Walker Hayes‘ viral crossover hit “Fancy Like” is getting some extra pop star power. The country rapper has just released a new version of the song, featuring Kesha.
“It’s going down…I’m yelling timber… I do words for a living and I don’t even how to communicate my excitement,” Walker said on social media ahead of the song’s release.
Kesha also sang the praises of “Fancy Like,” saying, “This song speaks to me on a very deep level. I’m fancy like…. A southern b**** who loves a Waffle House after a night at the dive bar n karaoke…. How u fancy like?”
Walker included “Fancy Like” on his latest Country Stuff album. The song, which went viral thanks to a TikTok dance Walker posted with his daughter, Lela, has inspired two Applebee’s commercials, and the return of the restaurant chain’s famous Oreo shake.
Ed Sheeran has joined the lineup for the MTV VMAs this Sunday, MTV confirms.
The singer will deliver a performance of his new song, “Shivers,” which he released on Friday. He joins previously announced performers Justin Bieber, Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes, Olivia Rodrigo and more.
Ed’s up for three VMAs this year: Video of the Year, Best Art Direction and Best Choreography, for his song “Bad Habits.”
Doja Cat hosts this year’s ceremony, airing this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.
Two of Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme‘s children have filed for a domestic violence restraining order against their father, TMZ reports.
According to documents obtained by the site, Homme’s sons Orrin, 10, and Wolf, 5, submitted documents through their mother and Homme’s ex-wife, The Distillers‘ Brody Dalle.
TMZ reports that the docs accuse Homme of verbal and physical abuse, including hitting and throwing things at his children, grabbing them inappropriately, and threatening to kill Dalle’s boyfriend. The kids also allege that Homme drove them while drinking alcohol. They describe Homme as “scary,” and are requesting that he must stay 100 yards away from them.
In a statement to TMZ, Homme’s lawyer says, “Ms. Dalle has previously brought these claims to the police, DCFS, and the presiding judge of the family law court, all of whom have declined to take any action based upon these spurious claims.”
TMZ does not mention whether Homme and Dalle’s oldest child, daughter Camille, is involved.
Both Homme and Dalle previously filed restraining orders against each other following their divorce in 2019.
For anyone affected by abuse and needing support, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 1-866-331-9474.
Twenty years ago Saturday, Mariah Carey’s most maligned and misunderstood album, Glitter, was released. Here’s the story of this project, which is now a cult classic.
Mariah had been planning a movie and soundtrack project called All that Glitters since 1997, but didn’t get a chance to work on it until she signed a new five-album, $100 million contract with Virgin Records in April of 2001.
But on July 19, after the release of the soundtrack’s lead single, “Loverboy,” Mariah made a bizarre appearance on MTV’s Total Request Live, handing out ice cream to fans and stripping off her shirt to reveal a more revealing outfit. “Loverboy” failed to reach number one — which, in Mariah terms, made it a “flop.”
After the TRL incident, Mariah posted a voice note on her website saying she’d like to “take a little break.” On July 26, she was hospitalized for two weeks, citing “extreme exhaustion” and a “physical and emotional breakdown.” Mariah would later reveal in 2018 that it was during this time that she was diagnosed with Bipolar II disorder.
As Mariah became the butt of late-night jokes, the release of Glitter the album was delayed from August 21 to, unfortunately, September 11. When it finally emerged, critics disliked its ‘80s vibe and felt Mariah was overshadowed by the album’s many guest stars, which included rappers Ludacris, Da Brat, Busta Rhymes, Fabolous and others.
Glitter was the lowest-selling album of Mariah’s career to that point — something she would later blame on the 9/11 terrorist attacks — but when the film also flopped at the box office, Virgin Records dropped her.
Flash forward to 2018: Mariah Carey fans launched a #JusticeForGlitter social media campaign, urging people to buy the album. It worked: The album ultimately reached number one on iTunes. A grateful Mariah, then on tour supporting her album, Caution, added a medley of songs from Glitter to her tour set list.
Many music critics subsequently changed their tune, praising Glitter as “brilliant,” “undeniably ahead of its time” and “the perfect ‘80s tribute.”
In 2018, former Journey frontman Steve Perry returned to music with Traces, his first new solo album in 24 years. Now he’s set to release his first-ever collection of holiday tunes.
The Season, which is due out on November 5, features Perry’s renditions of eight classic yuletide tunes, including “Winter Wonderland,” “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” “Auld Lang Syne,” “Silver Bells” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
“I hope when people hear this record, they’re teleported in the same way I was when I recorded all these songs,” says Steve. “I hope it brings them back to those golden moments with their loved ones and gives them that feeling of joy and connection and comfort that we all need so much.”
In conjunction with the album announcement, Perry has debuted one of the songs as a digital single, a jazzy, stripped-down rendition of “I’ll be Home for Christmas.”
“When I was recording vocals for ‘I’ll be Home for Christmas,’ as I was singing ‘Please have snow and mistletoe and presents under the tree’…I was emotionally thrown into standing in my grandmother’s house staring through the door that I always hung mistletoe and then I saw her beautiful Christmas tree in front of her living room window,” Perry notes. “I had to stop singing because it felt like I was really there…I was a bit stunned…Back Home for Christmas is where everyone wants to be!”
The Season, which you can pre-order now, is available in multiple formats, including CD, digital, streaming and vinyl. Various limited-edition colored-vinyl versions of the album can be purchased at Perry’s official online store, Target and Barnes & Noble.
Here’s the full track list of The Season:
“The Christmas Song”
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
“Auld Lang Syne”
“Winter Wonderland”
“What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve”
“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
“Silver Bells”
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
Carly Pearce is celebrating receiving two CMA Awards nominations this week, but it hasn’t all been good news for the singer. Carly, who was recently honored with an official Carly Pearce Day on September 2, in her hometown of Taylor Mill, KY, had a sign placed at the entrance to the town, which read “Welcome to Taylor Mill, Hometown of Country Music Star, Carly Pearce.”
Unfortunately, the sign was stolen less than a week after it was erected.
“She was nice enough to take pictures with a lot of the police officers that helped protect her that day. Unfortunately, just yesterday morning, somebody had stolen that sign,” Taylor Mill Police Chief Steve Knauf told WKRC TV, adding that someone removed the bolts and took it off of the metal poles where it was attached.
“They purposely put it up high so people could see it but also to deter theft,” he added. “We are thinking it was probably a two-person job.”
Pearce was also given a key to the city, a place she credits with instilling in her a love of country music.
“This is where my love of country music began, and I’m so grateful and proud Taylor Mill, KY is my hometown,” Carly said at the time.
Carly received CMA Awards nominations for both Album of the Year (for 29) and Female Vocalist of the Year.
Glass Animals has released a new song called “I Don’t Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance).”
“Talking is great, don’t get me wrong,” says frontman Dave Bayley. “But this pandemic has made so many of us look inwards in a way we maybe haven’t before. The uncertainty in the world and the inability to go out and create new memories makes you dig deep into the past. It really fed people’s deepest insecurities and rattled our foundations in so many ways.”
“It felt like we were all put in a pressure cooker, but there was no way to let out the steam,” he continues. “That’s what this track is about — that pressure cooker exposing and expanding so many cracks, but struggling to fill them in and decompress. I want people to switch their devices off, put this song on, close their eyes, and have that release for a moment.”
You can listen to “I Don’t Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance)” now via digital outlets. Its accompanying video, which, fittingly, includes a whole lot of dancing, is streaming now on YouTube.
“I Don’t Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance)” follows Glass Animals’ 2020 album, Dreamland, which includes the singles “Heat Waves” and “Your Love (Déjà Vu).”
Mastodon has announced a new album called Hushed and Grim.
The eighth full-length effort from the Atlanta metallers — and their first since 2017’s Emperor of Sand — will arrive October 29. You can listen to the first single, titled “Pushing the Tides,” now via digital outlets.
Hushed and Grim is also a tribute to Mastodon’s late manager Nick John, who passed away in 2018.
Here’s the Hushed and Grim track list:
“Pain with an Anchor”
“The Crux”
“Sickle and Peace”
“More than I Could Chew”
“The Beast”
“Skeleton of Splendor”
“Teardrinker”
“Pushing the Tides”
“Peace and Tranquility”
“Dagger”
“Had It All”
“Savage Lands”
“Gobblers of Dregs”
“Eyes of Serpents”
“Gigantium”
Rolling Stones fans in the U.S. will have an additional chance to see the band on their upcoming 2021 No Filter Tour. The British rock legends have just announced that a second concert at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles has been confirmed for October 14, three days before the previously scheduled show at the venue will take place.
Tickets for the October 14 performance go on sale to the general public on Friday, September 17 at 10 p.m. PT via RollingStones.com.
Pre-sale tickets will be available for people who’ve signed up for the Stones mailing list starting Wednesday, September 15 at 10 a.m. PT. You can sign up for the mailing list at uk-umg.com.
The Rolling Stones’ U.S. tour leg, which now features 13 dates, kicks off September 26 in St. Louis and is mapped out through a November 20 concert in Austin, Texas. The trek will feature lauded session drummer Steve Jordan stepping for the band’s beloved longtime beat keeper Charlie Watts, who died August 24 at age 80. Jordan’s participation was arranged prior to Watts’ unexpected passing.
Meanwhile, in honor of Watts, the band is asking fans to share photos and memories of Charlie and of their favorite pieces of vintage Rolling Stones-related memorabilia, artwork and more, on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #mystonesmerch. The Stones also have been displaying many of the images on a fan wall that you can check out at digital.umusic.com/rollingstones.
Twenty years ago Saturday, the 9/11 attacks took place. Two decades later, it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t remember where they were when they first heard the news.
Scotty McCreery was a second grader.
“I think they even let us out of school early…” he recalls. “I’m still so young at that point. So, I had the basketball in my right hand. And I was like, ‘Can I go see if Michael wants to play or something?’ And Mom’s like, ‘No. We have to sit down and watch the news. Something terrible’s happened.'”
Luke Bryan had just moved to Nashville ten days earlier.
“I was in the bed and my sister woke me up kind of frantically on the phone,” he remembers, “and she goes, ‘Hey, turn on the news.’ A plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center.”
Meanwhile, Keith Urban was in Florida on vacation, having stayed over after playing a show.
“I remember that morning,” he reflects. “I didn’t turn the news on, and I’m really grateful that I didn’t because I had a few extra hours before I was aware of this reality that was going on that would change everything… I couldn’t take it in. It was too surreal.”
Since air travel came to a halt, Keith was stuck in the Sunshine State until his bus could come and get him.
“My mom was staying with me at the time,” he remembers, “and she was panicked and worried about me being away, and was anxious for me to get home.”
For Luke as well, it was “a really trying time” when he just wanted to drive home to be with his family in Georgia.
“It was certainly something that shook the whole world,” he says, looking back on that day.
