Genesis‘ The Last Domino? tour arrived in the U.S. on Monday night. But unlike the last time the British legends toured, back in 2007, frontman Phil Collins, 70, is performing while sitting down, due to nerve damage that affects his hands and back. However, Phil’s band mates say so far, the singer’s been a real trouper.
“He’s done well,” bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford says of the European dates the band has already completed. He tells USA Today, “Funny enough, we almost got through the [European] tour and I got COVID, but Phil was perfect. He’s doing fine. When you see the show, he definitely holds the crowd.”
Keyboard player Tony Banks adds that Phil’s 20-year-old son, Nicolas, who’s taken over for his dad on drums, “really plugs the gap very well,” adding, “The visuals work in a way that a seated Phil isn’t as noticeable.”
“People come to the show and say they forget Phil isn’t moving around,” adds Rutherford.
As for whether or not The Last Domino? tour will live up to that question mark, both Banks and Rutherford say that it will.
“We’d always say never say never, but there comes a point…,” says Banks. “When we do the final show next year, that will be it.”
“I think there will be a lot of tears…It’s been nice for the three of us to spend some reconnected time together,” notes Rutherford. “It makes you solidify things. There are things that only the three of us understand because we lived it.”
“It’s important to know when to stop something,” Banks adds. “So I’d say if you want to see Genesis, don’t put it off ‘til the next one. We’re not like the [Rolling] Stones.”
If you’re looking for a gift for the burgeoning punk rocker in your life this holiday season, Billie Joe Armstrong is here to help.
The Green Day frontman has announced the launch of the Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior, a new, signature electric guitar in partnership with Epiphone.
Modeled after Armstrong’s own beloved Epiphone, which he memorably played on Green Day’s Bullet in a Bible concert film, the Les Paul Junior features a Classic White finish, and features the “Basket Case” rocker’s signature on the back of the headstock.
“Working with Billie Joe Armstrong over the years has been an absolute honor for our team,” says Aljon Go, Epiphone Product Manager. “The new Epiphone Billie Joe Armstrong signature guitars will help inspire a whole new generation of guitarists with an accessible, quality instrument to blaze their path in making music, just as Billie has throughout his Grammy Award-winning career.”
The Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior is available now for $549 via Epiphone.com.
Armstrong recently got off the road playing stadiums on Green Day’s Hella Mega tour with Fall Out Boy and Weezer. The “American Idiot” outfit is set to return to the stage next year in February to play the Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest.
Jackson Browne and Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen will headline a special concert on December 19 at the historic Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, that will celebrate some of the iconic songs that various famous artists have played at the venue over the years.
The show, dubbed “The Capitol Sessions: Songs from a Rock Palace That Impacted the World,” will raise money for the nonpartisan voter-registration organization HeadCount.
The evening is being curated by respected Americana artist Larry Campbell, whose resume includes being the longtime musical director for late Band singer/drummer Levon Helm and a one-time member of Bob Dylan‘s touring band.
The lineup also features former Rolling Stones backing singer Lisa Fischer, Helm’s daughter Amy, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh‘s son Grahame and many more.
Tickets for the show go on sale this Friday, November 19, at 12 p.m. ET at TheCapitolTheatre.com. Those buying tickets are encouraged to donate money to support voter registration and HeadCount.
“[The Capitol Theatre is] a place where many of rock’s most beloved legends performed — The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Janis Joplin, to name a few,” notes Peter Shapiro, founder of the concert’s co-producer Dayglo Presents. “We can’t wait to celebrate the iconic songs that have been played over the years at The Cap. It will be very cool for The Capitol Sessions to happen on the same stage where these songs were originally performed. It’s going to be an epic night!”
The Bachelorette headed to Michelle Young‘s hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota on Tuesday, but even a change in venue couldn’t stop Chris S. from trying to chip away at Nayte‘s frontrunner status.
After pulling Michelle aside at last week’s rose ceremony to accuse Nayte of being too cocky and not being there for her, Chris thought he had taken some of the wind out of Nayte’s sails, while upping his own status with Michelle.
Instead, Nayte scored a one-on-one date with Michelle, while Chris was left competing with nine other men for Michelle’s time, which he failed to get.
Desperate, Chris brazenly crashed her date with Nayte to voice disappointment that the warnings about his fellow suitor “had fallen on deaf ears.”
After pointing out Chris’ “negative attitude” during the group date she explained that she wanted “a man who will stand and support me when I speak, and not a man who speaks for me.” Nayte got the date rose, while Chris was shown the door.
Also sent home on Tuesday were Casey, Clayton and Leroy.
Another one-on-one date with “Minnesota” Joe led to his revelation that a career-ending sports injury led to severe anxiety, depression and, ultimately, thoughts of suicide. Michelle praised him for battling through it and offered him the date rose.
Here are the other men remaining after the rose ceremony:
Brandon J., 26, a traveling nurse recruiter from Portland, Ore Joe, 28, a real estate developer from Minneapolis, Minn. Martin, 29, a personal trainer from Miami, Fla
Nayte, 27, a sales executive from Austin, Texas Olu, 27, an IT analyst from Newark, N.J. Rick, 32, a medical sales rep from Los Angeles, Calif. Rodney, 29, a sales rep from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
If you are in crisis or know someone in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. You can reach Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada) and The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386.
The Bachelorette continues Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Sony dropped the footage Spider-Man fans were waiting for Tuesday night, more or less, in the trailer to Spider-Man: No Way Home.
As we learned from the teaser, Tom Holland‘s Peter Parker is on the run, and has teamed up with Benedict Cumberbatch‘s Doctor Strange for a spell to make people forget he’s Spider-Man. Except the spell rips open the multiverse.
A bunch of former Spider-Man villains come tumbling out — but they’re not villains that Holland’s Spidey has faced.
Willem Dafoe returns as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin from 2002’s Spider-Man. Ditto for Alfred Molina as Dr. Otto “Doc Ock” Octavius from 2004’s Spider-Man 2. Also spotted in the trailer is Sandman, the villain played by Thomas Haden Church in 2007’s Spider-Man 3, The Lizard, who was played by Rhys Ifans in 2013’s The Amazing Spider-Man, and Jamie Foxx‘s Electro from 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
However, here’s who you didn’t see: Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, the two actors whose respective Spidey alter-egos fought those baddies in previous films.
Clearly, Doc Ock was looking for Tobey, telling Holland’s Spidey, “You’re not Peter Parker…”
But they’re nowhere to be found in the trailer. There IS another Spidey shown in the trailer, but his black and metallic outfit doesn’t reveal his identity — and it’s not a suit we’ve seen before.
However, speculation began immediately Tuesday night that Sony and co-producers Marvel Studios might just be pulling a fast one. Marvel Studios has digitally removed characters in other trailers to preserve surprises.
Fans might have to wait and see: Spider-Man: No Way Home opens December 17.
Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — With winter closing in and coronavirus case rates creeping up once again, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning that the vaccines’ waning immunity combined with the highly transmissible delta variant will make for a “double whammy” that will impact “even the vaccinated people.”
“The somewhat unnerving aspect of it is that if you keep the level of dynamics of the virus in the community at a high level — obviously the people who are most most vulnerable are the unvaccinated — but when you have a virus as transmissible as delta, in the context of waning immunity, that dynamic is going to negatively impact even the vaccinated people. So it’s a double whammy,” Fauci said in a pretaped interview aired at the 2021 STAT Summit Tuesday afternoon.
“You’re going to see breakthrough infections, even more so than we see now among the vaccinated,” he added.
His grim prediction meets a chorus of alarm bells already being sounded about COVID’s renewed spread as more people head inside as the holidays approach, heralding a season of family gatherings.
The national reported average for new cases each day has surged to more than 80,000, according to federal data — the highest in nearly a month. Forty states are currently showing high transmission, and total hospitalizations have increased for the first time in nearly 10 weeks.
Combatting any impending viral onslaught this winter hinges on how many more sleeves roll up for more shots, Fauci said. It won’t only be important to persuade the roughly 60 million “recalcitrant” people who have yet to get their first dose, but also “how well we implement a booster program,” he said.
Fauci added that booster doses of the COVID vaccine may become the standard for a “full” vaccination.
It comes as a growing roster of states and local jurisdictions have pushed ahead of federal regulators’ timeline, electing to endorse the expansion of booster shots to all adults at least six months after their second Pfizer or Moderna shot.
Though Pfizer formally asked the Food and Drug Administration to expand their booster’s authorization last week, right now federal agencies only recommend the mRNA booster for people over the age of 65, have an underlying medical condition or are at high risk for exposure, at least six months after their second dose.
All Johnson & Johnson recipients over the age of 18, however, are eligible for a boost at least two months after receiving their first dose.
“I happen to believe as an immunologist and infectious disease person, that a third shot boost for an mRNA is likely — should be part of the actual standard regimen, where a booster isn’t a luxury; a booster isn’t an add on; and a booster is part of what the original regimen should be — so that when we look back on this, we’re going to see that boosters are essential for an optimal vaccine regimen,” Fauci said.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.
The second season of the Amazon Originals podcast Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums debuted today with an episode focusing on The Beatles‘ final studio effort, Let It Be.
The Let It Be episode features new interviews with surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, who share recollections about the making of the album, including the band’s historic final concert on the roof of Apple headquarters in London.
They also address the common perception that the album sessions were fraught with conflicts between the band members that foreshadowed The Beatles’ 1970 breakup.
Also appearing in the podcast are Giles Martin, late Beatles producer George Martin‘s son; Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield; and filmmaker Peter Jackson, director of Get Back: The Beatles, the upcoming Disney+ docuseries focusing on the Let It Be sessions.
In a preview clip from the podcast, McCartney recalls how his song “Two of Us” was inspired by a car ride he took with his future first wife Linda.
“I’ve got a very vivid memory of driving out of London in my Aston Martin with Linda, just the two of us,” Paul says in the segment. “And she was always keen on getting lost, whereas most of us guys, you know, driving, particularly driving a loved one…a new girlfriend in my case, you’re nervous about getting lost…But she would always just say, ‘Yeah, well, so let’s get lost.'”
McCartney continues, “[W]e came to a place where there’s a little parking spot in a field. And then there was a woods. I had my guitar…and just started writing that song. You know, it came very easily, ’cause it was commenting on what we were doing.”
The Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums podcast is available exclusively at Amazon Music and Wondery+.
(WASHINGTON) — White House officials insisted Tuesday that President Joe Biden does not consider China’s President Xi Jinping a “friend” after Xi, speaking through an interpreter in a virtual meeting with Biden Monday night, referred to his American counterpart as “my old friend.”
“Thank you,” Biden responded at the time.
Asked what Xi was getting at — and if Xi was trying to undermine the U.S. — White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates didn’t answer directly, but reiterated that Biden doesn’t see Xi as an “old friend.”
“I’m not going to speak for President Xi,” Bates told a reporter on Air Force One as Biden headed to New Hampshire.
“But like you just mentioned,” Bates continued, “you’ve heard explicitly from the president himself, that he has a longstanding relationship with President Xi. They’ve spent a great deal of time together. They are able to have candid discussions, be direct with each other, which helps them be productive. But he does not consider President Xi an old friend.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday said the same ahead of the leaders’ meeting when asked how Biden views the relationship.
“He still does not consider him an ‘old friend,’ so that remains consistent,” she said.
“President Xi is somebody he has spent time with, he’s had face-to-face conversations with. And because of that, the president feels that he’s able to have candid discussions with President Xi,” she added.
Biden on Tuesday in New Hampshire called it a “good meeting” with “a lot to follow up on.”
“We set up four groups, and we’re gonna get our folks together on a whole range of issues. I’ll have more to report for you in the next two weeks,” he told reporters.
Biden has often spoken of his long-term relationship with Xi and the time they spent together in person when they were both served as vice presidents.
But this June, Biden made clear he didn’t think of Xi as an “old friend,” saying in response to a question at a news conference in Geneva: “Let’s get something straight. We know each other well; we’re not old friends. It’s just pure business.”
Experts have tried to interpret Xi’s use of the phrase — whether it was genuine goodwill or meant to gain control of the narrative over Biden.
Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, told Reuters Xi’s use of the phrase is a show of genuine goodwill, while Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, told the news outlet “an ‘old friend’ doesn’t necessarily mean he is still a real friend.”
The two world leaders spoke for about three and a half hours via videoconference on Monday evening, amid continued tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade issues, climate change and human rights and in the wake of China recently upping its military pressure on Taiwan.
In a readout of the call, the Chinese government blamed the Tsai government for increased tensions between the U.S. and China for Taiwan’s attempt to “rely on the United States for independence” with Xi likening independence talk to “playing with fire” — in an apparent warning to both nations.
Xi said that Beijing is patient over reunification with Taiwan but independence is a red line they will take “decisive measures” on.
Biden, asked Tuesday in New Hampshire if the leaders made “progress on Taiwan,” said they had.
“Yes,” Biden answered. “We have made very clear, we support the Taiwan Act, and that’s it. It’s independent, makes its own decisions.”
The fact that he called Taiwan “independent” was certain to upset China and Biden spoke a second time to reporters traveling with him in New Hampshire to clarify his earlier comments.
“We’re not going to change our policy at all,” he said, referring to U.S. policy on Taiwan.
Asked about his remark about “independence,” he replied: “No, no, I said that they have to decide – they, Taiwan, not us,” adding, “And we are not encouraging independence. We’re encouraging that they do exactly what the Taiwan Act requires. That’s what we’re doing. Let them make up their mind. Period.”
Taiwan’s Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council issued a statement after the Biden-Xi meeting, saying it “insists that China has no say in the fate of Taiwan.”
While the meeting did not establish any specific new guardrails over Taiwan, the White House said the meeting itself was intended to allow the two leaders discussing ways to manage competition between one another and characterized the conversations as “respectful and straightforward and open.”
“The sense of US-China relationship having up and downs is the old model of how to think about the relationship between the US and China. We sort of think of this as a steady state,” a readout from the White House said. “The President has been quite clear that he will engage in that stiff competition.”
Xi, on the call, compared China and the U.S. to two giant ships sailing in the sea that must stabilize to move forward together and prevent a collision, according to a readout of the meeting from the Chinese government.
Psaki said Friday that Biden may have the chance to talk more about the phone call on Thursday when he hosts leaders of Canada and Mexico for a North American summit at the White House.
Monday’s meeting marked the third time the two leaders will have spoken since Biden took office.
(WASHINGTON) — The House plans to vote Wednesday on a resolution that both censures Republican Rep. Paul Gosar and removes him from his committee assignments, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to ABC News.
Gosar last week tweeted an edited Japanese anime cartoon showing him stabbing President Joe Biden and killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. He later deleted the tweet.
On Tuesday, sources confirmed to ABC News that Gosar apologized for the tweet behind closed doors during a GOP conference meeting. Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said he had also spoken privately with Gosar about the tweet, but it appears he did not take further action against him.
Gosar said his video was an attempt by his staff to reach a younger audience and was not meant to condone violence. He has not publicly apologized.
“I have never in 40 years seen such a vile, hateful, outrageous, dangerous, and inciting to violence against a colleague, ever,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said to reporters during a press call Tuesday.
“The fact that they would not take some action themselves or make some comments themselves, which I have not seen, is a testament that perhaps they are rationalizing, as they rationalize other items of criminal behavior, this particular action,” Hoyer said of Republicans.
The resolution would boot Gosar from the Oversight and Reform Committee, which he serves on alongside Ocasio-Cortez. It would also remove him from the Committee on Natural Resources.
Late Monday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters it was up to McCarthy to rein in and reprimand his conference members — but Democrats, outraged over Gosar’s behavior, insisted on a floor vote.
On Tuesday, Pelosi deemed the resolution as an appropriate measure.
“Why go after [Gosar]? Because he made threats, suggestions about harming a member of Congress…We cannot have members joking about murdering each other as well as threatening the president of the United States,” Pelosi said.
A censure resolution requires a simple majority of lawmakers present and voting. If it is approved, Gosar could be forced to stand in the center of the House chamber as the resolution condemning his actions is read aloud.
On Tuesday evening, Gosar tweeted out a meme that says, “God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers.”
Twenty-three members of Congress have been censured for misconduct, according to a 2016 Congressional Research Service Report.
Former Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., was the last member of Congress to be censured — in December 2010 — accused of nearly a dozen ethics violations.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel and Libby Cathey contributed to this report.
