May 23, 2013 – For Jerry Cantrell, talking about the past is beyond old. After all, when his band of a quarter century, Alice in Chains, finally released its fourth LP in 2009, journalists and fans alike seemed more interested in exhuming history than talking about new co-lead singer William DuVall, or the surprisingly energized sound of Black Gives Way to Blue. The gab, of course, was about Layne Staley, the band's former frontman who died in 2002, and the circuitous and painful path on which their early '90s Seattle ascendance placed the band."A lot of the external questions were put to rest on Black Gives Way to Blue," says Cantrell. "And with the few internal ones we had, we'd proven to ourselves that we'd done the right thing. We're really proud, first and foremost, of how we handled ourselves through everything. We didn't pull any punches. We answered every question.

April 4, 2011 – A little more than halfway through the first set of his 17-date Green Carpet Tour Friday night, Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa asked the capacity crowd of 5,500 at the Raleigh Amphitheater to hold up lighters and cell phones. This must have been the first victory for Bics in a decade: From the crowded front rows back to the appropriately green lawn, a few thousand flames flickered in the chilly early April air, outnumbering the cell phones by a ratio of ten to one. After all, you can't smoke 'em if you can't burn 'em, and Friday night, everyone came hoping to be high as the stage lights. "How many of y'all woke up and got high tonight because you knew I was coming?" Khalifa said early into the show, a sentiment he echoed throughout the night with a dozen variations.

July 30, 2010 – Paramore and Tegan and Sara are touring together all summer, sharing more than 30 stages across America and spending lots of time hanging out backstage. But what, exactly, do Hayley Williams, the flame-haired singer for the Tennessee pop-punk band, and Canadian twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin talk about? What else: Romantic relationships, the hardships of being a girl in the music biz, and... Barbie Dolls. Before last week's opening date of the Honda Civic Tour in Raleigh, NC, (read SPIN's concert review here) the three huddled together to chat with SPIN.com about their lives. Williams carried a present from a fan: a SpongeBob SquarePants Barbie Doll still in its package. It's not her first. "I have only like 20 right now," said Williams.

July 26, 2010 – During the second song of Paramore's summer tour kick-off show in Raleigh, NC, Friday night, feisty frontwoman Hayley Williams leapt up on a monitor, red hair flying, and sang, "Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure?" In unison, the sold-out, 5,000-plus Raleigh Amphitheater crowd answered the lyric as if locked on repeat: "We were born for this!" The song, "Born for This," is a fitting description for the Franklin, TN, pop-punk group who have ascended from the Warped Tour stage to become one of the country's biggest musical draws. Friday's show marked their debut as headliners for the two-month Honda Civic Tour, with opening acts Tegan and Sara, New Found Glory, and Kadawatha.