Blog Posts by Rolling Stone

In the new issue of Rolling Stone, on stands and in the digital archive on June 24th, Katy Perry takes contributing editor Erik Hedegaard backstage at the kick-off of her California Dreams Tour. Between the elaborate rehearsals and three-hour make-up sessions, Perry reveals that she's recently undergone a political awakening. "It just feels like the thing running our country is a bank, money," she says. "I know it sounds like an intense viewpoint, but I'm only slowly but surely getting the wool taken off my eyes. When I was a kid, I asked questions about my faith. Now I'm asking questions about the world."

She continues: "I think we are largely in desperate need of revolutionary change in the way our mindset is. Our priority is fame, and people's wellness is way low. I saw this knowing full well that I'm a part of the problem. I'm playing the game, though I am trying to reroute. Anyway, not to get all politically divulging and introspective, but the fact that America doesn't have free

Radiohead debuted a brand new song called "Staircase" in their appearance on the BBC concert program From the Basement, which will air in full on July 1st. The band released the tune early on their YouTube page this morning for no apparent reason other than to thrill their fans with something fresh. Like a lot of the music on the band's most recent album The King of Limbs, "Staircase" is heavy on atmospheric synths and busy, skittering beats, but the tone is a bit more easygoing and relaxed this time around. The band was joined for the performance by second drummer Clive Deamer, who is best known for his work with Robert Plant and Portishead.

Hours after the news came down that Clarence Clemons had passed away, U2 took the stage in Anaheim, California. Before the finale of "Moment Of Surrender," Bono addressed the audience. "I want you to think about a beautiful symphonic sound that came out of one man's saxophone," he said. "I want you to think about Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band of brothers. I want you to think of Clarence Clemons. This man just carried music, and music carried him until this day." Towards the end of the song, Bono was handed the lyrics to "Jungleland," which he recited to the crowd like it was a prayer.

RELATED:
E Street Band's Clarence Clemons Dies at 69 
Remembering Clarence Clemons: His Life and Career in Photos 
Bruce Springsteen on Clarence Clemons: 'His Loss is Immeasurable'

Shortly after news got out that the E Street Band's Clarence Clemons had suffered a stroke, Lady Gaga rallied her Little Monsters on Twitter to send messages of support to the ailing sax legend. In a video released this morning, Gaga introduces a selection of these incredibly sweet clips, which feature fans from around the world wishing him well while blasting the new Gaga tunes "Hair" and "The Edge of Glory," both of which feature the Big Man on saxophone.

RELATED:
How E Street Band Saxophonist Clarence Clemons Ended Up on Lady Gaga's New Album
E Street Band Saxophonist Clarence Clemons Has Suffered a Stroke
Bruce Springsteen On Clarence Clemons: 'Initial Signs Are Encouraging'

Click to listen to Lenny Kravitz's 'Stand'

Lenny Kravitz has always been a stylistic chameleon, but it's still a bit surprising to hear a touch of early Elvis Costello in "Stand," the first single from his ninth studio album Black and White America. It's also very refreshing. While Kravitz's vocal phrasing recalls Costello circa Armed Forces and Get Happy!, the music is rooted in the sort of upbeat funk pop that has been a consistent thread through all of his albums. With its easygoing melodies and good time vibe, "Stand" immediately announces itself as one of the most instantly likeable rock tunes of the summer. Black and White America will hit stores on August 30th, but you can stream the song now.

Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty

At 10:30 p.m.  last night, Sleigh Bells arrived onstage at Bonnaroo - the epic four-day musical festival in Manchester, Tennessee that kicked off yesterday - to the blaring riff of "Iron Man" in front of a wall of Marshall amps. Frontwoman Alexis Krauss extended her arms to the crowd while strobe lights flashed, and the band kicked into "Crown on the Ground," with its thudding, hand-clapping beat, fuzzed-out guitar and a synth that sounds like a siren. It was clear: Bonnaroo has officially begun.

The Brooklyn duo -Krauss and guitarist Derek Miller - were a perfect group to help launch the festival, whose 10th anniversary is this year. Thousands of festivalgoers who had just endured long drives and tent setups were eager to let loose, dancing as Miller unleashed earsplitting guitar riffs and Krauss wailed intensely in a Sleigh Bells basketball jersey. Their hit song "Tell 'Em" was a raucous, machine gun blaze of rhythm while "Infinity Guitars" lived up to its title (even though there

Prince, one of the great icons of Eighties pop and beyond, turns 53 today. To celebrate the occasion, Rolling Stone is sharing a classic Prince cover story from the archives, a set of photo galleries documenting the singer's recent concerts in New York City and Los Angeles and ?uestlove's list of his Top 15 favorite Prince jams.

In "Prince Reclaims His Crown," our cover story from 2004, writer Anthony DeCurtis goes behind the scenes of the singer's Musicology tour, which reestablished Prince as a commercial and artistic force after years of retreating from the spotlight following his departure from Warner Bros. Records. This period set the stage for the Prince of today - a brilliant entertainer who plays epic hits-centric shows for arenas full of rabid fans from around the world.

• Prince Reclaims His Crown
• ?uestlove Picks His Top 15 Prince Songs
• Photos: Prince's Welcome 2 America Tour at Madison Square Garden
• Photos: Prince's Welcome 2 America Tour in Los Angeles

• Prince Kicks Off

The new issue of Rolling Stone, on stands and in the digital archive on May 27th, includes an in-depth cover story of Lady Gaga by writer Brian Hiatt, who was given intimate, fly-on-the wall access to the pop superstar as she played the final dates of her Monster Ball Tour and put the finishing touches on her new album Born This Way. "When I am not onstage I feel dead," she says. "Whether that is healthy or not to you, or healthy or not to anyone, or a doctor, is really of no concern to me. I don't feel alive unless I'm performing, and that's just the way I was born."

In the story, Gaga reveals that she's recently derived a lot of inspiration from an unlikely source: Rocky IV. "My favorite part is when Apollo's ex-trainer says to Rocky, 'He is not a machine. He's a man. Cut him, and once he feels his own blood, he will fear you.' I know it sounds crazy, but I was thinking about the machine of the music industry. I started to think about how I have to make the music industry bleed to