In a new interview with The New York Times, Kacey Musgraves reflects on the timeline of making her new album, star-crossed. Structured as a three-act tragedy, the project revolves her summer 2020 divorce from fellow artist Ruston Kelly. But she began writing it before then.
Kacey reveals that the first track she wrote for the upcoming album was “Good Wife,” a meditation on the expectations that come with being in a relationship, which she created while she and her now-ex were still together.
Now, she explains, she sees the songs on the album as her way of discovering her feelings about her breakup in real time. Ruston hasn’t heard the album yet, the singer tells the New YorkTimes, which even includes some sentiments she hasn’t worked through with him.
“People have come to know me as someone who really speaks my mind,” Kacey muses. “Why is it easier to tell an entire crowd of people what I think than someone who really knows me?”
Kacey will release star-crossed, along with an accompanying film, on September 10. When she announced the album, she dropped the title track, which is also the first song on the track list.
Fantasia gave birth to her daughter Keziah on May 23, and this week, she debuted the first photos of her new baby.
The one-time American Idol champion posted a pic of Keziah laying on top of a giant purple teddy bear on Instagram, along with a note that reads, “Singing ‘Pretty Brown Eyes’ You Now Are 3 Months. Quit Breaking My Hearrrrrrt Stop Growing Cause It’s Breaking My Heart,” referencing the 1991 Mint Condition single “Pretty Brown Eyes.”
The baby also has her own Instagram account with more than 30 photos, and over 60,000 followers.
Keziah joins her older siblings Dallas, 9, and Zion, 20, from the singer’s past relationships, and step-brother Trey — the son of Fantasia’s husband, Kendall — who is in his mid-20s.
After hoping for a baby for several years, Keziah is Fantasia and Kendall’s first child together. The couple married in 2015.
Thursday night, Debbie Gibson and Joey McIntyre of New Kids on the Block start their joint limited engagement at the Sands Showroom in the The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, performing eight shows between now and September 19. Debbie gave ABC Audio a hint of what fans can expect from the former teen idols.
“We’re probably going to do like a couple of songs to open, a couple of sets of our own, a couple of songs in the middle and at the end,” Debbie explained. “So we’ll duet in between our own sets….it’ll be a mixture, but we’ll vary..our own sets will very much be our own.”
“I mean, we have a lot of respect for each other and both of us have a great combo of being open-minded, but also we know who we are and we know our audience,” noted Debbie.
In addition to her classic hits like “Foolish Beat” and “Only In My Dreams,” Debbie has a new album of songs to perform. But that album, The Body Remembers, also includes a new duet version of “Lost In Your Eyes,” featuring Joey, so you can be sure you’ll hear that song in the show.
“Y’know, when it’s Joey’s time, it’s Joey’s time, he can, y’know, bring out a trapeze artist if he wants,” Debbie jokes. “I doubt he is, but you know what I’m saying. He’s going to do this thing. I’m going to do my thing. And we’re having a lot of fun putting together the duet portion.”
Debbie Gibson & Joey McIntyre Live from Las Vegas runs August 26, 27, 28 and 29, and September 16, 17, 18 and 19.
(NEW YORK) — At least two children have died in hot cars this week as a heat wave blasted the U.S.
On Tuesday afternoon, a 4-year-old boy died in East Manchester Township, Pennsylvania, the York County Coroner’s Office said.
After the family wasn’t able to find the boy around the home, they discovered him dead outside in their closed, parked car, the coroner’s office said.
An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday morning.
On Sunday afternoon in Cullman County, Alabama, a 3-year-old boy was found in a car and then taken to a hospital where he died, Cullman County coroner Jeremy Kilpatrick told ABC News on Thursday. The boy’s cause of death has not yet been determined, the coroner said.
The Cullman County Sheriff’s Office declined to provide specifics, only confirming there was an incident involving a small child on Sunday that appeared to be a tragic accident. A sheriff’s office spokesman said Thursday the investigation remains in the early stages and said no arrests have been made.
If autopsies confirm these deaths to be due to the heat, they would be the 16th and 17th hot-car deaths this year, according to national nonprofit KidsAndCars.org.
“Hot car deaths continue to take place because nobody believes this could happen to them,” KidsAndCars.org president Janette Fennell said in a statement. “The unfortunate reality is that this has happened to even the most loving, responsible, and attentive parents.”
A record 54 children died in hot cars in 2018, followed by 53 fatalities in 2019, according to KidsAndCars.org. Last year, 25 children died in hot cars, a drop that KidsAndCars.org director Amber Rollins attributed to the pandemic.
The professor at the Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics School at Cornell University had been looking for a kidney transplant for two years, testing every friend and family in hopes of finding a potential donor.
With no one meeting the requirements, Ehrenberg, who was living with end-stage renal disease, began dialysis to give him more time with his family. As a result, his life was tethered to the hospital because a dialysis machine and supplies would fill up his entire car for a two-day supply. He was also not allowed to travel during a five-year period because if a call came in saying that a kidney was available, he would have to go to the hospital almost immediately.
“I was so fatigued and had so little energy,” said Ehrenberg. “We were so worried.”
Ehrenberg resigned himself to waiting for a kidney from a deceased donor, knowing that those kidneys tend to wear out sooner and are more rare.
A kidney from a live donor can start functioning immediately rather than taking a few days to kick in as with a deceased donor, according to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. What’s more, relatives’ kidneys tend to have less risk of rejection and a potential donor can be tested ahead of time, making the process more convenient, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
Along with finding a donor, Ehrenberg, 75, worried about contracting a disease from an unknown deceased donor and not being healthy enough for a transplant, along with any complications from cancer to heart conditions that could disqualify him from being a recipient.
Finding a hero and finding hope
Five years after being placed on the transplant list, Ehrenberg got a call from the nurse that a live donor had come forward. The donor asked to remain anonymous, but Ehrenberg begged the hospital to tell the donor he wanted to know who they were.
The nurse passed along Ehrenberg’s request. That’s when his co-worker of seven years, Adam Seth Litwin, an associate professor at the school, sent an email revealing his life-saving gift.
Litwin said he got serious about donating after his mother-in-law died.
“She and I were very close and she was actually the same exact age as Ron,” explained Litwin. “She was not a candidate for a transplant, but it brought home to me how little time she was able to spend with her grandchildren, my children, and that there is something I could do for someone else that would kind of prevent that from happening again.”
“I’m kind of grumpy and curmudgeon on the outside, so this is definitely not consistent with whatever images that I have created to those around me,” he added.
Initially, Litwin was not allowed to donate his kidney, but he spent two years secretly improving his health. He improved his diet, stabilized his blood sugar and lost around 25 pounds. He kept it off for a year and got approved to donate on April 20, which happens to be Ehrenberg’s birthday.
Ehrenberg said that Litwin initially wanted to remain an anonymous donor, but Ehrenberg convinced his friend to come forward to help potentially save more lives. Litwin said that he donated his kidney not just to give more years to his friend, but also to teach a lesson of love to his two children.
“I keep joking that I don’t want people to think just because I did this that I’m not still a miserable b——,” said Litwin.
While Litwin may not think of himself as a particularly generous person, Ehrenberg disagreed.
“Adam was the real hero,” said Ehrenberg. “I am deeply indebted to Adam and I will spend the rest of my life trying to think about how I can repay him.”
“We hope we could encourage more people to be donors either alive or deceased kidney donors,” said Ehrenberg.
Ehrenberg said he plans to spend his new retirement making up for years lost to illness. Litwin plans to spend more time with his family. Both are excited to see Ehrenberg spend many more years with his grandchildren.
Metallica has announced a $50,000 donation toward Haitian earthquake relief through the band’s All Within My Hands charity foundation.
The funds will be used by to help those impacted by the 7.2 magnitude quake, which hit Haiti on August 14. More than 2,200 people have died and over 12,200 have been injured, according to Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency. Additionally, over 50,000 homes have been destroyed.
All Within My Hands has previously donated money to causes including COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts for disasters including the West Coast wildfires, and this year’s Texas winter storm.
Meanwhile, Metallica has released two more previews of the upcoming Metallica Blacklist compilation, a 53-artist tribute to the group’s iconic 1991 self-titled record, aka The Black Album. The newly released covers include Japanese-British musician Rina Sawayama‘s version of “Enter Sandman,” and British rock band IDLES‘ rendition of “The God that Failed.”
The Metallica Blacklist will be released September 10. Proceeds will benefit a charity of each contributing artist’s choosing, as well as All Within My Hands.
In an interview with SNL’s Bowen Yang for the mag, the 18-year-old talks about everything form fangirling over Taylor Swift and Dr. Anthony Fauci to being a role model for young Filipino-Americans.
“I sometimes get DMs from little girls being like, ‘I’ve never seen someone who looked like me in your position,’” Olivia says. “And I’m literally going to cry. Like just thinking about it. I feel like I grew up never seeing that. Also it was always like, ‘Pop star,’ that’s a white girl.”
Olivia also discussed the pressures young women in pop music face.
“[It’s] like this thing where you’re only successful if you’re under 30,” she says. “I’ve always resented that because I think I’m just going to get better with age.”
But at the moment, the “good 4 u” singer says she’s enjoying where she is in life.
“Honestly, I literally just turned 18, so there are so many normal teenage things that I’m really excited to do,” she says. “There’s so much in life that I have to learn and so many experiences to be had. So I’m honestly most excited for that. I love growing up. I feel like I get happier with age, so hopefully that’s a trend that continues.”
St. Vincent has announced COVID-19 guidelines for her upcoming fall tour.
All attendees must show proof of being fully vaccinated, or obtain a negative test within 48 hours of entering the venue. Local mandates may also require you to wear a mask during the show, depending on the city.
Additionally, the September 8 stop in Pittsburgh has moved to an outdoor venue.
St. Vincent’s tour kicks off September 3 in Portland, Maine. She’ll be supporting her new album, Daddy’s Home, featuring the lead single “Pay Your Way in Pain.”
Drake has a long history of recording with Future and Young Thug, and reportedly the trio is dropping a new collabo on Friday.
The three rappers are releasing the single “Too Sexy,” according to DJ Akademiks, who posted an Instagram clip that appears to show them in a studio shooting a video, while decked out in all white.
Last year, they dropped the “D4L” from Drake’s Dark Lane Demo Tapes mixtape. Young Thug also joined Drake and Gunna on “Solid” in 2021.
Future has recorded numerous songs with the Champagne Papi, including their RIAA nine-times Platinum “Life Is Good,” from his 2020 High Off Life album. In 2015, they united for the 11-track What a Time to Be Alive mixtape, featuring the quadruple-Platinum single, “Jumpman.”
It’s rumored that Kanye West will drop his long-delayed DONDA album Friday, so a Drake release on the same day would be his latest salvo in their ongoing feud.
As previously reported, fans believe that the beef was reignited Friday, after Trippie Redd dropped his song “Betrayal,” which features the Toronto native. On the track, Drake sings, “All these fools I’m beefin’ that I barely know / Forty-five, forty-four (Burned out), let it go / Ye ain’t changin’ s*** for me, it’s set in stone.”
Kanye responded with a posted-and-deleted Instagram captured by TMZ, in which he shared the supposed location of Drake’s Toronto, Ontario property.
Anthrax is celebrating 40 years of thrashing with a stiff drink.
The New York City metallers have announced Anthrax XL, a signature whiskey marking the band’s 40th anniversary. Created in collaboration with Hillrock Estate Distillery, Anthrax XL boasts a 115 proof cask strength, and is limited to 400 hand-numbered, limited edition bottles costing $155, each of which is signed by every band member.
“On the nose, there is an explosion of caramel, toffee, and butterscotch with hints of dried cherries and fresh herbs,” guitarist Scott Ian says of Anthrax XL. “The palette has a rich texture of bright red fruits, baking spices, and toasted almonds. I’m drooling just reading that back. Get yourself a bottle, you deserve it!”
Also available are special “Golden Ticket” bottles, which comes with two tickets and a meet-and-greet during Anthrax’s upcoming 2022 headlining U.S. tour, the exact details of which have yet to be announced. Only 40 of those will be sold, and are priced at $350.
Anthrax was founded July 18, 1981 — 40 years ago last month. The band marked the milestone with a streaming concert, as well as a video series going through each of their albums.
