Trying to follow up one of the biggest songs of the last 20 years is a tall order, which is why Rob Thomas says he isn’t concerned about whether or not “Move,” his new duet with Carlos Santana, is as successful as their first duet, “Smooth.” But Rob says the reason he specifically doesn’t worry about that stuff is because of some advice that Carlos gave him 21 years ago.
“I’m three years younger now than Carlos was when we first did ‘Smooth,'” Rob tells ABC Audio. “And at that very, very young age, Carlos taught me something that was very, very important that I hold on to, which is: The world is not as complicated as you make it seem sometimes, and you really are only in control of your motive, your intention and your purpose.”
According to Rob, Carlos told him, “Those are the three things that you can control. And whatever the outcome is, that’s going to be the outcome, but you can’t worry about it while you’re putting something into [the universe].”
“So, I don’t think I’ve ever really been concerned about whether something was going to perform,” Rob says, addressing the topic of “Move’s” success versus that of “Smooth.”
“When I do something and I’m creative and I’m listening to that frequency in the universe that gives me a song, then I feel like I’ve already succeeded,” the Matchbox Twenty front man states. “And I think the only time that I fail is if I stop listening to that — or I start trying to control it.”
In addition to “Move,” which in addition to Carlos also features American Authors, Rob has a new holiday album out, Something About Christmas Time.
Rebecca Hall says her directorial debut, Passing, which is based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel of the same name, is an adaptation that offers contemporary implications on race.
Hall, who says she wrote the draft of the screenplay 13 years ago after reading the book for the first time, tells ABC Audio that, like Larson’s novel, her film also shows the “dangers” in adhering to the unspoken rules of what it is to be Black or white in America.
“I think we all go through this negotiation…whether we’re in the 1920s or now, or any time, where we think, ‘What is the kind of person that I want to be versus what is the sort of person that I think I ought to be?’” she says. “And how much…of they ‘think I ought to be’ have we internalized?’”
Hall says that internalization of how to assimilate to a specific race or culture is what both of her characters struggle with in the film. In fact, the director says Larsen is specifically making a critique about the “rigidity around these categories” and that there is “no monolithic version of Blackness or whiteness” or any other “identity” category.
“It’s interesting how complicated Irene’s own relationship is to her Black identity,” Hall shares. “Like she really wants to be an upstanding member of the Black community. She reads Crisis magazine, she organizes… the dance in the league…”
She continues, “But she cannot talk to her husband or her children about the difficulties of living in a racist society. And I think that’s poignant today, as it was ever.“
Passing, also starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga is now available to stream on Netflix.
Anyone who’s paid attention to Ariana Grande‘s career over the past few years knows that she’s pretty fond of using outer-space or sci-fi imagery in her videos, commercials and costumes. Ariana says she took that same approach to developing her new makeup line, R.e.m. Beauty, which officially launches on Friday morning.
“I wanted to make sure everything looked like a prop from either Star Trek or Black Mirror,” she tells Vogue of the makeup packaging she chose. “I treated it like it was a Tesla situation, not like make-up. I didn’t want it to look like make-up. I’m a huge fan of sci-fi, vintage space stuff, so this was about creating our own world with this packaging.”
If you look at the @r.e.m.beauty Instagram, you can see what Ari’s talking about: Everything is packaged in smooth, silver or white futuristic-looking tubes and cases. The highlighters are also named after the planets in the solar system: Miss Jupiter, Mama Earth, Miss Mercury and so on.
As for the name of the line, it’s of course taken from her song “R.E.M.,” which Ariana explains “encompasses a lot of my favorite parts of my sound.” But there’s another reason she chose it.
“REM [stands for] rapid eye movement, focusing on dreams and the eyes,” she explains. “Eyes are our most effective communicators — you can say more with the way you look at someone than you can articulate with words sometimes, and so much beauty happens there.”
R.e.m. Beauty, which also includes eyeshadow palettes, lip stain, plumping lip gloss and eyeliner, goes on sale at 9 a.m. ET on Friday at Rembeauty.com.
Ariana tells Vogue, “Hopefully it will inspire people to express themselves in a new way and share that with the world.”
Having already learned to fly, Foo Fighters will soon be faced with an entirely different mode of transportation.
The “Everlong” rockers are set to perform at the upcoming Formula 1 Grand Prix race in Abu Dhabi. The race takes place December 10-12 on Yas Marina Circuit, with the Foos taking the stage for an after-show on the final night.
The Grand Prix performance looks to cap off an eventful Foo Fighters year, which included the release of the new album Medicine at Midnight and induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The Foo excitement will continue in 2022 with the premiere of Studio 666, a horror-comedy film starring Dave Grohl and company. The movie’s set to debut February 25.
Megan Thee Stallion has new holiday merchandise for her hotties.
The “Hot Girl Summer” recently became a Popeyes franchise owner, and she’s expanding her brand with the company with a new line of merchandise inspired by her love of Japanese animation.
Her “Animegan” line, which dropped Tuesday, features a unisex T-shirt, a pull-over hoodie, a tote bag, a bandana and a plush toy.
As previously reported, the three-time Grammy winner launched her Popeyes Megan Thee Stallion Hottie Sauce in October. Megan also debuted her first merchandise collection with Popeyes, called Thee Heat, which includes a bikini and a unisex T-shirt.
On Monday, the “WAP” rapper was honored as one of Glamour‘s Women of the Year in a ceremony at the Rainbow Room in New York City. Now Megan is looking forward to graduating from Texas Southern University on December 11 with a bachelor’s degree in health administration.
The new documentary Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free – The Making of Wildflowersgets its worldwide release today at 12 p.m. ET as a free streaming event on Tom Petty‘s official YouTube channel.
The film, which will be shown in 4K resolution, is part of the YouTube Originals series.
As previously reported, the movie focuses on the fruitful recording sessions that yielded Petty’s acclaimed 1994 solo effort Wildflowers, plus many other songs that remained in the vaults until the Wildflowers & All the Rest box set was released last year.
The movie features previously unseen footage shot by director Martyn Atkins during the recording of Wildflowers, archival commentary from Tom, and newly filmed scenes of producer Rick Rubin and founding Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench sharing recollections of the sessions.
Tench says he considers Somewhere You Feel Free “an illuminating film.”
“[Y]ou get people’s perspective on the making of the record,” he tells ABC Audio. “And…you get Tom speaking about his thoughts about making the record, and where he was at when he made the songs, and where he was at when he decided he didn’t want to do it with all of The Heartbreakers, and do it as a…’solo’ record. And you find out all of this, as well as getting to see footage from the sessions, and getting to see him just messing around and goofing around, which is always good.”
Benmont says among his favorite parts of the movie were the segments capturing him chatting with Rubin and Campbell, who co-produced Wildflowers with Petty. He notes that before they filmed the conversation, the three of them had never sat down to talk about the album before.
“[I]t was fun and interesting,” Benmont declares. “I found out stuff I didn’t know.”
(BALTIMORE) — President Joe Biden visited Baltimore on Wednesday to tout his infrastructure bill and highlight his administration’s work to ease port delays as the country approaches the holiday season with rising inflation and delivery slowdowns on the horizon.
Biden’s visit came five days after Congress passed his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that, among myriad investments in the nations’ physical infrastructure, will provide $17 billion to revitalize coastal, inland and land ports, as well as strengthen them against the effects of climate change.
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced short- and long-term steps to strengthen U.S. ports as part of an effort to tackle supply chain issues, including using money from the infrastructure bill, which the president plans to sign into law on Monday during a bipartisan White House ceremony.
“I’m not waiting to sign a bill to start improving the flow of goods from shifts to shelves,” Biden said during remarks at the Baltimore port. “Yesterday, I announced the port — a port plan of action. It lays out concrete steps for my administration to take over the next three months to invest in our ports and to relieve bottlenecks.”
As the U.S. continues to slowly emerge from the pandemic, Biden has been grappling with a crisis up and down the supply chain defined by worker shortages and delivery delays.
At the same time, the prices Americans are paying for everyday goods are soaring as the country approaches the holiday season — a potential political liability for the president. In Baltimore, he acknowledged the economic hardship people are facing.
“COVID-19 has stretched global supply chains like never before, and suddenly when you go to order a pair of sneakers or a bicycle or Christmas presents for the family, you’re met with higher prices and long delays — or they said they just don’t have any at all,” Biden said.
Demand for many goods has shot up just as global supply chains reel from disruptions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is a recipe for delays and for higher prices, and people are feeling — they’re feeling it,” Biden said.
Biden will continue to hit the road to tout his infrastructure bill — and pitch his larger “Build Back Better” social bill he is trying to push through Congress — in the weeks ahead, according to the White House.
On Wednesday, he drew a clear line between the infrastructure bill and the real impact he said American families should see.
“This bipartisan infrastructure bill is a major step forward,” he said. “It represents the biggest investment in ports in American history. And for American families, it means products moving faster and less expensively, from factory floor through the supply chain to your home.
“The bottom line is this,” he continued. “With the bill we passed last week, and the steps we’re taking to reduce bottlenecks at home and abroad, we’re set to make significant progress.”
On Tuesday, the president spoke with the CEOs of four major retailers and shipping companies, Walmart, UPS, FedEx and Target. He said that the executives “assured me that the shelves will be stocked in stores this holiday.”
Even though the president does not plan to sign the infrastructure bill until next week — he has said he wants to bring Democrats and Republicans together to the White House for a ceremony marking the bipartisan bill’s passage — a senior administration official said Tuesday that work was already underway to get port-related programs started.
“Outdated infrastructure has a real cost for families, as we all know, for our economy and for competitiveness,” White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “We’re seeing that right now, even as we move record goods through our ports, with supply chain bottlenecks forming that lead to higher prices and lower deliveries for American families.”
To provide immediate relief, the administration will now allow port authorities to redirect project cost savings toward immediate projects to address supply chain challenges, senior administration officials said Tuesday. One official said doing so was a way to “creatively” redirect grant money.
For example, the officials told reporters, the nation’s third-busiest port, in Savannah, Georgia, came under budget on a previous grant and could now use the leftover dollars to build a pop-up yard to store shipping containers; port authorities believe the site could be operational in 30 to 45 days, the officials said.
“It’s a great way to add capacity and efficiency at the port,” an official said. “We expect that that kind of flexibility will help other projects as well.”
The administration also plans to launch a $240 million grant program within the next 45 days to invest in port infrastructure — using money from the infrastructure bill.
Within the next two months, it will identify projects with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for construction work at coastal ports, inland waterways and other facilities, officials said.
In the next three months, they said, the administration will begin competition for the first round of port infrastructure grants funded by the infrastructure bill. The federal government will also identify ports of entry at the nation’s southern and northern borders that need modernization and expansion.
In Baltimore, Biden explained how his administration was helping fund the expansion of a 126-year-old tunnel near the port to accommodate trains carrying containers stacked on top of each other.
A senior administration official emphasized that the port was a public-private partnership and noted the port was making major investments in adding container cranes and a second deep, 50-foot berth.
“It’s an example of the kind of investments that are needed from both the private and public sector side,” the official told reporters Tuesday. “It’s also an illustration that the co-funding in the bipartisan infrastructure plan incentivizes the private sector to make these kinds of long-term investments as well.”
It was a night of surprises at the 55th Annual CMA Awards Wednesday night. While Chris Stapleton was the night’s big winner, taking home Single, Song and Album of the Year — not to mention Male Vocalist — many of the artists taking home trophies were unexpected… and some even made history.
Let’s start with Luke Combs, who was named Entertainer of the Year for the first time, beating long-established stars like Eric Church, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood. “I’m really kind of at a loss,” said the shocked hitmaker, adding, “Every single person that was nominated for this award this year, and every year before, deserves to win this. I don’t deserve to win it, but I’m sure as hell glad that I did!”
—Carly Pearce won her first-ever Female Vocalist of the Year trophy and was so emotional that her friend Ashley McBryde got onstage and spoke for her. “What she meant to say was, ‘There’s a lot of love, respect and admiration in this category,'” laughed Ashley, before nudging Carly forward.
“I’ve had just, had, like a crazy year,” Carly sobbed. “And I just want you guys to know that this means everything to me. Country music saved me at a time that I needed it and I just hope you guys know that this is all I’ve ever wanted in the entire world.”
—Jimmie Allen was named New Artist of the Year, becoming only the second Black performer ever to do so. Darius Rucker was the first, back in 2009. Jimmie recalled how, five years ago, he spent his last $100 to attend the CMA Awards so he could watch the late Charley Pride perform, and how, last year, he and Pride got to perform on the show together.
—Brothers Osborne were named Vocal Duo of the Year, a category they last won in 2018. TJ Osborne, who came out this year, kissed his boyfriend before taking the stage with brother John. “It’s been a crazy roller coaster of a year for us in so many ways, especially for me emotionally,” TJ said. “And to have you all support me, it really does feel like love wins tonight.”
Later, Brothers Osborne sang their powerful song “Younger Me,” which TJ introduced by explaining that while growing up watching the CMAs, he never thought he could be a part of it because of his sexuality.
Another powerful moment came when a young Black girl named Faith Fennidy introduced Mickey Guyton‘s performance of the song “Love My Hair,” explaining that she had inspired Mickey to write the song after she was sent home from school because her braids were “distracting.” Mickey sang the song with Brittney Spencer and Madeline Edwards; all three women wore big, natural hair styles.
And in a moment reminiscent of the 2015 CMAs, when Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake brought down the house, Jennifer Hudson and Chris Stapleton did it again with their soulful duet of “You Are My Sunshine,” which Chris and his wife Morgane originally cut for the 2016 compilation album Southern Family. Stapleton also played guitar as Hudson sang Aretha Franklin‘s arrangement of Willie Nelson‘s “Night Life.”
Other highlights of the night included Luke Combs debuting his new song “Doin’ It;” Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce duetting on “Never Wanted to Be That Girl;” Carrie Underwood and Jason Aldean singing “If I Didn’t Love You” and Deana Carter and Lainey Wilson leading the entire Bridgestone Arena in a singalong of Deana’s classic “Strawberry Wine.”
(WASHINGTON) — In a memo never before made public, the Presidential Personnel Office under the direction of John McEntee, a favorite aide of former President Donald Trump, made a case for firing then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper three weeks before Esper was terminated, according to reporting in a new book by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl.
The contents were first reported by Karl in The Atlantic for an article adapted from his forthcoming book, “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show.”
The memo from McEntee’s office, dated Oct. 19, 2020, provides what Karl calls a remarkable window inside the thinking of the Trump White House during the final months of his presidency and the power held by the then-29-year-old director of the Presidential Personnel Office.
It includes bullet points outlining what Karl calls Esper’s “sins against Trumpism,” including that he “barred the Confederate flag” on military bases, “opposed the President’s direction to utilize American forces to put down riots,” “focused the Department on Russia,” and was “actively pushing for ‘diversity and inclusion.'”
Three weeks later on Nov. 9, 2020, Karl says, Trump fired Esper in precisely the way McEntee recommended and replaced, as recommended, by Christopher Miller. The firing also came two days after Trump lost reelection and as the former president was expected to purge top members of his administration with whom he had long been unhappy.
Obtained by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan KarlObtained by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl
Esper’s termination was made official with a terse two-sentence letter dated Nov. 9 and signed by McEntee that has also, until now, never been made public.
The Presidential Personnel Office, what Karl describes as a normally under-the-radar group responsible for the hiring and firing of the roughly 4,000 executive branch appointees, transformed into an internal police force in the final year of the Trump administration, with employees scouring for acts of dissidence in their ranks.
“Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show” is scheduled to be released on Nov. 16, 2021.
