2025 JAS Labor Day Experience

Imagine Dragons continue to redefine rock in the 21st century. Filling stadiums, crafting cloud-rattling anthems, and breaking records at every turn, diamond-certified GRAMMY Award-winning Las Vegas quartet Imagine Dragons occupy rarified air as one of the biggest rock bands in the world. Tallying cumulative sales of 74 million album equivalents, 65 million digital songs, and over 160 billion streams, they stand out as “the only band in history to earn four RIAA Diamond singles,” namely “Radioactive” (16x-platinum), “Believer” (13x-platinum), “Thunder” (12x-platinum) and “Demons” (11x-platinum).

Since emerging in 2009, they’ve scored five consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 with Night Visions [2012] (7x-platinum) (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope), Smoke+Mirrors [2015] (platinum) (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope), Evolve [2017] (triple-platinum) (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope), Origins [2018] (platinum (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope), and Mercury — Act 1 [2021]( KIDinaKORNER/Interscope). With the release of Mercury — Act 2 (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope) in 2022, they completed their first double-album opus produced by the legendary Rick Rubin. The hit single “Bones,” featured on Mercury Act 2, went to number one at Alternative Radio and remains in the Global Top 50 on Spotify. The band’s hit collaboration with East Atlanta-based rapper J.I.D, “Enemy,” has racked up billions of global streams and landed at #6 on the IFPI Global Singles Chart for 2022. Dominating radio, they remain one of only four bands to ever achieve consecutive Top 5 singles at Alternative radio, and the only band to repeat this feat.

Most recently, Imagine Dragons made history on Spotify, as “Bad Liar” became their 10th song to surpass 1 billion streams. The band now holds the crown for the group with most billion-plus streamed songs, becoming the first in the platform’s history to have ten songs reach this milestone. Meanwhile, Imagine Dragons’ music videos for hits “Thunder” and “Believer” have garnered an astounding 2 billion YouTube views, while videos for “Radioactive” and “Demons” have surpassed over 1 billion views. They’ve collaborated with everyone from Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, and Wiz Khalifa to Avicii and film composer Hans Zimmer. Giving back, they’ve raised millions for various causes, including their pediatric cancer charity the Tyler Robinson Foundation, and frontman Dan Reynolds’ LOVELOUD Foundation and festival in support of LGBTQ+ youth. In 2022, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky named them ambassadors for UNITED 24, which benefits humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

Imagine Dragons earned an impressive four nominations for the 2022 American Music Awards including “Favorite Pop Duo or Group,” “Favorite Rock Artist,” “Favorite Rock Album” and “Favorite Rock Song.” The band was also nominated for “Group of 2022” for the 2022 People’s Choice Awards. Most recently, they received a 2024 MTV VMA nomination for “Best Alternative” for their acclaimed “Eyes Closed” music video.

Regarded as one of the preeminent rock musicians of our time, Lenny Kravitz has transcended genre, style, race, and class over the course of a three decade-plus musical career. Reveling in the soul, rock, and funk influences of the sixties and seventies, the writer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist has won four GRAMMY® Awards.

Lenny Kravitz was recently honored with the “Music Icon Award” at the 2024 People’s Choice Awards and was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2024. He was additionally recognized by the CFDA with their “Fashion Icon Award” for his role as not only one of rock’s most esteemed musicians, but also a major fashion influence.

In 2023, Kravitz debuted the anthemic “Road To Freedom,” a song he wrote, performed, and produced specifically for the much-buzzed-about Netflix film, Rustin. The track, which can be heard HERE, plays over the film’s end title credits. In conjunction with the release of the song, Kravitz secured a Golden Globe nomination for “Best Original Song – Motion Picture”, a Critics Choice Award nomination for “Best Song”, and the Guild of Music Supervisors Award nomination for “Best Song Written and/or Recorded for a Film” for the soul-stirring anthem.

In addition to his twelve albums, which have sold 40 million worldwide, his creative firm Kravitz Design Inc. touts an impressive portfolio of noteworthy ventures, including hotel properties, condominium projects, private residences, and high-end legendary brands like Rolex, Leica and Dom Perignon. In 2022, he launched his own ultra-premium spirits brand, Nocheluna Sotol—a distillate from Chihuahua, Mexico derived from the sotol plant. Kravitz is the author of Flash, a book which showcases unique rock photography. His recent memoir, Let Love Rule, also landed him on The New York Times’ Best Sellers List. Kravitz currently serves as the brand ambassador and global face for YSL Beauty’s Y cologne and is the global ambassador for luxury watch brand Jaeger-LeCoultre. This multidimensional artist has also segued into film, appearing as Cinna in the box-office hits, The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, as well as in the critically acclaimed films Precious and The Butler.

Lenny Kravitz released his highly anticipated new studio album, Blue Electric Light, on May 24, 2024.

Country superstar and 2x CMA Entertainer of the Year Luke Combs is a multi-platinum, award-winning artist from Asheville, NC.

Adding to an already triumphant career, Combs released his new full-length album, Fathers & Sons, earlier this summer on Columbia Nashville. A collection of 12 poignant tracks, Fathers & Sons features Combs’ most personal songwriting to date, as he reflects on his own experiences being a dad to his two sons and the unique bond between parents and their children. Of the record, NPR Music praises, “he’s going beyond the country realm now and really has become a pop star, a global popstar” while The Wall Street Journal declares, “filled with unexpected warmth and vulnerability…a perfect match for Mr. Combs’s warm and engaging style.”

A Grand Ole Opry member and 11x CMA, 4x ACM, 6x Billboard Music Award-winner, Combs also recently released his current radio single, “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma,” which is featured on the soundtrack for the new Twisters movie, is the subject of a new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and just completed his record-breaking “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old” stadium tour, which included sold-out, back-to-back shows at East Rutherford’s MetLife Stadium and Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium among several others. Additionally, Combs performed an unforgettable duet of “Fast Car” with Tracy Chapman during the 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards earlier this year, which Rolling Stone called “one of the all-time best collaborative performances in Grammy history.” The performance added to a massive year for “Fast Car,” as Combs’ version won Single of the Year at the 2024 ACM Awards and 2023 CMA Awards (with Chapman winning Song of the Year). It also spent five-consecutive weeks atop Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and reached #1 on the Hot AC chart, the first song by a male solo artist to ever top both. The 2x Platinum single, which has garnered over 1.1 billion global streams to date, also spent eighteen weeks in the top 5 of Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100 chart, eight of which were spent at #2.

CANNONS alternate between flashes of gauzy introspection, glitter-drenched dancefloor ecstasy, and gritty sensuality. The Los Angeles trio — Michelle Joy [vocals], Ryan Clapham [lead guitar], and Paul Davis [drums keys] — elevate alternative / electro-pop to a neon stratosphere with nocturnal production and a visual sensibility equally suited to Studio 54 or summer festival season. The band honed this signature style over the course of three albums, namely Night Drive [2017], Shadows [2019], and Fever Dream [2022]. Along the way, “Fire For You” reached RIAA gold status, generated nearly a quarter-of-a-billion streams, topped Alternative Radio, and landed massive syncs on the likes of NETFLIX’s Never Have I Ever, American Horror Story, and more.

CANNONS earned critical acclaim from The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, FLAUNT, and Consequence of Sound while YouTube touted them among 2021’s “Artists on the Rise.” Emerging as a live force, they’ve headlined countless packed shows in addition to lighting up festivals such as Coachella, Lollapalooza, Life Is Beautiful, Outside Lands, and Electric Forest, to name a few. Evolving yet again, CANNONS ushered in a new era with the sunny, sassy, and sexy funkified strut of their 2023 album Heartbeat Highway, which features “Loving You,” their third Top 10 single at Alternative radio.

As NPR writes, “siblings Clyde and Gracie Lawrence are not your typical pair.” Clyde Lawrence and Gracie Lawrence have been writing songs and listening to countless Stevie Wonder, Randy Newman, and Aretha Franklin records in their family’s New York City apartment since they were little kids. After years of playing together, they officially created Lawrence, an eight-piece soul-pop band comprised of musician friends from childhood and college. The band has since gained a devoted following for its high-energy, keyboard-driven sound, which features tight, energetic horns and explosive lead vocals.

In 2024, Lawrence entered a new era with the release of their fourth studio album, Family Business. The album’s opening track, “Whatcha Want”, broke into the Top 40 on the US Pop Chart, and Lawrence recently performed it on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Today With Hoda & Jenna, and CBS Saturday Morning.

The album is accompanied by their biggest headline tour yet across Europe and North America, which has included iconic sold out shows at venues across Europe and North America like Radio City Music Hall in New York City, The Wiltern in Los Angeles, two nights at the Forum in London, and North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam. They released four singles leading up to the album including, “I’m confident that I’m insecure,” “23,” “Guy I Used To Be,” as well as the album’s title track, “Family Business.” Additionally, they have announced The Family Business Tour Part 2 which will not only bring them to Australia for the first time, but will also bring them back to Europe and the UK, with more shows in the US to be added.

In July 2021, Lawrence released their album, Hotel TV, and became the first band to release music under Beautiful Mind Records, the label of Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/artist Jon Bellion, who co-produced and co-wrote the songs on the album. The tracks on Hotel TV have garnered tens of millions of streams across all platforms and have had multiple viral moments on Tik Tok and Instagram. The album’s lead single, “Don’t Lose Sight,” was featured in an international Microsoft commercial, which propelled it into the Top 20 on the USA Shazam Pop Charts, and also hit #33 on Top 40. The band performed “Don’t Lose Sight” on Jimmy Kimmel Live, did a performance of it for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and closed both of their sets at Coachella with it (with the entire audience singing along)! The band also played a single “23” off of the Family Business album live during their set at Jingle Ball in 2023.

Live shows and touring have been key components of the group’s rise to success; the group opened for The Rolling Stones at MetLife Stadium in May 2024, and directly supported the Jonas Brothers on their four month, sixty-five show tour across North America in 2023. The band is releasing a docuseries from their adventures on the road of their Hotel TV Tour, which will finish airing throughout the Summer and Fall of 2024 on Youtube. In addition to The Rolling Stones and the Jonas Brothers, they’ve also toured with acts such as Lake Street Dive, Vulfpeck, Jon Bellion, Jacob Collier, Soulive, O.A.R., and Bernhoft, and appeared at major festivals including Coachella, Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, Firefly, Okeechobee, Hangout, and Summerfest.

In addition to creating music, in December 2022, Clyde Lawrence wrote an article published by the New York Times regarding the unfair dynamics that artists face in the live music industry as a result of the merging of Ticketmaster and Live Nation. In January 2023, Clyde Lawrence and Jordan Cohen were invited to testify at a U.S. Senate Judiciary hearing in Washington, D.C., on the topic of live event ticketing. They sat alongside other industry professionals, as well as antitrust experts, to deliver a testimony about their experiences as a touring band playing in Live Nation-owned venues across the U.S. Lawrence and Cohen continue to spread the word about the challenges in the live event promotion and ticketing space in conversations with outlets like NBC News, Vice News, Politico, and more.

Additionally outside of music, Gracie Lawrence is an accomplished actress that will be appearing as a series regular in the upcoming third season of Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble’s The Sex Lives of College Girls on Max, playing the character of Kacey. Her other television acting credits include “Billions,” a series regular role on “One Dollar,” formerly on CBS All Access, as well as roles in films like Amy Poehler’s “Moxie” on Netflix, Rhys Ernst’s “Adam,” and the Disney+ comedy “Noelle.”

GRAMMY® Award-nominated artist, performer, and songwriter Marcus King was downright destined to play music. By eight-years-old, the fourth generation Greenville, SC native performed alongside pops, grandpa, and his uncles for the first time. Logging thousands of miles on the road as “The Marcus King Band,” he established himself with unparalleled performance prowess and a dynamic live show. During 2020, he linked up with Dan Auerbach [The Black Keys] and cut his solo debut El Dorado, garnering a GRAMMY® Award nomination in the category of “Best Americana Album.” Beyond praise from NPR, American Songwriter, and more, Rolling Stone christened it “excellent,” and Associated Press went as far as to claim, “El Dorado already stands out as a definite high point of 2020.” In between packing venues on his own, he performed alongside Chris Stapleton, Greta Van Fleet, and Nathaniel Rateliff in addition to gracing the bills of Stagecoach and more with one seismic show after the next. Along the way, he caught the attention of Rick Rubin and signed to American Recordings.

Plugged into his old man’s dusty amp with a ’59 Les Paul in hand, Marcus set out to make a rock ‘n’ roll record in 2022. He didn’t disguise his ambitions at all. He didn’t hold back. He didn’t think about anything but writing from the gut, shooting from the hip, and playing straight from the heart. Joined by Auerbach, he made the kind of rock ‘n’ roll record that makes arenas and asses shake, and it’s called Young Blood [American Recordings/Republic Records].

Singer/songwriter Max McNown creates the kind of songs that soundtrack our most intimate moments: times of intense heartache and tremendous loss, immense upheaval and life-changing revelation. Within just a year of teaching himself to play guitar, the Nashville-based artist set off on a meteoric rise largely fueled by his breakout single “A Lot More Free”—a track that earned him a top spot as #1 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, peaked at #1 on the iTunes singles and TikTok Breakthrough USA charts, and landed on Spotify’s Hot Country and Viral 50 global playlists. On the heels of a banner year that’s included making his Grand Ole Opry debut and sharing bills with superstars like Wynonna Judd, the 23-year-old Oregon native is now set to deliver his sophomore album Night Diving: a body of work that explores new and daring sonic terrain while fully affirming his extraordinary capacity to ease the mind and strengthen the soul.

Bringing a bold new energy to his graceful fusion of folk and country, Night Diving follows McNown’s widely lauded full-length debut Wandering—a 2024 release that turned up on Whiskey Riff’s list of the year’s best debut albums and won critical praise from the likes of People and Holler (who proclaimed that “[m]ixing the raw folksiness of Noah Kahan and the stadium sized ambitions of Mumford & Sons, McNown sings the kind of songs that people will want to sing along with at the top of their lungs”). In the making of Night Diving, McNown worked closely with producer Jamie Kenney (Colbie Caillat, Laci Kaye Booth) and an A-list lineup of session players, sculpting an unpredictable and infinitely mesmerizing sound centered on his poetic yet candid lyrics. “The whole time we were working on this album, I felt a perfect balance of freedom and comfortability with the process—it feels like the truest version of me, with no strings attached,” he says. “In the past I haven’t always felt super-confident in the writing room, but this album really helped me to come into my own and be unapologetically myself with every creative choice we made.”

Once he’d settled in San Clemente, McNown started studying guitar and showed a friend a song he’d penned in high school. “I didn’t have a lot of faith in myself, but my friend encouraged me to go down to the San Clemente Pier and play that song and see what happened,” he says. “That night I made 93 bucks, and also got a free taco and a girl’s phone number folded into a $5 bill.” He then began busking at the pier several times a week, earning an ardent response for his understated but impassioned covers of alt-country songs. When an admirer posted a video of McNown performing a Zach Bryan track, he saw an instant spike in his following and decided to share more of his music online. As he racked up more and more followers, McNown devoted himself to developing his songcraft and sharpening his guitar skills and soon came up with his first official song, “Freezing in November”—an April 2023 release that surpassed a million streams in a few months, setting his music career into unstoppable motion. After signing with Fugitive Recordings and putting out his debut EP A Lot More Free (whose massively successful title track later hit #1 on Billboard’s Digital Rock Sales chart), he turned out a series of rapturously received singles—amassing over 80 million streams in his very first year of releasing music, all while bringing his debut album to life.

Since the arrival of Wandering—a 13-song LP examining everything from breakups and new love to the pain of watching his brother struggle with cancer and the confusion of finding his place in the world—McNown has steadily established himself as a captivating live performer. To that end, he’s taken the stage at leading festivals like AmericanaFest, toured with Briscoe and Blake Rose, and opened for the likes of Corey Kent, Wyatt Flores, Sam Barber, The 502s, Trampled by Turtles, and JOSEPH. In early 2025, he’ll embark on his first-ever headline tour—a nearly-sold-out nationwide run including stops in Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, and more, with one of two dates at New York City’s legendary Bowery Ballroom sold out in just three hours.

With his latest triumphs including being named a CMT Next Up Now featured artist and a Billboard Country Rookie of the Month, McNown notes that he’s found an essential touchstone in his personal experience with the transformative power of music. “The reason I want to put my songs out into the world is I know how much music has helped me throughout my life,” he says. “Whether it was dealing with a breakup or my brother’s cancer or the troubles we all go through, music gave me hope and made me feel less alone, so now I want to return the favor.” And through his whirlwind journey over the past two years, he’s gained firsthand knowledge of his own ability to provide others with solace. “A lot of people tell me stories about the difficult things they’ve been through, which can sometimes take a while to process,” he says. “But even though those stories are tough to hear, it’s a reminder that I’m on the right path—my songs seem to be making a positive impact and helping people in some way, and that’s all I can ever really ask for with my music.”

Grace Bowers is an 18-year-old, award-winning guitarist, songwriter and bandleader who is undisputedly on a meteoric rise with buzz reaching fever pitch around the independent release of her debut album, Wine On Venus earlier this year. Produced by John Osborne (Brothers Osborne), Wine On Venus garnered widespread acclaim, Forbes praised it as, “an infectious, joyous party” and Rolling Stone calling Bowers “Nashville’s new guitar hero.”

Bowers cut her teeth playing in dive bars, inspired by the blues of B.B. King as well as the soulful funk of Sly And The Family Stone. Her breakout moment came when videos of her playing guitar on social media went viral during the pandemic. She has since become one of the most in-demand and celebrated young guitarists, and an inspiration to a whole new generation of female guitarists around the world.

Bowers also recently made her late-night television debut on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” was featured on “CBS Mornings” and NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and will continue to tour through this fall including select dates with The Red Clay Strays, Gary Clark Jr. and The Allman Betts Family Revival. She will also perform at Irving Plaza on October 15 with the Roots in support of Why Hunger and in January, join The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir at his Dead Ahead Fest in Mexico for five nights of curated collaborations celebrating the Grateful Dead songbook. She has further headline shows in Japan and a sold-out night in New York City, as well as appearances at prominent festivals such as Bourbon & Beyond, Telluride Blues and Brews, Bottlerock and Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival.

If that was not enough, Grace recently won Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2024 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards, made her Grand Ole Opry debut on her eighteenth birthday, and was named a U.S. Global Music Ambassador by the U.S. Department of State and YouTube’s Global Music Diplomacy Initiative. She also performed alongside Dolly Parton on CBS, joined Lainey Wilson as part of CBS’ New Year’s Eve Live celebration, and been sought after by everyone from Tyler Childers and Susan Tedeschi to Kingfish. This past summer she joined Slash and Brothers Osborne on the road and performed alongside Billy Idol at the Fired Up For Summer benefit concert. She is perhaps most proud of raising $30,000 with her 2nd Annual “Grace Bowers & Friends: An Evening Supporting Love, Life & Music” benefit show, $15,000 of which was donated to MusiCares®.