Music

Before Dirty Honey was “California Dreamin’,” frontman Marc LaBelle was Europe Dreamin’.

The band took their music to the other side of the Atlantic for the first time in their career earlier this year and, in doing so, realized a lifelong goal for LaBelle.

“That was a big, big deal for me in particular, because it’s just something I wanted to do my entire life,” LaBelle tells ABC Audio. “I wanted to get over there in a van and just try and make it happen over there at one point in my [Los Angeles] journey.”

“That was just an idea, like, ‘Let’s just move over there for a month, I’ll book some shows, let’s see if we can’t get this thing going,'” he continues. “The goal for me since starting this thing was to go to Europe with my boys and have a good time and tour and play music and do what we love.”

In a pleasantly surprising turn of events, the singles “When I’m Gone” and “Rolling 7s” broke big in the U.S., and Dirty Honey achieved success in their home country before they could get to Europe. So when the European tour finally did happen, LaBelle achieved not only his initial dream, but beyond that, too.

“Quite honesty, I got somewhat emotional,” LaBell shares. “When I finally got through security and was coming home, I was, like, ‘Wow. This is something I’ve been trying to do my whole life, and I just did it. And now I’m going back to my life as a musician on the road.'”

That life resumes with Dirty Honey’s California Dreamin’ tour, which continues Friday in Minneapolis. “Rest in Peace” rockers Dorothy will join the bill in September.

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When you heard OneRepublic’s hit “I Ain’t Worried,” from the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack, did it sound familiar to you? You’re not the only one. The band’s Ryan Tedder says there were concerns that the song sounded too much like the 2006 hit “Young Folks” by the Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John — so he gave them a songwriting credit.

“Somebody at the [record] label or Paramount Pictures heard [‘I Ain’t Worried’] and they go, ‘Oh, it reminds me of Peter Bjorn and John,'” Ryan tells ABC Audio. “We went and listened to the Peter Bjorn and John record — and I love that song ‘Young Folks’ — and I listened to it and I was like, ‘They’re completely different.'”

He points out, “The most similar thing is their song starts with a whistle, and then the verse melody is the whistle. Ours starts with a whistle: totally different melody, totally different verse.” 

However, Ryan explains, “We were like, ‘Man, I don’t want to release a song and then have like 9 million people be like, “Oh, you’re copying ‘Young Folks.'”‘ So we just did what I hope was the right thing, because I love them. And we reached out ahead of time and just said, ‘Hey, we’re going to give you a piece of this song.'”

“They were very cool about it, very appreciative,” Ryan tells ABC Audio. “And I mean, it’s turning into a global smash. So I hope they can buy vacation homes with it! I hope they can live their best life. I hope that they make a bunch of money and that they enjoy having the credit.”

He adds, “I’d love to write a song with them actually for their next album because I’m a big fan.”

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Elton John and Britney Spears‘ highly anticipated duet, “Hold Me Closer,” arrived at the stroke of midnight on Friday.

Similar to “Cold Heart,” Elton’s 2021 duet with Dua Lipa, “Hold Me Closer” features Britney’s voice singing the chorus of Elton’s 1972 hit “Tiny Dancer” — “Hold me closer tiny dancer/ Count the headlines on the highway” — paired with Elton’s original vocal over a dance beat, with some “woo-hoos” in the middle.

The video features a famous pic of Elton as a child sitting at a piano, along with a photo of Britney as a little girl wearing a pink dance costume.

This will be the first new music Britney’s released since 2016’s Glory. While she did put out three tracks in 2020, they were all songs that were recorded for the original Glory album but didn’t make the final cut. They were included on the deluxe reissue version.

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Keith Urban is a big fan of Ingrid Andress these days and he gets to see her onstage quite a lot — the younger star is opening for his The Speed of Now World Tour.

Ingrid got her start as a songwriter, and her impressive writing skills were the first thing that caught Keith’s ear. “She’s the real deal,” he affirms, saying that he first start hearing her work while she was putting together the track list for her debut album, Lady Like.

“And then, of course, I heard [her chart-topping single ‘More Hearts than Mine’ and I knew that this is a serious songwriter,” Keith continues. “With real perspective, fresh take on things.”

But it wasn’t until he saw her open a show for him in Las Vegas that Keith truly became a superfan. Originally, he admits, he’d been disappointed to learn that she was playing her set solo with only a piano.

“I was like, ‘Oh no, I need people to get the crowd going,’” he remembers. “And she completely floored me because she’s such a great storyteller onstage. And the way she connected with the audience — I stood side stage, and I was just floored at how good she was and how much the audience loved her.”

Then and there, he asked Ingrid to join him on the whole tour. As an opening act on one of Keith’s tours, Ingrid is following in the footsteps of another talented newcomer turned superstar.

“She’s just one of those artists that is going to get better and better and better. It was the same thing when Maren Morris came out and opened for us,” he explains. “She’s passionate. She’s hungry. Got a great sense of humor. And she’s a superb songwriter.”

Ingrid’s new album, Good Person, is out Friday.

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Their friendly rivalry continues. Rod Stewart posted a video of himself onstage doing his best Elton John impression while wearing blinged-out sunglasses and pretending to play piano while making a goofy face. The imitation was all in good fun, though, with Rod captioning the post, “Still love you, Elt.”

Does Jennifer Lopez pick her backup dancers based on their astrological sign? That’s what Glee alum Heather Morris revealed on an episode of the podcast Just Sayin’ with Justin Martindale. Heather recalled an instance where she auditioned for J.Lo and the singer asked any dancer who was a Virgo to raise their hand – they were subsequently asked to leave!

John Legend is bringing his talents to MasterClass. The singer’s class on songwriting is available now on the e-learning program. John’s eighth studio album, Legend, drops September 9.

Sam Smith is gearing up to release a new banger with Kim Petras. The two posted a TikTok of them doing a choreographed dance to the new track as the lyrics flash across the screen. No word on when the song will be released but Sam teased it’s “coming soon.”

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AJ McLean’s 9-year-old daughter has decided to change her name from Ava to Elliott.

The Backstreet Boys singer’s wife, Rochelle McLean, took to her Instagram Stories Wednesday and explained why, clarifying that it was “not a gender thing.”

“‘Ava’ has changed her name quite a few times since she was about five,” she wrote. “Last year she asked us to start calling her Elliott and it stuck. She wanted something unique that no one else had. (There are so many Ava’s.)”

“I didn’t really see the harm in respecting her desire to be unique,” Rochelle added. “Come to think of it, it’s a little odd that as parents we choose names for people we haven’t even met yet and expect them to forever [identify] as that person! Anyway… so that’s how Ava became Elliott.”

She requested that people “be kind” to her daughter. “She’s just a kid trying to make her way in this crazy world!” she wrote. “I just want her to know she can always be whoever she wants to be.”

AJ and Rochelle first shared their daughter’s chosen name in a back-to-school post this week. They are also parents to 5-year-old daughter Lyric.

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A listening party for JID‘s upcoming album, The Forever Story, was shut down on Wednesday. 

The Dreamville rapper reportedly held public listening sessions in Atlanta, LA and at New York City’s Irving Plaza ahead of his album’s release on Friday, a member of his team told HipHopDx.

While two of the events seemed to go smoothly, the one in the Big Apple was shut down by New York City police. The source guessed that the party was brought to an end because of the loud crowd and jam-packed venue.

JID was supposed to be in attendance, but he ended up missing his flight. He later took to Instagram to post footage of the cop cars outside the NYC event. “TFS otw,” he captioned the clip, referencing his album’s forthcoming release date.

The Forever Story, the follow-up to DiCaprio 2, includes collaborations with Lil Durk, Ari Lennox, 21 Savage, Johnta Austin, Yasiin Bey, EarthGang, Kenny Mason and Lil Wayne.

“The official features on The Forever Story, wana say thank you to everyone who helped put these words and sounds together,” JID wrote on Instagram. “this meant the world to me because none of this wa[s] eas[y] and you gave your all to my vision.”

The new album drops Friday.

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Slash has announced a new book diving into the many guitars he’s played over the years.

The 300-page tome, simply titled The Collection: Slash, includes photographs and illustrations of Slash’s personal guitars, accompanied by interviews with the Guns N’ Roses shredder himself.

The Collection: Slash is the debut release from Gibson Publishing, a newly launched division of the Gibson guitar company.

“It’s been a blast working with Gibson to create a platform for me to talk about my favorite thing: guitars,” Slash says. “This book is a great exposé of all the great guitars I’ve collected over many years.”

The Collection: Slash will be released in a variety of formats, including the signed $999 Custom Edition, which includes, among other things, an Axe Heaven Appetite Les Paul miniature guitar and an “exclusive Slash bandana.”

Preorders are open now via Gibson.com.

While you wait for your copy to arrive, you can watch Slash chat guitars in a new episode of Gibson’s The Collection series. The hourlong video is streaming now on YouTube.

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Just in time for Labor Day weekend, Tim McGraw dropped an exciting new merch item that’s a callback to a 1999 hit.

Fans can now head over to his merch store and pick up a white T-shirt with “BBQ Stain” written across the front in sauce-colored lettering. Of course, that’s a nod to “Something Like That,” a single of Tim’s A Place in the Sun album.

The song recounts the narrator’s first experience of falling in love, when he’s hanging out at a fair on Labor Day weekend (yes, with a barbecue stain on his white T-shirt) and meets a woman. Years later, the two lovebirds reconnect while on a flight to New Orleans.

Tim says that his BBQ Stain shirt is “one of the most requested” items in his merch store — and now it’s officially up for sale. The tee retails for $35.

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