The FireAid benefit concerts are just around the corner, supporting victims of the ongoing wildfire crisis that has devastated the Los Angeles area.

The Jan. 30 event will take place at two venues, with Billie Eilish, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gracie Abrams, Jelly Roll, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Lil Baby, Olivia Rodrigo, Peso Pluma, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Sting and Tate McRae playing at Intuit Dome.

Meanwhile, Alanis Morissette, Anderson. Paak, Dave Matthews and John Mayer, Dawes, Graham Nash, Green Day, John Fogerty, Joni Mitchell, No Doubt, P!nk, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stephen Stills, Stevie Nicks and The Black Crowes will be performing at the Kia Forum.

For fans who won’t be able to join the event in person, there are a number of ways to watch online. Amazon Music/Prime Video, Apple Music, the AppleTV app, Disney+/Hulu, Facebook/Instagram, iHeartRadio, KTLA+, Max, Netflix/Tudum, Paramount+, Peacock/NBC News Now, SiriusXM’s exclusive Life With John Mayer channel, SoundCloud, Veeps and YouTube will all be streaming the concerts.

Additionally, select AMC Theatre locations will host screenings of the event. Serving as the national audio partner, iHeartRadio will amplify the initiative and connect audiences nationwide via its hundreds of radio station and the iHeartRadio app.

Tickets to see the shows in person are on sale via Ticketmaster, starting at $99. All proceeds will go to benefit FireAid relief efforts, with all venue and ticketing service fees.

The FireAid benefit concert is being produced by Shelli, Irving and the Azoff family, in conjunction with Live Nation and AEG Presents. Joel Gallen of Tenth Planet is the executive producer and Rick Krim is the FireAid talent producer.

Billy Corgan and Bill Burr found themselves at the center of an unexpected family mystery during their recent appearance on Howie Mandel Does Stuff.

The Smashing Pumpkins frontman and the comedian were sprung with a surprise meeting organised by Mendel, during which the pair discussed their uncanny resemblance, along with the suggestion they might share a father.

The saga began back in November when Corgan appeared on the podcast and a mix-up by Mandel’s production team displayed a photo of Burr during his segment. This prompted Corgan to share a bizarre anecdote involving his stepmother, who had once suggested Burr might be one of his father’s illegitimate children.

“About 10 years ago, one of my brothers was having a birthday party, and my stepmother was there, who was obviously married to my father. And my stepmother said to me, ‘Do you know who Bill Burr is?,’” Corgan recalled at the time. “Now at that point, I had never heard of Bill Burr; I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know he was a comedian or anything. He could have been the guy down the street.”

He continued, “She said, ‘Well, he’s this comedian.’ And I think I even somehow called up a picture on the phone, and I kind of noticed right away, ‘Gee, he kind of looks like my father.’ Bill Burr looks more like my father than Bill Burr looks like me or I look like Bill Burr. So I said to my mother, ‘Why are you asking me this?’”

“She goes, ‘I think it might be one of your father’s illegitimate children. Bill Burr might be one of the children that your father sired in his days being a traveling musician,’” he said.

Fast-forward to January, when Mandel orchestrated a surprise reunion between Corgan and Burr, bringing them together for the first time. Burr greeted the rocker with a casual “What’s up?” before turning to Mandel with mock irritation, quipping, “You’re an a——.” The conversation quickly turned into comedic gold as the two riffed on their supposed familial connection.

“Did you ever think the fact that I never told that story, that maybe you shouldn’t?” Burr joked to Corgan. “It’s not that I don’t like [Corgan], it reminds me of all of that s—.”

Corgan joined in, dismissing the idea that their resemblance could mean they’re related. “The fact that he said he can’t sing, I think, disproves that we’re related, ’cause I’m not funny,” he remarked. “So… it goes both ways.” At one point, Mandel even suggested that Burr should join the Smashing Pumpkins as a drummer.

Burr then asked Mandel, “What was supposed to happen? Are we gonna go play catch? We’re both in our fifties.”

While the attempted family reunion may not have been successful, Corgan’s career with the Smashing Pumpkins continues to thrive, with the band’s legacy cemented by hits like “1979,” which peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” which reached No. 22. Their double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, earning critical acclaim and commercial success as one of the defining records of the 1990s.The album has since achieved Diamond certification, selling over 10 million copies worldwide.

In 2024, The Smashing Pumpkins released their 13th studio album, Aghori Mhori Mei, which saw a return to their early 90s sound with original members Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and James Iha.

Icelandic musician Björk has offered a rather fresh take on the global state of affairs, admitting she’s feeling surprisingly optimistic about the future of the planet.

Björk made her comments in a new interview with Paper, where she spoke at length about her Cornucopia concert tour, which ran from 2019 – 2023. Not named for a specific album but thematically associated with 2017’s Utopia, the tour itself was a large-scale theatrical production which was described as her most ambitious to date.

Alongside elements of science fiction, the live show’s narrative was heavily focused around environmental concerns, with Björk ultimately asking the audience to think of contemporary issues affecting the world – such as the Paris Climate Accord (which newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump removed the U.S from once again).

“If we think of whatever climate accord we’re trying to reach as completely unreachable, then we’ll never be able to meet these goals,” Björk explained. “The only way to do it is to imagine a future and then step into it. We have to write climate accords that we can reach. We have to keep tweaking it until we get it right. And I’m hoping the next generation, when they take over, they’ll think about it in a different way and come up with different solutions, green ways of living.”

As she continued, Björk discussed her own experiences with activism, noting how her 2007 track “Declare Independence” was her first foray into blending art and activism – a concept she previously found laughable but eventually grew to embrace. Despite the doom and gloom going on in the world, however, she explained that she’s feeling “very excited about 2025”.

“There have always been apocalypses. We had Noah and the flood, we’ve had plagues,” she explained. “There’s always been this narrative, and now I think it’s about being active and being part of the solution. And also to have the courage to imagine a future and be in it, to be it. To inspire your work locally in your community or however you think you can make a difference. It is important.

“I do find it hard to watch some of these post-apocalyptic shows or films,” she adds. “It’s like you’ve just given up — the nihilism, the self-pity, it’s like it’s cool to give up. [Laughs] I don’t think it’s cool to give up. So it’s about figuring out how we can keep humanity and soul in the future worlds we’re building, where nature and technology can collaborate. But I think it is possible. I think with imagination, biology can take it, biology will be fine. Biology always wins.”

In September 2024, Björk previewed her Cornucopia concert film as part of Climate Week, with the film – which showcases a live performance of her tour, filmed in Lisbon, Portugal – arriving on Apple TV on Friday (Jan. 24).

Chris Brown has filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. Discovery, alleging the media giant defamed him with a 2024 documentary claiming that the R&B star had a long history of sexually abusing women.

Filed Tuesday (Jan. 21) in Los Angeles Superior Court, the complaint accuses Warner Bros. Discovery and Ample Entertainment, the production company behind Chris Brown: A History of Violence, of “promoting and publishing false information in their pursuit of likes, clicks, downloads and dollars and to the detriment” of the R&B star — all while “knowing that it was full of lies and deception and violating basic journalistic principles.”

“They did so after being provided proof that their information was false, and their storytelling ‘Jane Doe’ had not only been discredited over and over but was in fact a perpetrator of intimate partners violence and aggressor herself,” reads the lawsuit, which was filed by attorneys Arnold Shokouchi and Levi McCathern. “Mr. Brown has never been found guilty of any sex related crime…but this documentary states in every available fashion that he is a serial rapist and sexual abuser.”

The Jane Doe who made sexual assault accusations against Brown in the documentary — whom he identifies in the lawsuit — is also named as a defendant in the complaint, which alleges the woman “completely disregarded the facts in an attempt for fame and fortune — all at the cost of Chris Brown and the reputation he has worked diligently in redeeming over the last decade.”

The “sensationalized, unfounded, and defamatory allegations” in the documentary “have been discredited, dismissed by the courts, or outright fabricated,” Brown’s lawyers write. The lawsuit further alleges that the Jane Doe filed a “frivolous civil lawsuit” against Brown in January 2022 in which she accused him of sexual assault and battery — but that her claims “were determined to be entirely fabricated, leading to the withdrawal of her attorneys and dismissal of the case” that same August “after a Miami Beach Police detective uncovered text messages…that exposed her dishonesty.” It adds that while an investigative report published by Rolling Stone in March 2022 “further discredited her claims,” the ID documentary nonetheless portrayed her “as credible, ignoring her established lack of veracity.”

Later in the complaint, Brown’s attorneys break down the Jane Doe’s alleged “history of violence and erratic behavior [that] should have raised red flags for any responsible journalist.” The suit includes a copy of an alleged restraining order filed against Doe by an ex-boyfriend in 2021 “after she physically assaulted him, threatened him with a knife, and engaged in online harassment.”

“These incidents, detailed in court records and leading to her arrest by the Los Angeles Police Department, were disregarded by the Defendants, who instead framed her as a reliable source to bolster their sensationalized portrayal instead of the physical aggressor in a romantic relationship,” the complaint reads.

Key to the lawsuit is the accusation that the companies behind the documentary moved forward with its release even though they allegedly knew it “contained false claims and violated journalist professional standards” — claims Brown’s lawyers now say “caused significant harm to Mr. Brown’s reputation, career, and business opportunities.”

Several individuals who appeared as talking heads in the documentary are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Brown is asking for $500 million in damages, “a portion of which will be donated to survivors of sexual abuse.”

Warner Bros. Discovery and Ample Entertainment did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s requests for comment.