Looks like even Carrie Underwood is enjoying all the warm weather fun of Dollywood.
A few eagle-eyed fans spotted the country superstar visiting Dolly Parton’s theme park this week. Carrie was captured posing for a group shot with some fans, and in another picture, she can be seen waiting in line for a ride with a young boy in a yellow shirt, who looks like he might be her son, Isaiah.
Carrie’s currently enjoying some downtime as she preps for her Denim & Rhinestones Tour in the fall. She’ll hit the road with Jimmie Allen this October.
Meanwhile, summer at Dollywood is in full swing. The park launched its Smoky Mountain Summer Celebration last month, and it’s also home to Dolly’s very own tour bus, Suite 1986, which fans can stay in when they visit the park.
As previously reported, the stripped-down collection of live performances is dedicated to the band’s longtime bassist, Dusty Hill, who died in July 2021 at age 72.
“I think nothing could be a more fitting tribute [than] to release something that was so telling of how ZZ Top actually came about,” singer/guitarist frontman Billy Gibbons tells ABC Audio.
The 11-track album was recorded live at historic Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas, in conjunction with the famed blues-rock trio’s 2019 documentary That Little Ol’ Band from Texas.
The album features ZZ Top’s classic lineup — Gibbons, Hill and drummer Frank Beard — playing versions of various songs from their back catalog, including hits like “Legs” and “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” and as well two tunes from the band’s 1971 debut album: “Brown Sugar” and “Certified Blues.”
Gibbons says the performance was unplanned, noting the film’s director had invited ZZ Top to Gruene Hall for what the band thought was just a photo shoot.
“Upon arrival, we discovered that some wires had been crossed,” Gibbons notes. “The ZZ Top equipment crew had not been told it was just a photo session. They set up the entire backline. We had guitars, amps, drums, the works.”
Gibbons says the trio proceeded to play a bunch of songs, and while footage of some performances were featured in the movie, Billy maintains he wasn’t aware that audio of the full set had been recorded until an engineer informed him a few months later.
“Upon listening to it, we all took a shine,” Gibbons notes, “and said, ‘Gee whiz, this sounds like the ZZ Top we’ve always known. That’s how we started.'”
Here’s Raw‘s full track list:
“Brown Sugar”
“Just Got Paid”
“Heard It on the X”
“La Grange”
“Tush”
“Thunderbird”
“I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide”
“Gimme All Your Lovin'”
“Blue Jean Blues”
“Certified Blues”
“Tube Snake Boogie”
Welcome to your dirty 30s, Selena Gomez! The singer, actress and producer turns the big 3-0 on Friday, July 22. What are her plans to mark the big day? A few weeks ago, she told ABC Audio what she was going to do.
“I think I’m just going to have, like, a few people over,” she said. “I guess it’s a big deal, you know. So, I’m going to make it fun. I want to enjoy it!”
While some say 30 marks the start of true adulthood, Selena’s definitely accomplished an amazing number of things in her young life. As a singer, she’s released three albums with her band The Scene, three solo albums and an EP, earning a Grammy nomination and a string of top 10 hits, including the number-one “Lose You to Love Me.”
As an actress, she’s starred in several TV series — including The Wizards of Waverly Place, Selena + Chef and Only Murders In the Building — and more than two dozen movies and short films. She’s also executive-produced a number of film and TV projects, such as 13 Reasons Why, the documentary Living Undocumented and the latest Hotel Transylvania film.
As a businesswoman and philanthropist, Selena established the Rare Impact Fund charity to raise mental health awareness. It’s an offshoot of the beauty brand she founded, Rare Beauty. She also co-founded a mental health company called Wondermind, invested in the delivery service GoPuff and is a co-owner of the Serendipity dessert brand.
So, do Selena’s Only Murders co-stars — 76-year-old Steve Martin and 72-year-old Martin Short — have any advice for her as she hits this milestone?
“Yeah — don’t turn 30!” Martin cautions. Short adds, “Because before you know it, you’re gonna be 70, and then, happy 90th!”
The band — which features Jack White on drums, plus his Raconteurs bandmate Jack Lawrence, Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita and The Kills‘ Alison Mosshart — last released an album in 2015 with Dodge and Burn and hasn’t toured since 2010.
As for future Dead Weather plans, Mosshart tells Consequence, “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Maybe one day we’ll all be home at the same time and get together and do something again,” she says, explaining that forming The Dead Weather back in 2009 was a “happy accident.”
“We walked into Jack’s new recording studio at the time to test out the room and the gear, and walked out with a whole record in the blink of an eye,” Mosshart recalls. “It was a real, ‘Holy s***, what have we just done?!’ moment … We had no plan or desire to start a band, but the music just seemed to kidnap us.”
Getting The Dead Weather back together now, Mosshart thinks, would have to recapture the “magic” of those early recording sessions.
“It’ll have to feel just right,” she says.
White, meanwhile, has been busy with his solo career. His latest effort, Entering Heaven Alive, is out Thursday. It’s his second solo release of the year, following April’s Fear of the Dawn.
If you hope Pat Benatar sings “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” the next time you see her in concert — you’re out of luck. The Grammy winner has retired the song to protest gun violence.
“I’m sorry, in deference to the victims of the families of these mass shootings, I’m not singing it,” she told USA Today. “(The title) is tongue in cheek, but you have to draw the line. I can’t say those words out loud with a smile on my face, I just can’t.”
The rocker continued, “I’m not going to go on stage and soap box — I go to my legislators — but that’s my small contribution to protesting.”
Benatar says fans are “having a heart attack” that she has permanently shelved the song, but has this to say to those who are upset by her decision: “I’m not going to sing it. Tough.”
The “Heartbreaker” singer notes the 1980 song, which is RIAA-certified Gold, is part of her “holy 14” songs that fans want to hear or they’ll “give us (a hard time).”
In place of “Hit Me with Your Best Shot,” she told the outlet, “We’re doing a lot of songs we don’t always play, like ‘In the Heat of the Night’ and ‘I Need a Lover.'”
Benatar, who is 69, reflected on the numerous tragedies she’s witnessed over the years. While she is disturbed by the rise in mass shootings, she’s also concerned about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
“I’m worried, like all of us, about fundamental autonomy rights. This is a slippery slope. It’s about not abortion for me. I’m concerned that people are not paying attention to what this actually means,” she explained.
Because of that, Benatar says her song “Invincible” is more important than ever.
Diddy‘s debut album, No Way Out,turns 25 on Friday and he’s planning to celebrate in a big way. The multihyphenate mogul will drop an expanded edition of the project on its quarter anniversary, featuring 15 additional tracks.
Also expected on Friday is the premiere of the remastered video for “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down,” a single off the ’97 album; enhanced visuals from other songs on the record — “Been Around The World,” “All About The Benjamins (Remix),” “All About The Benjamins (Rock Remix)” and “Victory” — will release later this year, along with a colored vinyl reissue, due out November 4 during Hip Hop History Month.
Diddy’s multiplatinum-selling No Way Out arrived July 22, 1997, and featured the likes of The Notorious B.I.G., Mase, The Lox, Jay-Z, Lil’ Kim and Busta Rhymes. Twenty-five years later, he’s still hard at work, promoting his new “Gotta Move On” video, which dropped Wednesday.
Kane Brown’s current single, “Like I Love Country Music,” may be on his upcoming new album, but he actually wrote it three years ago.
“I wrote this song in 2019,” the star says. “I remember it was, like, a little writer’s retreat thing on the road. We had two different songs going, one in the back of the bus and one in the front of the bus, and I was in the back.”
But he switched groups when he caught wind of what the songwriters in front were up to. “The writers had this great idea, and they already had some of the first verse,” Kane continues. “And I just remember thinking, ‘This could be a smash.’”
So he started working on the song that would go on to become “Like I Love Country Music,” and though he didn’t put it out for a few more years — “the song just wasn’t ready,” he explains — he never lost that early enthusiasm for it.
His favorite part of the song is its homage to classic country, Kane says. “One of the things I love about it is all the country icons that we listed,” he recounts. “And Brooks & Dunn even jumped on the song.”
That song — complete with a vocal boost from the legendary country duo — is the lead single off Kane’s recently announced next album, Different Man. That project will be out September 9.
The Beatles‘ Ringo Starr, The Police‘s Stewart Copeland, and The Grateful Dead‘s Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann are among the famous musicians featured in an upcoming documentary titled Let There Be Drums!, according to Deadline.
The film, which aims to “examine the essential role drumming plays in great bands and how music passes from generation to generation,” will also feature interviews with Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith, ex-Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum, Jane’s Addiction‘s Stephen Perkins and late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Hawkins’ appearance in the film marks, as Deadline puts it, “what may have been the final filmed interview” he gave prior to his unexpected death earlier this year.
Let There Be Drums! was directed by Kreutzmann’s son, Justin, who told Deadline the project gave him the opportunity “to talk to the world’s most influential drummers in hopes of better understanding his father and the instrument that defined his life.”
Let There Be Drums! is set to premiere in theaters October 28. Hart and Bill Kreutzmann are serving as executive producers on the movie.
Remember that weird Balenciaga caution tape outfit Kim Kardashian wore? Well, Lizzo sported the same look and comically revealed you cannot move in it. She jokingly filmed herself trying to do the “About Damn Time” TikTok dance and struggled to lift or bend her arms. Another video showed how hard it was for her to walk in it.
Pink declares in her fiery protest anthem “Irrelevant” that “Girls just wanna have rights” — a play on Cyndi Lauper‘s 1983 hit “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Well, the song got a seal of approval from Cyndi, who tweeted out, “Yessss! Loving@Pink’s new song.#GirlsJustWantToHaveRights!”
Dua Lipa reportedly paid DaBaby $350,000 to feature on “Levitating,” reports TMZ. The rapper isn’t earning more royalties from the knockout track following his controversial remarks about HIV last year, which saw Dua remove his artist credit.
Joe Jonas cheekily responded to the New York Yankees signing slugger Shane Gray. For those out of the loop, that’s the name of Joe’s Camp Rock character. He posted a video of himself wearing a similar shaggy hairstyle from the 2008 movie and edited a Yankee’s cap on his head. “The yankees just signed a big hitter,” he joked in the caption.
Halsey shared some bikini photos on Instagram that have fans going wild. “Lightning fast post tour re-charge before the rocket that is @af94_takes off!” they captioned the thirst trap photos.
Fans want to know what shade Lady Gaga has on her lips during her Chromatica Ball tour and she happily told them — it’s her Atomic Shake Lip Lacquer from her Haus Labs beauty line. She suggested that you shake the bottle and let it dry on your lips for 15 seconds to get the same effect. “You do not smack them,” she sternly warned.
Pink declares in her fiery protest anthem “Irrelevant” that “Girls just wanna have rights” — a play on Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 hit “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Well, the song got a seal of approval from Cyndi, who tweeted out, “Yessss! Loving @Pink’s new song. #GirlsJustWantToHaveRights!”
JoeJonas cheekily responded to the New York Yankees signing slugger Shane Gray. For those out of the loop, that’s the name of Joe’s Camp Rock character. He posted a video of himself wearing a similar shaggy hairstyle from the 2008 movie and edited a Yankee’s cap on his head. “The yankees just signed a big hitter,” he joked in the caption.
Fans want to know what shade LadyGaga has on her lips during her Chromatica Ball tour and she happily told them it’s her Atomic Shake Lip Lacquer from her Haus Labs beauty line. She suggested that you shake the bottle and let it dry on your lips for 15 seconds to get the same effect. “You do not smack them,” she sternly warned.
Billy Joel kept the audience laughing at his sold-out show at Madison Square Garden, saying he does not have a glass eye but he does have “a wooden leg.” Page Six adds he also covered The Beatles‘ “A Day in the Life” and said he wished he wrote it. He also admitted he can’t hit the same high notes he did when he was younger, adding, “You’ll know which one I’m talking about … This could be a cringefest,” when singing “An Innocent Man.”
Sara Bareilles had to bow out of a performance of Into The Woods because she’s under the weather. She explained on her Instagram Story, “I am definitely fighting something. I woke up this morning not feeling great.” She tried powering through the matinee but “it knocked me out.” She doesn’t know what she’s come down with. Feel better, Sara!
