SkyDxddy
Meghan Walpole*Florida artist SkyDxddy has just dropped their newest track “Hold Me,” a song dedicated to members of the LGBTQ community struggling with mental illness and self doubt. The song details SkyDxddy’s own battles with depression and how it feels as close friends and family ignore early cries for help.
“‘Hold Me’ is a song I wrote at a dark time in my life. A time when I tried to speak up for myself and I was only met with judgment and gaslighting,” the gender fluid musician from a small town in Virginia tells Billboard. “I truly just wanted to be held while I cried and told I was going to be OK, and that never happened. No one should be in a relationship with someone who doesn’t love all their parts, even the broken ones.”
SkyDxddy’s music has already racked up four million streams on Spotify, gaining the support of Grammy-nominated producer and former Linkin Park manager Jeff Blu. “Hold Me” is a follow-up track to “Overwhelmed,” produced by Marky Styles.
Check out “Hold Me” below.
Metallica bassist Jason Newsted says he is now “free and clear” after facing throat cancer.
The 63 year old musician, who played with the Enter Sandman legends from 1986 through 2001, has shared details of his diagnosis publicly for the first time. He explained that doctors discovered it early, and on May 8, 2025 he “underwent a procedure” to treat the condition.
Speaking on the Let There Be Talk podcast, he said: “They took a bunch of s*** outta here and then they went in with lasers this way and took a bunch of s*** out.
“So the cavern inside my head is different than it was, but we got it early. And I got my ‘free and clear’ about three weeks ago. So I beat it.”
Jason contributed to several of Metallica’s most iconic releases, including 1988’s ...And Justice For All, their self titled 1991 album, 1996’s Load, the 1997 follow up Reload, and 1998’s Garage Inc.
After going through his cancer experience, the bassist made a point to slow down and actually give himself time to recover instead of constantly pushing forward.
He explained: “I promised myself I was going to rest, and that was the first time I’ve done that in my life.
"I’m usually just on or off. And so I promised myself I was gonna take the gravity off and lay down for the right amount of hours."
The health scare also led Jason to give up smoking weed and drinking alcohol, something he admits he likely would not have done otherwise.
He added: “The great spirit got my attention and said, ‘That’s not good right now, man.’ And so it pulled me off it.
"And so now I’m more clear-headed than I’ve been in my entire adult life. And so there’s blessings within everything. The lemonade I’m making this summer, bro — mm. Sweet. Ooh.”
Jason has previously said that his unexpected departure ultimately helped Metallica continue moving forward, while James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich later admitted they struggled to process his decision at the time.
Lars told Apple Music in 2021: “Jason is the only member of Metallica who has ever left willingly. And that in itself is a statistic.
"And the resentment from James and I was just so… 'You can’t do that. You can only leave if we want you to leave'.
"And then we weren’t equipped at the time to do a deep dive into why he was leaving. So of course, now you can see 20 years later, it makes complete sense.”
