Miranda Lambert’s beloved senior dog, Jessi, has crossed the rainbow bridge after 13 and a half years of companionship.
The singer shared a tribute to her four-legged friend on social media this week, along with a slideshow of pictures of Jessi and the dog’s brother, Waylon, who died in the fall of 2020.
Miranda found the two pups on the side of the road in Oklahoma back in 2008, in the middle of a sleet storm. The singer explains that she and her mom — who were driving together when they encountered the siblings — were listening to Jessie Colter’s I’m Jessi Colter album at the time, which is how the two puppies got their names. Colter, of course, was Waylon’s wife from 1969 until his death in 2002.
Up until canine Waylon’s death, Miranda continues, the two dogs had been inseparable their whole lives.
“…The truth is they belong together. They always have,” she writes. “I know she missed him terribly and we are so thankful to have had extra time. Today they are reunited at the rainbow bridge.”
Waylon and Jessi were two of the many dogs and other animals that call Miranda’s farm home. The singer and her mom also established their MuttNation Foundation in 2009 in support of shelter pets.
“I can’t put into words what a dog’s love does to your heart. But if you have one, you already know,” Miranda says in the conclusion of her tribute post. “…It’s so hard to let them go but the love is worth it.”
Earlier this year, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts launched a partnership with the nugs.net live-music platform making available previously unreleased concert recordings and video performances spanning the band’s 40-plus-year career.
Three new archival concerts recently were made available in both audio and video formats: a 2013 performance at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, California; a 2015 show at the Toyota Center in Houston; and a 2016 event at the Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York.
These three shows join previously released concerts from 1983 in Houston; 2015 in Columbus, Ohio; and 2018 in Clisson, France.
The audio versions of the shows are available for download in MP3 and two high-res formats.
Meanwhile, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts begin their 2021 tour itinerary with a show this Sunday, August 1, in San Francisco at the Stern Grove Festival. Check out the band’s full schedule at JoanJett.com.
That’s what anyone with cable TV who happened to be up at midnight on August 1, 1981 — 40 years ago this Sunday — heard, as MTV: Music Television signed on the air for the very first time. At the time, it wasn’t even available in most major markets, including MTV’s home base, New York City. And that first day was a little rocky.
“The plan was that Mark Goodman would begin the welcome,” recalls original VJ Alan Hunter of MTV’s first moments. “After you had the Buggles and Pat Benatar videos, Mark comes on and says, ‘Hey, welcome to this thing called MTV and here are my pals'” And it would roll down to JJ [Jackson] and Martha [Quinn] and Nina [Blackwood]. And I was the last guy to say, ‘and I’m Alan Hunter.'”
But because the guy loading the videotapes screwed up, Hunter ended up being the first VJ we ever saw, saying, “…And I’m Alan Hunter.”
“No one really noticed, it was late at night,” Hunter laughs. “There was so many technical glitches that first day…MTV was duct-taped together to start, to be honest.”
But MTV soon took hold across the country — especially in the Midwest, where Hunter and his fellow VJs would find hundreds of people waiting to greet them at in-store appearances.
“They would ask for an autograph and say, ‘I watch this 24/7 in the dorm at college,’ or, ‘in the basement of our friend’s house down the street who has cable’…kids [were] going crazy for it,” Hunter recalls. “And they were beginning to ask for the music that they were seeing on MTV.”
Flooded with requests for songs by MTV faves like U2 and Duran Duran, radio eventually responded and previously unknown bands became superstars. But hey, don’t expect any gratitude from Duran Duran, whose stylish videos were a highlight of MTV’s early years.
“We tend to look at it the other way around,” Duran Duran’s Simon LeBon tells ABC Audio. “We think, ‘How much does MTV have to thank us for the popularity that they had in the 1980s?'”
Keyboardist Nick Rhodes snarks, “Yes, at least with Duran Duran, we didn’t have to resort to game shows in the end. We stuck with the music!”
Indeed, MTV stopped being the place for music videos literally decades ago.
“When I look at MTV’s daily schedule, all I see is Ridiculousness,” laughs Hunter, referring to the viral video clip show. “I think they’re struggling to try to find where they’re going.”
But whatever MTV is today, its impact is still being felt. Rob Tannenbaum, co-author of the oral history I Want My MTV, explains, “It changed record labels because now a certain type of band was more profitable. It changed the TV industry and the movie industry because they all wanted to emulate the fast cutting [and] bright colors. It changed fashion design. It changed advertising. It had a wholesale effect…all over popular culture.”
And the quintessential MTV Video? Tannenbaum says it’s Van Halen‘s “Hot for Teacher.”
“It has all the things that are supposed to make a video good. It’s got a guitar solo. It’s a band with long hair, chicks in bikinis,” he says, adding, “If you were trying to illustrate to an alien from another planet what MTV was about, you would show them ‘Hot for Teacher.'”
Here were the first 10 videos played on MTV:
“Video Killed the Radio Star” — The Buggles
“You Better Run” — Pat Benatar
“She Won’t Dance with Me” — Rod Stewart
“You Better You Bet” — The Who
“Little Suzi’s on the Up” — Ph.D.
“We Don’t Talk Anymore” — Cliff Richard
“Brass in Pocket” — The Pretenders
“Time Heals” — Todd Rundgren
“Take It on the Run” — REO Speedwagon (interrupted after 12 seconds due to technical difficulties)
“Rockin’ the Paradise” — Styx
Randy Holmes/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images
Bob Odenkirk‘s friend and one-time Mr. Show comedy partner David Cross gave fans of the Better Call Saul star a much-needed bit of good news after his health scare earlier this week.
In a tweet, Cross just said, “Just got off the phone with Bob and he’s doing great! Joking and japing and joshing.”
Cross added, “Both he and his family are overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and concern everyone has shown. You will be hearing from him soon. But he’s doing really well!!!”
The tweet was liked 20,000 times — and counting — within an hour of Cross posting it.
The 58-year-old Odenkirk collapsed while shooting the sixth and final season of the AMC series in New Mexico on Tuesday, and was rushed to the hospital where he was treated for a “heart-related incident,” a rep for the show told ABC News.
Just got off the phone with Bob and he’s doing great! Joking and japing and joshing. Both he and his family are overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and concern everyone has shown. You will be hearing from him soon. But he’s doing really well!!!
Rebel Wilson embarked on a “Year of Health” in 2020, and in a recent Instagram live, shared her main reason for doing so.
During a chat with her fans, the “Pitch Perfect” star said it was her desire to have a child that inspired her to lose the weight.
Responding to a fan who asked why she got fit, Wilson shared, “That is such a massive question, but I’m going to try to answer it for you.”
“It first started when I was going through, looking into fertility stuff and the doctor was like, ‘Well, you’d have a much better chance if you were healthier,'” the 41-year-old Australian actress explained.
“I was actually a bit offended because I thought — even though I was bigger — I thought I was pretty healthy,” she added. “That’s, kind of, what started it, that if I lost some excess weight, that it would give me a better chance for freezing eggs and having the eggs be a better quality.”
“At first, it wasn’t even really [about] myself, it was more thinking of the future mini-me really,” she confessed.
However, in May, the Isn’t It Romantic star revealed in an emotional Instagram post that she was struggling with infertility. “I got some bad news today…,” she wrote. “To all the women out there struggling with fertility, I feel ya.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines infertility as the inability to get pregnant after one year of trying to conceive. Infertility affects six percent of women between the ages of 15 and 44, reports the CDC.
Rebel previously revealed she was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, which the CDC also identifies as a leading cause of infertility in women.
(WASHINGTON) — Legislation introduced Thursday by a bipartisan group of women senators would honor Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor by requiring statues of them in the U.S. Capitol or on Capitol grounds.
The bill was introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and has 17 co-sponsors. Members of the Democratic Women Caucus and Bipartisan Women’s Caucus also introduced a similar bill in the House on Thursday.
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor were trailblazers long before reaching the Supreme Court, opening doors for women at a time when so many insisted on keeping them shut,” Klobuchar said. “The Capitol is our most recognizable symbol of Democracy, a place where people from across our country have their voices represented and heard. It is only fitting that we honor their remarkable lives and service to our country by establishing statues in the Capitol.”
O’Connor and Ginsburg were the first and second women, respectively, to serve on the Supreme Court. O’Connor, who was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1981, served until she retired in January 2006. Ginsburg was appointed by former President Bill Clinton in 1993 and served until her death last year after suffering from metastatic pancreatic cancer. They served on the court together for 12 years.
“Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg will always be known as dedicated public servants, fierce champions for equality, and accomplished Americans who broke countless barriers in the field of law,” Collins said. “Statues in the nation’s capital honoring the first two women to serve on the highest court in the land will serve as fitting tributes to their invaluable contributions to our country.”
The Capitol currently has 252 sculptures of men and 14 of women. The most recent statue of a woman is of civil rights activist Rosa Parks, erected in 2013.
If passed, the legislation would require that the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library consider selecting an artist from an underrepresented background to create the statues.
(NEW YORK) — As Simone Biles’ decision to withdraw from competition at the Olympics sent shockwaves around the world, one facet in particular stood out to former Olympic gymnasts: that she had the power to make that decision for herself.
“I never remember feeling like I ever got to make those decisions, even if I had wanted to,” 2012 U.S. Olympian Jordyn Wieber told ABC News.
When she was growing up in elite gymnastics and going through the USA Gymnastics system, Wieber said, it was a culture where “the gymnasts don’t have the voice, it’s up to the coaches. And I sometimes describe it as we’re just kind of like robots that do what we’re told.”
Biles’ ability to make her own decision to withdraw is representative to many of a culture that is slowly but surely changing, especially after the reckoning the sport has faced for abusive practices in the five years since the last Olympics.
This is the first Olympics since USA Gymnastics was torn up over the public revelation of team doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse of scores of young athletes — and questions remain over who knew what in the organization, and when. Since then, a handful of gymnastics coaches have been dropped, suspended and charged with various types of abuse.
Also since then, after gymnasts’ pressure, USAG closed the infamous Karolyi ranch, a training facility where many gymnasts say they were abused by Nassar. This is the first Olympics in three decades without the influence of Bela or Martha Karolyi, who arguably developed the U.S. program to its recent dominance but did it with a fierce strictness many gymnasts have condemned. They have also been involved in lawsuits alleging their complicity in Nassar’s abuse. They have always maintained their innocence.
“(Biles’) decision demonstrates that we have a say in our own health—’a say’ I NEVER felt I had as an Olympian,” 1996 U.S. Olympian Dominique Moceanu tweeted Wednesday morning, recounting how at 14 she competed in the Olympic floor final minutes after falling on her head on beam.
Dominique Dawes told “Good Morning America” she had actually quit during the 2000 Olympic trials, saying, “I was done after prelims because it was too much on me emotionally. However, I was not able to make that decision. It was very much a controlled atmosphere.”
Dawes went on to compete in the 2000 Olympics, her third.
Rachael Denhollander, a former gymnast and the first to publicly accuse Nassar of abuse, wrote in a series of tweets that Biles’ decision was an example of “the change we’ve worked so hard for” after “gymnasts were raised in a system that not only didn’t care about the damage to their bodies and minds but that twisted reality for them.”
“Hopefully,” Wieber said, “we’re shifting away from the culture of prioritizing medals and money and the success of the athletes over the health of the athlete,” which is something she’s been working on herself as head coach for the University of Arkansas. She said she sees Biles as a “pioneer” and that makes her “really proud.”
Moceanu, who won gold as part of the U.S. team in Atlanta, told ABC News in a written comment that Biles was “finding new ways to be heroic,” saying she was “actually very proud of Simone.”
“What she did was actually very brave and is a positive sign for the future of the sport,” Moceanu wrote.
Biles has said she remained in the sport in part to be a leader and continue to push to change the culture.
Nastia Liukin, who won gold in the individual all-around for the U.S. at the 2008 Olympics, wrote on Instagram about Biles, “Thank you for creating a safer space for current and future athletes to unequivocally be themselves.”
“I think gymnastics has had no choice over the past couple of years than to change,” said Wieber, who won team Olympic gold in 2012. “And a lot of coaches are being pushed to look at, you know, what their own coaching style is and look at how it is affecting their athletes long term and make some adjustments.”
But there’s still a ways to go both culturally and in examining what USAG did or didn’t do about abuse by Nassar and others, added Wieber, who was abused by Nassar and coached by John Geddert, who killed himself earlier this year after being charged with human trafficking and sexual assault.
Noting that no one knows what Biles, who was also abused by Nassar, is going through at the Olympics but herself, Wieber said of competing for USAG, “I can take some guesses and imagine that it’s probably difficult to represent an organization like USA Gymnastics for her, an organization that has failed her so many times and failed a lot of us.”
She continued, “I’m just making assumptions here, but I can imagine that it, it adds to the weight of what she carries with her every day of having to represent that organization.”
(TOKYO) — South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker edged out America’s Lilly King and Annie Lazor to win gold in the 200-meter breaststroke at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday.
Seconds later, Lazor, followed by King, swam over to Schoenmaker to hug her as she celebrated not just a win, but a historic win.
Taking off her goggles after the finish, Schoenmaker, 24, turned around to see her time and her eyes lit up. She put her hand over her mouth in happy disbelief — she had set a world record.
Schoenmaker’s 200-meter breaststroke time of 2:18:95 beat a world record that was set in 2013 by Rikke Moller Pedersen at 2:19:11.
It was one of those moments that make the Olympics so special as King, Lazor and Schoenmaker’s South African teammate Kaylene Corbett came over to celebrate with her in a group hug in the pool, telling her she was “amazing” and exclaiming, “You did it!”
It was especially emotional for Lazor and King, who trained together, since the death of Lazor’s father in April, reportedly due to COVID-19.
“The last few months for me have been far from easy, but she has dragged me through the mud and pushed me every day and distracted me,” Lazor said of King a few days ago, according to ESPN.
This was Schoenmaker’s second medal in Tokyo after winning silver in the 100-meter breaststroke.
Due to COVID rules, athletes have limited personal support at these Games, and for the most part are being supported by families and friends watching on TV back home.
Earlier in the day, there was another multinational celebration as the gymnastics all-around winners — America’s Sunisa Lee, Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, and Russian athlete Angelina Melnikova — shared selfies together after they got their medals.
Cradle of Filth will return October 22 with their 13 studio album, Existence Is Futile.
The follow-up to 2017’s Cryptoriana — The Seductiveness of Decay was recorded during lockdown in 2020 and, as the band notes, “pieced together in isolation, at Grindstone Studios in Suffolk.” The band’s website describes the new music as “pitch-black, perverse and at times absurdly brutal, following a nihilistic concept both evocative and relentless.”
The album is available for pre-order now. The first taste of the new album is a single and video called “Crawling King Chaos,” which is out now.
“The album is about existentialism, existential dread and fear of the unknown,” frontman Dani Filth tells Metal Hammer. “The concept wasn’t created by the pandemic. We’d written it long before that began, but the pandemic is the tip of the cotton-bud as far as the way the world is headed, you know?”
“I guess the title, Existence Is Futile, does sound a little morbid,” he adds. “But again, it’s more about recognizing that truth and saying that everything is permitted because nothing really matters…We all know we’re going to die, so we might as well indulge life while we possess it.”
Summertime…and the livin’ is all about Sublime. We’ve got more information about the rollout of merchandise and content marking today’s 25th anniversary of Sublime‘s self-titled third album.
Today, you can look back on the album — which featured the hits “Wrong Way,” “Santeria,” “Doin’ Time” and “What I Got” — by watching an episode of Behind the Album Cover. Opie Ortiz, who created the album’s iconic artwork, tells the story behind the image.
Next, an official music video for the track “Pawn Shop” will be released in the coming weeks. The animated clip is done in a “psychedelic/surfer/punk/graffiti” style, and features Sublime’s iconography.
Most importantly, new sales plaques have been presented to Sublime drummer Bud Gaugh, bass player Eric Wilson and, posthumously, late singer Bradley Nowell, the latter being accepted by his widow and son. The plaques commemorate sales of more than 18 million units in the U.S. for the Sublime album.
As previously reported, Travis Barker is currently working on an album of re-imaginings, remixes and collaborations based on songs from the original album.
