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Diane Warren reveals Cher “hated” “If I Could Turn Back Time” at first

August 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

“If I Could Turn Back Time” has become one of Cher‘s signature songs — but not without some convincing from songwriter Diane Warren.

Looking back on one of the many timeless hits she’s written, Diane recalls how she had to beg the icon to record the song, which became a worldwide hit and marked a resurgence in Cher’s career.

“She hated it,” Diane shares with People. “I went to the studio and literally got on my knees and said, ‘I’ll pay for it. If you don’t like it, don’t use it.’ She agreed. I remember looking at her in the booth and the look on her face when she sang the opening line like, ‘You b****, you were right.'”

The multi-hit songwriter adds that she had a similar experience with Toni Braxton, who was initially hesitant to record “Un-Break My Heart.” The song turned into a multi-platinum hit and won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 1997 Grammy Awards.

“She didn’t want to do the song. I told her, ‘You’re going to win a Grammy for this vocal,’ and she did. People should listen. I know what I’m talking about!” Diane expresses.

After spending nearly four decades penning a multitude of hits, Diane is stepping into the spotlight with her debut album, The Cave Session Vol. 1, available now, featuring collaborations with Celine Dion, Carlos Santana, John Legend, Maren Morris and more.

Jason Newsted felt “livid” after hearing final mix of Metallica’s ‘…And Justice for All’

August 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Over 30 years later, the inaudible bass on Metallica‘s 1988 album …And Justice for All remains one of the most puzzling studio decisions in metal history. Understandably, Jason Newsted was among those most confused.

Newsted joined Metallica in 1986 after the death of bassist Cliff Burton. Justice was the first ‘Tallica album that he played on, and was quite angry when his parts were turned down to near-silent levels on the final mix.

“I was f***ing livid!,” Newsted tells Metal Hammer. “Are you kidding me? I was ready [to go] for throats, man!”

“No, I was out of my head, because I really thought I did well,” he adds. “And I thought I played how I was supposed to play.”

Being Newsted was joining in place of a beloved member who’d just died, some have hypothesized that Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield purposely turned down his bass out of misplaced anger towards him. However, Ulrich has said the decision was not intentional, and that Newsted getting buried in the mix was a result of turning everything else up, and not specifically turning him down.

Newsted left Metallica in 2001 under somewhat acrimonious circumstances — as detailed in the 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster — but seems to be back on good terms with the band. Earlier this month, he starred in an unboxing video for Metallica’s upcoming Black Album 30th anniversary reissue, due out September 10.

Did Drake announce the release date for his ‘Certified Lover Boy’ album on ‘Sportscenter’?

August 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

It appears that Drake announced the release date for his long awaited Certified Lover Boy album in a very mysterious way: with a handwritten note Friday morning on Sportscenter.

The ESPN show opened with its usual montage of sports highlights. Then suddenly, an image appeared, reading “CLB September 3,” as captured by XXL Magazine.

The Champagne Papi’s sixth studio album was delayed after originally being scheduled for release in January. It follows up Drake’s 2018, RIAA five-times Platinum album Scorpion, which features the number-one hits “Nice for What,” “In My Feelings,” and “Nonstop.”

Since the release of Scorpion, Drizzy dropped his Care Package compilation project in August 2019, the Dark Lane Demo Tapes mixtape in May 2020, and his Scary Hours 2 EP in March.

The first single from Certified Lover Boy, “Laugh Now Cry Later,” featuring Lil Durk, was released August 14, 2020 and hit number one.

Did Drake just announce Certified Lover Boy’s release date of next Friday on SportsCenter? 😳pic.twitter.com/nTq3s4OvpM

— XXL Magazine (@XXL) August 27, 2021

Ryan Hurd sets his sights on his 15-track debut album, ‘Pelago‘

August 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

After years of being one of Nashville’s most in-demand country songwriters and a steadily rising artist in his own right, Ryan Hurd has announced the release of his debut album.

The project, called Pelago, will be out this fall and contain 15 songs, many of which were inspired by the singer’s childhood growing up near Lake Michigan. The track list includes previously-released love ballads like “To a T” and “Diamonds or Twine,” which Ryan has released over the years in part as dedications to his fellow country artist wife, Maren Morris.

Speaking of Maren, she’s featured on Pelago, too: The couple’s current country radio single duet, “Chasing After You,” is the third track on the project.

Additionally, Ryan is celebrating his album announcement with another new song, called “June, July, August.” Pelago will be out in full on October 15, but it’s available to pre-add and pre-save now.

Halsey says they felt “treated like a teen mom” during pregnancy

August 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Halsey is comparing their experience being pregnant to a teen mom situation.

In a candid interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Halsey opens up about the struggle of going through a public pregnancy where they were constantly bombarded with derogatory comments. The singer and partner Alev Aydin welcomed their child Ender Ridley Alvin on July 14.

“I’m 26, and I tried very hard for this pregnancy and I’m financially independent, I’m pretty far along in my career, it feels like the right time for me to do it. And I got treated like a teen mom a lot of the times,” she explains.

The singer says that the comments targeting their age and not being married to Alev were damaging to their self-esteem. “It triggered all of these feelings of shame from when I was younger. It triggered a lot of old feelings of shame in me where I was like, ‘How can you have an opinion, that kind of opinion on me making this decision?'” they continue.

Halsey also offered insight into their decision to take a social media break during the pregnancy to ensure the life-changing experience was personal.

“I had to make a choice, especially in my pregnancy, where the girl who’s been the open book for six years, this had to be mine. I was not going to put myself [out there]. The consequences were too high,” the singer says. “The consequences of letting social media stress me out or cause me grief, it’s no longer just me being affected by it. There’s a whole other person whose nervous system is being affected by the status of mine. So I had to make that choice.”

Halsey’s new album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, was released Friday.

Queen’s Roger Taylor duets with KT Tunstall on first single from his upcoming solo album

August 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Queen drummer Roger Taylor recently announced plans to release his first solo album in over eight years, Outsider, on October 1, and now the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has premiered the first single from the record, “We’re All Just Trying to Get By.”

The track features guest vocals by award-winning Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall, and is available now as a digital download and via streaming services.

You also can check out a music video for the tune at Taylor’s official YouTube channel. The clip features footage of Roger in a recording studio singing and playing piano and slide guitar — but not the drums — and Tunstall singing her parts separately.

Taylor wrote the dreamy pop tune during the COVID-19 lockdown while reflecting on what ties all living things together.

“I tried to highlight the great things in life,” he explains. “It’s the simplest statement, really. It’s what every life force on Earth is doing: just trying to get by and proliferate and exist. That’s all we are trying to do, from plants to animals to humans, trying to survive…Also, of course, we are in the middle of a bloody pandemic.”

Regarding Tunstall’s participation in the recording, Roger notes, “The track was all finished, and it was suggested it might be nice if we got KT involved…I love what she did, I think it really adds to the track…She’s a very talented singer and musician, and it’s lovely to have her on the track.”

Adds Tunstall, “What a pleasure to work with such a brilliant writer and musical hero.”

Outsider, which can be pre-ordered now, is available on CD, as a vinyl LP and on cassette.

Taylor will promote the album on a U.K. solo tour in October.

Here’s Outsider‘s full track list:

“Tides”
“I Know, I Know, I Know”
“More Kicks”
“Absolutely Anything”
“Gangsters Are Running This World”
“We’re All Just Trying to Get By” — featuring KT Tunstall
“Gangsters Are Running This World” (Purple Version)
“Isolation”
“The Clapping Song”
“Outsider”
“Foreign Sand” (English Mix)
“Journey’s End”

Ahead of ‘Shang-Chi’, check out ‘All Hail the King’, new on Disney+

August 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Ahead of the September 3 release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Marvel Studios has surprised fans by dropping on Disney+ All Hail the King, one of its “One-Shot” short films that previously was only released on the DVD for Iron Man 3.

The short takes place after Shane Black‘s 2013 blockbuster, which had a twist that its menacing villain, who called himself “The Mandarin,” was actually a has-been actor named Trevor Slattery, played by Oscar winner Ben Kingsley.

However, All Hail the King, written and directed by Iron Man 3 co-writer Drew Pearce, reinforces that there is a real Mandarin — who appears in Shang-Chi — and he, as is the rest of his deadly Ten Rings organization, is understandably none too happy with Slattery. Kingsley, too, appears in the upcoming film.

Some fans are still vocal about the Iron Man 3 twist, which somehow stayed secret in the age of social media — something that shocked Pearce. He told ABC Audio, “How did we get away with having an actual twist that nobody knew about in advance!? We were at the London premiere. “We were like, it’s a week ’til this comes out in America. This is not going to be a surprise to any human in the world. And for some reason, people like respected it as a twist, you know.”

And Pearce clarified that All Hail the King wasn’t an “apology” for the Mandarin twist, as some fanboys had snarked. “I always thought it was weird that like to somehow placate the people that were annoyed by Trevor Slattery, I would make a whole new film with Trevor Slattery where he’s even more Trevor Slattery-ish than he was in the original film,” Drew laughs.

He added, “[W]e stated fairly clearly in [Iron Man 3] that the Mandarin was a mantle that had already existed and would continue to exist. And All Hail the King was really just in the lineage of that.”

Pearce adds, “I’m so proud of Iron Man 3, like it’s so esoteric as a superhero movie that I don’t think people even remember that until they re-watch it. It’s its own movie, and it’s pretty bonkers in places. And I love that.”

Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

R. Kelly’s former manager claims singer would punish staffers through fines and docked pay

August 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

R. Kelly‘s sex trafficking trial continued Thursday with his ex-manager, Tom Arnold, taking the stand as the twelfth witness, testifying that the singer would punish employees by withholding pay, or fining them over small transgressions.

Arnold served as Kelly’s studio and tour manager from 1998 to 2011, reports Billboard, and told the court Kelly would punish staffers by hitting them in the wallet, and that there were “quite a few” occasions where Kelly docked his pay over “menial” mistakes.

One standout claim was that Kelly “fined” his employees “because someone ate his donuts.” Arnold also alleged he lost a week’s salary because he hired a male tour guide, instead of a woman, to take Kelly and his companions around Disney World. Because of that, Arnold said Kelly docked his pay $1,500 and canceled his Disney getaway.

Arnold said he quit after that, telling the court, “My wife wasn’t happy, I wasn’t happy, Rob wasn’t happy,” referring to Kelly by his birth name, Robert.

Arnold’s testimony was similar to claims made by former assistant Anthony Navarro, who also told the court about Kelly’s methods of punishing staffers.

During cross-examination, Arnold recalled the number of famous individuals visiting Kelly at his recording studio and confirmed people around him were “eager” to sue him. Because of that, Kelly required all guests to sign confidentiality agreements.

Kelly, 54, whose birth name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, faces state and federal charges for sex trafficking, racketeering, coercion and other charges related to the alleged abuse and exploitation of six women — three of whom were underage at the time — over the course of 25 years. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

Kacey Musgraves drops second song off ‘star-crossed,’ shares plans to play the MTV VMAs

August 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Kacey Musgraves continues to roll out new music this week, unveiling another new song off her recently-announced star-crossed album. That song is “justified,” the sixth track on the upcoming collection.

In its lyrics, Kacey comes to terms with the non-linear, zig-zag pattern of healing that follows a breakup. “If I cry just a little and then laugh in the middle / If I hate you and I love you and then I change my mind / If I need just a little more time to deal with the fact / That you should’ve treated me right / Then I’m more than just a little / Justified,” she reflects in the chorus.

Set to a mesmerizing, bubbly pop beat, the new song follows “star-crossed,” the atmospheric album-opener that Kacey dropped earlier this week.

Along with “justified,” Kacey also shared a music video, which follows her as she’s driving down a variety of different rural roads and city streets, tracing a complicated emotional range that bounces between tears and laughter.

The end of the music video teases another new song ahead: The car radio static fizzles into the sound of Kacey’s voice singing “Don’t go through your camera roll” against a somber musical backdrop. Her phone beside her starts buzzing and lighting up, showing her old photos from her camera roll that are titled things like “The day it fell apart” and “denial.”

Kacey’s new collection will arrive in full on September 10, along with an accompanying film. Two days later, she’ll give the world premiere performance of the title track of star-crossed at the 2021 MTV VMAs.

Taylor Swift joins Big Red Machine for haunting “Birch”

August 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Taylor Swift and Big Red Machine are reuniting under “Birch.”

The indie folk bank of Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon called on the superstar singer for the cinematic “Birch” that’s led by piano with hints of a flickering pop beat and soft saxophone. Taylor supplies haunting supporting harmonies on the chorus as she and Justin sing, “Well, if you cannot tell/I’ll tell you right away/If I’ll stay a spell/Or if I cannot stay/I am less at ease, not the best at these/See the forest trees, call what’s these what’s these.”

“Birch” is the latest in a line of successful collaborations between the two acts, as Taylor also appears on the previously released “Renegade.” Both songs are featured on Big Red Machine’s new album, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, which dropped on Friday.

Additionally, Aaron is co-producer behind Taylor’s Grammy-winning album Folklore and its follow-up, Evermore, while Justin — aka Bon Iver — co-wrote a duet with Taylor, “Exile,” and the title track of Evermore.

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