GTA 6 Theme Song Leak: Artists Keep Leaking the Soundtrack

Rockstar has published five songs from Grand Theft Auto 6 and nothing else. Everything else we think we know about the soundtrack has come from the artists themselves, usually by accident, and usually deleted within hours. On July 27, 2026 it happened for the fourth time. What the listing actually says A public Project Casting profile for singer Trace Austin states that "He has also partnered with Rockstar Games for Grand Theft Auto VI, where his rendition of 'Papa Was a Rolling Stone' will be one of the main theme songs." We retrieved that profile directly on July 28, 2026 and the sentence is still live, which matters given how the previous cases went. The same sentence is reported by ScreenRant (Lee D'Amato, July 27, 2026), Game Rant (Mohsen Baqery, July 27, 2026) and TheSixthAxis (Tuffcub, July 27, 2026). ScreenRant and Game Rant both credit the discovery to X user @iGrandTheftAuto on July 27, 2026. A LinkedIn page is also cited as carrying the claim, though LinkedIn is behind a login and we could not read it ourselves, so the Project Casting profile is the artefact we are relying on. The song has a heavy pedigree. "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" was originally recorded by The Undisputed Truth in 1972. The Temptations covered it the same year, went to number one in the United States with it, and won Grammys for it. The bit worth being careful about ScreenRant, Game Rant and TechWiser all reported on July 27, 2026 that Austin is the grandson of Otis Williams, founder and last surviving original member of The Temptations. The Project Casting profile says the same thing in its own words: "Trace's artistic foundation was strongly influenced by his grandfather, Otis Williams, founder and original member of The Temptations." There is a wobble attached to it, and only one outlet carries it. TheSixthAxis appended an update saying that a video of Austin performing the song had been found on YouTube, and that in it he states his grandfather is "Otis Redding from The Temptations". ScreenRant and Game Rant do not mention this. We could not play the video to check the audio ourselves, so this rests entirely on TheSixthAxis. What can be said flatly is that Otis Redding was never in The Temptations. He was a different artist who died in 1967. If the video says what TheSixthAxis reports, it is a slip in a live setting rather than a competing claim about who the grandfather is, since every written source including Austin's own profile says Otis Williams. This has happened three times before The Trace Austin listing reads differently once you place it next to the previous cases. Bobby Keel, April 2026. The songwriter posted on Facebook that "Our Song, 'Need a Little Time Off for Bad Behaviour,' will be featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto VI for release on November 19, 2026. This is BIG TIME HUGE." He deleted it within hours. Reported by GTA BOOM on April 24, 2026. Panama, February 2026. The artist wrote on Instagram: "I've got a song called 'Back To Life' I wrote with Poolside. It'll be on GTA 6." The comment was later deleted. It was spotted by modder Razed and amplified by @videotechuk_, and reported by RockstarINTEL on February 14, 2026. Alan Palomo of Neon Indian, February 2026. On a podcast he said: "It ain't the end of me and Rockstar Games. I won't, that's all I'm gonna say." He also said his experience with Rockstar "was actually quite fascinating". Same RockstarINTEL report, which does not name the podcast. That one was never deleted, and it is also the vaguest of the three. The deletion pattern, labelled as inference Here is an observation about the pattern rather than a proof of anything. On the Keel and Panama precedents, a credit getting deleted has tended to make the underlying claim look stronger, not weaker. Nobody deletes a boast about a game they have nothing to do with. Deletion implies that somebody with authority over the artist's contract asked them to take it down, which is exactly what a live non-disclosure agreement looks like from the outside. That is inference. It is not evidence. An artist can also delete a post because a manager decided it was embarrassing, or because the deal fell through, or because the claim was wrong in the first place. We are describing a pattern in how these stories have behaved, and readers should weigh it accordingly. The Trace Austin case breaks that pattern so far. We checked the Project Casting profile on July 28, 2026 and it was still live, a day after the story spread. Whether anyone at Rockstar or Take-Two has contacted him is unknown. The control group, music Rockstar has actually published For contrast, here is the list of GTA 6 music that carries no ambiguity whatsoever, because Rockstar put it in its own trailers. Tom Petty, "Love Is a Long Road", in Trailer 1, December 2023. The Pointer Sisters, "Hot Together", in Trailer 2, May 6, 2025. Wang Chung, "Everybody Have Fun Tonight", Trailer 2. Tammy Wynette, "Talkin' to Myself Again", Trailer 2. Zenglen, "Child Support", Trailer 2. Jay Ferguson, "Thunder Island", Trailer 2. One further Trailer 2 track comes with an attribution dispute. "I Love Rock N Roll" plays over an Ammu-Nation commercial around the 2:09 mark. RockstarINTEL credits the Joan Jett version, GameSpot credits The Arrows, who recorded the original. We are naming the track and flagging the disagreement rather than picking one. That is the confirmed soundtrack in full: music Rockstar itself put in its own trailers, all verifiable by watching them. Everything else is a claim. The rumoured tracklist is a separate thing A wider rumoured tracklist circulates on social media naming Skrilla, Travis Scott and Timbaland. There is no primary artefact behind it: no bio, no deleted post, no interview quote. It is a list that exists because it was posted. It does not belong in the same column as an artist's own written claim about their own work, and we are not treating it as equivalent evidence. What an artist bio is worth A casting profile and a LinkedIn page are self-authored marketing documents. Nobody at Rockstar approves them. They are evidence that a claim was made, which is a real thing and worth reporting, and they are not evidence that a contract exists. The most this listing establishes is that Trace Austin believes, or wants prospective clients to believe, that his cover is going into GTA 6 as a main theme. Everything past that point is unverified. Confirmed, reported and unconfirmed Confirmed (artefact retrieved by us on July 28, 2026, and reported by ScreenRant, Game Rant and TheSixthAxis on July 27, 2026): A public Project Casting profile for Trace Austin contains the sentence about partnering with Rockstar Games and his "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" rendition being one of the main theme songs. It was still live when we checked. The discovery is credited to X user @iGrandTheftAuto on July 27, 2026. A LinkedIn page is reported to carry the same claim, but LinkedIn requires a login and we could not verify it directly. Confirmed (music history): "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" was first recorded by The Undisputed Truth in 1972, and The Temptations' cover that same year reached number one in the United States and won Grammys. Confirmed (prior artist leaks): Bobby Keel's deleted Facebook post, reported by GTA BOOM on April 24, 2026. Panama's deleted Instagram comment and Alan Palomo's podcast remark, both reported by RockstarINTEL on February 14, 2026. Confirmed (Rockstar published): Tom Petty in Trailer 1 of December 5, 2023, and the Pointer Sisters, Wang Chung, Tammy Wynette, Zenglen and Jay Ferguson in Trailer 2 of May 6, 2025. Confirmed track, disputed attribution: "I Love Rock N Roll" appears in Trailer 2. RockstarINTEL credits Joan Jett, GameSpot credits The Arrows. Reported (ScreenRant, Game Rant, TechWiser, July 27, 2026, and Austin's own profile): That Trace Austin is the grandson of Otis Williams of The Temptations. Reported by a single outlet: TheSixthAxis says a YouTube video shows Austin naming his grandfather as "Otis Redding from The Temptations". ScreenRant and Game Rant do not carry this, and we could not check the video audio. Otis Redding was never a member of The Temptations. Inference, not proof: That deletions in the Keel and Panama cases imply somebody with contractual authority intervened, and therefore strengthen rather than weaken those claims. Rumour with no artefact: The circulating tracklist naming Skrilla, Travis Scott and Timbaland. Not confirmed: Rockstar has said nothing about Trace Austin. There is no confirmation that the recording exists, that it is licensed, that it is a "main theme", or that it appears in the game at all. Also unconfirmed: whether Rockstar or Take-Two legal have contacted him. The soundtrack will be confirmed by Rockstar or it will not be confirmed. Until then, an artist bio is a claim, and we will keep labelling it as one. Follow the run-up to November 19 on our news hub, and browse the communities already forming on our servers list.