Fall Out Boy‘s 2003 debut album, Take This to Your Grave, celebrated its 20th anniversary over the weekend. While now a pop-punk and emo classic, vocalist Patrick Stump recalls how the band “barely made” the record.
“It wasn’t an album, it was two sets of demos that we had recorded,” Stump tells ABC Audio. “Then [the record label] Fueled By Ramen gave us some money to finish it off, you know, ‘Go record seven more songs.'”
Given its haphazard origins, Take This to Your Grave feels even older than 20 to Stump.
“[The song] ‘Dead on Arrival,’ I think we went in and recorded that, like, almost a year before we finished the record,” Stump explains. “So, like, it’s almost in a weird way 21 years ago.”
“It’s been a long time, which is crazy to think,” he adds. “Like, that child could drink now.”
That time in Stump’s life was also defined by being “so broke.” He remembers having a “weird friend” who once showed up at a party with a tiramisu, which Stump, to borrow the album title, planned to take to his grave.
“I was living off that for, like, a week and a half, because I just had no money,” he laughs. “It was, like, that era.”
Fall Out Boy released their latest album, So Much (for) Stardust, in March. They’ll launch a U.S. tour behind the record in June.
Fast-rising newcomer Megan Moroney has dropped her long-awaited debut album, LUCKY.
Produced by Sugarland‘s Kristian Bush, the record boasts 13 songs that uniquely showcase “every sort of emotion” there is.
“There’s happy songs, sad songs, but it’s like everything I love about country music,” Megan tells ABC Audio. “There’s snarky, funny songs. There’s really heartbreaking songs. And Kristian has kind of taken my voice and helped me create this sound that doesn’t sound like anything else.”
When it comes to picking favorites, Megan knows the ones she holds close. While every song on the record is special, there are three that have stood out for various reasons.
“I think ‘Girl in the Mirror’ is definitely up there. It’s the most personal and vulnerable song I’ve ever written, and I think it’s going to help a lot of young girls and girls in general,” shares Megan. “I guess, guys, too. I played it last night and guys were saying that they needed to hear it.”
She adds, “There’s a funny song called ‘Sleep on My Side’ that I’m excited to put out. It kind of shows my personality. And ‘Kansas Anymore’ is another one of my favorites [as well].”
Megan’s single “Tennessee Orange” is currently in the top 10 and ascending on the country charts.
Here’s the LUCKY track list:
“I’m Not Pretty”
“Lucky”
“Tennessee Orange”
“Kansas Anymore”
“Girl in the Mirror”
“Another on the Way”
“Traitor Joe”
“Why Johnny”
“God Plays A Gibson”
“Georgia Girl”
“Sleep on My Side”
“Mustang or Me”
“Sad Songs For Sad People”
Sunday night’s American Idol got a bit of a shake-up with judges Katy Perry and Lionel Richie away, and Ed Sheeran and Alanis Morissette filling in for them.
Katy and Lionel weren’t completely missing though, the pair appeared virtually to explain the absence when they, along with viewers, received a royal surprise.
In the pre-taped segment, the Idol judges explained that they were in London to perform at The Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle when King Charles III and Queen Camilla wandered into the room.
“I just wanted to check how long you’ll be using this room for,” King Charles III said.
“We have to give the room up right away,” Richie, 73, joked.
The King and Queen then complimented the singers on their “brilliant” and “fantastic” performances from earlier in the day. Katy performed her hits “Roar” and “Firework” for Saturday’s crowd, while Lionel sang his classic “All Night Long.”
Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Ed and Alanis filled in as guest judges on Idol, joining Luke Bryan.
Both guests took a moment during the show to take the stage to perform their own songs. Ed took the stage to perform his single “Eyes Closed,” which appears on his newly released album Subtract, and Alanis amazed the crowd with her performance of “Thank U.”
In addition to being a guest judge, Alanis pulled double duty as this week’s mentor.
Over 20 years into her acting career, Taraji P. Henson is embracing it all … even the roles that come with being an “older” woman in Hollywood. In HelloBeautiful’s recent cover story, she discussed her latest role as a mother, specifically Jeanine Teagues’ mother on Abbott Elementary.
“At first it was like, ah, mom? Why can’t I be her sister? Then I looked at her age and I said, ‘B****, because you old enough to be her mother,'” Henson says. “I’m not going to fight age. I’m going to age gracefully.”
Keeping that in mind, she’s been nurturing her health with a healthier diet, one she had to adopt after having leaky gut syndrome.
“I’ve been training on and off since I started in the film industry with Baby Boy,” she says. “That’s something that I kind of fall on and off the wagon, but … the biggest transition was diet. I hadn’t really leaned on and cleaned up my diet, as well as I had in the past. Understanding that food can heal, [but] it can also hurt.”
Taraji also welcomes her roles as founder of her hair care line TPH by Taraji; co-creator of a sitcom she and Kevin Hart are currently pitching; and mentor to Black women in the industry. “We need each other,” she says of being a mentor. “We ain’t s*** without each other. This world is against us. We are at the bottom of every pay grade, everywhere you go, the Black woman is the last to be thought about. We don’t have time to compete with each other, to go against each other, to fight with each other.”
Elton John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year in the Musical Excellence category, and he’s honored to be chosen.
“I’m just happy that it’s happened, and at my age,” the 73-year-old tells Rolling Stone. “’Excited’ is not a word I tend to use too much, but I’m very appreciative of the whole thing. It’s nice to be in a club with so many legends and so much history.”
The honor comes almost 30 years after Elton’s induction ceremony, during which he gave Taupin his trophy. Asked whether he would return the favor and give his to Elton, Bernie replied, “I never thought about that! Um … no!”
Next up for Taupin, he’ll release his memoir, Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton & Me, on September 12. Then it’s back to work with Elton. He says they have plans to make another album once Elton’s wrapped his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, although nothing’s solidified yet. He suspects they’ll be in the studio “by the end of the year.”
And while Taupin insists Elton is really saying goodbye to the road to spend more time with his family, he says he’s not done with performing altogether.
“The idea of sitting down and doing a residency, but letting people know you’re not going to hear ‘Crocodile Rock’ or ‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.’ You’re going to hear ‘I Feel Like a Bullet (in the Gun of Robert Ford)’ or ‘Amoreena.’ I think it would be incredibly liberating for him,” Taupin says. “He’s a born showman, but as long as it appeals to his family life, it’s possibly predictable.”
(TRENTON, Mo.) — Twelve tornadoes were reported across four states overnight, heavily damaging roofs and some outbuildings in Missouri. Tornadoes touched down in Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota on Saturday.
Trenton, Missouri, was hit the hardest, with a tornado damaging the roof of a 130-year-old church.
Softball-sized hail up to 4 inches was reported in Missouri, going through the roof of a steel structure near Coffey, Missouri.
Damaging winds surpassing 80 mph impacted parts of the Midwest, damaging trees and other structures.
Strong to severe storms moved through Illinois and Indiana early Sunday morning, making their way to Ohio.
More than 11 million Americans from Texas to Wisconsin Sunday may experience very large hail and damaging winds, along with isolated tornadoes putting Iowa, parts of Nebraska and Missouri the most at risk.
Storms are expected to start popping up around 6 p.m. ET and continue into the night, making for another dangerous nocturnal severe weather event. Missouri and Illinois are facing threats of severe storms on Monday.
On Monday, the severe threat is stationed in Missouri and Illinois where large hail, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes are possible.
On Tuesday, Kansas and Oklahoma also face the potential for severe weather risk.
The record-breaking heat so far this month is helping bring severe weather to the Heartland, especially storms occurring at night.
Kansas City hit a record 91 degrees on Saturday, breaking its daily record of 89 degrees set in 1970 and 2004. The city could break another record as it reaches close to 90 degrees on Sunday.
On Friday, a daily record high temp was recorded in Dallas, Texas, at 96 degrees, breaking the 1984 record. Over the last 30 years, the average first 96-degree day is May 28, so this temperature is arriving three weeks earlier than normal.
These warm temperatures reached the Northeast this weekend, with temperatures in New York City hitting 78 degrees on Sunday and forecast to reach 75 degrees on Monday.
ABC News’ Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The Jeep Wrangler can ford rivers, crawl over boulders, traverse deserts and blaze through uncharted territory. Fierce yet affordable, the humble 4X4 has long been the go-to vehicle for outdoor enthusiasts.
These days, however, the rugged sport utility vehicle may seem more like a luxury ute than off-roading warrior.
Last month, Jeep executives introduced the redesigned 2024 Wrangler, replete with all the modern necessities: 12-way power adjustable front seats, a 12.3-inch touchscreen, advanced safety features, contrast accent stitching and acoustic front glass and thicker carpeting for a quieter ride.
These updates took a lot of engineering prowess to get right, according to Jim Morrison, senior vice president and head of Jeep North America.
“Drivers can now have water up to their knees and still have a power seat,” he told ABC News.
Morrison, a veteran Jeep executive, knew that to keep Jeep owners happy — and bring in new customers — the Wrangler had to be as good on road as it is off-road.
“The new inclusion of power seats truly speaks to who Jeep’s real customer base is: affluent people,” Ed Kim, president of consulting firm AutoPacific, told ABC News. “These customers want the image and style of a Wrangler. For affluent customers, there has been this long and growing desire for real, rugged off-road vehicles.”
Like Jeep, automakers Rivian and Kia saw the sales potential of adventure-type vehicles, said Kim.
“Even the Kia Telluride has more rugged styling than the typical family crossover and it’s been a success,” he noted.
As the Wrangler’s popularity has risen, so has the price. A base 4-door Wrangler Sport starts at $36,990. The Rubicon 392, with a 6.4L V8 SRT Hemi engine, has an MSRP of $82,495.
The Wrangler 4xe, the top-selling plug-in hybrid in the U.S., starts at $54,735 before a $3,750 federal tax credit is applied.
In February, Jeep introduced two 20th anniversary editions: a Wrangler Rubicon 4xe and a Wrangler Rubicon 392. Jeep execs capped production of the two models to 3,000 units, calling them “the most capable Wranglers yet.” They were priced accordingly: $69,585 for the 4xe model and $90,895 for the 392. A Level II upfit by American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) added more than $20,000 to the price.
Consumers did not care; the 20th anniversary Wrangler Rubicon 392 — with a price tag of $113,820 — sold out within an hour. The $90,895 version was gone in less than 24 hours.
“We are seeing more demand for high-priced Wranglers,” said Morrison. “Wrangler has a high residual value.”
Kim said the high prices can be attributed to two factors: the supply crunch and automakers choosing to produce “more lavishly equipped models” to make up for a loss in volume. Jeep has also started to customize Wranglers at its factory in Ohio, allowing customers to spend even more.
“The Wrangler has long been an aftermarket favorite — you buy it and immediately do a lift kit on it, add big wheels and tires. A whole industry was built around the Wrangler,” Kim said. “Jeep saw an opportunity to do customization at the factory. Rubicons now come with the best off-road gear already installed.”
Jeep’s longtime competitors were Chevrolet and Ford, mainstream automotive brands that middle-income Americans could afford. Now, Jeep competes with upscale brands like Infiniti and Acura, said Kim. More than 200,000 Wranglers were sold last year, making it Jeep’s second most popular model after the Grand Cherokee.
“Jeep executives have talked about pushing the brand into a more premium space,” Kim said. “New Wranglers are street vehicles 99% of the time. Very few customers go off-road in them.”
These days corporate executives and wealthy families are buying the Wrangler. Even Porsche 911 owners are trading in their sports cars for one, according to Tyson Jominy, vice president of data and analytics at J.D. Power.
“The 4-door Wrangler is a family vehicle,” he told ABC News. “Adding four doors expanded its user friendliness and moved the Wrangler upmarket. The Wrangler became the halo SUV.”
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Lofty prices and high interest rates haven’t frightened customers from buying a Wrangler yet, said Jominy.
“It remains to be seen if the prices have become too high,” he said. “The Wrangler has few incentives, if any. But there’s no slowing down the Wrangler. There are so few like it. The only competitor is the Ford Bronco.”
Orlando resident Colin Wallace said his Wrangler Rubicon 4xe is the best Jeep he’s owned. He commutes to and from his office on electric power alone, gassing up maybe once a month. Wallace, a former Volkswagen GTI and Porsche Cayman owner, pays nearly $400 a month to lease the plug-in hybrid though he knows of other Rubicon 4xe owners who pay $800 a month. The sticker price of his 4xe is $66,000 — more than a Porsche Macan SUV he had on order.
Wallace touted the Wrangler’s improved highway handling though he cautioned prospective buyers to temper their expectations.
“A lot of people who are drawn to the Wrangler 4xe are expecting a Prius,” he told ABC News. “It’s not one. It lacks the niceties. It’s at a luxury price point but doesn’t have safety features you’d expect for $60,000.”
Jominy said Americans often overlook the Wrangler’s faults — drifting on the highway, poor fuel economy and rough ride — for the benefits of owning one.
“The Wrangler doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not,” he said. “You can take the doors and windshield off. Kids love them. Wranglers are so much fun because they’re so unique from everything else on the road.”
He added, “You know there’s going to be trade-offs, even at the high prices. You forgive it for things that you normally wouldn’t.”
Morrison said the latest version of the Wrangler solves his one complaint with the SUV.
“I can now drive 80 mph and talk to my mom on the phone,” he said.
(BROWNSVILLE, Texas) — Seven people are dead in Brownsville, Texas, after a car ran into pedestrians Sunday morning while they were waiting at a bus stop.
The crash occurred at 8:30 a.m. near the Ozanam Center in Brownsville when a gray Range Rover slammed into the bus stop, a representative from the Brownsville Police Department told ABC News.
In addition to those who died, up to 10 people are being treated for serious and minor injuries at the hospital, according to police.
Police have a male suspect, who is a resident of Brownsville, in custody and receiving medical care, authorities said.
Some of those hit Sunday are migrants, according to Martin Sandoval, Brownsville Police PIO. The migrants were under the care of border patrol, police said.
“We grieve for the victims in Brownsville, Texas, who were run over outside a migrant shelter where people from around the world are seeking asylum and safety,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement Sunday. “We understand the motive is still under investigation. This horrific event comes after weeks of escalating anti-immigrant policy-making by Texas politicians and while the Biden administration considers imposing a new asylum ban aimed at deterring, rather than welcoming, migrants seeking protection.”
The driver is in the hospital being treated and under 24-hour guard watch, police said. Tests are currently being performed to check for alcohol and drug use, police said.
Investigators did not comment on a possible motive or whether the crash was intentional.
“Secretary Mayorkas has been briefed on the tragic situation in Brownsville and has reached out to local leaders to offer condolences and the full support of the Department,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement. “The Department is in close touch with local authorities to provide assistance.”
(TALLAHASSEE) — During his first run for governor of Florida in 2018, then-Congressman Ron DeSantis was publicly grappling with a number of issues regarding race that had plagued his campaign.
In one incident, DeSantis came under fire for a public comment he made ahead of the election in which he urged Florida voters not to “monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda”– which drew a strong rebuke from his African American opponent, Democratic Andrew Gillum.
DeSantis pushed back at the time, saying the comment had “zero to do with race.”
Now, video footage exclusively obtained by ABC News of the DeSantis team’s mock debate sessions during that 2018 run for governor show him and his advisers candidly discussing how to handle their response to the “monkey” comment backlash — with DeSantis comparing the issue to a “a mini version of Kavanaugh,” an apparent reference to the firestorm that arose over sexual assault allegations leveled against then-Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh, which Kavanaugh strongly denied.
“If I show any weakness on that, I think I lose my base,” DeSantis said during the discussions, according to the nearly two and a half hours of private 2018 debate prep footage obtained by ABC News. “I think that I appear to be less than a leader, and so I just think I’ve got to come at it full throttle and say that’s wrong.”
He wanted to come at the issue hard and “speak to those people” who felt “political correctness has gone too far,” DeSantis said in the video.
At another point, his then-adviser Rep. Matt Gaetz — who has gone on to support former President Donald Trump’s third bid for the White House — told DeSantis he was coming in “too hot” on the issue.
“It deserves to be hot!” DeSantis exclaimed. “I mean, I’m sorry!”
“Kavanaugh showed that when you say ‘f— this,” DeSantis said regarding the accusations against the then-nominee. “We did such a horrible job of pushing back on all these stupid stories from the beginning. He’s going to rattle off a list.”
And behind closed doors, DeSantis said that if he had meant the racist comment, he would have apologized.
“Nobody thinks that’s what you meant,” an adviser off camera told DeSantis, who responded, “Right, that’s a thing. I mean, if I honestly meant — I would have apologized, I mean, because it would have been wrong. I mean, I’ll man up.”
The newly obtained videos come amid ABC News’ recent reporting that DeSantis’ team has already quietly begun debate prep for the upcoming GOP primary, including reviewing past debate performances, sources familiar with the preparations have said. DeSantis is now likely to skip announcing an exploratory committee, despite previous reports, and instead is expected to launch a full campaign next month, sources said.
During the 2018 debate prep sessions, DeSantis also appeared to downplay a comment criticized as racist made by a right-wing author David Horowitz, who had hosted a number of conferences that DeSantis had spoken at. “David has done such great work …. and I’ve been a big admirer of an organization that shoots straight, tells the American people the truth and is standing up for the right thing,” DeSantis said in 2015 of Horowitz, who among other things had criticized Black Americans for not feeling “gratitude” toward whites for their “sacrifices” in ending slavery.
At one of the public debates against Gillum in October 2018, DeSantis sidestepped the issue, responding to a moderator’s question on the topic by saying, “How the hell am I supposed to know every single statement someone makes?”
But privately, according to the recordings of the debate prep sessions obtained by ABC News, DeSantis downplayed the comment made by Horowitz, saying it was “stupid” but not racist.
“A lot of the stuff they’re saying isn’t even racist. Like, David Horowitz said that, ‘Oh, Black people should thank white people for ending slavery.’ That’s a stupid comment, but that’s not the same thing,” DeSantis said.
Gaetz cut him off, saying clearly: “You will not win” that argument.
“I’m not gonna get into that,” DeSantis said in agreement. “I know I’m not gonna — I can’t win that, I know.”
“The point is, is that they’re taking things that have nothing to do with me, but they’re also making it way worse than they even actually were, and then trying to paint, you know, paint a narrative. And it’s bull—-” DeSantis said, referring to criticism he was facing at the time over his “monkey it up” comment, his association with Horowitz, and reports that he served as an admin for a racist Facebook group, which he denied.
“All this stuff, I mean is just a bunch of crap, I mean it really is,” DeSantis said on the tape.
During one of the prep sessions, the governor’s wife, Casey, attempted to provide an explanation for the governor’s “monkey it up” comment: that DeSantis had only said “monkey” because he had been reading their daughter’s favorite book, “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed'” to their kids at night.
When Casey asked the room if that explanation would “matter,” Gaetz quickly responded, “Nobody cares.”
“Nobody cares?” Casey, off camera, replied.
“Not even a little,” Gaetz said.
A representative for DeSantis did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
(ATLANTA) — As the U.S. moves into a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the public health emergency ending May 11, it also signals the end of some COVID data sharing.
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it would be transitioning certain COVID metrics to other sources or discontinue them entirely once the emergency expires.
Additionally, earlier this year, several data trackers — including the John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Survives dashboard — shut down.
Public health experts say that rich data collection has been essential for public health officials and lawmakers to develop and adjust COVID measures, and not having as much data available may limit the ability to track the virus in the future.
“I think the interest in the data has definitely gone down so, in some ways, the CDC is sort of focused on meeting people where they are,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “But the concern is always that we should be erring on the side of providing more information and making more data available because, of course, there’s absolutely always the potential for us to be caught flat-footed again, when it comes to COVID.”
He continued, “There’s always that concern that we have not actually improved our ability to monitor these viruses as opposed to sort of going back to where we were pre-pandemic.”
CDC changing COVID-19 surveillance methods
The CDC announced Friday it was changing some of the ways it surveils COVID-19 with the expiration of the emergency.
One of the biggest changes is that the agency will stop sharing data about COVID-19 transmission levels and community levels and is switching to COVID-related hospital admissions as the primary metric to measure virus spread.
During a media call with reporters Thursday, Dr. Nirav Shah, the CDC’s principal deputy director, said since Feb. 2022, the community levels and the hospital admissions have matched up the majority of the time.
Shah said the hospital data will be an early indicator of whether COVID-19 is rising in certain areas and will give public health officials notice of a potential spike.
“We have to recognize the amount of resources that are required to capture some of this data are significant, and so it makes sense that the CDC is going to try to aim to focus on data sources that are a little bit more automated, like hospitalization data,” Brownstein said.
However, he noted that COVID-19-related hospitalizations is a lagging indicator, because people infected with the virus are often not hospitalized for several days — and in some case weeks.
“So, if there’s a new variant, we may not have as much early insight into what’s happening at the community level, based on just focusing on hospital data,” Brownstein said. “The hope is that the results of the pandemic should allow us to improve our ability to monitor, whether it’s COVID or other viruses, in ways that are much more real time.
He added, “So there is a concern that we’re now focusing back on types of data that are less real time and provide us less of an early step in what’s actually happening as far as transmission.
Patchwork of data collection
The CDC said it is ending the community levels and transmission levels because they are reliant on aggregate case data, which is not required to be reported by jurisdictions once the emergency ends.
Experts agree that case data is no longer an accurate metric for COVID-19 due to the lack of people getting tested and, those being tested at-home not always sharing results with health officials.
However, they say it still means another source of data won’t be table to be tracked.
“The idea of having better, more voluminous data that’s more comprehensive on cases, hospitalizations, even infection and deaths in a timely manner for diseases is something that, we’ve really talked about and advocated for a long time,” Dr. Jeff Shaman, a professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, told ABC News.
“We have typically suffered from a lack of that kind of information at the level of granularity and with a level of temporal frequency that really allows us to better understand the diseases, track them, monitor them, forecast and come to a greater understanding of how and why they’re getting around and how we might better control them.”
Shaman said with the various data trackers, it provided a wealth of information that was able to accelerate our understanding of how the pandemic was progressing.
He worries that with jurisdictions not being required to report data to the CDC, there will be a patchwork approach to what data we have from various parts of the country.
“That being peeled away, we’re going to go back to something that’s more piecemeal, that’s more reliant on local fundings and abilities to actually provide the information,” Shaman said. “But we’re going to be moving back to an environment that isn’t as data rich. It’s hard to anticipate exactly what the consequences of that are, but it will make things more difficult.”
