If you take a walk down “Memory Lane” with Old Dominion, the CMA and ACM Group of the Year winners remember it all, going back to the very beginning.
So was there a moment on the bus when it crystallized for the songwriters that they could succeed as a band?
“We lived in a van for so long with each other that we realized that if we could live in a van, we could live in a bus,” lead singer Matthew Ramsey recalls.
“There was NO moment that crystallized for me in the van,” Brad Tursi jokes.
“Yeah, not in the van,” Matthew agrees. “There was a moment crystallizing in the van when we were like, ‘If we have to do this for one more year, there’s no way we will make it. We need a bus!'”
But Matthew can remember when he sensed things starting to change.
“We were in this, like, rehearsal space, I think it was at the union, the musicians union, and we were working through ‘Break Up with Him,’ and there was something in that,” he reflects. “I remember, like, texting [writer/producer] Shane McAnally saying, ‘Hey, you gotta come down here and hear what we’re working on.'”
“And there was something in the room that day that felt very different and special. So I definitely remember that,” Matthew says.
“Break Up with Him” would go on to become their very first #1 in 2015.
“Memory Lane” is the lead single from the band’s forthcoming fifth album.
(NEW YORK) — One baby got a special homecoming parade three months after he was born weighing only 1 pound and 15 ounces.
Samantha Desmond, 28, of Peabody, Massachusetts, was only 25 weeks pregnant, her baby roughly the size of a head of cauliflower, when her water broke — nearly three months before her February due date.
“It was a healthy pregnancy, up until it wasn’t,” Desmond told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “My water broke while I was at work. I didn’t know what was happening, but surely I wasn’t thinking that [my water broke] because I was only six months pregnant.”
Desmond said she drove herself to Salem Hospital before being rushed by an ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
“The best case scenario would have been me staying [in the hospital] for three months,” Desmond said. “The longer he stayed in my belly, the safer it was going to be for him, right? Well, I only lasted three days.”
Baby Mateo was born on Oct. 28, 2022, and was immediately placed in intensive care. Desmond said she and her husband Marsid Jakic would visit their baby boy every day.
“He’s spent Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, all of the holidays in the NICU, and the nurses would make posters for him and take pictures, and they just really made every day special,” said Desmond, who said they would travel 30 to 40 minutes every night after work to visit their son. “Every single night, every holiday, every day, just doing our best.”
Finally, after months of visits and family holidays spent in the hospital, the couple got the good news: baby Mateo could come home.
“I said to myself, ‘He can’t just come home simply. He needs a big entrance,'” Desmond said.
Desmond said she was inspired by her husband’s Albanian traditions to set up a homecoming parade. So she reached out to her friends, Det. Andrew Greenberg and his wife, Officer Sam Doherty, who both work at the Peabody Police Department, to see if they could help, and he quickly set up a police escort for Mateo on Feb. 20.
“As we’re coming down every street that we came down, every intersection was blocked off. It wasn’t just one police escort. It was the entire day shift,” Desmond said. “As soon as [other officers] got word of what was going on, everybody wanted part of it. And they’re all waving. It was beautiful.”
Peabody Police Lt. David Bonfanti said Sgt. Michael Bettencourt and the entire patrol team sprung into action to help a community member who had been through so much.
“Well, you know, we’re all fathers and mothers first. You think of what that family is going through and we can take literally three minutes out of our day, to make something special for a family that’s gone through so much. They were excited,” Bonfanti said. “They were able to make a positive […] impact on a community member for the city.”
Now, Mateo weighs more than 9 pounds and 13 ounces and is enjoying life at home. Desmond said she is beyond grateful for all of the support her family has received.
“[Mateo] has been so strong and has overcome everything that came up,” she said. “I make this joke constantly, but he was literally just done cooking. He did not need [40 weeks] and he’ll prove it for the rest of his life.”
(NEW YORK) — Human skeletal remains found deep in a wooded area of Pennsylvania has been identified by authorities as belonging to Christopher Story, a man who suddenly and mysteriously went missing almost 10 years ago.
Christopher Story was last seen around 11:00 p.m. on Aug. 11, 2013, at his residence in New Castle, Pennsylvania — a town located just over 50 miles north of Pittsburgh.
“He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, khaki shorts, a dark ball cap, and black shoes,” read the FBI missing person’s statement released in 2013. “He left behind his wallet, phone charger, and medication.”
At the time of Story’s disappearance, the FBI warned that he “has surgical pins/rods in his spine and may walk with a limp” and that, since he didn’t have his medication, Story “may appear agitated and may also appear confused or suffer hallucinations.”
However, on Wednesday, the New Castle Police Department confirmed that human skeletal remains found in Taylor Township — less than five miles away from where Story went missing — belonged to the man who had been missing for more than nine years.
“The NCPD has continued to aggressively investigate this case since that date attempting to find Chris Story and determine what happened to him,” said the New Castle Police Department following the discovery.
The Coroner’s Office and the New Castle Police Detective Bureau along with assistance from the FBI and K9 cadaver dogs managed to recover the skeletal remains over the past several weeks, authorities said.
“After examining the remains and looking for certain medical characteristics and comparing X-rays, Coroner Richard ‘RJ’ Johnson notified the detectives and New Castle Police that the remain are those of missing person Chris Story,” the NCPD confirmed on Wednesday.
Story’s family has since been notified of the findings and that their loved one has been found, police said.
The investigation into what happened to Story and how he died is still ongoing and the coroner has not made a ruling on the cause or manner of death, the NCPD said in their statement released to the public on Wednesday.
Story’s remains will now be sent out to the FBI for forensic testing and police say they are still actively investigating his death.
Brian Tyree Henry is a cover star, earning placement on the cover of Essence‘s recently launched biweekly online cover story series, Of The Essence. During the interview, he discusses his motivation, delves into some past characters, and even tackles the importance of therapy and mental health.
Brian has portrayed a range of characters throughout the years, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Causeway. Playing James Aucoin, he said, “came at a time in my life where I needed to find a reflective surface in order to figure out a lot of parts of the pain and grief I was going through in my own personal life.”
“There was something about him that really tapped into me dealing with the grief I was carrying in my life and the non-confrontational way that I chose to approach it by actually just wallowing in it,” Brian continued. His role as Alfred aka Paper Boi on Atlanta also helped him deal with grief after the loss of his mother.
“He allowed me an opportunity to truly vent, and to truly lay some of those burdens down in a way that I hadn’t really been able to with other characters from my past,” he explained.
While acting has had a positive effect on his healing process, Brian says he never wants to confuse it for therapy.
“This is therapeutic, but therapy is therapy,” he said of portraying different characters. “And I want to encourage as many people as possible, especially Black people, to go to therapy.”
“There is nothing weak about feeling. There’s nothing weak about being a Black man who asks for help, or who actually doesn’t know the answer to how to get on the other side,” he added.
Kevin Kane/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The seventh annual Love Rocks NYC benefit concert is happening next week at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, but if you can’t make it to the Big Apple you can still enjoy the show.
For just $20, fans will be able to stream the concert, which features a lineup that includes James Taylor, Pat Benatar and Neil Geraldo,Sheryl Crow, the John Mayer Trio, Warren Haynes and R&B legend Mavis Staples.
The annual concert is a benefit for God’s Love We Deliver, which delivers meals to New Yorkers who are unable to shop or cook for themselves. That $20 livestream ticket will translate to two meals. To date the concerts have raised more than $25 million. This year the charity expects to deliver more than 3 million meals, which are provided free of charge.
Will Smith took the stage at the African American Film Critics Association Awards, where he and Emancipation director Antoine Fuqua accepted the organization’s Beacon Award. It marked Smith’s first in-person speech at an awards ceremony since the 2022 Oscars, where he slapped Chris Rock onstage.
“Emancipation was the individual most difficult film of my entire career. It was all outdoors, that is true,” Smith joked, drawing laughs from the crowd, according to Variety.
“It was the second day of shooting and 110 degrees…I was in a scene with one of the white actors. The actor decided to ad-lib. So we’re doing the scene. I did my line. He did his line. And then — ad-lib — he spit in the middle of my chest,” Smith recalled generating groans from the audience. “The actor felt that the ad-lib had gone well. So we do take two. I do my line. He does his line — and spits in the middle of my chest again…In the distance, I hear a voice. And Antoine says, ‘Hey, let’s do a take without the spit.’ And in that moment, I knew that God was real.”
“I want to thank [AAFCA co-founder Gil L. Robertson] and AAFCA. I want to thank all of you in this room for doing what you do, keeping our stories alive,” Smith continued. “I want to thank Apple because the budget was one thing. And then the budget was another thing. And then the budget was another thing. And Apple never flinched. It was the first time I had heard from a studio that the story was more important than how much it costs to get it done…They make iPhones. They can do it.”
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL SPRING TRAINING
INTERLEAGUE
Philadelphia 4, Minnesota 4 (Tie)
Detroit 8, Pittsburgh 7
Tampa Bay 3, Atlanta 3 (Tie)
NY Yankees 4, Washington 2
Anaheim 4, Milwaukee 3
Chi Cubs 5, Seattle 3
Oakland 14, Cincinnati 14 (Tie)
LA Dodgers 4, Texas 2
San Diego 5, Texas 1
Kansas City 8, Colorado 6
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Toronto 2, Baltimore 1
Boston 4, Houston 4 (Tie)
Cleveland 9, Chi White Sox 6
NATIONAL LEAGUE
NY Mets 8, Miami 4
Arizona 8, San Francisco 5
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Phoenix 105, Charlotte 91
Chicago 117, Detroit 115
Philadelphia 119, Miami 96
New York 142, Brooklyn 118
Boston 117, Cleveland 113
Milwaukee 139, Orlando 117
LA Lakers 123, Oklahoma City 117
Memphis 113, Houston 99
New Orleans 121, Portland 110
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
NY Rangers 3, Philadelphia 2 (OT)
Edmonton 5, Toronto 2
Dallas 4, Arizona 2
Washington 3, Anaheim 2 (OT)
Vegas 3, Carolina 2
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Xavier 94, Providence 89
Alabama 90, Auburn 85
UConn 88, DePaul 59
Ohio State 73, Maryland 62
Notre Dame 88, Pittsburgh 81
Vanderbilt 68, Kentucky 66
Kansas St. 85, Oklahoma 69
Gonzaga 104, Chicago St. 65
TCU 75, Texas 73
(NEW YORK) — On Wednesday, former Trump White House adviser Kellyanne Conway met with prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as part of their criminal investigation into Trump and the alleged hush payment to Stormy Daniels, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Conway is the latest witness to meet with prosecutors. Others include Michael Cohen, Trump’s one time fixer and lawyer who funded the payment, and David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer who helped arrange it.
Last month, Cohen gave his 15th interview with the district attorney’s office, which was the first since a recently convened grand jury began hearing evidence about Daniels’ long-denied affair with Trump. Pecker appeared before the grand jury on Jan. 30.
A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment about Conway’s appearance or the status of the investigation into Trump’s role in the payment, that was made to Daniels in the closing moments of the 2016 presidential campaign to keep her quiet about a long-denied affair she alleged she had with Trump.
The hush-money case was initially rejected by former District Attorney Cy Vance, but revived under current DA Bragg, whose office has been fending off criticism of a decision not to charge Trump earlier.
Conway’s meeting was first reported by The New York Times.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and dismissed the investigation as political and has called Bragg’s investigation a “witch hunt.”
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is probing whether Trump had a hand in falsifying business records when his company reimbursed Cohen the $130,000 he gave to Daniels, ABC News has previously reported according to sources.
(PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad) — After surviving on ketchup while lost at sea for weeks, Elvis Francois said he is hoping a ketchup company’s social media search for him can lead to easier days ahead.
“I’m kind of stressed out,” Francois told ABC News, from Paix Bouche, a village located in the northern part of Dominica.
Francois said he had just finished a virtual meeting with officials from The Kraft Heinz Company, the maker of Heinz ketchup.
“They say they’re going to organize, to see how I could get something,” Francois said.
The company just days earlier sent out a social media SOS, with the hashtag #FindTheKetchupBoatGuy, trying to find him.
Francois, a 47-year-old Dominican native had spent 24 days drifting in the Caribbean Sea.
That drift began on a December day, as Francois was repairing his boat at a port in Saint Martin. While drifting, he said he ate ketchup three times a day. Seaweed and sea water also became part of his diet to stay alive.
“If I didn’t have those things I wouldn’t have made it,” Francois told ABC News. “At a certain time I had kind of given up, I had no hope.”
A plane spotted Francois in waters off the northen tip of Colombia. Pilots notified Colombian authorities, who then radioed a large cargo ship.
After he was rescued, authorities sent him back to Dominica. A fire had destroyed Francois’ home in the fishing village of Anse De Mai, Dominica, a year ago. He said he lost everything, and left the island in search of a better life. He ended up in Saint Martin.
He now sleeps in what’s left of his burned-down house.
“I just blocked up a side, and that’s how I’m living for the time,” Francois said.
“Trying to go in the market, and see if I could sell produce, but after a year there’s nothing much in the soil,” he added.
Heinz’s social media search ended after Dominican news outlet EmoNews was able to track down Francois.
“Heinz was able to contact Elvis and discuss the best way to help support him and his family,” said a Kraft Heinz spokesperson, Jenna Thornton. “Heinz and Elvis are working out the logistical details of gifting him his new boat,” she said.
Francois told ABC News he’s hoping the helping hand from the American company comes soon, and that he needs a financial lifeline to survive now that he’s back on land.
“There’s a lot of other things I need, because for the moment, I’m at zero,” he said.
(PUNO, Peru) — A man stopped for drinking in a park in Peru was found to be in possession of more than just a container of alcohol.
Juan Cesar Bermejo, 26, had a 600 to 800-year-old mummy in a cooler bag, authorities in the South American nation told ABC News.
Bermejo, a food delivery man, was allegedly showing off the mummy to two friends in the park in the southern city of Puno on Saturday, the Peruvian National Police said.
“I take care of her and she takes care of me,” Bermejo allegedly told police to justify the presence of the mummified corpse in his bag.
Police say Bermejo was on the job at the time he was stopped and searched.
According to police, Bermejo said he even named the mummy “Juanita” and called her his “spiritual friend.”
But authorities say the mummy is believed to be that of a male. Its now in possession of Peru’s ministry of culture, authorities said this week.
It’s unclear how the man came to be in possession of the mummy. Mummification was a common practice among several cultures in Peru before the arrival of Spanish conquistadores in the 16th Century. In November 2021, archeologists in Peru discovered a mummy believed to be up to 1,200 years old in a underground tomb.
Bermejo has been charged with illegal possession of historical patrimony and could face up to 5 years in jail.
