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Olivia Rodrigo officially has the Sheryl Crow stamp of approval. During a Thursday (Nov. 2) appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the nine-time Grammy winner sang the “Bad Idea Right” singer’s praises as she discussed the upcoming Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
“She’s the real deal. She’s precious,” Crow gushed. “She’s a great songwriter. She seems kinda unaffected by all of it, you know? When I was 19 — her age — I was like, ‘How do you fill out this application for college?!’”
Rodrigo — who took some time to attend class at USC’s Thornton School of Music after wrapping the promotional run for her Sour album — is now 20 years old, making her several years younger than Crow’s highest charting Billboard Hot 100 hit, 1994’s “All I Wanna Do” (No. 2).
The “Strong Enough” singer revealed that she first met Rodrigo “last year during a whole bunch of Grammy stuff.” “We wound up on some stuff together, and she’s super cool,” she added. “She asked me to do this thing when she came to Nashville, and so I was like, ‘OK!’”
The “thing” in question was an intimate, stripped-down September performance at The Bluebird Café in Nashville. The pair duetted on Crow’s 1996 hit “If It Makes You Happy” (No. 10).
In the caption for a Sept. 29 Instagram post — which consisted of an adorable photo of the two stars posing with magazines while sitting under hair dryers — Rodrigo wrote, “Pinch me! Sang one of my favorite songs of all time with the greatest of all time @sherylcrow !!!! what an honor!!!!” Crow also reposted the image to her main feed with the caption, “Funnest day ever with the amazingly brilliant @oliviarodrigo! What a talent!! And the loveliest young woman!”
As for Friday’s Rock Hall induction, Crow — who dropped a new song called “Alarm Clock” on Friday (Nov. 3) — explained that she simply “texted [Rodrigo] and said, ‘Hey, would you do the Rock Hall with me?’ And she was like, ‘I’d love to! I’d be so honored!’”
The “Good 4 U” singer — who is also a finalist for top female artist at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards — will again join Crow onstage for a performance at the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which kicks off at 8 p.m. ET.
“I was cool with my kids!” Crow quipped of getting Rodrigo to join her.
Watch the “Everyday Is a Winding Road” singer discuss her relationship with Olivia Rodrigo above, and her performance of “Alarm Clock” on The Tonight Show below.
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As Jimmy Buffett worked on his 32nd studio album, Equal Strain on All Parts, earlier this year, he never acknowledged that it could be his final set.
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“I wasn’t necessarily thinking in terms of this being the last thing he had to say, but I think, in retrospect, he probably was,” says guitarist/songwriter Mac McAnally, who has produced Buffett’s albums with his fellow Coral Reefer Band mate Michael Utley since 1997. “But he never let on. He never surrendered to what was actually happening.”
Buffett, 76, died on Sept. 1 after a four-year battle with skin cancer and lymphoma. “There were people in our organization that didn’t know he was ill,” McAnally says. “He didn’t want anybody feeling sorry for him. He just wanted to be this big ray of positivity that he always was. When I went and said goodbye to him the night before he died, he was still smiling just wider than his face.”
After they finished recording in the summer, Buffett kept tinkering with the sequencing, as McAnally realized the beloved singer-songwriter was rearranging the songs to tell his life’s journey. “When he heard the whole album in sequence, he was so proud of this one in a way that I’ve never seen him be,” McAnally says. “And that may be because he knew it was the last one and he got it right.”
The album, out today (Nov. 3) on Mailboat/Sun Records, opens with “University of Bourbon Street,” which takes listeners to New Orleans, the city where Buffett’s career began more than 50 years ago, and concludes with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mozambique,” a country he longed to visit. In between are autobiographical songs such as “Close Calls” — which recalls some of Buffett’s real-life escapades, including getting beaten up by Sheriff Buford Pusser of Walking Tall fame — and “Portugal Or PEI,” which serves as a travelogue of his wanderlust and also lyrically references past hits “Volcano” and his breakthrough song, “Come Monday.”
Moving “Bourbon Street,” which features the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, to the first slot “was the last modification to the sequencing that he did,” McAnally says. “And it ends with ‘Mozambique.’ That’s still him wanting to go the rest of the places that he never got to go. From where he started to where he intended to go. It’s a life story in between. He put so much thought into this group of songs.”
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Buffett began cutting basic tracks in January at Nashville’s Blackbird Studio, and then headed back to his studio in Key West, Florida, to record the vocals, working on the album between concerts until he stopped playing live in May. Though Buffett’s vocal ability sometimes wavered depending upon where he was in his medical treatments, ultimately, McAnally and Utley captured Buffett in very strong form. “I think he really sang well, from the heart, on this one,” McAnally says. “If something has to be your last thing to say, I believe this is one to be proud of.”
The 14-track album is classic Buffett, with songs representing so much of what has endeared him to generations of fans, including the humorous “Fish Porn,” written with noted author/columnist and longtime Buffett buddy Carl Hiaasen and McAnally; the easygoing, escapist “Nobody Works on Friday”; the steel-drum-lined “Ti Punch Café” (featuring Angelique Kidjo); and the reflective, yearning “Columbus.”
Buffett adds his familiar island lilt to “Mozambique.” The new rendition features Emmylou Harris, who also sang on Dylan’s 1976 version. “She thanked us for giving her a lyric sheet because she said when she sang on the original with Dylan, he wouldn’t tell her the lyrics. She was just having to watch his mouth,” says McAnally with a laugh.
Buffett, who often posted photos of his Cavalier King Charles Spaniels on his Instagram, also covered “Like My Dog,” a top 30 country hit for Billy Currington in 2011 written by Scotty Emerick and Harley Allen. “Jimmy loved his dogs more than maybe anything on earth except the show,” McAnally says.
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Even though there was no talk in the studio about it being the final album, first single, “Bubbles Up,” written by Buffett and Will Kimbrough, serves as a fitting farewell to fans, with its message of hope and resilience. The song was inspired by Buffett participating in Navy SEAL training, including jumping out of a helicopter into the ocean with a weighted pack on his back.
McAnally recalls the advice the admiral overseeing Buffett gave: “’When you’re down in the water and you don’t know where you are, follow the bubbles. That’s how you get to where you’re supposed to be.’”
McAnally knew they were on to something special with the song, so much so that he prodded Buffett to replace a vocal recorded earlier in the process. “He generally doesn’t like to be pushed in the studio, and I made him go back and work on his vocal,” he says. “I was like, ‘This is too good, Jimmy. Let’s record it again and really tell the story…’ He didn’t want it to be slick and polished, he wanted it to sound like a bunch of people around a campfire figuring out what’s important about life.”
When McAnally played Buffett the revised version, “He smiled as big as he’s ever smiled on the happiest day of his life, but tears just rolling,” he says. “He was like, ‘This is so good. Thank you.’”
“Bubbles Up” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Rock Digital Song Sales chart for the week ending Sep. 14, according to Luminate. It also started at No. 2 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart. Earlier this week, CMT debuted the emotional video, which includes footage spanning Buffett’s adult life and his love for spending time on the water and on the stage.
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On a lighter note, the album also includes “My Gummie Just Kicked In,” a song inspired by a line Paul McCartney’s wife, Nancy, jokingly said after she tripped while she and McCartney were out to dinner with Buffett and his wife. McCartney plays bass on the track. Buffett flew to Los Angeles in June to be with McCartney in the studio, while McAnally advised remotely.
“Paul wrote himself out a very detailed Paul McCartney chart to play the song. He put a lot of work into it,” McAnally says. “It’s very rare that someone can go in by themselves and overdub on a track that’s already been recorded and add energy to it, but Paul McCartney played bass on that track like a 20-year-old Beatle. It’s unbelievable.”
The title track, written by Buffett and McAnally and inspired by a saying from Buffett’s grandfather, reveals the secret to a good nap is making sure one’s body weight is equally distributed. “It takes a second to realize he’s talking about something good,” McAnally says.
Cameras captured the recording process and a few behind-the-scenes videos have already rolled out. McAnally says it’s possible that a documentary on the making of Equal Strain could be forthcoming. “It will be the final complete project,” he says of the album. “Since we have quite a bit of content that arose from it, I think they’ll probably make use of that because there’s never a bad time to see that smile on his face.”
Buffett didn’t leave a lot of music in the vault, but McAnally says there are some existing tracks he’d also love to see released. There were only two songs recorded for Equal Strain that didn’t make the album, but, “We have a few things over the years of Jimmy that are really good,” he says. “There can be a posthumous release, but it will be just literally a collection of things that we did and we never put out for whatever reason. He’s got a gorgeous version of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Amelia.’ I can’t believe we didn’t put it out when we recorded it.”
McAnally says Buffett’s wish was for the Coral Reefer Band, who backed Buffett in various iterations since the ‘70s, to continue. “The Coral Reefer Band is second family to all of us. We are a family. And Jimmy wants us to continue and we want to continue,” he says. “There’s ongoing discussions about the best way to do that, the most practical way to do that and how to do it in a way that is worthy of the legacy that we’re part of.”
In the immediate future, McAnally will take part in a tribute to Buffett on Nov. 8’s CMA Awards. The salute will also include Zac Brown Band, Kenny Chesney and Alan Jackson, three acts that he’d recorded with and were deeply influenced by him.
Before her death in January at age 54, Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley and wife Priscilla, reportedly lashed out at the way her dad was depicted in the script for Sofia Coppola’s new biopic about her mom, Priscilla. Variety reported on Thursday (Nov. 2) that it had obtained two emails Lisa Marie sent to Coppola in which she asked the director to reconsider her take on the couple’s love story to spare her family from public embarrassment.
“My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative. As his daughter, I don’t read this and see any of my father in this character. I don’t read this and see my mother’s perspective of my father,” Lisa Marie reportedly wrote in two messages she sent to Coppola about four hours apart last September. “I read this and see your shockingly vengeful and contemptuous perspective and I don’t understand why?”
In the messages, Lisa Marie was said to have asked the Oscar-winning director to not further strain her already brittle relationship with mother Priscilla or shine a spotlight on Elvis’ living grandchildren while they were grieving the loss of Lisa Marie’s son, Benjamin Keough, who died in 2020.
Coppola’s biopic is based on Priscilla’s 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me, which depicts the couple’s controversial relationship that began in Germany in 1959 when the singer was 24 and Priscilla was 14. At the point that Lisa Marie sent the emails Coppola had not begun shooting the movie, but Lisa Marie reportedly made it clear that she would condemn the project and the participation of her estranged mother, who is an executive producer on the project and who has been part of A24’s publicity campaign for it; Priscilla had a limited Oct. 27 opening and expands to more screen today (Nov. 3).
“I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you, my mother and this film publicly,” Presley reportedly wrote to Coppola. The director commented to Variety through a rep, who shared how Coppola reportedly responded to Lisa Marie after receiving the emails.
“I hope that when you see the final film you will feel differently, and understand I’m taking great care in honoring your mother, while also presenting your father with sensitivity and complexity,” Coppola wrote.
In her emails, Lisa Marie worried that Priscilla did not understand how the shocking age gap between Elvis (played by Euphoria‘s Jacob Elordi) and Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) would translate for modern audiences. “I am worried that my mother isn’t seeing the nuance here or realizing the way in which Elvis will be perceived when this movie comes out,” Lisa Marie wrote. “I feel protective over my mother who has spent her whole life elevating my father’s legacy. I am worried she doesn’t understand the intentions behind this film or the outcome it will have.”
Speaking to Rolling Stone this month, Coppola — also the scion of a world-renowned father, director Francis Ford Coppola — said she strives not to be “judgmental” about any of the characters in her films and tries to be as sympathetic as possible. “And I’m really focused on her perspective, but even with the parents, you’re like, ‘How can anybody let their kid go live with Elvis that young?’” she told the magazine. During interviews at the Venice Film Festival in August, Priscilla once again clarified that she and Elvis were not sexually intimate when she was 14.
In her emails, however, Lisa Marie said she couldn’t understand Coppola’s need to “take my father down on the heels of such an incredible film [Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 musical biopic Elvis] using the excuse that you are trying to tell my mother’s story, but from your very dark and jaded reality.”
Few musical acts can stand shoulder to shoulder with The Beatles. As the act with the most No. 1 singles in Billboard Hot 100 history (20), the iconic quartet’s sprawling catalog continues to serve as a soundtrack for each new generation. On Thursday (Nov. 2), 60 years after the release of their debut studio album, […]
Green Day announced the dates for their five-month The Saviors stadium tour on Thursday (Nov. 2), which is slated to kick off its North American leg at Nationals Park in Washington, DC on July 29. As previously announced, the U.S. and Canadian dates will feature support from Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid and the Linda Lindas, while European fans will get warmed up by Nothing But Thieves, The Hives, Donots, The Interrupters and Maid of Ace.
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“We’ve never been more excited to unleash new music than with Saviors, a record that’s meant to be rocked live, together. So let’s thrash. We’ve got some amazing friends who are coming along for the ride!,” the band said in a statement about hitting the road to promote their “raw and emotional” 14th studio album during the outing that will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of their breakthrough 1994 diamond-certified album Dookie and the 20th anniversary of 2004’s American Idiot.
The dates will kick off on May 30 with a festival show at the O Son do Camino in Monte de Gozo, Spain, before going to to gigs in Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, and the UK, winding down on June 29 with a show at London’s Wembley Stadium.
The North American run will include shows at New York’s Citi Field, Boston’s Fenway Park, Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Pittsburgh’s PNC Park, Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium and a final scheduled concert at Petco Park in San Diego on Sept. 28. The North American on-sale begins on Nov. 10 at 10 a.m. local time and the UK/EU general onsale begins on Nov. 10 at 9:30 a.m. GMT.
The band dropped the video for the pop-punk rager “Look Ma, No Brains!” on Thursday, a track they debuted live at a surprise Las Vegas club show last month along with the strident “The American Dream Is Killing Me.” Saviors is due out on Jan. 19 on Reprise/Warner Records.
Watch the “Look Ma” video and see the tour dates below.
Saviors Tour North American dates:
July 29 – Washington, DC @ Nationals Park
August 1 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
August 3 – Montreal, QC @ Osheaga Music and Arts Festival*
August 5 – New York, NY @ Citi Field
August 7 – Boston, MA @ Fenway Park
August 9 – Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park
August 10 – Hershey, PA @ Hersheypark Stadium
August 13 – Chicago, IL @ Wrigley Field
August 15 – St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre !
August 17 – Minneapolis, MN @ Target Field
August 20 – Kansas City, KS @ Azura Amphitheatre !
August 22 – Cincinnati, OH @ Great American Ballpark
August 24 – Milwaukee, WI @ American Family Field
August 26 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion !
August 28 – Atlanta, GA @ Truist Park
August 30 – Nashville, TN @ Geodis Park
Sept. 1 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PNC Park
Sept. 4 – Detroit, MI @ Comerica Park
Sept. 7 – Denver, CO @ Coors Field
Sept. 10 – Austin, TX @ Germania Insurance Amphitheater !
Sept. 11 – Arlington, TX @ Globe Life Field
Sept. 14 – Los Angeles, CA @ SoFi Stadium
Sept. 18 – Phoenix, AZ @ Chase Field
Sept. 20 – San Francisco, CA @ Oracle Park
Sept. 23 – Seattle, WA @ T-Mobile Park
Sept. 25 – Portland, OR @ Providence Park
Sept. 28 – San Diego, CA @ Petco Park
*Festival Date
!With Support from Rancid and The Linda Lindas only
Saviors UK/EU dates:
May 30 – Monte do Gozo, Spain @ O Son do Camino*
June 1 – Madrid Spain @ Road to Rio Babel*
June 5 – Lyon Decines @ LDLC Arena – with The Interrupters
June 7 – Nurnberg Germany @ Rock im Park*
June 8 – Nurburgring Germany @ Rock am Ring*
June 10 – Berlin Germany @ Waldbühne – with Donots
June 11 – Hamburg Germany @ Trabrennbahn Bahrenfeld – with Donots
June 15 – Interlaken Switzerland @ Greenfield Festival*
June 16 – Milan Italy I Days @ Hippodrome La Maura*
June 18 – Paris France @ Accor Arena – with The Interrupters
June 19 – Arnhem Netherlands @ GelreDome – with The Hives & The Interrupters
June 21 – Manchester UK @ Emirates Old Trafford – with Nothing But Thieves & Maid of Ace
June 23 – Isle of Wight UK @ Isle of Wight Festival*
June 25 – Glasgow UK @ Bellahouston Park – with Nothing But Thieves & Maid of Ace
June 27 – Dublin Ireland @ Marlay Park – with Nothing But Thieves & Maid of Ace
June 29 London UK @ Wembley Stadium – with Nothing But Thieves & Maid of Ace
*Festival Date
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Olivia Rodrigo is returning to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame stage on Friday (Nov. 3), as it was announced this week that she’ll be performing for the second year in a row. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “@oliviarodrigo will perform with one of her […]
The Huey Lewis & the News musical, The Heart of Rock and Roll, is headed to Broadway in the spring of 2024. According to The New York Times, the comedic show that had its debut at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego in 2018, tells the story of a couple whose romance has to “navigate their rock band and corporate life aspirations.”
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The “feel-great” musical is slated to begin previews at the James Earl Jones Theater on March 29 and open on April 22, with no cast announced yet. The show borrows its title from the song of the same name released by the 1980s pop-rock band that peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1984, spending 20 weeks on the chart.
The $16 million show will be directed by Gordon Greenberg (Holiday Inn), with choreography by Lorin Latarro (The Who’s Tommy) and a book by Jonathan A. Abrams based on a story by Abrams and Tyler Mitchell.
Lewis and the News’ fourth album, 1986’s Fore!, scored the group their last No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Stuck With You” spending three weeks at the top, along with another chart-topper, “Jacob’s Ladder,” which spent one week at the pinnacle. The album also featured the No. 3 hit “Hip to Be Square,” the No. 6 hit “Doing It All For My Baby” and the No. 9 charter “I Know What I Like”; the band landed their first No. 1 hit, 1985’s “The Power of Love” from the Back to the Future soundtrack.
Lewis posted an announcement about the show on Wednesday (Nov. 1) morning, in which he said he first fell in love with “all that is Broadway when I appeared as Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago in 2009. And I continue to believe that musical theater — because it’s so demanding — is also the most rewarding form of artistic expression.”
Lewis said his team has been working on the “funny and smart… lot of heart” show for a long time and that they’re very proud of the results. He also clarified that he won’t be appearing in it and that it’s not the story of his life, but that it does feature all the band’s biggest hits, including: “The Power of Love,” “Hip to Be Square,” “If This Is It,” “Doing It All For My Baby,” “I Want a New Drug,” “Jacob’s Ladder,” “Back in Time” and more.
Watch the Broadway announcement below.
In 1991, Prince was at an unusual point in his career. With four Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s under his belt (of an eventual five) and a string of critically acclaimed blockbuster LPs to his name, he was one of the most successful and celebrated names in pop music. Big enough that just two years prior, he could dash off some goofy jams for a superhero flick and top both the Hot 100 and Billboard 200.
But 1990 wasn’t a kind year to the artist soon to be known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. The idiosyncratic trailblazer put a lot of effort into directing, starring in and composing music for Graffiti Bridge — a movie sold as a sequel to the smash film Purple Rain — only to see it collapse at the box office. And while his directorial debut, 1986’s Under the Cherry Moon, was a similar flop, he could at least save face thanks to its hit soundtrack, Parade, which produced the all-time pop jam “Kiss.”
No such luck with the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack, however: other than “Thieves in the Temple” – which went top 10 and topped Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs – audiences and critics responded to the movie’s songs with polite enthusiasm. What may have really stung, however, was the fact that Graffiti Bridge, as a film and album, seemed out of step with a new decade. In 1991, Prince wasn’t passé – but he certainly didn’t seem to be steering the direction of pop or R&B radio any longer.
“It’s no secret that toward the end of the ‘80s, things were getting really sort of mysterious — it was hard to tell where Prince was going,” says drummer Michael Bland, who worked with Prince from 1989-1996, with a laugh. “I know that a lot of people counted him out and said, ‘you know, well, that’s it for the hits.’”
“[Graffiti Bridge] was a pretty good, solid record,” says Michael Koppelman, who engineered that album and would go on to engineer, mix and master Prince’s following album, Diamonds and Pearls. “The movie was pretty bad and skipped over in a lot of people’s heads, so I think he wanted to prove something after Graffiti Bridge was not Purple Rain. Diamonds and Pearls was a departure into a more social thing with his band, which I think was a very positive thing for him.”
Diamonds and Pearls — which was recently given a lush re-release in several different iterations, with the Super Deluxe Edition boasting 11 never-before-released tracks – originally came out on Oct. 1, 1991, and marked the full-album debut of New Power Generation, Prince’s first backing band since the Revolution. NPG was primarily made up of players from 1990’s Nude Tour, including fresh faces from the Minneapolis music scene as well as friends Prince had known for years. “I was the youngest there – I joined Prince’s band when I was 19,” Bland informs Billboard. On the flip side, bassist Sonny T. grew up with Prince. “He played guitar and sang background on one of my first demos,” Sonny T. tells Billboard. “When we were kids, he brought [his 1978 debut For You] to my house.”
While Prince was inarguably in command of the Diamonds and Pearls sessions (“Imagine going into the military” Bland quips), the mood was noticeably lighter in the studio, according to Koppelman. “They were joking around, it was a lot more social [than Graffiti Bridge],” he says. “He really liked the musicians in New Power Generation. Like any musician, it’s fun to play with musicians you respect and like.”
“He was around people that he knew and grew up around – it’s kind of like having family around,” Sonny T. says. “It’s like Old Home Week. It was cool.”
Photo credit: © Paisley Park Enterprises | Photographer: Randee St. Nicholas
The mixture of younger talent and familiar faces seemed to have an invigorating effect on the Purple One. While Diamonds and Pearls isn’t a masterpiece in the vein of Dirty Mind or Sign ‘O the Times, it’s an essential second-tier title in his oeuvre with an urgency and focus absent from his previous three LPs. In terms of re-establishing his commercial bona fides at the top of a new decade, the album sold 2.5 million copies in the U.S., according to Luminate — making it his best-selling album released in the 1990s. Plus, it gave him four top 40 singles on the Hot 100: the chart topper “Cream,” which came (so to speak) with a scandalous video; the lush, No. 3-peaking title track; the cool, effortless “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night”; and the hard, horny funk of “Gett Off.”
The lattermost single boasts a spotlight-stealing vocal (and scream) from NPG member Rosie Gaines, whose impact on the album extended well past what’s on wax.
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“I’m one of the few people that point out that Prince could be a dick,” Koppelman says, smiling. “I don’t think it was necessarily trying to be a dick… but I think he made people nervous purposely to keep people on edge. Rosie broke all of that up. She and Prince had a very friendly relationship that was just infectious. She was so f—king good. When he brought her in to do something, he was just blown away. She was just absolutely lovable and this ray of sunshine.”
Their chemistry is abundantly clear from watching Live at Glam Slam, a concert filmed at Prince’s Minneapolis club Glam Slam on Jan. 11, 1992, which is newly available on the Diamonds and Pearls box set. The concert documentary finds Prince and Gaines trading vocals on an incendiary version of “Nothing Compares 2 U”; not only does Gaines push him vocally, but she teases out his impish sense of humor, particularly during a hilarious moment that finds him batting his eyelashes at her with a Chaplin-esque charm.
Live at Glam Slam also reveals how ridiculously well-rehearsed NPG was – six minutes into a 14-minute “Gett Off,” Prince cries out “double time!” and the outfit shifts gears into maximum overdrive without missing a beat.
Of course, Prince was just as demanding of his band off stage. Koppelman, Bland and Sonny T. all talk about the long hours spent recording Diamonds and Pearls over the course of a year. “He was he was a disciplinarian. He knew what he wanted to hear,” Sonny T. says, sharing that rehearsal might run from lunchtime to 9 at night, followed by hours of studio time until “three or four” in the morning. “Sometimes I just didn’t go home – I’d sleep at Paisley Park, go upstairs, take a shower and then start rehearsal again.”
Plenty of the songs took shape over the course of months, with NPG band members learning what songs made the album – and in what shape — along with the wider public. “Unless he felt the desire to show you what he’d been working on, you were just in the dark until he turned the light on,” Bland notes, which he says was the case with “Push,” “Strollin’” and “Willing and Able” to varying degrees. Other tracks – like “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” (which Bland worked on in Tokyo while fighting a stomach bug) and “Cream” were faster. “[‘Cream’] just came out, just kaboom,” says Koppelman. “I told Prince immediately, ‘Prince, you need to release this song, it’s gong to be a hit,” Sonny T. recalls of “Cream.” “First, he gave me that look – you know, the Prince look? Then he’s like, ‘okay.’ Then it was a hit – he couldn’t say nothing after that.”
Sonny T. remembers Tony M.’s rapped verses on Diamonds and Pearls coming out with similar alacrity. Tony M., who began working with Prince as a breakdancer on the Purple Rain film, eventually graduated to on-mic talent, with his verses factoring heavily into Diamonds and Pearls. “He’s just such a great lyricist. He would just write lyrics, right on the spot, just boom, boom, boom, boom,” says Sonny T.
“There was a whole other idea for how Diamonds and Pearls might’ve been, but I think it leaned a little too hard on the hip-hop of the day,” Bland opines. Thanks to the expanded reissue, we can sample some of the hip-hop-influenced tracks Prince left on the cutting room floor, such as “Something Funky (This House Comes)” and “Glam Slam ’91.” “I’m not sure what made him change gears or what informed his creative process to turn to a more commercial direction,” Bland says. “Diamonds and Pearls is a very positive, bright record. It’s friendly. But there’s some serious playing on that record.”
“I tend to think of, you know, Controversy and Purple Rain as the best of his career,” says Koppeman. “But it’s super gratifying [to have worked on songs that are] an important part of Prince’s career.”
“When we got on stage together, that was one of my favorite things that’s ever happened to me in my life,” says Sonny T. “We really moved as a unit – it’s just clean, cool. And that’s a fun thing.”
“I like that I was one of the tools he used to get back on top. We all take pride in that – he chose mostly young, local musicians to reinvigorate his creative process,” Bland says. “Creatively, he kind of had been dwindling in a dark place. And I feel like we helped chase the clouds away a bit.”
Photo credit: © Paisley Park Enterprises | Photographer: Randee St. Nicholas
Travis Barker and Kourtney Kardashian could be parents by the time you read this. The Blink-182 drummer and the reality TV star are expecting their first child together any minute now and in a new podcast interview on One Life One Chance with Toby Morse, Barker seemed to accidentally reveal the name of their soon-to-bounce baby.
In fact, according to Barker, Kardashian’s due date was yesterday (Oct. 31). “When Rocky’s born I’ll be the father of seven,” Barker said proudly on the show about his father duties in his blended family with Kardashian. The child’s until-now kind-of secret name was first revealed when host Morse asked Barker if he’d ever reunite with his all-star punk-hip-hop group, The Transplants.
The group fronted by Rancid singer/guitarist Tim Armstrong and Rob Aston has been on an unofficial hiatus since 2017, but Barker said they were signed up to play a benefit show this year before life got in the way. “There’s one that’s a benefit for Hawaii that we were going to do, but it’s the week that Rocky’s due,” Barker said, appearing to confirm rumors that the baby’s name is Rocky. Barker then revealed the baby’s full handle: Rocky Thirteen Barker, which Morse dubbed “such a hard name.”
“I was like, ‘he’s going to come out of my wife’s vagina doing front kicks and push-ups,’” Barker laughed, before saying that Kardashian’s due date was Halloween. Morse joked that the dress-up loving couple could not have planned it better. “I know. It’s either Halloween or like, the first week of November,” Barker said.
Back in July, Barker and his 17-year-old daughter from his previous marriage, Alabama, joked about some potential baby names, with ‘Bama tossing out high-end ones including, “Audemars, Milan f–kin’ Patek.” At the time, Travis said he had something more punk rock in mind, first floating the “Rocky Thirteen” moniker. Barker explained that the name was not inspired by Sylvester Stallone’s fictional Philly pugilist, but rather by Suicidal Tendencies guitarist Rocky George and the drummer’s favorite number.
Barker and Kardashian — who has three children with her ex Scott Disick: Mason, 13, Penelope, 11 and Reign, 8 — announced they were expecting their first child together in June. The baby news reveal came in early June when Kardashian held up a “Travis I’m Pregnant” poster in the crowd at Blink-182’s concert in Los Angeles. Last month, Kardashian revealed that she had an ultrasound that “saved my baby’s life,” following urgent fetal surgery in September that had Barker flying home from Blink’s overseas tour.
Listen to Barker on One Life One Chance with Toby Morse below (baby talk comes at 1:16:09 mark).
Apple TV+ announced a new three-part documentary series delving into the 1980 murder of late Beatle John Lennon. With narration from 24 star Kiefer Sutherland, John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial promises to present exclusive eyewitness interviews and previously unseen crime scene photos that will shed “new light on the life and murder” of the […]
