The Week in Music: Steven Tyler Opens Up About Aerosmith and ‘American Idol’
The new issue of Rolling Stone, on stands and in the digital archive on April 29th, includes an in-depth cover story on Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler by writer Brian Hiatt, who finds the rock legend overflowing with positive energy. In the story, Tyler talks about his motivation for signing on as an American Idol judge – a move he made after his bandmates threatened to throw him out of Aerosmith. In addition to the story, you can check out our list of the 10 best Aerosmith music videos, Rob Sheffield’s favorite Aerosmith deep cuts and behind-the-scenes footage from Tyler’s cover photo shoot.
Read Choice Excerpts From Steven Tyler’s Cover Story
We also shared excerpts from Nicholas Dawidoff’s story on Paul Simon in the new issue, which traces the singer-songwriter’s entire career – from the early days of Simon and Garfunkel through his acclaimed Graceland period to the making of his newest LP So Beautiful or So What. Plus, we talked to Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears about his new musical, found out that A Tribe Called Quest are now cool with the new documentary about their career, chatted with Perry Ferrell about the 20th anniversary of Lollapalooza. We also caught up with Ozzy Osbourne about the revealing new film God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, and spoke to the Kings of Leon about the documentary Talihina Sky: The Story of Kings of Leon.
The Hottest Live Photos of the Week
Rolling Stone also reported from the Big 4 show in California featuring heavy metal icons Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer, and reviewed Diddy’s concert in New York and Mumford & Sons’ Railroad Revival Tour stop in Marfa, Texas. Plus, Glee singer Darren Criss performed a brief acoustic set at our office, British singer and guitarist Anna Calvi was named our latest Artist to Watch, we analyzed this week’s pop charts, looked back on this week in rock history and as always, we reviewed all the week’s biggest new releases.
On the pop culture front, Rob Sheffield made a case for why HBO’s new fantasy show Game of Thrones isn’t just for geeks and paid tribute to Steve Carell’s character Michael Scott, who has departed from The Office. Peter Travers reviewed the charmingly innocent Disney movie Prom and endorsed the Fast and the Furious sequel Fast Five, saying that it’s the year’s first great summer movie. Also, Mallika Rao recapped this week’s Carole King-themed episode of American Idol and the debut of the new singing competition The Voice, and Erica Futterman reviewed this week’s super-sized Lady Gaga-centric episode of Glee.
Photos: Musical Gender-Benders
The third round of the Choose the Cover of Rolling Stone contest is under way! After hundreds of thousands of votes were cast online, the 16 acts vying for the cover of Rolling Stone – as well as an Atlantic Records contract – have been narrowed down to a group of four. You can listen to brand new songs recorded by each of the finalists with top producers and vote for your favorites now.
We also posted a gallery of your Top 10 favorite R&B singers of all time, as determined by your votes on Facebook and Twitter. Our question for you this weekend is: Who is the best one-hit wonder of all time? You can answer on our website, on facebook.com/rollingstone or on Twitter with the #weekendrock hashtag.
LAST WEEK: Pot in Pop Culture and American Politics; Coachella Festival Aftermath and More