Rolling Stone April 19, 2018

TV ‘WESTWORLD’ IS BACK Our complete coverage of the hit HBO show’s highly anticipated return, from in-depth episode recaps and analysis to the questions we want answered in Season Two. SPORTS THE BLADES OF GLORY In our New Classics series, we talk to Olympic skater Adam Rippon about how he’s using his newfound fame. CULTURE YOUR 4/20 USER’S MANUAL From a Cheech and Chong interview to an exhaustive map of U.S. weed laws – here’s your guide for observing April 20th. MUSIC COACHELLA WITH BEY We venture out to the annual desert party for a report on the first full Beyoncé show since 2016, and more. ROLLING STONE MUSIC NOW PODCAST: DEREK SMALLS The Spinal Tap bassist recently joined host Brian Hiatt to discuss exploding drummers, the band’s breakup, Brexit, erectile dysfunction and much more. Rolling Stone Music Now airs live on SiriusXM’s…

Wakanda Forever many hearts beat faster when readers first saw this cover featuring Chadwick Boseman [“The Black Panther Revolution,” RS 1308]. What an exquisitely beautiful man. Coreen Steinbach Pompey, NY well-learned and studied. I greatly appreciate his contribution to our culture. What he brought to Black Panther has been nothing but transformative to African people around the globe. Taalib Saber Greenbelt, MD and now the massive success of Black Panther, Ryan Coogler is showing everyone why he is one of the best young directors in Hollywood. He has a very bright future ahead of him. Jeff Swanson Everett, WA the Star Wars for today’s black youth. They’ll want to explore, play and inhabit the world of Wakanda, soaking up every bit of the culture they can squeeze out of magazines, comics, the movie and more. Mark Langston Via…

1. Pearl Jam “Can’t Deny Me” Pearl Jam’s first new song in five years is a bare-knuckled anti-Trump anthem. “You know you’re sick,” Eddie Vedder shouts over growling guitars. It’s the kind of arena-size rage not enough bands are going for these days. Welcome back, guys. 2. Amen Dunes “Believe” You can hear some Syd Barrett in the creepy yet captivating music of Amen Dunes (a.k.a. singer-songwriter Damon McMahon). This dark ballad is sweet, scary stuff. 3. Willie Nelson “Me and You” “It’s like I’m in some foreign country,” Nelson sings with resigned warmth over an easygoing shuffle. It’s the sound of hanging out with an eternal buddy helping you through hard times. 4. Illuminati Hotties “Paying Off the Happiness” “I could probably use a fourth job,” these L.A. punks muse, greeting the college-debt blues with the surfy charm of classic…

The Hootie-singer-turned-country-star, who is touring this summer with Lady Antebellum, picked tunes that forever altered how he heard music. Al Green “For the Good Times” As a kid, this was the first song that made me want to be a singer. You believe every word he sings, that he’s living in that moment. R.E.M. “So. Central Rain” You can hear the pain in Michael Stipe’s voice when he sings, “I’m sorry.” I’d never heard anything like it when it came out. The Notorious B.I.G. “The What” I played this 10 times in a row when I got my first B.I.G. album, and now I listen to it before I go onstage, because it pumps me up. Radney Foster “Old Silver” This is the consummate country song, since you aren’t sure if he’s singing about a horse or a man. It’s one of…

It didn't make the news, but a couple of months back Slim Jxmmi drove his Ferrari into a fence. “It was a beautiful Ferrari,” says his younger brother, Swae Lee. Together they make up the pop-rap duo Rae Sremmurd; they’re in their home studio in the suburbs north of L.A. “I played chicken with traffic,” Jxmmi explains. “I woke up from this party, don’t even know where my shirt was, got in the Ferrari, no shirt on.” A few blocks from his house, he blew a red light, overcooked a turn and crashed. “Drove home with the front dragging on the ground,” he says. Swae shakes his head: “He fucked that motherfucker up.” Jxmmi grins. “It was a rental. I just got my license, so now I’m actually gonna buy…

‘Iable, really,” says Neil Young. He’s talking about the process of going through his entire archives for the Neil Young Archives, an interactive multimedia timeline. How does it feel to reflect on a half-century of work, from Buffalo Springfield to Rust Never Sleeps to Harvest Moon? “I try not to focus on it too much,” Young says, from his Austin hotel room. “It starts in 1963, and it’s 2018. I try to be mellow on that.” But Young is in no way done creating – as his recent workload proves. Journey Through the Past Young has obsessed over every detail of his archival site, from the high-resolution audio to a blog he constantly updates. Only 25 percent of the music is loaded so far, and Young rattles off the unreleased albums he’s…