Happy New Year! We at Consequence hope you enjoyed the holiday break (or if you weren’t given a break, you definitely deserve one now!), and with our New Year’s Eve hangovers finally dissipated, we’re ringing in 2024 with the first Weekly News Roundup of the year.
Though 2024 hasn’t quite started with a bang, there were some big stories that captured our attention this week — including a major update from Rage Against the Machine, new Billy Joel tour dates, and an updated Green Day performance of “American Idiot” from Sunday’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.
Speaking of NYE, we’re still not over Anderson Cooper losing his mind on CNN’s broadcast when talking to John Mayer, who was seated (very calmly, as a matter of fact) in a cat cafe in Tokyo. And in some similarly absurd news, Aaron Rogers alleged that Jimmy Kimmel would be landing on the infamous Jeffery Epstein list that came out this week (he wasn’t), which resulted in Kimmel threatening to sue the NFL quarterback.
Catch up on the biggest stories in music, entertainment, and pop culture via the video above, and find more info on these stories by clicking the links below.
Green Day Changes Lyrics to “American Idiot” During New Year’s Performance — Billy Joe Armstrong has never been a stranger to expressing his political disillusionment and dissent. So, in classic Green Day fashion, Armstrong changed the lyrics to “American Idiot” by singing ,”I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda,” during the band’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve performance. It’s not the only big feature of Green Day’s week — the band put out a new song today, “One Eyed Bastard,” that sounds an awful lot like something else we’ve heard.
John Mayer in a Cat Bar on New Years Eve Gives Anderson Cooper the Giggles — CNN finally let Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper drink on live television again, and it went exactly as it should have: foolishly. The apex arrived shortly before midnight as the duo chatted with John Mayer, who plugged his new SiriusXM channel from a Tokyo cat cafe. While Mayer did his best to keep the segment rolling on track, it was Cooper who could not stop laughing (and neither could we).
Jimmy Kimmel Threatens to Sue Aaron Rogers — During his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rogers suggested that Jimmy Kimmel would be “really hoping” that the list of sex criminal Jeffery Epstein’s associates would stay hidden. Kimmel responded swiftly by writing a rather scathing tweet to the NFL player, suggesting that he’d sue: “Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court,” he wrote.
Rage Against the Machine “Will Not Be Touring or Playing Live Again” — If you were hoping to catch Rage Against the Machine’s revived-then-delayed-then-cancelled reunion tour in 2022, it appears you’ve missed your chance. Brad Wilk, the band’s drummer, offered an update on the tour via his Instagram this week: “I know a lot of people are waiting for us to announce new tour dates for all of the canceled RATM shows,” he wrote, “… I want to let you know that RATM (Tim [Commerford], Zack [de la Rocha], Tom [Morello], and I) will not be touring or playing live again.”
Billy Joel Announces 2024 Tour Dates — Billy Joel has mapped out another US tour for 2024. Even more exciting is the handful of co-headlining dates: some with Stevie Nicks, some with Sting. In between Joel’s longstanding Madison Square Garden residency dates, the tour kicks off in Tampa, Florida on February 24th, and concludes in St. Louis, Missouri on September 27th.
