In preparation for Top Gun: Maverick,Kenny Loggins told Entertainment Weekly that he recorded a new version of “Danger Zone,” his hit from the original 1986 movie, using modern technology. Ultimately, Tom Cruise rejected it in favor of the original “Danger Zone” — but Kenny tells ABC Audio he’s O.K. with that.
“Tom loved the original version and he wanted to use the original version of ‘Danger Zone,’ because then he could open the movie with the same kind of aircraft carrier scenes, of the planes coming and going,” Kenny explains. “And the ‘Danger Zone’ theme sets the tone, so that people who saw the original just go right back to that vibe of what that was. And…so, as a piece of nostalgia, it sets everything up for what’s coming.”
Kenny says he’s just happy that Cruise feels the song is integral to both films.
“That’s what Tom said, yeah,” he tells ABC Audio. “When I asked him a few years ago, when they were first starting on the screenplay, ‘Is ‘Danger Zone’ going to be a part of the movie?’…he said, ‘It’s not Top Gun without “Danger Zone.”‘” And I really appreciated the fact that he felt that way!”
In addition to the Top Gun nostalgia, Loggins’ memoir is out June 17 and he’s doing his first concerts since 2019. He spoke with ABC Audio at the National Association of Music Merchants convention in L.A., where he was presented with the organization’s prestigious Music for Life award. Past winners have included Stevie Wonder, Jason Mraz and Graham Nash, among others.
“I found out a few weeks ago that this was gonna be a part of my reality…I really appreciate it, though, it’s quite an honor,” says Kenny, adding, “The cast of characters from previous years is pretty high up there!”
Motionless in White‘s new album, Scoring the End of the World, makes its intentions known in its title.
Speaking with ABC Audio, frontman Chris “Motionless” Cerulli shares that the record is “primarily a product of the pandemic,” and tackles both the global and personal issues that came with it.
“While going through some really intense stuff personally, I’m watching the world go through chaos and just a complete meltdown,” Cerulli recalls.
“Everything seemed to just be ending all at once, everywhere,” he continues. “And that title [Scoring the End of the World] is meant to capture both internal and external Armageddon.”
Beyond being a reference to the album’s subject matter, the title Scoring the End of the World reflects its sonic direction, as well. Longtime Motionless fans will notice the length of the title, a clear departure from the punchy one- and two-word titles of the band’s past releases.
As Cerulli explains, he wanted the album’s title to mirror its “expansive” sound and vice versa.
“I knew that we were gonna go in a direction … that feels theatrical, cinematic, very thematic,” Cerulli shares. “In each song you’re building a world, you’re putting yourself in these scenarios based on the music, the sounds, the lyrics. I wanted each song to be putting the listener in that reality.”
He adds, “While I feel like there are one-word titles that could’ve done that, Scoring the End of the World feels like it’s this big, theatrical, grandiose representation of what you are hearing. It felt very marquee to me.”
Scoring the End of the World is out Friday. It includes the single “Masterpiece.”
A new biographical book about Creedence Clearwater Revival titled A Song for Everyone that charts the band’s history and the examines how its music reflected the cultural landscape of its time, will be published on August 9.
Described as “the definitive biography” of the group, the book follows the band — featuring brothers John and Tom Fogerty, Stu Cook and Doug Clifford — from its formation in El Cerrito, California, in 1959 as The Blue Velvets through its mid-1960s incarnation The Golliwogs and its rise to fame in the late ’60s after changing its name to Creedence Clearwater Revival to its 1972 breakup.
In just three years, from 1969 to 1972, CCR released nine singles that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, among them “Proud Mary,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Fortunate Son,” “Travelin’ Band,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.” Many of those songs are considered timeless classics that continue to be embraced by generations of music fans.
A Song for Everyone was penned by author John Lingan, who has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Pitchfork and The Oxford American. The book was put together utilizing extensive interviews with CCR members and associates of the group, unpublished memoirs from people who were close to the band, and in-depth research focusing the musical and social developments that occurred from 1959 to 1972.
You can pre-order A Song for Everyone now. Visit HachetteBooks.com for more information.
Jurassic World Dominion roars into theaters Friday. We’re told it’s the last film in the Jurassic World saga, and some familiar faces return.
Laura Dern, Sam Neil, and Jeff Goldblum reunite for the first time since the first Jurassic Park film almost 30 years ago and Dern tells ABC Audio it was emotional getting the gang back together.
“We have a very strong memory of Sam with his Dr. Alan Grant hat on and Jeff as Ian Malcolm with a black leather jacket and myself climbing into a jeep together,” she recalled. “The first day, the three of us were back together again, and we got in the jeep and we looked out the front view, which was the crew gathered around right before we started shooting, and we saw a bunch of crew members with tears in their eyes.”
Building upon the tradition started by Steven Spielberg, Dern notes that director Colin Trevorrow “made the choice of paying homage to the work of Steven in collaboration with Stan Winston from the first film” by using very little CGI.
“We had predominantly practical dinosaurs,” the actress says, adding that the choice is one she appreciated.
“Having a giganotosaurus in front of you, its full body coming after you is memorable on a whole other level. It’s a little more powerful than staring at an X on a piece of paper,” Dern states.
Speaking of dinosaurs, Dern reveals that things were a little scarier this time around.
“I run into some creatures that may be small but are definitely more disgusting and probably your worst nightmare,” she shares. “I would say Bryce Dallas Howard and I will, and Sam Neill, will never recover. So there are some new dinosaurs for sure that you will never forget.”
(TARRANT COUNTY, Texas) — An Arizona man sued American Airlines this week after, he claims, the carrier wrongfully identified him as a suspect in an airport burglary — leading to his arrest and what he called a harrowing 17-day stint in jail.
Michael Lowe filed his lawsuit on Monday in Tarrant County, Texas, after he says he was arrested last July for a crime he didn’t commit.
According to the lawsuit, a duty-free shop at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Tarrant County was burglarized in May 2020. Surveillance footage of the incident showed the culprit was a passenger of American flight 2248, and investigators obtained a search warrant ordering the airline to produce “any and all recorded travel data for all individuals” on that flight, the suit stated.
Instead, Lowe said, American only produced identification for one passenger — him.
“That was a hasty decision on behalf of American Airlines to offer up one suspect and one suspect only, and without that we wouldn’t be talking. This wouldn’t have happened,” Lowe’s attorney, Scott Palmer, told ABC News in a phone interview.
Palmer said his client looks nothing like the man suspected of committing the airport burglary.
“I am faulting American Airlines for outing one of their own passengers,” he said.
Lowe was arrested more than a year after the incident while he was in New Mexico — where he was held in jail for more than two weeks.
“The terror Mr. Lowe experienced while imprisoned in Quay County for the next 17 days was existential,” his lawsuit stated. He was made to sleep on the concrete floor and the jail did not have proper COVID-19 protocols, according to the complaint.
He was subsequently released with no explanation, his suit said.
“He shouldn’t have been in jail. He didn’t commit a crime,” Palmer said.
Lowe was subjected to a strip search while he was detained and was told very little information about why he was behind bars, according to his lawsuit.
“It could’ve been you or me,” Palmer said. “I’ve never seen a fact pattern like this.”
The suit further alleges that the Dallas-Fort Worth airport police detective who was handling the case initially expressed “disappointment” that Lowe was released and had missed a court appearance in Texas the same morning — because, according to the suit, the detective still mistakenly thought he was the suspect.
The detective eventually compared Lowe’s mug shot to the suspect surveillance photo from the burglary and realized it was not him, according to the suit.
Palmer told ABC News that, to his knowledge, the actual suspect has still not been caught.
Dallas-Fort Worth airport police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
American Airlines said it was “reviewing the lawsuit.”
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is in active discussions with former White House counsel Pat Cipollone regarding a potential public appearance in one of their upcoming hearings, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Cipollone and former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin previously met with committee investigators for an informal interview in April.
Cipollone was one of the few aides who was with then-President Donald Trump in the West Wing on Jan. 6. ABC News previously reported that in the days following the attack on the Capitol, he advised Trump that Trump could potentially face civil liability in connection with his role encouraging supporters to march on the Capitol.
According to sources, there are a number of circumstances that could serve to complicate any eventual appearance by Cipollone — including the issue of who questions him and for how long; whether there are any ongoing issues of privilege; and whether Trump would approve of his appearance.
Michael Purpura, the former deputy White House counsel who was part of the legal team defending Trump during his first Senate impeachment trial, is representing Cipollone in his discussions with committee investigators, sources said.
Cipollone has also made clear that his testimony would be restricted to the effort undertaken by former top Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark to use the powers of the DOJ to further Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, sources familiar with the deliberations said.
Representatives for Cipollone did not respond to ABC’s request for comment. A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment.
The committee hopes to secure Cipollone’s public testimony on a panel with former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and his then-deputy Richard Donoghue, along with one of DOJ’s former top attorneys, Steve Engel, sources said. Both Rosen and Donoghue have received formal invitations from the committee to appear.
Both Cipollone and Philbin were part of a Jan. 3 Oval Office meeting where Trump insisted on replacing Rosen with Clark, a Trump loyalist who had vowed to use the Department of Justice to investigate the election.
The officials in that meeting also debated a proposal by Clark to send a letter to state officials in Georgia urging officials in the state to investigate unfounded claims of fraud with an eye toward overturning President Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
According to Donoghue, Cipollone and Philbin made it clear to Trump that they would resign if Clark were installed, with Cipollone describing the Georgia letter as a “murder-suicide pact” that would “damage anyone and anything that it touches,” according to a Senate committee report released last year that detailed instances where Trump and his allies sought to use the DOJ to overturn the election.
ABC News previously obtained and published emails dated Dec. 28, 2020, showing Clark circulating that draft letter, which he wanted Rosen and Donoghue to sign off on.
Jon Anderson has released a music video for a new song called “So Limitless,” which he recently recorded with some of the young musicians from the Paul Green Rock Academy touring band, with whom the founding Yes frontman will be hitting the road in July.
The video, which you can watch now on YouTube, was shot in April in Orlando, Florida, during Anderson’s spring tour with the Paul Green Rock Academy. The clip features footage of Jon, and the various young musicians and singers filmed separately.
The track was recorded at Solar Studios in Orlando and was produced by Michael Franklin, who also produced Anderson’s recent solo album 1000 Hands.
“So Limitless” was co-written by Anderson and Harry Bricklin, a member of the Paul Green Rock Academy band.
“Here we go making new music with the Rock Academy teens,” Jon says in a statement. “‘So Limitless’ … Because we are limitless in all our living, being and dreaming.”
As previously reported, Anderson’s upcoming summer tour leg with the Paul Green Rock Academy currently features 13 dates and is mapped out from a July 7 concert in Plymouth, New Hampshire, through an August 6 show in Albany, New York.
The new tour will feature Anderson and the young musicians performing Yes’ 1972 album, Close to the Edge, in its entirety in honor of the its 50th anniversary, plus other classic tunes and deep cuts by the legendary prog-rock band, as well as tunes from Anderson’s solo catalog, mash-ups and more.
(NEW LISBON, Wisc.) — A man who allegedly killed a retired Wisconsin judge in a “targeted act” has died from what authorities described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Douglas Uhde, 56, was pronounced dead on Thursday when he was taken off life support and his organs were harvested for donation, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
Uhde was declared brain dead on Saturday, one day after police found him gravely wounded in the home of slain retired Judge John Roemer, 68, in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, officials said.
The suspected killer was discovered in the basement of Roemer’s home suffering from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
Uhde allegedly shot and killed Roemer on Friday morning after he showed up at the judge’s home, according Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul.
Uhde had a hit list that included U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
Police responded to Roemer’s home around 6:30 a.m. Friday after a 911 caller, who fled the home after shots were fired, reported that an armed man was in the judge’s home and had fired two shots, Kaul said.
The Juneau County Special Tactics and Response Team responded and attempted to negotiate with the alleged shooter before entering the home. Inside, they found Roemer dead and zip-tied to a chair, and the mortally wounded suspect in the basement, officials said.
“This does appear to be a targeted act,” Kaul told reporters during a news conference Friday. “The individual who is the suspect appears to have had other targets as well. It appears to be related to the judicial system.”
Wisconsin court records show that Roemer was involved in Uhde’s sentencing for a 2002 criminal conviction. In 2005, he sentenced Uhde to six years in state prison and nine years extended supervision for armed burglary, a felony, with concurrent sentences for three lesser counts. Uhde had pleaded no contest to the charges.
Uhde’s alleged hit list had more than a dozen names and was found inside his car outside Roemer’s home. In addition to McConnell and Whitmer, the hit list included Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, the source told ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — The Food and Drug Administration’s independent panel of advisers has voted in favor of the FDA authorizing Novavax, a protein-based vaccine, which could soon be the fourth vaccine for COVID-19 authorized in the U.S.
Although the U.S. already has three other COVID vaccines, some experts are excited about the Novavax vaccine because it is the first COVID-19 vaccine of its kind to be considered for authorization.
Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine is a more traditional protein-based vaccine, given as two shots. Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccine platforms use more modern advances in genetic technology.
The FDA can now issue its authorization for Novavax and then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will review the vaccine before giving its recommendation. Novavax is not expected to roll out as quickly as the other vaccines have and instead will take weeks after authorization to get out to the public.
The company asked for authorization for adults over 18 and has yet to ask for authorization for boosters.
During the review on Tuesday, the FDA’s advisers pushed Novavax representatives on multiple points.
Members asked whether there was data to back up the hope that this vaccine will win over people who have been vaccine-hesitant until now.
Novavax didn’t have specific data on acceptance among unvaccinated people, but said it was focused on getting through to them.
FDA leadership signaled that it was open to any vaccine that made a dent in the nation’s vaccine rates.
“I will use this as a moment on the bully pulpit to say that we do have a problem with vaccine uptake that is very serious in the United States,” Dr. Peter Marks, leader of the FDA’s vaccine division, told the panel.
“And anything we can do to get people more comfortable to be able to accept these potentially life-saving medical products is something that we feel we are compelled to do,” he said.
Multiple advisory committee members also harped on the fact Novavax only had data on how its vaccine held up to earlier strains of the virus, but not the omicron variant.
“It is disappointing, and we’ve discussed this already, that we don’t have more updated information because we’re looking at the efficacy against strains that don’t exist any longer,” Dr. Eric Rubin, a member of the committee and professor at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said during the meeting.
“Nevertheless … if there really is a population of patients who are willing to take this and not only existing vaccines, I think it’s pretty compelling,” he said.
Filip Dubovsky, chief medical officer of Novavax, said the company was confident the vaccine was still protective against omicron.
“Overall, it’s factual that we don’t have efficacy data against omicron. But, what we do have is a technology that we think generates a broad immune response, demonstrated against a broad array of variants,” he said Tuesday.
And there were also concerns over myocarditis cases seen after the Novavax series.
Out of 40,000 vaccine participants to date, there were five cases of myocarditis occurring within 20 days of getting the shots — a very small number but still a concern.
Myocarditis, which is the inflammation of the heart muscle, has also happened to people who got the other authorized vaccines, particularly mRNA vaccines Moderna and Pfizer. Like those cases, these cases were largely among young men.
Many members pointed out that there’s no reason to think myocarditis is more common from Novavax than any other vaccine already out there, but the committee still ultimately concluded that more research was needed on a broader group of Americans to better understand how big the risk is.
“I think we need more data from post-authorization use in larger numbers of individuals to really get at what the rate of myocarditis associated with this vaccine is and what exactly the risk is,” an FDA representative told the panel.
