A Tennessee judge granted the request for a temporary restraining order against Bryan Seaver on Wednesday ahead of an Oct. 7 hearing

Dolly Parton performs at Glastonbury Festival on June 29, 2014.

A day after Dolly Parton’s trust accused her nephew of interfering with its business relationships through “threats, intimidation and coercion,” a Tennessee judge granted the estate a temporary restraining order against him, citing a series of emails and other communications that allegedly paired “threats with demands for payment.”

In an order issued Wednesday and obtained by Rolling Stone, Chancellor I’Ashea L. Myles of Nashville Chancery Court directed Parton’s nephew, Bryan Seaver, to stay at least 1,000 feet from estate employees and business partners, remain off private property owned by the estate, and refrain from disruptive or harassing conduct.

Attempts to reach Seaver for comment were not immediately successful Wednesday. He is the relative who announced Parton’s death in a prerecorded video posted to her Instagram account that drew millions of reactions. According to court filings, Seaver previously worked for private military contractors and later provided security for Parton and her properties through his company, Squadron Augmented Protection Services, which is also subject to the temporary restraining order.

The judge’s order issued Wednesday cites several written communications filed as exhibits with the estate’s complaint on Tuesday. In multiple messages excerpted in the ruling, Seaver allegedly threatened Danny Nozell, the sole manager of She’s Alive LLC, the company that Parton designated to control her professional property and business interests after her death.

“I’m going to destroy the entire brand if you don’t get these [Dollywood business partners] out of our bit,” Seaver allegedly wrote in one text on Aug. 19, about a week before Parton’s death at age 80.

“I just sold 29 million dollars worth of ammo to Haiti. I’m not exactly a media person, Danny. I’m literally an international arms dealer and mercenary,” Seaver purportedly wrote in another text after Parton died.

“Everyone needs to be worried about what I might do,” reads another message attributed to Seaver and cited in the ruling. “All I have is animosity and memory. But I’m going to spend the next times I have on earth ratfucking anyone that has ever betrayed my family.”

Judge Myles wrote that the statements were significant “not merely because of their language in isolation, but also because they were made in conjunction with statements threatening specific individuals and business interests associated with Ms. Parton’s professional property and estate.”

The judge also said Seaver had “expressly connected threatened interference with Ms. Parton’s commercial interests to a demand for payment.” The ruling cited another alleged message from Seaver: “I’m going to set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly’s brand partnerships and telling the violations these people have done on us. It’s going to be great. Or fucking pay me.”

Myles set a follow-up court hearing for Oct. 7. At this preliminary stage, however, she wrote that the messages appeared to demonstrate a “repeated course of conduct” in which Seaver identified specific people or interests and allegedly “coupled those threats with demands for payment or other action” while invoking “his claimed access to weapons, experience with violence, and intention to retaliate.”

Seaver was removed from his security role connected to Parton’s business on Sept. 15, according to a letter from lawyers representing She’s Alive that was filed in the business-interference case. The letter, obtained by Rolling Stone, said the termination did not affect Seaver’s separate interest as a beneficiary of the trust.

“The Co-Trustees will be in contact with you and the other beneficiaries in the near future regarding your interest as a beneficiary of the Trust,” the letter said. “All parties hope that this will be a smooth transition, and the Trust group looks forward to corresponding with you as one of the beneficiaries.”

If Seaver chooses to fight the restraining order, he must file a response by Oct. 2, Myles said. The Oct. 7 hearing will address any further relief sought by the estate.

In a statement to TMZ on Tuesday, Seaver defended his text messages and said they were taken out of context. “I am a career soldier and military contractor and do conduct arms deals for foreign governments,” he said. “However, nothing in this lawsuit were threats and most of the comments I stand by.”

The 2026 Polaris Music Prize ceremony, held last night at Massey Hall, saw Angine de Poitrine taking home both of the night’s major awards.

The elusive Saguenay duo won the Polaris Album Prize for Vol. II, the $30,000 prize awarded to Canada’s album of the year based on artistic merit. Soon thereafter, they followed that win by taking the $10,000 SOCAN Polaris Song Prize for “Fabienk,” making Angine de Poitrine the first ever act to win both awards since the song prize was introduced.

The pair accepted the awards at Massey Hall in Toronto on Tuesday night in their now-familiar black-and-white polka-dot costumes and masks. The microtonal math-rock band, whose members perform under the names Khn and Klek, have built much of their public identity around their extraterrestrial mythology and refusal to reveal their faces.

The SOCAN Song Prize came with a $10,000 award to be divided among the song’s Canadian performers and credited Canadian songwriters. “Fabienk” was selected over songs by Charlotte Cornfield, PUP, Patrick Watson and Martha Wainwright, and Charlotte Day Wilson.

The evening also revealed the two winners of the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize, which recognizes significant Canadian albums released before the Polaris Music Prize was established. The Watchmen were honoured for their 1992 debut McLaren Furnace Room, while the late Willie Dunn received the designation for his self-titled 1971 album.

The ceremony featured performances from most of this year's album short list, including Angine de Poitrine themselves, Aquakultre, Begonia, Bibi Club, Charlotte Cornfield, Beverly Glenn-Copeland with Elizabeth Copeland, Les Louanges and Tanya Tagaq. Slash Need also performed an interpretation of Peaches' No Lube So Rude.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor are adding another Toronto date to their 2027 Canadian run, with the Montréal post-rock institution announcing a second show at the Danforth Music Hall after the first one sold out.

The band will now play the Toronto venue on February 26 and 27, 2027. The newly added February 26 performance goes on sale immediately, according to the announcement, while the original February 27 date is already sold out.

The two Toronto concerts follow a February 21 appearance at Québec City's Théâtre Capitole, being presented as part of Phoque OFF.

The band, which rose to prominence at the turn of the millenium and helped solidify Montréal's indie music ecosystem, do not tour extensively very much these days, so these shows are highly anticipated. Their sprawling instrumental compositions, extended crescendos and notoriously immersive live presentation have made the group one of Montréal's most influential experimental exports.

The Canadian dates follow a handful of international performances, including shows in Buenos Aires and São Paulo in November, before the band heads to Santiago, Chile, for the Fauna Primavera festival. A July 2027 appearance at Montana's Fire in the Mountains festival is also currently listed.

Godspeed's most recent album is 2024's NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD, a record whose title references the reported Palestinian death toll in Gaza as of the date specified. Since their very beginning, Godsped You! Black Emperor have had a longstanding practice of folding political concerns into its music, artwork and live presentation.

Taylor Swift attends the Songwriters Hall of Fame 55th Annual Induction and Awards Gala at Marriott Marquis Hotel on June 11, 2026 in New York City.

Taylor Swift is zeroed in on making new music. The superstar just announced a new single “Patient Zero,” which arrives on Sept. 25

“I’ve been impatiently waiting to tell you that my brand new single “Patient Zero” will be out on September 25 (!!!!!!!!!!!!),” the singer wrote on her social media accounts.

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According to Swift’s website, the new track is related to her most recent album The Life of a Showgirl but has not officially been described as a bonus track. The singer’s website also updated from a sparkly orange to a dark gray and featured three new CD single versions of “Patient Zero.” Each version features a different cover of the singer wearing black. Similarly, in an Instagram post announcing the track, the superstar was also wearing a black high-neck tank top. She also changed her profile picture across social media, which has signified a new era for the singer in the past.

The news comes after Swift spent the last 24 hours ramping up her Easter eggs. On Monday, Sept. 21, a third piece of paper appeared on the “My Letter” page of Swift’s website underneath the letter she wrote in May 2025 and the original Showgirl track list. Some believed it would be an announcement for the re-recording of Taylor Swift, her self-titled debut which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

On Tuesday morning, the singer updated her Instagram bio to read, “And, baby, that’s sh0w business f0r y0u.” Similarly, lyrics from Showgirl were updated on Apple Music with words using the letter “O” swapped for zeroes.

“Patient Zero” marks the second bit of new music from Swift this year. In June, she released “I Knew It, I Knew You” as part of the Toy Story 5 soundtrack. The new song will arrive on the heels of an exciting achievement for Swift. On Sunday, she will be honored at the MTV Video Music Awards with the inaugural Artist Director Honors award.

Nearly 50 years after the Battersea Power Station appeared on the cover of Pink Floyd‘s Animals, Apple has transformed the decommissioned building into a music venue.

Apple Music Hall will function as both a live music space and production facility, where musicians can record their performance on multitrack. The venue boasts a 38-foot wide stage, a 48-speaker spatial sound system, 16 or more cameras, and a 600-capacity crowd. Essentially, artists can exit with a Spatial Audio recording, a broadcast-ready mix, and multicamera video from a single show.

“Apple’s deep love for music dates all the way back to the very beginning, from the launch of the iPod to the long-running iTunes Music Festival to the debut of Apple Music,” Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and International Content, said in a statement. “Today, with the opening of Apple Music Hall, we are once again taking an unprecedented step further in our commitment to artists and fans by supporting live music in ways only Apple can do.”

Animals was released on Jan. 21, 1977, and its legendary cover — the Battersea Power Station, with a George Orwell-esque inflatable pig seen floating in the sky — symbolized industrial greed and the voracious appetites of capitalism (famously, the pig balloon flew away).

The image was created by Hipgnosis Studios’ Storm Thorgerson, and assisted by Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell, who updated the cover for the Animals 2018 Remix in 2022. “Animals is one of my favorite albums by Pink Floyd just because of the stories attached,” Powell recalled in 2022. “I remember going to Battersea Power Station and it was a dump. It was full of coal and debris and broken cars. It was just absolutely horrid. I knocked on the door and a lad answered. I said I was looking for someone important and the chap went, ‘Well, thats me,’ and I said, ‘I want to fly a pig.'”

Performances at Apple Music Hall will be livestreamed globally, while fans can access tickets on the venue’s website.

It’s official: almost a year since it was first released as a single in October 2025, Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” is the longest running Number One song in Billboard Hot 100 history. The classically country tune written by Langley with Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick and Joybeth Taylor has passed tracks by Harry Styles, Morgan Wallen, and now former leader Mariah Carey (and Christmas itself) to cement itself as the new record-holder with 23 weeks atop the chart. Carey, whose “All I Want For Christmas Is You” could retake the top slot once holiday season begins, has yet to comment.

Coming in at Number Two is Stella Lefty and “Boston” (which just became a Number One song on country radio) with Wallen’s “Been By Now” at three. With all three slots taken by country artists, it’s clear that the genre’s wave of dominance is not going anywhere soon.

It’s a cherry on top of a record-breaking year for Langley. The Alabama native made history when “Choosin’ Texas” hit Number One on the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Country Airplay charts at the same time in February. Langley is also the top nominee at the 60th Annual CMA Awards, with a total of nine, including entertainer of the year, and her sophomore LP, Dandelion, just returned to the top of the album charts. Even Drake is trying to get in on the action, teasing a potential “Choosin’ Texas” remix.

“Everyone can relate to wanting something that doesn’t want you back, whether it be a relationship or a job,” Langley told Rolling Stone about why the song of the summer has resonated so widely. “I’m giving my heart to people a lot. And that’s scary to constantly do, because no one wants their heart broken.”

Langley is well aware of how powerful it is to have women in country music breaking through the bro-dom: Dandelion includes a cover of Kitty Wells’ 1952 hit “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” which was the first solo song by a woman to top the country charts. And Langley’s doing her best to make sure the success of “Choosin’ Texas” isn’t just relegated to her alone. On her current Dandelion tour, she made sure to spotlight other female musicians as her opening acts, including Gabriella Rose, Kaitlin Butts, Avery Anna, Laci Kaye Booth, and Madeline Edwards.

“Ella is such a role model for what skyrocketing with grace looks like,” Butts told Rolling Stone. “She’s put me up for an acting role in her iconic music video for ‘Choosin’ Texas’ and now she’s taking me on tour with her. That’s what I love about her, a win for her means a win for all of us women in country music because she’s one of the ones that’s turning around to help the next in line.”