Garth Brooks was in Charlotte, North Carolina over the weekend, playing a two-night stand at the city’s Bank of America Stadium.
When he arrived to the venue on Friday, the country superstar found an exciting surprise: A custom Carolina Panthers jersey just for him, bearing his last name and the number 12.
“Walked in and the first thing I saw!” Garth wrote on Twitter along with a selfie with the special jersey. “What a way to start the weekend!!! THANK YOU PANTHERS!!!”
Even before he walked in and saw the jersey, Garth was already feeling the love in North Carolina: His two shows in the state have each sold over 80,000 tickets. Garth booked these shows as makeup dates since he previously planned to hit Charlotte in 2021, but that date was canceled amid a resurgence of COVID-19 cases.
This weekend’s shows were Garth’s first time playing the venue, which is the home of the Carolina Panthers. They also marked his first shows in Charlotte in 20 years.
Garth’s 2022 Stadium Tour continues throughout the summer and will conclude in the U.S. on August 6 before heading across the pond for five sold-out dates in Dublin, Ireland.
Lil Uzi Vert has updated his pronouns on Instagram to “they/them.”
The 26-year-old rapper, who previously went by “he/him,” updated the pronouns over the weekend, using a feature that the social media app implemented over a year ago that allows user to share their gender identity.
While the move has some speculating that Lil Uzi identifies as non-binary, they have not made an official statement on the matter. However, it should be noted that the profile update comes shortly after international Non-Binary People’s Day, which was July 14.
Also this week, the Philadelphia native released a new track on SoundCloud titled “Space Cadet” and announced their forthcoming EP Red & White. No release date was shared.
Kanye West will no longer be headlining Rolling Loud Miami 2022, but the festival has already lined up Kid Cudi to take over.
On Sunday, Rolling Loud shared an updated digital flyer for the three-day event, with Cudi headlining Friday night’s festivities.
“Due to circumstances outside of our control, Ye will no longer be performing at Rolling Loud Miami 2022,” organizers tweeted. “Please welcome @KiDCuDi!”
Aside from the Ye-Cudi swap, the rest of the Rolling Loud Miami 2022 lineup remains the same, with Future headlining on Saturday and Kendrick Lamar closing out the show on Sunday.
Other artists set to perform at the festival include Lil Baby, Gunna, Lil Durk, Saweetie, City Girls, Gucci Mane, Three 6 Mafia, DaBaby, Kodak Black and more.
Bruce Springsteen & Patti Scialfa with son Sam; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
The Boss is a grandpa.
Bruce Springsteen‘s wife and band mate, Patti Scialfa, took to Instagram over the weekend to announce the arrival of the latest addition to the Springsteen clan: Lily Harper Springsteen, the daughter of their youngest son, Sam.
Scialfa posted a pair of photos: the first, a black-and-white shot of Sam, who’s a New Jersey firefighter, with his fiancée wheeling a baby carriage; the second, a color pic of Lily wearing a pink hat and pink mittens.
The photos, captioned “walking the baby” followed by a yellow flower emoji, drew congratulatory messages from Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, Eddie Vedder‘s wife Jill and Sting‘s daughter Mickey Sumner, among others.
TJ Osborne, one half of the duo Brothers Osborne, made country music history in 2021 when he came out as gay, becoming the first openly gay artist signed to a major country label.
But years beforehand, he came out to his brother and bandmate John. The duo shared that story in a recent interview on SiriusXM, and apparently when TJ officially shared the news, it didn’t come as a huge surprise.
“As his older brother, you just kind of know, but it’s not my place to ask,” John says.
TJ jokingly adds, “When you saw my Internet history you kind of knew.”
The singer goes on to say he came out to his brother around the time they signed their record deal, which was in 2012.
“I was like, ‘Hey, before we sign this and we get kind of tangled up, contractually entangled in something, you need to know that this is a thing I need to tell you about me that I think you might know, but I also want you to know that I do intend on coming out at some point,’” TJ remembers. “I don’t know when that is, but I don’t want to live my life closeted.”
John’s response was to make a joke. “To break awkward tension, I just remember saying, ‘Well, you don’t have to worry, TJ, because the other member in your band is a raging heterosexual, so I’m here to balance you out,’” he recounts.
All jokes aside, John immediately wanted to make his brother feel comfortable and accepted. “It was after that then we just had drinks and I felt so much happiness and joy for him,” John continues, “and it was a beautiful, beautiful night.”
Jason Aldean kicks off his Rock N’ Roll Cowboy Tour tonight in Scranton, Pennsylvania, beginning an extensive string of dates that will give him a chance to introduce fans to the live version of his latest double album, Macon, Georgia.
That project — his 10th — is named after the singer’s hometown Macon, which Jason says had a massive impact on his eventual career as a country star.
“It all started there,” he recounts. “…That’s where I learned to play guitar and where I learned to sing and where I played bars for the first time.”
At the time, Jason wasn’t even old enough to drink, but he fell in with a group of older musicians who taught him everything he knows about jam sessions and playing late nights in bars on small stages.
“When I was a 15, 16 year old kid, guys — you know, other musicians in that town — kinda took me under their wing and would take me to these after-hours bars and have jam sessions,” he recounts. “When I had to be at school the next day. So I was getting home at three in the morning.”
Jason may have lost a little sleep, but he learned important lessons about his chosen career path during those long nights out.
“It was just kind of where I learned to be a musician. It’s just where it all started for me,” he says, explaining that it felt only fitting to mark that early memory in the title of his landmark 10th album. “It was me kind of paying tribute to where it all started from.”
Jason just released his latest country radio single, “That’s What Tequila Does.” The song comes off the Macon half of his double album.
The 14-track collection features the lead single “If This Is Goodbye,” which recently broke into the top 20 of Billboard‘s Adult Contemporary chart.
“‘If This Is Goodbye’ was one of the first songs I heard as a possibility to be on the album, and immediately I knew that this definitely should be a contender,” founding Chicago trumpet player Lee Loughnane tells ABC Audio. “And I think 15, 20, maybe even 30 songs came in, [but when I heard that one, I thought,] ‘Yeah, this has got…some legs on it.’ And turns out it does.”
The song is a showcase for Chicago singer Neil Donell, who joined the group in 2018.
“He is the latest tenor voice in the band. And he sings as well or better than [former member Peter] Cetera ever did…and Cetera was at the top of his game when he ended up leaving us,” Loughnane maintains. “So…it’s really good to have him in, and he’s enjoying it, we’re enjoying having him…The band is smokin’ right now.”
Lougnane says recording Born for This Moment was challenging, since most of the project was done remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We couldn’t even get into the same rooms together to speak with each other,” notes Lee. “[W]e missed being able to have that camaraderie, but I think it came out pretty good, despite not seeing each other all that much.”
Loughnane reveals that the entire band did record one song on the album together, a tune he co-wrote called “If This Isn’t Love.”
“We were on tour and I had us set up before the show,” Lee explains, “and we ran the song down…three or four times.”
In a post to her Instagram story showing the star in bed, and sporting a brand-new wedding ring, Jennifer Lopez has announced she and Ben Affleck tied the knot in Las Vegas.
Pointing to the full story on her official website, OnTheJLo, Lopez posted a lengthy statement that began with, “We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.”
The singer and actress said she and the two-time Oscar winner got “Exactly what we wanted,” a wedding ceremony at Sin City’s famous Little White Wedding Chapel.
“Last night we flew to Vegas, stood in line for a license with four other couples, all making the same journey to the wedding capital of the world,” Lopez recounted. “…all of us wanting the same thing,” she said of her fellow lovebirds, “…for the world to recognize us as partners and to declare our love to the world through the ancient and nearly universal symbol of marriage.”
J. Lo admitted “We barely made it to the little white wedding chapel by midnight. They graciously stayed open late a few minutes, let us take pictures in a pink Cadillac convertible, evidently once used by the king himself (but if we wanted Elvis himself to show, that cost extra and he was in bed).”
Lopez explained she changed in a waiting room, and Affleck changed in the men’s room.
“So with the best witnesses you could ever imagine, a dress from an old movie and a jacket from Ben’s closet, we read our own vows in the little chapel and gave one another the rings we’ll wear for the rest of our lives.”
“[I]n the end it was the best possible wedding we could have imagined,” Lopez says. “One we dreamed of long ago and one made real (in the eyes of the state, Las Vegas, a pink convertible and one another) at very, very long last.”
“They were right when they said, ‘all you need is love,’ Lopez also added, signing the message, “Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck.”
Of course, Ben and Jen were supposed to be married in 2003, but postponed their nuptials and ultimately went their separate ways. Affleck went on to marry Jennifer Garner in 2005; they divorced in 2018. Lopez married her third husband, singer Marc Anthony,in 2004, but they divorced in 2014.
In April of this year, following J Lo’s breakup with fiancé Alex Rodriguez, she and Affleck rekindled their relationship.
If they haven’t already tied the knot, it appears as though Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are getting ready to do so at any moment.
The couple, who got engaged in April, took out a marriage license in Clark County, Nevada on Saturday. While various outlets are reporting that the two have actually gotten married, that hasn’t been confirmed. ABC News has reached out to the couple’s representatives.
Affleck and Lopez were previously engaged in 2002, but postponed their 2003 wedding before finally breaking up in 2004. Affleck went on to marry Jennifer Garner in 2005; they divorced in 2018. Lopez married singer Marc Anthony in 2004, but they divorced in 2014. Affleck shares three kids with Garner, while J-Lo shares 14-year-old twins with Anthony.
Last year, after Jennifer and fiancé Alex Rodriguez broke up, she and Affleck rekindled their romance, and he proposed in April.
Earlier this year, Lopez told People of their romance, “It’s a beautiful outcome that this has happened in this way at this time in our lives where we can really appreciate and celebrate each other and respect each other.”
Britney at 2017’s Radio Disney Awards; Image Group LA/Disney Channel via Getty Images
Britney Spears thrilled fans Friday night by recording herself, not dancing, but singing. Specifically, she sang an a cappella version of her signature hit “…Baby One More Time,” accompanied by a written screed against her family and others who she says “ruined” the song…and her “womanhood”…for her.
“I haven’t shared my voice in an extremely long time … maybe too long,” she wrote on Instagram. “And here’s me playing at my house with a different version of ‘Baby.’”
She added that for the “past 14 years,” she wanted to do a different version of her number-one hit, but this time “have the producers actually work for me and put it together.” However, she went on to say, “the TEAM said NO and serves me with 4 girls, my sister included, doing a 5 minute version of 4 remixed songs.”
Britney was likely referencing the tribute that her sister Jamie Lynn, as well as Kelsea Ballerini, Hailee Steinfeld and Sofia Carsonperformed at the 2017 Radio Disney Awards, while Britney looked on. She’s complained about that moment before.
“They ruined it for me, embarrassed me and made me feel like absolutely nothing!!!” Britney continued in her Friday post, adding, “I share this because I am aware of my love and passion to sing … and my own family made a fool of me.”
Explaining why she can’t do a new version now, Britney wrote, “It’s too late. Like I said, they ruined it for me.”
Britney then complained about how, during her conservatorship, she was constantly told “no,” and denied the keys to her car. “They made me feel like nothing … every single one of them !!!” she concluded. “Like I said before … they took away my rights … my womanhood was ruined !!!”
