Kings of Leon have canceled the remainder of their U.S. tour following the death of brothers Caleb, Jared and Nathan Followill‘s mother, Betty Ann.
The band had shared last week that they were dropping off of two upcoming concerts to return home to Betty Ann, who’d been “dealing with a medical crisis.” Soon thereafter the sad news came that she had passed away.
In an Instagram post Thursday evening, KoL announced that they’d be staying off the road for the time being to “be with our families.”
“We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from our fans,” the band wrote. “Thanks for the kind words and all the love you’ve given to the entire Followill family.”
Along with the Followill brothers, Kings of Leon include their cousin, Matthew Followill, who’s Betty Ann’s nephew.
Ryan Hurd‘s enjoying his first top-ten song as an artist right now, duetting with his wife Maren Morris on “Chasing After You.”
Of course, Ryan’s already been to the top of the chart as a writer, having co-written “What If I Never Get Over You” for Lady A, Luke Bryan‘s “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset,” and Blake Shelton‘s “Lonely Tonight.”
Ironically, his first major success comes with a tune he didn’t write — one that’s been a hot property for some time.
“This song has been around a long time,” Ryan explains. “And it was held by a handful of artists before us, and for whatever reason didn’t make those albums. And when it became available, I remember asking around if it would be something that I could kind of claim.”
“And I remember [Maren and I] were on our first trip together, which was a while ago, and we were on a beach,” he recalls. “We went to the Caymans, I think. I think that’s the night that Maren said she wanted to be a part of this song.”
“And so it’s gone through a few versions of recordings, and we settled on this one,” Ryan adds.
It turns out “Chasing After You” wasn’t even envisioned as a collaboration at first.
“It was originally not a duet,” Ryan reveals. “But I think picturing it and being able to do that, I think once we saw that it could be, it just became much more powerful.”
You’ll find “Chasing After You” on Ryan’s debut album, Pelago, which comes out October 15.
Blake Shelton‘s new single is out! The Oklahoma native just dropped “Come Back As a Country Boy,” celebrating everything that is right about country music. The song, written by Michael Hardy, Jordan Schmidt and Josh Thompson, is from Blake’s upcoming Body Language Deluxe album, out on December 3.
“I think this song is an anthem for everyday hardworking country people out there,” Blake said of his rocking new single. “We have so much pride in who we are and what we do that, if we ever died and got the chance to live life over again, we probably wouldn’t do it if we couldn’t be country.”
Blake will wrap up his Friends and Heroes Tour this weekend with shows in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Another OG has left the Real Housewives of Atlanta. After 10 seasons on the show, Porsha Williams is handing in her peach.
Taking to Instagram on Thursday, the reality star shared a a few photos of herself along with a montage of clips from her time on the series. Alongside it, she announced, “After ten life-changing, gratifying, incredible years, it is finally time to begin my next chapter. Next season, I will not be returning to the Real Housewives of Atlanta franchise.”
“This was a difficult decision to not only make, but also come to terms with,” Williams continued. “It’s one I have put a lot of thought into and because of that, I know it’s the right one.”
The mom of one extended a thank-you to multiple networks and to her Bravo family, for which she said she has “much love and endless gratitude.”
“You’ve made the past decade a truly special one. One where I’ve dealt with unbelievable highs and unbelievable lows, and I can honestly say I would not have made it through some of them without the unconditional love and support I have gotten from all of you,” Porsha shared.
Williams went on to tease that this isn’t the last fans have seen of her.
“Don’t worry though, I’ll be back on your TV very soon. I can’t wait to share all of my exciting new endeavors with the world-beginning with the release of my memoir, The Pursuit of Porsha, out on November 16,” she concluded. “As for the rest, you’ll just have to wait and see! Love ya!”
Porsha’s exit comes just days after another OG, Cynthia Bailey, revealed she also would not be returning to RHOA for season 14.
Framing Britney Spears helped awaken the masses about the controversy behind Britney Spears’ 13-year conservatorship. Now, the second part of the explosive documentary has just dropped.
The makers behind FX and Hulu’s The New York Times Presents Controlling Britney Spears, Samantha Stark and Liz Day, spoke with Entertainment Tonight about what shocked them most about diving further into Britney’s legal woes.
Both say their interview with Alex Vlasov, who worked with the singer for nearly a decade and was a former agent of the security firm Black Box, is one of the most chilling segments of their film. That’s because Vlasov is the one who claimed Britney’s father, Jamie Spears, bugged Britney’s room and would secretly monitor her emails, phone calls and private conversations.
Vlasov reportedly turned over several recordings allegedly taken by Jamie to authenticate his claims.
“We have a copy of the recording, which we reviewed to authenticate it and make sure it was real,” said Day. “It was really disturbing to listen to. To imagine Britney being recorded secretly in her bedroom, that is just really disturbing.”
Stark added the two “made repeated” efforts to get Jamie’s side of the story, and said he “never denied the allegations that they wiretapped Britney’s bedroom.”
Jamie’s lawyer, Vivian Thoreen, claims in a statement to The New York Timesthat “All of his actions were well within the parameters of the authority conferred upon him by the court.”
However, Britney’s lawyer Mathew Rosengart believes the elder Spears violated his client’s “privacy rights” and said, after Jamie was suspended as conservator on Wednesday, that “Mr. Spears has crossed unfathomable lines and he must be held accountable.”
As for when the 13-year conservatorship will end, a hearing to determine that has been scheduled for November 12. Another hearing on December 13 will focus on financial and accounting matters.
Harry Styles went above and beyond to make one pregnant fan’s dream come true — by stopping his concert to help her reveal the gender of her unborn child.
Billboardreports the “Adore You” singer was performing at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Wednesday, when he noticed a pregnant female fan and her friend holding up some interesting signs.
The pregnant fan held up a black sign that read in multicolored letters, “I’m having a baby please make it your business” — a direct reference to the “I’m having your baby, it’s none of your business” lyric from Harry’s 2017 song, “Kiwi.”
As for her friend, she had a sealed envelope with the baby’s gender inside, which she handed to Styles during his show. Styles, wearing a glittering taupe tuxedo, opens the envelope as the crowd counts down to the big reveal.
The British singer then happily announces that the fan is having “a little baby girl” before dropping to his knees while pretending to sob.
The stadium lights up in pink as he emotionally asks the fan, “That’s what I wanted! Is that what you wanted?”
Styles wishes his fan a heartfelt “congratulations” as the crowd erupts into another wave of cheers.
The sweet moment was captured on video, which was shared by the fan account 1D Updates.
The “Watermelon Sugar” singer is currently on the North American leg of Harry Styles: Love On Tour, with another show slated for tonight at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
This Saturday, October 2, marks the 40th anniversary of the release of The Police‘s fourth studio album, Ghost in the Machine.
Released on frontman Sting‘s 30th birthday, the album became the new-wave band’s third consecutive chart-topping studio effort in the U.K. and continued the group’s ascending U.S. popularity, peaking at #2 on the Billboard 200.
Ghost in the Machine featured two top-20 singles in the U.S., “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” and “Spirits in the Material,” which reached #3 and #11, respectively. In the U.K., “Every Little Thing” topped the singles chart and “Spirits” peaked at #12, while another single, “Invisible Sun,” reached #2.
Other memorable tunes on the album include “Demolition Man,” “Too Much Information,” “One World (Not Three)” and “Secret Journey.”
While Caribbean sounds, especially reggae, had always been part of The Police’s music, Ghost in the Machine was the band’s first album to mainly be recorded there — specifically at Beatles producer George Martin‘s AIR Studios on the island of Montserrat.
Reflecting on The Police’s success at the time and making the album on Montserrat, guitarist Andy Summers tells ABC Audio, “It was an amazing period, no question about it,” adding, “[T]his is the sort of rock star dream. You know, ‘Hey, we’re on an island in the Caribbean. We are the s*** now.'”
Summers says one his favorite songs on the album was “Spirits in the Material World.”
“I like to play that one ’cause it’s got a great rhythm,” he notes.
The Police soon returned to Montserrat to record their fifth and final album, the chart-topping Synchronicity. In 1989, however, AIR Studios closed after being damaged by a hurricane.
Ghost in the Machine, meanwhile, went on to sell over 3 million copies in the U.S.
Here’s the full track list:
“Spirits in the Material World”
“Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
“Invisible Sun”
“Hungry for You (J’aurais toujours faim de toi)”
“Demolition Man”
“Too Much Information”
“Rehumanize Yourself”
“One World (Not Three)”
“Omegaman”
“Secret Journey”
“Darkness”
With The Rolling Stones back on tour and the band preparing to release a deluxe Tattoo You reissue next month, Mick Jagger chatted with Apple Music‘s Zane Lowe about numerous topics, including the group moving forward following drummer Charlie Watts‘ recent death.
In the interview, Jagger reveals that before Watts’ passing, he’d recorded parts for new songs that likely will appear on The Stones’ next album, noting that some of the recordings were done while they were working on the reissue’s bonus tracks.
“I did some stuff with him in the studio very recently, while we were doing [these] Tattoo You things,” Mick reports. “We did some…work on Tattoo You. Charlie did some work on…just a few fills and stuff like that. And then when we started messing around with some other things…It seems like only yesterday that I was in the studio with Charlie, joshing around. It’s just so weird and then very sad.”
Reflecting on recording new Stones material in the future, Jagger laments, “[W]ithout Charlie being there, it’s going to be very difficult.”
Having said that, Mick maintains that he and his band mates all want to keep going.
“[T]he thing about the Rolling Stones, I think, throughout their career has been their resilience in the face of adversity,” Jagger noted. “We’ve had adversity, and this was probably one of the most difficult ones. And so we booked the tour [that was] supposed to be played last year. We couldn’t do it for obvious reasons, because of the pandemic. And I just thought, and I think everyone in the band thought that we should just carry on.”
He added, “I’m glad we’re doing it. I know Charlie wanted us to do it. I think the audience wants to do it.”
On the latest episode of her Facebook watch series Red Table Talk: The Estefans,Gloria Estefan has revealed that she was sexually abused by a family member at the age of nine.
“I knew one day I would share this story,” Gloria said. “I was waiting for the right opportunity and space to do so.”
Gloria began her revelation by stating, “Ninety-three percent of abused children know and trust their abusers. And I know this because I was one of them.” She then explained that she used to attend a music school run by a distant relative who her mother trusted.
“He immediately started telling [my mom] how talented I was, and how I needed special attention, and she felt lucky that he was focusing this kind of attention on me,” Gloria said, adding, “It starts little by little and then it goes fast.”
When Gloria tried to stop the abuse, she says the man told her, “Your father’s in Vietnam, your mother’s alone, and I will kill her if you tell her.”
She continued, “I knew the man was insane and that’s why I thought he might actually hurt my mother.” But finally, Gloria said, she broke down and told her mother the truth. But when her mom called the police, they advised her not to take action.
“They told my mother not to press charges because they said I was going to go through worse trauma having to get on a stand and testify,” she said. “And that’s the one thing that I feel bad about, knowing that there must have been other victims.”
It turns out there was at least one: Gloria’s own aunt, who had been abused as a child by the same man in Cuba.
Gloria said that years later, after she had her first big hit with “Conga,” the same man “wrote a letter to the paper criticizing my music.”
“At that moment, I was so angry that I was about to blow the lid off of everything, and then I thought, ‘My whole success is going to turn into him,'” she recalled. “That’s what they do, they take your power.”
In the episode, Gloria and her family also talk to Clare Crawley, the first Latina Bachelorette, about Crawley’s abuse as a child at the hands of a priest.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, know that you are not alone. Call 800-656-HOPE or Visit rainn.org for free, confidential, 24/7 support.
Courtesy of Elton John’s Rocket Hour on Apple Music 1
Elton John‘s upcoming album The Lockdown Sessions features the song “Finish Line,” a collaboration with the equally legendary Stevie Wonder that was released today as an advance track. In a preview clip from the upcoming episode of his Apple Music show Elton John’s Rocket Hour, Elton calls the tune “one of the greatest records I’ve ever made.”
Elton talks about putting the track together songwriter and producer Andrew Watt, noting, “Stevie came along and played piano, I played electric piano, and then he did harmonica on it, and then we were trying to get another vocalist on it.”
Elton recalls, “[Stevie] wouldn’t do it because I think he thought he’d done enough.” But Watt then added a gospel choir on the song — the same choir Kanye West has been using — and Elton says, “I think when Stevie heard that, he decided to do the vocal.”
“I think for me, it’s one of the greatest records I’ve ever made, because it’s Stevie Wonder!” Elton raves, praising Watt for making “Stevie sound like a 17-year-old again.”
“I’m so proud of this record because I love [Stevie] so much,” Elton rhapsodizes. “He’s always been so kind to me and so sweet to me, you know, the talent is beyond ridiculous. And it was just lovely to spend time with him and just see this wonderful human being smiling and happy and playing on a record of mine.”
You can hear the whole episode of Elton John’s Rocket Hour on Apple Music 1 on Saturday at noon ET.
Elton’s The Lockdown Sessions is coming out October 22.
