Music

A who’s-who of stars from the world of music and comedy will pay tribute to Leslie Jordan next month during a special benefit at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. 

Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne, Ashley McBryde, Jelly Roll, rocker Eddie Vedder and more are set to perform. Leslie’s Call Me Kat co-stars Mayim Bialik and Cheyenne Jackson will make special appearances, as well as actors Jim Parsons and Max Greenfield, plus comedian Margaret Cho.

Presales for the February 19 show start this Friday, with proceeds going to EB Research Partnership, one of the actor’s favorite causes. 

Leslie died unexpectedly last October while still promoting his 2021 collaborative country/gospel album, Company’s Comin’. Just last week, Dolly Parton was part of FOX’s tribute episode to the Tennessee native on his sitcom Call Me Kat.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Nothing More has announced a U.S. tour supporting the band’s new album, Spirits.

The headlining trek will begin March 31 in Richmond, Virginia, and will run into late May. Tickets go on sale this Friday, January 13, at 10 a.m. local time.

For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit NothingMore.net.

Spirits, the follow-up to 2017’s The Stories We Tell Ourselves, was released in October. It includes the singles “Tired of Winning” and “You Don’t Know What Love Means.”

Along with the headlining shows, Nothing More will be playing this year’s Sonic Temple festival, taking place May 25-28 in Columbus, Ohio.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

U2 is set to release a new album of old material. The Irish rockers just announced they’re dropping Songs Of Surrender, featuring “40 Songs. Reimagined and rerecorded,” on March 17, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

The album appears to be inspired by Bono’s recently released biography, Surrender: 40 Songs; One Story. Based on the clip of “Beautiful Day” they shared with the announcement, it will feature reworked versions of U2 classics.

U2 fans began getting hints of the new project earlier this week, with folks on Twitter sharing pictures of a  handwritten note from Edge they received in the mail. 

“So what happens when a voice develops and experience and maturity give it additional resonance?” he writes. “U2 have been around long enough to know what that is like. It’s true for us all, but it’s particularly true for Bono,” adding that since the band wrote many of the songs as “very young men,” they “mean something quite different to us now.”

He shares, “Music allows you to time travel and so we started to imagine what it would be like to bring these songs back with us to the present day and give them the benefit or otherwise, of a 21st century re-imagining. What started as an experiment quickly became a personal obsession as so many early U2 songs yielded to a new interpretation.”

Finally, he writes, “Once we surrendered our reverence for the original version each song started to open up to a new authentic voice of this time, of the people we are, and particularly the singer Bono has become.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Britney Spears is setting the record straight about a report claiming she attended talent agent Cade Hudson‘s birthday. She claims she was never there.

It should be noted Hudson is Britney’s agent and is credited with helping her end her conservatorship.

Reports surfaced of Britney’s rumored attendance after Paris Hilton, a longtime friend of hers, shared a series of Instagram photos celebrating Hudson. One snap featured Britney posing with Paris and Hudson, but fans felt something was off about the photo and began spreading a photoshop conspiracy theory. In turn, Paris shut down the claims and called them “absolutely ridiculous.”

TMZ also reported Britney was at the star-studded birthday bash and was seen palling around with Paris all night.

But that appeared to be news to Britney, who posted on Instagram that she didn’t go to the party. Sharing a video of her dancing in a red, Coca Cola-themed outfit, the singer wrote in part, “Also have no idea about these pics of me from a birthday party … I haven’t been to a bday party in forever !!!”

She also may have referenced Paris’ photo kerfuffle, writing, “And as for the pics, those have to be from years ago !!!”

The caption originally said she found it “kind of creepy and weird that no one is talking about that … makes no sense whatsoever,” but she has since edited that out.

Paris has disabled comments on the controversial Instagram post.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

All of Neutral Milk Hotel‘s music will soon be available as a vinyl box set.

The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel is due out February 24. It includes the indie outfit’s two full-length albums — 1996’s On Avery Island and 1998’s seminal In the Aeroplane Over the Sea — as well as the Everything Is and Ferris Wheel on Fire EPs, plus various singles and live recordings.

Also featured is the first-ever official release of the live rarity “Little Birds,” which you can listen to now via digital outlets.

Neutral Milk Hotel first went on hiatus shortly after the release of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea before eventually reuniting in 2013. They continued to play shows throughout 2014 and 2015 before going on hiatus once more.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Poison’s Rikki Rockett is sharing some great health news with fans. The drummer revealed on social media that he’s celebrating his seventh year of being cancer-free.

“Almost 7 years cancer free thanks to the best Dr. in the world, Ezra Cohen,” he shared on social media with a photo of him and his doctor. “Today is a good day!!! Thanks to God and modern medicine!”

Rikki first revealed that he was battling throat cancer in 2015. In July 2016 he shared the news that he was cancer-free.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

So far, there are only a handful of chances to see Tim McGraw in concert this year, and the first one will be Super Bowl weekend in Arizona.

Tim’s set to headline BetMGM West Fest Saturday, February 11, at Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale. Newcomer Bailey Zimmerman will open the outdoor show, which takes place in close proximity to State Farm Stadium, where the game will be played the next day.

The first tickets go on sale Wednesday for BetMGM customers in Arizona via the company’s app, before becoming available to the general public on Thursday. You can find more info here. 

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Meek Mill, Kevin Hart and Michael Rubin are blessing low-income students in Philadelphia with a generous donation to kick off the year. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the trio donated $7 million in scholarships to 60 private schools in the city.

The money will specifically benefit 60 “private and parochial schools in need” and fund laptops, tablets, Wi-Fi connections and other classroom resources.

Students applying for the scholarships must provide their family’s proof of income and demographics to determine their eligibility to receive funding through the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program.

In other Meek-related news, the rapper was recently criticized for filming a video outside the Jubilee House aka Ghana’s official residence and office for the president.

“All those responsible for this despicable desecration of the Jubilee House by Meek Mill must be fired immediately,” wrote Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana’s former deputy education minister. “How do those explicit lyrics from the president’s lectern project Ghana positively? Is Ghana’s seat of government no longer a high security installation?”

Meek issued an apology shortly after. “My apologies to the people if any disrespect!” he tweeted. “We still gonna push to make the connection between black people in America and Africa…what I’m trying to do is more than a video and you should see coming soon! My apologies to the the office also!”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Cardi B and Offset will be gracing our television screens during the Super Bowl. According to TMZ, the couple is featured in a McDonald’s commercial that will air during the football game.

The rap stars reportedly shot the ad with a small crew during the Christmas holiday. They specifically chose a time when they knew many often rest and they’d have the least distractions.  

Sources tell TMZ the ad is going to be Valentine’s Day-themed. It airs February 12, two days before the annual love day celebration and nearly six years since they first went public at the Super Bowl in Houston.

The upcoming McDonald’s commercial will be Cardi’s second Super Bowl ad and Offset’s first.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Ellie Goulding was due to release her fifth studio album, Higher Than Heaven, next month but she has some bad news — fans will have to wait even longer to hear it.

“To my incredible fans- I’m sorry to announce that we’re delaying the release of Higher Than Heaven to March 24,” she posted on Instagram. “I know you’ve all been so patient with me but we’ve had some exciting opportunities appear behind the scenes which I cannot wait to share with you in due course.”

Higher Than Heaven was originally set to be released on February 3. Ellie was very apologetic to her fans and revealed she prepared something special to make up for the delay.

“In the meantime as a thank you for your patience, I’m excited to confirm that my new single is called ‘Like A Saviour.’ It’s coming soon. we’ve shot the video and it’s one of my favourite videos I’ve ever done,” she announced. Ellie said she wanted to release the video as “a small thank you for bearing with me.”

She also had something else up her sleeve. “We also shot something really exciting this past weekend that’ll come around the album’s release. More on that very soon…,” she teased.

Ellie signed off with an optimistic, “Thank you all so much for sticking by me. I can’t wait to finally share this record with you all on March 24 and I hope you love it as much as I do.”

Ellie previously released the tracks “Let It Die” and “Easy Lover” off the new album.

Fans can preorder Higher Than Heaven now.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.