Nicky Youre‘s summer hit “Sunroof,” which he wrote in 2021 while he was still in college, has made him a star. But he says if things had gone differently, he would’ve ended up giving up on music altogether before he ever came up with that song.
“In college is when I almost quit music,” he tells ABC Audio. ” I was making a ton in high school with my buddy who introduced me to the whole process and I was enjoying college a lot and I was enjoying making music. But he lived an hour away and I didn’t have any friends that made music in college, so I slowed down a lot.”
He did come up with one song that got a lot of attention online — it was called “Sex and Lemonade” — but he didn’t think he could follow it up.
“[It was] the first pop song that I ever made and I knew right then that I wanted to make more of that stuff,” recalls Nicky. “But I didn’t really have any producers [to help me] that were making pop. So I was like, ‘I’ll just be a one-hit wonder…[with] with my one song,’ ’cause it was doing well. And I was like, ‘I’ll just be done with music.'”
But then, he got some unexpected encouragement.
“Luckily, my manager reached out to me and was like, ‘Dude, you gotta keep going. You’ve got too much cool stuff to, like, not at least give it a try when you’re young,'” says Nicky. “So I’m super-grateful for him and I’m glad I kept going with it.”
It’s a good thing he did. He says last spring, “I was feeling bad one night at my college house and wanted to make something that was going to make me feel good. And ‘Sunroof’ was born.”
For Machine Gun Kelly, this is what dreams are made of.
The “Bloody Valentine” rocker has shared a statement reflecting on his sold-out, headlining concert at the FirstEnergy Stadium in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. The show, which took place Saturday, marked the final date on MGK’s U.S. tour in support of his latest album, Mainstream Sellout.
“I typed out and erased how I’m feeling 20 times but I’ll never be able to put it in words so I won’t even try,” Kelly writes. “Just know I’m still smiling ear to ear and wiping tears.”
To add to the excitement of the concert, Cleveland declared August 13 to be Machine Gun Kelly Day.
“Sold out stadium show in my hometown (on MGK Day) to end a legendary tour,” Kelly muses. “It’s a fairy tale.”
Kelly also retweeted a post from Travis Barker congratulating him on his successful homecoming.
“Brother I’m so proud of you,” Barker writes. “A…sold out stadium in your hometown!!!! It doesn’t get any better.”
The Blink-182 drummer, who worked with MGK on Mainstream Sellout and 2020’s Tickets to My Downfall, adds, “I’m so proud of the albums we made and watching thousands of kids sing the songs we’ve written together.”
Machine Gun Kelly will return to the road for a European tour launching in September.
One of the main features of the video is the river where Sam and his friends are fishing and partying. Turns out, it’s a secret spot that the singer frequents. Sam found the fishing hole in Middle Tennessee a few years ago and it’s become his favorite spot for catching smallmouth bass.
“Middle Tennessee has some really good smallmouth water, and that’s a cool little place I found several years ago,” he describes. “I have a canoe that I’ll strap onto the top of the Jeep or truck and take over there and float that little stretch and sometimes catch fish, sometimes not. But it’s so pretty over there, it’s worth taking the trip in the summer or early fall.”
“Water Under the Bridge” is the second single off the Georgia native’s upcoming album. It follows the #1 hit “23,” marking his ninth single to achieve the feat.
Julian Lennon, the elder of John Lennon‘s two sons, says watching his late father in the acclaimed Disney+ docuseries The Beatles: Get Back made him feel close to his dad, who was murdered in December 1980 at age 40.
Julian, who was the only child John had with his first wife, Cynthia, didn’t see his father very often after the famous Beatles co-founder left Cynthia for second wife Yoko Ono in 1968.
Julian tells ABC Audio that when he first watched an abbreviated version of Get Back at a screening in Los Angeles last year, it helped to remind him of the positive aspects of his father that he experienced when John was still regularly part of his life.
“[W]hat I was seeing was Dad how I knew Dad before we separated, before … he went off,” Julian notes. “So, that just brought back all the warm, funny, great, loving memories that I have up until the age of around 5 … I mean, obviously, I saw him a few times later in life, as a teenager, but that was him … before everything changed. … I just remember that warmth, the comedy, the cheekiness.”
The 59-year-old singer/songwriter says the docuseries also helped demonstrate what “phenomenal players” The Beatles were. He marveled at watching how they were able to create a set of great originals songs so quickly leading up to their famous rooftop performance.
“I mean, you were sitting in the theater going, ‘How can they do this?'” Julian says. “And yet, they were ultimate professionals in every way, shape or form. And … that again reminded us of why they … were so successful, because they were just, they were really on it.”
Julian is preparing to release his seventh studio album, Jude, on September 9.
Gabby and Rachel’s journeys to find love continued amid the charming canals and tulip fields of Amsterdam on Monday’s episode of The Bachelorette, but with hometowns right around the corner, Gabby faced her toughest breakup yet.
Ahead of her one-on-one date with Nate, who has a daughter, Gabby, came to the conclusion that the complicated relationship she had with her estranged mother, made it impossible for Gabby to take on the responsibility of being a mother herself. That left her with no other choice but to send Nate home, leading to one of the most emotional breakups of the season.
“I take the potential of being a mom so seriously because of my past and at…times childhood was hard and parenting didn’t look like it does in other people and I’m terrified of maybe putting someone else in my position or maybe making the wrong decision,” the former Denver Broncos cheerleader shared in a confessional. “I have to weigh these options seriously,”
The news left Nate, who had a previous one-on-one with Gabby and seemed to be a frontrunner in the competition, with “a bit of heartbreak” and “confusion.”
“She’s going to be a hard connection that I don’t think I’ll be able to replicate,” he added, addressing the camera before boarding the car that would take him home.
Later, on a group date in Amsterdam’s Red Light District, Gabby’s men displayed their kinky side, while Rachel’s group proved their love with a cheese weightlifting competition. Rachel’s rose went to Tyler, while Gabby’s afterparty was canceled after Logan tested positive for COVID-19, eliminating him from the rest of the competition as well.
Earlier, a one-on-one date between Rachel and Tino ended with him getting a rose.
Monday’s rose ceremony saw Ethan and Spencer eliminated from Rachel and Gabby’s respective groups.
Here are the men whose families Gabby and Rachel will meet:
Rachel:
Aven, 28, a sales executive from San Diego, California
Tino, 28, a general contractor from Playa Del Rey, California
Tyler, 25, a small business owner from Wildwood, New Jersey
Zach, 25, a tech executive from Anaheim Hills, California
Gabby:
Erich, 29, a real estate analyst from Bedminster, New Jersey
Jason, 30, an investment banker from Santa Monica, California
Johnny, 25, a realtor from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
Nate, 33, an electrical engineer from Chicago, Illinois
The Bachelorette returns Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Cleveland 4, Detroit 1
Detroit 7, Cleveland 5
Tampa Bay 4, NY Yankees 0
Baltimore 7, Toronto 3
Minnesota 4, Kansas City 2
Chi White Sox 4, Houston 2
Final Texas 2 Oakland 1
Seattle 6, LA Angels 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Philadelphia 4, Cincinnati 3
Miami 3, San Diego 0
Washington 5, Chi Cubs 4
Atlanta 13, NY Mets 1
LA Dodgers 4, Milwaukee 0
San Francisco 6, Arizona 1
(NEW YORK) — Millions of Americans are at risk of experiencing an “extreme heat belt” that would affect parts of the Midwest over the next three decades, according to a new report from the nonprofit research group First Street Foundation.
By 2053, 1,023 counties, an area home to more than 107 million Americans and covers a quarter of U.S. land, are expected to see the heat index, or the feels-like temperature, surpass 125 degrees Fahrenheit at least one day a year, according to the report, which was released Monday.
According to the First Street Foundation’s study, those high temperatures, considered extremely dangerous by the National Weather Service, are expected to affect 8 million Americans this year and increase 13 times over 30 years.
The “extreme heat belt” extends from Texas’ northern border and Louisiana north through Iowa, Indiana and Illinois, the report shows.
Other parts of the country are expected to see hotter temperatures, harming people living in areas not used to excessive heat, the report found.
“This reality suggests that a 10% temperature increase in Maine can be as dangerous as a 10% increase in Texas, even as the absolute temperature increase in Texas is much higher,” researchers wrote in the report.
The researchers cited the changing condition in the environment that’s leading to higher temperatures and more humid conditions.
“When everyone thinks of this extreme summer we [are having], this is probably one of the best summers over the next 30 years,” Matthew Eby, founder and CEO of the First Street Foundation, told ABC News. “It’s going to get much worse.”
Extreme temperatures can cause health issues, from fatigue to life-threatening problems such as heat strokes.
Scientists have said that prolonged heat waves result from climate change, particularly in different countries at the same time, as was the case last month in parts of the continental U.S. and Europe.
Jason Smerdon, a climate scientist for the Columbia Climate School’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, told ABC News last month that extreme heat is a “basic consequence of climate change.”
“While each heat wave itself is different and has individual dynamics behind it, the probability of these events is a direct consequence of the warming planet,” Smerdon said.
The First Street Foundation is a Brooklyn, New York-based nonprofit research and technology group that quantifies climate risks.
ABC News’ Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A child in Martin County, Florida, has tested positive for monkeypox, state health data shows.
Across the U.S., at least seven children have now tested positive for monkeypox. The child in Florida is between the ages of 0 and 4 years old, according to the state health data.
The additional pediatric case comes after health officials in Maine announced Friday that they, too, had confirmed a positive monkeypox case in a child.
In Maine, no further information about the case has been released due to concerns over patient privacy, officials said.
“Maine CDC [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] is working to identify any others who may have been exposed and make vaccination available to close contacts,” officials wrote in a press release.
In addition to the cases in children reported in Maine and Florida, two cases have been confirmed in California, as well another two in Indiana, and a case in a non-U.S. resident reported in Washington, D.C.
The majority of cases in the current monkeypox outbreak have been detected in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. However, health officials have repeatedly stressed that anyone can contract the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously warned that there has been some preliminary evidence to suggest that children younger than 8 years old are at risk of developing more severe illness if infected, alongside pregnant people and those who are immunocompromised.
However, last week, in an effort to protect the youngest Americans, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization that allows health care for children under 18 who are at high risk of monkeypox to be vaccinated.
MORE: 6th child tests positive for monkeypox in US: What parents should know
Across the globe, nearly 32,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported, including more than 11,000 cases in the U.S. — the most of any country, according to the CDC. All but one U.S. state — Wyoming — have now confirmed at least one positive monkeypox case.
Monkeypox primarily spreads through prolonged skin-to-skin contact with infected people’s lesions or bodily fluids, according to the CDC. In addition to lesions, which can appear like pimples or blisters, the most common symptoms associated with monkeypox are swollen lymph nodes, fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches.
(WASHINGTON) — Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney has gone from House GOP leadership to party gadfly in the span of just over 18 months as she stands out as the loudest Republican critic of former President Donald Trump — which could cost her her job in Tuesday’s primary
After first winning election in 2016, Cheney quickly rose through the ranks to become the No. 3 House Republican, with rumored aspirations toward the speakership. She was also one of Trump’s most reliable votes in Congress, backing him on nearly every issue, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Yet her continued, impassioned rebukes of Trump and his allies over last year’s insurrection brought an even swifter political downfall — one that saw her booted from her leadership perch and her state party, an increasingly isolated apostate in a party still led by Trump.
“She could have cruised to another term if she had just kept her head in the sand like everybody else did,” Mark Christensen, a former Campbell County commissioner and Cheney ally, told ABC News. “But she’s not really the person who does that. She’s not really that person who shies away from a fight.”
Cheney began her House career boasting a legendary last name in Republican politics and sterling conservative credentials.
After an earlier false start as a candidate — seeking a Wyoming Senate seat in the 2014 cycle — she won Wyoming’s only House seat in 2016, the same year Trump won the White House.
While she did note during her campaign that she and Trump differed on foreign policy, she focused much of her bid on domestic issues, lambasting former President Barack Obama and even hinting that she was open to joining the hardline House Freedom Caucus, which today is filled with some of her most vocal detractors.
“Wyoming needs a strong voice in Congress to lead the effort to undo the devastating policies of the last seven and a half years and restore our freedom. I will be that voice,” Cheney said after winning her primary that year. “I will be that leader.”
Two years later, after winning only her second House term, she was elected by Republican members to be their conference chair, making her the third-highest ranking GOP lawmaker in the chamber.
While campaigning for the leadership spot, she pushed for the implementation of an aggressive messaging platform for the party.
“We need to be able to drive our message across all platforms,” she said at the time. “We need to own the daily news cycles. We need to lead and win the messaging wars. Too often we have found ourselves playing catch up without access to useful information, and we have not been on offense. Constantly playing defense in the battle of communications is a recipe for failure. We need to work as a team to use all our messaging tools to drive our agenda.”
Her rapid rise fueled whispers she had her eye on the speakership one day. That chatter only grew when she decided to stay in the House in 2020 rather than run for an open Senate seat, which many considered to be hers for the taking.
During her first two terms in Congress, Cheney built a staunchly conservative record, voting with Trump nearly 93% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight’s analysis. And while disagreements with the then-president flared over foreign policy, Cheney did not stand out as a major roadblock to his messaging or domestic agenda.
On top of that, her allies in Wyoming recall having someone in the House who would keep a strong eye on local issues.
“With Liz, we actually would have in-depth policy discussions and then we would discuss together what our approach was going to be for, say, approaching Interior on a policy or something with Department of Energy or something else. And then not only that, she would actually do the follow up herself and then we hear back from her again, too. And I never got that from any other elected official,” said Christensen, the former county commissioner.
Yet last year’s Capitol attack marked an inflection point for Cheney, who made underscoring Trump’s role with the mob a focal point of her work — transforming her political fortunes nearly overnight.
She quickly and repeatedly denounced Trump and, when she was still the conference chair, became the highest-ranking Republican to vote for his impeachment. She later agreed to serve as the vice chair of the select House committee investigating the riot and the former president’s unfounded election fraud claims, lending it a sheen of bipartisanship.
While Cheney has traveled to Wyoming for smaller campaign events, the highly publicized work of the Jan. 6 panel swamped her travels — landing her in hot water both in Washington, where House Republicans were angered at her focus on Trump (who insists he did nothing wrong), and in Wyoming, a state he won with 70% of the vote in 2020.
“After she jumped in on the Jan. 6 thing, and she jumped in on the impeachment … she was nowhere to be found. She wasn’t meeting with the people. She doesn’t care about us,” local voter Myrna Burgess told ABC News.
Cheney’s political peril was put into stark relief when Trump endorsed Harriet Hageman in September and made ousting Cheney a top priority as part of his ongoing campaign of retribution against GOP lawmakers who turned against him.
“Unlike RINO [Republican in name only] Liz Cheney, Harriet is all in for America First. Harriet has my Complete and Total Endorsement in replacing the Democrats number one provider of sound bites, Liz Cheney. Make America Great Again!” Trump said in a statement at the time.
Cheney allies insist she’s still the right person for the job, casting her reelection bid as a broader fight for the direction of the GOP.
“This is bigger than one person’s presidency. This is our Constitution. This is our history. This is what we’re going to be remembered for. And that’s exactly what Liz is remembering,” Republican state Rep. Landon Brown told ABC News. “And there’s a lot of people in my district alone, but as well as other people out there, that they feel the exact same way.”
Cheney has focused her campaign messaging around that theme, shedding the Republican red meat that characterizes other House campaigns and adopting a more forward-looking lens.
“Here’s my pledge to you: I will work every day to ensure that our exceptional nation long endures. My children and your children must grow up in an America where we have honorable and peaceful transitions of power. Not violent confrontations, intimidation and thuggery. Where we are governed by laws and not by men. Where we are led by people who love this country more than themselves,” Cheney said in her closing ad.
Yet in a sign of her increasingly rough chances in a state where voters can change their registration the day of the primary, her campaign has been advertising how non-Republicans can back her.
Jim King, a political science professor at the University of Wyoming, put it bluntly: “There aren’t enough Democrats.”
As FiveThirtyEight has noted, public polling in the race has been sparse but favors Hageman. Speculation has already begun over where Cheney’s future ambitions lie beyond the House, including among her supporters, some of whom maintain that the possibility of defeat is really just a hidden victory.
“This race is the first battle in a much larger and longer war that Liz is going to win, because the future of the country depends on it,” said one ally. “And, regardless of what the results in this election turn out to be, she is going to lead a broad coalition going forward of Americans across the political spectrum who will stand up for freedom and restore the foundational principles that Donald Trump continues to dangerously undermine.”
Cheney has been rumored as a potential 2024 presidential candidate who could run as an anti-Trump Republican. And while she insists she’s focused on her reelection, she hasn’t ruled out a future White House run.
“I don’t know if she’d want to stay in politics. She could probably go to Virginia and may get back in, but I don’t know if she would get the Republicans support if she came back. I don’t know what she’d do,” said Natrona County Commissioner Paul Bertoglio. “I feel almost gut-punched because I really like her. And I am sorry that she’s most likely going to lose. And that’s self-inflicted.”
(NEW YORK) — As children are heading back to school this month, Kraft Heinz announced a recall on Friday of more than 5,000 cases of Capri Sun due to a possible contamination.
This voluntary recall comes after the company announced the potential contamination affecting approximately 5,760 Capri Sun cases (each case contains about 10 pouches) of its wild cherry flavor. The company said a diluted cleaning solution was inadvertently introduced into a production line at one of its factories.
The “Best When Used By” date on the products is June 25, 2023, according to the company. No other Capri Sun flavors were listed in the recall.
“The issue was discovered after we received several consumer complaints about the taste of the affected product,” Kraft Heinz said in a statement on Friday. “The Company is actively working with retail partners and distributors to remove potentially impacted product from circulation.”
Those who believe they might have the product are advised not to consume it and return the product where it was purchased.
Click here to view the company’s full description of the affected product.
“Consumers can contact Kraft Heinz from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday, at 1-800-280-8252 to see if a product is part of the recall and to receive reimbursement,” Kraft Heinz said in a statement.
