Music

Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett has opened up regarding the response to drummer Taylor Hawkins‘ death.

In an interview with The Plug podcast, Shiflett takes aim at “yahoo[s] on Twitter” spreading conspiracy theories about Hawkins and how he died.

“Especially right after [Hawkins] died, all these Twitter private investigators, they absolutely know what happened, and are sure of it, and it’s all wrong,” Shiflett says. “That’s been really strange to watch.”

“I understand people’s fascination with it, Taylor was this big character and he meant a lot to millions of people all over the world,” the guitarist continues. “But it’s, like, so much of what I’ve seen out there is so completely wrong.”

In addition to conspiracy theories on social media, Shiflett calls Rolling Stone‘s article about Hawkins’ death “complete nonsense, for the most part.” The article, titled “Inside Taylor Hawkins’ Final Days as a Foo Fighter,” features quotes from artists — including Pearl Jam‘s Matt Cameron and Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith — claiming that Hawkins had expressed concern with the amount of touring he had to do with Foo Fighters leading up to his death. Both Cameron and Smith distanced themselves from the article and apologized for taking part.

In speaking about the reaction to Hawkins death, Shiflett seemingly suggests that another Foo Fighters album could be possible. When asked if he’s found in recent press interviews that people have been “awkwardly not asking” about the subject, Shiflett replies, “It probably will be when we ever get around to putting out another Foo Fighter record and go back into the promo boogie woogie.”

Shiflett recently released two singles with his solo country project. He’ll join Foo Fighters for the second of their two tribute concerts to Hawkins Tuesday in Los Angeles.

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The second of Foo Fighters‘ two tribute concerts honoring late drummer Taylor Hawkins takes place tonight, Tuesday, at the Kia Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, Caliornia.

The first show was held at London’s Wembley Stadium on September 3. Many of the artists who performed at the London tribute will be making the trip back across the pond for the LA concert, including Led Zeppelin‘s John Paul Jones, Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich, Rush‘s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, Queen‘s Brian May and Roger Taylor, The Police‘s Stewart Copeland, the Joe Walsh-fronted James Gang, Wolfgang Van Halen, David Bowie drummer Omar Hakim, Blink-182‘s Travis Barker, Queens of the Stone Age‘s Josh Homme, Kesha, session drummer Josh Freese and Hawkins’ cover band Chevy Metal.

The LA lineup also includes Def Leppard‘s Joe Elliott, Phil Collen and Rick Savage, Joan Jett, Heart‘s Nancy Wilson, The Cars‘ Elliot Easton, Mötley Crüe‘s Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx, Soundgarden‘s Matt Cameron and Kim Thayil, Black Sabbath‘s Geezer Butler, Nirvana‘s Krist Novoselic, Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith, Yes vocalist and Hawkins’ childhood friend Jon Davison, Miley Cyrus, Tool‘s Danny Carey, Alanis Morissette, ex-Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, Pink and Rage Against the Machine‘s Brad Wilk.

Additionally, Dave Grohl‘s daughter Violet and Hawkins’ son Shane will perform. Foo Fighters’ performance of “My Hero” with Shane on drums was widely considered to be the highlight of the six-hour London concert.

Like with the London show, proceeds from the LA tribute will be donated to MusiCares and Music Support. Unlike the London show, however, no streaming details have been announced for the LA concert.

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Shakira will stand trial in Spain after being accused of dodging roughly $14 million dollars in unpaid taxes.

A spokesperson in Barcelona for the Audiencia Nacional confirmed to ABC News that the Grammy winner has been ordered to stand trial. Shakira has been charged with tax fraud for allegedly not paying income taxes in Spain between 2012 and 2014. Prosecutors allege she owes the nation roughly 14.5 million euros or $14 million USD.

Spanish prosecutors allege Spain was Shakira’s primary residence during that time period, so she was obligated to pay the country’s income tax.  

The “Objection (Tango)” singer denies any wrongdoing. In a recent interview with ELLE, the hitmaker addressed her legal woes and called them “false accusations.”

Shakira refuted the claim she mainly resided in Spain between 2012 and 2014, adding she was “busy fulfilling my professional commitments around the world.” She noted further, “I’ve paid everything they claimed I owed, even before they filed a lawsuit. So as of today, I owe zero to them.”

The singer also said she was advised by “one of the four biggest tax specialist firms in the world” at the time and is “confident” she was “doing things correctly and transparently from day one.”

She then accused prosecutors of intentionally harming her reputation by planting “salacious” stories about her in the press.

In all, Shakira believes she will be vindicated in court. “I’m confident that I have enough proof to support my case and that justice will prevail in my favor,” she declared.

If convicted, however, Shakira could spend up to eight years in prison and pay a hefty fine.

A trial date has not been announced.  

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Earlier this year, Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine told ABC Audio that a Las Vegas residency was something the band would “absolutely love” to do. Well, now their wish has come true.

The band has announced a residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM starting Friday, March 24, 2023. Called M5LV The Residency, it’ll be custom-designed for the 5,200-seat theater. Right now, the residency has 16 performances scheduled: four in March, four in April, two in July and six in August.

Tickets go on sale Monday, October 3 at 10 a.m. PT via Ticketmaster;  a fan pre-sale starts Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT. In addition, members of MGM Resorts’ loyalty program, plus Live Nation and Ticketmaster customers, will get pre-sale access on Friday at 10 a.m. PT.

James told ABC Audio that one reason the band wanted to do a residency was because, “It opens up possibilities for production, because if you’re doing that many shows in a row in the same place, you can get a little bit more creative on different elements that you can bring to the show.” 

As for what sort of elements they’d like to have, James laughed, “Adam [Levine] has been lobbying to get me to fly above the crowd since day one. So maybe that’s finally going to happen in Vegas!”

Here are the scheduled dates for M5LV:

March 2023: 24, 25, 29 & 31

April 2023: 1, 5, 7 & 8

July 2023: 28 & 29

August 2023: 2, 4, 5, 9, 11 & 12

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Summer Pardi is opening up about how she told husband Jon Pardi she was pregnant. 

Summer found out she was expecting their first child not long after they got a new boat. She used the new watercraft as a way to tell her husband the good news, taping a “baby on board” sign, along with the positive pregnancy test, to the back of the boat. 

Summer told Jon that there was a “big scratch” on the back of the boat that he needed to check out, but when he went to inspect the damage, he instead found the surprise. 

“Even with the baby on board sign AND pregnancy test he still didn’t get it.. he thought i was just making fun of him because the boat was his new baby,” Summer recalls of the special moment. “5 minutes later he was blasting ‘Baby Shark’ in the kitchen, already thriving hahah.” 

Summer also shares a series of pregnancy selfies that show off her growing baby bump and a video dancing onstage with her husband, set to the tune of Ruelle’s “I Get to Love You.” 

Jon and Summer are expecting the baby in early 2023. 

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Scott Ian has shared an update on the status of the next Anthrax album, telling Metal Hammer that the thrash icons are “getting there.”

“We had started writing before COVID, but then eventually we jumped back in, so we do have eight arrangements and half of them with lyrics,” Ian says. “We’ve got at least another six really, really great things that we just need to start bashing out as a band.”

The guitarist adds, “We’re not that far off!”

Anthrax’s most recent studio effort is 2016’s For All Kings. Over the summer, they released a live album titled XL, which captured their 2021 40th anniversary streaming concert.

The 40th anniversary celebration continued this year with a U.S. Anthrax tour also featuring Black Label Society and Hatebreed.

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Ed Sheeran is digging a remix of his song “Shape of You” with “Take On Me” by a-ha. The TikTok account @ThereIRuinedIt mashed the two songs together, but Ed wants to know, “Why is this SO GOOD?”

Ed is also working to protect the United Kingdom’s smallest music venues by teaming up with Music Venue Trust. He said in a statement, via Music Times, “Small, independent venues are so, so important to the music community, and I’ve played some of my favourite gigs of my career in these rooms. We’ve got to do all we can to protect these beautiful venues that we’ve all come to love for years to come.”

Melanie C is looking back at the Spice Girls’ infamous meetup with then-Prince Charles, now King Charles III, in 1997. Mel told People Geri Halliwell gave the royal a pat on the butt and joined Mel B in kissing him on the cheek — he didn’t mind! “Now that Charles is our King, it kind of makes it even more naughty,” she laughed. “Those naughty Spice Girls!”

Lewis Capaldi took on Britney Spears by covering her song “Everytime” on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge. Lewis slowed down the melancholy track and made the song punch harder with his raw, emotional vocals.  Fans are begging him to release it as a single.

Rihanna is the next Super Bowl halftime performer and she is going to give “1,000 percent,” a source tells Entertainment Tonight. 

Sam Smith celebrated new song “Unholy” amassing nearly 30,000,000 streams. They shared a screenshot of the song’s Spotify stats to their Instagram Story and captioned it with a sobbing emoji.

Meghan Trainor wants “4 babies.” She shared a TikTok about how she learned to love her stretch marks and C-section scars, which she said made it look like “a lawnmower ran over me.” She’s now teasing, “It’s about to get crazy” with her future pregnancy plans.

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