Fans already know that Gwen Stefani’s going all-out on her garden this year — both on social media and in interviews, the pop superstar’s been gushing about her outdoor plans for the Oklahoma ranch where she lives with her country star husband, Blake Shelton.
But all that hard work isn’t a solo project: Blake’s busy helping Gwen make those gardening dreams a reality, he tells People.
“Gwen is absolutely into it. It’s flower planting time,” the singer says. “And Gwen doesn’t settle for those little areas around the sidewalk. We’re talking about fields, acres of flowers. So I have my work cut out for me.”
But it’s a labor of love for the couple, who are still smitten as ever as they approach their one-year wedding anniversary next month.
“I wish everybody could have a chance to meet and talk to Gwen Stefani at some point in their life because you’ll just be a better person for it, is the only way I know to say it,” Blake continues. “She’s just a magical person to be around.”
Blake and Gwen tied the knot on July 3, 2021 after dating for several years. They first met as coaches on the set of NBC’s The Voice.
That Latino superhero comedy Ultra Violet & Black Scorpionarrives Friday on Disney Channel and fans can expect to see some intense stunts.
Scarlett Estevez stars as Violet Rodriguez, a new hero who goes by the moniker Ultra Violet. She tells ABC Audio, “We were training a lot!”
Adds J.R. Villarreal, who plays Black Scorpion, “It was so fun. They definitely trained us enough to make us feel like we could really be superheroes.”
The show follows Violet, who is chosen by a magical luchador mask that transforms her into Ultra Violet. She sets out on a quest to become a famous hero and seeks the vigilante Black Scorpion to train her. She soon learns Black Scorpion is none other than her uncle Cruz de la Vega.
Aside from fighting crime, the two said an important pillar of their series is family. Estevez adds the theme makes the series “really special and really amazing.” She notes, “Besides comedy and action, there’s lots of love and lots of family … It grounds the show and it brings it to this real aspect where people can really relate to it on a different level.”
Villarreal agrees the relationships their characters form with their family, their friends and their culture is “the heart of the show,” which he believes “is what’s really going to surprise people.”
So, what would they do if a magical luchador mask chose them to be the next superpowered crime fighters? Estevez says, “I think I would be a little freaked out and leave [the mask] in the corner for a little bit.”
“I might … just go full method and just use the superhuman strength,” Villarreal jokes, adding he’d probably join the NFL or become a luchador.
Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion premieres June 3 on Disney Channel.
Triumph’s Mike Levine, Rik Emmett and Gil Moore in 2019; George Pimentel/Getty Images
Mike Levine, bassist for the Canadian power trio Triumph, says a tribute album celebrating his band’s music is being overseen by producer Mike Clink, best known for his work on most of Guns N’ Roses‘ albums.
Levine tells ABC Audio that Clink, who also produced Triumph’s 1986 album Sport of Kings, is working on the project in Los Angeles, and that it’s “close to being finished.”
“[The album] got delayed like everything else during COVID because nobody wanted to go to the studio, but everybody seems to want to play again,” Mike notes. “So he’s getting near the finish line with it. So we’re hoping to see that early next year.”
Levine reveals that among the guest artists who have contributed to the record are Starship singer Mickey Thomas and ex-Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach.
Levine says he thinks Thomas “is one of the greatest singers in rock ‘n’ roll,” while Bach is a huge Triumph fan who discussed his love of the band in the 2021 documentary Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine. Bach also briefly toured with Triumph in 1993 just before the band broke up that year.
Mike says with a laugh that Sebastian “wanted to sing every song, and we [told him], ‘No, you can’t do that.'”
Levine reports that a number of “top-draw players” also have contributed to the album, including longtime John Fogerty touring drummer Kenny Aronoff and Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X. Phil played with Triumph in 1992 and ’93 after founding singer/guitarist Rik Emmett left the band.
Triumph hasn’t played together since a surprise reunion at a special 2019 fan event, as documented in Rock & Roll Machine, although the trio of Levine, Emmett and singer/drummer Gil Moore have participated in a number of events promoting the film.
Strip culture is oftentimes viewed as taboo in America, and while some of the entertainment industry’s most celebrated celebrities — like Cardi B, NeNe Leakes and Lady Gaga — trace their beginnings to a strip club, exotic dancing is frowned upon by many. Katori Hall, creator of the hit strip-based series P-Valley, says she didn’t think twice about showcasing strip culture on the big screen.
Ahead of the season 2 premiere on June 3, Hall spoke to ABC Audio about her “humanizing project” that’s been in the works for over a decade. “I never had any reservations,” she said. “I think because I knew that these women were just like me, were just like you. They have struggles, they have dreams.”
Hall said the history of hypersexualization of Black women cemented her desire to create an in-depth story and put forth a “nuanced portrayal of why women go into sex work.”
“These women are doing a type of work that, yes, a lot of people denigrate, but it is work,” she said. “I just really wanted people to understand that there’s a world that has created the reason as to why a lot of women step into this lane.”
Hall said she’s never felt pressure working on the record-breaking Starz show, instead she feels blessed to produce groundbreaking work.
The cast members — Brandee Evans, Nicco Annan, Parker Sawyers, Elarica Johnson, J. Alphonse Nicholson and Shannon Thornton — who, like Hall, have waited almost two years for the return, say they’re excited for fans, aka the “Pynk Posse,” to finally get what they’ve been asking for.
As for what to expect on season 2 of P-Valley, debuting on Starz at 9 p.m., Hall says, “You better get your glue ‘cus these edges about to get snatched baby!”
Taylor Swift’s not touring, but you want to dance and scream along to her songs at the top of your lungs with all your friends. What to do? Hit up the Taylor Party, a traveling Taylor Swift-themed dance party that’s probably coming to a city near you this summer.
At the Taylor Party, fans dress up as Taylor, take photos in front of a giant Taylor Swift red carpet-type setup and dance and sing as a DJ plays her music and a giant screen shows clips from her videos. There are also Taylor-themed balloons that say, “We’re too busy dancin.'”
As Vox reports, the Taylor Party was started by nightlife producers Brian Howe, Josh Bakaitus and Steve Soboslai in December of 2021. Howe and Bakaitus were trying to come up with a concept for a themed party, and it just so happened that Bakaitus had been listening to Taylor a lot. As Howe tells Vox, “He wanted a place where he could hang out and listen to the songs.”
Tickets for the first event sold out, so they planned a second one. More than 50 Taylor parties have been held so far.
“An interesting comparison would be to a Comic Con or a Star Wars convention,” Howe tells Vox. “A bunch of people in a room that love one thing, and want to be around other like-minded people without the pressures of the outside world for a limited amount of time.”
According to Vox, the most-requested song at the Taylor Party is — of course — the 10-minute version of “All Too Well.”
This weekend the party visits Austin, TX and Atlantic City, NJ. For upcoming shows and tickets, visit TaylorSwiftNight.com. By the way, it isn’t affiliated with, endorsed by, authorized by, sponsored by, or in any way officially connected with Taylor Swift.
The White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather rocker will be dropping a fresh solo tune called “If I Die Tomorrow” next Wednesday, June 8. The track is available to presave now.
“If I Die Tomorrow” will appear on White’s upcoming album Entering Heaven Alive, the second of two solo records he’s releasing this year, following April’s Fear of the Dawn.
Notably, White sings the phrase “If I die tomorrow” on the Fear of the Dawn single “What’s the Trick?” But judging by a preview of the tune, “If I Die Tomorrow” will be much different sounding song.
Entering Heaven Alive arrives July 22. It includes the previously released songs “Love Is Selfish” and “Queen of the Bees,” as well as an acoustic version of the lead Fear of the Dawn single “Taking Me Back,” dubbed “Taking Me Back (Gently).”
White is currently supporting both albums on his Supply Chain Issues tour, which continues Friday in Reno, Nevada.
British New Wave veterans The Fixx released their first new studio album in a decade, Every Five Seconds, today.
The album features 10 new original songs from the band. Commenting on the themes of the record, Fixx frontman Cy Curninsays, “Life can either be a series of broken obsessive thoughts or it can be a wonderful mosaic of moments. Every Five Seconds reflects this human paradox. The constant struggle between bewilderment and betterment.”
Four tracks from Every Five Seconds were released in advance of the album — “Wake Up,” “Closer,” “Woman of Flesh and Blood” and “Take What You Want.” In addition, an animated music video for the latter tune, featuring enigmatic images of disembodied hands, debuted in April on The Fixx’s official YouTube channel.
The band will support Every Five Seconds with a U.S. tour that gets underway on June 10 in Las Vegas and runs through a June 30 performance at Milwaukee’s Summerfest.
The Fixx scored a string of hits during the 1980s that included four songs that reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 — “Saved by Zero,” “One Thing Leads to Another,” “Are We Ourselves?” and “Secret Separation.”
The group’s most recent previous album, Beautiful Friction, was released in 2012.
Here’s the full track list of Every Five Seconds:
“A Life Survived”
“Closer”
“Take What You Want”
“Wake Up”
“Suspended in Make Believe”
“Lonely as a Lighthouse”
“Cold”
“Spell”
“Woman of Flesh and Blood”
“Neverending”
Twenty years ago Saturday — June 4, 2002 — 17-year-old Avril Lavigne released her debut album, Let Go. The pop/punk album helped popularize the genre and went on to become one of the best sellers of the decade, moving more than 16 million copies worldwide.
Let Go spun off four massive hits: “Complicated,” “Sk8er Boi,” “I’m With You” and “Losing Grip.” The album and its singles collectively earned Avril eight Grammy nominations, four Juno Awards and the MTV VMA Best New Artist Moonman.
Looking back, does Avril think Let Go still holds up?
“Oh, I definitely think my vocals are way stronger now, that’s for sure!” Avril tells ABC Audio. “But … yeah, the songs are cool. I like them. A couple are … I don’t know. My voice has, like, evolved for sure.”
Avril points out one cringeworthy songwriting moment in “My World,” a song about growing up in Napanee, Ontario.
In the song, Avril sings, “Made my money by cutting grass/Got fired by a fried chicken a**/All in a small town, Napanee.” She laughs, “I think it’s hilarious in ‘My World’ that I literally say the town’s name that I came from and my job and that I got fired.”
“I worked at a fried chicken chain and got fired, but I was a really good worker … the guy was a d*****bag,” Avril continues, still laughing. “I literally got fired and then wrote about it and put it in this song … I think that’s hilarious. And part of me is like, ‘Why did I do that?’ But the other part of me is like, ‘Hmm, that’s pretty cool that you did that!'”
You’ll hear all of Let Go‘s hits on Avril’s current Love Sux tour, which wrapped its Canadian leg Thursday night in Halifax.
Chris Young returns with the deluxe version of his Famous Friends album today. In keeping with the original theme of collaboration, he’s adding three more duets to the track list.
One of those is a revamped version of “Think of You,” Chris’ duet with Cassadee Pope, which topped the country charts in 2016. He’s also including two new team ups: one with Jimmie Allen and one with Old Dominion.
Both those duets happened naturally, Chris says. The Jimmie collab, “Music Note,” was a long time coming from two musical pals who both love collaboration.
“Jimmie Allen had been yelling at me because we hadn’t done a song together, and I’m like, ‘Dude, you didn’t ask, so I didn’t know you wanted to do one,’” Chris recounts. “And I just sent him ‘Music Note’ when we wrote that song. I was like, ‘Hey, this could be cool for the two of us,’ and he was down for it.”
As for the Old Dominion duet, “Everybody Needs a Song,” Chris says that was a no-brainer, too, because he wrote the song with one of the band members.
“That one was a co-write between me, [songwriter] Chris DeStefano and Brad [Tursi],” the singer explains. “So Brad just went and asked everybody. So both of them, all three of them if you want to count the third one [with Cassadee Pope], were all pretty organic.”
The new duets join the three collaborations on the original track list, including duets with Mitchell Tenpenny, Lauren Alaina and the smash hit title track with Kane Brown.
The deluxe version of Famous Friends also includes two new solo tracks and an acoustic version of Chris’ 2015 hit “I’m Comin’ Over.”
(WASHINGTON) — As mass shootings continue to rock the nation, President Joe Biden delivered prime-time remarks on guns Thursday evening from the White House, imploring the nation to “For God’s sake, do something.”
“This time we must actually do something,” he said, calling for a ban on assault weapons.
“We need to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. And if we can’t ban assault weapons, then we should raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21, strengthen background checks, enact safe storage law, and red flag laws. Repeal the immunity that protects gun manufacturers from liability, address the mental health crisis,” he said in an impassioned address.
The latest mass shooting on Wednesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, leaving four dead, follows a massacre of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, as well as an apparently racially-motivated attack at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, leaving 10 Black people dead.
“We spent hours with hundreds of family members who were broken, whose lives will never be the same,” Biden said. “They had one message for all of us. Do something. Just do something … After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Charleston, after Orlando, after Las Vegas, after Parkland, nothing has been done. This time that can’t be true.”
Biden taking the national spotlight on Thursday evening comes amid questions over why he has not yet lobbied lawmakers personally and more forcefully as they aim to find a compromise on gun control legislation.
Biden told reporters earlier this week he “will meet with the Congress on guns — I promise you,” but did not provide details on when such a meeting might take place. On Thursday, he once again made the case for legislative action.
“This isn’t about taking anyone’s rights. It’s about protecting children, ” he said. “It’s about protecting families, it’s about protecting whole communities, it’s about protecting our freedoms to go to school, to a grocery store to a church without being shot and killed. According to new data just released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention guns are the number one killer of children in the United States of America. The number one killer. More than car accidents, more than cancer. Over the last two decades, more school-aged children have died from guns than on-duty police officers and active-duty military combined.”
“Think about that,” he said, adding, “How much more carnage are we willing to accept? How many more innocent American lives must be taken before we say enough, enough?”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back Thursday against the notion that Biden hasn’t been involved in negotiations, arguing he’s been involved since taking office and repeating a sentiment from earlier this week that he “wants to give it some space” as the talks continue.
Biden’s making the speech Thursday, Jean-Pierre said, because he wants to make sure “that his voice is still out there and that the American people know that he’s fighting for them.”
Jean-Pierre also said the president is “encouraged” by what he’s seeing on Capitol Hill, even though Biden himself cast doubt that legislation will be passed, telling reporters he’s “not confident” as he recounted his first-hand experience in the Senate.
While serving as then-President Barack Obama’s vice president, Biden was tasked in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting to lead the administration’s effort to enact tougher gun control laws — but in the nearly decade since the nation mourned for Newtown, no action on gun control has passed at a federal level.
The last meaningful gun reform legislation passed on Capitol Hill was the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004 due to a “sunset” clause in the legislation. Similar legislation has failed for decades in the Senate due in large part to the filibuster rule, which requires 60 senators for a measure to advance toward a final vote. Though Democrats hold a razor-thin majority in Congress, they cannot push legislation through the Senate without the support of at least 10 Republicans.
The American public is widely supportive of universal background checks, which have already passed through the House’s Democratic majority. An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted in September 2019 found 89% support for universal background checks, including at least eight in 10 Republicans and conservatives.
Ahead of Biden’s speech, Vice President Kamala Harris offered brief remarks Thursday afternoon on the mass shooting in Tulsa and urged Congress to pass gun safety laws.
“No more excuses,” Harris said. “Thoughts and prayers are important, but not enough. We need Congress to act.”
As Biden prepared for his speech on Thursday, funerals were underway in Uvalde, where he visited families of victims.
He claimed earlier this week to have visited more aftermaths of mass shootings than any other American president.
In impassioned remarks from the White House last week after the Uvalde shooting, Biden expressed outrage at lawmakers who are blocking “common-sense” gun laws and rejected the argument often heard from Republicans that gun violence is a mental health issue.
“These kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency they happen in America. Why? Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” Biden said with outrage. “Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with and stand up to the lobbies?”
