Leona Lewis' life has lately been filled with what she calls "pinch me" moments.The 22-year-old Londoner had a series of them ever since she won 'X-Factor,' a British variation on 'American Idol.' Just 24 hours before speaking to us, she was performing at the Brit Awards on the same stage as Paul McCartney, Amy Winehouse and other stars. Then that's what happens when you have the most-played song in the world, the infectious 'Bleeding Love.' Despite coming off a big night, Lewis found the time to answer questions about the U.S. release of her debut album, 'Spirit,' meeting her idol Whitney Houston and her fear of spiders.

What was it like sharing a stage with Paul McCartney at the Brit Awards?

It was just amazing for me because I actually went to the Brit School, which is funded by the Brits ... I got to go there when I was 14. And I've always wanted to perform there, so it was incredible. Rihanna performed as well, so it was amazing I actually got to perform alongside them.

What can people expect from your album, 'Spirit'?

Well, people can expect a real melody-driven album and they can expect some big ballads, as well as some more edgy stuff like my single, 'Bleeding Love.' It's just a mixture of all my different influences, and I think it's quite a positive message throughout and a lot of subjects that people can relate to on there as well.

What are some of those positive messages?

I've got a song called 'Better in Time,' which is kind of about time being a healer and sometimes getting stuck in a bit of a rut and thinking that you're kind of getting nowhere, but actually you are and it's just about timing and waiting for things to get better.

It's been a few years now since we've heard from Alanis Morissette, not counting her off-the-cuff video cover of the Black Eyed Peas' 'My Humps,' a track that marked her second time entering the cultural zeitgeist in a major way. The first time, of course, was her phenomenally successful debut, 'Jagged Little Pill,' still one of the highest-selling records of all time.

These days, Morissette, who's currently on the road with Matchbox 20, is getting ready to release her new album, 'Flavors of Entanglement.' Inspired, powerful, aggressive and eclectic, the new music finds Morissette, as usual, laying it out all there -- not that she knows any other way. We met up with her in L.A. to be among the first to hear music as she played songs in her car, and then we chatted about the past couple of years, her new album and her bigger role in music.

I'm going to guess since the first track you played is 'Citizen of the Planet' you've spent a fair amount traveling of late.

Not of late but, in general, yeah. My next trips have to take me to Bhutan, Laos and Cambodia, and all those places. I always have, "This year I must go to..." and I have five places I need to go.

So where were the five places this year, and did you make it?

This year it was more of a sweat-pant inner voyage for me [laughs].

As a new mother, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations and the author of an upcoming series of children's books, Geri Halliwell has a lot going on in her life beyond her recent reunion with the Spice Girls. But Halliwell, who says she would be a Spice Girls fan whether she was in the band or not, tells Popeater she was just as ready as Spice Girls fans for the multiplatinum quintet to spread girl power to a new generation of listeners. We caught up with the woman famously nicknamed Ginger Spice as she and her mates rehearsed in L.A. for their performance at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which aired on December 4, two days after the Spice Girls world reunion tour kicked off in Vancouver.

As the members of a band age, they tend to mellow and get along better. In contrast to reported problems within the group, are you finding that to be the case?

Yeah, absolutely. We all get along better, and I think I've got now the maturity to understand how to work as a team, about democracy, about working through any issues that we have rather than either avoiding confrontation and running away or not dealing with them in a mature manner. I think all of us have mellowed with age and just got a little bit more understanding and patience with each other.

Are you finding that your being a mother has helped with this new maturity?

I think so, yeah. Being a mother puts everything in perspective -- my daughter comes first. And most of the other girls are mothers too, so automatically I empathize with what they're going through. So I think that's very, very bonding. There is that thing of juggling the two, the constant feeling of "Oh, my God, I want to be with my daughter as much as possible" and "I want to do my best for the show." So it has its challenges. But what we've done is bring the children to rehearsals and they start running between our ankles while we're doing dance rehearsals. And actually they have play dates together.

Sebastian Bach is on his way to 'TRL,' he proudly points during this phone call. Now 39, Bach, who first came to prominence two decades ago as the frontman of Skid Row during the height of late-'80s metal, is happily embracing his latest dance with mainstream stardom. As both a performer on MTV's 'Celebrity Rap Superstar' and the conduit for Axl Rose's first new recorded tracks in years (Rose, a close friend, appears on three songs on Bach's new 'Angel Down' release), Bach is once again in demand. And he certainly has a lot to say when given the opportunity. We spoke with Bach about Rose, his longstanding fandom of 2Pac and why he hates MP3s.

You've gone through many ups and downs in terms of mainstream media. Do you feel that, being older, you have a different appreciation for everything that's happening now?

Yeah -- all I can really compare it to is albums I've had in the past, and the last big-time record I put out, really, was 'Subhuman Race,' by Skid Row. I did a solo album in '99, but it was released on an independent. But this album is so much more fun to do press for [laughs]. That one was released in such a rough time for rock 'n' roll. But people love rock 'n' roll right now; it's the vibe I'm getting from the world. I mean Kid Rock [debuted at] No. 1, all the video games, Guitar Hero, Rock Band. Rock 'n' roll itself is exploding, and that's good for me [laughs].

The audience for rock has always been there, but now it's back in the mainstream. When did you first notice that shift?

I would say I noticed when two things happened around the same time: One was when Ozzy got 'The Osbournes' TV show in the late '90s, which he was one of the first, if not the first, heavy-metal stars that became a mainstream celebrity. Now, then, I was up there after him, and Gene Simmons after him, and Tommy Lee, and there are a bunch of dudes, we were all in the pop culture in the celebrity-obsessed culture, and somehow I became one of those guys. I can remember being blown away that somebody would give Ozzy Osbourne his own TV show. I was like, "What?" Also the other thing that happened was when Kiss reunited in makeup. That was shocking to the music industry how big that was. And both of those things, I think, happened around the same time. Or they seemed to. And I can remember going, "Wow, if Ozzy Osbourne is singing to the queen of England and going to have dinner with George Bush, that's crazy." You could never have told me that in the late '70s when I was a little kid scared to death of Black Sabbath [laughs]. So Ozzy singing to the queen is one of the first times I noticed metal becoming mainstream.

Amy Lee is in New York, deep in the throes of promotion for Evanescence's headlining fall tour, on the day that she speaks to AOL Music. Her voice -- frequently hiccupped by laughter -- is confident yet soft, with a girlish intonation, while her words are quick to exit a mouth that frames thousands of thoughts before the next.

Lee is currently enjoying her three-week hiatus from the road. To say the break is much-deserved would be an understatement. Evanescence have been touring behind their latest album, 'The Open Door,' for one year now, and in that time have suffered yet another lineup change with the exit of guitarist John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray. It's not all fodder for tragedy, though. Lee married her longtime friend, Josh Hartzler, in May, which she credits for her newfound -- and steadfast -- happiness. "I feel like I've knocked through a lot of walls and gotten to, like, a healthy place," she says assuredly. "I do think I'm in a good place."

It's a welcome assertion from the 25-year-old woman who's both cheered and jeered as a brooding, maudlin Gothic queen -- a reptutation that Lee, no matter how much she smiles, can shake. Ask her, however, and she'll give it to you straight: Nothing is ever as it seems.

Evanescence have been on the road for a year now and are headlining a fall tour. That's a pretty rigorous schedule. Are you tired?

Well, I've done it better this time. When we toured 'Fallen,' I was absolutely exhausted. We didn't take hardly any time off between tours. Touring for a year means a bunch of tours with a couple days or a couple weeks off in between. We did the same thing this time, except instead of taking a day off before going on another tour, we took two weeks here and there. I've actually had three weeks off just now, so I feel pretty ready to go. And I've have enough time to really think about the set list and all the cool things I want to do that we haven't done in a long time. I just really want to make it the best tour because I know it's the last one, and I want to go out with a bang.

Rob Thomas is used to nice hotels -- places like the Four Seasons in Kona, Hawaii. But on this day he is deep in California's San Fernando Valley at a lodging he calls "either the nicest crappy hotel or the crappiest nice hotel." Why the sacrifice? To be close to his Matchbox Twenty bandmates as they rehearse for a tour to begin in January. After enjoying solo success as both a songwriter, with the likes of Carlos Santana, and as a singer, Thomas is happily back in the Matchbox Twenty fold for a compilation, 'Exile on Mainstream,' that also features six new tracks. The inclusion of so many new songs is fitting, as Thomas tells Popeater that this isn't the same Matchbox Twenty that fans would remember. In fact, he says reuniting with some new and some old band members is like being in an altogether new group.

How many years has it been since the last Matchbox Twenty tour?

It's been about three years or over since we got off the road, I think.

During that time, you did the solo record and worked with a bunch of different people. Do you feel that time off gave you a greater appreciation of Matchbox Twenty?

We just took a break because we were kind of sick of each other and we realized we had spent a number of years in the studio and on the road. Everybody wanted to go out and work with other producers or work with other musicians. When we got back...it would be great to step back into something like this that you were so used to and be kind of like being comfortable, except we changed everything about the band when we came back to it. We're a four-piece instead of a five-piece, Paul [ID TK] is now playing guitar instead of playing drums, we've hired a new drummer, we worked with a new producer, and everybody in the band wrote everything together instead of me bringing all the songs in.

Will.I.Am is exactly where'd you expect him to be on a weekday afternoon -- in the studio. Besides being the architect of the Black Eyed Peas, Will has become one of hip-hop's most in-demand producers, working with everyone from Nas and Common to Ciara and Snoop Dogg, the latter being the only person with a guest spot on Will's new solo disc, 'Songs About Girls.' It's an album that is very personal for the musician in more ways than one. Besides being the first album to be released under his name, something he admits has caused some nerves, it is literally, what the title suggests: his relationships told in song. Will talked to Popeater about working with Snoop, how 'Songs About Girls' is different from the Black Eyed Peas, and how James Brown helped him to learn to put negative press aside.

What made you want to do a thematic record?

I just didn't want to put out a record that was like anything I couldn't have done on the Black Eyed Peas. Any other record I could've done with the Peas. So this one I wanted to have a theme, and 'Songs About Girls' was something I could talk about -- my past relationships, my current relationship. I could talk about the world, 'cause that is the ultimate female: the planet. And I really just wanted to talk about why I am the way I am today.

And you think a lot of that is because of women?

My past endeavors really shaped and molded me into the person I am now. When someone believes in you it makes you ambitious. This one particular person inspired me to go out and want to do it. And then the relationship I'm in now is awesome, and I never would be the person I am now if I never went through that.

And how long have you been in your current relationship?

A minute [laughs].

The first full song, after a brief instrumental intro, on Korn's latest, 'Untitled,' is appropriately dubbed 'Starting Over.' In many respects, the album feels like a new beginning for the band, which has continued to defy critics by staying relevant and aloft well after its '90s hard-rock peers have vanished. And while the group has matured over its more than a decade-long career, 'Untitled' may be their hardest record yet. Frontman Jonathan Davis calls the track 'Do What They Say' his "favorite Korn track" to date. In St. Louis the day before Korn's Family Values Tour kicked off, Davis spoke to AOL candidly about sobriety, looking back on his career and how he's changed for the better.

Have you started playing the new songs live?

We played one new song, 'Evolution,' over in Europe, and now we're playing six new songs here. So we're gonna start tomorrow with the new stuff.

'Kiss' and 'Do What They Say' are two of the heaviest tracks you've ever done.

'Do What They Say' is my favorite Korn song ever. It's a heavy song; and the gothic thing, that's just weird -- because it's got that Christian death, Roz Williams vibe.

You guys manage to find new ways to keep it fresh, though you've been at it a long time. What did you do this time to achieve that?

We brought new blood in. It was just three of us: me, [guitarist] Munky and [bassist] Fieldy. And then we also brought our touring keyboardist, Zach, in, and he was cool to write with because he bounced all kinds of cool melodies and atmospheric stuff off of us -- and then [songwriter and drummer Terry] Bozzio.