Luke Combs is one of many artists from all music genres signing on to participate in Here to Help, a charity initiative that benefits mental health initiatives, such as the Recording Academy’s MusiCares and the Mental Wealth Alliance.
Fans can donate to the cause for a chance to meet Luke at a stop on his upcoming Middle of Somewhere Tour. And that’s just one of several incentive prizes available for those who choose to donate to the initiative. Also on offer is a chance to meet KISS at the Louder Than Life Festival in September; a virtual studio hang with benny blanco; and an all-expense-paid trip to London with a VIP experience at Corey Taylor’s sold-out October 2022 London Palladium show.
The initiative comes during Mental Health Awareness Month, and for Luke, the cause is personal. He’s been open about his experience with obsessive-compulsive disorder, explaining in an early 2021 installment of The Big Interview With Dan Rather that he struggles with ruminating thoughts and health anxiety.
Luke’s also looking ahead to an exciting musical chapter, as his third studio album, Growin’ Up, is set to arrive next month.
As they gear up for a joint summer tour with Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson, Chicago has released its first new song in over eight years, a bouncy pop gem titled “If This Is Goodbye.”
The track is available now as a digital download and via streaming services, while a lyric video has debuted at Chicago’s official YouTube channel.
The song mixes the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers’ classic soulful, horn-driven sound with some electronic beats, with lyrics that seem to celebrate a long relationship that may be coming to an end.
“If this is goodbye, let’s take one more shot for the memories/ Life’s too short to be enemies,” the band sings in the chorus. “If this ends tonight, you can save your tears for the other guy/ I’ll see you in another life.”
Chicago has been playing “If This Is Goodbye” at its recent concerts.
The band’s joint tour with Wilson and his solo group kicks off on June 7 in Phoenix, although Chicago first has three headlining dates scheduled for May 20 in Greensboro, North Carolina; May 21 in Montgomery, Alabama; and May 22 in Jacksonville, Florida.
Melissa Etheridge will do a special guest performance with finalist Noah Thompson on Sunday’s American Idol finale.
American Idoltweeted the news in a video where judge Katy Perry told Leah Marlene that they’d be singing “Firework” together, and Luke Bryan told HunterGirl that they’d be singing the Randy Travis hit “I Told You So” as a duet. Katy then told Noah he’d be singing with Melissa, and he shrugged and said, “Sounds good!”
Melissa responded, “That moment when you realize the other two finalists are singing with the judges and you are singing with…what’s her name again?” She added, “don’t worry @noahthompsonmu1 we are gonna rock the finals.”
Noah replied, “I can’t wait Melissa I really can’t, looking forward to meeting you and cannot wait for this duet.”
Either Noah, Leah or HunterGirl will be crowned the American Idol on Sunday night, and Melissa is just one of the stars who’ll be appearing on the finale. The lineup also includes judge Lionel Richie performing, plus country superstar Thomas Rhett, Michael Bublé, Sara Bareilles, Flo Rida and Earth, Wind and Fire.
The American Idol season 20 finale airs live Sunday, May 22, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: The Cure‘s next album will be released later this year.
Frontman Robert Smith has been teasing the follow-up to 2008’s 4:13 Dream dating back to at least 2019, when he told NME that he was “intent” on releasing a new Cure record by the end of that year.
Well, it’s now 2022, and Smith is once again telling the U.K. publication that The Cure will release a new album before the year is over.
“We will be releasing a new album,” Smith says. “I get fed up of saying this now! We will be playing from October and the new album will be out before then.”
Smith describes the record, which is currently titled Songs of a Lost World, as “pretty relentless,” correctly asserting that vibe “will appeal to the hardcore of our audience.”
“I don’t think we’ll be getting any #1 singles off it or anything like that!” he laughs. “It’s been quite harrowing, like it has for everyone else.”
Meanwhile, Smith and longtime Cure bassist Simon Gallup were honored with the Music Icon Award at the 2022 Ivor Novello Awards, which were held earlier this week. The prestigious U.K. prize recognized the pair as “true cultural icons who have changed the face of popular music across the last four decades as songwriters for The Cure.”
Doja Cat found out the hard way that infected tonsils and vaping don’t mix.
On Thursday, she tweeted, “dr. just had to cut into my left tonsil. i had an abscess in it. my whole throat is f***ed so i might have some bad news for yall coming soon.”
The “Say So” singer explained, “So my tonsils got infected before [the] bbmas and i was taking…antibiotics but forgot that i was taking them and then i drank wine and was vaping all day long and then i started getting a nasty a** growth on my tonsil so they had to do surgery on it today.”
Doja then decided to get graphic, writing, “he poked up in dere with a needle twice and then sucked all the juice out and then he took a sharp thing and cut it in two places and squoze all the goop out in dere. i cried and it hurt a lot but im ok.”
She revealed she’s planning to get her tonsils removed “very soon,” but meanwhile, she noted, “im quitting the vape for a while and hopefully i dont crave it anymore after that…im too scared to hit it cuz my throat hurts so bad. i cried for hours. its not worth it.”
“its like imagine all that weird poisonous s*** in the vape seeping into the completely open wound in my throat,” she continued. “like f*** that. im hella young.”
When fans suggested Doja throw her vape away, she responded, “I’ma try to go cold turkey for now but hopefully my brain doesn’t need it at all by then… Right now I NEED THEM.”
She also admonished those fans for being “condescending to anybody who’s actually struggling with nicotine addiction,” but thanked others for their support and reassurance.
Keith Urban’s long been open about his battle with drugs and alcohol, and he credits much of his recovery to his wife, A-list actor Nicole Kidman.
In a new interview with The Sun, Keith acknowledges that keeping a healthy balance — and a healthy relationship — takes constant maintenance. “It can easily go out of whack,” he says.
“Umpteen years ago I never corrected things until it was too late, but now I see it starting to go out and I’m much better at catching it before things implode,” he says, jokingly adding that he has a strong motivating factor to keep any partying impulses in check: “I’d like to stay married.”
Plus, Keith and Nicole are now parents to two daughters, 13-year-old Sunday and 11-year-old Faith.
“I’m trying to set a good example for the kids, but I still don’t know if I’m getting it right,” he says. “I have made so many mistakes, but you have to work out what works for you. My message to them is always to do whatever they are passionate about, I don’t care, as long as they work hard to achieve it.”
Though maintaining the right life balance takes constant work, there are plenty of happy milestones and reasons to celebrate along the way. Last September, Keith celebrated 15 years of sobriety.
A “restored and expanded” version of The Police‘s 1982 documentary The Police: Around the World got its release today.
The film is now available on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time ever, with the new discs boasting restored video and remastered audio, plus bonus performances of four full songs.
In addition, the new release, titled The Police: Around The World Restored & Expanded, comes packaged with a newly created soundtrack album either on CD or as a colored-vinyl LP that includes performances recorded at shows in Japan, Hong Kong and the U.K. during the same world tour documented in the movie.
The film captures The Police on stage and off while touring in 1979 and 1980 in Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Egypt, Greece, France, South America and the U.S.
“Well, the cool thing about this film is [it captures the band] at its hungriest, and also when the synergy was strongest,” drummer Stewart Copeland tells ABC Audio. “And combine that with the exotic locations — very colorful, very picturesque — and it’s a fun ride. Three guys having a lot of fun in strange places.”
Copeland says his favorite part of the tour was a visit to Cairo, Egypt, during which — as seen in the film — he and band mates Sting and Andy Summers hired horses and rode all around the Great Pyramids of Giza.
“That was a fun day,” Stewart recalls.
Meanwhile, Copeland notes about The Police’s performances in the movie and on the album, “We were hot as firecrackers at the time,” adding that “the excitement of that tour gave us some extra juice.”
The Police: Around the World Restored & Expanded is available as a DVD/CD set, a Blu-ray/CD package and a DVD/LP collection.
The DVD & Blu-ray feature performances of:
“Next to You”
“Walking on the Moon”
“Born in the 50’s”
“So Lonely”
“Man in a Suitcase”
“Can’t Stand Losing You”
“Bring On the Night”
“Canary in a Coalmine”
“Voices Inside My Head”
“When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around”
“Shadows in the Rain”
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me”
“Truth Hits Everybody”
“Roxanne”
Bonus features — complete live performances of:
“Walking on the Moon” (Live from Kyoto)
“Next to You” (Live from Kyoto)
“Message in a Bottle” (Live from Hong Kong)
“Born in the 50’s” (Live from Hong Kong)
Here’s the soundtrack album’s track list:
“Walking on the Moon” (Live from Kyoto)
“Next to You” (Live from Kyoto)*
“Deathwish” (Live from Kyoto)
“So Lonely” (Live from Kyoto)
“Can’t Stand Losing You” (Live from Kyoto)
“Truth Hits Everybody” (Live from Kyoto)
“Visions of the Night” (Live from Hammersmith)*
“Roxanne” (Live from Hammersmith)
Intro*
“Born in the 50’s” (Live from Hong Kong)
“Message in a Bottle” (Live from Hong Kong)
“Bring On the Night” (Live from Hong Kong)
Foo Fighters in 1997; Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
The Foo Fighters album The Colour and the Shape is now 25.
Released May 20, 1997, The Colour and the Shape arrived two years after Dave Grohl dropped the debut, self-titled Foo Fighters record in 1995. While technically the sophomore Foo Fighters effort, The Colour and the Shape marked their studio debut as a full band.
Grohl, who played drums in Nirvana, initially founded Foo Fighters as a solo project following the death of Kurt Cobain and recorded that first Foos album almost entirely by himself. When it came time for a Foo Fighters tour, Grohl put together a live band featuring bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith of Sunny Day Real Estate, as well as touring Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear.
That lineup then went into the studio to record The Colour and the Shape, though it didn’t come out the same way. As the story goes, Grohl was not satisfied with Goldsmith’s drum tracks and decided to rerecord them himself. Upon learning this, Goldsmith left the band.
Beyond the personnel issues, recording The Colour and the Shape was a difficult — and unexpectedly expensive — process for Grohl and company. Still, the Foos powered through and delivered what’s considered to be among their best albums, thanks in part to now-classic songs including “Everlong,” “My Hero” and “Monkey Wrench.” Additionally, Goldsmith’s departure led to drummer Taylor Hawkins joining the band shortly after the album was recorded.
Speaking with ABC Audio earlier this year, Grohl shared that the Foos didn’t have any plans to mark The Colour and the Shape‘s milestone anniversary. Any plans that they may have had, however, are now undoubtedly canceled, given the unexpected death of Hawkins last March. Following the news of Hawkins’ passing, Foo Fighters canceled all of their tour dates.
After postponing the first two dates of his new run of European concerts this week because he recently contracted the COVID-19 virus, Eric Clapton has now postponed two more shows — a pair of performances that had been scheduled in Bologna, Italy, this Friday and Saturday, May 20 and 21.
A message posted on the official Where’s Eric website explains, “Clapton, whilst feeling fine in himself, has again tested positive for Covid this morning. Whilst there is a strong body of medical opinion that after several days since the first positive test, a person is no longer infectious, it is by no means agreed by all. Accordingly, Eric does not want to travel while still testing positive and take the risk of infecting others.”
The note adds that, under the circumstances, it’s possible that “the Italian authorities would not…permit [Eric’s] entry into Italy.”
All four postponed concerts, which also include shows originally scheduled for May 17 in Zurich, Switzerland, and May 18 in Milan, Italy, will be rescheduled by the end of 2022. The new dates will be announced within the next two weeks, and tickets purchased for the postponed concerts will be valid for the rescheduled dates.
Clapton’s next scheduled show is now a May 29 performance in Berlin. According to the message on the Where’s Eric site, “by [that] time we have every hope that there will be no obstacle to Eric being able to perform that concert and the remainder of the scheduled concerts.”
Visit EricClapton.com to check out Clapton’s full tour schedule.
–Sporting a bold, yellow bob-like wig, rising superstar Saweetie landed on the cover of Glamour UK‘s May hair issue.
The “Icy Girl” rapper, who’s of Black and Asian descent, says it took awhile for her to learn to love her natural tresses. “I hated my hair,” she admits. “It’s naturally really kinky and curly. It’s beautiful, but I was a tomboy and was like, ‘I don’t got no time for this.'”
Saweetie says it was her tomboy tendencies that helped teach her to love her hair. “I think just me playing a lot of sports and not having the time to do my hair, and seeing how loud it was, that’s when I really started to appreciate my hair.”
Saweetie believes, like her music, hair is a form of expression. Read the full interview in the Glamour UK May Digital Issue online now.
—Janet Jackson celebrated her 56th birthday on Tuesday, May 16, but the picture she snapped with former flame Jermaine Dupri in Las Vegas over the weekend is still very much a topic of discussion.
Legendary producer Jimmy Jam and his wife, Lisa, attended the star-studded birthday celebration. Taking to IG to share images of a few of the celebs present, Lisa revealed Jackson’s ex Dupri was one of them.
Of course the blogs and fans ate the photo up, with one suggesting Dupri is “tryna sneak back in.”
–Looks like Chloe Bailey might be dropping some new music soon! The Grammy-nominated singer dropped a few song snippets on Instagram earlier this week, soliciting fans’ opinions on which she should drop next.
In the 15-minute IG Live video, she refers to the next track as the “third single,” which could mean her debut solo album will be delivered any day.
