Garth Brooks praises fans’ “character,” working on rescheduling Nashville stadium show

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After intense thunder and lightning storms led to a cancellation of his show at Nissan Stadium in Nashville on Saturday, Garth Brooks is actively working to reschedule the performance.

On Inside Studio G Monday night, Garth expressed that he was “heartbroken” that the weather forced him to postpone his first show at the Music City stadium, which drew more than 70,000 fans. He says he and his team are in the process of collaborating with the Nissan Stadium staff to work around the Tennessee Titans’ schedule and find a new date for the show. 

“There is a rescheduled date that we’re working with, but we can’t confirm it yet. We’ve got to line it up with our stuff. But we’ll figure out what we do,” Garth explains.

The superstar went on to praise his loyal fans, who had to take shelter inside the concourses of the venue during the storm, lifting one another’s spirits with sing-a-longs to “Friends in Low Places.”

“They say that character is not created in crisis, it is displayed in crisis, or it is revealed. The one thing that I’ll brag about against anybody is the Garth crowd, ‘G City.’ Those people? Friggin’ amazing,” Garth raves. “My hat’s off to the Titan organization, to Nashville, the EMTs, all the first responders — amazing. The firemen, the police, everything. And then, of course, for the people that sat in those seats. So sweet.”

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Breaking Benjamin announces tour dates with Papa Roach

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Breaking Benjamin has announced a fall tour with Papa Roach joining on select dates.

The headlining outing is set to begin September 11 in Gilford, New Hampshire, and will wrap up September 22 in Huntington, West Virginia. Tickets go on sale this Friday, August 6, at 10 a.m. local time. Members of the Breaking Benjamin fan club will have access to a pre-sale beginning Wednesday, August 4.

For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit BreakingBenjamin.com.

Breaking Benjamin’s most recent album is 2018’s Ember. In 2020, they released a compilation titled Aurora, featuring reworked, acoustic-driven versions of past songs, as well as the brand-new single, “Far Away.”

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Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett’s new album, ‘Love for Sale,’ due October 1

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Lady Gaga and legendary crooner Tony Bennett, who turns 95 today, will release their new duets album, Love for Sale, on October 1.

The record, which will be Bennett’s final studio recording, features him and Gaga singing songs penned by the iconic composer Cole Porter.  The first single, “I Get a Kick Out of You,” is out today.

Tonight, Gaga and Bennett will take the stage at New York’s Radio City Music Hall for the first of two performances; the second takes place Thursday night.  The video for “I Get a Kick Out of You” will debut on MTV, MTV Live, MTVU and its network of channels on August 6 at midnight.  It’ll also be screened on an electronic billboard in New York’s Times Square.

Doing an entire album of Cole Porter songs was an idea that came up after the success of Gaga and Bennett’s first album, 2014’s  Grammy-winning Cheek to Cheek, but it wasn’t recorded until after Bennett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He received the initial diagnosis in 2016, but his family only revealed his condition in February of this year.

Here’s the track listing for Love for Sale:

“It’s De-Lovely”
“Night and Day”
“Love for Sale”
“Do I Love You”
“I Concentrate On You”
“I Get a Kick Out of You”
“So In Love”
“Let’s Do It”
“Just One of Those Things”
“Dream Dancing”
“I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (DELUXE VERSION)
“You’re the Top” (DELUXE VERSION)

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‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ documentary to be screened at Italy’s Venice Film Festival next month

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The upcoming official Led Zeppelin documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin has been added to the lineup of the 2021 edition of Italy’s Venice International Film Festival, which runs from September 1 through September 11.

The movie will be screened as part of the out-of-competition section of the festival.

As previously reported, Becoming Led Zeppelin features new interviews with band members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, as well as archival interviews with late drummer John Bonham.

The film, which was directed by Bernard McMahon, follows the individual paths of Led Zeppelin’s four members through their various groups and musical endeavors en route to becoming part of one of the biggest and most influential rock bands in the world. The documentary ends in 1970, at the height of Led Zeppelin’s meteoric rise.

“With Becoming Led Zeppelin my goal was to make a documentary that looks and feels like a musical,” McMahon says in a statement. “I wanted to weave together the four diverse stories of the band members before and after they formed their group with large sections of their story advanced using only music and imagery and to contextualize the music with the locations where it was created and the world events that inspired it.”

McMahon adds, “I used only original prints and negatives, with over 70,000 frames of footage manually restored, and devised fantasia sequences, inspired by Singin’ in the Rain, layering unseen performance footage with montages of posters, tickets and travel to create a visual sense of the freneticism of their early career.”

McMahon also directed American Epic, an award-winning documentary series focusing on American roots music and its impact on the world.

Becoming Led Zeppelin was co-written and produced by Allison McGourty, who also co-wrote American Epic.

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Charlie Puth comes clean about his embarrassing YouTuber past

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Charlie Puth’s YouTuber past has come back to haunt him.

Much to his chagrin, TikTok has unearthed some of his old videos from before he was a signed artist. One includes him performing a song called “Sexy Shades,” about — you guessed it — his favorite pair of sunglasses.

“I’ve been waiting for this day to come. I lasted five years without anybody knowing this,” Charlie said in a TikTok video response. “Before I was a signed artist, I used to make YouTube comedy songs, and, bro, they’re so hard to watch.”

He added, “We tried so hard in the beginning when I first got signed to hide all of these videos, but, TikTok! So, if you want a good laugh, type in my name plus old videos and have fun.”

Some other gems include “The Pickle Song” and “Red Hyundai,” an ode to Charlie’s car.

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Cardi B joins YouTube’s billion views club with “Bodak Yellow”

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Cardi B‘s breakthrough debut single, “Bodak Yellow,” earned a major new accolade this week by being inducted into YouTube’s elusive one billion views club.

The song’s music video, which Cardi previously revealed was filmed on a tight $15,000 budget, crossed the billion-view threshold over the weekend after premiering a little over four years ago.

“Fifteen thousand dollars, A billion views later !!!!! Wow that’s crazy !,” Cardi shared Monday. “Super dope. Thank you all for all the support through out the years….. Back to the lab. Love & appreciate y’all .”

This isn’t the first time the Grammy winner made money moves past the one billion mark. Her previous collaborations with Maroon 5, as well as Bad Bunny and J Balvin, for “Girls Like You” and “I Like It,” respectively, also amassed over a billion views.  However, this is Cardi’s first solo effort to join the exclusive club.  It also officially makes Cardi the first female rapper to send multiple videos past the billion-views mark.

Also, according to Chart Data, “Bodak Yellow” obtained a billion views faster than any other song made by a female rap artist.

The song’s enjoyed an impressive run since being unleashed in 2017, when it became the first single by a female rapper to top the Billboard Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks.  The song’s success helped Cardi’s debut album, Invasion of Privacy, gain critical acclaim and chart on the Billboard 200 chart for three years.

Her follow-up album is rumored to drop later this year, but neither a name nor release date has yet been announced.

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Duran Duran turned down the chance to work with Michael Jackson in the ’80s

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In the ’80s, when Michael Jackson was the biggest star on the planet, any other star would’ve jumped at the chance to work with him, right? Well, not so much.

Appearing on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen Monday night, Duran Duran was asked by Cohen if they were friendly with the King of Pop in the ’80s, when Thriller was all the range and they were topping the charts with “The Reflex.” 

Keyboardist Nick Rhodes revealed that around that time, he’d returned home from a tour and received a call from someone saying they were Michael Jackson.  He initially thought it was one of their crew members pranking him, but he finally realized that yes, it was THE Michael Jackson.

“He was keen to make a record, and I go the next day to everyone…’Hey, Michael Jackson called last night, do you fancy maybe doing a song with him or something?'” Nick recalled. “And they all went, ‘Nah!’

The band also insinuated that Princess Diana had a crush on bass player John Taylor, and said they wouldn’t mind making a biopic about themselves like Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocketman, with singer Simon LeBon adding, “Can we have a young Brad Pitt play me?”

Duran Duran, who are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their self-titled first album, will release their latest project, Future Past, on October 22.

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Carly Pearce’s new album, ‘Written in Stone,’ features collaborations with Patty Loveless, Ashley McBryde

Big Machine Records

Carly Pearce‘s story of 29 continues with her upcoming album, Written in Stone. 

Carly is expanding upon the personal album she released in February, which processes her divorce from Michael Ray and the passing of her producer, busbee, with Written in Stone. It features eight new songs, alongside the original seven on 29. 

The project features collaborations with Patty Loveless on “Dear Miss Loretta” and Ashley McBryde on “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” alongside other new tracks “Diamondback,” “What He Didn’t Do,” “Easy Going,” “Your Drinkin,’ My Problem,” “All the Whiskey in the World,” and “Mean It This Time.” 

Coinciding with the album news, the Kentucky native released “Dear Miss Loretta,” a country ode to Loretta Lynn with strong supporting vocals from Patty, in which Carly shares how she connects to the legend’s pain-soaked songs.  

“So much has happened to me in the last year. The more my life unraveled, the more the songs lifted me up,” Carly describes. “As the smoke cleared, and some unbelievable things started happening, I was writing even more truth and getting lifted up even higher — and I realized, as much as 29 captured a moment, I wasn’t done with the story.”

News of Written in Stone arrives on September 17, hours before the “I Hope You’re Happy Now” singer is to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.

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Get Vaxxed: Paul McCartney encourages fans to get the COVID-19 vaccine

©Mary McCartney

Sir Paul McCartney is hoping to encourage more of his fans to get the COVID-19 vaccine if they haven’t already done so.

Taking to Instagram on Monday, the 79-year-old music legend shared a photo of him getting the jab and captioned his post in all capital letters, “BE COOL. GET VAX’D.”

Sir Paul opted to wear navy blue beanie, navy sweater and a matching face mask for his appointment.

The former Beatles member shared his latest PSA as COVID-19 infections caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant continue to rise worldwide.  

The music legend previously expressed to British publication The Sun that he was eager to be vaccinated, as it will allow him to perform before a live audience in the near future.

“The vaccine will get us out of this,” Paul said at the time. “I think we’ll come through it, I know we’ll come through, and it’s great news about the vaccine. I’ll have it as soon as I’m allowed.”

The British government reports that, as of Monday, nearly 90 percent of its adult population has obtained at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 72 percent of eligible adults are fully vaccinated.

COVID-19 has killed over 153,000 people in the U.K., according to government figures, and has infected nearly six million British citizens.

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Tito Jackson explains the hold up on a hologram Michael Jackson for a Jackson 5 reunion tour

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Ahead of the release of his second blues-inspired solo album, Under Your SpellTito Jackson is setting the record straight about the status of The Jacksons. Contrary to the rumors, Tito says he and his brothers JackieJermaine and Marlon are still together and touring, but just not necessarily in the U.S.

“We have always been together and we work tremendously,” he tells ABC Audio. “I would say 90 percent of our work comes in other countries. So we’re always in Europe or Brazil or Asia or somewhere in Russia doing shows.”

In fact, Jackson says The Jackson 5, which included himself, Jermaine, Jackie, Marlon and Michael, would still be touring together today — if Michael was still alive.

“Sad thing for us all is that when Michael was going to do the O2 [arena shows], we had planned to do another tour of the complete members,” Jackson says. “And that never came to fruition… But, we will always sing together as long as we can, as long as the brothers are healthy enough to do so.”

While MJ’s planned 2009 concert residency at London’s O2 Arena, and a subsequent Jackson family tour never took place because of Michael’s untimely death, Tito says other options to reunite The Jackson 5 are being discussed.

Tito says the idea of incorporating an MJ hologram into a Jackson 5 reunion tour has “been discussed a few times, [but]…to have it done [takes] a tremendous knowledge, work in technology, what have you.”

Jackson adds, “And it’s not a cheap process. It’s getting cheaper and cheaper as time goes along. But to have a hologram Jacksons show live…would be the next thing.” 

Under Your Spell arrives this Friday, August 6, on the usual platforms.

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