For country artists, CMA Fest is a benchmark: It happens annually, and each year, performers get to watch their careers grow from the smallest stages all the way up to a headlining slot at Nissan Stadium.
“CMA Fest, for me, has been huge,” says Luke Combs, one of this year’s main stage artists. Though he’s playing Nissan Stadium now, he had to work his way up through the ranks, and looking back on his early years at the festival is a chance to see how his career has grown.
“It’s like this moment in time that exists at the same time every year,” the singer continues. “And you go, ‘Okay, last year I did the stage in the hotel lobby, and now I’m doing the stage in the bar. And then you’re at Riverfront, and then you’re at Ascend, and then you’re here.”
“Here,” of course, is Nissan Stadium: The pinnacle of the festival, where every artist playing CMA Fest hopes to one day end up.
“You can really watch your career progress,” Luke continues. “Obviously, Nissan is the thing that you want to be able to do, and I’m lucky to have gotten to do that.”
CMA Fest 2022 happened in June, but fans can revisit all the action in the CMA Fest television special, which is airing on ABC on August 3. Dierks Bentley and Elle King will host the show.
Fans who tune in will get a front-row seat to all the performance highlights of the most recent festival, including Luke’s set. The special will feature his performances of “Beer Never Broke My Heart” plus his new single, “The Kind of Love We Make.”
Has it really been a year since Billie Eilish released her Happier than Ever album?
The Grammy winner celebrated the sweet anniversary with her fans via a suprise intimate concert at Amoeba Music, an independent record store in Hollywood, on Friday. Billboardreports fans lined up outside the landmark location — some dressed head to toe in Billie merch — to get into the surprise show.
The “bad guy” singer was met with cheers and shouts when she appeared onstage and dove into a performance of fan-favorite “Billie Bossa Nova.” Her brother, FINNEAS, assisted with an acoustic guitar.
Aside from singing tracks off her sophomore album, Billie also performed her newest track, “TV.” The topical track reflects the singer’s concerns about the current political and pop culture landscape.
Billie intended to make her pit stop a three-song deal, which she had intended to close out with her album’s title track. But, she had a change of heart and instead asked her fans what song they really want to hear. Fans shrieked for “Getting Older,” and the two singers performed an acoustic rendition.
The Oscar winner took a moment to salute her album before heading offstage and told the audience, “Not only is this the anniversary of the album, it’s also [Finneas’] birthday [on Saturday]. He’s going to be 25!”
She then delighted fans by performing “Happier than Ever.”
Billie released her sophomore album on July 30, 2021. It was nominated for Album and Best Pop Vocal Album of the Year at the 2022 Grammy Awards.
A Perfect Circle hasn’t released an album since 2018’s Eat the Elephant. While the Maynard James Keenan-fronted band doesn’t currently have any concrete plans, the project never strays too far from guitarist Billy Howerdel‘s mind.
“[I’m] always thinking about what would be a good start for a next APC record, should that come,” Howerdel tells ABC Audio.
As Howerdel explains, his collaborative process with Keenan usually involves him coming up with an instrumental idea and sending it to the Tool vocalist for his thoughts.
“I’ll just say, ‘Hey, are you interested in this?’ And get his take,” Howerdel says of working with Keenan. “He’s the one that’s gotta be turned on by it, and find something … his best work, and anyone’s best work, comes from being inspired by what he hears.”
“So I just try and let go of expectations and throw some things at [Keenan] that I think he might like,” Howerdel adds. “But he’s surprised me before with things he’s picked.”
One such surprise was the song “The Doomed,” which turned out to be the lead single off Eat the Elephant. The track’s origins trace back to a short orchestral section that Howerdel wrote while working on a film score. After Keenan expressed interest in just that small part, Howerdel ended up writing what became “The Doomed” in just two days.
“You have a foundation of something you think has a solid possibility, has potential,” Howerdel muses. “Then having the energy of someone say, ‘Let’s go forward with this,’ I think my best work comes like that.”
Meanwhile, Howerdel just released his debut solo album, What Normal Was, in June.
The singer/guitarist was the de facto leader of The Dead, inspiring an entire subculture of “Deadheads” who’ve embraced the San Francisco area group’s mix of rootsy, laid-back music and psychedelic jams, as well as the counterculture lifestyle the band espoused.
Garcia co-wrote most of The Dead’s songs, usually in collaboration with lyricist Robert Hunter, including well-known tunes like “Casey Jones,” “Ripple,” “Friend of the Devil,” “Truckin’,” “Bertha,” “Alabama Getaway” and “Touch of Grey.”
Outside of The Grateful Dead, Garcia was involved in a variety of solo and side projects, including the Jerry Garcia Band, the bluegrass group Old and in the Way and as a duo with mandolinist David Grisman. He also lent his talents to many other artists’ recordings.
Garcia was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Grateful Dead in 1994. When he declined to attend the ceremony, his bandmates jokingly brought a life-size cutout of him to the event.
Jerry died of a heart attack on August 9, 1995, at age 53. Since his passing, Garcia’s surviving Dead bandmates have carried on his legacy by continuing to perform and record — together, individually and in varying combinations.
In 2015, Garcia was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside Hunter, who died in 2019 at age 78.
A variety of events have been scheduled to commemorate Garcia’s milestone birthday. Among them, three Major League Baseball teams will be hosting Jerry Garcia-themed celebrations at their home games in the coming days — the New York Yankees on Monday, the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday and the Boston Red Sox on August 9.
Veteran actress Pat Carroll, best known as the voice of Ursula in Disney’s 1989 animated feature The Little Mermaid, died Saturday in Cape Cod, Mass. while recovering from pneumonia, her daughter Kerry Karsian tells The Hollywood Reporter. She was 95.
The boisterous comedienne was a TV mainstay dating back to the 1950s, when she appeared with the likes of Red Buttons, Jimmy Durante, Mickey Rooney and Steve Allen. Her work on Sid Caesar‘s variety show, Caesar’s Hour, earned her an Emmy Award in 1957.
Carroll also played Bunny Halper, the wife of nightclub owner Charley Halper — portrayed by Sid Melton — on three seasons of The Danny Thomas Show in the early ‘60s; Ted Knight‘s newspaper co-owner Hope Stinson, on the last season of Too Close for Comfort; and appeared opposite Suzanne Somers on the 1987-89 series She’s the Sheriff.
Her other notable appearances included playing the hospital roommate of Mary Tyler Moore‘s character Mary Richards in an episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lily Feeney, the mother of Cindy Williams’ character, on a 1976 episode of Laverne & Shirley.
On film, she played Doris Day’s matchmaking sister in 1968’s With Six You Get Eggroll.
Additionally, Carroll was a game show favorite, appearing on To Tell the Truth, The Match Game, I’ve Got a Secret, Password All-Stars, You Don’t Say and The $10,000 Pyramid, among others.
Jimy Sohns, lead singer of the 1960s garage-rock band The Shadows of Knight, died Friday after suffering a stroke earlier in the week. He was 75.
Sohns’ death was announced by the band’s official Facebook page, which shared a note from Sohn’s daughter, Rachael, that reads, “My dads is gone at 5:10pm! He wired for me to go outside and left us! Fly high my rock n roll [ruler].”
Conor Mahoney, who manages the Shadows of Knight Facebook page, added, “Absolutely devastated. My thoughts go out to Jimy’s family and friends at this time. My best friend is gone, and I will miss running this page with him. His legend will live on forever.”
The Shadows of Knight are best known for their hit cover of the Van Morrison-penned 1964 Them classic “Gloria,” which reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. The Chicago-based band also scored a top-40 hit with their follow-up single, a cover of Bo Diddley‘s “Oh Yeah.”
The band released three albums during its original 1960s heyday. Sohns continued to lead various lineups of the group over the years.
In 2006, The Shadows of Knight took part in the “Little Steven” Van Zandt-organized Underground Garage Tour with The Romantics and also released a new studio album called A Knight to Remember.
In 2020, The Shadows of Knight released a new single — “Wild man”/”I Ain’t Got You” — on Little Steven’s Wicked Cool Records label that featured Sohns recording with the band’s early guitarist Jerry McGeorge for the first time since the ’60s.
In March, Sohns released his first solo single, a collaboration with former Pretty Things keyboardist Jon Povey and the Italian psychedelic group Technicolour Dream.
Nichelle Nichols, one of the original cast members of Star Trek, has passed away at age 89, according to a Facebook post by her son, Kyle Johnson.
“I regret to inform you that a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years,” he began. “Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away.”
He added, “Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration. Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.”
Nichols was a groundbreaking performer, sharing American television’s first scripted interracial kiss — with Star Trek‘s Captain Kirk, William Shatner, in the 1968 episode “Plato’s Stepchildren.”
Nichols also used her celebrity to shed light on the civil rights struggle in the ’60s.
In fact, it was Martin Luther King Jr. who convinced Nichols not to leave Star Trek at the height of the civil rights movement. In an interview with StarTrek.com, Nichols explained that during a chance encounter at a fundraiser, King urged her to remain on the show rather than leaving for Broadway.
“When we see you, we see ourselves. And we see ourselves as intelligent, and beautiful and proud,” she recalled King telling her. The following Monday she rescinded her resignation to show creator Gene Roddenberry.
In 2016, she spoke to ABC Audio about how she lent her star status to NASA decades later to encourage diversity in its ranks of real-life space travelers.
“NASA recruited me, hired me to recruit women and minorities for the space shuttle program. And until that time there were no people of color even considered,” she explains, adding with a laugh, “And after that, we were all over the place!”
“I interviewed quite a few young women that were interested in that and simply didn’t think they had a chance. And one interview with me and they knew they did.”
Through her years, Nichelle attended countless fan signings at Trek conventions and found many people you might not expect — from King to former President Barack Obama — were Trekkers.
She with a laugh of meeting said fans, “I’m used to it. And I’m not used to it.”
(WASHINGTON) — As Senate Democrats push a major economic, health and environmental proposal, “much of what they’re saying about this bill is just not true,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., contended on Sunday.
“It may be disinflationary by causing a recession,” Cassidy told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “They’re interjecting an incredible amount of uncertainty into the economy. … I think this is going to lead to a worse recession.”
The Inflation Reduction Act was announced Wednesday after months of negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. The bill would pay down about $300 billion from the national debt and invest about $370 billion in energy and climate programs over the next 10 years, the lawmakers said, with revenue raised from increasing corporate taxes and enhancing IRS enforcement.
The legislation would also lower some prescription drug prices by allowing Medicare to negotiate and expand federal health care subsidies.
On “This Week,” Cassidy took another view of the proposal.
“They are raising taxes. According to [Congress’] Joint Committee on Taxation, taxes will be raised almost $17 billion in the first year on those who are making less than $200,000,” he said, citing an analysis that Democrats say excludes cost-saving measures, like those on prescription drugs. In an earlier interview on “This Week” Sunday, Manchin insisted there is “not a tax increase” in his bill.
Karl noted that just prior to that package’s announcement, legislation to boost domestic production of crucial computer chips passed through the Senate with 17 Republican votes — including Cassidy.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy, who represents Louisiana along with Cassidy, claimed this was a slight on the GOP lawmakers who backed the chip bill thinking Democrats’ spending proposal was dead, telling Politico, “Looks to me like we got rinky-doo’d.”
“Is he right?” Karl pressed. “Did you guys get hood-winked by Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer?”
“Schumer pulled a fast one on the American people,” Cassidy countered.
But he stood by supporting the bill, which spends some $52 billion out of an overall $280 billion to promote semiconductor production, arguing the ability to manufacture the chips domestically is vital for U.S. interests; right now, China is an enormous exporter of the technology.
“This is all about national security,” Cassidy said. “I’m a China hawk. If you’re comfortable with China … this bill, maybe you don’t vote for. If you’re a China hawk like I am, if you’re about national security, by golly you support this bill.”
GOP senators also came under fire from advocates last week after changing course on a bill to help veterans who were exposed to toxic “burn pits” during their service.
Comedian Jon Stewart, who appeared on “This Week” on Sunday in a separate interview, has been strongly lobbying for the bill’s passage, telling Karl that “nothing changed” in the text between votes in June and July — but Republican senators changed their votes.
Karl questioned Cassidy about the switch. Cassidy maintained that it was a temporary, bureaucratic delay and blamed Democrats.
“The bill will pass, and I strongly support it. We have to stand by our veterans who have been exposed to these chemicals. There was a drafting error,” he said. “A $400 billion drafting error that Democrats promised Republicans would get a vote on an amendment to fix.”
He was referring to what conservatives called an effort to free up existing funds already being used for veterans by shuffling the money inside the budget to use for unrelated purposes.
“But, to be clear, you did vote for it in its current form in the Senate,” Karl pressed.
“Yes, and I’ll vote for its final passage, too,” Cassidy said.
(FRANKFORT, Kentucky) — The death toll in the devastating flooding that hit eastern Kentucky is continuing to rise as more rain threatens the region, according to officials.
A total of 26 people have been confirmed dead, but that number is expected to increase again, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced Sunday morning. The death toll includes at least four children, Beshear said on Saturday.
The death toll in the devastating flooding that hit eastern Kentucky is continuing to rise as more rain threatens the region, according to officials.
A total of 26 people have been confirmed dead, but that number is expected to increase again, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced Sunday morning. The death toll includes at least four children, Beshear said on Saturday.
More rain is forecast in the area on Sunday and Monday as search and rescue teams continue to look for those who are unaccounted for. The additional precipitation could potentially cause water levels to rise again, with 2 inches to 4 inches of rain possible in the same area that experienced the catastrophic flooding that began with heavy rains on Wednesday.
More than 600 people have been rescued by aircraft and boat since the flooding began, Beshear said.
The destruction in Kentucky is the latest extreme flooding event to take place in the U.S. in less than a week.
Heavy downpours caused flash flooding in Las Vegas on Friday, with rising waters seen on roadways and parking garages in busy parts of Sin City.
The megadrought has caused the soil in the region to become so dry that it could not absorb the heavy rains, which helped to contribute to the flooding.
Earlier in the week, a flash flooding emergency occurred near St. Louis, which had a record-breaking 8.56 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. One person was found dead in a car on Tuesday after the water began to recede, officials said.
Kentucky is working to establish shelters, Beshear said, asking those who want to help to donate cleaning supplies or water. Last week, President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration.
“Let us wrap our arms around eastern Kentucky and pray for those impacted,” Beshear said.
ABC News’ Matt Foster, Kenton Gewecke and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — On ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin again declined to speculate about backing President Joe Biden in 2024 and said he was hopeful fellow Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema will come on board with a deficit reduction, climate and energy bill he negotiated.
Manchin’s new spending deal, brokered with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, would close corporate tax loopholes and levy a 15% corporate minimum tax, invest billions in clean energy and reducing emissions, lower prescription drug costs via Medicare and expand health care subsidies.
In an interview with “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl, Manchin touted the package’s provisions — which will need to earn the support of all 50 votes in the Democratic caucus given widespread Republican opposition.
A key vote will be Arizona’s Sinema, who has previously opposed closing the so-called carried interest tax loophole. Manchin and Schumer’s bill limits but doesn’t remove that exception.
“Sen. Sinema is my dear friend. I have all the respect for her, she’s extremely bright and works very, very hard. She has an awful lot in this piece of legislation, the way it’s been designed as far as the reduction of Medicare — letting Medicare go ahead and negotiate for lower drug prices,” Manchin said.
“She’s very involved in that and I appreciate that,” he told Karl. “Also, basically, when she said … ‘we’re not going to raise taxes,’ I agree with that.” (Sinema has not yet weighed in on the proposal.)
Karl pressed Manchin on his assessment that the Senate legislation would help lower inflation, noting that a budget model from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania showed the bill would initially — slightly — add to inflation.
“I understand the difference of opinion,” Manchin said. “We’re basically investing in reliable energy, making sure that we use our fossil fuels cleaner than anyplace else in the world. But we’re basically aggressively producing more energy to reduce the prices of gasoline and energy costs at your house and everywhere else. And basically, we’ve invested in new technologies to bring more manufacturing back, such as batteries … So all of this, they’re not factoring any of that in.”
Manchin, one of the Democratic Party’s most conservative lawmakers, has previously declined to answer questions over his potential support for Biden in 2024.
Karl asked for clarity on Manchin’s view, noting it was a “simple question.”
Manchin said he wasn’t “getting involved that.”
“Everybody’s worried about the election. That’s the problem. It’s the 2022 election, 2024 election. I’m not getting involved in that,” Manchin said, adding, “I’m not getting into the 2022 or 2024. Whoever is the president, that’s my president. Joe Biden is my president right now.”
“You can’t even rule out voting for a Republican for president?” Karl asked
“I’m not getting into the 2024 election,” Manchin responded.
His comments come amid continued speculation over whether Biden will run for reelection in two years given political challenges such as stubbornly high inflation, which helped push his approval rating down into the 30s, according to FiveThirtyEight. Democratic voters have said in some recent polls they want another 2024 nominee; Biden says he intends to run if he’s healthy.
Manchin did credit Biden with helping bless the deficit-reduction bill he negotiated with Schumer, D-N.Y.
Manchin also defended working on the bill in secret with Schumer after earlier negotiations faltered several times, with Manchin citing his concerns about the historic inflation.
“I understand all the frustration, and the reason for that, I don’t want them to go through that again. I didn’t know if we could get a deal. I did not know if we can come to an agreement. So why would I put people through this, all this drama? I’ve been through this for eight months. I tried. I kept trying,” Manchin said of the bill, which would pass through the budget reconciliation process requiring only 50 votes in the Senate.
Manchin rebuffed Republican senators who said they felt deceived by the surprise announcement last week that legislative text had been agreed to between Schumer and Manchin, maintaining he had consistently sought to find a deal with the rest of the Democratic caucus.
“They all knew where I was on that,” Manchin said.
