As Five Finger Death Punch prepares to celebrate their 20th anniversary with new music and an extensive tour, guitarist Zoltan Bathory joins us once again for an Audacy Check In to share all the details.

Earlier this week in announcing their 2026-2027 World Tour, the band also shared that they are helping support the U.S. Olympic Team with a portion of ticket proceeds, and that they are hard at work on their 10th studio album.

"We have about 25-ish songs that [are] eventually gonna get chopped down to the ones that are gonna make it, but that's where we are," Zoltan says of the band's upcoming album. "Maybe 2, 3 of them have vocals on it already to some degree, so, you know, we're working on it."

"We're going to the proper studio, probably sometime in February."

After discussing the complexities of touring with a major Rock band like Five Finger Death Punch, Bathory admitted that he'd still never trade it because of the power of a Rock show. "There's something about a Rock show, you know, a real Rock show, a Metal show, there's nothing like it, it's a different vibe."

"It's never gonna go away," he adds. "This is something that you can't, you know, AI can't fake it, you can't download it, the experience of being there, it's unrepeatable in any other way."

"That's always been a goal, build more and more because you wanna create an experience, you wanna create an environment that's sort of immersive, because when you are at the show, it's like you're going to a theme park, you don't want to think of anything else, right? This is your moment where you can have this tribal experience and the noise of life goes away."

For more on the 20th anniversary of the band and their upcoming tour, don't miss our full Audacy Check In with Zoltan Bathory of Five Finger Death Punch above.

To celebrate the release of their latest single, "Searchlight," Shinedown joins us for a special Audacy LIVE, as the band talks with Rob + Holly about the making of the track, and performs the song exclusively inside our Audacy Sound Space.

"The song just kind of came to us. It didn't take long to write, and when it came to, it just lent itself to that kind of thing," shares Zach Myers. "We're never like, 'this is the only chart we haven't been on. Let's go to this chart,' because then the next one we'd have to make like an R&B record. We've been on 5 so far."

"That's one thing I respect so much about the Country world is, a good song is a good song is a good song, and that's all we care about. Whatever the song lends itself to is what we want it to be, we're never gonna try to force something."

"The whole reason that we've been able to be able to be authentic and honest is because radio has allowed us to do that, our fan base has allowed us to do that." reveals Brent Smith. "You have to have something to say, and for 'Searchlight,' when we were in there, the initial first run of the song, it was a different song, and then I sat with it for a few days, went back into the studio with everybody, and said, 'let me re-sing this.'"

"I just heard it differently than what had been presented in the demo," adds Brent. "And, you know, me and Zach were born and raised in Tennessee. He's 901, I'm 865, so Memphis and Knoxville. We were raised on Country music. We were raised on a lot of different music, but for the song, I just went in and said, 'let me do this and just hear me out.'"

"We added a banjo because it asked for a banjo. We added a steel guitar and a slide because it asked for that, and it had more of an endearing quality because I sang it with a bit more of a draw. We have some people that listen to it that are in Country music that are like, 'this is very Country,' and then we have some people who are like, 'I don't know if it's Country,' and that's fine because at the end of the day we had to be honest with the song. We're a vessel for these songs. We have to be very open and allow the universe to talk to us."

For more from Shinedown on their relationships with Carrie Underwood and Jelly Roll, and stories behind other hits like "Second Chance," don't miss the band's full conversation with Rob + Holly and a special performance of "Searchlight" above.

As big as 2025 was for YUNGBLUD, he's somehow already looking at a larger 2026. Fresh off the release of a collaboration EP with Rock icons Aerosmith, the "Zombie" singer has 3 GRAMMY nominations and a massive 2026 tour to look forward to as the calendar turns, but first, he joins us at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk about it all during an Audacy Check In.

"I'm really lucky to kind of have a couple of weeks to like try and comprehend it all," he shares with Brad Steiner on his massive year. "I think the biggest thing I'm feeling is gratitude. I think I'm really trying to make sure that I like feel everything because, I think if you don't stop and think about what goes on and you don't process it, you just end up becoming a dick."

"This year has just been so insane, so I think the biggest feeling I'm feeling is is utter gratitude and I really feel lucky, you know what I mean?"

YUNGBLUD admits he took some risks on his latest album, 'Idols,' and his authenticity paid off. "I think my 3rd album came out and I was listening to too many people. I think when you listen to too many people, you kind of create a character or you play a caricature of yourself," YUNGBLUD reveals. "I think with this album I really went home to the north of England and was like, 'I wanna make something that is completely limitless in terms of its imagination,' and leans on the side of like Rock opera, double album."

Praising previous albums for inspiration like The Smashing Pumpkins' 'Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness' or Guns N' Roses' 'Use Your Illusion,' YUNGBLUD wanted an album "that would kind of take you on an adventure, and in 2025 everyone thought I was a bit f***ing mad."

"I always wanna do it when it's truthful, if it's not truthful it's just soul destroying man, you know what I mean? I think that's what's been so beautiful about me and my community, we've always had, whether it be like starting a festival or gigs or how YUNGBLUD got built in the first place, it was always through an element of truth and always through an element of like, honest communication and when it wasn't becoming honest I was like, 'this is not what I did this for.'"

Now a more pure version of himself, YUNGBLUD looks ahead to 2026 for sold out shows and finishing the project that brought him here. "I really wanna release the second part of 'Idols,'" he shares and reveals it's been ready to go "forever."

"I really wanna finish the world, it's such a world that that if I don't put that out next, even though as an artist I'm writing a new album and I've almost like departed that in my soul because I wrote it, printed it to wax, and put it out - I've got to finish 'Idols 2,' and put that to the world because the world needs to feel that environment fully fleshed out."

To hear more from YUNGBLUD on working with Aerosmith and his plans for 2026, check out the full interview above.