Music

Some top female pop stars joined a dozens of rockers Tuesday night in Los Angeles to pay tribute to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who passed away in March while the band was on tour in Colombia.

It was the second star-studded tribute concert held in Hawkins’ memory; the previous one was held in London earlier this month. Unlike the London show, the LA tribute did not stream online, but, the Los Angeles Times‘ live recap, it still boasted an epic night of impromptu supergroups often backed by the Foos themselves.

Alanis Morissette, who employed Hawkins as a drummer for her Jagged Little Pill tour in the ’90s, performed “You Oughta Know” with Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers on drums.

Miley Cyrus, who was friendly with Hawkins, sang Def Leppard’s classic “Photograph” with the band’s Joe Elliott, Rick Savage and Phil Collen backing her up. 

Hawkins played drums on the song “We Could Have It All” from Pink’s 2019 album, Hurts 2 B Human. At the concert, Pink sang Heart‘s “Barracuda” alongside Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson and Foo Fighters. She also joined Foo Fighters for their song “Pretender” and sang Queen‘s “Somebody to Love” with Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. The Queen tune is one that Hawkins himself often performed during Foo Fighters’ shows.

Hawkins’ side project, Chevy Metal, performed David Bowie’s “Heroes” with Kesha on vocals.

The concert also featured members of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Rush, Mötley Crüe, Joan Jett, The Cars and The Police.  It ended around 1 a.m. local time with a full-band performance of “Everlong,” which Foos frontman Dave Grohl played solo to finish the London show.

Proceeds from the concert are being donated to MusiCares and Music Support.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Foo Fighters held their second star-studded tribute concert to late drummer Taylor Hawkins Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

Unlike the first show, which took place in London earlier this month, the LA tribute did not stream online, but, according to the Los Angeles Times‘ live recap, it still boasted an epic night of impromptu supergroups often backed by the Foos themselves.

Among the highlights were Joan Jett jamming “Cherry Bomb” with Blink-182‘s Travis Barker on drums; Def Leppard‘s Joe Elliott, Rick Savage and Phil Collen playing “Photograph” with vocals by Miley Cyrus; Pink joining Heart‘s Nancy Wilson for “Barracuda”; The Pretty Reckless‘ Taylor Momsen belting Soundgarden classics alongside Matt Cameron, Kim Thayil and Nirvana‘s Krist Novoselic; and Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich and Black Sabbath‘s Geezer Butler rocking Sabbath tunes while Sebastian Bach sang.

Attendees also saw Alanis Morissette, with whom Hawkins played drums before joining the Foos, perform “You Oughta Know” with Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers on drums; comedian Dave Chappelle cover Radiohead‘s “Creep”; Wolfgang Van Halen rip Van Halen‘s “Panama”; Mötley Crüe‘s Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee play “Home Sweet Home”; and Tool‘s Danny Carey join Rush‘s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson for “YYZ.”

As with the London concert, the LA show ended with a triumphant Foo Fighters set featuring various guest drummers, including Smith, Barker, Cameron, Rage Against the Machine‘s Brad Wilk, David Bowie, Omar Hakim, Weezer‘s Patrick Wilson and Hawkins’ son, Shane, who once again manned the kit for “My Hero,” as well as the song “I’ll Stick Around.”

The night ended around 1 a.m. local time with a full-band performance of “Everlong,” which Dave Grohl played solo to finish the London show.

Proceeds from the concert are being donated to MusiCares and Music Support.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

We’re months away from learning who is up for an Academy Award, but fans are hoping Doja Cat scores a nod for “Vegas,” the original song she performed for the Baz Luhrmann biopic, Elvis. But, will the Academy recognize a song that samples a previously existing hit?

Variety took a deep dive into Doja’s chances of scoring her first Oscar nod and ruled: “Maybe.” The issue here is that “Vegas” samples a portion of Big Mama Thornton‘s 1952 hit “Hound Dog.” Elvis later covered the song in 1956.

Doja credits “Hound Dog” songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in her new track, which uses the line “you ain’t nothin’ but a…” repeatedly. The outlet notes herein lies the issue with her song’s eligibility.

The Oscars mandate that nominated songs “must be the result of a creative interaction between the filmmaker(s) and the composer(s) and/or songwriter(s) who have been engaged to work directly on the motion picture.” That condition might not have been satisfied since Lieber died in 2011; it’s been reported Stoller was not involved in the movie.

Variety also notes Leiber and Stoller might be excluded from consideration themselves because they would be considered “partial contributors,” which, according to the Oscar’s rulebook, are those who were “not responsible for the overall design of the work.”

Finally, a song “must be a clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition” in the movie — of which Variety notes that less than 45 seconds of “Vegas” appears in the film. The portion used is the “Hound Dog” interpolation. 

Despite this, it appears Doja’s song has found itself in a gray area because of its unique story and nature. It is unknown at this time if she’s up for an Oscar, but we’ll find out when nominations are announced on January 24.

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Taylor Swift took to TikTok Tuesday night to reveal the latest track name from her upcoming album, Midnights, as part of her ongoing “Midnights Mayhem with Me” series.

Using her ping-pong-balls-in-a-bingo-cage method, Taylor plucked the ball marked with the number six, and revealed that track six on the album is called “Midnight Rain.”

“Midnight Rain” joins track 13, “Mastermind,” track eight, “Vigilante S**t,” and track seven, “Question…?”

Midnights, which has 13 tracks in all, arrives October 21.

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Kevin Hart is defending Will Smith when it comes to the Chris Rock Oscars slap.

The topic came up during the comedian’s appearance on the September 24 episode of Drink Champs when he was asked to choose between Smith and Ice Cube. After calling both the actor and rapper his “brothers” he ultimately chose the fellow Philadelphia native. 

“I’mma say Will Smith, and here’s why: Will Smith is a f******, he’s not only a legend, he’s not only a GOAT… [he] is the reason why the idea of African Americans attached to global IP is normal,” Hart said. “Studios took the gamble on more leads of color because of the work that Will Smith, Denzel [Washington] were doing in the beginning, right? You need the faces that are giving the universal return. So I’m not gonna s*** on Will and act like he hasn’t been, and wasn’t, that guy.”

In response to hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN‘s jokes about the Oscars slap, Hart added, “And people make mistakes, and from mistakes they should be allowed time to f****** recover.”

“And that this is no longer the world’s problem, it’s Will and Chris’ problem. Let them deal with that,” he continued. “The world should step out of it and let them recover.”

(Video includes uncensored profanity.)

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Post Malone is getting back in the swing of things after cancelling his Boston show over the weekend.

“Cleveland, I will be singing the F*** outta some songs tonight see y’all tonight,” he tweeted Tuesday, hours before hitting the stage at the city’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. 

The news comes after Malone cancelled his show at Boston’s TD Garden Arena on Saturday after he “woke up to a cracking sounds on the right side of my body.” He also said he was “having a very difficult time breathing, and there’s like a stabbing pain whenever I breathe or move.”

The injuries apparently stem from a fall the 28-year-old suffered while performing in St. Louis the week prior, causing him to end the concert early. He later took to social media to explain what happened and apologize to fans for cutting his set short. 

“So whenever we do the acoustic part of the show the guitar is on the guitar stand and it goes down,” he said. “And there’s this big a** hole, so I go around there and I turn the corner and bust my a**.”

“Winded me pretty good, got me pretty good,” he added before sharing that “everything’s good” after we visited the hospital and received pain meds.

Malone’s next stop is Wednesday night in Pittsburgh. 

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Garth Brooks has finally gotten a tattoo, but he’s staying mum on what it is. 

Back in 2014, Garth promised his youngest daughter, Allie Colleen, who was turning 18 at the time, that he would one day get a tattoo. When he announced their deal during an episode of Inside Studio G in January 2022, he revealed that he had to get the tattoo before the end of the year, a process that started during the final days of his Stadium Tour in Dublin, Ireland.  

“It has started,” Garth confirms. “I think everyone thought it was a joke, but it has started.”

Though the superstar is staying silent on what the tattoo is, wife Trisha Yearwood dropped a hint in the comment section on the Inside Studio G video writing, “the tattoo is fire, so hot!!!”  

Though Allie has multiple tattoos, this marks Garth’s first. 

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If you’re going to see the new Ronnie James Dio documentary, maybe bring some tissues along with your metal horns.

The film, titled Dio: Dreamers Never Die, follows the metal legend’s entire musical career from his days as a ’50s doo-wop singer and forming the band Elf to joining Ritchie Blackmore‘s Rainbow and replacing the fired Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath to finally launching his own namesake band, Dio.

It continues throughout the ’80s and into the ’90s, with Ronnie’s career taking a plunge amid to the grunge and alternative explosion, to his triumphant reunion in the 2000s with former Black Sabbath bandmates in the band Heaven & Hell, and his untimely death of stomach cancer in 2010.

Making Dreamers Never Die was a “bittersweet” experience for Ronnie’s widow, Wendy Dio, who’s an executive producer on the film.

“When we were going through all the archives and everything … there was certain things I laughed about, and then other things I cried about,” Wendy tells ABC Audio. “It was just a very emotional journey.”

Wendy adds the film’s directors, Don Argott and Demian Fenton, were “just amazing.”

“They just did everything that I wanted and more,” she says. “I was so, so proud of this movie.”

Ronnie’s story struck Fenton as one different from the usual rock ‘n’ roll tale.

“Normally you hear the story about the young rock people, rocker gets discovered early on and everything crashes and burns and all this stuff, but Ronnie is the opposite,” Fenton says. “He worked for years, he worked for decades honing his craft, learning about who he was as an artist.”

Dio: Dreamers Never Die will be shown in theaters on September 28 and October 2. For more info, visit DioDreamersNeverDie.com.

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Reba McEntire was instantly intrigued by the character description for Sunny Barnes when she was pitched the role on season 3 of Big Sky. 

The country legend initially got a call from executive producer Elwood Reid about joining the cast, prefacing that Sunny is a “very dark character,” which immediately piqued her interest.

In addition to her storied career in country music, Reba is known for playing the titular role in Reba, which ran for six seasons on The WB and The CW until 2007. She also transitioned to Broadway in 2001 as the lead role of Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun. When presented with the opportunity to appear on Big Sky, Reba knew the role would push her out of her comfort zone. 

“I was like, ‘I’ve never gotten to play a dark character before.’ I’m always either funny or I’m the matriarch of the family, like on the Reba TV show,” she describes. “But this was something different, and my whole team and I were very excited about it.”

Sunny co-owns a camping company with her husband, Bucky Barnes, portrayed by Reba’s real-life boyfriend, Rex Linn. And though the couple seem pleasant on the surface, the actress hints things aren’t always what they seem. 

“It’s like glamping, and we have a really good time taking care of all of our customers. Everybody has a wonderful time and we make sure everybody’s safe,” she says with a chuckle. 

The singer notes that while Elwood offered some details on her character’s plot line, he didn’t give away all the details. “Every time we get a script, it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so good,'” she says. 

Big Sky airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC. 

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