After spending a year and a half writing and recording their upcoming album, The Pretty Reckless is ready to share the first sample, unveiling the new single, "For I Am Death," everywhere. Taylor Momsen joined Abe Kanan this week to unpack it all, and talk about the band's first new LP in 4 years during an Audacy Check In.

"To be honest, I want to know what it means to you," Momsen tells Abe after being asked about the story behind "For I Am Death," the band's first offering from the upcoming project.

"I think that to me that's what music is. I can sit here and tell you exactly where I was when I wrote it, and what I was thinking about and all of those things, but that doesn't actually give you the meaning of the song, that just can kind of help explain how I got there. The meaning of music, it transforms over time and honestly what it means to me isn't what it means anymore because it's out in the world. Once it's out in the world, it doesn't belong to me anymore, it belongs to you and to anyone who's listening to it."

The new album was recorded between tour stops with a little band called AC/DC, as The Pretty Reckless went around the world opening for the Rock icons on their 'Power Up Tour.' "The next 12 months of The Pretty Reckless world is gonna be insane," Taylor teases. "There's a lot coming. This is just the beginning."

For what it's worth, Momsen was warned about the tough crowds on tour with AC/DC, but gushes about the response they've gotten and the thrill of watching the band every night. "We've toured with a lot of people. I've seen a lot of bands in my lifetime, whether I've played with them or just gone to shows. I'm a music fan, and AC/DC is unlike anyone else," she raves. "They invented this and it's very clear. You're schooled by AC/DC every night as to what Rock and Roll is and why it is what it is, and it's because of them."

To hear more from Taylor Momsen about the what's next for The Pretty Reckless, their experience opening for the greatest bands of all time, and her message to the fans, check out the full Audacy Check In above.

It's been a year since Ravyn Lenae first gave us her album 'Bird's Eye,' and the world still can't get enough of the lead single, "Love Me Not." The rising songstress recently made her way to New York for an Audacy Check In inside the Rock Star Suite at the Hard Rock Hotel with Mike Adam.

As a strong contender for "song of the summer," Lenae's "Love Me Not" is now one of the 10 most popular songs in the country, and an ubiquitous fixture on socials with no sign of slowing down. It's helped turn fans on to her sophomore album, 'Bird's Eye,' Executive Produced by GRAMMY winner Dahi, and featuring collabs with Childish Gambino and Ty Dolla $ign.

"We all knew there was something magical about it," Lenae says of her breakout hit. However, her first listen wasn't love at first sight. "I think what's funny is when I first cut this song, I remember leaving the studio and being like, 'I don't like it,'" she admits. "Something with it isn't right, something is too different from what I've done in the past. It just wasn't right to me. And then I listened to it on the way to the studio a few weeks later in my car. That's usually my listening test when I'm driving to the studio, and that's when I was like, 'Oh, something is crazy about this.'"

"Dahi, the producer I worked on the song with, he called me and said, 'Oh, this is, we got one.'"

Ravyn jumped right into music from high school, immediately hitting the road. "Right out of high school is really where I started to do music, and I decided not to go to college, and started touring like almost at the end of high school into my late teens, early 20s." Now at 26 things are really hitting another stratosphere with tours booked with Sabrina Carpenter and Reneé Rapp, Lenae is still finding the balance to protect her mental health through the success.

"I think that's probably the biggest challenge for me, especially with the shift of rhythm, you know, from my normal day to day," she admits. "Making the music, that's easy, doing the shows, that's easy, but really finding that balance amongst mental health, personal time, physical health, family, friends, that's the thing I'm trying to juggle. I think it's making sure I carve out moments for myself, even if it's just my shower at the end of the night to really just think and thank God for the day, for the things I'm able to accomplish, and think about the next day."

To hear more from Ravyn Lenae about her career goals, favorite Chicago artists, and the emotional story behind her song, "One Wish," don't miss the full Audacy Check In above.

Matt Maeson has set his return with the new album, 'A Quiet and Harmless Living,' due out everywhere on September 12. The fearless singer/songwriter has offered up two previews of the project, and dug a little deeper with Brad Steiner during an Audacy Check In inside the Rock Star Suite at Hard Rock Hotel New York.

After being noted as "the most likeable man in music" by Brad, Maeson went on to explain how he's become more vulnerable thanks to his child. "I think the pressure fell off a bit once I had a kid because I was like, 'oh, this isn't the most important thing to me anymore,'" Matt explains. "For me, it just feels really inauthentic and kind of corny to lean into the, 'I'm the star' shtick, and I just grew further and further from that and now I physically cannot do stuff like that makes me look like something I'm not."

Always open in his music, Maeson continues and intensifies his hallmark on 'A Quiet and Harmless Living.' "There's a lot in there that's very vulnerable, very honest," he shares. "The song 'Everlasting' that I put out, it's a lot of really ugly thoughts but thoughts that I'm like, 'I need to say these out loud to process them,' and music is a great avenue for that. It's a lot of things that I think so many people think that [they] just don't talk about it because they're ugly thoughts. They're thoughts that like people, if you just say it to them, they're gonna be like, 'whoa, you're kind of a piece of s***,' but it's like thoughts that we all have that we need to vocalize and and process through together."

"The way that I write music is like, I have to, and the reason it takes me so long is because I have to kind of experience these things and then either process or heal these things and then I'm able to write about it, for the most part," Matt details. "By the time I usually put these songs out, a lot of the subjects are things that I've healed from, but even just acknowledging those issues is a part of that process of figuring it out."

After the healing, Maeson still feels a responsibility with his music, knowing there is always somewhere out there dealing with the same issues he might have faced years ago. "There's always somebody out there that's dealing with this thing right now and I'm singing that for them," he says. "The repetition of just playing the song, it's annoying. I will say, 'Hallucinogenics' I still love playing, which is surprising because I've played that thousands of times. 'Cringe,' I would love to never play that song again in my life... and I'm gonna do it again on this tour, plenty. I'm gonna look like I love it."

To hear more from Matt Maeson on his approach to social media and the impact his location has had on his music, listen to the full Audacy Check In above.

High above New York City on the terrace of the Rock Star Suite at Hard Rock Hotel, The Black Keys raised a glass with us to celebrate the release of their new album, 'No Rain, No Flowers.'

During a talk with Audacy's Brad Steiner, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney looked back on their band's beginnings, first flashing back to a performance at Bonnaroo in 2004. "That day, what we were thinking is 'how soon can we get out of here,' because we were playing Friday at like 3 in the afternoon," Carney remembers. "We left and we had like 10 weekend passes, we scalped them. And then we drove to Louisville and went to Godfathers 2, a strip club, and spent all the money."

"That was our early success story," laughs Dan. "We've always been known as great businessmen," he jokes. "Fact in an industry," punctuates Carney with a smile.

But what would the Dan and Patrick of today have said to the 2004 kids? "I don't know," admits Patrick. "We were up for the grind, and we still are."

Back then the band was "just kind of existing in a little void," says Carney, and he feels the same now after the release of their latest album, 'No Rain, No Flowers.' "Well, a lot of the magazines are gone. Social media is like a cesspool. I don't know. We're just out here trying to have fun, make music we like."

To hear more about the making of 'No Flowers, No Rain,' check out the full conversation above.

Rob Thomas returned earlier this month with a pair of new songs, and the promise of his 6th solo studio album arriving September 5. To celebrate his upcoming LP, 'All Night Days,' the singer sat down for an Audacy Check In with Karen Carson at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to unpack the new album, talk about the relationships that help his music to grow, and the mental health message of his lead single, "Hard To Be Happy."

Thomas announced his next chapter with the sunny and swaggering new track, "Hard To Be Happy," which shows sometimes it's okay to be anything but. "I think the idea of of mental health, which it's such a big blanket to say that, because it means something different to everyone else and everybody's struggles and everybody's ways of dealing with it is different," explains Thomas. "Some things that people are going through that are insurmountable and I think to just kind of chalk it down to 'you're going to be okay,' that falls flat. I think the idea that you can try and find moments of being okay in the storm, you can find little life rafts as you go along, and just being able to talk about it in a way that maybe you couldn't 15, 20 years ago, that in itself is a solace. The idea to be able to say 'it's okay to not be okay.' So a song like 'Hard To Be Happy' just acknowledges the fact that it's fine, there's nothing abnormal about the fact that you can't muster up the energy for a smile today."

Rob is once again making his family a part of his music. He tells us that his wife Marisol remains his muse after 27 years, but also this time around for his upcoming solo tour, he's bringing his son along as lead guitarist in his band.

"This is the 20th anniversary this year of my first solo record, and my solo band has pretty much been the same band that whole time," reveals Rob. "My guitar player in that band, when we were talking about doing this record, he had decided that he wanted to retire from playing live. He's been writing for people and producing, been really successful, and just doesn't want to tour anymore, and he was the first one that said, 'you know, I've been watching your son's Instagram. You should have him do it.'"

"I was like, I, 'he's good enough but I just don't think he wants to spend all summer hanging out with his dad,'" shares Thomas. "When I asked him last year, he was like, 'Dad, that's the most time we'll ever get to spend together. That's awesome.' It was really sweet, and he's killing it."

Since it remains "a hot one, like 7 inches from the midday sun," we couldn't help but check in on the friendship between Rob and his most famous collaborator, Carlos Santana.

"When we're on the road together, you know, touring at the same time, our wives laugh at us because we'll get off [stage], I'll get on the bus and he gets on his plane, we start texting each other like, 'how was the show?' We send each other pictures. He'll send me an article and I'll be like, 'are you bragging?' He's like, 'yeah, I'm bragging,'" laughs the "Smooth" singer. "It was kind of funny. It was something that neither one of us saw coming. I don't think either one of us really even knew what it was worth when we were doing it, but it's something that we're really proud of and really proud of all the ways that that song has kind of helped us and brought us together."

To hear more from Rob Thomas, check out the full Audacy Check In above.

After stepping away from the spotlight for 2 years, Lewis Capaldi is back with the emotional new single, "Survive," and back with us at the Hard Rock Hotel New York for an Audacy Check In.

Lewis stepped into a room full of fans earlier this month for a 'NEW Music Session' with New York's NEW 102.7, and sat down with Mike Adam to talk about his return, the meaning behind his new music, creating boundaries for his mental health, and more.

"Survive" is such a statement song to return with for Capaldi, after stepping away to protect his own mental health, but it wasn't his first time putting pen to paper during his hiatus. "No, it wouldn't have been the first song I wrote," he shares inside the Hard Rock Hotel. "I wasn't really writing for the sake of [coming back], I was just writing to write, and maybe I'd write for other people, because there was a point where this wasn't necessarily on the cards coming back."

"It came quite late, and in terms of the songs that will be coming out this year," Lewis continues, "it was definitely a catalyst for a lot of stuff, this song."

It's definitely different this time for Capaldi, who has taken several steps to protect his mental health in this new era. "I do a lot less, a lot less work," he admits, no longer trying to jam every opportunity into a trip. "In America before I would squeeze everything into any day I had free, and now I'm chilling a little bit more."

"I do therapy every week. I'm on medication for my Tourette's and stuff," Lewis reveals. "I'm just trying to be less, to have fun."

"I go outside more now. I didn't realize how much time I spent indoors looking at my phone, and trust me, I still look at that phone. I love looking at that phone," Capaldi explains. "I live near a big green space in London and I go there quite a lot and lie down and sort of fall asleep outside. Really enjoying falling asleep outside at the minute."

Another step the "Someone You Loved" singer has taken is to stop setting goals for himself, and to take it more moment by moment. "I'm trying not to set goals anymore," Lewis responses to a fan-asked question. "I'm not saying being goal oriented is a bad thing, but for me, I became quite obsessed with like hitting markers and doing this and I need to do this thing, and if I don't do this thing, this has been a failure, or if I don't do this thing, I've not worked hard enough. For me right now, the goal is just to get back, play some songs, have a good time, release music, have fun, and, yeah, I guess the goal is to just enjoy myself and be back here doing it. I kind of achieved the goal by being here."

To hear much more from Lewis Capaldi check out the full Audacy Check In above.

Earlier this year Miley Cyrus shared 'Something Beautiful' with the world, her new album that serves as a complete experience, a "purposeful" statement of love and devotion that she wants to share as an artist. After taking a much needed rest away, the "Easy Lover" singer is back continuing to spread the gospel of her epic new effort, joining us in our Los Angeles studios for an Audacy Check In with Bru.

"I really am very selective about what I choose to do and be a part of," admits Miley, who not only created her new album, 'Something Beautiful,' but also a "pop opera" visual album that is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. "Everything that I'm doing is honestly filled with a lot of meaning and joy, and I always think something has to either be really joyful, it has to be fun, it has to be something that I look forward to, or it has to be something that's meaningful that might be something that's, whether it's a full circle moment, something that's come to fruition from manifestation, so I kind of balance those."

Joyous as it may be, that amount of work might feel like a lot to some, but it's been advice from a few famous friends that Miley keeps in mind to make sure she is never out of the moment.

"Everything was meant to be individualized and kind of isolated just to make sure every song was really honored," she says of the visual album. "I didn't want to be thinking about the next one. Actually one time I was doing a show and me and Joan Jett were both playing the show and I was shooting a music video at the same time for another song. She said, 'you never do something like that because you're taking away from the audience by not being in the moment with the one song that you're in now,' and I always took that as something that I think goes for everything. So when I was making this movie, I kept thinking I don't want to think about the next song while I'm in with the song before it. I wanted to really honor each song for what it was meant to be and then get clever at the end of how we're going to connect everything."

"Another person that does that really genius is Pharrell," exclaims Miley. "One time I had a session with him and he was doing 10 things at the same day, but not at the same time."

"He said, 'you know, I could tell you looked like I wasn't gonna be able to focus on you, but whatever I'm doing in that moment is all that I'm doing.' So I may today have 10 things, my hands in 10 different pots, but I'm only cooking with 1 item at a time."

'Something Beautiful' follows the highly-praised 'Endless Summer Vacation' from Cyrus, which scored a nomination for 'Album of the Year' at the GRAMMY Awards and took home the trophy for 'Record of the Year.' "They're actually so uniquely different and I think that's because they're at such different kind of pivotal places in my life and can't have one without the other," Miley reveals. "'ESV' was totally a bridge to 'Something Beautiful,' but 'ESV' was kind of curated and created to be something that I could do, and almost have the whole project from at a distance because I needed that vacation so deeply and desperately that I wanted to still put out the album that I made, but I wasn't actually going to physically go out there, and as we spoke about today, kind of carry around this project."

"I had already known I wanted an ESV, but 'Flowers' really made it possible that it could carry the album around the world, so I didn't have to."

"With this one I'm invested in a more kind of personal way of actually going out and sitting at stations and pressing play and seeing the audience and doing shows, just kind of investing in what it takes to really convey the truth that was, this is totally a body of work that is just totally built on love and devotion, dedication and passion, and really it does feel like it's one of the more purposeful records that I've ever gotten to make."