As Iron Maiden ready themselves to climb aboard Ed Force One and launch their Run for Your Lives World Tour, manager Rod Smallwood has asked fans to put their phones away.

The veteran British heavy metal outfit will launch their upcoming tour in Budapest, Hungary on May 27, with the shows also kicking off their 50th anniversary celebrations. With the massive milestone in their back pocket, and the tour also set to see the debut of drummer Simon Dawson, there’s a lot worth documenting.

However, Smallwood has taken to the band’s website to share a post titled “Put away your phones and get ready to Run For Your Lives!” in which he urges fans to experience the shows “in the moment” rather than on smaller screens at a later date.

“We really want fans to enjoy the shows first hand, rather than on their small screens,” Smallwood wrote. “The amount of phone use nowadays diminishes enjoyment, particularly for the band who are on stage looking out at rows of phones, but also for other concertgoers. 

“We feel that the passion and involvement of our fans at shows really makes them special, but the phone obsession has now got so out of hand that it has become unnecessarily distracting especially to the band. I hope fans understand this and will be sensible in severely limiting the use of their phone cameras out of respect for the band and their fellow fans.”

Iron Maiden aren’t the first band to ask fans to put their phones back in their pockets. In 2015, Jack White shared a verbal plea for no phones during his Lazaretto tour, and by the time The Raconteurs toured in 2019, attendees were told to put their devices in locked Yondr pouches.

“We think you’ll enjoy looking up from your gadgets for a little while and experience music and our shared love of it in person,” a note from the band read at the time.

Other acts, such as Tool, have also employed a similar approach, requesting phones stay off their phones until their final performance. Guitarist Adam Jones explained in 2022 that while part of the reason was due to the loss of connection between band and fan, another factor was the limited technological know-how of some concertgoers.

“I think one of the problems is you get a lot of lights because people don’t know how to use their cameras correctly, which makes it very blinding onstage,” Jones explained.

As Smallwood added on Iron Maiden’s website, much of the urging for fans to stow their phones comes out of a plea for respect, for both the larger experience and the band themselves.

“We would very much like you to be ‘in the moment’ instead and be fully actively involved to enjoy each and every one of these classic songs in the spirit and manner they were first played,” he adds. “This show isn’t just a celebration of our music; it is, as you will see, also about our years of art, of Eddie and of the many, many worlds of Maiden we have created for you.”

“So please respect the band, respect the other fans and have the time of your lives as you join your Maiden family by singing your heart out, rather than getting your phone out!! It’s really not a lot to ask is it?”

The upcoming Run for Your Lives World Tour will be Iron Maiden’s first performances since wrapping their The Future Past Tour in São Paulo, Brazil in December. That tour was the last to feature drummer Nicko McBrain, who announced his “decision to take a step back from the grind of the extensive touring lifestyle.”

A$AP Rocky continues to tease new music ahead of dropping his highly anticipated album Don’t Be Dumb. However, the song that was played as he walked down the red-carpet stairs in the rain with his pregnant partner Rihanna at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday night, when his new movie Highest 2 Lowest premiered, sounds like he’s referencing the “Yung Felon” character he’s playing in the film.

And while it sounds like a standard Rocky record, there’s a point in the song where he’s heard rapping, “Shout-outs to my felons, boy/ We caught another felony.” He also raps something to the effect of “I can’t go to court, my baby mama child support, f— college,” as he’s posing for pictures next to the actual mother of his children.

Highest 2 Lowest, directed by Spike Lee and also starring Denzel Washington, has been receiving rave reviews and got a nearly six-minute standing ovation after its Cannes premiere. Denzel also received the honorary Palme d’Or, which he was presented with by “his brother from another mother,” Spike Lee.

This will be the fifth movie Spike and Denzel have worked on together, and it will likely be their last. “This is the fifth one we’ve done together,” Lee told reporters at the festival. “It has been a blessing, this body of work between us, doing films that people love. And I think this is it. He’s been talking about retirement. But five films together: that’s good, they stand up.”

The film is set to be released in U.S. theaters on Aug. 22 and will hit Apple TV+ on Sept. 5.

50 Cent is back at it.

The Queens rapper and filmmaker continues to troll Diddy as the Harlem mogul’s sex trafficking trial heads into its second week. This time, he posted an AI-generated picture of himself on Instagram wearing a white “Free Diddy” shirt in front of a courthouse and followed that up with a screenshot of an article referencing testimony from Cassie‘s mother, Regina Ventura, in which she testified that Diddy requested $20,000 that he spent on her daughter after he found out she was dating Kid Cudi, forcing Cassie’s parents to take out a loan.

“He only made Cassie’s mom take out a home equity loan to pay 20k for him to not put out sex tapes,” 50 wrote in the caption. “Free itty bitty Diddy! LOL wait is that legal.”

Just over the weekend, 50 Cent joked about people being offered $20 an hour to wear “Free Diddy” shirts in front of Manhattan federal court, writing, “Diddy paying people to wear Free Diddy shirts is diabolical, but $20 a hour ain’t bad. I might go throw that on for a hour tomorrow.”

In another picture he posted, this time wearing a black “Free Diddy” shirt, his caption read: “Ok now where do I send my $20 invoice guys, a deals a deal. If you want I can be there tomorrow from 3 to 4 OK!”

In other Diddy trial news, Kid Cudi is expected to testify sometime this week, according to prosecutors. And it’s pretty safe to assume that the subject of Diddy allegedly blowing up Cudi’s car over his relationship with Cassie will be broached.

Indie-rock veterans Guided By Voices have claimed that rumors of their demise are greatly exaggerated, pointing to a forthcoming record as proof.

The prolific Ohio outfit became the center of rumor on Monday (May 19) when a new episode of Lou Barlow’s RAW Impressions podcast unintentionally broke the news. In the latest episode, Lou spoke to Guided By Voices guitarist Bobby Bare Jr. with his wife Adelle, who admitted to having never seen the group live.

In response, Bare noted, “We’re breaking up, you never will.” After Lou adds “You never will, they’re done,” Bare seemingly confirmed the band’s status by adding “We’re never going to play again.”

However, the apparent revelation may have been a case of miscommunication due to technology, with the episode’s description on YouTube noting that it was “loaded with technical difficulties,” and that “the audio is often breaking up.”

Following the news apparently breaking, the episode’s hosts spoke to Brooklyn Vegan to clarify their own thoughts on the matter. “My understanding is that they didn’t have plans to play more live shows,” Adelle explained. “But I think they are still recording! Not broken up. And yea, I had a lot of technical difficulties during the podcast episode.”

Lou echoed this by adding that the group were in the process of making a new record, though he understood that there were to be “no more live shows.”

In the wake of the rumor mill going into overdrive, a representative for Guided By Voices spoke to Rolling Stone to deny that the band were splitting, and even noted that a new album called Thick Rich and Delicious would be arriving on Halloween. Currently, the band have not shared any further information on the upcoming record.

News of a breakup announcement from Guided By Voices wouldn’t be entirely unexpected, however. Having first formed in 1983, the Robert Pollard-led outfit released a total of 15 albums before splitting in 2004 – including their highest-charting release, 2002’s Universal Truths and Cycles, which hit No. 160 on the Billboard 200 and No. 3 on the Heatseekers charts.

After reforming in 2010, a further six albums followed before another split in 2014. Since reforming again in 2016, the group have been immensely prolific, with 19 albums arriving in the past nine years, including February’s Universe Room. Pollard will also release the debut album from his Rip Van Winkle side-project this year, with Blasphemy set to arrive in July.

Giving credence to Bare’s claims about not playing live again, however, Guided By Voices have not performed since an October 2024 show in Dallas, with reviews of that show reporting Pollard had claimed it was to be their final gig. Indeed, no further live dates are listed on their website at the current time.

Whenever Drake supports a team with his rooting interest or backs them with his six-figure bets and that franchise ends up losing, the 6 God hears all the noise from sports fans about the “Drake Curse.”

Drake was finally asked about the mythical curse in a mock interview he posted to his Instagram on Monday (May 19) in promotion of his partnership with Stake.

“I feel like I don’t play sports, whether I picked the wrong team or not, if I could get out there and win for all your favorite teams, I would,” he said.

Ultimately, Drake feels vindicated that a “curse” doesn’t exist because the Toronto Raptors captured their first NBA championship in 2019.

“The Drake curse is funny to me,” he revealed. “First of all, the Toronto Raptors are NBA champions. If there was a Drake curse, Kawhi [Leonard] would’ve never hit that shot, we would’ve never beat the Warriors. There is no Drake curse, but it’s funny, though.”

However, Drake did concede that he isn’t a sports gambling savant and has taken his fair share of monetary losses with bad bets over the years.

“I am a flawed sports better,” Drizzy admitted. “I will not deny that. That’s not my gift. I’ll let everybody roll with it. I’m sure if you’re a Drake curse believer, there will be plenty more content in the future to confirm your theories because my slips do not cash out. But one day I’m gonna have a parlay that’s insane.”

Drake added to the “Drake Curse” theories on Sunday night when his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs after a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of the Florida Panthers in Game 7.

Drizzy actually ended up betting $1.25 million on the Maple Leafs to take home the game 7 victory and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.

However, Drake jokingly flipped the script and blamed the “Bieber Curse” in his IG Story, as Justin Bieber, who’s a massive Leafs fan, was in attendance front and center at Scotiabank Arena with his wife, Hailey, to watch the excruciating loss in person.

“I don’t remember a time in my life when I haven’t been obsessed with the leafsssss,” Bieber wrote following the loss on his Instagram. “This year we made it farther than we have in so long and im happy about that. I can be patient cuz I know this is the team to do it.”

Watch the full interview clip with Drake below.