Three Days Grace just became the second act to reach 20 No. 1 songs on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. “Kill Me Fast” claimed the top spot on Dec. 13. Only Shinedown sits ahead of them, boasting 21 chart-toppers across the ranking’s 44-year span.
“Kill Me Fast” marks their third consecutive No. 1 in 2025. “Mayday” topped the chart for five weeks starting in January. Then “Apologies” held the peak position for one week in July.
The Canadian rockers got their first No. 1 back in 2004 with “Just Like You,” which was their second entry on the chart. Their debut track, “[I Hate] Everything About You,” peaked at No. 4 in 2003.
Adam Gontier fronted the band during their initial streak of 10 number 1s on the Billboard Rock chart. Matt Walst took over and delivered vocals on the next seven chart-toppers. The most recent three No. 1 hits feature both singers after Gontier’s return.
Five Finger Death Punch ranks third with 17 No. 1 songs. Foo Fighters trails with 15. Metallica has 14, while Disturbed, Godsmack, Linkin Park, and Van Halen each claim 13.
The last three chart-toppers have come from acts on that list. Five Finger Death Punch’s “The End,” featuring BABYMETAL, ruled on the Nov. 22 and 29 charts. Foo Fighters’ “Asking for a Friend” led on Dec. 6.
“Kill Me Fast” sits at No. 12 on the Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 2.7 million audience impressions during the week ending Dec. 4, according to Luminate. The song also appears on Alternative Airplay.
Alienation, the band’s eighth studio album, includes all three of their 2025 No. 1 hits. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart in September and has earned 96,000 equivalent album units. Fans can buy the albums and check out the band’s future tour dates on their official website.
It would certainly be an accurate statement – really more of an understatement – to say that Axl Rose is not universally beloved. Whether it was making fans wait for hours before beginning Guns N’ Roses concerts in the ‘90s to going through bandmates like Kleenex later in his career, it is fair to say that the red-haired rocker has not made many friends over the years.
The latest reason not to like Rose involves (allegedly) his holding on to a master tape of an all-star recording session. According to drummer Zak Starkey (recently formerly of The Who, but that’s another rock and roll pissing match entirely), Rose refuses to return the master tape of a song that was intended to be part of an album which would raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
Slash, Duff McKagan, Elton John and Ringo Starr all contributed to a cover of T. Rex’s “Children of the Revolution,” and Rose was supposed to record a vocal track to finish the production. However (again, according to Starkey), Rose has procrastinated and failed to record his part and return the master tapes for over a year, allegedly costing the Teenage Cancer Trust over $2 million dollars.
Starkey posted on Instagram that the album-in-limbo includes contributions from “more than one Beatle, a Smith, a Pretender, an Ashcroft, an Iggy and many more.” He added that he hopes the charity album can be released “without greedy bean counting majors wanting 75 percent (I won’t say which label, but fuck me, this is for sick kids).” Starkey also appealed directly to Rose, posting, “C’mon, bro…”
Ticket Alert
Combine the influences of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Waylon Jennings, Hank Jr. and the like, let it simmer for a while in deep East Texas and what do you get? You get Whiskey Myers, a band that manages to straddle the fence between rock and country without compromising its balls. There are still a few tickets available for the band’s show on Saturday, September 27, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, but don’t wait around too long.
Austin’s Band of Heathens made a name for itself playing at Antone’s and the clubs on 6th street, quickly becoming one of the foremost exponents of the Americana music form. The Heathens will begin their 20th anniversary celebration with a show at the Heights Theater on Saturday, November 22. The band promises a two-set evening, so it will be all Heathens all the time.
Is there anyone funkier than George Clinton? No. The answer is no. To paraphrase the Bard, “Funk, thy name is Clinton.” The mastermind behind Parliament, Funkadelic, P-Funk and the Brides of Funkenstein will tear the roof off the mothersucker on Friday, November 28, at the House of Blues. Get your tickets now if you want the funk and / or gotta have the funk.
Concerts This Week
Shinedown’s “Dance, Kid, Dance” tour will make a stop at Toyota Center tonight, with Bush and Morgan Wade opening. Not content with garden variety merch like t-shirts, caps and hoodies, Shinedown has introduced a signature line of hot sauces, each named after one of the band’s songs: Symptom Chipotle Garlic Sauce, Devour Pineapple Jerk Sauce and Attention Attention Mango Habanero Sauce.
George Thorogood has never wandered far from his formula of loud guitars, salacious vocals and a Bo Diddley beat, but who can blame him? If it ain’t broke, as they say. You can catch Mr. Bad to the Bone tonight at the House of Blues.
Whether performing as a solo artist, a member of Matchbox 20 or Carlos Santana’s sidekick, Rob Thomas has been a hit machine for well over two decades. When his “All Night Days” tour hits the Smart Financial Centre on Saturday, fans will have a number of up-close-and-personal VIP options to choose from, including a premium package featuring a photo op with Thomas, the chance to watch a few songs from the wings and an autographed guitar.
The biggest concerts in town this week are The Weeknd’s two shows at NRG Stadium on Saturday and Sunday. As the record holder for most Spotify streams at over one billion for his song “Blinding Lights,” it’s no wonder he can fill up a stadium two nights in a row. ‘Cause Knowledge is Power: So what’s the deal with leaving an “e” out of Weeknd? There are several theories surrounding the singer’s professional name, but the most likely explanation is that the spelling was chosen so as to avoid any legal difficulties with a Canadian band known as The Weekend.
For those unfamiliar with Steel Panther, the band might best be described as an American little brother to Spinal Tap. The Panther of Steel skewers just about every heavy metal cliché that exists, but it is done with love, so the ribbing never comes off as nasty. But their song lyrics? Now those are nasty. Get ready to throw those devil horns and sing along with “Boomerang Poontang,” “Always Gonna Be a Ho” and “Bukkake Tears” when the band plays Warehouse Live Midtown on Sunday.
So, I’m on a Zoom with Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, and two things quickly become apparent.
1. Rossdale, approaching 60, is still a ridiculously beautiful man.
2. More importantly, the dude both appreciates and embraces therapy.
He’s even putting it into the public space.
Rossdale and Bush play Toyota Center (Shinedown is also on the bill) on Wednesday night, and in addition to the music, some of the graphics to accompany the show will include things like suicide hotline numbers, mental health factoids and resources, things of that nature.
The band is touring in support of its latest, the absolutely awesome I Beat Loneliness, which tackles an array of mental health topics and even includes Rossdale – ever the charismatic frontman – taking on the role of pseudo-therapist.
“We wanted to make a record for now; suicide rates are staggering, it’s simply unbelievable,” Rossdale said from his Cleveland hotel room. “Everyone in life is dealing with a different perspective. We’re all crazy and trying to get along with ourselves and other people, so I wanted this to be a useful record, something people could rely upon.”
I Beat Loneliness is all that and then some. Musically, it’s got shades of ’90s peak era Bush – melodic, hard but not overly aggressive, listener-friendly, etc. – but it also showcases a songwriter in Rossdale who has grown incredibly comfortable in his skin.
He’s vulnerable, a man stripped bare by a rough upbringing, a life spent in the spotlight and the frontman of one of the biggest bands of the post-grunge 90s wave.
“It’s hard to get through so much suffering,” the pleasant and engaging Rossdale said. “If you’re really open with yourself, you feel for people in dire situations. I’ve never driven past a homeless person and not been crushed … And I’m, like, ‘What the fuck happened? Where do you come from?’ I don’t know if that could have been me, but it very well could have been. I’m certainly not better than anyone else. I could lose my way just the same.”
Added Rossdale: “I’ve tried to write ‘story songs,’ but I was, like, God, you’re so full of shit. What the fuck are you talking about? That isn’t real; it’s made up and I’m no good at it. Rather, what was I feeling myself? … It doesn’t matter if things in your mind are jagged and move around; it’s what our brains do all the time. So that (third-person songwriting approach) doesn’t work for me.”
Yep, this guy gets it.
Rossdale is also incredibly thankful to have fronted a band that has remained in the cultural zeitgeist for more than 30 years. When Rossdale opines on never writing a “party song” that generates a reaction in the public space, I’m quick to recall a recent outing when “Comedown,” one of Bush’s biggest and earliest hits, came over the venue’s speaker system. Everyone went nuts and sang along. A party song? Not exactly, but one that has lived on in the decades since.
The ’90s are having a bit of a renaissance in their own right. Woodstock ’99 had not one, but two, documentaries released in succession, detailing the utter chaos that was the event. Creed is back on tour. Limp Bizkit headlined a successful tour last year. Teenagers everywhere are rocking Nirvana shirts. A wave of 90s-era wonders have reunited, some to celebrate their legacy, others to capitalize and cash in on a little nostalgia, others a mixture of both.
Rossdale is appreciative of Bush’s 90s heyday and what it provided to him – a career, a name, purpose, fame and fortune.
“More than 30 years after Sixteen Stone (the band’s smash 1994 breakout), we’re playing to 20,000 people every night,” he said. “I’ve had such an incredible life with such depth and meaning; what a gift. I live in constant gratitude; there’s no other way to look at it. If it all ended tomorrow, I’ve had an incredible run.”
Before we part ways, and given the title and focus of Bush’s new record, I have to ask – how exactly does one beat loneliness?
Rossdale has obviously given this a lot of thought.
“Everything has a solution, and time certainly helps,” he said. “Beating loneliness is not about being lonely for a period of time. It’s about being connected, self-reflecting … At times, we all feel a certain sense of loneliness, but you have to feel that sometimes in order to be connected to others, including yourself. At different stages of life, you’re feeling all these emotions. It’s all about fostering a culture of connectivity, and people understand that.”
Bush and Shinedown perform Wednesday, August 27 at Toyota Center, 1510 Polk. For more information, visit toyotacenter.com. Tickets $46, plus fees.