Entertainment
Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready On Why His Graphic Novel-Turned Rock Opera ‘Farewell To Seasons’ Feels ‘Scary in a Great Way’
Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready has spent 35+ years touring and recording with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group while watching some of the most beloved, talented voices and musicians of his generation pay the ultimate price for fame. At some point, it made the 59-year-old rock legend wonder if it was all worth it.
So, beginning during the COVID-19 lockdown, he started piecing together an ambitious rock opera telling the fictionalized tale about the brightest lights of that early 1990s grunge era in Seattle, forming it into the multimedia rock opera/graphic novel Farewell to Seasons, an ambitious project due out on Oct. 6 that will mark his debut as a lead singer.
“The characters are all based on real people in the scene you would know,” McCready tells Billboard, careful not to make the direct connections in order to allow fans to piece things together on their own. However, he’s quick to hint around them being inspired by too many fallen friends, including Mother Love Bone singer Andrew Wood, Alice in Chains and Mad Season vocalist Layne Staley, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, among others.
The story — told in the colorful, emotional graphic novel that will be published by Z2 — follows three artists on the Seattle scene, tracking their triumphs and tragedies as they are guided by an oracle, the Queen of the Seasons, who narrates the story. “It’s basically about walking with your darkness as an artist,” he says, citing The Who’s Quadrophenia and Tommy, as well The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the glam theatrics of David Bowie, KISS and Alice Cooper.
He’s recorded an album of his originals as well on which he sings and plays piano and guitar alongside backing vocals from Molly Sides (Thunderpussy), bass from Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan and Dave Matthews Band’s Stefan Lessard and drums from Mike Musburger (Fastbacks), Chris Friel (The Rockfords) and in-demand Seattle producer Nate Yaccino.
And while McCready has not figured out how, or if, he will tour the songs from the album he just finished mastering — an overture and six original songs on which he sings for the first time — he’s hoping to possibly go out on the road in the next year, depending on Pearl Jam’s schedule, of course.
Check out Billboard‘s chat with McCready about the project.
One of the things I was wondering when the news of this broke recently was whether you’re planning to mount a full opera performance of this album-graphic novel?
I originally wanted this to be written as a rock opera with Pete Townshend’s Lifehouse being the high-water mark, which I look up to immensely. I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could actually do something like that and write songs that were specifically about a story … a historical fiction that I was part of that scene and being in the front row of that. It was an exercise of, “I want to do something with this. I want to make a rock opera and be able to perform this some day, in whatever form that turns into.” And somehow it took this left turn into a graphic novel. That was not part of the process originally to do a rock opera. I’m looking at the high-water mark of [The Who’s] Tommy and [David Bowie’s] Ziggy Stardust and I wanted to push myself. I will eventually turn it into something, I hope.
Who might perform in it? Would it be a Tommy-like thing with a stacked cast of recognizable musicians and actors?
It’s a great question and I’m not sure I’ve thought that far ahead, because I want to make sure that I can actually do it. You have to have the money for it and the people behind you and that’s a whole new world to me that I don’t know yet. I have some friends in Broadway and some friends in the music business … I don’t know exactly how to start that process and I need help with that. I don’t have anybody in mind. I want to be able to do a really cool rock opera but with visual content. I don’t know how to mix those two worlds yet, but I’ve written a script for it and I have ideas on how everything should look.
Can you breakdown who inspired the various characters? Are there real-life analogues?
They’re based on all the people in the scene you would know. David Williams is myself. I wanted to create other characters other than myself and the singers of the scene. Jonathan Alexander is the tragedy of the scene, he’s the rock singer — it could be any one of those guys.
Like Mother Love Bone’s Andy Wood…
It’s a combination of all those guys. There’s a character named Angela May Sunrise, who is the female singer-songwriter based on Molly Sides from Thunderpussy or Brandi Carlile. I wanted to bring in a female character in the context of three characters going through their journey in the world of 1980s to mid-1990s Seattle as the scene was starting to explode. I wanted to give props to my old band, Shadow. We were kind of before all that Seattle scene stuff. We were all 16 and we toured a lot around Seattle. We played a lot, that’s where I spent my 10,000 hours. I’m very proud of that era, but it never got the historical props it should have because it kind of got overshadowed with everything else. I wanted to have a fantasy element to it. I love [Shakespeare’s] A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I love Oberon. I love characters that are mythical and tempt you and guide you, or take you down a dark road. I wanted to have an element of mysticism to it as well.
How long have you been working on this?
It started around COVID. I would have dreams about some of theses guys and they were kind of sad and I was like, “Man, everybody from this scene died. And why?” I get it, it’s addiction and all of these things and I’ve had my struggle with that. Was it worth it for all these guys? That’s the thing that was taunting me in all my questions and I wanted to write an artistic question to put out there in the universe and to have everybody answer it who wants to. Because I want to know, because I don’t know. That’s when I called [director] Cameron Crowe.
Tell me about that, because obviously you’ve known Cameron since the Singles days. What were you hoping for in calling him?
Cameron’s the best. Almost Famous is one of my favorite movies of all time. I want to live in that movie and I kind of have in a way. He’s been so good to me my entire career and he’s always supported me and given me advice, so I love Cameron deeply and I respect his vision. He knows the rock world and luckily I can call him and he gave me some great advice. When I was talking about the rock opera part of it and where to place certain songs, [he mentioned] the 11th hour song — which is where the character has to meet their fate or make a decision on where the story is going to go. I didn’t know that that was a thing. I’ve seen Hamilton and now I’m looking backwards at a lot of stuff and seeing the mechanics of these things that I don’t know, other than watching Tommy or listening to Ziggy Stardust or watching Rocky Horror Picture Show.
You’ve had side projects like Walking Papers, Mad Season and Levee Walkers, but this is your first true solo effort. How did it feel taking that step outside for the first time and how did the rest of the band feel about it?
It feels scary in a great way. I’m a guy that always wants to push himself. I need to do that. I need to keep busy with stuff. Pearl Jam is my entity and I live in it, but I’ve got time to do things so I want to fill that in with creativity. As an artist I want to push myself through different boundaries. I’ve been taking singing lessons from this woman named Susan Carr here in Seattle for the past three years. I wanted to do something that forced me to sing, so I did a mini-rock opera within the context of this story. But I wanted to make sure I was f–king good! I feel proud about it. This is my solo experiment, who knows what it will turn into? I just hope that people dig it and it makes them want to listen to all the music from that time.
Have you played it for the band?
I haven’t played it for anybody yet. I think I might have sent one song to [bassist] Jeff [Ament] and he thought it was cool, but that’s it. I just mastered everything two days ago and there is no “perfect,” but I want it to be as close to perfect as it can be with the music before I start sending it out. That’s important to me as well, the story and the music and putting it together with the visual some day. For now, I’m just so honored that I got to do something with [graphic novel publisher] Z2. Their enthusiasm made me think I could do a graphic novel.
Are you nervous for them to hear it?
I’m excited for the guys to hear it when it’s ready. They’re my brothers, so I’d love to hear what they have to say.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’ve never sung on a Pearl Jam song right?
No. I may have done some backups on a Rockfords record once. I’ve been surrounded by all these amazing singers, there was Chris [Cornell], there was Layne [Staley], Ed [Vedder], Molly Sides, Brandi Carlile, [Mark] Lanegan. I was always around them, so I didn’t have a lot of self-confidence probably.
Do you think you’ll tour it and who would join you?
I’m thinking about that now and what’s the right way to do it and not lose money! I love playing with the women from Thunderpussy, they’re great musicians and they rock hard. We’ll just have to see when the book comes out and how the next year progresses.
Entertainment
Feds Score Guilty Plea in First-Ever U.S. Streaming Fraud Case — An $8M Scheme Aided by AI Music
A North Carolina musician has pled guilty to stealing $8 million in royalties with fake streams on AI-generated music in the first-ever criminal streaming fraud case brought by U.S. prosecutors.
Michael Smith, 54, copped to one count of wire fraud conspiracy on Thursday (March 19) in New York federal court. He agreed to forfeit his $8 million in streaming fraud proceeds and faces up to five years in prison.
“Michael Smith generated thousands of fake songs using artificial intelligence and then streamed those fake songs billions of times,” said Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, in a statement Thursday. “Although the songs and listeners were fake, the millions of dollars Smith stole was real. Millions of dollars in royalties that Smith diverted from real, deserving artists and rights holders. Smith’s brazen scheme is over, as he stands convicted of a federal crime for his AI-assisted fraud.”
Smith remains free on a $500,000 bond until his sentencing hearing this upcoming July. His lawyer declined to comment on Thursday.
Smith was arrested in 2024 on a three-count indictment that charged him with using thousands of bots to continuously stream his songs on multiple platforms, including Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and YouTube Music, starting in 2017. Prosecutors said Smith originally used his own small catalog of human-made music for the scheme but later turned to AI for content.
In late 2018, Smith allegedly began working with the CEO of an unnamed AI music company to supply songs for his fake streams. The indictment says Smith promised to share the proceeds with this company, in the form of the greater of $2,000 per month or 15% of his monthly revenue.
Though this company is not identified in court papers, Billboard reported in 2024 that hundreds of the songs registered to Smith list Alex Mitchell, the CEO and founder of AI music company Boomy, as a co-writer. At the time, Mitchell told Billboard, “We were shocked by the details in the recently filed indictment of Michael Smith, which we are reviewing. Michael Smith consistently represented himself as legitimate.”
Mitchell has not been charged with any crime. The indictment denoted Smith’s AI music partner as “CC-3,” a shorthand for “co-conspirator” that is oftentimes used to denote an individual who has cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for amnesty. A rep for Boomy did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
Smith’s scheme eventually fell apart when his artificial streams were detected in 2023 by streaming platforms and the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), the official organization designated by the U.S. Copyright Office to collect and distribute digital royalties for songwriters.
In a statement released Thursday, the MLC said Smith’s guilty plea “highlights the serious threat that streaming fraud poses to the music industry and the important role The MLC plays in confronting it.”
Related
“We appreciate the Department of Justice’s swift action, recognizing that The MLC identified the fraud early, challenged Smith and his representatives, and prevented the diversion of mechanical royalties away from rightful songwriters,” added the MLC. “The MLC will continue to invest in anomaly detection and fraud prevention to protect our members, and we will continue to collaborate with other industry organizations and law enforcement to protect all songwriter royalties.”
As alluded to in the MLC’s statement, streaming fraud is a problem for artists and songwriters because digital royalties are paid out of a fixed pool — meaning fraudulent streams take funds away from the creators who actually have real listeners.
This issue has only gotten worse with the rise of AI music, which provides an easy tool for bad actors to quickly generate thousands of songs for their fake streams. Platforms like Spotify have responded by enacting strengthened policies aimed at reigning in malicious streams, but the problem persists.
The Academy of Country Music is revealing ACM Radio Award winners during this week’s Country Radio Seminar in Nashville.
On Wednesday (March 18), Parker McCollum revealed the eight winners in the On-Air Personality of the Year and Radio Station of the Year categories, while Lauren Alaina will reveal the winners in the final two categories — National Daily On-Air Personality of the Year and National Weekly On-Air Personality of the Year — on Friday (March 20).
McCollum and Alaina are both past ACM Awards winners. McCollum won new male artist of the year in 2022 and visual media of the year in 2024 for “Burn It Down.” Alaina won new female vocalist of the year in 2018.
In the On-Air categories, Mo & StyckMan received their third collective win for Medium Market On-Air Personality of the Year. This win marks StyckMan’s sixth overall win. Chris Carr received his second win in Major Market On-Air Personality of the Year, marking his fourth overall win. First-time winners include Heather Froglear for Large Market On-Air Personality of the Year, and Eddie Foxx and Amanda Foxx for Small Market On-Air Personality of the Year. This award is the first for Carr, who was awarded alongside co-hosts Sam Sansevere and Dubs, as a team for Major Market On-Air Personality of the Year.
In the Radio Station categories, WUBE-FM in Cincinnati took home its fifth win for Large Market Radio Station of the Year, and WYCT-FM in Pensacola, Fla., took home its fifth win for Small Market Radio Station of the Year. KSCS-FM in Dallas, Tex., took home its second win for Major Market Radio Station of the Year, while WLFP-FM in Memphis, Tenn., took home its first win for Medium Market Radio Station of the Year.
These awards were announced in the lead-up to the 61st ACM Awards, which are set for Sunday, May 17, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and will livestream exclusively on Prime Video.
See the full list of ACM Radio Awards nominees below, with winners marked. This post will be updated when the final two winners are revealed.
National daily on-air personality of the year
B-Dub – “B-Dub Radio”
Cody Alan – “Highway Mornings with Cody Alan”
Katie Neal – “Katie & Company”
Rob Stone and Holly Hutton – “The Rob + Holly Show”
Steve Harmon – “Steve Harmon Show”
National weekly on-air personality of the year
B-Dub – “B-Dub Radio Saturday Night”
Big D, Bubba, Shaffer – “Honky Tonkin’ with Big D & Bubba”
Heather Froglear – “90’s Country with Heather”
Kelleigh Bannen – “Today’s Country Radio”
Ryan Fox – “American Country Countdown with Ryan Fox”
On-air personality of the year (major market)
“Angie Ward” – Angie Ward, WUBL-FM, Atlanta
WINNER: “Chris Carr & Company” – Chris Carr, Sam Sansevere, Dubs, KEEY-FM, Minneapolis
“The Coop Show” – Coop, WKIS-FM, Miami
“Erik & Jenny” – Erik Scott Smith & Jenny Lee, KCYY-FM, San Antonio
“Frito & Katy”– Frito and Katy, KILT-FM, Houston
“Niko + Cheyenne” – Niko + Cheyenne, KMLE-FM, Phoenix
“Rachel Ryan” – Rachel Ryan, KSCS-FM, Dallas
On-air personality of the year (large market)
WINNER: “Heather Froglear” – Heather Froglear, KFRG-FM, Riverside, Calif.
“Jesse & Anna” – Jesse Tack, Anna Marie, Jake Thomson, WUBE-FM, Cincinnati
“Kelli and Anthony” – Kelli Green and Anthony Donatelli, KFRG-FM, Riverside, Calif.
“Mad Dawg in the Afternoon” – “Mad Dawg” Strattman, WQDR-FM, Raleigh, N.C.
“Maria D’Antonio” – Maria D’Antonio, WDSY-FM, Pittsburgh
On-air personality of the year (medium market)
“The Bee Morning Coffee Club” – Billy Kidd, TJ Sharp, and Hope Breen, WBEE-FM, Rochester, N.Y.
“The Doc Show with Chewy” – Doc Medek, Chewy Medek, WGGY-FM, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
“Julie and DJ in the Morning” – Julie K and DJ Thee Trucker, WPCV-FM, Lakeland, Fla.
WINNER: “Mo & StyckMan” – Mo & StyckMan, WUSY-FM, Chattanooga, Tenn.
“Steve & Gina in the Morning” – Steve Lundy and Gina Melton, KXKT-FM, Omaha, Neb.
Tug Cowart Show” – Tug Cowart, WCKN-FM, Charleston, S.C.
On-air personality of the year (small market)
“Ben & Arnie: – Ben Butler, Arnie Andrews, WCOW-FM, Sparta, WI
“B-MO in the MO’rning” – Brian “B-MO” Montgomery, WCKK-FM, Walnut Grove, MS
“Dan Austin” – Dan Austin, WQHK-FM, Fort Wayne, IN
“The Dr. Shane and Tess Show” – Dr. Shane and Tess, WPAP-FM, Panama City, FL
WINNER: “The Eddie Foxx Show” – Eddie Foxx and Amanda Foxx, WKSF-FM, Asheville, NC
Radio station of the year (major market)
KILT-FM – Houston
WINNER: KSCS-FM – Dallas
KSON-FM – San Diego
WPOC-FM – Baltimore, Md.
WXTU-FM – Philadelphia
Radio station of the year (large market)
KFRG-FM – Riverside, Calif.
WLHK-FM – Indianapolis
WMIL-FM – Milwaukee
WSIX-FM – Nashville, Tenn.
WINNER: WUBE-FM – Cincinnati
Radio station of the year (medium market)
KUZZ-FM – Bakersfield, Calif.
WBEE-FM – Rochester, N.Y.
WHKO-FM – Dayton, Ohio
WINNER: WLFP-FM – Memphis, Tenn.
WQMX-FM – Akron, Ohio
Radio station of the year (small market)
KCLR-FM – Columbia, Mo.
KFGE-FM – Lincoln, Neb.
WCKK-FM – Walnut Grove, Miss.
WXFL-FM – Florence, Ala.
WINNER: WYCT-FM – Pensacola, Fla.
WYOT-FM – Rochelle, Ill.
The ACM Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.
Afroman is speaking out after winning a blockbuster trial verdict against a group of Ohio police officers, celebrating a win that’s “not only for artists, it’s for Americans.”
The morning after a jury rejected an unusual lawsuit that accused Afroman of defaming seven sheriff’s deputies by mocking them after they raided his property, the “Because I Got High” rapper (Joseph Foreman) spoke out on CBS Mornings about his courtroom victory.
“It’s not only for artists, it’s for Americans,” Afroman told the network on Thursday (March 19). “We have freedom of speech. They did me wrong and sued me because I was talking about it. It’s ‘For the people, by the people,’ so when the people can’t use their freedom of speech — bring up the problem, address the problem — then the problem never gets solved.”
Wednesday’s verdict ended a case that started with a 2022 raid by the Adams County Sheriff’s Department on Afroman’s home. With guns drawn, officers smashed down his door and seized $5,031 in cash, but no wrongdoing was uncovered, no charges were ever filed and the money was later returned.
After the search, Afroman created music videos and other social posts mocking the officers, including a video for a song called “Lemon Pound Cake” in which he ridiculed one deputy for apparently eyeing a cake on his counter.
In 2023, seven officers (Shawn D. Cooley, Justin Cooley, Lisa Phillips, Michael D. Estep, Shawn S. Grooms, Brian Newland and Randolph L. Walters, Jr.) filed a civil lawsuit claiming they’d suffered “emotional distress” and been “subjected to threats, including death threats” because of Afroman’s posts.
But at trial this week, Afroman testified that he had a First Amendment right to mock the officers, particularly after they smashed down his door for ultimately no reason: “All of this is their fault, and they have the audacity to sue me.”
That argument resonated with the jury. After just hours of deliberation on Wednesday, the jury sided entirely with Afroman, clearing him of liability for defamation or invasion of privacy: “In all circumstances, the jury finds in favor of the defendant,” Judge Jonathan Hein said, speaking to the rapper, the accusers and their lawyers.
The verdict ended a three-day trial that captivated social media with outlandish moments from the courtroom, including Afroman mounting a colorful defense from the witness stand in a flamboyant American flag suit. It also cleared him of a whopping $3.9 million damages award sought by the officers.
Google wants to fill Fitbit with AI — and your medical records
FLASHBACK: Chuck Norris Explains Why He Left the Democrat Party — ‘They Went Too Far to the Left and Lost All Reality of What America Stood For’ (VIDEO)
Ryan Gosling improvised one of Project Hail Marys best moments
SEND IN THE TROOPS! At Least 5 Dead, 10 Wounded So Far in Chicago Weekend Shootings
How I Paid Off My Mortgage 10 Years Early On A Teacher’s Salary
Black Lives Matter Activist in Boston Pleads Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges – Scammed Donors to Fund Her Lifestyle
-
Politics6 months agoSEND IN THE TROOPS! At Least 5 Dead, 10 Wounded So Far in Chicago Weekend Shootings
-
Business6 months ago
How I Paid Off My Mortgage 10 Years Early On A Teacher’s Salary
-
Politics6 months agoBlack Lives Matter Activist in Boston Pleads Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges – Scammed Donors to Fund Her Lifestyle
-
Tech7 months agoGet a lifetime subscription to the “ChatGPT for investors” for under $60
-
Tech6 months agoReview: The Dreame H15 Pro CarpetFlex is the first wet/dry vacuum I liked
-
Business7 months ago
25 Low-Effort Side Hustles You Can Start This Weekend
-
Business7 months ago
9 Ways to Command a Six-Figure Salary Without a Bachelor’s
-
Entertainment5 months agoFat Joe Recalls Bruno Mars Snapping on Him Over Question About Puerto Rican Roots: ‘Broke My Heart’