Joe Ely, the influential Texas-born singer-songwriter whose blend of honky-tonk, rock, roadhouse blues, led to collaborations with Bruce Springsteen and the Clash, has died
AUSTIN, Texas — AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Joe Ely, the influential Texas-born singer-songwriter whose blend of honky-tonk, rock and roadhouse blues made him a favorite among other musicians and led to collaborations with Bruce Springsteen and the Clash, has died. He was 78.
Ely died in Taos, New Mexico, of complications from Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinson’s and pneumonia, with his wife and daughter by his side, according to a post on his Facebook account Monday night and later confirmed by his representatives.
Ely was considered a key figure in the progressive country music movement as a founder of the influential country-rock band The Flatlanders with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, and later as a solo artist.
“Joe Ely performed American roots music with the fervor of a true believer who knew music could transport souls,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
“But his true measure came through in the dynamic intensity of his powerhouse live performances, where he could stand his ground aside fellow zealots Bruce Springsteen who recorded duets with Ely, and the (Rolling) Stones and the Clash, who took Ely on tour as an opening act,” Young said.
After signing with MCA, Ely released his first solo album in 1977. He would release more than 20 albums over his career, including “Love and Freedom” earlier this year.
Born in Amarillo, Texas, Ely stayed connected to his Texas roots through decades of recording and performing that lacked a mainstream breakthrough but made him a favorite of other artists.
“Every time I start a new album I head up to West Texas and drive around, you know, drive on those old cotton roads and in the wide-open spaces, and every once in a while I’ll come across a place where I’ve spent some time,” Ely told Texas Monthly in 2011.
It was a soundcheck for a show in London that led to the collaboration with British punk band the Clash. Ely would later open for the Clash at several shows and sang backup vocals for their hit song “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Joe Ely, the influential Texas-born singer-songwriter whose blend of honky-tonk, rock and roadhouse blues made him a favorite among other musicians and led to collaborations with Bruce Springsteen and the Clash, has died. He was 78.
Ely died in Taos, New Mexico, of complications from Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinson’s and pneumonia, with his wife and daughter by his side, according to a post on his Facebook account Monday night and later confirmed by his representatives.
Ely was considered a key figure in the progressive country music movement as a founder of the influential country-rock band The Flatlanders with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, and later as a solo artist.
“Joe Ely performed American roots music with the fervor of a true believer who knew music could transport souls,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
“But his true measure came through in the dynamic intensity of his powerhouse live performances, where he could stand his ground aside fellow zealots Bruce Springsteen who recorded duets with Ely, and the (Rolling) Stones and the Clash, who took Ely on tour as an opening act,” Young said.
After signing with MCA, Ely released his first solo album in 1977. He would release more than 20 albums over his career, including “Love and Freedom” earlier this year.
Born in Amarillo, Texas, Ely stayed connected to his Texas roots through decades of recording and performing that lacked a mainstream breakthrough but made him a favorite of other artists.
“Every time I start a new album I head up to West Texas and drive around, you know, drive on those old cotton roads and in the wide-open spaces, and every once in a while I’ll come across a place where I’ve spent some time,” Ely told Texas Monthly in 2011.
It was a soundcheck for a show in London that led to the collaboration with British punk band the Clash. Ely would later open for the Clash at several shows and sang backup vocals for their hit song “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Ready to step into an analogue dream with the iconic blackbear? He’s back and ready to call us all out on the masks we put on with the chaotically cathartic ‘britney in 07,’ which challenges you to be more upfront about how you’re truly doing and to consider whether the way you present yourself matches it. We’re in an era where most people are public figures in some way, whether it’s through actually being famous or even just posting a lot of their lives online. And even though you don’t have to fill your profile with sad songs or cryptic reposts during harder times, you also don’t have to act like everything is going really well for you if it feels like the exact opposite.
blackbear flips between embracing fame and condemning it as quickly as you’d tap past 10 different stories of crying selfies from someone you barely know but still followed to “connect with” at some point. “I bought a new house, I bought a new whip,” he announces before admitting, “I’mma burn that sh*t down, I’mma drive it off a cliff.” The material things that come with his success don’t feel like items of celebration anymore, but perhaps things that separate him from the average person and remind him of the struggles he’s been through while chasing such an ambitious lifestyle. Does he burn it all down and put a stop to it, or embrace it and hit the gas even when he’s not feeling it anymore?
Ultimately, bear lands on something in-between: he can admit those struggles while also trying to stay on the right path pursuing his dreams. “I’m not okay, but if Britney [Spears] could survive ‘07, you could do it today,” he urges before trying to bridge the public-facing and more internal sides of himself: “It’s hard to be a liar and the same time keep it real.” For his own well-being and to keep helping the fans he’s inspired throughout the years, he needs to maintain that bridge and be honest about how he’s really feeling.
This song is about crashing out and being open about it. Society makes us feel like shit sometimes, there’s a 2007 Britney in all of us .. one hateful comment away from shaving our heads and smashing up our cars for the world to see.. The sad part is the world loves it. It’s like a train wreck we can’t look away from when someone’s going through it. I hope this song changes the narrative and encourages people to check up on their friends and actually be there for one another as human beings undergoing the same human condition… But Britney survived and I think we can, too. It’s just gonna take some empathy, compassion, love for our neighbor and other humans, and quite a bit of work. Mainly on ourselves.
blackbear
‘britney in 07’ is billed as blackbear’s first major solo release since his 2022 album, in loving memory, following a break from performances and a period of health challenges he’s been very open about. He’s experienced necrotizing pancreatitis, which led to a multi-organ removal surgery, and diabetes. We can only imagine how empowering it must feel for him to get back to what he loves in its purest form – he performed at YUNGBLUD’sBLUDFEST and the Long Beach date of Warped Tour this summer, and he’ll be releasing his new album, analogue dream, in 2026!
The analogue dream title has us so excited for blackbear’s next chapter! “Analogue” means something that serves as a parallel to or shares qualities with something else, while the homophone “analog” is the opposite of “digital.” As social media and AI evolve into our nightmares, how can we embrace unity and togetherness beyond our screens? What kinds of insights on humanity does blackbear have to offer us after pushing through so many obstacles and dealing with the internet’s opinions of him along the way? bear’s music has always made us feel so seen and understood, so we know his upcoming project will definitely move us while leading us to question how we can improve ourselves and our outlooks on life.
What do you love most about ‘britney in 07?’ Which lines do you most relate to? Let us know in the comments below or hit us up on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! You can also buzz on over to our Reddit community to chat with us.
Marlon Wayans starring in the Jordan Peele-produced football thriller “Him” and the iHeartRadio Z100’s Jingle Ball 2025 featuring Conan Gray, Ed Sheeran, Jelly Roll and Olivia Dean are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: A second season of “Fallout” arrives on Prime Video, Season 5 of “Emily in Paris” drops on Netflix and Peter Criss — Kiss’ original drummer — will release a brand new, self-titled album.
— The Jordan Peele-produced “Him” (Dec. 19 on Peacock) takes the hard knocks of the gridiron to bloody extremes. It stars Tyriq Withers as an up-and-coming quarterback whose mentorship with the veteran champ (Marlon Wayans) grows increasingly dark and surreal. In my review, I wrote that “Him” has a decent point to make about QB hero worship, “the problem is that has exactly one thing to say, which it does again and again.”
— In David Mackenzie’s “Relay,” Riz Ahmed plays a fixer who runs a covert service that brokers deals between corrupt companies and potential threats. To preserve anonymity, he uses a “relay” telephone service, usually for deaf or speech-impaired people, to disguise identities. This nifty thriller streams Friday, Dec. 12 on Netflix after a late-summer theatrical release. Co-starring Lily James and Sam Worthington.
— For a particularly seductive December, you can spend your holidays with Wong Kar-wai. The Criterion Channel is hosting many of the Hong Kong filmmaker’s finest films, including “Chungking Express,” “Fallen Angels” and “In the Mood for Love,” as well as his first TV series, “Blossoms Shanghai.” A hit in China, the 30-part series is set amid the 1990s opening of the Chinese economy and the relaunch of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. New episodes debut every Monday.
— Alex Warren. BigXthaPlug. Conan Gray.Ed Sheeran.Jelly Roll. Jessie Murph. The Kid LAROI. Laufey. Mgk. Monsta X. Myles Smith. Nelly. Olivia Dean. Ravyn Lenae. Reneé Rapp. Shinedown. Zara Larsson. What do all these popular artists have in common? They’re performing at the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour! On Wednesday, ABC will air the iHeartRadio Z100’s Jingle Ball 2025 holiday special — made up of a few tour stops — to become available to stream on Hulu the next day. It’s all the fun of a star-studded pop concert from the comfort of your couch.
— In 2023, glam rockers Kiss said its goodbyes for one final performance at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden. But that doesn’t mean their musical story ended there. On Friday, Peter Criss — Kiss’ original drummer and founding member who left and rejoined the group on a number of occasions — will release a brand new, self-titled album.
— A second season of “Fallout” arrives on Prime Video Wednesday. Based on a hugely popular video game, it’s a postapocalyptic series set two centuries after a nuclear war destroyed modern civilization. In Season 2, Justin Theroux, Macaulay Culkin, and Kumail Nanjiani join the cast which includes Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins.
— Emily, of “Emily in Paris,” is still living la dolce vita in Rome when Season 5 drops Thursday. The Darren Starr-created show follows the adventures of an American expat played by Lily Collins.
— A new documentary series called “Born to be Wild” follows six endangered baby animals that were orphaned or born as part of conservation programs. Narrated by Hugh Bonneville, it streams on Apple TV beginning Friday, Dec. 19.
— The video game business has wrapped up its big-release schedule for the holidays, so now is a good time to catch up on titles you may have missed — or started and didn’t have time to finish. It has been a solid year for role-playing games, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and The Outer Worlds 2 leading The Associated Press’ top 10 list. If you’re in the mood for a trip to Japan, Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Ghost of Yōtei both offer sprawling open-world journeys with RPG elements. Check out the rest of our top 10 for more ways to keep your game device of choice humming past New Year’s Day.
Taylor Swift has made headlines over the years for her generous bonuses to tour employees, which are highlighted in her new docuseries, The End of an Era.
The second episode of the Disney+ show, which premiered Friday, December 12, shows Swift preparing bonuses for her dancers. The Grammy winner explained that she handwrote every note to each employee and sealed each envelope with wax, which took her “a couple weeks” to do.
“Bonus day is so important, because setting a precedent with The Eras Tour is really important to me, because people who work on the road, if the tour grosses more, they get more of a bonus, and these people just work so hard and they are the best at what they do,” she said. “It’s fun to write the notes. It’s fun to think about everybody’s lives that they’re gonna go back to and the time off they’re gonna have and the kids they haven’t seen because they’ve been away for months, and just making that worthwhile for them is really — it feels like Christmas morning when you finally get to say thank you.”
While the docuseries censors the amount of money Swift gave her dancers, various reports have said she handed out tens of millions of dollars over the course of the nearly two-year tour. Keep scrolling for everything we know about Swift’s Eras Tour bonuses:
How Much Did Taylor Swift Make From ‘The Eras Tour’?
While it’s unclear how much Swift herself pocketed from the tour, the 149-date event grossed more than $2 billion in ticket sales, per The New York Times. That figure, shared with the outlet by Swift’s production company, does not include merch sales, profits from the Eras Tour book or the box-office take from her 2023 film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. (The film grossed $261 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo.)
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management The Eras Tour might belong to Taylor Swift — but the pop star’s bejeweled dancers, backup vocalists and band members help the whole place shimmer. Kicking off in April 2023, Swift’s career-spanning stadium concert consists of a three-and-a-half-hour journey that takes fans through 44 songs grouped into 10 […]
Last year, Forbes reported that the tour’s record-breaking success pushed Swift over the line to billionaire status. As of 2025, the outlet reports that she is worth $1.6 billion.
Aldara Zarraoa/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Earlier this week, Swift quipped to Stephen Colbert that she used her Eras Tour earnings to buy back her masters. Per Billboard, she paid $360 million to buy the recordings from venture capital firm Shamrock Holdings.
How Much Did Taylor Swift Pay Her Dancers on ‘The Eras Tour’?
Aldara Zarraoa/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Exact figures aren’t available for her dancers’ salaries, but the organization Dancers Alliance offers a list of preferred rates for the industry, listing $465 for eight hours of rehearsal (with time and a half for anything over) and a minimum of $2,730 per week on tour.
Ben Clark, a banjo player who worked with Swift early in her career, claimed last year that the superstar has always paid her fellow performers well, explaining that she paid her musicians a salary. “As a new artist, to offer salary is very rare,” he said in 2024. “It’s almost unheard of, but that’s how they ran their business and that’s how they took care of us band members.”
After he left her band, he claimed he was the “highest-paid band guy in Nashville,” adding, “There were artists — George Strait, whoever you want to name it — that have had bands for 30 years that weren’t making as much money as Taylor was paying us.”
How Much Was the Bonus Dancers Got on ‘The Eras Tour’?
Taylor Swift hugs her dancers after giving them bonuses in ‘The End of an Era.’Disney+
When Swift’s dancer Kameron Saunders reads the bonus letter in The End of the Era, the producers censor the amount of money he receives, but it’s clear the dancers are pleased by the number, as many of them start crying. Saunders, for his part, lets out a little laugh after he reads the amount.
“Dearest Kam, we’ve traveled the world like we set out to do,” Saunders begins, reading the poem Swift wrote in the cards. “We’ve dazzled the crowds but we’ve missed family too. My full gratitude doesn’t come from a bank, but here’s [redacted] dollars just to say thanks. Love, Taylor.”
In another scene, production assistant Max Holmes is so overwhelmed by the bonus that he jokes, “I’m gonna pass out.”
In the replies of a viral tweet about the scene, fans are doing their best to try to guess what Saunders said, with some convinced they heard him start to say $750,000 and others thinking she gave them $130,000 (since her lucky number is 13).
How Much Did Taylor Swift Pay Her ‘Eras Tour’ Truck Drivers?
After the first North American leg of the tour wrapped in August 2023, Swift gave each of her nearly 50-member trucking crew $100,000 each. “The typical amount is $5,000 to $10,000 each. So, this large amount is unbelievable,” Michael Scherkenbach, founder and CEO of the Shomotion trucking company, told CNN at the time. (Shomotion was one of two trucking companies used by the tour.)
Scherkenbach added that the check was a “life-changing” amount for the truckers. “The drivers didn’t want to be overly rude and look at it,” he added of the moment they received their bonus envelopes. “But one looked and thought it said $1,000, another driver saw it as $10,000 and then the third said, ‘Well, this has to be a joke!’”
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How Many ‘Eras Tour’ Bonuses Did Taylor Swift Give Out?
A duffel bag containing bonus envelopes in ‘The End of an Era.’Disney+
According to The End of an Era, Swift gave bonuses to “every dancer, musician and crew member” at the end of each leg of the tour. There were five main legs of the tour: North America, South America, Asia/Australia, Europe and a second North American leg. After the first leg wrapped up in 2023, People reported that she’d already given out more than $55 million in bonuses.
While an exact number of crew members isn’t known, some reports have suggested that around 1,000 people were involved in putting The Eras Tour together, including 15 dancers, 50 truck drivers, six musicians and four backup vocalists. One scene in the docuseries shows that it takes at least one large duffel bag to carry all the envelopes containing the bonuses.
In December 2024, People confirmed that Swift gave out a total of $197 million in bonuses to everyone who worked on the tour, including “truck drivers, caterers, instrument techs, merch team, lighting, sound, production staff and assistants, carpenters, dancers, band, security, choreographers, pyrotechnics, riggers, hair, make-up, wardrobe, physical therapists and video team.”
“It feels like the Eras Tour was a lifetime within my life,” Taylor Swift said earlier this week at an intimate New York City screening of the first two episodes of The End of an Era, the six-part docuseries pulling back the curtain on her record-breaking Eras Tour. Those episodes, as well as Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour: The Final Show, a concert film capturing the entirety of her final bow of the 149-show tour, hit Disney+ on Friday, a day before Swift’s 36th birthday.
The tour was long—about a year and a half, all told—and its goodbye, ongoing even now, a year later, is long too. It’s fitting, though, as there’s a lot to process: While on the road, she released two Taylor’s Version re-recording projects (Red and 1989), launched a super-sized studio album (The Tortured Poets Department), began dating Travis Kelce (now her fiancé), attended two Super Bowls, and wrote and recorded another studio album (The Life of a Showgirl). And those are just the highlights.
Taking the microphone, Swift spoke after the rambunctious cheering of the crowd—made up of her entire backing band and vocalists, the Eras Tour dancers, tour production staff, her dad Scott Swift, mom Andrea Swift, and brother Austin Swift, not to mention various Disney personnel and a few members of the media—faded, thanking all who were involved in the tour and production of the series.
“It was a year ago yesterday that we played the last show of the Eras Tour. It feels insane. I know it does for me,” she said, before describing a career-long fixation with not just entertaining people, but providing an escape for audiences, where everything is not perfect, but all feelings are allowed. There’s room for the joy and community that fans have gushed over finding at her concerts, right alongside space to express grief with songs like “Marjorie,” rage (“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”), exasperation (“We Are Never Getting Back Together”), resilience (“I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”), giddy youthfulness (“22”), and more points along the emotional spectrum that colors everyday life.
“Everything that went into this was all the lessons we’ve learned all of our lives,” she said, crediting her dancers, band, technical staff, and all involved with pouring their own life experiences into making the tour an immersive experience, before acknowledging the docuseries’ directors, Don Argott and Sheena Joyce, also in attendance, for their work preserving the period to share with the world.
Ariana Wyatt, of Virginia Tech, explains how traditional hymns and carols influence modern holiday hits. Themes of longing, family, and tradition remain central, even as commercial tunes and romantic holiday songs shape today’s playlists.
Some people are fans of Christmas music, but not when it shows up particularly early in the holiday season.
Ariana Wyatt, a professor of voice and associate dean for outreach and engagement for the College for Architecture, Arts and Design at Virginia Tech, loves Christmas music, but she’s not a fan of the increasingly early arrival of the sounds of the season, like the day after Halloween.
Wyatt said that’s a little too soon for her, but,“That seems to be where we’re at as a culture.”
The themes of the earliest Christmas music — the hymns and carols that celebrate the birth of Christ — continue to influence modern holiday music, Wyatt said.
“When it starts to get cold, we’re seeking comfort, light, joy, togetherness. And those things are all found in Christmas music,” she said. “I think there’s a real power in tradition.”
Many of the popular Christmas songs that end up in heavy rotation in grocery stores and in people’s personal playlists are more than 80 years old.
A common theme is one of longing, Wyatt said. Over and over, songs of the time mention home, family and tradition.
“And that did start with ‘White Christmas,’ which was broadcast for the first time on Christmas Day 1941, just a couple weeks after Pearl Harbor,” Wyatt said.
“Songs of longing have been around since the beginning of time, but it was definitely attached to World War II,” said Wyatt, who added that songs of the period featured “nostalgia for Christmases past and that hope for Christmas present and future.”
Wyatt said it was in the 1950s when a “whole new genre” of Christmas music began to feature shopping, Santa and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, a character originally created as part of a store promotion dating back to 1939.
“We have songs that are really about the green side of Christmas: the gift-giving, the Santa Claus, the commercial part,” Wyatt said.
Songs from both eras have been covered again and again by everyone from U-2 to Bruce Springsteen, but one original piece of music has come to dominate the season: Mariah Carey’s 1994 “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
Carey has often been referred to as the “Queen of Christmas,” and Wyatt said there’s no denying the popularity of the tune.
“It is the No. 1 Christmas hit of the 21st century, and it wasn’t even released in the 21st century. It was released in the 20th century,” Wyatt said.
Yet another genre of Christmas music that can be heard during the season, Wyatt said, is the holiday tune mixed with romance.
Carey used that in other songs, such as “I Miss You Most at Christmastime.” Those songs evoke the holiday, with references to snow, sitting by the fireplace, hearing distant carolers and more.
“It’s like visiting an old friend,” she said, referencing the love for traditions that surround the Christmas season.
When it comes to her personal favorites, she puts “O Holy Night” at the top of her list.
“It’s the one that makes me weak in the knees when it’s sung powerfully by a beautiful voice, there’s nothing better than that,” Wyatt said.
She also loves “White Christmas.”
“I love those old tunes from the 40s and 50s that we still kind of love today,” she said.
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LOS ANGELES, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Rapper and entertainment mogul Snoop Dogg has joined Team USA as its first-ever honorary coach, a role the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee hopes will sprinkle a little West Coast cool on the American team at the Milano Cortina Winter Games.
The USOPC said on Thursday that “Coach Snoop” would be part of the “Team Behind the Team” – the staff, coaches, medical experts, administrators and partners who support athletes as they chase medals in Italy.
“Team USA athletes are the real stars – I’m just here to cheer, uplift and maybe drop a little wisdom from the sidelines,” Snoop said in a statement.
“This team represents the best of what sport can be: talent, heart and hustle. If I can bring a little more love and motivation to that, that’s a win for me.”
USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland said Snoop’s first encounter with Team USA athletes looked less like a corporate partnership and more like a locker-room fit.
“From the moment Snoop met Team USA athletes, there was an instant connection – mutual respect, genuine curiosity and a lot of laughter,” she said.
“His enthusiasm for the Olympic and Paralympic Movement is contagious, and we’re thrilled to officially welcome him as a member of the Team Behind the Team.”
Snoop, born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., was a ubiquitous presence at the Paris Olympics, serving as a hype-man for Team USA and performing at a beach party in his native Long Beach during the handover ceremony for Los Angeles 2028.
“From the moment I rolled into Paris, I was instantly welcomed into the USOPC family,” he said.
“I felt the energy, the pride and the love of sport that makes this team special. The way the staff lifts up the athletes… the way the athletes inspire the world… it had me hooked from day one.”
The 54-year-old Californian has a long history in grassroots sport through the Snoop Youth Football League, which the USOPC says has supported more than 15,000 young athletes, including youngsters with disabilities.
The honorary coaching gig adds to Snoop’s previously announced role with Olympic broadcaster NBCUniversal during February’s Milano Cortina Games, further cementing his status as an unlikely but increasingly permanent character in the Olympic universe.
“This is just the beginning,” he said. “Let’s fire up Team USA together.”
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; editing by Clare Fallon)
Taylor Swift can do it with a broken heart — and with a stomach ache.
The pop star, 35, revealed during her Wednesday, December 10, appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that she performed with stomach bugs on more than one occasion on her Eras Tour.
“For me, when I’m on tour, especially the Eras Tour, I just make a decision at the beginning of the tour that there’s no option to not go on stage,” Swift explained. “That’s not an option, and it’s not an option to perform, like, ‘I think I’ll do this show at a level six tonight.’ That’s not an option.”
The “Lover” singer continued, “Even if you have the stomach flu, which I had multiple times during the tour, my goal was, like, never let them know you have the stomach flu.”
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour may be over, but fans can still hold onto the memories. Swift, 35, celebrated the two-year anniversary of the tour’s kickoff by sharing an exclusive performance from opening night at the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards on Monday, March 17, from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. “This is amazing, hi, thank […]
Swift said one thing that helped her push through “physical pain” was her costumes, including her bedazzled Versace bodysuit, which she wore to kick off each show in the Lover era.
“I was constantly in a lot of physical pain, but when I put that on, I was just like, ‘No, this is popping. I’m doing it,’” she added.
Swift told Colbert, 61, that it was important to her to keep up with her scheduled shows because it meant so much to her fans.
“It’s also about knowing there’s something bigger than you, and for me on that tour, the bigger thing was these people have saved up their money, they have rearranged their schedules, they have arranged transportation, they’ve had parties, they’ve created costumes, they’ve made sweatshirts, they’ve made friendship bracelets,” she explained. “I’m doing the show.”
Kate Green/Getty Images
Swift’s Eras Tour consisted of 149 shows across five continents. Only three dates out of the two-year tour were canceled due to a suspected terror attack at Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, Austria, in August 2024.
“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating. The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows,” Swift wrote via Instagram at the time. “But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”
The Grammy winner continued, “I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together. I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London. My team and I worked hand in hand with stadium staff and British authorities every day in pursuit of that goal, and I want to thank them for everything they did for us.”
As the Eras Tour winds down, Taylor Swift is getting emotional about saying goodbye to everyone who made it a special journey. After a standing ovation for her performance of “Champagne Problems” on Saturday, November 23, the 34-year-old pop star attempted to thank fans on behalf of herself and members of her band. Swift, however, […]
Swift concluded her Eras Tour in December 2024. Now, one year later, she is set to shed light on her journey in Disney+’s The End of an Era, a six-part behind-the-scenes docuseries that chronicles the development and impact of the Eras Tour. Along with the docuseries, Disney+ will release The Final Show, a concert film of her last Vancouver show that includes the Tortured Poets Department set.
“It was the End of an Era and we knew it,” Swift wrote via Instagram in October when the projects were announced. “We wanted to remember every moment leading up to the culmination of the most important and intense chapter of our lives, so we allowed filmmakers to capture this tour and all the stories woven throughout it as it wound down. And to film the final show in its entirety.”
Taylor Swift: The End of an Era and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour: The Final Show premiere on Disney+ on Friday, December 12.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday presented the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals during a ceremony in the Oval Office, hailing the slate of artists he was deeply involved in choosing as “perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class” ever assembled.
This year’s recipients are actor Sylvester Stallone, singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, the rock band Kiss and actor-singer Michael Crawford.
Trump said they are a group of “incredible people” who represent the “very best in American arts and culture” and that, “I know most of them and I’ve been a fan of all of them.”
“This is a group of icons whose work and accomplishments have inspired, uplifted and unified millions and millions of Americans,” said a tuxedo-clad Trump. “This is perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class of Kennedy Center Honorees ever assembled.”
Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center
Trump ignored the Kennedy Center and its premier awards program during his first term as president. But the Republican has instituted a series of changes since returning to office in January, most notably ousting its board of trustees and replacing them with GOP supporters who voted him in as chairman of the board.
Trump also has criticized the center’s programming and its physical appearance, and has vowed to overhaul both.
The president placed around each honoree’s neck a new medal that was designed, created and donated by jeweler Tiffany & Co., according to the Kennedy Center and Trump.
It’s a gold disc etched on one side with the Kennedy Center’s image and rainbow colors. The honoree’s name appears on the reverse side with the date of the ceremony. The medallion hangs from a navy blue ribbon and replaces a large rainbow ribbon decorated with three gold plates that rested on the honoree’s shoulders and chest and had been used since the first honors program in 1978.
Trump honors the honorees
Strait, wearing a cowboy hat, was first to receive his medal. When the country singer started to take off the hat, Trump said, “If you want to leave it on, you can. I think we can get it through.” But Strait took it off.
The president said Crawford was a “great star of Broadway” for his lead role in the long-running “Phantom of the Opera.” Of Gaynor, he said, “We have the disco queen, and she was indeed, and nobody did it like Gloria Gaynor.”
Trump was effusive about his friend Stallone, calling him a “wonderful” and “spectacular” person and “one of the true, great movie stars” and “one of the great legends.”
Kiss is an “incredible rock band,” he said.
Songs by honorees Gaynor and Kiss played in the Rose Garden just outside the Oval Office as members of the White House press corps waited nearby for Trump to begin the ceremony.
The president said in August that he was “about 98% involved” in choosing the 2025 honorees when he personally announced them at the Kennedy Center, the first slate chosen under his leadership. The honorees traditionally had been announced by press release.
It was unclear how they were chosen. Before Trump, it fell to a bipartisan selection committee.
“These are among the greatest artists, actors and performers of their generation. The greatest that we’ve seen,” Trump said. “We can hardly imagine the country music phenomena without its king of country, or American disco without its first lady, or Broadway without its phantom — and that was a phantom, let me tell you — or rock and roll without its hottest band in the world, and that’s what they are, or Hollywood without one of its greatest visionaries.”
“Each of you has made an indelible mark on American life and together you have defined entire genres and set new standards for the performing arts,” Trump said.
Trump also attended an annual State Department dinner for the honorees on Saturday. In years past, the honorees received their medallions there but Trump moved that to the White House.
Trump said during pre-dinner remarks that the honorees are more than celebrities.
“It gives me tremendous pleasure to congratulate them once again and say thank you for your incredible career,” he said. “Thank you for gracing us with this wisdom and just genius that you have.”
Trump to host the Kennedy Center Honors
Meanwhile, the glitzy Kennedy Center Honors program and its series of tribute speeches and performances for each recipient is set to be taped on Sunday at the performing arts center for broadcast later in December on CBS and Paramount+. Trump is to attend the program for the first time as president, accompanied by his wife, first lady Melania Trump.
The president said in August that he had agreed to host the show. At dinner Saturday, he said he was doing so “at the request of a certain television network.” Trump predicted that the broadcast would garner its highest ratings ever as a result. No president has ever been the host.
At the White House, Trump said he looked forward to Sunday’s celebration.
“It’s going to be something that I believe, and I’m going to make a prediction: This will be the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done and they’ve gotten some pretty good ratings, but there’s nothing like what’s going to happen tomorrow night,” Trump said.
The president also swiped at late-night TV show host Jimmy Kimmel, whose program was briefly suspended earlier this year by ABC following criticism of his comments related to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September.
Kimmel and Trump are sharp critics of each other, with the president regularly deriding Kimmel’s talent as a host. Kimmel has hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Academy Award multiple times.
Trump said he should be able to outdo Kimmel.
“I’ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible,” Trump said. “If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”
Sombr talks about writing music from childhood bedroom and rise to fame – CBS News
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Singer-songwriter Sombr is up for Best New Artist of the Year at the Grammy Awards. He was the only writer on his debut album, “I Barely Know Her.” He spoke to Anthony Mason about where his journey began and his whirlwind year.
Carly Pearce on being vulnerable in her new music: “Every line in the song is my story” – CBS News
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Grammy-winning country music superstar Carly Pearce joins “CBS Mornings” to talk about her highly-anticipated fifth studio album, fans relating to the lyrics in her music and being vulnerable.
LOS ANGELES, December 2, 2025 (Newswire.com)
– Rolling Stone and Keepsake Trading Cards are celebrating the life and legacy of Bob Marley with an elevated collectible experience with the 2025 Rolling Stone Bob Marley™ Keepsake Premiere Collection. This limited series invites fans to connect with Marley’s cultural impact through premium limited edition trading cards crafted for collectors.
Inspired by three classic Rolling Stone covers featuring Bob Marley, the set spans pivotal moments in his career – honoring the artist’s music, message, and global influence. Each card pairs striking visuals with luxurious materials to deliver a keepsake worthy of a legend.
Every card is individually numbered, produced in extremely limited quantities, and arrives blind wrapped to preserve the thrill of discovery. The centerpiece of this collection is the rarest chase card-a true treasure featuring an actual piece of Bob Marley’s personal tour piano, famously used during the 1980 Uprising tour with The Wailers. Additional relic cards incorporated into the set will include authentic gemstones and precious metals, such as diamonds, gold, rubies, and platinum, making each piece truly one-of-a-kind.
Each elegantly crafted six-box “master” case will include one Bob Marley private collection relic card containing a piece of his tour piano from his final Uprising tour with The Wailers and one Rolling Stone cover card featuring photography by Annie Leibovitz.
This 250-card set features six unique versions for each card – Rainbow (15 cards), Swirl (10 cards), Ice (10 cards), Sheen (10 cards), Fireworks (5 cards), and the ultra-rare Vinyl (1 cards).
The three coveted Rolling Stone chase cover cards also feature six unique versions numbered to Rainbow (99 cards), Swirl (75 cards), Ice (50 cards), Sheen (25 cards), and Fireworks (10 cards). The Vinyl edition stands as the pinnacle of rarity, with only one card produced.
The collection offers two purchasing options. Individual cards are priced at $100 each, while master cases, which contain six blind-wrapped cards, are available for $600.
“At Rolling Stone, we’re constantly finding new ways to celebrate the artists who move culture forward,” said Julian Holguin, CEO of Rolling Stone. “Partnering with Keepsake to reimagine Bob Marley’s legacy as a collectible experience brings our storytelling into a new dimension – connecting generations through music, art, and history.”
“With this collection, we’re honoring my father’s legacy in a way that’s never been done – giving fans a chance to own a true piece of history. From rare relics to iconic imagery, this launch is for the collectors, the fans, and the next generation of storytellers,” said Cedella Marley, CEO of the Bob Marley Group of Companies, Grammy-winning singer, author, designer, and Marley’s daughter.
Rolling Stone and Keepsake are also partnering with Dave & Adams – one of North America’s premier trading-card retailers-for a livestream debut on Fanatics.live on December 17, 2025, where the collection will be unveiled and select items will be auctioned, with all proceeds benefiting the Bob & Rita Marley Foundation to support hurricane-relief efforts in Jamaica.
For press inquires, interviews, and additional information, please contact:
Five decades since its founding, Rolling Stone today has evolved into a multi-platform content brand with unrivaled access and authority, reaching a global audience of over 60 million people per month. Staying true to its mission to tell exceptional stories that illuminate the culture of our times, Rolling Stone is an authority for music reviews, in-depth interviews, hard-hitting political commentary and award-winning journalism across print, digital, mobile, video, social and events. Operated and published by Penske Media Corporation, Rolling Stone provides “all the news that fits.”
ABOUT BOB MARLEY
Bob Marley is not only the man who put Reggae on the global map but a peacemaker and statesman in his native Jamaica, bringing together the country’s warring factions. Today, Marley remains one of the 21st century’s most important and influential entertainment icons – a symbol of unity – with his music and lifestyle having an indelible impact on new generations of fans globally. His legacy lives on through his lyrics, songs and call to action.
The 2024 biographical drama and musical film, Bob Marley: One Love, opened at No. 1 in 13 major markets, including the U.S, U.K., France, Australia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, and Norway. The movie set box office records during its release, surpassing the $200 million mark and solidifying its place as a cultural and cinematic phenomenon.
In the digital era, he has the second-highest social media following of any posthumous celebrity with more than 66 million Facebook fans. Marley’s music catalog has sold millions of albums worldwide. His iconic collection LEGEND is the longest-charting album in Billboard Magazine’s Catalog Albums chart and remains the world’s best-selling reggae album and second longest charting album of all time overall. “Three Little Birds” and “Could You Be Loved” have both surpassed one billion streams on Spotify, making him the first reggae act with two solo songs to reach this milestone.
Bob Marley’s legacy has been cemented with numerous awards and honors, including his posthumous induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, and Jamaica’s Order Of Merit, recognizing his profound impact on music and culture worldwide. Marley’s music continues to be recognized, as a newly recorded collection of his songs recently won the 2025 Grammy for Best Reggae Album.
From his first album to every new release, his music and influence continue to be an integral part of each generation’s playlist.
For more information, visit bobmarley.com and on all social platforms @bobmarley.
How might we moderate the rare but very real risk of headbanging?
If you search for heavy metal in the National Library of Medicine database, most of what you find is on heavy metal contamination in fish, which “makes it difficult to establish clearly the role of fish consumption on a healthy diet” and perhaps helps to explain the quintupling of odds of autoimmune diseases, such as juvenile arthritis. But searching for the hazards of heavy metal also pops up entries on the “risks from heavy metal music.” In this study, researchers were talking about traumatic injuries from slamming around “during a moshing session,” but you’re more likely to get injured at an alternative rock concert. (Check out some of the artists below and at 0:50 in my video The Dangerous Effects of Heavy Metal Music.)
Certainly, music-induced hearing loss is a serious problem, but that can result from any loud music. Clinical recommendations include the “80–90 rule”—no more than 80% of the maximum volume on personal listening devices for no more than 90 minutes a day. That’s not what the science shows, however. “Do not exceed 60% of the maximum volume” may be more evidence-based, but researchers figure teens would just ignore that, so they came up with more “acceptable” advice.
I assumed I’d see a lot of satanic panic nonsense from the 1980s, when “parents bereaved by suicide…accused Heavy Metal groups of promoting suicidal behaviours and…proceeded to sue musicians.” What kind of evidence did the parents present? There has been “little scholarly research” published until the “The Heavy Metal Subculture and Suicide” paper that tried to correlate the number of statewide heavy metal magazine subscriptions to youth suicide rates. Seriously?
It got really wild, though, when researchers called psychiatric institutions, pretending to be parents worried because their son started listening to heavy metal music, even though they made it clear that their son didn’t exhibit any symptoms of mental illness, didn’t do drugs or drink alcohol, and was doing fine at school. Ten of the twelve facilities believed the son required psychiatric hospitalization. Imagine what that would do to a kid! Researchers found that, decades later, metalheads “were significantly happier in their youth and better adjusted” than their peers.
Some studies were strange. Do Parkinson’s patients walk better listening to The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” or Metallica’s “Master of Puppets”? (See below and at 2:32 in my video.)
Others were pretty nondescript. Heavy metal musicians exhibit a higher heart rate than those performing “contemporary Christian,” which isn’t so surprising, as you can see here and at 2:40.
Some others were kind of cute, like one that investigated the influence of music on promoting patient safety during surgery—veterinary patients, that is. Kittens got spayed with little earphones on their heads. It turns out that “Adagio for Strings” may be more relaxing than AC/DC.
A review on music therapy for human patients warned: “Caution should be exercised…when guiding patients in selecting their music. ‘Chaotic music, such us [sic] hip-hop and metal, is not healing to human cells.’” That even had three citations, though two of them don’t say anything and the third is a nursing newsletter merely quoting someone’s opinion. I did some digging, and it turns out that stomach cancer cells like metal. If you play them Cannibal Corpse versus Beethoven, 12 hours of death metal increases their growth in a petri dish, as you can see below and at 3:28 in my video. (That’s so metal.)
But who puts headphones on their stomach? Or their chests, for that matter? In one study, Mozart killed off one type of breast cancer cell line but not another; in another study, only Beethoven’s 5th Symphony seemed to work, and Mozart flopped when the petri dishes were surrounded by speakers. How does this stuff even get published?
Anyway, the true danger from heavy metal is headbanging. “Headbanging is a contemporary dance form consisting of abrupt flexion–extension movements of the head to the rhythm of rock music, most commonly seen in the heavy metal genre.” Although the “number of avid aficionados is unknown…some fans might be endangered by indulging excessive headbanging.” Despite headbanging generally being “considered harmless,” several health complications have been attributed to this practice, including ripping your carotid artery, rupturing your lung, whiplash injury, neck fracture, or subdural hematoma. One man reported headbanging at a Motörhead concert, and all that “brisk forward and backward acceleration and deceleration forces” might have ruptured his bridging veins and caused him to bleed into his skull.
As shown here and at 4:47 in my video, bridging veins bridge the gap between the brain and the covering that lines the inside of our skull, and if the veins tear, blood can build up under our skull and compress our brain.
This bridging vein rupture has been demonstrated on headbanging cadavers (another very metal study). See below and at 5:02 in my video. It’s been likened to a “pseudo shaken-baby syndrome” in adults.
The researchers conclude that their “case serves as evidence in support of Motörhead’s reputation as one of the most hardcore rock’n’roll acts on earth,” but I think the real takeaway is that a potentially dangerous complication like subdural hematoma can result from “a seemingly benign activity like head banging.” And some of the brain bleeds can be massive. One man complained of a “headache after headbanging at a party.” Why? As you can see in his CT scan below and at 5:35, circled in red is all blood, squishing over his brain. Amazingly, he survived; another man didn’t, headbanging and losing his life to a fatal subdural hemorrhage.
We can tear more than just veins. There are two sets of arteries that tunnel into the skull—the carotid arteries in the front and the vertebral arteries in the back—and we can tear both sets. A 15-year-old boy “indulged in headbanging” and ripped his carotid artery, which led to a massive stroke. He presented as half-paralyzed and unable to speak, and he died in a coma within a week.
What about the vertebral arteries in the back? They’re wedged into our skull, rendering them susceptible to shearing forces from extremes of neck motion, and that’s exactly what appeared to happen when a heavy metal drummer tore the wall of the artery. All of this is really rare, probably afflicting less than one in a thousand or so. What can metalheads do to reduce their risk? “To prevent injury due to such head-banging, the range of head and neck motion should be reduced, slower-tempo music should replace heavy metal rock, the frequency of head-banging should be only on every second beat, or personal protective equipment should be used”—like a neck brace?
“Little formal injury research has been conducted on the worldwide phenomenon of head banging,” so researchers constructed “a theoretical head banging model” with enough physics terms to make any nerd happy: “angular displacement,” “sinusoidal motion in the sagittal plane,” and “amplitude of the displacement curve.” The study participants? Headbangers. The control group? That’s easy with easy listening music.
The head injury curves and neck injury curves, based on headbanging tempo and angular sweep, are shown below and at 7:23.
“An average head-banging song has a tempo of about 146 beats per minute, which is predicted to cause mild head injury when the range of motion is greater than 75º,” so something like what’s seen below and at 7:34 in myvideo.
The researchers conclude: “To minimise the risk of head and neck injury, head bangers should decrease their range of head and neck motion, head bang to slower tempo songs by replacing heavy metal with adult-oriented rock, only head bang to every second beat, or use personal protective equipment.”
“Unfortunately, it is difficult, if not impossible, to change the habits of heavy metal aficionados.” Maybe what we need are metal-studded neck braces.
Having spent much of the last two years celebrating the old — with the Fumbling Towards Ecstasy 30th Anniversary Tour — Sarah McLachlan is now onto something new.
“This is a brand new show, with brand new songs off the new album called ‘Better Broken,’” McLachlan told the capacity crowd at the Masonic in San Francisco on Friday. “I’m going to pepper the set with new stuff, but there will be lots of old, familiar stuff as well.”
New path, but one thing definitely remains the same as ever: her voice is better than ice cream. And, yes, that includes cookie dough ice cream.
During the course of nearly two hours, and running through 20 songs from more than 30 years of her stellar career, McLachlan’s voice was nothing short of exquisite, divine, miraculous, wondrous — take your pick of highly complementary adjectives, since they all pretty much work in this situation.
The 57-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter — who became a household name in the ’90s while leading the blockbuster Lilith Fair tours and selling millions upon millions of records — took the stage at 8:20 p.m., some 10-15 minutes before her band would join her, and opened the show with a brilliant solo-piano version of the new album’s title track.
Sarah McLachlan greets the crowd during her “Better Broken” tour at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 28, 2005. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
It was one of seven tunes performed from the recently released “Better Broken,” McLachlan’s long-overdue 10th studio album that marks her first collection of new original music since 2014’s “Shine On.” Of course, 11 years is a long time to make fans wait for new material, but this batch of music may just be worth it — ranking among the finest albums of 2025.
She’d remain alone on the stage for the first three songs (and change) — thrilling the crowd with “Fumbling” favorite “Possession” then introducing the new song “Only Human” — before the five-piece band joined a few moments into “I Will Remember You.”
As per usual, McLachlan was quite personable and charming on stage, opening up to the crowd about a number of challenges and key moments of her life. She’d use these stories, as many of the best performers do, to add depth and reveal meaning to the music.
For instance, she provided background — background that she kept to herself for quite some time — on her first-ever top five pop hit, “Adia,” from the mega-popular album “Surfacing” from 1997. McLachlan explained how the song was inspired by the pain she caused to one of her friends.
“I basically crossed a line you were never supposed to cross,” she told the crowd. “I fell in love with my best friend’s ex.”
(Audible groans from the audience)
Sarah McLachlan performs during her “Better Broken” tour at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 28, 2005. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
“Yeah,” McLachlan continued. “It was, obviously, completely unplanned. This door swung open and there was no closing it. I was young and dumb. I did not not handle it very well at all. And my friend was really, really hurt — no surprise.”
The man in the middle of the drama, McLachlan explained, is long gone, but the singer and the woman patched things up and are “still best friends.” The revelation provoked the most humorous crowd response of the night, as one female fan loudly yelled out the mission statement: “Sisters before misters!”
With a good belly laugh to move her forward, McLachlan continued to mix old and new, going from yet another “Surfacing” ’90s pop classic — “Building a Mystery” — into the “Better Broken” track “Reminds Me.” McLachlan described the latter as her attempt at writing a country song, having been inspired by hours spent binging “Yellowstone” during the pandemic.
The setlist was almost entirely built from the new album and her two huge hit platters of the ’90s — “Fumbling Toward Ecstasy” and “Surfacing” — as well a pair of tracks from the multiplatinum 2003 affair “Afterglow.” That’s understandable, since it allowed McLachlan ample opportunity to support “Better Broken” while still giving fans all the big radio hits.
Sarah McLachlan performs during her “Better Broken” tour at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 28, 2005. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Yet, it’s still a shame that McLachlan didn’t touch on her earlier material — especially 1991’s “Solace,” which may just be the finest album in her catalog — and that she ignored her very worthy, yet far-less commercially successful later records like 2010’s “Laws of Illusion.”
Also, McLachlan has built herself a pretty impressive resume as a Christmas crooner, having released two very well received seasonal efforts — the platinum-plus-selling “Wintersong” of 2006 and the 2016 follow-up “Wonderland.” So, it would have been really nice to hear her toss in a few holiday favorites into the mix — perhaps her great versions of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” or “Silent Night” — given the timing.
But it was hard to quibble about the setlist as McLachlan and her superb band just kept right on performing one winner after another, including some really memorable takes on the “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” cuts “Elsewhere” (featuring a stellar guitar solo from Luke Doucet) and the fun crowd sing-along on “Ice Cream.”
McLachlan closed the main set with two more “Fumbling” tracks — a volcanic vocal take on “Fear” that prompted an exuberant standing ovation from the crowd and then, to close, the title track.
But McLachlan quickly returned with a two-song encore that mimicked the back-and-forth nature of the overall set — starting out with the final new song of the night, “Gravity,” before closing the night in superb fashion with longtime fan-favorite “Angel.”
Sarah McLachlan greets the crowd during her “Better Broken” tour at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 28, 2005. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Sarah McLachlan setlist: 1. “Better Broken” 2. “Possession” 3. “Only Human” 4. “I Will Remember You” 5. “Adia” 6. “Building a Mystery” 7. “Reminds Me” 8. “Wait” 9. “World on Fire” 10. “One in a Long Line” 11. “Sweet Surrender” 12. “The Last to Go” 13. “Answer” 14. “Elsewhere” 15. “Ice Cream” 16. “If This Is the End…” 17. “Fear” 18. “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” Encore: 19. “Gravity” 20. “Angel”
Jack White is an incredible musician and a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, but he is not the only talent in his household.
The 50-year-old is happily married to Olivia Jean, 35, and he created a viral moment when he proposed mid-performance and then married her on stage moments later in 2022.
The couple first met in 2009 when she signed to his record label, Third Man Records, but it wasn’t until 2014 that they began a romantic relationship.
“We were just really good friends,” she told the New York Times in July 2022. “You have to know that you can be friends for a while before you can date. It wasn’t really a transition. It was more, OK, this is happening. More like a continuation.”
Olivia Jean is Jack’s third wife. He married his The White Stripes bandmate and drummer, Meg White, in 1996, and they divorced in 2000.
His second wife was model and singer Karen Elson, whom he wed in 2005 before they announced their separation in 2011, with their divorce official in 2013. They have two children, Scarlett Teresa White and Henry Lee White.
Find out more about Jack White’s third wife, Olivia Jean, below.
Olivia Jean can play several guitars and other instruments
She’s a multi-instrumentalist
Not only is Olivia Jean a singer and songwriter, but she also plays multiple instruments after receiving her first guitar from her aunt for her seventh birthday. She now plays a variety of guitars, including the Fender American Professional Jazzmaster and Gretsch George Harrison Duo Jet, drums, piano, and bass.
When Olivia Jean was 13, she attended her first music concert at Detroit’s Masonic Temple, and it was none other than The White Stripes. “My mom loved it,” she told The Huffington Post in 2014.
“When I started taking music a little bit more seriously, I don’t think [my parents] knew my intentions were to try to make a career out of it. So when I became more obsessed with the music, they would get kind of frustrated with me playing all the time. But they were always supportive.”
One look at Olivia Jean’s Instagram and you can see that she has great style, with a penchant for leather and bold patterns. She’s also been rocking winged eyeliner since she was a child and has mastered the perfect cat eye.
“The cat eyes I’ve had since I got my first eyeliner – I think I was 11 when I first colored my hair black and started wearing heavy makeup. My mom would say I looked spooky, and I’d say, ‘Thank you – that’s what I’m going for,’” she told Vogue in 2023.
“Later, when I was 16, I went to cosmetology school – it was one through my school, so it was not very high-end – and our textbooks were from the ’70s, so we were learning all the hairstyles from the ’60s. All of us in my cosmetology school had giant bouffants, and it just became a part of me.”
Olivia Jean and Jack have collaborated on several projects
She’s collaborated with Jack
Olivia Jean and Jack were collaborators long before they became husband and wife. They met when she was 19 after he received her demo, and he invited her to his Third Man Records record label. After forming an all-female goth-garage band called The Black Belles, Jack produced their first single and their 2011 self-titled debut album.
Since then, they have collaborated many times, with Olivia Jean playing on several of Jack’s solo albums and appearing in his music videos. Jack also produced her 2014 solo debut album, Bathtub Love Killings.
Jack proposed and married Olivia Jean on stage in 2022
She got engaged and married Jack White on stage
On April 8, 2022, Jack created a viral moment when he not only proposed to Olivia Jean on stage during his performance at Detroit’s Masonic Temple (the venue where she saw The White Stripes for the first time 19 years prior), but they got married on stage too.
Jack invited his then-girlfriend on stage to perform a rendition of The White Stripes’ song, “Hotel Yorba”, and popped the question right before he sang the lyrics, “Let’s get married.”
A tearful Olivia Jean immediately said, ‘Yes,’ and after finishing the song, the newly engaged couple disappeared off stage, before returning for the encore, where they tied the knot in front of Jack’s mom, Olivia Jean’s dad, and the elated crowd.
The ceremony was officiated by Third Man Records co-founder Ben Swank, and the bass players from their respective bands served as best man and maid of honor.
SEOUL, South Korea — K-pop band aespa and other South Korean pop stars have announced a flurry of donations to support victims of an apartment fire in Hong Kong that killed at least 128 people in one of the city’s deadliest blazes.
Girl group aespa said they will donate 500,000 Hong Kong dollars ($64,000) to the Hong Kong Red Cross, according to a post on their official Weibo account. “We express our deepest sorrow regarding this heartbreaking news,” the band said.
Stray Kids pledged 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($129,000) through World Vision Hong Kong for temporary housing and other support for affected children and residents. “We were all very heavy-hearted upon hearing the unfortunate news from Hong Kong,” the group said.
SM and JYP Entertainment, two of South Korea’s biggest entertainment companies, donated a combined 3 million Hong Kong dollars ($385,000) for emergency relief and disaster recovery.
Other K-pop groups that also pledged donations included boy bands Riize, EXO-CBX and KickFlip contributed 100,000 Hong Kong dollars ($12,900) through World Vision Hong Kong.
Organizers of the MAMA AWARDS, an annual two-day K-pop awards ceremony scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Hong Kong, faced online criticism in South Korea for not canceling the event in light of the fire tragedy.
South Korean entertainment company CJ E&M canceled both days’ red carpet events but said the main ceremony would proceed.
“We express our deepest condolences to those who lost their lives in the fire in Hong Kong,” CJ E&M said in a statement. The company said the awards would add a “Support Hong Kong” message and include time for mourning. Organizers also pledged to donate 20 million Hong Kong dollars ($2.6 million) to the support fund established by the Hong Kong government.
“We believe in the healing and solidarity power of music,” the statement said.
Jackson Browne has announced the tragic and sudden death of his son, Ethan Browne.
The singer-songwriter took to Instagram on Nov. 26 and announced that his 52-year-old son was found unresponsive in his home on Nov. 25.
“It is with deep sorrow that we share that on the morning of November 25, 2025, Ethan Browne, the son of Jackson Browne and Phyllis Major, was found unresponsive in his home and has passed away. We ask for privacy and respect for the family during this difficult time. No further details are available at this moment,” the family’s statement read.
As far as Ethan’s other big gigs, he appeared in Kate Hudson‘s movie, “Raising Helen,” in 2004. He was also the founder of Spinside Records, a subsidiary of Inside Recordings.
“It is with deep sorrow that we share that on the morning of November 25, 2025, Ethan Browne, the son of Jackson Browne and Phyllis Major, was found unresponsive in his home and has passed away.”
— Jackson Browne
In 2021, Jackson spoke to Route Magazine about his commitment to being a father after Major died.
“Well, it was my main focus. I only had two things that I hoped I could fit together: being a songwriter and a father. And I looked at it like this, if I have to only be a father, I hope I’ll know it, and just do that. But life’s not like that, and you don’t get a notice in the mail saying you’re blowing it as a parent.
Jackson and Ethan Browne at the “Raising Helen” movie premiere in 2004.(Getty Images)
“You think you have the advice and the help you need, and sometimes you don’t, or you don’t heed it. The mistakes I’ve made as a parent are still with me. I think about them fairly often. It’s not that you’re not trying the whole time. It’s not that I wasn’t trying then. You’re just distracted by other things and some things don’t occur to you. Or maybe you ignore advice that you should have taken, because you’re overconfident,” Jackson said at the time.
Jackson Browne is a singer and songwriter.(Getty Images)
“Ethan is a great father. He’s a great son, a great man. I love seeing him with his kids. When I see him in his movies, modeling, with his daughter, and being such a great dad, it makes me very proud. It makes me feel I’ve done something really right in my life,” Jackson said.
Janelle Ash is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to janelle.ash@fox.com.
NEW YORK — The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade kicked off Thursday in New York City, with new balloons depicting Buzz Lightyear and Pac-Man taking to the skies and floats featuring Labubu and Lego gracing the streets.
The parade started on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and will end at Macy’s Herald Square flagship store on 34th Street.
It’s a chilly day in the city, with temperatures in the 40s, but wind gusts between 25 mph (40 kph) and 30 mph (48 kph) will make it feel colder, according to David Stark, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in New York.
Officials have watched the forecast closely, since city law prohibits Macy’s from flying full-size balloons if sustained winds exceed 23 mph (37 kph) or wind gusts are over 35 mph (56 kph). Weather has grounded the balloons only once, in 1971, but they also sometimes have soared lower than usual because of wind.
Megan Christy, who traveled to the city from Greensboro, North Carolina, for the parade, donned a warm onesie and staked out a spot early Thursday to watch the parade route, adding that she was excited to see the new Pac-Man balloon.
“It’s not raining. We’re very excited about that. And it’s not too bad. Not too cold,” she said. “It’s just a great day for a parade.”
A star-studded lineup of performances will be sprinkled throughout the show, along with a slew of marching bands, dancers and cheerleaders.
All told, the parade will feature dozens of balloons, floats, clown groups and marching bands — all leading the way for Santa Claus. Among the new balloons being featured is a large onion carriage featuring eight characters from the world of “ Shrek.” “KPop Demon Hunters” will also be represented in the sky with the characters Derpy Tiger and Sussie.
The event is airing on NBC, hosted by Savannah Guthrie and Al Roker from “Today” and their former colleague Hoda Kotb. On Telemundo, the hosts will be Andrea Meza, Aleyda Ortiz and Clovis Nienow.
The parade is also being simulcast on NBC’s Peacock streaming service.
The singer debuted a new song while on the Jolly Polly Pirate Ship on Thursday, November 27. He was wearing a pirate costume of his own (complete with green sunglasses) and, yes, made sure those signature dance moves were on full display. He was gyrating his hips throughout the entire song, using the pirate ship as a prop.
Kids on the float with him couldn’t help but cheer for the performance as Mr. Fantasy has risen to fame since going viral on TikTok.
While the younger generation was absolutely thrilled Mr. Fantasy was getting his flowers on Thursday morning, others were rather confused. For those not on that side of TikTok, Mr. Fantasy is (allegedly) actor KJ Apa. Although, if you ask Mr. Fantasy, he is unfamiliar with the Riverdalestar.
“I mean, I think I am a good actor. If I was given the right opportunity, I would be quite good. I think I’m honest enough to be an actor,” Mr. Fantasy shared during a September interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “Often the best performers, like James Franco, they seem to have honesty. It exudes off of the screen, and so yeah, of course I’d be very interested, you know. I’d love to work with James Franco, if I haven’t already mentioned that. If I was to do it, I don’t think I’d do it without him.”
NBC
Mr. Fantasy posted his first TikTok this past August and in just three months, he gained one million followers on the app. His debut single, aptly titled “Mr. Fantasy,” became a viral sensation. He’s since released the followup single “Wayuwanna,” and has taken the internet by storm.
The up-and-coming singer has even made surprise appearances on Dancing With the Stars, and made several TikTok videos with the show’s professional dancers.
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Fans are convinced that Apa and Mr. Fantasy are the same person — especially considering they’ve never been spotted in the same room together. Mr. Fantasy has, however, never heard of or seen Riverdale. Apa starred as Archie Andrews on The CW show from 2017 to 2023. (Even Apa’s Riverdale costars are huge Mr. Fantasy fans, even though he doesn’t know who they are either.)
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade doesn’t go off without a hitch every year. The world’s largest parade originally began in 1924 and has become the go-to watch on Turkey Day. From the giant balloons to the musical performances, there’s something for everyone in the household to enjoy before digging into their Thanksgiving dinner. Thank You! […]
While Mr. Fantasy is working only on music projects right now, he might have more coming in the future.
“I’m not trying to define myself, do you know what I mean? I sort of just am me. That’s how I’m trying to inspire people, by just being who they are, because that’s the biggest gift that we have,” he shared in the same THR profile. “I’m sorry to say it, but we were born all very different, and I think it’s very important to inhabit this thing that you are, instead of trying to be someone else. It’s very difficult now. We’re in a time where we all want to be like the big star, Austin Butler, or these other amazing people like James Franco. I’m guilty of it, aren’t I? Shoot me.”
