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For any fashion-friendly Swiftie, there’s only one place to go immediately after the pop star releases a music video, attends an award show, is snapped out and about, or supporting Travis Kelce at a Kansas City Chiefs Game: Taylor Swift Style, the fashion blog and popular Instagram account of writer Sarah Chapelle.
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On TSS, Chapelle documents with astonishing detail (and speed) the source and pricing of Swift’s ensembles (down to each ring on her fingers), but also provides insightful, in-depth critical analysis, illuminating how Swift’s fashion choices are often as revealing — and intentional — as her lyrics. “We’re very familiar with these confessional, emotional songs that she gives us about her life, but I always felt that her style is the other half of that story,” Chapelle tells Billboard. “It’s the visual half that icon-ifies her eras, and it creates these memorable moments that stick out in your brain. I think she’s always, in some form, used fashion as a way of carving out identity and saying something about herself.”
Sarah Chapelle
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On Oct. 8, Chapelle’s already devoted audience (over 300,000 strong on her @taylorswiftstyled Insta) will likely get even bigger when she releases Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through the Eras (St. Martin’s Griffin), a book encompassing Swift’s career to date as viewed through Chapelle’s “critically-kind” and highly personal perspective. With essays along with commentary on over 200 photographs capturing Swift’s evolution in the public eye, Taylor Swift Style will certainly be catnip for fans – but it also proves to be a fascinating, often surprising lens into this additional layer of Swift’s creativity for anyone watching the artist’s continuing evolution.
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Chapelle spoke to Billboard ahead of her book’s publication about Swift’s style eras, fashion Easter eggs, and why she should always wear more green. When you were starting what would become Taylor Swift Style, how, if at all, was the fashion press treating Taylor? So I have been a fan of Taylor since around 2006, and I’ve been documenting her fashion since 2011. At that time, the social media landscape was certainly not what it is right now, and the celebrity fashion landscape and press coverage of it was also not as hyper-focused, and certainly not on Taylor, as it is now. When I created the blog, I was studying in university to become a journalist, and I was trying to figure out my own identity and navigate, you know, how do I express myself and figure out who I am? And one way that a lot of us would do that is through our clothes. The blog just kind of became an intersection of all of my interests — like a niche within a niche of the fandom — to offer a resource for all of her fashion to other fans who I hoped might feel the same way and have this highly specific interest that I did. I talk about it in the book, and Taylor has talked about it as well, how there was a certain period when her art just wasn’t really taken very seriously or was sort of brushed off as like a teenage girl thing. And now I think we take her art and her power and her business through her artistry, and also, by extension, through her fashion, so, so, so seriously. It’s been an amazing evolution and journey to witness and also document. As you note in the book, at the start of her career, Taylor’s stylist was her label head, Scott Borchetta’s wife. Her current stylist, Joseph Cassell, has now been working with her for many years. Do you see a parallel between how Taylor’s ownership over her creativity and over how she presents herself have evolved? One thing that has always resonated with me about how Taylor seems to approach her business is that it’s, in a sense, always seemed kind of personal — she retains staff and people around her for very long periods of time, obviously a reflection of the mutual understanding she has with the people around her and the level of trust she has in them to help execute her vision and bring her ideas to life. I think one kind of fascinating example of her taking an incredible amount of creative control over her image was in the folklore and evermore era when, due to the circumstances of the pandemic, she self-styled because she didn’t want to inconvenience or endanger her team. So the folklore and evermore eras’ [imagery is] a very undiluted look into her creative process of translating what was going on in her mind into the physical, into the visual of how she wanted that era to look and to feel. And I think that’s especially resonant when you consider how the folklore photo shoot feels like its music — you’re kind of traipsing through this imaginary, wooded place as she’s trying to escape the realities of life. It felt right for that era, for that time, for that music. How did your “critically-kind” ethos come about? I can’t remember exactly when it started, but I didn’t always write commentary. I used to feel that, oh, people don’t want to hear from you, they just want the information — they just want to know where the clothes are from and where they can get it, and you should kind of be like this invisible admin force, like “don’t look behind the curtain!” type of energy. And a few years in, people would just start being like, “You should write more. You should write longer captions.” It almost felt like taking a page out of Taylor’s book, of when you choose to be vulnerable and a little bit more open people resonate with that humanity, and that resonance is the entire reason why there’s a book in the first place. It’s very easy to fall into the internet pit of defaulting to [saying] unkind or cruel things, and that just never felt like the tone that I wanted to hit or the ethos that I wanted to drive conversation with. I think that there are a lot of people who crave the original intention of the internet, which is to connect with other people — and when you carve out an intentional space for those kinds of conversations to happen in a way that’s thoughtful and nuanced and kind, people will come. You are well known for your love of Taylor wearing green. Please explain! When people ask me this I feel like I’m almost disappointing with like, a very boring and underwhelming answer — which is, I just think she looks really pretty! (Laughs) I just think that she looks great in that color, and every time I see it, it makes my heart really happy. Luckily for me, she’s had quite a number of amazing moments in green; there’s like an entire sidebar dedicated to some of my favorite Taylor in green moments in the book. The most relevant from this year was the peridot green Gucci gown from the Golden Globes, which was fantastic.
Taylor Swift at the 81st Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 7, 2024 in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Gilbert Flores/Golden Globes 2024
I was very into that long-sleeved crushed velvet green dress she wore out that everyone was very sure was Rep-coded… The Little Lies dress from January, yeah. Here’s the thing: I strongly believe that that outfit was an Easter egg, but it was an intentional misdirect, because — stay with me — [as part of] the Tortured Poets rollout, there was coding in the backend of her website that [when unscrambled] said “red herring.” She’s now comfortable enough playing with fashion, not only as a tool to reflect what’s coming next or her state of mind or her emotions or a vibe about a project, but also to intentionally mislead, because she’s aware that people will pick up on things.
And I believe that she had intentionally been using Reputation (Taylor’s Version) as a red herring, so that nobody would suspect that the bait-and-switch would be a new album, The Tortured Poets Department. Because how much more obvious can you get, wearing a green velvet dress and pairing it with Giuseppe Zanotti boots that have snakes on them? For once, I didn’t think that was a leap — I was like, “I think we are correctly interpreting what we are seeing with our eyes!” (Laughs) She just wanted us to be wrong, which is her right! It’s interesting to see how your readers react to different looks of hers. I noticed that there were very divided reactions to her wearing obvious logos on the recent weekend in New York when she and Travis were photographed together a lot. Why do you think that was? A logo-covered item [a Gucci shift dress Swift wore out] stuck out to my eye, because it’s not typical of her to go for something so ostentatiously branded, so I think it was just surprising to see her, you know, fully Gucci-fied for that particular outing. Especially because one signature of Taylor’s fashion is the high-low — she loves pairing like, a Reformation dress with, say, Louis Vuitton or Christian Louboutin heels, creating this balanced mix of aspirational and attainable, while still looking overall very relatable. So to wear something so obviously luxury-branded stuck out to a lot of people’s eyes. Are there particular eras when you think Taylor’s music and fashion aesthetics have matched especially well – and, conversely, when they’ve felt more incongruous with each other? I think that debut made perfect sense. Folklore and evermore make perfect sense to me. It’s hard for 1989; I look at it and I’m like, yeah, that makes perfect sense — it was her major breakthrough into pop music and so she had this, like, pop girl uniform of crop top and skirt — but also she briefly kind of introduced 1989 as, like, this ’80s album, which it’s not…. so debut and folklore feel more cohesive to me. I really loved how the Reputation fashion captured the duality of the album: I talk about it in the book, but obviously she kind of beats you over the head up front with a lot of leather and snakeskin and camo and combat boots, it’s very clearly a bombastic, quote-unquote revenge album, but then she accompanies it with softer sequins and rainbows and sparkles, kind of the signature Taylor Swift soft feminine aesthetic, which is appropriate for Reputation too, because underneath all of that, it is a falling in love album. For a lot of people, the most incongruous is probably Midnights — a lot of people were confused by this ‘70s aesthetic, like this smoky, hazy, wood scratched floors and vinyl and patchouli scented air…..and then this huge kind of return to shiny pop. Though I think I’ve come around to making sense of it I really like the Midnights album photo shoot visuals quite a lot. A big part of seeing Taylor publicly these days is seeing her with Travis — someone who’s intentional about dressing in maybe a very different way — and of course seeing their individual styles juxtaposed. Do you feel they’re complementary, or even rubbing off on each other in interesting ways? So that’s interesting…do you think that Travis dresses intentionally, or do you think that Travis just thinks fashion is fun?
Taylor Swift arrives at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium prior to a game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 15, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Hmm, interesting question. I guess there’s a difference. I do think he finds it fun… I think that there’s a clear difference between somebody who thinks that fashion is a fun thing to play with and to experiment with, and somebody who’s intentionally using fashion as an extension of their artistry and messaging and communication. And I think Travis falls into the fashion is fun [camp]. Having somebody around who obviously injects what she said about him at the VMAs — like, magic and happiness and rainbows and puppies — having that sense of lightness in her life is obviously fun to see, as a fan. But I think watching her show up to Chiefs games has been a fascinating extension of her style, in that it’s the first time that I am analyzing her fashion and her choices not through the lens of “what does this say about her” but in her playing entirely a supporting role. And that’s her choosing Kansas City based businesses, women-owned businesses, choosing vintage — all of those careful, thoughtful, intentional choices kind of create this foundation of “I’m here as a supporting person. I am here to ‘Woooo!’” And I love how she’s made that clear. To me it’s a very clear delineation in her style that still feels very Taylor — like, cute little plaid skirt, little vintage Chiefs sweatshirt? That feels like a very Taylor outfit! It’s very clearly a “I am not the main character” outfit, but the core of the outfit is very recognizably Taylor. She still retains this semblance of recognizability, and I think that that’s one thing that she does incredibly well in all aspects of her branding and her fashion: even as she evolves as an artist, as a person, you can still see her as a human.
In a year when famously battling brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher defied the odds and announced they were burying the hatchet and reuniting after a decade-and-a-half of incessant public sniping, Pink Floyd‘s David Gilmour made it crystal clear that he is never, ever getting back together with the band’s former bassist/singer Roger Waters.
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Asked by a fan in a Guardian reader interview if he’d ever perform again on stage with Waters, Gilmour said “absolutely not.” Then, in a pointed attack seemingly aimed at some of Waters’ more controversial comments in recent years about the war in Ukraine and his seeming support of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and authoritarian Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, Gilmour took fire at the Floyd co-founder.
“I tend to steer clear of people who actively support genocidal and autocratic dictators like Putin and Maduro [president of Venezuela],” Gilmour said. “Nothing would make me share a stage with someone who thinks such treatment of women and the LGBT community is OK.”
Waters has frequently stirred controversy with his political views about Israel and the war in Ukraine. His comments about the government of Israel led to his record company, BMG, dropping the Floyd co-founder and solo performer earlier this year after Berlin police opened an investigation into the imagery in a May 2023 Waters show in that city. Officials said the probe was launched over “suspicion of incitement to public hatred” related to costumes that appeared to replicate Nazi uniforms and claims that Waters’ show desecrated the memory of Holocaust victim Anne Frank.
Water denied the claims, writing on X, “My recent performance in Berlin has attracted bad faith attacks from those who want to smear and silence me because they disagree with my political views and moral principles. The elements of my performance that have been questioned are quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms. Attempts to portray those elements as something else are disingenuous and politically motivated.”
During the show, Waters wore a costume resembling the Nazi SS soldier uniform — a long black coat with a red armband — while pointing a fake rifle at the crowd, with the singer saying later that the “depiction of an unhinged fascist demagogue” has been featured in his past live performances since the release of the 1980 Pink Floyd film The Wall. In May 2023, a number of Jewish groups and politicians rallied against Waters’ concert in Frankfurt, Germany, accusing the singer of antisemitism after unsuccessfully pushing to have the show cancelled. It took place in the city’s Festhalle, where more than 3,000 Jews were rounded up, beaten and abused by Nazis before being sent to concentration camps in 1938.
Waters, who has frequently drawn the ire of the pro-Israel community for his vehement support of the BDS movement, which calls for boycotts and sanctions against the state of Israel, again rejected the claims of antisemitism.
A month later, the Biden administration’s State Department weighed in on what it called Waters’ “long track record of using antisemitic tropes” and the German show it said “contained imagery that is deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust.”
Gilmour and Waters have been at odds since the bassist split with the group in 1984, trading barbs in the press as Waters continues to tour and perform Floyd music alongside his solo material, while the Gilmour-led Floyd ceased touring in 1994.
Pink Floyd’s musical assets — not including their publishing — were recently bought by Sony for around $400 million.
On this week’s (Sept. 6) episode of the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century podcast, we take a look at a pair of rap savants: mixtape phenom turned Queen of Rap Nicki Minaj, and polarizing superstar turned reliable veteran hitmaker Eminem. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news First, host […]
The 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week is returning from Oct. 14 to 18 at the Fillmore Miami Beach in Miami with a star-studded lineup of more than 70 artists.
This year, celebrating its 35th anniversary, Latin Music Week welcomes an array of global artists including Feid, Young Miko, Alejandro Sanz, NMIXX, Thalía, Maria Becerra, Gloria Estefan, Fuerza Regida’s JOP and many more. Who are you excited to see? Vote here!
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The week-long event that coincides with the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards set to air Sunday, Oct. 20, on Telemundo, includes conversations with Feid on how he went from performing at clubs to dominating sold-out stadiums; Making the Hit, Live! with Grupo Frontera, where the norteño group will create song in real time; Thalía and Maria Becerra in an intimate mano-a-mano about mental health; and the power of content creators with Kunno, Domelipa, Marko, Yerimua, Mario Bautista and Sophia Talamas.
The icon and superstar Q&As confirmed for the 2024 edition are Alejandro Sanz, J Balvin, Gloria Estefan, Pepe Aguilar and Young Miko. Meanwhile, Korean sensation NMIXX will join Billboard for a discussion on the explosion of K-pop in the Latin market, and its future en Español.
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Over the past 35 years, Latin Music Week has become the one, steady foundation of Latin music in this country, becoming the single most important — and biggest — gathering of Latin artists and industry executives in the world.
From Belinda to Feid to Peso Pluma to NMIXX and beyond, vote for the person you’re most excited to catch at the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week here.
As he continues on his trek around North America with Charli XCX, Troye Sivan stopped by Billboard News on Friday (Oct. 4) to take a look back at his latest musical era.
In the interview, Sivan reflects on his time creating and releasing Something to Give Each Other, his third studio album that arrived on Oct. 13, 2023. The project’s first single “Rush” gave Sivan his highest-charting solo release since 2015’s “Youth,” reaching No. 77 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated July 29, 2023.
“I’m so used to releasing music to this group of people that I love that have been with me for like 10-plus years at this point, and then all of a sudden, this was so much wider than that,” he says. “I didn’t expect that. I hoped for it, always, but it was really, really cool.”
But with attention came some criticism — upon its release, the “Rush” music video came under fire for its failure to include diverse body types. But, as Sivan points out, he had learned how to handle online critics thanks to a decade of his career already spent on the Internet.
“I think one of the perks of being chronically online since I was 10, basically, is that I kind of understand how the online conversation moves and changes,” he explains. “[I know] when to listen, when to not listen — because it’s important to protect your sanity. Listening, learning and engaging in conversation, while also knowing when something is just somebody sitting in their basement and trolling just to troll … having an understanding of how to navigate that has been really helpful.”
Sivan also spoke about filming the music video for the album’s other breakout hit “One of Your Girls,” in which the star dressed up in full drag while giving Austin & Ally star Ross Lynch a steamy lap dance. Describing the single as his “favorite song on the album,” Sivan says he wanted the track to serve as the “centerpiece” of Something to Give Each Other with an eye-catching video.
“I didn’t even really think about it as me doing drag; I thought about it as me being a woman,” he says with a laugh. “It was a crazy experience, and I think the biggest risk was, ‘What if I look super busted?’ I’d never done drag before, I’d never worn makeup like that or had a wig like that. So, we did a test the day before … and by the end of the test, I felt good about it.”
After having a groundbreaking 2023, Sivan is now bringing the album to U.S. audiences on the Sweat Tour with Charli XCX. Speaking about his longtime friend and collaborator, Sivan says that he’s proud to share the stage with someone who is actively shifting the culture of pop music in real time.
“Seeing her win has just been one of the greatest pleasures of the last year for me, especially seeing her win at something where it’s Charli at her most Charli,” he says. “She’s always had that power in her, and always had that vision — [she’s] just been waiting for culture to catch up to her. It’s been so rewarding to watch.”
Check out Troye Sivan’s full interview with Billboard News above.
The GMA Dove Awards are moving to a new location in 2025, Billboard can reveal.
The 2025 GMA Dove Awards will be held Oct. 7, 2025, at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, marking a move from its home of 11 years at Nashville’s Allen Arena at Lipscomb University.
“We have been so honored to partner with Lipscomb these past eleven years for the GMA Dove Awards,” GMA president Jackie Patillo said in a statement to Billboard. “The reality is, we are growing! In 2025 we will be expanding to Bridgestone Arena for our live show happening October 7th. We couldn’t be more excited to showcase the heart of our Christian and Gospel community right in the heart of Music City.”
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The GMA Dove Awards have sold out several months in advance for the past three years. Lipscomb University’s Allen Arena has an approximately 5,000-person capacity whereas Bridgestone Arena has a concert attendance capacity of up to 20,000. Bridgestone Arena, located at the corner of Broadway and Rep. John Lewis Way, also hosts the annual Country Music Association Awards.
The relocation of the GMA Dove Awards also comes at a time when the genre’s artists such as Lauren Daigle, Elevation Worship, Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham are seeing gains in music consumption and touring numbers.
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This year’s GMA Dove Awards, which were taped earlier this week at Allen Arena, will air on TBN and TBN+ Friday night (Oct. 4). This year’s nominees include Brandon Lake, Chandler Moore, CeCe Winans, Jonathan Smith, Naomi Raine, Anne Wilson, KB, Forrest Frank, Josiah Queen and more.
The new location will coincide with the planned September 2025 opening of the Christian and Gospel Museum at the Dove Center, located at 147 Fourth Ave. N., at the corner of Fourth Ave. and Commerce Street. The 11,000-square-feet museum and hall of fame will be located near the historic Ryman Auditorium, and will feature interactive displays to celebrate today’s top Christian and Gospel artists, while also preserving and spotlighting the legacies of many Christian and Gospel trailblazing pioneers.
Tickets to the 2025 GMA Dove Awards presale are available at ticketmaster.com.
See the promo video for the 2025 GMA Awards below:
A new week means another episode of Billboard Unfiltered is upon us. The Billboard trio (sans Trevor Anderson) delves into J. Cole’s path forward following him bowing out of the Kendrick Lamar–Drake beef, shares 2025 Grammy predictions and talks about Ye’s next solo album.
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J. Cole has laid relatively low since the Drake-Kendrick war, but returned with a pair of assists recently when teaming up with Daylyt for “A Plate of Collard Greens” and Tee Grizzley’s “Blow for Blow.”
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Deputy Director, Editorial Damien Scott loved the pair of verses Cole dished out but is still waiting to see how he charts his next move. “Fans are expecting an acknowledgement and a path forward for him. They’re waiting to see how he positions himself now. It seems he’s still going with the I’m the best, don’t f–k with me and stay out of my lane talk,” he said. “Will that be able to hold over going into this next album? We’ll see.”
Staff writer Kyle Denis “never had any doubt” Cole could still deliver on guest verses, so this “doesn’t move the needle” for him and he’s interested to hear what’s to come with The Fall Off.
“What I really do want to see does he actually acknowledge how he moved through this beef on his own records, on his own terms when the time comes,” he added. “I get the whole, ‘How can you rap like this after doing all of that?’ But I also do think it’s kind of fun to watch him remain in that bag.”
Deputy Director, R&B/Hip-Hop Carl Lamarre still has faith that the Dreamville boss will deliver a “great” body of work with his next project. “I think he’s gonna speak on that on the album,” he stated. “The appeal he has on the feature side is undeniable, but it’s also like I can’t take you serious. It’s a struggle for me to look at you.”
The first round of voting is underway for the 2025 Grammy Awards and the fellas see a big year for Kendrick Lamar on the horizon and his Drake diss records.
“Given his track record, it’s not really a matter of possibility it’s the songs they really rally behind,” Denis candidly began. “I think if I had to guess, if they’re gonna push anything they’re probably gonna push ‘Euphoria.’ It’s a safer bet and I think a better display of his rap skill than ‘Not Like Us’ is.”
Lamarre added: “They expect ‘Euphoria’ to dominate the rap categories and ‘Not Like Us’ to overtake [the general field]. That could be Kendrick sweeping rap and potentially win five or six [trophies].”
After releasing a pair of installments of Vultures alongside Ty Dolla $ign, Ye (formerly Kanye West) appears set to return to his solo work. While performing in Haikou, China over the weekend, West teased his next album which is tentatively titled Bully.
If Yeezy is focused on making a coherent body of work, Scott is interested to hear what Ye has cooking for Bully.
“He [played] a song called ‘Beauty and the Beast’ … Even if it’s a Donda holdover, it’s the direction I hope he goes in. It sounded coherent, it sounded like an actual song,” he said. “There are verses and he’s not mumbling. He’s talking about things that are outside the conspiracy of certain racial groups dominating the world. If that’s the case, then yeah, I want to hear the Kanye album… He’s made most of what we consider to be popular culture right now.”
Watch the full episode above.
Last year, WWE superstar Cody Rhodes was on the verge of “finishing the story,” a phrase that captured the collective anticipation of the WWE universe. They were fervently hoping for the blonde protagonist to clinch the one belt that had always been out of reach for his bloodline — the WWE Universal Title.
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Now, 12 months later, Rhodes joins Billboard on Zoom while proudly displaying a new addition to his collection. This shiny new toy, a symbol of his hard-earned victory against the once-indomitable Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 this past April, would undoubtedly bring a smile to the face of his late father, Dusty Rhodes.
“When we spoke, I did not have the North Star of our business in terms of the WWE Championship,” says Rhodes, referencing our 2023 conversation about his documentary, American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes. “It’s a nice piece of hardware to bring around with me now.”
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Undoubtedly the new face and quarterback of WWE, Rhodes is enjoying his champion run, including wins over AJ Styles, Logan Paul and Kevin Owens. Rhodes’s popularity has also crossed over to the music side, where he spoke to Jay-Z last month at Michael Rubin’s Fanatics Fest, shot a commercial with Metro Boomin for the WWE’s upcoming premium life event Bad Blood, and was a presenter this past week at this year’s ACM Awards.
Bad Blood will occur this Saturday (Oct. 5) at 6 PM EST on Peacock in Rhodes’ home state of Georgia. His homecoming should be memorable, as he’ll team up with his one-time adversary Roman Reigns in a tag-team match against Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu. Billboard spoke to Rhodes about working with Metro Boomin for their Bad Blood commercial, WWE enjoying its golden era, chatting with Jay-Z and more.
You thought I was crazy for giving you the LeBron comparison when you returned to the WWE. You have to see the similarities now in terms of you winning your first belt and him winning the ring in Cleveland, right?
Well, he came back home and he got it for the city. In terms of his story, you really had to hang in, you had to stay on-board. It took a detour in terms of him being away from his home. Then to come back and to fulfill that promise is incredibly special.
For me, I think a lot of people maybe looking outside of my journey in pro wrestling and sports entertainment this was how it was meant to be and this was how it was always gonna be. I look at this with the moment that we’re in now and it’s a gifted period. It’s a chapter I did not truly expect. I had taken such a detour. I had been so away from my roots and my original goal in the industry that new goals had popped up. But to be able to drop back in, to go and get [the title] and to be one of the leaders in its most prolific era for a company that’s really has had prolific eras, I’m not taking this for granted. This is a very blessed time.
After 20 years, Bad Blood is coming back to your state this Saturday. Talk about this full-circle moment for you in terms of coming home with the title in-hand.
It always feels Game of Thrones-like in a sense. Here’s the belt from formerly the World Wide Wrestling Federation and the Northeast Territory and I was just this Georgia Championship Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions, WCW kid. To be able to be the first Rhodes to have it, but also bring it back to where The Omni once stood. I mean, I got goosegumps when they put The Omni in the scene from [Smackdown’s] Georgia Tech [episode] because being able to be on the ground of that building and to have this [belt], was not expected. It’s a homecoming. I’m very much looking forward to it.
Speaking of the Georgia Tech episode where you and Roman met up and cut an intense promo, that was high-level cinema on display.
I think wrestling fans, if they could be sitting in the stands at Bobby Dodd Stadium when it happened, they would have been so rewarded because the thing that is not being reported and by no means needs to be reported, is none of the verbiage was discussed — none of it. Maybe he thought I’m going to make my point and I thought I was going to make mine as well, but to be able to have that moment and to say things to one another [was special].
When pro-wrestling is at its best, it’s very real. That situation that we find ourselves in at WWE now with the individual who carried it through the pandemic and who held it for all those days as the perennial main-eventer now not being the quarterback of that company, that’s a very real thing. Roman has my utmost respect. If anything, he pulled something out of me that I didn’t know I had. I hope I did the same for him.
Why do you think Roman’s redemption tour is having such a strong start with the fans?
What’s not to like, right? In terms of confidence, we saw the fitness TikTok of how dialed in physically he is and what he’s already contributed. You’ll hear people say, for so long that they were trying, and trying and the fans were rejecting it. I think if you look back at those times, it’s all contextual and different reasons. Perhaps, they didn’t react the way you thought, but I think you’re now seeing for the first time not just admiration, not just, “I wanna cheer for this guy and buy his t-shirts,” you’re seeing respect.
When you have the respect of the fans, you’re in rare air. He has the respect of every fan. People forget WWE has a massive audience of young children, and they’re just incredibly important as us. When you have their respect and they can look at you and feel that presence, man, it’s a classic case of what’s not there to like. Now, if I look at it from a narrative perspective and look back at Smackdown and Raw, he’s made a lot of people’s life a living hell. That could be what’s not to like, but going into Bad Blood, I’m doing my best not to look at any of that.
You recently spoke to Jay-Z at Fanatics Fest. How does it feel seeing wrestling so valued and appreciated by not just hip-hop, but pop culture, overall?
I have to thank Michael Rubin at Fanatics for that. He was just having a normal, regular chat like he does with somebody like Jay-Z. That whole moment was incredible for me to go Fanatics Fest, first time ever, and to hear from the horse’s mouth himself what I only been told about some of WWE’s merchandising numbers and my own specifically. To be in the top five of all of the athletes represented, as a kid, trying to tell everyone around him, “Hey, wrestling is really cool. You should come over to my house, you’ll like it. Hey, come to the show with me, you’ll be a fan,” to see it hit this mainstream level again, I don’t wanna take it for granted.
With Bad Blood, Triple H and Nick Khan, they asked me to do the packages and sizzle reels with Metro Boomin. I’m thinking, “Yes!” This is what we do. This is what we want. To be able to have done the stakeout [with Metro] and hopefully it goes somewhere as we head towards Bad Blood, that was such a really sweet moment. It was really cool to connect with someone like that, not just an artist in a different medium, but with someone trying to tell stories like how we’re trying to tell stories.
You’ve become a beloved figure in the Black community, from people on social media changing your name to “Raheem Rhodes” to even Arkansas Pine Bluff, an HBCU, having its school band play your theme song “Kingdom” at their college football game. How does all the love feel?
You mentioned the band. They played that on primetime when they played Arkansas, and it’s quite possible you might see them playing it live in the State Farm Arena at Bad Blood. That was incredibly touching. In terms of your question, I’m always so careful about how I answer because the truth is, I don’t know. I just want to do all I can to keep it going. That’s such an honor.
I know some of the memes are meant to be funny and I’ve seen the name and all that stuff, but that was my dad’s biggest fan base. I could see things like the Southern Baptist church and things that connected the tissue. With me, I’m not sure so much, but I don’t wanna do anything to disrespect it or lose it, because not only do they do that fun stuff online, the community has also been really active in the arenas and as part of the journey. I don’t get to WrestleMania 40 without that group of fans. I’m touched just hearing it. I try to do everything that I can not to screw it up.
You mentioned your father, and there’s a quote that you’ve said a while back that’s resurfaced on social media: “Sometimes, I just revert back to Dusty’s kid. I’m trying to chase his ghost and it’s a pretty hard ghost to chase.” Even after finally winning that elusive belt that once haunted your family, do find yourself still chasing that ghost of Dusty, professionally or personally?
In the latter, I remember saying this in my documentary: Following him as a pro wrestler is one thing, but he was a superb father. You know when you meet someone who had a superb father, mother or both, that’s a special thing you have an opportunity to do as a parent. Now I have the opportunity with my daughter, Liberty, and I just hope that I can be remotely as good as he was with me because he was absolutely the best parent you could possibly get.
In terms of chasing the ghost, it might feel or sound somewhat negative and by no means is it, that’s the greatest ghost to chase. This guy had such an impact on pro wrestling and sports entertainment. Time has passed and there’s still things that he’s linked to. Just the cage dropping, that’s a Dusty concept and here I am watching the cage drop on the Smackdown premiere. These were things that he brought to the game and I always said after a certain point in my career that I want to be the most influential person of my era.
That’s a difference between being the best champion, the biggest superstar, and the best in-ring wrestler. I always wanted to be the most influential person in my generation, and the reason was is because I felt that he was. His influence is still being felt today. That ghost, I gladly try to get to as close as possible.
Your buddy Jey Uso won his first singles title after 14 years in the business. Knowing the struggle it took for you to reach that mountaintop, from a fan’s perspective, what was it like seeing him being able to capture that moment for himself?
That’s the business, right? That’s the good stuff. I remember Kerry Von Erich hitting the backslide on Ric Flair. I remember Bret Hart putting Ric Flair in the sharpshooter. The feeling of what we do in the ring, the stories being told, the good stuff. So much surrounds our wrestling space whether it’s controversy or whether it’s internal discussion of this and that, ultimately, the most important thing we do is in the ring.
Jey Uso is so beloved, and they got to have this real moment with him winning his first singles title. I feel like they purposely kept me away from the building because we would have just showered Wheatley Vodka on that entire arena. I’m so happy for Jey. That dude is the man. You can tell from the post-match interview that he did with Jackie, it was all real. When it’s real, that’s when it’s at its best. We gotta aim for it to be as real as possible. Very happy for Jey and cheers to a long run I hope.
Next year is John Cena’s final year wrestling full-time for the WWE. From a fantasy booking perspective and removing yourself, who would you want to see go against John for his final WrestleMania match?
Such a great question. I think maybe it’s ultimately something that’s up to John. Wrestling John in any capacity — he has a championship, you just don’t see it. The mantle of responsibility, the individual that he was in terms of how he carried himself as the quarterback of WWE, I’m very curious what goes down.
I can’t fantasy book it, because there’s things that make sense and there’s past adversaries he’s had that would be great matches, but the idea of one more WrestleMania with the champ, I hope wrestling fans have strong opinions on it and I hope he has the same, because whoever that is, not just being in that match but what comes after having that match win, lose, or draw, that’s a huge selection to make. That might be the most important decision in WWE.
She’s working late, ’cause she’s singing on The Tonight Show. Sabrina Carpenter returned to the late night program to perform her smash hit “Espresso” on Thursday night (Oct. 3), giving Jimmy Fallon’s audience an after-dark jolt of caffeine. Taking the stage in a baby-blue leotard — surrounded by a full band and back-up singers dressed […]
When Ozzy Osbourne celebrates his second Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction later this month in Cleveland he will have an impressive roster of A-list help on hand to do the honors. The 75-year-old Prince of Darkness will be fêted by friends and colleagues who will take the stage on Oct. 19 to celebrate Osbourne’s induction as a solo artist; he was previously enshrined in 2006 with Black Sabbath.
“I don’t know what to think. I’m still in shock that I’m getting inducted for a second time,” Ozzy told Rolling Stone in an email. “But at the same time, I’m very excited.” He’s got reason to be, since among the performers who will help usher him in are actor/singer Jack Black, who famously ripped a School of Rock-like version of Ozzy’s 1980 occult metal classic “Mr. Crowley” with a group of teenagers last year.
“Jack invited my family to the School of Rock movie premiere in 2002,” Osbourne told the mag. “I’ve always been a big fan of his. Jack is one of the few great actors that is also a genuine rock & roller and not acting the part.” The RRHOF announced that Black will be joined by a number of other artists paying tribute to the metal icon, including Tool singer Maynard James Keenan, Jelly Roll, Billy Idol and a gilded gang of guitarists who will honor Ozzy’s history of working with unique stylists.
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Among that group are Osbourne’s longtime collaborator Zakk Wylde, recent producer Andrew Watt, Idol’s longtime guitarist Steve Stevens and Wolfgang Van Halen, with Metallica and former Ozzy bassist Robert Trujillo and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith holding down the rhythm section.
Ozzy had kind words for those stepping up to honor him, calling Idol a “rock icon” whose music is “timeless,” while noting that the snarling punk-turned-pop star should be in the RRHOF. He referred to Keenan as a “true family friend since 1997… He is such a creative force. There are few artists who can keep three successful bands going for multiple decades,” he said in reference to the singer’s trifecta of hard rock acts: Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer.
And in a year when Jelly Roll is on a truly epic roll, Ozzy said having the country singer on board makes perfect sense. “Who doesn’t love Jelly Roll? His voice is soulful, pure, and dirty. I’m so honored that someone would do this for me who I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting,” Osbourne said.
Osbourne was nominated for his solo work for the first time this year and will be inducted after first becoming eligible in 2006 for a solo run that has produced such beloved hard rock anthems as “Crazy Train,” “Bark At the Moon,” “Mama I’m Coming Home” and “No More Tears.”
At press time it was unknown if Osborne — who retired from touring last year following a series of serious health issues over the past few years — will perform at the event that will also feature the inductions of Mary J. Blige, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, A Tribe Called Quest, Peter Frampton and Kool & the Gang.
The Hall recently revealed an extensive list of performers and presenters for this year’s induction at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, including: Busta Rhymes, Dr. Dre, Demi Lovato, Dua Lipa, Ella Mai, James Taylor, Julia Roberts, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Lucky Daye, Mac McAnally, Method Man, Roger Daltrey, Sammy Hagar, Slash and The Roots.
The 2024 RRHOF induction ceremony will livestream on Disney+ on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. ET. ABC will air a primetime special featuring the evening’s biggest moments on Jan. 1, 2025, at 8 p.m. ET, which will be available on Disney+ and Hulu on Jan. 2.
Check out the announcement below.
