Bernie Marsden, the original guitarist for Whitesnake and co-writer behind some of the band’s biggest hits, died on Thursday (Aug. 24). He was 72 years old.

Marsden’s family shared the news via a statement posted to the rocker’s Instagram page, along with a photo of Marsden smiling at the camera. “On behalf of his family, it is with deep sadness we announce the death of Bernie Marsden. Bernie died peacefully on Thursday evening with his wife, Fran, and daughters, Charlotte and Olivia, by his side. Bernie never lost his passion for music, writing and recording new songs until the end,” reads the post, which you can see here.

The star performed with Whitesnake from 1978 to 1982, and was part of the original band lineup that included frontman David Cloverdale, bassist Neil Murray, guitarist Mick Moody and drummer Dave Dowie. As part of the group, Marsden co-wrote the band’s biggest hit “Here I Go Again,” which he re-recorded with his bandmates in 1987. The track topped the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in October 1987 and spent 28 total weeks on the tally. He also co-wrote “Fool for Your Loving,” which hit No. 37 on the Hot 100 in 1989.

During his four-year stint in Whitesnake, Marsden contributed to the band’s first five albums, 1978’s Trouble, 1979’s Lovehunter, 1980’s Ready an’ Willing, 1981’s Come an’ Get It and 1982’s Saints & Sinners. Beyond Whitesnake, Marsden performed with a number of other bands including the Moody Marsden Band and Alaska.

He also released a number of solo albums, with his most recent project, Trios, released in August 2022.

It’s been an exciting year for Sabrina Carpenter, who is fresh off her Emails I Can’t Send Tour and just kicked off her stint opening for Taylor Swift on the Latin America leg of the Eras tour. She also just launched her second fragrance, Caramel Dream, and to celebrate, she chatted with Billboard‘s Rania Aniftos behind the scenes of her perfume’s promotional shoot.

After admitting that she was speechless after finding out that she’d be touring with Swift, Carpenter revealed, “That is one of my main inspirations ever since I was a little girl, and now to just be able to watch that show every night is going to be so special.”

She continued, “It’s so funny, I’ve been growing up with her advice in her songs because it’s very much a how-to book on how to survive as a young woman, which is really special. Watching her in and of itself is how you learn. I admire her work ethic and her talent and she’s just so amazing.”

Carpenter also opened up about her love for K-pop following the release of her remix of FIFTY FIFTY’s “Cupid” last week. “It’s really nice to have fun when you think about life,” she shared. “Life can be so many things and a lot of times it’s heavy and confusing, so I really do appreciate how much fun I have when I listen to K-pop. More than that, they’re just impressive. They’re some of the most talented people I’ve ever met.”

Watch Billboard‘s full interview with Sabrina Carpenter above, and check out our full livestream with the pop star as she introduces her new fragrance Caramel Dream here.

Live music companies’ stocks fell an average of 4.4% on this week’s Billboard Global Music Index despite their optimism about sustained consumer spending and healthy revenue and ticket sales in the second half of the year. While Live Nation shares rose 0.5% to $84.79, the other promoters and ticketing companies in the index had down weeks: Madison Square Garden Entertainment fell 2.7%, CTS Eventim dropped 5.7% and Sphere Entertainment Co. plunged 9.6%.

Sphere Entertainment shares have gained over 19% since the company turned on the external display on its state-of-the-art Las Vegas venue and showcased the potential inside the structure on July 5. The company’s second quarter results, released Tuesday, showed revenue of $129.1 million — with the Sphere contributing just $700,000 and the remainder coming from MSG Networks. Sphere’s share price rose nearly 8% to $39.58 following Tuesday’s earnings results but fell nearly 15% over the next three days. The $2.3-billion Sphere will open on Sept. 29 with a 25-date residency by U2.  

iHeartMedia shares rose 6.6% for the week to close at $3.56 on Friday (Aug. 25), making the radio giant the week’s greatest gainer on the Billboard Global Music Index. However, radio companies’ struggle with weak national advertising has hurt their share prices overall in 2023. Year to date through Friday, iHeartMedia was down 41.9% and Cumulus Media had lost 41.9%. Audacy, troubled by debt on top of the soft advertising market, was de-listed by the New York Stock Exchange on May 16 and currently trades over the counter at 75 cents per share despite a reverse stock split on June 30 raising the price from 7 cents to $2.13. Audacy was removed from the Billboard Global Music Index following the de-listing.

Overall, the 21-stock Billboard Global Music Index was flat this week at 1,298.80. Ten stocks finished the week in positive territory, ten stocks lost ground and one stock, Round Hill Music Royalty Fund, was unchanged. Record labels and music publishers were the top performing sector with an average gain of 1.7% and only one company, Universal Music Group (down 0.7%), finished in negative territory. Streaming companies and radio companies suffered average weekly losses of 1.3% and 1.7%, respectively. 

Year-to-date, the index has increased 11.2%, even as it’s now on its fifth straight week without a gain.

Stocks in general performed better than music stocks. In the United States, the S&P 500 gained 0.8% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained 2.3%. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE gained 1%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 0.6%. 

The week’s biggest loser, streaming company Anghami, fell 17.5% to 94 cents per share. The stock traded below $1 per share from Wednesday to Friday, marking the first time since July 18 the stock has dropped below $1. On Monday, Anghami announced the sale of a convertible note worth $5 million to SRMG Ventures, a venture arm of Saudi Research and Media Group. The company plans to use the proceeds for working capital, growth and other corporate purposes. 

Bob Feldman, the influential songwriter and producer behind some of the biggest hits of the 1960s, has died. He was 83 years old. A cause of death has yet to be revealed.

The news was announced in a statement from his close friend, musical collaborator and business partner Richard Gottehrer.

“It’s with great sadness that I announce the passing of Bob Feldman, my friend and legendary songwriting partner, in Grand Canyon Music and FGG Productions – Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Myself,” Gottehrer wrote in a statement sent to Billboard. “As a team we go back to the 1960’s and the Brill Building days where we wrote and/or produced classics like ‘My Boyfriend’s Back,’ ‘I Want Candy,’ ‘Hang on Sloopy’ and ‘Sorrow,’ which was eventually recorded and became an everlasting hit by David Bowie. We were even an ‘Australian’ band that called ourselves The Strangeloves.

“We were young and inexperienced but learned how to produce by making demos of our songs; this led each of us to ongoing active careers in music after we went our separate ways,” his statement continued. “We remained friends and to this day 60 years later are still partners in those same companies we started back then.”

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Feldman and his neighbor Jerry Goldstein would frequently write songs together before meeting Gottehrer in 1962. The trio formed FGG Productions and wrote several hits together, including The Angels’ No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit “My Boyfriend’s Back” and The McCoys’ “Sorrow,” which was later popularized by The Merseys and Bowie. The group also produced The McCoys’ Hot 100 No. 1 “Hang on Sloopy” — which endures as an unofficial theme song at Ohio State University sports events — all while making it big in their own group, The Strangeloves. As a band, they scored Hot 100 top 40 hits with “I Want Candy” (No. 11), “Cara-Lin” (No. 39) and “Night Time” (No. 30). Bow Wow Wow famously covered “Candy” in 1982, taking it back to the Hot 100 (it reached No. 62 that July).

Feldman was also a published author, releasing his own book of verse, lyrics and memoirs in 2019 titled Simply Put! Thoughts and Feelings from the Heart.

Gottehrer concluded his statement by writing, “The memories of the times we shared; the songs we wrote and the adventures that filled our lives remain. Sooner or later we’ll all pass but the music will live on. Rest in peace Bob….we’ll meet again.”

Feldman is survived by his two daughters, Kyle and Mahri. He is also the biological father of actor Corey Feldman, who emancipated himself from Bob and his mom Sheila as a teenager.

Country music is having a major moment in 2023, with country songs making history by holding down the top three slots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. During a recent interview with Tetris Kelly for Billboard News, three-time Grammy winner Tim McGraw offered his thoughts on country music topping the all-genre chart, as a further evolution of the genre’s continued growth.

“I love it. The more we can bring to the party, the better,” McGraw said, referencing the Hot 100 success of Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town,” Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” and Luke Combs’ “Fast Car”; since this interview was filmed, another country song — Oliver Anthony Music’s “Rich Men in Richmond” — skyrocketed straight to No. 1 on the chart. “Country music has consistently grown, for a long time. When new people discover it, and they find out — if they didn’t think they liked it, then they will hear something and all of a sudden they will discover other people. I think for a long time, the country music industry fought that — fought the crossover idea, or the idea that other people are listening to their music or other stations are playing their music.”

He noted that his wife, fellow artist Faith Hill, was on the receiving end of that mind-set when her songs “Breathe” and “The Way You Love Me” reached the top five on the Hot 100 in the early aughts. “I mean, my wife got the brunt end of that quite a bit when she was having a lot of crossover success. In my mind, I think you miss the point when you feel that way, because not only is it good for the artist that that happens to, but it’s good for all the other artists as well.

“As an artist, you just make your music and it lands where it lands and you take the consequences of it, either way,” he added. “I can’t speak to what other artists do when they’re making music; what I can say is I’ll let my music…and the kind of messages I put out, speak for itself.”

McGraw does just that with the music he’s recently released, including “Standing Room Only” and “Hey Whiskey” from his upcoming album Standing Room Only, out Friday.

Speaking with Billboard News, McGraw recalled the inspiration for one of the songs on the album, which he wrote, called “Nashville, California; LA, Tennessee.” The song is inspired by his eldest daughter Gracie’s move to Los Angeles.

“I have this 19-year-old Cadillac Escalade that I can’t get rid of,” McGraw laughs. “We call it the Griswold Family cruiser. I’d ripped all the seats out of it and loaded all of Gracie’s stuff into it. Her and I did a road trip from Nashville to L.A. to move her out there. We spent about four days traveling, staying in great spots and doing carpool karaoke, singing songs together. She’s a fantastic singer. We got to L.A. late at night, movin’ her into her place, moving boxes in. By that time, she was ready to get rid of me. Finally she said, ‘Daddy, you have to go,’ so I gave her a big hug and I just cried like a baby.”

In addition to his album, McGraw is gearing up for his Standing Room Only Tour, which will launch in 2024 and feature opener Carly Pearce. McGraw says the tour will be “probably one of the biggest productions we’ve ever had.”

“I’m pretty excited to have all the bells and whistles,” he says. “It’s fun for me. I like to put on a show for everybody else, but that stuff up there is fun for me as well.”

Watch his full interview in the video above.