(DAYTON, Ohio) — The suspect who carried out a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, on an early August morning in 2019 had an “enduring fascination with mass violence,” the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit concluded in a report released Monday.
Just after 1 a.m. on Aug. 4, 2019, Connor Betts killed nine people and wounded 27 when he opened fire in downtown Dayton.
It was the second mass shooting that weekend, after 23 people were killed at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, the day before.
After a mass shooting or incident, it is typical for the FBI to use its Behavioral Analysis Unit to try and determine a motive or find other factors at play when an attacker carries out an incident.
The FBI concluded in its report that Betts “likely violated federal law” by lying to federal investigators about his drug use when he purchased the gun used in the attack.
The agency also concluded that Betts likely suffered from mental illness.
“The FBI’s BAU assessed the attacker’s enduring fascination with mass violence and his inability to cope with a convergence of personal factors, to include a decade-long struggle with multiple mental health stressors and the successive loss of significant stabilizing anchors experienced prior to August 4, 2019, likely were the primary contributors to the timing and finality of his decision to commit a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio,” the report stated.
There were no specific warnings that Betts would one day commit a crime, the FBI said, despite having “suicidal and violent fantasies” for over a decade.
“This underscores the importance of bystanders’ attentiveness to more subtle changes an individual may exhibit that could be indicative of their decision to commit violence, such as a change in personal circumstances, an increase in perceived stressors, or language indicating they may be contemplating suicide,” the FBI said.
One reason that family and friends did not alert authorities about Betts was potentially because of “bystander fatigue,” according to the report. Bystander fatigue occurs when people around the suspect don’t pay attention or take any action “due to their prolonged exposure to the person’s erratic or otherwise troubling behavior over time,” according to the Behavioral Analysis Unit.
The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Cincinnati field office said there were some technical issues with the investigation that made it harder to get to the bottom of what happened.
“Finding answers for the victims and their families has been a driving motivator each day,” FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge J. William Rivers said in a statement.
“From the start, this has been a thorough and deliberate investigation. Due to technical challenges accessing lawfully acquired evidence that was encrypted, this investigation has taken significantly longer than expected,” he said. “However, we are confident that it has uncovered the key facts and that we have done everything in our ability to provide answers to all those impacted by this horrible attack.”
(NEW YORK) — “The biggest science event of the year quickly became the biggest political debate in our country, and the word at the center of both stories is vaccine,” Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, said in a press release. “Few words can express so much about one moment in time.”
The selection, which is based on search volume, comes as more than 196 million Americans are fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. The dictionary publishing company said in a press release Monday that even though the choice may be seen as “obvious,” data from its website’s search history paints a more complicated picture.
“Vaccine lookups increased 600%, and the story is about much more than medicine,” Sokolowski said in the press release. “It was at the center of debates about personal choice, political affiliation, professional regulations, school safety, healthcare inequity, and so much more.”
Sokolowski told ABC News on Monday that there was already increased search for vaccines coming into the year, as the first shots were administered in late 2020. Those searches continued in 2021, spiking in early summer and fall.
The dictionary publisher also expanded its definition of vaccine to include scientific advances in how vaccines work, adding information about the use of mRNA technology.
“Insurrection” was a notable runner-up as searches for the term spiked following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Sokolowski told ABC News that there was a 61,000% increase in searches for the word following the attack.
Another contender was “infrastructure,” which spiked in April as President Joe Biden made his pitch for a more than $2 trillion package investing in infrastructure.
Other words related to pop culture and lifestyle also trended, including “nomad,” which spiked after “Nomadland” swept the Oscars in April. The word “cicada” increased by 1,442% in May as Brood X emerged in the Northeast, with millions of the insects making their noisy entrances.
Sokolowski said some of 2021’s most popular words, like vaccine, may already be in the vocabulary of the average American and that the interest in the words may have “nothing to do with the spelling of vaccine, but it has a lot to do with our understanding of vaccines.”
“I’m betting most of the words that you look up in a given day are words that you have encountered before,” Sokolowski told ABC News. “Looking up a word isn’t the signal of ignorance, it’s the opposite of ignorance. It means that you want to know more nuanced, more specific knowledge”
Jackson Women’s Health Organization is Mississippi’s last remaining abortion clinic. – ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will consider a case that could fundamentally transform abortion rights in America by overturning Roe v. Wade and clearing the way for stringent new restrictions on abortion in roughly half the country.
“This is the most important Supreme Court case on abortion since Roe in 1973, and I don’t think it’s particularly close,” said Sherif Girgis, Notre Dame law professor and former clerk to Justice Samuel Alito.
The justices will hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health over a Mississippi law that prohibits termination of pregnancies after 15 weeks. Lower courts have found the ban plainly unconstitutional under the half century of legal precedent since Roe and put it on hold.
Fetal viability outside the womb — around 24 to 26 weeks, according to medical experts — has been the long-standing line before which states cannot ban abortions. Mississippi is asking the justices to eliminate that standard and allow each state to set its own policy.
“Roe v. Wade has hindered a healthy political dialogue about abortion, and perhaps most importantly, about how we as a society care for the dignity of women and children,” said Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who is leading defense of the state law.
The case will be heard by a court whose conservative majority of justices is widely viewed as more sympathetic to opponents of abortion rights than any in a generation. The three most recently appointed justices were all elevated to the high court by former President Donald Trump with the express purpose of overturning Roe.
”The new crop of quite conservative justices on the court seems to put special stock in how wrong a previous opinion was, and they all think that Roe was very, very wrong,” said Cardozo Law professor and ABC News legal analyst Kate Shaw. “I think that will be an important factor in their decision whether to revisit it.”
The fact that the court decided to take up the case — without a clear conflict among lower courts or ambiguity in legal precedent — suggests to many legal scholars that a decision favoring Mississippi is highly likely.
“The court has long surprised us,” said Shaw, “but it seems to me a vanishingly slim chance that the court will strike down the Mississippi law.”
A decision upholding the state’s 15-week abortion ban would implicitly reverse nearly 50 years of Supreme Court precedent and open the door to state restrictions much earlier in pregnancy.
“You cannot uphold Mississippi’s 15-week ban on abortion and continue the precedent of Roe v. Wade. They’re not compatible,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is leading the legal battle against the law. “There is no middle ground.”
Majorities of Americans support the Supreme Court upholding Roe v. Wade and oppose states making it harder for abortion clinics to operate, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll this month. Three in four Americans, including majorities of Republicans, independents and Democrats, say the decision of whether or not to have an abortion should be left to a woman and her doctor.
University of California, Berkeley Law professor Daniel Farber said the legal options before the court are stark and extreme. “I think between those two options, I think overruling Roe would win the day,” Farber said.
Some abortion law scholars believe the justices may attempt a more moderate approach — at least in appearance — by upholding the Mississippi law while explaining that they are changing, rather than overturning, the standard set by Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
“The court might say, ‘We are not finding that there’s no constitutional protection for abortion, only that these earlier decisions didn’t give sufficient weight to other kinds of state interests,'” said Shaw. “So, perhaps states may be able to ban abortions prior to viability, but that doesn’t mean they have carte blanche to ban all abortions.”
Mississippi has just one remaining abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health, that only provides abortion services up to 16 weeks of pregnancy. The state argues that a ban starting at 15 weeks would not impose a significant burden on most women.
While Americans are broadly supportive of abortion rights, they appear more sharply divided on the type of ban at issue in Mississippi. A Marquette University Law School poll this month found 37% favored upholding a 15-week ban, with 32% opposed.
Overshadowing the case is the Supreme Court’s still-pending decision in a separate dispute over Texas’ unprecedented six-week abortion ban, SB8, which has been in effect for nearly three months and dominated national headlines.
“SB8 has the effect of making the Mississippi statute look quite moderate,” said Julia Mahoney, a law professor at the University of Virginia. “So in a sense, upholding the Mississippi statute looks now like kind of a middle ground.”
The justices gave the Texas law a highly expedited hearing, during which a majority appeared skeptical of its enforcement scheme that encourages citizens to sue anyone who aids or abets an unlawful abortion for the chance at a $10,000 bounty. Many observers assumed the court would quickly move to put the law on hold, but it has not done so.
Girgis said the delay suggests the justices “hit some snags” in their negotiations and may have decided to resolve the dispute in tandem with the Mississippi case.
“If they end up reversing Casey and Roe, then obviously the question of the constitutionality of SB8 becomes a lot easier,” Girgis said.
In the meantime, access to abortion care for millions of women in the nation’s second-most populous state remains on hold and could be suspended for months longer. The court is not expected to issue a decision in the Mississippi case until June.
“We’re waiting on tenterhooks to hear from the court,” said Northup of Texas law SB8. “But it is just quite unconscionable that we’re so many months in, allowing this law to be in effect when it clearly violates Roe v. Wade.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh could be the key vote to watch in both cases, analysts said. He sided with the majority more than any other justice last term and notably broke with Chief Justice John Roberts in September to allow SB8 to take effect.
“From a tea leaf reading standpoint, we’re watching Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett,” said Mary Ziegler, Florida State Law professor and a leading abortion law historian.
“I think she may have some incentive, certainly not to save Roe, but to take her time in unraveling Roe rather than kind of delivering an immediate death blow,” Ziegler said of Barrett, the court’s newest and youngest member. “We don’t know what Brett Kavanaugh, who is no longer beholden to John Roberts to get the deciding vote, will say about abortion.”
The abortion rights battle at the Supreme Court comes as Republican-led states have enacted more than 100 new abortion restrictions so far this year, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. Twenty-one states have laws in place that would quickly impose abortion bans in the event the Supreme Court overturns Roe.
Fourteen states plus Washington, D.C., have laws explicitly protecting access to abortion care, according to Guttmacher.
“If the court follows the rule of law, we will prevail,” Northrup said. “But we are ready to fight on every front if there should be a reversal of Roe.”
An alleged sexual assault incident involving Trey Songz is currently being investigated by Las Vegas Metro Police Department.
In a statement to ABC News, LVMPD says that on Sunday they “received a report of a sexual assault incident alleged to have occurred at a hotel in the 3700 block of South Las Vegas Boulevard” involving the 37-year-old singer, who was born Tremaine Neverson.
The incident is currently being investigated by detectives and Songz is “cooperating with the investigation,” the statement adds. “At this time, no arrests have been made.”
The “Bottoms Up” singer apparently was in Sin City to ring in his 37th birthday at Drai’s Nightclub on Saturday night. The party then continued at the Cosmopolitan hotel where a TMZ source said that Songz and his entourage brought back a group of women.
(NEW YORK) — The holiday season is in full swing and tree farmers across the country are preparing for the Christmas crowds.
At Boyd Mountain Christmas Tree Farm in Waynesville, North Carolina, customers can cut down their own Christmas tree. Darren Nicholson, who works at the farm, said he is grateful to see people “coming out in record numbers to get the perfect Christmas tree.”
Across the country, wholesale tree grower The Jonsteen Company packages live tree saplings and seed growing kits. The California-based company specializes in Giant Sequoias and Coast Redwoods but offers a variety of different trees, including evergreens, giving customers a chance to plant their own Christmas tree and watch it grow over the years.
One Jonsteen customer, Martin Harmon, and his family, who live south of Atlanta, planted their Christmas tree years ago and now it’s a full-grown evergreen.
The Fowler family from Lexington, Kentucky, planted their Jonsteen tree in their front yard and have already decorated it with lights.
Other small businesses all over the country are gearing up for the holiday rush, like Authenticity50. The California-based bedding and home goods company was co-founded by husband and wife Jimmy and Steph McDonald.
Last year, they started using their materials to sew masks in the middle of the pandemic.
All of their products are 100% American made. The McDonalds said the cotton is from California, the yarn is spun in Georgia, the sheets they sell are cut and sewn in South Carolina, their button are from Connecticut and their packaging is made in Illinois.
The McDonalds said the advantage of having their products made in the U.S. is that they are fully stocked during ongoing supply chain shortages.
“We haven’t had to deal with container ships stuck at port,” said Jimmy McDonald.
“Buying local helps us sustain our small business and 1,000 local jobs from coast to coast,” added Steph McDonald.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 778,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.3% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 30, 10:53 am
FDA says it’s working quickly as possible to evaluate omicron
The FDA in a new statement said it’s working as quickly as possible to evaluate the potential impact of omicron on the currently available diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.
“Historically, the work to obtain the genetic information and patient samples for variants and then perform the testing needed to evaluate their impact takes time,’ the FDA said. “However, we expect the vast majority of this work to be completed in the coming weeks.”
The FDA stressed that vaccines, boosters and masks are the best ways to stay protected.
-ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss
Nov 30, 9:53 am
Passengers arriving in US from South Africa sent home with testing kits
The CDC said passengers who arrived in the U.S. from Johannesburg, South Africa, on Sunday — before travel restrictions took effect — were offered free at-home PCR testing kits.
Passengers were told to wait three to five days before collecting a sample that they could then mail back for testing. It’s not clear how many have done so or if any were positive.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Nov 30, 8:52 am
Global case count of omicron variant tops 200
More than 200 confirmed cases of the omicron variant, first identified in Southern Africa, have been reported in over a dozen countries around the world, according to an open-source tracker run by Newsnodes and BNO News.
The tracker shows South Africa has the highest tally by far, with 114 confirmed cases, followed by 19 in Botswana; 14 in The Netherlands; 13 in Portugal; 11 in the United Kingdom; five in Australia; five in Germany; five in Canada; five in Hong Kong; four in Italy; two in Israel; two in Denmark; one in the French island territory of Reunion; one in Austria; one in Sweden; one in Belgium; one in Czech Republic; and one in Spain.
So far, no cases have been confirmed in the United States.
Nov 30, 8:46 am
‘The virus is not tired of us,’ NIH director warns
Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, is urging Americans to be vigilant in the wake of a new variant of the novel coronavirus that is sweeping the globe.
The World Health Organization has designated omicron as a “variant of concern.” But so much remains unknown about omicron, including whether it causes severe disease and if it is more contagious than delta, which is currently the dominant variant in the United States.
“We’re collecting that information as rapidly as we can, and much credit to our colleagues in South Africa who have been totally transparent about this. We only learned about this one week ago from one of their sequencers,” Collins told ABC News’ Robin Roberts in an interview Tuesday on Good Morning America.
“So we are quickly trying to figure out in South Africa, is this in fact more contagious than other variants? It does look like it’s spreading quite quickly there,” he added. “But we don’t know how that would play out in a country like ours, where delta is already so dominant. Would omicron be able to compete with delta? We don’t know the answer to that.”
Another big question, Collins said, is whether the current COVID-19 vaccines and boosters will provide protection against omicron as they have against previous variants. The answers will “take a couple of weeks” to uncover, he said.
In the meantime, Collins encouraged all Americans to get vaccinated and boosted if eligible, and to wear face masks.
“I wear my mask if I’m indoors with other people — I don’t always know if they’re all vaccinated or not. That’s just good practice,” he said. “I know we’re all tired of this, but the virus is not tired of us and it’s continuing to exploit those opportunities where we’re careless.”
Nov 30, 7:22 am
Omicron variant was in the Netherlands earlier than thought
Dutch health authorities announced Tuesday that they have detected omicron in two previously tested samples, dating back as much as 11 days, indicating that the new variant was already circulating in western Europe before it was first identified in southern Africa.
The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said it discovered omicron in samples dated Nov. 19 and Nov. 23, preceding the cases found among people traveling from South Africa to the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on Nov. 26.
“It is not yet clear whether these people had also visited southern Africa,” the institute said in a statement Tuesday.
Out of 624 passengers returning from South Africa who were tested for COVID-19 at the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on Nov. 26, 61 tested positive, including 14 with the omicron variant.
“Laboratory tests identified several different strains of the omicron variant,” the institute said. “This means that the people were very probably infected independently from each other, from different sources and in different locations.”
The omicron variant was first reported to World Health Organization from South Africa on Nov. 24.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 778,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.3% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 30, 7:22 am
Omicron was circulating in the Netherlands 11 days ago, authorities say
Dutch health authorities announced Tuesday that they have detected omicron in two previously tested samples, dating back as much as 11 days, indicating that the new variant was already circulating in western Europe before it was first identified in southern Africa.
The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said it discovered omicron in samples dated Nov. 19 and Nov. 23, preceding the cases found among people traveling from South Africa to the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on Nov. 26.
“It is not yet clear whether these people had also visited southern Africa,” the institute said in a statement Tuesday.
Out of 624 passengers returning from South Africa who were tested for COVID-19 at the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on Nov. 26, 61 tested positive, including 14 with the omicron variant.
“Laboratory tests identified several different strains of the omicron variant,” the institute said. “This means that the people were very probably infected independently from each other, from different sources and in different locations.”
The omicron variant was first reported to World Health Organization from South Africa on Nov. 24.
Nov 30, 6:48 am
Top South African scientist slams travel bans in response to omicron
One of the South African scientists who helped identify the omicron variant took to Twitter to slam the travel bans imposed on southern African countries as a result of their discovery.
Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Center for Epidemic Response and Innovation in Stellenbosch, South Africa, tweeted Monday night that he had “spent a big part” of his day speaking with genomic and biotech companies because “soon” his team “will run out of reagents as airplanes are not flying to South Africa.”
In a series of tweets last week, de Oliveira urged the world to “provide support to South Africa and Africa and not discriminate or isolate it.”
“We have been very transparent with scientific information. We identified, made data public, and raised the alarm as the infections are just increasing. We did this to protect our country and the world in spite of potentially suffering massive discrimination,” he tweeted.
“This new variant is really worrisome at the mutational level. South Africa and Africa will need support (financially, public health, scientific) to control it so it does not spread in the world. Our poor and deprived population can not be in lockdown without financial support,” he said in another tweet.
De Oliveira, who is leading a team of scientists analyzing the genomic sequencing of the new variant, issued an appeal to billionaires and financial institutions to support South Africa and the African continent.
“We do have funding for science, but South Africa and Africa need financial help to support their deprived population and health system,” he tweeted. “By protecting its poor and oppressed population we will protect the world.”
Nov 30, 5:16 am
Japan confirms 1st case of omicron variant
Japan confirmed on Tuesday its first case of the omicron variant, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno.
Matsuno told a press conference that the patient is a man in his 30s who tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival at Japan’s Narita International Airport on Sunday after traveling from Namibia. A genome analysis confirmed Tuesday that he was infected with the new variant, which was first identified in southern Africa last week.
The man was isolated and is being treated at a hospital, according to Matsuno, who refused to disclose the patient’s nationality. His travel companions and the passengers who sat nearby have been identified and referred to Japanese health authorities, Matsuno said.
Earlier this week, Japan announced that it will ban all foreign visitors starting Tuesday as an emergency precaution against omicron, which the World Health Organization has classified as a “variant of concern.” The government is also requiring Japanese nationals and foreigners with resident permits to quarantine 14 days upon entry.
-ABC News’ Anthony Trotter
Nov 29, 7:04 pm
3rd omicron case detected in Canada
A third person in Canada has tested positive for the omicron COVID-19 variant, health officials announced Monday.
The province of Quebec has confirmed its first case of the variant, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube told reporters at a press conference in Montreal.
The woman who tested positive had traveled to Nigeria, said Canada Director of Public Health Dr. Horacio Arruda.
Two cases of the variant had been previously detected in Ontario, officials said Sunday.
-ABC News’ Darren Reynolds
Nov 29, 6:06 pm
Pfizer to ask FDA to authorize boosters for people 16-17: Source
Pfizer is going to ask the Food and Drug Administration in the coming days to authorize COVID-19 booster shots for 16- and 17-year-olds, a source familiar with the discussions confirmed to ABC News.
This would expand booster access from everyone over 18 to everyone over 16.
Pfizer vaccines were authorized for adolescents in May, so many fully vaccinated people are nearing their six-month mark amid growing concern over the omicron variant.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Nov 29, 4:15 pm
CDC strengthens booster recommendations
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday strengthened its recommendation on booster doses for adults.
The previous recommendation was that all adults 50 and older should get a booster, and those 18 to 49 may want to get boosters. Now, the CDC says all adults should get a booster shot six months after their Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or two months after the Johnson & Johnson shot.
CDC director Rochelle Walensky said, “I strongly encourage the 47 million adults who are not yet vaccinated to get vaccinated as soon as possible and to vaccinate the children and teens in their families as well because strong immunity will likely prevent serious illness.”
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Philadelphia 101, Orlando 96
Denver 120, Miami 111
Houston 102, Oklahoma City 89
Chicago 133, Charlotte 119
Minnesota 100, Indiana 98
Cleveland 114, Dallas 96
Utah 129, Portland 107
New Orleans 123, LA Clippers 104
Final San Antonio 116 Washington 99
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Seattle 7, Buffalo 4
Arizona 1, Winnipeg 0
Vancouver 2, Montreal 1
Calgary 2, Pittsburgh 1 (SO)
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Washington 17, Seattle 15
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Gonzaga 64, Tarleton St. 55
Texas 73, Sam Houston St. 57
Kentucky 85, Cent. Michigan 57
The heirs of Aldo Gucci, chairman of the Gucci fashion house from 1953-1986, have issued a statement decrying their “ignorant and insensitive” portrayal in the Ridley Scott film, House of Gucci.
“The production of the film did not bother to consult the heirs before describing Aldo Gucci — [played in the film by Al Pacino]…and the members of the Gucci family as thugs, ignorant and insensitive to the world around them,” they say in a statement first published by Italian news agency ANSA and obtained by Variety.
The statement goes on to claim the film attributes “a tone and and an attitude to the protagonists of the well-known events that never belonged to them.”
The statement further claims the depiction of Patrizia Reggiani — played by Lady Gaga — who was convicted in 1998 of facilitating the murder of Maurizio Gucci — played by Adam Driver — “as a victim trying to survive in a male and male chauvinist corporate culture…couldn’t be further from the truth,” noting that that during the 70-year time span in which the Gucci company was a family business, it was “an inclusive company” and “there were several women who held top positions.”
“Gucci is a family that lives honoring the work of its ancestors, whose memory does not deserve to be disturbed to stage a spectacle that is untrue and which does not do justice to its protagonists,” the statement concluded, adding that “the members of the Gucci family reserve the right to take action to protect the name, image and dignity of themselves and their loved ones.”
Despite the accusations, no legal action is being taken at this time by the Gucci family against Scott’s Scott Free shingle and Universal, a source tells Variety.
In the last couple of years, biopics of Elton John and Queen‘s Freddie Mercury — Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody, respectively — were hugely successful at the box office, and Rod Stewart isn’t about to let a similar opportunity pass him by: He claims he’s actively working on a movie of his life.
During an interview with the music newsletter The New Cue, Rod is asked if a biopic is happening, to which he replies. “Yeah, yeah! I want that to happen!!” When asked for details, Rod says, “We’re working on it, that’s all I can tell you.”
So who would play Rod in this alleged film? He tells The New Cue, “Oh God, I’ve haven’t thought of that. I know my 18-year-old son wants to play me at 18. Maybe I could get my other son playing me when I was 10.”
In addition to planning a biopic, Rod is also promoting his new album The Tears of Hercules, which is his fourth album of original songs in eight years. Sir Rod says this late-career creative roll he’s been on is a result of a few different things.
“I didn’t enjoy writing songs back in the day because it was taking up such a huge part of my life, with all the drinking and a-drugging and a-shagging and a-drinking,” he explains. “But now that’s all gone out the window, I’m concentrated on writing songs and enjoying it a great deal.”
“Also, I’ve realized the capability for writing personal songs and telling the truth,” he adds, pointing out that he’s got plenty of material. As the father of eight puts it, “I’ve lived a life. Over and over and over again.”
