We've seen Zara Larsson do a lot, but we've never seen the Pop star get "ugly like this," as she lets it rip on her new single, "Pretty Ugly."

Zara is back in the building with us at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk about the new song, and her upcoming spot on Tate McRae's Miss Possessive Tour later this year during an all new Audacy Check In with host Mike Adam.

Larsson blasted back on to the scene last week with "Pretty Ugly," and she's having fun with the muddy video and mischievous marketing. "It was just me wanting to be a little, I don't know if silly is the right word, but I'm not a very serious person," Zara shares. "I think this song has an element of fun to it. And, I spend a lot of time online. I am just a part of the internet culture. I love what happened to 'Symphony.' I just I have a lot of screen time. So, we did a Coachella billboard, which was like a bit cheeky and fun. Just the imagery of fun and not taking myself too serious. I feel like it's the vibe."

The fun of "Pretty Ugly" is a preview of Larsson's upcoming project, but according to the singer it only tells part of the story. "I feel like I have so much to say and I have a lot of personality that has been hard to repackage into a song, but with this making of this album, I just was hanging out with a small group of people, And they really get me."

"So it's like hanging out with friends. It's fun, it's upbeat, it's exciting... but then there's also the side of me that's vulnerable, sometimes scared of things, has a lot of ambition, feeling like I'm working hard but I'm being let down, or feel like, stuff that I really don't really talk about openly."

It all adds up to a new chapter for Zara, one that she can't wait to take on the road with Tate McRae. "It will be a lot of energy and a lot more dancing, hopefully."

"She worked so hard," she says of her upcoming tourmate, Tate McRae. "And I'm really excited to get to know her, get to see her show every night because she's so young... [but] like she's giving me mature."

"I'm also really loving that she seemed to really find her own thing, and I love that she has incorporated more dancing because I feel like she didn't really do that before, at least not like live, and no one can do it like her."

To hear much more from Zara Larsson, check out the full Audacy Check In above.

Sammy Hagar is getting by with some help from his friends, both on stage and in his dreams. The Red Rocker joins us for an Audacy Check In to talk about his new song, "Encore, Thank You, Goodnight." which he says was inspired by a dream about Eddie Van Halen.

"When I woke up from this dream with Eddie, we were in the middle of writing a song and I was singing this melody, so it was so fresh," Sammy shares with Audacy's Remy Maxwell. "And I'm going, 'man!' I woke up, I sang that into my iPhone. My wife's sitting there pulling covers over her head. I got my guitar out, I got my notepad. [It's] one of them things where nobody wants to hear about dreams. You wake up and say, 'honey, I had this weird dream.' You dream and you start trying to tell her, she goes, 'I don't wanna hear about your dream right now. It's too f***ing crazy. It doesn't make any sense.' I'm going, 'yeah, I know.' So nobody wants to hear about your dreams. So I was reluctant."

Hagar finally found the nerve and said, "f*** it, I'm gonna play this for Joe."

Guitarist Joe Satriani and Hagar had just toured together, playing Van Halen classics across 34 cities. "He studied Eddie inside and out, he said, 'hey, I got this, man.'"

Performing with VH alum Michael Anthony, Satriani, and legendary drummer Kenny Aronoff, Hagar is newly signed to Big Machine Rock and ready to reveal the track to fans. "It's just such a heartfelt thing from me to him," admits Sammy. "I just wrote exactly what I dreamt and exactly what I felt and, that's so personal. It's one of the most personal songs I've ever written in my life.”

"I'm humbled by this band and being in Van Halen, I wasn't humbled at that time, you know, I was a platinum solo artist selling out arenas all over the world. So I wasn't as humbled joining Van Halen as I, looking back, as I could have been. But now I'm humbled by it because Eddie Van Halen's one of the greatest rock musicians that ever lived," says Sammy. "I'm more impressed with this guy every day in my life, and I will always be inspired by his musical abilities and his musical uniqueness."

"I tell you, the better I get and the more knowledge I get at my craft, I always go back to Eddie and go, 'wow.' He was already there. Every time I come to a new conclusion, a new height, I go, 'oh wow, Eddie knew this,' and it's amazing how great that guy. and unique that guy really was."

To hear much more from Sammy Hagar on his upcoming Stagecoach performance and Vegas residency, check out the full Audacy Check In above.

Halestorm has shared the first preview of their upcoming, sixth studio album with the big and bold single, "Darkness Always Wins," and frontwoman Lzzy Hale is here to talk about the making of the band's next chapter, and more.

During an Audacy Check In with Abe Kanan, the "Back From The Dead" singer details the recording process of the new LP, which serves as a return to the roots of the Pennsylvania band. "This whole album, it's kind of like this long road back to the beginning almost," Hale reveals. "When we were recording it with Dave Cobb in Savannah, Georgia, it felt like we were back in my parents basement. We were in this house, unsupervised, just the four of us with all the equipment we could ever want, everything ready to go, no distractions, no girlfriends, no wives, no friends."

"We'd wake up in this house like around 11AM every day, and just start on whatever got us excited, and then Dave Cobb would kind of come in around 1PM and like throw a wrench in the works somewhere. Like, 'oh I love that, let's go there,' you know? His ADHD works very well with our ADHD, so that worked out."

The lead look at the album, "Darkness Always Wins," was the first song the band wrote in Cobb's studio, and kicked off the process of recording from scratch with the producer. "We were setting up the computer so we can show him some songs, and he's like, 'oh no we're not doing any of that.'"

Rather than sifting through previously recorded riffs and stems, Halestorm wrote the song from the ground up. "So we're getting all of these takes of the inception of the song," Lzzy shares. "Usually when we do a Halestorm record, we write the songs and everybody decides on what their favorite songs are, and then we go in the studio for a month and bang it out. This was the complete opposite. We're like, 'we don't have a plan, we don't know what we want to write about,' so we were just kind of letting the music tell us what to do, versus the other way around."

You can hear much more from Lzzy Hale of Halestorm on the band's upcoming tour plans, excitement to play at Black Sabbath's final show, her Instagram rebirth, and more above.

Everything is coming up Ne-Yo. Between stops on the 'For My Fans Tour' with Mary J. Blige, the GRAMMY winner joined Shelley Wade in the Audacy Sound Space at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to discuss touring with a fellow R&B icon, all that relationships talk, a few key career moments, and so much more.

"I am fantastic. I'm better than fantastic. I'm in a great, great space," he shares. "Things are going great in my career. Things are going great in my love life. My kids are healthy and smart, and bad as hell, but healthy and smart. Two out of three ain't bad. Yeah man things are good."

Of course in addition to being a constant force across the music landscape for the past 20 years, Ne-Yo has also become a hot topic thanks to his love life and his “pyramid” of girlfriends. Which is fine for Ne-Yo, as long as they stay for the music.

"I don't even so much mind anymore what gets you in the room. It's what keeps you in the room,” he explains. “You know if my personal life is what made you Google my name, and then you Google my name and then you get the music, that's fine. I don't even care. As long as you get to the important part."

Currently a part of the 'For My Fans Tour' with Mary J. Blige and Mario, Ne-Yo says it's like being with family. "Mary has always been just one of those real, like grassroots true-to-life people, you know. Mind you she has all of the makings of a diva, you know what I mean," he jokes. "Like you know if she walked in here and she had women throwing roses at her feet as she walked it'd be completely valid. It's like, 'all right well I mean it's Mary that's fine, it's Mary of course,' but she's also the kind of person that's gonna ask if you ate today, will get up and get you a glass of water if you need one, like she's just real people and she genuinely cares about people."

"Mario, same situation," adds Ne-Yo. "Dare I say, we damn started our careers together, because writing that song for him is kind of what got me the attention that got me my Def Jam deal, and then of course that song being one of his biggest kind of catapulted him to where he wound up."

"Just being able to share the stage with people that you genuinely respect, it's a beautiful thing."

To hear much more from Ne-Yo, listen to his full Audacy Check In above.

Who wanna rock like JENNIE? Everyone! But have you ever met? Actually, yes. She's got 'em obsessed with her new album, 'Ruby,' and she joins Bru at our studios in Los Angeles to talk about it all.

On her way to Coachella for a solo debut, JENNIE is riding high on the success of "Like JENNIE," something she did not see coming. "I was just saying, even today, I was like, 'wow, I'm just so amazed at how the song is doing and how everyone's reacting to the song,'" she shares. "It's definitely not what I expected."

With 'Ruby' being an eclectic introduction to the solo status of the BLACKPINK star, JENNIE admits she even surprised herself along the way. "I didn't realize how many genres and different type of sounds that I wanted to tap into before I worked on this album," the "Love Hangover" singer reveals. "I'm finding myself really as I'm going and learning how to rap for the first time almost, how to sing for the first time."

"In a good way, I've never been able to really focus only on myself. I've always had the girls with me, you know? I've always had other things happening around me, but for this album, I got to really sit down and explore different voices and sounds and it was great! I'm going to look into it and find out more about who and what kind of sound that I want to like, hold on to."

JENNIE also touched on her collaborations during the making of 'Ruby,' especially with Dua Lipa. "She's a caring person in general, and we we used to like do dinners, and we would meet at parties, and every time she's always making sure if I'm good and happy and healthy," smiles JENNIE. "So she's someone that's always made sure that I feel, you know, I'm feeling good. So to have her work on a song on this album. It's like having a great friend at work with you, like what more can I ask for?"

"She's supportive and she's obviously giving, sharing her beautiful voice with me on this album, like I'm just so happy, and it was a great day when we had the shoot. It felt like we were just out in New York in the cold wearing crazy outfits just jamming to a song."

Just days away from her Coachella set, JENNIE talked about the "pure joy and excitement" for the event, gave some advice on festival attire, and also shared a motto she tries to live by. Hear it all above during JENNIE's Audacy Check In.

Because we "wanna be the first one on your mind when you wake up," we're premiering a special Audacy Check In with Selena Gomez. The multihyphenate queen joined us in the Audacy Sound Space at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk about her new album, 'I Said I Love You First,' with benny blanco, her collaboration with Gracie Abrams, and a sweet moment with her Only Murders in the Building co-star, Meryl Streep.

After hearing from benny last month, and finally feeling the full weight of their collaboration powers with the album's release, it's time to dive into the meaning and the making of 'I Said I Love You First.'

"I was in the studio for maybe five or six years, and I could not figure out what my 'sound,' if you will, was. I just didn't, I was frustrated," shares Selena. "I felt stuck. And then Benny had this idea of, you know, maybe doing something together. So we actually started with 'Younger and Hotter,' and that song was just really special and so beautiful. And FINNEAS, obviously is a genius. And I was like, we could do more. And that's when it all happened, and it was the quickest album I've ever put together."

The album was a true collaboration between the real life couple according to Selena. "The greatest thing was Benny understood," reveals Gomez. "If I just didn't care for it, it wasn't even a second thought. He was like, 'great, that's not what fits for you. That's not going to work then.' But in general, some of the music, I would try to kind of make my own interpretation. And it was really fun. And plus, being able to talk to him and write is so, it's just so easy."

Selena also talked about how Benny and her made the most of Gracie Abrams' one day in LA, opting for a more intimate music video for their hit, "Call Me When You Break Up." "The crazy part is she's in the middle of a tour, and she was in LA for one day. And we were like, 'well, there's no way we're going to shoot a music video.' Let's just be like cozy and make a video and call it the video. So she's so laid back and lovely. It was fun."

We couldn't let Selena leave without talking about Only Murders in the Building, working with Hollywood royalty like Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Meryl Streep. "She actually wrote me a full letter after the first season she had done with us," Gomez remembers of her Oscar-winning co-star. "It was all encouraging. And it was more so that she noticed the little things and the little things like, please and thank you and these tiny things. And it just is so thoughtful and beautiful. Like she is just a rare creature. She is incredible."

Mumford & Sons' new album, 'RUSHMERE,' has officially landed and we're celebrating with a special Audacy Check In with the band in the Audacy Sound Space in the Hard Rock Hotel New York.

Marcus Mumford, Ted Dwane, and Ben Lovett sat with Audacy's Brad Steiner to unpack their first new offering in 7 years, and talk about the making of 'RUSHMERE,' an album they say would only be created for the right reasons.

"We had this moment in Los Angeles, in January '23, where we said, 'let's meet up and let's put instruments in our hands together in a room with no one else around for the first time in quite a while, and if the songs come easy, then let's do this.' And if they don't we'll maybe keep trying and but there's no like, let's not do this because we have to do it because we're in a big band and people know our name and just show up to work and kind of go through the motions. Let's only do this if it feels like something we can be passionate about because we only really are very good when we really believe in the music we're putting out," shares Marcus. "We wrote five songs in a week."

To hear much more from Mumford & Sons on the creation of 'RUSHMERE,' their pop-up shows, and even advice from Elton John, enjoy the full Audacy Check In with the band above.

Time flies when you're Chevelle, who are celebrating their 30th year as a band with new music, and upcoming tour, and more surprises along the way. Brothers Pete Loeffler and Sam Loeffler recently checked in with Audacy's Abe Kanan to preview what's to come in 2025 and look back on their Chicago beginnings.

On Tuesday, Chevelle shared plans for a headlining tour across the country, taking along Asking Alexandria and Dead Poet Society for the trek. In doing so, they also alerted fans, "Who is ready for new music? Want to hear it live? We will hit the road again this summer to kick off our ALBUM TOUR." The latest chapter for Chevelle begins with "Rabbit Hole (Cowards, Pt. 1)," a blistering new song destine to be a part of their incoming album this summer.

"They talk about a certain topic, but they don't sound the same," Pete says of part 1 of "Cowards" and the yet-to-be-revealed part 2. The band is hopeful that the album will arrive in August before the kickoff of their tour.

"They're pretty particular about having every single part of everything finished before they give you a release date, like all the artwork has to be finished and things like that. So, but the tour starts August 7 in San Antonio," shares Sam. "It would be nice if the record was out when the tour starts, right?"

All of this coincides with Chevelle being together for 30 years (by our count), technically longer for the brothers at the center of it all. "Sam and I started this band when we were in our teens. So, it's just 30 years is like, yeah, it's just always been us," remarks Pete. "We're brothers, we talk every day, our families hang out, we do a lot of stuff together, we go on tour together. It just works. It works until it doesn't, right Sam?"

"I think that we've gone through so many chapters in life already that we will never gets to that 'can't patch it up.' [stage]"

As Chevelle endures through a brotherly bond, the two have a message to share with fans as they enter another era. "I would say about this new music, that we've worked really hard on it, and I think it's some of the best stuff we've ever done, honestly."