What goes together better than monster trucks and country music? How about monster trucks and LOCASH?
Preston Brust and Chris Lucas are set to play the halftime show at the Monster Jam World Finals XXII Saturday, July 1, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. You can get all the ticket info at MonsterJam.com.
The “One Big Country Song” hitmakers have plenty on their plate between now and then. They’re set to release new music with the patriotic “Three Favorite Colors” before hitting the road on the Drunk or Dreaming Tour with Kane Brown and Dustin Lynch in the spring.
Lil Uzi Vert is facing a lawsuit that alleges he used unauthorized samples from Blackout‘s 1995 song “Dim Da Lights” in the track “Strawberry Peels.”
According to TMZ, Sun City Publishing filed the suit, noting the success of Uzi’s song, which has garnered more than 39 million Spotify streams and over 4 million YouTube plays. The publishing company is now seeking at least $1 million in damages, which is the amount they believe the song has generated.
“Strawberry Peels” appeared on the deluxe edition of Uzi’s Eternal Atake album. It features Young Thug and Gunna, who are also mentioned in the suit, alongside Atlantic Records, Generation Now and the song’s producer, Wheezy.
Metallica‘s “Master of Puppets” wasn’t the only metal song to become an unexpected hit in 2022. While Stranger Things was driving the 1986 thrasher back to the charts, Ghost‘s 2019 single “Mary on a Cross” gave the Swedish band their first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 after going viral on TikTok.
In an interview with Metal Hammer, Tobias Forge calls the TikTok success of “Mary on a Cross” “just a giant bonus.”
“That was never something that we planned,” Forge says.
And, just like Metallica before them, Forge is welcoming any fans who discovered his band through TikTok to the Ghost community.
“We’ve made five records, a bunch of EPs, and I am glad that there seems to be a song that has a way to suck people in,” Forge says. “And if they go into our world and like it, there is plenty to find. If you like ‘Mary on a Cross,’ you can just jump on the train and go where we already are heading.”
Along with inspiring a TikTok trend, Ghost crept more into the mainstream in 2022 with a performance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and their album Impera won Favorite Rock Album at the American Music Awards.
“It’s such a slow process that you don’t notice until a half year later when new fans come in and say, ‘I saw you on Kimmel’ or ‘I saw you with my dad,'” Forge says. “I wouldn’t say that being on Kimmel changed everything. It’s been slow, step-by-step, but it builds new branches onto the same tree and you keep growing higher.”
(NEW YORK) — The holiday meltdown at Southwest Airlines last month cost the company as much as $825 million in lost revenue and added expenses, the company said in a government filing on Friday.
Southwest Airlines, the largest domestic airline in the U.S., canceled more than 16,000 flights over an 11-day period at the end of December, the filing said.
The disarray amid a massive snowstorm stranded droves of customers during a peak travel season, prompting the company to apologize and offer reimbursement for inconvenienced travelers.
“The cost is definitely a significant amount,” Ross Feinstein, industry veteran and former director of operations communications at American Airlines, told ABC News.
“I’m not surprised that this is the hit they will ultimately take, in terms of the sheer number of passengers affected and the number of flights canceled,” added Feinstein.
Roughly half of the cost stemmed from lost sales, the company said.
The remaining cost went to reimbursements for affected passengers, as well as frequent-flier points offered as a “gesture of goodwill” and extra compensation for workers, the company said.
Southwest Airlines this week announced that it would provide each affected passenger with 25,000 frequent flier points, which the company equated to about a $300 value.
If an airline cancels a flight, meanwhile, a customer is entitled to a full refund by law, according to the Department of Transportation.
In addition, Southwest Airlines vowed to “honor reasonable requests for reimbursement for meals, hotel, and alternate transportation,” the company said.
Last week, in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Good Morning America, Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan apologized for the debacle.
“There’s just no way almost to apologize enough because we love our customers, we love our people and really impacted their plans,” Jordan said. “There will be a lot of lessons learned that come out of this.”
In October, Southwest Airlines predicted strong financial performance over the final three months of 2022, estimating an increase in operating revenue of as much as 17% compared with the same period in 2019.
The holiday meltdown appears to have scuttled those aspirations. Compared with the same period two years prior, the company now estimates a 6% decline in carrying capacity, which measures the total number of passengers transported over a combined number of miles, the filing said.
Despite the news of the company’s financial blow, the price of Southwest Airlines shares inched upward in early trading on Friday.
Since the beginning of the debacle, on Dec. 21, Southwest Airlines stock has fallen about 6%.
All in all, the company will likely overcome the blow to its reputation, said Feinstein.
“If Southwest fixes this issue so that it doesn’t happen again, future passengers will forget and move on,” he said. “When they’re buying a flight, passengers typically book on price and schedule.”
The historic scale of cancellations at Southwest sprang from the company’s uniquely complex flight coordination model and its antiquated internal scheduling systems, flight experts, Southwest Airlines officials and union leaders previously told ABC News.
The announced cost of the meltdown does not include potential remedies for such issues, Feinstein said. The company will likely take on the added cost of updating its internal programming system to avoid another possible wave of cancellations, he added.
“There will be additional money spent and programmed for IT infrastructure,” he said. “That’s important before any other project – to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
It seems Neal Schon has problems not just with his Journey bandmate Jonathan Cain, but with Cain’s wife, Paula White-Cain, as well.
The New York Post reports Schon sent White-Cain, a former spiritual adviser to Donald Trump, a cease-and-desist letter last month accusing her of accessing the band’s bank accounts without Schon knowing or giving his permission. The letter demanded she take herself off the accounts by December 27, although there’s no word on whether she actually did. He also demanded she stop “inserting” herself into the band’s business.
But White-Cain’s lawyer Alan Gutman calls Schon’s claims “nonsensical” and “entirely pretextual,” noting that Schon and Cain each own 50% of the band through a personal trust, and White-Cain is a co-trustee of her husband’s trust, so she is allowed to have access to it. Plus the lawyer adds Schon was fine with the arrangement for two years, and while Cain offered up a suggestion to resolve the issue, Schon “refuses to cooperate in any resolution.”
As previously reported, Schon and Cain have been in the news a lot lately because of their legal battles. The most recent incident had Schon sending a cease-and-desist letter to Cain over a performance of “Don’t Stop Believin’” at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Schon also had an issue with Cain opening up an Amex credit card through the band’s company and not giving him access to it.
Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast member Jennifer Shah has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison in connection with a telemarketing fraud case.
Shah, 49, pleaded guilty in July 2022 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was ordered to forfeit $6.5 million after previously pleading not guilty. She must also pay restitution to victims of the nationwide telemarketing scheme that prosecutors said targeted elderly, vulnerable victims.
Federal prosecutors had requested the reality star serve 10 years in prison; the defense said she should serve no more than three.
“Ms. Shah is a good woman who crossed a line. She accepts full responsibility for her actions and deeply apologizes to all who have been harmed,” said Shah’s defense attorney, Priya Chaudhry, in a statement at the time. “Jen pled guilty because she wants to pay her debt to society and put this ordeal behind her and her family.”
Federal prosecutors countered, “Despite the defendant’s best efforts, she got caught. She then went on a public offensive and tried to profit off the charges by selling ‘Justice for Jen’ merchandise.”
They added, “She pled guilty at the eleventh hour, only after receiving the Government’s trial exhibits and witness statements. In light of her conduct and her post-arrest behavior, her belated expressions of remorse ring hollow.”
The defense has portrayed her antics as play for the reality TV cameras.
In December, a judge ordered her to forfeit dozens of designer handbags, a Lanvin fox, mink and leather belted stole and her collection of posh jewelry as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
The 108 items were seized in March 2021 in a search of Shah’s home. The inventory included scores of counterfeit bags and jewelry stamped with fake Chanel, Gucci, Bulgari and Hermès labels.
(WASHINGTON) — As the nation marked the second anniversary to the Jan. 6 attack, a split-screen moment played out Friday on Capitol Hill.
On the House floor, some Republican lawmakers who either supported the rioters or helped breathe life into former President Donald Trump’s “big lie” about the 2020 election are on the verge of gaining power in Washington.
Twenty hardline Republicans are opposing Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker of the House.
Of the 15 incumbents in the rebel group, 14 challenged the results of the 2020 election this fateful day two years ago. The total number of Republican congressmen who voted to overturn the elections was 139.
Of the five incoming freshmen who make up the group, Rep.-elect Eli Crane, a former Navy SEAL who trafficked in conspiracy theories about the election and called on his home state of Arizona to overturn the 2020 results, called for the state legislature to decertify the election results as recently as September 2021.
Another Rep.-elect, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida is a fervent “Stop the Steal” warrior who once donned a red-carpet-worthy ball gown to a screening of 2000 Mules, a debunked documentary that falsely claims to show evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
She made her stance on the 2020 election clear in an interview with MSNBC last June, stating, “I believe that President Trump won that election, and I do believe that voter fraud occurred.” And in November, she will very likely be elected to Congress.
Just one member of the group, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, is not an election denier, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight.
As of Friday morning, no deal had been reached between the Republican renegades and supporters of McCarthy, the Republican leader said on a private call with his colleagues.
Meanwhile, Democrats gathered on the House steps for a solemn moment of silence for the 140 law enforcement officers injured by rioters.
“The violent insurrectionists stormed the Capitol and attempted to halt the peaceful transfer of power, a cornerstone of our republic,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the incoming leader of the House Democratic caucus. “They failed. They failed because of the bravery and valor of the United States capitol police and the metropolitan police department officers who fought heroically to defend our democracy.”
“We will never forget their sacrifice and we will never forget this day,” Jeffries said.
ABC News only spotted one Republican at the event: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.
Fitzpatrick told ABC News Jan. 6 is a “terrible day that we can never let happen again.”
Missing from the event was McCarthy, who has his own fraught history with Jan. 6. McCarthy was one of the 139 Republicans who voted to overturn the election results. He also condemned former President Donald Trump for his inaction as the violence erupted, but later softened his stance toward Trump and fought against the House select committee formed to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.
Wet Leg has premiered a new remix of “Chaise Longue.”
Recorded in collaboration with the psychedelic band Unknown Mortal Orchestra, the remix adds some more menacing sounds to the U.K. duo’s breakout, Mean Girls-referencing hit.
“[Unknown Moral Orchestra] have done a remix of ‘Chaise Longue’ which is kinda wild and kinda amazing,” Wet Leg says.
The original “Chaise Longue,” which appears on Wet Leg’s 2022 self-titled debut album, helped earn Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers a Best New Artist nomination at the 2023 Grammys. “Chaise Longue” is also up for Best Alternative Music Performance, while Wet Leg the album will compete for Best Alternative Music Album.
What is “Tulsa” spelled backward? Well, that’s a revelation Elle King delivers in the latest track from her first full-length country album.
“Tulsa is a song about doing someone wrong,” the “Drunk (And I Don’t Want to Go Home)” hitmaker explains.
“This is not about tearing women down but it’s about putting the blame on the wrongdoer,” Elle continues. “If a man is cheating on you, it’s not her fault because there are a million other girls he would do it with. And he’ll just cheat on her, too. It’s a song about uniting and not taking s*** from this real P.O.S.”
If you listen closely, you can hear Ashley McBryde helping out on background vocals, while John Osborne lends his guitar chops to the tune.
Come Get Your Wife arrives Friday, January 27, before Elle’s A-FREAKIN-MEN Tour kicks off February 14 in New Orleans.
If you missed the 2022 edition of New Kids on the Block‘s MixTape Tour, which also featured Salt-N-Pepa, En Vogue and Rick Astley, here’s some good news: You can watch it from home starting on Sunday.
MixTape Tour 2022 – Live From Philadelphia, a concert film documenting one of the tour stops, premieres Sunday, January 8, exclusively on the streaming platform VEEPS. It starts at 2 p.m. EST/11 a.m. PST, and tickets for the event are available now via mixtapetour.veeps.com.
In addition to the concert, the stream includes an exclusive documentary called Press Play: The Making of the Mixtape Tour. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the tour came together.
And there’s more: You can also get access to a free Q&A that’ll take place prior to the film’s premiere, at 1:30 p.m. EST/10:30 a.m. The New Kids will share stories from the tour and answer fans’ questions. Claim your free ticket at Mixtapetour.veeps.com.
In a statement, NKOTB’s Donnie Wahlberg says, “We had so much fun performing for our fans on The MixTape Tour, that we really didn’t want it to end. Partnering with VEEPS has given us a chance to bring us all together, to experience all the good times again, but in the comfort of our own homes.”
