And the winner of The Voice season 21 is…Girl Named Tom!
Tuesday’s finale crowned the group from Ohio — consisting of Liechty siblings Caleb, 26, Joshua, 24, and Bekah, 20 — as the season’s winners, making The Voice history as the first non-solo act to win the singing competition. This also marks Kelly Clarkson‘s fourth win in seven seasons as a coach.
Before Girl Named Tomwas officially announced as the winners, viewers were treated to a star-studded show chock full of performances from Coldplay, Walker Hayes, Tori Kelly, Keke Palmer, Ed Sheeran, Jennifer Lopez, Carrie Underwood, and Alicia Keys.
Additionally, each judge performed a song with their remaining mentees. In addition to Girl Named Tom, Kelly performed with 14-year-old contestant Hailey Mia. Black Shelton performed with each of his mentees, Paris Winningham and Wendy Moten, and John Legend took the stage with Jershika Maple.
New judge Ariana Grande‘s picks didn’t make it to the finale, but she took the stage to perform “Just Look Up,” with Kid Cudi.
After the finale, Girl Named Tom took to Twitter to thank fans for helping “fulfill three siblings’ dreams.” In the note, the band explained that their father was in “horrific pain following yet another surgery” but they stayed in LA to finish the show because it’s what their parents wanted. The group added that they will be flying back to their parents “as soon as possible.”
They trio also thanked The Voice and promised fans that “this is NOT goodbye.”
“We have dozens of new songs that we cannot wait to share with you,” they said. “We love you, we are grateful to you, and we hope you have a special holiday season. See you in 2022!”
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for BET, Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for NYFW: The Show
A judge upheld the assault charges against Tory Lanez, who is accused of shooting Megan Thee Stallion‘s feet.
Lanez, who’s real name is Daystar Peterson, is facing assault and weapons possession charges in connection to the July 2020 incident.
During the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, new details emerged, with LAPD Detective Ryan Stogner testifying that Megan, 26, said the 29-year-old “Say It” rapper shouted “Dance, b****!” before shooting her in the feet, according to the LA Times.
Stogner also stated that, according to the “WAP” rapper, Lanez “offered her money and begged her to please not say anything” and made “a reference to the fact he was already on probation.”
When it comes to Lanez’s defense, an LA Times reporter stated on Twitter, “In a preview of a possible defense during today’s prelim, Peterson’s attorney seemed to be hinting that another person in the car (a friend of Megan Thee Stallion) may have actually pulled the trigger.”
Lanez is due back in court on January 13. If convicted as charged, he faces a maximum sentence of 22 years and eight months in state prison.
(WASHINGTON) — Late Tuesday night, the House voted to raise the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion — a move that should stave off the first-ever default.
All Democrats in both the Senate and House voted to raise the debt limit. One Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, from Illinois, joined them.
The Senate cleared the vote earlier Tuesday with zero GOP support.
The bill now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
Once signed by the president, the legislation will have prevented a U.S. default that could have halted Social Security and veterans’ payments, hiked interest on mortgages and loans and disrupted the global economy.
The Treasury Department predicted that the U.S. would be unable to pay its bills come Wednesday.
Congressional action was the last step in a months-long process aimed at raising the federal borrowing limit.
In October, Republican and Democratic leadership locked horns over the spending cap. Though both parties acknowledged the necessity of raising the debt limit, Republicans argued that Democrats ought to raise the limit on their own — wrongly claiming they needed to offset the cost of Biden’s yet-to-be passed $1.75 trillion social spending bill.
Democrats, who helped raise the debt limit multiple times under the Trump administration, insisted it be a bipartisan effort since the debt limit had to be raised to cover past spending.
The October dispute ended in the GOP blinking, with Republicans giving Democrats the votes necessary for a short-term raise to the debt limit, but vowing they’d be less cooperative in the winter.
Last week, however, party leaders announced an agreement on a two-step process to raise the debt limit. Republicans ultimately provided 10 votes to permit a one-time rule change altering the number of votes necessary to pass the debt-limit hike and clearing a path for Democrats to pass the legislation without a single GOP backer.
The reached agreement required Democrats to name a specific amount they want to raise the debt limit by. They settled on $2.5 trillion — enough to prevent the government from defaulting through early 2023, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.
(ATLANTA) — As the delta variant of COVID-19 spread across the United States this summer, the virus appeared to take a particular toll on unvaccinated pregnant people, with deaths dramatically increasing in the summer months.
The number of pregnant people who died of COVID-19 spiked sharply in August and September, with more than two dozen deaths recorded in each of those months, according to data released this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
More than 40% of the 248 deaths among pregnant people since the start of the pandemic occurred since August, the data shows.
The number of pregnant people who contracted COVID-19 also increased sharply over the summer months, according to CDC data, reaching numbers of cases not seen since before the vaccine was made widely available earlier this year.
Now, as the omicron variant spreads across the U.S., with what is believed to be a high degree of transmissibility, the director of the CDC said she is “very concerned” about those who remain unvaccinated.
“I can tell you, when I hear about a pregnant woman in the community who is not vaccinated, I personally pick up the phone and talk to them,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told ABC News’ chief medical correspondent, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, in a Dec. 8 interview.
“It’s just shocking,” she said of the number of pregnant people who died specifically in August, one month after the delta variant became the predominant variant in the U.S.
Risks to unvaccinated people and the fetus
More than 25,000 pregnant people have been hospitalized since the start of the pandemic, and more than 150,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in pregnant people, according to the CDC.
Pregnancy is included in the CDC’s list of underlying medical conditions that make a person more likely to experience severe illness from COVID-19.
The virus causes a two-fold risk of admission into intensive care and a 70% increased risk of death for pregnant people, and increases the risk of a stillbirth or delivering preterm, or earlier than 37 weeks, according to the CDC.
COVID-19 is especially dangerous in pregnant people because their immune systems are already less active as they are supporting their growing fetus. For the same reason, their hearts and kidneys are working harder, Dr. Laura Vricella, a maternal fetal medicine physician at Mercy Hospital in St. Louis, told ABC News in August, as her hospital and others experienced a spike in pregnant patients with COVID-19.
Pregnant people must also keep their oxygen levels higher in general to support their fetus, which can be a herculean task to do when COVID-19 is in the body, according to Vricella.
And in addition to pregnant people with COVID-19 being more likely to deliver prematurely, Vricella said her hospital also saw more COVID-positive pregnant patients deliver stillbirths, even with mild COVID cases.
“COVID-19 begins as a respiratory illness, but can affect the entire body and also seems to increase the risk of thrombosis or blood clots,” she said. “We suspect that this decreased oxygen to the fetus may be responsible for the stillbirths that we are seeing, though we need further research.”
Vaccination rate remains low
In September, the CDC issued an “urgent health advisory” calling on pregnant people to prioritize getting vaccinated against the virus.
As of Dec. 4, the most recent data available, the vaccination rate among pregnant people remains below 40%, compared to nearly 61% of the general population, according to the CDC.
The vaccination rate for Black pregnant people, who already face disproportionate health risks in pregnancy and postpartum, is even lower, at just over 20%, CDC data shows.
“This is one where I feel like we have to do more,” Walensky said of the low vaccination rate overall among pregnant people. “We have to do better.”
“The vaccines are safe, they are effective and they are even more important in pregnant women,” she said.
In addition to the CDC, the nation’s two leading health organizations focused on the care of pregnant people — American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) — have issued guidelines calling on all pregnant people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Vaccines shown to be safe
Though pregnant people were not recruited for the initial clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccines, data over the past several months, since vaccines have been widely available, has shown them to be safe for pregnant people.
In its health advisory urging pregnant people to get vaccinated, the CDC pointed specifically to new data showing the vaccines did not increase the risk of miscarriage. The vaccines are also not believed to have any “significant impact” on fertility.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use mRNA technology, which does not enter the nucleus of the cells and doesn’t alter the human DNA. Instead, it sends a genetic instruction manual that prompts cells to create proteins that look like the virus, as a way for the body to learn and develop defenses against future infection.
They are the first mRNA vaccines, which are theoretically safe during pregnancy because they do not contain a live virus.
Vaccine experts interviewed by ABC News said although pregnant women are advised against getting live-attenuated virus vaccines, such as the one for measles, mumps and rubella, because they can pose a theoretical risk of infection to the fetus, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine doesn’t contain live viruses and should be safe. Instead the Johnson and Johnson vaccine uses inactive viruses.
Health experts said that with or without the vaccine, pregnant people need to continue to remain on high alert when it comes to COVID-19 by following safety protocols, including mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 800,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 61% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 15, 8:09 am
Journalist traveling with Blinken tests positive for COVID-19 in Malaysia
A journalist traveling alongside U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his visit to Southeast Asia has tested positive for COVID-19 in Malaysia, according to U.S. Department of State spokesperson Ned Price.
Meanwhile, Blinken and his senior staff all tested negative for COVID-19 upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday night. The member of the traveling press pool who tested positive had last tested negative in Indonesia’s capital, their previous stop, on Tuesday.
“The individual who tested positive will remain in isolation,” Price said in a statement Wednesday, “and we will continue to adhere to and go beyond CDC guidance, including with our rigorous testing protocol, for the remaining traveling party.”
Blinken has canceled a scheduled trip to Thailand “out of an abundance of caution” and will return home to the United States, according to Price.
“The Secretary expressed his deep regret to the Foreign Minister that he would not be able to visit Bangkok this week,” Price said. “He explained that, in order to mitigate the risk of the spread of COVID-19 and to prioritize the health and safety of the U.S. traveling party and those they would otherwise come into contact with, the Secretary would be returning to Washington, D.C. out of an abundance of caution.”
“The Secretary extended an invitation for the Foreign Minister to visit Washington, D.C. at the earliest opportunity and noted that he looked forward to traveling to Thailand as soon as possible,” Price added. “They affirmed that they would use the upcoming engagements to further deepen the U.S.-Thai alliance.”
The U.S. Embassy in Malaysia confirmed that the infected individual “was not involved and has not participated in any of Secretary Blinken’s program in Kuala Lumpur.”
“The sole member of the traveling party who tested positive is observing all requirements of the Ministry of Health,” the embassy said in a statement Wednesday. “We confirm all other members of the party tested negative for COVID-19 upon arrival in Malaysia.”
Blinken was in Indonesia on Tuesday, and the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta confirmed that no members of the traveling party tested positive for COVID-19.
All members of the U.S. delegation are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and undergo regular testing on trips.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Dec 15, 6:23 am
Over 67,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in US as winter surge intensifies
With winter closing in and COVID-19 cases on the rise, hospitals across the United States are once again facing the pressures of caring for thousands of patients.
More than 67,000 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide, according to federal data.
Rebecca Long, lead nurse in a COVID-19 intensive care unit at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, told ABC News that she and her team “literally do not have any ICU beds” available.
“I don’t want anyone else’s family member or loved one to have to be in the position where we say, like, we can’t help you because we don’t have the resources,” Long said. “As health care providers, all we want to do is help people and we can’t because we physically can’t.”
Dr. Kyle McCarty, medical director of emergency services at both HSHS St. Mary’s and HSHS St. Vincent hospitals in Green Bay, Wisconsin, told ABC News that health care workers are feeling burned out after “being asked to do more with less.”
“We’re exhausted by the knowledge that we are the duct tape that is preventing a complete collapse of the health care system,” McCarty said. “There’s a national shortage of hospital staff, which is making it difficult to take care of patients the way that we want it. There aren’t enough inpatient beds for the patients that need to be admitted to the hospital.”
“This is a call for reinforcements, not a warning to stay away, because we don’t want this to be the new normal,” he added. “If we can recruit more health care teammates, it doesn’t have to be.”
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 14, 7:19 pm
US death toll from COVID-19 crosses 800,000
The number of people who have died from COVID-19 in the United States surpassed 800,000 on Tuesday, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
The figure is greater than the approximately 700,000 Americans who have died from AIDS-related illnesses over the last four decades, and it’s higher than the total number of U.S. troops who have fallen in battle since 1900.
Since last December, when the first COVID-19 vaccines were being administered, an additional 500,000 people in the U.S. have died from the virus.
Of those, some 230,000 have died since April 2021, when U.S. President Joe Biden announced COVID-19 vaccines were widely available to every American over the age of 18.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 14, 6:59 pm
US sees sevenfold jump in omicron cases over the last week
The U.S. saw a sevenfold increase in the prevalence of the omicron COVID-19 variant over the last week, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Just over two weeks after it was first discovered in the country, the omicron variant is now estimated to account for nearly 3% of all new cases in the U.S., the latest data from the CDC shows.
Last week, omicron accounted for an estimated 0.4% of all new cases, according to the data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 14, 2:52 pm
Omicron will ‘for sure’ become dominant strain in US: Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN Tuesday that omicron will “for sure” become the dominant strain in the U.S. given how rapidly it is spreading.
“Omicron is going to be a challenge because it spreads very rapidly,” Fauci said.
Fauci reiterated that omicron so far appears to be less severe, adding, “Whether it is inherently less pathogenic as a virus or whether there is more protection in the community, we’re just going to have to see when it comes in the United States.”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including more than 800,000 in the U.S., according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 61% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 15, 6:23 am
Over 67,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in US as winter surge intensifies
With winter closing in and COVID-19 cases on the rise, hospitals across the United States are once again facing the pressures of caring for thousands of patients.
More than 67,000 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide, according to federal data.
Rebecca Long, lead nurse in a COVID-19 intensive care unit at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, told ABC News that she and her team “literally do not have any ICU beds” available.
“I don’t want anyone else’s family member or loved one to have to be in the position where we say, like, we can’t help you because we don’t have the resources,” Long said. “As health care providers, all we want to do is help people and we can’t because we physically can’t.”
Dr. Kyle McCarty, medical director of emergency services at both HSHS St. Mary’s and HSHS St. Vincent hospitals in Green Bay, Wisconsin, told ABC News that health care workers are feeling burned out after “being asked to do more with less.”
“We’re exhausted by the knowledge that we are the duct tape that is preventing a complete collapse of the health care system,” McCarty said. “There’s a national shortage of hospital staff, which is making it difficult to take care of patients the way that we want it. There aren’t enough inpatient beds for the patients that need to be admitted to the hospital.”
“This is a call for reinforcements, not a warning to stay away, because we don’t want this to be the new normal,” he added. “If we can recruit more health care teammates, it doesn’t have to be.”
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 14, 7:19 pm
US death toll from COVID-19 crosses 800,000
The number of people who have died from COVID-19 in the United States surpassed 800,000 on Tuesday, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
The figure is greater than the approximately 700,000 Americans who have died from AIDS-related illnesses over the last four decades, and it’s higher than the total number of U.S. troops who have fallen in battle since 1900.
Since last December, when the first COVID-19 vaccines were being administered, an additional 500,000 people in the U.S. have died from the virus.
Of those, some 230,000 have died since April 2021, when U.S. President Joe Biden announced COVID-19 vaccines were widely available to every American over the age of 18.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 14, 6:59 pm
US sees sevenfold jump in omicron cases over the last week
The U.S. saw a sevenfold increase in the prevalence of the omicron COVID-19 variant over the last week, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Just over two weeks after it was first discovered in the country, the omicron variant is now estimated to account for nearly 3% of all new cases in the U.S., the latest data from the CDC shows.
Last week, omicron accounted for an estimated 0.4% of all new cases, according to the data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 14, 2:52 pm
Omicron will ‘for sure’ become dominant strain in US: Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN Tuesday that omicron will “for sure” become the dominant strain in the U.S. given how rapidly it is spreading.
“Omicron is going to be a challenge because it spreads very rapidly,” Fauci said.
Fauci reiterated that omicron so far appears to be less severe, adding, “Whether it is inherently less pathogenic as a virus or whether there is more protection in the community, we’re just going to have to see when it comes in the United States.”
(WASHINGTON) — The House voted Tuesday night to hold former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack to appear for a deposition.
The vote was 222-208, with GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming voting with all Democrats.
Meadows is now the first former lawmaker ever held in criminal contempt by Congress — and the first held in contempt since 1832 — when former Rep. Sam Houston was held in contempt for beating a colleague with a cane.
The vote sends the matter to the Justice Department, which will determine whether to bring any charges against Meadows, after previously doing so against Trump ally Steve Bannon.
During debate on the floor Tuesday evening, and earlier in the day, in the House Rules Committee, members of the Jan. 6 select committee released new text messages from the tranche of records Meadows had turned over to the committee.
“I heard Jeff Clark is getting put in on Monday. That’s amazing. It will make a lot of patriots happy, and I’m personally so proud that you are at the tip of the spear, and I could call you a friend,” a text to Meadows from an unknown number read, according to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
The new messages further underscored Meadows’s importance to the congressional investigation, as a key figure in Trump’s orbit who personally participated in discussions about challenging the election results and advocated for voter fraud investigations from his perch in the West Wing.
“Mr. Meadows’s testimony will bear on another key question before this committee: Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress’s official proceeding to count electoral votes?” Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair, said Tuesday.
On Jan. 3, Meadows told an unnamed member of Congress that Trump “thinks the legislatures have the power but that the Vp has power too,” according to Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., who read the message about the counting of the electoral votes on the House floor.
On Nov. 4th, an unnamed member of Congress texted Meadows that Republican-led legislatures should “just send their own electors to Congress” to challenge the official results in key states, and allow the Supreme Court to determine how to award the votes and the winner of the election.
Lawmakers on the panel argued that Meadows, despite his deference to Trump’s alleged claims of executive privilege, was improperly refusing to appear under subpoena to discuss topics referenced in the materials he already shared with Congress or mentioned in his new memoir.
Meadows turned over some 9,000 documents from personal email accounts and a cell phone to the committee, including urgent text messages from Republican lawmakers imploring him to get Trump to something to stop the violence.
But he then reversed course and refused to appear under subpoena to answer questions about the records he provided.
During Monday’s committee meeting, before members voted unanimously to recommend Meadows be held in contempt, Cheney quoted extensively from text messages sent to Meadows during the riot from Fox News hosts, GOP lawmakers and Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son.
Cheney said the messages left “no doubt” the White House “knew exactly what was happening” at the Capitol during the riot.
“He’s got to condemn [the riot] ASAP,” Trump Jr. told Meadows in a text message, according to Cheney, saying that Trump’s tweet about Capitol Police “is not enough.”
“I’m pushing it hard,” Meadows replied. “I agree.”
“We need an Oval Office address,” Trump Jr. said in a follow up message. “He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”
“Please get him on tv,” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade wrote to Meadows. “Destroying everything you have accomplished.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., read aloud from text messages Meadows received from unnamed GOP lawmakers before and after the riot.
“Yesterday was a terrible day,” one wrote. “We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked.”
Cheney quoted again from text messages Tuesday morning.
“It is really bad up here on the Hill,” one message read.
In another, an unnamed lawmaker texted Meadows: “Fix this now.”
“We need to question him about emails and texts he has given us without any claims of privilege,” Cheney said.
Commitee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Tuesday that “only three people” of “over 300” have not cooperated with the committee. He shared that Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is among those scheduled to cooperate and speak to investigators.
“I have no great desire to be here seeking consideration of this contempt referral. Mr. Meadows was a colleague for more than seven years. But that doesn’t excuse his behavior. If anything, his time as a member of the House should make him more aware of the potential consequences of defying a congressional subpoena,” Thompson said.
Republicans for the most part defended Meadows and suggested the committee’s push to hold Meadows in contempt would squander any chance they had to secure his cooperation.
“Today they are destroying executive privilege,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said on the House floor. “It is a vote to put a good man in prison.”
In a statement Tuesday, Meadows attorney George Terwilliger said his client “never stopped cooperating” with the panel. “What message does that duplicity send to him as well as to others who might be inclined to consider cooperating in good faith to the extent possible?”
Democrats and Republicans aligned with the committee blasted Meadows’ argument, pointing to the fact that he published a memoir detailing conversations with Trump around Jan. 6.
“This is a witness who is refusing to comply with the law,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said. “But look at his book and you get more information than our committee did.”
Trump ally Steve Bannon was charged with two counts of contempt of Congress for rebuffing the committee’s subpoenas and has pleaded not guilty. That trial is scheduled to begin in July 2022.
Tuesday’s episode of The Bachelorette, saw Michelle and her three remaining suitors leaving Minnesota in favor of the beautiful beaches of Mexico for the fantasy suite dates.
It was also the last chance for Brandon, Joe and Nayte to open up to Michelle like never before if they expect to win one of the two remaining roses up for grabs.
Ahead of the dates, Michelle told co-host Kaitlyn Bristowe where she stood with each of the men: she had “no concerns” with Brandon going into their date; while Michelle “loved” everything she’d seen of Joe so far, their relationship needed to progress a little further. Nayte, was “a good-looking dude” with “a lot of depth,” but Michelle wondered if she loved him more than he loved her.
Each man passed muster, with Brandon telling Michelle, “Since day one when I met you, I knew that you were the one,” before vowing, “‘Til I take my last breath, I will put you first.”
Joe, noted that Michelle’s passion for teaching paired with his ability to bounce back after a devastating sports injury and use that to inspire others would make him and Michelle a “powerful couple.”
During their one-on-one date, Michelle asked Nayte point blank if he was ready for an engagement, to which he responded, “Most definitely.”
That left Michelle wondering ahead of the rose ceremony if she could possibly be in love with all three men, leading to her toughest elimination yet.
Brandon added to the tension by interrupting the ceremony to have a word with Michelle alone.
After reiterating his promise to always put her first, they rejoined the other men, where a devastated Joe learned that he was going home.
The three-hour Bachelorette finale airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Mammoth WVH and Dirty Honey may have some new tunes holstered for their upcoming Young Guns tour.
Speaking with ABC Audio, both Mammoth’s Wolfgang Van Halen and Dirty Honey’s Marc LaBelle reveal that they plan to work on fresh material ahead of the co-headlining outing, which kicks off in January.
“I’ve seen people online [saying], ‘Oh, this is gonna be my third Mammoth show!'” Van Halen says. “And it’s, like, ‘Well, s***, we better play some new stuff!'”
Wolf, who released the debut Mammoth album this past June, adds that he’s been “looking forward to getting in the studio,” and he already has “a bunch of fully realized ideas.”
“I think why not throw one or two of them in the set every night to kind of have that little mini audition in the middle of there to gauge on crowd reaction, if it’s worth it,” he says.
LaBelle, meanwhile, feels he and his band mates are “just now starting to get into that writing phase” to follow Dirty Honey’s first full-length, which dropped in April.
“It just feels like the right time to be writing,” LaBelle says. “We’re gonna be exploring ideas the next couple months here before we go out.”
LaBelle adds that he feels the road is a great place to workshop new stuff.
“One of the most productive spots to write in is at soundcheck when all your stuff is set up at a venue and you can really get a sense for how a song is gonna go over at a venue,” he says. “I think that’s really a priceless thing of being on tour, is having that opportunity.”
The Young Guns tour launches January 18 in Philadelphia.
KISS bassist/singer Gene Simmons says a museum celebrating his famous band currently is being built in Las Vegas at the Rio hotel and casino, which already houses the KISS by Monster Mini Golf attraction.
In a recent phone interview, Simmons told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he expects the museum to open by March 2022.
“[It] is really just my collection, because I’ve got a half-century of KISS stuff,” Simmons he revealed to the newspaper. “I want the fans to see it.”
According to the paper, the museum will be connected to a planned 15,000-square-foot KISS-themed space that includes the mini golf course.
“It’s going to be breathtaking,” Simmons declared. “We have three tractor-trailers full of stuff, and it’s going to be spectacular. The fans are going to dig it. You can play golf, you can have your photo taken, you can take videos of yourself onstage with KISS, and then go visit my private collection.”
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer said that “hundreds and hundreds” of items will be on display, including costumes, stage props, gold and platinum albums and much more.
Meanwhile, Simmons also said he’s hoping to reschedule KISS’ recently canceled Las Vegas residency at Zappos Theater, which was to have run from late December of this year through early February 2022.
Gene explained that he wanted to reschedule the shows in six months or a year, when there aren’t as many artists performing in Vegas.
“With all due respect to other all the other artists who are terrific, and who are great and iconic, we’d rather wait for the traffic to die down and bring the best show on Earth, period,” Simmons told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
