David Archuleta came out publicly in June 2021, coincidentally during Pride Month. But at that time, David said he didn’t have a relationship to the event, since he was just trying to figure out how he fit into the LGBTQ community.
“I was engaged a few weeks before that,” he says of his coming-out statement. “And I had just broken it off because I was coming to terms with myself. … But even then, I was still afraid of Pride Month because it was scary to me. I didn’t know what it meant. … ‘Pride’ — does that mean being loud and in people’s faces? That’s not really my thing.'”
David says he now sees how valuable it is, giving people who “make all these assumptions of what queer people are like” an opportunity to “see a little bit into a world that they may normally just completely be disassociated with.”
“And I think it’s kind of nice to have a time to speak out,” he adds. “I tell people, like, ‘This has been difficult for me to come to terms with myself and I’m learning to love myself.’ And for me, that’s pride. I understand it now. I didn’t then.”
David’s new song, “Up,” is about his journey toward self-love as he reconciled his identity as a queer person with his Mormon faith. He says the song is “my way of showing my pride.”
As he says, “I came from a very dark place and it was hard for me to get to this point. But I’m proud of how far I’ve come.”
If you’re a fan of prog metal, then it’ll be hard to beat Dream Theater‘s Dreamsonic tour.
The traveling festival launches Friday, June 16, in Cedar Park, Texas, and will be headlined by Dream Theater. It will also feature the similarly inclined Devin Townsend and Animals as Leaders on the bill.
“It’d been some time since we felt that we were spearheading a kind of festival that was based around bands similar to Dream Theater,” vocalist James LaBrie tells ABC Audio.
Each Dreamsonic show, LaBrie declares, will provide a “real epic evening of great musicianship and really, really cool songs” that will have its own distinct feeling from past Dream Theater tours.
“This is our own umbrella, and it’s under our terms of the way that we wanna see the evening and the experience for the fans unfold,” LaBrie explains. “So I think in that sense it’ll definitely create some excitement and it will have its own entity or brand, so to speak.”
LaBrie adds that you can expect an onstage collaboration between all the bands on the lineup.
“If I was to go out and see a few bands together every night and at one point in the evening they all came onstage and did their jam and their collaboration, that’s exciting,” LaBrie says. “You see that camaraderie and that musicianship all in one spot. It’s pretty cool.”
The Dreamsonic tour concludes July 26 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Andrew McMahon has announced a livestream of his upcoming concert at London’s O2 Academy Islington, taking place July 5.
The show will air via the streaming platform Veeps and will feature performances of songs by McMahon’s solo project, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, as well as his bands Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin. McMahon will also be sharing personal stories about his music.
“We’re excited to partner with Andrew on such a special event where fans will get a rare glimpse into the stories behind the songs that have touched so many lives,” says Sarah Minders, head of artist relations at Veeps. “Bringing one-of-a-kind performances like this to global audiences is what we’re all about, and we can’t wait for fans worldwide to have a front-row seat to his O2 Academy performance.”
McMahon released a new Wilderness album, Tilt at the Wind No More, in March. Before his trip to England, he’ll perform at the Bonnaroo festival Saturday, June 17.
When Santana played Woodstock in 1969, they were a relatively unknown band that shot to superstardom after their performance. But according to Carlos Santana, it’s surprising the set went off as well as it did.
In a new interview with People, the guitar great, whose documentary Carlos premieres at the Tribeca Festival on June 17, says he was high as a kite during the performance thanks to the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, who handed him some hallucinogens right before he took the stage.
“It was a real test, and the test was, ‘You are higher than an astronaut’s butt right now with whatever Jerry Garcia shared with me,'” Santana says. “When I came out onstage, I was like, ‘Oh my God, am I going to be able to play? I can’t even touch my nose.'”
Santana says, “It was like being inside a kaleidoscope. And then somebody told me, ‘Trust in God. Just ask him to keep you in time and in tune.’ So I said, ‘God, I really believe in you. If you help me right now, I won’t poo my pants in front of everybody.’ Next thing I knew, we hit the notes and the people went, ‘Wooo!'”
And Santana certainly thinks he and the band pulled it off, telling the mag that while Sly Stone’s set was the “absolute best,” followed by Jimi Hendrix, “Anybody else had to fight for number three with me and with our band.”
He says, “When I look at the video, and even though I was there, it was Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix and Santana, and then there was everybody else.”
Treat Williams’ daughter, Elinor Williams, is speaking out after her father’s tragic death at the age of 71.
“This is a pain I have never felt. I am absolutely shattered,” Ellie shared on her Instagram Story on Tuesday, June 13, along with a throwback photo of her dad, along with a second pic of a jacket with his name embroidered on it, according to Us Weekly. “Thank you to everyone who has sent messages and kept our family in your hearts during this terrible heartbreak.”
“We’re home, Dad.” Ellie, 25, shared in another Instagram Story a day later, along a picture of a pair of dogs playing in a field on the family’s Vermont compound — a place that held a special place in the elder Williams”s heart.
“I bought the house that we’re in 35 years ago. I’ve always had an enormous love for Vermont, both in winter and summer,” Treat told Vermont magazine in 2021. “There was something incredibly special about it to me, and the people here are incredibly honest, real, and good-humored. There’s also always something new to discover somewhere on a dirt road that you’ve never traveled on before.”
“I think very few people are lucky as I am to say, ‘I love where I live.’ I don’t have any fantasies of being somewhere else,” he added. “I have everything I want and need in Vermont. I’ve been all over the world, and I’ve never seen a place as beautiful as Vermont.”
The Everwood actor died Monday, June 12 in a motorcycle accident, his agent, Barry McPherson confirmed to ABC News.
He is survived by his wife, Pam Van Sant, and their two children: Gill, 31, and Elinor “Ellie.”
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Chi White Sox 8, LA Dodgers 4
Minnesota 4, Milwaukee 2
Atlanta 10, Detroit 7
Atlanta 6, Detroit 5
Boston 6, Colorado 3
NY Mets 4, NY Yankees 3 (10)
Houston 5, Washington 4
Cincinnati 7, Kansas City 4
San Diego 5, Cleveland 0
Miami 4, Seattle 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Toronto 3, Baltimore 1
Texas 6, LA Angels 3
Tampa Bay 6, Oakland 3
NATIONAL LEAGUE
San Francisco 8, St. Louis 5
Chi Cubs 10, Pittsburgh 6
Philadelphia 4, Arizona 3
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Los Angeles 79, Dallas 61
(LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines) — Tens of thousands of villagers in the Philippines are facing long-term displacement as the Mayon volcano continues to erupt — and is expected to do so for months.
The volcano, the most active on the archipelago, is wreaking havoc on the island of Luzon. In the past 24 hours, Mount Mayon, located on the northeastern Albay province, has recorded seven volcanic earthquakes and 309 rockfall events, according to a bulletin from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology released Monday morning.
Mayon is sending ash and continuous plumes of sulfur dioxide emissions into the air, and lava is slowly pouring out of the summit crater, reaching more than half a mile away, officials said. The volcano began to expel lava on Sunday night, and it is estimated that 149 tonnes of sulfur dioxide were emitted on that day alone, researchers said.
A Level 3 alert remained for the Mayon volcano on Monday, signifying a relatively high level of unrest, with magma at the crater and hazardous eruption possible within days. Based on the current wind pattern, ash fall events may most likely occur on the south side of the volcano.
Anyone living within the 6-kilometer permanent danger zone — about a 3.7-mile radius away from the volcano summit — has been ordered to evacuate due to the dangers of lava flows, rockfalls and other volcanic hazards. Albay Gov. Edcel Greco Lagman extended the danger zone by another kilometer, asking residents on the outskirts of that radius to be ready to move at any time.
More than 15,000 people have moved to emergency shelters since last week, and authorities and villagers began moving large numbers of cows and water buffalo away from the evacuation zone on Sunday, The Associated Press reported.
However, thousands of people are still in the danger zone, AP reported, citing local officials.
Residents should also be practicing vigilance against pyroclastic density currents, hot flows of ash and debris that can travel at speeds of hundreds of meters per second, and sediment-laden streamflows, volcano experts said.
Officials raised the alert level for Mayon, a popular tourist destination, on Thursday and issued a state of emergency the next day.
The eruptions could last for months, officials announced on Wednesday.
Of the country’s 24 active volcanoes, Mayon sees the most activity. In 2018, a series of violent eruptions displaced thousands of villagers. When the volcano erupted in 1814, it killed more than 1,000 people, burying entire villages, the AP reported.
If the alert is raised to Level 4, the number of those fleeing their homes could skyrocket to 33,000, Lagman said.
Teresito Bacolcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, described Mayon’s activity so far as “a very gentle eruption.”
“Hopefully, it will stay that way,” Bacolcol said.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for People’s Rally to Cancel Student Debt
(WASHINGTON) — While the Supreme Court weighs whether to allow President Joe Biden to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in federal student loan debt, the U.S. Department of Education has announced a broad timeline for when all borrowers should expect to restart their payments after a three-year pause for COVID-19.
People with federal student loan debt should expect interest to kick back in on Sept. 1 and payments to resume starting in October, a spokesperson from the Department of Education told ABC News.
That means that while interest will begin accumulating on Sept. 1, payments won’t be due right away, instead ramping up through the following weeks. Exactly when payments are due for borrowers could depend on how individual loan servicers handle the restart.
The Department of Education is expected to issue more concrete timing guidance in the next few months, and a spokesperson said officials are committed to making sure students are well aware of their payment deadlines.
Still, advocates for student debt relief say they’re concerned by the lack of information released so far and would like to see more specific dates for when payments must begin again, including whether different servicers will be on different timelines.
Spreading the world early and often will be particularly important for people who’ve moved addresses over the last few years or don’t have reliable internet access — borrowers who could also be more at risk of defaulting on their loans, said Aissa Canchola Bañez, a senior adviser at the Student Borrower Protection Center.
“I think there are lots of questions we have that the [Department of Education] really needs to put out guidance to their servicers on, like a firm timeline and what to expect so that borrowers can can plan accordingly,” Canchola Bañez said.
“If servicers have the chance to do whatever they want, that’s going to be even more confusing for, let’s say, a borrower who has multiple services or a married couple with two different servicers,” she said.
The Biden administration previously said the pause on student loan payments would lift either after the Supreme Court issued a ruling on the current legal battle, brought by the state of Missouri and others, or about two months after June 30. The latest dates from the Department of Education slightly revises that schedule.
The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected any day now; oral arguments were heard in February.
If the decision goes in Biden’s favor, Americans with federal student loans who make below a certain income will have between $10,000 and $20,000 of their debts canceled before payments restart. If the Supreme Court rules against Biden’s plan, Americans will restart payments for the first time since 2020 without any such changes.
“We recognize that the return to repayment would result in significant financial hardship for many borrowers. That is why this Administration also put forward a plan to provide up to $20,000 in debt relief for hard-working Americans recovering from the economic harms of the pandemic, most of whom make less than $75,000 a year, and why we continue to fight for that relief on behalf of the millions of borrowers who need it,” a Department of Education spokesperson said.
“We will also be in direct touch with borrowers and ramping up our communications with servicers well before repayment resumes to ensure borrowers and their families are receiving accurate and timely information about the return to repayment,” the spokesperson said.
Critics of Biden’s student loan cancellation plan have countered that it is beyond his authority as president and unfair to other borrowers who paid off their own loans. Some of the Supreme Court justices have likewise taken a skeptical view of forgiving the debt.
“In effect, this is a grant of $400 billion,” conservative Justice Clarence Thomas posited during February’s arguments, citing one estimate on the potential cost of the plan. “And it runs headlong into Congress’ appropriations authority.”
In the meantime, the Department of Education is also implementing a new income-driven repayment plan that would allow some Americans to pay lower monthly payments and have their debt forgiven after a certain amount of payments, a plan that administration officials have described as “the first true student loan safety net in this country.”
It’s unclear when the new payment plan will be available to borrowers, though it was announced in January.
The department also says it’s engaging borrowers with a high risk of delinquency, as well as taking steps to combat scammers and fraudsters who might pray on the confusion on payments restarting.
grandson has premiered the video for “Half My Heart,” a track off his new album, I Love You, I’m Trying.
The clip, which is streaming now on YouTube, finds the “Blood//Water” artist running in place as the world passes him by.
“In the midst of a really dark period of my life we wrote this kinda light song about the circular, cyclical nature of repeated habits,” grandson says. “I wanted to make a video that leaned into the futile attempts at running away from who you are or who you’re meant to be with. Plus I got to wear RC cars on my feet which was pretty sick.”
I Love You, I’m Trying, grandson’s sophomore album, was released in May.
grandson is currently touring the U.S. in support of I Love You, I’m Trying. K.Flay is also on the bill for select dates.
(COSTA MESA, Calif.) — Two men, including an active duty Marine, are facing federal charges in connection with the firebombing of a Planned Parenthood clinic in California in 2022, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
Chance Brannon, 23, an active duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, and Tibet Ergul, 21, both of Orange County, are accused of using a Molotov cocktail to firebomb a Costa Mesa clinic in March 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a release.
Special agents with the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service arrested the two men Wednesday morning without incident. They are charged with the use of an explosive or fire to damage real property affecting interstate commerce, according to the federal complaint.
The attack occurred around 1 a.m. on March 13, 2022. Prosecutors allege that Brannon and Ergul ignited and threw a Molotov cocktail at the front door of the clinic, causing a fire. No one was injured in the incident and the clinic had to temporarily close.
Security videos captured two suspects wearing hooded sweatshirts and face masks, and the FBI was offering an award of up to $25,000 for information leading to their identification, arrest and conviction.
On April 3, a witness contacted the FBI, identifying the suspects as Ergul and Brannon, according to the complaint. The witness stated that they were high school friends and that Ergul allegedly sent them text messages “admitting his involvement” in the attack, “including photographs of the Molotov cocktail,” the complaint stated.
Cell phone data allegedly placed Brannon near the Planned Parenthood clinic the night of the attack, according to the complaint.
The charge of using an explosive or fire to damage real property affecting interstate commerce carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison if convicted, prosecutors said.
“My office takes very seriously this brazen attack that targeted a facility that provides critical health care services to thousands of people in Orange County,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. “While it is fortunate that no one was physically harmed and responders were able to prevent the clinic from being destroyed, the defendants’ violent actions are entirely unacceptable.”
The defendants were expected to make their first court appearance on Wednesday. It wasn’t immediately clear if they have attorneys who can speak on their behalf.
Brannon enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in September 2018 and is currently ranked a corporal, according to information released by a Marine Expeditionary Force spokesperson.
The Marine Corps does not comment on ongoing legal matters, the spokesperson said.
The firebombing at the Costa Mesa clinic was one of several attacks on reproductive health service facilities around the country last year.
“Incidents of this nature have been on the rise at Planned Parenthood health centers across the country and this is unacceptable,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement to ABC Los Angeles station KABC earlier this year.
The FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are continuing to investigate the Costa Mesa incident.
