Leon Thomas‘ 2024 breakout hit “Mutt” is adding a big dog to the remix: Chris Brown.

The fast-rising R&B star officially announced the remix Monday (March 17) on Instagram, writing, “R&B Olympics, this Friday,” while tagging Brown’s account. Thomas debuted the remix while performing at The Garden in Dallas over the weekend.

“Mutt” is the lead single from Thomas’ critically acclaimed sophomore album of the same name that was released in September via Ty Dolla $ign‘s EZMNY Records and Motown. The song has reached No. 19 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking his career-first entry on the all-genre songs tally as a recording artist. Thomas added Freddie Gibbs to a remix of “Mutt” in August. “I loved seeing how Lizzo kept promoting her hits and didn’t stop believing in them,” he told Billboard in his March Chartbreaker interview.

The “Mutt” remix won’t mark the first time Thomas and Brown have worked on a song together: Thomas co-wrote the TLC-sampling “Something New” by Zendaya featuring Brown in 2016. And as part of the production duo The Rascals, with Grammy-winning hitmaker and Arista Records executive Khris Riddick-Tynes, he co-produced “Emerald / Burgundy,” featuring Juvenile and Juicy J, from Brown’s 2019 Billboard 200-topping album Indigo. Fun fact: Babyface earned writing and producing credits on “Something New,” and six years later, Babyface and Thomas worked on SZA‘s Grammy-winning ballad “Snooze” together.

ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard will be absent from the group’s upcoming tour plans, citing a “health issue” as the reason for his newly-announced leave of absence.

The Texas trio announced the news on Saturday (March 15), explaining that Beard would be absent from the group’s current Elevation tour due to the need to undergo an unspecified health procedure.

“Shelter Music Group, ZZ Top’s management, has announced the band’s drummer, Mr. Frank Beard, has temporarily stepped away from the current tour to attend a health issue requiring his focus in the near term,” a social media post from the band read.

“Beard, along with fellow ZZ Top members Billy F Gibbons and Elwood Francis, presently on the Elevation tour since March 5, have engaged fellow Texan and longtime tech member, percussionist and drummer, John Douglas, for the interim.”

The post noted that Douglas has “maintained a close relationship with Beard and the bandmates,” and had even sat in for Beard during a Paris performance in October 2002 when he underwent an emergency appendectomy.

“He is looking forward to a speedy recovery,” the post concluded.

ZZ Top launched their Elevation tour in October 2024, and toured throughout the U.S. until November. The trek resumed on March 5, and will see the group performing across the country until April, when they visit Australia and New Zealand. Further North American dates will be held upon their return, though it’s currently unknown when Beard will resume his place behind the kit.

Beard has been the drummer of ZZ Top since 1969, when he took over from co-founder Dan Mitchell. Alongside vocalist and guitarist Billy Gibbons, Mitchell and bassist Lanier Greig had founded the band that same year. 

Following Grieg’s replacement by Billy Ethridge, Dusty Hill assumed the role of bassist in 1970, with their lineup remaining unchanged for 51 years until Hill’s death at 72 in 2021. Elwood Francis has since served as the group’s bassist.

The group have not released a studio album since 2012’s La Futura, though Gibbons has claimed a new record featuring contributions from the late Hill is in the works.

Taking inspiration from The Cure’s Robert Smith, Neil Young has informed fans that he will no longer be offering ‘Platinum’ tickets to his upcoming shows.

Young’s change in ticketing attitudes follows on from an interview Smith conducted with The Times in October 2024. The interview occurred just weeks after Oasis had put the controversial topic of dynamic ticket pricing into the headlines, and Smith had attempted to keep tickets as low as possible – often as low as $20 – for their U.S. tour dates.

“I was shocked by how much profit is made [by ticketing],” Smith said. “I thought, ‘We don’t need to make all this money.’ My fights with the label have all been about how we can price things lower. The only reason you’d charge more for a gig is if you were worried that it was the last time you would be able to sell a T-shirt.”

“It was easy to set ticket prices, but you need to be pig-headed,” he added. “We didn’t allow dynamic pricing because it’s a scam that would disappear if every artist said, ‘I don’t want that!’ But most artists hide behind management. ‘Oh, we didn’t know,’ they say. They all know. If they say they do not, they’re either f–king stupid or lying. It’s just driven by greed.”

Now, Young has taken to his own Neil Young Archives website to point to Smith’s 2024 comments, explaining how the conversation inspired him to make his own changes in terms of ticketing to his shows.

“It’s the story of the bad thing that has happened to concerts world-wide. It’s this story that really helped me to realize that I have a choice to make and can make a difference for my music loving friends,” Young explained. “My management and agent have always tried to cover my back on the road, getting me the best deals they could.

“They have tried to protect me and my fans from the scalpers who buy the best tickets and resell them at huge increases for their own profits. Ticketmaster’s High priced Platinum tickets were introduced to the areas where scalpers were buying the most tickets for resale. The money went to me. That did not feel right.”

As Young concluded, he alerted his fans to the fact that ‘Platinum’ tickets will no longer be available for his upcoming performances in the near future.

“I have decided to let the people work this out,” Young added. “Buy aggressively when the tickets come out or tickets will cost a lot more in a secondary market.”

Young’s upcoming tour will see him accompanied on all shows by the Chrome Hearts band, featuring his longtime collaborator keyboardist/organist Spooner Oldham, as well as Promise of the Real members Micah Nelson (guitar/vocals), Corey McCormick (bass) and Anthony LoGerfo (drums). The group released the grungy anthem “Big Change” in January. Young debuted the Chrome Hearts band last year and has said an album from the group is tentatively slated for release in April.

LE SSERAFIM‘s HOT tops this week’s new music poll.

Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (March 14) on Billboard, choosing the South Korean pop group’s fresh EP as their favorite new music release of the past week.

This week’s poll was brimming with competition, but the latest from LE SSERAFIM had supporters swooping in with 86% of the vote. Voters this week chose HOT over new music releases from an impressive pool of music talent — with artists in the mix including Chappell Roan, Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco, Playboi Carti, Haim, Sleep Token, Lil Nas X, Lizzo, Peso Pluma and Charley Crockett.

HOT is LE SSERAFIM’s fifth mini album, the follow-up to last year’s CRAZY, which reached No. 7 on the Billboard 200, their highest spot on the all-genre albums chart to date.

The girl group’s HOT set — featuring five songs: title track “Hot,” plus “Born Fire,” “Come Over,” “Ash” and “So Cynical (Badum)” — dropped on March 14, along with an official music video for “Hot” (seen above). Fans first got a teaser about the project from singers Kim Chaewon, Sakura, Huh Yunjin, Kazuha and Hong Eunchae in February.

In April, they’ll head out on the Easy Crazy Hot Tour in support of their recent EPs, with concert dates currently scheduled in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, the Phillippines, Thailand and Singapore.

Among the new music trailing behind HOT on the poll this week are Chappell Roan’s new single, “The Giver,” with 4% of the vote; Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco’s latest track, “Sunset Blvd,” with 2% of the vote, and Playboi Carti’s Music album, also with 2% of the vote.

See the final results of this week’s poll below.