Music

With previous records titled Meat and Candy and Happy Endings, the stakes were high for Old Dominion to settle on an appropriate moniker for their follow-up to their 2019 self-titled album, as lead singer Matthew Ramsey explains.

“You know, when it comes to a decision like that, first of all, it can be daunting to name an album after we’ve sort of set a tone of album titles as we have,” he says.

It seems originally, the group of hit songwriters was headed in the direction of more clever wordplay.

“[There was] lots of debate that wasn’t real debate,” Matthew explains, “because our problem in this band is we are really good at making jokes that make ourselves laugh that no one else thinks is funny.”

“But we pushed it to the last minute,” he admits, “[with] the label knocking on the door, saying, ‘Hey, we gotta have a title for this,’ and us going, ‘Yeah, what about this joke and that joke?'”

Ultimately, the answer was hidden in one of the album’s tracks.

“Finally, we all sort of arrived at the title at the same time,” Matthew reveals. “We pulled that lyric out of ‘No Hard Feelings,’ and [from] different parts of the bus… we all came together and we were like, ‘What about Time, Tequila & Therapy?’ And we were all like, ‘That’s what I was thinking.'”

“So this band is tight!” Matthew adds, as the band laughs.

Old Dominion’s fourth album, Time, Tequila & Therapy, featuring their top-ten hit “I Was on a Boat That Day,” is out now.

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Last month’s premiere of Shinedown‘s ATTENTION ATTENTION film, based on the band’s 2018 album of the same name, felt very much like a grand finale for perhaps the most conceptually driven work of the group’s career. However, as frontman Brent Smith tells ABC Audio, he and his band mates aren’t quite ready to leave ATTENTION ATTENTION in the rear view mirror.

“We have so many things that we want to do with ATTENTION ATTENTION in the future,” Smith says.

One of those ideas is to fuse the ATTENTION ATTENTION film with a performance of the album in its entirety during a Shinedown concert.

“[We’d be] conducting these massive video walls behind us to play the movie,” Smith explains. “As the movie’s playing, we’re performing [the album], too.”

There’s also talk of bringing ATTENTION ATTENTION to yet another medium: live theater.

“We’re starting to write a concept for the possibility of turning it into a play that could maybe see the light of day on Broadway one day, or any theater for that matter,” Smith says.

In addition to keeping the ATTENTION ATTENTION train running, Shinedown’s also started working on a follow-up album, set to arrive in 2022.

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Justin Bieber: Our World hits Amazon Prime Video today, and it documents how Justin staged his New Year’s Eve livestream concert last December amid the pandemic.  Director Michael D. Ratner also directed Justin’s YouTube docuseries Seasons, which detailed the singer’s struggle with Lyme disease, mental health issues and drug addiction.  But Our World shows Justin at a much happier and healthier point in his life.

“I think when we made Seasons…he was coming out of a rough chapter of his life,” Ratner tells ABC Audio. “Ultimately, what this film should do is provide joy for people.”

“You should watch this film and take a trip down memory lane and feel the nostalgia of these old hits that he’s playing, all the way to some of his [newest] hits,” Ratner says, adding that Justin’s growth since Seasons is “evident” in Our World.

“You’re going to see him as a leader and as a 27-year-old man who’s married,” says Ratner.

Much of the film deals with Justin and his team attempting to stage the concert on the roof of the Beverly Hills Hotel while trying not to get COVID.

“It’s essential that the performance is great and has production value and feels special,” says Ranter. “But I think that the [pandemic] story…was what makes the film really work.”

Ratner also praises the footage that Justin himself shot..  In one scene, filmed last December, Justin’s wife Hailey asks him what his plans are for 2021, and he says he wants to have a child — or at least start trying for one.  Ratner predicts that when that day comes, Justin will “be an incredible dad.”

“I’ve seen him around kids, and he’s so good with kids, as is Hailey,” he notes. “I think that they’re going to be great parents.”

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Madonna‘s Madame X concert film debuts on Paramount+ today and you’ll be able to watch it in style, thanks to some matching merch.

A new, limited edition merch collection has launched on Shop.Madonna.com to celebrate the film’s release. The collection features hoodies, tees and shorts emblazoned with logos and imagery representing her first-ever theater tour experience.

Prices range from $30 to $75, with more styles will be released soon. You can also find other tour merch in the online shop, including the infamous Madame X eye patch.

The Madame X concert film was shot in Lisbon, Portugal during the Queen of Pop’s sold-out tour, which ran from September of 2019 to March of 2020. It captures songs off her 2019 album of the same name, as well as previous hits and fan favorites.

The trek was different from Madonna’s previous tours. Instead of her usual stadium show, she created a much more intimate performance for theaters, and played multiple nights in major cities in the United States, England, France and Portugal.

Several shows on the tour were canceled due to a recurring knee injury Madonna suffered, and the entire tour was subsequently cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon Thursday, Madonna revealed that the main thing she wants people to take away from the documentary is that art is important in our lives. “I don’t think people emphasize that enough,” she insisted.

“James Baldwin was a great source of inspiration for me growing, and he was a great source of inspiration for the show,” she continued. “And one of the things I quote over and over again in the show is that artists are here to disturb the peace…in a good way.”

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Queen Latifah has struggled with losing weight for much of her life, and now she’s launching a new campaign to erase the negative stigma about obesity.

The hip hop and acting icon has partnered with pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk for the “It’s Bigger Than Me” campaign that aims to educate people about obesity as a clinical condition.

“It’s in your DNA,” Latifah tells People. “Maybe your hormones are doing something that you’re not aware of and that’s something for a professional to deal with.”

The Equalizer star, born Dana Elaine Owens, remembers that she was always mocked about being big for her age. At age 18, she experienced what she calls “flashes of self-hate” that she quickly wanted to end.

“I said, ‘Dana, you’re either going to hate yourself, or you’re going love yourself.’ And I decided at that moment I’m going to love myself,” Latifah says. “I don’t want to ever be in a place where I don’t love me.”

When she launched her self-titled talk show in 1999, Latifah confesses that it was “really hard to keep my weight in check.” The Grammy winner found herself judging how she appeared on camera.

“Looking at yourself on TV, which already adds 10 or 15 pounds, I’m like, ‘Oh, man. Look at my chin, look at my hips,'” she notes.

Now she understands that your body size is not an automatic indication of whether you are healthy. “A lot of people, they’ll be half my size, but they’re actually malnourished,” the Queen says. “I’m probably healthier than half those people just because I know where I stand. I know what I’m made of.”

After decades of feeling judged because of her weight, Latifah says she’s “in a good place,” adding, “I’ve learned to manage my body.”

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Metallica indeed has new music in the works, but it may be awhile before you hear it.

Speaking with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, drummer Lars Ulrich assures that “of course there’s new music coming, there’s always new music coming,” while also cautioning that “there’s nothing cohesive.”

“There’s not a story, there’s not anything to really back it up yet,” he explains.

Metallica’s most recent album is 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct. The band has previously said that the wait for a follow-up won’t be as long as it was for Hardwired, which arrived eight years after its predecessor, 2008’s Death Magnetic.

Meanwhile, Metallica just released a deluxe reissue of The Black Album last month in honor of its 30th anniversary. They also dropped The Metallica Blacklist, a 53-track tribute compilation to The Black Album.

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Gang of Youths has premiered a new song called “The Man Himself.”

The track, which is available now for digital download, is inspired by frontman Dave Le’aupepe late father.

“If I ever have kids I’m not really sure how to raise them without my dad helping me out,” Le’aupepe says.

“The Man Himself” follows the previously released single “The Angel of 8th Ave,” which became the first Gang of Youths song to chart on Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay ranking.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.) 

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Ray J continues his recovery from pneumonia in a Miami hospital, and the rapper/actor wants his fans to know that his prognosis is positive.

“I appreciate all the love and support from everybody,” he says in a message that his manager, David Weintraub, shared with People. “Thank you for keeping me in your prayers, and I will be back up and running soon.”

Weintraub adds that the illness is “not the contagious kind,” and that Ray does not have COVID-19, despite initially being placed in the hospital’s COVID unit. “[The doctors] wanted to keep him there a couple extra days to watch him,” he says. “They gave him multiple COVID tests, and he tested negative for all of them.”

The manager says the illness is a result of the 40-year-old entertainer being a workaholic — shooting Love & Hip Hop, developing and promoting products through his Raycon brand, and producing new music.

As previously reported, shortly after announcing that he was taken to the hospital, Ray J filed to divorce his wife of five years, Princess Love.

The “Wait a Minute” singer filed the new paperwork on Wednesday, citing irreconcilable differences as cause for their separation, according to E! News.

Ray J is seeking joint custody of his and Love’s two children — Melody, 3, and Epik, 1. 

Cracks in their relationship started to show last November when the model accused her husband of leaving her “stranded” in Las Vegas and threatened to divorce him.

This latest filing marks the third time that the pair have tried to separate. Their first separation was in May 2020, but the couple patched things up that July and Love asked the court to dismiss her request. Four months later, Ray J was the one to file for divorce.

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