Rolling Stone Dec-17-15

MUSIC THE BEST OF 2015 Our year-end coverage doesn’t stop! Check out our expanded lists of 2015’s top albums and singles – plus deep dives into the year’s finest rap, country and metal releases, and much more. PROFILE YOUTUBE’S BIGGEST STAR The loud, uncensored Swedish sensation known as PewDiePie has YouTube’s most popular channel, with 40 million subscribers. We go in-depth with the outspoken gamer. PREMIERE IT’S A KILLERS CHRISTMAS The video for the band’s 10th annual holiday single, which benefits an AIDS charity, includes a cameo from Richard Dreyfuss. Check it out only at RollingStone.com. POLITICS FIGHTING STUDENT DEBT Some business groups noticed that student loans were preventing young people from becoming entrepreneurs – and now they’re doing something about it. 360 DEGREES OF COUNTRY! Come to Rolling Stone Country for daily news, videos and reviews on Nashville and beyond. We talk…

1. Leon Bridges “So Long” Can’t get enough of Bridges’ vintage-soul debut, Coming Home? Us either – but once you’re done with that, check out this Sam Cooke-ish ballad he made for Will Smith’s new movie. Lord have mercy! 2 . Trust Fund “4th August” Sweet, sad, pretty guitar pop from an up-and-coming British act that’s learned all the right tricks from all your favorite Clinton-era college-rock bands. 3. Pusha T “Untouchable” One of the coldest rappers in the game samples Biggie, disses Donald Trump and compares himself to U2 (“I am like Bono with the Edge”) – and that’s just in the first 30 seconds of this Timbaland-produced cut. We can’t wait for his upcoming King Push LP. 4. Ra Ra Riot and Rostam Batmanglij “Water” Vampire Weekend’s Batmanglij lends some of the warm synth sheen…

Five Songs I Wish I’d Written The guitarist, who’s about to kick off a U.S. tour, told us about five songs that inspire him. B.B. King “You’re Still My Woman” On Live in Japan, there’s a place where the band breaks down, and he goes into this run that is so jazzy, funky, raw – and then the band comes back in perfectly. It’s inspiring as a guitar player. Alabama Shakes “Gemini” I love the way Brittany Howard sings this song. The band is in the pocket, and for her to be that vulnerable in the groove, and so expressive with her vocals, really moves me. 2Pac “Hold Ya Head” This song goes in the same category as “What’s Going On,” or Bob Marley’s “So Much Trouble in the World” – it’s uplifting with a hint of…

The Last Blues Man In RS 1248, associate editor Patrick Doyle profiled guitar great Buddy Guy [“King Bee”], who Keith Richards calls “the top honcho” and “the godfather” of the blues. ROLLING STONE readers and Guy fans responded. I WAS EXTREMELY EXCITed to read about Buddy Guy – a poignant article about a blues giant and a gentleman. Thanks to Patrick Doyle for a job well done. Mike Norcutt, Pittsburgh THIS KIND OF EXTENDED biographical piece on groundbreaking pioneers in American and British music is what Rolling Stone excels at – and why I’ve been a subscriber from Issue One. Chick DeCicco Hammonton, NJ THE BLUES IS AMERICA’S unique gift. Buddy is music royalty and as important to all blues lovers as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. Long may he reign. Steven Griffin Greystones, Ireland SO MANY QUOTABLE…

AMONG THE FIRST TO HEAR were fellow musicians: On November 13th, Dan Auerbach and his new band the Arcs had just started playing a show at the Trianon theater in Paris when they heard sirens outside, followed by the alarming news from the Bataclan theater, less than two miles away. “People started telling us there was a shooting,” says Auerbach. “Then I heard there was a bombing at the Eagles of Death Metal concert. I said, ‘What, are you kidding?’ ” That night, part-time Paris resident Lenny Kravitz got word from a bandmate that Helen Jane Wilson, the owner of a local catering business who had worked with Kravitz and Eagles of Death Metal, was inside the Bataclan and had been wounded. “It was horrible,” says Kravitz. Soon, the rest of…

EARLIER THIS YEAR, SIA FURLER WAS in the studio with Adele, helping write songs for what would become 25. There was a problem, in Furler’s mind at least: She worried she was being too pushy with her song ideas. “When I work with artists, I try to check my ego at the door and become their bitch,” says Furler, 39. “I e-mailed Adele, saying, ‘I’m worried it was annoying working with me.’ She wrote me back, like, ‘What are you talking about?’ ” Adele may have brushed off any problems in the studio, but she didn’t include the songs she wrote with Furler on 25. “Maybe the songs had too much my voice and not enough hers,” Furler says. Instead, the two tracks from the session – including the thrilling empowerment…