around the globe, while current acts like Chromeo, DJ Stingray, and even Egyptian Lover himself keep electro-funk alive and well.

Today, funk lives in many places, with its heavy bass and syncopated grooves finding way into many nooks and crannies of music. There's nu-disco and boogie funk, nodding back to disco bands with soaring vocals and dance floor-designed instrumentation. G-funk continues to influence Los Angeles hip-hop, with innovative artists like Dam-Funk and Channel Tres bringing the funk and G-funk, into electro territory. Funk and disco-centered '70s revival is definitely having a moment, with acts like Ghost Funk Orchestra and Parcels, while its sparkly sprinklings can be heard in pop from Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, and, in full "Soul Train" character, Silk Sonic. There are also acts making dreamy, atmospheric music with a solid dose of funk, such as Khruangbin’s global sonic collage.

There are many bands that play heavily with funk, creating lush grooves designed to get you moving. Read on for a taste of five current modern funk and nu-disco artists making band-led uptempo funk built for the dance floor. Be sure to press play on the Spotify playlist above, and check out GRAMMY.com's playlist on Apple Music, Amazon Music and Pandora.

Say She She

Aptly self-described as "discodelic soul," Brooklyn-based seven-piece Say She She make dreamy, operatic funk, led by singer-songwriters Nya Gazelle Brown, Piya Malik and Sabrina Mileo Cunningham. Their '70s girl group-inspired vocal harmonies echo, sooth and enchant as they cover poignant topics with feminist flair.

While they’ve been active in the New York scene for a few years, they’ve gained wider acclaim for the irresistible music they began releasing this year, including their debut album, Prism. Their 2022 debut single "Forget Me Not" is an ode to ground-breaking New York art collective Guerilla Girls, and "Norma" is their protest anthem in response to the news that Roe vs. Wade could be (and was) overturned. The band name is a nod to funk legend Nile Rodgers, from the "Le freak, c'est chi" exclamation in Chic's legendary tune "Le Freak."

Moniquea

Moniquea's unique voice oozes confidence, yet invites you in to dance with her to the super funky boogie rhythms. The Pasadena, California artist was raised on funk music; her mom was in a cover band that would play classics like Aretha Franklin’s "Get It Right" and Gladys Knight’s "Love Overboard." Moniquea released her first boogie funk track at 20 and, in 2011, met local producer XL Middelton — a bonafide purveyor of funk. She's been a star artist on his MoFunk Records ever since, and they've collabed on countless tracks, channeling West Coast energy with a heavy dose of G-funk, sunny lyrics and upbeat, roller disco-ready rhythms.

Her latest release is an upbeat nod to classic West Coast funk, produced by Middleton, and follows her February 2022 groovy, collab-filled album, On Repeat.

Shiro Schwarz

Shiro Schwarz is a Mexico City-based duo, consisting of Pammela Rojas and Rafael Marfil, who helped establish a modern funk scene in the richly creative Mexican metropolis. On "Electrify" — originally released in 2016 on Fat Beats Records and reissued in 2021 by MoFunk — Shiro Schwarz's vocals playfully contrast each other, floating over an insistent, upbeat bassline and an '80s throwback electro-funk rhythm with synth flourishes.

Their music manages to be both nostalgic and futuristic — and impossible to sit still to. 2021 single "Be Kind" is sweet, mellow and groovy, perfect chic lounge funk. Shiro Schwarz’s latest track, the joyfully nostalgic "Hey DJ," is a collab with funkstress Saucy Lady and U-Key.

L'Impératrice

L'Impératrice (the empress in French) are a six-piece Parisian group serving an infectiously joyful blend of French pop, nu-disco, funk and psychedelia. Flore Benguigui's vocals are light and dreamy, yet commanding of your attention, while lyrics have a feminist touch.

During their energetic live sets, L'Impératrice members Charles de Boisseguin and Hagni Gwon (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), and Tom Daveau (drums) deliver extended instrumental jam sessions to expand and connect their music. Gaugué emphasizes the thick funky bass, and Benguigui jumps around the stage while sounding like an angel. L’Impératrice’s latest album, 2021’s Tako Tsubo, is a sunny, playful French disco journey.

Franc Moody

Franc Moody's bio fittingly describes their music as "a soul funk and cosmic disco sound." The London outfit was birthed by friends Ned Franc and Jon Moody in the early 2010s, when they were living together and throwing parties in North London's warehouse scene. In 2017, the group grew to six members, including singer and multi-instrumentalist Amber-Simone.

Their music feels at home with other electro-pop bands like fellow Londoners Jungle and Aussie act Parcels. While much of it is upbeat and euphoric, Franc Moody also dips into the more chilled, dreamy realm, such as the vibey, sultry title track from their recently released Into the Ether.

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Living Legends is a series that spotlights icons in music still going strong today. This week, GRAMMY.com spoke with Billy Idol about his latest EP,  Cage, and continuing to rock through decades of changing tastes.

Billy Idol is a true rock 'n' roll survivor who has persevered through cultural shifts and personal struggles. While some may think of Idol solely for "Rebel Yell" and "White Wedding," the singer's musical influences span genres and many of his tunes are less turbo-charged than his '80s hits would belie.  

Idol first made a splash in the latter half of the '70s with the British punk band Generation X. In the '80s, he went on to a solo career combining rock, pop, and punk into a distinct sound that transformed him and his musical partner, guitarist Steve Stevens, into icons. They have racked up multiple GRAMMY nominations, in addition to one gold, one double platinum, and four platinum albums thanks to hits like "Cradle Of Love," "Flesh For Fantasy," and "Eyes Without A Face." 

But, unlike many legacy artists, Idol is anything but a relic. Billy continues to produce vital Idol music by collaborating with producers and songwriters — including Miley Cyrus — who share his forward-thinking vision. He will play a five-show Vegas residency in November, and filmmaker Jonas Akerlund is working on a documentary about Idol’s life. 

His latest release is Cage, the second in a trilogy of annual four-song EPs. The title track is a classic Billy Idol banger expressing the desire to free himself from personal constraints and live a better life. Other tracks on Cage incorporate metallic riffing and funky R&B grooves. 

Idol continues to reckon with his demons — they both grappled with addiction during the '80s — and the singer is open about those struggles on the record and the page. (Idol's 2014 memoir Dancing With Myself, details a 1990 motorcycle accident that nearly claimed a leg, and how becoming a father steered him to reject hard drugs. "Bitter Taste," from his last EP, The Roadside, reflects on surviving the accident.)

Although Idol and Stevens split in the late '80s — the skilled guitarist fronted Steve Stevens & The Atomic Playboys, and collaborated with Michael Jackson, Rick Ocasek, Vince Neil, and Harold Faltermeyer (on the GRAMMY-winning "Top Gun Anthem") —  their common history and shared musical bond has been undeniable. The duo reunited in 2001 for an episode of "VH1 Storytellers" and have been back in the saddle for two decades. Their union remains one of the strongest collaborations in rock 'n roll history.

While there is recognizable personnel and a distinguishable sound throughout a lot of his work, Billy Idol has always pushed himself to try different things. Idol discusses his musical journey, his desire to constantly move forward, and the strong connection that he shares with Stevens. 

Steve has said that you like to mix up a variety of styles, yet everyone assumes you're the "Rebel Yell"/"White Wedding" guy. But if they really listen to your catalog, it's vastly different.

Yeah, that's right. With someone like Steve Stevens, and then back in the day Keith Forsey producing... [Before that] Generation X actually did move around inside punk rock. We didn't stay doing just the Ramones two-minute music. We actually did a seven-minute song. [Laughs]. We did always mix things up. 

Then when I got into my solo career, that was the fun of it. With someone like Steve, I knew what he could do. I could see whatever we needed to do, we could nail it. The world was my oyster musically. 

"Cage" is a classic-sounding Billy Idol rocker, then "Running From The Ghost" is almost metal, like what the Devil's Playground album was like back in the mid-2000s. "Miss Nobody" comes out of nowhere with this pop/R&B flavor. What inspired that?

We really hadn't done anything like that since something like "Flesh For Fantasy" [which] had a bit of an R&B thing about it. Back in the early days of Billy Idol, "Hot In The City" and "Mony Mony" had girls [singing] on the backgrounds. 

We always had a bit of R&B really, so it was actually fun to revisit that. We just hadn't done anything really quite like that for a long time. That was one of the reasons to work with someone like Sam Hollander [for the song "Rita Hayworth"] on The Roadside. We knew we could go [with him] into an R&B world, and he's a great songwriter and producer. That's the fun of music really, trying out these things and seeing if you can make them stick. 

I listen to new music by veteran artists and debate that with some people. I'm sure you have those fans that want their nostalgia, and then there are some people who will embrace the newer stuff. Do you find it’s a challenge to reach people with new songs?

Obviously, what we're looking for is, how do we somehow have one foot in the past and one foot into the future? We’ve got the best of all possible worlds because that has been the modus operandi of Billy Idol. 

You want to do things that are true to you, and you don't just want to try and do things that you're seeing there in the charts today. I think that we're achieving it with things like "Running From The Ghost" and "Cage" on this new EP. I think we’re managing to do both in a way. 

**Obviously, "Running From The Ghost" is about addiction, all the stuff that you went through, and in "Cage" you’re talking about  freeing yourself from a lot of personal shackles. Was there any one moment in your life that made you really thought I have to not let this weigh me down anymore?**

I mean, things like the motorcycle accident I had, that was a bit of a wake up call way back. It was 32 years ago. But there were things like that, years ago, that gradually made me think about what I was doing with my life. I didn't want to ruin it, really. I didn't want to throw it away, and it made [me] be less cavalier. 

I had to say to myself, about the drugs and stuff, that I've been there and I've done it. There’s no point in carrying on doing it. You couldn't get any higher. You didn't want to throw your life away casually, and I was close to doing that. It took me a bit of time, but then gradually I was able to get control of myself to a certain extent [with] drugs and everything. And I think Steve's done the same thing. We're on a similar path really, which has been great because we're in the same boat in terms of lyrics and stuff. 

So a lot of things like that were wake up calls. Even having grandchildren and just watching my daughter enlarging her family and everything; it just makes you really positive about things and want to show a positive side to how you're feeling, about where you're going. We've lived with the demons so long, we've found a way to live with them. We found a way to be at peace with our demons, in a way. Maybe not completely, but certainly to where we’re enjoying what we do and excited about it.

[When writing] "Running From The Ghost" it was easy to go, what was the ghost for us? At one point, we were very drug addicted in the '80s. And Steve in particular is super sober [now]. I mean, I still vape pot and stuff. I don’t know how he’s doing it, but it’s incredible. All I want to be able to do is have a couple of glasses of wine at a restaurant or something. I can do that now.

I think working with people that are super talented, you just feel confident. That is a big reason why you open up and express yourself more because you feel comfortable with what's around you.

Did you watch Danny Boyle's recent Sex Pistols mini-series?

I did, yes.

You had a couple of cameos; well, an actor who portrayed you did. How did you react to it? How accurate do you think it was in portraying that particular time period?

I love Jonesy’s book, I thought his book was incredible. It's probably one of the best bio books really. It was incredible and so open. I was looking forward to that a lot.

It was as if [the show] kind of stayed with Steve [Jones’ memoir] about halfway through, and then departed from it. [John] Lydon, for instance, was never someone I ever saw acting out; he's more like that today. I never saw him do something like jump up in the room and run around going crazy. The only time I saw him ever do that was when they signed the recording deal with Virgin in front of Buckingham Palace. Whereas Sid Vicious was always acting out; he was always doing something in a horrible way or shouting at someone. I don't remember John being like that. I remember him being much more introverted.

But then I watched interviews with some of the actors about coming to grips with the parts they were playing. And they were saying, we knew punk rock happened but just didn't know any of the details. So I thought well, there you go. If ["Pistol" is]  informing a lot of people who wouldn't know anything about punk rock, maybe that's what's good about it.

Maybe down the road John Lydon will get the chance to do John's version of the Pistols story. Maybe someone will go a lot deeper into it and it won't be so surface. But maybe you needed this just to get people back in the flow.

We had punk and metal over here in the States, but it feels like England it was legitimately more dangerous. British society was much more rigid.

It never went [as] mega in America. It went big in England. It exploded when the Pistols did that interview with [TV host Bill] Grundy, that lorry truck driver put his boot through his own TV, and all the national papers had "the filth and the fury" [headlines].

We went from being unknown to being known overnight. We waited a year, Generation X. We even told them [record labels] no for nine months to a year. Every record company wanted their own punk rock group. So it went really mega in England, and it affected the whole country – the style, the fashions, everything. I mean, the Ramones were massive in England. Devo had a No. 1 song [in England] with "Satisfaction" in '77. Actually, Devo was as big as or bigger than the Pistols.

You were ahead of the pop-punk thing that happened in the late '90s, and a lot of it became tongue-in-cheek by then. It didn't have the same sense of rebelliousness as the original movement. It was more pop.

It had become a style. There was a famous book in England called Revolt Into Style — and that's what had happened, a revolt that turned into style which then they were able to duplicate in their own way. Even recently, Billie Joe [Armstrong] did his own version of "Gimme Some Truth," the Lennon song we covered way back in 1977.

When we initially were making [punk] music, it hadn't become accepted yet. It was still dangerous and turned into a style that people were used to. We were still breaking barriers.

You have a band called Generation Sex with Steve Jones and Paul Cook. I assume you all have an easier time playing Pistols and Gen X songs together now and not worrying about getting spit on like back in the '70s?

Yeah, definitely. When I got to America I told the group I was putting it together, "No one spits at the audience."

We had five years of being spat on [in the UK], and it was revolting. And they spat at you if they liked you. If they didn't like it they smashed your gear up. One night, I remember I saw blood on my T-shirt, and I think Joe Strummer got meningitis when spit went in his mouth.

You had to go through a lot to become successful, it wasn't like you just kind of got up there and did a couple of gigs. I don't think some young rock bands really get that today.

With punk going so mega in England, we definitely got a leg up. We still had a lot of work to get where we got to, and rightly so because you find out that you need to do that. A lot of groups in the old days would be together three to five years before they ever made a record, and that time is really important. In a way, what was great about punk rock for me was it was very much a learning period. I really learned a lot [about] recording music and being in a group and even writing songs.

Then when I came to America, it was a flow, really. I also really started to know what I wanted Billy Idol to be. It took me a little bit, but I kind of knew what I wanted Billy Idol to be. And even that took a while to let it marinate.

You and Miley Cyrus have developed a good working relationship in the last several years. How do you think her fans have responded to you, and your fans have responded to her?

I think they're into it. It's more the record company that she had didn't really get "Night Crawling"— it was one of the best songs on Plastic Hearts, and I don't think they understood that. They wanted to go with Dua Lipa, they wanted to go with the modern, young acts, and I don't think they realized that that song was resonating with her fans. Which is a shame really because, with Andrew Watt producing, it's a hit song.

But at the same time, I enjoyed doing it. It came out really good and it's very Billy Idol. In fact, I think it’s more Billy Idol than Miley Cyrus. I think it shows you where Andrew Watt was. He was excited about doing a Billy Idol track. She's fun to work with. She’s a really great person and she works at her singing — I watched her rehearsing for the Super Bowl performance she gave. She rehearsed all Saturday morning, all Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning and it was that afternoon. I have to admire her fortitude. She really cares.

I remember when you went on "Viva La Bam" back in 2005 and decided to give Bam Margera’s Lamborghini a new sunroof by taking a power saw to it. Did he own that car? Was that a rental?

I think it was his car.

Did he get over it later on?

He loved it. [Laughs] He’s got a wacky sense of humor. He’s fantastic, actually. I’m really sorry to see what he's been going through just lately. He's going through a lot, and I wish him the best. He's a fantastic person, and it's a shame that he's struggling so much with his addictions. I know what it's like. It's not easy.

Musically, what is the synergy like with you guys during the past 10 years, doing Kings and Queens of the Underground and this new stuff? What is your working relationship like now in this more sober, older, mature version of you two as opposed to what it was like back in the '80s?

In lots of ways it’s not so different because we always wrote the songs together, we always talked about what we're going to do together. It was just that we were getting high at the same time.We're just not getting [that way now] but we're doing all the same things.

We're still talking about things, still [planning] things:What are we going to do next? How are we going to find new people to work with? We want to find new producers. Let's be a little bit more timely about putting stuff out.That part of our relationship is the same, you know what I mean? That never got affected. We just happened to be overloading in the '80s.

The relationship’s… matured and it's carrying on being fruitful, and I think that's pretty amazing. Really, most people don't get to this place. Usually, they hate each other by now. [Laughs] We also give each other space. We're not stopping each other doing things outside of what we’re working on together. All of that enables us to carry on working together. I love and admire him. I respect him. He's been fantastic. I mean, just standing there on stage with him is always a treat. And he’s got an immensely great sense of humor. I think that's another reason why we can hang together after all this time because we've got the sense of humor to enable us to go forward.

There's a lot of fan reaction videos online, and I noticed a lot of younger women like "Rebel Yell" because, unlike a lot of other '80s alpha male rock tunes, you're talking about satisfying your lover.

It was about my girlfriend at the time, Perri Lister. It was about how great I thought she was, how much I was in love with her, and how great women are, how powerful they are.

It was a bit of a feminist anthem in a weird way. It was all about how relationships can free you and add a lot to your life. It was a cry of love, nothing to do with the Civil War or anything like that. Perri was a big part of my life, a big part of being Billy Idol. I wanted to write about it. I'm glad that's the effect.

Is there something you hope people get out of the songs you've been doing over the last 10 years? Do you find yourself putting out a message that keeps repeating?

Well, I suppose, if anything, is that you can come to terms with your life, you can keep a hold of it. You can work your dreams into reality in a way and, look, a million years later, still be enjoying it.

The only reason I'm singing about getting out of the cage is because I kicked out of the cage years ago. I joined Generation X when I said to my parents, "I'm leaving university, and I'm joining a punk rock group." And they didn't even know what a punk rock group was. Years ago, I’d write things for myself that put me on this path, so that maybe in 2022 I could sing something like "Cage" and be owning this territory and really having a good time. This is the life I wanted.

The original UK punk movement challenged societal norms. Despite all the craziness going on throughout the world, it seems like a lot of modern rock bands are afraid to do what you guys were doing. Do you think we'll see a shift in that?

Yeah.  Art usually reacts to things, so I would think eventually there will be a massive reaction to the pop music that’s taken over — the middle of the road music, and then this kind of right wing politics. There will be a massive reaction if there's not already one. I don’t know where it will come from exactly. You never know who's gonna do [it].

Living Legends: Nancy Sinatra Reflects On Creating "Power And Magic" In Studio, Developing A Legacy Beyond "Boots" & The Pop Stars She Wants To Work With

Country music's evolution is well represented in the 2023 GRAMMY nominees for Best Country Solo Performance. From crossover pop hooks to red-dirt outlaw roots, the genre's most celebrated elements are on full display — thanks to rising stars, leading ladies and country icons.

Longtime hitmaker Miranda Lambert delivered a soulful performance on the rootsy ballad "In His Arms," an arrangement as sparing as the windswept west Texas highlands where she co-wrote the song. Viral newcomer Zach Bryan dug into similar organic territory on the Oklahoma side of the Red River for "Something in the Orange," his voice accompanied with little more than an acoustic guitar.

Two of country's 2010s breakout stars are clearly still shining, too, as Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini both received Best Country Solo Performance GRAMMY nods. Morris channeled the determination that drove her leap-of-faith move from Texas to Nashville for the playful clap-along "Circles Around This Town," while Ballerini brought poppy hooks with a country edge on the infectiously upbeat "HEARTFIRST."

Rounding out the category is the one and only Willie Nelson, who paid tribute to his late friend Billy Joe Shaver with a cover of "Live Forever" — a fitting sentiment for the 89-year-old legend, who is approaching his eighth decade in the business. 

As the excitement builds for the 2023 GRAMMYs on Feb. 5, 2023, let's take a closer look at this year's nominees for Best Country Solo Performance.

Kelsea Ballerini — "HEARTFIRST"

In the tradition of Shania Twain, Faith Hill and Carrie Underwood, Kelsea Ballerini represents Nashville's sunnier side — and her single "HEARTFIRST" is a slice of bright, uptempo, confectionary country-pop for the ages.

Ballerini sings about leaning into a carefree crush with her heart on her sleeve, pushing aside her reservations and taking a risk on love at first sight. The scene plays out in a bar room and a back seat, as she sweeps nimbly through the verses and into a shimmering chorus, when the narrator decides she's ready to "wake up in your T-shirt." 

There are enough steel guitar licks to let you know you're listening to a country song, but the story and melody are universal. "HEARTFIRST" is Ballerini's third GRAMMY nod, but first in the Best Country Solo Performance category.

Zach Bryan — "Something In The Orange"

Zach Bryan blew into Music City seemingly from nowhere in 2017, when his original song "Heading South" — recorded on an iPhone — went viral. Then an active officer in the U.S. Navy, the Oklahoma native chased his muse through music during his downtime, striking a chord with country music fans on stark songs led by his acoustic guitar and affecting vocals.

After his honorable discharge in 2021, Bryan began his music career in earnest, and in 2022 released "Something in the Orange," a haunting ballad that stakes a convincing claim to the territory between Tyler Childers and Jason Isbell in both sonics and songwriting. Slashing slide guitar drives home the song's heartbreak, as Bryan pines for a lover whose tail lights have long since vanished over the horizon. 

"Something In The Orange" marks Bryan's first-ever GRAMMY nomination.

Miranda Lambert — "In His Arms"

Miranda Lambert is the rare, chart-topping contemporary country artist who does more than pay lip service to the genre's rural American roots. "In His Arms" originally surfaced on 2021's The Marfa Tapes, a casual recording Lambert made with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall in Marfa, Texas — a tiny arts enclave in the middle of the west Texas high desert.

In this proper studio version — recorded for her 2022 album, Palomino — Lambert retains the structure and organic feel of the mostly acoustic song; light percussion and soothing atmospherics keep her emotive vocals front and center. A native Texan herself, Lambert sounds fully at home on "In His Arms."

Lambert is the only Best Country Solo Performance nominee who is nominated in all four Country Field categories in 2023. To date, Miranda Lambert has won 3 GRAMMYs and received 27 nominations overall. 

Maren Morris — "Circles Around This Town"

When Maren Morris found herself uninspired and dealing with writer's block, she went back to what inspired her to move to Nashville nearly a decade ago — and out came "Circles Around This Town," the lead single from her 2022 album Humble Quest.

Written in one of her first in-person songwriting sessions since the pandemic, Morris has called "Circles Around This Town" her "most autobiographical song" to date; she even recreated her own teenage bedroom for the song's video. As she looks back to her Texas beginnings and the life she left for Nashville, Morris' voice soars over anthemic, yet easygoing production. 

Morris last won a GRAMMY for Best Country Solo Performance in 2017, when her song "My Church" earned the singer her first GRAMMY. To date, Maren Morris has won one GRAMMY and received 17 nominations overall.

Willie Nelson — "Live Forever"

Country music icon Willie Nelson is no stranger to the GRAMMYs, and this year he aims to add to his collection of 10 gramophones. He earned another three nominations for 2023 — bringing his career total to 56 — including a Best Country Solo Performance nod for "Live Forever."

Nelson's performance of "Live Forever," the lead track of the 2022 tribute album Live Forever: A Tribute to Billy Joe Shaver, is a faithful rendition of Shaver's signature song. Still, Nelson puts his own twist on the tune, recruiting Lucinda Williams for backing vocals and echoing the melody with the inimitable tone of his nylon-string Martin guitar. 

Shaver, an outlaw country pioneer who passed in 2020 at 81 years old, never had any hits of his own during his lifetime. But plenty of his songs were still heard, thanks to stars like Elvis Presley, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings. Nelson was a longtime friend and frequent collaborator of Shaver's — and now has a GRAMMY nom to show for it.

2023 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Complete Nominees List