The excitement outside of New York’s Beacon Theatre was palpable on Thursday night. Hours before Rolling Stone’s Musicians on Musicians franchise took over the Upper West Side venue, fans lined up on the sidewalk off Amsterdam Avenue. Some played patty-cake to pass the time before doors opened, while others sported Paramore tote bags and Bleachers T-shirts. There were even unofficial vendors selling bootleg tees; the cover for our seventh-annual Musicians on Musicians issue of Rolling Stone was printed on each. Clearly, everyone was eager to see the stacked lineup, which included cover stars Hayley Williams and Jack Antonoff, as well as María Zardoya of the Marías and Role Model.
Every year since 2019, the Musicians on Musicians series has brought artists together for wide-ranging, revealing conversations with one another. Last night at the Beacon, presented by Sonesta International Hotels, marked the series’ third-annual live event, and it was a vibrant display of the magic that happens when like-minded artists come together in one room.
Saturday Night Live star James Austin Johnson acted as the night’s host and he kicked off the evening by cracking some of his trademark deadpan jokes. “I’m really enjoying getting to be the Trump voice guy on SNL,” Johnson said, referring to his infamous impression of the president during his second term. “And how wonderful it is that we get to be here in the Beacon Theatre before it is demolished, to be a part of Donald Trump’s ballroom.” After getting a few more laughs, he invited Zardoya and Role Model, whose real name is Tucker Pillsbury, to join him onstage.
Zardoya and Pillsbury sat in leather chairs at the center of the stage, in what Johnson jokingly called his living room. After praising both Zardoya and Role Model for their inescapable songs from the past year, Johnson started the conversation by asking how the musicians knew they had a hit song on their hands. Zardoya started by talking about “No One Noticed,” the 2024 breakthrough track for her band, the Marias. “It was kind of an anti-hit,” she said. “I definitely did not for a second think that it was going to resonate the way that it did.” Zardoya shared how an 84-year-old friend of the band had a singular response to the song. “He said, ‘I’ve never done drugs, but I think this song sounds like molly,’” she recounted. Pillsbury was particularly surprised by this reaction. “I’ve never done molly, but in my head I would go to Kesha or something,” he said.
Role Model, María Zardoya, and James Austin Johnson.
Krista Schlueter for Rolling Stone
When Johnson asked Pillsbury if he knew that “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” was going to mark a pivotal moment in his career, the singer kept it real. “I don’t think you can predict it ever,” he said. He used the Marías’ track as the perfect example: “In your case, it’s very cool because it’s not this big pop power song with a million things going on,” he told Zardoya. “You stayed true to your sound and it worked.”
Johnson wanted to know more about Role Model’s ongoing series of viral moments where he brings up celebrity guests for live performances of “Sally.” He asked who books the Sallys; Pillsbury said he does. Pillsbury went on to explain that the trend started from an online rumor that the track was written about podcaster Jake Shane. “I was like, it would be funny to just play into that,” the singer said. In the time since that first “Sally” guest appearance, Zardoya has also joined Pillsbury onstage for the song (as have Charli XCX, Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray, Natalie Portman, the Dare, and many others). “It was a sweet moment,” she said, recalling how her Marías bandmates cheered her on from side stage.
The pair also talked about how their music was once categorized under the term “bedroom pop” when they first started releasing it. Zardoya descrbed it as “just a term.” Pillsbury was similarly ambivalent about the label. “We all literally made it out of the bedroom,” he said, noting that many of the artists grouped under that description a few years ago have gone on to mainstream success.
Next, the night segued into its first musical performance. Zardoya joined Role Model’s backing band and her Marías co-founder Josh Conway on the guitar to deliver an entrancing set. In a black silk maxi-dress, she glided effortlessly around the stage, as if she was floating on a cloud. Zardoya shared an intimate moment with a die-hard fan as she sang “Sienna” directly to them, holding their hand in hers. She closed out her set with Pillsbury backing her on “No One Noticed” as she softly strummed an electric guitar.
María Zardoya and Role Model onstage at the Beacon.
Krista Schlueter for Rolling Stone
Pillsbury stayed onstage and brought the crowd to their feet. “Damn, I thought this was a corporate event, but everyone got up,” he joked before diving into a set full of raucous sing-alongs. Pillsbury leaned into his internet virality when he commanded the crowed to “make [him] look good tonight” for his popular TikTok track “Some Protector.” The audience responded by screaming nearly every word to the bridge, and upped the decibel levels for “Sally.” It didn’t even matter that Pillsbury opted to not have a guest for this specific performance — the audience was loving it all the same.
The vivacious crowd welcomed a brief intermission before Williams and Antonoff took the stage for their conversation. As soon as Williams sat down, she and Johnson started bonding over their shared Nashville roots. “We got hot chicken, we got churches, we got bachelorette parties,” Johnson said, before asking Williams if her new solo album, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, was named after one occasion in particular. “Living in Nashville is the bachelor party,” she responded.
Johnson complimented Williams’ new song “True Believer” off her album and noted its references to their shared hometown. “It’s a tiny blue dot in a red state, in the middle of everything we’re going through right now,” Williams said of Music City. “It just felt like I needed a snapshot of something that’s on the ground,” she added.
The political climate in the U.S. was omnipresent in the discussion between Williams, Antonoff, and Johnson, even as the two cover stars reminisced about their years-long friendship. At one point, the Bleachers frontman point-blank asked Johnson if Trump has ever contacted him over his ongoing impression. Johnson answered the only way he knew how: with a scary-good Trump impression. (He added that the president has yet to contact him directly.) Williams cackled and made sure to stress that Johnson’s humor “is helping us survive the worst times.”
Antonoff spoke about how touring around the country acts as another salve to the current political turmoil, even as artists get front-row seats to how the nation is changing. “Touring is a real exercise in an amazing darkness and an amazing hope,” he said, emphasizing his optimistic outlook to “have a lot of hope in most of the people.”
Jack Antonoff, Hayley Williams, and James Austin Johnson.
Krista Schlueter
Both Williams and Antonoff also bonded over shared tour memories. The Paramore singer even pulled out an inside joke about “sandwiches with faces” that no one got, but it didn’t matter because Antonoff remembered it. No matter what the pair talked about, whether it was sharing new music for each other early in their careers or meeting at Bamboozle Fest in the 2000s, their strong bond was evident.
Finally, it was time for Williams and Antonoff to show off their musical chemistry with a very special joint performance. Each harmonized on the other’s songs, and Bleachers backed them both up — saxophones and all. Williams jumped right in with the energetic rocker “Mirtazapine,” which she and Antonoff live debuted at Newport Folk Festival this past summer. The pair seamlessly weaved between their catalogs, switching off on the melody and harmonies, delivering a true rock & roll party that got better with each song.
Williams and Antonoff performed together.
Krista Schlueter for Rolling Stone
Antonoff nearly brought the house down with a rare performance of Bleachers’ 2024 ballad “Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call.” The song’s cinematic chords echoed in the theater as Antonoff embodied his best Springsteen. Williams, meanwhile, had already given several songs from Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party their live debuts. Then she went one further, performing a new track she’d just released a few hours earlier. It’s called “Good Ol’ Days”, and it’s full of references to her long career with Paramore. She performed it with buoyant confidence that was fitting for lyrics like “Call me Miss Paramour.”
The gems that both musicians pulled out for their performance seemed to be just for those dedicated fans who waited in line before the show. And just when it didn’t seem possible, those fans sang along with Antonoff and Williams louder than they had all night. Earlier in the conversation, Williams summed up the symbiotic experience of touring best: “We see people in the sweetest moments and they get to experience that with us too.”
