May
- Red Hot Chili Peppers made sure to honor Foo Fighters’ late drummer Taylor Hawkins at Jazzfest. The Peppers stepped in for Foo Fighters after the band withdrew. Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith ended their set with a speech and well-wishes for Hawkins’s family.
- Dave “Brownsound” Baksh of Sum 41 announced he was cancer free! After having a tumor removed, Baksh took to Instagram to celebrate “my brush with this serious disease was very short lived.”
- D Generation’s bassist Howie Pyro died at 61. The glam rocker/dj, who had long battled liver disease, succumbed to covid-related pneumonia.
- Twenty One Pilots claimed the band was fired from playing the soundtrack of “Top Gun: Maverick.” Singer Tyler Joseph said they were recording for the blockbuster when “Tom Cruise just came in and just fired everyone.”
- Death metal band The Black Dahlia Murder lost frontman Trevor Strnad. No cause of death was announced, but the banded included a prompt to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline in their Instagram post.
- Decades after his death, Sweden opened a museum dedicated to Metallica’s Cliff Burton. Burton died in 1986 in a bus accident, and the museum opened near the site of the crash.
- Maybe family ties aren’t so strong? Liam Gallagher confirmed he hasn’t seen his brother Noel (also his Oasis bandmate) in ten years. A few days later, a guitar that was broken during the brother’s split sold at auction for just north of $400K.
- An attempt at a quiet parting of ways wasn’t in the cards for Evanescence and guitarist Jen Majura. The band made the announcement on Instagram and called Majura their “dear friend.” Majura, however, cleared the air on Twitter- saying “I feel the need to address that none of this was my decision!”
- Depeche Mode’s Andy Fletcher died at the age of 60. Their keyboardist played on every album the band released and in all of their tours. The band bid Fletcher a fond but bittersweet goodbye on Instagram.
June
- More than a year after an investigation began into rocker Marilyn Manson for sexual assault, officials announced it was coming to a close. They didn’t specify what would happen next, but said there were “some credibility issues with the victim.”
- Brandon Flowers became concerned when he saw an elderly fan crowd surfacing at a show in England. But after Flowers stopped the show, the fan quickly assured The Killers’ frontman “I’m enjoyin’ me self.”
- Jack White reversed his stance on White Stripes NFTs, saying they amounted to “(giving) off a vibe of ‘Well, if people are stupid enough to give me money for this, I’ll take it.” He then announced he would be “distancing himself” from the NFTs.
- Florence & The Machine know how to rock… and now they can prove it. One of their shows in Germany registered a 1.4 magnitude tremor, according to seismologist Jens Skapski.
- Halestrom rocker Lzzy Hale announced she is “unapologetically bisexual” for Pride month. The singer also encouraged everyone to “wield (your truth) like a weapon.”
- Depeche Mode revealed Andy Fletcher died of an aortic dissection. On Instagram, the band shared the news and their sadness on Instagram but said Fletcher “passed naturally and without prolonged suffering.”
- Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Hospital by his wife Kourtney Kardashian. The musician tweeted out shortly after “God save me,” while his daughter Alabama asked fans for their prayers.