Reba McEntire‘s boyfriend, actor Rex Linn, may be her Young Sheldon co-star who plays the high school principal, but he’s also a huge cut-up who’s an enormous fan of Halloween.
“Last year, he ordered from Costco a seven foot werewolf, [with] a motion sensor in it, and he put it in my bathroom,” Reba recalls. “And then when I walked in there, it moved and growled at me and I was very upset.”
“I said, ‘Everybody who had anything to do with it, you’re all fired!'” she jokes. “Then I started giggling. Then I was pretty flattered that he’d went to all that trouble to scare me.”
“Then we took it to every place we could to scare everybody else,” she adds. “We had a blast with it.”
Old Dominion‘s Matthew Ramsey takes things even further for Halloween, though it was something of an accident.
“This happened probably four years ago, when I couldn’t take my kids on a fall break vacation,” OD’s lead singer explains. “So I took them to Home Depot and bought every Halloween decoration that I could possibly find, and we tricked out the woods… like a haunted woods. And so I set a tradition that I didn’t mean to set.”
“Now I spend about $1000 a year on new Halloween decorations,” Matthew continues. “And I don’t have the woods anymore because we moved, but now I told them… we have a little cabin — that I would make a whole haunted cabin for Halloween.”
“It’s like a whole art project,” he confesses. “I spend three days on decking out this whole house.”
All Hallows’ Eve is Sunday, so be sure to check out the socials of stars like Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean, who typically don’t disappoint when it comes to their costumes.
Bad Wolves‘ new album Dear Monsters marks their first with new lead singer Daniel “DL” Laskiewicz. On his debut record with the band, DL hopes you’ll join him in “penning a letter to your personal demons.”
“Whether it’s waking up in the morning and dreading going to work because you hate your boss, or you are going to a doctor’s appointment for a follow-up and finding out if you have some kind of illness or not, everybody has some kind of demon, personal monster,” DL tells ABC Audio of the album’s message.
It’s a universal theme, to be sure, but DL, who joined Bad Wolves earlier this year in place of former frontman Tommy Vext, found himself relating to Dear Monsters on a individual level.
“It’s a big change for me,” DL says of his new gig. “Not touring for 10-plus years, having loved ones, wife, kids, it’s just very different. I’m not an 18 year old dude in a metal band anymore.”
“I had to even confront my own personal monsters coming into this role,” he adds.
Much of what would become Dear Monsters was written before DL’s arrival, but his voice allowed him to put his own personal stamp on the record. He also contributed to the writing process with songs such as “Springfield Summer,” which refers to the name of his Massachusetts hometown.
“That song in particular touches loosely on my role coming into this band,” DL says. “It just ties into everything going on in my head walking into this role.”
“With all the things going on, it’s just been a crazy ride so far, for sure,” he says.
Dear Monsters, which features the lead single “Lifeline,” is out this Friday.
Doors guitarist Robby Krieger has been quite busy since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only did the 75-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer finish and recently publish a new memoir, Set the Night on Fire, he tells ABC Audio that he’s also completed two album projects.
“Since the pandemic, that’s all I’ve been doing is recording,” Robby reports. “I’ve got two records ready to come out, both instrumental.”
The first is a reggae-flavored covers album titled Rocks Meets Dub that he says will include renditions of The Bee Gees‘ “Stayin’ Alive” and songs by Bob Dylan and The Beatles.
Krieger says he played a lot of slide guitar on the album, which he recorded with bassist Phil Chen, who for many years was a member of the bands that Robby co-led with late Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek.
“[Phil’s] been down with mesothelioma lately, so we wanted to do something that would make him happy,” Krieger explains. “And it just turned out really good.”
Keyboardist Ed Roth, who’s collaborated with Krieger frequently in recent years, also contributed to the album.
As for the other album, Krieger recorded that with his side project The New Experience, and is planning to release it after Rocks Meets Dub.
That group features Roth, as well as longtime Aretha Franklin bassist Kevin “Brandino” Brandon and drummer Franklin Vanderbilt, who also plays with Lenny Kravitz.
“[W]e don’t have a name for [that album] yet, but these guys are just amazing players,” Robby notes, adding that “it’s jazz, but it’s R&B as well.”
Krieger’s most recent album was another instrumental project, The Ritual Begins at Sundown, which was released in August 2020.
Supermassive Games, the mastermind behind the indie horror survival games Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology, released their newest installment, House of Ashes, which stars Ashley Tisdale.
Tisdale plays CIA officer Rachel King, who is trapped underground and must escape a hoard of bloodthirsty vampire-like creatures. Rachel’s survival is dependent on the decisions players make during gameplay.
Tisdale, who is not a “huge horror film person,” tells ABC Audio what interested her in starring in a game meant to scare people.
“It looks like a cinematic movie. It’s beautiful,” she raved, adding she wanted to give it a shot because it was “something different and fun. And it was wild!”
Part of Supermassive’s charm is modeling the characters and their mannerisms off the voice actors, but Ashley explained she didn’t put on the motion capture suit or physically act out a scene in order to bring Rachel to life.
“It’s weirdly like a voiceover,” the High School Musical star described, saying it reminded her of working in animation. “If you were acting in a movie, you would be in the scene. You would see those things [you need to interact with,] but you don’t see those things. You are reacting in a studio… You have this camera on your face and you have to pretend everything is around you.”
Now that Tisdale has cut her teeth on her first scary project, it begs to question if she will consider starring in future thrillers.
“I love scary movies around Halloween, but I’ve never had this feeling of like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to act in a scary movie!’ So probably not,” she laughed. “I don’t know if I’ll keep going in that area.”
House of Ashes is available to play on Windows, PlayStation and Xbox devices.
WALK THE MOON has premiered a new song called “Rise Up,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, HEIGHTS.
“‘Rise Up’ arose partly out of a long sleepless night alone in the studio, stacking vocals on vocals until the track sounded like something off of Queen‘s A Day at the Races,” says vocalist Nicholas Petricca. “The song is about how nobody’s perfect and perseverance is universal, and I guess I needed a thousand singing voices to really get that across.”
You can download “Rise Up” now via digital outlets. It’s also accompanied by a video WTM filmed while on tour in Santa Clara, California, which you can watch now on YouTube.
HEIGHTS, the follow-up to 2017’s What If Nothing, arrives November 12. It also includes the lead single “Can You Handle My Love??”
Elvis Costello will greet 2022 with a new studio album that he recorded with his longtime backing group The Imposters called The Boy Named If.
The 13-track collection, which will be released on January 14, is described in a press statement as an album “of urgent, immediate songs with bright melodies, guitar solos that sting and a quick step to the rhythm.”
Costello explains about the project, “The full title of this record is The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Stories). ‘IF’ is a nickname for your imaginary friend; your secret self, the one who knows everything you deny, the one you blame for the shattered crockery and the hearts you break, even your own.”
The Boy Named If will be available on vinyl, CD, cassette and digital formats. There also will be “an 88-page hardback storybook edition,” each copy of which will be signed and numbered by Elvis.
The storybook edition features 13 illustrated short stories that have the same titles as the album’s songs and relate to the corresponding tunes in some way. The stories feature the lyrics of the songs, and the illustrations were created by artist Eamon Singer.
In advance of The Boy Named If, one of the tracks, “Magnificent Hurt,” has been released as a digital single.
Costello has been quite busy since the start of the pandemic. He released his last studio album, Hey Clockface, in October of 2020, followed in March 2021 by La Face de Pendule à Coucou, an EP featuring French-language versions of six songs from Hey Clockface sung by Iggy Pop, actress Isabelle Adjani and others.
In September, Elvis released Spanish Model, a Spanish-language version of his 1978 album This Year’s Model showcasing various guest singers.
Here’s The Boy Named If‘s full track list:
“Farewell, OK”
“The Boy Named If”
“Penelope Halfpenny”
“The Difference”
“What If I Can’t Give You Anything but Love?”
“Paint the Red Rose Blue”
“Mistook Me for a Friend”
“My Most Beautiful Mistake” (guest vocal by Nicole Atkins)
“Magnificent Hurt”
“The Man You Love to Hate”
“The Death of Magic Thinking”
“Trick Out the Truth”
“Mr. Crescent”
ABBA‘s comeback album Voyage comes out next week, but even though the group is involved with the staging of its upcoming virtual concert experience in London, don’t expect any more new music from them.
That’s the word from the group’s main men, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. Speaking to the British paper The Guardian, they explain that they wrote two songs that didn’t make it onto the Voyage album, but they didn’t finish them, and so they won’t be released. “This is it,” Benny says. “It’s got to be, you know.”
Referring to the group’s breakup nearly 40 years ago, Benny adds, “I didn’t actually say that ‘this is it’ in 1982. I never said myself that ABBA was never going to happen again. But I can tell you now: this is it.” Bjorn agrees, saying, “Yeah.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean no more ABBA, period. The virtual show will play in London starting next spring and The Guardian notes that the lease on the purpose-built theater is for four-and-a-half years. In addition, the paper reports that there are “vague plans to build other theaters in other cities” so people outside the U.K. can see it more easily.
The four members of ABBA — Bjorn, Benny, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog — spent hours being motion-captured to create the show, which will feature de-aged digital “avatars” performing their hits, backed by a live 10-piece band and other effects. Asked if it’s weird to see themselves digitally de-aged, Bjorn says no.
“You have to realize that we are confronted by our younger selves all the time on television, in pictures and all of that….It’s completely natural,” he says. “Everyone should have their own avatar.”
Kid Cudi reflects on the joy of his career, and the depression he suffered for five years, in the trailer for his upcoming documentary, A Man Named Scott, which dropped Tuesday.
Born Scott Mescudi, the 37-year-old rapper reveals that the goal of his music is to “help people in some way. How can I make something that calls out to the broken and the lost.”
Cudi’s 2008 debut album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, was certified double-platinum. He’s won two Grammys, and recorded with a who’s who of hip hop during his 13 year career, including Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige. Yet despite his success, he admits there was a time when he was broken and lost. Cudi had suicidal thoughts for five years.
“I had a hard time dealing with the adjustment from being Scott to being Kid Cudi,” he admits. “People look at me, but I’m not a happy person. I felt like a fraud. That’s what drove me to escape reality.”
Cudi became an alcoholic, and suffered an emotional breakdown in 2013. Since then, he’s turned his life around.
“I sacrifice my privacy and put my life out there to help others,” he says. “That’s always been my mission.”
The Cleveland rapper recorded a song with Jay-Z for the soundtrack of The Harder They Fall, the new Netflix western, co-produced by Hova, starring Idris Elba and Regina King. His eighth solo album, Entergalactic, is set to be released in 2022.
A Man Named Scott will premiere November 5 on Amazon Prime Video.
(NEW YORK) — Petitioners in the judicial inquiry over the death of Eric Garner, who was killed by NYPD officers during an arrest for the alleged selling of untaxed cigarettes, are speaking out as the proceedings continue.
The petitioners represent leaders of the community fighting against racial injustice, including Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr. Together, they hope that the line of questioning will offer more insight and transparency into the fatal 2014 incident.
In a video conference with reporters, the petitioners called for the firing of officers involved in the incident who are testifying.
“I am sick and tired of listening to the lies,” Carr said. “These officers should not be on the force. They should have been fired immediately.”
The unique proceeding is hosting 13 NYPD officers and sergeants, who are testifying on the events surrounding Garner’s arrest, death and the alleged leak of several documents related to Garner and the incident. It will not result in any charges for those involved or any legal rulings.
On July 17, 2014, Garner was suspected by NYPD police officers Daniel Pantaleo and Justin D’Amico of selling untaxed cigarettes. Garner denied the accusation, but the police then tried to arrest the 43-year-old Black man.
Pantaleo used a prohibited chokehold that has been banned by the NYPD since the 1990s on Garner in order to detain him. Garner told officers “I can’t breathe” 11 times before falling unconscious.
Garner was left lying on the sidewalk for several minutes while officers waited for an ambulance to arrive, and was declared dead at the hospital.
Pantaleo, who committed the chokehold that led to Garner’s death will not be involved in the inquiry. He was fired in 2019 following a department disciplinary trial for using a banned chokehold method. Pantaleo was not indicted in Garner’s death.
He denies any wrongdoing. Garner’s family reached a $5.9 million settlement with the city over the incident.
Christopher Bannon, who was a special operations lieutenant at the time of Garner’s death, texted shortly after the incident that Garner’s death was “not a big deal” because he believed the arrest was lawful. On Monday, Bannon further testified that he still believes the arrest was lawful.
“My son lay dead on the ground and he said it wasn’t a big deal,” Carr said. “Well, officer Bannon, it was a big deal to me. That was my son. You had no sympathy or empathy for him.”
D’Amico admitted in testimony to falsities and mistakes he made when filing the initial incident report in his testimony; he claimed that no physical force was used during Garner’s arrest, and he also charged Garner with a tax-avoidance felony.
Garner only had four sealed packs of cigarettes on him, as well as an opened fifth pack that contained 15 cigarettes, however, a felony charge usually applies only to people in possession of at least 10,000 cigarettes.
D’Amico also claimed in testimony this week that he never heard Garner say that he couldn’t breathe.
Deputy Commissioner of Internal Affairs Joseph Reznick said in testimony that the Internal Affairs Bureau did not punish or investigate D’Amico for logging the false charge or falsity in the report, nor did they investigate media leaks of Garner’s medical and arrest history.
Petitioners on the press conference detested the actions being revisited and defended by officials.
“It’s horrendous that we are seven years later and they’re continuing to lie and they’re continuing to be on the force and that the mayor and commissioner have not made any substantive changes to hold these officers responsible,” said Kesi Foster, a petitioner from social advocacy organization Make the Road New York.
Several social justice organizations have joined Carr in what she said is a fight to seek justice for her son.
“Many of these kinds of offenses should be immediately fireable offenses,” said Joo-Hyun Kang, executive director of advocacy group Communities United for Police Reform and petitioner in the case.
“When you’re really talking about trying to end or reduce police violence that cannot happen unless you reduce the outside bloated budget, the bloated size, the outsized power, and the scope of the NYPD,” she added. “We have to reduce and limit the situations where officers are interacting with New Yorkers.”
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
Netflix has released the preview to its pandemic smash, Tiger King, and in the new trailer, they promise they’ve “only scratched the surface.”
The follow-up will continue the story surrounding all of its main characters, including, obviously, the Tiger King himself, Joe Exotic. In the clip, he calls collect from behind bars, noting “there’s an innocent man in prison.”
Suffering from cancer while incarcerated on a 22-year hitch in a murder for hire plot centering on his nemesis Carole Baskin, 58-year-old Joe continues, “Everybody from the zoo is out there making money, and I’m paying the price for every one of them people. If you give a damn, it’s time to speak up.”
Speaking of Baskin, the mysterious disappearance of her first husband Don Lewis also resurfaces in the clip; Tiger King had fans speculating she had something to do with it. Baskin, now 60, has maintained her innocence in the disappearance in 1997; Lewis was declared dead in 2002.
Netflix’s official description reveals: “With Joe Exotic behind bars and Carole Baskin closing in on ownership of his disreputable zoo, the Emmy-nominated saga continues its twisted course with Tiger King 2 as newfound revelations emerge on the motivations, backstories, and secrets of America’s most notorious big cat owners. Old enemies and frenemies, including Jeff Lowe, Tim Stark, Allen Glover, and James Garretson return for another season of murder, mayhem, and madness. Thought you knew the whole story? Just you wait.”
