The “Welcome to the Jungle” rockers have premiered a new song called “Hard Skool.” It’s the second fresh tune from GN’R in as many months, following the August release of “Absurd.”
The new track is available now as a digital download and via streaming services.
Like “Absurd,” the origins of “Hard Skool” date back to sessions for Chinese Democracy, the long-fabled GN’R album that finally became a reality in 2008, with frontman Axl Rose as the only original member still in the band.
Chinese Democracy remains the most recent Guns N’ Roses album. “Absurd” and “Hard Skool” mark the band’s first new music since Slash and Duff McKagan rejoined in 2016.
Ever wonder how The Spice Girls got their iconic nicknames? Melanie C, a.k.a. Sporty Spice, revealed the answer in a recent interview with E!’s Daily Pop.
“Originally, when we were forming as a girl band, we were trying to find out a look,” she explained. However, she says they were “uncomfortable” all dressing alike, as was typical for pop bands at the time.
So one day, she and her singing partners, which included Victoria Beckham, Mel B, Geri Halliwell and Emma Bunton, noticed they all had their own distinctive sense of style — Mel C in her sweatpants, Geri in something quirky and Mel B like “a leopard.”
Mel C says they thought, “We kind of look great as this mish-mash, let’s just do it.”
And subsequently, when a London-based magazine gave each Spice Girl a nickname — Baby, Sporty, Ginger, etc. — based on their respective styles, Mel C says they decided to “embrace them and run with it.”
Mel C is a contestant on this season’s Dancing with the Stars and even channeled her Sporty Spice alter ego for the premiere: She and her partner Gleb Savchenko danced to the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the group’s debut album, Spice.
Dancing with the Stars, now in its 30th season, airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
As the lyrics say, they “come from different sides” — of the world, but Coldplay and BTS have managed to blend both of their styles into their upbeat new collaboration, “My Universe.”
The song and its lyric video are out now, with the song’s words in English and Korean displayed in handwritten fonts over a cosmic background.
An official video, directed by Dave Meyers, is “coming very soon.”
“My Universe” is the second single from Coldplay’s upcoming album Music of the Spheres, due out October 15.
As previously reported, on Sunday, September 26, at 8 a.m. ET, a documentary about the song called Inside My Universe will premiere. Later that day, look for the release of an acoustic version of “My Universe,” as well as a “Supernova 7” mix, at 7 p.m. ET.
Both Coldplay and BTS are taking part in the Global Citizen Live 24-hour streaming even that starts on Saturday on ABC News Live and various other platforms.
When Kenny Rogers tried to record “Islands in the Stream” solo, it just didn’t work. But it wasn’t long before he and producer/writer Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees suspected Dolly Parton might be what was missing. She happened to be nearby in Los Angeles, and a country/pop classic was born.
Last year when CMA and ACM Group of the Year Old Dominion traveled to North Carolina to write and record their fourth album, a similar thing happened on a song called “Lonely Side of Town.”
“We weren’t thinking about having a collaboration on it,” lead singer Matthew Ramsey tells ABC Audio. “We had written it, and we’d tracked it, and were just listening to it and thought, like ‘Man it would be cool to have somebody like Gladys Knight on this thing.'”
“It’s this weird mix of like Motown and the Eagles kind of in one song,” he explains, “and we could just hear her on it. And when we said her name, somebody was like, ‘She lives in Asheville… right down the street from us.'”
“So it was just kinda like this moment of ‘This has to be meant to be then,'” Matthew remembers.
From there, it wasn’t long before the 77-year-old “Midnight Train to Georgia” hitmaker arrived.
“We talked to the studio manager and she was like, ‘Oh, yeah. I’m great friends with them, I’ll call her,'” Matthew recalls in minor disbelief. “And so she called her and Gladys was like, ‘I love those guys. I don’t even need to hear the song. I’ll be a part of it.'”
“So it was amazing,” he laughs.
You can hear Matthew and the soul legend contemplate a trip to the “Lonely Side of Town” when Time, Tequila, & Therapy arrives October 8.
The four-song collection arrives just six months after the former Beatles drummer’s previous release, the five-track Zoom In EP.
During a Zoom press conference this week promoting Change the World, Starr explained that he hoped the EP would bring his fans “joy.” He also noted that the record’s lead track, “Let’s Change the World,” offers an important message regarding climate change and pollution.
Reflecting on the song, which was written by Toto‘s Joseph Williams and Steve Lukather, Ringo maintained, “[H]alf the world’s on fire, half of it’s under water and [politicians are] still wondering, ‘Well, we can’t do that’…And I think we have to do a lot. So I’d like to change the world for the kids.”
The second track is a reggae tune titled “Just That Way,” which Ringo co-wrote with his longtime engineer Bruce Sugar, and features veteran reggae guitarist Tony Chin and bassist Fully Fullwood.
“I got [a] real bass player and guitar from Jamaica playing on it…which gives it more force,” Ringo said. “And for me, it’s so great, ’cause I get to play with those guys.”
Track three is the country-influenced “Coming Undone,” which was penned by hit-making songwriter/producer Linda Perry. The song features contributions from acclaimed New Orleans musician Trombone Shorty, who added a brass section that, according to Starr, completely transformed the tune.
The EP finishes with a cover of one of Ringo’s favorite early rock ‘n’ roll tunes, “Rock Around the Clock.”
The track features a guitar solo by Starr’s brother-in-law, Joe Walsh, that Ringo said not only “rocked” but was different than any solo he’s heard on other versions of the tune.
Alessia Cara is releasing her new album In the Meantime today, but tomorrow, she’ll be one of more than 50 artists appearing on Global Citizen Live, which is being held worldwide over 24 hours. Alessia will be in New York with Billie Eilish, Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello and Jennifer Lopez, while others will be performing in cities from Paris to Sydney. Alessia says she feels that since she does have a platform, she might as well use it to support things that she believes in.
“We have artists and people in the spotlight — whether they’re on TV or on the radio or have any sort of soapbox to stand on — you know, we have access to so many ears and eyes,” the Grammy-winning Canadian star points out. “And I feel like it’s sometimes a waste if you’re just being greedy with it and just doing it for selfish reasons.”
“Not that if you don’t participate in charity things, you’re a selfish person,” she clarifies. “But I always feel like…since I have this platform, like I might as well help out as much as possible.”
She continues, “It’s obviously wonderful to do it in your small community, but if you have access to tons of people, like, why not spread the message further, and do what you can?”
“So I always feel like it’s important to do my part as a citizen of the world and as someone with a platform, to talk about things that I believe in, and that are important to me,” Alessia declares.
Global Citizen Live, which will air on ABC News Live and other platforms, urges people to take action by asking world leaders to come together to end COVID-19, hunger and poverty, and protect the environment.
In the very likely event you missed Metallica‘s last-minute concerts in San Francisco and Chicago this past week, you can still pretend you were there from the comfort of your own home.
The streaming site Nugs.net is offering full audio from both shows to its members. You can sign up at Nugs.net/metallica.
The San Francisco show, which took place on September 16, featured an audience of just 400 people, and marked Metallica’s first full live, in-person concert in 738 days. On September 20, the metal legends headlined the 1,100-capacity Metro in Chicago, which they hadn’t played since 1983.
Metallica’s next scheduled shows are headlining sets this Friday and Sunday at the Louder than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky.
Released on October 1, 1971, Teaser and the Firecat reached #2 on the Billboard 200. It featured three of the singer/songwriter’s most enduring tunes: “Morning Has Broken,” “Peace Train,” and “Moonshadow,” which peaked at #6, #7 and #30, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100.
A super-deluxe box set version of the reissue features four CDs, a Blu-ray, two LPs and a seven-inch vinyl single. The CDs feature a newly remastered version of the original album, a variety of unreleased studio recordings, a disc collecting audio of various TV and radio performances, and a CD boasting a full-length 1971 concert in Montreux, Switzerland.
The Blu-ray features an HD-audio version of the album, a 1977 animated video for “Moonshadow” and a 2020 concert clip of “The Wind,” and video of various live TV performances. The LPs feature an alternate version of Teaser and the Firecat on one disc and a selection of live performances from Montreux and the BBC on the other.
The vinyl single features a remastered version of “Moonshadow,” backed with a previously unreleased recording of the late U.K. comedian Spike Milligan reading the narration for the aforementioned animated video.
One of the bonus tracks is a newly recorded version of “Bitterblue,” retitled “Bitterblue².”
The box set also comes packaged with a softcover replica of the original 1972 Teaser and the Firecat book, and a 108-page hardcover essay book.
In advance of the reissue, a previously unheard 1970 demo of “Moonshadow” was released Thursday as a digital track.
Visit Cat Stevens’ official store for more details about the Teaser and the Firecat reissues.
The woman who accused Nicki Minaj‘s husband, Kenneth Petty, of rape in 1994 detailed the alleged incident on Wednesday in her first television interview.
Speaking on The Real, Jennifer Hough declared, “I’m tired of being afraid.”
She said that on September 16, 1994, when Hough and Petty were both 16 years old living in New York City, he grabbed her on the way to school, led her into a house and raped her.
In August, Hough filed a lawsuit against Minaj and Petty, accusing the couple of “witness intimidation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, harassment, assault, battery, sexual assault, and sexual harassment.”
During her interview, Hough revealed that because of the incident, “I had to leave my family, I had to leave my home and I had to move away.”
She added that when Minaj announced she married Petty in October 2019, “I was so afraid of being known as the person he violated. And I didn’t want that. You know, it’s Nicki Minaj. I didn’t want that to reflect on my children.”
Hough says she was distressed by Nicki’s 2018 Instagram comment in which she said Hough was in a relationship with Petty at the time of the incident.
“It wasn’t true,” Hough said. “We were never in a relationship. It just felt woman-to-woman, that was wrong of her because I don’t know you and you don’t know me to know that that statement you put out to the world to be true. You have 150-something million followers on [Instagram]. They all believed it. It hurt coming from another woman.”
As reported previously, earlier this month, Petty pleaded guilty for failure to register as a sex offender in the state of California. He is scheduled for sentencing on January 24, 2022. The 43-year-old, who has homes in New York City and Los Angeles, was registered as sex offender in New York, but not in California. He is required to register as a sex offender in both states after being convicted for the first-degree attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl in 1995, for which he served a four-year prison sentence.
A variety of celebrities, including music stars such as Cyndi Lauper and Barbra Streisand, are calling on entertainment industry leaders to demand action on climate change from Congress.
In a letter addressed to the heads of companies including Facebook, Netflix, Sony, Walt Disney, Apple, Google and Amazon, the artists, working with the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, state that the bosses are “needed to lead our community’s call for action and embrace this vision for a better world.”
“Now is the time to use your influence to shape our future,” the letter continues. “Congress needs to hear you demand, unequivocally, that it put forward and pass the most ambitious climate change agenda in U.S. history.”
The letter asks that the business leaders “demand publicly and loudly that our senators and representatives” pass legislation that is currently before them. The legislation, the letter claims, will “create healthier communities, put millions to work in clean energy jobs, and free us from the fossil fuels that are driving climate change.”
The artists go in to say that they’ll be using their own platforms to remind all Americans to tell their senators and representatives in Congress that they “demand climate action now,” by taking up the president’s agenda.
“Tweet. Post. E-mail. Call. Whatever it takes,” the letter concludes. “This is our moment, and there is no time to waste.”
Others music stars who signed the letter include Coldplay, Adam Levine, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, John Legend, Selena Gomez, Shakira, Lorde, Billie Eilish, Camila Cabello, Dua Lipa,and Demi Lovato, as well as celebs including Leonardo DiCaprio, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Hugh Jackman, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Kerry Washington, Lin-Manuel Miranda, J.J. Abrams, Chris Evans, Ryan Reynolds and Ellen DeGeneres, among many others.
