Chris Stapleton is joining the bill for the 2022 Grammy Awards. He’s part of a newly-announced, all-genre round of performers also including Jon Batiste, Foo Fighters, Nas and H.E.R.
Chris’ latest album, Starting Over, is nominated for Best Country Album at the Grammys this year. Two of the album’s songs, “Cold” and “You Should Probably Leave,” are also nominated this year, for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance, respectively.
One of the country genre’s most legendary voices, Chris has been a mainstay of the Grammy Awards over the last several years. He’s won five trophies in the past, netting Best Country Album wins both for his major-label debut, Traveller, and From A Room: Volume 1.
This year’s Grammy Awards will air on CBS on April 3 at 8 p.m. ET. Another just-announced performance segment is a tribute to Stephen Sondheim, performed by Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Ben Platt, and Rachel Zegler.
Wondering who’s in the Backstreet Boys NCAA Basketball Tournament’s Final Four final bracket? Head over to Caesars Sportbook to see which teams BSB wants to go all the way.
Nick Carter, who dubbed his final four bracket the “Will Never Break Your Heart,” thinks Texas Tech, North Carolina, Miami and Arizona will tip off at the main event. As for AJ McLean, his “Bracket They Want It That Way” predicts Duke, UCLA, Michigan and Miami.
Kevin Richardson bets Gonzaga, UCLA, Villanova and Kansas as part of his “All They Have to Give” bracket, while “Bracket It Won’t Play Games with Your Heart” from Howie Dorough predicts a Duke, North Carolina, Michigan and Miami Final Four.
Brian Littrell is going “Larger Than Life” with his predictions and has Duke, St Peter’s, Michigan and Miami on his bet slip.
We’ll see whose bracket reigns supreme as the NCAA Tournament enters the Sweet 16 rush of games today and determines the lucky players making it to the Elite Eight this Saturday. The Final Four tips off next Saturday, April 2.
The “Everybody” singers are gearing up to kick off their DNA World Tour 2022 at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace starting April 8 with shows running until April 16.
Following Tuesday’s termination of her nearly nine-year-long conservatorship, Amanda Bynes is in demand, according to her attorney.
David A. Esquibias tells Entertainment Tonight, “While Amanda’s being flooded with [interview] offers…she’s not ready to talk and is laying [sic] low for a while.”
He added, “Several production companies reached out to her team about filming documentaries or a potential reality show on her life moving forward.”
Through Esquibias, Bynes noted after a Los Angeles judge’s decision, “words can’t describe how I feel.” She called it “wonderful news,” adding, “I would like to thank my fans for their love and well wishes during this time.”
She further explained in her statement, “In the last several years, I have been working hard to improve my health so that I can live and work independently, and I will continue to prioritize my well-being in this next chapter. I am excited about my upcoming endeavors, including my fragrance line, and look forward to sharing more when I can.”
Bynes’ mother, Lynn Bynes, was put temporarily in charge of Bynes’ affairs following a 2013 incident in which the Easy A and The Amanda Show actress reportedly started a small fire in a neighbor’s driveway, which came on the heels of previous erratic behavior. After the driveway incident, the actress was placed on a temporary psychiatric hold.
The conservatorship was reinstated in 2014, the same year Bynes revealed she’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
After the decision to end the conservatorship, Lynn Bynes told ET in a statement that she’s “very happy and proud of Amanda for everything that she’s done and come through,” and said she’s, “looking forward to…having a mother-daughter relationship rather than a conservator-conservatee relationship.”
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Rock Under The Stars
Surprise! Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ new song “Not the One” is out a day early.
Bassist Flea had previously announced that the track would drop on Friday, but the band instead just released it today via digital outlets.
While we’re a little hurt Flea and the rest of the Peppers led us astray, at least we have a new song to comfort us.
“Not the One” will appear on RHCP’s forthcoming album Unlimited Love, due out April 1. It’s the third track to be released from the record, following lead single “Black Summer” and the funky “Poster Child.”
The Peppers will launch a worldwide tour in support of Unlimited Love this summer. The U.S. leg kicks off in July.
Daniel Johns, frontman for the now-defunct Australian grunge band Silverchair, is admitting himself to rehab after being charged with drunk driving.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Johns crashed his SUV into a van carrying two people while driving down Australia’s Pacific Highway Wednesday night. Johns’ breathalyzer test reportedly returned a result of 0.157%, above Australia’s legal blood alcohol content limit of 0.05%.
The two people in the van were reportedly treated on the scene. One was admitted to the hospital but has since been released.
In an Instagram post following the incident, Johns wrote, “As you know, my mental health is a work in progress. I have good days and bad days bu it’s something I always have to manage.”
“Over the last week, I began to experience panic attacks,” Johns continued. “Last night I got lost while driving and was in an accident. I am OK, everyone is OK.”
Johns added that he’d been “self-medicating with alcohol to deal with my PTSD, anxiety and depression.”
“I have to step back now as I’m self-admitting to a rehabilitation center and I don’t know how long I’ll be there,” Johns wrote. “Appreciate your love and support as always.”
Silverchair released their RIAA double-Platinum debut Frogstomp in 1995 when Johns was only 15. The group released four more albums before going on hiatus in 2011.
More recently, Johns teamed up with fellow Australian Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun to form the band Dreams in 2018, and just last year, he launched a podcast called Who Is Daniel Johns? He also announced plans to release a new solo album, FutureNever, on April 22.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Foo Fighters will not only be competing for three honors at the the 2022 Grammys, they’ll be performing during the ceremony, too.
The Dave Grohl-fronted band is among a list of newly announced performers for the event, which takes place Sunday, April 3, in Las Vegas. Jon Batiste, H.E.R., Nas and Chris Stapleton also have joined the lineup, alongside previously announced performers Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X with Jack Harlow, Brothers Osborne, BTS and Brandi Carlile.
The Grammys for which the Foo Fighters are nominated this year are Best Rock Album for Medicine at Midnight, Best Rock Performance for “Making a Fire,” and Best Rock Song for “Waiting on a War.” The band has won 12 previous trophies.
The 64th Grammy Awards ceremony will be broadcast live on April 3 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
Jack Harlow is the latest celebrity to team up with a major fast-food chain. He’s partnered with KFC to highlight his menu favorites.
According to a press release, the “Industry Baby” rapper — a Kentucky native who says he grew up eating KFC — has curated a brand-new menu stuffed with his go-to items, which include “The Spicy KFC Chicken Sandwich, Secret Recipe Fries, Extra Crispy Tenders, a side of Mac & Cheese and of course, KFC’s famous biscuits,” according to a press release. His menu, which is available now, is called Jack’s Kentucky Fried Favorites.
Jack even met with KFC’s head chef, Chris Scott, to learn how the menu items are made and enjoy the “whole KFC experience.” Photos taken from the visit show Jack smiling as he poses in front of some new portraits of him that now hang at KFC headquarters.
“Partnering up with KFC feels like poetic justice. I’ve begun traveling the world and no matter how far I go, KFC is one of the first things people want to bring up when they find out where I’m from,” the Grammy nominee said. “I’m excited to align myself with something that started in Kentucky, but resonates all over the globe.”
(KYIV, Ukraine) — Ukraine’s lead negotiator in peace talks with Russia has said he believes the negotiations with Moscow are “absolutely real,” but has warned it may take months to reach a deal to end the war.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spoke to ABC News inside the heavily guarded compound of the presidential office in central Kyiv. ABC News reporters were brought through several rings of security into the building’s darkened corridors, piled with sandbags to protect against shelling and empty except for Ukrainian special forces soldiers armed with assault rifles standing every few yards.
Podolyak has been leading Ukraine’s delegation at the talks that began within days after Russia’s invasion. The first rounds were held in Belarus but recently the sides have switched to sessions by video link.
Podolyak said the talks are now taking place every day by video, mostly at the level of working groups. Both sides in the last week have said the talks are making progress and that they are moving closer to a compromise, despite intense ongoing fighting. Ukrainian and American officials though have expressed doubts whether Russia is negotiating in good faith or might be using the talks just to buy time for its forces to regroup to press on with its war.
But Podolyak said he was certain Russia was now genuinely negotiating, aware that it has no choice.
“They’re absolutely real negotiations,” Podolyak said. “There’s no attempt to stall for time. That’s definitely not there.”
But he warned that reaching an agreement could still take “months.”
Heavy losses inflicted on Russia, devastating Western sanctions and its failure to take any key cities, including Kyiv, have forced the Kremlin to moderate its demands, Podolyak said, meaning the two sides’ positions are now far closer.
“Twenty-eight days of war have shown that Russia is not a country that can dictate conditions,” he said. “It seems to me they really do want to resolve some issues in negotiations, because there is the sanctions pressure, military pressure from Ukraine. We have already put them in their place.”
But he said that more pressure from Ukraine’s military, as well as international sanctions, was still needed to push Russia into negotiating positions that would allow for an agreement.
Russia’s core demand remains that Ukraine renounce its ambition to join NATO. In recent days, Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials have signaled they understand Ukraine will not join the alliance but have emphasized Ukraine wants security guarantees from Western countries to protect it from any future Russian aggression.
Last week, the Financial Times and The Washington Post reported Russia and Ukraine were discussing a 15-point peace plan that would see Ukraine give up its NATO ambitions and accept some limits on its military in return for security guarantees from allies like the U.S., U.K. and Turkey.
Russia is also demanding Ukraine recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the independence of two Russian-occupied separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, as well as legal provisions protecting the rights for the Russian language in Ukraine.
Podolyak denied there is a 15-point plan as reported, saying it simply represented Russia’s proposals. He said both sides had “several drafts” outlining their own positions but there was no “agreed project.”
Podolyak avoided saying whether Ukraine was now ready to give up its NATO ambitions, but stressed Ukraine is now seeking separate guarantees from willing NATO countries rather than membership in the alliance.
He suggested that such guarantees from Western countries were essential to Ukraine if it is to sign any agreement.
Those security guarantees appear a significant obstacle to a deal since it is unclear how any promise from a NATO country to defend Ukraine would differ from Ukraine de facto joining the alliance.
Asked what sort of guarantees Ukraine is seeking, Podolyak suggested as an example that it could be “legally enshrined” that a no-fly zone will be imposed over Ukraine in the event of a new Russian attack. He declined to say which NATO countries Ukraine was discussing such guarantees with, since negotiations are ongoing, but he did not deny the U.S. was among them.
Ukraine wants security guarantees so “that Russia does not attack us in the future,” he said. “This requires not amorphous structures returning to the U.N., OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] or NATO, but effective alliances that will make it clear to Russia that it is not necessary to attack Ukraine’s borders, as this will have very, very bad consequences.”
The U.S. and other NATO countries have already repeatedly ruled out imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine because it would lead to a direct conflict with Russia.
The Kremlin’s spokesman said Tuesday the talks were progressing “much more slowly and less substantively than we would like” and Russia has insisted it will still achieve the goals set at the beginning of its operation against Ukraine.
Podolyak said that Russia’s positions have already become far more “appropriate,” but that it still had “illusions” that Ukraine can be made to accept ultimatums.
The danger, he said, was that the two countries were now moving into a phase of bloody stalemate that would see Russia cause heavy civilian casualties before it was finally forced into accepting a compromise.
The timing to end the war, Podolyak said, would depend on how much Western support Ukraine now received. He said Ukraine needs more air defenses and anti-tank weapons and called for Western countries to impose a full embargo on Russian oil and stricter financial sanctions. The U.S. has sent hundreds of millions of dollars in weaponry to Ukraine, including a new $800 million cache now being delivered.
“I think right now they are in a state of shock and are trying to understand how low they might lower their demands so that we will start to agree with them on something,” said Podolyak. “It’s a difficult process for them. For eight years they lived in illusions — they thought they were world champions on the level with the United States.”
He said continuing pain inflicted by Ukraine’s military and more sanctions would force Russia to come to terms with the reality of its position.
“Russia will become more and more adequate and will come to the negotiating position, which will allow for the signing of an agreement not only with Russia — for there’s no point to a peace agreement with Russia — but a multilaterally guaranteed agreement, where first of all there will be guarantor countries,” he said.
Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Country Music Hall of Famer Hank Williams Jr. is mourning the loss of his wife of over three decades, Mary Jane Thomas.
Thomas died unexpectedly earlier this week in Jupiter, Florida. TMZ reported the news, saying that a spokesperson for the Jupiter police department indicated that they responded to a call from the Jupiter Beach Resort & Spa at around 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Thomas was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Also per TMZ, early indications suggest that Thomas’ death may have been the result of a complication, such as a blood clot, following a medical procedure.
People also confirmed the news of Thomas’ death with the couple’s son, country artist Sam Williams.
“My dear Mama Mary Jane was a beautiful soul who forever affected everyone who knew her. She had a smile and presence that lit up every room and she never met a stranger she didn’t befriend,” Sam says in a statement. “Her spirit was gentle and giving. She could take down a ten-point buck and fix dinner for her grandchildren at the same time!”
Thomas’ death comes in the wake of a difficult couple of years for the family. In 2020, Hank Jr. and his wife mourned the loss of their daughter, 27-year-old Katherine Williams-Dunning, after she was killed in a car crash.
Hank Jr. met Thomas, a former model for suntan lotion brand Hawaiian Tropic, in 1985. They married in July 1990. Katherine and Sam are their only children together, though Hank Jr. has three other children from previous marriages.
The couple’s last public appearance together was in 2021, when Hank Jr. was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration is gradually moving forward with new changes that would increase the speed at which the U.S. government evaluates requests for asylum – a frequent plea from migrants at the border — according to two government officials.
The new rule would allow asylum officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to fully adjudicate the merits of an asylum case after the agency screens the applicant for potentially having well-founded fear of persecution or specific harm if removed to their home country.
“The current system for handling asylum claims at our borders has long needed repair,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Thursday. “Through this rule, we are building a more functional and sensible asylum system to ensure that individuals who are eligible will receive protection more swiftly, while those who are not eligible will be rapidly removed. We will process claims for asylum or other humanitarian protection in a timely and efficient manner while ensuring due process.”
Currently, asylum cases for those in expedited removal proceedings are handled by immigration judges under the Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review. For cases that are still heard by a judge, USCIS will deliver the defendant’s filed record at the beginning of the case including, interview transcripts with screeners and the prior USCIS decision.
Cases are expected to be completed within 90 days, barring potential extension requests. Today, asylum cases can take months or often years to complete. The result leaves U.S. federal immigration court with a total case backlog in excess of 1 million, according to researchers at Syracuse University.
News of the policy shift was met with mixed reviews from immigrant advocacy organizations as concerns remain over access to legal counsel under the new expedited time frame.
“While we appreciate that the Biden administration made a number of positive changes to the regulation in response to the comments, we are gravely concerned about the timeframes proposed in the regulation,” attorney and American Immigration Counsel policy analyst Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said Thursday. “Studies have consistently showed that one of the most important factors in determining whether a person can win asylum is whether they are able to obtain a lawyer. Because these timelines will make it more difficult to obtain an attorney, the rule as written would gravely increase the risk of an unjust denial of asylum.”
Other groups have praised the move as a positive step toward administrative immigration reform since it was first announced last year.
“As it moves to make much-needed changes to the asylum process, the administration should continue working with advocates and other stakeholders to ensure a fully functional, fair, and secure asylum system for all those seeking protection,” head of the National Immigration Forum Ali Noorani said in August.
Melanie Nezer, a spokesperson for the refugee aid organization HIAS, said the announcement “is a major change and very welcome news, although we remain concerned about the longstanding use of expedited removal.”
Under the new process, if an asylum officer denies a case, the person in question can make an appeal to a judge and again to the Board of Immigration Appeals. The expedited removal and apprehension process largely remains unchanged, officials said.
The officials Wednesday could not say how broadly they plan to execute the policy, which is expected to begin some time at the end of May or beginning of June, only that it would be a careful, gradual implementation.
ABC News’ Benjamin Gittleson contributed to this report.
