Music

Journey‘s classic seventh studio album, Escape, was released 40 years ago this past week.

The chart-topping record was Journey’s first album to feature keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who left The Babys to join the band, replacing founding member Gregg Rolie.

Cain immediately began collaborating with Journey’s main songwriters, frontman Steve Perry and guitarist Neal Schon, and wound up co-writing all of Escape‘s 10 tracks.

“They wanted me to help change their sound,” Cain tells ABC Audio. “They wanted me to help take Journey to the next place.”

Cain says he developed a synergy with Perry and Schon in the studio that reminded him of the chemistry The Beatles had.

“We knew our roles,” Jonathan notes. “We knew when to step in, when to kick back.”

Reflecting on Escape‘s musical diversity, Cain notes, “It’s a menagerie of pop and rock…[A]ll the influences…kind of stewed together. And the critics really kind of dismissed it…but it had a way of selling, and kept selling.”

That menagerie included Journey’s first three top-10 hits — “Open Arms”, “Who’s Crying Now” and “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which peaked at #2, #4 and #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.

Cain says he’d written most of “Open Arms” before joining Journey, and then enlisted Perry to help finish the lyrics.

Jonathan recalls that when he presented the pop ballad to the band, “they looked at us like we were Martians,” but “when [Steve] sang it, it was extraordinary.”

Then there was “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which while it wasn’t Escape‘s biggest chart hit, it’s become Journey’s signature song.

Cain says he remembers musing with Perry about Journey one day having a transcendent anthem like The Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” and with “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “40 years later, I think we have one. What a blessing.”

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Green Day is doing a surprise show Tuesday night in Tulsa, OK.  The sold-out show, which starts at 9:15pm, will take place at Tulsa’s legendary venue, Cain’s Ballroom.

While the show was first announced earlier on Monday, the band noted on its socials, “Due to the recent spike in the Delta variant, and because it’s indoors, we’ve been asked to do this as a fully vaccinated show. ID & proof of vaccination will be required for entry for ALL attendees. No exceptions.” 

In the comments, some fans expressed displeasure at this requirement.  On the event page, the band also noted that the date of attendees’ last injection must be “not later than July 6, no exceptions at all.”

The Hella Mega tour, featuring Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer, officially gets underway July 24 at Globe Life Field in Dallas, TX.  No word if Green Day plans to do any other surprise shows ahead of the tour.

 

 

 

 

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Black Veil Brides’ new album The Phantom Tomorrow is coming out in October, and now the band has announced that they’re giving you something to read while you listen to it.

The group has teamed with Incendium to create a six-issue comic book series, also called The Phantom Tomorrow, which front man Andy Biersack says will “build on the world that we have developed for “Blackbird,” “9,” “Scarlet,” and the entire Phantom Tomorrow universe that BVB fans have come to know over the past year via our music videos and other visual mediums.”

The Phantom Tomorrow story is based on a concept by Biersack, and is written by Michael Moreci, who’s contributed to Stranger Things and Batman: Detective Comics.  It follows a brilliant scientist named Dennis Kane, whose huge ego “causes the world to fall apart around him,” according to the description on Incedium‘s website.

Then, Kane is “resurrected as “Blackbird — a mysterious figure caught between life and death,” who is desperately seeking redemption, and is “willing to fight through hell and back to get it.”

The first print edition of each issue will come as a limited-edition, individually numbered collectible book with cardstock covers, foil treatments and glossy pages.

Biersack writes on Instagram, “Growing up, I was heavily influenced by the works of Alan Moore, Todd McFarlane, and many other iconic writers and artists in the comics field and to have the chance to create and develop an original character that both pulls from those influences as well as creates new and compelling story arcs is a dream come true.”

In addition to the comic books, both t-shirts and action figures are also being released as part of The Phantom Tomorrow series.  You can pre-order the series now.

 

 

 

 

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BTS is giving you the permission to dance. 

The Korean pop supergroup is calling on fans to show off their dance moves to their new song, “Permission to Dance,” for the first global dance challenge hosted on YouTube Shorts.

Throughout the video, the superstar group can be seen doing dance moves that incorporate the signs for “joy,” “dance” and “peace.”

Fans will have three weeks to submit their own 15-second video recreating the dance moves from the upbeat video, using the hashtags #PermissiontoDance and #Shorts. BTS will then pick their favorite clips to be featured in a Shorts compilation video. 

The contest takes place from July 23 through August 14. 

Co-written by Ed Sheeran, “Permission to Dance” has amassed more than 170 million views on YouTube. The track follows BTS’ current single, “Butter,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 and set a Guinness World Record for becoming the most viewed YouTube music video in a 24-hour period.

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Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton are celebrating two weeks of wedded bliss.

The pop superstar shared a never-before-seen candid shot from her wedding ceremony to her country star husband, which took place on July 3. “Happy 2 week anniversary [Blake Shelton],” she wrote in the caption of her post.

The black-and-white image shows Blake and Gwen dressed up in their wedding outfits, standing together in the doorway of the chapel that Blake had built on the property of his Oklahoma ranch specifically for the couple’s wedding. Standing by them is Carson Daly, who officiated the wedding.

Per People, the superstar couple purposely kept their wedding intimate and focused on family. “They didn’t want a circus. In the end, they just wanted to have this moment with their loved ones,” one source explained.

In the days since the wedding, fans have learned the backstories behind a few of the details that the couple used to honor their family members. Gwen’s custom bridal train featured her name and Blake’s embroidered into it, plus the names of her three sons, Kingston, Apollo and Zuma.

She also tributed her parents — who were both present at the wedding — with a lavish, five-tier wedding cake based on the same one that they had at their own ceremony.

Blake and Gwen’s wedding came five years after the couple started dating. They originally met when they were both coaches on The Voice. 

 

 

 

 

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What did a year with no live gigs do to the fortunes of pop’s biggest stars?  Well, they definitely took a hit, but for a lucky few, the money kept rolling in thanks to streaming royalties and physical sales of their music.

The queen of all that was Taylor Swift, who returned to the number-one spot on Billboard‘s ranking of the highest-paid musicians of 2020 in the U.S.,  even though her income in 2020 dropped to “only” $23.8 million.  By comparison, the last time she was on the list, in 2018, her income was $99.6 million.

Taylor topped the chart based almost solely on sales of her albums folklore and evermore — physical and digital sales, plus streaming.  Billboard notes that because Taylor owns her masters, she gets 46% of the money they generate, compared with the 33% a top artist usually earns.

Post Malone is number two on the list, just behind Taylor with $23.2 million. Unlike her, he actually had some touring income in the early part of 2020 that boosted his overall paycheck, which was added to his streaming sales for hits like “Circles.”

Celine Dion comes in at number three because, she was able to tour before the pandemic hit, raking in some $17 million.  Royalties from her recordings and publishing made up the rest of her $17.5 million paycheck.

Billie Eilish was in the top five thanks to three pre-pandemic concerts she performed, but she made the bulk of her $14.7 million in streaming and publishing, as well as physical album sales.

Here’s how some other big stars did in terms of their U.S. paychecks:

11. The Weeknd, $10.4 million
19. BTS, $8.9 million
23. Ariana Grande, $7.5 million
31. Justin Bieber, $6.22 million
36. Ed Sheeran, $5.66 million
37. Halsey, $5.55 million
38. Harry Styles, $5.51 million

Globally, Taylor slides to number two, Billie rises to number three, and rock legends Queen are ranked number one.

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Keyshia Cole‘s biological mother, Frankie Lons, has passed away at age 61.

According to TMZ, Lons, whose struggle with substance abuse was documented on Cole’s various BET reality series, including Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is, reportedly overdosed at her Oakland home on Sunday, the same day she was celebrating her 61st birthday.

Cole’s younger sister, Elite, confirmed the news of her mother’s death in an IG Story. “Worse pain ever….to see my mama in a body bag on her birthday! My heart so f***in broke.”

As you may recall, Cole had a rocky relationship with her biological mother and father, Virgil Hunter. Although the singer was adopted and raised by family friends, she eventually reunited with her biological family once her career hit the mainstream.

It was just early last year that Cole had praised her mother for deciding to check herself into rehab.

“Maybe that’s what’l make THIS Time different,” she’d written in a now-deleted post. “This being what YOU WANTED AND NO ONE ELSE….”

As of March of last year, Frankie had reportedly been sober for 60 days.

Cole has not yet commented on her mother’s passing.

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