Michael “Tunes” Antunes, whose powerful saxophone playing since the early ’70s with John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band graced hits including the top 10 Billboard Hot 100 smash “On the Dark Side,” died Aug. 19, nine days after his 85th birthday.

In a post about Antunes’ passing on his official Instagram account, Cafferty shared a video of the saxophonist playing his heartaching solo from “Tender Years,” a longtime staple of Beaver Brown’s bar shows, which reached No. 31 on the Hot 100 in 1985 after Eddie and the Cruisers was released on HBO.

“Our hearts are filled with so many emotions,” wrote Cafferty. “Love, gratitude, respect, joy for our precious time together and sadness for our gentle fond farewell. It will always be one of life’s true gifts to have traveled the world over these many years within Tunes’ inner circle of love and magic on this amazing musical journey we’ve been blessed with.”

For more than five decades, Antunes — who was always known as “Tunes” to his bandmates and fans — was an exuberant and soulful onstage presence with the journeyman group, which rose from the East Coast bar scene to Platinum-selling success.

Beaver Brown, as the band was first known, gained acclaim in the 1970s in East Coast rock clubs, from Narragansett, in Cafferty’s native Rhode Island, to New Haven, Conn., where they were a mainstay at the famed Toad’s Place, to the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J., where kindred spirit Bruce Springsteen jammed with them often.

The group, including Antunes, brought bar-band authenticity to the fictional group portrayed in the 1983 film Eddie and the Cruisers. Cafferty’s songs, including “On the Dark Side,” were beloved by fans in the bars for years in the 1970s before record-buyers learned of those tracks via the film soundtrack. “On the Dark Side” reached No. 7 on the Hot 100, No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Radio and has been streamed more than 47 million times, according to Luminate. In 1995, the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack was certified triple Platinum.

Antunes also performed on the joyous and reflective Sound of Waves, Beaver Brown’s first album of all-new songs in 37 years, which Cafferty and the group showcased in New York City at the Cutting Room on April 10. After that show, veteran music industry executive Steve Leeds posted ‘“Rock n Roll Never Forgets!’ The Beaver Brown Band kicked major ass at the Cutting Room to celebrate [their] first new CD in years. And they still have it!”

Antunes was born Aug. 10, 1940, the son of Peter and Mary Antunes. A native of New Bedford, Mass., Antunes took great pride in his Cape Verdian heritage. According to a 2015 profile in New Bedford’s newspaper, the Standard Times, his grandfather Joaquim Antunes was a Cape Verdean immigrant who played guitar and violin in the New Bedford region in the 1920s and 1930s, which his father Peter Antunes played upright bass, guitar and Hammond organ in performances throughout New England.

Antunes’ first show came at age 13 with the stage band of Dartmouth High School and most of his early shows were playing Cape Verdean music with his guitarist brother David and his cousin Joe Silva in a band called Second Generation, according to the Standard Times profile.

After Eddie and the Cruisers gave Cafferty, Antunes and their bandmates entrée into the world of film work. Sylvester Stallone came calling and used “Voice of America’s Songs,” from the album Tough All Over, as the theme song for the 1986 adventure flick Cobra.

Antunes’ first recorded credits with Beaver Brown, according to Discogs, was the band’s 1980 self-released single “Wild Summer Nights.” In addition to the soundtrack of Eddie and the Cruisers and its sequel, he played on the Beaver Brown albums Tough All Over in 1985 and Roadhouse in 1988. With Beaver Brown, he also played on a cover of “E Street Shuffle,” which Beaver Brown recorded for the 2003 album Light Of Day: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen, released to benefit The Parkinson’s Disease Foundation and the Kristen Ann Carr Fund, which fights sarcoma cancer.

While complete family survivor information is not available, an announcement of services for Antunes states that he was the brother of siblings Jackie, David and Anthony; the father of Deborah, Michael, Juanita, Juan, Kevin, Derek, Michael, Dina and Wendle; the grandfather of 20; great-grandfather of 29 and the great-grandfather of two.

A funeral service is planned Thursday, Aug. 28, from the Saunders-Dwyer Funeral Home in New Bedford, Mass.

2024 may have been stacked with major top 40 breakthroughs, but Milwaukee artist J.P. snagged a buzzy win for regional rap with “Bad Bitty” — a jaunty lowend song that became his first entry on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. The viral hit, which appeared in Billboard’s weekly Trending Up column, gave way to a remix with NLE Choppa, a minor follow-up hit in “She Took” and an acclaimed LP titled Coming Out Party. 

“Bad Bitty” also thrust the then-19-year-old college sophomore into the national spotlight, opening him up to the countless pressures and unforeseen pitfalls of fame in the digital era. A viral song and near-instant social media notoriety quickly gave way to myriad controversies, including an overstimulating appearance on the 20 Women v. 1 Man YouTube franchise, a leaked X-rated video and an audience who increasingly felt he was “ruining his career” with the antics. 

After dropping a few loosies and a holiday track at the end of 2024, he went quiet, emerging this spring with “My Peace.” Released on May 30 as the lead single from his new Took a Turn EP, “My Peace” — along with fellow pre-release single “Serenity” — finds J.P. moving away from Milwaukee hip-hop and fully diving into the gospel and soul influences that comprise his vocal profile. Crafted alongside a tight-knit team of close friends and homegrown talent, Took a Turn isn’t simply J.P.’s stab at reinvention — it’s the soundtrack to him finding himself again after a deeply depressive period in the waning glow of his initial breakthrough. 

“The biggest goal for this project is me proving myself and showcasing my artistry. This ain’t no gimmick,” J.P. says. “I can cook up a ‘Bad Bitty’ in under two minutes, but it’s more difficult to take your trauma and your past and all the things people don’t want to talk about and put it in the music.” 

Below, J.P. speaks with Billboard about fleshing out his R&B pivot, overcoming depression and making the EP’s title track while on a Raising Cane’s run.

When did you start working on Took a Turn?  

The first song I recorded for the project was “My Peace.” I was in LA when I made that towards the end of November 2024. Some months before that, I fell into a deep depression; everything was going haywire. During that time, I started making the music that I would make when I was younger… before “Bad Bitty” and songs like that. And it literally brought me peace and solitude. I found myself again in creating that music. 

Would you say you built the project around “My Peace?” 

[I built it around] “Took a Turn” because it’s so colorful with so many emotions. It’s one of those songs that’s long, but the time passes because you get caught up in the story and how things build. But “My Peace” was a big contributor to that as well. 

Who did you primarily work with for the project? 

The majority of the people are either from Milwaukee or have the essence of the city. Bizness Boi produced a couple of tracks, and Daniel Church wrote on a few as well. Also, Darryl Bridgeman Jr., Felix Ames, and a lot of people from the city are on background vocals. There’s also this one guy named Kirti [Pandey] from Virginia, and he produced “Took a Turn.” 

What was the most stressful part of your “Bad Bitty” breakout moment? 

Adjusting to newfound fame, because it happened so fast. There’s a lot of people that look at you differently and have hidden agendas. I was doing some wild s—t. I was on some bulls—t. It happens when you give a 19-year-old who just came from college all this fame. I wish I understood how to navigate the way I do now, because I could have saved myself a lot of trouble. 

When did it hit you that things were going off the rails? 

I would spend days in my room; I just wouldn’t leave. I wouldn’t get up. I wouldn’t clean. I wouldn’t do anything. I would just lay in bed all day. I started to get a little bigger, and my eating habits were outrageous. I was smoking more. I had no goals and no vision. The days were just going by. I had three recording trips back-to-back to New York, Atlanta and L.A., and it took those trips for me to really get out the house and see people still mess with me. When I got to L.A., I was like, “I gotta stop this.” Ever since then, s—t’s been turning around. 

From the 20 v. 1 video to that explicit tape, what specifically do you wish you had handled a bit differently over the past year? 

Well, first of all, I damn sure wouldn’t have been in that bathroom. Knowing me back at 19, I probably still would’ve went in there, but I damn sure wouldn’t have had a phone out. In all seriousness, I would have said some different s—t, man.  

I’ve always been a blunt person with an I-don’t-care attitude, but I didn’t realize how much it was tarnishing my reputation, to the point where you can’t even really see the music because it’s so much other s—t surrounding my name. It was affecting the people around me as well. I definitely wish I had taken the media training route, but, in my defense, I started training late!  

Do you think that some people unfairly held your sexuality — or what they perceived to be your sexuality — against you? 

They really only know what I tell them. I don’t like dudes. I was trolling them, but anybody that knows me for real knows that I don’t like men. People gon’ think what they’re going to think of you regardless. I can’t really be upset for real, because I’m the one that went out there and played into it. I’m not a fan of letting other people tell my story. That’s one of the things I wish I would have stayed a bit more intimate about. It wasn’t everybody’s business. 

Your R&B pivot is really grounded in shades of gospel and the blues. Who were you most heavily influenced by? 

I definitely pulled from David Ruffin. I grew up watching The Temptations [mini-series], so he was one of my favorite singers. There’s some Sam Cooke and Al Green in there, too, and some Joe. 

Above all, I really tried to showcase myself. I didn’t want to make the EP one-dimensional to the point where only women or only guys can listen to it. I tried my best to make it as universal as possible. The writing was really intentional. We edited so many lyrics and tweaked so many phrases to make sure these stories line up and make sense 

How did the title track come together? 

The song took four nights to record. The big arrangements and vocal layers in the second half of the song didn’t come in until night three. I was in New York with my brother, who’s also my manager, and my boy Jack, who’s a writer and one of my best friends, and Bridge, another writer. We were walking to Raising Cane’s, and me and Bridge were recording on voice notes and coming up with stuff off the dome. We get to Raising Cane’s, and I show my boy Jack the memo, and the first thing he said was, “I took a turn on the corner of third.” 

I was like, “Damn, that’s cold.” So, everybody started piecing s—t in, and when we got to the studio that night, we came up with the beat right there. The whole process of building the song just made sense. Me, Bridge, Jack and Felix were in there going back and forth; I don’t know what was in the air, but we hit that s—t. 

How’s your time at Roc Nation been so far? 

I enjoy Roc. They do what they’re supposed to do. They communicate, and they’re easy to work with. I got creative control, and that means the most to me. I signed with Equity Distribution in March 2024, and [by August 2024] they merged with Roc Nation’s label division to become Roc Nation Distribution. It’s been a year and some change now, and we’re doing well. We added some new people to the team, and I’m very thankful for their hard work. 

What do you have in store for the rest of the year? 

Imma give y’all some time to digest the EP, but you can definitely expect more music this year. I’m finishing out the year strong and starting the next year even stronger.