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Megan Thee Stallion talks mother’s rap influence and being “very happy” with boyfriend in ‘Peace of Mind with Taraji’

October 12, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Megan Thee Stallion is sharing rare details about her personal life in the season two premiere of Taraji P. Henson‘s Facebook Watch series Peace of Mind with Taraji.

Meg, whose mother, Holly Thomas, passed away in 2019 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, says her mother still serves as her “biggest inspiration” in becoming a rapper.

“That’s how I even knew to be this way,” Megan tells Henson of her mother’s own pursuits to become an emcee. “She had a nine-to-five job, but on her days off, she would be at the studio and she would take me to the studio, thinking I’m in the lobby doing coloring books and stuff. And I’m at the door, really listening, [thinking]… ‘What’s she in there singing?'”

Megan says listening to her mother rhyme led her to start “writing” her own material.

“And then one day I just came to her and I was like, ‘I can rap,'” Megan says, before noting that her mother ultimately foreshadowed her future career as an emcee. “She spoke all of this into existence. She knew I would do this.”

While the Grammy winner’s mother played a big part in Meg chasing her own dreams, the “Savage” rapper now thanks her current boyfriend, Pardison Fontaine, for keeping her “very happy.”

“He definitely takes care of me emotionally,” she shares. “He makes my brain feel good. He makes my heart feel good.”

Megan continues, “That’s a big thing for me, because I used to be so into the physical, right, like… but he moves me, he inspires me, and we just feel like a real team. He feels like a partner.”

Robby Krieger says he hopes his new memoir will “correct a lot of the misinformation” about The Doors

October 12, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The Doors‘ Robby Krieger delivers a candid, in-depth account of his famous band’s history in his new memoir, Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying, and Playing Guitar with The Doors, which was released today.

Krieger tells ABC Audio that one of the main reasons he wrote the book was he wanted to address the inaccuracies and exaggerations included in such popular accounts of The Doors’ story as Danny Sugerman‘s 1980 book No One Here Gets Out Alive and Oliver Stone‘s 1990 film The Doors.

“The most fun part was to correct a lot of the misinformation out there that people really believe, I guess,” the 75-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer says of the project. “I’m trying to set the record straight as much as possible.”

Krieger says he especially hopes his book gives a clearer picture of what late frontman Jim Morrison was really like, noting, “[W]hen they see the movie, they see Jim in this one light, and he just was so much more than [that].”

In addition to delving into all phases of The Doors’ history, Krieger also writes about his childhood, his post-Doors musical career, his struggles with cancer and drug addiction, and the legal battle that drummer John Densmore initiated against him and keyboardist Ray Manzarek over usage of the group’s name.

Robby says he believes that Densmore’s lawsuit was motivated by bitter feelings he had over insulting things Manzarek wrote about him in his 1998 memoir, Light My Fire, and that Ray, in turn, had been upset by John’s portrayal of him in his 1990 book Rider on the Storm.

Krieger says he made sure to show Densmore “all the parts about him” in his new book before it was released, noting that “he was fine with it.”

Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher shares story behind ’Hushed and Grim’ album title

October 12, 2021 by WDNY Radio

On the surface, at least half the title of Mastodon‘s upcoming album, Hushed and Grim, makes sense. Their music has often tackled grim subjects — the 2017 record Emperor of Sand, for example, was an entire metaphor for cancer — but, being a metal band, they’ve never been particularly hushed about it.

As guitarist Bill Kelliher tells ABC Audio, the title Hushed and Grim is in honor of Mastodon’s late manager, Nick John. Kelliher recalls one particularly tough scene, in which he and his band mates visited John while he was in home hospice care before he eventually succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2018.

“‘Hushed and grim’ [were] the perfect adjective[s] to say what was happening,” Kelliher shares. “There we were, some of his closest friends and his wife and his family members, everybody’s just hushed.”

“Everybody’s just [feeling] unbelievable sadness,” he remembers. “That was the grim part.”

It was drummer Brann Dailor who came up with the title. In trying to explain how he and his band mates were feeling, he did what a lot of us do in troubled times — he turned to art.

“It was from Gone with the Wind,” Kelliher says of the Hushed and Grim phrase. “They’re talking about the Civil War and how it was just a grim scene, and Atlanta was ‘hushed and grim.'”

He continues, “It’s a different sense, but it translates to that whole scene of walking into [John’s] house where he was not gonna come back out alive.”

Given that Mastodon formed in Atlanta, the title was all the more fitting.

Hushed and Grim will be released October 29. It includes the previously released songs “Pushing the Tides” and “Teardrinker.”

Eddie Van Halen’s California hometown unveils honorary plaque

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Eddie Van Halen‘s hometown of Pasadena, California, has unveiled an honorary plaque dedicated to the late Van Halen guitarist.

According to Pasadena Now, the plaque is displayed on the outside wall of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, which commemorates Eddie and Van Halen for “reinventing rock ‘n’ roll” and their “connection to Pasadena.”

Eddie and his brother Alex were born in The Netherlands before the Van Halen family moved to Pasadena in 1962. By the time they started their namesake band in the early ’70s, the brothers were local sensations — as the plaque notes, Van Halen performed at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium 14 times between 1975 and 1978.

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, Pasadena council member Felicia Williams said, “This event brings together history and community to celebrate a world-renowned artist.”

“It’s not just the history of Eddie as a guitar legend, but also the challenges he faced growing up mixed race in Pasadena, which always spoke to me,” Williams added, referring to Eddie’s Dutch-Indonesian heritage.

The plaque arrives a week after the one-year anniversary of Eddie’s death. He died October 6, 2020, at age 65 following a battle with cancer.

SZA denies rumors that she’s releasing her album the same day as Summer Walker

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

SZA is setting the record straight. After a fan asked “The Weekend” singer if she was going to compete with fellow songstress Summer Walker by releasing her sophomore album Alt, on November 5, the same date as Walker’s Still Over It, SZA says that would never happen.

“I jus wanna know y y’all think i would drop same time as summer,” SZA tweets in response to the fan before adding, “I’m ON her album…like wut.”

Rumors of SZA’s expected album-release date comes after a SZA fan page announced that the singer had chosen the same November 5 date as Summer Walker.

While there’s no word yet on when SZA will release the follow-up to her 2017 project Ctrl, fans can be excited about the singers’ upcoming collaboration. As previously reported, the two joined forces when Walker was featured on SZA’s “Bloodstain,” released back in April. They later teased their reunion when they were seen in the studio together again in June.

Songs by The Police, Queen and Rolling Stones honored with BMI London Awards

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Members of The Police, Queen and The Rolling Stones were among the honorees today at the 2021 BMI London Awards, given out annually by the music-rights management and licensing company BMI.

Part of the ceremony was dedicated to the presentation of the Million-Air Awards, which recognize the songwriters of iconic songs that have been broadcast on TV and radio more than a million times in the U.S.

At the top of this list is Sting for writing The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” which was honored for amassing 16 million performances.

The honorees in the eight-million-plays category were the writers of Queen‘s “Another Bites the Dust” and “We Will Rock You,” composed, respectively, by John Deacon and Brian May; The Rolling Stones‘ “Honky Tonk Women,” penned by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards; and Steve Winwoood‘s “Higher Love,” which Winwood co-wrote with Will Jennings.

The songwriters recognized for tunes with seven million performances were Elton John for “Bennie and the Jets” and his Kiki Dee duet “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”; Gerry Rafferty for “Baker Street; Sting for The Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and his contribution to Dire Straits‘ “Money for Nothing”; Paul McCartney for “Live and Let Die”; Freddie Mercury for Queen’s “We Are the Champions”; and ex-Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden for co-writing his old band’s hit “Here I Go Again.”

As for the six-million-play honorees, they included Elton for “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues,” former Yes members Trevor Rabin and Jon Anderson for “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” Cutting Crew‘s Nick van Eede for “(I Just) Died in Your Arms” and Roxette‘s Per Gessle for “It Must Have Been Love.”

To check out a full list of BMI London Awards winner, visit BMI.com.

“Forever grateful”: Lee Brice takes “Memory I Don’t Mess With” to #1

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Lee Brice is “forever grateful” for his new #1 song.

The singer’s back at the top of the charts with “Memory I Don’t Mess With,” marking his eighth #1 single. The track is featured on his 2020 album, Hey World.

“Y’all… We have the #1 song on country radio!! A huge THANK YOU to country radio, my team, and every single one of you who called your local radio station to request #MemoryIDontMessWith,” Lee writes in a celebratory Twitter post. “I cannot thank y’all enough for showing this song so much love! I’m forever grateful.”

“Memory” is the latest in a string of four consecutive #1 hits for Lee, following “Rumor,” “I Hope You’re Happy Now” — Lee’s CMA and ACM Award winning duet with Carly Pearce — and “One of Them Girls.”

for KING & COUNTRY set new album release, tour for 2022

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

for KING & COUNTRY is on tour now and they’ll be on the road right up to Christmas — but they’ve already mapped out their next tour.

The award-winning Australian duo have announced that they’ll be releasing a new album called What Are We Waiting For? on March 11. It’s their first collection of new non-holiday music in three years, and is the follow up to 2020’s A Drummer Boy Christmas.

To go with the album, Joel and Luke will kick off What Are We Waiting For? — The Tour on March 31, 2022; it’s currently scheduled through May 22 in Franklin, TN. Tickets go on sale to the general public this Friday at 10 a.m. via the duo’s website.

“So many of you have encouraged us and spurred us on in this journey since we began the writing process at the top of the year,” the “Amen” duo say in a statement. “We’ve made records before in buses and in dressing rooms, but what’s been particularly beautiful about this one is that we were able to be home with our families.”

Ahead of the tour, an event called the for KING & COUNTRY New Album Weekend Experience will take place March 4-6 in the duo’s home base of Nashville, TN. Fans will get to spend the weekend with the duo, enjoy a concert, hear the entire album, attend a meet & greet and more. You can get tickets now through Eventbrite.

50 Cent roasts Snoop Dogg on his inability to stop smoking weed

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

50 Cent is having a major laugh thanks to good pal and Black Mafia Family star Snoop Dogg.

In an Instagram post to promote the latest episode of his new crime-drama BMF, 50 shared an image of Snoop in character as Pastor Swift.

“Let us all pray God, grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I can not change, the COURAGE to change the things I can, and the WISDOM to know the difference,” 50 wrote in a message accompanying the pic. “BECAUSE @snoopdogg is not gonna stop smoking weed.”

50’s hilarious revelation comes after the rapper told Jimmy Kimmel last month that he couldn’t get Snoop to stop smoking marijuana on-set.

“He did his thing,” Fif said of Snoop’s portrayal as the pastor. “[But,] you can’t get him to stop smoking weed. I went to the trailer. I was like, ‘Can you chill? Can you chill?’ He was like, ‘Get outta here, man! No, it’s legal 50! It’s legal!”

Fif continued, “He was really conflicted with me asking him not to smoke weed. He was like, ‘Why you wanna mess up my day?'”

Fans can check out Snoop in BMF, which airs Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET on Starz.

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Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes to perform at Prince William’s Earthshot Prize ceremony

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Coldplay, Shawn Mendes and Ed Sheeran are among the performers at the first-ever Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony, which is being held in London on October 17.

The Earthshot Prize was created by Great Britain’s Prince William and The Royal Foundation to encourage scientists to develop the “most inspiring and innovative solutions” to the world’s biggest environmental challenges. There will be five winners announced, and each will get one million pounds — about $1.36 million U.S. — to scale and support their innovations.

Prince William will attend the ceremony with other participants including Sir David Attenborough, actors Emma Thompson, Emma Watson and David Oyelowo and Prince Williams’ wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge.

You can learn about all 15 finalists for the prize in the documentary The EarthShot Prize: Repairing Our Planet, which is now available on Discovery+ and will arrive on October 16 on the Discovery Channel. The awards ceremony will stream globally on Discovery’s Facebook page on October 17.

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