Sly Stone is ready to tell his story. The legendary performer is set to release his memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), on October 17, via Questlove’s new imprint, AUWA Books.
The book was written with Ben Greenman, who also wrote George Clinton and Brian Wilson’s memoirs, and features a forward by Questlove.
“For as long as I can remember folks have been asking me to tell my story,” Stone shares in a statement. “I wasn’t ready. I had to be in a new frame of mind to become Sylvester Stewart again to tell the true story of Sly Stone. It’s been a wild ride and hopefully my fans enjoy it too.”
Sly Stone is best known as the frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, and is responsible for such classic songs as “Dance to the Music,” “Everyday People,” “I Want To Take You Higher” and “Family Affair.” He and the band were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) is available for preorder now.
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Jewel claims her mother, Lenedra Carroll, stole over $100 million from her over the course of her career.
Recently appearing on the Verywell Mind podcast, Jewel said she wasn’t aware of her mother’s alleged misdeeds until she was older. Carroll once served as Jewel’s manager and oversaw her finances.
Jewel was about 22 when she released her breakout hit “You Were Meant For Me” off her debut album, Pieces of You. In the years since, Jewel has sold tens of millions of albums — but despite her success, she discovered about a decade later that she was in debt.
“I didn’t really realize what my mom was until I was 30-something… I woke up and realized she embezzled all of my money, over $100 million,” the singer claimed, saying she had to reckon with what her mother told her and what the truth actually was.
“I had realized that pretty much everything I formed my reality on was fiction,” she said.
“Thirty-four years old, realize I’m $3 million in debt, realize my mom stole it, realize everything I thought my mom was, isn’t what she was — very difficult psychological thing to come to terms with,” Jewel continued.
That led to her discovering even more uncomfortable truths about her childhood that she needed to work through.
The singer noted, “Having to go back as a 34-year-old and rework your psyche was not fun.” She is thankful she had the resources to do the work and has since dedicated her platform to advocating for mental health.
Jewel recently co-founded Innerworld, a mental health platform staged in the metaverse.
Foo Fighters, Green Day and Weezer are among the headliners for Canada’s 2023 FEQ festival, taking place July 6-16 in Quebec.
Other headliners include Imagine Dragons and Lana Del Rey, while the undercard features Lamb of God, The Smile, Bad Religion, Heart‘s Ann Wilson, Vance Joy, White Reaper and grandson.
For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit FEQ.ca.
Foo Fighters are also playing festivals including Bonnaroo, Boston Calling, Outside Lands, Louder than Life and Sonic Temple, as well as several headline shows in May and June. The performances are part of their live comeback following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins last year.
(WASHINGTON) — Ukraine will get American Abrams tanks this fall, much sooner than expected, after the Pentagon decided to refurbish existing hulls in its inventory instead of building new ones from scratch.
Meanwhile. the Patriot air defense missile training for Ukrainian troops that has been taking place in Oklahoma will wrap up “in coming days” and the missile systems will be in Ukraine “in coming weeks” on an expedited basis, according to a U.S. Army spokesman.
In January, the Pentagon would be sending Ukraine 31 M1A2 Abrams tanks that would be built from scratch, a process that could take at least a year, if not longer.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon’s top spokesman told reporters that the switch to sending refurbished hulls equipped with modern weapons systems would get to the battlefield quicker.
Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that, since the initial announcement in January, the U.S. has been committed “to exploring options to deliver the armored capability as quickly as possible.”
He added that after further analysis the Pentagon, in consultation with Ukraine, decided that choosing the M1A1 version will “enable us to significantly expedite delivery timelines and deliver this important capability to Ukraine by the fall of this year.”
“This is about getting this important combat capability into the hands of the Ukrainians sooner rather than later,” said Ryder.
The Pentagon had never given a timeline for when the 31 Abrams tanks would arrive in Ukraine, but Ryder acknowledged that “we were projecting it would be probably over a year or so before we would have been able to deliver” the more modern M1A2 variant.
Ryder said the M1A1 Abrams will have “a very similar capability” to the M1A2 that includes advanced armor, a 120 mm cannon, and a 50-caliber heavy machine gun.
The U.S. commitment to send Abrams tanks to Ukraine was the linchpin of a plan to get Germany to go along with the transfer of Leopard tanks in its own inventory or that of other nations.
The understanding was that the slower manufacturing pace of newly Abrams would meet Ukraine’s longer range military needs while the Leopards would have a more immediate impact on the battlefield as Ukraine prepares for an anticipated counteroffensive.
Some of those German-made Leopard tanks have already begun arriving in Ukraine where they will be paired up with Ukrainian tank crews that have been receiving training outside of Ukraine.
Ryder did not have any details on when Ukrainian troops might begin to train on the Abrams tank and where such training could take place.
“We will ensure that the Ukrainians receive the necessary training on these tanks in time for them to be delivered,” said Ryder.
On Tuesday, senior Russian officials expressed environmental concerns about the armor piercing shells used by British Challenger 2 tanks being given to Ukraine that contain depleted uranium. The Abrams tank also fires depleted uranium rounds, but when asked by reporters if the U.S. was going to provide similar rounds to Ukraine Ryder said “not to my knowledge.”
At Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Army officials confirmed that the training of 65 Ukrainian troops on how to operate the Patriot air defense system is nearing its conclusion and that the system could soon be in Ukraine.
The Patriot missile training of Ukrainian troops at Fort Sill, Oklahoma is going to wrap up in coming days according to an Army spokesman who adds that the American Patriot battery being sent to Ukraine will arrive “in coming weeks”.
The Ukrainians will depart here in the coming days, go to Europe, and depart for Ukraine in the coming weeks,” Col. Marty O’Donnell, the spokesman for U.S. Army Europe and Africa told ABC News.
The Ukrainian troops have trained at Fort Sill since mid-January in an expedited training cycle for how to use the Patriots, a training cycle that can normally last a year.
“In Europe, the Ukrainians training here will meet up with Ukrainians training in Europe, and with U.S., German, and Dutch equipment donations to validate the systems and ensure interoperability,” said O’Donnell.
The United States and Germany have each committed to providing a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine to assist with that country’s pressing air defense needs to counter Russian barrages aimed at its cities and infrastructure. The Netherlands has also committed to providing additional missiles and launch systems that will be incorporated into the German Patriot system.
The training for Ukrainian troops to use the Germany Patriot battery has been taking place in Poland.
Lizzo did her civic duty. The singer was summoned for jury duty and made sure she looked “Good as Hell” for the court, even though she wasn’t feeling it.
Lizzo updated fans on TikTok about her brief career change as a prospective member of the jury.
“I’m not excited by jury duty,” the singer admitted after telling fans not to judge her. Lizzo added, “I am actually really stressed about it ’cause, like, I just heard people getting like … really gruesome, like violent, cases.”
The singer said she has “a really sensitive mind,” so she was not looking forward to potentially hearing such details. “I will cry,” she confessed.
Lizzo glammed up with makeup and hair before showing off her “chill” outfit. “It’s giving law-abiding citizen,” she cracked before saluting with, “‘Murica.” She ultimately decided that outfit wasn’t it and dressed more casually with sweatpants.
Lizzo updated fans a few hours later, writing in all capital letters, “I got released from jury duty yall I wonder why tho.”
She also shared a photo of her flashing the peace sign outside the jury assembly room.
While being a celebrity may get one out of sitting through a trial as an impartial member of the court, that doesn’t exempt one from being summoned. All American citizens over the age of 18 are eligible for jury duty.
(DENVER) — A student who was under a “certain agreement to be patted down each day” at school allegedly shot and wounded two faculty members at East High School in Denver, authorities said.
The suspect, who was armed with a handgun, fled the school after the Wednesday morning shooting, but Denver police said they know who he is and a search for him is ongoing.
One faculty member is undergoing surgery and is in critical condition, police said, and the second is in stable and able to speak to authorities.
The high school is on lockdown, according to Denver Public Schools. There will be an “orderly, timed release” of students, authorities said.
This shooting comes two years to the day after a mass shooting at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, that claimed 10 lives.
Last month, East High School students went to a city council meeting to call for action on school safety and gun violence after a 16-year-old student was shot near the school and seriously hurt, according to ABC Denver affiliate KMGH.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Culture Club has reached a settlement with their former bandmate Jon Moss, which will have them paying the drummer over $2 million in lost profits.
Moss, a founding member of the ’80s group, had filed a lawsuit against his former bandmates, Boy George, Roy Hay and Michael Craig, claiming he was owed money after being “expelled” by their manager in 2018.
According to Metro UK, the band agreed to a judgement in favor of Moss just six days before they were due to go to court to decide the value of the Culture Club name, as well as the amount Moss was entitled to and more. As part of the judgement, the band will pay the agreed upon amount immediately, while Moss has agreed to “relinquish” all rights to the Culture Club name.
(NEW YORK) — A new study is offering more information for women about whether the type of birth control they take increases their risk of breast cancer more than another.
The study, published Monday in PLOS Medicine, found that new forms of progestin-only hormonal birth control — including pills, patches, implants and injections — carry the same, small increased risk for breast cancer as the types of birth control that contain both estrogen and progestin.
“We’ve known for a while that estrogen and progestin birth control pills, oral contraceptives, have a slightly increased risk of breast cancer,” Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a board-certified OB-GYN and ABC News’ chief medical correspondent, said Wednesday on Good Morning America. “What we didn’t know is the newer forms of progestin-only pills, IUDs, injectable implants, what their associated risk, if any, was in comparison.”
The study, which drew on data from a primary care database in the United Kingdom, found that women taking any type of hormonal contraceptive had a relative increased risk of breast cancer of 20% to 30%. That seems like a high number, but the 15-year absolute risk, which indicates the likelihood of something actually happening, is 1 in 12,500 women from ages 16 to 20 and 265 in 100,000 women from ages 35 to 39.
The slight risk increased for women as they aged, the study found. However, the longer a woman is off hormonal birth control, the lower the risk.
Progestin is a form of progesterone, which is the hormone that plays a role in pregnancy and the menstrual cycle, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Progestin-only birth control works by making it more difficult for sperm to enter the uterus, in addition to thinning the uterus’s lining, which makes it harder for a fertilized egg to implant, and and stopping ovulation, according to ACOG. When taken in pill form, a progestin-only pill is taken once per day, at the same time each day.
Ashton, who was not involved in the study, said it is important to recognize how slightly the use of hormonal contraceptives raises the risk of breast cancer.
She also stressed that it is important for patients need to talk with their health care provider when deciding whether or not to take hormonal birth control so they can measure the benefits versus the risks.
Hormonal contraception is proven to lower the risk of ovarian and uterine cancers, for example, but it is also shown to increase the risk of clotting.
“It’s about individualizing that risk benefit and option risk for the woman,” Ashton said. “If you talk to any OB-GYN, they will say, we have a line, ‘Pregnancy is much higher risk than any associated risk with birth control pills or hormonal contraception.'”
Among women ages 15 to 49 in the United States, around 14% of those using contraception use oral contraception pills and around 10% use long-acting devices like IUDs, according to 2019 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(ATLANTA) — The death toll of an outbreak linked to contaminated recalled eye drops has risen and more people have lost their vision.
According to an update issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday, the number of deaths has risen from one to three.
What’s more, at least eight people have gone blind and four people have had their eyeballs surgically removed.
The CDC did not provide any information in its update about the affected patients including names, ages, sexes or where they live.
More than 10 different brands of artificial tears have been recalled. Most cases have been linked to EzriCare and Delsam Pharma eye drops, made by India-based Global Pharma Healthcare.
According to the CDC, the eye drops were contaminated with an antibiotic-resistant form of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an aggressive bacterium.
Pseudomonas are a type of bacteria found in the environment, with P. aeruginosa being the most common to cause infections in humans.
The infection is common health care settings and spreads from improper hygiene either due to unclean hands or medical equipment and surfaces not being properly cleaned.
P. aeruginosa is resistant to multiple types of antibiotics and has caused about 32,600 infections among U.S. hospitalized patients and an estimated 2,700 deaths, according to the CDC.
The strain that has been linked to the outbreak, however, had never been reported in the United States before, the CDC stated in its update.
As of March 14, 68 people across 16 states have been infected with P. aeruginosa. Of those cases, 37 have been linked to four health care clusters.
Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning, backed by the CDC, urging health care personnel and the public not to buy EzriCare Artificial Tears or Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Tears due to potential bacterial contamination.
After the warning, Global Pharma Healthcare issued a voluntary recall of both products, notifying distributors and advising wholesalers, retailers and customers who have the products to stop usage.
Not long after, the FDA also recommended that Global Pharma recall Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Eye Ointment, which the company agreed to. So far, no reports of infections have been linked to this product.
The CDC has warned anyone with symptoms of an eye infection who used EzriCare or Delsam Pharma eye drops to seek medical care immediately.
Such symptoms include yellow, green, or clear discharge from the eye; eye pain or discomfort; red eyes or eyelids; feeling of something in the eye; increased sensitivity to light; and blurry vision.
The CDC did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
