Slipknot’s ‘The End, So Far’ debuts at #2 on ‘Billboard’ 200

Slipknot’s ‘The End, So Far’ debuts at #2 on ‘Billboard’ 200
Slipknot’s ‘The End, So Far’ debuts at #2 on ‘Billboard’ 200
Roadrunner Records

Slipknot‘s new album, The End, So Far, has debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200.

The seventh studio effort from the masked metallers moved a total of 59,000 equivalent album units, 50,500 of which were traditional album sales.

Prior to The End, So Far, Slipknot had a three-album streak of #1 debuts with 2008’s All Hope Is Gone, 2014’s .5: The Gray Chapter and 2019’s We Are Not Your Kind.

The End, So Far arrives on the Billboard 200 behind Puerto Rican rap star Bad Bunny‘s May album, Un Verano Sin Ti, which has tied the record for most non-consecutive weeks atop the chart in the last 10 years.

The End, So Far did debut at #1 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart, giving them a total of three leaders across the pond.

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Atlanta Braves sign rookie pitcher Spencer Strider to six-year, $75M deal

Atlanta Braves sign rookie pitcher Spencer Strider to six-year, M deal
Atlanta Braves sign rookie pitcher Spencer Strider to six-year, M deal
krisanapong detraphiphat/Getty Images

(ATLANTA) — Right-handed pitcher Spencer Strider is staying put with the Atlanta Braves until at least the 2028 season.

The team announced on Monday that it has signed the 23-year-old rookie to a six-year deal worth $75 million. The contract also includes a $22 million club option for 2029 with a $5 million buyout.

Per the terms of the deal, Strider will make $1 million per season in 2023 and 2024, $4 million in 2025, $20 million in 2026 and $22 million per season in 2027 and 2028. Should he opt to stay a seventh year, his contract would be worth a total of $92 million.

In his first full season with the Braves, Strider appeared in 31 games, starting 20 times. He went 11-5 with a 2.67 ERA and struck out 202 batters while allowing just 86 hits, becoming the first pitcher in MLB history to strike out over 200 with fewer than 100 hits allowed.

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Lizzo seemingly claps back at Ye for comments about her body

Lizzo seemingly claps back at Ye for comments about her body
Lizzo seemingly claps back at Ye for comments about her body
ABC

Lizzo isn’t here for comments made about her weight or physical appearance.

The superstar singer seemed to address comments Kanye West made about her weight during his recent appearance on The Tucker Carlson Show. 

“I feel like everybody in America got my motherf*****g name in their motherf*****g mouth for no motherf*****g reason,” Lizzo said to a crowd during a recent concert in Toronto. Check out the viral moment caught on camera, later shared by The Shade Room.

“I’m minding my fat Black beautiful business,” she added before requesting to stay in Canada. “Can I stay here? Who can I marry for dual citizenship?”

During the controversial interview on October 7, Ye made statements about the “About Damn Time” singer.

“When Lizzo loses 10 pounds and announces it, the bots — on Instagram, they attack her losing weight, because the media wants to put out a perception that being overweight is the new goal when it’s actually unhealthy,” he said, adding, “It’s demonic.”

The “Praise God” rapper appeared on the show after wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt at his Yeezy fashion show in Paris last week. The shirt garnered much criticism and negative attention from celebrities like Jaden Smith, who found issue with its messaging. 

“I Don’t Care Who’s It Is If I Don’t Feel The Message I’m Out,” Smith wrote after attending but exiting the fashion show early. “Black Lives Matter,” he wrote in a follow-up message.

Ye’s unpopular fashion choice was followed by anti-Semitic comments made on social media that resulted in the rapper’s suspension from Instagram and Twitter. 

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Hardy will welcome the new year with release of sophomore album, ‘the Mockingbird & THE CROW’

Hardy will welcome the new year with release of sophomore album, ‘the Mockingbird & THE CROW’
Hardy will welcome the new year with release of sophomore album, ‘the Mockingbird & THE CROW’
Big Loud Records

Hardy is blending all of his musical influences on his new album, the mockingbird & THE CROW. 

The two-part sophomore album, set for release on January 20, features 17 tracks that marry Hardy’s passion for country and rock music, including three new songs that dropped simultaneously with the new album announcement.

Here lies country music,” serves as a nod to country tropes like broken hearts, trucks and red dirt roads, with references to Johnny Cash and Jack Daniels, while “truck bed” follows a man who, after a night of getting drunk in his own yard, has to resort to sleeping in his truck after his girlfriend locks him out. “The mockingbird & THE CROW” tells the singer’s personal story of journeying from songwriter to artist.  

the mockingbird & THE CROW is, in my opinion, the best thing I’ve made so far. I had a lot of time to get in the weeds making this record with some of my favorite people in Nashville, and it truly captures every part of who I am as an artist,” Hardy says in a statement. “I’m honored that I get to share it with you next year; can’t wait to hear what you think about it.”

The project will also feature his top 40 single with Lainey Wilson, “wait in the truck,” and the recently released “JACK.” 

The Mockingbird & THE CROW follows Hardy’s 2020 debut album, A ROCK, and collaborative EPs Hixtape, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, released in 2019 and 2021, respectively. 

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Taylor Swift and Shawn Mendes’ new films disappoint at box office

Taylor Swift and Shawn Mendes’ new films disappoint at box office
Taylor Swift and Shawn Mendes’ new films disappoint at box office
20th Century Studios/New Regency

The combined star power of Taylor Swift and Shawn Mendes wasn’t enough to lift either of their new films to number one at the box office over the weekend.

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, starring Shawn as the voice of the titular reptile, made an estimated $11.5 million, good enough for second place behind the horror film Smile but still below expectations.

Billboard reports that Sony, the studio releasing the film, expects the Columbus Day/Indigenous People’s Day holiday on Monday to help boost its three-day take to $13.4 million.

David O. Russell’s star-packed movie Amsterdam, which stars Taylor as well as Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert De Niro, Rami Malek and more, earned $6.5 million or about eight percent of the $80 million it cost to make. 

The studio had expected Amsterdam to hit $10 million after garnering less-than-stellar reviews. The words “flops” and “bombs” are being used most frequently to describe its box office performance.

Meanwhile, that other movie featuring a pop star, Harry StylesDon’t Worry Darling, is still in the top five after three weeks and has so far earned $38 million.

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Julian Lennon discusses journey to create his new album, ‘Jude’

Julian Lennon discusses journey to create his new album, ‘Jude’
Julian Lennon discusses journey to create his new album, ‘Jude’
BMG

Last month, Julian Lennon released his first new studio album in 11 years, an 11-track collection titled Jude.

Julian, the older of late Beatle John Lennon‘s two sons, tells ABC Audio that Jude is actually made up mostly of previously unreleased older songs.

“This journey started with me receiving a few boxes of different formatted tapes from the basement of my business manager in London, who retired,” he explains, noting that the tapes dated back to the beginning of his music career.

“The first thing I saw was reel-to-reel tape,” Julian says. “[I]t had the original demos for ‘Too Late for Goodbyes,’ for ‘Valotte,’ a number of other songs on the [1984 Valotte] album, and a couple of songs that I was saving for a later date.”

Lennon says he began working his way through the tapes, picking songs to update for what he initially felt would make a good EP. Julian looked for tunes with themes that fit together well, and that reflected what was currently going on in his life and in the world, eventually realizing he had enough tracks for a full album.

The album’s title is a reference to the classic Beatles song “Hey Jude,” which Paul McCartney famously wrote in 1968 to cheer up a young Julian after his father left his mother. Lennon says titling the record Jude partly ties in with his recent decision to legally change his given first name, John, to Julian, which he’s been called since childhood.

“Jules, Jude, me, retrospective, collection of songs from life, taking ownership of the name Jude and/or being me finally … that all made sense to me,” he maintains. “And it was just pieces of this weird puzzle that just came together and all made sense in the end.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

“Hard at work”: Blink-182 clears website and Instagram

“Hard at work”: Blink-182 clears website and Instagram
“Hard at work”: Blink-182 clears website and Instagram
Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

Something’s happening in the world of Blink-182.

The “All the Small Things” rockers have deleted every post on their Instagram and have also cleared their website of all content except for a landing page featuring graphics of yellow construction tape and the band’s rabbit mascot.

If you scroll to the bottom of the site, you’ll find the words, “Hard at work! Check back soon.”

The digital wipe has fans hoping that new Blink-182 music is in the works. The group’s most recent song is the 2020 pandemic-themed single “Quarantine,” which followed their 2019 album, Nine.

Since then, the Blink members have been dealing with a lot in their personal lives: Bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus has been continuing to recover from his 2021 cancer battle, while drummer Travis Barker was hospitalized earlier this year with pancreatitis.

There’s also the question of who will be playing guitar in Blink going forward. Since 2015, that role belonged to Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba, who joined the band in place of founding member Tom DeLonge. However, rumors have persisted that DeLonge would be reuniting with Blink, and even Skiba commented that “Your guess is as good as mine” when it comes to his current status in the group.

In response to the rumors, Hoppus proclaimed that Blink had “nothing to announce.” In an interview People published in August, he shared that he’s “open to whatever the next phase of Blink is.”

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Great Scott! Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reunite at New York Comic Con’s Back to the Future panel

Great Scott! Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reunite at New York Comic Con’s Back to the Future panel
Great Scott! Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reunite at New York Comic Con’s Back to the Future panel
Photo courtesy Chris Feehan

Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd brought down the house at New York Comic Con on Saturday, where they reminisced about their partnership in the Back to the Future trilogy.

The pair chatted about how Fox came to replace Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly in the 1985 blockbuster — after weeks of filming with Stoltz as the lead.

“I felt that I barely made it through the [first] six weeks, and now I was gonna have to do it again?!” Lloyd recalled thinking.

Fox — who at the time was doing double-duty as the star of Family Ties — immediately made an impact, continued Lloyd. “The chemistry was there from the first scene we had…It hasn’t gone away, by the way,” he noted.

Fox said all he had to do was “react” to the “brilliant” Lloyd playing the eccentric Dr. Emmett Brown. He added, “It was a thrill. Anytime I got to work with him, I knew it was gonna be a good day.”

Fox retired from acting in 2020 because of his Parkinson’s diagnosis. He remained inspiring, even as he at times struggled with the spasms from the disease, for which he’s raised $800 million through his eponymous foundation.

Fox’s sense of humor was very much intact: At one point, a source tells ABC Audio that a tic caused Fox to drop his gum out of his mouth onto the couch. Immediately, he scooped it up and popped it back in. “You saw it here first, folks: The moment I just got COVID,” he joked.

Fox later said, “I’ve said to people [Parkinson’s] is a gift, and they say, ‘You’re nuts.’ …But it’s a gift, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

The pair also signed autographs for hundreds of fans, who Fox explained “gave me my whole life.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Justin Timberlake thrills crowd with covers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles gala

Justin Timberlake thrills crowd with covers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles gala
Justin Timberlake thrills crowd with covers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles gala
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Justin Timberlake brought sexy back to a crowd of 1300 people in Santa Monica over the weekend, performing a sweaty 40-minute set at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles gala — the first time the event has been held since 2019.

Billboard reports that the gala landed JT as the entertainment because his pal Nikki DeLoach, a fellow former cast member of The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, is the chairman of the CHLA Foundation Board of Trustees.

According to Billboard, Justin and his band, billed as Justin Timberlake & the Undercovers, performed for 40 minutes, singing cover versions like Smokey Robinson’s “Cruisin’,” Stevie Wonder‘s “Knocks Me Off My Feet,” Al Green‘s “Love and Happiness,” and standards like “Smile” and “The Way You Look Tonight.”

Justin also performed some of his own hits, including “Suit & Tie,” “Señorita,” and his number-one hit “Can’t Fight the Feeling!,” to which he added a bit of Bill Withers‘ classic “Lovely Day.”

The event raised a record $5.5 million, and was attended by many celebrities with personal connections to the hospital, like Jimmy Kimmel, whose son Billy had several open-heart surgeries there when he was a baby. Billboard reports that another reason Justin may have been compelled to perform is because his wife Jessica Biel‘s niece had life-saving heart surgery at the hospital.

“My kids have not had the need to be at CHLA,” Justin told the crowd, according to Billboard. “I think about all the lives that all of you saved, and I just want you to know that y’all are not unnoticed — especially to a father like me to a 7-year-old and a 2-year-old.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Watch the new trailer for Apple TV+ doc ‘Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me’

Watch the new trailer for Apple TV+ doc ‘Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me’
Watch the new trailer for Apple TV+ doc ‘Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me’
AppleTV+

In honor of World Mental Health Day on Monday, Selena Gomez has shared the trailer for her new documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me.

The Apple TV+ documentary follows Selena over six years, detailing her mental and physical health struggles as she deals with lupus, anxiety and depression. In the two-and-a-half-minute trailer, we see both the glamorous side of Selena’s life — onstage and at big events — and her more vulnerable side, where she’s crying in a hospital, visiting childhood friends, or becoming emotional when she talks about how she never feels “good enough.”

In a voiceover, the singer and actress says, “Just be who you are, Selena. No one cares about what you’re doing. It’s about who I am, being okay with where I am. I am grateful to be alive.”

We also hear a snippet of a song in which Selena sings, “My mind and me/we don’t get along sometimes/It gets hard to breathe/but I wouldn’t change my life.”

The doc is directed by Alek Keshishian, who was behind the iconic 1991 documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare, and who also helmed Selena’s clip for “Hands to Myself.”  It has its world premiere at Hollywood’s AFI Fest on November 2, and will then premiere globally on Apple TV+ on November 4.

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