Luke Bryan’s not shying away from the tougher parts of his past in his upcoming new docu-series, Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary.
He’ll offer candid reflections on some of his family’s darkest days, when tragedy struck the Bryan household in unfathomable ways. In 1996, Luke lost his older brother, Chris, in a car accident. Then, in 2007, his older sister, Kelly, died at home of still-unknown natural causes.
Finally, in 2014, Kelly’s husband, Lee, died of a heart attack, leaving the couple’s three children parentless. Luke and his wife Caroline ultimately stepped in to help raise the kids, whose ages at the time ranged from 12 to 20.
Through sharing this side of his story, Luke hopes to provide some hope for viewers who might be going through similar tumult.
“When [people] walk up to me on the street and they’re like, ‘Hey, man, you really inspire us,’ that’s what it’s all about to me,” the singer tells Entertainment Tonight. “…I always believe there’s a lot of people out there going through similar scenarios as me. If we can inspire them and help them dust themselves off, that’s what this thing is really about.”
Luke adds that he hopes My Dirt Road Diary will paint a clear picture of the good and not-so-good times he’s experienced along the way to success.
“It’s been quite the story and quite the ride,” Luke says. “…You gotta celebrate the ups, and you gotta really try to work together to get through the downsides.”
All five episodes of Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary will stream for free on August 6 on IMDb TV, which is Amazon’s free streaming service.
Now that Katy Perry and Carrie Underwood are doing residencies at Las Vegas’ new Resorts World property, and Celine Dion is staging her comeback residency there, could Adele be far behind?
British tabloid The Sun says Adele is considering doing a residency at the same theater in Resorts World where Celine, Katy, Carrie and Luke Bryan will all be performing in the coming months. Said residency, a Vegas source told The Sun, would earn the U.K. singer nearly $140,000 a night.
Adele, who hasn’t performed live since 2017, has said in the past that she prefers to perform for smaller crowds, and that instead of traveling around the world, she’d like to stay in one place because of her eight-year-old son Angelo.
The superstar is said to be ready to release new music and, according to The Sun, the rumor is that she plans to launch her comeback with a Vogue feature. The tabloid points to the fact that both Adele and Vogue‘s editor, Edward Enniful, were both in New York City last week.
Of course, nobody in Adele’s camp has confirmed any of these rumors, so stay tuned.
Dusty Hill, the long-bearded, longtime bassist for beloved Texas blues-rock trio ZZ Top, has died at age 72.
ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons and drummer Frank Beard announced Hill’s passing with a message on the band’s official Facebook page.
“We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, TX,” the note reads. “We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ‘Top.’ We will forever be connected to that ‘Blues Shuffle in C.'”
Hill joined ZZ Top shortly after the group’s formation in 1969. Gibbons sang lead on most of the group’s songs, while Hill usually handled backing vocals, although he occasionally did take over as lead singer for select tunes, including the band’s classic 1975 hit, “Tush.”
Dusty co-wrote many of ZZ Top’s songs, including “Tush” and other enduring classics including “Cheap Sunglasses,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’, “Got Me Under Pressure,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs,” and “Sleeping Bag.”
Hill was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of ZZ Top in 2004.
The band’s plans for a major 50th anniversary tour in 2020 were sidetracked because of the COVID-19 pandemic. ZZ Top had recently started playing shows again, but the band announced last week that Hill had to return home to Texas “to address a hip issue,” and that the group’s longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis, was filling in for him.
These recent shows marked the first time since Hill had joined ZZ Top that they performed with out him.
ZZ Top’s most recent album, La Futura, was released in 2012, although Gibbons revealed in recent interviews that the band had been working on material for a new record.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
After a fan begged him to do something, Billie Eilish‘s brother and musical collaborator FINNEAS called out a post from a Twitter account called “Billie Eilish Updates,” denouncing it as “fake.”
Retweeting the post, the fan asked FINNEAS, “Can you do something right for once and get this account suspended thank u.” The since-deleted post was a mock-up of a People story that quoted Billie as saying, “When I got rich I started balling [sic] my eyes out, I wanted to be poor so I can relate to most of my fans” and “I still want to be broke and poor, it looks really fun and cute.”
FINNEAS responded to the post, which features numerous punctuation errors and misspellings, as “Fake obviously,” adding, “Honestly I just wish they’d label this account satire like the onion or something. I have no problem with a joke as long as people know it’s a joke.”
Earlier this week, FINNEAS tweeted that the same site was “posting relentless lies about billie so if you see that account, report and block Em.”
Fans begged FINNEAS to go further and take legal action, claiming that those who run the account were deliberately trying to ruin Billie’s career. In just the last few minutes, the account has been taken down.
Prior to that, it was labeled, “Your best source on 7x Grammy Winner, Billie Eilish. NOT Affiliated with anything related to Billie Eilish. Parody Account.” However, it’s not clear when that description was added to the account.
(TOKYO) — Tokyo reported a record number of 3,177 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday as the Olympic games remain underway.
It’s the second day in a row in which Japan’s capital reported record-breaking cases. On Tuesday, the city reported 2,484 COVID-19 cases, which exceeded its previous record of 2,520 cases set on Jan. 7, 2021, according to Kyodo News.
Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Disease (NIID) has estimated that the highly contagious delta variant is responsible for nearly 80% of infections in Tokyo.
Patients who make up the new cases mainly involve people ranging in age from their 20s to 40s, according to the NIID, which reported an increase in hospitalization in people under the age of 50.
As of Wednesday, at least 27% of the country has had at least one dose of the vaccine, according to a government report at the beginning of the month. Tokyo remains under its fourth coronavirus state of emergency.
Last week, the International Olympic Committee reported that nearly 80 people accredited to the games had tested positive for the virus, including more than two dozen athletes.
Although Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga urged people during a press conference Tuesday to avoid non-essential travel, he said there is no reason to consider suspending the Games at this time, saying, “Please watch the Olympic Games on TV at home.”
(WASHINGTON) — A day after its first hearing with emotional testimony from police officers brought the Jan 6. Capitol attack back into the national spotlight, the House select committee investigating the assault will meet this week on possible next steps, including issuing subpoenas.
“I have no reluctance whatsoever in issuing subpoenas for information,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told MSNBC’s Morning Joe Wednesday morning, asserting the committee “absolutely” has the authority. “Nothing is off limits in this investigation.”
His comment comes after the Department of Justice said in letters to former DOJ officials and provided to congressional committees that they can participate in investigations related to the Jan. 6, according to sources and letters reviewed by ABC News Tuesday, which the House Oversight Committee later confirmed. Therefore, if witnesses try to fight subpoenas, they may have to do so on their own dime.
“Members of Congress have already admitted that they talked to the White House while it was going on. Now many of them are trying to walk back the conversation they had,” Thompson said. “We plan to pursue it.”
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who sits on the committee, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that the committee had not ruled out calling Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who has criticized the committee and was vetoed from it by House Speaker Pelosi over comments she said would damage its credibility, to testify.
Jordan admitted on Tuesday evening that he — like GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy — spoke to former President Donald Trump on the phone on Jan. 6, and in another interview Wednesday with Ohio Spectrum News reporter Taylor Popielarz, confirmed he spoke to Trump on Jan. 6.
Asked by Popielarz if he spoke to Trump before during or after the attack, Jordan said he didn’t remember.
“I spoke with him that day. After? I think after. I don’t know if I spoke with him in the morning or not. I just don’t know,” he said.
Fox News host Brett Baier also pressed Jordan Tuesday on whether he spoke to Trump that day, and Jordan repeatedly deflected, saying he’s “talked to the former president umpteen times — thousands, countless times.”
Baier followed up, “But I mean on January 6, congressman.”
“Yes,” Jordan said. “I mean, I’ve talked to the president so many — I can’t remember all the days I’ve talked to him, but I’ve certainly talked to the president.”
Conversations in Trump’s orbit, such as the apparent call with Jordan, are key to what the committee is seeking to investigate, with Cheney saying Tuesday that Americans should know what happened “what happened every minute of that day in the White House.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi affirmed the committee’s subpoena power in her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill, but distanced herself from the committee itself as House Republican leaders disparaged the two GOP members who joined the panel as “Pelosi Republicans.”
When asked what will happen if House members don’t comply with subpoenas, Pelosi emphasized she is not involved with the select committee and “has not been a party to any of those decisions, so I cannot tell you what they might decide.”
The speaker also dismissed concerns that there will be political backlash if the committee’s work drags out or loses momentum, asked if she would like to see the committee move more expeditiously.
“They will take the time that they need,” she said. “We were very late in getting to this because we were striving for the bipartisan commission, which we thought was very possible.”
While lawmakers have a seven-week recess coming up, Thompson said Wednesday that the committee will meet again to discuss its next steps this week.
“We’ll have a meeting before we break for the August recess, but in reality, I think you know we’ll be back during that recess doing our work because we have to get to the bottom of it,” he told MSNBC. “Our democracy depends on it.”
At its first hearing, the committee heard from four officers who recounted they feared for their lives on Jan. 6 as they were brutally beaten and outnumbered by a pro-Trump mob. One officer described fearing he would be “torn apart” and chants of “kill him with his own gun.” Another said he was taunted with racial slurs in uniform for the first time in his career.
They all criticized lawmakers who have downplayed the attack and pleaded with the panel to uncover if those in power aided and abetted rioters, including the former president.
“There was an attack on Jan. 6, and a hit man sent them,” said Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn. “I want you to get to the bottom of that.”
Democrats are already coming to the defense of the officers after right-leaning cable news hosts attacked the testimonies as performative Tuesday night.
“Stupidity has no reach. It can go anywhere. It’s unfortunate that people would interpret the brave people who defended the Capitol as somehow disingenuous in their presentations,” Thompson said Wednesday.
While Capitol police officers watched the hearing on TVs and phones in the hallways of the building that was attacked, Republican leaders who blocked efforts to investigate the day dismissed the hearing as a political play and said they didn’t watch.
Senate GOP Mitch McConnell, who said after the attack that the “mob was fed lies” and “provoked by the president and other powerful people,” said he was “busy doing work” during the hearing.
“I don’t see how I could have expressed myself more forthrightly than I did on that occasion, and I stand by everything I said,” he said.
McCarthy, who held an event outside the Capitol ahead of the hearing as a preemptive strike to the officers’ testimony, told a Politico reporter he wasn’t able to because he was stuck in “back-to-back meetings.”
Notably, McCarthy has suggested Pelosi didn’t do enough to secure the Capitol that day, but McConnell, as leader of the Senate, has not faced the same criticism. Security at the Capitol is controlled by the Capitol Police Board.
GOP Rep. Matthew Rosendale of Montana told ABC News he only watched the opening statement from Cheney, who was ousted as the No. 3 House Republican earlier this year following her criticism of Trump’s role on Jan. 6.
“I was quite disappointed,” he said, before launching into a series of questions he wanted to be answered.
But because Republicans gave up their ability to participate in the hearing, with McCarthy withdrawing all of his members, they couldn’t lead the discussion in their preferred direction.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif, who sits on the committee, blasted Republicans to ABC News who chose not to hear from the officers who helped protect them.
“For Kevin McCarthy and for my colleague from Montana to just say, ‘Oh I didn’t have the time to watch this hearing,’ you know, is just unfortunate and sad, and they just want to play politics with this,” he said. “That’s all this is.”
Aguilar added the public can expect more public hearings to come, though the date for the committee’s next hearing has not yet been announced.
ABC News’ Alex Mallin, Katherine Faulders and Ben Siegel contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Wednesday released guidance intended to caution states embarking on so-called post-election ‘audits’ of vote counts for the 2020 presidential election that they must not run afoul of federal voting laws.
The guidance, previously previewed last month by Attorney General Merrick Garland in his policy address on voting rights, outlines federal statutes that the department says elections officials must adhere to during such “audits,” such as preserving all federal elections materials and making sure they’re not tampered with.
“This document sets down a marker that says the Justice Department is concerned about this, and we will be following this closely,” a DOJ official told reporters on a media conference call Wednesday.
The guidance echoes a warning sent by the department back in May to the Republican-run audit in Arizona, warning officials there that all election records must be preserved and expressing concern about the state handing over election materials to the private contractor group Cyber Ninjas.
After the department’s letter, Arizona officials backed off of a plan to send contractors from the group to visit homes in the state’s largest county of Maricopa to ask voters whether or not they had cast ballots. The Wednesday guidance includes a warning that officials who seek to embark on such “audits” can’t do so in a way that will intimidate voters.
DOJ officials on Wednesday declined to provide any update on the department’s review of the Arizona “audit.” But the guidance comes as Republicans in several other states have expressed interest or are already moving forward with similarly partisan reviews of the 2020 vote count in certain jurisdictions — despite lacking any evidence of widespread fraud.
The department also issued separate guidance Wednesday that outlines the range of federal laws protecting voting by different methods.
“It’s responsive to the fact that more Americans than ever are voting, not on Election Day in person in a polling place, but that are voting at voting centers or voting early or voting by mail,” one official said.
An official said that the second set of guidance should be a note of caution to states that might be looking to roll back policies that expanded access to voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. The official gave the example of the election bill passed this year by Republicans in Georgia that implemented voting restrictions the department is now suing over, alleging it unlawfully targets minority communities.
“You should not assume that if you abandon the practices that have made it easier for people to vote, that abandonment is not going to get scrutiny from the Department of Justice,” an official said.
Usher and Tameka Foster in 2007; Moses Robinson/WireImage
Celebrity stylist Tameka Raymond Foster wants to clear up any rumors or misconceptions about her marriage to Usher in her upcoming memoir, Here I Stand… in a Beautiful State.
According to HotNewHipHop, the book will feature stories about the former couple’s relationship, Foster’s life growing up in Oakland, California, and stories about her former clients, such as Lauryn Hill,Jay-Z, Timbaland, Aaliyah, Chris Brown and more. The title is a nod to Usher’s 2008 studio album, Here I Stand.
Usher and Tameka were married from 2007 to 2009 and share two sons, Naviyd Ely and Usher V. During their heated custody battle, Tameka suffered the devastating loss of her 11-year-old son, Kile Glover. He passed away in 2012 after a jet ski accident on Lake Lanier in Georgia.
Now, Usher and Tameka co-parent their blended family, along with the singer’s nine-month-old daughter, Sovereign Bo. Usher is also preparing to welcome his second child with his girlfriend, Jennifer Goicoechea.
“Here I stand to finally tell my side of the story,” says Foster in a trailer for the book. “Unfiltered and unapologetic. A story of survival and perseverance. You think you know a story, but you don’t even know the half.”
Here I Stand… in a Beautiful State will be released on September 15. Autographed copies of the book are available for pre-order at TamekaRaymond.com.
(HELLA, Iceland) — Hotel Rangá in Iceland is looking for a photographer to chase the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis.
This dream job consists of three weeks chasing the lights from September to October.
The hotel is located in the Icelandic countryside, where temperatures typically average 40 to 50 degrees during the fall season.
The photographer chosen for the job will be required to provide high-quality photos and videos in order to receive travel to and from Iceland.
The requirements also include giving the hotel “unlimited license to mutually agreed-upon photographs and videos.”
“In exchange for providing content of the northern lights at the hotel, this seasonal employee will receive free room and board along with access to the hotel‘s stargazing observatory and hot tubs, not to mention the opportunity to explore the photogenic land of fire and ice on their days off,” the hotel wrote on its website.
Tenille Townes is sharing an inspirational message to girls and young women everywhere with the music video for her new single, “Girl Who Didn’t Care.”
The clip, which arrived this week, spotlights three women who are at the top of traditionally male-dominated fields. They are space enthusiast and future Mars One ambassador Alyssa Carson, soccer goalie Sarah Fuller and Nashville firefighter Shannon Wells. Also included in the video are three young girls who play the part of the women’s younger selves, dreaming about accomplishing big goals one day.
“Seeing this idea come to life and telling real stories about what it looks like to go get a crazy dream and make it happen was the coolest thing,” Tenille says of the video on social media.
“I wouldn’t be here without the heroes I had to look up to…There’s something so powerful about seeing somebody actually living out their dream,” she continues. “It makes it all seem possible. I hope you see that and believe that about your own dream when you watch this.”
“Girl Who Didn’t Care” is Tenille’s first new song off an upcoming project.
